SOOOO EXCITED

I am so excited and happy and I can finally share with you all WHY!!! :) I interviewed for a job a couple of weeks ago and today I finally got the call that I GOT THE JOB!!! I am the new Administrative Assistant to the Dean of Theology at Southwestern Seminary. It's the same organization I was working for but a totally different department. I will actually be a supervisor to about 6 other people. I have my OWN office with WINDOWS!! YEA!!!! And, I'm going to be doing something that I know I am going to LOVE. I love challenging jobs and jobs that will let me interact with lots of people and that's exactly what this job will be like. I will also get a great pay raise and health benefits which is something I've been praying for. My other job was good but I had no benefits at all with it and I was making much less than what I was making back in S.C. So, I've really been wanting something else for quite some time and then this position in the Theology Department came open and I'm so totally thankful that God has chosen me for this position. I'm so excited about starting. I actually begin Monday morning!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! He is sooooo good to me!

I've been beyond stressed out all this week just waiting to hear back from the Theology Department and I haven't had a full nights sleep since last weekend. I am so glad I can finally get some rest tonight and not have to worry about getting this position. In so many ways I am just at a loss for words because I am so thrilled. I can finally do something that I'm good at and that I love. I have missed my Associational job back in S.C. so much and now I'll be able to do something that is similar but different than that. YEA!!!!

God has really had his hand on our whole move to Texas and getting this job just gives me that extra encouragement that we are doing the right thing and that we are right where God wants us. The job I had in Archives was a great beginning point for me and the abilities I used there played a part in me getting this new job. I was able to show my abilities and people noticed. And, that is just awesome to me. And, God took those people that noticed me and used them to help promote me to a better position. It's just so cool and so humbling how God works. You really never know what He's preparing you for so it's always the right thing to do your best where you are and even though it might seem no one notices, God does and He will reward our hard work.

SO YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA FOR ME!! I'M SO THRILLED!!!! THANK YOU LORD!!!

This Is Great

I got this in my email today and just had to share it with everybody. It's HILARIOUS!! I'm still laughing about it. :)

Most of America 's populace think it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.'

One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc.

Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.

Still Alive & Kicking

I feel like I haven't been in "blog world" for a while. I've just got a lot on my mind so I figured I had better not blog until my thoughts are straight... that way I don't end up putting my foot in my mouth. (That would be pretty yucky) But, I wanted to let you all know I'm still here... and doing well. Hopefully, after today I will have more direction as to what's happening but until then... who knows.. :)

T.G.I.F

I can't tell you how glad I am it's Friday. I am just totally whipped today. I've worked out every day this week averaging at least 4 miles a day. WOW!! I'm trying to lose some more weight before I go to the beach in a month. :) You know us girls.. got to look our best. :)

It's been a good week though. We've just been hanging out doing our same old thing.

I am working on a few areas in my spiritual life right now. God has really been pointing some things out to me this week that need my attention. Some things that have caused pain to me in the past that I'm now understanding and trying to actually forgive myself for. For those of you that know me, you know that I've struggled a long time with letting some things go from my past and even though I have come to a point of accepting, forgiving, and letting go there are still some life lessons there that I need to take with me into my day to day life. And, they are good lessons. Lessons that are making me a better wife, a better mother and just a better person. But, we all know how it works. Satan sees that I'm trying to move forward and he tries everything he possibly can to make me go 4 steps backward. And, it is a constant up hill battle. This particular week he has been bringing Renee Grace to my mind and making me feel so bad about the situation with her.

For those of you that don't know about Renee Grace, go back and read these 2 entries below.

http://courtney-inhishands.blogspot.com/2007/07/soooo-lost.html

http://courtney-inhishands.blogspot.com/2007/08/picture-of-renee-grace.html

(You'll have to cut and paste the web address in the web bar. I couldn't figure out how to get it where you could just click it here) :) I'm not too internet smart. :)

I can't tell you the amount of times I have cried and hurt over Renee's death. Yes, I feel like my own child has been torn from me and there is nothing I can do about it. And, as soon as I come to a point of accepting her death and knowing that God is ultimately in control of all things. Satan comes back and begins slapping me around with all kinds of emotions and thoughts that are not right, and they are emotions and thoughts that my God doesn't want me to feel because the matter is settled.

