Everybody's Fine

Kory and I watched Everybody's Fine this weekend...and it is the most misleading title of any movie ever! Everybody is NOT fine! I won't ruin it for you if you haven't seen the movie, but it's SO depressing! I cried through most of the movie and continued to feel sad for quite a while after it was over. I haven't cried that much in a movie in a very long time. Even Kory kept talking about how depressing it was afterwards and how it put him in a sad mood. I enjoy a good crying movie from time to time, but this was too much for me. Too sad for too long!

Really?!?

For my fellow SNL lovers, I have a few things on my Weekend Update deserving of a "REALLY?!?" segment:

1. Today I got an e-mail for "Wonderful Winter Recipes--Share the Warmth". In July?

2. I saw on FB where a college graduate typed this word: "snuggaling". I know it was not a one-time typo because it  was spelled that way several times.

3. Quote from church this morning: "Lord, may we show the enemies Your love through our soldiers actions." Nothing says love like bombs, tanks and AK47s.

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.

Random Thoughts

I got sunburned a couple weeks ago and my skin is just now peeling. The skin on my arms is coming off in pretty big chunks and while I know it sounds disgusting, it is actually quite cool!

When I was younger, I remember thinking that an office job had to be really easy and I didn't understand how people could be so tired after working in an office all day. For my job at least, I can say that it is mentally and emotionally draining. It's not physical labor or active work, but I still find myself worn out by the end of the day. While I really love my job, I know I wasn't made to spend my life in an office. Anytime I'm away from work (weekends, vacation, etc.) and I find myself outside during the daylight hours, I am so happy to see sunlight and to know what life is like outside these 4 walls. My dream job would be to NOT work. I'm so ready for retirement already!

I always had a hard time remembering which ocean was the Pacific and which was the Atlantic, but now that I live in the Pacific NW, I can finally keep it straight.

Almost every sentence I type ends with an exclamation mark. I just read back through this post and deleted multiple !'s where they weren't really appropriate. I am trying to use them sparingly so they will really show excitement when they are used. I don't think I'm the only person who overuses them, however...my time on social networks proves that most girls use the ! WAY more than necessary.

Although I haven't completely given up on Dr. Pepper, I am definitely drinking less these days. Amazingly, I've found that if I don't buy any, I don't drink any. If all I have to drink is tap water, then I will drink tap water and be satisfied with that for the most part. As with the exclamation points, if I drink them less, I find I enjoy them more when I do have one.

I now have one close friend with a baby and two more friends who are pregnant, so I think it's safe to say I'm in the life stage where all my friends will be having children. That is craziness to me...we surely aren't old enough for that!

Kory will take 18 teens to church camp this next week, so I'll be getting in lots of time with Veronica Mars while they're all gone. Onto Season 2! Rachel will arrive the following week and then my parents after that, so I have a lot to look forward to. I can't wait to show them this beautiful place I get to call home!

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 :)

I was born for SUMMER!

Here are some pictures from our recent kayaking trip. We had SO much fun! I love it and want to go every day now!

It was gorgeous that day and we just drove down the road and saw a spot to pull over and got in the river.

Kory's a lot better than I am at steering the kayaks...I was all over the place.

This is a good arm and ab workout for sure!

I LOVE my Chacos and am so glad to have them this summer.

Also, I have wonderful friends and family. Thanks so much for your encouragement after my last post about feeling lonely. I feel much better now and God really used you guys to encourage me!

Late Night Thoughts

I am laying here on the couch (bed is covered in clean clothes and I am too lazy to put them all away) and I have a thousand thoughts running through my head so I will attempt to type them out here and then hopefully I can get to sleep.

My coworker won't stop talking about her son's wedding and she told me last week it is a potluck. I am trying not to judge but that just screams tacky!

I really really want a more flexible work schedule. I love my job but I HATE the 8-5, no exceptions. I am not made to live my life in an office.

After a year living in Oregon, I feel strangely put of place. I don't feel like this is home, per se, but it is certainly very familiar. I love it here but I just have this strange feeling that I will never truly belong here. That sounds negative and I don't mean for it to...I just think I will always look at this Pacific NW culture from the outside and compare it to NM/TX. I guess I can't expect to feel the same about a place I lived for one year vs. 23 years somewhere else.

Nobody told me how hard it is to make friends as an adult. Most of my college friends are discovering the same thing I am and I think it took most of us by surprise. I just never really thought about it in college and now I see that I may never have friendships that close again. It kind of makes me sad, but it also makes me really appreciate those friendships and makes me want to keep in touch even more.

For the first time in a very long time, I can look back at the past year and say that not much has changed. I have the same job, live in the same apartment, drive the same car, am in the same relationship, etc. I guess this is called settling down and being stable?

Sometimes I feel like my friends who are married and having babies are speeding ahead in life without me. It is like I am left behind as a college student still dating and they are full blown adults and I can never catch up now. I guess one of the true tests of friendship is whether you can remain friends even when you are thousands of miles apart and are in very different life situations and all you have in common is love.

I really miss TX/NM people tonight. Typically I try not to write this stuff down for everyone to see because I want to be a positive and optimistic person. However, I think it is more important to be real and for me to be able to share what is on my heart--good or bad. Lonely is a feeling I never really experienced until after college graduation. It has been hard for me to learn that missing someone or longing to be somewhere else doesn't mean you can't enjoy where you are right now. I love my life here and absolutely feel that I am right where God wants me. There is no better place to be than in the center of His will!