God: WOW! What an amazing weekend!! The women's retreat this year was such an absolute blessing. I could write a book on how amazing the retreat was but for the sake of time, I will highlight the best parts.
Friday night started off like your typical women's retreat (which is ironic for me to say because it was my first retreat) but we did the typical retreat things like getting settled in our cabins and chatting with everyone before our first session. We started our first session at 7:00pm and our speaker was Marian Jordan, founder of Redeemed Girl Ministries. She didn't tell us much about her story the first night but she did jump straight into why we were here. Our retreat was about the wilderness. All people have had wilderness seasons where there is pain, bitterness, feelings of betrayal, sadness, loss, fear and despair. She explained wilderness as having these emotions and where the emotions take over our thoughts and actions so that we are suffering and not living our lives with joy. Pain is pain is what she said and no matter what the circumstance, wilderness happens usually when you are at your weakest.
Anyway so after our first session we met with back in our cabin to reflect on session one and talk about any feelings of wilderness that we have felt or are currently feeling. Some of the other girls talked a bit about what they were going through and it was really sad to hear how they were suffering. God had been making it extremely clear since about 7:15 that night that i was going to have to deal with my wilderness much sooner than i was thinking...our group leader turned to me and asked how I was doing and if ive ever had a wilderness season. I held my breath and blubbered out that i was in a very dark wilderness season right now and that i was in the crazy place (Crazy place is where your emotions take over your thoughts and actions and fear is more powerful than God). I poured out my heart to these women and to God and they gave me such hope and inspiration for how I could get out of my wilderness season. Mat and I have soooooooo much that we are thankful for and God had blessed us tremendously. We know God loves us and that He has a marvelous plan for us. However, I was having such a hard time with my parents divorce. It is the most painful topic ever and it was eating away at me for about the past 2 - 3 years. And it gets harder as the days go by - the holidays are coming up soon and my dad is trying to move on with his life and be "happy". I couldn't understand why he was choosing to be happy at the cost of the happiness of our family. It just seemed so selfish - its like saying to your family - my happiness is more important than yours. Anyway - needless to say it has been a struggle but it took this retreat to help me realize that God does not have bitterness and despair in our plan. He is love, joy and certainly forgiveness. I feel so much more at peace today and I learned this weekend how badly satan wants to ruin my life. All of these negative thoughts in my head are not coming from God and I have to stand up and say "BE GONE SATAN" and show him that the strength of God is greater and that the devil will never win the war in my life.
I feel like i have my life back - I have my day to day joy and happiness back. I don't have to let satan try to take over my thoughts and actions and i dont want to waste my life in bitterness. I've noticed such a change in my attitude and I thank God and give Him so much praise for healing my heart.
This weekend was so perfect, only God could have orchestrated it. I am so thankful for all of the amazing women that have come into my life after this weekend and I am looking forward to starting fresh with positive God driven thoughts and actions!
Oh and I have to mention the girls who did our worship music, The Reliques, and they an amazing job! These girls came out to spend the weekend with us all the way from Austin. They were both named Sarah and one of the Sarah's had an amazing story that she shared with us this weekend and it was her birthday today too! Happy birthday Sarah!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
God and Money - Baby Step 2 ...CHECK!
God: I have to start out by giving praise to God, maker of the heavens and earth, the one who has given Mat and I the strength and perseverance for the past 17 months to make it through Dave Ramsey's Baby Step #2. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! We could not have gotten where we are today without His blessings.
Money: So here's the update - Mat and I are FINALLY DEBT FREE!! We have worked so hard for the past 17 months of our lives, that's one year and 5 months...a very long time to sacrifice for the bigger picture.
Our debt consisted of a small amount of medical bills, a brand new car, and student loans for both Mat and I totaling about $68,500! WOW! It's amazing how much money you can *borrow*! We are no longer slaves to the lender as of today. It's a truly marvelous feeling and Mat and I are so incredibly blessed - I can't stress that enough.
