Friday, March 29, 2013

Good Friday

All over my Facebook news feed, it seems that America is in a social war. Red and white pictures are everywhere: equal signs, crosses, two men, two women, a man and a woman…..if you do not know what I’m talking about then consider yourself lucky. Because it’s everywhere.
I thought about writing a blog post over all of it. In fact, I wrote one on Wednesday, hated it….wrote another one yesterday and hated it too. It’s not that I didn’t have much to say, quite the contrary! Both times I wrote almost two pages and I probably could have written another two or three. It’s just, I don’t know. It didn’t feel right for me to post it.
Today is Good Friday.
But you would never know it if you looked at the fighting on Facebook. It seems that Christians are too busy arguing over marriage rights to remember…..Him.
Redeemer.
Saving Grace.
King.
Lord.
Friend.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important that we stand up for what is right. But it’s also important to stand up for what is right while still showing love and mercy to the lost. And more important than anything, we need to share Jesus. We need to share the knowledge of His sacrifice. His mercy. His love. His grace. His forgiveness.
Today is Good Friday. Just over 2,000 year ago today my Savior died.
He was mocked. He was beaten. He was broken. He was tortured in the cruelest way. He deserves to have our respect and our obedience every day, but particularly over the next three days as we “celebrate” Easter. Because the story doesn’t end with His death, it was just beginning. Three days later He conquered death and rose from the grave. He restored God’s relationship with mankind by conquering our sin and gave us the opportunity to spend an eternity with Him as long as we commit to follow Him the rest of our days. We no longer have to walk in shame and guilt. We no longer have to face the eternal consequences (death and suffering) of our iniquities. How wonderful!!  
I wonder what would happen if all of my Christian Facebook friends started flooding the news feeds with Scripture? If everyone proclaimed the saving gospel of Christ and nothing else over the next three days? No status updates about homosexuality. No game requests. No “like this if you ____, share if you ____” statuses. No updates about what you ate for dinner or what dress you plan to wear on Sunday. I wonder if the world would start to realize that Christianity isn’t a dead religion. That Christians actually do care about their Savior. I wonder if it would make them a little bit curious. Perhaps some of the negativity we so often see on Facebook would fade away as the love of Jesus floods across the world online.
I’m going to do it….and I would love it if you joined me. It’s only for three days after all, surely it cannot be that hard to post about only Jesus for three days. And I suspect that it will start to change and soften our hearts as well as we search for Scripture to post and as we proclaim the gospel to the world. Isn’t that our main mission in life anyways?
“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”  ~Isaiah 53:5
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  ~John 15:13

Friday, March 22, 2013

Second Grade Throwback

So a few days ago, Roman's mom found some of Roman's papers he wrote from Second Grade. They were *ahem* precious, so I decided to share them with you. But I can't just share them and keep my opinions to myself. *wink* So let's travel back in time and explore my husband's second grade mind....my comments will be in italics.  :)

On School...

If I had my own school, I would be the prinsubul. I would inerdus myself. I would get to know all the children. I will know the teachers, too. I would walk aroud the school.

Because, you, that is all the "prinsubuls" do anyways.

How was your weekend?

This weekend I

Interesting. 

Popularity....

What can I do to make my friends and teachers like me more? I can be more nicer to them. Be quiet in class. I will do better whan I'm doing my work.

Apparently, Mr. Roman had an issue with being quiet in class. His words, not mine.

I have a dream....

I have a bream that one day this natin will be very clean, and the pepole in the world will cuiut puluetin the world. I have a Second dream, that every person in the world will do there best. I have a Third dream evrey dity will be my frind. I have a drieam that evrey baby will be bron. I have a dream that every person in the hole world will be clean.

Pretty good dreams there. Kinda makes me wonder how many of his classmates didn't smell good though?? 

Popularity Revisited.

I will have to play with them a lot and they might be my friends. I would like to have more friends. I would halp them sound out words. If they can't read and I will help them because I love helping my friends read. 

Perhaps you should learn to spell first?

Interesting.

If my bed turned into a boat I would

We think he panicked at the idea of his bed turning into a boat, so he just stopped writing this one.

Anger Management.

When I get mad I'm angry.

True story.

"Light Makers"

Light comes from meny things. The sun makes it own light. It is a giant ball of fire. The sun is a bright light. A candle makes its own light. It is not a bright light. It's a bim light. We do not see the sun's light at night. How do we see at night? We see with light bulbs.

