Never a Dull Moment...

This weekend started with a bang, literally!

(source)

Jim threw a fit, refusing to eat what the family was having for dinner and decided to go get pizza.  Not even 20 minutes after he left my mom called up the stairs, "Jim's been in an accident, we have to go to the hospital."  Not gonna lie, my immediate reaction was "are you f---ing kidding me?!"  I was livid.

We drove to the hospital, passing the scene of the accident on the way there- the car is bad but he was fine.  The passenger side was hit, thank God I wasn't in the car, I would have been more hurt but the air bags than anything else.  Honestly, every time we're in the car I feel like he is taking my life in his hands, he's aggressive, and outwardly says "well I'm on this side" when I ask about what would happen if we got hit on the passenger side.  To be fair, this was not his fault, and neither was the last accident, but it's still annoying.  It never would have happened if he wasn't being such a little b*tch about something as simple as what we were eating for dinner.  I won't go into details, but he's been on a slippery slop since last year and I truly believe this was the last straw!  (More on that in a later post.)

After going to the hospital and getting to see the therapy dog who was absolutely adorable, we went home, finally and dinner and went to bed.  My mom and I spent most of Saturday and Sunday shopping, oh how I love retail therapy- it really is the best therapy.  We got a huge discount at Kohl's- I'll be writing about that tomorrow- and went for lunch on Saturday.  Sunday was all about breakfast, the dollar store, Walmart, and grocery shopping.  I never realized how many awesome things you could find at such a huge discount at these places.  Seriously!  Stop going to Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Nordstroms!  Start going to these other places, for most things at least.  Anyway, I'll put away my soap box and stop yelling at the masses.

The weekend as a whole was fairly successful because of all the amazing deals we got but it was stressful to say the least and I'm honestly happy to be back at work.  At the very least, now we get to have fun riding around in this rental car...

How was your weekend?  
Hope you're all doing well!
Have you ever been in a car accident?  I've only been in one and I wasn't in the car- I'll write about that another time.

Linking with: 

Sunday Ponderings- Free Will vs God had a plan

Happy Sunday, Friends!  I have a new thought to ponder...

Whenever I get upset or worried about the future I'm told, "don't worry, God has a plan, He knows what's going to happen, He'll take care of it."  It honestly does make me feel better but lately I've had to question that.

I've always been taught that God gave us Free Will- a right or freedom to make choices in our life- and there are many references to our right to make choices in the Bible.

Choose today whom you will service (Joshua 24:15)

Choose knowledge rather than gold (Proverbs 8:10)

Choose good (Isaiah 7:15)

Choices are every where in our lives.  Which makes me wonder- if God knows what's going to happen but we have Free Will, which one is really in control?  If He knows what's going to happen then He knows what we're going to choose. Do we really have Free Will or is God just the ultimate psychic?  

OR are our lives more like the Hindus believe.  A friend from high school once explained to me that according to her Hindu belief- our lives are like a series of train tracks.  We can start at the same point but take one of several different paths, but no matter what you'll always end up at the same place.  

So it's like God decided where we would end up, but we chose our path.  I suppose that would make the most sense but how is it possible that (for example) 3 different reactions could lead to the same result?

Thoughts and opinions are more than welcomed on this one!

H54F- A Wonderful Week and Another Giveaway!

Hey y'all!  Can you believe it's the last Friday of the month?  Where is 2014 going?!?!  I hope that your week was as good as mine!

We went to NJ for a family event, got home early to relax, work was good, the weather is nice, and I've paired up with another amazing blogger for another cool give away.  Life is good!  So here we go...

1.  We were in NJ on Saturday and I got to see this little face, could not make me any happier!

2.  We celebrated Jim's aunt and uncle's 30th wedding anniversary.

• I can't imagine being married that long!
• Good food, good drinks, and good company = good times!  

It was great to get to have fun with family and friends that we don't get to see very often since we've moved back to PA.

3.  I figured out how to use Pandora on my work computer.  I'm slow, I know, but holy heck, has this made my week.  Having the music going really helps the day go by and since I always have it on Contemporary Christian, I find it keeps me positive as well!

4. Jim had a procedure done on his eyes.  Not really a great moment, but it will help him retain his vision a little longer and it was kind of cool to be in the office.  Next week he'll get a laser treatment- am I the only one who says that like I'm Dr. Evil???

5.  Last but certainly not least!  Free Red Lobster as work!  I'm loving working with a sales team where I get to reap the benefits of all our hard work!  Yum!

And now for a bonus high five moment!  I've paired up with Misty over at Second Hand Goddess for another great give away!  This time it's brought to you by Newman's Own!  Check out her review and make sure to enter below for you chance to win some fantastic goodies!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oh!  And I ALMOST forgot!  Happy 6th wedding anniversary to these 2 love birds!  You are mine and Jim's best friends, you're our family, you're our role models in so many ways.  We're so blessed to have you in our lives and cannot express how happy we are to see you celebrate another year of love and happiness!  Enjoy your weekend!

How was your week?  I'm happy to hand out high fives for all the good things happening in your life!

As always!  Linking up with some amazing bloggers!

Lauren Elizabeth

Calm, Healthy, Sexy

The Northeast Bloggers

Meet at the Barre

Wedding Wednesdays- Lessons from being a May Bride

(My cake topper!)

Every wedding is different- every bride and groom have different tastes, the location, day, and time, it all makes things unique.  What I didn't realize when I planned my wedding way back in 2007/2008 was what affect the month would have on my wedding.

