Just Some Stuff and An Exciting Announcement! (Sorry, it's a really long post!)

As I came out of the gym Monday morning, a beautiful rainbow was right over me. I smiled. Last week my Mom sent me a CD of devotions by Beth Moore- it was just snippets of some of her Bible studies in like 10 minute segments. Anyway, in one segment she was talking about this beautiful sunset or rainbow (can't remember) that was right over her subdivision as she driving home from the airport. She said that she was sure there were many God-loving people that live in her subdivision too but the cool thing about God is that you get to take it personally when He does things like that. This rainbow on Monday, I took it personally.

I've mentioned it a few times here, but since the end of January I decided it was time to get serious about getting healthy. I needed to lose weight from my pregnancy with Addison, plus our stateside- which DID NOT help matters. I knew it wasn't just about a diet for me, I needed an attitude adjustment. I needed to give this area of my life over to Jesus. In the past I could just eat less for a few days and the pounds would come off. Maybe it's because I'm 34 or have had 3 kids, I don't know. But this time, the weight was not moving! I joined a gym so I could use the treadmill and cross trainers- which are easy on my lower back as opposed to running on hard pavement. Plus I wanted to use weights. I was faithful at going to the gym 3-4 mornings a week at 6:30am, before school...but even after a few months the weight wasn't coming off like I had hoped. So again, it was time to get serious about eating right. I found a "plan" that I liked, agreed with and I got to work. It's basically eating only whole foods. I feel like we ate okay before, but now we eat much better! I also read a few books "Made To Crave" by Lisa Terkeurst and "Reshaping It All" by Candace Cameron Bure. Both are excellent. I lost a few pounds at first and was really excited but then I seemed to plateau for months and months! I was so frustrated and just downright mad. I was working so hard but nothing seemed to "work." One day I was praying and just felt that I needed to cut out all white stuff- flour, sugar, corn, rice, etc. That was the one thing I was holding on to. I kept saying "I can't do that!" But I was serious enough and with God's help I fasted from those things for 30 days. It was tough, we went to London during that time and I did my best to stick to it as I could. I only told Marc what I was doing and he was very supportive and helpful. We even ate at a place called Tortillas (just like Chipotle) and I got a "Naked Burrito" which was all my toppings but on a salad and it was actually pretty amazing! No desserts, no Cokes, no chocolate. And I survived! And I'm happy to report that I've lost 17 pounds since the end of January! I have a few more to go, but the main thing is that I feel like I have a better perspective on eating.

When I saw this rainbow on Monday, it just gave me such encouragement. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing- eating right, exercising and most importantly asking God for daily help to make wise choices. I'm being careful what I allow myself to eat now that my 30 day fast is over. All I know is that the taste of victory over food is better than any chocolate! (I think I got that from 'Made to Crave') I feel great, have more energy and all my clothes are big!

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Along with that CD, my mom sent bags of her old jewellery for the girls to have. Oh my. It was a huge hit. Here are a few pictures:

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Before school was out my mom sent a bunch of crafts to keep us busy. What I think she was trying to do was make me crazy. Most of them were fun, but a few were way more work for me than the girls! Ha. All summer I've been delaying this Tie-Dye kit. Today is the last day of summer holidays- school starts tomorrow! So I finally bought some white T-shirts and jumped in. We woke up this morning and decided we would have lunch out and get a fun "summer is over" dessert and the come home to make Tie-Dye shirts. Just a side note, I was pumped about a Root Beer Float at this 50's Diner in the bay. It was awful. I took 2 sips and was done. Bailey's strawberry milkshake was really good, so she shared some with me.

Anyway, here is our Tie-Dye adventure:

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They have to dry overnight and then we will see what our awesome creations are!

One last thing that I'm SO excited to tell you- it's been in the works for a while. We are "launching" a new community of believers in October here in Cardiff. Marc has been talking with our pastor of our local church over the last year and working details out. We have such a desire to reach university students but our church is a bit out of town so to speak- and it's hard to get a bus out there if you are uni student. Our church owns this building called The Gate and it's right in the heart of the city! So, on October 2 we will be starting 'The Well' at The Gate!!! Each Sunday night, with a focus on uni students, we will meet together as a community and worship together and Marc will be teaching the Word of God every week! We are super excited and have a great group of people from our church that are helping. We have seen God's hand moving us towards this for a while. It's a bit daunting to be honest, but ultimately we are just joining God and working where He is working. He's working among uni students in our city like never before! If you would pray for 'The Well' and for us involved, we would be so very grateful. Uni students are starting to trickle back into our city after being gone all summer, so pray for them please. We love uni students! There will be a night soon where Marc and Marc- one of the guys helping us that spells his name the same way- will be going on "campus" to the University of Cardiff to talk to students and advertise 'The Well' so be praying for that please. And October 2! Thanks y'all!
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