currently listening: justin timerlake

i convinced my teacher to give me 6 bonus points on that test i took last week (kind of... i convinced him of answers he had counted wrong...) that was pretty awesome.


charlie saw two spoonbills in the swamps today. spoonbills are my very favorite bird.


look at him! a roseate spoonbill. i didn't get to go see them because i had class. i'm really hoping they're still there tomorrow :(

also... i know this may come as a shock... but i love justin timberlake. more the usher. ooooOOOooo :)

currently watching: 3rd rock from the sun

let's seeeeee.

i haven't been "home" since... thanksgiving! isn't that crazy? it's been way too long. i'm trying to decide when i'm going home next... it's definitely time. i was going to go spring break, but my mom's best friend is getting married a couple weeks later, and i'd REALLY like to make it to the wedding. but then again i have a final on may 17th! (seriously? doesn't that sound ridiculously late??) so i'm not sure what i am going to do. i'd like to stay for a while when i go... but i'd really like to make it to that wedding.

i'm so happy for this woman. she had... a very crappy previous marriage. her husband thought the whole world revolved around him. he didn't take responsibility for anything. he was a most excellent liar. and was unfaithful to her. for years.

my parents have done a LOT of marriage counseling over their years. and i MAY have this wrong, but i believe that only one couple they have counseled has gotten a divorce (i think this goes to show that MANY MANY problems can be solved, AND that God has gifted my parents with wisdom.) they do not believe in divorce. however, this one particular marriage... just... it can't be helped if one person refuses to change. and persists on breaking covenant over and over and over again (while lying about it.) these things take -nothing- less than the Holy Spirit and a willing heart. we are a people with free will.

that's why i am particularly excited about this wedding. this woman KNEW that God had someone for her and refused to lower her standards. and after several years, God brought them together, Himself. in the most beautiful and healing way. i want to be there to support them and celebrate with them all the redemption and healing God can bring.

bean

hmmm.

i planted beans today. (oh, wait... that was charlie.)

today really wasn't very eventful... just work and class.

this is so random and silly... but i decided why i hate it when people play a whole bunch of random songs (and don't even finish playing the song) on an iphone or ipod or something. now.. i am no music expert. i fall behind on bands and couldn't tell you the name of albums or the artists themselves. i don't know when they tour. i've never even really been that crazy about the radio (with the recent exception of pandora with stations designed just for the mood i'm in.)

ANYWAYS, i love lots of different kinds of music, and feel like, with good musicians, the album should be listened to as a whole. the songs are individual, but the album is pieced together in such a way that it is most effective and appreciated when it is listened to together. good artists put songs in certain orders for a reason. it is cohesive. i HATE listening to 30 seconds of this song and 1 minute of that song that don't go together or even get to be completed. it's like... reading a paragraph out of a chapter out of the middle of a book with no context.

i'm so weird.

Hide and Seek

i love this. a group at JBU did this for the talent show one year. A Capella. GORGEOUS. i don't remember what place they got (possibly first?) but i remember getting chill bumps.

in OTHER news... (and PLEASE try to contain your excitement so charlie doesn't make fun of you, too) but i saw the google maps car today!!!!

i looked a lot like this... it was headed down false river road from downtown new roads... i guess they're updating/expanding their street view... but i may be on googlemaps if they were filming (how does it work?) when they passed me! maybe this isn't as exciting to you, but i LOVE googlemaps! i feel like i just saw a celebrity :)

jubilee

in the spirit of old blogs (and because i'm stuck on here doing a group project chat room discussion for AN ONLINE CLASS?!? (who thought that was a good idea?))

i found another old blog that i love. this is still something close to my heart although the last few years of my life have been more centered around other things.

"Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Currently Listening Confessions By Usher see related

i.am.ready.for.summer.

not so much ready to graduate... as just... ready for summer (sun and tans and swimming lessons and summer nights and tank tops and no homework). i'm glad i have no official plans so that there's no reason to.. you know... start working right away... or taking lots of summer classes or anything.

the last bit of school after spring break is always hectic. this week, for instance. yeesh. more to do on top of normally having too much to do anyhow. thursday night i'm booked from 5pm until 11pm (at least). when it's over... i'll have to mostly likely write most of my 8 page research paper. brilliant. i'm sure it'll be a winner.

