Late-night adventures, Taco Bell runs, and cute kittens.

You can't see Anders but he's in his cage
being a cutie patootie. And Verbal's holding
down the fort. Literally.

New Movie Obsession

Yesterday I saw "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." And it was amazing. Liz said I would like it, and she knows me pretty well, so I figured I would walk out of there being a fan. But little did I know it would become my new "thinker" movie... you know... those movies that leave you thinking about them for days or weeks afterwards. Like "The Butterfly Effect" or "Remember Me" or "It's Kind of a Funny Story."

This one is definitely a thinker. You should check it out.

Floor adventures, the finale

Painting the trim

Floor adventures, part 3

The boxes taking up the living room. Good thing Spen took care of
this while I was at work. Carrying those up 3 flights of stairs would've
been the complete opposite of fun.

Spen leaving his mark on the floor

Sharing my wisdom with the future owners of apt #11

Late-night movie with TT

So thankful for nights like these... just me and mom
hanging out at the Esquire in Clifton at 10pm.
Because she's a cool hipster like that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for all of these crazy blonde women
who happen to look a lot like me :)

I want this.

Random highlighter yellow nail polish

Floor adventures, part 2

Floor Adventures, part 1

Put in a laminate wood floor over the past few days. Here are some highlights.

Part 1= fail. We ended up getting this far after
the first night of work but had to rip it up the next day
because we didn't realize we needed to put padding down first.

Refreshed

A quote my friend sent me. "Her" is Israel in this passage.
Reminded me of God's faithfulness and steadfastness. 

Cru Staff Conference 2012

I spent this past weekend at Great Wolf lodge for Cru's fall staff conference... and it was so refreshing. I was able to hear from great speakers, had the opportunity to reconnect with lots of friends from all over the region, and played in a waterpark on Sunday! One of the highlights was getting to hang with my fellow staff friends from Wildwood Summer Project (Lori and Penny) for a few hours reconnecting on life, celebrating new love, and processing inevitable change. The time went by way too quickly and yet it was so sweet and much-needed.

Hanging in the lobby w/ Lori and Penny.
They are pretty amazing.

2nd Family Thanksgiving

I feel like this picture sums up our friendship well

Breaking Dawn Part 2. So. Good. Right Liz? :)

This is my mom- the precious woman
who thought the movie started at midnight
and was willing to sit in the theater for 2.5 hours.
I, however, knew the movie started at 10 which is
why we arrived at 9:30 :)

Liz tries to pretend like she doesn't like the Twilight series.
But she definitely does.

More of the cats...

Verbal, sitting at the scene of the crime
because he doesn't understand simple
social cues that normal cats are aware of

Anders giving his mommy kisses
from the fridge-top

Oh, hi cute baby!!

He is so awesome.

Halloween Flashback: $2 "boo-ritos" from Chipotle. Sign me up.

Adventures at Bridgewater: Hibachi and shopping. Doesn't get much better than that :)

Wreaking havoc in Bed Bath & Beyond

Happy Birthday Hilary!

Borrowed this from Liz's instagram :)
It perfectly captured the joy that was this random
German game we played at the end of the night.

Girl's night

Friday, Liz and I joined my mom and her high school friends (not her friends from when she was in high school... but her friends who are currently of the ages 15-16) for a girl's night. We had a lovely dinner at Red Robin and then headed back to our house for a viewing of... wait for it... The Amazing Spiderman. I do actually really enjoy that movie but since I have to get up bright and early these days, I fell asleep about 45 minutes into the movie. Lame.

Mellow Mushroom

Last Thursday, I had a sleepover at my parents' house since Dad was out of town and Mom and I wanted to have some girl time. We checked out the new pizza place in West Chester called Mellow Mushroom and it was fantastic. I ordered the buffalo chicken pizza... obviously, since I'm on quite the buffalo chicken kick these days.

Cinnamon Ice Cream!!!

Jenny and I finally made some homemade cinnamon ice cream in her ice cream maker the other night and it was so delicious... even better than I was expecting. And I was expecting it to be pretty good, so that's saying a lot. I then found it necessary to chop up 4 dove dark chocolate pieces and put those in there too. See below.

Mmm Wendy's

I ate Wendy's for dinner the other day because Liz had lots of coupons that were about to expire. In high school, the guy I dated worked at Wendy's so we ate there ALL of the time but since moving to Oxford, my Wendy's adventures have been few and far between. It was nice to re-visit the deliciousness.

High school flashback, September 2005. Oh, to be 16 again :)

Intrigued

While facebook-stalking some random friends last night, I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said "People of the Second Chance" and I was instantly intrigued. I began googling like crazy and looking through the organization's website, www.potsc.com. There are so many incredible stories but this particular blog post really caught my attention. You should give it a read.

LIVING LIFE BRAVELY

7 Comments | October 12th, 2012 8:56 am

By Leanne Penny

There I stood in the chilly October air, orphaned at 28.  The mother of a bouncy little girl with a son on the way.  A pregnant woman with frozen feet standing on the side of her Mother’s grave, watching as the lowered the casket into the ground.  I remember climbing into our mini van and wondering “now what?!” with a heavy soul as we wound our way out of the cemetery. 

My mother had just taken her life and my father had died suddenly from a massive heart attack about 5 years earlier.  As we made the long drive back from West Michigan to our home in Oklahoma, I had no clue how to navigate life parentless. How would I manage to live life bravely when my own mother had disappeared under the pressure of it all?

