Humanitarian Aid website to check out

http://www.unembraced.org

Our church (Kairos) is spearheading a project to bring much-needed aid to the Turkana people of Kenya...namely to help the huge population of orphans. Two men from the local church in Kenya--Moses and Joshua--are currently visiting LA. Joshua spoke at our church service this last Sunday, and both men came to our canvas group last night and answered a string of questions from us.
It is truly humbling and inspiring to talk to these guys. Joshua and his wife have 4 of their own kids, plus take care of 6 orphans. Both men have a heart to provide for and protect these 'unembraced' children of their area.
I asked them a question about what the average family in Turkana eats...vegetation doesn't grow, so there was mention of eating porridge at school, corn and beans provided by organizations like Oxfam, and lentils (or 'canadian peas') for kids at school too. Otherwise, it seems that the primary sustenance is meat...but the people can't eat meat every day, or they would eat up all of their livestock. So they may go 2 weeks feeling hungry and then eat a goat...they may decide to sacrifice even a small dinner one night in order to eat the next. And I am a spoiled American who wants snacks on top of my 3 meals a day. Geez.

Though browsing a website doesn't do justice to meeting these people in person, please feel free to browse, and join us in giving if the Spirit so moves you.

Post #2--Pics from our Honeymoon

These are all G-rated, I swear. ;)
Ok, so in reverse order, I thought I would share some highlights from our honeymoon last month...
These first two are of Josh and me taking drinks while we're waiting for our lovely seafood dinner at a McCormick's restaurant in Seattle. I told Josh I think he's cute when he's sort of hiding--ie, taking a drink of something--so I couldn't resist snapping a pic, and he returned the favor...
Yes, I could be dressed nicer, I know... ;)
Look at those big, blue eyes. Awwwww.... :)
Josh and I were both looking forward to visiting Mars Hill Church in Seattle. We both enjoyed the service very much, but ultimately felt there was no reason for us to cash in our chips and move to Seattle anytime soon...
The below pic is one that was hiding in the lobby area of the church. I thought it was pretty cool.
So our hotel--the Hotel Monaco--was within walking distance to everything we wanted to visit. The downside was that our room looked like a Dr. Seuss nightmare--hideous decorating!
Note this patterned chair...there was another very near it with a different loud pink pattern...
And don't you love the wallpaper? Yecgk!!!
The highlight of our stay was the complimentary goldfish we were given...
Though the fish came with a tag that said its name was Stacey, we would have none of it. It was already predetermined that we were going to name our goldfish Rufus. The weird timing is that this was right around the time that George Carlin passed away (he played Rufus on Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure), and we heard about it a few days later...
Happy times on Orcas Island--before our last two days in Seattle. This pic is of us on a fruitless whalewatching trip. We did see some porpoise, bald-headed eagles, and seals though. I enjoyed sharing a blue-raspberry blowpop with Josh...we might get this picture blown up and put on our wall at some point...
These pics are of our massive hike to the highest point on the Island--Mount Constitution. We had some beautiful views and absolutely loved the long hike...until I almost started running back at the end because I had to go to the bathroom so badly...! Hey, 5 hours will do that to you...





The town on the island we were closest to (within walking distance) was Eastsound. There were a few souvenir shops in town, and one featured beautifully carved Juniper furniture, such as the table and chairs shown here. It was massively expensive stuff, but Josh and I enjoyed looking...I even got a little choked up at the artistry of it all.
Finally, this is one of the gorgeous views walking into Eastsound. We highly recommend the island for anyone looking for a nice trip. Be sure to try the micro-roasted coffee--it's delicious! You can also order it online at www.local-goods.com

Post #1: Thoughts to Ponder

I am breaking up what I want to post today, so here's the first thing...

