His Name is Isaac...

His name is Isaac
.... and his favorite subject is numbers
.... and he has 4 sisters and a brother
.... and he is 6 years old
.... and his dream for the future is to become a teacher

Today I added a Compassion International link to my sidebar, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about my experience so far with Compassion. I started sponsoring Isaac last fall and he has already been such a blessing to me. I get letters from him and each one ends telling me thanks for choosing to be his friend and that he is praying for me and my family.

Isaac lives in Uganda, and I already love the relationship I have formed with him. He is a precious little boy and his love for Jesus shines in every contact I have with him.

I have thought about sponsoring a child through an organization like this for a long time, but had never taken that step. I am so glad I did. I love the way that Compassion is set up and that I am constantly reminded that the world is bigger than my little bubble and that this precious child is learning about Jesus' love for him halfway across the world.

His name is Isaac and he is my very special friend thanks to Compassion.

Traffic...

After growing up in Dallas and learning to drive on Dallas highways, you would think I'd be somewhat used to the traffic--but I definitely am not! I don't work near downtown and only go to Dallas for Bible Study 2x a week (and those days I am going toward dallas at night, so I am going opposite of traffic for the most part) so I rarely hit much traffic. But in the last few months I have had several incidents that involved long periods of sitting, not moving on the highway.

Today I went to visit my friend Natalie in Denton (a little less than an hour away) and on the drive over I noticed how many cars were on the road, but no big deal. Well, tonight it took me over 2 hours to get home. At one point in my drive it took 45 minutes to go less than 3 miles. Like I said, I rarely deal with traffic, so I need to just get over it--but I have to admit I have a very hard time sitting in traffic.

In fact, I have a very adverse physical reaction--my body gets really tense and I just want to cry or scream. I know that sounds illogical, because neither crying or screaming will move the cars or get me going any quicker, but I just get so stressed out sitting in traffic.

I don't really know why--I think it's a combination of the fact that 1. I don't really like driving in the first place and 2. I spend all day in my car during the week driving to visits for work, so by the time I get off work I don't want to be in my car, so sitting in it longer in traffic is so hard. I am begging the Lord for patience to make it through these moments without getting so upset--trying to remain calm and go with the flow--but tonight I had a hard time.

Sorry to complain... just thought I'd share one of my (many) struggles...

Moving up in the world...

For a long time I have wanted Allie to have a nice bed to curl up on when she wants to rest (which is a lot of times!). I had tried to make her a fleece bed over the summer. But she quickly tore it to pieces!

I have searched quite a bit for the perfect bed, but never found one that I liked. In the fall I bought materials to make her a nice bed and was hoping to have it ready for her birthday--in October. I had it almost done, but then my mom's sewing machine started messing up and I gave up.

The other day, Allie did something that convinced me she was ready for a nice bed. One evening I couldn't find her in the apartment--which is sad because there aren't many places to go in our 1 bedroom! But I finally looked on the side of the couch and found this:

Allie had taken the blankets that are stacked beside the couch and moved them around to lay down. And that is where she has gone every night for the last week when she is ready for bed...

So today I decided I would at least make her bed available. It is not completely done, because it's supposed to have an inner bed to make it even stronger (and avoid allie chewing it up!) that I couldn't finish, but I did hand-stitch the rest of the outer bed to make it where she can't get the stuffing out! And I do think she is enjoying it...


Sweet dreams to all of you--I know ours will be sweet tonight with her new bed!

Wanting to be better...

I have to admit that I struggle with something (well if I'm being honest, I struggle with a lot of things...). But in particular I struggle with being knowledgeable about current events. I try to watch the news when I can and try to stay up on things, but if I am honest I really have no clue what is going on outside my little bubble.

In an attempt to expand my horizons, I signed up to get daily emails from the New York Times with all of the days headlines. So each morning I wake up to an email with the days headlines. But usually I am too tired in the morning, so I leave it as new for when I get home. But by the time I get home I have more interesting things to read... like my daily tips from Hungry Girl and usually an email or 2 from friends and family.

All that to say that even with my daily emails I struggle. But this week I have been trying to be better because I really want to actually know what's going on around me... not just what other people tell me about it! Every day this week I have browsed the top stories there and on my google homepage... Any tips on staying up to date on the latest news?

Why is my dog the exception?

So Allie has never followed any of those normal rules. Last year when she was spayed I expected at least an evening of her calm and out of it--not Allie-girl, that night she was running around like crazy trying to jump on everything!

Today, she got her teeth cleaned at the vet (I know, I know she's spoiled, but we have a wellness plan through Petsmart, and that is included, so i figured why not do it?!) So they have to give her anesthesia for the teeth cleaning and when I picked her up today they told me 2 things.
1.She'll be groggy tonight and probably just lay around and
2. don't feed her until about 7 or 8 and when I do only give her 1/2 or 1/4 of what she usually eats because she might still feel nauseous.

Well Allie is running around and jumping like she always does... and since we got home she keeps going and sitting by her food bowl and looking at me like I'm starving her...

Oh Allie...

Birthday Celebration!

Today is one of my best friends', Erin's, birthday. For my birthday in December she took me on a "hot date" to the ICE! Exhibit at the Gaylord Texan. So I thought it was only fair to return the favor and take her out for her birthday! We have a list of things we want to do in the Dallas Area and have gone through quite a few of them, but one of our recent conversations involved talks of going to Fort Worth!

So for her birthday we spent the afternoon in downtown Fort Worth. We started with lunch at Cantina Laredo and then walked around downtown checking out all the shops. We also went to the movies and Barnes and Noble. Before leaving town we were going to check out the Fort Worth Stockyard, but found out it is the last weekend of the rodeo so it was PACKED. So instead, we stopped for Dr Pepper at Sonic and then headed back to Dallas!

It was a fun day hanging out and I am so blessed to have Erin in my life! She is such a great friend to me and I love getting to spend so much time with her in Dallas! And even though we had an eventful day, the only picture either of us managed to take is of the Cookie Cake (pictured above) I bought her (you can see where our priorities are, huh?).

Happy Birthday Erin!!