Recently I’ve been dealing with things in my life that have kept me away from writing. I have been mourning the loss of a close friend, mentor, and loved one in the form of my grandfather. I understand that death is a a part of living, but it is very hard part to accept.
I thank God for the amazing relationship that he has formed together between his son Jesus and myself. If it weren’t for that relationship, I would question and doubt God’s intentions for taking such a precious part of my life away from me.
I talked to my grandfather on the phone at least every week. I LOVED hearing his voice, it actually made me smile. At times when I heard his voice, my eyes would well up from so much joy I had from hearing his laugh. Feelings of guilt for living so far away and not being able to provide him with a better life surrounded me. I loved my grandfather for so many reasons. I loved him because he was so overjoyed when I called him. I loved him because he was incredibly intelligent and I could never beat him in a game of checkers. I loved him because of the way his puppy dog eyes looked at me when I had to leave. I loved him because of the way I could talk to him for more than an hour on the phone and not realize it. I loved him because he gave me my Dad who reminds me of him in so many ways. I loved him because I can empathize with his sweet tooth. I loved him because when I was around him, it couldn’t get any better. I loved him because I could still teach him new things and tell him jokes. I loved him because he made me laugh out loud every time I talked to him.I remember when his first leg was amputated, I was so sad and he could see it in my face. He looked at me and said “don’t be sad, I can still dance” as he lifted his stump of a leg up and down to show me. He would always tell me to “take my love with you”.
I will always take your love with me Granddaddy, I just wish I could take you with me too. I miss you!
I’ve known Sherrie for about 11 years now and what I love about her is her colorful personality. She is such a positive person who always sees the brighter side of every situation. I have so much to say about this lovely lady, but I will let her tell you about herself.
Age: 29
Occupation: Full time stay at home mom, part time : nurse
Hobbies: Reading, Zumba, Hiking, Writing, Singing
What does being a Christian mean to me: To me it means doing the best I can to imitate Christ…that is so broad but I mean it everyday living, loving, giving, sharing, helping as he would. In the words of Joyce Myers ” Progress is vital, perfection is impossible”. So I am living everyday as a Christian woman trying to be more like my God knowing I will never be perfect like He is.
Two challenges I face as a Christian woman:
1. Daily not getting sucked into the things of this world examples: how I look, am I too big or small, do I have enough, is my house big enough..I feel like this is so hard because I am constantly surrounded by people who have things and I find myself wanting more but needing nothing. So I have to pray everyday that God give me a heart that wants and desires the things of Him and appreciates the things He has already blessed me with.
2. Finding balance in my relationship with God, my husband, my children, my extended family, and my friends. I know that my relationship with God is most important but some days I feel like I am squeezing Him into the day instead of putting Him and making room for everyone and everything else. I find that starting the day off with Him makes the day so much easier..yet some days I wake up and it’s straight the the boys room I go after giving hubby a morning kiss, then breakfast and then life….and then at nap time I’m like ohhh I guess I should read my Bible now…that is not how it should be.
I studied social justice in Argentina during a semester while in grad school, and loved it. I lived with a host family in Buenos Aires during a US summer which made it winter in Argentina. Buenos Aires reminded me of a San Francisco or New York with its hustle and bustle, busy streets, crazy clubs, and insane taxi drivers. I can be bit of a carefree person and at the same time afraid of any animal smaller or bigger than a puppy, and with fur. During my time there, my classmates and I went on ventures to visit sister countries. This one particular time, we went to Iguazu falls, we took a bus.
The 13 hour bus ride
The bus ride to Iguazu took 13 hours and had various military road blocks along the way. Despite my initial reactions, the bus ride was painless. Instead, the bus was decked out. The seats reclined into semi-beds and they served us a meal, which I dared not take part in. The 13 hour bus ride was shortened to about 3 hours of alertness thanks to 2 adult doses of Dramamine (I get bad motion sickness). During our ride, my classmates and myself played games and moved from seat to seat to socialize with each other, but that came to an instant halt when our bus conductors found out. The bus conductors on our 2 story dream bus were very strict, threatening to throw us off the bus if our seats didn’t match the number on our bus tickets, and the name on our bus tickets didn’t match the name on our passports. It was then when I took my second dose of Dramamine and the next time I woke up, we were in Puerto Iguazu.
