Company Girl Coffee 02.27.09

Good morning Company Girls!

How is everyone doing? The weather here is nice today. I didn't even wear a jacket on the way to work. And it smells like spring. I love it. Of course the weather here is crazy and we might get snow next week. I guess that's how it is in Raleigh.

Tonight Dave is flying down to Sarasota for the Ultimate Frisbee Team USA tryouts. I'm nervous for him. It's going to be a very tough weekend. (Check out Tired of Red, Go Team USA.) Keep him in your prayers!

This morning I've really been thinking hard about something. I know that Jesus says we are supposed to turn the other cheek when treated wrongly (Matthew 5:39), and I try very hard to do this. However, I've found that it is much easier for me when it's someone I think is a nonbeliever versus someone who claims to be a fellow Christian. When it is someone I think is a nonbeliever, although sometimes tough, most times I am able to extend grace and continue to show kindness. When it is a fellow Christian, however, I get heated very quickly. I have to fight tendencies to want to put that person in his place and tell him how unlovingly he just acted. And then I get caught between the fact that God calls us to correct one another (Galatians 6:1) and the fact that sometimes it's just better to keep my mouth shut, extend grace and forgiveness, and let God deal with that person. And also, even if I were to correct that person, I should be doing it out of love for him and God, not out of anger or defensiveness. Then there's the issue that I also don't want to be a doormat...I want to stand for God's truth and encourage it. And then at the same time, who am I to get angry with someone for treating me wrongly? I am just as much a sinner as any other person. I get attitudes too. So when should I speak up and when should I let the situation float by?

I found an article on this topic which I really liked: When should a Christian try to correct another Christian? I'm going to have to read it a couple more times and think about this. And of course there is prayer, which should be the foundation behind every decision I make (although, I hate to admit, isn't often enough).

So what does everyone else think? Do you face this in your own life? How have you dealt with it? I'm very interested in everyone's thoughts.

Alright, on to the weekly trivia.
From last week:

True or False: Animals have to answer to God, too.
Answer: TRUE.

"And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting.
I will demand an accounting from every animal.
And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting
for the life of his fellow man."
- Genesis 9:5

Now for this week:

True or False: When Moses threw his staff on the ground and it turned into a snake, he ran away from it.

OK I guess that's all for now. Be sure to share your thoughts!

God bless,
Kara

Philippians Relief

Over the last few days...since this past Sunday, actually...I have been struggling with my anxiety. I can't really pinpoint why, as hard as I try. There is nothing in particular I'm stressed over. It's like I just have this panicked feeling inside and it won't go away. I know everyone tends to have his or her own view of whether or not anxiety is in itself a sin and if its cause is genetic, environmental, a sin issue, or a mix of these, but this is beside my point. The point is that I'm struggling and I need a way out.

Two nights ago I decided to take a hot bath and just meditate on God and spend some time with Him. It seemed like the only possible cure. It was amazing what it did for me. My soul completely calmed down and I felt ok the rest of the evening. Apparently I should have done the same thing last night, because the anxiety is back full force this morning. Since I obviously can't leave work to go home and take a hot bath, I thought it would be good to meditate on the two Scripture passages that were on my mind during that bath two nights ago. I wanted to share them with you, just in case anyone else happens to be feeling very overwhelmed right now (even if, like me, you have no reason to be overwhelmed and can't figure out why you are).

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
- Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

Really think about these two Scripture passages. Put them together. See if you can find the relief I did.

God is amazing. :)

Biggest cookie ever

It's about time I put up some pictures from Dave's birthday dinner/get-together last Friday, so here they are. :)

First, as I said we were planning to, we went to Waraji for dinner. Dave got a massive plate of sushi. I got a soy-ginger noodle chicken plate thing. It was pretty yummy.

Then we went back to our place to hang out. The original plan was for me to bake half-baked brownies, but Dave's mom (via his brother Dan) was so sweet as to surprise him with a GIANT cookie cake. It was the biggest chocolate chip cookie I've ever seen in my life. (Dan got to decide its giantness, since he's the one that bought it for Dave's mom. I think he made a good choice. I'm still munching on leftovers.)

If you look closely, you will see that the candle numbers on his cake say "26". Don't get confused. He's 28, not 26. Next time I will try to remember to buy candles ahead of time so I'm not forced to use whatever I may find in the pantry. ;)

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us!! I know it made Dave feel special. :)

Company Girl Coffee 02.20.09

Good morning Company Girls!

This morning I am drinking cinnamon hazelnut coffee. It is quite yummy. I also had oatmeal with Splenda brown sugar for breakfast, with a couple Caramel deLite Girl Scout cookies on the side. So delicious. And so bad for me.

