Moments with Christ

I am reading a book right now called "Moments With Christ." It's a devotional I bought in college but somehow got buried in the millions of other books in my house. It pointed out something I had never noticed before about Mary.

Luke 1: 26 - 34: "In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

The author of the book postulates that in that one sentence, Mary has already displayed her willingness. She is already acknowledging that it will "be." She has already made herself available, she is just asking about logistics.

Sometimes God asks us to do things that don't make sense. And it's okay to ask about logistics. Mary got her answer right away- that's not going to always be the case. We aren't even guaranteed to know while we are on earth (i.e. Job) why things happen. I just hope that when the rubber meets the road I stick it out even if I can't see where I am going.

And the winner is...

For my color blind friends, it's a boy! My dad and I both thought it was going to be a girl, but everyone else wanted a boy. So I will have a nephew soon. I never had a brother so I have no clue what to do with little boys. So my friends who have little boys- look out! I will be asking lots of questions!

To celebrate I am heading over to Cheesecake Factory with Laura and JK for dessert today (half price cheesecake)! And then to the gym tonight for weights! I finally got my ipod all updated so I can lift tonight with no problems.

Missy and I decided today to sign up for another 5k. It's going to be pretty cool. It is actually run inside the Virginia Beach Ampitheatre and then afterwards you get to tour the backstage area, listen to live music and eat Mexican food. Sounds like a good day to me!

Hmmmm... what do I have to do tonight?

- I have to cross train for 40 minutes at the gym (will actually be an hour since I will be

watching Leverage).

- I have to bake dessert for my friend Jessica and her family.

- I have to do some laundry

Oh yeah, I have to find out if I am going to have a niece or a nephew. I knew there was something going on!

I am so excited!

Thomas Nelson Blogger!

I applied last week to be a Thomas Nelson book blogger. Thomas Nelson publishes Christian books and they give people free copies as long as they agree to blog about the books. I received my e-mail notice today that I have been accepted!

I went in this morning to look at the books I can choose from and all were about relationships or raising children except "The Noticer" by Andy Andrews, the same guy who wrote "The Travelers Gift" (which was given to me as a gift a few years ago).

So I will give it a read and hopefully in a few days I can publish a review for you guys!

Credit Cards

Did you see that new credit card legislation passed? Alot of it is really great for people who are responsible with their cards and some for people who haven't yet gotten in trouble. For example, credit card companies will not longer be able to go on college campuses and hand out t-shirts in exchange for credit card applications in 2010.

The best explanation I have found is by J. Money at Budgets are Sexy, which is my fav financial blog. Check out the article: http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2009/07/how-new-credit-card-legislation-affects.html. It's really easy to understand (I LOVE lists!).

I had my long run yesterday and I did horrible. I did all three miles but walked most of it. I just felt funny- couldn't figure out why. Then, while on stage last night, I felt myself starting to get a fever. By the time Ira's sermon was almost over I felt awful. I went home to my 80 degree house, turned off all the ceiling fans, put on my flannel pajamas and slippers, and crawled under 4 blankets on my bed. Definately sick- I was freezing in spite of the 90 degree temperatures.

Fortunately my fever broke around midnight and I am feeling much better today. There is Pi-Yo at the Y tonight so as long as I am still good when I get off of work, I will be there. Then home, probably to bed early again just to be safe.

I did it!

Up at 5 and at the gym by 5:30 this morning. I left a little bit before 7 so I got home in plenty of time to get to work (and even took a 20 minute nap). It really does feel nice getting my work out done in the morning so I don't have to be stressed after work today. And I have not been swimming in forever- it actually felt great. Works different muscles and seemed to give my legs a break after two mile walk/run on the treadmill this morning. My sister tore it up in the water- I wonder what the baby was thinking?

Went to pilates last night- the room they are usually in had some kind of kids class in it so we were in a horrible room. Bright lights, really hard kind of dirty floors and the music coming out of a boom box. I will hold off to go again until they are back in their other room- should only be a few more weeks.

Tomorrow is my rest day for the week so I am looking forward to taking a break from the gym. Sunday is a 3 mile run/walk to start off the new week- probably going to try to do that one outside and change the scenery a bit!

Leverage

Went home from work yesterday, grabbed the coupon box and headed to Harris Teeter for some money saving goodness. Got some free smart water and really cheap toilet paper, BIC ink pens and Morningstar fake meat (I use it in a taco soup I make- keeps the fat content down). I also bought some Vitamin Water 10, which is a new favorite of mine. Today I am trying the lemonade. Not crazy about it, but it's not bad.

After that I went home, ate some dinner (salad from Farm Fresh) and went to the gym. Did my 40 minutes on the elliptical while watching "So You Think You Can Dance?" and drove home to experience my favorite part of every Wednesday night.

