setting up my phone, progress on the office :-)

Today I paged my secretary in my office while sitting in a meeting with another 'professional' in my field and asked her to please bring some information to my office.
I FEEL SO GROWN UP!!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
I mean, I have my own EXTENSION on the OFFICE PHONE!!!!
Yes I am being ridiculous. Have we met? Its the little things in life.
 And I made progress in clearing out more stuff. Muahahahaha! Another small victory. I have realized if you celebrate the small good things, the huge stressful things are not so huge. So I'm trying to remember to do that; to celebrate the ordinary.

 And that seems silly or childish or eccentric or ridiculous to some, and thats okay. Those people are usually more stressed out in life than I want to be. I'm working in a field God prepared for me and me for, but its a huge need and therefore got lots of challenges, baggage, politics and spiritual battles. So anyway. All that to say don't judge me while I have my little party about setting up my phone. And tomorrow I get to set up my own official voice mail! I kind of want to text some people to call me tomorrow just so I'll have some fun voice mails on there... teehee.
I've also discovered I have a gift for finding awesome crafts for kids to do; which gives me an outlet for my creative genius. :-) SOOOO happy. New excuses to dash over to Hobby Lobby! Yaay!

curtains finish a room

 Jaci Velasquez was my hero when I was growing up. I remember in an interview she told someone that her favorite thing in life was her new house in Nashville, TN. The main reason? "Its mine. I picked out everything in it." At the time it made NO sense to me. Now it makes PERFECT sense!

 I have been accused of having an 'old lady house,' in that I have antique lamps, there are lace curtains hanging in the windows, and all of my furniture is wood or has wood on it. Max said, 'Yeah it may look like Grandma's house. But everyone LIKES coming to Grandma's house! Its homey!' And besides, vintage is in, right?

 Except for my bathroom. I have a dolphin bathroom. My parents sent me some of the many boxes I have in their attic. I'm trying to get them from there to here but its a slow process. But in the boxes they sent this last time were childhood treasures. My dolphin collection I'd been adding to since I was a wee lass in California up to a teenager was washed and framed and placed in little nooks and gives the bathroom such a fun, young, unique look. My outlet for my deep love of the sea. I love my bathroom! All the plants in it are real too. :-D It is amazing though how relaxing the wood and soft colors are. Its even more amazing how something so simple as hanging curtains changes the look of the room and gives it so much more of a finished feel. Its so nice to have my own PLACE. If I want to hang a picture on this part of the wall, I can. And do. If I'm not sure what to do with it, I can wait. And do. If I want to leave dishes in the sink overnight, I can. And do. If I want my kitchen to be spotless, however, I can clean it knowing it will STAY CLEAN until I mess it up again. It is so refreshing!!!!

 I've had a TON of company over, too. Its nice to be able to have friends come over and make them feel relaxed and feed them good food and then enjoy laughter for hours afterwards. I love entertaining people! Good food on good dishes with good company = a wonderful night to me. It gives both them and me a break from the stresses of our new found adulthood. I know this is the Ministry God has called me to for now at this church for this time, but I also feel a sense of God's calling when showing friends hospitality. The cool thing about my curtains for the living room and my bedroom is that I saw them at the free store on seminary campus while still a student and thought I would save them for when I had my own place. They fit the windows PERFECTLY! I told Gail, 'God picked out my curtains for me!!" The same with the bathroom; Max was browsing a second hand store and saw it. It was just one panel, but he thought it would match my bathroom and it does PERFECTLY!!! So God picked out my curtains!!!! I am so blessed. It is truly the little things in life :-) There have been plenty of bumps in the road on this new journey and season; I've already shed some tears of frustration and overwhelmed-ness, but still overall am just sooooooo blessed. :-)

update

I realized the other day that I hadn't posted anything since May (hey that rhymed!) and a lot has happened since then.
 I'll confess I felt a little lost after graduation. My boyfriend was awesome at bearing with me through my mood swings of feeling completely carefree and liberated to raw panic and desperation of 'what do I do next?!'
He is very good at finding the balance of listening while I vent, offering sage advice, holding me and encouraging me, and finally just distracting me from whatever crisis (perceived or real) I'm currently reeling from by just going out and doing something fun.

