Believe It and Be Satisfied

I have had this forever and just found it on my computer. It so beautiful and so true. :D God is amazing and I am lucky that He has given me the perfect man, that we can love and grow in Him together :D


Believe it and Be Satisfied

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone,
to have a deep soul relationship with another,
to be loved thoroughly and exclusively.
But God, to the Christian says,
"No, not until you are satisfied and fulfilled
and content with living loved by Me alone,
with giving yourself totally and unreservedly to Me,
to have an intensely personal and unique relationship with Me alone.
I love you, My child, and until you discover that only in Me
is your satisfaction to be found, you will not be capable
of the perfect human relationship that I have planned for you.
You will never be united with another until you are united with Me
-exclusive of any other desires and longing.
I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow Me
to give you the most thrilling plan existing
-one that you cannot imagine.
I want you to have the best.
Please allow Me to bring it to you.
You keep watching Me, expecting the greatest things.
Keep experiencing the satisfaction that I am.
Keep learning and listening to the things I tell you.
and you must wait.
Don't be anxious, and don't worry.
Don't look around at the things others have gotten
or that I have given them.
Don't look at the things you think you want.
Just keep looking off and away and up to Me,
or you'll miss what I have to show you.
And then, when you're ready,
I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful
than you would ever dream.
You see, until you are ready,
and until the one I have for you is ready
(I am working right this minute to have
both of you ready at the same time),
and until you are both satisfied exclusively with Me
and the life I've prepared for you,
you won't be able to experience the love
that exemplifies your relationship with Me,
this is the perfect love.
And, My dear one, I want you to have
this most wonderful love.
I want you to see in the flesh a picture
of your relationship with Me,
and enjoy materially and sincerely
the everlasting union of beauty and perfection and love
that I offer you with Myself.
I love you utterly.
I AM God Almighty.
Believe it and be Satisfied."
Love, Jesus

Friday Favorites

It's finally Friday again! :D YAY! I have had a MUCH better week- thank goodness! haha.

1) Staff Dinner at Benihana- I took my staff for our holiday dinner to a place called Benihana. It's a Japanese steakhouse and it was AMAZING! We also did secret santa and all exchanged gifts. It was a lot of fun and I love my staff :D

2) Closing- We are in the process of closing! It's a BUSY few days, but it means all the students are going home :D YAY! it's SO quiet now- all we have left are graduating seniors (the ceremony is today) and a few international students whose flights leave today. SO HAPPY. It also always puts me in much more of the holiday spirit, because for the past 7 years this time marks when I get to go home and do Christmasy stuff! :D

3) Christmas Shopping/Date Night- John and I went Christmas shopping this past weekend and went on a date. I mentioned it in an earlier blog, but it was a lot of fun. We didnt finish Christmas shopping (still havnt-YIKES) but it was nice to get away from campus for most of the day. Plus any time with the husby is awesome :D

4) Gone With the Wind- I know this was a favorite of mine last week, but the book is getting really good!! :D

5) Krystal- Yes, you silly :D As I blogged about last week- I had a horrible week last week. So this week- my sweet best friend text me almost every day, trying to lift me up and make this week better. And it did. Krystal- I am beyond blessed to have you as my best friend and whether you know it or not- those texts really made my week special :D Thank you beyond words :D LOVE YOU!

6) My Fridge- I saw this on pinterest and just HAD to do it! :D

Happy Friday y'all! here's to a great weekend!

Flash Mobs

I am in love with this flash mob!

Downtown Disney Flashmob Proposal

What an adorable way to propose. For future notice, if any of my friends would like to do this for their girlfriend, I will be happy to particpate. I know I am not always coordinated and I am a really clumbsy person, BUT I would practice really hard for you! :D

After seeing this flash mob, I am not going to lie to you- I may have spent some time on Youtube watching other flashmobs. THEY ARE AWESOME! :D

My Weekly Focus

Here it is :D
I think this is beautiful and how I am going to focus my week :D I plan on being in a good mood ALL week long :D

Ratatouille

I mentioned in my last post that I had a dead rat living in my apartment. GROSS. I wish he could have been cute like this:

Or this:

but alas, he was huge (I didnt see him, just the bag he was in), gross, and decomposing.

Two Saturdays ago, John and I got out our Christmas stuff and put up our tree. YAY! Well since it all was out in storage, it was a bit musty and needed to air out. That Monday, I started to smell something that stunk pretty bad. Well, John and I decided that it was just the Christmas stuff and it needed to air out. So, I pulled in the air purifier to help with that.

Tuesday, it smelled even worse. So, I took out the trash thinking it may have been some raw chicken I had in the garbage. It still didnt go away. Tuesday night, I told John that I was pretty sure there was a dead rat somewhere. I told him I was going to call facilities to come and find it. John thought I was being dramatic (who? me?! never!) and that we should clean our apartment real good first.

Wednesday morning the smell was even worse. I put some airwick plug-ins in the wall and basically tried to drown out the smell. I took my lunch break and cleaned EVERYTHING. and it still didnt go away. Well, it just so happened that one of the facilities guys was changing our air vents that day and when he was done he came to tell me that I had a dead rat. I KNEW IT! I called the exterminator right away......and he had left for the day. Of course.

I lived with a dead rat above my laundry room for days! I still cant get the smell out of my nose. SO GROSS!

