I received my very first iPod for Christmas this year. I scream with laugher over icanhascheezburger. I type better after I put lotion on my hands. I never know how my laugh will come out (sometimes it’s an explosion, sometimes a cackle, sometimes a hiss, sometimes a goose honk…). I look at the pictures I have on my desk at work anytime I get frustrated. I eat an apple pretty much every single day. I have never smoked anything in my life. I have been in three car accidents. I married the first boy I ever dated. I am a terrible runner (but I intend to improve this year…). I almost fell over in the shower today because my Tylenol PM from last night had not yet worn off. I walk at least six blocks in heels every day. I move my legs constantly. I’ve had four permanent teeth, four wisdom teeth, and two baby teeth pulled… and my mouth is still full of teeth. I make dinner almost every night that we are at home. I try new recipes constantly. I need to get a haircut. I love my dog. I am consistently outwitted by my dog. I love singing. I can pop my neck, fingers, toes, ankles, wrists, hips, back… and sternum. I don’t think that one is supposed to happen though. I can’t whistle, and it’s not for lack of trying. I am a total perfectionist. I am kind of a fanatic about recycling things… but only at home for some reason. I don’t mind throwing things away at work. I can roll my tongue. I teach True Love Waits. I cry at TV shows, commercials, songs on the radio, stories that other people tell, foot washing, baptisms, baby blessings, standing ovations, and anytime someone else cries. I had a tumor removed from my back. I had never had stitches until 2003. I have now had multiple stitches, 32 staples, and some superglue. I love playing with kids. I explain to my dog why I have to put him in a cage. I have my wedding dress in the top of my closet. I brush my teeth before I talk in the mornings. I add “-y” to the end of a ridiculous number of words. I have incredibly shallow nail beds. I consider pedicures to be a major pamper item. I have sung in multiple weddings. I sing “Phantom of the Opera” when I’m alone in the car. I once sang “Phantom of the Opera” with my sister in the car, and it did not go well. I really like sweets. I am an incredibly picky eater, but I think I’m branching out a lot. I get incredibly red whenever I get embarrassed, upset, frustrated, hot, or put on the spot. I am super weird about leaving voicemails. I just hope people will see that I called and call back. I own a lot of black shoes, and it still doesn’t seem to be enough. I can’t open my laptop past a 90 degree angle or the screen freaks out. I love making to-do lists. I want to be a mommy someday. I can move my eyebrows independently of each other. I consider it an incredible moral victory when I squish bugs on my own. I really love crime-solving shows. I read marriage books like they’re going out of style. I have recordings of my friends and me singing together on my iPod. I only like observing the fashion at major awards shows like the Oscars or Grammys. I don’t care too much about the actual show. I always have cold feet. I can’t do eye drops… or nose spray… or ear drops. I wear my feelings right on my face. I cannot hide them unless I just make a surprised face. I have made that surprised face to get out of awkward situations in the past. I was salutatorian of my high school class. I was on a competitive dance team. I really enjoy reading others’ blogs. I can still do my entire freshman Sing Song act. I love Disney movies. I love laughing. I alternate shampoos every other day. I become more like my mom each day. I read every single money-saving article on MSN and was disappointed that none of them helped me. I have been on a pear kick lately. I am a total snuggler. I still have not had my wedding rings soldered together because I can’t bear to have them off my finger for two days. I still have all the cards and notes Lance wrote me. I get frustrated by a lot of chick flicks. I watched nearly every game the Cowboys have played for the last 2 seasons – 3 of those games in person! I can’t imagine life without Chapstick. I love learning new things. I can still recite the preamble to the Constitution, the first part of the Declaration of Independence, a lot of the Gettysburg Address, the Star-Spangled Banner, and the “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech from Julius Caesar. I am a total Daddy’s Girl. I can recite all of Psalm 1. I can’t find many people who will play Friends SceneIt with me. I get super awkward if I think there might be something in my teeth. I attempted to water ski for the first time this past summer. I am crazy about my husband. I enjoy reading C.S. Lewis. I can cartwheel and roundoff, but that’s as far as my tumbling skills go. I love singing at church… more than just about anything else. I tie ribbons on things I take to potlucks so that I can find them again later. I overcommit myself just about all the time. I can’t bear to delete emails that contain compliments. I have a leopard-patterned umbrella. I choreograph dances in my head. I can’t stand rattling/squeaking/groaning noises. I sometimes listen to my CD of Siggie songs. I’m really close to my family. I sometimes say really inappropriate things by accident… sometimes because I don’t know what words mean. I bring my lunch to work at least four days a week. I like riding elevators. I have pretty great friends. I find myself to be hysterical. I don’t pick up on sarcasm. I have been a Christian for 13 ½ years… which is officially more than half my life. I knew I would marry Lance the first time I met him. I don’t think I look like my sister. I love people-watching. I am a happy camper. I love being a daughter of the King!
