productivity

Yesterday was very productive :) As soon as Alex left for work, I left for Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping. I finished in time to put away the groceries and make it to work by 8:30am. Hobby Lobby was really busy yesterday! I was on a register almost all morning, and ended up going to lunch 45 minutes after I was scheduled. Time flew by! On my lunch break I went to the Day-Old bread store to buy bread, and I had time to buy an "Our First Christmas" ornament. The remaining time passed quickly, and I was home in no time. Wonderful. I wish every day was like yesterday.

I also made Boneless Chicken Hot Wings from my Sparkrecipes. They were very spicy, but yummy! Leftovers are coming with Alex and I to work today.

We got to just chill together the whole evening. I love days where we get to be home together. The next two days I'm closing, so that's not happening :(. At least I get it over with in two consecutive days.

Today needs to be productive too. Gotta get laundry and floors done. Also, mom and Donny are coming!

Christmastime is here...happiness and cheer...

Our first Christmas tree! My wonderful parents traded their larger tree for my smaller one. We went to Big Lots and bought some additional decorations. It was so much fun walking around with my husband and picking out decorations. We were both like kids in a candy store-both so excited to pick out Christmas decorations for the first time together. Magic moments.

Giving Thanks and Black Friday

Yesterday was wonderful. Alex and I got to sleep in! Then we went over to his family's house for Thanksgiving number 1. We took family pictures and he played Black Ops with his dad. I watched America's Next Top Model with his sisters. Fun times. Oh, and yummy food. My pies were a success! Only one pie was even cut into, so we brought the partially eaten pie back with us, and left the others there for family to eat sometime later. Alex is bringing leftovers with him today for lunch.

We left his parent's house and returned to ours for about an hour. Then we drove 1 and a half hours to my grandparents house in Springfield for Thanksgiving number 2. Once again, good company and yummy food. I ate too many cookies at this meal, but it was tasty. Yes, I did count my calories (ish) and went over, but I'm not worried about it at all. I'll just be good today.

Today. Black Friday. Hobby Lobby doesn't have a ton of abnormally crazy sales, but we're open a bit longer and make a lot of Christmas decor sales. I'll be ordering all day like normal, but I do expect to be up front cashiering a lot. I'm glad I have normal hours today-10am to 6pm. Tomorrow I close and we're open until 9pm, so who knows when we'll get to leave. I just have to keep telling myself that tomorrow is just one day and it will be over just like all the other ones. It may be a late night, but that's the only night that I have to close when the store is open until 9. So not a huge deal.

I am so incredibly thankful for my family. For my extended family, and my immediate family of two.

John 14

¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

My dad had my family memorize this chapter together. We would recite it at the table during meals. I don't know that I could recite it now, but I am very familiar with this chapter. I don't know that I fully understand this part-how will I do greater things than what Jesus did? Why do people ask for things from Jesus, and then they don't happen? I believe the Bible 100%, but sometimes I don't understand how it applies directly in people's lives.

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit who will teach us things. Teach us how? I have heard that those who are not Christians cannot understand the Bible as Christians do, because they do not have the Holy Spirit.

I have a 10-6 shift for work, and then Thanksgiving. Then Black Friday and Saturday. I guess Hobby Lobby is busy on both days. I'm not really excited about working those days, but ask God to help me through them. He has a purpose in everything-maybe it's just helping people find what they need in the store.

Following commandments

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Yesterday went in normal-time. Sometimes time flies by, and other times it crawls. Well, yesterday at work it felt normal, and that was OK. I just kept working and working and there was still a ton of stuff to put out, but I can say that I tried my hardest.

The more time I spend reading God's word and praying, the better my attitude is at work. Direct correlation. I still would like to find a "normal hour" job, but at least I'm not dreading work like I used to.

Today I get to see my family! Steven's choir concert is tonight, and I'm excited to see him sing. My grandparents are coming too, and I really haven't seen them in a long time.

Also, I am attempting pumpkin pie today. Still gotta go out and buy pie tins, but I'm excited. Due to some people on diets, I am going to attempt both crust-less and normal pie. Should be interesting! If they look pretty, maybe I'll post pictures later.

Last, but not least, I have been married for six months today, and I love it. It's kind of amazing to think that half a year has gone by. I love Alex, and we work really well together. I love that he encourages me to communicate, and I can be open about my feelings with him. God has truly blessed our marriage.

Read and Response

Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; ⁴³ for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

From John 12.

I just wonder if what I do openly acknowledges my faith. Do my words and actions constantly say "Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World!" or do they just say "Calista is trying to make it through another day" ?

I know I sometimes say the latter. I have been praying about my attitude with work. Saturday was better. I want it to really be better. I don't want to be apathetic-even working at Hobby Lobby has a purpose. One being to pay off debt, but maybe God also has me there to share His good news with others. Even if it's just doing an excellent job as if I'm doing it all for Him, and not just for others. Because that's what I really am doing-putting stuff away for my Savior and His people.

A fun weekend

For blogging purposes, Friday is part of the weekend.

Friday I went shopping in Cool Springs :D :D :D It was fun just to walk around by myself and pick out some fun stuff. I forgot on of my coupons for a store, but I used a different one, so fun times. I ate a yummy chicken gyro from the mall.

Then I went to Whole Foods and bought some groceries and a yummy peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. It's healthy if it's from Whole Foods, right?

