My First Blizzard

Growing up one of my favorite treats was to go to the local D.Q. (Dairy Queen) & get a blizzard. Some of my favorites are chocolate chip cookie dough or heath bar. I also really like the pumpkin blizzards when they have them. They're more special though because you can only get them for a few weeks out of the year.

Last weekend I experienced my first snow blizzard. I have lived in different parts of the US's Midwest all of my life and never have I experienced this much snow or such drastic cold temperatures. It start late Friday night and snow clear through Saturday with high winds. I found out Saturday morning when I was walking to work that knee high boots are not just a fashion statement, but a necessity for warmth & dryness. It was very pretty, but after a while you couldn't tell if it was blowing or snowing.

It's always interesting even within the same regional area of the country how different things can be. Never have I stood next to a pile of snow as tall as me or taller other than in a grocery store parking lot where it wasn't near as long or wide. Never have I had to have somebody shovel my roof. Yes, there were men on the roof the other day snow blowing our roof.

The Fall semester is officially over for me, which is great. I'm tired & need time to rest. Saturday Z & I will head to WI to visit a good friend of mine & his family. Then we'll make a pit stop in IL on Sunday so that Z can see a bit of the windy city & meet some more college friends of mine. Then eventually we'll make it back to good ol' IN for an entire week to celebrate Christmas with my family then turn around & head back North to celebrate with his family. It's a year of many firsts for Z & I & our families. It's all very exciting!

If I don't update before 2011 I pray yall have a blessed Christmas & New Years!

Happy Advent

Welcome to the end of the 2010 Fall semester! It's been a long semester with three full courses and two half courses consuming most of my time. The funness of being engaged has been a nice distraction. There's still two weeks left & then finals, but thankfully things are spread out over the next few weeks.

Being in the oh so avid life of constant discernment (one of the many big seminary life words) I find myself wondering what I have gotten from this semester. I have been blown away daily by the love in my life. This love is found in my fiance, the daily support of my family, the silliness of my friends both near & far, the support from the larger church body, and various other places. Listing this off makes me think I need to watch Love Actually again soon (it's one of my favorites). I also have been affirmed in my call as a Diaconal Minister. Some days it seems like it would just be easier to have stayed in the Master of Arts program or to go the traditional Master of Divinity route, but that is not where I am called & I am being enriched daily because of that call. I have been taking a preaching course this semester & have learned to better my skill at preaching, as well as that I am truly not called to preach on a regular basis in a formal way. My courses challenge me to know my call & work with the calls of others; as well as, work with Gospel story and all that surrounds it on a different level than when I first started my rligious education many years ago.

In light of the beginning of the Advent season a friend asked yesterday, "What are you waiting for?" My immediate response was December 17th because that is when the semester is over & break can begin. I am also waiting for July 2 to be here & all the stuff to happen that will & needs to in between now & then. The Save the Dates have been sent with the fun picture at the top printed on them! I am also waiting to know where Z & I will be placed for next year & where we'll live in the summer before we leave for internship. So I leave you today wanting to know, what are you waiting for?

hey world

So the title of this blog is "Globetrotting with God."

God has had me running a marathon lately I think!

Since our engagement the list of things on my "to do" list has definitely lengthened. Thankfully I have a wonderful fiance who is part of the planning process. We have accomplished quite a bit & as far as I know stayed on top of our scholastic requirements here at the seminary too. I will say thought that I'm very much so looking forward to Christmas break and being done with studying another langauge.

Some of the things that have happened in the last month:

*Friends threw us an engagement party

*We picked a date, location, reception site, dj, photographers, & IN reception site

*We put our wedding party together

*Lots of school work. You know, a little bit of Greek, a little bit of Hebrew & talking about where the Trinity is within all of that.

*Momma Perkins flew in to go dress shopping. Momma Nelson has agreed to make my dress!!!

