Where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going

I love days like today!
Great day at work
AMAZING weather
Perfect run
Good laughs
Tasty dinner
and (the best thing of all) Cadbury Mini Eggs... life is good!

Strength Finder disappointment

Every heard of Strength Finder? It's this cleaver little test that you take and according to the way you answer the questions, it determines your top 5 strengths. Very nifty little thing. I took it about 2 years ago, and was very pleased with my top strengths. I felt they represented me well: Empathy, Includer, Woo, Positivity, Developer. All of these things stand true to who I am... knowing these strengths helped me to understand so much about myself, and the way I work with others. So here I am, two years later, taking the a variation of this same quiz, and come to find out my strengths have changed. Now, I don't know if it's normal or not, but I'm kind of disappointed with my new strengths. Honestly, I don't feel like they make any sense! I don't even really know what to make of them... and why did my other strengths, my strengths that made SENSE, change? Tomorrow, at Life Group we're supposed to discuss our strengths... I think I might lie, and just tell them my old ones :) Is that so wrong?? My new ones are boring and kind of lame in comparison... Maybe I'll just retake the test and cheat...

Frustration.

I'm feeling frustrated.
I'm feeling frustrated by people who have nothing positive to say. By people who really have no consideration or compassion. By people who are unappreciative and quick to judge. By people with poor attitudes and even poorer character.

I'm feeling frustrated by life's circumstances that continue to keep me up late at night writing endless papers about why P.E. is so darn important, and about how to teach a class of first graders how to sing a silly song about elephants, and about the different types of conflict in education. Isn't conflict just conflict? Seriously, why does it need so many sub-categories?

I'm feeling frustrated by the e-mails that are piling up in my inbox, waiting to be returned. If only I had more time. If only I didn't have to work and go to school and this and that and the other thing.

Oh, and I know what some of you are thinking... "well, you don't have kids to raise... you've got it EASY!"
I beg to differ.

All I really want to do is run. In all honesty, that's it. I want to strap on my running shoes, and hit the trail. That's how I channel this frustration. But, seeing as it's 10:00 at night, this blog will have to do for now. Until the sun shines again, and the new day shows it's glorious face...
So I'm feeling frustrated by life. Frustrated by people. Frustrated by the darkness that steals my running from me. Why can't I just have two more hours of daylight? Is that so much to ask?

Fact #84

It's Wednesday, and I'm back to the land of the living! The past three days have consisted of DayQuil, NyQuil, cough drops, orange juic, kleenex, chicken noodle soup, and sleep. Lots of sleep. I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't get the throwing-up-for-24-hours sickness. I just got the no-voice-hacking-cough-runny-nose-body-ache sickness. Big difference.

Anyhow, God's been doing some crazy stuff in me lately. He's been reminding me of the life I lived before Him, and the people who have helped me in my journey so far. I love how He does that, how He humbles us. That's exactly what He did on Sunday night... crazy story. That's for another blog.

This blog is to proclaim that I'm pretty awful at blogging. I get GREAT ideas for blogs, but the second I sit down in front of my computer, I freeze up. My mind seizes, goes blank... you get the idea. SO, I've decided to go a different route with my blog. I'm a real big fan of random and useless information. A REAL big fan. My main source of this useless information comes from the lids of Snapple cans. I'm not a huge fan of Snapple itself, so I just look the info up on the internet. I know, I'm a cheater. Oh well. So, here's my first useless face, and surely not my last.

Snapple fact #84 Oysters can change genders back and forth.

Who knew??!!

Do you like APPLES??

The game Apples-to-Apples that is. When I was first introduced to this game (by my dear sweet mother) I thought it was THE single most boring game ever invented. I was convinced I would never enjoy one single moment of playing such a pointless and poorly-crafted game. HOWEVER, that was about 2 years ago. This past trip home (to Arcata) for Christmas break, my mom, being the patience and kind soul she is, begged me to give the game another shot. Long story short, I gave it another shot, and have been totally hooked ever since! I even "accidentally" stuffed the game into my suit case, and kidnapped it back to Redding. If you've never played Apples-to-Apples, you've never really lived! (ha, well okay, it's not THAT amazing, but it's a great game!!) Seriously though, this game is great for anybody! I highly recommend it (obviously) and will gladly open my home to any other takers. I think I might just have to organize a group to play this weekend... who's in?!?!

Ponder this...

So, Kris Vallotton spoke on Sunday evening at the Stirring. He had a ton to say, but I wanted to share one thing that really rocked me:
We will do for money what we won't do for love.

It's so true! We will honor our bosses because THEY provide us with a pay check. With money in our pocket. But we won't honor spiritual leaders, mothers and fathers. We'll do for MONEY what we won't do for LOVE.

Erase the Dark 2009

Erase the Dark is the Stirring's annual music, art and film festival. Last year we bought every single child at Cypress Elementary School a backpack with the proceeds. This year we're buying them shoes. I don't think some people understand how amazing this is. A pair of shoes for every child. It gets me so excited. Some of these kids have gone YEARS without a new pair of shoes. I can't wait to show up at Cypress with tons of shoe boxes, and see tons of smiles. God has given me such a burning passion for children. For the children overlooked by society. For the children without a voice. The children who are forced into poverty. I continue to hear God's voice developing this passion in me. Erase the Dark is such a tangible way for people to give back to the overlooked children in our community. I'm so excited.

Friday March 6th.
7:00 pm
It's going to be amazing.
Think of all the smiles...