Partners

"tied together by stuff too difficult to explain to someone new"

-Storypeople

Bigger Than

While training for my upcoming half-marathon, I have a lot of time to think. Most of that time is dominated with this thought: My love for doing the race is bigger than my hatred of training for it. I must keep thinking that, or I would just quit. Especially with the way my knees are feeling lately.

This got me to thinking of other "bigger than"s......such as:

My butt is bigger than it was a few years ago

My dad is bigger than your dad (most likely this is true)

God is bigger than people and circumstances and feelings.....and this one is what I try to dwell on as I log my miles.

Julie and Julia

I love seeing movies, but it seems like I haven't been to a movie in a long time. I used to be better about going to movies with a friend from work, but I think I've just been a bit busy lately and it hasn't happened. So, needless to say, I was SUPER excited to have movies to watch on the way to Lithuania (yes, this is a very old and overdue post....) and back (of the 25 movies offered, I had only seen one, so there were plenty to choose from). We also watched a few movies at the Hanson's while we dealt with our jet lag. Here is a list of what we watched (in order of my favorite to least favorite - though I actually enjoyed them all): Marley and Me, Up, Time Traveler's Wife, Lars and the Real Girl, The Proposal, and Public Enemies.

We did watch one other movie, and it was my favorite, so I'm going to write a little more about it.......

Julie and Julia!

I was trying to think of the last time that I wanted to (and did) buy a movie after I saw it...I think it was Hitch....or whatever it was, it's been a long time since I've LOVED a movie and wanted to buy it. But I LOVED THIS MOVIE! I laughed so many times (I really wish that I hadn't been on a plane, because there were times I was really containing my laughter).

I really loved the characters and how cooking was such a way for them to escape, to express themselves, to bond, to be creative, to be focused, to energize them.....

Here were some of the lines from the movie that I related to or liked the most (if you haven't seen the movie, these might not make sense, but if you have, they will probably make you smile):

On the comforts of cooking:

"Do you know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure, and when I say nothing I mean nothing, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk it will get thick. It is such a comfort."

Maybe this is my issue.....:

Julie's Husband: "You have ADD?"

Julie: "Yes. That's why I'm so bad at housework."

Two sisters talking about getting married. And being tall...:

Sister 1: "You know Daddy would have liked nothing more than for us to stay in Pasadena and marry Republicans."

Sister 2: "Why didn't we?"

Sister 1: "Too tall. Let's face it, it's true. From the beginning you just don't fit in. Literally. And then you don't."

Sister 2 trying to set up Sister 1 with a man:

Sister 1: "What's he like?"

Sister 2: "Tall. Extremely tall."

Sister 1: "Well, I'm extremely tall."

Sister 2: "He's taller."

I love this over-the-top reaction, and the reaction to the over-the-top reaction:

Julie [on the effect cooking from Julia Child's cookbook had on her]: "I was drowning and she pulled me out of the ocean."

Julie's Husband: "Don't get carried away..."

If you know my history with butter, you'll understand why I love this quote:

[describing hollandaise sauce]: "...which is melted butter which has been whipped into a frenzy with egg yolks until it's died and gone to heaven. And let me say this: Is there anything better than butter? Think it over: Anytime you ever taste anything that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'What is in this?' the answer is always going to be butter. The day there's a meteorite heading toward the earth and we have 30 days to live, I'm going to spend it eating butter. Here's my final word on the subject: you can never have too much butter."

Possibly Appropriate Quote

Serious lack of blogging in April. Mostly due to the incredible funky attitude I've been dealing with for a few weeks. Things not up for discussion in bloggy-world, and I'll probably just shrug my shoulders at you in the real world if you ask, so don't bother. I do have a plethora of drafts in Blogger to clean out, so I'll work on that today. As I started the clean-up process, I ran across this quote I read over my sister's shoulder on our flight to Lithuania. It's a possibly appropriate quote for my funk.

"Most of us are not capable of being our own spiritual directors. We don't have the perspective needed to choose the things that will really change us. Deep down we may not even want change. I like to say everyone wants to be transformed but nobody really wants to change." Fredrica Mathews-Green

What Do I Want?

Every now and then someone asks me what I am looking for in a guy. I never know how to answer that question, and it makes me feel dumb that I can't. I think it's good to have an idea of what you are looking for, but I also think it's dangerous to get stuck in a list mentality where you might exclude a possible match because he doesn't fit exactly into your requirement #5. So, I do have an idea, and going on good and bad dates has helped shape that idea, but I'm still a little clueless as to how to answer the question "What do you want in a guy?". I was watching 30 Rock the other night and Liz Lemon answered the question of what she wants with some specifics:

"I'll tell you what I want. I want someone who will be monogamous and nice to his mother. I want someone who likes musicals but knows to just shut his mouth when I'm watching Lost. I want someone who thinks being really into cars is lame and strip clubs are gross. I want someone who will actually empty the dishwasher instead of just taking out forks as needed, like I do. I want someone with clean hands and feet and beefy forearms like a Disney prince. And I want him to genuinely like me, even when I'm old. And that's what I want."

