I Wonder if this is How the Romans Partied....

I just spent the last five days celebrating my birthday. That's right. Five Days. We're talking food, family, friends, fun, movies, travels and presents. My sister was here for two and a half days of it, my mom endured the long haul and now I am in need of some serious Weight Watchers intervention. From the looks of yesterdays meeting, it appears that the day after Memorial Day is sort of like the summer version of the day after New Years, it was super crowded. I'm wondering if anyone else there was experiencing a godiva cheesecake, brisket and potato casserole, steak and stuffed mushroom hangover like I was.

I got a new camera and a pretty brighton necklace from my parents. My sister bought me a towel and bag for our beach vacation coming up at the end of June. The girls at work bought me a gift certificate, another co-worker got me a gift certificate for a manicure. My best friend sent me flowers. I am one spoiled girl!

On Saturday my mom, dad, sister and I went to Oklahoma City for day two of my birthday celebration. We went to see Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian. My sister's favorite part was the scene with Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill (of Superbad and Knocked Up fame, of which I haven't seen the former and don't personally condone the latter). We both thought the movie could have used a little more of those two on screen together. Funny funny stuff. My mom had the great pleasure of sitting next to a woman holding a fussy and touchy baby. A woman who never felt the need to take said baby out while it was crying. Is it just me or was that just plain wrong?

I have been trying to spend less and pay bills off more, so I didn't get several lovely outfits while we were at the mall that day. And I have been beating myself up daily since that I didn't purchase a pair of shoes that were on sale. But the money still left in my bank account makes me happy. Payday is tomorrow and I'm not in the red. Yippee.

Last night the girls from work (and some other friends that make up the birthday group) took me out for mexican food. There may or may not be pictures of me wearing a sombrero while eating a fabulous dessert. They may or may not surface on this blog or on my Facebook. I have blogging standards after all.

So today is back to normal. Much to my dismay. Back to carrots, tv dinners, salad, fruit and lots of exercise. Back to partyless nights and work filled days. It was a good run though.

Oh what the heck....

Rejoice and Be Glad In It

This morning I was reading in my One Year bible a passage from Psalm 118. Who wouldn't love reading and then actually obeying "This is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it" on their birthday? Immediately I smiled and thought, no problem God, I can handle it. Today is a rejoicing day, a day of celebration! I thank God that I can enjoy my birthday with my family, with friends and some really great food (oh, and presents)! I know the command is about everyday, but since it was especially christened in my One Year bible on this day of all days, my day must be really special, right?

A few years ago I did the study by Beth Moore, Jesus the One and Only. I love all the little hidden gems that she brings to life in her studies that I would never in a million years have realized or considered. She shared a verse in Matthew 26:30 that says that Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn and then went out to the Mount of Olives. See I would just have read that without a care, missing something awesome. But what she said was that during Passover and other holidays it was quite common for the Jews to recite or sing the Psalms 113-118. Beth concluded it was likely that the hymn sung by Jesus and his disciples might have included Psalm 118 and that verse "This is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it." Can you imagine Jesus singing that knowing that this was the day he would lay down his life as the greatest sacrifice for mankind? The emotion that would be driving those words must have been unbelievable. Such hope and agony in knowing what was going to happen, singing it and then going directly to the garden to pray where he would be in such anguish he would sweat drops of blood.

I remembered that lesson this morning as I thought how easy it would be for me to rejoice and be glad in it on a day like today. A perfect day by pretty much anyone's estimation. A celebrating day. But if this was the most difficult day of my life, a day that would demand a sacrifice from me that would demand my all, could I still rejoice and be glad in it? Did God not make the celebrating days and the devastating days? There is no clause or addendum to Psalm 118:24 excusing us from rejoicing if the day isn't quite to our liking. No one day is less God-made despite what it brings.

So I'm rejoicing today, and I know it's going to be a great day. And so will tomorrow. But if the next day isn't the challenge is still the same. Rejoice!

