A child of God educating other children.

Posted in: on Friday, February 16, 2007 at at 7:52 AM 0 comments    

We are in our new (rental) home in Minnesota. God kept us safe the whole way. Mom, Dad, and Katelin came to Carrollton on Friday to help us pack up. We all went for dinner at Don Pablos, getting in some more good Mexican food before we leave. I saw that there is a Don Pablos in Minneapolis...but I'm not sure if they food up here will be as good.
Then Saturday Tim and Dad went and picked up the U-Haul and we started loading things around 10AM. We had help from Jake and Michael from Redeemer and then Tim, Tim's old roommate.
We finished loading the U-Haul, Tim's car, and my Vue around 5pm. Long day!
Sunday was nice. The youth gave us a going away reception after the service. Then Tim and I went to lunch at Souper!Salad! with Phillip and Jessica and then were on our way to OK City to stay with my grandparents.
Monday we left OK City around 9:30am and drove in heavy rain all day long when we stopped for the night in Des Moines. Tuesday morning was bad road conditions. Schools and businesses were closed because of it, but Tim and I still went on our way so we could get at our house around 3.
The youth were here waiting with ready hands to help. We have everything in our house and are working at finding places for everything. I thought that this house would look empty with our stuff coming from a one bedroom apartment, but some how, we are managing to fill it all up. And having fun! :)

Posted in: marriage on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at at 11:53 AM 0 comments    

Alright, so here it is. We picked up the Saturn today after it was finished being cleaned. I just want to go out and drive it. We saved our errands for today until after we picked it up, so I could drive some. Tim told me to hold off on the driving though 'cause I'll have plenty of time doing that between Sunday and Tuesday. I'm just really excited...so hopefully that'll help the drive to MN be better.

Posted in: on Thursday, February 08, 2007 at at 8:51 PM 2 comments    

Tim and I bought me a new car today. It's a 2003 Saturn VUE.

The pastor's son at our new church is looking into buying a car down here, flying down here to get it and drive it back up. From him and a couple other people, and through our own research we have come to find out that used cars in Texas are cheaper and in better shape than cars up North. After going and checking out the car for our pastor's son, we decided to just look around and see what we could find if this is true, not thinking too seriously about it, but we came across a deal that we think is really good.

The car was traded in about an hour before we went to the Saturn dealership and they quoted us $8,995 for the VUE with almost 49,000 miles which is less than average mileage on a vehicle for it's age. History check came up clean. If we weren't going to buy the VUE they were going to put it on the lot tomorrow for $10,995.

Last night I stayed up until 2am researching online about the vehicle, and even got back on at 7:30 'cause my mind was going a mile a minute thinking about everything else I wanted to learn about it, so I couldn't sleep any more. I even joined a Saturn forum so I could discuss with owners of VUEs to get their opinions. I kind of felt like a jock getting on the Saturn forum talking about cars with all the men on there. It's been fun though! :) They had good insight.

We'll go and pick the car up tomorrow. Since it was just traded in yesterday they've had it in the workshop checking everything out, put 2 new tires on the front (FWD). It's a manual which I like. We were going for either a manual or AWD with us moving to Minnesota. Tim drove it today after everything was done except them cleaning it out.

So tomorrow we'll go pick the VUE up, I'll hopefully have some pictures to post, and then we have to really tackle all of the packing that needs to happen.

Posted in: car on Wednesday, February 07, 2007 at at 8:14 PM 0 comments    

I've been told that Minnesota has a crazy cold in town right now. They've been getting into the -20s, or -35 with the wind chill. Today I ran around town getting errands done before we move. I kept pretty busy (dumpster diving for boxes) that I got pretty warm. It was perfect weather today for short sleeves, and windows down in the car. While I was packing and cleaning the apartment I turned our heat off and opened up our sliding door to let the fresh air in. Tomorrow should get into the high 60s. Another beautiful day!

I've been keeping my eye on the weather up in Minnesota for when we arrive...and hopefully it's telling the truth that it should be in the 20s instead of -20s. Still not quite the 'no-heat-let-the-fresh-air-blow-through' type of temperature, but it'll be warmer than -20!

Posted in: on Monday, February 05, 2007 at at 7:36 PM 0 comments    

Before we could head home yesterday we had to make a pit stop on the run way to be deiced. So just last December was the first time I've ever even see ice on a lake, let alone a whole entire frozen lake. And then this week I am introduced to planes being deiced. I didn't even know that ever happened!

The weather wasn't as bad in MN as we thought it would be. It was cold, but it was dry. Today running around town with Tim made me appreciate the weather in MN. It was rainy most of the day, which when you get wet, you get colder. And it takes a lot longer to warm up inside when you are wet. In MN it is so cold it is very dry. Even when snow is coming down it's dry.

We actually did get some snow/sleet today in Texas. It started coming down frozen on the way to the mall and continued 'til a little while after we left. Katelin called me tonight after her orchestra lessons super excited that they got snow too. Her class even let out early so they could all have a snow ball fight.

So far I have restrained myself from playing in the snow in MN. I think that's mainly 'cause I know I'll have plenty of chances to play. (And partially embarassed to let everyone in MN know how excited I am about all the snow they have...which isn't any to them.) I did throw a Texas snow ball at Tim today. :) I had a little pile of snow on my car which was a little wet, which helped it pack really well.

Posted in: weather on Thursday, February 01, 2007 at at 8:14 PM 4 comments    

Tim and I just got back from Minnesota. We flew up Sunday and back today to give us 2 full days to look into housing. I probably went through at least 20 houses before heading up there, making phone calls, and contacting people through email to narrow our search down before our trip.

God really opened up the doors with the house we will be living in. It is an amazing house, a once-in-a-life-time place for us to live. It will be wonderful to use for ministry. Our first trip to Minnesota we were taken by this house, but I felt so overwhelmed thinking that there was no way this house would work out. This time going up there I felt at peace with the option, and it is in our price range. God is awesome!

We look at 8 houses total, which made for 2 very long and draining days. We've been back in Texas for about 2 hours now, I'm ready to sleep.

I posted my favorite pictures on here, but Tim posted all of the pictures on his Google photo album.

Posted in: family, marriage on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at at 7:44 PM 3 comments    

Joyce has been very helpful with us trying to find a home. She has been our professional photographer when ever I give her an address of a house that is a possibility for us, she goes and checks it out in person for us and emails us the pictures.

This picture I thought was pretty funny. This is "no snow" for up in Minnesota. First thing I thought when I saw this picture was, 'If this was in Texas, the street would be lined up with little mini snowmen.' We have been looking for homes that have a 2 car garage so we don't have to put up with the snow, but I was told that they haven't had any snow this year. Texas' and Minnesota's definition of snow if completely different. If the snow fall in this picture happened in Texas nothing would be open, and up in MN, people don't give this white picture a second thought.

