Manual is a scary world!

I feel bad not blogging since Sunday...not for all you faithful readers (and friends/family!) but because I miss it! To catch you up since Sunday...

Monday: I took two hard tests and I'm pleased to announce that I think I did wonderfully on both of them! I also worked the book fair at UMHB and got two free books out of (and somehow came home with 7 books and 1 awesome cookbook)...That definitely fulfilled my "kid" side. I justified the picture books I bought by saying that I'd use them whenever we have kids. Which is like 5 years from now...but I will!!
Tuesday: Wonderful, wonderful COM group. I love my group. LOVE LOVE LOVE them. We talked about how we can be praying that God will be BIG in our lives and the lives of those around us...Be BIG God!
Wednesday: -drumroll please- I met with Allen and I'm going to start practicing to be a second shooter at his weddings! I'm so incredibly excited. So I rushed over to Barnes and Noble and bought a really neat book - Understanding Exposure. It's definitely made me understand manual on my camera...although it's still scary, it's less "What did I get myself into?" scary and more like, "Wow, this is a lot to learn but it's really cool" scary. I took a few pictures before reading where my exposure was pretty off.

This one is pretty good focus...a little dark though.

A little soft on Riley (she wiggles too much!) and it seems a tad overexposed to me.

VERY underexposed.

Thursday: Grey's came back on! I was very excited about that. And even more exciting - Greg came back home!! YAY!
Today: I sat down for about 4 hours this afternoon and really started to understand my [dad's] camera. I took lots of pictures (most of them are pretty boring because they're exercises in my book), but I got some really cute (and technically pretty good) pictures. Understanding manual is more of a "Hey, I think I can actually do this," thing for me now...and I'm really excited that my pictures look SO much better technically than they did in Auto.

Riley is one of my favorite subjects...I figure that if I can get her in focus, then I can get anything in focus because she's so wiggly!

And one more cute one of Riley.

Tomorrow is running. And my alarm is going off this time, gosh darn it! (I should be asleep right now though).

One last thing before I go. Dustin proposed a question - what do I think will abide in my pursuit for contentment. I thought about that for a long time tonight...and I still haven't really come up with a concrete answer. I think that taking my thoughts captive, like he mentioned, is a good idea, but in actuality it's so much easier said than done. I've been struggling for a long, long time with body image and I try so hard to take my thoughts captive. But sometimes I get discouraged and I forget about taking my thoughts captive and it spirals downward to me feeling absolutely awful about myself for a few days. Greg encourages me so much to be aware of what I'm thinking and I really, really fight and struggle with that.

I think one thing that might help me is listing (either mentally, on here, or in my actual journal) all the things that I'm thankful for or that happened in the previous 24 hours that were exciting and fun. Sometimes I get so caught up in the future that I forget how much fun I'm having in the present! What am I thankful for today?

- Health insurance.
- A wedding gift card to Target that we forgot about (and the hand-mixer, food processor, and board game that we got with it!)
- A wonderful dad who lets me borrow his camera whenever I want.
- Friday's off from work.
- A husband who lets me pick where we eat (Chick-fil-A!)
- A clean apartment.
- A king-size bed.
- My new non-gas guzzling car that is very pretty.
- Blessings from God.

I think that really will help me live in the present more :)

I need to go get in bed now so I can be bright-eyed (sort-of) and bushy-tailed in the morning...whoever thought up that saying? It's kind of silly and it makes me laugh.

I pray that God blesses you abundantly today!

All By Myself

This morning just started off bad. I was tired from last night and my alarm never went off to wake me up for my running group. I woke up around 7:15 and was so upset because I knew they'd already be on the road (we leave at 7am sharp!) and there was no hope of me getting to the Runtex off Lake Austin Blvd. in time to catch up with them.

So I drug out my Nike + iPod system, filled up my water bottles, got my workout playlist all ready to go and proceeded to run the 9 miles my group was running together all by myself. I wasn't too optimistic about this run...I've never done 9 miles before...and I really haven't done anything over 7 all by myself. But I hit the road, ran three minutes, walked one minute, all the way up Wells Branch to 35, then back down Wells Branch to MoPac, and then home. It ended up being about 8.79 miles and I did have to stop and walk the last quarter mile or so home...but I did it! I was shocked, honestly, that my body can run 9 miles in about an hour and a half (And that I can burn 989 calories...thats almost a days worth!!)

I admit, I did get a bit pessimistic on the way home when I was hurting. 26 miles is SO much longer than 9. And I started thinking If I'm hurting this much now, how on EARTH will I ever be able to do 26 miles? But I think that's just it...EARTH has nothing to do with it. Heaven and grace and GOD have everything to do with it. Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." That says all things. Not just some things. That means I can run 26 miles through Christ. And I can witness to people through Christ (even when I'm scared). And I can make it through the rest of college through Christ. That gives me such great hope and such great joy!

I've been struggling so much with contentment lately. Not that my life isn't wonderful...I have an amazing husband, family, puppy, church, and God. But my mind is having trouble living in the moment. I catch myself thinking all the time, Oh, I can't wait until we can move out of this tiny apartment! or I really wish I was done with school and could start my REAL job now...then my life would really begin. or I can't wait until Greg and I are financially able to have kids...and I remember that before we were married I couldn't wait for the wedding, and before we were engaged I was dying to be his "fiancee." I just want to be content with the now...and I'm struggling and battling with myself to be here. To be in this moment and no where else. And that is much easier said than done!

I am all over the place tonight. I blame it on memorizing 5 pages front and back (literally, no exaggerating here!) for my Children's Lit test on Monday. I'm only on page 3. But I think I'm done for the night...when your head starts spinning and the definition that you've just written down five times in order to make yourself memorize it really isn't making sense anymore, it's time to quit.

Greg is going out of town tomorrow and I'm really going to miss him. At least he is only gone until Thursday (Grey's Anatomy season premier night!) and then I get to have him back at home ;) Since I'm such a chicken, I'm staying with my mom for the week. Didn't you know? Whenever I'm home alone by myself I hear things. Creepy things. Like people walking up the stairs (that we don't have) or people trying to get into my apartment to kidnap me. And of course the double locks we have on our door just won't do. So off to mommy and daddy's house it is ;)

Before I leave, I have a video to share of the cutest puppy in the entire world. It makes me smile :)

I hope that made you smile!

Don't let the bed bugs bite!