Saying goodbyes

We met David & Judy Perschbacher through our church and the community group that we were placed in almost 2 years ago. We developed a relationship with them and have done various activities with them. David lost his job back in May and has been searching for a job. He finally got one with a company based out of St. Louis in December. Since then, they have been living in two places as David works and Judy waits for their house to sell. They will be moving in the next week.

I regret that we've not had as much time to spend with Judy & David. Church has been so demanding that our time was spent doing preparation work instead of spending time with them. But, the last couple weeks we've been trying our best to spend a few evenings with Judy. We were supposed to go over last Tuesday, but something came up so we postponed it to Sunday.

Judy & I love to play Rummikub and we got in four games last night!

Here we are with Barry. (By the way, David & Judy are from Arkansas. Can you tell?!)

It's sad to say good-bye, but we know that God has good things in store for them. We've already made plans to come up for the 4th of July.

Thinking of You Cards

I made this card for a co-worker. I was hoping that the brown patterned paper and the coordinating papers that I picked would look manly enough. I added some white alphabet stickers. It's pretty simple. It's a normal sized card, 4"x6".

This card is for a co-worker who just got the news that she & her husband are on their way to Belgium. Their visas finally came in and they are leaving soon. I used several different papers, red organdy ribbon, and red alphabet letters. This card is a little bit smaller than the normal size -- just about 3"x5".

4-legged Guest

We had an opportunity to take care of our friends' dog for a short time as their home was being shown and the dog couldn't stay there. At first we thought that the cats would have a rough time with her, but Bella's a different type of dog. She didn't bark and I think they just thought she was a big cat.

We took a walk in the neighborhood and then brought her back to her home.

Jesus Calling

My co-worker had talked to me about this book last fall, but I never remembered to get a copy of it. I talked to her about it again in January which prompted me to pick it up and then she also got me a copy! So, I have two.

With the challenges that were in my life last fall, I was struggling so much with trust. I'm sure that everyone goes through some time in their life where they wonder why God would allow bad things to happen to them, and I guess this was my time. Withdrawing from God seemed to be the path that I took because I couldn't understand why He would allow this in my life. Therefore, my devotional times have been pretty sparse.

Taking a few moments to read something that is challenging and full of God's Word, has been a good start for me to get back where I need to be. I've been trying to read this little devotional more faithfully and have to share a bit that hit me yesterday. February 23rd's devotional is about self pity. The author says, "When you are occuppied with praising and thanking Me, it is impossible to feel sorry for yourself." Really! I have realized how much music plays in my life. Knowing that praise & worship music can lift my spirits makes it even more imperative that I keep it playing. Taking a moment to say a word of thanks is how I need to re-train my mind so that I don't fall into self-pity. This is a very practical step I need to take.

A bonus is that I was talking with a different co-worker yesterday and this came up in conversation. She also uses this book in her devotions and was encouraged to hear me speak of it. We're going to try and keep each other accountable with what we read. Pretty awesome!

Transition

(not my picture )

There's no cute saying that can get you through a long period of transition. It's a tough day-in, day-out struggle that you have to work through. Somedays you think that nothing has changed and then other days there are huge changes made.

My office has been going through a period of transition. We have a new Executive Director/CEO and he's making changes. The most recent change is in my department. We are being disbanded. The head of my department is being moved to another position and they are not going to replace him. The work that we do is going to be moved around to different departments.

What does that mean for me and my co-workers? CHANGE. Great change. There are no definite plans yet which makes it even harder to see this as positive. We just have to see what happens and pray for peace in this time of transition.

Mini Cards

One of the things that I like to do is encourage people in my life. A cool way that I've found to do this is by using some cards that I have an abundance of -- business cards. These are 2" x 3" and I cover the side that had the writing on it so that white side is clear to write a note on.

So, these cards are for all sorts of people in my life -- co-workers, friends at church, a niece... I tried to add some personal touch for the person I made it for. You'll see some of the same papers, but I figure since the people are in different places, they'll never know!

I think that reaching out to the people in my life shows them a little bit of the love that God has for them. I hope that my words will bring encouragement to them and help them in their lives.

Good byes & Thinking of you & Congrats

With some free time on my hands, I was able to spend time making some cards for people in our lives.

