Two Things Tuesday

1. I get quite annoyed when I ask someone what type of work they've done and they tell me "everything. I've done it all". Really? Everything?? You've flown a spaceship and painted nails and stitched teddy bears and designed clothing and treated patients with malaria and pumped gas and been a dolphin trainer? No? Well then you haven't done everything, now have you? :)

2. Tonight I'll finish reading Mockingay, the 3rd book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I'm not completely finished with the book, so I suppose my mind could change in next 35 pages, but it's not likely. The 3rd book is by far my least favorite. It doesn't seem to fit with the other two and has been difficult for me to read at points. It hasn't kept my interested like the first book did. Anyone else feel the same?

Picture Update

All pictures in this post are stolen/borrowed. My poor camera has not seen any action in quite some time now. I will attempt to remedy that as soon as I find something in my life that I deem picture-worthy.



I CANNOT wait to get my hands on this happy little guy next month!!





I am obsessed with these granola bars. I have at least 1-2 of them every day at work.



I love this show, but the drama this season is really wearing me thin.

 

Since getting engaged, I have received an e-mail from this website almost every day...weird.



Kory and I are reading this book together as a part of pre-marital counseling. Really good so far!

Running (Part 1)

This past weekend I read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. If you haven't read the book, let me start off by recommending that you do. It's a really easy read, but it's very motivating and inspiring. The book is all about the story of your life and whether you're living a memorable story or one that is meaningless. While I certainly don't feel like my life is meaningless, this book reminded/encouraged me to live my life more fully and spend more time making memories and less time wasting hours of my life away.

One of my favorite quotes from the book reads, "...I've noticed something. I've never walked out of a meaningless movie thinking all movies are meaningless. I only thought the movie I walked out on was meaningless. I wonder, then, if when people say life is meaningless,, what they really mean is their lives are meaningless. I wonder if they've chosen to believe their whole existence is unremarkable, and are projecting their dreary life on the rest of us."

So, running is one of the things that makes my story exciting and memorable for me. This blog has always been about sharing my story, so I want to continue to do that by explaining what the journey of becoming a runner has meant to me.

June 27 was a turning point for me. In Miller's book, he talks about an inciting event, which is where the character makes a decision and essentially, there is no turning back from this point. I went running for the first day of the Couch to 5K plan that day. I knew I had tried running many times in the past couple years and I never lasted more than a week or two. I always got tired of it or got busy and just forgot about it. I knew myself well enough to know that I needed motivation and accountability to stick with this.

So, I took several steps to make sure this wouldn't be another week-long fad. First, I downloaded the Couch to 5K app on my phone. I had seen several people on Facebook using this program, so I researched it and decided I would use this program to help me get in shape. Second, I joined at team at my work in the Summer Buds program. It was a wellness program that lasted through the summer and each team was made up of 3 people. Each person set a goal for the summer (mine was to complete a 5k) and we were supposed to check on each other weekly to make sure we were still working towards our goals. Thirdly, I found a 5k race to sign up for, knowing that if I would register and pay for a race, I would be much less likely to back out last minute.

Probably the best motivator for me was that I found a race that supported a cause I felt personally attached to and passionate about. The race was called the Ramble for Recovery and celebrated National Recovery Month, for those recovering from addiction. Participants could run the race in honor or memory of a friend or family member in recovery, so I ran in honor of my older brother, Ty. I told Ty about the race so that it would be an extra incentive for me to persevere.

Meditation

I recently read and watched Eat Pray Love and really enjoyed both the book and the movie! Michelle and Rachel both recommended the book, so I knew it had to be good. This story (and Michelle) have really got me thinking about meditation as a spiritual discipline.

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
--2 Corinthians 10:5

This scripture keeps popping up in my mind as I think about meditation, particularly the phrase "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." I certainly do not feel like all of my thoughts are controlled, much less obedient to Christ. This is really my focus and motivation now--to take control of my thoughts and to think more on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.

So, I have attempted to meditate several times now. As I expected, it's really hard to get my mind focused and not jumping around to all kinds of random thoughts. My friend Sarah that is in my small group gave me a Yoga video and I've been doing it in the evenings. It has a few minutes of relaxation at the beginning, then about 15 minute of yoga (very basic--it's a beginners video) and then ends with a few minutes of meditation. I'm trying to do the meditation for longer, but I keep getting interrupted by my phone or Mr. Sir or having to go to the bathroom, so I haven't been very successful so far.

I'm very interested in hearing what other people have to say about this topic. Michelle, have you done any meditation since finishing the book? Do any of you meditate regularly?

