blog's gettin' dusty

do i still have a blog...?

oh yeah, here it is under all the cobwebs. methinks i haven't had a whole lot to say in april.

one of these days i'll post pics and adventuresome tales from our journey to mecca aka NYC to see one of my new favorite human beings on the planet, liz eggert.

until then be satisfied with this...more wistful doggie thoughts. though mary-kate olson still looks like the poster child for all things goodwill and garbage, she DOES have a freaking cute dog. i would be completely happy with my life if i got a blonde french bulldog. big sigh...

hopefully later this week i'll have exciting news to share that will MOVE you...or me for that matter (:

love

isn't this picture perfect?

all i can think of when i look at it is how filled with love it is.

this is an incredible friend rachel and her hubs eric. rache is one of the best mothers i know to baby xyla. i haven't gotten to see her in many years but get to keep touch with facebook. hope to get to see her and her family next time i'm in the NW.

follow her beauty-full life on her blog here.

existential mini series: part 4

i went to fort worth this weekend. it was two days full of fun and celebration of the impending nuptials of two in my texas family, jake & jessie. mid-saturday night celebration, i got a phone call from carissa. one and the same naturalist who helped me craft part three of this series. one thing i love about carissa is no matter how infrequently we talk, we can call anytime/where and pick right back up. or i can sit on a gravel stoop across from a mexican restaurant in northern texas and talk about why we are here with her and not miss a beat.

i really, really want you to read her blog for this fourth installment. she's taking the question of "why are we here?" a step further. we decided we can't just be satisfied asking the questions...we've GOT to pursue answers. not passively sitting and waiting for God to say, "What's up with the what's up?" but actively taking a role in figuring this whole thing out. so we sat. and we talked. and we lamented the world we graduated into and the jobs that God has us in right now. does what we're doing right now matter? i wake up in the morning and help people @ VVRMC for the next 9 hours. hiring people, verifying employment, running reports for the government, affadavits, sharing lunch with pesky EMS directors, and so on and so forth. i then get off work. i make dinner, do laundry, go spinning, running, bowling, visiting and i fall asleep and dream about the oregon coast with PJ or getting puppies given to me in plastic bubbles. then i repeat. so what about all of that matters in the big picture? what about that is helping bring the Kingdom of God HERE, now?

i don't yet have the answer to that. but i do have something that's getting me through. something's gotta give. that's what carissa and i decided on - no matter what, we have to believe with our whole hearts that something's gotta give. that things won't always be like they are. and isn't that what kingdom come is all about? sitting. watching. waiting. with hope-filled expectation that life as we know it won't always be as we know it. that the kingdom will come. i believe that, i really do.

to read the rest of part four, check out carissa's blog (something's gotta give).

i want to leave a disclaimer that these questions i've been asking and the writing i've been doing are in no way causing me to lose sight of what God is doing. these questions are challenging me to be dissatisfied with having a motionless faith. these questions give me hope and they excite me because they lead to these mind-blowing conversations with other believers who feel the same and remind me that we are all connected. we are not alone in our doubt.

thanks for reading! i'm working on what i think it the last part of this little series with the help of an incredible book i'm reading by mother teresa called "a simple path".

existential mini series: part 3

an earthquake wrecked haiti. another came and devastated chile. people's lives have been forever changed, and yet i still go to work, breathe in, breathe out, and go to bed. in the most physical sense, these disasters have not affected me. in the spiritual sense, they most certainly should. why? that's my next question. i know the textbook answer is something along the lines of, "because they're christians too". but i think there's something more to this. and carissa lemos is getting what that is. i met carissa @ SPU in university ministries. she's now running around the forests of california teaching biology to young ragamuffins. here are her thoughts on "why?" and a really compelling answer.


