DiScoMboBuLAted

As you can probably tell, I haven’t really felt up to blogging lately.

I know my comment que will now be flooded with desperate requests for me to keep blogging, but don’t worry, I haven’t given up on my blog just yet.

It’s just that the shock of the house stuff really set me in a weird mood… disappointed and lethargic.

And work last week was suddenly SWAMPED! We were so slammed, I was constantly scrambling to do 17 different things at once while carrying on 6.5 conversations at the same time.

Ok, so maybe I am exaggerating a little.

But only a little.

I was SO drained by the weekend that I just felt like collapsing.

Then on Sunday we went to church and then to meet my parents so that we could ride with them to my brother’s college so that we could go celebrate his engagement and watch his fiance’s mad volleyball skills in the school’s last conference game of the season. Whew!

Yes, my lil’ bro is engaged, friends!!! *sniff* He’s just growin’ up so fast, he is!

I mock-sniff, but I actually was quite emotional about it all… I just can’t believe it! And hearing him tell the story of his engagement??!! Wow… and seeing the looks on both of their faces? I’m so happy for them!

I think maybe I am emotional partly because I feel so far removed from their lives. They live 2 and a half hours away so I really hardly see Casey, much less Amanda (his fiance). I love my bro so much, but really hardly know him as an adult and that makes me sad.

Ok, adult-ish.

Anyway, I’ll wrap up the sappy stuff here for you. But I will tell you, given permission, the proposal story would make for some really great blogging material. He’s a romantic, that boy. I trained him well.

Anyway, all of this is to say that if my blog posts seemed discombobulated before, they would have been 23 times worse had I blogged anytime in the past week.

So… a couple more quick updates for you:

On the house: Nothing.

Actually, my attitude has (gradually) changed… who am I to question God, What do you mean you want to save us $16,000???

Really, Cheyenne? You’re complaining to God about THAT?! God has been so good to us and is blessing us greater still by providing for us in ways we didn’t even ask! 

On work: We have still been busier-ish, but it’s slowed down a little this week. I dreaded going into work a couple mornings, but this morning God woke me up 10 minutes early (4:30 am) and I read from my Jesus Calling book and then read the verses that went with it. I read Deut. 33:25, “As your days, so shall be your strength.” Amen. That was exactly what I needed. When we look ahead at the day and take inventory of the strength needed compared to the strength we feel, it just doesn’t match up. But God knows just how much strength we need and provides it as we need it.

I feel like I had something else to tell you about, but I just can’t think of it now… maybe it will come back to me so that I can write another post sometime before Christmas.

Indian(apolis) Summer Day

I appreciate your concern for my creative capacities which were on the fritz yesterday. And although I am still not quite feeling up to snuff (where did that saying even come from anyway???), I shall give you a long-overdue update concerning our brief trip to Indiana to visit my brother-in-law Drew.

Remember that weekend a few weeks ago where it was like 80 degrees in the great Midwest? Well, we happened upon the perfect weekend to visit the grand state of Indiana. We went down with Tyler’s parents. Packed it all up in his dad’s truck. Which actually has a more spacious cab than the interior of my good ol’ green Yoda (Toyota).

What did we do you ask?

*crickets chirpping*

Umm…. man, what did we do? That was so long ago, I can hardly remember! I really need to get better at updating this thing immediately following their occurrence.

Oh yes! We went to Indianapolis with Drew and his girlfriend Hannah (who if you will remember killed all my bunnies the last time we played games with them. But I have forgiven her for it, and we have reconciled).   

Indianapolis is a pretty cool city. We walked through the mall which is 4 stories!!! We ended up eating lunch at the food court, which is a really cool place because every restaurant has a person standing in front of it with samples. Had I been smart, I would have invested in a disguise from one of those kiosks at the mall so that I could just make 2 laps around the food court and bypass the need to order a meal from anyone of them. I’m sure they wouldn’t have thought it peculiar to serve samples to two ravenously hungry 6 foot tall women within a 10 minute period.

But alas, I settled on Chick-fil-a, hypnotized by the weaved pattern and the greasy smell of their waffle fries. Mmm’mm’mm.

We continued our adventure by walking over to the Circle Centre Monument (or so I think it is called). Here we discovered that we could actually go to the top of the monument and look out over the city. Undeterred by heartburn and full stomachs, we opted to climb the 277 stairs to the pinnacle point of the city rather than pay $2 to ride the elevator.

What a climb it was. Heaving as we pulled ourselves to the overlook platform, we pulled out our cameras to document our last gasping breaths of life before descending.

Ok, “last gasping breaths of life” in the little outlook tower.

And then we descended. Which was actually more terrifying to me than any other part of our exploit. The stairs were steep and the stairway was narrow and dark. Slight panicky feelings started to nag me as I thought about my clumsy body lunging head first down a flight, only to be stuck in the middle of this huge dark solid tower.

*shudder*

I’m not usually chlostrophobic, but I did get a little anxious in there.

But then… there was LIGHT!!! The light of DAY! And I was exstatic and spaghetti-like in my celebration of my return to earth!!!

Meaning my muscles were funny-feeling and with what little energy I had left I breathed a sigh of relief.

