A New Day

So this past weekend was daylight savings time and we set our clocks an hour ahead. Normally this is a pain in the booty and everyone gets thrown off for a couple weeks.

Not me! I am so thankful for it!!

I love that we are now an hour ahead of what we used to be because for me this means that I get to see the sunrise five days a week. I haven't gotten to take a picture yet, but I just love sunrises. Its such a beautiful reminder that it is a new day. A new day to enjoy and live life to its fullest. Its a fresh start. Its definitely one of my favorite ways to start the day. I find that watching the sunrise is such a great way to reflect on God's glory and all that he has done for me and those around me. God is so good!

Hopefully I will be able to get some picture on here soon of the sunrises that are to come :)

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Today.

Today.



It’s been a while, I realize. I feel like my life is out of control. But I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be if God’s in control right? So then it is good that it’s out of control right? Weird idea.


So today has been a long continuation of yesterday, which was a long continuation of Tuesday. Today started with me waking up next to two adorable kids who were as happy and as bright at the sun. I stayed with the kids I nanny for overnight last night because their parents went out of town. Then on my way to my other job, I stopped at starbucks where I had my first interaction with a facebook stalker. Not really a stalker, but this is how our conversation went:



I ordered my drink and she asked for my name. Me “Jennifer.”


Sbucks girl smiled and said “Are you Tyler’s girlfriend?”


Me, very groggily seeing as it was 7am, “uh yeah, why”


Sbucks girl “oh. I went to high school with him. I saw pictures of you on facebook.”


Me, “oh. hahah cool. Uhhh, I’ll tell him you said hi?...”


Sbucks girl very awkwardly “oh. ok. You want your receipt?”

 That’s the first time I have ever been recognized from facebook. Soo random. I talked to Tyler later and he said that he remember her and he dated her for 3 days. Hahah so it will be interesting next time I go in to Sbucks. Then I went to work and later went over to the house that I am house sitting at. Now I am at school. And I should be paying attention but I can’t because


I got a phone call from a very, very dear friend right before class started. I haven’t talked to her in months. And I don’t think she realized how much it meant to me to hear from her. My eyes watered up and all I could get out was that I loved her and was so happy she called.



And now I sit here in class wondering why it was such a big deal. Why was I so touched. I love this girl, she is one of my very best and closest friends, a definite friend for life. And I think I got so emotional about it because my life is crazy busy right now and I feel like I don’t have time for good friends. It stinks. But at the same time I chose this. And I want this life. I love this life. I thrive on it. I want this. I am meant to do this, it is what I was created for. Life is hard because I feel like there are people in my life right now who don’t get that. And I think it meant so much for me to talk to this person because for those 30 seconds we talked, I knew that she got it. I didn’t have to explain anything, she just knew. And I miss having that with her. She gets me and I get her. There are so many things that have gone on lately that I want to talk her about and I think that’s what got to me too. I was so excited that I could finally tell her everything and hear about her awesome life that it just totally overwhelmed me.



This is a weird blog post but I just couldn’t get this out of my head. My blog is called Free Your Mind so that I can do just that. I can free it here and peace will follow. So there it is. This is today and it’s good :)






Now back to class.

Just a pretty sunset when I was in The Dale recently :)

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Its not that I dont have things to say..... :)

First and foremost, the title of this blog is meant to be funny :) I was sitting in the living room with my roommate one night and one of them asked me why I hadn't blogged in a while and that was the first thing that came out of my mouth, but before I could finish my thought, we were all laughing at how funny it sounded. Anyway....

I haven't blogged in over a month and there has been so man things that have happened! I was the maid of honor in my cousin's wedding (which took up all my spare time between work and school), Tyler got hit by a car while he was riding his bike to school (he is totally ok now, but yeah that was not a fun day); grad school is kicking my booty; I went to Idaho for thanksgiving and convinced everyone to do the wear our pj's inside-out and backwards and do the snow dance so it would snow.... and it totally did!!!!; I won an i-pod touch on the radio which I pick up on Tuesday!!  I have never won anything before, not a raffle, not the lotto (I wish haha), nothing and I tried calling this station ONE time and I won!!!!

But yeah that is a VERY condensed version of what has been going on in my life the last month. And now I am procrastinating on things that are due in less that 24 hours.So I will get back to it.

But get ready because I am done with the semester on Dec 17th and I plan on documenting my winter break with lots of pictures and blogs :)

Hopefully I will make another post before finals are over (I am sure I will, I miss blogging!!!)

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Email from Grandpa

My grandpa sent me this email the other day and I finally just read it. I think its a great way to remember to stay young and lively. There is a mixture of humor and sincerity in it (a couple actually brought tears to my eyes because it touched on some things I have been trying to deal with lately.) Anyway I hope that it brings a smile to your day and reminds you to live life to the fullest and have fun doing it :)

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ! You become 21.. Even the words sound like a ceremony.YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling.. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone...

But! wait!! ! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and make it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into ! your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'IWas JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!


HOW TO STAY YOUNG


1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3.Keep learning. ! Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever, even ham radio. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's family name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6... The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on.. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips.. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.


Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting 'what a ride!'

