My Stud Muffin

It's been a couple days since I have posted because we've had some activity going on! We had a big ice storm come through this week. I got to leave early from work on Tuesday and then got to go in late and leave early on Wednesday!! The bad part of leaving early on Wednesday was that the power at our house went out Wednesday morning. There are so many people across the state without power that they told us it could be up to two weeks before our power came back on!!! Seriously!!! Luckily all of our friends offered to open their homes to us! We spent the night with Billie and Derek (and Bear and Apollo too!) although Dakota wasn't too fond of the big dogs. I think they remind him that he truly is a small dog! ha! Anyway, Thursday morning Jonathan and Dakota came to work with me and sat in my break room to stay warm. I was starting to get depressed. I mean what else could go wrong in life?? I started thinking about all of the money wasted when our food in our refrigerator goes bad. We didn't have anywhere to get wifi for Jonathan's job search. I called my mom (isn't that what we all do when we're sad?) and she of course was trying to figure ways out to get Dakota to her house. Maybe that would take some stress off.

Let me take you back two weeks: Our pastor has been teaching on Song of Solomon and relationships. He challenged all of the men to take their wives out on a date that week and for the wives to email him to tell him what their husbands did for them. He set up an email address that was called My Stud Muffin! Well, Jonathan took the challenge and he was creative! We went to see a movie using a gift card that we had been given a year ago. Then he drew me a bubble bath with rose petals. he gave me a vase with two roses and a lily because I'm his lily among the roses. And he had Dove chocolate because I'm his dove. These are two names that Solomon used to call his lover:) Cute huh? Well of course I emailed the my stud muffin email address to tell them about our date!

Back to yesterday: I'm depressed and I look down to my phone and I have an email alert. (Luckily I have my email forwarded to my phone because I wouldn't have gotten it since we had no power or Internet!) I see an email from our pastor! What??!! I started reading and it said that he had chosen Jonathan as the WINNER of the Stud Muffin Contest! What???? I started crying! I mean, God knows how to pick you up right when you need it! Wow! I was overwhelmed! (I had an angry customer wanting fees back waiting in the lobby for me and I had to call into my manager and ask him to help the customer since I had tears in my eyes!) I could barely contain the surprise I was so excited. After a couple emails and phone calls we had everything ready for a 4:30 surprise today! And was he surprised! Our pastor and two camera men showed up at our front door "Publishers Clearing House Style" with an enormous check and a huge bouquet of balloons! When our pastor put the microphone in Jonathan's face and asked him what was so special about this date, Jonathan couldn't even remember what we did on our date because he blanked! How cute! They gave us a gift card to Malone's, a night at a hotel, and a limo ride!!! Isn't that awesome?? Isn't that a God thing? He will not give us more than what we can bear! Here's a picture of Jonathan and his check!

And as you can see in the picture, our power is back on. It came back on yesterday afternoon! We are thankful, since there are still thousands of people without power!

Even though this isn't a ray of light in the job front, it is a ray of light in life. God is with us and he will protect us. We are praying that a job offer will come before the savings is gone. We have to continue to trust Him. He knows when to lift us up! Just look at that adorable face! His spirits have been lifted and so have mine! Thanks for your continued prayers.