Mat and I talked about it a lot today on our drive home from San Antonio and reflected on what the hardest part of this process was. One of Dave's questions that he always asks was "did you have anyone make fun of you during the process" and our answer is definitely yes and that was tough. We had some really great support from family and friends and also some not so helpful support of people laughing and challenging our efforts. It was tough not being able to go out and spend time with our friends and go out and make new ones too. We learned to be patient and really stick to our principles on what we believed in. We sacrificed a lot though but I can tell you now, it is so worth it.
We paid off the final payment on my car on October 30, 2011. A day in history that will stand out in our lives and the lives of our children and grand children forever and ever. We have set up the foundation for a successful and prosperous future and we couldn't be more excited for all of the hard work to come.
Baby Step #2 is still #2 out of 7...so we have a long ways to go! Mat and I are establishing new goals and refocusing our minds for Baby Step #3.
We also have a few friends that have started Dave Ramsey in our small group and I am so excited for them. Mat and I know how tough it can be and we can't wait till they can celebrate and toast their glasses after many months of hard work!
Thank you everyone for all of our love and support and we hope to be able to pay our blessings forward in the near future!!
And besides thanking God, we must also thank - Dave Rasmey!!
Money: So here's the update - Mat and I are FINALLY DEBT FREE!! We have worked so hard for the past 17 months of our lives, that's one year and 5 months...a very long time to sacrifice for the bigger picture.
Our debt consisted of a small amount of medical bills, a brand new car, and student loans for both Mat and I totaling about $68,500! WOW! It's amazing how much money you can *borrow*! We are no longer slaves to the lender as of today. It's a truly marvelous feeling and Mat and I are so incredibly blessed - I can't stress that enough.
Mat and I talked about it a lot today on our drive home from San Antonio and reflected on what the hardest part of this process was. One of Dave's questions that he always asks was "did you have anyone make fun of you during the process" and our answer is definitely yes and that was tough. We had some really great support from family and friends and also some not so helpful support of people laughing and challenging our efforts. It was tough not being able to go out and spend time with our friends and go out and make new ones too. We learned to be patient and really stick to our principles on what we believed in. We sacrificed a lot though but I can tell you now, it is so worth it.
We paid off the final payment on my car on October 30, 2011. A day in history that will stand out in our lives and the lives of our children and grand children forever and ever. We have set up the foundation for a successful and prosperous future and we couldn't be more excited for all of the hard work to come.
Baby Step #2 is still #2 out of 7...so we have a long ways to go! Mat and I are establishing new goals and refocusing our minds for Baby Step #3.
We also have a few friends that have started Dave Ramsey in our small group and I am so excited for them. Mat and I know how tough it can be and we can't wait till they can celebrate and toast their glasses after many months of hard work!
Cheers!
Thank you everyone for all of our love and support and we hope to be able to pay our blessings forward in the near future!!
And besides thanking God, we must also thank - Dave Rasmey!!
Friday, October 7, 2011
God!! Rental House!
This is the kitchen with gorgeous granite counter tops, stainless steel oven and dishwasher with a refrigerator with a built in ice maker!!
This patio is GIANT!! I absolutely love it and we are going to have so many friends over to sit out and drink wine with us! Just like Mat's parents!! YAY!!!
This is a view of *part* of the backyard from the second floor - the backyard is really big and I can't wait to start gardening!!!
This is the main living room/central area - i think we are going to need a bigger tv to mount over the fire place!
Another angle of the backyard! Anyone want to play some basketball?!
One of the bathrooms - they were both remodeled from what it looks like and they both have gorgeous sinks!
Mat and I have had so many of our prayers answered in the past few weeks and God has really been working in our lives in full force! We are so excited to start a new chapter in our lives and to see what lies ahead!
On another note, my good friend Laurie had her baby on October 6th at 4:04 pm and her name is Tylee!
This is mommie and daddie before baby Tylee was born :)
This is Tylee not too long after she first came out! Mom only had to push for 9 minutes! so lucky!
Daddy and his little girl (I think ive seen this girl in like 3 outfits already! I love it!)
Diaper change! sooo cute she looks so much like Laurie and Ty
Proud parents!
And my favorite picture of all - Laurie with her little miracle! Aww babies are so cute!
