move it!

not sure what to write about. we just got home late last night from our long drive from GA back to Illinois. I squirm as we drive past Chicago every time and landon reminded me that this is the last time i have to drive through Chicago. so i savored the Chicago skyline in the dark rainy night. and i was relieved.

Today we are putting everything in boxes. tomorrow the moving truck arrives. it leaves friday. we leave saturday morning for Colorado. So we have 3 days to get the entire house packed and our life here wrapped up. No prob.

Our time in Georgia and Florida with family was amazing. I'm not sure what to say because there is so much! Once i get pictures, i'll post some for you with some more details. We'll be busy these next few days.

Folks, it's finally finished! Thank you for encouraging us in our season here in Illinois, it was challenging at times but had some great joys and lessons. we're gettin' out of here!

family, fun, and fried green tomatoes

we have been in Georgia these past few days, visiting family. We've been at Landon's family's cabin which doesn't have cell service or internet (which is awesome), so i have been out of touch.

Landon and i were so busy last week trying to get ready to leave: he was studying and hardly sleeping at all, trying to get his finals accomplished and his papers turned in. He finished all of his work Thursday night. we left Friday morning. I was trying to get as much work with ACSI done as i could - knowing that our being in GA and then moving to Utah immediately after our return would make it hard for me to work. I brought some work with me to GA and am a little stressed about not being able to work more. seriously....i'm supposed to feel the care-free jubilee of being AWAY from my responsibilities at home. bleck. oh well.

the drive here was longer than usual - 15 hours. we were stuck in a lot of intense rain storms and it took us 90 minutes to get through Chicago traffic at 10:30 am on a Friday morning. argh.

Tonight we are going to see the Braves play the Colorado Rockies. I'm so excited. Since my first Braves game 5 years ago, i have followed the Braves more closely than the Rockies and have claimed the Braves as "my team" (otherwise i faithfully root for all other Colorado sports teams). This could be a dilemma. Last night i even had a dream about the Rockies. I went to the opening game at Coore's field and remember distinctly that Larry Walker was incredible and Andres Galeraga was my favorite hitter....that's a weird for me to remember in a dream - or remember at all, really. Well anyway, tonight i will watch the Braves battle my Colorado boys - and i have a feeling that CO will whip 'em. but we will see. I will be rooting for the Braves.

Georgia is so beautiful. We have had a lot of rain and DENSE humidity since we arrived here, but the beauty of this place always takes me back. Of course, my in-laws have a beautiful home with a lot of land that is well taken care of. I love to watch the horses graze in the back pasture, hear the creek fall from East Spring Lake, and savor the scent of many flowers in bloom. The magnolias are peering through huge paper-ish leaves, and the sun is shining and making the brilliantly bright leaves on the towering trees sparkle as they dance in the gentle breeze. i do love it here. and the lodge is no comparison. it is an oasis in the middle of nowhere. yesterday i just laid out on the dock and tried to soak in the wild around me: fish jumping in the lake, wind blowing in the trees, birds, bugs, the smell of the grass and pond water... it was silent save the wild and i loved being alone amidst it all. i was too chicken to go skinny dipping in the lake - there is a lot of living things in that water and it just freaks me out to think of them around me while i'm naked. i have no idea why. catfish, carp and snakes freak me out.

It's been wonderful to be amidst family. I just try to soak in every minute with them. We have been so separated from the love and support of family being near. I know that this is just the way it is for most of us these days - families separate more now than maybe ever before because communciation and travel is so easy. But it doesn't make separation easy. the comfort of being among those who know you and love you deeply and knowing that you all are committed to each other forever is so sweet. Though we all live around the country - or the world, really, we remain in each other's hearts in every minute and we are committed to that love in the future as far as the future goes. This sounds silly, but the reassurance of family love has been so nurturing to my heart these past few days. I am so grateful to be a part of the love and commitment of 2 beautiful families.

We are leaving (tomorrow night?) to go to the McBrayer's beach house on the gulf coast of Florida (right?). I've never been there before and we're meeting about half of the family! i am excited to see everyone and i'm excited to eat sea food. I'm not much of a beach girl, but i don't think i've really ever been able to give the beach a chance. When i lived in Cali while i was at APU, the beach was 45 minutes from campus, and the first two times i went there, the beach was closed. The first time due to a search for a dead body, and the second time due to toxic water. so....yeah...i wasn't a huge fan. When i was in San Diego, i enjoyed the beach a bit but it was always SO COLD. otherwise, i have really only experience the beach in tropical destinations on vacation: Curacao, Thailand, Hawaii. So the American beaches have always been unappealing. I'm excited to go to the Gulf. I hear it's beautiful.

Hope you all are well. I know there are many changes going on in the lives of many of you - i have enjoyed catching up this morning via your blogs. It it amazing to see what God is doing in our lives. And when i see him at work in your lives i know that he is the same and i can trust his faithfulness in my life as well. I am so grateful that we can love and be loved by the same God. He is so good.

I've seen this video twice in the last 6 months. both times it's made me cry.

