What I'm Loving - November 2012

I'm loving the fact that I finally made it back down to U of A for a visit. I greatly enjoy going down there. I'm not sure why I don't do it more often.

I'm loving my new job. Things have been ramping up slowly with the new team, and things are going to start to get crazy busy within the next month, but I'm excited about this new venture.

I'm loving mashed potatoes (and holiday food in general). Seriously, one of my favorite foods ever. However, I'm sure I'll be sick of them by the time I've healed from my wisdom tooth surgery.

I'm loving decorating for the holidays. I thought I was going to hate this holiday season, but so far I've been getting extra into the spirit of things. Who knew?

I'm loving finding new functionality for my phone that makes my life easier. I've finally converted to using Swype in all of it's amazingness. Hello super easy one handed text input! And thanks to SMS Backup+ I've been able to automatically back up all of my texts to my Gmail account. Score.

To The Christian Guys

"Christian men are weak"
"The guys in our bible study are never going to do anything"
"Christian guys don't know how to lead"
"Our generation of guys is turning out to be a complete failure"

I've been a part of numerous conversations where girls have made statements like the above, usually rather emphatically or with great frustration. As much as I try to avoid making statements like these, I myself have uttered words laced with disappointment regarding how guys my age have failed at what I would consider to be biblical masculinity. I think it's fairly easy to say that the girls of my generation are frustrated with the guys. While most of us girls can say that we know a few solid Christian guys, we also look at guys as a whole and think that things look bleak. We see passive men, men who are avoiding responsibility, men who seem oblivious to their God given roles. We see men who seem content to never fully grow up.

There are plenty of articles that discuss the topic of Christian men and the current issues. I'm not even going to try to delve into any of that here. What's on my mind is not about whether what we see in guys is valid or not, or even what it is that we see in guys, rather it's the responses to the situation that are sticking out to me right now. A lot of what we see in guys may be valid, but our responses are often not. The harshness of our responses do not line up with biblical womanhood.

Assuming that I'm going to get married one day, that means that my future husband is out there fighting the battle of being a man in today's world. I'm not gonna lie, I'm hoping that my future husband is one of the guys who was lucky enough to have a good grasp of biblical masculinity from a younger age. But maybe, at this present moment, my future husband is struggling with what it means to be a Christian man. And maybe he's getting beaten down during the process. Maybe, just maybe, if the Church, particularly us girls, did what we could to make the process easier for him, he'd get there a bit faster. Wouldn't I rather that the girls in his life do everything they can to help enable him to be the man that God created him to be? Shouldn't I be doing the same for the men in my life? Not only for their sake, but also for the sake of my sisters in Christ?

Obviously I've never been a guy, but I'm guessing that it's hard to be one. The odds are stacked against you. Not only do you have a flesh and blood battle going on, you've got an enemy who knows that the key to so many things that he wants lies with keeping you men beaten down.

Guys, I'm sorry for the things that girls say. I'm sorry for our attitudes. I'm sorry for taking over in situations where we needed to step back and let you men lead, even if it meant letting go of the outcome of such situations. I'm sorry that we, as girls, don't always take the time to understand what biblical masculinity should look like so that we can support you in pursuing it. I'm sorry that we call you out on your failures while completely ignoring our own.
I'm sorry if the Church is failing you. I'm sorry that the previous generation oftentimes fails to understand the culture that has been created around you by feminism, technology, and the hook-up culture.
I'm sorry for trivializing the hard things that you guys face. I'm sorry for any negative statements I've made about Christian guys.

I'm not even entirely sure how I can go about helping out the guys in my life, but I do know that I want to help them and not hinder them. I think the future success of almost everything depends on guys filling their God given roles. And at the end of the day, no matter what us girls do, the responsibility of being Christian men falls squarely on the guys' shoulders. God isn't going to hold us girls accountable for whether or not guys rise to the occasion. We've got enough of our own failures as women to account for as it is. But I'm hoping that I can do better at figuring out how to help the guys out as we navigate through an undoubtedly difficult stage of life.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works - Heb 10:24

Letter To My Younger Self

Some of you may have written a letter to your younger self as part of a writing assignment at some point while you were in school. I never was given such an assignment, so I’ve never written a letter like this before. It’s been in draft status for months now, but I finally got around to finishing it. I’m not really sure why I decided to write this letter other than the fact that I’ve enjoyed reading them online in the past. Also, I have watched as my Awana girls walk through their teenage years and have gotten some major cases of déjà vu on numerous occasions. This letter isn’t directed at them, but I’ve always hoped that some of what I’ve been through in my short time on this earth might help them out.


