My spiritual gift is jazz hands.

I believe that’s what the Lord revealed to me last night. And I’m being completely serious. Actually, I was in perfomer mode at CPT last night and was dancing around trying to get all the attention and it was totally fun and great, but then by the time I came home I was feeling kind of bummed out because I always try to get attention and praise for myself and not for God, and when I do that too much it just makes me feel yucky. So I was praying and journaling last night and asking God to forgive me for being so selfish and for showing myself off and not Him and I asked him (and this is a direct quote from my journal) "to knock me off my 'me' stage and put be back on God's stage with jazz hands for you Lord." I even pray Fosse style. This is why I love the freedom we have in Christ because I can pray like that and I know He totally gets what I'm trying to say. And all that jazz.

Now I need to find me a new dance class. I miss my old tap teacher Billy, the 65 year old drag queen.

The Ratios, They are a Changin’

Bob Dylan would be proud. Yesterday’s CPDC Busch Gardens trip was attended by the following:

Guys: Steve, Greg, John, Ravi, Ernest, Joel and Mike

Gals: Anne, Liz, Amber, and Aesook

I do believe this is the first event (other than a basketball tournament or Super Bowl party) that was attended by more men than women. The Lord has heard our prayers!!

A great moment in work life.

I'm sitting in Mike's office today discussing a data issue related to one of my bank's reports. The bankers name is Cher. We were going back and forth on the issue when all of the sudden it hit me that this was a bank another co-worker had spoken with when I was on vacation. So we brought the other co-worker in but she couldn't remember all of the details of the issue. At this realization, Mike starts singing "If I could turn back time..."

Oh how I love the cleverness!

My Favorite Dessert

Is fruit pizza! I know some of you are thinking "Wait a minute?? I thought your favorite dessert was brownie mix?" and you're close. Actually, my favorite snack is brownie mix :)

Isn't it lovely?? And it tastes soo good and is semi-healthy with all that fruit everywhere. Just forget the fact that the fruit is sitting on top of a sugar cookie and cream cheese mixed with sugar and cool whip :)

I've posted the recipe at Sweet Anne's.

My Favorite Armenian

One of the highlights of our New England road trip (besides locking my keys in the car) was seeing my very favorite Armenian friend Steve. Steve started working at the FDIC a year after me and our cubes were next to each other. We quickly became friends because I needed advice about guys and he needed me to write thank you notes for him. For three years he was my favorite FDIC buddy. He created the “Anne’s To Eat List” because there were so many foods I had never tried before (like the cheeseburger) and I bugged him about not loving Jesus enough and told him that God didn’t give a hoot that the Armenians were the first Christian church (according to Steve). We had so much fun, and being his friend left a special place in my heart for Armenians.

A couple of years ago he decided to ditch us and go back to Boston for grad school. So for a brief while I was living a life sans Armenians. But as the reverend mother always says “when God takes away one Armenian, He’ll bring along another.” And He did. Last summer Julie started working at the FDIC and as soon as I met her and saw the dark hair and found out she was from Boston her last name ended in “ian” I knew we would hit it off right away. And we did! She wasn’t scared off when I said “I love Armenians!!” and jumped up and down a few times. Then Jbeed (an Armenian) started coming to our church and I think I did freak her out just a bit when I began my “Why I love Armenains” speech. And then one night at dinner last fall, we were talking about our family history and Travis blurts out that he is one quarter Armenian. I took one look at him with this new information and thought "Of course!" I could totally see 1/4 Amenian features in Travis. Don't you all see it??

I decided right then and there that we were getting married. I've never expected to meet a 28 year old single 100% Armenian who is was 100% into Jesus. And here was Travis who had the 100% Jesus and 100% single criteria covered and was coming in strong with 25% Armenian. Pretty good ratios if you ask me. (BTW - for all you readers who think you've been let in on a big secret that I was running around last year with a major crush on Travis this is not the case. I just decided we'd be getting married.)

Now I'm back to a point in my life where the Armenian friends are few and far between. Travis has gone off to law school, Steve lives in Boston, I rarely see Jbeed, and next Friday is Julie's last day at work. She is moving back to Boston too! I may have to work my match making magic with her and Steve :) So here's hoping God brings along another Armenian (maybe the 100% into Jesus single guy one??) We'll wait and see!!

You fill up my senses

Travis sang my song at the Beth Moore conference today! Hello!?!? Is God awesome or what?? Seriously, God comes through in amazing ways. Just hearing that song was like "yep, there you are God. Right here with me." I have been on vacation for the better part of the last month, so I haven't been to my church, and haven't been to small group and other than the occasional prayers here and there, I haven't really been spending time with God. When I got back from the road trip on Wednesday, I wanted to pick up the study I've been doing but I just couldn't do it. So I told God he would have to do something big in my heart because I couldn't seem to jump back into spending time with him.

Then we get to 4:30 pm at work on Thursday. It was my first day back and I had been running around all day to meetings and answering phone calls from all my favorite bankers and just havin a grand ole time. Finally, by a little after 4 things had settled down enough for me to actually sit for a minute at my desk. So in come some of the co-workers to hear about my trip. Then we got to talking about our weekend plans and Kristin mentioned that she was going to this speaker thing tomorrow - someone named Beth Moore and had I ever heard of her?

