Blessings

it doesn't seem to matter where I am, or what I am doing, God has done nothing but bless me. Thank you Lord for everything you have done for me, and continue to do for me, and help me to continue to see them for what they are.

self-education

It turns out, there's a lot I don't know about running a pool effectively. Go figure right? :p Lately, since work doing the week is very slow, I have been focusing on my self-education. Thanks to one particular blog, I have found a lot of encouraging information as to what makes a good supervisor. A lot of it just boils down to good organization, and, you guessed it, SUPERVISION! ;) There was also a reference to this site which is an organization that has TONS of free reading material all about aquatics operations, followed by a quiz at the end, to make sure I understood all of the material. If nothing else, it's a great place to start :). (at least for as long as I lack the CPO certification)

sometimes...

sometimes, you just need a day of rest after a few hard days in order to pull it together, and give it your best shot on another day. God sure knew what He was doing when He told us to rest :P. (yay for productivity too! I got the dishes done, and housing searched for, and the place I'm staying currently all straightened up. :D All of which still left me time to sleep in, and chill this evening.)

Oh yeah, and spending the evening watching Avengers doesn't hurt either :P

determined

I am determined. One way or another, I'm gonna see it through.

I will trust God

I will find housing.

I will educate myself more about pool procedures

I will build friendships with people

I will explore

I will HAVE FUN

I will enjoy this time.

because if I don't, then it's all for nothing.

the little things

Because, after today, I need to focus on the good things about being here, rather than the bad, here's a list of all of the things I like so far.

It's still light at 8 pm

Gorgeous thunderstorms

people I don't know referring to me as "ma'am"

making new friends

Watching the Goonies with said new friends

Pigeon peas

sleeping in until 8:45 (or 9:30 on weekends)

lots of open countryside

horses and cows not 5 min from where I live

life guards who are willing to help me out, just because I need the help

people I don't know offering advice on where to live (and where not to live)

Texas accents

Cattle drives

Cowboy hats

The water gardens

challenging

My day was...long...to say the least. It's definitely a growth experience. Between running the life guards, making the schedule, keeping the pool clean, and trying to keep patrons happy, I feel a little bit like a chicken with my head cut off. Oh, and of course, having the time to walk around and make changes to the way that things are being run. It's hard, because I don't have a lot of authority, I'm more of a glorified pool manager who makes the schedule, but I'm supposed to act like I have authority. Really what it's gonna come down to is accepting what I'm being told, accepting that I have a ton of things to take care of and, at this point, only 40 hours to do it in, and then doing my best to make everyone above me happy. Lord give me strength, because I think "challenging" might not quite cover it :P.

New friends, new place, new job, I'm loving it!

Tonight was the movie night with my new friend Mindy, and some of her friends. The others hadn't shown up yet when I got there, so she and I sat and talked for a while. She introduced me to her dog Rico...the most adorable, gangly, HUGE puppy I've ever seen (except for maybe the great dane puppy I met in Mexico in 9th grade). Anyway, he's pretty awesome. :D He's a white golden retriever, which was also a new thing for me, because I'd never seen one of those before. :D

We got to watch the Goonies, which in and of itself is epic, so you add awesome people to an epic movie, and you've got an epically awesome night :P. It was such a good experience, and I'm really looking forward to Bible study with them on Tuesday :).

Work today was also better than it has been the last few weeks. Because we open tomorrow afternoon, tonight was sort of an orientation for the guards. I gave them a tour, showed two of them how test the water, had them fill out all of their paperwork, etc. It took a lot longer than I thought it would because I was still trying to work out all of the kinks myself for how the rotation was going to go, and things like that. Hopefully tomorrow night runs smoothly enough. All in all, it was a very good day. And with that I'm going to say, good night :D.