Alive Alight Aware Awake

The title of this post belongs to a mentor of mine. It is his motto by which he lives his life.

Photo found here

My friend Nichole sent me a blog entry from A Holy Experience blog. She and I were sharing fears about the future and daily life (I'm a worrier). This article reminded me that God is faithful and that it is best for me, as His child, to be present in this moment where He is. Even people of other faiths or no faith can benefit from being present and aware and alive in each moment.

My favorite parts are:

"I miss living this moment because my head’s already moved into the next moment — the one that isn’t even here yet — and when I am not in this moment but trying to shove into a moment that doesn’t even exist — I miss out on living at all. I may bodily be in this space but I am not even alive.

When I am present to the Presence of God meeting us in this moment, I am not worrying, I am not regretting, I am not chaffing, griping, fuming, fretting.

Be all here: and be holy.

Be all here: and be happy.

Because the Presence of I AM always fills the present moment.

Be all here and be at peace… content… awake —- Alive. When I am mindful of this moment, the mind fills with God and the heart fills with peace and joy-thanks fills the prayers and isn’t the only way God can come to us is through the door of this moment? Here"

Wow, how refreshing! Important people to me have encouraged me to do this, and I pray I will learn. Knowing that God is always here during each now gives me faith to trust Him for the future as well. Let it be.

Full article here.

Funny little pup

In reference to my previous post, T-town is supposed to get another storm tonight. Joy. Winnie is doing well right now, but she's exhausted. Why? Because we hosted youth group over here tonight.

After the students leave, she typically goes straight to our bed and goes to sleep. When her friends come over, she likes it, but it exhausts her! Tonight she went to the guest bedroom (washing the sheets right now for company coming tomorrow), which is rare. I went to investigate and found this.

Preparing for the storm? Crawling to safety? Just needs a break?

She got under there for a little while.

Bad picture. But she looks happy.

And Kurt got under there with her for a minute, which was funny as well.


She is now sitting between Kurt and me on the couch. Sweet girl. We love our puppy.

Surviving the storm: Winnie style

On Thursday night, a storm apparently came through Tupelo, but the tornado sirens near us didn't go off. Or either we didn't hear them. Other people in our area said they didn't hear them either. Oh well. Not to worry. My mother-in-law was our personal tornado siren. She sent us texts and urged us -- nay, implored -- to get in the closet because we were under a weather attack.

Winnie had been in a panic all evening. Panting, shaking, sitting practically on top of Kurt and me for hours. She is so afraid of bad weather. So we finally got her into the closet. After we got in there, she was fine.

Sitting between us in my closet.

Well, the storm passed and Kurt got out of the closet, but Winnie felt so safe in there, she apparently didn't want to leave. And she was blocking my exit. So she and I sat in there for a little while longer.

Just hangin' in the closet.

I was finally able to move her over, stand up, and get out of the closet. However, she wasn't so sure about leaving. I left the room for a few minutes, and she didn't follow as she usually does. I went back to check on her, and I found her peeking out of the door. So precious.

Trying to decide whether to come out.

Winnie finally came out, and she slept at the foot of our bed all night. Bless her heart. She just doesn't like storms.

Duped by Etsy

Well well well. Boy do I feel silly! For the past few days I've been talking to Kurt and a few others about my "Etsy catastrophe" and my "Etsy disaster" and how I feel like "such an idiot!" and "Gah!" (Napoleon Dynamite style, of course)

That DARLING picture you see above was my first purchase on Etsy. I needed a new key chain because some boys in the youth group were trying to wrestle my keys away from Kurt (typical) and broke one of my key rings, so now they're all jammed on there and I can't hang up my keys on their hook. So, I decided not to buy the cute Fossil owl or bird key chains at Belk for $16 each, but to look on Etsy instead for something cute, handmade and less expensive.

I noticed after I ordered this totally cute owl key chain that my bank account was charged but I received no shipping notification. So, I emailed the seller. What else, right? The seller then notified me of my mistake. Apparently I forgot to read all of the information. It wasn't even the fine print that I missed, which makes this situation worse. The title of the item is

"Owl Key Chain Card Holder Machine Embroidery Design File."

Right there. At the top. First thing one would see...Machine Embroidery Design File. Apparently I stopped at "card holder." Sad. So, if any of you embroiderers (Ahem, Becca) want to make this for me, I'll send you the stupid file and you can make as many as you want. Gah.

Baby bump

Well, it's not that big, but here's a pic of my tummy at 14 weeks. Enjoy, Audge!

The ones I love

My sweet husband and my puppy girl (even though she is about 40 lbs bigger now.) I love this picture.
And Baby Cooper (even though he/she is also bigger now. We don't have an updated sonogram pic). We will find out in about a month what this little precious punkin is!

Sick days

I've been at home with a cold or a sinus infection or "the crud" for the past 2 days. Ugggghhhhhhh.

Sneezing. Coughing. Constantly blowing my nose. It is so dry and raw now. But the WORST part is not being able to breathe through my nose. I can't sleep any other way. I'm not a mouth-breather. Sigh.

Since I can't take mega meds since I'm pregnant, I'm trying to wait it out. So, I've been wearing these new, cute slippers my friend Laura gave me and putting Vick's Vaporub up my nose. I'm just praying this illness goes away soon.

Kurt and I are watching The Social Network right now. We are enjoying it. If the real Mark Zuckerburg is anything like this actor in the movie, he is a jerk. But a smart, successful one.

Winnie has been playing outside a lot lately. She has wanted to, especially when the snow/ice was stuck to the deck. She likes to eat it. Crunch crunch.

I hope I sleep well tonight. Wish me luck.

Tupelo sighting

Stay classy.

Girl talk

Having a heart to heart with Winnie girl is always a sweet time. Home is where the dog is!