]So for example we went to Mammoth cave, and we bee-bopped around visiting friends and family. Its been good to be able to keep in touch with so many different people. We had dinner with my good friends Sam and Svitlana Gantt. Kyle's met them but never for very long, so this was the first time for all of us to hang out. We had a blast, which was awesome because it was one of the first times for him to have a really good time hanging out with friends of mine from the Seminary. He's hung out with friends of mine from Boyce, but not the Seminary. So this was good on a lot of different levels.

I've also been able to see family a whole lot more this summer which has been GREAT! And my grandpa and I danced together at a friend's wedding anniversary. That was one of my most favorite memories of this summer, and maybe of this year. Yes, including Graduation. :-)

AAAAAND I have a job offer!!! To work as a Children's minister at a small church on the outskirts of Louisville. Its nothing glamorous but it has a LOT of potential and a lot of what they are looking for and open to are direct answers to prayer. Kyle and I visited a church and were visiting with the pastor afterwards who made an offhand comment about the need in the church. I said I was looking for job/ministry opportunities and the pastor said to send him my resume. I got it to him the next day and by the end of the week he was calling a committee in the church to consider me for the new Children's minister!!!!

 Its not final yet so prayers are still appreciated. But it is looking very positive!!!! So thats been a huge relief but also somewhat intimidating. I've never done anything on this kind of scale, but I know that if God wants me to do it He will give me the grace and discipline to do it well!
Kyle and I have been talking on a more serious note about future plans but no dates or blings as of yet for those who are curious ;-) Belieeeeeve me, it will NOT be a secrete if/when a big question gets asked ;-)

And that is all the news I have for tonight :-)
~Princess Ouch~

as promised, pictures

 As promised, pictures :-)

 Fairy-like tea party I picked up in Disney World for a song.

 Found these very awesome flower pots and so bought some flowers to put in them. I realized the majority of my plants are edible and while nutritious and the foliage is nice, I kind of want some colors to break up the green.

 My tea party with Lavender!

 The big pots have 'bush beans' which are very stalk-y but don't have the tentacle whoojingles to climb anything so I know they aren't pole beans; and the big big pot has broccoli in it. It used to have beans but some critter at them :-(

 All together now! And finally, I loved this sign. Didn't buy it but may paint it on something in the near future ;-)

BEACH TIME!!!

My boyfriend totally needs to learn how to do this:

 Amber and I went to New Semerna beach today!!!

 I haven't been to the beach in about 10 years, so it was SOOO nice to be back!

 We got these glasses-straws at Graduation so decided to bring them and use them :-)

 Voila

 Ok here's me looking happy on the beach but rather blurry

 here's me in the water on the beach not blurry but with the sun in my eyes so squinting and messing up my poze and sticking out my tummy... lols but you get to see my way cool swimming suit :-)

 not happy at all... TOTALLY JAZZED!!!

Amber's way of enjoying the beach

Able to dream again!

 Yesterday we went to the Magic Kingdom. Amber's mom is paying for all of this as her graduation gift. Amber keeps looking at me saying, "Thank you so much for coming with me! This is so much more fun with you here!" and I keep telling her, 'you keep making it sound like I  am doing the favor to you! You've got it backwards! Thanks for bringing me along!!'

 We were ridiculous. We spent about an hour and a half just on Main Street looking at stuff and shops and the little hidden surprises Disney has hidden everywhere you look. And we kept looking at each other going, 'Hey! We're GRADUATED! We're ADULTS! We're in DISNEY UNSUPERVISED!!!' and reveling in the freedom, acting like little kids when we wanted and mature adults when we wanted and it was AWESOME. Speaking of little kids, there were plenty of those and we spent a good amount of time just watching them - trying very hard to do so in a non-creepy way of course ;-)
(can you see the ducklings in the picture below?)