I recently finished reading this book that my mom passed on to me. It's called Radical Reliance by Joseph M. Stowell.
A year ago, my canvas group from church attempted to read Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy together. Though many people loved what Willard had to say, a lot of us found the book a bit cumbersome to trudge through...one of the problems being the sheer length of the chapters (ie 50 pages or more) and the somewhat text-book-like style of the writing.
I believe Stowell's book gets to the heart of what Willard was trying to convey, but in a much more succinct manner.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read...especially if you want to take a long hard look at the condition of your own faith.
As I read through, I came across a couple of passages I wanted to share. I will type them out here sans my own commentary, and encourage anyone reading this post to ponder the meat of the text...

Passage 1:
"At first blush we'd vote for the church at Ephesus to get the 'Church of the Year' award. Christ showers it with bouquets of affirmation. But we read on. Christ says, 'But I have this against you.' That's an unsettling charge. We revel in the claim in Romans 8:31, 'If God is for us, who is against us?' but what if the reverse is true? Christ states the charge: 'You have left your first love' (Revelation 2:4). The Greek word for 'first' here doesn't mean first in terms of time. It's not referring to how we felt the first day we got saved. Christ is not asking for that, because we'll never feel exactly that same way again until we get home. It means first in terms of priority or preeminence. Christ is saying that the Ephesians have abandoned Him as the priority of their love. They are busy doing all the right religious things, but they are not doing them because they love Him.
Why do we resist temptation? Because we might get caught or because there are consequences? Why do we give our money? So He will bless us in return? Why do we teach or serve on committees and boards? For our own glory? Because nobody else will do it? Do we sing in the choir because we love to sing? These are the marks of being busy for God within the system for wrong reasons. This is Christ's point. All we do should be about Him, for Him, and because of Him.
We need to cultivate a heart that resists temptation because we love Christ. We need to see saying no to sin as our opportunity to say to Him that we love Him more than that seemingly irresistible urge in our life. We give our money to His kingdom because it's one small way we can say we love Him, whether we will ever get anything back or not. It is for Him that we teach, preach, and sing. He must become the consuming, compelling reason--for all of life."

Passage Number Two:
"Laurence Shames, in his penetrating analysis of Americans' preoccupation with consumption, The Hunger for More, writes:
'More. If there's a single word that summarizes American hopes and obsessions, that's it. More money. More success. More luxuries and gizmos. We live for more--for our next raise, our next house; and the things we already have, however wonderful they are, tend to pale in comparison with the things we might still get.'
A friend who is an heiress to a massive estate told me that she wished she could have the days back again when getting a mug for Christmas would please and satisfy her. She remarked that there was a certain wonder and pleasure to find joy and satisfaction in small things.
What she had forgotten was that even those of us who can find pleasure in a new mug soon find that it too becomes commonplace. There is that ever-present craving for all that is more, bigger, or better....
If it were only the mugs in our lives--or the teddy bears, or CDs, or antiques, or cars--it wouldn't really be all that big a deal. But it's the dynamic that drives my need for just one more mug that drives the bigger issues of life as well.
Shames goes on to say,
'During the past decade, many people came to believe there didn't have to be a purpose. The mechanism didn't require it. Consumption kept the workers working, which kept the paychecks coming, which kept the people spending, which kept inventors inventing and investors investing, which meant there was more to consume. The system, properly understood, was independent of values and needed no philosophy to prop it up. It was a perfect circle, complete in itself--and empty in the middle.'"

Reasons to Smile...

Sometimes I just have to think about how good I've got it... :)

Today it was payday at work. I was happily surprised by the fact that my paycheck included a quarterly bonus that I was 95% positive I wouldn't be getting. Thank you, God! This is the second quarter that has happened...my wedding budget is not so intimidating with these happy surprises.

Today was also rainy here in LA. I went to a shop down the street to get alterations for the bridesmaid dress I'll wear in my brother's wedding this April. His fiance sent the dress to me in the mail, and expressed her concern over it getting wet or lost. I had an appointment at the shop for 2pm, but when I got there, a sign said the owner would be back at 2:15. I waited right in front of the door....the weather was amazingly clear for this short window of time, and then started to rain AFTER I was done and leaving the shop...I think I would have been in big trouble if the rain kicked in while I was waiting outside.