Posted in: on Friday, January 26, 2007 at at 7:03 AM 0 comments    

Posted in: on Friday, January 19, 2007 at at 9:07 AM 0 comments    

I have become a fan of Sam Moon. I lived in the DFW area for 2 years before finally venturing into the store. I had always heard of great buys and great times, but hadn't given in. My first time I went with my Aunt Wanda and was just blown away with how crazy it was in the store. It was late Saturday afternoon, 30 minutes before the store was to close, and it was swamped! There were so many women and a few men who were drug in that it was hard to walk around. The store is huge too, it was just crazy! I wanted to get more for my money, so I didn't spend more than $5 on each piece of jewelry unless it was a set of necklace with earrings, then my limit was $7.

I went back again for Christmas presents for Katelin, Grace and Mom, and then last weekend when Katelin and Brianne came to town. I had to introduce them to such a great store! :) Sadly, one of Katelin's earrings she bought broke before she could even wear it, so I went back to exchange it today with no problem. I also spotted a white necklace I just had to have 'cause I don't have any white necklaces. ;) Plus, it was only $4.50 with matching earrings.

The only Sam Moons are in Dallas, Frisco and Houston, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to get some cute jewelry now 'cause I don't know if I'll ever find these good deals up North. I'm sure someone's gotta have 'em, but at least now I am set on jewelry for a while.

Posted in: on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at at 6:10 PM 0 comments    

This summer marks my parent's 30th anniversary, so they took a special trip to London for a week. And they arrived home safely yesterday. It was nice to see them, I'm sure they were really tired after all their excitement and a long flight back home.

The roads were suppose to freeze over yesterday evening after all the rain, so Wednesday night activities were canceled which gave Tim and I a relaxing evening together. It's nice to be back in our routine, although, that also means that we're not unpacked either... :)

Oh, well, we need our rest these couple of days because tomorrow is our Youth lock-in, so we'll be staying up all night. Tim does a great job with lock-in schedules. Theres only about 30 minutes of free-time, and early on so there's no sleeping all night long. Tons of fun with that, but man, you're ready to crash afterwards!

Posted in: family on at at 5:42 PM 0 comments    

I am a huge fan of beef and bbq. Tim and I have been eating Mexican food mainly when we eat out, because I'm not sure how great the Mexican food will be in MN, so far away from the Mexico border. But I had to have some really good Texas bbq before leaving Texas too. Tim, Katelin and I all went out to eat at Big Jake's last night. It's a great place to eat, and it was nice to go there again since that was who catered for our rehearsal dinner. We ordered a family dinner of ribs which came with a whole loaf of bread, and we got some corn on the cob and some delicious potato salad.

Is it sad that Mexican food and BBQ are on the top of things that I will miss from Texas? I am stocked up on TexJoy, so I at least have my seasonings for cooking up in MN.

Posted in: on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at at 8:43 PM 3 comments    

For the weekend Katelin and I went back to Dallas so I wasn't away from Tim for more than three days, and Brianne came up to visit also. I had a wonderful time getting to hang out with my two favorite girls. Friday night was pretty relaxing just catching up on life. Saturday we slept in, went shopping and ate out at Cheddars. Then Sunday was Church and us girls hanging out while Tim was busy at the church. I introduced facebook to Brianne and Katelin unlocked everything on Crash Nitro Kart. Sunday evening the four of us played Taboo and Apples to Apples. Come to find out, my competitiveness that I inherited from my dad's side can get pretty annoying to others during Taboo. :)

To add to the excitement of the weekend the weather men were forecasting horrible winter weather for the DFW area, of which we didn't get any, but people still freaked out and stormed the grocery stores because we had rain and the temperatures were in the 30s. Tim and I had fun laughing about that with our move to Minnesota around the corner.

I think I'm unconsciously putting aside the thought that Tim and I are actually moving. I've moved all over Texas while growing up, but I still am not a fan of it. It hit reality a little more tonight when I spent some extra time with Katelin before she went to bed to say good bye since we'll only get a little bit of time with each other before she goes to school in the morning.

I've got mixed emotions of happy, excited, sad and scared all at once about our move, but I guess that's normal. God will bring me through it, and I know he will take care of all my loved ones here in Texas.

Posted in: family, friends on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at at 8:44 PM 0 comments    

Katelin and I rented Hoot and How to Eat Fried Worms yesterday. So that kicked off this blog for me.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen is a great book. The movie was entertaining, but didn't follow too closely to the book. They got the gist of it, but it seemed like there were just easy things that could have been changed to more closely follow the book. Katelin and I agreed though that the movie was more entertaining because things were different and we didn't know exactly how things would happen in the movie. I recommend both the book and movie for everyone to check out.

How to Eat Fried Worms was a great movie. It does gross you out with the different recipes made to eat the worms, but very entertaining. I haven't read the book by Thomas Rockwell, but want to now after the movie. Then I can compare how closely they are. Great movie, it did recieve it's PG rating for a reason.

Last week I rented Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants after Tim's mom and sisters spoke so highly of the movie. I had been wanting to watch it, but hadn't yet, so I finally rented it. Cute movie! Now I am reading the book by Ann Brashares and have so far been disappointed by things the movie changed from the book, but on the other hand am glad it is different, because it is keeping my interest in reading the book. If it was word for word everything exact I'd have to fight myself to read the book. Eric in the movie is some beach-blond guy, but I have heard in the book is Hispanic, so I've expected that difference, but didn't expect the scene of how the pants were found and the girls finding out their magic to be so different.

Another movie that is great, and the book is too is Because of W inn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. This movie did perfectly in following the book. My mistake was watching the movie first. I loved the movie so much that I had to read the book, but had a hard time reading with already knowing quote for quote what was going to happen. If you haven't seen Because of Winn Dixie yet, I definitely recommend it, but be sure to read the book first.

Posted in: on Thursday, January 11, 2007 at at 8:50 PM 5 comments    

My parents are in London for their 30th anniversary, so I came to stay with Katelin while she is in school. I miss Tim like crazy, but I'll see him Friday. Katelin will come back to Dallas with me Friday, then I'll bring her back Monday in time for school on Tuesday and go back to Tim on Wednesday in time for my parents to fly home.

Last night Katelin and I played Dance Dance Revolution for 2 hours. Great fun, and good exercise! Today Katelin had orchestra practice, so I spent that time calling people about rent homes up in Minnesota. I had okay luck with that. I'm curious to see how God works everything out with this. I had emailed one man a couple times today about a house for rent that seems like a great deal so far. And then the last person I talked to about a rent home ended up being a member of the church we'll be going to. He seemed excited and eager to help us out on finding a home, so he said he'd keep us updated on rentals he finds around town. Praise God!

