True Story Saturday

True story: once, two guys fought over me.

Sounds better than it really was. When I was living in Australia, I went out with my housemates and we met these 2 Australian men who took a liking to me and my roommate, Andrea. Andrea actually ended up going out with the one guy a couple of times, but anyway, this Australian guy was very sweet, but even with the bonus of the accent, he just wasn't my type. Well, they followed our group to another bar, where I ended up chatting with yet another Australian guy. The second guy asked me if the other guy (we'll call him Oz) was my boyfriend. I said No. Well, Oz overheard and saw that I was chatting with some young, good looking guy and decided to put a stop to it (story of my life). We'll call the second guy ... Koala.
So Oz confronts Koala, and Koala gets defensive. Koala asks for my phone number (which is a whole other story because the Aussie phone numbers have like 14 digits in them and I never figured out where the pauses go, you know? So I would just rattle off a string of 14 numbers and everyone was just confused).
I start to give my number to Koala, but Oz decides to PULL RANK, of all things, because he was in the Australian military. Turns out that Koala was in the Australian military, too. Well they start battling out how their rank transfers because they're in different branches and it soon becomes ridiculously obvious that I have nothing to do with the situation anymore.
I slowly start backing away because I really don't think they'd ever have noticed I was gone, when Koala actually starts throwing a tantrum, grabs his backpack (military issued?) and leaves. So: yeah, technically 2 guys once fought over me. But in reality: 2 guys once fought near me. Haha.

Good Reads

Sometimes blogs are silly and bring smiles to our lovely faces.
Some blogs hit a nerve and yet, we love them, and pretend it's not about us (ME? no!).

Some blogs bring us into someone's world, and let us rejoice in triumphs and share in struggles.

There are those blogs that teach us (or, if you're like me, they let me pretend I can do this, too)

And finally, there are inspiring, touching blogs - ones I find myself going back to over and over.

Halloweenie

Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday. I love dressing up and being someone different for a day (or night!) That could be the dramatic side of me flaring up. I love the decorations and the CANDY (YUM!).
I always tend to procrastinate, which is very much in my nature, and scramble for a costume the week of Halloween.
Halloween 2009 is no different. I have procrastinated, leaving myself only a few days to throw something together. What to be? A television character, a Disney character, a classic everyone-always-chooses-that costume...
I have a few ideas in my head but they never quite turn out as good as I plan--maybe it is because I don't have enough time.
I believe I have decided on a costume for this year. But....it is a SURPRISE!
Pictures to come.

Oh, and some Shoe Shopping!

This is what shoe shopping with Jennie looks like. No, we didn't buy them. We could barely get them on. Can you tell? They're like 9 inches tall. I'm lucky I didn't break my ankle just standing in them. 

I have on the black heels. Jennie (Glamgirl) has on the sparkly silver heels.

ooooooohhhh, BURN!!

So, I stumbled upon one of my favorite moments in the Bible the other night. There are certain stories that are absolutely amazing to me, and I have many, many heroes (David and Esther are my FAVORITE people), but this is probably my favorite "moment" in the Bible. It's when Jesus is beginning his ministry and is rounding up his disciples, calling them to follow him. Then he meets Nathaneal.

John 1:45-50 tells the interaction (from the NIV):

Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

 ⁴⁶"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.

"Come and see," said Philip.

 ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."

 ⁴⁸"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. 

Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."

 ⁴⁹Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

 ⁵⁰Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." 

Okay. Doesn't really look like a big deal, but here's the translation in our everyday language (thanks to The Message Bible):

Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, "We've found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It's Jesus, Joseph's son, the one from Nazareth!" Nathanael said, "Nazareth? You've got to be kidding."

But Philip said, "Come, see for yourself."

 ⁴⁷When Jesus saw him coming he said, "There's a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body."

 ⁴⁸Nathanael said, "Where did you get that idea? You don't know me."

Jesus answered, "One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree."

 ⁴⁹Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!"

 ^50-51Jesus said, "You've become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven't seen anything yet!