She struggled with depression and a heavy soul, something that I am no stranger to.  She fell off the deep end after her second child, the precise place that I found myself that day.

It would be simple to allow myself to be crushed under the weight of this burden, this pain. To believe that as it was with my mother, so it would be with me.  It was so tempting to buy into the crippling fear that I would abandon these two beautiful children too early. Leave them to navigate stormy seas, alone.

The one and only thing that saved me was to cling to hope and a deep belief in a light that never faded. I devoted my life to intentional healing and a strong desire to keep living.  I wept, hugely pregnant in the bathtub and read my daughter her bedtime stories while my soul begged for the tenacity to keep living.

As the days and weeks passed, I began to see my grief as a tunnel — a very long, deeply dark tunnel that I had to cross through.  My hope often flickered, yet it never faded.  I knew that if I kept healing, kept my eyes on the soft light of hope, that I could live bravely and parent my own children beautifully.  Deep down I believed that my mother’s fate was not inevitably mine, that history was not bound to repeat itself.

I see my little family of four as a new start, one laden with hope and potential.  Although behind me is a painful past, I truly believe that my life is one of redemption and restoration.  There are still days that I feel the darkness of depression around the corners of my psyche. I am forever altered by the loss of my parents.  Yet I am brave, I am intrepid and I hold my story aloft with open hands and beg the one greater than I to use, redeem and restore it.

I pray that I am one who keeps moving forward in all waters, both stormy and glassy calm.  I pray for a strong soul that fight to keep living.

Song Obsession #20

"Tonight you just close your eyes

And I watch you slip away

How close am I to losing you?"

Go Cards!

Colerain kicked some St. X butt in football on Saturday to move on to the second round of playoffs... and it was pretty impressive.

A surprisingly relaxing Friday evening

I spent my Friday evening building this:

And it was actually REALLY nice to have a chill evening where I had zero plans except to sit on my floor and put together a nightstand while listening to a pretty awesome 8 tracks playlist.

More Ikea adventures

Two Thursdays ago, Dad and I went BACK to Ikea to make a final decision on the dresser and nightstand my parents were buying me as an early Christmas present. I landed on black/brown (which mostly looks black) because I like the whole "dark furniture" look.  But it is pretty exciting to finally own a dresser... I've been stacking my clothes in piles on the floor for the past few months which Mom did not approve of. So, needless to say, that is where the idea of the new dresser came in to play.

Snow Day!... not really but it sure seemed like one :)

Making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins!

That was the hardest pumpkin to slice in half.
Nice work Liz.

Kitten in the recycling bin

Look at that precious face

A Monday afternoon trip to Butterfield farms

Picking pumpkins in preparation for the epic
pumpkin-chocolate-chip muffin baking extravaganza 

Also. Took this random pic on my way home from school.
Doesn't it look like there's no one driving that car!? Haha

A Softball Sunday

The other day, I tossed softball with a friend after church and it was pretty great. I hadn't thrown in like 3 months and it felt nice to hold a glove again. To look back on my more extensive thoughts on softball, go here.

Redemption

A couple of years ago, I attempted carving a softball in the side of my pumpkin. It did not turn out so well. This year, however, was a different story.

what a beauty

Friday Fun

A couple of Fridays ago, Liz and I ordered some take-out from Krishna, went to see Argo and made a quick stop at a friend's birthday party (Liz's first house party in about a decade :)

- Krishna was delicious as always. It was a very impromptu food decision. The convo went as follows: 

Me: I'm hungry. Krishna?

Liz: Yes. Wait. (Thinks for a minute). Yes.

- I'd been wanting to see Argo for awhile so, to make sure I was informed before seeing the movie, I spent a solid hour google-ing the Iran hostage crisis. The movie was super intense and stressful... I was on edge the whole time. But it was so good and totally worth it. And Ben Affleck is a very attractive man so that was a nice bonus.

Krishna flashback

Loving Thursdays this year

Every Thursday evening, I get to hang with my parents for a few hours and it's been so nice to have consistent time with them each week. A few Thursday's ago, when the weather was abnormally awesome for the end of October, my mom and I took a little stroll around the neighborhood and then ate her amazing white chicken chili for din. Afterwards, Dad and I hung out at Ikea scoping out some possible dresser/nightstand options (more on that later). But I must say, it was a pretty great almost-ending to the week.

It's seriously so convenient that this
gem is only about 5 minutes from my parents' house

A recap of Wed, Oct 24- afternoon nap, softball, Chipotle and an incredible sunny day

Because of the gorgeous weather a few weeks ago, I opted to join my former club softball team for one of their outdoor practices... and it was pretty awesome.

And then I ate a Chipotle burrito bowl with lots of guacamole and it was delicious.

One of the best parts about teaching high school= eating cafeteria food every day. I'm not joking. I seriously love that stuff.

Chicken Rings!! With mac n' cheese!!

Jenny cleaning my moldy food out of the fridge.
 I rarely eat anything I buy from the store
because school lunch is just too tempting to pass up.

My cat likes to attack my feet from under the door when I'm going to the bathroom. He doesn't understand the concept of privacy.

He has emotional issues
and doesn't like to be separated
from me for any period of time

But at least he understands the importance of hard work
and was willing to help us re-do the floors in the bedroom.