A little introduction ...  I live in Northeast Mississippi with my hubby of 17 years, Donnie.  We belong to a small, non-denominational church that we love with all our hearts.  We also love to ride our motorcycle, and we often ride with fellow church members. 

We met when we were both working at a hazardous waste facility in a local cement plant.  Yeah, I know, not the most romantic way to start off, but hey, it worked!  Now I work for a software company, and Donnie is Manager of the Fuels Department on the Air Force Base here.

We are both animal lovers.  Last August, we lost our vibrant 8-year-old mutt Spike very suddenly.  Summers in this part of the country are brutal, and even though there was plenty of access to cool water and shade, our vet felt that Spike suffered either heat stroke or a heart attack.  We'd had him since he was abandoned in my mom's back yard as a month-old pup, so we were devastated. 

As for me, I'm a walking contradiction most of the time.  My car is decorated with Hello Kitty stickers and plushies, but I'm a sucker for a good horror movie.  I love girly pinks and purples, but accented with black or kooky jewelry.  My iPod holds everything from Newsboys to The Cure, Johnny Cash to Frank Sinatra, Ozzy Osbourne to Pink.

On the other hand, things are I'm NOT contradictory about are my love and devotion to my family, my desire to learn more about God and His plans for my life, and my off-beat sense of humor that has kept me out of the psych ward more times than I can count!

I have never written a blog in my life (no, really!), but I've kept a diary off and on since I was 14, so I'm used to being transparent and open.  The reason I've started this blog is that I am at a point in my life where I am ready to make some big changes; a few of them are:

-  I recently went through a medical diet program and lost 34 pounds.  I still have a long way to go, but I'm equipped now to maintain the changes that got rid of those first pounds.  I feel like God led me to that program to give me a kick-start to taking better care of the Temple that He gave me.

-  I have a house full of "stuff" that needs to be ruthlessly sorted through and pared down.  When we moved into this house 12 years ago, I swore I wouldn't junk it up.  Well, in 12 years, I've accumulated a bunch of things I don't need or want, and as a result, my house is junked up! 

-  We have been made stewards of two comfortable incomes, but we have NOT lived up to our responsibilities of handling our money and resources well.  We have far too much credit card debt, and we both make too many impulse purchases.  Scripture says in Matthew 25:23 "You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things."  I don't need to be fantastically wealthy, but I want to get us to a point where our finances aren't a problem or a source of worry.

I know these and other changes are going to be a lot of work, and probably the hardest things I've ever done in my life.  But I'm excited about starting; it's like the first leg of a vacation, when you've got the whole trip to look forward to. 

Here is where I'll spill out my successes, my stumbles, my change-of-plans, and all the other stuff that I find on this trip.  So without further ado, I'm about to take that first step in my journey of a thousand miles!  Care to join me?