Packing up

Hey blog friends,

Well, sad to say, I'm packing up my blogging suitcase and heading over to tumblr. I hope you'll add it to your readers.

Also--there's this: several friends are blogging together over the next few months. It'll be a lot of fun and I hope you'll add that and join on our adventure. Add Via Scribendi to your readers too, while you're at it!

So, see ya, blogger, it's been real. Thanks for being with me the majority of my twenties.

Peace.

LIfe Lately Part 5

Illinois is good for the soul.










1)Sydney in her new fancy office.
2) Jenny and baby bump. I was excited.
3) BABEEE!
4) Wisconsin with the Kriz at Potterfest. Don't ask about the hair. It was a product fail.

Who's got

Two Thumbs and a new computer?




THIS GIRL!

Who's also completely frustrated that she doesn't automatically understand mac?


THIS GIRL!

Life Lately Part 4

Someday soon you may see more than just pictures... but I'm not making too many promises.









1)On our service trip to New Mexico, I placed a moratorium on the phrase, "OMG" and it's equivalents. The kids' subsitution? "OMH" for "Oh My Hannah!"

2)In Santa Fe, in the Plaza

3)Quite possibly my favorite trip picture. Ever. This is also a flashback photo with the girls who went to Angelfire in 2007.

4)Mountaintop.

Back from the Mountains

So here's our video from our servant event trip to Angelfire.

Life Lately Part 3

I've not been so much with the blogging, recently, and that's not changing any time soon, so here are a few more pictures:










Pictures 1-2: Senior Banquet with the Med Students.
Pictures 3-4: Bolder Boulder!

Song for the Season

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away
That You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crooked lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right

Life Lately Part 2

Procrastination at its finest. Another picture post!








1. Corpus Christi/Padre with the Kriz and fam. After this, I'm totally on board for a beach vacation (even with having to get a tetanus shot)
2. My new man friend. How YOU doin'?
3. Thunder-Grizzlies Play-off Game. We won!!! We also got matching shirts. Ashley made some new friends on the bus. Mostly, it was awesome.

Life Lately

1)At the Keep it Local Party. Fingerstache temporary tattoos! Best freebie. Ever.
2)The C-boy and I at Live! on the Plaza.
3)5K Number 2! Faster time, even with a little walking in the heat. Woot!

C, The Cool Kids, The Church and Community

C lived in the neighborhood before it became a hang out for hipsters and my house church friends.

Every week, as the HC crowd began repair work on the storefront that would become the place they would meet for worship, would have various stories about C. Stories about how this older, rougher, long-haired man would come up and visit, join for a meal and explain how they were all related by the Native Americans.

As the neighborhood slowly changed from rough city street to an arts district, C remained, joining for dinners, walking the street and becoming a common sight on 16th.

Last weekend, at the street festival, C took a seat by us and was greeted time and again by hipsters, business owners, church members. He looked so pleased and proud.

C had been there first, but he's still a part of the new community.

When I think about heaven, I hope that C is there. And the hipsters. And that it's like the street festival.

Check!

So, I'm going to brag, just a little because, this weekend, with the promise of free beverages of the adult persuasion (and parfaits!) at the end, there was a 5k. Which, going from no running, to this in ten weeks, is pretty exciting.



I've got the runner's bug, I think. I might also be crazy. But, I'm one completed race and one step closer to Bolder Boulder.

*Not seen in this picture are my awesome "double rainbow all the way" knee socks worn in honor of St. Patty's Day

The Joy of Completion

It's been a while, I know. Stuff (or lack thereof) has been going on, and my attending to the blog has been woefully remiss.

Life, with the promise of spring, remains wonderful and full. I turned 29. I continue to train for a 5k (in which I run this upcoming Sunday!) and the 10k in May. Things are mostly good and mostly the same.

Yet, there are big changes on the horizon. Things that I'm so looking forward to. Match day for the Med Students, new opportunities for family members, exciting things for me.

As these things approach, I've been tying a lot back into this running training that I've been doing.

When we first started running, our leaders encouraged us to believe that we could do the workout set before us, if we continued with the end in sight. Whether that was a 60 second run, a 7 minute run, or this weekend, a 22 minute run(!), that we look at the beginning with the end in mind.

For me, as I've tried to adopt that attitude, there has been a joy in completion that's developed. Joy in finishing a good run, a project at work, or a very tasty dish of enchiladas for house church.

In the larger scheme of things, I look forward to the joy of completion for my friends who are finishing 4 years of study and life here and for me, whatever is next, that I continue to work and live with the end in mind.

