Archive for July, 2007

What a trip!

Well, everyone I’m home from New Orleans already. Why the short trip? Well, let me explain, I got completely lost in the middle of New Orleans? That was scary and my panic attacks that I hadn’t experienced in months came back in full blast. Then, my grandmother was keeping Lily at the Guest House, but Lily got upset and started crying and my grandmother got in a nervous tizzy. Between the two things I just wanted to come home. I couldn’t concentrate with everything that was going on and I decided it just wasn’t worth it. So, I chose to take care of me and my baby first. I have learned alot from this experience. More than anything God is confirming that right now my place is in my home with my children. They are my primary responsibility, the school thing can wait. I am also feeling that I am doing what I’m suppose to be doing with the girl’s ministry and I just got 2 more bookings in the last few days. I’m excited!

New Discoveries

planner

I discovered several things today online that I just LOVE. One or two of them aren’t actually new discoveries, but rather things I actually took the time to go back to today. One I found on this blog http://inpursuitofproverbs31.blogspot.com yet I have seen it other places. However this gal Amy was nice enough to share her pages of her Household Binder, what I’m calling the Avant Household Planner. I’ve seen the concept many places including on Flylady, which I have tried to do many times and failed. However, I did create my planner today and I’m proud of it. I plan to begin using it to start my new Morning and Nighttime routines after I return from New Orleans. Baker is starting PreK3 on Monday, August 13, so that gives me one full week to try and get into our routines before we are “forced to” by getting up for school each day. I need to do this though something terrible. I am getting really good at staying in my jammies 3/4 of the day.

Next, I found something else I have been meaning to check out and just haven’t. BlogHer.com yes this is awesome I am so excited about connecting with other women bloggers, especially those who have things in common with me. I want to be apart of all these awesome blog communities. Because hey I am a woman, and I am a blogger and I love it. They are having a conference as we speak in Chicago oh how I wish I was there. :( Maybe next year!

Then, I also tracked down Heather Bixler of GirlyBlogDesignz.com and I’m having her customize this here blog for me. Yes, Life from My Laptop is getting a facelift. I am sooo excited. She said she can’t get to it till August 6 but until then we’ll just have to look at this Wordpress theme, soon I’ll be completely customized though. How cool is that? I can’t wait.

Ok, so that’s my Friday. I hope everyone else out there had an enjoyable one. I sure did. Tonight hubby grilled us some burgers and then we went out for Ice cream.

100 Things

This is going to be difficult, but I’m going to try it.

100 Things About Me

1. I grew up in a small town in Mississippi.

2. I thought I’d never leave.

3. I moved 14 miles away, to an even smaller town.

4. I graduated from high school in a class of 65.

5. I went to public school.

6. Unfortunately, this August 2007 my son will start to private school.

7. Can you tell I”d rather him go to private school.

8. I have 2 children.

9. I am the oldest of 2 children.

10. I am very independent.

11. I am a strong Christian.

12. I am addicted to Coca Cola Classic.

13. My living room is red.

14. I was a youth/children’s minister for 5 years.

15. I still attend the church where I served.

16. My friends now, The TOMGIRLS, are the best friends in the world!

17. I attend a very small church.

18. I drive a 02 Dodge Caravan sport.

19. I took several Creative Writing classes in college. My minor is in English.

20. I live in the middle of a cow pasture.

21. My favorite flower is the gerber daisy.

22. I have kept a prayer journal since I was 14.

23. I worked at summer camp as the LEathercrafts specialist in 1999.

24. My mom is an art teacher.

25. I am a chronic TO DO list maker.

26. I cannot live without my daily planner.

27. It is a Busy Woman’s Planner.

28. I am a BeautiControl Consultant.

29. I love pasta.

30. I check my email as soon as I get up every morning. I’m addicted I know!

31. I talk to my mom on the phone almost everyday.

32. My dad is legally blind.

33. My first vehicle was a 89′ Ford Bronco II.

34. I love to plan.

35. I am organized about most things but I am not a good housekeeper.

36. I have generalized anxiety disorder.

37. I love school & learning.

38. I love to read. I read mostly for the purpose of learning, not much for pleasure. So therefore, I tend to “study” a book.