The city of Puerto Iguazu
Iguazu falls sits between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The falls itself is like Niagara falls on serious Barry Bonds steroids, the city of Puerto Iguazu is completely different. Puerto Iguazu in the winter time seemed empty but crowded with indigenous local street merchants. Our hostel, which was only $8 for 3 days and 2 nights was something right out of one of my nightmares. I, being the only person afraid of dogs jumped on a counter every time one of the many stray dogs wondered into the game room which is where my classmates and I congregated daily. Not to mention, one of those dogs were a class favorite and quickly became my arch nemesis. Also, my full size bed was shared with someone that I didn’t know so well. Needless to say, I slept on top of the covers with my coat AND hood on, with jeans, socks, and boots. Fast-forward to my last day.
Last day in Puerto Iguazu
Great, it’s our last day, we get to actually go to the falls, and then back to Buenos Aires. Iguazu falls were amazing. We spent the entire day there, rode speed boats under the falls, and perambulated hiking trails of the park. Time to go home now! Wait! It was father’s day, and I needed to call my dad. Because of safety concerns, students were told only to bring the money they would use, a copy of their passport, and nothing else. I did exactly that, and in doing that only had one phone card, with about 5 minutes left on it. Every phone/internet store (locutorio) doesn’t accept all types of calling card, and the particular calling card I had, most locutorios wouldn’t accept. I had to call my dad to wish him a happy father’s day because with the time different and 13 hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires, father’s day would be over by the time I got home.
Lost
It was now time to board the bus and I still hadn’t called my dad. With 30 minutes left to board, I dashed down the streets of Puerto Iguazu in search of a locutorio who would accept my calling card. I was one block away from the bus station and stopped at a locutorio, but they pointed me to another locutorio one more block away. This series of events happened about 5 more times in 10 minutes and before I knew it, I was 10 blocks away. Lucky for me I stayed on the same street and had finally reached a locutorio who would accept my card. I whipped my card out, dialed my dad, and then ……I hear the operator say “hello you have reached the voice mail of”….and my dad’s voice, ” hey at the tone, leave me a message and I’ll get back to ya”. Ugh!! First of all, I’ve been telling my dad for so long that your voicemail message doesn’t go there, but instead you are suppose to put your name, but that’s a different story. And Secondly, he didn’t pick up the phone!! I hung up the phone as I screamed at the top of my lungs (in my head) looked at the time, and jogged toward the door. As I ran to the bus station, the dog from the hostel appears and runs alongside of me. I am now frantically running from the dog and not paying attention, and that’s where I ended up at a dead end. Not just any dead end, but I noticed the change from tourist area to walls of graphite and vandalized cars, and the dog is still beside me like he is my dog! I try to calm myself as the sweat burns my eyes, and the heavy book bag strap is falling off of my left shoulder. I gasp for breath and pray at the same time, “Jesus, oh no, Jesus, please, this is not happening”, and then I run full speed in the opposite direction…..and so does the dog. We end up at another street that doesn’t look familiar and at this point I have 5 minutes to get to the bus station, no money, no more minutes on my phone card, and a copy of my passport. I’m about to die! I run into a store and mumble something in my broken Spanglish, “eh..donde es la buse?” The merchant looks confused and sees my hand gestures and points me into the direction of the dead end. We exchange words, hers Spanish, mine broken spanglish, and I’m off again with the same dog hot on my trail. After two minutes of all out sprinting and visits to different stores, I stop a couple who look American and ask if they spoke English. Success, they did!! They pointed me in the direction of the station and I ran, along with that dog. As I was running with the finish line in sight, and the flee bitten, tick polluted, dirty, smelly, kinda cute now that we’ve spent so much time together dog by my side, just like a track meet, my classmates were hanging off the bus pushing me on. My classmates were yelling, “push it, run, don’t give up, pump your arms!” I know I’m exaggerating a bit, but they were telling me to come on. I made it to the bus wet with sweat, my heart now in my stomach, and a cramp in my side. I made it. Thank God! I was lost and now I’m found! I was sore for about 3 days after. That was the scariest day of my life. Ok, so I’m a bit dramatic and didn’t almost die, but that day I thought I was going to.
Sex and the City 2 is coming out tomorrow!!! I’m so excited and in true fan fashion, I will be sporting my best Carrie/Samantha threads. I’m sure these are not only on my wish list, especially considering only the ever so fashionable Carrie Bradshaw is showing them off on every magazine cover right now. These lavender suede studded pumps by Brian Atwood would go perfectly with my shear tank and jeans.
Lavender Suede Studded Brian Atwood Pump - $800
If you want to splurge on something other than shoes, you can still get this look for less:
Happy Tuesday. To continue with my Tuesday’s true story theme, I thought of a special time during my Freshman year in college when a certain guy group came to visit. 112!
