Pictures!

Since it's been a while since I've posted some pictures....

Now for your viewing pleasure:


Me and my Daddy when he came down to visit me last month. I love you Dad!




Nick and I at the southern most point of the U.S. - The infamous trip to Key West! (See two posts ago!)



A great shot to make my parents jealous. :)

Newness

Seems like every so often something changes - sometimes good, other times bad. I have a good change that has manifested itself in my life. I have been blessed with a job promotion. It's pretty exciting. I'm not sure what to do with myself. My boss got back from vacation today, so now the fun can begin.

Now with the good news there has only been a little bit of bad news. I have had to fight with the IT department. It's always a pain trying to get everything set up and access to the appropriate applications. I now have a phone that works, access to a certain file folder that I need, a computer, and printer access. However, I am still waiting patiently for my software. You would think that they would be in somewhat of a hurry to supply people with access to programs that are essential to doing their jobs, but apparently not. It's been over a week. So I called, and they said it would be soon. I said soon as in a couple days, or soon as in a couple of hours?

Anyway, it will come, and things will be fine. I am not too overwhelmed yet, and I think that this is something I am really going to enjoy. God is a giver, and I am thankful. Do you ever feel guilty that you have more than your fair share of blessings? I do. But then again, I'm Lutheran and we are bread to feel guilty! :)

All I can do is try to use wisely what he has given to me. The other day, I decided to define the purpose of my life and this is what I came up with to inspire and motivate my everyday:
"My purpose in life is to learn and implement God's will for me, to be a good steward of the gifts He has given to me, and reflect Christ's love to others around me."

It's like writing down goals. It just feels good. Makes me keep in mind why I'm here.

I is Ghetto

Deep down I always knew it, but a recent happening solidified the notion.

A couple weeks ago Nick and I finally went on vacation - by ourselves - with no family - it was glorious. We have not taken a vacation alone together since we have been married, so it was nice to get away from the hum drum of everyday life.

Destination - The Florida Keys! Wow, that sounds awesome. Certainly we can afford to take a 3 day vacation, right. Of course, my husband is in church work, so money is not an object. To save money, we decided to take along a cooler. It was a grand idea, at first, but became less and less of a great idea as the trip progressed.

So, we packed up the cooler with PB&J, a loaf of bread (our lunch for two days), watermelon, banana bread (for breakfast), butter (for the banana bread), and some water and soda. Yea, we were set, and we were saving money. (Already you can see that the story has a pathetic ring to it!)

So, we iced it down, and drove. Like I said before, this was great the first night. Then we went to pick up two more bags of ice - $3. $3! We are getting no where if we have to spend all this money on ice. Then it occurred to us - the hotel has an ice machine (I'm laughing as I write). What a splendid idea!

Also, we do not find this weird in the least. Our bed and breakfast in Key West had an ice machine right by our car, making fill up rather easy. The problem didn't occur until the last night. We were staying on the 29th floor of the Marriott in downtown Miami.

Nick says to me, "Candace, I need to fill up the cooler, come with me." O.K. "How are you going to get the ice down to the cooler?" "Oh, I've got a plastic Publix sack." (That's right, folks, a plastic grocery sack.) So we trot down to the ice machine and start filling up the sack. It was at that very moment we realized the extent of our frugality and started busting out laughing. We were laughing so hard we almost started crying.

The bad thing was, that we had already committed ourselves to this escapade and must finish our mission. To do this meant going all the way down the elevator and across the lobby - the very big lobby where many people had come to attend a rather large wedding. So, we boarded the elevators along with several other people, of course. I'm trying to block the bag of ice with my body so people won't notice what lunatics we are. Meanwhile the ice is beginning to melt and starts to drip on my leg. By the time we get down to the lobby, there is a little pool of water on the floor. We make it across the lobby with a water drop trail following us every step of the way.

The last thing that set me over the edge is when we finally got to our car and Nick put the ice in the cooler, he turned to me and asked, "Do you want to save the bag?"

We is ghetto.