sounds of silence

Woooo! 2 posts in one week. Maybe I'm getting back into this blogging business.

Here are some random thoughts that are tumbling around in my brain lately...

I am reading this awesome book called Crazylove, that was recommended to me by my Dad and my sister, Bethany. Simply put: it is awesome. I am only about 4 chapters in and I have already been shaken by a lot of what the author, Francis Chan, has to say. What I have read so far is about the lukewarm American churchgoer that fits God into their life as it is convenient for them. An minute here, a prayer there, continuing on with our much-more-important lives in disregard for the Creator who gave us everything. Chan makes a great point when he says that God is not humble. He KNOWS he deserves our attention and that he should be the center of our lives.

I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like I fit that description to a T. I have my routine:

get up, rush to work, work all day, rush to Girl Scouts/church/dinner with friends/home to watch shows and hang out with my dog and roommate, look at piles of laundry to put away/books to read/crafts to make in my room, realize I have stayed up too late, crash into my bed, defeated...and repeat.

My quiet time and reading time are squished in between all of the above, as time permits. During the day, I have very little time where I am quiet and even less when I am still. I fill my driving time to and from work with podcasts and music. I can't even sleep in the quiet, I have to run a fan or some other form of white noise.

As a people, we fill silence with talking on cell phones, listening to Ipods, watching TV and the like and we fill our stillness with the need to text and email and be available to talk to ANYONE at ANYTIME. Our attention cannot be kept, we have to be constantly entertained and we generally "don't have the time" for anything. I am GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY of this.

I want to feel like I have made time for something worthwhile during the day and I'm not just "getting through." My worrying and need to plan have both led me to doubt God's plan for my life. Why is it so hard for me to give up control even in these times when I need answers so badly.

This is an old hymn that I'm sure everyone has heard, or heard of. Listen again, and let yourself feel small.

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.

hello october

Well to state the obvious, it's already October! I love the fall! I especially am enjoying this one because last year I didn't get a fall, but 2 winters instead. I have been parking further away from work and getting a nice little walk in while it's still chilly outside.

It's so trite so say, but I feel like this year has positively zipped by. Before I know it October 30th will be here and and won't have done any of the fun fall crafts I want to complete, or gone to a corn maze or carved a pumpkin. Not sure where my time seems to be going lately.

I'm very pleased with how Girl Scouts is going so far! I have 4 little Brownies who are so much fun. We have already completed one Try-It and have 3 more in progress! I love that I have something I can pour into and plan for and see results from.

I have been feeling pretty antsy about a lot of things lately, the main one being the constant wonder of what I am supposed to be doing with my life. It's hard not to feel like I'm wasting my time when I have a proverbial list of things I WANT to be doing, but am in a completely different situation instead. Sometimes I feel like I just missed my calling and that's why I'm stuck in this place of  indecision, uncertainty and unrest.

Big questions with no answers. That's been the summary of these past couple months.

trip to the great white north!

If you read my blog at all while I was in Australia, you will remember the names Emma and Ayla. If not, here is an abbreviated version of who these lovely ladies are:

AYLA is from Toronto and we met my very first night in Canberra! We spent many nights watching Weeds and Entourage, many trips to Lighty and Belco mall AND got to take an incredible 3-week backpacking trip up the East Coast.

One of our trips to Sydney! What a beautiful city.

Learning how to surf at Seven Mile Beach! Hang ten!

Ayla and I going to Res Ball at our Uni in Canberra!

EMMA is from Niagara Falls on the Canadian side! We met at the exchange student orientation and over the course of 4 months, discovered that we are the exact same person. Except she is blond and I am not:) We had so many pancake-for-dinner nights, Office and AD quote wars and not to mention our awesome Halloween party!

One of our many eventful trips to Civic!

 

 

 

 

our pumpkins on Halloween! We were dressed as Bogans. Definition here.

At the French school's fete!

Why the reminiscing? Because I am GOING TO CANADA to see these 2 awesome girls on SUNDAY! I am spending 3 days in Niagara with Emma and her family, and then she and I are driving to Toronto to visit with Ayla and her friends and family! 

Also in the works is a reunion with 2 other UC alumnae, Bridget and Amanda from New York! We are hoping to meet up with them at the end of the week around the Falls!

Bridget, Amanda, me and Ayla on the gondola ride into Taronga Zoo in Sydney!

Even though we have emailed, Facebook chatted, text messaged, called and Skyped...it seems like it has been way longer than 9 months that I have been away from these girls! I am so beyond excited to see them!

Gimli! My new dog!

As of yesterday…I have a dog!

How it happened…

There is a wonderful couple who go to church with me that started house/dog sitting for this year. They have an adorable little girl who will be 1 soon and 2 little dogs; a Yorkie named Lucy and a Maltese named Gimli.

Amy called me on Wednesday to tell me that Gimli does not seem happy around their little girl. He has been hiding a lot and acting like he is sad because he does not get all the attention! She asked if I knew anyone who would give him a happy and loving home and I said YES! Of course I knew someone because I wanted to take him!

After staying at their house almost the entire month of June, I absolutely fell in love with this precious little doggie! He is 4 years old and is a tiny ball of white fur! He is soooo well behaved and is the best of both worlds: he will sit in your lap and cuddle but he also likes to sleep in his own bed and do his own thing.

I picked him up last night and Mollie and had so much fun with him letting him get used to his new home! I am so excited to take care of him and love him!

Gimli!

 

frequent mover miles?

1.       August 2005. Move from Mom and Dad’s to floor k6 of Hess Hall. Have awful first roommate but in November, move down the hall and have awesome roommate! Stay until May 2006.

