Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tennessee

Well we made it!

Yesterday my brother Luke, his wife Heather, their two boys Noah & Declan and myself set out for my Aunt Karen & Uncle Dan's house in south east Tennessee. 

Here's a rundown of the trip:

Time left the house-5:04am

Time got onto the interstate after getting gas-5:24am

Distance travelled in miles-683

Distance travelled in hours-13

Number of stops made-6

Average time of stops for children to run around in minutes-18

Number of stops made and the gas tank was refilled-3

Number of status updates to Facebook made via my phone-6

States we were in yesterday-Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee

Number of states whose liscence plates were seen on drive-22 + 2 Canadian Territories = 24

Breakdown of number of states liscense plates seen-
Alabama-4
Florida-5
Georgia-3
Illinois-countless
Indiana-countless
Iowa-7
Kentucky-countless
Maine-5
Missouri-4
Mississippi-2
Michigan-11
Minnesota-2
North Carolina-4
Oklahoma-4
Ohio-7
Ontario, Canada-3
Pennsylvania-1
South Carolina-2
Saskatchewan, Canada-1
Tennesee-countless
Utah-1
Wisconsin-countless
Washington-2
West Virginia-3

Hardest city name to pronounce-Nlix

Best road name-Sugar Limb Road

Foreign cities passed-Athens, London, Somerset, Paris

Best hotel name-Relax Inn

Things I forgot I knew about the south-They love christmas almost as much as they love fireworks.

Most confusing car-The Ford Taurus with 4 Mac stickers.  It just seems wrong putting Mac stickers on a Ford Taurus.

Best bumper sticker-There was an escort taxi service vehicle with "WARNING! ERRATIC LANE CHANGES" covering the entire rear window.  And it did erratically change lanes repeatedly and for no real reason.

Prettiest city-Once again goes to Louisville, Kentucky.  Who knew it was so pretty there?!?  Of course I forgot to take pictures of it because I was too busy looking at it.  Something to aim for on the trip back I guess.

Funniest roadside sign-"Watch For Falling Rocks!" followed by "Move All Damaged Vehicles To The Side Of The Road Immediately"  as if by chance you survived a massive rock falling off a mountain and onto your car that you would be in any sort of shape to then physically push your car WITH the rock on it to the side of the road.

Time pulled into Uncle Dan & Aunt Karen's driveway-6:21pm (time adjusted to central time zone.  it was 7:21pm in TN time)

Number of tacos consumed by entire family at Taco Tuesday .79 taco night-26










Friday, November 20, 2009

Carpe Diem, or something...

I need to get out more.

Not that I'm sheltered per se, but I'm just home too much.

I like being home.  I'm a homebody at heart.  But I also would like to be married at some point in my life.  And what do I think, that "he's" just going to walk in my house one night while I'm sitting on the couch in sweats watching Grey's Anatomy and profess his love for me while I'm wiping my spilt hot chocolate off the cat that's sleeping in my lap??

I don't think so.

I'm not sure how it happened that I'm not going out and about anymore.  I used to always have a jam packed calendar.  I still feel busy, but it's with things like reading, laundry, my nephews, work and the Fox Fall Lineup.  Nothing social.  Well, I guess there's also areas of serving that I feel help to keep me busy that could be considered social but aren't really, such as greeting at church, teaching sunday school to the 4-6 year olds, going through homegroup leadership training, transcribing the words that come on Sunday's, currently I'm also attending rehearsals for Carols By Candlelight, Sunday lunches (Pleasant Prairie has lunches every week after the meeting for the SOW students and all the Trinity students we get that a lot of singles in the church also go to, which now that I think about it probably could be considered social), giving rides to various SOW students who are from another country and need help getting around. 

See, I lead a full life. 

Not to mention that I'm attempting to make my bed everyday, that alone requires quite a bit of effort.

I think somewhere along the line something happened.  Something like all my friends getting married so now they do married people things and there's a new younger generation of single people now who just don't think to invite me to do things and go places.  So I sit at home.  I'm not trying to sound down and out, like I said, I do enjoy being at home, especially since I live with my brother Luke and his wife Heather and their two boys.  It's easy to just wrap my life up in theirs and tell them to go out all the time and I stay home with the boys.  And I do love doing that.  But I think I need some sort of balance.

