Best Day with My Best Friend

Today was so much fun! It snowed a lot here! We got almost two inches!!! I had to go in to work, but we got off at 11:30 because of the snow! Here's a pic from one of the windows at my office:



I had to drive home in the snow, which was coming down pretty heavily at that point.



Here are a few pics we took from our bedroom window and stairway balcony:




After we ate lunch, we went out and played in the snow! It was absolutely wonderful! We built a snowman:




We also had a snowball fight...so much fun! I felt like a kid again! And we made snow angels:






That's me in the green jacket! I had on two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, two t-shirts, a sweater, the green puffer jacket, gloves, and a toboggan! I've been sick, so I got extra bundled up!

I had so much fun just playing in the snow with Alan! He is my absolute best friend in this world! I know a lot of people say that about their spouse, but I really mean it! After playing in the snow, we sat on the couch and he fell asleep leaning against me, so we went to bed and took a nap. After we woke up, we decided to go on our Valentine's date tonight and we went to Cheesecake Factory. It was expensive, but SO delicious! Luckily, we both have half our cheesecake left and I also have half my dinner left! When we got there, they told us it would be a 40-minute wait, so we walked around outside, but NONE of the other stores were open, so we sat in the car and talked! It was so wonderful to know that we could just sit in the car for half an hour and just talk. I love that man so much! When we finally got seated, we were in a booth (our favorite--we like to sit next to each other). Dinner was great and very romantic, even though neither of us was dressed up...we were just ourselves. The best part is that, after our date, we got to go home together and I get to spend every day with him! I can't wait for the marriage retreat either! We have worked so hard to pay off all our debt so that we don't feel guilty about going on this trip and, aside from student loans, we will have our debt paid off as of Tuesday!!!

I am so blessed that my best friend is also my husband! I love him so much and can't imagine any day without him! He holds the key to my heart! I love you baby! <3

Changes

It's weird when you start taking a look back at things and changes. I can't believe how different our lives are now compared to a year ago. We were doing okay financially, Alan had a job, I had recently graduated. There was a tiny possibility that he might start law school in the fall of 2009.

For anyone who doesn't know, this was also the time that Alan got ExTrEmElY sick! He had pneumonia, bronchitis, pharyngitis, AND sinusitis. Needless to say, he didn't feel very well. My dad died from pneumonia, so that's something that I didn't take lightly. Speaking of my dad, I really miss him a lot. He died on January 28, 1998. I was only 12. I went to see his grave this past weekend when I was back home. I can't believe I've almost spent more of my life without him than I have with him. I miss him so badly and sometimes I feel like there is no one else who could ever understand what I feel. I guess I've been thinking a lot about him lately since the anniversary date of his death was recently. Maybe I'll write a blog about this another day. I don't think I can handle it right now.

Well, a lot has happened since Alan got the quadruple illnesses. He got "let go" from Jacksonville, for reasons that I don't agree with, but then again, a lot happened/is still happening there that I don't agree with...but that's another blog too. Well, we had a little in savings because I had been doing housework for someone, but May and June were especially difficult for us. We relied heavily on the credit card because neither of our families were in situations to help us greatly. Alan got the job selling cars and we found a place that gave us the first month rent free, so we made the move. After we moved, we found out Alan's vehicle needed a brake job...a $1400-1500 brake job. Luckily (Thankfully!), he had the job at the dealership and got a great employee discount! At the beginning of August, Alan was offered the job working security (i.e. steady paycheck!) and I got the job at the fabric store. Things were going really well. Even though we weren't making enough to pay our bills, somehow we managed (did I mention that the credit card was maxed at this point?) In October, my brakes went out and had to be fixed...not as expensive as Alan's, but still, money that we didn't have. On October 6, while we were getting ready for work, I checked extension's website and saw the job that I currently have, posted! I squealed and applied! December and January have been pretty difficult because not only have I not been getting the bi-weekly paychecks from the fabric store, but I didn't get paid from extension until the day before Christmas eve. That check was just enough to catch us up. I finally got paid this Monday and I also received my travel reimbursement for December. We filed our taxes earlier this week and, between my salary and our refund, we will be paying off our credit card in full later this month/early next month!

I'm writing this to let anyone who is struggling financially know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel! It feels so wonderful to know that we might finally catch up! We still don't have anything in savings, but at least our debt will be paid off and we can start focusing on saving!

I am so thankful to God, because His providence lead us to where we are! If Alan hadn't accepted the job with the car dealership, he wouldn't have been offered the security job and I wouldn't have been offered the job with extension. We are so blessed to have been lead by His merciful hand through this challenging year.

