Life after death...of a career?

Is there life after you walk out on a career that you have been building since you were 21? Yes, and for now it appears to be much richer and fuller than the life I had been leading with a career path in place. I don't think I was really living before and that's not ok, not ok with me, not ok with God (that's not how He created us) and I hope its not ok with you. When I say that I hope its not ok with you, I mean for you. My hope is that we can all be living instead of leading or existing in this life.

Do you know that not once since I quit my job have I stress out about not having a steady income? I'm telling you, when you give it over to God, and I mean really give it to Him to handle, life really becomes so much more peaceful. And yes, I totally had a few moments where I could have freaked! I got pulled over on my second to last day of work, in a school zone which means automatic ticket, and the ticket in a school zone is $168. That's a lot for someone who is now a stay at home mom, or if you prefer, unemployed. Especially when that mom is single and there is no other income on which to rely. After I was hard on myself for speeding in an area designed to protect kids, I realized I wasn't freaking out about how to pay for the ticket. Normally I would start adding up all of my bills, subtracting them from my take home pay and then realizing something would have to get the minimum payment or no payment at all. But not this time. Instead my very first thought, was huh...I suppose God will provide for this too. Now I can't tell you for sure whether or not that speeding ticket was a test, but if it was, I hope that I passed.

On May 21st, I attended a fundraiser for Juan Diez Rancheros at their facilities. They had pony rides, bounce house, live music, food, and silent auction. It was really a good time and I thought I was just going to help support an amazing friend and her amazing organization, but I really went because I was about to step into my summer "job". Remember how I went to Mexico thinking one thing and doing another? Same thing. God is so cool the way He works things. A friend and I started talking and she asked if I had found another job or if I had plans for one for the summer and I told her no. She asked if I would want to nanny for them. I told her I would think about and pray about it and get back to her. I think it took me two days to know in my heart this is what I am supposed to do for the summer. I emailed her and said its a yes for me if you guys still want me. I met with her and her husband that night and I start on Monday. Now you might be thinking, seriously? She is going to raise her kid on a nanny's salary? And the answer to that would be yes. I'm making a quarter of what I was making before, but I have never felt happier or freer. Now don't get me wrong. There are times that I run the numbers and think how is this going to work? But I don't worry about it, because God can make it work.

I'm not going to have a lot of money for things like movies, which I love, or dining out or what have you, but I do have the entire summer to spend with Nate! And this is an opportunity I would not normally have. In fact I have been jealous of mom's who get the summer with their kids before because I figured it was not something I would ever get to do. And look at the wonderful gift I've been given. I get to hang out all summer with the coolest 3 & 4 year olds I know!

Now I'm not going to tell you that life is all roses and rainbows and ponies. Trust me I know it's not. But when there is so much good going on and good that can be done, why stress over the rest? And yes I know what some of you are probably thinking, It's not called God honey, it's called ignorance, naivety, crazy or whatever other adjective you can think of, I've had those thoughts too. I've actually thought to myself am I trusting God or am I just being unaware of the real world? And then this was waiting for me on Facebook this morning:

"As God begins to bless you don't let people intimidate you.

Don't let them stop you from celebrating the goodness of the Lord

and what God did in your life. Be like the blind man who was old

enough to speak for himself and say 'The Lord brought me from

a mighty long way'" T. D. Jakes Ministries/The Potters House

'Nuff said!

Family first!

I'm finally able to do something I have always wanted to do...put my family first! Work doesn't come first, friends or obligations to friends, life, etc...it's my family. I'm sure some of you are going, yeah but doesn't life consist of family? It does, but this past week has pretty much been family obligations first and foremost!

I have been off work now for 8 days and I have never been busier! Each day since I quit my job, and essentially derailed my career, has been full of life and living! You can get so much more living done when you aren't stressed about the details of work, finances, family, etc... The weekend after I quit was Memorial day weekend. I took my son out of town to Peoria, IL along with my mom and sister. We stayed in a hotel with an indoor pool and we had a blast! We swam for hours, in fact I think Nate was still swimming in his sleep that night. On Memorial Day we went to the Peoria zoo and saw all sorts of animals, yet the giraffes and zebras were still his faves! I liked the rhinos and would really like to see a hippo some day ;)

