Merry Christmas

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone out there. Hope you have a great Christmas and a fantastic new year. I am looking forward to a great year myself with lots of new adventures and endless possibilities. I can't wait to see where this journey I am on takes me to next. Thought I would just post some pictures of my tree for you all to see.I have been playing with my camera and trying some different stuff. Not perfected yet but it was definitely fun trying. Hope you enjoy.I am doing the Breaking Free Bible study by Beth Moore. Wow, talk about powerful stuff. That is one very gifted lady for the Lord. She does an awesome job with her Bible studies. I am learning a lot about family baggage and generational sins that get passed down from our parents and grandparents. It is tough to break that cycle but it only takes one generation to change the direction of the family line. Question is do we (I) have what it takes to break free from the bondage we find ourselves in.Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you have a safe and happy New Year also. I am anxious for the new year to begin. Looking forward to seeing where God takes me on this adventure I have been on.

Another funeral

Wow! I had another friend lose her battle to cancer this week. She was a good friend of the family. Two funerals, two weekends in a row is a bit much. Pray for the Hannah's family. They have lost three members of the family in four years to cancer. That is a lot for anyone to endure.

Fortunately, Hannah had come to know the Lord before she past away. She was a great lady. She will be dearly missed by many, especially my mother. She was her dearest friend.

Life is good in my world, Christmas is almost here. I love the decorating but have never enjoyed the pressure that comes with Christmas. This year has been different. I have not worried about it like in the past. Maybe, it is because my relationship to Christ has grown and I am learning to trust in Him for all my needs. He never lets me down.

God has laid it on my heart to write a letter to my children affirming them and addressing areas of my parenting where I feel I failed them. Tough to do, but I have a feeling the blessing they get from it will far outweigh the pain of reliving those tough times. Besides, God has proven to me that areas I fail in are areas that He stands in the gap and fills in for us.

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope and pray that you have a safe and blessed New Year.

Loss of a friend.

Last week my friend Bonnye lost her fight with cancer. We buried her on Sat. She lived almost exactly 2 months after her diagnosis. The Lexington cemetary was covered with a blanket of snow. It was beautiful. She lived just long enough to see her youngest son get married. I feel for her husband Eddie. He will be lost without her. She was a such a sweetheart that it doesn't seem fair that God would choose to take her. Especially, when there are such mean and cold hearted people still wandering around this earth. But it is not for me to question God. I believe he takes us at the point in our life when we can be the most effective for him. She was an awesome lady and I feel privileged to have known her. At least now I know she is out of pain and resting in the arms of Jesus. You can't get any better than that.

My life is going good. Things are beginning to happen that are steering me in the direction I feel I need to go to fulfill my calling in life. I don't really have time to elaborate now. But lots of good things are happening.

I plan to go visit my son in Colorado the day after Christmas. Michael will finally get to meet him. My son has rented a cabin there and we are joining him with some of his girlfriends family and a couple of his friends. Should be an interested few days. Hope all is well in your world. I will write more later. Gotta go for now. Love you all. Marty

Hello everyone, I am doing well these days, hope you are too. My sciatic nerve is finally getting better. What a relief that is. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to have a pain free day. I entered some of my pix in a competition at the Scott county photo club and took one first place and two third place ribbons. I was very happy with that. I entered 7 pix and 3 won. Not bad odds. I will post a couple of the pix for you to see.

My friend Bonnye is hanging in there. She had her second round of chemo today and I have not heard how that went. Keep her in your prayers. She was very weak after her first treatment, which I am sure is normal.

I am getting things ready for the lexington unique gift fair. Come and do some shopping if you can. It is Nov. 27th from 10-6pm at the Thoroughbred center on Paris Pike in Lexington, Ky., of course. It should be interesting with all the different vendors we have coming. I am looking forward to it.

The reflections in the building was titled "Distorted Pane" and took first place in the architecture category and the barn with the cows entitled "Pasturized" took third place in the architecture category also. The purple flowers entitled "Purple Power" took third place in the manipulated category.

Think I will end this and take a hot bath and head to bed early. Hope you all have a great end of the week, talk more later. You know you could leave an occasional comment so I know someone is reading this thing. LOL. Later.

My friend Bonnye has been given 3 - 4 months to live. Not good. But she does seem to be improving so who knows maybe she will be yet another one of God's miracles.

My sciatic nerve on the other hand is not improving yet. My neck and SI joint no longer hurt but now my thigh muscle and glut are stretched so tight they feel as if they are about to snap. It is excruciatingly painful to bend over and pick something up or get in and out of a car. Thank heavens I am no longer at toyota. I probably would not be able to do that job right now.

I am supposed to be hanging some of my pictures in a coffee shop in Nicholasville hopefully soon. We are also doing a display at the library here in Georgetown for the month of november. As well as, set up a booth on Nov. 27th at the unique gift fair at the thoroughbred center in lex. Looking forward to doing that also.

I am exhausted. Going to bed. Goodnight all.

