The small details

I have been super excited about wedding planning for a long time. In fact, I had even started before Anthony had proposed to me. I love been organized and delegating! This is definitely a project where both of those come in handy. When I visualized planning my wedding in my head, I did not imagine the little "hiccups" on the way. This last week I encountered my first hiccup. Let me clarify what kind of hiccup this is. Some people have small, quiet hiccups that hardly anyone hears. I, on the other hand, do not. My are loud, even with my mouth closed; they make my body jerk; they last forever, and they come in groups of three. Thankfully I have never gotten these while I was teaching. Anyway, we had a hiccup: the facility I was planning on using for my ceremony was booked for my date. Sad times:( I decided to email a bunch of churches in Denton to see if they were available. Not much success there.

Then my mother suggested having the wedding midweek. I know that this in unconventional, and I suspected that some people would not approve. Much to my surprise, Wednesday actually worked a lot better than having on the weekend. My brother and dad were both not scheduled to work, my matron of honor doesn't have to rush back the next day for another wedding, and it makes Anthony's Maryland family's trip much more convenient.

Fortunately, both my reception site and the church were willing to accommodate us. Oh, how thankful I was that the Lord had answered our prayers. But the icing on the cake came last night when the reception site emailed me and told me about the huge discount I would receive for having on a weekday. It was just a great reminder that God is looking out for us. Even though this was not my initial plan, God had a better plan all along!!

July, Where have you gone?

I have only posted once in July. Where have I been? What have I been doing? I went to Michigan with my parents for a week. Then I got engaged! But those are just excuses. To be honest I have been a little lazy. But that changes today. What is so nice about my relationship with God is that even though I may neglect Him for days, weeks, He still allows me to come back to Him. He does not harbor resentment or bitterness for me neglecting our relationship. This is a good thing, but sometimes I take advantage of it. For example, I have two really great friends, Courtney and Kandace. They both are not easily offended and do not hold grudges. I know that if I forget to call them back or don't call them right away with exciting news, they won't jump down my throat. However, I should not take advantage of their carefree attitude and do that often. The same is true with God. Even though I know He will be awaiting my return to Him, I should not bank on that and allow myself to become complacent with our relationship. Relationship, that is what I have with God. It requires two beings and effort on both parts continually. God always hold up His end of the bargain, and I need to continually strive to be the person He wants me to be.

P31

Proverbs 31, the superwoman of character and wisdom, the one to strive to be like. While reading that passage this morning, God revealed something new to me. Before when I had read this, I always focused on the amount of things that she was doing instead of her motivation. This woman believed that God was in absolute sovereign control of her life, but she also knew that God expected her to make godly choices to rule over herself. She was the ruler of what she could control: her time, her attitude, her schedule. She was not praised for the abundance of things that she could do, but rather for her spiritual character.

This attitude and motivation is something I need to start cultivating now. When I get married, it is just not going to automatically appear.

Muy Impaciente

I tend to be impatient, and I think I don't even realize that I do it. I am a very impatient driver. Even though compared to the world, I am a very slow, safe driver, I hate it when cars go slower than me or pull out in front of me. I mean, I can go that slow, but don't try to go that slow in front of me, NO SIR! I am also super impatient at restaurants. I should be s SecretShopper person because that is how I act. How long did it take the server to come greet us after we were seated? How long did it take for them to take our drink orders? For our food to come up? To give us our check? It's not like I am in a rush. I have just created this awful habit of constantly assessing the server. And usually what happens is I tend to spread my sin around to the table, too. "Really, where is she?" "I am so ready to go?" "I am starving!" And then the whole table is like a brewing pot of impatience. In Jerry Bridges' book he defines impatience as a "strong sense of annoyance at the (usually) unintentional faults and failures of others" (116). I would sure hate it if every time I did something on accident, someone else got impatient with me! What areas of your life do you tend to show impatience?

The Inside is what's Important!

Today I was reading, and some thoughts really stood out to me. It's not like I hadn't heard these things before, but a reminder is always nice.

I love chocolate, most kinds I will devour. However, when it comes to chocolate candies filled with something, I become very suspicious. The outside may look beautiful. It may come in a little gold box or have a decorative design, but 9 times out of 10 when I bite into it, I am sorely disappointed. It is usually filled with some sort of strawberry or coconut nastiness. Even though the outside is beautiful, it is the inside that is important.

