Cleaning out my closet! My "thought closet" that is...

I have the worst history of worrying about things. I make myself physically sick. On a few occasions i've found myself sitting in a doctor's office waiting for an answer....all I get is that I must be stressed. Over the years i've learned to recognize some of the things that get me all worked up. Other times i'm already covered in hives, and nauseated before I even realize anything was on my mind. Last week was one of those weeks.

Recap....

Sunday - I got pulled over by a state trooper and got a $101.00 ticket for my expired tag. (I won't go into all of this, but this has a long infuriating story to go along with it).

Monday - Layoffs were annouced at PCS (For those of you that don't know..Brad works at PCS) We would find out about his job in 2 to 3 days.

Tuesday - Before the layoff announcement I had planned to meet a realtor to look at a home. I have been home searching by myself for several months now. I looked at the house and fell in love with the potential it holds.

Wednesday - We found out that it may be the middle of November before we know anything about the security of Brad's job. I had hives in my mouth and had been sick for 2 days.

Wednesday night - I was completely broken. I soaked in the tub with pumpkin scented candles surrounding me. I met with God and I sobbed.

Thursday, Friday, & Saturday were filled with prayer....otherwise uneventful with no change.

Last night (Sunday) I was reading my Bible. I pulled out my summer bible study..Our small group had completed the study, but I had missed a few days so I went back through to see what I had missed. I'm so glad I did!!!

The whole lesson was based on how we fill our "thought closet" with worry. Worry is focusing on the "what if" instead of the "what is".

The entire week I had filled my mind with worry. What if Brad gets layed off? What if we have financial hardships? What if this sets us back and we can't get a house? What if? What if?

Right then I grabbed a pen and wrote a list of WHAT IS....

We have the money to pay my ticket.

Brad currently still has his job.

My job is secure.
We have a nice place to live with a roof over our heads.

God will provide.

That's the bottom line...GOD WILL PROVIDE

There were a few verses that really stuck out to me...I study with The Message Bible, and I love the way it states this...

Psalm 94:9 - Do you think Ear-Maker doesn't hear, Eye-Shaper doesn't see?

Phil 4:6-7 - Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

God knows my thoughts, and he hears my prayers. I still don't know the plan, but I am trusting God. I am waiting & listening for his answers. I'm learning slowly but surely to give my worries to him.

No. 1 Gators Take Down Tennessee, 23-13, to Open SEC Play

Gainesville Sun - Sept. 18, 2009

After months of rhetoric, reprimands and apologies, it's finally here on Saturday — top-ranked Florida vs. Lane Kiffin. Of course, it's more than that. Kiffin, the Tennessee coach, will have no carries or tackles in Saturday's game, but he will be the focus of a Gator Nation licking its chops for the opportunity to quiet the controversial coach.


Gainesville Sun - Sept. 19, 2009

After looking like he should have been sacked for about a 10-yard loss, Tebow broke free from multiple would-be tacklers in the middle of the field and began running toward the Florida bench. Once there, he was in danger of stepping out of bounds, but tiptoed down the sidelines, culminating the 4-yard run with a dive for the first down.
That set up a 7-yard touchdown run by flu-ridden Jeff Demps that gave the Gators a 23-6 lead with seven seconds left in the quarter.
Tebow's coaches, teammates and Volunteer coaches were in awe of the play.
"That was vintage Tebow," Meyer said. "He had a helluva day. You take away a couple of (errant) throws (and) he had a helluva day. He kind of took the game over on that drive and pounded on it."


Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin no doubt is happy he won't have to see UF's senior quarterback again.



GO GATORS!!!!

Quick visit to Destin

Earlier this year I posted about our Memorial Day weekend in Destin...I think the blog title was "Livin' like the locals"..just in case you missed it. If you couldn't tell from reading that i'll enlighten you now...we love Destin! Our friends Cole & Jess just got a new home so we decided to take a super quick trip to go see it and of course cruise Crab Island. I am never ever disappointed with our trips out there. We got there around 6:00 Friday evening and went to Mitchell's for dinner! So gooooood! Brad & I both had the shrimp and lobster pasta..mm mmm mm...delish! After dinner we met up with the rest of our crew and went down to the beach...I love the beach at night...however I don't think people on the beach at night necessarily loved us. A bunch of hyper girls who haven't seen each other in at least 3 months...we were being slightly obnoxious, but we had a blast. Saturday was boat day, but it rained. BOO! So we went and had breakfast at Another Broken Egg...Katie Deese - if I haven't told you that I love you for introducing to this place let me just tell you now....I LOVE YOU FOR INTRODUCING ME TO THIS PLACE!!! Oh my sweet heavens- It's really a blessing that we don't have one of these in Live Oak... I would weigh 300 lbs. It's so good....after breakfast...naps - after naps a lot more obnoxious laughing...then dinner. (Has anyone noticed that the theme of my vacation is food? Always) ok just checking. We ate at Baby J's. All the guys love Baby J's. It's a bar & grill that was built on a two story houseboat...So it's huge, it's open, you can smell the salty sea air, and it sits right on the water obviously...where else is a houseboat gonna sit?? They always have live bands...our personal fave is a guy named Catfish and he plays the saw....yes a saw!...yes the kind of saw you saw things with!...entertaining to say the least ;) After we left Baby J's we went to Aqua which wasn't much to talk about except that they had music we could dance to, and boy did we dance?. Beka and I LOVE to dance...Sunday morning we woke up and the weather was gorgeous! We went and rented a pontoon boat & headed to Crab Island where we spent ALL day. To me...nothing beats hot sun, a boat, and a body of water! Life was good that day :) Can't wait to go back.

