What Did I Accomplish?

I was thinking about 2010 tonight, and I was thinking to myself that I just don't know how it could be better than 2009! But, I do have this feeling that the Lord is up to something.......I just know and have faith that He has big plans for me. I'm excited to see what they are! Not for myself, but for Him!

Anyhow, I thought it would be fun to look back on my blog and see what my New Year's Resolutions were last year and see if I accomplished them. Here they are in the order that I wrote them in my post from last year:

1. organize my home - Um, yeah. The fact that I was at Walmart today, buying all kinds of organization boxes, files, and drawers leads me to believe that this one will end up on this year's list again! LOL!

2. redecorate - We added a room over our living room last January, and it is still unfinished. However, we do have big plans to finish it soon. We did get new wood floors in our living room this past year, which made a huge difference. And we did some other minor things around the house too. I also got my craft room set up the way I wanted it, so I guess I somewhat accomplished this one. I have learned that I just do not enjoy home decorating, and I have accepted that!

3. take my girls on more adventures - Well, this one I think I did pretty good on. We did go on a short vacation this year. We did fun things with friends. They went to their first concert. It's not a lot of things, but considering how bad my anxiety used to be, these things were huge for us! And, we started going to church.....the biggest adventure of all!

4. fight my anxiety issues - This one is still an ongoing issue, but I have made such HUGE steps toward moving past this! I had to realize that it was not in my power to overcome it by myself. It all had to do with trusting in Him. I truly believe that if it had not been for my anxiety issues, I never would've turned to the Lord like I have. If I had been able to handle my Mom's loss on my own, I think I would've just went about my business and still be living for myself. I had to hit rock bottom to realize just how much I need Him. I will be forever grateful for that! And because I have been so broken, I feel like I am much more prepared to do His work with compassion for others who are lost, broken, and neglected too.

5. start going to church (this is the most important!) - Wow! I love that I put that this was the most important one. This changed everything for me and my entire family this year! It made so many things possible, it opened doors for us, it brought Morgan and I so much closer. It has been the experience of my life. I never want to go back to the way we were before. This is what life is all about and this made 2009 one of the best years of my life!

6. get my business going - I did get my business going. I got my look redone, thanks to Abigail. I feel like I am heading in the right direction with the concept of it, as far as using it to help others. I don't care if I ever make any money doing it, because as long as I can use it to help others, I am happy. However, I'm still not quite sure what kind of products I want to offer. I feel like the Lord will use it for His good, but I just don't have direction on it yet. I will keep praying.

7. budget better - Well, this one was accomplished, but it had nothing to do with me. I have experienced firsthand what incredible things will happen when you put God first. I do not believe in the so-called "prosperity" preachers, you know, those who say if you believe in God, He'll give you more than you've ever imagined. I do believe that being a Christian, no matter how much you live for Him, will at times be hard. But, I will say that this year, beyond our wildest imaginations, we were able to pay off all of our credit debt. We never thought that would be possible! So, this one will go back on the list for this year, so that we don't get ourselves back into trouble again!

8. cook more - This one makes me want to laugh! LOL!! I think I cooked even less this year. I have just accepted the fact that I don't enjoy cooking at all. My husband does. So, it only makes sense to me that he cook and I clean up afterwards. It's a team effort and it works for us!

9. spend less time watching TV and on the computer - I definitely spent less time watching TV this year. I never watch TV during the day, and once Morgan gets home, I just watch whatever he watches, but I'm usually on my laptop reading blogs while I do it. I do watch The Young & the Restless at night, after everyone has gone to bed, and that is my "me time" and I love it! Less time on the computer? Not! But, I don't regret the time I've spent on the computer this year. I have learned so much, met so many wonderful people, and it has helped me be a better person. This blog has been my therapy and you all have been my counselors. It has been an amazing experience!

So, there you go! I will be back on New Year's Eve with my new resolutions list. That was fun though, seeing how far I've come since last year! If you have not entered my giveaway, be sure and scroll down and leave me a comment to enter!

Our 24 Hour Vacation

We didn't have a chance to go on a vacation this Summer, so we went on a little mini-vacation to Galveston Island, TX for a whole 24 hours. Ha!

It only takes about an hour to get there from where we live.
The girls were so excited because they have never been to a hotel before.
Morgan has a client who owns several hotels on the island and he offered to let us stay at his hotel, free of charge! I am so incredibly greatful for that!
We even had an ocean view!

This was our bedroom:

And the girl's adjoining bedroom. Talk about super nice! He even let us bring our doggie, Bella, even though they don't normally allow pets.

