Adoption Update

So, we have sent in our initial paperwork for adopting a little girl from Guatemala. We have heard from the agency and are preparing for our home study. This, of course, has sent me into a cleaning and organizing frenzy. I'm quite glad that I'm pretty clean and organized as it is and my husband is fairly neat. We have ordered new furniture to replace our desk and entertainment center as they are both fixing to fall apart. When it gets here and all set up, I'll post before and after pictures. The only organizing I really have to do is to baby proof the place. Make sure all the outlets are covered, move my manicure basket from the low shelf to a higher one etc. Shouldn't be too bad. The wrist is getting better and now only hurts if I try to hold or lift something heavy, so I'm trying to be careful with it. If any of you have adopted. I'd like to hear your home study stories.

Back to Titles!

I don't know what happened, but I can once more title my posts! Not that it should matter that much, but somehow it does. I have somehow managed to sprain my left wrist. I'm not sure how but it's all wrapped now and makes everything more difficult. You don't realize how much you use a part of your body until it hurts when you do. The upside of all this is that it makes me grateful for the times in my life when there is no pain. Tonight for dinner we had barbecue chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, mixed veggies and pineapple for desert. My sleep schedule is all off. I woke up at 0600 and then fell asleep at 1300 and woke up again at 1700. Now its 2400 and I'm wide awake. I don't know what's up with me. I did finally hear from Janie today. Such a relief! She is alright they have just had a bizarre set of circumstances lately.

My mom sent me this in an email. I thought I would share it. I'm still not able to title anything.

Rules from God for 20071. Wake Up !! Decide to have a good day. "Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" Psalms 118:24 2.

Dress Up !! The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7 3.

Shut Up!! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. "He who guards his lips guards his soul." Proverbs 13:3 4.

Stand Up!!... For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. "Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good..." Galatians 6:9-10 5. Look Up !!... To the Lord. "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 6.

Reach Up !!... For something higher. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5-6 7.

Lift Up !!... Your Prayers. "Do not worry about anything; Instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING." Philippians 4:6

God answers Knee-mail

I don't know what is going on with Blogger, but it wont let me publish my posts and it wont let me title the ones I have written. Sorry about the fact that it seems I have not posted in a long time. I hope this problem will correct itself soon.

So today we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a little Italian restaurant in a nearby town. After that we followed directions to a large furniture store in another nearby town. This evening we went to the movies and filled out the first part of our adoption paperwork. We have had a beautiful weekend. The sun came out and the rain went away. It was cool and sunny and just lovely. I straightened up a little this afternoon and now I have to throw the roses away from my birthday. Alan had given me roses on my birthday. The next day was my day at the clinic and I got another dozen from him. He knew I was having issues with aging and wanted to make my day a little brighter. They have lasted quite a while but now it's time to say good bye too them. Otherwise, I'm gearing up for our trip to the states next month, and fixing to do a mountain of laundry tomorrow. Enjoy the Lord's day friends!

Lazy Days

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We went furniture shopping and then walked around downtown for a while. Came home and took a nap and then went out to the celebration here on post. It had rained and hailed all day and so the place was a mud pit. We didn't stay too long and then we parked in the chapel parking lot to watch the fireworks. We felt a little bad because our boy Smokey doesn't like fireworks. They scare him. He was hiding under the desk when we got home. Today we are taking it easy. Filling out some paperwork we have put off etc. It's still raining. Praise the Lord! We went to the dfac for lunch. Not too good today. Way too much mayo in the deviled eggs. I love days like this. Lazy lay around days.

Bits and Pieces

Tomorrow is Independence Day back in the States. It's a little weird to celebrate this holiday in a country where they do not. The post will have a day long fair of sorts with booths and food and singers and all ending in a huge fireworks display. Pray it doesn't rain too much. I have to say though, I am still enjoying the rain. It keeps the heat down. Last year at this time I was sitting in this apartment with little furniture and nothing to do and no fan to keep me cool. Today, I don't even need a fan. I LOVE THAT! I don't do well with temperature extremes. Tomorrow we are going furniture shopping. We need to replace our desk and our entertainment center. We are looking for hard wood furniture that doesn't have ply wood or particle board as part of it. All hard wood. Easier to find here in Germany than in the States though. Today I need to get laundry done that didn't get done yesterday. After that I need to swiffer the floors and clean the bathroom. That's a weird thing too. German toilets are built differently than American ones are and you have to clean them a lot more. lol They are also extremely low flow so that adds to it too. After that I need to decide about supper. I have chicken breasts defrosted but I would like to find something new and exciting to do with them. Ambitious I know.

Reservations?

