99 Balloons

My sister-in-law showed me this video yesterday - it's an extremely touching story of a baby not expected to live, and parents who chose not to be sad.

Take the six minutes to watch it.

5:11

Take the 5 minutes and 11 seconds to watch this video.

It will make you stop and think.

I should be...

...cleaning. I skipped the gym to clean. Instead I am blogging. What can I say, I was concerned you all would be worried by my absence. I would hate to put you through that.

I've had many "deep" thoughts to blog about lately - and I will. Eventually. But not today. My brain is not ready for that. So, I give you, random tidbits. (Big surprise...)

• In the winter, I'm always cold. In the summer, in air conditioning, I'm often cold. Hoodies are my best friend. So is my down comforter.
• Last night I spent the night somewhere sans comforter. I had on two layers of clothing and 8 layers of covers. Yes, you read that right. It was difficult to move, but I was warm. I lost two layers of blankets in the middle of the night. Decided next time, comforter will go with.
• Once I find a pen I like, I go a little "pen crazy" - meaning, I return to the store, buy many more, and place them everywhere I use a pen.
  
• The majority of the books I own, I haven't read. And those that I have actually opened, only a small percentage have I read the entire thing. I call it my ADD reading life. While I'm in the middle of one book, a new one appears that grabs my attention. I try reading both, but the new book has hooked me. Good thing I'm not like this with relationships in my life.
• My best friend and I have a Christmas time tradition we both hold dear to our hearts. This year, we aren't able to do it since she lives 3 hrs away and it just won't work out. I'm kind of bummed.
• I wear jeans almost all the time. To work, to church, around town, etc. When I'm not in jeans I'm either in workout pants at the gym, or comfy pajama pants. Occurred to me last night that for Christmas Eve I will be attending another church service besides my own. While jeans aren't necessarily frowned upon, it wouldn't be a good choice with my family for me to show up sporting denim on my bottom half. None of my old dress clothes fit. Made an emergency run to the store for dress pants. Saved by a good sale.
  
• I'm obsessed with pineapple juice. I love pineapple based smoothies. When I was a kid I would make pineapple juice popsicles. When I'm sick, I want pineapple juice. And if there is pineapple juice in the fridge or cupboard, trust me, it doesn't last long. But I wonder why it comes in a metal can. I'm guessing it has some chemical reaction purpose - but it just kind of annoys me when I have to dig through the kitchen drawer to find the tool to actually open the thing.
• I'm obsessed with dry roasted peanuts and craisins mixed together - I eat it all the time. It's seriously amazing. I even can eye the ratio to my exact tastes. I didn't even really like craisins until a month ago when someone forced a baggie of them on me. I came up with the snack out of pure desperation to rid myself of the craisins. Now I know the exact grocery aisle where they live.
• Now I want to eat some craisins and peanuts...bye!
  

Disturbing

You hear and read a lot of disturbing things on the Internet, but this one take the cake for the week.

Oh. My. Word. To understand the full extent of my "Oh. My. Word." read the entire article and look at the pictures.

Canadian Man Builds Himself Robot Girlfriend

Random Thoughts

I'm sick. Or at least borderline close to being sick. I've been sleeping off an on this afternoon, and now I'm bored. Not enough energy to do much, and the book I'm currently reading makes me think too much for amount of power my body has currently allotted for my brain. So, I'm blogging. As I lay here, random thoughts are going through my brain. So I might as well share them with you. If they make absolutely no sense, you know why.