First is a little card that I made to go with a little gift that I'm giving to a co-worker who just announced that she's pregnant. It's about 3"x3" and I used 4 different papers to decorate it. I tried to make it gender neutral since she's just in her 2nd trimester.

Second, is another card for a friend who's just found out she's pregnant, too. I actually made two of this card except that the other one said happy birthday on it with an l for my friend Lori.

I used 3 papers and some brown wood grain ribbon. The letter has glitter on it and then is glued to a brown circle with a cream circle on it. I used a 3-d sticker to attach it all to the card. This is a regular sized card (about 4"x6").

This last card is a good bye card for the youth pastor at our church. He is getting married in May and wants to be closer to where his fiance is going to school in Memphis. So, this is sort of a wedding gift as well as a good bye. I used some cross paper and a couple other plain pieces of cardstock. I made a cross out of cardboard and colored it with a marker.

I think it was a profitable day... and I still have more things that I made to show you tomorrow!

The bathroom sink

For some unknown reason, our cat Oreo had started jumping in the bathroom sink several months ago. For cats not liking water, she would sit up there and lick and lick at the faucet and whatever water would sit in the sink. Often she would cry so that someone would come and turn on the faucet for her.

Well, we were having issues with the faucet leaking which made it easier for Oreo, but worse on our pocketbook. My sister & brother-in-law came last weekend for a visit and since my brother-in-law knows handy stuff, he and Barry replaced the hoses. It didn't make any difference, but prompted us to get a hold of our landlord. She sent out a plumber and the faucet had a couple pieces replaced.

That brings us back to this picture. Poor Oreo now doesn't have a steady water flow and it just makes her sad. She sits up in the sink just waiting for water!

Brownies!

Yummmmm! I was domestic last night and decided to make my grandma's recipe for brownies. I also needed to make a dessert for Barry's office on Friday, so this was a good excuse.

The recipe is pretty simple and basic. I'll go back tonight and make frosting for the pan of brownies. These brownie bites will be good just on their own.

My nephew

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to host my sister and her family at our house. Their little one is just growing up sooo big! He's 17 months old and getting into everything. He is usually in such a good mood, singing and talking away. Look at how cute he is:

The above picture was actually from the end of January when we went to his house.

He's so hard to get a picture of because he rarely stays still for a moment! Isn't he a cutey?!

Book Report

My boss had asked me to read this book and do a book report on it. I'm excited to use my creative juices to create a 1 page summary, a 5 minute oral presentation, and an item to help "sell" the book.

The story line follows a family as they immigrate from the Ukraine in the early 1900s to find religious freedom in America. It continues on through three generations to see how God is personal and meets you right where you need it. The title comes from a passage in Isaiah 60 and offered hope to a father that despite the wrong choices that his sons were making, God was going to bring them back to him.

The reason I'm reading this book is because of the difference that a Bible placed by The Gideons picked up out of a hotel room in Las Vegas made in the lives of this family. It was an easy read and offers hope to its readers that God has a plan and a hope for the future of even the hardest of cases.

A new day

A new chapter of my life is occurring. I'm trying to make some better choices for myself and my family. I made a decision to run a 5K and paid my registration the end of December. I continued to run and prepare myself for the run that was on February 12. I tried to recruit some friends to run with, but it just didn't come together.

Since the race was downtown Nashville, we invited my sister and brother-in-law to come for the weekend as they've been wanting to hang out and see it all. They came in Friday night and we got prepared for the day ahead. The race was at 10am so that gave us time to get up and go find parking before getting the race packet.

Here I am before the race. My sister had made the headband for me. It was a brisk 30 something degrees when we first got there, but as the morning went on, it was in the 40s. I had several layers on and was glad for them in the shady areas. In the sunny parts, I was uncomfortable. The first mile marker, a man was calling out the time, and I got disheartened because it was already over 12 minutes. But, then I realized that he was doing gun time and I was a good bit behind that.

So, the last bit of the race was uphill -- right when you think you're never going to make it! But, you could see the clock. I could see that it said 35 minutes and I thought that I had a chance to improve my time. I picked up the pace and sure enough made it across at just over 36 minutes. But, when we looked at the times posted, I did way better than that. My chip time was 34 minutes 40 seconds!!! That's almost 2 minutes better from my last time.

So, here's the beginning of a new day. I'm going to make a change for the better.