I went to a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) and had the best time of my life. Football season with the marching band, spring time cruising, Homecomings, parties, concerts, bands and singers visiting our school. This one particular event, the group 112 came to visit. If you are unfamiliar with 112, they were a popular guy group. I can’t compare them to any guy group from today because they don’t seem to exist.112 had hit songs such as “I’ll be missing you”, “Peaches and Creme”, and my favorite, “Cupid”.
112 was scheduled to make an appearance at our school’s student union banquet hall, just one of the many events our student government planned for the spring. I was very in love with 122, especially Slim. I had all of their Cd’s and knew that Slim and I would make the perfect couple. I was very involved in school and had the inside scoop of where they would be entering and exiting from. I don’t know what I was thinking that day or if I was thinking at all, but in the moment I thought I had a brilliant master plan.
My plan was to hide behind the curtains in the staging room, the room where they would be entering before they went out on stage. I had to hide behind the curtains in case security made a sweep of the room before they entered. I was so smart I told myself. I knew they were riding in a white minivan, and I had a stakeout point to lookout for them so that I could hurry and go hide to await their arrival. As crazy as this sounds, it gets crazier because I was acting alone. I was serious and involving another person could have possibly compromised my mission, so I went by myself. Please don’t judge. Actually as I’m writing this, I’m thinking….maybe I should keep this to myself. Anyway, I saw the white van pull up and hurried to my post behind the curtains. I can hear girls screaming and yelling as 112 is guided through the chaos by their body guards. They enter the room, and here is my chance. I peek from behind the curtain and see that they are relaxed now since they are in private, or so they think. OK, here goes nothing……”Hey Yall!!” I greeted them in a “tada” kind of weird way and jumped out of the curtain. I could see I startled one of them as Slim backed away. They just looked at me and didn’t respond. The moment of awkwardness seemed to last for about 3 hours and grew longer with the silence. Finally, I scurried past them to find refuge in our student union food court. How embarrassing! As I sit and think of what went wrong I enjoyed a sandwich from Chic-fil-a. In my mind it went totally different than that. I thought Slim would have one look at me and fall in love. He would see my skinny boyish frame, disheveled hair, flip flops with no pedicure and say ” it’s just something about her.” Don’t we all want that, someone to discover that something about us? One thing I took away from that experience is, it never hurts to try, but it can surely be embarrassing.
I was crazily in love with a figment of my imagination, a music icon, or basically, an idol. I know it sounds strong in my situation to say that God tells us not to have any gods before Him. If you think about it, I was idolizing this person, making myself look crazy to meet an idea of a person I had no real knowledge of. God says in Judges10:14
Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress. This is especially funny to me because of the way God says this. He says it like,”go ahead and see how much your idol will help you, receive you, love you”. In my case, my idol didn’t even recognize me, although he’s never seen me before..AHEM, but that’s besides the point!! How many times are we so in love with a person, an idea, material items to the point where we idolize them?
This weekend we had our mini-camp for the NFL team that I dance for. We had many bonding moments and times where we shared stories. As we went around the room to share funny stories, I shared my story. As I was telling the story, the response I received was an uproar of laughter and I thought to myself, “If they think this is something, they would die if they heard the many stories of my life.” So, I decided to start sharing true stories with my blog family. First up, the chinchilla that attacked me on an airplane – and by attack I mean chased me.
I need to start with a disclaimer – I am deathly afraid of animals. There are a few exceptions which are puppies and kittens, but other than that, I hate them all. I was at the airport boarding my plane, on my way to NC for a nice and relaxing 4th of July trip. As I boarded the plane, I tripped to the sound of a dog barking, not a good sign. Ten minutes later, I was settled in my window seat, headphones -check, Lucky magazine – check, Jones New York Pashmina scarf – check , jamba juice – check, let’s do this. The flight attendant starts to make her safety announcements, and I dozed off.
I slowly open my eyes and start to focus in on a dim light that is slowly getting brighter as it is approaching my row. I notice that the owner of the light is a cell phone, which a passenger is using as a flashlight. The passenger is hunching over and crawling on his knees in search of something. The sudden blast of the brightness from the cabin lights coming on caused me to fully wake up. Seconds later I hear the soft voice of one of the flight attendants, “excuse the lights ladies and gentleman, please check under your seats as we have a passenger who have seemed to have misplaced their pet chinchilla.” At that very moment, I hit panic mode, A PET WHO-CHILLA?!?!?!?
