Bad blogger, bad!

I know, I know, no new posts. This is my mission for Thanksgiving break -update my blog.

I might have friends...

So today I have been absolutely euphoric. First off, I won a $100 Visa Card today. So exciting. Then tonight was the first HomeTeam meeting. I was invited last week and have been waiting with anticipation since. In fact, the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning was "Eeek! Tonight is my first hometeam!! What will I wear? Who will be my friends? How early/late should I arrive?" You know, the usualy questions. Hee hee!!
It was perfect. There were 28 Christian singles!! I didn't know that even exsisted. AND the most unusual part was that every one of the people at the Home Team were beautiful. Not that that is important. But let's be perfectly honest here. How many single people, our age, are pretty AND Christians? I was so surprised. The girls were pretty and friendly. The boys were tall and wise. I really felt it was a dream (I also really feel I should stop calling them boys and start referring to them as guys.)
I have been so excited all night. I waltzed all the way to my apartment. We are supposed to meet before Church on Saturday and then go out to dinner afterwards. I almost feel like I am going to PDBC choir practice and dinner afterwards. Ahhh, alas I know nothing could replace those good memories. Good night my dear friends. I sleep soundly tonight knowing that God has given me a gift of Christian (single) friends.

Miami and more...

I am still not as regular at posting as I should be. So my last post, I realized I kinda left everyone hanging about my little ovary. She is fine. She was just throwing a tantrum. The tests all came back negative and the only thing they found was a 2 cm cyst which of course goes away each month. I was in such pain I felt sure it was something else but praise God it wasn't anything.

The computer is fine and working wonderful now. I am still working on websites in my spare time and love it.

My tooth is fine. It also isn't turning black or breaking off ... yet.

My Cheesecake Factory boy and I are having relationship problems. Well, I guess it's more that I haven't been back to the restaurant and apparently you have to communicate in a relationship. Sigh... it was a good relationship while it lasted (he he!!).

My other boyfriend "buzz" has been mercilessly flirting with me yet tells my intern that he has a girlfriend. He winks at me across the store, rubs the back of my arm, hugs me, etc. Does anyone think it's a little peculiar that he doesn't ever tell me directly that he has a girlfriend? Everyone else apparently knows. Alas, I am afraid I might have to end this torrid love affair. I mean if he does dump the girlfriend, realize that I am the one and then date me, he could forget to mention that I was his girlfriend, you know what I mean? My internal relationship coach, Pearl, tells me I need to let this one go.

I've had this conversation with so many of you before but it is just so hard to make good friends now that I am older. I have been trying to go to church, make friends at work, the pool, the mall etc but nothing like the friendships from H-S-H-S-U-U. A few weeks back my church made an annoucement that the singles were going to Miami to help Fellowship Church Miami do some construction and redecorating. I thought this will be a great way to meet new people and get back into Mission Trips. Remember how fun those were in high school? Kristy, remember going to Mexico? Anyways, I went over Labor Day weekend and it was so fun. I made a ton of friends. Last night I went to church and saw some of them. They invited me and Amy out to dinner afterwards and we are going to start going to their hometeam starting tomorrow night. I am so excited! When you read this, please pray that God allow genuine friendships to form. This group is also supposed to go the State Fair in a couple of weeks. I think that would be so fun. Yeah, I hope this is where God wants me.

Also, just to keep you interested if you are still reading at this point. There is this really dreamy boy who is tall (yes, tall!), dark hair, dark eyes and so handsome. He is the hometeam group leader and I met him last night. I instantly thought he was a dreamboat and then to find out he is the hometeam leader, this could be a great potential. My interest was peaked a little at dinner last night when the group started talking about his house. One of the girls looked over to me and said, oh my gosh you guys would get along so great. Hmmm... I'll keep you updated. I have only said hello to him so lets not get ahead of ourselves yet.

