Goodbye, Dear Friend.

This past Tuesday afternoon, a man I've known my whole life went on to Glory. His name is Mike Salters and he will be dearly missed by so many people. Though he and his wife never had children, he still left quite a legacy.

Mike and Irene lived four doors down from me my whole life. I grew up in the all-American neighborhood. Everyone knows everyone else, every one waves at you when you drive by, and we always had block parties where everyone on the street would get together. We are all friends, and I love it.

Mike grew up in Michigan, and loved the cold weather.No matter what time of year it was, even in icy weather, he was always sitting in the garage watching his little tv and waving as you passed by. Growing up, I'd always go to see him and play with his dogs. It was nice, as a child, to have someone like Mike around. He'd tease all the neighborhood kids and cut up with us.

Last Wednesday he was rushed out of his home in an ambulance. A few days later he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer that had spread to his bones. Two days later, God called him to come home. He'll certainly be missed. I'm just glad I had the honor of getting to have him in my life growing up.

Single White Female

Hi, my name is Marsha. I'm 26 years old, no children, never married and content!!! There isn't a week that goes by that people don't act surprised by my 'status.' Don't get me wrong the idea of marriage sounds fabulous, but is it the end of the world if it doesn't happen for me? Absolutely not! What's wrong with my age? I don't have to be married by a certain age and then start having children right after. I'd much rather wait on the man that God has in store for me. Besides, who says marriage is even in my future?

EVERY....and I mean every time I speak to my precious grandmother, she likes to remind me of my age and that I'm not getting any younger. Asking me, "Don't you want to get married?" It also gets suggested that they'd love more great-grandchildren...OY!

Of course I get lonely sometimes, but wouldn't it be much lonelier being married to the wrong person? Periods of loneliness can define us by the way we react to them. Do we whine and gripe to our friends about our life or do we draw even closer to God? Being single is a very special time in your life! It's when you get to spend your time the way you want to. Spending your money where you want to without needing to consult your spouse. It's when I get to watch whatever shows I want on tv. It's when you get to have all the blankets to yourself at night! It's when you get to have control of the remote!!!!

I see so often girls my age just freaking out that they haven't met, "the one," or that they aren't even dating anyone. I think we need to learn to be happy with whatever circumstances God has given us. Nothing escapes His attention. He's aware of every single emotion we have on a daily and even hourly basis. Every time I "freak out" about whatever circumstances may be getting to me at the moment, I can always picture God calmly reassuring me, "I've got this!" Because He does! I've given Him my entire life, I know it's in His hands...so why stress?! That would be doubting God!

I don't really know what the point of this blog is. Just something that's been on my mind and now I feel better by getting it out of my system.

Let's get crafty!

I've been aching to break out my glue gun and get crafty lately. Only problem I had was that I didn't really have anything practical to make. All until Sunday after church, when me and the rest of the "Kidz Live" team was piled up in our office. There really was no way of us separating each person's work from everyone else's. This could really create a lot of confusion disorganization! So, I decided I'd make my own little box. It will stay on our big desk and anything that anyone has for me can go into my new box. Genius!

I got my inspiration from all the recycled paper bins I've seen at Pier 1, like this:

Here are the supplies I started with:

I started by covering the inside edges and bottom of the box with magazine pages using my glue stick. I just chose what I thought would look cool.  When covering the inside edges, I let a little of the page wrap over the top and bottom of the box so that there wouldn't be an unfinished edge.

Next, I cut several strips of old magazine pages. I made the width of the strips equal to the height of the box. Now I took my paintbrush and started wrapping a strip around the handle to form a roll. It's important to make sure that when you start wrapping that it's pretty snug. When there's about an inch left to roll, you're almost ready to glue it in place. But first, you must straighten out the edges. Once they are straight, run your glue stick along your 1" flap and roll the paintbrush forward to glue the strip to itself.  Push on the edges to make sure it sticks, then slide off the roll and do it again.

Sometimes the roll gets wound up pretty tightly and it's hard to get the roll off, that's where the pliers come in handy! Use them to coax off the stubborn rolls.

