Thank You

Thanks to all of my peeps who gave me encouragment through my own personal freak out.

These are some scriptures that have been on repeat in my head...

2 Tim 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Isaiah 45:3 "I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel."

This one is a bit lengthy, but a passage I've been clinging to for about seven years now...

Isaiah 54
"Sing, o barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman," says the Lord. "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited. Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Isreal; He is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused," says your God, "For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer. "For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has mercy on you. "O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises up against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me," says the Lord.

Please Pray...

Okay, y'all, here's the deal.

Friday I'm supposed to start taking my second round of clomid. This time it's a double dose. I'm kind of nervous about this. The whole thing in general. Dan is leaving for camp on Sunday, so I will need to go up there when the "time" comes. I want this to work so bad, but do I have too much control over it all? Am I trying to do God's job? What if a double dose is too much and it gives me fifteen babies? I can't handle fifteen babies! Twins, maybe, but not fifteenuplets. Will you please pray for peace, that my body will accept and respond properly to the clomid, and that the Lord is in control over this situation?

Thanks, friends.

New Furniture

Well...it's new to me.

I got these two pieces of furniture when we went to Lubbock to help my family pack up my Granny and Pa's house. Aren't they gorgeous?

Interesting fact...the piece that I would call a china hutch is actually called a pie safe. It has always been one of my favorite pieces of furniture of hers, and I will cherish it. I haven't put anything in it yet, but I will show pictures when it's done!

This was not actually how we wanted the entertainment center set up. We did not plan to have the little piece with the television on the side. The TV was supposed to go in the entertainment center (imagine that!), but when we tried putting the TV in, it was a half inch too wide!!!! You should have seen Dan trying to pry that thing in....sad. So this was the alternative we came up with...what do you think?

I came home with a lot of Granny's bakeware....things that I didn't have like mini loaf pans and these really cool old cast iron corn bread molds. Don't ask me when I have time to use them, but I will use them one day...

Not Old Enough

I know a couple of posts ago I declared that I was officially old...

But, seriously, I'm not old enough to have a niece that is beginning to shop for panties and bras at Victoria's Secret.

Seriously.

All in a Day's Work

I have the most awesome team in the whole world...seriously! We've literally moved our store around twice in two and a half days. Here's what happened...

We get our freight truck on Monday's at 6AM (not so much fun). It was a fairly light truck this week...171 boxes. It took about 30 minutes to unload it, then we began unboxing. Most of the time I have almost everything planned to where it's going to go, and sometimes that means we have to move things around to make room for the new stuff...such was the case this week. We began moving things around. We are about halfway through moving everything according to plan when I got "the call" from my district team leader who basically said, "Don't move the clocks to the wall as directed because they are selling well where they are...we'll talk about it on the conference call and I'll probably be in San Angelo tomorrow."

Okay, team, stop what you're doing; I have to come up with Plan B.

So, I come up with Plan B, and we began moves again.

Mike (DTL) comes Tuesday morning and we go through our normal routine of meet and greet with the team, and, by the way, he has a conference call in about thirty minutes that he has to be on. He comes out of his conference call and says, "Okay, you ready to do some moves?"

Are you kidding me?

Evidently, the company decided to put the world on sale, so we had to get it all together.

It ended up looking really good, and my team rallied. We really did have a good attitude about it all (even though it doesn't sound like it here), and I think we'll have some really good results from it. But we had everything done by about 4 PM today(Wednesday), and I couldn't have done it without my awesome team!!!

Here are some of the fruits of our labor...

(By the way, we ARE really having a great sale at Kirkland's, so you should come by!)

Maybe Next Month...

Well, the clomid did not work this month.

After I took the pills for five days, the doctor said I should have a hormone surge on the 11th or 12th day of my cycle. That didn't happen, so when I spoke to the nurse, she said not to worry because sometimes it may not happen until the 15th or 16th day. Still didn't happen. So when I spoke to her again, she said to keep doing the predictor kit until day 20 and let her know what happens.

