Micheal's 24!!

Yesterday was Micheal's 24th birthday! This year I decided I would attempt to throw him a surprise birthday party at my apartment. I am proud to say everything went off without a hitch! Early last week I started cooking up the idea to throw him, Stacy, and Shonda (who also have July birthdays) a party, I wanted it to be a surprise but I really thought it would be impossible to keep Micheal from finding out. Mainly because we had Vacation Bible School all last week and everyone I invited was working out there. I just knew he was going to overhear something. But after the whole week went by and he was still in the dark I started thinking that it could actually work. I seriously could not have done it without all of my friend's help. Everyone said they would bring stuff to make burgers so we could cook out at my apartment and the kids could swim in the pool. I was so grateful that my awesome landlord allowed me to go WAY over my 2 guests in the pool rule for his party. I was sooo excited that everyone was going to be coming over to my apartment. We get together with our friends every other Thursday to hangout and have dinner and we like to rotate houses. However, since my apartment is so small I have never been able to host it. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone hanging out and having a good time! I can't wait until I have a home where I can have people over for dinner and what not without everyone being cramped! Ha Ha! On Monday I called everyone and confirmed that they were gonna be able to come and told them where to park and everything was falling into place perfectly. At that point the only thing that could have possibly messed it up was if it rained. I got really nervous around 4:30 when clouds started rolling in but praise God it only sprinkled for about 5 minutes and the rest of the time the weather was perfect! Even the mosquitoes left us alone! At one point during the party I was walking down my stairs and I saw all of my friends and family hanging out having fun and it completely warmed my heart. It just meant so much to me that everyone was willing to help me pull the party off. Everyone was so great helping me with whatever I needed. Friendship is such an awesome thing! I am definitly blessed!! Happy Birthday Micheal Dean! I pray you and I get to spend many, many more birthdays together!! I love you! P.S. You are getting OLD!! :)

Here were the two birthday girls, Stacy and Shonda. I can't believe I found a pic of just the two of them together! This pic was from Relay for Life back in June.

This was when Micheal first walked in!

Their cake!

Stacy's Pink tractor Cake Kara made her!

The coloring of this pic isn't good but it was the only group one I found

Summer Time!

Hello everyone!! :) I hope everyone has been having an awesome summer! This summer has without a doubt been the most relaxing and fun one I have had in a while. It has been a nice combination of cookouts, friends, family, vacations, and best of all NO SCHOOL! Throughout the last couple of months God has really opened my eyes and allowed me to see how truly blessed I am. So for this post I am going to list a few of the MANY things I am thankful for!

1) My family: I have the most amazing family anyone could ever ask for. I was able to grow up in a Christian home where I always knew I was safe and loved. My parents have an amazing marriage and I am so grateful for that example growing up. My mom and dad are my biggest fans and I love them so much! My little brother is pretty much the coolest person I have ever met! Now that I have moved out we have such an awesome relationship. It is so great watching him grow into an amazing man of God.

2) Micheal Dean: There truly are no words to describe how blessed I am to have a man in my life like Micheal. He truly is my Prince Charming and I look forward to see what God has in store for us in the future. :) My Dad told me a while back that he started praying for my future husband from the time I was a baby and I am so grateful he did that because God totally came through!! :)







3) Friends: A few years ago after I graduated high school I really struggled because I felt like I did not have friends. Let me rephrase that, I knew I had friends but I wanted one of those amazingly colse friendships where you stay up all night talking and laughing. A friend that lived near by so we could meet up for lunch or have a spur of the moment movie night. One of those friendships that is truly a gift from God. There was a time when I felt like that was never going to happen because I chose not to go off to college. I thought that was what you had to do if you wanted to have those kind of friends. Well once again God totally came through for me in an amazing way. I have the best group of friends! I truly could not ask for better! Every single one of them is special in their own unique way but when we all get together we have a blast! So... all of that to say that I am SO thankful for all of the wonderful friendships God has brought into my life!!



