Sometimes I Just Have To Laugh At Myself

Much like my ipod, I sometimes wonder what people's first impression of me would be if they just saw my Netflix queue. Here's what's in there right now:

1. Encino Man
2. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
3. The Gnome-mobile
4. Willow
5. The Little Prince
6. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
7.Gummi Bears: Seasons 1-3
8. Road to Avonlea: Volume 1
9. Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog

...and this is why I love the biggest loser

"i'm gonna sneak up like a ninja on their asses."
-a big girl dressed in bright pink.

pardon my french, but that's funny, i don't care who you are.

In the spirit of Christmas...

...well sort of.

Since we are right smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season, and gift giving is on the mind, I am taking a suggestion from my pal Meredith and doing a Top 10 Gifts list. It is important to note that these will not be ranked in any particular order and I have been fortunate to receive many thoughtful and special gifts from many thoughtful and special people in my lifetime.

Top 10 Gifts:

1. A box full of Ritter Sport Mint Chocolate Bars (my favorite ever and very hard to locate), special ordered from some European good store by Jordan.
2. My "Beau Coeur" (that's French for Beautiful Heart) ring from Mags. It's beautiful and I love it!
3. My pearl earrings and necklace from my grandparents, given on my 16th and 21st birthdays.
4. My (now) ratty and holey Winthrop Eagles t-shirt that Katie stuck in my suitcase before leaving Winthrop for the summer.
5. A copy of The Giving Tree with a note in the front cover from Jordan Cauley.
6. Ceramic hanging picture frames from my brother Ryan. They were a great choice and suit my taste perfectly.
7. My whole set of dishes, but most specifically my teapot, from my mom :)
8. My ipod. Let's face it I would be lost without it and it is probably one of the most used things I own.
9. A "room warming" picture/collage from Stephen Crotts. It has a picture of me, Rockfish and the Prayer of St. Francis on it.
   
10. Sunrise in Tupperware, a song written by my friend Natasha for me our senior of high school that she debuted to me at our Academy graduation party.

I'm one blessed girl, and a bound to be sleepy one if I don't go to bed!

I think this sums up my musical taste fairly well...

As I have not gotten any suggestions for Top 10 lists, I have decided that this post will be of...

My Top 10 Most Played Songs (according to my ipod):

10. Say It Right by Nelly Furtado: 64 times
9. Material Girl by Madonna: 64 times
8. Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid: 64 times
7. Carrying the Banner from Newsies: 67 times
6. Video by India.Arie: 69 times
5. Marry Me by Ed Cash: 71 times
4. King of New York from Newsies: 72 times
3. Seize the Day from Newsies: 76 times
2. Everlong by The Foo Fighters: 79 times

and the number one, most played song according to my ipod is.....

1. Take My Hand by Shawn McDonald: 97 times

The Countdown

I have realized two very important things lately. One, I blog much better (and significantly more consistently) if I give myself a task; and two, I really like countdowns, top 10's and other entertaining lists. Thus the inspiration for my newest blogging venture, Brooke in 10s. And, per Jordan's suggestion, my first Top 10 list is going to be my Top 10 YouTube Videos (ranked in no particular order). So here is goes:

1. Shirley Q. Liquor--Church Slave: Not a day since my junior year of college has gone by without me quoting something from this. It's absolutely hilarious.

2. Rob Paravonian--Pachebel Rant: This guy is brilliant, hilarious, and he plays guitar. And, after you hear it, you hear Pachebel everywhere!

3. Blood: Whenever a kid gets a bloody nose, lip, or anything else, I always have a weird impulse to go "Bloo-da, not fun-nee." This kid is genuinely concerned, but you can't help but laugh.

4. David Hasselhoff on the Berlin Wall: Ok, so this isn't an authenic youtube video, per say, but his jacket is amazing and, let's face it, he is "The Hoff."

5. David After the Dentist: And while I am on the subject of Davids, I have to select this classic piece of greatness. Kids+drugs=funny, I don't care who you are.

