Forgotten Thoughts

I had so many things I wanted to blog about today and they have all escaped my brain leaving me with absolutely nothing pertinent to post. It seems the past two days have taken a toll on me today and I am inexplicably exhausted.

Seriously, I am two shades away from taping my eyes open here at my desk. Or I might just close my door and take a nap.

Anywho.

Yesterday was an extremely hard day. Saying goodbye for forever to someone you've know your whole life is one of the hardest things a person ever has to do. And it's even harder when they had their whole life ahead of them. And I know, outside of his family, it was even harder on certain other people than me.

However, it was good to be with friends and see friends that you haven't seen in a while. A long while.

I saw many people that I looked up to when I was younger -- Jennifer Malone Crowe, Jennifer Hartzog, John Gordon, Lisa Curry and of course my three moms, Sherry Russum, Karen Stewart and Cheri Powell.

I saw people who used to say to me, "Wow, last time I saw you, you were this big." And found myself saying the same thing to their children, ahem, who are about to graduate from high school.

Oh. My. Word. I'm 25. And feel old. Not supposed to happen.

My sweet Stephanie Russum came up to me and said that she had 25 days left of high school and then we proceeded to talk about where she was going to college and what she was studying. And all I could think about was teaching her to swim and remembering when she was in first grade, sitting on my lap in the youth room, learning the ABC's of Christianity and memorizing the 10 Commandments.

I remember being at her house, with her brother, whom I used to have one of those, what do you call it? Oh relationships. Yeah. That. I remember being there, forgetting that he was there and playing with her and her friend Savannah.

I saw guys I used to hang out with, and laugh at their immature jokes, who are now husbands and fathers.

Have things really changed THAT much? Are we really THAT much older? Has time really flown by THAT fast?

Yep. I think so.

But in all of the changes, in all the grown up faces and new hair-dos and facial hair (on the boys, not the girls), I looked into eyes and saw the people I once new. Even the ones that I was really dreading seeing.

There are some amazing memories there. Some pretty hilarious memories there. Most of them involved toilet paper. And trees. And minivans. And my Dad acting like he'd fallen off a roof.

And I remembered things that I'd forgotten. And people I'd forgotten.

And God showed himself once again.

(So maybe I had something to blog about after all.)

I'll leave you with pictures of my nephew and the carousel ride I mentioned last week.

This was the smile he gave me when I told him to smile. Precious-ness.

Mommy And Cutie..."wrastlin'" on the bed

Praise The Lord For Faithful Servants

I don't know April Adams but I praise God for her and her husband. April just commented on my last post. This is what she said:

"I’ve been searching on the internet for the people in the accident you mention and came across you. I want to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. I prayed last night that everyone would walk away from the terrible crash. My husband is Sgt. Dan Adams with the 20-2 Special Forces Support Group in Jackson, MS. We were driving north on 25 to our home in Starkville, MS yesterday when we saw the accident. My husband arrived before the ambulance and made a tunicate from clothing and a windshield wiper blade for your friend’s knee along with trying to sustain his blood loss."

April's husband is about to leave for active duty in Afghanistan. I can't help but drop to my knees and praise God for the way he works. He placed people all along the path to take care of my friend and only He could be that provident.

Thank you, April, for letting me know this. You and your husband were definitely answered prayers as I know that there were groans coming from that accident that only the Holy Spirit could intercede for. And I know there were many prayers sent up from cars traveling along Highway 25.

"Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer." Psalm 4:1

Can't Put Life In A Box

So many times, I roll on through life thinking nothing can get me. I am invincible. Car wrecks and heart attacks, suicides and homicides are just things that happen to other people. Never to me.

I tend to put life in a little box and expect it to never go out of the parameters of that shell.

Today, I realized (again) how wrong I am. How no one, especially I, can't tame what only God has control of. And y'all, God has complete control of life no matter how hard we try to think otherwise.

Today, I lost a really good friend. A great friend. Life-long friend. He died from injuries sustained from a car wreck in Carthage, Miss. There were two others with him -- a girl and a guy. The girl, who is from Columbus, is still in critical condition. The guy walked away from the incident. No one was wearing seat belts and all were thrown from the vehicle.

I can't tell you how many pieces my heart is in right now. I just don't understand. I'm in shock. I don't understand how someone can be here one minute, and the next they are gone.

But I tell you what I do understand. God is faithful. God is in control. God is bigger than all of this and he's working out some crazy plan that we all won't understand until we are all together in his kingdom one day. He has a purpose.

I've been studying Romans with my small group from church. This past week we were in Chapter 8. Paul says in verse 17 of this chapter, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

There's a promise there. Did anybody else catch it? We get to share in HIS glory. That's some good stuff. So I've heard.

