Blogging time again!?

I always, somehow, manage to feel like blogging when I'm over here, in Eastern Washington, with my family. Dunno why that is. Hm.

So, today is the 4th birthday of my youngest niece, Ivy. It's a beautiful day outside, crisp and bright, the best of fall mornings. I got to see the smile on the girls faces this morning when they saw their aunties and daddy made the trip over to see them. I've got Paul Keyes piano pieces playing, and a cup of coffee steaming at my side. It really couldn't get much better than this. Calm, quiet, beautiful, and really displaying God's glory. What an amazing world He created.

I'm excited to be here today, also, because it means my dad and I can sit down and complete my FAFSA so I can start looking for scholarships and grants for school. I can't begin to explain how excited I am to be going back to school. I've been wanting to for a long time, but I never really knew what I wanted to go for. So I didn't. But I had a moment a few weeks back and decided to look into working at a daycare, and was lead right into the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program. I'm thinking about going to Shoreline CC to get an AA transfer degree and then finishing at a University for my BA in ECE. I am frightened about costs, but so excited to get started. Hopefully, I will be able to get Grants or Scholarships that will allow me to go at little to no cost. Having a plan for what I want to do with my life feels really good. I don't feel like I'm waking up for work every morning and not going any where. My only wish now is that I could start taking classes sooner, and that I could go for free. Wouldn't that be nice.

In other news, Aaron and I are no longer dating. It's weird to be apart from him, but somehow also completely normal feeling. We've always been really close friends, and just because we're not dating anymore doesn't mean that's changing. We're still best friends, and hopeful that the relationship will blossom into something better, maybe even a blessed and Godly marriage. Only time will tell.

Seattle's Best and this great world.

Sitting here, at 7:54am, I am reminded why I love being up so early, there's nothing nice than taking your time when everyone else is rushing around. Not to mention a 16oz coffee is delicious when you know you're going to be tired in t-minus 2 seconds! I normally hit up the Starbucks that's right by my bus stop, but today I decoded to just head over to work and worry about coffee after I'd confirmed my work schedule for the day. In the end, I believe this truly benefited me. For two reasons, one, I really dislike Starbucks coffee, and second, o got a sweet seat right by the door, and being that this is Seattle and I'm in a coffee shop, no ones gonna ask questions about me sitting around for two hours, doing nothing but farting around on my iPod and reading. I guess that second reason was more a benefit of being in Seattle, rather than Seattle's Best, but, whatever. Here I am, content, and only a little bit cold. :)

Weather here is really starting to look like fall. Rain, clouds, cool winds, the works. Soon the leaves will start to change color and fall off the trees, but that's my favorite. There's something so cool about red, orange and yellow leaves reflecting the sunrise and sunset. It's just so pretty. Of course, every season is pretty, really. The calmness of the snow during the winter, the preciousness of new buds and blossoms in the spring, and the warmth and blue skies of the summer. This world is truly amazing, and beautiful no matter what time of year it is. Some how even downtown, in this gray and concrete jungle, there is beauty. Like the way the sky is reflected in the windows of the buildings, and the sparkling of the lights at night, and well, Seattle is blessed with the beautiful Puget Sound so close by. The sailboats on the water are Jessica and I's favorite sight on the way home from work. There's something so relaxing about seeing the sailboats floating casually in the water. We are definitely blessed with such an amazing world.

Anyway, my time is running short, so I should go. I know I did a bad job of keeping up with BEDA, but I really will try to blog more. I definitely love doing it, even if I don't have much to say. So tata for now!


Sexy: Good coffee and a delicious bagel for breakfast!
Unsexy: The fact that my iPod is dying right now. :(

Movies/TV I've watched today: Nothing yet, but I fully intend on goin home and watching Lie To Me, or Angel/Buffy.

