Weekend ReCap

So here is my weekend recap! :) Well, I should say SATURDAY b/c I was pretty lazy on Sunday, finally catching up on all my TV shows I had saved on my TiVo...and Friday night, I made dinner for Kenny and I, and then let him study.

Saturday, however, was VERY eventful. I woke up earlier than usual, thanks to Ruger being ready bright and early to play. I hadn't been to Panera in FOREVER and thought that sounded nice. I used to go almost every weekend when I was single and have my bible study or read or do homework. I loved it. I was there for about an hour having breakfast and just spending time in the Word. It was really great. I have been going through Beth Moore's "Esther" and learning CRAZY things about myself....new lies that I have allowed myself to believe and just learning about conforming to the world and what it says is "ok." Its been pretty eye-opening.

Around 11:30am, my dad and nephew, Mason, got to town for the OSU vs. Baylor game. The three of us got to Gallagher and walked around, showing Mason the new football stadium. He is a HUGE OSU fan. He used to come with us all the time, but now that he is older and plays sports, its harder for him to get up here. He is a great little athlete and I can't wait to see how God uses him. He is always taking a stand for Christ and its just AMAZING to see that kind of faith in our future generations!

My dad and Mason left Stillwater around 3:45, after a trip to Chris' University and a little play time with Ruger. At 5pm, I met some of my girlfriends at Texas Roadhouse. These girls are so great! I started a bible study in the summer of 2003 at my church (it wasn't my church at the time) and this group grew so close that after the study was over, we kept meeting once a month. Its been an amazing group! We have seen it all....break-ups, marriage, children, each others kids graduate from high school and college, and unfortunately we have even lost a member to cancer. Our group started out with 9...and has dwindled to 5. Three have moved away and one has gone to be with our Father. The rest of us try to meet once a month...most of the time its only 3 of us though. Its still so fun...and we catch up with each other and just girl-talk! I love it!!!

After dinner, I went home for about an hour and then headed to Joe's. Now those of you who know Stillwater know that Eskimo Joe's turns into a bar after 10pm....I haven't been in YEARS and was feeling quite old as I was fighting my sleepiness to head out that way. However, a friend of mine was playing a concert and I was excited to see the band "August Rose." I am so glad I went b/c it was amazing. Yet, another person who I can't wait to see where God takes them. Here are a few pictures form the concert! It was a blast!!! And I have to say that Joe's isn't so bad now that its smoke-free!!!! :) YAY!!!

The Weekend

This last weekend was fun and pretty relaxing. Now that Ken is working on weekends, I pretty much have Saturday and Sunday to get caught up on things....you know, things like laundry, cleaning, scrapbooking, TiVo. ;)

Friday night was not really special. I usually save my Walmart trip for Sunday after church b/c its so quiet, but I went Friday night instead. Going to the store the day before Valentine's Day is one of my favorite things to do. I love seeing people scramble to find that perfect card and dig through all the left over flowers. Its pretty funny. And this year....I even saw women!!! It wasn't just men!! When I got home and got settled in, I sat down and knitted my niece a blanket for her birthday. I made her one when she was born and its become more of a keepsake in her hope chest...so I thought it would be fun to make her one that she could play with.

For Valentine's Day, Ken and I decided that neither of us like to make a big deal out of the holiday. We didn't buy each other gifts or anything....I did get him a card, but oddly enough I still haven't given it to him. I did however make a nice dinner. As long as I got to just spend time with him, I was happy. I made a cajun pasta with chicken and shrimp (thanks Michelle!!! It was YUMMY!) and a homemade cheesecake. It was really my first one I've made from scratch SO I was pretty excited about it.....well that's a lie....I was REALLY nervous that it wasn't going to turn out well. A friend of mine at work kept telling me that cheesecakes are really easy, but people don't make them b/c they sound intimidating....so I was trusting her with that. Saturday I was up and running errands and getting little gifts for Lexis, Ruger, Flip, and Frasier (and yes, those are all animals and YES they all got new toys)!!! The rest of the day I was cooking. The cheesecake turned out just fine. I think when I do it again, I will make it the day before. It seemed to set up much better by Sunday. Ken and I enjoyed a nice evening just hanging out and we watched a little tv. Nothing exciting, but for me it was perfect just getting to be with him.

