hey, it's ok (tuesday) 10.16

hey, it's ok

...to look forward to your trips to whole foods. hello my happy place.
...to use your lunch hour to go buy soap at target. hey, sometimes it helps to just get out of the building.
...to be grateful for God's timing and divine appointments
...to light candles in the dining and living rooms when your husband is getting ready to have a houseful of guys over to play poker. like they cared.
...to be somewhat amused by the debates (and more than a somewhat annoyed at the facebook/twitter/even freaking pinterest feeds of one-sided responses).
...to not really understand the purpose of gender reveal parties. i mean, fun i suppose. but what's wrong with the good 'ol facebook or group text of "it's a boy!"? 
(if i ever have one, you have my permission to remind me of this post)
...to still not understand the tennessee licensing system. in indiana you got your driver's license and car license plates at the same place. it was even called the license branch. here you have to figure out which to do first if you're a new resident and then go to three different locations: emissions testing, county clerk and ...i still don't know what the place is called to get your driver's license. but you can also register to vote at one of those places. and one of those places you go to every four years and the other two yearly.
...to realize that your job is one part baby fever and one part birth control. snuggling a precious cooing 6 month old and then dealing with a full-blown 3 year old fit in the space of 20 minutes will make you one confused woman. 

please to visit amber and her wonderful blog :-) she hosts this fun link-up every week!

hey, it's ok (tuesday) .14

hey, it's ok

...to not hover constantly over the children in your care at an indoor playplace with security including coordinating wristbands. *cough*grandma following a 2 year old*cough*
(i am keeping eyes on the little one. and blogging. :-)
...to use baseball caps for their intended purpose: covering up the fact you didn't have time to wash your hair this morning
...to consider going for a jog armed with a tennis racquet to combat the cicada swarms
...to be slightly confused by this car sticker. i get the rainbow people, rainbow hearts and just plain rainbows. but are they in support of their gay cat? i suppose that's a good thing ;-)




...to refuse to live in fear
...to think that tennessee lawmakers have really gone off the deep end lately
...to have an irresistible urge to tossle cute little heads of hair like this one

hope

after the craziness of today, we could all use videos like this.

here's hoping for the full recovery for Rep Giffords.
here's hoping for healing for the other victims and families.
here's hoping no other judge is shot down in the line of duty.
here's hoping no other innocent child is killed in a senseless act.
here's hoping that political "leaders" no longer use the phrase "in the cross hairs" or speak of "eliminating" opponents.
here's hoping that people who follow such "leadership" wake up a bit to the consequences of those words.

here's hoping that tomorrow is better for us all :)

Pass it On TV Spots Hope | Values - Pass It On

hey, it's ok (tuesday)

hey...it's ok

(go visit amber for the original!)

... to put redi whip in your coffee if you're at a house that has it. it's just like creamer, riiight?

... to laugh at the words "sarah palin misspoke again" simply because you don't really think they are necessary anymore.  and that has nothing to do with politics, really.

... to watch phineas and ferb.  by yourself.

... to marvel about how people are obsessed with superficiality as you flip through a people magazine.  and then realize that the only reason you're looking through that particular magazine is because you're sitting under a dryer while the highlights your stylist just put in take effect...

... to really want to smack the wiifit lady in the face when she says "oh" in THAT tone of voice when you step on the board. 

on the road again!

the month of september has been full of travels

and i've mentioned every trip here (i think)

but haven't really shared much about them.

so here's the very quick run-down.  if you're friends with me on facebook you can see the full photo albums!

first up was labor day weekend.  anthony and i climbed into a car and headed with our friends andy and mandy to the awesome city of st louis.

there we

stayed in an awesome hotel

 

(where we played cards -- and slept a few hours)

found angry birds

went to a cardinals/reds game

ate AMAZING food

visited the zoo

and got in a tiny tram and rode to the top of the arch

later that week, i traveled to downtown nashville

where i got to see a bunch of politicians

including...

bill clinton!!

(i'm such a political nerd.  and it doesn't hurt that i kinda love the clintons.)

the following weekend i went with our youth group to the annual retreat.

middle of nowhere

no connection to the outside world (no cell phone service or wifi)

and absolutely a blast

upon returning from the retreat, natasha and i went to our local barnes and noble

where we met

max lucado!

