Life

I've currently set my pandora station to the Praise & Worship one I created awhile ago. I was hoping that it would play Everlasting God, but no such luck so far. Anyways, if you read my blog at all, you probably know that I've been struggling a lot with what I'm suppose to do. I'm doing this Bible Study called "When Wallflowers Dance" by Angela Thomas. I have enjoyed it so much. Every day I read something that I needed to hear. This past week was about waiting and what we need to do. The first step was Abide (or remain). The verse she used was Abide in me and I will abide in you. I need to abide in God and not try to give into all the pressures I have on me. Instead, I need to entrust (step two) him with my worries\struggles\problems. Then I need to trust (Step 3) him. He will lead me to where I'm suppose to be. Step four is become. I need to become the woman that God wants me to be. Step five is prayer. I need to pray. The last step is stand. Just stand. I don't have to move but I have to be faithful and trust God. I'm going to try to do this. To abide, entrust, trust, become, pray and stand. I know that God will meet all my needs. Some of my favorite verses are:

Jer. 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future."

Psalm 62:8 "People, trust God all the time. Tell him all your problems, because God is our protection."

John 15:4 "Remain in me."

Romans 8:25 "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

Hebrews 6:15 "And so after waitin patiently, Abraham received what was promised."

A quote I like:

"Wait on God and He will work, but don't wait in spiritual sulks becaue you cannot see an inch in fron tof you!" -Oswald Chambers

Peter Cottontail

I woke up this morning and was looking at the backyard and I saw a rabbit! I was super excited. I ran upstairs grabbed my camera and I got several pictures of him. Here are a couple.

Questions

Things that I am pondering:

Where is the governor? He seems to have disappeared.

Are Jon & Kate really getting a divorce? Sad situation for everyone involved. I want to hope it's no, but I think it's yes.

Edited to add after I watched the show: The more I watch, the less sympathy I have for Jon. He's basically focusing on himself. He's doing what's best for him and not what is best for the kids. What's ultimately best for the kids is for them to have both parents acting like adults. Instead, they have Jon who goes out to bars with women who aren't his wife. What a great example to set! I know Kate isn't the best mom. She is very strong-willed and used to getting her way. However, she does the show and the books (and the tours that she is probably obligated to do for the books) to provide for her family. Has the money gone to her head a little? Probably. However, I don't know if they could meet all their kids needs if both of them worked "normal" jobs. Do I necessarily agree that they should get all the things they do on their show? No, but that makes good tv. People aren't going to watch a show where they don't go anywhere. That's boring. People want to watch the kids experiencing new things. That is what makes good tv. As for them buying a million dollar home, can you blame them? People stalk them all the time. Paparazzi, fans, whoever. They need privacy just like everyone else. When they first started doing the show, I'm sure they didn't realize how popular it would become. Anyways, I found a new show called Raising Sextuplets on WE. I watched it last thursday and it was pretty good. Both parents work and they live in Arizona.

Did Jon cheat on Kate? I'm leaning towards yes on this one. He definitely isn't acting like a married man.

Did Kate cheat on Jon? Probably not.

How much would could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Who knows.

Will I see Miley Cyrus on Tybee Island when we go there? Maybe...

Road Trips

I love taking road trips. I haven't taken any in along time though. Mainly because I haven't had anyone to go with. Anyways, I'm going to Rock Hill this weekend. I'm super excited to be able to see some friends that I haven't seen in forever. Krista and I talked about taking a quick trip up to DC to see her sister (and get her dog) next week, but I don't know if we will actually do it or not. I'm going with the youth to TN the following week. That should be fun. Then a few weeks later it will be time for my family vacation on Tybee. Yay! I'm ready for that. Even though I live at the beach and don't have a job right now, that still doesn't mean that I go to the beach everyday. I did go to the beach last week with some friends and on saturday I was out with another friends family. The only trip that I want to make but haven't planned yet, is a trip to Atlanta to see the Braves play. I guess I need to get with Gina and see if I can plan a time for us to go. I'm thinking probably sometime in August. I do want to eventually take a trip to San Antonio too. I have some friends that live out there. My cousin said she might go out there in September. We'll see how my job situation is then. Maybe I can go with her.

Beach Photos

Today I went to the beach with two of my good friends Ellen and Kelly and their girls. I had so much fun taking pictures of the girls. If I only could make a living off of taking pictures, I think that I would be perfectly content to do that. Anyways, here are some of the pictures that I took and did a little tweeking on in photoshop.

These are some of the pictures of Leyni:

These are some of the pictures of Abi. I really love the second one.

This is one of the pictures of Caroline.

Storms

We seem to be having a lot of storms lately. I mean daily. It rains and we have thunderstorms. I don't remember ever having them this frequently. Maybe it's just me though. Anyways, here are some pictures of the crazy weather we just had. I could really stand outside because the rain was coming down sideways.


The pond by the house.



Another picture of the pond and the alley flooding.



This is the pond across the street. That really wasn't there earlier.

This is the street.

The half completed house next door

The pond building in between the two houses across the street.

Something New

I read Pioneer Woman's Blog everyday. Today she posted a tutorial in photoshop. I decided to try it out. I must say that I LOVED it! Here is the original photo:

Here is it after I played around in photoshop.

Doesn't it look like a piece of art that you would buy? I'm excited to see what else I can come up with. Maybe I will have more photos soon.

