Real Things

Blessings and Sadness

2012-01-17T20:29:00.003-06:00

I spent most of Sunday crying. (I swear I'll try to post some funny and not-so-weepy things here soon, sorry!) Our church has been growing and growing, which means that small groups need to grow and change, as well. I've been in the same small group for almost five years, so I've been sheltered from most of these changes, though I have been sad to see some friends move into different groups as our group became too large. BUT. Now I am the friend who is moving to a new group.

You see, mostly I haven't been moved because I've DUG MY NAILS into the sides of my small group leader's wife and refused to go anywhere else. She is AMAZING. She is humble and honest (two things I am not very good at) and has been an incredible mentor to me over the last five years. She is SO "steady", whereas I'm an emotional roller coaster. As soon as I knew that I was going to be moved, I was really sad, but also excited to get to know a new group of people. But then Sunday rolled around (our final small group meeting) and I was just sad, sad, sad. I started to realize how much I've taken for granted this wonderful mentor I've had and all that she has walked me through - difficult job situations, grieving over close friends moving away, confusing boy situations, moving to Wisconsin, tense relationships with friends....etc, etc, etc. She has wisdom and sound advice in every area and I will so miss turning to her for things like this (not that I never will, but now I have a new small group leader to turn to).

Another woman who is also moving to a different small group was also crying on Sunday and shared something along these lines: "It's really good that leaving this group is so hard. It means that we have been so blessed while we've been in this group. If it wasn't hard to leave, that would mean that we don't care." That really resonated with me. Not everyone has such great care and prayer from their church family. So even though it is very sad to leave such a wonderful group, it's only because I've been so blessed by it. AND it's not like I will never see these people again at church, it just won't be on such a consistent level.

SO. Even though I'm sad, I know it's because I've been so blessed.

Resolution-Less Year

2012-01-03T18:20:00.007-06:00

I've never liked New Year's Eve. Not that I haven't had fun on New Year's Eve, but the older I get, the more I just want to stay tucked in on New Year's Eve (it just makes zero sense to me to get into a tiny dress in the freezing cold to go out on the roads with lots of drunks out and about - not my idea of fun). And this year, especially after surgery and being sick and generally being moody, I was especially not looking forward to the new year. I couldn't really even put my finger on it.......I just wasn't looking forward to 2012. I wasn't even in the mood to make any resolutions......which REALLY isn't like me. I typically love making plans and setting goals, but not this year. I guess I just felt a little bit like I don't have much to look forward to (which isn't actually true). I sometimes feel that nothing in my life is going to change, which feels so monotonous. Especially now that I'm settled in WI, I could very realistically not have any big changes for a LONG time. Like years. And when so many of my friends have so many changes all the time (weddings and babies, in particular) it is just....oy. Monotonous.

And then it was Sunday and it was the new year. I felt pretty indifferent about it. And then during the singing at church, one of my pastors shared something - I wish I could remember more of the specifics - but the gist of it was that he had been feeling overwhelmed and hopeless during the week. His wife had some encouragement for him that he shared (and I can't remember right now) and I just felt like everything he was saying really resonated with me. I've been feeling hopeless.......Still single and it didn't work out with a nice guy. Hopeless that I'll ever find someone. Seemingly always sick and dealing with chronic pain in my shoulder. Hopeless that I'll ever get better. Just kinda generally bored with things. And I so appreciated what he shared: that I have no reason to be hopeless because in Christ we have the greatest hope.

So I cried through the next two songs (It Is Well and Before the Throne) because I *do* have the greatest hope.

......whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul.....
......Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed His own blood for my soul......
......when Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there, Who made an end to all my sin.....

I was so thankful for the reminder that I have a personal Savior who does care about every detail of my life. That there really is nothing to despair about. That being single is NOT the end of the world. Sometimes I just need a kick in the butt to remind me that I have it pretty easy.

This is my "lot", like It Is Well says. Though it's not the lot I would have chosen to park in, here I sit. And God ordained it. And He cares about it. I think I'm actually sitting in one of the best-lit and most well-protected lots there is, but I have dreams of a lot where every car is a Lexus and they all have cheery children being perfectly well behaved sitting in their car seats, singing the praises of their beautiful (size 6) mother. That's the lot where I want to be. But my lot is perfectly fine, and I should enjoy it. And I know that I sometimes cry when I sing It Is Well because I feel remorse that I don't always say "whatever my lot, it is well". So, those songs were a wonderful reminder and a balm to my heart on Sunday.

Then later in the day I saw another great reminder on a friend's Facebook page: he said "In Christ, a new year doesn't equal a clean slate. Our slate is already clean. No Christ, no clean slate, regardless of new year's resolutions".

So, I'm thankful for a clean slate, whether or not it's a new year. My slate is clean, even though I know that I will feel the need to "have a clean slate" more than once or twice in the coming year. But I'm starting the year resolution-less, other than feeling resolved to appreciate all that I have been given and stop dreaming of the lot with all the beautiful Lexus drivers (as much).

....and Then Two More Months Went By....

2012-01-03T17:52:00.003-06:00

Psych! You all thought I was actually going to start blogging after my post two months ago!

Why didn't I actually start blogging when I said I was going to (and wanted to)? I seriously have no idea. Well, I have *some* idea, but no real good reason*. I've been just kinda bummed the last two months for no real good reasons* at all, so I guess I didn't really want to start blogging while I was in that mood.

*here are the "no real good reasons": I stopped going on dates with a nice guy. We had a good time on the dates we did go on, but we just didn't click. And even though the feeling was mutual, it was a bummer. Just feels like I'm going to be single forever. And then I had a cyst (chilazion) removed from my eyelid, which actually made me more sick and annoyed than I ever thought it would. Took longer to "recover" and be back to feeling normal than I thought it would. And then I got a huge cold for 2-3 weeks. Right through Christmas. And I was so on track with my half marathon training until all of that, so I was annoyed when everything went off track. So basically I'm just selfish and when my plans don't turn out I get crabby and decide not to blog about it all because I don't like to be a bummer about such trivial things when other people have actual sad things going on that are much more important than all of that. Okay.

BUT. I will do one more mass-catch-up and then I will get down to actually blogging.

NOVEMBER:...Palindrome Day!!, Breaking Free breakfast, Quilt retreat, Gopher basketball games, Alice Hanson funeral, great time in LP for Thanksgiving, Craft show, went to see a bestie in White Christmas, and stopped going on dates with a nice guy

DECEMBER:...Pat's Tap with girlfriends, Nutcracker ballet with Eva to see a girl from church (SO great), EYE SURGERY (had a cyst removed), church Christmas party, family weekend in the cities (TOO much fun - Radison downtown, Hell's Kitchen breakfast, movies in bed, mom shopping, Dad and Ang to Gopher game, surprise dinner at The Melting Pot, McDonald's breakfast in bed thanks to Dad, surprising Dad with Les Mis, dinner with the sisters), cookie exchange, BE baby shower, JC 30th bday party, small group coffee, Christmas in LP, annual family game day in Atwater (complete with YARD games, thanks to no snow yet!!), Wild game on NYE, low key NYE dinner with friends.........NEW YEAR!

SO. Here we go. For real.

2011 by the Numbers

2012-01-03T17:47:00.003-06:00

States Visited: 8 (CA, KS, MO, TX, FL, IL, PA, IA)

Countries Visited: technically 0, but went to a few US territories on our cruise

Weddings Attended: 0 (BOO! I LOVE weddings....can't believe I didn't go to a single one this year!)

Trips to the Cabin: 5 (pretty slim number, here. Gotta change that in 2012)

Triathlons: 0

5Ks: 1

Trips to Green Bay: 2

Football Games (in person): 3 professional, 1 college

Blog Posts: 9 (lame!)

Half Marathons: 1 (Chicago)

Funerals: 2 (dear family friends lost both Grandma and Grandpa this year)

Books Read: 20 (some of them were listened to)

Times Pulled Over: 1 (boo!)

Dates: 4

Resolutions Kept: 0

.....and a lot more babies born to friends, plus one big move to WI!

Unintentional-Turned-Intentional Blogging Hiatus

2011-10-31T18:14:00.004-05:00

Wow. I've been gone for seven months! At first my blogging break was completely unintentional - I was busy (more on that later) and blogging took a back seat. Then the break became so long that I decided to make it an intentional 6-month break. Then that date came and went without me realizing it, so the hiatus continued. I don't assume that anyone still even reads this blog, but I've missed writing. I especially miss that I haven't documented the last months when I look back at the few years worth of documented moments, memories, and lessons that I have on this blog and want to remember.

So. Here we go again. SO much has changed in the last seven months. I haven't been to this site at all in the last seven months, so I had forgotten that my previous post from March 22 was titled "Starting Over". Reading that post tonight was a little crazy for me. I am in such a different place (literally and figuratively) and I felt a wave of total blessing to know all that has changed in a short time. I really have started over in so many ways - new territory, new state, new home, new age (as in number, not religion).......

I think (for my own sake when I revisit this blog in the future) I'm going to start with a month-by-month catch up. Thanks to my obsession with Google Calendar, I should be able to recreate the last few months fairly accurately. Then I think I'll follow that up with a few posts reflecting on some of the bigger changes in the last few months.

[This is the part of the post you skip because a month-by-month catch up really serves no purpose for anyone but myself. There is nothing insightful that follows, just a list of what has been happening]

APRIL: Brother/Sister game night, small group game night, Pinstripes with church friends, TK's Minn. coaches Hall of Fame induction dinner, Matt Wertz concert, trip to LaCrosse to visit AD, trip to PA to start my job search, Beav's bday in Cannon Falls, Family Easter brunch at the Lake Elmo Inn (YUM), trip to Kansas City with BD to visit HW and fam......

MAY: Kickball started/basketball ended, bonfire in Belle Plaine with church friends, race in GB with Dad and Beav, cabin/project weekend with Mom and Dad (my first solo painting project completed!), I MOVED (April 15th was the first mention of me switching territories and I was packed and moved to WI on May 23rd), and three days after I moved I went to FL for the Next conference.....

JUNE: Four days after I got home from FL I went to CA for a week for work, my new territory started on June 13th (for the first month I drove about 2000 miles a week!). Many people went to my cabin, but I never made it there in June. I got older and had a much more low-key birthday celebration than usual (but very pleasant all the same), went to LP for Prairie Days and a dedication of a garden at Camp Lebanon to my Grandparents, auditioned for a new job (yes, auditioned).........

JULY: FINALLY to the cabin, dinner in St Paul to say so long to a dear friend headed out of the country to be a missionary, Saints game with church friends, Chicago trip with SL and my parents to see the Twins and eat amazing food, brother/sister cabin weekend in PR, FINAL audition for new job (which I didn't get, btw), family reunion in Iowa, goodbye dinner for BL, cabin weekend with BD, NK, HW and fam, small group pool party......

AUGUST: Bethel friends cabin weekend, movie night with church friends, Twins game with sis, Chicago Half Marathon with BW, Welcome Team meetings, CA for another week for work, straight from CA to PA to meet up with my family on vacation and "enjoy" Hurricane Irene.....

SEPTEMBER: Final cabin weekend (SO FUN), GreekFest, Jesse James Days, dinner at Spill the Wine with girlfriends, lots of kickball fun, friends' 30th bday parties.......

OCTOBER: trip to KC with the fam for the Vikings game, time with my bestie while she was in town, brother/sister game weekend, Mom and her friends visit WI, Ang's bday dinner at Marx (YUM), a blind date (complete with embarrassing moments), Pampered Chef party (FREE stuff!), Bethel friends slumber party (ten girls!), Vikings/Packers game in the Dome, Dad in the hospital for a week.....

Some reflections to follow......

Starting Over

2011-03-22T16:07:00.006-05:00

"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43: 18-19

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I feel like I am starting over. Or that I need to start over. When we "spring ahead" with our clocks, I always feel that nature is starting over, and I have a chance for a fresh start, too. And while the weather this week isn't nearly as pleasant as it was last week, the longer hours of daylight and the grass that is showing itself give me hope that a new season is on it's way.

Some of my starting over has to do with "little" things, like the fact that I had finally gotten to the point where my driving record had no tickets on it for five years, and then I went and got a ticket last week. So I'm starting over on working toward a ticketless record. And I had begun to see some improvement in a shoulder injury that has really been bothering me....until I fell on the ice last week and really messed it up. So I'm starting over in my treatment plan with a doctors appointment this Thursday.

Some of my starting over has to do with "big" things, like my employment. I've honestly been in a "desert" when it comes to my job. I've considered for awhile if I should stick it out or move on. I'm starting a job search, and while I'm also waiting for the dust to settle on a few new developments at work, I'm somewhat convinced I'm being called in a new direction. Which might actually mean I'm being called to a new state. Which is scary and exciting. I'm praying about the timing of these new developments and that my choice would be made crystal clear - and I'd love it if you would join me with prayers of your own.

My AP gave me the above verses from Isaiah a while back, and I keep coming back to them. Throughout much of the Old Testament, the Israelites clearly wondered what God was doing, but in these verses He reminds them that He has, does, and will care for them in their literal wilderness and desert, or in figurative wilderness and desert (captivity in Egypt, being under Babylonian rule). He will make a way. He will provide a river.

Another note my AP gave me a long time ago (have I mentioned how encouraging my AP is?!?!) was a note from a sermon that said "God is sovereign over every famine". I remember at the time she gave me the note, I was going through a discouraging time as a home owner. It felt like a famine financially. I've been encouraged by the ways God has provided even without me having a renter at the cabin. God is sovereign over every famine. He will make a way. He will provide a river. Sometimes being single feels like a famine. Sometimes work feels like a famine. Sometimes my relationships leave me famished. But God has a purpose for my life and has ordained every step.

I'm facing some fear in making decisions about work. What if I make the wrong choice? What if nothing good comes along and I'm stuck in the desert? What if I move and don't like it? What if, what if, what if. I was SO encouraged by the words from the song "Completely Done" that we sang on Sunday. Even if my future at work isn't clear, my future in Christ is clear. I don't need to fear failure, because Christ will keep me. I don't need to fear making the wrong choice, because God has already completed my story - he performed a miracle to save me and He will guide and direct me.

So I'm starting over. I'm looking for a new thing, all the while holding tight to the "new thing" mentioned in Isaiah that has God has done for me; He saved me to redeem my story, and he cares about every step of it.

"Completely Done"
What reason have I to doubt
Why would I dwell in fear
When all I have known is grace
My future in Christ is clear
My sins have been paid in full
There's no condemnation here
I live in the good of this
My Father has brought me near
I'm leaving my fears behind me now
Chorus
The old is gone, the new has come
What You complete is completely done
We're heirs with Christ, the victory won
What You complete is completely done
I don't know what lies ahead
What if I fail again
You are my confidence
You'll keep me to the end
I'm leaving my fears behind me now
By Jonathan Baird, Ryan Baird, and Rich Gunderlock

What I Learned on the Cruise

2011-03-07T17:12:00.003-06:00

What a great week of vacation! Sun, food, laughing, games, more food, shows, islands, water, more sun, more food, more games, more shows...........all fun. I wish we could have stayed another week!

I didn't remember much about the only other cruise I'd been on (in 5th grade), so there were a few things I learned this time around:

The shower in your cruise stateroom is the most DIFFICULT place to shave your legs.
You can very quickly get used to having a card that you flash to get free pop. This does not work once you leave the boat, so don't embarrass yourself by trying it at the airport.
It's stupidly funny to say "well, we're all in the same boat" when you are, in fact, literally on the same boat.
Cruise staterooms have mirrors everywhere. This makes it amazingly easy to fix the back of your hair. It also makes it depressingly easy to see what you actually look like in your swimsuit from behind (especially after five or six days of non-stop buffet eating).
The sway of a cruise ship makes everyone walk very clumsily. This is a great way to blend in if you typically are the only person who is stumbling around on dry land.
I'm still allergic to fruit. I usually tolerate fruit in small amounts here and there. But each night there was a delicious cold fruit soup at dinner, plus other fruit that I mixed in throughout the days, and I got hives on the final night. Good things about the situation: it was the final night, the hives were VERY mild, and I had plenty of Benadryl on hand.
Fly in the day before you leave. If you miss the boat, you basically miss a good chunk of your vacation. In our case, the earliest you could have caught the boat would have been on Wednesday at St. Thomas. One couple in our group got delayed all day on Sunday to the point where we thought they wouldn't make the ship. They made it by less than five minutes - maybe less than one minute. Lesson learned: fly the day before. (they only made the ship by not even going to baggage claim at all, so they spent the week without luggage!)
Go with a group. Being on a cruise with 16 people in our group was so fun! We always had people participating in every event that was held on the ship, which made the events fun to watch and cheer for. We held our own little card tournament, and there was always someone to find to grab a bite to eat, lay by the pool, walk on the deck, learn a line dance, shop, etc.

All in all, it was a WONDERFUL vacation! Unlike any vacation I've ever been on, but so very wonderful!

Blogging Hiatus

2011-02-21T19:00:00.012-06:00

Haven't been here in awhile. Haven't really had much to say, so I haven't really missed it. I mean - I haven't missed it in a day-to-day-wanting-to-blog kinda way. And I guess I've had things to say, but they are mostly just whiny and full of self-pity, so I haven't said them here. But this past weekend I was stuck in my house for a solid 3+ days, so I caught up on most every single thing in my life, including the 130 "starred" blogs I had in my Reader. Going through them reminded me that I do want to blog, so here I am.

So....what's been up? Well, in the immediate sense of the question, another snowstorm has had me on lock down. I started my weekend with a massage on Friday night (thanks to a shoulder injury that gets worse everyday...) and a movie with my roommate. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I had the house to myself to pack for the cruise (FOUR DAYS! FOUR DAYS! FOUR DAYS!), cook and bake (roasted squash, carrots with brown sugar sauce, red pepper and tomato soup, sloppy joes, cookies...), and watch about 4,599 episodes of Bones. Church was cancelled because of the storm, so other than some texting and a few short phone conversations, I was a total introvert and had a chance to work on some things I wouldn't have gotten around to for a long time had I not been snowed in. A much better weekend than the last time we got dumped on.

As far as the last month goes, to say work has been difficult would be an understatement. And since so much of my week is devoted to work, there is definitely a spill-over effect into the rest of my life. Last week I finally made it through a day without crying about work, so that was a change from the last 4-6 weeks. I don't know what to do....a job change? A city change? Blerg.

And now I can't think of anything else to say. I thought I had so many things to catch up on, but I guess not. Beyond wondering about work and wondering about moving, not much is going on. But that's been plenty.

Actually, I will add one other thing I've been thinking about that I was reminded of while I went through my "starred" blogs. It has to do with hospitality, which is one of my core values, so it is appropriate. I'll share the text (from Mark Driscoll), and then I'll share my thoughts:

Hospitality is not just hanging out with Christians. The word “hospitality” in the Bible literally means to welcome the stranger. Fellowship is when you hang out with all your Christian friends. And that’s great and it’s good and you should. Hospitality is when, in addition to your friends, you invite strangers to hang out with your friends so that they too start to become friends.

