Sunday, July 29, 2012

Letting Go, Moving On....

1) I had an interesting conversation with a young friend of mine this week in which I realized there are two kinds of people in the world.  Those who expect you to get over your problems quickly and move on (because they do) and those who understand that for some of us, it takes a long, long time for us to work through our issues.  I am the type who... if I invest alot of time and emotional energy in someone/something and I get hurt... you can expect a lengthy period of time of me dealing with it.  And that's just how it is.  And that's okay.

2) I am coming to realize that I love far more people than I dislike.  And I believe God is as real as the keys of the keyboard I can feel beneath my fingers as I type.  And he is a God of Love.  And I need to work on giving people the benefit of the doubt, looking for what is good in them, listening rather than judging and condemning, being honest and straightforward (perhaps I don't really need to work on that one as much), allowing people to be where they are, but doing my part to encourage them to move forward.  Everyone is one bad decision away from destruction.  Everyone.

3) Jesus came to redeem our souls and not our flesh.  Therefore, I shouldn't be surprised when my flesh fights my redeemed soul for what it wants and wins.  However, the more I grow, the more I know that greater is He who is in ME than he who is in the world... and theoretically, my flesh never has to win.

4) I have lost 7.4 pounds in the last two weeks!!!  Go me!!

5) I saw Barry Manilow last night in Nashville with a sweet friend of mine.  I was surprised at how many of his songs I was able to sing along with!  :-)  I have to give him credit for being able to get up there and do what he does at his age!  It was a fun time!

6) I can't wait to see my girls tomorrow!  They have been gone to Alexandria, VA on a mission trip for TEN days and I have missed them soooooooo much!

That is all I have time for.  I have to get ready for church now!


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Decorating

I got this little Bistro set really, really cheap on clearance at Home Depot.  It is the perfect size for my back porch and if it wasn't so stinking hot out there, I would go out there and use it.  :-)
 I got this four-place-setting dish set at my store for cheap.  It came with four each of dinner plates, salad plates, bowls and mugs.  I always wanted to have dishes out on my dining room table simply for decoration, but never could really afford to have special dishes just for decoration.  That is until I started working at a thrift store!!!  :-)

We never really use the dining room much.  It's the one room in my house that just stays pretty.

A gorgeous vase from the store... flowers from Hobby Lobby (on sale).
 Not a great picture, but a big basket floral arrangement from the store.
 And this particular morning, I just like the way the light was shining through the closed curtains and took a picture.  :-)

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Recent Vacation

Oh, for more time to blog.  But, here are some highlights from our recent trip to Michigan....

Cousins in church with their grandparents.

 Me and Melissa in church....
 David, in church, not pleased with our goofing around....
 Cedar Point dinner at Famous Dave's.... our food came served on a garbage can lid....
 It was kind-of cool, I thought.  We ordered a big family buffet thing and they put all kinds of food on the garbage can lid and everyone got to pick what they wanted.  It was very tasty and a reasonably cheap way to eat dinner.

Libby and Claudia enjoying dinner.

 Jacob and Kelli.

I rode this..... Top Thrill Dragster AND the biggest roller coaster EVER, Millenium Force.  I put both of these items on my Post-Divorce Accomplishment List (PDAL), right after buying a house and getting and A in Statistics.  :-)
 This is The Maverick, I think.  I sat it out because it was near the end of the day and MaxAir had made me kindof queasy.  Libby is in the car second to the last in the picture, looking at the camera.

This guy..... was behind me in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Louisville on the way up to Michigan and actually honked at me when I didn't move up 15 feet.  He later flipped me the bird for THEN driving as slow as I possibly could just to make him mad.  He really enjoyed having his picture taken.

And he thoroughly enjoyed us pointing at this billboard!
 My mom and the kiddos in a Mirror Maze in Frankenmuth.  It was a nice day!

That's about all I have.  Other than the delicious CONEY I got to eat after church.  And the Beef Stronganoff David and I made to surprise Melissa.  Yummmmm.  :-)