Now I'm Happy!

There is nothing better than new socks! Clean, White, Bright, Fluffy and Soft!

Snapshot:

Just to share a little bit of what will be happening in the coming weeks:


~ Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday interpreting all day.

~ Sept. 30-Oct.7 Dave's mom flying in to visit!!

~ October 4: Converge at Cross of Glory starts first service!!

~ Oct.21-Oct.25 Mom, Dad, Becky and Emma visit!!

What a waste!

Today I was at Target and I was grocery shopping. After picking out my food (20 minutes) I went to the register. As the clerk was ringing up my items I realized 1 of the 2 frozen pizzas I picked didn't have the instant $1.50 off coupon. I told the man "Oh, I'm sorry, I know it is a pain for someone to put this back, but I only want the pizza with a coupon."

He said "Oh thats ok, we'll just throw it out"

:-O

Come to find out that it is Target policy that once an item is removed from the freezers, they can't put it back!
I am appalled that they waste SO MUCH food! The clerk told me they used to give it to the homeless, but now it just gets tossed into the trash.

Lesson learned: Pay attention to what items I am buying, and If I do accidently grab the wrong item, ask if they can give me a discount and I will buy it anyway!

Believe it or not...

I miss college. Not really the homework, exams, studying, going to class and being stressed. But the social part. The part where God blessed me with so many wonderful friends. The part where, if I was bored on a Tuesday afternoon, I could have someone to spend time with.

Friends, I miss you.

Minnesota seems to be a difficult place to make friends. Either that or being an adult makes it difficult to make friends.

I haven't decided which it is.

I did it!

When I was 10 years old I saw an interpreter at my church. I thought Sign Language looked like the coolest thing to ever learn!

"Daddy! I want to learn how to do that!"

So my parents bought my "The Joy of Signing" and because I was home schooled, I was able to spend lots of time flipping through the book and learning words!

I loved it and for a couple years I studied this book, bought some other ASL CD-ROMs and met a very nice Deaf couple in our town who were very patient :)

When I was 13 years old my parents realized that my obsession with ASL was not going away and that a book was not going to suffice.

"Mom, wouldn't it be so cool to interpret for the President of the United States!"

"Mom, I love signing music, wouldn't it be awesome to interpret for Jaci Velasquez?!" (she was my fave at the time) hahaha

"Mom, Wouldn't it be SO COOL to be a NATIONALLY CERTIFIED INTERPRETER?!"