To my 15 year old self,
There are going to be a lot of ups and down during the next decade of your life, and I’m sure for the rest of your life. Nothing that I could say to you at any stage of life will change that, but there are some things I wish I would have picked up on earlier in life.

First, go on a mission trip in high school or college while you don’t have to worry about vacation days and work schedules. It’ll help you gain a better perspective of how God views the world when He looks at it, and you’ll regret it if you don’t do it before graduation.

You’re at the stage of your life where you oftentimes just wish you could already be an adult. And let’s be honest, there are a lot of benefits to being an adult. But you’re going to look back and wish you had enjoyed the stress free life while you had it. So savor it for a bit and know that good things are coming.

You’re putting a lot of stress on yourself to get good grades in highschool. Some people might disagree, but I’m going to tell you that it’ll be worth every ounce of effort because it will pay for your college education, so keep it up. Oh and don’t sign up for honors Calc 1, just take the regular class...you'll have to trust me on that one.

You’re eventually going to realize the value of having good mentors in your life. Watch for a woman who possesses the Godly qualities that you want and ask her to mentor you now, not five years from now. Don’t procrastinate on this. Actually, you should work on your procrastination problem too, while you're at it.

You have a high expectation of what your college dorm experience is going to be like, and what you’re going to get is going to be nothing like what you had hoped for. The same will be true of your first apartment experience, so be prepared for that. Learning how to be a good roommate is something that takes time, and living with other girls who are still figuring that out is going to test your patience. Take the opportunity to practice patience, forgiveness and flexibility. God is going to teach you a lot about who you are as a person through those experiences, and in the end you’ll be thankful for them.

After your second year of college you’re going to have to decide whether you want to take a week off from your internship to be a counselor at camp or not. Make sure to choose camp, it’ll be worth more than a week’s paycheck.

In college, instead of focusing on that grade you get at the end of a semester, focus on becoming a better programmer. Five years out of college you’re not going to care that you got A’s in all of your 400 level classes. You’re going to wish you were better at what you do.

At times you’re going to wonder if you should have more friends than you do. Stop counting the number and invest yourself in the solid friendships that you do have. Beyond that, learn to love other people the way that God loves them. Building relationships and community takes a lot of intentionality.

Learn to work through conflict when it arises, because good friendships aren’t ones that have no conflicts, good friendships are the ones that know how to work through it. Nothing I can say to you now will spare you from learning this the hard way, but being friends with girls is going to be harder than being friends with guys. The earlier you start to face these issues the better off you'll be in the long run.

Learn to cut your frivolous spending your first year of college and life will be a bit easier those last two years. Most importantly, in regards to your finances, learn you think of your bank account as a temporary holding spot for God’s money. The earlier you adopt this mindset the easier life will be.

You’re always going to wonder if you should wear more makeup, or do something different with your hair, or lose a few pounds. The amount of time you spend worrying about these things is going to get you nowhere, so you really should just stop. Either that or decide to take action, but whatever you do, don’t dwell on these things endlessly. Satan will utilize every one of these moments that you give him.

Now, the part that you’re probably wondering about the most. Yep, you’re still single at 25. Luckily the statement you're going make when you're 20 about how terrible it would be to turn 25 and still be single will not be the sentiment you end up having at 25. At 15 you have an image in your head of getting married right after college and having everything wrapped up with a nice little bow on it in your early twenties. Being single at 25 is probably not the option you’d take if you were given a choice, but eventually you’re going to see what a blessing God had for you by giving you the story that He does.
When you look back on those years you're not going to regret a single moment spent pursuing God and His desire for your life, but you will regret the time you waste waiting around for a guy. Make sure to use these years wisely.

Last but not least, read your Bible every day, whether you feel like it or not.

