Genesis 28:22

"...and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth".

Wowza, did I learn something yesterday or what?!

Let me fill you in on some things before I tell you the importance of this bible verse.

1. I've been job searching for about 3 months here in lovely Washington.

2. I've come close to numerous jobs.

3. I've been super hopeful in getting a job at a gym of any sort.

4. I've been waiting to hear back from L.A. Fitness for 3 weeks, when they had told me they needed someone A.S.A.P. at the time of my interview.

5. I have trust issues.

6. I'm still learning a lot about my faith.

7. My husband is currently our only household income, and I worry about making moves monetarily when he isn't sure about something.

8. I have a church back home that I miss dearly, and a church here that the husband and I are not too sure about.

9. I come to random conclusions that could have made just as much sense if I'd figured them out months ago.

10. God's timing is the only timing that matters.

Anyways, I was reading my bible yesterday (I'm trying to read beginning to end, as well as doing a "Bible in a Year" app on my iPhone). As I read I came across this and those three words hit me hard. "you give me", meaning God gives us all we have, it's only fair to give Him what He asks so that He doesn't take away all we expect when we don't always deserve it. 
I sent a picture of my highlighted (in two colors) and underlined three words to my husband. All of a sudden, as soon as I hit send, I had an idea! Neither of us are too sure about the church we are currently in but we know God wants us there right now, so it's been hard to give let alone a full 10% financially that God asks for. I asked my husband if he is ready to deal into God's hands starting this check and that if he wasn't comfortable with us tithing to our current church then we could send our tithes to our home church if that made him more comfortable. He agreed and said we need to just keep the faith. (P.s. I love what God is doing to us personality wise. We are learning so much and gaining faith every day!) 
So once I had the go ahead from the head of the house, I began re-budgeting. I put our tithes at the top of the list; above rent, groceries, all bills, "fun" money (non-existent most checks). LITERALLY the moment I got done budgeting and just left our money issues to God in my head, I got a cal from LA Fitness saying I had been hired. 
Three months of job searching, three weeks of hearing nothing from LA Fitness. All I did was do as my creator expects, I PUT HIM FIRST. Maybe to some of you this is just some coincidence, but whatever it is, it makes me want to keep doing as my heavenly Father wants me to do.
I'm just blown away.
Dare you: Tithe in your full 10% so that God can bless you the way he wants to!   

  

Toddling with a Toddler

I just wanted to share some photos from mini-me and I on our walk yesterday. We took advantage of the briefly nice weather and these awesome things my sweet girl found.

Pine-cones "cone-cones".

Flowers "Fwowers".

A fire hydrant.

And she decided to give me her first self-allowed "cheese" so that I got a good picture.

I just love her. She is growing too fast.

Church, Family and The Job Hunt

Procrastination

Well, I've done it again. On both of my blogs, I've not logged in months but feels like years. Adjusting to having a full family of three again is proving to be a task. Arranging time as best as I can and there is still not enough time in a day. If my kiddo doesn't need me then my husband does, and if he doesn't then the house does. If it's not one of the aforementioned, then it's our dog, grocery shopping, or a church function of some sort. E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D. I love it every day, but am definitely no expert at time management.

Lovebug and I have found a temporary church for our remaining time here in Washington. We attend Capital Christian Center. We've signed up and are about to send in for our certification for a program called Prepare & Enrich so that we can be marriage mentors to our first Small Group focused on Marriage On The Rock by Jimmy Evans. Prepare & Enrich is a program designed to help couples prevent and deter common issues that often lead to divorce that are avoidable when you take the time to prepare for a marriage based on more than just love. Once we get our certification back, Lovebug and I would be happy to try out being your facilitator and help you learn how to better your relationship!