• Why is it when you're sick, carbohydrates seem to be all you eat? Meat makes me nauseous to think about; dairy is never a good choice; who wants vegetables when you're sick; and if you feel moved to eat fruit, that's a carb anyway. Being sick is not good for my balanced eating plan. 
• Canned chicken noodle soup makes me nauseous too. Until today, when I would smell it when I was perfectly healthy, it would make me feel sick. I always assumed I was just associating it with being sick, hence the feeling. I was wrong. Just opened a can to eat for dinner - couldn't handle it. Made me feel worse. So if I'm ever sick, and you decide to be nice and bring me soup - make sure it's not chicken and noodle from a can.
• I've previously talked about this here and here. But here I go again - with a strange occurrence regarding my eating habits of bread. I never eat the last bite (which is normally a corner) of my bread, sandwich or toast (these are all breads that have a crust and do not include ciabatta and such) - when I cut a piece of bread, or sandwich, in half, I always have two pieces left. In my sickness tonight, I ate the last bite of one side of my bread. I found myself shocked when I went to throw away the other and realized I had only one, not two piece left. Apparently I am just screwed up in the head.
• I love pineapple juice. It's my favorite of the juices. It's in my favorite smoothie at Jumpin' Juice and Java, and it's my number one choice when I'm sick. As a kid I always made pineapple juice popsicles. I do however think it's strange that it comes in a big metal can - for a purpose I am sure. By tomorrow the entire thing will be gone, if not before. 
• When I go to the gym I sweat. A lot. I haven't showered before I go - I literally roll outta bed, get dressed, pull my hair up and go (no worries, I do brush my teeth too) - so I completely don't understand when I catch guys checking me out at the gym. I just don't get it. 
• One upside to our economy craziness - I've been able to find amazing deals for Christmas presents every time I look, not just on Black Friday! I have yet to pay full price for a Christmas gift. This makes me very happy.

And with that, I'm done. I'm spent. My energy is gone. Time to take some more drugs and go back to sleep. 

The List

As I'm sitting here waiting for the last few "pieces" of dinner to finish cooking, I've been thinking about what I'm thankful for. It reminds me how blessed I truly am. I was going to journal my list as a prayer of Thanksgiving, but decided to share it with all of you as well. Some are cheesy "classic" things everyone is thankful for but some are not. All of which are close to my heart.
So, with that, I give you my list:

I'm thankful for...

• friends who not only love me exactly where I am at, but love me enough to call me out on my crap.
  
• a loving family. Even when it's hard to not be able to see all of them over the holidays due to the many miles between us, I know they are always there, loving me and understanding the sometimes strange things that have become traditions or jokes of past holidays.
• an amazing team that I get to work with everyday. For the balance they have between being in the world and of the world. For the tasks we are privileged to accomplish everyday and the fun we have in doing so.
• my grandma. There have been a couple of close calls to losing her over the last year and half, and I'm so thankful she is alive and healthy and still making memories with us everyday.
• how far I have come. I've been doing some "looking back" lately and am startled by how God has completely transformed my life and realigned it back to him.
  
• GCC - the place that gave me hope, allowed me to question and doubt, and built the trust that helped me to let God in again.
• the troops that are away from their families over the holidays so that our country can be a safer place.
  
• little surprises that bring so much joy.
• having the freedom to say and believe what I want without the fear of persecution or death.
• those people in my life that when I am struggling, they are there holding me up.
• all the encouragement that has driven my journey to become healthier and lose weight - for the people who knew how badly I wanted to change, and then pushed me to always do more.
• my parents, who I have never had to doubt their love.
• loved ones who have served in Iraq, their safe homecoming, and the faith that if/when they get sent out again, that God will once again protect them.
• the technology that allows me to be more connected to my family and friends.
• my life experiences - those times when you can't fathom that anything good could ever come of your pain, but then God redeems in ways you could never even imagine.
  
• the connections and friendships that grow out of those past life experiences.
• the leadership of GCC - the ones who I get to watch and learn from. How to lead well, how to love your spouse, how to love and support your children and most importantly how to be fully devoted to God in all you do.
  

Glimpses of God

It's all too easy to forget that God doesn't always show up in "big" ways - most of the time he shows up in little glimpses through the people around me. On my drive home tonight I started to think of the glimpses of God I've seen in the past week - and then sat in awe of how many I could list...

• A random phone call from a friend.
• A voicemail from a friend who said exactly what I needed to hear, even though she didn't even realize why she was making the call.
• A childhood tradition I hold dear to my heart continuing for another year.
• A surprise visit at work from someone who I hadn't seen in almost a year.
• A bottle of my favorite creamer left on my desk with a post-it note of kind words.
• A child cuddling up against you.
• Finding my car cleaned off, by someone who knows how much I dislike that part of winter.
  
• The pure joy of a child.
• Words of guidance, speaking directly into your life in a room full of people.
• A song with the exact words I needed to hear, but didn't want to
• Three friends not answering your call when I needed to talk, forcing me to have a conversation with God instead
• A topic of a simple conversation, convicting me.
• Realizing a friend gets where you are coming from, having been there themselves.
• Discovering my fears are not just mine, but shared with others as well.