Note to Self...Exciting Announcement!

I am pleased to announce that on May 31st (his due date!) at 3:19 pm this little guy was born!

Albert Gregory - son of my best friends, Emily and Steven!

Oh, I am so excited to be an Aunt to him! I cannot wait to teach him to be a Tigers fan and not a Yankee's fan lol; and to see how he teaches Emily and Steven how to be the best first time parents.

 

Just watching the two of them with him tonight was a blessing. Albert is almost three days old and I can see how they've already adapted into parenthood. I am so thankful that I get to be a part of this special time in their lives and that I've been there since they first found out that they were expecting.

I still remember when my other dear friend, Rachel, revealed that she was pregnant to me before she told a lot of other people...even my friend Angie allowed me the honor of letting her first born daughter, Alayna (I helped with the spelling of her name) be the first baby that I've ever held.

 

And the big one - Albert will be the first baby that I'll change a diaper on. I know, I know, boys are the harder one's to change...but I'm up to the challenge! There will be a blog post on that experience for sure!

 

It means the world to me that my dear friends make me feel a part of their little families.

Albert's first FaceTime experience with Aunt Al

 

It feels just like last month, and not October, that I was visiting Emily and Steven in New York and found out that she was expecting him...and now here he is! And my best friend is a mommy. And I am an Aunt. Congrats, Emily and Steven! I thank God for this little bundle of joy that He has blessed you both with. 

-Aunt Al

Note to Self...I Love Living on the Sunset Side of the State

My parents and I went to Oval Beach this weekend and I took a few photos of the setting sun. It was the most stunning sunset ever! Enjoy! 

-A

 I love this shot of the children playing in the surf

 Tracks left behind from a seagull

Note To Self...Worth the Wait

When I originally started writing this blog post, it was still winter and snow was eclipsing much of my surroundings. Today, it's supposed to be close to 80 degrees and I couldn't be happier!

As the snow fell gently that winter day onto the ground outside, I was listening to the great Alison Krauss. Listening to her makes me remember when I first started getting into bluegrass music and how I was fortunate enough to see her and Union Station perform at Detroit's Fox Theater in 2011 with my dad.

The craze started back in 2008 when a guy that I was dating at the time introduced me to the band Nickel Creek, who was founded by Alison Krauss. No...not Nickel Back (my mom gets the two bands confused all the time ;o)
I love this next sentence because, at the time, I had to write it in past tense!
The band consisted of three members, Chris Thile (lead vocals), Sara & brother Sean Watkins. Unfortunately the year before I discovered Nickel Creek, they had broken up and went their separate ways creatively. 

Chris Thile formed his own band, Punch Brothers, and Sara & brother Sean Watkins launched their own group under Sara's name. Fortunately in 2009 while living in Washington, D.C. I was able to see Sara and Sean perform at the 930 Club.

Both Sara Watkins and Alison Krauss concerts were unlike any concert I had ever been to. There is a totally different atmosphere and respect for this genre of music. Before that, I had been to many country music concerts where the norm is to stand, dance and "yee-haw" my way through the concerts. This was not the case for these types of concerts...here it was required that you sit and listen quietly to the song and held your applause until the very last note faded away and became a memory...

I willingly followed these rules of the house and grasped to eat song knowing this would be as close as I'd ever get to actually hearing remnants of Nickel Creek. That was my thought of course, until early March of this year, that is.

Finding out that my all time favorite band had reunited after seven years of being on their own, thrilled me to no end!!! What was even more exciting was that they were putting out a new album on April 1st (which, btw is epic), just in time for my birthday month! Oh the joy!
Thinking that was all that would be of Nickel Creek reuniting, I was content. Then one day as I was reading Nickel Creek twitter updates (because Twitter is Awesome), I found out that they were going on tour for their new album and that they were coming to my city!!!

I'm reading a book by Max Lucado right now, and today he wrote about how when God blesses His children, He blesses them abundantly. He makes "their cup overflow" with blessings. I sure felt that way when all of this happened. July cannot come soon enough...but if history proves itself true, some things are worth the wait. Check out some of their music below and let me know what you think!