Posted in: family on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at at 7:21 PM 1 comments    

I had a wonderful 4 months at the business my temp agency fit for me. I am amazed how well of a fit I was for the company. I was sad in the beginning that I wasn't in the classroom, but God sure knew what he was doing. This company was perfect for me to work at while Tim and I were finding out where God was leading us for full-time ministry. They were very flexible with days that I needed off, and most of all I was able to meet and build relationships with some incredible people. I am so thankful for each person I was able to know and so blessed with their friendships.

Posted in: work on Sunday, January 07, 2007 at at 8:00 PM 0 comments    

Tim accepted a full time youth pastor position in Minnesota. I'm really excited for all that God has in store for us, and I'm excited to see Tim be able to do youth ministry full time. We'll be moving far away from my family, but we'll be closer to parts of Tim's family than we are to mine right now. Our last day here will be Feb 11th, moving sometime during Valentine's Day week.

We are pretty busy until we move, but still trying to see everyone we can. We saw Tim's old room-mate on New Years and then went and saw my Aunt Melinda. This week I'll be staying with Katelin, and then Brianne is coming up to the area next weekend. I can't wait!

We have a few church activities before we leave to. I'm sad to move, but know that God has something incredible in store for us. And I'm ready to move and have a rental home for a year while we decide where we want to purchase our first house. And we'll get to unpack all of our wedding gifts and enjoy them! It'll be like having our wedding shower all over!

Posted in: marriage on at at 7:11 PM 3 comments    

The other day when Tim and I were in the car he was talking to a girl on the phone giving her advice about her relationship. It sounded like she was going through the same thing with her boyfriend that Tim and I did before our break we took. It was nice to hear Tim's side of it.

While they were talking I started thinking that I really don't have anything to take away from the experience of our break to use with helping someone else. I wouldn't advise anyone to take the directions I did. I can't even imagine what I put Tim through that summer. Looking back at everything that happened, it's completely illogical that Tim and I are together right now, let alone married.

Tim helped me realize though how amazing God is. I can remember asking God every single day that if Tim really is the person he has for me to marry, that God would bring us back together. This goes back to the very first day Tim and I hung out. There wasn't an attraction that first day, but as the night progressed until right before I went to bed I had this huge feeling that Tim is the one God made to be my husband. I didn't know why or how anything would progress, so I wrote out my prayer to God that night talking about Tim so I could remember the moment and see if it was true.

The summer we weren't together I kept feeling the same nudge as our first night, but was so frustrated with how things were going and in disbelief that we would ever end up together. I didn't handle our relationship well, I probably did the opposite of what I should have. It is only by the grace of God that Tim and I are together.

Once God brought Tim and I back together, our relationship progressed really fast, another miracle God did. It is so amazing to look back on mine and Tim's relationship and see that God was and is in control with every aspect. I'm interested to see what all God has in store for Tim and I. I would assume something pretty amazing because of all God has already brought us through.

So my dating advice isn't anything someone should say or do. My advice is to give it all to God and let him work through things with you and for you. Trust in Christ and he will meet your needs.

Posted in: relationships on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at at 5:52 PM 1 comments    

Tim and I went to the mall today to get a couple links taken out of my watch that he gave me for Christmas. We decided to go to a few different stores to see who had the best price. In the midst of that Tim got shopping fever when he saw all of the after Christmas sales, and had to go check them out. We made 2 big hits.

First was at the Christian Book Store. Tim bought 2 books, and then we got a couples devotion by Jim and Elizabeth George, and I bought 2 other books by Elizabeth George, one of with Kym had recommended to me a while back, and then I also bought Angela Thomas' 2nd and 3rd books she wrote. I loved her first book I read, and had wanted to get her others but waited since they were full price, but tonight I found each of them for half off. This book store was having a major sale!

Our second great hit was at the Van Heusen store. Tim got some nice dress clothes and I got some cute winter clothes. We went to a few other stores, of which Tim got a couple things, but these were our good deals.

Tim is actually on the phone with a friend right now telling about his awesome finds he got. On the way home Tim asked if we could go shopping again tomorrow! We'll have to see if I've got the strength. I'm not a big shopper, but man, now's the time to go when Tim is excited about it! :) We might try to go see what kind of sales Old Navy has. We'll see.

Posted in: on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at at 8:10 PM 7 comments    

All of our Christmas pictures are up on Tim's photo album now. Hope you enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/rockinyp

Posted in: on Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at at 8:03 PM 0 comments    

What a wonderful day! Tim and I woke up after struggling to sleep in 'cause of the smell of our Christmas Chicken. Something about smelling delicious food makes it hard to sleep. We stayed up 'til 1am while I prepped our Christmas dinner. I didn't realize how much work went into making a holiday meal from scratch. I had fun with it, but am glad it is over. I still need to do the dishes (tomorrow). :)

When we woke up I heated up the oven and kept putting dish after dish in until lunch. Tim built us a fire, although the house was already warm...we just had to make it at least look like Christmas. It's bright and sunny outside right now. Tim and I sat by the fire as he read the Christmas story and we ate our breakfast pastries. Then we opened up our Christmas presents from the family, friends and each other. God really blessed us with everything we received.

Tonight we will go to the Sones for dinner. It'll be nice to spend the evening with friends.

Tim posted some pictures of our Christmas with my family last night. Click here to see all our fun! And check out my previous post to find out more info on the pictures.

Posted in: on Monday, December 25, 2006 at at 10:50 AM 0 comments    

It's Christmas Eve and I have finished making my grocery list for mine and Tim's Christmas dinner tomorrow. I'm really excited about everything I am going to try to make. This is our first Christmas as a married couple, and both of our first Christmas' to be away from our families. It'll be a small quaint Christmas Eve and Day, but I'm looking forward to God drawing us even closer together.

Last week we went to my parents on Wednesday and came home Saturday. We had a wonderful time with my side of the family. Everyone was there. We went and saw The Nativity Story, played Imaginiff, drove around and looked at Christmas lights, Tim and I bought a tri-pod so we could try taking good pictures of Christmas lights after studying up on it a little bit. All of us siblings also surprised our parents with a Christmas picture of their kids.

Althought Tim and I wont be spending Christmas Eve and Day with family I'm glad we had the chance to be at my parents with our whole family together. Tomorrow I can focus on Christ's birth, and on my new family, Tim.

Posted in: family on Sunday, December 24, 2006 at at 2:07 PM 2 comments    

I was tagged by my Husband. So here's my 5 things...

1. I have lived in 12 different houses with my family before getting married.
2. While making a fist I can move the tendons over my knuckles.
3. A large wild turkey chased after me and sat on me when I was 4 years old.
4. I have been on 12 separate mission trips at least one week long since 1998.
5. I really enjoy photography.