Nail color: Still that clear coat, but my nails are mostly clean now, so that's good. :)

BEDA Fail

So, as per usual, the BEDA thing failed. Being that today is the 26th of August and my last post was made on the 5th. Wow, at least I made it a full business week. Ha.

Any way, I'm sitting here, in the main hall at the Waterville Fair Grounds, a little bored, a little relaxed, and mostly tired. I won't for a minute complain about being here, because I'm going to be in Eastern Washington for a full week, and I can't begin to explain how happy that makes me.

Jessica and I had originally planned to spend a week in Montana with her family, but because of unfortunate circumstances she wasn't able to get the time off. So, with all my Vacation approved (aside from 2 days), and nothing to do, I decided to come spend the week at my Dad's. The longest I've had the chance to stay with him since 2008 was a couple, maybe three, days. So having a whole week to really get comfortable and enjoy my time more thoroughly, is priceless. So, here I am. Sitting at a table with mix boards, cables and a laptop, blogging. Because I can. Yay!

I was telling my oldest sister just last night, that it seems interesting that we do in our real lives what we forget to do in our spiritual lives. Whenever things are hard, or painful, we come running home to our father. I really like the parallel that's there. I've been struggling with one thing or another for the past month or two, and I kept thinking that I wanted to get away from it all, turn off my phone and go to my dad's. Run away from it all. And that's exactly what I need to do, except instead of running to Eastern Washington, I need to be running to Jesus. It's really a lot easier, though it's something I struggle with. Not that I mean to imply I shouldn't take the time to get away from the city and see my family, that, I think, is extremely important for me. Rather I mean to say, it takes no effort at all to bow my head and say a prayer.


Any way, sorry I failed BEDA, but hopefully I'll be moved to blog more anyway...

Oh, and update on the kitten. She has an owner, and by the end of the 32 some hours we had her, I was so ready to let her go. The longer she was there the more depressed and aggressive our cats became. Plus, I missed cuddling with my Alley Cat! So, moral of the story, no more kittens any time soon.




Sexy: The beautifully humidity free heat I'm experincing right now... oh E. Wa. how I love thee.
Unsexy: How much my jaw hurts from chewing this gum.... I should really just spit it out already. :P
Movies/TV watched today: Surprisingly, absolutely none, and that feels good.

Nail Color: Chipped and peeling, dirt showing clear coat. Sweet.

08/05/10

Once again I have to start a blog with what happened last night. So Aaron came over and watched a PBS special with me. Fun, yes. But the best part didn't happen until after he left. So I gave him a hug and a kiss and said goodnight, shut the door and went about my business. About 5 minutes later I heard a knock at the door. With no idea who it could be I checked the peep hole and saw Aaron standing there. I couldn't help wondering what he had forgotten, but when I opened the door this is what I saw...

Well, she was in the arms of an adorable boy, who looked very excited to have found something he knew I would love. :) We don't know if she has an owner or not, but we let the manager of our complex know that we found her, and we're just waiting anxiously to see if she will be claimed. Part of me wants her to have an owner, and another part wants her to be a stray. She gets along okay with the other cats... well, she and Alley are okay, Jude seems to kind of hate her. He pretty much hisses at her, and she's hissed at him and Alley a couple times, but it's so far just been a matter of telling both animals that it's not okay to be mean. I feel like I have a child and now, after having a second child, my oldest is having the older sibling jealousy issues. I feel like I need to do mommy and kitty date night so that Alley and Jude don't feel like we're ignoring them, or replacing them.

We're not sure if the reason Jude is having issues is because he was in a hoarder's home before we adopted him. Maybe he gets a bit defensive because he used to be surrounded by too many other cats. Who knows, if the new kitten doesn't have an owner, hopefully Jude will warm up to her. I think it's really only a matter of time. I hope so.

We geeked out and named her Cordi (Cordelia), mostly because we've been watching so much Buffy, and also because she seemed like she might be high maintenance and prissy. Ha.

