Archive for July, 2008

And it’s been a week

I should be doing a lot of things right now, none of which involve blogging and/or the internet. I can’t believe my little brother is getting married on Saturday. Yesterday he was 6 years old I swear! But it’s exciting and our first “guests” (aka family) get in today! My aunt, cousin and her two little boys get in tonight and I can’t wait to see them. I’ve only seen the younger one once and that was 2 Christmases ago.

I’ve been having strange dreams lately and I don’t much enjoy them. Subconscious, did you or did you not receive that note I left you, you know the one where I outline what was dream-appropriate? Last night or this morning, I dreamt that some kids made me knock into a stand-thing at a German bakery in KC (?) and I had to pay for the candy that landed on the floor. The total turned out to be $85!!! What kind of crazy candy was that? Thankfully the kids’ mom paid for it. Thanks lady! I really don’t have $85 to burn on German candy. Unless that candy happens to be Kinder Eggs.

Mom and I saw “Mama Mia” last night and I really liked it, much to my own surprise. I mean, it’s a musical, so it’s almost a shoe-in but it was really funny. A lot of times movies leave me dissatisfied with my own life, which, I realize, is quite ridiculous. I think a lot of people, especially girls, deal with these same feelings though. Somehow we come to believe that movies are what our lives should look like. Mostly it’s the romance, who doesn’t want Mr. Darcy to come make declarations of love and adoration to them? So “Mama Mia” is a bit of a romance, though not typical. The whole time though I was watching I was thoroughly enjoying the relationships in the movie, the girlfriends both young and old. And I’d like to think that I’ve reached the point in my life where I am focused on my friendships and other non-romantic relationships, not that there is any romance to distract me! Seriously, I haven’t thought about guys in so long and it’s refreshing! There was a time in my life (it’s called being a teenage girl) where I never for a SECOND forgot about how I was disdainfully single. Then there was college where I felt like a second-class citizen because I hadn’t found THE ONE yet. It’s nice to not be wasting YEARS of my life worrying about that, thinking about who my future husband is. Now I’m making plans that don’t include him, and I quite like it. I’m wishing I wouldn’t meet him until I’m 30 because then I’ll be able to do everything I want, including travel nursing! This isn’t to say that I will stick to the plan come hell or high water, I’m just not counting on meeting someone soon, I’m not putting my life on hold until I get married. I’m almost 25 and blessedly single!

I know it seems like I bring up the single stuff a lot, but I feel it’s hard out there for God-loving girls who are single past the age of 22!

Okay now I must tend to those ever-important non-internet involved tasks.

LOVE!

Tree etchings in Hyde Park (in the background is the Anzac War Memorial)

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Whoaaaa, we’re halfway there

Last night I was driving home from Kaitlyn’s apartment after a day of catching up with friends and working on wedding favors when Bon Jovi came on the radio. You see, I have a special gift, the ability to get songs perpetually stuck in other people’s heads. It’s true. I used this talent in abundance while we were in Australia. There were several songs I used but “Livin’ on a Prayer” was number 1. It seemed as though at any time at least one person on our tour was singing some part of that song, thanks to me. When any occasion arose to further the obsession with this song, we gladly partook. This included karoake and screaming at the top of our lungs whenever it would come on randomly. Thus, this song will always remind me of Australia, along with “Bohemian Like You” by the Dandy Warhols, as it was our official tour song. It really is the simple things that make me happy.
Saturday was a crazy day full to the brim. First and foremost was a bridal shower for Kaitlyn hosted (hostessed?) by her maid of honor, Elizabeth. I didn’t know that my family would make up half the guests but it was a pleasant surprise. You can’t help but feel good when you are celebrating something new and exciting with people you love. It just reminded me that this is what a marriage is about, not the wedding, but about surrounding yourself with people who DO love you and WILL support you through anything, people who are cheering so loudly and with such fervor for your success. And that’s refreshing. Again, it sounds like it’s my wedding, but it is not, but I don’t know if I’d be any more excited for my own wedding, I have reached an all-time high in the excitement department.
After the shower, the daughter of our neighbors from Germany stopped by on her way to Alabama with her husband. It was so wonderful to see them and talk for a bit, to connect history with the present and relish relationships that last. I can’t believe it has been 18 years since we moved!
This weekend was good for the heart. My cup runneth over.

ferry ride to Long Island

LOVE!

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Hi my name is Mandy and I am a travelaholic

I am sitting here aching for Australia, listening to my Uncle Ralf’s summer mix and putting off all the cleaning that desperately needs to be done in this room. I’ve been thinking about what it is about travel that makes it so addictive, so enticing and came up with a few things. Part of it is the experience, the filling up of moments in your life while you take in a WHOLE NEW place. The interesting thing is that we could see new places everyday if we chose to. Have I fully explored my hometown down to every nook and cranny? Of course not. Travel is much more exhilarating on another continent, more-so if the first language is not the same as your own. Thus I probably will never choose to “travel” in the greater Kansas City area. Another entrancing part of travel is that when you are someplace foreign, you are one of a few, for the most part, a minority. And this makes us feel special and don’t we love it when we feel special, unique, one in a million! I have a hard time with all this “special” stuff. I do believe that God creates us as unique individuals, that not one of us is exactly the same as another and I celebrate this. However, I read an “His Utmost for His Highest” entry that condemned the pride we get from feeling special. The gist of the entry was that we shouldn’t be bringing attention to ourselves but to the Lord and by constantly shining a spotlight on our uniqueness we aren’t doing that. We can be so “loud” with ourselves and own personalities that we are shutting out the thing that most deserves to be heard; how we gained salvation and everlasting love. Though it sounds simple, this writing really enlightened me. So as I walked around Sydney and wondered selfishly if anyone noticed that we were American, different from the majority surrounding us, I was quickly reminded of how I needed to sacrifice my individuality so I could be identified with Christ. And no one makes me feel more unique, more valuable than the One who created me, so why seek reassurance elsewhere? I will still travel though, in order to enjoy His other creations of course!!