Posted in: on Thursday, December 21, 2006 at at 7:50 PM 0 comments    

I have started my transition out of my receptionist/administrative assistant position. I am going to start substitute teaching. One girl was brought in who was a complete flop, so they had to start their search process over. This time through I prayed that God would send a great girl to take over 'cause I finally set a time limit for the company to find someone in time for me to train them. So my last day is the 29th.

Prayers were answered and the girl that is learning the ropes is doing great. She is a fast learner, has great phone skills, and has a warm personality. She will fit in great and do a good job.

I have found out a couple things about myself. One, I'm a busy body. I can't just sit around, I have to be doing something of some use. The last couple days the girl has just been watching me go through a full day, and today she tried to take over for the whole day. She did really well for her first shot, with a couple glitches here and there. I had to keep something to do at all times so I wouldn't step in and do my normal routine and not let her work.

Yesterday as she watched my day, we ended things early, which I have been doing the last month since I have the routine down great. So today when she took over she was a little overwhelmed with doing everything herself. Thats how it was for me starting off, with having things that had to be set aside for the next day, like she has for tomorrow.

I'm taking the next 2 days off that will give her a time to do everything without any help from me. I'm interested to hear how it goes.

Through this time I have also noticed how attached I have become to my work place. I absolutely love the people. When I was overwhelmed with first starting I had to concentrate on how God can use me to serve the people in the office instead of focusing on all there is to do. God has really blessed me with the change of focus.

I'm nervous and kind of sad though to be handing over my position to someone else. I have really enjoyed my time and am glad I have until the end of the month with them. I'm excited and nervous about substitute teaching. I'm ready to settle down with things and get into one thing I'll be doing for a while.

Posted in: work on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at at 10:19 PM 0 comments    

I have a couple scarves for my hair that I wear when my hair likes to go everywhere. I would call these my bad hair-days, except when I wear the hair scarf I get more compliments on my hair than I ever do. I don’t usually wear trendy things or try to start something fashionable. The first time I wore my hair scarf I was pretty self conscious going to a church party, but then noticed another girl wearing one, which made me happy. I have only seen a few others wearing these. It sure does help me from worrying about how my hair isn’t cooperating when I get compliments for trying to hide the fact! :)

Posted in: on Saturday, December 02, 2006 at at 5:58 PM 1 comments    

Okay. It's over. Lorenzo chose Jen. And I'm not happy. I don't think I'd be really happy if he chose Sadie either...'cause I really liked Sadie.

Sadie was my favorite of all girls. I liked her morals and her personality and how much depth she had to her.
Jen I didn't ever really like. She just seemed so flighty and airy to me. I never really saw much of a connection with her and Lorenzo like I did with him and Sadie.

I really liked that Sadie wrote in her list of what she wants in a man "Someone who cannot fathom being with another girl." It frustrated me this whole final episode that up until the last days Lorenzo was saying that he couldn't decide which girl he liked. With that I really didn't want him to choose Sadie because she deserves someone much better than that. I'm frustrated and upset 'cause I hated seeing Sadie hurt. But I'm also relieved 'cause I don't believe Lorenzo deserves her.

I hope that all the "confusion" through the finale was just for the show. I really hope Lorenzo knew who he wanted the whole time. I am glad that he didn't propose at the end...but I'm confused as to why he still gave Jen the family ring. He didn't ask her to marry him, so what was that?

I hope that things do work out for Lorenzo and Jen. I'm interested to watch the updates on "where is the bachelor now" type specials.
I really hope that Sadie ends up finding an incredible guy who will meet every requirement she has. It is possible. I have the best husband for me. God has truly blessed me with Tim. I am so lucky to have him as my prince!

Alright, that's my rant on this season's Bachelor. I didn't miss a show. And Tim was wonderfully understanding about my addiction to the show, letting me have my TV time.


The Bachelor Rome

Posted in: on Monday, November 27, 2006 at at 8:05 PM 3 comments    

We had a good time for Thanksgiving with my family. It was nice to have my whole family together. I brought our wedding pictures to show everyone who didn't see them online. It was fun getting to look at our wedding pictures over and over. :)

Friday I was able to decorate the Christmas tree with Mom and Tim. Tim even suggested us listen to Christmas music and listned with us...which is a big deal for him!

We came home Saturday after hauling in our car full of stuff. I think we came back with twice as much as we took...and we even accidently left some things!

Today I restacked all of our things in the dining room to make space for everything we had piled infront of our fire place. Then I put up our Christmas tree and ornaments and Christmas decorations that my mom gave us. It's fun to have decorations around. On Saturday while at Target I loved looking at all the Christmas decorations they were selling, but controlled myself from even asking Tim for things we didn't need. We did buy some stocking holders for the mantel and our "First Christmas" ornament. After putting up the decorations we have I'm glad we don't have any more this year because we don't have the space to decorate any more.

Almost all our Christmas shopping is done. We just need to buy for 2 more and each other. Presents are staying on the cheap side this year...especially with me about to take a pay-cut so I can substitute teach instead of be a receptionist.

I'm curious to find out tomorrow how much longer I will have my receptionist job. It all depends on how long or fast it takes them to find someone to replace me. I'm pretty sure I'll have this week to work...and maybe next week? We'll find out. I have substitute orientation on Wednesday. I'm excited and nervous. I just need to make myself go into it with the confidence I have for receptionist work.

Posted in: on Sunday, November 26, 2006 at at 7:31 PM 0 comments    

Tim and I are at my parents for the week. My dad's parents are coming in this afternoon, then tomorrow we'll travel to my great uncle's for Thanksgiving when Jon and Brooke will come up. I'm really excited to see all of my family. We'll have great times!

Tim and I still had a few wedding presents to open when we got here yesterday. Someone got us the silverware we registered for! I'm so excited, they're really nice!

I am going to start substitute teaching next month, so I have to take a TB test. I have to go in tomorrow then back on Saturday to get my results. I found out this morning that I'm really cutting it close to get that done in time for orientation, but it's all working out just fine.

I am so happy that Tim and I have this week to relax and enjoy family. I can't wait to find out all the fun stuff we'll do. In just a little bit we'll go up to the church, see my mom's classroom, check out the newly renovated sanctuary. They started work on it a couple days after our wedding. Talk about timing!

Then for lunch today Tim and I are going to get chik-fil-a and eat with Katelin at her school. I can't wait!

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at at 8:45 AM 0 comments    

Well, I'm sick. I haven't been feeling well for a few days, and today is my second day to miss work. I was pretty determined to go today so we wouldn't miss out on a second day's pay, but we can definitely afford missing two days pay over a visit to the doctor. I've been resting a lot. I haven't been taking as much medicine, I feel semi-better, just weak and needing rest.

