God of This City

I cannot tell you how amazing it is when you get the chance to show total strangers some love. When you expose them to honest goodwill, it blows them away. I love seeing the reaction on people's faces when you want to do something for them, no strings attached. They can't believe it- everyhting these days has a catch. I had the oppurtunity to go with some friends to a local laundromat and pay for people's laundry this weekend. It was the best 3 hours I've had in a very long time. I think if more people found the time to do something like this our nation would be flipped upside down!

Crazier

So it's been a pretty busy month! I started a new workout with a different gym, so I've been getting up at 4:00 twice a week for Boot Camp. It's been pretty grueling, but next week is my last week in it, and I'll get to get measured and wee my results! I'm pretty excited!

Work has been kind of slow, but I have been doing some stuff to get a new make up line in, so that has been fun. I will soon be the only spa in Cedar Hill to carry Jane Iredale, Iredale Mineral Cosmetics!!! I'm so excited! I'm really hoping that boosts my business.

My dad ran for city council in Ovilla, and won. He will be getting sworn in next week, so we are all really happy for him. The day of the election, he sat and waved at people all day as they drove by the city council office. And that night, we even had a watch party, so we got to see him when they announced he had won. I had never seen my dad so happy. It was priceless. I'll remember that moment for the rest of my life.

Last weekend I had a booth at the local Costco and handed out bochures from my spa. It was pretty fun. That night I went to a fundraiser for an organization called JustOne. (www.just4one.org) It was really an eye opening experience. My small group from church is already organizing a community outreach through the JustOne initiative called Laundry Love Project. I'm really excited about it.

Life is really going pretty well these days. I'm reading a book called Enjoying the Silence, along with most of the encounter peeps. it's been really cool so far. We've been doing a series about how to hear God. I know sometimes I can't always tell if it's Him speaking to me or not. I know I need better disernment in that area.

I guess that's about it. Hope you all have a great and blessed day!

Running In Circles

Wow, so it's definitely been a while since I've writting on here. My bad. I've been a little busy. Doing what? Doing lots of stuff! Work, networking, youth group stuff (always fun!), spending time with Collin, and ... I guess that's about it.

Well I guess I can try to get you all caught up on what's been going on. I mean, if there is anyone out there who reads this and doesn't talk to me on a daily/weekly basis. I guess I left you guys off with visiting my cousin and my friend, Matt. Both visits were very interesting. Collin and I always have fun wherever we go. That day I think we had lunch at Chili's. Yeah... because that was like the one time we ate somewhere other than El Fenix and it definitely wasn't entertaining. We had a great time entertaining ourselves. And making fun of Collin's cane. We did get to use his handicapped parking tag for the first time. Usually all the handicapped parking is taken.

After lunch, I headed to Hutchins and spent a few hours at Fire House 2 with Matt and his shift. He gave me a 30 minute tour of the house. No lie... I now know what every compartment on the fire engine is for. It was actually a lot of fun, and the guys pretty much devored the lemon bars I made for them in about 10 minutes.

The rest of that week wasn't as eventful but I guess I survived. Haha. The followig two weeks were good, I had classes at International Dermal Institute on Monday and Tuesday. And I even ran into an old friend from my Paul Mitchell days, so that was really cool! We got to have lunch together and catch up on what we had been doing since graduation.

At the beginning of April I went to West, TX and got to do some moulage make up on the high school kids for their Shattered Dreams program. I was so nervous that I woke up at 2:30 in the morning!! It was crazy because I had never done special effects make up like that, and I was really afraid that I would mess it up! But the most rewarding part of that day was when the kids walked out to the accident scene and I heard some EMTs say "Wow, that moulage is really good!"

So after that I felt pretty much on top of things. Still made sure to see my cousin about ever other week or so. He and Matt actually hadn't met, so we all got to have dinner to together a couple of weeks ago. That was really cool. They sat and talked about Chick fil A all night. I am just so glad God spared my cousin's life. And so glad that Matt was at the hospital the night of the accident.

