Our State Fair is a Grand State Fair...

This weekend is the Texas State Fair Cousin Reunion in Dallas!! Sadly, it sounds like not as many cousins will be re-uning(is this a word?) this year. I'm excited to eat some fried food and get in some good hanging out.
I had a wonderful birthday! Thanks to all of you who sent notes. I felt very blessed! I did a log of eating and drinking DP, thanks to Dave and a few good friends, and then after church last night I ended the evening by going to Free Pie Wednesday at Village Inn Restaurant. I got strawberry rhubarb pie with decaf coffee. Not far as good as Mom's, but it was nice birthday dessert. :) Each year when my birthday rolls around, and especially this year for some reason, I am convicted about what I'm doing with my life. Am I living boldly? Am I living beyond myself? I enjoy routine and the simple life, so it's easy for me to get stuck there. Not that either of those things are wrong, but I know that those two tendencies I have can influence me stay in my comfort zone and not bless others the way that God has intended me to. So, I've been thinking about how I can be more available to God, how he's already working through me, and new or expanded ways He can work through me. As you know, I'm a fairly easily entertained and fascinated person, so all of this train of thought has kept me entertained(that's not quite the word I'm going for, but can't think of what is). Occupied maybe.
In othe random news - hoping to upgrade from my trash phone soon to a smart phone that will hopefully prevent the carpal tunnel that I feel like I'm developing from my current phone! How am I doing this? Family plans are way more affordable, I've found out recently, so thanks to Dave, I'm upgrading. Trying to train for the White Rock Half Marathon. This is definitely the hardest things physically that I've ever done, and still have a long ways to go. There is a 15k that I'm running at the end of October, which gives me a sooner goal to shoot for. One month. Yikes. My motto? Slow and steady...finishes the race. I'm not going for winning here, just finishing at least at a slow jog. Or a fast jog would be fine too. :) But I'll settle for a slow jog.
That makes me think of the song, "I'll settle for a slowdown". At least I think those are the words. ha I've been on a country music kick recently. Country music is nice in the fall, when you can blare it with the windows down. Speaking of fall, the temps have gone back up, but at least the evenings have been a little cooler.
Hope you all are enjoying the season, and if you're usually at the fair and you're reading this, you are going to be missed greatly!

Fall!

We're supposed to head up into the nineties again this weekend, but fall is in the air. The angle of the sun makes things feel different as does the cool-ish breeze.

I haven't blogged in forever, so I'm well overdue for an update. Work is going well. I'm slowly gaining clients. I'll have a high number one week and the next week I'll be back down. So I'm just trying to be patient and be a good receptionist in the process. The good part of being the receptionist is that I have learned a ton about insurance, billing, and the financial side of things. On the therapy side, I've had some interesting cases. Really, people in general are interesting. If you came into my office, I would find you fascinating even if you think you are pitiful and boring. Hopefully you don't hear me saying that you are species that I am putting under the microscope to study (although I guess a little of that goes on!), but mainly that everyone is so different. On the outside. On the inside, I think we're all about the same. Bleah, bleah, bleah, not sure what I'm really talking about. Should have just left it at - people are interesting.

For Labor Day, the young professionals group at church went on a campout. I think 20 something people went. Tric and Dave both came, as did two of my roommates. It was such a blast. Saturday was a blast of heat, but the rest of the time was just a fun blast. We came back on Sunday so Tric, her roommate, Haley, and Haley's friend Alisha, and I could run the "Escape from Turkey Mountain" trail run on Monday morning. Again, it was so fun! They did the 5 mile and I did the 2 mile. The first part was annoying because the trail was so narrow that you couldn't pass the very slow people. I wasn't the fastest by any means, but I wasn't the slowest either. By the time I was able to pass people, I guess my coffee had kicked in because I felt like I flew that last mile. Sounded like a freight train, but I was moving pretty fast for me. Super, super fun. After that we went and got breakfast burritos. Delicious. T and I met with Dave later for deep dish pizza for lunch. Also delicious.

This weekend, I'm trying to round up some folk to go hike at Turkey Mountain (hill). It's about 5 minutes from where I live and there are some decent trails, for this vicinity. Besides that, just planning to sleep in on Saturday. Between camping and running at 7 in the morning on Labor Day, I've been worn out this week!

