Wordless Wednesday...even though I already posted today

Back in the saddle again

Recently I feel like I'm getting back to the things I used to do before I moved. And basically that means churchy stuff. Recently my pastor got the brilliant idea to do a two minute bible study each week on the texts in the lectionary. Since he got the idea at his laptop, he decided to use the camera on the screen and record it himself. Well, it looked a little weird. If you've ever skyped with someone on a laptop, they usually look a little strange: big close up, looking down on you. Yeah, I couldn't take it so I volunteered to record and edit his weekly rants...I mean...weekly insights:) I'll link to our church's YouTube site and if you are so inclined, check out the video I made as well as one of the older ones and tell me what you think?

Lost but not for long!

My sister likes to get me interesting things for Christmas and I love them. One year it was a chocolate fountain. This year it was a cotton candy machine that uses hard candy to make the fluffy goodness that I love. We busted it open when the family was together at Christmas and it was the hit of the season! Everyone was amazed at how you can make cotton candy out of a Jolly Rancher. After the chaos was over and we packed up to leave, the cotton candy machine made it's way back to Boston.

A few months later I'm invited to my good friend Spencer's 4th birthday party and I decided to bring the amazing cotton candy machine. However, when I got it out of the box, the most important part was missing: the extractor! Well, you can have cotton candy with out the extractor so I found that a replacement was $15 and today I ordered a replacement and all will be right with the world again.

It's the little things, you know.

More than I am

This morning in church, out pastor was announcing the services we are going to have on Wednesday evenings and surprised me a bit by adding that I had written a new liturgy. Does that sound like I actually wrote all the music and stuff? Yeah, well, I didn't! Ha ha!! I did, however, pick out music and form a service from already existing liturgies I found just lying around but I didn't really write it. And after the service one guy congratulated me on my accomplishment! Oh, I'm still laughing a bit. Well, I did correct him but I'm only wondering what people will be expecting come Wednesday night:)

It should be fun.

I'm off this evening to Marshfield Mass to visit my friend Mark. He started a new congregation called Sanctuary and I think it's been going really well for him. This will be the first time I've been for a worship service and I hope I don't fall asleep. Losing an hour last night really kicked me in the behind. I'm glad that I use my phone as an alarm clock because I TOTALLY forgot to set the time back before I went to bed. That would have been fun; an hour late to church! I did go early once in the fall, thinking, "why is everyone still in church when it's time for Sunday School?" Yeah, I still think it's better to be early than late.

Two a day? I must be missing facebook!

I did get on facebook tonight to check if anyone posted a 'yes' to my sunday school event tomorrow. No. But that doesn't mean no one will be there, it just means no one is telling me in advance.

I think the real reason I'm back on the blog is to explain why I've been away for so long. Now that I'm back in the USA, I must subconsciously think my life is boring. I haven't really taken any photos, visiting many sights or really found people who knit. I know that all of these things are out there, I just need to be motivated. It's just that the last place I lived was so freaking fantastic that I can't get over leaving. And I've ALWAYS been good at leaving!! Why now? Why this move? What was so special about England that I'm fighting with myself to really put myself out there?

The funny thing is that I've been so involved in things since being back. I'm going overboard at church, I run a group with the spouse's club, work out with friends once a week, joined a soccer team...the list goes on. But it's like my heart isn't in it all the way.

I think I need to grieve. I didn't have time to grieve. This might be the moment I start to cry.

Lent: really?

So I gave up facebook for lent. Yeah, it sounds really trivial, I know. But it's only day four and I'm already going through withdraw. The first clue is that I've decided to update my blog. After living life through the medium of social networking for at least three years, I'm taking a self imposed break. I've done this before but usually when I'm on vacation and can't get internet access. Now I'm just sitting around the house and meaningfully ignoring that facebook tab in my bookmark bar! I also deleted the app from my phone.

It's strange to not update my status on the weird things I do every day. When I'm doing stuff I actually think that I should post it on my profile. For example, yesterday I had Kraft Mac and Cheese for lunch...wanted to post it...spinning alpaca, watching Downton Abbey, and missing England...wanted to post it...lost our last soccer game...wanted to post it

However, I haven't left facebook totally. I still run the group for the youth at my church so I've decided that I can only log on if I'm going to check in on the group, create and event or communicate to any of the members. And if I log on, I can only be on for 30min once a day. So far, I've logged on once to create and event! I didn't make any comments, likes or updates on my page but I will have to say that I did check out my news feed, just to see what people are up to.

I wasn't sure that this would really be a sacrifice worthy of lent but it's panning out to be better than chocolate, soda and sex. Or should I say rather than better; worse.

Wordless Wednesday...some day soon I'll update for real

Working at LUSH for the Holiday season!

In transit: UK to USA

It's Sunday evening and we're five days away from an airplane flight to Boston. I can't believe two years has gone by this fast. When I look back at all the things we've done, it amazes me. The people, the countries, the roads, hours in the car, on a train, in a plane: how do you measure two years? It reminds me of the song in Rent; 525,600 minutes, moments, laughs, breaths, sighs, cries in a year. How do I measure two years? Where do I begin to express the friendships I've made or the place I called home? Leaving is never easy but it seems that this time is so very different than all the others. This time I'm leaving with my best friend, my partner, my husband and unlike other leavings I don't go alone. When we left Albuquerque we were freshly married and still getting to know each other. There have been so many learning moments over the past two years that would have been so different had we lived in the USA. How do you help your husband order food from the French menu when it's only in French? When do you get to bring your wife on a ski trip to Italy and when do you have to leave her at home?