"this morning i've been mulling over a powerful image of connectedness.
yesterday afternoon i drove along westcliff and watched huge waves crash into the shore, the larger than normal swells a result of the 8.8 earthquake to hit Chile yesterday. according to CNN the death toll has reached 700. not to mention the damage to fresh water sources, the thousands upon thousands who have been displaced. the people who have lost their livelihoods due to the damage of local businesses. the children that will suffer because their schools have been destroyed. it goes on and on and it's all connected.

the image of the shock waves crossing the sea and crashing on our shores is a powerful one. and one i pray we will not miss. everything is connected." (emphasis mine)

that's the answer. why should i care what happens to those around me? because everything is connected. but like i said, i think there's something more to this! and i think it has a lot to do with romans 12:5.

"...And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.

did you read that? we belong to each other. and that is what connects us - what makes his hurt become her hurt become my hurt. and we need each other in order to stay connected. i need those hurting in haiti to remind me that life is a breath. i can have it all today, and have nothing tomorrow. i need those people to remind me to care. to make their hurt my own so we can maintain that connection in the body of Christ. because everything is connected.

part four to come - from myself and this lady who understood just how connected we are.

existential mini series: part 2

as promised, here is part two of this small series of questions and answers.

the beautiful thing about being in the body of Christ is that we are all connected (more on this later). i am not alone in my questions and fears. there are others who have been there and wrestled with answers of their own. and we can help each other! like mike said in part one, "we're all in this together" (from HSM...yeah!). and we are. isn't that beautiful? so, part two. from the brilliant nate berends of seattle, washington (see below). he is a dear friend of the heart whom i had the pleasure of acquainting @ SPU. like mike, i got to know him better working together in university ministries. he is truly one of my most favorite human beings on the planet. below is an exchange between nate and myself on family, eternity, children and such. hopefully it will spur questions in your heart and cause you to go on the hunt for answers of your own.

My request: "Last night I was talking to a friend of mine. I told him I thought we had really similar religious beliefs but it was proving to not be the case @ all. So I was asking what exactly he believes – are you a Christian? Why? What does that mean to you? Why do you go to church? How do you want to raise your family?

So that led to him asking me the same and I was appalled @ what came out of my mouth. Appalled simply because I’ve never taken the time to verbalize some of those things. So I was talking – and I got to the “How do you want to raise your family” issue. And it really drew me to tears. I talked about how there’s really no need for a marriage relationship in heaven but your children are the one things you do get to take with you. They are the one thing you come into this world without and get to take with you into eternity. They are your legacy. Which is why it’s so important for me to be able to be a mother – to raise my children to LOVE, to be open, accepting, compassionate. To go to church because they feel drawn into engaging with the body of Christ. I want to pour my life into raising my children which might be why I’m having such a hard time picking a career path right now.

So, with all that said, am I right? I have said these things with conviction, and I truly believe them but, am I right? Don’t we get to take our children with us into Kingdom Come? Is there not marriage in heaven?

So I’m writing you for help. For assurance. Like I said, I know I’m asking you for more than a quick e-mail soothing my feathers. And I will reply to what you’ve written below. It’s beautiful – all your writing is.

And thanks. For being Nathanael Henry Berends – a person I can come to with fears and questions like these."

get ready for his response. it's incredible. it helps and it makes sense. feel free to get to know nate better @ nateberends.com.

His reply: "As I understand it, the real root of your surprise was in considering the role that family plays in the afterlife. I read your message to suggest that you are a bit uncertain about the way that you, your ancestors and your progeny, will all relate in the hereafter.

It is important in discussions of this nature that we not confuse what we believe scripture says with the things that it actually does say. Frank Spina was a strong advocate of a very simple idea: We are to speak boldly about that which the bible speaks. Likewise, we are to remain silent on the matters about which the bible does not speak. It is not reasonable for us to write scripture ourselves. We cannot simply say that because the Bible does not speak to a certain point, we are safe in assuming one thing or the other! Rather, if the Bible does not say it, we simply cannot know. And we all must be careful about controlling our own deity complex and the deep desire to transform our own wishful thinking into normative Christian belief.

This is the challenge of theology: to make sound inferences based on what we know of God's revelation to us.

With this said, there are plenty of places in the Bible that speak both of heaven and of family. And there are connections that we can make, I think.