stock market kinda week

Have you ever had one of those weeks where the highs are really high and the lows are really low? I give to you my week:
Last Friday Kristy and Jeff brought Adalyn into the world and I was telling everyone I know I had a new "niece".
Friday afternoon I have to go to the "lady doctor" who proceeds to tell me she feels something on my ovary. Immediately like a tidal wave I feel faint and turn pale. Those of you who remember my surgical history know what I mean. Dr. Jackson tells me I should schedule a sonogram soon. Great! Just what I need. Not only do I face daily that I am not married but my ovary is giving up on me before I can have kids. To lighten the mood I tell my mom I should have just slept around, then she could have lots of grandkids.
Friday night my computer completely crashes. The infamous blue screen appears and laughs at me as my entire world is being held captive by my PC. After several hundred dollars, the Geek Squad downloads my hard-drive and some computer guy in India manages to salvage my computer, convinces me to buy more memory and helps me restore my files. Man, I had no idea my computer had become my fifth limb. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday reading books. I mean what else could I do, I didn't have a computer?
Monday morning I go to the dentist to have them tell me I have a dead tooth! Apparently I experienced some kind of trauma that caused the root in my tooth to die. Great, now my ovary and tooth are giving up on me. Apparently I am supposed to get a crown on my tooth before it, and I quote "turns black and breaks off". Thanks Dr. Nyguen!!
Wednesday night, I am invited to this in home fashion showing. I don't know if any of you have been to one of these but a whole collection of someone's fashion is brought to someone's house. The consultant explains all the clothes and then everyone has free reign to try on clothes. Sounds fun right? Well, there are about 15 of us. Me being the youngest in the room by about 8 years. Some of the clothes are cute. The majority of the guests are 50+ but the kind of 50 year old ladies that are married to anesthesiologists/plastic surgeons/medical directors, love to wear capri sets, wear Brighton Jewelry and spend their day at Curves, the hair salon or at Pilates - you get my drift. So the try on part of the show starts and b/c my week was already so fabulous, I shouldn't have been surprised when all the samples of clothes are really tiny. Now I am tall and I get that I'll never be a 2 but come on. Eyeing the clothes I can tell that there is no way I am going to be trying on these clothes in the middle of the living room with all these women who have had who knows how many plastic surgeries. Unfortunately there was a woman who convinces me that I really should try on these great jeans. They are long jeans and they need someone to try them on. Fine! I know this is going to be tragic but no one will let me get out of this. So I drop my skirt and put my ankles through the "tall" jeans. I get them up over my hips (thank you Jesus for looking upon me with favor) but of course they don't nearly button. So there I am standing in front of all these ladies sheepishly wearing jeans that have now given me a muffin top and don't button. Stinkin' Fabulous!!
So I really think that I did win for "Best Week Ever". However, I did have 2 fantabulous moments that almost made up for the week. I went to Cheesecake Factory with some friends. While we are waiting this heavenly creature (waiter) keeps walking by and we awkwardly make eye contact each time. You know when you tell yourself you've got to stop looking but someone walks by, you look and oops you made eye contact again. He was really tall with brown, messy-yet-fixed brown hair and striking blue eyes on his chiseled tan body... Oh sorry, back to the story. Well, we finally get seated and I tell the girls about this guy. Well look who comes to the table with tasty brown bread - my Greek god!! We make eye contact and I smile slyly at him. He smiles back and continues to walk down the row of tables. One of the girls watches him walk away trying to get a better look. Well at the end of the row, he straight turns all the way around to look back. Well of course, all of us are staring at him when he turns around and we giggle which now makes this very awkward. My little bread boy continued to run by our table but no more eye contact. Sigh... oh well, at least I got a double take!!
Then, today I was at the store. There is this really yummy guy that is pretty high up in command. We'll call him "Buzz". Hehe!! I have had my eye on him since April but found out that he started dating someone in June. Should have acted sooner but, oh well. Anyways, any time I visit his store he is always excited. He may be this excited to see everyone but I refuse to believe it. So today I made sure I had smokey eyes and voluminous hair and fresh lipstick. I waltzed into that store and (cue angelic music, fog and bright lights) there he is. He is busy talking with some managers but he grabs my elbow and winks. YES!! Then I go about my business, after all I am there to work. I am sitting at one of the tables in the coffee shop and he comes up behind me and gives me a huge hug. "How are you? I haven't seen you in forever." Of course I can hardly breathe but I'm breezy, hug him back and return the question. As we release the hug, as if in slow motion, our arms slowly drop and he ends up holding both my hands. Scccrrreeeecccchhhhh!! Hold the phone. He has a girlfriend!! He teases me about something. I really can't remember what b/c I am not breathing at this point. He winks and says he hopes to see me again soon. Yes, sir!! Alas, I really do think he is this friendly with all the girls but let me hold on to this moment for a while. After all I did have the "Best Week Ever" (insert sarcasm).