It's just so frustrating at times. And, it wears me out emotionally. I would do anything in this world to have Renee back in my arms, but that wasn't part of the plan God had for my life. He allowed her to come in my life for a season and even though I never held her or saw her face to face, she will forever be mine, my little girl that I dearly love. And, I know one day I'll see her in Heaven and be able to give her all the love I wish I could have given her here. But, until then I'll carry her memory with me and trust that God knows what He is doing and only has my best interest in mind. I do take joy in knowing that she is healed now and is able to run around and play like normal kids do! And, I know Jesus is taking care of her and loving on her each and every day and that is just very awesome to think about.

I Have to Brag a Little

I just have to brag a little about my precious little boy!!! Rodney went to pick him up today and his preschool teacher told Rodney that Joshua did a very nice thing today. There was a little boy sitting off in a corner by himself and Joshua went up to his teacher and asked why is he sad? His teacher told him that the little boy didn't feel good and that he was sad because of that. So, my awesome, precious little boy walked over to the littly boy and told him he was sorry that he didn't feel good. And, he just kindof hung out with him a little so the little boy wouldn't feel all by himself.

When Rodney came home today and told me that my heart just melted. I am so proud of Joshua. I asked Joshua about the situation and he told me all about it and how he made the little boy feel better. He always notices when other kids are happy or sad and he always wants to help them. It is so neat to see how God uses our little babies. And, it sure does speak right to be my heart reminding me that I'm suppose to be that same way. When we see other people hurting we are suppose to reach out to them with the love of Christ.

We've started reading a new book with Joshua at night. It's called, You Are Special, by Max Lucado. It's an awesome book about how this small town of wemmicks (wooden people) would give each other stars and dots. They would get stars if they did something good or they would get dots if they did something bad or just didn't "measure" up to the other wemmicks. The little wemmick that had lots of dots met a little girl wemmick who didn't have any stars or dots and the little boy wanted to know why. The little girl explains that she goes to see Eli, the wood carver every single day and that spending time with him helps the stars and dots not stick to her. The reason they don't stick is because it doesn't matter to her what other people think about her, it just matters what Eli thinks of her. In this story Eli represents Jesus and the little girl represents who we can be if we will take the time and spend time in God's presences daily. So, the little boy goes to meet with Eli and as he begins to spend more and more time with Eli all the dots the other wemmicks had given him begin to fall off. It didn't matter to him anymore what the other wemmicks thought of him. He just wants to please Eli and Eli only wants to help the little wemmick feel as special as he is.

Our God thinks we are so special. Each and every one of us were created by him and for him and he takes great pleasure in us.

We've only been reading this new book for the past 2 nights and already Joshua is so excited about it. He loves to read it and I love instilling in him good, solid, Godly values. And, even though he's only 2 I know that as he reached out to that little boy today that it was God working in and through him to help someone else. Because anything good in us can only come from God. Without Him, we can do no good.

Well, I began this blog just trying to brag on my baby boy a little bit. But, it went much deeper than that. I hope that reading this somehow blesses and encourages you! I know it has already encouraged me and blessed my heart.

LaLa Land

I had a horrible sinus headache yesterday so I took some Benadryl Allergy medicine to try and get rid of it. Well, I only took one pill but you would have thought I took the whole darn bottle. I got home from work and was asleep on the couch by 6:30 and the only thing I remember after that is Rodney waking me up at 8:30 and telling me to go get in the bed. That pill put me OUT!! I woke up this morning and asked Rodney what I did last night because I was so out of it I didn't remember. :) :) He just said, "girl, you were OUT." He had given Joshua his bath, fed him dinner, played with him and put him to bed and I slept through every bit of it. And, that is saying a lot because my house is never quiet, especially with Joshua running around. :) But, through all of that at least I forgot about my headache. :) And, I feel so refreshed and energized today. The clock went off at 5:45 this morning and I got right up without even having to hit the snooze button. So, me and Amanda went to work out and TAAAA DDAAAA here I am. :)

The moral of the story: No more benadryl allergy medicine for me!!

