Motivate Me Monday: Let Us Use Them

Below is something that I received and read occasionally. It is from Hannah's Cupboard. (Which happens to be another place all of us ladies can go check out for "motivation") This is a lesson that I all too often forget.

There is not one person in the Body of Christ without some God given gift to share. For some reason, this is not a well known fact. Well, maybe in theory it is known but in practice it is not really believed by all.

I have a gift? Moi? No, not really, I don't have any gifts. End of story. It would be like an organ in our body saying; "I'm useless; I just sit here quietly and do my own thing and all the other organs work around me." Actually, when the body takes that attitude we call it "disease."

The Bible says this: "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them." (Romans 12:5-6)

So I say, are you using your gifts? Please use your gifts - they are so needed! If your gift is small it can become larger with use. You know that muscles expand with use; practicing a musical instrument brings improvement; working the garden yields growth. Un-used, your gift may seem puny, but in use, it will produce a huge harvest.

If you somehow feel inadequate or feel your gift is insignificant you are no different than everyone else before they launched into the work of the kingdom. Only Christ who is our head is perfectly adequate and magnificently significant. Yet he passed out gifts to all of us, every single one. Let us use them.

The reason that this inspires me is because my gift is not really one of motivating others. I can't quote verses out of the bible (but I can tell you I know it is in there somewhere), I can't tell you where you can find important events in the bible (but I can tell you they are in there!) BUT there are other things I can do!!!

1. I can continue to grow "in the word" by ready my bible....and reading "Motivateational Monday"
2. Pray, pray, pray!
3. Be a Christian example for others
4. Be a listening ear
5. Did I mention...prayer??? :-)

There are many more things I can do but these are the ones I am definitely going to strive for right now!

WFMW: Are We There Yet?

If you would like to participate in Works-For-Me Wednesday, please go here.

This weeks theme is "greatest hits". Well this is still one of my favorite tips for "on the road". This could work for a day of running errands or long road trips!

Some may already know of this but if you don't this is a great way to keep kids entertained on a long trip. I take zip lock bags and put not only snacks for the trip but small toys, games, books all in their own bags. The trick is to buy small "travel" type games and toys (I am talking C.H.E.A.P. - like from the Everything's A Dollar Store) and keep them in a bag up front with you and not let the kids see them "at all" until it is time to pass them out. Then everytime they start to get fussy you pull out something "new". I have even done this with toys out of my daughter's room that she didn't know I brought. The reason it works so well is because if you give them everything all at once they get "bored". If you give them things "they don't even know you have" spread out through the trip they will play longer with each toy instead of the usual, "Are we there yet?" after five minutes. I am sure this works with kids of all ages but it really worked very well when my daughter was younger and just she and I would make long trips to visit family, etc.

MMM: Word of Wisdom

This is my very first "Motivate Me Monday" post. I ran across this on someone's blog (can't recall who at the moment) and thought, "What a wonderful idea!!" So what inspires me...there are so many I could use but since this is my first post I will be short and sweet.

For my birthday last year a friend of mine gave me a set of "Words of Wisdom" cards that sit on my desk at work. (She bought them at Lifeway.) I try to look at them everyday and pick one and think, "How can I act on this?".

For example, today I read this one: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding. To Him belongs eternal praise." Psalm 111:10

I then think of how each do these "Words of Wisdom" can be used in my life!

Oh Baby, Baby

I had mentioned in a previous post our desire to add to our already wonderful family! Well it is official. Starting yesterday, March 1st, we are back on the TTC wagon. As I mentioned before we had been on the TTC wagon for a little while. Then we found out my sister-in-law was pregnant and out of respect for her first pregnancy decided to give her a little time AND get through the holidays before we tried again. We are going to try for 6 months and then take a break for awhile. There are several reasons behind that but that will have to be another post all together! So what are we doing different this go around you ask:

1. Taking Provera

2. Taking Origins for Women - for reproductive health

3. Will begin in April taking clomid

4. Basal bady temps

5. Charting

6. Diet & Exercise

If it is meant to be it will happen. If not we do understand it is God's will at this time. I will try to update at least once a month. :-)

WFMW: Travel Planner

If you want to participate or get other helpful hints please go here.

Well it has been so long since I have participated in WFMW that I thought I would join right in this week! (Even though I am a little late getting in the game!) So these aren't THAT great of tips but just some things I found that I thought would be fun to share. If any of you are like me you start planning your vacations at the first of each year. Well I have found two really neat places online to use in planning my trips:

1. Yahoo Travel - This is a good place to see other peoples pictures & itineraries to get ideas of things you might enjoy doing. You can map out your whole trip using Yahoo and even journal about your trip and add photos!
2. Travelocity Last Minute Packages - If you have never looked into these you really should! The have some great deals for some GREAT places!!