Bradley Gibson is a child of God. I know. I was there when it happened. This verse gives us such a hope for what is to come. Right now, Brad is experiencing that. He's is straight up in the midst of God's glory. And as sad as I am that he is still not with us hear on Earth, I'm so excited that he is up there enjoying his Lord.

We sang one of my favorite hymns in church today and I would have never known it would take such a different meaning just nine hours later.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I in my Savior am happy and blessed,
watching and waiting, looking above,
filled with his goodness, lost in his love.

How great it is to know that there is nothing we can do to lose that!

Romans 8 offers up even more encouraging verses.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose...If God is for us, who can be against us...Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."


Brad Gibson, you were a great friend. Like a brother. I will miss you. And your curly hair.

Father, please take care of the Gibsons right now. I don't even want to imagine how bad they are hurting right now. I praise you that they have such an incredible family of faith to surround them right now but I pray that you will minister to them in the other times, the dark, quiet times. The times when no one is there. Help them be there for each other, support each other and lift each other up.

I pray for the girl who was with them. Place your healing touch on her. However, if it is your will to take her with you, please be with her family and friends and help them know what a faithful God you are.

Be with the young man who was fortunate enough to walk away. I know he's asking some big questions right now and I pray that he will see you as you are revealing yourself to him right now. I pray that he will be ministered to in a way that only you receive the glory.

And Lord, I pray that you will help me remember what a fragile life this is. I pray that you will help me live my life as you would want me to. Use me to make a difference and follow your command to do that with reckless abandon.

Now to him who is able to do immesurably more than we can ask, all glory, honor and praise.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Seriously?

Are you kidding me with this?

So Much To Include, I Don't Even Have A Title For It

Instead of breaking this post up into several mini-posts, I thought I'd just combine all the things I've been meaning to blog about into one gigantor post. Why not?

First things first...

GO DAWGS! I was so excited for the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Sunday I could've peed my pants. But I was in the middle of the latter half of a softball triple header and well, time doesn't allow for such accidents.

Ladies and Gentlemen...you're SEC Tournament MVP.


And for the record, as I was googling for the above photo, I found this...

That's Emily Howell Stringer, people. No doubt she is praying over the Bulldogs. I just thought it was funny that I googled "Mississippi State 2009 SEC Champs" and found this. Is this a sign for things to come for our football pups? I sure hope so.

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Here are my favorite quotes of the week:

Me: This is the best Philly I've ever had.
Baseball Player #1: That's what Craig Ferguson said. Including Philadelphia.
Me: Hmfmmm? (Confused with my mouth full.)
BP #1: It says it up on the wall over there.
Me: (reading off the wall) "The best Philly Cheesesteak I've ever had...including Philedelphia. - Craig Ferguson
Me: I wonder when he came to Birmingham.
BP #2: It was probably a Wednedsay.

Washington head Coach Lorenzo Romar: "You win the SEC conference tournament, it seems like you'd be better than a 13-seed." (Scared much, Mr. Romar?)

Rick Stansbury: "Only thing I know is, we don't have to worry about sitting on the bubble. We busted that bubble."

Jarvis Varnado: "I never thought that I'd be sitting here SEC champs and a MVP. I just thank God for it."

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Has anyone seen Jimmy Fallon this week? I love Jimmy Fallon. He is so humble in his humor. He laughs at himself. So cute.

Anyway, he's been honoring the Chattanooga men's basketball team this week for their "accomplishment" of getting a 16-seed in the NCAA tournament. He's "rooting" for the underdog and has put together a couple of shorts to go along with them.

Check it out.

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And this. Good stuff.



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And finally, the fam minus my bro-in-law (because you know, he's got to tend to Jesus' business) came to visit me over the past few days. They came in on Sunday afternoon, got to see me doin' my thang at softball and then I got to take the day off on Monday to hang out. Then we had lunch on Tuesday before they left. Good times.

Dad's hugs did not disappoint, mom smiled a lot and of course, I was funny enough to make my sister laugh a good bit. It's what I do. The nephew is as precious as ever and as soon as I figure out how to get the pictures I took with my fancy new Canon Rebel camera off the camera and onto the computer, I'll upload and show you just how precious he is.

One of the highlights was watching the little dude and my dad ride the carousel at the Galleria. Then he wanted to ride again, so I joined the boys and rode myself.

My name is Katie, I'm 25 and a half, and I rode a carousel on Monday with a bunch off kiddos. And it was the highlight of my week.

Thank you very much.

Clean Up On Aisle Four!

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted. I had lots of stuff up my sleeve to blog about and it all seems very irrelevant now.

It's that time of year again...a time of year that approaches about every three months. I've hit the wall of exhaustion. Hard. When Sunday comes, I will have worked over 90 hours in the last 10 days with multiple days of 10 hours or more.