I wasn’t planning for this entry to turn out like this but I like it and am sticking to it!
Have a Happy Weekend friends!

on our way back from the Great Barrier Reef. I had to stop myself from jumping overboard and setting up camp for the REST of my LIFE.

LOVE!

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newsy

Doing nothing all day every day isn’t as fun as you would think. It leads to a feeling of general uselessness. Hard to believe, I know. My point is; it gets old. Unless you are at the Lake! Have I mentioned how great and relaxing the Lake is? How feelings of uselessness at home translate into feelings of relaxation at the Lake? As I am not at the Lake presently (thus the blog entry you are currently reading), I figured I should be productive this week. And I have. Or at least I’ve tried. Boy, I’ll tell you, being productive is TIRING. The good news is that I’ve acquired a job, of sorts. It’s a nannying job that only requires a couple of hours a couple of days a week. I didn’t want to commit to too much with the wedding coming up and then that week afterward where I’ll be at the Lake not feeling useless. So it’s not much, but it does offer more money that I am currently making! I hope to get something full-time by mid-August and forget how boring doing nothing is, thus restarting the vicious cycle. I have a feeling this is my last period of uselessness for a long while to come. Let’s hope so.

In other news, I love my brother. I saw the church he is getting married in and it is GORGEOUS! I’m getting so excited about the wedding!

view from our hotel in Surfer’s Paradise of their creative name placement

LOVE!

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redecorating

So I’m changing some things, as you can see.  It’s not finished yet, don’t worry.

LOVE!

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blogged

Nothing is more daunting than pressing the “blog now” option on the scroll down menu and facing this blank page.  What can I possibly say to entertain for the next 2 seconds of your precious time?  Probably nothing.  I keep thinking about the weird things I believed as a child, so that shall become the subject of THIS post.  Lucky you.

One time I accidentally bumped into an electric fence.  I thought this immediately gave me cancer.  I was too afraid to tell my mom.  I did not get cancer, but eventually did tell my mom!

This is probably a common one, but I truly believed my stuffed animals had feelings (and still sort of do), and not wanting to arouse jealously I would pile ALL of them on my bed.  Now I have a top 3 and they are always on my bed at home.  Only one is ALWAYS with me.  And his name is Pepsi.

When my mom would go out while we lived in Germany she would threaten us with the “old lady babysitter” if we were bad.  It seemed like the threat would last for WEEKS and I distinctly remembered crying and begging her not to ask the old lady to babysit.  I knew she would be the most cruel lady around.  This is what I base my deep-rooted ageism on.  just kidding, I LOVE old people.

I believe that I named the Lake of the Ozarks.  Something to do with a hotel we stayed at once called “Noah’s Ozark”.  Finding that name WAY too tiresome and exhausting to say, I shortened it to “ozark” and thus the Lake of the Ozarks and probably the Ozark Mountains were named…in 1990.

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hey yo

It’s been a while, what can I say. The Lake lured me away for a wonderful week of glorious sun and water! Now I am back in the real world trying to figure out what I’ll be doing for, oh, the REST of my life. Sheesh. I’ve gone from one end of the spectrum to the next.

Don’t worry, I have been doing SOME fun stuff. I started a new knitting project, which is VERY good. I love to have something to do while sitting around or watching t.v. while I try to forget about the real world. I also finished “David Copperfield” this morning. This was the book I chose to take with me to Australia. I love Dickens. I like to imagine he is my old British grandfather who sits by the fire and smokes a pipe while telling me triumphant stories. How wonderful.

Let’s hope that knitting and reading classic literature are skills necessary to get into nursing school.

LOVE!

this was at the Australian Rules Football (footy) game! fun, brutal, entertaining

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AHA!

Oh yes, I showed that printer who the invitation-boss is around here! Yesterday I printed off 21 perfect invitations and then mom and I put them together. That’s right, they are so cute that they need to be put together! Sometimes I wonder if I’m gifted at all in the creativity department, and now I think I have my moments. Those moments come, for my own sanity and forgetfulness, about every 5 years. I kinda want to put up pictures of them just so you guys can see, but is that against the rules? Will the wedding police come a-knockin’?

I am BOUND and DETERMINED to go to the Lake today. What bliss awaits me!

I had a dream last night that my teeth fell out. I may have already told you this but I have this dream about every 6 months and it never fails to freak me out. I’m sure I’ve looked up what that means but to me it means my subconscious is CRAZY and likes to creep me out. That is my most loathed recurring dream, in case you had just thought to yourself, “I wonder what Mandy’s most loathed recurring dream is?” Now you have your answer. Is there a certain dream you keep having and hating?

Well I’m off to finish some more wedding stuff (almost sounds like it’s my own wedding! Not for a while my friends! and gladly so!!) before I can drive off into the sunset!

this is one of my favorites!

LOVE!

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