Really?! Seriously?!

Any of you who are Free Will Baptists know that our National Convention is right around the corner. At this convention my department always has a booth set up in the exhibit hall. A co-worker and I have been working on getting things ready for the booth for the past couple of weeks. We came up with a great idea of adding a backdrop to our booth this year. For this backdrop we need several pictures that is easily identifiable with our department. We felt like we should use stock photos instead of our own pictures as to not get the backdrop outdated since we planned on using this for several years.

We had told the printing company the type of photos we would like and they can just find some stock photos for us instead of us having to do it since they were more experienced in this area. Well, I got email from them today saying the designer was having a hard time finding photos so they sent us three links to websites to find stock photos. Ugh! Am I really paying them for a design that I'm coming up with? Anyway, I decided to spend my ENTIRE day today scouring these websites for photos that might work for the backdrop. I go on this one certain website and I click on the category "Religion" because surely I can find the perfect photos. I found photos alright but not what I was expecting.

There were 1,918 pages that were available to view. They were filled with churches, crosses and fish signs. What really got my attention were the angel photos. They weren't the pictures of angels that we grew up looking at in Sunday School. You know what I'm talking about, the fuzzy halo above the head, the plastic and glittery wings and the long flowy white bedsheet attire. This particular angel was wearing white and did have a pair of wings but is knee socks and a thong really part of the angel garb? Somehow I'm thinking not. I was a little taken aback so I called a few co-workers over to confirm that this is not how the angels in Heaven are dressed. They got a kick out of the picture and we all had a good laugh but it did make me think about how flippant people are about Christianity these days.

It makes me sad to see people who call themselves Christians but you just can't tell it in their daily lives. If you are a true Christian and try to live your life the way God wants you to, would you still use curse words (no matter how little you use it)? Would you still dress in a way that isn't pleasing to God? We are to glorify and edify God in all things that we do. I know that I don't always accomplish this task but I sure do try. It hurts me to see people raise their hands in church during a song or say the loudest amen during a sermon and then the next day you see them using bad language and dressing a way where you can see all God gave them. I've had people tell me that they dress and act that way so they can reach people where the "stuffy, cookie-cutter Christians" can not. But how can the unsaved really know that they you are a Christian if you are acting and dressing the same way they are? Wouldn't they be surprised if you are being just like them and say, "Oh, yeah, I'm a believer. You need to be a believer also." It doesn't make any sense at all. They would think, "Well, if you act and dress just like me, why do I need to saved? I'm already like you." The Bible says we are to be in the world and not of the world. Why can't some Christians understand that. Maybe they never really got it in the first place.

Oy! I came on here to tell you about the thonged dressed angel and you got a sermon, sort of. Have a great weekend!

Never Never Never!!

Just popping in for a quick minute to say that there are just some things that men should never wear. Short sleeve dress shirts are one of them. Never! Never! Ever! Never!! It's very 70's! They just creep me out and I was creeped out all day. I don't think I can recover from the monstrosity that I witnessed today. ;-) Have a great night!

Empty

My brain is empty today. I have absolutely nothing to blog about that I can think of at the moment. That might not be such a bad thing. Better luck tomorrow. :)

Oh - Serena, the story of you and the bee that you left as a comment was hilarious! That totally sounds like how I would react. I probably would have crashed my car. That is a perfect example why I don't drive with my windows down. Is it just me or are the bees extremely massive this year?!

At last...

Friday is here! Is there a better day than Friday? You may think Saturday is the best day of the week, but in all reality Friday is the best day. It's the day you look forward to on Monday mornings and what pushes you to get up each day of the week. It's the door to a fabulous weekend. It's the end to a stressful long week that is filled with appointments, deadlines and being with people who make you want to jab an ice pick in your eye. (I don't feel this way but you might...just hypothetical situations here.) :-)

To make it even better it's a three day weekend! I'm stoked. I love long weekends. I'm hoping that I can make it to the park this weekend to do some walking. I get so bored walking inside on the treadmill. I just dread it but I look forward to walking on this trail. It circles a lake and is in the woods and it's just beautiful. Hopefully it won't rain too much this weekend to where I can make it out there a few times.