Any way, today was normal, work, home, dinner, Buffy. The usual. I'm excited to see Aaron again, for the third night in a row, but things are calm.

Any way, back to an episode of Buffy I've already seen cause Jessica is still catching up. Good thing she'll be watching more tomorrow, cause then she'll catch up to me, and probably pass me up, and then have to re-watch episodes too! Ha!

See you tomorrow!
 

08/04/10

I definitely did not get the chance to upload my blog yesterday, and it didn't save because I started writing it on my phone.  So, since the best part of the day actually occurred after midnight, I'll just tell you all of what happened today...

A few hours later...

I was going to write today's blog talking about everything that is not happening in my day today. But I just read a Nerdfighter's Secret and it really upset me the way that people were responding to it. This girl is spilling her heart out, telling the world that she feels alone and there are still people commenting on how she is going to be judged if she continues to believe what she believes. Yes, I realize that people are bound to judge you no matter what, but what upset me the most is that Nerdfighters are supposed to be accepting and loving of one another, but they are treating her poorly. I've always had the feeling that Nerdfighteria is about accepting people as they are, even when it seems no one else will. And I have always received this same message from those who are at the head of Nerdfighteria, John and Hank Green, especially. Seeing things come to pass like Esther day, and Esther just wanting everyone to show love to their friends and family, makes me think that whoever this girl has encountered doesn't understand what being a Nerdfighter is really about.

I feel that, personally, I can be comfortable being part of the Nerdfighter community because it seems to promote love in a similar way to how Christ showed love when he was on earth. That is, by accepting and caring about everyone regardless of status, or money, or relationships. But seeing this girl who seemingly felt the same way, and thought that she was understood and no longer judged, be let down was really upsetting. I'm not going to say that because of this I am no longer going to consider myself a Nerdfighter, or that I'm going to stop watching the videos uploaded by those who call themselves Nerdfighters, but I just feel disappointed.

However, at the same time it comforts me by reminding me that Christ's love is better than this. He does not decided who he loves based on what they do or who the world believes them to be. He loves everyone unconditionally. So, though Satan may be working against this girl by breaking down what she loved and felt comforted by, I see it as an opportunity to remind her of God's grace and love. Which, as I hope she can see, is much more important.

08/02/10

So, today is day 2 of BEDA and I'm already at a loss of what to write about. Great.

I'd tell you about my day, but other than the fact that I paid $1.69 for a 380 cal coffee from 7/11, ate veggie chips with creamy ranch for lunch and took a walk after work to look at pretty dresses through the window of Luly Lang, it was kind of dull. I guess, walking up and down 4 flights of stairs was out of the ordinary, and an example of the funny ways my company motivates it's employees to be active, but it took such a short time it's barely worth mentioning. Except, well, I will.

We have these events twice a year called winter fest and summer fest, which include all sorts of activities. Just two or three weeks ago we had a Wii sports tournament (which I didn't win, boo), and decorated foam board surfboards (which I also didn't win, double boo) and it seems that as of late our management has been also pushing us to be more active, in really sneaky ways. Well, sneaky sounds like it's something bad, it's not. For example, we are doing "Beach Blanket Bingo" right now, which includes activities like the one mentioned above, walking up and down 4 flights of stairs. As well as walking 10 laps around the floor (which takes about 2 minutes per lap if your meandering), and taking one full lap around the building outside. It's a fun way to get us excited about exercise, I guess. I mean, I definitely don't hate that they're doing it, because, for one, it gives me an extra little break off the phones, plus, I guess I kind of enjoy it, but, I dunno, it's kind of weird. Ha.

Um, yeah....

So, after seeing Bree's, I signed up at listography.com. It's a pretty basic website, and could be done through a regular blog like this, but I kinda like that I can have a separate place specifically for lists. I've never been much of a list writer myself, mostly because I can't think of things "To Do" or I'm sitting at my desk at work trying to write a grocery list. Or, really because I always leave the list somewhere and when I actually need it I can't find it, or  possibly never needed it in the first place. But, I like that my list can be about anything. I can take a moment at the end of the day to write a list of all the things that made my day good, or bad, or better. It somehow seems relaxing. So go check out my listography. Maybe start your own, whatevs.

