Your Beautiful

I love this video!  It got me thinking today some things today.  Wouldn't this world be different if we could let this one thought penetrate our minds.  What would change if we dared to really believe this about ourselves and about others?  If every person I met I looked at through God's eyes.  He loved each of us enough to die for us.  That street junkie with the needle in his arm is a treasure so precious to God that he gave his very life up for him.  The convict serving 20 years in jail for murder, God died for him too, and he did it knowing that the convict would murder.
What would change in my personal world if I just let myself believe this about myself and the people in my personal life.  Could I be more tolerant and loving towards my family and the others in my life.  Could I look past some of the things that irritate me a little easier?  How should we see ourselves and those around us.  The Bible is very clear about how precious we are to God.  We are so precious that he laid down his own life to save ours.  He paid for our sins long before we ever committed them.  If there is one message that he wants you to believe its this one.  If there is one thing he wants you to let affect you its this.  Will you?

Diet Challenge

I am going on a diet.  I have decided that this time I am going to stick to it and just really buckle down and loose the weight.  Starting tomorrow I am going to exercise 5 times a week and watch my carbs and sugars.  I just really feel that it is time to tackle this demon.  I even have a weight loss buddy to help encourage me along the way.  I really just want to be healthy and I know that I need to lose some weight in order to reach my full potential of health.  So my goal is to lose 10 pounds a month.  That is a realistic goal that is neither to small nor to big.  And by next year at this time I will be at my goal weight of 150 pounds. 

So I am also going to blog weekly on my progress in order to have some added accountability.  I am going to let you in on my ups and downs and let you know when I succeed.  So we start this journey together.  May this be a successful endeavor!

Here is my before picture!

New Hairdo and New Laptop

So I just got my hair permed yesterday.  I really like the way that it turned out.  It looks like a spiral perm even though the lady who permed it did not use a spiral wrap to perm my hair.  She used a regular wrap because of how short my hair is.  She also cut my hair before she permed it so that it would have a style once it was permed.  We went to "Amy's Hair Hide Away"  on M-104 in Spring Lake just passed Burger King.  The price to get my hair permed was quite reasonable, just $45, compared to other salons that wanted $85 and up.  I like the perm so much that I may just keep it this way for a while since it is so cheap!  Also, my mom and I went to Rivertown Crossing in Grandville, Mi for the day after I got my hair permed.  That was fun also since we never go to this mall and I basically didn't even know what stores were in the mall.  We ate at TGI Fridays and the food was fabulous, and then we shopped until our legs were tired.  It was a good day!  This was to celebrate me having six months without a cigarette.  So here are a few pictures of my new hairdo.

Also, this week I purchased a new laptop.  I love, love, love my new laptop.  It is HP's special edition Garden Dreams laptop that is only available at Walmart.  So what did I do with my old laptop you ask?  I gave it to my dad.  It was so cool to see the excitement on his face last night when he realized that he was getting a laptop.  I was overjoyed to be able to do that!  Now I can go to Jumping Java with my dad and hang out and play games with him on the Internet.  Which is what we are going to do next Saturday!
So here's a few pictures of my new laptop.

So that is what I have been up to the last couple of days.  I have not had a lot of time to crochet but I will get back into that very soon.  Hope you all are having a very good February and goodbye for now!

Where's the Goods?

So why am I being so slow to deliver you ask?  Well, for one I started a project and ripped it apart today because it just did not look right.  I was going to do a purse with the same blue material that I used in my last scarf.  However, the purse was turning out too large so I ripped it apart and now I am making a gloves and scarf set for a friend. 
Another reason that I am being so slow is that I have another project in the works and believe it or not its not a crochet project.  I am putting a puzzle together.  I don't know why just that I really liked this puzzle and it gives me time to think and listen to music.  So here's a picture of the puzzle I am working on. 

Also an exciting thing happened at our arts and craft table.  Joey finally got his art displayed at the coffee house that we go to.  I am so proud of him.  Here is a picture of his art that was displayed.

If you would like to see more of his art please feel free to visit his blog at http://joepainter.blogspot.com/  He is very talented, but a new blogger, and could use all the support from those in the blogging world.

"Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World" by Joanna Weaver

This is one of the books that I recently finished reading.  I really gained a lot of insight into my own life through reading this book.  Joanna Weaver really wrote a book which gets to the core of having a passion for God in a world where we are told that we must do, do, do.  This book explains that we aren't put here on earth to just complete one task after another.  We were put here for a relationship with God.  That is the one thing that matters.  That is our sole purpose.  While service and good works is important, it is important that we first find our rest in Christ.  We are meant to have intimacy with God and that starts with slowing down enough to spend some time with him.  This book helps show you how to do that.  I really love this book and found it very helpful.  I highly recommend this book to others!

Six Months Smoke Free

Wow, I can not believe that in less than twenty four hours I will be half a year smoke free.  I never thought that I would make it past the first week, let alone the first day.  Now I hardly ever even think about smoking, and when I do think about it, it is only a passing craving and nothing serious.  I really believe that I will never pick up another cigarette as long as I live now, and that feels fantastic!  I can say honestly I am a non smoker.  So here are some things that I enjoy most about being a non smoker.
1.  I can go into a restaurant or a movie and not worry about how long I will have to go without a cigarette.  I can just enjoy my time with whomever I am with and be fully present in the current situation.  Cravings do not ruin the fun that I am trying to have, or determine where I will go.

2.  I smell better.  I do not smell like a ashtray.

3.  I can smell other things better.  Can also be a curse sometimes though because I can smell smokers and they smell bad.  No offense if you smoke but I never realized how bad I smelled until I quit smoking.  That alone is enough to make me never want to pick up another cigarette.

4.  I do not get winded when I exercise or clean like I used to.  My stamina is better.

5.  I have my singing voice back.  I can hit high notes again.  And when I wake up in the morning I do not sound like a man for the first couple of hours.

6.  When I get sick I do not cough my brains out.  I still have a stuffy nose and cough occasionally.  But I don't have the hacking cough that I used to have.

7.  My car, my clothes, and my house don't smell like an ashtray.  And all the Christmas gifts that I gave away this year did not reek of cigarettes.

These are the things that I love about being a non-smoker.

Arts and Crafts at Jumping Java

So I finally convinced my best friend that he needed to start painting again, and that we both needed to spend less time on the Internet and more time doing creative things.  So every night when we go to Jumping Java now, instead of bringing our laptops Joe brings his painting supplies and I bring my crochet supplies.  We work on our projects and visit with each other.  I have finished my first project which is this beautiful circles and waves scarf.

This scarf is actually two pieces sewn together.  It is another project that I got from Interweave Crochet magazine.  It was actually very fast to make, and a lot easier than it looks.

And Joe finished his first painting this week.  Here is the first painting that he has done in a while.

I just love it when he does winter scenes.  He does very good with winter scenes.  The cabin in this picture is the perfect size compared to the trees and the river.  Good job, Joe!  Now I am just trying to convince him that he needs to start his own painting blog.  I hope he does.  When I told him that he could blog about his painting technique he looked at me like I was crazy, so I don't know if I will succeed in this.