I'm sure there's lots I'm leaving out. Next week we have reading days!!! Of course we all have plenty of studying & paper writing to do. Plus, if you are at all familiar with the ELCA's candidacy process, many of us will be having our Endorsement interviews. I should include links for some of these things, but of course I'm on the fly!

Happy Thursday!

Proposal

We started dating January 24th and by Easter we had started talking about our future together. Yes, life had hit the fast-forward button and it has been wonderful. So yes, I knew a proposal was coming, but I didn't know when or how. We had shopped for rings a little bit so he had at least the knowledge of the size of diamond & ring that I was interested in. I really wanted it to be something he would buy me & not something that I had picked without his say. Many of you guessed we would get engaged on our six months and little did I know that he actually had the ring at that point. Then many of you guessed we would get engaged when we went camping on the North Shore. Knowing Zack though, I knew he would never do it when anybody expected and nobody would know except for him when or how it was going to happen.

The week leading up to the engagement I had received an e-mail coupon for a nice sushi restaurant. Being that I really enjoy sushi and we had not been on a date night recently I suggested buying the coupon & dressing up to go on a date night. Knowing that he wanted to propose that weekend he agreed. So we bought the coupon, got dressed up, me wearing my nice purple dress and he wearing his nice purple shirt (the boy knows I love the color purple) and off we went to dinner. It was not that cold out so I didn't take a coat, but he did & of course I had to give him a hard time about it. He's response was, "Well, you never know!" We enjoyed a nice meal of sushi & other Asian cuisine with the nice Asian techno background music. As we were walking back to the car it was a little bit chilly out, but Zack quickly put on his coat & didn't offer it to me. As we were driving home Zack asked if I would like to get a bottle of wine to cap off the night. This is a typical date night for us, dress up, have a nice dinner, & enjoy the time together with some wine. So we stopped at Trader Joe's and bought some wine & continued on our way home.

We had just pulled into the parking lot of the seminary apartments and parked the car & naturally I started to gather my things to get out, but he says, "I have a confession." I'm thinking, "ummm...ok?" and he confesses that he wanted to buy wine so that we could celebrate & that he brought his coat with him because he was hiding something from me. This is when I realized what was happening & was internally freaking out just a little bit. As he pulled out the ring he told me that I'm his best friend and that he loves me and then he asked me to be his wife. Believe it or not I was speechless so I kissed him before saying, "yes, of course I'll be your wife."

So yeah, we were in his car in the parking lot and it was perfectly sweet and simple.

I learned that he had thought about asking at the restaurant, but the music threw off the mood. Plus it was pretty crowded. I teased him that we can't ever get rid of his car & his response was "that's sad." It has already been a crazy week & a half of trying to tie down dates & locations. This is what we know: July 2nd, 2011 Luther Seminary. More details will come for sure. In the meantime here are some photos we took right after we got engaged.

ENGAGEMENT!

Yes it is true. Little did I know 8 months ago that I would fall totally in love with this man, but here I am now with a little bling bling on my left hand. I remember the night he first asked if he could kiss me & I knew I had to say yes or I'd regret it and I also remember thinking that was my last first kiss. Somehow I knew that he was who I was meant to spend my life with and it was terrifyingly fantastic.

We had spent the Fall semester getting to know one another and don't really remember any particular introduction, but many short memories of bumping into each other within the first month of school and occasionally being in the same group of friends hanging out. My first memory of him is probably as the cute guy that held the door for me and let me into the dormitory as he was leaving the building. He remembers me as the cute girl who always had a smile on her face. Then one evening our friend who was working security with him introduced us formally I believe. As I write this little memories come back to me.

It quickly became routine for us to visit either in the mornings when I was on campus early and he was done studying in the cafeteria or when I was working the info desk & he was on security duty. One time our friend that had formally introduced us gave us a hard time for talking and I played along with it saying that we were planning our future together and told him to but out. Our friendship escalated from there and by the end of the semester we had become good friends. We even had what we like to call our proto-date before Christmas break. We kept in touch over the holiday break and me being gone with J-term requirements and I wasn't back more than a day and he we were hanging out. I thought we were going to just go out with some friends, but he came in to watch a movie, a long movie, and then he stayed after that even. The sweetest part of that night is it took him probably a good 3 or more hours to hold my hand.

