Dialogue

Things that have amazed me recently:
**Yesterday I witnessed a crew cutting down trees. We're talkin' tree-cutting on a small piece of land with lots of other trees. I watched the team strategize, plan, and then implement. The part that amazed me the most was how some-guy shimmied UP the entire tree (he was probably over 55) with a harness and a couple of clips on his shoes to cut down the top branches so that the tree would make a smoother fall. The dude swayed 6 feet each direction with every heavy branch lobbed off. I was sweating just watching him - so amazingly scary to me!

Which brings me to, things I am afraid of (a short list):
**Spiders
**Pain
**Falling - more specific than heights

When I last laughed to tears:
**Last weekend in MN, Megan and I were looking @ some old photos of us (rabbit trail: Dad loved photography and Mom kept photo albums - we probably EACH have over 1,000 photos of our upbringing - what a treasure now!). There is "this one" of our whole family that causes me to snort and laugh EVERY time I have seen it! I just LOVE it - Megan is my favorite in this particular photo. Bet you wish you could see it....ha...I guess all you have to do is find me on Facebook, cause Megan went public with some of 'em.

Phrases I commonly use:
**Oh-Mylanta
**Fiddlesticks
**Crap-on-a-stick (actually got asked by Jaycee yesterday if I had said a bad word...crap...I had)
**Ah, Nancy!
**Jenkety
**Mack-Daddy
**"I love you like....cheesecake, sunshine, coffee, rain drops on roses, sunrises" (I like to vary this simile expression of my sentiments. Hallmark may hear from me someday.)

Phrases I want to begin using:
*Great Gatsby (as an expletive when something is shocking, difficult, or surprising)
*Smack-tastic (just made that one up today - think it is an adjective used when feeling full of glee)

Recent Accountability:
**Sara: helping me to love God and Love others with my whole life.
**Kristin: when I told her about my new phrase, "Great Gatsby" she asked WHO was speaking truth in love to me about the 'actual greatness' of these phrases.

Areas in life where I recently wished I was held accountable:
**Today I made gluten-free chocolate chunk cookies. Great Gatsby are THEY good. I ate too many of them. Now have a tummy ache.

Growth areas:
**today I slept with Calvin. He is a puppy. I let him sleep with me on the futon. I cannot believe that I cuddled with a dog for the length of a naptime. I am not a dog person. Or a pet person. Or much of an animal person when it comes to touching and nurturing them. Do I care about them - yes - God made 'em after all and some people in my life love them.....

Major scares that turned out okay, but were still a bit disappointing:
**When I first went to get my taxes done, it seemed as though my refund (which is already smack-tastic) would be close to $4000. After some scary and worrisome things (about the legitimacy of my 2007 tax preparer's logic and my previous employer's submitted W-2) I will now be getting back just over $1000. Whew. I went from $4000, to thinking I would be in jail, to worrying about this new tax place's view of a church, to thinking I would pay in, to getting back just over $1000.

Phrases said by kids that are hilarious:
**When Jaycee is about to tell a secret she starts by saying in a whisper: "Squeak Squeak"
**"Calvin that is just gross" Catey-Cate about Calvin being dirty and wet tonight.
**"You forgot to play THE BOYS ARE BACK" Benjamin about the High School Musical 3 soundtrack - it's a bit entertaining that he knows the names of the songs.
**"You look weird" Camille said to me after I had washed my face and therefore not been wearing make-up -- that is a comforting thought.

A proud moment for me:
**That Benjamin is in the generation of "fans of HSM." I am not sure what part of the High School Musical fanatic behavior I inspired, but I am a proud on-looker. I even got invited to the HSM birthday party! Whoot Whoot!

An interesting realization:
**I missed Atlanta and life down here when I wasn't here.

A more profound observation:
**God has been ridding me of my "self sufficiency" tendencies SO THAT I would be obsessed with nothing less than Him. Rather than focusing on how to be a better leader, better teammate, better employee, stronger visionary, more intelligent budgeting person, more successful, and accomplished -- I have no idea what it is I am "going to do when I grow up" and that is FINE BY ME. Because I KNOW that I am being blinded to the kinds of things I used to focus on SO THAT I get First Things First. And get my heart right. And get true priorities and authentic intentionality in line before being given personal vision for God's Kingdom.

:)