Quick Update...

Last week was the longest week of my life. It was a crappy week too. BUT it's over now! YAY! haha.

I dont even want to reflect on the negative of last week, so here is a short summary:
-I was on duty. All of the students went crazy. It included multiple transports, mutiple drug issues, and 2 Baker Acts (A Florida law where if the police think you are a danger to yourself, you get arrested and put in the hospital. One of those students told me he would kill himself and leave my name on him. Needless to say that was the hardest duty incident of my life.
-After work I had something pretty much each evening, including RA interviews for the Spring and Late Night Breakfast.
-A dead rat was living in my apartment.

I dont even remember most of the rest of it. I was WIPED out by the weekend. In fact, I dont usually sleep past 9 or 10 anymore but I didnt wake up until 1 on Saturday. Much needed though :D

ANYWAY, this weekend was AWESOME! We continued decorating for Christmas, started watching Season 1 of Modern Family, went Christmas shopping, had a date night Saturday night where we saw some live music, and we were just lazy. Oh I also scrapbooked our entire honeymoon! It was a very relaxing and very fun weekend. I am glad I married a nut who can have a lot of fun. :D

YAY for a great weekend and an even bigger YAY for all these kids going home this week! haha :D

Friday Favorites!

The fact that it's Friday should be one of my favorites in itself! hahaha :D But I wont be that lame:D

1) Not running- while this is making it harder to run next time I do, I only managed to run on Thursday. It's been really nice to sleep in though :D
2) Gone With The Wind- I finally started reading it! that's very excited, BUT it's really hard to get read. Hopefully, it will get easier.
3) Christmas Decorating with my staff- We decorated our lobby for the holidays this past Tuesday and it was a lot of fun! Definitely got me in the Christmas mood :D
4) Movies- There were a lot of really good black friday deals online and John bought some movies to add to our collection! I AM SO EXCITED. We also got the first two seasons of Modern Family. Oh yes we did. :D
5) The weather- It's finally starting to cool off. I dont start sweating as soon as I walk out the door anymore! It's been in the 60's in the mornings and kids here have on heavy coats, gloves, scarfs, etc. lol. I have been wearing sleeveless shirts or dresses and have enjoyed every second of it! This weather is awesome and these kids are crazy if they think its cold! haha :D

Happy Friday Y'all! :D

Life Updates

Exercising and Losing Weight

Well, as I am sure you have read in previous blogs I am doing pretty well with running 3.1 miles! I also got up to 4 miles while at home! YAY! This week when I went to run, it was EXTREMELY more difficult than back home. It's also always harder running the longer you wait and it had been a few days. The air here is finally starting to cool off, but it's still humid :( I think the coolness masks the humidity, but while running I can definitely feel the difference than the air from home. Oh well, I'll keep on truckin'. :D I plan to sign up for an 5k in January or February! I'll keep you posted. As far as loosing weight goes, I had started to get very frustrated because since I have been running, I have actually gained 2 lbs! I am hoping it's just muscle, because I have been staying in my calories. When I weighed this past Thursday (my weigh day) I had lost both of those pounds- so YAY! AND that's after eating all that Thanksgiving too. Score! I still have a lot of weight I would like to lose, but I feel a lot healthier and that counts a lot.

Plans...
Once again, I'm home sick. Going back always makes it harder to come back to Miami. I just love being around our families and friends and really just the familiarity of Raleigh. I always thought that we should or would want to live somewhere else after Miami before we have kids, but I dont. John feels the same way. Now it may work out that we have to live somewhere else first, but we would prefer Raleigh.
So I made a HUGE mistake when we got back from Raleigh. I was super homesick, so just for fun I started looking at houses. That just made the homesick worse! lol. Of course John and I found some houses we would LOVE to buy, in the areas we would prefer to live. We are not planning on buying a house right now, obviously because we would wait until we moved back to Raleigh, but it was nice to see that there will be houses available that we can afford in the areas we want to live. It also made us change some of current plans- so even though it made me want to move back home NOW, it was good for us to do. We decided that instead of paying as much as we are towards loans right now, we are going to pay a little more than the minimum balance and save the rest towards a house. Now we are putting even more aside for a house, so when it comes time to put that large down payment down, we'll have it. We weren't sure if this was the best thing to do, but after some research and talking to John's dad we decided it's what we are going to do. Since student loans have such a small interest rate we think it's better to put the money down for a house so we can get approved for the size house we want and put a large down payment down. Not only that, but if we do decide to pay more towards our loans then money is in our account still accessible. All of this just made me very hopeful that maybe sooner rather than later we will be able to move to Raleigh and buy a house! Keep us in your prayers while we figure out what He wants us to do! :D

Winter Trip
So we are still trying to figure out our plans for our Christmas trip home, but it looks like if John is able to get it off we'll be home the 24th-Jan 1 or 2nd- It's still up in the air until John works it out with his boss, but I am SUPER excited!! I cant wait to get home again!!! Also, Dec 24th happens to be Carter's 1st birthday- so birthday party plans are in works! Just get ready family!! There may be party hats and a peanut butter cake involved! I love Christmas time and I am very glad we'll be able to be home for at least a little while to spend it with family and friends. I think if I didnt get to- I would cry all break. haha :D SO SOON! only 21 more days till we head home! YAY!

