Row, Row Row Your Boat

Today I went on a canoe trip with my small group from church. There were 10 of us that travelled to Indiana to mosey down a river together. The water was very low, so sometimes, moseying really meant getting out of the canoe and walking to the next part of deeper water. It was a lot of fun. I didn't mention the trip to a lot of people beforehand because I knew all the teasing I would get. I'll agree that it's not my usual choice for a Saturday exursion. But I love my small group and I was up for the adventure from day one. Originally Alyssa and I were going to be partners. Until we realized that neither of us have been canoeing. Well, technically, I've been in a canoe before, but I just sat in the middle while two other people rowed the boat.  I had the great fortune of partnering with Diane.  I must say, I probably made her work too hard.  I just paddled however I wanted to and she did all the steering from the back.  But it worked.  And  I think she enjoyed the trip with me.  Here are a few pictures from the trip.  Unfortunately I was the only one with a camera, so there is no visual proof that I was on this trip with everyone else.  But I promise I was the photographer! 

Here we are stopping for a lunch break.  For some reason, it felt very Survivor-ish to me.  And I was reminded again that I would never make it on that show!

This picture (above) cracks me up because Nan did not realize I was taking it, even though it looks like he was posing.  He had just turned around from skipping rocks with the rest of the group.

Here is one of the most shallow places.  I think we all had to get out at one point in time to get our canoes going again.

None of us thought the river was ever deep enough to tip the canoe, but somehow Alyssa and Sarah managed the task just fine! :)

Sarah and Alyssa taking a break after we finished our trip.

The moral of the story: I would go again.  And I picked a great group to go merrily down the stream with.

Today I'm thankful for:

1. Air conditioning.2. That I have enough money to live in a place where there is central air (and not a window air conditioning unit or no air at all) and that I have enough money to make the apartment as cold as I want (or my roommate will allow).
3.  That I am not a man who has to wear a suit to work.
4.  That I am not 7-9 months pregnant.  Or pregnant at all.
5. Water.
6.  That I don't live in a place that is this hot all year round.
7.  That it is only 4-6 more months until everyone else is complaining about the cold and counting down to summer while I am lavishing in the cool air, sleeping with my windows open, and jolly (yes, that's right...I said jolly).

Happy ridiculously hot day to everyone! :)  See how good I have been about not complaining about the heat (unless you read this all as a very backwards complaint, but I really am thankful for all these things today!).

I'm declaring it my birthday month

I know that I am officially two days early, but I'll just cut off two days at the end of the month.  K? :)
Why am I ringing in my birthday month a few days early?  Because then I can justify these two purchases at Walmart tonight:

I don't usually like the dyed flowers, but these seemed fun to me.

And I couldn't pass up ice cream oreos.  After 3 cookies, I'm still trying to decide if I like them.  They definitely taste exactly like sherbet, which is kind of weird.  But also good.  Thus the conundrum.

Plus, Emily's birthday present to me is happening tomorrow.  She is taking me to see Nunsense at a local dinner theater.  I have fond memories of Nunsense from high school and am hoping that this performance only enhances those memories.

And, it's a week from my birthday, so I felt like it needed to be mentioned.

