Psalm 119:11

"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

Okay, I've come to a conclusion, I really enjoy the journaling aspect of blogging too much to give it up completely. However, with that said, I'm going to be disabling my comments as long as I deem necessary. In my case, I realized that throughout my whole blogging experience, I've really focused on receiving comments and commenting on other blogs myself. And that frankly is not what this whole blogging experience should be about, at least in my case it shouldn't. I have to admit receiving comments is the fun part about blogging, but there's something so liberating and stress free about taking the focus off of that and truly getting back to the heart of the matter (and this has really limited my time on here). So I'll be posting whenver I have something to say and you know what's also AMAZING, I don't have to post every single doggone day. Because in the past it almost became burdensome and I put some much pressure on myself to have to post everyday, I don't want it to become like that. I love ya'll and the fact that you come by here and take an interest in my life blesses my socks off, and there's something amazing to be said about the blogging community..

Okay, I just want to pause a moment for a big group hug...

{{HUGS}}

Now didn't that feel great? :O)

So now I come back to Psalm 119:11...

During this time of trying to refocus and really seek God, I know I need to be meditating on his word. There's amazing power in the word. As I was sitting here, I began to wonder, why is it so easy for us to remember lyrics to a song but it's like pulling teeth for some of us sometimes to dig deep in scripture, memorize it and meditate on it, and hide it in our hearts! I don't know about you, but I struggle with this. I'm laying it all out on the table here...I know I don't read my bible and meditate on it nearly as much as I should. And then I begin to wonder why at certain times I feel so defeated. And you know what the answer to that question is? Because I have no weapon (scripture, the truth) in which to fight back with when standing against the enemy.

No weapon formed against us shall prosper! The enemy is so infinite and minuet when you think of the powerful force that scripture has against him!

This is where God has me right now, in a place of meditating on his word, seeking him through the fine print on the pages of the living word.

Could this possibly be a place where he's calling you to right now? Just something to think about!

I leave you with a few pictures of my sister's Baccalaureate last night. It was a beautiful church service for the graduating seniors. Let the graduation festivities begin!

A beautiful church!


I am so proud of her!


They didn't know where to look, haha!


The whole gang!


Is the sky not beautiful in this picture?


Brother/sisterly love!


There's so much going on over the weekend and so I'll be back next week with more pictures of our graduation weekend and our trip to Disney World Monday and some ramblings about some other things that have been going on in my life!

Happy Anniversary!

Today, 4 years ago, my brother married his wife and my sister-in-law Alicia!



It was in 2005 and I remember I was working that night and they called me while I was working because they had come over to the house for dinner with the rest of the family so they could talk with them, but I had to work :o( We knew something was up and then they called me with the announcement that I would be gaining a sister-in-law and would become an Aunt that October. They got married on May 28, 2005 and my niece was born October 27, 2005.

and now look at her.....



After my niece was born, Alicia took a year off from work to stay home with her. My niece will be 4 years old this year so she's been back to work for awhile now, she works at the Property Appraisers Office at a local courthouse. My brother is in the car business and he's amazing at what he does and thrives in it. He's a great provider for his family and they have made a beautiful home for themselves filled with tons of love. And at the end of the day, they have a lot of blessings to count!

Alicia has truly been a God sent to our family and has become like a sister to me. She is perfect for my brother and vice versa. And not only that but she's the only one who can put up with him, haha! They are great partners in marriage and wonderful parents. I just hope that whatever storms may come their way, that they can ride it out together! And I know they will! She has taught my brother how to be a better man by the unconditional love she shows and my brother without even having to say words has his own way of showing his love.

So here's to maaaaaany more years of laughter, love, and walking this journey called life together! Happy Anniversary!

My weekend in pics!

Well, this weekend was jammed packed with fun, so here it is in picture style :)

Saturday, as I told you, we held a shower for my BFF Monica, and it turned out so great. Monica and I are high school friends and have remained friends ever since. She's a second grade teacher, it's so funny that both of my BFF's are teachers. She loves what she does and I'm so proud of all that she has accomplished and I was honored when she asked me to be in her wedding. I know she will be one of those lifetime friends!

Here's the future Mr. and Mrs. Greg Matthews :)


So enjoy the pictures from the shower:

The bride-to-be!


The advice box for Monica where we could write down our advice and stick it in there!


The centerpieces on the tables!


The bride's table!








The cupcakes were my job and they turned out so stinkin cute. I wish I could take credit for them, but I can't. I wish though! haha!






The bride with her bridesmaids :)


Us again but this time including Terri, the future sister-in-law of the bride!


Monica and her sister!


I love her!


Monica and Jennine!