I can just feel a bad situation about to happen as my stomach drops and hands start to sweat, am I gonna faint? Number one, I’m probably the only person on this plane with a fear of animals. Two, there is a wall from floor to ceiling separating me from first class so in the case that I lift my feet to clear a path for whatever could be under my seat, it won’t have anywhere else to run! Three, what is a Chinchilla?!? Before I could formulate any thoughts, I look down to see a huge black bunny rabbit- looking- rodent with no ears crawling up my bag. It was like a dream where everything is in slow motion, I couldn’t unfasten my seat belt fast enough. As the chinchilla starts to crawl up my bag closer to my seat, I violently throw my body out of my chair aiming for the aisle, but instead falling and rolling over the passenger with the aisle seat. Once the majority of my body was free from the aisle, I dart as fast as I can to the front of the plane. Looking like a fool, shaking and out of breath, I was free from the chinchilla and a foreigner standing in first class. Short of an asthma attack, I was approached by the flight attendant who apologized and said the chinchilla chewed through its cage. “Great”, I thought, what kind of animal are we dealing with here.
During the entire rest of the flight, I couldn’t sleep and kept jumping when anything including my bag strap brushed my leg. When I returned home I researched chinchillas to find that they are rodents from South American that bark and can jump up to 8 ft vertically. Needless to say, I wrote a letter of complaint. I’m sorry, but I’m not used to flying on flights where wild rodents that bark and jump up to eight feet roam freely.
So umm, I started with wish lists so that anyone wanting to show or give me a random gift of love would know exactly how to do so. I think I will start posting those wish lists here. Not too much to ask huh?
So today I realized that God is crazy about me. I love him and he loves me way more. Sometimes when I’m blessed with certain things that I know I don’t deserve, I feel like that little girl who has her Daddy wrapped around her finger. I feel spoiled by God. Out of all the people in the world, He loves me the most, or at least it feels that way. Have you ever received a blessing and thought to yourself that you didn’t deserve it?
I was reading a story about a little boy who was the only survivor of a plane crash and in good condition. Out of the 103 passengers and crew, this little 10 – year old boy survived. The media writes that this is nothing short of a miracle, but I’m writing that this is nothing but a blessing. After seriously thinking I was favored by God and that I had special attention, now I’m wondering is it possible for God to have two favorites?
God is so good that he makes us all his favorite. His omnipresence, love, and consistency is what keeps up feeling like #1. Psalms 139: 7 says it best:
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in 1Sheol, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will 1overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” 12 Even the darkness is not dark 1to You, And the night is as bright as the day.Darkness and light are alike to You.
No matter what you do, where you go, who you’re with, God will be there too. He will be your #1 fan, your best-friend, your life jacket, your go to person, he will be there because you are his favorite!
Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a book that attempts to explain how to live in exceptional moments against the dull background of life. You are in your flow moment when you are doing something challenging that you love and time doesn’t seem to matter. Unlike happiness, flow is complete mental and physical involvement. Flow are exceptional moments with mental focus that encourages action. When you are in your flow, you have a clear vision and focus of your goals.
Where does flow happen:
Flow can happen while you’re dancing, working, running, and hanging out with friends just to name a few. An example of a flow activity would be a game of connect four. Two players who know how to play the game, who know the goal of the game can concentrate very clearly on reaching their end goal. These players have no question of what is to be done and how. During the entire game, the two players are in this concentration bubble with a concise end goal in sight, and that goal is to win.
How do you find your flow
Below is a list of ways to find your flow from Zen Habits:
2. Find something that is challenging – If you’re like me, you will probably not give your undivided attention to something that is too easy and instead multitask.
3.Minimize distractions – Turn your phone and computer off. Let people know that you are busy and not to disturb you.
4. Prepare yourself – Make sure you have everything you need so you don’t have to break your concentration.
5. Isolate yourself – This goes along with eliminating distractions. Sometimes distractions can be your boyfriend, friend, mom, and even your pet.
6. Let go– Let go of your expectations and excuses, just do it!
7. Set a timer/deadline – Give yourself a set time so you have something to work towards. I find that I work better under pressure, so having a set time pushes me.
Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
So I am obsessed with finding news ways to be productive, organized, and just overall personal growth. I can not think clearly if there is clutter or mess, so I make a day once a week to de-clutter my space. I don’t have a specific day every week because its very necessary for me to keep a flexible schedule. This week I’m choosing Monday. I found a list from one of my favorite websites with tips to stay productive. I choose my top 10 favorites to try on Monday:
- Stay focused on what you are doing: This is very important to me. So many times I think so ahead in the future part because of ADHD and part because I’m a natural dreamer. Whatever the case may be, I have to always remind myself to be present in the moment.
