Rollin' rollin' rollin'

If you've never visited or lived in Alaska, you never have any right to complain about the cost of transportation. YOU get excited about a flight for $150, WE get excited about flights for $400. Case-in-point, the boy's reason for not Californianing. (I'm just giving him trouble... tee-hee... he loves it!) Also, the reason most, if not all, of you have for NOT coming to visit me. But, perhaps, if this goes through, in a few years we'll be able to be world travelers for a less significant cost-- and a much cooler trip. Pun intended.

On a lighter note, I'm beginning to get terribly excited about my upcoming trip to Greece & the Holy Land. I recently received a box of presents from my parent's trip to Greece a few weeks ago and I'm pretty sure that's what triggered the endorphins to start spreading.

T-Minus 22 days.

Yes, I speak another language

I wonder if there's a One Semester of French Love Song... Hmm...

Help

I'd like to frame one of my pictures and donate it to my Youth Dinner Auction. Which do you think?

Are you happy?

"The question has so many facets," Spoda says. And it's honestly a question most of us have to think about before we're able to answer it. There are many things I'm not happy about in my life but there are many more things with which I'm very happy. Here are just a few...

• My Alaskan Moms. I have many and I love each and every one of them for watching out for me these past few years. They continue to keep me in check and have (recently) gotten on me about my overly hectic schedule (see below) and my ability to enjoy life outside of high school, middle school and elementary kiddos.
  
• The Boy. Tomorrow we'll celebrate 9 months together. We don't get to see each other as often as I would like but the time we do spend is great. As I told a concerned friend last night, this has been the most honest relationship I've ever had. Yes, there have been many-a-high-maintenance-girlfriend moments I'm sure he loathes (I loathe them!) but I usually keep those doubts and concerns festering inside my head and heart. The mere fact that I have the ability to talk to him about it is a wonderful break. There are some things I want for our relationship that have yet to be realized (no, more than just that) but hopefully those will come soon. Besides, I'm on his list so I figured he ought to be on mine.
  
• My folks. I think I talk to them more than I have ever before in my life. Especially my dad. Growing up he was always working and never really around all that much so I never got the chance to be the daddy's girl every girl wants to be. But now our relationship is growing and that's great. I'm terribly excited about visiting with them over the Thanksgiving holiday AND shopping with my mom and sister the day after. I was hoping the boy would be able to interact with them over that weekend too but he won't be making the trip. Maybe you, dear Blogstalker, can convince him it's an important step... and for those of you who know my parents can let him know they're not so scary.
• The kids. I spend a lot of time with them and prepping for that time spent with them. I love them so much and value my relationship with them. God has truly blessed me and this church with a great group of kids.
• The gym. Some of the time I procrastinate going, other times I can't find the time to go but I love going to the gym. I like getting sweaty and gross. (I don't like the abnormal numbers of old men at the gym but c'est la vie!) Plus it feels good. There haven't been many results as of late-- hopefully due to the thyroid & blood sugar issues-- but hopefully that changes soon.
  
• Pajamas. Whether they're my beloved original moose pants, my new pink moose set or my pig capris, I love jammies.
  

Busy! Busy! Dreadfully Busy!

...you've no idea what I have to do!

These past two weeks seem to have been extremely packed full with my high schoolers. It's sad, I know, that I've spent more time with 14-19 year olds than I have with the boy and, frankly, I don't like that my life is out of balance like that. If I expect the boy to put me ahead of his dogs (and I do!) then I ought to put him ahead of the kids. Yet, I continue to schedule youth events back-to-back leaving not quite enough time for quality not-falling-asleep time with him. So here's what's gone on and what I've got going on...

• Last Sunday had a Road Rally (a.k.a. scavenger hunt in a car) where I had 20 of my kids show and another 16 from other churches. It went great and the kids had fun!
• Monday I made my bridesmaid's dress with Kathy for Melanie's December wedding.
  