One other thing (yes I know this now makes 3 instead of 2!) is if you go to the Travelocity Last Minute Packages you can actually pick two separate departure cities. For instance, if you have a family member/friend that lives in another town/state you can actually both book at the same time to go and meet up at the same place!

Well that is my WFMW!

Life List

Here is my first draft of my "life" list. I actually did this back in 2007 but thought I would add it here. I am sure I will be adding more as time goes on but I really can't wait to strike through some of these things! It felt really good to get my goals down in writing!

Places To Visit:
Wyoming
Colorado
New York
California
Vegas!
Grand Canyon
Canada
Alaska
Hawaii
London
Venice Italy
Rome Italy
Madrid Spain
Tahiti
Jamaica
Bahamas
Cancun
Cozumel
Key West
Pennsylvania - Hershey Park & Historical Sites
Bora Bora

Things I Would Like To Do or Learn In My Lifetime:
Play the Piano
Play the Guitar
Fly A Plane
Go on A Cruise
Rock Climbing
Hike Up A Mountain
Snow Ski
Speak Spanish
Learn Sign Language
Swim with Dolphins
Fly in A Helicopter
Fly in A Hot Air Balloon
Finish Nursing School
Get some sort of degree (if not in nursing)
Start A Business
Write a Book
Go to the Oprah Show!
Ride Horseback on the beach!
Pay off 4-Wheeler!
Sell Brian's Truck!
Pay off Tahoe!
Pay off old Credit Card Bills!

Around The House
Organize my closets
Clip & Organize articles out of my old magazines and toss magazines!
Paint my bedroom
Paint my kitchen
Paint my living area
Organize all of my pictures
Scan all pictures in and put the on CD's
Get backyard fenced!
Organize & paint laundry room
Organize all cabinets – bathroom & kitchen
Organize Baylee's room….again!!

Books to Read or Read Again:
Dear John – Nicholas Sparks
At First Sight – Nicholas Sparks
Three Weeks With My Brother – Nicholas Sparks
True Believer – Nicholas Sparks
The Wedding - Nicholas Sparks
Predator – Patricia Cornwell
Trace – Patricia Cornwell
I Heard That Song Before – Mary Higgins Clark
No Place Like Home – Mary Higgins Clark
Ghost Ship – Mary Higgins Clark
Before I Say Goodbye – Mary Higgins Clark
Mount Vernon Love Story – Mary Higgins Clark
Yada Yada Prayer Group (Re-read my old ones and catch up on the new ones)
Mitford Series – Jan Karon
Step On A Crack – James Patterson
Judge & Jury – James Patterson
Little Women
The Secret

Health Goals:
Teeth cleaned!
Cavities filled
Eat more fruits & vegetables
Drink 8 glasses of water a day
Exercise at least 30 minutes everyday
Lose 10 lbs
Lose 20 lbs
Lose 30 lbs
Lose 40 lbs
Lose 50 lbs
Lose 60 lbs
Lose 70 lbs
Lose 80 lbs
Lose 100 lbs

Military Wives...This Is For You

For all of you who wake up in the morning, lay there for a few moments, trying to swallow the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach as you wonder where your man is, or how he's doing...this is for you.

For all of you who start a countdown the minute he leaves, and continue to until he is back in your arms again...this is for you.

For all of you who tear up everytime "Far Away" comes on the radio, or who press repeat when "Come Home Soon" plays in their car...this one's for you.

For all of you who see Military billboards, ads in the paper, or commercials on TV and next notice the tears rolling down your cheeks, this is for you.This is for you.

I am one of you too. This is for us.For all the times we sleep with our phones on the loudest possible volume, just as to not miss the call that just MIGHT come...For all the times we roll our eyes when another girl is depressed because she hasn't seen her guy in a week...For all the times we hear our guy's name mentioned out loud, and are momentarily frozen...in a trance...in love.For all the late nights that we spend alone, cuddling with our stuffed animals, wearing our guy's sweatshirts and sweatpants, and clutching the precious dog tags around our necks...This one's for us.We may feel weak on the inside, but on the outside we're strong.We may be drowning in tears on the inside, but on the outside, we are a rock.We may want to crawl in bed and sleep until our man comes home, but instead, we get up and go on with our daily lives with our men in our hearts.We may feel like we're slowly dying with each day we spend apart from our men, but instead, we put one foot infront of the other, and take each day as it comes.We are strong, and we are proud.We have more love in our hearts than we ever thought possible, and for this, we are thankful. We are thankful for our men and also for each other. We are Military gals, and we lean on each other.Alone we are weak, but together, we are strong. We help each other, and we survive.