There are too many things running through my heart at the moment that I'll have to get it all out at another moment in time. Maybe that's why I've been putting off my blog posts. Too many things to write.

Wordless Wednesday (sorry that I keep posting on a Wed)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Home and away

I just got home on Saturday from a trip cruising around Southern Croatia and then leave again for London to pick up my Aunt Connie and Uncle Steve for another adventure that also spans to Paris. Of course, it doesn't stop there. But rather than drone on about travel I would like to share a story that happened to me last week.

So on the boat there were a hand full of Aussies and most of them at the retired age. However, there were two other couples our age that we ended up hanging out with over the course of the week. They were from Australia and New Zealand both on their honeymoons. It was a great week and we really enjoyed seeing the sights and meeting new people. Of course everyone wants to know, "what do you do for a living?" and I was never sure what to say. Well, I came to the conclusion of telling people that I studied to be a pastor and that went well. I got asked a few questions, since it's not quite a job that many women take I also got a few strange looks.

Now Victor and I are not quite the partying type or real night owls so we usually went to bed before the other couples and we sort of gained the reputation of being rather lame when it came to night time revelry. On our second to last night on the boat we were convinced to head out on the town of Hvar with our new friends. I'm usually not a big drinker since one sip of wine will make me fall asleep and I really hate the taste of beer. (Yes, most, if not ALL beer is disgusting to my taste buds) However, I will admit I love Malibu rum. As in it is so yummy even if it does taste like the smell of sun tan oil. Ah, Malibu! We started out at a little bar with sofas next to the water where I proceeded to love two Malibu and cokes. After that we headed over to a small dance club where we shared drinks with big straws. Good times. So by the end of the evening I was feeling good and having a great time dancing and laughing with Victor and our new friends. Since I'm not a big drinker, I have always believed that I can tell when I need to stop before I feel like crap and therefore I begin to drink water and get to bed at a reasonable hour. We left early, of course, and were the first to leave the bar at 2am.

However, the point of this story isn't to tell you about my only drunken evening in a few years but something that was said to me during our night out. While dancing with the two girls from our new friends one of them decided to tell me that she was proud of me for staying out late and having a few drinks. Then she proceeded to let me know that I was the kind of pastor she liked: the real kind. They both agreed that if they went to church, they would go to my church.

That's actually just what I needed.

Today is amazing

I've been getting up early every morning sans alarm clock and it's been great. Back in the day I used to practice yoga and I say practice because I believe it is something I will never truly master and I'm ok with that. I even bought my own mat and everything! It's been collecting dust for the past few years and this week I brushed it off and started a routine. Even after one week, I'm feeling great! I have yoga flash cards that I lay out in a sequence for the work out and even put together a play list. In fact, the workout is so great that I want to extend my playlist another few songs to make it longer. Right now from start to finish it's about 30min but I think more would be better. Now that I'm starting to loosen up, I have the confidence to do more positions that were strenuous at the beginning of the week. I just wish that we had a place in the house that Victor and I could have a go at the same time. It's a bit cramped around here.

Speaking of cramped around here....we're officially moving to Boston in September! Which means I get to look for another place to live. And this time it will be for at least four years. Crazy. This two year assignment is the longest I've lived in one house for about 10 years. However, I am really looking forward to seeking out the new place. So if you've ever lived in Boston, heck, if you've ever visited Boston and have any suggestions, I'm open!

And since I haven't posted any photos from the European adventure, here is a foretaste of the feast to come:

Back online!

Our router went out a few days ago...ok more like two weeks ago...and today I got a new one in the mail and guess what? We're back on the world wide web from the convenience of our own home. Remember when I went to the library to check my email? What decade was that? Ok, that was in 2001 but still, I was living with my sister and her internet was so slow! What am I talking about? Her internet is still slow. I live in England and she calls me to help her book plane tickets and hotels.

So now maybe I'll blog more. Right. I have some catching up to do.

It's been a while since my friend Jenny came to visit but I was just reminded of her trip the other day. I was explaining to someone this weekend that when I go to London, I tend to go to the same places every time because most of the time I go, I'm taking a friend or family member. Most of these people want to see the same things. For example, I've been to the Tower of London about 5 or 6 times. I could be a tour guide! Of course, it's not really the place for me, it's the people. However, the next time I go to London I'm going to CHIPOTLE!!

Take a closer look

I'm all for Jesus, don't get me wrong. However, there is something about putting Jesus in modern times (or in this instance modern times in Jesus) that sort of freaks me out. What if Jesus were to be alive and kicking today? I'm not sure I would believe anything he would say. Well, of course I wouldn't be seeing him through the Christian lens. I don't mean if Jesus were to come back, I mean say there was never Jesus back in the day and he really came now. Because let's admit it, we're pretty messed up as it is and he DID already come. I'm not sure if this makes any sense but maybe one day it will.

Back home again

It's going to take a while, but I should be uploading photos soon!

On the road

It's hard enough to keep up with the blog at home, let alone the road. We are currently in the Czech Republic on our way to Austria. It's a road I've traveled before but I can hardly believe it was 10 years ago. That may not seem like a long time if you're a bit older but at my age, 10 years is my nephew's lifetime.

The trip has been pretty good so far. I was quite a bit under the weather for the last few days (ok, week) and now that I'm feeling better, Victor and Nicki both start going down hill. Well, I guess we all can't be healthy when living in such close quarters.

Time to get going again!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

"There you are in a room that's full of incredible grief. People crazed with grief. People drunk with grief and the minister is the designated driver and you take people where they need to go saying the old words about death. There are no new words to be said about death."
Garrison Keillor