The camera workshop in Hocking Hills was awesome. We got some great fall shots and had a blast. I would love to go there again when it isn't quite so crowded. We did manage to go to a rather secluded lake to get some great shots.

The gluten free diet is going well. Actually better then I expected. I still struggle to find something to eat here at the house that doesn't require cooking. I like quick things for lunch and for now have been eating a lot of scrambled eggs or refried beans on a taco shell.

My friend Bonnye does not seem to be improving much. She did not get to come home as anticipated. I hope to go see her in the next couple of days and pray with her. Michael wants to pray over her for healing. I don't think anyone has done that for her and we definitely need to.

My Sunday school class is going to natural bridge this sunday for lunch and some hiking. I am looking forward to it. I am not supposed to be exercising so I will take the skylift up and try to limit my hiking. So, not fun. I love hiking especially in the fall and with winter coming it makes hard to just stay indoors. I hate to miss a good photo opportunity.

I need to finish this and make me some gluten free bread so I can have something to eat for the next few days. Hope all is well in your world.

Fun with photography

It has been a busy week. I am now on a gluten free diet per orders of my new chiropractor. Not a fun or easy diet to maintain. This is not to lose weight, although I am, it is to eliminate the swelling in my muscles so that I can get some relief from the pain I was continually experiencing. The pain is getting better in my neck but I have had a rough couple of days this week with my sciatic nerve.

Going gluten free is a much healthier lifestyle but requires a lot of work if you don't like the frozen breads they sale. I, personally, do not like them. They are very dry. So I am now baking my own bread with multiple flour mixtures that I have found in two different cookbooks. It is an interesting journey.

Besides a major diet change, I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon for a photography weekend in Hocking Hills, Ohio. I am looking forward to it. Not sure, just yet what all that entails but we are sure to have a good time and get some good photographs while we are out. We get to spend 8 hours with a professional photographer which will be a great learning experience.

It is late and I am exhausted. I will write more when I get back. Good night everyone.

Things have been going well for me. I am about to get serious about writing my book. There have been 400 women respond to my survey and the comments have been encouraging and heart wrenching at the same time. There are a lot of hurting women in this crazy world we live in. Which only increases my pray list. I pray that God would heal these broken and wounded marriages.

My photography is going well. I have my website up and almost complete. Things are good with Michael and I. Overall things are good in my life.

The down side, I have one friend getting a divorce after only 10 months of marriage and another who has just been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and it has matastasized into the ovaries and liver. I pray that God will heal her. He has the power and is the great physician anything is possible with our Lord and Saviour. All we can do is to claim the victory over this dreadful disease and wait for God to work. I will keep you posted on how it all turns out.

The journey continues....

I have to say I am sorry for not updating my blog for so very long. But as usual my life has been crazy. But crazy in a good way. God is still very active in my life. He is still amazing me on a daily basis. He has provided for me financially in the most amazing ways. I am doing well, and keeping very busy.
I am currently in a relationship with an awesome man by the name of Michael. He is very interesting and a strong christian. So far, things are going well. He keeps me very busy in a fun way. He promised me there would never be a dull moment and so far he has been right.
I have started writing my book, which I am very excited about. God has continued to put just the right people in my path just as I need them to move me on this journey of writing this book. He intends for it to written and I am honored to have been chosen to deliver this message.
The Carnegie center has been an invaluable resource. Neil Chethik has alot of knowledge that he doesn't mind sharing. I just completed a class tonight on writing a book proposal that Neil taught. I turned in my finished product and am waiting on a response to any changes I may need to make.
Then the fun begins. How to choose an agent and/or publisher. There is so much to just presenting an idea for a book, that it is amazing that anyone gets published.
I have changed the title of my book at the urging of the class, to a softer more encouraging title. I am happy with how it is coming along. I have gotten some good feed back from my writing group on changes that I need to make.
Oh, and did I mention, I got the privilege of writing two days of devotions for a 30 day devotional that was produced for the upcoming Beth Moore conference at Rupp Arena in Aug. That was huge honor and privilege for me. Beth Moore is a very dynamic christian author and speaker.
Michael has been an instrumental part in the creation of this book. I told him he believes in me more than I do. He is a wealth of knowledge and extremely helpful in the editing process. I have enjoyed sharing this journey with him. He has been a tremendous encouragement in everything I do. From my photography to my writing, he has backed me 100%. I couldn't ask for anything more.
Life is good. Still no job but I am not worried. God has been faithful to provide for me in such a way that I don't worry about not having a job. I know, no matter what, He will take care of me. He has proven that over and over again.
My huge leap of faith was all God was waiting for. He has begun a work in me that He intends to see it through to the end. I am very excited about this book and know that God has great things in store for me. I don't know what that is but I eagerly await whatever is next.
My journey, by no means, has been easy. But God has been by my side the entire way. I feel His presence and do my best to stay close to Him. I can't lose my focus now. The journey has only just begun and I am loving every minute of it.

And life goes on.

