Spring Break Ups and Downs

I had forgotten how refreshing having a spring break can be!

I requested to work a couple of days the beginning of the week so that I could have a few days to go visit my parents in West Texas. The plan was that my parents and niece would come to Arlington for a day or two, then I would go back home with them for a couple more days. Then Dan would drive down on Friday, and I would ride back with him Sunday.

Well, that was the plan.

We have this thing (I have to call it a thing because it's not really a joke...it's not really funny) with my parents and their plans to come visit us that dates back to when we lived in San Angelo. Every time we had plans for them to come, someone in and/or having to do with their church passed away, and they would have to stay. One time, they had arrived to San Angelo, we had dinner and were in the middle of our traditional card game when they got the call someone had passed away. They got up and headed back home to take care of the details.

It's just part of the job of being a pastor. I can't get mad about it. How selfish would that be? Someone has lost a loved one they will never see again until they go to Heaven, and I'm mad because my weekend was interrupted? I would be lying if I said it never bothered me because it usually takes a lot of planning to get all of our schedules to cooperate at the same time, but on the other hand, I have to look at the bigger picture and remember how blessed I am to have such caring parents who work so hard to be the hands and feet of Christ.

So, yes, I was bummed last Sunday when Mom called and said that they weren't going to be able to come because of a death, but it all worked out! I ended up flying out bright and early Wednesday morning and got to Seagraves in time to help Mom and the other church ladies get the fellowship hall ready to feed the family at noon, just before the funeral. So many came to celebrate the life of this man that there was not enough room in the sanctuary to hold everyone! I stayed in the back since I didn't know him well only to find out that one of the girls I graduated with had come and I didn't see her. Dad told me he thought she was there, so I contacted her via Facebook. We planned for lunch the next day along with another friend who was also in town for spring break. Our lunch ended up being a three hour long visit. We had such a good time reminiscing and laughing about the silly things we did and said growing up. Good times.....

Friday I took my niece with me to Lubbock so we could shop for her a banquet dress. We found "the" dress in round one of shopping, but then we broke for lunch with my long time best friend and her two kids. Round two of shopping found a dress Katie loved, but it was vetoed by her mom. So we had some crankiness after that. Second choice was the dress from round one, so we went back to get it. When we got home, Dan and Rosie and Katie's mom and stepdad had already arrived, so we sat down to have dinner...steaks grilled by Dad! Yummo!

Saturday we had planned to go to the cemetery where Dan's mom and dad are buried, about 1 1/2 hours away from where my parents live. We haven't been since July, when his mom was buried. We woke up to snow and ice, but we decided to go ahead and go. We got about 1/3 of the way there and turned around after the third rollover we came across, along with the increasing amount of ice on the road the further north we drove. It was so hard. I felt really bad for Dan. We will have to plan for another time to go sometime soon.

We got up early Sunday morning to pancakes made by Mom. Mmmmm. Normally we stay for church, but headed home early this time. All in all, it was a great week, but I wish the weather would have cooperated with us on Saturday.

It's Been CRAZY!!!

...so I'm just now posting what I should have posted earlier this week.

Last Friday was my birthday, and I got a new laptop! I am so pumped about it. So is Dan, mainly because I'm not using his. LOL! I actually received it before my birthday because my actual birthday was spent helping our friend Shelby Brown with her wedding!

Shelby's parents (Gaylord and Fredna Brown) are missionaries to Malawi, Africa. They were able to come home before Thanksgiving and I think are supposed to go back sometime this month. Before they came home, we had met with Shelby and Josh about what they wanted for the wedding and reception. Josh is the children's pastor at the church where the wedding was held. The sanctuary is absolutely GORGEOUS. It did not need much decorating at all, so the majority of the work was done on the reception. Shelby isn't extravagant, but she has great taste. The reception was held in the gym, so the trick was to make it to where it didn't look like a gym with some tables and a couple of cakes set up. I think, overall, it turned out well. Her colors were orange and gunmetal grey. I will admit, I had my doubts about the color choices at first, but it really came together nicely.

We were so busy, I was not able to get a lot of pictures, but I took a few of the reception decor. The first few pictures are from the sister of the bride's collection of pictures. The last couple of pics are some end-of-the-day-crazy-type pictures of the brother of the bride and one of the bridesmaids.