And because there are a few things going on here, let's start at the beginning.

Already in Genesis, almost as soon as we see people, we see death. And from some of the earliest times, we see the Bible speak about people being rejoined with their ancestors after death. Abraham, Issac, Jacob and others were all spoken of as being "gathered unto [their] people." Even Moses, before his death was instructed to climb a mountain and look upon the promised land, at which point God said he would be gathered unto his people.

Considering these few examples, we can see that there is biblical precedent for the notion that heaven is a place of reunion. Heaven is indeed a place of meeting! This is something that is affirmed throughout scripture.

But what will we look like in heaven? What did Jesus look like when he came back? What about Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration? In both cases, their likeness was still recognizable by those still on earth. Peter immediately recognized both Moses and Elijah, even though he would have never met either one of them on earth!

The Bible speaks of the coming redemption as making all things new; not of making all new things. In this, there is some sense that all things will be restored to their perfect condition. What our perfected selves will look like is hard to say. But in several places in the Bible we do find people returning from heaven in a recognizable form.

This brings us to the real crux of your dilemma. How does family play into this?

Certainly we must begin by considering the nature of our human relationships. Have you seen God in others? Have others seen God in you? Have you ever known the sacramental nature of human relationships?

We can define sacramentality as the idea of something commonplace becoming a conduit for the divine. Considering this, have you ever known a common relationship in your life that has been capable of revealing to you elements of the divine?

I pray your answer is yes. I am confident that you know this type of sacramental relationship.

If this is the case, we can firmly declare that there is such a thing as a relationship that is of God.

Do we agree here?

If we agree on this point, then we are declaring that there is something holy about relationships. Relationships hold within them the potential for redemption. Because of this, I am confident that we should not diminish the value of our various relationships, familial or otherwise.

But...

There is a catch, and it is a big catch.

What is the purpose of heaven? What's it for?

The Bible is relatively clear in the idea that heaven is a place where believers will gather in worship and glory for eternity. Heaven is a place where we will be reunited with, and redeemed by, Jesus Christ. The sole purpose of Heaven is unity with God, and nothing else.

And this might be what Jesus was beginning to explain when he didn't even wait for a man to bury his father, instead telling him that there is no time! Led the dead bury their own dead!

Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom began to blur the lines of what family is.

No longer was your family a matter of biology. It became a matter of adoption.

So why do I even mention this?

There are a few reasons:

1) When it comes to heaven, we don't know very much. When it comes to God, it sometimes it seems like we know even less. Because of this, I am not confident in saying that I have any better of an idea than you.

2) There is biblical precedent for Heavenly recognition. There is reason for us to hope that our Heavenly selves look somewhat like our earthly selves.

3) The Kingdom of God is more than large enough to include within it the idea of family. But it is augmented. Family is less about blood relation, and, as I mentioned earlier, more about adoption.

4) It seems like perfection, which is what we are told Heaven embodies, does not leave room for disunity. There is no place for favorites in heaven. If this is true, then Heaven will not be filled with many reunited families, but with one, single family. We, as the children of God, will all come before the throne as one body.

And that is perhaps a good place to leave the matter for now.

I cannot say that you are right or you are wrong. It seems to me that the main thrust of scripture leans toward the loss of this earthly idea of family.

In the face of the gathered children of God, I don't exactly know how earthly families play into that at all. When all people live in perfect unity with God, our earthly notions of family might seem to dissolve away.

