Inspired by McKenzie Drew March 27, 2008

Kenz spoke the other day about things that have happened in her life in the past 5 years of her life, so I thought I would share the things that have happened in mine.

• Had surgery #1 on the tumor (affectionately known as Tom the Tail at that point)
• Started dating Lance (almost exactly 5 years ago… March 29th)
• Got my first kiss
• Sang in my high school best friend’s wedding
• Had my appendix out
• Worked as a camp counselor
• Changed my major
• Moved in with a roommate I didn’t really know
• Had surgery #2 on the tumor (involving 32 staples + some stitches)
• Had a hole (you could see my muscles…)
• Made a best friend in Stephanie who took care of my hole multiple times daily
• Became much closer to my mom after she helped me post-surgery
• Fell in love with Lance for really taking care of me 
• Stayed on painkillers for 2 months
• Switched to nerve medication for 9 more months
• Punched myself in the face when leading a Sing Song practice due to said medication switch
• Wore an ace wrap around my waist to protect my scar for about a year
• Lived in San Antonio as a children’s ministry intern
• Played a lot of Hi-Ho Cherry-O (that goes along with the previous bullet…)
• Moved in with a roommate that I still adore!
• Pledged a social club
• Quit taking the nerve medication… which caused withdrawals, made me have bipolar-type mood swings, and really crippled my life for awhile
• REALLY fell in love with Lance when he took care of me through the tears
• Was selected by the department head at ACU to be an English tutor 
• Took 18 hours of upper-level English classes
• Got a job as an RA
• Was offered a job at the ACU Writing Center (yup, I had 3 jobs by the time I graduated)
• Chased a mouse/was chased by a mouse in my apartment
• Got engaged
• Went to Destin, Florida, on spring break with my friends 
• Planned a wedding
• Ultimately choreographed/helped to choreograph 7 Sing Song shows
• Graduated college 
• Saw my sister graduate high school
• Saw my dad be appointed an elder after much drama
• Got married
• Went on a honeymoon
• Moved to our first apartment in Fort Worth
• Got a job as a receptionist
• Hated that job
• Got a job as a Technical Writer at Buxton
• Learned to be a youth minister’s wife 
• Bought a truck
• Attended Weekend to Remember at the Gaylord Texan 
• Bought a house
• Stripped a LOT of wallpaper and textured walls
• Totalled my car on my birthday
• Bought a car
• Actually hosted a Christmas party at my house (two in a week, actually)
• Got promoted to Senior Technical Writer at Buxton
• Went to NCYM in Atlanta, Georgia
• Got offered a position as a manager (I think that’s what I am) of a new department at work
• Put in 50+ hour work weeks for awhile
• Survived One Twenty-Two
• Learned the true value of friendship
• Lost the 15 pounds I’d gained during the first 18 months of marriage on Weight Watchers
• Bought things at Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, and Bloomingdale’s – 3 stores I’d always been terribly intimidated by… and learned that I shouldn’t be intimidated by stupid things
• Fallen more in love with my husband and wondered how he puts up with me at times
• Learned to trust God even when I don’t understand… but I’m still a work in progress on that one.

Wow.  I am incredibly blessed.

Wait a minute Wednesdays?? March 26, 2008

This is one of those days where the song that inspired the title to my blog is really a mantra that I use to remind myself that I can’t see the whole picture… and that I believe that God has a plan that I can’t see right now.

It’s been another day of frustration with my job…  In fact, I was choking back tears as I left today.  It’s such a roller coaster.  Lord, what is your plan?  Are you teaching me, guiding me, delivering me, humbling me, changing me, presenting me with a new opportunity, helping me to see my desperate need for you, or putting me in a very dark place to shine your light?  Please let me see what you see.  I need your vision.

Take It Down a Notch Tuesdays March 25, 2008

In college, my hall (Gardner 2nd East!) had theme days.  I don’t remember Monday’s and Tuesday’s themes… but Wednesday was “White Trash Wednesday,” Thursday was “Overly Enthusiastic Greeting Thursday,” and Friday was “Afro Puff Friday” (aptly named for my across the hall neighbor who had curly hair but never really invested the necessary time to actually fix it on Fridays).  I decided today that Tuesday can be “Take It Down a Notch Tuesday.”  This day has been a total whirlwind of weirdness.