The guys (Minus Zac and Micheal Williamson)




The Girls (minus Kara and Stephanie)



4) My Job: I got my first job whenever I was a junior in high school and from then until now I have been so blessed to have always been able to work in wonderful Christian environments. Also, I was able to meet some awesome people who I truly grew to love. When I worked at Radio Shack it was so great to get to work with De who has always been like a second mom to me and with Larry and Donna. They were always so patient with me (a girl who knows NOTHING about electronics) Ha!! It was really hard to leave last summer but I knew it was time. The job I am at now is awesome! I have made amazing friendships and have been able to rekindle some old ones. This job was an answer to prayers because I was soooo ready to move out and by working here I am able to afford my own apartment and still be a full time college student.


5) My Apartment: I absolutely love my little apartment. I know that I do not want to live there forever but I also know it is going to be so hard when it comes time to leave it! It has been really awesome being able to have a place of my very own and I have enjoyed being able to support myself financially without having to depend on my parents. That is truly a blessing!


I could go on and on about all of the things in my life I am thankful for but I'm gonna stop here so this post doesn't get too out of control! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us

Ephesians 3:20

MooLah!! :)

Well everything is going great! School, work, friends, family...everything! I am so grateful for all the blessings God has poured out into my life! I am still doing pretty good with my daily quiet time. There were a couple of days that went by without me doing it but I am not going to let that discourage me! :) Anyway, I am really excited about the finance class that I am taking! It will be REALLY helpful for me to learn how to set up a budget and stick to it. I think I have always been pretty responsible with my money, especially since I moved out and have bills of my own now. But I have never really had a budget. So hopefully this class will help me learn how to do that. I am also excited because our book for the class is from Crown Financial Ministries, they base their teachings on the Bible. I just love going to a school where I can not only learn the things that I need to know for my major but also learn them from a Godly perspective. :) I will check back in and let you know how it goes! For the month of February our assignment is to write down all of our expenses and then write a paper over how it went and what we learned from doing that. I already write down what I spend but it will be nice to go a little bit deeper and look at exactly where all my money is going! The main reason why I want to budget my money is so I can help my little brother, Adam Michael Martin purchase Xbox live. (Ha Ha Adam I hope you know that I am sooo kidding but I mentioned you in my blog like you asked me to!) :) Anyway, I hope everyone has a blessed day!!

Back To School Again!

I started back to school yesterday for the spring semester. ( I realize the entire fall semester has gone by without me posting! Ooops!! Ha Ha) Anyway, I think I am really going to enjoy my classes this semester! I am taking: Literacy and the Young Child, Family Financial Management, Marriage and Family Therapy; Personal Fitness and Wellness, and Family, Stress, Crisis, and Resilience. I LOVE my major! The classes are so interesting I actually find myself enjoying the lectures! I never thought that would happen!! Ha Ha!! I think I only have one semester left after this one and then I should have my Bachelors degree in Family Studies. Right now I am trying to decide where I want to do my practicum. I plan on doing it this summer so I better figure it ot here pretty quick. I want it to be something that I enjoy and something that hopefully will help me figure out what I want to do after I graduate. I know God will guide me in the right direction! :)

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I am really excited about 2010. My goal for this year is to do better at truly seeking God with all my heart. I tell the girls in Micheal's youth group how important it is for us to go after God and really seek out his promises for our life. I have always been the type of person who will stick to my quiet time for a little while and then something will come up and before I know it two weeks have gone by and I haven't done it. So I have purposed in my heart that this year its going to be different. So far I have done a lot better. It has always been hard for me to turn everything off (tv, cell phone, radio, etc) and just have quiet time with God. I don't really know why...maybe because I don't like the quiet. Also, I think it is difficult for me because I never really know what to read or what to pray for or really where to start. Its like I have so much bottled up inside me and so many things that I want to work on that it is overwhelming. But I know it is very important to have that intimate time with Christ. So I am trusting that God will honor the time I spend with Him and help me to overcome the obstacles that sometimes get in my way. I have also been keeping a prayer journal and writing down scriptures that I feel God has laid on my heart. It is really neat to write down a prayer request and then go back and write how God answered that prayer! It really has helped my faith grow!