Old TV Shows

Recently I was talking with the girl I teach with on Sunday mornings about how kids act older than they should be. I said I think it's because they watch tv programs that are geared toward an older audience. You have 3,4 and 5 year olds watching Hannah Montana, Suite Life, Wizards of Waverly Place and Sonny with a Chance. Not that these shows are bad shows, but the characters in them are teenagers who do things teenagers do. Things like talking about boys or wearing makeup, etc. These things aren't bad. However, when you have 4 year old girls asking a 4 year old boy, "Do I look hot?" something's not quite right there. When I was 4, I was playing house or beauty parlor or dress up. I wasn't thinking about which boys were cute or about wearing make-up. I watched Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (my favorite part was when they went to the land of make believe), Dumbo's Circus, Adventures in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh. Most of the time, I played outside. We rode our bikes. We played with the kids in the neighborhood. We played on the swingset in the backyard. What has happened that this generation only wants to watch tv and play video games? Is it because the parents are too busy or just don't care? I wasn't allowed to watch the Smurfs or Scooby Doo. I can't remember why I couldn't watch Scooby Doo. Maybe it was because of the ghosts. I know I couldn't watch the Smurfs because of the magician. I can't remember his name. I can't even watch most of the cartoons on tv today. Although, I have been known to watch Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears. I remember on friday nights watching TGIF. Two hours of tv that was clean. The whole family could watch it. Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, Boy Meets World and Step by Step. I remember watching Matlock during the summers. I loved Matlock. Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Touched by an Angel, 7th Heaven, Saved by the Bell, Cosby Show, Gilligans Island, The Andy Griffith Show, Little House on the Prairie, Hey Dude, Brotherly Love, Diagnosis Murder, Walker Texas Ranger, JAG, Due South, Flipper, Seaquest, Double Dare, GUTS, The Pretender, The Sentinel, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Torkelsons. These were all shows I watched. Most of them didn't have dirty language and sex in them. They were pretty clean. Your 3 year old could watch them with your 15 year old. You didn't have to worry about what was going to come on, because you knew it would be clean. Today you have to be careful.

Pictures

Can I just say that I LOVE to take pictures? I mean LOVE it! I love to take pictures of almost anything. I'm not a big pose for a picture person. I just try and get natural shots. At least, as well as I can anyways. My friend Brandon told me I should try and start my own photography business. I'm not sure if I want to. I love doing it for fun and taking pictures for my friends. I took these pictures yesterday at Wannamaker.

I did do a little editing in photoshop, but nothing major. I'm trying to decide a) if I want to walk the bridge tomorrow with Carrie if it isn't raining and b) if I want to just take pictures instead of walk.

Shaving

I've been through a lot of razors since I started shaving. The first one I can remember was a gilette. It had a oval rubber handle and was green. I would get cuts on my legs all the time even though I was using shaving cream. Similar to this:

Then I moved on to the Venus.

For some reason, I would end up losing my razor so I would end up getting a new one. I currently have this one.

I really like it. I use it to shave my pits. However, I don't really like using these on my legs because like I said earlier, I end up cutting myself. I started using the Schick Intuition on my legs.

However, it would end up with rust on it after one use. Kind of irritating. I went to the dermatologist a few years ago and she told me that warts are spread by razors. Great! Then I decided to try the Carefree hair removal system.

You just squeezed the bottle and on the end was a sponge applicator and applied it directly to your legs. No mess on your hands. Then you used a bladeless razor to remove it and rinse of the excess. It wasn't too bad, but you couldn't put lotion on until 24 hours after. Plus, I could only find it at Target. Then I decided to try Veet. Same concept as the Carefree system, but you applied it with your hands.

I stuck with this system for awhile. Mainly because it was easy to find. I still didn't like having to apply it with my hands and didn't like that I had to wait a few minutes before I could get in the shower and wait to apply lotion (24 hours). Then I saw on the tv the new Nair Shower Power. It looked interesting so I thought I would try it.

I tried it this morning and so far I like it. You apply it on your legs using the green side of the sponge. Leave it on for a minute. Then take a shower. The water kind of washes off some of it, but it still works. Then after a few minutes you use the white side of the sponge and wash it off. Not bad! So far, so good. We shall see how long it lasts. As of right now, I think I'm going to stick with this one for my legs.

Rhyme

Here is a little rhyme I came up with today.

I have a little spider
We like to call him Ted
But if you try and squish him
He will end up dead.

I have a little dog
We like to call him Fred
And if you ask him a question
He will nod his head.

Fear and Worry

I've been struggling a lot lately with fear and worry. It seems to consume every part of my life. Fear of the future. Fear of not getting a job. Fear of getting a job and not being able to do the things that I've planned. Fear of failure. Fear of never getting married. Fear of having to move. Fear of the unknown. Worry about money. Worry about getting a temp job then not being able to go on my family vacation that's been planned for a long time especially since it could be the last one my grandmother is at. I've always liked to have a plan, but lately it seems I can't count on any plan. I know that I need to work on trust. Trust in God. Trust in others. I hate relying on other people. I always seem to get let down somehow. That's why I keep a lot of things bottled up. It's easier than having to trust someone else with it. I've tried trusting God with it, but I guess since I don't see anything happening, I feel like he doesn't care even though I know he does. I don't know what I'm suppose to do. Anyways, I'm doing this study on my own called When Wallflowers Dance. I just started week 2 yesterday. I really like it. The things that she says I can relate to. I'm like that's me. I had bought the book awhile ago and never read it. I have no idea where it is, but I am going to try and find it.