Charlie

I took half of a melatonin, so now I'm trying to decide to how best use my time before I'm too tired to function.  Let's seeeeeee.  I could write a blog.  Oooorrr watch an episode of something on TV.  I cooooulllddddd get caught up with Hurricane Sandy.  OR I should proobably research the metabolic effects of bariatric surgery since I have a meeting about that tomorrow for a paper a few of us are writing.  I should proooobably do that.  Yeah.  Let me get on that.  So excited.  So much motivation.

One of my very best friends is coming to see me this weekend!  I'm pretty pumped.  And not just her, but my second mama/my husband's biggest cheerleader.  We're going to try to go see the Pioneer Woman at the Mall of America.  Get her to autograph her book about Charlie!!!  It sounds fun, but the rules say you have to get in line before 9 to get a wrist-band to stand in line for her autograph at 2pm.  We'll see... but it would be fun!

one more...

Old picture.

And one correction.  Toto would have been 16 this December!

She had a good life. 

Rest in Peace, Toto

Toto of Totogal has passed on.  She really was my best friend--most especially when I got her 14 or 15 years ago.  I fiercely defended her beauty.  And thinness.  And painted her toenails on holidays so she could sleep in my bed with me (don't ask).  She had about 1000 nick-names.  Toby being the most recent and long-lasting.  She let tons of first graders read to her.  And was always very patient with them when they smothered her with love.  Once she ate half of a rabbit.  It was either her or her alter-ego Lorraine.  She was always way smarter than other animals.  She killed a snake once, too.  She was very mean to boys until they proved themselves.  Charlie was the only boy she ever stopped barking at like he wasn't an intruder.  She eventually quit barking at Alan, too :).  She always rolled her eyes at Tiggy for being silly as you can see above.  She loved eating anything (Except pickled herring).  Or maybe she ate that when no one else would?    She had to go on a diet once because people kept commenting on how... amazingly large she was.  Doctor's orders.  I think she lost almost half of her body weight.  After I went to college, she would spend her days sitting in my dad's office with him.  She always knew what he was thinking without him saying anything to her.  She was just that smart.  And she was too smart to do anything she didn't want to do.  She would run away whenever she got the chance only to come back limping and panting an hour or two later.  She could never pass up an opportunity like that.  She is why I love corgis (even though she was technically only half).

Toto, I'll miss you and your queen bee ways.
And you're probably the reason ikcduckhunter3 still loves totogal.

Minnesota.

Come on.  You're killin' me.

huh?

"The N-terminal domain faces the cytosol and contains a basic-helix-loop-helix-leucine-zipper transcription factor motif."

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?
Nutritional Metabolism.  I.hate.you.

History

This is when Stacy got Tiggy.  It was also Charlie's first trip up to visit me (2007)

This is when I got hit by a semi-truck in Costa Rica.  When I got picked up from the airport. It was a miracle.  2007

This was Charlie making a statement. 2007

This was when Charlie got a new puppy I helped name (kindasorta...) Mrs. Annie and I voted on Bear (RouxBear) 2007

This was right before he took off his coat and shirt(s) and ran around in the snow half-naked. 2008

This was when we had to spend most of our time apart but actually got to be together. (2008)

This was when he fell in love with my haircut... Imean me. (2008)

This was goodbye to the best of friends. Maggie.  2008

This was when I sang and danced to Coldplay. 2009

This was when my dad got -really- happy about being not quite-so-outnumbered.   2009

This was when our 1 hour old adopted baby tried to eat my chicken sandwich. 2009

This was when we had our last high school graduation at tech (2009)

This was the message Charlie left me on our kitchen table (2009)

This is what a Galbo-family holiday looks like (2009)

This was when we lived in a trailer (2009)

This was when Pernkie had fleas.  Oooooh Pernkie.  2010

This was when Charlie took me to a football game and we sat SO FAR UP in the sky I felt like I was going to tumble out. 2010

This is when we went to Denver (2010)

When Susan went hiking with a one-month old!! 2010

And this is when Aunt Stephie got to hold little Caleb a LOT 2010

This is when we got to have Christmas in Denver to hang out with Caleb- 2010

This was when Nana told Caleb his first Jacquo story (2010)

 This was when an unbreakable bond was formed (2011)

Thiiiis when when a tornado attacked our house (2011)

This is when I was in my best friend's wedding (2011)

This is when I got to stay with my sister when I moved to Minnesota (2011)

This is when we got lost in our cities (2011)

This was when we had the (5th) warmest Christmas day on record and we accidentally got this awesome shot with a self-timer (2011)

This was when our car broke down in the-middle-of-nowhere-Iowa and we borrowed a GHETTO van from our mechanic.  awesome. And I cried to get the hotel owner to let us bring our pets in from the cold. (2012)

And this was last winter at our first Minnesota home.

Much more to come, I'm sure.

real

"Eat more french fries and drink less water".  (Ironic advice, huh?)

So they didn't have great answers for me, but I must be on my way to recovery.  I kind of have to be, with the semester half-way through and an entire field experience to get going on.  (Yipes!)

The girls from school and our program director sent me a -beautiful- bouquet of edible arrangements   I was absolutely humbled that they thought of me and sent that kind of love my way.  And that I have professors and advisers who -really- care about me and are so willing to do whatever I need to do to both keep up and rest up.

A dear lady sent me a book and it's been a really great read so far.  Here's my favorite quote:
"The enemy uses lies of accusation and intimidation to make the problems and conflicts in our lives, which result from the in-congruence between the heavenly reality and earthly reality, appear bigger than the solutions we carry."