Carter Updates

I'll start with the pup because he's so much apart of our life :D Carter is doing well!

Health

As I said in my last post he had to go to the vet for tail, but it's doing MUCH better. He doesnt mess with it at all anymore and it's healing nicely. The vet also said he was a chubby boy, but he already looks like he's lost some more weight. He's been working on his figure with me ;D. He still sheds a ton, so we have started to defurminate (the name of the brush, it's supposed to get underlying hairs out of his coat on top of the ones already loose) him more often. He's been eating MUCH better lately. I guess because he is no longer in cone :D

Toys

He still destuffs them all and loves to make a mess. BUT he knows which toys are his and which are not :D He's such a good boy when it comes to that. We got him a bunch of goodies from Bullysticks.com and he has been enjoying them very much. I also went to goodwill and got him a bunch of cheap stuffed animals. Since he rips his toys apart from the start, no need in spending a ton on them. One of his favorite toys right now is a squeaky tennis ball. He LOVES to chase it and will play fetch with that longer than anything else. Tug-of-war is also still his favorite game:D

Tricks

Still working on teaching him give and take. He's gotten really good with give it, not so much with take. He'll take it and then drop it. haha. I hope to teach him a new trick by the time we go home again. We'll see. He has been getting a little better at walking on his leash but will sometimes have that puppiness in him and dart off. He's so cute.

Trip home

He did GREAT on our trip home! The care ride up- he slept most of the time or watched out the window. While at our parent's houses (they dont have doggy doors) he was really good about letting us know he wanted to go outside to go to the bathroom. The steroids were supposed to make him have to go to the bathroom more, so he had to go a lot! Every time though he went to the door to let us know! I was really proud of him. He was very good for Mom and Dad Martin while we were at their house too. The first day he had a TON of energy (even after running 4 miles with me) but he still listened pretty well. At my mom's house the next day, he slept most of the time. haha I think he was so worn out from the day before! Then on Saturday the Martin's said he was well behaved again. I love hearing that I have such a good puppy! There were a few times during the trip he took off in the yard to chase something and we had to chase him down. He got time out twice because of it. I chalk that up to him being a puppy still though. We also learned that he LOVES to be outside. I cant wait for him to have a backyard one day, so he can play out there whenever he wants :D On the trip back, he was also great! He slept most of the way then too. He got kind of clingy too- he wanted to ride in whoevers lap wasnt driving for a long time on the way home. haha. He just loves us :D

That's all for now! :D He's also decided he is going to start taking over our bed. Not when we are in it, because he gets too hot, but it's his place when we are at work. haha.

Thanksgiving!!!!

John and I had the BEST time this past week! We were finally able to drive home on Wednesday. However, before our drive John had to work Wednesday morning and I had to take Carter to the vet. He had continued to chew on his tail and it was looking really bad- he needed medicine. I also took him running to help wear him out for the long ride. Anyway, the vet looked him over and said that it looked like a bug or something had just bitten him and it turned into a "hot spot" for him. Meaning he wanted to keep messing with it and doctoring it himself, but really he was making it worse and licking and biting it raw. They gave us some steroids for him to take and they were to help relieve the itching so he would leave his tail alone. They also said he was a little chunky and needed to lose 5 more lbs. haha. CHUBBY PUPPY! :D I actually dont think he looks overweight at all, but apparently you are supposed to be able to count his ribs by looking at him. He's almost there. He weighed in at 69lbs. So it looks like he will only end up being a 65lb pup after all. I like his size though, it's perfect- not too big or too small :D

Anyway, John left work a little early (his boss said he could) and we make the 12 hour hike to Raleigh! We were really surprised traffic wasnt worse than it was. Really, it was only heavy near Jacksonville (it also happened to be 5pm)and other than that it was smooth sailing! When we got near Savannah we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, The Smokin' Pig. YUMMY southern food! :D We got in around midnight, which was REALLY good timing! We said our hellos and then headed to bed.

It was really nice to be able to sleep in! 10am is now sleeping in. LOL. Even though it was Thanksgiving, I asked Julie if she wanted to go running because I had to exercise the dog anyway. She agreed and we went out into the neighborhood and ran :D IT WAS SO HARD! I am SO not used to running up and down hills! and the wind was SO cold. Julie was a lot faster than me, but I did it! In fact, she had me for the first 2 1/2 miles but I decided I wanted to keep going so I made her go with me. haha I'm not bragging, but I cranked out 4 miles!!!! WHO AM I?! Once I got used to the hills and air, it was MUCH easier running there than down here in Miami. Too much humidity here. Needless to say, I ate my share and more of desserts to celebrate my awesome run!
Of course I didnt take many pictures, but here is the beautiful neighborhood we went running in :D
When we got back from our run I showered and then it was time for Thanksgiving lunch! YUMMY. Dad Martin spent a LONG time in the kitchen and there was a TON of delicious food. He really outdid himself :D My tummy was much appreciative! After lunch, it was nap time! haha :D We watched some football and I took an amazing nap. After all that running and eating, it was much needed. John took a short one, but then he went to fix our car window with his dad's help. I forgot to mention that the entire 12 our drive our driver side window was broken. It wont shut all the way, so the wind was SO loud. John's amazing though and he fixed it! :D After that and playing with the dog some, we ate some leftovers and then played some games with his family. Wits and Wagers is an amazing game if you have never played!! Since Mom Martin and a guest they have staying with them had to work early the next morning, we all went to bed kind of early. It was much needed though. John and I were just still exhausted from everything.

