Welcome 2012!!

What a year so far!  It started off with fireworks, skinning deer and shooting guns.  Then came the celebration of our anniversary and now the first week of school for the year is behind me.  The past few years have been turmoil, heartache and tears but I am hopeful that 2012 will be a year full of joy, adventure and change. 

One of the biggest adventures I know will be school.  I am so thankful that God opened the doors for me to be in the COTA program.  He has proven faithful by helping me pass my first semester and I know that He will see me through to the end.  He has also given me such a great COTA family.  My classmates have left me doubled over laughing, frustrated to no end, tearful and confused and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  I can’t wait to be stretched and challenged by these wonderful people that God has brought into my life.  I pray that He will open my eyes not only to see how I can help them but also how they can help and change me.

He is in control

Today I had an awesome impromptu coffee date with a friend.  She reminded me that there is a reason for everything and He is in control.  That is so simple yet something that I desperately needed to hear right about now.  I can do only what I can do and then I have to leave it up to Him to come through for me.  He knows what I need and how I need it more than I do.  He can pull me through AND He can allow me to fail, I need only do my best and then TRUST Him for the rest.

10 YEARS HAVE COME AND GONE…

I remember vividly where I was the day the twin towers fell.  I was in the basement of my then boyfriend’s parent’s house working.  I clicked out of my email and MSNs homepage popped up with a picture of both towers smoking.  I just knew it was an ad for a movie they were making but then I began to read the headline and knew it was true.  I turned the TV on and was glued to it most of the day.  My boyfriend didn’t have to go to classes because Baltimore was shut down.  I remember a longing deep within me of wanting to be home, an anger toward those that did this and a renewed spirit to be a better person.

Many things have changed for me in the 10 years since I was sitting in that basement.  I’m no longer in MD, I’m married, I’ve had a successful career and am going back to college.  I pray that during these next 10 years I will really figure out who God wants me to be and do great things and never, ever forget what others have sacrificed so I can live.

Wedded Bliss

One week ago today I had the privilege of watching my little brother marry his best friend.  It was a beautiful, intimate wedding and I had a blast.  I am so proud of both of them for following their dreams and carving out their own paths.  Today they come back home from their honeymoon and the marriage truly begins.  P&M, I love you both and pray that you will both find happiness with each other and remember who the head of your marriage should be.

Don’t Forget We Are at War

Cowboys and Alien’s and Smurfs beat out Captain America for the number one movie(s) this weekend.  The hubs was floored when I told him.  He said he thought that Captain America would have done better because we are at war so the war movie should hit home with people.  I pointed out that the war has been going on so long that most people don’t even realize right now that we are at war.  Men and women are dying and being shipped home all the time but we look at it as someone else’s war and if it isn’t someone that we know personally then we don’t think about it.  I’m sad to say that until our lil bro was sent over there and then shipped back in a flag draped coffin, it wasn’t on the forefront of my mind.

Unfortunately for me that is the way I am with most things.  If it isn’t happening to me or to someone I know then I just don’t think about it.  I go through life all hum drum and don’t put a lot of thought into each day.  And then I wonder why I’m not where I want to be or doing what I want to be doing.  I wonder if I have and am missing out on things in life that I should have been or be working toward or if there are things I should be working against.  Yesterday our pastor gave a great sermon about the thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy.  He cited many different scripture but one of the scriptures he touched on was Ephesians 6:10-18.  It really hit home with me yesterday that I am fighting everyday against an enemy greater than I but not greater than my God.  The pastor talked about people not going into war without the proper gear because our human bodies are frail and can’t take the hits they have to in war, God knows we are fragile and can’t take the punches the enemy throws our way so He has given us His armor to help protect us.  I am challenging myself to memorize this passage in Ephesians during the month of August and to remember that I may not be overseas having shots fired at me and praying that I don’t step on an IED but I am still in a war each day right here in my own home against a powerful enemy.

Uncle Dave would be proud…at least he’d start talking to us again.

(WARNING…LONG, WINDED POST)

A few years ago Jay and I went through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.  It is an AWESOME program and I would highly recommend everyone take the course.  Jay and I were really able to turn our finances around and even started communicating better.  We even helped lead small groups for two semesters at our church. 

