This really erks me!

A lady did this right next to me today and I though to myself, "oh I have to write a blog about that!". I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate it when people cough without covering there mouth. I mean come on, do I look like I want your germs? Maybe you think I do, but seriously didn't your mom teach you any manners? Even my 1 year old can cover her mouth when she coughs or sneezes! I just think it's really gross to cough your sick germs all over someone else and/or their personal space. Do you like being sick? Well neither do I so please keep your germs to yourself so that I don't have to share in your misery. Thank you.

Christmas came early

This week has been a hard week for me. I have been struggling with my loneliness again and feeling like maybe God really did forget about me and my feelings. To top it all off I was making dinner the other night and my knife was just not cutting it--literally. I have sharpened this knife every time I've used it for the past week and a half and it just doesn't seem to want to cut anything. So the other night Matt had just gotten home and I was telling him that I was kind of in a pissy mood because I had been thinking about my situation that day and how I feel so disconnected from our friends and from the Stirring. While I was talking to him I was trying to trim the fat off of some chicken but it wasn't coming off because my knife wasn't sharp enough. At this point I was trying to tell Matt how I felt, I was crying, I was trying not to mess up my makeup because we had to go to our Water Birth class that night, I had chicken slime all over my hands--so I couldn't wipe my tears, and I had just about had it with my knife. So in an instant temper tantrum I took my knife and slammed it against the cutting board as hard and loudly as I possibly could--it was very unlike me but it felt good to release some anger on the knife. I looked up and Matt's eyes were filled with terror. I felt a little bad but I was more relieved that I hadn't hurled the knife into the wall or something worse than that.

So yesterday Matt came home from work and he was hiding something behind his back. He asked me if I wanted to see my early Christmas present, and of course I said yes. From behind him he pulled out a beautiful knife, the nicest knife that has ever been in our house, it was a Wusthof. He said that he had gone to That Kitchen Place and spent almost an hour there looking at the knives and talking to the sales rep until he found the best knife possible for me. It was beautiful. I cut a bell pepper with it and I didn't even have to try to cut it, it practically cut itself; all I had to do was move the knife back and forth--no pressure needed. It was unreal! When I asked him how of our Christmas budget he had spent I almost fainted but he said he figured it was better to spend a little to buy me a knife that would last forever rather than have my other knife end up in him. :) I guess I scared him a little more that I thought the night before!

So that's the story of my early Christmas present. DON'T WORRY I don't really have rage issues, I was just having a hard night the other night but I am extremely grateful for my sweet husband who bought me an amazing knife that now I will be excited to use to make dinner every night.

You know what I hate...

I hate it when you go to bed and the air is cool and there's a nice breeze out so you open all your windows... and then you are woken up at 4:40am because your house is filled with the smell of smoke and it's so hard to breathe that it wakes you up and then to top if off you can't go back to sleep! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick of this smoke!!!!!!!

Money

I was just reading Amy's blog that mentioned Nathan's quick message at the Stirring last night and it got me going. I just have a few things to say and I'll probably offend everyone, but that is not my intention.

Yesterday Nathan got up at the leadership meeting and then again last night at the Stirring and talked about how we are $14,000 under budget for this year. To be frank this REALLY makes me angry (and that's my nice way of saying it). I do not understand it at all!!! You all know that Matt does the finances but just to be clear I don't know who gives or how much anyone gives, only Matt and Meghan know this. What I do know are the over all numbers and every time Matt and I talk about it I get sooooooo heated. I know that we are in a bad economy right now and that some don't have as much as others but when it comes down to it EVERYONE has $10 or $20 extra a month. Sean said it well yesterday, he said that we should all make a pie chart to see how much we are giving to other areas in our life. How much do you spend on gas each month, on food, on entertainment, on your pets, etc. If you are giving 25% of your income to entertainment each month and none to God... well let's just say that you need to check your priorities.

Okay, I'm getting heated... changing the subject...

Nathan has said it many times "we don't need your money, God will provide" it's not about you giving us your money, it's about our family calling us into a deeper relationship with God and who doesn't want that? So many times the Bible talks about sacrifice and about giving God your best. If God is calling us to sacrifice then I think we should be making sacrifices! Matt and I have always agreed that we would figure out what we wanted to give (for our tithe) and then give $50 or $100 more than that just so that we could see how God would provide for us. It has been amazing! Every time we do this God totally provides for us; we have literally received checks in the mail, random gifts from family, etc. we never know where it's going to come from but God ALWAYS provides and because of this our faith in God has been dramatically increased!!! Sure we still have our doubts, but like I said in my earlier blog, we are always learning. Just this weekend we were talking about some big expenses and when we needed to have them paid by and after working out the numbers it was amazing to see that by the end of our deadline God will have provided EXACTLY how much we need, and that's just what we figured on paper, I'm sure He will end up providing so much more!!!

I think giving is SO important, not only does it financially support what God is doing around us, but it allows us to grow in faith and it allows us to be free from the burden of money that the world has put on us. If you weren't around for the Money, Sex, and Power series in the fall you should totally check out the podcast.

