Missions Matter!

Patty over at Patterings has been hosting a wonderful "Missions Matter" carnival for the past forty days to celebrate her 40th birthday and to highlight missions around the world, and as is typical, I am finally getting my post done on the final day! (I may even be too late) :)

Happy birthday Patty!

I wanted you all to know about this precious family. The Hoyt family.



I have known Steve and Melinda Hoyt for most of my life. Before they were married they began attending the church where my dad was the pastor, and my sister was even the flower girl in their wedding. While they were living in Colorado Springs, they had two beautiful daughters, who I got to babysit frequently, and they loved on me and my sisters all the time.

~

When Steve and Melinda made the decision to move their family to Uganda to serve with eMI, Engineering Ministries International, our church family was behind them all the way, even though we knew we would miss them.



They are working on the Music for Life Primary School.

Through the course of their ministry in Uganda, their adorable little family has grown. They adopted the gorgeous Janet, and are currently pursuing legal guardianship of baby Hannah.

~

They have a blog, but are unable to update it very regularly. If you would like to receive their e-mail updates, I'm sure they would be happy to add you to their mailing list. Steve's e-mail address is available in the Contact Info section of his Staff Bio page.

~ ~ ~

Please join me in praying for the Hoyt family, and for our brothers and sisters in ministry all over the world!


Be sure to check in at Patterings to see all of the other Missions Matter posts!

The Goodness of the Lord

Psalm 27
Of David.
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh, [a]
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.

3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.

8 My heart says of you, "Seek his [b] face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.

10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.

11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.

12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.

13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

This passage was the basis of our pastor's sermon this past Sunday, and it was such a fabulous reminder for me that I thought I would post it here in its entirety. The main theme of the service was this: we are as close or as far away from God as we choose to be. I am as close to God as I make the effort every day to be. It is similar to the bumper sticker/billboard I have seen that says "If God feels far away, you are the one who moved."

This one really hit home for me. I seem to need the constant reminder that God is always ready and waiting for communication and fellowship with me, I am the one who crowds him out with all of my other "necessary responsibililties." This is not to say that the things for which I am responsible are not important, but the only way I can truly acocomplish anything well is if this relationship gets my first and best all the time.

Nothing tremendously profound, this is just what was speaking to me this week :)
Hope you're having a good one!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ quite the list!

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In case you missed the memo, my husband rocks! Like the entire party, no joke :) lol! In fact, he rocks so much that I have a list of things just from THIS WEEK that make him amazing!

1.) As I have mentioned before, he absolutely loves his job. One of the things he loves about his job is that he works for an incredibly strong Christian man, so he gets to be very open and vocal abot his faith without being afraid of any reprucussions that would be negative to his career (not that that is really a concern to him, as we saw in last week's post). Austin is not one to shove anything down someone's throat, he is just very real about what he believes and what he is struggling with, and how his faith affects his life and those around him. One very exciting result of this is that one of his co-workers asked this week if he and his famil could go to church with us this weekend! :)

2.) On Tuesday morning, we awoke to find that my car had a VERY flat tire. We realized this too late to do anything before work, but after work, Austin went straight to work removing the tire and hurrying to take it into the tire place before they closed. This rocks in and of itself, but my hubby took it one step further. He was intelligent enough to know that the way the tire went flat seemed unusual, and pointed that out to the tire people. Sure enough, the tire split from a manufacturer's defect, so we went home with a brand new tire without paying a dime for it!

~ ~

3.) Austin is very patriotic. He made sure that we knew where our voter registration cards were and where our polling place was, and that we got there on time to be able to do our civic duty and vote. Not only that, but even though I know he was disappointed as well, he whipped his attitude into shape long before I did, and I know that he will continue to lift our nation and its leaders up in prayer just as he did before.

4.) He is an awesome puppy daddy. Sure, he may talk like he was a little uneasy about having her move into the house with us, but I think he enjoys having here more than I do. He is always playing with her, or letting her rest her head in his lap (absolutely adorable, and it melts my heart every time), or laying on the floor with her. Last night it was really chilly in here, so he had covered up with a big afghan. When he got the blanket, Diddy already had her head in his lap, so he just covered her up with him, and she stayed that way for quite awhile!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!

President-Elect

It probably comes as no surprise that I was less than pleased with the results of Tuesday's presidential election. I was honestly hugely disappointed; however, in my blog reading this morning, I happened upon this post by Beth Moore, and found myself very convicted by what she had written.

