Matt's Birthday

Our tradition in the past couple of years has been for the person with the birthday to decide what they want, and then the other person gets it for them. This takes the stress out of present shopping and helps to limit the amount of $$ we waste on each other.

This year, Matt thought and thought and thought about what he wanted for his birthday. My mom got him a very fun "grill master" apron, which he promptly put to good use. But he could not think of anything that he wanted me to spend money on. What he did have was a good idea...

Matt has been getting very frustrated lately with his spices. In particular, finding the right spice when it is needed seems impossible, and purchasing duplicate items is a relatively common occurrance. So, Matt asked that for his birthday, I organize his food/spice cabinets. There was a twist on this request, but I'll keep that between Matt and me. :-)

And the result? We now have a shelves for all drink related items (hot cocoa, tea, coffee, lemonade, etc.), sweet baking items, other baking items (crisco, cornmeal, baking soda/powder), flour items, noodles/rice, meat rubs/seasonings (thanks Allison and Elizabeth!), and the elusive spices.

Most of the stuff is just now a little easier to locate due to the categorization system, but most of all, we are happy about how the spices turned out. We made an after dinner trip to the store to pick up a lazy susan and a tiered spice shelf, both of which make our spices much easier to locate. Don't you agree?

Yay for a productive evening, and yay for Matt's birthday! Now we are off to celebrate a little more before bed. Goodnight, everyone!

Building Tables

So, on Saturday, Matt and I started building our 2nd end table and coffee table for the living room. I'm getting excited to see what the room will look like when we have all the furniture in place, walls painted, decorations set up... Note that this is probably a long way out still, but hey - I can be excited now. :-)

Anyway, here is a pic of the first table in case you are interested...

It's hard to see the little details that we added since it is so dark, but that just means there will be more to see should you come to visit!

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

I laughed, I cried.... it was good. And why? I would say because if you look beyond the fairy tale relationships and experiences, you see true emotions. Friendship, loss, sadness, anger, forgiveness... - these movies have it all. And I am in a wonderful mood lately to be taking it all in. What a great way to spend a Tuesday night!

Thoughts of the Moment

So, a good portion of our Bible Study is ready to "multiply", and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, it is good to provide opportunities to easily pull more people in. On the other hand, I'm afraid that we may be missing the point of what is needed to form a successful cell group, and what the purpose of cell groups should be. Maybe it depends on the group - maybe there's not one answer. But right now, I'm feeling like we are all so focused on making new friends that we are losing sight of keeping the old.

Or maybe it's just a select handful of us that feel things so deeply that any recession in a friendship hurts more than others can imagine. I have spent a good many hours comtemplating why I regularly react this way. Over the summer, I have drifted slightly from my "old" friends simply due to a lack of time spent together. I don't think this means that my "love language" is quality time. In fact, I'm kind of frustrated with the whole "love language" model. I think that a need for a certain "love language" is born out of social/parental conditioning more than anything else, but that nature vs. nurture argument can be saved for another day...

Back to where I was heading - God wants us to be in relationships. Why? I think it's because relationships show a part of the character of God. He wants to be in a relationship with us, and he wants us to be in relationships with Him and each other. I also believe that cell groups tend to be formalizations of what we assume God intends for us to have in relationships. The formalization of it all is just starting to bug me. I want to have relationships with fellow believers where we can be responsive to where the Holy Spirit is guiding us and leading us to act in each others lives. I don't want to be restricted to this night or that night, or this region or that region, or "new" people or "old" people. (Or 2, 5, 10, or more people at a time...) I want my focus to be on following where the Holy Spirit leads to provide for anyone that I feel called to reach out to. And I want to be the kind of person that doesn't let her own priorities fall out of line with God's. I'm falling into the trap of formalization, and I don't like it.

Not to say that I don't respect what others think or feel about the subject. I'm know that I'm probably in the minority on this one, and I will probably upset someone with what I've written. Speaking out tends to upset at least one other person. But again, I do feel that we may be missing the point.

More than once, I have been a participant in letting go of friendships out of convenience - i.e. people stop coming to regular meetings, so I don't bother to reach out to them anymore. It's laziness on my part. I get wrapped up in my own little life and fail to see the bigger picture of how God could've used me had I been listening. I fear that without my comfort blanket of stable, regular meetings, history will repeat itself. I'm tired of losing contact. I'm tired of feeling deserted and then becoming the deserter. I want to hang on to the real friendships I have already. I have no problem meeting new people. In fact, I like meeting new people and getting to know them. This happens to be a key piece of the personality that God gave me. But I don't want to feel constantly at risk of losing ties that I have with fellow Christians simply because we want to clear the way for more people. It shouldn't be like that. With God to guide us, we shouldn't have to lose touch with friends. I just feel like we are all missing something big if that is what we continue to do.