Political Commentary from a Well-Qualified Source. (Me.) January 19, 2009
I have, of late, become a follower of politics. It was hard not to during the election process. In fact, 2008 was the first election I’d ever voted in, and I voted because I felt like I knew a lot about both candidates. I had watched their debates, read their statements, studied up on their plans and stances, so I was pretty excited about voting. I had really invested myself in the process, so it was really important to me. I don’t pretend to be a political expert (although I WAS a political science major for one whole semester…), but I have gotten where I enjoy following the political scene and monitoring changes in the political landscape of our country. I’ve been storing up opinions for awhile now… and I think today is the day to share. Six opinions… readysetgo.
ONE. I saw such an ugly, ignorant side of people (yes, even Christians) when it came to the 2008 election. I was absolutely shocked by some of the comments I heard/read people make about McCain, Obama, and Palin (I didn’t witness many comments about Biden…). Some of the comments even came from people I admired. I was just dumbfounded. How is it possible for people who preach that “they will know we are Christians by our love” turn around and HATE someone? To take it one further – it’s someone they’ve never even met or talked to in person. Wow.
I will be honest… I voted Republican because I agreed with more of their positions (read: not ALL of their positions) than the Democratic stances. That does not make me a despiser of Democrats, although some of their stances on some issues I find morally deplorable. However, I don’t find myself called (by Jesus) to impress my moral standards on others. No, I am called to LOVE others and to speak the Truth in love whenever and to whomever I can. I’ll let God do the convicting and setting of moral standards. He is infinitely more qualified than I.
TWO. I like President Bush. Today is his last day as president, and I am excited for him to get to have a more peaceful life out of so much constant scrutiny. I’ve read many of the commentaries that reflect back on Bush’s two terms in the White House, and I have to say that I think that Bush has had some incredibly difficult circumstances in which to be president. For example, I remember people cheering in the halls of the dorms when he announced that America was initiating a war on terror. Everyone was still upset about 9/11, and there was a lot of enthusiasm over stopping terrorists/Bin Laden/Hussein/evil/Al Qaeda/anyone else that might upset us. Given the broadness of the scope of that enemy, it is no wonder that the war has been such a struggle! However, I can’t imagine what the response to Bush would have been had he announced that we were not going to war and that instead we were going to focus on making “green” cars. Talk about outrage! Basically, there was not a choice he could make in that situation to keep peace and make Americans happy. He may low approval ratings, but everyone loved him when he declared war and cut taxes. We are a fickle people.
THREE. He does need to learn to say “nuclear.” I will grant you that. Noo-kyoo-lur is not a word. New-clear. That is all on that.
FOUR. Regardless of my political affiliation, I am called to pray for my “governing authorities” because the “authorities that exist have been established by God.” (See the beginning of Romans 13 if you disagree…) I may not have voted for President-elect Obama, but I will be praying for him. He has some HARD decisions to make, and I do not envy that one bit. I will be praying that God guides him to correct decisions, but I also do not view the economic or political status of this country as an indicator of God’s power or authority. I am so thankful to live here and have a tremendous amount of freedom and opportunity… but my identity as a U.S. citizen is inconsequential in comparison to my identity as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever trials and tribulations I may experience here are shaping me, giving me opportunities to witness, helping me appreciate what I have, showing me how God’s will works in my life, teaching me to love others more deeply, humbling me so that I can accept help, and generally working to round off my rough edges and purify me. I cannot interpret those hard times as God favoring/abandoning America.
FIVE. They did not give me an “I Voted!” sticker. That made me sad. I really wanted an “I Voted!” sticker.
