Time Flies When You're Planning

So, work is okay. I miss sleeping until noon and going to work. I miss having plenty of time, and laying around before work. I am ready to get into summer with more staff though. This whole bare minimum on staff is wearing me out!

So I have a dress!! I actually have it! It's hanging on my door and I love it. I have bridesmaid dresses picked out and my aunt is going to pay for the church as a wedding gift. I am saving money for my cake. This is actually happening. I don't know how. I was so scared that I wouldn't have money for any of it and I'd just be going to a JoP in jeans, but slowly yet surely it's coming together. I can't express how excited I am. I think I'm dreaming sometimes.

My nephew, Carter Thomas Key, is coming hopefully at the very beginning of June. I think we're all getting more and more excited. Kayla is doing pretty well. Logan is hanging in there too. He's having a rough time with pregnancy moodiness, but mom and I try to smooth the feathers when we can. I just hope we get to see him. It seems like we're not really involved because she doesn't live here. He does, but he's just the dad. I hope that's not how it'll be. I'm super excited about having a baby in the family.

Is it just me or is time whizzing by this year. I'm going to be 22 in 15 days and I'm still quite unsure how that happened to sneak up on me like it did. Yesterday it was January, and then all of a sudden, it's Easter. Holy Cow!

Daniel moves down here in one month. I think I'm going to come out of my skin I am SO freakin' excited. No more long distance. No more daily phone calls without seeing him for a month or longer. No more "Gee, I wish I could be there but..." Oh, man. I don't know if we'll know how to act around each other!

Hmmm, I think that's it. My life is soooooooo boring. Sorry :(

Do You Hear the Wedding Bells?

Mom and I have officially overloaded ourselves this weekend. We bought my half my dress on Friday. We put it on layaway and paid half. It's not cheap. It is gorgeous, let me tell you! I can't put pictures up here because Daniel reads this and he doesn't even wanna know anything about it.

On Sunday, we went to the Bridal Show hosted by the Knot at Marketplace Center in Dallas. We weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into, but oh my! It was like a bridal expo! We tasted so much cake I think I gained about 30 pounds just from the buttercream and fudge. There were thousands of people and so many booths! Photography, caterers, limo services, carriage rides, registries, DJs, videography, invitations, gowns, chocolate fountains, banks, real estate agencies, they were ALL there!!! We went at two, and stumbled out in a bridal daze at 5:30. I have a huge bag full of business cards, flyers, price guides, menues, pens, and miscellaneous other items. I was so tired, I just plain knocked out at a family friends' house that we always go to for Sunday dinner.

Why so tired? Oh, because I now have two, count 'em Two, jobs. On top of my Barnes and Noble gig, I am also doing morning receptionist duties at a CPA firm in Dallas Monday through Friday. I wake up at 6, go to work, come home for two hours (during which I usually nap), and head back out to Barnes and Noble until midnight or later. That puts me with 5 hours of sleep once I get home, settled, and bedded. So yeah, Emma is a tired girl these days. But you do what you must to survive. The extra money is hopefully gonna help subsidize this dang wedding.

And my nephew is firmly on his way into the world. Miss Kayla is approaching 22 weeks. They're taking it all in stride, while mom and I kinda hyperventilate about how this whole two home, one kid thing is gonna work. Not to mention the added financial strain of a dad not working and an aunt and gra... (still up in the air about the name) funding the kid here. But little Carter Thomas (for now) will be loved, and that's what counts, right? Right!

Oh! And one last thing- please keep Daniel and his family in his prayers. His grandfather is going home to be with Jesus soon, at least that's what the doctors are saying.

Prayer

Recently I have been very convicted about how I live my prayer life. I don't know if it's the new year or whether it's the fact that I have so much on my plate now, or whether God's just waving a red flag in front of my face, but I now feel more of an urge to pray at random times and when I'm in the middle of something.



To be more transparent than I usually like to be, I'm stating for the record that my prayer life has never been a strong one. I just never became good at normal, ritual prayers or daily wake-up or good night prayers. I'm a sporadic pray-er.



I want to ask you to help me pray for peace of my own mind. I don't want to spoil my own wedding by being too up tight and freaked out over it. I know that where God wills, there's a way. And praise Jesus, marrying Daniel is one of those things I have prayed fervently about. I believe with all my heart that it's God's will for us to wed. Now I just need to remember that if God wants it to happen, it will. It won't matter if we are flat broke or millionaires.



Now, if only I could tattoo that on myself.