Hope you have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!

Bzzzzzzzzz!

The Fall is and always will be my favorite time of the year but I also enjoy the springtime. I don't know if it's because we are coming out of really cold weather and we can start wearing short sleeves, shorts, etc. or not. I love the smell of fresh cut grass (which, by the way, did you know that Yankee Candle used to have a fragrance of fresh cut grass? not sure if they still do or not). I love the smell of the flowers in bloom. There are many Bradford Pear trees all around where I work and they are so beautiful when they start to bloom. But as much as I love the spring and summer I hate it all at the same time. I even loathe it at times. Why? Because of those stinking bugs!

Now before I start on this I have to say that I do enjoy being outside. I love to go hiking. I love to sit and watch outside sports. I love going to the beach or pool and just lay out and have fun. I do enjoy this time of year but I have a huge, HUGE phobia of wasps. In reality, I have a fear of all things with stingers. I can't stand the buzzing in my ear when something flies by. When I see a wasp or one of those big fat bumble bees I totally freeze...or run screaming. It's very embarrassing. Why God made me this way, I'll never know. I don't even know why I have this fear because I've never been stung by anything, knock on wood. But it's there and it can be so paralyzing, like when I drive through fog, but that's a whole other blog...or therapy session. :) I won't even drive with my windows down or my sunroof open because I'm afraid that a wasp will fly in while stopped at a red light. How sad is that?!

Would you also believe that if a fly comes flying past me very quickly that my heart will start to go in arrhythmia? It's true. When I was about 3 or 4 years old our family lived in a rural town called Johnsonville, IL. We lived in the country in a small two bedroom one bath home. I was in the restroom taking care of business when I look up and in the corner a see something big and black buzzing around in the corner of the ceiling. I immediately start to freak out because, for one, its huge. I then proceed to run to the door with my pants and all around my ankles. I turn the knob and the door won't open. I've locked the door and I guess in my panic mode as a 4 year old I don't know how to unlock the door. I started pounding and kicking the door while screaming at the top of my lungs. My parents come running to the door because, well, I'm screaming like I've cut off my left toe or my eye has just fallen out of my head. They finally get me calmed down long enough to tell me how to unlock the door. When I finally get the door open, I proceed to tell them that I was just about attacked by a bug on steroids. My mom goes into the bathroom to see what it was and starts to laugh. Not just a chuckle but the woman is laughing hysterically because it was only a fly. A HUGE fly but still, a fly. To this day, my family still makes fun of me for this but I don't care. I was traumatized severely for almost being eaten alive by a fly.

There is no doubt in my mind that this event attributed greatly to my fear of things with wings and stingers. As much as I feared that fly that day I have an even greater fear of wasps. I have no idea why either. I have no story to tell about wasps. I just fear them. During the summer for some reason the wasps come out at my church. There is always at least one or two that are flying around the ceiling and you better believe that I know where they are and I follow them with my eyes. It's hard to concentrate on the sermon when I know those wasps are flying around just waiting for the perfect moment to swoop down and attack me. There was the one time a few weeks ago when I was on the stage singing with the praise team and I spot this wasp at the back of the church and watch him fly up the aisle like he owned the place and I swear he was heading right for me. I grabbed the girl who was standing next to me and I said, "If I faint, just leave me there until the wasp is gone." It's so humiliating.

I guess it's okay though. That's what makes life exciting, huh! :)

Happy Thursday!

Randomness

Ever have one of those days where there are so many thoughts going through your head all at once? That's me today. I've been trying to decide all day what to blog about and I think I've had about a million ideas go through my head. My brain is just too cluttered.

