Give Peace a Chance

Have you ever been so frustrated you could just spit?

At this moment right now, I'm mad.  I'm so mad.  I feel used, ill-treated, disrespected, forgotten, and worthless.  (Don't worry.  It's nothing serious.  Just a friend thing.)

My heart is bitter and resentful, and I can feel it squishing up inside me.  I need peace.

Sometimes I let things get to me - like frustration and anger - and I forget that I need to pray and ask God to take away all my burdens.  I forget that the peace of Jesus Christ is far greater than any sort of justification you can try to make for the way things happen or peoples' regard toward you.  I need to pray right now for God to give me that peace once again and to ask that my heart be free from burden and squish.

God's word is my rock.  He promises peace if we simply come to Him and ask for it!

~~~~~~~~~`~`~*~'~'~~~~~~~~~~
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 4:6-7

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." 
-Colossians 3:15

I'm becoming my mother...

Mothermorphosis.  It happens to all of us young women.  It's the thing we dread the most, yet secretly love on the inside:

We become our mothers...

Growing up, we try to resist it as much as we can because EVERYONE knows that their mom is SO lame... but suddenly, one day we catch ourselves saying a phrase our mother has coined.  Shocked, we pause... regain ourselves... and carry on as our own individual persona - swearing up and down that it was just a fluke, and it will never happen again.

But.

Slowly and surely we notice that we react to things similarly to how our mothers react.  Our voices start to sound like theirs.  The way we talk is just the same.  And finally - the end all be all of mothermorphosis - we act JUST like them.

Here are some ways I am becoming my mother:

• We have the same face.
• We talk to ourselves and talk ourselves through things.
• We use the same ridiculous made-up words.
• Our phraseology is the same.
• I am starting to become "teacherly."  Better yet, "kindergarten teacherly."
• I often find myself walking into a room, stopping, and saying aloud to myself, "What did I come in here for?"  (Happens WAY more often than it ever should.)
• I do silly things by accident.  For example:  At work, I picked up the computer mouse and held it up to my ear to listen for the dial tone to make sure it was working.  Well, I meant to pick up the phone.  Oops...

I'm sure there are LOTS of other ways I am becoming my mother, and I'll update the list as my mothermorphosis continues.  But that's just a few examples for now.

But ladies, take heart!  There's no shame in becoming your mother.  After all, she raised you (probably).  And she taught you right from wrong, good and bad, essentials of life.  She's not all that lame in reality, probably.  After a few years of maturity, I think that probably most women appreciate their mothers for who they are and the unique relationships we have with them.

Ladies, leave me a comment of how you're becoming YOUR mother! I'd love to hear it!

Until next time, folks.

4 Miles, eh?

I just got back from run/walking a 4 mile loop.  It's part of my training for my half-marathon.  And you know what?  It wasn't that bad!  I mean, I certainly did my fair share of walking, but there's no shame in that!  I finished way before I thought I was going to.  It didn't even feel like 4 miles, but according to Google Earth, it certainly was! 

That makes me so excited!  My race is not till November, but it's good to know that I'm making progress even now!  Our training program is a 12-week program, and technically from the day we started, we had 14 weeks till the race, so I'm pretty much on schedule, even though I felt like I was behind.

I'll say one thing.  It really helps to have an ipod while running.  I haven't used my ipod in so many months, because somehow my charger cord went missing... I don't think I lost it, since I hardly ever use the thing, but somehow it walked away from my possession.  At work, there was a random ipod cord laying on our desk, and I put a note by it saying someone should claim it or I was going to take it.  No one claimed it, and my friend Kyle even left a note on there saying the cord barely worked, but hey! Barely working is better than no cord at all!  So I took it.  I definitely had to hold the cord in place the entire time my ipod was charging/synching, but it was so worth it!  I put that tiny little 2GB nano on shuffle and shuffled my way around the block! 

I'll admit, I still feel huge and nasty, but hopefully if I can dedicate myself to this training, and maybe catch back up on some Kim Kardashian time, maybe I'll slim down.  I'm ready to be thin.

It feels good to exercise.  I always hate the initial preparation for exercising - mostly psychological preparation - but I always enjoy how I feel afterward.  Even if I was sweatier than I was all last week at camp after a matter of only 45 minutes, it doesn't matter.  My body will thank me for it later.  And I get such an energy rush afterward! Love it!

I guess I should shower now.  I'm stinky.  Then I'll probably curl up in bed and watch Chelsea Lately.  I love that show.  She's so ridiculous.

Until next time!

<3

It just depends on the way you look at things sometimes...