THEN I drove through Spring Hill on my way home and got more groceries at Publix. I got more stuff for pumpkin pie. Now all I need are the tins to put the pie in. I kinda want to try to make my own crust, and Publix only had the tins with the crust in them. We'll see; I may lose my patience. I rushed home to put my meats in the fridge.

I brought a wedding picture/poster to Hobby Lobby to be framed-it's going to look great! And I picked up & deposited my check. Getting paid is nice; we're knocking out that student loan!

Dinner with friends-the ones who took our pictures for our wedding. They have an adorable little boy who is learning to walk. Good company.

Saturday I spend some morning time praying about my attitude with work. The day working went much better! Yay for God and prayers.

We celebrated my father-in-law's birthday last night, and I had too much ice cream. I can say that with some pride because it was what I used to consider normal.

This morning I officially joined First Family. Pastor Dave had me come up front to announce me, and my wonderful husband came up front with me. We had about a million people come up and say hi afterwards, including the wedding liason! I felt welcome. I want to be a part of a church. Sometimes you gotta pick one and just plan to stick with it. We're looking into small groups too. Maybe next week.

David and Ashten are hanging with us most of the afternoon. I'm gonna make pigs in a blanket to go with the soup I made last night. Hopefully that'll make it a more filling and interesting meal.

Sparkpeople makes me happy because I can eat muffins and ice cream and still not blow up like a balloon. That's the end of my food comment :)

Holiday week

I am making pumpkin pies for one family thanksgiving, and some sort of drink for the other :) I am very excited to be contributing to these kinds of things.

Today I'm going shopping in Cool Springs. That'll be fun.

I'm trying to decide whether to get another cup of coffee. My mom sent me a wonderful recipe for her hot chocolate, so I may wait and make a mocha. I'm so excited-even though the mix has dried milk, it's the best hot chocolate I have ever had. I tried the packets, and they have a filmy taste. My mom's is just the best :)

Mom and Donny didn't get to come down Tuesday, so that was a bummer. I always look forward to seeing them.

We've had pancakes almost every morning this week with our eggs and bacon. I just wanted to make something yummy to make our breakfast more interesting. Sometimes it can get a little boring with just eggs and bacon every day. I'm trying to decide what I'll make next. Maybe just a different kind of pancake. Pumpkin pancakes sound yummy! Or maybe banana pancakes. I made mini banana muffins yesterday. They were tasty and fun to eat.

Jeremiah came over last night for dinner. He and Alex played zombies for a while. Shelby had to work, but we're hoping to all get together sometime soon.

I tried to make black bean burgers last night, and they turned out to be more like black bean sloppy joe's. I just mixed black beans with lean ground beef and spices, but I guess I should have drained the black beans more than I did. They were tasty, just kinda messy. Red potatoes and green pepper were a yummy fry substitute.

I worked the past three days. I AM going to make it through the Christmas season. I like being busy there because the time goes by fast. Sometimes not fast enough....

But TODAY I have the whole day off! So I can finally CLEAN the house and get things back in order! It's 7 am, and I'd like to have most of it done by noon....just so that I can do other things in the afternoon before Alex gets home...if I feel like it...

I like having time to get things done. I also love that I have a husband who likes to fix up the house. Our bathroom is looking great! I think we're going to work on it some more this afternoon, and maybe finish it!

puppies

I just gave Piper my apple core. It's raining outside so I have to keep her in the house. It's a lot easier to keep the house clean with her outside. Alex likes her, so maybe we'll keep her. Bob said he can find a new home fore her if we decide she should have a better home. With both of us working, I'm not sure.

the way I eat now

Today I have eaten nearly all of my allotted calories for the day before 10 in the morning. I've been in a munchy mood-probably because a chunk of the calories are from frozen yogurt-but it was so worth it! I really enjoy eating frozen yogurt because it doesn't mess with my stomach like ice cream does-but I definitely have to practice self control!

Yesterday we went to Applebee's, and I thought I counted everything. I remembered this morning that we had chips with spinach artichoke dip, which I didn't count yesterday. So I went over a little, but not so bad. I have my limit set pretty low, so if I go over ever now and then I'm not going to freak out or anything. I just like eating this way because I can eat sugar and bread, but not so much that makes me feel really sick.

Thank goodness for hot tea with Truvia-satisfying when I need a little something, and no calories!

I totally agree that it is good to go gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, artificial additives-free, and eat more organic and fresh. However, we are on a budget and we like to eat sandwiches. I also like to eat a cookie every now and again. I honestly feel good about what I am eating, and I enjoy indulgences in small portions. This just keeps me from going overboard when I am feeling emotional or bored.

So for now this is where I am in my eating habits. Just eating pretty normal, but learning to eat less. This also helps with our budget, because our food lasts longer :)

church

Today Alex and I are going to church together :) That's right! Alex got a new schedule/promotion where he will be working Monday thru Friday 7am-3:30pm. So now we will get to go to church together. This week we are going with his family, and next week we are going with mine! So excited to get to do things on the weekend with him. Now if only I could get out of working Saturdays.....

life again

work, clean, eat, watch tv, spend time with Alex, sometimes see other people, karate class, repeat.

I will not complain about work. There's really nothing to complain about. I have a great manager who knows how to relate to her employees. The people I work with are easy to get along with, and I know how to do the job.

It's just not what I thought I would be doing. It's not being a part of a non-profit, or working with people in a way that I thought I would be. I am kinda bummed that it's taking away from time with Alex. I have to remember that the job is not a end in and of itself. It's a means of paying off debt faster so that we don't have to worry about it anymore. That's why I am working.