morning's light

sleepy

back on monday.

was out of town until early this morning. thus am grateful for the day off with time to nap.

have a good weekend!!

.....AND THEN

Terra and I eat lunch.  We munch 'n' chat.  She eats a burger on a bun (yeah - the normal way) and I pick at a salad that's gluten free, wishing I could be devouring a cheeseburger and those crinkly fries.. 

"So, how long have you been eating without gluten?"

"Why.....it's been two weeks TODAY!"

(what can she say?  "congratulations on your two week anniversary"???)

She asks what happens when I do eat wheat or other gluten filled items, and I start to explain, as I've gotten used to doing so matter of factly, and mention how gluten affects the SMALL INTESTINE..... [I turn pink and realize I'm talking intestines rather loudly while people are eating lunch at the fast-food-ish place around me].

Terra rescued me by continuing, "AND THEN you should see what happens with the LARGE INTESTINE!!!!" (hand gestures and all)

thanks terra.  you had me at "AND THEN"

:)

PS: thanks for lunch.  fun, fun, fun

PPS: terra is a phenomonal vocalist and is my choir director.  just wanted y'all to know that. oh yeah - and she's a california girl.  woo hoo! 

the elusive chicken

While grocery shopping this week, I stopped by the deli to pick up another broasted chicken breast (all of the white meat and none of the "yukky" parts).  Cannot seem to stop by when they have one on hand.  I decide to ask the deli girl closest to me and watch, fascinated, as she is putting more fried chicken in the deli case and I don't know if it should be treated gingerly but do you really need to THROW the chicken into the right container in the hot foods case? 

When she's done throwing the food in, she looks behind me to help the next [invisible] person then helps me.  (shoulda been a clue).  I ask when they'll next have a broasted chicken breast on hand.    as vague as a person can be, she informed me that "when they have some in there [pointing to the kitchen], then they'll put them out". 

Wow.  thanks for all that information.  too much, really.  I ask some questions, get more vague answers.  Then I smile even bigger (my usual smile in that place where the employees like to cause drama? or I bring it out in them??) and lean in so we're under the hot lights of the rotisserie chicken counter, "so I should check back when....??? once a year?  once a month????"

finally.  the Magic Deli Girl appears next to her and announces, "We put some out every morning and when they're gone, they're gone."  [along the lines of "wherever you are, there you are"  gee. thanks.]  But at least I knew that they put chickens out DAILY!! not yearly or every other thursday that is not Bridge Thursday for the ladies down the street.

Then Deli Girl Who Likes to Throw Chicken pipes up, "Try between 10 AM and 2 PM".  hello?  she had a momoent of clarity?  that's a clear answer!

*sigh*  it's me, isn't it? 

prettying up lists

Until last night, I hadn't slept well for four nights....so here's how yesterday ended up:

I was on the phone with a friend while I got my haircut and managed to close my eyes and almost fall out of the chair in the salon.  pretty sleepy.

felt overwhelmed by even the smallest things..so I had to do something...and created these prettier versions of to-do lists.  They're on my refrigerator, making me smile with their simple lists.

jello-free AND weed-free

coworker J:  "how's that jello-free eating going??"

me:  "well, GREAT.  I have no problem avoiding jello in my meals."

[a week later]

coworker W:  "have a doughnut!!"

me: "no thanks."

W:  "oh yeah... weed..this one has weed, that one has weed, so does that one!"

me: "hey - are you saying 'weed' or 'wheat'??"

W:  "weed.  it's wheat you can't have, right?  maybe you SHOULD try weed...for medicinal purposes, ya know?"

me: "no, I don't know.  thanks!!" [made my day...giggled my way down the hall, weed-free and jello-free]

I was feeling sick for a few months, just some recurring stuff, and eventually realized that since celiac disease is in my family (an intolerance to gluten - which is found mostly in wheat, barley, rye and probably oats) I probably do have an intolerance for gluten and began eating gluten-free two weeks ago.  amazing.  I feel so much better and have more energy and definitely more of a clear head (no more walking around like I'm in a fog).