To all you Military gals out there, hold your head up and be proud.We are connected, ALWAYS.

SlimQuick Cleanse: The Beginning

Well as you may have seen from previous post I am very ready to get healthy and lose some weight! I have slacked off for about 3 weeks now but time to get back on the wagon! A friend at work and myself are starting the SlimQuick Cleanse today. I will report back on how it works. I don't take the first dose until right before lunch. Thus far, I have had breakfast, taken my vitamin and had 2 glasses of water. For me having the 2 glasses of water is a HUGE step due to the fact most days I don't even drink water!!!

UPDATE: Prayer Request for Mom

UPDATE: My mom had her stress test yesterday. Thus far, no significant news. Just a scare or eye opener for us all. We are supposed to start next month taking a heart healthy class given by a nutritionist next month at St. Dominics. I am sure I will be back writing about that! Ha!!Thank you everyone for all of the prayers!!!

Sweet Little Heart...

...even though she was sarcastic at school. :-) I shared the bad so I thought I would share a good. I really think there should be a good balance! Ha! Brian and I were both out of town last weekend for Valentines day. Baylee stayed with her mamaw Sally. Mamaw Sally, my mom and myself all go to the same church. They had a Valentines dinner on Saturday night. While there my mom gave Baylee a Valetines card with $5.00 in it. The next morning at Church Baylee put part of her money in the offering plate and then gave part to my mom. She walked up to her and said, "Nana, I want you to send this to those little kids that don't have any food." See my mom (Nana) has a box at her house and everytime we go over Baylee puts extra change/cash in it. When my mom has a certain amount she sends it to the poor.

We have really tried to teach Baylee that everything isn't always about making yourself happy...that you can simply make yourself happy by helping others. I am so proud of her because this is something that she has picked up so well!

It is funny that the little things make you feel so good......a hug, a smile, a kind word, holding a door open or any small gesture of kindness.

I am glad that Baylee learned so well because I can learn (or be reminded) simply by watching her. I am very bless to have such a sweet daughter. :-)

Sarcasm in School...

......isn't always the best policy! Even when you ARE just playing around and not trying to be rude. I asked yesterday how she did in school yesterday and she said I got an "R" for rudness. I asked her "Fooorrrr whhhattt???". The story goes a little something like this...

Substitute Teacher: “Baylee”

Baylee: “That’s my name. You got questions and I got answers.”

So this officially makes me a bad mom because I couldn't help but laugh. I called Brian and told him and he laughed harder than I did! She said mom I wasn't trying to be rude I was just letting her know I knew the answers. LOL!

We don't know WHERE in the WORLD she gets it from...

Short N' Sweet...

Nothing real important to report right now. Maybe because it is 6:30 in the morning and I am too tired to think! Anyway, maybe I will think of something later?? HA!!! Just wanted to stop in and let everyone know that all is well in the Garrett househould. Just super busy as always!



Smiles!!!

Ombud-what?

That is the response I get from everyone when they hear that I am going to be an Ombudsman! Ha! I will actually be a co-ombudsman with another wife in my husband's unit. She is one of the sweetest people I know. Her family is so precious to me and her husband help my husband...for lack of a better phrase...change his life! In turn it has helped us changes ours. We are totally different in our relationship than we have ever been and much thanks to this family!! In saying that I am very honored to co-ombudsman with her! :-) I went to a training class in Portsmouth, VA. I met some very nice people...which I am sure will be lifelong coastie friends! I learned SOOOO much. I need to sit down and write it all down before I forget. While there I got to visit with a good friend and see some pretty cool stuff...that will be another post. For those that still don't know....

An Ombudsman serves as a link between a Coast Guard command and the families of the command. An Ombudsman can assist families in locating resources, communicate information from the command to the families, and take concerns of families to the command.

:-) Later!!!

Prayer Request!!

For anyone that may read this:

I have been out of the office this morning b/c my mom had to go to the hospital last night. She was feeling real “down”, left arm pain, chest pain, face pain, etc. They took her to St. Dominic’s and her blood pressure was very high. It took them all night to get it down. They have taken EKG’s, blood work, etc. They still have more tests to run this afternoon. They said all her symptoms were those of a heart attack and are watching her close. They said with the test it will be one way or the other…if they see something they will do surgery immediately; otherwise, it may have been stressed induced and she hopefully will be able to go home. In less than a year she has lost her mom, had major neck surgery, husband lost his job and just the normal stresses of a working mom/wife. (I still have a 14 year old brother that lives at home.) Please be in prayer for her that perhaps this was just stressed induced and not anything serious. Also, please pray if it is stressed induced that she will be able to get some relief soon.Also, Brian is at the coast this week and I will be leaving to go out of town. I always get nervous when we leave Baylee. I know she is going to be perfectly fine and is in the best hands but…hey…I am a mom. That is what we do…worry!! I will be flying out Thursday morning and coming back Saturday night. (Unless things change w/my mom.) Please say prayers for safe travel.I have a lot to do here at work and at home before I leave so I am not sure how much I will be around a computer/phone so if I don’t respond to emails/calls just leave me a message and I will get back to you tonight/in the morning!!! Love to all! Thank you,

Bouncy...