I didn't do wonderfully on my Small Things points this week. I had a lot of things scheduled in the evenings after work, which dwindled my free time at home down to zilch. Hopefully next week I will have a bit more time and can earn a few more points.

Yesterday was Dave's 28th birthday. :) I got him a couple 116 Clique CDs (a Christian rap group) that were highly recommended by his friend, Jack. I listened to one on the way to work today and I liked it quite a bit. (Yeah, Dave has one of those cool wives who likes rap music....hehe. ;) )

Dave also somewhat randomly bought a tent back around Christmastime that he said could count toward his birthday. Since I have yet to go anywhere with him where we've needed a tent, I acquiesced.

For dinner we went to Lilly's Pizza, one of his favorite pizza places, where they serve GINORMOUS strombolis for somewhere around 9 dollars. I ate maybe a third of mine. And they even fill them with really good ingredients, such as chicken, pine nuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. My only complaint was that I did not like the atmosphere. It pretty much felt like a downtown dirty bar. It was hard to breathe in there, despite the fact that there wasn't any smoking. It definitely wasn't a place I would have chosen. But, it was my honey's birthday, so I went. And the food was definitely awesome. I think next time I may vote for takeout.

Tonight a bunch of Dave's good friends are meeting us for sushi at Waraji. I haven't trained myself to eat sushi yet, so I will probably be eating some type of Asian stirfry. Then everyone's heading back to our place for half-cooked brownies, which Dave requested instead of a birthday cake (and I completely understand why).

Ok, so now for the trivia answer to last week's Company Girls post:

Q: What scientific fact did Isaiah mention in the Bible centuries before it was proven true by scientists?

A: That the world was round.

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
-Isaiah 40:22

And now for this week's trivia:

True or False: Animals have to answer to God, too.

I hope everyone has a splendid weekend!

God bless,
Kara

To forgive...

To forgive
is to
set a prisoner free
and
discover
the prisoner was
YOU.

- Excerpt from God's Little Instruction Book

So Joe hurt your feelings or made you angry. You can't get over your grudge against him...for Pete's sake, he hasn't even apologized. Well...I suggest that perhaps you should try forgiving him regardless, seeing and accepting him as the imperfect human that he is. I'm sure you've made a few mistakes too...said some things you shouldn't have said, reacted in ways that were a bit overboard, neglected to show God's love for someone when you know you really should have. We all make mistakes. We all hurt others. And yet God loves us all the same. And forgives us. No matter what we do. If He's forgiven you, shouldn't you forgive others? I bet if you forgive Joe, a HUGE weight will be lifted off your shoulders. To carry around resentment and anger toward someone is a heavy burden. But if you forgive Joe and turn the burden over to Jesus, letting Him deal with what Joe has done, the weight will be gone. You'll feel light as a feather. Like a prisoner set free.

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...
- Romans 3:23

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
- Ephesians 4:32

Dave's bridge

Check out the following article: Biltmore commuters could face bridge traffic snarl

Dave is designing the bridge that they are discussing in the article. Isn't that cool? "The cost of the project is estimated to be $2.8 million." Wow, no pressure honey. ;)

The bridge to soon be replaced by Dave's bridge.
Photo taken by John Fletcher/jfletcher@citizen-times.com

I just had to share. My husband impresses me. :)

Sproost Style

Ok, to all my Company Girls, scroll down to the post below (or click here) to read my Company Girls post for today. I'm adding this current post because I just discovered something cool that I'm dying to share.

I often quickly flip through the blog posts from the people whose links appear on the right side of my blog. Today's "This Young House" post really caught my eye. It shared the link to a quiz you can take to determine your interior decorating style. The website shows you a picture of a room and you rank how much you like it. Then it shows you another room, which you also rate. And on and on. Now I must tell you...you sort of need to take it several times. At first you will like nearly everything you see (because, obviously, these rooms were designed by people with fabulous innate decorating skills and unlimited funds, and they were photographed by talented photographers at just the right angle to catch your eye). But the more you take the quiz, the more you will start to sense which rooms you prefer over others. Pretty soon you will be thinking to yourself, "Yes...THAT is what I want in my living room...please give it to me NOW!!" (At least that's what happened to me.)

So check it out. www.sproost.com. Here is my "style" below with my all-time favorite room that I would absolutely die to have (ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration...but I like it a LOT):

Company Girl Coffee 02.13.09

Morning to all my Company Girls. Hope this post finds you in good spirits. This morning I am drinking vanilla decaf coffee. Delish. (Is that a real word? If it is, did I spell it right?) I grind my own beans in the morning. Does anyone else?

