The little things

I woke up today exhausted and with worsened cold symptoms. I decided not to run as I had promised Randy I would, but instead rest a bit longer to conserve energy.

I received a fabulous email about how well my UT Alpha Xi Delta chapter is doing...which put a bright smile on my face. At work I was able to get next week's schedule complete, finish up some on-going problems, and convince my District Supervisor to allow for even more technician hours. That is a very, very cool thing. I haven't had many complaints lately but my poor staff is way over worked. I look forward to hiring some more people and changing the schedule around to better accommodate business!

After work I drove to San Marcos to attend the Texas State Alpha Xi Delta chapter meeting. It was their first with the new President. I was very happy I went as it turned out really well.

Now I'm just in a dash to get laundry done, pack for Florida, finish off emails, clean, organize, etc. all before I go to bed. We fly to Tampa at 5:45 pm-so Ryan will literally need to pick me up from work and go straight to the airport. Can't wait to get a good two days off to spend with family!

Sisterhood

Saturday was an exhausting but rewarding day. I held an Area Wide Training for 4 collegiate chapters of Alpha Xi Delta. It was a lot of preparation but well worth it. We had 75 women show up including 8 of my dear Delta Psi (Texas State) women. For them- the day couldn't have possibly be filled with more emotional highs and lows. Pictured below is the new leadership of the chapter taken Saturday. I am so proud of them!And when I returned home I rested. Rested like I never normally rest. I did nothing that took thinking. We went and saw the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" (don't recommend it by the way) with our friends Daniel and Amanda. We washed our cars, made dinner, and watched Grey's from last week. I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30. Let me repeat for those who may think it is a type-o. I fell asleep at 8:30! It felt good. I woke up very rested. Oh and did I mention I never once checked my email!
Rested that is until I went to work after being gone for 3 days. It wasn't too bad but it definitely jolted back into reality. But alas, only 2 more days to work this week and then Ryan and I head off to Florida! Thanks to everyone who supported me during the past 2 weeks. Especially, Ryan who now knows everything he never cared to know about Alpha Xi Delta. It was crazy hectic but when all was said and done, I believe I made a positive influence in these women's lives.

Austin

Another late night. It's almost done! Melanie, the other Texas Area Facilitator for Alpha Xi Delta, and I are just finishing hole punching stuffing all the folders. Good times.
I'm praying super hard for tomorrow. The drama that should have been slip between today and tomorrow is now all tomorrow. The fun starts at 7:20.......6 hours. Gotta get sleep!

this week

I have been living, breathing, sleeping, dreaming...
Alpha Xi Delta.

late night blessing

It is 12:45 am. I just ran out of adhesive and had to make a Wal-Mart run so I could finish a order that is due. Well, of course, I'm going to go through the 24-hr Krispy Kreme drive thru next to Wal-Mart. I ordered my doughnut(s) and the kid working the drive thru says, "hey-ya'll want some doughnut holes?" I was assuming they were free, so I said yes. I couldn't believe what he then handed me. It was the mother-load of doughnut holes! Seriously. Awesome. My favorite food (ties with M&Ms and Starbucks).

Wednesday

Another cold and icy day here in the Alamo City. I headed out this morning with 2 coffees in hand (I had heard Starbucks wasn't open) to go to work. I made it there safely and enjoyed quite possibly the most peaceful 3 hours of work ever. No one was thinking about prescriptions when there was so much news coverage to keep up on and ice to look out the window at. LOVE IT! But as the temperature rose, the ice began to melt, and those who hadn't left there home in 3 days began to emerge. And guess what....they wanted their prescriptions! It wasn't too bad though. Tomorrow on the other hand may be--but wait! I'm off...it doesn't matter ;)

This can't be good for the landscaping!

Ice Ice Baby

So, it got a bit icy. Ryan didn't even make it 2 miles from the house this morning before turning around and coming home. He was supposed to be in Houston for meetings today...I don't think that is going to happen now. The city of San Antonio has literally shut down....except for Walgreens. Guess that means I'll be going to work....