What really stinks is that I got Tim sick too. He's still working right now, but not doing great. We have 30 hour famine tonight and tomorrow...an over night youth event packed full with stuff...I'm so frustrated 'cause I don't think I'll be able to participate at all, unless God miraculously heals me before then...but I don't know how good it'd be for me to fast 30 hours while not feeling well. And Tim is suppose to lead most of the weekend, but he's not feeling well.

God has everything under control. This is God's work this weekend, not ours.

Posted in: on Friday, November 17, 2006 at at 1:46 PM 0 comments    

A while ago I came across a website to my favorite baby dolls. In third grade I went crazy about these dolls, and luckily puchased and received as many as possible before they were stopped being made after 2 great years!
"After two very successful years, Galoob arbitrarily and abruptly decided to discontinue the line, even though they were one of the most popular dolls on the market at that time."
I was searching ebay for a workout video and then decided to see what dolls are being sold with Christmas coming up...maybe I could get one? I know, I know, I'm out of college, married, and am wanting a baby doll!? I guess I'm still a kid at heart. But once you get a look at how cute they are, it's hard to turn them down!

There's a website dedicated to the dolls. I'm curious to know if anyone else remembers these baby dolls and became as attached to them as I did. Of course, I grew out of my doll phase, but luckily my mom hung on to the dolls for me. They are definately loved on, and I would never think about selling them. 'Course, some people are making good money on theirs to doll collectors, but that's for the ones that are in mint condition and have never been removed from the box. I would love to have one or 2 more of these dolls (different than what I already have) to keep and give to a daughter I will hopefully have some time.

Here are the ones I have:

#14 So Cute Carmen - rarity ranking 7

#9 So Shy Sherri - rarity ranking 15

#21 So Curious Cara bathtub - rarity ranking 9

#9 So Shy Shelia - rarity ranking 9

Posted in: on Saturday, November 11, 2006 at at 4:08 PM 0 comments    

I have been reading through Romans lately and loving it. The past couple of days I have concentrated on Romans 9 with verse 16 really sticking out to me.

"So receiving God's promise is not up to us. We can't get it by choosing it or working hard for it. God will show mercy on anyone he chooses."

I am guilty of trying hard to be a good person to please God, putting more emphasis on what kind of person I am than focusing on God and letting God shape me himself. I love this verse, it really hits me hard. I already have God's promise. He chose me! There is nothing I can do to win God's affection. God is already crazy about me. So the best thing I can do is spend more time with God and develop our relationship, and then he will develop me into the person he wants me to be.

Posted in: on Monday, November 06, 2006 at at 7:38 AM 0 comments    

I love working with girls and letting God use me to be a light in their world. I love that we have a “Girls Only” forum on our Youth Chat Board where girls can open up more and we can discuss things going on in their life. After seeing one conversation I signed onto AIM which I haven’t done in a while and think I should start being more available. I had a wonderful conversation with one of our girls and I loved being a listening ear and offering advice when asked for. That was a highlight of my week.

Another highlight was going to an orchestra concert of another girl in youth group. After the concert, Tim and Jessica, and I went to CiCi’s with our youth and her family. It was so great to get to meet her parents and siblings. We had such a fun time and I think we really started to build a good relationship with them. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better.

I think parents are such an important part in youth ministry. Both of these girls I just wrote about are community girls. Meaning that they were invited by a friend in our youth group and their parents either attend at a different church, or don’t attend anywhere. With church kids we see their parents on a weekly basis, but community kids it’s a rare moment to meet their family. Another reason why I think it is very important for youth leaders to make it to student’s events.

Community kids parent’s let their students attend our church every week without knowing what kind of people their children are hanging out with. We all assume that youth leaders have to be good people since they’re at church. I think that parents really appreciate though when they can meet the youth leaders and see that they really do care about their child by showing up to their extra curricular events. It’s great to see the parent’s faces light up when they see a group of church people at their child’s even cheering them on. It’s good to know that their child is plugged in with good people.

Since I started student teaching and Tim and I got married I’m exploring a different role for my position in youth ministry that God is setting up for me. At church my heart is with the 6th-12th grade girls. And I think I’m starting to find that my area is in supporting these girls outside of the regular youth group setting. We have lots of youth workers who are available on Sundays and Wednesdays, but it’s sometimes hard to juggle more days than that with their families and work. I’m blessed that God has made me available for other days of the week. They also make for fun date nights for me and Tim.

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at at 12:49 PM 0 comments    

I got an email from a friend with a link to a YouTube video, and forwarded it to Tim, who then put it on his blog.
Go here to see the video, and then you'll understand this blog. :)

My heart broke for all the girls when I saw this video come to an end. Even after knowing that this girl doesn't look like they advertise her as, it's still hard to overcome all that culture has put into our heads on what we "should" look like. I would love to see magazines and billboards with real people on there who haven't had computerized touch-ups.

Even with watching tv, most of the women on there wouldn't normally look like they do 'cause they spend hours in the dressing room with professional make-up and hair artists working on them.

It's so sad what they're feeding girls! I'm curious to know how many guys actually expect girls to look better than what reality lets us.

Growing up I would force myself to not wear make-up for a period of time 'cause after a while I started feeling like I had to wear make-up. But I was just covering up what God has made. I didn't want to become dependent on it, and so self concious of what I really look like.

I love having a husband that likes what I look like naturally!

1 Samuel 16:7 (New Living Translation)

Posted in: on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at at 7:32 PM 1 comments    

I am watching "Deal or No Deal" right now and theres a girl from a small town of about 500 on the show talking about her tractor races and what not that they have in her town. This weekend in Austin something spured me thinking of the small town of Golden that my family once lived in, and I mentioned that there was probably less than 500 in the town when we lived there.

Well, while watching this show I wanted to check up on the demographics of Golden and of the little information I could find on the town I found out that in the years we lived there the town had about 156 people there. Wow that is small! I didn't realize how tiny that town is! I haven't had the opportunity to take Tim to Golden yet and show him around. I like going back to the towns my family use to live in. Golden has been my favorite to revisit. I love the small town country atmosphere. It was perfect for me and Jon to ride our bikes all over the town, and our parents didn't have to worry about us. Last time I went to Golden the little convenience store that Jon and I would by 1 cent candies at was still open! I have lots of great childhood memories from Golden.

LOL, okay, so I did some more internet searching for Golden just now. They are famous for their sweet potatos so I looked for their festival, which is actually the last saturday of October! Well, when looking for info on their festival I came across a site that has a little clip from the Oprah show a few years ago and she did a little segment on their potatoes!
Right now I am so pumped and would love to go visit Golden and be there for the sweet potato festival. Tim doesn't sound too excited about the idea, but maybe I can either convince him about it, or see if my family would go. :) I'm sure I just have my hopes up, but I just think it's great!

