It has been too long...

Sadly, I must admit to you, it has been way too long since I have longed for the Lord like I should. There was a time, when I first came to know Jesus that I could not wait to spend more time with Him. I seriously could stay at church all day on Sunday and not get tired. I yearned for more fellowship with believers....I hung on their every word about who Christ is and what He did for me. If I really am honest, I haven't been this hungry for the Lord since....my teen years at Fairfield Baptist Church.

Sad, I know.

I believe, I have steadily held a relationship with the Lord...but, it has been that kind of relationship you have where you were best friends in high school and then as you grow older, you call the person up every now and then to have coffee and chat for a bit. You catch-up during your coffee date...sometimes you decide to hang-out a little more frequently and sometimes life is just too busy at that, so you just decide to call for another coffee date a couple more months down the road to catch-up again.

I, honestly, have recently been blaming my lack of communication with the Lord on my recent church situation. The truth is, of course, it is 100% my fault. It is always hard when the Holy Spirit brings conviction like a train running you over at 90 mph. But what an awe-inspiring, humbling knowledge that He was right here all along just waiting for me to realize the truth so we could be best friends again and pick-up right where we left off...

As Promised...

We have really been doing a great job of not being "homebodies" and trying our best to use this time (before children) wisely. This past weekend, we had a 3-day weekend. I was worried we would spend all three days couped inside with Scotty not wanting to go anywhere and me DYING to get out. Instead, we played "house-sitter" at his parents' house and spent all day Saturday at his Aunts' pool with some great friends. Then, Sunday, we enjoyed church and then headed down to Jamaica Beach to visit some more friends that invited us to their beach house for the day. Monday was a day of re-cooperating, so I definitely did not mind being a homebody that day. Scotty headed home (to our house) for some time and I stayed behind to watch a marathon of White Collar - starting to really enjoy that show! :)

Now, we are headed into this short work-week.

This Saturday is Grandparents' Day. Be sure to send your grandma or grandpa a sweet card, cookie bouquet or fruit basket to say you are thankful for him/her and thinking about him/her on this special day!!!

Finally, before I head in to work.....

There is my new wedding band set, as promised. :) I LOVE IT! The picture truly does not do it justice. It is an amythist (engagement ring) surrounded by blue sapphires. Scotty's ring is a blue sapphire surrounded by amythists. :) (spelling is probably off here)

...until next time...

I'm Married!!!

I know, technically, I have been married for two years, but yesterday I got my real, offical wedding bands!!!

When Scotty and I got married, we could not afford buying a house, our honeymoon and helping to pay for our wedding all at the same time and also purchase wedding bands for both of us. So, we decided to buy temporary bands for both him and me until a later date. For our 1st anniversary, we bought his band. For our 2nd anniversary, we bought my bands. I LOVE them!!!! I will have to see if my awesomely talented friend, Lacy will take a photo that will do them justice so I can post a picture for all to see. :)

So...

After yesterday's blog, I truly was bothered by the idea that we (my Hottie and I) are boring people.

Do I really feel that way?

Are we really old and boring?

After swimming in my thoughts all day long about this, around 8:30pm last night, I came to the conclusion....YES! I do feel like we are kind-of boring people. There is nothing wrong with being "home bodies", and I certainly don't want to blow the budget ever weekend to have some crazy excursion. However, I do want this time in our lives to be intentional. We have agreed to not start a family yet. Therefore, if we are choosing to wait, we need to intentionally be:

1. Seeking the Lord and spending good, quality time with Him
2. Learning how to serve each other and working harder each day to be a better spouse
3. Sleep in and stay up late when we can
4. Have spontaneous moments of fun (picnics, hikes, a weekend away, visit the zoo, etc..)

All the above mentioned things are extremely hard to come by once a new baby comes into the picture. I don't want us wasting this season of life we have been given.

I shared all these thoughts with my sweet husband, and he concurred. We both got dressed at 8:30pm, headed to dinner and then went bowling till midnight. :) After bowling we enjoyed pie, coffee and conversation.

....maybe I will have some things to write about in the future... :)

7 months ago...

Seven months ago, I wrote on this blog. Ever since, I hop on here daily....truly, daily....to clickk on my blogging friends to the right ---> to see what whitty, insightful or eventful things might be going on in their lives, but have yet to update anything happening in mine.

It is quite possibly that I don't update because I NEVER take pictures. Seriously. I always forget the camera. Last weekend is a GREAT example of my horrible picture-taking abilities. It was our two-year anniversary. Both Scotty and I got all dressed-up to have a nice dinner at Marks, we were SURE to bring the camera...but, in the end both of us forgot to get a picture and at the last minute, the waiter took a picture of us and it turned-out pretty bad.

It is also possible that I don't update the blog too much because:
1. I refuse to talk about work on any internet outlet (facebook, twitter, blogspot, etc...)
2. I refuse to talk about family on any internet outlet
3. We are pretty boring people

Seriously. ALL...truly, ALL the juicy, dramatic, full-of-opinion stuff in my life comes from work and family. I would never want anyone's feelings hurt or anything that I type to be miscommunicated, so only Scotty gets to hear all that fun stuff, and he helps me to filter what we should be talking about and what we shouldn't (i.e. gossip).