A scientist in the making....


So there ya have it folks. We had tons of fun reading through his notebook of writings and old school pictures. It's always fun to go back and find hidden treasures like that. 

And oh by the way, happy Friday folks!!

"Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land."  ~Psalm 37:8-9

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Mercy House

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post called “Let’s Get Technical”. In that post I reminded all of you about the list on the right-hand side of my blog with my favorite bloggers. I also introduced a new link to The Mercy House, with a promise to tell you more about this link later.
Consider my promise kept.
The Mercy House is a non-profit maternity home in Kenya. It was founded by Kristen and her husband from Texas back in 2010. The purpose of this home is to aid pregnant girls living in extreme poverty. Most, if not all, have suffered extreme abuse in their lifetime and come to the Mercy House broken and ashamed. The Mercy House provides them with medical care and a place to live. But they do so much more than take care of basic needs. There they learn life lessons, such as how to be good mothers, as well as other skills so that they can begin to earn their own income. When they are ready, they are released back into society with the ability to support themselves. But most importantly, they learn about Jesus Christ and His saving grace.
I love the story of Mercy House. Kristen went to Kenya for a short mission trip, and God broke her and her husband’s hearts for the young girls in Kenya. He placed a Kenyan woman, Maureen, in her path who also had a deep desire to reach out to these young, frightened teenagers. Out of much prayer and fasting, the Mercy House was born and it has become something so much bigger than Kristen ever dreamed possible. Mercy House is now home to sixteen precious faces-eight girls and their beautiful children. And I’m sure as God continues to grow this ministry that they will help many more.
Kristen writes about The Mercy House as well as all other aspects of life over at wearethatfamily.com. I encourage you to click over to her blog and learn more about The Mercy House. For those of you who would like to help support this awesome ministry, I’ve provided a link over in the right hand side. This link takes you straight to The Mercy House Shop where you can buy all sorts of items that are hand-made by the girls in Kenya.
Like I said, I absolutely love the mission and the heart of Kristen and The Mercy House. And with Mother’s Day right around the corner, why not buy something from The Mercy House Shop that will also go to support a great cause?
Note to the folks in the back: This is not an affiliate link. Just wanted to tell all of my awesome readers about a great ministry! :)
Psst: If you are reading this on a cell phone or tablet, you will need to scroll down to the bottom and click “View web version” in order to see all of the links on my blog.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  ~Micah 6:8

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Weird Wednesday: Merry Marchmas



Just when you think you have absorbed all of the awkwardness in this photo, you realize she is holding a goat.





Zooey Davechappelle....there are no words




I love this kid.

"Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord-with the first of them and with the last- I am He." ~Isaiah 41:4

Monday, March 18, 2013

Cleany Cleany Clean Clean

Friday afternoon before I left work, I cleaned my desk. It’s strange now…I sort of miss my dust bunny friends.
………
NOT.
It’s just weird not having that fine thick layer of dust all over everything.
Over the weekend I cleaned out, washed and vacuumed my car. I was scared for a minute there that I was going to get lost in the pile of jackets and napkins in my backseat, but I survived. Whew.
I also washed and put up every piece of laundry in. my. house. (Five loads, people. Five. Loads.) I then proceeded to clean my entire house. And I’m not talking about just putting things up and washing my dishes. Oh no, that’s much too novice for this over-achieving young adult. I dusted. I cleaned out the fridge. I scrubbed the countertops. I cleaned the bathtub. I cleaned the shower. I cleaned our bathroom as well as the guest bathroom. I wiped down our leather couch. I vacuumed. I even lint-rolled the comforter (there is still dog fur….just not as much.)
So as it stands on this cloudy Monday morning: My car is clean. My house is clean. My desk at work is clean. I showered this morning, which means I am clean too. I even fixed my hair today, put on a dress, AND I’m wearing lipstick. HOLY CRAP WHAT IS GOING ON??!?? 
O.o
My life should not be this organized on a Monday morning. If it makes any of you feel any better, I was still late for work this morning….despite having my lunch ready the night before and having my clothes laid out. Feel better? No? Love me anyways.
“But all things should be done decently and in order.”  ~1 Corinthians 14:40

Friday, March 15, 2013

Come Sail Away.....

