Author: simpleblessingsllcmn

GUYS! I just finished my weekend with my first official guests!
It went pretty good 🙂 They loved the food, they loved the treats and they were super nice.

It was a really good weekend with some very nice people. They loved the bed and breakfast and they were the first to sign the guestbook 🙂

It is all very exciting 🙂

On not so exciting news someone got a hold of my credit card number. So sad. All is well though and is taken care of 🙂

My mom loaned me the movie God’s Not Dead 3. I watched it the other night and do suggest it. It had the message of forgiveness is key especially when all seems to be falling apart. Forgiveness to all no matter what. We all sin, we all make mistakes but to forgive is what Jesus would do and what he wants us to do. I enjoyed the movie, not as much as the first two but I did really love it. I don’t know if I could say that. Each movie is very similar but yet so different. This movie just didn’t make me as excited. It was a tear jerker just like the other two so they did something right 🙂
The character “Josh” was back and that made me very happy to see where he went after the first movie.
If you have not seen any of these movies or you have not seen the last installment in the series I do highly suggest you do. Whether you are Christian or not. They speak a powerful message to all. It shows how one sided people can be and how people turn to God for guidance and help. How they show the love of Jesus to all when things are bad in life.
They do hurt the heart a little when you think how often these types of situations happen but it opens your eyes to the other side and what is in their minds.

Time to sign off and clean and maybe take a nap later today 🙂

Happy Sunday and God Bless you all! 

I always thought when I grew up and moved out of my parent’s house I would have more of social life. I would go more places and be with more people…it has actually turned into the opposite some days. I go a while without talking or seeing anyone. It is really weird and not what I thought it would be. I am positive this will change after time and before I know it I will be having more conversations and time spent with people.

Today I had a one dollar ribbon cutting. Basically, the board of the chamber of commerce comes to the house for a tour and I offered snacks (thanks for the idea mama) and we cut a ribbon in front of the house. It was very neat and fun to meet them.

Today is so beautiful outside that I am sitting on the porch writing this. The sun is warm the leaves are falling! It is just so gorgeous!

I have spent the last few hours trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the blueberry bushes. You may remember last fall my family bought some from my previous employer. The idea was to transport them to the bed and breakfast once it was up and going. The delay with the was there was no room or a sunny enough place for them. However, I had to get a tree taken down because of storm damage. This opened up my front yard and we gained a lot of sunshine as well.

Have you ever seen the movie “Uncle Nino.” If you have not it is a movie (that always makes me cry) about a man from Italy that comes to the US to spend time with his family. He has never been before and has not talked to his nephew or the family in years. Anyways, he gains the trust and love from his nephew’s children and while his nephew is out of town on business he and the kids turn the front yard into a garden. The entire front yard is torn up with vegetables planted and mulch paths throughout. That was my favorite part of the movie and something I have wanted to do for years. Living in the country with a vegetable garden didn’t give me a chance to change the whole front yard into a garden. Plus the fact that my parents front yard was huge it was not a smart idea. I said to myself years ago, if I have a front yard that I can turn into a vegetable garden I will. The previous owner of this house did amazing landscaping work. I have always had trouble doing something different after someone has done something. I don’t like messing with others work. One reason I am fond of the idea to change the yard is, I have no idea what most of the plants in my front yard are. I don’t know how to care for them or if they need any special treatment. I don’t know flowers as well as I know fruits and veggies. I can eat fruits and veggies, they have my love. I greatly enjoy seeing flowers but I have no idea how to care for them.

I am not saying this is something I am going to do. Please do not bombard me with “No! Don’t dig up your flowers” “I will teach you about the flowers” “Don’t touch the yard it looks great” or my favorite “Why to change something that is not broken?”

I am not going to do anything right now, I am not going to change things immediately. It is all part of my thought process. I am thinking about fulfilling another dream. The reality is that I probably will not do this. The dream is I want to make my front yard a giant vegetable and fruit garden with mulch paths weaving through it.

