One good thing about being single

You know it has been crazy weather when your laundry for the last two weeks includes (but is not limited to) sweaters, long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts, tank tops, jeans, and shorts. I'm liking the spring weather much more now that it is back in the mid-60s. It was way too soon for 80 degree weather. Oh, so why is it good to be single, you ask? Because I was thinking of what I wanted to post today and realized that some people might think it's crazy that I am doing two weeks worth of laundry. But that's normal for me. I may throw in some random things here or there but for the most part I only do my laundry every other week. It's great, because it's one of my least favorite chores!

Don't worry, you're in the right place

I don't like a lot of change in my life, but somehow, every once in awhile, my blog needs a good sprucing! :) This is the third title I've had for my blog and who knows how many times I've changed the background. But this is the first time I've changed the fonts, which might be something I play around with a lot. I haven't decided if I like these fonts or not. But don't worry. Same me. Different background. Different title. Different fonts.

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

I am currently reading through the Little House on the Prairie books. I am really enjoying them. I just started the third book this morning before I dragged myself out of bed to start my day. I loved this series as a child, but am learning that I really don't remember much of the books, so it has been fun to experience them again as an adult. One thing I have enjoyed, that I forgot I liked as a child, is chapter titles. How come adult fiction books rarely ever title their chapters? Just numbers. One, Two, Three. School Days, Winter Evening, Winter Night. So much better. The title of this post is a chapter title from a book I remember reading as a child. I cannot remember the name of the book. And I don't even really remember what the book was about. But I remember that there was a chapter about one shoe dropping and than another chapter titled "Waiting for the other shoe to drop." Isn't it funny how certain things stick in your memory? I kind of wish I knew what the book was, because it makes me want to read it again! All that to say, I wish adult books had chapter titles! :)

Meet Little Cuddles and Big Cuddles

Almost 10 years ago, I worked at a Christian bookstore in Georgia. That spring, I bought Daynah a stuffed animal that I thought was cute. They came in two sizes. I bought her the bigger one. Than I decided I wanted one for myself, but we didn't have any more of the big ones and I couldn't order it, so I bought one of the little ones: Meet Little Cuddles. She's cute and cuddly. But mostly she has been decorative in my room. So, basically, she looks good as new. Daynah thinks this is a travesty. She thinks that I have not loved Little Cuddles enough. Neglected her by just sitting her in my room. You always want a stuffed animal you give to a child to be "the one." You know, the one they choose to make their special stuffed animal. Having younger siblings, I felt the same way. Thus, my plan was to give Daynah and Josh lots of stuffed animals, just to make my chances higher :). I lucked out with Daynah:

Meet Big Cuddles. Loved with a capital L. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the two Cuddles' together when Daynah was here in February, but I didn't. Where little Cuddles is white, big Cuddles is grayish in color. Where little Cuddles has fluffy fur, big Cuddles has lots of matted hair. Where little Cuddles has never had a bath, big Cuddles has been through the washer several times. I love that Daynah has a Cuddles in her life! :)

4/4

It's probably sad/pathetic that I find this tidbit entertaining. But I will share it anyway, because this blog is all about being real :). Emily and I watched an episode of NCIS on Monday (4/4/11). I was just looking at the case for the disc we are on, and the episode we watched on Monday originally aired on 4/4/06. If we moved through the season at the same pace the shows originally aired, we wouldn't be able to watch another episode until 4/18. But we're not moving at that pace, because we are going to watch another episode in a few minutes.

An Unfortunate Epiphany

I cannot ever write a book.

The End.

Oh my goodness, in so many ways those two sentences are making me laugh in my head. I was penning this blog post in my head on the way home from Bible study after said epiphany, and there are so many directions I could go from here. Needless to say, the directions I will take are the exact reason I can never write a book.

Phrases like...on a side note...let me backtrack...did I tell you (fill in the blank) because it might be important...just so you know (fill in the blank), but that's not really important to the story...

My epiphany really combines two stories from the last month, thus making it an epiphany, because neither thing in and of itself would cause me to come to the conclusion that I could never write a book.

Story numero uno. Last night I was talking to Danell (which was apparently a dangerous thing to do because boy, could I tell some stories from that conversation. But I won't. Because it's not the point of this blog post. Sheesh, my epiphany just keeps smacking me in the face!). We were creating a fictional ending to an event coming up in my life. The fictional ending is not so important and will stay between the two of us, but Danell suggested that part of the ending wasn't good because would I really want someone else to get the credit for the ending? I told her I would just leave that out of the story when I told it to my future children. No big deal. Danell laughed at me. She did, out loud even. She stated that I could never leave such a critical piece of information out of a story. She stated, in fact, that I would not only include that information but I would also include some sort of statement about needing to give the background for the critical statement. I laughed out loud and admitted that she was 100% correct in calling me out on this. End story numero uno.

Story number two. I've had several "conversations" through blog comments and Facebook recently about series of books and the apparent love/hate relationship many of us have with series. I love the character development and the continued ability to live in someone else's life that comes from a good series, but I don't like the needless detail or ways that author's appear to drag a story out in order to get one more book into their series. End story number two.

And now for the epiphany. I could never write a book because I would be the author who included way too much detail that would cause a book to drag on forever and ever. So, don't look for me on any best seller list in the near or distant future. I won't be there. :)

The Retreat...Finally

I haven't been in the mood to blog lately, but apparently telling my blog readers that I was going to blog about the retreat is making me feel guilty for not actually doing it, so here I am. Blogging about the retreat. I should warn you that this might be a little long.

Our speaker for the weekend was one of Bethany's missionaries. He and his family are living in South Africa but are home until July, so they came to speak at our retreat. Josh mostly works with youth, so he is a very dynamic speaker. He taught three sessions that were all about Cultivating Everyday Faith.