Dude. It’s Friday.
*runs in circle flapping arms like a chicken while screaming at the top of her lungs*
I just did all of that in my head….not in real life.

ANYWAYS. So I told all of you that I was going on a cruise, and although I will not publish to the Internetz exactly when we are going, I will tell you that we are going pretty soon.
That is, as long as Carnival gets their crap together and stops breaking their boats. For realz guys, what’s going on??!?
Today I read on the news that ANOTHER Carnival ship is having issues. What was my response? “Holy crap which ship is it? I’m going to be SO ANGRY if it’s mine and they cancel my cruise.” *Immediately clicks on headline and sighs with relief after confirming that it’s not. my. ship.*
Enter phone conversation:
Mom: Sarah, are you SURE you want to go on a cruise??
Me: Even if I didn’t, it’s too late for that. I would lose every bit of my money if I cancelled now with the cruise being so close.
Mom: ……..I don’t want you to go.
Me: I’m going.
Mom: Don’t complain when your ship breaks.
Me: Let it break. That just means I don’t have to go back to work for a longer period of time.
Mom: ................you're crazy.

And yes, that seriously is my logic. Once my ship gets a good distance away from the Americaz, I do. not. care. if it decides to break. Because at that point, I am on the ship. I am  not at home. And it will be longer before I get back. As long as we don’t hit an iceberg, then I’m good. And if we hit an iceberg in the Bahamas, I think we have bigger problems. Just saying.

The only thing I’m anxious about is leaving my dog. I hate leaving Dukey-face behind.
1) It makes me sad because he’ll think we’re just leaving the house and he won’t realize until later that we aren’t coming back for a while.
2) He is my child and I always worry about him when someone else is babysitting him.
3) I love my puppy dog and I’m not sure I remember how to sleep in a King sized bed without him hogging half the mattress.

But besides that, I’m super duper exicted and can’t wait. I want to go ahead and pack my suitcase but it’s not even close to being time for that yet. Now if Carnival can just stop breaking their ships so my mother will calm down, that’d be great. If it didn’t cost so much, I’d make a collect call to her halfway through the trip so I could prank her…

Me: MOM, our ship just broke down and I’m stranded in the Bahamas. Put Duke on a plane, stat! I’m never coming home and I want him here with me.
Mom: ………..I can’t believe you just did that to me. I nearly had a heart attack.
Me: MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! K, love you, bye!!
*click*
I’m fairly certain that would make me seem really immature though, which I’m totally not. I’m like the mature-est person I know.


