A Message For The New Year

Today is New Year’s Eve and tomorrow we arrive at the third and final holiday in our American Trilogy.  Over Thanksgiving and Christmas you did away with the clutter in your life. You were grateful for the gift of redemption. You embraced the chance to serve others.  It felt good, right?  Well guess what—it doesn’t have to end now!  You can apply these principles the whole year through and carry the message of this season with you.  Renewing your spirit is just beginning, with no end in sight.
 
Now that you’ve cleared the weeds and tilled the ground, the seeds you plant in this New Year can take root and grow.  You’ve spent over a month nourishing your foundation.  As you look toward the future you can understand that nothing good or meaningful can happen for you, your family, your community or your country unless you begin the process of change with humility.  You understand that you can’t do it alone - that no one can - that is where your strength comes from.  We need our faith both in one another and, most importantly, in God.  Congratulations—if you’ve taken this journey with me through our American Trilogy of holidays, today is the day when things begin to happen.


I want you to make a commitment right now that you’re going to change your life.  This is it!  I’ll be back on the air this coming Monday and I’m starting something brand new.  But it won’t mean a thing if you don’t honor this commitment to change your life today.  2011 is going to be a year unlike any other, and not just for me and you, but for everyone.  There isn’t a moment to waste!  Don’t sleep New Year’s Day away on the couch! (OK, one small nap, but that’s it.)  Think about what you want from your life, and for your life.  You’ve done the work and now you can move forward without limitation.  You have your family, your friends, and your faith.  The greatest men and women who have ever lived have needed nothing more to literally change the world.  You’re ready.

Remember, you can’t control the passage of time, but you can control what you do with that time as it passes.  Let’s make every day count…together.

May God bless you and your family this day and throughout the New Year.

This letter was taken from Glenn Beck's official newsletter

Birthday Booking

I just booked a room here in town at a place I've been wanting to stay for a long time. It's called Abigail's Treehouse. The first time I saw it I knew it didn't "fit" the area and of course upon further looking into found it to be a delightful bed and breakfast. I knew I would stay at it when the time was right. I really don't have the cash to spend now, but feel in my heart that Brian and I need some time just the two of us. I decided to book it for my birthday. The honeymoon suite isn't available but I went ahead and booked the 2nd floor aspen suite. When I totaled out online this is the form I was supposed to keep for my records:

	Congratulations! Your reservation has been confirmed. Please print this page as your receipt. Reservation Confirmation: Confirmation Number: P8063A3822 Reservation Date: 12/26/2010 Check-in Date: 12/28/2010 Check-out Date: 12/29/2010 Inn Name: Abigaile's Treehouse Location: 1015 E. 24th Street Bryan, Texas 77803 Phone number: (979) 229-7032 Room booked: The Aspen Suite Property policies: no smoking, pets only with innkeeper OK, not handicap accessible, children welcome Credit card: Visa ****9090 Room charges: $129.00 Taxes and fees: $19.35 Total charges: $148.35 Deposit: $37.09 Charged by Abigaile's Treehouse Total billed to your credit card: $37.09 Amount due on check-in: $111.26

My Rose

I got my rose on Day 6 of the Novena from my sister. We were riding around in the car and I hadn't mentioned the novena to anyone, except Beka who was doing it with me. Mom asked Kendl to write out a check before we got to the bank. Kendl opened up the glove box and pulled out a pen with a huge pink dew dropped artificial rose on the end that was wrapped in green, for the "stem", all the way to the pen point. I saw her pull it out but bit my tongue because I knew it would have to be handed to me to for it to be "my rose". A few seconds later, I'm not sure why, either her phone rang or she had to get something ready for the bank as well. Mom said hand it to Amber and there being handed to me by my sister was my rose from St. Therese. After talking about it because of course I was thrilled, I found out that Kennady had made that pen for my mom years ago. In a way the rose pen was from Kennady too. It was a very very special moment. Mom gave me the rose pen.

HOP's and Ultrasounds

Day 4 Of Novena:

At 10:11 on Dec. 16th I'm up researching Prayer Houses and landed on Blanchester's page, again the time was 10:11 and here at the bottom left corner of the page is their address.

Blanchester House of Prayer

111 North Broadway Blanchester, OH 45107

Glenn Beck did a special presentation from Wilmington, OH called "America's First Christmas". During his regular broadcast on Fox he talked about how The Wilmington House of Prayer has and continues to be a place that is helping to change and shape their town. It sparked my interest, this idea of a prayer house. Upon researching more I have found that there are many of the HOP's, as they call them, nation wide. Wilmington's is just beautiful though. Even through the pictures I feel the Holy Spirit. I posted one below that if you look close enough you can see many orbs in. There are two incredibly strong ones over the girls face.

I am struck by this notion of a prayer house for anyone to come to pray. They are open 24/7 staffed with people in prayer. I'm Catholic and this reminds me of our Adoration Chapel. They use to be open 24/7 as well, but now I think most of them are just during the day. You can go in and pray before Jesus Christ anytime of day and there is always someone in there. However, this is very different because they incorporate music and other learning events as well. There are chalk boards that people write their specific prayers on and then people pray for them. I don't know where this will lead, but I can see myself opening one of these someday somewhere. God will open the doors if it is to be.






Earlier today I was surfing around the net and came across this poster, taken from The Great Campaign, that also had a profound effect on me. I immediately fell in love with it and posted it to my twin's blog. It just seemed to go with all of the other ultrasound pictures I have up from when I was pregnant.

