Mission: Philly Cheese Steak

So we are in Philadelphia. According to the locals, it is a requirement that one must eat a Philly cheese steak while on a visit here. Since this is apparently an absolute, Carly, Lynn and I headed downtown to find “Pat’s.” We had no idea of the adventures that awaited us.



2:45 Depart hotel. Mike, our shuttle driver takes us to the train stop

2:55 Arrive at train stop. We are alone with the exception of a foreign woman. Still optimistic about our adventure.

3:10 Homeless man #1 stumbles in to train stop shelter. Carly makes that observation that he resembles a “John Neuenswander gone crazy.” We watch him rummage through trash- he seems harmless.

3:15 Homeless man #2 strolls up. Proceeds to join in on our conversation about Denver weather. Carly begins to exchange counseling advice with his life experiences.

3:40ish Homeless man #1 (who had been sleeping on the bench) starts laughing sinisterly and then proceeds to start shouting nonsense in Carly’s direction. With a great relief we heard our train whistle.

3:42 Board train. Giggle about our uncomfortable experience

4:00 Carly checks train map and finds out we are on the wrong train

Polly’s stress level begins to surface through silent demeanor

Turns out- wrong train got us to the right spot. (Miracle #1)

4:30 We befriended a Philly local (Miracle #2) and she leads us around trying to find close landmarks: City Hall, Giant Clothespin, _____ Park

4:45 Led into the middle of a gay rights demonstration. Philly friend asks a group of the “demonstrators” where the Liberty Bell is located. After receiving directions, we are told to “put another crack in the bell for the gays”

For her sanity’s sake, Polly confirms directions on her iphone

4:50 Souvenir shop stop

5:00 On our quest to find the Liberty Bell, the rain starts

5:15 We see Liberty Bell (Miracle #3) but the exhibit is closed. So we wave at it from 40 feet away. Rain increases into a downpour. We got wet. Very wet.

5:30 Flag down taxi. “We want a Philly cheese steak from Pat’s”

5:45 Arrive at Pat’s. Wait in line for 15 minutes. Consume the deliciousness quickly. (Miracle #4)

6:05 Deliberate on how to get back to hotel. Walked 5 blocks through little Mexico. Polly and Lynn’s nervousness begins to surface again. Carly remains confident and wants to walk. Without words or hesitation, Lynn flags down taxi

6:15 Arrived at train station (Miracle #5) Encounter a lot of homeless people. Lynn buys one coffee. After her offer, he orders, “Get me cream and suger…lots of sugar.”

6:45 Board train home. Thankfully this was uneventful.

7:30 Mike the shuttle driver is waiting for our arrival at train stop (Miracle #6)

Homeless man #1 still sleeping in station where we left him.

7:45 Arrive at hotel. (Miracle #7) Lynn begins to sing the hymn, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”

Counseling Conference

I'm at a counseling conference in Philadelphia. There are a lot of kind-eyed, smiley, happy, conversational people around me.

I shouldn't make fun of that because I probably fit that description.

When I googled counseling images, this one came up. It gave me a good chuckle.

High of the day: Sitting next to two men who spoke French. It was beautiful.

Low of the day: Not knowing the taxi would cost $70 from the airport to the hotel. See ya petty cash.

Chicago by the Numbers

7 Great girls
14 total hours in the car
10+ times listening to "This Breaks my Heart of Stone"
2 Airbeds+ 3 girls on them
2 Times necessary to wake Emily up from snoring at night
2 bathrooms for 9 people
20+ pancakes consumed
1 Stroll down Michigan Avenue
1 Accidental moment of leaving Jeanna behind in the Hersheys store
7 Purchases at Gap...and maybe Starbucks too
9 Rolls of sushi
6 Gourmet desserts to follow
7 Greats seats to Screwtape Letters
1 More night on the airbeds
Countless: Laughs, Memories, and Fun

I Heart Music

I LOVE "Enter the Worship Circle." I love them.
Discovering that they have come out with a "Fourth Circle" was pretty much the best news I could find out.
Since last night, I have have become somewhat obsessed with a song called, "Too Proud." Here are the lyrics.


