Satan's Working Overtime

You know, Roger's leaving Walter Reed Army Medical Center this week, coming home for good and you think there's nothing that could bring us down or mess up this week, but Satan is good at trying to make your good times not so good. I know how he works. I know it's him trying to bring us down, discourage us and pull us away from God. Thank the Lord we are able to recognize him and his lies and go straight to God for help and encouragement. And God always meets me where and when I need Him. I was thinking I need to read some scripture so I can change my focus back to Him and thought about what scripture I should read. I glanced over at my Bible Gateway Verse of the Day widget and as usual, the Lord put the scripture I needed there. Once again, He has led me where I need to go in His word.

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. Deuteronomy 7:9

After praying for the Lord to speak to me and lift me through His word, I studied the chapters surrounding this scripture. Peace and hope only the Lord can give has been found again. Thank you God. Please pray for Roger & I both. We are in the home stretch. Please pray for all of Roger's paperwork to be signed, approved and processed in a timely fashion and for us to make it through this last week with love, patience and peace. Thank you so much for praying for us. I'm sure you know how much we need it.

Valentine’s Day

I’ve read some articles lately about people griping about Valentine’s Day being a ridiculous holiday, guilting men into spending way too much money on flowers, lingerie and silly cards and dehumanizing singles and those without a date. I mean, we all know it’s a Hallmark holiday, but come on. When I read stuff like that, I just want to shake the author until they wake up. People in the articles say love should be shown every day not just on Valentine’s Day. You know what I say to that, join the real world people. We all know love should be shown every day, but in real life, that doesn’t happen. We’ve all seen it. Think about your parents. Men take their wives for granted and rarely show them love in the way a woman needs it. For some women, if it weren’t for Valentine’s Day they wouldn’t get a card or flowers or have a special dinner ever. I know married women who have never received flowers from their husband. I even know a woman whose husband doesn’t give her a Mother’s Day card even though she bore him a child because he says she’s not his mother. What a loser! In fairy tale land, spouses show love and affection every day. But the last time I checked, this wasn’t fairy tale land. No matter what the tabloids try to tell you. Why do you think the romance novel industry is so huge?! Women are reading romance novels to get the romance they are lacking in their relationships. Why do you think romantic comedies are such popular movies?! For some women, it’s the only romance they get. If you’re wife is reading romance novels, you’ve got a problem. And you are the problem. And I’m not talking about making one night a year special. Show her how much you love her by doing the laundry on a regular basis. Cook dinner one night a week. Wash dishes with her and talk about whatever and listen. Share the household chores. Write her a note or send her a card just because. Take her out on a date at least once a month. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to show someone you really care about them and you appreciate them. Take the kids to the park on a Saturday morning so your wife has a few hours for herself for goodness sake. She deserves it. Hold her hand everywhere you go and kiss her good bye every time you leave her. Come on guys, just because you won her doesn’t mean you have to stop wooing her.

My Crazy Life

This is going to be a rapid fire, all over the place and long (sorry Steph) post. I'm feeling it today. I'm feeling overwhelmed and freaking out a little bit inside. I got back to Austin last night. Thought I'd be fine and be able to get back to the grind with no problems. I had so much to do last night that I went to sleep really late. But couldn't actually fall asleep. I guess my body got used to sleeping next to my husband. I just could not fall asleep until right before my alarm went off. Then I hit off instead of snooze so I overslept. I don't know how or why I woke up when I did on my own, but I'm glad I woke up at all. I usually get up around 6am and head out by 7am or 7:30am. I woke up at 8:30am! I was gone by 8:50am and arrived at school about 10:45am even after stopping at my favorite kolache bakery in Caldwell. And I didn't even speed too bad, only 4-5 mph over the speed limit where I could. I was starving since I didn't have time for breakfast and really needed some comfort food this morning. I know worldly things won't solve the problem, but it sure felt better as I was eating my favorite kolaches, poppy seed. Yes, that was plural. I had two! It's okay since I've lost 10 pounds this semester, probably from stress.

As I was approaching the parking lot I'm assigned to I could see both buses I can ride driving off. I only had to wait about five minutes for both the #1 Bonfire and #5 Bush School buses to arrive. I jumped on the #5 and arrived on campus with 15 minutes to walk to the building. I got to class on time but didn't have enough time to use the restroom. Thank goodness I didn't have to go too bad, like normal. Sorry. We covered problems people were having with their research paper and got our book reviews back before the professor left so we could do an evaluation. I am not happy with my grade, 79, C+. This is the first C I've made in this class. Of six assignments, I've made 3 A's, 2 B's and now this C. And I thought I did so well on it too. I was actually pretty pissed off about it.

After we finished our evaluations, five of us stayed in the classroom and discussed our disappointment with our grades on the book reviews which led to discussion about our final paper and overall grade in the class. Everyone else is graduating this December so they are freaking out more than me. One girl sat with me and helped me figure out my grade in the class so far. I have an 87.9, B+, which is not bad. I actually had no idea what my grade was because I had not calculated it. So I'm feeling a little better about that since it means if I make an 80 on my final paper, I'll make an 88.1 in the class. If I make a 70 on my final paper, I'll make an 84.8 in the class. AND if I make a 60 on my final paper, I'll make an 81.5 in the class. IF we calculated it all correctly. So I'd have to do really, really bad on my final paper to make below a B in this class. I know I have to make at least a C in the class since it's a class for my major, but I think I only need a C in it to keep my GPA above the minimum for my major.

I'm usually not a person who figures out the minimum I need to make on a test or paper to pass a class, but I do not want to take this class again or pay for it again. My other problem is I'm an overachiever and I care about my grade in this class and what my professor thinks about me. Although I have an "I don't care" attitude, deep, deep, deep down inside, I really do care. I wish I could be like that sometimes, but I can't. I wasn't raised that way. Darn hard-working, respectable parents of mine are to blame for that. SO I made an appointment for tomorrow morning and Sunday afternoon at the University Writing Center for help improving my paper. I'm going to spend tonight fixing all the little problems so I can use all of my 45 minute appointment with a writing expert on the bigger issues.

Once I turn in my final paper for my history class on Tuesday, December 4th by 5:00pm, I will finish reading two weeks worth of assignments for my anthropology class for the final on Wednesday, December 12th. While I was in DC our grades were posted for the third test in that class. I made an 83, B. I'm cool with that. I have an 88 so far in this class and I'm not worried at all about it or my final grade. Plus if I go to the local natural history museum, I can get two bonus points added to my final grade. So you know I'll be going to help my overall grade any way I can.

Now that I got all that off my chest, I feel better. Wow, this blog is good for something. Thanks for reading my ramblings. And thanks for all your prayers. I'll try to post this weekend if I get time about my wonderful time in DC with Roger. It really was a blessing to be with him especially when he received his MEB. I was so happy to be able to be there to see one step of the process and meet so many people that have helped Roger to get to this point and make it through this whole process. It was great to get to celebrate with him. I'll tell you more about it all when I get a chance. Until then...pray for me to make it through this next two weeks and keep praying for Roger to be able to come home to me soon. I love you all and appreciate your love and prayers so much. I hope you all know how much I do. :)