I am posting my weekend thought a day early since I’ll be quite drugged this weekend. They actually moved my gall bladder surgery to happen at noon 9:30 am Friday (Central Time) instead of the early morning slot I had before. So…prayers are appreciated. For guiding my incredibly young surgeon’s hands, and that my body won’t freak out that it is missing an organ. This week hasn’t been too bad in the pain department up until last night, when I lost some of my self control. I took in about 18g of fat instead of 10g for the day and paid the uncomfortable consequences at bed time.

As far as the weekend thought…

WHY PRAY?

Have a great weekend, and thanks for your prayers. I’ll have Chris update after we get home later Friday.

(Thanks, Deana).

Complacency is defined as a smug or uncritical satisfaction with ones self or one’s achievements. It can often be confused with contentment, and I think that has been a problem of mine as of late.

At Lake Pointe, we are doing a series called Get Fit, which covers physical, financial, mental, and spiritual health. Chris and I found out we were about a week ahead of the series as the week before Wes talked on physical fitness, we had already started working out. (We actually started working out in Scotland since we walked everywhere!) The week before the financial message, we were going through our budget and reorganizing some things.

The last few weeks have been introspective for me for a few reasons. One, I realized by working out, I feel a heck of a lot better than when I sleep in. Working out with Chris is more fun and a little competitive. I’ve even lost 4-5ish pounds since coming back from Scotland. Which made me realize I need to lose another 15, and hopefully by Thanksgiving. That’s the goal.

I am thinking of joining the Big Butt Challenge even though it already started. The only hesitation is I am the only girl, and like most women, I am not proud of the fact I have put on 20+lbs since my wedding day. I really don’t want to advertise my current weight to the masses. But who knows? Maybe that’s what I need. What do you think?

Another big thing for us is money. Renting in the Dallas area is expensive! We figured out our budget and after all bills were paid except food and gas, we still supposedly have between $1000-$1500 a month extra. Yet if you spend any time with us, we are always broke. It is always paycheck to paycheck. So, after analyzing some of our bank statements, we realize most of that money goes to eating out and fancy coffee.

We made a rule - only 1 lunch out a week, 1 dinner out a week, and 3 coffee dates a week. It’s been tough this week, but today I realized how good about it I felt. I’m honoring my husband by doing it, our money, and we should be able to give so much more away, and pay off our debt so much faster.

Anyway, I am done playing this game. The game where I “deserve” to eat out, buy crap I don’t need, and be lazy because my life as an American is so “stressful.” Done!

What do YOU need to start hatin?

So, a couple days ago, I was asked to attend a kiosk exhibtion in San Antonio. Let me tell you, if it weren’t for the informational kiosk, we couldn’t check in at airports so effectively or pull money out of an ATM. Now the church is going high-tech with the kiosk. You’ll be able to walk up, use it as a confessional, order communion, or deposit your tithes.

Ok…maybe not…and I honestly think that’s quite alright. But we are going to start using them as information stations around the church. So I am going to schmooze with kiosk vendors this weekend.

Chris and I are leaving tonight and hanging out in Austin, then it’s off to San Antonio.

What’s the craziest thing YOU would want a kiosk in a church to do???

Today, I popped into my site stats to see what’s been happening lately. In December 2005, when FlowerDust.net was officially published, the site had about 130 daily visitors. Last month, the site averaged 437 daily drop-bys and almost 24,000 pageviews. So, if you’re new here, thanks for coming by!

According to my WordPress dashboard, there are almost 2000 comments. Maybe the 2000th commenter will get a special prize? From Scotland? I think that sounds fair. So, here is the one rule to win the 2000th commenter prize: No duplicate commenters. Post yours and be done. We’ll see where lady luck falls. And I promise the prize won’t be haggis!

Another random thing I was looking at was “referring keyphrases” - or what people type into search engines like Google and Yahoo, and for some reason or another, they ended up on FlowerDust.net. I decided to pull out the ten most random things people typed in and landed here. Most of these make no sense whatsoever, but that’s what happens when robots are running the internet.

1. telling the wife i wear pantyhose
2. big misquitos of Kansas
3. warning signs of a lying deceitful internet lover
4. poetry about cardboard
5. sexy 50-something year old women
6. how to roast chestnuts - martha stewart
7. how do i blow out my gallbladder
8. i look like ricki lake
9. SMU girls too skinny
10. blogging poems for grandmas

Have you ever checked out your stats to see how people have found your site?

I am 26 years old. In my life, I have moved 27 times. The longest I’ve lived somewhere is five years. And it’s hard to develop sincere and meaningful relationships in that short of time.

I moved to Kansas when I was almost 22, and moved back to Texas shortly after my 26th birthday. Even though I was only gone from Dallas a little over four years, the close friends from my past are now but mere acquaintances. I’ve seen my “best” Dallas friend once since moving back and only for a few minutes. I can see the same thing happening to my close Kansas friends. I realize it’s nobody’s fault. It really does just come with moving.

That’s not to say Chris & I are friendless. It has been incredible really getting to know some people here in Dallas. I’d even say it seems like we have more connections with people now than we ever have in any stage of our lives. But at the same time, as I visit old Kansas friends’ blogs or read their emails, it’s a bummer to see how easy it is to become disconnected when you don’t see someone for a while.

Have you ever moved and lost contact with people you thought you’d never lose touch with?

Have a great weekend…