I'm gonna go eat now, because it's 10:30pm, I haven't eaten dinner and I need to be in bed soon.

Night all, see ya tomorrow! :)

BEDA Day 1

 Hello all! Today is day one of BEDA, Blog Every Day in August, and we're going to do a little experiment. We're going to see if I can actually complete a blog for all 31 days of the month... So here goes:

Sundays are usually lazy days for me. Wake up, go to church, eat lunch with Aaron and then do whatever, relaxing. Today has not let me down. So far, I've watched 5 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and munched on snacks. The biggest benefit, though, is cuddling with my two favorite felines, Alley Cat and Hey, Jude. Oh, don't worry we call them simply Alley and Jude. It's probably a good thing we got Jude after Alley or they would have been named Hey, Jude and Abbey Road. It's not like either of us are huge Beatles fans. We just like the name Jude, I guess. And, trust me it's definitely better than what name he could have ended up with. Jess was thinking something Spanish, like Rodrigo, or Francesco. I'm glad he got Jude.

I have been a little concerned about Alley, though. She started having weird eye goo, and then wouldn't open her left eye at all the other day. Then yesterday she was opening it about halfway and now today she seems to be fine. I'm glad, I wasn't looking forward to go to, or paying for the vet.

-Just to interject here, someone in my apartment complex is barbecuing and it smells delicious!-

So, I've had this YouTube account for probably a year now and haven't actually posted anything on it yet. But since my roommate started watching more YouTube videos we've come up with this idea for a channel. I'm not gonna get into exactly what it's about right now, but be looking forward to details. ;)

Meanwhile, I've got some ideas going for my personal channel and I'm pretty excited to see them come to light.

Oh and I'm working on some outlining for my NaNoWriMo story for this year. Not sure how it's all going to come together, but I'm hoping that my amateur ramblings can make some sort of interesting story.

Any way, that's all for today, but I'll see ya'll tomorrow!




Sexy: David Boreanaz as Angel
Unsexy: The outfit I'm wearing. Aside for the awesome Charlie McDonnell "You need to be able to love yourself" t-shirt, I look a mess! :P
Movies/TV I've watched today: Um, Buffy, but yeah you know that. :)

Nail Color: Still the clear base coat. Still haven't gone back to the color polish.

Cha cha cha changes....

It's weird to me that to get inspiration to write again, I have to look back on old posts. Ha.

The cruise was awesome, months ago, but awesome. Rhea did not, in fact, end up going with me. She wanted to, but she had school and work to deal with, and the timing just wasn't right. However, I got the immense privilege of taking my younger sister with me. Now, I love spending time with my family, it's become one of my favorite things to do, and as I get older I realize more and more how much I love and care about them. But this trip was special. My little sister had never been to California, never out of Washington state, never on an airplane, and never out of the country. We went to Mexico, took two flights stopping in Salt Lake City and then on to LA where we embarked on the Sapphire Princess headed for Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. And she got to do all this, with me. I cannot begin to describe how cool it was to see her face when we were thousands of feet above the earth on her very first flight. Priceless.

Since then, things have really gone up and down. Work was becoming tedious and annoying, and I considered looking for a new job, nearly daily. For a while, I was really struggling with relationship issues with Aaron (so what else is new), and have finally come to a place where I can be at peace in our relationship as it currently stands. I find myself, often, in the wrong frame of mind, thinking of Aaron as if he's already my husband, and it was taking a remarkably difficult tole on my life.  I found myself expecting him to act as a husband, and when I realized that he was not in fact so, I began slipping into a depression because he didn't want to marry me now. It wasn't long before we found ourselves on the verge of, what would have been, a really horrible break up. Thank the Lord that we were able to talk it out and He's been working in my life to show me that it is important to respect Aaron and where he's at in his life. Because, I honestly feel that if I can't learn to respect him now, before we're married, or even engaged, I'm going to have a really hard time doing so once we are.

