Is your life defined by failure?

Peter.  Normal.  A normal person with normal struggles.  We tend to think of Peter's life full of failure. Every major event in Peter's life was defined by failure.  Sometimes in today's world we feel the same.  We feel that everything we do, we fail at or we feel that the world is failing around us.  We have to remember that Peter chose to be a leader, even in times he failed.  This past Sunday we learned that Peter had two major failures. First, we learned that Peter failed by rebuking Jesus.  Jesus was upset with Peter because he was not setting his eyes upon the things of God, but instead he was setting his eyes upon the things of man. As humans, in a society full of failure, we fail when we think of things from our own perspective and not God's perspective. We strive to be successful and put so much pressure on success, but is that where all of the glory should go? Are our eyes focusing on the right things or do we get wrapped up in our society and forget our true focus.  Francis Chan quotes,  “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.”  The number one way to fail in our Christian Life is to focus on the things of man and not of the things of God.  It is essential to always stop and ask yourself before making a decision...
"Will I be upset or regret doing this?" 

The other day I was asked to think of my number  one regret. Instantly, the regret of not saying "goodbye" to my sister and being there for her that day flooded my mind. Then we were asked... were you thinking of yourself or God during this time of regret? My answer? Myself. I was thinking of myself and only myself.  The night before, I was thinking of myself.  Early that morning, I was thinking of myself.  My eyes were not set upon the Lord that morning and I was not thinking of others, especially my sister. I had my first western civ test that morning and I was thinking about the test and how I would do.  I was worried about myself. I know that God forgives us of our sins and "regrets." Can I say for 100% that my decisions that morning would have changed the outcome of that day? No. I can't.  But I can have peace knowing that God has forgiven me for  my regrets that day, more easily than I forgave myself. Christ made a difference in Peter's life and he can make a difference in our lives too. Big or small, our regrets can be forgiven.  

John Newton, was a slave trader in Great Britain. He was an evil person who used slaves in the wrong way.  After years of doing wrong, John Newton became saved and had regrets.  He regretted his decisions of slavery and fought to not only turn his life around , but the life of a slave as well. From the outcome of his life, he wrote the famous hymn, Amazing Grace. Even though Newton's eyes were fixed upon himself, failure helped change his life, just like the life of Peter and our lives as well.  People are used in great ways, we are to model Christ, even after failure.  

Sometimes messages are felt like they are preached directly towards you.  This past Sunday, I felt like I was the only person in the room, and this message was for me and only me.  Yes, I know there were probably hundreds of other people in the room that felt the exact same way, but sometimes it's nice to feel the power of a message that close. With the thoughts of regrets running through my mind, the icing on the cake was when the pastor mentioned John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, a beautiful song that was chosen for my sister's funeral.  A song that still brings tears to my eyes when heard on the radio or at church.  A song that I will never forget was tied to "my biggest regret" without knowing that connection was coming. God is Good.  The service was ended with Amazing Grace  and tears that were impossible to fight back.  Wow! What a powerful and mighty God we serve.  

No school tomorrow....

Feels like summer!! So, you know what that means?! Arts and craft time again! We've started a few new projects and one of them I am super excited about. I can't wait until the finished project so I can show you. I also stated painting my nieces furniture for their new house. This is going to be a major project. It's a beautiful bedroom set, with lots of detail. I absolutely love details, but oh my, painting them is a different story! While going to Lowes to buy supplies for my surprise piece, we came across a really neat piece of wood, so we also decided to build a table. :) I have to say, it's very nice being married to a man with so many great traits and talents.