So I feel as if I'm re-entering the hustle and bustle of single life.  At least I'd like to think so.

I still have to convince all the youngsters to invite me out! 

And I need to get used to having a social life again, which would most likely mean not going to bed at 8:30 or 9 on any given night and that 10pm should no longer be considered way past bedtime. 

I only hope my almost 31 year old body can do it!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Waiting

There's this person, well this boy...man actually, who's caught my attention. 

I don't want to be a dumb girl.  I want to be a wise woman.

I pray about this a lot.  About a month or so ago, God very clearly spoke to me.  All he said was "wait".  That's it.  Not "yes, but wait", not "no, but wait", not "well, maybe, but wait".  Just "wait".

This is hard.  Not the waiting, I'm okay with that part.  But the whole part about waiting and not thinking/dreaming/worrying/speculating part.  I think I'm doing okay so far, but it's hard to keep myself in check.  So mostly I just keep praying.  When this individual pops into my head, I instantly turn my focus to Him and talk to Him.  I just want to honor the Lord so badly.  And when emotions and the heart get involved, it just gets all fuzzy.

Last week I got an email from a lady in my church.  She said that while she was spending time with the Lord that morning He had put me on her heart.  As she began to pray for me, God gave her three verses that she felt were very specifically for me.  They are as follows:

'Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.'
-Psalm 27:14

'Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD.'
-Psalm 31:24

'I have told you these things,
so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart!
I have overcome the world.'
-John16:33

There's a movie who's name I don't remember, but there's a line in it that says--

"I am waiting.  So I sit.  Silent as a cup."

Me too.

Monday, November 9, 2009

And I Didn't Even Have Pepperoni or Green Roast Beef!

Boy did I have a crazy dream last night!

Before I get into it, I would like all of you out in the Blogosphere to know that I am going to Georgia for Thanksgiving. This is relevent in understanding maybe a little teensy part of the insanity that's to follow. It's also important to know that my brother's name is Luke and he's married to Heather and they have two boys named Noah(3 years) and Declan(18 months). I live with them. Okay, I think that's everything, so buckle up tight and please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. And away we go!

As the dream started out, I was at my house. Except it wasn't my real house, the only house I've ever seen that somewhat resembled this house is Edward Cullen's house, except it wasn't Edward's house, it was slightly different. Wow...how's that for confusing!

So, I'm at my house. I'm alone and I get to thinking that it would be super fun to have all the School of Worship kids over for a night of hanging out and all worshiping together. So I call Teresa, who thinks it is a GREAT idea! Somehow without calling anybody, everyone who I want to come knows about it. And it's tonight! (if only real life was just as easy!)

Seeing as I'm about to have a big party, I decide to look in the pantry for what treats I can prepare. Now, the pantry and the back hall and the basement are all pretty much EXACTLY like the house I grew up in. I'm in the pantry and literally the only thing lining all the shelves are boxes of chocolate pudding. This is normal to me in my dream. As I'm on a stepstool getting multiple boxes of chocolate pudding from the top shelf, Matt Gainsford pops his head in the pantry and says, "Ello, anythin I can help with?" To which I reply "Yes actually, could you start warming some milk on the stovetop for me?" So he goes about warming milk. After I fill my apron (yes, I was wearing an apron) with as many boxes of chocolate pudding as I can, I come out of the pantry. I dump them all on the kitchen table and ask Matt if he'd mind making the pudding so that I can go clean up the downstairs for the party and then go get ready myself. He agrees.

I go down in to the basement (at the house I grew up in the basement was finished and it was my dad's office/gym/hang out area.) and all my dad's stuff is set up exactly the way I remember it being when I was a kid, except for 4 large white leather sofas. I go around fluffing pillows, lighting candles, that sort of thing, then I sit down at the piano and tune it. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) After I tune it, I go to the second story of the house to my bedroom. This room isn't in the house I grew up in, I'm now in the Edwardish part of the house, and it is AWESOME!!! I don't realize it in the dream because it's just my normal room to me. As I'm getting ready I have a fleeting thought that I'm leaving in the morning to go to Georgia for Thanksgiving.

I go back down to the basement and everyone is there already. They're all eating chocolate pudding while sitting on my dad's white leather couches. I sternly warn them that if anyone get's chocolate pudding on my dad's white leather couches they will have to buy him new ones. They all stand up and continue to eat their pudding.