Another reason I have to smile is that a good handful of my coworkers are FUN and Funny! Last week I had a laughing fit after I called one coworker by his initials--HR. After a couple of times, he responded, "HR? Oh yeah, like Human Resource..." However, our store was loud and busy when he said this, so I didn't quite catch it, and I asked him, "What about a racehorse?" He chuckled and repeated, "HR like Human Racehorse...Yeah." The imagery of that almost put me in tears!

And yet another reason I can grin ear to ear...I know Valentine's Day was last week, but I'm still thinking about what a great gift Josh surprised me with--Fair Trade Chocolate Truffles AND a little Care Bear. It was the best present ever! And whenever I think of it, I can't stop grinning....!

Ok, my final pics from Turkey will be up soon, but I was feeling too happy to let the chance slide by without posting my thoughts today...!

Pics from Turkey Part II--Life & Culture

So, here are the friends I was visiting in Istanbul! Eun Sang and Suhye are the proud parents of Seo Hyun and Jun Seo. They quite enjoyed their two years in Turkey, and returned briefly to Korea for 6 months, leaving just days after my visit. The kids had forgotten most of the English they had learned, but it was fun to hear them tossing around some English phrases by the end of my visit. :)
These two pics are in a shop in the Egyptian Spice Bazzaar (aka market). Suhye and I stopped here to buy some boxes of Turkish delight. The food in the case below is primarily turkish delight...a gummy sort of candy that can be flavored with fruit or nuts. I liked the pistachio versions...

I had to ask Suhye what these guys were selling because it looked so intriguing. Turns out, they were shoe-shiners!
Suhye and I stopped for lunch, and the waiter offered to take our picture. You can't really see it on our plates, but we ordered 'meatballs' which which actually more like flat-rectangular pieces of meat. Very tasty though. There's also a colossal plate of bread behind Suhye's arm. I even tried the huge pepper on my plate and it wasn't half-bad!
These two vendors were very common sights in Istanbul. The top one is selling roasted chestnuts. The bottom one is selling this hard bread called simit. I wished I could've tried both, but there's only so much food I can eat in a day, so I didn't try either. It was also common to see guys selling roasted corn on the cob.

Here's my handful of Turkish Lira! The same guy's picture is on all the money. I am told he was the first president of Turkey, and a real hero. If I'm not mixing up my stories, he helped the country become way more literate by revamping how words were written, or something like that...??? I don't know, you'd be better off researching for yourself!

Here's lunch near Ephesus...Shish Kebabs for me...
A snack on the domestic flight to Ephesus. The tea is called Cay ("chai"), but tastes nothing like the Chai we serve at Starbucks! It's super bitter & strong. People drink it multiple times of day, but usually add around 4-5 cubes of sugar. Nasty! Below the tea is a towelette. Even our rental car had towelettes!
This was at a coffee shop near the market. The baklava was divine! Yum! Notice the glass the Cay is in--very traditional. To the left is the remains of my turkish coffee. It's half grounds (when you're done, you flip the cup and apparently read your fortune in the coffee grinds...), but the ounce of liquid is quite sweet and tasty. In the bottom right corner is my regular cup of Joe, or filtered 'kahve' to the Turks.

This was my first breakfast in Istanbul, and it was splendid! The bread gets spread with this salty cheese (see the green tub?). It's known simply as white cheese. The fruit juice (served at room temperature) was very tasty too.

Hello from Istanbul!

Hi Friends!
I'm just putting up a quick hello as I type in my friends' apartment here in Istanbul, Turkey. I arrived last night (I should note there's a 10 hour difference between L.A. time and the time here), and am enjoying catching up with my friends.
Today I got to see part of the city, try some delicious Turkish food, and ride on a bus, a metro, and in 2 taxis.
I definitely feel like I'm on an adventure here...I can now just barely say, "Hello" and "Thanks", though after a quick language lesson, I feel relatively confident in pronouncing the words I read. It is quite an odd feeling though to bump into people left and right, and know that most won't understand my "Sorry!"s and "Pardon Me"s.
I am taking a crazy number of pictures, so rest assured--I'll post some when I return to the U.S.
I'll be leaving here Monday morning (super early!), and getting back into LA Monday afternoon.
Be well in the meantime!