Once you've made about 638 rolls, {maybe that's a slight exaggeration} it's time to fire up the old glue gun!!

....still finishing it all up, stay tuned for update!

WOW!!! What a week!!!

In the past week I have had a whirlwind of things happen. Most of them you would consider bad. But all I can say is, "Thank you, LORD!!" It has been nothing short of bizzarre. But, through it all, I've grown even CLOSER to my Savior. What an opportunity I was given to strengthen my faith and learn sooooo much! I shouldn't and won't go into what happened on here. Just trust me when I say that nothing could have prepared me for an attack like this.

I've learned to love people, despite what they do to you.

To look beyond the situation and individuals involved to see the true source of malice ( the enemy)

To forgive, freely with a sincere heart.

To leave revenge to God, and not desire retalliation.

My eyes have been opened to so many things. I'm so glad I go to The Vine Fellowsip, to have such a fantastic pastor that as he said it, "has my back." All of my close relationships have been strengthened tenfold compared to where they were seven days ago. God is just flat out amazing! Spectacular!! He is ALIVE and on His throne!!!

I know that most of you will diregard this post, especially not knowing what all has happened, but know this: God loves you more than you could ever imagine. True Love moves you out of your comfort zone to move you forward!!!

What an AMAZING God we serve!!

Here are a couple conclusions I've made this week that have strongly encouraged me:

1. Forgive, even if the offender does not ask to be forgiven. Quit waiting around for the person who hurt you to come to you and tell you exactly what you think you need to hear in order to forgive them. There is a chance they will never be a big enough person to ask you for your forgiveness.

2. Treat those who injured or offended you with kindness, not harboring any grudge or speaking of that individual in a condemning way. (This Is A Tough One)

Romans 2:4 (NLT)
Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Cant’ you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

 I love this verse because at its core it says; If you are willing to treat your offender with kindness, you could actually be pointing them toward God. Kindness goes a long way!!

3. If the opportunity presents itself, do something good for the person who hurt or offended you.

Chaos in Kidz Live

Tonight was my second night on my own teaching Wednesday nights in children's church. The name of the ministry at my church is "Kidz Live." Last week was fabulous! We had 14 kids turn out, and they behaved like little angels. This week however, they were, well...kids! We had 11 children come out, a few faces we hadn't seen in awhile, so that was great! However, I think it may be testing week or something at the schools this week because these kids were all over the place. We had ultra hyper kids wanting to run around non-stop, super talkative kids wanting to interrupt, sensitive kids getting their feelings hurt and ready to fight. OY VEY!!!!


We were able to get through about 90% of the curriculum tonight, and I will say this; although tonight was chaotic, they did seem very interested in our lesson. Tonight they learned that a "Good Friend is Helpful." It was a great follow up to last week's, "A Good Friend is Wise." We had a good conversation over what it means to be helpful and then watched a video about Aaron and Hur and Moses. The kids' eyes were GLUED to the screen for this part of the night, so even though I ranted, it wasn't a complete bust. Praise the Lord!


Right now I'm just learning through experience what works best with each child. It's a little bit of work, yes, but certainly worth it in the end!


On another note...I picked up our VBS curriculum last night. I'm sure I'll be posting about that soon enough.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you?

Does anyone have the stange urge to write people thank you notes after one has been givin to you?


"Dear so and so,


Thank you for your thank you note...da da da dada"


Well I do! It's a feeling I must fight everytime I'm given a thank you note. I asked my best friend if that was wierd, and he reassured me that it was, in fact very wierd. Good ol' Tim! There's nothing wrong with having a thankful spirit and showing you're grateful, but is there a point where you get a little out of control?


For Christmas I had the opportunity to make a few necklaces each for Tim's nieces, I've never met them, or any of his family for that matter. But I wanted him to bring them something special, not just gift cards or whatever. So with a little hesitation, he finally let me take over the living room for the night to make the necklaces. They were pretty simple, nothing fancy since I don't know much about their personalities.  I wish I had taken pictures to show you, but of course at that time I wasn't a "blogger." Even now that I blog, not sure if there's anyone out there reading this. Oh, well....back to the story...


