Beatlsluvr's Xanga

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:27:04 GMT

OK, I know I never write here on my blog anymore. And this is a silly reason for a random post...but I am a sucker for contests and free stuff. I entered a contest to win a SleepNumber bed and I have to post this link on my blog, so here you go (feel free to enter yourself! These beds are amazing...):

Moving forward...

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:27:34 GMT

After several months of evaluating options and job searching, Nate got the news last week that he has a job in Chicagoland! Thanks to our wonderful friend David Chambers, Nate will be working at Christianity Today as a Marketing Coordinator. It has all happened really fast - he accepted the position last Monday and promptly gave his two weeks notice at his current job. He found temporary housing with a friend of mine a few days later and worked out more long term housing with a college friend starting June 1st. He has wrapped up things in Minneapolis and will be moving here this weekend. Wow! After 6 months of a long distance relationship, we are thrilled and excited at the prospect of living in the same town and getting to do everyday things together. Seeing each other consistently and sharing in each other's daily lives should be a wonderful blessing and these past 6 months will help us to not take these "everyday things" for granted.

Here are photos from some other recent highlights from life...

Riding the train in Minneapolis Easter weekend.

Last week, I had a short 2-day trip to Cancun to check out a hotel for an upcoming event. It was gorgeous there...this was the view from my balcony.

On Sunday, I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8K in downtown Chicago! There were many Wheaties in town for a little reunion we planned and 6 of us ran it together. I clocked in at 52:40 and successfully raised $590 for World Vision.

This past weekend was a great reunion with college friends. Here we all are at Chris and Rebecca's house, who leave the area April 22nd to travel the US and then head back to Africa.

By the way... I have mixed feeling on the book I'm currently reading, Eat, Pray Love. It's been a best seller and its the story of a woman's personal and spiritual journey as she travels around the world. Not sure how I feel about her methods for seeking "spirituality" and the conclusions she is reaching...but it is giving me an interesting perspective, I suppose.

Thanks for reading!

Great Fiction

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:01:36 GMT

Every once in awhile, I get on a reading kick and I spend a lot of time reading great, fun fiction books. I love getting lost in a novel, similar to the way I enjoy getting caught up in a fictional movie plot or television show. It's a relaxing way to escape and give my imagination a work out... I've recently read some great novels, as well as had some recommended to me. Here are some of the best books I've read over the last year or so...

The Time Traveler's Wife

An amazingly innovative plot about a time traveling man... As the reader, you jump around in time as well, catching glimpses of the main character's life. It sounds far fetched but that does not in any way hinder the story's effectiveness. It leads you to try and piece everything together and centers around an amazing love story.

The Life of Pi

I technically listening to this audio book when I was training for a half marathon last year, rather than actually reading it. It's a compelling story about a boy who gets lost at sea, the adventures he encounters, and how he tells his story.

The Kite Runner

This book was recently made into a movie, but of course, the book is much better in its detail and the depth of the characters it portrays. It tells the story of a young boy and how guilt from his childhood affects him for the rest of his life...and the power of friendship. I could hardly put it down.

Water for Elephants

This book recounts the life of a circus veterinarian and it jumps back and forth between the main character in his twenties and as an old man in his 90s. I was so drawn in to this book that I read the last 150 pages in one sitting.

A Thousand Spendid Suns (currently reading)

Another book by Khaled Hosseini, the same author as The Kite Runner. He is an amazing storyteller and I am thoroughly entrenched in this novel right now. It tells the compelling story of two women in Afghanistan and how their lives collide in the most unexpected ways.

And here are a few I just checked out of the library to read...

Eat, Pray, Love (This book has been widely popular recently and I've heard mixed reviews on it. Some people absolutely love it, but I had a friend who was really frustrated by the book. So I'm curious...)

This Is Not the Life I Ordered (This was recommended to me by an older woman who said she wished she had read it when she was my age.)

So, blog readers, if you have a moment...what have been some of the best fiction novels you've ever read? Feel free to comment with your favorites!

Long Overdue Update...

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:27:01 GMT

Oops! So I guess it's been two months since I wrote anything on my blog. Sometimes I forget it exists, sometimes I get pretty busy, sometimes I'm not sure anyone really reads it...and this was perhaps a combination of all those things. December was busy (as the Christmas season always tends to be) and then starting Christmas, I believe I was actually in Illinois and staying at home for a total of 6 days before I got back from my last trip this past Sunday. I'm worn out (and sick...) but I'm catching up on life. And, therefore, I'm writing.

The holidays were wonderful. Nate came home with me for Christmas and it was great to have him there. My family was very welcoming and it was nice to be together for 6 whole days in a row! (Oh, the woes of long distance relationships...) We spent a great day in NYC, which he had never visited before, and we had lots of great times with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law and their kids.

Self portrait of Nate and I outside my parent's house.

My neice and nephew doing a magic show with the "My First Magic Set" that I got Kylie for Christmas.

Tyler on Christmas day when we were taking a walk on the beach (wearing my hat).