“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  ~Isaiah 41:10

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Wilderness

There was a time in my life when I just KNEW he was the one for me. I prayed that God would lead our hearts together. That our friendship would grow into something more. These were the pleadings of a thirteen year-old girl who sincerely thought she had found her soul mate. But…..God did not act. He did not orchestrate some grand relationship that would make fairy tale characters jealous….at least, not with the person that I thought He would. Fast forward a few years, and He would introduce me to someone much better….the man He had specifically picked out for me to spend the rest of my life with. How grateful I am that He did not give me the desires of my heart at thirteen years old! If He had, I never would have met my husband and I am positive that I would not have been as happy as I am today.
Oh, how easy it is to forget that God has our best interests in mind when answering our prayers! As Roman and I diligently pray over an area in our lives, I can say without a doubt that this has been the biggest test of my faith in my short 22 years of life. I have cried over this prayer, I have lost sleep over it, I have gotten angry at God and then angry at myself. Yet He still comes back with only one answer: wait. “How much longer??” my heart cries. “Why can’t You just give me a hint??” But sometimes, God doesn’t answer those questions. Sometimes, He wants us to be still and be patient and quit stomping our feet like a two year-old in a grocery store who wants that chocolate chip cookie RIGHT NOW.
We make a grave mistake when we tell new Christians that living for Christ is easy….because this faith thing is stinking hard sometimes. It’s easy to say things like, “Trust in God” and, “He will answer in His timing”. But when you are walking through a dark time of doubt and confusion, those phrases suddenly become much harder to live out.
Two things I have learned through this:
1) My relationship with God is not give and take. Just because I work hard in my ministries at church, try to be a good wife, pay my tithes, etc. does not mean that God is obligated to give me what I want. Our relationship is not a cash transaction. I give back to God out of my love for Him. He is not obligated to give me anything in return…after all, He’s already given me the greatest gift I could ask for by sending His Son to die for me over 2,000 years ago. Now thankfully, He delights in blessing His children, but often times those blessings come in ways we don’t expect. And many times God is blessing us by not giving us what we ask for, even though we can’t understand why.
2) God feels our emotions. He rejoices when we rejoice. He mourns when we mourn. It gives Him no pleasure to see our heart broken as we go through the pains of this earth. That is such a comfort to me…..to know that even though He may not send what I am asking for in this moment, He understands my thought patterns and is walking through this battle with me. I am not praying to an emotionless God that cannot see or understand my hurt, quite the contrary! My God sees. My God knows. My God understands.
Walking out our faith can sometimes seem impossible. There have been quite a few times over the past several months that I have wanted to just throw in the towel and walk away from God. Sadly, when faced with the tough situations, many Christians do just that. So if you’re in a place of “waiting” like me, I would like to encourage you to dig in deep and keep running after God’s heart. I will not promise that He will grant you every desire of your heart, because sometimes He may not. But what I can promise you is that He hasn’t forgotten you. He takes no joy in our suffering and He certainly does not plan to leave us behind. You cannot work hard enough for Him to get what you are asking for, and He is not punishing you for stealing that pencil when you were three years old. As hard as it may be….sometimes He just wants us to be still. Let His love satisfy your soul, even as you pray over the desires of your heart.
I’m not going to lie to you and say that I just sit around my house reading my Bible and singing worship songs every evening while I pray over this issue. I am not perfect in this “being still” thing….far from it! But it is perfectly okay for me to break down and cry. It is perfectly okay for me to ask God the hard questions (He can take it). It is perfectly okay for me take a day to stop and rest…to go get a pedicure and a diet coke…..to talk to a sister in Christ about my struggles…to write an insurmountable number of pages in my prayer journal. After all, He knows that we are humans with emotions. He knows that we have a finite mind and can only see a small pixel out of the picture.
One last thing: whatever it is you’re going through right now, it won’t last forever. It may seem like it will….it may seem like it already has. But I promise you, it won’t. One day our faith will be made sight. We will spend eternity with our God, and He will wipe the tears from our eyes and we will know a joy that never ends. And at the end of the day, no matter what comes my way in this life…even if I never get what I’m asking for, I know that heaven is a reality and that I have something to look forward to.
If you would like to read more about this topic, I encourage you to check out a re-post that Lysa Terkeurst had on her website today (this was totally for me this morning!). Click here to read her post.  Also, I am currently reading a book called “Pursued” by Jud Wilhite. This book explains God’s love for us in ways I have never thought about before, and it has been such a great help to me over the past few weeks. So check it out if you're struggling in your faith, it will definitely get your mind thinking!

I now leave you with one of my most favorite passages of Scripture out of the Bible:
“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day, declares the Lord, you will call Me ‘My Husband’; you will no longer call Me ‘My Master’”. ~Hosea 2:14-16

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Too Much Caffeine

Dear Family Members (and Roman):
I planted three flowers yesterday in my flower pot. Despite your doubt in my green-thumb, they will NOT die. *slams fist on desk*

Three things:
1) Lauren enjoys pulling off the rubber tips to the door stoppers in our house. It’s really annoying.
2) There was a rooster in the median of the highway on my way to work today. I immediately wanted to crack a joke: “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Oh wait, there’s no one in the car with me to tell the joke to. Fail.
3) Here’s a goat:

Happy Tuesday!!

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” ~1 Corinthians 10:12

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Rawesome Roman

So we are getting ready for bed tonight, and then this happened.......

Me: I really want to get all of my house stuff done tomorrow so I can use my day off on Monday for some R&R.
Roman: Do you know what R&R means?
Me: Rest and Relaxa-
Roman: Rawesome Roman!
Me: What?
Roman: Ragnificent Roman.
Me: .......
Roman: Ronderful Roman.
Me: Okay.
Roman: .............Ramazing Roman.
Me: ....................

One thing is for certain: it's never boring here. Also, we are both sleep deprived. Good night.

"God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it He ceased all the work that He had been doing in creation." ~Genesis 2:3

Friday, March 8, 2013

Encouraging the Youth of America

One thing I’ve learned in my short life is just how much other people enjoy trying to run your life for you. Examples:
When you’re dating someone, they ask why you aren’t married yet.
When you’re married to someone, they ask why you don’t have kids yet.
When you have your first kid, they ask when you are planning to have another one.
Graduating from high school…where are you going to college?
Graduating from college…when are you going to start on your second degree?
You should work _____. You should do _____ with your career.
_____is not a good idea…you should do ____ instead.

