A lesson on contentment

One of my biggest prayer requests this year has been for contentment. Do you realize how hard it is to be content in our society?! In fact, our whole economy is built on the foundation of NOT being content. We are told to want to newest, greatest, best “fill in the blank item” that money can buy.  I’ll be the first to admit that I struggle with being content with what I have- just see my last blog entry. Here is another example, I love the show house hunters. Yesterday, I saw an episode filmed in the Atlanta suburbs where I am from. Do you know how much house you can buy in the Atlanta suburbs compared to Lexington!?! These houses were HUGE! And just like that, I caught myself thinking that when we get more money, I want a bigger house.  Ugh- contentment!

God has blessed us with so much, and yet we are too busy looking at the next- step- up to even notice. We are told to never to be satisfied. We are told to always want more. We yearn to collect the latest and greatest clothes, shoes, cars, TVs, I-pods/pads/phones, etc. We dream of one day upgrading to that mansion on the water and having a boat in the marina. However, I am guessing that when we die, God isn’t going to be all that impressed the square footage of our house or how many pairs of shoes we own.  God blessed us, not so we can acquire more things, but so we can bless others.  With that in mind and as we enter the week of Thanksgiving, I pray that you are mindful of the blessings that you have, and strive each day to bless others as God has blessed you. I continue to pray the same thing for us too.  Happy Thanksgiving!

$30 picture ---> $400 couch

I was shopping in Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day for a wedding gift. I love this store. I can always find a necessity that we need for our house (I should point out that Josh's definition of necessity and mine are quite different). Unfortunately for Josh, I was shopping alone.

Now I will say, that as a couple, we very rarely buy anything without consulting first with each other. (In Josh's case: we go home, check out consumer reports, read reviews online,  mull it over for 4 months, and then go back to purchase the item... whether or not that is a Wentzism is still being debated).

So this item, that I had to have, was a picture of a tree. If you looked straight at it, then the season was spring. If you move to the left, then it changes to fall. If you look to the right, then it changes to winter. Pretty amazing, huh? I figured Josh would love it. I mean the guy likes trees and he loves fall and spring (he's not crazy about winter, but I figured he could just close his eyes when it came to that season). I even contemplated getting it for his birthday; although, he's accused me in the past of getting him birthday/Christmas gifts that are more for me than him. Keeping that in mind, I bought it, not for his birthday, but as a "surprise it's Tuesday" kind of thing.

He didn't hate it. He didn't love it. He definitely didn't agree that it was a necessity. And he didn't know where we would put it. We tried 5 different spots in our house. It never looked quite right. Finally we decided that the best place for it is in our living room. All we have to do is get rid of the entertainment center, buy a couch, and put the picture over it. Easy solution. So now we are furniture shopping. Be sure to visit us in 4 months, so you can sit on our couch and admire our picture (although not at the same time)

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=16250384&RN=699&

Embarrassing moments of the past

One of the greatest things about living with your best friend is that you're able to recall all sorts of memories from your past that you haven't thought of in years. An old memory came to mind last night, that had both of us cracking up... I guess years later you really do "look back and laugh at this"

First a little background:
Did any of you ever have to grade a classmate's homework in school? I felt like this happened a lot in my middle school.  Looking back, its actually pretty clever. The teacher doesn't have to grade all of the assignments at home, plus the teacher has the opportunity to go over the homework with the class at the same time. The rules to this are pretty simple.
1) Your homework is passed to either the left or the right, so that no one is grading their own work.
2) If your classmate got the answer right, then you give them a check mark.
3) If the answer does not match what the teacher says, then you mark it wrong.
4) If you are unsure, then you ask for guidance.
I think its this last rule that needs abolishing.

I was in 6th grade English class. Our assignment was to define common words in common everyday language ( I am still not sure what the point of this assignment was...) So if the term was laughing, someone might write "to make a joyful noise". Understand? Here's what happened:

I have always been one who likes to get things done quickly. I finished this assignment, arguably a little too quickly, without any (foreseen) problems.  I pass my paper to the right, as instructed, for my neighbor to grade. The first word on the sheet is applause. The teacher says to give credit to your neighbor if they wrote anything along the lines of making noise with ones hands. Well you see, I read the word too fast... I thought it said applesauce.... So the person grading my paper, forgets rule number 3 and evidently needs clarification that my response of "the baking and mashing of apples" is indeed an incorrect definition of applause. I believe the teacher would have scolded him for asking such a dumb question, if he hadn't been doubled over laughing with everyone else. I think my face remained red the rest of the year.

Riding to work

For all who don't know, Josh and I both recently got jobs working at UK. We have similar work schedules, therefore we get to ride to and from work together (cute, I know). Also, for all who don't know, I am a talker in the morning. Josh, as I have come to find, is not. I have a tendency to ask/state a lot of random questions/facts without truthfully desiring a response to any of them. It's like my brain is on overdrive and all my thoughts are just spilling out in verbal form. This drives my wonderfully patient husband absolutely crazy. A typical drive might go something like this...  "Do you think the average American knows what the hand signals that bicyclists use actually mean", "If everything we do to dogs is suppose to be humane, then why can't we put shock collars on kids to get them to stay in the yard (this is, by the way, one of the reasons Josh has informed me that we are not yet ready for little ones)", "I don't like knowing that the smell Lexington has to it is peanut butter coming from the JIF factory. I liked it better when I thought the smell was kettle corn. I don't crave kettle corn"...

Lately Josh's response has been to turn on the radio or to say "I don't know". Oddly enough, both responses are satisfying.