Every year, New Years resolutions intrigue me. People make the strangest resolutions sometimes, and yet very rarely are they ever fulfilled. I have half-heartedly made resolutions in the past, but I never expected to stick to them for an entire year.
That's why, this year, I didn't make resolutions. I made goals.
Goals for 2011.
It just sounds catchier.
Not only do I have goals instead of resolutions, but I am posting them on here so that you, my readers, can hold me to them. If I finish this year without meeting these goals, you can point a finger in my face and laugh at me. I give you that right.
So here they are in all their glory.
Goals for 2011:
1) Run a half-marathon - this will help me lose weight, get in shape, and earn bragging rights!
2) Create and Stick to a cleaning plan for the house - Mondays are dusting days. Tuesdays are
bathroom days...
3) Organize my house - I want to have a place for everything, and know that everything is
actually in its place.
4) Make prayer a more integral part of my day - I want to learn how to pray without ceasing.
5) Finish a knitting project - I know the basic stitches and have started several projects, but this
is the year I finish one.
6) Pass a PT test - G.I. Joe has already agreed to test me when I am ready. I'm talking Army
regulation push-ups and everything...
Of course I hope to accomplish much more in 2011, but these are the things that I am sick of wanting.
So good luck to you with your resolutions/goals/whatever-you-decided-to-call-them-so-you-might-actually-meet-them! Or if you are smart enough to say "psh" to New Years resolutions, maybe one day I can enter your world of contentment.
Until then, I will keep you posted on my goal-meeting.
And Happy New Year!
Being a musician, I love just about any kind of music. However, if I could only listen to one musician for the rest of my life, I would have a very hard time choosing between Alison Krauss and Yo Yo Ma.
So...guess what I found on YouTube the other day? Oh yes. Alison Krauss singing a beautiful and not-so-familiar Christmas song to Yo Yo Ma's gorgeous cello accompaniment.
It's like musical cheesecake.
Not only is the musicianship brilliant, but the lyrics of the song portray the birth of Jesus so beautifully.
How beautiful that a God gave up perfection to come down to our crazy, messy, and sad world just to show us that He loves us.
I love Christmas time. It is just so exciting. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!
So I have been a very bad blogger. It has taken me about two months to put this post up, but in my defense...yeah I have no excuse.
So about two months ago, my friend and I went to Nashville for the day. We had a lot of fun visiting the little shops and walking around downtown.
I got a picture with Elvis. I don't know, but I think he may have been an impersonator...
We got pictures with the giant boot, but my favorite boot picture was the one with my friend and the random man who asked to be in the picture. Him and his friend thought it was so funny that he asked, we just couldn't tell him no.
This was one of my favorite parts of the day. We went to a little ice cream parlor (which had really good iced coffee drinks I might add). The tip jar had this sign on it:
Who can resist giving to a cause like that?
Right across the river was the Titans stadium. So cool! Too bad I'm a Steelers fan...Since we splurged on iced coffee, we went ahead and splurged on cupcakes, too. But not just any cupcakes. Gigi's Cupcakes. Mmmm. I got the Tiramasu and my friend got the Chocolate Attack (that's not the real name, but it should have been). If you are ever in Nashville, I would encourage a pit stop at Gigi's Cupcakes. Just sayin'.
Final Verdict: Nashville is a cool place to visit. But, I better not do it too often or I will have to be there buying a new wardrobe...in a larger size.
I spent Halloween with my sister, her husband, and my two favorite kids. I have named my little neice. She will be Princess. This is her name because she was a princess ballerina for Halloween. She was so pretty!
My sister and I took her two days before Halloween to get her little ears pierced.
Prettiest. Baby. Ever.
For Halloween, my sister dressed up as Sleeping Beauty, and my brother-in-law was Prince Philip. They were adorable.
My brother-in-law loved his costume, except for he forgot his shoes had felt bottoms until he ran full-speed into the linoleum-floor kitchen...
Magellan was an alien robot. He loved being in his costume as much as his daddy did. He didn't fit in the carseat because he was so puffy, but he cried when we had to take it off of him!
We took him trick-or-treating around our old neighborhood after we scared some friends of ours. Magellan doesn't quite understand the goldmine of sweet treats that were at his disposal. The only candy he has discovered so far are suckers. And he loves suckers. At one house, he actually pushed the man's hand full of Snickers bars away and grabbed a sucker out of the man's bowl.
