Josie's Corner

If you are ever up in my area, and you just happen to be a bit hungry, thirsty, or just have a sweet tooth; I know exactly where you should go!

With seats inside and out, there's no way you won't be satisfied.

Why don't you come with me now for a little tour? There's Josie, showing us the way.

First you will see our little window cubbie. A nice, intimate area to enjoy a friend's company. Featured here, and throughout, is artwork done locally. The artists change now and then to get more exposure.

Now we'll go into the main area of the cafe.

Here is a glimpse of the deliciousness that will greet you. We have a cookie case filled to the brim, and a complete menu of lunch and drinks for you to pick from.

You've now become an intimate friend, as you are currently behind the counter. From this angle you can see the coziness of the decorations, and also more of our seating area.

This is what Josie's is all based on. Grandma Josie who had no recipes, influenced generations after her in the art of making baked goods. Way to go, Grandma Josie! That is her original apron hanging there.

Perhaps if you are lucky, you will see my smiling face from behind the counter, ready and willing to take your order.

I will go to all lengths to make your stay a pleasant one.  :D

I hope you enjoyed your mini tour of Josie's Corner, but I hope even more that you will stop by and see us in person!

How I had a Satisfied Saturday!

My day started out a bit rough at work. I wasn't as fast as I felt I needed to be, I had forgotten something important the night before, and generally had such a low confidence in what I was capable of doing. I get to be that way: always knocking myself down. Once you get started beating yourself up, it's really hard to stop. So, my shift continued in this manner and I just kept feeling worse and worse. I felt like I was useless to my bosses, and that I wouldn't have worked enough by the end of my shift!

It turned out to be one of the steadiest Saturdays shifts I've had, and I knew that they had even more to do than usual. I asked my boss if I could be off the clock but still stay to help out. She very willingly accepted my help and said that she would pay me for it. If you could have seen me, I think you would have seen a dramatic change in my attitude in just those few minutes. During my actual shift, I didn't feel like I was serving my boss at all: but, God gave me the opportunity to serve my boss in a time where I had the right to leave if I wanted to. I truly felt like I was serving her then, and that made all the difference.

I believe that God has giving me the gift of service. I don't think I can be much happier than when I am helping someone when I don't need to be. If I am helping because I have to be, I can sometimes serve with a wrong attitude; but God is gracious and gives me opportunities to serve with the right attitude.

I don't know if I can explain exactly what I mean, but I'm going to try here. In Psalm 37:4 it says:            

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

So, I think that God gives us different gifts. The more we delight in Him, the more the desire of our heart is to serve Him, and using our gifts is our best way of serving Him. So, He gives us the opportunities to serve Him using our spiritual gifts.  This should make us very happy, right? Yup! I hadn't really thought about it before yesterday, but that is what I think right now. And this makes me want to go out and FIND ways to use the spiritual gifts God has given me! What greater gift could I give to God than to live my life for Him?

So, on my own, I had a very Stressful Saturday. 

By God's grace, I had a very Satisfied Saturday!

Thankful Thursday - Times 2

Since I didn't have time for this last week, I should be doubly thankful this week, right? :P

I'm thankful for:

Finally being done with baking! It was an excellent experience, and fun at points, but truly was a lot of work.

How well work is going lately! I was left alone for longer than before on Wednesday, and I didn't die! I even had more work to get done, so it was quite an accomplishment for me.

Encouraging bosses. It makes all the difference to know that they appreciate my work and notice when I do better.

More hours at work. Both my co-workers are going back to college this semester, so I was needed a little more than before.

Having my mom up to visit last weekend. It was her first time up here since I moved in with Laura, so she finally got to meet my friends!

Church!

Enjoying a game night with mom and some friends.  Sunday was the beginning of a fabulous week!

Going salsa and swing dancing without getting truly dizzy! Some leads definitely can make me dizzy if they try, but generally I'm alright. :D

Having my dad visit for a day! He came up to help us with some stuff, and he even switched cell phones with me. What a nice dad! :D

Church picnics and good conversations with awesome people!

The amazing stars and moon. Truly awe-inspiring.

Getting to know a new friend a little better.

Borrowing the fourth season of Monk! Woot!

Amazing weather! It is absolutely the best.

I cannot believe I forgot this, but I guess it just feels like longer than two weeks ago...I'm thankful for a fabulous time getting to meet my first niece and visit my lovely sister and her husband!. Thanks, Chris, for the reminder!