The next day we saw each other on campus for a community breakfast with some friends. I had no groceries yet and knew it was the only way I was getting breakfast that morning. As I was going to leave he asked me if I wanted to hang out and I told him to just give me a call in a little while not remembering that I had to pick up a friend from the airport. I wasn't gone for 15 minutes and he called telling me to call him when I was done grocery shopping. Well thankfully I had remembered that I had to pick up our friend so I told him I would just stop by after I was done helping her move back in & that we were all hanging out on campus that night. It was a fun night with cheap pizza, friends, and a movie started at 11:45pm. It was around 1am when I got a phone call from him. The ring of my phone woke me up (I fell asleep within the first 20min of the movie & he had been there when I fell asleep so I was very confused). He told me he had a question for me & so I went to his room half asleep where he asked me if he could kiss me. I remember walking back downstairs with my girlfriends that night & when I knew we were out of earshot of the guys floor I said, "Uh, I think I'm dating Zack."

Our first official date was the very next day to Old Chicago where I had some guy get excited about my Harry's Chocolate Shop hoodie. Classy, I know! We've spent nearly every day together since, well minus the summer since he lived 5 hours away. God has truly blessed us with one another and I can't wait to put all the fun details of a wedding together and start my life as his wife.


Next blog will be the story of the engagement & hopefully some photos if my computer behaves. For now I must go sleep!

Year 18

So the first week of the start of my 18th year of school is well underway. It's prolly more like the 21st or something if you count pre-school too. Actually the week is technically over. The reading lists are well over 1,000 pages between all of my classes, for the semester. It's an interesting place to be. I'm not totally new, yet I've still got a few years ahead of me with plenty of transitions to come. The semester is going to be plenty busy, but thankfully it looks like it should end on a smooth note. That is as long as I stay on top of everything throughout the semester. I'm taking fun classes like Hebrew, Preaching, the Gospel of Mark, Mission 1, & Church Music. Not only is that all fun, but I get to use the awesome skills that summer Greek taught me in my Mark class. It'll be interesting using Greek while learning Hebrew. One thing that I continue to learn in seminary is how to put my thoughts about the church & mission & my life into words for people to understand. I know this might seem like a "duh" thing, but you don't always realize how much we can't explain why we believe certain things or act a certain way until we're made to. It's been a productive evening of laundry, cleaning the house, updating my calendar & getting a feel for the semester load. Now time for bed :-)

Grad School Ladies

Summer Photo Favorites

New Dawn 08-09 reunited at the Wait wedding



Grand Forks dates



4th of July!



sillyness



Cap reunion at a CAP/YE wedding



camping on the North Shore

and thus summer comes to an end with the funness of endorsement essays, CPE interviews (for next Spring), the knowledge of passing summer Greek, and a pretty long "to do" list that needs completed before classes start in a little over a week.

summa summa summa time

So as you can see my blog has been changed yet again. I'm not really sure what happened to my old background that took me quite a bit of time to do, but it wasn't there anymore & blogger/google reformatted a lot of their things so I just chose one of their new designs.

Some highlights from Summer:
*Finishing the semester 2 days earlier than expected
*Celebrating summer birthdays
*My first trip to Alabama (visiting Zack's brother & sister-in-law)
*Learning how to make sushi
*living right next to campus
*4th of July weekend
*6 great months celebrated
*Greek
*August

yep, life is crazy & great as usual so there's my high lights. Stay classy till next time!

rice

Right now I'm making a fresh batch of rice in my cooker. I've always liked rice. I always wanted rice as a side option when I was growing up and my brother never wanted rice as an option. The steamed smell reminds me of my time over seas last year (in SE Asia). It's hard to believe that I returned a year ago this coming week. I was ready to be home and see friends & family. Now I live 10 hours by car from my family & am lucky to see them more than just the major holidays. I'm lucky if I even am able to make it home for the major holidays actually. It's funny to think how such a simple thing like cooking rice can bring so many memories.

