Face to Face

I have started Face to Face by Kenneth Boa - this will probably be the 100th time I've used it. If you haven't gone through it, I would highly recommend it as a daily devotional. It's a prayer guide. You read scripture and pray through it, allowing the truth of God's words to sink in as you pray them back to Him.

I am one of those people who felt that I should be praying for everything I could think of. We're told to pray for our nation's leaders, missionaries and oppressed people, the church, our familes, unbelievers, our spouses, ourselves, as well as asking for council and wisdom, growth and humility, vision and discipline!!! The lists go on and on!

I love that the book guides you on a weekly basis to pray for many of those things. One day, it'll give you scripture on God's appointment of the leadership in our government, and then guides us to pray for them. I feel like my mind, heart and soul are slowly being molded more into His likeness, as His opinions, ways and thoughts all slowly start to replace all of my worldly thoughts, actions and desires - the key word being slowly of course. :) I am a firm believer in the power of prayer - believing that God asks us to pray, partially because it's His way of bringing us back to Him. In coming before Him, He changes us through our prayers to be more like Him.

Anyways, it's a great book and I highly recommend it! I know they sell it at the commons, because I had to buy another copy recently.

On another note... I'm not as sore today as I was yesterday, and I plan on trying my first mile either Friday or Tuesday!!!

Reconnecting

This last week has been a fun week of reconnecting with long lost friends and updating my current friends... since I've been so out of the loop recently. I have to say it's been a lot of fun. :)

I found a couple of childhood friends on facebook and myspace, which was totally crazy!! I also found a dear friend of mine from FL named Angela. I just found out she's been married for 1 1/2 years and she and her husband are doing great in North Carolina!

I also caught up on some blog-stalking. :) Noelle, your story made me cry. How wonderful for you and Jeff to have such a precious little girl - someone you've waited so long to meet! I'm very happy for you two!

Also, Adam and I are officially going to our first 7:10 meeting tonight, which will be really cool. He and I are so excited to open up our home and start a lifegroup. We've been wanting a community closer to home, and this really couldn't be any closer! We're also totally pumped about being able to serve together. For so long, I've sung in the band, and he's done his own thing... but now, we're doing this side-by-side and I'm sure this is going to be a great opportunity for God to grow us and our marriage. He and I always find new things to "grow from" when we encounter new situations, and opinions must be discussed. I have to just thank God for all the work He's done so far, and I know He'll continue to work out our kinks and make us both more like Him.

Back to Business

Today I started running/walking again. I have a friend training with me for the half-marathon in January. Her name is Bethany. I've enlisted her help because 1) She's done it before and 2) She's more disciplined than I am. I'm hoping that the fact that she's so consistent will help keep me motivated to continue with our training. I'm also officially registering us today.

I was training with Adam's sister, but she has had some major life-changes recently and hasn't had a lot of free time. Any time that she does have is spent with her adorable little girl. So, without wanting to bother her, and without wanting to quit, I decided that I needed to train with someone who was already consistent - almost like a personal trainer! Bethany's been great. I'm hoping to get to the point where I don't hold her back and am able to keep up with her. Throughout our walk/run I kept telling her when I felt like I could run, and I would try to push myself as far as I thought I could go without being sick, and then we'd walk again. :) Kind of fun! I'm hoping to be able to run a whole mile without dying by next week!

Also, another interesting event was what we found when we got back to my house. I went to open my door and found that it was locked. Adam carpooled with my brother to work today and so, naturally, he locked the door behind him. The problem was, I didn't bother taking keys or my cell phone with me...

So we went around the back and found that he had removed our doggie door and locked the dogs outside. So, I was officially locked out of my house, with no phone and no money. I couldn't even walk to Starbucks to hang out! Well, I guess I could've and just had water... oh well. :) Anyways, so Bethany and I were trying to figure out what to do, when a girl in my neighborhood pulled out to go to school. I flagged her down, and she very suspiciously opened her window. I'm sure I smelled pretty bad. I explained our situation and she let me borrow her phone to call Adam. My phone call went something like this

"Babe!!!! You locked me out of the house!!"
"What?? Are you serious??" (starts laughing)
"Yeah!! I need you to fix it. I don't have a cell phone or money or keys, and I had to borrow this poor girl's phone to call you."
"ARE you SERIOUS???" (laughing even harder)
"Yes!!! (starts laughing) I don't care what you do, but please just take care of it, because I won't be able to do anything about it. Ok?"
"I don't have a car!"
"I know. Just use Scott's car!"
"Oh...oh...ok"
"Ok, I love you!!"
"Love you too."

The poor guy had to drive all the way home to let me in. He's such a great guy. :) I just couldn't believe he locked the back door too! Oh well. It all worked out!

Settler's!

Is our favorite game. We make everyone play it with us. Well, when we're not making them play Guitar Hero or Mario Kart, of course. I almost won last night. I had 9 stinking points, and Adam totally came out of nowhere in the last 2 or 3 turns and kicked everyone's butts!

Congratulations to my darling hubby, and thanks to Ryan and Crystal, our good-natured friends and family, for putting up with our obsession. Actually, Crystal came pretty close to winning too! Poor Ryan! :)

Gloriously Boring

Today is a "gloriously boring" day. The boys are not here, meaning that I can walk around the house in my pj's!!! I can clean my house! I found out while they were here that I have this funky thing about cleaning in front of other people. I always feel so self-conscious about it... I really have no idea what it's all about. Maybe Mr. Freud would have something to say to me about it.

In answer, yes! The trip will definitely be blog-worthy!! I'm so excited for all of the amazing opportunities to make memories and when we get back, I think I might try making my first scrapbook! I've never done it before, but my sister-in-law always has one going, so I already reserved a "class" with her after we get back.

It's been a long time...

Hello all. Sorry it's been so long. I think most of you have forgotten that I even have a blog. I've been busy - or pretending to be busy... one or the other. :)

I have a lot of new students, 17 total, which is fanastic. Scheduling for the school year has been difficult because every parent wants to bring their child at 3pm. Ugh! Why can't parents just keep their kids up 'til 9pm?? That would fit my life perfectly!! :)

Adam and I are preparing for our two week vacation, celebrating our 5th year wedding anniversary. Holy crap it's been 5 years!! I feel so old now! Anyways, we're completely stoked. We're going on a cruise to Alaska and stopping in San Fransisco on the way. We were originally going to Canada first, then to Alaska, but we had trouble with our plane tickets. So, then we booked a direct flight to Anchorage, coming home from Vancouver. They apparently don't book direct flights from Vancouver to Phoenix, and were going to put us through San Fransisco. When we heard that, we thought maybe it would be fun to stay there for a day or two and do some major tourism. :) So, that's our plan! We have a few days off when we get back, so that will give us a chance to get our act together (laundry, etc...) ... or nothing at all. Who knows!

Our basebal players are leaving tonight at midnight after their 7 week stay. They have been the most pleasant and well-mannered boys I have ever met. They hardly made any kind of a mess, and mostly hung out in their room, laughing at youtube videos, or watching Lost - Yes. Lost. They came to the right house, that's for sure. :D

I have facebook now too, so look me up!!