Open Hands

The past month has been so busy and hectic! The month started with Mike's birthday on June 2nd. We celebrated his birthday with his family on June 6th--he got two great suits from his dad so he will be all set for interviews when he starts looking for positions as a pastor come Januaryish. Let me tell you--he looks HOT in them, whew I have to fan myself just thinking about it! ;) His mom also took him shopping for some shirts and pants. I happened to get a couple new dresses on our shopping adventrure too, that was a treat! This past weekend we celebrated Mike's birthday with my family. We had dinner at my parent's house--salmon one of Mike's favorites! It was certainly a treat because I am not a salmon fan and do not plan on ever cooking it--I don't want my house smelling like fish--icky! He got a couple shirts from my parents to go with his suits, I got him a tie (black and pink) for when he comes to Mary Kay events with me, and my sister and her boyfriend gave Mike the hacksaw he has been wanting for months. I believe one of his favorite gifts was a pair of nurf dart guns also from my parents--thankfully they bought two so I can "defend" myself. Right when he opened them, he continued to take one out of it's packaging and I enlisted Rod (my sister's boyfriend) to help me unpack the other. A nurf dart war then ensued for at least 20 minutes--we had fun and I made the rule that he couldn't shoot me in the face. I know, where's the fun in that right? I'd have to say that Mike did pretty well with keeping the birthday celebration going for most of the month.

We also had our last homegroup meeting (Bible study group) at the beginning of the month and enjoyed food and fellowship. We are taking a break for the summer and will start up again at the end of August or beginning of September. This break is especially good becuase of Mike's schedule. He is taking both sessions of summer school at the seminary--6 classes total! Thankfully they broke up evenly 3 each session. He had an imense amount of work to do first session. One class was an independent study so he had extra work due to missing class time. He's also had a Satuturday class for the past several weeks that will end this weekend. It consists of 3 days of class all day on Saturday and then a 4 hr. class on Friday night this week. If that doesn't sound busy enough the second session started this week and he will be having class every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night from 6-10. The blessing on this is that only one of his classes started this week--the other two will start next week and the week after. Praise God for that bit of a relief in timing!!!!

I have been pretty busy myself, mostly looking for a second job. I went to Tucson the second weekend of this month for a day to visit one of my long time friends Angella. We spend most of the day together chatting, hiking and eating. I have been telling her for a long time that I would come visit, and I finally made good on my promise! It always seems like Tucson is so much farther away than it really is, that's something I'll have to remember for future visits.



I have also been learning to hold my hands open to God in surrender rather than clenching them in fists, trying to keep control of everything. It's funny because that used to be something that I was decent at, and within the last couple of months I've not been walking nearly as close to God as I would like and because of that I don't get filled by the Spirit. Instead I've been looking to Mike, family, shopping and friends to fill the empty space. Tuesdy mornings are very special to me, it's when our church has our women's Bible study groups and they have a new leadership development class that I'm taking called WILD (Women in Leadership Development). Our class is broken down into groups of 3 so you can really get to know each other, have accountability and really go deep. For this spring semester it has been such a blessing and something I have come to treasure--especially the women in my group. Little did I realize at the time, that I was being filled by them and now that we have broken for the summer, I realized how empty I'd become and what a mistake I'd made. For the past two months, I seem to have been on a downward spiral of hopelessness. God was silent and I couldn't feel His presence--but how could I if I was only crying out periodically? I had no consistency in seeking and listening for Him. I wanted things to happen quickly and I am once again learing the lesson that God's timing is perfect--in all circumstances! Thankfully I have had some wise women speak truth into my life when they could see me unraveling and listen to my pain, even though the answer was simple--seek God and TRUST Him, He will provide. His provision comes in so many forms. Recently it's come in these wise women's word's to me. I didn't realize how tightly I had been holding my grasp for control. Now I am working on surrendering everythig--job, finances, time with Mike, my business, looking for a job, etc. I know His timing will be right, and as I wait patiently (hopefully) I'll look to Him to fill my needs rather than to the things of this world. Yeserday, I just started Beth Moore's newest Bible study: Esther--It's Tough Being a Woman and I know that once again, God's timing is perfect.

Pictures

I thought I would post some pictures of some of the events from the past couple of months. I've been wanting to write about them but due to different things going on I've not had a chance. I hope you enjoy!

First up was our 6 month anniversary date--Mike took me back to Desert Ridge Marriott where he proposed and we spent some time walking around and of course reminiscing. From there we went to dinner at the Yard House which is one of our favorite restaurants.

Looking from the 6th floor down into the lobby.
Mike proposed on an outside balcony on the 6th floor at sunset.

Another date where we ate dinner by the lake and then fed the ducks.

Here they come!

It's Hot in Here!!!

The past week has been hot!!! Not outside, but inside. Friday night--May 22nd after having some friends over for dinner and a movie, Mike and I realized that our AC was not blowing cold air--no wonder it had felt hot all throughout the movie! We realized this just in time for Memorial Day weekend, which translates into we're not getting anyone out to give us a diagnosis until Tuesday at the earliest. For us that really meant Wednesday as we had plans all day Tuesday that couldn't be adjusted. We got a referral from my parents and had someone come check our AC unit on Wednesday and heard the news that the compressor was shot, and we would need a whole new unit. Our breaker was also fried due to some quick fix someone had done before Mike ever bought the condo. The quick fix was placing a copper tube somewhere so the breaker wouldn't do it's job by breaking the electric current--therefore frying our breaker and our compressor....thank you very much to whomever "fixed" the problem! Late Wednesday night after having discovered our problem Mike replaced the breaker...he does such a good job at fixing things...and we had a call already in for a second estimate. Company #2 came through a referral of a friend, thank you Stan, and they came out on Friday to give us their diagnosis. Both companies had the same conclusion, our AC was in fact shot and useless--we needed a whole new unit. Thankfully the second company's pricing was a bit cheaper so we were able to save a little money that route. (If anyone in Phoenix area needs a great AC company we have a great referral for you!) So, today at 8:30am the work for replacing our unit started. Around 10:30 they were to bring in a crane, but I was gone and didn't see that part--that would have been cool. It's now about 4pm and they are almost done--I can't wait to have AC back!!! Overall, the heat really hasn't been too bad. We are insulated on both sides by other condos and we have kept our window blinds closed and that has really helped in keeping the temperature from creeping up too high. At night it's still cool enough to open the doors and windows so we have our doors open until we go to bed and we sleep with our window open. I'd say the hottest it has gotten is 82 and that's been today with all the in and out and the front door being open during some of the repairs. God's provision is amazing and I know He will continue to provide financially for this new AC and heating unit. We just keep looking up and trusting Him!