B-E-A-utiful Crab Island :)

FYI - Kodak Gallery is stupid and on my nerves right now....I'm doing a great job actually taking pictures (see new year's resolution blog). The problem now is getting them transferred from computer to computer to here...grrrrr....I'll post the pics as I get the kinks worked out, and you guys will just have to forgive me for the delay.

Summer

I know I haven't blogged in FOREVER!! I was horrible at that over the summer. Basically we've been really busy, and haven't wasted a bit of daylight. We've either been at the river, the lake, out of town, working, or hanging out with our besties. I've decided to do something a little different just to catch you up on things....I'll post pictures with descriptions to take you through our summer...Let's get started....

Lake Louise - I wish I was there now!

Beka & I with Lo Cash Cowboys at the JAM

4th of July in St. George - Jess, Hill, KT, and me

Me & My Love - St George

KT - posing with "Sharky" - catch of the day

Wakeboarding at the river - my heaven on earth

Policeman's Ball

Policeman's Ball - Hunt, Bradley, Wy, & Jason
Brad always looks sunburnt...??? so strange

I think that's the quick version of our summer. I didn't include pictures of work. I know you are all so upset ;) ...also Beka NEVER gets her pictures off of her camera so my Birthday Luau pictures will come later as well as Bekas birthday pictures at Dragonfly. I don't think i've even seen any pictures of Dad's or Mom's birthdays, but if they exist i'll post them too! I'm sure i'll remember random things along the way so i'll surprise you here and there :)

Anda's Graduation!

Today Anda graduated from high school!!! If you don't know Anda, trust me, you are missing out on a blessing. She is incredible :) Anda & her two brothers were adopted a few years ago by my boss and his family. Before being adopted they lived in Latvia. Anda has an amazing story! She is a strong, compassionate, humble, intelligent, beautiful girl, and she's on fire for God! He has done so much in her life, and i'm smiling now just thinking about things she will accomplish in life. If you ever get time...sit down with her. Perhaps she'll tell you her story....maybe she won't, but no matter what, it will be a blessing just getting to know her. Her graduation ceremony was a little different than most. She was homeschooled & was the only graduate, so all the attention was on her :) ...which makes her a nervous wreck. She did an awesome job on her speech, her dad spoke, her mom sang, and we all cried like babies!!! It was sooo good! There's a tradition in Latvia where everyone brings flowers for the graduate. They incorporated that tradition into the ceremony. All of Anda's friends and family brought beautiful bouquets of flowers, and in a single file line presented them to her! It was the coolest thing ever!! I want to start that tradition here ;) I mean, how could you not love being surrounded by a million flowers?? Here's a picture of Anda...I bet you can't look at it without smiling!

Livin' like the locals :D

This past weekend was SO much fun!! We went to Destin with a group of friends to see our OTHER friends who moved away from Live Oak several years ago. Let me just say that I LOVE Live Oak. I love living here, being close to my family, and I don't ever want to move....unless I get a chance to move to Destin!! We always vacation in Destin with my family so I knew it was amazing, but this time we got to hang out with "the locals", and now we know all the secrets! ;) We ate the BEST seafood, heard the best local bands, shopped at the hidden boutiques, and relaxed at the "non-tourist" beaches. It was heaven I tell you! Seaside was my absolute favorite! It's the coolest little town...It's full of gorgeous beach homes, people ride their bikes around everywhere, everyone is happy....It's a dream!! We ate the most scruptious raspberry macaroons from a little French restaurant....and i'm now a lover of those little things...they don't even have to be raspberry. Brad also let me splurge a little on a freshwater pearl bracelet....Envy me!! It's AMAZING! If you haven't read the "Savannah" books then go get them right now and sit down and READ THEM!! The author explains Seaside so much better than I possibly could...,perhaps because she has a whole novel to fill with details, but even so...it's worth it! If you don't want to go now, i'm 100% sure after you finish the read you will pack your bikini and be on your way! You won't regret it! Here are a few pictures :) Enjoy.....I sure did!

French Cafe - They had the macaroons!!

MMMMMacaroon!!!

Tommy Bahama's - Me, Jess, & Hannah

My name is Beth Davis & i'm addicted to Twitter!

Ok- Do any of you use twitter? If not you might want to click the little "x" now and leave my blog. I'm seriously addicted. I love myspace and facebook, but twitter seems so much more immediate. Through the frequent change of status updates I can communicate with everyone instantly. The fun part is that you can also follow whoever you want, and stay updated on what they're doing as well. For instance...Beka & I both follow Gulianna Rancic...(if you don't watch E! you most likely don't know this woman)...because we follow her we get in on her status updates. It's so cool for some reason to see into the lives of others. The sick part is....we find ourselves talking to each other about these people like we personally know them. We're probably gonna need therapy after this trend, but hey we all survived scrunchie socks & high top Reebok's right??

If you're curious follow me! My twitter user name is "Sarabethdavis"

Happy Tweeting!