Hey-Hey! Happy V-Day 2012!

you'd think that with that super perky title that i'm in such a great mood due to my hot man i have by my side.

but oh contrare...

i don't have a hot man.

but i'll tell you what i do have. a LOT.

okay so i'm gonna open up here...really briefly...

this past sunday i felt like i really messed up. my emotions were all jacked up thanks to that blessing of womanhood approaching every month...hey i'm thankful that means i can have babies someday...

annnyway, so i just got really upset...overreacted...i reacted out of my past instead of reacting out of my present-God's everlasting unchanging truth...make sense? anyway, i felt so lame yesterday. mad. at myself really.

and it sucked that saturday i felt so liberated and aware of God's truth...so fast-foward to last night...i turned off the telly and decided i wanted to read and be reminded of God's love for me because somehow i lack revelation..so i started reading this chapter from this book titled passion for JEsus...and it talked about how committed and devoted God is to me...how even in my immaturity, He sees me as lovely and delightful and beautiful...

frog. in. throat.

so out of heaven, i was gonna say "out of nowhere.." but i know it's out of heaven...all this love gushed through the walls of my guarded heart...it's like a hoover dam busted...i cried and i cried and i cried.

how could this God of the universe love me? i'm so messed up. i'm overweight. i wear makeup to hide my zits. i'm not a neat and tighty person. i don't cook. i'm selfish.

but yet He loves me. and not because he needs to...but because He chooses to.

God's love makes me cry.

i feel like i got a love bath last night.

God's love is so cleansing.

i pray this love continues to stir me into a more fervent radical lover of God.

that's it.

happy v-day y'all!

How CRAY-CRAY!! Right?!!

and how can i not post about it...

Whitney Houston's been a huge "American Idol" since the 80's when I grew up and I still can't believe she was pronounced dead at 3:55pm yesterday...

I'm sure lots of people hit rewind through their day to remember where they were at and what they were doing at about 3:55pm yesterday...i was at home, eating, watching "addicted to love" because it was all that was good on the telly...

it's like when princess diana died...or when i found out about heath ledger...heath was the only one i cried over...

how could i grieve over people i've never met?? i mean, it doesn't make sense, right?

well, even though i was never a part of their lives, i let them into my life...growing up into adulthood...their songs/careers created the soundtracks to so many moments of my life...

like right now, i can tell you that whitney houston's "i wanna dance with somebody" is a song that reminds me of my best roommate ever, brandy wahlman. she created this mix that we'd listen to almost every time we were in her car which included that whitney houston song along with eye of the tiger.. great memories...

what tears me up about this is that the enemy goes around like a fangless lion still devouring lives...when i heard of whitney's death, the thought "another one bites the dust..." came to mind...did she give her life to Jesus at the last minute like we all hope....i don't know. you don't know. ok. so none of us know. God does.

and as sad as all this news is, makes me think, ok. God wants our focus to be on Him. the stuff that concerns Him needs to concern us. people die every day. rockstars and non-rockstars...

we all need Jesus. i'm not trying to make this some super Christian blog but JEsus is JEsus. I'm not gonna abbreviate His name to make Him sound cool or more appealing or less offensive.

point blank, eternity is the focus here. death sucks. but i appreciate the reminder that it is.

am i living for what matters most? am i keeping the main thing, the main thing?

Jesus. His grace. His forgiveness. His life. His Spirit. His power. His is ours. He's what we're all searching for, longing for...it's Him.

hello 2012...a month late...hahaha

wow. if this blog were my child i'd be reported for neglect to cps by now...

alrighty...let's get straight to it..

started this year off sick...sinus nasal congestion, throatiness and after 3 weeks, i had a week of no sickness and now i'm sick again...

booo!

and the sad part is i don't lose my appetite! haha.. i still eat! i was craving egg drop soup the other day so i ordered away...along with some fwied wice! ;-)

being sick again, i was sent home from work because who wants to hear a man sounding raspy voice on the radio? not meeeeeeee...so i went to a walk-in clinic...finally! used my health insurance cahhh-d, first time! it actually worked! got me some antibiotics!

