blog anniversary

one year... and 200 blog entries later! thanks for following. and i love it when people leave comments...those are fun to read. anyway, we'll see if i still have something to write about or if i have already said it all... :)

friends & fruit & flowers!

these are all things that make me happy. oh and i also like alliteration so that makes it even better. flowers are so beautiful and i love having an excuse to buy them...i had some girls over from my sunday school class last week and realized i love hosting! so i want a bigger place someday so i can have more people over. hmmm...i'm going to have to start looking later this year. i already decided i want to sign another year lease here...i hate moving and finally almost (yes, ALMOST) have everything organized.

oh and the best part....the fruit dip! it's the best and sooo easy. 1 can of marshmallow creme and cream cheese. it's amazing. thanks mom! (i just realized how weird the spelling of marshmallow is...i probably would have missed that one in a spelling bee.)

henry's new play area

i couldn't believe it when i saw it! it explained how he always was getting things from the table that i thought i was putting out of his reach. great, my dog likes to walk around on my kitchen table... anyone want to come over for dinner!?

confession...

have you ever said something that you wished you hadn't said, right after you said it? well i did that last week and knew right after i said it that i shouldn't have said it. well, actually i typed it..chatting on facebook. it's like that part in 'you've got mail' where meg ryan says she said just the right thing but then felt the remorse.

so anyway, i immediately said, 'oh i shouldn't have said that...it's none of my business,' but it was too late. that's what stinks about words...you can't take them back. so i felt badly that day, but i was having a bad day anyway, which is part of why my thinking wasn't clear, and i didn't think about it too much until a couple of days later i notice that this guy removed me as a friend on facebook! i couldn't believe it...i felt so bad because i knew my words must have been the reason.

so i talked to god about it, told him i was sorry and typed an email apology out. he texted me the next day (it's crazy how we don't have to talk anymore in real life with all this technology these days) saying he was sorry too and for me to not take all the blame. oh yeah, i had forgotten all the jerky things he had done to me, but i never unfriended him! oh well...

and i am reminded to 'speak the truth in love' (eph 4:15)...i spoke truth to him, but i didn't say it with any compassion, so it was way harsh and not loving...lesson learned. i also remember some verses that talk about how when we sin, we sin against god. in numbers 5:5 it says 'if any of the people - men or women- betray the lord by doing wrong to another person' and david says in psalm 51:4 when he is talking to god 'against you and you alone, have i sinned.'

when we wrong someone, we offend god. so we must first confess our sins to god and receive forgiveness...then try to make it right...and then we have to live with the consequences...which for me means losing a friend.

happy half birthday

it's my half birthday today...33 and 1/2! i remember the year my best friend sent me a card for my half birthday...and she had cut the card in half! i still laugh about that! :)

are you following the cloud?

god gave the israelites a cloud to guide them by day and a pillar of fire by night. the cloud would sometimes stay a while and the israelites would set up camp, and sometimes, the cloud moved everyday.

one interesting thing about the cloud someone brought up in my bsf class, was that the cloud protected the israelites from the sun. i really appreciate that they had shade! i hadn't thought about that but they were in the desert and the cloud supposedly was very large. in my mind i guess i pictured the cloud being small.

wouldn't that be nice if god used a cloud today? it would be so clear where god wants us to go. a few times in my life, god has moved so obviously that i knew it was him and i knew what i was supposed to do. god may not use a cloud today, but he still guides us and directs us. sometimes we get tired of where we are in our 'desert' and we are ready to move now! but we have to be patient and wait on god to move first. he has a plan for us... and it's better than anything we could imagine or plan for ourselves. so watch for the 'cloud' in your life, and trust in god's sovereignty. he is faithful!

do you cook?

well, i'm trying. someone asked me the other day if i cook. and i think i cook, but one meal a week probably isn't what they are thinking. and last week the meal almost took me a week to cook!

i made this green bean casserole...it was really good. i love the water chestnuts in it, and it also has rice and chicken. the only problem was i cooked the chicken on tuesday, but then had to run to bible study so i just made a quick salad. then wednesday, i started to make it, but oops, i forgot to buy rice. so i run (literally...i can walk to my grocery store..so i guess it's not literal, but i walked fast!) to buy some rice and then i start to cook it and then realize i got the whole-grain-takes-an-hour-to-cook rice. well i didn't have an hour. so thursday i finally put all the ingredients together and make the meal. phew! that was a tough one.


this one was a little easier...MINESTRONE SOUP!

...i started it the other night around 8 after a game of tennis with some friends (at the end we played guys vs girls...and i am the worst one out of all of them...but tracy and i beat the guys. i had some lucky shots and she's really good)...so anyway i was still excited from that and had the energy to cook this. i finally sat down to eat around 10...and it was yummy. here's a link to the recipe if you want to try it. everything in this is really good for you! enjoy! :)

http://www.cultivatinglife.com/recipe.php?id=263

lots of leftovers! :) that's why i only have to cook once a week...it lasts me a while.

how can GREASE be evil?!

i was listening to tom nelson's sermons on the 60s (totally recommend listening to them...it's a 4 part series thesixtiesdentonbiblechurch) and in one of the sermons he said:

"GREASE was the most evil movie."

at first i was like, 'what?! i love grease!' the music...sandra dee...boogie-boogie-doobie-duwah-duwah and bop-shu-bop-shu-bop... and when he explained it i was shocked at how i had been seduced by the movie without even realizing it. he said before when movies were produced, they were screened, and they wouldn't be allowed to be run if the movie let the bad guys win. the good guys had to win...but grease was the first movie where they let the bad guys won. evil, premartial sex, smoking, and drinking = won. good, purity, and innocence, = lost. and i think that's sad....that it happened and really sad that i didn't see it.

so, i guess i won't be watching grease anymore, or watching the musical, or even the tv show that i loved watching 'you're the one that i want' because it promotes ideas that i don't agree with and that don't honor god. i'll just add it to my list of shoes and movies i once liked but now don't agree with something inside of me. i'll miss some of my favorite shoes...but i would rather miss out on a little good rather than let evil in.

this is what the bible says about what we should let in...

phil 4:8
finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

so WHY do we allow junk into our homes through the tv and through movies? we can't trust tv shows anymore and even pg-13 movies aren't safe anymore. i think we underestimate the power the media has over our lives...it encouraged me to ask god where else in my life am i maybe being seduced by this world. because i want to see how close i can get without being affected...i want to be as far away as i can.