Book Suggestion: "Esther" by Charles Swindoll

This is an excellent character study in a series done by Swindoll. He covers several key biblical people including: Job, David, and Jesus. Esther is a must-read for women. I am on my third read through, and have actually made it my bible study for the new year. If you ever need a model for courage, Esther is your girl. Just read her story in the bible to catch a glimpse of this girl's grit. Read Swindoll's character analysis to get the fleshed out reality of what she went through and how she can be a role-model to every Christian woman today.

Wedding anxiety

Eloping is sounding better and better with every new outrageously expensive wedding bit I look at. Geez, all I want is to marry the man I love. That's it. I don't want to put on some big elaborate show and entertain my guests for hours. I'm not feeding you anything but cake, so just get over that right now. Heck, I might not even have favors. It's just so FREAKING expensive!! Seriously, people in the wedding business should be down right ashamed of themselves. Especially photographers. I mean really. When you charge upwards of eight hundred to a thousand, if not two, I really don't know how you sleep at night. You're robbing me blind here!! To make it worse, my parents and his parents are going to try to pay for it. Well, neither one have much money at all. When you add in that my family is going to be helping support my brother in his paternal endeavors, I really would rather not put this extra strain on them. His mom is a single woman of somewhat meager means. Neither Daniel or I have much money. Okay, we have somewhere around 5 dollars... maybe.

I seriously start to panic when I even think about it. This is not the wonderful wedding experience I dreamed of and heard about from friends. I just get literally nauseated thinking about it. I don't want to do it anymore. I just want to marry him. That's all. That's it.

Why not elope, you ask? Well, my friends would be hurt(they've informed me of this much), my family would be upset (a few of them have also informed me of this), and I can only imagine how his mom is going to feel what with Daniel being her only son.

Oh hello rock, I didn't see you there.

And oh my, what is that? Could it be a hard place. I think so!!

*is stuck*

My Blog

MMkay, I've officially made the executive decision that I don't have enough time or motivation to write about only pop culture stuff. Yes, it's true. So, from now on, I'm going to write about whatever pops into this little brain of mine and you can read it, deal? Deal.

Soooo, Thanksgiving! Yay! Daniel and I spent this one with my family and he survived the onslaught of crazy family members. Go him! And go me for not worrying about it a lot. All went fairly well. We ate, we watched so much football it was bordering on obsessive, and we went to see Twilight the next day. Loved the Twilight part, hated the way they made it. It looked so amateur. Pah-lease try harder to at least let me delude myself into thinking you tried on this one, okay? Jeez, it made so much money, but not on it's cinematic effects. I mean really.

So Logan's officially 13 weeks into potential daddyhood. I know, frightening thought of frightening thoughts. My baby brother is going to be a DADDY. He and Kayla (the mom) seem to be handling all this in stride. Mom and I are freakin' out a little. She's in her second trimester. At the beginning of June, I'm gonna be Auntie Em. I'm just not ready for these things yet!!

Work is starting to really hop. But of course, it's retail so I saw that happening. Unfortunately, it's not hopping quite as much this year due to financial difficulties of the populus. Come buy books people! We've got some sweet ones. And while you're there, pick up a coffee and a cookie, maybe a few cds. DVDs wouldn't kill you either. :) Just sayin'.

Christmas. Blech. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. But working in retail, and seeing the "true" Christmas spirit in shoppers can put you right off the holiday happy train. People are getting meaner and more impatient. I swear, it's like they forget that we're human beings with feelings too. They want what they want and they want it NOW!!! God forbid we're sold out, because they need it tomorrow morning at 7 am and it's 10:30 pm now. That's totally our fault. -Cue eye roll.

I've decided I'm going to put book recommendations on here because who better than me, really.

Read "The Shack" by William Young, if you haven't already. It's a brilliant book that will liberate you if you go in with an open mind. It's religious fiction, but man are there some whopper morals built into that book! Buy it, read it, love it, share it!

Retail Rants

There's a book at Barnes and Noble called "Waiter Rant" and it is all about being a waiter and the kind of crap you put up with. So, recently I saw this and decided that there should also be a book called "Retail Rant: The pay sucks and so do the people" or something similar to that.

There are things I've noticed in my stint as a retail employee. These are things I would like to bring to your attention so that you are wiser. One- we don't get paid nearly enough to deal with the kind of crap many people make us deal with. Being paid under eight dollars and hour is already degrading enough without pissy people coming and making our days worse. Look at it this way if you will: Work in general puts people in bad moods. We're already on edge. If people keep treating us as though we are subserviant, at some point we will explode. If you frequently do this, there's a better chance that it could be you.

