Doing or Praying?

Does doing seem better than praying to you? No, really. Does DOING seem better than PRAYING in your mind? In your life? It can be a real struggle - finding it easier to just do "good" things than to actually spend time in prayer with the Father. And when I say prayer, I'm not talking about the hurried "God bless these french fries," or "Help me have a good day." I'm talking about prayer. I'm talking about the fellowship with Christ that Calvin Miller describes "can only be experienced at a wilderness table for two." You and God. Alone. Away. Intimate.

We find ourselves having plenty of time to "do" but not enough time to "pray." Life is hurried, at least that's our excuse. In fact, I wonder if it would be accurate to say that most of our hurriedness with God is actually just a cover up for laziness? We say that we don't have time to meet with God and stare deep into the inside of who we are when, in fact, we don't want to make the effort. We know that coming face to face with God will require US to change. It will require a realignment of our priorities, and we really don't have time to re-prioritize.

Then, we catch ourselves asking Him why things didn't go as we planned. "God," we plead, "I told you to do this, and you didn't!" We wonder why our relationship with God feels stagnate, and assume that He is the One being distant. And so we don't pray. We don't have time. We are too busy doing {ministry}. We think about it from time to time, but we don't want to. We know we should spend time in prayer, but we feel as if God isn't listening anyway. Unfortunately, this type of arrogance keeps so many from experiencing the fullness of an everyday, passionate relationship with our Father.

Hebrews 10:19-22 describes the way made for us into the Holy of Holies.
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."

These verses tell us that we can have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place, that is, intimacy with God, whenever we want to because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. He made a way. He opened the curtain. In fact, He ripped it...which to me is such an awesome picture of how much He loves us and wants us to come to Him. A.W. Tozer, in his book The Pursuit of God, asks, "[So] Why do we consent to abide all our days just outside the Holy of Holies and never enter at all to look upon God?...We sense the call is for us, but we still fail to draw near. The years pass and we grow old and tired in the outer courts of the tabernacle. What hinders us?"

Too many times the answer to that question is self. We quit praying because we didn't get the answer from God we wanted. We feel as if God is distant because WE didn't get what WE wanted and thus, have stopped communicating with Him on an intimate level. We don't understand what God is doing, and we frustrate ourselves trying to figure it out on our own and give up. Days go by. Weeks. Months. Years.

Once we finally realize our stupidity and selfishness, the question then becomes, "how do I get that intimacy back?" It seems like work. The truth is, it is work. It's work because it insists that we deny our self and confess our selfishness before God. It's work because it insists that we change our agenda and make it His. But it's far worth it. In fact, what's the point of living a holy life if you aren't even communicating with the Holy One? Doing good must not be our passion. Being good must not be our passion. Being one with our Father must be our passion. As Calvin Miller notes, "We must practice prayer in order to develop a passion for prayer." But to lust for God is a glorious passion. It's what we were created for. In fact, we aren't experiencing the life God wants us to live if we aren't experiencing intimacy with Him on a daily basis. And if you're scared of having to stare deep inside yourself to get rid of the ugly self, just know that God's invasion back into your life replaces your guilt and self-incriminations with His glorious affirmation! Therefore, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence and find grace and mercy in our time of need. And if you're still feeling hurt that God didn't answer your prayers the way you wanted Him to before, be encouraged that God will give us the desire of our hearts as long as we crave Him, but that requires self-denial.

If you're struggling with your purpose in life or finding meaning in your life consider this statement. "This intimacy with Christ is a wonderful soul-to-soul life nurtured by the Savior in the very bosom of God - only there, where our souls merge, do we find the epicenter of meaning." (Calvin Miller) Isaiah 55:6 says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." God never left you. We are the ones that seek our own way. He is near. He may be found. I pray that we will encounter Him today at a wilderness table for two, and approach the table with confidence that He is enthralled with our beauty (Ps. 45:11) because His blood has covered us.

"Pray for me that I not loosen my grip on the hands of Jesus even under the guise of ministry to the poor." Mother Teresa

"No individual's prayer life will be greater than the quality of his regular time set aside to meet with God alone." Jack Taylor

6 Things to Catch You Up On!

I can't believe it's been almost exactly 1 month since I last posted! There's been so much going on! Let's see if I can quickly update:

1. We just opened our second Monkey Charms store in Brandon, MS! It's smaller than our Flowood store, but it's the same concept. The new store has much more of a boutique feel than the 1st store...they both definitely have their own personalities! So for the past few weeks, I have been busy helping get the store ready for business! It's been so much fun, but lots of hard work. We were spending so much time getting the store ready that I had no time for blogging! This past week, we opened the new store and I worked helping train new employees and making sure all the "kinks" were worked out. We will have our grand opening on June 1st! I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I'll be sure to post some soon!

