Everywhere she's going BLING BLING...

It is 5am and I still can't sleep. I downloaded an audiobook, because usually that relaxes my mind and focuses it on something else then all the other thoughts running around in there. I downloaded A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. I am really excited because I love Donald Miller. Blue Like Jazz is my one of my favorite books, and due for another reading very soon. I just finished Weightloss Diaries by Courtney Rubin. It was good, not great... but definitely worth my time. It is a memoir of a 25 yr old journalist and struggles and obsession with weight and food. Some of her stories hit so close to home that when she shared them it brought up something things I had never even realized before, but were so true! Like how when you do start to lose weight and work really hard it, friends and family not realizing it, try to sabotage it. She commented on how friends and family would say she was "wasting away" and tell her she needed to eat more at meals, or try to convince her to eat something against her diet. When in reality she was at a healthy weight, just not what everyone was "used to". I think about every female has some sort of issue with body image, weight, food and exercise, to some extent or another. Anything in excess is too much, being to lax is a slippery path... it is so hard to find a balance. The book was comforting at the least to make me feel not alone, even though I know so many deal with these issues day to day.

So today was a not so great day... one that left me on the verge of tears my whole way home after running a load of errands that caused a problem with each one I ran. You know when some days there is nothing you can pin point that is really make you that upset, but when things just come at you one after another you just feel beaten up and know you just need to go get in bed asap before one more bad thing can happen? That was kind of my day. On a good note however got 8 Christmas presents done and a bag of jewels to bedazzle my camera to match my blinged out phone that makes me so happy. Here are some pics!

Moral of the today... when everything seems to be going wrong, getting gifts to give others and bling will make any day a little brighter :)

Tennessee: A great man gone too early...

With all this free-time being unemployed, I keep saying I need to start blogging more. Everytime I start I get frustrated with the fact that it doesn't look exactly like I want, I don't know what to say or what not to say. Should I have different blogs for different things. Well I am going to try tonight to not let any of things bother me and just go.

I have been unemployed for about 3 months now. Decided to go to graduate school and am waiting to hear back if I have been accepted or not. Still job searching. Living at di

fferent friends in Dallas. Been going to Bent Tree and The Village, really need to settle on one. I really enjoy The Village and so just signed up to go to GroupConnect, to find a home group and get connected. I am pumped about it! Also praying about which YL to get involved with. All prayers welcomed for that!

Moving to a new apartment complex off George Bush and the Tollway in December...SO excited to have my own place again!!! Have enjoyed staying with everyone and am so thankful I have so many great friends that have opened up their homes, but there is something about having a place that is just yours! (and to have Miss Ritz back again!)

Most recently what has been laying heavy on my heart is the passing of a good friend, John Michael Gore. I met him fall of 2004, the beginning of my sophomore year of college at a party. You meet tons of people at parties, and people come and go quickly out of your life through those times, but Tennessee was different. The first time I met him he asked about a million and one questions. It is not often you meet people that are so genuinely interested in others and what they are all about. Tennessee was one of those fri

ends you could count on anytime, any day. He was different then all the guys I was friends with and had dated in my life, therefore one of the few I stayed in touch with even till the last time we talked 2 months ago. He passed away Sunday, October 11th, 2009 from a disease called Hepatarenal Syndrome. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote on his guestbook on his website that sums up my relationship and high regards of what an amazing person he was...

Mr. and Mrs. Gore,

I had met you a few years back at the Bass Pro Shop in Oklahoma City when I was on a date with John Michael (Tennesse to me... actually I had nicknamed him Ohio and called him that since my sophmore year of college, haha). Your son was one of the greatest men I have ever known and loved you both and held you to the highest regard that I had ever met a guy our age respect his parents with. Every story was one of him and his "ole man", his best friend and confidant. Tennessee was one of the only friends I held onto all through college and even after college. You raised a wonderful man that I don't think anyone ever could have one bad thing to say about, which is hard to come by in this day of age. Even my parents and grandparents were extremely saddened by his passing when they had never even met him. By stories alone, they respected him by the way he had always respected me. A true southern gentleman, a respectful and caring man to his very core. I will always cherish our late night talks about life and memories together.

I wish I would have known he was sick, as I would have been a prayer warrior for him like no other. But I know he is with our heavenly father, in a better place, and that we will see him again soon. I may not have gotten to pray for him while he was sick, but I am praying for you both now everyday. My heart breaks for your loss, because I know how close you all were and how much he loved you with all he had. I could never say enough great things about John Michael Gore.

Please visit his website at johnmichaelgore.com to read about a great man that left us way too early. A man that loved his family and country, and had the biggest heart of anyone I had met. When I fell off a dock in the summer of 07', Tennesse sent me the biggest bouquet of purple orchids because he knew purple was my favorite color. Just small things like that... he was so caring and sincere. I have been to many funerals and known many people that have died, but Tennessee has been by far the hardest for me. He was only 25 years old. So young, so much life ahead of him, so much life we all take for granted everyday. Life is short, life is sweet... capture every ounce of it you can, for you never know when your time is up here on earth.