I seriously cannot remember the last time I've been as happy as I've been this whole week. God is amazing, and He has given me so much. I would be a fool to think I have all this because of my own worth. I truly am worthless without the blood of Christ; which brings me to my last Thankful Thought:

I am so thankful for a Savior, who by His mercy and grace, saw fit to call me to be one of His own. I have created a debt that could not be repaid, but it has been erased. What more can I ask for?

Baking Marathon!

So, Laura got hired to vend at a vine tasting/grape stomping festival, so we spent much of our time this week baking things for that. In fact, I was so busy that I didn't have time to write my Thankful Thursday! I thought I'd show you just a piece of the experience!

 
This is just the beginning of the stacks of food we made. :)

The bags of cookie dough just waiting to be baked, and then we wrapped the cookies to the table until I could wrap them individually.

And that's just a taste of what we did this week!

My niece!

I would like to formally introduce you to the newest member of my family: Miss Reilly Marie!

Thankful Thursday - belated

I totally forgot to do my Thankful Thursday post last night, but maybe I needed  to wait until today so I can keep my spirits up. I'm currently sitting in an airport without any idea of a flight that I can take out to Denver. This could be a long day.

But on the cheerful side of life: I'm thankful for..

~ Two great appointments with a chiropractor. He had a lot of interesting information for me, and has already helped me considerably.

~ Three days of dancing without massive dizziness!! Last night was slightly more dizzy than the first two, but not nearly as bad as before.

~ The opportunity to be of service to my employers in their time of need.

~ The growing circle of friends and the time I've been able to spend with them.

~ Having my salsa shoes back! They had to be repaired. Now I have to get used to them again.

~ Having a positive two- month review at my job!

~ Flying the way I do. Though it can be frustrating and stressful, I really wouldn't have it any other way. It has become a way of life, and I'm extremely happy about it.

~ The chance to talk with CNH for long periods of time. (Just getting back to the point my dear. =P)

~ Having a rain coat. It was down-pouring yesterday and my pants were soaked, but thankfully I had my super sweet rain coat on, and therefore, didn't freeze.

~ Veterans! I was sitting next to a veteran while we were still on the plane. It was really nice to talk with him!

~ A good computer battery that enables me to be on without plugging in for longer than ten minutes!

~ Delta employees who can remain calm in the midst of mass confusion and frustration. Way to go guys!

So, the day will continue, and hopefully I'll get to Denver sometime today!

Forgotten pictures!

Here we are playing cards. We grew up playing cards, and now the kids are too. :)

Josh took the boys out to play. It was nice for them to have some guy time with him. They also went with him to fill up the gas tank. They loved it!

They just had a huge laughing fit when Josh decided that HE was going to sleep in Morgan's sleeping bag. It was a great time.

Happy Days!

Yesterday was such a fabulous day! I went to Harvest Church again, and it was really good. A group of people prayed with me for my headaches, and that was really nice. Dancing at salsa was just incredible! I think it was the first time since moving to this city that I've been dancing where I didn't get dizzy! It made such a big difference to not be dizzy. I feel like I did better than ever before. I was able to do all the spins the guys threw at me, and that's definitely new. I didn't even have to take a break. The difference was astounding.
After dancing, a group of us went out to eat at a Chinese buffet! It was pretty good! I loved the Chinese donuts...lecker! So delicious. Then we all headed over to one of the guy's house, and there we watched Star Trek! It was my first time ever seeing Star Trek, and I really liked it! It was a great time just handing out with some friends.
It didn't take long to fill you in on my day, but I can't truly express how happy I feel about my day yesterday. =D

Diagnosis

I feel as if I have had several medical issues over the past, and very few of them have been explained. The most frequent problem over the years have been headaches. I feel like I've had a headache for five years straight, to varying degrees of course.
In many ways, I have simply gotten used to it, but lately it has gotten to a point where it is disrupting my life to such a level that I cannot manage it anymore. I cannot do what I want because of the pain it causes me, and I am tired of it.
I had an appointment with audiology and an ear/nose/throat specialist, which I already told you about. As mentioned previously, the good news is that my ears are in excellent health. The bad news is that this means I don't know why I get dizzy when I dance.
My next stop was to see a chiropractor. My appointment was extremely interesting! He did a series of assessment tests and I was happy to learn that I had truly understood where my bones had issues. He said that many people come not understanding what is wrong, but I knew. =D His way of adjusting my back was quite new to me, but I believe it worked well. Unfortunately, there were two adjustments that ended up being quite painful. It was necessary, but not fun for me. He was quite kind to me throughout it.
I was excited this morning to notice a difference in my back and the looseness of my neck, but unfortunately, the headache remained. It was a disappointment to be sure.
I now have two more options that I have considered. One, it is something to do with my jaw, and could be helped by going to the dentist, or two, there is simply something wrong with my brain. I am in the process of getting scheduled for an appointment with a neurologist, but that could take some time. So, in the meantime, I am going to do my best to see a dentist.
The real test will be tomorrow, when I go salsa dancing. Here's to hoping against hope that my dizziness has gone away.

