precious babies!

this post is dedicated to all the sweet babies in my life...

slash in the lives of all my wonderful cousins!

(i have 33 first-cousins: 15 of them are married and 7 of them have kids)

meet my cousin mark and lauren's sweet new little baby boy, owen michael.

he is only two weeks old!

this is brand new little baby paige renae born january 27,

my cousin jake's first little one

i don't have a recent picture, but this is my cousin jenni's little boy, seth micah...

and a picture he drew this fall. seth loves trucks!

this is seth's little brother eli bhin. this is eli's five year old picture. he's so sweet!

this is smiley baby drew (andrew gordon)... he's my cousin nathan's little boy.

ashlyn mae is my cousin courtney's little girl. she's so cute!

and her momma takes pretty swell pictures if i do say so myself!

mr. braden emry is ashlyn's little brother... and man, he's growing up fast!

i love this one of michal sophia, my cousin steven's baby

, goin' at some tacos!

ella love, my cousin candace's girl, is getting so big!!

and i hear she really enjoys making faces!

and now a shout out to several more little babies on the way...

luke & elizabeth - due mid-april... or any day now!! :)

lindsey & joel - found out about little bean-sprout at Christmas,

and lindsey's due the end of june... isn't the following picture hysterical? :)

andrew & ann - ann is seven weeks!!

so... we look for a new little burkey baby come october or november

yay for babies!

I am a Disciplinarian.

disciplinarian, definition: 

dis·ci·pli·nar·i·an

-a person who enforces or advocates discipline

-a stickler for the observance of rules and methods of training

-one who disciplines; one who excels in training, 

especially with training, especially with regard to order and obedience

Today has been the busiest day student wise thus far in my career as a Period Detention Supervisor.  (Hopefully my career will change soon!)  I am finding more and more that I am a disciplinarian... and it is one of the most difficult things I've ever done!  The job itself isn't difficult... I just sit here and wait for students to show up, and do things like this: update my blog.  However, I struggle with encouraging the students to behave.  Currently my face is hot and my head hurts from trying not to smile and from being serious.  I hate it when students think that I am mean.  Last period, however, a teacher called me to say she was sending down three students who wouldn't behave and told her they have fun in my classroom and like to sit and talk to me because I'm the nicest teacher.  (Ha!)  I assured the teacher I would NOT be talking to the girls while they were in detention, and when they walked in giggling I immediately separated them, gave them writing assignments, and told them if they disrupted the class that they would be taking a personal visit to the Dean's office.  So they sat down and worked hard and were quiet... but goodness, that was hard!  You could tell they were shocked by the looks on their faces.  (I'd had two of the three before.)  And it's so hard because I just want to talk to the students and be their friend and tell them jokes... I know a lot of jokes!!  (You should ask me to tell you one sometime!!)  But, alas, I do not give in to my longings and do remain cold, straight-faced, and mean.  I enforce the rules... but I do tend to not write students up when they deserve it.  And as they leave I always try to joke around a little and I tell them not to come back.  That always gets them to smile.

Yesterday a student who wasn't in trouble sat in my classroom to finish her homework because it is supposed to be a quiet place.  I had 6 boys and another girl besides the homework student, and one of my boys was in particularily obnoxious, rude and disrespectful to me.  At one point he borrowed my scissors and proceeded to cut up and destroy his binder.  As you can guess, I promptly took the scissors from him telling him that cutting his binder was not relevant to his homework.  So he began to shred the binder with his bare hands.  It was great fun.  Eventually I convinced him that I would not send him to the office with a write-up if he would stop messing around and simply quietly sit and complete his homework.  He still had difficulty doing this, and I continued to persist in trying to get him to calm down, stop distracting the class, and not get a write-up as I know he's had too many and it would turn into worse disciplinary action (like a Saturday School).  Finally he stopped messing around, and I gave him a wordsearch, and he was rather shocked and excited about my kindness as he's been in my room before and know I only ever give those out to students who behave.  (Honestly, I have no idea whatever compelled me to do that!  Maybe God!)  But anyway this little girl, who'd been sitting there the whole time quietly, wrote me a note.  She said she couldn't believe my job was so hard and was shocked at how rude and disrespectful the other students were to me.  Then she went on to say that I am her new favorite teacher and she wants to be my T.A. next year.  :)  I thought it was sweet and encouraged me because often I feel like the kids don't like me, and I hate being mean!