I admit, I had a pretty bad attitude going to bed on Tuesday night, and Austin really humbled me by asking "So, you're saying God did not see this coming?"

Ouch.

Today, I have decided three things:

1) Complaining, griping, grousing, and pouting about the outcome of Tuesday's election will not change anything. It will only frustrate me and everyone around me.

2) Refusing to respect the man who was elected by the majority of American citizens is not only unfair (as I would expect others to respect McCain had he been elcted) it is downright sinful.

3) My God is still on the only true throne, and places people in position of authority according to His will. And, I hate to spoil the surprise, but I've read the end, and we win! :)

So, I will continue to pray for our nation, and our new president. It cannot possibly be an easy job, and he has a lot of difficult decisions to make in the weeks and months ahead.

For more thoughts and reactions to President-elect Barack Obama, click here, or here, or here, or here!

Hope everyone has a fantastic Thursday!

Randomness . . . Caution, may contain a rant.

source

Good morning and happy Monday, everybody! I hope you all had a fantabulous weekend.

We had a grand old time this weekend. We went to Des Moines on Friday night with our friend Michael and partook of free Chipotle. It was free because we dressed up like burritos (and by dressed up, I mean I had a headband made out of alluminum foil, while Austin fashioned his piece into horns that he stuck under his baseball cap to hold in place).

After that we headed to the Blue Moon Dueling Piano Bar, which was a blast! They have two grand pianos set up on the stage, and three guys who rotate throughout the evening, and it's an all request show. They're also big on audience participation, so everyone's clapping and dancing and singing along. From the piano bar we went to the Funny Bone comedy club and saw a couple of hillarious comedians. Eddie Gossling was the headliner. Great times! Then, since our cover was good for the whole night, we went back to the piano bar for a couple more hours, then went home.

Saturday Austin and I spent the majority of the day (after sleeping in, of course) installing a garage door. I would have taken pictures, but I'm a bad blogger and I forgot, so no pictures right now. I will take pics of the finished product, but at the moment we have only two of three doors in.

We have learned that with an old house, projects always take longer than you expect them to and this was no exception. The wood to which we needed to attach the tracks was so termite eaten that we had to completely remove it and put in new. Which is not necessarily a problem in and of itself, except that one new garage door track was already attached to it. So we had to remove the left track of the center door and kind of prop it up so the whole door wouldn't come crashing down. Then Austin cut the board so it would fit in the space, and nailed it in. We re-attached the existing door's track and went to work on the new door.

We were both pretty pleased with the way it turned out, and all in all it didn't take nearly as long as it could have had more things chosen to go wrong. :)

Sunday I decided that it would be a great idea to get my grocery shopping done. New month = new grocery budget, and we were VERY low on, well . . . everything! (This is where the rant comes in, don't say I didn't warn you!)

To start off, apparently everyone in town had the same idea that I did because the store was PACKED!!! On Sunday, how wierd is that? I'm the kind of person who likes to zoom in, get everything on my list in a particular order, go through the self checkout, and zoom out again - usually completing the entire process in about half an hour (fantastic for those lunch hour grocery trips). The sheer volume of people clogging every aisle on Sunday made this utterly impossible. Strike 1.

source

I have to preface this next part by saying: I love Christmas. I really do, I love everything about it, the food, the snow, the music, the presents, the family, the church pageants, everything! Honest! But really now people, it is only the. third. of. NOVEMBER!!!!! Is it really necessary to have a Christmas tree already set up? Or an entire aisle dedicated to the cheesy, cheap food gifts? Or to be blaring Christmas music in every corner of the store!!?!??!? What about Thanksgiving!??!!? Thanksgiving is a VERY, VERY, VERY important, wonderful, fun holiday, too!!! Why has everyone forgotten that Thanksgiving comes between Halloween and Christmas?

source

I'll tell you why - Thanksgiving is not a cash cow! You can only sell so many gourds and ears of indian corn and turkey window hangings. Christmas is what brings in the big bucks, so who really cares about Thanksgiving?

source

I DO!!!!!

I love Thanksgiving, probably as much as I love Christmas - we may move to the more side of that gauge because I am going to be so tired of hearing Christmas music and seeing the blasted decorations by the time December 25th rolls around!

source

Don't forget about Thanksgiving! It's a fabulous holiday, and the food is just as good as Christmas, maybe better!

