Quick Post - Day 3

For anyone counting, today was my third day on my "extreme" (not so really) diet and exercise regimen. And yes, I have stuck to counting every point of everything that enters my mouth AND I have run three days in a row. Now, they have been short runs (3 mi, 2.25 mi, and 2.5 mi) but they are runs. Once I get more in shape I'll start running longer runs. I've found out that when I run longer, my body is so exhausted that I dont want to run every day. So, to stay on my daily workouts, I'm running short runs. Yesterday I even played a volleyball game for our church's competitive league after my run!

Luckily Billie was coming over tonight to sew and when she comes over she pushes me to run. My legs were sore from 2 days in a row (after running about once a week for the past couple months) so I was not looking forward to a run, but luckily she kept talking and we made it...even if it was only 2.5 miles!

I'm not going to celebrate just yet...I cannot let up because if I skip one day of running or sneak one food that isn't counted, I'm worried that I will slowly fall back off the wagon! :) So Day #4 here I come!!! I just hope it doesn't rain! I'm not running in the rain so I'll have to be creative and we all know how bad I am with being creative!

BTW...I'm so glad Adam was in the bottom two on AI! Knock him down a peg. He has a crazy good voice and a huge range, but he needs to be on Broadway. He has a theater voice. He's not someone that I want to listen to on the radio with all of that screaming. So I would have been just fine if he had gone home. My favs are still Kris and Danny! Did I say how glad I am that Adam was in the bottom two? I hope that doesn't make people pick up their phones next week to make sure he has the most votes!

Back to Points

One of my close friends from college is getting married in Orlando in 4 short weeks. I'm really excited A) for my friend who is getting married, B) to see all of my old college friends, and C) to go to Orlando even if it is for only 3 days!!! This past weekend Jonathan and I went shopping for a dress for the wedding. Yes, J was thrilled! Do you hear the sarcasm? Anyway, I never wear dresses because I can never find any that fit and are flattering. But yes, we went to Macy's and I found a dress on the sale rack that was really cute...actually j picked it out. He has excellent taste! I should bring him with me more often! :)

Anyway, I talked to my friend today about the wedding weekend events and now I'm super excited to go! My issue is that we will be at a pool in bathing suits with people I know!! Now it's one thing to go on vacation and wear a bikini around people you'll never see again, but wearing a bikini around old friends? Seriously an issue.

So, after I swapped out my summer and winter clothes yesterday and saw that all of my bathing suits from last summer are bikinis, I decided that I needed to get back on the Weight Watchers wagon. I don't go to the meetings or anything like that, but I do keep track of how many points I eat. I've found that this is the best "diet" out there that works for me because I can still splurge every now and then...I just need portion control.

After work today I decided to go for a run. It was at least 85 degrees out and the sun was blazing! Part way through my run I had already gone through my water bottle and was feeling a little dehydrated so I stopped at the house where Jonathan was in the front yard watering our plants. He sprayed me with the garden hose and filled up my water bottle, then I finished my run! We grilled out fat free hot dogs and ate a low point dinner. Or should I say, I had a low point dinner. Jonathan had some brats and asked me if I wanted one. We looked at the nutrition facts and one brat was 7 points!!! That's huge when I only get 18 per day!!! So I had a low point dinner tonight and I still have some extra points to eat!

Four weeks to get fit... I can do it!!! Positive thinking!

By the way, Billie and I have been busy sewing...Here are a couple of the new Sassy (mini) Bags we made this weekend:

Reality TV and life...

Did anyone watch American Idol? Lets talk about that disco medley last night! What in the world?? Where do they dig up these people? I mean, I wasn't sure if it was a joke or for real. That first lady needed a good supportive bra and some singing lessons. The second lady singing was busting out of that horrible yellow dress. I wasn't sure what to think. It's so frustrating that the reason we are watching the results show is to see who gets voted off...not to hear people sing from the disco era. It makes me mad that the show either leaves 30 seconds to show who got voted off or it runs over and the DVR stops recording!!! Lets leave the show for what the purpose is...to tell us who gets voted off!