2 questions to ask yourself:

how many hours of tv do you watch a day?

how many hours do you spend in god's word each day?

...what you feed will grow. i realized for the first time in my life i am reading god's word more than i am watching tv. it didn't happen over night...i remember having the desire but it was hard to actually do it. if that's you, just ask god to change your heart...ask him to make his desires your desires. he wants to spend time with you. and he's always there.

car etiquette

i usually wave when someone lets me over into a lane when i am driving...but yesterday i had to wiggle myself in and i decided not to wave because the car didn't really 'let' me in. so no wave for him! ha! but at least i didn't have to honk. did you know if you start honking people stop and let you over? i don't like resorting to honking, but sometimes it's the only way.

still working...

almost done the flowers! :) sorry sam...doesn't look like i am going to finish in one month for your bday...

antiques!?

i have been cleaning my room lately, and i realized that i still own things that are really old (over 15 years!). here are just a few...

my sister lauri gave me this for my birthday when i was in high school.



this is from lauri also. she was always laminating things, printing things...or trying something new out on her computer. in junior high or high school she made me this box that hold notecards. she's going to laugh when she sees this and probably say, 'why do you still have that?' even crazier, i still have notecards in there from college! i know because they are orange...i used to use orange notecards to study for anatomy. but now i don't write as many notes...or quotes! :)

this was my desk stapler from growing up. it still works just fine. i have a new one too but i'm not going to get rid of perfectly working stapler...

my favorite pencil. i used this on all my tests in college. this guy i always studied with (i had a crush on him) and i, well, we both used the same pencil and he gave me the little blue cushion to put on it. i thought he was such a genious because he had to cut it to make it fit. wow! the pencil (0.5 lead, of course!) still works fine, but you can't buy them like this anymore... :(

and last but not least.....

my college rubber bands. this little box has made it through college, living in dallas, moving to houston, movie 3 times in the woodlands, and then back to houston!

and this is my favorite part...they were only a dollar! i mean, i wonder if these rubber bands would even be good anymore (they are premiun grade though...). and i don't think i even use rubber bands!

maybe i could take some of these things on antique roadshow! ;) jk...

beep...beep...beeeeeeeep!

i was about to take my car in...it's been beeping this really annoying beep that just randomly started like a month ago. it would start when i took out my keys and opened the door... it was driving me crazy. but my breaks squeak too and it's going to be like $400 to replace my break pads, which don't need replacing, but that's what would get rid of the squeaking.

well, i just figured out why my car was beeping. i was leaving my LIGHTS on. i know it sounds silly or obvious, but in my defense, have only had this car for like 6 months and i have my lights on 'automatic' (which is so nice) so it never crossed my mind that my lights might be on.

ahhhh, it's so nice not to hear that noise. i am assuming that my lights automatically turn off when left on because my battery died, thanks goodness! i still thanked god for answering my prayer even though i should have been able to figure it out by myself. see, he cares about the little things in our lives too! :)

what's your talent?!

you know how there are some girls that have that cool hidden 'guy' talent!? like they can change a tire, or they own a drill, or they can throw a football, or they can bench press a lot...

anyway, i didn't think i had a talent that would surprise people, but it turns out i DO...turns out i am good at unclogging toilets! okay so it's not that cool, but my neighbor was really impressed when i came to the rescue the other day. and i have no idea how i got so good at this...

being single is too busy!

here was my crazy day today:

6:00 up, take henry out
6:15 read my bible...1 john today
6:30 hop in the shower
6:50 leave for pilates (my instructor told me today how strange it is that i look athletic but i'm not...)
8:15 back home, make a breakfast shake, take vitamins
8:30 take henry to doggie daycare
9:00 go to my dermatology appointment (my doctor says how happy she is that i hate the sun...i guess if god was going to give me this white skin then it's good that i also get a headache and really hot if i am out in the sun more than 10 min...4 people in my family have already had skin cancers removed)...
10:30 go to work, eat apple in the car
1:00 meet a friend for lunch
4:30 do my seminar planning while my last patient dilates
5:00 leave work (had to park on level 7 at the downtown office today since i was so late ...no elevators!)
5:30 pick up henry at doggie daycare, go home
6:30 eat dinner
7:30 go by lindseys! to return a dress a borrowed (thank you linds!)
8:00 meet a friend for dessert
10:30 take henry out again, get ready for bed
11:00 need to go to bed but am writing on my blog instead...

i know life gets crazier with a family, but i think today i did a pretty good job of coming close...

beauty fades...

people are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
the grass withers and the flower fades.
but the word of the lord remains forever.

(1 peter 1:24-35 & isaiah 40:7-8)

this verse has put things in perspective for me. sometimes i get caught up in what i want to buy and how i want to look, and god has been showing me verses lately that remind me that although these things are fun, they are not what i can trust in or rely on.

it's good to know that something lasts that we can hold onto. here's another one...

don't be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. you should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to god.
(1 peter 3:3-4)