Monday, August 16, 2010

Friday I submitted my application to the state for licensure, so that's another step forward in the process here to start working - counseling anyway.
Last night I realized I had found a great church. They had their annual BBQ contest. There was smoked and barbequed sausage, pork, beef, turkey, chicken, venison, and a couple of mystery meats. Delish. I only wish I could have tried them all and gotten more of the ones I liked.
My new roommate is moving in today. It may be weird after having lived by myself for the past almost 2 years. I think it will be good, though.
Anybody seen Inception? It's been getting rave reviews from everyone I've talked to who's seen it.
It's 88 degrees right now. A cool front moved in last night, I guess, and I am SO glad.
Good Monday!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Above and Beneath the Tithe

I just moved into the new place this weekend. I think I described it before, but it's a townhouse, 2 bdrm, 2 1/2 bth, and so far I like it a lot! They put in new carpet and painted before we moved in. David was very helpful with the move. He did a lot of loading and unloading as did his roommate Spencer. Kevin and Lindsey helped out their friends (now my friends too) Jeff and Jennie came and were over the top helpful. I've really been amazed at how generous people (including the aforementioned) have been here. I got a bed thanks to the church secretary and furniture ministry at church. It's a full and very comfortable. Then when Jennie saw I had a bar and no dining room table, she said she had some barstools she'd give me that had been sitting in her attic. On Saturday, I met my friend Tennille's sister (Lisa Dahlman) for coffee and found out they were trying to sell and give away some furniture they have in storage, sooo I bought their washer and dryer and was given a nice, comfortable, brown suede couch. God always provides more abundantly that I expect or imagine.
This has all made me think about: "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need." Acts 2:44, 45 I've been that one in need recently, and it's cool how people have given things or how I could get furniture for a cheap amount, and by paying, in return, help out the ones who are selling. I don't read these verses and get worried that God's calling us to political socialism :) , but rather I think it's about people with sincere spirits that seek to give and bless other people. When you are on the receiving end of giving like that, it has a domino effect. I'm finding all the time that it's not about how much you perceive that you have to give. It's about what you have, right now, and blessing other people with what you have, right now. I think giving and allowing what you have to be used, right now, is the best use of what God gives us (Matthew 25). For me, the real key is thinking outside the box and noticing the needs people have that I have the ability and means (from God in the first place), right now, to meet - even when it feels like I don't have that much and I'd like to have more.
Since I'm so charged up right now about this topic, let's have a little discussion board generosity regarding creative or not-so-creative ways you have given to others, ways others have given to you, or ways you observed other people give and meet needs. And be generous with your comments! :D

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Traveling Grace

Seeing everyone at Red Mountain was a blast! I liked what Aaron said one night about family being some of our closest friends. I enjoy (I think there's a much stronger word than that, but I can't think of it now) being around every single person who was there and really missed the ones who weren't.
Our trip back turned into a wild one. A couple of hours into the trip (I was driving), we realized that we were travelling south instead of east. We were involved in each other's presentations of expertise that we didn't do at Red Mountain - Matt talked about how much it costs for pharmaceutical companies to get drugs on the market, Brittany talked about the fourth wall in acting and emoting (?) on camera, broadway, etc., David talked about centralized and decentralized organizations, and I talked about how the MFT field and family therapy is different than traditional psychology therapy. It was all so fascinating and CO did such a poor job of marking their highways, that we ended up going 180 miles out of our way. Yes. 180. I just figured it out on googlemaps.
In Lamar the hwy signs were not clear. Apparently I was supposed to make a left turn somewhere to continue on Hwy 50, but missed it. It looked like the only reason to turn left was to take the Hwy 50 truck route. As we weren't in a truck, we of course did not take that, and that was mistake number 1. No big deal, we thought. At that point it would be quicker to continue on the Hwy south to Springfield and take Hwy 16o north to get back to Hwy 50. Right as we were coming to the area where we would turn off, we hit major construction. The two lane hwy was turned to one lane for I think at least 20 miles, maybe more? I'm not the best estimate with stuff like that. Anyway, after waiting for a very long time for the traffic to come through from the opposite direction, we finally got to go. Right after we started we saw a sign for Hwy 16o South or West pointing to the right, so we figured the turn to go North/East was just down the road a little ways. There was a road to the left at that sign, but it looked like a little neighborhood road. As we drove past that intersection, Matt looked behind us and sure enough that was our turn north, BUT we were in one lane traffic and there was no way to turn around for what seemed like a long time. By the time we were out of construction there were no hwys to turn north on, so we went on to Boise City, OK, then Guymon, and eventually we cut back up into Kansas and made it to Rock where M and B's car was parked. I think we got to Rock around 11. I don't know how long it took M and B to get back to Noble, but the way Hwy 77 curved around (we sure didn't miss any more turns at this point), we didn't get back to Tulsa until around 2. I dropped David off and headed home to my little spot on the couch. So, our trip ended up being about 15 hours. Despite the extra 3-4 hours added on, the trip was a blast.
Besides our presentations of expertise, :) we ate twizlers, we rocked out to Jesus Freak (that was my favorite), some Kirk Franklin, and a little Reliant K. We ate at Dairy Queen for lunch and Subway for supper. Sadly we were in such small towns most of the day that we weren't able to use the McDonald's coupons Nan gave us. When we came to Wellington, KS, and saw the golden arches we were overjoyed. Then we went in and they told us that they didn't serve frappes or smoothies. You've got to be kidding me. I was very disappointed. So, I guess we'll all be using our coupons individually. Thanks anyway Nan, for thinking of us!
Gentry's new roomate moved in right before I left, so they're letting me stay on the couch until tomorrow when I can move into my new place!!! Gentry works and travels a lot so I haven't seen much of her, but she has been such a great roomate. I've really enjoyed getting to know her.
I'll move in tomorrow afternoon, Lord willing. I need to buy a washer and dryer, a couch or futon, a bed, and maybe a dining room table. So basically I need a lot of furniture. I might have found two bar stools for really cheap. I need to see for sure how high the bar is before I buy those though.
Happy almost weekend!