As a celebration for Valentine's Day (and this newfound freedom from debt), we are going on the marriage retreat to the Smokies in two weeks. This is something we have been to every year that we've been married. I couldn't imagine missing it for anything, but it is something that we didn't think would happen this year...we just weren't going to be able to go, but we have been so blessed! AND, we get to see some of our very good friends there who we haven't seen in TOO long!

Anyone reading this can tell that we have been through a lot this year. I am so thankful that I had Alan by my side through it all. He has been so supportive and encouraging. I love him so much and can't believe I get to grow old with him!

My God is Strong!

Prayer is powerful. This is a quote I have heard preachers, teachers, and leaders at lectures and seminars say so many times. While it is said with the best of intentions, I believe this to be so incorrect. Prayer is not powerful. I will expound upon why I have come to this realization.

Is prayer to Mary powerful? No. She is still in a tomb. Is prayer to Allah powerful? No. Allah is a fictional god. Is prayer to anyone/anything powerful? NO!

The power is not in the prayer. The power lies in whom the prayer is DIRECTED to! God in Heaven is all-knowing and all-powerful. If we pray to Him, He has the power to grant us anything we ask of Him! This is not to say that He will give us anything we ask, just that He has the power to.

I've been thinking a lot about prayer lately and this realization has helped me to understand that the power does not lie in my prayers, but in the Almighty God whom I pray to. I am so thankful to have One to whom I can cast all my cares and burdens upon and know that He cares for me!

"Back" into the routine

So, I wasn't working at the office long enough before the holiday to really get into a routine, but tomorrow, work starts again and it will be a long time before I have a break like that again. We are planning on going to the marriage retreat in February, but I will probably only take Friday off and just a half day on Thursday. We are also planning to go on a trip (where and how long is still a mystery) at the end of the summer, before Alan starts law school. One of the great things about him going to school is that they get 5 or 6 weeks off for Christmas break, so we will both have time off for the holidays this year!

Anyways, I have made out a schedule for doing chores around the house so that I (hopefully) can stay caught up! I'm also working on getting into a routine, at least on weekdays, so that I will have time to eat a healthy breakfast AND exercise every morning which means me waking up around 4:30 and going to bed about 9:30. This might not be a big deal for some, but I am the night owl...I have ALWAYS stayed up late, even when I was a little kid, I would stay up late with my dad (good memories :)) and I just never got out of staying up late. Guess I'll have to work on that!

A part of the routine that is also changing is grocery shopping. Since it basically would take up my entire afternoon if I went during the week, it will work best if I go on the weekends. And, since most sales start on Sunday, it's much better (around here anyways) to go grocery shopping on Sundays. That means in between services I will be doing my grocery shopping! So much for relaxing Sunday afternoons! I guess that's what happens when you become a "grown up."

I really enjoyed my time off for the holidays, but I am honestly looking forward to having a structured routine, especially since I have never really had one! We got a lot of great gifts for the holidays, which I will post pics of later, but for now...I must go, for the grocery stores are calling my name!

New Year...New Me

Well, in our culture, it's traditional to set some resolutions at the end of a new year. Many people set goals that are completely unattainable or that they don't really even intend to complete or fulfill. Most resolutions fail because there is no resolute plan in place for how one is going to carry out or fulfill the goal. I am working on putting plans in place to fulfill the following goals, with the reasons for setting these goals noted.

1. Pray to God EVERY day. I want to grow closer in my walk with the Lord. I want to speak to my Heavenly Father regularly so that I can have a more intimate relationship with Him. One of the ways I am working on this goal is by reading The Power of a Praying Wife and I plan on reading The Power of a Praying Woman after completing the first.
2. Read the Bible EVERY day. Part of growing closer to God is about talking to Him (see #1), but I also need to let Him talk to me! If I'm going to talk to Him every day, I need to give Him a chance to respond through His inspired Word. I am going to do a chronological reading (the same one that I did this year) that can be found at www.thebible.net/read/chron.pdf This is the way I have read through this year and I have learned so much! My tip for anyone who chooses this method is to print the 80 page document (yes, it's 80 pages), and use the last two pages to mark your completed readings. This year, I read through in the NLT and I plan to use the ESV in 2010. If you mark your readings using the last two pages, you will only have to reprint those two pages each time you plan to read (so if you are a couple, you can share and only print the two pages twice).
   
3. Get healthy. Yes, I said get healthy not lose weight for a reason. Even though part of this goal is to lose weight, I wanted to have all positive resolutions. I plan to be at a healthy body weight by this time next year. For my height, the healthy weight range is 125-169. I am only a few pounds away from the upper end of this range, but ideally, I would like to reach 135. I would be content with 140, however. Some of the ways I plan to achieve this goal are: a combination of the 3-hour diet and Weight Watchers diet, 8 Minutes in the Morning workouts, wearing my new Shape-Ups (thank you "Santa"), using my new Shake Weight (I can already feel the burn!), and walking on the track at work on my lunch break (this means eating while I work...fun!). I have struggled with my weight for this past decade, but I am finished with struggling!!! I am going to get in shape and I am going to be healthy! Even though I have set a goal weight, I am more concerned with being healthy than the number on the scale. I do have certain "assets" that are larger than most people's that must be taken into consideration (and yes, I'm one of those lucky people whose "assets" don't get smaller, no matter how much weight I lose). Also, I plan to be very active, which will mean more muscle mass. I'm okay with weighing 150 if a lot of the weight is attributed to muscle.
   
