Friday, August 29, 2008

Labor Day Weekend

Well it actually starts today! Maybe we'll go out maybe we'll stay in for dinner... then possibly watch a movie... depending on the homework situation.
The main point is to get a good rest so that we'll be fresh for our ride tomorrow morning! I ordered us both padded bike shorts, but they won't be here 'til next week... so we'll just have to tough it one more time. I'm sure we can handle it :)
Other plans for the weekend include organizing the garage! (Yes, again... it's like a 5-step process. We're on step 3.) Hopefully some swimming! (looks like it's going to be in the mid 90's for the next 5 days) And then maybe another ride on monday! We'll see, it's just going to be a low key holiday weekend, I'm looking forward to it!
Oh, I was just just talking to my sister and she told me about this geocaching... it's like a treasure hunt for everyone! You just go to their site and type in your zipcode, or any zip code... and then you get gps coordinates. Go find the geocache! I guess it could be a clue or a coupon or whatever... but you then leave it there for the next people. I think it's a great "rainy day" activity... maybe not actually in the rain... but something you can always do when you're bored! It's www.geocaching.com (sorry you'll have to copy and paste, I'm not handy at making links).

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

It's Even More Official! I'm an Okie!



I actually got it a couple days ago... I'm not sure how clear the pic is... if it's too clear, I will prob take it down in a day or so.

I went to drop our bikes off this morning for a tune. They really need it and this bike shop had a pretty quick turn around time... we want to ride again saturday... However they barely said 5 words to me while I was in there and between 5 employees and not more than 3 customers in the store I couldn't help but feeling like I was not welcome. Oh well, maybe they were just having a bad day... we'll see how it is when I go pick them up. If they're still crabby there are many other bike shops in Tulsa. The only thing that stinks is that the owner lives across the street from me. Like I said, we'll see.

A carpenter came out to look at some work we want done this morning. (Replace front and back doors, eliminate some walls and create a custom bookshelf) I can't wait to hear back... hopefully we can afford at least one of the projects! He told me "this is not a $200 project" Yikes, I know.

I just ate 2..... not one but two hot pockets for lunch. That was probably really dumb but I did it anyway. You know how it is... they look really small in the package.... and I didn't really feel like another salami sandwich or ramen noodles.


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Monday, August 25, 2008

Our Weekend...

Friday night we were originally planning on another attempt at perfecting our home made pizza recipe... which is always a fun adventure for us! ... then just before Mike got home I went to get the mail and there was a coupon for our favorite mexican resaturant... well the ingredients won't go bad right away.... we'll make pizza this week :)
After burritos and enchiladas we decided to cruise by the theatre and see if anything interesting was playing... I had thought I remembered seeing preview for Pineapple Express... however I really didn't remember what it was about... we took the risk and had a few laughs.
Saturday morning we got up early to meet the Tulsa bike club for one of their weekly rides... I really liked being on an organized ride... However we really hadn't been riding since the spring and even then only 10-12 miles at a time.
The frist 5-7 miles I had a tough time because I was trying to keep up with everyone that does this all the time. As we neared the end we missed a turn... I was sore and tired and a huge storm was fast approaching (poor mike) we waited it out and did the last 1.5-2 miles in a light rain. Even though we missed a turn, our ride still measured out at 35 miles. It was long and tiring... and I definately have a case of bicycle butt... however encouraged to get back on and do better next week!
The rest of the day was lost though... here is me zonked on the couch... as you can see, Iris saw this as a prime snuggle opportunity!

Yesterday we went to church and then came home and did some chores... Mike in the yard and me... painting the bathroom... again... almost done! I'll finish today. Then meet Mike at the Tag Agency so I won't get busted again for my outdated plates! It's time! Oh, I guess I didn't mention I got 2 tickets not one on friday... again... my fault... I deserved it!
Last night we watched the closing ceremonies for the olympics... In the beginning I was making comments on all the silly hats... then I decided to get in the spirit...

Nerdy I know :)


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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Random...

I love the way my hands smell after chopping up celery.

