Breakfast with the Patricks

I had such a nice breakfast with the Patricks (Brian, Keri, Aislyn, and baby Lucy) on Saturday. I was officially dubbed "Lurple" by Aislyn, which proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...Brian is semi-famous for handing out nicknames. He's been calling me 8ball for 15 years. Anyway, they recently purchased an awesome lens for their camera (and I am grrreeeen with envy for both of them), and so we took turns taking pictures.
They are sweet, sweet people and I am so thankful that we are still friends.
On a side-note, Breakfast with the Patricks is the first album in my facebook...

the BIG day

Today, July 26, 2007, I gave notice to my job that I will be leaving on Aug. 31 (with my last actual day being in the office on Aug. 30).

My heart was pounding, but then my supervisor was really supportive and interested about what is next with Word Made Flesh and Romania. So, yay!

just another day...

Wish I had more exciting news to report than the fact that I AM QUITTING MY JOB!!!
Yep, August 31 will be my last day. Thanks to my sweet sister and her kind husband, I can leave my position at the end of August instead of the end of September (I'm going to live with my sister and her fam for a few weeks).
I haven't turned in notice yet, but will in the next week or so. If you know how much I've struggled in this position, well, you'll go have a drink in my honor as well as exclaim: Thanks be to God! Truly, I haven't felt like myself for the last year, which is sad in so many ways. And, it's been disappointing that this job wasn't what I'd hoped it would be...I thought it would be my dream job.
But I know good things have come from this, I've learned a ton, and that's always good. I was able to move to Portland and be close to Elisabeth and her family. Go to Imago Dei. Hike.Drink the Mother Lode.
Stay tuned for updates about where I'll be in the next month or so...several trips planned for Seattle, a big one to Houston, another big one to Romania, and then to Omaha and maybe St.Louis, back to Houston, and then to California until I depart for Romania again in early 2008.
I already feel myself coming back just writing all that...I'm sitting here with this big grin on my face. yay

Don't Postpone Joy

I saw this bumpersticker as I walked home from work the other day...appropriate, no? I say it to myself many times through a day...and the words themselves give me joy.

On a side note, I began blogging one year ago this month! I think this is something like post #80...and, I just had my 1 year anniversary in Portland and at my job. No one took me out for beers, but the Polish lady in accounting asked what a smart woman like me is doing here...she is famous for coining the phrase: That's the Life the Cookie Crumbles...

At least it's a cookie, because then you can dunk it in milk before you enjoy it.

too hot..or is that just an excuse?

Portland has had record breaking heat...and I'm trying to live simply by not purchasing an air conditioning unit. Maybe if I was staying around I would, but maybe I wouldn't.

Here's the thing, it's just so hot that I'm not sleeping well and exhausted. Exhausted from maybe more than the heat...from so much that is crowding my soul. Like packing up my life...and selling it to the highest bidder. Anticipating a move half-way around the world and living with people I still haven't met...and hoping that it is a place I'll stay for the rest of my life. Knowing that trips back to the U.S. will be short, intense trips and that relationships I have here will never be the same again. Old friends will make new friends, neices and nephews will grow up. I'm not second guessing any decisions or commitments...just recognizing the reality of them.

I'm tired and I'll be talking and in the middle of a sentence completely forget my next word. I forgot a meeting I was supposed to go to. I spaced my friend's last name the other night. And just now, I was going to write something else, but now it's gone.

Last night, I fell out of my bed. I have a queen size bed that I share with no one...and I fell out of the side where I don't usually sleep. I just suddenly woke up because I smacked my forehead on the wood floor. I have a scrape on my right knee (it's small, but still stings). I don't remember what my dream was, but I know that I was running and I think that I ran right off the side of my bed. But I was still lying down, so running sideways. And yelling. I'd like to say it's the heat making me do weird things in my sleep (although I have a small history of sleep talking and walking), but is that an excuse? Maybe I'm running in my sleep because I don't know when else to run, or where. Or maybe it's just the heat.

The biggest thing my mom wanted for her birthday was to have a giant family photo taken. We'd planned on going to a studio to have this done, but the flu swept through our ranks on the day we'd set aside for that event. So, at Grace's birthday party, we tried to get some good pictures. It's hard when so many people are in a family and none of us is a professional photographer. It's harder still when the glare is so bad that all one can do is squint, but also try and smile...Still, they turned out pretty well. The ones of the grandkids with my mom and and dad are especially cute...

I also love the one of my dad holding Grace and looking out to sea...it was her birthday and she is pretty special to my dad because she was named after his mom, my Grandma Grace, who died just a few months before Gracie was born.

So, all these pictures/posts are sort of in backwards order...sorry about that. I didn't detail any of the pictures becauses it's just too much work. Lots of pictures of my neices and nephews (I'm a bit smitten with them), pictures taken with old friends...one with Denise who I've known since I was 7, and one of Jenny who I've known since I was a freshman in college, which almost feels as long ago as being 7. Pictures of my sisters and their husbands...and pictures of a warm sunny evening in California when we celebrated my mom and the life she's lived so well by loving us all so well. Happy Birthday, again, mom...








Final pictures from the party and one from the beach...

More pictures from my mom's big 6-0...don't you wish you could have gone?

I had Ava spend the night with me this weekend. She's 4 and just about the cutest thing ever. She talks constantly. And while she's talking, she's jumping and skipping and moving, moving, moving.

We took a walk to get some gelatto in my neighborhood. She wanted lemon (we had a sample first to be sure, and she said she way). I ordered chocolate chip and carmel. As we sat licking our confectionary concoctions, she asked if she could have a taste of mine. I let her and then she said: let's trade. I'll have your gelatto and you have mine. Well, the trade wasn't exactly fair, as mine tasted so much better than hers (which she must have recognized upon first lick from my waffle cone), but I couldn't tell her no. I did insist, however, that she give me a couple more tastes of my lost gelatto.

Ava also told me I'm a good auntie because I get her whatever she wants. I know, it can't be good to be so nice, but why does something so bad feel so good?

We slept in my bed (after she had announced that she would sleep by herself on my couch). In the early morning I woke up and looked over at her, her little rose mouth and dark hair on creamy skin...she's so pretty, as you see in the photo.

When we were falling asleep she said: Bepo, it's really dark. I said: yes, but I'm here with you. A few minutes later she said: Bepo, in the Bible it says that whenever you're afraid, you should tell God.

I remember as a kid I'd be so scared to fall asleep at night. I'd lay in bed for hours, praying and singing and eventually sneaking into JoAnna's bed because if she was close to me I'd be able to sleep. Sometimes I'd wake my mom up and she'd pray with me. But I think more than anything I just wanted someone to turn on a light, you know? So I could see what was around me.

I got up and turned on the kitchen light so she could see and held her hand until she fell asleep. When it's dark outside all I really need to know is that someone is with me and sometimes that makes what I fear a little less scarey, gives a little light to a dark room.

Tickets...

I bought a ticket to Romania yesterday...I'll be visiting from October 4-18. Just thought I'd share...