The next day we got up and helped John's dad out with a video he is making for the church. He is making a promotional video for the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace class. Which I HIGHLY recommend ALL of you to take. Then we headed over to my mom's house to spend the day with my family. John and I were both nervous about it because they have 2 cats and we are allergic, but the night we drove into town we stopped by and dropped off an air purifier. It's supposed to help with allergies. IT WORKED! That and some Claritin. lol. I didnt get sniffly or sick at all! John got a little stuffy, but for spending the day there it was great! I cooked with my mom and then spent time with my mom, sister, brother and John. After lunch/dinner we played Wits and Wagers with them too :D We had a lot of fun!

After spending time with them, we had a few errands to run and ended up getting to see some of our friends. We had a lot of fun with that too and boy do I miss being home. We went to bed as soon as we got back and were up and ready to tailgate at 6:30am! Yikes, that's early. haha. We got to the tailgate lot about 7:30ish and enjoyed the rest of the morning tailgating with all our friends. We had a HUGE tailgate going and it was SO incredibly nice to spend time with our friends like that and catch up :D

Here are the girls at the tailgate :D
and my ADORABLE godson!!!! He was SO good the entire day. He almost makes me ready to have babies, but I know mine wont be as good as him. haha
A baby looks weird on my hip...
About Noon, we headed into the game! I WAS SO EXCITED! :D
Then we were all of the sudden down 14-41. :( I lost all my excitement. HOWEVER, my brother and sister came to the game! It was my sister's first NC State football game ever!! We had SO much fun!
YAY SIBLINGS!
THEN out of nowhere- we started coming back!! AND WE WON!!!!!!!! This win means we get to go to a bowl game! YAY! :D I was VERY proud of my pack and it turned in to a great first game for my sister!!

After the game we waited for everyone to get back to the parking lot and we said some goodbyes and made dinner plans. John and I headed off to Brad's to take a short nap and get ready for dinner. I took about an hour nap and it was time to go. I told John I didnt feel good and then proceeded to throw up for the next 4 hours. :( Needless to say I didnt go to dinner. haha. I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning. There is no other explanation for that kind of sickness. I was dry heaving. I have never thrown up like that in my life. My body was making me throw up and there was nothing there! I was crying and I just didnt know what to do. I'll spare you the rest of the details...But it was seriously one of the worst pains I've ever experienced. :( Sad way to end a trip.

The next morning I was still queasy but had stopped throwing up-I mean there was nothing else left in my body to go! John and I had sorta slept in and then it was time to hit the road. I was scared to eat, but ended up drinking some Gatorade Mom Martin got for me and a biscuit. Later I had some Brunswick stew- it also hurt my stomach. It's so good, but I shouldnt have eaten so much of it on my tummy in that state- it just hurt. Anyway, traffic was TERRIBLE! We left at 11:30am and didnt get home until 3am. Traffic was stopped on 95 in many places, so we tried to go around when we could. At one point, we got off of 95 onto 17 and got a speeding ticket immediately. :( The speed had dropped from 55 to 45 like immediately and as soon as it did we got pulled for going 58 in a 45 :( It was a total speed trap- there were 6 other cops swarming around that place pulling people over. Frustrating, but not the end of the world. I told John that if he averaged a ticket every 9 years (that was the last time he had one) he was doing pretty good. haha After that we stayed on 95 regardless of traffic.

Since traffic was so bad and we had been in the car for what felt like forever, we stopped in Savannah for dinner. We thought after dinner, the traffic would lighten up some. For some reason John and I both LOVE Savannah. Neither of us had been there before though. haha. Well, it lived up to our expectations! We stopped and ate at Moon River. It seemed to be a bit fancy, so we threw on some stuff from our suitcases and went in. The food was AMAZING and we had such a good time. It was a very fun spontaneous date during a very long car ride home. haha ;D I love my husband. He knows how to make everything fun. :D

Anyway, like I said we got home at 3am. I decided to take the next day off but poor John had to be at work at 5 :( He has been SO tired all week because of it. Poor guy. So beyond in love with him for all that he does. <3

Despite the food poisoning and ticket- John and I had one of the best trips home. It was very quick, but SO worth the drive there and back. Every time we go back it gets harder to come back to Miami. I love Raleigh. I love my family. And I love my friends. I know we will end up back there sooner rather than later :D

This week...

This week is going to be awesome. Besides the fact that it's a short week and we are going home to see our family and friends (*EEEEEEEEEEEE*) I am going to make this week good :D

I mentioned in a post last week that I was thinking about focusing on a bible verse each week- well I am going to start this with TWO verses.

