Baby Jade

Mark & Angela Rhodes had their precious baby on Friday (July 24) morning! It has been fun to watch them through every step of their pregnancy with Hannah Jade. They will be such wonderful parents!

Here are a few pics from the hospital visit..







Baby fever? nah..

Show Us Your Life - Wedding Dresses

Today I am joining Kelly's Corner in Show Us Your Life - Wedding Dresses because I LOVED my wedding dress... and I love to remember my wedding day (even though it was less than a year ago). I hope I never forget the details of our day!


Here is the front:


And the back:


I loved the bead work!


And just for fun..


Thanks for stopping by!

Part II - Comparison..

Renee Swope, who is the author of the devotion that I talked about in my last blog post, did a follow up to the devotion on her blog.

The devotion was about getting to know the real & unique you. In the follow up, Renee explains the dangers of comparing ourselves to others (something that probably ALL women struggle with).

I'll try to sum it up.. she explains that comparison can be our worst enemy.

Comparison is so dangerous because “When we compare ourselves with someone else, we can never measure up because we compare our insides (how we feel) with their outsides (how they seem to feel).” The outside apperance of someone you don't know on a personal basis can be so deciving.

Paul talks about the comparison trap in 2 Corinthians 10:12, "but when they measure themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding."

This is my favorite part of the whole post :

Comparison causes us to compete with each other. God never intended for women to compete with each other; He wants us to complete one another.

Be encouraged..

Cont..

I really thought the 4 personality/temperments were very interesting.. apparently I missed this part in Psychology 101..

Taken from here..

Phlegmatic
While phlegmatics are generally self-content and kind, their shy personality can often inhibit enthusiasm in others and make themselves lazy and resistant to change. They are very consistent, relaxed, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators and diplomats. Like the sanguine personality, the phlegmatic has many friends. However the phlegmatic is more reliable and compassionate; these characteristics typically make the phlegmatic a more dependable friend.

Choleric
A person who is choleric is a doer . They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were cholerics. On the negative side, they are easily angered or bad-tempered.

Sanguine
A person who is sanguine is generally light-hearted, funloving, a people person, loves to entertain, spontaneous,leader abilities, and confident . However they can be arrogant, cocky, and indulgent. He/She can be day-dreamy and off-task to the point of not accomplishing anything and can be impulsive, possibly acting on whims in an unpredictable fashion. The humour of Sanguine is usually treated with leeches. The reason it is treated with leeches is based on the process of the blood being sucked out and being able to understand the effect of the process.

Melancholic
A person who is a thoughtful ponderer has a melancholic disposition. Often very kind and considerate, melancholics can be highly creative – as in poetry and art - but also can become overly pre-occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world, thus becoming depressed. The temperament is associated with the season of fall/autumn (dry and cold) and the element earth. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist, being very particular about what they want and how they want it in some cases. This often results in being unsatisfied with one's own artistic or creative works and always pointing out to themselves what could and should be improved.


After reading more details about each type, I think it's harder to pin point which one discribes me the best. I think we all have a little of each temperament in us.. but probably lean more towards just two main types. Maybe I should ask Jonathan what he thinks ;)

Which teperaments describe you?

Part I - the Real Me..

I get a daily devotion from Proverbs 31 in my e-mail every morning. It is so incredible how they can describe me to the T sometimes.

This devotion describes a common question of mine. What is my dream job? What in the world would I do if I had a million dollars? or all the free time I needed?

The devotion reminded me to continue to ask God what his dreams are for my life. And that I need to get to know the real me. Instead of just realizing that my personality is unique, ask why my personality is unique and how does that relate to God's plans for my life.

I think it's such a great idea to pick up a book and study personality traits..I have never seen anything like this before and I thought this was great :

In her book, Personality Plus, Florence Littauer describes four personality/temperment types. See if you can relate to the desires and emotional needs of one or two of these:

Phlegmatic: Desires PEACE
Needs times of quiet, reduced stress, feeling of worth, relaxation

Choleric: Desires CONTROL
Needs appreciation for achievements, opportunity for leadership, and participation in decisions

Sanguine: Desires FUN
Needs attention, affection, approval, activity with people

Melancholy: Desires PERFECTION
Needs sensitivity, stability, support, space, silence

I am definitely choleric & maybe a mix between phlegmatic/melancholy? Would I rather be peace & fun? YES! But I know that the Lord "created my inmost being; (and) knit me together in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:13) I am uniquely made and God has unique plans for my life.

I'll be ordering that book. Join me in getting to know the women God created us to be.

Date Night!