 We found Graduation-hat-Mickey Ears. They were overpriced, of course, but we wore them ALL DAY LONG and random people would shout "CONGRATULATIONS!" at us so it was worth it. We are totally wearing them the rest of the week. We made friends with this little girl and her dad in Tomorrowland at the Monsters Inc laugh floor - which was actually very well done and funny. It was a stand-up comedy show. We made her smile while we waited in line by pretending that since she was dressed like Belle from Beauty and the Beast she really WAS Belle and her dad wasn't sure if he was the Beast, Gueston, or just her Bodyguard. So we had fun with that :-)

 We did Tomorrowland last, (my pictures are all out of order. Sorry) and did the Buzz-lightyear ride and I creamed Amber in the shooting competition. Then we went to Space Mountain. Its an indoor roller-coaster almost completely in the dark. I screamed the entire three minutes. I'm usually not a screamer or whatever on rides - I bottle everything in until I explode - but we got off and I turned to Amber and said, 'Man it felt good to just scream for three minutes.' She had screamed occasionally too but mostly just laughed at my squawking and howling. "Dude it feels good to be EXCITED and happy about something!" she retorted. Yeah ain't that the truth.

 Its funny because people will say, 'Wow! You are graduates! you are adults! Time to step into the real world, right?' and then we'll all laugh and say, 'Yeah thats why we came to DISNEY the week after Graduation!!!' But its been awesome. Going to rides I remember and seeing all the fun old characters I used to love and dream about from the Disney stories and remembering the old games my sister and cousin and I would play with our dolls etc. And remembering what it felt like to be carefree and happy and young again. I know Disney is the cesspool of materialism, but quite frankly its been a huge relief to just relax for a couple of days and get my dream-machine fixed up and re-tuned.

 Another funny story: yesterday we went to dinner at Disney Studios and one of the security guards asked if I was a character. I said know but I wouldn't mind being one and then there was this huge crack of thunder from one of Florida's obligatory daily rainstorms. The security guard laughed and said, 'that was God giving you your cue: GO work at Disney World!" We all laughed. I think I would LOVE working as a character for a summer. No plans to pick up an application or anything though ;-)

 Amber has been an amazing tour guide, pointing out 'hidden mickeys' and explaining the histories and back stories of certain rides etc. She keeps asking if she's boring me or ruining things for me and I'm like, 'are you crazy?! No! This is awesome!' My own private tour guide :-D

 The other thing that is so dang AWESOME is that I'M IN FLORIDA AGAIN!!! Grandma used to take me and my sister in the summer to her Condo for about a week per summer but I haven't been in about 10 years due to her focusing on younger cousins which is fine. But I didn't realize how much I missed it. Just the weather, the way the water tastes, the exotic wildlife EVERYWHERE (like we saw a cool lizard at the bus stop and the herons and ibises perching on all the outside vendors) and the way the air is just wet but in a unique humid sort of way. We are planning on going to the beach on Thursday if it doesn't rain us out. Shoot I don't care if it does rain, I haven't been to the beach in 10 years I want to go!!!

 The nice thing about going as an adult is that there is no one to tell you 'no' to things that make amazing memories but aren't technically worth it 1. financially or 2. nutritionally. Like Mickey Head Ice Cream. $3.50 worth of pure goodness, however its about the same amount of money as I usually spend on lunch. Not to worry, simply substitute the mouses head for lunch. You eat a huge breakfast with characters and a huge dinner in a 50's cafe and play play play in between stopping only for ice cream!

 Not sure that this will be our plan of attack every day but for our first day in Disney World it was totally an amazing idea ;-)

 This breakfast was awesome. The food was amazing and the characters did a great job. It was so fun to see the little kids and their reactions to the characters. The babies especially were fascinated and just could not figure out why these huge stuffed animals kept trying to kiss them and hold them and why mom and dad kept wanting their picture taken with them. The characters did enough to keep mom and dad satisfied but not freak the babies out. Then when they got to our table they would kiss our hands and dance with us while the picture was being taken :-) Our waitress was SUPER friendly and nice as well. Did I mention the food was amazing?

Thats all for now. :-)

All done!

Farewell Boyce! 

I am GRADUATED!!!!!