6. Kittens Inspired By Kittens: I have to thank my friend Petra for introducting me to this video. Also, I really hope I have a child just like this some day.

7. Evil Strawberry: I almost pee my pants every time. "I'm not stupid anymore!!!!"

8. Ms. Peachez-Fry That Chicken: "I gotta pan, I gotta plan..."

9. Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog: Act 1, Part 1: The writer's strike sucked, but it did produce this gem. Oh, Sean Patrick Harris....(Parts 2 and 3 are pretty sweet too)

10. The End of the World: Yes, it's a throwback, but a classic.

So, there you have it. Obviously, this list doesn't include all of the greatness YouTube has to offer, but all guarenteed to produce a hearty laugh, so enjoy.

I'm not sure how long this list-making kick will go on, so if you have things you want itemized...I'm your girl, so bring on the suggestions!

a lot has been going on in my life lately...and i'm really tired on just about every level...and in need of some real time with Jesus.

What the good life is made of...

hobos on the fire. cuddling with some of my favorite children. catching up with friends you haven't seen in awhile. lots of sweet tea. playing at rest stops. painting toe nails. finding at least 40 out of 50 license plates while driving. lots of laughing. trying to fit into little girl dress up clothes. being invisible. good conversation. sharing stories. lots of hugs. girl time. laughing at boys. knowing that some things just don't change that much.

and i got all of this from almost 20 hours in a car and a trip to Alabama :)

At the table

We have had a dining room table and chairs in our apartment for as long as I have lived here (with the exception of the month or so between Alison taking hers and my acquiring my grandparents' old set) and for a great part of that time the table has been used to collect junk and deposit mail. Occasionally we would clean it off to serve food when we had folks over, but more or less it served all the purposes of a junk drawer without the semblance of organization.

Tonight however, Jordan and I both got home about the same time and therefore were cooking dinner about the same time. Upon realizing that our cable had in fact been disconnected in our living room, thus ruining the plans to watch Two and a Half Men while eating at the coffee table, I suggested that we bust out the ol' boombox and have a family dinner, at the table.

It was nice. She ate her steak, I ate my chicken, and we listened to Delilah solve the world's problems via requests and dedications while we talked. God blesses friendships in the simplest things sometimes.

One thing I really value about the way I was raised, especially when we were young and before we all started working, we always ate dinner together as a family--at the dinner table with the television off. There is so much value to that and if the Lord blesses me with a family some day, I have every intention of carrying on the tradition.

I'm not entirely sure what to make out of this?!

Guessing my age is always a fun game to play with kids, mostly because they are horrible judges of age and have zero sense of my age in relation to theirs, so I get some pretty hilarious answers. Although, this one might take the cake:

Me: How old do you think I am?

various guesses from various children

Jamont: You're 50!

Me: Really? Do I look 50 to you?

Jamont: Well, you kind of look like Michael Jackson (who was 50 for those of you who somehow missed that)

Me: Well I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult.

Jamont: Mmmm...compliment!

Me: Well, ok.

That's funny, I don't care who you are; although, I am not entirely sure how I feel about being compared to the MJ.

I laughed at this

I have been helping coach a t-ball team at the Y this spring and this is just a glimpse of why I love kindergartners:

While on first base during practice:

ME: "Eugene, are you ready for the ball?"

EUGENE: "I'm ready for my butt."

ME: (laughing hysterically) "I don't know what that means but let's not say that"

EUGENE: "OK"

"I'm on Birthday Crack"

...and that is a direct quote from me about 20 minutes ago.

I love birthdays, and not just my birthday, but birthdays in general. I think it is fun to be able to celebrate your friends for a whole day and it's just fun for folks to get their time to be the center of attention for a bit. But don't get me wrong, I do love my birthday too (mostly because I have wonderful people in my life who always make it special).

Over the years I have had a wide variety of birthday experiences.