Posted in: on at at 6:41 PM 0 comments    

*One in five girls will experience some sort of domestic violence by the time they graduate from HS (family or on a date). These girls are dramatically more at risk for suicide, eating disorders, drug usage.
*If one is female and under 18 years of age, one is more at risk to be the victim of a violent crime than anyone else in America.
*Parents are busy and more stressed than ever ... The average mother talks a mere 7 minutes a day to her teenager; the average dad only 5 minutes.

Today was the last day of the National Youth Workers Convention. I had the opportunity to go to Kerry Loescher's seminar about "Dealing with Difficult Girls." God has put a passion in my heart for girls. So I was looking forward to this session all weekend long. One thing I didn't think would happen at the session was that I learned a personal lesson for myself. We talked about all the different types of girls in each clique and how girls relate, both positively and negatively with each other. The thing that got me the most (where I learned my own lesson) is in "Forms of Aggression." Here's the notes from that section:

Forms of Aggression:
Relational - acts that harm others through damage (or threat of damage) to relationships of feelings of acceptance, friendship, or group inclusion. The relationship becomes the weapon. Most of the time the silent treatment is used for this.
Indirect - allows the perpetrator to avoid confronting the target. It is covert behavior in which the perpetrator makes it seem as though there has been no intent to hurt at all. Uses other people to inflict pain on the target. Such as rumors.
Social - intended to damage self-esteem or social status within a group. This is usually in the form of put-down cloaked in humor followed by "just kidding." i.e. "OMG you are so stupid! Just kidding, J/K J/K." These statements are really hurtful.

Kerry went on to tell us that we need to teach these girls how to talk out conflict with the person they are in conflict with instead of running away from the problem and "forgetting" about it. For girls it is really hard to forget a conflict that you've had with someone. I know this from experience. So while Kerry is telling me this I'm thinking to myself, "Man, I wish I had someone to teach me about this." So many times girls will get in a fight/conflict and their relationship is over. When a relationship is healthy there is still conflict, but there is also the knowledge of how to talk through and solve the conflict. With being a newlywed there are little conflicts that come up with learning how to be with someone all the time. But Tim and I have learned how to communicate through these times, and we know that no matter what happens we still love each other and are going to give our all to our marriage and friendship. I have only had a small amount of friendships with girls that have this type of commitment. And I am sorry to say that I have lost a lot of friendships because we never learned how to face our conflict and it seemed easier to run away and "forget" about what happened.

Knowing how much of an impact it would have made in my life even now if someone would have taught me earlier in life how to handle conflict, I really want to be able to do this for the girls that God puts in front of me to minister to.

There are a lot more wonderful things that I learned about in this seminar, but most of it I need to read over and meditate on and start putting into practice with youth ministry.

Posted in: on Monday, October 09, 2006 at at 7:10 PM 0 comments    

Tim and I are having a wonderful time at the National Youth Workers Convention. We're learning a lot. I have a lot of things in my head that I will have to take time to sort through when everything is over. Not only am I bringing back new things to implement into youth ministry, but also many things that relate to personal experiences, with me alone and with mine and Tim's relationship.

It is so good to take the time to come here and get encouragement from all these people to continue in what God has put before us. Ministry can be draining at times, and although I knew that being a pastor's wife would be hard, there have already been a couple more things that I am learning about that I didn't think I would come across. It's good to be surrounded by others who are experiencing the same thing, or have already experienced it.

I will probably blog about some of the sessions we went to later on.

Posted in: on Sunday, October 08, 2006 at at 7:50 PM 0 comments    

Tim and I are leaving at 6am tomorrow morning for Austin. We will be joining thousands of youth workers all over the states to dive into a full blown weekend of seminars and worship to not only equip ourselves to better serve our youth, but to replenish ourselves. This way we can come back and implement what we learn.

Tim and I had given up on the idea to go to NYWC a while back. Our youth budget was cut tremendously so we couldn't afford to make the trip on what money was available for the convention. This week Tim decided to see if any of the youth pastors on a forum he gets on had any extra tickets for NYWC. Well, the president of Youth Specialties, MarkO saw Tim's p

ost on the forum and emailed Tim asking if he paid our way for the convention would we still be able to go.

Right after Tim got the email we both checked with work if we were able to go, and God worked through everything! I was able to get off tomorrow and Monday, so we can go to most of the convention. It started today if you paid the extra cost to get the early bird seminars. I am really looking forward to what Tim and I are going to learn this weekend. I assume it's huge since God worked such a miracle for us to come. Crazy!

Tim will be blogging throughout the weekend if you want to keep up with what we're doing.

Posted in: on Thursday, October 05, 2006 at at 7:42 PM 1 comments    

Work has been great. In the beginning I complained a lot 'cause I'm not in the classroom, but God is helping me through that and helping me to be content where I am right now, and reminding me that he has a plan for why I am where I am right now.

I have gotten tons of compliments from work. I know I'm good at doing paperwork/receptionist work, organization and multitasking come easy for me...when it's doing something for someone else. (Now come to our apartment and you wouldn't think that of me at all.) :) Although I know I'm good at what I do at work, it is so nice to get compliments. It gives me energy and helps me to appreciate helping the people I work for when I know they are grateful for it. I didn't get my first compliment until 3 weeks of working, but it was totally worth the wait.

My first compliment was from the manager. He said that the others in the office have been really impressed and like having me there. And that I'm a great help. Wow that makes me smile just thinking of that! And then the lady who I have worked with the most so far came to me and told me what a great job I'm doing, and that even people who call the business and I transfer their call to whoever they need have been complimenting me and asking, "Wow, who do you have answering the phones now?" I even had a man who calls quite a bit and then visited one day tell me how pleasant it is to call now and have someone nice answering the phones.

My main job is answering the phones so they're not ringing all over the office bugging people while they work. And then my paperwork and data entry I do in between calls. That's when multi tasking comes in very handy, with remembering where I left off...and sometimes answering the phones while continuing what I do when I'm in a time crunch. That gets kind of annoying at times, but I know the people calling are my top priority so I make sure I always have a friendly voice and am more than happy to help get what they need.

I don't work directly for the company I'm at. I work for a temp agency who has hired me out to this place. The temp agency sent in another girl for a temp-to-hire position in the office and lasted a week and a half. I don't know if I raised the company's expectations, or if the girl was just goofing off a lot, but I was told someone new will be coming in to interview and try out for the position, and that they asked for someone like me! :) Or actually what the HR lady said was, "I told them we'd like to have another one of you." I think that was probably my biggest compliment so far at work.

My temp agency has also told me that they have gotten lots of compliments when they take our HR person out for lunch, or talk to them.

God knew exactly what I needed to help me be content with where I am working. He knows what lights my fire to keep me going. So I have started liking where I am more and more.

