My friend, Nastassja

Today, I'm linking up again with Kelly for Show Us Your Singles Day.  On this blog, you can enter a blog post about yourself or a friend and she will put a link to your blog post up on her blog.  Apparently, it is very popular and has led to numerous successful relationships and even five marriages!  Pretty neat if you ask me!  

In this blog post, I present to the web world my friend, Nastassja.  Nastassja and I met our freshman year in college and have been friends for about 10 years now (it's hard to believe it's been so long!).  Nastassja is 28 years old and resides in Northwest Arkansas.  Here she is: 

There are several telling things about this picture.  First, Nastassja is a fun-loving girl.  She loves her family and friends immensely and enjoys spending time with all of them.  She also loves her beautiful dog, Lucy.  

She is a girly girl, but she also enjoys spending time in nature.  What better combination is there?     

However, this is only one small part to the multifaceted Nastassja!  Nastassja is very active; she works out on a daily basis and one of her favorite workouts is a total body workout using aerial silks and lyra.  Here's a picture of her doing that: 

 

That is harder than it looks, folks!       

I would be remiss if I didn't mention music.  Music is a huge part of Nastassja's life.  She not only loves listening to a very wide variety of music, but she also has been a musician much of her life and has music degrees from college.  She is extremely talented and hardworking at what she does. 

Finally, a little about Nastassja's personality.  Nastassja is a very kind and gentle spirit, but is also extremely fun to be around.  She is very considerate of others and often puts their needs and feelings before her own.  She is also one of the most open-minded, least judgmental people that I know.    

I would love to be a part of helping Nastassja find her soul mate.  If you are interested in meeting Nastassja and getting to know her better, or know someone who might be a good match, you can leave a comment on this blog post and I will hook you up!  

My friend, Jessica

Today, I'm linking up with Kelly for Singles Friday.  This is a great blog with a great idea that has actually worked and led to five (count them 5) marriages!  How cool is that?  

In this blog post, I am introducing my friend, Jessica.  Here she is: 

Jessica has been one of my longest-standing friends; we've been friends since high school... for some twelve odd years.  Jessica is 26 and is from Little Rock, Arkansas.  She is a very social person, was in a sorority in college, and loves spending time with her friends.  She is a very loyal friend.   

She is both smart and independent.  She got a biological engineering degree and in college and got a job in that field.  She owns her own house and car and pays all the bills; what I call fiscally responsible.  I am so in awe of her hardworking and independent spirit!  

She is involved in her local church on a regular basis.  She enjoys volunteering and getting to know other people in her church. 

She is very active and keeps herself pretty busy.  She has recently gotten into running and is doing races, like the Color Run.  I can't wait to see pictures from this.  It sounds pretty neat!  

But men, if the way (or one of the ways) to your heart is through your stomach, this girl just might be the key for you!  She enjoys cooking and baking ... and she is great at it!  She is the first one to bring great treats and snacks to get-togethers and they're pretty amazing.  

Finally, I have to mention that, just like me, she is a big Arkansas Razorbacks fan!  Go Hogs! 

Jessica is awesome... and a terrific friend.  I would love to be a part of helping her find that special someone.  If you are interested in meeting Jessica and getting to know her better, or know someone who might be a good match, please leave a comment on this blog post! 

Busy Little Bee!

Lately, though I've taken some stuff off my plate, I feel like I've added even more onto it.  Whether it is forming businesses, drafting wills, teaching a Kaplan LSAT class, or even the mundane things, like cleaning and cooking, I seem to fill a lot of my moments with things to do.  While thinking about my schedule, I came across this article which discusses how many Christians become "too busy for God."  How sad but true does this concept seem to some of you?  It does to me! 

I am so thankful for a church home where I can get  plugged in.  Though these things alone are not enough time for me to spend in the Bible or in prayer, I am thankful for the women's and couple's bible studies I'm in that just started.  I am hopeful that they challenge me to be in God's Word on a daily basis, not to make it just one more thing to check off my to-do list, but to really grow deeper in my knowledge of and passion for the Lord.      

I find the Cross Church Fayetteville Sunday services themselves to also be wonderful.  It was refreshing and very necessary to refocus my thoughts today after a pretty awful and (I'm embarrassed to say) somewhat emotionally draining college game day.  You Arkansas Razorback fans know where I'm coming from!  Although yesterday seemed pretty humbling in the football realm, our pastor, Nick Floyd, reminded us that being humble does not mean thinking less of yourself... it means thinking of yourself less.  Wow, what a lesson I needed to hear!    

I'm sorry about the rambling nature of this post.  These are just thoughts I've wanted to share lately and see if I'm alone in.  This is a verse I need to live by: "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."  Colossians 3:2 (NIV)     

My BIG Boy and my own craftinessless!

Graham turned 10 months old about a week ago... wow, unbelievable!  I'm already thinking about his 1st birthday party.  We had his follow up doctor appointment and he went from 14 lbs. 15 oz. and 27.5 in. last month to 16 lbs. 8 oz. and 29 in.!  We are so happy and excited that he is back on track... Well, he is on his own 3rd-ish percentile track on the normal charts.  However, we did find out that he is firmly on the breastfed babies chart, so that's great news.  That's the chart we'll be using for next month's weight check too.  Here's an updated picture of my big boy: 

He has two bottom teeth now and is still crawling and pulling up everywhere he can.  Every once in a while, he'll let go for a couple of seconds and stand on his own but that's as close as he's gotten to standing on his own/walking so far.  He is quite the talker!  He babbles all the time ... bamawagatada... lots of letters/sounds!  It seems like he's saying new ones everyday.     
Due to Graham's growth, it looks like we'll have to start looking for a convertible seat for the car, because he will soon be too long for his infant car seat.  Any suggestions, my mom friends?  

On another note, I've decided to try to make all my Christmas gifts this year.  We'll see how this goes considering I'm not very crafty but I will keep you updated.  Unfortunately I probably won't post pictures or anything until after Christmas because I don't want to ruin anyone's surprise!  

In getting ready for being crafty, I decided to "make" my niece's 7th birthday present.  It's ... money!! (that's presented in a cute and unique way).  I emptied a tissue box and put $1 bills in it.  I taped each bill end to end, so she could just pull the dollars out one after another.  The more bills, the more surprise and excitement from the birthday girl.  I attached a bow and a little note that read 'Happy birthday!  Don't "blow" it all in one place!' FYI, this gift was a hit!