A Day Off

Spent here-

 Laying under this-

 Then enjoying some lemonade and a sandwich from here-

 

Playing with her-

But now it needs to get a bit less pleasant while I put away all this-

Before going here-

With a bunch of ladies from church tonight.

Oh, and I did get promoted, but more on that later, I'm not thinking about work today!

Back again

So, it was a bit of a weird week.

Found out on Tuesday I'm not completely out of the running to move up at work.  I had a phone interview with our now former District Manager (her last day was yesterday) about possibly overriding the test you're supposed to pass to be considered. I guess my observation part of the interview (that I never knew even happened on her last visit to our store) was so good, and my test was so close, that I'm still in consideration. I probably would have known yesterday had my manager not been off. Now I get to wait until Sunday to find out if I'm getting promoted or not.  It's kind of driving me nuts, but kind of not. I'm really not that worried about it, but we could use the 6-12 extra hours worth of pay, and the extra $2 an hour.  I think I have a decent chance as I was one of 4 finalists, and I'm the only one the DM made a followup call about to my manager, so that's a good sign, but I'm not going to be crushed if I don't get it. My husband on the other hand will be, he's determined I deserve it and no one else should get it. Flattering, but probably a bit exaggerated. :)

The husband on the other hand, had a rough work week.  The latter half of July til early August is slow season for him.  Meaning, as a contract worker, he may only get work 2-3 days a week instead of his usual 5-6, which is pretty depressing to him.  I'm just praying he can still see his worth even if he's contributing a bit less financially for a few weeks and can get through it still enjoying his job. He loves the job, when it's busy, so hopefully this slow spell doesn't ruin it for him.

We did actually get a day and a half off together this week though, and it was wonderful!!  We didn't do anything major, just slept, caught up on our Tivo and run a few errands together, but it made a huge difference in my outlook for the week.  We're just a bit more insync now.

I'm kind of thinking the other reason things are going better between us is this book-



I can not recommend it enough. I've read through it twice, prayed through it both times (never in the month suggested, always takes me 2 or 3) and this time I'm journaling my way through it as well. 

A few favorite quote from the first 4 chapters-

"It's a gentle tool of restoration appropriated through the prayers of a wife who longs to DO right more than BE right." (speaking of the power of prayer)

"That's because prayer is the ultimate love language"
"Talking to God about your husband is an act of love"

"If He asks us to prayer for our enemies, how much more should we be praying for the person with whom we have become one and are supposed to love?"

"Telling your husband everything that is wrong with him is not only ill-advised, it probably doesn't reveal the complete truth"

"Our goal must not be to get our husbands to do what WE want, but rather release him to God so He can get them to do what HE wants"

"Allow your husband to be the head so you can be the heart"

"When disappointing things happen it's best to remind myself of my husband's good qualities"

"Loss of respect seems to precede loss of love and is more hurtful to a man than we realize"

And those are just from the first chapter.  It's a great tool to strengthen the spiritual bond between you and your husband. 

It's my day off, so I'm off to do laundry, and put away last week's laundry and go grocery shopping and to the bank and all those other fun things we do on days off.

Have a great weekend!

Still playing catch up

So, after 2 months off, be ready for lots of double blog days!  If you haven't read the prior post yet, please do, it has all the big stuff in it, this one is just all my little daily thoughts type stuff.

I've been keeping up with the working out. Haven't lost a single pound, but I've dropped almost an inch off my butt and waist, and a half an inch on my thighs, (butt and thighs are definitely my problem areas!) and have done some arm toning, without actually measuring, the backs of my arms basically just don't jiggle so much. :)  My standard routine is
15 minutes Elliptical (typically 1.35ish miles)
15 reps on the leg machine that does the outside of your thighs
15 reps on the leg machine that does the inside of your thights
15 of those things where you hold your body up by your arms on handle things and pull your legs up to 90 degrees
15 reps on the machine where you press your arms in against the weights
15 reps on the machine where you pull the bar down against the weights
and 75 crunches.

Can you tell I've never belonged to a gym before and don't really know anything about the machines except for what the little instruction posters on them tell me?  If anyone wants to correct my names for things, feel free.