2. Since we last chatted, my wonderful husband finished seminary! As he reminded me, he has been in school since he was 4 years old! He's now 26...that's a lot of school! The last few weeks were filled with papers, studying, and tests! I'm so glad it's finally over. We finally feel like we can live a normal married life without having schoolwork always hanging over our heads! Also, my sister-in-law graduated from college the same week! So proud of both of them!

3. New Orleans! - In celebration of Bryant being finished with seminary, we decided to take a last-minute trip to NOLA! We had so much fun! Here are some pics!

On the road...


Taking in a NOLA Zephers game...not sure really who they are, but it was fun!



At the aquarium...



At the zoo...Bryant pretending to be Gary Saurage...



We also took in some Mullattes, Cafe Du Monde, and shopping! It was so good to get away, and the best part was probably not having to come home to schoolwork!

4. My book is sitting with only half of a rough draft completed. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to write much of anything! I found out that I'm not going to get to go to a Christian book writer's conference that I was really hoping to get to go to, so that's kind of bummed me out. But I shall start back writing soon...

5. If you've read my blog, then you know about our favorite little boy, Zachary. Well, Thursday was Zach's 2nd birthday! I can't believe our little boy is 2 years old! (I'm sure his real mommy, Allison, can't believe it either!) Thursday night we were invited to his birthday party...a Bob the Builder party! His parents hosted the party complete with hard hats, cones, & caution tape! So cute!

Here's Bryant & Zach...



6. I guess the last thing I will blog about tonight (since it is 2 am!) is that I really have a feeling that God is getting ready to do something different in our life. I'm not sure what it is yet. Some recent situations haven't turned out the way we thought they would, leaving us kind of confused. Regardless, I know that our God is faithful & He hasn't forgotten about us. I'm excited to see what's right around the corner...praying that our hearts will be ready for whatever it is and that we will hear His voice clearly! I'll leave you with some words to a song we sing at church....they are my constant prayer right now...

Forever, You are my reason for living
Merciful, Savior, unending
Breathe on me
Forever, You are the God of my story
Write every line for Your glory!
Breathe on me

Flowers or Beans?

I've got three words. Canton. Flea. Market. If those words don't mean anything to you, then my guess is you're not from around here in Mississippi. The Canton Flea Market is an arts & crafts show that takes place in Canton, Mississippi twice a year. This year the event will take place on May 13th and October 14th. With over 1,000 exhibitors and as many as 50,000 shoppers per market, you can tell that it's something we "small town folk" really get into.
There's a few particular vendors that I know will be there every year, and I love to go see what's new! One particular exhibitor is a lady who makes pottery with Scripture. Her stuff is absolutely beautiful! My mom used to buy things from her at the market and store them for gifts throughout the year. When I got married, my mother gave me a piece of this pottery. It's a soap dispenser for the kitchen sink with a scripture from Psalm 24 about having cleans hands and a pure heart. Ha! Pretty clever huh? I love that piece and use it everyday! Shortly after we were married, my mother gave me another piece of this beautiful pottery. It was a short little flower pot, short enough to sit on a counter and she had planted some monkey grass inside of it. Because my green thumb was smashed before I was born, I managed to kill the plant within a matter of a couple of months. This landed this beautiful piece of pottery underneath the kitchen sink in a cabinet. (Yes, the dead monkey grass is still in it! I guess I keep thinking it will miraculously revive itself one of these days...) The point of this story is that while both of these pieces of pottery started out as the same lump of clay, they were molded by the same potter, and they both have amazing beauty one ended up on top of the cabinet on display for everyone to see when they come into my kitchen while the other ended up underneath the cabinet where no one can see it. Now, don't you think that if I asked both pieces of pottery where they would like to be displayed that they would both want to be sitting out on the counter so everyone could see them? I think so. But they both can't. The soap dispenser can because it's purpose is to hold soap by the sink. The flower pot, on the other hand, is holding dead monkey grass right now. It can't sit out on the counter right now. It's purpose was to teach me that if you don't water a plant, it will die! (As if I haven't already learned that lesson enough lately!)

Here's my point. We all want to be like the beautiful piece of pottery sitting by my sink. Why? Because it's sitting out for all to see it's beauty! We all have a desire to be noticed for our talents and abilities. But what happens when the purpose that God wants us to fulfill doesn't allow us to be seen or appreciated by others? Are we still willing to let God use us?

"Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans?" Romans 9:21 MSG

Do we feel like we have the right to question where God wants us to serve Him? Or do we instead feel like God loves us less or that we are less important because He has called us to serve Him in a place where no one sees what we do and we get no human praise for it? Here's the verse from Romans 9 in it's context:

"Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, 'Why did you shape me like this?' Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? Romans 9:20-23 (MSG)

My natural response to this verse is, "But God, I want to be the vase for holding beautiful flowers! I don't want to be the pot for cooking nasty beans. Can I please be the one especially designed to show Your glorious goodness instead of being the one to show Your angry displeasure?!"

I'm reminded of Job's response to all the bad things he had to experience.

But Job replied, "You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" So in all this, Job said nothing wrong. Job 2:10(NLT)

Here's the thing. Both pieces of pottery are serving their purpose. The soap dispenser is serving it's purpose of providing me soap when I need to wash my hands while being conveniently located on my kitchen counter. The flower pot is serving it's purpose of teaching me the importance of taking care of my plants so they won't die.

God's purpose for us is perfect. He alone directs our paths if we will let Him. Instead of fighting back with Him and questioning what He's doing in our lives, we can submit to His authority and His plan for us. We can trust Him. Even though we may not be completely enjoying being under the counter for a season, God hasn't forgotten about us. In fact, it's all part of His plan. He won't leave us there forever. Just until His purposes are accomplished.

Later in Romans 9 it says, "I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies; I'll call the unloved and make them beloved. In the place where they yelled out, 'You're nobody!' they're calling you 'God's living children'."

You see, the flower pot won't stay under my counter for much longer. Very soon I am going to plant a beautiful new flower in it (hopefully a Gerber!) and set it out on the counter for everyone to see. It will be much more beautiful than it was before when it had the monkey grass. It will be a vibrant new color, with fresh new leaves, and this time I will know how to better take care of it...like remembering to give it water daily!
What is it you are questioning God about today? Is it about where He has you in this season of your life? If so, remember that He planned for this season of your life. He molded you into the person that you are to be where you are right now and to accomplish His purpose. Instead of wasting this time complaining that He has forgotten about you, learn whatever He wants you to learn right now. Do whatever He has already asked you to do. Don't waste anymore time feeling sorry for yourself that you aren't sitting on the counter on display for all to see, because God is working a much greater purpose in you than what you could plan for Yourself. Believe it and walk in His promises today.

God's Spirit vs. My Flesh

Here I am again, in a constant boxing match with my flesh. My flesh wants one thing, & it seems like God is wanting something else. There are sometimes when it's no struggle at all to want what God wants. Actually, that's how I feel most of the time. But then there are the situations, like this one, where it becomes an absolute struggle against my flesh and what I want.

Today in the ring: God's Spirit vs. My Flesh. Thankfully, God knew exactly what I needed to read to get my flesh down for the count. I wrote these verses down this morning from the L3 before I even knew I would need them. Now I really have to let these punches sink into my head and heart.

Right Hook: Romans 8:6 "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." Why do I want to fight for something (my flesh) that is only going to lead me to death spiritually? Instead, I have to set my mind on the Spirit because that's the only way to life and peace.

Left Hook: Romans 8:8 "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Well, it doesn't get more clear than that one. In my flesh, I am not pleasing to God. That reminds me of Hebrews 11:6 that my small group and I talked about yesterday. "Without faith it is impossible to please God."

Cross Punch: Romans 8:14 "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." When I am led by the Spirit, I am walking in my rightful role of being a son (daughter) of God. When I am walking in my flesh, I am not living as a son or daughter of God.

Uppercut: Romans 8:15 "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out 'Abba Father'!" I have been set free from the slavery of my flesh. I now have the ability to let go of my wants and desires, in order to receive what God has for me. He is our Abba Father, our "daddy."

Jab: Romans 8:24-25 "Who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." My sister posted a quote on Facebook yesterday that said, "Hope is believing God can, Faith is believing God will." My small girls and I talked yesterday about FAITH is when you are "Fully Acticipating It Totally Happening." I need to stop trying to believe in what I can see. Right now, what I see God doing in my life isn't making any sense to me. But I have to have faith in His promises. I have to hope for what I cannot see right now.

Half Hook: Romans 8:26 "In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." For me, this morning, this verse meant so much. The Spirit can help me in my weakness if I will let Him. It's so true. I don't know what in the world to pray right now! But this verse shows how compassionate and full of love our God is towards us. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us, but not just flippantly. He intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. What love! He feels our pain and confusion. He knows how badly I am battling my flesh right now. He is praying for me.