- Do something else every 30 to 40 minutes to refresh your mind and body: During my graduate studies I learned that an adult can only focus on something for no longer than 45 minutes.
- Find what others have done in related fields and learn: I find time everyday to read and/or listen to podcast in my chosen field
- Be Passionate about what you are doing: This is something that is so natural to me, but I still like to focus on it.
-Give yourself credit for what you do: The hardest point for me. I seem to focus on what I need wrong so that I can grow from it. I never see the good things I do because there is ALWAYS room for improvement.
-Check your email not more than twice a day: Ummmm…. will be working on this starting on Monday
OK……so, I’m a little confused here. I’m not all about the looks, actually, I’m not about the looks. I believe that the kind of heart a person has is so much more important that the exterior. However, because I watched the show “Let’s talk about Pep”, I’m a little confused on how Jacque ended up with J. Anthony Brown. Jacque Reid, former BET nightly news anchor, was one of my favorites of the show. She is extremely smart, articulate, cute, and fly and J. Anthony Brown is the opposite of all that in my opinion. Is his personality so dynamic that he pulled Ms. Reid? According to The Tom Joyner Morning Show and Black America Web, J Brown and J Reid are getting married on the “Fantastic Voyage” cruise on Monday, May 17.
Lord it is apparent that I couldn’t’ survive without you. It is obvious that I wouldn’t be the woman I am today without you. Lord I love and need you more than I need air to breathe. Lord I love you and need you more than I need water to drink. Lord I love and need you more than I need my heart to pump. You are amazing and I don’t want to live in this world without you. Thanks for leading me through darkness and guiding me through the day. Lord it is inevitable that I will rely on you and that is just the way I like it.
“I can still make it!”, is usually what I say when I see this sign. However, I am usually running and about 30 meters from the actual street. It happens every time. When I come to think of it, it applies to a lot of things in my life. I could look at this in three different ways.
1. I always find a way to get to where I am going, no matter how impervious it is. In this situation, crosswalks were no impediment.
2. I need to get to places sooner so that I don’t have to rush. In this situation, I could have left my house earlier so my walk could have been less brisk.
3. I need to have patience and wait. In this situation, I could have waited until the light changed again.
I thought about this this morning after I wildly ran through the streets of the city. I was trying to catch my company’s shuttle so that I didn’t have to wait 15 minutes to catch the next one. I slowly trudged up the monstrous hills of San Francisco and sped clumbsily down bracing myself for a fall. I thought how careless this was of me. At every crosswalk no matter what the countdown was, I panted to myself, “I can’t make it!” And I did, but at what cost? Just because I didn’t want to wait for the next shuttle? Just because I wanted to do one more thing before I left my house? Just because I was determined to get on the 7:47 AM shuttle and no one was going to stop me? After all of that, I had to flag down the shuttle driver because in the end, I didn’t get to the stop on time. Thankfully, he gratiously stopped for me. The run to the shuttle with all of my belongings and the hill workout left me breathless and with time to think about how this translates to my life.
Mark 1:35 shares Jesus work ethic as he went to preach in Galilee “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”
I want to pattern myself after this so that I am up early enough to not rush, and more importantly, make time in the morning to pray before I start my day.
Yesterday I found out that my Uncle Willie passed away. They found his body unconscious from a heart attack. My Uncle was young in age and even younger at heart. We would tease him because he would complain that he was tired all the time. He was the baby of the family. He lived and took good care of my granddad, but would sleep the day away. We would find him walking to his room saying, “I’m tired, I’ve been babysitting Daddy all day”. When we would come to visit my grandfather, we would bust through my Uncle’s bedroom door to make him wake up. He never told us why he was so tired. When he died, papers were found in his room, evidence finding him guilty of being on a wait list for a heart transplant. He never told us.
My dad took it the hardest in my opinion. It was his baby brother. It was the only other person who could make my dad so mad. My Uncle Willie. He was so funny!! No, really really funny. He was about 6 feet tall, thin boyish frame with a big head and even bigger smile. I can’t remember a time when he was not smiling.
There, I did it!
You will always be adored and missed. Until we meet again……
When it’s time for your faith to be tested, what grade will you get? To me, the tests that I’ve prepared for during school are not far from preparing for tests of life, faith in particular.
