Countdown to a banquet...

Well, folks, it's the week of our big event - a banquet with about 800 people in attendance. It is going to be an interesting week!

I just wanted to let you know that posts will definitely be sparse this week. Unless something major happens and I get time to write about it. Who knows? It could be a news worthy week! :) (I don't see that happening, but you never know!)

So, if I don't get back here this week, please know I am thinking of all of you, my faithful readers. :) I hope you have a wonderful week - full of good things and God's blessings.

Until the next time....

Pictures of the hair

Ok, I finally snagged my roommate and had her take my picture. It's not the best picture (not because of Dee Dee's skills, but because of the lighting). Here they are:



Of course, pictures are never as good as seeing someone in person. I hope to get some good photos made soon. Tell me what you think!

Rave Reviews

The one other time I've cut off all my hair, I got so many compliments from people, I wish I had done it earlier. Same thing this time. It's kind of strange. I really did like my hair long. It was incredibly curly, and unlike most people with naturally curly hair, I loved it - and still do. I'm just having to adjust to the time it now takes to fix my hair.

I did have a picture made, but it wasn't that great. I may get my roommate to snap one later tonight. Right now, we're waiting for our food to cook on the grill. We got a late start! :)

Anyway, I will have pictures posted by the end of the week.

So, life right now is good. I'm extremely tired, but that will pass. I just missed some sleep last week and need to catch up. :) My poor roommate, Dee Dee, had a horrible day. She got hit with over $500 in expenses to fix her car. It wasn't something she expected or needed to happen. I see God working in so many ways in the lives of the people I know and love. It is interesting to watch. Especially in my own life. This past week, I didn't spend as much time with Him as I wanted or needed to and boy, could I tell! I'm working on changing that this week. I'll let you know how I do!

Well, it's time to go - food's ready! I'll post more later.

Time for a change

Ok, I did it. I made a huge change in my life. After nearly four years of careful nurturing, washing and brushing...I had 10 inches of my hair cut off! This is the second time in my adult life that I've made such a drastic change. I hope to have pictures up by the end of the weekend. Needless to say, I love it!

The good news is that all that hair has not gone to waste. I had it cut so that I could donate my hair to Locks of Love. This organization takes donated hair and makes wigs for children who have lost their hair. My roommate had said she was going to do it, and I knew that I would eventually want to get my hair cut, so I decided to grow it long enough for that purpose. I hope they can use my hair. Did you know it takes about 10 ponytails for them to make one wig? On their website, they say that most of the donated hair comes from children. What a great way to teach a child about giving. If I had a daughter, I sure would talk with her about doing this, especially if she had hair like mine - thick and curly.

I hope to get back on a more regular schedule this week. I have to admit - I didn't get enough sleep last week, and it was my own fault. I plan to correct that this week. :) Otherwise, I will be a bear by mid-week.

Anyway, more about the hairstyle change tomorrow. Blessings to you all!

Let me explain...

Well folks, it looks like my posts may be few and far between for the next two weeks. At work, I'm in the midst of preparing for a huge banquet (there will be around 900 people in attendance) so my work load has gotten very large. By the time I get home, I'm brain dead. On top of that, I may have a couple of babysitting jobs filling some of my evenings. When that happens, I'm not online. Gotta make some extra money.

Anyway, I do hope to get online from time to time. In fact, I may have something interesting to write about this weekend. We'll see. I know how plans have a tendency to change. :)

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Mine was fabulous. I spent the day with my family and a couple of friends from church. We had a wonderful time sitting around after lunch sharing stories. That, to me, is the best part of being with friends and family. I love hearing stories from people's lives.

I'm going to bed now, before I fall out of my chair. I've been having a hard time getting out of bed this week. My schedule has been so very messed up and I need to get it back on track! Aaagghhhh! Stop the world, I want to get off!!!!

Pray for us (me and the people I work with). This banquet is our main fundraiser. It can be a hard life working for a non-profit ministry! We need to sell a bunch of tickets to the banquet in the next week or so.

Until next time.....Have a blessed week!

Exhausted

I haven't been this worn out in a very long time. In fact, I can't believe I'm still up.

The fun began on Thursday night. My brother has moved to working nights, so my sister-in-law asked me to come and stay with her and the kids Thursday night. Ben was going to have the car and she's not comfortable being at home without the car being there. Plus, I didn't have to work on Friday, so it worked out great.

So, I go over to their house on Thursday night. Needless to say, the kids were jazzed that I was spending the night. They were a bit puzzled as to why their mom was going to be there. The few times I've spent the night at their house, their mom and dad were both in the hospital - either having a new baby or with some other situation.

