These Boots were made for Walkin'

Just a few random tidbits for the day.. I"m wearing my fab leather cowboyish boots today for the second time this season and they always make me feel extra sassy and confident.. I love them!!! It's so fun to spice up an outfit with a cute pair of boots. =) I had some younger friends come and visit me here in the office and they are just so prescious. I love that!! It feels so good to have someone think of coming to visit you. IT totally brightened my day! I am at work from 830 to 5 monday thru friday and am open to visitors anytime! I love the random pop-in's. I looove suprises period. Last Friday we all found out about the amazing suprise that our family pastor's wife did for him. He had no clue.. but she had planned this whole trip to NYC. He had always wanted to go so she worked an extra job and made all these amazingly detailed plans to get him there without him knowing until the day of and then planned this whole itenerary for them. I love it. As their friend was telling us the story in staff prayer.. I had tears in my eyes... it's totally what I would do for someone I love! I do it some with my parents.. but man.. I think there will be something special about doing it for my husband someday... I totally will! =)

In the meantime.. me and my boots will be just fine livin' the single life. God is faithful!

Wait and See....

I just may have to float around on a cloud for a while because I am on a spiritual high like no other. =) The past two weekends have been incredible! Last weekend I worked discipleship walk with Raleigh Assembly. It was such a wonderful experience. I felt as If I was exactly who God made me to be and I was just so full of joy and the light of God. I had so many people tell me that I glow with the joy of the Lord. I shared a talk with the ladies and it was straight from my heart. I felt as if God had stirred up a new gift in me. I absolutely loved the whole process.. writing it and praying about it.. when it came time for me to give the talk I had no fear whatsoever. It was incredible. It came out so effortlessly. God was right there with me. I was just thrilled with how he had enabled me to deliver it with such power and poise. I am so blessed to have been given the opportunity to share my heart. This is definitely the start of a new season for me. Things haven't necessarily changed dramatically as far as what is going on with me in the external.. but the internal has dramatically changed. God has given me a whole new outlook on life. He's given me a new joy that is abundant and deep. It doesn't depend on my external circumstances but what is on the inside.

This past weekend I went to hear Beth Moore at the Fed Ex forum. She always has such a fresh and challenging word! She talked about God and how he is.. not necessarily the physical description of him.. but his nature. It totally reminded me that God is all powerful and is in total control of my life. I shouldn't worry about anything but just seeking him. He has called me to seek his face with all of my heart. I don't need to focus on the external now.. it's the internal.. it's all about God. I don’t even desire what people have to offer right now.. I just want to be in God's presence and know him more. I can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve!

And speaking about what is up God's sleeve.. at work today the ladies and I were doing this old trick where you drop a necklace or anything hanging in front of you 5 times and it will tell you how many kids you will have and what their sex will be. The three ladies that have already had kids were accurate. Two of us single girls did it as well.. the necklace trick says that I'll have two girls then a boy. ha! I wrote it in my journal and it will be interesting to look back someday and see if it's true. Dianne, who taught us the trick, says that it has been surprisingly accurate among her friends and family. ha! We'll just have to wait and see. For now.. someone needs to come up with a trick that will tell me who I will marry and when!! Let me know if you know a way to tell that one! =)

God is Faithful

I am blessed.. so so blessed. I just got back from a weekend that should have taken every ounce of energy out of me and I have energy and excitement. My discipleship walk weekend was INCREDIBLE!! I knew it would be too. Leading up to the weekend.. I had felt in my prayers that this would be a new season for me.. a season of joy and of peace and a season of God stirring things up and changing things for me.

The weekend brought out a few new gifts in me and stirred up my passion for ministry. I met and served with some very special women. God poured a special word into my heart that I was able to share with everyone. It was so anointed and went so so well. God showed me that I can speak and I can engage and it will minister. I was also affirmed over and over again over the weekend in many different areas. I felt worthy of the calling that God has placed on my life. I have not felt that in a very long time. The Lord did stir up something new and something that will last through the ups and downs of life. I can hardly wait to see what happens next. I know this all came about because of prayer. I had also made a committment to spending a specific amount of time with the Lord each night leading up to the walk. I could feel increased power from that and am so thankful that I made the sacrifice of my time. Praise God for his faithfulness!!