Last night, Collin and I went to some gala for the Southeast Dallas Chamber. We went, we ate- and then we left. It was kind of funny. We ended up dropping off some stuff at the house he's moving into this weekend. I can hardly believe the accident was 5 months ago. He has come so far.

God has been teaching me so much lately. I can't even explain. Mostly about patience. Especially with work. The last couple of weeks have been good. But I look at my schedule for next week and see that I have no clients booked, and its hard. There are times when I really wonder what I got myself into. But I know God put me here for a reason, and while I don't know what that reason it right now, I know that it's there.

I hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Who Wouldn't Want to be Me?

I have an amazingly blessed life. It has taken a long time for things to really feel like they have come together at the spa. But last week I finally had my ribbon cutting and that went really well. About 30 to 40 people showed up and I booked 4 appointments, so that was really exciting!

There are still a few things that I am trying to work out with the shop owners. Just a couple of small annoyances that need to be handled, but other than that, everthing has been going really well at the shop. I haven't sold as much retail this month, but I have a few more clients coming in this week, so hopefully I'll have a chance.

Tomorrow I'm off to visit with my cousin, Collin, and my friend, Matt. Yay! So that's it for now!

Never Again

So another Valentine's Day has come and gone. Although, I have to say, this year was far worse than any other.

I've never had a "valentine" and that's fine with me. I think the whole day is pretty stupid. I don't need Hallmark or anyone else telling me when to send my friends and loved ones gifts and cards. I don't mind doing that stuff for no reason, so don't make up some day and tell me I'm a bad person if I don't mold to the status quo.

Anyways.... so I'm already not a big fan of the day. But, like I said, I usually do something for my friends. Usually a card and a small gift. Well, this year I happened to mail a card to a friend of mine that lives out of town, and it contained references to inside jokes. Nothing inappropriate, just funny.

Well, I worked all day on Saturday and by the time I got home, I was exhausted. When I walked in the house, my mom said that I had mail. I looked at the counter and there was a card-sized envelope with my name on it and the friend's name in the return address. So I immediately thought they had sent me a card as well.

But when I opened the envelope, my stomach dropped to the floor. It was the card I had sent them. They had sent it back. Along with a letter explaining how they felt our friendship was unhealthy and was causing emotional impurity. Needless to say, I was shocked and incredibly hurt. Especially since I had just seen that person a week beforehand and felt that they should have said something then if they weren't comfortable with how things were between us.

I guess I don't have to say that forgiving this person will be next to impossible right now. I value honesty, even if it hurts at the time. It's very difficult for me to see how this person called themself my friend and couldn't find a way to be honest with me.

So yeah, I guess my weekend didn't go very well. I also got sick on top of it all and had to cancel on my clients today. Hopefully I will feel better soon, physically and emotionally.

Common Ground

So today I was sitting with one of the store owners and we were talking about how people my age don't go to church. I hate that the attendance for 20 somethings had dropped to bascially nothing. Even at my own church I can count on one hand the number of singles. And then we talked about how great it would be if there was a place in the area where young adults could get together and hang out after work, and on the weekends and meet other Christians.

I was really excited about the idea! We discussed how it could have a game area, and diner, and a place for concerts, too. I mean, this would be great if it happened! Then I thought about the financial part and my suggestion was getting the fundung from churches in the area so that it would be a place for everyone, not just one denomination, or one church. It would be more of a community hang out and place to reach out.

The ideas were just spilling out! Like having a counselor on staff so that if someone needed some help with a serious issue, then there would be a a safe place for them to come.

This would be absolutely amazing if this could actually happen. Finding a place to lease as a community center for young Christian adults and then finding funding from churches would definitely take a lot, but I think it would be totally great, and a great way to get Christians my age to meet and make friends. I know that it's hard finding friends my age. Someone I share common ground with. But this would be great. It really would be amazing. And I would love to see it happen.

Push Me Down

I am so tired of being made the bad guy all the time. Of being pushed away when my friends have a problem. Of being told they can't trust me. Right, yeah, okay. I am so tired of being the only one who hears the "honesty" but the minute I say what's honestly on my mind I'm some kind of crazy person.

