Is everyone a gift from God?

Lately, I have been doing some soul searching. I have had a lot of time to really examine where my life is and what I am doing with it. The thing that has helped me start this thinking is being able to do some work that I feel makes a real impact in the World. I used to sit at my desk and stare at the computer and know that God had bigger plans for me. What were they? How would I know what the right one was? Well, thanks to the rental properties, the question was answered in a way that I did not expect. I was forced (by time and sanity) to quit my job at the Architectural firm to help my husband and in turn help our family. Well, the Summer was extremely busy, but then during the "down" time I have had time to help with Urban Hope with great strides. I have also found time to pick up side jobs in design.

So, now that I am in the full throws of my soul searching, I had an epiphany the other day. I get so frustrated with some people, one being my husband, and sometimes I get so wound up over the most irrelevant things. At the time, they seem important, but in the grand scheme of things they are not.

So here is my epiphany. It will sound like a Church sermon to some, but hear me out:
I believe God has a plan for us all. I believe that some plans are not followed through in that direction, because of human pride, error, or just plain confusion. I now believe that every person that enters our lives is a gift from God. This might seem silly or totally off base, but if you really think about, they are. Not all gifts are wrapped in pretty ribbons and have a retail value. Some gifts are learning experiences for us. We ourselves are learning experiences for other people.

For instance, you are a waitress and you are working very hard and doing the best you can, but you have a customer who no matter what will be rude to you or disregard that you are even alive. Well, it sucks, but what can you learn from it? I have actually been in this situation and it made me feel so little. Looking back, I also learned that I did not want to be like that to other people. I did not want to make anyone feel little.

I think marriage is the hardest of these situations for me. I love my husband. We have a great relationship, but there are times (weeks, days, months) where I would rather not have to worry about being respectful and kind to him; however, he is truly a gift from God. I have someone to share the rest of my life with and this someone happens to be a hard working, loving, generous, fun person. How could I not enjoy this gift? I am now waking up everyday and reminding myself that God personally gave me Kevin and Sallie Rose. And for that matter all my family and friends. He hand picked everyone in my life for me.

I hope that from this day on I will remember that everyone in my life is in my life for a reason. They are all gifts from God and I need to look for the positive in them, not necessarily what is positive about them, but rather what I can learn from them to improve my attitude or give back to someone else.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Will I ever blog again?

Well, the answer is yes, but shorter version maybe? I tend to go too long between blogs and then I end up writing a short novel, that I am sure everyone gets lost in. Not today peeps, just a short hello and tell you all we are doing great and we are really looking forward to a new year and exciting things happening. Maybe this year we will be millionaires (doubt it and we don't need it, we have everything we ever needed), run marathons (doubt this too, I do not enjoy running), or maybe give Sallie Rose a little brother or sister (this might actually happen, but don't hold your breathe), and maybe I will find a paying job again. That last one would be nice. I am working round the clock on my volunteer jobs and I am enjoying it, but it would be nice not to have to ask my husband if I can buy an US Weekly magazine.


I head to a secret destination this weekend (can't tell because it is a surprise to the person i am going to see) and am very excited.


I'll leave you with this little picture of Casey sleeping in Sallie Rose's chair. Sallie Rose ran in and told me Casey was in her chair and I thought, "What?". Then when we went in Sallie Rose said "How'd that happen?"

I am Blessed

I am Blessed with a little angel! She had a pageant this morning at school and it was super duper adorable. I took a few pictures, but I did more videoing than picture taking.

The first song, she had her finger in her mouth the whole time. The second song, she did the hand motions for Away in the Manger. And for the third song, she cried her little head off. That was actually super duper cute too. You'll have to see the videos on Facebook, I never can load them on here. Sorry.

Christmas is slowly approaching, and I love this time of year. Although, I usually always miss my Grandma Rosa most at this time, we have so much to be thankful for and so many wonderful family members and friends to enjoy. We head to Texas on Christmas Day and I will be so glad to be in my home(s) for Christmas, even if it isn't the day of.

This is her school picture. So cute, I could eat her up. It reminds me a lot of this little guy below.

Christmas Decorating

This year I wanted to do a little more than usual for Christmas decorating. We will actually be here for Christmas Day and then we are flying off to Texas. I usually don't do much for decorating, because we usually leave a week or even two before Christmas and stay gone after Christmas is over. So, I decided to do a candy land. I think I will add to the decorations every year and build up the collection. Many of these things are not hard, but are tedious and time consuming, especially the gumdrop tree. And, it took a lot more candy than I would have imagined. Sallie Rose's gingerbread people she made with Susan

My Grandma Rosa Lee's angels

Of course we have a Texas ornament


Kevin's ornament from when he was a child, these are very cool

Apple O's and peppermint trees

Peppermint garland over the mirror

This is our outdoor tree, furnished with giant peppermints, candy canes and large ornaments

Ribbon Candy, my favorite

Our first nativity scene, this is of course the real meaning of Christmas

Oh the gumdrop tree. 4 boxes (1 of which Kevin ate) later and lots of hot glue, this is Kevin's favorite.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful time and that we all remember as cheesy as it sounds, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". My sisters love it when I remind them of this as we all are pulling eachother's hair out because we for one slight minute forgot what life is about, love.

We are still here

Yes, we are still here and we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving week, but for some reason I have been extremely busy. I am trying to study for my first exam that I take on December 9th, trying to plan a fundraiser for Urban Hope (which is a lot of work), volunteering 2 afternoons a week at Urban Hope, still managing the properties, decorating our house as a Christmas Candyland (hopefully will finish this weekend and have pictures) and trying not to miss a single minute of my precious baby's life. She is unbearably cute lately. I think we have moved past all the temper tantrums and now we are in that waiting period of pure joy before we hit terrible threes (I hope not).