The 31st was Nate's 4th birthday and uneventful (the party was last night) but still chock full of business. Tons of laundry to do, unpacking from the weekend, preschool and then tball in the evening. Birthday dinner was at McDonald's (his choice) and then home for bed. Wednesday was spent dropping Nate off at preschool, more laundry (which by the way, still have laundry to do, does it ever go away?), shopping for the birthday boy's party, found hard to find colored bubbles (thank you God!) and the ever elusive Firetruck Mater - now for those of you that don't have young boys in your life you may not have ever heard the words "Firetruck Mater" and you may not know that Firetruck Mater is extremely hard to find. Why you ask? Because he is only available in a special package of the original Cars movie, this is the ONLY way you can purchase him, he is not available for sale individually. And no, Firetruck Mater, did not make an appearance in the first Cars movie, he doesn't show up until the master minds at Disney create something called "Mater's Tall Tales." Again, if you don't have small children in your house, you may not know what this is, so I will tell you it is Disney's brilliant way to capitalize on the Cars empire by creating these 20 minute shorts that they play in between shows on the Disney channel. And I'm sure the brilliant minds at Disney NEVER envisioned needing to create toys based off of....oh wait, that's how I ended up with a Firetruck Mater. ;) Wed afternoon Nate had some pictures taken by a friend who is starting her own photography business and then to top off the day we ate dinner with my grandfather, who kept Nate for the night for me.

So this brings us to Thursday - Birthday Party Day! - and let me just say Whew! I survived! Actually I can't complain too much! We had Nate's party at Monkey Joe's (for those of you that are not familiar with MJ's is a bounce town that has the most amazing bounce apparatuses) and they really do take care of everything. Oh yes, forgot to mention the guest list, which for most people this is not important, but parents beware...typically when you set out to plan some type of party whether it be a bridal shower, baby shower, birthday party, whatever, you plan on about 50% of the invited guests to actually show up. Well if you have a child like my Nate, be prepared for almost 100% to show up. I handed out invitations for 30 kids, 28 came! I am not complaining by any means, it shows me how much others love my child as well, but I was just in shock at the turn out! I had decided in the beginning that we were only inviting kids from his preschool and our small group. I had thought this would be a great way of keeping the party small! Joke's on me...all kidding aside, I have to say all the kids were great last night. 28 plus adults was a lot to have to manage, but the "refs" at MJ's really did it all. I just had to tell them what kind of pizza and pop we wanted and what time we wanted to eat, they did the rest! They even loaded my car for me at the end of the night. I highly recommend them to every parent who just wants to show up!

Nate is at his last day of preschool today, and I don't think he understands what that means. He knows that he gets to spend the summer with Mommy and Dillon (more to come on Dillon later), but I don't think he fully understands that he won't see everyone at school until fall. I will try and handle that as it comes up.

We have also had a long lost friend come back into our lives recently and it has been wonderful having her and her family around again! They came to Nate's party last night and they are anxious to have him over for the day soon. It's so great to have fabulous friends in your life!

So to sum up basically what I was hoping to get across is that I finally get to do what I want, and that is spend an entire summer with my Nater! I have no idea what the future holds, but God does and we are going full steam ahead trusting Him to get us through each day in one piece.

Read my next installation to find out how I came to quit my job and end my career path all without having any clue what I'm doing next!

Time for change!

Lots of changes going on.

So as you all know, I'm a single mom and that means I have struggles that most singles don't have and I have struggles that most married moms might not have. The main struggle is always being able to provide. Being a single income family is always a challenge, especially when it comes to buying a house or car. But its HUGE when you consider leaving a job without having another one lined up. So why would a single mom consider this? Because sometimes its in the best interest for her family.

And sometimes its because she thinks its what God wants her to do. I know here I go with the crazy God talk again, but its true. A few weeks ago, God had told me to surrender all to him. Its really hard to do that for me, I am a huge control freak. But the toughest area for me to surrender is the financial part of life. How can I trust God to pay my bills, provide food for the table, and have money for gas when the numbers don't add up? Probably because God doesn't care about the numbers. But I didn't always know/believe this. All I could see in front of me was the amount I was brining home in my paycheck and the amount I had going out for bills. Didn't always add up, at least not for me.

But then I had this horrible incident happen at work, and I was thrust into a belief and trust like I've never had before. I no longer feel safe at work. A new store opened up next door and it doesn't always attract the most savory clientel. Oftentimes you can hear the police sirens chasing a shoplifter, you can walk out the front door and see drug deals going on, and if you're lucky enough, you might just get to see a fight as well! But that isn't the worst part...the worst part is when you have an irate customer, who is no longer reasonable and completely out of control, in the store and it takes the cops 10 minutes to respond. And that 10 minute response was after I hit the panic button and called 911. So you see, its not really about the insane customer coming back, but the lack of urgency from the police. If that guy had a gun to my head, we wouldn't be having this conversation. It's time to move on.