One month from today I will be turning 29 and that just doesn't seem right to me at all! In fact, it's just WRONG! :) I'm really starting to understand the phrase that you are only as old as you feel. So, I'm feeling like I'm still around 23 and I like that. :)

I feel so random today too. Who knows what that's all about! :) :) :) You know one thing I really like is that I can make people laugh. I never thought of myself as a "humorous" person but lately I've been noticing that people tend to laugh when I'm around. (hopefully that's a good thing) I hope they don't think I'm just a nut case. :) Any who, I was at the gym this morning and one of Joshua's preschool teachers came in. I said hi to her and she asked me how I was. I looked at her and said, "well, i'm about to jump off this darn machine because it's trying to kill me today." And, she just lost it. I was thinking, "hum... i'm funny, I guess." :) :) Then she said, "you are so funny. everytime I talk to you I just know you're going to say something funny." Awe.. that makes me feel good. I want people to have fun when they are around me. YEA! And, then I met with another lady this morning and she told me I seemed like a real fun person. YEA!! SO, going back to the turning 29 thing.. I don't think so.. I'm going to stay young and cool as long as I possibly can. :)

Well, I better get my random self off here and actually go get some work done. Have a great day everybody!

Ready to Relax

28 Days Until Vacation!!!! YES YES YES YES YES!!

http://www.moodygardenshotel.com/

Something to Think About

No matter what you're going through, always remember you are going through!

Updated Joshua Pictures

Joshua building a fort on his bottom bunk bed.
The adventures never stop when Joshua is around.



This is a very tired little boy.. couldn't hardly hold his eyes open for the picture. :)

Two of the cutiest boys in the whole wide world.
Joshua's animal kingdom. He LOVES playing with all his different kinds of animals. He's been asking for some dinosaurs. So, I'm thinking maybe I'll get him some for his birthday.
Chilling out and playing on his lap top. :)
Joshua was having fun tackling mommy. He was tickling my feet and tackling me. He definitely likes to play rough.. ALL BOY!! :)

Verse of the Day

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

I have this verse of the day thing that I get in my email and this was the verse for today. I was just really encouraged by it, to keep on doing good and working hard because in the end I will reap whatever harvest the Lord has for me. Reading this just gives me the energy to keep pressing on.

Saturday Events

Well, it's a rainy, stormy day here in Fort Worth. But, we've had a good, productive morning. My mother in law is coming to visit in March so we decided to put Joshua's bunk bed together. His bunk bed has a twin bed on top and a full bed on the bottom and we decided when we moved in that we would not put the full bed up and just let him sleep in the twin bed. But, I want my mother in law to have a bed to sleep on when she comes so we put them together this morning. Joshua is having a blast climbing up and down the ladder to the top bunk and he is actually sleeping on the top bunk right now for his nap. It still has the wooden guards on the side so there is no way he can roll off of it. So, I told him as long as he was careful we would let him try sleeping up there for his nap. And, so far so good. :) He thinks it's pretty cool to be that far up. :) But, he is a boy so I knew he would like it. :)

I visited with one of our neighbors a little bit this afternoon. So, that was fun. Over the past week I've really gotten to know 2 of the other ladies here in our neighborhood and we've been having fun hanging out together. We get up and go walking every morning at 6am. It was nice to just be able to walk over to her house this afternoon and have some "girl" time. :)

Other than that, we are just chilling out today. My house is clean, my son is napping, my husband is watching tv and I'm blogging. What more could I ask for. :) :) :)

I'm going to try and take some pictures of Joshua this afternoon and put some updated ones on here so hopefully I'll be adding them today some time too.