Slow to anger...great in power

I have been reading through the Bible for awhile now, and am currently reading the minor prophets.  Today I read the book of Nahum.  First, I found it interesting that the book of Nahum is about God's judgment against Ninevah.  Ninevah is the city that God sent Jonah to in order to preach repentance.   The Ninevites did repent, and God spared them from His wrath.  However, later, the Ninevites again turned from God and increased in wickedness.  And now God is ready to judge them for their wickedness.  Nahum 1:3 struck me in what I would consider an inconsistency in God's character: "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished."  How can God be both slow to anger AND great in power, punishing the guilty?  I can easily jump on board the "slow to anger" part because I want people to not get angered easily with me.  But "great in power" appears to be such a negative aspect, making me think of destruction and hard-handedness.  But the more I thought about it, the less I saw it as a contradiction.  First, I know that God does not contradict Himself, so I knew I had to evaluate further.  But then I started thinking about how much power it takes to be slow to anger.  God's power is demonstrated to me every time He shows me grace instead of the wrath I deserve for the sins I commit, for my disobedience, for when I choose the things of this world over the things of eternity.  God constantly shows His power through His restraint of justice in my life.  But this verse is also talking about how God shows His power through His justice.  God had given the Ninevites opportunity to repent and follow Him.  Even though He is slow to anger, it does not say that He does not get angry.  He withheld his justice from them once when they repented, but this time, His justice would be complete and the Ninevites would be completely destroyed.  One of the last verses of the book says, "Nothing can heal your wound; your injury is fatal."  Does God contradict Himself?  Nope. As hard as it is to understand, He is both merciful and just and I can trust that He knows when to be slow to anger and when to show His power through His justice.  I am so glad I serve a God I can trust and who loves me enough to demonstrate His power through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins so that I will not have to feel the full power of His wrath against my sin!  Praise Him!

July, in all its craziness

There are several things I am looking forward to in July.  I promise.  But can we take just a moment to not wish June away too quickly?  After all, crazy isn't always what it's cracked up to be!  I cannot believe that this year is almost half over.  Time sure does fly when you're having fun.  Or when you're just going through everyday, ordinary life.  But here are a few things I get to look forward to in July:
1. the 4th--one of my favorite holidays!  Which is literally followed by
2. the 5th--my very favorite holiday! :)  I'm slowly, but surely, getting into the birthday spirit.  I think.
3.  Not one, not two, but three weeks of working less then five days at work!
4. Snuggling with my nephews.
5.  A flight to Georgia with my aunt and mom.
6.  A road trip to the beach with my mom, aunt, brother, sis-in-law, and nephews.
7.  Chick-fil-a (not in Peoria) at least once (okay, who are we kidding, I better get it at least 3 times!)
8.  My birthday off (and subsequently a 5 day weekend.  Because I decided, I get the 4th off anyway, I refuse to work on my birthday, and it just seems silly to work on Friday).
9.  Dad, Amy, Daynah, and Josh, and five or six other boys coming to Peoria at the end of the month!
10.  I don't have anything else to add that I can think of, but I much prefer a nice well-rounded list! :)

It's all about the effect

And I'll admit I'm lacking effect.  I don't have the picture to back up this post, but I decided to post it anyway.  Today I drove by the place that I've known all along is the future site of the Chickfila.  But it's the first time that I saw the sign (heehee...I have the Ace of Base lyrics running through my head now) that confirmed it for me.  "Future Site of Chick-fil-a" in nice big red Chick-fil-a font.  It made me smile first thing in the morning.

But seriously...I can't get those lyrics out of my head now! :)

A Generational Correlation

I was having dinner with friends last night and we were talking about kids and cell phones.  And how early kids want cell phones and how early some kids get cell phones.  I was telling them the story about my 13 year old brother asking me when I got my first cell phone.  Ummm...college.  He didn't like that answer.  And then I tried to explain to him and his friend what a bag phone was (aka: car phone).  They didn't get it! :)  So, anyway, I was talking to my friends and we were talking about the old days.  You know, back in the day when no one had cell phones. One of my friends said that he begged his parents for a pager.  I forgot about pagers.  Then we were talking about how the equivalent to wanting a cell phone for our generation was wanting a phone in our rooms.  He was saying that his family had a wall phone with a cord that stretched all over the house. :)  Then I realized that I had a phone in my room earlier than a lot of my friends.  My head fell forward onto the table and I mumbled, "I probably would have been the 9 year old with a cell phone!"  Not really, at least I don't think my mom would have been that crazy! :)

#5 and #7 in action (aka: let's focus a little more on Emily's birthday)

A little continuation of the birthday extravaganza.
Emily and I went to dinner tonight.  I drove, which isn't really important except to set the stage.  While we were eating I told her that I thought we should go to Dairy Queen.  Before she could respond I informed her that since I was driving, we were going to Dairy Queen, but she could choose whether she got something or not.  So, off to Dairy Queen we went.  We approached the door (more stage setting...), and I opened it, only to have it slip out of my hand and slam into the side of the building.  Now, either my three "sessions" with Bob and one "session" with Billy (aka The Biggest Loser DVD and the Tae-Bo DVD) are giving me AMAZING results or the door was just lightweight.  You can choose.  But as we were focused on my spectacular door-opening skills, I missed that there was a slight step up into Dairy Queen and tripped into the store!  At this point Emily was laughing really hard (thus the #5 of her birthday list).  I told her I did it just for her!  And we debated whether I was taking after her just a little too much (thus the #7 from her birthday list).