Other than that, we really don't have much going on over here in the Floyd home. Until there are baby Floyds to talk about and little milestones to document for the blog world, you just might have to put up with my every 1/2 a year update. :) However, I will do my best to be better....

I have lunch with Ashley today! Maybe I'll get a picture or two and write about that! :)

It's Hard to be all Grown-Up

January has proved to be a difficult month in the life of being a new homeowner, newlywed, new year, etc...

Yes, I said "new" to both homeowner and partner in marriage; seeing as we have not even had our 2nd Anniversary for either events.

I am the designated "money person" in our marriage. Scotty's imput is necessary - as he is head of the household - however, I am the only bill-payer between the two of us. I was truly thrilled when January came around the corner this year - I had been budjeting all year long for our property and school taxes so those would not kick us in the teeth and I was excited to do our personal taxes early so we could put 1/2 towards our retirement account and use the other 1/2 to beef our savings back up (we bought a $5000 fence this year, fixed our chimney from IKE for $3000 and got trees trimmed due to IKE damage for another $500).

So, last week, I go to pay our property taxes only to find they almost doubled the amount I budgeted for! REALLY?!? Was I that careless? I thought...."It's okay...we have that amount in checking, and we are about to get our savings right back where we want it..."

Yesterday, I excitedly begin to do our personal taxes. I answer all the questions the little online touturial is asking:

Do you have kids: NO

Did you purchase a new home in 2009: NO

Did you buy any new energy effecient upgrades for your home in 2009: NO

....on and I went, until I got to the very last page to put in my bank information....

I eagerly typed in the info and clicked "CONTINUE"...

"You owe $698"

WHAT!?! We owe money??? Are you saying that even though neither Scotty nor I claim anything on our W4's and the IRS takes the maximum amount out of our paychecks each month - all year long - we STILL owe an additional $700????

I swear, I almost cried.

So, today, Sunday - our usual day of rest and relaxation - has turned into a day of hard discussions and re-budgeting for 2010. Lots more money will have to be allocated into our end-of-year property tax payment. We will have to visit the possibility of changing our W4's to include the IRS taking more than what we have already allocated, so maybe next year we won't owe, and some vacations/small trips that were on 2010's calendar will no doubt we pushed back.

Oh the joys of being all grown-up..........

2010....

Can you believe it is 2010? I can't believe we have passed the days when we day "two thousand ____" and have moved into they days of "twenty ten"! Definitely seems surreal.

2009 (two thousand nine) was, I would say, an okay year. Nothing truly amazing or spectacular happend this year in the Floyd home to define the year for us. We took some fun vacations, celebrated our 1st anniversary and had a big pary for Scotty's 30th. We did recently settle on a church - Calvary Houston.

We are pretty excited about being part of a church family again. Me, I'm sure, more than Scotty. Recently I have felt depressed....not like end my life depressed....just feeling sad every day. Scotty realized this and we sat and talked about it for a while. The last time I felt like this, I worked for a church. They had no office, so the office was in my apartment and day in and day out I would just sit at home answering the church phone (which sometimes would ring at 2am, by the way), creating e-mails to be sent out and trying my best to keep up with my pastor. I never saw anyone. Sure, I had a church home, but I volunteered each Sunday and never sat in service. Sure, I had a life group, but they talked weekly about the sermon that was preached the Sunday before and, of course, I couldn't really follow b/c I didn't hear it! It all boiled down to the fact that I had no friends. No one ever stopped by my little office apartment just to say hi. No one ever invited me to lunch to just get away. Nothing. If I needed anything, I had those friends for sure: Ashley, Beth, Kristy. But, at the time, I really didn't realize what I needed. Thankfully, the church split, and all I really felt was FREEDOM! I was free to not be at church from 6am-1pm. I was free to not put on a fake smile each week because I was a "Leader" and was supposed to "be on stage" each Sunday. I was FREE.

Now, however, in 2010 I am realizing I am close to where I was then. When Scotty and I were engaged, I imagined we would find a fun couple - maybe in our premarital sessions, maybe in our new church, maybe in our neighborhood - that would be our "friend" couple. Know what I mean? That couple both you get along with. The ones you want to have over for dinner and you all go see movies together and such. I truly believed that would happen. However, as much as I have tried (i.e. inviting people over, having parties, etc...) we (I) have no friends. Everyone we know has kids. This doesn't bother me, but people with children befriend other people with children so their kids can play together and they can walk each other through the times they are in. The only person who still will hang out with me (kids or not) is my very best friend, Kristy, but she lives over an hour away.

I say all this, not to whine, but to simply hope that our new church and 2010 brings some new freindships we can cultivate. I also pray that if there is any feeling or thought in my heart that is not totally God honoring, that He would reveal that to me. Feelings are a dangerous thing, and satan can definitely take-hold. Please pray with me.