New Patio

Ok, so today I got to talk to my sister on the phone for a while and she informed me that I have not put pics of the new patio. It was finished on the weekend of our anniversary but I was waiting to get our picnic tables so you could get a full idea of what it looks like (or will look like). Since I am apparently too busy or lazy to get the picnic tables purchased and stained and put together, you are gonna get what I have.

Before After

We tripled the size of the concrete and added the pergola for a little shade. I know, I know, it needs picnic tables, but I'm working on it when I get around to it. The nice thing is that since our house faces south, most of this is in the shade from the house for most of the day and the pergola just adds to the shade. We are planning on having our Father's Day get-together at our house, so we'd better get on that picnic table issue and fast. In other exciting news, I was off today. This morning I went to Cardio Dance Party at 24 Hour. It's not turbo, but it was still a great workout. Then I went to Cedar Hill to Charming Charlie's and found a purple purse. It makes me soooo happy! Apparently I have been living in the dark ages because I so didn't know anything about Uptown in Cedar Hill. It is fabulous. I wasn't in the mood to really shop, but I do plan to go back and shop in the future. It is basically an outdoor shopping mall. From FM1382 it looks like a mall with only a few stores, but when you drive inside, it is amazing and there are so many stores. They also have a water spout area for the kids to play. I must remember that for the future. Yesterday evening, I was finally able to pull together all the digital pics I need to get printed so I can scrapbook. The memory card for one of our digital cameras has been at a friend's house (he was using it in his fish finder. Yeah I totally don't get that.) Anyway, the memory card has made it home and I was able to get all the pics I want sent to Walmart to be printed. BJ is supposed to pick up the pics after work today. Hopefully, now that I'll actually have the pics at my house, when I get some free time and the urge to scrapbook (yes, I actually get the urge to scrapbook) I'll have everything I need to do a page or 2 until I am caught up. While I was sorting through pics on the computer I realized I have quite a few events to scrapbook including my getting CPA license in Sept 2008, anniversary trip in 2009, kitchen renovation in July 2009, Cozumel trip in Aug 2009, anniversary trip in 2010, and the patio expansion. So do you think I'll be able to catch up before we go to New York City in August? I'm thinking probably not, but I can at least shoot for that. Did I just nonchalantly mention we are going to the Big Apple in August? Yes I did. We booked our flights and hotel yesterday and are really looking forward to our vacation. We are hoping to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and that is the only thing we have agreed on at this point. Yes, BJ wants to see Phantom as much as I do. I actually saw it at Fair Park a few years back, so he may be looking forward to it more than I am. Starting next week, my boss is letting us work 36 hour weeks through July. Thanks Elaine!! I am pretty excited about that as I love being off during the week and will get to attend Mindy's Turbo class in Mansfield on Fridays. Also, I am making a plan to go and see one of my sister's friends and her new baby the week Jill is in town for Father's Day/my mom's birthday. I think my mom, Jill, and Ashley will join me on my trip to Wilmer so we could call it a girls trip I guess. There are a lot of fun things coming in the next few months. Yes, work is still crazy and hasn't slowed down any, but hopefully we will be able to keep pushing returns out and things will eventually slow down. And this makes 4 blog posts for May, thank you very much.

No Plan B

Have you ever said something and as soon as you heard yourself, it just clicked? So a few weeks ago in Sunday School (I'm not exactly sure what the date was) I heard myself saying the following statement:

If you trust God with all your heart, you don't have a plan B.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I just realized that if you go back and look at my posts I have been hit by quite a few tons of bricks over the past year or so. I must be in really bad shape. Ha. Okay, back on topic. The verse I was talking about is in Proverbs 3:5. It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." ALL your heart. Trusting is hard and especially when you are so used to being in control of things. I don't know who passed down the controlling gene to me, but I definitely have it. As long as I can remember I have been over-organized and over-planned and have therefore thought I was controlling all the variables that I could. So I realized, I've been trusting God for plan A, but having plan B in my back pocket the whole time. It is so hard for me to not have some plan in the works. So hard. For example, I was at the store today and I almost purchased something that would help me with my plan B. I realized what I was doing and put it back. No plan B. The second part of that verse has some weight too. Don't trust in my understanding. I have leaned on my own understanding too long. I understand too much and try to control by leaning on myself. No more. I've got to learn to totally & completely trust without reservation. Dana, I'm sure you are laughing your head off because you've been trying to tell me to stop controlling and I want you to know that I'm trying. With God's help, I'm getting rid of my plan B. I'm not going back to trying to plan things my way again. God, I give up. Really, I do. I know it's what you have been waiting on the whole time. This doesn't mean that on occasion I won't think about my plan B since it has become quite a large part of my life, but I commit my plan A, and B, and all the other plans I have to you. You are really the one in control anyways. I just thought I was controlling things by my planning. I give it all to you and wait patiently for your timing. And when my mind lingers to my plans, I pray that you'll help me to put it away and continue trusting. On a totally separate and unrelated note, I determined that I had to blog at least once more this month so I wouldn't only have 2 blogs this month, one of which is from BJ. Life has been crazy, but at least now, May of 2010 will at least tie for last place in the blog world. I may post something tomorrow or Monday and move this month up in the rankings. We'll see.