American society is never short on opinions for what others should be doing with their lives.

I was reminded of this fact yesterday afternoon. I was walking outside my building and ran into one of my old co-workers. We said our “hello’s” and “how are you doing’s” and without skipping a beat she asked me how school was going. “Well you know I graduated last May with my Bachelor’s….” The look on her face was immediate disappointment. “Sarah. You have got to keep going with your education. Why are you not enrolled in a Master’s program? You’ll never get anywhere in your career without a higher degree” she said in a very stern tone. I calmly explained that I was taking a break and that I was going to work on some training through my employer….but I can tell you, it took all I had in me to keep smiling and acting friendly through the rest of the conversation. Especially when she ended the conversation by reminding me that once I finished my training I needed to start working on my Master’s degree. Really??!?!?
Now if this had been my mom, or Roman, or my Pastor, or someone who knew me very well….that’s one thing. They know me and they know the call that God has for my life. But this woman barely knows me and doesn’t know anything about the goals and aspirations I have in my life….and I’m not sure she’s a Christian so she probably isn’t even thinking about what God wants for my life. And that’s the real problem.
I worry that the American society (this includes the Church of America as well) places too many expectations on our youth. We expect the youth of America to have it all figured out: where we’re going to go to college, where we want to work after we graduate, when/who we want to marry, how many kids we are going to have, where we want to live, and the list goes on and on. But we don’t stop there….not only do we expect them to know the answers to all of these questions, we also expect them to maintain a certain status in their answers. Heaven forbid one of them answer your question by stating they want to be a factory worker after they graduate high school. Oh no. That is not. good. enough. You need to aspire to be a banker or a CEO or an actor or a doctor…just do SOMETHING that will make you a respectable member of society.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to encourage our youth to dream big dreams, but it is 100% wrong to ignore their hopes and dreams and press them to be someone they’re not….or rush them into making decisions when they’re not ready. Go ahead and ask the questions like “where are you going to go to college?” Just don’t act disappointed when they tell you that they haven’t decided yet, or that they’ve decided college isn’t for them and they would rather just start working instead. Trust me, I’m sure they’ve talked with their parents over this decision and they don’t need a half-stranger giving them advice on their life decisions….they get enough of that from everyone else.
Perhaps I’m being a little too mean about all of this, and if so then I apologize. I just feel like our youth has enough to worry about…they go through so much. Between trying to figure out who they really are and who God is and what He wants from them….and then dealing with difficult social situations that are much more varied than what older generations have dealt with, I think they have enough on their minds.
So rather than be a discouragement to our youth, be an encourager instead. Listen to them talk about their hopes and dreams and then encourage them to chase after them. After all, God gives us big dreams for a reason....and sometimes those dreams don't include a college degree or a high-paying job. Don’t look down on them if they are making a decision that is not “socially acceptable” in your eyes. I think we have enough cookie-cutter adults chasing after the great “American Dream”. What this country needs is a generation that is unafraid to seek after God’s heart for their lives. And most importantly: PRAY that our young people are willing and seeking to follow God’s call for their lives. Ask that God give them a soft heart and a burning passion to see His glory on earth. Because if they are running heard after God’s heart, then they’ll make the right life choices….no matter how crazy those life choices may sound to us.

And for heaven’s sake….please don’t ask me when I’m going for my Master’s degree. Because I can assure you, unless God specifically (and I mean specifically) tells me to go back to school, I’m not. EVER. #hatedcollege    ;)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  ~Jeremiah 29:11