Well, we haven’t taken/helped in a class in a while and since it hasn’t been in the forefront of our minds and our schedules we have more than slacked on what we’ve learned.  Now, I’ve been there and I know how hard it is to start keeping a budget and really following through with doing what you know you need to do but let me tell you…having to re-start the process after doing so well is humbling, frustrating and downright maddening! 

So we have started to ramp back up our FPU training.  Unfortunately we aren’t in a class right now but we are starting to take a good hard look at our budget/finances (especially with one steady income and 2 people going to school, yikes!!!) and in the few short weeks we have ramped back up on what we know I have seen HUGE blessings that have come into our lives.  

Below are a few of the examples:

                Can I really go back to school?! – After taking a leap of faith (and a few classes to ease me back into the whole school thing) I applied to OTA School.  I was wait-listed (#11) and was told to gather more information, bring it to the school and they would re-evaluate me and maybe bump me up the list.  Before I could get the info together (2 business days) I found out I was accepted.  Great right?!  Only problem was the tuition deposit was due before the next paycheck was coming in.  We had been out of town the weekend before and our tithe check was sitting on the table.  On more than one occasion (ok more like 20 occasions) I looked at it and thought, “Well obviously God wants me in school or He wouldn’t have taken me off the wait list, I’m sure He wouldn’t mind me using this money for the deposit” but going back to my FPU training I remembered whose money, resources, etc. that everything is and made the conscious decision that if God wanted me in there then He’d provide the deposit money.  I turned the tithe check in that Sunday and went about my business.  Monday afternoon I check the mailbox and there is our State Refund Check…over and above what we were expecting it to be by the exact amount that was needed for the deposit!

                Can I at least have one with a keyboard? – Yes, we have fallen victim to the wonderful technology that is the smartphone.  I don’t necessarily care if I have one or not but our 2-yr contract (oh those lovely contracts) isn’t up yet so we aren’t quite due for an upgrade.  We looked into buying phones that don’t need data plans but they are expensive (at least to someone in a Gazelle/Cheetah state of mind) but we really want to cut the budget so we’ve been pricing them with grimaces on our faces.  It isn’t a done deal yet but there is a very good chance that one is going to just be given to us in the next week (yep, I’m running on expectant faith with this one J)

                Poor little hope chest – We have been using the hope chest that was my grandmothers as our coffee table since we got married.  It has served its purpose and served it well but is really heavy and hard to move if we want to exercise or have people over.  One wheel is already missing and it just looks sad in the living room.  We’ve been wanting a new table for a while but didn’t want to spend a lot of money and just couldn’t make a decision to buy something.  Today I spent 8 hours looking for a dress for my brother’s wedding.  I HATE shopping for clothes for myself and was beyond discouraged by the time I was finished.  Mom and I went to Goodwill just to see if we could find anything there (2 malls and countless other stores had already been scoured).  No such luck on the dress front so I went to their furniture area.  Low and behold there was a coffee table that needed some TLC but looked sturdy and was only $15 so I figured that was a good deal.  Went to pay and b/c of 4^th of July they were giving an extra 30% off.  We now have a nice coffee table we can move for $11.24. 

I know that most people probably haven’t made it far enough in this post to read what I’m typing now.  I know I’m a little too long winded.  But I just felt the need to share the big, medium and small ways that God has/will come through for us and to encourage anyone else out there that is looking in their envelopes wondering if they’ll make it.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H

I’m on a quest to lose the weight I gained after I hurt my back so I recently started the  Insanity program.  As Shaun T says, “That sh** is bananas yo”, and boy is it ever!  One point that he stresses during each video is the importance of the stretch.  The stretch not only keeps you safe as you move in ways you never thought you could but it also helps you to actually move in those ways and hit the targets that you need to hit.

Exercise isn’t the only area I’ve been stretched in lately.  God is working to stretch me emotionally, spiritually, financially, in career and family and it seems just in about every other way possible.  I may not be able to see (or fathom) where God is going to take me or what He will ask me to do, but I know that if I just breathe in the stretches that He is having me do today, I don’t have to worry about the positions I’ll be put in tomorrow or a year from now.  Having the stretch behind me I’ll be able to move in the ways I never thought I could and hit the targets that are placed before me.