I'm BAAAACK!

Wow! It's been some time, hasn't it? The M.O.T.H. and I took off for a week and did a little camping and just got back into town. We had a great time, but here's about the extent of our trip:

Isn't that glorious?!

 Seriously, that's all we did!

I sat right there for 6 days and 6 nights, read 3 books, ate a half a pan of brownies and took the occasional walk around the park.

The hubs spent most of his time on the iPad playing no more than...you guessed it! Plants vs. Zombies.

He did get up long enough to do this one morning:

Isn't that sexy? My man making Sunday morning pancakes. Yum!

And the evenings were just as amazing

...except for that spooky fire ghost. Can you see it gazing into the fire by the hubs?

I say it looks like a bug eyed Captain Jack Sparrow, but my sister thinks it's a girl...What do you think?

Creepy.

Anyway, I thought I'd also share a few random quotes from our trip for your amusement:

Me: "Jesus and ginger ale make everything better..."

Background- I woke up one morning feeling a little sick at my stomach and M.O.T.H.asked me later on how I was feeling. This was really the best way to sum up my feeling better!

M.O.T.H.: "She's walking with a turd in the bag..."

Background- A "responsible" dog owner was walking her fairly large lab. Her plastic grocery bag created a rather disrupting rustling noise that caused hubs to look up and observe. Once the statement was made, he went back to playing Plants vs. Zombies...

Me: "You can't say 'no' to Cap'n Crunch!"

Background- A lady at the dollar store made a comment that the new Cap'n Crunch snack mix was "awesome." I wasn't sure which ones she was referring to, so I bought both. This statement was made in an attempt to justify the impulse buy to the husband with large eyes.

(I'd share a photo, but I can't seem to find one online. I liked the sweet and salty one, best, though.)

Needless to say, we had a wonderful, relaxing time, but it seriously went by too fast. I wasn't prepared for the enormously stressful first day back to work. There was so much to catch up on and it was a hard adjustment to make!

Thanks to Pandora, for playing this song:

It really helped me regain my focus and get me back on track!

I am a HUGE Christy Nockles fan and have been ever since Watermark. Check her site out if you get a chance.

So, it turned out to be a great day back after all!

What sort of things help you get back in the game of life?

Strange Fears and Phobias

Today I saw this on tastefullyoffensive.com:

At first, I though, "This is absolutely hilarious!!" Then, I thought of a friend of mine who has a horrible fear of planes falling from the sky. Not like a, "Oh, I haven't flown in a few years, I hope this plane doesn't malfunction and fall to the ground," more like a "Do y'all hear that plane? Everybody run to the basement!" kind of phobia.

I'm used to it now, but when I first witnessed her reaction to an airplane flying 30,000 feet overhead, I thought she was joking. It is slightly funny, but certainly not to her. To her, it's embarrassing and humiliating. I haven't seen her in a while, so I hope she has overcome this fear.

This week, however, I heard of another strange phobia from a customer who came in the office. He was convinced that the electricity in his home was making him sick. I was tempted to laugh, but this poor man was serious as can be. I recently saw a feature on TV about this sort of thing (see this article). It's called electrosensitivity. Basically, it's a disorder where people believe that the electricity inside their home is making them sick. In extreme cases, they move to communal or remote areas and resort to life with electricity.

It made me think about the things I'm afraid of (like the two snakes I encountered last night and spiders) and how just because these fears don't effect my life in the most extreme ways, maybe the smaller, more subtle ones do. Internal fears, like being afraid of rejection or trying new things. These fears often paralyze me from taking chances and stepping out of my comfort zone. These fears prevent me from living life to the absolute fullest. How many treasures and nuggets of wisdom have I passed up because I was afraid? I'd really hate to know.

So what's a girl to do? 1 John 4:18-19 says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us." (NIV)

Matthew 7:9-11 also says, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (NIV)

These Scriptures have brought me comfort so many times in my life and I hope it does for you. It's SO easy to get all wrapped in in fear of the unknown and become paralyzed and oppressed by it, but God loves us with a PERFECT love and if we put our trust in His great love for us, what do we really have to fear?

I hope this little blog encourages you to stop living in fear...of whatever it is you're afraid of.
Come on! Let's all step into the sunshine, breathe the fresh air and trust God to keep those silly airplanes flying safely above the clouds.

Peace out,
V

"Try It" Tuesday

Wanna know something funny about this post? Not funny, ha ha, but funny strange. (Now that I think of it, I have never considered strange to be funny...hmm) Anyway, aside from the fact that it is not Tuesday, the funny thing is that the product I'm bringing you today is so mind-blowingly amazing that I almost couldn't wait for Tuesday to get here to post about it...then I missed Tuesday all together. Oh, well. I hope that you'll agree with me that it's really better late than never.
So, without further ado, here's the next new product that you must rush out and purchase immediately:

If you're not a yogurt person, that's ok, I really don't consider myself one either. I mean, I use it in my overnight oats, I like the fruit 'n yogurt parfait from McDonald's and occasionally I'll eat one of those light yogurt deals with the granola or Oreo sprinkles, but this product here has really rocked my world. Seriously. Right after I ate this container, I went to the grocery store and bought every container I could reach without standing in the dairy case shelf! (Because that would have been overkill, right?)

This is Greek yogurt, so it's a little thicker and creamier than regular yogurt. It usually has more protein, too, but I also think it has a little stronger flavor. Like the kind that makes the back of your jaws tingle. (It's ok if that makes no sense, just keep reading...) Not that I like that strong flavor, I don't, really, BUT that's where the caramelized almonds come into play. They are tiny bits of crunchy almonds that are coated in a sweet elixir of sugars of some kind, I'm sure. See?

Anyway, whatever it's coated in straight up works! It almost melds after a bit and adds sweetness to the plain yogurt. See how the coating slowly begins to dissolve? Genius.

 

Ahh! Y'all, this stuff really is wonderful. I also love the cleverness of the tiny cup that you dump in the yogurt by folding it over and emptying the contents. Very cool! And don't be fooled by the tiny cup! There were enough almond bits in there to have several pieces in each spoonful.

 

At 220 calories and 13g of protein, this is a snack that is sure to fit into just about any healthy lifestyle!