My future looks bright

I have yet to take pictures of my Christmas decorations...in all honesty I could probably just repost what I put in this blog last year because it's basically the same. I have a few additions, the lay out is different and I have new furniture....but all in all it looks pretty similar. However, I think I'll post pictures anyways, but that's not today.
Today though I am so excited about my future plans. Kolby and I have decided to build a house. This is still about 3 years away, but we are so excited. We have a piece of land that we are also excited about and want to purchase right away. Hopefully they will call me back today. There are some restrictions to what you can build, so as soon as we get that figured out, hopefully it will be ours. If not though, that will not put a damper in our plans, we'll just look for a new spot. We've been looking at floor plans all weekend and think we've found the perfect one for us. And last night we spent a lot of time talking about finances and deciding what the best plan of action would be. Start now, borrow a big chunk of money with low interest rates. Or start a littler later, borrow a little smaller chunk of money with possibly higher interest rates..it was all very confusing. I think we are making the best decision for us though!

Now here is what we fell in love with. The picture makes it look like a mansion, but it is actually a nice modest house just right for us.
Oh I also want to add that while we are totally in love with this house....haha plans change so don't hold me to this!

I love Christmas

Pictures will be coming soon, but I totally decorated for Christmas. I just could not help myself. I have been excited for Christmas for months now and decided weeks ago that I would be decorating before Thanksgiving this year. For a lot of people, especially in my family it is very Taboo to decorate this early. OH WELL.
It's done now, and I love it!

New Moon

That's right people, the picture says everything. I am very excited that tonight at 7pm I will be watching this movie. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm equally as excited as most of my students.

These will be the death of me...

Camel crickets, cave crickets....whatever you want to call them. I hate these things more than anything. They are so so so scary. My first encounter with one of them was in the shower...there it was just sitting on the side of the tub, ready to attack. If you've never seen one you have to understand that they are actually crickets, which no harm done right? Crickets aren't scary. These crickets however LOOK like SPIDERS....BIG spiders BUT they JUMP like crickets. Not only do they jump which is bad enough but they jump AT you. So just imagine a fairly large looking spider jumping towards you.
So after that terrible morning in the shower I have had to move my shower curtain every single morning to look and make sure one is not in there. This has been months now and I still do this every morning. My fear does not stop there though. Kolby ran to the store one morning to get some milk for breakfast and I was going to take that time to once again take a shower. This time Olive found it...thankfully she killed it for me, but I was still terrified. She found it behind the toilet and drug it out. I leaped onto the bathroom counter wishing that Kolby was home so he could dispose of the body...Since he was away I covered it with a towel and decided to get in the shower. So now before I walk into my bathroom I have to stand outside of the door, flip the light on, look everywhere on the floor, again look in the shower and NOW before I can go to the bathroom I lift up the toilet seat to see if one crawled into it...
I know this is making me sound patetic, maybe even crazy but these things FREAK me out! I have been gone a lot recently because of the fundraising I'm helping with. Kolby told that he's seen a couple more, this time one was in the hall way and one was in the living room....THE LIVING ROOM! So I have decided I have to get rid of them...I just have to. So this morning I go online to try and find natural ways to kill them. I come across this story: http://www.asktheexterminator.com/Crickets/Cave_Crickets.shtml. Which the picture alone is enough to make my heart start pounding. The story was fine, I'm glad to know someone else has my same strong dislike and fear of these creatures. I should have stopped at the end of the story...but NO crazy me wanted to look at the comments. To the first person who decided to comment, you call yourself Shaun. I would just like you to know that I am now afraid to not only shower, but also sleep at night. Thank you...

Hot cocoa

I'm currently drinking hot cocoa hoping that will be a substitute to caffeine. I need some sort of sugar in my body to make sure I'm going to make it through the day! I took the youth group 2 1/2 hours away to see the bands that played at convention. I think it was a good time to reminisce about convention and remember those feelings and commitments we made.
Honestly I did not want to go. I have been so busy lately that I really wanted a day to rest, not to mention this week is going to be insane trying to get everything organized for the rummage sale/silent auction. I went anyways and I just decided that instead of thinking about how much I'd rather be at home, with my husband and in bed at a decent hour I was determined to have a great time. With a little prayer and determination it happened!
We saw Brandon Heath, Francesca Battistelli and Leeland. I totally love Fran, she has been a favorite of mine for a while now. I also like Brandon Heath, I had only heard his stuff on the radio, but his lyrics are amazing. The first time I heard of Leeland was at convention. I love them! They are so catchy and fun. I really want to buy their cd! check them out if you get a chance
http://www.myspace.com/leelandmusic

Heavy

I have a heavy heart today. My life is currently consumed with my church youth group, not in a bad way, but it is tiresome sometimes. Things seem to be going so well and then drama ensues. I know God is still moving in their lives and big things are happening, but Satan is also creeping his ugly nose into it.
For teenagers, and even adults it is hard to look past sin and love the person for who they really are. 1 John 4:7&8 says: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
I believe this is so important to follow I mean just look at verse 8 "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God IS love." I am not perfect at it, but in the past few months I have been working hard at loving people. Everyone has faults and everyone messes up, it's not our business to rub that in their face.
If you could just take a second to pray for me to have wisdom in this current situation among my youth group, and pray that they keep moving forward. Thanks!

Another Blog to Share!

For a while I was sharing with you all of my talented friends blogs/business's. I have another one to add to the list. This is a three in one! It's Ethel Edith, they are sisters, Annie, Abbie and Maggie who share a love of crafting, making pillows, painting...you name it.
visit them! http://www.etheledith.com/

Youth Group Update

Okay so in my last post I explained how God is totally moving and how we pledged to raise over $7,000 in only 4 weeks. I just wanted to take a second to give an update. Often times when teens come back from a church camp or convention the passion or fire tends to dwindle down. It's happened to all of us I'm sure.
I think because of this goal we have set it has really helped our group to keep up the passion and fire for God. They have been working their tails off to raise this money. We are doing something almost every night either in preparation for or actually raising money. They have been raking leaves, baby sitting, sorting through rummage sale donations, collecting donations for the silent auction, passing out fliers. It's been so great to see them grow as Christians.
I would like to remind you to continue to pray though. They are still in high school, there is still some drama. I just pray everyday that there is no dissension among the group and that they just focus on Jesus.

God is moving

God is totally moving in our youth group! We took a group of kids to Momentum Youth Convention and they are so on fire for God. One girl immediately deleted all of her "bad" ringtones from her phone. Then when she came back home she deleted all but 7 songs on her ipod and gave it to Kolby to add new christian songs to it. They are all encouraging each other at school and really showing their love of Jesus. I've seen facebook comments on their walls from other kids at school saying how cool it is that they are Jesus freaks, and showing it!
I'm so so so proud of them. I know how hard it can be to get back in the daily grind and just kind of forget about what happened at church camp, or convention. It's so easy to worship and be on fire for God when you are surrounded by people your age doing the same thing. I know there are still a couple of kids that are struggling and the transition to change complelty and let go of the wordly things is more of a struggle then they anticipated especially when it's coming easier for some. I know they can do it though! If you remember please keep them in your prayers this week.
We are meeting early on Wednesday because the youth are overflowing with ideas. I want our youth group to grow, and if not in numbers then I want them to grow in their love for Jesus. I can't wait to see what's in store for our youth group!