Some specific prayer requests that I have right now are for the 2 Disciple Nows that are coming up. One of them is here in Littlefield and the other one is in Amarillo. Micheal and I are really excited about about what God is going to do in the lives of young people at these two events. Please pray for the kids' hearts to be opened to receive whatever God has for them and for all the people involved! Thanks and God Bless!!! :)

Baby Tyson!

So Micheal got a new puppy about a week ago! He is a black lab who just turned 6 weeks old on Sunday! We have been having a lot of fun with him! He is a sweetheart! Well at least I think he is....I'm not the one who has to listen to him cry and whine all night!! Ha Ha!! That's Micheal's job!! Anyway his name is Tyson and I just love him!!! I have to take him to get his shots today...poor baby! Here are some pics!! Enjoy!!

Summer Trip!!

Back in July my family, Micheal and I went to Carlbad Caverns and Ruidoso for our vacation. It was a lot of fun...sadly my camera died half way through the trip (it does that every time I go on a trip and I NEVER remember to bring my charger...UGH!!!) so I didn't get to take any pictures of us at White Sands. :( Besides that it was a very fun and relaxing trip. We went shopping, fished at the lake by our cabin, ate A LOT, went to White Sands and just hung out!!

Our first stop was Carlsbad Caverns. My family went a few years ago but Micheal had never been so it was neat to go with him. If you have never been to the caverns it is a VERY steep walk down so lets just say Micheal got a little tired on the way...

But once he got his second wind he seemed to enjoy himself! Ha Ha!! :) Micheal's favorite part by FAR was the fishing. The lodge we stayed at had fishing, golfing, tennis and swimming all included so Micheal practically lived at the lake. It was right outside our door so him and Adam got up early every morning and went down there while the rest of us slept like NORMAL people! Ha Ha!! :)

We caught over 20 fish while we were there so it was a lot of fun. I had not been fishing in a long time and I certainly had not caught a fish in a while...so when I actually caught one...well lets just say it COMPLETELY caught me off guard! My face was priceless!!

We had a lot of fun and I can't wait to go back real soon! Ruidoso is just such a beautiful place!! I love it!!

WOW!!!

Where has this summer gone!!!??? Seriously! It has been a crazy fun summer but it flew by WAY too fast...as usual! So, what has been going on with me for the last few months?? Let me see...

First off I started off the summer by moving into my own apartment and starting a new job. It was a big change but I have not regretted it for one single second. I had been blessed with a great job at Littlefield Service Center for the past two years. De and Larry were AWESOME when it came to working with my school schedule and I could not have asked for a better job while I was at SPC. However, I knew that it was time for something different. I prayed and simply asked God for direction about where I should move and where I should apply for jobs etc. After looking into moving to Levelland with my cousin and a few other things...(all of which fell through) I decided to put my name on the waiting list at Lfd Apts. The timing could not have been more perfect because in the mean time one of my friends, Tammy and Andy Roberts told me that they were looking for someone to help them out part time with their youth ministry. The job COULD not have been more perfect for me. I was able to work in a Christian atmosphere with great people and the hours work PERFECTLY with me going to school. So after praying about it I decided to accept Tammy's offer and apply for the job. In the mean time I got a call saying that an apt had opened up and I was set to move in June 1st. I was so excited!! I was given the job at the church and found out I started there on June 1st also! Ha! June 1st was a big day for me!! :) Anyway... I have been working there for almost 3 months now and things are going great! God def came through and I know I am exactly where he wants me to be. I will post some pics of my apt soon!!