Raspberry and Vanilly Cheesecake

Sunday, I met a girlfriend for lunch and we went to see "He's Just Not That In To You." It was a really cute movie. I think we laughed through the whole thing. When Ken got off work, we headed to Tulsa. My mom has a family lunch the third Sunday of every month. Since Ken's birthday was this month, my mom changed it from lunch to dinner so he could be there. We had so much fun! It was fun just sitting around talking and laughing with my family. We had BBQ and my mom got this AMAZING cake from Nibble's in Tulsa. Its a German Chocolate cake with a layer of vanilla cheesecake in the middle. Its AMAZING!!!! They have THE best cakes and cupcakes in Tulsa!!!! My favorite story of the night was when I was telling my nephew that if he would come to Stillwater, Ken would take him for a ride in the police car. Caleb got so excited and looked at me and asked, "Will he dress up like one too?" HAHAHA!!! He didn't quite understand that Ken is a REAL police officer....Caleb thought he was just dressing up for fun. He then told Ken that he would dress up like "Lightening" (from "Cars") and bring his "Lightening" car too. Then they could drive together. It was too cute!

Celebrating Mark, Kim and Ken's Birthday's!Kenny and Me This was taken after MANY pictures....and Ken was done! :)

All in all the weekend was really great!

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!!!!

HAPPY BIRHTDAY KENNY!!!!

I love you so much and I am so thankful and blessed to have you in my life. You are so amazing and wonderful and there are not enough words to express what you mean to me! God has answered all of my many prayers by putting you in my life. I remember my youth director's wife telling me to hold out for the "fairy tale" and I am so glad that I did! God not only met every single one of my desires, but completely surpassed them.

I couldn't have asked for anything more!

I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day....seeing everything that God has done in your life and the excitement of how He will use you in the next year!

I Love You!

"TAKEN" brings thankfulness....

Last night Kenny and I went to see the movie, "Taken." It was really good and suspenseful. It shows you a whole new side of travelling (at least for girls by themselves). As I was watching this movie, I was so overwhelmed with thankfulness that God has brought me Kenny. I won't give any details away from the movie, but as we were watching I was so thankful that Kenny will protect his family. I was so thankful that we want to parent the same way and have the same views. I am sure there will be things that we won't see eye to eye on when it comes to parenting, but I do know that in certain situations of protecting our children, I know that we will stand beside one another. And, I know that he will always put their best interest first over wanting to be their "friend." Kids have enough friends and while I think there is a time and a place for a parent to be a friend, they still need a parent (even when the parent decision isn't the popular decision)....and I know we will support each other in that.

happy february!!!

Its February 2009! Only 11 months to go until 2010. :) My resolutions for '09 were to be healthy in all areas. I have been making better eating choices, working out 5 times a week, and having my quiet time every morning before work. My second one was to love my family...no strings attached. Love is an action and I am just trying to find things to do to love my family. In my quest to keep my second resolution, I am going to pray for specific people in my family each month. This month Kenny, Cannady, Mark and Kim are having birthdays. Kenny is turning 34 on February 3rd; Cannie turns 2 on February 6th; Mark turns 38 on the 13th; and Kim has a birthday on the 17th (I'm not posting her age without asking if its ok). While I try to pray for all my family everyday, it gets hard with so many of us....so besides the typical prayer for health and spiritual growth, I will be praying specifically for these four daily.

February is already full of activities and excitement. My close friend, Cindy is having her second child TOMORROW!!!! YAY!!!! I can't wait. Her and her husband, Mike, already have a little boy and now they are going to be blessed with daughter. I am so excited for them.

Celebrations of four birthdays will happen this month. Cannady is my youngest niece and she turns 2. Mark is my brother and Kim is his wife. Iwill also start working 80% this month, instead of full time, so that I can spend more time with Kenny. Our schedules are a little off with him working weekends, so this will give us a day to hang out together. I'll be singing at church on the 8th (anyone is welcome to come...church starts at 8:30am and 10:45am). Kenny (and I) are hosting a bonfire for the college ministry at his place. And the last weekend, Michelle and I are going to a women's retreat at a church in OKC. All of that topped with church, Cowboy Basketball and keeping up with my favorite TV shows ;) this month could possible fly by....but there will be many blessings along the way!

Here are the February Birthdays:

The Ice Storm

We had a nice little ice storm, with a little snow on the side, last week. I was wonderful b/c I got off work on Monday at 2pm and didn't go back until Thursday. Kenny and I had a good time getting to spend some quality time together since those were his days off work. Here are some pictures I took at his house one day.