Survived a birthday gathering that lasted until 4:30 AM and at 5:00 AM was still chattering away to the remaining person who was trying to get some sleep before driving a long distance home. I had been up for almost 24 hours and felt fine!

I'm telling you all this because I might mention it again or people might just say the funniest things again and leave me smiling and wanting to share the story with you.

If you'd like to read more, I recommend the Gluten-Free Girl who also has a book coming out soon.

Now onto prettier things!

I found more images that I love. 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

1. Todd Oldham - if only I could re-create this look on my [currently empty] deck

2. Rachel Caldwell

3. abchao - what a pretty kitchen!

4. abchao - I like all the photos of her home

5. abchao - I like the metal locker/basket.  I keep meaning to look for containers that I can turn on a side and use as a shelf.

glad to be Swedish!

a swedish magazine called "Skona Hem"  has these great images.  I don't speak the language so I just randomly clicked around and found images I liked.  maybe I'm drawn to the photos because I'm half swedish? or because they're just quite pretty!

books, baseball & borrowing

books

I recently read A Bigger Life and it made me cry.  Loved the characters.  Loved how people rallied around to help someone in need.  I returned the book to the library yesterday and made a note to look up more books by the author, Annette Smith, and I picked up three books that were on hold.  One of them was by Annette Smith, and I started reading it today [A Town Called Ruby Prairie].  Within fifteen minutes, more tears in my eyes. Most definitely looking forward to curling up with the book tonight!  [Annette has a blog here.]

baseball

As you know, I have experienced my share of Moments at baseball games.  I met my friend Carol for dinner on Tuesday night and after lingering for awhile, we make the last-minute decision to hop on the freeway and try to get tickets for the Milwaukee Brewers game that started within the hour.  We got great seats and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  I start to tell carol a story* and am completely oblivious to the fact that a foul ball has been hit to not only my section but THREE ROWS ahead of me.  While the girl who caught the ball was glowing and posing for a photo, Carol and I laughed that while I may reach for an imaginary foul ball (moon), when a REAL foul ball is near me, I have no clue.

[*the geoff jenkins story is that a foul ball was hit in our section at a Giants-Brewers game in San Francisco.  My three friends and I all look around for it, realize it's far behind us and turn around to see the game again...and my friends and I are suddenly staring at geoff in the face..... he's inches from my face....and he just stays there..leaning on the tarp (he'd run to catch the foul ball)... he shakes his head (as if coming out of a trance), says "sorry 'bout that!!" and runs back to left field.  naturally, the four of us girls giggle and decide he's our favorite visiting player for the season.  Two minutes later my phone rings.  I hear "what are you doing flirting with ball players??" (no "hi! how are you??")  my mom had the game on and saw the interaction with the player and four girls.]

borrowing

I moved into my apartment March 1. (big whoop, I know!)  A neighbor moved in downstairs April 1.  (whew..big story, right?!)  On June 20, we met for the first time.  Chatted for over two hours. Explored each person's apartment (identical layouts, but styled differently). We had so much fun, talking and laughing.  Margie - that was a fun night.  Wait until Bob moves in to the other upstairs aparatment.  Then it's Friendly People 3, Recluses 1.  [we have neighbors in our little four-apartments-per-shared-foyer who keep completely to themselves, and when Margie borrowed some saran-wrap from them, they shoved the whole box at her and shut the door.  nice.]  Meeting Margie and hanging out made my night.  I think I miss community life (having three roommates in SF, living in a dorm in Chicago).  Here's to more nights of sipping wine on someone's deck and enjoying life.

cabinets & jars

photo can be found here

I love containers which means I adore the IKEA jars shown here in Manda's cupboard.   I have to admit I have about four of those jars in my kitchen cabinets, and the jars are empty.  I have yet to fill them with adorable things.  Manda is now my inspiration!