Pondering Eternity

The other day at work, I was running out the trash to the dumpster, and I found myself thinking through some pretty deep stuff.
I am 28, and I was thinking about how different of a person I am now, compared to earlier years of my life.
Then I thought, I wonder how different from the me I am now I'll be when/if I get to 60...
Or how about past that?
I do believe in eternal life...that's a heck of a long time. At some point will I even remember the person I started off as?
And in some ways, it feels like this changing and growing could be seen as a sort of death. Kristie version 4.9 passes away to make room for Kristie version 5.0.
And in some ways, that sort of defies my concept of 'living forever.'
But yet...maybe not...
In retrospect, when I see all the ways I've changed over the years, I do believe it's been for the better. I can feel connected to the person I was at age 9, but the 9 year old version of me would probably been a little baffled at the 28 year old version.
I believe that (perhaps?) all the changes and growth are making me more into the person I am meant to be...
Like you start out with a big blobbish sort of entity...take a little off the side here, clip out that there, tighten up on this, refigure that, and eventually the dimensions the creator intended begin to appear...
I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else, but I thought I might as well transfer it from my head to my blog, so there you go!

When you've got no one to blame but yourself...

So this morning was one of my blessed days off of work.
I slept in, which was WONDERFUL!
I ambled out to my car around 9:30 am...off to go pray with a friend.
And, whaddayaknow...there on my windshield was a parking ticket.
ARGH!!!!
My initial reaction was anger.
The stupid road I park on never has enough stupid spots anyway, and if I park in the stupid alley, I have to get up and move my stupid car before the stupid city would need access to the alley and tow me. What's more, it was garbage collection day, so everyone had their stupid garbage receptacles out on the curb, taking up space! I had found one blessed possible spot to park in when I got home late last night, but when I was backing up, the stupid wind was shaking one of the stupid garbage receptacles and so I thought I hit it with my bumper and I pulled ahead a couple feet. This left me parked a couple feet into the stupid red on the curb, though the vast majority of my car was clear. I pondered the difficulty of the garbage truck getting by, but figured I was safe...especially considering how many people park their stupid cars completely in the red and get away with it!...but not on garbage mornings...
I looked at my ticket and balked at the $70 fee this would cost me.
Money I could have put into my wedding fund...
Money I could have gotten Josh a nice 6 month anniversary gift with...
Money I could have spent during my upcoming trip to Turkey...
Money I worked hard for and had now squandered.

My mind briefly did a scan of all the people I could blame for this unfair catastrophe. Perhaps due to my creative thinking abilities, I came up with a few options.
But ultimately I had to admit it...I was the one who screwed up.
Kristie, did you park your car in the red?
Yes.
Kristie, did you make the decision to leave your car there instead of reposition it?
Yes.
Kristie, did you decide to not get up before now and move it to a safer spot?
That's right.
Ok then...so it's your own darn fault--deal!

Minutes later I wrote out my check and mailed it from my friend's place. At least I could get on with the rest of my day...and hopefully I learned my lesson.

Morally Reprehensible

Ducks are an animal I think fondly of.
Back when I lived in Minneapolis, I would see random mallards and wood ducks when I would go for a run. They made me smile and feel happy.
When I was little, I always enjoyed feeding ducks bread too.
One time, a number of years ago, a friend and I were talking about ducks and their potential to serve as a main course.
I came up with a little adage for my sentiments regarding this--Ducks are for feeding, not eating.
Ok, so I know the rest of the world is not bound to live by Kristie's convictions, but Kristie at least can, right?
Alas...I have a tale for you, my friends.
Saturday I was at a sort of potluck meal--one with a few different Asian dishes.
Among the different offerings of meat was a dish I thought might be barbecued pork. It looked good. I took a piece. It was decidedly hard to delve into, but I determinedly ripped the meat from the bone, and thought, "Not bad."
Minutes later a friend at this same meal looked at the 'barbecued pork' and mentioned, "Isn't the duck Good?"
"DUCK?!!" says I with a restrained level of consternation.
Oh yes, it was duck.
Wild duck, but duck all the same.
Josh noticed the look on my face and asked me if I was ok. I guess I had to be.
In some cultures its no big deal to eat dog or horse. For an American, this seems almost a crime. That about sums up how I felt.
Forgive me, my feathered friends, I promise to ask next time before I grab the mystery meat...