America's Next Top Model - I was glad that the snobby girl got sent home! Woohoo!

Biggest Loser was pretty sad. I felt bad for Kristen. She really still needed to be on the ranch. But she did look really good at the end compared to her original picture. I really think they should have sent Ron home weeks ago when they had the chance. I like Mike but he was acting pretty cocky on the show this week! And I think it's dangerous that there is still a team in tact because it gives them extra voting power. I still love Tara! I was worried when she took the money and not the pound advantage but it worked out for her. I know others don't like her but seriously she is such a hard worker and I love that she has such a competitive determination to win! She wins almost every competition!!

On to Amazing Race. Did you watch this Sunday? OK, so this whole season my favorites have been the brother/sister team of Tammy and Victor and the mother/son team of Margie and Luke. Luke is deaf and he and his mom have turned out to be a tough team coming in first many times. Can I just say that this past episode this week made me really not like Luke and Margie? Oh my goodness. Luke elbow-checked Lakisha in the face at a clue box and then ran into her at another clue box. And his mom, like many moms seem to be these days, just KNEW that her son wouldn't push Lakisha and it was Lakisha that was rude. Well, the show played the clips over and over enough times that showed it was evident that Luke was being the physical one. Then at the end they complained to Phil about Lakisha. They brought up that Lakisha and her sister Jennifer were being mean to Luke because of his disability. I mean seriously, how can you just disregard his actions and blame everything bad that happens to him on his disability and not his wrongful actions? I hope they redeem themselves next week. I still like Victor and Tammy. It reminds me of the age difference between my brothers and me and if we went on the race together what our struggles would be.

My real life seams unreal still. It's still hard to believe that Jonathan got that job! Every time I think about it I'm amazed at God's power. Wow He really had a plan for us. And we are thankful! We still don't have many details about the job at this point. It's just strange to have such a weight lifted off of my shoulders...our shoulders. This might sound weird but I wasn't into doing anything with the house. Probably partly because I knew I couldn't spend money and partly because I was depressed after such a long time without answers. Now I look at the house and I've mentally put up a privacy fence at the back of our yard, reorganized our closets and put up extra shelving, repainted the living room, and finished flooring the attic (which was the project we were working on when J lost his job in November.) I love having a project to work on and I feel like I'm back to life! And back to projects...Jonathan better watch out (since he's the one who has to do do the work of my projects) hehe! Love you, honey! :)

HE GOT IT!!!!!!

Jonathan got the job at University of Kentucky! He is an accounting supervisor senior! Sounds important doesn't it? I'm home on my half day since I work next Saturday and I was sitting here writing a post about how hard it is to wait and my impatience when he called with the good news!!! Oh my goodness! I don't even know what to say other than God is good! He had more than we could hope or dream in His plan and He still has more than we can hope or dream in our future. When Jonathan lost his job we tried to just focus on the fact that God had something bigger and better out there for him that was beyond our expectations and here it is! This job sounds absolutely perfect for him. No more sales quotas, angry customers, counting dirty money, or working Saturdays! I'm so happy he is out of the banking industry!

We don't know too many details yet about vacation time and benefits, but we do know that he will start this new position in 2 weeks! How exciting! Can you tell that I'm thrilled? I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or scream! I kinda did a mixture of all of the above:)

Thank you for all of your prayers! It really has been a long 5 months of ups and downs and we really appreciated the prayers through it all. We are so blessed to have so many people praying for us and cheering us on! In this economy with so many people loosing their jobs, we do not take this job opportunity for granted. Thanks also for all of your kind and encouraging words. It's hard to explain the deep emotional feelings that come from losing a job and it really helped to read encouraging notes and comments!

I'll leave my rant about Amazing Race for another day! Today is about celebrating and rejoicing and thanksgiving!

