Birthdays!!

I would like to say a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my awesome husband KYLE and dear little sis LEAH!!

They share the same birthday. Every year. For the rest of their lives. I hate it for them, but that's how it goes. I will never forget the day I told Leah that Kyle's birthday was the same day as hers. She looked at me with pure disgust like I was going to have to find a new boyfriend. She's been a good sport about it though. Bless her heart.

Kyle, Court and I are celebrating tonight with dinner at our house! The rest of my family including g-parents and aunt and uncle are celebrating tomorrow night at my parents house. We are also including my grandma's birthday in the celebration tomorrow night although hers is not for a couple more weeks. I love birthday celebrations, they are so much fun.

Kyle took today and tomorrow off work so he's chilling out, working on his car and watching the ACC tournament.Typical Kyle stuff.

Leah got her favorite (I'm sure!) birthday present this morning when she got the pin taken out of her hand that's been there for the last 8 weeks. In case I forgot to mention that on here, she broke the 5th metatarsal in her right hand on New Year's Eve. She's been in a cast since then. I know she was ready to get that thing out and have full use of her hand back. Can't wait for her to be able to cut my hair again! She'll probably hate me for this picture, but that's what big sisters are for. Love you, Leah!!!

The BIG 1-9!!!

The BIG 2-8! Yikes, he's getting old! ;-)

MARCHing on

Happy March everyone! 

This month tends to stress me out more than any other month, including December. Our month is jammed packed with birthdays, anniversaries, wedding showers, trips, etc etc... It's exciting but very busy! 


I was inspired by another blog this morning to think about all the times that march is mentioned in scripture. Quite fitting for this month as I picture myself taking up my armor and marching forth to face the busyness of this month. There are many verses in the Bible that talk about marching but I will leave you with one. I chose this one because I have been studying the book of Isaiah sense last September. I have a new love and appreciation for the Word of God. There's so much to learn. I love taking a single book and studying it verse by verse. I love comparing it to other scriptures, learning the history behind it, what God was doing at that time and applying it to my life today. It's awesome. God is awesome. There's really no way I can explain it to you, you have to read and study it for yourself. God has taught me so much this year and I'm so thankful for the freedom and the opportunity to study His word through a program like BSF.


OK, here's the verse:

"The Lord will march out like a champion, like a warrior He will stir up His zeal; with a shout He will raise the battle cry and will triumph over His enemies."  - Isaiah 42:13

This is a beautiful picture to me. At this point, Isaiah is speaking of the prophesied time when the Israel will be captive in Babylon. They are there because of their sin, but God is going to rescue them. Babylon was cruel to God's people and they "laid a very heavy yoke" (Isaiah 47:6) on the captives. But get this, not only were they enemies of the Israelites, they were enemies of God. They found themselves with this title because of their cruelty to God's people and because they rejected God as the one true God. The best part is though, God's people would not have to fight for themselves, God was going to fight for them. God alone would fight that battle, and He would win. God's people were set free (after the 70 years was up) from exile when Cyrus came into power and declared that all captives should be set free. It just brings me such comfort to know that God is fighting for me. I need not worry about my enemies and the struggles I face on a daily basis. God goes before me. And as Romans 8 says, if God is for us, who can be against us? I can depend on His strength, I can trust His sovereignty and I can place my full faith in Him because He loves me and He has redeemed me. I can never thank Him enough!! I can march on and face the day because I know God is marching ahead of me and will fight for me every step of the way!

Super Saturday

I am so proud of myself. I have had a seriously productive Saturday. It seems like we ALWAYS have something to do on the weekends. For once, I had a free day to spend with Kyle and get some things done!

We ran a ton of errands this morning, including the auto parts store, Kohl's (I found a super cute garden flag there!), Wal-mart and the grocery store. It was such a beautiful, warm, sunny day and I felt the need to be outside for as long as possible so I decided to wash my car while Kyle was changing the oil in his car. I had so much energy left after all that so I decided to dust the downstairs, clean the kitchen, do some laundry, do 3 days worth of my Bible study and cook dinner. I'm surprised I haven't crashed yet, but until then I'm lounging on the couch and watching some TV!!

I love days like today!!

I heart you

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Especially to my sweet hubby, Kyle! I love him like crazy and I love being married to him.

We decided for the first time this year to stay home and cook our own Valentine's dinner. It just wasn't worth the stress this year to deal with the traffic and crowds to out somewhere. So we made a delicious meal of steak and shrimp, loaded baked potatoes, roasted vegetables, rolls and red velvet cupcakes for dessert!! We ate by candle light in our dining room for the first time ever. (Kyle is not a romantic!) After dinner I begged and pleaded to watch "The Proposal" so he finally gave it. It was a cute movie, I cried three times. The end.

