Mustache Love

Oh, to have a love like this....



Disclaimer...
Mustaches actually creep me out. I do not love them. Men who secretly love me and long to win my heart, please do not grow a mustache.

Coffee Joulies

I am so excited about these!! I think it's a genius idea and am so glad someone thought it up! Having hot coffee/tea/hot chocolate/whatever-I-want is going to be amazing!!

But at $50 for 5 beans, I think I'll wait for just a little bit and hope the price doesn't go up because they're so amazing.

The best thing since Jesus.

I know 2 blogs in one day is quite uncharacteristic of me, but THIS CANNOT WAIT.

As if Target hadn't already won my heart by remodeling their store and making everything so sleek and beautiful and red (I love spending time there even more than I did before), they've COMLETELY upped the ante.

Target has Magnum bars. Oh heart, be still.

If you do not know what Magnum bars are (they've only been in Europe and China until this year), you REALLY need to try them. They will astonish and amazing you and you won't be able to go back to any other kind of ice cream. My mind was entirely blown the first time I tried it in China.

And just to sweeten the whole deal, Target has a coupon for a dollar off. And wonder of all wonders, they accept competitor coupons as well, and whadaya know, Walmart has a coupon too. A 3 pack of Magnum bars for $1.49. (Can someone die of ecstasy?)

I don't know why you're still reading this right now.... I'm pretty sure that anyone in his right mind would be frantically grabbing at the printer, desperate for those coupons. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a freezer stocked for the summer.

Another important question.

Enough with this self-realization stuff. I have some real questions. You guys were super helpful with the sobbing onion thing (matchsticks work great!) that I thought I'd throw you another one.

I have a pair of jeans that I love, but I must have left them in the washer too long or something because they smell super musty!! It's quite gross really.

I've tried soaking them, washing them in vinegar, and spraying them with frebreeze, all to no avail. They've been like this for a year or more.

Any suggestions? It's getting quite embarrassing... I put them on without realizing they're the ones that smell and I go around all day smelling like an unopened antique chest.

Revelation.

I am a jerk. I really am.

I realized this sometime between 2pm and 4 pm today.

I've been so gung-ho about leaving my old job and starting my new job. "2 weeks is normal, and 2 weeks is what I said. My last day is Friday this week. Thursday if I can pull it off." My justification is that my new employer has been shorthanded for a month and really REALLY needs help.

All Darrell asked is if I can help out with payroll and keep things afloat while they try to find someone. I SAID I'll talk to Terry, but I don't want to talk to Terry. I want to be firm with my end date and don't want to make things complicated.

Meanwhile, Iowa Insulation doesn't have anyone to pay the monthly taxes, pay roughly 30 employees their payroll, do bank reconciliation, pay bills, deposit money, and do any work necessary to keep things running.

"Whatever, not my problem."

I'm glad for soft voices in the back of my mind saying, "Wake up and knock it off. You're being ridiculously selfish." And I am. I really am.

I apologized to Darrell via email since he wasn't there, and I'll do it again in person tomorrow. No one deserves that kind of treatment, and I definitely don't want to leave Iowa Insulation on bad terms. There ARE ways to compromise. I can work weekends to get payroll done, and I can come in for an hour after Cross Wealth to take care of bills and invoices and deposits until my replacement comes.

For being someone who hates having people mad or upset with her, I sure haven't been acting like it...

Where does your confidence come from?

Lent is a whole new concept for me. Among dancing, playing cards, and drinking, baptists don't celebrate Advent or Lent and never talk about it. But the past 2 years, I've decided to take part in the Lent season by giving up something sacrificially in an effort to draw my attention to God and fix my eyes on His own sacrifice for us.

This year, I gave up wearing makeup.

(brace yourself...) I'm sinful. I can be quite vain and prideful, and to go au natural is NOT ok. I've become ashamed of what my Father has given me and how He has created me. Heaven forbid that I go out for a quick errand without having taken a shower, put on makeup and done my hair. I'm very wrapped up in what I think people perceive of me, and I work hard to keep that in place. I've been told for years and years that this is how I'm supposed to look and anything short of that is undesirable. (Of course, not in spoken words, but that is the undercurrent of advertising and entertainment)

Every single woman knows exactly how hard this is and the baggage that comes with it. I didn't want to give up makeup myself, but when you hear a voice audibly tell you to give up something that you are terrified to even consider, its hard to shrug it off.

For the first 2 weeks, I was back in jr. high and dealing with all of those horrible memories and feelings of awkwardness that go along with having a different mindset than everyone else. ("If a guy is going to like me, he's going to like me for me and not how I look." Awesome heart, but I let society lie to me and feel ashamed of my natural look) Oddly, the scariest place for me to go was church, even though those should have been the people who would love me regardless.

But throughout the past 46 days, I've become more and more comfortable in my own skin and less apologetic for my "lack of self-care". This is the way my God created me!! This is what He originally intended! I'm not lazy or less-desirable because I don't look like everyone else. I feel more beautiful and confident in who God made me to be! I also feel like the treasured daughter in Christ that I am; I feel my Father's love in a deeper way. I'm pretty sure that beats anything I can buy at Target.

