Ten Thoughts This Tuesday :)

You like that special title with all the T's huh?! :P

#1) This past weekend was Meg's wedding - and it was beautiful! Completely reinforced my desire to someday have an outdoor wedding at night with a lot of lights. Sadly, it rained, so that changed a few of the plans for pictures and such, but overall it was a good time! I definitely had a lot of fun and I'm so happy for the Peterson's!

#2) Just watched the Dog Whisperer for the 1st time ever! I know, a little shocking right, considering I have a dog who has had just about every behavioral issue known to man! I must say, Cesar is pretty amazing! It's possible I might have a Dog Whisperer marathon in the near future, sponsored by Hulu! :P

#3) Speaking of my dog - Noah has decided that it is now more appropriate to pee inside than it is outside. This is NOT okay with me. The thing about it is, he has the opportunity to go outside, and he knows to go outside, he just chooses not to. Also funny, he won't do it when I'm not at home, further proving that he is, indeed, house trained. I'm not sure what I did to upset him, but he's taking it out on my carpets (and a couple of times my car!!!), and I'm very tired of cleaning it up. He's lucky I'm such a dog person!

#4) I'm a big fan of glasses. A lot of people know this, but it is reinforced for me daily, I think. Obviously, this is within reason - I'm not talking 3D glasses or someone sporting huge glasses like what I wore in 3rd grade. This is obviously not appropriate! But, for most girls and guys alike - I think glasses can really make someone more attractive. Of course, no one wants to wear their glasses all the time, myself included, and this is understandable, but I am definitely all for them being worn at least occasionally! :)

#5) CSI: Miami has added Eddie Cibrian to their cast and this is very exciting. He's pretty fantastic looking. What will not be exciting is if he somehow replaces the Callie/Eric thing that is going on right now.

#6) Since I no longer have DVR, I now find myself watching a lot of tv online. A lot of the shows I like are crime/suspense related shows and so there are often moments of "Oh my - what happens next?!" Sort of like the way you see people watch scary movies through the cracks of their fingers, I instead, tend to press pause A LOT. It's like I need a break to prepare myself for what comes next. I also do this when there is some really awkward situation or conversation going on. Ha - I'm not sure what I think pausing is going to do for me, but somehow it seems to calm me a little. Kind of weird - I know.

#7) NC State fair is SOOOOOO SOOON! :) :) :) There really is no possible way to convey how excited I am about this!

#8) I have a problem with temperature control - in my house, the car, and the office. Whether it's fans at home, the heater in my office, or the ac/heat in the car, I just can't seem to find a happy medium...or I don't understand what that is. If I get to hot or cold, I have to turn things all the way up, or all the way off - there is no in between. This results in the fact that I am never comfortable temperature wise. I'm obviously aware of the issue, now if I could just make changes. Ha

#9) I want a new camera - like a really good camera. But, I also want to learn how to take better pictures, otherwise, there really is no point to a new camera.

#10) I haven't listened to any music at all today (not counting being in the car). That's really weird for me.


Happy Tuesday! :)

Failing already!

Only a couple of months of blogging and I'm already failing! Okay, well comparatively, maybe not, since every other month I've had 4 posts and so this meets my quota for September! We'll see if I become a real over-achiever and decide to add a super special post #5 this month! :P


Recent happenings

#1) I spent a Saturday at the zoo recently and was so happy to get to see the polar bear playing! He's my favorite animal at the zoo I think, even though up to this point I've only ever seen him snoozing! Thankfully, we got there just in time to see him playing with his toys! Wow was he cute - looked like a HUGE cuddly teddy bear; of course, I'm sure that's not how he would have acted had I decided to see if he wanted to play! Still though, seeing him made the whole trip worth it! :)

#2) Upward is now in full swing! I can't believe we're already into week 3 of practices! Oddly enough, I'm helping with 2 basketball teams and only 1 cheerleading team! Considering I know less than nothing about basketball, it's a little interesting, but I know it'll be super fun to watch the kids play! And, in a positive note, I now know what "setting a pick" is and the purpose of it - so I'm definitely learning! I'll be a pro in no time!...or not. ha :P

#3) Soon I'll be picking up hours again at the spa. That means even more hours working every other week, but I do love the spa and I've got to do something to make a little extra money! I'm glad I was able to go back!