I'm too proud to ask
Too broke to eat
Too weak to bow
Too strong to bleed

Can you sing over me words of comfort
Can you satisfy me sweet honey
Can you break through me with your strong hands
Can you undo me enough to heal me

You take the weight from my shoulders
My hands were clenched, Now they're open
I'll take your goodness poured from the sky
Food from the ravens, water from the dry

It's powerful. Beautiful.

Best Man Blues

Note to self:
Don't have wedding around water. There are just too many things that can go wrong.

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=3710199&l=4418225

Fun Fact of the Day

"The youngest parents in the world were aged 8 and 9 in China in the year 1910. "

I just have so many questions about this...

"Father"

"To be a child is not necessarily to be a son or daughter. The childship is the lower condition of the upward process towards the sonship...God can no more than an earthly parent be content to have only children: he must have sons and daughters- children of his soul, of his spirit, of his love- not merely in the sense that he loves them, or even that they love him, but in the sense that they love like him, love as he loves. For this he does not adopt them; he dies to give them to himself and into himself- for he is the one and the all. His children are not his real, true sons and daughters until they think like him, feel with him, judge as he judges, are at home with him, and without fear before him because he and they mean the same thing, love the same things, seek the same ends. For this are we created; it is the one end of our being..." -George MacDonald

Lord, I want this.
To move from being a child to a daughter of yours.
Help me to think like you, feel like you, judge like you, be at home with you, love the same things as you, want the same things you want.
Shape me into a daughter of yours.

There was a time...

...when I liked living alone.

Tonight my roommates are out of town. I came home to a dark, quiet house. I was looking forward to having some quiet time but now that I have gotten it, I am bored. 

It's weird that I went a whole year living alone.  Every night I came home to a dark, quiet house. Now, I'd be sad if this was always the case. 

I like people.

I like hearing the muffled music from their rooms. 

I like the smell of something cooking in the kitchen.

I like when they bring people into our house that I would never meet outside of this setting. 

I like having someone know where I am at during the day. 

I like having people to squeal with when there is a mouse. 

I like watching mindless TV with people.

What was I thinking wanting to live alone? I think it was a ploy to prove my independence to myself. Almost a test. Did I pass? Probably. Would I do it again. Nope. At least I hope not. Who knows though. There is somewhat of a pride issue lingering. Like, I don't want to be the 26 year old lady living with the youngsters. When is the time to move on? Is there a time to move on? How long will I live in this house? Who will be my next roommates?

Cool Pics

For the photography lovers in my life...

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/earth_from_above_comes_to_nyc.html


These are pretty much the coolest pictures I have seen in a long time.

Life Lesson....

When you set a mouse trap, don't forget to periodically check it.

Or else you get an unexplainable fruit fly population as well as a funky smell in your house.

Sick. Nasty. Gross. Gag.

Which do we really need?

I thought this was really cool- I've always battled with this question...

Which do we really need—to give love or to receive it? We resist the question because we want to say both.

Yet Scripture seems to favor the imbalance. Not that we aspire to have our friend or spouse love us less, but that “in humility [we] consider others better than [our]selves” (Phil. 3:4). When the kingdom of God is ruling our hearts, we aspire more to serve than to be served, honor more than to be honored, and love more than be loved. This doesn’t mean that we don’t care about being loved; it simply means that we always want to outdo others in love.

Do we run the risk of a lopsided relationship? Absolutely. That is the relationship we have with God—he always loves first and most. . . . Throughout Scripture God is the one who loves more than he is loved. He always makes the first move. He advertises his extravagant affection for us even when we are indifferent or opposed to him.

