Your Fault

A pastor complained to a higher up in his denomination about having sixteen doors that needed to be locked and unlocked each day. The man responded, "Don't complain to me, YOU built the church."

How often is it that we complain to God about our circumstances, moaning and groaning that we have all this extra stuff that is a result of what we've done. I'm sure God wants to say, "Hey dummy! You're the one who made the problem, don't blame it on Me!"

What I do on my Day Off

Yesterday I actually had a day off (something that doesn't occur frequently). I was desperate to fill all the free time on my hands (not really). I went to extreme measures to entertain myself....

Really Quick

I'm so sorry that I have not updated in a while; Time seems to elude me lately. Last week I started working two jobs, and I have been doing other things with church and family that have kept me pretty busy. I love every minute of my hectic life...it's pretty entertaining. Although, I must admit that I have my moments when I wish it would all stop and I could take a break. I guess that will happen in Heaven someday! :D

I have a couple of ideas for posts, I just haven't had time to write them out. I hope soon. I have a day off on Thursday so maybe then...who knows. Anyways, I'm still alive and doing well, just filling up my days with things besides my blog!

A Call to Courtesy

I work at a fast food restaurant. I make minimum wage. That does not make me less of a person simply because I am the one working in a horribly greasy environment just to make the food you eat. In fact, if it weren't for me, you would have to go home and make your own meals.

I think the stereotype of fast food workers is that of irresponsible teenagers or adults who couldn't find a better job so they had to settle for what they could get. That is not exactly the case. Many fast food workers are like me, college students who have a college bill to pay. We go to school full-time, and most "respectable" employers don't want to work with our class schedule. Others are adults with families who, in the present state of this economy, lost their jobs; they are simply trying to work to provide food and shelter for their family rather than taking money from the government. Yes, some are high school students, but I give them a lot of credit for working a job to earn money instead of bumming it off their parents.

Fast food workers are subjected to a lot of mistreatment by our patrons. We are often made to feel like second class citizens just because we happen to be on the opposite side of the counter. Many times it seems as if people vent the frustrations of their bad day on us...hey, it's not our fault you had a rough time at work. Oh, another thing, if you move tables around in the dining room, fine, but please put them back where you got them from! And for goodness sakes, we aren't a full service restaurant which means that if you make a mess, clean it up! If your order is messed up, please be polite about it. We aren't perfect and sometimes, especially when we are busy, we try to get your food out so fast that mistakes are easily made. We will correct it, I promise, the nicer you are to us in the process, but nicer we will be inclined to be to you.

Working fast food isn't exactly the easiest job, but it can be enjoyable. Having courteous customers makes our life easier. If people would just relax they would realize that dealing with us can be rather pleasant. It is our responsibility to try our hardest to be nice to our customers, but it's much better when our patrons are decent in return.

Day 29: Hopes, Plans and Dreams for the Next 365 Days

My biggest hope for the next year is to draw much closer to God. I want to grow in Him, learning from every happening in my life. Like the song says, "Oh, I want to know You more, deep within my soul I want to know You, Oh, I want to know You. To feel Your heart and know Your mind, looking into Your eyes stirs within me, cries that say 'I want to know You more,' Oh, I want to know You."

Plans for this next year include working, working some more, going to Shawnee for graduation, maybe going out east with a friend, probably going to Virginia for a family reunion, working, going back to Shawnee in the Fall, and working, Christmas break, and then STUDENT TEACHING! I know, not very thrilling, but that's all that I know of at the moment. God has a funny way of doing what He wants in my life and changing all of my plans. I have learned to simply accept what He wants and go on with life. Fighting God's leading tends to bring much heartache and pain, and it's not worth it.

Dreams for this year are finishing my in class training by the end of the year and to finally be student teaching. It seems like I've been in college forEVER, I'm soooo ready to be finished and on my way to doing other things with life. Another dream of mine is to finally purchase my own car that actually works (I seem to have a problem with getting a decent car). Oh, and an extra dream that doesn't necessarily have to come in the next 365 years, but would be a nice bonus, is the man of my dreams! ;) It never hurts to wish for something, right?!

Thirty Day Challenge: Day 21: Something I do Differently than Most People

I can not stand to have "mixed food." I don't like eating casseroles or a lot of salads because the food is all jumbled together. For whatever reason I'm OCD about mixing things. I will eat the food given to me, but I have a crazy habit of separating everything once it is on my plate.