A big reason Aaron and I seem to be doing so well, as of late, can be directly contributed to our participation in a Community Group. Mars Hill has been a really great place for us to go and learn about Christ on Sunday, but I understand now why they constantly encourage the church body to attend a CG.  Not only have I met some really amazing people, but I've been provided with people who are great examples in my life. I adore the CG leader, Scott, his wife, Atalie, and their two 10 month old children, Solomon and Ivy. They have been so sweet and caring since Aaron and I walked in the door the first day, and their children are adorable and remarkably well behaved (though Scott and Atalie still feel they can be a bit of a distraction, partially true, they make me smile every time I see them). And the encouragement I have received from other members of our CG, whether they realize they have been an encouragement or not, have been much needed and much appreciated.

I've found myself in a place now, where I can see the challenges in my life and am better prepared to face them head on. In the past, I was always a "dreamer", trying to pretend as if my life was better than what it was, instead of seeing the beauty that already existed around me. My relationship with Aaron is better than a lot of other relationships, and the fact that I have him at all is such an enormous blessing in and of itself. I don't deserve him, not at all. But then, I don't deserve Christ's love either, but that I receive unconditionally. Perfect love.

Work has been much better, I've been working a lot on my temper and patience, and it's been beneficial not only with friends and family, but also with work. I've found myself getting less annoyed and angry with callers or co workers. I can't say I'm perfect, and that I don't get frustrated on occasion, but the goal is to be as kind to those people as I can.








Sexy: How much I am loved by, and can love those people around me. :)
Unsexy: How long it's been since I blogged last... yeah, sorry about that.
Movies/TV Shows I've watched today: Dear Zachary, Letters to a Son About His Father, Three Blind Mice, and am just starting Jesus Camp (I've heard things about this documentary and am interested to experience it for myself, maybe I'll blog about it later.)

Nail Color: Clear base coat, my nails are almost healed from the craziness I put them through, I'm playing it safe for a little while. :)

New blogs I'm following: breethescarybear and nadiaesra

Home and all that...

Thank the Lord for "Fridays", I honestly don't know what I would do without them! I'm on my way home right now, after what I felt was a really long week. Not because I worked an extra long week, on the contrary I worked less this week than normal. It's just time extending itself to feel longer.

Things with Aaron have taken a turn for the better. He's still not going on the cruise with me, but it'll be okay. I'm planning on taking my friend Rhea, and that will be amazing! She's a really fun girl and we'll have tons of fun together. I was bummed for a little while about Aaron not coming with me, but we had a long talk the other night and we've decided its probably better that he doesn't, anyway. Regardless, he's got an album due that next week, first album with Century Media, so that's a pretty big deal! We also had a discussion about our relationship in general. I went into the conversation fearing I'd come out of it single and unhappy. Instead I came out with a new outlook on the our relationship, and a plan to improve it.

I've been mentioning to Aaron for a while that I wanted to join a community group through Mars Hill, and that I also wanted to do a one on one Bible study with him, but nothing really came of it. He brought that up while we were talking, and I'm hoping that means we'll be able to commit to actually doing it. I suppose we'll see, yeah?



Sexy: Chameleon Circuit and DFTBA Records
Unsexy: Whoever it is on this bus that smells like perfume and pot! Boo!

Nail color: OPI-"Its all up to blue"

Suddenly the urge to blog rises in me, so what do I do? Well, sit down and write, of course. But, what do I say? Uh, well, I could talk about... well no one cares about that. OH! How about... well, no, that's kind of lame too. Hm. I guess nothing?

