Long time coming

Here are the pictures from my whirlwind trip to Texas for Danell's birthday. Now, I know that I was there for a little over 24 hours, but this is the bag I packed in. For those of you who know me, even if I take a weekend trip somewhere, I fill a pretty big suitcase. So, this was VERY impressive!

We managed to work in a quick game of Ticket to Ride Europe.

We definitely spent some time pampering ourselves.

Lisa and I went out Friday night to see a movie. We went to a fun place where you can order dinner while you watch the movie. We only ordered dessert because we, of course, had eaten Chick-fil-a for dinner.

What beautiful women! Barbara, Diana, and Lisa. Danell and I were relaxing in the massage chairs waiting for our pedicures.

This is the only shot Lisa got of the "Surprise Danell" moment. We thought about reenacting it, but never did.

The birthday girl.

Best friends :)

The princess on her birthday.

Diana showing us her breakfast making abilities.

Sampling the birthday cupcakes.

This was Danell's choice for her pedicure. Yes, you are reading that right...it was nail polish for dogs. The back even said that no animals were harmed and that it was only tested on humans :)

Sushi for lunch.

Danell LOVES sushi!

Everyone thinks I can grow things

Some of you may remember when I endeavored to grow a Prince. My friend Lisa gave me this present for Valentine's Day.

I love turtles, so this will be fun to grow. I love the explanatians on the package.

"Like all turtles, Tippy is very slow"

"Tippy is very shy. It takes 3 long days to get him to come out of his shell."

Meet Tippy :) He's still hiding in his shell right now, but pretty soon he will grow out of his shell...

Stay tuned! :)

A New Look

I was sad to get rid of the picture of John catching a snowflake, but I guess it was time. I really wanted to take a picture of some of my favorite trees today, but I forgot to take my camera with me. Sigh. I kind of like the blog without a picture for now.

Celebrating Easter in the new building was so much fun. I keep randomly singing "Up from the grave He arose..." Dad, Amy, and Josh came with me (well, technically I went with them, since Dad was the one to drive :)!) Daynah went to there church with a friend. Then I went to their house and had lunch and played some Super Mario Brothers (I must admit, I have a mild obsession with the game!) Afterward I went to Kari's house to play Dominion with some other friends. I can't win the game, but I really like to play it :).

Last week I sort of had Spring Break since most of my clients were on Spring Break. This week is sort of an extension of that because the kids were still out today. Plus, I don't have AWANA on Wednesday, so it's an extra free day during the week, which I'm excited about.

Gearing up for Easter

I just listened to the song, "Arise, My Love" by Newsong. It is all about the death and resurrection of Jesus. I hadn't heard it in awhile, but have it on a CD that I just found yesterday. It really is a beautiful song. It got me to thinking about how much I should be thinking about all that Christ did for me. Tomorrow, my plan is to read about Christ's death so that I will be more prepared to go into church on Sunday and celebrate my risen Savior. There is a passage in the NT where Paul talks about the resurrection. He claims, and rightly so, that if Jesus had not been resurrected, than there would be no point to Christianity. If He had merely lived a sinless life and then died, we would have no hope. That is why we celebrate at Easter, because a grave could not keep our Savior and He arose victorious over our sin that we might have eternal life with Him! It gets me excited just thinking about it!

Arise, My Love

Not a word was heard
at the tomb that day.
Just shuffling of soldiers feet
as they guarded the grave.
One day, two days,
three days had past.
Could it be that Jesus
breathed His last?

Could it be that His Father
had forsaken him?
Turned his back on his son
dispising our sin.
All hell seemed to whisper
"Just forget Him, He's dead."
Then the Father looked down
to his son and he said..

Arise, My love.
Arise, My love.
The grave no longer
has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise...Arise...my love.

The Earth trembled
and the tomb began to shake,
and like lightening
from Heaven the stone was rolled away.
And as dead man
the guards they all stood there in fright
As the power of love
displayed its might
Then suddenly a melody
filled the air
Riding wings of wind,
it was everywhere
The words all creation
had been longing to hear
The sweet sound of victory,
so loud and clear.

Arise, my love.
Arise, my love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you.
No more death's sting
no more suffering
Arise...arise....

Sin, where are your shackles?
Death, where is your sting?
Hell; has been defeated.
The grave could not hold the king.

Arise, My love.
Arise, My love.
The grave no longer
has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise....Arise....Arise

Hodge Podge

Oh my, I was sitting here thinking about several random things to blog about. I feel like I should warn you before you read any further. It probably won't be very interesting and it might be long. This is what happens when I don't blog for awhile...it all starts piling up in my head and then I want to get it all down before I forget :) So, I'll give titles to each random thing as if they were separate blog posts...