I had thought about blogging about my favorite show NCIS since it's season finale was last night. I even had the thought to blog about how all the good shows are going off of TV now and there usually aren't too many good things to watch on TV which will make for a long boring summer. Then after thinking about that made me think, "Boy, do I need some hobbies." Which in turn then made me think how boring I really am and how sad it is that I don't have anything to do really. Then that got me to thinking how I really would like to go bowling even though I really stink at it.

I had thought about talking about losing weight since I have felt like a fat cow all week (and it's only Wednesday) and I know I need to get motivated and determined to lose this weight. It was especially on my mind after a friend emailed me a video about a restaurant in Chandler, AZ, where they serve a quad burger that is 8,000 calories and has 2 lbs of meat on it. It was rather disturbing but yet that burger looked quite tasty.

I had thought about talking about my phobia of wasps and needles since I had said some time ago that I had would blog about it. The topic of forgiveness and being a virtuous person crossed my mind since I had Ladies Prayer Group on Monday night. I've been thinking about our meeting which was so good and if any women from my church are reading this and you don't attend LPG? Shame on you. You don't know the blessing you are missing.

Then I got to thinking about dreams, goals, and desires but I've dealt with that quite a bit lately and I feel like I'm getting repetitious and I don't want to bore anyone. Then I thought I would talk about ice cream because our church is going to participate in an ice cream crankin event in June. We participate in it every year and I always make two gallons of ice cream. I know the flavor of the first gallon but I'm having a hard time coming up with a second flavor. I would like for it to be unique but really good, so if anyone has a recipe that they wouldn't mind sharing, I would greatly appreciate it.

So you are probably wondering, "Why blog then if you don't have a clear idea of what to say and waste my time?" That's a good question. Maybe it's because my friend was like, "You only post once a week anyway." :) So this is really my attempt to try and blog everyday again. But its just one of those days where its gorgeous out and I would love to be on the walking trail at my favorite park with my iPod and contemplating all these thoughts. It seems when I go walking I'm free to just go and think and talk to God. We usually get a lot of things accomplished during these walks but I've not been able to go to the trail much anymore. It's just so beautiful out today that every time I look out the window a new thought pops in my head. Just like right now, I glanced out the window and saw the blue sky, puffy white clouds and the greenest leaves on the tree and I just thought about where my Prince Charming could be. Oh geez. I'm really hopeless today.

Happy Wednesday!

Gotta love Brad Paisley...I may have to park the blog on this song for a few days. :)

Too Long

Just looked over all my past blog posts and realized they are forever long. I'm sure no one is reading all the way through them anymore. So sorry about that. I didn't realized they were so long. I'll try and shorten them from now on although I can't make any promises. ;-)

We are the Champions!

In case you were wondering, lack of blogging means I have nothing interesting going on in my life. It's just been typical days filled with typical everyday things. Of course, it stormed and poured rained all weekend but it was very nice...especially when you have no where to go. I love just watching it out the window.

