Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Life in the Jesus spa!!

Have you ever felt TRULY relaxed. You know where not a single muscle is tense?? I mean I have been relaxed. For instance when I go and get a massage or my hair done. You know the things we pay hundreds of dollars to do!! But like always I come out of the spa get into my car and within an hour things hurt again or I feel tight and out of order. ( SHHHH do not tell my hubby this.....he will not let me spend the money on it ever again!) But I long to go again just for the moment.

Well recently I took out some clutter of my life. Clutter that I never assumed would be stress in my life. Ok lets get personal. I suffer from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) I have had it since 2002. Well long story short I have dealt with the anxiety in my life WAY TOO LONG!!! There were seasons in that time frame where God was so good to me and I would have long stretches of good days with the occasional gut wrenching worried filled days usually surrounded by having to stay alone. Fast forward to the year 2010. Well I started to have physical symptoms to my stress. BOO. And I started to notice them getting worse and worse. It was like this nasty cycle I was on I would feel a symptom stress out about it and then eventually over a few days feel better have a couple good days and then have another symptom. It got to the point I started to wonder if something was REALLY wrong with me and maybe I needed to go to the doctor about it. I was telling my bible study/accountability group about this and saying how I should just suck it up and go in and talk to a doc about it.

Well before I had the chance to make the appointment ( me really just procrastinating it) I had the worst feeling symptom just the other day. Enough to scare the crud right out of me. I called my mom (also my nurse) and made appointment to see a doctor. Because this was WAY more than anxiety it HAD to be. I called my dear friend afterwards to pray with and finally just decided I need to go talk it over with someone. So I talked and talked and talked. She listened. Good friend I tell ya. I came to the conclusion that I had some clutter in my life that I needed to be DONE with. And I felt a power of God come over me and reassuring that COMPLETELY. I went to my appointment broke down to my mom in the office about it. ( my poor mother. Please buy her chocolate and coffee if you see her. She deserves it!!) I had an excellent conversation with the Doctor and walked out of that office DONE with it!! Well I was sure that all this excitement was going to probably cause another attack but I felt different, well a little.

 I got up the next day got on my computer to  opened up my Beth Moore blog and began to read. ( I am doing a memory verse challenge) She talked about claiming your verse. And at one point made you recite your 1st memory verse. Mine:
 
1 John 4:18- There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made in perfect love.
 
 
And then she said, "now say your second verse to yourself." Mine again:
 
Galatians 5:1- It for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
 
You see, I picked these verses thinking, hmm these will be good ones, but I never truly understood claiming them and what that meant. Well I claimed them. And I can i tell you last night after I put my sweet boy to bed. I snuggled on the couch with my hubby and realized how at PEACE I was. I mean I can't remember the last time I was not worrying about this or what should I do for this or will I have a good day or bad day tomorrow. I mean, I was just at PEACE. And it was a peace that lasted through the night. I had the best sleep in a LONG while. Woke up feeling that I had some thanking to do.
I am sure that I will have more battles to come but now i feel like I can at least stand and battle!!! Why?? Because I visited the JESUS SPA and yes I feel refreshed and I feel this refreshment will last more than an hour and it was FREE!! Oh and I plan on returning to this spa on a regular basis. I discovered there is nothing sweeter than your time with your savior. And I love my SAVIOR!! So let me leave you with this verse that Francis Chan reminded me about in the Crazy Love Book.
 
 
Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
 
With Christ in my corner.....COME AT ME BRO!!  (hehe) Love ya all and thanks for letting me share a more personal blog than the usual Ashton updates.  


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

WHAT?? JAN 7TH??

By my title you can tell I am SHOCKED that it is already Jan 7th!!! Opps sorry to those waiting for an update on the Land of Lenz. Where did December go??? Oh wait I think I kind of remember it....

The beginning of December started out with New furniture for my living room!! I had started to think that after owning our first furniture set for 9 years and only spending like 200 dollars on it. It was time for some new stuff. But looking at what it would cost there was NO WAY the hubs was going to go for it. He can be a frugal man....So I tried to put the bug in his ear, and got the reaction that I expected. So when we went black friday shopping he shocked me when he asked if I wanted to check out this furniture sale at furniture row. SOLD! My man CAN NOT turn down a good deal. They threw in a free 51 inch TV!! SOLD! So the first week of december I worked a loooonnnngg shift at work and came home to NEW furniture!! YIPPPEEE. I of course had to get my christmas decorations up to show case it! :)


Second week of December the start of Basketball season!! :) YEEHAW!! This is my favorite time to be a cheer coach. 1. because I actually kind of understand whats going on in the game. 2. I am not freezing in the bleachers 3. I have more time to spend with my crazy cheerleaders.4. we start putting our competition routine together. I love my girls!! This year I have an amazing group. Many of them Love Jesus and they have no probelm showing it!! Looking forward to the season with them.

Third week of December, bring on the Christmas PARTIES!!!!!! My first one was my work christmas party always a good time with some pretty crazy ladies!! We hosted our small groups christmas party. Complete with ugly christmas sweaters, fun games, good food and great friends what a blast it was!! And then the next night I had 23!!! yes 23!!! teenagers in my home for the youth group christmas party. With the typical crazy white elephant gift exchange! you would not believe what teenagers fight over as a gift. The popular ones this year was a spiderman shirt and zebra slippers?? Good times I tell you and then I ended it with another christmas party with my cheerleaders. Thankfully I did not have to plan that one.
Next was Luke and I's 9 year anniversary!! 9 YEARS people!! I can't believe it. Where did the time go. A dear friend of mine offered to watch Ashton ALL day for us with one stipulation, we had to spend the ENTIRE day together so no running errands etc. So we dropped Ashton off and then Luke drove me to my favorite flower shop. There he a  beautiful arrangement waiting for me!! We then went christmas shopping for Ashton. Luke bought me a dress and earrings to wear on Christmas. We then grabbed lunch at the brick house. Did some decor shopping picked out our future dinning room table and decided to take advantage of our nice quite house and picked up dinner and rented a movie!! It was so relaxing and such an awesome day!
 
CHRISTMAS!!
We had all of my family over after the christmas eve service and opened gifts with my nephews and nieces. Ate WAY TOO much food and enjoyed a Christmas Story. The next morning we let Ashton open his christmas stocking and then we bundled up and headed over to my parents house to open up more gifts and enjoy a good ham dinner. It was such a relaxing day!
 
 
Other awesome highlights this last month.
 
Ashton started crawling and is now FAST at it!
Ashton went sledding for the first time
Ashton got to go in the indoor play park at the rec center
Ashton is a MAMA's boy
Ashton discovered his love of pork sausage and bacon
Ashton Now has THREE teeth!! He looks like a deranged hamster :)
 
* I meant to put more photos up but I am having technical difficulties. So instead here is one super cute photo to make up for the others not posted.*
Much love to you all!!!