We had a good visit to the vet. Cats are healthy, makes me happy because I love my girls!

Exterminator said the few spiders we have found indicates that we likely don't have a problem, just need to seal the doors up really good.

Mike put screens on the plumbing pipes on the roof, haven't seen a frog in about 2 weeks.

Taking care of a pool is easy and not that big of a deal.

It's been a rainy week. It's supposed to start heating back up.

I signed up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, I am looking forward to the orientation meeting on tuesday.

I'm looking forward to seeing my husband later. He's my #1 biggest supporter and I'm his... go team!

Olympics have been really fun to watch... but I feel guilty watching anything else... I don't want to miss out on any big moments!



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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

This Could be considered Part III

I would have to say that the beginning of my journey was ingrained with 3 specific lessons that changed my life:
1. God Loves Me and Everyone Else in this world more than each of us can fathom. That’s what drew me into this walk.
2. During our time at CUMC, I talked about how Pastor Mary always reminded us that God is good. That means that he does not desire to condemn or destroy you. He wants to shed his mercy and grace on you and forgive you for whatever is causing your pain.
3. Third and probably one of the most powerful and life changing little pieces of wisdom I could ever share with anyone. Give it to God.
At the time we started attending church and clearing the brush out of our path, I mentioned that we were on a super tight budget. We were also experiencing inter family relationships that were close to destroying our marriage. And there was more, but just between those 2 things I know I was feeling plenty desperate.
One Sunday Pastor Mary talked on “Giving it to God”, meaning your worries, hurts, afflictions, addictions, anything that is weighing you down. And I couldn’t help but thinking, why would I give it to God? He already took the sins of the world on his shoulders, why would I throw more at him “I can handle this”. And I’d have to say I still feel that way sometimes, “I got myself into this mess, it’s my responsibility to get myself out”. However friends, something we must never lose perspective on… God is greater than anything and everything. And God is going to triumph over the enemy every time, just ask him to intervene.
“Call your anxiety on him because he cares for you” 1Peter 5:7
The first thing I “gave to God” was the bitterness that I was harboring against a couple people that had hurt my feelings. Bitterness was not a common problem for me, but one event in my life allowed it to take root, and it was all consuming. So if you are holding your forgiveness back from any one or anything, including yourself, PLEASE let go of it and let God take care of it. I had let that bitterness take control for almost a year and it affected my health, my marriage and it invaded my thoughts. (That was definitely the devil hard at work… and he was winning)
I asked God to intervene and almost immediately I finally felt relief. I felt 15 lbs lighter, the battle was over. I was and still am so thankful. My health began to improve too.
Another worry that we Gave to God at this time was finances. We began to tithe, often doubling our weekly offering (we started very low) on a regular basis. God just continued to bless us, soon, there was no money stress, and we were tithing at least 10% of our income and giving to local shelters and relief efforts too. Giving to God is a way of showing your trust and faithfulness to him. He honors that and always provides for those who show this faithfulness.
“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
I share these lessons I have learned from my heart to yours. These are not just things that I have heard on Sunday morning and feel obligated to repeat. These are real things that happened to me in the worst and darkest moments of my life. I was lifted up and now have direction. This direction gives me strength to look the next mountain straight on and know that I have the power of the Creator of the Universe standing behind me.
I have begun to fight another battle, a burden that I never before Gave to God and it is time. Pray for me as I sweep the dirt out of another corner of my life.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Frog Sitch



Okay.. I waited around last week and the plumber never came. We have had one more frog since... today I thought I'd call another plumber. The answer I got was "maybe they came in through the air vents under the house, call a heating and air guy" That was a bit aggrivating. Thanks for the help Mullin Plumbing! Anyway so I turned to my trusty old friend Google. And here are some things I found:

1. The frogs get in through the roof vent and come up through the toilet. It has happened to me twice. No way to avoid it unless you put a screen on the plumbing vents. This will also keep the roaches out.

2. Years ago my parents had a toilet that wouldn't flush right, plumber found nest of tree frogs in the vent stack near the roof. Easy access to the toilet if you know how to swim, swimming rat was much more disturbing.

