Free the Gnomes!

I thought i should pass on this word to my fellow Illinoisians (?). FREE THE GNOMES!

though http://www.freethegnomes.com/ campaigns against "oppressive gardening" in both the United States and Germany, I'm campaigning for some piece of mind! Gnomes are creepy. (remember one of my first blogs from the mid-west?) I don't know why people out here are so into garden decorations and short, fat little men with pointed hats, but i think it's just creepy. Free the gnomes! or basically, just get rid of them.

Actually, with the gnomes beneath the snow right now, i'm not sure why i'm hollaring this. i guess i just woke this morning thinking about it and was sort of creep-ified and just keep thinking about it periodically. sooo...

what's my deal?

I am quite fickle when it comes to the weather. We've had (A LOT) of snow for quite awile. I actually really do like the snow. but now i'm tiresome of it. It's a pain when you're trying to make a turn across traffic and you can't see the opposite direction of the traffic that you must merge into because of the TOWER of snow that the snow plow discarded there a week ago. I got a voicemail from the village of gurnee warning me that we've had so much snow this winter that they have run out of salt and whatever chemicals they throw on the roads, so to only drive on major roads because they would only be icing major intersections. what? how is that possible. salt is...salt! well, landon and i actually favor the salt=less roads. not because we like to slide around like the ice-capades, but because it turns everything white and then our puppy loves to lick our cars when we get home. that's just gross. what i really wish would change is the COLD!

but then i remember the post that i wrote a little over a month ago where i was complaining about the melted snow. i said i either wanted snow or nothing at all, but the flooding and mud left behind by the snow was worse than the cold. so.... what's my deal?

i'm not sure if i just don't want to live contentely, or if i just want so much to look forward to (warmer weather!) but i do know that i am weird.

landon and i ran into one of my co-workers at wal-mart today and i stopped to say hi to her. once i told her i'd see her later and we had walked a few isles over landon asked me why i'm so socially awkward these days. what!? i mean, i knew that after i returned from africa and people would wish me "good morning" and i would say, "good morning to you" that i was just a little too influenced by my african friends, but that sort-of wore off. but i'm finding myself talking on the phone endlessly about stupid things to people who really have better things to do (like ACSI co-workers). and when i actually talk to someone in PERSON, i'm fidgetty and always trying to get out of it - assuming they have better things to do. what's my deal? i AM socially awkward! Landon asked me why i've been this way so much lately, and i realized that i am VERY limited as far as my social interraction with people. that must be it, i guess. you know, how homeschooled children are a bit socially awkward until they are integrated into society? i guess when the only people that i talk to at length are my sister on the phone and my husband in the evening, i might be weird in all other social situations that require getting to know someone or making small talk.

welp. i'm not sure how to work on this. quite honestly, knowing that i'm socially awkward may make me even MORE easily distracted in social encounters. geez, i seriously need a life.

Lessons learned in seminary: Walking on Water

One afternoon Landon called me in a panic during his daily walk with the dog, "Sheels, you HAVE to come down here!". So i dragged myself from my work and parked behind the local highschool (actually to where the picture behind the heading of our blog was taken) to find the forest submerged and usurped in ICE! Landon was waiting with a smile on his face. We both agree that we've never seen anything like it: ice, as far as we could see. And this ice was crystal-clear. Landon held my hand as i stood with my feet together and he pulled me through the forest. It was amazing! See landon "walking on water" and he's holding up a block of ice so you can see the thickness! Really an amazing afternoon.

Janelle's visit to Gurnee

sorry for the lul in posting. my little sister has been visiting us and i have been giving all my attention to her! i was SO SAD to drop her off at the airport today, but was so grateful to have her here these last 8 days.


I did try to give Janelle some-what of a complete tour of the town-plus-chicago. Of course, i stillw as working a few jobs, but Janelle was so sweet to help me with some things for quite a few hours so we could take a day off and go down town. We had quite variable weather, so we were restricted in some ways....anyways....