The first session was from Psalm 111 and talked about seeing God work everyday. We first looked at defining God's works from the psalm. We then looked at responding to his awesome works. During this session I was most convicted of how little I tell about what God is doing in my life. I will often talk about what I am doing for God (I went to church. I am going to Bible study. I served in such and such a way.) but I rarely talk about what God is doing in my life, which is so much more important (God blessed me by giving me extra rest. God answered this prayer that I have been praying about. Did you see the awesome sunset that God painted tonight?).

During the second session we looked at the life of Abraham, focusing on questions to cultivate our faith. Questions we asked were: Am I where God wants me? Will God protect me and my family? Will God provide for me? Does God keep His promises? Do I love God more than anything else? As we looked at Abraham's life we found that sometimes he had faith in these situations and sometimes he lacked faith, but ultimately, God called him a man of faith.

During the third session, we talked about how God controls the unknown future as we looked at the first chapter of Ruth. We looked at how to find hope in our present circumstances for the unknown future. We talked about how we shouldn't allow human logic to control the unknown future. And how to recognize that God controls the unknown future. Josh did an excellent job. I had to review my notes over the weekend so that I could better process what I had learned. And typing this has again helped stamp the information in my brain.

What else did we do at the retreat, you might be asking?

We ate. The camp food was soooo good. I was pretty sure I gained about 8.5 pounds. By the end of the weekend, I was eating more per meal than I normally do, especially for breakfast. My last breakfast consisted of two pancakes, two bowls of Fruit Loops, some juice, some bacon, a banana, and an orange. And I pretty much made myself stop there, even though I was tempted to eat another pancake.

We played. Organized games. Free time. Group games. The first night I even willingly (and joyfully) participated in the getting to know you game. Ask Kari, I even mingled like I was supposed to! We played Family Feud and Jeopardy. And we played some minute to win it games. During free time I was talking to the girls who were planning the group games. They asked me what I thought of wheel barrow races. I told them that I would not joyfully participate in that game. As a matter of fact, I would loudly complain and moan and groan about it! Luckily, they didn't make me play.

We slept. Yes, we did do some of this, I promise! The schedule actually allowed for more sleep than past retreats.

We rode in vehicles a lot. 3 1/2 hour trip both ways. On the way there, I rode with a new friend in her car because she had to come back early. I know what you're thinking...she got to listen to 3 1/2 hours of Teresa's stories because they were still getting to know each other! Wasn't she lucky! :) On the way home I was able to ride in one of the vans. And I didn't make the van driver stop for a bathroom break!

There you have it, the retreat in a nutshell! Well in Teresa's version of a nutshell anyway!

A new problem I've discovered about being an adult

I realized this morning that I have started hitting my snooze 5 times for a total snooze time of 30 minutes. That means, if I stopped needing to hit the snooze button, I could technically get 30 more minutes of sleep. Well, not really because the last two snoozes are consistently making me later to work than I want to be. So, back to the title of this blog. When I was in school, I would naturally reset my body alarm every semester. By the end of the semester I might be hitting the snooze 5 times, but at the beginning of the semester, I would be back to a more manageable 2 snoozes. I think it was the newness of the semester. Or the excitement of new classes. Or simply a different schedule altogether. But, now that I'm an adult and no longer operate on a semester system, I have no natural resetting of this system within me. The only solution (obviously) that I can think of is to set my alarm 5 or 10 minutes earlier. I know, it's pathetic that my first obvious choice is not to just get up after 2 snoozes. Or maybe I should go back to school.

Conversations with friends

Danell has already confirmed that her husband thinks we're weird, so I probably shouldn't blog about this, but it's part of who I am. Yesterday, Danell and I entertained ourselves while I was working by sending texts back and forth. Me: Let's meet at the Barnes and Noble in downtown Ft Worth and read The Truth Seeker together! Danell: I'll be there in ten minutes :) Me: It might take me 20! :) Danell: I can just stop for a Dr Pepper while I wait for you. Do you want me to get you one? Me: From Sonic? With light ice? Definitely get me one! Danell: After we read in downtown can we go get hot wings and dip our fries in ranch dressing? Me: Yes. And then we can get a Jamaica Me Crazy after that. If we can't spend the time together in reality, we're going to at least create a perfect day with all our favorite things in our dream land! :)

Life as I've Known it

I just walked outside in my flip-flops to take the trash to the dumpster. I love the change in shoe seasons. It was good to hear that flip-flop-flip-flop. Kind of like I love the first time I wear my clicky boots in the fall. Sorry I have been absent for the last week. This week was one of those weeks where I was just trying to survive until the end. I battled exhaustion most of the week as I recovered from the retreat weekend. I worked the longest week of work that I've worked in a long time. I won't bore you with those details because I don't really want to relive it and because I survived it so it's a moot point (insert flashback to a Friends episode where Joey says "It's a moo point. You know, like a cows opinion." This is what I think about every time I say something is a moot point.). Wednesday I closed my Wheat Thins client. It was a hard day. I had her as a client for a year and 4 months. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but she definitely ranks in the top 5, maybe even number 1. I talked her into admitting that she would miss therapy just a little bit :). I don't know if it counts if I had to talk her into it, but I'm counting it. As she was getting out of the car at her house she said, "Goodbye forever!" I just laughed at her. She didn't really say it in a mean way. I've also opened 4 new clients in two weeks which has added to my exhaustion. New clients take so much more energy, and it was energy I definitely did not have this week. But new clients bring new stories, so I guess that's a positive! My goal is to get more details of the retreat on here before it, too, becomes a moot point (see, same Friends clip running through my head!).