Another point I'd like to make is this: we may be paid next to nothing and work in a position that very intelligent monkeys could fill, but we are not stupid. Okay, I'll cede that some retail workers (read teenagers) could use a few brain cells sometimes, and there are some people who just aren't up to 75 on the IQ scale. However, there are those of us who fall into two other categories. The first category is that we were desperate for income, okay? The economy blows and no one wants to hire and almost college grad. So we took what we could get. This does not mean we sold our intelligence once we went on the payroll. The other category is comprised of people with good paying jobs who still need more money to live well, or make ends meet. I personally know several people who fall into this category. They are smarter than most people combined, but for some reason, need the extra cash. Take one of my good friends for example. He is an executive at an insurance company but his daughter just entered Princeton and I can tell you first hand, college is not, I repeat NOT, cheap.

The last thing I'd like to point out is: we do everything so please try not to make our jobs harder. I understand you don't realize some things you do wrong. However, we do not like cleaning up your trash, picking up after your children, or jumping through hoops for your aproval. It's a job. Most of us don't do it because we always dreamed of being in retail. We go, we work, we get paid. Sure, we'll be nice if you are. We are people after all. But the next time you come in with a bad attitude, snapping at us and acting as though we're incompitent, just remember: we don't mind wasting your time and walking you around the store five times before taking you to what you want. Actually, we often enjoy it.

Letdown at Lubbock

Well, folks, back to current events/pop culture/sports/whatever pops into my head. This day was a sad day in Longhorn football. The University of Texas faced Texas Tech in Lubbock for what was supposed to be a vitrual shootout between two undefeated Lone Star teams. Two of the best quarterbacks in college ball faced off- Graham Harrell and Colt Mccoy. Both men are prime candidates for the Heisman and accomplished atheletes in their own rights. All eyes were on them as the game kicked off at 7pm.
No one could have predicted the following first quarter as Texas Tech was the first on the scoreboard. Touchdown? Field goal maybe? No. Of all the ways to score, it was a rookie mistake by the offensive coordinator who called for a running play from the end zone that allowed Tech to take the early lead (not to mention the more important momentum) of two points. The game would follow in a strange, and for UT, sluggish fashion. Colt was 7 for 15 in the first quarter which most likely baffled coaches, fans and analysts alike as he was at an 81.8 percent pass completion before the start. UT couldn't really find a rhythm. Unfortunately for them, Texas Tech was at home with momentum and boy could you tell! They were hitting pass after pass, and running as though the Horns weren't even there.
One of the big problems (among many) for the Longhorns was their ailing secondary. Graham Harrell didn't need to thread needles to his wide receivers because there were several gaping holes in UT secondary defense that NINE Tech receivers seemed to find and exploit without fail. Texas Tech ran the score up to 18-0 before the Longhorns could capitalize on a turnover in Raider territory for a field goal. Sadly, that wasn't even until the second quarter.
Another problem for the Longhorns, and more specifically Mccoy, was the breakdown of their offensive line. Colt Mccoy had very little time to hit any of his open men (of which there were few) because the Raiders plowed through the Texas line with ease. At one point Mccoy was nailed by two big linesmen and was thoroughly checked on the sideline. On the plays that the line did hold for Mccoy, he held the ball far too long and his scrambles, for which he is known to pick up serious yardage, were highly unsuccessful.
Injuries also plagued the Texas team and took out two star players fairly early in play. One of their best defensive ends- Brian Orakpo- went down early and never returned while clutch receiver Quan Cosby was out most of the game. Usual go-to guy for Mccoy, Shipley couldn't seem to catch much of anything until the second half. On top of all that the entire rushing game for the Longhorns amounted to a pathetic 80 yards for the night.
It wasn't until the fourth quarter that glimpses of the real UT football team started to shine through. Texas had managed (with the help of a few miraculous plays) to hang somewhat close to the Raiders with a score of 29-19. Mccoy managed a long pass to Shipley for a touchdown early in the fourth, giving Horns fans reason to hope. The defense stepped it up and held the Red Raiders to a field goal and for Colt Mccoy, the game was once again manageable. Six points down with under six minutes to play, UT was ready to win it. Mccoy and the Longhorn offense burned over four minutes in a drive that ended in a touchdown, giving the Longhorns their first lead of the night. With a minute and change to play, Tech returned the punt and landed at their 38 yard line. Harrell completed five passes in a row and the game was looking bleak. The nail in the coffin came when Harrell completed a pass to All-Amrican receiver Michael Crabtree who danced his way to a touchdown, leaving one second on the clock.

Needless to say, there was no miraculous kick-off return for Texas as they fell for the first time this season to number six ranked Texas Tech. There are rumors flying as to where each team will land in the standings now, but all will have to wait and see. No matter where they land, there is still plenty of time for ground to be regained or lost. Here's to hoping for a comeback.