Friday Favorites!

I love celebrations! Life has been a glorious 30 years so far & I hope for another glorious 60+ years. 

The past month has been greatly over stimulating for this extrovert. It has been nicely balanced with pieces of quiet & reflection though too.

Here's to the winner of SO many photos from this week! I couldn't figure out how to attach a video of birthday wishes from my phone so a random picture it is. 

Love & thanks to all of my friends & family that helped celebrate all week long from around the world. And to my friends in the photo, God knows what we need to keep being who we were made to be & a large piece of that is each other.

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: This last week was FULL with good! It started out with a lovely mother's day & getting to chat with both Ma P & Ma N. A few days of work at home & catch up with a good seminary friend. Plus a brief & surprising quick video chat with Z's & my friend (yes, I'm learning to share) AJO & a phone convo with my "soul mate" JMDT. We finished our week by sending our furbaby to "camp" for a few days while we took another trip, this time work related. At the assembly we got to catch up with many colleagues & friends & meet many more. It was a busy & full few days that still has my my mind moving rather quickly. We completed our trip to the Detroit area with a quick trip to Ikea for a few small things & of course came away with more than what was on our list. And of course came away with picture frames that are too small for what we wanted to use them for. I fully accept the challenge to be creative with these frames!

BAD: Living too far away to make it to everything celebratory for those you love. In the midst of many long time planned travels it's next to impossible to make to all the other things that pop up.

AWESOME: Knowing & acknowledging the wonderful people in life that are doing really great things in the world. Just yesterday Patricia Lull was elected the new ELCA St. Paul Area Synod bishop. You can read more about it here. Patricia was the Dean of Students when I started my seminary career & while our time at Luther Seminary only overlapped by a few months, she has continued to be a role model of a woman in ministry for my life in ministry leadership. I wish her all the best in this new call & may God grant her many blessings & grace as she learns her way as a bishop.

WORD: SO much scripture & I'm working on a Bible study. One of these days I will finish the two fun books I'm reading. I've got a few news people I want to look into too. Oh the options!

coming up: Another trip! Yep, that's right, we're on the go. This coming week we will celebrate with both of our families for two great occassions & then we will celebrate my birthday with some of my closest friends from Capital University!

Friday Favorites!

Meet TE, my new friend, fellow cancer warrior, & tea lover!

If you're the praying type, TE is having surgery this coming week & could use prayers for the days of preparation left, the actual day of the surgery, & the days of recover to come. All before starting radiation in February.

TE & I were able to celebrate my cancer-versary together the other day with 100 calorie klondike ice cream bars - 100 calories to make up for the candy we ate later that night at a church event. She hugged me & said I was her inspiration, but she's my inspiration of juggling cancer & being a mom of 4, a wife, a grandmother, an active community & church member, a daughter, & sister, & friend to many.

We knew we were kindred spirits before we even met face-to-face.

Here's to kindred-spirits!

Tuesday Tea Time! It's a Midnight Tea Party!

It's Tuesday Tea Time! Sorta...it's after midnight, which means it's Wednesday.

Z & I were out celebrating our 2 year anniversary today & I didn't sit at my computer long enough this morning to share tea with yall. My Tuesday Tea was on the go & then enjoyed on the way to our adventuresome full day date.

We ventured across the river to explore the history of Mill City at the Mill City Museum. This was a great museum with experiential learning opportunities for all ages. Something that Z & I didn't realize before today is the large fire that burnt down a significant portion of the mill, just burnt down in 1991. The mill had been closed since the 1960's, but it had been left vacant & when a person escaped into the mill to get out of the cold (the frozen tundra) they lit up their cigarette & boom! Flour is highly flammable!

We spent our evening at the theater enjoying the action, thrill, & comedy of The Lone Ranger & then happy hour at Granite City Brewery.

It was a joyous day filled with fun memories of our wedding & dreams of our future.

May you look into your day (or night) & find the same joy in memories past & dreams yet to be revealed.

& check out the website for the Midnight Tea Party!

Sunday Snippits: the good, bad, & ugly!

Happy Sunday! 

WORDs to chew on: Jesus says, Follow me. Luke 9:51-62 The Message or Luke 9:51-62 NRSV

Recapping the week & jumping into this week with...

GOOD: Life has been restful & celebratory in the month of June. Monday night we enjoyed a night out at the Saint Paul Saints Baseball with a group of good friends. AND in the last minutes of the game the Saints got a homerun & WON! On Tuesday (T) I woke up to a voicemail announcing the birth of my childhood best friends' 2nd baby. Just one day before his mom's b-day & all are happy & healthy! Wednesday was then Tray's b-day & our niece's EJ's 1st b-day! Aunt Juls (& Uncle Z) had a LOT of fun gifting her a tutu! Z & I had a few days off so we cleaned the apartment & took a trip to visit Ma & Pa N. We also got to do several loads of laundry, watch the first 4 or 5 episodes of Downton Abbey season 3, & get new rear struts on Mandela (our car). Oh, AND we brought back our air con unit. Back to work on R & F with some fun outtings to say g'bye to friends moving this weekend. 