39. I have to take notes while listening to anyone’s speech, the pastor’s sermon, a lecture, online seminar’s, anything. I am just a chronic note taker.

40. Taking notes helped me make good grades in both high school and college without having to study very much.

41. I have had a 4.0 in Seminary several times. :)
42. I am a studet in a Baptist Theological seminary.

43. I committed my life to ministry in 1998.

44. I thought I was going to be a Christian counselor at one time in my life.

45. However, I chose to follow my dream of becoming a Public speaker.

46. I want to author many books before I die.

47. I love teenagers and find them alot of fun to hang out with!

48. I am slow at text messaging but love it!

49. My favorite colors are red & pink!

50. I am 5′10″ and taller than my husband though he says we’re the same height.

51. My daddy is 6′7″.

52. I love flip flops, I could wear them every day in the summer time.

53. I love to cook and try new recipes.

54. I hate cleaning up afterwards.

55. I am not a big sweet eater.

56. I have been out of the country once, to Canada, on a trip with my high school band, by Greyhound bus when I was in 11th grade.

57. I went to summer camp every summer while I was a teenager.

58. I once worked in a snow cone hut.

59. I went to modeling school as a teen.

60. I was a cheerleader all through high school.

61. I have had my alarm clock since I was in 6th grade.

62. I lived in the same house for the first 18 years of my life.

63. I do not have a green thumb, every plant I have had in my house dies.

64. I have never drank a drop of alcohol and don’t plan to ever.

65. I’ve also never been in a bar/nightclub.

66. I prefer to stay in a cabin on vacation rather than a hotel.

67. That’s why my husband and I always vacation in the mountains.

68. I met my best friend when I was 2. We were very close up until the last few years.

69. I rarely wear tennis shoes. Therefore, I have had the same pair since 2003.

70. I love the fall. It makes me think of and smell pencil shavings, crayons, glue, and other things associated with school.

71. My parents and I lived with my grandparents while my maternal grandfather was suffering from cancer. He died when I was 14.

72. I get more nervous driving than speaking in public.

73. I am very pale, and choose not to try to get a tan.

74. I have only colored my hair twice, highlights and I didn’t like them.

75. I prefer to wear my hair short.

76. I got my ears pierced when I as 8 years old.

77. If I could have one luxury in life it would be a maid.

78. I believe in tithing regularly.

79. I collect crosses. I display them on a wall in my living room.

80. I have only flown twice from Memphis to Miami and from Miami back to Memphis, I was 17.

81. I have several online friends who I’d love to meet in person.

82. I have met one online friend before.

83. I play piano. I took lesson from 3rd grade-college, though I’m not that good because I am out of practice.

84. I have taught Sunday School for 7 years. This is the first year I have ever attended an adult Sunday School class.

85. I directed VBS for 3 years.

86. I love my newest techy gadget, my Ipod Nano.

87. My dad, my brother and I are all computer geeks.

88. My laptop is my favorite material possession.

89. I am living on faith for my income currently.

90. I met my husband while on a date with another guy.

91. I am a morning person.

92. I have had the same pillow my whole life. It was my moms before it was mine. It is redwhite gingham check.
93. I plan everything out in advance. I am not spontaneous.

94. I played trombone in my high school band.

95. I go to sleep very quickly.

96. I always forget to take medicine.

97. I am Southern Baptist.

98. I am very goal oriented. I set new goals often and love accomplishing them.

99. I believe in rewarding myself for hard work.

100. I hope to finish my Master’s Degree this year, 2007.

Getting ready

I’m getting ready to go to New Orleans next week. I can’t believe I”m not nervous yet. See, I tend to get nervous about traveling, well driving really. And this time I’m driving myself. I don’t do well with that. Knowing no one else is there to “help” me drive. Oh well, I will just have to pray a lot.