Thank you God for watching over my friends and blessing us all so much! This has been such an incredible week and Mat and I are so incredibly grateful!!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
God, Money...and PATIENCE!!
God: God is really the center of all of my posts because He provides so well for Mat and I and everything that we have been blessed with is because of Him :) He has been working in my life so much recently and I am able to see my patience really pay off. Unfortunately, I haven't been praying nearly as much as I have in the past but I am still thinking about God on a daily basis and trying to keep Him in my thoughts and actions.
Money/Patience: Mat and I have some pretty exciting months coming up to finish out this year in an amazing way. We will be finished with Baby Step #2 of Dave Ramsey's debt payoff plan in November!!!! Some of the items in our debt payoff were some minor medical bills from Mat's kidney stone back in November/December of 2009, my student loans, Mat's student loans and last but not least, a brand new Honda CR-V that we bought in January of 2010. We started our debt payoff in June of 2010 which was just after we got married :)
Also, in November we will be moving out of our apartment and into *hopefully* a rental home :) I know it might sound strange, but I have such a peace of mind right now over finding the "right place". I am excited about finding it but I'm not worrying over it. Mat and I are keeping our eyes open and I've been checking HAR almost every day to see if anything new pops up. We have some high standards of what we are looking for such as a large kitchen, spacious rooms, fenced in backyard, accepting of pets, W/D, and refrigerator lol...I've actually seen a few places that don't have a refrigerator or a dishwasher...We really don't want to be spending a lot of money on appliances....I know we will find something...God has it in His plan already and we trust Him!
Another really neat thing that happened recently was with work. I originally started working as a Project Controls Analyst at work and then switched over to Project Controls Analyst/Engineer I for about a year now. Recently, my company sent out an email with all of our job postings so that we can refer people to our open positions. Well, they were hiring an Engineer I and Engineer II in my department so I talked to Mat one night and said "I should apply for the Engineer II position" and we talked about it for a little while. I really wanted to talk to my boss about my career path when we did our PER reviews but I knew I had to wait a few weeks. Well the day I decided I was going to talk to him about setting up a time for my midyear PER review, he called me into his office and said "so lets talk about your career" and it was a wonderful feeling that came over me. It was like God had heard my prayers and answered them with those words. It turns out they were thinking the same thing I was about moving me over to the full time engineering position. I'm not sure of all the details but they did put my job as a PCA on the company website to fill. I don't know what the future holds for this new position but I know God will be with me the whole time so there is no reason to worry :)
:-D
Mat and I are viewing a rental house today - it should be interesting!!
Money/Patience: Mat and I have some pretty exciting months coming up to finish out this year in an amazing way. We will be finished with Baby Step #2 of Dave Ramsey's debt payoff plan in November!!!! Some of the items in our debt payoff were some minor medical bills from Mat's kidney stone back in November/December of 2009, my student loans, Mat's student loans and last but not least, a brand new Honda CR-V that we bought in January of 2010. We started our debt payoff in June of 2010 which was just after we got married :)
Also, in November we will be moving out of our apartment and into *hopefully* a rental home :) I know it might sound strange, but I have such a peace of mind right now over finding the "right place". I am excited about finding it but I'm not worrying over it. Mat and I are keeping our eyes open and I've been checking HAR almost every day to see if anything new pops up. We have some high standards of what we are looking for such as a large kitchen, spacious rooms, fenced in backyard, accepting of pets, W/D, and refrigerator lol...I've actually seen a few places that don't have a refrigerator or a dishwasher...We really don't want to be spending a lot of money on appliances....I know we will find something...God has it in His plan already and we trust Him!