As a young child I remember making my own birthday cakes (chocolate cake with chocolate icing and M&Ms on top, of course!).

On my 11th birthday I remember being pulled out of school early because my dad was getting his liver transplant, so we spent the day at Duke hospital. I also remember my mom taking me to the mall and getting this awesome pair of blue shoes with daisies all over them (I still have them at home).

On my 13th birthday I had my first "blow out" boy/girl party which was pretty fun, except the fact that I found out my "boyfriend" had been "cheating" on me. I would be lying if I said it didn't tear me up. I was also finally allowed to start wearing makeup.

On my 14th birthday I was in Washington, DC on my 8th grade graduation trip.

On my 16th birthday I got the first of 7 annual trips into the Rockfish lake. I also remember having one of the few bouts of homesickness I've had in my life. I got two of the BEST handmade birthday cards from some of my very first campers at Rockfish and my pearl earrings.

On my 18th birthday I was annoyed that graduation was the same day and that meant having to go back to Myrtle Beach High School (because who cared about my birthday when graduation was taking place!?) BUT I totally got TWO cakes....then I got thrown into the lake a few days later.

On my 19th birthday I spent my last few hours of being a teenager in the kitchen at Rockfish, making parflesnarf cake, listening to Stephen tell a totally BS story that made Jordan pee her pants, and riding down the ramp at the dining hall on a kitchen cart banging pots and pans...then quickly aborting the mission when I realized there was a group in the Bergland :)...and I got thrown in the lake.

On my 21st birthday Anissa had a surprise girls spa night for me during staff training. I got my pearl necklace from my grandparents and a diamond necklace from my mom...and I got thrown in the lake.

On my 22nd birthday I remember laying in my bed, all jacked up from exhaustion, and going on and on about this lightning bug that was in our room wishing me a happy birthday only to have my dear friend Petra point out the fact it was the light on the smoke detector...and we laughed for a l-o-n-g time....and I got thrown in the lake (for the last time).

And today, on my 23rd birthday I had my first non-camp birthday in awhile...but it was full of lots of smiles and cards and "Happy Birthdays" and funny phone calls. I got to eat lunch with friends from the Y, the afternoon off, and Jordan took me to the Melting Pot for dinner so I go to bed with an extremely full belly and a happy heart.

5 Things I am thankful for today:

1. The message from Charlotte that reminded me that today is the celebration of the day I came into the world and was no longer a fetus :)
2. Being on facebook and watching the little red notification flag pop up.
3. Getting to share birthday cake with so many people today.
4. That Katie S., Erica, and Brittany Brock are as funny as, if not funnier than, Hoops and YoYo
5. That it is finally warm enough to be outside when it rains! Nothing like walking through a light summer rain.
   

Day Thirty

Today officially marks the end of the Thirty Days of Thankfulness.

It's been a good exercise for me, but like with anything there have been ups and downs. I started out with so much excitement and enthusiasm, there were days when I observed and lived in anticipation of finding things to be thankful for. And then were there days when I didn't feel like being thankful at all or where I sat at my computer stumped, trying to come up with my five. I'm so human.

I've learned some important things though:

• I am not at a place where thankfulness necessarily comes naturally yet, I'd like to get there
  
• Sometimes the things that I am thankful for are just things that make me laugh...and I don't think that is a bad thing.
• I would like to be as excited about my walk with the Lord everday as I was when I started this 30 days ago...an excitement about what the Lord can and will do!
• I want to continue in this discipline, perhaps not posting it on here, but in my time with the Lord, being intentional about my thankfulness for what he has done and is doing daily.

So, here it is folks, that last thankfulness post. Enjoy!

