20 Things that Make Me Happy

Today I feel totally content and happy so I was thinking... what makes me happy. I have decided to compile a list: 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY: 

1. God and Jesus: God sent Jesus to die on the cross... Jesus became my sin to rid me of my sin... If that doesn't make you smile I don't know what will! 

2. Cute old couples: When you see a couple who is over the age of... say 70 holding hands you just have to smile! 

3. 'Oh': There is a lady that says 'oh' when she agrees with things and when she is thinking about things, and instead of amen I think... It is just so great! Not to mention that 'oh' is a versatile word that you can use for the good or bad in sports!

4. Coffee: On a cool fall day it is so wonderful to have something hot to drink, even when your Folger's coffee doesn't taste very good! 

5. Guys: Especially the ones that love Jesus and sports!

6. Love Songs: Not every love song, but cute ones with clever phrases and music!

7. Basketball: I played today. 3 on 2... not the ideal amount of players and I was the only girl... and yet it makes never fails to make me feel good!

8. Getting Challenged: My father challenged me to see who can be the first to run a 5k... I AM IN!!! 

9. Fall: I just love this time of year... It is nearly my favorite, right after the Christmas season, which I love the most!

10. Preschoolers: I have 22 of them... Love them all!!! 

11. Sweatpants: I only have 2 pairs but I will wear them until they are no longer wearable!

12. Salads: I am on a crazy salad trip as well... They just taste so good... 

13. Sunday Afternoon Naps: Laying on the couch, with the football game on... Majorly relaxing. 

14. Going to a Church that isn't afraid to Share the Gospel: Need I say more

15. Random TV Shows I'd Never Think I'd Like: Like Dr. Who (Sci-Fi: I never thought I'd like that!) 

16. Candles: My house actually smells good today!

17. Watching Football: And occasionally making remarks out loud!

18. Children's Books: I will have one published someday!

19. Blogs. Maybe I'm not that great at blogging, but it is still fun. 

20. Knowing that God's love is unconditional!

Couch to 5K... This'll be fun

Alrighty... So I am totally starting a new phase in my life- TODAY! I have decided that it is past time that this girl get off her lazy bum and get back in shape. I have been kind of struggling with this because I know that God made me special and He thinks I am beautiful, but I also know that I could be doing a much better job of caring for this body He's given me to use while I'm down here on earth... SOOOOOOOO
In surprises of all surprises I am going to become a runner... Yep, true story... sort of... Yea. A friend told me about this program she did one time that is called Couch to 5K. The idea is that anyone can become a runner and get into better shape with this program. So it starts you off really easy and then you kind of just ease into this running program, which in 6 weeks, should form you into someone capable of running 3 miles... YEP... We'll see how it goes. I am a little nervous but I really want to get into better shape. I want to gain some of that energy I have lost, lose some of these pounds I don't need, and start feeling better about myself.
I'm not planning on losing so much weight that I become super skinny or anything, so don't worry, those of you that fear you will no longer recognize me... But I do know that I could definitely use to lose some weight! Maybe I'll get to my sister's weight (Well, then again... maybe not! = )
Also- in addition to becoming a runner I have decided that I am going to start eating healthier. I mean, what better time than now, when I am super poor so my cupboards are basically baren anyways! = ) I am going to lay off pop, which I have been drinking too much of lately and I am going to try this low carb thing that my parents and their friends have been doing. I am also going to watch how much I eat. I tend to go a little crazy on portions sometimes. So I will count my carbs and see how it goes. I am also thinking that I really don't need to be eating some of the junk that I do, so I really want to watch this. I will try it and hopefully we will see some great results. I want to really get excited about this plan, which is part of the reason that I am announcing it via blog... If I write it on here, I need to follow through so my faithful followers (Steph!) are not dissappointed in me = )
So... I am planning on doing a weekly update of how things are going and let you all know how I am feeling... I will probably feel tired and sore for part of it, but we'll see...
Yep, that is all- but don't worry, I won't give up coffee, but maybe I will try to tone down the amount, and the amount of sugar I use in it! = )
That's all for now- my first running workout is in approximately 2 hours! Maybe pray, God knows that I could all the help possible to stay excited about this!

It all started with peanut butter...