In a couple of your blogs you have mentioned "art" and creating lately and i have been inspired.

Art has always been tricky for me. I've always been creatively minded but so afraid of pride but also of ridicule that i have shyed away at mastering much of anything and i fear that i am really thwarting gifts that God has entrusted to me. don't really want to get too into that right now. ha.

well, this movie has nothing to do with that. it's just inspiring and moves me greatly.

thinking of home

"The mountains...are a passive mystery, the oldest of all. Theirs is the one simple mystery of creation from nothing, of matter itself, anything at all, the given. Mountains are giant, restful, absorbent. You can heave your spirit into a mountain and the mountain will keep it, folded, and not throw it back as some creeks will. The creeks are the world with all its stimulus and beauty; I live there. But the mountains are home."(p5)

and excerpt from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

...thinking of home.

okay okay okay

okay these aren't that great, but you get the idea. the promised hair pictures. new haircut. lazy-quasi-bangs and some layers thrown in there. i tried to take some better pictures and then just got so sick of looking at pictures of me. these will have to do.

I love Spring in Illinois

Spring in Illinois brings warmer days with high humidity. The temperature is not hot enough for the humidity to be tormenting. Instead, it just makes the air smell so rich with the best scents of the earth's new life. And i really love that.

Everything is suddenly green! And the rivers flood like crazy with the rain. Though, the mosquitos are only now starting to hatch and fester, so these last few weeks of warmer weather and swollen rivers has been pest-free - a very rare and wonderful thing!

The beast
Good enough weather to finally take the bike out of the garage. Landon took his last ride on the yamaha and sold it to Aaron. Aaron drove it home to St. Louis yesterday. Bye bye bike.
Landon teasing Duvick - Duvick was so cute trying to run up the slide at the playground.
Landon watching Duvick chase after birds on the flooded field.
Swinging at the flooded playground!
I took a day in my weekend to do some recreational painting in my front lawn while the weather is so beautiful (and pest free). My butt got soaking wet, but i had SO much fun!
a momma birdy built her nest next to our front door. we feel so honored! (not sure what my landlord will think about it...)
me with a tree. i love trees.
with my ability to enjoy my evenings this last week (not having to go to bed early for Starbucks) and with the warmer weather, we have been having a lot of fires! love those.
Chacos have become necessary in these parts.
Landon's studying in the sunshine with some Chicago beer.

to our mothers, grandmothers, and our sister-mothers.
Happy Mother's Day!







such beautiful and amazing women. we love each of you so much! celebrating you today!

i miss climbing

you should have seen me, hanging from our hangboard in the garage today. i am so weak - i practically and probably most literally just dangled there. i've been trying to work on my back muscles at the gym and my arms a bit too.
but in reality, there is nothing that trains you for climbing quite like, well....climbingand i miss every little thing about the sport that i love. mostly the beautiful views, the smell of the trees, the feel of the rock (well, in most of my memories, it's sand stone) and the chill atmosphere and the adrenaline rush. i miss it all - the dirty hands, smell of sweaty leather shoes, stupid stuff like that.
oh well, soon enough, hannah, soon enough. i'm so excited!

pray!

Today is the 58th annual National Day of Prayer.

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then i will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

2 Chronicles 7:14.

Praying with you today for our nation.

a great joy

sleep!

i'm loving catching up on sleep these last 5 nights. wow. I've slept at least 8 hours every night and i feel so good. my energy stretches ALL THE WAY until bed time. i'm even having a hard time going to bed at 10pm because i'm so rested. It used to be that i was fighting to keep myself awake through dinner until my bed time - 8pm.

i'm still dreaming of starbucks every night: calling out drinks, working with customers, handling stressful situations... ha! funny. and i'm still waking around 3 every morning, but it is so amazing to know that i have the freedom to just roll over and go back to sleep - i think i even smile sometimes.

and i love waking up when the sun is already shining. it's amazing how that changed my outlook at the beginning of the day. to wake after the sun is a blessing and i'm really cherishing it. i've decided to try to keep a strick sleeping schedule still because i think it's healthy. i'm hoping to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night (just typing that makes me smile and feel a little overindulgent!) and wake around 6:30. Then i get at least 2 hours in the morning before i start work with ACSI to load up on my coffee, read a bit and enjoy myself before work starts. i'm hoping to re-integrate Bible reading into my mornings.

oh the possibilities! i am so grateful to feel rested and unburdened by sleep deprivation. this is awesome!