1) God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us. -1 John 4:16b

A few years ago I purchased a good called "My Daily Walk- 2007, Living a Live of Love".This is where I am going to pull most of my verses because I really would like to focus on love. :D Anyway, I made comments on this day back in 2007- it said "God is love. I need to remember this all the time. It's easy to forget when something upsets me. I think this book will allow me to remember the importance of love. I read yesterday about hate and have tried not to hate in my heart. It's hard though because some people really get on my nerves. I will try to pray when I feel like that. Pray for love :D" haha. It's funny how much has changed in 4 years, but at the same time it's interesting to see I still struggle with the same things. I think it will always be a struggle. BUT if I pray for love, it will help! :D So here is to loving others this week :D

2) Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in ALL circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I posted this one last week, but I think it's fitting for Thanksgiving! :D Remember to give thanks this week! :D

Happy Thanksgiving week! :D

Adult Truths

This made me laugh out loud for a few minutes. I guess I am an adult because pretty much all of these fit. haha :D

I retyped it because the image was hard to read. It was only then that I realized the numbers skip from 13 to 16. HAHA. :D

23 Adult Truths-
1) Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
2)Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3)I totally take back all those times I didnt want to nap when I was younger.
4) There is a great need for a sarcasm font.
5) How in the world do you fold a fitted sheet?
6) Was learning cursive really necessary?
7) Map Quest really needs to start their directions on#5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8) Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9) I cant remember the last time I wasnt at least kind-of tired.
10) Bad decisions make good stories.
11) You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12) Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I dont want to have to restart my collection....again.
13) I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
16) I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay.
17) I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing options.
18) I have a hard time deciphering the find line between boredom and hunger.
19) How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didnt hear or understand a word they said?
20) I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21) Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
22) Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and pinning the tail on the donkey- but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
23) The first tenacular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. * Ladies.....Quite Laughing.

SO FUNNY! :D Happy Monday!!

Friday Favorites

I am not going to lie- after yesterday it's hard to look back on anything good this week. I guess that's why I do it though. I want to remember the good over the bad even during bad weeks.

1) New Girl- I LOVE this show. It's so stinking hilarious. :D Tracy introduced it to me and now we have a weekly lunch date on Wednesdays to watch it. I love Zooey Deschanel. She is SO funny.

2) I finished The Sookie Stackhouse Series! It was SO good. I dont like how the last book ended though :( and I have to wait until May for the next one to come out. *sigh* The series (all 11 books so far) is SO good though! I am sad it's over for now.

3) I finished a new project- I cant post what it is yet because it's Krystal's bday present and she reads my blog- but ITS AWESOME and I am SO proud it turned out so well! and it took a lot less time than I imagined. I finished it this week :D Pictures to come after Thanksgiving when I give it to her :D

4) Fantasy Football- I won last week! :D I am now officially in the playoffs. This week is looking promising also :D

5) Running- I have now finished running 3.1 miles a total of 5 times! I only did 2 yesterday. I wasnt planning on running yesterday though, but after the bad day I had, I decided to run instead of eating ice cream- good for me! haha. I am SO sore!

Happy Friday :D

Lesson Learned

Yesterday was an awful day. It's never a good day when you find out people are talking about you behind your back. It's embarrassing too. Extremely. I've always known people here can be quite inconsiderate, that's just how people are in Miami. But I guess I never really understood how awful some people can be.

I am ashamed to say it, but it's so easy to get caught up in gossip at work. Its the people I work with AND live with. But when you find out people are doing it you- boy that hurts. In a way, I am glad that I had a wake-up call. I am glad what people were saying behind my back wasnt that bad at all- and really I am lucky. It's really not even a big deal-apparently I dont dress professional enough sometimes. Well, thats an easy fix! I just wish someone would have told me earlier. Glad that was all people are saying behind my back, to be honest.

BUT it still hurts knowing people have been saying things behind my back. It's a real self-esteem killer. My ego took a huge hit yesterday. I was thinking about this last night and I am just as guilty of listening to others talk about others too. I dont do anything about it and I even chime in. I wont be doing this anymore. I dont want to be the source of someone else's pain. ESPECIALLY, when it's people you think you can count on. Lesson learned.

A few years ago a girl that I was really close to gave me a jar of bible quotes. The bible quote are on little pieces of paper and when I am having a bad day, I like to pull some out and read them. Well I did that this morning looking for some comfort and found some really good ones. Of course this was one I pulled out "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever points you judge the other, and you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgements do the same things" Romans 2:1- YEP. I've done the same thing. Shame on me. I need to post that one on my computer screen to always have in sight! I dont want to be apart of any of that kind of talk anymore.

The first bible verse I pulled out was 2 Corinthians 3: 12-14 and it reads "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." I pulled this one out and reached in for the next one and pulled out the same exact verse. Think God was trying to tell me something? I do. I dont want to forgive these people. Especially, the ones I thought were decent friends. I can just picture them all sitting around and laughing at me (I'm sure it wasnt this bad, but this is what my mind does to me) and I just want to smack them all. Actually, when I found out yesterday I wanted to do worse. Not very Christian of me, I know, but being honest I had some pretty mean thoughts about all of them. BUT if I want to follow the Lord, I know I have to put it all behind me and forgive. For goodness sakes, I am guilty of it too. What right do I have to be mad?

It's hard though. I feel like trust is gone. I guess that's why it's important to lean on the Lord and not on myself. This verse also helps "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an enternal glory that far outweights them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18. I got a lot out of this one. 1) the Lord forgives me. He forgives me for not focusing on him and for gossiping about others. 2) I need to turn my eyes to Him all the time. And nothing else matters. 3) He'll renew me from this pain.