I'm hurt because someone would do all of this to me and say they were my friend. I'm confused because it always gets turned around on me, and they say it's the other way around. I'm tired because it seems like this is a vicious cycle and they will never see a need for change.

At the end of all of this though, is forgiveness. I'm sure they don't think that I have truly forgiven them, and that's their issue. But see, I know they will never apologize. I know they will never see that they might have been wrong for treating me like they did. Treating me like yesterday's garbage when they had a bad day. Or lying and saying everything was fine because they thought I didn't care. For all of that, they are forgiven. And they can walk away, that's their decision.

But James hit it right on the nose when he said "What causes fights and quarrels among you?" We spend so much time finding a reason to be mad at someone that we cannot see what we did wrong ourselves. He also said "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." I truly believe that. Was I perfect with what happened? I'm gonna say probably not. But at least my conscience is clear with being willing to take the first step and forgive them.

Slummin in Paradise

So the last couple of weeks have been utter chaos. Everything has gone really well with the owners of the shop, and I have loved getting things ready. Ok, that's not entirely true. I have MOSTLY loved getting things ready. If you don't know, I'm not one of those people who likes details- at all. I mean, I really don't do that detailed oriented thing. Not even a little bit. I just have big dreams and leave everyone else to figure out how to make them work.

So anyways, I spent a weekend ordering product, equipment and supplies. And last week I got most of it in. At this point, I'm only waiting on my major product vendor to get their stuff to me, and I'll be set. My parents and I spent most of Saturday setting up my little space and it was great to see it all coming together.

Today, I went up to the shop to clean and get things rearranged again. The only thing I am waiting on now, aside from the dermalogica, is a curtain. I am set up to do waxing, though, which is pretty cool. I did a feace wax on my mom today. I was surprised how quick it went when I didn't have to run around looking for an instructor to sign papers and get product. Hahaha, those were the days.

You Gave Me a Promise

I had a great time in Branson last week. My brother and I got to hang out and celebrate his birthday, and drive around listening to music, and have fun times just out and about. We really did have tons of fun. While I was there, I started wondering about why I still hadn't found a job. And one afternoon I was praying about it. I had finally decided that maybe I would stay in Missouri for an extended amount of time. But I told God that I wanted his will.

His will called me 5 minutes later. Before I left town, I had left a voicemail at a shop that was interested in hiring an esthetician. But I hadn't heard from them. So when the owner called right after I had been prayed, I was floored. The owner and I talked and I told her about my training and she asked me to call her when I got back in town.

So obviously, I didn't stay in Branson as long as I thought I might. I did go over to the shop on Saturday and talk with both owners about the set up and the lease. By the end of our meeting the only real problem I saw was meeting the lease and having to buy the product, linens and equipment. But the owners decided to give me a break on the lease for the first few months, so that eased my apprehension.

I have to say that I am really looking forward to this. Because I am leasing, I pretty much am free to do what I what with my space and I will make my own hours. I was so touched by the sermon on Sunday at my church. He basically said that God has better things out there for us than we could even imagine, we just have to tune in with our hearts and minds to find His will. I have been praying for a job so long, that I couldn't imagine how great this one could be. Stressful, right now with all the orders, but it's a blessing as well.

The Best Day

So today was kind of a weird day. I mean, if I was in Texas, this would have been a weird dya, but maybe because I'm not, it's actually a normal day. I don't know. You decide.

Things were fin this morning, I slept in and took things slow while my brother was at work. Around 11 it started to rain. A lot. This would have been fine if I hadn't had a dream a few days ago about a tornado. I'm not kidding. Before I even decided to come on this trip I had a dream I was here and a tornado came out of no where. So weird.

When my brother got home, we headed for The Landing to have dinner. We were driving along when we looked over and on the side of the street there was a huge ornament rolling along. I mean, it was the size of a medicine ball! We both laughed and Jay said that it must have come off of a show's outdoor displays.

