Really Important Stuff!!

Ok, not really important, but I had to get your attention somehow since this blog has been so inactive for so long.

Since the hubby and I kinda fell off the face of the earth for awhile, I figured I should do an update of sorts about what's been going on and things on my mind and.. well, whatever other randomness I can conjur up.

1. Second Coming - Been thinking a lot about the end times and reading reading reading. It all started a couple months ago when I got very fearful about it. I like to listen to KCBI in the mornings and Dr. Jeffress was doing a series on the end times. I only heard bits and pieces of it during my 8-10 minute drive to work each morning so I ordered the series. IT IS FANTASTIC. I really appreciate how he goes directly to the Bible about everything. It also caused me to do a bunch of serious reading on my own, which I think is more valuable than just listening to what I'm told. It forced me to really delve into things and figure it out. I can now say that I am not only no longer fearful of the end times, but I really do look forward to it! Sure, it's still slightly strange and nerve wracking, but I don't FEAR it. (Series is "Bible Prophecy Made Simple" for anyone wondering.. and I'd love other's thoughts on it if you do listen to it!!)

I've also been reading Romans with new eyes. It's like I'm reading things that I never read before. I am just so thankful and so humbled by what God did for me and for you. While I love the Jewish culture and traditions and so many times wish I could claim that (except from a Christ believing point of view, of course!!), I have embraced my Gentile-ness and am now even more humbled and grateful for what God did for me. He is so gracious and so merciful and yeah. I can't even describe it. I love Him :) Now that I'm through Romans, I'm getting started on the New Thru 30 that my church is doing. I'm a couple days behind, but considering I have nothing to do at work most days, I think catching up won't be an issue :)

2. Depression. Yeah, this is a fun topic. I'm not ashamed to say that I've been dealing with some depression for awhile. My struggles with panic and anxiety are no secret so why would I keep the depression a secret? There are several reasons for it but let's just say that through the power of prayer, visiting a counselor for the last year, Sleepworks and Oasis and St. John's Wort, I am doing MUCH better. I do still struggle, but it's getting better. Unfortunately, it caused me to basically crawl into a hole for the past year or two. I've been out and about and see people, but I pretty much limited my circle and didn't venture too far out of that. If I have offended you or pulled away, I am truly, truly, sorry. Please come to me and let me know if I have because I want to right things.

3. AdvoCare. Bet no one is surprised to see this here!! :) AdvoCare has been really great for us. We started with the products and once we saw results, we knew we had our hands on something fantastic and really just want to share it with people so we decided to pursue the business side. Josh has lost a ton of weight and I've finally gotten a handle on my anxiety, depression, and insomnia by using SleepWorks and Oasis which has been my first concern. Simply great products that speak for themselves. Outside of that though, the people we have encountered with this company are truly wonderful. I've met some of the kindest, most generous, and Godly examples who are really putting their time and effort into developing Josh and me into leaders. That's another thing I just love about this company.. it really is more about molding us into better people and teaching us how to help others than anything else. And I love helping others achieve their goals and dreams!!

About a month ago, Josh and I were tapped to take part in a 6 week long "boot camp". Yeah, not one of those early morning workout boot camps because let's be honest.. I'm a night owl and I still panic when I work out hard (no, seriously.. full blown panic attacks). This is more of a leadership training/workshop because they see great potential in us and based on our current team growth. We've been attending trainings and pushing ourselves. It's VERY challenging, but really, if something isn't challenging and pushing you, it's not always worth it. Anyway, AdvoCare is allowing us to live life on our terms and helping us accomplish some of our dreams. Let's face it, fertility treatments are not cheap, and this is not only helping us with those dreams, but also with my dream of quitting my job. It's no secret that I just *love* my job. Oops.. sorry, I think I dripped sarcasm on your keyboard... My bad. Really though, we are on track to replace my income and the plan is for me to be able to quit after the first of the year. It's only by trusting in the Lord and letting him lead this business that we've been able to do what we've done and will continue to do. He gets all the glory for anything we do!!

4. Work. Work sucks. 'Nuff said.

5. Cats and Wigs. They just go together. Case in point:

6. As of right now, if everything goes according to plan, we're planning on doing something fun at our house on Halloween. Probably will involve free hot dogs and Spark. We'll just be hanging out in the drive way, like good old fashioned white trash. :) So, bring the kids by! Or if you don't have kids, come by anyway! :) And if our plans fall through, we'll still be at home handing out potatoes and onions to any trick or treaters. We embrace the "trick" side. Obviously.

