Thursday, November 29, 2007

"The Christmas Shoes"

They should not be allowed to play this song on the radio it makes me cry like a baby everytime I hear it. Which in turn makes me look like an idiot in front of my not so soft hearted co-workers. Here's the lyrics just try and read the words without it tugging at your heart strings.

"The Christmas Shoes"
By: Newsong

It was amost Christmas time, there I stood in Another Line
Tryin' to buy that last gift or two, not really in the Christmas mood
Standing right in front of me was a little boy waiting anxiously
Pacing 'round like little boys doAnd in his hands he held a pair of shoes
His clothes were worn and old, he was dirty from head to toe
And when it came his time to payI couldn't believe what I heard him say

Chorus:
Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight


He counted pennies for what seemed like years
Then the cashier said, "Son, there's not enough here"
He searched his pockets franticallyThen he turned and he looked at me
He said Mama made Christmas good at our house
Though most years she just did without
Tell me Sir, what am I going to do,
Somehow I've got to buy her these Christmas shoes
So I laid the money down,
I just had to help him out
I'll never forget the look on his face when he saidMama's gonna look so great


Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight

Bridge:
I knew I'd caught a glimpse of heaven's love
As he thanked me and ran out
I knew that God had sent that little boyTo remind me just what Christmas is all about

(Repeat Chorus)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The Christmas season has slowly but surely snuck up on us yet again. I am praying that 2007 flew by because for 10 months of the year I was planning a wedding. I realized today that tomorrow is the last day of November which means that Christmas season will be in full swing which means a few things for me.

1. Traffic will not be fun at night when I am leaving work

2. I need to get my tree put up

3. It's time to start thinking about our yearly trip to the Lights Festival

4. I have got to figure out what to get my husband

5. I better get going on my Christmas cards

6. Christmas music on the radio at work will be totally acceptable

7. it's time to start thinking about new traditions to start with my husband

8. I have another wedding to prepare for and should probably be ready for at least two of my friends to announce their engagements on or before Christmas

9. My little sister in my sorority is graduating from college and I will miss her terribly

10. last but not least cold weather is coming and going to stay for awhile

All in all I really do love Christmas and every year I swear I will prepare for it in advance and every year it sneaks up on me and I run around like crazy for a few days. But in the end I always end up saying it was worth it. Everybody I know has been posting their Christmas wish lists so I thought I'd post a little of mine. Mind you I'm not an ordinary individual when it comes to Christmas and being a newlywed don't really need any new stuff. So my wish list is sort of abstract, here's my top 5!

1. Health for all my family members including my mom who has a doctor's appt. soon to check up on some lumps that came up on her neck and one of my Christmas wishes is that those lumps are just stress and not her cancer returning.

2. My second Christmas wish is that my family and friends remember that Christmas is truly about love and all types of love, including our love for each other, and the undying love of Christ who came to us in human form during this season.

3. My 3rd Christmas wish is just to form closer bonds with my friends

4. My 4th Christmas wish is for myself to understand everything it takes to be a Godly wife for my new husband and that we have a lifetime of happiness together.

5. My 5th Christmas wish is for my nephews who are being deployed to Iraq return unharmed as quickly as possible and that the entire world be praying for them and all the troops over there.

Hey I told you my list was a little bit different but if truly I could wish for 5 things this is what they would be. Sorry I can't help you with what to wrap up and put under the tree for me because truly there is not a lot that I really need or even want other than things mentioned which are all abstract. If you truly want to touch my heart this christmas send me a Christmas card with a message in it that says you will pray for someone this Christmas and continue praying for them through out the next year.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

IT'S NO SECRET ANYMORE

Congratulations Kelli and Derek on your Thanksgiving Engagement!!!!!!

Love you both and I'm so happy for you!!