There's that verse in Hebrews about discipline I've been thinking about...

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."  -Hebrews 12:11

My Mom used to make me write that after I got in trouble sometimes.  I always remember thinking, "Yup, God, it hurts.  I hate getting in trouble!"  And I'd long for it to be over.  But now I see discipline from a new set of eyes.  It doesn't just hurt the kid... it super is painful for the disciplinarian... but it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.  Or as the NLT says, it produces "right living".  My goal is to not give up, to encourage and empower these kids to be the best they can be, and hopefully they'll stop coming to my classroom and be better students and people!  (And maybe a few more of them will become my friend in the meantime!  That would be wonderful.)

my birthday surprise!! :)

i have the most incredible boyfriend in the whole world!!!!!!

for my birthday... he baked me a cake... from scratch!!
and it took him like 4+ hours. seriously.
i had a dinner meeting and was planning on going to his house at 9 for some surprise he was preparing... i was half an hour late and when i showed up at 9:35 he still made me sit in the driveway for 20 minutes before i could come in. :)
ha ha. but it was SO worth the wait!! this is what i found... :)

he got me a veggie tales movie and stickers!! :) it was an incredible birthday!! :)

the month of february... until today!! :)

TODAY IS MARCH 21, 2009 AND I JUST FOUND MY CAMERA CORD...

SO HERE'S THOSE PICTURES I TALKED ABOUT THROWN IN!! :)

Ok, so the past month I've been waiting to post until I could post some pictures. Pretty silly of me... cuz I still can't post any pictures. I lost the little cord that I just bought myself at Christmas so that I can download pictures from my camera to my computer because I'd lost the original one after I came back from Egypt two years ago. Maybe I should stop buying cords... then I'd stop losing them. But still, no one would ever get to see pictures. Grandpa K. (Ryan's Grandpa) gave Ryan, Brad and I a hard time about our blogs at Ryan's aunt's wedding last weekend... he said I'm stuck in January, Brad's been telling people about tithing for a loong time, and Ryan's been in Hong Kong for the longest day of his life!! :) Ha. Time for an update, aye? So despite my lack of hot shots... here's a little update into the life of Kara. :)

February was a crazy month.

The first week of February, Ryan had just gotten home from Korea and was super jet-lagged and weird for about an entire week. He'd come over to hang out with me and simply fall asleep. Let me tell you... it was great fun! ;) (I'm totally kidding.) But, ah, it was SO good to have him home! He likes my little apartment... although he says the paint in the living room makes him feel like he's in a fishbowl. (I agree completely!) That week Pastor Don, our senior pastor, had surgery on his esophagus for cancer. The surgery went really well and Ryan took over preaching on Sunday mornings and nights along with doing youth group stuff on Wednesdays while Pastor Don would be recovering.

typical day for a week with my jet lagged boyfriend. ;)

The next week was rather busy and hard. A 16 year old boy moved in with Ryan and trying to get him real help was quite difficult. We spent a lot of time together, and the three of us had a few really good times, but Ryan had him move out Friday, the day before Valentine's Day.

On the Saturdays all through January and February our church participates in this basketball thing called Enter His Courts. It started before Ryan came back and each Saturday I helped the teens run the concession stand in the gym. One Saturday, however I snuck away to watch Angel, one of the girls at our church, play basketball at a different gym. That was fun... she did so well!! :)

this was a sweet play... angel got the ball and made a basket!!

i think she was a little embarrassed that i was taking pictures of her!! ;)

angel and i after the game

Valentine's Day, as you may well know, is my very favorite holiday of all time!! :) And this Valentine's Day was totally awesome... cuz Mom and Dad showed up for a little surprise weekend visit!! They'd been having car difficulties, our van and little silver Aveo had both died, so Dad rented a car as a Valentine's Day gift for Momma and they came and spent the weekend in my little apartment. Ryan and I still had other plans, so we didn't get to be with them much other than an incredible Valentine's Day breakfast that Mom helped me make, but they had fun just being away and alone together, and it was SO refreshing to see them and be able to show off my new little apartment!! :)

my valentine's day visitors!

