wow twice in one week

I may be on a roll folks!!!

It is Labor day weekend and I have been working on a ton of stuff.  I spent all day Saturday chillin around the house and watching a Katherine Hepburn marathon on TV.   Sunday I spent the day cleaning the kitchen, doing my laundry and cleaning and rearranging my bedroom.  I also worked a couple of hours at Ebz.  My room looks more open and clean now that I have moved some stuff into the spare bedroom.  I was able to move my desk over next to the window that gets the most sunlight and the bed now has my fall/winter bedspread on it.  Tomorrow I will probably spend the day working on some jewelry, shopping at Target and dinner with friends.  

I really do love these long weekends.  I get so much done and it is much more relaxing than a two day weekend.   I wrote three letters and finished one of two lanyards for a friend at work.  I picked my crocheting back up and am working on making some cool notecards.  I finally downloaded all my pictures and am working on uploading all the pictures of the jewelry I made to my jewelry blog and the etsy site to attempt to sell some.  I spent all day today listening to music instead of watching tv and I must say I LOVE MUSIC.  

whoa

So it's OBVIOUSLY been quite a long time since I last posted.  

Lets see... I've done a lot of traveling this summer.  Some beautiful weddings and some first time visits to places.  Watched Dark Knight four times, watched Michael Phelps become the worlds #1 athlete, and the US dominate the Medal Count in Beijing.  Finished grad school in May, increased production in my jewelry line and kept extremely busy at work.  Really really busy.

Let's see, with traveling I've added San Jose, San Francisco, and Monterey, California to my map of places visited, Key West, Florida and Connecticut.  I've been to Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, California and Florida.  I am pretty exhausted and looking forward to a weekend or two of relaxing at some point in time.  

Favorite weekends had to be going to California, visiting Beth in Iowa (cutest pregnant woman I have ever seen!), and the Highland games coming up next weekend with dad.  

Now for real I will try to keep this updated more often.

Full MOON?!?!?!?!?!?!

Okay so last week felt like it was nothing but a full moon and nothing could go right.

Things were ridiculous at work with me still learning things and also trying to get things done correctly, which I couldn’t seem to do. We finally got her taken care of by 1700 on Friday the 29th but it was very very last minute and I don’t like things being that last minute. The whole week was draining as I was at work between 0730 and 0800 every morning and not getting out of work before 1800 each night. By the time I would get home around 1845 and 1930 all I wanted to do was eat and go to bed. Now don’t get me wrong, I STILL LOVE MY JOB!!!! I love being busy as opposed to my old job. I just need to figure out how to balance the stress so that I don’t continually break out the way I did this week and get myself into a rhythm for sleeping.

Then came the weekend……

Friday night was the church Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. I attended but didn’t stay too long as I was utterly exhausted. I was almost asleep later that night when I got a call from my “little bro” Dan. His Mum and my friend had almost passed out while driving them home from the dinner. She was taken to the hospital and sent home later that night. It was all really crazy though because I couldn’t get down there to help and I felt so bad that Dan was all by himself until his aunt and uncle could arrive. Then Saturday morning on my way up to visit a friend in Bel Air, MD I got a message from my father saying that MY MUM was in the hospital. She had fallen at work and been knocked out. They had taken her to the local community hospital and done a CAT scan. They weren’t satisfied with the results and because they didn’t have a neurologist on call for the weekend then sent her to Danville. At Danville they found slight hemorrhaging on the brain and decided to keep her overnight for review. They finally released her Sunday afternoon and sent her home with instructions to not drive or work for a week.

I am utterly drained physically, emotionally and spiritually right now and can’t think about anything. ARRRRGGGGHHHHH Prayers are much appreciated by any and all who read this.

It's been awhile

Wow, I obviously am not staying on top of this very well. Lets see what have I been up to since New Year's?

Well I have been at my job for almost three months and I still love it!! I am getting some really great experience and opportunities. I don't know if I can express just how much I really love my job.