Jumping In With Both Feet

I have debated blogging my craziness for a while because I feel like its been so long that I need to catch you up and at this point that is way too overwhelming. So I've decided to jump in with both feet and start right where I am instead of trying to "catch up". I'm exhausted. I was up last night, or should I say this morning, until 2:30 finishing stuff for our Junior/Senior Celebration Service at Church. This morning I woke up at 6 and didn't really go back to sleep after that. I know that all of you mothers out there will say to deal with it because you run on that much sleep every day, but I'm not you. I love my sleep, so when I am without it, things don't go so well. For example, I have been calling people by the wrong name all day. Today at church I wasn't feeling the best because of a combination of things. First, little sleep, and second my abs are sore from Turbo Kickboxing. I guess I have been pushing my self to do extra ab work during Turbo since that is where I need to tone up the most. Yeah, I'm really sore. So with all of that, I have felt sick to my stomach today. I skipped lunch to stay at church and finish decorating for the service. About 4, I realized I was hungry so I grabbed a piece of cake at the reception. Then I went to the hospital to visit a friend's grandfather who basically adopted Jill and me when we were little. He had been in the hospital for a few weeks and I really needed to go see him. After that, I drove through Arby's and devoured a #1. It wasn't very good, mostly tasted not fresh and reheated. I was starving at that point and no matter how bad it was, it did quench my hunger. I took a quick nap on the couch and woke up to pack for tomorrow. I'm going to a conference which will be slow and uneventful as compared to the past few months for me. I am grateful for a break, even if I may get bored. We are staying at the Westin Galleria tomorrow night as opposed to coming home and braving the traffic again Tuesday morning. So tomorrow I have to be at Shannon's house at 6:30 packed and ready to go. That is before I normally am even up, so hopefully I can catch up on sleep tonight some and get my butt out of bed in the morning. I am very tempted to sleep in Shannon's car on the way to the conference, but we'll see. On another note, my name is Sandra and I'm a Turbo-a-holic. I never thought I would be addicted to going to the gym but my Turbo class is definitely addictive. I think it is about 20% the challenge and at least 50% Blanca. (For all you people keeping up with the math, I know that is not 100% but I'm not sure what the other 30% is, so there.) Yes, I'm in love with my Turbo instructor. I'm not ashamed to admit it. If you know Blanca, you'd understand. She keeps me laughing and kicks my butt every stinking time I go, which lately has been twice a week. I have a new phone and I love it. It is a Samsung Solstice. This is a big move to the 21st century in my opinion since I now have unlimited text and data. I knew you would be impressed. I may even update my blog and facebook from my phone tomorrow. Look how tech-savy I am becoming. Ok, I'm rambling now. Must stop that. Until later, (insert catchy and inspiring phrase here). Yeah, I got nothing. But that's what you get when I don't get sleep.

6th Anniversary

Last weekend Sandra and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We went to Davis, OK and stayed in a cabin for a couple of nights and pretty much just relaxed. I'm usually pretty short on words so I'll just post some pictures.

We stayed in the Treehouse Cabin in Warren Woods.

The fishing pond

On Friday we went to the Toy and Action Figure Museum. On Saturday before heading home we walked around the Chickasaw National Reserve

Waiting is Worth It

So one of my new favorite CDs is For Those Who Wait by Fireflight. I bought this and two other CDs on a whim when a local Family Christian Store was going out of business. There are a lot of songs on this CD that speak to me but today I am going to talk about the title song For Those Who Wait. My favorite lyrics are in the bridge.

The pressure makes us stronger. The struggle makes us hunger. The hard lessons make a difference and the difference makes it worth it.

If I always got what I wanted when I wanted it, I would miss all the growing in the process. This time of waiting makes me stronger, makes me realize what I really want, and ultimately makes a difference in my outlook that makes all the struggles worth it. I have learned that it isn't just about the outcome and the destination, it's about the waiting. And someday I'll see it was all worth it. It is no accident that the current unit I am helping teach in Children's Church is about waiting. It is no coincidence that church service after church service, day after day, God is reminding me that waiting is worth it. God knows exactly what he's doing.