Well, of course, we started (and ended) her visit with some snow-shoeing! We just had to watch out for speedy snow-mobilers. Those guys zoom by us so fast - i can't believe they're allowed to do that on the trail! well, i think it is what many people around here do for fun in the winter (God-forbid they do something physically active like skiing or something).

Wednesday brought over a foot of snow! we had a full-blown blizzard in town!! Landon shoveled our drive-way more than once in a day. He seems pretty up to it, though, in this picture. The roads were covered in our town for days, so we had a hard time leaving, but there was much work to do, plenty of coffee, and Janelle brought some chick-flicks with her!
Landon received a pasta maker for his birthday, and made his first attempt at home-made pasta! Spinach ricotta ravioli with alfredo sauce and a bottle of Merlot (3-buck chuck!) was DELICIOUS! It was a lot of work, but was well worth it!
We went to the Art Institute of Chicago and had an amazing time walking among some amazing artwork. Walking around downtown chicago in the evening was also fun, as we had coffee at starbucks and then had dinner at a Thai restaurant. We even ran into an old friend from our time in Colorado Springs. (Callie - let Brandon know...) I was walking in the dark down Michigan avenue and noticed this guy walking past me watching me sort of creepily, then he grabbged my arm! (AAHH!) when i turned around i was looking at the face of an old friend! Will Forsythe! So weird to run into a Colorado friend in downtown Chicago on a Friday night. Awesome!
Look at this beautiful lady in the snow!!!! We will miss you, Nell

Find me in the River

So, Landon and I have just made a purchase that will raise the morale around here! Though Illinois is the flattest place i've ever lived, leaving us much deprived of our most enjoyed outdoor activities, it has more water than any place i've ever lived (we live in "lake county"). Though Landon is a master on the water: kayaking, canoeing, rafting, skiing, hunting, etc., etc., i am completely lost. Besides the knowledge of how to keep myself from drowning, and some occasional stream fishing, i am beside myself. Soooooo, this should be quite an adventure!

Picture us in our new canoe, with Duvi in the middle, enjoying the "beauty" of a snow-less Illinois. I think that when the heat deprives us of cross-country skiing weather, we will welcome the newly thawed rivers with elation! I don't think we'll actually HAVE the canoe until March (Landon's brother is going to bring it to us from NC when we join the whole McBrayer clan in the Ozarks in March for a river float trip). So, yay!

WATCH THIS MOVIE

This is a movie that creatively brings to light an issue that Landon and i feel very strongly about. Here is a link to the website to watch The Meatrix II and II1/2 if you want to see what happens to Leo and Moofius. You can also go to "The Meatrix" website to learn more about factory farming.

To find local farmers or stores that sell cage-free and free-range meat and dairy near you, click here.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to look at this.

For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good .....

Landon's 26th birthday is tomorrow! As he and i both work long days on saturdays, we celebrated his birthday this Tuesday. There is this old tavern in Downtown Chicago (Schubas) that has live music every night. We hardly ever make a chance to go to Chicago, so we were excited to make our way down there. We left the house at 2pm, even though we weren't planning on being to Schubas until 8 (Chicago traffic is enough to ruin an evening). So we had plenty of time for beer/hot cocoa and appetizers, dinner at an Indian restaurant, and Starbucks before we headed down to Schubas. Schubas was just about empty when we got there. I had bought our tickets online so we were so prepared! It was a very cheap concert and a REALLY INCREDIBLE band: Old School Freight Train. Just caught a picture of Wrigley Field as we were driving by on Clark St. on our way to a great local Indian restaurant.
It was wonderful to celebrate Landon's birthday downtown Chicago. Happy birthday dear husband!