Monica got some amazing gifts! Can I get married please??? haha!


These were so precious! She received these for her and Greg to use at the wedding for the toasts. It has their name and wedding date on it!


Monica opening my gift!




This is a veil we made for her out of the ribbon and bows from the gifts. She has to wear it for the girls day coming up before the wedding and at the rehearsal, along with the sash! ha!






And it even had a train, ha!


And we played a couple of cute and fun games and one was where you had to unscramble these wedding words and whoever got the most words won a prize!


And of course we couldn't end it without another cupcake!


It turned out to be such a great time, and now just can't wait for the big day!!!

Here are some pictures from our Memorial Day yesterday!







Water fight, it's on now!




Larry's daughter Christy and I! We hit it right off! And yes I have a suit on, it's just a strapless, haha!


Seriously, could they get any cuter??


It was such a fun day getting to meet Larry's family and get to know them and just enjoy being outside and hanging out! Because I have a feeling this is going to turn into a blended family sometime VERY soon! Just read this e-mail my mom sent me this morning:

"I'm so glad you enjoyed yesterday...Larry and I were just reflecting when everyone left and everything was cleaned up and we were showered as to how blessed we were to have each other, our families, and our future to look forward to. I love him so much Lauren. He is such a wonderful man, father, grandfather, etc. He is so good to me."

If that doesn't make your eyes water, then what will???

So this week is jammed packed with school and work, my sister's Baccalaureate on Thursday night and then Friday we have a whole bunch of family coming into town for her graduation from high school on Saturday and then we're throwing a party for her afterwards and then Monday all the family is going to Disney. I know how much I loved Disney as a child and we're going to be going with two of our cousins who are really young, and so it will be neat seeing it again through a child's eyes!

So there will definitely be tons more pics to come. I'll be back next week! :o)

I Will Rise

What is that?

You ask what I might be doing on here?

Well, I wanted to keep with the whole reason why I started my blog, and that is to journal my days, the exciting days, and the mundane and boring days as well. For awhile, as long as I feel nececcary, I'm going to disable my comments, and stay true to limiting my time on the computer. I admit, I've still been keeping up with a few blogs, but it's amazing how much time you free up when you don't comment, but just simply read and when you disable comments yourself, because as MUCH as I love blogging, that in itself is what makes blogging so time consuming. So I was thinking and I would still at least like to write once a week, so I can have a recap of my week and what's going on in my life.

So with that said...

Last week was pretty much school and work, doesn't that sound familiar??? haha! Wednesday night I had a wild hair to clean, and so in between American Idol, you could hear the sound of my vaccuum cleaner, but not until Ryan Seacrest said, right after the break, lol, and a crazy woman (that would be me) cleaning the bathroom on one of T.V's biggest nights, ha! But nevertheless, you could see the vaccuum lines in the floor and a bathroom that was sparkling, all the while able to see Kris Allen crowned the new American Idol. I was soooo happy. I'll admit I was rooting for Danny Gokey, but after he got the boot, all my votes went to Kris, and I know he'll make us proud, and in the meantime, I know Adam will go far!

So then pretty much Thursday and Friday was school and work, you know the drill. Then Friday night I started my house sitting and dog sitting (two pugs named Marley and Penelope) for my BFF Melissa. You can see Penelope here. And it was a nice little break and a change of scenery. So Friday I just went to her house after work and ran some errands, picked up some dinner and chilled for the rest of the night. You got to love the fact that they had movies on demand which are free, YAY! But I failed to realize that until after I already rented two movies to watch at her house which she has no DVD player, another thing I failed to realize, haha! But the money shall not go to waste because they are not due back until Wednesday and so they will be watched. Yesterday was my BFF Monica's bridal shower. It turned out to be such a wonderful and beautiful shower. Unfortunately, I left my cord at work to get my pictures onto the computer :o( But I'll have them up soon. I'm getting so excited to share in her big day with her. June 27th will be here before you know it.

It has been raining ALL week, and finally today we are seeing some sunshine, but yesterday after the shower it started to pour and I mean POUR but on the way back to Mel's house after the shower I must have really wanted pizza because I got in the pouring rain to fetch me some to take it back to the house, lol. A small pizza all to myself, LOVE IT!!! The things we'll do for food, and then I settled in for another round of movies.

Melissa will be back today and so now I'm back at home, did my 30 Day Shred for the second time. I started Thursday, oh what a sight for your eyes, and I literally could not walk the next day and that is no exaggeration. Jillian is the devil, but she's awesome and today when I did it for the second time it was a little bit easier. I have never sweated so fast or had my heart rate go up so quick in my life, haha!!! So I'm going to keep up with this and see if Jillian keeps up with her promise to kill us, and something tells me she will. And then I was able to watch my first movie (Legally Blondes)... I'm a huge fan of all the Legally Blonde movies and this is about Elle Wood's cousins and they are just like her, and you guessed it, they're blonde, but somehow I think the title gave that away, ha!! So one more movie to go and that's Nights in Rodanthe. I've heard mixed opinions on this movie. So I shall find out for myself.