Things that make me sad right now:

• I'm the biggest I've ever been in my life.  My weight has fluctuated all my life, and currently it's at its peak. 
• I'm moving in 1 week, and I only have 2 little tiny boxes packed.
• I'm already behind on my half-marathon training, and it's only been 2 weeks.
• I have 4 more hours left of work.
• Heard from my girl Charity, and it seems her vacation was a little rough.
• We're not at camp anymore.

Things that make me happy right now:

• Being big is motivation to get littler!
• I'm moving in 1 week!!!! :-D I can't wait!
• I'm going to catch up on my running and training this afternoon/evening for my half-marathon.  I got the training schedule yesterday, so now I finally have some guidance as to what I need to be doing!
• Work is half-way over! Only 3.75 hours left!
• I heard from my girl Charity!  She loved seeing the new Harry Potter section at Universal Studios!
• I love air-conditioning and NOT smelling like a cabin full of old, sweaty men.

It just depends on the way you look at things sometimes... 

MAD Camp 2010

Well, folks, I just finished up MAD Camp 2010 on Saturday.  I took a day to recover and do laundry yesterday, and today I'm back to work!

Camp was wonderful again this year.  It always is.  We did some special things this year, however.  First of all, we had a worship band join us for the week.  Indiana Wesleyan University sends out worship bands that go to different camps all summer as their ministry, and we were so lucky to have En Gedi leading us in worship!  They also lead a songwriting workshop which was awesome, and they were in charge of the Cabin Olympics - which they turned into the Intergalactic Cabin Olympics.  Hilarious.

Another special thing we did this year was dedicate an art project - a mosaic bench - to the memory of one of our friends and long-time camper, Sara Johnson, who we lost the first day of camp.  She was killed in a car accident on Sunday, July 18.  Her sister, Laini, was a camper that week, and her mother came by and picked her up for the night and spoke to the campers.  It was so shocking to hear the news, and it was so hard for us cabin leaders to deal with because we had to mourn the loss of our friend and also try to keep a happy-camp-counselor face for our campers for the week.  I'm so glad we dedicated the bench to her, though.  Sara LOVED camp.  It was her favorite place in the world, as it is for so many.  I bet she smiled when we decided to put her name on it!

Sara's funeral and visitation was Thursday.  Marly, Kendra, and I went during the first free-time, and the line was 2 hours long!  (We ended up missing all of first free-time, second workshops, and some of second free-time, too. oops...)  Sara certainly did touch a lot of people's lives!  It was a difficult visitation.  We saw her sisters, spoke to her mother, and were able to see Sara one last time.  I'm so glad we went. 

My cabin this year was awesome as usual.  My girls won 3rd place in the Intergalactic Cabin Olympics!  We were so proud!! :-)  I made them beauty queen sashes that said, "Miss Union 1" on them.  They loved them!  Marly's cabin wore masks, Kendra's cabin wore shower caps (hilarious), Ella and Lindsey's cabin wore pink curly ribbons in their hair, Lacy's cabin (the winners) wore camo bandannas, and Charity's cabin wore pipe cleaner antennas in their hair.  It was definitely the most festive year for the olympics!

I decorated my cabin in birthday theme.  I had a couple things hanging from the ceiling and happy birthday streamers.  My birthday was on Wednesday, so we had birthday all week in our cabin!  On Wednesday, I gave the girls birthday hats, and I had a GIANT birthday hat myself.  We invited the other girls' cabins for a dance party on Wednesday night.  Good times. :-)

Camp always seems to fly by so fast, but this year, I think it went normally.  Each day was memorable for one reason or another, and by the end of the week, everyone was pooped and tired and ready to go home.  I had two little homesick sisters on the first day, but they shaped up for the rest of the week.  But they were so excited to see their mom and dad on Saturday! 

Back to work!  I missed a staff meeting on Thursday... Hope I don't get in trouble!

OK. I really need a step...

Well, today is Saturday.  Yesterday was Friday, and that's when I started my weekend since I don't work on Fridays.  It was SO  nice not to have anything to do this weekend.  For the last several weeks, I've been going to Evansville for the weekend, for one reason or another.  As much as I love my family, it takes a LOT of energy to pack, drive there, spend the weekend with things to do, pack, and drive back.  Not to mention it takes a lot of money out of my wallet for gas and whatnot.  This weekend, I have ABSOLUTELY no plans.  Nothing is on a schedule, and I didn't even make a list. 

Yesterday, I woke up at 11:15. Whoa! I haven't slept in that long since high school, I think.  It was kind of a bizarre feeling, because I woke up assuming it was about 8:30, but I quickly realized it was about lunch time. :-/  But it was ok. No plans, remember?  So I ate a hearty breakfast and watched a LOT of TV.  I watched a movie while I ate my breakfast.  I never watch movies.  But I happened to have rented one at a Red Box the day before, so I needed to watch it before 9pm.  Then suddenly, 4 o'clock happened!  So I decided I needed to be a functioning member of society and take a shower and get dressed and stuff.