Churching

So we have been trying to go to church pretty consistently. We've only been to 3 churches in Gurnee, but one of them we have been to on several occasions. It's amazing to go to church. I look forward to Sunday all week long! We went to Lakeland yesterday (i think it was our 4th or 5th time there). We really like Lakeland. I know a few of the people that attend there from my Trinity Wives' Fellowship Bible study and some of people in the church i am starting to recognize from my job at starbucks (or rather they recognize me - "hey, you're the starbucks girl!").

One of the songs we sang was a prayer about surrendering our lives to God. I like to think that i have surrendered my life to God, and try to remain surrendered each day - i guess surrender is continual. Yet, yesterday when the song went into detail about surrender-ment: "I surrender my hopes, my dreams, my everything," I just broke into tears. I, for the first time, surrendered my "hopes and dreams" to God about our future. My hopes about having children and returning to Colorado... those hopes, i so desperately want to hold onto and not surrender them - these IcWANT for ME. To surrender these to God just took me to a place of tears and tears. That initial surrendering is the hardest part, yet i know that this is something i will have to do continually....surrender.

For those of you who this concept is not easy to understand... Basically, i am saying, that as a woman who loves God, i am trusting that his plans in these areas of my life are the plans that are best. Surrender is saying that I DESIRE HIS DESIRES for me more than my desires. And i can do this, not because i have a cruel and selfish God that i need to be obedient and prostrate before, but because I KNOW GOD and have KNOWN his great faithfulness and sweet love. I surrender to him because i know that only in surrendering to his plans and desires for my life will i live in the richness that is living in God's will.

Well, i will try to continue to surrender. Each day. Surrender.

That was a tangent i didn't mean to go off on today.

Well, it's snowing again today, for the first time in awhile. I have bible study tonight and am looking forward to that. I am really needing encouragement from a body of believers. I think that Landon gets a lot of spiritual encouragement at school and i don't encounter a body of believers outside of Sunday mornings, so i'm glad that my Trinity wives bible study is starting again for the semester.

Do you have any new years resolutions? Or rather, is there anything in your life that you are trying to accomplish or any way that you are trying to better yourself?

There are 3 things that are on my list of things to accomplish:
1. find a consistent time/place for me to have "hannah time". I really need a time and place that is just for me. i have a hard time doing this at home since my work is at home - i just have a hard time consentrating on something, especially if it is prayer or reading or journaling while i'm at home.
2. i want to start playing the piano at a retirement community up the street.
3. just yesterday landon and i decided that we want to run a half-marathon in madison, WI in october. so next time i'm at the library, i'm going to try to find a book about training for a half-marathon. Neither of us have ever ran that far before and we have plenty of time to get in shape for the race!

Okay, now that i've put those things out there, i'll have more of an initiative to do them! You see my capacity for self discipline? Maybe i should add that to the list - that's going a little too far, don't you think? these 3 will keep me challenged and busy for awhile...

New ideas and challenges

Landon's constant reading and intellectual discussions at school cause him to be even more contemplative than normal. In this state, he challenges me constantly (a very good thing). We have had amazing discussions about our views on important issues and "why it is that we think this?" and "what do the facts say?" and "what does the Bible say?", etc... (well, actually, it is mostly Landon talking and my asking questions).

We have found ourselves to be extremely conservative when it comes to certain views like abortion and marriage, yet more "liberal" when it comes to cloning, evolution and euthanasia. Landon is really challenged by his conversation with fellow theologians/philosophers and his reading. I am so challenged by him, and i am so grateful. by the way, we took this fun quiz to see where we fall on the political spectrum. Each of us took it individually and we pretty much in the same spot (slight liberal libertarian) except landon is a little more libertarian than i am. you should take the quiz. we're not sure how accurate it is, but it was fun to see what great thinkers/writer/leaders in history fall in the same categories that we do.

We still are entirely friend-less and church-less, despite our attempts, though we are still tenaciously searching. My second semester of trinity wives fellowship begins monday, which i am looking forward to. landon has returned to classes recognizing many of his classmates and some of his teachers. What a blessing to get to continue our seeking relationships instead of starting over again. I am blessed by my continually forming friendships with the people i work with at starbucks, yet Landon and i have yet to find friends that we see outside of work or school. The pastor at the church we went to last week said that we can not truly understand God's grace when we are not in strong community with other believers....i'm not sure that i agree with this statement, but i do recognize the importance of our seeking-out Christian friends.