As a kid I was incredibly picky & also on chemo so I had cravings for a lot of mashed potatoes and plain cheese nachos or cheesy broccoli rice. I still really enjoy good mashed potatoes (really what makes them bad?) and plain cheese nachos are a guilty snack on a rare occasion. However, I'm not sure the last time I had cheesy broccoli rice. I have grown to really enjoy plain steamed rice. I don't think this says anything about my personality since I've recently learned that one's personality doesn't change as we grow, but our character can. I think this is an example of my ever changing pallet.

There are 3 weeks left in the semester and I should be reading till my eyes bleed right now, but here I am talking to you about my love for rice. Recently I took part in the Strength Finders 2.0 workshop for one of my classes. I learned that my top 5 strengths are woo, communication, positivity, arranger, and developer. I like to win people over & make connections every where I go. I like to tell stories to relate to people. I tend to always see the glass half full, am organized & flexible, and do what I can to lift others up. It is interesting working with these & the truth that they hold. Just because I know & was not super surprised with the answers (many people aren't) doesn't mean there isn't room to work on my strengths. This study was started because so often in our world we make each other work on the things we aren't good at. Not that it's bad to improve on things, but we'd all be a bit happier if we helped each other work on what we're good at, what makes us thrive inside.

What is it that makes you thrive? What is it that makes you so happy that you know the presence of the Holy Spirit is with you? Rice makes me happy, amidst many other things. Today I was overwhelmed in worship by the presence of the love from the community in that church body as well as where they're taking it. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that my boyfriend constantly gives me; the outpouring of love that I've always received from my family & friends. Like I said, it's the end of the semester & I'm stressed. I should be a lot more stressed. However, when I focus on knowing that I've gotten to where I am I know that I will continue to go further. The biggest catch is letting God lead the way ALL the time. As I learn how to better do this I'll keep making my rice & working on the things that make me thrive (relationships, travel, international ministry, health). Despite if we are feeling our strengths or not we will never be given anything that we cannot figure out because "[We] can do anything through Christ who strengthens us." (Phil 4:13) Yes, we need Christ, the risen Lord, we need to acknowledge the Spirit who is with us daily leading & surrounding us & the God who created us & continues to love us despite our short comings. We cannot find the joy in things like fixing rice on our own. This may seem silly, but the rice came from farmers (fellow brothers & sisters) who Jesus loves, who God loves, just as much as anyone else, We are called to do as Jesus has done & love all things because they have been given to us by God the Father.

food for thought.

Fuzz

I'm not talking about the police or a bear, but the continuing season of Lent. Clever, I know!

It's late, but I haven't blogged in a long while and it seems time. I have come to write something a few times since the last post, but really wasn't sure what to write since it didn't seem much had changed. Life is still pretty much a tornado with constant goings on. My Greatest Great Uncle D would've loved to hear all the silly crazy fast paced things I've been reading and writing about these days. He and I used to always write to each other, me about my crazy fast paced adventures and him about the times he'd been to where I was or jokes he heard about the places. I digress.

This Lent I challenged Zack to give up sweets with me. Now sweets ended up being more defined by desserts. With him having a meal plan though and constant desserts being served in the cafeteria, plus he's got a giant cavern of a sweet tooth or three, this was a big challenge. I personally don't like chocolate all that much and am more of a fruit person so I didn't think it would be too hard. However, as the weeks have passed on and Girl Scout cookies have been bought, chocolate easter eggs have been gifted, I feel as if I have a heaping pile of goodies waiting for us on Sunday. This is exciting, but at the same time it's been a really good challenge. Being Lutherans we don't always give something up for Lent and in recent years it has been a trend within many of my circles of friends to take something on. I've been thinking more lately about where God wants me to be used and where I'd be happy as far as careers go. I have had several interviews and nothing has come of them. However, for the most part, I know that it's been right for nothing to come of them. The challenge I've focused on during Lent has been more on how to slow down a bit and focus on the face of Jesus in my everyday life so that I can learn to be more like Jesus in my everyday walk. Don't get me wrong, I'm really lookin' forward to the Somoa cookies and the freedom of eating whatever I want (within reason of course), but I hope to continue reflecting on the face of Jesus and his ways of teaching me to be in the moment.