That’s exactly what Jesus is talking about here. Hosting a party, hosting a banquet, hosting a feast, having a generous menu, having a generous guest list. And as we do these things, what we’re showing is something of the character of God, that we can party to the glory of God. We can have a great time and laugh deeply and eat well to the glory of God. And as we do, we’re showing something of the character of our God and something of his heavenly kingdom.

via

I really need the reminder about the difference between fellowship and hospitality. I do feel called to be hospitable, but sometimes I feel sad that I'm missing out on the fellowship that I love - especially lately. My favorite people in the world, the people I really want to have fellowship with, are in a much different stage of life. And I'm not just talking about one, two, or three families....I'm talking about my top 20 favorites! And I know the past few months have been harder to have great fellowship because of some new babies, the holidays, etc.........but when I have a night out with my good friends (like I did last weekend), I realize just how much I am really missing that particular kind of fellowship. The kind where so many things just go unspoken because you know each other so well. And the ironic thing is - the people I'm missing often feel like they are missing it, too. (We definitely talked about that while we were away from husbands/babies/homes)

Being hospitable is important and I've really tried to invest time there - hanging out with long-lost friends from college, planning events for singles at church, etc. But when I don't really click with new people it feels discouraging. I know new friendships and relationships take time, but sometimes you just want to wear that favorite pair of jeans because they are so comfortable! So I'm keeping my eyes open for what the Lord wants to teach me in this season of new friendships, and I'm keeping my heart open to making some new friends and breaking in a new pair of jeans (both literally and figuratively).

Having said that, I'm SO SO SO SO SO SO SO blessed that the people I'm most comfortable with - my sisters - are in the same stage of life as me. As much as I'd like to see all of us get married tomorrow and start popping out cute little babies, I'm so thankful that we have this season to spend together. And I'm thankful we actually enjoy our time together and are such good friends. So, when we pile on a plane at 8am on Sunday morning, I will be one happy camper looking forward to a week of laughing, lounging, and fellowship.

AND, because I cleaned out my blogs, I came across a few things I wanted to share - probably more for my sake than anything else.....so that I know where to find these gems in the future.

First of all - a coffee chart that is much needed on my end of things. Love coffee, can't figure out the nuances.

via

This chart on the Enjoyment of Snow Over Time makes me say "AMEN!" (I think you'll have to click on it to get the full effect....)

via

And because I love grammar and language and talking and etc.........here is a video that I think is awesome.

Okay. All caught up. Also, I love that after posting a video about grammar and stating my love of language, I'm going to write a disclaimer that I didn't go back and edit this post. Too tired. Deal with it.

Big Hiccups

2011-01-18T20:52:00.002-06:00

You guys. My Favorite Toddler spent the night at my house on Friday and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I want to do it again, and again, and again.

The plan was to pick him up after work on Friday and head to my cousin’s basketball game about an hour away, but since Minnesota has decided to SNOW EVERY DAY this winter, we changed our plans because of the awful traffic. Instead we headed straight to McDonald’s and had a fun time at the Play Place. Then we went to my house and played on the drums, played piano, played “Ka-chow” (the name of a car from the movie Cars), and played hide-and-seek. In the middle of a game of hide-and-seek/Ka-chow, Favorite Toddler came out of the bathroom (where he had been “hiding”) and said, “I had a BIG hiccup!”

In his toddler mind, “big hiccup” = throw up. And it was big. The poor buddy had puke down his shirt, and there was a big pile in the bathroom, as well as a trail down the hall where he had run to tell me about his big hiccup. You may be aware that I have the strongest gag reflex in the history of the world, so of course I gagged REALLY hard at the smell. Then I started laughing because I knew that I was going to have the hardest time cleaning it up. I pulled off Favorite Toddler’s shirt and let it soak while he watched me attempt to clean up the mess. Within about three minutes, I threw up ALL over. It was hilarious….especially when Favorite Toddler kept saying “You have big hiccup, too!”

It was already a little past his bedtime (shhh…don’t tell his parents), so I was thankful that we hadn’t already gotten into pajamas and that we hadn’t gotten into bed yet, because cleaning up hiccups in bed would have been a NIGHTMARE. Instead, it was about as straightforward as it could have been – on the tile of the bathroom and wood of the hallway. After the mess was cleaned up, we got into our pajamas and settled down with a VeggieTales movie, and fell right asleep. At breakfast the next morning, when asked by my roommate what we had done the night before, Favorite Toddler said “I had a big hiccup, and HB had a big hiccup in the bathroom!”. It was too funny.

Sunday morning, I got a call from Favorite Toddler’s mom, who was VERY sick with the flu. I picked up her kids to take them to church (her husband is the pastor, so he was already there with other responsibilities). At church, her husband and I commented that our stomachs both felt a little funny, but didn’t think much of it………

Until a few hours later.....when I got BIG HICCUPS for the rest of the day. Seriously. It was SO miserable. It was accompanied by a nasty fever, severe chills, and general WANTING TO JUST SLEEP SO THAT I WOULDN’T FEEL SO DISGUSTING. Ugh. Thank GOODNESS my sister is a doctor – she called in a script of the MIRACLE drug Zofran so that I would stop retching and actually get some sleep. My wonderful friend (who has a three-week-old baby) picked up my meds and some ginger ale for me. And I survived. It actually left about as quickly as it came, and I am feeling almost completely better. Whatever that bug was, it was nasty!

I think the best thing I'll take away from this experience is Favorite Toddler's euphemism for being sick. "Big hiccups" is a much more pleasant way of putting it! But I sure hope I don't have any more big hiccups in my near future!!

Kidney Humor

2011-01-12T21:42:00.005-06:00

I have a medical history that is somewhat more eventful than most, including severe kidney complications. Because of that, I spent many years in and out of hospitals as a youngster and I have some pretty sweet scars stretching across my mid-section to prove it. My little sister never went under the knife, but we shared many years of taking nightly “kidney” medication and we now share a love for kidney humor.

“Kidney humor...."?? Yes, kidney humor. Trust me, there is such a thing. Have you ever seen the picture of me as a toddler in nothing but a diaper and shoes holding a bag of my own urine that is connected to a tube coming out the side of my body? Now that’s funny (probably not so funny to my parents at the time who had one very sick little girl on their hands).

My little sister is “my kidney”: should I ever have the need for a transplant, I have appointed her to give me a kidney, and she has (willingly?) accepted. So we make kidney jokes, and we laugh extra hard at the episode of 30 Rock where Jack is going to give his dad a kidney. We've also been known to say "I love you with all of my kidney".

And because of all this, my day was made when my sister emailed me the following picture:

HA! Greatest kidney humor ever!

via

A New Approach

2011-01-12T21:35:00.003-06:00

My sister shares some incredibly encouraging thoughts on scripture reading. I definitely need encouragement in this area, and she expresses much of what I've thought or felt in a new way. Here is her conclusion:

I like the food analogy. There is a time for feasting. There is a time for life-changing, emotional encounters with God's Holy Word. It's like Christmas dinner (which, some would argue, can be a life-changing, emotional experience itself). And when the time comes for such an experience, it should be treasured, celebrated, enjoyed, and valued. But it might not be the norm. And it certainly isn't necessary on a daily basis.

Sometimes you just need a piece of toast to hold you over until dinner.

The funny thing is that these "forgettable" meals are actually the important ones. They are the life-sustaining ones. You can live without an annual Christmas feast. You can't live without all of your forgettable meals. You would probably only eat on holidays and even then, you wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Your stomach would be so shriveled - so familiar with your starvation-that the feast would sicken you.

So, here's to a new approach to Scripture in 2011! May it be a life-sustaining year. And may it prepare me for the feast, should it come.

2010: By the Numbers

2011-01-03T19:22:00.004-06:00

States Visited: 6 (HI, WI, TX, CA, LA, IL)

Countries Visited: 3 (Finland, Lithuania, Latvia)
Weddings Attended: 5
Trips to the Cabin: 12
Triathlons: 0
5Ks: 3
Trips to Green Bay: 2
Football Games (in person): 4 (3 pro, 1 college)
Blog Posts: 99
Half-Marathons: 1

Funerals: 2 (both of my Grandmas passed away this year)
Books Read: 13
Times Pulled Over: 0 (WOO HOO!!)
Dates: 1
Resolutions Kept: 1 (half-marathon)

.....and MANY babies born to good friends!!

New Year, Similar Intentions

2011-01-03T18:27:00.004-06:00

I had some pretty simple resolutions as I went into 2010. Read my Bible, run a half-marathon, and possibly complete another Olympic triathlon. My bigger focus in my resolutions/intentions revolved around the core values that I developed for myself around this time last year.

I'm really thankful for the focus that having core values has provided for me over the last year. Because of that, I intend to approach this year with pretty much the same resolutions/intentions (read my Bible, run a half-marathon, possibly complete another Olympic triathlon, and focus on my core values). There are a lot of little things I need to improve on (drink more water, work out more consistently, eat a more balanced diet, etc......), but I always try to implement too many changes all at once and then none of them stick. So.....small, consistent changes are what I'm going for.

I do have one BIG goal for 2011........to not use a credit card. This will be a STRETCH goal for me, but I need to make this change. I think that if I can maintain some discipline in this area, it will spill over into other things I desire - less clutter, less materialism, fewer piles of clothes all over.......

Oh, also.....I'm still single. Which means I'm still waiting. And I know that waiting is not unique to being single, so I thought I would share a quote that I came across that I thought was encouraging.

"To wait is not merely to remain impassive. It is to expect -- to look for with patience, and also with submission. It is to long for, but not impatiently; to look for, but not to fret at the delay; to watch for, but not restlessly; to feel that if he does not come, we will acquiesce, and yet to refuse to let the mind acquiesce in the feeling that he will not come." - Dr. A.B. Davidson, Waiting on God (quoted in The Hidden Life of Prayer by David McIntyre)

So, here's to a great year - one full of love, belief, hospitality, generosity, service, prayer, and joy!

A Wonderful Christmas

2010-12-25T12:51:00.005-06:00

It's been such a wonderful Christmas! Playing games, laughing, eating, relaxing, opening presents....Ahhhhhhh......

My parents are so generous and are GREAT at giving gifts! I'm so spoiled....gift cards to Caribou, DSW, and Amazon, money for ski equipment, a board game, a little purse, ear muffs, AND a Twins jersey, Twins sweatshirt, and Twins purse!

My older sister spoiled me, too! In addition to A Christmas Carol, she gave me tickets to Gophers games, a book, a movie, and a gift card!

And of course.....the Advent basket from my little sister. Yes, I figured out it was from my little sister. I had to keep the secret to myself because there were other people who also got a basket from her that I didn't want to ruin the surprise for.

I figured out right away that the gifts were from her. Since I had opened the letter for the first day early, I decided to open the first gift early, too. It was a CD of Christmas songs. The songs were a dead give-away that it was from my sister. I called her and we had the most funny conversation. She was trying to lie to me about the basket, but I was giving her the many, many reasons why I knew it was from her. Also, the lies she told me were exactly the same lies I would have told if I was trying to keep the same secret......we think too much alike for her to fool me! We were laughing so hard!

She finally gave in and admitted the basket was from her. She said "well, you must have looked at the final card, too then". I hadn't, but I asked what it said. She told me that on the card that would tell her identity, she just wrote "CHEATER" because she was SO convinced I would sneak ahead! But I didn't need to sneak ahead to figure it out, so the joke is on her!!

She also included a reflection each day on a different characteristic of God (wise, loving, gracious, holy, transcendent, judge, merciful, all-sufficient, triune........etc.........). It is so fun to get gifts, but as my sister said in the final letter of her gift, these characteristics will lead us to worship the Father and thank Him for the abundant gifts He has given - most importantly, His Son.

Here is a list of all the gifts she gave me, with some pictures to follow (I know some of you were curious):

1 - the basket the gifts came in

2 - CD

3 - hand soap

4 - Hope ornament

5 - peanuts

6 - pashmina

7 - key covers

8 - hot chocolate

9 - socks

10 - magnets

11 - body wash

12 - chocolates

13 - vase

14 - notepad

15 - lotion

16 - candle

17 - candy

18 - note cards

19 - candle holder

20 - chocolate

21 - bookmarks

22 - journal

23 - sports ornaments

24 - sparkling juice

25 - picture/letter

beautiful vase!

journal

key covers, magnets, note cards, socks

ornaments

bookmarks

candle holder, candle, ornament, pashmina

hand soap

The final note in the basket

I also wanted to include the final reflection from the gift. It is "Advent Summons" by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C.

Come forth from the holy place,

Sweet Child,

Come from the quiet dark

Where virginal heartbeats

Tick your moments.

Come away from the red music

Of Mary's veins.

Come out from the Tower of David

Sweet Child,

From the House of Gold.

Leave your lily-cloister,

Leave your holy mansion,

Quit your covenant ark.

O Child, be born!

Be born, Sweet Child,

In our unholy hearts.

Come to our trembling,

Helpless Child.

Come to our littleness,

Little Child,

Be born to us

Who have kept the faltering vigil.

Be given, be born,

Be ours again.

Come forth from your holy haven,

Come away from your perfect shrine,

Come to our wind-racked souls

From the flawless tent,

Sweet Child.

Be born, little Child,

In our unholy hearts.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I pray your Advent season was filled with reflections on the One who sent His Son to be born in a manger, live a perfect life, die and rise again to save us from our sin! What a gift!!!!

A Cozy Evening

2010-12-20T22:10:00.002-06:00

Thanks to a rapid snowfall throughout the day, traffic was nightmare-ish all day....so I was glad to be tucked in all night in my sweats with cozy Christmas lights twinkling, a cup of hot soup, watching the Vikings game.

When I was rescued by my uncle from the blizzard, my aunt had a yummy chicken noodle soup in the crock pot when I arrived at their house. I normally don't like chicken noodle soup because I prefer more thick and creamy soups, but she had doctored it to make it very thick and creamy. I'm glad I was inspired to buy the ingredients last week so I had them on hand when I got home tonight. Here's what she does:

Dump in a crock pot: one can of chicken noodle soup (with big noodles), one can of cream of chicken soup, one quart of half and half, two cups of cooked egg noodles, two cups of cooked and chopped chicken, two cups of whatever veggies you like. YUM!

My aunt's mom passed away very unexpectedly this past weekend, so it was nice to make her soup tonight and have my thoughts and prayers with them as I did so.

Paper Chain Excited

2010-12-18T21:29:00.005-06:00

There's excited, and then there's "paper chain excited"!

As if I wasn't already excited enough about our family cruise in February, my little sister sent me a paper chain to count down the days - complete with cute, cruise-themed paper!

70 days! We'll be cruising in 70 days!!

A Christmas Carol

2010-12-14T13:02:00.005-06:00

For our Christmas gift this year, my older sister was going to take my younger sister and me to A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie and out for a nice dinner on Sunday night. Unfortunately, thanks to the blizzard, my younger sister was literally snowed in and couldn't make it. So we found a substitute and had a nice night (though we definitely missed little sis)!

We ate at Masa - my absolute FAVORITE place in Minneapolis. It is a bit expensive, so it's only for special occasions, but I seriously crave their crab enchiladas ALL the time! Yum!

The show was great, too! I liked the call out they chose from the script for the program:

"Look at us, all gathered here together at this table. let us not dwell on the misfortunes - of which all have some - but rather rejoice upon our present blessings, of which we have many. Let us empty our plates and fill our glasses once again, and with a smiling face and a contented heart say, our life on it, let Christmas be merry and the coming year a happy one."

Sunday was a nice day, thanks to the blessings of family, following a chaotic day for me. I appreciated rest and relaxation, as well as the treat of dinner and a show. A magnificent way to end the weekend and begin more reflection on the Christmas Season!

There Once Was a Blizzard...

2010-12-13T18:40:00.008-06:00

So, did you hear there was a blizzard in Minneapolis on Saturday?! Everyone will have a story about where they were and what they did during the blizzard of December 2010, so here’s mine [warning: it's probably a long one...]: (I'm a little embarassed to share it, since it shows pretty poor judgement on my part.....)

I’ve been told I have some hermit-like tendencies, so I’m certainly not someone who minds being snowed in for a cozy day at home. It actually sounds a little delightful. Baking, organizing, watching movies, relaxing…….all right up my alley. But my Saturday was anything but delightful….

I actually had a very busy Saturday planned. I was going to go to the Gopher game with my sister, head out to see a friend coach his high school basketball team later that afternoon, visit a friend and her new baby, have dinner with friends, and finally get to see my roommate sing with her folk band. I was looking forward to all of those things, but on Friday, as it became more apparent that I wouldn’t be doing any of them, I wasn’t extremely bummed. I actually needed an excuse to stay tucked in all day. I was coming off a week where I had totally over-committed myself and I was exhausted. It was a good exhaustion (since there were almost 50 people who showed up to the church singles Christmas party!!), but nonetheless, an exhaustion.

On Saturday, I learned that one small decision can lead you down a path where many other small decisions lead to a big headache. See, I was dog-sitting, so I had an additional element thrown into my snowed-in state. At about 10am I decided that I should shovel a little to keep up with the storm (the home owner had told me she would pay me to shovel in addition to sitting the dogs). I worked (too hard) for just over an hour and then decided that I should run to my own house for a minute to let out the dog there and grab a few things for the duration of the storm. At 11am, the roads were not good, but I was able to get home without an issue. It’s after I got to my house that the problems started....

Instead of just letting the dog out and grabbing some more clothes, I put a load of laundry in, wrapped some presents, and got generally distracted. Soon enough it was 2pm and I could see that my car had been plowed into where I had parked. I needed to get back to the dogs I was being paid to watch, so I grabbed a shovel and started to work my car out of it’s spot. Friendly Neighbor came over to help me out, and I was off. Friendly Neighbor also mentioned that I should throw my shovel in my car because I might need it, but I told him that I had made it over here no problem, so it wouldn’t be needed. I made it about one block before I got stuck again. Since I was shovel-less, I got down on my hands and knees (in only sweatpants) and dug around the tires. Red Stocking Hat Man saw me and came over to help dig me out. After just about 10 minutes I was off again. About a block ahead I saw two women working a car out of a spot, so I stopped to help. We worked on her car for about 10 minutes, and as I got back into my car, I realized I was now stuck again. The two women, along with Red Stocking Hat Man, helped me out and I was going again. I was now about two blocks from a snow emergency route that I knew would be clear. If I could just….make…..it…………..NOPE. Stuck again. This time in the middle of an intersection. I was getting a little ticked at myself for waiting so long to leave my house, and I was also getting pretty tired, but I just needed to make it two more blocks. I worked with Man Without Gloves to get my car out, but I was stuck pretty bad. I said that we should work on getting his car unstuck since mine was so bad, so we did that and he was off. By that time we had gathered a crowd that included Friendly Neighbor, Red Stocking Hat Man, and about four others who were determined to get me out of the intersection.

As I hopped back in my car to give it gas, Friendly Neighbor realized that my wheels weren’t turning. It was determined that I had overheated the transmission and would need a tow. And this is where I started to get upset.

