On a Wednesday night....

As a Mac Lover....it may seem odd to have Bill Gates on my blog. While I may prefer not to use his computers...I agree with his opinions.

Besides that- Wicked long EMT shift today. Most interesting call was a guy with shrapnel in his eye. I'm too tired to write tonight.

So without further ado......
Life Rules by Bill Gates
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time..

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Thoughts on a Monday...

Well, another week begun. I must say I’m rather excited. Not because anything with work or school has changed, just because I’ve made some decisions…finally. I still have quite a few things still to work through but I am comforted by the fact that I know God hasn’t given up on me yet. I know He is good and He is faithful and nothing, not circumstances or the failures, successes or opinions of men can in anyway, impact his love or plans for me. I trust that knowledge far more than I trust anything else. Because His faithfulness and his blessing in my life isn’t dependant upon me! (Thank God!) It’s totally dependant upon His character and His faithfulness to follow thru on promises he has made. The Lord’s word is a silver refined in fire seven times…meaning, it never, ever fails.

I have decided to follow Jesus, as the hymn goes, no turning back.

There are loads of things I don’t get. But I’m okay with only seeing part of the picture. I don’t know where or when or how any of my heart’s desires for things like marriage, family and ministry will come about but I know that when I seek and pursue Christ above material and worldy things (or even just doing what I know is right rather than what I ‘feel’ is right…) He will satisfy my desires with good things. And that makes me excited.

End of A Long Week...

Well, it's the end of a very long week. And I'd much rather be here ---->
I did get a fair amount done at work today, even with all the interruptions, which was nice.
I am read for the weekend though! I really need to get my life in order....I'm tired of not existing outside of work. I'd like to develop a social life here and maybe even put down some roots. To that end I had planned on attending a knitting/sewing session from 9pm-11pm at The Living Room. But Nighttime really isn't my thing so I doubt I actually make it. Which is sad. If it were at any other time, I'd go and really enjoy the outlet.

Instead I'm heading to the gym and then home where I'll probably have cereal for dinner, shower and crash with a book.
I have to work Saturday and Sunday is a birthday dinner for my grandmother so family will take the bulk of Sunday.
I am looking forward to the gym, it'll be good to work out my frustrations :-)

Sometimes....

there are days. like today that totally suck. These days usually occur because of things far beyond my realm of control. Like today. It really sucked to see someone I cared about make such horrible mistakes born out of fear, stubbornness, immature and complete arrogance. Honestly, I love this person very much...but they can really be a complete nightmare. Do they honestly not realize what they're doing or the cost that will come with their attitude?

On these days my typical response, once it's all over and I've called it a day, I hit the gym as usual, followed by a decent meal (not always usual...it depends on who's cooking...lol!) and a really hot shower. I love showers. They are awesome. Having lived for several years without them (not that I didn't bathe .... I just didn't have access to a real, proper shower) I will never, ever neglect to be thankful for such bliss. It never fails to make me feel happy.

So, I'm crawling into bed for a good read and hopefully tomorrow will put us all on the road to healing the wounds from today.

*sigh* it's shame that people are so stupid. They give the rest of us a bad name.

Because Money Does Not Grow on Trees....

And we all wish it did: I'm going to share with you what I use to save and track my money.

Over the years I have used a lot of different products and even created my own systems. I have often needed some rather complex solutions that could cope with multiple currencies and exchange rates. At times my spread sheets were pretty hard to read. And then, I fell in love with two solutions that have helped me...no matter where in the world I may be.

For saving I use a program called SmartyPig. It's simple, which is important when I'm using unreliable internet connections overseas. It's also automatic, which is great. It takes some of the 'labor' out of transferring money from my checking accounts to savings. I find this feature invaluable. It helps me to keep on track and reduces my use of sticky notes. What I really like about SmartyPig is the 3.25% AYP. This is the highest AYP I've been able to find for savings programs that are not directly linked to investing. Unlike Money Markets or CDs, I'm not investing in the Stock Market or tied to a contract. If at any point and time I really need the money I've been socking away, I can end the goal and have the money transferred right back to my checking account...and take with me the interest I may have earned thus far. Or I can opt to have the money loaded onto a debt card and mailed to me. Another unique feature is SmartyPig's partnership with many brand name retailers. If you choose to spend your saved money with them with gives you certain perks and in some cases, extra money. And extra money is always a good thing!