Happy Birthday, Emily!

I felt today was deserving of a post all for Emily! Since it is her birthday.  And she kicks off the birthday season in our apartment! :)  Emily and I have not taken a lot of pictures with each other over the years, so here is one from a couple of years ago:

This summer will mark 4 years that Emily and I have lived together.  God has truly blessed me with wonderful roommates and Emily is certainly no exception.  Here are just a few things I love about Emily (in no particular order of importance):
1.  She has a true servant's heart.  I like to serve, but Emily will put a lot of comfort and her own agenda aside in order to serve.  As an example, today she is serving the youth lunch before they head to summer camp, even though it is her birthday!
2.  She loves her youth girls.  I love to watch her interact and shepherd them.  And I love to see how excited they are to see her.
3.  She puts her all into the things she does.  I rarely find her at home doing nothing because she is always out with others or serving, or doing.  She is not lazy!
4.  She loves NCIS.  I know that some people think it is cheesy that Emily and I watch so much TV together.  But I would rather wait for her to get home from work or the pregnancy center to watch NCIS together than watch it by myself!
5.  She laughs at me.  Sometimes, I just need someone who will not take me seriously!
6.  She protects me from the bogeyman!  I feel safer when she is in the apartment! (I think we will both admit that this is a false sense of safety, but I'd rather face the bogeyman with her here than face him by myself!)
7.  She can laugh at herself.  I won't give any examples of this since it is her birthday, but those of you who know her will know what I'm talking about.
8.  She will always be a month older than me! :)  Like I mentioned above, she ushers in the birthday season in the apartment.  And that means I'll always be able to claim being almost a month younger than her!

By no means is this an exhaustive list, but they are the things that I think of first when I think of Emily.  I am so thankful to have her as a roommate and as a friend!

(Re)Learning to Walk

Warning: Those of you who do not like feet should not read this post!
For those of you who don't know, I've been treating a planters wart on the bottom of my foot since about February.  It's a stubborn little thing.  Well, I went to the doctor last Thursday and he scraped some of it and put some high concentration medicine on it.  Friday it hurt so bad that I couldn't put any pressure on it, which is a little hard considering it was on the bottom of my foot.  This is the first time it has hurt this bad, so I didn't know what to expect.  One week of not being able to walk on it, apparently.  So I master walking on my tip toe on my left foot with just a slight limp.  I was trying really hard not to draw any attention to myself while still trying to feel comfortable.  I was beginning to think that this was never going to get better, but I woke up this morning able to put full weight back on my foot.  Every once in a while I will catch it the wrong way and shoot some pain through my foot, but for the most part, I'm pain free.  However, I got so good at tiptoe walking that I had to retrain myself to walk normally on that foot.  So instead of concentrating on not putting pressure on my foot, I had to concentrate on now putting pressure on my foot.  It was kind of amusing to me.  And by the end of the day, I was able to walk without thinking, for the most part.  In two more weeks, we (and by "we," I mean my doctor) are going to try freezing the wart off.  I am hoping that this will work the first time, but he warned me that it might take two treatments.  Yuck! 

Irony...it's so ironic!