#4) Megan's wedding is THIS WEEKEND! I'm super excited for her big day, so I can only imagine how happy she must be to finally have it here! I'm certain she will be one of the most beautiful brides ever! We had her bridesmaid luncheon this weekend, then all of the bridesmaids (minus Lori :( ) and Meg went to downtown Wilmington for a little spa fun and then dinner and dessert at the Little Dipper. That place was ridiculously good!

She also let us in on a little surprise we'll be ....participating in... at her wedding. Should make for some good pictures...and laughs. Hopefully we'll be laughing with the others - not just getting laughed at! :P

Completely Humbled

Lately, I've been stressing a little about what to do with certain situations in my life, specifically concerning housing and work. It's not unusual for me to stress over these things, but in less than a month I was going to have to make some pretty big decisions and I've been at wits end about what to do. Last week, God totally reminded me of how big He is and how much He wants to take care of me and IS going to take care of me, but how much He wants me to ask Him for these things.

Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple times when I've been challenged, whether by a close friend or a teacher or speaker of some sort, to pray specifically and expecting God to answer my prayer requests. And each time I've done that, I've seen God answer my prayers so quickly and so directly that I've literally been amazed, just like this time.



Our God is so big and He wants to give us so many things and take care of us. I know that, and I've seen Him do that in my life so many times, but, it's so funny, because so often, I don't pray to Him for these things. Sure, I might mention it to Him in passing, but often, it's as if I possess this attitude of "Well He already knows I need this, so why should I ask?". But the thing is, He wants me to ask, He wants us to ask.



So if He already knows, why would He want me to ask? I'm definitely not the best scholar or interpreter of God's Word, and I sure wish I possessed a lot more knowledge on so many things, but when it comes to this, I can tell you why, at least in my life, it is that He wants me to ask. Those times when I've prayed expecting God to answer my prayer requests, He's done it in such a way that there is NO WAY I can deny that these things came from Him. Talk about giving God the glory, it'd be hard to not give Him the glory in all of those instances because they are things that would never happen "just by coincidence." I think God wants me to ask so that when He answers in that big, awesome way, like I know He will, that I can't do anything other than turn around and give all the credit directly to Him. I can't do anything on my own, and that's why I have to ask God to help me, to provide and lead and direct me, and when I'm finally willing to do that, He amazes me every time.

"Brown Chicken, Brown Cow!"

Boone
I spent this last 3 day weekend in Boone with Daryl, Kelly, and Chris. To say the least, it was an adventure, full of surprises, but, I know I had a blast! We were supposed to camp 2 of the 3 nights, but that failed miserably, both times! Ha We did get to take lots of fun pics, play at waterfalls, climb ridiculous trails and rocks, creep on Chris' neighbors and watch the Hannah Montana movie, just to name a few things! ;) And, very surprising to myself, I learned that I really really like hiking - like a lot. It's challenging, and I'm sure what we did wasn't even that hard compared to what most hardcore hikers do..but it was def. super cool and something I wish I'd known I liked more because I would have maybe been doing it way more often for a while now! Who knew?! Either way - above you can see just a few of the hundreds of pics we took this weekend! I def. can't wait for the next fun adventure!

Birthday shout outs
My mom - I'd say she comes first because she's definitely most important. I won't tell you how old she is (because I'm sure she doesn't want it posted online :P) but I will say she's not even 50 yet so she's still super young! Happy Birthday, MOMMY! :) I <3>

Carter - My youngest nephew turned 3 this week! I can't believe how fast they grow up! Goodness - I don't even want to imagine how quickly time will pass when it's my own kids!

