just friends?

here's the question that's impossible for me to answer...can men and women really be just friends?

i have guys in my life that i would call friends, but what is a friend really? like i have tons of friends on facebook, but some of those 'friends' i have only met once and i might not remember them if i saw them again. okay, let's define it: so the kind of friend i am referring to is close friend...maybe you talk on the phone every once in a while and you go out some too...sometimes in a group and sometimes one on one...similar to how you would hang out with your girl friends.

i know when you are dating someone, you should be 'friends' first. or when you get married and people say they married their 'best friend.' but i'm not talking about those kinds of friends either... the kind i want to know if it exists is a friend where there is no romantic interest at all, and there never will be. and is it possible to remain friends if only one person is romantically interested but still wanting to be friends?

a girl friend of mine told me her philosophy. she thinks there is a window of time where a single girl and single guy can be friends...but she thinks soon enough it passes and you can't be friends forever. so i think she may have a good way of looking at it. maybe it's just me and i'm weird but i feel like guys either like me or they are trying to get to know me to find out if they like me, and once they find out they don't like me, we never talk or hang anymore.

so there are some guys that i could think of where i am sure that there is no romantic interest, but i feel that they genuinely care about me...my good friends' and sisters' husbands and maybe a couple other guys...but i wish it weren't so rare to find.

so what do you think...can men and women be friends?! :)

see what harry and sally think...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJz1f8hPRGc&feature=related

yes or no...

Umbrella Today
What: Enter your zip code and the handy site will tell you with a simple yes or no if you need to plan for inclement weather.
Why: Rain check.
Where: Online at umbrellatoday.com/

i read this last week from daily candy. pretty cool...and so far it's worked too! :)

is dallas really better?!

okay, i have been on houston's side for a LONG time and whenever 'dallas is better' comments were made i always had a comeback for houston and tried to show support for my city. but this one leaves me on dallas' side.

when i was in dallas for a week and driving around in sarah's car (which i love being higher up...it makes me want a small suv...whah!) anyway, people let you over in dallas! it's true...you just turn your blinker on and the person lets you in. i was sooooo amazed but it happened again and again.

then i come back to houston and yesterday i am trying to get over and 3 cars pass me before i start honking like a maniac and demand that someone let me over....so THEN they let me over. incredible how people are here! i wonder if we have more accidents here because of it?!

so maybe it's a sign that i should move back to dallas. jk...but maybe someday. i do hate trying to get over...it's a big pull. my sister amy said it was a sign that i should move back when i evacuated there from ike...apparently it got me thinking. :)

hanging out in breckenridge

me and mom shopping in breck...

nikki, me, lindsey and lauri at the rehearsal dinner.

me and samantha....i love her little outfit!

hanging out in our condo! :)

we all had on the same jeans!

lindsey and nathan waiting for me to join them! i had fun hanging out with you guys! :)

haha... i just thought this was funny. we are pretty wild though...not!!

time for a wash

today i was wishing for one of my old car colors...gold or silver. i hardly ever had to wash them. i would notice they were dirty if my hand got black when i shut the trunk. but now with my pretty white car it sure does show dirt easily. and ohhhh it is soooo dirty! yuck. hopefully i can wash it this weekend! :) i need to get my oil changed too. i just realized that i have had my car for 2 months now and have never washed it! it's time...

fear

in my bsf (bible study fellowship) class we are studying the life of moses and reading in exodus right now. in chapter one, a new king comes to power who doesn't remember joseph and FEARS that the israelites are becoming too numerous.

then later the hebrew midwives are told to kill the baby boys during childbirth, but they don't because they FEAR god.

so in my life, under any circumstance, i always have two choices...i can either choose to fear man or fear god. pharoah chose to fear man and made poor choices. the midwives feared god instead of their king and made good choices and god blessed them for it.

fear in our circumstances also shows a lack of faith. this fear is not from god but from the enemy. when i worry it's because i have forgetten about god's soveignty...that he is bigger than any man or any circumstance or problem.

i thought this was a cool contrast shown so close together in this one chapter. it shows us where our fear should be...we have nothing to fear when we fear god. for when our god is for us, who can be against us?! :)

back from breck

highlights from my trip to colorado for my sister amy's wedding...
1. colorado is a beautiful place to get married. the weather was awesome(except for the afternoon thunderstorms...but prayers were answered and it only sprinkled a little the day of the wedding).
2. amy looked amazing...her vera wang dress was just gorgeous. what a beautiful bride!!!

