Welcoming a new year and a new decade

A new year and a new decade are here. On New Year's Eve I was sponsoring our church's youth groups New Years Eve lock-in and it was only then that I realized a new decade was upon us. I remember where I was when we ushered in 2000 (and all the fear that the power would be out for weeks, lol). Ten years is indeed a long period, and God has done so much in my life during that time. I have seen 3 of my 4 grandparents go to be with Jesus, I graduated from high school, met the man I would marry, got married to that wonderful man, broke my first bone (ring finger, thanks to flag football), moved 5 times, bought a house, got my first "big kid" job and many other things. I look forward to seeing what God will do in the next year and the next decade.

God has blessed me so much in the past, and although this time of year makes us look forward, it also condones us to look backwards to see the mistakes that were made, to learn to grow and to seek even more fiercely after my God.

On a lighter note we enjoyed getting to spend Christmas with both my mom's family and Mike's family (Christmas is so crazy now that I'm married and have to share, lol). Although Christmas is not about the presents I will highlight two that I got that were definitely the best of Christmas time (sorry if you're reading and your's didn't make the list). My nanny gave me, along with my cousins and all of her daughters, teddy bears made out of my PaPa's clothes, the bear itself is made out of one of his plaid shirts and he has a vest made out of my Papa's jeans. Hands down, the best gift I have received all year. My sweet husband decided after much prodding from me to get me an Ipod (although he had convinced me that he had not gotten me one). So I am now enjoying my new Nano as type this new blog.

I hope all of you and yours had a safe and happy holiday. God bless,

Tis' the Season

For those of you who may or may not know me well, I absolutely love the Thanksgiving and Christmas season! I am not a fan of cold weather, and especially dislike the wind (especially the way it is here, w/o hills or many trees). But I still have an incredible love for Christmas. I truly think if it were up to me, I would take off of work all of December so my house could be over-decorated, full of Christmas-type food, my favorite of which being candy (thanks to my mom for instilling that in me) and singing and dancing to Christmas music everyday.

Now Christmas is really my favorite holiday, to be honest, I think I include Thanksgiving for 2 reasons: 1. It is the day before Black Friday, which in my family is the greater than Thanksgiving and 2. After Thanksgiving has been completed it means we are officially in the Christmas season.

There will be a few new things (hopefully) added unto the Janssen household Christmas this year such as a new tree (we have huge ceilings and thus we need a bigger tree), outdoor decorations, and last but definitely not least, the amazing Christmas villages that are my Nanny's (mom's mom) that I have adored since I was a small child. My Nanny is still alive and well, she just doesn't enjoy decorating as much and apparently I asked her before I was actually tall enough to be eye to eye with the villages if I could have them when she died (sensitive child, I know).

Anyway, as I work all I can think about is wanting to go home and start getting ready to decorate for my favorite holiday that goes way too quickly for my liking.

And for fun here's a list of things I like to do or would like to do this Christmas season!
1. Go to Chickasha to see the lights (Mike proposed to me there, check out the picture) http://http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30241529&l=f7dcbd265e&id=79800937
2. Go Ice Skating & Snow Tubing in Bricktown (I've been saying I would do this for a couple of years and it has yet to happen, this year it will)
3. Drink hot chocolate and sit in with the lights out looking at the tree and various lights.
4. Yukon Christmas in the Park:attend a minimum of 4 times...
5. drive around and see other peoples Christmas lights/decorations.
6. Shop and find great deals on Christmas gifts (I do love Black Friday).
7. Watch Christmas movies, including the old TV specials such as Rudolph.
8. Wear a tacky Christmas sweater to a party (I really want to have a tacky Christmas sweater party).
9. eat lots of great food
11. My favorite: spend time with friends and family rejoicing in the birth of my Savior!

Show me thine way...

I am constantly learning more and more. More about the Lord, other people and myself. Sometimes all of the things I learn are not the things that I want to know, or even a lesson that I want to really submit to.

God has been teaching me many things through the last several months. It is amazing how some of the things I am really learning about are things I have been told from a small child. We are to forgive people. I am okay with saying, I struggle with that. There are people who I do not even know that well, who have hurt me deeply. And I find that I struggle with wanting them to hurt as well. Or more than that I want them to know how I feel and then I want them to know that they need to ask my forgiveness and the truth of it is... That is not the way life is. I have to learn to forgive outside of them. Forgiveness is not conditional upon the purpatrator, forgiveness is conditional upon the person who has been hurt. Even if they do not ask for my forgiveness I am still told to give it. I think so many times in our minds we see reconciliation as the equivilent of forgiveness and it is not. It takes two people for reconciliation, but it only takes one for forgivenss. So I pray that I continue to allow God to transform my heart to one that will listen. Even when it is difficult.

We are called to love and I have found it more difficult to love others when I hang onto the hurt in my heart. Now that I have been shown the way of the Lord I must follow. My eyes have been opened to my own sin and I can chose to either follow God and learn to forgive or to follow me and hold onto the hurt and the pain.

"You have shown me thine way Father, and now I will follow. Thank you for your ever present love, acceptance and teaching. Continue to mold me to be like you."

New to Blog

So I'm new to blogging, but I enjoy reading other people's so I figured I would try it out.

My life has been crazy busy. As most of you know I am now working for Eagle Ridge Institute in the Area Prevention Resource Center and really enjoy my job. I work full-time and am also going to grad school full time @ Southern Nazarene University. I am nearly finished with my first grad class (we take one class at a time) and am so excited to have 3 hours under my belt. I am enjoying class thus far, I have made a few new friends and enjoy getting to know new people. My first professor is nice, maybe not the same view on everything as he is very psychoanalytic nonetheless I find him to be interesting and a good teacher.

Mike and I are staying busy at our church CCY. We love our students and enjoy spending time with them. The Lord is definitely stretching us in ways we have not been stretched before. I cannot say that it is always enjoyable, but it is great to know that we are in the will of God even when others are against us. We are praying that we continue to be in the will of God and aske that you come along side us in that prayer.

Although some of you know how much I hate cold weather, I love watching my two football teams play in the fall the OSU Cowboys, who are doing amazing this season, and the Dallas Cowboys who are not doing as well but I'm a fan so I continue to support.

So there is my life, pretty scattered, but that is how I live... Thanks for following my blog, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I hope you enjoy getting to hear about all that is going on in my life.