dream

i've fallen out of the blogosphere again. i hate it when i do that. i've been to grand isle 3 times in the last 3 weeks. this has been a most excellent grand isle year... i had only been a couple of times before this year because in summer of 2009 i was in arkansas throwing a wedding together and then the oil spill ruined last summer. so this summer has been really fun. charlie has introduced me to crabbing on a line and i LOVE it. love. it's really exciting to sit on the beach and talk and listen to the waves and then wade out into the water and anxiously await each bait line to see if we caught zero or 4 crabs. and if they're big or small. it's really fun. aaaaaaaand i'm also excited about putting up some crab meat for fancy special occasions. like seafood gumbo. when charlie and i need to thaw our bumbums out in minnesota.

i've had a couple of crazy dreams lately. one involved both my mom and i being pregnant at the same time... and giving birth at the same time. crazy, huh? i'm pretty sure it's just because both my mom (and dad) and me (and charlie) are all in transition right now... about to birth something new! although, i'm not going to lie. i realllly look forward to the day charlie and i get to start our family. i can wait for it.. it's not like i'm anxious for that day to be today or even this year... but i look forward to it. charlie is going to be such an excellent daddy... that makes me very happy.

(back to my dreams...) i also have a recurring nightmare about a man peering into my house (always a house i used to live in)... and as he's peering in i make eye contact with him and it's the scariest moment of my life. i've had the dream occur in each of the houses i've lived in except for the trailer. in this last one i apparently got really brave and started yelling at the man from our front door... and screaming downstairs for my dad to come help. my dad came up the stairs and we started chasing him (and his partner in crime) and when we caught up with them they grabbed both me and my dad and said, "it's too bad you caught us... now we're going to have to kill you" and pointed at a sink full of water. i woke up in a panic and sweat. i HATE that dream. and i don't really have an interpretation for why i have it over and over again... and why it scares me just as much as the first time i had it every time.

purrrr

Punkin is magical. she lived as a puppy mill dog for most of her life, but she somehow escaped and came to live with us. she is my baby. NO ONE believed either charlie or i that she can purrrrr. it's usually in the morning and usually when she's really excited. and always accompanied by sneezes of joy. this video may be SLIGHTLY more embarrassing for me and charlie (because you can hear how we talk to her), but it's worth it.


she also got a new coat for minnesota. she looks beautiful in it.


earlier this week we took a quick trip to grand isle on my day off. it was maybe my favorite trip to grand isle! we fished, went crabbing and ate some yummy food.

sunrise on the boat

the island of pelicans we fished by. (definitely my new second favorite bird.)

they flew off, but came back to entertain me.


windblown hair.

he's a great husband. he caught less fish than he could have because he was helping me with... everything. BUT he did catch the biggest fish of the day!

(don't worry, stacy... we let her go. apparently big redfish are only good for laying eggs for more redfish :))

40 speckled trout and 7 flounder later, we came home.

deuce

i'm not ready for this week to start. they always go by really quickly... i'm just not ready for it.

i feel like everything continues to come together for our move. my adviser/who i will do work study for is also the lady who assigns me to all my field experiences and summer internships. she is also from Guatemala which i think is awesome because i imagine she will have some great insights into cross-cultural nutrition and the needs and challenges that come along with it. i also got a parking spot on the st paul campus and get to stay in st paul 2 days a week. awesome.

over the past couple of years i have questioned whether or not God cared about me. not in a general sense, because i know how much he loves us... but in a very personal way. probably a selfish way. i feel like with each step of this process of going back to school God has gone before me in such a way that i have no choice but to take it personally... i have no choice but to acknowledge His hand and His leading and His... unmistakable seal of purpose and plan for me. Thank you, God.

charlie and i are approaching our two year anniversary. 2 years. it's flown by. and i really appreciate how our relationship has grown. he is absolutely my best friend. sometimes i want to squeeze his little head off... but those moments are diffused by our hearts and lives being sown together into one life. there's no one i'd rather spend time with. there's no one i feel more at home with. there's no one who can make me laugh harder or smile more or be more honest than my husband. i can always find rest in his arms. it's almost scary to think about what 10 or 20 or 50 years of marriage will look like if you can learn so much about each other in 2. bring it on!


in other news... charlie and i saw him on ACL and really like it. this is GOOD country.

