Ha! Amazing...

I. AM. AMAZING.

I say that because my last post on here was made back in September of 2010. I am quite sure by now there are absolutely zero people who keep up with attempting to read this blog. I really MUST be better about posting. The silly thing is, I get onto my blog almost daily to get access to the blogs I follow (see to the right) and read what everyone else is up to. Most recently, I have been captivated by the Hendricks' Blog and the mighty work God is doing in Haiti through this family. Every time I open a new "window" to read the Hendrick Blog, I pray God opens my heart to what He has for me - how can I help? how can I serve people in my community? What ugly things/thoughts are in my heart that are hindering Him working through me? Seriously, inspiring people those Hendricks are!

I don't want to say my life has been so utterly boring since September that there has been nothing to write about................so..............lets' think together and come up with some things I can put down to catch you up about life in the Floyd Home......hmmmmmmm

OH! Yes! Okay, here you go:

1. We had a lovely Christmas. I, Anna, got my FAVORITE Willow Tree Nativity set that I have been wanting FOREVER! It is so gorgeous!!! I was so sad that it was Christmas Day and technically I have to put it away for a whole 'nother year!!! I am SURE, due to my new nativity, we will be decorating on Thanksgiving day. lol

2. The day after Christmas, we received a precious, unexpected gift! A kitten (about 8mo) was wandering around outside out home as we were saying, "Bye." to some friends who had joined us for a post-Christmas dinner and we decided to let the kitten come inside. If you know anything about me, you know I am ANTI-cat and I am certainly ANTI ANY animal living inside the house. But, blame it on her sweet temperament, I openly agreed to keep this cat.

3. We now are in total LOVE with our cat! lol Her name is Evia, and she is truly a member of our family. I am called the "crazy cat lady" at work because I talk about her all the time, I follow all the instructions the vet and instructional cat books gave us (therefore, I brush her teeth weekly, bathe her monthly, scoop her litter box twice a day and thoroughly clean it out weekly). People think I am crazy......I call it LOVE. :)

4. We have really enjoyed our new church home. We attend Onelife, and totally LOVE it. God is present, people are real...genuine, and we have both felt challenged and encouraged. Great way to start off 2011!

5. Finally, I have loved that we have been quite diligent in trying to make all our meat, veggie and fruits that we eat be either locally grown or be grass-fed. We have been able to do this by purchasing all our meat from Yonder Way Farm. I make my order, monthly, and they deliver it to Pearland. All their meat is raised right there on their farm, is grass-fed, and has no added hormones. They also have fresh eggs and raw milk. We purchase our veggies and fruit from a couple local Farmers' Markets in our area. Most notably, Froberg's. You do have to be careful to make sure it is locally grown, and it is a little hard to get used to the fact that strawberries and watermelon are not in-season year-round, but I am feeling like these are all good choices to living healthier, longer lives.

Well, that is all for now. :) I will leave you with a picture of the newest member of our family, our sweet Evia!

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..........