I’ve been online looking up directions making sure I knew how to get there. I also looked up directions to some nearby restaurants. A girl’s gotta eat right? Might as well be good. There is a seafood place New Orleans Hamburger. I know I can’t figure out why a seafood place has hamburger in the name either, but it does. Anyway, their menu is on their website. It looks delicious. I really hope that the soft shell crab is in season because I want a poboy soooo bad. We’ll see.

Anyway, I”m trying to finish up last minute stuff here. Packing, writing my ezine, posting stuff to my blogs early, using the “timestamp” of course. :) I love that feature of Wordpress. Anyway, good news is most likely I’ll have Internet access and can log on and fill you all in at night as to how things are going. So… you don’t want to miss that.

Feeling Geeky!

Ok, today I spent a major portion of the day learning some really cool totally techy, totally geeky stuff online. I have signed up for Ed Dale and Dan Raine’s 30 Day Challenge. Basically, they teach you awesome Internet Marketing techniques, coaching you for 30 days and the end result is that you can make $10 in 30 days by marketing online without spending a dime. I am up for the challenge….what about you? They are doing what they call some “preseason” training which I have been devouring today. They’ve been at it for a few days on their blog and I have just now figured out what was going on! LOL So I watched the videos today, listened to the podcast, installed the new embellishments to Firefox that they said I needed and joined the forum over there. I am totally excited and pumped about doing this. I have learned tons today so I know that this is definitely going to be worth my time and commitment. If you’re interested check it out, it’s totally FREE http://thirtydaychallenge.com

Hard Job

I just got finished with a “hard job” as my 3 year old would say, Yes he gets that saying from Dora. I just finished cleaning out my van. What a mess! I have a mini van. I always said I’d never be a Mini-van Momma and here I am. I hear the Faith Hill song playing in my head, “2 car seats in a mini-van.” I have that! I have not sweat like I just did in quite some time. Well, the last time was when the TOMgirls and I had a garage sale at the first of June and we organized the clothes and junk for the sale at the youth house at my church and apparently the air was out.

Tonight though I was dripping. First I had to sort through all the junk in the van to see what I should actually take inside, then I had to throw away the rest, complete with old stale French fries, melting pieces of candy and random Easter grass. Yes, I still had that green plastic grass from Easter in my van. That’s sad, I know! After that I vacuumed up the remnants. Goodness gracious that was a “hard job”. The only joy of this whole job was that I had my IPOD and I was rocking out to some tunes and singing at the top of my lungs because not only was I outside alone but the shop vac was on so there was no chance that anyone heard me. :) Now that is funny right?

Well, I am just glad that the job is done. I sure didn’t want to travel to New Orleans next week in that nasty van. My hubby took it today to get the tires balanced and aligned and the oil changed. He even took it through the car wash so we’re good to go!

Lily has a website

LilyYep, if you’ve been following me for any amount of time then you know that when I had my baby girl I bought the URL http://www.lillianclaire.com I set up a website for her birth announcement but though I needed separate hosting and couldn’t afford that so I got rid of it after a month. Turns out I don’t need separate hosting so, I will be setting up Lily her own Wordpress site. Now, you can keep up to date on my baby girl with photos too. Check it out! I am busy trying to update it from the past 4 months, she is growing fast.

What being a WAHM means to me….

Read my post about this topic over at Two Moms in a Blog Christian Living Section where I am a contributing writer.

If you are a book lover

If you are a book lover like me you should join Paperback Swap, preferably by clicking on the big banner to your right, right now! This is my personal link and yes, I get referral credit I admit, but I can’ t help it. I am now addicted and want more books. You can get credit many ways there. Let me explain the process. When you first join, you must post 9 books that you no longer want in your book collection to “swap”. When you do this you automatically receive 3 credits for which you can exchange for 3 books. When someone requests a book from you, you pay the postage to get the book to them. Postage is from $2.13-$2.47 very inexpensive. Then you may begin requesting your books as soon as you add your first six. The person you request the book from will pay the postage to mail you the book. You can read the book, keep it or you may want to “repost’ it when you are finished for someone else to request. Each time you send a book and the fellow patron receives it they note that on their Paperback Swap account and you get another credit. This is how you keep swapping! I have already received 6 books I believe and mailed 7 to others. I just finished with one of the books I received “The Yada Yada Prayer Group” and before I reposted I noticed it was on someone’s wish list, yet another cool feature of Paperback Swap, therefore it’ll be snatched up immediately. Anyway, Wish List is where you can create a list of books you’d like to have even if they aren’t currently available from anyone on the site. I just love this website and want to share it with you. I believe I get 1 credit for each person who signs up via my referral link. There are no joining fees or anything it is FREE and fun! Join today!