Gossip lesson learned. Forgiveness lesson learned. Now I just need to remember a few things:
1) "A joyful heart makes a cheerful face." Proverbs 15:13
2)"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in ALL circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I think I'll start doing a verse of the week to focus on- or something like that to help keep me more focused :D AND it's time to go shopping...

Pregnancy thoughts...

No, I am not pregnant and we do not plan to have a litte one for a few more years. BUT it seems like everyone around me is either pregnant or has a baby. My mini-feed on Facebook has BLOWN UP with babies! It's kind of ridiculous.

Anyway, my point for this blog is that all these babies have really made me start thinking about babies a lot lately- again NOT ready for them, but just thinking. If you know me, you know that all I have ever really wanted to be is a wife and a mom. Most of all- I just really want to be pregnant! haha. I think the feeling of someone growing in you, has to be the neatest feeling in the world- not only that but knowing it's God's creation made up of me and my wonderful husband. Incredible thought.

Last night, I was laying in bed, getting ready to fall asleep and I started thinking about just that- a baby growing inside me. And I am not going to lie- it FREAKED ME OUT. This is the first time ever that the thought of being pregnant has freaked me out. What's it going to feel like? Am I going to feel like a different person? Am I going to feel the baby constantly? Am I always going to feel like my tummy is stretching and be scared to lay certain ways?! Then I started thinking about John. How is he going to react to me being pregnant? How is he going to feel laying next to me knowing there is something growing inside of me? Will he still want to have sex with me? I dont know the answer to any of these questions and it STRESSED me out. I always thought that when I heard other women going through these same thoughts and emotions that they were silly, and they might still be and I may just be freaking out a little- I am not sure. BUT I am freaking out a little. Why? I have no idea. We dont plan to have kids for a few more years and this kind of freaking out just proves I am not ready. lol Maybe it's because it's happening all around me? Maybe it's because its a real possibility now? Maybe it's because I've dreamed about birthing a child twice in the past two weeks? I dont know. STRESSED OUT.

That's another thing- I've had these HORRIBLE dreams about having a baby. The pregnancy in my dreams have been fine, but in one of the dreams I delivered a dead baby and in the other I had the baby and they took it away from me and didnt take care of me afterwards and I died. UGH. Those are not fun to wake up after. and they feel SO real. Maybe that is really why I am freaking out. I really dont know.

Anyway, I know when the timing is right God will bless us with an amazing little baby and He will walk John and I through ever step and prepare us for whatever we are meant to deal with. I will continue to pray for healthy little ones, but know that whatever God blesses us with, it's His creation and I will be beyond happy.

Until then though- I may still freak out a little about the idea :D

Friday Favorites

This week has seemed like it has been SO stinkin' slow!!! Oh well, at least it's Friday now! Here are the favorites from the week :D

1)I RAN A 5K!- not an official one where you get a number and stuff, but I did run 3.1 miles. :D! I have NEVER done that EVER and I am beyond proud of myself!!!! That last .1 mile was the worst. but i OWNED IT and kicked it's butt! haha the last 1.1 miles may have taken me 20 minutes, but by golly I finished it!!! :D

2) True Blood- I think this may be a favorite until I finish the books. I finished another book and am now on book 9! They are SO good :D

3) John has today off!- So I get to spend some time with him today and ALL weekend. I am very pumped about that because I had a lot of evening programs this week.

4) Carter- he's a favorite always, but also can be frustrating. The funny this for this week was I threw his toy into the hall and hit an electrical outlet and the cover fell off. He ran up to it and licked the outlet and got shocked. I felt so bad for him, but it was pretty funny. I am such a bad mom for thinking it's so funny. He learned his lesson tho and wont mess with the outlets anymore! He also finally started going down the hall again...hahaha The frustrating thing is he scratched back open the scab on his neck, so he is back in the dang cone. He ALSO did something to his tail so he has a band aid on it. he looks so pathetic. BUT he is great at cuddling :D

5) WE SHUT OUT CAROLINA!!!- I wanted to save the best for last :D AHHHH! IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!! :D YAY! I love my Wolfpack boys!!!!!

Happy Friday y'all! I plan to make this a great weekend :D and the count down to thanksgiving is 13 days, which means 12 until we are in RALEIGH!

Friday Favorites

I have not done these in what seems like a long time! I hate being that busy. But dont worry- I am back at them :D I know you all were worried! haha

1) My coffee this morning- I got some new creamer. It's cinnamon vanilla and it's AMAZING! I think I will be drinking coffee every morning now. haha

2) I RAN FOR 30 MINUTES! I have never done that ever in my life! I am so proud of myself. 30 minutes is supposed to be a 5k- but it was only 2.5 miles for me right now. lol I am slow. I'll get there tho. SO very happy!

3) Convertible- It's homecoming for Miami and Mahoney's Mister and Miss Mahoney are in the parade, which means I get to drive a convertible for the night. I want one SO bad!!!

4) True Blood- I finished another book last night and went and got the last 3 today. SO excited to read them!!!

5) Halloween!- I LOVE Halloween :D I think it's either my favorite holiday or second favorite. I havnt decided yet. haha Anyway, it was a lot of fun! I just wish we were home to dress up with our friends. One day! :D

Happy Friday!

Double Date!

On Halloween we made plans to hang out with Seth and Danielle. We decided to go to a haunted house that John and I got a Groupon for and then watch a scary movie!

Well the haunted house was pretty lame. lol but it was fun to go. Afterwards, we stopped by Applebee's to get dinner to-go. Well they had a pretty good deal- 2 for $10, which was an appetizer or dessert and an entree. We couldnt pass that up, but it was dine in only, so we decided stay. We ended up having a bad experience with the hostess and our food took FOREVER to get to us. We were there for well over an hour and Danielle asked to speak to the manager because we still didnt have any food. After our appetizers came out, Danielle spoke to the manager and got our entrees boxed to go. The manager was also really nice and took more than half of our bill off and gave us a gift card to come back. She really made up for the bad experience :D
John and I at Applebee's

Seth and Danielle! they are so cute :D
After we got our food, we headed to our apartment and watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was okay, but it was fun to watch a scary movie on Halloween :D

Sunday we have another double date with them to go paint balling- SO EXCITED! :D

Halloween Murder Mystery!

John and I decided to invite my staff over for a halloween type party. It ended up being on Nov. 1st and we did a murder mystery game! Getting everything together for the game was a lot of work, because of course I didnt look at it until 2 days before the game. But it was worth it- my staff had a lot of fun.

I also cooked a bunch of desserts for them! I was really excited about this because I dont have a lot of people to try new recipes on or to bake for, so I thought this would be a good opportunity! I baked for about 5 hours. I was SO tired- but again it was worth it. Everything came out great :D I was able to try a lot of the recipes I pinned to pinterest :D My menu included: Pumpkin Pillows, Candy Corn Cheesecake Mousse, Pumpkin muffins, Nutter Butter Ghost cookies, Witch Finger cookies, mini pumpkin pies, white chocolate covered pretzels, apples and caramel dip, candy, and witches brew punch. SO MUCH FUN! :D

The set up!
White Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Candy Corn Cheesecake Mousse
All of them..
Witches brew :D I put it in a pot to make it seem more real- that and it was the only thing big enough to fit it all. haha
Pumpkin Muffins!
Pumpkin pillows- aka pumpkin won tons. YUM.

Mini Pumpkin Pies
The witches fingers and nutter butter ghost cookies- the fingers were so big they looked more like monster fingers. lol

When the RAs showed up for the game (i just played hostess and watched) they were all decked out in their characters! It was AWESOME! The game was a lot of fun (different than I thought it was going to be, but still fun). I would really like to find a game where people die during the game- I think that would be more fun. lol

The RAs having fun!
Even Carter had fun.
Playing the game
Anyway, the night was a success and I know my staff enjoyed themselves :D

Carter update

Well I said in my previous post, it was really hard to leave my baby for a week! However, he has been super cuddly since we got home, so I do enjoy that.

He's also been a little difficult on our walks. I hope it's just because other people were walking him and not because he's being rebellious. BUT he was being difficult with doing tricks and listening before we left, so it may be both.

John and I have also started teaching him "take it" and "give it." He's picking this up pretty quickly which is exciting! Once he masters these we are on our way to teaching him MANY tricks.

Other than that, he's back in his cone :( He keeps scratching open the scab that is over the bite on his neck :( I HATE him being in the cone. Hopefully, it can come off soon.

That's pretty much it with Carter right now- he's good ;D

PS! Carter is now famous! I was walking him the other day and the prevet club offered to wash him- YES PLEASE! While he was getting a bath, the school paper came and got some pictures and put him in it the next day :D
Bath time! and mommy and daddy didnt have to do it- SCORE.

Checking himself out in the paper...

YAY!

Maryland!

I donn’t even know where to start! We had SUCH an amazing time in Maryland with Krystal and Josh :D It was also a much needed vacation for both me and John.

On Wednesday morning John had to go to work, so I got up early and walked Carter and finished getting everything ready for us to be gone. It was really hard to leave Carter L but it would have been way too expensive to take him with us. I had two of my RAs dog sit/house sit while we were gone. I figured if they stayed (they split the nights) then Carter would do better than if he was alone all the time. Fortunately, he did REALLY well while we were gone! The last day we were gone, Monday, was when he started acting up and even then he didn’t mess anything up, he just wasn’t listening well. I had left my RAs with lots of instructions, but I trust them so I knew Carter would be in good hands. I still cried when I got in the car to leave L It was the first time we were away from Carter for that long. BUT it’s okay- it was very nice to not have to walk him every day. Lol.

Anyway, one of my coworkers took us to the airport, but we had to pick John up from work first. It was the first time I had been to John’s work, so I was excited! I got to meet a lot of the people that work for him and got a tour of the place. It was bigger than I imagined, but that was only because John always talks about how small it is. The people that work for him also all speak Spanish, so it was neat to hear how much John’s Spanish has improved. I was so impressed!