BSHS 5K

This morning Billie, Lindsy, Nevada, Chelsea, Courtney and I ran in the Bryan Station High School 5K. Billie and I ran it last year and it was a pretty run, so we decided to come back again this year. We were lucky enough for our hubbies to come to cheer us on this year. I'm sure the pancake breakfast afterwards didn't help:) It was a beautiful, perfect day for a run! Sunshine and 70's! After running earlier this week in my winter gear, I didn't know how to dress today! I was actually hot and wished I had worn a tank top. But I can't complain because it was beautiful!

Lindsy and Chelsea are in a training regimen for their 1/2 marathon, so today was a 12 mile day for them. They were hardcore enough to run 9 miles before the 3.2 race! Wow! They're my heroes, because by the end of this race, I thought I was going to pass out and I had only gone 3.2 miles! I kept telling myself that is why people train more than just two times on the week of the race...oops. It's just been so yucky out lately that I can't keep myself on a normal running schedule!

Here are some pictures that Jonathan took as we all came across the finish line! (Not in the order that we finished the race) :) We all know I didn't come in first:)

Here is Billie and Courtney coming across the finish line! Billie was able to protect her title from last year and came in 3rd in our age range! Good job Billie! Too bad that made Courtney in 4th. No winner's glass for her:(

Here's Nevada coming across the finish line!

Here is Lindsy and Chelsea coming across the finish line...that makes 12 miles!!! Wow girls!! I don't think I'd still be on my feet...take that back...I know I wouldn't still be on my feet!

Tim and Kennedy cheering for Lindsy!!

Brian and Taylor cheering for Nevada!!

Here are 5 out of 6 of us. Where's Nevada? It's so much fun to run with friends!

This race we remembered to take a picture of all of the hubbies! Here are the loyal guys! (The race started at 8:30 so they were really sweet to wake up early!)

Can't wait for our next race...maybe I'll stay on a training regimen so that I can finish with a better time! It's all good fun even if I was slower than last year! :)

Essay Time!?!?

Here is the most recent update on the UK job front: Jonathan and the other candidate have been asked to answer 3 questions that each have many sub-questions and email their answers by close of business on Wednesday. The questions are very in depth and will take quite some time to answer. The hiring managers will use these "essays" as their final criteria to make their decision for this position! We were definitely figuring that it would be another round of interviews, but no. I have full confidence in J. He finished college in 3 1/2 years while working full time, so I KNOW he can write a good essay. Now the question is what are these hiring managers looking for. Jonathan is going to start working on answering the questions tomorrow. They said that they will be making a decision sometime next week. So we get to go through another weekend uncertain! But, we know it's in God's hands and he has a plan for us. So we need to continue to trust in Him.

Mighty To Save!

This Easter morning we were singing praise songs in church and one of the songs that we sang was "Mighty To Save" by Hillsong. While I was singing it, the words really touched me and have stuck with me all day.

Everyone needs compassion
Love that’s never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

Savior He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender

Shine Your light and let the whole world see
We’re singing
For the glory of the risen King

When I was singing this song it really made me think that if He can move mountains and conquer the grave, He is mighty enough to get us through a little thing like this roller coaster of job interviews. Losing a job is nothing compared to conquering the grave!

Our pastor had a really good message for Easter...no it wasn't the normal Easter sermon. He talked about needing to die to live instead of living to die. It was a very thought provoking message. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful church. If you'd like to watch the service, you can tune in at Southland Christian Church. We were packed out! There were 6 services plus 3 simulcasted services this weekend! I hope that the people who came today who only go to church on Easter heard something to bring them back to church next week!

We went to lunch with Billie and Derek at Olive Garden! Yum!! Then we went home, changed, and went back out to the church property to a pond for a baptism service. It was amazing to see how many people were there to get baptized! During the service they told us that 145 people had signed up to get baptized! So I'm sure there were tons more with many people who just showed up to get baptized! We had blue skies and sunshine but it was freezing cold!! We were wrapped in blankets trying to keep warm so I can't imagine being in that water! It started at 3:00 and we left at 4:30 and there was still a line of people waiting to be baptized. Wow! They even had 4 pastors baptizing at the same time! Isn't that the point of Easter? Dieing to your old self and being born of the water and Spirit? So fitting.My God is Mighty to Save!

