Taking out the garbage

Yesterday, my roommate and I cleaned our kitchen.  It shouldn't have been a big deal, but it very much was.  I think I took 2 or 3 garbage bags full of gross food and containers out to the dumpster.

I mean, there was food from the fridge (you know, the unknowns, what is growing in there stuff), expired food from the cupboards, cardboard containers taking up space, and random stuff that no one took claim to.

All in all, it was a pretty gross experience involving many gags, oh my's, eww's, and turning of the heads. But on the other hand, it was nice that the stuff didn't have to stay in our house.  It could easily be removed.  Easily is probably the wrong word.  I mean, it took effort to go through everything, opening the containers of unknown monster like food, deciding what was good and what was bad, then we had to put the bad stuff into garbage bags, pray that the bag didn't break (at one point in time, we literally just took the entire garbage can outside to avoid breakage), and then we had to transport it outside.  Quite the process.

At the end of it all, it still looks like we have way too much food for three people.  There is still no room in the fridge, freezer, or cupboards.  And I still feel the need to drive somewhere to get food that I can eat.  [I have however sworn off of getting anything besides meat, seeing as we lack chicken, beef, or any other kind of protein]

Why am I going on about how we cleaned our kitchen... During one of my trips outside, carrying a bag that I know my mom would never have alllowed me to put into our garbage can [filled with liquids because I was too lazy to throw them down the sink], I literally had a sigh of relief when it left my hands, knowing that the smell would not be in our kitchen or our fridge.  The food would not be there attracting bugs and who knows what else, and I could start afresh with a nice, clean fridge.

And then my mind thought, how nice is it that I have a Savior that can do the same exact thing for me.  To be completely cleansed of all stinking, rotting grossness that is within me.  Within my heart, withing my mind, within my life.  Easy may be the wrong word here too, but it is a free gift.

I struggle with the flesh daily. I would be a liar if I said any differently.  But lately, I have just been bogged down by things I know my Heavenly Father would not approve of.  The first step is just acknowledging it, right? Then the more difficult step of taking the time to sort it all out, the good from the bad.  But luckily, we don't have to do it all alone.  And we shouldn't (along with our kitchen, I'm really grateful for my roommate, that kitchen was kinda gross).  And all I have to do is ask.  So cool!

I love analogies, and use them all the time. I hope you are enjoying keeping up with what's going on in my life, and hope you maybe get a smile out of my fun life analogies of a 21 year old college student :)  Life is never  dull, and I would get worried if it became so.  [guess I learned well, as there is never a dull moment at home... haha]

I don't have any fun pictures to show you from the weekend, but I did get to enjoy dinner with Ashley and Jorge, two fellow retired RAs from Offenhauer.  We went to a nice little bistro downtown.  The food was a little pricey for me, but it was good.  It was nice to reminisce.

Afterwards, I went to see the musical Hairspray, which was put on by 3B Productions (the theatre company I did Seussical with).  Oh my, I don't think I've laughed that hard since I can't remember when.  Everyone did a fabulous job and it was so nice to see everyone again.  I miss my theatre friends, but that starts up in just a little over a month.  Cool stuff.

Sunday I enjoyed church here in BG (but I missed being home for the church picnic.  I heard it was a blast, as far as Corey says... haha.  So happy that he is enjoying himself.  I miss him terribly!) Afterwards, I went and saw my roommate in Jane Eyre, a play that was put on by Black Swamp, the other theatre group I'm in.  It was good, I had never heard of it to be honest, but they did a great job.  It was also nice to see some familiar faces.

Today signaled the real start to my big semester project.  I'm working with 8 other developers to create software for our client.  We are creating a computerized test software to help speech therapists when they are initially testing for speech therapy.  There is no existing software in this field and they have commissioned our class to create something for them.  It's super exciting, and so cool that God keeps placing me in positions to help where I am passionate about.  So grateful!

Any prayers that can be lifted up for Kenny as he has finally went back overseas as well as for a friend of mine, Natalie and her family would be greatly appreciated.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."  Hebrews 12:1-3

Selfishness

Keeping on the topic of what God's been showing me in my life.... yesterday I was hit in the face with my selfishness...
I'll get to that in a bit... as this started on Friday...

Friday, I headed home around 11:30 with Kellie.  She missed her last class so that I could rush home to see my friend Kenny.  He's stationed overseas and was home for 2 weeks.  He left yesterday.  Any prayers that can be lifted up for him and his wife, his sister, brothers, grandma would be much appreciated.  I got to see him for about 20 minutes, but at least I got to see him.

Kenny and I

I also got to see his sister, Katie, and my beautiful godson, Bryon!  He's getting so big!  He turns 2 in a month!  So exciting.  He doesn't quite have the 'T' sound down, so no saying my name yet, but lots of hugs and kisses for Aunt Tiff, or Aunt T, whatever he can say first.... [I'm really looking forward to that :) ]

I got to spend the evening with Mom and Dad and Uncle Steve watching the awful Buckeyes game.   I hope they get better....  But it was a lot of fun being home and spending a Saturday night with them.