I called Triple A and they put me on a list. I started to think through what I was going to do in the next five hours while I waited for a tow. I was getting cold – the inside of my boots had gotten wet and my feet were feeling that, let alone the fact that my sweatpants were drenched and starting to freeze solid. I waited for about 40 minutes when Triple A called to say that they were not allowed to dispatch any tows in my area due to the dangerous aspects of the storm and that I would need to call 911. Friendly Neighbor had stuck around to make sure I would be okay, and when I told him that news, he said we needed to shut my car off and see if it would cool down enough to get me going. We waited for 30 minutes (most of which I spent praying) and tried again……and my wheels turned!!! We dug me out and with the help of eight men pushing, I was OUT! I drove as quickly as I could to the emergency route and I was in the clear!!!........for now.

My next challenge was deciding where to park. Obviously a snow emergency had been declared, so I could only park on the side streets (since I couldn’t even get to the driveway of the house where I was staying). Parking on the streets proved to be an issue as well, since every street was simply a path down the middle with snow banks on either side. I drove as close as I could to the house (about two blocks away) where I saw a group of men with shovels. I got out of my car and (with tears) asked them what I should do with my car. They agreed that the only option was to put it into a snow bank as far to the side as possible, and they graciously offered to put it there for me. They shoveled some and then rammed the car as far to the side of the road as they could.

I was feeling delirious. I was so cold. I couldn’t feel my toes, and my legs were getting there, too. As I walked to the house, crying, I could barely lift my legs out of the more-than-knee-deep snow. I fell multiple times and cursed myself for not being in better shape (and for EVER LEAVING THE HOUSE). When I got back to the house, I realized that I had left my phone in my car. Before I got undressed, I decided to head back the car and retrieve the phone, since I needed to contact my family who thought I was still sitting in an intersection in a dead car. I got less than a block from the house when I realized I wouldn't make it to the car, trudging my way through 2-3 feet of drifted snow. I couldn't even get to the street where I could've walked in tire tracks. Back to the house.

Thankfully, my mom's number has only one digit that is different from my number, so it is the only phone number I know. I called her to get the number of the phone I was on from her caller ID, as well as to get the number for my sister, who I wanted to ask about how to warm my feet properly. I had a little breakdown while on the phone with my dad. I couldn't even begin to think about how in the world I was going to get my car out of the snow bank, let alone where I was going to park it once it was out (according to the snow emergency rules, I needed to move it to the odd side of the street, but that was also just a snow bank.....).

Mom and Dad helped me figure out that my uncle and cousins could come and pull me out of the snow bank in the morning. Then I would retreat to the suburbs with them for the day (where the streets were plowed!). I got up early to assess my car situation and see if I could find help from more friendly people in the streets, but I didn't come across anyone, and my car was VERY drifted in. I did a tiny bit of shoveling around my car, but I really could barely move. I COMPLETELY overdid it on Saturday and my back was in quite a bit of pain. My cousin recruited a friend with an Explorer and the boys and my uncle came into the city to dig me out. I was so stuck in the snow that we needed to use a tow rope. One tire wouldn't spin, but that was just because the snow was so packed around it. We got the tires spinning, navigated our way out of the city, and stopped at Perkins so I could at least buy them breakfast. After breakfast my uncle took me to a tire shop because he noticed they were low on air.

This isn't at ALL how I wanted to spend my snow day, but I'm so grateful for a few things:

Since I don't have a garage, my car would have needed to be dug out no matter where I had left it on Saturday. If I would have been at home, I could have moved it to my driveway, but then the boy we pay to snow blow wouldn't have been able to clear that area, and I would have been plowed in by the snow from the alley. If I would have left my car in the driveway where I was dog sitting, I also would have been plowed in.....and that snow was up to my thigh on Sunday morning! I'm thankful that it was relatively straight forward to move it from the snow bank where I ended up, and that I wasn't towed or plowed in.

I'm so glad my tires started moving again and my car is not in the shop. I can't imagine if I would have actually needed a tow on Saturday.....I think my car would still have been in that intersection on Sunday morning.

I'm thankful that I wasn't in any fender-benders.

I'm thankful to the WONDERFUL help from friendly neighbors to dig me out (multiple times) and park my car for the night.

I'm SO thankful for my uncle, cousins, and their friend who drove all the way from Blaine the morning after a huge storm to help me, and that my uncle drove my car so I didn't have to, and that we got my tires all squared away. Ahhhhh. So relieved.

I'm grateful for muscle relaxants that helped me sleep last night, and that my back does feel a bit better today (it was SO painful last night....it made me sick to my stomach with how much it hurt).

I'm sure you also have a story from Saturday - hopefully you didn't make such poor decisions like I did! The morale of the story: listen to the weathermen and get hunkered down sooner than later!!

Weekend Away

2010-12-07T07:40:00.005-06:00

I'll admit that I've had PLENTY of weekends away this fall. It has been great, but it has also felt very busy. Many of the weekends have been jam-packed with activities, so this past weekend at Quilt Retreat was just that: a retreat.

There's not much I love more than driving through central Minnesota on a quiet morning after a huge weekend snow storm with just a few flakes floating to the ground while I listen to a great Christmas CD and drink coffee. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Everything was white and beautiful and I was able to reflect on a nice weekend, as well as the entire past year as I drove.

The weekend was relaxed - full of food, friends, family, and fellowship. Oh, and quilting. Even my quilting was relaxed. Often I'm rushing to get a project completed because I know I won't break out my sewing machine once I'm home, but this time I just worked on old projects here and there to get them closer to completion (go to this post to see pictures of the old quilts - I finally put a binding on the blue one and I put a border on the black/neon one. And I still love the maroon/tan quilt - I've finally put it on my bed for good.....totally doesn't match my room but I don't care).

I also learned the EASIEST bag in the world! I went straight to a baby shower on Sunday, so I had made some burp rags, but I also made a bag and put the gifts right in there! I will be doing more of that in the future.

Look at that cute little elephant poking out!

I've definitely decided this is the most efficient way to make burp rags - with a fabric (or ribbons) down the middle. Now I just have to wait another 6 weeks to meet the little baby these are for!!

Advent

2010-12-01T11:23:00.003-06:00

Growing up, each of us girls got an Advent calendar filled with chocolates every year. I loved the calendar not just because I got a chocolate each day, but also because it was the perfect countdown to Christmas! I loved that tradition so much that I often buy myself an Advent calendar each year.

Well, today is the beginning of Advent, and I got the BEST surprise!

When I came home from Thanksgiving, there was a huge box with my name on it sitting inside the door (my roommate had brought it in from the steps). I opened it up and found a beautiful basket full of GIFTS for Advent!! I was SO EXCITED!! And, of course, since I am a horrible cheat with insatiable curiosity (and a to-the-end-flipper....) I promptly opened the letter that said "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DEC 1!". My first thought when I saw the gifts was "whoever gave me this has NO IDEA how hard it will be for me to not open all of these gifts RIGHT NOW"! On the other hand, maybe the giver knows me really well and knows how much I LOVE surprises and that giving/receiving gifts is definitely one of my top "love languages". And the letter offered me no clues as to who the mystery gift-giver is, so it just made me more curious!

I have a reputation with my family for being the worst gift-sneak in the world. I used to UNWRAP the ends of gifts and wrap them back up just so I would know what I was getting! Mom typically did all of her shopping and wrapping on Dec 23 during our growing up years.....I think she may have done that because it worked best with her schedule, but I also suspect she did that because she wanted to keep me from sneaking until the very end!

So, since I should have just opened my letter today, I decided that I could open the first gift instead. After all, I'll be gone this weekend, so I should be able to get ahead just a little bit.....right?!?!

This will be a fun Advent season! Thanks, mystery gift-giver!

First Thought

2010-11-30T22:01:00.002-06:00

How great/funny is this picture?!?!

I know many people who LOVE to read, so more than one person could pop into my mind when I see this picture. But when I came across it tonight, my first thought was "BEKI!"

Here's why:

1. I just came from her house, so she is fresh in my mind (and seeing her tonight made me realize just how much I've missed her!)

2. She was sitting next to me when we listened to N.D. Wilson talk about how he wants to roll around in words like they are leaves. I loved her reaction to that statement, and her husband's response was "I can totally see Beki doing that".....and so could I. And it made me smile.

3. She's just so SWEET! Who wouldn't want to HUG her?!

With Thankfulness

2010-11-30T13:49:00.006-06:00

I had another WONDERFUL Thanksgiving weekend at home. It wasn't a typical Thanksgiving (last year was more typical with lots of people home and lots of activity which prompted me to have a "stomach full; heart even more so"), but throughout the weekend I was reminded of the many things I've been thankful for throughout the year:

Family: Even though my sisters weren't able to come home for Thanksgiving this year, we've had plenty of weekends together as a family recently. I'm blessed to have a family that I enjoy spending time with, and sisters who are also my friends. I'm grateful for generous, hospitable parents who put up with us, too!
Health: A few weeks ago, Dad passed along an email that he described as "sobering". Indeed, it was. He had heard from a woman whose father was also fighting, and still is, a similar cancer to what Dad had. Her father is still receiving chemo each week and has cancer spread throughout his entire body. My sister and I just talked last night about another friend who feels that she may have her final Christmas with her mom coming up because of her mother's cancer diagnosis. In Dad's case, he has been in remission for two years and will have his final PET scan this month, as well as have his port removed (the device they use to administer chemo). Health is something that is often taken for granted until it is gone, but I'm continually grateful for Dad's health, and reminded to keep others who are struggling with health issues in my prayers. Also, since last Thanksgiving, both of my Grandmas have passed away. I'm thankful that they were healthy as long as they were and that I had the time with them that I did. I'm thankful for my Grandpa's health and for the time (like this past weekend) that I can spend with him.
Singleness: Admittedly, being thankful for my singleness is a half-truth. This year has been one where I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't be the young wife and mother I always thought I would be, which is a difficult/sad reality in my eyes. But it's also been a year when I've tried to choose to not dwell on what I don't have, but what I do have. I have the freedom to travel (Europe and Hawaii this year) and spend time with my sisters, and the time and finances to find ways to bless others in a way that might not be possible when/if I get married and have kids. Making that choice to "take advantage" of my singleness is really why I started my year by writing out core values, and while I KNOW I still have room to improve in my thankfulness for being single, I really have experienced much grace in this area.

In addition to these "big" categories, I was also thankful for time last weekend to EAT, finish reading "The Help" (I recommend), SLEEP IN, watch good football games, work hard at Mom's craft show (though not hardly as hard as Mom worked), play games with my cousins.....etc, etc, etc.

New Perspective

2010-11-18T16:19:00.004-06:00

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul."
Psalm 23:1-3a

I'm thankful to a girl in my small group who indirectly helped me to look at this set of verses in a way I don't think I ever have (or would have). You know when you've heard a passage so much that it starts to lose it's meaning? (I don't think I'm the only person who experiences that....) Well, I haven't really applied this passage at all recently, but I was grateful to have a friend bring it to my attention.

I've had a few frustrating moments with friends recently (and, I'm fully aware, "frustrating" is just a "nicer" way of saying things like "angry, annoyed, prideful because I wouldn't have done that" or other such sinful attitudes). Mostly things came to a head on Saturday when there was a beastly snow in Minneapolis - bad enough to call a snow emergency - and I was in Chicago while my car sat on the wrong side of the street, about to be towed, all because I hadn't thought ahead. I spent most of the day trying to track down my roommate to tell her where my spare key was, but soon her phone was off, I hadn't talked to her yet...and it was getting late. I needed someone to simply drive to my house, knock on the door, and tell my roommate to move my car. Pretty simple, right?

I've spent numerous nights dog-sitting, house-sitting, baby-sitting, bringing meals and treats, hosting parties, etc......I was positive I could call in a favor from someone. Because I did know the weather was bad, I didn't want to bother anyone who lived too far away, and I certainly wouldn't be calling my friend who is 37 weeks pregnant, or the friend who has a newborn, or the friend who has two kids in bed already.....the list was getting shorter. Numerous texts, calls, and even talking to people live turned up NO ONE who could do me what seemed the be the tiniest favor.

I felt very ALONE. Which strangely made me feel very SINGLE (funny how those struggles sneak up on you). All I NEEDED was someone to move my car....right? Wrong. All I need is the Lord (He is my shepherd, I shall not want). And even if every person I contacted could have moved my car, they can't restore my soul (HE restores my soul). I could have used that perspective while I was throwing a fit about my car (and being annoyed with my friends), but better late than never.......

(The end of the story is that my WONDERFUL accountability partner responded that she was able to do me the favor, even though I didn't end up needing to call in the favor since I tracked down my roommate after 11pm to solve the problem and save me $200)

(OH, AND....after reading this through again, I don't want ANYONE to think that I don't LOVE dog-sitting, house-sitting, baby-sitting, bringing meals and treats, hosting parties.....because I DO! In fact, I feel specifically called to those things in this "season" as a single person [see core values posts], so PLEASE keep the calls coming!)

Grocery Shopping I'll Actually Do

2010-11-16T20:16:00.009-06:00

I absolutely hate grocery shopping. I think I lack “grocery intuition” – I am never able to find the exact product I need and I usually spend countless minutes roaming up and down the rows looking for what I need (or tracking down employees to point me in the right direction). I also have to call my mother at least two times every time I go grocery shopping to ask her exactly where I might find something, never mind the fact she lives five hours away and has never set foot into the store where I am standing.

My deficiency in grocery skills does nothing but encourage my poor eating habits. For instance, when I bought my house, my mom and aunt stocked my cupboards with some staples…..and I proceeded to not set foot in a grocery store for the next four months (my poor eating habits have been well documented on this blog….). I end up eating way too many overly-processed or frozen foods.

This summer I started a new grocery shopping habit. It almost happened by accident: I had an especially busy week and I needed to get food for a weekend at the cabin with friends. My only chance to get to the store was also the night my roommate called to see if I wanted to enjoy the beautiful night and play tennis. Of course, I chose tennis. Later that night, I went online and signed up for Coborn’s Delivers. In a matter of 20 minutes (about the amount of time it takes me to drive to the store and back) I had bought all of my groceries for the weekend! I knew I was onto something….something I would just love! I’ve been using Coborn’s Delivers ever since. Here is what I love:

There is NO charge for pick up, and the charge for delivery is only $5.00. At the pick up, you drive over a sensor to alert them you are there, and all of your groceries are loaded into your car for you - never having to leave your car.
You can save your shopping lists, so if there are items you get frequently, they will be ready for you to click and buy.
One page has a list of all of the special sale items (for example: I would normally have gotten Diet Coke, but I saw that Pepsi products had a great sale, so I got those instead).
You can type in any coupons at the checkout screen, so you still are saving if you are a coupon clipper.
Many nights after work I am just too tired to make myself walk around the grocery store and stand in line at the checkout. I can go online and shop while I'm in my pajamas watching TV - in about the same amount of time it takes me to drive to the store anyway.
You can find specific items SO much faster - just type them into the search box. I wasted at least ten minutes walking around the grocery store last week looking for Rotella (for a delicious dip recipe my sister gave me) and the whole time I was thinking "if I was shopping online I would already be done with this!!"...but I hadn't planned ahead enough to do that.
Also, when you search an item (like "pickles"), you get an entire page of results with all of the prices and specials listed as well. More than a few times I've gone with a different brand because of specials that I wouldn't have noticed in the grocery store (though more seasoned grocery shoppers may have noticed them).

All that to say....Coborn's Delivers is my new best friend!

The Appropriately Named "Fall Back"

2010-11-08T21:57:00.003-06:00

I do NOT like "falling back" (setting the clock back an hour in the fall).

Everything about it makes me go "wah-wah".

Dark early. Cold coming. A LOT of cold. For a long time. While it's ALWAYS dark.

"Fall back" is the appropriate name, not just because it is a good reminder that in the fall the clocks go back an hour, but because the whole experience makes me want to fall back.....into bed. And not come out until spring. Well, I would come out for Christmas. And maybe Thanksgiving. There is nothing about "falling back" that seems energizing (as opposed to "spring forward" which is just the opposite.....more sun! more warmth! things are blooming! the world is ALIVE!).

BUT I am forcing myself to find a few things about "fall back" that make me excited:

"Fall back" puts me in the mood for basketball. I spent most of my growing up doldrums of winter playing basketball and it is one of my favorite sports. Watching basketball this year will be even more fun since my sister bought Gopher basketball season tickets! We went to our first game tonight and I am excited for many more!
"Fall back" means skiing is only a few more weeks away. My sister forced me to get into skiing so that we would have at least one outside winter activity that we enjoyed, and I do very much enjoy skiing.
It may be dark and cold, but I'm hoping to take advantage of the lack of outside evening activities to force me into the gym more. Hoping. I've packed on enough weight this summer to allow me to hibernate with the bears all winter, but I really hope to shed some of these pounds.
Ummmmm......that's all I've got.

So, happy "fall back". I'm already looking forward to "spring forward".............

Caught Red-Handed

2010-11-06T22:06:00.003-05:00

I have a secret. I don't tell many people...not because I'm ashamed, but because I don't like having to explain myself. See, I know a lot of people who love to read (as I do), and this particular secret upsets them the most.

I'm a to-the-end-flipper.

That's right. I flip to the end of books and read the last page (or more). And I was caught red-handed, by the author of the very book I was reading.

Let me explain.

First of all, I don't read the end of books before I start the book. I've never really understood that. Reading the end of a story where you don't even know the characters or plot would seem very confusing and pointless to me. So I read about 80-100 pages and then I flip to the end. By that point I already know the characters and I have a sense of where the story is going. When I read the end I either think "YES! I can totally see where this is going!" or "HUH? Wow, I can't wait to see how we get there!"

I can't really tell you exactly why I have this habit, but I think it's mostly curiosity. It's also because I have given up on many of the "rules" of reading (like I mentioned in my post about "reader's independence"), such as feeling like you have to finish every book you start, or that you can only read one book at a time. And I enjoy reading the end of books while I'm in the middle of them, so I just continue to do it.

I don't think that I ever "ruin" the book I'm reading. When my sister gave me the book My Sister's Keeper, she made me promise that I wouldn't flip to the end because there was a big twist and I wouldn't see it coming and it was so good and I would just ruin the whole thing if I flipped to the end. So when we were sitting on the dock later that day and I said "Oh my goodness, that is a crazy ending!" she said "You finished it already?!" and I (sheepishly) said "no...I flipped to the end....". And I swear, it didn't ruin the book for me!

ANYWAY. On to the real reason for this post.......

I was reading Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl by N.D. Wilson (which I recommend) and I flipped to the end. I skimmed the final few pages (it's not a novel, so I was just poking around the end of the book) and I decided to read the "gratitude" section. Imagine my surprise when I read the following:

"Thank you for spinning with me, for sharing in the dizziness, and for making it this far. Assuming, of course, that you got this far through the traditional means and not by villainously flipping to the end first. If you are a to-the-end-flipper, then my thoughts about you are dark and my feelings to not involve gratitude."

AHHHH! The author totally called me out! I am the villainous to-the-end-flipper. I laughed out loud. Since I thought this was hilarious, I started to tell people how the author caught me red-handed for being a to-the-end-flipper while I was to-the-end-flipping, and I've been met with much animosity from my reading-loving friends. People are shocked that I would be a to-the-end-flipper (which is why only my sisters have known of this habit until recently).

