A time long gone

A time when a trip to the post office must have been just a little more interesting.


Why don't we have news stories like this now?

Wedding Plans

They say that you should book your church and reception hall first when you are planning a wedding. I disagree. Book the photographer. Especially if you have a budget and can't afford thousands of dollars for pictures. The good, cheap photographers book up really fast and 4 months before your wedding, you won't be able to find one and you'll be left with the bad, cheap photographers. Which if I am going to get bad wedding pictures, I'd rather have a friend take them for free.

So if any of you know of any good photographers in the area that are reasonably priced and available May 26th - please let me know!

On a scale of 1 to 10, he's awesome!

"How much do you think this weighs?"

"2 lbs."

"Nope. 2.5 lbs. I win!"

"How about this? How much does this weigh?"

"3 lbs?"

This conversation took place in the produce section next to the scale as Ben and I guessed how much everything in our cart weighed.

And that is reason number 758 why I am marrying this man. Even grocery shopping is fun with him.

Only 130 days left...

New Year's Eve

2007 brought in probably the most interesting New Years Eve I’ve ever had. Most December 31^st normally involve me hanging out with old friends watching the ball drop and playing board games. Definitely fun times, but it was nice to do something new this year.

For this year’s party we went down to Kentucky to hang out with some of Ben’s college friends and I didn’t know anyone except Ben. And he only knew the host and hostess. So we met lots of new people. Our extroverted selves got some much needed people exercise and talked to some very interesting people. Here’s a couple of them:

1. Hillary. She has lived in many states, but never actually in the same state as her Fiancé who is currently working in the United Arab Emirates. She loves to travel and we talked for a long time about places we’ve been to, heard about or wanted to visit. If we lived near each other I think we would be friends.

2. Jamie Barnes and his funny wife, Kelsey. I didn’t talk to them much, but Ben and I did look up his music and I like it. I would suggest you go check it out and buy his stuff. Apparently MySpace is really helping him promote his music and he’s really big in Alaska because of it. I don’t think he’s actually been to Alaska, but the people there love his music.

3. ThatGuy. Ben and I got cornered by ThatGuy at the party. He spent a lot of the time talking to me about some really personal feelings and hurts. It was good and awkward. I eventually ate everything on my plate and had to leave to throw it away.

4. A couple who is living on the West side of the City doing inner city ministry. He’s one of the pastors there. It was neat to talk to them about their heart for the city and the people there. I love talking to people about inner city ministry.

5. A couple Emo-guys wearing women’s pants.

This party was especially interesting because it was held at this plantation house:

that has a staircase like this:

I think the house was built around 1823ish. It was neat, but also kind of creepy because half of it was empty. I mean, it would take a LOT of furniture to fill it and the young couple living there had a normal amount of furniture, not A LOT.

I had a lot of fun.

Maybe moving to Kentucky and meeting lots of new people won’t be so bad after all……

A Rodent Post

I saw this bummer sticker at a gas station and it made me laugh so hard that I had to take a picture of it.

Goodbye 2006

I know everyone and their mom have already written a "year in review" post, and you probably won't read this, but I decided I couldn't be left out!

2006 has been an interesting year. Here are some of the highlights:

- I got engaged.
- My mom was diagnosed with cancer.
- God began to heal my mom of cancer.
- I thought I might lose my job.
- My friends lost their jobs instead.
- I got a roommate.
- My sister lived in Mexico.
- I discovered Soft Paws.
- I was diagnosed with Gilbert's Syndrome.

See? It's been a busy year!

Today, during my devotional time with God, I was praying through the things I have to be thankful for from 2006. One thing stuck out to me. God has shown me over and over again how He uses sufferings to draw us closer to Him. I can see how He has used suffering in my and my family's life to teach us about Him. What an incredible gift of grace! Last year I could not be thankful for hard times. Going through some minor ones, I am seeing how precious those times and the intimacy with Christ that they brought are.

For a Christ follower, pain does not prove that God is unloving, it generally shows the opposite if we let Him. It is in the midst of pain that Christ's hope is sweet. That his sacrifice seems so dear. That his promises are so real. That his peace truly is beyond understanding.

I hope that 2007 brings less trials, but if that's what is required to walk so closely with my Sweet Jesus, then lead me on.

If You Say Go

If you say go we will go
If you say wait we will wait
If you say step out on the water and they say it can’t be done
We’ll fix our eyes on you and we will come

Your ways are higher than our ways
And the plans that You have laid are good and true
If You call us to the fire You will not withdraw Your hand
We’ll gaze into the flames and look for You

No. You can't have a hug.

On Tuesday I had an ultrasound of my tummy done. After it one thing was known for certain.

I hate strange people touching me.

Family touching me? Fine. Ben? Sure. Close friends? Maybe. Strange people at a hospital? No way.

I mean seriously. They need to figure out a way to conduct ultrasounds without touching you and letting you leave all your clothes on. The twenty minutes of me laying on a table with my stomach bare and a strange woman touching me was horrible. The only thing worse was the 30 minute massage I got last spring. That was not relaxing. At. All.

I think the ultrasound lady gets some kind of sick joy out of making people worry too. I mean I'm not having a baby, so an ultrasound is not a happy occasion. She should know that I am already a little concerned about the results of this test and should not ask questions like "have you had any major surgeries lately?" while zooming in on a large black spot on my liver. She also should not ask if I have diabetes and when I say "no" go, "hmmm..." and adjust some knobs on the machine. These are the kinds of things that will make a person worry. Another thing she shouldn't do, (besides touch me) is dig the reader thingy into my ribs. MAN HOW THAT HURTS! Does pressing harder really make the image that much sharper?

Anyway, I've decided that I am never having kids because people will have to touch me again. Oh and those kids might want a hug every now and then and that much touching may kill me. (I know. Drama. Queen.)

So the ultrasound came back that everything is normal and pretty much confirmed that I have something called Gilbert's Syndrome (GS). Yeah! No more tests! No more people touching me! Doctors really don't know much about GS, but from what I have read you can manage it through diet and lifestyle. The good thing is that I think I just need to keep eating what I've been eating the last couple weeks. I do need to change somethings in my lifestyle and by that I mean that I need to live on the beach and not work. (Are you still reading Ben?) Otherwise I could get really, really sick. (You don't want me to get sick again do you Ben?)

Hopefully, this is the beginning of me feeling better! I would like that very much.

I should probably point out that GS isn't serious. It won't kill me, or put me in the hospital. It can just make me feel really sick but I think the beach will help.