I have unanswered prayers

I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away
That You would take my pain away


I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine


When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands


When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right


When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands


Your hands
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still


When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave You when...


When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave...
I never leave Your hands
_______________________________________

This song is by the wonderful JJ Heller. I heard her song on KSBJ a while back and it's really stuck with me. Obviously she has a gorgeous voice, but it's really the words that stuck with me. 

We all have unanswered prayers, troubles and sorrows.  But you know what? God holds us through it all.  He protects us...he takes care of us.

Hopefully you didn't expect a big drawn out post about this.... I really just wanted to get this song out there...and get JJ heard.  Her lyrics are amazing.

Good evening!  On tonight's menu was Jamaican Jerk Pork Chops and baked asparagus.  Are you drooling yet? ;-)

Before we get to pics and the list of ingredients and directions, I just have to say, these were really good! The best part was that they were easy!  Tasty and easy puts it at the top of my list for making again! Simplicity!!

Ingredients:

1. 4 boneless pork loin chops, cut 3/4 inch thick
2. 3 tablespoons orange juice or grapefruit juice (I used OJ!)
3. 2 teaspoons Jamaican Jerk or steak seasoning (I used the JJ!)
4. 1 tablespoon cooking oil
5. 2 tablespoons dijon-style mustard (I used Emeril's Dijon)
6. 1/3 cup orange marmalade (I used Kroger brand, found in jelly section)

1. Brush both sides of pork chops with 1 tablespoon of the orange juice. Sprinkle both sides with seasoning (jerk or steak seasoning). In a 10-inch skillet cook chops in hot oil over medium heat for 8-12 minutes or until internal temperature of chops registers 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, turning once halfway through cooking. Remove skillet from heat. Transfer chops to another platter.

Well, besides of course having a brood of children and an amazing husband. :)

As I said in my last post, I have been craving that competitive part of myself.  I miss pushing myself to limits that once seemed impossible.  I miss the actual HURT of pushing myself above and beyond.  To the limits.  I miss it terribly.

And while I am terribly out of shape at the moment, I know what I am physically capable of when I train and stick to a plan.

I don't know if this is something I will do before or after I have kids or if I CAN even achieve it.  I do know, though, that I want to try.  It's all about having confidence in myself and having other peoples support along the way.

It's about going for something you really want...even if it may be far fetched.  It's about having no regrets. You can never regret something, even if it doesn't work out as long as you have given it your best shot, right? At least you tried.

As I said, I don't know when this will be.  1 year, 5 years, 10 years....who knows.  It doesn't matter...I am going to do everything I can to get there.

Hi, my name is Stephanie and I have a problem with making commitments.

There, I said it!

About 7 or 8 months ago I decided that I was going to run the Chevron Houston 1/2 Marathon.  I was excited and totally motivated.  I was sticking with running.  I was running at least 3 times a week...consistently. Then something happened.  I got married on November 7.  Right in the prime of my training.  Yah, yah.  What an excuse right?  I know it really shouldn't be an excuse because I should have known better than to try and train for a 1/2 marathon and plan a wedding, right?  Wrong. I tried.  The thing is, I didn't complete it.  I didn't even try running it. I think I did the right thing by not going out there and overdoing it and hurting myself, but I've honestly been having a really rough time dealing with the fact that I didn't do it.

How embarrassing.

I told tons of people what my plan was! Ugh.  I just can't help but want to dig a hole and climb in it until people forget.  You see, I've always been athletic.  There was never an issue there, but once I quit soccer in college I lost that part of my life.  I CRAVE that part of myself.  The incredible self-confidence.  Motivation.  The challenge. All of it. It's gone.  Have I lost anyone yet? I know I am jumping around a lot. Sorry.

The point is, I made a plan and I didn't follow through with it and I am really hating myself for it. I c.a.n.n.o.t. LET IT GO! It's really affecting my mood because I feel like a failure to myself and others and my self confidence has plummeted.

I need to do something. 

So what did I do?  I went and made ANOTHER plan.  Sheesh. Really? Yah, really.

Here it goes. 











(Click to enlarge!)


There it is!

I start Monday, February 1.  This plan is SEVEN weeks and guess what! As luck would have it, at the end of the 7 week mark there is a race in Houston.  March 20, 2010.  I am racing a 5k.

HOLD ME TO IT!

Ask me how it's going. What I did the day before.  What I am doing that day.  Why did I not run....

I need to do this for myself, but I need others to be accountable to. 