Thought Provoking

In the past couple weeks, I have seen two movies and read one book that all made me really think! I'm still contemplating what I can learn from each of them...love this type of media.

Vacation!

We spent several days in Washington this past week at Creation Fest for our summer vacay. It was really fun and relaxing, which was just what we needed.


Yes, that's Kory's gum hanging out of his mouth...

David Crowder is just AWESOME--I love him!

Switchfoot was INCREDIBLE! They definitely put on the best show...I'm a big fan.

Thursday was a day that exemplifies my idea of vacation. We slept until about 8:45, got up and ate breakfast and were back in the tent napping by 10 :) After napping for a couple hours, we ate a picnic lunch and headed into a nearby town to spend the afternoon shopping at REI and Target. Heaven for each of us! We went back to camp that evening and I had a turkey leg for the first time. It was incredible! Wow, it was so yummy...I want another one right now! That night we saw Hillsong and Newsboys in concert. Newsboys was very nostalgic for us both and we loved hearing old songs from them and DC Talk.

Friday we spent a good portion of the day reading our books and enjoying 75 degree weather. We went to a youth leader seminar but I didn't really feel like it was worth my time. This guy is supposed to be one of the leading "experts" on youth ministry and I literally heard everything he said in my very first speech class as a freshman in college. So...maybe I am an expert too! Friday's concerts included KJ52, Matthew West, Thousand Foot Krutch and Toby Mac. Quite an excellent day of music! Toby Mac was very high energy and goofy. I definitely had the most fun at his show.

Beautiful view of Mt. Rainier from our tent

Sunday, after we got home, I spent pretty much ALL day watching Veronica Mars. I'm totally hooked on this show now! There are 6 discs in the first season and I finished 4 of them on Sunday :) I really love Kristen Bell and I can't believe I've never heard of this show. It's a real gem!

One of our youth group girls gave me The Shack a couple weeks ago and I started reading it while we were camping. I really like it but was quite confused because the entire foreword explains how it's a true story and then about half-way through reading it, I talked to Kory about it and found out it was a fiction book. I am sure the cover of the book probably tells you that, but this copy of the book was partially eaten by her dog, so the front cover is almost all gone and some of the pages are a bit gnawed on...so I didn't realize this was all made up. After reading the first half of it under the impression that it was a true account, I had a hard time finishing the book. I still like it, but I have to allow some time for my mind to adjust to this fiction story before I finish it. I think I only have about 50 more pages at this point, so I'm pretty close to the end now.

I am on Week 5 of my running program and still going strong so that is encouraging! It's certainly challenging and I never feel like it's too easy, but I always feel like I am making progress and want to keep going. I just got the paperwork to sign up for my first 5K which is scheduled for Saturday, September 11. That's only 6 1/2 weeks away and it seems pretty daunting at the time, but I will continue to take it one day at a time.

And now we're back to the routine of every day life! Church health team meeting Monday night, youth group Wednesday night, followed by a meeting with a financial advisor, small group Thursday night, Myrtle Creek Summer Festival this weekend and trying to fit in a full-time job somewhere in between :)

Spring is still too cold for me.

40 days of water is OVER and I can drink Dr. Pepper again!! I did pretty well and didn't really crave DP a lot, mostly out of habit. I think I can continue to drink a lot of water, but I'll enjoy a DP from time to time.

Talk about the butterfly effect...The earthquake/tsunami in Chile boosted the economy in Oregon! Apparently, Chile had several plywood mills that were destroyed and that work has now been given to Oregon mills. So, several Oregon operations have been able to hire back some laid-off workers and give them temporary work until the Chilean production plants can get back up and running.

I wish it was warmer already! I have been wanting to go camping for over a year now and we didn't go last summer so I have to keep waiting for it to warm up so we can go. There are several trips I've got planned for this summer including Crater Lake, the Redwoods and going to a few more coastal towns. I wish Kory didn't work on Sundays because that means we can't really go anywhere that's farther than a day trip on the weekends. Oh well, at least we live in a really cool place with a lot of worthwhile destinations just a few hours away.

Easter was pretty boring and that made me sad. I really wanted to dye eggs and get into the spirit, but maybe next year. I spent the entire day Saturday reading Breaking Dawn...and I do mean the entire day because that things is 754 pages!! It was really good--obviously I couldn't stop reading it. I woke up and decided to start it and the next thing I knew it was getting dark outside and the whole day was gone. I love books like that where you get so lost in the story and can't put it down! SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't read all of the Twilight books and don't want to know the ending, stop reading now!!!

