A recurring dream

I have the most elaborate, detailed, ridiculous dreams almost every night.  I used to be able to remember the details of my nightly mental excursions, but as I get older I can't remember a darn thing.  I can hardly remember things I have done during the day, much less my night musings.  Anyway, whenever I have a dream I can remember, I'll give you a sneak peak into the crazy worlds I experience and adventures I have while I'm laying unconscious upstairs in my Cary townhome.  Fun times, let me tell you.  BTW, Inception was a great movie, but it kind of freaked me out.  Yes, I have had a dream within a dream.  FREAKY!

Here's the first dream I'll share with you...

Back in high school, I participated in something called Junior Miss.  First, let me stop your thought process and tell you that it is NOT a beauty pageant although it sure sounds like one.  This was a scholarship pageant that was judged based on grades, an interview (off stage and on), physical fitness, poise, and talent.  I will start off by saying that I am so glad that I participated because I truly had a great time with the girls that were in the program and it was a very unique experience.  However, the experience of Junior Miss somehow haunts me because I dream about it often and it has been somewhere around 11 years since I participated.

In my recurring Junior Miss dream, I am always struggling with my talent.  The actual talent I performed was a flute solo of Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. In my dream, it is usually about five minutes before I am supposed to perform and I either have no idea what my talent is going to be, have lost or left my flute at home, or I'm trying to practice and I have totally forgotten how to play it (yes, it had to be memorized).  This is way too much stress for a person that is sleeping!  I usually wake up in a panic and am so thankful that I am 11 years on the other side of that pageant.  When I drift back to sleep, I am usually standing back stage trying to figure out what I am going to do.  Eventually, my mind shifts to something else altogether and I find myself flying (not in a plane) or falling down a hole like Alice in Wonderland.  Crazy, I know, but entertaining.

Do you have any recurring dreams that you want to share?

To Sell or to Rent, that is the ????

Ryan and I have a nice, cute townhouse in Cary, NC, but we are ready for a yard, no shared walls, a garage, and more space.  In short, we are ready for a house.  Problem is, we have to figure out what to do with the townhouse we have before we can even think about looking for a house.  You're thinking - That's easy, just sell it.  Yeah, okay, in this economy selling a home is as easy as baking cookies on the dashboard of your car in the middle of January (especially this one) in North Carolina.  Unless the stars align, it ain't happening.  Our house has been on the market for about three months and we have had four showings.  One of the showings was yesterday, so I am praying for the stars to align any night now.  We'll see.

Anyway, another option is to rent our property.  The very thought of this makes me squirm with anxiety over the possibility of bad tenants, costly repairs, and all the "what ifs" that come with having a rental property.  Part of me thinks that we are way too young to have that much responsibility. I mean, will we be able to keep up with the maintenance of our house AND a rental property.  Oh geez, I feel a panic attack coming on.  Just kidding.

So, while Ryan and I have definitely done the pros and cons list (in our heads), I am open to a good debate.  Tell me what you think we should do and why.  Now, I will say that we have other factors playing into this decision, but I love a good debate every once in a while.  So, let's hear it.  What do you think we should do?

our house

kitchen

dining room

living room



back deck

  

A fruitful new year

I was sitting in church this past Sunday and Patrick, the head pastor of my church, said something about new year's resolutions.  I suddenly realized that I had not made any resolutions for the new year.  YIKES!  What's the point right?  It always seems like a great way to start the year, but by the end of January the resolution is either forgotten or completely trampled leaving you with a sense of failure.  Sitting there in church, I almost made a snap resolution like eating healthier, exercising more often, or reading my Bible more, but I decided that I did not want to make a fruitless resolution this year.  So, I let the moment pass.

In the last 24 hours I have been thinking a lot more about resolutions and goals for the new year and fruit came to mind.  Not the kind you eat, but a different kind.  Ultimately, as a Christian, not only my year goal, but my life goal is to become more like Christ. So, I had the idea to focus on and try to exhibit one of the "fruits of the Spirit" each day of this new year.

Galatians 5:22-23 says:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

I'm not going to tell you which fruit I am going to focus on first, but I will periodically give you an update to let you know which one I am focused on and how the resolution is going.  I'm sure I'll fall off the wagon throughout the year, but my goal is to keep chasing the wagon down and jumping back on so that I can become more like Christ.  Keep your fingers crossed, we'll see how it goes!