Hahahahaha! That cracks me up! "You've got to be kidding." One translation reads: "What good can come from Nazareth?" Good question, Nathaneal. Read the rest of Jesus' story, and see exactly what good comes from Nazareth.

The other thing I love is that we don't know what Nathaneal was doing under the fig tree, but whatever it was (I like to think he was praying, seeking, crying out to the Lord), when Jesus mentioned the place to him, it grabbed his attention and made him believe. This is one of my favorite moments because there are so many times in my life when I feel lost or apart from God, and I'll pray and some little (or big!) thing happens later that is like a personal message from God that just says to me: See? I was there with you. I hear you.

Anyway, Nathaneal is super cool to me because he just says whatever he's thinking, and Jesus recognizes that: "not a false bone in his body". It's just a really special moment that always makes me smile.

Falling into Winter

The cool weather is finally approaching. Here in South Carolina, unlike where I grew up in New Jersey, the winters tend to be mild. There's frost and maybe even some snow, but there won't be any blizzards and we'll measure the snowfall in inches (maybe even centimeters), not feet.

The mornings, though, are bitter, and the icy wind bites at me and my sister on our morning jogs. So, here are a few of my favorite things about cooler weather. These are things that I'm really looking forward to.

• The way that a warm bed feels like the most wonderful place in the world.

• Hot cocoa with mini marshmallows

• Slippers! Especially colorful ones. I may need to go shopping.

• Boots - especially really cute ones. I definitely need to go shopping.

• Wrapping up in a warm blanket, turning down the lights and watching a movie.

• Wrapping up in a warm blanket, keeping on the lights and reading a great book.

• Soup and Stew.

• Lighting candles. I feel like candles are a very "Christmas-time" tradition, so I rarely light candles in the summer. Only for birthdays, and those are totally a different kind of candle.

• When my nephew yells "Hey! I see my breath!"

• The awesome carolers who come by at Christmastime to my sister's neighborhood. We just discovered them for the first time last year. How we've been missing out!

• Crock-pot cooking

• Mittens, hats and homemade scarves.

• Cold weather is always a good excuse to buy more cardigans. And you can always use more cardigans.

Relying on my Earthly Father VS. Relying on my Heavenly Father

I am a proud new homeowner! As I lay in bed each night, I am astounded at how all of this happened to me. I know this is exactly what God planned for my life and I continuously pray that He will use all of this for His Kingdom. God has been showing me a lot in the past few days, revealing His love and His desire to care for me.
One thing I struggled with this weekend (as I moved into my house) was realizing how much I have to rely on my Dad for repairs/fix its/manly house chores. I felt guilty/upset that he was the one having to take care of these things. I kept thinking “It is not fair that he should have to be a “husband” in two households.” This seeds from deeper issues, but that is a whole different blog post. I was having a conversation with my sister about how my dad shouldn't have to do all of these things for me and her response was, “BUT he WANTS to. He doesn't have to but he wants to do these things for you.”
Despite my guilt and frustration, God was showing me something. The way that I rely on my earthly father is how I should be relying on my Heavenly Father. I need to shove all of my insecurities, desire to control the situation and my frustrations and bring EVERYTHING to Him. He wants to take care of me, He doesn't have to....but He WANTS to. No matter how much I don't want to rely on my father (and heavenly father), I just HAVE to sometimes and that is ok.

Sisters Make the Best Friends

I've been a younger sister for all of my life, and the thing about being a younger sister is: you think your older sister knows EVERYTHING. So now that we're finally adults and kind of on the same playing level, I'm learning that she does, in fact, have her moments of weakness.
Here's advice she's given me over the years that is absolutely, positively amazing advice and I hold myself to it:
• No horizontal stripes. Ever. Never. No way. No matter how cute it is.
• Pointy heels always look better
• It's better to be a few minutes late to an event than show up on time, looking crappy
• If I'm feeling left out of something, I need to fix it; I can't wait around to be included. I need to be outgoing.

