Between 514 and youth group on Sunday afternoons I have about two hours. Two hours I can take to have a mini sabbath spent alone. The Sundays that I chose to do this are so restful. Its hard for me to find rest in my current busy life of two jobs with odd hours. Im also the type of person who really enjoys being around people. Taking time out to be alone, spend some time away from the world is huge for me. Take the time to rest, something I desperately need but I dont really realize that until Im in the mist of this rest.

Jason and I walked around UNCGs campus this past Saturday. It was my first time of really getting a nice walking tour of the campus. Getting to know the place that holds many stories for him. One of the stories for him, and apparently many other guys who went to UNCG, happened at my favorite spot on the campus – the swings. There is only one pair of swings, perfect for DTRs (which is what we did often in college isnt it?). I cant remember the last time I was on a swing. I loved being there even as the higher I got, the colder I felt (it was very chilly that day). There was a freeing feeling being in that swing that I had forgotten about.

Yesterday for my two hour sabbath I sought after a park with a set of swings. With my back to the busy street and toes pointed towards a painting worthy neighborhood – I swung. I brought books to keep me company. I found just as much comfort swinging with the wind blowing my hair into a tangled mess. My thoughts had a safe, quiet place to sort themselves.

“Fears of a girl, heart of a women and everything in between” really rang true this past Sunday afternoon. The act of being on the swing set, a childhood tradition as the setting for my thoughts of a grown women. Most of those thoughts being no different than the ones I had when I was a girl.

Dont tell Kari. I made the dough for these cookies tonight while her and Mike were away at church. She knew that I was thinking of making these because she almost didnt tell me where the cookie cutters are kept when she saw coconut in the recipe. Her Kitchen Aid mixer, food processor and stone wear all had contact with coconut tonight. Hopefully she wont kill me when she returns home and smells the sent of toasted coconut.

Heres the deal with this cookie’s dough, I have complete deep love and deep hate for it. This has to be the most tasty dough on earth. And there is no egg in there for my to get sick off of (you know, your mom always told you how bad it was to eat raw egg. Look Mom! Being safe!). I may or may not have licked the spoon completely clean. That is only because this dough has to chill for an hour. Now, normally at 7 at night thats really not too bad, but being when they are done chilling I hope to be dreamland since I have to open at the ‘Bucks in the morning (for the record, if you heard about all the lay-offs today, yes my ASM did get laid off. Thats a whole other story for another time). So basically this dough teases me.

Tomorrow, between jobs, I hope to cook some Toasted Coconut Shortbread cookies. I may or may not share.

It’s been asked how things are going in my new living situation. I think its funny that people call it a “situation” like we are the 2009 version of Threes Company or something. Tonight one of my friends turned housemate wrote to tell me that “When you get home your gonna be so mad at Mike.” This folks, is what I came home too:

It’s The Pioneer Women’s Baked Fudge that I suggested that we all make together sometime soon. Mike had made them without me (Kari was very clear she had nothing to do with it), which is why Mike was in trouble in my eyes to Kari. He had made them with out me. How dare he!

Im never leaving.

Okay so, today was a pretty good day over all. Besides it being new Office Thursday (first ever “to be continued” episode! Then again, why not just make THIS the hour show? Hmmm?!) and all, usually I dont look forward to Thursdays because I have to work both jobs. Not only that, I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn (which is 4:30am for those keeping score) and going all day. Needless to say, Thursday afternoons are not my finest hour at the church job but I still love being there even if I am spacey (if my team things so or not is another story). Today though, was different.

Another ‘Bucks in town was closed due to their pipes being frozen, sending all of their morning business down to us. You guys it was CRAZY but I loved every single second of it. Felt like my stores in Cali, which were non-stop-always-busy. The customers knew why there were so many people and where kind to us (wether that was in tips or not, I wouldnt know, I was on the bar). I left and as I was driving home I thought, that was a great morning. I rarely think that, usually I can not get out of there fast enough so that was a refreshing change.

Nothing else durning my day was terribly different other than the morning. I ran errands between the jobs (learning a new grocery store and took Gwen in for a free part she needed). Ate too many double stuffed Oreos while working to juggle a lot of exciting things going on in youth ministry right now. Its amazing to me how much of my time I spend being paid to be on Facebook. Connecting with the students, besides texting I dont know of a better way. Jason and I had a nice evening together over a meal that was really simple to make I didnt even have to use a recipe! And it tasted really good (though I wish we had mash potatoes instead of rice. White rice just isnt exciting for me, but I knew my Thai rice from Trader Joes was a no-go for Jace). Office was delightful. Not a perfect day, just one of those days that you wished happened more often I guess.

So, I think the last time I got a haircut was roughly two months ago. That is WAY too long for a girl with any sort of bangs to go without a haircut. My hairlady is a bit of a drive (but shes cheap! And I always go with a friend, so we get to talk the whole drive there so its worth it. And did I mention cheap?) so I can just pop in for a trim and what not. Here are the before and afters:

Im not sure what is up with my “before” face. I really wasnt trying to go for that look they make people do before a make over so of course you’d look better afterwards because your smiling. Clearly though, bangs are way too long and out of control. The one length thing is so blah! So yay for some fun layers and short bangs again.