One thing I noticed very quickly about Lake City is that they honor their veterans and all who serve. I was in town around the fourth of July they lined the lake edge with American flags. They have a statue down near the lake about a local hero and they have a memorial for veterans who have and are serving.

Now it is September 11. Being in a town that honors those who mean so much and have done so much for this country is a great reminder for us to also be honorable and thankful for all who serve. Not just those in the military branches but also those who serve the counties. Those who serve the community by sharing God’s love and word. Those who serve the community by keeping the children safe, and those who teach them the way of right and wrong and how to live.  Those who serve to fight fires, those who serve to catch those who cause trouble and those who serve to save others medically. Those who serve every day doing the things we never think about need doing, the garbage collection, the wifi connections, the electricity line repairs, the telephone line repairs, the gas line checks, the safety inspections (even if they do annoy us with all the rules 😉 ) and many more who make this country able to run the way it does.

September 11 is the day we all remember those who served their community and country. Those who risked their lives for others. Those who helped the children who lost their families find love and a safe place. Those who cleaned up the mess. Those who have been risking their lives since to keep our country from facing something that tragic again. Those who have been spending days and nights behind desks and screens, those who have been spending days and nights in distant countries away from their families and friends.

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For those who serve and help and work days and nights. For those who are away from their families and friends in different countries, states and counties. I am praying for you all, I am keeping you on my mind and I am thanking you. All of you are amazing and wonderful and loved. Thank you for all of your work and help and constant watch over all of us who are living our lives in this great country. 

To you who give me freedom and hope and someone to
thank and love, this day is about you.
Thank you.

Yesterday I got a call. I got a call asking if I had any rooms available for last night. I said no because we aren’t officially open yet.

I GOT A CALL ABOUT OPENINGS!

I really don’t have any thing other to say. That just made me very happy and excited. We are getting there setting everything up and getting the state on board. Well…the state is not being so cooperative but that is to be expected.

Another short post for you all. Enjoy 🙂

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For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.      Jeremiah 29:11

I have been here for about 3 weeks. It is starting to hit me harder and harder that I am moving on to a new chapter in my life. I am in the process of switching my membership over from my home church to the church here in Lake City. It was all fine and dandy till I got a reply from the secretary from my home church saying she was sorry to see me go but praying for me in my future. She is such a sweet person but it hit me when I read it. I am moving on.

It is little notes like that that hit me. It can be 8 in the morning or 10 at night. It is the little stuff that throws me off. The first time it hit me it was the second day of moving and I just kept crying. I couldn’t help it. The night before and that morning were really hard for me. The day my parents and my aunt and cousin left me alone for the first time, that was really hard where I couldn’t stop crying. Not I just get this super sad feeling in my stomach but I don’t cry. Ok, so I try not to cry 🙂

On happier notes….ok maybe not. I made a treat today. Pictures for the business are this weekend and I wanted to make something to have placed in the pictures. Well, my friend suggested a brownie and cookie swirl bar. I tried….no. It turned out more of a cake and the corners are completely black. I mean like chrome black. They could not be more black, they are as smooth as ever and shiny. It is quite weird yet at the same time amazes me. It is so unique and interesting but it saddens me. Burnt yummies are not ok. So I do have those but I am going to make something else as well. I just haven’t decided what. Hopefully, the next treat will turn out a little better 🙂

I have officially stayed in my new house for an entire week! Yikes. It is crazy to think what God has done in my life to get me here. I was thinking the other day about middle school and high school and college. I was thinking about since 4th-grade I had my mind set on being a teacher. I wanted to be just like Mrs. B (my 4th-grade teacher) and all those teachers who taught me and showed me how to live with Christ in my heart. In high school, I still planned on going to MLC to become a teacher. I was going to go to school and be just like my cousin and aunt and grandma and the teachers who taught me, a teacher that helped a child grow in Christ and in earthly knowledge.
However, in high school, I was opened up to so many other opportunities and job options. Going to a WELS school it was pushed to go into prep school and MLC. They never forced it on you but they did push it a lot. In high school, I started to have second thoughts. I started to question if teaching was still for me.
I volunteered as a Sunday school teacher since middle school, I volunteered as a vacation bible school teacher throughout high school. I grew a lot with those experiences but each time I questioned, is teaching really for me?
Everyone said I would be a great teacher. They all said that I should follow into the teaching life. That I should teach.
I never did tell anyone that I didn’t know if I wanted to be a teacher till my senior year of high school. Of course before that even when someone asked me what I wanted to go to school for or what I wanted to do when I grew up I automatically said that I wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t even think about it at that point. It became a reflex to say I was going to school to become a teacher.