Now here are some things that I've noticed lately about my wonderful sister that prove to me that while she's a wealth of knowledge, she doesn't know, well, everything:
• She is constantly trying to give me her dog. I like her dog, sure, but when someone's so desperate to get rid of something, it makes you wonder...
• She cannot for the life of her remember the names of TV shows. The Biggest Loser is known as America's Fattest Person. How I Met Your Mother is instead Who Wants To Be Your Mother? (to be honest, I did the same thing with the show What About Brian? - it was a stupid title - so I called it Brian's Song)
• Black pants, brown shoes. That's all I'm going to say.

So, my sister is totally awesome, and gives amazing advice. But ... she's human, too. :)

This is your Brain on Desperate

In a fit of desperation after realizing I will be one of the only people at a party without a date, I had crazy thoughts of bribing/begging people to pose as my boyfriend. You should probably know that of course there's a guy involved in this desperation (I can't believe I'm admitting this). Jennie was so entertained by my fake letters of beggary, that she wanted me to post them online. On the World Wide Web. For everyone to see. Why, oh why, am I doing this?

Dear I Anthem,
I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend. Since you will have to look extra hot to fool someone into dating me, I'm going to need you to walk around with your guitar and sometimes burst into song. But not a weird way, you know? In a rockstar/cool way.
Thanks,
Christy

Dear XXXXXX XXXXXX (most popular guy from my high school):
PLEASE fly to G'ville and act as my boyfriend, then fly home and let's not ever speak about it. Because I'm pretty sure you're kind of a jerk and will try to sleep with me. And.. you look great, but ....you're still kind of a jerk. Anyway, you'll do it, right?
Christy

Dear Simon Baker:
I'm in love with you and your show. But mostly you. Will you come to a party and pretend to be my boyfriend? You can (and must) use your God-given natural accent.
Your friend,
Christy

In the end, though, I've decided to just act like my fabulous self. Notice I said "act like" because actually being my fabulous self is probably out of the question. So I wrote down Jennie's advice, and here it is:
Slo-mo entrance. Brush hair over shoulder. Flash smile. Laugh, but not too hard. Smile, but no crazy eyes.
That should do it! I guess I'll update the blog with whatever transpires.

Que? Quoi? Was? Cosa? Co?

Here's a strange revelation: I love, love, love it when people write or say things in English, and it's painfully obvious that English is not their first language. It tickles me. And not in a "I'm laughing at this person" sort of way, but more in a "You don't even know how adorable you sound" kind of way.
For example, I sponsor two children in other parts of the world, and I frequently get letters from them, updating me on their home life, schoolwork and just general info. Here's what the letters usually sound like (the sponsor company is Compassion International, a Christian organization, if the flowery religious prose doesn't clue you in):
"Greetings, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to you, my wonderful sponsor, Christy. I pray your family and life are well doing and that God finds you happy and glory today."
I love it.
Another example: I have some friends that I met during my travels abroad. One is from Finland, and since it's been a few years since she spent time in an English-speaking country, her English is not what it was several years ago when we were roomies in Oz. An email from her sounds like this:
"I took a movie of the kangaroo about it hopping. The other movie was about the kangaroo licking. It was good movie, and happy that I am having the Christmas at this time."
I know that others feel the same way I do. I once received an email from a man that ended with "Smiles at you!" and Jennie loved the phrase so much that she uses "Smiles at you!" as her signature on her texts. If I could name this love of ESLs, I would call it the Ricky Ricardo Syndrome.
And I am infected.

Ever have one of those days?!

Today is one of those days. You know what I mean....Yesterday was packed with so much excitement that today is just blah. I closed on my house yesterday, so I am now a homeowner. I have a little complain monster in my mind rearing it's ugly head. I am cold and tired and basically just want to sleep....But then I think about my new house, how much I love it and what a blessing it is in my life. So the blah day after the EXCITING day is worth it! And I always have COFFEE THURSDAY to look forward to.