3. laughing about me being confused about the lavender. lindsey had filled these little bags and said we were going to throw the lavender at amy and travis as they were leaving. and i said 'linds, i think these are filled way too full...they are really going to hurt amy when we throw them at her.' well, everyone got a good laugh out of that...and so did i. i am used to being able to laugh at myself by now. and amy said that is so something she would have said so we laughed about how we have the same way of understanding things. for those of you confused still, you are supposed to take out the lavender and then throw it. so then it became a joke and i started throwing the bags at lindsey and asking her if it hurt. haha...

4. i read a book while i was there...the book was just okay, but i love to read and find it to be so relaxing! and i left the book there in the condo for someone to read after me...after all the book did take place in colorado.

5. learning how to sing and dance to the 'pirates dance' with ella (i think it's from dora)...she was so adorable (she's 2 and says my name a little better now. it's kaum instead of shaum! she had everyone calling me kaum!)

6. helping lauri out with samantha one morning...i offered to help lauri so she brought in samantha (now 6 mo old) at 5:30 this morning but i think she came in 20 min later and realized i was too tired. oh well...i tried! :)

7. hanging out at the airport with lindsey. on the way there we waited for a ride and hung out at tcby for an hour. on the way back we were both still recovering from our virus (or whatever it was!) and after we went through security we were both too tired to go on and so we rested there for 45 min until we felt ready. and it was soooo cool because lindsey's gatorade made it through! i figured god knew we really needed it. then we played boggle for an hour (we were there really early)...lindsey won most every time but she said i was very good for it being my first time.

8. watching amy and my dad dance to 'my girl.' it was the cutest father daughter dance i have ever seen. amy has always been a talented dancer but it was so fun to watch her and my dad really dance to that song.

9. i got to spend time with my wonderful and fun family...there was only a little drama and i only cried once, no twice...well only once from family drama the other time i cried was when i passed out...i almost missed the ceremony! - i'll have to add this one to my long list of times i have fainted...see my list from blog in may 'that darn vasovagal relfex...')

10. having fun using the phrase 'colorado casual'...that's what the attire was for the rehearsal dinner that travis' parents had at their amazing home (wow the view there was breathtaking!) and we were all asking...'is this colorado casual?' so hopefully we all looked 'colorado casual!' lol!

i'll post more pictures soon! :) so glad to be home and things back to normal here (almost for everyone).

got back...and now gone again!

i just drove back into houston last night. and on the drive back i found out my power had come back!! such a blessing! :) and today i am off to amy's wedding in colorado until sunday...i am actually in the tcby at the denver airport right now! so i will be away from work even longer...but i'm enjoying it. and breckenridge will be so beautiful! and so fun with my family. we are staying in a 3 bedroom condo...me, sarah, lauri, rob, ella, samantha, lindsey, nathan, and emily! woa!

i can't believe i was in dallas for a week! sarah was so great...we had so much fun hanging out over the weekend and then she left for new york monday and i was able to stay at her place and have her car to drive around. one night though i got a little scared... i had gotten home after 10 and walked the doggies a little around her block. i remembered her telling me that she didn't walk very far at night alone, so i turned around and came home. then i watched the news once inside and they were talking about the 'uptown rapist' that was in the area...and i was like, 'sarah's lives in uptown...hmmmm' and then they showed the cross street where his last attack just the day before and it was just two blocks over from where sarah lives. i was so thankful i had been safe... and the dogs were so fortunate that i had already left them out, because it freaked me out a little and i would have made them wait until the morning to go out.

take a hike ike! :)

well ike's coming so i decided to leave. i stayed 3 years ago with hurricane rita and it's not fun being stranded and just waiting for this horrible storm to come. the gas stations ran out of gas, and the stores ran out of food. work closed, restaurants closed...there was nothing else to do but sit around and wait for the inevitable. and i just got a little stressed out in the process. so this time i left work and got a ride and came up to dallas. so spontaneous for me! i think i shocked a couple of people. but now i'm stuck here without a car. :( but hopefully i will be able to fly home by sunday or monday morning.

i have had fun hanging out with my family and today i worked at sarah briggs jewelry. my paycheck = a new pair of earrings! sweet! we went in from 11-2 and then went to lunch and then went back to the office from 4-6. i kind like sarah's hours. :) the puppies stayed at her condo for their morning nap, and then came back with us and hung out for the afternoon. so i will have to ask sarah when she's ready to hire me... if only i could live on earrings alone. lol...

it's funny how i fought my plans being changed. i remember talking to god and telling him that i didn't want to leave and i wanted to go dancing at wild west on thursday, and then i wanted to go to pilates on saturday morning (my FIRST saturday off in like 2 months), and i wanted to go go henry's first intermediate pupy training class, and i wanted to go to lindsey's house for movie night and i needed to get ready to leave town for 5 days to go to colorado next week for amy's wedding (packing, dry cleaners, figuring where to keep henry...) but here i am still having a great time. crazy how i controlling i can be, but once i let go, i actually can still enjoy life.

so this reminds me of a scripture..."you can make many plans, but the lord's purpose will prevail." (prov 19:21)

life

as i remember all the lives lost 7 years ago today on 9/11, i am grateful to god for giving me my life. and i was thinking of things just this week that i have been grateful to god for in my life...