PS... The Easter Bunny came to the house and left an Easter basket for me! I got a new Bible (and chocolate too)! It's way cute! I'm excited! Hubby is so sweet:)

Easter Eggs!

Last night Billie and I planned to work on purses, so our husbands hung out watching Cops. Yes, Cops. What else can I say. It was nice to have Billie and Derek over to take our minds off of the whole job thing! Billie and I got some non-sewing work done on the business! We updated the website with fabric swatches, although we still have some work to do on the fabric page. We had so many people take business cards at the auction last weekend and tell us that they would order on our website that we felt like we really needed to make the website more of a priority.

After the guys pulled us away from the computer, we decided to color Easter eggs! We had so much fun. OK, so the guys weren't quite as excited about coloring eggs as carving pumpkins, but what can you really expect? Our coloring kits didn't include a crayon and of course I don't have crayons, so the guys were bummed. (For anyone that knows me...the fact that I wouldn't have crayons in the house should not be a surprise...when would I ever use such a thing?) :) So, Derek asked if I had any candles for the wax. So I broke out a tea light and it actually worked...well...all except for the fact that it was a white candle so it was white on white which made it a surprise as to what the design would actually look like!

Here is Billie, Derek, and Jonathan hard at work trying to make the perfect egg!
Here are all of the eggs...we used two different coloring kits so we came up with a LOT of different colors! You can see the very professional wax designs:)

Billie and I with our favorite eggs:) We were laughing so hard that it took 3 tries to take a picture!Jonathan and Derek striking some poses with their eggs. Good thing that they are good sports and play along with our fun activities! :)

I'm excited for Easter tomorrow! It's supposed to be a beautiful sunny day. After church we're going to Olive Garden for soup, salad, and bread sticks! Not really a traditional Easter dinner, but yummy all the same! Then our church is having a baptism service at a pond in the afternoon, so that will be exciting to attend. It will be cold for whoever goes in the water!! But it should be a wonderful day! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter too!

Good Friday **Update**

***Update:
Jonathan was called earlier today with an offer from a bank. Yes, we were happy to have a job offer. I don't want you to think we are ungrateful...but he would be taking a step backwards both with the job and with the money. So we were looking through the benefits package and it was horrible. We both kept reading thinking that it would get better, but medical, compensation, life insurance...they were all bad. Now, you all know that we've been trusting in the Lord for where he wants J to be, but we were getting very discouraged. While we were looking at the computer, J got an email from UK. When he started reading it we thought it was a turn down, but it turned out that it said that they needed more information to make a decision and that the job was between J and one other candidate! He is 1 of 2! Yes, we breathed a sigh of relief! But we're not in the clear...yet. Isn't God's timing crazy? Wow! Right when we needed it! I mean we had both written off the UK job. Since he had not heard back from them until late tonight, we figured it had been offered to someone else. They said that they will be in contact with J next week, so please be in prayer...
*********

I haven't posted for a couple days because I have had nothing to say really. We still have not heard back from the job interview on Monday. They told us that they would be making a decision by the end of the week and yes, it is Friday afternoon and we have heard nothing. I guess even though I tried not to get my hopes up for this job I did anyway. I've actually made myself feel yucky getting anxious about this answer. I keep telling myself that God has provided for us for 5 months and His Will will be done. I know He knows our future and has better things for us than what we can dream or hope for. But then my human self takes over and I get anxious.

I know God will provide a job for Jonathan. I mean, he has provided this temp job for now, it's just really hard to continue to trust and live in a state of instability. I think back to before J lost his job and I don't think I could have imagined that this would happen or that we would still be looking for a job this many months later. It's hard to explain how we both feel. If only we could have some sort of stability. I know God is our stability. But it's hard to live week to week at a temp job while on the emotional roller coaster of job interviews. I'll tell you what...it has opened my eyes. I know it has brought J and I closer to God and closer to each other. We have to rely on God to get through and it has really taught us a lot. But I'm still human and I still get "down". I think about how many friends and family are praying for us and I really wish they knew how much that means to us. We really need them to keep our heads up and our eyes on Christ.