Well, yesterday was day 22 and nothing happened. The doctor said to go ahead and stop using the predictor kits for now and let them know when my cycle starts again. They will probably increase the milligrams this time.

Of course, Dan is going to be gone to camp for the month of July. How is THAT going to work?? I guess if I have to suddenly cancel plans and rearrange my schedule to make an "unexpected trip" to visit Dan, you'll know I had a hormone surge! lol.

This will be an adventure...that's for sure.

The Difference a Year Makes

This picture was taken on April 29, 2006, at Granny and Pa's 65th wedding anniversary celebration.

They were surrounded by their 3 children, 4 out of 5 grandchildren, 2 great-grandchildren, and a host of other family members and friends.

A very special day indeed.

It's amazing the events that can happen in a year's time to change the course of your life to where it will never be the same as it once was.

There are changes that happen physically...like the fact that my hair has changed colors a couple of times since then (current color being salt and pepper, I might add). And changes that happen in ways that you cannot see, such as the fact that in this picture my Pa knew who I was.

But I love the old song "Great is Thy Faithfulness" because it talks about what Pastor was explaining this morning about God never changing:

Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God, my Father.

There is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Thou changest not; Thy compassions they fail not.

As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide.

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning, new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

My Granny

While we were in Lubbock Friday, we went to the hospital to visit my Granny (dad's mom). She's been hospitalized since January and has been through a horrible ordeal.

Granny will probably never be able to do the same things as she did before, and will not be able to live by herself once she is well enough to leave the hospital. This makes me very sad because she has always been a very independent person. (Hmmm...not sure where I got that from...) She has always loved to shop...hats, purses, and shoes are her downfall.

During our visit at the hospital, I got out my camera to show her pictures of Rosie, as well as pictures of my table from the Mother/Daughter Tea. One of the pictures was of Mikayla Haire, Julia Sullivan, and Bekah Poynor all dressed up in boas, pearls, hats and heels. She got the biggest kick out of seeing those beautiful girls all dressed up. It was wonderful to see her smile.

Over the next week, we will be going back to Lubbock to help my parents, aunt, and uncle pack up Granny and Pa's house. Unfortunately, Pa had to be put in nursing home during this ordeal with Granny. He has dimensia and is no longer able to live without professional care. They will not be able to continue living in their home, so we are in the process of separating their belongings. If you only knew how much stuff they have...

Granny is infamous for keeping everything. She is very meticulous and can fit the most stuff into the smallest space. Not junk, by any means. Treasures. Family pictures, knick knacks sent from overseas when my dad and my aunt were stationed in Germany, and three closets worth of clothes. Did I mention she liked to shop? Not to mention all of her sewing and craft materials. Oh, my, do we have our work cut out for us.

It's neat going through everything, though. We went through some of her family pictures while we were there and were amazed at the impeccable condition these antique photos were in. I mean, impeccable. I love that kind of stuff. I love that she took the time to preserve our history. I love my Granny.

Freedom

For the past seven years, we have had a certain payment that has been a burden for us. It has literally been like a monkey on our backs this whole time. Not just because of being a payment in and of itself, but because it held us back in a number of ways. I realize I'm speaking in vague terms...please forgive me, but know that this has been a very big deal for a very long time.

Well, I have good news...

We have paid that baby off! Here's a picture of Dan holding his receipt with a $0.00 balance!

Thanks be to the Lord.

Cool

The air conditioner is fixed on my car!!! Yea! Now I can have the sunroof open or windows down because I want to...not because of necessity. I am really thankful because we are making a day trip to Lubbock on Friday, and it would not be fun without a working air conditioner in June in Texas. Although, it could be worse....it could be August.

I'm Officially Old

On our daily communication sheet at work we have this little section of fun facts. The other day I was going over the communication with one of my younger team members. The fun fact for that day was something like this:

"Harry Anderson, Cindy Crawford and Weird Al Yankovic were all valedictorians of their high school class."

Cindy Crawford was the only familiar name to my young friend.

Sad.

Then I made it worse.