I have no other job lined up. As of May 25th I am unemployed. But oddly enough, because I am putting it all in God's hands, I'm completely comfortable with this fact! I did borrow money from a family member to pay off my debt, but if you look at what I had for debt, it wasn't a great deal of money. I am paying it back as soon as I get a full time permanent job, but it does help to go into joblessness without having credit card debt or car payments hanging over my head. And it does feel good to know that my total debt, car and cc together, is less than what some people have on one credit card! Yes it does suck owing a family member money, but I believe it was the best for Nate and I.

What am I doing about my joblessness??? Well I'm obviously using all of the internet job boards and I'm also going to the temp agencies here in town as well. I want out of retail. I no longer enjoy being treated like I'm dumber than dumb just because I work retail. Guess what...I am smarter than a monkey and no a monkey can NOT do my job. Oh and when the door says we close at 6, we close at 6. I have a life and a family just like you do and I want to spend time with them too. If you can't get here by closing, not my problem. I will not reopen the store just for you. And shame on you for even thinking of asking me to do so! I wouldn't expect that of you in your business.

So the whole point of this is that I think my peace of mind and calmness is all from God. I truly believe he already has a job waiting for me. I just have to find it. And its going to be something I enjoy doing, not something I would dread doing. And it is most definitely not going to be retail! Hopefully it's something I can wear all of my cute shoes to ;)! I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Hola!

Well the busyness of life never seems to slow down, even in the apparent wake of a tragedy. Not my tragedy, someone else's but nonetheless....and no not someone I personally know but....tragedy still the same.

I never finished my Mexico tale, and from what it looks like, I barely started it as well. Let's just say God is amazing and He always knows what He's doing and from time to time He blesses us by letting us be a part of His plans! Mexico forever changed me and I can not wait to go back on another missions trip. Funny, I remember being in 8th grade and so mad that they made me take a semester of Spanish (I was more enthralled with the French language at the time) and thinking, When on earth will I ever need this??? HA! Guess what that 8th grade Spanish came in handy. I was able to say "Uno momento por favor" to everyone LOL and then I would yell for Solie to come speak to the kids!

So what did happen in Mexico?

Well remember how we were there to pass out shoes to the kids? Well we did, but in a different way than in years past. And it was all God's plan all along! Remember that friend of mine telling me I wasn't going for the reason I thought I was, she was right! There was something bigger going on, much bigger!

La Vina, the Vineyard in Vamos Tamaulipas, Reynosa, Mexico, is currently on "loaned" land. The way things work down there is the government "grants" you land, but you have to fill out paperwork and blah blah blah and its a five year process. Anyway the land the church is currently sitting on is still owned by the government, the new government. The government that granted the land is no longer in power so this new regime could come in and just take it. Just like that, especially if they don't like what it is used for. The new government is not exactly what we would call a group of believers, either. So on Wednesday when they said they are coming on Friday and want to see what the Vineyard is all about and what we are doing there, the pastors of La Vina were more than a little nervous. God's plan....

So rather than pass out shoes on Wednesday we cleaned up the area around La Vina. There is no garbage service, these people literally just put their garbage in their front yard or in the road or where ever it happens to land. Its not because they want to be this way, they just don't know what else to do. So we cleaned up the grounds and burned the garbage, cleaned up the mobile kitchen to serve lunch from on Friday, the guys poured concrete, dug fence post holes and we burned what will one day be a soccer field. (see pictures)

We were truly tired, but it was a labor of love, when we got back to the houses that night. I'm not sure I made it much past dinner. I headed to bed early. The next day was scheduled to be a "fun" day. We had planned to go shopping in a little town called Progresso...oh geez, the name escapes me at the moment, I think Progresso is soup, maybe its a Mexican village too, at the moment, I have no idea! But our plans changed slightly Thursday morning.

