Traditional or Non-traditional?

Every morning as Rob and I drive to work we listen to the same morning radio show out of NYC.  It brightens up our mornings.  The other day I was listening to this show after dropping Rob off and heading to my office and they were talking about this woman who called into the show and was about to propose to her boyfriend because she wanted to get engaged and thought he was never going to ask her.  The next day she called back and said that her boyfriend said yes, but also told her that he wished she would have let him propose.  After that a number of women called in; some saying that they had proposed to their boyfriends, and others saying that after hearing the show they were now considering proposing to their boyfriend.

I read online that the only day where it is traditional for women to propose to men is on February 29th, Leap Year day.  Interesting little tidbit of information if you are ever on Jeopardy.

I am not a super traditional person, but the woman proposing to the man just seems weird to me.  Then I ask myself why it seems so weird.  Both people are part of the relationship and technically have equal rights to asking for the others' hand in marriage so why is the man the one who is expected to propose?  Perhaps it is connected with the man's role as the leader and initiator of the relationship....which if that is the case, then I definitely agree that the man should be the leader.  I am not all that traditional, but I never would have even thought about proposing to Rob, (although I did get him an engagement ring that I carried around for a while whenever we were together, "just in case" he were to pop the question).  I found it quite interesting that so many women were open to proposing to their boyfriend after hearing about this topic on the radio.  I think I kind of like things as they are, with the man doing the proposing.      

Funny Memory

Whenever I think back to when I was younger, I always think the same thing: Man was I a dumb kid! haha.  I think we all did things that we thought were "cool" at the time but later on realize that it was far from cool.  That's what being a kid is all about. 

Lately I've been thinking about this one time growing up that my brother, Matt and I always laugh about now that we are older (and wiser, of course....right).  This particular memory takes place when we were approximately 11 and 7.  We lived next to this man who had a large great dane.  We were scared to death of it.  This particular day we had our rollerblades on, and for some reason we were walking along the side of the house in the grass, in our rollerblades.  We always rollerbladed on the dead end street in front of the house.  I have no idea why we were in the grass, but we were. 

Right as we were pretty far into the yard, the neighbor's great dane bolts out of his garage and charges toward us at full speed, barking.  We both screamed like little ninnies, but we couldn't run or move because we had rollerblades on and were in the grass.  So we just stood there and held on to each other.  Fortunately, our neighbor heard the barking and our screaming and ran out and called the dog back before he got to us.  It was terrifying.  We both shuffled quickly on into the house and stayed inside rest of the afternoon.  We were now even more scared of that stupid dog.

I have always been terrified of dogs, and I am wondering if this was the initial incident that may have caused my fear.... I don't know.  But either way, it's a funny story.  One of many funny/dumb incidents that happened as we were growing up.  I'll post more in the future.

The Power of a Positive Attitude

School has been killing me lately.  It has been insane.  One thing that God has shown me lately, through my text books and class discussions (that's the great thing about being a counseling student, the majority of what you learn can easily be applied to your daily life, what math or business student can say that?) is that:

ALTHOUGH OFTEN YOU CAN'T CONTROL THE SITUATION, YOUR ATTITUDE HAS THE POWER TO INFLUENCE THE SITUATION

I love this and have been applying to my life and.... IT WORKS!

One example - this woman who works down the hall from me is a real debbie downer, and one of my biggest pet peeves is when people automatically see the negative in everything, because I am exactly the opposite.  I had begun to kind of just focus on my work and not say much to her when she would be in our office, because her negativity would frustrate me.  I decided to try out my new found approach on her one day.  When she came in, before she even had a chance to say anything, in a real upbeat tone of voice I gave her a complement and smiled at her real big.  She sat down in our office and did not say one negative thing the whole time she was there.  Her entire attitude was different.  It works!

I am now on the lookout to see what other situations I can influence with a good attitude, so watch out!

Tea Time

One thing I really love is tea.  I have always loved tea in the form of sweet tea. Around middle school I started drinking this one particular type of hot tea.  After I started college I started trying a few other hot teas, and now I am totally in love with all tea and have at least one cup of tea a day.  I love black tea, red tea, green tea, white tea.... all tea! haha.

In Fredricksburg, VA, there is this amazing tea store called Teavana.  It's a chain, so there are more than just this one, but this is the one nearest me.  It has looseleaf teas, and these have become my all-time favorite!  They take a little more work than bagged tea, but it's so worth it.  You can check out their website here. I HIGHLY recommend the Peach Cran-Tango looseleaf black tea. It's amazing! Here is what it looks like:

Tea is a fun hobby. It can be simple or extravagant, yet it is always yummy, whether hot or cold, green or black, looseleaf or bagged. It's a great drink to enjoy, and has great health benefits as well, unlike other drinks like coffee. This is making me thirsty, I'm going to go make myself a cup of tea! 