I think that's everything. Or at least that's everything I can think of at the moment. I could talk about lots more stuff I'm sure, but most of it is uninteresting to most people. Or at least weird. I have an unusual thought process and while it's quite entertaining in my own head. I fear if I reveal too much in here, people will go running further away!

2011 In Review

I've been a bad blogger this year. Or maybe, we're just that boring that we have nothing to share! And I've been so "over it" at work that I haven't even written many Admin notes. Here's hoping 2012 is more exciting! That said, here's a run down on 2011 in our household...


January


I did the Jiggle Butt 5K run with my friend Brenda, my sister Carrie, and one of Carrie's friends!


My dear college roomie, Misty, had a baby! This is my "crew" from college.. Kristen, Jen, Misty, and me at her baby shower. It was so good to see them! And no, we didn't plan to all wear purple. Weird.


February


We got iced in. Not much snow, but there was ice everywhere! Plus, our heat went out so it was coooold


This is my mom's childhood dresser that I salvaged from my grandmother's house. The corner was chipped off so Josh glued a big square chunk of wood on it and I spent several hours sanding it down to match. Now that it's painted, it looks great! This is the work in progress pic, obviously


March


We went to Fredricksburg for our 6 year anniversary/Josh's 30th birthday! Probably our favorite thing we did was watch the WWII reenactment. Basically it was just a bunch of guns being fired. It was fantastic!


Greek night with my seester! Opa!!


We made Pastitsio (delicious) and baklava from scratch and then had dolmas, tiropita, and spanokopita as well. It was a very yummy meal...

April


My cousins are in town!!! Yay!!! We had a square dance down at the Levitt in Arlington. Here's my dad dancing with Abigail.


I love them so much and I miss them like crazy. They're serving the Lord overseas right now. - Angela, Michael, and Nathan, Abigail, and Josiah


Josh and I competed in the Warrior Dash... what an awesome race that is! We "trained" by doing P90x for the months before hand and it definitely helped. I definitely want to do this race again and highly recommend it. VERY well organized.


May


Josiah and a puppy in Glen Rose :)


Fruzin Day Camp - We played dramatic Frisbee


My poor baby, Chuckie. Sadly about a month later, he was finally put down. We'd had him since I was in jr high and he was OLD. Best dog ever.



Josh joined his high school's alumni team this Spring. They played in Cowboy stadium! It was so fun to watch him out there, even if it was Jerry's house.


June


I helped host a vintage themed baby shower for my dear friend Susan. This is me, Susan, Paige, and Brenda. We all wore aprons and pearls!


In June, we decided it was time to downsize the vehicle(s) and we put the motorcycle up for sale. (We ended up trading it in August when we bought the Wrangler)


July


A very weird brotherly moment between Nathan and Josiah


Lots of time spent swimming with the kids. Gosh, I miss them!


Abigail and Nathan. This was July 4th... they left a few days later


August

These are all from our trip to Red River, NM.

We have a pic of my family in front of this water wheel from 15+ years ago. It was fun to see it again!


Daddy was so proud that his little girl drove the 4-wheel drive trails!


Josh and I in front of the water wheel


My little buddy, eating peanuts off my knee. Chipmunks are so adorable! But even more fun than feeding them?? CHIPMUNK FISHING!!!

I should try to upload a video of this. It might take forever, but it's so funny. We were in tears from laughing.


Josh and I in front of an old mine. We also have pics of my family in front of this mine from many many years ago! I need to find those pics and scan them so I have them digitally!


Old Red River Pass


Many years ago when my family was vacationing in RR (I was probably 10-12 yrs old)with some friends, we were out on the four wheel drive trails and saw this random cable coming down the mountain. We climbed it and found the coolest old steam engine at the top of the mountain! So, this time, we decided to see if it was still there. The old roads were completely covered over and closed so we had to hike for a good long ways to get there. Finally we found the spot and saw the same cable! We climbed up (which is much harder to do at 30 years old 29 years old than it was at 12) and low and behold, the engine was still there. It was really cool...


Here's the clan of campers for the week. Me and Josh, Randy and Debbie, Annette, David, (two others who showed up just for the day) my mom and dad, and Becky and Wayne. I've known all these people my entire life so it was fun to spend some time with them! We had 2 Scouts and 2 Jeeps for the trails. So many memories!


September


Labor Day weekend - Because of the horrible drought in Texas, the lake levels were ridiculously low. In one of the local lakes, a small island had formed just offshore so we decided it'd be fun to canoe/kayak out there and play a game of softball on it! So we did! And it was fantastic! This is my dad helping the girls across (it was super windy and I guess they were scared to paddle themselves!) Anyway, he said the mud was thigh high. He was laughing and grossed out the entire way across.