Since it stormed all weekend I was able to catch up on some movies that I had recorded on my DVR. I watched The Final Season starring Sean Astin. It was very interesting and almost had the same feel as Facing the Giants but it wasn't a Christian movie. But it was a very good movie about this small town in Iowa who found out their high school was closing because of budget cuts. They had an awesome baseball team who won the state championships for the past 20 years. The movies is about their final baseball season. Apparently it's a true story. It wasn't Oscar worthy but it was a very good film. I probably wouldn't have watched it if it didn't have Sean Astin in it. I enjoy most of his movies so I decided to give it a try. I wasn't disappointed. His brother was also in the movie. I also watched The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. It's a football movie starring Dennis Quaid. That was a really good movie but a little sad. I love sport movies. I don't really know why I love them. Hate to play sports but love to watch it and watch movies regarding any type of sport. The movie Miracle? One of my favorites. I don't even watch hockey or know anything about it but I love that movie. Let's not forget any of the Mighty Ducks movies. And who doesn't love Rudy? If there was ever an underdog movie that would be it. I love that movie and I cry at all the same places every time I watch it. That's just how it is. (Of course, I'm a little impartial to that movie since Rudy grew up in my birthplace, Joliet, IL )You know the movie Cool Runnings? Yep, love it too and I don't even watch bobsledding. Do they even show that sport on TV? The only time I ever watch bobsledding is during the Olympics. It's a fascinating sport, I guess. I don't really know a whole lot about it but Cool Runnings is good. I guess, for me, the thing I love most is the determination and discipline each of these movies instill in everyone. All the main characters have a goal or dream and they are determined to meet those goals at any cost. They are very disciplined to do what it takes and they are rewarded for it at the end...except for Cool Runnings when they crash at the end, but that's neither or nor there. :) It's the whole lesson they try to teach people is reach for the stars be passionate in what you want and be determined to get there with lots of hard work and dedication. When you achieve that you will reach that goal. It sort of reminds me of our walk with the Lord. Our ultimate goal is to get to Heaven when pass away. So we have to be determined, passionate and dedicated to reach that goal. We need to be determined that no matter what we will follow the Lord. We will be determined to fight life's temptations into sin. We need to be passionate about the Lord and our walk with him. We need to serve Him with all our hearts and tell people about him and win as many souls as we can for him. We need to be dedicated and discipline ourselves to serving Him. We are to have no other things before Him. That does take a lot of dedication and discipline because it's so easy to put sports, TV, friends, family and even ministry before Him. Sometimes we get so busy working for Him that we don't see and we forget to serve and worship Him. Wow, who knew that when I started writing about Rudy and Cool Runnings that I would get off on that. It's nice and needed to be reminded of that at times though.

Anyway, tonight I have Ladies Prayer Group at church and for our meal we are to bring some type of salad. I'm sure there will be plenty of potato and macaroni salad. I made a grape salad. It is so yummy and a great summer dessert. It's my sister in law's recipe and she gets so upset with me every time I make it. Not because I make her recipe but because I never write it down and I'm always calling her asking her how to make it. It's a very easy recipe and I remember everything that goes in it but I don't always remember how much of everything that goes in it. So at 9:45 pm last night I'm calling her to find out how much sugar and vanilla goes in it. Every time I call and ask her a question about it she always says, "Write it down!" I always tell her that I'm writing it down but, let's be honest, I never do. Why should I write it down when I can just call her? She should be happy to talk to me no matter what the real reason. :) She loves me anyway. I do have it written down somewhere though. I just don't know where it is at the moment.

Happy Monday!

Read the Directions

Oh, it's only Tuesday and I feel like it should be Friday with the way this week has turned out to be. It's been busy. It actually started last week and I think by tomorrow I can finally breathe a little. Whew! I sure hope so. Our bookkeeper here at work was on vacation all last week and yesterday so I did the deposits for her. This is not something I'm used to doing but love doing. Anyway, since I'm not use to doing this I'm incredibly slow at it. So many tedious things that are involved with depositing checks and monies to the bank. I'm so slow at it that it would literally take me to lunch time to get it all accomplished each day. It was fun to do and if I did it all the time I'm sure my time would speed up but I guess when you are working with money its better to be slow and accurate.

Now I'm not one to always follow the rules or directions so I don't want to sound like I'm perfect but I have a pet peeve (like I said before, I have many of them.) But when a form says "Office Use Only" why do people still write in that area when clearly that are not office workers? When people send in their donations here they usually send a form back to us that we provide for them to fill out. I can't tell you how many of these said forms where filled out in the improper place on this form this past week and it just kind of irked me a little. It's not a huge big deal that people actually wrote in the wrong box but can't they read? It's like our Faith Promise Cards. When our missionaries take them to the churches to have people fill them out they mail the cards back to me. We have a spot right above the address line where it clearly says "Please Print". Do you think people print? No. They right in cursive. Usually it doesn't matter so much but there are people out there whose handwriting is atrocious. It's worse than chicken scratch and I can not make out what their name or address is. It's a little annoying. I've even had our publication editor bold it, underline it, put it in all caps. We've done everything but circle it and put it up in neon lights. Does that help though? No. People still write and it's not in print. Oh well. I guess that's what makes this world so exciting. All the little things that get your blood pressure up and going. We also had new missionaries come in for orientation so that made for a busy day but I enjoy it. I've always said I would rather be busy than not because I get bored so easily.