Kaylee and her friends trying out the bed:

We got there around 1pm on Saturday, checked into the hotel, and then went to eat lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. Then we went to Walmart to buy some sand toys and drinks.

You can still see effects of Hurricane Ike all over the island, even almost a year later. This is the entrance to the Flagship Hotel. The road that connects it to the main road completely collapsed and it is no longer in business.

As we were getting ready to hit the beach, I caught Lily checking herself out in the mirror. LOL!

The girls loved the beach. This was their first time to go play at the beach. Even Lily loved the water, which surprised me because she won't even get into her Grandma's swimming pool.

We went the the beach where Morgan's client's house is. Talk about a super neat house! It got damaged from the storm and it still hasn't been fixed because they won't give anyone permits to fix anything.

The girls were really excited to build a sandcastle and look for seashells.

Here's the finished product......a sandcastle with seashell and seaweed decor. :)

I was cracking up at our chihuahua, Bella. We took her in her little carrier, but Morgan let her get in the water. At first, she was being all prissy. Then, she started playing and rolling around in the water. Needless to say, she had to have a bath afterwards.

Here's Lily making herself comfortable in the water.

I took some bread so we could feed the birds. This looks so beautiful, huh?! Well, not so beautiful when there's about 20 of them hovering above your head. LOL! Lily and Kaylee had a blast feeding them though. They thought it was so neat how they would catch the bread in the air. Kaylee just laughed and laughed. Then, the birds got too close and the girls had enough of that!

After playing at the beach, we all got cleaned up to go out to eat. Again, Morgan's client was so nice to us. He had left us a gift card to a really nice restaurant. I don't know how I will ever thank him for being so wonderful to us.

We got back pretty late and the girls were ready for bed. Lily is wearing Madison's eye cover thing. Ha!

The next morning, we had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, which was good. We were going to go to Moody Gardens, which is an aquarium/IMAX/rainforest type place, but then we realized we had to check out of the hotel by 11am. We weren't thinking about the fact that we had Bella with us and had no place to keep her, so we really couldn't go anywhere at that point. We didn't want to overstay our welcome at the hotel, so we decided just to drive to a local souvenir place to get the girls some t-shirts and things.

Then, we decided to ride the ferry across from Galveston Island to Boliver Peninsula.

Okay, you know I can't have a post without telling you something really cool that the Lord did, right?!! You're gonna love this story.

So, most of you know I get really anxious to travel. Well, I drove to Galveston and did fine. I listened to my favorite music. You know Third Day's song, "Born Again", that I talked about on my post the other day? Well, I realized it was on my CD that I have, so I listened to it. Then I listened to their other song, "Call my Name" too. I normally cannot ride with anyone, because it makes me too nervous, but once we got to Galveston, I let Morgan drive because he knows his way around the island. So, I did fine the whole time we were there, until we got in line for the ferry and it was really long. That was when I started to get that dreaded panicky feeling. The one where I seriously started to consider jumping out of the car just so I could breathe.

Well, I had already told myself that I was NOT going to ruin this for the girls. So, that song popped into my head. "Just call my name and I'll be there." So I did. I prayed to the Lord, "Okay, I'm calling your name!" I started to feel better. I knew I'd be fine when I saw they had 2 ferries running and it wouldn't take as long as I thought.


So, we load up on the ferry, get out and I decide to take some pictures. I handed the camera to Morgan and asked him to take a picture of me and the girls. So he did, and then a lady turned around and said, "Do you want me to take a picture of all of you?" and I said, "Sure!" so she took a couple of pictures of us.

But, here's where the story gets really good!!!

You will never, ever guess what kind of shirt she was wearing!

She was wearing a Third Day shirt!

Oh my goodness..........can you even believe that? After thinking of that song by Third Day, "Just call my name and I'll be there!" and this lady shows up wearing a Third Day shirt!

I just don't know how you could possibly say that was a coincidence. I just cannot make this stuff up! Right when it happened, I didn't think much about it. Then, after we got back in the car and I realized how significant that was, I was just so amazed! That the Lord would do that for me? ME? That is just how much He loves us, isn't it?!


The girls were also SO excited that they got to see dolphins in the water!

Then, we reached Boliver Peninsula. We call going through Bolivar the back way to go back home. It leads to Interstate 10, which leads us back home. This area (Bolivar, Crystal Beach, Rollover Pass) was the hardest hit by Hurricane Ike though. It was so devestating to the area because houses were lifted off their pilings and swept away by the water. These houses were on stilts and that didn't even help because the storm surge was so high. You can google the before and after arial shots of these areas and you will be amazed at how over half the houses are no longer even there.


Here's just one example of the damage.

So, that was our little trip! I guess it was the quickest vacation ever, but we had a great time!