I think I've said enough and I hope that I haven't offended too many of you. Please just see that my heart is not to condemn but it is to call out the greatness in each one of us. We all need God and we all love God. God loves us all, and God needs us to give back a portion of what He has so generously blessed us with. Please at least pray about it, don't just turn a deaf ear when Nathan talks about money.

Bad at blogging

I am so tired of sitting at the computer. I really want to write a blog about Nathan's message on Sunday but I have been sitting at the computer since 6:45am and it's now 2pm. I can't stand it any longer, I have to get up and I really need to eat lunch. I'm sorry that I have been so bad at blogging but I got a new client last week so that adds another 6 hours to my computer time and that is just too much for me. I'm going nutzo! Well I'm off to eat lunch; maybe if I recover from this frustrating day I will blog later about Nathan's message.

Ugh!

This morning my alarm went off at 6:15am and I did not want to get out of bed; so I hit the snooze button, which I rarely do. 8 minutes later my alarm rudely awakened me again (the nerve of that thing!). I crawled out of bed, freezing cold because the window was open (what is up with this weather), and then this happened:

1. Got downstairs and I was appalled at the mess because Matt too had not felt like getting up this morning so in a rush to get everything done there were pillows on the floor, dishes in the sink, crusty milk crumbs on the counter, etc. Just want I wanted to see.

2. Quickly I cleaned up the mess, poured my bowl of cereal and glass of water then I headed upstairs to start work.

3. While climbing the stairs my legs decided not to work so when I was about 2 steps away from the top I tripped over a step spilling milk, cereal, and water all over carpet! It literally went flying out of my bowl and onto the carpet and it all happened in slow mo. UGH!!!

What a way to start the day! Oh well at least my American Idol won last night!!! He whooped Archuleta!!!!!!!!

Grrr...

My mind is fried right now. I have literally been sitting at my desk for 2.5 hours looking at a map and highlighting cities. I am so tired of working right now. It's 3:30pm and I'm starving because I haven't gotten up to eat lunch, I have yet to brush my teeth, wash my face, or make my bed today. I woke up at 6:45ish and I have been pretty much sitting at my desk all day long. I do love my new job but today I am over it! I am so sick of sitting here but because I have been sitting here all day I have no motivation to do any housework, it's a vicious cycle... I need to SNAP out of it!

Sorry I don't have anything more interesting to write but like I said, my mind is fried! Just look at me...

Death and Taxes

Benjamin Franklin was quoted saying, "nothing is certain but death and taxes." I would like to challenge this by saying that "nothing is certain but death, taxes, and Anna getting sick after a retreat."

Many of you know that one of the reasons that I don't like going on retreats is because I always get sick after them. The first time it happened (and many of you know this story) was the weekend before our wedding. Matt and I were invited to go on a couples retreat, even though we weren't married yet. We had a lot of fun out on the lake, wake boarding, swimming, watching the Olympics, and sleeping on top of the houseboat with the Lains and the Brams. However there were a few people on the trip that were sick. I didn't think too much of it until Monday morning when I woke up really really sick. I was so sick that I ended up spending the day puking and having an IV stuck in my arm for most of the day. I ended up losing a lot of weight and the first solid meal I ate ALL WEEK was at our rehearsal dinner on Friday night! Luckily the Lord helped me to be totally healthy for Saturday and the only problem was that my wedding dress was way too loose. :)

Anyways, that was the beginning of it all and since that retreat I have gotten sick after every single retreat that I have been on! I was hopeful that I wouldn't get sick after this last retreat, because I don't think that anyone that was on the retreat was sick, but that was not the case. I woke up Monday with a scratchy throat and I have been dealing with it ever since. I'm not deathly sick like I have been in the past but the fact remains that I have a scratchy throat and a runny nose. So like I stated before, I would like to challenge Mr. Benjamin Franklin, by saying that "Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and Anna getting sick after a retreat." :)

(The retreat was so great though that it's totally worth it!)

Please Please PRAY!!!

This slowing real estate market has taken a HUGE toll on a lot of my family members. I am begging you to pray for my family because if God doesn't do a miracle 2 families (on my side) could be out of their homes. I would like to add that this is not because of irresponsibility and late payments, there are a lot of details and it's pretty complicated. I am totally in shock and I am struggling with anger and hurt that this could happen to my family. Luckily Matt is super smart and has been working hard today to help the situation but we need your prayers, please pray!

So Tired of this Pain!

As probably all of you know I have been having a lot of trouble with my left ovary for the past 4 months. Well for the past 4 days I have been in a lot of pain. I have this severe achy-ness on my left side that hinders me from doing too much. You probably noticed that Matt was flying solo at church last night and that is because I was home laying on the couch wishing that I could be at church. I am so tired of being in pain and I am tired of waking up in the middle of the night, not being able to go back to sleep, because I am hurting. I'm not usually a complainer, I usually suck it up and put on a smile, but I am just so frustrated and I don't understand what is wrong! It would be one thing if I knew what the problem was but I don't even know that! Grrr!!! So even though I want to curl up on the couch and sleep all day I am busy this morning making the house look perfect (since it's on the market), then I'm headed off to work, then I have to come home and start training for my new job, and then there is always dinner that needs to be made for when Matt gets home. The couch is sounding really good right now but my duties as a wife and employee are calling me to my feet.