One Week Down

This week has been great! I've been getting up early and going walking and praying. I've really been enjoying my time with God. The reason I decided to walk and pray as opposed to just getting up to pray is that I have had a problem in the past getting up to pray and falling back asleep. Maybe it's just the devil fighting me, but more than once the plan to get up and pray without walking has failed. So because I am actually getting out of the house I am able to stay awake while I pray. I know that some people think Christians should have time where the total focus of their time is prayer, but I'm doing what works for me right now. I am actually running a little at the beginning and end of my walk so I am getting a little exercise in there too. My purpose is definitely prayer, but yes I am doing something else while I pray. I am not sharing this to brag on myself but to offer an option that may work for someone else who has problems getting up to pray. I have been asking God for some direction regarding the new things God is bringing to me. It's amazing to me how God leads and guides in ways I don't expect. I know that after all these years, God still moves out the box I try to put him in because he is God and his ways are higher than mine. When you ask God to lead, you expect him to open doors or give ideas, but this week, God has been giving me direction by letting me hear my prayers. When I am praying out loud while I walk I actually am able to hear what I am praying for. I know that I am opening myself up to be led by His Spirit while I pray and the things that are coming out of my mouth are put there by God himself and it amazes to me. No, I don't have all the answers and probably never will, but I am able to see a glimpse of what is coming through hearing myself pray. Also, I truly believe that God leads by giving us the desires of our hearts. I don't mean he gives me what I want, although he is definitely capable of this. I mean he actually puts desires in me that I never would have had otherwise. When I start getting excited about the possibilities and things that may or may not ever happen, I know that God is preparing me for something big. I am sitting on the edge of my seat with my spiritual eyes wide open. Also, this week I did Turbo Kick Boxing 3 times and loved every minute of it. I think I am probably in the best shape of my life. No, I'm not my skinniest, but I have more endurance and my legs and arms are getting toned. Tax season is over and we are getting a chance to breathe again. I know that we don't normally work as much as some big CPA firms, but we worked a lot and I am glad to get back to weeks closer to 40 hours. We are working on quarterly payroll, which should be done next week and then just working on the non-profit returns and odd jobs. Next week we are getting our patio expanded and a pergola added on the back of our house. We are hoping to be able to have a cookout for Father's day over here since Jill will be in town. I'm sure BJ's parents and mine would enjoy coming over to cook out and probably play some cards. I'm not sure we have ever had a get together without playing cards. :) On April 29-May 1, BJ and I are going to a cabin for a few days to celebrate our 6th anniversary. We found a cabin up by Davis OK. This is just far enough away to be away but not so far that it takes forever to get there. I like that. Tomorrow the playoffs for the Mavs start, so I'm sure we will be over at my parents tomorrow to hang out and then watch the game. BJ is about the make the house stink as he prepares stuffed jalapenos and smokes them on the grill for the get-together tomorrow. Also, I have children's church and Sunday School. I should probably get off and finish getting all that together for tomorrow.

New Things

I am struggling getting this blog started because I don't know where to start or how to organize my thoughts. Usually I at least have a sentence or scripture verse to start with but not today. So if my thoughts seem a little scattered, they are. Also I am having some hesitation as to what should be shared and what shouldn't. In general I try to share what God is showing me so that others can be encouraged and strengthened by Gods word just as I was, but I try to be vague as to how it specifically applies to me. The main reason I do this is because I don't want to mention people specifically so they don't get hurt (if it is a compliment, I am the first to share that, however), but also I believe there are things God shares with me that aren't to be shared. Ok, so now I've gotten through the intro, so its time for some substance. God is doing some new things in me. I'm not sure what all it means, but I know something is on the horizon. Yesterday at church I was surrounded by people but I felt alone. At first I thought this was the devil trying to make me feel inadequate and overlooked but I realized it wasn't the devil, but God drawing me to himself. God is trying to strip away all the things that make me comfortable and that I depend on so that my only option left is to trust him. That is very exciting and very scary at the same time. I don't like change, but I'm excited for whatever it is God is leading me to. He is prompting me to study some things to prepare me for whatever is next. Thanks to Pastor, who has given me a whole shelf of books over the years, I don't even have to go buy any new books to start studying. Those books, or at least some of them will actually get some use. I guess he knew I'd use them eventually, or at least he hoped I would. This new page is actually a quite welcome distraction. For the past 20 months or so I have been trusting God for something I haven't yet seen come to be. I know God will provide in his time, so in the meanwhile, I'm glad that he is growing me and maturing me while I wait. It's kinda like having a good book to read on your 12 hour trip to your grandparents. Anyway, as I dedicate myself to this new challenge, I pray that I will see God keep his word and the waiting will be over before I know it.