So, who's gonna help? Who is going to hold me accountable?

More importantly....who wants to train and run the race with me?

I have to do this for myself.

_________________________________________

Everyone go over to my cool friends blog and tell her HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! :)

This weekend went by way too fast.  Very unfortunate.  Andrew worked Friday night and when he got home Saturday morning he wasn't tired so we went and ran some errands.  Around lunch we were starved and decided to go to Freebirds.  It just opened up in Pearland and Andrew has never had it before.  Sinful, I know. 

Okay, for those of you who have never met my husband... he is weight challenged.  As in, really thin.  He is one of those men who can eat WHATEVER and never gain an ounce. Unlike me who thinks of a saltine and gains a pound automatically. I just don't understand it.  Okay, anyway, off my soapbox.  The point of the story is, he is really thin and ordered the HUGE burrito.

Tonight Andrew is watching scary movies in an attempt to stay up late since he works tomorrow night.  I detest scary movies, so I've been playing around on the internet all evening.   :)  Did you notice that lovely music player on the right side? Yah, that was me.

Go to http://www.photographyshoppe.net/main.php and wait for the "Client Proofs" link to pop up on the right hand side. Click on that and scroll down (it's alphabetical) to Stephanie and Andrew.

Our Password is:  stephanieandandrew  (no spaces or caps!) 

Let me know what you think!!!!

For Christmas, my awesome husband got me a Beginners Singer Sewing machine.


 All I have to say is, if this is a beginners machine, I don't want to see a more advanced one for a loooong time! It took me two and a half hours to thread the bobbin and the needle through the machine.  Bobbin was easy. Threading the top of the machine down to the needle, not so easy.  There was this step I couldn't get past.  I tried and tried and tried. Cursed myself, cursed myself, cursed myself. What was I thinking!? I've never sewn before in my life.  By God, I was determined to finish my first "EASY" project.

After threading the machine, it was 10:30PM.  Please keep in mind, I am usually in bed by 10PM at the latest.  I pondered going to bed, then decided that if I didn't finish this project now, I would probably put it off.  So, a sewin' I went!

So, here is what I was trying to make.  A coffee coozie.  Looks simple enough, right?

                                                                  Courtesy of http://oursoftspottoland.blogspot.com

Wrong! I should have known this would be a disaster.

Actually, to be quite honest with you, the only thing that really went wrong, is the hook (hair elastic) that I originally had sewn onto the outer fabric didn't (SOMEHOW) get flipped out to the outer portion when I had sewn all the edges and went to turn the fabric right side out.  All in all, I suppose, it didn't turn out TOO bad.  Right?

Hi guys! Oops! I stayed away too long, huh?  My bad! :)

So, Christmas happened and New Years happened.  Whoo! Yes, I plan on recapping these occasions! No fear.   I hope I don't bore you with tons of pics a videos though.  There's quite a bit though, so grab a cup of hot chocolate, coffee, wine...whatever.   I won't judge :)

So, every year we all get together to do Christmas cookies a few weeks before Christmas.  This year, only a few of us could get together because of conflicting schedules but we had tons of fun anyway!

Welcome to the family Andrew, now you officially have to help put toys together at Christmas :)

My nephew, Eli, got an Etch a sketch! Haven't seen one of those in a long time!

It was a wonderful holiday and I am lucky to have the two best families in the world. Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday as well and got to spend it with the people you love the most.


Okay, New Years post is next time. :)

There is a reason for the season, you know.  We all tend to get caught up in gift buying, decorating, parties, etc so much so, that we rarely, if ever, stop long enough to remember why we celebrate Christmas.

Why DO we celebrate Christmas, you ask? Allow me to tell you! :)

We celebrate Christmas out of Love. Actually, we celebrate God's act of love for us by sending His one and only son to save the world. God sent his son to us to take punishment for all our sins. In case you didn't get the picture yet....when Christ was born, our salvation began.  We should be giving gifts to celebrate the birth of our Savior, not just because we need new clothes or a Playstation. 

We shouldn't take off work to Christmas shop or decorate.  We should take off work to give to those less fortunate than us, to go to Church and to celebrate the birth of Christ. To sing to Him. To reach out for Him. To show our LOVE for Him who gave up everything for all of us. 

I am truely making an effort this year to stop as often as I can and to think about that. You should too.  After all, it's the reason we are all here.  The reason we can have families, friends, dogs, cats, shoes, homes, etc.  All of it. 

Take some time this Christmas season to stop and tell Him how much you love Him and what He did for us.