I went to school to become a teacher. I was at that school for 2 months and I knew that teaching, and that specific school was not what God had in mind for me. When I started to think about what being a teacher for those kids really mind I started to panic. I would panic where I had to actually stop doing whatever I was doing and calm myself down. Whether that was with a movie or tv show to get my mind off of it or going for a walk. Honestly, that depended on the weather and time of day 🙂
When you become a teacher in the WELS synod you are responsible for that child’s soul, well being and mind. All three of those points are super important and critical to a child and an adult as they grow and learn. I covered why I did not want to be a WELS synod teacher for children but I didn’t say why I didn’t want to teach. Because at this point I had a temper and I would get excited and not be able to think clearly or act correctly on the situation at hand. Since an incident, I have calmed down. I have prayed constantly for patience and the ability to calm down. It has worked. I have been learning to keep myself calm. Sometimes, (my family can attest to this) I don’t handle some situations very well still. I am trying, I am learning but I tend to jump or shut down and become a little snippy. It is a working progress but I have learned that to get through life it is better to breathe and walk away with no words said at all (yes this causes anger from the other person) rather than to open my mouth and regret everything that comes out. You may be asking, why don’t you breathe and talk through it? The answer to your question is, if it gets to this point, I can not handle the other person in the right way. I may end up hurting them or myself with what comes out of my mouth. For instance, say I get into a disagreement if it gets heating enough where I am on the verge of screaming at the person is it not better for me to breath, turn around and walk away rather than facing them and trying to win the argument possibly making the situation more heated and excited?
I did not continue on schooling to become a teacher because I do not want to be the teacher that causes fright in her students. I do not want to be the teacher that yells all the time. I do not want to be the teacher that gets into arguments with their students about who knows what on a regular basis or when they just want to pick a fight.
Commenting to me about this will not help anything. This is something that I am working through with God. He is helping me stay calm and I am leaning on him when I feel agitated.

I made the official decision around Thanksgiving or Christmas (I don’t remember exactly because there was a lot going on that year around that time). I told my parents and I told my friends that I was not coming back to MLC the next year and I was not going to be a teacher. They all supported me in my decision. Of course, the friends at MLC tried to talk me out of it at first but we were friends, saying goodbye is never easy. We soaked up the rest of the year as much as we could. Spent time and energy together and had a blast!
During the rest of the year, I had to decide what I really wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to go. I knew I did not want to take a year off because getting back into the rhythm of school personally for me would not be easy.
I decided to make a binder. In this binder, I had multiple schools that interested me. Under each school tab were degrees the schools offered that interested me. I narrowed it all down by which school I was the least interested in. Then I did the same with each degree. Eventually, I knew which degree I was going to go for, entrepreneurship. I then decided on the school with the one year program. I figured that was the best way to go because if I changed my mind again I wouldn’t drop out of another degree.

Which leads us to where we stand now…although I am currently sitting.
I decided I wanted to open a bed and breakfast with the 10-year plan of expanding the business by adding a fruit farm. What I mean by that is Simple Blessings LLC will have a bed and breakfast and they will have a fruit farm. It would be like two branches off of one tree. That is the ultimate goal, but who knows what God really has in store for me in the future.
Here as I sit on my couch in the living room of my house and ponder the road that God has led me down.

Thank you to all of you for giving me the suppose and love I really needed these past few years. Thank you for your loving guidance and knowing when I just need to walk away to breathe.

Forever grateful to you all.