So they called Mott Community College in Flint, MI and explained our situation. The head of the department was willing to meet with me and she decided I could start taking classes there! I was thrilled! So mom and dad took turns driving me to Flint about twice a week for almost 4 years!

~~~~~Fast Forward to now~~~~~~~

I graduated Bethel this past May and on June 30th I took my National Certification Test (NIC).

Yesterday I got the good news...I passed! Holy Crap! Could this really be true?! I feel like such an adult....even though I am as giddy as a little kid on Christmas morning! I've wanted this for 10 years!!

{{Check it out! Just type in my name!}}

I have to give HUGE amounts of thanks to my Parents, Jim & Connie Sherrill, Stevie Naeyaert, all my BC profs, all the wonderful terp friends and deaf friends I have known over the years, and Jesus of course! Who has been my one true rock and leader and gave me the strength to go on!

Thank you!!!

I am so excited to see where this new door will lead me to and I can't wait to continue learning from and working with mentors and other Minnesota Terps!

And even though I haven't listened to Jaci Velasquez in about 7 years....maybe one day I'll get to interpret for the President!

***UPDATE***

We put an offer on this house, the sellers counter offered today, and we accepted!
As long as the inspector doesn't find anything terribly wrong (which he shouldn't) then we will be closing September 16th!!!

The house is on 1 acre of land, it has 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms. It has an attatched two car garage and a detatched 2 car garage.

Spiritual discussions, Kubb, and Brownies

Tonight we had our church small group at our house. I am really enjoying getting to know these new friends and believers. Every time we meet, whether there is a planned passage of scripture or if we pick one last minute, we always end up having the best conversations! Our group varies in spiritual maturity from new "baby" Christians, to those who are grew up in church and have taken college bible classes. I appreciate the openness and willingness to talk about things among the group. Tonight we read Matthew 5:1-20.

After we had our study, and prayer time we decided to go outside and play Kubb. We had even teams (3 on 3) and it was quite a long game, but a lot of fun. After the opposing team won and after I had thoroughly been eaten by the mosquitoes, we came inside and enjoyed brownies and pop!

It was a good night had by all and I hope God was able to look down on us and be pleased by all our activities.

Looking back...

I was just reading a friend's blog (on a different site) and realized how long it had been since I used that site and how outdated that profile was. I already have been using this site so I closed that other account. I wanted to reflect on some minor and major changes in the past couple years....

Last time I updated on that site...I was:
- Dating Dave
- Still in high school, just starting college
- Living in Michigan
- Living with my parents
- Aspiring to become an interpreter
- Aspiring to take my NIC

Now, August 2009 I am:
- Married to Dave (over 2 years)
- Living in Minnesota
- Graduated from college
- House hunting
- Interpreting {almost} full-time
- Took my NIC and awaiting the results

Geez, I'm not sure if life just passed me by because I wasn't paying attention or if I've been so busy, but now that I am looking back and thinking about it...God has brought me through so much and I am so blessed! Granted, it hasn't been an EASY couple years, but they have been so good.
I enjoyed college so much and I LOVED all the people that were in my life...and now I am so excited for the next few months!

Variety!

It has been a pretty crazy week since my last post. I'm doing better at finding my way around the Twin Cities so thats a positive thing!
Funny note: I was afraid of showing up late to a job so I left EARLY to beat traffic...I arrived an hour and a half early. haha OOPS!
I now carry a book and crossword puzzles in my handy-dandy interp. bag :)

On Mondays my agency has been doing Medical Workshops and I get to attend/team interpret those. The presenter this past Monday was so great and such a wealth of knowledge and experience - I hope I get to work with her again!

Last friday I got to go with the owner of my agency to "The Celtic Women" concert and interpret 4 of the 20+ songs! It was so awesome. She has been interpreting concerts for a super long time and she pretty much rocked my face off. Her intepretations were AMAZING!! It was such a neat experience!

This week has been a lot of variety, but a lot of meetings; some interesting, some kind of boring. But at all of them I learn lots of new signs! It is fun to learn the regional signs and share the MI and IN signs with them.

This weekend I am going to observe a play ("Calligula") that will be interpreted so I am pretty excited about that. I asked one of the interpreters of the play how many she has done and she said "I've interpreted probably 30-40 plays!" HOLY COW that is a lot of work, I can't wait to observe her and the other interpreter on Friday night!

Today I just registered for a Mental Health Workshop in March (and May) that I am looking forward to. It is at St. Catherines College and they have an interpreting program. They also have an NIC prep workshop that I will hopefully be able to attend as well.

That is all for now, I hope you all are doing well and having fun! For those of you in the warmer climates, (so pretty much everyone except Lauren) it is snowing here today and suppose to drop to 10 below zero tonight.

Fun, Hilarious, & Bittersweet

These past 5 weeks flew by and now I am back in Minnesota and ready to start my practicum!

We had a wonderful "last class, going away party" and it made me happy and sad all at the same time.
We have had great professors and wonderful memories. I would just like to share this video that is very close to my heart, please watch and see the special moments....



It's crazy to think that I have no more college classes, homework, projects or midterms - I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my free time! I guess I better get more hobbies!

I meet with my agency on Friday to fill out paperwork and set up a time for me to show up Monday, my first day!
God's Blessings on my friends who are traveling the rest of the week - be safe!

New Semester

Well, the last 4 weeks of class that I'll ever have to take started this past Thursday!
So far so good. I have class Monday-Friday for a couple hours each day. I know it will fly by and soon I will be living with Dave again and interning at a real live interpreting agency! I can't wait!

On the other hand it will still be a long month without seeing Dave, and that makes me sad. Praise God though, there will be one REALLY happy event happening this month to take my mind of not being at home.
My sister Becky will be having her baby. The countdown till her due date is 13 days...we all think it will be sooner than that though.
We'll see...I can't wait to be "Aunt Rachel"!