I'm eating peanut butter straight from the jar...
Yep, this is the life I lead here in Small Town, NE. I need to do the dishes, my only tempting snack is peanut butter and I have two quarter sized blisters on the bottom of my feet... Oh, and there is a killer wasp in my house threatening my life and sanity. I can see the headlines now ' Young Teacher dies after deadly attack by Crazy Wasp. Friends and Family Weep. Wasps Woot.' I think the missing leaf bug from my classroom is going to help it! Yesterday a lady brought it to my room in a cottage cheese container with holes so it could breath and today when I went to look at it... poof, gone!!! So, the only logical explanation is that it is busy cavorting with the enemy(Mr. Wasp) and planning an all out attack on Phyllis (my house) and I! This is the stuff nightmares are made of!
Okay, so maybe my sanity was the first to leave. I am feeling torn today... Football season starts this weekend! But I don't have cable... I feel like maybe I should wait until I receive a paycheck and double check to make sure I have enough money before I spend it on something trivial like television... But football season starts this weekend... I guess I will probably have to break out the radio and catch some Husker football (and others) the good ole' fashioned way.
At least high school football starts tomorrow night... I am hoping it will reach a cold enough temp that I can don a hoodie... Oh, I long for the days when I can wear a hoodie and watch some football! YAY!!! Some days it is just clear to see how God has blessed me... and trust me when I say I am overblessified!
Short post today, but really this is all I have to talk about... I liked Tim Tebow on facebook, and I am not going to lie when I say I really want to meet him someday... There is just something about guys who love Jesus and love sports that I find crazy attractive!!! Yes, so... that is all... back to reality! = )
How have you been blessed today?

True Beauty

Beauty: A combinations of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, esp. the sight.
I hate to admit that I hate the word... I guess it's probably because of the importance we put on beauty and the fact that according to magazines and television and movies I don't fit into that category. Have you ever seen a movie that features a 5'5, overweight, dark, curly headed girl who is probably the worst flirter on earth(but that's for another post, another day)? I would dare to venture no... and do you ever see movies about really short girls or awkwardly tall girls or girls without a perfect complexion, or girls that are ridiculously skinny? Probably Not...
 So what is beautiful? I can tell you what people are trying to tell us is beauty... Hollywood is trying to sell us this fake, computer generated, plastic surgery version of beautiful... they are trying to tell us that unless we meet a certain criteria, which few women seem to meet, we are not beautiful... Well ya know what- I am stinking tired of it! I am tired of looking in the mirror and seeing my flaws. I am tired of putting on a shirt, seeing a bit of extra flab and thinking, 'great, what guy will look at me now?' and I am super tired of watching movies and thinking, 'If I looked like her I would be able to 'get a man too', I would feel better'... Excuse my french but what a load of bull! And I (a smart, realistic person, if I do say so my self) allow myself to believe these lies?! What have I been thinking?!?!
I am BEAUTIFUL!!! And guess what... it has nothing to do with what I look like on the outside (though I would like to believe that God designed me that way on purpose ; ) It has everything to do with what God is doing on the inside... I have ugly days and it has nothing to do with bad makeup... It has a lot to do with putting myself in front of God and his will for my life...
I want to be beautiful and I want people to like my outer beauty... but mostly I want people to be able to see my heart shining for the Lord, my God, who made me just like He wants me...
I believe it's in 1 Samuel that God says, 'Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.' I can tell you one thing... God's opinion should mean a whole lot more to me than any silly man... I'm still working on that. I'm definitely not perfect and I definitely don't always think I'm beautiful, but God does...
You know what, you are beautiful... I need to remember to tell people that, to remind them of their worth and their beauty (girls especially, I'm not sure how well that would be received by guys!) It's too easy to forget in our society what true beauty really is...
True Beauty is God working in someone.... and shining through them...

Sunshine on my Cloudy day

Tonight is the first night since moving to this town that I have really felt sad, alone… You know how sometimes you get that momentary depression that kind of just gnaws at your gut a bit… Well I’ve been experiencing that today- somewhere between the sappy Christian romance novel, the sudden lack of funds( which really isn’t that sudden after all), the lack of noise(TV, Radio, Friendly Banter), and the seemingly nonexistence in my life of FH(future husband) a small depression has descended on me, like a little tiny grey cloud over my nice blue sky…

Okay, so this may just be a minor thing set off by well being a girl… but mostly I think it’s the quietness- and the fact that I haven’t had a cup of coffee since 9 this morning! I haven’t lived by myself ever in my entire life… For the past four years I have been living on a college campus, so quietness isn’t really a word that I have been accustomed to! And at my house at home… well we tend to make it so we really are never at our house at home. It’s funny how things change. I guess I don’t mind the quiet, it sure gives me time to think, which actually probably isn’t the best for me. Let’s not get me wrong here, I thoroughly enjoy thinking, it’s just that sometimes my thoughts wander to places I don’t want them to go.