far from over

last night charlie and i went to see super 8. i think we'd both highly recommend it. it was enjoyable and just an overall good choice for a night out at the movies. (i also REALLY liked going on a weeknight! charlie and i rarely make it to the movies, and when we do it's ALWAYS a busy weekend.)

on the way to the movies we discussed a few different political/moral/controversial issues. i think i used to feel really sure about my opinions. but over the past few years as i've seen more and learned more and experienced more... i've decided that i actually have very few firm opinions on things! life is complicated!! people are complex! as are the systems we use to organize them. it used to bother me when people weren't sure what they thought about this or that, but i suddenly understand. it's not that i don't care about things or think about things--but the vastness of certain issues is sometimes just a little too much for my brain to definitively comprehend with no questions left to be answered.

in any case, i was apparently thinking about similar things 5 years ago on my xanga... and wanted to share this post.


Monday, July 10, 2006


Currently Listening
The Cosmic Game
By Thievery Corporation
see related
a few weeks ago i was with a group of people at dinner... and somehow evolution came up. they were upset that their pastor couldn't convince one of the JBU profs that evolution wasn't real and never happened. not even God initiated and designed evolution. now... i grew up anti-evolution. "of course it didn't happen! God created the world in 7 days! the platypus is evidence!" but after taking a few science classes and hearing the reasoning behind these Christian professors saying evolution could have happened... i've started to lean that direction.
especially after someone at the table said "doesn't that sound like a wimpy God? one who couldn't make the earth in 7 days?"
and i thought "NO! absolutely not! since when has God been about poofing things into being...?" i am _certainly_ not saying that God doesn't have the power, means, or capability to create the earth in 7 days... he could have snapped his fingers, etc. but think about your life. what in your life did God just go *poof* and it was complete or fixed? okay, your salvation was... but isn't your Christian walk a process? don't we go through slow times of growth and fast times and hard times and good times... everything as a process...?
it just seems so like the character of God to me to design something as intricate as evolution. (i'm not saying i think we came from monkeys... but that maybe we have an old earth and that He created things to change and evolve into other things.) maybe God created this _amazing_ process that He could bring the earth through.... have His hand involved in... be there present, in every step... just as He does for His children. i kind of like that thought.

(linda, this is for you)

i'd like to go on a little flashback to may 25th, 2011.

i entered one of my favorite types of contests... linda's {gimme gimme}

i had already won one contest, but i guess greed got the best of me, so i entered another contest. and won! the best prize ever. and beat out 3 other people to win it!!

i told linda to wait until the smith wedding to give it to me since it wasn't that far off, and to my surprise, she remembered to pack it along with alll of the other wedding stuff, and presented it to me before we parted ways.

i packed it up, took it to minnesota... and quite honestly forgot about it. then charlie and i started our trip home. all of our stuff was kind of mixed up between our two carry-ons, so charlie claimed one and i claimed the other. i breezed through security and was waiting on charlie when i heard the dreaded "BAG CHECK!" call for security. it was directed at charlie. so i headed over to see what the commotion was about while charlie got his shoes back on.

"Ma'am, is there anything in here that could potentially harm me?"

My brain overthought this question and was thinking about how razors or high heeled shoes could potentially hurt someone, but he snapped me out of my thought process by making big, serious, "be careful here" eyes at me and said "MAAM... is there ANYTHING in here that could HAAAARM me?"

"Ummm... noooo?"

"Good." He unzipped the back, ran some sort of strip around the edges, and started digging. "Is there some sort of trophy in here?"

*light bulb* "Woooooow. ACTually... there IS. Please don't laugh at me...."

"Sometimes trophies are filled with something heavy and it can set the alarm off."

"No, really... PLEEEEASE don't laugh at me when you find it... it was a joke!" Mr. TSA kept digging until he found said trophy. And he laughed. A very hearty laugh. He even bobbled the owl's head. He then placed the owl in his own little bowl, and ran that and the suitcase back through the x-ray machine. He brought them both back, still grinning, and said, "Yep! That was it! Enjoy your flight!"