...yup that is how I am feeling...kind of bouncy. This week has been SUPER busy but it has been really good. Work has gone great. I have been worried because as paralegals we have to meet a certain amount of hours each year. It has started out well. I guess that is all for now!! My post have been short and sweet lately but I am just trying to put SOMETHING on here. It really relieves alot of stress to blog...not matter how small!!!

January Rears Its Ugly Head!

Hello everyone!! Well it is 2009 and Obama is president...whooda thunk it! Ha!!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!! Ours was great. Very busy. We ended up celebrating 10 times. It seemed crazy in the midst of it but before we knew it all the celebrations were over...and it almost seemed too soon!!

The year started out pretty good for us so far...but I guess I should speak too soon...it is only the 7th! Baylee just got back from Knoxville. She had to get right back into school and a book project...already!! She has been a trooper about it all. Much better than I have. Getting back into the swing of things and a normal schedule at work has been pretty tough. I am hanging in there though!! As for Brian, the same as usual...hunting, working on this and that, working at Yamaha, Coast Guard and getting ready to take his EMT national registry test. He leaves next week to go to New Mexico for a week. Then he turns around in February and goes to the Coast for a week. Us girls are gonna miss him...but at least it is better than the 8 months he was away the year he went to Cuba!!

Well I guess that is all for now! Happy New Year Everyone!

Love to all!

Baylee Tales

Baylee went to Knoxville with her grandparents this past week and this is a conversation she had with her great-uncle:

Uncle: (Points to a castle in Gatlinburg) and says "That's where they rescue princesses like you from."

Baylee replies: "I don't want to be rescued, I want to slay the dragon!"

I guess she gets that from Brian. LOL!!!!!!!!!

Family Meeting - January

I have decided beginning this year we will have monthly family meetings. We had our first official family meeting last night. It was interesting. We all listed our goals of things we want to achieve (big & small) throughout the next year. We also talked about things that each of us would like for the others to do more/less of. It was kind of neat to see every ones thoughts and be able to talk without anyone getting their feelings hurt. We also discussed our vacation plans for the year. Brian had me print off the list so we can put it on the fridge and see what we have/haven't done. Then each month we will strike through the things we have done or add things to the list. I am interested to see how things change month to month.

Two of the thing we decided to do are family game night and family learning night. Family game night we have done before but we have decided to do it again. One night every other week. We will eat, clean, homework, etc. as usual but in lieu of watching t.v. we will play a game!

The newest thing we are adding is family learning night. We are going to have one night every other week where we all get together and discuss something new about our "learning" subject. We have all expressed the desire to learn to speak Spanish. So we are going to learn to do that ALONG with learning historical information and cultures of the different countries that speak Spanish and where they are located on the map. Once every couple of months we are going to cook a meal as a family that is dedicated to countries we have learned about. We are also going to try to use the Spanish words we learn in place of their English counterpart when conversing at home in order to become more fluent. I see a vacation to Spain in our near future! Ha!

Life Is So Short

I have been sad since I heard about John Travolta's son dying today...all from hitting his head on the bathtub. I am so sad for his family!! I guess this really gets to me this week because Baylee is gone with her grandparents to Knoxville and I have missed her so much and worried about her. She is in great hands but just like this situation...you never know what can happen. Anyway, just had to post this and get it off my chest. :-(

Weight Loss Journey!

Well I am beginning weight loss journey. Yesterday I created a chart to help me keep up with my calories, etc. I went ahead and ate as usal yesterday. I really didn't think it was that bad b/c I really didn't eat alot...but the calorie intake...INSANE! I just ate three basic meals and a snack. I didn't even eat alot at the meals...no more than the regular serving. All of that being said...here it is..*gulp*..I ate OVER 3300 calories yesterday!!!!! YYIIKKEESS!!! I am just in shock. I really don't eat that much but this just goes to prove it is WHAT I eat that is so bad! It is aggravating b/c I know others that eat so much more. I just have to learn that MY body is different and I have to work hard to get it back to where it needs to be!! So here is my "before" picture: