Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day Prayer

Dear God,

You are an Awesome God! You and You alone know the future and hold it tightly in the palm of Your hand. Our strength comes from You and our greatest strength comes when we learn to praise you in the midst of the storm. That is the very reason why I praise You right now - we are in the middle of a storm. I know that all things work for the glory of Your name. I ask that you grant us wisdom, understanding, and discernment as only You can. You know what tomorrow holds for us as individuals, as Christians, and as a nation. I pray that YOUR WILL would be done in this time. All that has transpired over the past months as well as what is still yet to come is all in Your control. Guide our steps in the days to come so that we may daily be in Your will and bring glory and honor to Your name.

"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." - Job 42:2

Thursday, June 19, 2008

SUPER PUPPY!!!

Rusty had his final doctor's appointment this week at Munford Animal Hospital. After a long 3.5 - 4 months he is finally done. His doctor said he is "perfect" and he can now do anything and everything once again. He was able to make a full recovery after Angel convinced him to go play with cars. The surgery he had on his hip and foot went smoothly and he recovered completely (a lot faster than his doctor expected him too). He's still a little apprehensive about jumping up onto furniture - but we'll get there.

NO MORE DOCTOR'S VISITS FOR RUSTY!!!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Summer

I am now officially finished with the spring semester of school. I will be taking one summer class in hopes to get it out of the way. This is going to be a short blog because I really only have one thing to say . . .

I MADE THE DEAN'S LIST !!
(4 A's and 1 B)

Thursday, April 17, 2008

I Know - - I Take FOREVER!!

Okay, so I know my birthday was almost a month ago, but here's how it went down.


My birthday was on a Thursday which meant that I got out of class around lunchtime. That was a good thing considering I needed to go to the DMV to get my license renewed. (1. it expired that day and 2. I needed to get the "under 21" taken off). Okay, so I went to to the DMV - no big deal - I was only there for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and I was all done - brand new license (no "under 21") and I was ready to go.


So, my 21st birthday - can you guess what I did to celebrate . . . WRONG!!! I studied for a test that I had the next day - some birthday, huh?


(just in case you were wondering - I got an A on the test)


The next day (Friday), Mom and Dad took me out to celebrate my birthday. I had been wanting to go to Texas de Brazil for a long time. Mom and Dad had both been and they loved it and talked about how amazing it was. I really wanted to go because not only do I love food, but I've kinda gotten into cooking lately so I wanted to see the different ways foods could be prepared. A little culinary adventure of my own I guess. Mom got reservations for us to go eat that night and I must say - - IT WAS AMAZING!! First of all, anything wrapped in bacon is going to be incredible. Second of all, mashed potatoes are good no matter what's in them. I tried lamb (not impressed), fillet mignon wrapped in bacon (heaven on a plate), flank steak (melted like butter), chicken breast wrapped in bacon (did I mention BACON!), beef ribs (I prefer pork ribs - cooked by Daddy), and Brazilian sausage (Whoo!). We had a dish of garlic mashed potatoes that we all shared (I was immediately in love), and fried bananas that were supposed to cleanse your palate after each food (I don't know about the cleansing part - but those were some good bananas). We also each got a plate from the salad/side bar that has . . . about a million things on it. Everything from ordinary salad ingredients to roasted peppers to tuna sushi - I tried somethings that I didn't even know what they were. So basically, dinner was AWESOME!!



After dinner, we went over the the Peabody Hotel and sat in the lobby to "people watch." Really we went there because Daddy thought it would be fun for us to have a drinks to celebrate my 21st birthday. So we sat down at a table in the lobby near the bar. One of the waitresses came over and gave us a drink menu. We all decided what we wanted and then she came back and we told her what we wanted to drink (shot of Crown on the rocks - strawberry daiquiri - and then me - Apple Martini). I was reaching into my purse to get my license when I noticed . . . . she had walked away. Our waitress took down our drink orders and then left - SHE DIDN'T CARD ME!! I couldn't believe it, my first day to order an alcoholic drink and I didn't even get to show off my shiny new license. I have to admit, though, I wasn't real upset about it - just kinda surprised.


I guess what I'm saying is that I had an incredible birthday. Dinner was amazing and the Peabody was a lot of fun. It was a great way to "cap off" all the other things I got for my birthday prior to the actual day. Now I'm legal - whoop-dee-doo.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Ugh

I'm sick . . .


and Finals are two weeks away . . .


