Monday, July 28, 2008

A Little Girl Time

Last Friday one of my best girlfriends celebrated her 30th birthday! Happy Birthday Katie!! She decided long ago, before baby Julia came (May 30th), that she wanted to celebrate this birthday with her girlfriends, so we headed to lunch at On the Border and then on to Sprinkles, a well known cupcake shop! I have to say, after hearing all of the hype about Sprinkles, I had high expectations. After waiting in line for 10 minutes, outside in the 105 degree Texas summer heat, I was only half way impressed with what I purchased. I have to admit, the Black and White cupcake was better than any other cupcake that I sampled (thanks lovely ladies for sharing with each other!!), however, even though mine was fabulous, I felt horrible for the other ladies who were dissappointed with their purchase. With the cost of $3.25 per cupcake, I will probably hold off on visiting again until our next special occasion comes up...

The Girls! (L to R) Andrea, Karla, Me, Katie, Melissa & Chelsi

Be Blessed & Encouraged!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

10 Things You May Not Know About Me!

Here are 10 of my deepest, darkest secrets (ok, well maybe I'm going a little overboard, but...)

1. I'm addicted to writing pens. I will buy any fun looking pen and if I don't like it, I might just throw it out. I prefer the really thick ink flow the most. And it can't be just boring black. This obsession started at the age of 3 or 4 when I got the best Christmas present ever, a box filled with crayons, markers, pens and pencils, and an entire stack of printer paper (there had to have been at least a few thousand sheets in there!!). I think my mom still has the remains of that box somewhere in the storage unit!

2. I cheated in Spanish my Junior year in high school, our whole class did, talk about peer pressure, right!?!?!

3. I once packed my little suitcase and threatened my mom saying that I was going to run away. I don't remember the reason, but I'm sure it was something so huge for an 8 year old! I actually got out our front door and down the stairs of our apartment building and realized that I forgot to pack any snacks, so I went home!

4. When I was seven, I stole a slurpee from 7-11. Well, I filled up my cup, drank half of it and went back to refill it. At that point, I got caught by my mom and she made me apologize to the store clerk, and I had to pay for it out of my allowance from that week.

5. At one point in time I wanted 18 (yes, 18) children. There was an elderly lady who lived in our apartment building (a different one than mentioned above) who had 18 children and she was just the sweetest old lady I had ever met, outside of my own grandma of course! I came to grips with the fact that while the idea was nice, the work load would be just too much for me to handle!

6. I had two boyfriends in kindergarten, and they were best friends. YUK!

7. I became a believer at the ripe young age of 3, and then again at 4, and then again at 7. I just wanted to be absolutely sure that I was going to Heaven, the other place scared the bejeebers out of me!!

8. I was baptized on my half birthday when I was 18. It was EARLY morning at K-2 in Tablerock Lake and Joe White did the honors. I will never forget that day!!

9. My favorite memories from growing up were all the Thanksgiving holidays that my entire family would come in to town for. We would all pile into Grandma & Grandpa's house in Kirkwood and eat and eat and eat. Then we would watch the famous Turkey Day Game (oldest high school rivalry west of the Mississippi - Kirkwood H.S. vs. Webster H.S. Thanksgiving Day football game). We dressed Uncle Troy up probably more than he would have liked, but he was always a good trooper!!

10. I always wanted to be a veterinarian, until I found out that I would have to "kill animals" (or put them to sleep because they were sick). Once I heard that, my dream was shattered and I moved on to wanting to be a full time mommy!

I might try to do this every so often, just because it's always fun to learn little facts that don't normally come up in regular conversations! Hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about me!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!


Thursday, July 17, 2008

Little updates full of love!

Some of you may know that I make handcrafted pregnancy journals, baby books and many other "crafty" items. Well, I FINALLY sat down this morning and caught up on my own pregnancy journal that I am writing. I didn't realize how much time I let go in between journal entries and updates on everything! As I was updating, I was almost at a loss for words, just feeling so overwhelmed with joy from the Lord for this precious little life, or bean-o as I call our baby, that is growing inside me. Each week I get a couple different e-mails that tell me what stage our baby is at. Being 14 weeks along now, our baby is between 3.2-4.1 inches long and weighs almost an ounce! Our baby has fingerprints! Our baby can frown, squint, pee and possibly suck it's thumb! I'm am continually amazed at the intricate work of the Lord and how he formed each one of us in the womb. I have repeatedly talked to our baby and have told baby my favorite verses in the Bible, Psalm 139:13-16.

"For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them."

My prayers expand from growing a healthy baby to praying for the spiritual life that I pray our baby will have when he/she is old enough to understand who Jesus Christ is and what He did for him/her and everyone on this earth.