Cross-Counter Punch: Romans 8:35,37-39 "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

There is nothing that can happen in my life that can separate me from the love of God. His love for us is so strong and so deep. I can trust someone who loves me that much. I can trust Him to have complete control of my life. Even though I don't understand what He is doing right now, I can have FAITH in His promises because He loves me, He is praying for me, and He will accomplish His purposes for my life. When I set my mind on the Spirit instead of on what my flesh wants, it will lead to life and peace and it will be pleasing to my God.

Those are fighting words. But the only way to fight and win these kind of matches between the flesh and the Spirit is to take off the boxing gloves, lay them down, and surrender to God.

God, I am setting my mind on You today. I will walk in the Spirit. I will trust You. You are working out a plan for me right now that is greater than what I can see with my eyes or what I could imagine in my mind. I am Fully Anticipating It Totally Happening!

Uber-Abraham

Abraham...boy what a character. What faith! I'm thinking about Abraham today because of what I read in the L3 this morning. In Romans 4:18-22, talking about Abraham it says, "In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken...without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness."

This dude really makes me look bad. Especially when you take in account everything he went through...

The first we hear about Abraham in the Bible is in Genesis when it starts listing the geneology after the flood. Yeah, you know, those verses that you usually skip when you're trying to "read through the Bible in a year." Abraham was a descendent of Shem. You remember Shem, Hem, & the odd-ball, Japeth? Noah's sons? They had just survived a flood that wiped out the entire world. Then they were told to multiply and God scattered them across the the face of the whole earth because they couldn't stop arguing over whether or not they could build a tower tall enough to reach up to Heaven. Really? Hello, flood is over, you all have families now, it's time to get a J-O-B. Anyway, several hundred years later, a man named Terah had three sons, one of which he named Abraham. (They desperately needed a baby name book back then or at least to glance at the Forbes Top 10 Best Baby Names List for 500 B.C.) Anyway, Abraham married Sarai, and she was unable to have children.

Now there were those couple of times that Abraham lied about Sarai being his wife to keep himself out of trouble, but other than that, this man seemed to be almost perfect. Well, there was also that time when he slept with his maid at the request of his wife...so maybe he wasn't perfect. At least when it came to his faith in God it seemed that way.

In one incident, Abraham and Lot (his nephew who hung out with him because his own dad had died) had to find a new place to live. They had so much livestock that they couldn't live together in the same town (weird, I know. How many sheep and cows can one person have?) so they had to go separate ways. They came to a fork in the road so to speak, and one way was plush green pastures, the perfect place to establish a home. Abraham, being perfect as he was, decided to let Lot choose the way he wanted to go first. Lot, of course, decided to choose the pasture land, while Abraham was content to head in the opposite direction.

Then, there was a instance where Abraham was offered all kind of goods, but he wouldn't take them for fear that glory would be taken away from God. (Come on, dude, where's your selfishness? You're making me look bad!)

Then, of course, the time when God chose to reward Abraham for his faithfulness by telling him that his descendents would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. He also told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and that He would establish a covenant between Abraham and his descendents forever. This didn't make sense to them at the time since Sarai was not able to have children, so there was the time when Sarai tried to take matters into her own hands by having her husband have a child with another woman.(That always works well...) That didn't turn out so well with Sarai, but God took care of the situation and blessed that child and his mother.

Then the time finally came for them to have a child...when Abraham was 100 years old! (Talk about a news story!) But it doesn't stop there. When his son, Isaac was a little older God commanded Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him as a burnt offering to God. Now this is the point where I would've said forget it! "God, I'm done with you. I've got what I need, no thanks." But not Mr. Perfect, of course. He believed that God had a plan that was bigger than his. He knew what God had promised him. He knew that God would be faithful then as He had been before. And as always, God provided and Abraham did not have to sacrifice his son. Abraham lived to be 175 years old!

All of these things and more are what landed Mr. Perfect in the Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11:17-19.
"By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, 'In Isaac your descendants will be called.' He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type."

This got me thinking...what will people write about me when I'm gone? "By faith, Heather, when she was tested _________..." or maybe "yet, with respect to the promise of God, Heather did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God..."

Ouch. Lately it's been more like "Lacking faith, Heather, when she was tested screamed, cried, and stomped her feet in frustration and decided to take matters into her own hands..." or "yet, with no respect whatsoever to the promises of God, Heather continued to waver in unbelief not allowing God to strengthen her faith, and trying to take some of the glory for herself..." Double Ouch. That's definitely not the kind of legacy I want to leave, and that's not at all the kind of example I want to set. The truth is though, that's what it looks like when I doubt the faithfulness of my God.