The day began pleasantly enough, and it’s not like anything particularly dire caused some sort of debacle in my day…  A few minor adjustments and shuffles were required this morning, but otherwise, all was well.  However, I had this meeting that was kind of a big deal with the COO and the… something that’s high up… of our company today at 3:00.  I scheduled it and was going to pitch an update to our presentations, which I was nervous and excited about.  Jeff and I prepared for it, so I felt pretty darn good about it… and then they asked if we could reschedule to tomorrow instead of meeting today.  “Sure!” I replied.  (I’m buxcellent like that…)  I then took a look at the calendars of all those involved in the meeting.  Our meetings are staggered just so throughout the day tomorrow that there was not a time that we could all meet except at 8:00 in the morning, lunchtime, or 5:00 in the evening.  None of these times make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Just sleepy/hungry/ready to leave (as the case may be).  I emailed our COO and asked if we could have the meeting at 5:00.  He responded with a request for a lunch meeting.

 Lunch meeting?  Why is that a big deal?  The reasons for its inconvenience are three-fold:

1.  It is lunchtime!  That is MY time.  I need a break from work for just a bit… and lunch is my “just a bit.”

2.  This means I will work 9.5 hours with no break tomorrow if I arrive and leave right on time.  Ew.  (Well, I mean, I can go to the bathroom whenever I want… so if peeing is a break, I will for sure have breaks tomorrow.)

3.  Tomorrow was supposed to be the day of fasting and prayer for our church as we prepare for mission Sunday.  I had myself all geared up for tomorrow.  In fact, I already made other plans for lunch so that I wouldn’t be sitting awkwardly in the break room while everyone else ate.

So… Lance and I talked, and I am going to fast through dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow and then lunch tomorrow will be my first time to eat again.  I think this is the best solution… but I’m hungry already… and I really was craving Taco Tuesday.

Maybe next week, Tuesday will deserve the moniker of “Taco Tuesday.”  For this week, though, “Take It Down a Notch Tuesday” it is.

 Ohhhh yeah!  AND we are having junior high Bible study at our house tonight because the family that normally hosts it is out of town. 

I hope Lance cleaned up…

completely bizarro day March 24, 2008

Today has been bizarre as all get out… but various and sundry fascinating things have happened since my last post, so I’ll start there.

Friday night:  Lance went to lead singing at LTC, and I ran errands and got a haircut.  I didn’t do anything terribly interesting… but I did go to Central Market.  I love Central Market.  They have the best fruit and the most beautiful flowers and all sorts of interesting things to look at.  I’m contantly amazed by the selection there.  (That’s code for “Sometimes I spend a lot of money there…”)

Saturday:  LTC.  All day.  Lance’s chorus and my chorus both got golds, which was exciting.  We went to the LTC awards ice cream social thing, and my girls brought me flowers.  I just love flowers!  They were so sweet to get them for me.

Sunday:  Lance led singing at LTC in the morning… then Lance’s family and my family all came over for lunch.  Lunch was pretty delish.  After everyone left, I took a fabulous nap!  It was fantastic!

Brief overview of food from the weekend:

Friday night: Burger King

Saturday breakfast: McDonald’s (including a vanilla iced coffee – much better than I thought it would be!)

Saturday lunch: Chicken Express (catered by the church) and big trays of cookies

Saturday snack: A cookie from said big trays

Saturday dinner: Joe’s pizza

Saturday post-dinner: Ice cream at ice cream social

Wow.  Not a healthy one.

