Wednesday!!! Tomorrow's Pay Day, YAY!!

Well, the past weekend and this week has been interesting for me anyways. It's sorta been like a roller coaster. Some slow parts, some very fast runaway parts!! I stayed in Waco last weekend because the museum was having a block party for the area businesses. I was in charge of the 50 foot inflatible can. That was fun!! I also was coordinating the display of a 1905 Cadillac. It was very cool. Thanks Mr. Lane!!! The party went off without a hitch, and as always, we served sausages off the grill. Mmmm, mmmm good. Saturday the museum celebrated the 100th birthday of the building we are housed in. It was a free day and that means a lot more local people come and that's good! YAY!!! Check out the museum's blog to see pictures from the two days' events: http://drpeppermuseum.blogspot.com

After the day was over, Jennie and I got cleaned up and cruised up to Dallas for another birthday party. It was for a friend of Jennie's, Tim. His house is GORGEOUS! Just what my dream house would be like...not kidding. ANYWAY! There were about 70 great looking guys and about 10 women. Did I mention that about 99% of the guys were gay?

Well Jennie and I got back into Waco about 1ish....I had no problem getting to sleep. I did have trouble getting up to go to church though. I did go but came home and took a nap and did laundry. Then a strange thing happened. Something started falling from the sky and made the air cooler. Whoa! It was rain! It rained off and on again the whole entire night. YAY! I went over to Chris' house for our home groups. It was me, Angie, Chris, Lewis and Mark. Good group, good discussion, good prayer time...oh and yeah, good food too!

Monday I found myself in a terrible mood. It was wierd, though. I actually had my quiet time with God for the first time in a very long time. And when someone wants to let God work in her life, that's when Satan attacks her and I think that's why my mood was foul (besides the female hormones). There are some things I've been struggling with for awhile now. The main thing is that I have been justifying my selfish actions by less than acceptable standards. Basically, I've been compromising my morals to get what I want...or think what I need/want/deserve? I don't like it and everytime I hang out with my friends and go to church...the Holy Spirit reminds me of who I ought to be in Christ. I want to be who God wants me to be and not what the world says I deserve to be. Who does God want me to be? An example for others to live by. Well I can tell you right now, I've failed miserably on several (HA! No. More than several) occasions. Thank goodness God knows that I can't ever be perfection. No one can achieve that...it's impossible. That's why He gives us His forgiveness, grace and strength to rely on. So I have adopted a friend's motto: "Progress, not perfection." Life is work, no one (not even God) says it's gonna be easy. It's how we react to life's curve balls that make us who we are. How will you react? Fatalistically? Optimistically? "I can make it on my own?" mentality? If you think you can fix things on your own, think again. It usually ends up becoming a worse situation than when it started. I speak from experience. I (try to) rely on a power greater than myself. It just usually takes me hitting rock bottom first before I do. SO! My prayer is that I will continually rely on God's strength to get me through the day and not my own. And if you are in to praying, please pray that for me too. Shoot...if there's anything you want me to pray for, ask!

This blog is pretty bold for me, especially to those of you who know I can be very shy about who I am. This blog may surprise a lot of people too. That's another thing. I want to be me to everybody, not one person to some and a completely different person to others. It can be very tiring at times. What I need is some friendly encouragement. I will take what I can get. Thanks for listening...or reading, as the case may be. Peace to you and I will catch you up on my progress every now and again.

It's Thursday already?

Wow the week has flown by it seems. I have been busy with work and life. Last weekend was eventful. I arrived in OKC late Friday and pretty much went to bed. Jason and I got up really early to get his windows of his new car tinted so we would have enough time to get to Drew's hotel so we could make it into Tinker AFB. As always (it seems) the army or airforce messed up the passes and we had to go through another checkpoint. While Drew was fixing that, Jason, Mandy, the girls and I were sitting in the van. The girls became unhappy, especially Emma, she ate something that upset her stomach. Ok, so we got on to the base and headed over to our designated area to have, as Drew calls it, mandatory food and fun. Tug of war and lunch was schedueled down to the minute. Ha! To make a long story short (too late!) the girls and Jason left early b/c of Emma not feeling well, but of course when we got to the hotel she was fine and playful. Oh well!!! At least I got to see my family!!

