I LOVE MY LIFE!!!

There’s a member of our congregation in Lebanon that has Down Syndrome. His name is Robert. He is an incredible individual. He always has a smile on his face, a great attitude to share, a big heart full of love, and a word of encouragement for EVERYONE. Last night, our preacher (who happens to be Robert’s brother in law) showed this video involving the Special Olympics. It was very moving, especially for Robert’s parents. After our service was over, I got to talking to Robert’s dad. Mr. William was telling me about what it’s been like being Robert’s parents. It was so incredible listening to his testimony and what all they’ve been through and how far they’ve all come, especially Robert.

One thing that really stuck out to me in our conversation is the fact that Robert is ALWAYS happy. Mr. William told me last night that he gets joy out of the simplest things. He could be singing in his room with headphones on. The listener may not be able to understand much of what he’s saying, but he does and God does, and you gotta just know that God loves it. Then you’ll hear Robert say, “I love my life”. Mr. William was also telling me that Robert will get so excited about something small, like a cup of soup from a local restaurant, and you would think that same cup of soup maybe cost a fortune. He doesn’t care. He’ll continue to say, “I love my life”.

How many times do you see yourself saying that about your own life? I know that I personally don’t say that often enough. God richly blesses us beyond belief. The “thank you’s” don’t get up there as often as they should (at least that’s how it is with me), and when things get bad, we all decide to complain. When things don’t go how we want them to, how often do we say “Man, I hate my life!”??

Maybe we should be like Robert. Maybe we need to look at ourselves and change something. What do you say? My challenge for you is to start loving your life. Are you up for it? Let's do it together!

He is jealous for me

Love's like a hurricane

I am a tree

Bending beneath the weight of

His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory

Here lately....

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted. I had a birthday since my last post, and I got a laptop. My sister is a sophmore in college, and she's studying abroad with a group from her school in Belgium. How cool is that? I asked her if she could pack me in her suitcase, but it wouldn't work! haha... John got a new job at Cracker Barrel's corperate headquarters here in Lebanon. The crazy thing about this is the fact that he is so close to his work AGAIN!! When he was living in Nashville, he could walk to work. He lived so close to his work that he could see the back parking lot from his kitchen window. Now that we're in Lebanon and he's at Cracker Barrel, he works 1.5 miles away. He could walk AGAIN if he wanted to. How crazy is that? haha.... We've placed membership at a great church out here that we love very much. It feels a little wierd for me just because I grew up at a considerably bigger church than this and now we're at a church that's a fraction of the size of where we used to be. But we love it there. We seem to really fit in and it feels like home. Today I'm going to get my hair cut. I am going to get a lot cut off and I'm really excited. I've needed a hair cut really bad. I know I've kinda been all over the place today in this post.... Hopefully the rest of my posts won't be like this in the future.

Random thoughts going through my head

I'm not sure

New house

So, it's been about a week that we've been living in our new house. I've loved having more space! It's been so great! Things are still kind of a wreck just because we haven't found a place for everything yet. It will get better though, I know it. We just got internet here at the house on Wednesday. I've enjoyed not having to check facebook on my phone. HAHA! Anyway... Sometimes when I've been here by myself it's been kinda quiet just because we don't have our TV here and we haven't had internet until Wednesday. Oh well. I'll post some pictures up soon hopefully of the new house once everything gets settled and we find a place for everything.

January 11, 2011

So, today I'm sitting at my mother in law's laptop just amazed at what all has been going on in the approx. 24 hours. Yesterday, at 10, John and I signed our part of the closing papers for a NEW HOUSE!!! I've noticed that I've said this a lot yesterday, but I never thought that I would be a homeowner at 22 years old. Wow!! We definitely have a LOT of people to thank for this! John and I are so blessed!

Well, FIRST off, we woke up to snow! Like TONS of it.... OK, well maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit... It looks like a ton to me! John and I got ready for the day, and ate a good breakfast. Then, John and I, along with his mom and step dad, climbed in the car and went to go pick up our cashier's check for the closing. We had to go walk through the house at 9 and close at 10. After we closed, we had to drop off Ritchie somewhere so he could work yesterday.Then, John and I went to go change the electricity, water, and gas to our names. We ate at Demos' in Lebanon for lunch with our Realtor. It was REALLY good!

John had to be at work at 3 yesterday afternoon, as he only took a half day yesterday. So we dropped him off at his truck and then my mother in law and I went to our house to start cleaning. We then went to Home Depot and DT McAll's to look at refrigerators. Then it got to be the time where we could start unpacking stuff from the Land Rover to the new house, so we did.

Later on we picked up John's step dad, and went by Lowe's to check out refrigerators there, but they were closed because of weather. So we went to eat dinner.... Demos' again! ha ha I don't think that Ritchie (John's step dad) knew we ate there for lunch. I still enjoyed it! It was great! We ran by the new house to look at some things real quick, and then came back to their house. John did not come until later. He got off at 7 and decided to watch part of the BCS Championship bowl game. I stayed up for him after his mom and step dad went to bed.

All in all it was a great day. I am kinda sad that I have to go back to Nashville today. I will be back, though, and I can not wait! It is going to be great once we move everything out here into the house and we do not have to worry about packing and cleaning anymore.

This the season!!

So, it is Christmas time! I don't know why, but I am OVERLY excited about this time of year more so than I have ever been before. You're probably thinking it is because it is my first Christmas as a married person. Maybe that is true. That might be part of it. I have a lot of things that I can be thankful for: being a newlywed, having married into an amazing family (I LOVE all my in-laws), possibly being in a new house by the new year. The list could go on and on. God has truly blessed me beyond what I could ever imagine. I can not believe that it has already snowed 2 or 3 times already before Christmas. That makes me happy, but at the same time it kind of scares me. I hope it does not get too bad to where I will not be able to get out and do my Christmas shopping and work and all that other good stuff that grown ups have to do.