in christian life we talked about the social justice tradition in christianity. there are three areas... the personal (combating selfishness... consumerism... etc.) the social (what most of our churches do pretty well with with mission trips and food drives, etc.) and the institutional (government. such as how the Jews used to have a year of jubilee every 50 years in which ALL debts were forgiven and wealth and land was redistributed.) this last one caught my attention. we consider ourselves mostly a "christian" nation... and yet... our biggest fear is that redistribution... WE call it COMMUNISM! our worst enemy is the very principle God wishes governments to be founded upon. we see our institutional involvement as voting republican so we can fight the Christian's other biggest foe... abortion. now... i'm NOT saying that abortion isn't a problem we should fight. but i AM saying that there ARE OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES. health care. foster care. the abuse of migrant workers. prostitution. there are a lot of other things we need to work on overcoming. voting republican isn't enough.

my discussion group talked about what the church would do if every 7 years... all the wealth in the church was evenly distributed. what would people say? they'd be pissed! the rich would revolt! but that's part of the history of God's people. we take care of each other. the blessing that befalls on one person is meant for the many. now. i know i am an idealist. if someone took what little wealth i had and redistributed it to other people's debts... i'd probably get mad. i'd have selfishness issues come out... no doubt. but this is what i want to strive for. i believe in this idea... and i believe it is what God wishes for us to do."

living in louisiana has been eye opening. i have seen things that i had never seen before. i realize how... terribly complicated life and people and government are. but i believe people have ALWAYS been complicated. there has always been greed and selfishness and laziness. God knew that when he designed his government for Israel. i just think it's interesting to think about. hopefully one day soon i'll move closer to action.

slippery slope

welll... this is probably the latest i've ever written a blog in my entire life. haha maybe it counts as tomorrow (sunday) but i feel like i want to stick with this commitment. we went out for lacey's birthday, and it was fun! charlie and i really don't ever go out, but it was just fun to do something different.

since i'm tired, here's what i was doing (almost) tonight in 2006

"so last night i was at wal-mart. i had looked all over fayetteville earlier than night for something to wear to my sister's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and had no luck. so i went to wal-mart, of all places, to find a skirt. and i did. a cute pink one. melissa was brilliant and found me a nice necklace to go along with it... but it unfortunately didn't have a price-tag on it.
rachel told me that the night before she bought something without a price tag and got to tell the woman how much she wanted to pay for it... and this was from an older lady. so my terrible, non- integritous self looked down the isles for an old woman. when i spotted one, i jumped in her line. she had a name tag that said "over 10 years of quality service." after she scanned my other stuff she picked up the necklace, looked for a bar code, and couldn't find one.
"hun, there's no bar code on this."
"i know... i'm sorry!" she then looked at me as if she were trying to figure out what to do.
"does it go with the skirt?" she asked.
"no ma'am." she then looked at me very puzzled again. finally, after MUCH thought, she said
"i think it goes with the skirt... it's a belt!" she took a look around, shoved it in my bag, leaned over the counter and said "DON'T say a WORD!"
i'm having a moral dilemma. when i told michael he gave me a highfive, said "that's AWESOME" and told me i was giving walmart what they deserve.
nicole told me that i would be one of those youth group videos where they pause it and say "what should stephanie do?" and then they play the rest of the scene and say "don't be like stephanie! she steals! she'll NEVER get into heaven."
susan said i should report it to the russellville walmart and offer to pay.
melissa told me that my story beat rachel's.
pfht. i feel like i should feel worse than i do about it. maybe i'm on a slippery-slope downward ;)"

chagee

sooooo...
we went bowling tonight.
i really wanted to see joyce meyer tonight or tomorrow... maybe some other time :( maybe i'll try to stream it from their website... but it just won't be the same.

i... am so thankful for my husband. we all have different paths in life. we all have different ways God teaches us and different lessons he uses to do so. but i'm just so thankful that Charlie walks beside me and adds to me..-never- subtracts or takes away from me. maybe i'm just a weak person, but i don't know if i could handle it any other way.

charlie.. i love you so much. for your kindness... and patience... and desire to serve our marriage. i respect you for how hard you work when it's work time... and how playful and carefree and silly you are when it's fun time. i respect that the way you treat someone to their face is the way you feel about them when they aren't around. you are the love of my life and my soul-mate. thank you for sticking with me!

