Hello Again

Well this truly has been a long time since I have posted anything and a lot has happened in my life since my last post. I guess it would be sad to say nothing had happened in the year it has been since I posted. In this past year I have lost friends and grown closer to new friends. I have finished school and graduated with honors. Pretty excited about that. Went to Chicago for my graduation with my friend Jody and my sister. It was an amazing experience. Want to go back to Chicago some day to just walk and see the sites. Did not have much time to do that this trip. I am grandma again two more times both are boys so I have three grandsons. My oldest daughter though is due anyday now with my first granddaughter. I am so excited. I love being a grandma. I moved into a house a year ago December 1st and I love it. Everytime I pull up to it I think of a gingerbread house, because that is kind of what it looks like. It needs updating but I love it. The biggest change in my life right now though is on November 6th I had RNY Gastric Bypass. It was a decision I had been debating for many years and back in August I just decided I was going to do it and moved forward with it. I am excited to see what the changes will be for me and how it will change my life. The decision to do this was not an easy one and I was afraid of how people would react to my choice. But I have to admit the people who are in my life right now are very supportive and have really put my mind at ease about it. I made this choice because I know I needed the extra tool to help me lose my weight and get/stay healthy. The choice to want to lose weight was not because I want to be skinny but because my family has a history of type II diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and high cholesterol. All of these are weight related and I wanted to try and avoid or at least delay those health issues in me. When I first decided to do this I was almost 300 pounds. When I weighed in at the surgeons office for my first appointment I was 266 pounds. They told me I needed to lose 15 pounds to have surgery. That was the scariest part of this whole process for me. I was able to lose it and have surgery as planned. I am now on the begining process to losing the weight and becoming healthy. I am hoping I will be better at keeping up on this and telling my story and what I experience. Well I guess this is pretty long and I should go. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

God Blessings

Well it really has been a long time since I have written and I am just going to write a little today. I keep having things that pop in my head that I feel I should share and put out there for people to see and hopefully they will see the God blessings I see on a regular basis in my life.

I have had a really busy life lately and that is the excuse I give for not doing a lot of things I should do. But lately while doing those things I feel I am being told I need to stop and thank God for all that He gives me daily even if it isn't a huge knock on the head blessing I am receiving blessings daily and I think we should share these with people so that they can see that even in the little things in life God is working.

I will start with the most recent thing. I recently became a grandma again. Like a week ago that is how recent. He is not my first grandson but still they are all special to me.

While he is a blessing all by himself for me the real blessing is the story that leads up to and follows his birth. See my church was going on a weekend retreat that was made to rejuvenate. I really wanted to go on this retreat but the weekend was the same weekend that my grandson was due. Literally his due date was the day we were supposed to leave for the retreat. So I did something that a lot of people said I should not do. I prayed to God and said....Lord you know my heart and you know I want to be able to do both, but I will not leave and go on the retreat if my grandson is not born before I go. So basically I was telling God I am going to do this my way and if You want me at the retreat then my daughter needs to have her baby. Well of course God is amazing and my daughter had her baby very very early Thursday morning and I was able to leave for the retreat on Friday. I know that we should not do that with God and we should trust Him to do all things according to His perfect plan for us but really how awesome is it that He did do it the way He did.

Now I sometimes wonder if I would have went on the retreat either way. But I do know one thing I would not have opened myself up to hear what I needed to hear if my mind would have been at home worrying about whether or not my daughter was going into labor and whether or not I would have time to get home to her.

I was blessed by God to let me have both the birth of my grandson and to be able to go on the retreat. I of course acknowledged right away the gift God had given me by giving my wish and blessing me with it.

Just think if God can bless me with something so little that turns into something so amazing what else can He do in my life that I cannot even imagine can be done. The retreat was wonderful. Full of emotion and opening up myself to receive Christ and what He is giving me.

My prayer is that others will open up their lives and let Christ work in their lives. I mean really when you let Him do the work life is much easier because you don't have to work and you can just let it happen.

Stop and be still and let God speak to you today. Think of something that has happened that you forgot to thank God for and then stop and thank Him.

Shopping with a friend

A few weeks ago I went shopping with a friend of mine and it was quite a trip. She has 7 kids and she brought with the three youngest. That was fun though, i love her kids they are fun to be around and are really great kids. The youngest is 3 and the first thing he said when we got to the store is he wanted McDonald's, it just amazed me that is the connection he has with that store, see there is one in the store. Then after we did the McDonald's, of course we stopped my friend is/was obsessed with the move "How to Train Your Dragon" and McDonald's happy meal toys were the dragons, we started our shopping. Her one daughter wanted a new dress for Easter, I told you it was a few weeks ago, so we looked for some for her and her sister that was with then we went to the dressing rooms. This is when the cuteness really started her three year old wanted to be in the dressing room with his sisters. So his mommy thinking it might deter that thought told him his sisters were naked in there because they were trying on clothes. But that did not deter him the next thing I see is him trying to take off his shirt and saying I want to be naked. I cracked up laughing but then looked at my friend and said that is where I draw the line, if he gets naked I will find a different way home. We were both just laughing but it was good times. You know I love doing things with my friends because they have the smaller children and they are good comedy for me. I laugh so hard when I am with and my friends are just fine with it. Thanks for the laughs ladies, I love you all.

Last dentist trip

So Tuesday was my last trip to the dentist to finish my work. When I had left my last appointment he said "the next appointment will be easy no novacaine or laughing gas will be needed" Now I am not a big fan of the dentist and so for about two weeks I was worring about this last appointment but once again it was so easy. No pain.

While I was sitting in the chair the dental assistant mentioned how I was his only patient because he had a funeral to go to that day. I was so impressed with that service. They knew my insurance was up at the end of the month and so he made sure to keep my appointment. I would have to say that is the best customer service I have ever received.

If anyone is loooking for a dentist I would totally recommend Elk Dental Center in Elk River. My dentist was Tony. He and his assistant are wonderful and you are so relaxed that you don't even realize you are at the dentist. I actually think that my fear that has been there for years is gone. As long as I am going to that dentist of course.

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.