Why is it that I can’t seem to keep control of this little noggin of mine?! And why must they always run back to thinking about men? (Okay, so realistically it seems like we are bombarded in our culture with the need to think about men, I mean chick flicks and books and magazines and television and the neighbors… everything is about having the perfect guy or relationships or stuff like that) And then for some reason today it is the nagging feeling that I am not right (which may be true) but it’s the feeling that there is something wrong with me… Why am I not pretty, why do guys look right past me, why am I such a terrible flirt, why is my self esteem so low, why must I ask all these questions?

I have a feeling that God Is looking down at me, hurting for me, saying ‘Child, why can you not see the precious sight that you are to me? Why will you not look at yourself like I look at you? Why can you not see the great care and love that I put into creating you? And why can you not be content with where I have placed you and wait until I can unfold my plans for your life before you? And really, I want to give God full control, I want to live my life vicariously knowing that someone else has my back… but I’m afraid, afraid that by giving up control I will lose it all… God is whispering, ‘just jump, let me catch you…’

Jesus is the light… and with Him in my life I can smile knowing that this mini depression is nothing but a small small cloud, and no cloud can cover the light of my Jesus… Tomorrow is another day, filled with laughing children, hot coffee, God’s promises… and sunshine! 

Mr. Dream Man vs. Mr. Right for Me

Okay, have you ever had a dream about some wonderful guy…’the man of your dreams’ and something dreadful happens of course, but he is there to rescue you from your misery and then of course you realize he is in love with you… You know that dream? Maybe it follows a night full of junk food and chick flicks or maybe it comes after a night of football (in my case) But really the situation is not important, what is important is what you see… Why is it that you can never see the guy’s face, I mean really, maybe if God would just let you get a glimpse of the face you would know who your ‘dream guy’ really is. That’s not how it works though, you never see the face, at least I don’t, and then you are left to wonder, ‘who is this mystery man?’ Where is my real man?’ and ‘Where is the coffee?’

So anyways, I was thinking about my ‘dream man’ and I realized just how potentially non realistic he really is. Here is a list of the qualities my ‘dream man’ has… Keep in mind this is the man of my dreams not the man of my reality!

Tall

Dark

Athletic (muscular for sure, and he either plays or coaches some sort of sport)

Deep Voice

Great Cook

Wonderful with Kids

Funny (but not in a cheesy kind of way, but kind of in a cheesy sort of way, you know, a guy that will complement my sense of humor, which is a task in its self!)

A Christian (This is a must! In fact I used to daydream about guys who weren’t Christians who would become a Christian and then sweep me off my feet… that’s what they always do in Christian fictions!)

Great with My Family

Outgoing

Great Singing Voice

A leader in the church and community

Attractive

Likes Coffee

Plays Guitar

Wears #15 for the Denver Broncos (okay, maybe that is just a little celebrity crush!)

Etc…

Okay, so you can probably see why said ‘dream man’ has not waltzed into my life, but really I was thinking about it, why would I want this idealistic man who is perfect… I don’t want a perfect husband… oh gosh, if I have a perfect husband that puts a lot of pressure on me to be a perfect wife and let’s just face it, that is not going to happen…  I found myself asking myself (wait does that beginning of a sentence make any sense at all?) why am I not looking to God to bring me a man who’s self will mesh so well with mine that he will see and love my faults and I will see and love his and our flaws will be outshone by the love we have for God and each other… Instead of compiling a list of ‘dream guy’ qualities I have decide to compile a list of must haves for a future husband, so that when some guy finally comes around, showing interest in me, I won’t be so in awe of his interest that I will forget that God wants me to have a godly husband. So here goes list number 2 (the man of my reality)

Christian (not just a ‘let’s sit in our regular pew and listen to a sermon once a week’ kind of Christian but a guy who will lead me in my walk with Christ, and eventually our children.