So, now you know. Don't hate me. And in order for you to not hate me, I will leave you with a few more of my favorite sections from Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl.

"What is the best of all possible feelings? What is the best of all possible things? The best of all possible creatures? Clearly, the best of all possible feelings is the one that comes when the agony of too much time in the car with an overextended bladder has finally been alleviated. Such sweet relief remains unparalleled."

"[My son] cannot think of a way to express himself, and so he takes out the wallet we gave him to hold ice cream money from his grandmothers. He takes out his dollars and throws them in the grass. "They're not important," he says, and shrugs, blinking. He's right. I help him pick them up. Paper and ink are not important. Wealth is unimportant next to souls. So are legs and fingers, all five senses. So is life. But gratitude is all-important. Everything is a gift. Every smell, every second, every ice cream dollar. Gratitude for the whole story, from beginning to end, gratitude for the valleys and the shadows that lead us to the novel's final page. Take a step and thank God, for He holds you in His hand. Never ask to be put down. Never struggle for separation or for worth apart from His gifts. Breath, taste His world, His words, and marvel that you are here to feel the blowing swirl of life. To be blown by it. Enjoy your ice cream."

"And I move on, with the sun on my face. Clouds are growing in the west, glorious clouds piled up with rowdy care and sparked with electric life. I fill my lungs with the world, with this life, with this gift beyond containing. There is only one thing I can say. Thank you. And I must say it with my life. Through my life. To the end of my life. And after."

Neglected Blog

2010-11-03T21:00:00.008-05:00

My sister is right. You have to start somewhere.

Though I'm sure nobody is chomping at the bit for me to stop neglecting this blog, I've decided that I do really want to keep blogging, if only for myself. I simply need to make it a priority (I won't say that I don't have enough time, because everyone has exactly the same amount of time, it is just a matter of how you prioritize what you've been given, and lately blogging hasn't been a priority for me). Looking back on past blogs, I'm glad that I have some of my activities and thoughts documented (especially considering my horrible memory), and I absolutely LOVE following other blogs and having a glimpse into the everyday moments of friends and acquaintances (when I read things like this and this and this I get all happy inside), so I would like to do more of that at my blog as well.

I'm going to steal a page from Becca's book and write a few updates in "stream of consciousness" style.

I've been road tripping a lot lately - to Madison for a Gophers game, to Chicago for a wedding, to Green Bay for a Vikings game, to LaCrosse for a weekend with college roommates and their kids....and next weekend is back to Chicago for another Vikings game (and family fun). I've had a LOT of fun, but it has made me a LOT tired. I am SO thankful that I've had a low key week to recover from many weekends on the road, and to prepare for the sprint toward the Holidays!

Speaking of the Holidays, my Holiday activity for the months of November and December will be PINCHING PENNIES. Oy. I didn't find a renter for my house this winter, and that will very much limit my disposable income. Goodbye, hair color. Goodbye, coffee from Caribou. Goodbye, cute shoes and outfits for get-togethers. Goodbye, delivery boy from Jimmy John's.

I'm annoyed that I didn't write a blog about the Desiring God Conference because I really had a great weekend there. The teaching was great and the fellowship (with my sister and her friends, as well as some church friends) was great. Maybe I'll go through my notes and make a post on it (but don't hold your breath).

I haven't felt so great physically over the last month. I got a nasty sickness in California (while there for work) and it just won't go away. Then there's this: I'm not sleeping well because I haven't been exercising. I haven't been exercising because I eat junk all day and don't feel up for it. I've been eating junk all day because I'm too tired and lazy to eat right. I'm too tired and lazy to eat right because I'm not sleeping well. I'm not sleeping well because I haven't been exercising. I haven't been exerci.....THIS, my friends, is what we call a vicious cycle. It must end, but I don't know where to start. OKAY, I DO know where to start, but I kinda don't care right now.....even though I really do care.....make sense? Ugh.

I have approximately 4,582 books I want to read, yet I sit around and watch too much TV. That annoys me.

Also annoying....the Vikings. And that is all I will say about that.

I have a desire for less clutter in my life. I think that means reorganizing some of the areas where I live (I've already started in the basement). I've decided I can't wait for a time when I have an entire weekend to dive into a huge reorganization project, so I just have to do it bit by bit. It may take me forever.

Okay, I have many other little random thoughts, but I am getting bored with this, so I imagine I've already lost any readers that have stuck with this post (or even happened upon this post at all after my hiatus).

Ta-ta for now. Here's to hoping I'll be more consistent in my blogging.

A Character in His Story

2010-10-05T16:25:00.003-05:00

"Step outside your front door and look at today's stage. Speak. God will reply. He will speak to you. He gave you senses. Use them. He will parade His art. He will give you a scene, a setting for the day. He will give you conflict to overcome, opportunities for your character to grow or fail. But do not expect Him to speak in English. And do not expect Him to stay on whatever topic you might choose. His attention is everywhere and no story should be easy, as every reader knows."

N.D. Wilson, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl

Time Flies...

2010-09-25T15:59:00.004-05:00

...when you're busy!

Can't believe I haven't posted for basically all of September! Well, I can believe it, because things have been busy. With what?....

Cabin: had an AWESOME Labor Day Weekend at the cabin. LOTS of friends and family (I think there were 26 people there throughout the weekend...), lots of food and games. Dad did tons of work on the house for me, mom made tons of food, and I felt very thankful and blessed to have such a nice weekend at my home! The boat, dock, and lift are out, so summer is officially over! I've also been searching high and low to find a renter for the winter at the cabin, so that has meant lots of trips to Brainerd and back (mostly after work, which makes for some late nights) to show the house, but nothing has materialized yet.
Work: just got back from a week in California for sales meetings. I usually enjoy the change of pace, but I got really sick this last week, which was absolutely NO fun (especially the flight home). I'm glad to say I made it through a rough summer with work and have been excited about a busy September with a new set of doctors to call on and preparations for last week's meeting. It's been a good busy at work, which is nice.
Church: I've taken on some additional responsibilities with the Welcome Team at church, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE! September was busy with the start of the new ministry year (meetings, schedules, emails, more meetings, changing schedules, etc, etc, etc). I'm so thankful to have been plugged into a ministry I really love! Again, busy...but a good busy.
Fun with Friends: fill in the cracks of the month with [EACH OF THESE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SEPARATE POST....OOPS] seeing Wicked again (AMAZING), GreekFest (best gyro EVER), going to Wheel of Fortune auditions (unbelievable people watching), my best friend from high school had a baby (TOO cute with SO much hair!), going to the Twins game (where we sat in the SECOND ROW BY THIRD BASE on a gorgeous night!!), small group meetings, girls' night in Uptown (I had the BEST sandwich ever...I was totally craving it the next day...and a blog I follow just happened to do a review on it recently) babysitting for cuties, birthday parties for college friends, kickball started again, basketball started again, dog sitting.....OH MY GOODNESS IT HAS BEEN SO BUSY AND SO FUN!

A friend of mine mentioned on her blog that she isn't blessed with the best memory, so her blog helps her to document her memories. I also do not have a great memory, so I need to be better about blogging! So, thanks to my sickness, I've had a nice lazy day at home (which hasn't happened in quite some time) and I'm catching up on cleaning, blogging, etc. Hope y'all are having a nice weekend!

State Fair Adventures

2010-09-07T18:12:00.002-05:00

I LOVE THE STATE FAIR!

I was lucky enough to go twice this year - which was great, because I felt like I had two totally different Fair experiences.

The first visit was for the Carrie Underwood concert. I went with my older sister and a few friends. Of course we went early to eat some food....I tried the pork chop on a stick for the first time and it was very tasty! Obviously I ate some cheese curds, had a yummy shake, and a HUGE glass of lemonade...some of my faves! I really liked the concert - it was basically just Carrie singing song after song. I really like her voice and her music and I think she is CUTE as a button, so that was great. I was hoping for some outfit changes and for a little more talking between songs, but I guess she didn't have enough time with the fireworks after her show or something (speaking of which...the fireworks were AWESOME!). So, basically, I loved my quick night at the Fair!

The next visit was the annual sisters' visit. We always go on the Friday before Labor Day and then head up to the cabin. We decided to go in the morning this year and get to the cabin early, which was a really good decision, I think. Thing is, IT WAS SO COLD! I've never had a cold Fair experience, and it really changed what I was in the mood to eat....which was kinda nice, because I tried all kinds of new things! Admittedly, I could have dressed more appropriately for the day, but I survived (I'm pretty much a wimp when it comes to the cold...). We started with crepes for breakfast and I also had coffee to warm me up. We've never had crepes and we liked them! Then I tried a gizmo (seasoned beef with red sauce and melted mozzarella on a hoagie bun) for the first time, as well as a fudge puppy (Belgian waffle on a stick dipped in dark chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles on top). Another first time food was a deep fried cheeseburger (yum) as well as garlic fries (okay) shared with the sisters and my uncle and cousin who met up with us. I had some chocolate covered fruit instead of cheese curds this time, and I had cheese on a stick (DELICIOUS) instead of the pronto pups and corn on the cob the others ate. While my sisters stood in line for Sweet Martha's (mmmmmmm.....), I got a mocha from French Meadow to enjoy with the cookies. All in all, I'd say we ate our Fair share (get it??) in the few hours we were there!! I already miss the food, and can't wait to try all kinds of new things next year, too! I've added in some new favorites, and discovered the beauty of using the Blue Ribbon Bargain Book (I ended up saving at least a few pennies).

That's a little bit of a rambling post about our time at the Fair, but I know I'll be looking back at this next year when we (literally) make a list of what we want to eat (my uncle got a good eye-roll in when we pulled out our lists........)!

Family Vacation

2010-08-31T15:56:00.002-05:00

I absolutely love my family’s annual vacation to Pennsylvania, and I look forward to it every summer. Reading, tanning, boating, eating, laughing, playing cards…..it is SO FUN.

But this year…..I couldn’t go.

I had already used up all of my vacation days on other fun trips, so I had to be an adult and stay home to work. What a BUMMER.

Luckily, I had some fun activities during the time that they were gone, but I was still disappointed to miss the trip. I decided to see how far behind I came out on the “Fun Scale” during the time the fam was vacationing without me. Every day I automatically started at -50 Fun Points purely for the fact that they were on vacation and I was not. Here’s how the breakdown came out (all Fun Points are from my perspective, so, for example, on really sunny, fun, vacation days for them, I went down 100 Fun Points. On days they had rain, I only went down 25 Fun Points. My sisters sent me videos throughout the week so I could stay up-to-date on their activities):

Saturday
Them: Wake up at 3am to travel ALL day to rainy PA (-25 FP)
Me: Sleep in, long run, relaxing day, awesome wedding of a college roommate (+100 FP)
Cumulative FP = 75 FP

Sunday
Them: Rainy day at the lake. Watch movies, play cards (-25 FP)
Me: Welcome Team at church, Pool Party and Pamper for the single girls in my small group, girl’s night dinner at a new restaurant (+100 FP)
Cumulative FP = 150 FP

Monday
Them: Another rainy day at the lake. Watch movies, play cards (-25 FP)
Me: Work. Drive to Brainerd to show the cabin to potential renters who never showed up (-75 FP)
Cumulative FP = 50 FP

Tuesday
Them: Another rainy day at the lake. Watch movies, play cards. Natives are getting restless (0 FP)
Me: Work. Friends over to grill and catch up (+50 FP)
Cumulative FP = 100 FP

Wednesday
Them: Another rainy day at the lake…… (0 FP)
Me: Work. Welcome Team Picnic for church (+50 FP)
Cumulative FP = 150 FP

Thursday
Them: BEAUTIFUL day relaxing at my aunt and uncle’s pool (-100 FP)
Me: Work. Shop for weekend food. Drive to the cabin again to meet potential renters. Renters show up, but I will NOT be renting my house to them… (-50 FP)
Cumulative FP = 0 FP

Friday
Them: Another beautiful day at the pool. (-100 FP)
Me: Work. Drive to the cabin with Bethel friends. Campfire and fun (100 FP)
Cumulative FP = 0 FP

Saturday
Them: Another beautiful day at the pool (-100 FP)
Me: Gorgeous day at the lake with friends: sleeping, boating, playing games, tanning, reading, grilling, laughing, discussing, relaxing….. (100 FP)
Cumulative FP = 0 FP

SO…..as much as I was missing being on vacation with my family, it turns out that I had a pretty good week after all, thanks to lots of great friends from church and college. I didn’t come out behind on the Fun Scale, and I’m definitely trying to soak up every little ounce of summer there is left!!

Weddings, Weddings

2010-08-26T10:26:00.000-05:00

The last two weekends I have gone to VERY fun weddings. They marked the end of weddings for the summer, but I still have one in October to look forward to!

First was my cousin’s wedding. It was SO FUN and absolutely beautiful. My cousin and my little sister were born eight days apart, and I am barely two years older than them, so the three of us spent a lot of time together growing up. He’s grown up to become an amazing tennis player, and he met the sweetest girl ever at a tennis match – so they had a little tennis theme at the reception: tennis balls with their name and date as a party favor, tennis balls worked into the center pieces, and they walked under an arch of tennis racquets held by their wedding party when they entered the room. The food was AMAZING (can you say bacon wrapped fillet Mignon??) and they had the best coffee EVER (I’m still upset that I forgot to ask a server what kind of coffee that was!). The dance was a total blast, with the whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins) getting out on the dance floor and showing some (very awkward) moves. I even caught the bouquet! Overall, it was really a wonderful, wonderful day!

This past weekend was the wedding of a college roommate. She is one of the cutest, most fashionable people I know, so of course the whole day was perfectly styled. The bridesmaids had the best yellow dresses and the cutest pink and blue shoes – the bride wore a dress that didn’t go quite all the way to the ground in the front, and she had the most adorable blue shoes with a flower! The reception had awesome appetizers and a very cute lemon theme. During the dance they brought out “late-night snacks” (puppy chow!), which I thought was a great idea. It was another wonderful day….even though I failed to catch the bouquet that time!

Very excited for the next wedding in October!!

90 Day Challenge

2010-08-10T07:30:00.002-05:00

I have been MORE than lazy this summer. I haven't worked out since May, and I've been eating everything in sight. This is not a good combination. I've been trying to think of some ways to have better accountability in these areas, but I always came up with a reason to not follow through. The timing seemed right, then, when I got an email from my gym a few weeks ago about the 90 Day Challenge. I'm not really sure exactly what this all entails (since my official weigh in isn't until later today), but I do know that it is a fitness challenge to see who can trim the most weight/inches in the next 90 days. You are assisted by a trainer and you also get some nutrition guidance. There are some prizes on the line, too. A few friends of mine have also signed up, so between the trainer and my friends, I should have some good accountability.

A few months ago I took a nutrition course (which I failed to blog about). Of course people were there to learn how to eat better to lose and control weight, but the instructor also encouraged us to set two goals in changing our diet that didn't have to do with weight. My goals were to have more sustained energy throughout the day and to sleep better at night. I was really pleased with how I could see the results: when, what, and how much I ate was effecting my energy and sleeplessness. I have totally fallen away from any good habits I acquired in that class, but I hope to implement a few during the 90 Day Challenge.

When I do New Year's Resolutions or little personal challenges like this, I am tempted to try and change EVERYTHING in my life that I would like to be different: eating habits, sleeping habits, exercise habits, devotional habits, etc, etc, etc. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew this time because then I get discouraged and I don't change anything. So I wanted to have a small list to work off of for the next 90 days:

only one cup of black coffee a day
no soda
work out in the morning as much as possible
run a half marathon (Oct 17 Des Moines) - this will be the work out plan I will be following
not cutting out snacks completely, but making better choices with the snacks I do choose
drink more water (which should be easy since I drink about zero right now)
have a more consistent bedtime (hard to do in the summer, so we'll see about this one...)
have salad for lunch at least twice a week (I eat horrible at lunch everyday since I am bringing in all kinds of good (bad for you) food to clinics - like pizza, Boston Market chicken-meatloaf-sweet potatoes, pasta, LeAnn Chin, etc, etc, etc.....)

So....we'll see how it goes! I have to remind myself to take baby steps and not get discouraged. I feel a little crazy for signing up for a race that is only 10 weeks away, but if I'm not ready for it, I don't feel like I absolutely have to do it - it is just a nice goal for me to have.

Cheap Solution

2010-08-05T22:14:00.002-05:00

I heard a blurb on the radio today about the annual Ikea catalog coming out. Apparently over 500,000 people in the metro get this catalog and they run out of copies of it at the store. I guess there's also a rush at the store around this time of year, and moms wait in line over an hour to get their kids into the child care area (maybe they just need a break from their kids and they're not all that interested in Ikea furniture after all...or maybe they are just going to grab 3.99 Swedish meatballs sans kiddos). I guess there is a lot of interest in cheap, modern, assembly-required furniture in the metro.

I really don't like shopping - especially when it's busy - so I'm lucky that I had my random urge to reorganize last weekend before this rush at Ikea starts. I had just returned from a weekend at the cabin and I was completely unpacked. As I sat down at the desk in the office to get ready for the work week, I felt totally unsatisfied with the space. I've felt that way for awhile and my roommate has expressed a desire to also have a desk in the office (I have been using her desk because she wasn't using it when I moved in four years ago), so I knew I needed to shop for some kind of work space solution in the near future. Either I was trying to procrastinate what really needed to be done or I was feeling extra motivated, but for some reason I dove into rearranging the office at 9 on Sunday night. After I adjusted the existing furniture, I made a stop at Target, Office Max, and Ikea on Monday to accumulate a new lamp, a new desk chair, and a new work table all for less than $100! And I'm so glad I didn't have to fight the Ikea-catalog-release crowds! The assembly for the chair and table I got at Ikea were amazingly straightforward, and by 7pm on Monday, the office had a whole new look! I'm excited about my great buys and the reorganized space, and my roommate is excited to set up an office space again. We're hopeful we'll have lots of productivity in our "new" office.

Staycation 2010

2010-07-26T22:01:00.004-05:00

I had received a reward from work at the beginning of the year: two free nights at a Hilton brand hotel. My spring was busy with travel already, so I kept procrastinating the use of the reward until I figured out just the right spot with just the right people. When I realized last week that my reward was about to expire, I didn't have time to plan much: my ONLY opportunity was to use the reward on the upcoming weekend!

In a matter of a few days, I had booked a three-room suite in downtown Minneapolis and had set up a nice little staycation.

I took the lightrail into downtown after work on Friday (since I didn't want to pay for parking over the weekend) and checked into my hotel. I settled in just a bit, and then a friend who lives downtown took me to have pizza with some other friends in St Paul. BEST PIZZA EVER. Mama's Pizza on Rice in St Paul. Eat the Italian Fries. You will not be sorry. Had such a fun night of laughing and eating.

After my friend dropped me off at my hotel, I enjoyed watching lots and lots of cable (something I don't have at home). Mostly I watched Say Yes to the Dress. If I didn't know what I wanted for a wedding dress before, I do now (okay, that's a total lie - I'm way too indecisive to know what kind of dress I want - especially when it's an imaginary decision at this point!).