Got questions about PaperBack Swap? Leave me comments and I’ll do my best to answer you or get the answer!

Spiritual Breakthroughs

I think for the first time in my life I feel “spiritually challenged”. Does that make sense? Maybe I should explain. You see, becoming a Christian at such a young age I have never really had any of those what we as humans think of as major sins. You know murder, adultery, stealing. I have done those little white lies, been envious of my neighbor and so on and so forth, but I didn’t view those things as “major”. So, I have never felt I struggled with sin. Then I realized that my anxiousness, my anxiety, my fears and my doubts are all sin too. I also realized that these are strongholds in my life. Things I need to deal with in a very real way. This new friend of mine online, who is a Biblical Coach, has really opened my eyes to some new ideas about the things that I struggle with. I’m going back now as I type this to read our conversations on Skype. I just met her on Friday. Her name is Marlo Boux. I don’t think she’s mind me sharing. You can check out her web page at http://marloboux.com

She may not even be aware how much she’s helped me. Though, the devil as she had said was really messing with me in those few days. She and I met at the Christian Podcasting Intensive given by Kelly McCausey of Shoestring Radio and Regina Baker of Christian Business Talk Radio .

I really enjoyed my time spent with these ladies and most of all I enjoyed meeting Marlo and then chatting with her afterwards. This was Friday night. Marlo was not aware of all that was going on in my life. What I was struggling with was fear, and I was not dealing with the recent changes in my life well, sure on the outside I seemed to be fine with it. It was the internal struggle that was bothering me. The “have I done the right thing”, the “we’ll never make it without my income”, the “I can’t make this work”. All of it was beginning to be too much. I realized that Marlo was right when she said, “that fear is not of God”. “It is Satan, he’s messing with you because he knows you’re on the path to God’s will.” Me, on the path to God’s will, could she be right. I sure hoped she was. I mean I had resigned from my “comfortable” church position to pursue this Girl’s ministry full time.

She also encouraged me to “meditate on Scripture”. She gave me some good verses to start with. She also recommended a book “The Bondage Breaker” which I immediately ordered from The Paperback Swap. I got it in today. It is soo true. This is what I’ve been facing all along and just now know what it is. It is the bondage of this fear in my life, holding me back. It is Satan’s attack on my life. It is spiritual warfare. Wow! I never thought I’d deal with that. You know most of us think that this spiritual attacks thing only happens overseas in other countries where people are killed for their faith, but no that’s not all. Satan is alive and well here too, he just uses different tactics. His in my life are fear and doubt #1 and pride can creep in there too.

It’s amazing how God can speak to us through so many avenues. So far since Friday he has spoken to me through Marlo, through my Sunday School lesson, which happens to be on The Prayer of Jabez, so I ordered Bruce Wilkinson’s book from The Paperback Swap (I love this club!) and I am going to read (study) that. I know I have way too many books going right now. Then, he spoke to me through the preacher at Revival this week. Yes, God was all over it this week. Then, through even a non-fiction book I am reading that I got from you betcha The Paperback Swap (too bad I can’t get paid for advertising for these people). This book, The Yada Yada Prayer Group, talks alot about praying Scripture, so yes, I”ve ordered yet another book by Beth Moore “Praying God’s Word”. I know I also need to dig into THE WORD itself and just DO IT! So I can ward off the devil and his army!

Any of you ladies out there with me? Let me know! Leave me some comments!

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