"You know...Weird Al...he would make up different words to popular songs. Remember Michael Jackson's song "Beat It"?

"Maybe if I heard it."

Yes, I did.

The only problem was that I could only remember "Just beat it, beat it....duh di duh di duh di duh duh...."

Of course if it was a hymn, I would have known all five verses and the chorus.

Jeez...no wonder I wasn't popular in high school.

Tired

You don't even know the half of it!

Mark it down in the books...it's a miracle, I tell ya. I actually left work early today...just because.

We had inventory yesterday. We had to start at 5AM, so we all had to be there at 4:30. Yuck! It went pretty smoothly, and we finished around 2PM. I got home a little after 3 and slept for about an hour and a half, then we went to church. Applebee's followed that, then it was home to bed! I'm usually not an early-to-bed-kinda-girl, but we had to unload the freight truck at work at 6AM, so Sunday night's are usually pretty uneventful around our house.

Anyway, those are all the physical reasons why I'm tired....then there's the emotional. Oh, Lord, we don't have time to go into all that! With everything going on, I'm just really, really drained.

So...I think I'll take advantage of my afore mentioned executive decision and go take a nap!

Uncertainty

I'm not so sure that this medicine is working. I don't feel any different. I have not felt any of the side effects that they listed as being common. I've been taking the little ovulation predictor tests every morning, and so far, I'm failing. :)

I'm not worried, really, because I know that if I worry, I'll stress, and if I stress, that will definitely cause problems. All I can do is trust the Lord.

And I do.

He is my rock. He is my song. He is my provider. He is my deliverer. He is my shelter. He is my strength. He is my peace. He is my friend. He is my father. He is my help. He is my healer.

And repeat.

Movies

I've decided that I'm really excited about seeing Ocean's Thirteen when it comes out.

The other night I was channel surfing, and Ocean's Eleven was scheduled to come on, so I recorded it to watch at a later time...mainly because we like to fast forward through the commercials! :)

So, I just finished watching it, and it reminded me why I love that movie so much!!! Not only are there some REALLY attractive people, but it had a really good plot! Did I mention that there were some incredibly attractive people? he.he.

But before I can see Ocean's Thirteen, I'm going to have to rent Ocean's Twelve so I can refresh my memory on that one. I think I remember not liking it as much as the first one, but I still want to see it again.

Anyway, I can't wait for the third one to come out! Hopefully I won't be as disappointed in that movie as I have others lately that I've expected to be good....

Ugh.

The air conditioner isn't working on my car. Wait, let me rephrase that. The air conditioner only works on high in my car, but it makes a funny noise on high, so I don't let it run for very long, if at all.

We took it in this morning to see what the deal is with it, so hopefully it will be fixed soon...if it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg.

Thank you, Kim, for meeting me up there so early this morning to let me drop off my car! You rock!

Slow Down

So, in the two days since my last post with my exciting news, I have gotten a maternity clothes catalog, a baby room decor catalog, an offer to paint the baby's room, and have been told who is throwing me a baby shower!

Oh! And I've been told by like three people that it's going to be a girl. (Although, I want a boy.)

He, he, he. I love it.

But, I do have to slow down and keep my wits about me. It hasn't happened yet....YET.

I just remembered a scripture that Pastor quoted last night:

"I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Isreal." Isaiah 45:3

I Did It!

I finally decided to post blogs! I've thought about it for a while, but today is a new day with new possibilities...so why not?

Today is a very exciting day. Not because I decided to post blogs...but because today I began taking medication to help us have a baby! It was all very sudden. The doctor's nurse called yesterday about some blood work that had been done, and we began talking about other issues as well. Before I knew it, she had talked with the doctor, and he prescribed me some pills to begin taking today. I'm still kind of in a state of shock.

I know that there is a very real possibility that I could be pregnant in a matter of weeks...but there is also the very real possibility that I will not. I'm trying to see the light at the end of this very long tunnel we've been going through, but I'm also trying not to get my hopes up.

I am putting this in God's hands and praying for His will to be done. Please help me pray. Thanks.