I've decided to try a new time for my quiet time with God. I was trying to do it in the mornings before work but often found myself getting out of bed way too late or getting distracted once downstairs in the kitchen. Next thing I'd know, it'd be past time for me to get in the shower, the downtairs would be all spruced up, I'd have checked all my email 5 times, and my quiet time with God would still be on the waiting list. So...now I'm trying to go into work at least 30 minutes earlier every day and then I'm doing my quiet time at my work desk before I head home. On the days when my schedule has allowed, this has worked great. I just need to be more diligent about making my schedule work. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Is anyone doing anything exciting for Valentine's Day tomorrow? Dave and I are trying to be budget-friendly, so we've decided we're going to go eat at Whole Foods from the a la carte buffet and then I'm going to pick out a small (under $10) plant for a little gift.

Note: The picture on the left is not necessarily the plant I'm
planning to get. Nor is the picture on the right a true
representation of our Whole Foods here in Raleigh
(although it IS a picture from a Whole Foods).
Both pictures are simply for visual effect. :)

As silly as it may sound, I'm pretty excited. I love Whole Foods. I love eating there, I love just walking around the store, I love shopping for different and organic foods, and I LOVE picking out new plants. (And now the question anyone who's seen our place wants to ask: Where on earth am I going to find window space for another plant??? Oh don't you worry. I'll find a way.)

OK so here's the trivia for today:

What scientific fact did Isaiah mention in the Bible centuries before it was proven true by scientists?

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

God bless,
Kara

Traffic Light Inspiration 02.12.09

I keep a little pamphlet of devotions in my car to read while I'm stopped at traffic lights. Two things jumped out at me today while I was reading, and I wanted to share them.

In Ephesians Paul writes, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called" (Ephesians 4:1)."

The devotional then says, "A continuing struggle as we seek to follow Christ is trying to find our calling in life. While we often think in terms of occupation and location, perhaps a more important issue is one of character--the being that undergirds doing. 'Lord, who do You want me to be?'"

This really struck a chord within me. So often I'm concentrating on where God wants me and what He wants me to be doing. But I often forget about being. I need to be who God wants me to be in my heart before trying to please Him with my doing. So often I get caught up in the the motions of life, forgetting that what God really wants is my heart, for my soul to be meditating on Him and flourishing in His peace that passes understanding. It's not about what I do and accomplish. It's about the stuff inside that no one else sees. It's about me and Him.

The second thing that inspired me was in reference to 1 Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life."

The devotional writer, Joel Stowell, says, "In life's battles, let's hold on to the fact that good will triumph over evil in the end, that one day we will see our Master and Leader face-to-face, and we will reign with Him forever. You can be part of this great story, knowing that if you have trusted Jesus for salvation you are guaranteed a victorious ending!"

That's something that is so important to keep in mind when we our struggling through life, feeling ready to give up. We will win in the end. It's all been done for us. Victory will come, and we will live in a PERFECT place for ETERNITY. Yes, life may be horrible at times. Sometimes I just want to curl into a ball and sleep for a year. But then I know that one day everything will be wonderful and I will have complete fulfillment. The pains of this world will have all passed away. And I can't wait.

Those are my thoughts for today. I hope someone else got just a teency bit of inspiration from the devotions like I did.

God bless.

Fun Facts

Kristin (see middle pictures from yesterday's fashion show post) shared some wonderful fun facts with me today, and I just had to pass them on to all of you.

1) Young sloths often grab their arms or legs by accident instead of tree limbs, causing them to fall out of trees.

Picture Source: lovingshiva
and Animal Photos!

2) The Trans Siberian railway has a large kink in it. The tsar during the time it was being built drew the design for the railway, and the ruler he used had a nick in it. The builders built it to his design, kink and all.


3) Pomegranate seeds are called pips.

Now if that information didn't make your day better, I can't imagine what would.

God bless!

Fashion Show

Here are some pics from the fashion show. I had a pretty good time. I got the closest I'll ever be to owning a Gucci bag (meaning: I got to carry one that may have very well been a knock-off), and I even did a cool drop-thing with it (sliding it from my elbow to my hand between poses) that you can see below in the bottom pic of me. (Notice the purse is mid-drop. Apparently the photographer caught me at my switch between poses. Hence my weird standing position.) The room was pretty full, so I hope that they collected all the money they were hoping for to put toward the scholarships. I wish I had some pics of the room and the stage from a distance...I didn't realize the photographer was only going to take close-up shots. Ah, oh well. Enjoy the pics. :) All photos taken by Eugene Cottrell from EPiC Photo.

Company Girl Coffee 02.06.09

Welcome to all my Company Girls.

Let's see, what's going on in my life...

This Sunday I am a volunteer model for a fashion show in a town about 30 minutes from Raleigh. The money raised will go toward providing scholarships for kids in the Arts Education Program at the local high school there. Pretty neat, huh? Click the flyer below to check it out and even provide your support for the kids with a donation if you feel so inclined.

