a GOOD day

Today has been a good day!!

Church was good - Michael gave the sermon and I have always enjoyed his sermons, so that was really nice.

Then lunch with good friends and good times at the Potato SLOW Shack!!

Then changing old to new with window decals.

Then catching up with Wendy via cell phone. :o) MISS YOU!!!!

Softball game -- I hit really really really well !! Tonight I hit twice out in the outfield, like, the farthest I have EVER hit!! It was wonderful. Then we ended up winning the game in the last inning!!

I stuck around and filled in for the team we had just beat; they needed another female. I did alright; we won that game too.

Then, dinner and more phone time with friends. Now, I'm getting ready to hit the hay, and ready for another day full of blessings!!! :o)

Blessings and love to you, wherever you are!!

decorating for all hallow's eve . . .

my window sill

(and that's pronouned with a long "i", not an "ee" sound for those of you from east texas... or just texas)

hahaha

RIP Alero . . .

Yeah, the Alero has been deemed "totalled" by my insurance company. It's a sad day... It's really frustrating too, because I have had that car for over 4 years now. That's the longest I've ever driven a car. That's kind of sad, too. Haha...

So, I've been driving a rental car for this past weekend (and if I had the money, I'd buy it!). It's a Dodge Caliber. I've never driven a Dodge consistently. I really like it a lot. It's sporty and new!! And it accelerates a lot quicker than the Alero did. But, since I don't have a lot of money, I'll have to wait until my job becomes full time and I can afford to have a car payment along with all my other bills.

For now, Mom has decided that she wanted to buy a car anyways, so she has found herself a nice Buick Rainier, which is a midsize SUV, but it's really nice. So we'll go pick that up tomorrow and I'll be driving her Honda Accord as my car now.

I was talking to my mom earlier last week and I was telling her that I was trying to understand why God had allowed this to happen, what kind of lesson was I supposed to learn? She smartly replied that God's telling me to get a full time job so I can afford car payments. I scoffed and thought otherwise. One good thing from all this is that I have hung out with my mom a lot, so maybe it's been for that reason. And of course, I should learn when to move a car with rising waters and also know that possessions on earth are only temporary. That's a pretty big one.

Thank you for all your prayers and concern over my last week. Hopefully things will be back to "normal" soon. :o)

it's a double whammy!

Ah.. You might be wondering how I have been able to do TWO posts in one day. Well it's not like I really wanted to, but here are some pictures to how my day has gone so far. Basically, it's been raining since last night, almost non stop. Yeah. So here's my pictoral article this fine Monday.


Yeah, that's my car on the left.


See that champagne colored car? Yeah, that guy is stupid. He tried to move his car.


This is about 20 minutes later. The water definitely went IN the car.



You can't see it, but my floor mats are floating. And that is water pooling UP into my seats. Disgusting ...

So my day has stunk so far. I've made an insurance claim and hopefully the adjuster will call me soon so we can get this all worked out. I'm trying to be positive because I'm essentially getting today off, but really, I can't see anything positive about tomorrow yet. When you have a job that requires you to drive around the district, being without a car kind of makes the job difficult. So prayers are appreciated that things go smoothly, however they go.

Well, finally here's an update to NYWC weekend.


First off, I had a wonderful time. It was great to get away for a weekend and hang out with friends and just be around people, constantly in the presence of God and worshipping with a whole bunch of wonderful artists. Thank you B Smith for letting me go!!!


We left Friday morning real early for Austin so we could hit a few morning seminars. I was glad that we left early because it just felt like the weekend was more complete and we were really able to get the full effect of the convention. We started our afternoon with a worship service led by David Crowder and we heard from Buster .. somebody. He was a good speaker, I just don't remember his last name :o) Friday afternoon went well also. The seminars were really good this year and I just picked the right ones, it seems. They were what I needed to hear for my heart and for my many ministry areas. That night, we attended a dinner for Methodist youth workers. We didn't exactly get there in time for the great food, but the food we had was pretty good. That night after the worship session with DCB and speaker Mike Pilavachi (so funny!), we all headed to Katz' Deli/Diner on 6th Street and had an extremely late dinner/snack. I really love their grilled cheeses!! All the girls stayed up real late, of course, with girl talk and laughing and serious stories intermixed.



Saturday was excellent as well. I had really wanted to get up early for a seminar, but since we had stayed up so late the night before, I could barely open my eyelids so I skipped it and slept in until it was time for the first worship session of the day. David Crowder led yet another amazing set and our speaker was . . . hmm hahaha.. this old guy and I didn't really listen. We headed out for lunch to find a good little bar to watch the Aggies play and eat some lunch. I then headed back to the convention center and attended another seminar. This one was simply for your soul; not to try and give you 8 steps to whatever. It was just soothing and perfectly what I needed. That evening, we worshipped with Shane & Shane, listened to Donald Miller speak. He is a great speaker. I've never read any of his books, but I am definitely interested in what he has to say. That night, we headed back to the hotel for more girl time in the room. We ordered in room service, Traci Smith style! She ordered cheesecake and some other stuff.. I don't really remember because I didn't have any it was so late. We all hung out for a while and chatted and then fell asleep late again.




(picture of everyone being apathetic)

Sunday I woke up early, determined to go to an early seminar, which I did. It was good, about kids who "cut" or self injure. It was very interesting and extremely sad. But I'm glad I went. The next general session was led again by S&S (no good pics of S&S! :( ) and the speaker was Sharon Cohn. She spoke on social justice. It probably was interesting. But I wouldn't know. I fell asleep!! Ha... We went to lunch at Schlotsky's downtown.



After lunch we headed back for another seminar, this one was on developing youth leaders by Marcus Goodloe of Mosaic Church in LA. It was pretty good! That afternoon, our general session was led by Jeremy Camp and speaker Greg Stier. Greg did a great job. He is very energetic!!!





We had to leave soon after. I had to get back for work the next day, even though I would have loved to stay for the Kutless and Thousand Foot Krutch concert. We went to a Wendy's on our way out. Food was okay, service was poor. We met a Carrie, a homeless woman, and bought her some food and stayed and talked with her for a while. It kind of counterfeited our reason for not going to the concert, but I think it took us so long to get out of town just so we could meet her.




It was a wonderful weekend and am so glad that I went!!! :o)

a taste...

Since the demand was so high, I thought I'd give my audience a taste of what's to come . . .