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...
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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!