Have a great weekend!!

Burned Up

It is 111 degrees right now. By 4 am, we are supposed to be down to 91. I am loving popsicles and air conditioning (and my fleece that I have to wear inside, because the AC is so cold).

Packing it In

We're sitting at a pleasant, but very humid 91 degrees right now. Looks like some storms are supposed to move through, so hopefully we'll get some rain. It sprinkled a little this afternoon. Trees and bushes look wilted.

The 4th of July was super fun this year. I love fireworks, so my plan was to get in as many shows as possible. I saw two really good ones - one on the 3rd and one on the 4th. Then a couple of days after I got to shoot some off with some friends.

This weekend was super fun. 6 friends came into town who were in Korea at the same time I was. Heather and Rachel are from Texas, Katee, Beth, and Amanda are from Canada, and Abby is from Springfield, MO. We've gotten together the past 2 summers, so it's become an annual tradition. It was so fun. We ate a lot, talked a lot, and laughed a ton. I have three roommates already, so with 10 of us, we were definitely piled in the house, but it seemed to work out pretty well. This is about to get detailed, so unless you're my mom or sister you may want to stop reading now!

Friday evening when they all got in we went and ate Korean food, which was excellent, and then we sang in the norae-bang (singing room) they have at the restaurant - Korean karoke. It was a blast. They gave the room to us for free for one hour. It had taken the Canadian girls 20 hours to drive down, so they were pretty tired, and the norae bang ac wasn't working, so we were worn out from singing and heat exhaustion!
We went to a little farmer's market on Sat. morning and got breakfast burritos, then went to the Philbrook art museum - it was free that day! It's a pretty good museum and the gardens are gorgeous. The AC was a lifesaver though, because I think we were at 100 or higher that day. After that I took them to Quick Trip - a local gas station that has 59 cent drinks during the summer. Yummy DP. Then we went home and just hung out for the afternoon. That evening, we went to the riverwalk to eat at Los Cabos. We sat outside and tried to yell at each other over the super loud (but fun) band that was there. Then we strolled and a few of the girls listened to another band that was there. After that, we went to get coffee (I should have gotten decaf). I found out that my brother and his friend, Kent were going to be at a restaurant across the street, so we went to hang out with them. The trip took an even better turn there, because Kent suggested (kind of insisted) that we should go out to his family's cabin on the lake. So generous of him and such a great idea. So the next afternoon, after church, we went out to the cabin. The girls got to seem my flowers on the way out, which are majorly struggling with the heat, but at least some of them are still alive! Once we got there, he took us out on the boat and we all got in an swam. (Swam? is that the right word?) Yes, believe it or not, I did get in the lake and swim. And it was really fun. I felt a lot more relaxed once I had a float/life jacket think to hold on to. There's something about not seeing or touching the bottom that makes me really nervous, but it was a good time to face my fears! I even went in after seeing a snake along the bank by the dock. Bleah. Can't think about that too much. After that, Kent left and we hung out on the deck the rest of the night. We ordered pizza that was super yummy and sat outside a long ways after dark. It never cooled off, but it was still fun and beautiful. The next day, Amanda and I took a stroll and saw a sign for blue green algae - swim at your own risk. Great! Still don't know what that means, but Amanda still went in later. There was a little incident of a cut foot and passing out from pain and me getting just a little panicked about someone seeing someone faint, but we all survived. I'm so glad for her that it was just a minor accident. We headed back to Tulsa that afternoon, met David for supper, and then went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert and coffee. The Canadians don't have the Cheesecake Factory. That was the perfect ending to a great visit. Katee had to be at the airport really early this morning. Abby had to leave on Sunday, but the other girls came up to my office and we went and got a hamburger and fries for lunch at Ron's. I kind of feel like I'm about to go into friend withdrawals and I'm experiencing major sleep deprivation, but what a great time. I couldn't feel more blessed. :)