(she already was...as she's more of a magazine-lover than I am!)

introducing "bark river kids" & the nest

On Saturday I visited my former apartment to see the updates and changes since the shopowners expanded their first floor shop into the apartment.  The results are so very pretty!  I would like to use the same fuschia paint color in my new bathroom.

Love the lamp.  All the pretty window coverings, lampshades and curtains are by a local artist.  The furniture is from France.   Bark River Kids just opened The Nest (the second floor) and have found their niche in the upscale children's clothing market - by extending their wares to furniture, bedding, consultations and baby registries.

You can find more photos here.

weekend sneak peeks

popped in on saturday to my old apartment which is now a showcase called The Nest for the children's clothing shop that's on the first floor. I was impressed with how some fresh paint and cute furniture transformed my old apartment into an adorable shop.  here's a glimpse...

was a fun weekend.  included a birthday party on saturday night that ended at 4:30 AM sunday morning (a 3-hour nap before and after church and I was good to go!).  it included this game of Spoons sometime during the early hours..you can't see everyone..but you can see linda (on the right) who has the most contagious laugh - and christy (the first person to get four-of-a-kind and pick up a spoon).

more photos & details to follow

happy friday!

Sharing photos of my friend Kathy's daughter Catherine (and her brand new American Girls doll) at brunch in the cafe at the American Girl store in Chicago.   In the Surprised Look photo, you can see that Catherine has personalized the doll with her bracelet - now a pretty doll necklace. 

It's Friday.  YIPPEE.  Am pondering the idea of maybe attending a gathering of Christian singles tonight at at a church in Milwaukee.  Some friends and I realize that there aren't that many singles in the area but loads of young families.  Fun to be around but we also want to be around other singles. 

Saturday will be spiffying up the apartment for a birthday/game night/open house kind of an evening. (reality: a fun night with friends).

Sunday is church.  Then with temps around 90 with high humidity, I might take a walk around a lake. 

Doing anything fun?

wedding + birthdays

It's San Francisco week! 

Happy Birthday - to Ashley (pictured above on her wedding day not too long ago) and to David (now living in Georgia).  It's been fun to share a birthday with them, and in fact, David is a mere four hours older than I am and was born only two states away. 

Ashley turns 21 today - the newlywed!  Pictured with her above are her maid of honor, Nancy, and Ashley's parents as well as our friend Tim who performed the ceremony.

Since it's still about SF, here are some friends who were at Hannah's graduation party: cindy, larissa & hannah.

a nod - and I'm through the door

a friend was playing the online version of "millionaire" last night and mentioned a bullet proof vest.  ahh..a bullet proof vest.  I have a story about that.... travel back with me a few years, if you will.

I'm on vacation with a friend at a hotel. I wake up early, get sleepily dressed and take the stairs down to the lobby to scrounge up something to eat (or simply partake of the continental breakfast).

I take the stairs down a couple floors and near the first floor I freeze....because I'm facing a man in black crouched down with a rifle in his hand.  I don't know what to do.  I'm frozen and thinking, "Hey - there's a guy with a gun!".  He and I locked eyes and then he nodded for me to go by and I passed him so I could exit the stairwell into the lobby.

Later on the story is told that a hotel guest was keeping someone hostage there, thus the reason for the S.W.A.T. team in the hotel..to help rescue the girl.

In hearing the story last night, no one could believe that I'd faced a gunman with no fear.  They were picturing me skipping merrily down the stairs, pink-cheeked, blonde hair in braids, and seeing the gunman and going "oh!" [which is becoming a frequent exclamation in my embarrassing stories] and then skipping on into the lobby.

One friend had wished these stories had happened to a celebrity so that there could be SNL sketches done about the incidents.  Since these friends are drama and video professionals, I wouldn't put it past them to create sketches of their own.