Sunday, I spent the morning in church, which is always a blessing.  They are starting a study on Galatians. I'm looking forward to listening to the sermons online, which I am thoroughly enjoying doing as I write.  After church, I got to go four wheeling.  I also got to spend some time in the pasture with the horses, as Mel (the blind horse I rode) is getting worse, thinner, and will probably be put down soon.  But I got to spend time with her, so that was good.

Mel

The donkey who kept following and playing in the pasture

Me and Mel

Me and Dusty, a 2 year old who also kept following and playing :)

After a two hour drive that was very peaceful, I got back to BG and started feeling sick.  I think I've got a cold.  Luckily, after 5 days of it, I can finally breathe and see light at the end of the tunnel.  It's funny how when you are sick, you can't remember what it is like to be well.

Tuesday, it seemed as if nothing could go right.  I slept in to hopefully help my system recover [in hindsight, this was a good decision].  But then things went sour at work, then in class, and then in riding lessons. But to be fair, during riding, I feel that it went well.  I enjoyed it and am up for the challenge.

All that doesn't seem like it points to selfishness right?  But that's okay, there's a lot more going on behind all those words that I'm not going to put out here on the website, but I have been nothing but full of complaints this week, and unfortunately, those close to me have suffered from my word vomit of complaints.  And after making a few people suffer through this, God finally made me stop and say hey, wow, do you realize how selfish you are.... life is not all about you, take your eyes off yourself and look around.  Look at what I'm trying to show you.  There is so much more. Quit being lazy and come back to Me.

Quite a wake up call.  But I need it and I'm embracing it.  I'm looking forward to what He has in store for me.  I cannot wait.  Thanks for reading my rant.  The week, despite the bumps, has been good because I can always find joy in the Lord.  Not necessarily happiness 24/7, but joy. And for that, I rejoice!

Patience...

...A quality all of us probably need more of.  They always say that you should be careful what you wish for, but sometimes I feel like that with prayer.  Inevitably, God's going to do great things when you ask for it.  [to clarify, I do believe in prayer without ceasing, I'm still working on it, I think I will always be working on it].  But sometimes, God answers those prayers in ways that are tough.

Today, I asked God to be with me, helping me guard my thoughts and my heart.  Sometimes God does just that, stands guard in front of my heart and my thoughts.  I tend to think of a big tall guy that no one will mess with (totally my imagination just going wild, haha).  But then there are other times that God gives you opportunities where it's going to test you majorly.  God is still very much there, but this is meant as a trial, as a way to make you stronger, to refine you by fire.

Today was one of those days.

I have this wonderful little PT Cruiser, affectionately named P-T (not sure how it's spelled to be honest).  It just rolled over 65000 miles (if you haven't watched the video in the last post, you should).  This morning, it's check engine light went on.  Great.  Okay, make it to class, first priority. Second priority, let's check the oil.  I was due for an oil change, hopefully that's it.  (Now I know I shouldn't check it after the car ran, but it made me feel better to see that it was okay).

After that, I ran around with the car trying to figure out what was all going on with it. I was thrown from place to place, made to wait, made late to other classes.  It was so frustrating.  Prior to tap today, I had gotten nowhere except a 2 dollar charge for a half hour of parking.

Finally after tap, I got to AutoZone and found that it shouldn't be a big problem, I can still come home to see Kenny!  But I had to get back to campus and go to class.  After class, I headed out to another place recommended by a friend, where he was very nice, let me in even thought the place had just closed.

The car isn't fixed, but I get to go in tomorrow to see what they can do.

But today, anger definitely clouded my thoughts, as well as anxiety, and frustration.  It was definitely a trial and a test.

But God is good, and there were people who were really helpful and really kind.  Patience... is a good thing.  Guarding your heart and thoughts is also a good thing.  We are supposed to be joyful always.  This doesn't mean happy all the time (I think people would wonder if we were sane or not if we tried to be happy all the time).  It was hard to remember that at times today, but it something I'm working on.

Not sure why I felt like sharing that, but now I did.... be prepared for God to say 'yeah I will, but not the easy way.  This time, you get to work, and while it will be hard at the time, you'll walk away a better person.'

Tired

Wow, Mondays are long.   Especially after a fun filled weekend filled with a good dose of being out in the country!

But before I get to that, I've got to tell you about all the fun we had last Thursday! It was a little after midnight (I should have been sleeping, but decided to read instead).  Well the lights dimmed and then came back on, so I immediately unplugged all electronics [first instincts, gotta love them].  The lights stayed on for about 20 more seconds, and then Kala(my roommate), Henry(the dog), and I found ourselves without power.

 

^Henry^

Not quite knowing what to do, I realized I didn't have a flashlight, as my headlight I normally use needs batteries and isn't here.  I found some candles and we lit those. Story: Kala and I decided to take Henry for a walk to see where else was without power.  We walked outside, to be questioned by our neighbors if we had power since there were lights on in our house... Oops! Definitely walked out without putting out the candles.  Well after fixing that little problem, we headed back out.  We got as far as the road before it started raining really hard and we ran back to the house.  As it turns out, most of BG was without power that night.  I still don't know why, or for how long, but it was about 2 by the time I got to bed.