Im a big blog person. As in, I really enjoy reading blogs (clearly much more than I enjoy writing). I recently went through and cleaned out my feeds of people who havnt updated in a year or more. Felt a little bad about that, but, not too much. Last night I stayed up wait too late getting to know my newest blog that has been added to my feeds:

emilie inc . She takes very pretty wedding photography and has her own studio! I love how compelelty unashamedfully girlie her studio and site are.
Other photo people that I love are:
Charlotte Geary . I want to fly this girl (and her hubby) out to take photos of my wedding. She is just delightful and takes quite stunning photos in lovely Colorado.

Whitney Lee Photography is also a newer photographer I follow, say within the last 6 months. I can tell they enjoy colors with creative flair. Love checking their stuff out regularly.

Sarah McGee I started to follow (and still do) on flickr. Her and both had a D50. I dont believe she shots with one anymore… I believe its D300 now but still in the Nikon family.

Olivia Leigh is also another flickr gal who I have now followed over into her blog photography world. She is so darn creative with the post production that its not even funny. Just magical photos really and I always enjoy looking at them.

I just noticed they are all girls. Hmmm, I dont know if thats a good or bad thing.

Oh yes, DC! How was it? It was freezing. Especially when we took a little walk in front of the White House. Thats when the wind kicked into high gear and all of us couldn’t feel our legs anymore. Kari and I resorted to covering our faces up since we couldnt feel them anymore due to the freezing wind. Dont worry Mr. President, no one is gonna get close to your house with all the freezing wind blowing right by. Nevermind that the way Kari and I were wrapping our scarfs around our faces made us look just a little bit suspicious… or crazy, take your pick

(Sorry Kari, I only have a picture of you looking a bit crazy while trying to stay warm. I would of posted the one of us both but Adriene has failed to post those yet. Oh I know you have twins, but come on now! Post the photos!)

Reason we went to DC? Handful of reasons, but the main one was that Dawn had moved away from the wonderful Carolinas to be part of the FBI. Yes I can tell you that. No she wouldnt tell us anything top secret! She did however show us a good time around downtown Alexandria where we spotted George Washington’s house. While a very neat thing to see, it was also creepy since they keep a stuffed George Washington looking person in the window. Us out-of-towners of course wanted to visit some of the museums and narrowed it down to the what Dawn and her roomie referred to as the “stuff museum” (aka the American History Museum) and the National Art Gallery. The American History Museum had just reopened in 2008, I have never been (being my second time to DC) I was very much looking forward to it. There was a bit of a line, but well worth the wait for the past First Ladies Dresses.


We were very impressed that days (we went the weekend after the inauguration) she was officially First Lady, they had Michelle’s photo up at the museum. They do not wait anytime around DC about who is present and letting everyone know it. Oh but I will share with you more about that later.

Who is this ladies and gentleman? Oscar the Grouch, very very good. See, you are probably like me who grew up on a healthy serving of Sesame Street. Apparently the children of today has not been exposed to Sesame Street enough because Kari and I overheard some children day ‘Look! Cookie Monster!’ WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO. Kids dont even know their muppets anymore.

Susan, Andrea, Dawn and Adriene being very cute and a bit tired in the stuff museum. It’s shortly after this that we said good-bye to the stuff museum and headed to a pub for some lunch. And my word was it every the best pub food Ive had – Id even challenge it to being better than my local favorite – M’Couls. We met up with Sarah who also lives in DC but could not join us on the Mall due to work. After lunch we walked over to the Art Museum because Susan and I were very excited to see some Ansel Adams works that were on display.


As excitied as I was to see Ansel Adams works, a favorite of mine since high school, I was sorely disappointed. Folks there was a grand total of five, yes FIVE, photographs hanging on the wall. And it was just of the tie rolling in and our from a getty in California. While I do think Ansel Adams is amazing, I was underwheelmed for sure. However, what made up for that was the rooms upon rooms of black and white photographs taken in the 50s, a project that captured what American was to the photographer. I got lost (which made my friends wait for me) in the emotions and brilliance that was captured in this work. Probably the highlight of my toursity day.

One of the main goals of the weekend, besides seeing friends who I dont get to see nearly as often as I wish I could, was to bring home a tacky Obama present for Mike. I didnt think this would be hard to do, but I just could not believe the amount of Obama stuff that was everywhere!

And that is really just a taste of all the Obama stuff that we saw. Small small taste. Even our metro cards had Obama’s face on it, since after all it was inauguration week. Like I said before, this is my second time to DC and the first time I did not get the pleasure of taking the metro. Even though the metro card machine ate $20 of mine (which Im still waiting for a refund check in the mail from… hmmm) I loved the metro.


Public transportation system that works and gets you around really well? Yes please! Im trying to figure out how to get one here in the Boro. I dont really see it happening since it would be underground and all, but a girl can dream right? There is the weekend round up of Weekend in DC, Id love to post every single story from the weekend matching all the photos that go along with them. Lets face it though, Im not a very good story teller and photos say a thousand words anyhow. I can not wait till I can visit DC in the cherry blossom season now.