day off

oh, how i love having days off.

like today. where i basically did nothing except loaf around, watching tv and movies.

of course, there are some things that i should have been doing. like organizing my room. which i was going to do today until i realized that i only have one hour of class tomorrow. and one hour on wednesday...which means i have a lot of free time this week so i decided to take one day for vacation.

and i loved my stay-cation. first real day off in quite a while. there is something so refreshing about being able to not leave your apartment at all in a 24-hour period. my very own version of a sabbath.

Post 115

it's sunday evening. and i'm completely relaxed. loving my weekend. having fun with friends.

here's the rundown of the past few days:

friday - worked on and completed an 8-pg paper reflecting upon the church organization in a small, rural congregation. internship panel (see previous posting) where i was cleared to move on to my faculty interview as the next step in my process towards ordination. faculty approval means that i'm smart enough and able to understand theology well enough to be a pastor. made some beef stroganoff even though i added a bit too much sour cream. watched tv shows and movies via netflix. and netflix is totally addicting and awesome!

saturday - slept in. somewhat. i woke up at 9:30 (a whole half hour after i usually get up), did some laundry, cleaned the bathroom (technically i got the shower/tub, toilet and sink while my roomie katie scrubbed the floor), picked up and rearranged our living room. the two of us moved out a lot of the junk and katie vacuumed. now we have too much space and don't know what to do with it...except play with the wii. which i did with friends. made homemade mac n cheese (thanks to my sis kayla for the uber-simple recipe). jess whipped up monster cookies. watched "cloudy with a chance of meatballs" via netflix with friends. awesome movie for those who haven't seen it.

sunday - up early as i got ready for church. jess had spent the night so we could get up early and go to church at mt olive, which is a high liturgy lutheran church. complete with processional and recessional where people bow as the cross passes them. full liturgy and i loved it! turns out that i really do like traditional service. later, as i was chatting with katie, i began to realize that my issue with bethel's traditional service last year was that it was not really traditional. i guess i associate traditional with being able to do it well with pastors who are extremely formal and in church buildings that are old or stone. bethel's building was simply too new and contemporary for me to worship with high liturgy. after worship, jess and i went shopping. kohl's, k&g (i think that's what it was called...), staples, and lunds & byerly's. got so wrapped up in the time that i completely forgot about a mandatory apartment meeting. whoops. then finished the day watching percy jackson and eragon (such good movies, especially since i really am a kid at heart who loves fantasy, adventure and good defeating evil) among other entertaining activities since i don't have class tomorrow. this means that my second set of 6 week classes doesn't start quite yet.

on other side notes and reflections from my life, i have a few random activities up my sleeve.

1. cooking various recipes. i like to bake
2. cleaning and organizing my bedroom. i've been avoiding it, which is not good...
3. working on slimming down (exciting fact is that i fit into clothes that i haven't worn in over a year!) and keeping healthy. i even joined the healthy leaders thing for luther in an attempt to work on my well-being
4. planning a trip out east for a cousin's wedding. cause i have made it to all but one of his sibling's weddings, and that was because of events out of my control since i was but a wee lil child when he got married. i would love to be there since i love family get-togethers. and i've never been to virginia beach. plus i really love seeing men in uniform, which i would expect to see (and enjoy) often since the wedding is going to be at a navy base...
5. volunteered to be an assistant wedding planner. again. it seems like i'm on deck with providing ideas and opinions, whether or not i should or the others are even listening...i just like to toss out ideas and plan. i can go overboard at times, so i'm going to do my best to be supportive and creative.
6. wii. love it! i've purchased a couple new games recently, which means that i now have various games where i can throw darts, play beer pong (technically it's ping cup...), toss a lasso, and race a cow. of course, these are in addition to the other sports, games and fit activities i already owned.

internship is over!

3 months after i left my internship site, i finally can say that i'm done!

here is a quick rundown of why it's taken three months:
- submitting evaluations and signature pages. took a while to actually get all of em sent to the synod. which finally happened just this week.
- panel review to discuss and make sure that internship was a "success" and does not need to be repeated. happened a bit late since we're pushing time deadlines, but it's over and done in time to continue with the rest of the steps for ordination...