I'll probably never answer that question with a list of specifics like this, but it made me smile. Especially the part about taking forks out of the dishwasher as needed. Just sayin'.

It's Not Too Late!

My best friend from high school loves fast food almost as much as me. The only fast food chains in our small town were Dairy Queen and Hardee's, so we used to drive almost 30 miles one way just to grab a burger at Burger King or cheesy bread at Pizza Hut. I loved those times....sometimes I think I love fast food due to my nostalgia more than anything else.

Regardless, because of her fast-food-love and current state of being pregnant, I wasn't surprised when she told me last night that she enjoyed a six-piece chicken strip basket and a blizzard from DQ for dinner. What did surprise me was when she said her husband got his blizzard for 25 cents!!! Apparently DQ is running a promotion for the 25th birthday of the Blizzard where you buy one Blizzard and get the second for 25 cents. AMAZING. The deal is good, with no coupon, from April 19-25. The bad news is that I've already missed a few days of the deal, but the good news is that it's not too late. We still have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to enjoy the treat!

The whole fam is headed to my sister's for the weekend, and I may or may not have called her to make sure her small town has a DQ. It does, so we'll definitely be headed there on Saturday!

In other DQ news, I enjoyed the best ice cream cake on Monday for little sister's bday. I don't really like cake (not a big fan of the grainy/sugary frostings, but I can handle the more whipped-creamy versions) so I usually am thrilled to have ice cream cake as a substitute.....and even more so when it's the new Cookie Dough Blizzard Ice Cream Cake! DELICIOUS!!!!

National Poetry Month

If you like poetry, you might want to stop by my sister's blog. She celebrates National Poetry Month (April) by posting a poem each day. My greater appreciation of poetry came during my College Prep class in high school where our teacher started class each day by reading a poem. I still have those poems somewhere and someday I'll also post a poem each day of National Poetry Month. But for now, I'll just enjoy the ones my sister posts.

Some of the poems she's posted have been especially touching as we went through the loss of our Grandma last week. She posted a poem that made me think about how much my Grandparents loved each other and all the things they have walked through together, and another poem that made me think of how much I love my Grandparents and the things we did together, like spending time in Yuma with the grapefruit trees. She posted a poem that made me realize how much I love the familiar drives that take me to places like home, and another poem that made me think about the specific reasons why I love that home - even though, but mostly especially because, it's a small town.

So, Happy National Poetry Month everyone!

Not Long Enough

I was at my childhood home for four days. We sorted through pictures and memories. There was crying and laughing. We caught up with relatives and played games. We ate a lot of comfort food. We greeted guests and long-lost friends. We celebrated Grandma's life and grieved our loss. It was a full four days.

But today I’m still crying. I’m still laughing. I’m still thinking of more favorite memories. I’m still in search of comfort food. I want to lie in bed and watch TV with my sisters. I want to sit around the table and cry and laugh with my aunts. If you ask me how long I was home, I’ll probably say “Not long enough”.

My Grandparents were married for 67 years. They raised six children, had 13 foreign exchange students (some of whom for all intents and purposes became a part of the family), pastored churches, visited missionary friends around the world, and much more. Each new person who came to the house to pay their respects brought fresh tears for Grandpa. Each story, each song, each Bible verse….fresh tears. Watching a Twins game was a welcome distraction, I’m sure, but the matching recliner next to him was still empty. We left one by one, and Grandpa cried each time.

Clearly he loved his wife, but we’ve always known that. It’s how he lived. Clearly he misses his wife. She’s in a better place and she isn’t sick anymore, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss her. There was a birthday party planned for her birthday just a few weeks away, graduations to celebrate this spring, a wedding to attend this summer, more great-grandkids to be had somewhere in the future. You can tell by the tears that if you asked Grandpa how long they were married he just might say “Not long enough”.

Sad But Sweet

Grandma Lois passed away on Thursday. She hadn't been extremely healthy as of late, but it still went quite a bit faster than we anticipated, especially on that day. Mom called around 4PM on Thursday to say it looked like the end, so I started to pack a bag to head home for the weekend to say goodbye and probably attend her funeral. Mom called shortly after 5PM to say that Grandma was gone. We waited for my aunt to fly in and we got home after 2AM that night.

I sent an email to my roommate today and she responded with the phrase "sad but sweet days". Anyone who has been through the loss of a loved one knows that this phrase is appropriate. The stream of people and food has been constant, the tears have been steady, and the laughs are intermittent but hearty. The days are sad but sweet.

We'll celebrate Grandma's life with a service on Monday. The timing seems perfect, coming on the heels of celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, and remembering all that He did to make it possible for Grandma (and all of us) to live forever with Him in Heaven.

Lists

"When I was younger I used to keep all the stuff I had in my pockets. There were a lot of rocks & little shiny things. As I got older it got to be too much to carry & I couldn't remember why I kept it anyway so I finally got rid of it. Now, I make lists"

-StoryPeople