Summer Traveling

This summer is flying by! It's nearly July already! It's crazy!!

So this upcoming Thursday, Rob and I are heading to Reading, PA, which is about 5.5-6 hours away, just outside of Philly, to go to the wedding of our good friends Joel and Nikki. Rob is one of Joel's groomsmen. Rob's old roommate, Brandon, and his wife and new baby will also be there, so it will be like a reunion. These guys try to get together every so often, and when they do, it's just like old times when everyone still lived on the dorm together here at LU (only now, their women are involved too and are friends with each other). I am so thankful that Rob has awesome and godly friends like Brandon and Joel. I know that we three couples will have many more "reunions" for years to come.

After the wedding on the night of the 3rd, we were just planning on heading home the next morning, but Rob's dad called the other day and told us about the big 4th of July celebration going on in DC, which is on our way home, and is close to where Rob's parents live, so we are going to spend our whole day in DC for the 4th. I'm really excited about that! What better place to spend the birthday of our nation than at the nation's capital. It will be a neat experience!

At the end of July we are planning on finally buying a new car!! Hooray! Edna (our current car) is definitely on her last leg. We've been holding out buy a new one, to get all we can out of Edna, but she's just about had it. Every day feels like it could be her last. She's been good to us though, minus a few incidents here and there, and it is actually kind of sad to think of trading her in. She is the first car Rob ever bought, and is the car that we have spent the first 2 years of our marriage in. Even though it is sad...it is more happy because once we get our new car, which has no name yet, we can't wait to travel more!! We have so many places we want to travel to, but haven't been able to since our car is not reliable. Both of us love to travel and spend time together, so we are excited about what upcoming adventures we will experience together!

RIP Michael Jackson

Today has been a sad day... Actress Farrah Fawcett died from her battle with cancer. I must admit, she was before my time, and although I know who she is, I really never saw her at work.

Then, this afternoon Michael Jackson died unexpectantly. I was not old enough to appreciate him during his prime, but I absolutely love his work! I did a lot of dance choreography in high school, and really enjoyed it, and would love more if I ever got a chance. Michael Jackson is the best dancer this world has ever seen. I might not agree with all the actions of Michael Jackson, but I definitely respect him as an artist and dancer, and I find great joy in listening to his music. Something about it just gets me pumped up... it always has.

I do feel sorry for him. From a psychological perspective, Michael's childhood presents a lot of reason as to why he acted how he did as an adult. It makes a lot of sense when you look at it that way. A lot of people have said cruel things about him, but the fact is that he is a creation of God and a life that God loves. In an interview I saw of him while watching a documentary of his life a few minutes ago, he said that he believes in God. Now, a lot of people say they "believe in God," so I'm not saying that he's a born-again Christian, but it does mean that he has thought about God, and that means that there is a small chance that at one point in his life he could have gotten saved. I don't know. I pray that he did. There is no way of knowing. I do know that he has a large family who is close and that they are in shock and are mourning right now. We need to focus on praying for them.

New Blog

The other day I got the idea to start a blog that is for my journey through grad school into my counseling career. I chose to use wordpress instead of blogger because wordpress seems to be a little more sophisticated than blogger. Here is my new blog site: http://justadustspeck.wordpress.com

I chose to name it "Just a Dust Speck" because one of my counseling professors always talks about how by ourselves, we are nothing, just a dust speck in this humongus world who can't do anything on our own, but by God's grace and His full control, we can be used as His tool to change people's life. When I first began thinking about going into counseling, I kind of got caught up in how I could help people and change their lives.... but then God just smacked me in the face and made me realize that I am nothing, and that the only way that I'm going to be able to help anyone is by fully relying on Him for wisdom and understanding. That's why I liked the image of a dust speck. It puts things into perspective and keeps me from thinking that I am the one who is doing something... because I'm not.

Chocolate Blue

So I have some birthday money that I decided I wanted to put toward our bedroom. Before Rob and I got married I read this book that talked about how the bedroom should be like a personal "sanctuary." Our bedroom right now is far from a sanctuary. We decided to go with the chocolate/aqua color scheme. I didn't use to be crazy about it, but the more I look at things in that color scheme, the more I like it. It's very warm and cozy, yet masculine enough that Rob can feel like he's welcome in the bedroom as well without being bombarded with girly stuff. A lot of other masculine stuff I looked at is not cozy like, so this is a good color scheme that will fit us both. When I get new ideas in my head, it like consumes me! I love finding things to decorate with and love to find creative ways to do things without having to spend a lot of money.

I found this comforter set online that I really like and thought may be perfect for our room:

It's a little more green than I wanted, but I really like it. BUT THEN.... I read the reviews on it, and person after person said that once they got it, the colors didn't look anything like this picture. The brown was a washed out brown that almost looked gray, and the waves were very dull. I was very disappointed. So the search goes on. One thing about this picture that drives me nuts is how uncentered that rug is!

Someone actually created a blog that is dedicated to the chocolate/aqua color scheme. It had a few bedding sets, but none that jumped out at me. After Rob is off of work tonight, we are going to go look at a few places around Lynchburg to see if we can find anything we like. I love shopping for things to decorate with. We'll see what happens. :)

Intended for Eternity?

So I just started reading the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, which is all about how trying to obtain satisfaction in life on our own, without God, is meaningless, and like chasing the wind.  This one verse stuck out to me tonight, it’s 3:11. 

It states, “He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity on the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

This verse confused me at first, so I looked at what the footnotes had to say about it, and they talked about how man was created to live for all eternity; without death.  But, because of sin, we must now die.  The world is so huge, and God intended us to spend eternity here, having time to be fully satisfied.  Now that death comes into play, we are only on earth for a short time, and do not have the time to become fully fulfilled and satisfied.  That is why we work so hard… but for what gain?  Will we even be remembered after we are gone?  Will someone come behind us and undo all the work we did in our lifetime?  Will the possessions that meant so much to us on earth mean anything to anyone else after we are gone?  Solomon is right…with that perspective, it all seems so meaningless.  Sometimes I wish I could forget about money, forget about going to school, forget about having things, a house, a car, anything… and just go with my Bible and spread the gospel far and wide.  If only it were that easy.  Maybe Christ intended it to be that easy, but I’m too scared to trust Him to keep me safe and alive.  Maybe He doesn’t want me to be safe or alive.  I’m more comfortable being in school, doing what I do here everyday.  Interesting to think about.