On this Good Friday we have severe thunderstorm and tornado watches. As I listen to the thunder and look at the grey skies it makes me think of Jesus on that cross. Wow. He's so good. He cared for us so much that He died for us and He continues to take care of each of us in our individual circumstances.

More spring decorations...

Here are a couple of spring updates to my house! Yes, I have finally spread the love into the living room! Spring is not just in the kitchen now! Billie, my mom, and I went to Lily's this past weekend while we were in Toledo and I found a couple of cute decorations that I couldn't pass up! Their prices are so good AND they were having a 20% off sale! Love it!

This is a cute metal tulip...I'm still not sure it's staying here. I'm trying to find the perfect spot to show it off!
I finally got an egg tree...well kinda! Not exactly what I was looking for in an egg tree, but I thought this was soo cute and only $8!! You can't just leave that kind of deal sitting on the shelf!

I finally found a spring coffee table arrangement! How cute is this swag? I guess birds nests are "in" this year because they are everywhere!

Now I think I'm done with my spring decorations for the year. I was going to post some pictures of my beautiful yard, but it's cold and raining outside so pictures will have to wait:)

Jonathan's interview went well. He felt good about it. We're back to the waiting game now. He's supposed to hear something by the end of the week. I'll post when we know something. Hopefully we will be celebrating, but we don't want to get our hopes up.

Toledo Weekend

On Friday I took the day off of work and Billie took half of a day off to drive up to Toledo for the Toledo Christian School Auction! We had four bags in the auction and they gave us permission to sell and take orders there as well. So we packed up as many purses as we have made and headed on the 4.5 hr trip to Toledo. The silent auction started at 5 and we pulled in town around 5:15, so needless to say we were a bit frantic trying to get our table set up. I even had my camera with me to take a picture of the finished product, but by the time we were all set up there were so many people around, we just didn't have time for pictures! I guess that's a good problem!

It was a success even though the three bags in the silent auction didn't bring in much money! When people got to our table, I think they got too excited about creating their own bags and placing orders, so they didn't bid on the auction bags. Our giant tote that was in the live auction made $175 for the school. So that's pretty cool! I think it could have gone for more, but they had it at the end of the night when a lot of people were already leaving. They were still auctioning items at 9:15!! You do the math! That's a long auction! But they raised a ton of money for the school. And that was the point of the weekend.

We sold and took orders for a total of 10 bags at the auction, which means that we will be donating $50 to TCS. ($5 from each bag sold at the auction.) And we took another order on Saturday! So we've got a bit of work ahead of us!

Billie and I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, running, shopping, and eating! What could be better? I introduced Billie to Lily's on the Lake and Tony Packo's...two Toledo favorites! We missed our hubbies but they stayed busy! Jonathan, Derek, and Lindsy's hubby Tim had some guy time at White Castle and The Fast and the Furious:). Typical guys:) hehe. When I got home tonight, I found that after church this morning Jonathan spent the day working in the yard!! He re-soiled the flower gardens, planted some bushes, mulched, and fertilized! It was so good to come home to a beautiful yard!

Also, please keep Jonathan in your prayers tomorrow! His big interview is tomorrow at 10AM. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a positive update on that...and also an update on some new spring decorations I got this weekend at Lily's! :)

Optimism

I decided to try an optimistic approach today! Maybe I should start with yesterday... I had a horrible day. I work in a bank with the public (can you see where I'm going?) everyone is broke and it's the bank's fault. Anyway, since I'm the office manager I get all the complaints plus I have to manage employee relations. Well, yesterday just sucked. I don't understand how people can't do simple subtraction (especially when someone shows it to them in black and white), but somehow that debit card got used...but they don't know how...so it's not their fault...so they shouldn't have to pay a fee. First of the month always brings out the doozies. So last night I came home physically and emotionally drained. I put my pj's on, sat down, read some blogs and sewed with Billie. While I was reading blogs, I came across my blog friend Kristin's post on one of her blogs about optimism and it really got me thinking that I need to have optimism. It could always be worse right? At least I have a job, etc.

