long december

It's December - the end of the year!!

There were so many changes this year. For a while I wasn't looking at the positive side of things. I was only allowing myself to see the negative. But I know God has called me to a life of love and abundance and I choose to focus on the good He has given to me. So I was thinking about the year and I decided to write at least one thing positive that has happened each month this year.

Jan – met someone who is now one of my best friends; survived the ice storm and learned to appreciate electricity

Feb – figured out what I wanted to do with my life, career wise - children's ministry

Mar – spent the whole month in observance of lent (my own decision and my first experience) – learned some very important lessons

Apr – started my health kick, realized that I actually enjoy running

May – visited friends and DBU campus in Texas

June – celebrated a whole month of friends birthdays, i'm an honorary member of the june bday club

July – celebrated independence day with family, friends, camping, fireworks and shopping; bought a new car

Aug – started grad school, had a much needed change in my job situation

Sept – two new Bible study groups started this month

Oct – had a great weekend in KC with friends and family; turned 26, celebrated with a pasta party and games; took a road trip with family to Tennessee; traveled a lot

Nov – went to a great concert; had a wonderful thanksgiving with family; finished my first 5K

Dec – finished my first semester of grad school; Christmastime – my favorite time of the year

so I challenge you friends to look at the good that God has brought into your life this year...

back to blogging

So I’ve decided to get back into blogging. I used to do it a lot but life happened and I just sort of threw blogging on the backburner. I’ve been so busy with school lately that I haven’t been able to catch up with people. If I start writing again at least people would know what I’ve been up to lately. Writing is also a sort of release for me; I can express myself better through writing than I can through talking. Side note: someday I think it would be a learning experience to not say a single word for the whole day. Granted I wouldn’t be able to do it on a workday or otherwise my class would be utter chaos! But maybe some weekend. Some of the wisest people I know are the best listeners. But that’s a project for some day in the future.

Anyways, so this weekend has been wonderful. Relaxing is one of my favorite things to do on the weekends. I had the girls from work over Friday night for our work Christmas party. We had a good time of eating, opening gifts, and playing Catch Phrase. It was fun to get to know everyone outside of the workplace. Friday night was also the first night of many nights for dog sitting. I’m going to be dog sitting for the next 2 ½ weeks for three different friends that are going out of town. Wrigley’s my first dog and he’s been doing really well. I just hope he doesn’t get too bored at my house since he’s used to more excitement at his house.

Yesterday I cleaned in Nixa and then drove back in the snow. It was really pretty watching the snow fall. This is my kind of snow, light and pretty and most of it melted by the next day. I do like to play in it but I hate to drive in it.

So yesterday Wrigley and I just hung out at the house all day. We had a long night. It took me forever to get to sleep and then when I was finally tired my shoulder blade was in so much pain that I had to get up and take some ibuprofen to get the pain to stop. And my roomie was up too because she wasn’t feeling well. Then Wrigely wanted out of his cage because he heard us talking. So I let him out for a little bit and I think I finally fell asleep at 3am.

Today at church it was my turn to speak. We’re doing a series for Christmas called the Jesse Tree. Each week six people get up and speak about a specific person they were assigned to read about that week. We had to tell a little bit about the story and then tell how the story relates to us or to how God wants a relationship with us. I spoke on Nehemiah. God is still teaching me through that story. I’ll share more about it later.

After church I took a friend to lunch for her birthday and then I did a little Christmas shopping. I’m almost done with my shopping. I’ll finish the rest of this week after work. I’m going to make candy today. I’m doing a candy exchange at work and I have to make 12 packages of 6 pieces of candy. I’ll be busy with that this afternoon. I’ve got a Christmas party this week and things to get done at work. It should be a busy week but at least I don’t have to worry about any homework!!!