You’re going to live a very blessed life. There will undoubtedly be plenty of ups and downs, don’t forget to take some time to stop and thank God for what you have as you navigate the next ten years of your life. There are some fun twists and turns in the next decade of your life. I hope you're ready.

-Your 25 year old self

What I'm Loving - October 2012

I'm loving Dancing With The Stars - All Stars. I've never watched this show prior to this season, but for whatever reason I watched the first episode this season and got hooked. I'm currently rooting for Shawn and Derek!

I'm loving Red, Taylor Swift's latest album. It's going to be the album that I listen to for months on end in my car.

I'm loving Ice Cream Sandwich. My Bionic finally got Android's ICS update. It's like having an entirely new phone, which is both exciting and frustrating at the same time.

I'm loving Scramble. One of my co-workers made the unfortunate mistake of introducing me to this game. I've always found Words with Friends to be boring, but Scramble has been utterly addicting. I'm still not that great at it, but I'm slowly getting better!

I'm loving that Joel Conrad's doctors were able to find the aneurysm in his brain and successfully operated on it!

Philadelphia/Baltimore - Part 2

You can read Part 1 here.

Day 3 of my trip started out with sleeping in a little bit (hey, this was a vacation after all) before packing up my stuff and getting ready to meet up with my friend who was driving up from Baltimore. Danny still drives the same Honda Civic that he's had since before he and I became friends in college. That little thing is still going...gotta love those Civics. Except for the fact that the charger thing didn't work, which is no bueno when you have a smartphone, but such is life.

I'm a fan of visiting colleges when I go to different cities, and visiting Penn was my first time visiting an Ivy league school. I liked the campus and the buildings were gorgeous. One thing that I've learned is that I enjoy visiting colleges that have a large student union or general "hub" on campus rather than ones with spread out dining halls and all inclusive living areas. Since Penn didn't have a main student union (that we found) it didn't really feel like we got a feel for what life is like on campus.

 
Now...when in Philadelphia what else do you do for lunch besides go get a cheesesteak? We went to the famous Pat's/Geno's location but went to Pat's based on a recommendation. And I have to say, I'm thankful that I wasn't driving and that Danny was. I love walking around Philly, and I love road trip driving, but I wouldn't ever want to drive those streets.

 
The cheesesteak was quite tasty, and I loved the fries even more. This time around I got american cheese instead of "wiz" and I think I like that way a lot better. I'm officially a cheesesteak fan.

 
Next up on the agenda was visiting Eastern State Penitentiary. I read about it on Trip Advisor and I'd already seen it from the tour bus, so that's how I came across the idea. I'm really glad we went, it was an interesting place to visit that had a lot of history but was definitely unique from any of the other sights in Philly.

At this point in the day you could see the gray clouds arriving. Rain was imminent. We used my dying phone to locate a Starbucks and went there to charge my phone for a bit while we debated whether or not the Phillies game was going to get rained out. Those of you who have already read my stadium update post know how this story turns out.

 

Sunday was spent in Baltimore and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. After going to Danny's church, and a stop at Five Guys for lunch, we went to our second baseball stadium in 24 hours. Perfect day for a baseball game and a perfect end to a great trip!

What I'm Loving - September 2012

I'm  loving how Journey and Trek are going at Desert Sun. Three months ago a group of leaders were gathered in my living room trying to figure out what was going to happen to our homeless ministry. The way God provided is incredible and it's been amazing to watch how things are unfolding.

I'm loving that I got all of my recipes sorted and stored in Evernote. It's the first time that I've ever had all of my recipes centralized and completely organized in such a way that I can quickly search through them. I'm on a mission to build up my number of  tried and true recipes as well, so my food board on Pinterest is going to be getting a lot of action soon.

I'm loving that I'm in the home stretch of crossing off the first real remodel that I've ever done. This master bathroom project has been dragging on for months, but the end result is going to be worth it.

I'm loving new episodes of Parenthood. I was seriously so excited on Wednesday when I came home and discovered that there was a new episode on my TiVo from the day before.

I'm loving the new Cactus Campus of Scottsdale Bible Church. I'm pretty sure I just found my new church home. Soma, SBC's young adults service, has been my home for the last two years, but I'm looking forward to making SBC as a whole my home. We'll see how the next few weeks turn out!