Family Man (Let’s face it, some day I am going to want kids and I love kids, they are my passion, so I need a man who shares that love of children, who will raise children who love and admire their father)

Funny and Quirky (Sorry, no serious guy for me… if he is going to put up with me he is going to have to have some sort of a sense of humor)

Respectable (A man who people look at and respect, who people know is a good man, not a man of questionable integrity)

Love Me (Once again I am going to use this phrase ‘let’s face it’… no man is going to match up to my ideals, but God has a man in mind for me, and when I find out who it is I might be surprised… but God’s got a plan and it’s better than mine!)

Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” It goes on to say in verse 12, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” Yea, God’s got it under control, He knows what’s up and He knows what He’s doing… and I would say He’s orchestrated a good many marriages in His time (ha, all of eternity!) so I couldn’t put my trust in better hands… Does this mean I will stop dreaming about my ‘dream guy’? NO! Does this mean when I watch a football game on TV, I won’t search the internet to see if some random QB is a Christian? Probably Not… But ultimately I am letting God choose Mr. Right for Me!! And I bet when He brings us together it will be better than a dream! = ) 

Stereotypical... It's what the average radio is supposed to be like!

8/18/11

So once upon a time I read this book by Relient K that was about ‘the complex infrastructure known as the female mind’ and it talked about different types of girls and what made them tick and what didn’t and all this other stuff… and it really was a cool book, which, if you read while listening to Relient K is even better. But I decided, after completing the book, I am not your average girl… I have since come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as the ‘average girl’. It is, in fact, our uniquenesses that make us like other girls (if you understand what I’m saying!)

So here are some stereotypical girls and why I am not one of them:

Nerds: Okay, I don’t really know if the word  ‘nerd’ is politically correct or not. These are the girls that are super smart and read a lot. They know about computers (and if you’ve ever seen saved by the bell, they wear glasses, pigtails and some sort of overall, plaid, jumper thing!) They know all the answers and they are into strange things, such as sci-fi, or techno music.

Well, I was toward the top of my class in high school and at camp I seem to be the one people turn to to fix the computer, but I am not a nerd… I don’t like strange things (okay, actually I do, but not quote on quote nerdy, strange things) Also, I try to avoid pigtails and I have perfect vision!

Jocks: These are the girls that are pretty much not girls. They only dress in sweats or gym shorts and they only talk about sports or… more sports. These girls have ridiculous guns that scare off wimpy boys and deep voices. It also seems like they smell like boys and tend to bully girlier girls in the locker room and halls. It is rare that you see these girls dressed up, and probably only because they were forced to by some concerned mother or coach who wants his team to look good before a big game… and you will NEVER see these girls with their hair done nicely!

I am not a jock… I show some signs of jock-ness( though I hope my voice isn’t too deep and I really hope I don’t smell like a man!) I love sports and I do enjoy the occasional sports related conversation. I am not super strong and I like to look pretty, more and more as I get older and older!

Cheerleaders/ Popular Girls: Miss Popularity is the girl who is captain of the cheer squad and dating the captain of the football team. She is probably homecoming queen and she dresses up every day. She is always happy, well not always, and she always seems to get what she wants. This is the girl who has a little posse of others following her… constantly, and she probably refuses to talk to those who don’t fit into her perfect little world. Most of you know her as the snobby, mean girl who no one likes but everyone lets rule the school. She is in charge with her perfect nails and hair and clothes. Yep, totally not me… I try to dress nicely but I never look perfectly made up and I spend tops 5 minutes on my makeup a day… and my hair, well it does what it wants (it has a mind of it’s own…)

Okay, you get the picture, the world shows us what different girls are supposed to act like, but realistically no girl fits totally into one category. I know some pretty awesome cheerleaders, who were also jock-ish back in the day. And I know some ‘nerds’ that dress more stylishly than other people I know… Really, who sets these standards for us!?!?! I mean, really, why does tv always have to have such cliché characters? I mean, write a story about a regular high school girl, who isn’t drop dead gorgeous and can’t get the guy… see how that flies! = )

Okay, this was sort of a lame post, but it’s what I was feeling/ thinking about! PS- we should totally try to create new stereotypical groups, such as bicycle girls and facebook girls (oops, that’s all of us), and vampire loving girls and girls who can’t wink… Yea, that could be fun!! = )