I know I haven't really expressed this well, but it is a glimpse into how I am processing this right now. Hopefully most of you will not take offense to what I have said, rather think about it and take from it whatever bits and pieces stand out to you as being truthful. And please, no lectures on how we can't be close friends with everyone - I am not that naive. I'm just a deeply emotional person who does not like to lose contact with those I have already grown close to. Just a little something to keep in mind if you don't yet know me that well...

Another weekend has ended...

I was able to get my email all checked, but I still didn't get any reimbursement application writing done. Oh well, maybe on Tuesday it will happen... :-/ I know it will get done, but I'm just not interested in doing it now, and I know I have time.

So intsead, I slept, read, slept, watched a movie with Matt, and ate. All in all, I think it was a good weekend. I'm so ready to stay home on weekends for a while. I need to balance out my overly social summer.

And now, I'm going to go read some more before bed.

Yay for the Weekend!

Matt and I barely did anything today, and it was great! We did go to the bookstore to by my books for my fall class and finish sealing the table we built. We also made a stop by the library and the grocery store, picked up a redbox movie, and spent the majority of the day reading, playing games, watching the movie we rented, eating (mmmm... mixed berry smoothies...), and doing a variety of other relaxing activities.

And again, Max jumped the fence while I was supervising. That darn cat! At least I know I can still jump the fence to grab him before he gets too far. :-D

Now I think it's time for some more reading. Yes, I think I will leave all email-checking and tuition-reimbursement-application-writing for tomorrow. Procrastination is what I do best on Saturdays....

Max's Great Escape

It's official: Max has earned his kitty-scout merit badge in chain-link fence climbing.



The story:



Yesterday morning, as Matt was leaving for work, he happened to catch a glimpse of Max darting from the yard next-door and heading to our own backyard. Since Matt was already in his car and driving away, he gave me a call. I got up, threw on some clothes, and left the bedroom to go collect Max. As soon as I stepped out of the bedroom, I saw Max waiting at the porch door. That's interesting... I wonder if Matt saw Max or another cat? ... But Max is pretty hard to mistake...



So in comes Max, and the day continues as normal.



After we got home, we ask the neighbors if they have seen Max outside the yard. The reply that they found him in their garage the day before yesterday. Of course, they are fine with that, but technically this is against city rules. Also, Max could become a pest to other neighbors if he got out. I argue that it's possible he's learned to open the gate - it's not that hard to do. Matt thinks he's learned to climb the fence. Hmm...



So we decide to test him to see first-hand what new-found skill he has gained. I take Mattie just outside the fence, and I call to Max to have him follow. He cries for a bit, tries to find a way through, but he doesn't really try that much. We need to raise the bar on the bait we are providing....



So Matt brings me some ice cream. Muhahaha! We have your attention now, kitty! Max tries especially hard to squeeze his way through the gate. No luck. No attempt to open the gate. I keep calling. All of a sudden, Max hops slightly and flattens himself against the middle part of the fence, and he starts making his way toward the top. Good boy, Max! At the top, he hesitates slightly, but decides he might as well jump/fall to the side with the ice cream. As his reward, I let him lick a bit of ice cream off of my finger.



And now Max's days of unsupervised hunting in the backyard are officially over. I am sad, but I have to remember that it is his own darn fault. Also, if he were to get out, he could get hit, and Mattie would be lost without him. :-( Looks like he'll have to get used to being mostly an indoor kitty from now on...

Busy, busy, busy!

Tonight was busy, but fun. I got to meet with some of my classmates for dinner at O'Gara's, and then I got to hang out at Lacy's for my third (?) pampered chef party this year. Good stuff!

This summer has been really busy on the whole. I seem to find that the times I plan to keep open and take a break from activity, I plan more activity than when I'm busy with things like school. Let's just say that I'm glad to be staying busy because otherwise I would be spending more time cleaning my house. :-)

Speaking of which, now that Matt's family has left, our house has magically become less cluttered. Time to pull out the vacuum! Maybe I should wait until we get back from the camping weekend... yes, good plan...

New month, new blog skin...

So I have been horrible about posting regularly throughout July. I have been too focused on other things to bother. But now is time to play catch-up. I've had a week-long vacation with Matt's family visiting us, and as soon as things setle back to normal, I hope to get back to blogging regularly. We do have the camping trip next weekend, though, so it still may be a while. Hopefully I don't forget everything before I have a chance to record it all!!!

And now I have to go write an email about camping before I forget about that, too...