24

Yesterday was crazy! We got up at 4am to be at Ultimate Electronics at 5am. We went there, Circuit City, Target, the mall, Best Buy.... we stopped a couple of time in there to eat left overs and refuel on Starbucks. :-) Philip and I also found a great deal on a LCD TV, so we bought it! It's a 46" Sharp 1080p LCD (flat screen). That's right, I know what all that means. I'm excited about it!

In other exciting news, we leave for the cruise tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!!!

I am going to TRY and post a blog and some pictures and maybe even video while we're there :-) I'm EXCIIIIITTTEEDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

22

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is going to be busy! We're going to grandma Martin's at noon. (First we're dropping off Daisy at my parent's though) then we're headed to the Redburn's at 2:00 then to the Atchley's at 6:00. Whew! Tomorrow morning, of course, we'll be waiting in line at some store waiting for the perfect bargain. hah. I always like shopping on Black friday though.

Friday (after shopping) I'm going to try and workout in the afternoon one last time before the cruise. We're going to have to get completely packed Friday too. Saturday we're hopefully going to have lunch or dinner with Abby and Riley and then go to my parents' to watch the OU vs. OSU game (which is a big one for us). We're probably going to spend the night there Saturday night because our flight leaves at 6:00AM Sunday morning!! This is going to be a busy (but FUN!) next couple of days!!

19

OU lost to stupid Texas Tech on Saturday. I almost cried. For real. Oregon (#2) LOST on Thursday which (if we'd WON) would make us #3 with a REAL chance at going to the national championship this year. Bradford was injured almost right away, and our second string QB was really no good. That hurt us a lot. We still could go to the Big VII championship if we beat OSU next Saturday.

We leave for the cruise on Sunday morning!!!!



Here is our itinerary! I'm super excited :-) Philip is off work Wednesday - Friday this week for Thanksgiving and then the WHOLE next week for the cruise! We're going to have so much fun the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I can post some pictures and blog a little while we are on the cruise. I'm not sure if you can get online on the ship or not... ? I'll find out.

We started putting up our Christmas decorations. Yeah, it's a little early.... but we wanted to get it done before the cruise, because we won't be back until Dec. 3rd. We bought some fun net lights for the bushes and blue "pearl" lights for the house. I think Philip is putting those up Wednesday. The Christmas tree is up and decorated and I even wrapped some presents last night! :-)

We're motivated again to get Monavie going. Philip has been talking to people like crazy. It's just such an awesome product... I want everyone to know about it!!
www.monavie.com

16

Pretty much every morning before work, I watch "The View". Well, I have it on while I'm getting ready for work. It's hard for me to stomach a certain liberal loud mouth's viewpoint sometimes, but she is usually evened out by Sherri and Whoopi (not that Whoopi isn't liberal, but she is usually neutral on the show). Anyways, yesterday I was so excited! The day before, liberal loud mouth (we'll call her LLM) was talking about how stupid it was that the mayor (or governor, I can't remember) in Georgia had a group prayer for rain at the state capital. Then the next day in Georgia, guess what happened? RAIN! LLM had nothing to say yesterday on the view, other than to make some kind of stupid joke to cover the fact that she was caught with her foot in her mouth. hahahaha, God said, "Really? You think prayer is stupid? CHECK THIS OUT!" Praise God! I'm also thankful Georgia got the rain they needed :-)

Today I'm off work. I'm taking Daisy to the groomer's in a little while and going to workout with Trisha. It's ALSO time to put up some Christmas decorations! I think we should get them up before we leave for the cruise, because when we get back things will be hectic with Christmas :-) We leave in 1 week and 2 days!

14

I was reading, "For Women Only" yesterday. I've read a lot of this book so far, but not all of it. I read a really interesting chapter. It was prefaced with a warning to pray. This chapter is, I guess difficult for women to read. It was about making yourself look good for your husband, just because. Even if you're not going out, even if it's just you and him at home. Apparently (through her surveys and research) this is something that is very important to me, but something they feel REALLY uncomfortable talking about with their wives.

Now, growing up I've always been taught "it's what's on the inside that matters". I still believe this to be true. And the bible backs this up in many instances,

1 Samuel 16:7 - "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Proverbs 31:30 - "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting: but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

For some women it's easy to let themselves go (physically) with these bible verses in mind. It seems that trying hard to maintain a body that is eventually going to perish, is pointless.

As I was reading, I noticed how men value their wives and their appearances. They want women to look nice for them, it shows our husbands we love them. This is, obviously not to say that we have to be a size 2. Simply showing an effort (overweight or not) shows our men that we love them enough to look good for them. This is a biblical standard as well:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "...don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."

We are to glorify God with our bodies, in everything we do. Taking care of our bodies and pleasing our husbands with them is commanded of us from God.

God,
Please keep these verses fresh in my mind. Thank you for blessing me with my amazing husband. God, it is my prayer that my body will always be glorifying to You and to my husband. Show me ways to honor You with my body and spirit.

Amen.

12

I had a mix of crazy dreams last night.

First of all, I had yet another Deano dream. It was fairly short. We were sitting around (me, Deano, mom and Brooke) and Deano was alive, but he knew he as going to die. He said, "Yeah, like all we need in this family is another tragedy." and he really acted like he didn't want to die. This made me really uncomfortable in the dream and I tried to re-assure him saying, "Don't be sad Deano! I know your death is going to bring so many people to Christ!" I kind of patted him on the leg, and I remember him interrupting me to say "Ouch, don't touch me I have a sunburn."