Another really neat thing that happened recently was with work. I originally started working as a Project Controls Analyst at work and then switched over to Project Controls Analyst/Engineer I for about a year now. Recently, my company sent out an email with all of our job postings so that we can refer people to our open positions. Well, they were hiring an Engineer I and Engineer II in my department so I talked to Mat one night and said "I should apply for the Engineer II position" and we talked about it for a little while. I really wanted to talk to my boss about my career path when we did our PER reviews but I knew I had to wait a few weeks. Well the day I decided I was going to talk to him about setting up a time for my midyear PER review, he called me into his office and said "so lets talk about your career" and it was a wonderful feeling that came over me. It was like God had heard my prayers and answered them with those words. It turns out they were thinking the same thing I was about moving me over to the full time engineering position. I'm not sure of all the details but they did put my job as a PCA on the company website to fill. I don't know what the future holds for this new position but I know God will be with me the whole time so there is no reason to worry :)
:-D
Mat and I are viewing a rental house today - it should be interesting!!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
God, Love, Money, Food!!
I have been blessed tremendously over the past few months for so many reasons...Let's rewind back to this summer!
Mat and I made multiple trips to Dallas this summer for some really great fun with friends. One of our first trips was to see our friends Michelle and Justin get married on July 16th! It was a lovely wedding and we had a lot of fun seeing two wonderful people join together under God. :)
more of Michelle's friends that sat at our table :)
Then I had an amazing birthday party with some of my Dallas girl friends! We had margaritas, makeovers and mexican food! It was so much fun and Mat was kind enough to be the designated drive on our way back to Houston!!
Next, Mat went to San Antonio and I carpooled to Dallas with Claire for Stephanie's Bridal shower/ Bachelorette party in Sherman. It was so much fun hanging out with all the girls and seeing Stephanie so happy :) Her sister in law and mother in law threw her a really nice bridal shower at a nice golf course in Sherman and then Gigi, her maid of honor threw an awesome bachelorette party at Choctaw casino in Durant, Oklahoma!
Wow! It's past my bedtime but i will update captions, descriptions and more later!!
Edit: Okay the pictures are all updated with captions! Yay memories!!
Mat and I made multiple trips to Dallas this summer for some really great fun with friends. One of our first trips was to see our friends Michelle and Justin get married on July 16th! It was a lovely wedding and we had a lot of fun seeing two wonderful people join together under God. :)
Justin and Michelle walking down the aisle as man and wife!!
Look at the happy couple!!
Michelle's friends that sat at our table :)
more of Michelle's friends that sat at our table :)
Mat and I :)
What a beautiful cake!
I love the table decorations!! What great taste!
Gorgeous venue :)
Me with the beautiful bride!
Gorgeous dress and gorgeous couple!
Mat and I taking pictures outside
The chapel where they got married
Beth and her fiance at the time - now her hubby!
The getaway car and a kiss before they leave :)
Eating a delicious vegan chocolate chip cookie with ice cream :)
Makeovers!
After the makeup
Gigi's hottness after her makeover!
Stephanie and I
Stephanie and her fiance! Now her hubby!
My brother after swimming - it was really nice for him to come in for my birthday :-D
His friend came over too!
Glamour shots!
Hangin out with the girls :)
My favorite picture of my mom and I!!!!!
Next, Mat went to San Antonio and I carpooled to Dallas with Claire for Stephanie's Bridal shower/ Bachelorette party in Sherman. It was so much fun hanging out with all the girls and seeing Stephanie so happy :) Her sister in law and mother in law threw her a really nice bridal shower at a nice golf course in Sherman and then Gigi, her maid of honor threw an awesome bachelorette party at Choctaw casino in Durant, Oklahoma!
Hi Dana!
Gigi is so fashionable!
Dana, Julie, Claire and Gigi
Stephanie at her bridal shower
I think these are church friends
Opening gifts
more gifts!
Absolutely gorgeous quilt handmade by Dana!
Dana and Stephanie with the quilt
Cute picture
Stephanie with the hosts of the bridal shower - The original Stephanie Mygrant and her mom Doris
Cody showed up at the end of the bridal shower and brought her flowers! So super sweet!!
Stephanie with her mom Sandra
L to R - Gigi, Claire, Dana, Stephanie J., Me, Julie, Stephs old roomie, Staci, Brandi, and Stephanie M.
Stephanie at her Bachelorette party :)
Wow! It's past my bedtime but i will update captions, descriptions and more later!!
Edit: Okay the pictures are all updated with captions! Yay memories!!
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