The Holy Spirit is moving in new & unknown ways, while scary, nonetheless it is exciting! 

BAD: Our friends are moving! This wave of sadness hovers in the air & enters our souls periodically. We're very excited for everybody's new adventures. We also are blessed with a great community here of people not moving yet because they've just finished their first year of seminary.

UGLY: Over 45,000 people were without power much of last week. I don't believe they fixed all the power outages till last Wednesday. It was a mess to say the least. In our life, the ugly is being restless. We're trying to embrace old hobbies that we had gotten away from doing, so yesterday we went & bought a basketball (this is a hobbies of Z's, not mine). 

THIS WEEK: Today is my cousin Lolo's birthday & my friend RW's ordination day! Our "golden" anniversary is Tuesday! AND the rest of the week is filled with fun wedding festivities for RM & CG.!

SOMETHING TO TRY: And because I think others should try this, we also made some yummy treats like Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding to fill our time.

Friday Foto Fun!

T-4 days I'll be enjoying the Southwest FL heat with my best friend/husband & maybe something fun like these drinks on the beach. Even if Tropical Storm Andrea is still raging (which I really hope she's done), there will be warmer weather & fun drinks.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, & enjoy a summer drink!

Tips about vacationing in Ft. Myers Beach, FL welcomed!

oh, & HAPPY NATIONAL DONUT DAY!

maple almond cake & cake with chocolate ganache & sprinkles from

Mojo Monkey Donuts in St. Paul

Friday Foto Fun!

Congratulations to the Luther Seminary class of 2013 & their friends & families!

Believe it or not, I don't know every person in this photo, but I know at least most of their names. The two young men in the front are our friend's & classmate's boys who were present to receive an honorary diploma for their dad (see Dec. 2012 posts). You can barely see me standing behind & in-between the two of them. What you can see is celebration. 

I have no doubt that every person in this photo is going to do fantastic things through the Spirit and for the church each & every day of their tomorrows.

How are you celebrating graduation season?

Sunday Snippits!

Happy Mother's Day!

The last week has been no less busy than any other. Life in the fast lane is my style, I just choose to fill it differently depending on where I am each day. After finishing my last class of graduate school last week I was able to sleep in a little extra & catch up on lost beauty rest. That brings us to Sunday Snippits with

and so that I don't forget here is the link to watch my thesis defense presentation on Spirit-led Hospitality Leadership for and with First/Third Ministries.

GOOD: Last week was a release of energy after the busyness of finishing my final semester at Luther Seminary. Monday I enjoyed baking cookies for my final class on Tuesday morning. I'm not much of a baker, but chocolate chip cookies are a sinch & I especially enjoyed the gluten free cookies (1 cup overnight oats, 2 ripe bananas, & whatever add-ins - I chose chocolate chips - you want, bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15min & voila!) Wednesday started the end of the year festivities with an outting to the Wild Roast Cafe with my Grouplife friends from Jacob's Well Minneapolis. Thursday was the annual Blessings Banquet where we honor, thank, & meet our donors. Then we went to Mannings Cafe (aka the Seminary pub of many decades) to celebrate a friend's birthday. Friday we enjoyed a cheese & wine party with friends, Saturday we served at Feed My Starving Children with other graduating classmates & their significant others. Then we ended the week with food & games at Dave & Buster's with more classmates.

BAD: Wednesday was supposed to be the annual staff & faculty vs. students & their families baseball game. The darn weather didn't cooperate though & it was canceled. It didn't start raining heavily till 7pm, but the weather is so unpredictable.

UGLY: I'm really stretching to say that anything from last week was ugly. I'm sure there were things in the news, but nothing that directly affected me. The Lord has blessed me abundantly. G'byes have started & that is never fun, so we'll say that is ugly. I'm in denial that I have seen snow coming from the sky in the last week.

Coming up: Today we celebrated Mother's Day at the St. Paul Grill with Dad & Mom N & naturally we talked about all the excitement happening this last week & in the weeks to come. Due to such excitement, I may not be blogging for Friday Foto Fun, Sunday Snippits, or Tuesday Tea Time starting at the end of this week. This week we have more celebrations & family coming in for graduation weekend next week. ONE WEEK from today we will officially be graduated with our Master of Divinity degrees! Then off to synod assembly to network.

Sunday Snippits!

