Taking a Minute to say "Thank-You!" :)

I just want to take this opportunity to brag on my sweet boyfriend… My birthday was yesterday, so Sunday he took me out to celebrate (last night was a family party). We went with my parents to church Sunday morning, and at lunch he surprised me with a yummy strawberry chocolate cake he made himself. I was impressed that he did such a good job! That afternoon we did some fun shopping. And then he took me to the Melting Pot. He called ahead of time and had the restaurant put roses on the table. They were gorgeous! Then they took our picture and framed it. The meal was so fun – I’ve wanted to go there for a long time. Last night after the family party, Eric surprised me with another gift – a gift certificate to a spa. He said I’ve been talking about getting a massage and it’s about time I got one. Eric put so much thought into making this the best birthday I’ve ever had. He’s the greatest!

And I have wonderful friends and family too. I got lots of fun e-cards, texts, facebook messages, and phone calls on my birthday. Oh, and a very special friend took me out to lunch – yum! I love you all!!! God has blessed me more than I could ever ask.

What a Fun Weekend!

Saturday was Eric's Birthday - Happy Birthday Darlin'! I made him a yummy cheesecake and we had a family party for him that afternoon.



Later that night I took him to Brenners Steakhouse - so good! We were able to get a table outside by ourselves. It was so romantic! :) There were waterfalls and candle light to top it off. (Guys - I would highly recommend this to the ladies in your life - you'll score major points.)

After that we went to ComedySportz - so funny!

And if that wasn't good enough, Sunday afternoon we had a combined Birthday Party (Eric, Carmen and me). We went to Track 21 and rode go-carts and played laser tag. I came in dead last at laser tag with -1,676 points. I didn't think that was possible, but hey, it won't be hard to improve next time!

This was the best weekend I've had in I don't know how long. It's so fun to get away from life for a couple of days and take a vacation right where you live. :)

Chocolate was not my Friend this Afternoon

I was so very hungry by the time lunch break came around this afternoon. I had to run an errand before I could grab something to eat, so I decided to eat a stick of the new 90 calorie crunch bar. Yum! But the sad news is that a piece of chocolate fell in the seat and I didn’t realize until I got out of the car and saw melted chocolate on my leather car seat. Yes, that meant that I had chocolate on my rear – the chocolate literally went straight to my butt. Fortunately I was wearing darker pants and I got most of it off, so you couldn’t even tell. Praise the Lord I didn’t go for light pants this morning! I think this is just confirmation that I need to lay off the sweets.

I'm Thankful

It’s become a tradition in our family to say what we’re thankful for after the Thanksgiving meal. God has blessed me more than I possibly deserve!

In no particular order…

• Bar-b-que instead of turkey for Thanksgiving
• Salvation
• Eric :)
• My wonderful family including my adorable nephew
• The best friends ever
• An awesome church family
• A new job
• Living in America
• God’s Provision
• And a whole bunch more
  

Thank-you Lord for Your blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

HaPpY bIrThDaY!!!

Today is my wonderful sister's birthday...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!!!

Nothing Difficult is Ever Easy*

Eric and I are trying to get his bathroom re-modeled before his parents come down to visit for Thanksgiving. We didn’t think it would take too long, but here’s what happened:

• Went to Home Depot and Lowes and Target to buy everything
• Took down fixtures to re-paint
• Found out the fixtures left huge holes in the walls
• Tape and Floated the walls
• Painted walls with two coats
• Put the new facet on the brand new granite counter top and sink
• Went to Home Depot to buy new hoses for the sink
• Went back to Home Depot to exchange the recently bought hoses and buy another size
• Put the sink on the counter top only to find it was too big for the counter
• Extended the counter top by using pieces from the medicine cabinet
• This time the sink fit on the top
• Found out the plumbing didn’t match up
• Next Day: Went to Home Depot to buy PVC pipe
• Went back to Home Depot to exchange recently bought pipe and buy another size
• Cut and matched up the PVC pipe
• Yay! It’s all done!
  