Breaking in 2008

Happiest of New Years to you all, Friends!
I hope your respective 2008s are shaping up nicely.
Mine has been off to a rough start...massive headache, getting a second-degree burn @ work from hot cheese dripping on to the back of my hand (I kid you not), and feeling generally exhausted and super-sensitive.
So do forgive me for my lack of a post with real substance.
Just wanted to check in, say hi, and state for the record that I know my year WILL get a lot better!
In the words of The Charlatans:
"I see my light come shining/there is good on the horizon!"
And now for some sweet slumber...

Guy in a Movie Theatre

So yesterday afternoon Josh and I went to see a movie at a cheap theatre here in LA. There was a guy in the theatre that was really rather interesting. ...humorously, intriguingly interesting.

There was music playing before the movie started and he was playing his harmonica along with the different songs. Honest! He stayed silent during Fiona Apple's "Paper Bag" (great song!), but that cut out anyway to have the previews start.

The funniest thing was when a promo/commercial came on that featured about 30 seconds on this guy walking along to "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. Harmonica Guy went for it and jammed like part of the band for half a minute.

Wow, sometimes real life can be real amusing!

God bless ya, sir!

:)

"Art"

So this past weekend my Mom and her boyfriend have been visiting me out here in LA (which is a long way from Wisconsin!). Friday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, which probably would've been a lot more fun if we had more time to spend there (in the four hours we were there, we went on 3 rides, saw one performance, and looked through one exhibit). Anyway, to me the highlight of the trip was when we watched a Native American guy perform a traditional hoop dance. The above pic should give you some idea... He started out with picking up one hoop, and by the end, he was probably handling a dozen or so. REALLY impressive!
What's more, afterwards he spoke for a minute.
He mentioned that in Native American culture (I'm not positive if this extends to all tribes, but its the impression that I got), there is no word for "Art". All the singing, dancing, etc. are seen as a form of prayer. I really like that idea...

My First 10K!

So about 2 years back, I ran my first ever official race with my good Pal, Foxx back in Minneapolis. It was Lifetime Fitness' 5K Reindeer run around Lake Harriet...in the nasty cold. It was a great experience though, and certainly has remained a noteworthy page in my life.
Today I officially moved onto Chapter 2 in my racing career (ha!). I undertook a 10K run in Santa Monica with my good friends Kim and Matt F. Here's a shot of Kim and me after the race:

Kim told me once that her parents know me as 'the girl from Wisconsin who wears flannel', and so I had to grin on the car-ride to the race when I realized I was fitting the mold once again.
And how was the race?
Mile 2 felt GREAT to me. Mile 5 was a push. By Mile 6 I was pretty sure I was going to die.
The three of us ran together most of the way, but Matt (who had been pacing himself) shot ahead when he saw the finish line. I told Kim it was ok if she wanted to smoke me too. She encouraged me to sprint, but I know my limits and kindly declined. Kim's a trooper and stuck by me till the end. We finished with a time of 1 hour, 1 minute and about 20 seconds. If you take off the time it took us to get to the starting line, that's actually closer to about 1 hour. I feel great about that! I think it's the fastest I've ever run for that long of a distance!
Yay!
And here's one more photo that Kim snapped of me stretching out by Matt's car at the end...she and Matt both found it funny, and I guess I'm willing to look like a dork if it could make someone else smile too:

wedding dresses and spiritual quotes

Hello Blog friends,
sorry I've been so absent lately. Planning for a wedding can take up copious amounts of one's free time.
Speaking of which, I went hunting for a wedding dress yesterday!
No, the above pic isn't what I decided on...it's just a sample pic to represent the subject. Josh would probably kill me if I stuck the real deal up...he's adamant about not seeing the dress before the wedding. It's kind of cute. ;)
So the process was ultimately pretty painless.
I went to LA's downtown fashion district (my first time ever)--which is much less glamorous than it sounds; it's where you go for good deals, really--with my pals Michelle, Shalom, Audrey, and Mari. I tried on a total of 4 dresses within about an hour and a half. It came down to #s 2 and 4, but 4 won out in the end. I ordered it and could've picked it up later that day, but I decided to return for it next week instead.
Before we set out, Shalom asked me what my budget was, and I said $300. That was me trying to be economical...I had browsed at David's bridal, but most of their gear was $500 or more!
So the dress I picked out (and really like, which is great) ended up costing $299. Score!
Of course I still need to get a veil and shoes and such, but I'm pretty darn happy. And dare I say it--I even thought it was fun!

Switching gears completely, I came across the following quote in Dallas Willard's book, The Divine Conspiracy:
"Very little of our being lies under the direction of our conscious minds, and very little of our actions runs from our thoughts and consciously chosen intentions. Our mind on its own is an extremely feeble instrument, whose power over life we constantly tend to exaggerate. We are incarnate beings in our very nature, and we live from our bodies. If we are to be transformed, the body must be transformed, and that is not accomplished by talking at it.
The training that leads to doing what we hear from Jesus must therefore involve, first, the purposeful disruption of our 'automatic' thoughts, feelings, and actions by doing different things with our body. And then, through various intentional practices, we place the body before God and his instrumentalities in such a way that our whole self is retrained away from the old kingdoms around and within us and into 'the kingdom of the Son of His love' (Col 1:13 NAS)."

Goodbye, Ristey!

So, a lot of you who read this have already gotten the news, but to make it public knowledge: I am engaged! Wahoo!!! :)
Josh and I plan to get married in my hometown in Wisconsin this coming June 21st.
Should be one heck of a great time! :)
I am already feeling WAY blessed by the friends who have agreed to be a part of the wedding party, help out, and attend.
This pic is of almond blossoms, which I really *really* hope to get for the wedding flower...might prove difficult, but we'll see what we can do. It's hugely significant--if you want the dirt, shoot me an email.
I will try to post a better pic of Josh and I soon, but if you want to see a 24 second clip of him in real time, search for "Dodger Rant" at Youtube. :)
For those of you I promised an email of details to, I promise I will get on that soon...it's been a bit busy for me as of late, but I will get to it.
Thanks for sharing the joy, all!

Random Thoughts collected from the last few days

1) When I was in confirmation class (a Lutheran thing) back in the day, our Pastor spoke a lot about how God was a God of order, not chaos. Making order out of chaos is the closest I get to emulating God's creativity in creation. This is one reason why I enjoy magnetic poetry. I also realized that cleaning can feel like this too. I guess that's why I like cleaning...puts everything back in order...and the dirtier the starting point, the more fulfilling the final result.

2) I hate to inconvenience people. Inconveniencing people is inevitably a part of life. I wish I was better at it. I'm guessing the art of boldly asking for inconvenient things is something I'll have to learn through many painful lessons of preferring to chew my tongue off.

3) In Dallas Willard's book The Divine Conspiracy, he talks about the issue of forgiveness and specifically the petition in the Lord's Prayer where it says, 'Forgive us our sins/debts/trespasses as we forgive those who s/d/t against us.' Willard uses an interesting term to elaborate on forgiveness. That word is pity. That's a whole new realm to think about, I think...and in some ways it makes forgiving somebody a little easier if I think I need to have pity on them (and more humbling for those times I need to seek pity from others).