My plan was to take out the trash, go to the recycling center, go to walmart, and then return the videos to the Red Box machine.  I took out the trash, loaded all the recyclables into my trunk, grabbed my reusable bags, and set off!  Too bad it was about 6pm when I rolled into the recycling place only to realize it closed at 5:30. Womp womp...  On to Walmart.  I got everything I needed and it all fit in my 2 reusable bags which made me happy :-)  I have WAY too many plastic walmart-ish bags at my apartment.  I mean, I use them as little trash bags and stuff, but I have SO many.

Anywho, after walmart, I wanted grab a healthy dinner and take it back home with me.  I stopped at the drive-thru at Wendy's.  I got a delicious pecan chicken salad.  I asked for a baked potato, but they said it would be another 20 mins. Lame.  Then the Red Box machine that I wanted to use was broken, so I had to drive out of my way to go to another one.  So, I had 3 disappointments, but oh well!  Overall, it was a pretty leisurely and productive day.

Today is Saturday.  I woke up around 8:30 (typical).  I ate some cereal and watched a little TV, and then I got into cleaning mode.  I cleaned my bathroom, folded and put away some laundry, vacuumed the apartment and loaded the dishwasher.  Not so bad.  Then I wanted to do my 3rd Kim Kardashian DVD.  It's the Butt Blasting Cardio Step DVD.  I was going to try to do it without the step, since I don't have one yet, but I couldn't even get through the warm-up.  It was just pointless without the step.  I really need to get me one of those.  Like, soon. 

So instead of Kim Kardashian, I decided to do a couple of the 10 Minute Solution routines on the Fat Blasting Latin Dance Mix DVD that I have.  I love that thing.  It is SO much fun!  If anyone is looking for a workout DVD that is FUN and that you can do for a short period of time (because everyone's busy...) then this is perfect for you!  Get your groove on and dance with Stella!  She is my best friend sometimes.  She always tells me how great of a job I'm doing and that I look great.  I love her. :-)

I think I'll attempt to take the recycling again soon.  It really needs to get out of my trunk.

Have a nice weekend!

God rested. I can rest, too.

So, last night, I decided it was a really bad idea to try to do the 3rd Kim Kardashian DVD.  I could barely move from the two days prior and also I had a really bad headache.  Don't worry, though.  I'll do it tonight.

I'm feeling much better today!  Still a tiny bit sore in this awkward muscle around my knee (random...), but I can pretty much walk at a normal pace again.  Which is nice.

Last night, since I was resting from the DVDs I made sure that I at least did some crunches.  No sense doing nothing!  I also fixed myself a DELICIOUS supper.  OK, it was actually breakfast, but it was at dinner time.  I had pancakes, bacon and 2 fried eggs. Ohhhh man. It was sooo tasty!  I haven't made bacon in about a thousand years.  Last night, it was perfect!  Mmm.

I also watched an episode of "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" and "Toddlers & Tiaras."  These shows are bananas.  But I LOVE them.  The pregnant show just gets me every time, because these women have so many signs that they are pregnant, but for whatever reason, they just don't think they are, then SURPRISE!  Their water breaks and they have a new baby. Oh man.  That's a tragedy.  Luckily on the show, there have only been cases where the baby survives and is healthy and stuff.  I mean, it might have to stay a little bit in the hospital, but there's never an episode where the baby has severe birth defects from malnutrition or improper maternal care or anything.  I mean, that wouldn't make for very good television...

And "Toddler and Tiaras" is crazy.  Some of those moms are ridiculous "pageant moms," but other times, they're just normal, good mothers who have fun with their little girls :-)  I love that.  Last night, there were 2 three-year-olds and a six-year-old.  The 2 three-year-olds had those crazy moms who spray tan their kids and stuff, but the 6-year-old's mom was just wonderful.  Their family has 4 boys (dad and 3 sons) and 2 girls (mom and daughter).  The little girl likes to go fishing and stuff, but she LOVES to do pageants because she and her mom just get to be girly and fun together.  And it was SO sweat, because at the pageant, she won Princess in her division, and the dad cried!  He said, "Well, my little girl just won princess..." and got all teary-eyed.  He was so proud of his beautiful little girl!  It's moments like that that make me know it's ok that I watch a show like that, and that it's not just crazy parents trying to exploit their children.  Not at all.

I wish I had done pageants as a little girl, but they're so expensive.  Some of the moms spend WAY too much money on the glitz dresses and stuff.  The good mom in last night's episode made the dresses herself. She said it saved her probably around $500 per dress making them herself.

You go, girl!