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Sunrise

This was my view as I drove to work today. It was such a beautiful sunrise! I have been able to see the sunrise a lot more recently due to my schedule change at work. As I drove to work today I just could not stop thinking about how amazing God is. His beauty and majesty is displayed in such a heart warming way. This picture is from my phone and totally does not do the sunrise justice. It is amazing to think that so many people miss out on sunrises. We mostly see sunsets which are another beautiful creation that God has given us. But experiencing the sunrise and appreciating it's beauty always inspires me to live life fuller. It gives me hope for a new day. Its a fresh start and this sunrise captures that feeling perfectly. I found a new love for sunrises this morning. I am so thankful I get the opportunity to experience the sunrise and for the daily reminder of how glorious my God is.

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Date Night :)

For date night this week, Tyler and I carved pumpkins!! We went to a local pumpkin patch by my apartment to pick out our lucky pieces of artwork. However, this pumpkin patch is not your everyday pumpkin patch. This place has HUGE blow up slides. Now, Tyler and I are both big kids at heart, and when we saw the slides we just looked at each other and immediately bought tickets. There were several different slides, but the one we had to go on was called the "Titantic." This was not just any blow up slide, it was a blow up obstacle course. And it was the most intense blow up obstacle course I have ever been on! Tyler and I enjoy being competitive so of course we raced through the obstacle course pulling each other down and trying to get ahead. First we had to climb up this rock-wall like mountain then slide down. After that we had to go through the tire course and jump into a crawl tunnel. Then we had to fight to get to the one ladder to climb 40 feet to the top of the slide. Once at the top we both threw ourselves down, acquiring some nasty burns on our elbows as we fell. It was so much fun! We did it twice and Tyler won both times, he's so fast! We got our pumpkins and headed back to his place to carve them and drink some wine :)

Here are some pictures of our pumpkins. The pictures are from Tyler's phone so they may not be the best quality:




Tyler Getting you the slimy pumpkin guts...







This is stencil I used for my pumpkin. I had never used a stencil before and I was so excited!!








Tyler working on his pumpkin...









Here is what my pumpkin looked like after I was done poking all the little holes in it. Those little holes took a long time! haha










Tyler's pretty much finished monster...







And her are the final products!!! This is by far the coolest pumpkin I have made and we had a blast making them :)








Now to see them lit up!




It was a fantastic night. We had great conversations about our future and just really enjoyed being with each other. Tyler is such an amazing guy. I love how much we can laugh with each other. He truly is my best friend and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us :)

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7:55 am

7:55 am is not a good time to wake up at when I usually leave at 7 to get to work by 7:30. I woke up in a flustered mess Wednesday morning and ended up being and hour and a half late to work. Not the best way to start the day. Yet I had a feeling that regardless, it was going to be a great day. So I am driving to work, just kind of in shock of how late I am and how my day was not starting off at all how I had planned. I was almost to the freeway when a van decided to make a left turn right in front of me. I don’t know how they did not see me but I swerved and missed the van. It was actually a really scary moment. That was the closet I have ever been to a head on collision. Now I will admit normally I would have had a little road rage and honked my horn, waved my hand or something, but instead I was just like “Thank you Jesus! That could have been so bad!” I continue driving in shock and think about how God is always in control and how he constantly protects me. My time here is not done. Anyway, I finally get to work and its all laughs. My boss, co- workers and I all make a couple jokes and they totally eased my tension about being late. My allergies have been really acting up the past couple of days and so on top of being late I did not feel well at all. Well my boss must have heard me sniffling because he came out of his office and said “You need some coffee don’t you? You are having a rough morning, what can I get you?” For whatever reason, this small gesture really touched me. And I totally needed coffee! It reminded me of why I love my job so much and why I have been there for almost 3 years. The people I work for and work with are like a family. They care about what is going on in my life. When I was applying for grad school, my boss was fully supportive. She gave me tips and ideas for my essay, she wrote me an amazing letter of recommendation, and she was one of my biggest encouragers. I practiced my interview questions with her and she told me that I had a job with her if I want it when I graduate. I had forgotten why I loved my job so much. I am so blessed to work in a place where I am constantly learning new things about the field I am going into. And I have fun at my job! I feel like I could go on and on about my job, it has just been a wonderful, God given blessing in my life :)

Well after work on Wednesdays I babysit a 5 year old boy who is a little joy to watch, most days :) He really is a good kid, but he does like to test his boundaries with me. On Wednesday we had a great day together. His new thing that he loves to do is take off all the pillows and couch cushions and build things. Yesterday we built a haunted house with the pillows and he loved it. Then I helped him with his homework. He was learning how to write the number 6 and how to spell it. It was really cool to teach him and watch and see how he learned. He is a fast learner and loves to ask questions. After babysitting I had class, which was not exciting so I will not bore you with that. BUT afterwards I went to happy hour at Friday’s with two good friends. It was the perfect end to a day that totally did not start off happy.

Well that’s all for now, my posts will not always be this long. Wednesday was just an interesting day. A day I needed and appreciated.

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First Blog

Well here is goes haha. I am not much of a writer but I am really excited to start a blog. Life has so many things to offer and I feel that having a blog will help me to reflect on those things. This blog is mainly to help me learn and grow, as well and laugh and love. I am definitely a fan of life and I hope to share my passion for it. Right now I am a first year graduate student at Chapman University studying to become a speech-language pathologist. This blog will likely follow my journey through the program over the next two years, however, I hope that is not all my blog captures :)

There is so much more that I want to say, and in time I know I will say a lot. So here is to this new adventure in chronicling my life, thoughts, dreams, ambitions, and musings. I have not a clue where this blog will take me, but I am excited for the journey.

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