The lonely one

I'm down to one. Throughout the week all my fish have died except Eugene. Apparently, he's a fighter. I think he's going to be lonely though so it's possible that I might have to buy another fish or two. Do I really want to buy another fish? It seems that all they do is die. It could be a waste of money. I don't want Eugene to be lonely though. Hmm..

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

Chi Alpha girls at the Women's Retreat

Retreat

I just got back from the Women's Retreat here in town. Let me say that it was phenomenal. These retreats that I've been going to have been changing my life. It seems that God keeps doing these great works in my life. I'll try to do the best that I can to tell you what happened at these retreats, but I know that I don't do God and the speakers justice when I talk about these things.

The speaker we had this weekend was a woman that I know and love. God used her this weekend to speak truth into our lives.
We started out on Friday with some worship music (which was great) and then the speaker told us a little about her background. She went on to talk about carrying baggage. Some people think that when you've been "saved" you won't have that baggage anymore. The truth is that the baggage can still be there, and if you don't deal with it at some point it's going to get heavier and heavier.

After the service was over we went back to our quaint little cabin and talked until 2:30 in the morning. I got up at 7 because there was a prayer session going on at 7:30 that I felt I couldn't miss. It was great! After that we ate some fruit and muffins for breakfast. Than started the worship music again. :)

After the music was done, our speaker talked about things that will hinder your walk with Christ. She said that one of the biggest things that hinder women is low self-esteem. A symptom of low self-esteem that shows up alot with women is envy. We envy everything from the appearance of other women to the gifts and talents that we may or may not have. I learned something important about this. If God is using a woman in your church and you are envious of her you should bless her instead of curse her. Because if this thing is from God it will succeed, but if it's from man it will not.

God showed me this weekend that I do have to work on getting rid of some baggage. I learned a lot of things about envy, too. I never really had thought a lot about envy and what it can do to you. I don't want to compare myself to other woman and wonder why I can't be skinnier or prettier. I have to remind myself of how Christ thinks of me, as His child. What a crazy thought.

What a great time we had. To think that there's another retreat next weekend in Duluth. :)

"..Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1

Stupid

So about 5 minutes ago I found out some really annoying news. I have been waiting for my ring for two weeks and I get a call from JCPenney saying it could be a week or so longer until I get my ring because they sent it to the wrong place. The wrong place! How could they send it to the wrong place? How many places do they have to send it to? Grrr.. JCPenney's makes me mad. I'm never going to buy things from there again. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

On a lighter note, I am going to a women's retreat tonight so that should take away my anger. :)

Engago

I'm sure you all know this by now but last week (on Valentine's Day) I got engaged! Crazy, isn't it? Time goes by so fast. The boy and I are going to get married in August. So, lots of planning is ahead for us (mostly me). We had to bring the ring in to JCPenney's to get sized and they told us I wouldn't get the ring back for weeks. Weeks! So, now I am waiting patiently for a call from JCP.

It seems like I know alot of people who are getting married. It's almost scary. That means that we are all growing up. We have responsibilities now. Ooh, scary.

I know I shouldn't be writing this now because I am sitting in class. At least I'm getting something done. Half the class is playing internet solitaire and the other half is talking on MSN Messenger. I admit that I am guilty of typing a message or two during class. It's funny though to look up and see about twenty people typing away while the teacher is talking. What do you expect when you need to bring a laptop to class? It's just too easy to talk online or play games. Especially when class is so boring. Better than sleeping I guess.

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up" James 4:10

Here's the lucky couple.

Fish Attached

Well, today has been bad. Ducky died today. It was really sad because he was the under dog. All the other fish would always pick on him. He was sick like two weeks ago but made it through so I figured he would be fine. Well, I was wrong.

I've decided that I'm not going to buy anymore fish. They are just too high maintenance. Everything has to be perfect for them or they go belly up.

For some reason it makes me sad when the fish die.

Who would have thought that I would get so attached to these fish?

On a better note, I get to go have pizza at the Green Mill tonight. I haven't been there yet but on Wednesdays if you order a pop you get free pizza. What's better than free pizza?

I've decided to do a verse of the day so I can keep myself honest with reading the Bible.

Verse of the Day: "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." James 1:19-20

Nice, very nice.

Stuff

I finally learned how to post pictures tonight. I never knew how fun blogging could be. Have patience with me though cause I am still trying to figure out how to put my picture on my profile. Most of you know what I look like anyways.

James and Brit are the two people with me in that picture. We were on our way to Rochester to a convention called SALT. We spent our 6 hours going down there playing Old Maid. Let me say I was the Old Maid only once. We played Old Maid with these super-cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards that James had.

Now I happen to be watching Seinfeld, which I love! Gotta love that show.

Here I am with some new found friends.

Puzzle Pirates

My newest obsession is Puzzle Pirates. It's a game on the internet where you can become a pirate, join a crew, and build your pirate up. I have come to the point where I can buy a ton of new pirate clothes and yesterday I got myself a ship. She's called Half Angelfish.

I think that I spend too much time playing this game. I had class at 1:30 today and before I went to class I played Puzzle Pirates, when I came back from class guess what I did? More puzzle pirates. I actually took a break from the game to write this. Really, I'm trying to sucker you all in to the game.

What can I say? Pirates are just cool.

Truly American

Tonight I watched The Incredibles. I never realized how much I liked the movie. It is so smart! I could go on and on about how good it is, but most of you have already seen it, and you know how quite good it is. If you haven't seen it, I would encourage you too.

It seems that I have a thing for Pixar. Is that bad? I don't think so. I'll try not to mention a Pixar movie on every post.

I ate at Applebee's tonight. I decided that a cheeseburger would be just fine for me, even though there were so many things to choose from. I guess the 5 other people sitting with me thought the same thing. I'm sure our waitress was amused when she took our order.

"I'll have a bacon cheeseburger."

"I'll have a cheeseburger."

"I'll have a hamburger."

"I'll have a bacon cheeseburger."

"I'll have the cowboy burger."

You get my drift. We were truly American tonight.

Fish as friends

Everyone I know has started this thing called blogging. I decided it didn't seem to bad and wanted to check it out. So here I am.

You may wonder about the fish are friends, not food. Many of you know that this quote is from Finding Nemo but it also means something else to me. I was in Wal-mart about a month ago and saw something that I just had to have. Two little yellow African Cichlids were calling to me in their tank. They were saying, "Jill, we love you, take us home." How could I resist that? So I bought them. I bought them, a tank, food, fake plants, and rocks. I went to Wal-mart with a friend so she could buy fish and I ended up walking out with two of my very own.

I never thought of fish as very interesting. Let me tell you I was very wrong. If you have fish you will understand. Once I brought them home I watched them for an hour. I couldn't believe it when I saw them put rocks in their mouths and carry them around the tank. Talk about crazy fish. One of the fish, Eugene, decided to make this bright yellow and pink house his home. He wouldn't let Ducky, the other fish, anywhere near it. Everytime Ducky swam by the house Eugene would chase him away. It got very interesting. I think that Ducky would swim by just to antagonize Eugene.

To me, fish are friends, not food.