The next week was even harder. Pastor Don had come home on Valentine's Day and was doing really well in the recovery process. However, Tuesday morning he had difficulty breathing and when they rushed him to our hospital here in North Vernon they found blood clots in his lungs. They acted quickly to try and save him before the clots would move to his heart and they life-flighted him to Indianapolis. He made it there, but then passed away shortly after arriving. What a shock! So of course you can imagine all that went down that week as we were in disbelief, shock, grief, and planning for the funeral. Ryan was named the Acting Senior pastor and is continuing to preach and pastor here at North Vernon while we pray and wait and see what will happen next. Crazy. Pray for us, Ryan and Pastor Don's family especially, if you think about it these next days and weeks. Crazy how life can change so quickly.

Since Pastor Don's death, life's been just going. I'm still working at the Middle School and am ever applying for new positions... I need something part time at least to continue to pay my bills, but dream about a full-time social work position. Currently I'm hoping I'll find something to that nature over the summer. But I'm just praying, waiting, and applying!!

It's fun to live in North Vernon and be my boyfriend's neighbor. :) Sometimes it's weird that I even have a boyfriend... but I love it, and him, and yeah, I'm glad I moved here. I'm excited about what the future will bring and often freak out about not being able to pay all my bills, but I'm striving to trust that God's got me and just at the right moment another job opportunity will come through. Last week I was sick all week and it was so sweet to have Ryan close to bring me orange juice and noodles... and amazing yellow flowers!! He's wonderful! :)

And that brings us current to today.

Today is March 12th.

My twenty-third birthday!!

HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?!

Amy asked me if I was excited about turning 23 and I was like, "No... who wants to be 23? It's not a very popular number." She said it's her favorite number, so I'm excited about being 23 now because it's Amy's favorite number. Last night the teens were guessing how old I was and one of them said 21? :) Ha, funny. I told them if that was true, Ryan was a serious cradle-robber. :) They thought that was funny. He came over this morning before school and I made us french toast to celebrate my birthday. And he busted out this silly birthday princess hat that I had under my sink and I think I have to wear it more later. I'm making him wear it though... and hopefully I'll get a picture of that up here soon!! He sure does look like a pretty princess! :) Tonight I have a dinner I have to attend in Seymour in order to become a CASA worker, or child advocate within the Indiana court system. I'm super stoked about that, but kinda bummed that it had to fall on my birthday. Ryan was going to make me dinner! So... instead we're going to get coffee after school and then Saturday night he's going to make dinner for us. I'm pretty stoked about that. Oh, AND!!! Tomorrow night!! Haylee, my like best friend here at the Middle School, she's an eighth-grader and I think I like her so much cuz she reminds me of Anna... anyway, she has a swing-choir show at 7, and then Anna and Dad are coming with the quiz team around 8 or 9 to spend the night!! :) I'm SO excited to see my sister!!!!!!!! It's been too long!!! Then next weekend Chris and Amy are stopping by, and then Caleb has the lead in a play at school so we're going to go home for that, and I'll see him and Mom, and then Spring Break is the next week and I think I'll go home a few days, and then Ryan and I might visit Nashville!! Yay!!

my birthday princess :)

Oh yeah... other super big news that happened recently:

-Mark and Lauren, my cousins who live in Nashville, had a little baby boy this Monday!! Owen Michael Burkey. There's a new little Burkey in the world!! I can't WAIT to meet baby Burkey!

-Andrew and Ann, my cousins who live in the South Bend area, are expecting a baby!! Two brand new baby Burkeys in less than a year!!

-Sandie's getting married!!!!! Yay!! She and Matt tie the knot August 7!!

I love this stage of life!! :) My friends are all getting married and having babies!! :) Alright!

Have a blessed day!!

Love you lots,

Kara Joy :)

pictures... finally!! :)

So... this insane amount of snow hit Monday night... right after Ryan was safe and sound in North Vernon. School was cancelled, however, this entire week, and needless to say... I have been a bit bored. The internet in my little apartment just came back on this morning so I am back!! But, I come back with apologies... I really wanted to get these pictures up Tuesday and Wednesday... they were taken then... but I was snowed in and actually Ryan came and rescued me yesterday and took me out for the first time last night!! I checked my email and facebook and then we ate dinner with a family from church. And I couldn't get these all loaded quickly enough. So here the are before and after shots now!! Welcome to my new little apartment!! :)

KITCHEN
Before...
I'm not sure that I need to comment a lot through this... the pink table is fabulous, don't you think? ;) Just kidding. I call it my ugly little apartment. :)

And the other side of the kitchen.

And this is my storage... that shelf above the sink... there's little ones to the right as well.