Next, on to the ZOO!!!

Except that… the zoo only ended up being open for another hour and a half, but still cost like $14/person!

Um, no… no way I would pay $14 to see some animals for an hour and a half. C’mon, haven’t you ever been to a zoo before??? You have to stand at the lion’s lair for an hour and half just to see one of them move!

So instead we had a nice long walk by the river and enjoyed the sunshine on this Indian Summer day.

And then we ate burgers at Cheeseburger paradise. And then we went to the hotel and all got beat by Tyler in Settler’s of Catan (Not to be confused with Settlers of Canaan). And then we said good bye to Drew and Hannah and returned to our Drew-less homes. *sniff*

*clears throat* By the way, did I ever tell you about that game? How Tyler convinced me to buy it for him on the day we got engaged as an “engagement gift.” And then weeks later when we pulled it out to play it at a family gathering, we confused by the pieces, because they looked different than we had remembered. And then we pulled out the directions and realized we had purchased the “Settlers of Canaan” instead of the “Settlers of Catan.”

Yep, we had a good laugh. But now we have both versions.

Alright, creative juices depleted again, as demonstrated by the overuse of the phrase “And then…”

Over and out.

A Photo Tour of Traverse City

Man, I have been so busy blogging lately. Posting about our 2nd anniversary, about the Detroit Tigers game we went to, more of my superb marital advice, and my recent attempt at making shredded chicken enchiladas that turned out to be burritos.

Oh, you don’t remember those posts?

Huh…

Maybe that’s because I didn’t actually write them!!! I have “written” a half dozen posts in my head since my last actual post. But I have not found the time to actually sit down and type any of them out. So instead I have had a steady stream of mental blogging during which I appear to be in some kind of catatonic state, staring off into space and moving my lips ever so slightly while I talk to myself.

Anyways… so now for a real post! That will mostly consist of a pictoral-narrative of our recent camping trip with my family (my brother included! I haven’t seen him in 3 months and the last trip we all took together was probably 5 years ago).

It was an amazing trip. We had a campfire and made smores and played uchre and ate ice cream. We also shopped in the cute downtown strip, went on a bike ride, and drove out to the peninsula to go wine tasting and spend some time on the beach by the lighthouse. It was perfect weather and the water was BEAUTIFUL. And most of all, it was just a wonderful time spent with my family. We haven’t all been together like that… well, ever before really, at least not with Tyler as a part of our family.

I also recently read the user manual for our camera and have been dabbling a bit in photography. Dabbling a verrry little bit. So here is a sample of my photos from the weekend, a miniscule representation of how beautiful it was in Traverse City.

Ok, so this is not actually Traverse City. This is a picture of my mom’s flowers that I took before we left. I was trying to play around with macro-shots (up-close).

This is another picture from my mom’s garden. I was trying to play around with the focus again. It could have been a cool picture, but my focus was all off. I was kind of struggling with the camera because I was partly in the bushes and couldn’t really see in the view finder. That’s my excuse anyways.

This is Traverse City. See that water? Isn’t is gorgeous!

At the vineyard where we did the wine tasting (I’ve never done this before. I would love alcohol if it didn’t have any alcohol in it! As it turned out, the kind I liked was the least alcoholic! I have the palate of a 7 year old I think. Which isn’t a bad thing I guess). I’d like to call this photo “There’s One in Every Bunch.”

No need for applause.

The lighthouse at the end of the peninsula.

My brother. Isn’t he cool? I love the aspect of this photo with the lighthouse in the background.

 

And, my amazing parents. We had so much fun. I am so thankful to God for such a great family.

And that, my friends, was our trip! Tune in again… uh… sometime soon hopefully for more!

Wish Upon A Star

Tonight is going to be a great night for wishing.

Santa only gives you 3 wishes. Same for the magic genie, and he’s even harder to get ahold of. Tonight will trump Santa big-time.

Tonight is the Perseid meteor shower (<—Click here to read more). I have never seen any of the other meteor showers that occur throughout the year, but I’ve seen the Leonids several times, and it is spectacular when you get a good dark sky and have a little caffeine to keep you awake. The peak hours are from midnight to just before dawn. But if you don’t mind laying around outside in the dark for a while, you will definitely see some before midnight too. Just be prepared to bundle up, it tends to get cold and wet.  

One year, my brother and I decided to sleep outside during the meteor shower. We grabbed our sleeping bags and slept on reclining pool chairs. Several times I woke up from the cold and just stared into the sky for a couple minutes. During those early morning hours, I was amazed by the huge fireballs that grazed through the sky, forming long streaks that lasted up to 5 seconds — which is pretty long for a “shooting star”! 

And no, I was not dreaming, I promise. Thanks a lot.

Honestly, folks, it’s amazing. And tonight is supposed to be optimal for meteor viewing.

When I consider Your heavens,

The work of your hands,

What is man that You are mindful of him?

The son of man that You care for him?

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:3-4,9

You will never read this passage the same. The splendor with which our Creator has clothed His creation is beyond breathtaking.  No man-made beauty can compare to His natural wonders. Our God loves to delight us with His art. As if creating us and loving us and forgiving us wasn’t enough, He also longs to give us joy and fill us with wonder.