It is not safe to go outside

I love being a "born again Texan". It means that I can enjoy all the wonderful warm winter days along with everyone else but when it turns a little sour.....I can stand back and LAUGH at everyone's panic!
I mean SERIOUSLY-you would think hell is freezing over-not the roads!
It is currently 32 degrees out, its rainy, and windy. There is a threat of snow. The city is shutting down. Literally. Look at this ridiculous list of closings on the San Antonio Express News website. They even closed down the Pharmacy school!
So, today being MLK day. I thought....hey, it might be a little slow day here at Walgreens. Boy was I wrong. Everyone and their brother called wanting to get every prescription that had refills on their profile filled.....just in case they were like-trapped in the house for a day! SERIOUSLY! Oh yeah, and did I mention that everyone wanted their Rx before 7pm-"when the weather was going to get bad". It sucked. I went to work at 7 am and left at 6:45 pm.
SERIOUSLY, people.
In a way I hope it does snow, I'll blow by everyone in my 4 wheel drive ;)

Decisions

Well, I suppose I have been productive on my Saturday off--just not with any of the things that I planned to be productive with. My goal was to work on an order of wedding invitations, scrapbook some of my own, and design some new cards for SBR.

Instead, I've spent the past 36 hours dealing with one of the chapters of Alpha Xi Delta I am responsible for. The situation at hand has got me thinking a lot about decisions. How easy it is to make bad ones and how hard it is to face the consequences of them. I've been remembering my own bad decisions and how they have shaped my character and led to where I am today. I've also realized how our personal decisions can affect so many others, yet most of us never consider that while in the decision making process.

Because of several young womens' poor decisions, I am forced to make a tough decision myself. And that really stinks. But, it's got me thinking...."have any of my decisions but someone else in a tough decision situation?"

Ironically, decision making was already something weighing heavy on my mind. Since the beginning of the year I have praying that the Lord would teach me how to seek him before making decisions. I want to be guided by His word and spirit to know that I'm truly making the right decision in life. He has wasted no time calling me up to the plate.

I don't know what is worse: a tough decision that only affects myself, or a tough decision that affects 100 others.

2007-The First Page

01.11.07 and I have the first page of my 2007 Scrapbook complete.
I was inspired to make this page for several reasons. First, the picture. Another picture Ryan took of me while we were playing around in BW mode. Second, Ali Edwards, a super talented scrapbooker, posed the idea on her blog of choosing 1 word to reflect on all year. I immediately knew my word would be spirit. It was what all my goals for 2007 centered around. Thirdly, I completed my first Photoshop tutorial today online. I learned how to make these fabulous dotted circles-and I just had to use them right away!

Early morning

I love waking up early and getting stuff done. I'm not sure why sleeping in gives me such guilt-either way-not a problem today. As I set the alarm for 6 am at 11:30 last night. I prayed, "Lord, please let me wake up when my alarm goes off...not to hit the snooze for an hour." I woke up (wide awake) and stared up at the clock until my eyes were able to focus on the time (its becoming harder these days to see the clock). The time was 5:59.
Love that.
I've enjoyed 2 cups of coffee, devotional/bible study time, and some emailing done, and now blogging. All before 8am.
Makes me happy!
Speaking of happy....here is a pretty cool picture Ry took last week that I finally took off my camera.













My to-do list is long today! Gotta go get some more coffee.
Yum.

P.S. Thanks for all the concerned emails about our precious home. Everything is fine now. Apparently the switch on the outlet couldn't handle the voltage of lighting going on in the kitchen. (We learned that dimming lights actually takes more energy than leaving them on fully). We got a new switch (installed by a more reputable electrician than the Willie Nelson look alike they first sent that Ryan kicked out of the house) and all is well!

princess

Just too cute not to share!

It's a good thing...

It's a good thing my husband is a firefighter. Not just for the awesome paycheck, and sexy uniform....but for the fact that he was able to save our house from burning down yesterday.

Yes, you read correctly...burning down.

We were on the phone at about 5pm, I was driving from my Walgreens (after a long hard 9.5 hours) to go work at another Walgreens (b/c I'm crazy like that). Ryan was in the kitchen looking for something to eat as he just learned I wasn't coming home to make him anything. He said, "Why are the kitchen lights flickering?" As I began taunting him for staring at the computer screen for too long, I heard-"Holy S*** the kitchen's on fire!".....and then I heard a dial tone.