Posted in: on Sunday, October 01, 2006 at at 7:15 PM 1 comments    

You'd think since I've lived in Texas all my life I'd be use to the weather, or at least not mind it. But I am so tired of it. My favorite season is Fall 'cause I like when it starts to cool off and I'm not sweating every time I step out the door. Last week we had a couple mornings were it was cool and I wore a jacket, but then by the afternoon I was glad I had worn a sleevless shirt.

With our couple nice days last week Tim and I tried to save money by not using our AC and just open our windows. Only thing was there wasn't a breeze blowing through, so it was hotter in our apartment than it was outside. We tried to put up with the temperature inside as long as we could, then ended up breaking down and turning on the AC.

We went to Target and Wal-Mart the other day, to buy a fan to help cool down our apartment and go without the AC, except, the fans are all gone and the shelves are full of heaters. I understand it's October, and any normal place would start getting cold right now, but I wish stores would consider the location they're in, and tend to the weather that place has. This week is going to be in the 90s all week long, so a heater is not going to help us at all.

Although I'd rather it be cooler, it is nice to make smoothies. It's a nice refreshing way to stay cool in the heat.

Posted in: on at at 7:08 PM 3 comments    

I think from now on if someone asks if I can cook, I will say yes.
My roasts have been a success, and I even made good gravy.
My chicken is great and makes for wonderful chicken dishes throughout the week.
I just made my favorite smoothie! :)

I was laughing at myself this morning while preping our chicken. I noticed that my nose stayed wrinkled the whole time 'cause I'm completely disgusted by what preparations have to be made. But I just keep on reminding myself of how wonderful the chicken will taste for lunch. I even tried to stop wrinkling my nose at the chicken, but it didn't work. :)

So for lunch Tim and I had chicken, noodles, green beans and black eyed peas. With lots of left overs. We didn't have anyone over for lunch today. We enjoyed a fun and relaxing weekend together. I get so drained during the week with work and us only getting a few hours at night, that the weekend is wonderful to refill our tanks.

For dinner I sauteed some onions and through some chicken in left over from lunch to make chicken fajitas. We bought corn tortillas for tortilla soup which I will make later this week, and so decided since we've got way more tortillas than we'll need for that we'll have tortillas. So we had corn tortillas, sauteed onions and chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream and salsa. What a great meal!

I'm loving having homecooked meals instead of a meal out of a box or a frozen meal. I feel more healthy actually seeing each ingredient used too. And I'm having fun cooking too! It's kinda like science for me. Home experiments! :)

And to end my day of cooking I made my favorite smoothie so far. After I threw all the ingredients in the blender I had to come back and look at the recipe 'cause all it called for was fruit. No milk, no yogurt, no ice. This was the first only fruit smoothie I made. Well, almost all fruit, instead of oranges I used orange juice. Close enough though.

I found a recipe that was close to something I could do with what we have, and then had to tweak it a little. I definately recommend this one:

2 cups frozen red seedless grapes
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 banana
1 cup orange juice

Posted in: on at at 6:47 PM 1 comments    

I am watching the Tyra Banks show right now. They are doing talking about chatrooms and myspace and how dangerous it is for kids. A lot of the information and things they are showing are shocking. Pornography and sexual conversations are easily accessible to kids. With web cameras and all the technology that is available it's more dangerous. Live with her study audience Tyra is posing as a 14 year old girl in a chatroom getting hits buy way older men showing their everything with their web cams. Theres no special access you have to get to see things like this, only have the knowledge how to get a screenname and sign in.

This reminds me of about a month ago I was bored one night and decided to look around on craigslist.com Tim and I were looking for furniture before, and I decided to see what type of people had put adds on trying to find a mate. The women I saw on there seemed innocent and genuinely wanting a friendship/relationship. The first man's add I saw had a horrific pornography picture of him. And that was on craigslist that you can use to find jobs and furniture and tons more.

Most of all I want people to be aware of the online dangers out there. Whether you get in chatrooms and have myspace, or know someone who does, especially your kids. Keep an eye on it, have an accountability partner for it, just be safe.

I do believe that there are safer online communities. For one, I use Facebook. I through out my Myspace and switched to Facebook. No one can see your profile unless you approve them as a friend. I like that very much.

There are still lots of precautions to take even if you believe you're in a safe community. Especially with blogs. I try my hardest to not reveal the town/city I live in, where I work and so on.

Over all, be safe and be smart. And don't disregard all the warnings people try to give about things. It's easy to shrug something off thinking, "it wont happen to me" but I bet there are a ton of people out there who regretted having that mentality.

I recorded this episode of the Tyra Banks Show to watch again and catch things I missed 'cause I was typing on here. I have really come to like her show. It's a girly show, talking about important issues to girls and women. I have come to like Tyra Banks more and more over the last year. I don't approve of all the photo shoots she has done with her modeling, but I think she has a lot of good advice and wisdom to share with women.

Posted in: on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at at 7:22 PM 1 comments    

Baptism has been a common topic between Tim and I lately. When we first started dating we talked about all our differences in beliefs and were able to come to an understanding on each others beliefs and knowing that the purpose of being in a relationship with someone is to see if they are a fit mate for marriage. With this we knew we had to be equally yoked in faith. With Tim growing up Baptist and me growing up United Methodist there were a few differences. The first 3 months of our relationship were really tough finding out if we were equally yoked with each other or not. But God used that time and each other to sharpen our faith and study the Bible and learn why we believe what we do, or change our reason for believing something to fit what we learned from studying the Bible.

Tim and I were both baptized differently, and accept each others baptism. I spent some time Friday afternoon studying scripture about salvation, really enjoying my time I had with God. Tonight I did a little internet searching on baptism.
I looked up baptism in Wikipedia.org and here is a section of what I found.

Form of Baptism

Among those Christians espousing the practice of baptism, the ritual is performed as:

Aspersion - sprinkling water over the head,

Affusion - pouring water over the head, or

Immersion - lowering the entire body into a pool of water.

For Christians who baptize by pouring or sprinkling, the washing with water from above pictures the cleansing of one's sins by the blood of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, who unites the baptized person to Christ in his death, and in His resurrection from the dead. It is administered from above to point to that gift of the life-giving Spirit, and to portray baptism as an act not of man, but of God. In contrast, a person baptized by immersion is enclosed under the water and brought out, to signify cleansing through death and burial with Christ, and consequent raising again in newness of life by the Holy Spirit. Regardless of the form, baptism is a public rite, in testimony to others of the grace of God bestowed upon the person, and as a seal of God's promises in Christ to those who believe.

If you want to read more from Wikipedia you can go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism

Posted in: on Monday, September 25, 2006 at at 8:03 PM 1 comments    

I read my first book about Ann Frank this weekend. I had heard her name growing up and heard people having to read her diary for class, but while in school I didn't like to read, and I wasn't about to read something I didn't have to for class.