The National - Fake Empire

love this song.

also.. joyce meyer, anyone?

also also... that test was HARD. (did anyone else say ps... and then pps... and the ppps on letters to people? or was that just me? :))

pyruvate

studystudystudy.

yesterday my professor said the average in his other class section on the test i'm going to take tomorrow was 55%. niiiiice. that's lower than the first test. he said he expected our class to have a higher average, however, because of the few of us in the class who are smart {read: study a lot and already have science-based degrees}. he then mentioned the two girls who sit in front of me... and me.

ha. no pressure or anything.

bear hunt

sorry, i'm obsessed with this picture. risa, susan, and crystal, you are ALL welcome to have more boys. look at him! look at fox! look at nathan and micah. so many cute boys in my family! and you all have to tide me over for the next 4 years until i am allowed to have children :)

i think this is absolutely the hardest thing in charlie and my marriage. i feel like no matter what we do, we're going to lose. it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to live near all of our family members. impossible. caleb turns 6 months old on saturday, and i have only seen him on two different occasions. family is something that brought charlie and i together... it is something we both value at the top of our lists along with God... and... it's impossible for us to live close to everyone.

i can't imagine our children not knowing both sets of grandparents. since i didn't have any grandparents, from the time i was little (and sat alone on grandparents day at our school) i promised myself that my children would KNOW my parents.. have a relationship with them... spend lots of time with them. be a part of their lives. and of course i want that for my children with their other set of grandparents (and aunts and uncles and cousins on both sides.) God is going to have to work a miracle for this to happen. and the thought of it NOT happening, breaks my heart. i think about it every.single.day. my prayer is that we could find a way to live two places. this is SO important to me. and SO important to charlie. how, oh how, God, will you do it?

meow

i'm having a harder time coming up with things to blog about.

my mom and stacy left this afternoon. it was so refreshing having them here. there's nothing like being with your family. (sometimes i feel weird saying that, because i know i have family here... and i'm definitely thankful for that... it's just... there's nothing like being with your mama and your sister.)

frisky LOVED my mom. LOVED. sat by her wherever she was... played with her sandle and tennis shoe (no one else's)... was sitting on her bed when my mom came back to the room after she got up in the middle of the night... tried to cough her hairball up on her... and finally, hid in the car's engine right before mom and stacy left. she was definitely trying to hitch-hike to russellville. it's funny because my mom hates cats and didn't even pet frisky once while she was here. i think frisky (with the exception of charlie) only loves people who despise her.

punkin has been limping ever since we went to grand isle. she doesn't yelp or pull her paw away when i feel her leg to see if there's a tender spot. so i'm guess it's just inflammation in the joint? does anyone know what to give a dog for that? we're not letting her play outside to rest it, and it's killing her. i love my little side-kick.

i was talking to charlie about side-kicks last night.. and sometimes i feel like that's the role i've played a lot in my life... a side-kick to someone else. i'm sure it's tied into my second-born issues... but i've just been thinking about it lately. i read an old journal from a few years ago where my best friend told me that i went from being cynical, independent, and solid in high school to dependent, fragile, and emotionally dynamic in college. when i think about it... i don't even know why... i can't pinpoint anything. but i see truth in that. i think i'm trying to find my way back to middle ground.

hot crawfish

i'll post more tomorrow...

but today we had a great day.

we did a craft (that -slightly- failed.)

we ate lunch on the deck at satterfields... it was perfect outside.

we went to the swamps to look for birds (my mom loves birds.) we saw 3 gators.

we had supper at the loup's house... it was delicious and fun.

i'm going to miss mama and stacy :( but it's been such a good visit.

stick!

my mom and little sister are here!! woohooo!




they are just here for a couple of days, so we're just mostly going to hang out and do regular louisiana things. today, we took the dogs swimming. for the very first time, moomoo swam! all the way across the pond! i was so proud! she must have been showing off since my mom and stacy gave punkin so much love and attention for her sweet-swimming-skills.

i'm so thankful to have some of my family here!

(also very thankful for the great haircut crystal gave me today! yay! thank you!)

quiz bowl

the other day i overheard a conversation between an adult and a 12 year old girl. the girl made a comment about how one girl on her volleyball team, who actually happened to be quite good, made all A's whereas the rest of the girls on the team made A's and B's. the little girl rolled her eyes and said, "well, she's on QUIZ bowl." to which the adult replied, "well. quiz bowl's for dorks, so don't feel bad." aaaaand. i had several thoughts on this.

1. i was on quiz bowl in high school. my best friend and i joined for a few reasons. a) we were trying to get into as many school club pictures for the yearbook as possible (we may have won?) b) a lot of our friends were in quiz bowl and they didn't have any girls on the team. and c) FIELD TRIPS! who doesn't want 2-3 free days off of school? we would always get home before school was out, and they'd tell us to just go home instead of back to class. i liked being in quiz bowl.