Okay, that pretty well catches up to today…

I arrived at work this morning to rumblings of a potential firing.  I must tell the back story to this potential firing for you to fully grasp the reason for the rumblings.  On Thursday, this guy (total creeper, btw) yelled an obscenity at a coworker in a meeting over and over and over.  By Friday, the higher-ups had heard all about it, and the coworker had turned in her two weeks’ notice.  We had a “soft close” at work on Friday, so we all left around 3:00.  At 3:00, some of the higher-ups were talking to the creepster, but I didn’t feel like sticking around to find out the outcome of that conversation.  I fully expected the creepster to be gone this morning… but no!  He was there!  And by 10:00, he had already taken 3 smoke breaks.  Yes, three.  Three smoke breaks.  I should point out that he was like 45 minutes late… so he took 3 breaks in 75 minutes.  Our IT guy (eye-tee, not our “it” guy) who is always in on everything came by and informed me that the creepmeister was going to be let go today.  This is a big deal because this guy is CRAZY.  Like… scared of Columbine 2 kind of scary.  Like… spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how I could escape from my desk.  Anyway, around lunchtime, like 8 of the men in the office organized themselves outside the room where Creepy McCreeperson was let go.  They had to call him a cab, and they called security, and he tried to run into the office again, and they had to block him… It was a scary day.

On a totally separate note…  One thing that really frustrates me about myself is my lack of drive when I get tired.  I fully intended to come home and touch up paint this evening.  In fact, I don’t really have better things going on.  I just feel drained… and I lose all momentum.  Darn me and my getting tiredness!

Good Friday March 21, 2008

Allow me to begin by saying that I am not overly enthused to be working on Good Friday.  Although I am not surprised by the fact that I am at work today, I am nonetheless restless just by virtue of being here.  I have several thoughts regarding Good Friday floating around in my head and vying for my attention.  (Needless to say, these floaty thoughts are having a much easier time commanding my attention than my work….)

First of all, LTC begins tonight.  Despite the fact that I have many conflicting emotions regarding LTC, I look back on my experiences with a certain fondness.  Some years were better than others… some years I was in it only for the medals… but some years, I learned a lot.  I still know random facts about 2 Kings:

1.  A bear ate some kids that called Elisha a bald-head.

2.  Elisha stayed with the Shunammite woman in a room she had built on her roof.

3.  Said woman’s son died, so Elisha laid on top of him, the kid sneezed 7 times, and voila!  Back to life!

It has been a solid 6 or 7 years since I studied 2 Kings, but I still remember these tidbits.  It could be because my dad was the coach… so we had Bible quizzes at dinner…. but whatev.

Last year on Good Friday, we saw our house, we made an offer on it, and the owners accpted our offer all in the same day.  It was the coolest/scariest thing!  I was so thrilled… and then I realized that I don’t really have that much money….  Ha.  Anyway, a year later, we are so happy in our house… and we only have 29 years left on our mortgage!  Almost there!

Good Friday means other things as well…..

In additiona to my LTC and home-buying memories, I also try to think of what it must have been like for Jesus’ disciples, friends, and family on this day.  Sometimes I have to remind myself to step out of the story that I know has already been written and imagine what it must have been like to be uncertain of the ending.  It’s not very hard for me to read the crucifixion story…. because I know the resurrection story is a mere few chapters later.  “Don’t worry!” I want to tell the mourners.  “He’s basically taking a nap.  I know the end of this story… and I’ve known it since I was a tot.  He kind of naps for 3 days, and then he’ll be back.  Don’t be sad or scared.”

And then I remember back to how I felt at my Mam-maw’s funeral.  She was most certainly the grandparent that had the biggest impact on my life…. but she and I certainly didn’t see each other every day.  We visited relatively frequently, but not anywhere close to daily.  Remembering that sadness – that ache – of knowing that this is pretty final makes me feel so much for Jesus’ disciples.  Having spent nearly every moment together for three years… and then watching him be beaten and tortured and crucified… and literally being there as he died… it’s no wonder to me they didn’t all stay around!  I would be SO sad.  I can’t even imagine the sadness… and the fear… and the trepidation… and the confusion… and the pain… and the feeling of betrayal and loneliness…  Wow.  When you think that on Friday, Sunday hadn’t come yet, Good Friday doesn’t sound very “good” at all!

It’s hard for me (having been a pew baby) to pretend that I don’t know how the story will end long enough for me to imagine what others must have been feeling.  When I think about it – really think about it – it gets me all choked up.