Blogging has forever been something I've wanted to do. Take hold of the reins and be witty and cute. But I find that reading blogs is actually more fun. Mostly because they have nothing to do with my boring life. I mean, does that ever happen to you? You read someone else's blog and you think, 'oh man this stuff is great, I wanna start my own', then you sit down in front of the computer and sit there staring at the flashing cursor, because everything you intended to write now sounds so boring, or stupid! Maybe it's because I hate talking about myself too much. I've always felt better at listening to others, rather than talking about myself. Though, I guess that could be a redeeming quality, but it's makes blogging rather difficult.

Well, now that I've complained that I have nothing to say, I'll jump right into complaining about my life... yet again. Ha.

So, I've scheduled this cruise for March, as a birthday present for my boyfriend, Aaron, and all was looking good until about two months ago. I brought it up to him in conversation one day, explaining that I needed to look into the price of airfare soon, if I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg, and he promptly responded with 'well, I dunno'. WELL I DUNNO?! What do you mean 'well I dunno'?! I asked him specifically if he was serious about me booking a cruise for us. He said yes! Now that we're mere months away you're going to back out on me?! It's for your birthday for crying out loud! Ugh! I mean, his reasoning is pretty good, per usual, but it really doesn't make me feel better about it, ya know. It's gotta be one of the worst things in the world to have someone say, "Yes I want to go with you on this nonrefundable vacation", just to say later that they aren't sure they could, or should. The only good thing to come out of this, I suppose, is that I have a couple backups (lovely backups that I would take on a cruise without thinking twice about it) that would love to come with me, if, by chance, Aaron does fully back out. (Mind, I didn't know what I was gonna do, if he did, until about a week ago.) Regardless, I'm pretty bummed that he's thinking now that he might not come with me, I was so looking forward to this trip being more than reasonably expected. I wanted this to be a turning point, so much for that. Thanks buddy! Blegh.

Got a text message from an old 'friend' the other day. Interesting, random, and bringing back a lot of mixed emotions. I'll fill you in on whether anything becomes of it. However, I'm not sure I'm prepared for an onslaught quite yet. Wish me luck should one come about sooner than expected.

Work sucked today, btw. It was one of those days were everyone's upset about some little thing, and you are the "only person in the world who can change it", but of course, you "won't". Ugh. I swear, if I get yelled at about something that is completely out of my control, or absolutely not my fault, again, I'm gonna throw something across the room. Truth is, I hate these calls the most, because I usually loose a my temper just enough to have the attitude leak through my voice, and that of course just makes the person more upset because I'm "rude".  I mean, c'mon man, you try walking to work and having someone scream at you that they're not getting documents in the mail anymore, and heaven forbid you should have to get on the computer to get information! For heaven's sake, you haven't been able to get your boarding pass anywhere but our website for like two years, how much harder could it be to read the rest of the info on there too?! Sorry. I hate raging about this, cause it makes me feel mean and ungrateful. Honestly, I don't mind my job at all, I kind of like it, in fact. It's just that there's always those people who ruin it and make me want to do something other than customer service. However, I know that no matter what I do, there's going to be those days when someone is on edge, and it's going to frustrate and upset me. *Lord help me get through crazy work days, you and I both know they suck.*

So, now that this blog has gone from nothing, to ranting and raging about more nothingness, I'm going to sigh off. My bed awaits a sleepy body, and I no longer have the strength to deny it.

Hopefully I'll actually write in here more often and less grumpily (yeah, I don't think that's a word, but my computer doesn't seem to deny it, sweet). Goodnight.


~And to steal an idea from Hayley G. Hoover (because everything she does is amazing):~
Sexy: My playlist consisting of The Myraid, Paramore, Mute Math, Loudermilk and Julia Nunes! :D
Unsexy: See my freaking blog entry, the whole day was unsexy!



Movies/TV shows watched today: The History Channel's: Salem Witch Trials and Justin Hunt's: American Meth