Leverage has started it's new season on TNT. It comes on Wednesday nights at 9 and it makes me happy. Christian Kane is part of that reason but I also think the writing is hilarious. It's kind of like Burn Notice that way- always creating some kind of con to help the little guy. My favorite movie of all time is "The Sting" with Redford and Newman and I think my television taste is starting to reflect that same genre!

Have one voice lesson to teach after work today at 5:30. It's a newbie, so we will see how it goes. They get one lesson free at the beginning. If they hate me, they never have to see me again. If they like me, we start charging. And then I head to the Indian River Y for Pilates. I love the pilates instructor there and can rarely get to her class. Gonna be fun!

Decisions

"Bottom line is, even if you see them coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So, what are we, helpless? Puppets? Nah. The big moments are gonna come, you can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that count. That's when you find out who you are. " - Whistler, BTVS

Been reminded lately that we are a product of our decisions. Sometimes stuff happens and there is nothing you can do about it. But alot of the times, we are just sleeping in the bed we made.

Who people marry, whether we buy a house in our price range, whether we go to the gym or sit at home and order pizza- these all have lasting effects. If you don't study for a test, you will likely fail. On the whole, no one wants to suffer consequences for anything.

I had a guy in my office on Monday complaining about punishment for testing positive on a drug test. (Pretty simple solution to fix that.) The kind of irrational logic that used to be reserved for teens who didn't use protection or middle schoolers driving without a liscense has now spread to the adults of the world. When did we forget that actions have consequences?

Last night was a 2.5 mile run/walk. I did okay but not as well as I would like. But I guess that is what training is for, right?

Because I don't get off until 5 today I will not be able to participate in any classes, so tonight will be my 40 minutes of cross training at the Mt. Trashmore Y. (I usually get off at 4:30, which means I can be at my Y by 5. When I get off at 5 the traffic is much worse so I usually can't get to my Y until 6.) Back on my elliptical machine tonight probably watching NCIS.

Harry Potter

Enjoyed a night out with the girls last night! Ate a great Cheesecake Factory salad in the mall and talked about what kind of job my friend JK should have. She has decided to let her friends pick, as she is aimless. That girl is obsessed with fashion, so we all seem to keep steering her in that direction.

Once inside the theater I was whisked away to Hogwarts. Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy, owns the current Harry Potter film. Everyone does a great job but a flat character finally gets the chance to show himself. Finally got to see the guy act and he's pretty good at it. It's good to be the bad guy sometimes.

I thought the movie was fantastic, but I haven't read the book in a few years so the differences between script and book that seem to bother everyone else on line didn't really faze me.

The plot lines with the romances are adorable and I was reminded of the unstable seriousness of romance in middle and high school. And how fun it was!

Went to the gym after the movie and did 30 minutes on the machine while watching "Dating in the Dark." Great show- hilarious! Tonight is 2.5 miles on the treadmill. I have an hour between job #1 and job #2 so I will be hitting the gym. I am keeping my fingers crossed that a treadmill with a television is available!

10 k Training

So I am planning on running a 10k on Halloween with mom and missy. And I am going to try to train properly for this one.

One of the things the book I am reading recommends is keeping a training journal. So I am going to use this blog as my training journal.

Because I am going to see Harry Potter tonight I am going to have to change my training schedule a bit. Today was supposed to be "strength and stretching" which is usually perfect because I do Pi-Yo (half pilates, half yoga) on Monday nights. So instead I will be doing 30 minutes of cross training tonight (elliptical) after the movie. The Y is open until 11 on week nights which I love since I am a night owl.

We will see how it goes!

New Shoes

I do not share the same shoe obsession as most of my female friends do. I would love the world if I could wear plastic flip flops 365 days a year.

However I decided it was time for me to buy some actual running shoes. Ones that fit. Ones that are actually made to run. It was time. So I sucked it up and went to Running Etc to get fitted. And I left with these:

They were stupid expensive but they feel amazing. I can not wait to try them out.

Finally some credit!

I watch alot of television shows but my absolute favorite comedy right now is "The Big Bang Theory." Don't let the title turn you off if you don't believe in the aforementioned event, this show is hilarious.

CBS keeps moving it's time slot, treating it as if it is unimportant when it pulls good numbers for them every Monday night. But today they finally got their due.

Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon Cooper, has been nominated for an Emmy Award! Alongside comedy greats Steve Carrell and Alec Baldwin. I have no idea if he will win or not, but maybe now finally the network will acknowledge the true genius of these television geniuses.

If you don't know who they are go on youtube and watch the "Rock, Paper, Lizard, Scissors, Spock" clip. It's amazing!

Doughnuts

I have a huge problem with doughnuts. I think they are amazing. Whenever I drive by the "Hot Now" sign at Krispy Kreme it takes everything in me not to stop. The Bakers Dozen they sell at Farm Fresh are great.

