Well, Hi!

So, I stopped posting last year for who knows what reason! I have been through so much, haven't had much time for *hobbies*... Let's recap shall we? Where did I leave off... Oh that's right. Dependency.

I stopped relying on my phone, computer and appliances A LOT. I washed my dishes by hand, occasionally washed clothes in the tub. Maybe that seems crazy, but I learned a lot. And when things didn't go my way, it was really easy to have a humble attitude. Because of that attitude, God really blessed me and always provided what I needed :)


We also almost bought a house! .... It was really exciting and I really thought God had something great planned. He did; He had a plan to swoop in and show that He will ALWAYS take care of us. Our house was beautiful and I was crushed when we couldn't move in... 

I got really attached... But, the deal fell through. Oddly enough, a month later Matt was laid off. God knew what our future held and decided to protect us rather than give us what we wanted! Let's give Him a shout for that one!

I got a job at the Chocolate Factory, which was tons of fun, learned a lot and made a new friend who has the same birthday as me! 

Meet Ricky Huff! 

Yeah thats kind of a silly picture of him but its the only one I have... Hehe. He is the nicest guy you'll ever meet :) AND he has cool shoes. 

Well, the job ended badly but was happy to be moving on. After applying for bunch of jobs I decided I was ready to do something big with my life. But I didn't know what... It was either time for a baby, a house, just a move... I wasn't sure. I started looking into houses again and it was another dead end road. I was really tired of living in Wedgewood apartments. 

They always make the pictures look *so nice*! My scooter was stolen and vandalized, the people below us banged on their roof if Matt and I were just having a normal conversation, we constantly heard loud music playing, kids screaming, adults screaming, there were condoms and broken beer bottles in the hallways, and the office staff was rude and horrible!!! I needed out I was miserable.

Well, the move didn't work out, AGAIN. We decided we really weren't ready for a baby just yet. So I just went about my life like normal.

When I got married, I chopped all my hair off because I was really tired of that long hair! I went from this:

 

To this::

It felt really nice to get all that hair off my neck! But after it grew out, the long bob just wasn't cutting it for me. So I went down to the Daytona College to get a haircut. (Hey I was broke, looking for nothing special, and they were $4!) So I went down there to get it all evened out.

I sat in the black chairs, waiting, like I always did...looking around thinking, "It would be so much fun to do hair. But I could never do it, I can't even style my own hair...straight is about as stylish as it gets!" 

My thoughts were cut off when a pretty Muslim lady came over and called my name.

She started cutting my hair and out of curiosity, I asked, "How long have you known how to cut hair?" She replied "A month". I thought to my self. "Okay. If she has only been cutting hair for a month, and she does a good job I am signing up."

Sure enough, she finished and styled it and my hair looked great! I paid and then asked if I could speak to the teacher. That's when Miss Alicia came out and I just started bombarding her with nervous questions. "How could someone like me learn how to cut hair? Is it really hard? It looks hard... Don't you need a natural gift for it? Can you really teach someone how to cut hair??" She had no problem convincing me that cutting hair is easy and they go through everything with you one on one.

I had butterflies. This was the big thing that was going to happen. I was going to school!!!!! I enrolled. Came back 3 days later and did my financial aid, and the next day, I started cosmetology school! 

Here are just a few of the things I have done:::

 The first bangs I cut

 Straightening Megan's super curly hair! 

 My first wedge cut, or as most people know it, "a bob"

 My first high light and color. Gold base color with blonde hi lites

 I learned how to curl my own hair! 

 I put purple in my hair

 Attempted to put blue in Matt's hair. Failed. But I hadn't done my color class yet! And this was before the above high light and color. Blogger messed up the order of the pics. :) 

 Cut my own bangs :) 

 Learned how to wax nose hairs... If you need to get some frustration out, do this! 

 Ignore the blonde. My first man hair cut!!

 "French braid" or as we call it, Over braid.

 Twists

 Chignon!

 Loops

 Some cool nail designs I made up! 

And last but not least, me fooling around with some fantasy colors :)

School is really fun, and easy. I graduate in October, so I'm really excited!


A few other things that happened:

• I got 2 lop bunnies. The oldest one is Elderberry, the black one, and Mollie is the baby, the white one. :) 

   

• Matt and I did end up moving. Into Sail Point Bay apartments. Where we somehow moved into the SAME apartment he lived in when we were just dating. Got a $100 discount monthly and a really huge, nice, renovated apartment! *Pictures coming soon*

• I got my cartilage pierced.   

