Updates...

Hello folks! Now that the letters are out, I thought I'd break the news onto this blog as well! I'm going back to Haiti... YIpeEE! So, if you want more info, etc... or a letter in that case, email me/post a comment or hop on over to www.haitijournal.blogspot.com

I will be trying to keep that blog updated with thoughts and prayers about this new journey(yet, not so new in my heart :))

In other news...
I bought a digital camera (gulp, an overwhelming process)... I like it... I think... it's such a big purchase, but it's one of those small Nikon Coolpix cameras... it feels too small to really take decent pictures. But as in other areas of life I should remind myself... size doesn't always matter! :) It's got 5.1 megapixels and 3x zoom, and a Lithium/Ion battery... I was going to get this other one that seemed a bit more sturdy, but you had to buy a battery charger and AA rechargable batteries too... an extra 30bucks... that one had 5x zoom, but I just don't think I use zoom enough anyways. And, this one I got seems to do pretty well... although when I try to shoot with the Macro mode with no flash, it wigs out and a "steady camera" icon blinks. I even set it on the table and shot the object and it still wouldn't go away. Annoying! So, I'll have to figure that one out, and I got free passes to the classes that National Camera gives, so that'll be good. Here are a couple fun shots I took while playing with it last night.

I think this one was actually without the macro setting on, and auto flash... not bad I guess. I wish I could have gotten outside to take some wintry snow shots, but the day just got away from me. Bummer! Owell... that's all for now.

Have a Happy New Year ya'll!

cherry coke! :)

A couple blogs back I mentioned a cool picture of a cherry coke.
Let me tell you, I'm usually all about lots of cherries, but I didn't want anymore cherries for a long time after that... there were probably 6 more down inside the drink that you can't even see!

(for a reminder of the blog click here and read para. 4)

and the icecream sundae...

So, that was my time at TGIFridays, I sure left with a full stomach!











I didn't mention anything in the birthday blog about my experience at "The Shout House"... it's a piano bar in Block E in Minneapolis... a dueling piano bar, actually! You can put in requests, etc, and of course they caught word that it was my birthday. So, they had me and another girl whose birthday it was, come up and sit on the piano. Then, they called up all the "single guys" of the place to come and sing "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'"... hmm... as the picture shows... I was a bit embarassed, especially since it took half the song for any of my friends to come up... well, now that I think of it, only one in attendance was single, but he dragged a couple others up with him.













This is another picture at the Shout House of Heather, my old roomate, and the piano player doing the "actions" to Grease Lightning. She happened to stand up and do them right by the table, so he saw her and couldn't help but make her get up on stage, since she was already standing and doing them. It was pretty hilarious!

I Celebrate the Day... by Relient K

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to
let You know how much You've touched my life
Because here is where You're finding me,
in the exact same place as New Year's eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that
You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare the
things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life

I really like this song, it really made me think of things a bit differently. The whole disk is actually really good... It's called "Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hands" The title made me laugh! :) Most of the carols on this disk are in Relient K goofy fun style, except this one and maybe one or two others.

A Cave...

This weekend in church we heard from a speaker(I forget her name, sorry), a friend of Jan Bros'... she talked about times of being in the dark and how we often run from those times. I think I have been doing that for the last couple of weeks.
It is good to be told not to run, but to acknowledge what it is, and wait. The question she asked close to the end was, "What are you waiting for?"
The answer to that question, I'm not sure right now...

if nothing else... waiting to not feel like I'm on a rollercoaster of emotions.

pondering this for now...