But I think Dunkin Doughnuts are gross. There are almost a dozen of them in our break room and every time I look at the box it makes me never want to eat another doughnut again. I wonder what the difference is?

Seth Green on WWE

I don't watch WWE. I think adult male wrestling is like a soap opera for men, so I don't watch it.

However last night I flipped over to USA waiting for "Royal Pains" to come on so I caught the last four minutes. And what I saw was Seth Green being chased around the outside of the rink by some massively huge man with a chair.

I LOVE Seth Green. He was Oz on Buffy the Vampire Slayer- the perpetually cool guy who becomes a werewolf. Most people know him from the Austin Powers movies, "Can't Hardly Wait", "Without a Paddle" or "Family Guy." He is funny, cute and entertaining.

But he is LITTLE. Maybe my height. Probably weighs less than I do.And those wrestlers are big. It was like an elephant chasing a cat. And as soon as I can find a picture of it I will post it. Because it was hilarious.

The Weekend!

I had a great weekend this weekend. Heather wanted to be outside on Friday night so I suggested a Norfolk Tides game- even though I still had some school work to get done. I buckled down in the morning and used my lunch break to finish. I wasn't 100% satisfied with it, but it was nice out and I wanted to hang out with my friends.

Tides won and the Zooperstars were there (I had never seen them before). They were hilarious! You can see the pictures above for what they looked like! The 8 of us had a good time just being outside. I also got to spend some time with my dad, who seems to live at Harbor Park this time of year!

Saturday morning I did NOT HAVE TO TEACH! So I slept in until 10 (I was up until 1 watching the season premiere of Eureeka on the newly christened SyFy channel). Went to the gym, grabbed some lunch and hit the thrift stores looking for Halloween costume pieces. Yes I know Halloween is months away but life is going to get busy!

Saturday night was church softball- always fun. Enjoyed hanging out with the girls on the bleachers and got some more people to tag along with Alicia, Crystal and I to see Harry Potter on the 20th. One week from today!

Sunday morning I went to Real Life Christian Church in Chesapeake and heard a great video sermon by Francis Chan, the guy who wrote "Crazy Love." It was amazing. Hit the gym, the library, another thrift store and grabbed a salad. Then back out to 757 last night for great worship and fellowship.

Oh- and I got a 100% on my homework I did on Friday. My final grade in the class was a 97% so I am pretty happy with that. It was a great weekend!

Quotes of the Week

"We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship."
--The Weight of Glory

"The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch". Quote (Act I, Scene III).

Richard III

Finishing up Richard III (shakespeare) for graduate school. Normally I recommend sitting back and taking in a good bit of the bard, but this thing is grueling. He is killing EVERYBODY! The 1995 film version compared him to Hitler and I feel like it's a good comparison!

Trip to Washington

Last Monday, after the longest dance recital in history on Sunday night (although I am told they are all this way) I headed out to Washington State for one of my last remaining graduate school classes at Gonzaga University (Go Zags!).



The flight out was pretty uneventful. The last leg- a flight from Salt Lake City to Spokane- was the most interesting. I ended up sitting next to a guy my age named Marshall. He was LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints- also known as Mormon) and pulled out his Bible when he sat down. So we ended up talking almost all of the two hour flight about religion. He answered alot of questions I had about the LDS church. He had done a two year mission in Houston a few years before so he was able to answer my questions alot more coherently than other people had in the past. It was nice to have a conversation with no intent of changing any one's mind- we both were firm in our beliefs and just sharing about our faith.



Class was amazing. I met alot of really great people and ate alot of really good food. It was nice to finally meet some of my professors face to face. Even though getting my degree on line is absolutely pivotal for me to be able to finish school with my schedule I realized how much I have missed being in the classroom and seeing people face to face. The weather in Spokane was phenomenal, though it was sunny outside about 20 hours a day, which was really strange.



Somehow during the trip I managed to pull some muscles in the left side of my neck and all the way down to the end of my shoulder. I think it might have been the bed at the bed and breakfast I stayed at. So I have been keeping heat on it and trying to take it easy. Last night I went back to the gym and started working out again so it's a little aggravated today but nothing I can't work around.



The highlight of my trip, however, was my two hours in the Vegas Airport. I gambled $3 and left with $11.50. It was my first ever win at gambling!

Happy 4th of July!

This is the first holiday I have ever spent in my house without going out! All of my friends who were couples chose to spend the day together today, so rather than crash one of their parties or go to the party the guys at work threw I decided to stay home and do all of the things I am forever putting off. I had a paper due at midnight (I just turned it in two minutes ago), caught up on posting on Blackboard, did laundry, washed dishes, cleaned out the litter box and unpacked. BTW- this is a record for me being unpacked. Usually my suitcase stays packed for atleast a week.

Tomorrow morning I am going to visit a local church that is currently meeting inside Great Bridge High School to see how they are doing things. I am excited to get the chance to see how some other people around the area are worshipping!