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Not too much going on around here. I’m staying busy with my ebay stuff. For some reason, I love packaging all this stuff up and sending it through the mail. I’m a mail addict. My husband rolls his eyes all the time at me. I MUST get the mail each day and sooner is better than later. I will go out of my way to make sure I get the mail. I know what times it comes, who the drivers are and what their car looks like. In fact, I saw my mailperson riding down the street today in town. What’s good mail? The best is a package from someone. Next, a hand addressed envelope. Next, a magazine. A “company” addressed envelope (ie bill) is 4th. 5th is junk mail. Especially the newspaper kind. I hate that stuff. And lastly, the worst thing I can get in the mail is nothing.

Weddings are a big event to plan no doubt. But I have realized through the planning of my friend’s wedding this year how neurotic we all are in the midst of the planning. Looking back I realize how one track minded you get. The whole world is revolving around this wedding. Every extra minute you have is devoted to picking <i>something </i>out or making some type of appointment. I was in college full-time and working part-time. I can remember sneaking to the rental place to meet my mom between two classes. My grades proved how busy I was. Looking back, I would have definitely lightened up on several aspects. Not so much lightened up because it did take a lot to plan but I really regret not including my in-laws in a lot of the planning. I realize looking back now that MIL was probably dying to find out what was going on but didn’t want to butt in. I feel bad for that. And I really feel bad for making my bridesmaids wear shoes that were not comfortable for a lot of them. Of course, some of them did rebel and wear their own shoes, which is a whole other story, but still. I think really you become so in love with the wedding instead of focusing on what is going to happen. Little decisions become huge ones. Spats become fights. And to be completely honest, it’s all for what?? 40 minutes? I’m not saying I regret putting so much effort into the wedding. We had a good sized wedding and I loved every minute of it. I’m just saying I’m realizing what a freak I was when I was planning it.

I’m on my second round of <a href=”http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=bennettaj&completed=0&sort=3&since=-1″>customer’s clothing on ebay </a>. It is doing much better than I thought it would. Although it seems quite inconsequential since I just got an email from our Sunday School class saying this customer’s brother was in a car accident last night and hasn’t moved or woken up since. I guess telling her that the suit she paid $150 for is getting $31 on ebay isn’t the really the proper thing to do at the moment. In all seriousness, take a moment and pray for her brother. He is only 28.

Emma is quite the tired one this morning, but won’t give it up. Just cries at everything and anything that doesn’t go her way and leaning her head on anything head heighth as she walks by it.

I’ve been trying a few new recipes in the crockpot lately. I’ve got mushroom chicken in there now. I’ve made pot roast which is my favorite meal of all time and something else called Honey Chicken that was okay, not great. Anyone have any other great crockpot recipes?

Emma has some yucky cold thing. Just a bunch a snot running down her throat making her cough and hoarse. Yuck.

We went home for the day. Sort of a ghost-town. Almost everyone was either working or out-of-town. I’m glad we only spent a day there this time.

Emma wrinkles her nose now when something is dirty or I say, no, it’s yucky. It’s really cute. She picked up Trooper’s ball and it was full of slobber and she turned around with her nose all wrinkled up.

Have I mentioned that it is now 3 1/2 weeks that Emma has been going down by herself at night? One night Scott finished dressing her on the changing table from her bath and immediately put her in her crib and she was out with not even a wimper. It has been SO much less stressful at night. AND, she has been going down about 7:30, so Scott and I have been having some long evenings! Of course, we don’t do anything exciting! We’re usually in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 9:30. It’s ridiculous. We need to rent some movies and watch them on the nights “my shows” don’t come on.

Speaking of which, I’ve been keeping up with American Idol. I was a little surprised that John made it last night. I thought for sure George had it, but John is definitely a good (but boring) singer. I still think the strongest is probably Diana, Fantasia and Latoya. I think Leah will make it out of next week’s episode. Maybe Jennifer and Matthew (just because of the girls voting, I don’t really think he’s ALL that great). They have definitely stepped it up this year though, there are some good singers compared to some of them last year.

Scott has been in training this week and has been getting home at 3:30. He doesn’t leave until 8:30. It seems like he leaves for a long lunch and is back. It’s unbelievable how different this schedule is. We get to see him every morning, every afternoon and every night. They are spoiling us!

I took Emma to the zoo today with S&H. She had a good time, just wanted to stare at all the animals. S and I of course had a great time together. I caught this picture of her when she was “talking” to H. I can’t tell if she’s trying to say, Wanna piece of me or Did you just see what that monkey did?

<img src=”http://www.sabennett.com/100_3926s.jpg”/>

Something amazing happened this week. Last week our church started fasting and prayer. Scott and I wrestled with what to do and I never felt comfortable doing anything. Also on Sunday the pastor talked about giving behind the tithe. I mentioned to Scott about giving some money to Scott’s parents to help buy FIL’s medicine. Scott said I wish we could just give them an extra $1000 to help. I kind of scoffed and said I was thinking about $100 to pay for his medicine. Monday morning I felt God leading me to not eat dinner that night. All day I felt an urging to read his word and definitely felt God calling to give money to his parents. At some point during the day the amount $800 came to my mind. It was how much we had saved in buying the Jeep. By Monday evening when Scott got home I really had my mind set I was going to do this. I talked to Scott about it and he was definitely on the same page. I wrote the check on Tuesday and sent it. The snow held it up getting to them and they didn’t call us about it until Saturday night, the 28th. Scott’s mom was crying and said that they did not have enough money to pay for their house payment which was due this Friday and now they could pay it. If I remember correctly, there house payment is about $800. It was extremely rewarding to help someone and realize that God orchestrated it all. In my prayer journal, I wrote these things that I learned from scripture:

focus on making God priority, not money; don’t judge, just give; be a cheerful giver; God will provide; give beyond what is required; He gives you more so you can give more; our reward is now and in heaven.

Pretty cool, huh?

Argh!! Why don’t people pay for their items in a timely manner? I pay for my items just as soon as it closes. One person emailed me and said she was waiting to get her paypal set up correctly and then she was going to pay. Other than that, it doesn’t seem any invoice, payment reminder or email is making any impact on anyone. Geez.

Mom and Dad ended up visiting yesterday instead of Saturday. I went to a baby shower for two ladies in our Sunday School class. It kind of felt good to start to get “into” things again. I realized I didn’t know these girls too well, but if I was ever going to feel a part of the church, I’d just have to be a part of it, you know?

I am so excited it is getting warm again. Emma and I have a play date at the zoo scheduled with S&H tomorrow. I can’t wait for Emma to see the animals to see if she recognizes them like she does in her books.

Yesterday we had Emma outside just walking around. We have a certain path we always take to our apartment’s mailbox “hut” thingy. Emma loves to carry the keys and tries to open the mailbox. We let her “lead” yesterday while walking. She went straight on our path to the mailbox, which consists of down a sidewalk, through a courtyard, down another sidewalk around an apartment building, across a parking lot. Then she went around to the back of the “hut” and pointed directly at our mail slot!!! And then she looked at one of us, like, give me the keys! My mouth dropped. I could not believed she remembered all of that.