I hope everyone is having a great Memorial Weekend. No work and school for me tomorrow, PURE bliss! A little slice of heaven I'd like to call it. My mom has been seeing a guy for quite sometime now and so we're all going to go over there tomorrow, and I haven't met his 3 daughters and grandchildren that are going to be there, so I will get to meet everyone and we'll just hang out and cookout and play in the pool if the weather cooperates. I'm excited about that!

Well, I've got places to go and people to see today and not ready and have a towel around my head with dripping wet hair.

And speaking of that. I always listen to the radio when I'm in the shower and came across a song by Chris Tomlin that I've come to love. Enjoy!!



Make sure you pause the music on my blog first before listening!

Love ya'll :)

And I Will Rise, will you?

From my heart to yours!

As I was driving home from school tonight, a million jumbled thoughts were going around in my mind, and at the time wishing I had a pen and paper to write it all down. Now I'm home in my room where it's quiet and trying to gather them together as I try to make sense of them so I can adequately portray what I want to say and how I'm feeling. So I'm praying the words will flow freely...

I should start by saying that I'm going to be taking a few months off from my blog, in fact, the whole social networking thing as a whole, so that goes for Facebook and Twitter as well. A little bit much, might you say, but I've known for a long time that I've wanted/needed to do this.

I'm in the starts of a new semester at school, alot going on within the next few months that I need to focus on. There's going to be alot of change in my life coming up here soon, and just need to take this time to prepare my heart for it all and get back to where I need to be with Jesus.

Lately, and by lately, I mean for a very long time now I've had a VERY big focus on the computer. It's become more like an addiction. And I've always been aware of it, but now it's become so heavy on my heart and burdensome that I know I have to step away from it completely for awhile. Jesus has been trying to draw me back in and take over these areas in my life that have consumed my thoughts and time and have ultimately caused me to take my focus off of him.

I'll be honest, I love the computer. I love my blog, I love Facebook, and I love Twitter, and that's all well and good but I NEVER want to love all this more than I LOVE him, and I'm being real, and it's gotten to that point. I'm human, this world gets us distracted and there's some many things other than the computer that via for our attention.

I've been out of church for sometime now, I'll admit, and again, keeping it real. And I've been in a really dry season, haven't been spiritually fed in a long time, and now I've reached the point where I'm just thirsty and just need to take some time to get my well filled back up. I know that during this season, God has never left me. I long for that connection of a church family and that sense of belonging that comes with it and desperately hoping that he will point me in the right direction.

I'm praying to become a better employee because I'm ashamed to say that alot of my attention has been focused on the internet while at work (blogging, facebook, twitter, etc.) and that's just flat out wrong and I know it. That's not what they're paying me for and they treat me too well and they deserve better than that. I'm not going to beat myself up about it though, but I'm making a choice here and now to turn this situation around.

School has been a real struggle for me as well lately. My focus hasn't been there, the passion, desire, determination, have just kind of fizzled. So I'm hoping to rekindle all that. I know this is where God's planted me and I want to be diligent with the seed he has sewn and want to cultivate it and see it blossom. He deserves nothing but 110% from me, especially since this is his destiny I'm walking out. Wouldn't you agree?

There are so many relationships I want to see flourish, and he has put some sweet and amazing people in my life and would like to spend more time investing in those relationships. Friendships are God's gift to us, and you have to put effort into them and you have to give it the time and focus that they need. So over the next few months I'll be working in this area too.

I am in NO way discrediting the awesomeness of the blog world. It's a beautiful thing, but it becomes unbeautiful real quick if there's no balance, right perspective, and then it becomes burdensome and weighs heavy on you and then the fun is sucked right out of it. I have made such wonderful friends and I consider myself extremely blessed. And I know I can come to you and ask that you please whenever you think about it, pray for me over these next few months, and specifically these areas which I have mentioned.

This is going to be so well-worth it for me and I don't want to come back the same person, but want to be better than ever! I really felt I needed to disable the comments on this one. If you would like to stay in touch, please feel free to e-mail me (you can find my e-mail on the right side of my blog), and seriously, if you want my # to chat (I trust you people what can I say, haha), e-mail me and I'll give it to you.

Be praying for me please, and I'll be praying for you. Love you!!

The best of my heart,

No pain, no gain!