My first thought was just how amazing it was at capturing the true spirit of Christmas that so very many people miss every year. This has been an extreme year for me. It has been filled to the brim with a mixture of extreme joy, very tough growing pains with myself, my husband and my family, financial instability, and pure love. It has also been the fastest year of my life. I think from here on they just get faster. I'm 29. With all of that it seems like this Christmas season has been one of the most spiritual and true in my entire life. I am so thankful for that! For me the year has culminated with self renewal, thankfulness, confidence, and Faith. I am ready for the new year no matter what is to come I am ready to face it head on ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need. All I hope is that I have prepared myself this year well enough for the Lord to use me. He has over and over again in the past, but now my hope is that I am ready for wider impact. 

Hours later, in fact just about 30 min ago, I was sitting in my bathtub thinking about being a diagnostic sonographer. I saw myself standing there with a woman laying on the table looking into her belly and seeing her twins. At that moment I stopped and said, "God will you please lead me there if that is where you want me. You will have to give me a sign because I can't imagine going back to school AGAIN" seconds later a voice in head simply said, "I did". And in popped this image of baby Jesus on a sonogram that I just happened across earlier today. I have been thinking more and more about this. During my pregnancy, which was a high risk twin pregnancy, I must have had around 10 ultrasounds. That is where I lost myself in this thought of me doing that. I was so connected to my Dr. performing the ultrasound because it is such a profound moment...every time you see your unborn baby. It is intense. I guess that intensity could go both ways though. Good or Bad. I am good with bad though as well, I'm strong and extremely compassionate when people are at there lowest. So that part doesn't scare me. So I researched at that point, talked to my Dr., saw that the need for techs was growing, and during the first few months after the girls were born I thought about it a lot. Then things got overwhelming and I let it out never to think of it again...for a while. I think my cousins pregnancy is what resurfaced it and since then, not in an obsessive way, I've just been thinking about it again. Researching and finding out what it would take. It would basically be about 4 prereq's and then 18 months of school specifically for DMS. I don't know about that. I don't know if I want to take that on at all. I'd love if I had done this years back but I'm almost 30 with 1 year olds that won't be in school for a while and on top of it all I can't afford any school right now. So even though I got an answer tonight in the bathtub I will continue to ponder and pray. 

It's 12:22

My best friend and I started a novena to St. Therese 3 days ago. The 11's have been bombarding me ever since. I guess the angels are gathering around us. I can feel their peace. Last night I decided to do a little redecorating and frame some new pictures of my twins. The frames I found were from my Grandma, from the girls' baptism, and they are vertical frames. Each frame has a cross on it so you can't turn it horizontal. I pulled the only two vertical pictures from the stack that I had recently printed at Walgreens. Upon flipping the first picture over (see above image A) there staring back at me was 1:11. I immediately felt a rush come over me, and I continued framing and hanging. I got sidetracked by another small project and then returned about 30 min later to frame the other picture. Upon flipping that one over, staring back at me was 11/11(see above image B). No other pictures in the stack had referenced any number 1's.

I can't sleep again tonight it's 12:30 am and I am tired but I keep wanting to do things. Tonight since Brian (my husband) has gone to sleep I have created a mini book of  pictures for my sister Kendl. A mini book of 23 pictures from the time the twins were born until their 1st birthday which was on the 21st of November. I had an urge or a nudge to do something special for her. Today was the last day I could have made the book to get it here before our Christmas on the 23rd. After I finished creating the book, I proceeded to the checkout. Earlier today I came across, randomly, some blog with a girl talking about these cheap mini-books. I'm on such a tight budget this year that I jumped on it. She gave a special promo code to use...THANKYOU...then the book only cost $2. At checkout I figured out that production time is 5 days and I had to up the shipping to 2 day instead of standard. I still used "thankyou". I pressed update total and guess how much my total for the mini-book came out to? Oh yes you know it, exactly, precisely, $11.11. (see above image C)

Following this encounter I prayed my novena. After I finished, and instead of going to bed, I got on facebook just for a bit and found that Kennady had posted a you tube video of this song by a girl named Jaydee. She plays the guitar and sings and has an amazing voice. Almost Mazzy Starrish but not quite. I read her bio and she said her idol is Amy Winehouse, well at least music wise. I don't love Amy Winehouse. Some of her songs are good but most aren't. However, this girl is just amazing amazing. Somehow I got to her fb fan page and started scrolling through some of her you tube cover songs she had posted. While listening I read a few of the comments under the video and again they prove they are with me (see above image D). Someone by the name of Carla White with pebbles as her profile picture says, "lovely. would like a little less reverb but it's very nice none the less". The date of the comment was Dec. 11 at 11:11pm. I wondered what reverb was and now I'm wanting to look that up. Another video I was looking at on her page 11 other people liked and there were exactly 11 comments to view.

I think I'll look up reverb tomorrow. I'm sure that will lead me to my next place I'm supposed to be, to teach me something else, or at least to let me know that I'm RIGHT on at the moment. The 11's are stronger in the past two days than they have been in months. MONTHS. November was such a bad month and since it was month 11 I was starting to doubt the angels for a brief moment. I was starting to think I may have been wrong for the past 7 years of my life. I may have been going back to the very start of the whole experience. The part where you know they are no longer a coincidence, but you still don't know if it's good or evil. Thank you Lord for this Novena. Since I started it I am straight again. The numbers that are made up of 1's are pure, good, and crystal clear guidance.

The Road to The Ranch