New Shoes make EVERYTHING better.

So I realize it has been quite sometime since my last blog post, but like everything else in my life, it has been put on hold due to being inconveniently sick.  A few weeks ago I got really sick, and last week I found out it was all thanks to a virus called Epstein-Barr, or "mono."  Needless to say this last week has been, well, miserable. 
However, rather than writing a blog dedicated to something no one should ever have to experience and wouldn't want to hear about, I have decided to show you something that has brought lost of happiness this week. NEW SHOES!

I went on somewhat of a spree and bought three pairs of new heels I am IN LOVE with. Now all I need is a chance to wear them :)

 

These came from eBay, and I love them because the remind of something Allie would wear in The Notebook. They are Colin Stuart peep-toe pumps and I am anticipating wearing them with everything. Regardless of what you have heard, eBay is a GREAT place to find shoes as long as you know exactly what size you need.

I also bought two new pairs of shoes from the coveted market DSW.  Shopping online at DSW is great, but if you ever get a chance to go to a store you MUST go.  It is extremely overwhelming but extremely rewarding.  Half of my closet is filled with shoes purchased from here.  They have great designer stuff at perfect prices and their sale room is something to behold.

These are going to wonderful for fall! 

 

And finally, my new nude pumps! I am extremely excited about these.  I have been looking for nude colored pumps for ages and I have fallen in love.  They are just the perfect color to wear with everything, but they have a precious texture to them which makes them so much more fun and interesting than just the plain colored pumps I had been looking at.

So I know I should not put too much emphasis on material things, because yes the things of this world are fleeting.  However, today the simple joys of new, pretty things is getting me through the misery of mono and I am thankful for the men and women God created to design these beautiful accessories for my feet.

The other thing I am thankful for is all this bed rest which is allowing me to finish reading The Help, but that will be a post for another day.

Biding My Time

As much fun as the situation of being engaged is... I'm starting to have a hard time with it.  I AM SO READY TO BE MARRIED!

So, I have found ways to bide my time that make me feel as though I am moving ever closer to the "Big Day."
One fun project my roommate, Laura, and have begun is making fabric flowers.  I went to Hancock Fabrics in Jackson and loaded up on crisp tulles, soft cream-colored silks, some stiff grey and pink fabrics, and a beautiful slate blue I want to make a slinky dress out of.

We read some fellow DIY blogs and pick up on some flower-making tips.  We've only just begun, but I am getting excited for how these will look hanging from the 1850's farmhouse at the reception.

Another little help in getting myself through this next several months is my new nephew! Well, I consider him my nephew... He is a precious little boy named Baxter. He is 8 weeks old with blue eyes and black hair.

He belongs to my roommate but I feel I am too involved in his upbringing not to claim him as part of my own. 

I didn't think I was ready for a puppy in our apartment, but who can say no to a boy as sweet and precious as this? Baxter helps me to remember that it really is the small things in life like the chaos of having to rush to the bathroom with a poop covered puppy and bathing him frantically with one of your very best friends that truly bring joy into this world of sorrow and sin.  And it is these little things that require so much patience like puppies and creating flowers and waiting to married, that reap the most rewards. So I will be still and continue to bide my time.

That time of year already?

I feel as though the summer months have flown by and it is now "that time of year." The glorious time for new pens and notebooks, tailgating and football games, cool mornings and blissful nights, and the inevitable cold.

How is it that despite all my efforts and thousands of milligrams of vitamins I still manage to get sick? I guess it is just that time of year.  As it was so gracefully written in Ecclesiastes, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under Heaven."

So, bearing the wisdom of Solomon, I will grin, drink tea, and bear it.

 

Here's to all who are bearing the same burden of this time of year, CHEERS!

P.S. I find Echinacea tea with one spoonful of honey 2 times a day works miracles.

Another Year Wiser...

Oh the lessons learned.

 

This past weekend I celebrated another amazing birthday with friends and loved ones.  During the days surrounding my birthday I was asked several times, "So do you feel 23?" or "How does it feel to be 23?"
So I had to ask myself, how does 23 feel?  At first I did not feel anything at all.  I mean, it is only one day's difference between 22 and 23.  But, maybe I should feel different; after all with age comes wisdom.

So, I have made a list.  This is what I have learned and what I am vowing to learn in my next year of life.

• Beauty is inward.  No matter how much I strive to be beautiful on the outside, what matters really IS what is on the inside.  I want to have  a beautiful heart.
• Anger is easy, but solves nothing.  I have learned I really am quick to anger, but to resolve anything I must be quick to peace and quick to listen.
• Money really doesn't  grow on trees.  (Still working on learning this one)
• I must open my heart in order to feel loved.  This means being vulnerable to pain, but it is the only way to rejoice in God's gift of the joy of love.
• I am blessed.
• I know very little about life. 

This next year I am praying for wisdom.  If there is one thing I have absolutely learned it is that God still has much to teach me.

Thanks to my friends and fiance for an amazing birthday celebration.  I am so lucky to have you.

The Truth in Green

Today I went running down a street near my house.  I had been this way before, but it was months ago.  The first time I ran down this road I passed a field.  It was filled with beautiful long green grass and one of my favorite's, Queen Anne's Lace.  The first time I came to this field, I stopped walked in and cried out to God to heal my hurts.

Today, when I ran by this field there was no more Queen Anne's Lace, no more green, and not even the grasshoppers that were once jumping all around me.  As I ran past today, God helped me to realize something.  In the way that this field's beautiful flowers have to all die out to grow and become beautiful again so do the stages of our lives.  Sometimes we have to experience a drying out period where things are raw and vibrancy is gone.  But, just as the flowers bloom every spring so do all things happy and beautiful return to us. 

Just as we trust that in winter flowers die and in spring they grow up again, so must we trust that there will be times when things seem bad, but from them we will grow.

Beginning my Journey..

My mother has always told me that if she could teach me just one thing, it would to relax. "Since you were a baby," she says, "You would never just calm down and relax." For most of my life I have laughed this off as another retold childhood story, but today sparked a revelation. There is something to life that one experiences in calm, and I am missing out.


This understanding came to me tonight after a much stressful trip home ,which ended in a drive through the worst storm I have ever experienced from a car. My courageous fiancé drove us through the lightning and sheets of rain as I cowered, petrified and tense, into his arm praying for safe passage. When the storm was finally over, I sat in the passenger seat motionless and staring forward just waiting for my muscles to relax. "What's the matter baby, the storm's over. We're ok!" Joe says to me, but it still takes 10 minutes for words to form again.

People always talk of the calm before the storm and the calm after the storm, and I feel that is just what my life entails. My moments of calm are ones spent anticipating the storm.

Why do I fret so much? Why do I become tense and panicky when others stay calm? Why do I feel that moments doing nothing are moments wasted? Why has my mother never been able to teach me to relax?
The answer I have come to is this: I am not trusting the Lord to take care of my life and in my mistaken effort to control all things around me I leave no room for God.


So, I have decided to begin a journey, a journey which will take a lifetime but will ultimately end in the calm of my God's loving arms. My journey will be a hard one and I know I will fail much, but if I seek calm then I am seeking and trusting the Lord who is the only one who can control the chaos I create.