There are a few things in my life right now that I think are ironic.  And by "life," I mean the last couple of weeks and I also don't mean "life" in the sense of profound, as you shall soon see.
When I eat food, for the most part, I don't like my foods to touch and I don't like to eat more than one thing at a time.  Now, by that I mean, in my mouth at the same time.  I am not one of those people who has to eat all the mashed potatoes then eat the corn then eat the carrots.  But I want to take a bite of mashed potatoes and eat it, take a bite of corn and eat it, and then take a bite of carrots and eat it.  The odd thing in this is that I don't mind when foods are supposed to be mixed, like in casseroles.  Or in things like Chex Mix.  But when I eat Chex Mix or trail mix, I want to eat one thing at a time.  I can't just grab a handful and shove it in.  I have to eat a peanut.  And then a raisin.  You get the idea.

The irony comes into this long story, when I realized that salad is an exception.  When I take a bite of salad, I want everything in the salad in one bite.  Still not ironic, until this next statement... I also learned that it is almost impossible to get everything in one bite.  All the good stuff falls to the bottom of the bowl and you get mostly lettuce by itself for most of your salad.  And then you end up with a bowl full of all the toppings at the bottom.  Now do you see the irony? :)

The other instance of irony has to do with finally feeling motivated to exercise and not being able to because of a foot injury.  I'm hoping it will clear up soon.  And I might still try to exercise tonight and see how it goes. 

Birthday Schmirthday

I think I might have reached that age where my birthday is not exciting.  It's a little sad.  Today is one month until my birthday, and when I realized it, I don't think I even got a little jolt of excitement.  I'm sure everyone else might be glad of this.  Because it would mean no more countdowns starting 9 months before my birthday.  No more month long celebrations.  But for me it's a little sad.  I've always loved my birthday.  I'm hoping that I'm just having an off year.  Next year, that great relationship I have with my birthday will be back.  For some reason I just thought of the Gilmore Girls episode where Lorelai decides that she hates snow.  It was just a fleeting thing though.  By the end of the episode, Luke found a way for Lorelai to make up with snow.  So, maybe by the time my birthday comes, I'll be back to my old self.  In the meantime, everyone should enjoy the reprieve!

The forgetfulness monster strikes again!

I promise this is not all I'm going to be posting about forever, but it is just what is relevant to me right now!  I was at a new doctor's office on Thursday filling out intake paperwork and I got to the line that said, "Social Security Number."  And I started to write 25... and then I couldn't remember anymore!  No biggie, I thought.  I'll just get the card out of my wallet.  But then I remembered, after my roommate's purse was stolen, that I finally took the card out of my wallet (because I know you're not supposed to keep it on you) and it was currently tucked safely somewhere in my room.  Inconvenient for thieves but also inconvenient for this forgetfulness that has been plaguing me.  I tried not to panic and moved on to the next line.  I eventually remembered it.  But then I got to the line "emergency contact info" and put my mom's name.  I went to write her phone number (which I had memorized for emergency purposes) but couldn't remember the last 4 digits.  No biggie, I thought.  I have my cell phone with me.  Only I remembered it was in my work bag three floors down through a parking lot in the rain.  Don't worry, I eventually remembered that one too!
Fast forward to this morning, when I wake up from a pretty good night's sleep...thank you colder weather!  I was rehashing some of my dreams, when I realized that first, I had had another high school dream.  Really, I'm not sure when I will outgrow those dreams.  Anyway, I was having a really bad day in high school.  Forgot to put more paper in my folder, had a fight with my best friend, couldn't see these weird monitors to take notes from, and the notes were going to fast so I was only getting one word of paragraphs worth of information.  So, after that class, I decided to go to my locker to get a different notebook with paper in it and my math book.  I distinctly remember that I had not turned the dial on the locker so it should just open...just in case I couldn't remember my combination! (Even thinking in my dreams!)  But the problem was that I couldn't remember my locker number!  So I was randomly wandering the halls trying to open lockers.  And not only could I not remember which locker was mine (based on the number AND the location, apparently), I was trying to rehearse the combination and couldn't remember that either.  The bell rang and I continued my search.  I finally had to get the janitor (who apparently had records of everyone's lockers).  When he pointed to my locker, I thought in my head, "Hmmm...I wasn't expecting it to start with that number."  Which is exactly what I said when I opened the letter with my PIN number in it! :)

So, the moral of the story is...I'm not even safe in my dreams anymore! :)