Hope, cure, persevere

One of my passions in life is being on the Relay for Life Committee for my City. Being on the comittee has been something near and dear to my heart ever since my mom was diagnosed with cancer my senior year of high school. I chose to become involved with Relay for Life as a way to show my mom that I was there for her and choosing to hope and fight with her instead of being upset about her diagnoses. The Relay committee became a sort of support group outlet for me because there were people on the committee who were caregivers like myself who understood the hardship of taking care of a cancer patient. When I wasn't running myself crazy with all my school activities I was taking care of my mom. My relationship with Relay for Life continued into my college years, and even now I am luminaria chair for OKC's relay which is June 27th and 28th 2008. I am about to give a presentation at Relay University in January on luminaria ceremonies and how they touch peoples lives with one of my friends and fellow committee members and I am so excited to be able to talk about something that has touched my heart so much. As one of my fellow relay committee members disclosed to me last night Relay is all about heart seeing those beautiful, smiling, survivors triumphantly taking that first lap and later in the night seeing the beautiful luminaria ceremony and realizing that all those beautiful, smiling, people have faced death eye to eye and come through triumphantly it really is a beautiful picture. I am so excited for Relay especially now that wedding planning is over and Relay can once again take center stage as the big event I am helping plan. Stay tuned for exciting details on what Relay is all about. Who knows maybe through someone reading this they will be excited to attend Relay for Life 2008 One World, One Dream Olympic Relay.

In other news it's church night which means I get to spend time with my Heavenly Father and recharge tonight. I honestly don't know what I would do without Wednesday night church for me it is a way to complete the rest of the week looking for the best in people and living for God.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

routines

Goodness I never knew settling into a new place, living with a boy for the first time, and trying to establish routines as a couple could be so mind boggling. Last night my husband spent several hours trying to connect our computer to the internet which we were told by the cable company was on. Well try as we might we were never able to establish a connection. We ended up him trying to work with the computer most of the night and I watched TV by myself. Which means I got nothing done as far as settling in more. We are trying very hard to settle in to a nice little routine but it's not as easy as one might think. However I think eventually we'll get the hang of it. I have a goal to put up Christmas decorations next weekend so I really need to get in gear and get everything put away so our tree can go up. I am excited to decorate for Christmas this year and I actually am looking forward to Christmas. Tonight I'll be all by myself in our little apartment since my husband works late hopefully I will get things accomplished. Also I have got to get my booty in gear on my thank you notes for our wedding gifts see I couldn't write them before we moved because well we didn't open our wedding gifts til we got ready to put them away. So now I have a little less than a month to get them out without breaking the two month rule, oh and then there's Christmas cards to think about. Eak will I ever have just a day or two where I don't have a project to work on?

Monday, November 26, 2007

Holidays, engagements, and our first snow as a married couple

Wow what a weekend!

Well my husband and I officially survived our first Thanksgiving as an old married couple. I say survived because it was what you could call an interesting 4 day weekend.

It started out pretty great woke up to to a text message from a friend who shall remain nameless at this time telling me that she had gotten engaged the night before, now of course we all knew her boyfriend was going to propose but we also all thought it would be Christmas. Needless to say it was a complete surprise for her. So I called her and after a few squeals into the phone gave her a hearty congratulations and left for our first Thanksgiving meal of the day.

We went ate visited and left a little early so we could do some work on our apartment that still needs a lot of work to be completely settled. A few hours later we headed to my mom's for dinner ate there enjoyed playing with my 3 great nephews and then left to work on the apt. some more.
Well we got on a roll and got a lot put away and finally decided about midnight it was time for bed. All of a sudden I get incredibly sick and stayed that way all through the next day doing little more than moving from couch to bed to get soup or water. Yuck not the way I would've chosen to spend my Friday of a four day weekend. Oh well I woke up Saturday all better worked on the apt. pretty much all day with only a minor break in the day to watch the Bedlam game that was well needless to say disappointing for my husband who is an alumni of the losing school. I was fine the whole day and we decided to go have dessert with my family I ate banana pudding my absolute favorite. Low and behold I got sick again not near as bad but still felt pretty awful. Anyway this lead to me to draw the conclusion that much to my dismay it seemed that the thing that made me sick was in fact my beloved banana pudding.

Well I woke up Sunday still not feeling great I skipped church (bad me) got up lounged around til my husband who went to church came home we went the bookstore to pick up a small gift for my newly engaged friend. We worked a little on the apt. then went to choir practice since we only have 2 rehearsals left til our December 16th performance. Anyway we worked on the apt. some more after church and actually got everything in the kitchen put away. It was so exciting at 8:45 last night my husband was laughing at me because I was dancing around my kitchen simply because I could!