Afterwards it was off to the airport! We stopped and got some food and then got on the plane. It seemed like a quick flight even if it was 2 ½ hours. I think I was just so excited! Haha. Josh picked us up and we went to drop our stuff off at their house. IT IS SO PRETTY! I am so jealous of their home! They have done a fantastic job with it :D After that we went and grabbed Krystal from work and headed to the inner harbor area in Baltimore. We ended up going to place called Power Plant, which was really neat. We ate at Joe Squared and got some crab pizza- DELICIOUS! We also tried out leinenkugel beer garden- YUMMY beer if you’ve never had it! Our last stop in the Power Plant area was Howl at the Moon, which is a piano bar. It was empty, but they played for us anyway. It was a lot of fun and a great time for us to catch up! I love Krystal and Josh to death and we always have so much fun with them. After that we headed home and hung out for a bit - Krystal and Josh brew their own beer and we got to try some- it was SO good!! It’s definitely something our wish list one day! After that we went to bed John and I were EXHAUSTED! Haha.
Power Plant!
The handsome husbies :D
The next day we got up and tried out a new burger joint on our way to a winery. John and I have never been to one so we were both really excited! It was called Boordy Winery and it was really neat to learn how they harvest the grapes for wine. They had just harvested everything, so there were no grapes to see- but it was still neat to learn about the process. Afterwards, we were able to taste a lot of their wines. It was neat to learn about all of the different wines- I had no idea about any of them before! My favorite was a Spiced Wassail- it tastes a lot like apple cider. Before I tasted it was a little hesitant because you are supposed to heat it up, but I wasn’t sure about hot wine. Haha it was DELICIOUS tho :D That night we made nachos and brats for dinner- doesn’t really go well together, but it was yummy anyways ;D
On the way to the winery..

Boordy! So pretty in the country
Where they make the wine
Where they store it
They filmed the engagement party scene from Runaway Bride here!
Out front of the winery :D I love this picture of us!
YAY! :D
Friday, Krystal and I had made appointments to get massages. I was beyond excited. The last time I got a massage was when I was 16. Yes, that’s right 10 YEARS ago. I am so old. Haha. I am always trying to convince John to give me a massage too, so I was super excited we were getting one! While we did that, the boys went a found a disc golf course and played. When we got home we were all starving so Krystal made a delicious Asian pasta (which I am totally going to steal from her :D John LOVED it!). We also made Crab Rangoon for the first time. It came out really good too :D We also got all the food prepared for tailgating the next day. We tried to go to bed early that night because we were getting up EARLY (4am) to drive to Charlottesville for the game.

It was really pretty where they played disc golf! Fishing a disc outta the creek :D
Saturday morning we had to drop Bailey off at one of their friends house so she wasn’t alone all day. As a side note- Bailey is ADORABLE! Pictures to come don’t worry! :D Once in Charlottesville, we met up with Hutch and Ken (Josh’s cousin) and we had picked up Kallie on the way. We stopped by the bookstore first to get our souvenir shot glass, of course :D Then we found a place to tailgate and had an awesome time! I forgot to mention that the weather was AMAZING and everything was beautiful everywhere we went. It was so nice to see such pretty leaves and to have a break from the heat and humidity of South Florida. While we were tailgating, we got to see some old college friends. A friend from high school, Matt Mastin, even came to tailgate with us. We share the same birthday, so we call each other 10-07 now. Haha. John and I were really good friends with him in high school and hanging out with him again was like nothing changed! I cant wait to hang out with him when we go back again :D In the game, I also got to see one of my old RAs who I became pretty good friends with. It was an AWESOME Day. To top off an amazing day - WE WON! :D It’s always nice driving home from a win.
Me and Bailey in the car :D

She was so sleepy at 5am!
We made it!
me and the bestie
the boys
John and Kallie
the 10-07's
Inside the statium and our original seats- SUCH pretty views!

Krystal and Josh after the big WIN!
Husbie and I :D GO WOLFPACK!
Kallie and Chris came back to Maryland with us and Sunday we all went to a pumpkin farm! We got to go on a hay ride and went through a “corn maze”. It ended up being a walk through a bunch of corn and there was only one path. LoL it was still fun to do. After that we got to pick out pumpkins. John and I got two small ones since we would be leaving the next day. The plan was to carve them when we got back, but we couldn’t find the carving kit, so we just hung out. Again, a lot of fun :D
The gang waiting for the hay ride
SO pretty there
John being silly in the "corn maze"
Goofy boys!
Monday morning John and I had to pack up L We were flying out Reagan so we all had decided to spend the day in DC. Of course I got our flight time wrong, but luckily that meant more time to hang out! We went to the National Harbor and walked around for a while. We ate some lunch and checked out the Gaylord Hotel, which was really neat! I wish we had more time there to check things out, but after all that it was time to head to the airport. Traffic was terrible, but we still made it in plenty of time. The Kinlaw’s came in the airport with us and hung out with us until it was time to go. I was so sad to leave them. It was really nice getting to spend time with our best friends. BUT we get to see them at Thanksgiving, so at least it’s not that far away!!! We had a wonderful time and I cant wait to go back and visit them again :D
At the National Harbor!
Me and hubs :D
I love this picture of them :D so sweet
At the Gaylord Hotel
We saw BATMAN!
Once we got back to Miami, the heat hit us hard. Ugh. AND it’s still hot here! When we got home, Carter was on the back patio and FREAKED out. Lol I was afraid he would be mad at us, but he was beyond excited to see. He kept running back and forth between us giving us kisses- he couldn’t decide what to do with us. Haha. The next few days he was more cuddly than usual and acted a little weird, but he’s back to him old self now. I am glad he gets to come home with us at Thanksgiving; I don’t think I could leave him again!
Carter and John cuddling :D
YAY! for an amazing vacation! Now I need a vacation from it ;D