Freedom

Today I had the opportunity to babysit my nephew :-) We had a lot of fun. I was trying to get him to crawl... We're getting there. Haha!

I went to Olive Garden with my mom and sister for lunch. We were celebrating my oldest sister's birthday. She is an old lady now!!! I love you, Megan! Haha 

I ordered a calzone at Olive Garden which means "underwear" in Spanish. When I told Manny I had underwear for lunch, he wanted some too. So for dinner, we went to Mario's and got some underwear. Yum! I didn't think he would be hungry because we went to the mall and got samples from the food court. They always have lots of samples. All those people on the streets begging for food should just go to the mall for free samples :-)

...After Mario's we drove over to Sam's club because Megan said they are having an open house. I googled it and the open house is all this weekend. SWEET! By the time we got to Sam's, it was closed. We will try again later. 

We got home and made s'mores with Reese's (How can we have some more when we haven't even had any? haha). Since we have an electric stove, we just heat up the marshmallows in the microwave. If you've never done that before, I highly recommend trying it. It's a good experience. I'll give you a glimpse of what you're missing out on...

Look at how big that marshmallow is!!! 

This is an up close picture of the marshmallow in the microwave...

Taking up close pictures of something in a microwave doesn't work so well, just in case you were wondering. Haha!

I don't have anything super insightful to say today, just a simple thought. The name Joshua is Hebrew for Jesus (they come from the same Hebrew root word). So Joshua helping the Israelites fight the Amalekites and Joshua leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, were both pictures of what was to come with Jesus. Jesus just did it on a much larger scale: He saved the whole world, not just God's chosen people. Any thoughts??

Hope

Today I went over to my sister's house and I drive past a local elementary school on the way. It was quite depressing to see all the cars in the parking lot... NOOOOO!!!! I am not ready for school to start.

I returned the fourth season of Friends (I am trying to watch all ten seasons before summer is over) to my sister and we went to Hobby Lobby. She needed to buy a picture frame and I needed some velcro. This year I plan on velcroing my kids' name tags to the tables. This will make rearranging table seating 
so much easier and it won't leave a huge sticky spot like tape does. I will post pictures of that once it is all set up in my classroom.

Last night I used this app called Sleep Time. It keeps track of your sleep patterns such as how often you were awake, in a light sleep, or in a deep sleep. I found it quite intriguing. Just as a glimpse, I will post my measurements from last night. (I use my iPod not my iPhone so it doesn't drain my phone's battery).

As you can see, out of my nine hours of sleep, only about half was deep sleep or REM which is when you're in your most relaxed state. I can't wait to use this app again tonight. This is interesting data. This app has an alarm that is supposed to wake you up at the most optimal time. You can set your alarm, but it might wake you before your alarm because you will feel more rested. It's cool though :-)

Tonight my husband requested that I make him a smoothie for breakfast tomorrow. I enjoy using our awesome wedding present. It's a Ninja!!

The first smoothie I made with it tasted exactly like the Banana Berry smoothie at McDonald's. The second time I made a smoothie it tasted like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a cup. Not sure how this time turned out, but yum!!!

I adore these cups my best friend gave us as a wedding present. Perfect for smoothies!!!

As a final thought for today... This morning I was reading in Exodus and one verse really stuck out to me... 

Exodus 15:26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you."

God doesn't want anyone to suffer. He longs for everyone to be healthy and whole (that doesn't mean you won't ever get sick, but there is hope when you do). God says He will heal us if we obey Him, but beyond that, He sent Jesus to die for us and by HIS stripes we are healed. We do not have to live with any type of pain--physical, mental, spiritual, etc. God is reaching out saying "Ask me to heal you and I will!!!" He is ready and willing. Are you ready? Are you willing to ask? Step out in faith.