But maybe I'm all wet."

thanks for reading through this. part three to come.

existential mini series

so i have these questions...and they're all really existential in nature. i've been sitting on them, chewing on them for a couple months now and i've gotten to the point where i really need answers. answers about why we are here. answers to questions like: * is there such a thing as a marriage relationship in heaven? * don't we take our children with us to heaven? * what does God as of us, His children? big questions, with no little answers. and yet, in my confusion and questioning and seeking, i am blessed by others journeying similar questions and sharing their musings. with that, i want to share the writings of a couple friends. mike zetterberg is a friend from college. i knew of him for most of my time @ SPU and got to know him a bit better when we both worked in university ministries. he is awesome. he is wise. he has questions. he's sought answers! this is all good. he blogged about some questions and his understanding of how God wants us to live. i love it and he's allowed me to share. click on his name for a link to his blog - a reflection of life as he knows it in LA serving with PLACE corps.

here is what he has to say:

"what we DO know
I love talking to Paige. If you have never had a real conversation with Paige Hustead, you have not lived. She is full of grace and wisdom and love, and she consistently reminds me of who of I am and what I stand for.
We had a conversation tonight about faith and life. Both of us are in this place of questioning and pondering. We both love God and want to serve God, but we admittedly do not know who God is or what God wants or how we are to live in response to God.
Here are some conclusions we drew this evening:
Even amidst our doubt and confusion, we know there is God. What we know of God is that God asks us to love. We know from our spiritual texts that followers of God are called to love and give and share and care for others. It seems that we could spend our whole lives trying to do these things that we DO know, and yet we still may never fully achieve their demands. But maybe all God is asking of us is that we do what we know we must do. Maybe God doesn’t require that we try to figure everything else out just yet. Maybe we don’t need the answers to our doctrinal debates in order to live like we should. Maybe God is pleased simply by our honest pursuit of what we know God wants of us. Maybe the rest of our questions will be answered in doing these things, and still, maybe they won’t. But it seems that if we could spend our whole lives just trying to love and share and give and care, then it would be a useless waste of time to fight over the things we do not know. Maybe God is actually displeased when we focus so much on what we do not know that we become distracted from pursuing the attributes and actions that we do know.
I would be arrogant and self-righteous to state these conclusions without acknowledging that my life does present its share of controversial choices. There are many Christians who would point at my life and say that I am not living according to what THEY do know about what God wants. I hear those protests and I wrestle with their argument daily. But, I also admit with all sincerity that I DO NOT know what they know. God has never shown me what they know. So I am honestly seeking. But I am choosing not to let my questions or the questions of others interfere with my understanding of what I am to do. I am to love and to give and to share and to care for others. I must “Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God,” as my open arms remind me.
So, those are some thoughts. Do with them what you will. Let me know what you’re thinking about. “We’re all in this together,” as the cast of the HSM reminds us."

isn't that rich? i don't know about YOU but it gives me HOPE. and JOY. and reminds me that there's more to this life than just waiting around for Kingdom Come.

part two in this little Existential mini series to come shortly, with thoughts from the brilliant Nathanael Henry Berends.

adrian johnson

okay. this guy is sick. feel free to take a look @ his artwork here. adrian johnson is a uk-based artist and illustrator who's designed for the likes of stussy, mastercard, etc. his style kind of reminds me a lot of mary blair, who i posted about way back in early september (see here). anywho, these are two of my faves from his website.

"synth apache"

"gangsta wrapper"

whoa

Okay people, I am NERDING out over this so I just had to post it. Just when I thought Human Resources is consuming my life and making me forget every shred of biology I ever learned, I read this and LOVE why I chose bio.

I won't give you a synopsis or bitter diatribe (see Killer Whale post below), just the link to read @ will and a teaser picture.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/25/whitesides.chip/index.html?hpt=C1

there's a reason they're called KILLER whales people...

The most read article on CNN.com this morning is this, a "shocking" tale of a killer whale @ SeaWorld killing one of its trainers. Should we really be all that surprised when a killer whale, not meant to be kept in captivity and perform tricks for people, kills someone??? Maybe it's like whale justice - we're killing them by keeping them in captivity and turning them into circus acts, so they kill every once in a while. Read the article - it's kind of gruesome how it killed her - but what do we expect? That a predatory mammal should be compassionate and defy it's inherent tendencies simply because we've taken it out of its natural habitat? Interesting. I'm sure my bestie Erin Cole, animal lover and champion of all things furry, wet and wild, would have a LOT to say about this.