2.       August 2006. Move to Crossing Place apartments with Stephanie, Emily and Jessie.

3.       August 2007. Move from Crossing Place back to Mom and Dad’s.

4.       August 2008. Move from Mom and Dad’s to Quarry Trail apartments with Stephanie, Mollie and Kathryn.

5.       July 2009. Pack my stuff up at Quarry Trail apartments and go back (again) to Mom and Dad’s while I am in Australia.

6.       August 2010. Move from Mom and Dad’s (last time?) to North Knoxville condo with Mollie.

Yikessss. Lots of packing tape, newspaper, trips up stairs and trips to Goodwill. For someone whose parents have lived in the same house my entire existence, I am definitely making up for the lack of moving now.

This current move (as in last week and yesterday, today, and probably next week, too) has been quite an…experience.

My dad’s sister and my awesome aunt Celeste, has owned a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo right off of Emory Road for 10ish years. For the past 2 , no one has lived there so it needed a fair amount of work to get it ready for my friend Mollie and I. My crafty and talented Grandma has repainted, refinished, scrubbed and cleaned that place top to bottom for us to live in! Last Sunday, our brand new downstairs floors were finally finished! Last Monday, I took a Craigslist-purchased desk over to the new place to check out the floors and unload some stuff. The very next day, our neighbor’s water heater burst…and ruined our brand-new, 2 days old floors. Oh dear.

We have been dealing with insurance and such the past few days and hopefully by the beginning of next week, there will be a check in hand to order new wood and re-do our floors in the living room and Mollie’s room.  Miraculously nothing was ruined, only dampened a little bit, but all of our furniture AND all of Mollie’s stuff that was on the floors is ok. Whew!

It has been so exciting to see this place come together and I know that when it’s all finished  it is going to look so pretty! I am excited to hang stuff up and do craft projects with Mollie to decorate our new home!

More on the ongoing saga soon…

my sweet teeth

If you know me, and you know me well, you know that I have a mouthful of sweet tooth-s. Cake, pie, cookies, brownies, ice cream, pudding, tart, cobbler, breads, bars...you name it, and I probably love it. Know those people who have aversions to coconut, nuts or certain types of fruit or chocolate? Not me. I love them all.

I recently bought a cookbook that we carry at work called The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. When I first opened it, I turned to a recipe for Peaches n Cream cupcakes and decided that would be the first one I would make. Now that I have gotten started, the goal is to make ALL the desserts in the cookbook, Julie and Julia style, before the end of the year!

On Friday night I made a batch of Peaches n Cream cupcakes that turned out splendidly! They had slices of peach in the bottom and a bread-like cake over top of them. I made a yummy vanilla frosting for them, which gave me a little trouble because apparently I need a "paddle attachment" on my mixer?

I also made Banana Chocolate cupcakes, because I had a banana that was about to go off and was pretty much already mashed. They were also oh so yummy and had lots of cinnamon and ginger in them. I ran out of confectioner's sugar while making the chocolate frosting BUT I improvised by using more chocolate baking powder:)

My testers included Mom, Dad, Bethany, Granny and  Pop Pop, and various people at church who ate them at lunch today.

I am a HUGE fan of Key Lime Pie, but had always made it with using a pre-bottled lime juice. Today, I zested and juiced the guts out of 5 limes for my 3rd recipe! The only setback I experienced was that the pie is a little more on the yellow side instead of the lime green side. Oh well, I know for next time!

Coming up this week...Chocolate cheesecake! And coming soon at the request of Bethany...Chocolate Raspberry bars!

                                                 the frosted Peach and Banana cupcakes!

                                                                 my gutted limes! Haha

Oh. Hello. Didn't see you there.

Well Internets, I have done a pretty awesome job at updating here. I'm sure my 5 readers are all disappointed...

My life since Australia is sadly not as exciting, which was to be expected I suppose. So in order to aptly cover the past 5 months of my life, here is a chronological list of events from November to the present:

1. Came home from Australia.
2. Graduated. Christmas. Now it's 2010.
3. Thought about grad school.
4. Bought a GRE practice book.
5. Waffled on grad school.
6. Did not take the GRE. Still have the book, though.
7. Thought about the Coast Guard.
8. Changed my mind about the Coast Guard.
9. Doubted my reasons for getting a college degree.
10. Interviewed for HR job.
11. Did not get HR job.
12. Interviewed for administrative job.
13. Did not get administrative job.
14. Sustained major blow to self esteem, confidence, motivation and overall morale.
15. Watched 5 seasons of LOST in 2 months. (low point)
16. Finally unpacked everything from Australia. Rats.
17. Started planning my cat lady career path.
18. Interviewed for job at Bliss in Market Square (we are now in February, kids)
19. GOT part time job at Bliss in Market Square as sales associate
20. Part time job at Bliss turns into full time job at Bliss.
21. Started utilizing my degree by getting put to work on the Bliss website
22. Apply and get approved to be a Girl Scout leader in the fall for 3rd grade Brownies at Chilhowee Intermediate! Can't wait!
23. I turn 23.
23. I start the Instant Bliss blog.
24. Here we are!

I think that about covers it! Not much else happening in my world except trying to decide if I am going to cut my hair and getting pumped for family vacation in June, groundbreaking eh?

THE most exciting thing that is happening soon-ish is that I am going to CANADA to visit exchange girls! I miss EMMA JEAN so much! She and I basically became the same person and I have had an Emma void since November of 2009. I cannot WAIT to go see her and her hometown of Niagara in August!

Woo! That's all for now!