We were married on Saturday, May 9, 2009- the day before Mother's Day.  From the moment we began planning, the date had us hitting road blocks.  The first issue was that our church, which we went to first to make sure we could get the day and time we wanted before we looked as halls, didn't even have a 2009 calendar started yet.  We were literally the first couple to book their wedding for 2009, that's what I get for having a nearly 2 year long engagement.  That was a minor and honestly funny bump in the road, the others were a bit more frustrating and taught me the following:

1. If you're going to get married in May, don't get married the weekend of Mother's Day.

I had no idea that this was the biggest holiday for sending flowers- I thought that was Valentine's Day.  Because of that statistic it took us forever to find a florist that would even be willing to work with us and they charged us extra because we were taking workers away from their MD deliveries- and they had no qualms about letting us know that was the reason for the up charge.

2. Find out when the local Proms are!

May is a big month for proms and apparently that makes it difficult to book limos.  I actually had to use 2 different companies- 1 to get us from the hotel to the church and 1 to get us from the church to the hall (our hotel provided shuttles back after the reception) because they had conflicting appointments with proms.  Apparently, proms out rank weddings!  Doesn't really make sense to me since weddings happen year round and good or bad word of mouth could make or break a business, but again they had no issues telling me I was inconveniencing them and didn't care that they inconvenienced me.

3. Weather is unpredictable!

I suppose this is common sense and is appropriate for any wedding, but I had a plan in picking a May date.  I figured "April showers bring May flowers" so it shouldn't rain, and it was late spring, so it would be warm but not hot.  It rained all morning while we got ready and it was hot as heck by the time we actually got to the ceremony- around 3 pm.  Thank goodness our church has AC and fans!  Bottom line- hope for the best but prepare for the worst.  The weather didn't really have any impact on my wedding or my pictures (my biggest concern) but it did affect my mood- so best advice- just be prepared and stay calm.

4. Just because it's spring doesn't mean your flowers are in season

Again, I suppose this is can go for any wedding, but I honestly had no idea when it came to picking my flowers.  I had a vision in mind and it was all I wanted!  (Blue hydrangeas with purple roses, oy!)  Turns out blue hydrangeas aren't in season that early in May so our florist offered us white and they would spray paint them blue.  They showed me samples and it was pretty believable so I agreed to it, turns out that wasn't a good idea.  Which leads me to my last piece of advice...

(my flowers)

5.  Make sure your vendors actually know what they're talking about!

Again, this should be common sense but as a 24 year old planning a major event for the first time in my life I took a stance with my vendors which is very similar to my stance on doctors- they're the professionals, they know best!  I'm not really sure what my first florist was thinking with the whole spray paint idea but we ended up using a different florist who actually knew a thing or 2 about flowers.  That came about when I told my best friend how much we were spending and she insisted that we speak to her florist (she was married a year before us) because he could save us money.  So about 3 months before our wedding we jumped ship and went with him and we had the most beautiful flowers I could have ever asked for.  He was creative and knowledgeable- he changed what I had asked for but still kept the hydrangeas and they weren't spray painted!  Turns out the color of hydrangeas is caused by the acidity of the soil they grow in- so if you go to the right flower farms (not really sure what they're called) you can get whatever color you want no matter what time of year.  Moral of the story- not all professionals know what they're talking about, make sure you choose people who are knowledgeable so that they can fully assist in planning your special day.

Did you get married in May?  Do you have any advice to offer to fellow May Brides?

Do you have any advice for other brides based on the month you got married?  Let me know, I'm looking for guest posters!

Linking with some phenomenal blogs!

One Tipsy Chick
Pure Grace Farms

Sunday Ponderings- Why Be Good?

So- I turned 31 a few weeks ago and wrote up a proclamation of what I would do with myself this year.  One of the things I really want to do is become a Proverbs 31 woman.  In my opinion this means being close to God, having patience, being a good wife, friend, daughter, etc... As a part of that I've gone back to reading the Bible, exploring religions, doctrines, and churches, and I'm coming up with quite a few questions.

Welcome- Sunday Ponderings.  (Yay, another series- bare with me folks, I've got a lot to say and apparently it's all gonna come out this summer!)  This is where I'll be laying out questions I come across and possibly the answers I get, but I have a feeling it'll be more questions than answers.  Please feel free to weigh in, I'd love to know what everyone else thinks about these topics.

Today I'd like to pose this question- why be good?

I was joking around with a friend the other day and realized how awful we were being.  When I said "aren't you worried you're going to hell for some of the things you say?" his reply was simple and confident-

No.  All I have to do is ask Jesus for forgiveness and I'll go to Heaven

Well that got me thinking and of course I had to over think it but this is what I came up with-

If all you have to do is apologize for the bad things you've done, why bother being good?  Also, how is that fair?  Why should a thief, rapist, murder ask for forgiveness as they're on their death bed and still get into Heaven, but then someone who works hard, volunteers, is kind, and giving goes to Heaven to?  Are there levels of Heaven like Dante's Inferno where the "better" people get to be closer to God than the last minute believers?

What's the point of caring, being good, helping others when you can be selfish and not worry but still get to see the "Big Guy in the sky?"  It makes no sense to me.  It shouldn't be that simple!  

I feel you should earn your place in Heaven, your chance to meet with Jesus.  You should be good and kind, and help others.  These are things that you should reap rewards for and it's not fair for someone who was horrible here on Earth to receive the same rewards.  

Am I wrong?  

Am I looking at this from a childish point of view?

What's your thoughts on Heaven and who gets to go?