Me

Today is day 21, one day closer to Christmas, which is one more day closer to Spring! As much as I try to stay in the moment, as soon as cold weather arrives it might as well be Christmas because I think that may be the best thing that happens in the winter and then we have the spring to look forward to! It has been gorgeous this weekend... perfect to eat lunch outside and give Chuy's one more try.

The view from Chuy's.

But the chill in the air makes me very ready to put up a Christmas tree. No wories, I will not put a tree up for at least another month.... but its not to say that I don't really really want to!

For Katie's 30-day Blog Challenge, day 21 is a picture of myself.

This is my nephew and I a couple weekends ago.
This was from my phone, doesn't it take good pictures?
I'm very impressed with technology today.

My fellow Auburn fan, Kari tagged me in a blog post today as well, so I thought I'd update you with a little more information about myself.

1. You can only pack three things on vacation. What are they?
I'm going to assume this vacation will have the bare necessities like water and tp, so I would pack my facewash (you do NOT want to see me after a few days without it), a bathing suit (because I'm going to the Caribbean) and my iPhone.

2. Where would that vacation be?
Oops, I jumped the gun, to the Caribbean.

3. Where was your 1st plane ride to?
I was an infant and do not remember. The first one I remember was to San Fransisco to visit my aunt & uncle.

4. Do you prefer turkey or ham for Christmas?
Neither. I prefer green beans and mash potatoes. (not a big meat eater)

5. When is the earliest you shop for Christmas presents?
All year long.

6. What is your favorite comfort food?
Pizza! Truly a downfall of mine.

7. You have a shopping spree to any store you want. What is that store?
White House Black Market - LOVE their gorgeous clothes, now if only I could afford them!

8. What movie makes you cry any time you watch it?
If a movie makes me cry every time, I'd rather not watch it, but the Notebook is one exception. I love the part that comes before the crying so much that I'm willing to sacrifice being sad the rest of the day to see it.

I'm really not good at tagging others, so if you are reading this YOU are tagged and should answer the above questions.

Nicknames

Happy Day 20 of 30 Days of Blogging! Its all about nicknames today.


Its actually hard to tell you about nicknames when you may not know my whole name! Either way it is a unique name that often gets changed into: Donna, Delorian, Derna, Donata, Tomorrow....Yep, I've even been called Tomorrow. Not sure how that one made it in, but none of those are my names.

My nicknames are:

This is what Ben, my family and half of my church calls me. Its just so much easier to introduce myself with a shorter name.

My grandmother, aunts and uncles still call me this because it stuck when I was a baby. Kinda cute, but I am 27 years old now.....

When all else fails and the two above just are TOO long, my name gets shortened to this. Which is just one syllable of my first name.

And yes, I'm super paranoid about people (6-8 grade students) googling my name so hopefully this is less likely to be googled? I don't know....

Court

(Photo Google Images)

I went to court. I obeyed my lawful duty to show up when subpoened. I took off work early. I went through the security check point. I signed in and showed my subpeona. I turned my cell phone off and rose when the judge arrived. I then sat for one hour..... then another hour. Until I heard him say, "If there are any attorney's who have not been called please step up now." and no one stood up. I walked out of the room and found a police office. I told him that I have been waiting for a LONG time and no one has called me. He was so kind and went inside the wooden gates to check and see what was going on. To which he came back to tell me that the attorney for the man faxed in a continuance at 2:45pm that day.

*(&#($*&@#9$*&23984!*&#@

WHAT?! I was SO mad I had tears in my eyes. He explained that I now have to come BACK! To court!!! In December! What a joke. This certainly makes me not ever want to risk being a witness again, which is sad, but very much how I felt about the whole situation.

So two months.... I will report again, this time with more knowledge to raise cane as soon as I get there and be sure I will be called promptly instead of waiting patiently and quietly.

Updates to come.

I miss you

Day 19
Something I miss:

Childhood
Being so carefree. Not having to worry about money, cleaning, bills, jobs, anything!!! I miss my biggest concern being who was going to pick me up from gymnastics.

Don't get me wrong, I love life now, but being stress-free was kinda nice also.

Regrets.....

Day 18: Things you regret(Photo from Google Images)

Thank the Lord for forgiveness of my sins because I do on a regular basis think of a few not so favorite moments in my life that I have to pray to the Lord to take out of my mind. I get sucked in by this regret and I know God has cleared me of my sins so it doesn't not serve him to get caught up in them.

My regrets aren't too many, but I do regret a bumpy time in college when I drifted from my faith. It was a very hard 6 or so months. My life went drastically downhill quickly, I broke up with Ben, my grades slipped, I got in trouble and was a person I didn't recognize. I am so glad I was given a second chance and nothing too serious happened during that time that could have effected the rest of my or my families lives. Ick... its hard to even think about it.

However, the Lord makes everything worth while because my lowest moment was when I had to call Ben and ask for some serious help. He of course arrived in minutes and we never looked back again. From that moment on we knew we were supposed to be married and that God had a much bigger plan for me that I did.

"No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him, he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God."

The grass is always greener

Yesterday was day 17 in this blog challenge that I'd say I'm getting a C- for my effort.

Day 17 - things we look forward to. I try really hard to not wish away my days or think too much about when things 'will be better'. I don't want to wish away my life, I really try to enjoy every moment of it because I will never get this back. I will never be a 27-year-old semi-newlywed (when exactly are you no longer 'newly'?). I will never have a first year of being a school counselor again. I will probably miss this little house Ben and I live in right now when we move into a hopefully slightly-larger house one day. Things are wonderful, but I do look forward to a lot of things also!

Things I'm looking forward to:

1. A lifetime with Ben (I say this because WAY too often I hear older women say things like, "Well one day you'll be glad when your husband is out of town" or "You feel that way because you haven't been married long enough yet." I never want to feel this way and I pray I don't become someone who resents their spouse or wishes he was different. I hope that in 25, 40, 50 years I still love him the same I did when we got married (if not more!))
2. Being a mom.
3. Being an LPC.
4. Feeling like I know what I'm doing at work. (We're still hit or miss although I've excelled at acting and sounding like I know what I'm doing.)
5. Watching the rest of the Twilight movies!
6. Christmas music & Christmas Break!
7. Being debt-free.
8. Being a hobby-nutritionist counselor that makes professional birthday cakes when I retire. :)
9. Pay day tomorrow!
10. Auburn playing Saturday. We are going to cook out with a great friend and her new 'friend'. War Eagle!

Where we're going to live

Yes one day I will live in my dream house. Which brings us to day 16.... my DREAM house!

My dream house is on a lake.

With a beautiful view.

A huge deck!

The house doesn't necessarily have to be enormous, because I don't want a house too large that my family isn't up in each other's space. Nothing good comes from kids & teenagers being able to seclude themselves in a far corner for too long. Plus, less to clean! But I do want a huge yard and deck so we can stay outside and swim in the lake :)

We are in the slow process of getting closer to this dream. Yes, I said S-L-O-W....I told Ben that I would move to west Alabama (where both our jobs are now) if he bought me a lake lot. (I need SOME sort of incentive for our friends and family to come visit us, because we all know, us alone.... no one will come to the middle of nowhere to visit. We already live half way to nowhere and don't see anyone if we don't venture out to make sure everyone's alive. Add in a lake, boat and wave runner though.... they'll come visit! Plus, I would LOVE it :) We have the property Ben grew up on for sale and are patiently waiting for its new owner to discover it.

Its exciting, and makes me feel like an adult that we may actually one day live in a house we dreamed of. Fabulous.... ha!