Philippians

Wow...could I have taken a longer blog break??? I don't know what my deal is. I do have things to blog about, I just haven't taken the time to sit and do it. So, I am back with many things to talk about. :)

First of all my pastor has started going through Philippians on Sunday mornings. I love Philippians. Our former college pastor took the college ministry (which I was serving in at the time...I wasn't in college) through it in his Sunday School class and I just fell in love with it. I learned so much and I can't wait to go through it again and see what God has in store for me this time. We've been on the first four verses the last two weeks. (If you aren't familar with my church, our pastor teaches one book at a time and goes verse by verse, passage by passage. We will probably be in Philippians for at least a year.).

I'm not going to go through all the background....I am going to just touch on what I learned or what was convicting to me.

"Keep your focus on your service to Jesus Christ, not on your circumstances."

"When we look at our circumstances, we sink; When we look at our Savior, we stand."

I think this is something I always struggle with. I believe it most of the time, but every once in awhile I sucked into the circumstance. My favorite thing to dwell on is when I'm not getting my way. Yes, I begin to act like I'm two years old. I have struggled with this for a long time, and for some reason I'm not learning very quickly so God continues to work on this area. Its like a knot in your neck or back that just won't go away...not matter how many massages you get or how hard you try to relax....its just not going away. I begin focusing on my circumstances when God's timing isn't my own.

As many of you know, marraige has been my biggest struggle. I just couldn't understand why God wouldn't let me get married. I may never know the reasons, but I do know that I have had to learn to be content with where He has me....which we will also be studying in Philippians. It was a daily adventure of learning God's character and learning to trust Him in everything. It wasn't always easy and I made some godly decisions, some not so godly decisions, and some really stupid decisions. I wouldn't trade my single life for anything!!! I really enjoyed it! One of my favorite things about being single is that I was able to focus ALL my time into serving in whatever ministry I wanted, as much as I wanted. That meant, for me, the college ministry...pretty much every night until at least midnight and some nights it was later.
The best advice I got was "Its better to be single and alone and know WHY you're alone than to be married and alone and not know why you are lonely." I knew from that moment on that I would wait for God. As much as I HATE waiting, I didn't want to be lonely in marraige....I hated it enough on my bad single days, so to think of it being DAILY and IN A RELATIONSHIP made me sick. It broke my heart to think of the college girls I knew that were so discouraged at the fact they weren't married by the time they finished college. I had been there and I felt the exact same way....but how much worse would it have been (for both people) to marry the wrong person. I am so very thankful for God's timing even though I am incredibly impatient.
I am still having to learn to be patient on His timing. I still feel like I know what's best in the relationship He has brought me. I still would like to offer God my assistance KNOWING He doesn't need it. I get so upset because I don't get my way all the time....also knowing deep down that my timing is NOT the best! Thankfully God has brought me someone that is incredibly logical, yet loving. He offsets my emotions that I love to quickly react to....and yet he loves me for me. He doesn't get frustrated with me...he gently explains the logic and godly intent that he has and keeps me going and encouraged during the wait. He helps me calm down and see what God is doing and ENJOY what God is doing.

Which kind of brings me to the next point:

"Live a life of joy in an uncertain world."

"Our joy is not found in some joy-getting-method, but in the person of Jesus Christ."

No matter what is going on in our lives or around us (especially things we can't control), we can have joy because of our faith in Christ!!!

In the first four verses ALONE, this is what I've learned:

1. We are bondservants=slaves of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)...we belong to Christ. We have been bought with a price.
2. Paul was writing to the church at Philippi and he specifically called them "saints," which means "set apart ones." As believers, we are set apart.
3. Not only are we set apart, but we are positionally set apart in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)...our goal is that our experiences and lives will live up to our position in Christ, a saint.
4. one of my favorites...when you see "Christ Jesus" in the Bible, it is emphasizing His deity; when you see "Jesus Christ" it is emphasizing Him as Savior.
5. We are to thank God for believers in our lives...whenever they come to our mind. The believers that made an impact in your life, that YOU made an impact in someone else's life, and those you have served with. Be thankful that we are ALL in this together!
6. We are to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17) and what makes that easier is to know what to be praying for. Ask people how you can specifically be praying for them....and then MAKE IT A PRIORITY!!! When you tell someone you are going to be praying for them, DO IT!
7. Joy and rejoicing are mentioned at least 14 times in the book of Philippians. WOW! We are to be characterized by joy. We can be joyful b/c no matter what comes into our lives, God is working EVERYTHING to the counsel of His will.

I am so excited to be back in Philippians again. I know I will be sharing more with you b/c this book always gets me. :)