CLUMSY!

That's how I feel at my new job...some of the time. Somehow I always manage to spill, bump, drop, knock over, or throw stuff all over the place. Trying to do things quickly and efficiently doesn't help much either.

Other times I just loose my brain. Like the time Steph asked me to put 4 scoops of such and such into a cup and I put 5. Or like the time I was steaming a huge pitcher of milk that was about to overflow. I thought, "Well it's almost hot enough, and it's going to overflow if I don't take it off right now, and it's going to take me a couple seconds to turn the steam off." So, in all my wisdom I pull the milk away from the wand blowing hot steam into it. What happens? Milk everywhere. Duh!

Christmas in October

Yes this post is seriously overdue. It's the end of November and Christmas is long gone. At least one Christmas. Because my grandparents snowbird to AZ in the winter, we've been doing Christmas in October with our cousins. "Merry Christmas" greetings and hugs for long lost relatives come pretty naturally for us when everyone else is figuring what they're going to wear for trick-or-treating. We exchange presents and eat lots of food. And then we play games! Apples to Apples, Catch-phrase, and Pit reign in our minds as distinct favorites. But no game is complete without Uncle Jack playing with us. Somehow the end scores don't matter when we're rolling on the floor in stitches! Here's some cousin pictures with Me, Collin, and Amanda. (I'm not sure where Alissa, Emily, Mia and Thomas were.)

Amanda...Me

Trying to be tough...we're not very good at that no smiling thing

They seem to have mastered it though

Monkeys? ...or something

Philosophising Biker Dude

My dad. A lot of words could be used to describe my dad. It's hard to condense him into a paragraph. But...seeing as it's better to try than to not do it at all, here goes!

Most importantly of course, he's handsome. That should be obvious by the picture I'm posting. He just got some geeky, adorable glasses that look really cute on him. Daddy basically eats philosophy. He reads books like Augustine's Confessions, and thinks about deep theological stuff all the time. I love asking him theology questions. He usually has a clear, in-depth answer for me because he's already spent hours thinking about it.

He also loves to bike. Mountain and road biking. In September he did a 24 mile hill climb. It didn't look fun. Biking to work in the summer, and going on his favorite bike trails with Collin are favorite ways of getting his biking fix.

Daddy also enjoys chopping and stacking wood, pouring half 'n half over his cold cereal in the mornings, eating ginormous bowls of ice cream, working on his motorcycle, dreaming of fixing up castles in Scotland, and giving new visitors to our home the "Grand Tour."

God of Everything

"Applying for jobs stinks. Period."

That has been my moto for the last month or so as I applied for jobs everywhere. The total count of jobs applied for was 20. Give or take a couple. Finally I got an interview. Not with one of the Starbucks that I've checked in with multiple times, or even the retail places that had "help wanted" signs in the windows. Yesterday a friend called her mom telling her to call my mom. Apparantly the coffee shop she works at was in serious need of some help. My mom and I drove out that morning, found the obscure little place, I filled out an application, and left. That afternoon the manager called me. I had an interview the next day! As I talked with the manager, it became apparant that the only hitch between me getting the job I wanted, and her getting the employee she wanted was Tuesday. That Tuesday was always getting in the way. She wanted me to work on Tuesday, but I already work Tuesdays at my present job, which I plan to keep. Then came the heroine of our story. Beckie. She's amazing. I have the extreme privilege of working with her on Wednesday mornings. Would she mind switching Wednesday and Tuesday with me so that I could take this job? Beckie promptly called her sister-in-law to see if they could trade the days that they care for their mother. (Beckie's sister-in-law is amazing too.) And, wa-la! It worked! Beckie saved the day, abolished the nasty Tuesday, and completely made my day! Yay!

When Mommy talked to him on the phone about it, Daddy, in all his profound wisdom said: "He created the universe, saved us from hell, and gave her Tuesday off."

When You Have Clever Posts in Mind but it Won't Upload the Pictures

Great sadness. I had these cute pictures that I wanted to show you, and a cute story to tell you, and all sorts of clever things for you to read and see so that you would think I was amazing and clever. Alas...stupid computer.

Who Am I?

Who am I? We've all asked that question, Christian or not. We all know who we are. We'll pull out our social security number and birth certificate, or point to some of our favorite things and describe our personality type. But for some reason those things don't seem to make up the real us. We know that there's something more that we can't quite figure out; something bigger and deeper, not just what appears on the surface.

I appreciate some of the lines in the song Who Am I? by Casting Crowns:

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am the flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

A vapor in the wind

Still you hear me when I'm calling

Lord you catch me when I'm falling

You've told me who I am

I am Yours

Here lies my identity. I may have been a fading flower, a tossing wave, a wisp of steam, but I am no longer! Who I truly am, my identity at the very core of my being, is no longer wrapped up in myself. As it says at the beginning of the song: not because of who I am or what I have done, but because of Christ. I have become a precious thing, a piece of beauty, glorious beyond measure. I did not do this to myself. Christ did it.

Sometimes I forget who I am. I slip into old ways and think that God will no longer love me because of what I've done. I put my identity into a "me box." I begin to think that who I am is because of what I've done. But every time I forget who I truly am, He comes back and reminds me. I am His. Nothing else need be said.

A Tale of Wilfred: Finding Himself

Wilfred with my cute friend/cousin Nicole.

As the days go by, Wilfred is beginning to find out who he is. Depression and low self-esteem haunted his poor brain for days. He was a nobody. He didn't have very many finished rows and the ribbing made his colors blur. *sigh* Life was sad. Life was hard. Wilfred was definitely coming to the end of himself. Suddenly one day he realized how long he was getting. The ribbing at the beginning was over, and a complicated pattern of sky blue, grass green, and sunshine yellow was taking shape over a backdrop of creamy white. He was becoming beautiful. Although it was pouring rain outside of his window, Wilfred's day was brightened. He canceled his psychologist appointment and was happy once more.

What We Do When the Parents Aren't About

Wow...and would you believe that we actually call each other cousins!