I got to enjoy a few days with my great roommates from senior year. Sarah was in the country from Moscow and Cori flew out to join us. It was so much fun! You'll notice in the pics that Rebecca is pretty pregnant... She just had her baby this past Tuesday and he is absolutely adorable!

Craziness tends to ensure when we get together :)

Hanging out in Rebs' house!

Then I flew up to Minneapolis for New Year's and Nate and I hopped around to a bunch of celebrations... January was full of business trips, a weekend out in CT (after a client meeting nearby), and an event for work in Las Vegas with a weekend in Minneapolis tacked on to the end. I am so thankful my job enables me to travel to see the people I care about!

Since I've been so busy, I feel like I haven't had a lot of time to stop and rest and process. This past week and the next few, I hope to spend more time in prayer and more time connecting with friends here and more time taking care of myself. It should be rejuvenating.

Thankfulness and Family

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:05:48 GMT

This year, I am spending Thanksgiving with my family in Atlanta at my brother's house. As I reflected on what to be thankful for while we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner around the table, I was struck by how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. Not only do we love and support each other, but everyone knows and loves the Lord. What a rare gift. And it's such a blessing to watch my brother and sister and their spouses pass down that legacy of faith to their children - a faith that is shared by our grandparents and parents, as well. I am so thankful.

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. "

- Psalm 100: 4 - 5

This morning, we took our annual family photo to send out with Christmas cards.

And of course, a few photos with the kids.

We took this funny faces photo at the request of the kids :)

Here's me and Meg on Thursday night, making s'mores over the fireplace. (You could say we're the two red heads in the family, but hers is natural...)

Update!

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:23:51 GMT

Wow, it's been awhile since I wrote anything here. Life has been busy, but that's certainly no excuse, because life is always busy. Since Ariah started a great trend of giving updates via a bulleted list of information, I think I will follow suit (especially since making lists is practically a way of life for me). Here is my life right now...

I'm still enjoying attending Church of the Resurrection, which I started going to after Great Shepherd started going downhill. I'm now singing on the worship team and loving it.
I have been gone from Chicago for the last 3 weekends - end of October I visited my grandparents in Ohio and came home with a great gas grill...last weekend, I went camping in Devil's Lake, Wisconsin (the leaves were so beautiful!!) and this weekend I'm in Arizona.
I'll be out of town for the next 3 weekends, as well! I'm in Scottsdale right now for a business trip (see photos below), then I'm off the Minneapolis to visit Nate for 3 days. The following weekend, I'll be with family in Atlanta for Thanksgiving. After that, my friend Emily (co-worker and all-around cool person) and I are driving to Indiana to visit a former co-worker at Taylor University. Lot's of travel, as always...
I love autumn and I over the last few months, I've baked pumpkin pie, bread, cookies and muffins. I've also enjoyed a lot of time looking at the leaves at the Morton Arboretum.
My job has been slow lately....I hate being bored and like to be challenged, so this is not a good thing. It's been leading me to rethink a lot of things and the direction of my "career".
I'm running out of things to say and need to get back to work.

Here are some photos I took this morning at the resort I'm staying at for work. It's absolutely beautiful here - great weather, shining sun, palm trees...gotta love it. And my hotel room is really posh. I'm not complaining about this gig.

Waiting...

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 03:25:58 GMT

I wrote this last week, but never got around to posting it. I was going to find a quote from a book I read recently to go along with it, but I was never able to find one that really summed up what I was trying to say. But here are my thoughts, nonetheless...

Do you ever feel like you’re waiting for your life to really start? Like you are just biding your time where you are, anticipating that somehow, someday, things will really come together? Sometimes, I feel that way.

I really enjoy my job. It’s a great fit for me – it’s challenging and stimulating, it allows me to be creative and work with wonderful people, it taps into the “planner” in me, and most of the time, it’s full of variety. Lots of good things. But somehow, that’s not enough.

I love my church. Though I haven’t been there long, it’s a place where I can grow and be challenged in my faith. I love my small group from Harvest – a great group of women and a place where I can be totally comfortable and vulnerable. And I love my family and friends – I am blessed to know and love so many wonderful people. But somehow, that’s not enough.

Somehow, I feel like while working and living my life, I’m just waiting for something to happen. I suppose that, in a sense, we’re supposed to feel this way because that’s how God made us. We are made with a deep longing for something beyond what this world has to offer. But aside from that, I still think there is something that is holding me back from truly experiencing life.

So what am I waiting for? A specific call from God to take a leap of faith? Perhaps to do something radical, to move overseas or go into full-time ministry? Or am I just waiting out my time as a single person, thinking that life will “really start” once I have the opportunity to get married and raise a family? I’m not sure what it is I am waiting for – maybe all of these things. Whatever it is, I don’t want to wait around to live my life. I want to live it right now. I want to have no regrets – to live a life of abandon – and to be able to look back one day and be thankful that I took risks, served God, and am the better for it.