We had a great time playing! Shortly into the game, I got my leg smashed by a grounder and had to sit the rest of the game out so I spent my time taking pictures. (it's hard to play when you have a huge knot on your leg and can't bend your foot!! It was like that for several days, then was bruised for about 2 weeks and then was sore for a good month or so... not fun!)


Mid-September brought Winfield and wild rains. You never know what it'll be like in Winfield. Sometimes it's hot and sunny, sometimes it's freezing cold, and sometimes (like this year) it's freezing cold and rainy. It was honestly miserable. Probably one of my least favorite years there... On Friday night a blasted monsoon came through. It was MISERABLE. Our tent ended up flooding and the lightning was downright frightening. I hate lighting storms when I'm in a tent!! I hate lightning anyway unless I am in the safety of my home. It's scary.

Anyway, early Saturday morning we got tired of being soaking wet and worrying that we were going to die by lightning, so we threw on clothes and waded through the "river" to our car. We were soaked. And cold. And hungry. And I felt sick. (nerves). We went to Walmart and wandered around for awhile then went to McDonalds to eat while we waited out the storm.

We spent much of Saturday cleaning up and attempting to dry things out. Luckily the sun came out for a few minutes and mostly dried stuff up. That said, another big storm was expected soon so we opted to tear down camp while it was not raining and then sleep in the back of our Commander that night. It worked out perfectly! Plus, I felt much safer when all that crazy lightning started again shortly thereafter.

All in all, it was a really sucky, cold, miserable weekend. That said, Winfield weather is different every year and even when it's bad, the music is awesome so we still had a decent time! Hoping that next year is better!


The weekend after Winfield, we went to the Jackson's for a big birthday party. It was cowboy themed, hence Josh's hat!


October


I got to go to my very first post season game with my friend Dixie! Despite the rain, it was fun!


Yay for good friends and good games!


This was taken after the Rangers won the ALCS. Josh, Carrie, my dad and I all rode our bikes down to the Ballpark and tried to sneak in after the game was over. Dad and Carrie didn't get in, but Josh and I did! I felt kinda bad about it later, but it's not like we saw the game or anything! Anyway, these are some photos I snapped while they were on the field doing their interviews. This is Nolan Ryan (left) and Josh Hamilton (right)

Sneaky us...


These are my college gals again - Misty, Jen, Kris, and me. Jennifer got married in November and this is a photo of all of us from her lingerie shower! So much fun. These three are some of the very best, most treasured friends I will ever have. It's been so wonderful reconnecting with them and spending more time together. Love them forever!


November


Josh had another alumni football game! They beat the socks off the other guys! This is his parents and us


On the field for the coin toss. Josh is on the left in the field (#18)


Jennifer got married! She was a simply stunning bride!


For Thanksgiving this year, my aunt Charlene and cousin Dinah and her family came down. I love spending time with her! Anyway, we had a kickball game down the street from my brother's house. Isabelle wasn't going fast enough for Josh so he just picked her up and finished rounding the bases with her!

December


OOooh boy, December is a blur!! My father in law had back surgery on the 23rd and we've spent much of our time attending to him and my mother-in-law. They're getting back into action though so things are good! This is him right before he went into surgery :)


I GOT A PETITE LAP GIRAFFE!!!!!

My seester and I are weird. We talk in Russian accents to each other. She calls me Boris, I call her Natasha. It's just the way we are. Anyway, we've been obsessed with the DirecTV petite lap giraffes from the commercials and always joke about getting one. Well, before Christmas, she accidentally texted me asking if I wanted a particular thing for Christmas (she meant to text Josh). She caught her error and immediately joked about it saying "um, i meant would Josh like that. Or what do you want. Do you want a porcupine?" I texted back and said I already had that item anyway, but I'd love a porcupine or a petite lap giraffe.

She was with my parents and said that they looked up and there on the shelf was my giraffe. It was meant to be! I have named him Vasili, which means "king". Fitting, eh? I love him!


New Years Eve was spent in the ER with father-in-law. He was having major nerve pain and needed some attention. Thankfully he's doing much better now! But I had to include it because it rounded off 2011 for us!

Overall, 2011 was a challenging year and I'm glad to move on and get a fresh start. Here's hoping 2012 is a wonderful year full of blessings and joy. And if it's not, I'm ok with that. I know that my hope is in the Lord and regardless of what the new year brings, He will never leave me or forsake me so BRING IT ON! As Romans 8:31(b) says, "If God is for us, who can ever be against us?"

Let's roll!