In Which I Describe My Joy at all Things Season Finale

I have been very pleased with all my season finales this year. Lost possibly rebooting everything via Juliet's hitting the h-bomb and Locke being dead? Awesome. "Hey Dwight, send in the subs?" as the cliffhanger on The Office? Classic. Old people beating out all the young whipper snappers to win both the at home and the big prize on The Biggest Loser? Pleasantly surprised. And the big grand finale of them all, Kris Allen winning American Idol? Color me shocked in the happiest way ever! I was a Danny fan throughout but somewhere around Falling Slowly I started loving me some Kris. When he went for it with Heartless, I was completely sold on the humble, aw-shucks charm of the Arkansas guitar player. I kid you not I was jumping up and down screaming when he was announced the winner. It was a thrill to see the underdog win. Woohoo! I felt like it was an early birthday present from Fox. So thank you Simon and Simon and the over 50 million votes that crowned him.

On other random news I think I have poison oak. From my parents backyard. I am real psyched about that. When I was a kid I used to get poison ivy every single summer. I've had about a 10 or 12 year stint of being poison ivy/oak free. Until now. I was beginning to think I was over my hypersensitivity to it. Guess I was wrong.

But I will not be deterred. I'm gettin a pedicure today! Tomorrow is my birthday! My sister is coming into town! My uncle is taking us out to dinner at my most favorite restaurant in town! Then we go for shopping and movie and food and fun on Saturday! 32 is going to rock, I fully believe it.

This was the quote on my calendar at work today, I thought I would share the wise words of Mother Teresa "A joyful heart is like a sunshine of God's love, the hope of eternal happiness, a burning flame of God...And if we pray, we will become that sunshine of God's love- in our own home, the place where we live, and in the world at large.

Here's to having a joyful heart!

On Editing My Life Story, Figs and Control Freaks Like Me

Some mornings I read my devotional and I'm all, hmm that's nice. Just trying to keep it real ya'll. I have a friend who feels like her morning devotional reads her mail every. single. day. This just doesn't happen to me often. And then there was yesterday. So this is how God via Beth Moore (via Believing God Day by Day) read Kara with a K's mail:

"God has far more in mind than bringing forth one kind of fruit from your life. The harvest God desires to produce has the potential of abounding variety...Just when we decide our lives are all about figs, God starts mixing in some pomegranates...Have you too quickly decided that what you've done or what you're doing is all you'll ever do? Ah, God's far too creative for that..."

You see, I've been pretty good at being all about figs. I've been doing figs for my entire adult life. I know it, and lets be honest, it comes with little effort. My figs have been harvested in the comfort zone and while I have been enjoying the fruits of my "labor" it seems like God has called for an upgrade, a little uprooting and replanting and pruning. He's going for some pomegranates.

I have always had my life planned out, even when it didn't go according to my plan. I knew exactly how I wanted God to write the story of my life. Funny how he's reworked all my rough drafts, threw them out the window is more like it. Imagine the audacity of trying to advise the masterpiece maker himself. So I'm resigning as the "editor" of my life story. It's not working.

And you know what? It's not fun. Yet. It's not comfortable. And it probably won't be. And that scares me. Comfort is my enemy in friend's clothing. I've clung to it throughout my life and I've come to find after almost 32 years, it has done me no favors. Comfort is best reserved for baggy sweatshirts in November, not the lifestyle of a redeemed and chosen child of God.

So. Pray for me friends. I need it, and I'll leave you with this final thought from our dear Beth: "May He use your present journey of life to shake up some soil and show you what all can grow there."

All Things

My mom always wants me to make a list of things I want for my birthday and for Christmas. This should give you a clue in to know that I am unbelievably spoiled, because just simply telling her 1 or 2 things does not suffice. There is a list. Usually Christmas is lengthier than birthday, but nonetheless. I intentionally kept mine short this year. First of all, the older I get the more I notice that the things I want either can't be bought, or I buy them myself. Like at Christmas I always put snow on the list. Mom and dad have yet to deliver that one. My mom often jokes that I want a husband for my birthday or Christmas each year too. No matter how many aisles my mom searches in Target, she has yet to find him. Oh well.

When I was a little bit younger (and by younger I mean my, ahem, my 20s) I used to make a mental dream list of things I wanted. Huge, luxurious, unbelievable, too ridiculous to mention things. New laptops and new wardrobes and unlimited downloading from iTunes and cars and so on and so on. Like I said, it was a dream list. I was raised somewhere between working class and comfortable and my parents did get us a lot of things (in hindsight, that is, I never felt that way growing up), and some people might even say we were spoiled. Nonetheless I never wore designer jeans (but maybe my sister did, I don't remember), but I was superproud of my Converse high tops in the fourth grade (update: mom tells me I had 2 pairs, a red and a pink, so lets upgrade my status from might have been spoiled, to definitely spoiled). Something is starting to change on the inside, and in my oh-so-mature 30s, I have figured a thing or two out.