Spring Break Review

My school starts early in the year but has its spring break at the same time as the county's elementary schools so that the profs can have vacation with their families. As a result, spring break started Thursday and Friday Kyle and I went to the First Friday party he has with his friends he graduated with. The drive there was lovelier than usual, as Kyle took the 'back way,' or the more windy, hilly, country-side-and-wildflower filled way, because he knows how much I love over-hill-over-dell routes :-D

The First Friday party was refreshing and fun :-) It is made up of graduates from the same Christian College Kyle went to. Several are getting their Master's degree but a couple have settled down into their jobs - such as teaching Jr. High or Spanish. Our conversations ranged from goofy to serious to ridiculous to ridiculous plans morphing into actual plans for future First Friday parties. Kyle spent the night at his friend's cabin in the woods (which could be a show-home for Bass Pro Shops or Scheels) and I spent the night at our First Friday hostess' house. She and I talked for a while after everyone else left and caught up on what was going on in each others lives. It was very encouraging without the sour aftertaste of condescension or stress of having to acknowledge each others 'council'. Simply sharing and encouraging and listening. Haaa so refreshing!

The next morning Kyle's Brazilian friend picked me up and took me to the cabin in the woods where Kyle and his host had cooked the four of us breakfast. There was bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, biscuits, coffee, and orange juice. It was delicious however I couldn't help but laugh that it was made up of three proteins and a carbohydrate. It was GOOD, but definitely man-food ;-) Really delicious man-food ;-)


Came back to the 'Ville for Easter and checked on my plants. The house plant is from my friend's mother and then I bought the two herbs - basil - while grocery shopping. I took them with me later on in the week but the one basil for whatever reason died and half of the other one died. So I went back to the grocery store at the beginning of this week and replaced the basil. I was a little disappointed, as the first one had really cool variegated leaves, but this one didn't. To make it up to myself I found lemon verbena and rosemary so bought those too. I found a bunch of pots in the basement of the house I'm renting (with 4 other girls!) and planted lavender, sweet peas, columbine, peas, cucumber and lettuce in them. The lettuce sprang up during spring break and a few of the beans have as well! Confession I am super excited. I will confess I've put lots of prayer into them that I don't kill them as the year goes on!! :-)

I spent Easter with my very dear friends Amber and Mz Pat and Mr. Dudley. This is the third year I've done so and it was lovely as always. :-) Most of the guests are related to Mz. Pat, and then there's Amber and me, and also a Ethiopian lady Mz. Pat met at a Brazilian restaurant. I pigged out on the homemade dip for the chips in the kitchen while Mz. Pat and her daughters prepared the lunch and Amber and I updated everyone on the latest drama, gossip and frustrations at school (we're terrible, cynical seniors. I hope we'll be more grateful once we graduate... but we'll see)

I thought I had a training for my new job on Monday but it turned out it wasn't until Wednesday of this week, so I picked up my plants and dirty laundry and headed south to my boyfriend's parent's house for the week of Spring Break. Its the second time I've been there this semester, so it was good to be back after so long. Glorious days of sleeping in, going to bed early, and getting homework done. Monday Kyle surprised me and took me to Natural Bridge.

We bought ski-lift tickets after Kyle gave me strict instructions that we would not be buying any of the homemade, fresh, delicious looking fudge the gift shop advertised with a vengeance. After we got to the top of the bridge he asked me if I wanted to go on the trail to the right, like everyone else, or the one to the left, which no one was on. I decided to go to the left. Well, the lady down in the gift shop told us the trail to the right took about an hour to hike on. The trail to the left however was not mentioned. Three hours later we made it back to the parking lot where the car was. :-D Oh well. We like adventures and scenic... isolated... places :-D

Tuesday Kyle, his parents and I got all dussied up and drove to Louisville to see one of my favorite music groups:

It was funny because Kyle took me there a year ago when they were in town but we weren't dating yet... so lots of 'remember when,' or 'did you ever think a year ago that...' :-D

Wednesday we drove to Nashville to pick up my car from Pap, who'd been trying to figure out why the power steering on my car was capriciously going out. He got the air conditioner fixed but apparently the part needed for the steering is not made anymore and located in an area exTREMely difficult to get to. So I'll just be building my arm muscles whenever I drive unless they find a junked car and a very adventurous mechanic ;-) I was able to get reading done for my Interpreting Wisdom Literature class :-D Kyle's parents and I went to see the high-school rendition of Grease Thursday night, and Friday Gail and I both had some kind of stomach flu. Despite this I started and finished a book and wrote a book report for my book report, and got some writing on another paper done. So all in all it was a good Spring Break :-)