That's my nephew. He knows what he wants.
I dressed up as Medusa, the greek goddess. Not because of Percy Jackson or Clash of the Titans, though. G.I. Joe always calls me Medusa because of my crazy, curly, wild hair (especially when I first wake up...frightening! I was just about punched in the face by my brother-in-law in the middle of the night because of it!).
Here is my sister and I just before the Halloween party at our church.
My sister teased up my hair and fixed rubber snakes all in it. Then, a friend of ours did my make-up. She did an amazing job. I especially loved my fake eyelashes with golden tips.
Creepy!
I have not written in a long, long time. I have many reasons why, but I won't bore with my excuses. But today, I am so excited about my finds I just had to get back on here!
This morning, two friends of mine and I decided to go antique shopping. I wanted a wooden bench for my living room, and they just wanted to look. Well, we visited four stores, and they were all closed. Bum-mer.
But, I was on my way home when I remembered the indoor flea market near my house. I was still in "hunt" mode.
After putting down the yellow, glass, Liberty Bell cookie jar and the mini moonshine jug salt and pepper shakers, I found a stepladder for $5! Something that I have been needing desperately.
And it is just so cute!
Background info: I am trying to pull a dark red into my living room and thought a red trunk under my window would look really cool. Guess what I found next? Bingo! A red trunk.
It definitely needs some work. But the best part, is that I only paid $10 for it!
Maybe I am more in love with the hunt than the stuff, but I am excited about the stuff, too!
Now I have to get to fixing them up...
Sometimes God does funny things. He really threw something at me the other day while I was driving.
I was listening to the radio, and the song "Light Up the Sky" by The Afters came on. One of the band members explained that the song was talking about how God sent a pillar of fire to the Israelites while they were wandering in the desert.
Do you ever just picture yourself in someone else's shoes, and it kind of just shocks you?
Maybe I just have a really good imagination, but I was imagining I was an Israelite during that time. I imagined myself exhausted because I was walking through the desert (one of the few things I haven ever had the desire to do). I imagined it starting to get dark and feeling worried because the pillar of clouds that was guiding us would no longer be visible.
I can hear myself going, "God...um, should we stop now? Because we can't really see where you want us to go...and I'm kinda tired anyway...the desert is really big, in case you haven't noticed...some of the kids could wander off..."
And then, out of nowhere, this giant pillar of fire comes down. I picture it kinda like "The Prince of Egypt" portrays it. Random thought, I wonder if it was hot? I've heard the desert gets cold at night. I wonder if it provided some heat, or if it was so hot they just had to stay away from it.
But more than just the cool image in my head, it made my realize something. That, and this is the point of the song. It made me realize that God is always there. And not only is He always there, He will ALWAYS show you where He wants you to go. He doesn't leave us high and dry! Even when my circumstances feel like He has. No, He has some awesome cool plan, and He will show it to us (even if it is just one step at a time). We don't have to play hide-and-seek in the dark, He will shoot down some cool fire show, send someone to encourage us down a particular path, or just give us a peace.
My fire pillar has been an incredible peace, in spite of crazy circumstances. That doesn't mean that pain from the circumstances isn't still there, because it is. But, I don't have to be afraid.
Paul said, "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'" (Romans 8:15 NASB).
This song inspired all of that. I hope you like it too!
Since we got married, I have wanted a picture of my handsome G.I. Joe in his Army uniform. I couldn't talk him into the dress blues, but I did manage to get a picture while he was already dressed.
Unfortunately, not much has been happening around here. I just read the Inkheart series. When I get into a book series, I am like a kid who just got twirled around the living room. I keep coming back for more until I drive someone crazy - like my husband who wants supper and clean laundry. Oops.
Finally, I finished it. The whole series. It took about a week and a half. And yes, they were written for young adults. (I like children's books - what of it?) The first book in the series was great. I loved it. It had a great plot, the characters were a lot of fun, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The second and third books were disappointing. First of all, it seemed that the first book ended just fine without them. Also, the second and third books were filled with curse words, sketchy situations, and things I wouldn't want my young adult reading if I had a young adult.
One more thing, the movie just about killed the book for me. It made the characters beyond cheesy and ruined the story. In my opinion.
So that has been my last few weeks. There have been no posts because there has not been anything to post about. However, I do have a couple projects up my sleeve so hopefully those will be up soon. And I haven't forgotten about my love story series. The next installment will be soon as well!
Notes of a Newlywed
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