When Jesus Christ, God incarnate, walked the earth, the pattern continued. Through his life Jesus was rejected by his people and misunderstood by his disciples. At the most difficult point of his life, he was betrayed, denied, and abandoned. But through it all his love was unwavering. In this, he established the pattern for true humanness. This is the way we were intended to be. This is life in the kingdom. It wants love, but it wants even more to love others deeply. Its treasure is to grow in the fruits of the Spirit, foremost of which is to love others.

Fun Weekend

I went to St. Louis this weekend to hang with some fabulous ladies. So fun! I feel like my perception of St. Louis has been altered after my time there. We kicked off the evening by going to an outdoor art show. We then wrapped up our evening at a dessert/coffee place called Cyranos. At this place I had bread pudding for the first time- and actually liked it!
This is a pic of us there.

The next day we made a visit to Botanical Gardens. It was so neat! I found this sculpture to be quite interesting for some reason.











Anyway- it was a great trip. I like St. Louis a lot. I like free things a lot. And St. Louis seems to have a lot of those.

Umm, seriously?

Who Knew

All my life I have spelled gratefulness wrong.
I just discovered that today.
One would think that since gratefulness is a form of great greatness, that it would keep consistent with g-r-e-a-t.
Nope.
g-r-a-t-e-f-u-l-n-e-s-s.

How strange.


grate·ful (grāt'fəl)
adj.

1. Appreciative of benefits received; thankful.
2. Expressing gratitude.
3. Affording pleasure or comfort; agreeable.

[From obsolete grate, pleasing, from Latin grātus.]

gratefully grate'ful·ly adv.
gratefulness grate'ful·ness n.

A Sign from God (apparently)

So for the past two years, I have led a small group called Thursday Morning Bible Study for high school girls. I am continually amazed that these girls pull themselves out of bed to meet at Panera before school every Thursday morning. Well this coming Thursday will be the first day of school. I had two ladies, Hayley and Karis ask me if we can have bible study that Thursday. I told them we would wait a week so it wouldn't be too much since it is their first day of school and all. Well these girls found a way to protest my decision.

I get home from watching the Olympics. I'm home alone, 11:00pm and get a call leading me to look in my back yard. As I look out, this is what I see...
This sign was a list of ingredients for a good bible study. Some were: Panera, free bagels, coffee spills, 1 spoonful of love, late arrivals, etc. Very Creative!

One last plea...So after considering the fact that high school girls were begging me to have bible study, I caved. Bible study is happening. This Thursday. 7am. You win, high school girls. You always do.

Creatures of Alaska

Creatures of Alaska
So while in Alaska, I have had some first hand encounters with quite few new species. Some more dangerous than others. Here is a brief rundown on some of my new critter friends.

Halibut

These funny looking fish have both eyes on one side of their head. We took an all day fishing trip to catch these little nasties. They taste yummy though.



Moose


Apparently, moose kill more people than bears in Alaska. We have seen these sad looking horses roaming around our house in the morning. From what we have been told, they kill people by stomping them to death. Umm, scary.




Killer Whale

OK- this was really cool. While on an early morning fishing trip, 25+ killer whales started showing up and swimming around us. Some of them even jumped out of the water and did a little show for us. It was incredible.



Sting Ray

Leslie, Will, and my dad managed to catch a sting ray while fishing for halibut. These suckers do not come in easily either. We were happy to throw them back in the water but they were really cool to see up close.





Bear

I think the coolest creatures we have encountered have been the bears. On a fishing trip, one came within 5 feet of our boat! They are so fun to watch but I felt a little more comfortable seeing them from far away rather than swimming up to our boat.




Captain Bob

So captain Bob was one interesting creature. I was a little creeped out by him but I guess he knew what he was doing. Just try not to catch sting ray or else he gets really moody.




There were other critters such as eagles, salmon, trout, and mosquitoes. I didn't want to make this TOO long and lose your interest.

Before your eyes glaze over, take a close look at the picture below

Drovers' Rovers

Yes, everyone in this picture is wearing a matching shirt saying "Drovers' Rovers." Linnea (in the blue shirt) came prepared with a personalized shirt and coolie cup for every person in our group. We went out to dinner wearing our gear. It was quite hilarious.