 

fast forward to the following weekend

where anthony and i jumped in my car and headed to indiana

we visited my parents

and hit holiday world with our friends brian and angie

(who got married this past may)

it was SO fun

and has changed a lot!

we'll definitely be back, hopefully once a year at least :)

 

and this past weekend natasha and i went to arkansas

where she showed me all around her college town

we got hit on at sonic

had some great cookies at her favorite little shop there

and shopped a little

and then

we saw jason mraz in concert!

and then

we got soaked by sprinklers

and THEN

we met jason mraz

and on the way home, we stopped by memphis zoo

where i saw penguins

 

 

(i dubbed these two anthony and lora.  heh )

so yes.  if you've kept track that means that in fact i have not spent one friday or saturday night this month in my own bed

and i gotta say,

it's been a FUN month

but i'm so glad to be settled down for the month of october

with only one possible trip out of state

(i think the cat might stop being mad at me too ;-))

Thursday's Ten: the random edition

i just realized that i have a LOT of stuff i haven't shared here lately, so (sorry) i'm lumping it into this post :)



1. i get to see bill clinton tonight! he's coming to campaign for the dem nominee for governor of tennessee...and while i'm not really into the whole "rally" idea, i couldn't pass up the opportunity to see a former president for free! i'm actually leaving the house in a couple of hours, having lunch with the boyfriend, and then hanging out downtown for the afternoon. *really* looking forward to it!

2. the whole burning of the Koran thing makes me sad and disgusted. until this morning i had not had even ONE person on my "friends" list on facebook even remotely supporting the idea -- at least publicly. and on my friends list are a LOT of conservatives --both in politics and faith, a bunch that have propagated the idea that our President is of the Islamic faith, and quite a few who are scared of anything but lily-white Christiandom. this morning, that changed. one "friend" i know vaguely from high school said something to the effect of "if he's praying and hears that from God, who are we to say it's wrong?"

on the one hand, i understand the reasoning.
on the other, i think we have to look at the fruit.
the last couple of weeks i've been learning more about the prophetic and how to operate in that gift. and i know this is "out there" for some of you, so bear with me, ok?
the thing about the prophetic is that the message should always be shared in love
if you discern that someone is struggling with depression
you don't want to say "oh, you're depressed and feel hopeless!"
you want to ask what to DO with that knowledge
and speak words of peace, hope and LIFE over them
because God wants to reveal His love to people

i can't help but think that this is similar.
and how on earth is burning someone's Holy Book
showing them God's love and Father Heart?

(i always lose followers when i write stuff like that, so goodbye 3 or so of you. :-)

3. we had an AWESOME time in st louis! i will post pictures here eventually...
although my iphone lost all the ones i took on friday and saturday. i was quite sad about that one...

4. 30 rock is my new favorite thing. in fact, this morning it's trumping all my ideas of getting ready to go see Mr Former President. that should tell you how much i'm loving that show!

5. this weekend is retreat with our youth group kids. since i missed camp this year i'm looking forward to finally meeting our new 7th graders!

6. twitter is becoming more and more addictive. oy.
honestly, i think it's because NONE of my former students or youth group kids are there. or not that i've found. and i'm happy to not have to wonder how people will take what i say there. it's nice :)

7. next weekend i get to take anthony to a place i spent quite a bit of time in as a child. holiday world is not very far from my parents house, and we are (hopefully) meeting one of my best friends from high school (angie) and her husband there for the day.
i'm excited about it...and really hopeful that it's all i remember it to be, lol.

8. and the NEXT weekend i'm going to arkansas (blech) with my friend natasha to see jason mraz! yes, i am fully aware that i live in music city, usa...and that he is here fairly often...but road trips are awesome and especially with good friends.

and for those of you keeping track at home, YES, this means that not one weekend in september am i home. C.R.A.Z.Y. here's to staying home in october! except that i probably won't be staying home the *entire* month...but more on that later

9. hmmm -- this is my favorite day of the year! 9/9 :) my favorite number is 9.
(when i was doing data entry earlier this year i got really excited when someone had entered the country on 9/9/09. i'm a dork...)

10. sometimes iced coffee makes my day. especially when i make it myself so it's way cheap. ahhh...in my new mug from the arch that is the *perfect* shape and size? sometimes it's the simple things...