After dinner, we made our way to WalMart to pick up a couple movies. We got all the way to the entertainment section and the lights began to flicker. We ignored it and went on. A minute later, the lights flickered again and then went off completely. The whole store was powerless. We laughed and stood in the "main aisle" like we were instructed. When we finally got to the car, we noticed that the lights all along the way were out. Strange.

Anyways, we had a good evening and it was definitely not boring. Can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store....

Thankful

I got to spend the evening with my cousin, Collin. I hadn't seen him in about a week and a half and he looked better today than he did the last time I saw him. His eyes are still sewn shut, but he seemed to be in a good mood while my brother and I entertained him with stories. I am just amazed that he has come so far in such a short time. I know to him it seems like forever.

Collin told us about all the surgeries and showed us where he had been stitched up on his leg and arm. He said that when they did the surgery on his face the doctors couldn't find all the facial bones. Great. And in a few months they will have to go back in and reconstruct his right eye socket.

I was sitting there wondering how he could have so much patience to deal with all he is having to deal with right now. At one point tonight, he dropped a pill and the nurse spent a good 5 minutes digging around his bed for it. And he told us later that it was frustrating to have her do that. He also tols us about overhearing some nurses complain about working, and he got on to them about it.

He has so many reasons to complain, and he didn't at all. Maybe it was just because we weren't around ling enought to hear him say anything, but I wouldn't have blamed him if he felt inclined to do so. I am thankful every day that God spared his life, and I know his family and friends feel the same way. It was definitely a humbling experience tonight. Hope you all have a blessed Christmas.

How Far We've Come

So this is the time of year when I usually sit around and think about how life didn't turn out exactly like I thought it would. When I was growing up, I thought "Hey, I'm totally gonna be married by the time I'm 21. And have 1 kid, and etc." And every year God shows me that's just not how it's gonna go.

To be frank, last year I thought my life was going places. I thought I was with the guy who I might end up with, and to me- that was really all that mattered. However, God has shown me that I was really off base. And I'll be the first to admit, that I needed this year to happen.

I needed to have my heart broken. I renewed me relationship with God when someone just up and walked away from me. I needed to be in a classroom for 8 hours a day with some really hateful people. God to showed me that I can witness even when I don't say a word. I needed to work with the youth at my church. I found that just being there for those kids is so important.

God really did show me so much. And I am still learning. But when I look back at this year, and how far I have come in my faith, I am proud. And I am glad, nay- blessed, for all the things God brought me through. Just thought I would share that with everyone. Have a blessed Christmas!

The Best Time of Year?

How is it that it's only December 18th and I'm already tired of Christmas? Maybe it's because I just don't enjoy seeing the nation think we need to buy tons of stuff for our family and friends to make it a "good one." I mean, really.... that's kinda sad. When I think about past Christmases, I never really remember what gifts I got. Especially as a kid. What I remember is the moments.

Ok, one year we were all in the middle of opening presents and my dad started acting weird and tickling our dog. So then we all went over and started tickling my dad. And it was hilarious. Do I remember what I got that year? Nope.

And one year I was running around the house and somehow managed to knock the tree over. Of course, a bunch of ornaments were broken, but that is something we always talk about every year.

I don't remember what I got for gifts last year, even. Mostly because it's what happens between the gifts that is more important. And I'm not saying those moments are perfect either. But it's great when we are able to sit around and remenisce about past holidays and have a good laugh. That means more to me than having tons of gifts under the tree.

I really loved hearing a sermon about overgifting. One of the leaders at our church did an amazing job really showing us how we, as a nation, love to spend spend spend and forget about the rest of the world, who are trying to survive, not just "survive the holidays." It really was a humbling event to hear that, and I was pleased for someone to step up and say "Hey, we can help others out instead of buying stuff that we don't need."

