Valentine's Day!

I know this is a little late but I've been too busy and tired to update :)

Kyle and I spent our first married Valentine's Day together on Saturday! It was so much fun!!

I had worked a very hard 12 hour shift on Friday but I came home to roses and chocolate (my man loves me)! Then Saturday Kyle was so sweet and he took me to the mall(he REALLY loves me) and let me buy some prettifuls from Kirklands for the apartment. I was so happy! And he bought me a cute necklace and earrings too!

Then since I love Kyle... I agreed to go to the International AutoExpo with him out at the fairgrounds. I actually had a really fun time looking at all the nice cars. We even sat in some :)

Then we went to Outback for dinner.... I had been craving a good steak for months. After a 2 hour wait we finally got a table. The food was awesome and of course we had to get a bloomin' onion....SOOO good! We had a really great Valentine's Day together!


Happy Valentine's Day!

People

Can I just say that people never cease to amaze me? I find it very fascinating to people-watch.

OK so last night Kyle and I are headed out somewhere and as we are walking to our car I notice this car come flying in the parking lot and whip into the handicap parking space. hmmmm... so that got my attention. Then a very sweet looking older lady steps out of the car and proceeds to get several things out of her trunk. Just as I'm contemplating that maybe we should help her... she starts booking' across the street as fast as she can to her apartment that again, is ACROSS the street. That's when I noticed that there were TWO totally empty parking spaces right in front of her door. So instead of making her life easier by parking right in front of her door, she just HAS to take full advantage of the handicap parking space across the street. She wanted to make good and sure that everyone knew that she and only she had the special Handicap sign hanging from her mirror and only she could park in the special parking space designated for HER... even if there was a closer spot. Amazing.

I really do love people... really. I'm not hatin'. I just had to share this story because it truly fascinated me :)

Triples

I am very proud to announce that I made my first attempt at "triple coupon" shopping today. So many ladies I know do it regularly and they keep telling me how much money they save and all these things they get for free. (They have baseball card notebooks that they keep all these coupons in, they buy like 3 or 4 Sunday papers every week and spend lots of hours researching and shopping, etc etc) I like saving money and all but it just seems like a lot of work to me and I don't really have time or the patience for 2-3 hour grocery shopping trips each week, plus I already despise the task to start with. BUT... I spent about 30 minutes online yesterday and rounded up a few coupons for things that I already regularly use and decided to go for it. It was actually kinda fun. Besides the millions of Moms and children crowding the whole store. I did save about $30 this week so I was proud. I don't see this as becoming an addictive, obsessive thing for me like some women, but I can definitely spend 30 min a week searching for coupons, that much I can handle, haha. And I only spent an hour in the grocery store :)

And to toot my own horn just a little louder (hehe), I finally purchased some reusable "GREEN" grocery bags. I'm not totally into all this "go green" and be all organic and stuff so I'm having to take small steps, one at a time. I'm trying.

Exaggerated Sickness

At first I didn't find Monday to be funny at all, but now it kinda is :)

We had spent the weekend in Williamsburg, visting family and we had a really awesome time. We spent sometime at Jamestown and did the outdoor tour which was freezing but very interesting. We got to see Kyle's brother Chris, Michelle, Ava and baby Lincoln who is so adorable! It was a short but very fun trip! The stomach bug had been passed around their house last week so there was apparently some germs still floating around. I hardly ever get those stomach bugs so I wasn't too worried...

But Monday I felt fine all day until I had to leave to go to work around noon. On the way to work I started to feel a little nauseated but nothing too serious. Then I just felt worse as I started working and eventually around 4 or 5 I decided I needed to go home after I vomited up my entire breakfast and lunch. So I very calmly go tell my supervisor I need to go home and for some reason she sort of freaks. In the middle of me feeling sick and being concerned about leaving the other tech by herself to do my work... I didn't get what the big concern was. But my very sweet and concerned supervisor decided it would be best if I laid down in one of the rooms for a while and she proceeded to go get one of the radiologist to come check on me and make sure I was ok. Good grief, I just wanted to go home. So the doc comes in and then I find out why everyone is freaking.... I had just gotten my TB skin test done (which is negative btw) that day and they were concerned about an allergic reaction. They checked my BP and heart rate and everything was elevated, of course. So they made me call my doctor to see what he recommended... at this point I'm thinking this is ridiculous and I really just want to go home. It was not an allergic reaction, duh. I was just dehydrated and needed to go home. Then they found out I would have to drive an hour to get home and they wanted me to go to the ER... seriously?!?! So after tons of convincing they let me go home. My gracious!!!!! By the time I got home I was feeling much better and my lovely husband went to the store and got me some Pedialyte so I drank some of that and a couple of hours later I was fine. I never got sick again and I was completely fine the next morning. So I don't know if I really had the bug or just ate something bad, I don't know but it only lasted for a few hours. So basically I learned that I'll never be able to fake being sick while I'm working in health care, haha. They'll just break out that BP cuff and make sure I'm good and sick before they let me go home :)

God is at work

I love to hear stories like Charlene Cothran's. Just when you think the world is unreachable, God proves us wrong. Cothran was a gay rights advocate for many years and the publisher of Venus (a magazine targeting African American gays and lesbians) magazine for 13 years. The remarkable story of her life changing experience of accepting Christ as her Lord and Savior was on the cover of Venus magazine a few years back. Her whole story and new focus is described on the website: http://www.venusmagazine.org/index.html.