Daryl - The BIG 1-8! Can't wait for lots of fun on your "birthday weekend"! :)

Andrew - Hard to believe the first birthday I knew you well enough to say "happy birthday" was probably around the time you started driving. And now you're all grown up. *tear* JK, friend! :)



Fun Facts
Upward started this week. I'm thankful to be able to help out a lot with it this season, like last season. I'm also thankful that it does take up a few less hours in the evenings and on Saturdays! :P

I'm going to the ZOO this weekend! :)


That's all for now!

*Fun Facts for the day*

#1) The weather has been perfect and I've slept with my windows open the past two nights! <3>

#2) GO WOLFPACK! Football begins tonight and I really love Wolfpack football. These are definitely the days I miss being a student.

#3) My new cell phone came in on Monday and it is wonderful! My most favorite feature is that it keeps a separate thread of text messages with each individual person I text! No more searching back and forth from my inbox and sent messages to try and understand a conversation! This is followed very closely by the fact that the camera has a flash!

#4) Yesterday, I sat in a meeting at the chiropractor's office with 3 other clients. All of them, 50+ year old men, to be exact. I felt a little out of place and took it as a sign that I'm way too young to be having such ridiculous back problems! On another note, the x-rays of my back confirm that my spine is actually leaning heavily to the left! :O As for treatment, my dad and a couple of others have advised me to seek a 2nd opinion.

#5) TOMORROW I'M GOING TO BOONE FOR THE WEEKEND! Sadly, the back injury will most likely prohibit me from jumping off waterfalls. :( But, I'm counting on a lot less drama than last weekend occurring!

Help! I've fallen and "I can't get up!"

This past weekend I spent at Emerald Isle with Laura and her family. The plan was to go down Friday evening after work and return sometime Sunday evening before work on Monday. The weekend was a blast, but a lot of things definitely turned out differently than I expected!

We'll start with Noah, my sweet little pup! :P I dropped him off around 630pm at the Vet's office where my sister works because he was going to be staying at her house for the weekend - which he has done before. Shortly after I reach 40/42, maybe 20 minutes later, my sister calls to let me know that Noah is so nervous and anxious for some reason that he is refusing to get into her car and he tried to bite someone who was helping her! :O Once he was in the car the car, Ali and I hung up, and I figured all the trouble was over and his anxiety would wear off once he got to her house. Oh boy, was I wrong!

Ten minutes later I got a call from my frantic, sobbing sister who was running down the road chasing after my dog. Apparently, Noah decided it'd be a better idea to run down a road full of cars and into the woods, as opposed to walking inside my sister's comfortable house! Next thing I know, Ali says "I'm gonna put you on speaker so you can talk to him!" I'm certain something like, "Hold up - what? You want me to talk to my dog on the phone?!" is what was going through my head at that point. But, having no other option, I begin to repeat "Noah, wait!" or "It's okay...Noah, sit!" into the phone. Thankfully, Laura loves me, because at this point, anyone who didn't, would have probably uninvited me on their family beach trip! Surprisingly, my sister says that Noah has stopped to look around for me and she was finally able to catch up with him! Who knew that my dog who rarely listens to me when I am around, would suddenly listen to me when I'm not even visible! Maybe I should talk to him on the phone more? Ha

Disaster #1 - avoided!

Even though it was vacation, we were still out of bed by 830am on Saturday morning. The house we stayed at was right on the sound and the view out the back window was unbelievably amazing. Sitting in the sun room, you could see the personal pool and then views of still water, grass, trees and and even an island. Almost every meal I ate was in that room so that I could fully enjoy the beauty of that view!

We hit the beach about 10am the first morning and the sun was shining and the waves were rolling. Well, the waves were more like non-stop thrashing in the ocean and made it literally impossible for us to get into the water above our ankles, but still, it was beautiful out! We laid out on the beach for a while and would stand at the waters edge when we got hot and let the wild waves splash us until we were cooled off. We went home for lunch, came back to the beach for more of the same, and then about 530 decided to spend a little time at the pool behind the house before supper. We swam, took underwater and super fun jumping pics into the pool , and tried to take some cool "artsy" looking ones on the dock, as the sun went down.