Another thing.. a relationship in my life that I have been praying to be reconciled has suddenly popped up out of the blue. All happened because of the Lord and because of his power.. not by my own hand. I have purposely taken myself out of that situation. There were several incidents over the weekend that helped me to realize that my heart is not desiring the wrong things. There willl be more about that later.. for now.. I will take that one day at a time and not anticipate anything happening at all. I'm done talking about it!

God is so faithful. I stood on the platform at Raleigh last night and shared with the congregation that about two years ago I stood on that same platform telling of what God did in my life as a disciple on the walk and how I was about to step into a period of lonliness and wandering in the wilderness. But now, I am standing on the same platform telling them that God has brought me out of the wilderness and is starting a new thing in m y life. Praise God!!! MOre to come... I believe with all of my heart that he's lining things up now for me and my period of waiting will be over shortly.

Weekend shinannigans

It was definately a busy weekend! I was not so excited about the events of Friday night~ my 10 year class reunion. The reason I was less than thrilled about this event was because of the location. (that, and I didn't feel all too connected to my classmates) Despite my hesitations, I went anyway.. what's the hurt. A lot of times I'll feel this way on the front end, then later I will be glad I went.

We all met up at the FACS homecoming football game (which was fine), mingled, then headed over to a very classy ;) grille and bar called "The Fox and the Hound" When you hear that the locale of your class reuniont is at this location two things come to mind: 1. Everyone else does their reunion here- Be creative! 2. It's a bar.. there will be a lot of drinking and not so much mingling. Poo! Well.. I got there and sat with some friends and ordered some fries and was fine. I was one of two not drinking.. and that was well and good. It was great to see everyone. I enjoyed catching up and seeing what everyone is doing with themselves. It was somewhat sad to see the condidion of my classmates.. some were even still mean to the people they were mean to in High school. It was definately an enlightening experience.

Because I am a very social person and I can make the best of everything.. I ended up staying until about 12:30. I enjoyed seeing some old friends.. that's really all there was to it. It also made me thankful for the life that I live and that it's not all about drinking and being mean to the same people I was mean to in High School. (I would definately get the award for mingling with the most people)


Saturday I had to wake up earlier than I would have liked to and was thankful that my hair didn't smell like a cigarette butt from the night before. I had a productive day at Chessie's (my boutique job outside of the First Assembly Bubble) Saturday night was a night of hopping around the city of memphis. I left east Memphis for Cordova to change and freshen up. After that I headed to Germantown to say farewell to lovely Helen Morgan and her husband Brent. They are moving back to England. They will be missed. It was a wonderful gathering with all too much food (as always) and an inspiring word from Dr. Richard Gilbertson. He's a deacon at our church who is one of the top cancer researchers for St. Jude and one of the best in the world. He has meetings with the presidents and gives lectures at Harvard. YOu would never know it though.. he's as down to earth as they get.. with his pencil like body clad in Hollister and always offering a friendly hello and a hug. His wife is just as wonderful. Always the perfect hostess!


After the party I drove back to Cordova to meet my lovely friend Jennifer for a late night Tyler Perry movie. We headed 20 min. more to Collierville to watch the much anticipateed new Madea Movie "I can do bad all by myself" It was amazing!!!!


Funny story... Before the movie even started, Jennifer and I were talking happily about the events of our day and I was sharing about the sermon that I had just heard at the Life Church (a stop that I made after work- I forgot to mention.. amazing worship.. brought me to tears amazing speaker- Christine Caine from Hillsong- totally challenged me to step up my game) anyway.. I get excited when i talk about the Lord and definately may have been talking a little louder at that point- can't help it- when an african american brother (granted we were the only two white girls in the theater) turned around from two rows and several chairs over and in front of us and told us we were talking too loud. Mind you, we weren't interrupting anything. It was so rediculous that he was agitated with us that Jennifer was just smiling at him thinking he was joking. I must have stared very blankly at him because he had to repeat it a couple of times. Well.. normally I am very apoligetic, but not this time.. I just said "Ok." and slightly lowered my voice "anyway" Then I struggled with the rest of my story because his attitude and the way he had said it were very rude. I had to even say to Jennifer "let me recover after that for a minute." We both ended up moving far far away from this man because every time we laughed we were totally conciencious that we were being too loud for him. It totally killed our joy for about 10 minutes but we quickly got over it. Our crabby black man story has definately been a hit the past few days. =)


Sunday was another busy day.. homework.. a great nap..and a underwhelming choir concert. I am sooo looking forward to getting away for the weekend at Discipleship Walk. I cannot wait to see what God does in the lives of these women!

