Saturday, January 29, 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

Horrible Rotten No Good Start to the Morning....

Have you ever had one of those days when you thought about staying in bed but decided you should go ahead and get up and on with the day? That was me this morning. I felt bad all yesterday afternoon, but felt much better when I woke up this morning, so I thought, well I'll go ahead and go to work....
I drive this same route every single morning and am always very careful because I go through 3 school zones before pulling into my parking spot.
You can guess where this is going.....I got a....big fat....TICKET....for....TALKING ON MY CELL PHONE IN A SCHOOL ZONE! aaaaaahhhhhhh!!
Okay, so the most frustrating part is I NEVER talk on my cell phone when I drive to work, but this morning....my mother in law called me to ask me a couple of questions about this weekend and I picked up the phone. When I did, it was like I went into my own little world. As soon as I got to the other side of the school zone, my stomach dropped as I thought, oh my I just drove through....and when I looked in my rearview mirrow....the motorcycle cop already had his lights going!!!
For those of you who have known me a long time, you know that I NEVER SPEED, I always try to abide by the laws....and the three times I have gotten side tracked....I have been caught and ticketed!! I've never had a warning, lol....I can just see my best friend laughing her head off because she ALWAYS speeds and has only had like ONE ticket.....I have to kinda chuckle right now though thinkin about that.
So, he pulled me over and gave me a ticket. I was crying before he even got to my car....how pitiful....and I thought, man I should've just stayed in bed this morning....
BUT, I'm moving on with my day and will be even more strict about not being on the phone.
Wade, thanks for being every loving and trying to cheer me up!!

Mom and Dad, I love you!!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Metal Stamping Premiere!

I have had so much fun practicing stamping! These are my first two finished necklaces :) I loved making the bead charms too!! The swarovski crystals are the girls' birth stones. These are the first of many to come! I have more supplies on the way and will be making key chains soon too :)

Let me know if you need me to make you one! Valentine's Day is coming up....They can be made out of sterling silver, copper, aluminum or bronze. Each color has a unique look. The crystal can be any color too!!

I am going to make several with the LOVE theme :) Can't wait!


Her birthday is stamped on the back in a small font.



These two colors are a cool combination.  


I am going make dog tags (with a leather cord option) for guys (or anyone).
I still have more practicing to do but you gotta start somewhere~~

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Catching up...

Happy 2011 - hard to imagine is now been over 10 years since we all welcomed in the year 2000. I can remember vividly how much uncertainty was in the air as the ball dropped that year and everyone thought the computers would crash and the end would come - it's now been 10 years since all that happened. I never thought my life would go this fast, and most people that I talked to that are older says its like a roll of toilet paper, going faster and faster as you get closer to the end. One thing is always vivid to me: Every day I'm one day closer to meeting  Jesus Christ - that's always sobering and humbling and at times even a bit scary... actually a lot scary if you think about all the implications of meeting the King of Kings.

As I write this, I'm in Davidson, NC, soon to go get some exercise before the day of business activity starts. I don't know why, but this morning I woke up at 4:30AM without any alarm, wide-eyed and alert - maybe it was my bladder that provided the stimulous, but I saw no reason to not go ahead and embark on the day. I thought I would be able to start my run at that time, but I made my way to the workout room at the hotel only to find it didn't open until 6AM. None of that is really important, but I needed some transition point from my thought on meeting Jesus to waking up earlyt this morning, and thought a waking up early and having to wait a bit longer was a nice way to say - I'm using the time in between to write on the blog. I've not written on here in quite sometime and I really like the whole blog thing. Jacqueline is much better than I at keeping it updated with our life and I'm glad for that. It provides a neat way to look back over your shoulder and see some of the joys of the year and all the Lord has brought you through and taught you and shown you as traveled another year of life. This morning I finished reading a book by Mark Steele, a Christian commedian/writer/film maker, called "Christianish: What if We're Not Really Following Jesus at All?" It was a really good book- I don't know if I liked it better than "Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself", but it made some very real points that cut to the heart of the matter in terms of our walk with Christ. There's no way I can do it justice with a summary or an overview, but I did want to share one section of the book that really spoke to me. It was a section called "Love is a Muscle":

"We've been treating the Jesus message as if it is for our own adoration - supposed to bring us applause. It's not. In fact is is more than likely going to brings us the sort of pain that stems from significant stretching. We resist this stretching because we do not like agony. But pain must come when there is atrophy. If it does not, then the unused muscle dies. The unused muscle of the modern church is selfless, attentive, transforming love. It dies because we keep our distance from the unlovely - and we keep our distance because getting too close to them is painful."

This spoke to me on a lot of levels - it spoked directly to the times I avoid people (whether that be physcially avoiding them or simply just avoiding sharing Christ with them or being vulnearble with them about my own weaknesses), inside and outside of family, because it's hard - like stretching... and sometimes, like with stretching, you don't see the results and it's tiring... but ultimately, it's really not about the results, it's about the following through on what Jesus called us to do. I know there's a lot of areas in my spiritual life that need stretching - I pray I learn to trust God with the fears, insecurities, and desire to shape my own life because in some way deep down almost beyond finding, I have a notion that I know what is best for me, when in fact I truly don't. The neat thing about stretching, is that you usually don't see the difference on day one - it's just a lot of discomfort, but at some point in time, you turn the corner and that my friend is a glorious day. So I'm going to keep on stretching and asking God for the grace to stretch and the grace to be stretched... and one day, Lord willing, I hope my shape is changed. Because we're all going to meet the King one day.

I'm off to go gets some exercise... I can't wait to get back home to my wife. I sure do miss her and all the laughter and beauty that comes with just sharing life with her. Happy January 19th!!!

Keep stretching.



Friday, January 14, 2011

EXERCISE!

This was my first full week to hold after school workouts! We have been doing Zumba videos and it has been a lot of fun. I like that it gets you moving and it's fun. The first couple of times I was totally horrible at it...lol, but as the week went along, I have gotten much better.

I'm looking forward to the three day weekend!! I am going to sew, metal stamp, work out, post pics to the blog, rest, watch football and of course....hang out with Wade!!

Maybe we can rematch my Aunt Yolanda in Words with Friends. She has been kickin our tail!

I Love you Mom, Dad and Tommy!!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

2011 is HERE!

Can it be that January is almost half over already?!

Well, I must admit that it was VERY hard to get back into the work routine. I so enjoyed my time at home with Wade!

Work was CRAZY the first week back and it really drained me. What a blessing that Wade is very understanding, helpful and encouraging. This week has been better, both with the work load and just my mindset.

I am excited about the new year though! I can't wait to see what the Lord is doing in 2011. God is continuing to show me that I work in a "mission" field every day! Each day He has a mission for me and for you! Be on the look out!

I started offering a short, 30 minute, workout after school 4 days a week for the staff at our school. I have been really encouraged by the response and am hopeful that we will get a good group consistently coming!

I have to remember this verse.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Don't give the enemy a way in! Be on the lookout for things that will trip you up and run to the Lord!