I can see this in my own life.  I know in my spirit how things are meant to be.  I am not experiencing those things.  It causes an internal conflict that the enemy blows lies into.  He makes the difference between what is and what should be too great.  And when you concentrate on that, you lose site of everything else (God).  It's been a good reflection for me.

Debates

Charlie and I are so bad at politics.  I can tell because we've watched each debate... and for the previous two (not the one on right now) we've declared the wrong person the winner.

Silly us for liking the more polite, straight-forward person!  Excuse us for preferring the person who isn't constantly interrupting or laughing at the other one.  We picked the one we trusted more at the end of the debate... the one who we felt was telling the truth.

We must not get it.

(Which I think is FUNNY because we're potentially swing voters... shouldn't our opinions of the debate be the ones that really count?)

PS maybe it's the public health nutrition in me, but is it bad that I would vote for Obama just to keep Michelle around??  We NEED her for another 4 years!

Asking for prayers again...

Please and thanks.

Is it Christmas break, yet?

No?

this is beautiful

psalm 103

Praise the Lord, O my soul;
     all my inmost being, praise His holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul;
     and forget not all His benefits--
Who forgives all your sins
     and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
     and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
     so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord works righteousness
     and justice for the oppressed.
He made known His ways to Moses,
     His deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
     slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
     nor will He harbor his anger forever;
He does not treat us as our sins deserve
     or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
     so great is his love for those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
     so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on His children,
     so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him;
for He knows how we are formed,
     He remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass,
     he flourishes like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
     and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting 
     the Lord's love is with those who fear Him,
     and His righteousness with their children's children--
with those who keep His covenant
     and remember to obey its precepts.
The Lord has established His throne in heaven,
     and His Kingdom rules over all.
Praise the Lord, you His angels,
     you mighty ones who do His bidding,
     who obey His word.
Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts,
     you His servants who do His will.
Praise the Lord, all His works,
     everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.


when i read this scripture yesterday, the phrase, "He crowns you with love and compassion" really struck me.  i know this scripture is for everyone, but yesterday when i read it, i remembered that my name means "crowned one."  i am crowned with love and compassion.  he heals all my diseases.  he satisfies my desires with good things.  he restores my youth like the eagle's.  for always and eternity, his love is with me.

thank you, God.

Snow dance

When I was little, my sisters and I would frequently perform "snow dances" in the winter when we REALLY wanted it to snow/get out of school.

We'd strip down to bare-minimum clothing and run out to the light-post down the street and run around it shreeking and giggling and praying to God that it would snow.  Then, we'd dash back inside and wait.  And wake up all night and peer out the window, and wait.

It usually didn't work... 

but do you think there's such a think as an anti-snow dance?  (it's already snowed in Minnesota, and it's October.  I can't handle it!!!)

study

I miss my study room at JBU.

Completely quiet.  One very large table that could hold all of my notes, books, and computer.

VERY comfy roll-ey chairs that I could sit on and prop up my feet.

A cabinet full of yummy snacks when I needed a break.  (Indulgence Trail Mix.)

A very close restroom.

Open until I needed to go to sleep (which, somehow back then was usually 2-4 in the morning.)

My own key so it was always available.

And, it was just so... undistracting.

*sigh*  I'm SURE I would be a MUCH better student if I had my room back.

everything

source

I love Colossians. Colossians 1 is my favorite passage of scripture.  It just always reminds me that Christ holds -everything- together.

^15-18 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

^18-20 He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

That includes my body.  Your marriage.  Your life worries.  Your stress. Your money. When God says -everything-, He means EVERYTHING.  

Psalm 5

Hear my innermost thoughts Adonai, as I cry to you for help
My king and my God, in the morning I lay my needs before you and wait expectantly
I can enter your house because of your great grace and love
I bow down in reverence for you
Lead me in your righteousness and make your way straight before me
I rejoice and shout for joy as I take refuge in you
I love your name, Adonai
Shelter me and surround me with  your favor like a shield



Let me be honest.  I want to shout for joy and rejoice as I take refuge in Him.  I'm just not sure how to do that sometimes.

I love you

Charlie... I just love you.

You're handsome...

You're silly

You're (mostly) kind (except that you don't always share your burgers with your babies)

You're a hard worker

You're really... just... everything to me.  I love you.  For moving across the country for me (and with me).  For being a daddy to our babies.  For taking care of me when I'm sick.  For cooking and shopping for us when you need to.  For working SO hard at whatever you do.  For living a life of love.  I wish I could -really- articulate what you mean to me.

I hope this 26th year is the best yet.  Full of blessings and promotions.  And joy.  And lots and lots and lots of fun together.  I love you!!!

I could feel your prayers today

(thank you)

and please don't stop yet!

please pray for me.

breathe

breathe in. breathe out.  breathe in.  breathe out.

what a few weeks it's been.

i still don't know anything.  my next appointment is October 16th.  yeeeeah.



This is funny.  Katy Perry came to JBU in 2001 as Katy Hudson.  Funny, huh?

October

I think it's facebook official that October is everyone's favorite month.  LOTS of posts about October today.  I think I may agree.  Beautiful weather.  Pumpkin everything. Squashes of every kind.  Apples. Leaves turning colors. Charlie's birthday. It's a good month. 

These are yummy:

http://dashingdish.com/recipe/moist-pumpkin-protein-muffins/