Metaphoring it up

This week I've been thinking a lot about the importance of gentleness, as well as expressing your love to people by offering them free will (of course they already have it, but sometimes we try to act like they don't and that we are in charge of them). What I'm about to write will relate more to gentleness than free will. I'll save free will for another time.
Yesterday I was weeding around some flowers that I planted a couple of months ago. When I first planted them, I planted them in dirt that I had weeded, but many of the roots were still there. It had been over a month since I had worked with my little garden. Unfortunately, most of these little flowers never had a chance, because the weeds/bermuda grass came up and choked them out. Add to that - my inconsistent wedding. If they weren't choked out at the beginning, they were edged out by the weeds that were allowed to get out of control and literally take over the entire space that I'd hoped would turn into a nice patch of wildflowers. When I went to weed last night, maybe 10 or 12 little flowers/stalks were there, even though I planted probably more than 100 seeds. As I began to attack the weeds, I inadvertently pulled up some of the flowers because they were hidden and because I was not being gentle enough. Even as I became more gentle, I found out that weeds were actually what were holding the flowers up and keeping them going. That became the tough part. The ground was super dry, so even when I was as gentle as I could be, I would end up pulling out the flower along with the weed I was trying to get. Around that time, my friend recommended transplanting the flowers altogether to a section of the ground that was cleared. So that's what we did. Maybe these little cosmos, asters, and ? will make it now. Of course they're still in an area that has weeds, so it's going to take persistence and consistency on my part to keep the weeds from becoming their support system/eventually killing them. And I'll have to keep watering, but at the beginning not so much as to drown them out, because they're still fragile.
Some people might say that really there's nothing in my power that I can do that will ultimately make the flowers live or die. The flowers have free will and all that, and they chose those weeds, and all I could do was plant the seeds. I don't know that I have full power to make the flowers live and die and I don't know whether they chose the weeds or the weeds chose them, or both, or maybe they were just there from previous years. What I can see is that the weeds have the power to kill the flowers or at least fool the flower into thinking that it's standing on it's own and living a thriving, happy life when really it's just the bermuda grass that's holding it up. What I also know is that consistent and persistent love and gentleness go a long way with these little flowers that I love.

What I have learned from Uncle Paul:
-He taught me how to understand the Holy Spirit and the Trinity better.
-He taught me how to love and value all people.
-He taught me that people are first.
-He taught me how to get real with people.
-He taught me the power of commiting to pray for people - usually just one or three.
-I love how he and his siblings had so much fun together.
-I love the fun he brought to every group he was part of.
His influence is immeasureable. I will miss him.

Friday!!!

Life is flying by! I seriously can't believe I've been in Tulsa almost a year. Crazy. I'm working as the receptionist right now at the counseling center and seeing clients, so my schedule right now is pretty crazy as well. The good thing that's happening right now is that Kevin, my supervisor here just got his Oklahoma licensure. That opens up a lot of doors for us to see more clients. I'm going to Boise for Memorial Day weekend!! Looking really forward to that. A couple of weekends ago the singles group at church went camping in Arkansas for the weekend. It was gorgeous there! We went to Mt. Magazine, the highest point in AR and hiked around and tried to see a mama bear and her two cubs. We never could see them, but supposedly they have a den in one of the areas there. Tonight I'm going to an Amish dinner. I have no idea what Amish cooking is like, but I guess I'm about to find out. If it matches the lifestyle, I'd guess it will be simple food with some delicious extra flavoring thrown in. My theory about the delicious extra flavoring idea is from how they throw in some extra stuff into their lifestlyes, like going to Wal-Mart, and using some nice aspects of civilization. :) Guten Friday, everyone!

Speaking of...

Right now we're sitting at a chilly 48 with light rain. I myself am sitting in a large, cozy chair with a blanket around me enjoying a nice, quiet evening at home. I have eaten a box and a half of raisins in the past hour. Delicious. I've never liked raisins until recently and they are decidedly a new fave. Great Value All Natural California Raisins. Yummmmm.

Speaking of deliciousness, one of my roommates has a Keurig coffee maker.

I never knew what I thought about them, but I am now a fan. You can use them for a single cup of coffee or you can just use it to heat up water for tea. The little individual cups are kind of expensive, but what a great treat! During the big blizzard it was on all day for us to have hot drinks. The different flavor options are great. My personal favorite is the Wild Mountain Blueberry. Based on my dislike of raspberry and cherry flavored coffees, I thought it would be bad, but it is berry berry amazing. :D So good.

