Veteran's Day

I know it's late, but before I got to bed, I just wanted to thank everyone who has fought or is fighting for our country and our freedom.

Thank you to the veterans of WWI and WWII
Thank you to the veterans of the Korean War
Thank you to the veterans of Vietnam
Thank you to the veterans of Gulf Wars One and Two
Thank you to the veterans of the wars and skirmishes I know I'm forgetting. It's late, and I've always been bad at recent history.
And thank you to everyone else who has fought in wars and battles big and small, protecting the American people and our American values.

May God bless you.

Praises (and caffeine)

Sallie Mae disbursed my loan!!!! Finally, two months after they approved me for the loan. If you ever have to work with Sallie Mae, I'd suggest asking for a supervisor. Praise the Lord for providing! God is good.

I have a busy day tomorrow. I have to type my handwritten pages, proof my thesis, go by the bank, pick up new library books and read them, turn in old library books, do laundry, get the oil changed in the car, and pack for our trip Thursday. I'm probably forgetting something else I need to do.

I've been having a pretty good fall. I feel as though I know what's going on and we'll be moving on to the next phase of life soon. I'm over halfway done with grad school (yippee!!). My crazy health problems are pretty much gone, which makes me think they're stress/depression related.

I have a job I love, good friends, a wonderful family, and an amazing husband. I also serve a merciful God. Life may not be perfect, but it sure isn't bad. :-D

P.S. I went to a coffee shop to work on my writing. I always forget to ask for decaf . . .

Don't Let Your Left Hand Know . . .

My brain is fried from reading on the computer all morning. I have until Tuesday to get a complete draft of my critical thesis done (that's the deadline I've given myself).

I had a really great weekend. Our friends David and Lezli came for a visit with their two boys. We had a lot of fun hanging out, eating Mexican and German food, enjoying entirely too much sweet stuff, and eating a ton of home-grown watermelon. I hadn't had so much fun in a long time. The boys get up early, so we had a lot of time to hang out. Praise God for good friends!

This morning, I got up before Paul. Before I left the room, I went to give him a good morning kiss. He started yelling, and I realized that when I leaned down, I had accidentally turned my glass of water over, right on top of him. You know the part in the Bible where Jesus says not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing? Apparently, my body took that literally . . .

I leave for work in about half an hour. I haven't been to work all week, so I probably won't know where anything is. Oh well. I'm glad I like my job. I like my compy, too. :-D

Catch you later!

Good Friday

I think Easter is my favorite holiday. Yes, I like it even better than Christmas. Think about it--without Easter, Christmas has no meaning. I also like the lead up to Easter. We have Passover, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Saturday, and then Easter. The lead up helps me to really focus on God and what Easter means. I am a selfish person who can be pretty mean. God has greatly freed me from that. When I get the urge to be selfish, He nudges me and tells me to do what He would do. And even though I have that selfishness inside me and have all sorts of crazy bad things in my past, God doesn't remember them. Even though God is holiness itself, I will someday be able to stand in His presence. Why? Because of what He did two thousand years ago on Easter.

When decorating eggs this Easter, remember what they represent--that the tomb (the shell) couldn't keep Jesus inside. He broke free and rose from the dead, freeing us all from our sin if we'll just accept His sacrifice.

He is risen, indeed!

My Last Packet is DONE!

Well, I just mailed my last packet for the semester. Yay! Now all I have left are my end of semester evaluations, which I've already got halfway done. I don't get a real break from school the way I did in college, but I'm going to give myself a little break. I deserve it!

My plans are to crochet and sew the projects I've been working on or need to work on. I'm also going to read for fun (I've already started that one). I'd like to work on my web design a little. Oh, and I need to finish Christmas letter/cards. I'm not sure how well the cards will work, but I'm going to try an e-mail newsletter. I've probably already got you on the list, but if you think I don't have your e-mail address and you'd like a newsletter, let me know.

I am planning to prepare a little for next semester. I was not prepared for this semester at all, and that made the semester a lot harder than it had to be. I'm trying to finish the novel I want to work on next semester. I've already got a reading list ready, and I've been trying to figure which mentors are best suited for my style of learning. Oh, and in a couple of weeks, I'll get my workshop book. I wonder who my workshop leaders will be? Workshop was AWESOME this summer, so I'm excited.

Karen and Dave and Dave's parents visited this past weekend, with their cats. We had a lot of fun. As Dad said though, I need a vacation from food! We had salmon, fajitas, ham, and Mexican food. Oh, and doughnuts. Llyan wasn't too fond of her nephews, but they started to get along toward the end. Llyan even rubbed heads with them. I thought she'd miss them when they're gone, but no. She's extatic to have her house and people all to herself again.

Harry is coming home in a couple of weeks, and I am so excited. I've missed him. Karen and Dave are coming back then, too, and we're going to have Christmas together. I'm really happy.

That's probably a long enough update for now. Have a good holiday season, and don't forget why we have Christmas in the first place.

P.S. In answer to Lina, the residency is about 10 days long. I'll have to post some picks of the hats and scarves I made to take with me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Late Thanksgiving, not Happy Turkey Day. Goodness, no wonder America is obese. Instead of thanking God for food and shelter and another year, we thank the turkey ‘cause we’re hungry. :::shivers:::

Anyway, I can’t believe it’s December, can you? Another year gone by! This has been a rough semester. Let’s just say that LETU spoiled me. :-D I am looking forward to next semester though. I think I’ve got a better handle on writing and grad school. I got a new winter coat for my January residency (er, and it just went on sale! Don’t you hate it when that happens?) It’s a really nice coat! I got the brown. And today, I just ordered some snow boots. Paul called his brother to get advice.