being home from wednesday to thursday gave me a taste of what a stay-at-home wife/mom gets to see on the telly....and honestly, the only shows i'm diggin' are "the view," "the nate berkus show," and "the ellen show." i loooove ellen!

anyway, no offense but i couldn't handle being a stay-at-home anything...like, today, i was still sick but who wants to stay at home all day? not me!! i got up, got my hair did, makeup on, pink lips, plaid coat and silver toms! i was eager to get back to work..sort of....it's such a drag having to blow my nose every 7 seconds, or having to gag out phlegm...gross, i know...

at least i felt cute. got some work done and came back home. in bed. laptop on my lap and the ellen show's coming up! hahaha...i can't wait for the grammy's this sunday!! woohoo!!

phlegm and grammy's,

your leslie on the radio...well off the radio until i get better!

:-)

YOO HOOO?? Anybody in here??

seems like this blog is hollow. it's partially my fault but it's okay...

a lot has happened since that last march entry below...

freedom from so much hurt. emotional and spiritual clean-sweep. God is so good.

thank You God. guess i should go to bed before the new day takes off without me...

if you're in here, make yourself at home. get what you want. it's okay if you don't say hi.

may God continue to guide you into the destiny He specially designed just for you.

oh. and btw, the new passion cd, "waiting here for you," is a must-download.

Epic-ness!

Life is going so swell that I guess I neglected this blog. Oopsies...Just so you know, my most recent blog addition is a collaberative effort, http://www.epicchronicles.com/
This blog was created by my friend, Stoney Noell. It consists of many expressions and voices, all inspiring people to one thing; to live the Epic lives we have been born to live, in and through Jesus Christ. Each month we'll be diving into topics using our many points of view.

Another blog I have been more bloggy at is http://www.leslieprieto.tumbr.com/. This is my personal blog about life as a girl learning how to work at a radio station with a missional focus for New England. It's very similar to this blog but it's more regularly updated. So if it's too many blogs for you to read, you can stay reading this blog, but if you get ansy, feel free to check out my blog on Tumblr and at Epic Chronicles.

So today was awesome! Actually, this whole weekend has been awesome!! God is so faithful. The weather was beautiful and it motivated me to do some spring cleaning. I decided it was time to get the spring bags out.
This is the same picture just on a different setting on my app...isn't it groovy?? LOVE it!

















Plus, I thought if I want friends to come over, I need to have a clean place, and maybe that will help motivate me some more and keep me accountable to maintaining a neat living space open for company whenever. This is how messy it was..



I had a long Saturday but it was well worth it. I'll take pictures of my clean place later...


This weekend went so well because I love what God is doing. At church we're learning about net-worth and how we can be better stewards of what God has entrusted us with. I want to be able to give freely the way God does. It's gonna be a process but I know I was made for this. We all were. "To whom much is given, much is required.." and alrighty then! Something else that made this weekend super awesome was that I was carrying some stuff on my heart. Stuff that was sort of like unecessary drama. I was upset about somethings and part of it was me just misunderstanding some things and the other part was me just being a selfish beast. I have a lot to learn. But I'm thankful I get to live it out. I prayed for God to bring resolution and boom! He did it again! I love Him. HE says for us to walk in the light in 1 John 1:7 so that we can have fellowship with Him and others and it totally makes sense. I hate confrontation but I'm beginning to love it. It's for our own good and the good of others that we are to call each other out in love. I'm so glad. Love is so strong and able to carry all the weight. Nothing to heavy for Love to lift off.


So I feel such a freedom from getting things out of my head and heart onto a silver platter for my friend to see and examine. It's done with and all is well.


Something else that made this weekend so enjoyable was that I got to spend time with my pastor's family. Once a month they invite visitors to have breakfast at their house and even though I'm no longer a visitor, I went this time as moral support to others....Ha! Okay, Okay, free food is a great incentive but something else I enjoy just as much is fellowship. It was good conversation, breakfast, coffee, prayer and laughs. I love that I'm here. I keep thinking how blessed I am. I get to have this community to live life with and coming from Florida where I felt so alone, this is a glimpse of heaven. I feel super priveleged, honored to be here. This is one of the delights of my own heart God is fulfilling. It hasn't been an easy road, but God has proven to be Most FAITHFUL. If you choose to know who God is, your life will never be the same. He's real and loves us and wants the best for us, so why not put our trust and hope in Him? Right? :-)


Okay...so one more thing made this weekend extra delightful...
BUT don't worry, I didn't go crazy...only got a few items...