After finishing them up, I think there were 5 total, I showed Tim and told him how much he liked them. ;)  He gave me the thumbs up to wrap them. So I did, and the package looked so cute!!! I wraped each piece in a remnant of denim fabric and then tied it together with a little piece of rafia. I then packed a box full of tissue paper and carefully placed each mini package inside the box. Now it was time to wrap. I'm OBSESSED with brown craft paper and had first decided to wrap the box with the brown paper and then tie a pink grograin ribbon around the box. I thought it looked cute, but just not nice enough for his family. So I unwrapped the gift and rewrapped it with a festive paper and tied it up with a green satin ribbon. It was beautiful! I know the wrapping was wasted on Tim, but hope that his nieces would like it too. He later told me that they loved them and it made my heart warm that he got to see them unwrap it and that they actually liked them...whew!!!


Now...all of that story being said; after Tim got home he said he had something for me. {woohoo!} He pulled an envelope off the desk and handed it to me. His precious mother, whom I've never met wrote me a thank you note. How kind is that?! She took time out of her day with family present, even if it was 5 minutes, to write me a thank you card! Wow! After reading it I showed Tim my "prize." I asked him, "Is it wierd that I want to write her a thank you note for her thank you note?" The response I got turned out to be that sarcastic smirk I've grown to love that says.. "Seriously, Marsha?"


Is there such a thing as too over the top when it comes to thanking people? Shouldn't you acknowledge someone's kindness towards you in the same way they did for you?


I don't know....just wondering.

"Starting Over"

So from the title alone you'd think I wrote a big longpost about creating a, "fresh start" in my life, right?  Does this look like the face of someone trying to start over in life? HA! Not so much.

A couple of years ago I started this blog. I decided I'd keep up with it on a daily-ish basis. I thought, "Oh how fun!" That lasted two whole days. BAM! haha What a joke.

In the past couple of years I've had a LOT happen. A lot of things that at times I let get the best of me. I got sick, very sick actually and wound up gaining 40 (!!!) pounds over the past year. While I'm starting to do better, the doctors still haven't pinpointed what's going on and so my mobility is still limited. But I am a daughter of the Most High and my trust is in the One Who knew me before I was even born, so I refuse to give up!

Several people, including my doctors have suggested types of journaling for me to do as a way of coping with the pain and frustrations that arise. This was the easiest way for me to do it on a regular basis. Cross your fingers, I think I can do it!

So here we go! How about trying to get to know me a little better first?

I'm 26 years old, I have a few dogs, a few fish-for now :/, and my own cake business. I lead a small group at my church every Thursday. At my church we call them, "Connect Groups." Right now we are in the middle of Romans. We are reading and discussing a chapter a week. My best friend, Tim, has started coming with me to my group these past few months and I LOVE that he is there with me.

I'm also part of the children's ministry team at my church. I teach every Wednesday night, one sunday a month and drumroll please........... I'm in charge of Vacation Bible School!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited that God is going to be ministering to these little guys' hearts through me. Little ol' ME! WOW! What an honor!!! I'm an Aunt to this little guy, my nephew Charlie. Although I call him, Chuck, I'm the only one to call him that because he HATES that name. :P

Haha, he's making this face because I got a new camera for Christmas and just HAD to try it out on the cutest kid in the room! He's 10 years old now, 11 next month- already?!?! The years have FLOWN by! I hope and pray to have more nieces and nephews in my future. Whether it be through marriage or my sister settling down and having more babies!

I have a kooky family that keeps me laughing and on my toes. I'm VERY glose to my grandparents who live in San Antonio. My great grandmother is 104. She's amazing and such a delight! She's also very ornery and she cracks me up, I love it when my family says I'm just like her! I'll try to get some pictures together and update this post so you can see my wonderful family.
Some of my family:

My 104 year old Great Grandma and I. We call her Grandma Fern.

 My Grandpa and I.

 My big sitster Molly, Charlie and I. 

Me and Chuck.

My Mom and my Grandma.

I'm very random and my life tends to go in eighty different directions a day, so let's not act surprised when my posts do the same, groovy?