I slept in (SO LATE) on Saturday and had breakfast at a little crepe place downtown. I got my favorite coffee at Dunn Bros. and did some shopping. I have loved Saks Off 5th ever since I got a steal on a dress I have worn to a lot of weddings there. I went there with my fingers crossed that I would find another steal....and BOY, DID I!! I found the most CUTE dress - originally $256 - for a total of $34.99! Without a coupon! I was so happy. I'm hardly ever successful when I shop, so it was so nice to walk out with not just a great deal, but a pretty dress.

Then I met my sister for lunch downtown. It was so fun to sit out on the sidewalk and try new food and chat. We parted ways and I went back to my room to clean up and watch a movie or two while I did so.

Then my friends started to arrive. I was SO thankful that on a summer weekend night I was able to round up some girls - six, in fact - who were able to enjoy my staycation with me! We decided to head to the rooftop at Seven. When we got there, we were met with a lot of "OH, you don't have a reservation??", so we weren't sure we were going to get a spot....but all of a sudden we were being seated on the rooftop on big couches in the shape of a U under a beautiful trellis! The weather was perfect, the setting was so pretty, and the company was great! We had awesome sushi and stayed there for quite awhile. Then we decided to head to the rooftop at Brit's - another great setting on a beautiful night. A few of the girls came back to the hotel and spent the night and it was just such a fun night overall! I felt so happy to have such great friends - lots of great conversation that night.

Sunday morning I got up and - here is the only bad part of my weekend - took the lightrail home, only to FORGET THE BAG WITH MY DRESS ON THE LIGHTRAIL! Once I got back to my car, I hunted down the train I was on (I felt like a crazy person.....), and when I found it, the bag was already gone. I called lost and found today, and they haven't seen the bag either. It's okay, though. I was glad that I was on my way to church when I lost the dress to give immediate perspective to the fact that it's only a dress. Even if it was GORGEOUS!

After church I had lunch with some favorite people and then headed home to unpack a little and read. A nice, lazy afternoon. Later that night, I met up with some girls from church at a water park in St Louis Park. I completely love the water, and I forgot how much I like to go down body slides and practice my diving (that is, until I chickened out on a swan dive and got a nice smack on my legs and face). Definitely a random, fun night. Then I had some late night pizza with my AP and wished the weekend wouldn't end during my entire drive home.

Ahhhhhh, Staycation 2010 was just what I needed.

In My Purse

2010-07-24T17:12:00.002-05:00

My purse needs to be cleaned out. In addition to the normal pursey things (money, chapstick, kleenex, camera, gum, advil), I've collected some random items over the summer in my purse - including:

earrings
cortisone cream (OH, I forgot to mention the horsefly bite that nearly caused me to lose my leg....)
a phone charger
socks (?)
mosquito spray
playing cards
a toothbrush

My goodness. I'm not even a mom - why in the world to I have so many random things in my purse?! I can only chalk it up to the fact that it's been a fun, random summer so far!

Even More Suggestions

2010-07-24T17:08:00.004-05:00

In response to my last post, my sister sent me a link to an awesome source for even more fun suggestions of things to do in the cities. Enjoy!

Some Tasty Suggestions

2010-07-22T19:05:00.002-05:00

I love living close to fun places to eat - the problem is that I don't take advantage of it enough! I told myself that I wanted to get to few more of these fun places that I've never visited sometime this summer, and so far I've done pretty well (checked off the list: Brasa, Matt's Bar, Psycho Suzy's). I also like getting a few magazines that inform me of these places. The August MN Monthly Mag had a list of 24 great places to eat or drink outdoors:

The Drive-In, Taylors Falls

Al Vento, Mpls

The Kitchen, Stillwater

Bar Lurcat, Mpls

The Dakota Jazz Bar and Restaurant, Mpls

Aperitif, Woodbury

Aster Cafe, Mpls

Bricks American Pub, Blaine

Campiello, Eden Prairie

D'amico Kitchen, Mpls

Black Forest Inn, Mpls

La Grolla, St Paul

Molly Cool's Seafood Tavern, Lakeville

Moto-I, Mpls

Happy Gnome, St Paul

Muffaletta, St Paul

Northcoast, Wayzata

Uptown Cafeteria, Mpls

Sea Change, Mpls

Meritage, St Paul

The Sample Room, Mpls

Tria Restaurant Bar and Market, North Oaks

W.A. Frost, St Paul

I've been to a number of those places, but there are definitely a few on that list that I've been hearing about and I want to get to sometime soon!

I also subscribe to the Groupon emails, and I've gotten a few coupons to places I've been wanting to try (Stabby's Cafe is one of them; Town Talk Diner is another. Both are so close to my house, and I've heard that the TTD has the best cheese curds short of being at the State Fair! Can't wait to check those out!)

I can't remember which magazine I found the following list in, but I wanted to include it in this post so that I can remember a few of these places to get to at some point (like to Dave's Popcorn - I've driven past it every day for almost four years and I've never tried anything from there!):

Least Inviting BBQ Place that has Great BBQ: JC’s BBQ 2117 W Broadway Ave, Mpls
Business Worthiest of the mantra, “Cavities are Temporary, Carmelcorn is Forever”: Dave’s Popcorn 1848 E 38th St, Mpls
Best Pit-Stop Meal: Hot City Pizza (specialty is white pizza with garlic sauce)
Best View of Downtown St. Paul: River Boat Grill 105 Harriet Island Rd, St Paul
Best Soul Food: The Favor Café 913 W Lake St, Mpls
Best Road Trip-worthy Burger Place with a Slightly Misleading Name: The Ox Yoke Inn, 261 CR 92, Maple Plain

Friendships

2010-07-18T20:48:00.004-05:00

Friends and friendships have been on my mind lately. I thought I had started a post about friendships another time, and I found it in my drafts from last August! So maybe summer is a time when I end up evaluating my friendships for some reason, but nonetheless, here are some thoughts I've been kicking around..... (warning: lengthy post with lots of links about to commence....)

I am clearly in a different stage of life than most of my close friends. When they entered marriage and I was still single I was in a different stage, but now the gap has widened more with children. And as those children become toddlers and even more kids are added to the mix, I feel the gap spread further.

I completely ADORE my friends kids, and I'm so thankful that I get to babysit, hang out, and egg them on just a little during some dinners. I feel very strongly that even though I'm not investing in my own marriage right now, I can use the extra time I have to babysit and allow my friends the time to invest in their marriages. I love watching my friends learn to parent and I actually don't mind the discussions about sleep schedules, eating habits, and how to discipline. But the fact remains that I'm still single and that life (having kids) is not my life (as much as I would like it to be).

So when I read this article, I resonated with a lot of what she wrote. These friendships aren't going to come as naturally anymore. We aren't living together at college. We aren't taking the same classes. We aren't living in the same city in some cases. Here are a few paragraphs that I thought were awesome:

While this social divide is understandable, it certainly isn't biblical. In the early church, believers didn't distinguish between marrieds and singles; they simply lived in community and "gave to anyone as he had need" (Acts 2:45). God intends his church to unite despite the many cultural differences separating it: There "should be no division in the body, but … its parts should have equal concern for each other" (1 Corinthians 12:25).
To follow this biblical pattern, my married friends and I had to push through obstacles that would have robbed us of treasured relationships. While I wanted to draw close to these dear souls, at the same time I wanted to withdraw from them to avoid facing what I didn't have: a husband, children, and a seemingly endless social circle. I wrestled with an internal tug-of-war between opposing inclinations: I want to be with you—I can't bear to be with you. I loved the friends, but hated the painful reminders. So I had to make intentional choices not to run away from married friends.
And they had to figure out how to fit me into their ever-changing social structure. Significant life transitions, such as marrying, having a first baby, and then having multiple children, challenged our relational dynamic. With each transition, my friends' social circles and extended family widened, leaving us fewer opportunities to spend time together.

She also gives practical advice on how to keep and create friendships that bridge that "aisle" (look for commonalities, check your attitude, make compromises, maintain open communication, consider sensitive issues). I STRONGLY encourage you to read this article if you are in this type of friendship (on either the married or the single side).

I especially appreciated the advice she had to offer on maintaining open communication. This is an area where I am surprisingly deficient. Why am I so hesitant to tell my closest friends what I am really feeling (about our friendship or otherwise)? This only makes me feel more isolated, and that's not healthy. I think part of it is acknowledging that neither of us completely understands the others' situation (they've never been "extendedly" single, and I've never been married with kids) while understanding that we still want to be there for each other. An interesting landscape to traverse.

I'm so grateful for the time my married friends and friends with children make for me (especially when I read an article like this which reminds me how draining their days are), but I do sometimes fall into a funk of wishing it was different. Wishing I was invited on couples' nights (that was a huge struggle for me in college), wishing I was someone's best friend, wishing I could attend play dates with all the kids (and my own). But that's just not how things are, and that is wasted time feeling sorry for myself. When I read this series on friendships, I was reminded of two things: to not be jealous [#2 - Don't be clingy] (I've had jealous friends before, and that is not becoming of anyone), and to recognize that friends will fail you [#5]. I shouldn't be so quick to be offended when a friend "fails" me. I'm more than sure that I've failed them before! Only Jesus never fails, so it is important for me to remember that my hope is not in my friends (the number, the quality, the depth, etc) - my hope is in Jesus.

When my friends first started getting married I remember that I would constantly think (if not just say out loud) "I need more single friends, I need more single friends!" I didn't want to feel like I was the only single person, because I knew that I wasn't - but I just happened to be friends with all of the girls who got married! I'm glad that in the last few years more single girls have been coming to my church, so I have gotten to know some of them better. My AP and I have been forced into a fast friendship, based on the nature of how quickly you get to know someone when you are confessing sin, encouraging one another, and pointing out areas of strength and weakness. Though we've never actually said these exact words to each other, I think she and I are trying to operate more and more under this type of relationship (taken from this article):

"I know that this sounds crazy but I really trust you and value your perspective. So I want to invite you to share things with me that will be difficult for me to hear. When (not if) you see sin in my life that you don't think that I'm aware of, please point it out to me. When (not if) you see me making mistakes with my kids or my spouse, please tell me. Everything is fair game. Nothing is off limits.

I wish that I could promise that I would immediately respond with humility and repentance but that might not always be true. But I will promise that I won't hold your comments against you and let it ruin our friendship. I want you to know that I will see your willingness to say hard things to me as a sign that you are a real friend and not an enemy giving false or superficial praise."

I think as a single person you receive a lot of superficial (if not completely generic) praise: "I can't believe you're still single!" "How has no one snatched you up yet?" "Those guys don't know what they're missing!" I'm finding it more and more important to have the kinds of friends who tell you what they really see going on in your life, good or bad, and specifically. I think those kinds of friendships prepare me more for that type of openness and honesty with the future husband I hope is out there somewhere.

There is more I want to say on this topic (possibly something about the types of friends you should have, and how you have to be the kind of friend you want to have......), but I've said plenty. I'm glad to get some of this down on "paper" and I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you "bridge the divide" with your married friends (for you singles) and your single friends (for you marrieds). And if you are married and you've never given this topic any thought, I guarantee your single friends have, and they might love if you opened up that conversation with them!

Sew Fun

2010-07-17T16:18:00.008-05:00

I mentioned a little while back that I have many babies entering my life. As of about a month ago, I had 12 pregnant friends - six of them are girls who had me in their weddings (HW, MS, AD, AH, LM, JW)! Now two of those girls have their babies in their arms already (one baby all the way from Africa!!) and I am getting behind on baby gifts already! After spending $70 at Babies-R-Us last week, I decided some of these kiddos are going to be getting some handmade gifts (of the inexpensive variety). My sister also asked me how to make some burp cloths, which are a little tough to explain without demonstrating (or having pictures), so I just thought I would document it here for her!

Here are the instructions for flannel burp rags:

1. Choose four flannel fabrics and cut them into 12"x12" blocks

2. Stack the blocks in the order you want the fabrics (this will make sense after you see the final product, but I usually have a print on the back and three coordinating plain flannels on top). Place the first fabric right side DOWN, and the other three fabrics on top of it, right side UP.
3. Using 3/4" masking tape, place tape diagonally across the fabric stack, evenly spaced at 3/4" apart.4. Pin the four fabrics together.5. Using a coordinating color of thread, sew alongside the masking tape. Try to avoid sewing on the masking tape since that makes it harder to pull off cleanly. I flipped this over in the picture so that you can see how it looks along the back (you might have to look pretty close here...sorry...).5. Remove the tape and cut through the top TWO fabrics between every area that you sewed. (Try to keep your cutting as much in the center of each section as possible)6. This is what the burp rag will look like after you complete your cutting. Trim the threads from the edges. Wash and dry.7. Done! (Trim the edges again after washing and drying).So, that's what I've done in the past for burp rags. It's pretty fast and kinda cute, BUT I think I discovered an even better burp rag idea! Here it is:

1. Wash, dry, and iron a cloth diaper. Cut out a piece of flannel to the same size as the diaper. Pin the two together.
2. Sew along the outer edge of the diaper with a coordinating color thread. I also sewed along the edges of the middle section of the diaper to add just a little something visually (you can barely see that in this photo).
3. Sew on a binding of a coordinating color. If you don't know how to do binding, follow the instructions found on this page. (Side note: I started with a 2.5" piece of fabric for the binding, but if I did it again, I would use 3" due to the thickness of the diaper and the flannel. When trying to complete the binding by hand, I was wishing there was more fabric to fold over the edge.) (Another side note: I think completing the continuous binding is the absolute most confusing thing there is about sewing/quilting. So just take a deep breath, go slowly, and try to just do it right the first time. Ugh.)4. Hand sew the binding on to complete your project. SO easy, SO cute, and SO inexpensive. The greatest thing about this project is that you barely need any fabric, so you can search the the remnants at your favorite fabric outlet and get a steal! I'll be able to make about four burp rags out of the fabric I bought out of the remnants for $2.99! And, even though I've never been a mom, the mom I am hanging out with this weekend while I finished this sewing said that this type of burp rag will probably be very useful and practical, too. Score!
(Final side note: I got this idea when I saw a burp rag given to a friend that had a cute fabric sewn down the middle part of the diaper. That would also be an awesome project/gift, but I don't have a machine that does the cute stitches, so I wanted to do something where I could finish off the edges. But if you have a machine like that, that's another idea! Wouldn't it be cute if you used the same fabric and did one burp rag each way as a gift?? Sew fun!)

A Long Week

2010-07-15T21:15:00.005-05:00

This felt like such a long week. Maybe it's because my last few weeks weren't five-days-of-work long. It definitely feels like tonight should be Friday and I DO NOT want to go to work tomorrow.

More likely it felt long because I was tired. I got annoyed with my friends easily. I felt "wronged" a few times, and I let myself harbor those feelings. I chose my ego - many, many times.

This week, I did not value my relationships like I should have.

(HT: 22 Words)

An Eventful Weekend

2010-07-12T11:56:00.005-05:00

Sorry to bore some (most) of you with lists of what I've been up to lately (which is what much of my recent blogging has been), but that is somewhat the purpose of this blog - for me, anyway. I hope to get into some more reflections/thoughts soon, but I've simply been too BUSY to do it! Here's what the last week looked like:

A nice, low-key Fourth at the cabin with my parents and family friends.
Quick three-day work week (LOVE short work weeks)
Took Friday off to judge Miss Northwest. It was the 75th Annual Water Carnival, so they did a nice job of getting many former queens to come back for the evening. All of the judges were past Miss Northwests, and we had fun reminiscing about our favorite parts of our reigns. (Side note: judging is a VERY interesting endeavour. I feel much more at peace with the pageants I didn't win having now served on the other side of things. Judges all are opinionated in their own ways, and even judges can be curious as to who the winner will actually be! When you have evenly matched contestants and a panel that doesn't speak at all about their leanings, it makes for an interesting outcome - which I think is how it should be)
Went to a cabin on Saturday with friends from high school and their wives. I love, love, love those people. So fun to ride on the boat and attempt to wake board (unsuccessfully - still mad about that....) and laugh, laugh, laugh.
Went to my cabin Saturday night with my mom and sister. Had a good time chatting, eating, and watching (sleeping through) a movie. Sunday was spent cleaning and I ran a few errands to spruce up the cabin in preparation for many, many weeks straight of guests. So fun!

So, it was an eventful weekend. It was also eventful on the home front - I came home to find the boy had gotten stitches after a run-in with a Mastiff! His five-pound frame looked like a yummy snack to the hundred pound dog! His bad haircut now looks even worse where they shaved his head and neck to do the stitching. He's lucky to be alive, and I'm beginning to think he actually is a cat - with nine lives and all!

Hope you all are getting every single ounce out of summer that you can! It's going to be gone before we know it!!

New Book

2010-07-11T21:42:00.002-05:00

I started a new book this weekend - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. It's one of my sister's favorite books, so I've been looking forward to reading it. I started it while sitting on the dock with three fun girls, so I didn't really do much reading, but I already like it. Here is something I loved from page 5:

They were passing remarks back and forth the way they do and laughing that wicked way they have. And it seemed beautiful to me. It is an amazing thing to watch people laugh, the way it sort of takes them over. Sometimes they really do struggle with it. I see that in church often enough. So I wonder what it is and where it comes from, and I wonder what it expends out of your system, so that you have to do it till you're done, like crying in a way, I suppose, except that laughter is much more easily spent.

I think I'm going to like it! Now on to page 6....

Time Flies

2010-07-06T15:27:00.002-05:00

Okay, so this is a day late, but I am just now catching up on my internets from the Holiday. I saw a few different places on Twitter and blogs that yesterday was the date that Marty McFly traveled to in Back to the Future. Crazy! Where's my hover board?! I especially like the picture above that I found via a friend's blog (her title of "The Future is Now" is perfect. Well played.).

I LOVE BACK TO THE FUTURE. I watch it at least three times a summer at the cabin. So it is strange that we have arrived at a day that felt so far away when I first watched those movies.

All of this is more interesting to me in light of a book I read over the weekend and a few conversations I had as a result of it. The book was The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen. It is about the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The chapters move back and forth between the story of the architecture of the Fair and a serial killer that was on the loose in Chicago at that time. It is absolutely fascinating (if you are a big geek like me), but I will also say it is a bit gorey. What is so amazing is to think about how they actually built buildings at that time - with steam (no electricity other than cutting edge incandescent bulbs) and horses (no cars/machinery). The serial killer was a doctor, so the book also talks about the coming of age in medical practices. Very intriguing.

In 1893, visitors to the World's Fair couldn't believe they had built buildings that were 21 stories high, let alone the fact they were frightened to death of this contraption called the Ferris Wheel. Twenty-five years ago, someone imagined hover boards for Back to the Future, and while we don't really have that, or clothes that dry themselves on our bodies, we essentially have libraries that we can carry in our pockets, and computers we use as phones. Pretty amazing. Or, as Doc Brown would say, "Great Scott!"

Not A Morning Person

2010-07-05T20:44:00.004-05:00

I am NOT a morning person. I don't think I ever will be. I have tried to be one - and failed. Miserably. Even my attempt to workout in the mornings was a bust. It lasted about one week.