That is true of believers as well. What are men and women praised for in the Bible? For their internal character, not how they look on the outside. In fact, God often warns us against worrying about what we look like. God wants us to focus on becoming like Christ , on shaping his character into His image.

1 Samuel 16:7 says, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

How much time do we spend on fixing on outward appearance? (hair, makeup, shower, gym, clothes) And how much time do we spend working on becoming more like Christ?

Thoughts to ponder...

Denton Air Show

I have been planning all summer to go to the Denton Air Show. I am not particularly interested in airplanes, but it sounded like something fun and different to do. I am always up for something fun and different!

Gates opened at 10, and it started at 11. I don't know what they were referring to with the pronoun "it," but "it" was definitely not the airplanes flying. We parked and sacrificed 8 bucks each. Well technically, it was only $7.50 each because they ran out of change. I did not feel bad about this at all for two reasons. First, the people who were taking the money were from PointBank. Yes, a bank. They should have lots of change. And secondly, I thought it was over-priced to begin with.

We got to walk around and look at all the different planes. My dad would have super liked this, but he had to work, so I took lots of pictures for him. We got to walk in a military helicopter. It was like the size of a bus and looked like a massive bug. I felt very much like I was on the set of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. This one guy let me climb into his plane. It was from WWII. I burned my rear end on the skillet-hot seat belt buckle. And the two pictures that Anthony took of me while in the cockpit are not the greatest. One of them is when I was climbing in with my large tookus high in the sky. The other one, because I was wearing a strapless top, makes it look like I am naked in the cockpit. Wonderful... But it was fun to get in the plane. This other dude was charging $5 to get in his plane. I was like, "Um, how 'bout I just get in this here plane for FuREEEEE-E?!"

We found a nice spot right off the runway to watch the show. The grass was like straw, and it was ridiculously hot. Thankfully, there was a nice breeze to cool the stinky sweat running down our backs. Anthony has this really nice chair to sit in. You know, the kind that fits in a bag? I unfortunately do not have one, but I did bring a sheet to sit on. I just pretended I was sitting by the pool getting a tan.

They had some really fun acrobatics to watch, music to listen to, and a commentator. It was a lot of fun. I had never been to an air show before, and I am super glad I went. Alas, the sun was stronger than my will-power to stay, and we left early. I was a little bummed because Anthony said that the closing number was AWESOME. He got a sneak peak the day before from his work, which is right by the airport.

Things I learned and will remember for next year's air show:
1. Buy a chair.
2. Bring that chair.
3. Bring lots of water.
4. Come halfway through the program. The best is always saved for the end.
5. Picket the Air Show Committee to have it when it is not so blazing hot.
The End

Wedding Bells

Last weekend, my best friend, Brittany, and I traveled down to Austin for my good friend Rainee's wedding. I had to leave training early so we could get to Austin in time. (It was a really sacrifice, I know!) I am so glad that Brittany was driving because I hate rush hour traffic. I am always afraid that I am going to run into the person in front of me if I look away for like two seconds. However, just because I am not driving in rush hour, doesn't mean that I am a great person to have in the car during rush hour traffic, especially in the passenger seat. Anthony and Brittany can both attest to that! It isn't that I don't trust their driving ability, because I do, most of the time, but it is just hard for me to have absolutely no control. I close my eyes or put my book in front of my face because, ya know, that if we were in an accident that the book would protect me.

We made it down to my other friend's Courtney's apartment where we would be staying that weekend. No offense to Courtney or her pets, but I found out last weekend that I do not like cats, the way they smell, their hair, their food, their nasty habits. And never, ever, ever will I have a pet in my bedroom with me. This strong feeling towards cats kinda surprises me because usually I am pretty even keeled.

Thursday night we drove way out into the middle of nowhere for the rehearsal dinner. This was an impressive feat. We did not get lost at all. Courtney and Brittany put me in the back seat so that I wouldn't be a paranoid, crazy person. Friday night we went to the wedding in Georgetown. Brittany and I were pretty sure that we would run out of gas and get stranded, but we did find a gas station. The wedding was super fun. I am running out of my enthusiasm to type, so I will have to write more on this latter. Congrats Rainee and Zeke!