But – oh!  The wonderful, amazing, glorious, surprising, confusing, uplifting, hope-filled, baffling, dazzling excitement of the Sunday morning that followed!

I pray that I will bear that same emotion - that enthusiasm and zeal of the women who beheld their risen Lord face to face – this Sunday morning…

                                                    And every morning.

Rain, rain… go away… March 18, 2008

Well, it has been a VERY rainy, gray, icky day today.  Someday employers everywhere will recognize the value of canceling work on days such as this in order to prevent days of employee lethargy and unhappiness due to barometric pressure issues.  They will see what a wonderful idea it is let an employee (such as myself, for instance) sleep away a day like this one.  It would encourage productivity on the OTHER days of the week because I (or any other employee) would be able to rest up on days like this one.  Additionally, Texas drivers have major road issues the moment precipitation begins to descend from the sky.  It can be a mist, a downpour, a single snowflake – DFW drivers freak out and make idiotic driving decisions.  C’mon, people.  Drive a little bit slower, and you will be fine.  The gratuitous brake-slamming and swerving is absolutely unnecessary.  One day you, oh DFW drivers, will learn this valuable lessons, and lives and countless paint jobs across the metroplex will be saved.

On this day of substantial drippiness, I am especially thankful for my vehicular mode of transportation.  My lil Corolla keeps the rain out in a way that my Saturn never did.  In the not-too-distant past, a day with these weather conditions would have ruined my mood for days due to the incessant dripping of the sunroof on my car.  If it leaked into the car and onto the seat, you can believe that it would then soak into the rear of my pants.  Fab.  I looked like I peed my pants every time it rained.  If that doesn’t make you cranky… well… you’re a better person than I.  Today, however, I am grateful that my car will keep the rain off of my head and away from my tush.  No pee-pants look for me today, thank you very much!

Lance and I are in the midst of a marathon of home improvements this week.  We dug up the flower bed on Saturday, and we (mostly Lance…) framed the mirror in our bathroom last night.  Tonight, we plan to touch up the paint in our bedroom and bathroom.  Originally, yesterday was intended to be sod day, but due to the threat of inclement weather all day long on weather.com, we decided to postpone.  Let the record show that there was not a drop of rain at our house until solidly after 11:00 last night.  We totally could have sodded.  Sodded?  Laid sod.  Whatev.

I hope to post pictures of our house within a couple of days.  Finally!  We’ve only been in our house 10.5 months…

Every day’s an adventure… March 16, 2008

This has been a good weekend so far…  Don’t you just love how I give a running narration of what’s going on in my life despite the fact that it’s totally not interesting at all?

Friday night:  Lance and my dad went to the Mavs game, and my mom and sister and I went shopping.  It was fantastic to spend time with them.  After the boys got back from the game, we got ready to leave… and then Lance got super wrapped up doing a puzzle with my mom.  It was hysterical to me.  I had NO idea that Lance had any kind of an interest in puzzles… but apparently…

Saturday:  We slept in, then went outside and dug up a flower bed!  It was a lot of work, but it was wonderful to get it done.  We then went to a wedding in Arlington, which was really precious.  It was at the same church that Lance and I got married in, and they used a lot of the same music, so it was very sentimental for us.  We then came home and changed and ran to Lowe’s for a couple of small things and ended up buying a ceiling fan for our bedroom (hooray!  one that matches!).  While we were there, our friends called and invited us over for dinner.  We rushed home to give the dog a bath (he rolled himself in SOMEthing that reeked to high heaven, and I could barely stand being around him) and then the three of us went over to Matt and Melissa’s for a fish fry thing.  I was surprised – usually I don’t do seafood, but I really liked it!

Sunday:  Church… then we came home and grilled steaks for lunch… and then Lance and I went BACK to Lowe’s so that he could get a new grill.  He’s super proud of it… It’s stainless steel and has all these knobs and stuff.  (I don’t know much about grills… but it’s shiny!)  So THEN we get back to the house, and Lance and I carried this darn grill all the way around the house into the backyard.  It was heavy, and I reminded Lance (multiple times) that he now owes me BIG for carrying that dang thing so far.