I know I can't really complain because there are doctors and accountants out there that have definitely worked more than me but, most of the work I've done this week has nothing to do with my sports, so humor me.

The past week and a half has included (and will include) five softball games (one extra inning), four baseball games (one game of 12 innings), two football scrimmages, a golf tournament, an impromptu lunch with two baseball players who introduced me to my new favorite Philly eatery, and one interesting work scandal (that has nothing to do with me). Oh, and two free lunched, thanks to new sponsors. Yum!

Last night, at bible study, was the first night this week that I've been at home, and awake, for longer than 30 minutes.

And with that, sports have overtaken my dreams. This time, that means that in my dreams, I'm driving Samford baseball players around in my mom's minivan and worrying about what hole on the golf course my softball players are on.

Still, that doesn't begin to scratch the surface of crazy dreams in Katieland.

I didn't get to blog yesterday and I so wanted to because my parents celebrated their 32nd year of marriage. I could write a book about what great parents I have but I'll just say that they've shown me what a great love is and have truly displayed Christ's love for His church through their relationship.

My best friend Lauren Brown Pape also turned 26 on Wednesday and I was a bad friend and didn't think about it until 5:30 that day. LB and I have been through big stuff together and I can't believe that we have lasted 26 years together. It's incredible how God keeps people in your life even after a six-year silence. Wow! Much love to you, LB!

I wish I had pictures to complement this post but I just cleaned off my pictures from my work computer so I don't have any.

Well, the DAWGS are down by two right now in Tampa so I need to stop blogging and start cheering!

Until we meet again...

Just Call Me The Bag Lady

I have a problem.

It seems that when I buy things, especially more than one thing (e.i., buy two get one free), stores want to give me things for free. And most of the time those free things are bags, totes if you will.

This would be okay if I did already have a mound of bags (totes, duffles, purses) already in my cardboard box of a room. There is no room. No room. At the inn in Bethlehem. Or should I say, in the place called Katie's room.

And don't get me wrong. The blame is not all on the sales clerk. It's mostly mine. I have a slight obsession. I don't need things to be free to acquire them.

However, imagine my delighted dismay when I went to Bath & Body Works to buy a new thing (tube, bottle, container?) of lotion because BBW is the only kind I will settle for. I usually only get one but they were having this buy two get one free thing and well, I just got my refund check, so I thought I'd go for it and stock up.

Well when I get to the cash register, the nice girl asks me to pick out a tote, to which I confirm that it was free of course.

So now this is what my room looks like:

I'm drowning in a see of baggage. Luggage? Bags. Someone throw me a life preserver.

The pink zebra-esque bag you see on the top was my free gift. It zips into a small 4x4 little clutch-looking thing. It's pretty cool. I'll probably never use it.

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Did anyone see American Idol last night? And did anyone see the judges do the unspeakable and bring back Tatiana?

American Idol judges,

I think I'm speaking on behalf of America when I say, we made the right decision the first time around. We don't need you undoing things. We all agree that the girl can sing. However, some things are just not meant to be. And because of her annoying and overwhelming personality, Tatiana just isn't meant to be.

Utterly annoying in Birmingham,

Katie

I try not to think that producers of shows like this go to great lengths to make drama but I think last night the AI producers just showed their true colors.

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(You might have seen this last night on Facebook but I feel it should be duplicated.)

Dear writers of LOST,

I thought this season would be a season of revelation. It seems as though I was wrong. Again. I am again, as they would say, "lost" and I would appreciate some help.

Dazed and confused,

Katie

Observations

* I've blown my nose five times in the last four minutes. Yuck.

* I've been telling people that I've given up Coke for Lent. Then I realized today that I should probably say that I've given up carbonated beverages due to the fact that when I say Coke, it could possibly be interpreted as cocaine. And seeing as I've never taken up the "crack rock", nor do I ever plan to in the future, I surely could not have "given it up". Plus, I don't want people thinking I'm a recovering crackhead. However, giving it up for Lent might be a step in the right direction.

* Onions and chili on hotdogs make my gag reflexes kick in. I learned this last night.

* Facebook is officially a verb. Someone call Merriam-Webster. Ex: "I Facebooked her earlier today."

* White Exterras take me back to a time goes by. My heart rate increases slightly at the sight of them. They haunt me to this day.

What It's All About

I know this is my third post today, but once I saw this video, I couldn't help but share. The two minutes of this video is what it is all about.

"People like me don't come into church. You have to take church to us so we can find it."

Know Your Role

The major question that I've always had in my Christian life has been, "Why am I here?" God doesn't really need me. He can do everything that he does through me on his own. He has no real need for me. It's only been in the last couple of years that I've realized what a privilege it is to be a part of what God is doing here on Earth.