Jonathan took me on a spur of the moment/mid-week date night on Tuesday! I had gotten home first (Jonathan normally beats me home in the evening) and I was just about to start making a casserole when Jonathan called and said that he got a check for doing some baseball lessons and wanted to take me out to a nice place for dinner. I was game!



We walked across the street to Firebirds. Have yall eaten at Firebirds before? I think its a chain.. the food was AWESOME! We split the Lobster Spinach Queso and their BLT side salad (YUM!) to start and then we both ordered Filet & Shrimp with a loaded baked potato. Can you say calories? It was such a treat though. And the left overs for lunch were just as delicious.

We are so grateful that Jonathan can still give pitching lessons every once in awhile because it gives us some extra cash to do fun things like this!

Let me also mention that when we moved into the Colony Apts, we were so excited to be able to walk to shops & restaurants.. since we are moving out in 2 weeks and had yet to walk to dinner, we decided it was about time.



We decided to walk off our dinner for a few minutes and ended up at Barnes & Noble where we spent over an hour looking around. I found the greatest calendar/planner - its July 2009 - December 2010.. how great is that? I can do some serious planning with that thing. I liked that it was light & fits in my purse too. I've been looking for something to use for work & personal stuff all in one. I was also tempted to buy the first Twilight book.. but I passed.. for now. I am in the middle of a Francine Rivers (love her!) book right now, and I knew it would be hard to finish if I bought a new book in the middle of it!

Thanks, Jonathan, for the spur of the moment/mid-week date!

I wonder if there will be beaches in heaven..

a scare in the night..

Last night Jonathan and I both headed up to bed around 10:30ish as we normally do during the week. We both read for about 1/2 an hour and then eventually fell asleep around 11:00 or so. After being sound asleep for what felt like a few hours, I remember vaguely, sub-consciously, hearing Murphy growl all of a sudden. Unsure if it was my dream or real life, I didn't really react.. I was definitely half asleep still but a little more aware of my surroundings. A few minutes later it had become clear to me that Murphy was now up and moving around and had walked to the top of our stairs.. and was growling even more intensely. That's when both Jonathan and I realized that, ok, we are not dreaming, and Murphy has heard something that has startled him, and that's not a good sign.

Jonathan quietly hopped out of bed to join Murphy at the top of the stairs. Although our hearts were pounding, we were both completely silent waiting for another sound that had set Murphy off to begin with. During those 5 minutes I was silently laying there thinking how grateful I was that 1.) I had a guard dog and 2.) I had a large husband and 3.) Jesus was my ultimate protector. After about 5 minutes of listening, neither of us heard anything. In the meantime, Murphy seemed to have lost interest and went back to his spot to lie down.

Jonathan got back in the bed and I asked "is everything OK”? Jonathan replied, "I haven't heard a single noise in the last 5 minutes". I did a recap of our nightly routine and I had specifically remembered checking both locked doors and I knew that all the windows were locked. I knew there was no way that anyone could get into our house via doors or windows without waking us up. That's one advantage of an old and creaky house. But then I asked Jonathan, "well, why was Murphy growling”? Then it occurred to me "has Murphy EVER growled in the middle of the night like that"? Jonathan confidently answered "No".

We both knew that neither of us would fall asleep without knowing for sure that the coast was clear downstairs. At 2:00am, Jonathan woke Murphy back up, I turned on the lights in our bedroom and I grabbed my cell phone incase I needed to call 911, and Jonathan lead the way down stairs to check things out.. I followed at a distance.

There were no signs of intruders downstairs.
Murphy, who had acted as a superb guard dog, certainly seemed to enjoy the late night adventure.

Here’s the funny thing... I didn’t even remember the whole ordeal until about five minutes ago.

Summer Booster Party

We had a Summer Booster Party last weekend! It was so much fun. The Charlotte Team is gaining three new Experience Leaders for the fall; Mark, Kyle, and Scott. All three (plus 1 wife and 1 girlfriend) were able to come to the party so it was a great chance to introduce them to the Booster culture/community. We are so excited to have them on board and to get to know everyone better.

The party consisted of outdoor games (boys), great conversations (girls), pizza, and a game of "celebrity".

Faith, Family & Freedom

Every year our Christian Radio station here in Charlotte hosts their Faith, Family & Freedom event at the Knights Stadium in Fort Mill, SC. Every year around January the radio station starts advertising for the event.. so by the time summer rolls around I always have the add memorized :) Our good friends, Chad & Kristy, had plans to go this year and they invited us to join them! We grabbed some dinner together and then headed over to the stadium.



We sat in the stands when the concert first started, but then made our way to the grass area with our blanket.



A pic of my handsome husband..



The concert featured Matthew West and Natalie Grant - they were both great!



And the evening finished up with fireworks.. an early 4th of July celebration.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Charlotte Booster Team