Refine me

I've had this song on my heart all day.  I can't seem to escape it.


I come into this place
Burning to receive your peace

I come with my own chains
From wars I've fought for my own selfish gain
You're my God and my Father
I've accepted your Son
But my soul feels so empty now
What have I become?

Lord, come with your fire,
Burn my desires; refine me
Lord, my will has deceived me
Please come and free me
Refine me

My heart can't see
When I only look at me
My soul can't hear
When I only think of my own fears
They are gone in a moment
You're forever the SAME
Why did I look away from You
How can I speak Your name?

Lord, come with Your fire,
burn my desires; refine me
Lord, my will has deceived me
Please come and free me
Come rescue this child
For I long to be reconciled to You

It's all I can do
To give my heart and soul to You
And pray, and pray, oh I will pray

Lord, come with Your fire,
burn my desires; refine me
Lord, my will has deceived me
Please come and free me
Come rescue this child
For I long to be reconciled to You

Refine me, refine me
Refine me, refine me

Does your soul feel empty?   I'm being completely honest and open......I've felt like that.  I've tried figuring things out on my own.  I've tried to do things MY way -  even when I've heard that voice telling me "let Me handle this".  Why don't we listen to that voice?  Why has our LAST resort sometimes been God?  Why hasn't He been the first choice?

The words in this song hit home with me - WHY did I look AWAY from YOU?  HOW can I speak YOUR name???!!!!  After trying things out my way and usually failing, how can I even speak His name?  How can I even go running back to God?  It always makes me feel so unworthy, but.......

It's all I can do, To give my heart and soul to You,  And pray, and pray, oh I will pray.  Refine me.

 

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!

If you all know me, you know I am SO fond of Bradley's!  It's one of my favorite shops in town.  Every year, one of the big events for the shop is their Christmas Open House.  It is always amazing!  Each year, Joy finds more and more incredible items for her friends.  I call the customers her friends because she becomes friends with everyone who enters the quaint little shop.  She is such a sweet, genuine, beautiful woman who values every person who steps foot through her door.  Joy is just that.  A pure joy!  You won't feel like just another number walking through the door.   If Joy isn't there (which is rare), you will still be welcomed and valued in the same way.

 The images below are a couple of the pictures found on Bradley's Facebook page.
Look at this cuteness in the storefront window!!!!!   

 

I was so happy to see she was able to purchase more of these ornaments again.  I bought several of them last year, and will definitely be purchasing more again this year!!  (This is one of the ornaments on my tree last year)  They're simple, but the messages are so beautiful!  They could also be used as adornments on your beautifully wrapped Christmas presents.

Check out the fun stuff on www.shopbradleys.com.  Did you know that you can order some of  Bradley's DELICIOUS chocolates in all different shapes, sizes, letters, etc.?  For ANY occassion?  Just give them a couple days notice, and they'll take care of it for you!  (I recommend the dark chocolate.)

I'm not promoting Bradley's today because of any kickbacks.....there aren't any in it for me.  I'm promoting Bradley's today because:  1.  It's a great little shop that is FABULOUS!  2.  I want to see them have more success than they already have.  3.  They're local.  4.  It's an incredible treasure. 5.  Brad and Joy have values and integrity and it shows in everything they do!  6.  When you walk out of Bradley's with a bag of treats, you just feel good about it!  7.  And they have LOTS and LOTS of chocolate!!!

If you enjoy blogs, you should check out Joy's blog!!!!  You'll enjoy it, I promise!

It was a graveyard smash.

 

The leaves are GORGEOUS here right now.  Today or tomorrow I'm planning on getting out of the house and taking more pictures.  I'm SO excited about that!

Yesterday it was nasty and rainy and chilly.  My sweet husband was so accommodating in taking me to a couple locations so I could snap some shots.  This is one of the locations.  I think this picture is so cool.  

It's obviously at a graveyard AND it was Halloween, which made it more cool.  

I hope you all have a great day!  My best friend is coming to town today and I can't wait to see her!  Yay! 

New do!

Okay, so it's actually about two weeks old. I was getting a little tired of my long curly hair. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the hair I've got. Thankful I've FINALLY figured out how to tame it after all these years. But, I needed to do something with these scraggly ends.

I totally trust my friend and what she does to my hair. I went in and told her I'd like to chop a lot of it off, and that I trusted her to do what she thought would look good on me.
After the first snip, I felt some weight drop. I got a LITTLE nervous, but there was no turning back.....it will grow back, right?! This is what I look like now.

I must say, I liked it at first. I liked it a lot, but what would Mike think about it? Oh no.....my heart was beating when I walked out of the salon. When he saw me, he said he liked it. Later that day, he said he liked it even more. The next day, he was hooked! He said he loved it! Every single time he saw me that first week, he'd say, "honey, I REEEEEEAAAAAALLLLLLLY love your hair! I think it looks great!" He STILL loves my new do, and I must admit, I do too!

**Sad news, though, I cannot fix it curly right now. I knew that was going to be part of the deal. Just for fun, I fixed it curly......JUST to see what it looked like. Yep. I was right. Freaking Carrot Top. NO THANKS. I'll flat iron it for a few more months, thank you.**

I'm hoping to post more often. Stay tuned.
My next post is going to hopefully be about my trip to Idaho! It was a BLAST! It was so much fun! And it was definitely a memorable trip! That post is LONG overdue, but I can't help but share it with you! :)

Surprise!