https://www.prepare-enrich.com/webapp/pe/overview/template/DisplaySecureContent.vm;pc=1362446557769;jsessionid=244AE626F7BE9D83750C0111F0AC0C45?id=pe*prepare_enrich*introduction.html&emb_org_id=0&emb_sch_id=0&emb_lng_code=ENGLISH

http://www.marriagetoday.com/

Our church has twenty-five couples who attended certification classes for this program to help marriages within the church, and around our community. I am elated each time that it is announced at church or spoken of within ear shot of me! Sign-ups began this weekend and we have already got two couples in our group which is astounding to me since we are not well known within this church yet. One of the couples IS my husbands friend/co-worker as well as our roommate and his newlywed wife. The fact that we have the chance to change things for people here is enormous. Families, marriages, children and communities will be forever changed through this beginning. I encourage everyone (single, married, divorced, old, young etc. to read Marriage On The Rock even if you cannot get into a small group devoted to this book. I plan on keeping everyone updated on this process.

I'm thinking about getting these for everyone in my group, not sure just yet.

 

My little family has been consumed by church here lately, and I just love it! We are learning and growing so much, I am just humbled by what we were not noticing before accepting Christ as our Savior! Our God is good, so good.

My mini-me turned two at the end of February and has made great advancements in speaking sentences and showing us her interests. Right now she is into Cars, Dora & Diego, Princess', Care Bears and baking! She gets the beat of the ABC's and even gets some of the letters right! When she first began "counting" she would say 2, 9, 2, 9, 2, 9!  Next it was all of her even numbers when we would help her count aloud, but for it has changed to 4,7,8! Today she got her first official hair trim and her curls are more bouncy than ever. She has even been riding a bike! She melts my heart.

(Now mommy wants a bike like this one!)

 

My husband did own a truck for the past month, but it was quite the beater. a '76 Chevy Cheyenne to be exact. It had a "mexican rebuild" for a motor that ended up blowing out on him a few days ago. While we had two cars in the family it was very nice! I started my job search and have been on quite a few interviews and now am not sure what this means for me quite yet, but I have not given up hope that I can enter the working world again.

We're trying to decide on quite a few things about our PCS to Fort Hood. We will be there by the end of July and I cannot wait to make it there! Being two hours away from familiarity and his family will be amazing! Hopefully he can fall in love with his unit so he doesn't find bad days running him over as often as what we have experienced so far. We shall see.

Maybe I should get this thing!

 

I really want to get back into school. We both think this marriage mentor thing is awesome. We've also found out we've both spoken with friends separately about being counselors of some sort. Assuming this is our forte, I'll eventually be going to school to get my degree after a long awaited approval from the man upstairs on my career path and dreams. Thank you God for the affirmation and determination! First thing is first, I have a loan to pay off from school before!

Well, here is a little of what has gone on lately:) Enjoy!

 

A Long Time Gone...

Ello Love!

I've been gone for a while, with reasonable cause. However, since I don't have to explain myself to this cyber world, I'll give you just the important points.

My husband has returned home from deployment!

What a glorious feeling. I have him home and in my arms. There are not many feelings that top this past few days that he has been home. Our relationship has developed over his deployment and we are off to an amazing start. Our daughter is so joyous at having her "My Daddy" home to love on. The first day she had him home she didn't want a thing to do with Mama, and wanted to hold Daddy's hand 99% of the time. She also said "I lah you dada" after everything she said. Oh, I'm in pure bliss having him back in good ole' 'Merica with us.

Our relationship was rather rocky when he left, and thanks to us both finding God over the time we were apart, our world is completely different now, and in what a great way! We have shared more, laughed harder, smiled bigger, loved stronger and tried harder this past week than I think we ever have. The Lord is so wonderful; I just LOVE MY GOD!

We are still in the process in finding a new church, as during the time I've been MIA from Blogger, I have returned to Washington state which is where my husband is stationed. I've been here about 3 weeks now. We are praying for guidance in finding the right church for us while here, as we have many needs in a church right now at this vital point of learning and experiencing Christ around us daily.