This subject came up after having a wake up call, literally, from my younger sister. I had been struggling with the decision of whether or not to try out for a professional sports dance team again after having an unexplained ankle swelling. After doctor visit after doctor visit, and blood test and x rays, my doctors diagnosed me with a healthy body. With a swollen ankle and a healthy body on paper, I was discouraged. I was so discouraged that I didn’t want to try out again for another season of dancing. Sunday morning my sister called me at 8:00 AM and she told me that I need to look at things not so much in black and white but as spiritual warfare. She proceeded in telling me that if I didn’t try out for the team again, then it’s like saying that I don’t have faith that God will heal me. She said she felt so sad that my dance was being affected and she wanted to fast and pray for healing in my body. I continued to listen to her and hold back tears as she told me how the devil doesn’t like when we are doing well. She explained how the devils hates that I am living and walking with God, spreading his word through this website, have a great job, dancing, and loving like I’ve never been hurt. She totally blew my mind and made me stop in my tracks and pray.
Just like a test for school, you have study partners and homework to prepare. In my situation, my sister is my study partner as she reminds me and opens my eyes and refresh me to new and old ideas. She made me realize who the real doctor is and how nothing is impossible without Him. Studying and reading the bible, specifically Psalm 16:8 I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will
not be shaken. Now with my study partner, homework, and my right hand Man, I am sure to pass with flying colors.
Or call it DKNY French Grain Leather Satchel. This black satchel with the detachable front pocket is everything I love about the sixties. The detachable front pocket turns into a cute cross the chest bag. This is basically two bags for the price of one, wow! I think I’m in love…..AGAIN!
I was talking to my cousin the other day who is seriously dating her boyfriend and the topic of Pre-Marital classes came up. I shared my opinion that I think couples who are seriously dating should take Pre-Marital classes. You would have thought I said something deep and profound by my cousin’s reaction. She excitedly agreed with me.
The church that I attend believes that Pre-Marital counsel/classes are essential before marriage and especially beneficial to couples who aren’t engaged yet. I agree with my church in believing that by the time you are engaged and have the pressure of the ring, red flags and warning signs are easily dismissed.
The purpose of a Pre-Marital class is to guide you in learning more about your partner while growing closer to Jesus. You are supposed to learn or become aware of you and your partner’s differences communicative tools to work with those differences.
What do you think? Should Pre-Marital classes be reserved for the engaged? Share your thoughts.
So I’ve been using mint.com which is a free online personal budget software. I wanted to try it out before I wrote about it and have been using it for about 2 months now and it seems legit.
You have access to all of your accounts including car payments, checking, loans, and other money accounts at one log in. Of course since all of your personal information is accessible under one account, it is very important to use a password that you don’t use anywhere else.
If you are using mint.com, let me know how it is working for you.
Trying out recipes with my friends and family, long dog walks, singing w/ my guitar, board games, wake boarding trips to the lake in the summertime, praying with my boyfriend and my gal’s group, shopping, sharing photos with loved ones, helping people find deeper meaning and achieve their goals – both big and small!
What does being a Christian mean to you?:
Even though I have been in a church community almost all of my life, I’ve learned a lot about being a Christian in even the past year and have grown this idea to be many things…
Living in faith AND action – trusting God to provide and take care of me rather than my own power, planning, action, hard work, will, etc… this is my biggest challenge!
Praying daily/giving anything and everything up to God. Stopping to think about God’s intentions for my life and for my everyday decisions. Enjoying the company of the Lord.
Pursuing the truth (in Bible verses, Godly mentors, sermons, etc.), acting on what I know is right and what the Holy Spirit is stirring in my heart. Humbling myself (being honest and mold-able) before others and God. Reminding myself that “it’s not about me”, and that ALL I do can honor Him!
Reaching out to those who are struggling… allowing myself to be used as His instrument. Letting others know why I have faith and peace in Jesus, in hopes of helping them to better know and live a life of faith.
What are 2 challenges you face as a Christian woman?:
Currently, my two biggest challenges are not being afraid to stand up for and explain my faith to others, which includes personal viewpoints and choices that others don’t always understand like making faith-based career decisions, going to church, striving for sexual purity, and trying not to use profanity.
I also struggle in continually trusting God to provide for the future (finances, resources, family, career, etc.) so that I don’t have to worry about trying to plan everything! Note the emphasis on “trying” J Focusing on the joy and peace that God’s will brings, and not letting the worries/strivings of the world (wealth, success, stability) bring me down.
When Lauryn Hill sings these lyrics in her song “I Gotta Find Peace of Mind”, I doubt she is talking about the same “He” that I’m thinking of. In her song, she sings of a man who tells her over and over again that it’s impossible and who takes all of her energy.