I Survived

Last Sunday was our last Sunday in our old building. I don't know if I've ever even mentioned that we have been in the midst of building a new building for many years. Now, I have been very excited about this move. I am so excited what God has in store for our church as we move to a bigger building that will allow us to serve more people in a much more comfortable way. We were in a sanctuary that could only seat about 400 people. Pastor Ritch has been preaching 3 sermons on Sunday mornings since before I moved to Bethany 4 years ago. So, many new people are overwhelmed with how crowded the church was. Many Sunday School classes were meeting off site because there was no more room at the church. Needless to say...we needed a new building. And God has blessed us IMMENSELY! :)

Yesterday was our first Sunday in the new building. It is BEAUTIFUL! The new sanctuary is so spacious and the lobby can handle crowds easily. I saw a status update on Facebook that said we had 1625 people attend the two services! God is SO AMAZING!

I must say, as the time drew near, I was a little hesitant about the move. I don't like change. I like things to stay the way they are. But, I did surprisingly well with the last Sunday in the old building and the first Sunday in the new building. I am looking forward to Easter Sunday next week as we worship the Lord in the new building again!

Exercise :/

I think that people who say they like exercise are just in denial about their true feelings. It isn't fun. I don't think it ever will be. But I guess in my 30 1/2 year old wisdom, I have decided it is more of a necessity than I want to admit. Thus, for three weeks now, I have been trying to exercise more regularly. Some days go better than others. Today, my body just kept saying, "You should just lay on the couch. You're not feeling well. You deserve to relax." I fought what my body was saying, and am now happily relaxing after exercising. But, it has yet to become fun or something I want to do. Maybe with more time...

Maybe I should become a doctor

It might be cheaper. Okay, I know that it takes a lot of money to become a doctor, but I am on the verge of getting yet another sinus infection. I have yet to figure out how to kick the cold before it turns into a sinus infection. And I HATE paying the bill to go to the doctor to get the antibiotics when I already know what is wrong. I would much rather self-diagnose and save myself some money. I'm giving myself two days before this turns into a sinus infection. Then I will seek out those darn antibiotics.

New Picture

I realized as I logged into my blog that I need to change my picture at the top of my blog. It isn't winter any more and I must admit, even I am tired of the snow. But I LOVE this picture of John and don't want it to go away. So, I need to take some spring pictures soon so that I can change the picture out.

Okay, that's all I can think of for the moment. My head is starting to get fuzzy and my nose is starting to get extremely stuffy. Sigh. Off to start a new book since I just finished the one I was on...

Cirque du Soleil

Saturday I went with 11 friends to Champaign to see Cirque du Soleil. I LOVED it! Remember my excursion to the circus last year? Well, Cirque is similar but also different.

And to top it all off, there was a little girl sitting behind us that gave a running commentary that had me cracking up. We were sitting REALLY high up, but at one point in time, she said, "Mommy, he's not waving to me." and the Mom saying, "Well, it's dark, I don't think he can see you." And then a few minutes later, the little girl saying, "Mommy, do you have a flashlight?" :)

Slacker with No Motivation

Two words that I guess could be the same thing, but to me are different. However, in combination, they mean that I haven't wanted to blog. Part of it is not much is going on. Part of it is that I have been fairly busy and not wanting to be on the computer all that much. Part of it is that I only think of things to blog about when I am at work and then forget by the time I get home. I attempted to make a list recently, but still had no motivation once I got home. Part of it is this incessant need I have to be reading right now, so that has me more interested than blogging when I do have free time. All of that to say...I'll get around to more details later.

Now, my body says, "Take a nap." And I'm going to read some before I do it. :)

Happy....

...Anniversary, Holly and Joel!

...Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

It's always easy to remember Dr. Seuss's birthday (well, if I remember Holly's anniversary). We laughed the hour before Holly's wedding when she told us that it was Dr. Seuss's birthday. The bridesmaids tried to convince her to rhyme her vows. "I will take you in a house. I will take you with a mouse. I will take you here or there, I will take you anywhere."

Where all socks go

I was doing laundry yesterday and was transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer. One of my socks got caught underneath the spinner thing. I felt like it was slipping into that place where all socks go. You know the place. You do laundry and are 100% sure that both socks go into the wash, but come out with only one. I am convinced there is a world where all my missing socks are. Somewhere along the way in life I decided that all other things that mysteriously disappear in my life go where all missing socks go. So yesterday I got this picture in my head of all my socks dancing around in their own little world watching my missing copy of Pretty Woman, quoting all the lines before they come up (because of course my socks would be able to quote the movie as well as I could) and drinking out of my favorite Tupperware cup.

What have you guys lost that are hanging out with my socks? :)

Reading

I love to read. That won't come as a surprise to many of you, but what may come as a surprise is how much I like to reread books. And how involved in them I become, even when I know what is going to happen next and what the ending is. I have a bookshelf full of books that I have read over and over again. Some books I have read over 10 times. I go through phases where I like to reread books. Now is such a time. I was up too late last night reading and couldn't wait to get home tonight to finish the book. Earlier in the year, I had told two of my coworkers that I had been up too late reading a book. They naturally asked if it was because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. My answer was, "No, I've read it at least 5 times." They just stared at me blankly. :) I can't explain it. I can only say that I enjoy rereading books.