Thank you for allowing me to vent :) Have a great day!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ conviction

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My husband rocks! Seriously! He is truly incredible.

One of the things that I love the most about Austin is that he is a man of very strong convictions. This is a pretty broad statement, but it is a very large part of who he is. It affects the way that he relates to people, the way he talks,

When he worked for the cable company, he was the only guy who never swore, or told dirty jokes, or made inappropriate comments about women, and he paid a pretty heavy price for being so different. He put up with some pretty intense ridicule from his co-workers, and it even ended up with him being wrongfully terminated from the company. Because God takes such wonderful care of us and because Austin is such a driven individual, he was out of work for less than one day before he had a new job at a better company, but it was a pretty difficult situation none the less.

Now I'm not saying that he's perfect, and he would never claim to have it all together. However, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he tries every day to be a better version of himself than he was the day before. It's pretty inspiring. I can't honestly say that I make that kind of a conscious effort, but he makes me want to be better, and I think that is so important :)


Oh, and he's pretty hot, too :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading everybody! Have a safe and happy Halloween, and a fantastic weekend! NaNoWriMo starts at midnight!!!

the ones in BOLD are TRUE :)

Found this over at Tara's place, and I just had to play along.

The phrases that are in a bold are true….

Appearance:
- I am 5′4 or shorter.
- I think I'm ugly.
- I have many scars.
- I tan easily.
- I wish my hair was a different color.
- I have friends who have never seen my natural hair color
- I have a tattoo.
- I am self-conscious about my appearance.
- I have/ I've had braces.
- I wear glasses. (Or contacts.)
- I'd get/have gotten plastic surgery if it were 100% safe, free, scar-free.
- I've been told I'm attractive by a complete stranger.
- I have had more than 2 piercings.
- I have had piercings in places besides my ears.
- I have freckles.

Family/Home Life:
- I've sworn at my parents.
- I've run away from home.
- I've been kicked out of the house.
- My biological parents are together.
- I have a sibling less than one year old.
- I want to have kids someday.
- I have children.
- I've lost a child.

Embarrassment:
- I've slipped out a "LOL" in a spoken conversation.
- Disney movies still make me cry. I love Disney!!
- I've snorted while laughing.
- I've laughed so hard I've cried.
- I've glued my hand to something.
- I've laughed till some kind of beverage came out of my nose.
- I've had my trousers rip in public.

Health:
- I was born with a disease/impairment.
- I've had stitches.
- I've broken a bone.
- I've had my tonsils removed.
- I've sat in a doctor's office with a friend.
- I've had my wisdom teeth removed.
- I've had serious surgery.
- I've had chicken pox.

Traveling:
- I've driven over 200 miles in one day.
- I've been on a plane.
- I've been to Canada.
- I've been to Niagara Falls.
- I've been to Japan.
- I've been to Europe. Great Britain, Austria, France, Switzerland, and a layover in Denmark, and does Russia count as Europe?
- I've been to Africa.

Experiences:
- I've been lost in my city.
- I've seen a shooting star.
- I've gone out in public in my pajamas.
- I've pushed all the buttons in a lift.
- I've been to a casino.
- I've been skydiving.
- I've gone skinny dipping.
- I've played spin the bottle.
- I've crashed a car.
- I've been skiing.
- I've been in a play.
- I've met someone in person from the Internet.
- I've caught a snowflake on my tongue.
- I've seen the Northern Lights.
- I've sat on a roof top at night.
- I've played chicken.
- I've seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- I've eaten Sushi.
- I've been snowboarding.

Relationships:
- I'm single.
- I'm in a relationship.
- I'm available.
- I'm engaged.
- I'm married.
- I've gone on a blind date.
- I've been the dumpee more than the dumper.
- I have a fear of abandonment.
- I've been divorced.
- I've had feelings for someone who didn't have them back.
- I've told someone I loved them when I didn't.
- I've told someone I didn't love them when I did.
- I've kept something from a past relationship.

Sexuality:
- I've had a crush on someone of the same gender.
- I've kissed a member of the same gender.
- I've had sex with someone of the same gender.
- I've had sex with more than one person at the same time.
- I am a cuddler.
- I've been kissed in the rain.
- I've had sex outdoors.
- I've hugged a stranger.
- I have kissed a stranger.
- I have had sex with a stranger.