One thing I really hate is how we can't offend anyone with the really meaning of Christmas, either. We have to say "happy holidays." Ok, that's just silly. The only reason we have this holiday is because of Christ. Hello. The fact that Christians won't stand up and demand we keep Him where He belongs, especially when we are celebrating His birth, is ridiculous. So.... I'm gonna say it and you can get mad or say it with me.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

A Day With My Friends

Today had some pretty perfect weather. I wish that it could be 78 degrees all year round. Maybe I should move to San Diego. Nevermind, that is way to expensive. So instead, I'll just take the good weather where I can. Anyways... my friend, Jess, and I made plans to visit Six Flags today and then we roped her Life Coach, Phil, into coming as well. It was great fun. The only downside to the day was finding out that some of our favorite rides were closed. But we didn't let that get us down. We enjoyed ourselves, and even waited in line at the ShockWave an extra 20 minutes because someone threw up, and we had to wait for the workers to clean up the mess. Gross. But really, we had a great time!

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Have you ever thought a fresh start would be the answer? I have. And about a year ago I started going to a new church, and I not trying to put it down. But I am saying there is something wrong with how things are done in mainstream churches these days. And maybe this topic is totally taboo. But whatever.

My whole life I felt like an outsider. At my old church (one of Dallas' most recognized mega-churches) my brother was in every select choir the church offered high school students. And I'm not saying he didn't deserve it, because he did. He has an amazing voice and has worked hard to develope it. But this church was really good at playing favorites. And as the sister of a favorite, it was very hard to live in his shadow. I never had a chance. I never got a solo, a lead in a play or got picked for a select choir. It was tough and I hated it. I hated church, I hated the leadership and eventually I left.

I started going to a new church. And no one knew me, save a few people. But it was great to be around people who didn't know my family. I wasn't in a shadow anymore. After a while I started working with the youth and it was great. Eventually I even made some friends. But recently things haven felt different. Maybe the longer you're exposed to something the more disenchanted you become.

I started noticing the same things that I had battled at my old church. On a smaller scale, of course, but they were still there. And it's hard to see this. It's hard to feel like an outcast in a place where God is supposed to be. Ok, maybe outcast is too big of a word. But you get the drift. Socially unacceptable might be the better term.

Like I said, I'm not trying to bring down my church because there are tons of things I love about it, too. I just feel like the truth should be brought to light. Even if no one wants to hear it... or say it.

The Adventure Begins...

Ok, well, I'm not saying that I'm newly single because, well... I'm not. Definitely not. In fact, yesterday marked one year since I last saw the last guy I dated. So I've been doing this single thing for a while. And I have to say, it wasn't until recently, that I have realized what a blessing it truly can be. I have time to do things and not worry about making time for that significant other. I can decide to become active in a group with church, and not worry how it will affect my relationship. It is actually pretty nice not having to check with someone about everyday things all the time.

Here's the thing- I just recently came into a new thought process. Because I wasn't always thinking like this. I mean, there is no way that I was okay with this lifestyle all the time. And honestly, there are still days when it's a struggle. But I have learned so much in the last few months about God, His love, and about myself, that I'm really learning to be okay with how things are.

A few months ago my friend, Jess, and I were at a BarlowGirl concert and they touched a little bit on dating. And the girl who was speaking was saying that she wanted to date so so much when she was a teen, but God told her no. It wasn't to just keep her physically pure, but emotionally pure, as well. I had never even thought of that. I had never thought of dating as bad...and all of a sudden I realized why God was keeping me single. Because I clearly had a lot to learn.

Time went on, and I read a book called When God Writes Your Love Story. I think the best part was reading about how two close friends decided all they wanted was friendship. The guy even talked to the girl's dad about it because they spent so much time together. And just a few weeks later, they realized they wanted more than friendship. But they had waited on God's timing and with that, came the parent's blessing.

Now, I am in the middle of reading I Kissed Dating Goodbye. And I have to say, it's amazing. It has really touched my heart and I love how the author says that everyone has doubts about God's will for them and their love life. And I love that he is just so black and white with so many issues.

So here I am. 10:41Pm.... wondering to myself how God will put all of my experiences into a perfect love story. Of course, until then, I'm going to be on an awesome adventure of being single and seeing where He takes me.