Sunday Snippits

with the GOOD, the BAD, & the UGLY

linking up with Kate at Classy Living & Kati at Incorporating Color!

the GOOD: In the last week I spent several days & many hours on my computer editing & re-editing my Children, Youth, & Family Ministry (aka CYF) thesis. I seriously have not edited with such significant changes maybe ever. However, I turned it in Friday night & look forward to defending it in a couple of weeks. I reworked my Diaconal project & my work from my Holy Spirit course to make a new paper & feel like I have something of quality compared to the pieces it came from. It really was a matter of refining. Tomorrow is my final group presentation for another course, so a lot of time was spent on preparation for that as well. One of my favorite times of the week was of course hanging with WOK. It's so fun to have a 2 y/o excited to see you :-) Saturday Z & I went to Fuji Ya for a celebration dinner thanks to Groupon. It was SO much wonderful Japanese food! Then we celebrated being a month away from graduation & being done with writing another thesis with some friends at Station 280. All in all it was a hectic, productive, & celebratory week.

the BAD: I am lacking sleep. It's the end of the semester & I am trying to have all of my assignments done by Thursday May 2nd because they're really all due by Monday May 6th. However, the weekend is filled with CYF Defense & a friend's Bachelorette party. My recovery from the auto accident I was in last month is taking longer because my backpack is so heavy. However, now that I have my thesis writing done, it might not be as heavy. Here's to hoping!

the UGLY: There was a lot of ugly last week :-( The first thing was the Boston Marathon bombings. I heard about it while at work & didn't realize how serious it was. Then I found out later that my best friend from college & maid of honor was actually at the marathon cheering on a friend who was running. They are both thankfully alright & doing what they can to continue on with their day-to-day schedules. Then there was the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, TX that killed & injured several people. Finally there was severe flooding in my home town & a bomb scare that created a stir there too. Oh, & did I mention there was more snow & there's more coming?

Coming up: MORE finalizing assignments. I have to put together a 10min defense presentation, write 10 pages for another course (between 3 assignments) & do some exegetical work for a sermon for another course. Tomorrow night is a fun girls' night with some friends for KW's upcoming wedding, Thursday is another fun girls' night with some of my senior classmates, & then hanging out with WOK again. It should be a pretty good week & it's actually looking hopeful that it might be above fifty degrees next week!

Hebrews 12:1-2

New International Version (NIV)

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Friday Foto Fun...Jelly Beans & Jesus

 &

photos courtesy of Candy Warehouse & Prague Guide accessed 3/29/13

Jelly beans & Jesus ...  does this confuse anybody else? 

One memory that I left out of Tuesday Tea Time was eating green spiced jelly beans with my Mammaw. They're still my favorite, I just don't have traditional jelly beans around very often. Z really likes Jelly Bellies & there's nothing traditional about those!

So what's the connection between jelly beans & Jesus being hung on a cross (like dozens of other heretics of his time)? The only answer I got was a Jelly Bean Prayer that you can read here! It's pretty hoky, but could be a ministry tool for something.

Maundy-Thursday meals start with joy & end in confusion, so maybe that's what all this commercialized Easter stuff is about. We know how the story ends, we know what's coming in 3 days (or 2 depending on how you count it). It's pretty miraculously incredible & pretty mind blowing.

Is Holy Week supposed to be confusing?

Sunday Snippits

Today I'm linking up with Kati & Kate for the GOOD, the BAD, & the UGLY

THE GOOD: I was jazzed & filled with good energy to start off last week, thus I was uber productive at the beginning of the week. I was amazed at how fast the Catholic conclave went and happy to see that everybody sincerely seems to adore Pope Francis I. Thursday night the annual Luther Seminary variety show was incredible and all for a good cause. I participated in the Zumba skit with Agape, who just happens to be a long-time friend, colleague, & classmate at Luther Sem. And lastly, time with friends is always appreciated. We went out Thursday night to celebrate a multitude of things, Friday night to celebrate AUB's b-day, and Saturday night with good friends who are going to Slovakia for his pastoral internship next year.

THE BAD: My motivation started to waiver by the end of the week & I haven't taken some prime opportunities to work on my senior thesis. I need to lock myself in a room & get it moving!

THE UGLY: I was in my first ever car accident as a passenger. Thankfully we are both okay and the car barely was scratched. However, the guy that hit us was a sad case of trippin' on something & didn't have car insurance or a driver's license. As the police officer said, the good news is the guy wasn't lying, his license had been revoked. We were able to get his license plate info and he gave his name, but ultimately he fled the scene.

coming up: I will sit down & start writing my thesis, getting to see a couple of Spoke Folk friends that I haven't seen in years, one of two group presentations will be done by Monday at 10:50am, and on Saturday I will be certified as a Basic 1 Zumba Instructor!