-A

Love of Mine

Hayloft

Note to Self...Say "Yes" to God

There is the popular TV show, "Say Yes to the Dress!" on TLC and when I get the rare chance to watch it (no, I don't have cable) I get sucked in for an hour or two without even realizing the time has flown by. On the show you see all types of brides and all types of friends and family of the bride all giving their opinion ("helping") on what wedding gown the bride should pick. On more than a few episodes, I've seen the bride pick a gown that she doesn't actually love only to please her entourage and she ends up saying yes to something she may regret later on. I've also seen many episodes when the dress fits just right and the bride says yes without any hesitation or pending regret. I have had occasions in my life where I've had to decide if I was saying yes to a situation to please myself, others or saying yes to God when He prompted me to do something. Here are a few examples...

If you know me, I am not a morning person. One particular morning a few weeks ago, I had a prompting to get myself and a friend a coffee from the well known franchise with the green and white mermaid on their cups before I headed into work. I had that feeling that my friend would need the coffee more than I did (don't worry, I still planned on getting myself one, too) and that it would help her get through the day. But in order to do this I would of had to get up earlier than normal and well, truth be told, I chose to hit the snooze button one more time rather than go and get the coffee...

About six months ago, I decided that if I was going to stay here on this side of the state, then I needed to start giving back to the community. I felt the prompting to start volunteering somewhere and so I signed up to a volunteer website that matches people with local organizations that need volunteers. That's when I was connected with Grace Hospice. I read over their mission statement and decided that I would inquire within the local hospice and see what it was that they needed done. I connected with the volunteer coordinator and after extensive training, background, drug and TB testings, I will soon start giving back to my community in a unique way - all because I said yes to that prompting. 

As you can see it's be about a month since I've written anything for my blog. It's not that the ideas haven't been flowing, they have! It's just that I lost the ambition and courage to actually hit the submit ("yes") key. It was ironic because I would read other blogs and see some of my ideas that I had in draft mode published and making a great impact in the blog community. 

These are just a few of the examples of when I have said yes and when I have said no. The day I said no to getting a coffee for my friend stands out in my mind because when I got to work that day, she told me this story...
She had taken the time to stop at the cafe and ran into one of our other co workers. When my friend got to the counter to pay for her coffee she was delighted to find out that the co worker that she ran into had already paid for her coffee! As I sat there and listened to her tell me that story it hit me...that's the thing with God and His promptings - He gives us the opportunity to be used by Him to show His love to others by these types of acts. We have the choice to say yes or no. If we say no, then He will use someone else to fulfill His will. I said no that day, but I am glad someone else said yes. :)

What are you feeling lead to do? Will you say "yes" to God? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

-A

Note to Self...What is my Identity?

Hi All!

I don't have a lot of time to update this week. In the meantime, please take a few moments out of your day to watch this video that my Pastor showed in our membership class on Tuesday this week:

-A

(May 6, 2014)

It's been a crazy past few weeks and I have sorely neglected my blog.  I'm going to try to update on a more regular basis, but we'll see how long that lasts for. ;-)

Being a late 20-somethings it's easy to lose sight as to what and where my real identity lies. It's easy to get wrapped up in this crazy-beautiful life and forget what the goal is that I am striving for. I love this short film by Dan Stevers and it really hit home and got me on the right path again. I wanted to share this with all of you in hopes that it would inspire you as well and give you a better understand of Who you live for. I believe that there is a serious identity crisis in our culture and this video helps put things in perspective.

So be inspired. Live out your true identity...

Note to Self...Twitter Is Awesome

I've had a Twitter account since early 2009 and quite frankly, I didn't get it...until this past weekend that is. Many times have I promoted my support and love of relationship author, Mandy Hale, and March 11th she released her second book, "I've Never Been to Vegas, but My Luggage Has."

So with pink highlighter in hand, I started to read her new book and much like her first book, "The Single Woman", Mandy helped me gain many a new perspectives on life, love and relationships of all kinds.