20.10.2010

i just really wanted to write today's date in the format i had to get used to while in europe where the day comes before the month before the year...

today was a big day. i woke up at 6:30 in omaha, where i had driven to yesterday from minneapolis/st paul to visit my sister kayla (and her boyfriend casey by default, who is now a proud owner of a ginormous tv). by 7:15 this morning i was on my way out of omaha towards parkston, where i arrived at 11:00. daddy changed the oil in my car, we loaded up the recycling from home into my vehicle, and i headed up to mitchell, where i met mom on her lunch break before heading to renew my license.

i now have a fancy new drivers license. which required not just birth certificate (or passport in my case) and soc security card but two bills/statements with your address to prove that i am a south dakotan. which i totally am. which i can prove by showing off my fancy new license

after doing a bit o' shoppin' in mitchell. i bought a pretty green purse and some new scarves (cause i like scarves...).

i also bought some purple windshield washer fluid that is both deicer, since it is october and winter is approaching, so i figured i should splurge and get fluid that will not freeze until -25 degrees F. plus it's a repellent of some of the yuck that will inevitably end up on my windshield.

said good-bye to momma, then i took off down the road and saw my dear friend megan, who has been released from the hospital after quite a scare. was really good to catch up with her since we seldom manage to see each other. it seems like each time i try to visit she gets sick. not a good sign...

then i began my last leg of driving back to the twin cities and school. made it back and am exhausted and ready for bed.

nothin like spending a solid 10 hours on the road today (6 yesterday) and covering 4 states on what should have been a reading day...cause i got midterms to finish up...

splurge-onification

i like to make up words. i think that being able to add various endings (and using somewhat correct grammar to do so) shows that i understand my language.

anyhoo, i splurged this past week. my roommate and i have been without a tv that fits our living room.

katie had a small contraption. you know, the dorm-room tv/vcr combo. very effective in small spaces. but we don't have a small space. and when trying to do various activities with the wii, the tv was just a bit too small...

then her fiance brought over his old tv, which was a great size but unfortunately lacked the capacity to hook up either a dvd player or wii to it. antenna or cable tv only. so i'm rejecting it.

i hope that you are beginning to realize that i'm an elitist when it comes to tvs. i do like to share my opinions.

so i went out to peruse and possibly purchase a new tv. actually, i went in search of a computer monitor because they tend to be cheaper than tvs. but alas i was informed that my wii would be unable to hook up to a monitor and also that most monitors don't have built-in speakers. both were key decisions for me to report to the tv sections and scope out the possibilities. so i looked at different sizes and even upped my price range. i had wanted to spend 200 but reluctantly let myself bump it to 250 so that i could get one bigger than 20 inches. cause 20 inches is small for a tv. but the tvs costing 280 were still just out of my price range.

i found one on clearance at target and bought it. granted, had i been willing to spend a bit more, i could have gotten one whose brand i recognized, but i liked this one well enough.

and of course, while perusing in the electronics section of target, i also saw that they had wii play on sale...so i added 45 to my total spending of the day.

which means that for a total of 316 dollars with tax (literally 316, not 316.01) i have a new tv, new wii game and new wii remote.

silly columbus day

seriously. i went to the post office this morning. woke up early so i would have enough time to walk to st anthony village, which is mere feet from the campus of luther seminary, so that i could mail a postcard.

but failed when the doors were locked because today just so happens to be a holiday. columbus day. really?

i count that as my exercise from the day.

of course i feel bad since the postcard really should have been mailed last week to my cousin reanna, who's doing a school project with her class trying to gather postcards from across the world. and at the rate i'm going, she's going to get at least one postcard from overseas before mine even gets in the mail. which it would have been today if it weren't columbus day. grr.

but i really shouldn't be complaining. i mean, columbus did crash into an island and "discovered" the continent that i call home.

but maybe i should be complaining. cause if i attended a public school, i'd probably have the day off. but no...i have class today.

don't get me wrong, i enjoy today's class. chuch organization. sounds boring to just hear the name, but it's really nice to have a class that discusses the nitty gritty of church work. like basics on how committees and councils operate (well, how they ideally work), what are different types of budgets, and where to look for some additional resources when trying to (slowly) bring about change that happens directly as a result of leadership and organization.

plus i have a small group meeting for pastoral care. where we try out different methods to discuss feelings and needs and try to find a peace of mind that comes from knowing what's bothering you and why.

speaking of my small group, it's time to meet so off i go!

oh october

i'm still in shock that the month of september is over. it was gone in the blink of an eye and i really don't have much to show for it.

except for some purchases (like a bookshelf and new futon), it doesn't seem like much is going on new in my world.

oh, and i got a new haircut last weekend. 14-15 inches go to locks of love.

like yesterday was 10-10-10. And I did nothing to celebrate! I did make brownies with Jess and topped it off with Madagascaran vanilla ice cream (delish), and I went to a youth/young adult picnic with church here in the Twin Cities, and I went shopping, but that was about it...pretty much a slacker day...

weather has been fantastic. absolutely beautiful. nice, warm temps so i've been able to pull out the tanks, shorts and sandals to enjoy before retiring them for the winter. plus being able to go on long walks to enjoy both the temps and the scenery. and the leaves have been simply stunning. autumn is truly my fave season. crisp, clean air and rich colors. what more could i ask for?

next stop: procrastination central

I'm am a procrastinator.

I hear that admitting it is the first step.

Which is where I'm going to stop. (cause i procrastinate. get it?)