Today on my way home from work I called Mike. He told me he had 2 surprises for me. One was my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were coming over. WITH dinner(which was great, by the way). :) The second one he said he couldn't tell me....I'd have to wait until I got home. I was begging him to tell me. The only thing he told me was that I got a package in the mail today. He wouldn't tell me who it was from, and every guess I took, he gave the same reply, "I'm not telling."

Doesn't everyone love surprises?! The suspense was ridiculous. I wasn't expecting a package from anyone......who could it be?

I got home, and there was the package sitting there with the mail from the day. It was a bubble-wrap envelope from..............my sweet sweet Grandma!!!! I could hardly wait to open it. I had no idea what she would send to me. I opened up the envelope and this is what I found.

A letter along with some booklets. What were the booklets? My Grandma went to the horse races in July and again last weekend. These are the booklets she got from the park. There are so many things about this that are cute. She circled the dates on the front. Circled the category of race that she was betting on.


The letter she sent was so sweet, and to anyone who knows ME, KNOWS that I read the greeting out loud, in HER voice. "Hiiiiiiiiii Mike and Jaaaaaanet." That is what made this so cute. As well as the fact that when I picked up the booklets, all of the tickets from the horses she bet on fell out. As I looked through the books, I saw she also circled more races she bet on.


One of my favorite parts of this, is how she ended the sweet letter. "See you in November. Love, Grandma. Say hello to everybody." She has a hard time writing because of arthritis, but it didn't stop her from sharing the excitement of the horse races!

This is my sweet Grandma. This picture was taken in April when she came down to visit for a week. We had a birthday party for her, for her 87th birthday! Doesn't she look FABULOUS?! She was so excited about having a birthday party, and later told me that this was only the 2nd birthday party she has ever had! Knowing THAT made it even more special!!! And made me even more thankful we planned this! I love this precious lady!!!!!!!
XOXOXOOOOO

Private eyes are watching you.

Last week I met a lady who is a private investigator. She gave a business card to each of the girls I was with so we could check out her site if we ever needed a P.I. No big deal. Stuck it in my bag.

Well, Wednesday night Mike couldn't sleep. He got out of bed and decided he'd watch some tv. That's when he remembered the Powerball drawing was a few hours earlier. His curiosity got the best of him and went to look for the ticket in my purse (that was in my bag).

He came back to bed as I was rolling over to get comfortable. He laid down on the bed and he said, "I can't sleep. I was going to check the Powerball numbers but I didn't know exactly where the tickets were." I said, "they're in my wallet where they always are." He said, "well, I opened your bag and found.......a card.....for a private investigator......" I burst out in laughter!!!! I couldn't stop laughing!!!

He said, "well, I'm glad YOU think this is funny because I don't." Before I was able to get any words out, he said, "Did you hire a private investigator to watch me? Do you think I'm cheating? If you do, I want you to know that I have never been so in love with you as I am now. I am not cheating on you." I said, "oh boy!!! This scenario couldn't have played out any more perfectly than it just did!!! I told the girls it would be funny if this happend!" He said, "I don't know what is so funny."

Then I told him that we "met this lady who gave us each a business card, told us she was a P.I. and if we ever needed someone, to give her a call. I don't think you're cheating. End of story. As soon as I put that card in my bag, I told the girls it would be just my luck if Mike found this card AND it would be SOOOO HILARIOUS!" He still didn't find it as HILARIOUS as I did.

The next morning, as I was leaving for work, I walked in the dining room and saw that business card neatly placed on the edge of the table. I just busted out laughing. :)

I hope everyone is having a great week! It's almost Friday!!!!

The Search is Over.

Hello blog world! I can't believe it has been so long since my last post.

Several of you have been asking about my camera search. Well, first, I am EXTREMELY happy to say that the Office Max customer service people are awesome. After I sent an email to them telling them my story, someone called me a couple of days later. They cancelled the giftcard and sent me a check for the entire balance!!!! I was overjoyed.

As far as the camera search goes....I have not made a purchase yet. I had my decision made, I wanted the Nikon D60....UNTIL I started talking to some photographers and doing research online. One of my friends told me about www.dpreview.com, which has been very helpful. It has TONS of information about practically ANY camera imaginable. My main goal is to find a camera that I am going to enjoy using for a very long time. I have come to a completely different decision in my search.

I want a Canon! I can't believe I'm saying that since my heart was set on Nikon. One of the main reasons I'm going with Canon is b/c of lens compatability. (Granted, I really know nothing about lenses yet, but I'm sure that will be my next area of interest/study.) Seems as if most, if not all, Canon lenses fit all the Canon bodies. NOT true with Nikon - there are only certain lenses available for specific bodies. I don't want go 5 years down the road only to find out all of the lenses for my camera body are discontinued. That won't happen with Canon.

This is a HUGE purchase for me, so I want to make sure, 100%, that I am making the right decision. After all of my research, I've decided that this is going to be mine.....


Ladies and gentlemen: meet the Canon Rebel T1i (picture courtesy of Canon, of course).

Once I decided on Canon, I was planning on going with the Rebel XSi, and I was confident in that. Until I heard about the T1i. The main difference between these two is the T1i records HD video. The last camera I had included video recording, and I used it often. I'm going to spend a little bit more to get HD video on my new camera since I'm going to have it for a LONG time.

......Now, will someone PLEASE put this camera on sale?......... :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!!!!