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For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”    ~Jerimiah 29:11

What a crazy and hard week. Saying goodbye is the hardest thing for me to do. It always has been. I am sitting watching a movie and eating popcorn with a tie blanket my sweet friend made for me a few years ago and holding my teddy bear tight as I write this. My family, my aunt, and cousin came down today to bring the last three loads of stuff and set things up and finish putting things together. When they were leaving I was a mess. Saying goodbye to what seems like an old life is very hard. It seems bad, but I am going to miss the furry faces most of all.

I closed on the house last week. In that amount of time, we have successfully almost put the entire house together. My private areas are a mess and I am in need of more decorations and bedding but everything is coming together wonderfully! I will put up pictures soon to show off the place.

Life is going to be very different. I am opening a business. I own a house. I live a distance from my family and friends. Looks like it is Teddy and me for now.

Packing was easy, just throw things into a box. Unpacking, however, not so much. You have to find the right place for it. You have to find a good way and a good place to put everything. Not so easy. We are getting there.

I am going to cozy up more and watch this movie with my popcorn. Talk to you all soon 🙂

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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to Prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”    -Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

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Ok, I know I haven’t been on in 2 weeks. So here is an update from the last 2 weeks.

Last week (July 18-22) I headed up my Church’s Vacation Bible School: Craft class. Now, I love making crafts, I loved the crafts we did this year. The one thing I would change would have been to know the numbers of the kids. We had two more classes to go the first day and I had to run to the store to pick up more supplies. I felt so bad that I did not have enough. At the end of the first day I made sure i had enough supplies for the rest of the week.
The other crafts went very smooth and had enough pieces for all of them 🙂 That was very wonderful!
Overall VBS crafts went very well!

Last week Thursday I made an offer on a house. I had been looking at this house for a few weeks and thought about it a lot over our vacation and before hand. Last week I decided to make an offer. We (my parents and I) drove over so that I could make an offer on the house. Thank you to my amazing grandparents and parents for teaching me to save young and working 7 days a week for the last 3 summers I was able to make an offer on the house. The next day I got an email saying the owners accepted my offer. I was in shock. For one thing I did not expect them to accept the offer so quickly, the other thing is I didn’t think I would have to grow up so fast. I thought I was making a step towards growing up.
My plan with this house (as many of you already know) is to start a bed and breakfast. I did market research and and community research by making contacts throughout the community asking around to gain the knowledge if this is the right choice for this community. All of the contacts (those who work at city hall and business owners in the city limits) say it is a good idea to open another place for people to stay in this city. During the summer population doubles. Winter months it doesn’t quite double but there are visitors.
I really love this community for multiple reasons. One, a WELS church is 2 blocks away from the house. Two, the town is very small, for instance, there are no chickens allowed in the town limits. Now the story of this is because there were people who wanted chickens and those who did not want chickens. Obviously the ones who did not want chickens won the case. Apparently it was quite the discussion 🙂
This town also has a “Hallmark” feel to it. What I mean by this is it feels and looks like a town that you would see featured in a Hallmark movie and it really just make me happy.
The last reason I am excited about starting a business in this town is because the entire business community are very good at helping each other. The support each other and they put on different events to help bust each others business. While talking with business owners in the area I became aware of how powerful a small community can really be and how much they can and will help each other.
That was last weeks big news.

This week I have been so busy. I had the house inspection (went very well, thank you). My mom and I are planning a friend graduation party for my brother for this weekend. I bought a car this morning. Tomorrow I get to go relax and have fun with my mom and hopefully my aunt as well 🙂
Yes, you read and re-read that correct. I bought a car this morning. It is a gray 2010 Chevy Equinox.
This spring has been crazy, but I never imagined how crazy, and how fast I would have to grow up. I am so thankful for all of the love, help and support I am getting from my friends and family. Thank you all of you. You truly mean the world to me 🙂

I am very confident in going into business in this town. I am confident I am doing the right thing this summer hitting the ground running.

I plan to open the bed and breakfast doors in September or October (I will have more definite dates when I can get into the house and set everything up).

God’s blessings to all of you, and goodnight 🙂

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P.S.
I thought you all might want to know how frustrated I am. I have on p.j. pants, a sweatshirt and bug spray. The bugs are still biting me. I am very frustrated about all of this at the moment.