Now I really enjoy reading and am working through a box of scholastic books I have bought over the last year. I read a biography on Ann Frank and am completely interested in her. I want to go and buy her diaries now to read next and add to my library. I stayed up late reading because I was so mezmorized by everything Ann and her family went through. The events of the Holocaust have always struck me hard. It is such a horrible event that it's hard for me to grasp the reality of it. And then noticing that it really was not very long ago that it happend is even harder to grasp. I started to calculate the years to see which of my relatives were around during that time. I'm curious to know their view on everything while it was going on.

Events of her life that I read about continue to run through my head after reading about her life. I am so grateful for the life God has given me.

Posted in: on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at at 8:49 PM 1 comments    

Ice cream use to be on our grocery list every week. We've been trying to eat healthier, but still crave a sweet cold treat. We've been mixing yogurt and fresh fruit with whatever else a recipe might call for, but usually having to substitute for something else we have. Some have turned out okay, some could be better, and some have been pretty good. I think we've had a smoothie every night this week. Tim has been experimenting most of the time, but tonight was my turn. I made an Apple-Blueberry smoothie. I've been craving that combination for a few days now. I found a recipe online and then had to tweak it a little because of some items we didn't have, but we had something close.

It called for the same amount of yogurt and apples so I used the yogurt cup to measure with. Instead of vanilla yogurt we had blueberry yogurt. Then instead of fresh apples I used apple sauce. So I did one yogurt cup of blueberry yogurt, one yogurt cup of apple sauce, a few fresh blueberries, half a yogurt cup of milk, and 4 ice cubes. It turned out pretty good. A little too much blueberry, I could've done without the fresh ones. Towards the end I was able to taste the apples more.

Posted in: on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at at 7:33 PM 0 comments    

The manager had me crunch some #s for him, but first I had to blow up the paper he gave me so I could see the numbers a little better to work with. So I had to figure out how the enlarger works and how to make it back to normal. When I went out onto the production floor to pick up some papers to enter into a database one of the ladies was having trouble with her copier and couldn't figure out how to make it print normal again instead of enlarged. I was so excited to get to help her. And so thankful that God had me do something earlier in the day that dealt with that so I could help her. Praise God for experiences we go through that help others! I introduced myself to her after I helped and found out her name. It's good to know people by name. I go out to production every day, but don't know many of the people who work out there. I know the front office staff, and thats about it.

My not so good for the day is:
When I was on our street almost to the apartment I passed a school bus going the other way noticing the driver yacking away on her cell phone with lots of kids in the bus. I got pretty irritated with it, but then thought "Well maybe she has to talk right now and can't help it. Maybe she is taking care of something." But then about 5 mintues later as I was about to walk inside I saw her again still yacking away with kids in the bus. The first time I saw her I decided to let it go, but when I saw her the second time I made sure to see what district it's in and the bus number. Now I just need to figure out what number to call and report it. That's really scary having a bus driver talking on the phone. For one, it's a really big vehicle, and for two, there were many students lives in her hands at that time.

Posted in: on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at at 7:53 PM 1 comments    

I go from blogging a lot in a condensed amount of time to not blogging at all. With work I haven't been able to find a good routine to get into yet. The only pattern I've made so far is not cleaning anything during the week and leaving me lots of work to do on the weekend which usually ends up making for a late Sunday night. Which I need to get started on so it's not too late. But first I think Tim and I are going to watch a movie. We try to fit in as much together time as possible on the weekends before we're apart all day long during the week.

I tried to make cookies from scratch yesterday. I had about 5 turn out okay. The rest I burnt. It's probably a good thing 'cause they were so high in fat and sugar. It'll probably be about another month or so until I make them again...for our health. I bought a blender last week with our Dillards wedding money. I was saving the Dillards card for work clothes, but after shopping a couple hours, walking all over the store and not finding anything I liked, I called Tim and asked if it's okay that I buy us a nice blender. We've used it many times. Tim has gotten good at making some really healthy smoothies. We're trying to go without buying icecream, so our healthy smoothies are a good exchange for a good fun dessert.

I have been a success in cooking some things though! I'm not a complete failure in the kitchen. :) My roast today was awesome. And I was able to make good gravy with the juices. I was very excited about that. We had one of the youth guys over for lunch and he even got seconds on the gravy!
Also, last week I cooked us a chicken and had guests over. With the chicken broth and chicken left over I made homemade chicken noodle soup. That turned out really good too. And Tim went back for seconds on that!

I love it when people go back for seconds on my cooking!

Posted in: on Sunday, September 10, 2006 at at 6:44 PM 3 comments    

I just posted a ton of pictures. To get them in order you'll have to go backwards in posts, but forwards in order of the pictures in each post. Sorry if that's confusing. I posted all of my favorites at http://picasaweb.google.com/danawayman. I couldn't help but the share these pictures though. It took a lot to cut them down to this many to put on my blog, but I still think I over did it.

I could use some prayers. Work is going great. I'm really good at clerical work, or actually now being an administrative assistant. I'm stilling being trained in one or two new things each day. I think theres still more to learn tomorrow. I've been impressed with how I've been able to multi-task so much. And I completely give the praise to God God 'cause I wouldn't be able to do it without him. So why do I need prayer? 'Cause even though I'm good at what I'm doing, I would love to be in the classroom. It's not going to happen this semester, and I know that. So now I am trying to be joyous in the fact that God has given me a job to help support Tim and I and I should do this out of servanthood to Christ and Tim. I have a hard time every once in a while longing for a classroom, like when I was swamped with paper work and wishing that I could be spending time impacting children.

Posted in: on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 at at 7:16 PM 0 comments    

Closing up the reception with the garter throw.
All changed and ready for our honeymoon!
Waving "goodbye."
Alas, a stow-away. We knew to look for one though after David and Adrienne's wedding last year. 

Posted in: on at at 7:13 PM 0 comments    

Hanging out with 2 of our youth girls from a previous church.
Eatin' some cake. I was so happy that Tim wanted to be nice about it.
Tim trying to fit the whole piece in his mouth. And me trying not to get it all over him.
And of course, you can't have a wedding cake without the bride and groom kissing afterwards. 

Posted in: on at at 7:10 PM 0 comments    

Visiting with family after the wedding and before our huge family portrait.
My aunt Cheryl. Her husband, my uncle Denny performed the ceremony for us.
Talking to my cousin Justin who is recently engaged and Tim's PopPop.
Tim and I waiting to be announced at the reception. 

Posted in: on at at 7:07 PM 0 comments    

Yes the kiss was long enough for one camera to get each of these shots! :) 

Posted in: on at at 7:06 PM 0 comments