I think a lot of people think it's more "noble" (or something) to be a morning person. And I sorta get that - early bird gets the worm and blah, blah, blah. "Being a morning person is more dignified" is such a commonly held notion that Stuff Christians Like has a post about how we assume God is a morning person and Satan is a night owl.

But I've stopped feeling bad about it. I'm more productive at night. I need my sleep so that I'm productive throughout the day. I can't even tell you how many times I've tried to change my sleep schedule so that I go to bed earlier and get up earlier. But it doesn't stick. My insomnia certainly hasn't helped in the past, but I know that there are some things that I can do to help improve my sleep and slightly change my sleep schedule.

I came across a list of six tips to survive sleep deprivation. They are very helpful for me:

Scale back your commitments
Use caffeine wisely
Plan your meals and snacks carefully
Take naps when possible
Plan your schedule around your natural rhythms
Prioritize your to-do list

I already do pretty well with #6, but I could improve in #1-4 in order to decrease some of my sleep deprivation. #5 just reinforces my theory that it is best for me to get my sleep in the mornings and burn the oil a little more at night when I am naturally more productive and alert.

I know that I can't just sleep my mornings away (it does nothing but clutter up your day), and I've been known to exhibit some extraordinary snoozing techniques in my day (I'm a big fan of #1 and #2), so I do need to have a better grasp on getting up at a certain time - but that certain time will still not be obnoxiously early. I'm going to work on a good balance of getting better sleep and being productive with the time I am awake. We'll see what shakes out in the next few months.

Summer of the Skirt

2010-06-28T22:22:00.002-05:00

I love wearing skirts and dresses, and there is no better time to do so than summer. I'm much more comfortable in a skirt, and I can dress them up, or dress them down. I love love them.

Last summer my sister declared it the "summer of the skirt". I can't remember the exact comment one of her friends made, but it was something along the lines of her declaration not really having any significance since wearing skirts is nothing out of the ordinary for her.

ANYWAY (I feel like that was a rambling introduction), a few weeks ago I walked into church in a skirt. My AP said "I knew you'd be wearing a skirt". I replied, "I will be every Sunday. It's the summer of the skirt!" and her sister chimed in, "I feel a blog post coming on!" She was right!

So I was going to write a post about the Summer of the Skirt and all the reasons I like skirts, but then I came across this article in the Strib - looks like these girls really beat me to the punch! I don't always read the Strib, so it was ironic that I happened to pick it up in a clinic on the day this article was run. Another friend posted about this same article, so it reminded me to get it on my blog, as well. You can find their website here.

C'mon, everybody! Get in on the Summer of the Skirt!

Reader Independence

2010-06-28T21:07:00.004-05:00

I had time to burn in a doctor's office last week, so I was thumbing through the O Magazine (trust me, it was the only option there). I came across an article that was interesting to me called "Declaration of Reader Independence". It was about how it can be very easy to let "group-think" determine what you will read next. Here is a little piece I typed out [my comments are in italics]:

Reading is very personal – there are no rules beyond the ones you care to make. Declare your independence from common wisdom, lore and the opinions of others. You have the independence to…
Not finish a book, whether you’ve read to page 10, 50, or 250. I used to feel guilty if I didn't finish a book (I think a lot of people are that way), but in the last few years I have definitely gotten over that. Too many good books out there to waste time on ones I don't like!
See the movie first. I don't know about this one. Typically the book is better so I kinda like to read it first. I usually think reading the book first makes the movie even better - this was especially true with The Time Traveler's Wife.
Read two books at once – and occasionally get the plots mixed up. Oh boy, I am notorious for reading two (or three...or four....) books at once....
Reread a childhood favorite. But be forewarned: Charlotte still dies. Summer always feels like a particularly good time to reread childhood faves. I'm currently rereading a few: The Secret Garden and The Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Judge a book by it’s cover. Or its title. I'm too frequently disappointed by doing this.
Wish that Cormac McCarthy would use a little punctuation now and then. I've never read McCarthy, so I have nothing to add here.
Be miffed if your friend doesn’t like a book you recommend. On the other hand, you have our permission to be miffed if she gets miffed when you don’t like the one she recommends to you. I'm not offended when people don't like my recommendations. Like movies and music, I like most everything, so it has to be pretty awful if I don't. My palate is not that discerning, I guess.
Ignore memoirs by people who have barely cracked their 30s. Amen.
Declare yourself unmoved by the existential struggles of vampires, zombies, talking dogs, or what we worry is the next trend: scary-smart monkeys. Well, I don't dig the zombie stuff, but I've been known to read a certain series about werewolves...
Believe that books can be magic carpets to enchanted lands, even while realizing that they’re inanimate objects make of ink and paper. (Unless they’re e-books. And it’s okay to love those too). Totally. Ahhhh, I love books. And my Kindle.

10 Days

2010-06-28T12:09:00.003-05:00

Ummm...why haven't I posted in 10 days??

BIRTHDAY! It was FUN. Perfect weather, great friends, wonderful food, games, laughs, and lots of smelling like a bonfire. Overall, I felt very blessed.
Miss Minnesota. I hadn't been to Miss MN in a few years. I thought the show was great, that the production value has gone up since I was a contestant, and that the contestants themselves were impressive. I really liked briefly catching up with my pageant friends and I found myself simultaneously missing pageants and not missing them at all. It's a strange juxtaposition of feelings that pageants create for me, which my former-Miss-MN-friend explains more eloquently than me. I'm glad I went, and even more glad I had an excuse to wear fake lashes, even with my bum eye.
Ride alongs. Three of the four days I worked last week I had a manager with me. That is just plain BUSY and STRESSFUL.
Went to a church softball game, played kickball, grilled out, and generally enjoyed the hot weather.
Impromptu visit to my AP's apartment after the gym. We watched funny TV, talked, and laughed. And hopefully relieved some of our stresses.
Dinner with college roommates at Brasa - YUM and so great to catch up with some of my favorite soon-to-be-moms!
Two weddings in one weekend. Both beautiful, both fun, both memorable.
Road trip with each sister to and from the first wedding. Also included in road trip: late-night pizza and movie at the hotel. My fave.
Dog sitting. It was SUPER humid this weekend, so the dogs definitely got kicked out of my bed, but we still had a good time watching cable together :)
Impromptu game night with the "brothers". I was definitely in bed at 8pm on Saturday night, but the funny pictures they texted got me out of bed and driving through a storm for good laughs. Love them.
Welcome Team at church and Small Group. I'm so blessed by my church friends!! Such a great day. The long day was wrapped up by sitting outside on a gorgeous evening with two great girls - we had a good, difficult conversation and I was laughed at. A lot.

Holy cow. No wonder I could barely open my eyes this morning! This week is shaping up to be just as busy and just as fun.

My Appendix Saved My Sight

2010-06-17T21:17:00.003-05:00

We all know the story of my appendix. Moral of the story: if you seem sick or "off", do something about it. Don't let it get out of control and become a scary situation that could have been avoided.

And thanks to that lesson I learned when my appendix burst, my sight has been saved.*

Yesterday I thought I had a sty on my eyelid. I've had them before: my eyelid was a little irritated, it was slightly swollen, etc. A friend at kickball gave me great advice to get a hot compress on it. I did that before bed and hoped it would be better in the morning.

It was NOT. My eye was more swollen, and much more painful. I began to think that it was more than a sty, and I was glad that I was getting together with sister, MD, for dinner so that she could take a look at it. By 8am, I was glad that I was having lunch with one of my favorite doctors so that he could take a look at it rather than waiting until dinner. By 9am, I was making an appointment with an optometrist because it was REALLY making me worried. I didn't wear any makeup to work, and I was glad that I hadn't, because my eye was not doing well. I was starting to remind myself of Quasimodo.

I got to the appointment with the optometrist and she immediately said that I would need an antibiotic. She gave me an eye exam (which I haven't had since 1996...) and said that I pretty much had the best vision she's ever encountered (hence me not having an exam since 1996....). Then she wanted to take a closer look at my eye. At this point she was more concerned about the swelling she was seeing, and after a closer look said, "Oh, I can see this is much more than a sty. I'm so glad you came it. This is periorbital cellulitis". Since I don't know what that means, I just nodded my head. She continued, "There's nothing to be concerned about at this point, but if you would have let this go and get on the inside of your eyelid, you would have an ocular emergency and I'd be sending you to the ER".

Okay. This can be serious if I don't stay on top of it. At dinner, I was telling my sister about my day and she informed me that she once had a patient in the hospital for over three weeks who had a few surgeries thanks to periorbital cellulitis. Yikes. Not that I would have been in that same situation if I would have let this go, but I am glad that my appendix incident has made me more wisely cautious when it comes to my health. In other words, my appendix saved my sight.

In an effort to not be completely vain, I'm handling the instruction to not wear any makeup until Monday pretty well. I do feel silly not wearing makeup to work since I work in an industry that is pretty vain (entire TV episodes have been dedicated to how good-looking the people in my industry are....), but I'll manage (mostly by wearing sunglasses). I do plan on cheating a little, though. There is absolutely NO WAY I won't wear makeup when I go to Miss Minnesota on Saturday. Part of the fun of going is putting on fake lashes and doing my makeup all fancy. So I plan on taking really good care of my eye until then, and after then, but I will live it up for those few hours.

Okay, off to compress my eye with heat! Thankful that I can still see!

*This is quite possibly overly dramatic. But that's how I tell stories.

A Little Shoe Treat

2010-06-14T13:22:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not talking about these specialty shoe-cakes (crazy).

I'm talking about these little beauties:

Since I am going to five weddings and three pageants this summer, I thought it was about time for me to get some cute summer heels. And since my birthday is coming up, I had the perfect excuse to splurge on myself. I knew I wanted a colored shoe (that I could wear with a white dress OR black dress so that I'm not limited in my clothing choices) with a heel and a peep toe (even though I did officially completely lose my toenail after that race....oh, well). Problem is, I found two pairs that I love! Each of them has a brown heel, but my friend who sells shoes at Nordstrom's says that I can still wear that with a black dress, so I am fine. I've been trying to decide which pair to keep. The aqua pair feels a little more "fun" to me, but I certainly don't need the extra platform height that they have on the bottom. The more I think about it, the more I lean toward keeping them both, especially since the total for both pairs was still under what I was willing to spend on one pair if I found something fabulous (the benefit of me really shopping around and finding the sales!).

Holy Cow

2010-06-13T18:44:00.002-05:00

I had another weekend worthy of bullet points. If I don't slow down, I may age four years in the next three months! And speaking of aging, I actually change my digits this week! It promises to be an insanely busy week (I am so dreading looking at the week ahead after the busy weekend), but I have my birthday to look forward to!

This weekend consisted of: Thrice concert (HOT and fun), day at the cabin with family and Welps (no kneeboarding, but we kayaked until we wanted our arms to fall off), Welcome Team at church (always love it), helping with food at a grad party (so many great conversations jammed into one day), too many late nights (complete with runs to McDonald's for soft serve), and mornings that were obnoxiously early (BLECH I HATE GETTING UP). I may be in bed at 7 tonight.

Listbean

2010-06-07T19:47:00.003-05:00

If you've been around me for more than two seconds, you know that I am obsessed with lists! I inherited this from my dad. I mostly operate from my To Do list, but I also have lists of movies I want to see, places I want to eat at, books I've read, etc....I even have a tag on this blog for "lists". You get the point. So imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Listbean today! Pre-populated checklists for things I didn't even know I needed a checklist for!!!!!! Never forget something when you pack again! Become annoyingly organized! Thought I'd pass it along for any other OCD organizers out there....enjoy!

Special Kind of Air

2010-06-07T13:03:00.001-05:00

It hit me in the skyway, that special kind of air.
It’s thicker air; the kind where lives hang in the balance.
Some lives coming into the world, some going out.
I can smell the hospital air.

Not that I haven’t walked this skyway before
And breathed my fair share of hospital air.
Today I’m going to see a life that is coming;
Someday I’ll be coming to see a life that is going.
It feels so real, and the air is heavy.

Families sit waiting for news.
Good news? Bad news?
Does their air change when they
Hope for the best, but hear the worst?
Fear the worst, but receive the best?
I pick up my pace as my lungs fill with
Air that makes my heart beat faster.

A deep breath before I enter her room;
Holding back tears,
Then holding her.
Her heart beating fast,
A baby breathing
A special kind of air.

A Weekend Worthy of Bullet Points

2010-06-06T17:35:00.006-05:00

Such a BUSY weekend. Too many terrific things to write in paragraph form, so bullet points it is.

BABY!!! One of my besties had a baby on Thursday! Both baby and mom were doing well and I was SO happy to swing by on Thursday (...and Friday...and Saturday....) to cuddle with the little bug and bring treats! SO happy for all the smiles already shared about her little life - and thankful for the many, many more smiles to be shared over the years!
After visiting baby on Friday night, I spent time with some single ladies from church. I loved hunting for kindling for a little fire in the "woods" of Burnsville and chatting about life, love and other mysteries ("other mysteries" mostly consisted of talking about makeup, so I basically LOVED that).
Had a great talk with my sister after her eye surgery. It was great to laugh and I'm glad she is doing well.
Saturday morning meant getting up early to put together a new fridge. There were no doors on it and LOTS of little moving parts (literally), and roomie and I figured it out! Not only did I feel like Rosie the Riveter, we now have a fridge big enough for us to both have some food in (our current fridge is only slightly bigger than a dorm room fridge - not kidding). I'm VERY excited about the prospect of cold drinks thanks to the extra space. And maybe I'll be motivated to get to the grocery store more often. Maybe.
Then I was off to help a friend clean for a grad party. One of the tasks I was given was to plant flowers. If you know me well at all, you know this was a stretch for my skill sets. But it got done. And good conversation was had with my AP.
Off to a bridal shower on Saturday afternoon. I LOVE WEDDING SEASON. I really enjoyed catching up with some girls and I even cried (happy tears) a little. My friend getting married is a fantastic example of the beauty of adoption: she had a baby while we were in college and gave her up for adoption. She has stayed in contact with the adoptive family, and her daughter will be her flower girl. They (her daughter and the adoptive mother) were at the shower and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room during introductions when the adoptive mother talked about how our friend gave her the most special gift. I'm thankful to witness that in person.
Back to visit baby after the shower, and then I headed to the gym with my AP. We worked out for two hours and it felt awesome (until I couldn't walk without pain today...)
Enjoyed watching a movie with my AP, even if I fell asleep.....TYPICAL. I had never seen Say Anything, and I was pleased to discover how quotable it is. I will have to watch it again sometime, and not sleep.
CHURCH today. I had missed the last three weeks of church and I was really missing it - the teaching, the people, etc. So great to be back.
Got a free sundae from Culver's at lunch. They messed up our order, but the sundae was worth it.
A nice afternoon of catching up after my whirl-wind weekend, and I'm currently crying through watching the latest episode of SYTYCD. LOVE.

I'm sure I missed some great things about the weekend, but that covers plenty of them. But now I have tons of WORK to do...and my boss is with me for the next two days...and I always leave it all for Sunday night...BAHHHHH. I'm so good at procrastinating. BOO. Oh well. The weekend was worth it.

Disappearing Act

2010-06-03T07:39:00.002-05:00

"Can make stuff magically disappear, especially if it's got a lot of butter & sugar in it"

-StoryPeople

Babes

2010-05-31T23:54:00.004-05:00

As it stands today, six girls whose weddings I was in are pregnant, and that doesn't count three other pregnant friends. I'm feeling SO happy for them, and also very lonely. I hate to even say it, but it's the truth. I think it's also the reason I can't sleep, so maybe getting it out in the open will help. What a strange stage of my life. It's so happy, but hard.

Target Field

2010-05-30T19:49:00.003-05:00

I had my first Target Field experience last Thursday. I sat way up high in left center with my sister and it was SUCH a great night! Even having a bad cold didn't hamper my excitement, especially since we beat the Yankees!!

I had read an article at the start of the season on what would be missed from the Dome. The author (can't remember where I wrote this stuff down from...oops....) said that he would miss the protection from elements, Dome-field advantage, Dome dogs, wind blowing you out the doors, needing ear plugs at postseason games, and World Series memories - but he said the new menu, the view, the wide concourses, the better bathrooms, and no 50-yard line would more than make up for those things. I definitely agree that the new stadium makes up in so many ways for the things that will be missed from the Dome, but I would add to the list that I will miss the DodgeBall game after the third inning (which I "famously" played once...) and the Hormel Row of Fame ("great for lunch, great for dinner, you could be a wiener winner in the Hormel Row of Fame!!"). Certainly I love outdoor baseball more than enough to not really care about missing those things, but those are some of my fond memories of the Dome....guess I just have to start going to more games at Target Field to make even more fond memories there!! LOVED IT!

High Fives

2010-05-30T19:45:00.002-05:00

I've had too many "ball-and-socket" experiences for this video to not be automatically funny.

The Morning Workout

2010-05-25T21:10:00.002-05:00

Ugh. To workout in the morning or to not workout in the morning. That is the question.

Pros:

Workout is DONE for the day
Only one shower/getting ready session for the day
I won't be as likely to not workout as things come up in the evenings or my days get longer than anticipated
A “great way” to start the day – possibly more sustained energy throughout the day?

Cons:

Getting ready at the gym - I'd rather get ready in my comfort zone at my house
GETTING UP EARLY. I am NOT a morning person (nor do I think I EVER will be...I'm convinced that this is something that you can’t change...probably thoughts for another post)
Breakfast - I've been better about my eating habits (again, for another post), especially breakfast. I'm not sure what I would do for breakfast if I was at the gym. I wouldn't be coming back to my house to make my coffee and breakfast, so I'd have to figure that out

I’ve been meaning to start working out in the mornings for some time now. I thought that I would start after I got back from Lithuania since my jet lag was getting me up so early in the morning, but the hard thing about that jet lag was that even though I was up, I was way too exhausted to get in a decent workout. So I never started the habit. I’ve gotten to the point where my race is done and I know that I will put off more and more workouts (due to fun summer evening plans and not really having anything that I “have to” workout for) if I don’t get it done in the morning. I have to decide that getting up early and working out is more important to me than sleeping in a bit. I think it will mean I also need to change my evening habits some so that I am well rested, but I need to stop putting it off. I’m not happy with my fitness level right now, so I just need to make that more of a priority than my sleep and laziness. There will never be a “good” time to start this habit, and now is as good as any since it isn’t the brutal winter cold I will have to wake up to. I “bit the bullet” and signed up for a class at the gym for two mornings a week at 6am, so that is even extra motivation. The class starts tomorrow, so…….morning workout here I come!!! Do any of you have any good workout habits I can steal? Any ideas to make it easier to get up and get to the gym? Any additional “pros” I can focus on when I’m feeling extra against working out? Any solutions to my “cons”? I appreciate any motivation/advice you have to offer!!