It was the "girls" turn to cook breakfast so we were up at the crack of dawn to get cookin for all us. Cooking, as it turns out, had to be put on the back burner for a moment. Troy, our assistant pastor, came running into the kitchen to ask if we knew where the owner was. I said we didn't, and asked what was going on. He said Rhonda, our trip coordinator, had fallen down the stairs and possibly broken her arm. What??? You can't be serious! Serious is exactly the way to describe Rhonda's injuries. The four of us that were cooking stopped and prayed for Rhonda and then headed into the house they were staying in. Rhonda was pale as a ghost and had a huge bump on her forehead. She had wanted to take a shower and in order to get to the bathroom she had to go down a steep flight of stairs and go through the room that our pastor and the assistant pastor were sleeping in. To not disturb the "pastors" Rhonda did not turn on the hall light over the steps and she thought she had made it to the landing, when she was still 3 steps up. She fell head first and hit her head and landed on her shoulder. Fortunately we had a nurse with us and she was able to get Rhonda upright again, but she did end up in the ER that morning. Rhonda was told she may have broken the bone in her upper arm but they did not want to cast it, because she would still be able to move, so they put her in an immobilizer and sent her back to us. We asked her if she wanted to go home, but she wanted to stay and finish the trip with the rest of us. I really had no idea why on earth she would want to put herself through another 30 hour van ride with a possibly broken arm...but she truly is a servant of God. After Rhonda made it back to us, we did end up heading out to Progresso to do a little shopping.

Let me just say that if you never have to drive in Mexico...consider yourself VERY blessed! Holy Moly! What a trip! You won't believe me and I don't think I can upload a video, and even if I could the video would not do the tale justice. We entered highways on exit ramps, drove the wrong way down one ways, drove through active construction, I can't even tell you what an adventure we went on! It was truly the ride of a lifetime getting to this town of Progresso. Once there we only had a couple of hours to go shopping, which was more than enough. Lots of fun little shops and cheap cheap prices! I could have spent a fortune! Thank God we only had 2 hours!

We got home and got our game plan in place for Friday and went to bed. Friday am came way too quickly. We had to be in the colonia even earlier so we could get the shoes to the school and get the kitchen set up to cook and be ready for when the government officials showed up. Some of the kids pitched in on Friday and it was so much fun to be able to see their faces when they received their shoes. The government officials handed out shoes for about an hour and then asked most of our team to come into the superintendents office to chat. They were so impressed with how well Vamos Tamaulipas is doing and they contribute much of its success to the Vineyard being there! In fact they asked if we could go into other colonias in Reynosa! How cool is that?! It wasn't official when we left, but it sounded, well we could be pretty confident that the land was La Vina's for good! Only one piece of paperwork left to be filed until the land is permanently La Vina's!!! God is so cool God is so cool!

So that is my Mexico adventure, paraphrased of course ;)

I hope you can see how present God was in our adventure, because we could feel His presence every single day! Thank you PaPa!

Adios Amigos!

AVON Website

Ok so I never finished the blog about Mexico..sue me, I will get to it eventually and by eventually I mean hopefully before I die. However I just wanted to take a quick minute and share with all of you that I am trying to grow my AVON business this year. I'd really like to be able to do only AVON within the next couple of years. So I now have an AVON website where you can place an order 24/7 and anyone in the world can shop it! Stop reading this and go shopping, you never know who you might be able to buy a gift for and with free shipping its worth it! You do have to contact me directly in order to receive free shipping but I will do it! Go visit www.youravon.com/bmabis NOW! and thanks in advance!

2011...so far so, not too bad

Well my year started off with my trip to Mexico and let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing! God showed up in ways I never expected. So lets rewind to pre 2011 and go back to December 2010. My mom and I always go to the Lambs Farm craft show in Chicago and this year was no exception, well at least that's what we thought.

December 2, my mom, sister and my friend Carrie pile into my CR-V and head to Arlington Heights, IL. Somewhat enjoyable 3 hour drive, with few exceptions. However we get to the Arlington racetrack, where the craft show was being held, and oops, the craft show doesnt open until the 3rd! Ugh are you kidding me???? We drove this whole way for nothing??? Seriously mom don't you look at a calendar to double check dates? Well apparently not. In that instant I was soooo angry with her, how could she be so dumb? But a few minutes later, after we had all decided to head to IKEA, it dawned on me that even though this wasn't MY plan, it was God's plan.