Examples of what I do while not doing the overwhelming amount of reading I'm already behind on:
- skipping the third and fourth days of school (for a good reason, aka my grandma's funeral)
- not doing homework last weekend and instead spending time with my family, playing apples to apples
- watching tv shows online (hulu rocks!)
- reading books not on any booklist from class
- going shopping yesterday (ikea, target, dollar tree, barnes and noble) to pick up various supplies for the year like a pocket calendar, plunger, wall clock, cleaning supplies, groceries, etc
- chatting with friends (which is far more important than any course work)
- cleaning and organizing the apartment
- cooking meals and doing the dishes
- blogging

It's hard to believe that I'm back in school again. I mean, it's amazing how easy it is to tell people that I'm a senior M.Div student.

But saying it and having it sink in are two separate things. Because really owning up to it would mean that I ought to be reading for class and writing papers and working on sermons and doing self-care journals. Just to name a few of my assignments.

Because if I were a good student, I would not be procrastinating. But at the same time, I am more than willing to let myself really enjoy this school year and learn what I can. I'm just not going to be all perfectionistic and read everything that I deem unnecessary. It's all about priorities.

And for this procrastinator, being with people and relaxing are far more important than being stressed out because of deadlines.

Reunion at a funeral...

The funeral for my grandmother was a celebration of family in the midst of grief. I know that a lot of tears were shed at the prayer service, funeral and graveside. Personally, I both loved and hated the music since the songs were what caused me to tear up.

But it was a true joy and blessing to be able spend time with our family members. We imposed upon my aunt and uncle since they live close to the town where we spent a lot of time going to services at the Catholic Church.

Why were we so pleased with our family? Let me tell you

There are nine living children of Frank and Mabel.

(left to right)

Kendall, Teresa, Mark, Laura, Evelyn, Cletus, Eileen, Clyde, Loyson

Yes, Kendall (who happens to be my dad) is much taller than the rest of his family as he is actually standing on the same step as Laura...

Yup, nine who then had an even larger next generation of 27. That's right. 27 grandkids. And of course, I have never been with all 27 of us. Because, just like for this recent funeral, at least one is always missing.

But it is very exciting indeed when 26 of 27 are there. So we had a photo opp:

(starting in front left)

Rachel, Kara, Kiana, Kendra, Abbie, Sarah, Denise, Robin, Fran, Nicole

Kayla, KrissaMarie, Gina, Lisa, Brett, Josh, Heidi, Carl, Heather

Corey, Craig, Chris, Brian, Matt, Jack, Eric

not pictured: Scott

And the next picture we even let the great-grandkids in (not all were present). And no, not all of the kids are being held by their own parents. Some were claimed by other cousins...

add in Kira, Libby, Owen, George, Addison, James, Alison

not pictured: Cody, Nate, Katie, Lane

Don't we all look spiffy? We clean up good...

another long day

today started at 7:16 am. that was when i got a phone call from my mother. and yes, it woke me up. i love the confusion when waking up and thinking to myself that i was way too tired for my alarm to be going off and then slowly realized that the noise was actually my ringtone. the phone call informed me that my grandmother passed away. update since last posting: sunday she took another downturn. she likely suffered a stroke before she was taken to icu. then taken out of there since icu is intended for helping people get better and get out of their slump. but we (and by this i mean the family members who are in the medical profession) felt that she was not likely to make a recovery plus she signed the dnr. so they decided to do more to control pain and keep her comfortable. and sunday night, after the bad turn, they put her in hospice.

then i tried to go back to sleep but quickly gave up and decided to start packing since mom wasn't sure when the funeral was, but she thought it would likely be friday. and it is. so i'm glad i started packing and was actually almost ready to go before my class this morning at 10. and i also had to make phone calls to krissa to help her figure out when she would be flying back. so we set up a phone date for 11.

then off i went to class.

but don't remember anything since i was so exhausted and distracted.

then i called krissa and booked her flight for tonight. nothing like the poor girl getting her tickets ordered an hour before she had to start driving to the airport.

then i ate.

then i went back to my apt to finish packing and to load my stuff in the beast (aka the family's expedition). and i also unloaded a bookshelf i bought at ikea. and am super proud that i was able to move it in by myself. since the other day i could barely shift it. just no strength left after moving all day monday. which is when i moved back to seminary. and the same day i went shopping. but my strength returned for me to unload the beast since it was going to be heading home. cause i picked up krissa.

then i went to discipleship group and afterwards went to the internship debriefing. which i left early so that i could try to beat the bad traffic in minneapolis and get to sioux falls in time to pick krissa up at the airport. of course, the last hour was in the rain.

and i timed my arrival in sioux falls perfectly. rolled up to the airport as the plane landed.

then krissa and i took off on down the road to get home in parkston. in the rain and dark. not a fun combination. but we made it back home shortly after 10 pm

now we just get to wait for kiana to roll in sometime in the wee hours of the morning from wyoming.