Today I went to eat lunch with my friend Lisa and her baby for lunch. They are packing up to head to California to meet up with her husband who is stationed there in the army. Baby Teia is so cute! We ate at a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place that is super good.

Speaking of cute babies, I thought I was hearing Kevin and Lindsey's son yell my name across the pews at church "Dess! Dess!" -- he's almost 2 -- but then I thought to myself, "Nah, quit being so egocentric." But after a minute I couldn't help myself, so I turned to look and sure enough he was excitedly pointing out to his mom where I was during the final prayer. He couldn't have done something more endearing :)

David has left with his college group for Florida for spring break for the week. Because it's spring break for the Tulsa area, a couple of things I go to during the week are cancelled, so I feel like I've got a nice week coming up.

And speaking of a nice week coming up... It may be in the 40s now, but we're moving into the 70s by the middle of the week. All of the artificial pear trees are in bloom and have been for the past couple of days, and today I saw a big fat robin in the backyard. Looks like Tulsa is going to have a gorgeous spring. O, spring, how I love thee!

Doing Things the Lenten Way

Here's a short little briefing of my life presently.

Lent begins tomorrow!!! You should give something up. It's good for you.

I'm giving up all things dairy and facebook.

I have given notice at the day care! The secretary at the counseling center has resigned so she can stay home with her kids, so I will fill that spot until I am more full time with having clients. I'll have more flexibility to schedule clients throughout the day, now that I'll be there. I start next week. I'm so so so thankful to be quitting there.

Dad is coming in for the Tulsa Workshop on Mar. 22nd!

It seems like I'm gradually getting more clients at the counseling center.

Today is rainy, cold, and dreary.

I noticed tiny blooms on trees today! Yay for spring!!!!

I love living in the same town as David. It's been a blast!

I'm watching Inception again this weekend.

I'm really looking forward to family and friend reunions this summer.

I love my new roommates and the house I'm living in.

I'm thinking about going to Honduras this summer, but I don't love the thought of raising money.

When you want God to reveal himself and act in supernatural ways in the natural world, he will. Just don't forget to keep watching. Don't forget to act, either. You may be the method/vessel he chooses to display something that is beyond what is natural and reasonable.

Blizzard of '11

What day is today? Ah yes. Thursday. This week is a blur - of time and white. Monday night began the week's big adventure. And I can't lie, it's been pretty fun! I'm sure most of you know, maybe because of your own blizzard and below zero temps in your own town, but Tulsa got slammed on Monday night and most of the day Tuesday with a good ole fashioned prairie blizzard. Now we are enjoying sub-zero temps with a sub-sub-zero wind chill.

My roommate, Chenea, and I were supposed to be out of our townhouse by this Saturday. This last Sunday seemed like a better, more available time for people to help me move, so that's when we moved most of my stuff over. Chenea and I were going to spend the week in our mostly empty place, just because our lease wasn't up until Sat., but when we heard about the bad weather rolling in, our plans changed. Chenea's parents came with her and they got all of her stuff out on Monday night. I decided to go spend the night at my new place, and am I ever glad I did that!!! Work was cancelled and has been all week. Tomorrow will be my 4th day of not working.

Ari, the girl I'm sharing a room with, at my new house, just started her pediatric rotation this month, so she got up early Tues. morning and left before the snow got bad. Coming back was a different story. She called the other roomates (Rebecca and Sylvia) and I to tell us she was stuck out on our road and could we come push? So we layered up and went out to dig her out and push. I had measured that afternoon and we had gotten 13 inches of snow. Of course Tulsa is fairly unprepared for a storm of this magnitude, so the poor little side roads don't get plowed. We got her out and she parked down closer to a main road and then walked back to the house.

Wednesday, Rebeeca, Sylvia, and I shoveled out our driveway with a regular snow shovel, a snow/garden shovel, a push broom and a rake. We also shoveled on the road to clear the way to get out and had to shovel a path behind my car that's been parked on the road. Then we had to dig out my car. There was a massive drift at/on the front of my car that was 3 or 4 feet deep. All of this shoveling took us 3-4 hours. The lower snow was very wet and heavy, so today all of us are pretty sore!