Those things aren't the all things.

This past week in Sunday school class, my pastor was talking about having a working knowledge of the bible. He went on to explain that meant not just picking out a few pet verses here and there to memorize, or reading over your favorite books of the bible, but knowing the bible, Old Testament to New, the overall themes, commandments, teachings and lessons. My pastor has a great working knowledge of the bible. Though he never attended seminary, I would put him up against many of today's bible scholars. He is brilliant, but truly truly humble. He mentioned the verse where it says God has given us richly all things to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17b NKJV if you're wondering). Interestingly enough that verse is a command to those who are rich to not be overly secure or haughty in their own wealth but to remember who it is that gives us all things. Our pastor proceeded to tell us about his Saturday morning, spending an hour or so sitting in his backyard bird watching, enjoying the mild weather. Something he doesn't stop to do enough of, he said. This time of relaxing, on a perfect spring day, enjoying God's creatures, that, he said was all things. This is what God has given us. Beauty in nature, a temporary refuge from the demands of daily life, a day of rest. Things you can't purchase at Target.

So I've been pondering the all things in my life God has given me richly to enjoy. Wonderful parents, an awesomely quirky and loving sister, beautiful seasons that display his colorful majesty, friendships spanning decades and those just beginning to blossom, mornings where his mercies are fresh and new, the second, third and fifteenth chance to start again, music, hope, deep breaths, belly laughs, roses in bloom, sunsets awash with color, birthdays, snowfall and God's word alive and active, reviving me, challenging me and awakening me to the all things.

Lost is officially over for the year, so one less thing.

And now I have been magically freed up to write more. Like that's the only thing that's been holding me back. Tell yourselves that. I am.

Actually, I have been telling myself to get back on here and write. I spent a large part of yesterday and today working on my article for the June issue of Exemplify and I had the worst case of writer's block since my freshman year of college. And I do not pull all-nighters anymore people. I. Just. Don't. So I realized if I don't get back into the habit of writing on a regular basis then I might lose my writing mojo altogether. Use it or lose it, right? And on a sorta side note, if you aren't familiar with Exemplify, why not? Go and check it out now.

So in my head right now I'm working on some more posts. I thought it would be fun to write a post a day in honor of this being my birthday week and all (shout out to myself, holla!). On Friday I will be 32. Thirty-stinkin-two. That is way older than I would like. Somewhere between the foolishness of youth and the wisdom of old age. That's where I am. Warning: I get a little angsty around my birthday. It's been an issue since my mid-twenties and I don't know if it's going to get any better. Letting you know now.

Going back to Lost, was that finale not mind-blowing? Way to make me ponder and obsess for the next 9 months, Darlton. Thanks. Like I have nothing else to do. So for those of you who watch, what do you think? Did the bomb go off erasing everything thus far? Or was it just one of those time flashy things occurring because of the electromagnetic energy sending them all back to 2007. Did the bomb always go off (as Miles suggested) and that was the Incident that caused everything that brought our beloved Losties to the island in the first place and they are in a wicked fierce time loop that knows no bounds. Oh, and RIP John Locke. He is really in truly dead. But I refuse to say Juliet is dead until next season when they confirm or deny this. Her "death" scene made me cry harder than Charlie's. That is saying something. But the cool reveal of Locke not being Locke? Pure awesomeness. "I guess you found your loophole". Did he ever. And then the change of the logo at the end, from black to white. So very cool.

We have had a lot and I mean a lot of rain here over the last several weeks. And now it is absolutely gorgeous. My co-worker Irene would call it a Colorado day. Low-humidity, breathtakingly blue sky, great temperatures. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm sure this is what heaven feels like. According to the weather forecast we can expect the same for the rest of the week. Meaning a pretty day for my birthday extravaganza weekend. Yay for good weather! And a good movie! And my sister coming to visit! And Cheesecake factory! Especially Cheesecake factory. Is it wrong that I have already been checking out the menu debating what to order. For Saturday. I didn't think so.

And this sweet finale ending to another one of my favorite shows: "Hey Dwight, send in the subs" Did John Krasinski not bring the awesome in that scene? I couldn't love that show more.

Oh, and I'm still a wee bit obsessed with Facebook.