• Tuesday was date night, a tradition that I'm glad has been reinstated because it guarantees I get to see the boy at least once a week. This week he ventured out to Palmer to go shopping at a going-out-of-business-outdoors store where he spent more money than he should've. But then we came back to the house and had a BBQ cup dinner after which he promptly fell asleep (another tradition) before leaving to go home.
• Wednesday marked the start of Confirmation from 2:30-5:00pm then I have Youth Night & Bible Study from 7:00-8:30pm. Busy day.
• Friday was filled with DVRd episodes of The Bionic Woman and Grey's Anatomy plus a visit to the local Cold Stone for some cheesecake ice cream with graham crackers & caramel. Yum.
• Saturday we realized our hot water heater was broken. Which means I procrastinated all morning until I finally went to the gym then to church to shower with hot water before the kiddos started showing up for a Reverse Progressive Dinner, which went very well.
  
• Sunday (obviously) was church, where I had Children's Message & Children's Church to do. Then a meeting to decide when Weekday School was starting back then home to make lunch for our young adult group's Bible study. After Bible study I watched part of Sunday Night Football then left to meet the kiddos at church for FISH at Our Redeemer in Chugiak. When I finally got home (around 10pm!) I got to talk to David (a.k.a. Mullet) for a bit which was really, really nice.
  

Well, that took up enough room. Geesh. Believe it or not the next few weeks are going to be busier. So here's the quick play-by-play:

• Youth & Church Stuff:
  Wednesdays are Confirmation & Youth Night. This Saturday is Movie Night. Sunday is church, Sunday school, youth board meeting and council meeting. The next Sunday (21) is FISH in Wasilla. Then Friday & Saturday (26-27) is 30 Hour Famine Lock-In. The 27th is also St John's 70th Anniversary Dinner. The 28th is church and 3rd grade bible presentations in addition to additional anniversary celebrations. Then Wednesday is Confirmation and Youth Night but it's also Halloween which means there's a Fall Festival (yet to be planned or PRd). Then Saturday, November 3rd is our Youth Dinner Auction fundraiser. Then November 4th is church, Children's Church, and FISH. The November 10th is Movie Night. November 28-December 2 I'll be in Nebraska with one of my seniors and her mom visiting Concordia then the evening of December 2nd is our annual voter's meeting. December 8th is movie night. Children's Christmas program is December 9th during late worship. December 15th is Cookie Extravaganza. December 27th is Football 401 (we'll watch my Rams lose horribly I'm sure!). Then we have a tentative lock-in December 27-28.
  
• Alaska Circuit Business & Alaska Conference Youth Board:
  October 15-17 is our Fall Retreat for all Alaskan churchworkers. Our ACYB meeting is November 8th. Volunteer Retreat is planned for Friday, November 9th through Saturday the 10th.
• Personal (finally!):
  Tuesdays is date night. I make sure to plan nothing but Boy-Time on Tuesdays except for the Tuesday of the Fall Retreat but I did invite him to join us for dinner. Sunday, November 11th I leave for my trip to Greece & Israel, about which I'm terribly excited. I get back to the states from that November 21st then jet down to see the fam (sans boy) for Thanksgiving. I'll be back to Alaska the afternoon of November 28 (just in time to teach Confirmation and Youth Night.) December 8th we're throwing a bridal shower for Melanie then she gets married December 21st. Sometime during that week we're also throwing a baby shower for Erin & Josh.

Basically, in case you haven't read the above novel, I'm busy. Very busy. Dreadfully busy.

Funny for the Day

God is sitting in Heaven when a scientist says to Him, "Lord, we don't need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the 'beginning.'"

"Oh, is that so? Tell me..." replies God.

"Well, " says the scientist, "we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of You and breathe life into it, thus creating man."

"Well, that's interesting. Show Me"

So the scientist bends down to the earth and starts to mold the soil.

"Oh no, no, no..." interrupts God.

(I love this)

"Get your own dirt!"