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Cat Problems

I am not a cat person. I like them alright….but give me a choice between owning a dog and owning a cat and I’ll choose the dog, thank you very much. But as most of you know, Roman and I have two cats: Ralph and Lauren. Lauren is a goofy little black cat….and Ralph is a devious huge stripe-y cat.
I love them both, I really do. But Ralph gets into trouble. All. The. Time. And the thing with cats…..well, you can’t really train them like you can a dog.
One of his favorite games to play is “Let’s see if I can run out of the door when they let the dog out.” If he manages to escape, he then likes to play his next favorite game: “Let’s hide under the front porch steps where they can’t get me, roll around in the sand, and hiss at everyone.” Cue the temptation to cuss. Also cue the temptation to leave the @#$!* cat outside to be eaten by that fox living close by. Oh, I kid….mostly. (CALM DOWN PETA)
We also have to keep our bedroom door closed at night now….because of RALPH. If we leave the door open, then he will find a way to take over BOTH of our pillows. And we have a king-sized bed guys. He’ll start walking back in forth. “Purrrr”…..“Purrrr”…..*steps on Sarah’s hair*…..“Purrrr”……*lays on Roman’s head* Cue more temptations to cuss, a mouth full of cat hair and a restless night.
Once I had a really nice, wicker basket by our front door to hold all our shoes. Ralph chewed it up. Then he taught Lauren how to chew it up. Then he taught Duke. I no longer have the shoe basket. In fact, I no longer have ANY wicker baskets because as soon as I get one he eats it….so I just quit trying.
But what aggravates me more than any of this is Ralph’s problems with food. He loves to eat the dog food….which is something cats can’t digest. He’ll run by Duke’s dog food bowl, grab a piece, and then go hide somewhere to finish eating it. I keep telling him I’m not going to care if he gets impacted and dies….but he doesn’t listen. Dumb cat. Never mind the dog food though, let’s talk about MY food. When cooking, you have to keep a constant eye on the food….leave a pot of food unattended and I guarantee Ralph will stick his face in it. And don’t even think about leaving bread anywhere on the counter. Once Roman and I bought a bag of hoagie rolls to use on our beach trip the next day; we left them on the counter top that night, only to wake up the next day to find Ralph had chewed through the bag and gnawed on all the rolls. *&$%@! cat.
So what I found this morning really shouldn’t surprise me….but it did. I bought two tomatoes last night at the grocery store because I’ve really wanted a tomato sandwich this week. They weren’t quite ripe yet, so I left them in a basket on the counter top with the bananas. Apparently, my cat likes tomatoes as well. I walk in this morning and pour my cup of coffee, and I just so happen to look over at the basket. “Hmmm…those tomatoes look weird. Don’t tell me they went bad over night.” *Picks up tomato* “RALPH! Why did you gnaw all over my tomatoes!!!!???!??!” Cue temptation to cuss and throw tomato at cat.
If you’re looking for me, I’ll be locked in my bedroom with the dog food and a new wicker basket, snacking on some rolls and tomatoes. &*$#@!*&$ cat.
“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”  ~Acts 5:32

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Weird Wednesday.

Last night I dreamed that I was back in high school. Cue the weird hair-do’s, awkward social situations, and the endless stream of tests and pop quizzes. Yuck. One of my good friends from high school was in this particular dream, except he decided he was going to start driving a semi truck to school. A big huge white one. It was ugly. On this particular school day, we decided we would make it prettier….so we skipped class and stayed outside so we could draw all over it with blue expo markers. Then he tried to run me over. Not. Nice. I escaped by jumping on top of another student’s truck. You know, because I’m a ninja.
Then I had another dream where my friend Mallory bought me a white bathrobe as a random gift and wrote on the card: “Go home, put this on, sit down, and paint your toe nails.”
I am assuming this was my subconscious mind reminding myself that I really need to take the time to repaint my toes. And also that I secretly think my friend from high school wants to murder me with a semi truck. Dear Subconscious Mind: GET OFF ME, OKAY??!?
Ahem.
…..Does anyone have chocolate? I think that would be the solution to my current ADD issue.
That is all.

“Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.” ~Psalm 119:1

Monday, March 4, 2013

Being an Adult.

When you become an adult, some of the strangest things make you happy...

I bought a new broom and dust pan today....I'm in love.

Getting in your car and seeing that you have over half a tank of gas...pure joy.

Opening your mailbox to see no bills have arrived.....it's party time!

Roman says he <3 his recliner. 'Nuff said.

Chocolate. Oh wait, that made me happy when I was a kid too.

Hitting all green lights on your way to work....happy dance happy dance happy dance

Waking up to a clean house.... Heck. Yes.

Roman also added that he loves his puppy dog....but who doesn't love the Duke-ster??

And of course, the best feeling of all: getting off work on Friday afternoon.