You see I had started to doubt wether or not I could afford to go on the missions trip to Mexico. I had more money going out than I had coming in and I just didn't see how I was going to be able to swing one more thing during the month of December. I had even asked a few people to pray about it and see if I am really supposed to be going. How could this not be for me? I had wanted to go on this trip for 3 years and finally it was in January when I could go, not in December when there was no way in the world I could go. I digress. Well, my mom had given me a good chunk of money to go to the craft show with, it was money that she owed me for miscellaneous stuff. And since I wasn't going to spend it at the craft show I now had enough to pay for my passport, passport pictures and what have you. Amazing how God works!

So I applied for my passport and paid for expidited shipping to make sure it arrived before we had to leave for Mexico on January 9. My passport came on Christmas Eve, there really couldn't have been a better Christmas present. I was ecstatic, it was real, I was going to Mexico. How did I pay for the actual trip to Mexico? My grandfather gives us all checks every year for Christmas and I knew it would be enough to cover the trip, so on December 26th I wrote my check to the Vineyard and I was all set. I just had to wait for January 9.

I don't know how to explain my excitement for the trip. It wasn't like getting excited to go on vacation, it was better. I was going to be the hands and feet of Jesus, I was going to get to do His work. Or was I?

Remember those prayers I asked for? Well no one told me I wasn't supposed to go, thank God! However, the Wednesday before we were to leave, I met a friend of mine before work. She said, Oh I forgot to tell you that when I prayed for you and Mexico I heard No. (What? You didn't think to tell me this BEFORE now????) But not no you aren't going but you aren't going for the reason you think you are, why do you think you are going? I said to be the hands and feet of Jesus and meet the kids I bought shoes for, what else could I go for? My friend replied, I don't know but you aren't going for the reason you think you are. Huh, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

What did that mean? Why was I going to Mexico?

Sunday we all loaded into the van, 10 of us, two to a seat, for a 30 hour van ride. That sure sounded fun in the beginning! HA! Actually, it was a fun ride, as fun as 30 hours in a van can be. You really get to know the people in the van that's for sure and those other 9 people mean the world to me! We hit some snow on the way down, but when we arrived in Mission TX on Monday evening, it was sunny and beautiful. Of course, this would be the only sun we saw the entire week!

Tune in tomorrow for what happened in Mexico!

To Mac or not to Mac....

So I finally got all of my pictures from Mexico uploaded to the important websites like Facebook, Snapfish and Shutterfly, and let me tell you, I absolutely can not wait to be doing that on a Mac. I'm so excited to actually be the proud owner of a Mac. I am going to Best Buy directly after work to purchase a MacBookPro. That's right, the next blog will be written on a Mac (maybe that doesn't excite you as much as it does me). My dad has been telling me for years to buy Apple, but being a single mom, Apple products are pricey, no where near my price range. However I did my taxes exuberantly (is that a word? maybe its spelled wrong who knows) early and my refund is currently in my account. I paid off my credit cards, which makes me HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY and other than car payment (which will be done in May) and student loan payment (I'll be dead before that thing is paid off) I have no debt! WOO HOO! So I'm taking a large chunk of my refund and buying a Mac. I have to say, I don't know a lot about computers, I know how to play on the Internet and create documents, word and excel and what have you, but other than that, I just want one that looks pretty. Yes I am THAT girl! I know, trite and sad at the same time, but at least I'm honest. So for me to invest this kind of money into a laptop there has to be either a really really pretty cover on the thing, it comes in pink, or, and more practical if I do say so, it will last much longer than a PC. Unfortunately, pink and pretty are not options ;)
I've done my research and looks like the Mac is by far a better choice. PC's just don't last very long. I have had laptops since 2001 and I have had to replace them every 3-4 years. So lets do the math, its currently 2011 so for 10 years I have used a laptop and I have had to purchase a new one every 3.5 years I am on laptop number 3! I don't want to continue to buy laptops every 3.5 years, which is what I told the guy at Best Buy a few days ago. Do you know what he said to me???? Macs are built to last 7-12 years!!!! WHAT? Why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner??? 7-12 years people! That's just CRAZY, but in a very good way! So basically what this kid who is all of maybe 22 years old tells me is that if I had just invested in Mac 10 years ago, I would probably just be replacing it now. Huh, good to know.
So with any luck I will plop down my debit card for the MacBookPro tonight at Best Buy and not have to do such a thing again for at least another 10 years. Thank you Apple for being superior to PC's when it comes to laptops.
I should probably add...that the two laptops I had in the past 10 years, ended up costing me more than the Mac because of viruses, repairs and new batteries. So buyer beware, you may think you are saving yourself money today, but in the long run, was it worth it???? Just sayin'