Karen and Dave are coming to visit on Thursday! Yay! I’m really excited. They’re bringing Dave’s parents and their cats. :-D

Yesterday at work, I kept a tally of all the Christmas songs they played. I can’t find the paper I wrote it on, but the count went something like this:

• Walking in a Winter Wonderland 6
• Santa Clause is Coming to Town 5
• Frosty the Snowman 4
• Let It Snow 4
• Jingle Bells 3
• Jingle Bell Rock 3

Yes, I am sick of Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

God is Good and I Have Friends. Yay!

I happened to notice that it’s been a week since my last post. I needed a break from homework anyway. So it seems like all of a sudden, a ton of stuff is happening every weekend. I’m afraid to keep asking off for work. I don’t mind working weekends, its just that stuff keeps happening on them. Nothing’s going on this weekend (as in tomorrow), but next weekend, I’m heading out to a Renaissance Faire with Sarah/Katra/Ashatan/and-I-forget-what-else. I’m excited! Yay! I need to get going on my Pirate costume, but I thought I should do my school first.

The weekend after that, Alisha, Shawna, and Jennie are coming to visit! Yay!!! I’m really excited about that. They’ll be here a couple of days. The weekend after that is the air show that Paul wants to go to for his birthday (which is that Tuesday). I guess nothing happens for awhile after that. Then, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a family reunion. That would be really fun to go to. But of course, the weekend after Thanksgiving is peak time at the retail stores. So I don’t know about that one.

I’m excited that I’ve got so much going on, though! Yay!

I have a lot of friends who need prayer right now, for various things. Some aren’t feeling well, some have big decisions to make, and some are going through rough times. If you think of it, would you pray a blanket prayer for my friends? Hey, you could be one of them!

On a similar note, I’d just like to mention how awesome God is. He has taken such good care of Paul and I. I needed new clothes and a winter coat, so God got me a job at Eddie Bauer. I needed new glasses, so God led me to a place (through Abby) where I could an eye exam and a pair of glasses for fairly inexpensive. Paul and I both needed to see the doctor, so God got us into a place that is less expensive than others and has a need-based payment plan.

And that leads me to my last point. I’ve decided that I like vets better than doctors. No offense is intended for all of my medical friends—you all are competent! But out of the doctors I’ve been to and the vets I’ve been to, the vets seemed to know what they were doing. The doctor yesterday said, “I don’t know” a whole lot more than I thought she should have. ^o_o^ oh well.

And that’s this weeks Really Long Update in the Life of Annie

Drumroll please . . .

So, I think I've told everybody in person or on the phone who reads this, so now I can post about it:

Paul and I are engaged!!!!! I'm so excited! And happy; did I mention happy? Yay!!! :::::waves arms like a puppet:::: Yay!!!!! Story time?

The Set-up
Last Friday was our 1st anniversary of dating. Paul asked me to go to breakfast with him at Saga since that's what we did the first day we were boyfriend and girlfriend. (I told him that I'm very grateful that he didn't propose at Saga, ha ha.) We also went to Anglican Prayer chapel together and ate lunch at my apartment. Paul said that he wanted to take me somewhere special at 5pm. My friends asked if I thought he would propose, and I said, "no" because Paul had said we go another anniversary if it didn't work out that one. Ha ha.

Frivolous Sidetrack About My Wonderful Shopping Skills
After Shakespeare class, Karen and I went dress shopping so that I could have a nice dress for our dinner date that night (mine and Paul's, not mine and Karen's). I don't think I've ever tried on so many dresses in such rapid succession before. . . . We spent around an hour at Dillard's but didn't find anything that just shouted "me!" Except for one dress, but it didn't quite fit So with only about 20 minutes left, we sped over to JC Penny where I did speed dress-shopping. I finally found a dress that looked really nice, was only $10 above my price range, and was two sizes smaller than the last dress I bought. BIG It turned out, when I went to pay for it, that it was actually $7 under my price range. Go me!

The Plot Thickens
So, I didn't get back until 5:30, but it was okay because it was too cloudy to watch the sunset anyway. So Paul drove us out to Lake Cherokee where we had our first date. We sat on his jacket on a rock by the lake and just talked for an hour. It was so beautiful. We kind of reflected on our year together and how, even though it's been hard sometimes, it has been so good and we care so much for each other.

The Proposal
When we decided that we should go back to get ready for dinner, Paul said, "If you stand up first, I can get my jacket." So I stood up, thinking it only slightly odd because Paul usually gets up first so that he can help me up. I stretched and then turned around to see what was keeping Paul. He had stayed on his knees. He said, "I love you." At this point, I was a little suspicious. Paul had said, "I love you," from that position before, but this seemed somewhat purposeful. Then Paul said, "Will you marry me?" and I thought, "Is he proposing?" And then I saw that Paul had a ring--well, mostly I just saw a sparkle 'cause it was dark out. I was so happy and excited that I didn't say anything at first. Then a little voice in the back of my mind said, "Say something before he gets nervous." So naturally, I said, "Yes."

I am sooooooo happy. Paul is the most amazing man I have ever known. I love him so much. He's my best friend. We love spending time together. We can be silly, serious, romantic, fun, intellegent, and all sorts of things together. My family likes Paul and his family likes me. I couldn't be more happy. . . . Well, maybe once I'm Paul's wife . . .

Thanks to all of our friends for sharing our excitement and joy. I'm so happy.