-my close friends and family
-my health
-my sweet little dog (i am not sure anymore about diamonds being girl's best friend...i think would chose henry over all the diamonds in the world)
-being able to use my talents for god (i am helping out by playing the piano for the children's chior at bsf...they were really desperate!)
-laughing
-my new two-faced lipstick :)
-music that honors god
-sipping my chai tea latte while walking around downtown and people watching and praying for random people i see
-the beautiful world god created
-god's soveignty in my life

and even though i grew up knowing about god and jesus, it wasn't until later in life that i learned how to give my live to christ and live for him. i realized that he wanted to rescue me from my sins just like god rescued the people of israel when he led them out of egypt. so because of jesus dying for my sins, i am free from my sin! so i died to my old life and have new life in christ. i am so thankful for the life i have to live for him.

blurry dreams...

i saw a patient today who had a question for me... he said that he usually sleeps with his contacts on (which was okay...he was wearing the 30 day lenses) but he said sometime lately he would take them out to sleep and he would have really strange dreams and he asked me if i knew why. i asked him, 'were the dreams blurry?' and at first he said no, and then realized i was joking. haha...sometimes i crack myself up! then he told me his wife was a doctor and she didn't think there was any reason why he had nightmares without his contacts on at night...and i have never heard that before. however, i have had people tell me they had nightmares about their contacts being really big, like bigger than their face and them not being able to put them on in their dream!

lauri also made me laugh today when she quoted a line from a childhood favorite movie... 'not in the last few hours.' ok i won't make you guess, because you never will, but for those of you who don't know, this is from grease 2 (yes, i know now the movie was a flop but we loved it anyway...and yes, when i watched it as an adult i couldn't believe how inappropriate the movie was, but i never got any of that stuff so it was okay i guess!) and it's the part in chemistry class where michael asks stephanie if she's read any comic books lately and she says, 'not in the last few hours!' lol! okay so it's only funny to me and lauri, but i had fun with that one today. another grease 2 favorite is 'michael, michael, will you play the piano in the talent show? we won't take no for an answer....!' oh you have to have the voices for these so i will just have to do it in person for you sometime. or you can rent the movie! haha...sure! :)

time out

yes, dogs can go to time out too! henry knows when he's in trouble and today he got in trouble when he jumped over the wire fence i put up out on the patio...which is not doing its job apparently...

so i had to go outside to the courtyard, where i found him barking at someone else's patio (so embarrassing but not as bad as the time the did this same thing one sunday morning and a couple was trying to enjoy breakfast out on their patio before interrupted by my little rascal!)

this is his 'time out' corner where he has to sit for 10 min (i set the timer so i don't forget!)

he usually lies down once he realizes he's going to be there a while. and he stays as long as someone doesn't make a noise walking down the hallway. i suppose watching all those super nanny episodes has paid off! :)

have you read it?

boundaries (by cloud and townsend)...well you should read it if you haven't. it's an awesome book. we are reading it in my weekly wednesday night bible study with my girlfriends. and even though it's my 3rd time to read it (sadly enough), i am still learning i have more boundaries to work on!

here's something i read the other day that i see sometimes...

three's a crowd

"dysfunctional families are known for a certain type of boundary problem called triangulation. it goes something like this: person A is angry at person B. person A does not tell person B. person A calls person C and gripes about person B. person C enjoys person's A confidence and listens whenever A wants to play the triangle game."

"by this time, person B, feeling lonely, calls C, and in passing, mentions the conflict with A. person C becomes the confidant of B as well as A. persons A and B have not resolved their conflict, and C has two 'friends.' "

"the best way to avoid triagulation "is to always talk to the person with whom you have a conflict first. work it out...and only if she denies the problem, talk to someone else to get insight about how to resolve it, not to gossip and to bleed off anger. then you both go talk to her together to try to solve the problem. never say to a third party something about someone that you do not plan to say to the person himself."

of course in my family there's more than just three people so this is so much more likely to happen. anyway i thought it was so true and something i am trying to be more aware of...when i do it and when others do it.

1 john 5

be confident that god hears us
v. 14-15
and we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. and since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

god holds his children securely - safe from evil
v. 18
we know that god's children do not make a practice of sinning, for god's son holds them securely and the evil one cannot touch them.

protect your heart
v. 21
keep away from anything that might take god's place in your hearts.