Let's see, what else? I have been keeping busy with school and recently I went through an abcessed tooth and root canal. NOT FUN!!! Discovered I really don't like the company that I am employed through, though I love my job. I pampered myself at a spa with a massage, pedicure and really expensive hair cut that didn't turn out the way I wanted. Been up to see my little nephews twice. Started to set life goals and am working on a piece of jewelry for a friends wedding this summer. Found out another good friend is making me an Aunt, which I can't wait for!!! I am taking swing dancing lessons, finishing up my last two classes for my MBA and cooking a lot more.

Otherwise can't think of much else to write here, but I just wanted to update what has been happening.

Out with the Old and in with the NEW

Well it is officially the start of a new year and I have yet to finish recapping the old year.

The rest of November...was basically boring with a great trip to NC thrown in to visit my sis for Thanksgiving. My Mum flew down Monday before Thanksgiving and I surprised my sister and drove in late Tuesday night and stayed until Sunday. We went all out and cooked a turkey and all the fixin's. We had a couple of guests over and chilled. Janis and then went to the beach for a couple of hours. It was a good time but then it was back to the grind in DC.

Once back in DC it was time to break out the Christmas decorations. It was pretty nice this year, we had painted, added our copper accents, and rearranged the furinture.

Then I got the wonderful opportunity to attend the National Christmas Tree lighting. It was okay but kinda cheesy. However the friends I went to see it with was time well spent. We froze our butts off and then hit up the local Capital City Brewery for dinner. It was wonderful!!! (I'll even post a pic of how close I got to the Pres. I didn't say it was actually close though :-/)

Then we closed the semester from small group with a small Christmas party. Good times with Good Friends.

Then it was Christmas time with both my immediate family and my best friend family.

Okay New Year's later plus new goals for the new year!

Wow!!!

Yeah so I had an amazing rest of the week last week and a fabulous weekend.

First of all on Friday I got a call from one of the women I have been interviewing with for this new position. She wanted to know if i could stop by really quick and meet with the other person I would be supporting. I had no other plans but to leave early that day because it was so slow and boring at work so of course I went. It was amazing! Both women are impressed and love me and basically without actually having been offered the position in so many words, I know I have the position based on their comments and the next steps they have me taking. I AM SOOOO PUMPED!!! The position is amazing and will be sooo fulfilling. Instead of going home tired out of my mind from boredom I will be going home tired from actually having worked hard. I look forward to it more than some people can even fathom. :-)

Now Saturday was every bit as good. I had rented a car for the weekend to be able to get out of the city and enjoy the last of the fall foliage along Skyline Drive in Virginia. My friend Courtney and I grabbed breakfast at a little french cafe in the city, had the best french toast ever and then hit the road. We went south before going north because as I have discovered on past occasions going west on 66 and heading south will tack on an extra hour or two to your trip. Plus the traffic would have given me a massive headache.

So by 11:30 AM we were on our way. It was sooooo beautiful and the day was perfect. For those of you who know the quirkiness of me, you know that even though I suffer from sun deprevation depression my favorite days are cloudy gray days with bright autumnal leaves offering a magnificent contrast. That is exactly what we got to start the day. We had intermitten shots of sunshine as well but few and far between. So back to the trip itself, we stopped at a Wawa on our way out of the suburbs and grabbed lunch. Then we continued on and slowly but surely all signs of the city and suburbs fell away to mountains, forests, intermitten houses and numerus apple stands. At one such stand we decided to stop and grab some apples, cider and honey. The farmer had some cups at the stand so we grabbed them to go with our cider and the honey, man it had actual honeycomb in the jar. Then we continued on. The leaves and the scenery continued to get more and more beautiful the farther we went.

You know I seriously wonder sometimes how human beings could possibly explain all the wonder and beauty that can be seen around us as a result of evolution or a big bang. It is soooo obvious to me that it's only description for being can be a magnificent and wonderful Creator who wants to show us just how wonderful and beautiful He is. I mean to see all the different colors and so much of it, its well its indescribable. (thanks to Chris Tomlin for putting it to words)

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea

Creation's revealing Your majesty

From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring

Every creature unique in the song that it sings

All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the stars in the sky and

You know them by name.