Philadelphia - Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I went on a short trip to the east coast. I absolutely love traveling, and it's without a doubt one of my favorite things to do. I also really enjoy seeing some of the cities that involve our nation's history. Washington DC is still up there as one of my favorite cities, so getting to go to Philadelphia was exciting for me. And of course, it had a baseball stadium that I needed to see, so that was another perk.
What I loved most about Philly was the fact that it's a very walkable city. I thought I was going to have to take the subway quite a bit and that a couple of sites might have been too far away, but I quickly found that walking was the best way to get around. I was also lucky enough to have a hotel that was right across the street from the capitol building and consequently it close to pretty much everything.  I enjoyed exploring the different streets and feel like I had a pretty good grasp of the central part of the city by the time I left.

Thursday
I got into Philly in the early evening and knew that I wasn't going to be able to do much on that day. Thankfully, I discovered the idea of doing a night bus tour and booked that before I left (it departed from right outside my hotel too, an extra bonus). Picture a double decker bus with all of us sitting on top. It was an hour and a half of driving around seeing all the sites in the city with a great tour guide. I loved it and highly recommend that you start with a bus tour if you ever visit Philly. It gives you a lay of the land and it helps you realize what you care about coming back to see versus what you're just happy to have seen from the bus.

A shot of my hotel that I took as we drove by it

And of course, it may have been 11 o'clock at night in Philly, but my body thought it was 8 PM and that I still had four hours before I was supposed to go to bed. So what does a girl in that situation do? She finds a cookie shop that's open all night, of course!

Friday
Friday was my big exploring day. I had my timed ticket to see Independence Hall, so I did that in the morning. On my way I stopped at Reading Terminal Market to look around and grab some breakfast. The market was one of my favorite places and I highly recommend it. Sadly, I didn't get to try any food from the famous Dinic's because they closed at 6 PM and I didn't realize that so that I would get back over there in time for dinner. Oh well.
I toured Independence Hall and the Congress building, both interesting. I also checked out the Liberty Bell and got the obligatory picture. The first person I asked to take the picture apparently didn't realize that I'd want both myself AND the bell in the picture. *sigh* I had someone else take another  picture which is why I also have a shot from the other side of the bell.

I spent the rest of the day exploring some of the old site streets in that area and had fun just wondering around. I went to a place called Jim's Steaks to get a cheesesteak because it was highly recommended online. I got it with "wiz" because I know it's the way you're supposed to try a cheesesteak. The wiz wasn't as disgusting as I thought and as a whole it was pretty tasty. The highlight of that for me was sharing a table with an older couple and getting to chat with them. They were a lot of fun and were on their way to visit their kids and grandkids in New Jersey. When I saw them walking away from the place they were holding hands, which always makes me happy to see old couples doing.

The rest of the day was fairly random. I went to Elfreth's alley, which is the oldest inhabited residencial block in America. What was pretty crazy to me was that there was both a place for rent and a place for sale. I looked it up online and it's going for an outrageous price.

I also walked by the Betsy Ross house and Chinatown on my way back to my hotel (for a nap of course, because if you have a hotel within walking distance of everywhere you want to go, why wouldn't you take an afternoon nap?).

I enjoyed all the random parks that I came across and all of the cool brick buildings that are everywhere in Philadelphia. It's really a change of pace from what I see in Phoenix all the time and that's why I love exploring new cities.

This is getting long, so I'm going to break the last two days into a separate blog post. Part 2 coming soon!

Oh How Pinteresting

Another blogging trend that I'm seeing more frequently and that I enjoy in addition to the "What I'm Loving" posts is the "Oh How Pinteresting" ones. Type that into Google to see what I'm talking about. Basically, you highlight some of your favorite pins on Pinterest. What's funny is that both of these trends are supposed to go with Wednesdays, but I almost never post these things on a Wednesday. But since this is my first ever Pinteresting post, I guess I can do it on a Wednesday, right?

Without further ado, I give you some of my favorite pins...

(all images link to my Pinterest pin so you can find the original source that way if you so desire)

From my "Food" board:

OK, so I haven't actually made this recipe yet, but that's only because we're still in the triple digits temperature wise. But I'm greatly looking forward to getting to try this recipe soon!