That's all I actually dreamed about the party. We'll call that Part One.

On to Part Two...

I wake up in my (AWESOME!) room. Luke is banging on my bedroom door that we're leaving in 2 minutes and I better not make everyone late because we're on a strict time schedule. I get up, put on Ugg boots (I don't actually own a pair in real life) and go down to the garage. Luke and Noah are in the van, Heather and Declan are in the car, and Spencer Towle, Amanda Thayer, Sarah Hall and Jose Vargas are in the LLCC church van that has a trailer attached. I get in the van with Luke and Noah. Oh yeah--it's also important to know that all I'm wearing is a swimsuit and Ugg boots (LOL). As we're going down the long winding wooded driveway, I ask Luke why Heather and Declan aren't riding with us in the van. He tells me that it's because we are going straight to Georgia but Heather and Declan are going to stop off at Detriot and spend 3 nights there. I ask why everyone else in the church van are with us and he says they're going to New York for New Years Eve and Spencer was nervous about driving through Chicago so he was just going to caravan with us through Chicago and then we'd all go our seperate ways.

For some reason all of this made perfect sense to me, even though it was Thanksgiving, not New Years Eve and Heather doesn't know anybody in Detroit.

As we're driving though a maze of country roads (we lived really far out in the county), I realize that I didn't pack anything and all I had was the swimsuit and Ugg boots I was wearing. I told Luke we had to go back because I didn't have anything with me. He got really mad at me and told me that it was my own fault. I started crying and told him I couldn't spend a whole week visiting family I haven't seen in years wearing the same thing every day, especially when it was a bathing suit! He just kept getting angrier and angrier until finally I annoyed him enough that he turned around and started heading back to the house. Heather and Noah were behind us, and everyone else was behind them, and they all followed us back to the house. When we got there, the garage door was wide open and Luke was super glad that I forgot to pack then because he didn't want all his stuff stolen out of the garage.

So I go up to my room and pack (for some reason I don't change). I go in the bathroom to get my toothbrush and all my stuff is on the floor. Confused I open the medicine cabinet and all that's in there are a bunch of bottles of Brut aftershave. I turn to go out into the hall and Mark Moore is coming down the hall towards the bathroom. (Mark is the pastor at Lakeshore Tabernacle. I knew him growing up and he lived with my family for a period of time, although I'm not sure if he actually uses Brut aftershave or not) I give him a big hug and ask what he's doing there and he tells me that Luke had asked him to stay at our house while we were gone. I go back into the bathroom, grab my toothbrush off the floor and go back out to the van. We drive off.

The End.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Ghosts and Other Nonsense

My coworker believes in ghosts. Fine. Whatever.

The thing is, she believes our office is haunted. This annoys me to no end. Mainly because she REFUSES to do certain things that are required of her in her job because of this belief/fear. I am constantly butting heads with her over this. I try to see her point of view, but it's extremely hard for me to relate to because I do not believe in ghosts!

In the end, after trying to talk sense into her, I usually end up doing whatever she was supposed to do but was too afraid to do. Today I decided enough was enough. I told her that she needed to face her fear and to go do her freaking job! (I said it nicer though, although the sheer absurdity of having to try and talk rationally to her had me shaking and trying to keep myself from grabbing her by the shoulders to try and shake some sense into her) She still refused. So did I. My other coworker, who also thinks "ghost girl" is ridiculous, ended up going and doing what needed to be done because she thought we were both being stupid.

Fine. If not doing someone else's work because they're afraid of a non-existant ghost makes me stupid, so be it.

I'm stupid then.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I don't know about you, but I'm ready!

Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again!
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now!

For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet!
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute!
It hasn't snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen!

Slice up the fruitcake;
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough!
For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now!

Haul out the holly;
Well, once I taught you all to live each living day!
Fill up the stocking,
But Auntie Man, it's one week from Thanksgiving Day now.

But we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet!
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute!

It hasn't snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen!

Slice up the fruitcake;
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough!

For we need a little music,
Need a little laughter,
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy
"Happy ever after,"
Need a little Christmas now!

Need a little Christmas now!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

It's Encouraging

To me that boys are just as confused by girls as girls are by boys.

There's some strange comfort in knowing we're all in the soup together.