This devotion (by Rick Warren) that my Dad sent out today, reiterates what a joy it is to be a part of God's work and what a neat thing it is to play our different roles. Because everyone has a different role to play. Everyone.

(If you'd like to be added to his devotion list, just leave your email in the comments and I'll send them along to him.)

God formed every creature on this planet with a special area of expertise. Some animals run, some hop, some swim, some burrow, and some fly. Each has a particular role to play based on the way they were shaped by God. The same is true with humans. Each of us is uniquely designed, or "shaped," to do certain things.

Before architects design any new building they first ask, "What will be its purpose? How will it be used?" The intended function always determines the form of the building.

Before God created you, he decided what role he wanted you to play on earth. He planned exactly how he wanted you to serve him, and then he shaped you for those tasks. You are the way you are because you were made for a specific ministry.

The Bible says, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works" (Ephesians 2:10 NIV). Our English word "poem" comes from this Greek word translated "workmanship." You're God's handcrafted work of art. You're not an assembly-line product, mass-produced without thought. You're a custom designed, one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece.

God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve him in a way that makes your ministry unique. He carefully mixed the DNA recipe that created you. David praised God for this incredible personal attention to detail God gave in designing each of us: "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous" (Psalm 139:13-14 NLT).

Not only did God shape you before your birth, he planned every day of your life to support his shaping process. David continues, "Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed" (Psalm 139:16 NLT).

This means nothing that happens in your life is insignificant. God uses all of it to mold you for your ministry to others and shape you for your service to him.

God never wastes anything. He would not give you abilities, interests, talents, gifts, personality, and life experiences unless he intended to use them for his glory. By identifying and understanding these factors you can discover God's will for your life.

The Bible says you are "wonderfully complex." You're a combination of many different factors: "The people I have shaped for myself will broadcast my praises" (Isaiah 43:21 NJB).

by Rick Warren

Let's Just Get Something Straight

Oh you Bachelor producers, our relationship from this point forward is indefinitely put on hold. (At least until next season. Or until Melissa is the next Bachelorette.)

What the heck did you think you were doing displaying such madness on national television? You should be ashamed of yourselves. (But I understand there is money to be earned.)

My advice to America: Stay away from all human beings with the moniker Jason. Nothing but bad news bears lies ahead. Trust me.

Poor, poor Melissa, what embarrassment she has to be feeling right now. However, when that girl stepped out onto that set, I knew things were about to, as my senior AP English teacher Mr. Avalon would say, "go to hell in a hand basket." Melissa, as we have learned is not one to hide her feelings and what she was feeling was written all over her face.

If I were her friend (and Melissa, if you are reading, I think we would be great bfries), I probably not take the high road, go all What Happens In Vegas on Mr. Jason, and go to his door, kick him and when he is rolling around on the floor, crying in agony, asking "Why, God, why," I'll have three little words for him, "You know why!"

On to 24...Nothing in this world could take my love for Jack Bauer away unless he were to do something incredibly unspoken and surprising, but my word, people! What the heck is going on with all the White House break-ins and shooting of the guns IN THE WHITE HOUSE?!?! And the secret service just backing away like that?!?! What kind of international powerhouse are we? Where are all of the soldiers that are supposed to be standing guard every three inches?? Good grief!

And on to the political/economic rant...which will be short. Can somebody please explain to me why all of these people who have done bad things with all of our money are still living in their 20 billion dollar penthouses and driving fancy schmancy cars? Not only should they be locked up, every bit of their possessions, whether connected to the money or not, should be taken from them and liquidated, and the money should be used for these so-called "bailouts" instead of the government just creating this money out of nowhere. Can we let these idiots live life like the people that they have affected with their stupidity for once? Let someone else suffer for a bit?

It's just a suggestion.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.



I did not get sick from sitting outside all day long on Saturday scoring softball game after softball game. I would never put my health on the backburner for my job like that. Never.

I did not get up a 7 a.m. yesterday morning when I got a text message telling me that our games were cancelled, post a release about the cancellations on the website, and go back to sleep. I also did not sleep until 1 p.m. No worries though, I did get to the 6 p.m. service at church last night.

However, I was not 10 minutes late to church last night because I decided to "run into" Target before church started and got sidetracked in the DVD aisle.

Which leads me to...

I did not buy five new movies this weekend which were on sale. Friday, I did not buy the Bourne Trilogy and Sunday, I did not buy Casino Royale and The Queen.

I did not have a bad feeling about Mississippi State's basketball game against Auburn and did not not feel bad about not listening to it because I was working.

I did not eat Qdoba twice this past week which would not have made three meals of Mexican food for me in a week.

And finally, I did not give up carbonated beverages for Lent and I most certainly am not regretting that decision right now.

What did you not do this week?