However, there is one line that I can relate to, although I love this song for various reasons. When she sings, “He inspires me to be the higher me”, that hits home. Not only do I think of the obvious, Jesus Christ, but I also think of my dad. It brings me to think of who I will allow into a relationship with me.
All of my life while entering relationships, I only got with men who inspired me to be a better person. I think it’s important to bring something new and different to the table and only grow and learn from each other. My best relationship was when I actually got closer to God while in the relationship. This is what I desire, and a standard that is not negotiable.
So, my obsession with my eyebrows started about 4 years ago. I noticed how over powering my eyebrows were when I dyed my hair copper. I’ve had so many different hair styles from a short boy cut to a medium length copper layered look to a large curly fro. During all of my hair transitions, the one thing that has remained the same, is MY EYEBROWS. I have really dark eyebrows and I like to keep them thin, and didn’t realize how thin I kept them until my bestie told me. To me, keeping my eyebrows thin brought out my slanted and lidless eyes. In reality, all I had to do was lighten them. Once I started searching for “people with dyed eyebrows” I found out about the new brow less fad. Personally I love it!
Today I found myself incredibly stressed out. I keep telling myself not to let people negatively affect my day, but I’m human and can’t control my emotions 100% of the time. As strong as his faith was, even Job got stressed from time to time. In Job 20: 27, Job says, “The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.”Despite the situation, everyone experiences stress at some point in their life. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30 to come to him when we are burdened and weary and he will help us rest. In times like now, I have to remember that stress isn’t worth the headache, especially when you can go to God for a spiritual Advil.
I’m going to say NOTHING. I think Valentine’s Day is for women and we should be showered with gifts and love. Call me crazy or selfish, but I just think that women should be appreciated and loved even more on this special day. Valentine’s Day is for us, but if you HAVE to get him something, I suggest doing something special for him instead or buying something. If your guy is making you feel extra special throughout the year and you want to reciprocate that love, try doing something he likes or making something for him. Here are a few low key but thoughtful V-day gift ideas for him:
Make him 10 cups with 10 reasons why he is lucky to have a girl like you: You can use icing to put a number on each cupcake, and have a card with the reasons. You can also write numbers and reasons on the bottom of the cupcake.
Cook him his favorite lunch and attempt to play a sport with him: He will think it’s the cutest thing when you ask if he wants to throw the football around a bit after lunch. Have him teach you his sport of choice.
Make him a CD with all of his favorite songs with you singing or rapping the lyrics: This can easily be done with Garageband on Mac and YouTube. Any music on YouTube can be downloaded to your computer with mp3 converter (free online). If you don’t know the lyrics, don’t worry, you can Google most lyrics on the Internet. Once you have the soundtrack and lyrics, use Garageband on Mac to become the producer that you have always wanted to be.
Have your friends call or text him with reasons why you love him: I did this before. He will be surprised to have random people calling, but even more proud that everyone knows how much you love him.
Volunteer at a V-day program at Senior Citizen home: He will see and appreciate how you share love with others and also get some wise advice about love from older couples.
Maria Sharapova Collection by Cole Haan Women's Air Milano Sandal
I’m a southern girl, so bare feet in the grass or on the sidewalk brings back a sense of home when I’m in the city. However, I will NOT sacrifice my comfort for fashion. OK, maybe I will wear a shirt that forces me to suck in my gut instead of breathing, or a pair of low rider true religion jeans that I have to pull all the way up before I sit down, but that’s it. I will not wear heels unless they are as comfortable as wearing flats. I refuse. I can make special arrangements for the nude L.A.M.B. Platform Pump, but that’s it!! Something that scares me is when I walk through the mall and pass the Cole Han store; I can just see myself there in like 40 years due to my unwillingness to fully commit to fashion. It’s funny because I recently found these really cute shoes that are suppose to feel like Nike Air on your feet. When I went to look for them, and learned that they are sold at Cole Han, I almost died. Hey I’ve never discriminated before, why should I start now? The gladiator sandal is by Maria Sharapova’s Collection for Cole Haan Air ($161.23) and I can’t wait to try them.