I think the ending was a little too picture perfect...everyone lives, is happy, falls in love, etc. I think at least one of the characters should have been killed (a Cullen?) and Jacob should have just had to go on with life without imprinting. I mean, I love a happy ending, but it was just not realistic enough for me. haha I just realized I'm asking for a book about vampires and werewolves to be more realistic.

Even though it sounds lame, I really love playing Sims. Kory had the computer games and got me hooked on them. If you don't know what they are, I would try to explain them to you but that makes them sound even dumber. Basically, you get to build a family and home and live these characters lives for them. haha You can pick jobs, go to work, make friends, cook meals, sleep, swim, go on vacation, have a party, study and learn, and really do most everything you can do in your own real life. It really is fun, even though it sounds like it would be crazy boring.

Movies, Books and Groceries

I have seen several good movies in the past couple weeks: Star Trek, When in Rome, Sherlock Holmes and Dear John. Loved them all! When in Rome was pretty cheesy but I expected no less from a romantic comedy. I heard everyone say that they really liked Star Trek even though they never liked the show, but I, of course, didn't believe it until I saw it myself. I don't think I ever saw a trailer for Sherlock Holmes but I like Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams so I knew it had to be good. Dear John was pretty much exactly what I expected-- a good cry with the chance to look at Channing Tatum. I love him because he was in She's the Man and that movie is one of my all-time faves.

I'm almost finished reading New Moon and my co-worker let me borrow the book Dear John today, so I've got a lot of reading ahead of me. I've also stayed on track with my Daily Bible reading so I'm really happy about that. I'm excited I've got back in the habit of reading. Hopefully I can visit the library soon and start getting books from there.

This weekend was a pretty productive one for me, which always makes me feel good about starting the work week. I got all my dishes, kitchen and laundry clean as well as buying groceries. I do not enjoy grocery shopping because I am really bad at it! I know it seems like something you can't really be bad at, but I am. I don't know how the store is laid out and I end up walking around in circles for a couple hours. This weekend I didn't even have a list so I just tried to find things as I thought of them. I was there for a couple hours and seriously went down every isle at least twice. It was ridiculous! My lack of cooking/food knowledge doesn't help either because I don't know where to find some foods...like pickles! I looked for them for like 10 minutes and couldn't find anyone to help me. If someone would go buy my groceries for me, I'd eat whatever they bought and just make it work to avoid having to do the shopping myself.

We started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University last week at church. I really like the course so far and am excited to go to our next class tonight! I'm not really reckless with money--I don't have any credit card debt or student loans thankfully, but I'm also not very good with saving, so hopefully I'll get better at that.

Weekend Update

This past weekend was pretty busy and this week looks to be the same. I went to a volleyball game, homecoming, 2 soccer games, and 3 church meetings over the weekend. South Umpqua's homecoming was Friday night, so we went to the football game to enjoy the festivities. There were a few things that I think should have been changed...the homecoming court was all smushed up on the track with the cars and you could barely see them, while the announcer was out on the field in full-view of everyone. There was also only one convertible and so with all the other cars, you couldn't even see the girls inside. They also didn't have enough cars so several girls were in the back seat of a mustang. Anyway, it was fun because we found two families from church and got to watch the game with them. They even treated us to fried bread with apple butter, which was quite yummy!

Saturday morning, I had my last soccer game coaching the Green Dragons. They were so much fun and I'm really glad I got to coach them! I'll miss the cute kids, but I definitely won't miss getting up early on Saturday mornings. We also went to a high school boys' soccer game on Saturday afternoon to watch one of our youth group kids. Unfortunately, he didn't get to play, but it was an awesome game! It was the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the state and our team won 2-1 in overtime to beat the undefeated team. Very exciting!

A couple months ago, I found a book in Barnes and Noble called The World According to Twitter. I don't use Twitter, but thought this book sounded interesting so I picked it up to start reading. It was SO funny! I was laughing out loud in B and N and really loved this book. The author, David Pogue, is a NY Times columnist who wrote a question on Twitter each night and then recorded the best answers he got (his followers on Twitter replied and the entire book is made up of their responses). The questions are about all sorts of topics from first kisses to movie sequels to lifelong regrets. I didn't end up buying the book because I was already buying a couple others. I found the book again this past weekend and it was on sale, so after reading some more of it in the store, I just bought the book. I spent Saturday evening/night reading the entire book. It's just SO stinking hilarious! The book also includes many inspirational, heart-breaking and really smart tweets, however. This book has me seriously considering getting a Twitter account now. I'll post some questions/responses in the next couple days from this awesome book!