Oh crap. I shouldn't have said that last one....it's only Monday. Sorry guys.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." ~Colossians 3:16

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Let's Get Technical

Hey folks! Just a real short post this Saturday morning to take care of some tech-y things. If you are real observant and you stalk my blog like a hawk, then you may have noticed that I've done some updating to my page this morning. But seeing as how I JUST GOT DONE fighting with Google over how to arrange everything, I doubt anyone has seen it yet. So let's look to our right of this post, and I'll give you a little tour. (FYI: If you are reading this on a phone or tablet, you may need to scroll to the bottom and click the little link that says "View web version". Go ahead and click it, I'll wait.)

........

Ready? Let's go. 

Alright, I didn't change the position of the "Blog Archive" or the "About Me" sections. But in case you normally read my blog on your phone, you may or may not have seen/noticed any of this stuff. So for the sake of being painstakingly thorough, I'll give a short explanation. The Blog Archive is a place where you can see a list of every. single. post. I've ever written ever. You're welcome. The About Me is for those of my readers who do not personally know me....or for those of you who just really like to read things that you already know. Pretty self explanatory. 

The next section, called "Follow us on....." is new. I have created individual accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr (because I can't do Instagram on my phone...sad face sad face sad face....) for this blog. Even though I have a personal account already, I'm not quite ready to dive into full Internet disclosure and accept friend requests from people I don't know, just so they can see when I slap up a new post. So having a separate account for those of my readers who do not already personally know me (what's up folks! nice to have you!!) seems like a good way to go. Can't be too careful these days, ya know??? I post the most using Twitter, just because it's easier that way. So if you just can't get enough of us through this blog, then you can get some more of us there. For right now, the Facebook page is just a place for me to link up my blog posts since most of my reader traffic comes through Facebook. And to be honest, I've only posted one picture on Flickr because I'm still trying to figure it out. So be patient, OKAY?? 

And while I'm taking entirely too long to explain all of this, let me just add one thing: people come up to me all the time and say "I read your blog all the time, I LOVE it!" And then I say "Really, I thought the only one who read my blog was Roman and my mom. I now love you forever" (Or something like that.....Shout out to my homiesss!!) So for all of you beautiful people who, for whatever reason, love to read this blog....can y'all do me a huge huge HUGE favor? Go like our Facebook page and if you have a Twitter account, start following us. (Also, if you know how to operate Flickr, give your girl a shout out!) And if you like a particular post that I wrote, share the link on your Facebook page so other people can see it. (There are tiny icons at the bottom of each post that you can click to share it on Facebook and Twitter, or you can just take the link that I post to Facebook each time and click "share".) Seriously, I would owe all of you great big milkshakes and lots of hugs if you could do that. In looking at my statistics, probably around 95% of my readers follow a Facebook link to read my blog, so sharing the links on your page would be a BIG help. Okay, enough about THAT.

Next up we have the "Blogs I Lurve" section....I didn't add anything to this section. But if you want to know who I follow/stalk every day, then check this section out. Many of them are marriage bloggers, but there is a good mix over there of some for-real awesome blogs. So if you are bored or just don't feel like answering that e-mail at work, check it out!

Alright, next we have the "Mercy House". I'm going to do a special post on this next week highlighting what this is about, so for now I'll just say this: if you are looking for jewelry, t-shirts, bags, etc. and want to support a GREAT cause, then follow this link and check it out. This is not an affiliate link so I don't get any income if you make a purchase, but I just love the Mercy House's mission and wanted to share this link with all of you. 

There is a light at the end of this tunnel....last section! Right now there is only one link under the "Affiliates" section, but hopefully in the near future I will be adding some more. This link is to a book called "31 Days to Great Sex" by Sheila Gregoire. IF YOU ARE MARRIED or about to get married, I highly recommend this book. Sheila is a great writer and covers the topic of *ahem* marital intimacy with great tact. So if you're looking to spice things up, or just improve on something great you already have, then check out this book. (DISCLOSURE: This is an affiliate link, so if you click this link and then make a purchase, I do get a small percentage of the profit.) 


Okay, so I guess I lied to all of you when I said this was a real short post.....oops. Forgive me?  But that's all I got for you this morning. I'm off to go ride horses with some friends (probably a terrible idea since it is stinkin' COLD outside!!). I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I will "see" you guys on Monday!    :)

PS: I am SO thankful for my readers and seriously love you guys. It makes my week when someone comes up and says how much they enjoy reading my posts. All of you are awesome!

"Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways!"    ~Psalm 128:1