The Motions

Today on my way home from work I was listening to K-Love (which I have a love hate relationship with). Usually I am not interested in a lot of the songs they play. I am not a big pop music fan in general, and when I hear Christian pop music, I want to tear my hair out. Anyway, I heard a new song by Matt Redman called "The Motions" and WOW! This song explains how I want to live my life in about three minutes. I never want to get caught up in motioning through my life, particularly my relationship with God. I want to always have a consuming desire for Christ and never forget how desperately I need him. I wrote the lyrics down below. Read them, listen to the song, and pick out what you need.



This might hurt
It’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care
If I break
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions

No regrets
Not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love
Make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something

Take me all the way
Take me all the way
Take me all the way

My day off.

I had the day off from work today and I enjoyed every (well, almost every) moment of it. Last night I thought to myself, "Oooo, its my day off tomorrow, I wanna sleep in until 10am.." So much for that: I woke up at 8:30, then 9:00...and laid in bed until 10am. I got up, showered, and then went to the pharmacy to pick up my Nuvaring. At noon, I met my sister-in-law, Shelly, for lunch at Chili's. They have this fantastic lunch special called "The Express Lunch" or something like that. It consists of all-you-can-eat chips and salsa, soup, and salad. It was soooo yummy. After that, Shel and I decided to get the choco-chip paradise thing...super yummy. I had SUCH a good time with her. We really haven't spent much time together since before she moved back to town(which was almost a year ago!!). I love being with her. She makes my heart happy.

After lunch, I went up to the mall (ha...I was about to spell my name) and shopped around a bit. I bought some cute gold sandals and a sexy secretary black collared-shirt (not to be worn together). I would have shopped longer, but the cute red heels I was wearing were hurting my baby toes. Lol. After leaving the mall, I went over to Nikki's house to work out....that was fun! We talked about all the upcoming birthdays.

I got home a little later and then Chris and I made a cobb salad for dinner. Today would have been perfect if it wasn't for the constant power struggle between Chris's mom and sister that they insist Chris be in the middle of. Honestly...they ask him to "mediate" and then get angry with him when he gives them level-headed unbiased answers. Anyway, just say a little prayer because there are going to be a lot of changes in the next coming weeks.

Side Note: Chris's oldest sister, Kristi (who is not involved in the family drama) is pregnant! Yay!!!!

My Mini-Vacay.

This week, I took off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from work for Spring Break. On Monday Chris and I went to the movies and say "Taken" which was a GREAT movie. Chris and I really enjoyed it. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you go out and watch it. On Tuesday, Chris and I drove up to Fredericksburg. Chris and I have been there a few times together, and everytime we go, we always have soooo much fun!

About five years ago, Matt, Mariah, my dad, and I went up to Fredericksburg and found this little place called Wildseed Farms. They have fields and fields of wildflowers, herbs, and trees. You can even purchase a pail and some clippers, and clip as many wildflowers that will fit in your pail and take them home with you. That day was so special to me that I wanted to relive it with Chris. Tuesday was really dreary, but we decided to make the trip anyway. We had a great drive up there: talking, singing, dreaming, and laughing together. Despite the lack of sunshine, it was a very scenic drive. When we got to the farm, we walked around looking at different kinds of plants and flowers, and played "Guess that herb" (we would rub the leaves and make each other smell them, and guess what they were...don't judge; it was fun!!). They whole time we were intoxicated by the smell of the mountain laurels (which is the kind of tree we planted in our yard on V-Day). They smelled glorious!! As far as the fields and fields of wildflowers, we were two weeks to early to experience their full splendor, but that was okay, we still walked through the fields. After a couple hours, it started to drizzle so we decided it was a good time to leave. We stopped off in Boerne to have a late lunch, and then went to Mom and Rex's for some family time.

Today Chris and I had a lazy day. We held the sofa hostage and watched some movies. I made pigs in a blanket, and we didn't get up to do anything until about six o'clock.

This has been a fantastic mini-vacay, and I'm kind of sad that I have to go back to work tomorrow. Here are a few pictures from Tuesday: ENJOY!

Cuhh-razy!

This is soooooo ridiculous! This woman owned a chimpanzee (the one from the Old Navy commercial), and had lived with him for years with out any problems. In fact, she ate dinner with him, drank wine with him, bathed with him, and even slept with him. Some say that she was even intimate with him...ANYWAY, one day last week he went crazy and attacked her best friend. The friend did survive the attack, but has NO FACE. Travis ripped it off! She is in critical condition, but may not survive. Travis was shot and killed by police.

I'm Off.

I'm off from work today and I don't know what to do with myself! So far I washed dishes, and ate last night's leftover Olive Garden for lunch. Right now I am hooked on the "Women Behind Bars" marathon. Later on today I will be doing Tae Bo. I love days off from work!

Not Your Average V-Day

Happy Belated Valentine's Day everyone!!! This week has been a pretty crazy one. From Chris and my outrageously busy work schedules, our recreational commitments, Chris' last minute trip to Austin, and Valentine's weekend, it's been hard to just get an hour of relaxation. As some of ya'll know, Chris' dad is going through chemotherapy right now. He is the hardest working man I have ever met. He is always moving around, building something, or tearing something apart. Well, since he has been on chemo, he has become significantly immobile. Chris has been pretty strong during it all, but Thursday night broke down. He went up to Austin (where his dad is being treated) on a last minute decision to visit him. His dad was having a surgery to insert a feeding tube, and Chris' sister told him that he had been pretty down lately. So Chris went up there, and spent some time with him. His dad isn't in dying condition, but is no where near his normal self.