I had a nice surprise this weekend. My brother and his family came up Sunday night and then left today at lunchtime. They came to see my mom who has been very ill for the past four months. Luckily, we seemed to have found some medicine that might be working to help her feel better. We will know in a few days once the meds get in her system. But it was so much fun having them here. My niece and nephew have got such personalities and we laughed so hard at them. Last night around 9 pm we ended up getting ice cream and my brother had the brilliant idea to give his 3 year old daughter some. She was so hocked up on sugar that it took forever to get her calmed down but boy was she hilarious during that time. She had us cracking up and I could tell that she really lifted my mom's spirits and you could see she was starting to feel better. We had a great time. I hated to see them go but hopefully I can make it down there in a few weeks.

I'm looking forward to a nice quiet evening at home with nothing to do but watch Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. What would we do with television? :)

Happy Tuesday!

Weekend Wrap-up

I can't believe how fast this weekend is going by. Isn't it true for all weekends though? The week always seems to drag by and the weekends just fly by. I wish that for every week we worked we got a week off. So we would only be working every other week. Doesn't that sound cool? Now, how can I get that constitutionalized? :)

I finally got all my belongings moved from my apartment and put where they are supposed to be for right now. Instead of a movingapoolsa it turned into a moving extravaganza. It took forever to get me moved because of all the bad weather we've been having here. It's almost ridiculous all the rain and storms we've been getting. I'm ready to go live where you don't have to worry about tornadoes every single time it storms. Anyway, I had my final walk through on my apartment on Friday and turned in my keys. It was a little bittersweet because that was my first place that I had on my own and I loved the apartment. But I'm really excited for this next step so I was glad to say good bye to it as well.

Friday night I had a girls night with a couple of friends from church. We ate Genghis Grill and and let me tell you it is a fabulous place. They give you this little bowl and then you fill with any kind of meat, veggies, spices and sauce that you want then you tell them the type of starch you want with it and they cook it on this round stone with sticks. It's very fascinating. We had the best time. It stopped storming long enough to enjoy eating outside. After dinner we went to go see the new Jennifer Garner and Matthew McConaughey movie "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past". It was cute but really wasn't that great. It was a little predictable. It sort of reminded me of "A Christmas Carol". If you can wait to rent it, I would do that. But it was a cute movie and Matthew McConaughey wasn't too bad on the eyes, ladies. One of the girls stayed after to watch "Wolverine" and I was supposed to stay and watch it with her but I was so exhausted from moving that I had to pass. I hated it too because I was looking forward to seeing it but there was no way that I would have stayed awake for that one. Oh well, she'll tell me all about it and then I'll see it some other time.

That's about all that is going on right now. Sad isn't it? I need to get back to unpacking and getting things organized. Hope your weekend is going great!

Play Dead

A co-worker of mine sent this to me and it is the cutest and funniest video I have ever seen. Enjoy!

Singing in the Rain

I have found a new love. My mornings are so much better now that I have discovered Bagelfuls. Have you tried them? They are so good.

It is a bagel in a tube shape filled with cream cheese. You can put it in the toaster and microwave. I only tried it in the toaster and it's quite tasty. It also comes in different flavors like blueberry, cinnamon, and they have a plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese. I'm so excited about that. I only had seen the original so when I saw there were other flavors my life perked up that much more. :) The laziness in me really loves this product because you don't have to take time to spread the cream cheese on it. It's all ready in there and the bagel to cream cheese ratio is quite excellent. It's also very filling and fruit is a perfect addition to the meal. Do I sound like a commercial yet? Go try it...you'll like it. You won't be disappointed and the laziness in you will thank you.