"i'm just looking"

i'm one of those shoppers.

i don't really GO shopping - especially without an agenda. i'll go if i'm with my mom or my sister. i don't like to go by myself. i never really buy anything and it's not really that fun to me when i'm alone. (okay for those of you who have known me for my entire life and not just these last 5 or 6 years this may be laughable to you - considering Mom used to buy me a new outfit (or 2 or 3) almost every friday. but i promise....things have changed...mostly because of my limited budged and my year in africa - those both can change your perspective fast).

but i like to look online sometimes in the evenings when i'm bored. there are websites that i browse just for fun, just looking. i actually never really buy anything online unless i'm buying a gift for someone. and there are certain shops that i browse that even if i would buy something, are way out of my price range. why is it still fun to browse?

please tell me that you do this? please?

here are a list of a few websites that i never intend to purchase anything from that i just LOVE to look at:
Sundance

Shabby Apple

anthropologie

okay and of course, with this one, i enjoy browsing the MOST, and i actually do indulge myself now and then.
etsy....of course

things i'm loving lately

i used to do these posts every once in awhile and as i thought of what to write today, i was thinking about some of the things i'm enjoying and decided to do a "things i'm loving" post. these are fun. you should do one. i like reading yours too.
my Spring flowers!
I was afraid to post this at all because if you haven't read the Twilight series then you have no idea how fun they are. They're fun.
i got a new ipod for my birthday - my first one - four years old - died on me not long ago (it drowned in my purse on the way home from the gym - i didn't realized the top of my bottle wasn't screwed on. oopsie) but i'm FINALLY getting into the itunes side of the ipod. we had the same songs on our ipod that we loaded on it between 04 and 05 and that's it. i found out the fun of pod casts! this is so cool! i can listen to a sermon of andy stanley while i work out at the gym - and i don't have to pay for it! it just downloads automatically every week. sorry, you probably already know and enjoy all this. i just think it's so awesome.
chaco season is here! and i've acquired a new pair since last summer and i'm finally able to wear my chaco's again. in colorado i could wear my chacos year around but here, it is just not possible with the constant snow and frigid frigid temperatures. it's been awhile since i've got to wear my chaco's regularly, with last summer ending in a broken ankle and everything. it's great. actually in february i realized that my chaco tan was gone - my first time without the tan lines of chacos since before i discovered chacos in 2000. THAT is pathetic.
my bodum double walled, hand blown coffee mug. i'm drinking from it right now. it looks cool and doesn't burn my hands while it keeps my coffee hot. loving it. i got my dad some a few years ago, only they were beer glasses - they're even more awesome!

biolage. my mom and sis and i have been using biolage for the last.. 10 years at least. i get it for christmas from mom and try to use it sparingly so i can enjoy it all year, but i'm having a hard time conserving the conditioner this year. it's so great! it has the usually yummy biolage smell and makes my hair feel fantastic, but now it has mint so it makes my head tingle and makes me feel so refreshed in the shower! it's so subtle, though - it's not like a decongestant like some minty shampoos - it's just the perfect hint of mint. try it.

my new hair cut. pictures to come. it's really not that exciting - nothing major - landon didn't even notice. but it's a big enough change for me that it's fun and makes me feel just a little pretty sometimes.

also, rob pattinson's music. i'm having a hard time finding much of his stuff but the music that i have heard is great. he has a neat neat voice. i put one of his songs at the top of my play list on the right if you want to grab a listen.

the goodbye season

this week has marked the beginning of many goodbye's.

On Monday i turned 26. Wow. Just today i was reading an article in the newspaper with a picture of a couple remodeling their kitchen in their brand new house. They looked like adults to me - nice house, home owners, married couple, old. They were 27 and 28. Yep. I feel so much younger than i must look - to look at my peers and think of them as "grown ups" and exclude myself from that harshly aged category. But i don't grieve getting older. seriously - i'm only 26! Goodbye 25.

Thursday I cut my hair. I know, it's a miracle! I had only cut it 3 times since 2004. It was definitely time to do some damage to my goldy-locks. And this time i decided to pick a style - which is risky for me. I am utterly materially low maintenance. I have been using the same toothbrush, hair blow dryer, comb, and tube of mascara for way beyond their expiration dates - none of them even have product labels any more. I usually just like to have a cut where i can weave my hair into a braid when it's wet and leave it that way. But i've noticed pictures of me with my friends and family over the last 6 months when i have been fortunate to be with them and i'm the only one with my hair always still in a pony tail. So, i decided that now that i'm TWENTY SIX(!) that i should have a style that takes some tending to - but not too much! Goodbye carefree hair.

And this morning was my last day of waking at 3:30 an donning khakis, a black polo, pony tail and green apron. That's right - i'm officially finished at starbucks (here in illinois anyway...who knows where the wind will take me in utah! blah) And it was great. Many of my customers made sure to come in and say goodbye, "we knew today was your last day!", one of them even made me a cake - many i have seen almost every morning these last 2 years. amazing how being mere acquaintances through coffee can develop into something deeper so unintentionally. My coworkers gave me goodbye gifts (how sweet! - one of which was my haircut!), and then i went out to lunch with the "A team" - 3 girls that i have grown very close to in the pain of busy early mornings these last 6 months. I will miss them most of all. It was a great day. Right now i am fighting my heavy eyelids, which is very normal. It's past my bedtime - 8pm. But i don't have to prepare myself for an early morning tomorrow or any other day and it is enough that i want to push through the blurry vision and enjoy this evening while the sun is setting! Goodbye Starbucks and early mornings.

Goodbye.