Award!

Friday, I walked to the mailbox to get the mail and was a bit curious as to why I was receiving a rather large envelop from Florida State College (Formerly known as Florida Community College). I opened it up to find that my professor has recommended me to receive an honorary only student recognition award. I was recommended because of my outstanding academic efforts in psychology so far this term. So my photo and a brief bio will be posted on the Virtual College's Online Student Recognition Award web page. I was totally not expecting this. It feels good to be noticed for doing good, to be recognized when you go above and beyond. This was a great way to start the weekend! Granted I was a bit upset because my class average fell from a 99.5% to a 99.3% because my last quiz included one of those 'what is a synonym for ___' questions - and synonyms and I do NOT get along well with each other!

Here is the letter and award that I recieved in the mail, I will be updating with the webpage as soon as I can:

Testing...

Decided to change the blog template up a bit - loved the world in the hands but was getting rather tired of it!

I like this template - 'magic trees'...it seems fitting!  I also changed my signature - what fun!  mylivesignature.com....allows you to actually sign your name!  I pulled out my graphics tablet and signed my name multiple times before I ended up with what I have now!

While I'm at it I might as well put something meaningful in this post.

Have you ever wondered why your children get fixated on certain objects?  Here lately Seth has been carrying around a little blue ball, a bead angel, and two little tins of burts bees stuff...he piles them, stacks them, throws them, and screams if he can't find them!  Sometimes I wish I knew what was going through his head...

Here is a picture of the things he has been carrying around lately:

I also think my son is adopting my desk!  I opened up a desk drawer while uploading the picture and found a collection of balls - golf ball, mini soccer ball, baseball...and on top of my desk he set his cup from earlier...along with the pencil and paper - maybe he was leaving me a note!  If only I could read the lines and circles!  He tells me they are ducks!

What would you do?

What would you do if you were in the grocery store and you saw somebody in one of those motorized wheelchair things and it was not working properly? Would you:
                     a.) Point and laugh
                     b.) Look the other way and keep shopping
                     c.) Get an attitude and roll your eyes and sigh because she is
                          blocking the lane
                     d.) Look to somebody else, as if to say “you should help her”
                     e.) Approach her and ask if she needs assistance

My next question is, would your expectations as to the ‘right’ answer be any different if you observed this happen around people who were in uniform? Military, Police, Fire & Rescue?

I think I am guilty of believing that every person in the military, police force or fire and rescue squad would help somebody in need, no matter where they were or what they were doing. I guess I had created that generalization in my head because they seem like the good guys and should be good guys all the way around - defending our country or helping an old lady in the grocery store; tackling crime or helping an old lady in the grocery store; rescuing people from burning buildings or helping an old lady in the grocery store.

Now I will say I think every human should help another when they see there is a need, but that is unrealistic. At the very least I would think these ‘role models’ would.

You never know what somebody is dealing with. You never know how much somebody else is struggling. You never know until you offer to help.

I was standing in the grocery store watching these men in uniform sigh and roll their eyes and go around her instead of help her. Let me just paint a mental picture for you real quick – I was pushing one cart, Seth was standing in the back of the cart and wanted my arm around him, and I was also pulling another cart…periodically stopping as my grandma would say, “I need that , can you put it in the cart?” That is where I was when I noticed what was happening. I picked Seth up and approached her and asked her if I could help her. She said the motorized wheel chair was acting up and not working properly. I looked at it and noticed it had a dead battery. I told her I would be right back and went to get her another one. This was no simple task. I, thank God, have never had to use one of those motorized wheel chair things, I know you have to push the green button, and then move the handles forward and I thought that was all their was to it. Wrong. You have to be sitting in the chair in order for the thing to work. After getting all these people to try and figure out to make it work, I finally figured it out. So off we went, Seth and I to deliver a new powered buggy for this older lady who had to be feeling pretty bad.

We caught up with her, I helped her get moved and then proceeded to move all her groceries into the new powered buggy. She kept saying thank you and God Bless you. It was truly an amazing feeling to know that I helped her, but also a sad feeling because I witnessed all those people who didn’t help. As I put the last box of pasta in her cart she told she was having a really bad day, she had no help and it had been a rough day, she went on to say that she has cancer and feels so handicapped. Wow. Talk about a humbling experience. Feeling exasperated by carrying Seth and trying to get those crazy carts to work and here this lady was battling cancer…fighting for her very life.

I was moved by the experience. I told her we would pray for her when she told me that – I was truly speechless…but then I forgot to ask her what her name was.

So for all of you reading this, join me in prayer for “the lady from the grocery store who was having a bad day and fighting cancer.” I am sure God knows her name and will direct the prayers accordingly.

Is there anybody in your life that is in need? My challenge to you is to make a difference. You have one life. Do something. Don’t wait around for somebody else to make a change, be bold and take the first step.

Are you blessed?