I was encouraged this past Sunday at church when our pastor preached from Revelation 20 about the Judgement Day that will come after Jesus returns. He talked about how we will be judged according to the deeds we have done, both good and bad. Both great and small. We will have to give an account for those actions. While I haven't really studied about the Judgement Day as much as I would like to, I do know this. I don't want to have to stand in front of my God at Judgement Day and have Him ask me why I couldn't just trust Him. I don't want Him to ever have to show me what could have been if I would've not taken matters into my own hands. I want instead for Him to be pleased with me, and for Him to get glory out of my life. And for this reminder today, I have Abraham to thank. He set an amazing example for us to follow.

In other news, I just went to get a load of clothes out of the washing machine, and I discovered that I washed our dustpan. How in the world these things happen to me, I'll never know! Apparently while I was picking up some more clothes to put into the washing machine, the dust pan fell in, I threw clothes in right on top and never saw it. The dustpan managed to escape the scene with only minimal water damage. Hmm...maybe I'll host a 5K to help me raise money for a new dustpan...

Aaahh!!

I just wanted everyone to understand this difficult battle that's going on in my life right now when it comes to taming my sweet tooth. I told you yesterday that I was trying to opt for fruit instead of the ice cream...well, last night I did have an orange, but I'm pretty sure it was canceled out by the piece of oreo pie that I ate. (My husband made it! I had to try a piece so I wouldn't hurt his feelings!) Anyway, then I dreamed last night that we ate the oreo pie and THEN we went to Baskin Robbins too! Unfortunately it was only a dream...Then today when I went to get the mail from the mailbox...this was in it!



I personally think it's a sign from God telling us that Baskin Robbins really is a healthy part of our diet. Bryant said it might be the devil tempting us, but I said nah! Either way, we're keeping the coupons! And next Wednesday, at all BRs it's 31 cent ice cream scoops! Don't ask me how I know this, I just do! I'm telling you, I'm in a bat-tle! Thanks for letting me vent.

Random Thoughts...

My husband and I attended a rehearsal dinner for a wedding this past Friday night, no joke, someone had taken every photo the bride and the groom had ever taken of themselves and put them to music. They had 6 videos!! I'm not even kidding! At aleast one of the picture videos had more than 1 song! We had to just sit and watch 5of the 6 videos in a row. This was after already arriving to the dinner later than scheduled, waiting another 30 minutes for the guests of honor to arrive, and waiting as they sent someone to get a computer that would actually play the video dvd. Fortunately for us, the 6th video didn't work at all...I think I might have had to shoot myself in the foot if it had. We started the night with the 5:30 rehearsal and got home after 11. My husband then had to arrive at the church the next day at 2:30 for a 6pm wedding! Needless to say, our weekend was pretty much shot. (Like I would have like to have been during those videos!) At least I got 2 new dresses and some new shoes out of the deal! : )

So thanks to my husband, I have developed a sweet tooth for more than candy. Before we were married, I rarely ever wanted to eat cakes, cookies, or ice cream. Now, thanks to him, I am finding it harder than ever to stay away! My latest addiction is this:

Baskin Robbins rainbow sherbert! It's the best and we have been giving the Indians a lot of money lately!! Not only that, but the crazy part is we have 2 Baskin Robbins opening up just down the road. Unfortunately, they aren't open yet so the closest one is about 15 minutes away from us! But that doesn't stop us...no sir. This is how much we are devoted to getting this stuff! It's bad. In fact, yesterday we were supposed to workout together after work. Instead, we found ourselves driving home last night with ice cream in hand asking ourselves..."how did this happen?" We are vowing to grab a piece of fruit tonight when the craving hits. I'm not sure how it will work though. I'm already thinking about making an oreo pie. Hmm...maybe he's not all the problem.

In other news, we bought some plants since it's spring and all and that's just what you do...haha. No, we really did want to add some color. The plants we planted last year died. I think we killed them before we even planted them. So this year, we get to start all over. So we found these really pretty flowers to hang on the front porch...

Pretty right? Except for when we came home the next day, they looked like this...

It's so sad. We try to have pretty flowers. It was a nice thought. Actually though, we watered them and they were revived! I think we got the super flowers! Yay! However, the ones by our front door, I guess we are just going to have to replace...who knew that you actually had to water them??

Yep! They are brown. Officially dead. Looks like we're headed back to the shrub section of Lowe's to spend more money...And the green thumb award goes to The Mays! We bought some flowers for our backyard yesterday. We walked around looking at so many different kinds of flowers and could almost hear them saying, "No, not me!" We found some and took them home though. So far, so good. Only been a day though. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Enough of my random thoughts for today. I could probably keep going except for Bryant and I are heading outside to get some exercise (so we can have our dessert later)...