Wow, has it been less than two months since I last blogged. So much has happened since then.
Where do I begin. Christmas came and went pretty uneventful but the new year came in with a bang and hasn't stopped. I felt like 2010 was going to be a good year for me. I knew it would a hard one but I had no idea just how hard it would get. Six days into the new year my boss calls me into his office one evening and unexpectedly fired me. I sure didn't see that coming. No warnings, no write ups, no nothing. He told me I was not where he thought I should be after six months of employment and mentioned a minor incidence that I had with the office manager. Which, might I add he never addressed with me. Never ask what happened or anything. I realize I had made some mistakes but thought that was all part of learning a new job. Obviously, I was wrong. Considering the amount of training I had received, I thought I was doing pretty well. But that is now water under the bridge. God has used that for His glory in more ways then one. So after being fired I thought I would head to texas and see my son and then go to fla. for a few days and visit a girlfriend I had reconnected with online. I went to Tx. and had a good visit with my son, his girlfriend and my ex-husband. Then headed to fla. to visit a girlfriend. About 8 1/2 hours into the drive, I ran a red light and hit a pick up truck. Totalling my 2009 corolla xrs. I loved that little car. But even through this I see God's hand at work in many different ways. I walked away from the accident with two cracked ribs and some bruises. The cop told me he did not know how I managed to maintain control of that car. I told him it was a God thing. He then proceeded to show me the route my car had taken. I had went into the median and left tracks in the mud. I was trying to miss the pickup truck and did not see the pole I was headed toward. About a foot from the pole my car made a hard right turn missing that pole by about a foot. All I remember is the initial impact and then the airbag deflating. I certainly don't remember having my hands on the wheel during the impact. The song Carrie Underwood sings, Jesus take the wheel has a very real and personal meaning to me now.
God's hand at work, I was about an hour away from a friends house when all this happened. He came and got me and helped me get my things and helped me the next couple of days to get things in order so that I could head back home. Needless to say I never did make it to fla. My entire goal was to go to the beach and spend time on the beach with God. I have always felt closest to God when I was on the beach. And what better time to go then now. Wow, if I had only known. But God has a much better plan than me. I laid in bed the next several nights asking God to show me whatever it was He wanted me to get out of this. When you ask that of God, He will show you.
First and foremost, He wanted me to go back to my previous employer and make up. I had intended to, really I did. But just not this soon. Obviously, God had other plans. He is a chiropractor so I made an appointment and went in to see him. We hugged and all is well now.
The second thing God laid on my heart about this whole thing was that I always had a habit of going 9 miles an hour over the speed limit. I wasn't at the time of the wreck thank heavens but had been throughout the trip periodically. Funny, God convicted me of this before I left on the trip but I still chose to be disobedient. A friend had sent me a clip of her son-in-law preaching a message about what sin do you think is ok. Then he proceeds to talk about a state trooper who once told him the nine is fine, ten your mine rule. I got the message the hard way. No more speeding for me. Also, I loved my car. I was very proud of it. God said, maybe a little too proud. Wow! When He teaches us a lesson He makes it stick. So now I am in the market for a car. I have decided to buy a used one. And save as much of the money I received from insurance as possible. The insurance gave me a more than fair settlement for the car. I was very pleased. Another God thing.
I am currently considering my options. I think I want to look at becoming an optician. I have talked to a friend who was an optician and she has given me a name of a friend to contact about doing an internship and what all is involved. I am very excited about doing something different. I think it will be a lot of fun. God has so, turned my life completely around. And even upside down at times. But through it all He has provided for me in a very abundant manner. There are so many more ways in which He has blessed my life from these two horrific experiences. But I have chosen not to post them all. But trust me when God says He has a plan for you and you start seeking that plan for your life, He will meet you there. And He will take you on the most fantastic ride you have ever been on in your life. He never ceases to amaze me with His generosity and goodness. He truly does love me (and you) and want the best for me(and you). He has proven that to me, time and time again. I would like to encourage you to stop just going through the motions and see what kind of an adventure God has for you.
This has truly been an adventure. And the ride has been like a roller coaster, up and down, round and round. The sooner I learn the lesson the sooner I can move on. I am excited to see what God has in store for me next. Hopefully, the lesson won't come in the form of another bad experience. But even if it does, I know God is with me and will get me through it all. One step at a time.
My old boss had me write out an affirmation. I had never done this before, I guess it is sort of a mission statement. This was mine:
Today is a great day and my future lies in the choices I make.
I take full responsibility for those choices.
If Satan sees an opportunity, Satan will seize that opportunity.
Therefore I refuse to give Satan the opportunity to plant seeds of doubt in my mind.
I am strong and can overcome any obstacle put before me.
With my God by my side, there is NOTHING I cannot do.
I will dream big dreams and accomplish great thing for His glory.
I will find my God given destiny and fulfill His will for my life.

God has shown me that with Him by my side, I can overcome any obstacle. So now on to the fun stuff, dreaming big dreams and accomplishing great things for His glory. I wish everyone who reads this the very best. I hope you get the chance to experience God the way that I have.