Taking Flight

Last night was Week four, Day 1 of the running.

So far, the running has been ok. I've pounded out the course as insructed and sometimes with far more commitment than I have felt, but since MVFMs and Cramm are also running, there's also a bit of face to be lost if I end up being "THAT girl" who ends up not being able to run more than 60 seconds at a time. So, slowly but surely, we've been adding more running to our intervals but I hadn't really felt anything other than a dogged determination to finish what I started.

Last night however, in the middle of the third interval, something clicked. Pace and breathing even out, my steps became quieter and I started feeling faster. Running seemed, suddenly, easier, exhilarating, surprising, and mostly freeing--much like the first few weeks of being in love.

On the fourth and final interval, it happened AGAIN.

It felt like I was taking flight.

Birthday Celebration

Birthday Celebration 1 was this last weekend.

It was spent eating good food, celebrating with my very favorite people.

There was sushi, and cake, and games, and inside jokes and presents.

I'm so spoiled. And so very thankful.

And this weekend? Birthday Celebration 2 at Casa De Zins!? I can't wait.

New Music

I've been on quite the new music hunt these last few months and it's led me to some pretty great (though probably not necessarily earth shattering) discoveries. I'm not going to lie, I'm a sucker for the $5 albums and the daily deals through Amazon*.

I like to pay for music and you know, be legal, so Amazon and I have a very pleasant working relationship.

All that to be said, my itunes has been full of new music and my ears(and my soul) have been quite happy.

The newest find is some Jesus music that is different than most of the Jesus music you hear on KLOVE (I have a hard time considering that "music," but that might make me more of an elitist snob, so disregard if you want.)

Anyway, I've been listening to Gungor (good music, AWFUL name) and this is the favorite from their album Beautiful Things


I love how the refrain builds and the Lutheran-ness of the first verse.


Create in me a clean heart, a clean heart
For I have turned my face from You
Teach us of Your ways oh God, oh God
For we have turned away from You
Lord have mercy

We will run to you, we will run to you
Turning from our sin we return to You
Father heal your world, make all things new
Make all things new


Crappy Video of Song

*Amazon didn't pay me to endorse them, though they should. Hear that, Amazon?

Until They Ask Why

"Here is my question," he asked the group at large, "I always thought it was black and white, people are bad and people are good. They either believe in Jesus, or they don't." He went on to say that since he started college, he had the opportunity to meet and become good friends with people from all different faith walks. People that he liked and respected, people that he cared for, that didn't share his beliefs. His question was then, "How can you say for certain that these friends of mine are going to hell? How do you tell them about your faith when they already have that, even though it's different than yours?"

As the group talked and grappled with the answers, he told us that his plan was to, "love until they asked why."

Simple. Or not so simple.

Kind of like the faith we've been called to. Kind of like the Christ I profess to follow.

Simple. Or not so simple.

Love until they ask why.

And They Shall Call Me, "The Blur"

Welcome to 2011 my blog friends!

Somewhere along the way in the last few years, I've decided that I need to become a runner. I think, this is mostly because I am white. And apparently, I'm all about reaffirming stereotypes.

I've had this love/hate relationship with running (mostly I want to love it, but then I decide to run and I hate it and ask myself what the eff I was doing and vow to never run again). But, I've wanted to run, run well, and complete a 5k, a 10k, perhaps even a marathon someday.

Deciding there is no time like the present (or something else cliche), I signed up for this running class through a nearby running store, got some new running shoes, talked about it enough to convince Cramm and My Very Favorite Melsons (MVFM) to sign up with me and we're off to the races (ha ha, sorry). At the end of these ten weeks, we'll complete a 5k.

Over Christmas, thanks to several recommendations, I also read Born to Run for inspiration.

And I was inspired. Born to Run is so interesting and exciting that it makes you want to run for miles and miles at a time. You think to yourself, "Dude, I'll be running that Leadville 100 in a year."

But here's what happens; my expectations, not always in check with reality end up getting me in the end. I had (and still have) these lofty ideas that I will be the Best at Running Ever and I'll immediately run to Alaska like that dude in the book.

I think that I need to knock myself down a peg, because at this point, the goal of Cramm and MVFM's is, you know, not dying. And since we haven't run more than 60 seconds an interval, I'm still not sure I can complete a 5k without dying.

But, with one week down, and nine to go, I'm starting to feel that bit of inspiration and exhilaration that comes from the running. And with S. Sarah inviting me/challenging me to run Bolder Boulder with her in May, I think that running and I might have a fighting chance at a nice long relationship.

Favorite People