SIX. I am reading The Audacity of Hope, Mr. Obama’s second book. He has quite an extensive vocabulary, so I am not tearing through at it quite the rate I’d anticipated, but I am enjoying the journey. I really wish that everyone would read at least parts of his book. He brings up some great points, which I will discuss at a different time since this entry is already pretty lengthy. Some of those points are directly contrary to the view that many people have of him already. There are a lot of preconceived notions about the person he is and the president he will be. Well, maybe it would be good if we were to take a few hours (or a lot of hours… it’s a meaty book), and learn more about where he stands. Just a suggestion.
I am very interested to see how things go in our country and around the world once President-elect Obama takes office. I’m sure I’ll have more opinions (I usually do) on the matter… but those will get to be shared on a different day.
Apparently I’m Wordful. You know. Full of Words. January 13, 2009
Well, it’s been a weird few days. On Thursday night, Lance had an elders’ meeting, so I went up to the church and ran up and down the stairs. I’m weird, I know. It’s a fantastic workout though! And I totally enjoyed having an iPod to work out with. No wonder people love these things! Friday night, Lance and I ate dinner at home and went to Wal-Mart (woohoo – Friday night – I know). It was good though – we got curtain rods to put up in our office (using the gift card that Lance’s grandma gave for Christmas! Even better!). We had a pretty lazy night, which was great. We have fun hanging out and doing nothing. So then Saturday, we got up and did a lot of housework… laundry and cleaning up for me and painting and hanging curtain rods for Lance. Hooray – we finally have curtains up in our office! Unfortunately, I have not hemmed them yet, so they do not look as fabulous as they WILL, but they are UP on the window instead of wadded up in a chair, so I take that as a moral victory. So then we go over to some friends’ house for dinner, which was wonderful. We had a great time, and the food was wonderful… and then Lance came down with (what absolutely has to be) the same stomach bug I had shortly before Christmas. We had identical symptoms and even on the same time frame as each other. Poor baby, though. He was so sick. He was up a good part of the night, and I slept on the couch (mostly because I did not want to be between him and the bathroom!) with the pup. Sunday was a recovery day, and I learned that Lance does not like chicken noodle soup. Random. Did not know. I made him eat some anyway though. Ha. Yesterday at work went by super fast. It was pretty incredible, so that was nice. Pretty much as soon as I got home, I left to go to Bunko last night. I have a lot of fun at Bunko. AND I’ve actually been winning prizes this year (knock on wood) unlike last year, so that makes it even more fun! It’s just a fun group, and Elissa is joining, so I’m really excited about that too.
So then today I got to work and was really busy for the first part of the morning, and then my computer got like leprosy or something and just stopped doing stuff it’s supposed to do. I ended up spending like an hour or more of my morning being completely unproductive because my computer wouldn’t do what it was supposed to. It was just REALLY frustrating. We went to Billy Miner’s for lunch to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls I work with, and that was really good – great food! Then one of the girls and I walked to a chocolate factory place, and I bought some fudge just because I wanted something sweet. Well, then I got back to work, and my computer still wouldn’t work, so I got really frustrated and ate all the fudge. All. Gone. We started back on our diets last week, but I am giving myself a few days of grace because life has been so weird lately. Basically, I’m trying to NOT feel like a fatty for eating an entire chunk of fudge. Ha. Oh well. I’d lost 2 pounds last week, so I will just assume that I’m breaking even. 2.2 pounds to be precise. Not that those 3.2 ounces make a huge difference… but whatev. So anyway, now I have caught up from being behind this morning, which is great… but my compy still isn’t working properly. For example, I can’t open Outlook. Sad day. Instead, they put me on the online Outlook thing, but it’s not quite the same, and I’m afraid that it looks like I’m playing in my home email even though I’m not. Oh well. I guess if it makes someone upset enough to say something, I can tell them the whole sad story of my compy’s esplosion. I will probably leave out the part about my eating an entire chunk of fudge to deal with it though. Moving on…