3. My aunt, who lives in Tampa, Florida, was cleaning her downstairs toilet today. She poured in a bleach solution and left to let it do its work. Shortly, she heard her dog barking furiously and splashing noises coming from the bathroom. When goes in, she discovers a very large bullfrog (exactly how large I don't have specifics on) in her toilet bowl. She removed the frog and put it in a container full of clean water, hoping to wash the bleach off of it, but alas the frog died shortly afterwards (if this behavior sounds at all odd, it may help to know that my aunt works for an animal cruelty prevention and rescue organization).

Understandably distressed, she calls the water company and asks how a frog could get up through her toilet. She's lived in this house for 22 years with no such incident, although they have had snakes get in through open doors and trapped in their swimming pool filter. The employee from the water company said that, yeah, it happens. Her sewer system is apparently "open," meaning that at some point a pipe has separated between her house and the main sewer line (or in the sewer line itself, in which case other people on her block could experience similar situations). She asked "Well what is there to keep a snake from coming up through my pipes and getting in the toilet?"

4. All houses have a sewer drainage access for cleaning, perhaps there is an opening and it got it there - OR - you have one hell of a cleaver frog on your hands!!

5. this happened to me last night only it was a toad. I am almost certian that it came in through my septic. The plumbing works both ways! After falling into my vent pipe he probably followed the sounds of flowing water everytime I flushed the toilet until he found the sewer drain pipe. Then he simply followed the pipe to the source.

6. The WGH is convinced the little froggie came up through the toilet itself, i.e. via our septic system.


Conclusion: I AM NOT CRAZY! But we still need to find the source!



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Monday, August 11, 2008

Highlights of the past week...

Per Request a-la Anne-i-o, one of our infamous "Toilet Frogs" This one a little bigger than the others... sorry it's not actually IN the toilet, they're usually out before we find them... Yeah so how do we know? Where else could 5 frogs in the same bathroom actually come from??



Our little landscape project this weekend... and it all started with one little bush :) It's nice to actually have a little landscape... we moved into a blank slate which is great! But we have a lot of work cut out for us (over time). The bush is called Monrovia... I also put in 2 kinds of day lilys (Stella's and pink ones Yay!) the 2 pink flowers in front are just annuals... I'm thinking carpet Phlox in the spring.



A sneak preview of the bathroom where I removed the wallpaper... see before pics in previous posts... Yes this is the one that had the moldy wall.. ick... nowi it's nice and clean :)



Side note... On Regis and Kelly this morning, I saw them make waffles with a batter out of a [whip cream-like] spray can... There's something wrong with that... I didn't know that it was so hard to add water and an egg to the mix... they also said the can says "organic" whatever.

I was also watching CNN before bed last night and saw a story about a bunch of Christian Students going to SanFrancisco for an anti-secular Rally. Kinda made me cringe... I don't understand how they think spreading the message of love is going to be effective by YELLING at people for their lifestyles. I know my instinct is to close my ears when someone is yelling at me... or yell back!

Comments??

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Friday, August 8, 2008

More of my Story

When Mike and I decided to get back into church we decided to kind of “Church Shop”. Neither of us were either against or for finding a Catholic church the main idea we had was, let’s find a place that is close to home so we will be more likely to go regularly. We also felt, we are trying to get back in to the presence of God, he will be there no matter what [christian] denomination or bible translation is being preached.

The first place we tried was a small Luthern Church that we drove past often. When we walked in we had to fill out name tags, everyone else had cross-stitched name tags that they took off a wall every week and put on. Yikes! A little uncomfortable for someone just trying to quietly check a place out. We did not go back (maybe once but that was enough).

So we decided to continue our quest… (Mike picked this time) there was another church that we passed by often, it was a Methodist Church [Community United]. So we went there… we quietly snuck into the back row… really got inspired by Pastor Mary’s sermon, and came back the next week. Each week moving up a row or two and going home with hymns in our heads.