I'm a little nervous about walking on the stage and through the crowd and doing the little poses that have been requested...especially with Dave sitting in the audience. But we'll see how it goes. My friends Emily and Kristin were so wonderful as to volunteer with me (thank you girls!!) so at least I have some moral support. :) I'm sure I will have some pictures to share next week.

If you read my post yesterday, you'll know that I suddenly decided I was tired of red in my living room. So this morning I changed it. Most of the red was on our bookshelf, so I ended up switching it to tan stuff instead. (Tan was about the only other color of decorations that I had laying around the house.) I just needed a red break. Below is the after-picture. (I forgot to take a before-picture...sorry. :) )

Along those lines...I made these changes this morning when I should have been having my quiet time with God. For some reason, I just really really didn't want to sit down at the table and read this morning. I couldn't do it. And then, afterwards I felt horrible for skipping it. I feel like it's put a damper on my whole day. So my question for you is...if you have quiet time with God, when do you do it, how often, and what do you do? Read your Bible? Devotions? Bible study book? Pray? Every day? A couple times a week? In the morning? In the evening? Before bed? Let me know. I'm considering switching mine up and I'd like to hear what works for others.

Alright I think that's it for today. Oh, the answer to the trivia question last week was earthquake. Good job to all of you who knew it. :) I will return next week with another trivia question...for this week I am out of time.

God bless!

Tired of Red, Go Team USA

All of a sudden today I feel tired of red. Any of you who have seen my living room know it has splashes of red throughout it. Well...I've had the splashes for 3 years now (in 4 different living locations) and today I've decided I'm tired of them. I made this decision while I was at work, unable to view my living room. Random, yes, I know. So I think tonight I might go through our living room and try to replace the red stuff with non-red stuff. Maybe a light blue or light green. We'll see what I can find laying around. I'll let you know what I end up with. But hopefully it won't be red. (And my apologies to all you State fans. No worries. Our spare bedroom is decorated in red and has Dave's NC State soccer posters hanging on the wall. :) )

On another note, I feel like I've barely seen my husband at all this week. Both he and I have been gone a lot. Hopefully this weekend we'll get a little QT together. The biggest thing in his life lately (besides me, of course ;) ) has been training for the tryouts for the Team USA World Games ultimate frisbee team. Tryouts are February 28th and March 1st in Sarasota, FL. I'm really excited for him. It's a big challenge. And whether or not he makes the team, he'll always be an ultimate-frisbee extraordinaire in my heart. :)

Just thought I'd give a little showcase of Dave on the field. He's number 18, in case you can't tell. :)

(To see these and other pictures, check out: http://scaughtyphotography.smugmug.com/Ultimate.)

Finally, I just wanted to share a Bible verse with you that I write on every one of my to-do lists. It helps remind me that getting through my daily tasks is not of utmost importance. Pleasing God is.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God, and keep His commandments.
For this is the whole duty of man.
- Ecclesiastes 12:13

New TV

Dave and I hosted a superbowl party on Sunday. We also bought a new TV on Sunday. And not because we belong to the weird group of people who think we need to buy a big, new, shiny TV for hosting a superbowl party. No...we bought ours because the one we already had decided to stop working 4 hours before kickoff. 4 hours before 11 people would be showing up at our house expecting yummies, good conversation, and most of all, a TV screen with the superbowl game on it. So off to the stores we went.

First we looked at Target, which had some good deals. Once we decided what we wanted, Dave remembered that hhgregg had the same size from a better brand for the same price. So we headed off to hhgregg. We found the TV right away, and the sales guy told us he thought there was only one left. That made our decision for us very quickly. Dave told him we'd take it. Within one minute after we'd claimed the last TV, some people standing near us requested it from another sales guy. The other sales guy looked on his computer and said, "I can see about ordering one for you." The people were like, "No, we want to take it home now." The sales guy said, 'I'm sorry, there's none left." The people just stood there. They were not happy.

So we'd gotten the last one within seconds of losing our chance. Yay for us! Our TV apparently had to be loaded off of a truck, so Dave and I hung around a while and went to Petco to get crickets for the newts while we were waiting. When we came back, the other people were still standing around, but had apparently decided to buy a more expensive TV. (In other words, Dave and I did hhgregg a big favor by buying the one we did.) When our TV finally came out on a dolly, the sales people in the store watched as we walked down the center aisle with it and exclaimed, "They got the LAST ONE!!!" I felt pretty special. It was fun.

So after that, my wonderful husband got it all setup and we had a crystal-clear picture of the superbowl for all our friends. It was a grand time.