So tomorrow night, we begin True Love Waits with our 7th and 8th graders at church. I’m really excited about it. I know that TLW was such a tremendous blessing when we got to be a part of it two years ago. (It does not, however, seem like two years ago.) It’s also kind of a challenge because there can be such a tremendous maturity gap in that age group, so we may have some kids who know all kinds of terms that I probably don’t even know, but we’ll also have some kids that have never discussed this subject like ever in life, and it will be awkward for them. I am praying that the Lord just uses me because the REALLY good things happen when the Lord makes himself known. I would love for this series to be one of those times. I think that it’s so wonderful that we are nothing but clay vessels to be used. I think occasionally the Lord allows me to be broken so that I don’t get too full of myself… I’m just a pot, after all. We also have Winterfest this weekend, which is always such a blessing, but it’s a really exhausting weekend. We live JUST far enough from the conference that it doesn’t make any sense to get a hotel but that it seems like a long drive back and forth. The conference is at the Arlington convention center (over by the Ballpark, Hurricane Harbor, and Six Flags), which means that it’s like 30 minutes with no traffic and like 45+ with traffic. Friday night ends at like 11:00 or something, so we get back to the church at like 11:30 and get home between 11:45 and midnight. The conference starts again at like 8:00 the next morning, so we have to get to the church by like 7:00 the next morning. Then it’s a whole day of activity and busyness, and then it ends at like 10:30 again and starts at like 8:00 again. And then it’s Monday and time to go back to work. Whew. It kind of makes me tired just thinking about it. I’ll try not to think about it. I do love going to conferences though. I love hearing speakers (Jeff Walling + Chris Seidman = yes please!), but I especially love singing. I LOVE SINGING. I can’t wait for heaven! That’s what I’ll do all day long – and it will be with a throng of people who WANT to be there and WANT to sing. There won’t be any talking or texting or complaining about the song selection. Just pure, unadulterated, uninterrupted, undistracted, unfazed, unfettered worship. And I can’t wait for it. Conferences like Winterfest (or, you know, like 4 years at ACU) are just a little taste of heaven to me. I’m excited about it.
Don’t be fooled – this was actually written on Monday… January 8, 2009
Okay, so I have two checking and two savings accounts – one for Lance and me and one at the credit union where I grew up having an account. I only leave money there because that’s also where our mortgage comes from, so I like having a bank statement where I can see what’s happening month by month with those. (Spoiler alert: not much.) Other than checking the balances on our mortgage, I don’t really look at my statement much. I don’t spend ANY money out of that account (I don’t have a bank card from there and I haven’t written a check from there in who knows how long), and my interest rate is like .00000072% or something. Okay, not really, but it is ridic low. Anyway, my point is – I don’t check my statements because I’ve never had a reason to. Well, Friday afternoon, work was pretty slow, so I thought I’d check it just for the heck of it. Well, when I looked, it said that I had written a $950 check out of my account – and that it didn’t clear because of insufficient funds… and that they charged me a $35 fee for said insufficient funds!!!! WHAT?! So I called my dad to verify that he didn’t try to steal money from me (j/k Dad), and then I called the bank on Saturday morning. Well, the guy said he’d look into it and call me back, but that did not happen. Today I called again and was kind of nervous about it because I have really been trying lately to be more polite to people when they mess up (thanks to Allan’s sermon about destroying your testimony by refusing to eat onions or something like that), and the guy had already not returned my call like he had said he would, so I was already feeling like they must be incompetent, but I tried really hard to be really polite and nice… and then I got put on hold for like 5 minutes, which is annoying all the time, but it is REALLY annoying if you’re at work. And I was. Turns out that the bank messed up and coded a check incorrectly, so they are giving me my $35 back, and they promised me that it will not be a black mark on my credit report or anything. AND I was SUPER nice. If that guy comes to our church, and I introduce myself by my bank account number and he recognizes my 9-digit number, I will NOT have destroyed my testimony! Success!
My mom and sister came and met me for lunch today, and we went to La Madeleine in downtown Fort Worth . It was such fun. First of all, I love my family. Secondly, I love La Mad. AND my mom had forgotten to give me one of my Christmas gifts (which I called to remind her of on December 26th), so she brought that to me too. They got to see the new fancy place I work and all of that… AND they were amazed by my incredible direction-giving skills. They’re pretty impressive. It really was so fun to eat with them. Oh, and my old work friends are meeting me for lunch on Wednesday! I’m way excited about that . A couple of them I haven’t seen since Icky Friday (my name for eleven twenty-one), so it will be pretty great to see them. I’m donating my Buxton jacket to the worthy cause of Jeff since I don’t/won’t wear it anymore. He’s pretty excited about that. I’m excited for it to leave our coat closet! Ha.