Funeral Dress

The temperatures are back above 100 degrees here in Southern Oregon. This is really unheard of now that it is happening for the second time in one summer! My hope is that the weather is warming up in general and winter won’t be so cold either. :)

I have definitely noticed that the work culture is much more relaxed up here, at least in my office. This is true especially in terms of dress code and office conversations. Several people have told me that the liberal lifestyles of people around here come across as very unprofessional to people from the East Coast, where they generally have a much more conservative attitude towards work. I am beginning to think that professionalism is not common sense, like I once assumed. For some people, they must be told/taught how to act in a business environment. It is crazy to me that some people who never attended college have never learned about how to dress/talk/present oneself for a job interview, first day of work, business meeting, etc.

I cannot believe it has been almost a year since I left for Ireland! Wow—it is amazing to think back to my life then and what I was experiencing versus who and where I am today. I can’t help but see the many ways God was using that experience to teach and shape and prepare me to move out here. It is a great faith-building thing for me to think back 1, 2, 5 or however many years I can remember and think about what was worrying/troubling/scaring me at that time in my life. Then, I think about how God solved the problem or showed me a new way or took care of me and it just reassures me of how BIG my God is and how wonderfully he provides for me.

Today I got a new book called Boundaries. It’s about learning When to say Yes and How to say No, or at least that is what the cover says. Kory told me he has heard great things about it, so I am excited to see what it’s about. I definitely have trouble saying No, even to little things, so I’m hoping this will help me with that.

Someone told me that the dress I wore to work today would be a great funeral dress. I am not sure how to take that. Yes, it is black but I really think it was just a poor attempt at small talk. That is another skill that I have discovered many people are lacking. Silence is not the end of the world. It’s much better than making awkward comments about my appearance such as: “You aren’t wearing blue jeans today.” “My grandma made me a sweater that had the same colors as your blouse once. She is dead now.” “Your hair looks very nice today. Why?” or “The back of your head reminds me of my high school girlfriend.” I wish I could tell you I just made those up.

Ambigram Genius

If you haven't seen Angels and Demons yet, you are most definitely missing out. Get thee to a movie theatre immediately!

One of my pet peeves is when people watch a movie based on a book and then complain because the book was better. Well of course it is--get over it! They are two completely different mediums and I wish people could appreciate the movie as a movie and quit comparing it to the book. Yes, the story was altered a little for the movie, but it was done very well. 

It was awesome seeing so many places in the movie that I recently got to visit. I also re-read the book a couple weeks ago so it helped that the story was fresh in my mind. 

There are so many things I could say about this movie, but I will only say this. If you enjoyed the movie, you should read the book! It is fantastic in an altogether different way :) It is lengthy, but SO worth it. In fact, I think you should read all of Dan Brown's books because he is just that great. 

Easter Weekend

To begin the Easter weekend, I found a book I wrote in the 2nd grade: The Happiest Easter Ever. Wow! I was quite the talented writer and illustrator at age 8. I read the book to Kory over the phone and he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. It isn't THAT funny. However, if I were to draw those pictures again today, they would probably look almost identical to the 2nd grade drawings. Art is not really my gift.

We went to my grandparents ranch for Easter weekend in Weed, NM. If you haven't been to Weed, you really haven't lived. My grandparents don't have cell phone service or a computer at the ranch, so I always load up on reading material to take with me. I read two books this weekend: Multiple Blessings by Kate Gosselin (mom from Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC) and Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell. They are two VERY different books, but I enjoyed both of them.

Our family had planned a big all-day picnic and fun day in the mountains on Saturday. The weather had other plans. It snowed and the wind blew and it was unbelievably cold. We moved picnic locations 5 or 6 times trying to find a warmer place and ended up just eating quickly so we could get back in the warm cars. I guess July is a better time for a picnic in the mountains.

We had a 'big kids' Easter egg hunt on Sunday and I was really dreading it. There were only 5 of us there (two of my cousins and their spouses) and I just wanted to stop after the little kids egg hunt. Well, I ended up finding all but one of the money eggs and got more cash than anyone else. I won't complain about the big kid hunt anymore.

I pulled a W. on Sunday when I was talking to Kory about the "crucification" of Jesus--I knew it didn't sound right but couldn't think how to fix it. Yes, I quickly realized the correct word is "crucifixion." My bad.

I didn't take any pictures last weekend, so here is the only recent picture I have that isn't from Europe.

Hanging out with Kory in Lubbock last week :)