It's just kind of sad. I remember falling in love with Free Willy as a kid - partially for Michael Jackson's "Will You Be There" video @ the beginning - but mostly for WILLY. To top it all off, Keiko (the whale from the movie), lived @ the Oregon Coast Aquarium for years after the movie. He was AWESOME, as was the Keiko Rootbeer we purchased from the Aquarium gift shop each time. I'm sure that and our commemorative Keiko medallion are worth a ton of $ if I could just find them. Then they shipped him up to Iceland to be released back into the wild and he died 5 years later in '03. Sad day. So what good is it to keep whales in captivity, if they really don't need to be?

crazy dreams

please tell me i'm not the only one having bizzaro dreams every night.

last night i watched a forest burn down on oakdale road, where stan tschiegg helped me to my parents' house. there i found a basement i didn't know my parents had, where there are also a huge old dog that i didn't know we had name big bird. i then went to a high school football game where i threw up on ciarra lopez and watched my rommate amy sing at halftime. i then was so embarrassed for her, i crawled down a stage tunnel and ended up in my parents' secret basement again where brandon ensz was hanging out, waiting to carve my parents cabinetry in said secret basement. oh and then at the end he put his hand in his pocket and brought out one of these:


in a plastic bubble. sweet.

nights like last night solidify my belief that dreams mean nothing...at least, i hope so.

Burning Question

Ask no more folks. This lil' guy has cleared up your life's burning question: "Do Gingers have souls?" Yes, yes they do. And his is angry and resentful AND Christian (whew!).

Welcome to Lent

Lent. I had never even heard of it until I went off to college, where it seemed to be all the rage. After learning more about it, I think SPU put an enormously Protestant spin on, so I chose not to participate while a student. Gearing up for this season of Lent, I've been asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of reading on what Lent is really for...

"When we speak of Lent, we speak of preparation so that the life in us can be recovered -- or much more -- so that the life in us can be welcomed. The life of Christ risen, his Spirit which is given to us at Easter, needs to find hospitality in us." ~ Monsignor Massimo Camisasca

So we're told it is a season of preparation. A season of the "already, but not yet" of waiting for Christ's victory over death. This time of the year when we wait, with hope-filled expectation, for salvation. It's exciting. It's heart breaking. The emphasis of Lent also centers around "justice" - focus is directed toward the disciplines of prayer (justice towards Christ), fasting or other acts of penance (justice towards self) and "alms-giving" or, as I see it, giving back (justice towards your neighbors). A lot of people, in keeping with tradition, give up something for Lent - chocolate, Starbucks, alcohol, television, etc. - so that Christ may "find hospitality in us" and so we can use that time formerly geared towards whatever we are fasting from, to focus on Christ and pursue Him more fully. I've never given something up for Lent, because I truly didn't believe that giving up my daily Starby's would find me drawing closer to God.

So this Lent I'd like to adopt this theme of justice - praying more, digging deep into my devotions and giving back - finding ways, even if they're small and unimportant - to bless those around me. I'm excited to see what this season of hope and pause will bring about in myself, my relationship with God and in those around me.

So...Happy Ash Wednesday (: Wait with me and let's see what happens.

thought for the day...or week...or life

Professing unshakable reliance upon you our God,
and human reliance upon one another,
we, women and men of your creation,
joined in love,
open wide the window of a new time
in which the sun will refresh equally the rich and the poor,
the animals of the sea and the birds of the air,
the plants of the earth and the stones of all ages
--indeed, all creation.

May our trust in your providence and in each other
lead us to act justly, to love tenderly, to walk humbly,
and to live together in peace on this earth. Amen.
~Sr. Mary Ann Coyle, S.L.
Sisters of Loretto, Denver, Colorado

show some love friends...

Show some love for Haiti AND for Andria Lindquist Photography. Check it out @ Emerald City Sightings for how to give back and Andria Lindquist's Photography Gallery Opening for how to support this emerging icon!

Check out her blog (link above) for a snacking of her skills. I'm serious guys...she is the one you'll want to watch in the Photography world. She is killing right now and only getting her feet wet as an artist. And I'm not just saying this because she's one of my bestest friends on the Earth...