Well, the winter cold has returned to Gurnee without bringing snow. It is difficult when the weather is just cloudy, cold and muddy. Not much we can enjoy outside without snow. We would love for the trails to either dry or be snow-covered so we can enjoy them better. But it has only been a few days since the snow has melted and we do have much to do.

Welp, friends. we love you and miss you!

Christmas in Colorado

Sorry it has taken me so long to post about our time in Colorado. We had a great time with family and friends and don't have many pictures, but i'll share some that we do have.

Every year it is a Christmas tradition for my family to get dolled up to go to the theatre. This year we went to see the musical, "White Christmas" on Christmas Eve and it was so awesome and a lot of fun. Here's our yearly family picture in our get-up.

And, as always, the sisters.

Okay, the rest of the pictures are all of us cross-country skiing in Colorado. These pictures were taken from 4 different trips into the mountains. We went cross country skiing most every day that we were there. What better way to experience the beauty of Colorado!?

Landon took this picture when he and Duvick went hiking together the day that i left to return to Gurnee (also see picture below of he and Duvi)

Man, i love the woods. So sweet to see the sun shining through the trees causing the snow to sparkle as it slowly falls. Yes, love it. Mom, Nell and I formed our girls skiing team so the boys could go ahead with the puppies and let us take our time and stop to take pictures, eat snow, and enjoy each other. This picture was taken when Dad and Landon went on a more ambitious skiing trip into the mountains.


We also had the joy of going to one of our good friend's wedding, where we saw many other friends that we haven't seen in ages.



Landon flew to Georgia for a few days and got to spend time with friends and family as he was a groomsman in one of his friend's weddings. So both of our Saturdays were jam-packed with weddings and reunions with friends.



We spent our Christmas with my mother's side of the family at my grandmother's house down the street. It's a joy to see my family after so many months apart. The "kids" are old enough now that they don't think we're as cool as they used to and we really have a hard time relating on any topics considering i know nothing about what is cool in pop-culture these days: video games, emo (what's that!?), movies, tv, music, and pretty much everything else. But it is so sweet to see them getting older and completely developed into their own personalities with opinions and sweet traits.



We also saw my father's family the Sunday before Christmas, and now that we (the cousins) are all adults, we really connect on many more levels than ever before and had a great time together!



Mom and Dad got an espresso machine for Christmas, so i found myself the resident barista making up drinks for company and every day for breakfast and dessert. It was awesome to have lattes, americano's and cappuccinos in the comfort of mom and dad's kitchen.



It was sweet and relaxing to not be the woman of the house for 12 days (at least that's the best way i can describe it). I was just so tired after working so hard the weeks (or months) leading up to Christmas. Though our schedule was pretty packed, it was great to avoid the grocery store and planning meals and working in general. Just so great to sort-of fall back into the roll of the kid.



So now we've been back in Gurnee for a week. I've been plugging in the hours at both ACSI and Starbucks, lots of time to make-up for. It is nice to get some time to myself after being surrounded by people for many days (even if they are people i love deeply). The weather here has been bizarre! 60degrees! all the snow melted in one day and we have had tornado and flood watches the last few days. It makes it easier to be working at the drive-thru window all day when my fingers don't go numb, but it makes for a very muddy puppy! This is winter!? Illinois is so weird.



Today marks the first day of Landon's second semester at TEDS. Yesterday he bought the rest of his books and began his reading assignments. This semester should be really challenging for him, as he's taking more credit hours and is also trying to do work-study on top of everything else, including working part-time at Erehwon.



Duvick continues to be our favorite thing about the mid-west. He's still hilarious and obedient. What a joy he is in our family!