Snow Day!

I'm not the biggest fan of snow or cold weather in general. Especially in Oklahoma, because we usually get a lot of ice and freezing rain right before we get the snow. This often results in power outages, which I'm really not a fan of. The local news stations did a great job of getting everyone in a frenzy all week leading up to this snow storm. Not trying to say that they were far off. I just love how the entire city freaks out and shuts down. We are really grateful this time though. We have had only about 2 seconds with no electricity in the last two days, and there are thousands in our state still without power.

I was not feeling great today, so I was more than happy to stay wrapped up in a blanket in my warm house. Jimmy had some work to do, but when he got home I joined him in taking our dogs out. Here's what it looks like today.

Gorgeous! And I have a boy who LOVES the snow:

...and another one who is not so fond of it.
He plays for about 2 minutes and is ready to get back to somewhere warm.

However, Griffey soon pounced...

...and Cassius cannot resist. They wrestled around for awhile.

Jimmy and I could watch them play forever. They are so funny and keep us entertained! They have such opposite personalities, but play so well together and bring so much happiness to our lives. I just don't know what I would do without them. The snow must've worn them out too. They're cuddled up at my feet snoozing away. Guess I'll join them.

Appreciate Life

Today we got a tough phone call. Jimmy's cousin, Roddy Johnson, had been taken to the ER in an ambulance and was unresponsive. Shortly after, Jimmy's dad let him know that Roddy had died. He was only 34 years old, and I just cannot imagine what his parents and sister are going through. It's just unimaginable. I do not know the exact cause of death, but my heart just aches for them. I hate that it takes such a tragedy to make me sit back and look at life this way, but it's just so uncertain. Who knows how long we have here? I really need to live each day as if it's my last. I really need to make the most of my day and my time with people I love.

I really need to appreciate life.

Learning Faith

During the church-wide fast that we recently did, I started learning a lot about myself. I spent some time asking God to show me my weaknesses and how I needed to improve on those. I have always known that one of the things that I need to do better is but my complete trust and faith in the Lord. It's fairly easy to do when things are going great. It's also very easy advice to give out. Anytime life is going bad....trust God, put your faith in the Lord, He will provide and take care of you. I say these things all the time. It's much harder to actually do. For me, at least. I am very aware that I like to be in control of things in my life. I do not like being totally dependent on anyone. I like planning, I like knowing, I like control. And I know that when you put your total faith in God, giving up these things becomes essential. So I asked God to help me with this. Little did I know how much He would stretch me :) I'm learning faith. I'm learning to trust. I'm learning to give up control, because I now realize I never had it in the first place. This season of life will be good for me, and I'm trying not to stress as I do so easily. Instead I am trying to embrace this part of my life and look forward to all of the awesome things that will happen.

Generosity

Two posts in one day...watch out :)

We had a family in our church who lost their house and everything in it to a terrible house fire last week. It was brought to our attention, and our care pastor just passed the word of some items that they needed. I did a quick post on Facebook and Twitter, hoping we could get something for them. I didn't know what to expect, but God always takes care of situations like this in incredible ways. We were able to find all of the major items the family needed: a refrigerator, stove, beds, and bedding. We even had one family who had a full size bed frame and another family who had a full size mattress and box springs. God has a way of working things like that out! On top of that, there are numerous people, including people I have never even met, offering everything they can think of, from love seats and clothes to bedding and gift cards. And they were all giving to someone who is a complete stranger to them. This incredible generosity has just touched me in a way I cannot even describe! Giving is the coolest thing. It's something that affects not only the people who are in need, but also the people who are able to give. In this case, it has even affected me, seeing how willing people are to do something for others. I like to think that I am a giving person, always trying to help when I can. But after witnessing this outpouring of love, it has really challenged me to become more generous. I want to be able to use all that God has blessed me with to touch people's lives and be able to show them God's love.

OU Symposium

I have had a pretty busy day off! It all started with obtaining some CEU's. One of the joys of being an athletic trainer. I always try to attend the OU Annual Symposium because it's a free way to get some hours. In the last two years, they've made the content much more tailored to orthos, so it's very difficult for me to pay attention to some of the lectures. However, I'm very glad I went! I got to see many old friends from SWOSU and McBride. I love catching up with these people. As much as I love my job, I do miss the athletic training environment, and of course, all of my ATC friends. The atmosphere is something I didn't appreciate until I left the profession. I can't really explain it. And I'm sure that many people feel the same way around people they work with. I feel that way now about others who are involved in ministry. There is just so much that people don't understand until they live through it and experience it. Same with athletic training.

On a side note, Oklahoma had 2 more earthquakes today. Apparently Jones, OK has become a common epicenter for earthquakes. It's just so weird to me. Oklahoma has every other type of strange weather, but now we get to start worrying about earthquakes too. They are becoming more frequent. And what is so strange to me is that I have yet to feel one. It said on the news tonight that people felt today's all the way in Tulsa. I know I was in Norman...but still. It just seems like I would've have felt something. Maybe I'm just crazy.

Prayer and Fasting

This week at People's Church is our week of prayer and fasting. I'll be the first to admit that I hate fasting. I'm a huge fan of food and eating! If you know me, you can attest to that. But I do believe that awesome things can come from prayer and fasting. So it's my first time to actually do this. Last year, I attempted it and had a breakdown. Literally. And Jimmy laughed at me. I probably would've done the same if the roles were reversed! I was a mess! Anyway, I'm mostly doing the Daniel fast, along with completely fasting some meals. Jimmy is doing the same thing, which I'm so grateful for because if he was chowing down on a cheeseburger in front of me, I'd be very irritated. But I'm very excited about what God is going to do in our lives and through our church as a result of this! Many people from our community group have also chosen to fast various things, which I think is awesome. And at this point, I'm not nearly as hungry as I thought I'd be. In fact, now that my body is being deprived of crappy food and I'm flushing out all the toxins, it actually makes me think twice about some of the stuff I eat too often.

I'm not going to lie though...I'm very much looking forward to eating whatever I want again. We already have our meals picked out for next week! This is the most involved Jimmy has ever been in meal planning :)

My First Post

Here I go, starting my blogging journey. I really love reading other people's blogs, and have been thinking for some time that I should start my own blog. In fact, I "started" this blog months ago. And I had a lot of fun looking for backgrounds. And then I never wrote anything. I think I just convinced myself that I don't have anything going on in my life that anyone would ever want to read about. But now I've decided that I should just do this for the purpose of journaling our lives together. No one else may care what we are doing, but someday I'll be able to look back at things we've done...you know, just in case we ever do anything exciting that I might actually want to remember. So that is what I will do. And who knows, maybe I'll even tell other people eventually.