The End. :-)

Fasting..not so Fun..

Well..It’s not something I’d describe as “Fun.” It’s something like sobering up after a hangover. And you realize what you did the night before..you can’t remember how you ended up where you are…You only drank so you could loosen up a bit and relax, hopefully forget about the stuff that’s been bothering you…so that cosmo was super appealing, and so was the one after that, and the one after that…and boom, “what was bothering me?? …i like pandas! let’s go look for a panda!”

okay, well, i feel like life without God is one big hangover waiting to happen…we try to push God away because we all know He opens up a can of worms. issues. God exposes beyond the surface…

fasting to me has been like waking up with a bad hangover. sobering up. you’d think i was a drunkard from all this talk about hangovers but reality is i’ve never really had a hangover. i’ve just been really observant of others with hangovers. that, and i’ve watched lots of television.

so for the past 13 days i’ve been fasting something. i don’t wanna say because i guess according to the Bible i’m not supposed to let people know i’m fasting…like “oh woe is me…poor me…” but that’s not why i’m blogging. not my motive, so i guess it’s okay to say what i’ve been fasting. i’m a -aholic to a lot of things in life. coffee. shopping. facebook. sweets. television. gossipping. makeup.

but to fast all those would require me to just die. literally. laugh. it’s okay. i just did. um, so what i felt like i’ve been giving sooo much of my life to was facebook and television. so this is what i’ve come to realize thus far. life without facebook and my favorite television shows is lonely. i was using facebook and television as outlets. to vent. to blow some steam. yeah, i knew God was somewhere but just not in my apartment. i found myself crying this week. life is lonely. who do i talk to? who do i ask for prayer? who do i talk to about the stuff that got on my nerves today? God? really? REALLY?

so I did. I gossipped to God. btw, am I spelling that correctly? gosssssippppping.. yep, except when you gossip to God it’s totally sin-free. i love sin-free like i love fat-free pringles. mmmm…gimme more. so I’ve been gossipping to God. it’s been neat. He actually does something about it. or lets me cool off and softens my heart and then delivers me instruction on what to do about it. i love a God i can gossip to. He’s safe. He’s right. always available.

oh and btw, i fell off the wagon a couple of times (fb) but i didn’t quit. i’m not a quitter. i’m an overcomerrrr! muahahaha!

Stuffed and ready for more!

(this blog's gonna be kinda random but i promise it won't be depressing)it's now been a week since i arrived home to texas for the holidays and i'm already dreading the saying goodbye part. i've had such a great time with my family and i wish my days were always full of family time.

been stuffing my face like crazy and i feel like there've been lots of God-moments since the week i left. by "God-moments" i mean i've had some rich conversations with strangers and with family.

just finished eating some of my dad's famous fajitas and my mom's amazing beans with rice, then my sister's amazing cake and coffee...it's safe to say i am stuffed! i didn't even want to move earlier because i was so full...pushed myself off the bed to do something other than nap. Sunday naps are the best but can be dangerous right after such stuffage of the face. i've had like no self-discipline in my eating during this vacay...i eat and eat and eat...it's soooo good..the food..

alright, lets get down to business...taking a look back at this year, i think God's always so merciful to me. i could very well be His favorite.. don't hate...i'm sure HE somehow loves you the same...haa

i want to apologize for the plethora of depressing blog entries i've produced since the beginning...things are changing and i've learned...i'm ready for more to learn but with a new perspective..there's a slight fear attached to me saying all that...like "oh man, what if some bad stuff has to happen for more learning? who likes having bad stuff to deal with?? not me.."

next year i want to get to the root of the things that hinder me from walking closer to God. i want to ask those hard questions without fear of what the answers are. i want my mission in life to be, making Jesus famous with all i got.

it's His will, right?

k...nap time!