After...
I can't paint nor get rid of the pink table... but I kind of like it now. :)

The other side of the kitchen... A big fridge should be coming to take the little guy's spot February 3rd. I am SO excited about that!! That little dude is full... and he's just got like apple juice and eggs in there!! ;)

Another shot of the kitchen. There's a desk on that far wall. I'm not a big fan. But I can't put it anywhere else... I didn't want it in the living room. So in the kitchen it shall stay.

And here's a better shot of my shelves!

LIVINGROOM!
Before...
Wow. Wow is totally just how I felt when I walked in here. The walls are TEAL!!! Just look around... the pictures say it all...

Ok... see the lamp... scroll down for a closer look...

"Hmm." Are my thoughts.

Check out the random plant in the corner. Nice.

After...

And here's what it looks like now!! I love it!! :)

I used her two tables with those lamps to make myself a book case... I covered my couches with brown sheets and bought some fabric to make those pillows. :) Doesn't it just look so different... and nice!?! :) (I mean, the walls are still teal, but whadya do?) :)

Another shot of the livingroom... my sweet friend Colleen let me borrow her entertainment center. I like it! :)

There was this mural on the wall in that painted doorway... of a white picket fenced bird garden. We all know how I feel about birds... and honestly, it just didn't match anything and so I covered it up with that brown paper and bible verses. It looks a lot better now. :)

BEDROOM!
Before...
Check out the wall!! It flowers!! ;)
And the ceiling fan cracks me up!

After...
And this is how it is now... I had high hopes that the nasty desk in the kitchen would be in here... it would be an office slash bedroom... but the doorframe is crooked and the desk won't fit through the bottom of the door. :( So... it stays in the kitchen... and this is the bedroom.

BATHROOM!
This room I didn't do anything to... I guess I took a clock down. But I don't think I can do anything to it really, so it remains as is...

Here's the little bathroom... the wallpaper is nice and inviting... full of BIRDS!!! :( Haha. :)

This is my shelving unit and lamp for the bathroom.

This is my little shower. Not so bad!! Actually the pressure's really nice!

This is my favorite part of the apartment... the deck!! :) It's the length of one side of the house and the entrance to my apartment. There's some chairs out there and it will be incredibly nice in the spring and summer!! :) I love it!!

Another hot shot of my deck!!

This is my kitchen window... I'm excited to take random shots of this awesome tree outside it all year. :) I love how the snow is so think on the branches... isn't it gorgeous? I feel so blessed! :)

So that's my little apartment!! :) It's quite cozy!! Anytime you're near North Vernon, you should call me up. I'd be more than excited and willing to let you come visit my little APT. :)

Love you!
-Kara Joy :)

he's home!!!

welcome home, my love!! :) i love the beard. ;)

i miss you!

In less than one hour, Ryan will be walking around on American soil once more! I can't even begin to describe how stoked I am! :) Last night I spent the night for the first time in my brand new apartment!! It's lookin' so good!! I'm anxious to finish unpacking my bedroom, take pictures, and get them up here! It looks so different than when I first walked in!

There's a song stuck in my head this morning and my heart is aching to see and be with so many different people. Last night at church a girl in our youth group sang "O How He Loves You and Me" with her Mom and the girl sitting next to me made fun of me when I leaned over and told her "I miss my Mom!" cuz when she looked at me to respond I had tears in my eyes. She said, "You're crying!?!" I told her my Mom and I used to sing together and she just shook her head. :) But I just miss people!! I miss my Mom, Dad, Caleb and Anna... probably most because I last lived with them! I miss Ryan. I miss Amy and Chris. I miss Jonathan and Kate. I miss Brenda. I miss Rachel and Allison and Keith and Amanda. I miss B-Train. I miss Mellow and Rainsyl. I miss Krissy and Hillary and Beth and Molly and Katie. I miss Before Tomorrow... all of those boys: Josh, Jordan, Joe, Tim, Tyler, Jake, Chris, Harold, Jeremiah, Wes, even Lizzers, Abby and Courtney! I miss James and Jordan and Whitney. I miss Angie. I miss all those MESPers. I miss Mark and Holly. And then... the one I miss the most... I miss Grandma Burkey. And this song is stuck in my head...

"This world is not my own, I'm just a'passin' through. If heaven's not my home, then Lord what would I do? The angel's beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore."

And then, I miss a lot of other people too. More than likely, if you're reading this, I miss you too! So... today... may you feel loved by me and know you're missed. And insha'allah... God willing... we will meet again soon!!

Love you!
-Kara Joy