Thankful Thursday!

My whole life, I have judged myself as being hard of hearing because of an accident I sustained as a baby. Lately, I have blamed my ears for the dizziness I feel, and the sensitivity to loud noises. I've really given my ears a hard time of it. Never once have I turned to something else to blame, always my poor little ears. Well, today they have been justified! I had my appointment with an audiologist and an ear/nose/throat and they both not only gave my ears a clean bill of health, but actually praised how well they are working! Needless to say, it was quite the shock to me, to realize what I've always thought was true, really wasn't. It's an odd feeling. This is the thing I am most thankful for today. My childhood accident could have been the death of me, and God, in His loving mercy, not only protected me from death, but He also managed to fix the one thing that I always felt would be different. It's nice to know that when it comes to ears, I really am...normal. 

This week has been somewhat of an emotional week. Despite it all, I have so many things I can thank God for.

Thankful Thing of the Week!
My sister had her baby!! They are both doing very well, and are safely at home.

My niece arrived on Sunday night, which made a wonderful day for me, even better!  I was able to spend my time with good friends and really enjoyed their company.

Swing dancing at the Avalon started back up on Tuesday, and that was a blast! I even managed to dance one song really well (in my opinion) before the dizziness set in.

As I mentioned in my last post, my Wednesday at work was really good, in the long run!

I had a great time baking with my sister.

I got to enjoy a new book.

I got to sleep in a little.

I had my doctor's appointment that went well.

I got to go salsa dancing.

And the weather has been fabulous!

And I have officially made it to fifty blog posts!

I am so excited to see what happens in this next week.

Josie's

On Wednesdays, I work from 6:45am-2:00pm, so this morning I woke up at 5:45am to get ready. It was really tough to get up after such a short night of sleep. Especially considering how ill I felt last night after dance, but I survived. Work was stressful the instant I arrived as I noticed a to-do list from my boss to add to my normal routine.
The biggest problem was definitely the buckwheat pancakes! I checked to make sure we had some batter, and when I couldn't see the normal container, I decided to make it for the first time! Suffice it to say, it was stressful trying to find everything in the main kitchen. The main kitchen is not my territory, except the dish sink, and that being the case, I have no idea where everything is! I managed to get the batter finished before it was needed, which was a great relief. It ended up that there was some batter already made, just in a different bucket than normal!
After that stressful moment, everything got a lot better! Today was very busy over the lunch hour. I think that was the busiest I have ever managed on my own out front. It would be natural for me to get all stressed and rushed when there is a line of people waiting. Thankfully, I was able to remain calm and pleasant to everyone, even when I was accused of charging too much. I can't think of a single mistake that I made, and that truly is a first! I have never felt so good about a shift. I made nearly $15 in tips, which might not seem like much, but part of the was split between three of us!
I think the best part of my day was when my co-worker specifically said that I did a really good job handling the whole line of people. It's not often that they consider it to be a busy day, and to hear them admit to that, and be appreciative of the work I've done; well, it's just really encouraging.
Next week is my two month anniversary and my boss has set up a time to discuss the past two months. I'm a little nervous to see what she says, but I don't think they will fire me by any means. It will be interesting to see what is brought up. Hopefully it will remain positive, since I'll still have half a shift to work that day!
Though my shift was good, it was also really tiring. I didn't take a break until 1:45, when I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich. So, once I got home, it was too much of a stretch to feel myself falling asleep. I ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap, and boy, did I need it! The rest of the night has been spent baking with my sister and talking with a good friend.

Tomorrow is potentially a big day for me! I have my appointment with audiology/ENT in order to discern what is causing my frequent dizziness. I can't deny a certain nervousness about what they will tell me, but hopefully it will be a simple fix. I really want to be normal! Besides, I can't dance lindy-hop when I am dizzy, and my birthday dance is a lindy!! So, this must change, and quickly. I need to practice lindy before my birthday, that way it will be good enough to show you guys! :D Here's to hoping! Your prayers for tomorrow are definitely appreciated.