For traking my expenses I use Mint.com A lovely little tool that takes takes a lot of time out of tracking expenses. Unlike some similar programs, Mint is totally free. You log in your bank details and it will automatically track, graph and report to you how much you spend and where you spend it. You can set up budgets, track investments...the tools keep growing. The only detractor is that you can't enter expenses paid for with cash. Which, for me is fine for the most part. I normally use my debit card or checks anyway. I carry small amounts of cash, but I keep track of where those go in my check register.
Anyway if you're looking for away to avoid keeping track of every single reciept - Mint is a great tool. I've really loved the budget feature and the emails Mint sends out if I go over my set limit for a particular catagory (books are my downfall!). I also really like the carts that show a breakdown of where my money goes. I can compare my expenses month to month and also to the national average.

So there you go! Andrea's finances in two paragraphs. Having lived by faith for many years, I still find those principles of trusting God to provide for and meet my needs relevant...even now that I get a regular paycheck. He's just as capable as providing for me now as in years previous when I was on the mission field. But the theology of all that is for another post.

Now if only there was a way to effortlessly generate more income...wouldn't that be great! :-)

TAXing Day

<--This is what my desk looks like....I’ve spent the last 10 hours compiling, editing, recalculating, printing…reprinting and filing tax forms for the business. If I have to figure out how to get one more ‘x’ into a pre-printed form..I am going to cry…and then demand a raise.

Thank God my taxes are fairly simple and straight forward!

While I’m off to go to yoga and hopefully relax my incredibly stiff neck and spend the rest of the night not staring at a computer screen…I thought I’d leave you with some links.

Surprisingly there’s some good stuff floating around the web today ☺

If you’re married, or even if you’re not, LifeChurch.tv has a great series going on called The Vow, it’s all about drawing closer to God and closer to each other.
You can find more about it here www.internet.lifechurch.tv

Christian Personal Finance, a blog on finance and wealth management from a Christian perspective has as list of The Top 20 Christian Financial Websites I think you’ll find helpful.

And last but certainly not least is today’s post, Getting Single People Married as Fast as Possible, on the blog Stuff Christian’s Like. It cracked me up this morning, Jon Acuff, owner and writer for this blog consistantly turns out great stuff so poke around and have a laugh ☺

Uncertain Pathways

Sometimes life seems to get really complicated. It reminds me of when I took this photo. We hiked all day long in the fog and there were times when there was no path at all, it felt like we were just going around and around and higher and higher with no real point to any of it. Until we hit this clearing. It was the most amazing view. The fog had lifted and I could see a little better. Suddenly my attitude toward my guide changed…he actually did have plan!

That’s kind of how I feel my life has been recently. It’s hard to get perspective and see the ‘big picture’ that is our Journey. But every once in awhile we have moments of clariety where we can look back and see where we’ve come from and look forward to where we are headed and know that our present position…regardless of how difficult, is worthwhile.

Sometimes we have to wait longer than others…but clearings do come.
When I took this picture my initial thought was “crap! Look at how far we still have to go!” As I was reminded today though, the journey, the process is just as important as the momentary times of clarity and understanding that come.

I still don’t know where I’m going, or what’s coming in a month from now let alone years from now. When I get bored of the process I’m in right now (school and work) this picture reminds me that my Guide does have a plan. He knows where I’m going and eventually I will too. Until then, in the midst of this seemingly endless fog and the apparently pointless circles, I choose to trust.

My Stress

It's Thursday. It feels like it should be Friday...of next week. That's how long this week has been. Thank God, it's nearly over!!

The main source of difficulty has been serious employee issues with a supervisor. It's put a ton of stress and strain on all the other owners as well. We really wanted this guy to succeed but he's intent on self-destructing. It's sad because we've poured a lot of time, effort and money into training him. And now he's basically just throwing it all back in our face.

So the issues, problems and various methods of approaching the situation have been discussed multiple times in various mental states and attitudes.

Then we've got a heap of work going on, my to do list is ever expanding and I know everyone else is having the same problem. Spring is coming and we still aren't ready. I'm not sure where this supposed 'off season' went to but I wish it would come back and give us a few more weeks!

For now I'm going to shut down for the day, hit the gym, watch a movie and hope for better perspective tomorrow, it will be Friday after all!