2. kids do NOT need encouragement from adults to not like someone. they do this QUITE well on their own. tweens (and teens) can find endless things wrong with on another. they tease relentlessly, and don't need anyone to encourage that behavior, or give them another reason to make fun of someone. we need to encourage them to be more accepting and appreciate other people's giftings. (even if they are a little dorky.)


i think one thing i've really started to grasp over the past couple of years (being married to charlie and working at mpt) is that... people can (and DO) accept me with my faults. at times, i've tried to hide things about myself that i don't like just to protect myself from others... but thanks to charlie and arisa and ethan and lacey and dara (the people i spend the most time with in the world) i have learned that they love me even when i get all passive aggressive about having to do ethan's HIVAmat :) or 12 hivamats and 3 ultrasounds at the same time. this is freeing. it allows me to poke fun at myself because i can admit to my fault... and together we can laugh about it. it turns into something funny instead of something serious that i need to be ashamed of or hide (not that i don't have things to work on... NOT that i am completely perfect as is...) but it makes the process we're all going through in life okay.

but i'm tiiiiiiiiired

i should have blogged before i left for class. alas, i didn't. so here i am. we are two classes behind in micro, so my professor didn't even attempt to really explain anything today. he just sped through slides on his powerpoint like we all knew how obviously simple genetics and dna/rna replication is. duh.

sometimes i hate my body. hatehatehate. i wonder what it would be like to feel good all the time. i wonder what it would be like to live without pain. i think about trading my neck and back and hips with someone who has healthy a healthy neck, back, and hips. but i can't. God gave me this body knowing full well the fleshly, real-world issues that it has. i was recently told by my doctor that she thinks i have a slight insulin resistance. so in order to control that (and since i didn't want to take medicine that makes me want to throw up all the time) i NEED to exercise. since i've started exercising, my back has started bothering me again. what a dilemma. don't exercise? risk diabetes. exercise? hurt my back. wow. (and i'm mostly just WALKING!) any suggestions?!

i know in the grand scheme of things, i am VERY VERY blessed. i live in much less pain than so many. i have far fewer and less severe issues that so many.

it just wears on me.

mr. burger

i got to go to the dentist today. i've been looking forward to getting my teeth cleaned for MONTHS now. i LOVE getting my teeth cleaned, contrary to popular dental-affections. it's been about 3 years since i've been... it just hasn't been in the budget.

near the end of my cleaning, the VERY nice hygienist began applying fluoride to my teeth. and strangely, on the ride home, i had this intense (okayokay the more intense than USUAL) {need} for french fries. and then i had a flashback. when we were little, at the end of our cleaning after the fluoride treatment, our dentist would give us a sticker, a new toothbrush, and our VERY OWN coupon for a small order of fries from the one and only Mr. Burger. we were instructed to wait 30 minutes (or was it an hour? it sure felt like an hour) before we ate or drank. mom would then drive us to mr. burger and make us wait until the allotted time had passed before she'd let us dig into our fries. those were the best fries in the world. and amazingly, i still have the same taste association with fluoride and french fries. they should do a study on this. maybe it would make all people enjoy their dental cleanings more. i sadly did not give into my craving, but i could still taste those french fries. yummmmmm.

Job

well... i just got off of work, so i think i'll blog now.

my tuesdays and thursdays are crazy! i get to work by 7:30... work until 4... and then head to baton rouge for my night class by 4:45 or so... class starts at 6 and we go until a bit before 9. THAT is a long day. i usually don't see charlie on tuesdays and thursdays until i get home at night between 9 and 9:30. yep.

so today started my second verse for the month and i LOVE it:

“Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” James 5:11 the NET

what a great reminder! Job's circumstances were crappy. but we get the see the whole story... we know the ending to his saga. we can see through everything that he went through and everything that went on behind the scenes that the Lord's purposes were {are} good... that He is full of compassion and mercy. i love that reminder. no matter what we're presently going through... no matter how difficult or meaningless it seems... we have seen the Lord's purpose... that He is full of compassion and mercy.

i am also taking the ides of march month-long-blogging challenge :) so i will see you tomorrow, dear blog!

stephanie galli

my dad called me the other night. he said he had a letter for me.