Honesty/Crime:
- I've done something I promised someone else I wouldn't.
- I've done something I promised myself I wouldn't.
- I have lied to my parents about where I am.
- I am keeping a secret from the world.
- I've cheated while playing a game.
- I've cheated on a test.
- I've driven through a red light.
- I've witnessed a crime.
- I've been in a fist fight.
- I've been arrested.
- I've shoplifted.

Drugs/Alcohol:
- I've consumed alcohol.
- I smoke cigarettes.
- I smoke pot.
- I regularly drink.
- I've taken painkillers when I didn't need them.
- I've taken cough medicine when i wasn't sick.
- I've done hard drugs.
- I've been addicted to an illegal substance.
- I can't swallow pills.
- I can swallow about 5 pills at a time no problem.

Mental health:
- I have been diagnosed with depression.
- I shut others out when I'm depressed.
- I take anti-depressants.
- I have had an eating disorder.
- I've slept an entire day when I didn't need it.
- I've hurt myself on purpose.
- I'm addicted to self harm.
- I've woken up crying.

Death:
- I'm afraid of dying.
- I hate funerals.
- I've seen someone dying.
- I have attempted suicide.
- Someone close to me has attempted suicide.
- Someone close to me has committed suicide.

Random:
- I can sing well.
- I've stolen a tray from a fast food restaurant.
- I open up to others too easily.
- I watch the news. sometimes
- I don't kill bugs.
- I hate hearing songs that sacrifice meaning for sake of being able to rhyme.
- I swear regularly.
- I am a morning person.
- I paid for my mobile phone ring tone.
- I'm a snob about grammar.
- I am a sports fanatic.
- I play with my hair.
- I have/had "x"s in my screen name.
- I love being neat.
- I love Spam.
- I've copied more than 30 CD's in a day.
- I don't know how to shoot a gun.
- I am in love with love.
- I am guilty of tYpInG lIkE tHiS.
- I laugh at my own jokes.
- I eat fast food weekly.
- I believe in ghosts.
- I am online 24/7, even as an away message.
- I can't sleep if there is a spider in the room.
- I am really ticklish.
- I love white chocolate.
- I bite my nails.
- I play video games.
- I'm good at remembering faces.
- I'm good at remembering names.
- I'm good at remembering dates.
- I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life.


I thought this was kind of interesting! Please let me know if you decide to play along :)

Weekend Activites Take 2

As illustrated in this post, we sure know how to make a weekend memorable! And after this weekend, I sincerely believe that we have cornered the market on exhilerating, fun-filled weekend activites!

Late Saturday afternoon, we were getting ready to head out of town to go to dinner, do a little shopping, and probably catch a movie. We were both upstairs getting dressed, doing hair, and makeup (well, Austin wasn't doing makeup), brushing our teeth and using the restroom. We were clearly very bored and in need of an emergency activity.

We were laughing and joking heading down the stairs, and then it hit us - at the same instant - that horrible, unmistakeable stench . . . our sewer was backing up the floor drain in the basement!

Oh yes, now we're talking - this is what I call date night!

Thankfully the hardware store was still open, so we were able to rent a large pipe snake; however, after several hours of snaking (and enjoying the ubiquitous mess), the problem would still occur when we tested it by running fawcets and flushing toilets.

The large snake that we rented wouldn't fit down one of the smaller drain pipes, so Austin's parents came over and brought their smaller snake. But to no avail. Austin and Bryce worked for several more hours snaking, and flushing, and washing with the garden hose, and testing, but nothing seemed to make any difference.

They did determine which direction the pipes ran, and what needed to be accomplished, but finally at around 11:30, they conceded defeat and we got some supper.

The parents went home, and we watced some consolation House, but ended up falling asleep less than halfway into the first episode.

Sunday morning dawned bright and cold, and Austin was bound and determined to take care of our smelly problem. He went out to the back yard to see if there was another cleanout he could tap into. Nothing. So he came inside and hit the Internet. After much Google-ing, he came across a concoction that was billed as a "homemade Drano" - so we went to work.

We turned the hot water on full blast in both the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. Dumped a cup of salt, a cup of vinegar, a cup of baking soda, and almost an entire bottle of dish soap down the drain. We added some bleach for good measure, then ventured down to the basement (water still running).

Once in the basement, Austin decided that we should dump some stuff directly down the sewage pipe via the cleanout. I retrieved the liquid laundry detergent and the powdered dish detergent from the main floor and Austin dumped away. And to the wonderment and delight of all involved - IT WORKED!!!!!