The Holy Spirit is here, there, and everywhere with us, but Jesus meets us in the moment.

You got some lent on you there

Joy sun! Good morning! Boker Tov!

I cannot tell you the last time I was up this early on a Saturday morning. I know you're thinking "poor you." As much as I'm not always a morning person I really enjoy mornings. I enjoy the freshness of the day with the sun rising & slowly heating up the air. Each day I try & start my day, usually before I even get out of bed with telling God g'morning. This may seem silly to some, but even though I like things about the morning I usually am a little grumpy when I first wake up. My family would say I'm a lot grumpy when I first wake up. By greeting & acknowledging God it helps me to attempt to start focusing my day around the works of the Trinity in my life.

Recently life has just been a whirlwind of fun school projects, meeting up with friends from outside of seminary, & making time to hang out with friends from seminary. I've been getting involved with an emergent church called Jacob's Well and feel called & pushed by the Spirit to be involved there. Most of my time is spent with seminary somethings as there is always pages of reading to be done so that words can be written & papers turned in. Most days I feel like I am not taking enough time to focus on the Trinity even though I start my days with an attempt to center around the Trinity. However, the Spirit, specifically this past week has been so present that it gave me the jitters. I told one friend, when relaying a story about Zack & I, that this year the Spirit has completely knocked me off my feet while Zack swept me off my feet.

Since the beginning of 2010 I have known of 5 deaths, 6 births, and this next Saturday will be attending my first of nearly 12 weddings for the year. I don't even know how to move past that reality of the sadness & rejoicing & all the other mixed emotions that come with these life happenings. Maybe that's the Spirit's point, maybe that's Jesus' point, to keep focusing on the incredible fact of the empty cross. Thus be my Lenten journey, it just started a little earlier than Ash Wednesday.

lovers weekend

Happy Valentine's Day, Singles Awareness Day, Lovers Day (that's what I like to call it), or whatever else you call it.

Classes started back up last week & as I had predicted I would be in way over my head before it even began. I really shouldn't be blogging right now, I should be reading, but writing/typing things down is good for the soul. I started journaling when I was in elementary school, but didn't really become a regular journal writer of any sort till middle school. It's fun to be able to share my life with all yall, as well as have it on record for me to look back at.

This past weekend was wonderfully fun. God continues to amaze me with all the blessings that have been part of my life, people and experiences. A year ago my New Dawn team was at the Bethany Home in the Northwest part of Malaysia. We were filled with the joy of our friends there, especially the faith of Jayasingh. I learned from him to not let my worries get the best of me because Jesus has already taken care of it. "Don't worry, it's already done!" he would say to my team. Yet of course I still worry about life and friends & future endeavors, things I don't always have control over. I am reassured through the many blessings & ways I see the Holy Spirit working day & night that my life is in God's hands.