Besides shoveling, I've been unpacking and squaring away my stuff that I'd moved over, working Beth Moore's Esther Bible study, eating, spending a lot of time on the phone with AT@T :(, spending time on facebook, and watching a couple of movies. Last night Sylvia and I ventured out to Wal-Mart. The roads were horrible! I guess that's why most places of business have been closed this week. Tomorrow I'm going to try to go to my townhouse and finish clearing everything out and turn in my keys.

I'm so thankful to be in a warm, cozy house this week with a nice chance to get to know my new roomates and get settled in. More to come on a description of my new living situation. I love being in a house!

Breaking the fast

This morning I met David for breakfast and since then I've been thinking about how much I love eating breakfast out!!! Of course hanging out with Dave is always fun, and that's one of the nicest parts, is eating it with someone. Actually I really breakfast at home as well, when I'm not rushing out the door. I love a leisurely-sit-down-and-enjoy-myself kind of breakfast. Then it's also nice to be surrounded by the morning regulars downing their coffee or meeting their buddies. You know they're regulars when they talk to you like they own the place and when you feel like you live in a town of about 100 when they do talk to you. Then there are the waitresses. There's something about diner waitresses that is just delightful. It seems like they're some of the toughest, hard working gals, real people you'll ever meet. The place we went this morning is a very old restaurant that I drive by every morning. It's definitely old and doesn't have much character inside or out, but after going in today, I feel like I've discovered a jewel of Tulsa. We were going to split the cinnamon roll - that they're famous for - but it wasn't being served until 7, which is when I had to go to work. Sad, sad day. Instead we got scrambled eggs, hash browns, and biscuits and gravy. It was all good, but the biscuits and gravy was excellent! I had coffee with mine, which is another breakfast must for me. Coffee is never a question, but whether it's fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, grits, breakfast burritos, coffee cake, an omlet, a breakfast sandwhich, french toast, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, malt-o-meal, breakfast casserole, kiche(sp?), ceareal, muffins, bagel and butter or cream cheese, or a big fat cinnamon roll, I LOVE BREAKFAST! I'm dying to go back and try out Savoy's cinnamon roll. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Doctor Pitiful

I am a bad sick person. Always have been always...well, I'm trying to do a little better. I'm a bad patient. And I'm a bad doctor/nurse. The combo of patient and nurse is a problem, when you have to be both. The problem with being a fairly healthy person (maybe extremely healthy) most of my life is that I hate hate hate when I do get sick. And I always think I'm dying (does this sound like anyone we know in the family? and you can't say me, b/c I've already covered myself). I have to say always, because I've had to remind myself that the few times I've gotten the flu, food poisoning, or even allergies, I've thought that I was dying. That makes this time not as severe - to know that I've thought that before. Then there's the part of nursing myself back to health. No thanks, I'll take the magic wand. Drink more water? When I'm sick that's even less appealing. Vicks? Slimy and gross just gets slimier and grosser when I feel bad, and you have to shower more - which is tricky when you have a fever and a defective shower. Take tylenol and nyquil. After day 6, I'm starting to feel kind of jittery and dizzy, or is just fluid on the ears that's not being relieved by the tylenol? Vicks on the feet? The chest is enough. Chicken noodle soup? I've had chicken boullion, to which the reply was, "no there's something about chicken noodle soup that's better". Today as I was back at work, one of the four year olds, said, "Teacher, are you about to cry?" No, kid, that's just how I look and feel when I've been blowing my nose for a week. She then proceeded to come pat my back. Drink gatorade? Can't stand the stuff. Honey and lemon? Show me some evidenced based research - don't like that either. Run the humidifier the brother brought for me? So much work. Vitamins? 10,000 vitamin C a day and maybe that's why my stomach's hurting now too. Nasal spray? Gag me. Literally. Sleep? Yes, please. Quotes of the day at work: "JASSIE! You best get afta that cold. You'ah lookin peaked." and another lady, everytime I blew my nose: "Bless Your Heart". Thanks, you too. :)
Don't be alarmed all you good doctors. I've been treating myself. I've even been using vicks and have about finished the gatorade. Yep, there's probably a reason I'm not feeling well still. I'm meant to be healthy. Don't give me any afrin nasal spray. I'm ready for the magic wand.