Her message is HOPE. There is hope and a way of escape out of the homosexual lifestyle for those who desire to get out. Praise the LORD! May their eyes be opened to the truth and to their need for Christ.

Just for Fun

Write 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I am a very emotional person, I tear-up over anything (Ex. I cried during Wall-E, haha)
2. I love BIG families and I want like 5 or 6 kids... doubt that will happen ;)
3. Radiology is totally fascinating to me, I love my job!!
4. One of my favorite things to do is sit around in comfy pants and fuzzy socks and watch movies.
5. I have a strong sense of discernment and I tend to be able to read people fairly easily and that sometimes makes me very skeptical and untrusting of others, ideas and situations at first.
6. I'm pretty much addicted to Dr. Pepper.
7. My goal one day is to be a stay-at-home Mommy.
8. I love studying the Bible and learning something new about God each day.
9. I am very critical of myself and want to always be perfect in everything I do.
10. I don't generally like cooking, but I try.
11. I love flying in airplanes, especially over the ocean.
12. I have the most excellent napping skills, I can sleep pretty much anytime of the day.
13. I do not like talking on the phone, I'd rather email or talk face-to-face.
14. I usually have nightmares if I watch scary movies or shows (I can't even watch CSI...but I love 24 for some reason)
15. I love people watching... it's very entertaining.
16. I get headaches all the time, it's quite annoying, especially when they turn into migraines.
17. I love having painted toe nails, I actually won't leave the house if they are unpainted.
18. I hate being late, I am almost always early for everything!
19. I love and appreciate all kinds of music, and I miss playing the piano and flute very much. I love listening to music and counting how many different instruments I hear.
20. My husband Kyle is my very best friend.
21. I get annoyed with computers and have no desire to learn much about them.
22. I drive only when I have to, I prefer to ride.
23. I love watching home design shows but I'm not very good at it myself.
24. Eating too many sweets and desserts is a big weakness for me.
25. I love seeing rainbows in the sky and being reminded of all of God's promises to us!

Cuba

What really scares me is that Fidel Castro says he believes in Obama, thinks he's a good man, Raul Castro wants Guantanamo's prison and base to be closed and "the territory it occupies should be returned to its legal owner - the Cuban people." Are you kidding me?!?! OK, so the average American doesn't give much thought about Cuba, most don't care. But ever since my trip to Cuba, I have a new awareness and concern for the country. Giving back land to it's rightful owners... the Cuban people, that is a joke. The Cuban people don't own anything. They are prisoners in their own land. Their careers are chosen for them, like they get paid much at all anyway. Their food is rationed. They live in fear, in shacks. They aren't even allowed down on the beautiful beaches, only tourists are. So why are we rewarding the evil Communist leaders?? I have no idea!! It makes me so mad I could just spit, haha. Seriously though... if we're going to "negotiate" with the Castros like Obama has so graciously offered to do, why don't we show a little more concern for the real freedom of the Cuban people instead of the "rights" of terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo and making life easier for the evil dictators. I just shake with anger when I see billboards all over the Cuban streets advertising the "Revalución!" and when the Cuban people won't even dare say "his" name but annoyingly refer to "him" (only when necessary) by a gesture that looks like they are making a beard under their chin with their hand. I thought it was a joke at first, but they seriously do not ever say Fidel's name. I remember all the friends I made there and their desperate attempt to understand the American way of life. They just could not even fathom the freedom and the wealth that we have. They begged our group several times to take them with us back to America. They are not allowed to even leave the country unless they win the "lottery" that happens every year when only a few families are chosen to make the coveted trip to Miami, only if they can afford it of course. The Cuban government's attempt at anti-American propaganda all over the streets and on TV doesn't sell. The people know they are prisoners, they know life could be better and they know that America is not evil. All I could do is look at their sweet faces and tell them that we do care, we do love them and unfortunately I don't have the power to do anything to help them. I pray for my Cuban friends everytime I think of them and their sad way of life. So my point, and then I'll hush... for one of the most evil and hateful Communist leaders in the world to think that Obama "is a good man" and will close Guantanamo really scares me.

k, I'm done.