Day Thirty:

1. Everyone who has been reading this blog and the little ways I have seen the Lord use it.
2. That there are some people who I know will just always be a part of my life.
3. Getting to talk to Brittany Brock today!!!
4. Awkward moments that make funny stories later
5. People who desire to make the Lord known in the world around them
   

Grand Finale

It's no secret that I love reality television, and the show that by far has my heart is The Biggest Loser. This season was a particularly good season. Not only was it the biggest cast ever (as in the largest people), there was a lot less drama, and just a lot of seeing people change. And that's exciting. Yes, it's TV and yes, it's perhaps silly to get a little choked up each episode...but it makes me happy. And Tara just LOST for the first time all season, and this was the big one...GOOOOO Helen!!

Day Twenty-nine:

1. The opportunity to share, in a very small way, in what Community Hope has been doing by attending their end of the year banquet.
2. Getting all my rosters done before the track starts tomorrow
   
3. Finally working out again after over a week of doing nothing
4. Driving past beautiful fields at dusk
5. A nice place to come home to after a long day
   

Getting back in the swing

I don't have a whole lot to write about today. It was a pretty typical day, not a bad day by any means, not an especially exciting one either. It's one of those days where time went by really fast even though you feel like you've been moving slow...

...and I know that I was moving slow mostly because I felt like I hadn't been to work in weeks. Between my trip with my mom, the YRS retreat, and Seafarer, it has been quite a while since I've spent an entire day in the office and I just feel like I had to get back into my groove. And of course, the downside to any time away from work is coming back to all the odds and ends that piled up in your absence that you have to tackle. and it was a Monday...and it was raining....

sigh... :)

Day Twenty-eight:

1. Waking up earlier than usual and starting the day off without rushing
2. The good fortune to not only have food to eat, but to have the kinds of food I enjoy to eat
3. My girls Eva and Molly who hang out with me in the office every afternoon
   
4. Anticipation about the business of the summer that will be here soon enough
5. Conviction from the Lord
   

OMG

On the way to church this morning, Jordan filled me in that the title of JD's new sermon series is "OMG!" I liked it without even knowing what he was preaching about.

As it turns out, he's preaching on prayer, which sounds good to me because it's definitely an area where I'd like to see growth. I really enjoy corporate prayer, I've experienced the power of prayer, I know the necessity of it, but so often I lack motivation or don't set apart the time in my day to really devote to talking to God. That needs to change.

Anywho, the sermon, per usual, gave me some good things to think about, and while I could simply copy my notes from the sermon, I want to focus in on what JD focused on as "The 3 Things That Are ALWAYS TRUE About God" because what we think and believe about who God is greatly affects the stance we take towards him and the stance we take towards him affects our worship of him. It's important to keep these things in mind because the circumstances of our lives do not always prompt us to worship, but when we focus on these truths, we have no choice but to worship joyfully.

Three Truths About God

1. God is in loving control: "If ever there was a time where it seemed like evil was in total control, it was at the cross, BUT it fulfilled God's will" We all face times in our lives when we feel like God is turning his back on us and the matters of our lives. Bad things happen, evil exists, and people will hurt us, but what is so awesome is that (to quote JD) "Satan has never come up with a plan to which God didn't answer 'That's perfect. It will suit my will perfectly.'" Anything that Satan or any person could use for evil against you is an opportunity to see God's hand in your life even when we don't see it at the time. What is important is that when we are faced with these challenges we are emotionally honest with God to admit the pain but intellectually humble enough to admit there are things about God that we just won't understand.
2. God acts according to great mercy: And mercy is God not giving us what we deserve while grace is giving us what we don't deserve. By our very nature we are sinful and deserve the wrath of God, but the very fact that we wake up every morning is a demonstration of God's mercy towards us. Not understanding God's mercy towards us can really affect our relationship with him. If you are constantly thinking that you deserve God's wrath, you will feel guilty with his mercy. And if you think you don't deserve wrath, you can harbor resentment towards God when life doesn't go the way you think it should.
3. God is tender towards us: "The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made" (Psalm 145:17). God will provide for the things we need, he will lift us up when we fall, fix us when we are broken, watch over us and protect us. We are his creation and his stance towards us is love and he loves us tenderly.

