April Me Update

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April 2010

Run 69 miles
Bike 20 miles
Indoor bike 25 miles

Current Book(s):
The Virgin Blue
The Lace Reader
One Thousand White Women
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Current Music:
Singer/Songwriter playlist
PodRunner playlist 149 bpm

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure:
high hop beers and sweet potatoe fries made at home!

Current Colors:
pink

Current Obsessions:
finding a place to live and moving there with low drama, training for a half marathon

Current Drink:
V8 with a scoop of fiber added

Current Song:


Current TV Shows:
Lie to Me and Biggest Loser

Current Wish-List:
to trade someone our huge beautiful hardwood desk, tv cabinet and tv for a big computer screen and a smaller desk.

Current Needs:
to get off my butt and go running, or I'll be late to church!

Current Triumph:
running 11.5 miles and knowing I could have done 1 more!

Current Bane of my Existence:
How nice I have none!

Current Goal:
more body toning between runs

Current Indulgence:
nothing new

Current Blessings:
my husband
finding a beautiful place to live
healthy body during my running

Current (Fav) Outfit:
Yellow print dress over brown leggins

Current Excitement:
moving!

Current Mood
content

can I scrap again?

So I'm sure you've all noticed my absence. About six months ago scrapbooking kinda went by the wayside for me, and I've only done the bare minimum since. I had a great talk today with a friend I met at tallyscrapper, who has started her own site. She was one of my favorites back in the day, we really had a heart connection.

Also this week I had two other scrapbook sightings; we saw a house we want to rent and the landlord has a scrapbook room on her side of the duplex!

also,

My current neighbor emailed me for suggestions on great kits. I mentioned tally, but also want to bring up http://timelessdaydreams.com. Dolores always does great work and I see that she has enlisted the help of another friend of mine from Tally, Leachy!

I'm off to check out what they have going, and perhaps join them for some scrapbooking to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day.

Here is a link to Timeless Daydreams blog:

When Work is Just Plain fun....

"Will you design a poster quick that says coffee and wifi?"

Um...yeah!

(company logos removed of course!)

And after smelling those coffee beans during the photo shoot I HAD to make a pot of course...so I'll be up for quite some time now!

I wish I'd said that...

http://vimeo.com/1711302

Andrew's Birthdays

We had three or four birthday celebrations for Andrew this month. On January 1 he and I went over to Mom and Dad's and he got to open a gift and hang out with family. On January 2 we made him a cake and he got to open a gift from us. On January 3 we had cake with the church group and he got a gift from his friend Priya. On January 10 he had a joint birthday party with his friend Ronan. They took three friends to MOA for some climbing fun. Up in the rafters they now have an attraction where you are hooked into harnesses and you climb around, 3, 4 and 5 stories up on gangplanks, tight ropes and rope ladders. Its quite amazing and all of the boys were little monkeys. Then they all headed over to WOA and swam from 4pm until 9:30pm! It was so fun to watch them, all so grown up and independent now and really learning how to work to encourage and enjoy each other. They all five did the surfing/wave rider, and did better than 75% of the riders that night! I've included Andrew's video, doesn't he look like a pro?

Two weeks of craziness!

Its been a crazy busy two weeks, and I'm happy they have come to an end. Next month looks much calmer, with only one special event planned each week.

In the second half of January we:

1. Andrew joined the Minneapolis Fencing Club and has fencing lessons Tuesday and Thursday nights. He also has the extra option of going on Saturdays. He is really enjoying it and we are noticing a reduction in agression, so everyone is happy. He'll continue for two more months and then he gets to decide if he wants to keep it up.




2. We had two family parties, finally putting the whole Christmas season to rest. The brunch on Saturday with Scott's family had to go through a quick change, as we planned a sledding outing and it was raining! Who could have predicted that in Minnesota in January! We had a great time playing games instead and I really enjoyed spending some quality time with my nephew Peter. I love his sense of humor and seeing him grow and mature. The adults and older kids enjoyed a crazy game of White Elephant gifts; the little three were all crying at some point...guess that is an older persons concept! We also celebrated the family birthdays for January, which added up to 100 candles...too rich for my blood (and too smokey for my apartment!) so we settled on a couple dozen! On Sunday we had my family over in the afternoon. It also had some setbacks, as my brother was too sick to come, Jason had work scheduled and Lance was needing his cane, so we skipped the plans to go bowling and just hung out and opened stocking gifts.



3. We had a GREAT time learning about Norse Mythology with the Connections Academy playgroup, and had a nice outing at Orchestra Hall where they played pieces from Star Wars, UP, Lord of the Rings and Our Town. Did you know the director of UP is from our own Bloomington MN? Yep! Scott now wants a harp instead of a new guitar. Hmmm...



4. Scott and I started a weekly Date-In. On Tuesday nights we put Andrew to bed a tad earlier and take turns planning an at home date for two hours. Scott went first and blew me away with the fabulous job he did. Its really good to take time to just be with each other as adults, not parents of Andrew.



5. We closed out the month with a birthday party dinner for our friend Julie and then this afternoon we went to Pond Dakota Park to learn about living in the 1800's in the WINTER in Minnesota. We sat around a fire INSIDE of a Dakota tipi and heard stories, we drank hot cider and had soup in the parlor of the house while we learned about musical instruments on the time and sang along, we played snow snakes, and then we stood in line for an hour to get a fabulous ride behind five antsy sled dogs. Those dogs LOVE to work!

2010 is about Breaking the Spell

A friend of mine got some heat recently for expressing her spiritual experience at a recent local concert. Today she shared some of the music with me that moved her as we traveled together to a gathering. We were busy catching up after a week of not seeing each other, and so I asked to borrow the CD overnight so I could better listen to it.

Simultaneously this past week I've been thinking about being stuck. About being unable to go any further, finding oneself in a rut, or just being afraid of moving into new areas of growth and healing. I believe that God wants to see us whole and living our best life, and I believe that when two or more gather and ask for that wholeness, He will provide.

I proposed an "experiment" for this year with a group of my friends. What if we were to each identify and confess a stuck place in our life and ask for prayer and help in moving on. We didn't all come to a place of identifying our "thing" but it was still an evening of exploring the idea. I left the gathering still unsure of what I want to work on.

Tonight I was given further encouragement through several songs by this artist, but in particular this song has haunted me as it echoes the condition of being stuck that I have been pondering.

I hope you enjoy it to:
How many roads have I chosen
How many bags cn I really put down
How many oceans must I dive into
Before I drown

Before I can be king of my conscience
Before I wear the crown so I won't forget
How many swords must go through my heart
Before I let sweet love in

There are many ways to be careless
Stories that we tell
And even when they are lies we hold them
Like they're fragile
So afraid to break the spell

I want to break the spell

How many fires must I walk through
How many matches, I burned through them all
Somewhere down the line I can blame somebody
But right now I'm the only one taking the fall

There are many ways to be careless
Stories that we tell
And even when they are lies we hold them
Like they're fragile
So afraid to break the spell

I want to break the spell