Happy Birthday Amy!

So today was my sister's birthday. I won't tell you her exact age, but I will say she is a little over ten years my senior. That being said, she and I, with her three children, were having lunch today when a woman asked if we were sisters. "Yes", we responded together while giggling. "Which one's older?" she replied. . . My sister is 36 people. ( sorry Amy, I had to tell.) DO I LOOK 36????
I will give it to my sister, she looks young. I wouldn't probably even guess her older than 30, but I wouldn't quess me as 30 either. Jeeze. Happy Birthday Amy.

I, myself, am 24 1/2. When I turned 24 I made a list of things to do before I turn 25. Let's see how I'm doing so far.

1. See David Wilcox in concert again. DONE
2. Run in a 5k or more. NOPE
3. Sell a couple bikes. I GAVE TWO AWAY.
4. Go through and completely clean out my basement. YES, ACTUALLY MY WHOLE HOUSE.
5. Write and memorize I really good poem. NOT YET
6. Read the Bible front to back. Then back to front. WORKING ON IT
7. Watch one of my best friends have a baby. Maybe a couple of friends. STILL A CHANCE FOR SEVERAL
8. Pay off all my debt. GETTING CLOSER
9. Write a children's book. NO, BUT I FOUND AN ILLUSTRATOR
10.Watch the Matrix without falling asleep. THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE
11. Take a Pilates class from Barbie Spates. TIME IS RUNNING OUT
12. Get down to my ideal body weight. GIVE ME A FEW MORE WEEKS
13. Put all my photos in an album. I THINK I LOCATED ALL MY PICTURES
14. Get rid of all the clothes in my closet that I haven't worn in 2 years. CHECK
15. Collect all the real addresses of all the people I have email addresses for. THANK GOODNESS FOR FUNDRAISING
16. Cancel all my email accounts accept one. I CANCELLED ONE, AND GAINED ONE
17. Recycle regularly. IT HAPPENED ONCE
18. Make a cake from scratch. I MADE A BOXED CAKE YESTERDAY
19. Jump out of a plane. TO EXPENSIVE
20. Return everything I have ever borrowed from anyone. IT'S ALL IN THE CAR

25% isn't bad. I need to focus. One thing at a time baby, one thing at a time.

Was Calvin a Texas Tech Fan?

Intern Dreamin'

So I had my first RUF intern dream. Here's the scenario:

I go to my first RUF at Texas Tech, all the students are at least 10 years older than me. My campus minister says some smart remark about them all needing to impress me. Then we leave to go to some kind of conference, fall, winter, summer, I'm not sure. At conference I see my old campus minister, but only at a distance, I'm never able to get close to him. Then, during a large group meeting Kevin (new intern going to LSU) and I get to talk to a girl about the 5 points, wherein she admits that her new found theology (Calvinism) makes it more about God and less about her. After this I get a phone call from my parents telling me to drive to the nearest airport because I need to come home and have emergency surgery to remove the grapefruit size tumor from my cervix.

Funny dream, huh?

But, the tumor in the cervix thing, I find this ironic. If you have been watching Squawk Box early in the morning this week, or any other news for that matter, or seen the new commercial, you may have seen info about a new vaccine* for an STD that causes cervical cancer. The FDA is about to make some kind of ruling about this new vaccine and there is serious talk in the air about making the vaccine mandatory for all middle school girls. I think this is NOT such a good idea. I think that the implications of making this mandatory speak much louder than anything else. Louder than the inherent implications of a vaccine made to prevent a sexually transmitted disease, which I might add I think because they have found this vaccine they are on the road to finding hundreds of others that prevent hundreds of other STDs. I don't know that this is completely bad, I could give a couple of examples of why it would be good, but I think overall I wouldn't not support this movement. What do you think?

*I was paid to be a ginny pig for the testing of said vaccine and I am very conflicted now.

Home

So, I made it home alive. Now what?

Well....I'm living with my parents for the first time in 6 years. If you haven't heard, the Bird's Nest sold ( the house I lived in for four of my years in college). Moving home after such a lengthy time away is pretty interesting. My parents reaction to me, and my reaction to them. It's all classic. Does anyone know of a good movie dealing with this? I'm sure there is a plethora. It really is funny though, how do they think I survived without them? Does my father really believe that I went six years without getting up on time? He never fails to offer to wake me up in the morning. "What time do you want me to get you up?" Or my mother and my laundry. Seriously it's better than staying at a hotel. (someone please remind me that I said that when I'm complaining about needing my own space)

I'm only at my parents for the summer however, because I'm moving to Lubbock in the fall. God willing all my support to come in by August. I will be spending June and July writing letters and making phone calls asking for that support. I haven't learned it quite yet, ask me in late July while I'm crying to Cliff, but at some point I am going to get a really really really realistic picture of what it is like to trust in nothing but God's grace to provide for my livelihood. I think I know, but I have a feeling that I have NO IDEA.

So that aside. I have enjoyed being back in Norman for the past couple days. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family, church and RUF friends for the next 5-6 weeks. If you are around please give me a call. I'm going to need some help moving out of my house, and I'm sure I will be giving lots of house type things away. First come first served.

Until then, I'm watching really cheesy movies (Love is friendship on fire. -The Perfect Man), watching documentaries of Billy Jean King ( I like tennis by the way, maybe not BJK but tennis for sure), and I have unfortunately started to watch Oprah again. BUT, I have also started riding again, which is soooooo great. I'm back on the bike, and it feels so great. I'm hoping to drop some pounds before these weddings. My sister and I are reading Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges together. I'm teaching a mid-high Sunday school, you can pray for that. And last but not least, I'm forcing myself to take showers. I really hate taking showers in the summer. But I realize it's necessary for human contact, so I will entertain the idea.

On the road again...

Still on the road, living out of a sand filled suitcase, meeting all kinds of people from the south. I actually met a guy whose in-laws are members of my brother's church in Katy.

I'm in Baton Rouge currently, after being in Atlanta via Athens via Panama City Beach. RUF and the community that it controls has taken over my life and continues to take every left over free time that I have, or don't have. When I'm not hanging out with RUFers from UGA, Baylor, Vanderbilt, LSU and OU, I'm signing my name to donor letter after donor letter. That being said, be expecting something in the mail from me very soon, hopefully followed by a very awkward conversation in which I will humbly ask for your money.

Here are a few pictures from my trip.

Providence!

Who would have thought?

Auditions