5 Years

So if you haven't been informed I will be starting a new job on Feb 10th as a bridal consultant for Mia's Bridal & Tailoring!!!! There are so many thoughts and emotions going on in my head its crazy!!! I'm excited about this opportunity, but its hard saying good bye to Olive Garden. God has used Olive Garden to work on me in so many ways. It was never apart of my plan to work for almost 5 years, but it was oh so obvious apart of God's (hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20). I think back to the person I was 5 years ago and I cringe at the things I had said, done or thought...ridiculous! I am not cured of making mistakes and I know that, but I am so grateful that God loves me and has patience to deal with me. He has had to knock me down, and raise me up just to have to knock me down again b/c I didn't learn the first time. The sharp edges that He has knocked off of me, I was talking to someone about how having a bad attitude/sharp tongue can get you in trouble and it brought to mind things I have said and I begged her to learn the lesson faster than I did or am learning. Through working at Olive Garden I have met so many people and I can't even count the opportunities God has given me to share my testimony to co workers and guests. Another result of working at Olive Garden that I didn't expect is that I like me...not in a prideful I'm the best and no one's better but in the I enjoy the dork that I am:) I used to be so concern w/how people saw me. It wasn't ever a concern of being "cool" but it use to be my goal to be wall paper (by that my goal would be to go un notice) and not let people to get close, b/c what if they don't like me and that I had to hide who I am. Now don't get me wrong I do sometimes stress about things I have said and whether people understand what I'm trying to say so sometimes I over explain myself, to get my point across. But God has supplied me with relationships with people who like me just the way I am...crazy sense of humor, sometimes too straight to the point, probably laughs a little too loud, the fact that I'm not worried about asking for help w/the next project I set my mind too, or if someone has an idea responding well lets figure it out and lets call so and so worst thing they will say is no :), I like just hanging out w/people if I come over to visit I don't need you to entertain myself, I have loner tendencies, on occasion I can be shy, sometimes I'm too independent, I laugh at myself constantly, I talk to myself alot, when I'm trying to figure things out I will say "Its ok" and "Its all good in the hood" over and over again.God has given me so much and has used Olive Garden, friends and my church family so much in these last five years. I couldn't even begin to thank everyone and also the great thing about God is He has used you in my life and you probably don't even know it and then again He has probably used you in my life and I haven't fully seen it yet. Isn't that AWESOME!!!!!Justine once shared a story of how she hopes people see Jesus in her, and she gave an example of going to the grocery store and coming home and thinking I hope they saw Him. I hope that my coworkers, guests, friends, and have seen Him in me.

December 13th is going to drive me crazy!

So people give me a hard time about doing too much or being involved in too much or having a crazy schedule...BLAH BLAH BLAH. But I actually think that they are all ganging up against me, why you may ask, well here is the list of things that I have been invited to, made of aware of, or however you want to word it.
Here we go:

• Emily's graduation at CMSU at 10am
• Megan's graduation party at 2pm
• Josiah's 2nd annual Christmas cookie party 6:30pm-11:55pm
• LSBC Adult Christmas party at 7pm-?
• Matt's playwright showcase at UMKC at 7pm

Is December 13th the only Saturday in December...NO :)

I haven't completely figured out how I'm going to do all of it, but if there is a way I can figure it out I think I can find it :)

Fun Times at Sears Portrait Studio

I'm giggling, yes giggling while writing this back as I think back over the day :)

So I had a BRILLANT idea (or so I thought) that since David and I would be visiting Joe, Monica, Hazel, and Jade at the same time wouldn't it be great to get a family portrait of the kids and grandkids for grandpa. I know you're thinking that is a brilliant idea, but I wasn't thinking about what being in front of a camera with David and Joe would be like...LOL

When arriving to Sears the lady asked about the poses we would like and I told her one of the six of us, one of Joe, Mon, Hazel & Jade and then one of Dave, Joe, and I.

• The photographer in all her wisdom wanted to take the 6 person photo first b/c thats "the hardest" (her words, not mine)...Success and it only took a couple of tries to get a good pic.