I've been told that while I'm running powerpoint and Krysta is leading worship, I'm not allowed to "reach for the moon/foul ball" while in the soundbooth or she won't be able to keep a straight face on the stage. Nice challenge for me.  I think I'll TAKE that challenge.

photo: little red riding hood

she's not seven anymore!

I did an internship in San Francisco in 1996 where I met Hannah and her family. Hannah must have been about seven.  I watched her grow up but haven't seen Hannah since 2005.  She just graduated from high school and is heading off to college in the fall.  I keep thinking she's still in about fifth grade!

Congratulations, Hannah, on your graduation and your exciting future!

I thought these graduation party photos look like a photo shoot:  Teens Playing Games.

always learning

awhile ago I wrote about what I'd been learning...

today I found more valuable lessons to learn.  It helped me learn to let go.... The article is called "10 Simple Ways to Save Yourself from Messing Up Your Life"

Includes:

• "how you feel is how you feel"
• let go of worrying
• ease up on the internal life commentary [did the author read my mind?!]
• if you don't like your personality today, you can change it. (personality being the general impression you give through your words and actions not something set in stone)

good stuff.

movies + media ministry

movies + media ministry. that sums up my weekend!

Saw Ocean's Thirteen at a new 16-theater cinema that has one theater where you order food and beverages from a server and you receive service all throughout the movie while sitting in a comfy, officechair/theater seat. (I could have spun the whole movie but perhaps would have missed some of the movie!)

You have your own server and a call-button in case you need something.  (Quick!  I need some jujubies and some mountain dew, stat!)

oh yeah - the movie was pretty good. tighter and more focused than ocean's twelve.

did media ministry saturday night and sunday morning. (it'll be every other weekend until more volunteers are trained.) then saw the movie waitress.  it's pretty good.  if you've seen it, please email me  (sunnysblog [at] gmail [dot] com) and let me know what you think of it.

the weather was so perfect this weekend: nice temps, low humidity and no bugs.  *sigh* better enjoy it while we can...before high humidity + bugs rush in to try our patience and shoo us indoors.

how was your weekend?

my soul must sing

am on a quick break between rehearsals for the worship team at church.

we're singing a song this weekend called "Beautiful One" and the chorus touches something in me:

"beautiful one my soul must sing"

photo: I liked the photo..it's one of our powerpoint backgrounds

rehearsal: I'm running powerpoint and there are some technical glitches.  thus... a weekend greeting to you!

what's new with you?

movies + more movies

big movie weekend.  not in the world. just for me.  will mostly likely seeing Ocean's Thirteen tonight. then on Sunday afternoon - some matinees of Once and Paris Je T'aime.

quite glad it's almost the start of the weekend.  are you?

and now - something to warm your heart (especially the sweetness near the end)..[thanks Hostess with the Mostest]

you don't iron an arm, silly!

It has been quite the week.  Intense stuff happening in every area of my life.  So that's great enough, but to remove part of my dinner from the oven and burn a mark on my arm the shape of one of those toy irons - that was just lovely!

The pain remained intense after two hours (time spent with my right arm stuck in water or on a wet towel), so my plan was to go to the 24-hour pharmacy, hold up my arm and say "what should I do?".  Fortunately, urgent care at the clinic was still open.  Salve applied, dressing wrapped around my arm, good to go. Took some ibuprofen and slept pain free.

[Managed to stay awake long enough to watch an hour of "So You Think You Can Dance" and boy - it wouldn't be easy to hear from the judges, "You do NOT have my vote" one after the other.  Glad there aren't people in our daily lives who say that to us!  Who is the guy that motivated Mia to say "Where did HE come from?"??]

Today it's all much better, apart from the bandage that has had two people asking what's up and the rest haven't noticed.  I'm crediting that to the trend of long sleeved t-shirts under short sleeved t-shirts..so people think I'm wearing a white tee under a short sleeved tee.  works for me.  "I'm trendy! Not an injured person!"

it's time.... to. organize. the. office.