The Heat Is On

2010-05-25T08:28:00.003-05:00

From the moment I landed in New Orleans on Saturday, I've been amazed at how hot this place is! Unbelievable! Almost simultaneously, the heat went on in MN - my Facebook homepage was full of updates on either the heat or the Lost finale (which I still haven't seen!). Yesterday morning I got a message from my sister which said "I don't care how hot it is there, I bet it is hotter here". I thought I would check it out on weather.com.....at 10AM it was 89 degrees with 44% humidity in MN, and 94 degrees with 47% humidity in New Orleans! I'm sure it got hotter in both places throughout the day, but I was just thankful that I am not in MN right now where I would be in and out of my hot car all day in a suit.....instead I am standing in one place in an air conditioned conference center. I also know that I would be resistant to turning on the air in May in MN, but in my hotel room I don't mind cranking up the AC! It looks like the heat will break a little in MN just in time for me to return tonight, so kickball tomorrow shouldn't be miserable. Regardless, I'm SO excited for a sunny weekend at the cabin!

StoryPeople #1643

2010-05-25T08:14:00.000-05:00

"I think I'm probably avoiding something pretty big in my inner life, she said, because I'm keeping pretty busy"
-StoryPeople

A Little Pop Culture

2010-05-19T12:31:00.005-05:00

I went to see the Conan "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" last night and LAUGHED SO HARD. Like scream-laughing. LOTS of "ugly" laughing. Oh, man. It felt so good.

I've always liked Conan and thought he had the best show on late-night television (that is, after Craig Kilbourne's show ended....WHICH STILL UPSETS ME). Once college was over I didn't catch his show quite as often due to the late hour, but then along came Hulu, and I watched an episode now and again. I was really excited when he moved to a time I would be able to stay up for, but then we all know how that ended. And speaking of when it ended - that was some of the best late-night TV I've ever watched. Conan's last week on the air was super-funny.

So, I've always thought he is awfully funny. Got it. But one of my favorite Conan moments was his speech at the end of his last show. It has been described as very classy, and I would agree. He had reason to be very upset and feel "wronged", but he took the opportunity to appreciate all that he had done in his career up to that point, and also encourage people to not get cynical (which is one of my least favorite qualities as well) but to be kind and work hard.

I could only find a clip of his speech with an intro from another show, but if you are interested, here it is:

And while I'm on the topic of funny things, I wanted to post this video about the making of my FAVORITE COMMERCIAL EVER. It's a long video, but if you are at all interested in video production, advertising, etc, it might be worth the 19 minutes (put it on while you fold laundry like I do). I'll also post just the commercial in case you are only interested in that, but I think once you watch the commercial and get over how funny it is, you will start to think "....yeah....hey....how *did* they make that?!?!"

Enjoy! And have a good laugh. It's healthy.

Delightful and Dreadful

2010-05-18T07:36:00.004-05:00

My weekend was equal parts delightful and dreadful.

Delightful: a nice drive to Green Bay catching up on all kinds of podcasts, seeing my parents and sister, running our 2nd annual 5K with my cancer-free dad (great tradition!), being lazy all day Saturday - but still getting a lot of my quilt finished, chatting with long-lost roommates while I drove, and running the Green Bay Half-Marathon: a pretty easy and flat course (not at all like the past courses I've ran.....DC is SO hilly!), great weather (no rain or wind, 65-70 degrees), and I got the time I was aiming for (2 hours, 20 minutes - not fast, but not horrible).

Dreadful: I either got some kind of heat stroke or bad dehydration or both, because after the race I was SICK. I had to drive five hours back home with the worst headache and stomach ache ever. I sometimes felt like I wanted to pass out, and my fever was BAD (I really wish I would have taken it when I got home to see what it was). I spent Sunday night in bed with the chills. Nothing sounded appetizing to eat, but I knew I needed to eat something.....ugh it was horrible. I wish I would have taken Monday off of work to recover, but of course I didn't. I still felt horrible and had a fever through lunch, but then it broke and I started to feel MUCH better. I also think I'm going to lose a toenail from running which makes me SAD - I was kinda joking after the race that it felt like I would lose my toenail, but now it is actually turning blue and I think it will be gone. Bummer.

But despite the sick and the toenail, I'm pleased with how the race went, and overall it was a really great weekend. I was telling someone that I have a goal of running a half-marathon in every state. He politely reminded me that even if I did three half-marathons a year, it would take me 15 more years to complete that goal. YIKES. But for now I think I'll stick with it....after a small break from running.

First Cabin Trip

2010-05-18T07:30:00.002-05:00

(I need to do a better job of real time blogging....)

Last Thursday I took a spur-of-the-moment trip to the cabin to get the renters checked out! It's all mine again!! They were supposed to get moved out by this coming weekend, but they found another place to live and decided to leave early, which was perfect. Now I don't feel a crunch for time in getting them out of the place and getting my stuff ready for summer - especially with the traveling I have coming up this weekend. So the timing on that was great, and even though I had to drive to Brainerd and back in the same night, I was SO HAPPY to be making the first cabin trip!!

I'm thankful for how clean and orderly the renters left the cabin. I'm thankful I had renters so that I could be more financially able to keep the cabin. I'm thankful that the cabin schedule for the summer is getting so full (contact me if you want to spend any time there!!). I'm thankful for my family who will help me get everything in order on Memorial Day Weekend, and for how they love the cabin just as much as I do. I'm thankful for safe trips back and forth each weekend, and for all the great memories we make there! YAY, CABIN SEASON!!

The Start of Summer

2010-05-15T13:38:00.005-05:00

This weekend is the start of me being busy for the next 20 weekends! Holy cow....that takes me right up to October! Of course, a few of those weekends I've purposely left a little flexible....like the two weekends where some of my best friends are having babies!!!!

It's definitely time for summer......graduations, weddings, and CABIN WEEKENDS!! I also have some pageant stuff thrown in this summer - I haven't done any pageant stuff in quite awhile, mostly because Miss MN is always on my birthday weekend, but this year is my five year reunion (five years?!), so I'll be attending that, as well as my TEN year reunion for the Aquatennial...crazy!

I am just giddy about the next few months - I could tell you about how much I LOVE summer and wedding season (five this summer!), (oh, and don't forget my birthday...) but you've heard it all before. If I have a permanent smile on my face until October, you'll know why!

Introspection

2010-05-13T10:26:00.004-05:00

"The postmodern infatuation with journey feeds on and into a preoccupation with our own stories. If my grandparents' generation could be a little stoic and not terribly reflective, my generation is introspective at a level somewhere between self-absorption and narcissism. We are so in-tuned with our dysfunction, hurts, and idiosyncrasies that it often prevents us from growing up, because maturity is tantamount to hypocrisy in a world that prizes brokenness more than health. I'm not advocating stuffing all our feelings, but we must learn that self-expression and being true to ourselves are not the surest guides to Chrsitlikeness. Sincerity is a Christian virtue, as is honesty about our struggles. But my generation needs to realize that Christianity is more than chic fragility, endless self-revelation, and the coolness that comes with authenticity. We live in a blogging culture, which suggests that just because we have an opinion on something it must be worthwhile."

I liked this quote from Kevin DeYoung that I came across in the book I'm reading. Now, granted, this quote applies to me in a few ways: 1) I'm a part of the generation he's talking about and 2) I actively participate by having a blog which suggests that "just because we have an opinion on something it must be worthwhile" (in fact, that statement alone was one thing holding me up from starting a blog two years ago....but that's another post). Anyway, I like the quote because I think that so many people in my generation think too much and do too little (like I mentioned in my previous post about service/spiritual gifts - we might benefit from less concentration on our own "stories" (life/journey) and more concern for the "stories" of others).

We're obsessed with filling out our Facebook pages so that everyone knows exactly what music and movies we like. We write paragraphs upon paragraphs on dating websites about how unique and great we are, just hoping we might catch someone's eye - as long as they are just as unique and great as we are. We want to know and be known - and I understand that - but it can get to a level of introspection "somewhere between self-absorption and narcissism", like the quote says. (I've sometimes thought that I should make a profile on a dating site that says the truth: "I'm painfully ordinary. I go to work everyday, I hang out with my friends now and then, I like my church, my family is normal, and I'm super average at every sport I've ever tried." Because, really, that's the truth. I'm not making the cure for cancer and I haven't sent enough money to a third world country to solve their water issues, so.....yeah. Pretty ordinary.)

I will say that I like telling stories and I like being a part of "the Story", and I do see value in that. I also could probably benefit from a little more introspection in some areas of my life instead of just filling my time with wasteful "comforts" and busy things.....but in general I think this quote was thought provoking (obviously...based on this rambling post).

Relient K Lyrics for the Moment

2010-05-07T09:47:00.003-05:00

I was thinking/over thinking/'cause there's just too many scenarios/to think about/to figure out....if you're my dream please come true

Uncharted Territory

2010-05-06T10:51:00.001-05:00

I haven’t touched my quilting project in months. I’ve basically been avoiding it because I have no idea what I am doing. I’ve never gotten past the point I am at on my own – I’ve always sent out the quilt tops I’ve made to be quilted by someone else. But I decided to finally completely finish this quilt on my own, so I’ve now encountered uncharted territory.

I had some plans cancel at the last minute on Sunday, so I decided to pull out all of my quilting stuff, and MAN there is a lot of stuff that goes into finishing a quilt. Now I have the motivation to get this quilt done because I don’t want all this stuff out forever and I don’t want to be quilting during the nice summer weather. I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made in the last few days, but now I have reached the completely intimidating part of actually finishing the sewing. For someone who isn’t the least bit scared to speak in front of hundreds of people or play ball with the boys, you’d be surprised how scared I am of sewing a quilt and messing up all my hard work up to this point!! Crossing my fingers I’ll blaze my way through uncharted territory with at least an average outcome. A baby is probably going to receive this quilt, so they won’t be the harshest of critics, but I still want it to look nice!

See the Need; Meet the Need

2010-05-05T12:13:00.004-05:00

From Sunday's sermon: finding your spiritual gift doesn't require filling out forms, taking surveys, making inventories. What it requires: look out, see the need, and move to meet that need.

Pastor Rick: We can get so introspective when trying to identify our spiritual gifts that we miss the opportunity to use our gift to serve. We can get so distracted by identifying our spiritual gift that it becomes more about establishing our own identity and more about self-fulfillment than it is about serving others. Let's not let that happen. See the need, move toward the need, and meet that need, and you will discover your spiritual gift.

I also liked this Edward Clowney quote: "Gifts are discovered in service. We might rightly ask about the gift we have received but we will not gain the answer by introspection. It is in humble service that we discover the gifts we have and the greater gifts that we may need."

Less thinking, more doing.

Mystery May Day

2010-05-01T19:57:00.005-05:00

Happy May Day! I haven't had any thought of May Day in years and years, but this afternoon I came home to this beautiful surprise:

How nice! I have no idea who they are from (though I assume it's our neighbors)..... I hope my roommate knows so I can thank them!

In other May Day news, my sister called me on Skype around 6:30 and after about three sentences she stopped short to say "Wait....are you still in your pajamas??" to which I replied "If you meant already in your pajamas, then yes. Yes, I am." I had a fun day of babysitting and then I ran (what was supposed to be) 11 miles, so I came straight home and got into my pajamas. I was going to relax at home last night after a very long week, but I got two last minute invites to hang out with friends, so I indulged in food and laughs with them and tonight has become my much needed night in.

Partners

2010-04-26T20:24:00.001-05:00

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

-Storypeople

Bigger Than

2010-04-26T20:18:00.003-05:00

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

2010-04-25T18:04:00.005-05:00

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

2010-04-25T17:35:00.003-05:00

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?

2010-04-23T13:23:00.006-05:00

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!

2010-04-22T22:22:00.006-05:00

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

2010-04-11T22:17:00.004-05:00

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

2010-04-07T21:43:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-03T14:23:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-01T08:01:00.002-05:00

"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

Reminiscence

2010-03-30T19:34:00.010-05:00

About three weeks ago the snow started to really melt, the air was a bit warmer, and since the weather matched so perfectly to one of my favorite road trips ever, I started to reminisce. (That tells you a bit about how nice it has been, since the weather was exactly like our '08 spring road trip on the second weekend of March, but we took the trip on the first weekend of April!)

We called it Big and Ugly (or Weird MN). It was inspired by a coffee table book called Weird Minnesota that I received when I moved into my house in Brainerd. During that same time, my job took me through every small town in northern MN and I soon became curious about every huge statue these small towns had. After doing some online researching, I convinced my sisters that we should take a weekend and conduct a road trip entirely within the boarders of our own state. Our destination would be as many strange statues as we could fit into 72 hours. We made it to 52 cities and traveled over 1700 miles. There wasn't much sleeping (due to being up early and staying up late to drive...) but there was a lot of listening to music, watching DVDs on the computer, talking, laughing, and picture taking. We saw some AMAZING Big and Ugly statues. Here are a few of my favorites:

Let's be honest, I could post about 40 more pictures, but I'll stop.

Ahhhh. I love MN. I love road trips. I love weather that makes me reminisce.

So Long, Favorite Month

2010-03-30T19:25:00.004-05:00

I can't let all of March go by without mentioning how it is my favorite month (although June could give it a run for it's money). I know I've mentioned it before, but I must pay proper respect to March, especially since this March has been pretty wonderful. My FB status a few weeks ago read: "Dear month of March: I love you for your snow melting powers and sunlight in the evening hours, but most of all I love you for your amazing basketball tournament!!"

MARCH MADNESS did NOT disappoint. It is the best sporting event of the year, and this year was very dramatic. I was up late a few too many nights, but it was worth it (hello, double overtime K State/Xavier game!!!!!!!!!).
The SUN! I. love. daylight. savings. spring. forward.
The WARM-UP! This is the first year in history (or since records were kept) that we did not get any snow in March. It is 70 degrees out right now!! Most of the snow has been gone for weeks. I really love it.
I didn't travel this March, but that was one of my favorite things, since I did SO much traveling at the start of this year. I really needed to do some "nesting" and "grounding", which I feel that I did, so I'm pleased.

No TV Week

2010-03-29T08:14:00.003-05:00

I decided last night that I need a "No TV Week". I have a few shows that I like to watch each week (Amazing Race, 24, Lost, The Office) and even though I don't watch them live (I'm usually busy on those certain evenings, so I catch up online), they take quite a bit of time out of my week (probably about 4-5 hours when it's all said and done). I saw this article about not watching TV awhile back, so that contributed to me deciding that I should go at least one week without TV. (I'm not saying that watching TV is bad, because I agree that the Gospel frees you to chill out, but I would say that I know more people who need a bit more discipline and less TV - and I'm one of those people)

Why this week? Well, even though I have fewer "evening events" than normal, I am finding that I've started a few things that are taking away some of my "personal time" when I would normally watch TV. I decided that I needed to make them more of a priority than my TV watching this week. They are:

Half marathon training: My race is completely sneaking up on me, and I have been HORRIBLE with my training. I'll never be ready for it unless I take the 4 nights a week, an hour each night (at this point), that I need for running. Boring, but I gotta do it.
Nutrition: I'm taking a nutrition class for six weeks (more on that some other post) which dominates one otherwise-free night of my week, but it is also taking a lot more of my time in grocery shopping (which we all know I NEVER did, but now I have to go every couple of days to get more fresh food) and cooking.
Dog-sitting: I will be dog-sitting three days this week, and four-days next week, so that always takes a little bit more of my time

I have a feeling that I will be very tempted to turn the computer on and watch my shows on Hulu as I cook or clean my room or fall asleep, but I need to choose to catch up on sermons I missed while on vacation or read a book before bed (now that the late-night March Madness watching is over and I moved the TV back out of my room). NO TV Week! I'll let you know how it goes.

Real Simple 10th Anniversary Issue

2010-03-25T17:07:00.004-05:00

I totally LOVED reading the Real Simple 10th Anniversary Issue. (I also love that I'm the roommate who always gets the mail so I can read through my roommates magazines before she gets home....)

I especially liked the feature where they compiled the best of new uses for old things. Some of my favorites:

a tissue box as a plastic bag dispenser
a dryer sheet as a pan cleaner (put it in the bottom of an especially hard-to-clean pan, fill it with warm water, let it sit overnight)
a tea strainer as a sugar duster for bars, etc.
a toothbrush as a corn on the cob cleaner
a ketchup bottle as a pancake-batter dispenser
a toothpick as a sewing aid (put it between the button and your clothing to create the right space - not too tight, not too loose)

That's all. I just wanted to write those down somewhere because I figured I'd forget about them unless I have them somewhere I can refer to. The whole issue seemed especially beautiful and informative to me. Loved it.

Expectations

2010-03-25T07:42:00.002-05:00

Thank you, Laura, for sharing some insight I needed to hear (from the book Journaling as a Spiritual Practice by Helen Cepero).

"Understanding the difference between hope and expectations is critical if we are to allow our future to be shaped by God. Hope longs for good but is able to be flexible about how that good might appear. Expectation grasps at solutions and becomes easily attached to outcomes. When we are hopeful, our imagination and creativity flourish. But when we are locked in expectations, it is easy to turn our picture of the possible future into an idol." (page 87)

I have lots of thoughts on this, but mostly it revolves around how I expected to be married by now, maybe even have a baby. I'm easily attached to that as the outcome I wanted. I still hope for that, but maybe I'm still expecting it.

More Encouraging Words

2010-03-24T22:39:00.003-05:00

Mark 11:22-24 : 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Isaiah 40:27-31 :

27 Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God”?

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

Encouraging Words

2010-03-22T21:37:00.003-05:00

I'm not surprised that I didn't post at all last week.....it was a trying week. I was (am) dealing with a few situations that feel too big for me, and on top of that I felt very spiritually dry and not well equipped to deal with these situations. Sometimes I think "oh, HB, get over it - people are dealing with much bigger issues than you are", but at the same time, these things felt/feel a little daunting to me......so that's what it feels like......and now I'm rambling and making no sense.

Anyway. I was thankful for a weekend where I encountered many encouraging words. I was able to spend time with fun friends, in the Word, hearing the Word, and "talking it out" with friends/APs. I feel "better" about a few things. I went to those people and those places because I knew that I would encounter encouraging words to help my perspective and point me in the right direction.

Tonight I ran across encouraging words in a place I didn't expect. It all started last night when my AP and I were talking about how summer makes you want to listen to country music, and then we talked about a few of our top country songs that we like or that put us in "summery" moods, etc. She mentioned a song that isn't really my top choice, but I see why she likes it. So tonight when I hopped in my car, since it was 9pm and still 50 degrees out, I thought I should start pumping some summery music. The song on the country station just happened to be the very song that my AP mentioned. Normally I would have turned the dial (since it's not my fave) but because she had just talked about it, I kept it on. The next song that came on was Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood. I have only heard the song one other time, but I really like it. It made me cry tonight. It was an encouraging reminder that there is pain and suffering in this world because we weren't made for this world and this really is just a temporary home. No matter how big an issue or problem or sickness or spiritual darkness seems, it isn't bigger than God, and it won't last forever, because this is a temporary home.

If You're Interested

2010-03-15T21:45:00.001-05:00

My sister wrote a Hawaiian Haiku about our trip, and also posted the (abbreviated) video of my jump from the cliff. If you're interested, you can check it out here.