On a side note, if you are in that spot in life, and are looking to get close to God again, know that any church that you walk into wants you there, and wants you to come back. It’s important that you find a good fit, maybe some people in your age group that you can connect with, maybe a certain energy during the worship time, maybe a pastor shares his or her teachings in a relevant way to you. Sorry for the deviation, but a couple of people have asked me “how do I get started” so that’s what I have to share. Just be careful, be sure they are teaching from the Holy Bible, there are a variety of versions, “New World Translation” is not one of them, even though it says “Holy Bible” on the cover (don’t be fooled).

Anyways, we spent 2 years at CUMC. During that time I learned and heard things I never had before.

One of the things Pastor Mary said every week was “God is Good!” and the congregation would respond “All the time!” and then the reverse. Not that I didn’t know that God is good, I still can’t wrap my mind around how GREAT he is. But something I took away from my Catholic up bringing was to be a God-Fearer, I felt more guilt than Grace. Now I live in God’s Grace. When I mess up (all the time because I am human) I know that not only is God going to forgive me, but he’s actually going to grab my hand and pull me back up onto my feet again.

I have so much more to share about the time we spent at CUMC and the spiritual growth I [and we] experienced as “babies in faith” but this post is getting to be long enough. So we’ll save it for another day. Happy Friday everyone, and have a great weekend!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The Beginning of My Story...

I originally began blogging when Mike and I started volunteering with the youth group at Stone Church as a means to open ourselves up to the students. Over time, I have come to enjoy sharing my thoughts and day to day events… I have also invited many to read my blog, and always hope to some how minister to any readers in need. (If any have accepted my invitation :) ) So… if you have come by invitation or by chance, today I want to share something close to my heart. And maybe if you can relate to “My Story” your heart will open to what I have to share.

My faith journey began as a child like many of us. My parents sent me to Catholic School for 9 years (K-8) ; during that time I received all of the necessary sacraments. As a family we almost never missed a Sunday mass/service. I learned a lot about Religion and Catholicism during my up bringing… we learned the golden rule, 10 commandments, various bible stories, and the basic story of the gospel… All good things!

I went on to college and strayed a bit… however, tried to make it to Mass as often as I could. I would see a couple others there from school too. During this time, my mom was really questioning her faith and the Catholic teachings… which seemed to cause a bit of an uproar in the family. You see, at the time the rest of us were thinking how dare she turn her back on the “Church”? Growing up in the setting I did.. everyone I knew was Catholic… so the only “Real” church was the Catholic church. Now I know that it is not the church we are looking to be loyal to, it is God that we need to remain faithful to.

I came home after my sophomore year, and began working for United Airlines the next fall. During this time I almost never made it to church. I was traveling, mostly on the weekends with a very “junior” schedule, so most of the time it was just not feasible.

A couple years later I married Mike, neither of were in any sort of church-type habit… so we didn’t make it a priority. During our first year of marriage we argued a lot, we were on an uncomfortably tight budget, let’s just say stress was affecting both of our health and our relationship. I remember one day I was talking with my sister. At the time she had Sydney, and Marie was very little. She said to me something along the lines of “It amazes me that God loves me more than I love my kids”.

That really got me thinking… I REALLY love my sister’s kids… I love them so much it overwhelms me sometimes, when each of them were born, I felt like I knew them my whole life! It really got me thinking about God again. I wanted to know more about this “impossible”, unfathomable love. Mike and I went to church together for the first time in our married life (outside of weddings, funerals, Christmas and Easter) within a couple weeks.

Well that’s a lot for one post, so I will continue sharing my story in future posts.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Save a document

Over the past week I have been really wanting to share some thoughts... mostly thoughts on faith... which I plan to dive into a bit more on my blog... I plan to do so soon..
I have been jotting my thoughts down in a word document and I need take some more time to formulate my ideas...
However, on a lighter note... I just went into my word document and jotted another idea down and went to save and noticed that it is second nature to look for me to click the little disk icon to save...
Will it be an auto thought for the next generation? They probably never have had to save to disk... I wonder .. Is Microsoft going to change that Icon? If they do... what would it look like?

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