It's time to organize the office.  I've lived in the not-so-new apartment for almost four months.  Time to bring order to the cozy nook that is my office.  Naturally I turned to flickr for some inspiration and found this cozy dining room-turned-office. 

Also found a way to display postcards.

 

Maybe I'm drawn to an office with a great mood - an atmosphere.  Will keep you updated.

Meanwhile, one of my junior high girls sent me some photos to cheer up the day on Sunday and when I opened up the one of her making a silly face, it turned out to be a monster of a photo.  took a screenshot and it looked like there was a Giant Junior High Girl peering at me through my monitor.  See for yourself.

"but I just moved in!" + other tales

friday night plans were abandoned to provide help to friend K. who moved into a new apartment.  not many people were around to help, but K and her parents did a great job! 

On Saturday morning as I contemplated, "gym?  no gym?" I received a call from a friend telling me that K. moved into the wrong apartment Friday night and needs our help to quickly move everything from the Friday Night Apartment to the Saturday [correct] apartment.  I call everyone K and I both know to get help and then drive to the apartment complex in time to fetch some items from the old place as K and her mom were too embarrassed to return again for things they left behind. 

As we talked about it, we figured out that there were signals:  the coin laundry that was present which should have been a regular washer & dryer that were promised to K by the previous tenant; the lack of new carpeting in the bedrooms, the shelves on only one side of the walk-through closet (between her bedroom and bathroom) where K had noticed shelves on both sides when she viewed the apartment....so little things that made her go "huh..." and didn't make sense until a call from the new tenants wanting to move in.

For some reason, with all the apartments looking alike and the garage doors being open, K's key worked in both apartments.  Thus the mixup and the immediate need for K's new apartment locks to be re-keyed unless she and her neighbor a few buildings down want to share apartments?!

The rest of the weekend lacked drama and included a leisurely dinner and an evening on the lake, finishing up The Time Traveler's Wife on Sunday afternoon, baking some quickly-eaten-at-the-office chocolate chip cookies (with some oatmeal thrown in for good health), and watching an oprah show that confirmed the message from the pastor that morning - about how we all can comfort others in the areas where we ourselves have been comforted. 

(on the oprah show, a grandmother who had accidentally run over her young grandson and cannot forgive herself even though her family has, was comforted by a woman who had experienced a similar loss herself.  this grandmother was encouraged by oprah that her story is not in vain..that everyone who sees the show will think of her when they drive..and it's true.  I was more careful than usual while driving today.)

A good weekend indeed.  How was yours?

time travel + mystery people

Today I started reading The Time Traveler's Wife and it's intriguing - starting with the first paragraph!  (It'll be released on film in 2008.)

Was drinking a mocha outside today and was surprised by the arrival of the Mystery People.  Most days, I bring a little something to munch on and buy a mocha at a coffee place and get immersed in the book o' the week. I'll glance up on occasion and more often than not, the Mystery People (MP) will be rushing in to buy beverages, talk only to each other, and then leave just as quickly. I may find it fun to get to know all the baristas and exchange personal information and teasing barbs, but the MP do not engage in any of this.  Coffee to them must be serious business. 

Imagine my surprise today when I hear someone, glance over and see the MP exiting into the patio and taking over a small table with their lunches and beverages and proceed to have a lively discussion, eat, drink and rush off.  One of the MP almost spoke to me today but I, being so used to being not talked to, offered my usual response of glancing down at my book and thus preventing any conversation.

Hmm...could I be the one preventing conversations from happening?  Maybe the happy but private group of MP want to talk to someone they see almost every day?!  Stranger things have happened!

the weekend approacheth

this weekend I am looking for a few things and going to look at listen to a few things bands.

want to get a few more of these to store papers & magazine pages in

because they're pretty

sanctus real

david crowder band

steven curtis chapman

will be a good weekend.  what do you have planned?