Ok I have something in my eye. My left eye if that matters. I hate that. Anyone have any suggestions for getting something out of your eye? In other news we went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday last night. I hadn't felt like going out on the actual day. So reservations were made at the restaurant we went to last year on my birthday. We got there and (this is a hotel restaurant) and we were told that the dinning room was closed but we could eat over at the bowling alley if we liked. Yeah, like we were dressed in bowling attire and not dining attire. They didn't care that we had made reservations only that the cook had decided he wasn't going to cook for the restaurant but only for the bowling alley. They couldn't seem to understand why we wouldn't want to eat in a smelly, smoke filled, bowling alley on stools at the snack counter. I don't get these people. We wound up at a Greek place that we had been to before but not the one I like the best because it was now last minute on a Friday night. Paycheck Friday at that. We were lucky to get in. And so that was that. I had 2 salads and some spinach pie. I really love Greek salads.

Birthday Bewilderments

Today is my birthday. In exactly 9 hours I will be 28 years old for the 10th year in a row. I figure I can tell people I'm 28. I am and then some. :) My husband got me my favorite roses, Issy Miyake perfume and body lotion, and a trip to Las Vegas to coincide with my 20 year high school reunion in August. It's funny how my birthday used to be my favorite day of the year. I thought it the most beautiful day of the year too. Now not so much. I still like getting presents and I still like eating cake don't get me wrong, but somehow the magic of the day has gone. I no longer enjoy getting older. I never really wanted to be any older than 16 and that was 22 years ago. I often look at myself and wonder how I ever got to be this old. I still feel like a kid. It's rather bewildering. I think my sister feels the same way to an extent. lol I feel that way about her. How can she possibly be that old? She doesn't seem to me to be any older than she ever was. It's like I'm trapped in some bizarre time warp. I imagine this is a combination of the 20 year reunion and my birthday all wrapped up in one. And please don't comment about how I should be grateful I'm getting older considering the alternative. I don't want to hear it. I think that's so dumb. If I were dead I'd get to be with Jesus and the beats the heck out of getting old. I have this one hair on my head that is as thick as a piece of dental floss. I am a natural blonde but this hair has always been black. A few years ago I found it and it was pure white. Of course I pulled the darn thing out. DH thought it was dental floss until I showed him that the first inch or so of it was black. No gradual change. It just one day turned white. Personally, I blame dh's deployment to Iraq for that one. About 2 months ago I got my hair cut. I never told you all because I don't want to post a picture of it. I got about a foot cut off of it and cut in a flip (yes just like Mrs. Wilt but a bit longer) the hairdresser found a gray hair and showed it to me. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't the weird thick one it was a normal hair! Of course I pulled it out by the root. And don't write in about not pulling my hair out because I'll go bald mother, you of all people should know that I have twice the number of hair follicles that normal people have. I'm going to dye my hair today. I'm going for blonde. Mine has turned brownish over the years. I think blonde will make me look younger.
Signed,
Bewildered

Cool Weather and Savings

I have to say that I have been LOVING the weather we've been having. It's been raining off and on for a few days. It's not raining now, but it's still overcast. I love all of this because that keeps it COOL here instead of blistering hot like last summer. It matters so much to me because there is no air conditioning here. None. Not even at the malls. So if it's too hot the only thing you can do is go to the commissary and hang out in frozen foods. Speaking of the commissary, I went yesterday for our monthly shopping and saved $38.44 in coupons alone. It's hard to keep track of how much was saved buying sale items and marked down items but a few great deals i got was corn bread mix 8 boxes for 7 cents each, super stuffer taco shells marked down to 95 cents/box because the box was slightly dented. I got two boxes and then used my $1.10 coupon off 2 so I got them for 40 cents each. Not bad! I also got 3 boxes of 3 packs of Act II popcorn for 65 cents/box. We love popcorn. I got a box of 120 count Downy dryer sheets combining sale and coupon for 3cents/sheet $3.74/box. 4 cans of Spaghettios for 22 cents each, and 2 Red Barron pizza's for $5 with a coupon and then had another coupon that gave me one free 2L bottle of Dr. Pepper free for buying the pizza's. There were other deals etc. but those are the highlights.

Signs Of Stress

I haven't been posting a lot lately as you no doubt have noticed. There has been a lot of stress in our lives here. Some you know about, others I have chosen not to blog about. I believe that the Lord allows these times for a reason. I'm not completely sure I know what that reason is, but I'm willing to trust Him. My husband, I believe, did not understand how much all of this has affected me until we went to the movies Friday night. As we left the theater, a colleague of Alan's drove up and said he'd been trying to get us on our cell phones (which of course were turned off during the movie) because the "they" (whoever they are) had cleared our apartment building because of fire or something. So we hurried home to see about our boy Smokey who is can't stand the fire alarm. Just as we pulled in it occurred to me that as hubby walked in the door earlier, I had just put a pan of eggs on to boil and had forgotten them. You guessed it. A very burnt pan and egg bits and egg shell all over the kitchen. No damage to the apartment thankfully. We found Smokey locked in the bathroom with his litter box. He was fine not even upset and probably just so grateful that the nasty alarm had been shut off. I spent quite a bit of time scraping egg of everything and I am still trying to salvage the pan. It's a good pan but has a burnt on mess in the bottom of it. Any suggestions will be appreciated. And yes, there were a whole carton of eggs in the pan. lol oh well it could have been much worse. Praise the Lord for keeping our apartment, everyone else's apartments, and our boy safe.