We're not sure which ingredient contained the magical de-clogging properties, or if it was just shooting boiling water through the pipes or the combination of everything - we didn't care! No more nasty smell, and no fear of the basement flooding full of nastiness!

Clearly, not our preferred set of activities for our weekend; however, God was good - thankfully we had a sump-pump hole right next to the drain, so at no point did we have a huge flooding problem, Austin's parents are always willing to help whenever they can, Austin can find ANYTHING on the Internet, and the problem was resolved without huge expense. Late Saturday night we were afraid we were going to have to hire somebody, or rent expensive large equipment to dig up and/or replace the length of pipe in the back yard, but we got out with the relatively small cost of renting the snake.

Life is never boring!

Happy Monday, and thanks for reading!

Tag! I'm it . . .

Sweet Kathy C. has tagged me to play the "5 Things" Game.

The rules are to write 5 things under each of the 5 headings, and then tag 5 others.



10 Years Ago...

1. I was twelve years old.
2. I started 8th grade at Russell Middle School
3. I was in my third year of French classes
4. My youngest sister started Kindergarten
5. The Monica Lewinsky scandal began.



5 Things on today's "to-do" list

1. Give the dog a bath - she needs it really bad!
2. Hang out with my hubby
3. Plan meals for next week
4. Work on reorganizing the trash pit that my office has become . . . again :S
5. Move garage sale items to the garage.

5 Snacks I enjoy

1. Rice Krispy Caramel Bars :) mmmmm . . .
2. Chips & Guacamole (salsa & queso are good, too)
3. Popcorn
4. Pumpkin Cookies
5. Chocolate :)



5 Things I would do if I were a millionaire

1. Pay off all of our debt
2. Pay off all of our parents' debt
3. New clothes, shoes, accessories (not a lot, but some)
4. New laptops (Macbooks preferably) and/or iPhones for both Austin and myself
5. Travel, travel, travel . . .

5 Places I have lived

1. Elvin Ave.
2. Painted Rocks Rd.
3. Firestar Ln.
4. Apartment
5. House w/ Austin :)



5 Jobs that I have had / or still have

1. Camp Counselor
2. Receptionist
3. Daycare Teacher
4. Customer Service Representative
5. Project Coordinator

5 People I am tagging

1. Katie at Three Blondes and a Redhead
2. Mer at The Road Less Traveled
3. Angie at SevEn cLoWn CirCuS
4. Anna Mae at Whispers . . .
5. Becky at Smile! It's Becky!



And when it rains it pours :) Chelsea has also tagged me to reveal 7 wierd/random things about myself, so here goes:

1. My parents gave all of us girls the same three initials - then we had to go and get married (Kelli like a fox . . .)

2. I think it would be amazing to live overseas (for awhile)



3. I am terrified of the prospect of Barack Obama becoming the next president of the United States.

4. Studying our geneaologies fascinates me.

5. The music and drama department was literally my entire life for my entire high school career, and now I haven't performed anything for more than 3 years.



6. I am crazy enough to believe that it is possible to write 50,000 words of my first novel between November 1st and November 30th. (NaNoWriMo)

7. I love watching medical dramas (ER, House, Scrubs, etc.) but I know I could NEVER do that for a living.



The ladies that I tagged may choose to participate in either or both of these fun games :)

Thanks for reading everybody, have a great weekend!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ thoughtful

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello and happy Friday everybody! I'm so excited for another chance to brag all over what a sweetheart my hubby is, and I know you are excited, too!

We had a very eventful week, and I was reminded of Austin's thoughtfulness several times.

1) Even though he didn't have to be up for another hour, he woke up in time to see me off and wish me a happy birthday on Tuesday morning.

2) He worked outside in the cold getting our toys and our yard settled for the fast-approaching snow season.

3) He made sure that I had enough covers to keep me warm at night (I'm a very cold sleeper), and checked to make sure that they had done their job in the morning.

4) Even though he doesn't really understand the fascination, he puts up with my newfound NaNo obsession, and has been tremendously helpful on the logical ideas front!

5) We are moving the dog inside this weekend! - Something he was not terribly keen on, but he knows that I've been dying to do it!

I am so thankful that takes the time to take care of these things, and that he took the time to know and understand me well enough to take such wonderful care of me, too!

~~

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If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!

NaNoWriMo is Devouring My Brain!