Golden Friends

Have you heard that old song "make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold"? As I get older I realize how true that is. I like that the old friends are the more precious metal. I also have a greater appreciation for The Golden Girls (who doesn't love Sophia - so sad she passed away this week).
In the middle of June, I got to see all my high school friends. It was our 10 year high school reunion. How could 10 years sneak by like that? There are people that require you to talk to or see them everyday otherwise the friendship fades. Then, there are friends that no matter how long it's been since you've talked or seen each other, they are just apart of you. My high school friends are laced through me.
This visit was filled with babies, babies, babies. Our little group has more than doubled. I feel our little family is just growing. I am Auntie Alicia to SO many children and I love it. I get to love on the babies but I don't have to chase them or wipe them.
One of my favorite parts was visiting with Aubrey Claire Skains. Now, I have lavished this little Fancy Nancy with shoes and clothes so you would think I would naturally be adored - not the case here. Little miss had just learned to shake her head "NO". I even asked if she wanted chocolate (followed by violent shaking of head and reaching for mommy).
Ah the plot thickens... Not to worry my dedicated readers. Little Aubrey soon remembered who enabled her soon-to-be shoe addiction and we were best buds once again. Make sure you notice the picture of Little Miss posing on the floor (below). I love my golden friends.

little lessons - recognize the back of someone's head

So, I've spent some serious time trying to find a great angle for my blog. What is going to keep people coming back to my blog to figure out what it going on? I'm still trying to figure it out but I do know that I love to learn and love when God gives me little life lessons.

One lesson I learned this weekend was the importance of the back of someone's head. (What?!!) I know it sounds weird but hang with me. I was fortunate enough this weekend to co-host a baby shower for Melodie and her new beautiful baby Holden. It was so wonderful to be part of such a wonderful celebration. At the baby shower, I was sharing my blog dilemma when I decided that I would take pictures of the back of people's heads, post them on my blog and then have people guess who's head it was (I know, weird, but again, hang with me). So I was all ready to post up my pictures when it God sent a little lesson to me. It occurred to me that recognizing the back of someone's head could help you know who to follow. So I share with you the back of heads of some new friends and some old friends.



"Freedom has a scent, like the top of a new born baby’s head" - U2 Miracle Drug

Answers:

1. Sarah Stunkard
2. Amanda Myers
3. Mrs. Russell Stanphil (hehe!!)
4. Jeremy's Niece
5. Mr. Holden (yeah!)

Everyone's Got a Blog But Me...

Alicia Brown, living in Dallas and learning. Everyday. My life has changed so much over the last 2 years. After graduate school, I took, what I thought was, the job of a lifetime. I moved 2000 miles away. Granted, I learned so much and have that great resume booster, but I feel I lost a part of who I was. I have since moved back to Texas and daily God is renewing me, repairing me and restoring me.
He restored Christian fellowship. The hardest part of my pilgrimage was that I had no church to call home. My first weekend back to Texas I went to my beloved Fellowship Church and tears streamed down my face, with reckless abandon. I felt that the last 2 years were spilling down my cheeks. I couldn't praise God enough. I felt I was home. I was surrounded by a thousand or so people all singing praise to the same God. I felt far from Him the last 2 years but felt Him holding me so closely. Each weekend I get so excited to go to church. I want to be there every day. I don't just want to soak in it I want to drown in the God's grace and His mighty plan. He brought me home.