We are about to head off to small groups (well, Lance is at LTC chorus practice right now), and I am eagerly waiting to see how tonight goes.  We have been praying a lot about our small group, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store.

I always get really blue on Sundays because I am at the absolute furthest point from a weekend that I can possibly be… and there are 5 days of work before any days of chill.  Although… now that I think about it… we won’t really have any chill next weekend…  It will be LTC weekend.  Darn.

It really has been a super fun hangout weekend though.  I so much enjoy getting to hang out with that husband of mine.  He’s pretty fantastic.  I am so tremendously blessed.

Hooray! It’s Friday again! March 14, 2008

I’m so excited that it’s finally Friday again!  This has felt like a very long week.  I’m not entirely sure why it’s gone by so slowly, but I am super happy that it’s almost time for a weekend again.

Some updates since last posting:

 1.  Lance and I are receiving a pretty decent amount for our income tax return!  I’m really excited!  I was concerned about how our first year with Lance being considered a minister and all would go…. but it is good news after all!

2.  One of my good friends at work had a dining room table and chairs that broke… so she asked for our old one (the one that my aunt and uncle gave us after we got married), so I took it over last night.  There are many benefits to said exchange:

a.  Our garage is cleared out again, so Lance can park there!

b.  I got to spend time with a friend that I never get to see any more.  In fact, we baked a cake… and it is delish!  (Or so the batter that we consumed would indicate…)

c.  We got to give our table to someone who needs it/will use it.

d.  I took Buddy with me, and he played with Mo and Maddie and wore himself OUT.  It was fantastic.  He was snoring like a fat old man when we went to bed last night.

3.  Lance and I are planning to get some work done on our house this weekend, which I am pretty excited about.  I’m ready to really wrap up some projects.

4.  Tomorrow night, we are meeting my parents and sister in Southlake to eat at Kincaid’s.  I can’t wait!

5.  Random rant:  I believe that the single worst invention (or at least in the top 5) ever created by mankind is the waiting period before you can find out your test results.  I went to the doctor last week and had to wait 5 days to find out my results.  It’s super hard not to freak out over and over.  I called and got my results on Wednesday, and everything is clear and good and sunshiny.  That waiting period was awful though.

6.  I stopped by Ross on Tuesday night and found a super cute pair of Steve Maddens for $16.  I pretty much rock my own face off.

7.  We are going to eat at Texas Pit (a BBQ place in Saginaw) today for my friend at work’s birthday.  (He’s the one we baked the cake mentioned in 2b for.)  I like BBQ and cake.  Happy day!

8.  I gave a youth group girl a ride to church on Wednesday night, and on the way to take her home, she asked me if I’d seen Borat and The Virgin Suicides.  I told her I had not, and she had seen both… at the age of 14!  I’m not old enough to see that stuff NOW!  It made me thankful for my protected childhood.

9.  Speaking of my protected childhood… So a couple weeks ago on Wednesday night, our preacher was talking about the parable of the 10 virgins, and I told Lance that the entire time he was talking, I was singing this song in my head… when I was little, I had a Sunday Sing-Along record (yes, record.  It spun and skipped and the whole nine.) that I would sing and dance to in our living room.   One of the songs was about that parable… it goes “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burnin’ burnin’ burnin’… Give me oil in my lamp I pray.  Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burnin’ burnin’ burnin’…  Keep me burning til the break of day.”  I know you can’t hear the tune, but I am singing it in my head right now.  Anyway, I think it’s pretty cool that I have a song for pretty much any Bible lesson thanks to the way I was raised!

10.  I don’t really know that I have a #10, but it seems silly to stop at #9.  I’ll just reiterate that I’m happy that it’s almost the weekend.

Stupid DST. March 11, 2008

Let me begin by saying that I have an intense love/hate relationship with Daylight Savings.  I am elated by the fact that there is still sunshine when I leave work now… but I am struggling to get up this early!  My eating schedule is all funky (read: I’m hungry any time that it’s NOT meal time), and I am having a very difficult time adjusting.