Slow day at work = time for reflection

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:34:54 GMT

I’ve noticed a trend. God knows me. (Obviously.) And He knows that the best way to get my attention is to bombard me from all sides. Because of my propensity to keep myself way too busy (something I am constantly trying to work on…), I am very good at letting my busy-ness distract me from being still and hearing God’s voice. This is not a particularly good skill to have. So, when He is trying to teach me something, He makes sure that He speaks to me from so many different avenues that there is no way I can avoid it. For example…

A few weeks ago, a close friend who has observed me in a variety of situations and who knows me quite well shared with me in a brutally honest but loving tone that he thinks I worry too much about what other people think of me. At first, I was a bit thrown off by his comment. I thought, “Do I really worry about how others perceive me more than everyone else does? I can’t believe he thinks that about me. Do other people think that about me, too? Oh my gosh, I don’t want to be known as someone who is insecure. I better stop acting like that.” Notice something? I was doing it. Rather than being open to his comment and seeing it as an opportunity for growth, I immediately began harboring a desire to fix the problem for the wrong reasons. I was more concerned about how I looked to other people than the fact that perhaps this was an unhealthy way to live.

After my friend offered up his observation and I gave it some thought, I was confronted with it again in my small group bible study. Here’s the part where God sends me a message from multiple angles so I can’t avoid it. I’ve been reading A. W. Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God” and every week has been wonderfully challenging and thought-provoking. The week after I began contemplating this subject, I read a chapter on “Meekness and Rest” and Tozer addressed this very issue. Much of the focus of the chapter was about avoiding artificiality and the desire to pursue the esteem of others. He hit the nail on the head; so many of us are so concerned about what other people think of us and place so much importance on being viewed as great in the eyes of the world that we forget that, instead, we should have an audience of one – our Heavenly Father. In reality, none of us deserve esteem of any kind. Without God’s grace, we are totally helpless. Tozer writes:

"[The meek man] knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows the same time that he is, in the sight of God, more important than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything."

Acknowledging our weakness should not be cause for more insecurity. Rather, it should lead us to have God as the source of our confidence, rather than our own talents, skills, looks, power, money or anything else that the world values. When our hope, worth and true value comes from God alone, there is no longer a need to worry so much about being the center of attention, having co-workers look up to you for your intelligence or friends admire you for your great fashion sense or enigmatic personality.

I do worry a lot about what other people think of me. In fact, just writing this makes me wonder how anyone who reads it will think or react. But God doesn’t want me to live with the burden of perfectionism or the pressure of pleasing everyone. Instead, He wants me to remember that I am His beloved, that I should be thankful for who He has created me to be, and that ultimately, my value comes from His sacrifice, love and grace. It’s a daily battle. Baby steps, my friends…

13.1 miles

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:21:44 GMT

On Sunday, I am proud to say that I successfully completed the Chicago Half Marathon. This is probably one of the accomplishments in my life that I am most proud of and despite the work it took to train and prepare for, as well as complete the run, it was very VERY worth it. The feeling of immense joy I had as I crossed the finish line and was handed my medal made the previous 13 miles seem like a blur. I'm not an emotional person, but I nearly teared up. Talk about a natural high...it was awesome.

I clocked in at 2:20, which is approx. 10:40 min/mile. This is a fairly slow pace for most runners, but I was really happy with my time. It was a little faster than what I averaged in my training and I didn't stop to walk. My hip started hurting at mile 8 and the last few miles were definitely the hardest, but family and friends that were cheering for me from the sidelines made it much easier, as did my ipod playlist with great music and the end of a good audio book. Partially for my own enjoyment, I also made a couple short phone calls and sent a few text messages from my phone while I was running. I think the runners around me thought I was weird for doing this and I got a kick out of that. :)

Here are some photo highlights from the race. The rest are posted - http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatlsluvr/sets/72157601938604793/

I was still smiling pretty enthusiastically at mile 3.5

Waving to my friend Suz, trying to get her attention before she missed me in the crowd...

According to Suz's sign she made for me, I am a "1/2 marathon machine". I love it!

Kissing my medal (which I have now termed "my precious"...)

(Side note: Just so you all know, every participant got a medal. We were all winners. I'm definitely not at the level of winning anything...)

Yay for supporters! Thanks, Allison and Suz!

And thanks to Allison, Charlie and Barb (not pictured) for giving me a place to stay the night before and coming out to support me!

Labor Day Weekend

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:26:07 GMT

Someone recently told me that blogs are much more interesting when people post pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So in lieu of trying describing in detail all of the thoughts swarming around in my head or all of the things going on in my life right now, here are some recent photos...

My Birthday!

I celebrated my 24th bday last Friday with friends from my Harvest small group. We all enjoyed some yummy Coldstone ice cream and then went back to my place for games.

Suz bought me Apples to Apples for my birthday...such a great game :)

Nate & Emily Manaen!

The next morning, I headed up to Minneapolis to attend Nate Manaen & Emily Whitmore's wedding. It was a beautful ceremony & celebration, and a great time with Wheaton friends. Weddings are a great excuse for a reunion...

The photo below was an attempt at a Wheaton group photo, but a few people got cut out on the right side :( So sad!

The Brown House guys (minus Joel)...

On their way to the honeymoon!