Jason and I rested up a bit and then headed out to Oktoberfest...that's right Oktoberfest in September (who am I to argue when to drink beer?) It was a lot of fun listening to music, eating strudel and bratwurst and drinking wine and beer! Sunday, I probably watched enough football to last me the season...HA!!! and helped with laundry.

Monday I got up early to find my way to the Jim Thorpe building and take a merit test for a state job working for the OK Historical Society. Everything was easy EXCEPT the part on OK History. Pretty sure I screwed that part up. What gets me is that the kinds of questions they asked me were pretty trivial and something I could have looked up on the internet within 10 seconds. Oh well, we'll see what happens. I had a couple of minutes to spare before heading to Ardmore so I roamed around the state capitol right next to where I took the test. It really is a beautiful building. After taking some pics, I headed down the interstate to Ardmore to interview for a job there. It was a pretty good interview. We'll see what happens.

So I got home and just crashed. I was a tired girl. I was tired the next day too and thank goodness Anita suggested going to IHOP rather than swimming! Had enough leftover for lunch too. Double score! I still was pretty tired and then started to feel icky. Later that afternoon I remembered I had a meeting that night and had to be there because I'm an officer. It ran long and I didn't get home until 9:15. So tired and icky!! Jason called and told me about seeing Carlos Mencia and that lifted my spirits. Ok, Wednesday...ouch! I pretty much knew what was wrong with me and I knew that must go see a doctor. Didn't do much at work except go to another meeting and then to the doctor. Yup, he confirmed it...I have a bladder infection or UTI (to sound more professional). He gave me some drugs for the pain and antibiotics for the infection. Now I feel a whole heck of a lot better! I'm not very hungry though and still tired, but that could be due to swimming this morning and doing a little butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke....maybe...I don't know So that's it for this week in a nutshell "Help! I'm in a nutshell!" (said with a British accent). Toodles and I'll check you later...

Jess

I labored yesterday....

Happy Belated Labor Day everyone! I was sooo happy to have a day to do what ever I wanted. I slept in until a big whopping 8ish and laid there until 10ish. It was nice but wish I could have slept a little longer. Oh well. I had a whole list of "chores" to do this weekend and I about finished the list. Just have to dust and vacuum. Now what do I do after that? I will come home to a clean apartment and then.....?!?!? I need to do something contructive, so if anyone knows me well enough and has any ideas, feel free to let me know...

Sunday was Mary Beth's wedding and it was wonderful!! We had a lot of fun. It's always good to know the bride or groom really well and some of there friends and family because you actually feel a part of it. Jennie, Carrie and I rode together. Jack, Linda and Dr. Ellie and Al were there too. So you know it was a hoot (if you know who I'm talking about (and most Texas museum people do)).

What else...a friend of mine and I went and saw Cars at the dollar theater. It really was a good funny movie. And let's just say you get what you pay for. I love the dollar theater but let's face it, it's dirty and it smelled. My shoes were sliding all over the floor because it hadn't been cleaned in awhile. Not that I'm complaining but there were a lot of kids, which is totally to be expected, but I forgot how...what's the word...irritating they can be when they aren't your own. There were no seats so we sat on the third row and I swear, my neck still has a tendancy to look up. Overall it was an enjoyable time. Other than that, I did have a restful time and my apartment is clean! Whoot woot!

Got a call from my brother yesterday. He traded in his Ford Ranger for a 2006 Ford Mustang GT. It's a standard and fire engine red. He's really excited and so is my Dad (mixed with a little jealousy, I imagine). I told Drew he can teach me to drive a standard and he said....hmmmm...maybe...which I translated to maybe over my dead body. Ha! Dad and I have a bet on how long it will take him to get a ticket. Speaking of new cars, Jason also traded his Ford Ranger yesterday for a 2007 Saturn Aura. It's the kind of car we test drove last weekend. It's a really nice car and will last a long time. It also has some very cool features. Check it out!!! I'm very happy for everyone who has a new car!!!

PS: The Dr Pepper Museum is now on MySpace...check it out and be its friend!