This past weekend I watched the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics with some friends on Friday and Saturday had a lazy day till the evening. Saturday evening was the Love Me Tender Valentine's dinner & dance. So my friends & I got all gussied up & enjoyed food & fellowship & some AWESOME dance moves. I got to wear a dress I bought for senior year homecoming at Capital. This was nice because I think I had only worn it one other time & because people thought it had maybe been a bridesmaid dress. It's always nice to be complimented & everybody looked great. After the fun there a bunch of us went to celebrate a friend's birthday. Sunday morning was church at Jacob's Well. I've started attending there & really enjoy the worship & community. Then Zack and & I went to a very nice dinner to finish out the weekend. Now it's back to the grind. Enough blogging for now. Happy Day!

photos of the boy & I

it's not the best quality, but here we are, sir Zachary & I. We had a little fun on photobooth :-)

make over

I thought I'd give this loverly blog a make over today while I was at work. It took forever which has convinced me to not change it again for a very long time, if ever. I'm back in MN now & yes it's uber cold. When questioning why I moved to such a cold state a friend said that the cold will only make me stronger, which then I asked if that means that I'll have huge muscles by the end of my seminary career :-)

Trying to get back in the flow of being here again. It's good to be back, but I am not motivated to get much done. I also don't have a ton to get done right now so the things that I need to be working on are getting pushed to the back burner. I have been able to be reacquainted with seminary friends and see a few others. I got to have lunch with my friend Emily who works for YE, so I also got to see other office folk that are great. Then I got to have Caribou with my former teammate from New Dawn, Kristine. We hadn't seen each other in several months so that was really nice.

One big recent change is I'm in the dating scene again. I wouldn't advertise it except for the fact that we put it on facebook and people have questioned if it's real or not. I just learned this evening that my own family was calling each other to tell one another to look at my facebook page. I'm glad all yall are excited, but it kinda seems as if yall never thought I'd date anybody again. Other people's reactions are just funny, which is good. We're happy to be together & it's a boost that others are happy for us.

I will have a picture or two soon, promise!

sunny filo!

One of the few terms I learned last year while overseas is "sunny filo," which means "happy new year."

It's already toward the end of the first month and I'm at the end of my travels. So far 2010 has proved to be a doozie. The past few Januarys have been rough for one reason or another, but this has proved to be the hardest. The affects of the earthquake in Haiti have hung heavy on my heart for various reasons. Before I go into that I will mention that my first J-term (January term) was a success. It wasn't the most formational part of my call in Diaconal Ministry, but it was reassuring that I am where I need to be and the bonus is I made several new friends. Plus I got to see some of the historical sites of Gettysburg, D.C., AND stay in a former Civil War Orphanage for two weeks.

The news of Haiti first came to me via a facebook status which lead me to know that there had been some sort of natural disaster. One thing led to another and the continuation of devastating news came in. I was blessed to meet the Wartburg seminary student, Ben Larson, that died in Haiti nearly 2 years ago when I was visiting the seminary. His wife and I have the great connection of being best friends with the Oleson sisters. The news was saddening in general and moreso to be with close friends and fellow Wartburg students, to the Larson family and experience their grief made it real. I knew a handful of other people in Haiti, or near, at the time and thankfully they are all safe. Another fact that makes this hard to accept is knowing how called myself, and many I am friends with, are to do missions work around the world. No matter where we are, we often just pick up our stuff and go as we feel God is calling us, and we never know exactly what we're getting ourselves into.

After the Diaconal event in Gettysburg I was blessed to be able to visit some Spoke Folk friends in Baltimore for the weekend. While there I learned that a friend of mine who is a former Youth Encounter teamer, Mikey, has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He has chosen to receive treatment and fight the disease as it is not like him to just sit back and let it consume him. Mikey is a great guy with a beautiful family, wife & little boy as well as sister & mother. I pray for comfort & the continuation of hope & strength to always have a smile and a good laugh about the little things.

The strength I find in all of this is through Jesus. Not just that Jesus is great and all, but the actions that are so elementary in many of our faiths. It is not just the cross that gives us hope for a better future, but the reality of Jesus' resurrection and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit that we can see or feel every day.

2010 hasn't had the best take off. I'm in good ol' N. Manchester today & headin' back on the road tomorrow. I look forward to being back in MN even though it's at least 10 degrees colder than here and more like 15 or more degrees colder than the weather I left in MD. It's crazy to think a year ago I was in China. As my "husband" would say, "life is weird!"