Hillsong Break Free Live

Remember to scroll all the way down to the bottom of my blog to turn the playlist off so you can listen to the video. :) :)

a little homesick

I'm a little homesick tonight. I haven't had many "homesick" moments but I really wish I was in S.C. right now. :) Good ol' S.C.!! I miss our family the most when things are unsettled here. Our family just brings me calmness and security that no one else can match. Family is so special and I guess you just don't realize how much you need them until you are far away and can't get to them. :( I just keep reminding myself that God has brought us to Texas for something special and that really does excite me and helps me stay on track and just keep doing everything He has called me to, to the best of my ability. One thing God tells us is that the road we travel won't always be easy but the one thing He promises is that He will always be there with us. And, that is so comforting in trying times.

I just needed to share my heart a little to my great family and friends. :) I love you guys so much! And, don't worry... I'm going to keep my head up and keep smiling!! :)

And the Frustration is just building..........

I'm not really going to go into the situation that is frustrating me but I do want to ask for your prayers. I'm having a tough time right now with someone and something. And, I'm just trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Which if you know me, you know I don't like unresolved conflict so this is making things pretty difficult for me right now. Once I'm at liberty to talk about it I will. But, the only thing I need right now is prayer and lots of it.

I love you all so much! And, just the support and love I get from all my family and friends that read this really encourages me and helps me be strong. So, I just hope you all know that. :)

Our Weekend

We had a very nice weekend. It was beautiful outside so we definitely spent a lot of time out doors. I've included a picture of a bug habitat that me and Joshua put together on Saturday. Rodney had to work at the church on Saturday so me and Joshua went a little bug hunting adventure. (The bugs in the picture are not real though. They are some little plastic bugs he had) :) :) Mommy couldn't handle letting him bring real bugs in the house. :)

So, after the bug hunt we just hung out outside and Joshua had a blast just playing and I sat and watched him while talking to one of our neighbors. Then, today we did our church thing and didn't do much else at all. So, it ended up being a very nice, fun, relaxing weekend. Which is just the kind I like.

Locked In A Closet

You're totally going to love this story. It is one I can add to the "happened at Roberts Library" collection! :) (which is where I work just in case you didn't know that)

Yesterday, me and Emily (girl I work with) needed to go up to the Archives closet on the 3rd floor of the library and look for a newspaper clipping. Dr. Cathey (our very smart boss) told us to go up and shut the door to the closet while we were looking for the clipping so noone would bother us. Now, you have to know that this closet is not very big at all and it has tons of stuff in it. So, there is not much floor room either. So, me and Emily decide we can trust our wonderful boss and shut the door. We looked around for what we needed but didn't find it so we were getting ready to go back downstairs when Emily looks at me and says, "Courtney, I think the door is locked." I was like, "ok, i really hope it's not. let me try it." And, yes the stinkin door was locked.

We knew there were some students sitting on the other side of the door and maybe if we knocked they would come help us. But, we were both really struggling with that decision because then they would all know we had locked ourselves in there. So, we stood for a few minutes just looking at each other trying to decide do we swallow our pride and knock on the door or do we just wait for Dr. Cathey to come look for us. We decided we were ready to get out of the closet so Emily knocked on the door. A student came up to the door and said, "yes?" And, Emily replied, "I'm sliding the key under the door." The student didn't need any more explanation. He knew we were locked in, so he took the key and unlocked the door. We stepped out to a crowd of about 7 students that were just dying laughing at us. We were both laughing so hard we couldn't talk at this point so we just shut the closet door and went back downstairs not saying a word to anyone.