Can't say as I have.

Umm, Hello!?!?!!!

Little did poor Kristin know that she had just called out the name of one of the few things that will bring out the performer/crazy person in me. After jumping out of my chair and flailing my hands around in classic Beth Moore fashion, and repeating the phrase "Oh my goodness, I love Beth Moore" at least seven times, I calmed down for a second. Then I pulled Get Out of That Pit right out of my purse (it's my current read on the bus book), and proceeded to tell my very dazed and confused co-workers about the 3 ways we might end up in the pit: being thrown in, slipping in, and Kris Kross'll make ya "jump, jump" in. But God is there to deliver us and then we will be singing a new song and Psalm 40 "I waited patiently for the Lord, he inclined and heard my cry, he brought me up out of the pit..." U2 anyone?? Are you people following me? All I got were blank stares from Kristin, Ed, Julie and Ken. I actually sang the U2 version for them.

So then I took them to the blog and showed them a picture of Beth and talked about Texas and how all my favorite Christian artists seem to be from there and oh I can get side tracked when I'm excited. So I got back on topic and began quoting my favorite Beth poim about the Subway in NY and oh, just so you know, Beth is flat crazy but you will love her! and dude, I want to go with you! So it was off to the web-site to get a ticket and can I take another day off of work??? ahh! Of course I can! I've been out so much lately, what is one more Friday out of the office going to do?

And oops - it's after 4:45 and I missed my bus but who cares! Beth Moore!!

By this time I had freaked Kristin out just enough to bring her back around to really excited about going. And now I was going too! Praise the Lord Jesus! Hallelujah!

And so, wow! Here I am, back from the conference and it was amazing! My favorite word of the day was Beth quoting Jeremiah 45:5: "Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them." And then she added: "Seek a great God." This hit me hard because I constantly struggle with seeking after things that I think will be great for me, and will make me happier and comfortable. But if I seek God, all the things he as planned for me will be so much greater than anything I could ever imagine. God is awesome! That's all I have to say.

Well, the car didn't break down...

But I did lock the keys in it! That was definitely a highlight of the trip :) I basically lock my keys in the car every time I'm in a valet/leave your keys in the car garage situation. Since I don't have automatic locks, I'm so used to pushing down the lock as I close the door. And the funny thing is that I'm telling myself in my head "don't lock the door, don't lock the door." Oops. Of course, I did have my other set of keys but they were in my backpack in the trunk.

Anyway, we spent the day on Cape Cod, and took the ferry over to Martha's Vineyard. MV is great! Just being there made me happy. I kept thinking about how fun it would be to come to a place like this sometime in the future with some friends and our families and rent a couple of houses and just hang out and eat at fun restaurants and stroll around the island.

Liz and I decided to take a sightseeing tour around the island which was scheduled to start at 2 and last for 2.5 hours. And it ended right at the dock so we figured we'd hop on the 5 pm ferry and head back to the mainland and then drive to Hyannis for dinner. Well, the 2pm tour did not leave until 2:30 and it lasted 3.5 hours, and left us jumping off the bus in the rain to catch (just barely) the 6pm ferry back. And the tour guide was crazy! But that's another story for another time. And we ran into Josh and Naomi King (Pastor's King's son and DIL) on MV which will drive my sister crazy because I run into people everywhere I go. And she never sees anyone she knows anywhere.

So we made it back to the ferry, which arrived back on Cape Cod around 7. We drove off to Hyannis, and called the restaurant on the way and made an 8:30 reservation. We planned to eat at the Rhodeside Cafe recommended by Rachael Ray in her $40 a day book. I planned to pull into the parking lot and brush my hair and fix myself up a bit since we'd been running around an island all day long and we'd gotten caught in some pretty heavy rain. But when we pulled in the parking lot, the valet boys ran over to the car and start opening the doors for us to hop out. I think I first annoyed them by asking if I could park myself. Of course, they said no, so then I told them I needed to brush my hair so they would have to hold on just a sec. Sorry boys, the hair is important and you may as well learn that lesson now if you are ever married someday. They sort of rolled their eyes, but I just smiled. This is when my brain reminded me not to lock my keys in the car. But 10 seconds later I just threw my brush into the back seat and hopped out and shut the door, then followed that up with an "oh, crap" when I realized Liz had just shut (and locked) her door as well.

Hehe. I thought it was pretty funny, because it's such a me thing. The valet boys were not that amused. The car was sitting almost in the middle of the parking lot, but not in such a way that they couldn't get other cars out around it. So in a small way I did them a favor. But we called AAA and the guy came within 30 minutes. He shimmied this string thing through my door and popped the lock. Then I told him I loved him which I think freaked him out just a bit so he was like "sorry lady, I'm married." But I was just happy that he'd saved the day! And the valet boys were happy to have us out of their way!

By 9pm we were in the restaurant and had a wonderful meal. And when we came out, we didn't have to remind valet boy which car belonged to us. Thankfully, the slightly nicer (and cuter) valet boy was the one that pulled our car around and we gave him a nice fat tip. Hopefully he will remember this night fondly like I will.