That night was particularly hard on me. This may sound selfish, but whatever. I have never spent the night alone in our house, and going to sleep without Chris next to me was soooo hard. I talked to Chris on the phone, I talked to my mom, and even tried to get Matthew to come spend the night with me just so I wouldn't be alone. I eventually had to just suck it up and fall asleep. Well, around 3am, I heard a noise which startled me awake. It sounded like someone breathing. I was facing the door and looked around and didn't see anything. I turned around to look at the alarm clock, and saw Chris laying next to me. I didn't believe my eyes. I thought I was still dreaming, so I reached out my hand to touch him. He felt real. I was sooo confused and couldn't understand why he was in our bed, so I just fell back asleep. The next day, he told me that he realized that he needed to be home with me, so he drove back. That was really special.

Friday night Chris and I went to Zio's for dinner and we had SUCH a great time. He had the never-ending pasta bowl, and I had crispy shrimp scampi (which is VERY hard to say quickly lol). We had great conversation too, which reminded me of why we fell for each other in the first place--we are such good friends. We talked about our past relationships and how we grew from them, and how/when we knew that we wanted to marry each other. It was the sweetest thing.

Saturday, Chris had to work. He accepted a position at the bowling alley on the weekends as the director of the youth bowling league. He is already in charge of a league on Monday nights, and really has a heart for youth as well, so when this position was offered to him, he jumped at it. It's just another hobby he enjoys--Lord knows he's not doing it for the money.

Anyway, while he worked, I was able to sleep in a couple hours. When I woke up, I cleaned our WHOLE house!!! Ahhh! It took me until 3:30!!! Chris came home a little while later and we planted my Valentine's Day present from him! He bought me a Mountain Laurel tree!!! Mountain Laurels are my favorite trees because their purple blooms have the sweetest smell in the world. So we spent all afternoon and part of the evening planting that thing! It was definitely not your typical Valentine's Day. After that we made dinner together. We had steak, scallops, baked potatoes, veggies, and some great wine. Later on, I gave Chris my gift to him, but I can't really give any details on that. Lets just say that it got pretty steamy in the Shaw house last night! ;]

Here are some pictures of our first tree! Disregard my very tired appearance!

Girls' Night

Last Night was Girls' Night! Nikki, Sharai, Megan and I went to BJ's for the evening! We had sooooo much fun and ate some yummy food. BJ's happens to be one of my absolute favorite restaurants...ask the girls, I think I have eaten about everything on the menu! HA HA BJ's brews their own beer and rootbeer, they have great food, and a really trendy atmosphere. Anyway, the girls and I had a great time! Here are some pictures from the night!

A Dose of Hope

This morning I got an email from my mom. She sent me this video and said, "We watched this video this morning in a meeting. It is very encouraging. Grab a box of tissues." I wasn't able to open it at work, but I sent it to my home email and decided to watch it when I got home. I just watched it right now and WOW. It was amazing. Watch this video and stay encouraged!

Stuff

I had a great day today. I, along with a couple of my coworkers, were treated to lunch at Salt Grass by our store manager for meeting our goals. I made six sales today. I also worked out with Nikki this evening. We did Bunny Boot camp and Kendra's work out (both from The Girls Next Door). It was pretty intense. Anyway, I came home, spent some time with my hubby, decided to delete my myspace account, and now we are off to watch LOST in our bed!

Hands of GOD.

Last night, I went to bed around 11:30, and slept soundly until I woke up around 2am to shooting pains in the nape of my neck, and a pounding migraine behind my eyeballs. I get migraines pretty frequently, but I never really take anything for them. I usually sleep them off, throw up, and sleep some more. If they are unbearable, I will resort to taking some Aleve, and usually that does the job. Last night I just couldn't shake that migraine. I tossed and turned, I prayed, I wimpered, and CRIED. I finally got enough strength to slip out of bed and get some Aleve. I didn't end up falling asleep until 5am. That is completely unacceptable. If you know me, you know that I need AT LEAST 8 hours (preferably 9) of sleep to even function. I woke up around 8:30am and my migraine was gone, but my head was still really sensitive. I got ready for work, and as I was blow drying my hair, I flipped my head upside down, and immediately regretted that decision. My head felt like it was going to explode!!!

Despite the way I was feeling, I decided to go to work. I ended up get one of my coworker's to close for me, and thought it would be a great idea to get a massage today (Chris bought me a gift certificate to this fancy spa for Christmas). I called the place, and made an appointment for 6:30. When I got there, I had to fill out an information form, and then waited for my masseuse. The whole time I was waiting, I kept praying, "Dear God, please let me have a woman masseuse, PLEASE." I thought it would be weird and kind of uncomfortable to have a man give me a full body massage. And as luck would have it (if I believed in luck), Jordan--a male masseuse--greeted me by name and walked me down the long dark hallway to an empty room! He told me to undress and lay on the table, and that he would be back in a couple minutes. I was a little nervous, but did as I was told.

When he came back in the room, things totally changed. He talked to me about some things I filled out on the form, about my occupation, about traveling, and other things. It was completely comfortable and not weird at all. there was soft music playing in the background, and I had chosen some lavender aromatherapy. Along with the full body massage, I opted for some hot stone therapy (they were really hot). This made my skin, my muscles, and my body melt on contact. It was the most relaxing thing I have ever done. I also mentioned to Jordan that I had a migraine last night, so he focused a lot of the massage on areas of my body to ease and dissolve the tension I was feeling. He massaged my neck, the back of my head, my shoulders, and even my face. I left there feeling like melted chocolate!!! I am sooo happy I didn't try to get a female masseuse. He was soooo worth it; he had hands of GOD! Ha Ha Ha

Anyway, I am feeling much better now. I came home, took a bubble bath, and am now ready for some beauty sleep.



Oh, one more thing, before I left, Jordan also showed me some massages that Chris can do to me during a migraine. YAY!