The weirdness of Life...God bless ya, Minneapolis

Hours ago I found out about the tragedy that took place today in one of my favorite cities in the world--Minneapolis, Minnesota.
During the end of evening rush hour, a freeway bridge spanning the Mississippi River collapsed.
What the heck?!
Seriously...what the heck?...how do these things happen? Further proof that life is not ever as under control as one would think...?
The phones weren't working so well in the Twin Cities following this occurrence...rightly so, I guess. It took me quite awhile to get a hold of people and make sure they were ok. Thankfully, most of my friends are accounted for. I was really happy to find out that a bunch of people from Route 212 (a youth ministry I used to volunteer with) were out on a boating trip (and therefore nowhere near 35W when it happened).
I hear it might take 2 years to get the bridge back up. For a city with congested traffic as it is, that's pretty serious.
Dang.
But I guess that all pales in comparison with the fact that a good number of people suffered loss today...lives, cars, peace...

I don't want to be trite or cheesy, but my heart goes out to you, People of the Twin Cities. I used to drive over that bridge to and from work every day for about a year. Dang.
Tomorrow I think I'm going to wear my Minnesota t-shirt.

Quick Update

Hey Friends!
Sorry the blogging has been a bit sparse over the last couple of weeks. Life has been keeping me busy!

So I helped out with Kairos' Vacation Bible School a week ago.
It was quite an experience, and I'm glad I did it.
I got to lead a group of 4-5 little kids (ages ranging from 5-11), and encourage/connect with twice as many. It's really heart-warming to see how open little kids are--how much they crave your attention, how much they want a hug, how much they want to come up with a right answer, etc.
It's also really cool to see their personalities come out. I really enjoyed the opportunity to encourage a couple of kids when I saw that they excelled in something too.
On the other hand, I think this experience reconfirmed to me that I'm much more geared to working with teens. There's only so much intellectual stuff you can discuss with a 7 year old. We had one bible point each day (eg. God is real; God is with us; God is in control...), as well as a bible verse. If the kids remembered the point, they were doing well. Three hours to drive home one point feels a bit frustrating, but I guess if it became real to them then, it was worth it.

Switching gears, at work this week, I officially started writing the schedule. I've been wanting to take this task over basically since I started back over a year ago, so it's really nice to finally get around to it. We have a complex computer system (or so it seems) to help write the schedule out...it feels a bit like playing a game, but I really enjoy it. My manager is glad to be able to release this duty to someone who is a more 'linear' thinker...writing schedules was torturous to him. (He's only had to do it for a month or so though, as a former Assistant Manager headed it up before.) What's more, I've already been complimented on a good job, which is really nice.

Ok, well, time to start up my laundry so I'd better get going. Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to post about soon. :)

"Happy-Happy Joy-Joy!"

See this bear? Doesn't it look like the epitome of happiness?!!!
Well folks, it's got nothing on me!!! :)
I have had an amazing last couple of days.
Is it because I got to see Live Free or Die Hard on Saturday night? Well, that was part of it I guess...and it was a fun film at that!
Is it because I got to eat the best Rad Na in the world at Pam's Thai restaurant (right across the street from Kairos) last night? Well, it sure was good, but that's not the whole of it!
Just ask yourself what cataclysmic chain of events could possibly have occurred in order for my friends and coworkers to throw words my way such as 'giddy', 'glowing', and...uh...'all red'???
Think real hard.
And if you can't figure it out, just ask me.
:)
Yay!!!

[P.S...just a quick disclaimer for anyone who doesn't know me *that* well...no, there is no way on God's Green Earth I could be pregnant right now, so breathe easy and guess again! Hahaha!]

At work today, I had a short conversation with my pal Audrey and my boss Mike about how living in Los Angeles feels like living in limbo.
As in, I grew up in a place with 4 distinct seasons. So did Audrey.
Without those environmental cues, time seems to just sort of hang...rather than march steadily on.
Where did the last year of life go...? Where did the last month go?

Mike--being a SoCal native--could offer no sympathy.
I fruitlessly tried to explain the benefit of seasons to him.
"Fall has a feeling," I stressed, "and you can't feel it out here."
Mike grinned obliviously.
"In fact, it doesn't even feel like summer out here! I mean, I know it's hot and everything, but in Wisconsin and Minnesota summer felt a certain way and I'm not getting it out here..."

So to all of you who yearn for California's temperate conditions I say this: Yes, it's nice. But it can also feel a little like the twilight zone. You've been warned...