From my "Words" board:

Words to live by.

I particularly love this one because of my recent trip to Philly.

One of my favorite Hunger Games quotes.

From my "Stylistically Speaking" board:

I'm a summer kind of girl, so I'll be sad when I can't wear all of my summer clothes anymore. But a comfy outfit like this one does seem appealing as we move through September still hitting triple digits.

I never wear bracelets because they drive me crazy since I'm typing all day, but if I ever do wear one I want it to be this one.

From my "Wedding (For Someday)" board:

"Three cord" wedding band (ignore the other ring). See Ecclesiastes 4:12.

Probably an expensive wedding band, but I love the idea of all the opportunities it could create to share about God.

From my "Happy Feelings" board:

I don't know if this is actually what this is a picture of or not, but I sure hope it's true.

I used to think it actually existed, now I think it's just a matter of miscommunication. You can't get "stuck" in "the friend zone" if you can get out of it by just talking. This pin should probably go on my "Words" board, but the bottom part makes me laugh, so here it stays.

No caption needed.

The Count Is Now At 9!

I try to add at least one more MLB stadium to my list every season, and this year I was lucky enough to be able to add two.

View MLB Stadiums in a larger map

As part of my recent trip to Philadelphia I attempted to see a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park. I say "attempted" because the game ended up getting rained out. It was my first time ever going to a baseball game and having it get rained out, so that was a bummer. I was still excited to see the stadium and like always, enjoyed walking around it and exploring (as best we could with the rain).

Hopefully I'll get to go back and actually see a Phillies game someday. I wouldn't mind going back to Philly one bit, so I'm sure it will happen at some point.

The second stadium I added to my list was Oriole Park in Baltimore. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and the weather couldn't have been better. And the fact that it was a game against the Yankees (at the time of writing this post, the Orioles and the Yankees are tied for first in the AL East) just sweetened the deal. The fans came fully decked out and it was a fun environment, even if the Yankees fans being there created some interesting interactions.

The view from our seats

I got to enjoy going to both of these stadiums with a friend from college that I've probably been to more baseball/softball games with than anyone else on this planet. Thank you Danny, for going with me!

Today happened to be the day that MLB released their 2013 schedule, so I can officially start planning for next year whenever I'm ready! At this point I have my sights set on California as there are still four stadiums there that I haven't gotten to yet. And really, I have five east coast stadiums and only four west coast? Gotta work on that.
As for potential east coast stadiums, Boston is the city that's currently at the top of my list of US cities I want to visit, so I'll probably be stalking the airline sales next year for flights to Boston. I wouldn't mind adding something in the middle and making a trip to Texas either.

But for now, as the current season wraps up, I can say that my MLB stadium count is at 9!

Prayers - Take 2

Sometimes I wonder if God humors me and my logical, perfect-puzzle loving mind. Like when I throw out a "bigger" prayer request and let it float out there, forgetting about it for a while, only to be blown away by how precisely He answers it. Now that's not to say that all my prayers get answered precisely. There are plenty of them that He answers in different ways than what I was hoping or expecting, and those are just as amazing to come to the realization about. I already wrote about that a bit in this blog post. But sometimes God gives me answers that are so exact that it makes me smile.

Like when I prayed off and on for a good part of 2011 about a mission trip to go on knowing that I probably wouldn't have enough paid time off saved up until late 2012. And how He provided a weeklong trip that would only require using 24 PTO (paid time off) hours, and how I had exactly 24 hours left for 2011.

Or one of my more "practical" prayers, like when I prayed off and on for the last year for an opportunity to refinance my house. I wasn't sure it was going to be possible to get the balance on my home down low enough to get the 80% loan-to-value that I wanted, but I prayed for wisdom about when to pursue the idea. Fast forward to today when my house appraises at an amount that makes my remaining principle balance exactly 80% of the value of my home, which will perfectly allow me to refinance into a traditional mortgage. I couldn’t have predicted what the housing market would do, and consequently couldn’t aim to pre-pay my mortgage down to this exact amount, it’s just what happened.

As I mentioned in my other blog post, recently I've taken notice of how sometimes He answers prayers more quickly than I'd expect, and sometimes He does so in ways that I couldn't have dreamed up myself. And then sometimes He brings about exactly what I'd been asking for in a way that couldn't be more perfectly wrapped up with a bow than it already is. 