• Next the photographer wanted a pic of girls only (at this point this is when I realize Hazel has peed through her diaper and onto my leg, but hey thats in the job description of an aunt) back to the girls only pic there Monica, Jade and I are cooperating but Hazel keeps running out of the photo right when its about to be taken to go sit in a cute chair (thats how it ended up in the shot); so all 4 of us are ready, but its hard to control my laughter b/c David and Joe are behind the photographer PLAYING WITH ALL THE PROPS, yes props you know the ones they use in kid photos! So I'm trying to not bust a gut from laughing so hard:)


• Okay so that photos taken on to the photo of Joe, Mon, Hazel and Jade: they get their couple of poses taken with only minor incidents.



• Then onto the photo that I thought would be the easiest...why did I think that, b/c I'm stupid Ladies and Gentlemen!!!!! The pose that I thought would be so easy is of me and my brothers: bless the photographer's heart she tried to set us up for a nice pose but Joe and Dave were jacking around and so I was laughing and finally I gave in to the craziness and said maybe we should do silly photos for dad. Well I really enjoyed the first pose, but then the boys wanted to do a Charlie Angels pose and I will admit I blew the shot! I couldn't help it I was laughing so hard and to top it off I had to be front and center and doing a karate pose....are you kidding me???? Of course I can't focus with all that going on....so my brothers kicked off the angel squad and continued to mock me for 10 mins :)
  

I had such a great time taking those photos I could've taken tons more...correction I could've attempted to take tons more. When David and Joe are together its impossible not to laugh your butt off :)

Black Friday....SUCCESS!

A normal person might think that Black Friday is only for crazy people: Why would someone get up at 3am or sooner to go stand in the cold with other crazy people in front of a store for door busters????

Well my name is Mary and I am one of those crazy people :) Thats right people I fervently look over the ads over and over again to make sure I don't miss a "deal" and I create a plan of attack! Plan of attack you may ask...I make sure to know which stores open when and plan accordingly, i.e. if one store opens at 4am and another at 5am then I know that I need to get into 4am store fast, grab my items, make a bee line for the cashier and be on my way to 5am store. I have learned from experience how to make it near the front of the line when I'm towards the end of the line. I have learned to make myself familar with a stores floor plan in order to run to the exact spot I need while other people are in a frenzy and/or heading for electronics.
Do I have a war face??? Yes I do its a mixture of determination and constantly smiling when I make eye contact. Its amazing what being nice can accomplish! I truly believe that watching Super Market Sweep as a child had prepared for the mission that is Black Friday :)

How did I become a Black Friday Warrior? It was not a pleasant road at the age of 15 I learned had a bad experience and swore to never shop on Black Friday again...never say never. About 5 or 6 years ago my Aunt Roselyn and I were looking through the Black Friday ads kinda laughing at the crazy people that go and then she saw it...what did she see, well I'm gonna tell ya she saw the FREE Mickey Mouse snowglobe that JCPenney gives away just for stepping in the door. She mention how much she liked it, but there was no way she was going to be at JCPenney at 5am and then the converstation moved on....so she thought. I decided that I would surprise her with the snowglobe, so that night I set my alarm to 4am woke up drove to the Oak Park Mall, grabbed the snowglobe and went home. My aunt was surprised...Mission Accomplished :) It was the next year when I found out that JCPenney gives out a different Mickey Mouse snowglobe every year. Well that next year I grabbed the snowglobe, but I didn't leave immediately I was enticed by the SALE signs and the people looking for bargains and I'm afraid that I was hooked. With the years following I started to add more stores to my Mission.

Do I have war stories from previous missions? Yes, yes I do, but I will tell you that I will continue to accept my Black Friday mission for as long as I possibly can!

And I will add that I did get the Mickey Mouse snowglobe this year and I was in Philly...VICTORY!

Oh NO world Mary is reading a book!

