Wait patiently for the Lord

"Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord."

Psalm 27:14

From my Bible commentary:

"Waiting for God is not easy. Often it seems that he isn't answering our prayers or doesn't understand the urgency of our situation. That kind of thinking implies that God is not in control or is not fair. But God is worth waiting for. Lamentations 3:24-26 calls us to hope in and wait for the Lord because often God uses times of waiting to refresh, renew, and teach us. Make good use of your waiting times by discovering what God may be trying to teach you in them."

Officially on the market

Well...we did it. We have officially listed our condo for sale. We chose to go with ERA Sunrise Realty of Athens.

http://www.erasunriserealty.com/Athens/

We met with an agent last year to discuss the possibility of selling & decided that we just weren't quite ready to sell at that point. We loved the agent we met with, though.

http://rebeccashah.erasunriserealty.com/

So we called her back & I know she is going to work very hard to sell our condo for us. The recommended listing price has also increased since we met with her last year so that was definitely good news! We LOVE where we live but at the same time we are very ready to get back to Gainesville.

New Year's Resolution 5K

Well I ran my very 1st 5K this past weekend in Gainesville. My dad signed Brittany and me up to run it with him and Michael. Lakeview was putting the whole thing on to support their athletic program (I'm guessing). It was originally scheduled to be Saturday morning at 9:00, but due to all the snowy, icy weather they moved it to Sunday afternoon at 3:00. I decided to head on Saturday afternoon to run the course to just to see how hard it was and I made Will run it with me. We made it about 2.5 miles and then walked the last half mile. The course had a bunch of hard hills and it was really icy in spots, too.

Sunday turned out to be SOOOO cold! We absolutely froze! But we finished it & it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Here's Michael finishing the race. I think he got 1st place for his age group.

Here's Brittany & Me truckin' along...

We finished at 33:25

Dad heading towards the finish line.

I'm looking forward to signing up for another one...& making Will do it, too!

Phillipians 3:12-14

"I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."

Insomnia...

So these steroids that I'm taking right now for the Bell's are making me completely miserable! I, for the life of me, cannot sleep. I have this horrible nervous, anxious, restless feeling, too. I'm just so pitiful. In the past 24 hours, I have slept (more like dozed) only about 4. Hopefully by the end of the week I will feel a little bit better. After tomorrow, I will get to gradually lower the dosage. I pray relief comes SOON!!!

But in the midst of my blog reading insomnia, I realized I didn't get back to my progress on the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred program. It was going pretty well for the first 20 days. I progressed smoothly all the way up to level III. However, in the midst of doing a portion of the plyometrics one day, I injured my lower back sending shooting pains down the backs of both my legs. This lasted for about 10 days or so & gradually faded away. So I decided to wait till I felt better to start it up again. I did level I again on New Year's Day & also ran/walked 3 miles. Saturday I repeated level I & Sunday I did a different DVD of hers that I got for Christmas. I did the Banish Fat Boost Metabolism workout. This workout was about 40 minutes long, unlike the 30 Day Shred which is only 20 minutes. I took a break today, though, just because of how I've been feeling & sleeping. So anyway from doing 20 days of the 30 day Shred, I definitely didn't lose 20 pounds (not like I expected to!) But I definitely feel stronger & more fit. Hopefully from doing a combination of these 3 workouts over the next month I will continue to improve...

These are the two new DVDs that I got in my stocking this year. Haven't done the No More Trouble Zones workout yet. Maybe tomorrow...if I can sleep!

Auld Lang Syne

New Year - New Opportunities! (Hopefully)

We had a wonderful, quiet little New Year's Eve. We stayed at home in Athens - just the four of us. We cooked dinner, watched movies, and watched some of the New Year countdown shows. Nothing too exciting, but still fun. I hadn't been feeling well all week so it was nice to have Will home & just relax.

Our Sparkling Grape Juice all ready for midnight!

Will counting down the New Year with Missy.

New Year's kiss
Does Missy not have the cutest little wink?!

Toasting the New Year with our wedding flutes.

The girls couldn't make it much past midnight.

New Year's Day:

So New Year's Eve was fun & all, but New Year's Day was not what I hoped this "fresh start" would be! That morning we woke up & cooked a big breakfast. We watched movies, ate hot dogs for lunch, went for a run, & just had fun being at home together on Will's day off. On Thursday, I had noticed that my eyes were feeling funny. It was strange - I couldn't shut my left eye very well & even in the sunlight, it didn't squint like my other one.


New Year's evening at about 9:30, I went to brush my teeth and noticed that my the left side of my mouth was not working right. I could only do a half smile & I just knew something was wrong. Of course, I FREAKED out! I called my mom in a panic, Will googled it online, & we finally decided that I better go to the emergency room just to get things checked out. I knew that if I waited until the next morning that I would never be able to sleep that night. But the emergency room?!? I started crying. I just knew they were going to draw blood or give me shots in the face or something.

We got to Athens Regional Medical Center, checked in, & before we even sat down in the waiting room, a nurse was there to take us on back. I got right back into a room & they hooked me up to all the monitors. The doctor finally came in, did some tests, & determined that I had Bell's Palsy. This is just basically a dysfunction in a nerve that controls the facial muscles on that one side. They don't really know what causes it, but they put me on some steroids, an antiviral medication, and gave me some eye cream (all for over $200!!!) My left eyelid is not working so I have to tape it shut at night. =( They told me it should all go away in 2 to 4 weeks or so...hopefully. And thankfully, there were no needles involved!

So here is what my face looks like...DON'T LAUGH! =(

You can see that my left eye sort of appears to be stuck open, but it actually looks pretty normal in this picture. Will says it looks like I'm winking all the time because when I blink, only one eyelid moves. And obviously my smile is crooked because the muscles in my face are so weak. You can't tell there is anything wrong unless I'm smiling or laughing, though.

Needless to say, I'm not off to a good start...