Thankful Thursday- Friends

YAY! I got to have dinner last night with two very dear friends from college. Renee Peter and Rachelle Alewine. What a blessing to be able to catch up with them and to realize that once you are heart friends it's that way for life! I'm so thankful to be able to share and hear about their lives too. It was a great ending to a vacation day. I'm so thankful for friends :)

God is so cool!

This week has been crazy but in the midst of it all I got to see God work yesterday! I love it!

As everyone knows the economy has been in the toliet the last year or so and this has been no exception at the company I work for. From people either being laid off due to a reduction in the amount of business we are doing or people still working here with unemployed spouses there is stress in regards to money. I work with a bunch of ladies with varied backgrounds but one in particular I feel for. Her husband has been unemployed for over a year. She's the sole breadwinner for her family of 6. She's constantly worried about how she'll pay her rent and buy groceries plus all the other things that come up in a month. I couldn't blame her!! Anyway, she's had some issues with her bank account this week and had absolutely no money! I wanted to help somehow but I felt a little strange about giving someone money at work and didn't feel like it was a good precedent to set. So I prayed for God to help her somehow.

Well the company I worked for turned 90 years old yesterday....that in itself is amazing, thinking about that it survived the great depression and many other down times in between has been really cool. Yesterday morning my boss started calling people one at a time into her office (which was really strange!) I was a little worried that she might be handing out pink slips or something but it was way better than that! She gave us an envelope with a letter from the owner/president of the company with a letter thanking us for helping to make the company a success and with a $100 bill in it. $100 doesn't seem like a lot but this company typically doesn't give bonuses...so it was a huge deal. When the gal I was previously talking about came back to her desk after receiving her envelope her face was lit up with a huge smile. The $100 would get her through until she got things resolved with her bank (because it was in cash she could use it with out having to cover fees which would eventually be reversed).

I was so happy to see the stress lifted off of her for just a little while :) Anyway I just wanted to share this and also to write it down so I would remember this when it seems that something is impossible. Look what God did!!

AGGGGGH!!!!!

My family is making me crazy! So we've been trying for two weeks now to schedule a birthday/father's day dinner with my family. Apparently this year we had to celebrate all the June birthdays (mine, Jesse's and my brother's) plus father's day all at once. I was not a fan of this idea. Given that I already share my birthday week with Jesse and we usually end up sharing time with family I thought it was a bad idea to try and combine everything. My step mother however did not listen and they continued on.

So I thought it was going to be last Sunday which I was cool with because it was still my birthday weekend and we were going to celebrate. As per usual with my parents though Devin (my brother) couldn't do it so the world stops and we have to reschedule. Fine, I was pretty unhappy with this given that we'd made no other plans and I just felt kind of dumped. My Dad came over Saturday and dropped off the hammock he got for me which was nice but it seemed like he couldn't leave fast enough. Happy Birthday Jess. So no the dinner gets rescheduled to the following Saturday (which is Jesse's actual birthday). Well again Devin can't make it at the time the family has scheduled and rather than saying gosh Devin that's too bad, the whole world stops. (I know I'm being sarcastic but I'm mad!) Devin wants to have dinner ridiculously early so he can make some other plans he has. My patience is very thin now given that not only did I get dumped the actual weekend of my birthday he didn't even have the decency to call me and wish me happy birthday....oh no I get a text (see actual copy of the text below):

"for what it's worth, happy birthday sis...my life is a sh**storm of activity these days and it slipped my mind...i hope you had a good day!"

Translation....I'm too busy to care about you. Combined with getting totally dumped a couple weeks ago when I tried to have coffee with him when I went to Ft. Collins I'm just irritated.

I've tried a couple of times to explain what's been happening to my parents...they don't care.
Well now with all the drama surrounding this birthday dinner I don't want to go. Nor does Jesse. He's under an enormous amount of stress between things at work and keeping up with his classes. Jesse posted on Devin's face book that he thought it was too early and he'd catch up with him later. Instead of calling Jesse I get a phone message and later a phone conversation with my Dad where he sounds angry because Jesse has decided not to go. The dinner is now at a normal time on Sat and Devin can either come or not.

