Oh, Shawn...

At my request, Shawn has graced us with a blog in which he will review movies, t.v. shows, and anything else he has an opinion on (which, if you know him, is EVERYTHING!) Now you all get to hear it, too! :) HAHAHA. Check it out. No posts yet, but even just his profile is a hoot. He truly is a witty fellow. http://thepreviewchannel.blogspot.com/

Nebuchadnezzar and Me

So today for my quiet time with God, I looked up a devotional by Beth Moore. Today's topic was how we today live in the lap of luxury, much like King Neb did in Daniel chapter 4 before God humbled him by sending him into the wild for 7 years to live like the animals. I really felt like God had something to say to me through this, and although I was getting it, nothing was really saying "Hey Katie, look at this!" like I thought it would. So, I went to Daniel 4 and started reading. Now, I have read this chapter quite a few times in my life, but the verse that really jumped out at me never would have before.
Ever since I had Lorelai, I have really, really struggled with anxiety. Maybe it's the extreme change that is taking place in my life, maybe it's the stress of having a human life to care for, maybe it's that lack of structure that was always there from day to day at my full time job, who knows. As anyone who has anxiety knows, it is an overwhelming, suffocating feeling and a constant state of drowning. It is hard, discouraging, and changes from feeling awesome one day, to feeling depressed the next. I often wonder how long it is going to last. Will I feel this way as long as I have a small child? Until I am so broken that I decide to go back to work full time just to get away from the responsibility I know God wants me to be in charge of right now? (Not to say that I won't work part-time, I feel God says that is okay for me. By the way, this is in NO way suggesting that God has not called anyone else with kids to work full time or that anyone who works full time with kids is running away from their responsibility. This is purely what God has spoken to MY life at this moment in time.) Needless to say, it's all I can think about sometimes. The verse I read today was SOOOO encouraging to me, so I thought I would share it- along with a big piece of my heart- with all of you! It comes from Daniel 4:34:
"At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation to generation."
Did you get that? His sanity was restored when he raised his eyes towards heaven and honored and glorified God! *sigh of relief* This will not last forever. It will pass. Thank God! I pray for all of you who have anxiety, and hope you pray for me, also.
Love,
Katie

Who Knew?

So after years of searching for someone who sells Advocare (a weight-management/daily nutrient product website) for a discount I found out today that it is super cheap just to sign on and sell it myself.....so that's what I did! If anyone wants to buy any of their products from me (using my discount...) let me know! (20% off what is listed on their site, plus a couple of dollars shipping) Leslie and I really like their MNS systems (I think it's under TRIM?) and we take the appetite suppressant one- it's alot of pills, but it has always really worked well. I have always felt that their products are SO much better and less scary than all of the other ones out there that screw up your heart. Yay! Hopefully this will really jump start my weight loss again.

Today I Shined my Sink......Again.

Okay, so if any of you have been reading my blog for about 6 months.....you know that 6 months ago I wrote a very excited blog about finding flylady.org and how it is helping me learn to clean my house....blah blah blah. I had a very happy and organized 6 weeks, then I forgot to unload my dishwasher one morning and it all went to hades. SO, here I go again. At the encouragement of my husband and my wish to once again regain my sanity, I'm going to try top start re-establishing my daily habits that kept my house clean and me happy and stress-free. Go me. If you pay attention to my personality traits and study me even half-way closely, you would probably realize fairly quickly that I am a creative and easily excitable person! I love new ideas and crafty things, and I love getting started on them and telling EVERYONE about them.....bu when they become more work than I bargain for, I quickly forget about them and start on something else exciting! I'm not lazy....I just like using my imagination....once the imagining part of the process is over, I want to move onto something else that I can get excited about and start working on that. This cleaning stuff is something I need to stick to! Any words of encouragement or wisdom are much appreciated. Blog on, my friends.

There's everywhere else....and then there's Vegas!

This past weekend Shawn's dad and brother treated us to a baby-free weekend in fabulous Las Vegas! We had a ton of fun (even though we were missing our Lorelai, who was at home with Auntie L) and saw 2 Cirque Du Soleil shows: Love and O. O was my favorite by far of any I've seen so far! The stage would change from a swimming pool to a platform before you even knew what was going on! We stayed on the strip at New York, New York and Shawn and his dad became pretty addicted to a Star Wars slot machine. At one point, they began to blame Ryan (Shawn's brother) and I for their string of bad luck and told us to go away. Ryan and I walked away towards the .25 slots we had been playing when I thought, ya know, I'll give the $1 slots a try. and I won $30! So I thought, hey- that was cool, I'll try my luck at another $1 machine. I was down to my last turn on a $20 bill when I pushed the button and WON $600.00!!! Ryan and I started screaming and jumping up and down (embarassing, I know, but we were caught up in the moment, and seriously, who did we care about seeing us in Vegas???) and ran over to Shawn and his dad. They were excited, but sent us away again, hoping to have a little luck of their own. So, Ryan and I, still shaking from the excitement, took a different $20.00 (I didn't dare cash out my $600.00 for fear I'd spend it) and went to another machine. On that very next $20 I won $974.00. I'm not even joking. At this point, I can't even say with certainty what happened next...Ryan and I were delirious. But, I do know that Pat (Shawn's dad) and Shawn made fun of me all weekend for panting like a dog with wild eyes and not being able to talk. Nice. Who cares, I had just won almost $1600.00. Who wouldn't be breathless? Here are some fun pictures of the long weekend: