Just Some Monday Stuff

I bought this shoe at The Nord Anniversary Sale. I just wanted to share that with you.

On Saturday night I continued my closet organization and filled another storage deal from The Container Store. Found more pictures but I took time that evening to read some of the letters I have saved. I read journals from our early married days. I knew that we struggled to get along when we were first married but reading the journals Saturday night, I began to remember just how hard those first years of marriage were for us. I almost wrote at the end of one journal:

2007- we are still married and love each other more than when we first met. If it had not been for the Lord on our side...where would we be? I wrote often in my journals after writing out all my frustrations and anger, this verse, I would have despaired if I had not believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Roy and I were complete opposites when we married, now over time we are more alike and more like Jesus, when we don't let our flesh get in the way. Traveling for Roy was huge when we first married. His job took him all over the United States and Canada. Roy is all goals and at that time a workaholic. Some of you may be saying, well that hasn't changed, but it has. He used to stay at the office to hide from marriage and responsibilities. Now he is at the office because his job demands such from him. I read through these journals and remembered the heartache and pain, never thinking that the story would turn out so good. We both give glory to God because He softened and tendered the hearts of two stubborn, obstinate people. We keep falling in love with each other day after day. Does he still get on my nerves, yes at times. Do my sanguine ways sometimes frustrate the dickens out of Roy...you bet. Now we have committed to walk in God's love with each other and put the other first. Roy says, what blesses me is going to bless him. He is right. What blesses Roy is going to bless me. It is spiritual warfare to walk in love cause the enemy is always attacking trying to get you to take a step out of God's love. Oh another thing we agreed on and this helped tremendously, it doesn't matter who is right or wrong...just doesn't. That takes the competitive edge out. Do we still fight...not too much over the little things (well there are some days), but it seems like we have one big fight a year just to blow out the pipes. Of course that isn't biblical but it does seem to help.

I loved reading the letters from my crazy friend Debbie. I laughed out loud cause she is stinkin' funny, yet reading them now I can see they were more than funny: she was crying out for help in a marriage that was dying even in their first year. She and her husband divorced long ago and Debbie pops into my life about every 10 years. I miss her. We had some fun adventures together and a lot of laughs. She lived in Tulsa and Albuquerque and a few little towns in between. She married a minister and they moved from church to church. One particular story that I re-read was when they were on staff at a church in Albuquerque. The teaching pastor was going over spiritual gifts with the staff. He and his wife would invite staff and spouses over to their house. The first time this happened they had a little "exercise" to show how giftings worked together in the Body of Christ. The staff and spouses built a patio for them at that meeting. The next meeting they painted the house and after that built a fence. She told them that after all this work she knew what her spiritual gifts were, lying and deception. That got a rise out of the staff. Debbie, who wasn't afraid to speak the truth, told them at the 4th invitation to their house, she was tired of all the remodeling work being done in the name of teaching and that she and Bill would not be attending unless the staff and spouses were coming to their house to hang guttering. Brave soul...not long on the staff for Bill.

I came across some of the first Bible studies I ever did at First. True to being me, I didn't do much of the homework. These Bible studies were some of Beth's first ones and still in the notebooks because this was pre Lifeway. You would take your homework to the homework table and get a sticker for completing it. One day Beth said to me, you don't have very many homework stickers in your book. I told her I could go buy my own stickers... I was so wrong in saying that. This is when she went over the homework with you in class. I remember telling her that she gave us the answers in the next question, so I never looked anything up...I was so wrong in saying that. I enjoyed that trip down memory lane, although it was a short one... see the above reference to not doing very much of the homework.

There was my scrapbook of my drawings from elementary school and scrapbooks from high school. I found my notebook of poetry I had written and a directory from Jr. High school. I need to go back and arrange everything in some kind of order...but I will have to do that when there is more time.

Oh, I saw a lot of pictures from when I tanned...all the time...my goodness I had a dark and lovely tan. I hope I don't pay the price for that gorgeous tan.

I told my parents last night that I don't want the convection oven and they should take it back. I just don't see me using it. On that note, I am off to the play grocery store and I will buy dinner for the next few nights.