After separating things I then eat them one type of food at a time starting with the ingredient that I like the least. For example, we have been eating a lot of fruit salad lately. In this salad there are pears, apples, cantaloupe, oranges, pineapple, banana and sometimes grapes. I will take a serving of it (I love fruit) and eat it in this order: oranges, pears, apples, grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, and banana. Even worse than that, when eating spaghetti I separate the noodles and the sauce! Now that's interesting to do, but I don't like them mixed together...at all!

A Tale of Two Coyotes

The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.  A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor's dog and, since nothing was done, bites the Governor as well. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness program" for residents of the area. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world. The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training on the nature of coyotes. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files a $5 million suit against the State.  

The Governor of Wyoming is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog. The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow-point cartridge. The buzzards eat the dead coyote.  And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Wyoming is not. 

Day 7: Five Things I Couldn't Live without

This post should not be as hard as the other ones, although coming up with a list of only five things is going to be a little bit difficult...

1. Salvation -- without Salvation and the work that Christ has done in my life I would not be here today. I don't know where I would be, or if I would even still be alive, but I do know that were it not for the love of my Savior and His work on Calvary, and my complete faith in Him I would not be certain that I was going to Heaven when I die.
2. My Bible -- this kind of goes along with Salvation. However, the Bible is what I use to continue my growth in Christ. I have read it through a few times and read many parts of it over and over and over.
3. A tooth brush -- I think this one is kind of obvious. Have you ever seen someone who has not brushed their teeth in a long time?! EWW! I thought about going into a long description of this, but I think I'll leave it up to your imagination.
4. Music -- Someone once said, "Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows the from Heaven to the soul."
5. My brain. -- any explanation needed? Although, I have a feeling my mom is going to ask whether or not I had a brain to begin with. Love you too, Mom! :)

National Whipped Cream Day!

Let's take a break in regular programming for some very important, life altering news! Today is

NATIONAL WHIPPED CREAM DAY!

This news is extremely important to anyone. Because it is only with whipped cream that so many desserts are made complete. How could you eat a banana cream pie, or a ice cream sundae, a cappuccino, or a hot slice of apple cobbler without a nice touch of whipped cream? It would be impossible! I therefore decree that all people, both young and old, should go to the store and buy themselves a can of whipped cream and eat it...right out of the can!

The Real Reasons

Today I was attempting to go to my internship which is in Louisville. In order to get there I have to cross the Ohio River via the Sherman Minton Bridge. I was about 1/2 a mile from the exit ramp onto the highway when suddenly there was a HUGE backup.

Last night I had made brownies for class, and had meant to get milk at Walmart, but I had forgotten to get it. I was planning on stopping at a gas station, but with the backup I simply decided to stop at a Save-A-Lot since their milk would probably be a lot cheaper. I was hoping that by the time I got out of the store order would have returned to the streets. As I was checking out I saw through the window that traffic was just as bad, so I asked the cashier what was going on. He said that the bridge was closed because someone was trying to jump off of it! I was like, "Wow, ok...ummm...I'm not going to make it to my internship." I called the teacher and told him what was going on and he was fine with me not coming...so now I'm stuck with brownies and milk that I don't need!


Anyways, I started thinking about why this person was jumping off the bridge. Well, not necessarily why he was jumping, but why he chose to attempt to kill himself by jumping and why he got caught. I think there could be several reasons behind this particular choice of suicide attempts.

First of all, and probably the most likely was that he was wanting to just get attention. He honestly wasn't going to jump but everyone wants their 10 seconds of fame, and he got it, but in the process managed to inconvenience a lot of people.
Another reason could be that he was to the point of suicide, but didn't really want to commit suicide. What he really wanted was someone to talk him out of killing himself. Because honestly, if he really wanted to jump the bridge, all he had to do was pull off to the side, get out of the car and jump before anyone had time to really notice or do anything about it.

The final reason that I could come up with is that he was going to jump, but as soon and he got out of his car and got to the edge of the bridge the fear of actually taking the plunge scared the life out of him (no pun intended).

The moral of the story is first of all, don't commit suicide. Secondly, if you need help, it's not that hard to find...if nothing else go to a church because there are a lot of them out there and most will help people with needs. And finally, if you want to get famous, PLEASE don't do it in a way that's going to inconvenience a LOT of people.
I know this was a really random blog post, but I had to get it out of my system!

Tag

Well, techinically I wasn't tagged, but Karis did this on her blog and I thought it was fun!

BIOLOGY

Are you right-handed or left-handed? right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? wisdom teeth, gull bladder...