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WE WENT TO THE BEACH!!!!!! It honestly made my day 🙂 Car troubles have continued. We don’t know when we will get it back specifically (Pray to the Lord that we get it back by Saturday) 🙂

My dad is so sweet he went out and rented a car for the day. We went down to Corpus Christi and saw the USS Lexington, ate ate Snoopy’s Sea food restaurant, and went to the North Beach on the Padre Island.
The USS Lexington was very interesting to see. We were able to see the dentist, doctors clinic, surgical unit, food galley, and much more. It was very interesting. It makes me very proud of those in the Navy who live like this for months at a time. What service they do for us in America!
Snoopy’s was absolutely delicious! I had fried shrimp fresh from the ocean YUMMMMM!
Then the North Beach. Mom told us to wear or bring our swim suits. I didn’t want to wear mine all day because we would be going other places other than just the beach. I did wear half of my swimsuit (the top half) to work on my tan 🙂 It did work, I did strengthen my tan (yes grandma, I had sunscreen on) 🙂 I had so much fun! I waited into the water a ways and the waves crashed into me. At first I didn’t want to get me shorts wet so I was going in with the intent to not let the water hit me too high up. One wave, one wave is all it took to make me a tad wet and knowing I went a little too far in the water to not get my pants wet. Hahaha It was all fun. After that one wave I gave up and went with it. I got wet past my belly bottom. I ran through the waves, AJ ran past me and splashed me as I was running through the waves splashing up water. Yet he got me wet to my head. What a silly man. It did feel good though to get wet 🙂 It was not too bad in warmth wise at the beach. It felt really good to be in the water but it didn’t feel bad to be out of it. The water was warm enough were you didn’t freeze going in but it was cool enough to feel super refreshing.
It has been a few years sense we were at Virginia Beach and that was the last time we were at a beach with salt water. I missed the Beach but I didn’t know how much I missed it! We hit the beach in the middle of the week and it was so quiet and very empty and peaceful and empty and wonderful!!!!

Ok, we are going to head out for a walk, I will stop going on and on about the Beach. Have a great sunny bright day!

We are on vacation! We went from Wisconsin to Oklahoma in one day. We traveled 6 states in that first day and then 6 hours to the resort in Texas. Oh how fun it was! However, the night of our first day we drove from Oklahoma city to Paul’s Valley to find an hotel that was not booked or wasn’t super sketchy 🙂 It was a very nice hotel with wonderful, comfortable beds.

Today was our first full day in Texas. We went to the Alamo then the river walk, took a tour on the river, then went to El Mercado market. By the end of all of this the heat was starting to get to me and all of us. We piled in the car and drove around trying to find an ice cream stop. We were almost to the road to get to the resort when I spotted Sonic, it had been so long sense I had been to a Sonic. We turned around and went to Sonic to get some ice cream treats (I had a strawberry cheesecake shake, mighty delicious)!

I should mention something, yesterday the cars AC started struggling today it really struggled…

We got our ice cream treats and the car started to smoke and smell funny. I kid you not, we pulled away from the drive through window and the car started to smoke. It was right after it. What timing, thank you Lord almighty for letting us get ice cream before the sadness! So yes, we went to the dealer and dropped off our car. But not before dad turned the heater all the way up to try to cool down the engine. Lets just say we had all of the windows open and wanted to go fast to keep the air moving 🙂 When we got to the dealer we gathered our belongings from the car and were shuttled from the dealer back to the condo at the resort. What sweet people!

Our adventurous day ended with an adventure in and on its own.

Now we are sitting in the condo relaxing, calming down and loving the AC 🙂 About to watch a movie called Miss Congeniality, apparently some of it was filmed here in San Antonio, right on the river off the river walk! It was really cool to see it in person, now we are watching the movie to put it together…we don’t remember seeing it in the movie 🙂

Well, for now I bid thee all good day. I am tired and ready to take a nap. I will post more of our vacation as the excitement piles in 🙂