In an attempt to help better our marriage, and our family, my husband and I have deleted our Facebook's. For a couple young 20's away from most of their friends, this becomes an interesting task at times. It's strange how addicting the internet is. It pulls away from relationships and families. Instead of reading a book we become engulfed in other peoples non-sense business. Ideally my next task would be to say bye-bye to internet as a whole, but it really is a valuable resource as you can find so much information on the inter-web. Also, in this century, there are many things you simply cannot do without the internet. From there, ideally, TV would disappear as well. Right now, deleting Facebook has been shell-shocking in itself. Baby-steps.

 Other Changes

For my move I hired movers to bring our furniture from Texas to Washington... and we have yet to receive our furniture. It was supposed to arrive at the latest a week ago, and they finally e-mailed me two days ago. This was only after I filed a complaint with the BBB and had my husband begin calling to attempt speaking with them. I would not be nearly as upset with them as I am had they answered or returned my calls over the past three weeks. If they would have just informed me of the status of our furniture even just once within the time limit we discussed when they picked up my furniture. I am very livid over this situation and pray God helps me deal with this properly. 

I am in search of work. I had found a very reliable job before my husband returned home, but was unable to accept it because the hours conflicted with me having a family. I think that was a test from upstairs to see if I put my family or myself first. I am simply aching to get out and work again. I miss making friends and helping others, as well as being able to help my family prosper. I've even applied at fast food chains, I really just want to work! This might have something to do with having so little in our home right now since our furniture has not arrived, as well as many of our boxes. All of our crafts and what not are in those boxes, leaving my toddler and I to use a LOT of imagination lately.

Recently I did a cleanse from GNC, and it was awesome. Definitely felt myself go through the detox, but it was a good cleanse. Drink some stuff twice a day for two days, had a very vitamin taste, but I plugged my nose & chugged so I only had to deal with a little after taste. Once a day for 7 days you take 4 different pills. I'd definitely recommend a cleanse for anyone who has begun a New Year's resolution.

Mine was geared toward women, helped with bloating & kidney function. Much like the cleanse below.


Get your hiney's in the gym. Love your spouse. Do something fun with your children. Make this a great year, for you and all!!!

Tata,
Smiling Fool

New Shoes

TENNIS SHOES, PLEASE!

I recently bought these Nike's at Famous Footwear at the Paragon Outlet Mall in Grand Prairie, Texas & they are very light weight & definitely breathable. Best walking shoes I've found yet! Now my problem is, I do not know what shoes to get next. I've been burning through tennis shoes since I found out that one should get new shoes every 6 months or so (assuming they are used regularly/2+miles a day).
I used to be addicted to buying heels, but now I cannot get enough of tennis shoes!!! Maybe it's because they are much more practical for a mom who is always on the go. Anyone have any recommendations for my next running/walking shoes? Or do you have a favorite brand for any certain reason?

It's been a while

A month or so to be "exact"
I've spent the past month digging deeper. Indulging a bit more in God's word, in my fitness, in planning for the near future etc. I apologize, although it seems as if there is no one keeping up with this, if anyone has missed me. Que: quirky sarcastic laugh.
Some new things going on for me:
I started a prayer journal!
I was "pinning" like a fool & came across probably the most valuable thing one could ever pin. I don't know why it took seeing it on a website for me to take interest and why I didn't think of it myself. A prayer journal is kind of like your diary you used to write in when you were like 12 and had entirely too many thoughts to just think them. So you wrote things down like "he is SO cute!" & "man she was a butt-head today!"... or at least I did. The obvious difference is this is written in prayer form, and in my opinion is better for the soul. Writing has always opened me up to think more deeply about my life, the big and the small things that have happened and will happen. I love writing to God! 
Once my little baby bear is forming her sentences better, I hope to help her have a "prayer time" each day. This way she can tell me what she wants to pray about, I can write it down for her & we can look back years from now and see how awesome God has been to her, as I know he will be.

I challenge you to start a prayer journal too!

You don't have to write in it every day, just when you get a chance. Soon, if you're like me, you will desire to have time to write to God. 