Thursday

Inspired by my loverly friend Jennifer…


Today (9/24) I

Woke up not wanting to get out of bed (as usual)

Took my dog for a walk.. which was a challenge to do quickly because he needed to poo (not usual for mornings)- he takes forever!!

Rushed to work and immediately had visions of strong coffee

Passed the coffee making test for the second day in a row.. (my co-workers- Dianne Geabhart- Like it STRONG)

Watered my coffee down with cream and sugar

Settled in for a very slow day at work

called hospitals to check up on our church members

Didn't talk to Alette in the morning for the first time this week

Went to lunch and got a faaaabulous new nail polish by OPI for my BFF~ "Ate Berries in the Canaries" ~ then wished I could afford some for myself~

Bought salon quality shampoo and straightning gel for a ridiculously wonderful price

Got my sugar fix from a giant cup of McAlister's sweet tea thanks to my co-worker Diane O'Connor's craving~ she paid~

Ran errands for co-workers.. I am thankful to be the young one with the most energy.
Saw one of my favorite people~ Judi Bramlett~ in the store.. talked hugged.. talked to Kerri on the phone about her new baby.. heard the baby cry. =)

Back to work.. bored…

Wished that Jennifer didn't fan the OPI obsession! It's gonna be tough to resist buying a color per week!

Happy I get facebook updates on my phone. I am officially in the know! ~ going to support my friend Judi and her girl's HS volleyball team! Go Crusaders!

Enjoyed the Crusader volleyball game~ something different was good.

Went home and immediately put on my sweats and said "ahhhh" so great not to have anything to do tonight!!

Watched a new show on ABC "Flashforward" Awesome! Got mom hooked too!

Went through my piles of papers and mail~ I looove organizing.

Caught up on America's next top model.. on of my fav. shows!!

Went through my Discipleship Walk talk with mom.. made a few changes… Praise God it will be good!

Prayed over my talk and my life

Stayed up waaaaaaay too late…

This morning.. I overslept.. of course!! Frustrating! Managed to pull it together somehow..

Busy busy

Hello friends! I seriously have had very little time to sit down and write.. I've been extremeley busy with the this and thats of life. My first and foremost thing taking up time is my chemistry class. I've decided that chemistry is the devil. It was inspired by the evil forces of hell. I have also decided that all the people who actually understand are sitting in a corner somewhere and laughing at the rest of us average intelligence people. Not cool at all chemistry nerds!! If you are one.. don't take this personally.. I just am in a permanent bad mood due to the lack of sleep I get over this class.

Another very exciting activity in my life lately is the face that I am on the leadership team for a very amazing ministry retreat called Discipleship Walk with the wonderful church: Raleigh Assembly. I am giving a talk and leading a small group. I am very excited about sharing my heart with and ministering to these women. We had our last meeting this past Monday and the holy spirit was very much present.. God's power was very strong as we prayed for one another. Ooo I can't wait to see what he does in the lives of my fellow team members and more importantly the women going on the walk. I have a few women I am friends with that are going and it always makes it more exciting when someone you know is going. =) I feel so privelaged to have this honor to serve.

I also just got done throwing a baby shower for my friend Amy who is expecting her second child, a girl. It was great having her sister in law and another friend Tammy share the hosting load. Church is always busy.. with choir. We are doing a big produciton for Christmas this year/ broadway style! I tried out for one of the drama parts... that could add to my busy schedule.. we'll see. I only want God's plan.

Just for fun!

General Cosgrove was interviewed on the radio recently. You'll love his reply to the lady who interviewed him concerning guns and children.
Regardless of how you feel about gun laws you gotta love this! This is one of the best comeback lines of all time. It is a portion of an ABC interview between a female broadcaster and General Cosgrove who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military headquarters.


FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
So, General Cosgrove, what things are you going to teach these young boys when they visit your base?

GENERAL COSGROVE:
We're going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery and shooting.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?

GENERAL COSGROVE:
I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the rifle range.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?

GENERAL COSGROVE:
I don't see how. We will be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even touch a firearm.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
But you're equipping them to become violent killers.

GENERAL COSGROVE:
Well, Ma'am, you're equipped to be a prostitute, but you're not one, are you?

The radio went silent and the interview ended.