"dear stephanie galli,
we are excited to inform you that you have been selected to attend our leadership banquet based on your academic and leadership accomplishments at out lady of the lake college." etc. *

i'm so glad that they finally recognized my abilities after getting rejected by their nursing program :) i called them to say that if stephanie galli was a real person, they should probably contact her, assuming she'd like to go to a banquet and be recognized for her accomplishments. the lady i talked to at the lake was confused, but said she'd try to hunt stephanie galli down. way to represent stephanie g's, miss galli. but hooooow did they send that letter all the way to arkansas and not wonder if they had the right person? also.. WHY do they still have my address?

i would be a terrible nurse. it was the grace of God i didn't get into that program.

i've been following beth moore's blog (LOVE IT!)
she has a challenge to memorize 24 verses over the course of the year. i love that she encourages us to keep it short and sweet... not to try to tackle half a chapter... just something brief that we can hold close to our hearts and bring to mind as weapons against... life!
it has been SO good for me so far. i'm actually amazed at how often my 2 verses for the month SO pertain to what i'm thinking about and dealing with. i call them to mind OFTEN.

one of my favorites is: "How lovely are your dwelling places, oh Lord of Hosts! My flesh and my heart sing for joy to the living God!" ps 84:1-2 i think of this verse when i'm frustrated with other people or... frustrated with myself. we are dwelling places of the living God! and we are LOVELY!

does anyone have a suggestion for my next verse? it starts up on the 15th!


*letter may be a fabricated rendition of the actual letter received.

community.

maybe i'll follow asheligh's initiative and try to blog more often (every day? maybe not. we'll see.)

i had to leave work early today to go to port allen to take test #3 (of 9) in biochem. it was on lipids, fats, and oils. aaaaand. amazingly/miraculously! i made an A! after that, i headed to baton rouge (good ole BRCC) for my night microbiology class. i was there early so i sat around for an hour waiting on class to start. our teacher warned us that we would have a sub tonight, so we waited patiently. about 5 till 6 everyone started getting antsy. what if our sub didn't come? would it be worth staying anyway? our sub probably wouldn't pick up our homework... we weren't doing lab... we don't get anything out of lectures anyway...

and then we got nervous. everyone kept glancing down the hall to see if he was coming. (apparently at BRCC you can't go into your classrooms without a teacher in them...?) finally, we decided that at 6:15 we would all leave. At 6:10 i started a paper around for all of us to sign saying we were there and waited the appropriate amount of time for the sub to show up. somehow, i was still nervous leaving. whyyyy? i'm 24. i've been through college before. it wouldn't be the end of the world if i missed one class.

then i got excited. it was 6:15, which meant i was going to make it home for community! (my very favorite show about a community college.) got home... turned on the tv... RERUN. of all the nights!

so... like the big ole dorkydork i am... i studied. haha i read the chapter we were going to cover in class tonight while charlie caught up with me on 30 rock on netflix. awesome. i know. :)

i don't know what to do with myself when i have too much homework, and apparently i don't know what to do with myself when i have free time either. what a hard, complicated life i live.

march on!

now that we've kind of announced (more like threw it out there) that we're moving to minnesota, i've pretty much repeatedly received two responses.

1. it's COLD. "did you know it's cold up there?" (even though... i have yet to meet anyone who has BEEN to minnesota before.) (i have been to minnesota in the summer before, and it's lovely.) (and yes, i watch the weather. it's above the mason-dixon line. of course it's going to be cold.)

and 2. what is charlie going to do?

maybe i have done a really poor job of expressing myself and how passionate i am about public health nutrition... or just nutrition in general. maaaaaaybe everyone loves my husband so much they can't think about anything other than the fact that he won't be here for the next 2 years. maybe i'm a little bit selfish (probably more than a little) and most definitely sensitive.

i guess it kind of hurts my feelings that this is the majority of the responses i have received. (thank you if you are not one of them.) i even had one family member tell me i got into the program because no one else would move up there to go to school.

i probably AM too sensitive. i guess part of me feels like since i have halted my life for the past 3 years, left my family, moved down here and supported charlie through school, that i should get a turn. and maybe that people would see that and understand it.

God FLUNG the doors open for me getting into this program. He was with me every step of the way, including speaking to Charlie's little Louisiana heart about us doing this. He's going to be okay. i have been telling myself for the last 3 years that if God has me down here, He's got something for me, too... not just Charlie. and it's the same for this move. God's got something there for Charlie, too. he's going to find a job, meet some country farmers who love hunting and fishing... and he's going to be okay.

iiiiin other news, i went to my first mardi gras parade! it was very rainy, but i think it made the whole experience more memorable. the parades marched on!



we also went to grand isle a few weeks ago:

the boat didn't work, so we didn't get to go fishing :(
but we still had an awesome time! the oil is all cleaned up and the island is beautiful!