4. Be the wife God wants me to be. So in our society, this one is pretty tough. Tell people your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, they will offer tips and suggestions. Tell them you want to be a more submissive wife and you want to give your husband the respect he deserves, they want to have you committed! Nonetheless, I am committed to loving Alan more every day and I want to be what God commands me to be. Hopefully, goals #1 & 2 will help me in working on this goal. I don't think this is one that I can truly "complete," but I plan to work at it every day for the rest of my life.

Well, this is my list of resolutions for 2010. If you have any tips or advice, please feel free to lend it my way. I am always interested to hear people's suggestions! I hope that I can also encourage others to make positive goals for their life by my example.

Happy New Year 2010!

The holidays are upon us...

Well, the holidays are upon us. I am so excited about spending time with family and having time off from work! Best of all, I'm getting PAID even though I have only been there for three weeks, I still get vacation pay! I love it!

Alan's mom was in the hospital over Thanksgiving and didn't come home until December 10th. She had to have a major surgery, but came through it well and is recovering at home now. We are both so thankful that we'll be able to spend Christmas with her.

Getting through the week she had the surgery was very difficult. We were in Huntsville because I was training for the new job there. Alan had taken the week off so that he could adjust to sleeping at night (he works third shift) before he had to take the LSAT. We were very stressed because we knew the severity of Kathy's condition, but were unable to go visit her before the surgery. The last day that we were there was the day she had her surgery. We drove straight from Huntsville to Sylacauga to see her in the hospital. After visiting for a little while, we had dinner and then headed back to Birmingham. What a long day!

Thanksgiving was fun for us, even though we didn't get to see Alan's family. We went to my mom's house after lunch at my grandparents' house. It was so much fun because ALL of my brothers were home AND all of the nieces and nephews were there! We played monopoly and I got second place...but I got beat by an eleven-year-old...lol :)

I went to a recipe swap at Erika's house and it was so much fun! Alabama winning the SEC championship made it that much more fun! The only thing that could have made it better was if Ashley could have been there :( We did have some fun watching the tow truck pull David's Blazer out of the yard...lol!

I went to an ornament swap with the Vestavia ladies and boy were there a lot of people there! We had 36! I ended up coming home with a Rock 'N Roll snowman ornament that is so cute! I did have a big scare on my way there. I was merging from I-65 to I-459 and there were about 6 cars in the second lane (the lane I was in). One car was lingering in the far right lane that was ending (there were MANY signs that said the right lane ended and to merge right). Well, they did not heed the signs and when that lane ended, they slammed on their breaks. Instead of continuing on and making them wait (since they had PLENTY of time to merge earlier), the car at the front of the pack of six SLAMS on their brakes...not a smart move considering the roads were wet (not soaked, just wet enough to make the oil and water mix and VERY slippery). I was about three cars behind them and there was no way I would have been able to stop without hitting the cars in front of me. I made a snap decision to change lanes to the left (no time to check the lane for cars, use my blinker, check mirrors, etc.). I prayed as I switched lanes that there was no car in the other lane. Thankfully for me, there were no cars in that lane and I was safe. I ended up switching lanes RIGHT before my bumper would have hit the car in front of me. I was okay at first until the seriousness of the situation hit me. I started shaking really badly and was at the brink of tears. The rest of the way to the party, I prayed over and over "Thank you, God." I was so mad at that other driver for not switching lanes in time, but I prayed to God for taking care of me and I tried not to be angry with that driver (what good would it do? I'll probably never see them again.)

Alan's birthday was Monday. We went to Firehouse to eat dinner and watched a movie at home. I love spending time with him! Money is really tight for us right now so I had to give him an IOU for a keyboard. I know he's really been wanting to learn how to play for a long time and I wanted to give him something to help fulfill that dream. I can't believe that's the 4th birthday we've spent together!

I'm almost done Christmas shopping...just a few little things to get. I also need to finish making two presents for Alan and one for his dad. I love the fun of getting presents for people. I like to try and get unique things that no one else would think of or appreciate like that person. I love the joy of finding a really good deal. Two gifts I purchased, for instance, were regularly priced $36 and I got them on sale for $4! How great is that!

