A Thought From Today's Quiet Time

Today I read Romans 8:6-8, which is "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

I have always been enamored with celebrities, and I love reading entertainment news. While I was reading this passage, the thought came to mind of celebrities and their charities and humanitarian efforts. According to the Word "... those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Isn't it sad that there are so many people blinded by sin and trying to do "good things"? However, they are not pleasing God at all by their deeds.

John McArthur comments on this passage that "The unbeliever's problem is much deeper than acts of disobedience, which are merely outward manifestations of inner fleshly compulsions. His basic inclinations and orientation toward gratifying himself- however outwardly religious or moral he may appear- are directly hostile to God. Even the good deeds unbelievers perform are not truly a fulfillment of God's law, because they are produced by the flesh, for selfish reasons, and from a heart that is in rebellion."

It's easy to get caught up in admiring what people do whether it be celebrities, respected people in your line of work, etc. But this passage was a good reminder that God looks at the heart, and apart from a relationship with Him, our good deeds are like filthy rags. For me, it really made me stop and think about who I look up to, who my "idols" are, and why. God is not pleased by those in the flesh, and He does not admire their "good deeds". Who do you look up to? Who do you model yourself after? Are they believers in Christ? I had to ask myself these questions this morning, and it's definitely something I need to continually assess, to make sure I'm modeling myself after Christ and not those who do not know Him.

Where Have I Been?

I absolutely can't believe it is Christmastime already! I have been so, so busy over the past two months, and it's just a preface to a busy year to come!

So here's a quick summary of what we've been up to! Last month I had a rotation at St. Jude Children's Hospital. It was a time consuming rotation, but I learned a ton! I did not have time for much else during the month, so I was grateful to have December off to get things done!

Also last month, I had Career Day to interview for a pharmacist position after I graduate in May. I had 7 interviews in one day! The job search is going great, and I will hopefully have a position nailed down very soon! That's a definite prayer request for us!

So for news about this month: This December is going to hold the record for the most Christmas parties attended! Brian and I have so many fun parties that we've already enjoyed and more coming up! Also, I'm trying to work more this month, and Brian is working hard (as usual) at the company!

We are both looking forward to seeing family in Alabama for Christmas this year. We also have a fun New Year's Day wedding to go to in Louisiana!

That's a brief recap, but hopefully I'll get back to writing more soon!

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Glee Taco Night

Tonight Mandy came over to watch Glee and have taco night! As you can see above, the infamous bunny tray made things a little fancier! We also had a gourmet dessert . . . Muddy's cupcakes, duh! It was a great time even though this Glee episode was a little awkward! I've been dissappointed in them the last few episodes! I hope they start getting better!

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Me and The Nala!

I love my puppy! A mini photo-shoot from yesterday:


























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It's a New Month!

So, I am a little behind on my blog posting, and it will probably be that way for a while.  October has started and so has a new rotation!  This month I am doing Ambulatory Care.  So far I have been learning the ropes and watching the pharmacists in action.  Also, I had my first pre-test today, and I have one tomorrow and one the next day!

Weekend Stories
First of all, I have the best husband in the world.  It's a known fact, so don't think about contesting it!  Anyone who knows me knows my love of Muddy's Bake Shop cupcakes.  I think they will be served in heaven because they are PERFECT!

Anyway, my favorite cupcake of them all is the elusive Snickerdoodle!  It is one of the rarest cupcakes at Muddy's. Friday night Brian and I were in the area, so I checked the Muddy's website on my phone to see what was in the case that week.  I was overjoyed to see Snickerdoodle on the list, so I told Brian that we must go get one!  We hurried to Muddy's only to find that there were NO SNICKERDOODLES LEFT! :o(  The lady told us that they sell out early in the day, and if I really wanted one, that I would be back at 11 am the next morning when they open.  I looked at Brian with big, pouty eyes and told him that he would be the best in the world (shhhh don't tell him he already is!) if he would go get me a snickerdoodle for me while I was at work.  The next day, my hubby surprises me at work with none other than TWO snickerdoodle cupcakes!  Isn't he the sweetest?

Also this weekend, Brian got some new technology for our house.  He got us Apple TV.

I had never heard of it before, but it's a pretty cool little gadget.  We can stream our Netflix through this to our upstairs tv instead of constantly bringing our Wii upstairs.  You can also rent HD movies and tv shows from it.