AGGGGGH!! Has anyone ever had a relative that you'd like to ring his/her neck? How did you handle it?

Wow! This has been a busy couple of weeks. I've been busy at work adjusting to being without the other staff accountant (she got laid off a couple of weeks ago) and Jesse has been really busy with school. My birthday came and went as well. I'm 29 years old now (hard for me to believe!)

We're also adjusting to our first summer in our house which means continuing to figure out decorating and caring for the yard. I got some really nice presents from relatives out of state and I wanted to take some pictures to include with the thank you notes. I figured I would post them up here as well considering I don't have that many pictures. So here's our life right now :)

Calvin being very serious!

Calvin being silly!

Jesse and Calvin hanging out in basement :)

This is the hammock that my Dad gave me for my birthday. I'm really looking forward to spending some time reading in the backyard this summer. Not to mention that napping in a hammock is the best thing ever.

Our little garden plot. We planted lots of peppers, tomatoes and other good veggies!

This is the Topsy Turvy tomato plant. Yes I'm a sucker for the infomerical!

Ok, I'll have more to come :)

Prayer

So far it's been a crazy crazy week. and it's only Tuesday!!! Yesterday was the start of a new month and so that comes with lots to do. Basically my job is produce financial statements on a monthly basis for the company I work for, so each month I have lots of reports and reconciliations to do for the prior month's activities. AnywayI'm also starting to sit in on meetings with the executives of the Company to look over those results. Due to some travels and also delay in the department we were talking about April financial results this morning and it struck me that I need to pray for the people making decisions at my company. I've never been great at prayer. I do believe that I have an internal dialogue with God on a daily basis but it's not formal like prayer. More like he knows what I'm thinking and surprises me sometimes by showing me things, but I can't say that I'm always listening very hard. The Company I work for although not hit as hard as some has seen its fair share of layoffs in the last several months. I can only imagine what it must be like for the president of our company to know that he's got so much weight on his shoulders. The company I work for has been around for 90 years and family owned/operated the entire time. What a responsibility to keep things going and to provide jobs for so many people. Anyway, I'm committing to start praying for the leadership of our company. I'm excited that God is showing me that I've got purpose for where I am beyond just crunching numbers. I'd never thought about needing to provide support through prayer to leadership. I'm excited to see where this is going to lead.

Happy Tuesday!

June- already?

It seems like time is going by at mach 10 speed! I can't believe it's June already. Don't get me wrong I love June, but I just can't believe how fast this year has gone.

A year ago this week I left EKS&H and started work at Eaton Metal. Although I wasn't sure to start that this was the right decision, it's been amazing. I've been able to take a step back and take care of myself and my husband for the first time since we got married. I did miss being around tons of people that were my age and educated and driven. Actually I still do miss this but every time I think about how sad I am to be away I realize what I've gained. Jesse and I spent more than our fair share of time being upset with each other before the change and although it's not perfect now things are good :). I feel like I actually have time to appreciate him and I know he loves having me around now.

I also turn 29 on Saturday. How did this happen??? I feel like just yesterday I graduated from Fort Lewis at 23. Somehow the last 6 years have flown by. I guess I'm a little freaked out to be celebrating the last birthday of my 20s. I think when we got married I thought we'd have a baby by now. Everyone tells me I'm young and I have plenty of time, but the fact of the matter is that I really want to have kids. Jesse and I have talked about waiting until we were 30 to have kids since before we were married, so I would have guess that this is the year to start trying. Well, life happens and rarely goes according to plan. Jesse started back to school this spring to do something where he really is going to be happy. We know this is where God wants us to be but it's hard to get that plan out of my head. I'm going to have sit back and see where God leads us, but right now it seems that having kids while Jess is in school is just not going to work. Too busy, too much money, etc etc. The fear I'm going to have to get over soon is that it will never happen. Whether it does or not I need to be ok with the plan God has set up for us.