*I suggest you have your bible handy so you can refer to verses to guide you.*

I drink 6+ cups of water a day.

Duh, its healthy! Calorie free, and sometimes a drop or two of Mio MiO Variety Pack - 3 pk - 1.62 oz. bottles - Powders & Mixers (Google Affiliate Ad) & it's not only refreshing, but indeed is delicious. Drinking plenty of water helps every part of your body function properly, improves digestion & helps you lose the extra sodium & water weight! Mio simply makes it yummy for those who don't find water appealing. (CALORIE FREE!)

I take my daily vitamin.

This one is actually new, as in a few days. I read a week or so ago that taking a vitamin gave a woman vivid memory of her dreams. I wanted to see if it is true, and sure enough each night since I started taking them again (I'm very on and off about this type of stuff) I've been able to recall my dream. This, in my opinion, means that my brain is working differently, hopefully better, when I do take my vitamin. I take One A Day Women's Multi-Vitamin currently. Usually I find vitamins repulsive, but this hasn't been bad yet. I plan on trying these once I run out: Alive(R) Multi-Vitamin - 180 Tablets (Google Affiliate Ad).

I started OxyElite Pro again.

BEST "weight-loss" pill EVER! This is my second cycle. My first "cycle" I only completed about 3/4 of the way because the results I saw were phenomenal, in my mind at least. In almost 2 months I was down 15 lbs thanks to OEP & eating better as well as working out 60 minutes a day. I recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind 100mg of Caffeine here & there, as that is the only ingredient that isn't natural within it. 

My husband re-enlisted in the Army for another 4 years.

This was totally not in the plan, in the least bit. It was a sure thing that he was getting out. God had different plans for us though. This means soon I'll be packing up my bags & heading back up to Washington for a little while, then off to Fort Hood we go. I am beyond relieved we get to come back to Texas. My husband is a mama's boy, whether he wants to admit it or not. I am kind of excited to see what else God has in store for us. Deployment ends soon & that's what I'm most excited about!

Well, I'm going to attempt to get on here more often, but I have made some changes that are time consuming, and so we shall see what God brings me to find time for.

God Bless!

All-Around Health Nut In Training

Time for a rant

I just need to ramble here for a while because life is throwing a lot at me and I keep praying and I haven't found comfort in praying about it yet, and I just need to get it all out there, even if you don't know who or what I am talking about!
I have been in need of people to be there for me and I've gotten shot down time after time. I'm dealing with deployment, working full-time, taking online classes, and caring for my 18 month old daughter. Any time I have a day where I just don't feel up to par, it seems like that's when I get the most people turning me away, even my best friend, time after time.
I'm not really one to discuss what is wrong unless it is a major complaint because I like to be strong and not sound like a whimp complaining about every last thing, but sometimes I just want to fall apart, and I find myself standing alone each time this happens since deployment started.
I feel like I give so much of myself, and I pray that I do help others, but I feel as if I am standing alone at all times. I'm tired of being around the drama I thought my "friends" had grown out of, that didn't take place when it came to me. Heaven forbid I need a few encouraging words here and there though.
Perhaps I am just missing my husband considering my everything has been him and my daughter for the year previous to deployment. Perhaps I just am not the same person, and no one wants to accept the changes I have made.
I just find it strange even my best friend of teens of years pushes me away now. The person I used to be able to call about anything now seems like the last person I would want to speak to. Bad news, we're room mates. I'd hate to think it but it is possible this is why I feel this way.
It all boils down to communication. No one seems to agree with my upfront way of life now, they prefer the timid me who sat back and didn't say anything if I didn't agree, or if I felt walked on. I don't think God intended me to be walked on my whole life, to help people yes, but not to get shoved over constantly.
Suggestions? Someone send me some advice, maybe a bible verse?
Thanks for reading,
Confused & Feeling Alone (haha at the Emo-feel)
P.S. I apologize for being so touchy currently.