Another thing that we got for our house this weekend was parson chairs for our dining room table.  My mom is helping me decorate our dining room, and I think it is going to look amazing!  She had this great idea to use parsons chairs instead of regular wooden chairs around the table.  These are the ones that I got (this picture makes them look orange, but they are actually gold and red):

I'm really excited to see how it will all turn out.  We are staining the table a darker color, so I will get to see how it looks all together soon!

Well, anticoagulation notes are calling my name.  I must go study!

Birthday Celebration!

This weekend we had a very special occasion to celebrate: My mom's birthday!



We went to the Flying Fish and had some delicious seafood!



My Aunt Janet came from Alabama, and she brought my mom the cutest birthday cake!



It was a great weekend!



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Interesting Night!

Today I had my first pedicure! Can you believe it? I have always been kind of creeped out at the thought of people messing with your feet, but I actually liked my pedicure! We went for my friend Mandy's birthday and had a great time! The time I spent after that is what's not so great. This happened:



Yes, that is my car's tire DIAGONAL instead of vertical! I know what you're thinking: "Crissy, what did you run in to?" But nope, not my fault! It seems my husband put a new camber kit on my car when he lowered it in the past and that camber doomahickey broke. On the bright side of things, I broke down in Collierville so I got to visit with Brian's family!

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Sweet Surprise!

Last night I got home late because I had to work until 9 p.m.  Brian was tired and wanted to go to bed, but I still had some energy left and wanted to play Prince of Persia on the Wii.  So we moved the Wii upstairs so he could get in bed and I could play my game.  Little did I know Brian had put a very special surprise in a red box on my side of the bed.  I played my game without noticing, the whole time Brian said that I would roll on top of the box and hit the box, but I never noticed it.  When I finally got frustrated and quit the game, I reached for my night stand to plug my phone in, and I heard a noise and felt something in the bed with me!  I found the little red box, opened it, and found the most beautiful diamond necklace!

The picture really doesn't do it justice- it is so sparkly!  My husband is the sweetest, most thoughtful person!  I love my "just because" gift!  I am excited about wearing it today!

And speaking of today . . . today is one of my BFF's birthdays!

  Happy Birthday, Mandy!!!

I just realized we need an updated picture together, Mandy!  This one is over a year old! :o)

Creeper

Delta Fair!

Saturday Brian and I made our annual trip to the fair, and oh was I excited!  I love everything about the fair: the disgustingly greasy food, the scary fair people, the possibility that you will die from a ride malfunction!  It's just an all around great atmosphere.  

The first thing that I went for was the consistently delicious Cajun Chicken-on-a-Stick!  After that, I was ready for some rides. The first ride we decided to go on was the Avalanche, which was a mini roller-coaster ride.  While standing in line for the ride, about 1/3 of the fair's power went out.  People were stuck on rides that shut down because of the power outage! Very comforting, I know!

Us Waiting in Line for the Avalanche!

The Avalanche

Power Went Out!

Then we decided to go on what my husband calls the "kiddy swing ride".  It was a lot of fun, but also a little scary because you can never be completely safe on a fair ride! As Brian puts it: "At theme parks they spend MILLIONS researching and testing their rides. These people put these rides up in a DAY!"

We then headed over to get some kind of deep-fried dessert!  Neither of us had tried the Deep Fried Oreos, so we decided to give them a try.  Needless to say, they are delicious!  It's like a funnel cake with chocolate inside!

We HAD to get in line for the "Crazy Mouse" next.  If you've never ridden this ride, let me tell you- it doesn't look like much, but it is pretty intense for a fair ride!  You feel like you're going to run right off the track.

After the Crazy Mouse, I told Brian that I just had to ride one more ride.  It is one of my favorites called the "Gravitron".  It's a ride that spins around so fast that you get sucked up against the wall off of the ground.  So, we were standing in line for a while and got up to the front of the line when we hear "The ride is shut down!" Nooooo!!  Why?  Come to find out, someone had THROWN UP inside the ride!  I am so glad we were not in there for that! 

So that was the exciting end to our day at the fair!  The only complaints I have are:

1. The really scary, mean clown in the dunk tank was not there this year.
2. There were no people guessing weights or birthdays!
3. No one yelled at us to come play their game. This is an essential part of the fair experience!

