Cutest little dress

Friendships are such an amazing thing. If you allow your friendships to be centered around God they can be great but if you try to force a friendship out of something that is hard to maintain then not only is it like a dripping faucet but it’s also not glorifying God. I have struggled with my balance of friendships my whole life. When I was younger I would do stupid things to maintain unhealthy friendships. I was a follower and could be convinced of anything. I’d agree with one girl even at the expense of another. I was boy crazy and had very few boys in my life that were only friends. I’ve hurt people and I’ve been hurt. It’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve started to balance things out and feed into healthy friendships, while making tough decisions about unhealthy friendships. Now I’m able to feed into healthy friendships that will be glorifying to God.
Yesterday I joined two of my friends, Carly and Stacy so that Carly could find a wedding dress. I’ve seen this love story unfold and I was feeling so blessed to be there. The first couple places we stopped just couldn’t give her what she was looking for. The last stop, David’s bridal, had a few options and the first dress she tried on was THE DRESS!!!! As she walked out of the dressing room and stood in front of the mirror we all made the kind of sound you only hear in a bridal shop when the girls all love the dress. She walked around in it for quite a while and in the end she left with that dress. I can’t wait to see it all come together and how beautiful everything is going to be. I’ll be taking pictures and I’m beyond thrilled.

Steve and I got a puppy. He’s a 6 month old Dachshound named “Boston”. He’s completely housebroken, and is great with Allie but other than that he’s quite difficult. He’s so cute and cuddly but when I’m going about my daily business, he is always underfoot. If he’s totally content laying next to me on the couch and I get up, he wakes up right away and joins me in my task. He also barks, at everything. I had to get him a sonic bark collar because I think my neighbors would have killed me if he kept barking as much as he was before. He’s gotten a lot better about it since he first came to live with us. He seems to be trainable, it’s just going to take a lot of work. Allie plays with him for hours, tug o war and tag seem to be the games of choice.

My second new roomie is Stacy Craig. A friend of mine who just moved to Utah from Missouri. She has been out to visit a few times and decided a few months ago to pack up and make the trip west. I’m so happy to have my friend staying with us, even though the poor girl only gets a mattress in Allie’s room. She’s a good help and a lot of fun to have around. I know what it’s like to pack your life into a car and drive across country to a place your not too familiar with, no job and no security. I hope to be a good friend for her while she’s making this transition. She’s been a great friend to me and those of you following my blog might remember the drawing she did for me in July. If not go back to the July posts and look at the drawing in my blog written about Collin’s birthday and when Apollo died. http://ushendricksfolk.blogspot.com/2009/07/weekend-of-loss-and-remembrance.html

27 Short years

I’ve just celebrated 27 years! It’s strange to think of how much happens in a year. It seems like everything has just flown by so fast I can’t imagine how I’ve fit everything in. I am happy to be 27, I do feel a little older. Too old now to blaim stupidity on my age. Although some would disagree.
To celebrate my birthday I invited a bunch of girls to come have dinner at my favorite place, Wingers. I have ate there for my birthday the last few years but this year decided it would be nice to do a girls night out for my birthday. Amy, Stephanie, Sheryl, Annie, Natalie, Stacy, Tiana, Audra, Grace, Carly, Mikey, and Diane came. Dinner was great and we even lucked out with $2.50 margaritas! Everyone seemed to enjoy dinner and I felt so blessed to have those ladies join me. After dinner 5 of us went to see Alice In Wonderland in 3D. The movie was great but when we got out of the theater it was snowing so much and my car was already covered. The roads were not too bad though, thankfully.

Social Networking

I deactivated my facebook account today. I’ve become too attached to it. While I still feel it’s a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, I just think I need to make it less of a habit. The cons seem to be weighing out the pros lately. People seem to think that they can add a smiley face to the end of any message, no matter how rude and that makes it ok. I’ve spent too much time checking people’s status updates and going through hundreds of pictures. It’s time to focus on what God’s will is for my friendships. Stacy and I visited a friend today that told us one of her reasons for not wanting a facebook account is that she needs to connect with people, see them face to face, give them hugs and talk to them. I think that’s a good point. Social networking seems to be a way for people to say whatever they want and because they don’t have to see the person face to face it makes it ok. They can add a smiley face to the end of whatever rude thing they have to say and it makes it ok. Post endless picturs of your friends doing things they may not want documented or they may not want their past randomly showing up on their profile. “Daisy tagged a picture of you” and you look and your in bar 4 years ago pole dancing. Jesus threw my sins into the ocean but your friends keep fishing and tagging your drunk face in the picture.
Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not at all saying that if you have a facebook account that there is something wrong with you. I’m not suggesting everyone take random breaks from facebook. This is just something I chose to do for myself. I need to spend more time with God. This is a time for me to do that. There wasn’t a bible verse that I related this too or anything like that. I just need a break.