Support her Thursday, February 4th @ Q Cafe in Seattle for her first Gallery Opening. Details in the link above!


Copyright Andria Lindquist Photography, 2009
Used with permission

looking forward: another goal

if you recall...i hate resolutions but LOVE to set me some goals. i posted some noteworthy goals slash warm ideas that might come to fruition earlier this month and already hit one (new high score in bowling). whoohoo!

next one on the dockett: apply to graduate school

matt has been my biggest supporter in this and he's really encouraged me to start applying to PA school, despite not having my patient care experience. there's a decent amount of schools that don't require it so i'm going to go for it. i got my GRE books all ordered and am on an 8 week study plan to take this sucker in late march or early april in san antonio.

GRE is the first step. april is the release of the applications and i'll be working on that and sending them off to a handful of schools far and wide (more to come on those later). application deadlines aren't until the fall so it'll be a frenzied spring to get it completed and compiled.

so...this is a huge shot in the dark, but i'm going to try anyway (:

if you need to reach me in the next 8 weeks, feel free to look for me nerding out in the nerdatorium with my nerd nose in these:

the latest

here are the latest statistics on the devastation in haiti, courtesy of CNN

THE TOLL

150,000: Latest estimate of the death toll, from the Haitian Health Ministry. The European Union and the Pan American Health Organization, which are coordinating the health-sector response, have estimated the quake killed 200,000 people.
194,000: Number of injured
134: Estimated number of people rescued by international search teams since the quake

THE EFFECT

9 million: Population of Haiti
3 million: Estimated number of people affected by the quake
1 million: Estimated number of displaced people
800,000 to 1 million: People who need temporary shelter
235,000: People who have left Port-au-Prince using free transportation provided by the government. The number who left by private means is undetermined.
At least 50: Aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or higher that have hit Haiti since the January 12 quake

THE CHILDREN

300,000: Children younger than 2 who need nutritional support
90: Percentage of schools in Port-au-Prince that have been destroyed
263: Haitian orphans who have been evacuated

THE RESPONSE IN DOLLARS

$1.12 billion: International aid pledges
$783 million: Funds received as of Tuesday
$317 million: U.S. assistance as of Monday


THE RESPONSE IN MANPOWER

17,000: U.S. military personnel in and around Haiti
8 million: Meals the World Food Programme has delivered to nearly 400,000 people
300: Aid distribution sites that are up and running
130 to 150: Flights arriving every day at the single-runway Port-au-Prince airport with aid

EFFECT ON FOREIGNERS

12,000: U.N. workers in the country at the time of the quake
53: U.N. workers still missing
At least 82: U.N. workers dead
27: U.N. workers injured or hospitalized
11,500: Americans and family members who have been evacuated
4,800: Americans unaccounted for


Sources: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Red Cross, the United Nations, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department and the World Food Programme

My weekend in outline form...

1. The Escape
a. Off work early Friday. Headed to San Antonio with Amy (roomie)!

2. The Food
a. Dinner @ Lion & Rose with Amy and 9 guys (pretty solid ratio)

3. The Party in the USA
a. Party hardy @ the Cross-Eyed Seagull in Stone Oak
i. Watched Tom play pool with Tara (pronounced Tah-rah) aptly nicknamed “Hair Academy”
1. Try to guess where Tara went to school
ii. Swiped some guy’s super sweet orange sweatband
1. Huge mistake for several reasons
a. I hid it in my pants and forgot it was there
b. Searched in the bathroom and couldn’t find it
c. He was LIVIIIIIIID and called me nasty names
2. Found it in the back of Babbit’s truck the next day smelling faintly of tobacco, sweat, alcohol, poor decisions, Head & Shoulders, and pool hall
a. My hair concurrently smelled similar the next morning
iii. Left @ Last Call and tucked in for the night @ the AP

4. The Wake-Up
a. Trying to get 7 very hungover people up and running the next morning is not easy
b. Everyone rallied and we headed to Shipley’s Do-Nuts for breakfast