Anyway, we had a good time. Watched "Cheaper by the Dozen" with Steve Martin. That is a funny movie. I was pleased to see that the movie portrayed a loving family dealing with difficult decisions. I thought it was excellent! After the movie was over, me and the oldest 2 - Hannah and Mackenzie - spread out all our blankets on the floor of the living room and got ready to go to sleep. Of course, they had to have the tv on for a bit, but we eventually turned it off and before we knew it, Mackenzie was asleep. My niece, Hannah, talked with me for a while. She asked me again why I didn't have a boyfriend. She so wants me to have kids so they can come and spend the night with her. :) How sweet!!!

Finally, she drifted off to sleep and I got off the floor and moved to the couch. I was so glad to not sleep on the floor! Well about 4:30 am Friday morning, I wake up and Hannah is lying on top of me, asleep. Sometime during the night she climbed up there. I rolled her back on to the floor and went back to sleep. 7:30 am rolls around and don't you know she is back on top of me! Not only that, but my other niece, Mackenzie, has awakened and is lying between my feet at the other end of the couch. That was fun, let me tell ya! :)

We later loaded everyone up and went to the park. That way, their dad could get some un-interrupted sleep. We had a blast!

But the fun does not end there!

My wonderful roommate, DeeDee, had given me a ticket to the Third Day concert for Valentine's Day (or as we call it - "Single Awareness Day"!) So we leave the house around 4:30 pm to get to the coliseum to be sure and get good seats. We were under the impression that the entire venue was "General Admission" and you could pick a seat anywhere. Well, we were wrong. :( Turns out, the floor was "General Admission". We had to stand for the entire concert!!!! Let me translate that into actual hours - we were on our feet for nearly 6 hours! We got in line at the coliseum at around 4:45 and the concert ended at 10:15.

As I said, I'm exhausted! But - the concert was AWESOME!!!!!! We had a blast. Warren Barfield opened the concert. He was really good. Then came Toby Mac, of DC Talk fame. He rocked the house!!! His part of the concert was so fast paced, we hardly knew an hour had gone by. Then, of course, came the best part of the show, Third Day. I'm telling you, they are the best group I've ever had the privilege of seeing in concert. I just love them. If you haven't ever listened to their music, you should stop what you're doing and go get one of their cd's! They are that good. Not only is their music good, but they really create an atmosphere of worship. Good stuff. No doubt about it!

So, I'm now about to go to bed. I can't wait! :) Just wanted to post a little of what's been happening in my world. Of course, underscoring all of my activities is the thought of the sacrifice Jesus made this weekend almost 2,000 years ago. I'm so thankful that He loved me enough to come and die for my sins, and then rose from the dead, that I might have the privilege of knowing Him as my Savior and Lord. I can't imagine my life without Christ. I wouldn't want to. Perhaps I'll post more about my thoughts on Easter later today.

Until then, good night!

Time to breathe...

Finally, everyone is out of the office....I can take a deep breath! I've got about one hour before I leave the office. We're going to a banquet about 2 1/2 hours away. It will be fun.

One hour. A lot can happen in an hour.

Sometimes, though, it seems like an hour isn't long enough. Like right now - an hour doesn't seem long enough for me to really dig into some of the stuff I need to work on. Just about the time I'd get into a groove, I'd have to close down and leave. It's almost not worth it. (Except that whatever time I give to that project is not really wasted, is it?)

I think I have that attitude far too often. "Well, there's no need for me to sit down and read the Bible right now. I don't have time to research what I read to help me understand it." Or how about: "I don't have time to call so-and-so. As soon as I call them to see what's going on or check on them, they'll want to talk for too long." There are times that this type of attitude is legitimate - there really isn't time. However, most times, I simply don't want to give the time it would take to do those things I should (but may not want to do).

I can really identify with Paul when he said, "When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway." (Romans 7:19) This is a continuous struggle for me, but I am getting better at doing the right thing. It all comes down to putting aside my own will and learning to walk in tune with the Spirit. Today's devotional from "God is Enough" by Hannah Whitall Smith dealt with this directly:

Some say that the emotions are the governing power in our nature, but I think we all know from experience that there is within us, behind our emotions and behind our wishes, an independent self that decides everything and controls everything. Our emotions belong to us and are suffered and enjoyed by us, but they are not ourselves. If God is to take possession of us, it must be into this central will or personality that He enters. If, then, He is reigning there by the power of His Spirit, all the rest of our nature must come under His sway."

That's pretty powerful stuff. I know that I want to give God that control in my life, so that the rest of who I am is a reflection of Him.

Just wanted to say...

It sure is a beautiful day and God is good.

This week has been extremely busy. I've wanted to leave town on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do any such thing until April is over. I hope I can hang in there!

This recent rush of "busy-ness" has caused me to wonder if there is something or some things I need to weed out of my life. The problem is, I'm not necessarily involved in a lot of things, it's just that what I am involved in takes up a lot of my time. Perhaps I just need to get better at allocating my time to my commitments. Sometimes I just don't know when to quit. :)

So, those are my thoughts at this minute. Time to get ready for church. :)