So weird.

I've had dreams like this in the past, where Deano is alive and we're talking about his death which (in the dreams) we all know is going to happen. Usually he knows too.

Then I dreamed that I was down at the lake and I was running from some of my cousins because they were trying to shoot me. I had a gun too, but I didn't want to shoot them. I remember instantly being at my parents house in the bathroom trying to close the door so they couldn't shoot me. Lori was there trying to get me, but she was holding one of her girls so I didn't want to shoot her. I reached around the door and shot her in the leg. She freaked out and shot me in the jaw. I was holding my jaw to stop the bleeding. There were veins and stuff hanging out, so I was trying to squeeze them so they wouldn't bleed. My dad told me I couldn't go to the hospital because then they would know I shot Lori.

It was longer than that... I ended up going to a family function and everyone was treating me like a criminal and acting all shy and quiet and awkward around me.

I have NO idea where that dream came from!

Today is my 4th day of training at Chili's... I better go get ready and study for my test! :-)

10

In college football news: (today IS saturday, after all!)
Last week, Boston College lost and this week OHIO STATE LOST!! WHOOOO HOOO!!! Oklahoma is climbing their way to the top! What sucks (well, kind of) is that the Big 12 Championship game is going to be while we are on our cruise! They better have some sort of sports bar or SOMETHING showing the game. :-/

So, Tuesday night I went into Jenny to weigh in and get food. I didn't lose any weight this week :-( But, I didn't gain any either! I was kind of down about not losing, but I just tried on my size 8 jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch and they freaking FIT!! Those haven't fit since.... probably around our wedding (August 2006). Seriously. So, that REALLY motivated me :-) :-) :-)

Tomorrow is church in the morning, and we don't really have plans for the afternoon... we might do some Christmas shopping! :-)

Weekends ROCK!

8

Philip's birthday was last night. We've been celebrating with different people the past week.. so last night was just him and me, which was awesome. We went to Red Robin for dinner (he loves that place) and we drove down to that casino in Norman... (I can't think of the name of it!! It's starts with an R....) We lost our money, haha, but it was still fun. Philip is now the ripe ol' age of 22 :-)

I've trained at Chili's the past three days this week. It's going well :-) Just like anything, it's going to take me a little time to adjust. I like working there so far, so I think it will be good. It's a LOT different than Pearl's was. Waaay more laid back. If my shift is at 10:30, then I have to be there at 10:30 (unlike Pearl's where I had to be 10 minutes early PLUS allow time to take the shuttle). Lunches are busy, but not ridiculous. I thought it was going to be CRAAZY, but it's normal. Once I learn the menu a little better.. I'll be a pro ;-) I'm off tomorrow and the weekend and I'll finish training Monday and Tuesday.

I went to Praxis college after work today. I picked up an application and talked with one of the owners, Linda, who gave me a tour of the spa. I'm really excited about it! Classes don't start until March, but that's ok with me because it will give me a while to get used to working at Chili's before I start school. :-) I have to be admitted first, which is apparently a bit of a lengthy process. I have to fill out the application, then they do a background check and then I have an interview day in January. If all that goes well, I'm admitted (I think). Yeah, I'm excited!!

We leave for the cruise 2 weeks from Sunday!! :-D :-D :-D I'm getting PUMPED!!

4

I'm scared of going to Jenny this week. I don't think I've lost any weight at all.... in other news:

OU WON SATURDAY! (Not like it was a big surprise) They SPANKED Texas A&M 42-14. BOOMER SOONER! Annnnnd.... Boston College LOST!!! HERE WE COME NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (Ok, we have a little way to go... but it's not totally off!)

Yesterday was Anne and Mark's wedding :-) It went great! The morning of, Philip and I went out shopping because I needed to shoes to wear with the dress I bought the day before. THAT was a mistake. I freaking bought the most uncomfortable shoes in the world... but they were really cute. That's all that matters, right? After the wedding, Philip and I went to Primo's in Yukon with Abby and Riley. Since their wedding, we've been able to see them just about every other weekend, which is awesome! It really doesn't feel like they live in Atoka (yet..). Even though Abby and I don't meet freaking everyday like we used to... but we do get to still see them a lot. After dinner we rented Transformers which we'd all seen before but we all liked it enough to rent again. Good day yesterday.

This morning I went to my orientation at Chili's. It went well. There was only one other person in it with me. We did all the basics you normally do at an orientation. Tour of the restaurant, fill out a crapload of paper work, learn not to sell alcohol to underage people... blah blah. I think I will like working there. They're going to give me the hours I want (even though the manager I talked to today didn't seem thrilled about it). It is going to be weird going from Pearl's, where I knew everyone, to Chili's where I know no one. I will meet people tho, no biggie. I'm training Tuesday and Wednesday morning this week (and probably Thurs and Friday, they do their schedule weird and the schedule for those two days hasn't come out yet).

Trisha and I are going to go on a cruise together! Yes, I know I'm going on a cruise on the 25th of this month and it's going to be AWESOME!! But, Trisha and I want to go on a girls cruise that is cheap. She's never been on one before. We're thinking end of February (in '08, duh). And, yesterday I invited Abby so I hope she can come! That would be so fun! :-D

Wednesday is Philip's birthday!