5. The Shore
a. Back to Megan & Brynn’s house in Converse for two back-to-back episodes of Jersey Shore
b. Gym, Tan, Laundry

6. The Safari
a. I took it upon myself to be Saturday’s activities planner and convinced our 3-car caravan to head to the biggest drive-through safari in Texas
b. IT WAS INCREDIBLE
c. I hugged zebras…a life dream of mine (see Facebook Album “Where the Wild Things Are”)

7. The Return
a. Ames and I hit the road a little after 7 p.m. back to Del Ghetto for TV with Stef

8. The Wake-Up II
a. Ames and I forsook church (heathens) for a trip to Wal-Mart

9. The Lake
a. Ames & I picked up Shadow and Sadie my Lady for a trip to the lake
b. The dogs LOVED IT
c. I did not love picking cactus prickles out of their feet
d. Did a little off-roading in the 4Runner – LOVED
e. Did not love the dogs sliming the back of my car

10. The Maid
a. Cleaned my room and did laundry like a well-oiled machine. My mother wouldn’t believe such cleanliness could come from her spawn

11. The Globes
a. Ames and I stole the idea of Miss Georgia Peach and had a Golden Globes party for the ladies of Del Ghetto. Peach, Rachel, Ames, myself and Stef were in attendance and had a blast.
b. FOOD – there was a lot of it…and it was good

12. The Win
a. THE COLTS BEAT THE RAVENS!!!
b. Superbowl here we come!!!

13. The End

decisions, decisions

once again, i'm back to making some big decisions about WHERE and WHEN. remington and the boy will be graduating soon and off into the wild blue yonder to their next assignment. that leaves me to figure some big ticket items out - do i want to stay in del rio? if so, i'll need new roomies and a new living situation. do i want to move back "home" to seattle? mayyyyyyybe. or do i want to head somewhere NEW? that would be exciting...

BUT! i like my job here. i love my coworkers. i love my friends.

BUT! my friends in del rio are transitory - they are only here for a short period of time before moving on.

we shall see friends. i'm confident that God makes it very clear, through circumstances and experiences, where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do.

"This confidence is like a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls." Hebrews 6:19

poignant

from a dear friend in the wake of his loss of grand-mama.isn't this heartbreakingly beautiful?

"but losing her was alright, i have a faith and death is intricately woven into that faith and that makes the dying process alright. i honor and remember death at each service and my hope is that death is not the end. it can’t be. it isn’t. but life, and moving on without her might be harder. it’s hard to see mom and dad initially lose her and now picking up and putting the ‘puzzle’ together. that is hard. you don’t want your mom or dad to feel pain, to cry, and watching them travel through this journey you want to give them hope and comfort. really i think that is what we all want for each other in this time. to make each other feel well. to be okay. and somewhere deep inside of us we all know we are, and we will be. but being together in more important and holding on to what we still have gives us that hope and comfort."

to read more, visit mille @ http://time2pretend.tumblr.com/

gooooooooooal

so...i don't mean to brag but on sunday (my 23rd birthday) i hit one of my goals(ish) for twenty ten. A NEW HIGH SCORE IN BOWLING. read it and weep my friends...

i’m not big on resolutions.

i can never keep them, for they are always impervious, evasive and hopelessly impossible.

i am big on looking forward - dreaming and conjuring these big fluffy dreams to pluck out of my mind’s sky.
since these vagaries are of my own design, i relish making them as big or small as i please. with that said,twenty ten may catch this twenty three year old doing the following:

• applying to graduate school
• getting a puppy
• setting a new high score for bowling
• sticking with my job in del rio
• moving to a new city
• going to a colts game, chris brown concert and gloriana show
• rooting the colts to a superbowl win
• listening to jimmy eat world’s “23” every single day
• picking up a new hobby
• becoming a weed dealer in southern texas (highly lucrative, no?)
• start doing a lot more things for ME
• traveling SOMEWHERE, anywhere