Crisis averted. My owl is now happy at home until he makes the long voyage back to Minnesota. Thanks, Linda! :)

kindergarten

i thought of things to blog about all day. dorky? maybe. and now i can't decide what to say.

when we were in minnesota last week, we went to the U of M campus to scope things out and for me and charlie to get a t-shirt to support our upcoming residence. (i avoid the word "home" here for 1) my mom and 2) louisiana residents.)

but "the U" (as allllll locals call it in their very northern accents) was... totally and completely overwhelming. i... freaked out, for lack of a better word.


i went to an undergrad of 1200. total students. my high school (10-12th) was the same size. i could walk everywhere... i knew where everything was. although i went to LSU for a semester, i had my dear husband charlie to help me out. he _delivered_ me to my classes, and i VERY rarely had to go alone. and he taught me how to find close parking spots.

and then i come here. 3 campuses in the twin cities: st. paul, west bank minneapolis, and east bank minneapolis. my classes will be split between the latter two. with the mississippi river running through. and very little (expensive) parking. this means: public transportation! which i am also terribly unfamiliar with. my mom was excited and ready to go find my buildings and meet the administrators for my program... and i froze up. i felt like a kindergartener starting graduate school. and all i could think was that we needed to leave immediately.

i am excited about the next two years, and i am also terrified. this is going to be an incredibly stretching time for me, for charlie, and for our marriage. but as i just read in my new Joyce Meyer book (sorry for those of you who don't have the same love for self-help books that i have!), it is better to be moving through something hard than to not be moving at all. and i believe that. i believe we are moving toward (and through) something hard and good.

catchup

what a boring blogger i have been lately.

But not for lack of things to do!!

The Smith wedding in New Jersey was AWESOME.



to give you an idea, this is how the DJ introduced the new couple... he forced everyone to fling around their napkins to welcome them into the reception. and then he "forced" us to start dancing at 6:30 (right after supper) until 11. it was awesome. we had a really great time. It was probably the best wedding ever.

here's the only picture i got of them at the wedding? whoops. that's what photographers are for, i suppose. but they are just so in love... it was really sweet.

cutest ring-bearer ever.

and some of the JBU crew. (Jill... we need the full JBU picture!)

In all the craziness, I did not get a chance to honor my mama on her birthday!! Happy (Very) late birthday, mom! She and dad met me the day after her birthday in Minnesota to help me house-hunt while dad worked. This picture was from our last trip to Minnesota... we didn't get a chance to go back last week (to Minnehaha Falls), but hopefully Charlie and I will know of even more fun things to do by the time she/they come to visit again!

The week was a CRAZY hunt for a rent-house. We went into some VERY sketchy neighborhoods and looked at some very... interesting homes. And my mother was a constant cheerleader and source of positivity even when I was ready to quit or yell or pull my hair out. And it paid off!

Thanks, my beautiful mama, for being that sort of support for me... for listening to me and calmly reassuring me. I have learned so much from you about how important an attitude can be in any situation... and your boldness also challenges me to step out and not be afraid to present myself to people and to be myself always... I love you so much!


And then, after Charlie and I came home we had visitors come to stay! This is a 2.5 year old picture of Lexi, their youngest. I can't believe I have been in this family long enough to start watching babies grow up! It's fun! It was so good to see Rhett, Mel, and the kids... and to have a 4th of July fireworks party with them, the Vargus's, the BR Loups, and Nathan and Micah.

Things have been so busy, but all of it has been good. I'm kind of looking forward to maybe? hopefully? having a slooooow July/August before things take off at 100 mph again when we move and try to adjust to the Twin Cities!

the U

ooookay! you'll have to click it to enlarge... but!

4 days

35 houses

500 city-driving miles

and one deposit later

WE FOUND OUR HOUSE!!


it's tiny, but VERY cozy. when we walked into it, we knew it was our house! there's a large basement and a nice-sized backyard. we get to bring 2 pets with us. it has a great tree in the front yard... it's 10 minutes from EVERYWHERE (churches, st. paul, minneapolis, campus, target, a mall, a grocery store, DINOS, Como park and zoo)... it's in a safe neighborhood.... it's perfect.

Thank you, Jesus for leading us to the right one and giving all of us a sense of peace when we walked into it.

Thank you, mom for driving me the first 2 days and putting up with all the frustration.

Thank you, Charlie for finding this house and making me go to see it!! and for making lots of phone calls until we found the right one.

Thank you mom and dad for meeting us up here. it's becoming more real!! University of Minnesota... here we come! :)