I go 3-4 times a week, just basically trying to stay toned without really changing my body any.  I'm loving it and the days I work out, I notice I don't feel like I need quite as much coffee.  I've always been a coffee girl, started stealing my dad's at 12, spending my babysitting money on Starbucks with my girlfriends in highschool, and a complete, a pot a day addict by age 19. After getting married I started cutting back to two cups (or one 20oz travel mug) in the morning and then one either in the afternoon or evening.  I'm basically down to one necessary (16oz) cup a day and then a social coffee drink once or twice a week.

We've gotten really involved in a Nearly and Newlyweds class at our church and I'm loving everything we do with it.  I'm the social coordinator, we've had one social at our house and are planning an Astros game to go to as a group later in the month.

Alot of the women in our group have decided to read through the Bible together. They're doing it rather slowly, and having read through it in highschool and again as an adult, I decided to opt out. 

I'm re-reading "The Power of the Praying Wife", which I highly recommend!  It came as a suggestion from an absolutely amazing Pastor's wife I knew back in NY, who was a bit of a mentor for me. She recommended re-reading it every few years, so I'm on re-read number two.  I'm noticing it's just like she said, every stage of your marriage you get something different out of it, or a new part becomes relevant, and it's definitely something new for me each read.  If you want to join me in reading, let me know, I just restarted it this week.  If not, I'll try to give you some of my notes on it.

We're also, as a couple, reading the book "The 5 Love Languages" for the first time.  I know it's kind of a classic in Christian marriage related literature, but we'd done a short study on it without ever reading the book and decided to go back and read the whole thing. Definitely worth it so far.  I'll try to do a few posts on it as I get further into it.

I think that's it for tonight, I'm sure to have a few event specific posts, or food posts in the next few days, still trying to get caught up.

Is this thing still working??

I know, seriously? 2 months without a post? Some of you must be wondering if I'm still alive, other than the fact that most of my loyal readers are also friends with me on facebook. :)  Anyone else, introduce yourselves so I know who's reading!

Anyways, I owe about a dozen posts that are topic specific, but instead, I'm going to just give you a brief run down of what's been on my mind and keeping me from posting.

First off, I found out in early May that I was going to be an Aunt by early December!!!  Congratulations to my sister and her husband on the arrival of their BABY GIRL in 20 weeks!! I was sworn to secrecy until this weekend, so I haven't been talking to alot of people for fear of slipping. 

 This picture is a year old, but it doesn't make any difference, I'm still going to have one very beautiful niece in a few short months! Too bad she'll be living way up in Minnesota with her parents. :)

In late May I was asked be our Nearlywed & Newlywed's Group at church's social coordinator, so every other week I remind the ladies that it's Starbucks night (Good group, huh? This was established before I got there!) and once a month set up a social gathering of some form for the couples. We hosted the first one here in the end of May.

Same weekend I also helped my friend Amber (middle) host a Baby Shower for her sister Kailey. Kailey's 17, and doesn't have a very stable faith, so I know Amber would appreciate your prayers for her.

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The first week of June we headed over to Disney World with my parents so they could work a couple of shifts and keep their seasonal cast member status up.

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In mid June we were able to attend our first wedding down here.  Our friends from class Jim & Maryanne got married.  They are an amazing couple, so perfect for each other, so strong in their faiths and ready for marriage, it was a great wedding, just wishing I'd actually brought my zoom since I wasn't the official photographer and had to take my pictures from farther away.

In mid June I took a test through work to find out if I was eligible for a promotion/raise to "Sales Lead", of course it's a messed up trick question test (according to my manager even) and I missed by 3 points, so I'll be retaking it sometime in September/October.

The first week of July we found out my brother in law finally proposed to his girlfriend after 5 years.  So, there will be a wedding in NY sometime in the next year. Whether we'll be invited or not is still up in the air, but there will be a wedding, and I'll finally have another girl on my husband's side. Hopefully things get worked out eventually between them. At the moment we're unfriended on facebook, blocked from contacting them on facebook, and not getting responses to emails or texts, so we'll see. We're leaving the door open on our end and reminding him especially that it's still open on our end, so we just have to wait for him to come around at this point.

This is quite literally a 3 year old picture of them, but it's the best I have without stealing one of their profile pics, and I'd rather not cause a problem.

So, basically that's been all the big events.

I'll try to get a more personal blog going later this weekend. I'm back, I'm not planning on stopping blogging again anytime soon either, so keep reading!