After finishing her book I took to Twitter to share with her my favorite quote of the book, which is pictured below:

If you can't read what it says in the photo: "I believe God brings people into our lives to teach us the lessons we most need to learn, and then once we've learned the lessons, I think He sits back and watches to see if we will be obedient enough to let those people go or if we will cling to them out of stubbornness, even though their presence in our lives is no longer fruitful. Everything that happens next is a result of how we respond to that test."

Wow. How I can attest to that! There have been people in my life that show up for a short while then exit my life. Then there are others who come and stay for many years before they leave, and the impressions and lessons they leave are always life changing. I think the main lesson that I've learned is to surrender these relationships to God. By doing that I realize THE best part about God - His relationship with me is not temporary. He is always there for me - He is sovereign. God knows what He's doing when He brings relationships and people into our lives and the lessons that were are going to learn from them. 

But back to Twitter! So, because I loved this quote from Mandy's book, I tweeted it out to her to let her know. Not long after other people started seeing the tweet and started to either "favorite" it (equivalent to a "like" on Facebook) or re-tweet it - even Mandy favorited it! I was thrilled! There were even some women who had never heard of the book and asked me for information on it. I willingly shared it. There was even one woman from a country that doesn't get the copy of Mandy's book that was very grateful that she was even able to read this little bit of it. I tweeted this photo on March 22nd and since then it has gotten re-tweeted over 180 times and favorited over 270 times! Yes! Twitter is Awesome! I hope that not only Mandy's message spreads but her faith in God does as well.

Since I had so much success with Mandy's quote, I thought I would try it again. Sunday night I went to a concert featuring Season 8 contestant of American Idol, Matt Giraud. I took my neighbor Lori to the concert and she really liked Matt's performance. We agreed that it would be fun to go and meet him after the show and buy his CD - being that it was her birthday! I agreed that it would add some fun to her special day - so we went and met Matt. I was able to get her to pose for a picture with him and was able to score his autograph on my brochure and throw a few witty comments his way to make him laugh.

On the way home we realized I didn't get to get my picture with him and we almost went back but decided not to. Later that night I had the idea to tweet him the photo of Lori and him and see if he remembered us. Well...he did! He favorited my tweet and sent me a message saying he liked my joke and that he thought I was cute! Ah!!! I was really excited that he actually responded!

So all in all I've discovered the fun of Twitter and how it can connect me with people that I wouldn't have a chance to otherwise. So if you haven't joined Twitter yet...do it! Oh, and follow me, too @PumaAlie10

-A

#SpringCleaning My Life

It hit a whopping 45 degrees here today! I'm officially calling it "spring" and have made my blog look "spring-like," too! Ah, there's a light at the end of the tunnel! 

When spring like weather starts coming my way this time of year, I have a tendency to want to clean out my closets and get rid of items that I've been holding onto for far too long. It is so refreshing when cleaning projects like that are finished and I can start anew and live a more simplified life.  

Much like when I clean out my closet in the spring, Jesus does that when He forgives us of our sins. There are areas in my life where I haven't allowed myself to believe that when Jesus takes a broom to spring clean my sins away, that I am truly free. Lately I have been able to latch onto this and it has allowed so much happiness and sunshine to enter my heart. I feel much like the guy in this video below: 

I just love that video and if you weren't able to view it on your tablet, click here!

I can relate to the main character in this video when I stop clinging to past sins and let Jesus take over. But when we do fall into this habit we become really stressed this causes our souls to become "winter-like" when God doesn't want this for his children! He wants us to let go!

Last night my mom and Grandma and I went to watch the most beautiful dance recital put on by Girls of Grace. They performed a skit where a woman was bogged down by her sin and just couldn't seem to surrender her life and sins to Jesus. All the while Jesus stood there waiting and fighting for her to break free of her sins. Once and for all she cried out to Jesus and He immediately rescued her and her life was a dramatic transformation and she was filled with so much joy...

I will never claim to live a perfect spic and span clean life. I can't do that - but through Jesus I can let go of the past sins that I have committed against Him and live a refreshingly free life through Him. And be HAPPY!

-A