my ring

a few weeks ago i read a great book about being single. i normally can't stand these kind of books...i feel like i've already heard it all. you have to trust god, he will provide, don't put your life on hold, etc. etc. etc. my mom gave me this book a long time ago and i just rolled my eyes (sorry mom) and put it on my bookshelf. well recently i felt led to read it and i'm glad i did. it was refreshing. so to make a long story short the book said that if you see a piece of jewelry that you like-buy it! don't think that you have to wait till you get married to have "nice jewelry". so i was telling my family about the book and how i had seen a pretty ring in kohls that i wanted to buy. i briefly described it by saying; its round and has some diamonds on it. that is all i said-never mentioned it again. well, on my birthday i was opening my gifts and i was SO surprised to see the ring! i was TRULY surprised. so much so that i started to cry..i couldn't believe they remembered what i said and then went and bought it. i have to tell you-it is VERY hard to surprise me. i am very good at figuring out what i am getting for my birthday, christmas, etc. i actually can't remember the last time i was actually surprised by a gift before the ring. that is not to say i don't love my gifts...i just know in advance what i'm getting. so this ring was a true surprise and a true blessing. i have a great family!

lent

so i gave up facebook for lent. this was not my original plan. my original plan was to add something for lent and not give anything up. i was going to add consistent daily quiet time to each day during lent and hopefully carry that on into the future. but as ash wednesday approached i felt god prompting me to give up facebook. so i decided to go for it. on tuesday my status declared that i was giving up facebook for lent. as soon as i posted that status i panicked. now i really have to do it! i can't get out of it now because i just told everyone! so tuesday night around 11pm i signed on for the last time for fourty days. i logged off and let out a big sigh. well today is day 4 and i'm still alive :) i actually haven't missed it that much. however-i now realize how much we rely on facebook to communicate. i've already been unaware of several things that are happening because i'm not on facebook. i've had a few phone conversations that led to "oh that right! you're not on facebook..."
but right now i want to communicate with god more than anyone else (no offense to my peeps!) so i think this will be a very positive thing. i also haven't had any trouble finding time for quiet time with god...this is not surprising!

i hope you all are enjoying the season of lent as well!

its my birthday!

i can't believe that another year has come and gone. its amazing how fast time goes by when you are having FUN! and that is the truth. my life is so much fun right now. i'm happier and more content than i've ever been and i'm living in excited anticipation of what god has in store for this coming year. i suspect that its going to be a great one.

top 10 reasons why its great to be me!
10. i'm getting in shape and losing weight-it feels great.
9. i'm pursuing my dream of being a school administrator.
8. i am unemployed and loving it!!
7. i have an amazing church and an amazing church family
6. i have great friends that i adore.
5. within the next few months my entire immediate family will all be living in nc and most of my extended family too. no more traveling for the holidays and having to go long periods of time without seeing each other!
4. i'm single and that has allowed me to pursue my dreams without anything holding me back.
3. i will not be single much longer-god is so faithful and i know he has an amazing man in store for me!!!!
2. i finally know myself-its only taken 28 years for me to figure "me" out!
1. god is my savior and best friend.

Sam & Libby

until a year ago i claimed to be an animal lover/happy pet owner. however, i began to realize that i really don't like pets. being the neat freak that i am pets don't fit into my idea of clean. the fur, the smells, the bad breathe, etc. i felt good once i finally admitted it. it was as if finally was able to stop lying to people about how i felt about animals. and i'm finally not afraid to say that i'm not an animal lover. i really don't think it makes me a bad person either. i don't mistreat animals, i just don't like them. at all.

well, with god's great sense of humor i am now housing not one, but TWO cats! i still can't believe it. my parents are in the process of moving here from NY, but they are still taking lots of trips back and forth. so, my mom and dad approached me about taking care of their two cats. i want to do everything that i can to help my parents, so i said yes. it wasn't easy to do though!

so sam and libby have been living here since december 24th. they are about 7 years old and they are brother and sister. cute names right?!?! they sleep a lot and like to go outside a few times a day. libby loves to cuddle on the couch and sam likes to sleep at the foot of my bed. they eat twice a day and use the liter box very well. they actually prefer to go outside and use the bathroom so that is a plus.

so, as much as i hate to admit it, i really don't mind having them here! i can't believe i just said that. so maybe i'm not as much of non-animal person as i thought. the jury is still out on dogs though.

sadness

so its been a rough couple of weeks for me. i hesitate to even say that because none of the sadness is directly related to me...yet i'm really feeling the pain. last week baby beau passed away. i didn't know him well, but i did have the privilege of watching him a few times when he was in the step-down unit of the hospital. beau was born with congenital heart failure and has struggled throughout the 16 months of his life. however, he was able to overcome so many obstacles and survived 6 major surgeries. he recently began to show a lot of progress and was learning to sit up on his own. then he had a brain aneurysm on december 26th and was pronounced brain dead. on sunday, december 28th he passed away. it was his mom's birthday that day. i struggle to understand this tragic situation. i attended beau's memorial service this sunday and listened to my pastor talk about beau and his life. he talked about how god grieves with us when things like this happen and that it is NOT god's will when things like this happen. this really made me think because i always thought that god was able to control life and death. i was one of the people that use to say "it was god's will" or "god must need him in heaven more than he needs him on earth." but my pastor really challenged my thinking and said that because we have free will things like this happen. as i try to wrap my brain around all of this i get more sad news today. one of my best friends sister is in the final stages of cancer, she is only 28. my friend just has a baby 3 weeks ago and now she has to say goodbye to her sister. i'm not sure i can understand all of this. my heart is heavy. i know this is were my faith needs to take over...but my mind is just trying really hard to figure it all out. sigh.

old lady

word to the wise-don't schedule three doctor's appointments in one day. i did this today and it was NOT fun. i thought i'd be smart and schedule all the appointments for one day. these are appointments i've put off while busy this semester. well-i felt like an old lady all day. i even fell asleep on my couch in between two of my appointments!!! i never do that! and if today is a glimpse into my future, i don't want to get old! thankfully i got good reports so i won't be going back to any of these docs for a while. i'm gonna go eat some prunes now and put mothballs in my closets...ugh.

december, really?

well, i made it. my last paper has been edited and handed in. classes are done until january 13th. i was sooo excited for this break, but now i'm finding that i'm busier than ever! i have a ton of babysitting jobs, christmas parties, birthday parties, etc. this week was crazy! however-i'm not going to complain. its still nice to not be doing school work. hopefully things will slow down next week and i can actually relax a bit.