The question I've been asked the past few weeks from a few friends is if I'll go back to wearing makeup; I think I will, but I have an entirely different perspective about it. I'm not wearing as much, and I know I don't have to if I don't feel like it and it's not the end of the world if someone sees me without it. My confidence is in Christ!

Cause it's too funny to post in just one place...

text messages

Dad: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANI!!! Hope ur day is a fun one! Love you. Dad.

Me: Lol you really wanted to be first, didn't you? :) You're early!

Dad: Oops, it's the 21st isn't it. The 19th is the anniversary of the Waco Texas Davidian Branch Fire. How could I mix u up with that?!

I love you so much, Dad. You made my day!!!

From a Few Weeks Ago

*~EDIT~* I wrote this....oh.....2 weeks ago? And never got around to posting to it because I ended up not feeling as crappy as I did before. Figured I might as well post anyway, because clearly, positive thinking and restructuring my perspective helped! Really, though, I just wanted to make the astrix and squiggles for the "edit" note. *~End Edit~*

I'm in this really stupid place right now where instead of even thinking about considering all of my blessings, all I want to do is dwell on what I don't have right now. What God has chosen to withhold from me for my good.

He totally has the right though! If He's withholding ________ from me, it's because He's got something better in mind. Regardless of what I think I need and as disappointing as it is that I don't have it, God's holding out for something better, and I think life will be a million times easier if I join Him in holding out than complaining that I don't have it NOW.

I'm well aware of the fact that I need a new perspective of where I am. And just because it's not my default to count my blessings doesn't mean that I shouldn't go there when my attitude is rather childish. So here it goes....

Not only do I have an amazing immediate family (I can't imagine having a better set of Godly parents who have an incredible marriage and I have an equally amazing relationship with each one of my siblings), but my extended family is also pretty rocking. I'm incredibly blessed that we're all within the same state and even town with some!

Working out hard with people creates an automatic bond. (Writing that now seems really dumb. "Hey, we have a common interest! Let's be friends." Yeah, that makes sense) I'm loving the friendships that I've build from being in Surefire Bootcamp. I've met some amazing people that I probably wouldn't have known otherwise, and I'm so grateful for the encouragement they give me and that I can give back. I've contemplated moving to a different time for working out, but honestly, the 5am class is best. Everyone else is weird.

Despite not being able to go to connection group for the past month because of my sheer exhaustion from people (NEVER thought I'd say that), they've continued to lift me up and pray for me and my family and future decisions. Having that kind of spiritual backing is really encouraging and I love them to death for it.

I have a job that completely pays all my bills and while I don't have a whole lot extra to throw around at debt, I'm blessed just to be able to be where I am. I have job security, and regardless of how bad the economy is (or was), I'm needed here and that's made known on a regular basis. I'm appreciated and trusted, and I love hearing Darrell say, "Thank you Danielle" at the end of the day.

I'm a blind sheep.

I'm at a loss for where I am.

I've had more "plans" than I can count on both hands, all very legitimate! I've tried short terms and long term missions and different ideas about timing and it seems like at every opportunity, God shuts the door and says, "No." (maybe it's a "not yet", but I haven't gotten there yet.) I've given up on telling anyone what my new plan is because more than likely, if I've thought it out, it's not going to happen.

I don't mean to be cynical about it, honestly. God's got His plan, and I know it's going to surpass in greatness anything I could every possibly come up with even if I had all the time and resources to plan it out. I KNOW His way is best.

I just don't get where He's taking me, why He seems to be leading me away from missions. And maybe it's not missions in general, but how He's going to use me. Maybe He has another ministry in mind besides missions accounting (girls being sold into the sex industry keeps kicking me in the gut). Regardless, whatever He has in mind for me is being withheld from my knowledge right now.

He's leading me somewhere though, that's for sure. When I wasn't looking for a new job but knew I wanted to leave where I currently am, God plopped it down right in my lap and totally blessed me. Like, COMPLETE blessing. I love it. He knew what I wanted and without me nagging and whining (at least I hope I haven't been!), He sets things in motion that - more than anything else - allow me to be more happy/content/satisfied/fulfilled. I'm going to get to serve people!

I guess I just wish I could see where I'm going beyond where God nudges me from time to time.

'Member that time?

'Member that Christmas when my sister got an AWESOME ballerina Barbie that had a crown on her head and when you held onto the crown and made small circles with your hand, Barbie would twirl in her pretty pink dress? She was the most beautiful Barbie I had ever seen. And her elbows/knees/hands/feet were on hinges!!! (i.e. they moved!)

I convinced Jessi that my new chapstick stocking stuffer was equally as impressive, and we made the completely fair trade of my small tube of chapstick for her revolutionary moving-in-new-ways Barbie.

As she was playing with her new chapstick (bless her heart) and walking it along the back of the couch, it slipped from her fingers and fell behind the couch. Unable to get it herself, she asked mom for help. It didn't take long for Mom to learn of our trade.

Despite how much I insisted that Jessi was totally ok with this and I didn't trick her and we were both happy with our trade, Mom made me give the Barbie back.

I will probably never get hired by the Federal Trade Commission.