Reflections on my day

Today started out pretty normal, pulled myself outta bed about 7:29am, took a shower, got ready and the whole bit. I wondered if anyone would call me this morning with birthday wishes, but nope. Okay, no big deal.
I drove to work and as I pulled into the parking lot I could feel myself get really overwhelmed with tears... I shook it off and a little while into the workday I got my first phone call... it was my 4 year old niece, Sarah! "Hello Antie Lisa... pause (overhearing sis's voice, "remember what you were going to say?").. Happy Birthday!" I say thank you and she proceeds to tell me how she went to the store with mommy and they got strawberry and cherry and green apple gum, and that Joshy(who is going to be 3 in January) was eating some and she was eating some. Cute, and then she asks, "Antie, when are you going to come to my house and see me?" I said hopefully soon, and she replies "Okay, you have to come so you can have some of my gum."
How cute is that... I love that the coolest thing for her was getting gum at the store and hoping that I would come soon so she could share it with me. She tried handing the phone to Joshua, but he only does things on his terms these days.. he'll only do it if it was his idea from the beginning. :) No biggie (boys... sometimes they just never change... tee hee... jk) I ended the phone call with my sister who was driving and had Joshua now complaining about something Sarah had done.
Got back to work after that... Mom called and said Happy Birthday... Always nice to hear your mom's voice on your birthday. Georgia finally got to work around 10:30ish and we chatted for a bit. She's always great at making you feel special... she happened to tell/remind(although she denies it) a few of our common friends that it was my birthday. That was sweet, so randomly throughout the day a got some emails and text messages from those ppl. One of the calls was from her older brother Joe, he's somebody who I often just joke around with because he's so easy to pick on. He never calls for me, so when I picked up and said hello and he said who it was, I knew it was because Georgia told him it was my bday. I quickly answered, "Well, hi Joe, how are you?" With a bit of sarcasm in my voice, and he responds by saying "You sound a little sassy today" I said, "Sassy?" He said, "Yeah, but I hear it's your birthday, so it's okay"... what a randomly funny kid. Anyways... I don't know why I told that story... but it just stuck out as funny to me.
We went to lunch at TGIFriday's and of course they told the waitress it was my birthday. I forget that they like to tie balloons all over you... in fact each server comes with two and ties them on. Good thing it wasn't dinner time, or they'd have way more servers on. It was a nice lunch and really got me in a good mood... it helped that the waitress put about 12 cherries in my cherry coke. (which I got a sweet digital pic of that I'm hoping to post in the near future) We then went to Avant Garden, the best coffee shop in downtown Anoka, and I'd have to say maybe even in Minnesota! :) The coolest part about going there was that I saw my good old friend from my old church, Brooke, her birthday is Dec. 3rd... and we always remembered our birthdays... so immediately when she saw me she said "Happy Birthday" and I said "Happy Birthday to you in two days!" It was pretty cool... we caught up quick and then she had to leave.

(sorry this is getting long)

We got back to work and I got a couple other calls and what not... but I just have to say a couple cool things that happened out of my control that were just cool. For the last couple years there hasn't been a whole lot of snow on my birthday, so I told a couple people and just thought to myself that it would be fun to have snow on my birthday. Yay, it snowed before my birthday... and even better there was a pretty snowfall off and on all day out my window. It was something small, and I would've lived without it, but it happened.
Cool thing number two came in a very odd way. You see... I really love flowers, especially roses. About three months ago or so, for some reason I just got it in my head that all I really wanted for my birthday was to get flowers or roses from someone, anyone, well someone I knew atleast. There really isn't that special someone who I knew I might get any from, so coming up to my day I knew it would be pretty unlikely. It wasn't like I was going to tell my mom or anyone... hey can you have my dad or can you have someone get me flowers. That would be silly and not mean anything... so whatever. I was sitting at my desk today and would randomly think about the flowers and kept telling myself, it's not going to happen and that's really okay. I have all these people who care and love me, that really is enough. Well, the four o'clock hour rolled around and I was leaving at 5pm... not much left to do, but wait for this one guy to pick up some postcards and print some posters, etc. As I was checking the printer, the guy who was picking up his posters came around the corner. He knew it was my birthday because he was supposed to come at 2 and pick up then, but was told we were going out to lunch for my birthday. Paul is his name, and he is a counselor and now author of the book he is having us(me) design. A very thoughtful and "counselor" type person, always giving a lot of affirmation of the designs I've done, etc. (sometimes too much... but he's married with children, so don't think this is wierd)... So, back to today... he came around the corner and said Happy Birthday... and had some sort of flower(s) to give me. I was floored... it felt wierd at first, I kept telling him it was so unnecessary, but thanked him kindly. I finally brought it back to my desk and opened it... a single White Rose!! It took me a minute to realize what and who it really was from...
Thanks God...

I've said things before about not liking the word "blessing" and over spiritualizing things... but this... I can't explain it... I truly believe that Paul was just the messenger/catalyst. It wasn't going to appear out of no where... He cares... he cares about the little things... and the big things.

I also have to give a big shout out to Angela... she doesn't have time to read this, but I know she has been trying her best to make this a good birthday for me. We went to PF Chang's tonite and had a lovely dinner... and then we went to Express so I could find something fun to wear tomorrow night... Going to The Shout House... and what do you know... I had a gift card from awhile back that had $20 on it, I had totally forgotten about it, and I originally got a 10dollar off card from them for my birthday... sweet!! :)

So... yes... the big 2-5... it was a good day...
love to all...

It's official... the big 2-5

hmm... well, I was just lying in bed trying to fall asleep and I couldn't. Tomorrow(or today, rather) is the looming birthday... my quarter life birthday has come and sometimes it feels a little depressing. I'm not going to wallow in it or anything... but I'm on the closer end to being thirty than I am to being twenty. Yes, I know, I'm young... not married and no kids... I'm free to make my decisions independently. So, that's what I'm focusing on... and beginning to make some new goals for myself... where I want to be in five years from now....

• close to or already have bought my own house

• quite possibly be all free-lancing in design or decorative painting on walls... or canvas

• have taken a trip to Europe?!

hmm... i know there are more... but now my brain is definitely shutting down... maybe I can hit they hay now...

asta la vista