I Love You Guys!!

I owe a HUGE Thank You to all my close friends in Canada. Thank You for having patience and understanding with me about delaying my trip home and for all that you did to help me when we thought I was comming home this weekend. Especially Jeff, Misty, Laura, Leah, Amanda, Pastor Bob and Judy and their family. Without you guys being there in that town I wouldn't have anywhere to stay when I do visit and I wouldn't even really have much of a reason to move back. So I just want to encourage all of you in saying that you are the best friends that I have ever had the privlege of being close to and that I am praying daily for all of you that God would bless each of you and direct you towards his will for each of your lives, so that you will all live full and happy lives..... anyways... *wipes tears*....
Enough of the sappiness!! How about that Christmas shopping? Pretty crazy and pointless if you ask me... I think our family this year is going to be trying something new... not getting any presants for each other at all. I mean all of our physical needs are being completely met... the only thing our family really needs this year is a relationship make over and to pay off our debts instead of adding to them. Of course that never fully works... we always get presants, but this year I think we all really understand that happiness, because our debts are being paid off, will mean alot more than getting a shiny new CD player or a pair of jeans, or a tie, or slippers. I think things for us will be alot less stressful that way (and we need as much peace and contentment this year as we can get!). Well, I guess that's about it for now. God Bless!

Classically Well-Rounded

Currently Listening25 Mozart FavoritesYeah Right! Like I actually listen to classical music!! JKsee related
Tonight my sister and I went to see the movie "Pride and Prejudice". I LOVE movies like that... it was so old and classy. I felt intelligent whenever I could truly figure out what they were talking about. I even caught on in time to laugh at some of the "jokes":) The great part was that almost everyone in the theater (with the exception of my sister and I) were at least 65 or older. We were surrounded by old couples, who were probably on their first movie date in about 10 years. I swear all of them turned out for this flick. My sister said that it was because they all probably bought the book when it first came out (in the 1800's). I thought it was so sweet! We did kinda feel a little bit like we were breaking some sort of unspoken rule of youthfulness by buying tickets to such a movie, but we enjoyed it so much! I can just see my sister and I still going to old school movies when were 95, sneaking out of the nursing home for a wild night on the town, watching remakes of flicks like 'Sixteen Candles' and 'Kate and Leopold' and 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Shreck'... LOL! Oh those mischievous nights will be wonderful! Right now I guess my sis and I are just going to sit in our rocking chairs with our peppermint tea and knit while comming to terms with the fact that we are old ladies before our time:) but we'll just call ourselves cultured young adults. That sounds alot less depressing.... what a night!

Sugar Cubes

Sugar - God has enlightened me slightly as to why I can never seem to make a diet work for me. It is all about choices (mostly my bad ones). But seriously, I have realised that the reason that I fall off the wagon during diets is because I give myself far too many choices .... and I eat too much carbs and sugar:) I know that most diets are trying to help you when they give you choices but for me whenever I'm hungry and I can't remember the choices I was given on my diet I usually just start making up my own choices. Eventually the choice between chicken or fish turns quickly into canned soup and pizza. Anything quick. So this morning, deciding that I need a healthy change, I decided to make myself an egg white omlette. Now if you know me at all, you may have noticed that I truly loathe eggs with a passion. They make me want to gag everytime I eat them, I don't know why exactly. So, today I figured I should try to figure out a way to eat them, seeing as how almost every diet going requires one to consume record amounts of egg whites. So I took two egg whites and started adding in all kinds of veggies, and without really noticing it, I realised that the egg whites had actually disapeared in the mass of vegetables I was adding.... it's like the egg was there, but it wasn't there... weird... anyway, so after I cooked it with cheese, I realised that it actually tasted really good. So this is my new plan... I am now going to take away my choices for meal times and eat a well rounded meal of an egg disguising omlette with a glass of milk and 1 piece of toast for every meal. Boring, but at least I will never have to choose what I am going to eat. The only choice I will have is what piece of fruit I will eat for a snack. I hope it works.
Cubes - In other news, yesterday I got some green and purple cube baskets to put my clothes in. This is very exciting, because I don't have a dresser or a bedroom down here and this will at least give me some things to keep my clothes from becomming a pile on the floor. Now, I can almost hear all of my close friends in Canada laughing from here at the fact that in Canada I had two dressers, two big totes and a walk in closet and that still didn't keep my clothes from becomming a large pile on the floor, but BE HAPPY FOR ME... Purple and green cubes will add a pretty and artistic edge to my pile (even if they will just be thrown on top of the clothes).

Side note - We are now watching another "Tropical Depression" in the Carribean that has reciently taken a slight turn towards south Florida.... GOOD LORD!!!! I am MOVING the heck out of here... we just got the power back from the last one... it was exciting at first, but now all these hurricanes are really beginning to get on my LAST NERVE!!!

Quote of the day -

"Don't make someone a priority in your life, if they only make you an option"

The Holidays are upon us... even if it doesn't feel like it at all!!