Other than that, it was another great trip to the fair!

Just Call Me Mrs. Green Thumb!

I love my potted plants!  Does that make me an old lady already?  I don't care if it does because look what my little green thumb has accomplished:

Before

After

My flowers are just growing and blooming away!

I'm Crazy About This Prince!

Prince of Persia, that is!

Ok, so this might seem a little out of character for me (I am not known to sit around playing video games), but one of my absolute favorite games is Prince of Persia.  I just found out that they released a version for the Wii this year, and I was all over that when I found out!  *Side note*  Clearly, I am on break from pharmacy rotations right now, or this would not be possible!  I see you shaking your finger at me and saying "I thought you were always so busy!"  Well, for the past umpteen years of my life, I have been.  But I am happily enjoying my break right now, thank you! I will get back to reading my PubMed articles soon enough!

And as if I couldn't get any dorkier, they also have Prince of Persia on the iPhone!!  I will leave you guessing as to whether I bought it or not. :o)

Crazy Sightings!

Today I witnessed a couple of things that made me laugh to myself.  First of all, I was driving down Stage Road, minding my own business, when I see an elderly lady coming toward me!  If you're not familiar with Stage, it is a six lane road, 3 lanes going one way and 3 lanes going another with a median in between. Everyone was honking, and bless her heart, she finally found her way back to the right side of the road.  For your viewing pleasure, I have recreated the event via Paintbrush:

Then, I decided to stop by Dollar General.  I was about to get out of my car when I saw a funny sight.  A college-aged girl with purple highlights in her hair walking down the sidewalk wearing puppy houseshoes at 6 PM!  Again, I decided to make a lovely drawing to illustrate:

Just thought I'd share my unusual day and exquisite life-like paintings to brighten your day.

iPhone 4

So, yesterday my husband was super excited because a little thing called an iPhone 4 came in the mail.

I'm happy he finally has an iPhone!  However, I'm a little jealous of his phone because it has a camera in the front and the back AND has a flash.  We tested out the picture quality with the flash last night:

Pretty good!  Of course, Nala had to feel included too.  She sat right by Brian as he played with his new phone:

She is the funniest little dog ever!  Actually, she's not so little anymore.  When she went to the vet yesterday, she weighed 18 pounds.  That's a tad bit more than the 10 lbs max she was supposed to be!

Well, back to cleaning for now and date night tonight!

The Downstairs is Sparkling!

So,  I am proud of all that I have accomplished today:

Vacuumed the house

Washed dishes

Dusted the downstairs

Cleaned the countertops and kitchen table

De-cluttered the downstairs

Cleaned the downstairs bathroom

Mopped the kitchen, dining room, and living room

Tended to the plants

Whew!  And tomorrow I tackle the upstairs! DUN DUN DUN! I'm glad I have some time off to get this house back into shape!

Done and Done!

I am very happy to report that I am done with rotation for the month!

That means I don't have another rotation for 39 days! 

So, unfortunately, some bad news . . . Nala is sick again!  Poor thing can't go for long without taking some kind of antibiotics!  The vet wasn't sure what caused her infection, but he said it usually occurs from a change in environment (like when they are boarded).  The last time she was boarded was in June, and the vet said that this could have been carried over from then.  She has to take 8 days of antibiotics and hopefully it will clear up!  I don't want to see this sad face for longer than I have to:

Cool News Update!!!

1. If you are a Netflix subscriber AND an iPhone or iTouch owner, I have some great news for you!  Check your app store on Itunes and download the Netflix app.  It allows you to watch movies instantly on your iPhone!  This was previously only for the iPad, but now it's available for the iPhone and iTouch as well. Pretty awesome!
2. If you have a google email account, then log in and look on the left toolbar. Look under Chat and you should see an icon that says "Call Phone". Click on it and set up the software and you can make free calls from your computer until the end of the year.  See below for what the icon looks like:

 

Today is Clean up the House Day for me, so I better get to it!

If You Don't Think My Dog's a Genius ...

Then you are silly!  Here's proof:

This morning my sweet husband told me that I remind him of a cartoon character!  I was excited to know which one he'd pick- probably one that's sweet and girly.  You know what he told me?  "You remind me of Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Umm... I'm not seeing it!  But thanks, Brian.