September

September began with Marissa & Jeremy's wonderful wedding!
It was so wonderful to be a part of the whole weekend. To see how God has brought these two people together – and how special they both are.

We got involved in a Life Group at church – basically a small group for bible study, discussion and fellowship. God put this group together. I could tell from day one that this group of people was no accident. It will be exciting to see how God brings us closer.

I joined the choir at church. It is fun to be back in a choir. Music is really an important part of my worship. And I love singing. And meeting new people at our church.

I went back to work full time. That first Monday back was pretty hard, after having every Monday and Friday off for basically the past 8 months. And with new stuff happening at work (new systems, new printers, new people) – I just had to jump in – the deep end!

And gas prices went up – something about a hurricane... But when everyone was panicked at lunchtime – Get gas now, they are “running out” - I thought they were just overreacting. That happens quite often. But, nope, when I left work that day, and for the week after, there was no gasoline at the stations. Everywhere I went, you could see bags covering the pumps. As I drove around in my Jeep. But I didn't have to fill up. This is one of the fantastic things about living 3 miles from my office!

I ordered 2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers shirts – to get in the spirit of fall – and football season. I'm usually reluctant to let go of the summer. So this year, I wanted to embrace the fall!

I watched Evan Almighty – it might seem weird that this is a major something that happened this month. But it really meant something to me. The message behind this secular movie was amazing. I thought that I wouldn't like the movie, because of the plot and the stars – but I loved it. And my favorite part: “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”
What a powerful message to (surprisingly) come out of a movie!

I had enjoyed watching the Buccaneers play – well, watching them on the Game Center on the computer. It is amazing to see the red lines “go” across the field. But what is more amazing is the power of my jersey that I wear on game days. It is an Alstott jersey – he retired a few years ago, but the power remains! One Sunday, when we got home from church, they weren't doing so great. Then I put on my Alstott jersey. And they started playing so well! Then at halftime, I went to the grocery. When I got back, the Bucs were struggling – but I put on the jersey and they won in overtime!! The power of the jersey!

I had a very exciting lunch one day, while eating outside at work on the picnic tables. An 18-wheeler was turning out of the side street across from my office and he crunched on something, then stopped. I thought that he had taken out the curb like so many other have done before him. But he had a car underneath his back tires. She had turned behind him, then tried to pass him on the left – but he was just swinging out big – in the right lane, straightening into the left lane. So she got crushed. The driver was ok – just stupid and impatient. And speaking of impatient. Another 18-wheeler that wanted to make that same turn, while the wreck was waiting on the cops, and he couldn't make it. Well, duh, there's a big truck in the way! So he did a little Austin Powers backing up – and took out the mailbox for my office while trying to get around the wreck. And the cop that was there for the wreck ran over and gave him a ticket for that! Quite an exciting lunch!

Had an awesome lunch with Talia. We had a great talk. It was great to have a girly day – and to hear encouragement and love!

So much to do. Too much to do. What do I do? I usually run into the problem of planning too many things to do in the amount of time that I had. It's usually at home. But I did that at work. I thought I could get 5 things done in an hour, but I only got 2 things done in an hour and a half. It always takes longer than I think. Why can't I remember that?