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is looking at Christmas lights. We haven't done any looking yet this year because we aren't really familiar with the residential areas around here and don't know where to look. Even though we've been here for over six months (wow, has it been that long?!?), we still stick to the main highways, which have very few houses.

I'm so excited about the possibilities that are ahead of us! Alan is going to start applying for law schools soon. There are SO MANY out there and so much to consider. We both want to explore the country and think it would be so exciting to go somewhere different and out of state. At the same time, I finally have a stable, good-paying job and we don't know if I'll have that if we go somewhere else. There is just so much to think about and time is ticking! Right now, we are keeping our options very open though. I just can't believe law school time is almost here! I am so excited for Alan! This is what we have been looking forward to for so long...it's part of the 'Plan' he told me about when we were dating :)

There is so much that I want to write about, but just don't have the time! I have some serious housecleaning to do these next two weeks! Working outside of the home is one thing, but I am so busy and this job makes me so tired! I wake up at 5 am to start getting ready, leave for work at 7:20 am, work 8 am - 4:30 pm, don't get home til 5 or 5:15 pm (thanks a lot traffic!), change clothes, eat dinner, spend a little time with Alan and then go to bed! That doesn't leave a lot of time for housework! Also, the first weekend I had off from this job, I worked the entire weekend at my part-time job, which REALLY meant no time to catch up on housework! Now that I have two whole weeks off from work (hopefully off from part-time too), I can get some serious work done here! For right now, I'm going to stay at the part-time job also, until we can get caught up on some bills. I want to have as much money as possible saved up before Alan starts law school. Hopefully, he will get some scholarship money and we won't have to get too many loans. I think we can make it on my salary if we are very careful with our spending. We got some really nice things for everyone for Christmas this year, but I was VERY lucky to catch some incredible sales, so we ended up not spending very much at all (about $350 for 15 family members, 2 friends, plus each other's gifts). That may sound like a lot, but the actual value of all the gifts we purchased would be about $1500!

Well, I do need to get to bed so that I have energy for worship in the morning and to accomplish some things tomorrow in between services! Merry Christmas!

Things That I Am Thankful For

This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of the things that I am thankful for. I could never compile that list...there isn't enough time!

I am thankful for:

1. A loving God who has blessed me in innumerable ways (for a sampling of these blessings, see numbers 2 and following).
2. A husband who loves me so much more than I deserve, who is patient with me, and who cares for me so deeply.
3. My parents who raised me in the church and taught me what is right.
4. The time that I got to spend with my dad. I long for the day when I see him again. There are so many things about him that I miss and I wish that I had him for longer. If you still have your parents, don't take them for granted!
5. My mom who keeps me grounded by always reminding me to think ahead
6. My brothers, who have all taught me different things about love and life. Even though we don't always agree, I respect them so much and love them dearly.
7. My parents, who blessed me with 5 brothers to teach me strength.
8. My parents, who didn't give me any sisters so I wouldn't have to share any of my stuff :)
   
9. My oldest brother, Ray, who encouraged me to remain pure until I was married and was unafraid to talk to me about these things at a young age.
   
10. My brother, Jeremy, who is one of the reasons I am a faithful Christian today and a reason that I'm with my husband.
11. My brother, Jonathan, who is one of my best friends and who I can always talk to and be open with.
12. My brother, Patrick, who always challenges the way that I look at the Scriptures. I've grown so much out of conversations with him.
13. My brother, Tim, who helps me to remember that there is always someone watching you and that your example can affect others.
14. My nieces and nephews, who have taught me love and what true unconditional love is.
15. Ray and Ginger, who blessed my life with Alex, MacKensie, and Riley.
    
16. My nephew, Zach, who lights up my life everytime that I see him.
17. Jonathan and Dana, who blessed this world with a beautiful child like Zach.
18. Ray, Ginger, Jonathan, and Dana for giving me the nieces and nephews to remind me why I want to wait a LONG time to have kids :)
19. My MawMaw, who has been such a strong fighter these past two years.
20. My uncles, who have all proudly served in our military.
21. Two of my best friends, Erika and Ashley, who have each blessed my life in more ways than they will ever know.
22. My new job that I am so excited about!
23. My friends, Bethany, Robin, and Tiffany. If it weren't for you guys, I don't know if I'd have made it through college!
24. How everything ended in Jacksonville and that making it so much easier to move.
25. Our church family at Vestavia. They have taken us in and helped us to grow so much!
26. My two and three year old class, that teaches me patience and love.
27. The air that I breathe. Thank you so much, God!
28. Having the ability to go into my kitchen and drink clean water.
29. Living in a country where I can worship freely.
30. My job at Jo-Ann and how it has taught me patience and to learn that God knows what is best for me.
31. The Bible and it's ability to always teach me something new.
    
32. Jesus, for dying on the cross and giving His life for me.