Thanksgiving Week!

Our days at work were slow this week. On Tuesday night, Jason went down to play Wii with Adam and Lee, then wenIt hunting early the next morning. He went to his mom and Gary's later that day to see them. CFA decorated the office on Wednesday, then had lunch and the Best of Beers come and bring some soft drinks, teas, and beer. I sampled some good tasting drinks, such as Cane Cola (soft drink made with sugar cane instead of corn syrup), and House Call (a lemongrass tea).

Chris and Lesley came in Wednesday, so we had dinner at mom and dad's with them. I headed to church to work, but there wasn't too many kids. Thursday, we went to Charlotte for the Garth family Thanksgiving. There were about 40 or so people there. For dinner, we ate at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Mike and Becca got two new kittens and brought them! Both of them fell asleep in my lap for awhile. So cute!

Friday, we played lots of Wii! Jason got a pinball game, and a trivia game. I kicked my brothers toosh in boxing! Jason got a funny video of me!

Saturday, we watched the UNC vs. NC State ballgame at mom and dad's again, then ate some soup I made for dinner, then played more Wii! Mom seems to like it alot!

Chris and Lesley have an energic cocker spaniel named Frankie. He loves to play and I got a cute video of him playing tug of war with Chris!

Sunday, we had a baby shower for Lesley at my house. She got cute things! My two second cousins, Corrina and Olivia, were helpers! Here's some pictures!

Saying Thanks!

We are both ready for a break from work! Jason gets off Wednesday too and we get to decorate the office on Wednesday, so it's more like a free work day!

Friday, we talked about envy in life group. One of the first scriptures we read was Psalm 37: 1-3, the first part saying, "Do not fret because of evil men, or be envious of those who do wrong..." This struck me because I read In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham this week. She and her husband Martin were held hostage by Phillipine rebels for a year back in 01-02.

She talked about how they struggled with envy and hatred especially as they saw their captors eat more than they did and not share when they could have. Martin would say how they were suppose to love and serve everyone, even terrorists. They came to the point where they decided to be thankful for any food they had and it helped with their survival. Martin ended up dying in the jungle when the Phillipine soliders rescued them. Another hostage was killed and Gracia got shot in the leg.

I read the book in two days because I couldn't put it down! It convicted me of how spoiled and unthankful I am. It is a great testimony of how the grace of God carries us even in the most horrid situation.

Envy has been a great struggle in my life since I'm bad about comparing myself to other people. I've really tried hard not to do that but since the miscarriage, I'll admit I have failed many times. It's so easy to question, "Why me?" I think I'm starting to climb back up from the hurt of this experience. I have seen good come out of it, especially connecting in a new way with my parents, who had a miscarriage 22 months before I was born.

Saturday, we got to see the Bost side of the family to celebrate Thanksgiving. John was in from Hawaii and Mathew and Rachel back from Florida. I'm glad we got to see them all!

It's been quite rainy today, so we couldn't walk the dogs. We had a nice life group about distortions of God, and how our experiences have shaped wrong ideas about him. It's a constant struggle to see God's love despite the unfair and bad things that happen. But, Jesus experienced hurt and unfairness, so who can we better relate to then Him?

Laugh moment of the week:

When I came home for lunch Friday, I watched Jimi climb inside a blanket on the couch. He hid in between the layers.

Be Kind!

We had our friends Abigail and Greg over Saturday to watch the 2nd half of the UNC game and play Wii. It was lots of fun! We played some new things, like darts and air hockey! Their 5 months old Lincoln (who we saw when he was a day old) just chilled, as you can see below.

We let the dogs see Lincoln and I was so happy that they were really gentle with him. He laughed a bit as they licked him and I got a cute video!

The work went went by a bit slow. My work had a flu shot clinic on Tuesday and I got my first flu shot! I think it just made me a bit tired. Jason had Wednesday off for Veteran's Day. I usually take off, but I was a bit behind since we had our flu shot clinic the day before. So, he was nice enough to take my car to new places to see why the check engine light is still on.

We did go to a nice dinner for a non profit organization called Safe Harbor on Thursday night, which was nice. Life group was on kindness. The book we're reading goes through the 1 Corinthians 13 about what love is. So, this week, kindness. I find that so challenging especially with a job in customer service. Some days, I don't feel like being kind to anyone...especially phone calls! So, it was a good lesson.

We walked the dogs again on Sunday! At TNT, we continued on "distortions of the world" and how that affects our way of thinking. It asked for times you've realized things were just wrong with the world. Deep stuff!

If I can only keep kindness on my mind this week!

Beautiful November Day!

It was such a lovely day that we took the dogs on the Greenway near our house. We haven't walked them in awhile and since we were out there for about an hour, we wore them out!

Tonight, we had a good TNT bible study about the distortion of the world. Mainly, we talked about the fall of Adam and Eve and how that creates the sense of "things not being right" in this world. But God's compassion and love shines through in those moments of hurt too, which is what we've experienced in the last month.

Yesterday, we raked leaves in the morning and then went to the library. We got the movie, "The Dark Knight" and watched it last night.

Friday, my work had a sales meeting all day, but we get off work early on those days which was nice. We learned about that "patience is the red carpet upon which God's grace approaches us." (From Max Lucado's A Love Worth Giving)

Last Sunday, we went to Ikea with my mom, Linda, Gary, Will, Mandy, and Aida. It is a huge place, but neat to go through.

Last Saturday (which was Halloween) was a yucky rainy day. I helped with a Soup Kitchen at Corinth for lunch, then came home with a migraine. We were suppose to have a block party at 4:30, but it got cancelled due to the rain. We just stayed inside and watched "Footloose." An 80's film is the perfect way to spend Halloween, right!