If you're wondering why I'm blogging about prayer for a second time, it's because I feel like God's been trying to teach me something about prayer recently as prayer itself has been on my mind a lot. For one, because I think I need a better understanding of it and that's something I'm still working on. I think I have a good concept of what it means to pray within His Will, but there are other facets of prayer that I'm still working on. But mainly, I think that God has been gently reminding me that He knows what He's doing at a time when He knew I'd need it.

Recently as I was discussing a situation in my life with an older and wiser woman, she told me that I needed to keep praying about it. Initially her answer frustrated me because I was sick of praying about the situation, I wanted an action to take. I wanted a solution...pronto. I wanted my prayer about the situation to be answered by her telling me an action to take. The idea of continuing to pray about it for who knows how long just had me agitated. It was then that I came to the realization that due to the fact that I wasn't feeling like God was going to answer this prayer that I didn't want to keep praying about it. Instead of trusting Him with it completely, I was going to try to find my own way (while praying about it for good measure, of course). But sometimes God has gentle ways of reminding us about the fact that He is indeed in control.

I've written this blog post mainly for my own benefit as I want to be able to look back on it someday and remember where I am at now. Hopefully someday I'll be able to tell you about one of two things. Either about how He answered my prayers about this current situation the way that I want it to be answered, or about how He used this frustrating situation in my life to teach me about something far greater. At this point I have no doubt that one of those two things is going to be the end result.

My Current Favorite Album

I’m a huge Chris August fan and I’ve been able to see him live on two different occasions. Both times he had awesome stage presence. His first album was the main CD in my car for months on end (and yes, it is autographed). I was thrilled to hear that his 2^nd album was coming out and it’s about the only thing I’ve been listening to since it came out this past Tuesday. I don’t actually own it yet, but I’ve been listening to it on Spotify and every time I get in my car it’s the only thing I have on my phone’s playlist.

Sadly I won’t be able to get the 2^nd CD autographed anytime soon because I’ll be out of town when he comes to Phoenix in September (at my old home church no less).

The lyrics of this latest album are wonderful. I haven’t found a song that I haven’t liked yet. If you’ve never listened to Chris August before, or even if you have, I highly recommend taking a look at this album.

Some songs that have stuck out to me so far:

Center Of It

I’ve been hearing this song on the radio for a while now and honestly, I just liked the fact that it was upbeat and nice to listen to on my way home from work. It wasn’t until the album came out that I started listening to the words. And of all days, today specifically is a day where every word in that song is ringing so true for me personally.

The Upside of Down

I’ve often thought that I’m closer to God during the down times of my life. I've tended to push Him away and become pretty self-reliant during the up times in life and that's something I've been trying to work on. Currently, this is my favorite track of the album.

The downside of being up is my inside is empty of
The one thing my heart truly needs
When I feel invincible a million miles from miserable
It’s always all about me
I don’t know why I don’t love You like I should, like You would
Through bad and good oh

Restore

I listened to the lyrics of this song for the first time while I was taking a walk the other night. A song that truly addresses the marriage problem that exists nowadays is a rare thing, and I really like this one.

Nobody's growing old together,
We've made it easy just to quit
Love has become a negative percentage,
Why do we bother to commit
We've got a long list of excuses,
Ways we try to justify
Well, I propose to you the truth is,
Marriage does not have to die

1989

This song narrowly missed being my favorite song of the album. I know I keep saying this a lot, but I love the lyrics and they ring true to feelings that I’ve had. Just go listen to the song, you’ll love it too.

A Little More Jesus

Growing up in the church, I’ve become pretty familiar with rules, regulations, and opinions. And humility isn't always my strong suite, so (once again) this song resonates with me.

We've got rules and regulations
Got a stance on everything
It gets so complicated
When all we really need

Is just a little more Jesus
And a little bit less of me
I could be a little more humble
If we’re speaking honestly
The more I see this heart inside of me
The more that I believe
That I could use a little more Jesus
And a little bit less of me

Meant To Be

This song is a good mix of mellow with a bit of upbeat that just makes me happy.