So this weekend, I spent my time with friends at the Stumptown Steam Show.  It was so much fun.  We basically drove a caravan down there... 4 trucks and 3 trailers :)  Oh and it was dark too!  A lot of fun though.  I got to enjoy being in the middle of nowhere, where the sky was beautiful!  The best places to be are under the stars or on a farm... or both!  Well, it wasn't really a farm, but there were plenty of tractors and other stuff to make it feel like one (they even had goats!).

It's always fun to be with friends, enjoying simple pleasures in life.  It may sound funny, a girl who definitely did not grow up with anything resembling farm life loving antique farming stuff, but I do.  Especially the steam engines.  So cool!  There is just something about going back in time even just for a weekend.  Back to a time where life wasn't so busy.  Someday, my life will be like that.  [Brandy would tell me that's Peruvian time :) haha]

Aden, the 15 horse compound Russell Steam Engine

Aden on the Thresher

The steam gauge and the two whistles, I was having fun with the camera

My shirt and all the dirt I collected from Sunday

One last treat for you.  On my way back to BG, I got to watch PT roll over 65000 miles!  Since it's all electronic, it's really not that cool, but I took a video of it!  I think what makes this video so cool is the fact that the orchestra music that I was listening to made it such an intense moment that I just have to laugh at it :) Can anyone guess what the music is from?

 

Pictures Finally!

Well, it looks like blogger is finally going to upload my pictures, so here is a recap of August in Pictures!!!

Katie's Birthday Party:

The gang at Baylors
   Katie and Me!
Bryon on the swing
Ariel, Brandy, Me, and Dawson at Kings Island
Brian C. in his wonderful performance!

    Teaching Reata to Ride
   Little Falls
  Self Portrait
The beautiful falls!
Our wonderful campers

The gang at the Aeros game

Kay with her icecream

Kay brought a ladle to eat with

The Boys

What we devoured

Bryon at the zoo looking cute

Bryon being a ham on the carousel

These are the deer I saw that day

Steam Show!

These are the girls from the Bible Study

Laura came to visit

Long overdue

Remember my last post, oh so long ago about how much I missed laying in my own room? Well now I just miss laying in a bed.  I mean, I've went a few weeks sleeping on a barn floor, so I've definitely slept in places worse than an air mattress, but I'm tired of sleeping on this thing.

Moral of the complaint... I'm going to a mattress store tomorrow...

I apologize for the lack of updates from me, and I truly hope to improve on that now that I'm in school, so feel free to annoy me until I do so. . .

I think it's been about 3 weeks since my last post, so we shall dive into some highlights:

Akron Aeros Game:  Pastor Dale and I took some kids to see the game a week before I left.  We didn't really go to see the game, we went for the ice cream.  I've never had so much ice cream in my life.  It was truly an experience.  To describe this ice cream, it came in a baseball helmet.  It had a pound of brownie on the bottom of it, topped with 4-6 bananas, then with 21 scoops of different flavored ice cream, and as if that wasn't enough, let's add a half can of reddi whip, chocolate syrup and sprinkles to the mix.  It was a beast.  And 7 of us finished TWO of them!! So much fun, but def. made me sick.

The next day, I got to spend a few hours with my handsome godson at the Akron Zoo.  So cute.  He has started to talk, his phrase that day was "Where did it go?"  He loved the animals, loved the carousel even more (what a ham, waving at everyone and all that).  It was great getting to see them.

And then after that, I got to see Aunt Lisa, Uncle Carl, Steph, Jayden, Grandpa and Sharon.  Always nice to see family, and watch them play cornhole and all that :)  Love it!

I then spent a little over a day at the Dover Steam Show.  It's been a few years since I've been there, and I loved getting to catch up with everyone.  I really missed those shows, the engines, the distinct smell of coal smoke, the sights.  So cool to be back there.

Saturday, I got to enjoy some time at the Back to School Bash for Stanwood, which involved bounce houses, giant boxing gloves, cornhole, cotton candy, oh and a dunk tank.  Add a bunch of jr and sr high kids, and it was a blast.

All fun must come to an end though, and I left summer behind to move into my town house.  The house is great and more will be on that later, but for now, my first two weeks of school have been fine.  It's been an adjustment trying to schedule things (despite me trying to lessen my schedule load), but it's going fairly well.

It was nice to be back with friends, starting H20 again (Bible study - Fusion) totally looking forward to that.  I headed home to do some work last weekend, and I got to enjoy a Tuslaw football game. I also got to spend my last day with my girls, finishing up Ruth chapter 4.  I'm going to miss those girls, but I'm looking forward to getting together sometime this fall.

This week has seemed to crawl by. It was extremely hot this week, which won't last long for BG, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  I'm more settled in my house now, and I finally have a bed (I started writing this update on Tuesday, it's now Sunday and I bought a bed on Friday!)  A special thanks to Josh for helping me bring it here.

Now I am enjoying the company of Corey and Mom.  They are staying here for the weekend. We've enjoyed setting up the xbox, watching movies, going to church, and lounging around.  What fun!

Well that was quite the update, expect more to come!