Oh, and I am trying to think of how to buy all my special people Christmas gifts on a budget of $10. That will be the most challenging. I will have to be creative or just steal some of my gifts. If you get something really random from me as a gift, just know that it was the only thing I could get the courage enough to steal.

Over protective Mommy

I knew the day would come when I would become the over protective Mommy over my little Sallie Rose. I have always been one of those people who hates for other people to bully or be ugly to another person. It makes my skin crawl. I never understood why someone would make fun of someone or try to hurt them just to make themselves feel better. However, I never cared what anyone said about me. I rarely get my feelings hurt or take to heart what anyone thinks about me. I don't know what it is, I just never have cared. If you make fun of my family or my friends or even an innocent "nerd" that can't stand up for themselves, then I will be in your face and telling you what a loser you.

So, now that I am a Mom and I have a precious little angel who is small and quiet, I have been dreading the day that she would get her feelings hurt or be pushed around by someone. So far she has been fine with standing up for herself. When I take her to school and the little boys get too close to her, she yells at them and pushes them away. I do not want her to be violent or nasty, but I don't mind her pushing the boys off of her.

The other day we had Julia's birthday party to go to and Julia is Sallie Rose's older bestie, Julia is 4. She loves Julia. They played a lot together when Susan watched Julia one week while her Grandma was out sick. They play great together and Julia is very sweet to Sallie Rose. At the party, Julia had another 4 year old girl to play with and they ran all over the house and up and down the stairs and Sallie Rose could not keep up. She is just so tiny still and can't move like the 4 year olds. Of course we tried to keep up with them for a while, but after I took her up and down the stairs 3 times to follow Juila, Mommy put an end to that and we stayed downstairs.

Mia, the other 4 year old friend, who happens to be a red head (go figure) was coloring at one point and Sallie Rose wanted to color too and Mia told her no. I bit my tongue and just waited it out. Then Sallie Rose started laughing for really no reason and Mia told her it wasn't funny. I still said nothing. Then Sallie Rose laughed again and Mia once again told her it wasn't funny so don't laugh and then took a color pencil away from Sallie Rose. So that was enough for me. I went right over there and said to Mia, "if Sallie Rose wants to laugh then she can laugh at whatever she wants and you need to stop telling her she can't.". Mia left the room with her red pigtails and her ugly outfit and I won. Ok, I didn't want to win, I just didn't want her telling my baby she couldn't laugh.

Sallie Rose spent the whole party playing by herself and asking why Juila wasn't playing with her. If this is already breaking my heart, I am going to have a long road ahead of me. I really am trying not to get involved too much in her life in the future, but dang I don't want her to cry or feel left out EVER!

I know one day I will have to sit SR down and tell her that people say nasty things and that it doesn't matter what they say about her, but that she is a child of God and is beautiful inside and out. I have known so many girls that had parents that were supportive and wonderful, but these girls still had low self esteem just because the kids at school told them they were fat or ugly. I am so sad for children who believe what other people say and have esteem problems or eating disorders due to the teasing. On the other hand, I absolutely do not want Sallie Rose to be a bully herself. I would be mortified if a mother told me my child had caused their child pain. So, how do you stop that from happening? Either way, I will try and prevent her causing pain to another or her letting another person's words hurt her. What a hard job. What a very hard job.

30th Birthday 10 day Extravaganza

Wow, what a wonderful 10 days. I first flew into Dallas and met up with a group of 6 other girls from high school. I hadn't seen 4 of them in 10 years. I knew what most of them were doing, because I stay up to date with them through Makell. I was so excited to see them and we had such a great time. They are all beautiful, accomplished, fun, and generous girls. It was one of the best times I have had with a bunch of girls in a long time. I really miss those days. We had a group of about 12 girls that we all hung with in high school and we were all so close and had so much fun together. Usually if 3 or 4 of the girls went somewhere, we were all soon to be following behind. We were such an amazing group and come to find out, we are all still pretty great even when we are not in a pack of 12. What a good time. We shopped, toured Cowboys stadium, went to a Mavs game, drank, stayed up too late, and caught up on all the good stuff since 2000. It did take me 2 days to recover from all the late nights and drinking, because I am not used to drinking that much. It was really nice.

Next on my agenda was the cruise with Suzanne and Tara. We left out of Galveston and I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how the cruise was going to be. I had never been on one and didn't know if I would get seasick or an anxiety attack. I think all 3 of us woke up the first morning tired and ready to get out to the top deck to see the World. Our room did not have a window and it was on the lowest level. A little bit of an nerve pusher. After that first day, I was fine. I just laid on the sun deck and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The highlight was Cozumel. We stopped there and did a snorkel excursion. It was so nice and the crew on the boat was a little interesting. I attracted a friend named Fernando and he did some dirty dancing for us and made me a special towel hat that everyone thought was so funny. One guy even came over and took my picture. I am sure I am on a loser blog or on his Facebook page and all his friends are laughing their heads off at my expense.

We had a great time and it was so nice to be with my sisters and just relax and be care free. Oh and drink pina colodas in the sun while tanning. I have the best sisters and am so grateful they took me on this trip for my birthday.

This is the towel "sting ray" that they made for us each day. One day it was a dog and they hung it from the ceiling. Our stateroom attendant did not like us because we wouldn't put our bags under the beds. We took that as a sign that he was threatening us.

"Smoking Kills" is the best seller. Nice.

Cozumel

Fernando and my Princess Leia towel hat

Fernando dancing and blowing us kisses

Snorkel time

Our boat driver steered with his foot the whole time.

Her shirt said "Went on Vacation left on probation"

Thank you sisters! You are the best!