So I drove along, adding that last sentence to the top of my list of "things I never want to hear again." Finally, Ry called back and said the light switch shorted (or something) and there was smoke pouring out of it. He called 911 and Newmark homes. Sadly, Newmark homes had a faster response time than the SA fire department. Apparantly...that nice new fire station at the front of our subdivision isn't actually assigned to our community. It took 20 minutes before any fire truck arrived. Sad. So, like I was saying...it's a good thing my husband is a firefighter. While the 911 operator told him to get everyone out of the house and stand outside, he instead cut the house's power and started dismantling the outlet and looking into the problem. Probably the only thing that kept our house from burning to the ground from an electrical fire.

At the current time, we have electricians and Newmark home representatives downstairs....no wait, just got a report from Ryan that he kicked them out of the house. Seriously. He literally just came upstairs and told me the electrician almost burned the house down again, so he kicked them out.

Seriously.

The Word

My scrapbook challenge for myself yesterday was to make a mini album for scripture verses that I'd like to memorize this next year. The verse I chose to start with is one that speaks as my goal for 2007:

Seek His will in all you do
and He will show you which path to take
Proverbs 3:6

And this was pretty cool...I received a Christmas card in the mail this week from a friend in the neighborhood with this message written on the outer envelope.

Little drama, many joys

Just a little bit of madness today at work, the usual first business day of the year kinda stuff: insurance's expire/change/update their formulary; deductibles begin; everyone rushes to get the kids to the doctor before school goes back; doctors offices that have been closed for the past 2 weeks re-open with vengeance....yeah, so...that will pretty much sum up all necessary Walgreens talk for the month of January.

Several things brought {serious} joy to my day, however:
*running 3.5 miles this morning
*Barlow Girl blasting from my stereo on the way to work
*discovering my "deal-sealer" for my management term at Medical: a Chik-fil-A is opening next door (right next to Starbucks) in March. I'm pretty sure now, I may never leave.
*working with my beloved (summer) intern Theresa for the day
*having Pei Wei for lunch, delivered my wonderful husband
*getting lots of work done after coming home from work (crazy that more work brings me joy!)

2007

Goodbye 2006, hello 2007.
Wow! I cannot believe that it is already 2007. I think this year seems crazy for me because it marks 10 years ago that I made some pivotal life decisions. In 1997 I joined Alpha Xi Delta (a decision I hold dear to my heart) and then (what remains the hardest decision of my life) decided to transfer to Purdue to try and get into pharmacy school. It seems like yesterday.

As I reflect on 1997 and those decisions, I praise God for being there with me even though I barely knew Him. He led me down a path that was paved with obstacles and struggles (because of my own responses and actions) but it was a path that fulfilled His will for me. Today, I know I don't want my path paved with struggles because of my mis-responses. I will seek His will, I will wait for Him. Sunday's message at River City was about knowing the Word and responding correctly to it. Misunderstanding leads to a mis-response. I must understand what God is telling me through His word. I don't want to respond as the world and my flesh wants to respond, but rather respond in obedience to what God is calling me to do. In years past I'd write out what I want/expect in the next 365 days, only to be disappointed that it didn't happen. Now, I am setting the goal of seeking His will before acting/responding to life. Big, life-decisions suck, but I know He has the perfect plan for me. I know because of everything He has provided for me. Who am I (with all the blessings around me) to disagree with His plan up till now.
Seriously.
So...it is all about change in 2007. Changing my perspective, my responses, my behavior, my desires, and most importantly my spirit. From the book I'm currently reading, "Having a Mary Spirit," here is an awesome prayer:

Lord Jesus, I give You my life. I invite You to have Your way with me. Take me and break me. Shake me and make me. Fill me and spill me. Change me and rearrange me. But whatever you do, Lord....don't leave me the same. Spirit of wisdom and revelation, I welcome Your work. Open my eyes so I can see....my ears so I can hear....I choose truth over comfort, challenge over complacency. Lord, make me forever Yours. And most of all, make me like You. Amen

P.S. It's done!