So today I went to the Family Christian Bookstore in need of bible highlighters. Yes I know I can get highlighters anywhere, but I intend to do a lot of highlighting and I don't want them to bleed. A couple of weeks ago I went to hear Elizabeth George speak and she mentioned that she went through her Bible with a gold highlighter and a pink one: any verse that mentioned God was highlighted in gold and any verse mentioning women Pink. (I also picked up a blue highlighter in regard to men).Anyways with the highlighters in hand I wondered around the store to see what was new, what was on sale, and whatever else I didn't know that I couldn't live without:) There are ALOT of books on sale and one jumped at me "The unGuide to Dating: A he said/she said on relationships." It was $4.97 and when checking out BONUS it was 1.97. You might be wondering to yourself why would this book jump out to Mary? Well as some of you know I make jokes about how there is so much interest in my singleness! The back of the book promises "...to offer me help navigating the pressures, trends, and temptations of dating as an adult"To be honest I didn't get the book to "help" it was more to read a funny book to prove that I am not alone. (alone meaning not the only single person in the world over the age of 25. Yes I know I just turned 26!) So in reading the introduction I am introduced to Camerin (girl) and Todd (boy), two witty columinsts for ChristianSinglesToday.com. I've now moved on to Chapter One titled State of the Date: a strange new world; and I must say instead of helping me feel better it has just frustrated me more!!! Not necessarily the book, no there isn't a lot of meat to the book and yes they have quoted some well known Christians and their comments about being single not only frustrate the authors but me as well but what really just got was when I looked the book up on Amazon to read the reviews, one review in PARTICULAR by a man named Steve says are 3 reasons why women 30 and above haven't been married (yes again I know I'm 26 but thats pretty gosh darn close to 30!)"Women over 30 who have never been married generally are in one of 3 categories which make them unmarriageable: 1. Physically unattractive (a minority) 2. Bad character (the BIG one- I encountered many of these: wackos, flakes etc.) 3. commitment-phobic (They pass conditions 1&2 but they have no real desire for marriage) 1. Not to sound prideful but I don't think that I'm so unattractive that I should have my own booth in a circus side show of freaks.2. I do not have bad character...I maybe a little silly but not a WACKO!3. I am not a commitment-phobic. Which yes some people have alluded to that maybe I am a commitment-phobic and maybe thats why I am single. I am single because I don't want to date/marry just anyone...I want to date/marry the person God has chosen for me.Another one of Steve's gems:"In the book they talk about friendship. Forget it. Women at the singles groups I go to are not looking for friends. They are only looking for a date. If they don't want to date you, they give you nothing more than the time of day. EVERY time I've ever been LJBF'd (let's just be friends) by a woman, she did not want to be friends. This is her way of telling me she wanted nothing to do with me."Here we go another stereotype women who are single/in single groups are only out to get a man! NOT TRUE I know that I can't be the only single Christian who wants single friends. Please don't get me wrong I love my married friends but they have different responsibilities. Again back to Elizabeth George she used the illustration of single women being like eagles who can do all of these things...married women are eagles with clipped wings they get to do different things.Here's the deal do I enjoy being single? Yes. Do I want to be married someday? Yes. Do I get lonely sometimes? Yes. Does that make me desperate? NO! I'll be honest there was a time where I couldn't stand to be alone so I dated without sticking to the standards God set for me and I regret it. There have been so many things God has allowed me to be a part of and different ways He has allowed me to serve that if I had been married I wouldn't have been able to do. I get excited to see how God is going to bring somethings that He has placed on my heart about. I get excited and sometimes overwhelmed by ALL of the possibilities. But I also get excited to think what if marriage is in God's plan for me how cool of a story is that going to be to tell my kids someday of how their father and I met. And if marriage isn't in God's plan for me then I will keep keeping on and be the COOLEST AUNT EVER!

My Country Side

I FINALLY FOUND IT!!!!!
I have always wondered way I have the country tendencies that I have. I assumed it was from my dad's side b/c of his love of fishing and that some of the relatives live in the middle of nowhere. But no its from my mom's side of the family....who knew!

I went to Terre Haute for my beloved Uncle Steve's funeral and spending time with my mom's side of the family brought it all together. The car racing, the living in the country, the accents in Southern Indiana and other things also learning that my Uncle Steve came from Kentucky...KENTUCKY!

When I called my friend Wing with my revelation she laughed and said that she always wondered where my country tendencies came from as well :)