. . . but that's a good thing, I think!

Aside from the slackerish blogging for the last few days.

For those of you who don't know anything about the wonderful-ness that is National Novel Writer's Month, it is a 30 day period (the month of November) in which thoroughly insane lunatics creative geniuses attempt to do the impossible write an entire novel (at least 50,000 words)!



To back up just a little bit, I have been thinking about writing a novel for a long, long time. There has always been a part of me that has believed that I am supposed to be a writer. Maybe I watched Little Women and the Anne of Green Gables movies a few too many times, maybe it's the fact that I'm completely addicted to reading everything that doesn't read me first (lol), but I've just always thought that I was meant to do it. About 6 months ago I began pursuing it pretty seriously - I read everything I could get my hands on about how to write a novel, how to plan to write a novel, how to think about planning to write a novel. But that's all the farther I got. I dabbled with a story idea and wrote a couple of scenes that didn't fit together, but I chickened out.

I think there was some kind of deep-seated fear that if I didn't do it perfectly the first time, there would be no second time and I would have utterly failed at my life's "purpose." Then along came NaNoWriMo - I don't even remember how I first heard of it, but I went to the website and started reading about it, and I knew that I had to do it. Because, if I can accomplish this I will learn three things: 1) I will know that I am capable of writing a lot of words in a short amount of time, 2) I will know if I enjoy writing any words in any amount of time, 3) I will know if anything I can write is coherent and/or interesting enough to be read by anyone else. If I learn these three things I will know for certain whether or not I am truly meant to do this!

That, and I'm always up for a challenge!

All of this to say, I may be a little scarce during the month of November, but I'll still be around! I'll also be twittering my daily word count, and I may post excerpts from time to time (if they're at all presentable). (Word Count Goal Calendar)

If any of you are joining in the madness fun, let me know so we can cheer each other on!

Thanks for reading!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Spiritual Leader

Click hereto read about why I started MHR Fridays!

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Austin is so great. I'm sure you all know that by now, but I mean, he really is just truly wonderful. Recently, I have been really struggling with my current job. The environment there has become very negative, and it is very draining to have to work in that kind of environment every day, so I have been very discouraged and had a pretty bad attitude about having to go back every day.

In the midst of this, Austin has been encouraging me with Colossians 3:23:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,"

Now, this is not exactly the message I wanted. But it is without a doubt the message I needed. Austin, who is wise beyond his years, knows that my negative attitude only makes me feel worse about the situation, and adversely affects my performance which will not help my chances for finding a new position within a different department.

I am so thankful that God has put us together, and that Austin is allowing God to use him as the spiritual leader of our home.

Another reason why my husband rocks? He can fix ANYTHING - seriously - from computers to broken doors to a fabulous little radiator-style space heater that I found while curb-shopping last week. We could not get the blasted thing to work, so last night while we were hanging out watching some TV Austin took the whole thing apart, and fixed the mechanism that kept kicking it off. The rest of our evening was spent luxuriating in the fabulous warmth of our good-as-new space heater.

Isn't he awesome!??!?!?

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If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading everybody! Have a wonderful weekend!

Writer's Workshop! #2 "I wish someone told me . . . "

The Prompts:

1.) Recall a time when you did something to get noticed. Write about it.

2.) Begin with “I wish someone told me…”

3.) If you could rearrange three things about your life what would they be?

4.) What do you love to create?

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I wish someone told me

~ Time is never free, it waits for no one, and it flies - even when you're not having fun.

~ Money never goes as far as you think it will.

~ Working for a living is really mostly about working, you have to live "on your own time."

~ There are always more dishes, clothes, beds, cars, dogs, windows, floors, and clutter to be scrubbed, laundered, made, cleaned, bathed, washed, vacuumed, and de-cluttered.

The truth is, someone probably told me all of these things at some point, somewhere along the way; however, there are many truths that only experience can truly teach.

Other things I've learned that no one ever told me:

* Life never happens the way you expected - but the surprises are often the best parts.

* There's nothing like waking up next to your best friend knowing you love him more today than you did yesterday, and less than you will tomorrow.

* It is truly the little things - a kind word from a stranger, a single flower, an unexpected phone call, a tender kiss, a surprise note or e-mail, sharing a secret smile, a chocolate milkshake, hearing your favorite song on the radio, singing along like your life depended on it, a hot bat, a good book - that add sparkle and spice and wonder to life.