When I moved thousands of miles away from my family to start a new career fresh out of college, I met two amazing women who I became very close to. Both ladies are completely different from each other, but represent a part of my personality. A is very shy at first, but once she gets to know you , she can’t stop talking, just like me. S says whatever is on her mind and will offer her honest opinion if you ask her, this is one of my personality traits and faults. Both of these ladies are very giving; whether A is giving her time to the community or S is befriending someone who doesn’t have friends, they both inspire me to be a positive woman. I don’t mean to toot our horn, but we are known to turn heads when we walk into a room, it’s just a known fact, check our statistics. Lol. As hawt as we were(and still are), there was a certain point when we were all single and instead of going out, we would stay in on weekends and watch Sex and The City reruns. I remember A and I watching one episdoe when Charlotte said, “Don’t laugh at me, but maybe we could be each others soul mates? And then we could let men be just these great nice guys to have fun with?” I thought that was so sweet until A turned to me with the evil eyebrow and said, “Don’t you ever say that crap to me!” LOL. So despite A’s feelings about soul mates as friends, I decided to make a Valentine’s Day date just for my soul mates
Valentine’s Day last year, I decided to surprise A and S by being their Valentine! I scheduled them both massages during the late afternoon. It turned out that I scheduled for the wrong day, typical of me, but they still enjoyed it nonetheless. After their massages, I told them to meet me at my apartment. I greeted them with matching PJ’s. They did NOT want to put on the PJs but I insisted, it was too funny. It was even funnier when they finally put their PJ’s on, long john shirt with pants to match and both covered in heart designs.I cooked them dinner, pan seared salmon and salad. A would especially appreciate this since she only eats fish and chicken(barely). I also prepared a candy basket, which I ate half of the candy before they got there, an issue I’m still working on. So to make a long story short, we had a great Valentine’s Day, just us girls, us “soul mates”. Haha.
Share one of your non-traditional Valentine’s Day stories below.
Shouts to my girl (you know who you are) and someone else needs to hear this too. We had a long talk today and I just want to let you know that you are strong, beautiful, smart, amazing, and God is crazy about you. Don’t let ANYBODY tell you anything differntly. I know time may feel like it’s standing still right now, but after a storm there is calm and peace and sometimes a rainbow. I will be there for you through it all and so will God. I Love you!
I love to watch movies; either at home or at the theater. I love to go to comedy shows, read, sing in the choir, watch my husband play in his many bands, travel, spend time alone, spend time with my nieces (Micaela (10) and Zacari (9), write in my journal, speak to young people, visit my friends and their families, go to plays and musicals, watch Family Feud, and play games (Scattergories, taboo, etc.).
What does being a Christian mean to you?
Being a Christian is everything to me because it is who I am. Being a Christian means I follow Christ who is the head and Lord of my life. It is only through Jesus that I can have a personal relationship with God and I count it a blessing that I have that ability.
What are 2 challenges you face as a Christian woman?
I thank God that I have grown and matured in years and experience. In my twenties the challenges I faced being a Christian were having to stand strong against the temptations I faced in the WNBA. At the time I wasn’t strong enough to say no to many things. However, I have now realized that saying “yes” to God will NEVER end wrong. At my tender age of 33,=) two challenges I face as a Christian woman are not letting my emotions get the best of me, and taking on the burdens of other people. I love people so much that I want them to understand the love that God has for them and if they don’t that wears me down.
I remember my first flight with my mom like it was yesterday. We had it all figured out, mom would buy a window seat, me an aisle seat. We were seated early, magazines ready, shoes off with warm cushy socks, snacks, and no one sitting between us. We were the plenipotentiary of our row, and had full authority of the empty seat that separated us. Between life, the juicy gossip in US weekly, and new fashions from Elle, we had a lot to talk about. However, as soon as the cabin door closed, so did my mom’s eyes. Wait, “wake up mom…mom, for real?” “Wake up, mom, don’t close your eyes all of the way, mom? “OK, don’t close your other eye, mom…mom, at least listen to the safety instructions!!” She doesn’t even move her head, or open her eyes, but out of her mouth, she says, “if this plane crashes, we all are going to die, so it doesn’t matter”. She doesn’t open her eyes for the next 4.5 hours. Ugh! So at this point, I realized that I would not have any conversations with my mom! Sadly, with no distractions from my mom, I actually paid attention to what the flight attendant was saying.
“…. In the event of a decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically drop from a compartment above your seat. To start the flow of oxygen, pull the mask towards you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth, secure the elastic band behind your head, and breathe normally…… If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person….”
This made me think about life and how we, especially as women, have tendencies to help people. If we can’t breathe, how can we help someone else breathe? In my past, I’ve always had a tendency to help the person I was dating at the time. I genuinely felt in my heart that I could help him or change him into a better person. When, in fact, I wasn’t in the position to help anyone. How could I help someone if I didn’t have it together myself? If I didn’t understand myself, take care of myself, know how to have me time, love myself, how could I share “love” with someone else? The answer is I couldn’t. Like the flight attendant tells us, secure your own mask first before you can help someone secure theirs.