After supper and a short time longer at the pool, we opted for showers before a visit to the Dairy Queen in Atlantic beach to meet up with Shelley and David. I took a quick shower and hopped out to start getting ready only to find that my lower back was suddenly in pain - A LOT of pain. Really odd because I didn't remember doing anything to hurt myself! We finished getting ready, with me limping around, headed off to have ice cream and take a quick walk on the pier, and then came back to the house for some Catch Phrase with Laura's family!

I decided not to play Catch Phrase and instead went for laying on the floor with some ice on my back to hopefully help the pain. Laura's mom made a joke "I hope you can get get up from there" to which I responded "Ha - I guess we'll see!" I mean, I just had a little..okay, a lot, of back pain; but really, of course I was going to be able to get up! Twenty minutes later, I tried to sit up straight and realized that I was in too much pain to do that. Well, what about if I pulled my knees up to my chest and tried to sit up that way? I soon realized that not only could I not do that, I also could not roll myself over onto one side or the other and try to sit up that way. I was literally stuck on the floor. "I can't get up!" It wasn't funny at that moment, in fact it was pretty painful and scary thinking about the fact that I was actually stuck flat on my back on the floor with no way of getting up...but now it's definitely a very amusing thought!

Thank you, Jesus, for Laura's quick thinking mom, who got pillows from her room and rolled me onto my side in stages, while placing pillows behind my back each time to hold me up. Once on my side, I managed to sit upright, and then Laura's dad puts his hands under my shoulders and lifted me to a standing position. WOW - that hurt! But, at least I was no longer stuck on the floor!

I spent the next day limping around and literally hunched over upon the first few minutes of standing. I also noticed, Sunday evening, that when I was standing up, my body oddly looked as if I was leaning heavily to my left - only I wasn't...I was flat-footed and standing up straight. It was pretty obvious that my hip or back or something was not in the right place relative to the rest of my body! I had to call my boss and let him know I wouldn't be in the office on Monday because I couldn't stand up straight and I certainly couldn't sit in the car for 2 1/2 hours to drive home! Who doesn't wish for an extra day of vacation, right? But I have to say, next time I'd rather it happen a little differently!

Disaster #2 - NOT avoided!

On to the next mishap from my vacation. As if anything else could go wrong, right? WRONG! Rewind to Saturday night while we are at Dairy Queen. My sister calls to let me know that she has consistently had to fight Noah into the garage and his crate every time she has taken him out because he is so nervous for some reason! So she wanted to know if she could take him to my apartment and just come to let him out during the day there so that maybe he'll feel more comfortable at home. Of course I tell her this is fine, but first we faced the obstacle of getting him back into the car! Round 2 of talking to my dog on the phone! "It's okay, Noah - I'll be back" and "Wanna go for a ride?" are what I continuously repeated while my ice cream slowly melted. AN HOUR LATER - my sister calls back to tell me he is finally in the car.

Fast forward a little to the part where I was stuck on the floor in pain. My sister called to inform me that she had let Noah out and he was a happy boy, but now she couldn't get the door to the apartment locked back. Somehow, the lock was broken and she needed the emergency number. To make this super long story....only slightly less long - the "emergency" crew at the apartment showed up at 730am THE NEXT MORNING - so my sister was forced to stay there all night to wait for them! Good thing not being able to lock your door isn't considered an emergency?!

Disaster #3 - NOT avoided!

To add the icing to the cake. Monday morning, my mom drove to Raleigh to let out Noah since I was still at the beach. While she was there, I received a call from my apartment complex that there was apparently a leak from my water heater that was running into the apartment below! You've got to be kidding, right?! My mom ended up being stuck at my apartment the entire day waiting for the new water heater to be installed!

Disaster #4 - NOT avoided!

Thankfully, this was the end of the craziness! As if I could have handled anymore?!

This weekend is my trip to Boone and I can only hope that things turn out a little better. If not, at least it'll make for another good story, huh? :P