You are amazing God

All powerful, untamable,

Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim

You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go

Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow

Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light

Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night

None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the stars in the sky and
You know them by name

You are amazing God

All powerful, untamable,

Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim

You are amazing God

Alright back to the trip, we both got many beautiful pictures.

And when we reached the top of Skyline Drive we got a wonderful surprise!!!

SNOW!!! Courtney loved it as she is from Texas and I was okay with it cause I knew I would be leaving it behind. But I did throw my first snowball for the season! It was a good time.

Then it was back to the city, take a nap and then Courtney came over for pizza and we watched Miss Congeniality. Then to bed.

Sunday was a great day too. First of all Pats had a bye so I didn't have to stress about a football game. Though I was rather shocked that the COLTS LOST TO THE CHARGERS?!?!?!? Pastor Joel covered the next movie in the God at the Box Office series. His was The Pursuit of Happyness. I haven't seen the movie but what I did see of it this weekend I need to go rent it. It was an excellent message. The rest of the day was full of other such fun events as well. I took JennO to Tunnicliff's for lunch and then we ran to Target for some quick pick ups. The best part of the whole day was when I met up with my friends Michelle and Amy and we headed up to the 930 club to see the David Crowder Band.

Talk about the most amazing time of my life!!!! A group called the Myriad started the concert and they were phenomenal. Then Phil Wickham played and I have found two new artists that I really love. Then by the time DCB got up there I was ready to sing some praise and worship myself instead of just listen to it. AND PRAISE GOD DCB invited everyone to sing along with them. It was amazing. I believe I experienced the Holy Spirit for the very first time. I have never felt so free to worship ever before and in such a public place. I almost literally felt the Holy Spirit come in and lift me up. IT was all I could do to not try and crawl up into Heaven with Him. It was amazing!!!

Okay this is taking awhile to type up so I'll post more later. God Bless. Oh yeah enjoy Veteran's day fr all you who get the day off.

Update

Well to start Cayd Elijah was born November 2nd, 2007 at 9:35 PM. He is 9 pounds 8 oz, 22 inches long. He is the spitting image of his big brother when he was an infant. Red hair and all. I can't wait to say hello to the little guy.

As for me, I had both interviews and they both went well. The one I actually withdrew my application later because I realized that I wanted the other one more than I did that one. Now I am basically just interviewing all over the place looking for a new job.

I am really excited because I met Sunday with the group of folks who have all expressed an interest in going to India in the Spring with NCC. There was about 12 of us and all had different backgrounds. Some of the folks had been on prior trips with NCC and know what to expect. Then there are others who are more like me, never been on a trip outside the US and freaked beyond reason to go. It is going to be an expensive trip and a trip that requires complete faith in God. I will have to take a week and a half off work, it costs approximately $3000, I have to have a bunch of shots (and for those of you who know me well, know that I am a 27 year old baby when it comes to needles), and it will be a huge step outside of my comfort zone.

I was encouraged however during this meeting by those who said that if you are fighting with whether or not your supposed to go then you are definitely supposed to go. That is most definitely satan fighting hard to make you stay when he knows if you go he will lose more. That is both encouraging and discouraging. I get tired of constantly fighting to do the right thing. Sometimes I feel that no matter how hard I fight I just keep getting beat down and I just don't want to do it anymore. I feel like throwing in the towel and going up into the hills and becoming a hermit. Never having to deal with people again and thus never really having to fight. All I would do is read my Bible and pray. There would be nothing there to make it hard.

Now I know this is foolish and extremely selfish because this world and my life is not about me and my creature/spirit comforts but rather about God. I know that I made the decision to be used by Him which means that my life will never be easy. I have made the choice that I will honor and glorify Him in everything that I do. Thus, I will keep fighting, I will keep reading and studying and learning more about Him. I will keep allowing Him to put me in situations that require complete faith in Him. I know by just saying that I have opened myself up to more hardship than I personally can probably handle but I know that if I continue in His word and in daily prayer with Him I will be able to make it through and come out the other side more refined than before.

well that's all for today. Thanks to all who read this and pray, especially Beth. I covet everyone's prayers.