Ugh!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Rusty - Booh Bear

Some of you may know that we have been taking care of Rusty - Tony, Kristen, and Madison's puppy - until they find out where they are going to be stationed next. Well, two weeks ago (March 1) early Saturday morning, Rusty and Angel (our dog) both went outside and Rusty was hit by a car. I wasn't at home, but Mom and Dad were able to get him to the Emergency Animal Hospital in about 30-45 minutes. It was really scary to begin with when we found out what all was wrong. Initially, we were told that he had a dislocated hip and that was all. Well, later they found that he had a ruptured spleen so he had to have surgery done that day to have his spleen removed. The ruptured spleen leaked fluid into his abdomen so there was a chance that he could get an infection. He also had a lot of bruising on his underside.


--This happened the Saturday before Mom and I were supposed to leave on Tuesday to go to Washington.--


He had to stay at the Emergency Animal Hospital over the weekend and Mom and I went a visited him a lot. He had an IV in, his temperature was low, and his red blood cell count was low. It was a tough weekend. We picked him up Monday morning and transferred him to our local Animal Hopsital. At that point he was doing better, but he wasn't eating and his red blood cell count was still low. We arranged for him to be able to stay a few days extra at the Animal Hospital so that he could get the extra care he needed and so that Mom and I could still go on our trip. We called and checked on him everyday, and we were really confident that he was being taken really good care of. We could tell that he had a great doctor and all the ladies and the Animal Hospital absolutely fell in love with him.


We brought him home this past Monday (March 10). He was so happy to be home, he was able to hobble over to us at the Animal Hospital with his tail wagging like crazy. As of now, he still has a dislocated hip, a fractured pelvis, and a bandaged rear paw. He had most of his staples taken out Friday (March 14), but a few had to stay in to finish healing. The doctors are waiting for his fractured pelvis to heal on its own before they go in and do surgery to fix his dislocated hip. His paw is bandaged due to "dead skin sloughing off," and we have to take him in every other day to have his bandages changed. All of his bruising is almost completely gone, he's almost done with all of his antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medicine, and we found out that his red blood cell count is back up and really, really close to where it needs to be.


He's in really good spirits and he wants to move around and be wherever we are, so it's difficult to keep him from walking around too much. We have to keep him still because the more he walks around the longer it will take for his fractures to heal. Right now we are trying to find a puppy food that he will eat, because he's not interested in his old dog food and until we find something he will eat we have to "force feed" him through a syringe.


I think I've covered everything. He's been through an awful lot the past couple of weeks and he still has a pretty long road to full recovery, but he's doing really good. His doctor brags on him every time she sees him and all the ladies at the Animal Hospital love seeing when he comes for check-ups. He's such a happy puppy it'll be great when he can run around play like he wants to so bad.


WASHINGTON

Okay, so the trip that Mom and I took to Washington to see Tony, Kristen, and Madison went great. While we were there, we celebrated Madison's 1st birthday. Kristen posted pictures of her "wearing" her birthday cake (thedearmonds.blogspot.com).


However, the crowning glory of our trip was Mt. Baker. We went snowboarding to celebrate my birthday early and it was amazing. Kristen and I were the only girls that went, but Tony and a few of his buddies (Dawson, Thor, and Flournoy) went which made it incredibly intertaining. Mom stayed home with Madison so they could have a day to themselves and also so that Madison would have some freedom instead of being cooped up in the lodge all day.


I have always wanted to go snowboarding, it's always been on that list of "Things To Do Before I Die." Well - now it's done. It was so much fun. I used more muscles than I even knew I had (which made the plane ride home a little stiff). I was able to stand up and get going on the board, my only problem was the stopping part. The only way I knew how to stop was to . . . fall. Well, apparently whenever I fall on hard-packed snow I don't just land . . . I bounce - and flip - and tumble. I don't regret it thought. All the pain is gone and I have great memories - I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Those boots are not only hard to walk in but also difficult to get off the board.


That's the tow rope that took us up the "bunny hill." Looks easy, right? No - it's not.


That's me in the middle (the horizontal black line) - flat on my face.


I finally got the hang of staying upright.


But, this is the only way I could stop.

Monday, March 3, 2008

RASCAL FLATTS!

This past weekend I was able to go to the Rascal Flatts concert. I went with Becca because her parents got tickets to surprise her as an early birthday present.


The concert was incredible. Kellie Pickler opened up and sang a few of her songs. I didn't know all of her songs, but needless to say I've already bought a few on iTunes. She was really funny on stage talking to the audience.