I have just reolised that we are almost 1 month away from Christmas!! YIKES!! Living down here has me totally off track. I'm not even thinking about Christmas at all!! I mean, it's still summer down here. It feels like it has been summer forever! The only time that I am even slightly reminded about Christmas is when I am in the malls. It's weird. I was reading my friends blog today and she was talking about thanksgiving dinner and stuff... man, I am totally not in that mindset at all!! I am not really feeling the spirit when I'm able to go to the beach every day and look out my window and see nothing but sun and green! This is dumb! I'm going back to Canada!! lol. I am trying to convince my parents to come up to Canada for Christmas or if not, for all of us to spend Christmas or New Years Eve in New York City. You can fly there from here for only $45 round trip, so I think it would be the next best thing to being home. I on the other hand am not planning on missing Christmas eve at Aunt Donna and Uncle George's house! That is the highlight of my Christmas these days! I can't miss it.
But anyways, I guess regardless of where I spend Christmas this year I should at least start shopping for it. Because weather it feels like it or not, it's going to come, just like clockwork.

Get Your Head on Straight! (a devotion by: Katie)

With the risk of this turning into a church service, I think I'm going to share what God showed me during one of my late night devotions at the Hospital this past week. This is straight from my journal,so it may seem a little lengthy at first, but it really sums up a little part of what God has taught me in these past couple of years. I know that it applies to everyone too (not just me).
In your head you need to take every thought captive. You need to challenge your thoughts (using tools like the word of God) to make sure that they are truth. Unfortunatly Satan can sometimes (sometimes all the time) place lies right into your normal everyday thoughts and even more unfortunatly, sometimes we think of them as truth without ever challenging their integrity. I often times will just accept that every thought in my head is my own - this is totally not true. I have some thoughts that I think of myself, then there are some from the Holy Spirit, and then there are also decietful lies that Satan sticks in there. One at a time, then more and more until I have completely sidetracked from the truth. This is when my life is filled with worry, fear and sin. This is often times when we find ourselves thinking, 'my life is horrible! I can't go on living this way! Everything is falling apart'. The good thing is that usually (if you're a believer) this is the point when you become so cesprate for God to take over your life again that God brings you back on track and restores your trust and dependency on him.
But this gets me thinking... What if we never allow Satan into our heads in the first place? What if I was always keeping my thoughts captive to the intrgrity of the word of the Lord? I don't mean that I can stop Satans thoughts from entering my head, but simply not allowing them to take up residency there (not even allowing them to stay for a visit). I understand that obviously I won't be able to sit down with my bible every second of the day everytime I have a thought to see if it is truth or not. That is where scripture memory comes in. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert did he not quote scriptureto remove Satans thoughts from his head? This is so obviously the way that we are supposed to handle Satans lies. When we finally realise this and put it into practice, then I believe that having a "sound mind" is actually atainable. I mean Jesus, while he was the Son of God in Heaven, was actually (physically and mentally) man here on earth. He understands the way we think, because he once thought with the same physical brain as we all do. Now that we have seen his example (that he walked thru his life without sin) We can now know for sure that it isn't a dream or a theory - that we can have control over our thoughts (and therefore our actions - but that it is absolutly possible to live blameless or sinless (well at least maybe for the rest of our lives). I realise that this isn't an easy task, nor will it be achieved by most of us (to live sinless and blameless). but because of Jesus example we can know for sure that with the Word of God in our hearts and minds, that it is possible not to be brought down by Satans lies and torturous thoughts, but that we can fights against them and possibly (at least) limit the sin and fear and worries in our lives.
the Lord wants us to enjoy our lives. He wants us to grow more and more in him. He isn't looking for us to get only so high then fall so that he can restore us to the same place again without growing more and more each time. Therefore we should never struggle witht he same lessons only to never learn from them. Gor want's us to GROW! LEARN! Know more and more of him and find new levels of joy from overcomming every struggle. So Stop wasting your life thinking lies like...
" God made me this way and I can't change who I am"
or " I'll never get over this struggle, why keep trying to change that which can't be changed?"
or " Ever since I was a child everyone I know has thought of me like this, why would it change now? everyone expects me to be this way"
or " I'm too old. My life is almost over, now the Lord has done all he can do with me. I am now used as much as I can/will be. So, I Guess, now I'll just wait for the Lord to take me home. Maybe Heaven will be better"
NO! STOP THINKING THESE THINGS!! There is NEVER a point when you can't change for the better, NEVER a time when the Lord is thru with you. There is NEVER a point when you are too old and retired that the Lord can't still change you and make you into an even better you. The ONLY OPINION THAT MATTERS IS GODS. Not what your parents think of you, not who the people you went to school with thought you were, not even who you think you are! The Lord is the only one who knows who you truly are and what your life limits are. He is the only one who knows the road map to your future. He is the only one who has the perfect plan for who you are to become and where you are to spend your days. He is a loving Master with great and wonderful plans for all of our lives, so stop thinking the lies that Satan gives you. They are truly NOT YOUR THOUGHTS! They are not truth!
Consentrate and meditate on the Lords Words and thoughts for you and your life will be full of confidence and full of JOY and full of LIFE!! :)
Live it well! Be Joyous!!
Change and enjoy every struggle you go through!
Enjoy the journey and never stop growing!
NEVER EVER GIVE UP and only yeild to the Lord.