I also feel obligated to inform the world (or the like three people that read my blog) that I am rocking a sweater vest today. That’s right. Be jealous.
2008: A Look Back January 1, 2009
It is really hard for me to believe that it is the end of another year. I think time is speeding up. Each year seems to go by faster than the one that preceded it. Lance and I were reflecting back on 2008 the other night, and it was kind of strange. This has been one of the most difficult years we’ve had. In January of 08, Lance and I went to NCYM in Atlanta and had a great time. In fact, we realized that we really like hanging out with each other and should do that more. We’d gotten so busy that we weren’t spending much time together, and we vowed to change that. It was a great week, and we had a ton of fun (and I shopped at Bloomingdale’s for the first time!). So we got back, and on my first day back to work, my supervisor person (he was above my boss) came to me and asked me to manage a brand new department. Well, I got really excited about that opportunity but was also kind of confused about it since I had just decided that Lance and I needed to spend more time together a.k.a. I should I work less. After much agonizing, I finally decided to accept the offer in the hope that this new position would give me a better future at the company. Despite the fact that I was not getting a raise for accepting this new position, I was told that my salary would be reevaluated in June, and that was exciting. At the end of January, they came in and fired a bunch of people (a day affectionately known as one twenty-two). So THEN my workload increased exponentially as we all struggled to keep up with the amount of work with fewer workers. I worked my tail off for awhile, and then the workload began to even out… and then it became quite clear that my new position was not at all what I thought it would be. I was completely miserable. From January until September, I was in a bad mood because of work more days than I was happy. It was incredibly hard on me and incredibly hard on Lance and incredibly hard on our marriage. Anyway, also in January, our church moved to the small group format on Sunday nights. We were really excited about the opportunity to get to know some families better, but it ended up being a not-so-positive experience. Everyone else (or it felt like everyone else) was raving about how wonderful small groups were, but I left at least 50% of our small group meetings in tears. Around April, we decided that we just couldn’t do it anymore, and we changed small groups, and THEN I saw what everyone had been raving about. Sometime in the middle of all of that, I coached my first LTC chorus, which ended up being a really fun experience. This summer, Lance and I did VBS at church, which was a whole lot more of a commitment than I realized when I signed up. It was neat – I never had kids ask for my autograph before – but it was really exhausting. Then Lance and I went to Mexico for a week, which was absolutely fantastic just to get away from everything… but then, my mom got really sick and was hospitalized (see post from sometime this summer…), which was just incredibly scary. That happened during the same week that there were multiple debacles at camp with Lance. In September, I finally asked to go back to my old position, and after some time of discussion, they moved me back, and I was so much happier. I didn’t cry on Sunday nights, asking not to go to work the next day, and I was in a good mood more days than I was in a bad mood, so that was good. Then, in November, Lance and I went on a youth trip where some yucky things happened. I won’t elaborate on that, but suffice it to say that I cried a lot. So that was on Sunday… then I go to work that Friday (the Friday before Thanksgiving) and was called into a room at 8:30 that morning and laid off. That was incredibly painful and upsetting. I spent two weeks without work, and then the Lord brought my new job, which has been a tremendous blessing.
It’s been a year full of ups and downs and lots of fun but also lots of tears… I have learned and grown and changed and adapted and prayed and been honest and matured and thrown up and been laid off and been re-employed and taught my dog to shake and fallen more in love. I have been afraid and self-conscious and completely self-assured and happy and content and sad and elated and surprised. I’ve had my wisdom teeth out but have gained a lot more wisdom than I had removed from my mouth. I’ve learned to forgive even when it’s hard. I’ve come to know the Lord more. I’ve changed my views on a lot of things about church. I’ve come to appreciate how great my family is. I’ve been blown away by my Lance and our marriage. I’m decent at Guitar Hero as long as it’s on easy, and it turns out that I like pomegranates. I’m still so far from perfect, but I am definitely a work in progress. I realized that my self-worth was tied up in my performance, so I’m working on changing that. Again, work in progress. As I write this, though, I am happy, healthy, employed, loved, and happily married, so I am going to count every blessing and look this new year in the face without backing down. I’m stronger than I think I am, and I am fortified by a Strength that constantly amazes me. I hope that others see His glory in me.
2009, let’s be friends.