• I got glasses. 

• I quit photography and videography...when people started taking advantage of me like crazy and wouldn't pay me. And some other personal reasons. I sold all my camera gear and got a cheapy camera, but its still a pretty neat camera.

• I got an orange kitty, named Spyro! 

 

    
 
That is pretty much my year in a nut shell :) More blogs to come! (Shorter ones!)

Dependency

After reading todays chapter in Purpose Driven Life, 

I'm really feeling its confirmation for what I think God is telling me. "Don't mistake activity for productivity". I spend way to much time on my computer. Talking...looking at people's lives...looking things up on google...

I may do a lot of things on it, but none very productive. Back are the days of phone-books, libraries and driving to a place to get my answer. I feel like its also self-control and trying not to depend on material things...(feel like i'm gonna get blasted for that last part). Besides...imagine if one day all your material possessions are gone? then what... Idk, I feel like God is telling me to fully depend on Him, I just don't know how to fully comprehend it yet. 

How would you go through your day without your phone, computer, car, etc... My car was just in the shop for two days. Reminds me of a few months ago when I didn't have a car, and a scooter that broke down all the time. Maybe that was just God trying to prepare for this journey He's about to send me on. 

I indulge in a lot of things now that I was never raised to indulge in. I wasn't allowed on the phone for hours on end. (Couldn't pay me to be on the phone for more than hour now, but thats because of this wonderful thing called texting.) I'm sure if I had texting back then I would have been limited to 20 texts a day or something ridiculous. (I used to send about 800 texts a day 2 years ago, no joke. I am so glad I don't idolize my phone like that anymore.) When I was a teen, I was only allowed online for an hour a day. I was only allowed 2 soda's a day. Tv was for after 3 on fridays and on the weekends, and only an hour a day. I used to find this absolutely ridiculous but I am thinking now maybe its not... 


I wanted to indulge in all of it so bad, but then I would see my friends who would zone out while watching tv and you couldn't get their attention... I knew people who just COULD NOT live without their coffee in the mornings. (uh oh...might be guilty of that now, except with mountain dew....) Or people who would get headaches if they didn't eat chocolate at some point during the day. The cool thing about my self control back then, is I wasn't afraid of anything. Power went out for two weeks during the hurricane, and I was fine...I was a little upset I couldn't shower but I worked a job, I needed to smell good... Anyways my point is, I think God wants me to cut out all this "stuff" in my life. Rely on him. I'll get it all fine-tuned eventually... I need to start working on it though... Its gonna be tough getting rid 
of these habits. But I bet time will be way better spent than it seems to be lately. 

Cutting Lines

Matt is mowing lawns today and he requested that I have mac n cheese ready for him when he got home. 

So I head on down to Aldi's to pick up some milk for his dish. I pull in, and find a parking spot close to the front and proceed to pull in. Before I have a chance to slow down, a white SUV comes flying from the opposite direction, in MY lane, and takes the parking spot. 

....Just kidding! 

I thought to myself, "wow..." but then, remembering patience, "no biggie, there is a spot right here." so I park. We both get out and look at each other. I gave her a friendly smile, and kept walking. I go straight back to get the milk and come back up front to check out. There is kind of a long line but there normally is. 

Next thing I know, the SAME lady comes up and steps right in front of me. My heart started racing, I was thinking "are you serious? how can you just blantantly take my parking spot AND cut in front of me in line..." but I took a deep breath, prayed, and let it go. She turns around and says "I forgot something" and heads back in the store. I was like oh okay :) that works out. About 5 minutes later, she comes back and cuts right in front of me. AGAIN. I opened my mouth, about to blurt out "Uh maam thats the 3rd time you've cut me off today!" but I shut my mouth really quick, remembering fools are quick to speak and act. 
A cashier comes over and says to me,


"I can take you over here" 


I thought "YESSSSSS thank you LORD" and I start over to her line. THEN the lady screams out "DAT WHITE BITCH CUT THE LINE!" I didn't turn around. I didn't look at her. I didn't say anything. I prayed quietly in my head. I checked out and felt her staring me down as I walked out the door. 


So typical that all of that would seriously bother me, but I made it out with no harsh words and kept God in the front of my mind the whole time. This is just proof that God really is working in my life...cuz everyone who has known me for a while, knows that I would have called her out the first time she cut me. And when she yelled out that I CUT the line, that would have turned into a screaming match. Not anymore. Thank you Jesus.