Well I think that wraps up some of the wildlife we have encountered. Tomorrow is our last full day here and then we are headed home. I'm not really looking forward to the 90 degree weather and humidity waiting but I am ready to re-establish life in Columbia after an extremely busy summer.

Over and Out...

Alaska Update

Vacation has been pretty sweet.
It started off a little spooky when I found out that a trail that I ran on in Anchorage was notorious for bear attacks... No wonder nobody else was on it!

Anyway, we headed to our place in Soldatna, Alaksa. It quite a nice little place!

Today was the best day so far though. After taking a little plane to a remote lake, we fished for Salmon for most of the morning. After that, we went to a part of the lake where bears are commonly seen. And did we see them... 4 of them! One came about 5 feet from our boat! We got to see them fish, play, eat, and stare us down a bit. It was so incredible. Here are a few pics so far. Enjoy!

Airport Ooops

Almost there!

For those who may not know, my entire family is in Alaska right now. Well actually, we’re on a 6 hour plane ride on our way into Anchorage. Despite my father’s meticulous vacation planning, he could not anticipate the first minor crisis in our travels… locking the keys in the car AT the airport.

As we pulled into the KC airport to unload our luggage, no one thought about preventing such a juvenile mistake. We unloaded our suitcases like confident, professional travelers. With a final slam of the trunk, an eerie silence fell as we all tried to open our doors. As we peered through the windows of our locked car, we could see the keys in the ignition- pulled out just enough to where the car would allow itself to lock. (Nice one Will.)


After the realization set in, I immediately called my good friends at AAA and requested some breaking-in assistance. I was a little worried they would remember me from when I called two nights ago for the same reason. They responded quickly with not one truck- but TWO. Apparently the KCI “Car Care” service got called as well so we had two young men as well as a police officer trying to break into Gary’s precious Caddy. After about 30 minutes, The Cadillac released its hold and let us in. My mother responded with cheers and hugs for the new-found heroes of our vacation.

So we’re on our way. I’m pretty excited. More blogs to come!

"Biffing"

I recently returned from a fabulous Colorado backpacking trip. We took 26 people (21 high school students and 5 leaders) into the mountains of this great state. Considering that Colorado is my #1 state and I love the outdoors, I am surprised that I have never taken part of a backpacking trip before. As expected, I loved every minute of it. Well, that's a lie. There were about 2 minutes every day that I did not particularly enjoy.

When were were told that we were not allowed toilet paper on the trip, I saw the eyes of the high school girls widen with fear. To be honest, I was with them. As I considered the alternatives, my mind wondered back to the incident on the MKT trial in which I wiped with poison ivy. Not fun. Seriously. Not fun.

Despite the hesitations, we headed in to the back country, toilet paperless. We learned fast that going #1 was easy. However, our guides complicated the process of going #2- or should we call it "biffing." See, Colorado has a "Leave No Trace" policy. With this in mind, if you had to biff, you had to dig a hole 6-8 inches deep with the "biff shovel" and then do your thing. Biffing became an everyday topic of conversation among our group. It was quite hilarious when someone would grab the biff shovel and head off into the woods. After enduring some awkward laughs and heckling, the person would return and was required to give a biff rating. The biff rating system consisted of a 6 star score. Here is how it broke down.

ONE STAR: if you found a good place to sit/squat. (log, rock, tree to hold on to, etc)
TWO STARS: if you had a good view while biffing
THREE STARS: precision of your aim at the hole you dug for your biff
FOUR STARS: was the biff successful? System cleaned out?
FIVE STARS: if you saw wild life while taking a biff
SIX STARS: if you saw wildlife taking a biff, WHILE you are taking a biff

I won't go as far to say the scores I tallied up, but the rating system did add some humor and enjoyment to the whole process. After returning to civilization, I have never- and I really mean never- been so thankful for those beautiful thin rolled tissues called toilet paper.