Rascal Flatts of course was amazing. They sang a lot of their older songs along with a few from their newest album. It was great because I knew almost all of their songs. I got some pretty good pictures. I was clever enough to figure out how to take a picture with my digital camera through the binocular lens to get an even better shot.


The entire night was great. I already loved Rascal Flatts but now I love them even more, and now I love Kellie Pickler just as much.





Thursday, February 28, 2008

Puppies

Here are some pictures of the puppies, Angel and Rusty.
Rusty is technically Madison's puppy - but we still love him like our own.
Daddy likes to get down in the floor and get them both running around like crazy.

Rusty LOVES Angel - she could definitely live without him.

He just looks sad, he's not though. He's really a happy, HAPPY puppy. He LOVES it here.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Modest is Hottest?

Okay, I consider myself to be a very modest person. I'm not comfortable wearing revealing clothes at home, much less in public. Obviously I know that most girls my age don't exactly have my same idea about modesty. Being the people-watcher that I am on a daily basis it is becoming ever more clear how many girls have a distorted body image. Now, when I say "distorted body image" you may be thinking that I'm referring to attractive girls that think of themselves as ugly. However, that is not who I am referring to. I really admire some girls for their boldness to wear outrageous outfits - bright colors, bold designs. But, then there are the girls that take it to the extreme. The Size 6 that's wearing a SMALL top and SIZE 2 jeans. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with size 6 - that's healthy. But when a girl tries to squeeze herself into something that is not right for her body type she ends up doing more damage to her image than good. I'm a firm believer in wearing clothes that make you feel good as a person and as a female - but I also believe in modesty. This may not mean much coming from "jeans and t-shirt," but I think it's important, not only for the sake of a disgraceful reputation, but also self-image, to wear appropriate clothing for body type and venue. Okay, I'm done.

"Your clothes should be tight enough to show that you are a woman, but loose enough to prove that you are a lady."

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Excitement Awaits

Following the events of the last few days, it's incredibly refreshing to be excited about upcoming adventures.

One of which I cannot discuss openly but it's going to be INCREDIBLE!! I'll just say that in due time not only will there be full disclosure but pictures as well. (I'm getting giddy just thinking about it.)

Okay, I know it's not fair to talk about being excited about something that I officially can't talk about (not confusing at all) so how about I delve into something that I can discuss freely. In exactly one (1) week, Mom and I will be on our way to Washington. I'm not sure if we'll still be in the air or waiting on the shuttle or what, but we'll be almost there.

The 6-hour nonstop flight may prove to be taxing but I fully intend to use that time to be productive. If I try really hard, I think I can watch three (3) movies in that time.

I can't wait to see Madison again. We saw her on the webcam last night and she's so talkative and she's trying to stand up. It's all very exciting.

I'm also really "stoked" to go snowboarding for the first time!! I'm fully aware of the fact that I will be on the "bunny hill" and that I will fall down a lot. Who am I kidding? I'm the klutz that falls UP the stairs. I just hope that I don't break anything (knock on wood). I think the University of Memphis campus is a little too big for me to have to hobble around on crutches.

Anyway, that's all the exciting news that I have.

Until another time . . .

Saturday, February 23, 2008

FIRST BLOG

Well, I just made my own blogging page which makes this my first blog. I'm not much of a "blogger" but I've always wanted to keep a journal. I don't really care for writing (pen and paper type) but I love words and I love typing so we'll see how this goes.

School's going really good (University of Memphis - GO TIGERS!). I'm really enjoying all of my classes. It's great now that I get to take classes that I'm interested in instead of all the general education classes that no one really cares about. I'm loving my Abnormal Psychology and Introduction to Criminal Justice classes. That's a good thing considering when the two are intertwined you have my career path. So far, all my grades are looking really good. That's also good since this semester is paid for via scholarship.

I'm really excited for the near future. Mom and I have plans to go to Washington to see Tony, Kristen, and Madison while I'm on spring break. It's going to be so great to see them again. It will only have been a couple of months but it seems like forever - especially with Madison growing up so fast. It's also exciting because we're going to celebrate my 21st birthday while we're there. I think some of Tony's Navy buddies are looking for a reason to party.

Well, I think that's all that's going on right now - just school and the impending spring break trip. I doubt that I will be "blogging" every single day, but I will try to remain consistent.

By the way, did you know:

The shell of an ostrich egg is so strong that you can stand on it without it breaking, neat huh?