Busy

Recently a friend told me that being busy means Being Under Satan's Yoke. Ouch. Although that may not be theologically accurate, it did make perfect sense to me. When I'm busy I tend to make less time for prayer and studying God's word. Being busy sometimes means that I get my priorities all out of whack. I also tend to get stressed when I have a lot on my plate which usually makes me irritable and grumpy towards others. When I'm tired and stressed, I'm physically, emotionally and spiritually vulnerable. It's easy to make rash, unwise and regrettable decisions. Sigh.... never the less, I'm still busy. Hopefully after next weekend I will be less busy. Don't get me wrong, I'm busy doing wonderful things like hanging out with friends, having a Super Bowl Party, planning events for Women's Ministry, beating Kyle at bowling, working, reading, studying... everything except for blogging apparently! However I would definitely enjoy some downtime in the near future. That is exactly why I canceled everything on the agenda for tonight and I am spending the evening at home with my husband. I am going to make some enchiladas and we're watching a movie from Red Box.


By the way, I am still keeping up with memorizing my verses for the Siesta Scripture Memory Team.


My Jan 15th verse was:

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." - Ephesians 4:29


and my Feb 1st verse was:

" Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility, value others above yourselves." - Philippians 2:3



Also I thought I needed to share this with everyone. I was extremely proud of  my football cheese ball I made for our Super Bowl party. You know you like it.

I hope everyone has a fun and restful weekend!! :)

Facing my fears

I donated blood for the first time ever today. Not by choice. I had to. I'm a little embarrassed about never donating before but I do have a serious needle phobia and really get myself worked up when I have to get a shot or have blood drawn. I have also worked at several blood drives and seen many, many people get really sick. It's kind of childish I know, but I can't help it. I know I should be giving regularly because I work in health care and I totally understand the need for blood donors and I have O- blood, the universal donor, which means I can give blood to anyone with any blood type. Yeah, they practically beg for my blood.

Anyway, last fall I found out that I have a blood condition called hemochromatosis. Basically, I have high iron. Yup, when the rest of women my age are suffering with anemia, I have too much iron. Go figure. The good thing and bad thing is that there is no medication needed, there is only one simple fix. Donate blood. Of course. The one thing I am super scared to do is the only treatment for my "condition." It makes sense though, donating blood will decrease my iron enough to be in the normal range. If I don't do this, the excess iron could start building up in my organs and cause some serious problems. So, that is why I donated blood today.

I have dreaded doing this for months and yesterday it was all I could think about. I was so nervous I was shaking and could barely sleep last night. I almost had a meltdown before I walked on to the blood mobile today but thankfully it was at Wake Tech where Kyle works and he came out and gave me a pep talk before I went in. I have to say that the techs that worked this particular blood mobile were the Red Cross' best. They were all absolutely wonderful, completely understanding, patient and gentle with me. They could clearly see that I was a nervous wreck and was on the verge of tears the whole time. They made sure I had plenty of soda the whole time, even while I was hooked up to the IV. I thought you only got the treats at the end, maybe they just made an exception for me, I don't know. I accidentally spilled some Coke on my shirt and they felt so bad, they gave me a Red Cross t-shirt. I noticed that no one else got a shirt so that made me feel really special. So long story short, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The needle stick hurt when François (my phlebotomist) poked me but I felt nothing when he pulled it out. He told me at least 10 times that I could trust him and he was right. I stayed completely focused the whole time and I even had the guts at one point to look down at my arm and see the blood pouring out. Once the needle was out I thought I was all clear. I sat up and started eating my snack and after about 5 minutes of sitting, all of the sudden I felt kind of dizzy. I have passed out before so I knew I had better lay down right away. After about 3 or 4 minutes that feeling went away and I was totally fine. I was so impressed by the guys on this truck, they can really make or break your experience. I really wanted to give them all a hug when I left but I thought that might be a tad weird.

God is so good. I wouldn't need Him if life was easy so I know this was just one more chance (small as it may be) for me to depend on His strength to get me through. It's been about 6 hours now and I still feel fine. I did come home and sleep for two hours though. I was drained. I'm glad I got this first time behind me and that it wasn't too bad because from now on, I am going to have to be a regular on the blood mobile.

Confessions

Stealing this idea because I'm not creative today and I think it's cool.


Here are my confessions...

1. I talk to myself while driving all the time. No where else. Just in the car. Strange...

2. I'm a really bad loser. I pout for hours when Kyle beats me at anything. Wait that's not a confession... y'all already knew that.

3. I seriously want to take Ball Room dancing lessons. And yes, I am still a Southern Baptist.

4. I am donating blood for the first time this month and I'm so nervous I could puke.

5. I check my e-mail at least 10 times a day. I can't help it. I don't want to miss anything.

6. I've gained approximately 10 pounds in the last 3-4 months. Maybe that's why Kyle asked me the other day if my favorite ice cream flavor was Chunky Monkey?? hmmm.....


What are yours?