Valentine's Day 2013

First, let me start of by saying that I should get the #1 wife of the year award... NOT! Honestly, I feel awful for how our Valentine's Day went down. Last year Scott was out of town, so we didn't get to spend it together and this year I was sick, so again, we didn't really get to spend it together. I've never been the biggest fan of valentines day... I feel like it's an over rated holiday and an excuse for stores to make a ton of money! Working in a public school, you can witness all of the money and junk being purchased! And it's a lot!! With all that being said, Scott and I didn't have any big plans for V-Day. We tossed around the idea of going on a bike ride and riding over to Chipotle to eat. But, my body had other plans for us! That morning at school, my stomach started aching and would come in go in sharp pains that made me me feel like I was going to pass out and throw up. But, if you know me at all, I stayed at school all day. I'm sure all of my parents thought I was a fuddy dud during the party, but I tried to act excited and like I felt great!! When I finally got home, I sat outside with Scott for a little bit, but headed inside pretty soon. As soon as I walked through the door, the vomit hit me and I ran to the bathroom. (It was not a pretty sight, but is it ever?!) I quickly started running a fever and my sweet husband went to the store to make some homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner. While he was gone, I was starting to chill, so I went to bed to try to get warm. He came back, made the soup, and here's where I'm an awful wife comes into play... I could never pry myself away from the bed to get up and go eat some. :( I was aching all over and could not get up! Finally, when I thought It was about 8:00, I got up, but it was really 11:45. (Too late to eat soup) so I went back to bed. And slept again until my alarm went off. I did eat some delicious soup for lunch the next day and he did an amazing job!! True chef! After apologizing several times, I think he finally forgave me. ;)

* I got a new pair of UGG house shoes and a beautiful bouquet of roses. :) such a good man!

The other flowers are from the 13th. He's too sweet.

Horseback Riding in Goshen

While Scott was home "visiting" we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go ride horses. We loaded up the ponies and took them out to Goshen to do some beautiful sight seeing. We had a GREAT ride and even ran into my sweet, hard-working daddy.

On a side note... I love seeing my sweet husband interact with our nieces and nephews. He's an amazing uncle and they all look up to him so much. = )

Random Post...

Caution: This post contains anything and everything that has happened since.... ummmm a long time ago! So, this is definitely a random post!

June 2011: Honeymoon in the Bahamas

Scott and I spent 7 wonderful nights at a Sandals resort in the Bahamas. It was a beautiful/relaxing honeymoon... a great way to start of our marriage. In the beautiful Caribbean.

Sitting in the airport- waiting to fly out

The view from our room.

We even got to swim the dauphins. It was a DREAM come true! I had always wanted to swim with dauphins and we did. It was amazing!
Thursday Nights at Sandals are "Street Party's"

My Sweet Husband
Headed out to go Scuba Diving
Fun Love!!
ummmm hmmmm, he's mine! = )


Fresh Coconut at the Beach Party (Monday Night Special at Sandals)
Drummer at the Beach Party

It was a GREAT honeymoon- wouldn't change anything. = )

Christmas 2011

This Christmas was GREAT. It was a great time spent with family and spending some much needed quality time with the ones I love the most!

Christmas at the Square

My beautiful mommyMy sweet sister and her husband
My brother and sister-n-law... such a fun couple to be around!
Our Christmas stockings... yes, there is one for Kiwi!!
Our Tree!

December 2011: Christmas Break in Keystone, CO

Over Christmas Break- Scott and I took off to the mountains of Colorado to do some skiing. We spent several days skiing away and we even rang in the New Year while we were there. Well.... I did. Scott slept.

March 2012: Spring Break in St Lucia

Scott has been away several weeks working in Australia, so since he came home for a few weeks we decided to take off to the beach. We spent 5 wonderful nights in the beautiful mountains of St Lucia. This is one place that the actual resort is much more beautiful than any picture I can take or any picture you can look at online. It was a dream come true vacation.

View from our Room

Beautiful Mountains... all around!


Hike to an amazing waterfall
We took a Mud Bath inside a Valcano



More Mud Bath Pictures

Twin Peaks... suppose to be the most beautiful place in St Lucia

Bats, Bats and Lot's of Bats!! Look Close

Rumor has it that Oprah is building this house...
Houses go for around 15 million dollars....
This is the spot where they filmed a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean

If you get a chance... GO TO ST LCUIA.... it's amazing!