Monday, September 27, 2010

help!

So, last weekend I went on a vintage hunt, and one of the things I came back with are these crazy and fabulous vintage earrings.


I'm trying to list them on my store right now, but I have no idea what to title them! May I enlist the creative muses of my fellow lurking bloggers?

I need you! Don't let me down. :)


an unlucky hour

We went out tonight to Trader Joe's to pick up some groceries. When we got back, I noticed a mighty speedy and large bug running around our floor. Paul proceeded to find a way to kill it. First choice: broom. We looked all over the house and then realized we don't have a broom because we didn't pack our old one. Paul resorted to chasing the insect around the house with his Chaco's for the next 20 minutes--this bug must have been from the grasshopper family because it could jump.

I went outside to sit on the doorstep until the deed was done. I couldn't stand to watch it running around everywhere any longer. So I'm sitting there in the dim evening, looking around, and I notice something hanging from the staircase in front of me. Then I notice it's a bike lock. Our bike lock. Alone. And no bikes. Someone had cut through our bike lock and stolen both our bikes. I run back inside to a room full of displaced furniture and my husband with a sandal in his hand exclaiming, "I got it!" Told him that our bikes were gone. That sucks.

We moved all the furniture back, and I went to do the dishes and mourn the loss of our bikes. I had just bought my bike a month ago, and Paul's was worth over $300. Paul came later, and started drying. I put a glass cup in the rack and it somehow falls out and breaks on the counter, cutting Paul's hand in two places, and splattering blood on his khaki shorts. "Spousal abuse! Spousal abuse!"

Hopefully that will be all the bad luck we have tonight. :)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

my other husband

Jesus is my STRENGTH! We've been here for two weeks, and already God has used this change to get ahold of my attention. I am so thankful! I have been so concentrated on getting a job, but how many times have I stopped and PRAYED about it? When I realized this, and started praying about it, over and over I just kept realizing how it doesn't even matter! I feel like for so long I've put my hope in money...striving for meaningless things. But what life is that. It's dead. And I am so glad that God has been teaching me! He disciplines those he LOVES! There is such a freedom in waiting in trust that he loves, and knows, and will take care. What do I have to worry about? He knows the number of hairs on my head...he takes care of the birds of the air...he CARES! How amazing that the God of this entire world is thinking about ME! It is such a deep affection he has.

The other day, I found a journal of mine from 2006-2007. I couldn't believe the things I wrote in it...how off I was about the future. Even things I had written about guys...and thinking about future marriage. I had no clue of God's plan! It just made me want to trust all the more in him, and give everything over to him more. I am so glad I didn't go with my plans for the future! Oh God, am I glad! There was only one thing I can think of that was in God's plan that I wrote about:

April 20, 2007 (About 2 months before I met Paul)

"Tonight I prayed that since 'It is not good for a man to be alone'... God, make my man not alone anymore, and introduce me to him!"

Hahaha! I laughed out loud when I read that because two months later, God answered my prayer!!! Journals are so great for realizing what God has done. I haven't kept a consistent journal for a year or two now. Maybe I should start again. I guess this blog is pretty much a journal.

Anyways, I'm just feeling like God and I are having a much needed reunion! Forget the cares of this world, people! He is everything!

The other MAJOR realization I had this week, was that I'm not going to be married in heaven. Duh, right? But seriously, think about it!!! I'm not going to be married to Paul in heaven. I'm going to be married to Jesus! In fact, I already AM married to Jesus. Oh, but I haven't hardly talked to Jesus for these last few weeks. Hmm. That's not a very good marriage. In fact, that resembles more of a "separated" marriage. A dying marriage. I can't believe I've been married to Jesus this whole time, and treating him like this! Holy crap! I'm a jerk. Can you imagine being married to someone, and your spouse didn't realize she was married? I'd say there's some major communication issues, if that was the case.