Labor Paine's

Let's all say a prayer for Crystal Paine over at Biblical Womanhood. She is being induced now and the baby should arrive soon. Crystal has had some medical problems including low platelets, so for all you medical types out there like me you know that that can mean dangerous hemorrhaging. Check out Biblical Womanhood for news about the new baby.

Back from Prague

So we spent the 4 day weekend in Prague. It wasn't too hot and we had a good time. We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott which had air conditioning (a rarity for European hotels). We went to the Prague castle and visited the Jewish quarter and then got lost in old town where we had the BEST chocolate ice cream that I have ever had. I mean ever. EVER! It was so good that I'd actually consider driving to Prague just to get it. It's at least a 5 hour drive and I'm not a huge ice cream fan. It was that good. Absolutely incredible. So, here for your viewing pleasure (lol) are the pics.

Pics From The Ball-100th Post

And here then are the pics from the Ball a week ago. This also happens to be my 100th Post! Wow!

Toby Kieth Concert

Ok, here are the long awaited pics from the Toby Kieth concert we went to on Memorial Day weekend. You have to look hard to see Toby.

The Lord Giveth And The Lord Taketh Away. Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord!

So, this is the final deal. Alan got off of the deployment thing but the unit will not allow him to take that wonderful new position. We don't understand why all this has happened but we don't need to. We know the Lord works all things for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Our prayer has always been that we want to be in His perfect will. So though we don't know, He does know and we are willing to accept that. So here we are and here we stay. DH is taking me away for the weekend. We've been through a lot lately and I especially need a break. I am going to go ahead and post this and then work on posting the pics from the ball.

And So On And So Forth

Alan is out of town again so when he comes back I will ask him to post pictures of the ball for you. It's funny that we went to a Greek restaurant on Sunday because today there was a farewell luncheon for the CO's secretary and I had to attend to represent my husband who is away. It was at the other Greek restaurant in town. So, I've had my fill for a while. In other news our allergies have been bad and we have just about decided we are allergic to our boy Smokey. :( It's hot here and there is no air conditioning. Hey Jungle Mom, do y'all have air conditioning where you are? I am getting used to it, but I sure am glad for the fans.

Sunday

Last night was the transformation ball. It was too hot to be so dressed up, but the food was good. We still do not know about Alan's situation. He hasn't been able to talk to the Colonel about it. Holding on to Jesus. It's all we can do. Today we went to church and heard a wonderful sermon about how important it is to keep up your prayer life and not let it fall by the wayside. We need to hear those reminders from time to time to keep us on the straight and narrow. We went out to a new Greek restaurant for lunch today and had a wonderful time. Good food and the restaurant was cool and uncrowded. Now for a lazy Sunday afternoon nap!

Friday

Not much going on right now. Volunteered at the clinic this morning. Had lunch with Alan. Errands this afternoon. Went and saw a movie tonight. Getting ready for the Transformation Ball tomorrow night. Hopefully, I'll be able to post pics this weekend. Trusting the Lord to bring his will to fruition.

Trusting

Satan sure is trying awful hard to derail us. As I remarked down below, DH has been offered a very prestigious position at another Army post. He was able to get off the tasking he was on in order to take it. The hitch now is that the senior advisers to the colonel are trying to talk him out of letting Alan take the new job. This also means that they aren't doing their jobs which is to cut him orders so he can go. They are delaying and trying to keep him. I am so sick and tired of this! This is not the first time that Alan has had a good rapport with the CO and then the XO/senior officers try to hold him back or give him lots of trouble. The thing is if God has purposed this in His heart, NO MAN NOR SATAN can stand against it/Him. I'm still remembering what the Lord said. He said, "Trust me." And I do. It's hard right now not to plan vengeance on those who are standing in his way. It's hard in my anger not to sin. You ladies out there know exactly what I mean. Someone threatens anyone in our family and we're right there planning how to make that person suffer for it. I caught myself doing that very thing last night and had to stop myself, ask for forgiveness and continue to trust in the Lord. I do trust Him. He said He has it all under control and He does. Alan is going to talk to the CO today and tell him what has been going on and find out what is going on.
Boy it never rains but it pours with this stuff. Satan has been threatening friends of ours too. They are in the process of adopting 5 children from Ethiopia. The children are all siblings and this is a large undertaking. The husband just got deployed for 15 months. He wasn't supposed to be deployed at all. Then the other day some new person with the adoption agency called up and told her that she isn't going to allow the adoption to go through. Her worries are that the wife is too young and has no parenting experience and the husband is deployed so she doesn't have him. Very rude to her etc. Also told her they weren't going to give their 40K dollars back. We are praying for the Lord to have His will. Here too. What the Lord has purposed in his heart, NO MAN NOR SATAN can prevent. Isn't wonderful to be a daughter of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! My God can do ANYTHING. So we are praying and trusting and believing.

Honestly though, I do feel like I've been on a roller coaster of sorts lately. So glad I have Jesus to hold on to.