So this morning I decided to be optimistic! I got in the shower and broke out my new Bath and Body Aromatherapy body wash called "Optimism" and breathed deeply in the aromas. I even commented on Kristin's blog that I was going to be optimistic today! I put on a new shirt that I got on sale for $15 with my mom last weekend (love it) and I told myself that today was going to be good. Today is my Friday since I am taking tomorrow as a vacation day! So, yay, it's Friday!

Then the day started...

So I'm pulling out of my driveway and I look and see no one. I creep out and this truck just lays on his horn. Seriously?? We live in a fairly quiet neighborhood...you could have just slowed down. So I pull back in my driveway but he's motioning me to go ahead since he's stopped anyway. So I start out of the subdivision and now I can't remember if the garage door shut all the way since I was so frazzled (I always check so a leaf or something doesn't fly by the motion thing and reopen it and leave my house unlocked all day). So I turn to go down another street to circle back past the house. Yes, it's garbage day and yes, I get stuck behind a garbage truck. Then I turn onto my street and yes another garbage truck! How many trucks does one little neighborhood need?? But through it all I'm making myself remain calm and optimistic!

Well, the crazy customers didn't stop yesterday! I got this lady on the phone who was sooo rude. She gave me this sob story about how her husband is without a job, etc and wants me to refund fees on her account. Well I look and my manager already refunded fees!! And she was ungrateful!!! I explained why she got the fees and why I couldn't do anything to help her. I was extremely polite! I even tried the empathy route since she told me that I wouldn't understand about her husband losing a job and tried to tell her that I fully understand how that is. You know, since I do! But I also have to follow banking rules! Anyway, she finally got nasty and said "well aren't you a lovely person" to which I replied "thank you". Why do people say things like that? How do you respond when someone rudely calls you a lovely person?? Well that just pissed her off so she wanted my manager. Well my manager was the one that would only refund part of the fees in the first place but he's gone for the day, so she wanted me to conference her to the main branch. Why do people not understand that the main branch is just that...a BRANCH!! There is no one there who has any more authority than me. Grrr. So she finally hung up on me.

So that's my day. Optimism? I think I lost it along the way... Billie told me that I should probably go back and get the Optimism body lotion, body spray and scented candle for my desk. HAHA! I needed some comic relief!

I'm now home and getting ready to pack for our trip tomorrow. I'm going to relax, paint my nails, watch some DVRs and be extra thankful that I don't have to go to work tomorrow...I really don't want to go back on blood pressure medication! :)

Now we're ready for the trip!

Billie and I finished up the last two bags that we were working on for the auction this weekend in Ohio! We have 4 bags that will be auctioned both in the silent and live auction and then we will have a bunch of other bags on display to sell and take orders for! Hopefully this will be a profitable weekend for our business!

Here is Billie modeling our two newest additions! Our smallest and largest bags in our line!

This one is a Madilyn Tote and it has Amy Butler fabric that is a really pretty green color. Too bad it doesn't photograph the correct color! It's huge!!! You could fit a small family inside it! The bigger, the better right?

This one is so cute!!! I love it although it's the one bag we make without interior pockets (which are my favorite part of our bags) but really, where would we put pockets? :) Billie actually just cut out zebra print for the next Hailey Bag! Won't that be freekin cute?? Love it!

In other news...AI...Yay!!!! Tattoo Girl is gone. I still don't even know her name. She had an interesting voice, but I just couldn't handle her dancing and mannerisms. Did anyone else think that she was acting really weird throughout the entire show tonight? Like she was either on something or she already knew that she was going home. How crazy that there are only 2 girls left! Chris and Danny are still my picks!