Make a Splash

2010-03-13T07:13:00.003-06:00

I love living with a roommate who introduces me to new music. Here are some of the lyrics I like from the song Splash by Kangaroo:

Splash
You're gonna splash
Wherever you go
You're gonna crash
Like a wave

'Cause you're a party getting started
Everywhere you go
Bound to be broken-hearted
And make angels in the snow
Bound to love
Bound to hate
Bound to give and
Bound to take
Bound to make a splash

You're such a beautiful tornado
You could blow the century down
And still deserve a standing O
For any beauty you had found
You're bound to be someone who
People promise big things to
You're bound to cry
Bound to crash
Bound to make a splash

My favorite lyrics are "beautiful tornado" and "you're bound to be someone who people promise big things to".

New Shoes

2010-03-13T06:53:00.005-06:00

It's appropriate that one of these boxes says "rampage" on it, because it feels like I've been on a shoe-buying rampage. I told myself that before I put these shoes in the closet, I need to select four pairs to send to Good Will.

I basically LOVE shoes, but I think these may be the end of my shoe buying for awhile, especially if these are the trends for spring.

Patience, People

2010-03-11T07:59:00.003-06:00

(I came across this post from November in my drafts this morning, and I still think I can learn from some of my thoughts in it, so I decided to post it, even though it's rather old)

I have really grown in my patience over the last few years, but I still have a long way to go. I got a good reminder of why I need to grow my patience this last week at Bible study: because the Lord is extremely patience with us, and I need to strive to be more like God.

The Lord’s patience is what really stood out to me while learning about Gideon. When Gideon was told he needed to save Israel from the Midianites, he doubted he was able to. So the Lord reassured him. But Gideon was still skeptical. So he tested the Lord. Gideon asked him to make his fleece wet and the ground around it dry. You start to think “ummm..Gideon. This is the Lord. You probably shouldn’t test him. You should probably trust Him.” But the Lord made the fleece wet and that was that. OR NOT. Gideon tests the Lord AGAIN. This is the part of the story where I start shaking my head and saying “nononononononononono, Gideon….Don’t test the Lord again! Just go with it! He will equip you!” This time Gideon wanted the fleece dry and the ground wet, and the Lord proved again that He would do as He promised.

This story also caused me to think about what things in my life I feel like I need God to prove for me (i.e. what do I feel like I need to lay a fleece out for). What things has God asked me to do but I have politely ignored him, thinking “that must not be right”. Or thinking “well, THAT’S impossible….I’ll wait for a sign.”

So, as I was thinking about the patience I’ve accrued in the last few years, it mostly has to do with day-to-day stuff. I’m used to waiting in lines, waiting in traffic, etc, thanks to my job, so things like that don’t raise my blood pressure anymore and I don’t (always) operate very sinfully when my minute-to-minute patience is being tested. But…..big picture things are another story. As my friends celebrate their fifth (!) wedding anniversaries and as I attend their children’s first and second birthday parties, I realize how impatient I am with my singleness. I see how patiently the Lord has delt with Gideon, and with Israel in general (for crying out loud), and with me (for goodness sake), so I will continue to strive for more and more patience. And trust, even though I have no fleece to lay out.

Big Mac Fan*

2010-03-11T07:31:00.002-06:00

No, this is not a post about how I’m a fan of the Big Mac at McDonald’s (though that wouldn’t surprise you….); it’s a post about how I’m a big fan of my new MacBook Pro!

My sisters both switched to Macs at some point last year, and I have been a little jealous of them ever since. I decided I had to save my pennies until I could buy it with cash, and that moment came at the end of January…..until I had to cover the emergency dog expenses while my roommate was out of the country. She’s reimbursed me, so I dropped off my PC at the Apple Store for a data transfer while I was on vacation, and I’m currently fully entrenched in the tasks of switching from PC to Mac. I have absolutely no idea how a few things work, but I just have to be patient (not easy for someone who wants everything in its proper place RIGHT NOW) and figure it out little by little. I am THRILLED to have a computer with a battery life of longer than 7 minutes, and I’m excited about finally being able to conveniently Skype! If you’re a Mac user, you should comment on what your favorite features are so I can figure them out!

*This title comes from an inside joke that I’m not even a part of (my sister is), but I like the play on words, so I stole it. And the joke would be "lost in translation", so I won't even try.

Playing Catch-Up

2010-03-09T21:49:00.014-06:00

I've been back from my trip for a week (seems like longer than that, what with the crazy busy week at work and a weekend in Duluth with sisters and friends....) so I thought I'd write down some highlights from Lithuania/Latvia/brief stop in Finland:

The travel: AWESOME flights – personal TVs with a selection of 25 movies, 10 TV shows, video games, etc. Problem: never slept on the nine hour flights, which didn’t help with the jet lag. Also, the bus we took to Latvia was sweet – it had a coffee/cappuccino machine, restroom, TVs (that played creepy music videos), tables, comfortable enough seats for sleeping, etc. I didn't have any bad travel experiences during our nine days, except for a bit of fear in the sleeper train from Klaipeda to Vilinus (I kept thinking I was going to fall from the top bed).
The food: There is no better way to travel than with people who REALLY know the area where you are traveling, especially when it comes to the food. Steve and Laura knew exactly what restaurants to take us to and exactly what to order at those restaurants. I would say my favorite restaurant was Stora Antis: it was like going down into a cave - very quaint and very amazing food. We tried Saltibarsciai, a traditional Lithuanian soup (cold beet soup), and Kepta Duana, a traditional Lithuanian appetizer (fried garlic bread covered in some kind of cheese). Both were AMAZING and I could have eaten them every day! We had some yummy desserts during the week, but my favorite was the peanut flavored gelato (you could even have Coca-Cola or Red Bull flavors!). I was also SO impressed with the food we ate at Steve and Laura's home. I learned that when you live in a foreign country, you become a very "flexible" cook. When I make pizza "from scratch" in America, it means I buy the pizza sauce, toppings, crust, etc, and throw together a pizza. In Lithuania, it means that you even make the pizza sauce from scratch! You can't even buy sausage there, so we decided to use hamburger for our pizza, but Steve made sausage from scratch later on in the week for an egg bake recipe. I was very inspired by their improvisation and the tasty food they treated us to in their home. OH - we also ate at a GREAT Mexican restaurant in Vilinus. YUM. Mexican is my favorite!!
The sights: RIGA was my favorite city that we went to. Even though it was a snowy and cloudy day, I loved walking through Old Town and seeing the cool buildings. The Occupation Museum there was very educational, and we ate at the strangest restaurant, Hospitalis, that was very Hospital-themed with beautiful, delicious desserts. In Klaipeda (where Steve and Laura live) we saw the Baltic, Old Town, went shoe shopping, and toured LCC (the school where they work). Helsinki was a VERY short visit for us, since it was on a lay-over and also because it was FREEZING cold and we could hardly stand walking around for a minute more. We did see the Church in the Rock there (a church build entirely within a rock) which was very cool. Vilinus was another historical and beautiful city. I loved seeing the Genocide museum, which was in an old Soviet prison (CRAZY things happened there....). Again, the buildings were gorgeous and it was fun to walk around the city and see historical sights. We all made a wish (a Lithuanian tradition) on the Stebuklas (the "Miracle Block") - the place where 2 million people started a chain that stretch 650km to Tallinn as a peaceful protest of Soviet rule in 1989. Trakai is a city just outside of Vilinus where there is a castle that has been restored and now is basically a museum. It was AWESOME! The castle itself was quite the sight to see, and the tour was very informative and interesting. Needless to say, I learned a TON in all of the cities we went to about the culture and history.
The company: As I said, Steve and Laura were the BEST tour guides EVER. In addition to that, I loved catching up on their lives, having good conversations, playing games, etc. We also enjoyed meeting Steve's student leaders and playing Pass-It-Pictionary and Fill or Bust with them. All of our walking and chatting and sight-seeing was wonderful, but it was also great to relax in front of the Olympics in the evenings (even though it was in Lithuanian, and even though the US hockey team lost on our last night in Lithuania).

All that to say that I really, really enjoyed this trip. I've appreciated it more and more as I've been telling people about all the unique things we saw and did, and everything I learned. I'm sure there's even more that could be said, so I'd love to tell you about it sometime if you are curious! Thanks, Hansons, for all the great memories!!

You're Going Where???

2010-02-25T12:57:00.003-06:00

Over the last month, as I've told people about my upcoming trip to Lithuania, the most common question I've gotten is "You're going where?" The next most common questions are "Where is that?" and "Why?" Since I haven't really answered any of those questions here (and Jen asked about it on the last post), I'll give a brief answer (as I have a moment to blog on a bus that has wireless on our way back from a day in Riga, Latvia....we got up early today to make the trip and had a great day, but I can't believe it is already THURSDAY!)

Some really good friends have been living and working in Lithuania since 2008. As soon as they went, my sister and I knew we wanted to visit them because a) they are awesome and so fun and we would totally miss them for two years, b) there would probably never be another reason to visit the Baltic States, and c) we wanted to see what their life and work was like in a foreign country. We bought our tickets almost a year ago and that is when the official countdown began - Laura even made a paper chain!

We have been having a blast, but the time is going so fast!! Everything we've done has been VERY memorable - some because of weather, some because of the history, some because of the architecture, and some because of the company (thankfully nothing has been memorable due to major bus mishaps). Lithuania has an extremely interesting history, from Soviet occupation, to the Holocaust, to another Soviet occupation, to the fall of the Iron Curtain. Steve and Laura are very well-informed and the nerd in me has loved learning bits and pieces of the history. My Lithuanian is just as good as my Spanish and German now (meaning I can now say thank you, please, hello, goodbye, good night, help, and do you speak English?). It's been fun to learn and see more about the culture of the country they are living in, as well as the culture of the school where they work. We've also had lots of good, authentic Lithuanian food, lots of coffee, and we've managed to play more than a few hands of Rook.

All in all, the trip is WONDERFUL and I really don't want it to end! This weekend we'll head to Vilinus to explore more with Steve and Laura before we fly out from there on Sunday. Laura has had a chance to spend time with us the last few days after she tied a few things up with work, but Steve has been extremely busy with work, so we had to leave him behind today. We really didn't want to be a burden on their time as we realized they would have things to accomplish for work throughout the week, but it has been awesome to have Laura be our guide and hang out with Steve in the evenings, and we're excited to be with both of them this weekend!

Don't know if I'll blog anymore while we're here, but that's a little idea as to what in the world we are doing near the Baltic!

Hello From Lithuania!

2010-02-22T20:11:00.004-06:00

We made it! It was a LONG day(s?) of travel, but so far the trip has been WONDERFUL, and it is just starting!

I have lots and lots of things to blog about. I've been reading, listening to music, and watching movies while we traveled, and my brain has been in major processing mode, so some of those thoughts will make it to the blog, and some will not. But for now I am blogging as a way to waste time and hopefully make me sleepy.....it's after 4AM in Lithuania and I'm the only one still awake. Probably because I didn't get out of bed until 3PM today after sleeping over 15 hours (to make up for basically missing an entire night's sleep on the way here). I guess I have to force myself out of bed tomorrow (Beav and I are headed into town to explore) to get myself on the right schedule.

We may or may not have eaten McDonald's twice before we were even in Lithuania for three hours (once in Finland and once in Vilinus) but DON'T WORRY....the McDonald's in Finland was more of an "emergency meal" situation (since we were FREEZING and we needed to get back to the airport to catch our flight, so we couldn't do too much looking for lunch) and our McDonald's in Vilinus only came after we had more of an "authentic Lithuanian" meal (chicken and cheese wrapped in a pancake) and we needed to buy an ice cream treat in order to use the McD's bathroom before we got on our four hour bus ride.

We were thankful for smooth and safe travel (pretty much one of the best flights I've ever been on was from JFK to Helsinki). We lucked out with the best gate agent ever in MSP - we originally didn't have seats from MSP to JFK, so at the gate we needed to figure that out. As we approached the agent, I happened to be humming (or maybe singing out loud....) a song, and that made him laugh. Neither my sister nor I even realized I was singing (maybe a sign that I do it too often??) but he thought it was great, and I think he went the extra mile for us because we were pleasant to him. We got the best seats on all of our flights, sitting right by each other, and he was able to get us boarding passes all the way through to Lithuania (something he even surprised himself by doing), which was great, since we wanted to leave the airport in Finland to explore a little. S and L met us at the Vilinus airport to get us back to their home, which was wonderful, since Beav and I were hanging on by a thread at that point and we would have had a difficult time trying to figure out the bus/train/etc.

So we're here, we're exploring, and I'll maybe update as I have a chance.

Brain Unload

2010-02-15T18:59:00.009-06:00

I have many very random things on my mind after a weekend where I spent much of my time in bed sick. I went through my Reader this weekend and realized that I had over 60 "starred items" that I had wanted to get back to at some point: either to read through again, comment about on my blog, etc. Don't worry, I won't share all 60 items in this post, but I will play a little catch-up with a post that has a little to do with everything on mind (from "starred items" to "Life in General").

So here, in no particular order, is my brain unload:

Last Sunday a friend and I decided to hold each other accountable to losing 20 pounds by my birthday (we decided on that because it was 19 weeks away, so one pound/week). This Sunday I had lunch with her and I had already completely forgotten about our decision. So...apparently I wasn't thinking about it much over the last week. Oops. I needed to write it down somewhere to make it more real for myself - so there it is. Now I have to actually do it. Ugh.
Why do I have 14 socks that have no matches? I FINALLY did laundry today (hadn't done it since I got back from my trip....) and I ended up putting ANOTHER sock in my basket of no-matches. Annoying.
I went to the grocery store today for the first time in 2010. Not kidding. I'm also not kidding when I say that I only went because I was tagging-along to spend some time with a friend. I keep thinking that it's useless to buy groceries when I'm about to go on a trip, so I just don't buy any. Needless to say, my eating habits have been less-than-healthy. Need to change that when I get back from Lithuania.
The Olympics started. I mentioned the last time the Olympics came around how I don't seem to get as excited about them as other people do (especially the Winter Olympics). But again, I was in bed a lot this weekend, and I happened to be watching when a Canadian won the mogul race (Canada's first ever gold medal won in an Olympics held in Canada) and then talked about his handicapped brother who motivates him to do his best. I cried (of course). I was hooked.
I signed up for a free program at my gym where you wore a pedometer for a week, turned it in, and would receive a gift. After I sent in the pedometer, I forgot about the mystery gift that was on it's way, so imagine my surprise when I opened a box a few weeks later and found this:

I meant to put a picture on here of a cake I made for a friend's birthday, so here it is:

I mentioned that I was having a funky attitude last week, mostly having to do with being single, etc. I was reminded how unpredictable and hard relationships can be when I read this article about a couple I've been "blog stalking" for....maybe two years? I'm always encouraged by the grace, wisdom, honesty, and humility I see displayed in their lives. They have an incredible story, and an incredibly hard story. Their faith is so encouraging to me.
There was a little Super Bowl Ad that generated a lot of publicity even before it was shown. I was reminded of a moment when I was watching ESPN from a treadmill at the gym and I almost started crying. Here's a news clip about the moment that I was reminded of during all the hype over that ad:
So. The Vikings lost. I was really bummed, but it's not the end of the world. Sports have been a big part of my life and I'm extremely thankful for that, but I always want to make sure that I don't have the wrong priorities when it comes to sports. I liked a lot of the points about sports and faith in this article, so I wanted to link to it. That's all.
Time. I think I need to rethink how I spend my time. Two quotes that have me thinking about time: "The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence, the grass is greener where you water it." (Anonymous?) and "The primary reason we do too much is that we have never taken the time to discover the portion of what we do that makes the biggest difference." (Andy Stanley). Hmmmmm.
This video made me cry

Okay. That's PLENTY. Brain unloaded. Time to focus on work for the week and get going to LITHUANIA!

Best Valentine

2010-02-14T20:58:00.004-06:00

Sure, I've never had a boyfriend in my 27 wonderful years on this earth, but I always feel the love from my fam. I got the best Valentine's gift from my sis this year!

It's a heart-shaped box made of CHOCOLATE, filled with CHOCOLATES! The chocolates that were (past tense b/c I already ate them) inside the box were filled with creamy truffle flavors of her choosing, and she went the extra mile to choose some of my favorite flavors (mint, maple, irish cream, etc).

So pretty, right?!

And yummy!! Thanks, Beav!

Sitcom Lessons

2010-02-12T13:10:00.007-06:00

Sometimes a sitcom not only makes me laugh, but also makes me think.

Here is an exchange I watched recently where the girl was wondering why she wasn't feeling a strong connection with her new boyfriend:

Girl: "There’s something about the way he treats people."

Guy: "He’s a tourist. He vacations in people’s lives, takes pictures, puts them in his scrapbook, and moves on. All he’s interested in are stories........Basically he’s selfish."

It made me wonder about how I treat people. I REALLY love stories (making memories, telling (and retelling....and retelling.......) stories) and I think that, in a lot of my "groups" of friends, I am known as "the fun one" who is up for anything - but I wonder how many strong, "real" connections I am making. Am I just a tourist? I know that I sometimes come off as cavalier and "surfacy" (because I've been told as much) which I don't think is bad or wrong in every situation (you simply can't have strong connections with everyone - there isn't the time or energy or need to do so) but I think I need to be aware of that tendency, especially since I don't come home to a family and I also work alone/independently (mostly). I have seen how that creates an "island" that I am on: it doesn't lend itself to personal or spiritual growth, or accountability. "Real" and strong connections are difficult because they take time and work, they stretch you, and are (sometimes) uncomfortable. I don't pursue them. I've been in a season of life that is difficult in understanding how I fit in as my connections and standing with people changes due to marriages, children, time, distance, etc. I don't have an answer for what (if anything) needs to change here, but I don't think having an answer is always the "point" (unfortunately for me, who really loves to have the answer).

So maybe it's not actually a "sitcom lesson", but it made me think. It also led to a lot of parenthetical thoughts and an abundant use of quotation marks, so I apologize for that.

Appropriate

2010-02-09T21:37:00.005-06:00

In my inbox yesterday was Story of the Day #1732:

"she's prepared for almost any transportation mishap, as long as none of them require her to just sit still & think"

Very appropriate, considering the timing of the snow, horrible traffic, and my iPod battery died. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get to my first clinic, and I had to just sit and think during my commutes all day. Not my favorite thing ever, especially considering my "funky" state.

Funky

2010-02-08T19:54:00.003-06:00

I had a funky week after I got back from my trip. Things didn't go as "planned", and I also felt like I was in a big funk in a few ways. We had a women's meeting at church on Saturday, and I was very refreshed by the lyrics to He's Always Been Faithful by Sara Groves.

Morning by morning I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God's hand in mine.
Season by season I watch him amazed,
In awe of the mystery of his perfect ways.

All I have need of his hand will provide.
He's always been faithful to me.

I can't remember a trial or a pain
He did not recycle to bring me gain.
I can't remember one single regret
In serving God only and trusting his hand.

All I have need of his hand will provide.
He's always been faithful to me.

This is my anthem, this is my song,
The theme of the stories I've heard for so long.
God has been faithful, he will be again.
His loving compassion, it knows no end.

All I have need of his hand will provide.
He's always been faithful to me.