Mr. and Mrs. Josh Denman and wedding party.

The cake topper was custom ordered from Italy. Too cute!


It didn't come out well in the picture, but the lanterns were a mingling of solid orange and solid white.





Caleb couldn't help but hit the sauce after the reception. :)

Take one down, pass it around......

Weight Update

We had our weigh in Monday night, and I lost another two pounds! This brings my total to 11 pounds and 3.73% weight loss! This was the mid-way weigh in, so those who fell below 2% were eliminated from winning the grand prize. We've both made the cut so far. We didn't stay for the main workout, though, because I had a chemistry test Tuesday morning. We did an eight minute walk, then we left.

By the way, I passed my chemistry test. :)

It was a loss....

BUT BARELY!!

I knew this weigh in was going to be difficult for two reasons.

First of all, come on, it's VALENTINE'S DAY the day before the weigh in. REALLY?! I did well with my calories all week, but I did go over Saturday and Sunday. For the overall week, I came in under on total calories, but I just hate going over in a day (or two!). On a positive note, I did order dessert on Valentine's Day, but I did not eat it all. SCORE!

Secondly, during last Monday's workout I strained a muscle in my neck, so other than walking on campus, I had not done any working out during the week.

So, taking this into consideration, I was okay with .5 weight loss. Not jumping for joy, but thankful it wasn't a gain. Total weight loss to date is 9 pounds. Once again, the Red Team won the amount of weight loss and percentage! WOO-HOOOOOO!! AND, this week we won the team challenge! FINALLY! It was a hard one, too! I'm ssssooooooooo proud of my team!!!

Next Monday is the first elimination round. They will eliminate those who have not lost at least two percent of their starting weight. By eliminate, they mean not eligible for the prize at the end. Everyone is still welcome to come to the workouts and weigh-ins.

Here's to a big loss this week!

Monday's Weigh-in

The results are in!

I lost 7 pounds since last week, for a total weight loss of 8.4 pounds and a total percentage of weight loss of 2.5%.

Unfortunately, the Red Team lost the team challenge AGAIN, BUT we did win the weight loss...pounds and percentage...AGAIN!

GO RED TEAM!!!!

Just putting this out there...

I've been stewing on this for awhile now.
Since the beginning of January, as a matter of fact.
I was driving to work one day thinking of the new-ness of the new year...a fresh start...a new beginning full of possibilities.
The thought just kept going through my mind about 2010 being the year of the favor of God.
In general...for everyone.
Then, I thought, well, what would the favor of God mean for me, personally?
Of course, you all know what I thought.
The favor of God, to me, would be Him blessing us with a child.
So, then I thought....what does "Favor of God" mean?
Do you know what it means?
"Favor of God" literally means Grace.
I love that.
Whenever God blesses us with a child, whether it is through means of adoption or my own flesh and blood, it truly will be my Favor of God...my Grace.

The Biggest Loser

Some friends of ours at a different church invited us to participate in their Biggest Loser Challenge for eight weeks. We meet twice a week. Mondays we weigh in, work out, and have a team challenge. Then on Saturdays we have another team challenge and another workout. We are responsible to work out 2-3 days on our own and watch our food intake.

WOW.

My body is SO SORE!

It's a good thing, though, I know.

We team up with a partner that we don't live with to keep each other accountable and build a relationship with. There are a lot of people that are participating. Probably 60-70 people. We are divided up into two teams, each with a professional trainer. We start out together with stretching, then separate to different areas to have our team workouts, switch areas, then come together for the team challenge. Our team's trainer, Valerie, is deceptive.

She is super sweet.

Then she kills us.

I love her, though.

I had to work the night we started, so when I started on Saturday, there were only two days left before our first weigh in. I did lose a pound, though! So my first official weigh in will be Monday night. So far, I've been below my daily calorie intake and have worked out twice. Our team (The Red Team) won the weigh in challenge (weight loss and percentage) as well as the Team Challenge Monday night! We were super excited because we had lost the team challenge on Saturday and had to do the Circle of Death. That's probably what pushed us over the edge for the weigh in! haha

You know I'll keep you updated if the results are good.

If you don't hear from me however.....

Just kidding. I'll try to be good and post my results, whatever they may be.