I love rain. I'll admit it. I might have even mentioned it on here, I'm not sure between this, facebook, and twitter, I'm not sure what I've revealed where. That's a crazy problem isn't it. :) Anyway, I love rain and thunder and I always embrace it when it rolls around our city but honestly, I'm ready for it to be over with. We have just been saturated with rain and we need a little sunshine going on here. People's moods are getting just as dreary as our gray skies. It has been at least two weeks since the sun's been out. I don't even think I remember what the sun looks like anymore. With all this rain it just makes you so lazy. I'm a lazy person by nature anyway, but when I have things that have to be accomplished this week, this rain is not helping at all. I just don't want to do anything. I'm more tired than usual because all I want to do is curl up on the couch and watch it rain. But I digress. I love the rain. It makes the plants grow which give out oxygen which help us breathe so I shouldn't complain since this rain is helping me live. Plus, its so fun to play in when there are no tornadoes or lightening. LOL!

I know that I don't talk about my favorite TV shows on here much anymore but I have to give a shout out to my favorite show on TV right now. NCIS did not disappoint me and I've been emailing back and forth with a friend this morning on the episode that aired last night. It was so awesome. They are doing a spin-off show in the fall that will star Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J and if this new is anything like the last two weeks of NCIS have been, that will be one awesome show. If you are not watching NCIS you are missing out on some good TV.

Happy Wednesday!

Life is a Highway

Today is part deux of "Movingpaloosa". It's going to be a slow process because Mother Nature has decided to not cooperate with us today. It has been not just raining but pouring down rain all day. I'm not sure how much moving I'll be doing. My dad had to stop once all ready because of the rain and we will try again later tonight. Hopefully, the rain will hold off long enough for me to get all my belongings to where they need to be. But I do have to say that I'm loving this rain despite the fact that I really can't move. I love old fashioned thunderstorms; the ones where you don't have to worry about tornadoes. I love to just listen to thunder roll and rain pour down. It's very calming and cozy. It would only be more perfect if I was home cuddled on the couch wrapped up in a blanket reading a good book...now that's cozy.

I'm a huge fan of the TV show The Amazing Race. It is one of the best reality shows out there. In fact, they have won an Emmy for Best Reality Show for the past five years or so. If you've never seen the show I highly recommend it. My dad and brother have even contemplated auditioning for it; I doubt they will but how cool would that be? If you never get to travel to other countries this is the next best thing. Phil Keoghan is the host of the show and really one of the best show hosts on TV. Anyway, I think I've blogged on here before about him and how he's always trying to live life to the fullest because he almost died when he was 19. Phil is a very active person and does everything you can imagine outdoors. So during this off time from The Amazing Race he has decided to bike across America to raise money and awareness for MS. He started out in Los Angeles, CA, and I believe will end in New York, NY. You can go to his website and learn more about it and watch his daily video blogs here. I've been watching the videos and I'm only on Day 16 out of 35. Its very interesting. The scenery that he has biked through is just amazing. I've mentioned before that I would love to take a road trip and I'm convinced now more than ever that I really want to take a road trip across America. Phil and his posse haven't really traveled on the interstate for safety reasons and the views from the side roads are just spectacular.

How awesome would it be to take a month or so off and rent a convertible roof top car (because if its nice out you want the roof down) and just drive. I've always wondered what it would be like to just pick a road and drive to see where it leads you. It would be so scary but so much fun...if you were with the right person. :) I wouldn't travel the interstate but all the side roads because that's where all the great views would be. I would probably stop at every tourist trap there is because that's what you do on these trips. I would really like to go to the west side of the countries and to the Rockies because I've never really been there. What I loved most about this past weekend was that we weren't on a time schedule. We didn't have to be anywhere at any certain time and didn't worry about our phones, computers, etc. That's what my road trip would be also...no time schedule and no planning on where to be and when (well, maybe a rough idea). I'm all for relaxing at the beach or pool as much as the next person but what I wouldn't give to be able to take a cool road trip and do some interesting things along the way with great tunes and great friends. That would be the best vacation.

Happy Friday!