Spring

Hurray! It's that time of year...

When the sunshine is warm...Yes, I sat in the sun on the porch today and did my school. If one must do school, soaking up the sun while doing it is the best way to go!

When the daffodils and tulips are poking up out of the ground.

When you begin to hear, "Ding, ding, ding!" It's true, I did indeed hear the sound that children love to hear...the sound of the Ding-ding Man.

When you hear the strains of "Baseball season's underway/ Well you better get ready for a brand new day/ Hey, Chicago, what do you say/ The Cubs are gonna win today. They're singing/ Go, Cubs, go/ Go, Cubs, go!" Yes, indeed! Tomorrow is the day! And yes, I'm listening to the lovely, springy Cubbie song now. ;) (And if you love the Cubs and baseball, then check out my cousin's fabulous baseball blog!)

Moody Distance Learning Student

Since I am a student with Moody Distance Learning, I got an email with this story. I found it very interesting and encouraging. Hope you enjoy reading it too!

On the evening of April 9, 1990, Jeff Matthews, a current Moody Distance Learning student, was arrested in Orlando, Fla. At the age of 23, Matthews narrowly escaped the death penalty by pleading guilty to numerous counts of committing murder, dealing drugs and bombing a federal Drug Enforcement Agency building. He was sentenced to multiple life sentences without parole at the United States Penitentiary Terre Haute in Indiana.

After his sentencing, the prosecutor declared, "Matthews was a ruthless cocaine kingpin who had people murdered to protect himself and his drug ring." What stung deeper was that most of his family and friends abandoned him. His girlfriend refused to see him after she collected a $100,000 reward for turning him in.

He felt worthless, helpless and alone. And, then he heard about Christ.

Matthews repented of his sins and accepted the spiritual freedom Christ offered, while he was accepting the loss of physical freedom for the rest of his life. He began to study the Bible, attend church and listen to Moody Radio. As he was growing closer to the Lord, he felt a strong call to minister to fellow prisoners-to boast of the good work the Lord had done in his life and to be a light in the highly volatile prison environment.

Matthews has never received an incident report in prison and has earned General Educational Development (G.E.D.) and Associates of Arts degrees. He is currently enrolled in Moody's Bachelor of Arts program to earn his degree in Biblical Studies and has created FromMyCell.org, a website that spreads the message of his testimony and offers spiritual encouragement resources to prisoners.

"Praise God that I came to prison, for the moment when I cried out to God for the forgiveness of my sins, my whole life changed," writes Matthews. "He had mercy on an evil, ungodly man such as myself. God gets all the glory, honor and praise for transforming my life into the new man I am today."

Adventures in Registering

Here is the promised funny "adventures" we encountered while registering!

I must warn you...Since these are true stories, the store names have been changed to protect the innocent!

At the first store, the employees were setting up our account. They asked what china we wanted. No thank you, we aren't registering for china; we are getting our dishes at another store that carries them. Okay. Next, you need to pick your wine glasses. No thank you, we don't drink. Well, you need to register for them so the guests in your home can have their wine. No thank you, they won't be drinking either. We aren't registering for wine glasses. Thanks.

Also at the first store, we had started putting things on our list. We were doing well. Finding the right items. Marking them off. We had been going for maybe an hour or hour and a half. One of the ladies that had helped us get set up came up to us, and gave us a "mid-point" list of the items we had done so far. Then she said something like, "You only have three pages of things. Usually people have ten pages by now." Okay, thanks, we're doing good though. We thought it was quite the interesting comment. Don't worry, we didn't rush ourselves though.

At the second store, we mainly wanted to register for our dishes. I had seen them there before, and we headed straight for that area. We got there, and we couldn't find them. So we wandered aimlessly through the dishes, trying to find them... Then we looked up, and voila! On the wall, was a huge display of our dishes with a large, colorful sign above them entitled, "Fiestaware." We had walked straight past it without noticing it.

You know the saying about laughing instead of crying? Well, at the third store, we decided to laugh instead of cry (or should I say, get impatient). The first time we went there, they sent us back and forth between the Customer Service desk and the Jewelry place at least five or six times between getting set up and getting our list printed! Yikes. Needless to say this took quite a while. The second time we went, it took 15-20 minutes for them to even get us started. The lady that came to help us didn't know how to get us started and tried to send us to Customer Service, so we told her how to do it (since we knew from the first time we had been there, and knew you didn't do it through Customer Service!). Then she couldn't get the battery that had died out of the scanner. So Ryan got it out for her. Then the other battery was dead, as well. (Murphy's Law, right?) So she called to get another person, and she was finally able to get a brand new battery. Hurray! We could start!

So there you have it! Our adventures in registering. Anyone have a funny story to tell about their experience? I'd love to hear it.

Registering Tips

We are finished registering! Hurray! It was a huge job, but it is done! Even though it took a lot of time, it was fun! :) I would like to give a few tips about registering for those who are interested.

1. Make a list. By far, this was the most helpful thing that we did! My mom put together a list of things around the house that we need and some things that would be nice to have. My fiance and I went through the list together, and we crossed off things that we already had and things that we knew we did not want or need. When we went into the stores to register, we already knew what we wanted.

2. Register at each store separately. I know it is not always possible to go to each store on a different day, but I would highly recommend doing this if possible. The stores that we registered for the majority of our things each took several hours. By the time we were finished at each place, we were ready to be done for the day.

3. Do not let those setting up your account talk you into registering for things you do not want. If you do not want to register for china, don't. If you do not want to register for expensive luggage, don't. If you do not want the large, expensive pots and pans set or the knife set, don't register for them.

4. Do not argue over things that essentially don't matter. Although my fiance and I did not have this problem, I have heard several other couples say that they fought over some of the things they registered for. Just remember that it really isn't worth it. They are just things, and your relationship with each other is more important than the items that you would like to have.

5. Register at a few different places. Pick a nicer store like a Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kohl's, or JC Penney's. Also pick a more basic store to register at such as Walmart or Target.

6. Register for things that you need. It is good and fine to put some "fun" things or "it would be nice to have" things on your registry, but register for mostly for things that you actually need.

7. Expect it to take longer than you think it will. It takes time to get your account set up (especially at somewhere like Walmart!), and it does take time time to pick things out.

8. Have fun! This is the one of the parts of the "once in a lifetime" experience of getting married, so enjoy it!

Valentine's Day

I know Valentine's Day was a few weeks ago, but I just had to share.

That Saturday, we went out to dinner. We decided to try a new restaurant, the Macaroni Grill. We waited for a while to be seated, but that was fine since we had no plans. It was interesting that some high school in the area had some sort of dance going on that night, so there were a whole bunch of guys and girls dressed up for the occasion. We weren't all that impressed with the food. You just can't beat Olive Garden in the way of Italian food. It was fun to do something new though. The main topic of conversation was about what colors we should decorate our house in! We are still trying to decide what to do in the breezeway and the little room. Any suggestions? ;)

Then on Valetine's Day, Ryan came over after gymnastics, and he gave me a Willow Tree figure, pretty pink roses, and a very nice card. :) Isn't he so sweet?

"I Love You" - Willow Tree figure.



My roses, wonderful card, and cute Willow Tree figure.




One of my beautiful pink roses.

 I'm so thankful for the amazing, thoughtful, caring man that God has given to me!

"I thank my God every time I remember you." ~ Philippians 1:3