We had a fairly laid-back Friday… I cooked dinner at home, and we cleaned some in preparation for Saturday.  Saturday morning, we went to breakfast with some friends that are engaged… and let me throw out an endorsement for Panera breakfast – it was fabulous!  We then spent most of the rest of the day cleaning in preparation for some ACU friends to come over Saturday evening for dinner.  It was so wonderful to see such great friends with whom we share so many memories.  One of my very favorite things on the planet has to be catching up with people I haven’t seen in awhile.  Erin, my college roommate, cut off all her hair and looked super stylish.  I, on the other hand, underestimated the amount of time that it takes me to get ready and ended up with my hair in a ponytail.  Ha.

After everyone left, Lance and I found ourselves faced with one of the most depressing tasks ever – setting all the clocks forward.  Sad day.

Church was good Sunday morning…  I have started going to the young marrieds class instead of the youth class, and I really have been blessed by that choice.  I am learning/growing/being spiritually stretched a lot more in this class, which is such an exciting thing for me.

Sunday night was kind of a big deal…  We had a serious talk in our small group about the chaos caused by the ridiculous number of children and the parents who don’t discipline them.  Granted, the language used in the discussion was far more gentle than that… I really hope that things either totally turn around or don’t change at all.  If they totally turn around, I can be content with the group we’re in and grow close to these families.  However, if things don’t turn around, I’m gone.  Either way, I look forward to having a Sunday night that I don’t totally dread.

Waking up on Monday was most definitely a battle.  An epic battle.  Somewhere on the scale of Braveheart.  I cursed DST all the way to work (in the dark)… but I was excited at 5:30 when I needed my sunglasses to drive home!  Maybe I’m just hard to please.  Ha.

As I turned off the highway when I was almost at work this morning, I witnessed a gorgeous sunrise… and I was reminded again that His mercies are new every morning… how great is His faithfulness!

Beautiful sunrises and sunsets often make me think of Dusty Cooper.  Although I would not regard him as a philosopher in pretty much any circumstance, he once said something about sunrises and sunsets that has always stuck with me.  He and I were walking a group of kids back to the dorm for Learning to Lead around sunset, and he told them to look up at the sky and see how much God must love them.  They were all like, “Whatever, Dusty.  The sky does that on its own.  Like every day.”  He responded, “No!  God could have made the sky turn all ugly and brown when the sun sets.  It could have been really bland and not interesting… but look!  He made these colors and all these streaks in the sky and those little floaty clouds for you to look at them and think they are beautiful.  He wanted to make something beautiful for you to look at.”

 And this morning, I believed it.

Lord, you are funny! March 6, 2008

I grow increasingly cognizant of our Father’s sense of humor with each passing year of my life.  I have been so frustrated that Lance and I haven’t been able to spend any time together lately.  Every night has been filled with some sort of church activity or meeting… and frankly, it’s made me cranky.

Enter Thursday, March 6th.

I got up and got ready for work this morning (although there was more grumbling and sighing in there than that sentence implies) and went to let the pup out.  Holy cow, it was cold out there!  In fact, I went back and changed clothes because I had put on short sleeves and it was FUHreezing outside.  I then headed to work (as usual… except that my exit was closed and I had to drive way down and then loop back… but I digress).

Today was a pretty normal day… and then at lunchtime, it started raining/snowing/sleeting… and in a moment I live over and over in my dreams, Buxton sent out an email telling us all to go home and work from home today!

I got to work from home all afternoon, so Lance worked from home too!  AND his elders’ meeting got cancelled!  A while afternoon/evening together – on a Thursday!

Thanks, Lord!  You are full of such pleasant surprises.

… And He reminds me again why I should trust.  He has a plan.

PS – Just FYI – Wednesday went pretty well.  Chick-Fil-A didn’t give Lance his food even after I ordered so carefully, so that made me grouchy.  He’s always calm, though, so he called the restaurant and complained and they are giving us our money back, which is pretty super.  Church was good… and then Lance had a meeting, which he didn’t get home from until 10:30 last night.  However, Christian won Project Runway, so – although sleepy – I was okay.