To tie all of this pack to the topic of worship and prayer, how we view God determines how we worship. If God is nothing but useful to us, a means to an end or a way to make us feel better, we will have to discipline ourselves to pray. But if we embrace the truths above and God becomes beautiful to us, it is our joy to pray.

Day Twenty-seven:

1. Finding a church where I walk away each week with a new perspective
2. Seeing people who are truly joyful about the Lord
3. A good cry at a good movie
4. Getting some order back to my room
5. My mother, of course. She is a wonderful lady.
   

One, Two, Three Strikes You're Out!

Baseball season has begun...and so has tee-ball season and I am quite excited because I have decided to volunteer and help one of the directors coach a tee ball team...The Rockies!

Today was our first practice and we definitely have a winning team on our hands ;) We have about 10 kids on the team and each one is as cute as can be. Obviously, some kids have more of a clue than others, but I think they are all ready to have some fun, and that's what is important. We worked on the basics today--what the positions are, ALWAYS run to first base first, how to field a ball, learning everybody's names, that sort of stuff. I'll actually have to miss our first game and a few practices, but I'm really excited...I'll make sure to keep everyone posted :)

Day Twenty-six:

1. The helpful sales girls at the mall today :)
2. Hanging out with the team today
3. Fresh baked cookies
4. A sense of accomplishment that comes from doing laundry
5. To reflect on the accomplishments of all my friends who graduated today
   

Catching up is hard to do

Given the reason for my absence the past few days, it would only be appropriate to start off this entry with a big ol' Ahoy There!

The trip to Camp Seafarer was a blast. It was fun to be back in summer camp mode, even if it was only for a few days. The trip was a good reminder of why I love resident camping so much. When you put kids in an environment that is so different from what they experience at home and you live in a cabin with them, you get to see different facets of their personalities and I love that. I love how relaxed camp is and how it just allows you to be away from normal for it a bit. Maybe one day God will put me back into the camping world.

The set-up at Seafarer is pretty sweet. Just about everything is on the water, which is cool; the cabins are huge with lots of room for stuff and hanging out (plus they have bathrooms in them!); the mess hall has a nice set up (I wish I could have seen the kitchen) and they definitely have their mealtimes down to a science. Supervision and accountability was a little more lax than I'm used to in that setting, but it seemed to work. I also liked that it had a very old-school summer camp feel with the bugle and the flag raising/lowering each day.

Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to work at an all girls camp. I mean, I definitely love being able to pour into young girls, and that would have been an ideal setting, and it definitely cuts out a whole mess of problems by eliminating boys. I have to say that I really enjoyed getting to spend time with the middle school girls this week. It's just fun to see what they get excited about, what they worry about, and to take a moment to be proud when they are doing the right thing and others aren't. The four of us had a rockin' time. I'm really glad I got the chance to go :)

Day Twenty-three (Wednesday):

1. That God has given me the ability to do decent devotions with teenage girls, even without much notice.
2. Arriving safely to Seafarer today and for the rain holding off, at least for now
3. That every group of campers always the one weird kid
4. Playing kickball
5. Getting to see how other camps run and what their traditions are

Day Twenty-four (Thursday):

1. The smell of honeysuckle on a warm breeze
2. Not waking up to an alarm clock
3. Getting to try something completely new (Sailing!)
4. How ridiculous middle schoolers are
5. That God has given me a liking for the weird kids

Day Twenty-five (Friday):

1. That no matter how "plugged in" and technologically advanced/demanding kids get, some of the simple joys of childhood are still around
2. Watching kids have the chance to get really excited about something that is new to them
3. Going to the movies. It is one of my absolutely favorite things to do (even though I don't do it often because they cost so much)
4. That my camera arrived and appears to be safe, sound, and in proper working order
5. Getting to watch and be proud of how well behaved my girls were this week
   

Updates from my time in NYC are still to come...

On the road again...