Later we were getting ready for bed and my husband decides to open the shade to look out the window and low and behold it was snowing!! So now we have had another first as a married couple our first snow!!

So the moral of the story we survived this weekend. It was long we enjoyed our family time, I survived being sick for the first time since being married, and we got stuff put away in our apt.
There is still so much left to do setting up house is not an easy task. At least I can cook in my kitchen tonight without having to sort through boxes.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A few facts

I figured I'd give you a little more detail about me! So here's 50 facts.

1. I was born on June 4, 1985

2. I am the baby of seven children

3. I am a Christian (Baptist if you want to get technical)

4. I am a newlywed as of 10-20-07

5. I'm 5'5 and on the thin side

6. I was a cheerleader for several years even my first two years of college

7. I have found that I really enjoy decorating our apt.

8. I love spending time with friends and find that as I mature in life my friends have become more important to me than ever

9. I adore my husband with every fiber of my being and I secretly aspire to always be the wife who brags on her husband while all the other women grumble and complain about theirs

10. I am the Event chair for my city's Relay For Life event

11. I married a preacher's son

12. Autumn is my absolute favorite season, I love the colors, the smells, and the feeling of warmth on a blustery day.


13. I am the youngest person in my office

14. I have a metal rod in my collar bone on the left side

15. I love football in person but I hate watching it on television

16. I love taking pretty pictures

17. I decorate for almost every holiday of the year including St. Patrick's Day

18. I love entertaining and absolutely cannot wait to have a home of my own to entertain in

19. I was a pageant girl in my college days and I credit that experience with being so at ease in front of a crowd at meetings

20. I love sending handwritten cards to people.

21. I played volleyball in High school

22. my husband and I enjoy playing pool together as one of our date night activities

23. I am an avid reader as is my husband which means that we have a lot of full bookcases in our home

24. I love starting new family traditions with my husband

25. I am a bit of a dressy person I like to look polished no matter what I am wearing

26. Christmas is all about family time for me

27. I hope someday to be a stay at home mom

28. my husband and I have a spoiled yellow labrador named Missy who thinks she needs to be right by our sides 24/7

29. I worked at an amusement park for a few years when I was younger

30. I have an office job now but someday I have a secret desire to open my own bakery

31. I have an addiction to scrapbooking and cake decorating

32. my mother is a 6 year cancer survivor and I am so proud of her

33. I don't really think I want to live in Oklahoma for my entire life

34. I have the most beautiful friends

35. I am a Great Aunt and I'm not yet 25

36. people always think I am much younger than I really am

37. my favorite color is green to me it symbolizes a fresh start

38. I think baby penguins are the most adorable creatures on earth

39. my absolute favorite board game has become "The Game of Life" because my now husband proposed to me during the game

40. I have worn glasses since I was in the second grade and got contacts in sixth grade because I had to get braces and refused to be the girl with glasses and braces

41. I bit my nails until I was 16 then I got introduced to manicures I thought my hands looked so pretty I never wanted to bite them again

42. my most hated chore is Laundry it always seems never ending

43. my two oldest sisters are like second moms to me

44. my in laws are the most fantastic people in the world and i feel incredibly blessed to call them family

45. I smile every time I hear someone use my married name

46. my favorite flowers are gerbera daisies

47. anytime I walk by a Bath and Body Works store I have to take a deep breath in I absolutely love the smells and I am obsessed with good smelling body lotion

48. my husband and I took ballroom dancing lessons before our wedding and I am hoping we can take more in the future

49. I love working out it gives me great satisfaction that I am doing good things for my body

50. I started this blog because I wanted it to be a challenge to me to document this time of amazing change in my life.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

inspired

Hi all I was inspired to start a blog of my very own by my wonderful husband stay tuned for interesting and sometimes incredibly boring posts. I am a bit limited in my typing since I sort of dropped a bookcase on my shoulder. I will type more when I have two good hands to type with.