iceland is great

iceland is beautiful. i have only a few spare moments but i thought i would blog quickly and say I have loved the past couple of days here. first day a nice icelandic man named Stephan took us in his truck on the golden circle tour of iceland - giving us the chance to see some of the most beautiful places on the earth. (I posted some pictures on Facebook and will here when i get the chance). Yesterday Genevra and I walked around downtown Reykjavik - and shoot I gotta go. we are doing some sort of TV and radio thing and then going to the Blue Lagoon today.

more later.

woo woo hoo hoo!

Today was a full day of traveling to get Arin at the KC airport, which I will return to again on Tuesday morning but this time for my own flight purposes. That's right friends and virtual friends, I am for real going to Iceland! I'm excited to go, and due to lack of time and my current brain-fried status in light of how fast this is actually happening, I am not putting together a good blog about all my excitement...sorry to disappoint. This post won't even be as big as the map picture accompaniment. (go ahead, make the 'wa wa wa' noise)
And by the way, I know your worried - as you should be - that I am leaving on Tuesday, which happens to be election day (which of course you know. unless you've lived under a rock and can't fog a mirror and even then you probably know), but don't worry I have already voted at my local court house. Which is by the way a very beautiful building that I had never previously been into. Very cute and Springfieldianish. (Springfieldianish should be a word because it's fun to type)
I'm also really excited that Arin is back and has been rocked so much from his experience with z hop. there is a lot to look forward to. I'll write along the way. promise.

I just started packing...

Guess where i'm going??????

Camping Trip Fall 2008

I went camping this weekend with my friends Lindsay, Kesha, Michelle, and Leah. We had a great time talking, cooking, hiking, and all the other parts about getting away and camping a group of friends enjoys. Enjoy the pics from the beautiful Hercules Glades of Missouri...

camping and another icelandic opportunity (maybe)

I haven't blogged much lately. Sorry. Here I am! I've been going through some stuff internally. Makes me hesitant to blog because maybe some of it will jump off the page. But, not to fear, things circumstance wise are great. Arin is coming home from z hop a week from tomorrow and i'm excited about that, I got flowers yesterday, spent some good time with family last night and I'm going camping tomorrow with some wonderful friends.

There is also the possibility of me going to Iceland soon. And when I mean soon I mean in a week and a half. :) Which is crazy I know! I don't know if I will have quite enough money to make it (silly deer, making me buy a new-to-me-car!), or a place to stay, but I really want to. The house of prayer there asked 7 Thunders to go and so I got invited along for the journey. I don't know, should I go? Gosh I want to but I definitely have to find out quick if it's going to happen. And I might have to pray some money in. And pray some in for Genevra. And eat ramen noodles for a couple of weeks. And explode if I get to go because I would be so excited!! Work already said it was okay with them so that's not a problem... (one of these days people, I will get there)
anyway. so there's that. I'll keep you posted.

So camping tomorrow. Which is fitting because I feel as though I have been in the wilderness for about a month now. This is going to be good.

cooking redemption

You guys I totally redeemed my bad cooking last night with good cooking tonight! I learned two things:
1. Stick with what you know how to do. Even if it's simple.
2. It tastes better when someone eats it with you.
I made my mom and I chicken noodle soup, a salad, and some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches tonight. And yes, the soup was really good. Whew.

cooking with the winnies

Today at work I got the idea in my head that I should cook something for myself tonight. It is the perfect night for it. No one really is in town and if they are - they aren't doing anything tonight (gosh, at least that I know of), so I pretty much had the house and my time all to myself.
I decided in my wanderings at work that I would try a butternut squash ravioli and would try to make the sauce myself, make some garlic bread, and be done with it. So I got some stuff and came home and got down to business. I got out the pans. Chopped things. Had my bread ready to go and my butter browning...
And I will stop there and say this: I should have stopped at the thought of cooking. It was no bueno people. I thought about giving it to the dogs but that would have been mean. I really want to be more domestic but at this stage in life I just am not. I was even a breakfast cook for over a year, but let's face it people - breakfast is about the easiest type of cooking one can do. Hopefully one day I'll get this whole cooking thing down. Ha! Maybe.

seek first the kingdom

Yesterday was my tuesday. my day out of the week that I can hole up and spend hours thinking about things from the week, mostly praying. and of course sleep in too. I love both. I think I've shared this so I will move on.
Yesterday I was continuing on my journey of Luke 12 and came to the verse that says "seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you."
seek: 1. To attempt to find something. 2. to search for and find someone or something. 3. attempt or desire to obtain or achieve (something).
I thought about this word that Jesus throws around a lot. Thought about people's thoughts on prayer mostly. What it means to pray and know God. But, in my definitions of prayer God I think I have often forgotten what it means to "seek" - which I believe is what prayer and our relationship with God really is comprised of. Jesus asks us to seek Him, not to have the answers or feel like we even need them. (He says it's His good pleasure to give them to us anyhow!) It is the attempt to find Him. To search for and find Him. It's the desire to find Him. It's not really important if we get the answers (well, a correct theology and thoughts on who God is of course is important but...) - it's all about asking the questions.
I was talking to a friend yesterday, and I hope my friend doesn't mind me sharing this, but I said something to him/her last night that sorta hit a chord - at least in me. This person was talking about prayer and how he/she needed to do more of it and feeling a little bad about not doing it more, and my response to him/her was - You need to find out how you pray.
I think I'm realizing that the church at large doesn't really teach us how to pray, and it's a handicap to so many believers. We are supposed to have this relationship with God, but more often than not I see people who are having a relationship with Him through service and not knowing why that isn't working out so hot. You know, through works. Through trying to be a good person, have the answers, and get it right. But we need a mind shift into knowing first who we are in Christ. Figuring out that it's not about the answers but about asking the questions. (ie. prayer) There's a figuring out of how to pray (and I think for everyone - since comprised of different personalities, weaknesses, limitations - praying can look slightly different) that needs to happen for the Bride to know who she is.
Seek FIRST the Kingdom...and all these other things shall be added unto you.