On another note, the true realization of becoming a mommy was a nice surprise this morning. Aaron tends to leave for work before I'm even out of bed in the morning. This morning, as I was leaving the house, I picked up my purse which had a hand-written note in it (he knows my love language is words of affirmation). Here's what it said:

"Sweetie -

I am getting excited more and more each day for our little one to see the world! I love you so very much and I am looking forward to the day when you get to experience the desire of your heart, being a mommy! Have a wonderful day! Love me!"

I think the Lord really used his words to reveal to me that my dream is coming true, each and every day that this little life continues to grow and develop inside me, I am living out my biggest dream and desire in life, being a mommy! Even now, I consider myself a mommy! I love it!!!

And what more could I ask for in a husband? Aaron is such an amazing husband, and even more, a man of God! He loves me more than I could ever ask for! My life is richer because he is a apart of it! I love being married to my best friend!! I love you honey!!

Thanks to all of you who read this blog, I hope I'm in some way an encouragement to you, through the hands of the Lord!

Be blessed and encouraged!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Abundant Blessings!

I've felt so blessed by the Lord and wanted to put those blessings in "ink" so that I can always come back and re-read them when hard times come or I seemingly forget. For anyone who knows me well, one thing that I lack is memory. Doesn't matter if it's short term or long term, I just have a really stinky memory! Ask my sweet husband, who has put up with me for four years and will continue to do so for the next 50, Lord willing. In the past few days, it has become very eveident that my memory, or lack thereof, causes me to react to questions or facts with the infamous, "I have never heard that before", whereas Aaron promptly points out, in a very loving way, "yes you have honey, you just don't remember." That is when my statement quickly changes to, "I don't remember hearing that before." Nonethless, I want to remember, for a lifetime, these few tiny blessings I have right now.

Aaron and I have always felt extremely blessed in our lives, whether through our families, friends or just circumstances. From pushing our wedding back in order to work out a few kinks, so that we could start our marriage off on the right foot, to seeing how the Lord has continually provided financially, so that we could honor Him with the gifts He has given us.

I had my 12 week appointment yesterday morning. I have to admit, I was more nervous about this one than the first one. I prayed SO hard leading up to this appointment that our sweet little baby's heartbeat would be just the same or only stronger than our 8 week visit. I trusted the Lord to give me confirmation that our baby is healthy, and the way that I was praying for, He graciously answered! Our little bean-o had the exact same heartrate as our first appointment, 174 bpm!!!!! Not only was I relieved, but so thankful to the Lord that He gave me His peace and joy. I can only hope and pray that I would have experienced that same peace and joy if something had shown up wrong with our baby. I like to think I would have, but I really don't know. Needless to say, at 12 weeks, our baby is doing great, and growing like a little lime (apparently, that is about the size of him/her right now!). I am SOOOO excited for our next appointment (17 weeks) because as long as baby cooperates, we should be able to find out the sex! Oh my gosh, I just can't wait!!!! I'm still thinking it's a girl, but that goes with too much reading on the internet (note: horrible sickness, high heartrate, etc...). So, that's my blessing this week with baby.

Another HUGE blessing, answer to prayer, joy, all of the above, is the fact that Aaron starts a new job tomorrow! A job that will provide us with steady income, him with vacation/sick/holiday pay, and more normal hours, and hopefully the opportunity for me to be able to stay at home once baby comes! The Lord provided quick this time, more quickly than we had expected, nonetheless, He still provided! Aaron will be working at VentureNet, a business solutions management company. He will specifically be working as a NOC (Network Operations Center) Support Technician. Don't ask me what that is, I jsust know that it will be a new adventure for him and lots of new things to learn, which he is very excited about!

This next blessing I know comes truly from the Lord. This past weekend, my parents made the supposed 10 hour drive from St. Louis, MO to Dallas, although it took them almost 13 hours because of the weather and rain they hit through Oklahoma, bummer! Anyway, my dad bought a new (used) car a few weeks ago, and so they decided to bless us with their old car, another Camry! For those of you who know what I drive now, you know that ANYTHING is a step up from what we like to call the "crater car" (well known for the craters left in it, all over, from a hail storm that hit a few years ago in St. Louis). I am so blessed to be the driver of this WONDERFUL piece of machinery! Only 161k miles (compared to 325k miles on the other Camry) and it drives like butter!! We had a great time with my parents and introduced my dad to Babe's Chicken and Bahama Bucks , both favorites of ours. My sweet parents also provided me with a bag full of new maternity clothes (thanks to mom especially, for taking me shopping, it was great fun!), what a blessing!

So, in a nutshell, those are just a few small blessings that we have experienced lately. I pray that I never forget the goodness of our Lord and that it is only by and through Him that we have received these blessings!

Thank you Jesus, not only for these earthly things you have given us, but for our eternal gift of life with you! Help me to remember daily, that it's not the material things that matter in this life, but Your Word, truth, salvation and love. Help me to be a light for you in such a dark world!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!