Well, as soon as we got back in our office Dr. Cathey knew we had been up to something because we still couldn't control our laughter. We told him the above story and he just died laughing. We thanked him for the heads up about the closet door and he hasn't let us live it down yet. Needless to say, he's having a blast with this one. He told several people today that came into our office that me and Emily are great escape artists and then proceeded to tell them our very embarrasing, yet hilarious story. :)

For those of you that really know me, know that this is totally something I would get myself into. It just seems that I always end up in little predicaments like this one. :) I wasn't going to blog this story at first, but since our wonderful, nice, sweet, loving boss has begun to spread the word for us I figured I better fess up. :)

Happy Birthday to my Man

Today is Rodney's 33rd birthday. :) So, it's party time around our house today. Joshua is so excited about his daddy's birthday this year. I had Joshua give Rodney his present this morning and so Joshua carried it in to his daddy and screamed out "Happy UpDay Daddy" :) SO CUTE!!! He can't quite say the beginning of birthday so he created his own word. :) Then, we took Joshua to school this morning and his class is having a party for one of their teachers today so the teacher was telling Joshua that they were having a part and Joshua lit up and said, "for my daddy's upday!" :) SO CUTE AGAIN!!! :)

So...

Happy Birthday Rodney!!!! I love you so much and I'm so glad I get to spend my life with you!

Super Bowl Fun

Last night was the first super bowl that I have watched in the past 6 years that I didn't have 20-30 teenagers running around my house. And, I have to admit I missed it terribly!!!!!!! Don't get me wrong I had a blast watching the super bowl with Rodney and Joshua and it was nice not having to get all the food ready and then clean up afterwards. :) But, I did miss the "big party" we had every year with our youth group. :(

But, like I said we did have lots of fun so here are some "highlights" from game night at our house.

1- CHILI (oh yes, it was wonderful and my awesome husband cooked it) :) :) :)

2- Commercial where the lizards were dancing to thriller!!! Me and Joshua jumped up and joined in on the dance. It was great.

3- Joshua was so much fun during the super bowl. Everytime I would get excited about something he would do and say exactly what I was doing and saying. Here are a couple of examples:

The Giants missed a catch inside the in zone so I stood up and put my hands in the air and said "they missed the ball! How could they have missed that ball." Well, as soon as I sat back down Joshua jumped up and threw his hands in the air and said, "they missed the ball! How could they have missed the ball." Of course, it was much cuter with him saying it. :)

When the Patriots came back and scored in the 4th quarter I wouldn't believe it. And, yes I shouted, "NO, they didn't!!" and yes, Joshua did the same.

BUT, the all time best was when the giants came back and scored in the last minute of the game. I was sitting on the edge of the couch so Joshua came and sat down right next to me on the very edge of the couch and as the ball was thrown and caught I was banging my hands on the coffee table screaming YES YES YES YES YES and Joshua joined right in screaming YES YES YES YES YES!!! Then we threw our arms in the air and said "GO GIANTS"

At the end of the game Joshua told me he likes football. :) I said, well, it's a good thing because so do I!! :) He was definitely late going to bed since I got him all excited and hyper about the game. We needed some time to chill out and calm down afterwards.

It was an overall good game. The commercials were not as good as they usually are. But, it was still a great, fun night at home with my family! :)

Joshua.... The Photographer

Me and Joshua went for a walk around our neighborhood this afternoon and these are some of the pictures that JOSHUA took all by himself. He did such a good job!!

Joshua loved to take pictures of the bikes.
Leaves on the sidewalk
BIG TREE!!!

Me holding a stick so Joshua could take a picture of it. :)
SLOW: Children Playing.... had to get a picture of that. :)
Holding acorns in my hand so he could take a picture of them.
This is my favorite one that he took. I was so impressed with how good it turned it out.

Sick Again

It never fails!!! Anytime Joshua gets sick I get it a couple of days after. I have been running a 101 fever all day and have felt yucky and weak all day long. But, of course being my crazy self I took Joshua to the zoo today too. I hate sitting still and I just had to get out of the house. Well, I'm totally paying for it now. When we got back home I took my temperature again and it had gone up to 102, but I've got it back down around 101 now. We had a blast as I tried to get myself from exhibit to exhibit but I am totally out of it and weak now.

Well, I'm going back to rest.