Whew! It’s finally finished. Our project took a lot longer than expected but it looks great. Now we just have to clean up. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving – maybe we’ll get some rest.

* Taken from Eric’s grandfather’s sayings.

Some One Must be Really Happy

I find it odd that I went to the restroom and some one was humming while taking care of business. Humm...

Blonde Moment

The other day I sat at a stop sign waiting for it to turn green... I blame it on being tired.

I Dunno

I feel like I need to blog about something, but nothing much comes to mind. I’m in a slump. I’ve been really tired this week and when I get tired, I get really clumsy. I have four bruises on one arm and three on the other. And a cut on my hand that’s about to go away. The ones on my forearm look like I’ve been shooting up. So if you see me, and they haven’t gone away, then please know, I’m drug free. :)

Where's the Beef?

For lunch my dad and I had some of those low fat microwave dinners. We started talking about how they really don’t taste like real meat, so my dad looked at the ingredients in his Salisbury Steak. What was in it?

“cooked Salisbury steak patty with caramel color added (beef, water, onions, textured vegetable protein product [soy protein concentrate, caramel color], seasonings [corn maltodextrin, salt, hydrolyzed soy and corn protein, dry onion, dry garlic, natural flavor, yeast extract, spice, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, extractive of rosemary, beef extract, modified cornstarch, flavor (triacetin, butter acids, flavorings, butter esters), rendered beef fat, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil], soy protein, etc…”

There’s more, but I’m tired of trying to read the tiny print. How crazy is that?! No wonder those things don’t taste like real food – they aren’t! I thought we were eating healthy. From now on I don’t think I should read what’s inside because I totally lost my appetite. Ignorance is bliss sometimes… On a side note, I really need a neck rub.

Walking Clearance Rack

I showed up early for small group last night, so I went to a nearby GAP. They had tons of stuff on clearance – including the hoddie I was wearing. It wouldn’t be so bad, but they had TONS of them all over the store. I felt like a walking clearance rack. And it’s not a fun feeling seeing something you bought full price for a fraction of the cost. I reminded myself that I’ve had more wear time out of it than the people that buy it now. But I’m glad I went though because I got a $40 pair of sandals for $12.99. That eased the sting.

Soul Sista

I went with my dad and another member from the church to a South Texas Baptist Association meeting in the 4th Ward this week. I had so much fun listening to the preachers talking. It made me want to jump up and scream, “Amen Brotha! Preach On!”... Afterward, we went to eat at a soul food restaurant. I’ve never had soul food before. I didn’t like it, but I pretended I was on a mission trip and ate it anyway. The trick is to put it in your mouth, swallow quickly, and follow it up by a drink of water. And then you smile. So for those of you going on a mission trip this summer, you'll have to remember that. And if it's really bad, then ask God to help you keep it down.

Please Not This Week

I haven’t been feeling the best since Sunday, but I’ve been trying to ignore the aches. This morning I got up to exercise. I was slower than normal and it took all my energy to lift the weights. I wondered the whole time what was going on. “Am I getting lazy or what?” After exercising it dawned on me that I’ve been sick. I took my temperature and sure enough it was on up there. Ugh!!! I have way too much to do this week to not feel good. I have too much to do next week too, so it would be nice to postpone this until the second week of May. I think I’m pretty free then. Too bad you can’t schedule these things.

Odd Little Cat

I went walking/jogging with my dad the other night. On the second mile, a cat decided to follow us. This little cat jogged behind us every step of the way down every single street. I felt like Forest Gump. Any minute I was expecting more followers… This cat stayed up with us for a full mile. When we went back by the street she found us on, she went back to her house. However, when we passed by her street again on the way home, she jumped out of the bushes and started running full force behind us. The little cat wouldn’t let up. So we sprinted home and finally lost her. She was the oddest little thing!

I'm Smiling

Mexican food makes me happy. :)

Inappropriate Laughing

Have you ever laughed at a completely inappropriate moment? I have. One such time was last night during praise and worship. Here I was singing to the Lord when something caught my eye. I don’t want to go into detail, but it looked like the person a few rows up wasn’t wearing pants. The said person was, but my eyes played tricks on me and it didn't look like it. Don’t worry, the person wasn’t from Paradigm, but I refuse to give the identity. Anyway, I completely lost focus and started laughing uncontrollably; I literally could not stop. Carmen and Tim had no clue what was going on and gave me the strangest looks. I tried everything I could think of to stop but it was to no avail, so finally I just had to pray for focus. See, that’s why you should close your eyes when you sing and not look at people. After that song, I regained composer and either closed my eyes or looked at the ceiling.

I’ll pass on the cookies, thank-you

I was listening to KSBJ this morning and they were talking about “non-truths” (aka lies) older people tell little ones. It reminded me of my brother. He always told me I was adopted, and I believed him for the longest time. But the one that really cracks me up now is what he told me about my grandmother. Every time I went over her house to visit, she would give me sugar cookies. I would eat several – they were so good! My brother then told me, “Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel?” “Yes.” “That’s what nanny’s trying to do to you. She’s giving you all those cookies to fatten you up, so she can throw you in the oven.” I was petrified. It took me a long time before I ate cookies over her house after that. Maybe subconsciously that’s why I didn’t eat any of Laurie’s cookies last night at hometeams. :)

Popcorn Etiquette

I took my friend’s son to go see “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” this past weekend. And since you can’t watch a movie without popcorn, I bought some. Every time I eat popcorn I grab huge handfuls and shove it in my mouth – I know, I’m such a lady. :) Most of the time, however, it doesn’t all go in my mouth, so there’s always some around me on the floor or in the seat when I get up. Well, this time some fell down my shirt, and when I stood up, it fell in my pants. But I didn’t realize this until I was changing into my night clothes and popcorn fell out of my jeans. I’m such a mess! I think I should take a popcorn-eating etiquette class or something.

WOW!

You gotta read this short article I came across on Yahoo just now...

Happy Easter

"God has been praised for His merciful nature, for His willingness to forgive the sins of those who ask it. We have praised Him for it far more often than we have considered what it cost Him."

~Donald Gowan "Theology in Exodus"

Consider the cost and praise the Lord for HIS salvation.

Pinnacle of Humiliation

Last night I went to a Ladies Easter Celebration at my dad’s church. When it started to wind down, the nursery worker brought the children in to see their mothers. I saw my mom from across the room pick up beautiful little Mia. A few seconds later, she made an announcement, “I want everyone to be praying for Kelly a husband because I want her to have me a granddaughter.” Was this really happening? Did she just say that or am I having a bad dream? The lady sitting at the table with me told the group of twenty plus ladies that she already had some one for me – her nephew was such a good guy. I wanted to crawl under the table and hide. She lowered her voice and told me all about her nephew and how she’s tying to talk him into going to Panama so he can get to know me. “Please no,” I thought to myself. A little while later I went over to my mom’s table to give her a hard time about her little prayer request announcement, but the humiliation continued. Mia’s mother told me about her husband’s cousin that’s really cute, but drinks too much. And Candy asked me what kind of guy I wanted so she could know what to look for. I smiled and said God had some one out there and not to worry about it. The advice and “Oh I have some one for you” continued for the rest of the night. Gotta love mothers. ;)

Bittersweet

A few days ago I got my first spring pedicure. She did a fabulous job. I even started wearing my toe rings again. My feet look really cute in my sandals, if I do say so myself. I truly enjoy wearing my spring shoes again... However, I miss my boots. My boots just made every outfit look that much cuter. In fact, I think I’m in love with my boots. I may get by with wearing them a few times this spring, but I can’t wear them every day like I did in the winter. The season just doesn’t call for it… So this year, spring is a bittersweet time for me in regard to shoes – love the sandals, but tragically miss the boots. (sniff, sniff)

Now is the Time

I was using my CHI this morning to straighten my hair when the cord wrapped around the door handle of the cabinet. The CHI fell down and I instinctively grabbed it. As I did it singed my middle finger. Now my finger print is unrecognizable. So, I was thinking… Now is the time to commit a crime because they wouldn’t be able to identify my finger print. However, since I would only be able to use my middle finger to commit the crime, I don’t think I could actually pull it off. Plus I can’t think of any crime I would actually want to commit. All the pain I endured this morning was for naught. Oh, the price of good hair.

HOT!!!

I’m just going to air my dirty laundry right here right now. I’m not perfect and occasionally I sin. I know, I know - shocker! ;) This morning was no exception. I totally lusted. Yes, that’s right – I’m a little ashamed... I gazed upon the distinctive curves of the beautiful body beside me, but that wasn’t enough. I stealthily moved to the backside and stared – WOW! What a view!!! When we entered the on ramp to 290, the Corvette speedily glided through traffic and I lost sight of its magnificence. What a gorgeous piece of machinery! It took a couple minutes, but I finally closed my mouth and snapped back into reality.

Blahg?

A dear sweet friend told me that my blog is turning into a blahg because I don’t post very often. I know she’s right, but I couldn’t help but cry a little inside. This week I make a commitment to blog regularly. I thought about making a commitment to blog every day, but I don’t wanna lie. So here’s to the first day of my commitment - Cheers!

Obsession Confession

I am a bit obsessed with something I always gave guys a hard time about. I now feel your pain, your desire to see it through. Yes, I am obsessed with mastering a game – a computer game (which makes it worse in some way). It doesn’t even have amazing graphics to draw you. A few weeks ago, a church member from my dad’s church came by the office and brought us this game. It took a while before I even committed to playing it because I always deemed video games a waste of precious time. Once I started I had to finish; I had to conquer the “Seven Wonders”. I took the game home and played every night. A friend called last Saturday morning at 9:30 am. I didn’t answer. Why? I stayed up until 4 am playing. I called him back when I finally decided to wake up at 11. “Did you just wake up?” I’d been caught…I proceeded to tell him the whole miserable truth. He laughed and said I could no longer make fun of him for having video game parties with his guy friends. No, I will no longer make fun of any guy for their obsession with video games. I understand completely. I am pleased to say that I finally made it past the last level. Praise the Lord! I have a life again, I’m going to sleep at night, I’ve resumed reading, and I’m hanging out with friends. I still find myself wanting to play, but it’s not taking over my life like it did before.

Rattlesnake Roundup

It's that time of year again... The Rattlesnake Roundup is about to begin in Sweetwater, Texas. We used to live a few miles from Sweetwater and would go to the roundup every year. My dad and brother used to hunt the snakes with fellow hunters; I was too young to go. I still remember looking into the huge pits swarming with snakes and hearing their rattles. At the roundup you could purchase just about anything made out of their skin. And of course you could eat them - as you may have guessed, they taste like chicken. Today Yahoo! News had an article about it. Apparently the ecologist don't approve. Obviously they don't live where rattlesnakes are prevalent. They would kill our livestock, pets, and every once in a while, people. I say kill as many as you can and have fun doing it.

He Brought It Back

Just in case you were wondering, yes, Justin Timberlake brought sexy back to Houston Sunday night... Melani now understands why I have a crush on him.

I could definitely get used to sitting in the suite. We had a great view, all the food and drinks we wanted and a nice waiter to get it for us.

I LOVE my Friends

God has blessed me with the best friends. I haven’t felt good the past two days. Last night a friend called who always shares encouragement and Godly wisdom with me. God used him to make me smile and give me a sense of HIS peace. And this morning I was just plain irritable because of my on-going headache. Another friend IMed me a goofy message that made me laugh. I told her she was a dork; she puts up with me despite my moods. God used her to lift my glommies. Then just a few minutes ago, I was debating on going to First Things First tonight. No offense, but when my head is pounding, I don’t like being around tons of people. Another friend IMed me and asked if I wanted to have “girl time”. Of course! She always seems to know what I need. God used her to read my mind. I love it when God puts people in your life at just the right time to show you He cares and loves you. I am abundantly blessed.

FuN tImEs

We had way too much fun at the rodeo last night ;).

YAY!

My friend, Melani, told me the other day that she is going to see Justin Timberlake on March 4th. I admit, I was a little jealous - I LOVE Justin Timberlake (I know - go ahead and laugh). And since she doesn't care for him, she thought it was funny to rub it in - what are friends for? But the best part is that she gets to sit in BOX seats for free! Well, this morning she called and it turns out they have an extra ticket and I'm going with them Sunday! I'm sooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! I found out this morning and I'm still smiling ;)!

Alright...Fine

I already surpassed my one post a month quota, but some one didn't want my last post to be the first one people read when they open my blog.

I have nothing to say though... Oh, it was suggested that I should blog about the David Crowder Band Concert Saturday night. It was fun.

Thank-you!

Greg Leach rocks! When I was ready to leave hometeams last night, he asked for my keys. Then, he found my car, warmed it up for me, and backed into the driveway, so I wouldn’t have to walk in the cold. Greg, I just wanted to officially thank you and embarrass you on my blog. You’re rock awesome ;).

I've been Tagged

Erin and Beth tagged me a few days ago, so here it goes...

Six Weird Things About Me:

1. I have a slight case of OCD. Everything on my desk at work HAS to be in order or I can’t concentrate. My bookshelf is categorized by topic, author, and size of the book. I sort my clothes – tank tops, short sleeve, three quarter sleeve, and then long sleeve in order by color, style, and/or brand. The pants and sweaters are the same way; it makes it easier to find stuff. I’m so bad that I can tell if anything in my office or room has been moved. People think it’s funny to move stuff around to see how long it takes me to notice – usually right away.

2. My Head. I can wiggle my ears, and do the “witch” with my nose. (Don’t ask b/c I won’t show you.) My tongue can curl, twist, and I can even touch my tonsils with the tip of it although I can’t touch my nose... I can do the Elvis lip thing. But it makes me laugh when I do it, so I usually can’t show people. And I have a huge birthmark on my scalp... I can’t do anything abnormal with my eyes.

3. Sleeping. If I’m tired, then it will take an act of God to help me stay awake. I’ve fallen asleep at concerts, while driving, standing up in church while some one’s praying, talking to people face to face… I feel asleep talking to a friend once, but continued the conversation. Albeit what I said didn’t make sense, in which case she woke me up.

4. I’m a Girly-Girl but… I love BIG pick-ups with extra large tires. The original Hummer is my favorite car, but I would never drive something that big, so I’d be happy with an H3. And I really like mudding and driving fast although I haven’t got to go mudding since high school… And I really enjoy going to professional sport games – especially the Astros… I like red almost bloody steak….

5. Last Page First. I have to read the last few pages of a fiction book first to make sure it’s a happy ending. If not, then I seriously have to think about continuing. I just need to be prepared. It makes me more relaxed and not anxiously waiting the results. I don’t like the unexpected.

6. Accessorizing. My purses and shoes have to match or “go with” the outfit. And it takes me a while to match the jewelry to what I’m wearing as well. Needless to say, it takes me WAY too long to get ready. But some days, I have an “I don’t care what I look like day”; those days you can tell ;).

I don’t think there’s anyone else left to tag…

New Frontiers

I'm leaving for North Carolina in the morning. I ate two fortune cookies today and this is what they said:

• "You desire to discover new frontiers. It's time to travel."
• "Travelling to the east will bring you great rewards."

I know there will be great rewards because we're going to a mission's conference. I'm so excited! We'll learn how to more effectively work with the Kunas.

I have to go pack now, but I just wanted to share that ;).