Well, the successful return home on Sunday is met with opening up the ol' duffle once again and heading back out of town. For the next three days I will be heading with Track Out over to Arapahoe, NC to hang out at Camp Seafarer. I'm excited. I don't think it comes as a surprise to anyone that I love resident camping and since this summer will be the first summer in fourteen years that I won't be at at any resident camp, I think this trip will be a nice little fix. It's always fun to get back into the cabin and flex the counseling muscles a bit ;)

With that being said, I must get to bed because it's going to be a long (but fun) next few days.

Day Twenty-two:

1. That, according to the boy in Chic-fil-A today, 1+1= flower; ow+ow=tooth; and 3+3=6
2.The celebration of Cinco de Mayo with Taco Bell, Margarita flavored Bartles and James, and Enrique Inglesias.
3. That Jordan and I made it home safely during the storm earlier. It was pretty intense.
4. Seeing change in people, and celebrating that change when it comes.
5.Alarm clocks with short snooze times...otherwise I would not get out of bed in the morning.

I'm OK with being a guinea pig

I have a very faint memory from my childhood of doing some product testing for a company. I know it was when we still lived in West Virginia and I am pretty sure my friend Leslie was there as well. In all honesty, I have very little recollection of the products we actually tested, all I know, is that for sitting in a room and looking at pictures and stuff, I got a trial size of DEP hair gel (strange I know, but I think it was somehow associated with a Barbie that you were supposed to be able to style her hair or something) and Fruit Rollups--that is a sweet deal when you are a kid. I blame that experience entirely for my affinity for free things :)

Truth is, I like doing research--from product testing, academic research, or just random queries of friends. I like filling out surveys and I like giving my opinion and sharing my experiences. It's fun to me. All that to say, I have decided to once again to volunteer my services as a product researcher and I am quite excited about it.

Day Twenty-one:

1. Creative people who create little nuggets of gold like this
2. Rediscovering old songs I like but haven't thought about it awhile
3. A productive day of discussion and evaluation (and sharing stories)
4. The smell of rain and the sound of it outside my window
5. Customer service representatives who do not act as if you are wasting their time or are stupid

I will play catch up later

...as you will find out when I get around to updating on the past few days, this weekend was eventful to say the least, so it was nice to have the afternoon and evening to relax. I was not entirely motivated to update on the past three days, but I was motivated to make a decision about the Nikon D60 and I decided to get it.

In other news, whenever I fly I always have the song "The Thing About Airplanes" by Andrew Peterson playing in my head. In particular, the line that says "Now the thing about airplanes I've noticed this time / is you can't look ahead, and you can't look behind / but you can see where you are when you look out the side / you can try to recover some peace." It's a song about longing, about discontentment, about disappointment, about wanting to be somewhere other than where you are at the moment even when you are in the midst of something perfectly good ("you know I love flying, especially at night";"the works of my Maker I'm flying beside")...I think it's pretty true of life too.

Flying is completely transitional. You know where you are coming from and you can anticipate where you will end up, but for however long you are in the plane, you are there with pretty much nowhere to go---you are trapped yet constantly moving forward.

It's easy to fall into the same mindset with life. It's easy to start to feel restless. It's easy to feel trapped by where you are in life. It's easy to feel discontent even when nothing is wrong with life. We can get nostalgic for the past and fantasize about the future and completely miss where we are in the present, yet life keeps going on whether we choose to realize it or not. I have found that is is when we most fully embrace the present, we are most content in it.

I know that I do my fair share of overlooking the present, but as a believer, it's so contradictory to what I know to be true--my past is forgotten and my (immediate) future is not promised and I already know my ultimate destination, that leaves no choice but to be a good steward of my time in the present.

Day Twenty:

1. For returning home safely and having time to relax.
2. That I am fortunate enough to be able to do and have the things that make me happy.
3. Window seats on airplanes
4. That I get to sleep in a little bit tomorrow
5. Tiny surprises from the bff when I get home (we're growing plants!)