This weekend went by in a flash!

Friday night I had all these plans to be productive at home but ended up going out to eat with my sister at Carrabba’s, yum yum! I LOVE the Chicken Bryan! Then didn’t get home till late so by then it was a lost cause to try to get anything done, ha!

Saturday I had to go get fitted to have my bridesmaid dress altered and that took no time and then meet up with my BFF Mel and did some running around and the main stop was Bed Bath and Beyond to get my friend's bridal shower and wedding gift. So got that accomplished, so there’s one check mark for the books! Then Mel and my sister went with me to go get my tattoo.

No pain, no gain!





The sketch on my foot before he actually started the tattoo!


I was really not in as much pain as I looked! I just like to be dramatic sometimes, haha!


The end result!


I'm really pleased with the way it turned out! It's simple, meaningful, and don't believe I'll regret 50 years down the road, ha!

Then afterwards, Mel and I went to Mission Inn (a country club) for soup, salad, and a drink!

Cheers to my first tattoo :)


Then we went back to her house and hung out and this is her precious pug Penelope!

She wouldn't cooperate, ha!


That's more like it :)


Sunday we slept in a little and then took a trip to the beach for a few hours and then came home. With all of this being said, I should mention that my grandma has been in the hospital since Friday for her blood clot that I mentioned before. Had a procedure done Saturday and has another one done today, so the weekend was filled with that as well. Please keep her in your prayers and hopefully she'll be out of the hospital this week and will be on the road to recovery!

How was everyone's weekend?? :)

Also wanted to let you know about a wonderful CD giveaway going on. Go by BooMama's blog and check it out here :O)

There's no place like home!

Home: A.K.A being the office! I am at the office more than I'm at home and the people I work with are like my second family. Heck, at times I see them more than my own family, haha!

I work at such a great office, I'm truly blessed. I've been at the law office going on six years in June and started when I was 18 and will be 25 next month (So Megan, if you're reading this, I'll be hitting my quarter life crisis myself here pretty soon, haha). My employers have fully supported my court reporting endeavor. And I really couldn't have asked for a better place to work.

Yesterday the lawyers took us out for lunch to Chili's for a belated Administrative Assistant's Day luncheon. One attorney particular was in charge of getting the cards for us... and this is what I got (with $55 included, aren't they the best?)



Nope, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is a graduation card, haha! The attorney couldn't find any cards for Administrative Assistant's because the day had already passed, so he just picked any ole' random card for each of us ladies. So there was a card for a grandpa, husband, anniversary, daughter, and graduation in the midst, haha!!!! How funny! It gave us all a good laugh and added some humor and it would be so typical of this attorney!!!! LOL! Got to love him! And got to love the $55 :)

I wasn't able to get but a couple of random pictures because the luncheon was a quickie. So here are the few I got...

One of the nicest lawyers you could ever work for. He's showing us his dance moves. The picture doesn't do it justice because it was hilarious!


My co-worker Cristina. I love her!!!


This is all I got :o(

In keeping with the subject of the office, do I have a story for you. And when I heard this, my immediate thought was this is so going on the blog.

So yesterday I answer the phone and it's a client of ours who is going through a really bitter divorce with his soon to be ex-wife. At the time he called the the lawyer was in court and his secretary had to step out of the office. So he's really frantic and says this is an emergency and please have one of them call me as soon as you can! So the call ended and the secretary calls him back and she later comes up to me and says "Lauren, do you want to know what the BIG emergency was?" And if you're drinking something right now, put it down, because I'd hate to see the mess that will come out of your nose, and if you don't think it's funny there's something wrong with you, and I'm sorry, haha! Turns out the client was having someone come into town that would be staying at his house and would be using one of his couches that folds out into a bed and when he went to go pull out the couch, it turns out that his wife had filled the couch with raw salmon, yes...raw salmon, people, and it all came spilling out, hahahaha!!! So I came to the conclusion that a.) the ex-wife has a key to the house or b.) the wife put the salmon there before she left the house prior to the filing for divorce and the husband just has a really bad nose and can't smell a darn thing, because come on, who can't smell raw salmon???? So that my friends, was the big emergency and never in my life did I know that salmon=emergency. Bless his heart! Never a dull moment in the law office, wouldn't you say??

I'm going to be MIA this weekend. It's got to be a productive one and as much as I love you peeps, I must break away, haha! There's a bathroom to be cleaned, clothes to be put away, laundry to be done, car to be cleaned, room to be cleaned, and etc..And the rest of the weekend is going to be busy too! Will the madness ever end??

Oh, and how AWESOME was Grey's Anatomy last night???? Completely AWESOME!!!

Have a GREAT weekend!!! :)