Prayer and God-time is different when you're married. You don't have as much natural alone time--you have to consciously seek time to be alone with God. I am so easily distracted with life, it's very difficult to actually make myself alone. I like being around people, so it's extra hard to isolate myself. But that's what Jesus did. Poor guy, everyone in the town was following him around, and he was still able to find alone time with God! Wow! He climbed up a mountain in the middle of the night to pray, didn't he? God is worth it, that's why!

Friday, September 17, 2010

dream

Last night I had a dream that I had a really cute baby girl! Haha! She had really big cheeks, and never cried. Whenever I have baby dreams, I always dream that I forget to bring a camera to the hospital and don't get any pictures of the baby just born. I also dreamt that I forgot to get the baby's weight.

Anyways, in the dream, I was walking with my mom somewhere and we had a lot of luggage we were carrying with us. Suddenly, this creepy guy comes up to me (with icky teeth), and asks if he could hold my baby. I said, "No!" and hurriedly walked away. Then we got to a safe place on the street, and I looked at my baby, and realized for the first time how precious and helpless and dependent on me she was. And what a gift God had given me. It was a spiritual and emotional experience, even as a dream.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Why being a vegetarian is the most environmental thing you can do!

Paul and I recently found a really interesting website about the effects eating meat has on the environment. Check it out here.

Basically, when you think about all the resources that go into raising an animal for meat...it's enormous! And when the average person eats 176 pounds of meat per year....that is a lot of waste happening.

Check out the chart on the website for water usage alone...

It shows the number of GALLONS of water used to produce ONE POUND of these various foods.

Pretty shocking. Even passing on the beef would reduce waste by far.

Monday, September 06, 2010

Update from Pasadena

We made it to Pasadena yesterday! We left Washington on the 1st, and stayed the night at Paul's grandma's house in Corvallis, OR...then drove all the way down to San Fran area to Paul's other grandparents' house in Hillsborough, CA the next day. We spent three nights there hanging out with them, and Paul's aunt's family, then made the final trek down to Pasadena yesterday morning.

I was so curious to see what our apartment would look like because I hadn't seen ANY pictures of it, except from what we could see on google earth of the outside. All we had seen besides that was the floor plan, but no actual pictures of the place. So as we opened the door Paul said, "Let's see where we're going to live for at least the next 6 months!"

And I must say it is better than I expected! It's bigger than anything we've had before (which isn't much! haha). The carpet looks new, and looks like there is new paint. There is bathroom counter space--OMG! And drawers and shelves and a mirror shelf--GAH! For some reason we've never lived in a place where the bathroom had any storage whatsoever. So. This is a big deal. The kitchen has more space than we've ever had before, too, so that is super awesome as well. We have cupboards and drawers now that we don't have anything to fill them with!

Anyway, you get the idea. I freaked out like this for a while. Did I mention, we have a pool? It's small, but it goes to eight feet deep, so it doesn't seem so small.

We've meet a couple people so far. There are a lot of Koreans! I don't know if it's just in our complex or what, but the majority of people I've seen are Korean! (Liz, you should tell your dad that--lots to pick from! :P )

They don't have free toilet paper like they do at Taylor, so yesterday we went on a hunt to get TP! I really had to go. We drove around for a while and got lost. Eventually plugged in the GPS to find a Trader Joes--because we knew one existed here. Got there. No parking. I got out to run to the toilet. Phew. Now to buy toilet paper. No toilet paper. Bought a bunch of other yummy healthy stuff. Went to find a new grocery store. Saw a Whole Foods. Went into their PRIVATE UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE. Found parking. Went in. Had to go up an elevator to the other half of the store. Found TP. Found TP that was $5 for 4 rolls. Went back down the elevator without TP. Left the parking garage, and kept driving. Found a place called Ralphs. Wasn't sure if it was a grocery store. Went in to their normal parking lot. Went in. Normal grocery store. Found TP! Bought TP $6.29 for 12 rolls that say they are actually 24 rolls. Signed up for a Ralphs Club Card. Went home. Had to go again.
Moral of the story: Taylor is smart and nice for having free TP.