Hawaii here I come

For the past two years I have said that for my 40th birthday I want to go to Hawaii. I am not sure why 40 was when I wanted to go but I did. Going to Hawaii has always been a dream for me and I just figured 40 is a good milestone birthday to want to go.

Now even though I wanted to go I never really thought I would be able to but I am going. Thanks to my son and some amazing friends.

My son, Scott told me last November that he was going to send me to Hawaii one way or another. I told him he didn't have to but he said. "You do so much for us kids mom and you deserve this."

Now I know kids have the best intentions but I was still a little skeptical. I mean really going to Hawaii is expensive. But now because I have amazing friends too the cost has dropped drastically. One of my close friends has a timeshare and recently changed some things with it so it has made it possible for us to use a timeshare in Hawaii for the week. Lodging taken care of. Woo Hoo....

So all that is left now is airline tickets and confirming the dates we are going. My birthday isn't until January so we won't be going until January, but I am so excited. I am like a little kid again who can't wait for there birthday because they know something fun is going to happen.

My goal between now and January is to get in shape a little more and save money for shopping and sight seeing.

I am so blessed to have the friends I have and the kids I have. Thank you to all of you for making this dream of mine come true.

HAWAII HERE I COME!!!!

Yet another great book by Liz Curtis Higgs

Here Burns My Candle

Author: Liz Curtis Higgs

Summary:

A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.

Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.
Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.
His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.
One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.
A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nPMBA_rgM

Author Bio:

LIZ CURTIS HIGGS is the author of twenty-seven books with three million copies in print, including: her best-selling historical novels, Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Christy Award-winner Whence Came a Prince, and Grace in Thine Eyes, a Christy Award finalist; My Heart’s in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland, an armchair travel guide to Galloway; and her contemporary novels, Mixed Signals, a Rita Award finalist, and Bookends, a Christy Award finalist. Visit the author’s extensive website at www.lizcurtishiggs.com.



This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

Stress

So I was just asked by someone how do you control your stress. You can't control everything that happens in your life and what happens in life is what causes stress. They asked who is going to worry about me and my future if I don't. The entire time they were asking me these questions all I could think was God.

I wanted to say God, He will worry about your future. He will take care of you if you put all your faith in Him and find Him to be your one and only guide. Read the bible and listen to His word. Find a church and church friends. Follow what He tells you.

I wanted to say when my life was at my worst the only thing that got me through was my dependence in God. He was there for me. He sustained me when I didn't think I could go on any further. I started reading my bible. I started in John and then when I finished that book I read the first books in the new testament including John again. Then I went to the Psalms and then back to the first four books. I just read that over and over. I also started going to church regularly and attending church functions.

Then I was blessed with friends who go to my church and not the kind of friends that you are afraid will reject you when they hear your flaws, but the kind of friends that will just embrace you more and show you love. I was blessed with those friends and I only hope I show them the same christian love they show me.

Now I am not saying I don't get stressed sometimes and that I don't worry and I am definitely not saying that sometimes I feel like I am alone. But then I turn myself back to God when I feel like that and I start to feel better.

I wish I could have said all of this to the person who asked me this question because I know it would help them, but I was afraid not that they would be upset with me for saying it, but that they just wouldn't hear it. I know when I was at my lowest and people put God in front of me I would shut down until I was ready to hear it.

So anyone who reads this please pray for the person who is struggling and pray that God will work on them and they will turn to Him. Thanks.

Plus if you have any ideas on how I can help them I am open to hear it.

Not so bad

So I finished my appointment with the dentist and it was not so bad. Actually it wasn't bad at all. I felt absolutely nothing the entire time and that was nice. They started with topical Novocaine then gave me the shots of Novocaine so I really didn't feel anything. They said it would be two hours to do and it only took an hour so I was very happy with that too. I think this is the first time in a very long time that I was not terrified in the dentist office and I am not even nervous about going back in a couple weeks to finish the job. They really are very nice. I know I know you don't hear the word nice and dentist in the same sentence but really I liked this dentist and am more then OK with the fact that I have to go back.

Dentist's Ouch

So a while back I found out I was getting laid off. When I first heard the news and was given my final day at work date at first I was very sad. I am a single mom and so therefore the only income in my family and started worrying about how I was going to support my kids. But then a peace came over me and I haven't really worried since I have known I will be OK and I will end up on my feet. I am still sad about it because I like my job and I am going to miss my co workers, but I do know I will be OK. But this isn't really what I was going to write about. Now when I found out I was getting laid off I also thought about the fact that I have some dental work that needs to get done and I now I can't procrastinate because if I do I will not have insurance to cover it. So for the past couple weeks I have seen the dentist more then I think I have in years. It has been a process.

First appointment was me going to a general dentist so they could take ex rays and refer me to an oral surgeon. (Oh and of course all of this is on a time schedule because I have to have it done before the end of the month.)
Second appointment (the next day) oral surgeon to have a tooth pulled and I had some wonderful friends meet me there so one could drive me and my car home. I was put to sleep for the extraction. I am sure I was good humor for my friends afterwards.
Third appointment a different general dentist to see if they will do a bridge for me and how much all of this is.
Now today I have my fourth appointment with the same dentist I saw at appointment three and they are going to start the work for a bridge. Who knew this was such a process. I will be in the dentist chair for 2 hours. I am NOT looking forward to this at all.
I do not like dentists they hurt. But I know I need to get this done and so I will have to endure the two hours in the chair today to start the process then I have to go back in a week and finish the process. That appointment should only be about an hour.
But at least I am doing it and then my dental work will be done and I won't have to worry about the painful stuff any more(hopefully). It should be just cleaning from then on.