Moments with Christ

I am reading a book right now called "Moments With Christ." It's a devotional I bought in college but somehow got buried in the millions of other books in my house. It pointed out something I had never noticed before about Mary.

Luke 1: 26 - 34: "In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

The author of the book postulates that in that one sentence, Mary has already displayed her willingness. She is already acknowledging that it will "be." She has already made herself available, she is just asking about logistics.

Sometimes God asks us to do things that don't make sense. And it's okay to ask about logistics. Mary got her answer right away- that's not going to always be the case. We aren't even guaranteed to know while we are on earth (i.e. Job) why things happen. I just hope that when the rubber meets the road I stick it out even if I can't see where I am going.

And the winner is...

For my color blind friends, it's a boy! My dad and I both thought it was going to be a girl, but everyone else wanted a boy. So I will have a nephew soon. I never had a brother so I have no clue what to do with little boys. So my friends who have little boys- look out! I will be asking lots of questions!

To celebrate I am heading over to Cheesecake Factory with Laura and JK for dessert today (half price cheesecake)! And then to the gym tonight for weights! I finally got my ipod all updated so I can lift tonight with no problems.

Missy and I decided today to sign up for another 5k. It's going to be pretty cool. It is actually run inside the Virginia Beach Ampitheatre and then afterwards you get to tour the backstage area, listen to live music and eat Mexican food. Sounds like a good day to me!

Hmmmm... what do I have to do tonight?

- I have to cross train for 40 minutes at the gym (will actually be an hour since I will be

watching Leverage).

- I have to bake dessert for my friend Jessica and her family.

- I have to do some laundry

Oh yeah, I have to find out if I am going to have a niece or a nephew. I knew there was something going on!

I am so excited!

Thomas Nelson Blogger!

I applied last week to be a Thomas Nelson book blogger. Thomas Nelson publishes Christian books and they give people free copies as long as they agree to blog about the books. I received my e-mail notice today that I have been accepted!

I went in this morning to look at the books I can choose from and all were about relationships or raising children except "The Noticer" by Andy Andrews, the same guy who wrote "The Travelers Gift" (which was given to me as a gift a few years ago).

So I will give it a read and hopefully in a few days I can publish a review for you guys!

Credit Cards

Did you see that new credit card legislation passed? Alot of it is really great for people who are responsible with their cards and some for people who haven't yet gotten in trouble. For example, credit card companies will not longer be able to go on college campuses and hand out t-shirts in exchange for credit card applications in 2010.

The best explanation I have found is by J. Money at Budgets are Sexy, which is my fav financial blog. Check out the article: http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2009/07/how-new-credit-card-legislation-affects.html. It's really easy to understand (I LOVE lists!).

I had my long run yesterday and I did horrible. I did all three miles but walked most of it. I just felt funny- couldn't figure out why. Then, while on stage last night, I felt myself starting to get a fever. By the time Ira's sermon was almost over I felt awful. I went home to my 80 degree house, turned off all the ceiling fans, put on my flannel pajamas and slippers, and crawled under 4 blankets on my bed. Definately sick- I was freezing in spite of the 90 degree temperatures.

Fortunately my fever broke around midnight and I am feeling much better today. There is Pi-Yo at the Y tonight so as long as I am still good when I get off of work, I will be there. Then home, probably to bed early again just to be safe.

I did it!

Up at 5 and at the gym by 5:30 this morning. I left a little bit before 7 so I got home in plenty of time to get to work (and even took a 20 minute nap). It really does feel nice getting my work out done in the morning so I don't have to be stressed after work today. And I have not been swimming in forever- it actually felt great. Works different muscles and seemed to give my legs a break after two mile walk/run on the treadmill this morning. My sister tore it up in the water- I wonder what the baby was thinking?

Went to pilates last night- the room they are usually in had some kind of kids class in it so we were in a horrible room. Bright lights, really hard kind of dirty floors and the music coming out of a boom box. I will hold off to go again until they are back in their other room- should only be a few more weeks.

Tomorrow is my rest day for the week so I am looking forward to taking a break from the gym. Sunday is a 3 mile run/walk to start off the new week- probably going to try to do that one outside and change the scenery a bit!

Leverage

Went home from work yesterday, grabbed the coupon box and headed to Harris Teeter for some money saving goodness. Got some free smart water and really cheap toilet paper, BIC ink pens and Morningstar fake meat (I use it in a taco soup I make- keeps the fat content down). I also bought some Vitamin Water 10, which is a new favorite of mine. Today I am trying the lemonade. Not crazy about it, but it's not bad.

After that I went home, ate some dinner (salad from Farm Fresh) and went to the gym. Did my 40 minutes on the elliptical while watching "So You Think You Can Dance?" and drove home to experience my favorite part of every Wednesday night.

Leverage has started it's new season on TNT. It comes on Wednesday nights at 9 and it makes me happy. Christian Kane is part of that reason but I also think the writing is hilarious. It's kind of like Burn Notice that way- always creating some kind of con to help the little guy. My favorite movie of all time is "The Sting" with Redford and Newman and I think my television taste is starting to reflect that same genre!

Have one voice lesson to teach after work today at 5:30. It's a newbie, so we will see how it goes. They get one lesson free at the beginning. If they hate me, they never have to see me again. If they like me, we start charging. And then I head to the Indian River Y for Pilates. I love the pilates instructor there and can rarely get to her class. Gonna be fun!