Matthew 5:3-12 (The Message)

3 "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4 "You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5 "You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

6 "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

7 "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

8 "You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9 "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

10 "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

11-12 "Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.


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I love this passage...what a great point of reflection/reminder....

Kiss Me Again by Barbara Wilson

Kiss Me Again - Restoring Lost Intimacy in Marriage

Written by: Barbara Wilson

Summary:


Many married women genuinely want to feel more desire toward their husbands. But while sex before marriage was hard to resist, now resisting seems like all they do. In her new book, Barbara Wilson shows how couples can suffer for years from the “invisible bonds” of previous relationships without even knowing it. Hidden emotions of distrust, shame, and resentment can sabotage even the most loving marriage.

In Kiss Me Again, Wilson :
· Shares her own story of healing and renewed desire
· Helps women forgive themselves and their husbands for past choices
· Shows readers how to break free from “invisible bonds”
· Explains God’s plan for helping a husband and wife to re-bond
· Includes conversation helps for both wives and their husbands
· Helps couples reignite the passion that they thought was lost
With assessment tools, write-in exercises, and gentle guidance, Kiss Me Again offers a biblical plan for rekindling the closeness and passion women long for in marriage. Because no past is beyond the reach of God’s healing touch.

Author Bio:
Barbara Wilson is the author of The Invisible Bond and former director of sexual health education for the Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center in Sacramento . She speaks nationwide to youth and adults with her message of sexual healing, and she teaches frequently in the women’s ministry at the multi-campus Bayside Church in Northern California . Barbara and her husband, Eric, have been married for twenty-eight years.

To purchase this book, please click on the cover of the book at the top of this post.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.
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This book was a good read and I could see where both solid marriages and struggling marriages could benefit form reading this book.  The way the book is set up allows for you to navigate through a 'study' if you will on on your own.  The book has a 10 week study included within the very pages of the book.  I could see where you could easily skip over places that might not apply to you or your relationship and still learn and grow from other parts of the book.

Our son is creative!

Seth is really an amazing little boy. 

When he decides to be an acrobat and stand on the arm of the couch, he gives us a good scare. 

When he trys to be the next action movie star and jumps from chair to chair in grandmas dinning room, he gives grandma a good scare! 

When he needs attention he will stand up and fall back on his bottom and say 'uh oh' waiting for us to all ask 'oh Seth are you ok?'

When I looked at his plate tonight when he was done eating, I realized he is VERY creative!  See he had strategically taken bites out of his roll to make a face...and yes I took a picture just to prove it to you!  So should we perform a psychoanalysis on the boy based on how he ate his roll tonight?  I wonder if it is a screaming face of a face with its mouth open in surprise...or maybe it was just how he chose to eat his roll tonight...oh the joys of parenthood!  Children never cease to surprise you!

Extraordinary

Extraordinary
Written by: John Bevere

Summary:
Isn’t it true that we long to see the extraordinary, experience the extraordinary, do the extraordinary? Yet, so often we settle for mediocrity when greatness is within our grasp.
Why are we drawn to stories of heroic triumph over seemingly impossible circumstances? In our fascination with adventure movies, superheroes, and tales of incredible human feats, do we reveal an inherent desire for something larger and greater in life? Maybe what we think is a need to escape or be entertained is actually a God inspired longing…for the extraordinary.
Best-selling author John Bevere reveals how all of us were “meant for more,” extraordinarily created and intended for a life that is anything but ordinary. Here is the roadmap for your journey of transformation. You are marked for a life that far surpasses the usual definitions of success or fulfillment.
Isn’t it time to pursue your extraordinary life?

To purchase a copy of this book please click on the book above!

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Pay It Forward

My husband and I just finished watching the movie, "Pay It Forward." Talk about a breath taking, heart sinking, tears-welling-up in your eyes kind of movie. I think this is definitely a movie we will consider purchasing to add to our collection.

Children sometimes have a way of making things so clear for us. Sometimes we learn more from children than we teach them. In this movie, the teacher puts an assignment on the board for his students, not knowing that it would end up changing his life.

The idea that young Trevor has is something called 'Pay if Forward'...when you help somebody out who really needs it, instead of that person paying you back, you tell them to pay it forward...and to help three more people...those people are to help three more people...young Trevor thought that such a plan would make the world a better place.

One thing that I liked about the movie was how realistic it is. It isn't one of those fairy tale type movies about a boy who has a plan and changes the world and lives happily ever after. Struggles within the movie include alcohol abuse, promiscuity, emotional scars, physical scars, single parent issues, drug abuse, bullying at school. It is definitely how the world is today. The ending was not what we were expecting at all.

The 3 rules for pay it forward?
1. It has to be something that really helps people.
2. It has to be something they can't do for themselves.
3. If you do it for them, they have to do it for three other people.

Wouldn't our world be a better place if instead of paying people back for the favors they do for us we payed it forward to three more unsuspecting people who passed it on to three more people?