What is the last heavy item you lifted? Ice bucket at work.

FOOD-OLGY

What is your salad dressing of choice? Well, I'm really not a dressing person, but if I had to choose I would probably go with ranch.

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Buckheads!

What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it? Ice cream

What are your pizza toppings of choice? It really doesn't matter. I like everything, and sometimes just cheese. :)

What do you like to put on your toast? Butter, jelly

RANDOM-OLOGY

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No, that kinda ruins the whole point of living.

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? First name? Well, I kinda like my name...

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? Hey! I'm a poor broke college student, I'd do almost anything for $1000!!!

DUMB-OLOGY

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? Like a millionish...Come summer time I don't ever wear anything that's NOT flip-flops!

Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Umm...well, the last time I had a personal encounter with them while driving was in September at a ID check-point.

Last person you talked to in person? Brittany

Favorite Month? May

CURRENT-OLOGY

Mood? Sleepy

What are you listening to? The hum of my computer and people going in and out of the door

Watching? computer

Worrying about? School bill, future...all things that I should really be trusting God for.

RANDOM-OLOGY

What’s the last movie you watched? Finding Nemo

Do you smile often? Yeah!!

Do you always answer your phone? Nope! If I don't have time, or don't feel like talking to someone I simply ignore it...if they leave a message then I try to call them back.

If you could change your eye color what would it be? When I was younger I wanted my eyes to be blue, but now I like my brown eyes.

What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I don't go to Sonic! :P

Do you own a digital camera? Yup!

Have you ever had a pet fish? I had 3 but I killed all of them in some way or another! :P

Favorite Christmas song? I like most of them...I could name some that I HATE...I like, "O Come All Ye Faithful."

What’s on your wish list for your birthday? It's too far away to think about.

Can you do push-ups? Not very well, but yes.

Can you do a chin up? No, not really.

Do you have any saved texts? Yes I do! :)

Ever been in a car wreck? Yup!

Do you have an accent? It depends on which part of the country I'm in!

What is the last song to make you cry? "Never Let Go."

Plans tonight? Cards for Christ and then church

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Yes!

Name 2 things you bought yesterday: Ummm...I only bought one thing...a Blizzard from DQ.

You ever been given roses? Yes

Current hate right now? none. I mean, dislike maybe, but not hate...

Met someone who changed your life? yes

What were you doing 12 AM last night? Crawling into bed.

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? "Fire alarm?! Shoot what time is it? (2:30 am) Man! I've gotta get outside fast!!" [needless to say, it was not a fun wake up!]

TECHNOLOGY

How many televisions are in your house? 3 or 4 but they are all used for school

What color cell phone do you have? Blue

What does the first text message in your inbox say and who sent it? Kyle - "Not even a review sheet? That stinks...I'll be praying"

Who was the last person to call you? Jess

If any of you want to do it feel free...it is a lot of fun!! :)

Random Story from My Life

I thought I would share this incredibly random story from my life that happened the other day.
I had been out and about job hunting (which if any of you think about it, please pray that I find a job with lots of hours) and then I decided to stop at Dollar Tree because I needed a few things.
Well, I get in line and it's my turn to check out when I realized that I didn't have any cash...only my credit and debit cards. So I ran the one card through and it was denied, which I thought was strange, but the cashier said that sometimes the card reader acts funny. So I tried the other card, it too was denied. She then asked if I wanted her to try to run my debit card through as a credit card, and I said, "Sure!" So she tried that and it was denied as well. It was really strange. I said, "Well, I'm just gonna have to leave it here cuz I don't have any other way to pay for it!" There was a guy standing behind me in line who handed the cashier money and said, "Here I'll pay for it!" I was like, "UHHHHHHHHH.....you don't have to do that!" He said, "I know, but it's not very much anyways!" My response was, "Ok, if you want to...Thanks!" Apparently he was a caregiver for mentally handicapped people, because he had two handicapped guys with him. One of them said (REALLY LOUDLY), "It was nice of you to do that for that lady!" And his response was, "Well, that's what gentlemen do for ladies!" I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me!!! It was interesting to say the least!
I guess I should probably thank the Lord for providing those things for me, and now I can, but at that moment I was soooo embarrassed! All of my friends got a kick outta the story so I thought I'd share it with all of you and I hope that you guys get a smile out of it too! :)

Winter Poem ala Minnesota

It's winter in Minnesota
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At thirty-five below.

Oh, how I love Minnesota
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Minnesota
I'm frozen to the ground!
~Unknkown