Change of Face

So tonight Rob told me that he might start his own blog, so that means that this blog is all mine now.  So, time for a change.

I named MY blog Ruby Red Perspective because I feel that I have a unique perspective to offer.  Red is my favorite color because it is bright, vibrant, and cheerful.  The Chinese view red as a sign of good fortune and many paint their front doors red as a way of wishing wellness on all who enter.  The Zen philosophy considers red a sign of positive energy and happiness.  I'm not a follower of the Zen religion, but some of their concepts are kind of neat.

I get told a lot that it seems like I am always happy, and yes, there are very few days where I don't have a smile on my face.  I can have joy through Christ and I truly desire to love people for who they are, not what they should be.  I have a very positive yet realistic view on life and love to share the joy God has given to me with others who need a breath of fresh year every now and then.

"Going green" is a big trend right now, and I'm all for it and want to do my part, but along with going green, I want to "live red." Studies show that positivity, laughing and smiling are therapeutic and are healthy for the body and mind.  Through Christ we are new creations, and even though life may send us through storms, Christ always guides us through them.  For that reason, we can smile freely without guilt!  I am excited to take this blog in a new direction and see where we go.  Yay for a change of face.

Bekah

February - Month of Love

Wow, January flew by, as did Christmas break. My Christmas break was actually cut short due to an intensive that I took the week before actual semester classes began. My relationship with intensives is one of love/hate. I love getting a class knocked out in 1 week, and I love how close I get with other intensive students in just a week, but I also hate the insane amount of pre-work and post-work that comes with the intensive. I also hate that most of the people I get close with are online students and live outside of Lynchburg, so once the week is over, they go home, and the closeness we have gained goes with them. But, all in all, it was a good intensive, in 2 weeks I'll be done with all the post-work, which will make it even better!

I've done a lot of Girl Scout stuff in January. Last week I had the girls become architects and we had a "Challenge" (like the ones on food network that I deeply love) where all they could use was marshmallows and toothpicks. The girls got so into it and had a ton of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so no pics were taken. I'm doing the same activity with another group I lead this next week, so I'll try to take pics with them.

Speaking of camera's, Rob and I have taken on yet another hobby together: photography. It's something we have been talking about doing since we were dating, we just never had the money to buy a nice camera. With Christmas money and money I was blessed with from an outside medium apart from my regular work, we had just enough money to buy the camera we've been looking at for the past couple years, and she's a beauty! We are now taking a weekly photography class and are looking into other workshops and events to learn how take quality photos. There are endless possibilities with newer SLR Digital cameras.

We still love decorating cakes together and are going to take a more advanced decorating class in March to continue developing our skills. With school and work, we don't get a lot of time to decorate for fun, but hopefully we'll get a handful of chances as time goes along. I'm taking a couple of candy/chocolate classes this month and next month to learn about making chocolate sculptures. It will be fun to incorporate chocolate with cake. Everyone loves chocolate.

Well, that's a quick update on us for now. The first month of 2010 has been a busy one, but a great one. God has taught me so much lately and I can't wait to see what the remainder 11 months of 2010 has in store.

AH! It's December!

So, today on the phone my mom told me that I need to update my blog. So this is for her! :)

I can't believe it is already December. Time flies. I don't feel like it's December though because the grass is still green, and yesterday it was in the 50's. Being from northern MN, this is still spring weather, not winter. One thing that cracks me up is seeing people's yard decorations... like those huge blow up snowmen...ON GREEN GRASS. Looks kinda funny. I also think it's funny to hear southerners complain about the "cold." One girl I know from SC has been wearing a winter coat, scarf, and boots for months now, because it's so cold out! haha. I have yet to wear my winter coat. A light fleece is suffice, and even warm at times. I've worn my gloves once, and that was just because I think they are cute and felt like wearing them.

This semester has been crazy! The workload has not been too bad...only bad at times. This semester has been one of growth though. It has been hard, because it has really brought me out of preconceptions I've had. It's increased the depth of my knowledge about and passion for God, but has taken some work to get there and I'm still working through a lot of things. It's not really anything I can describe with words in a blog. But, I have made some amazing new friends this semester and grown closer to friends I had already and am so thankful for them!

Through a long chain of events happening, this year I run two different girl scout groups in youth centers in downtown Lynchburg. I was never in girl scouts and really know little about it. It's not your normal girl scouts, it's more just me going into these places and having crafts and activities for the girls to do. I really enjoy it because I love these kids and have a real heart for them. This past week, while at one site, I brought in mini gingerbread houses for them to make... they came in a kit. You would think that 3 inch tall gingerbread houses would be easy as pie to make....but this is not the case! There were 5 styles of houses, and 2 of the styles were impossible to make with the materials they gave, so after working for a long time with the girls trying to make the houses look like the do on the box, I resorted to telling them that it is their house and they can make it however they like! haha. Here are some of the results:

Some girls were way more interested in eating the houses than actually making them, so I told them they could eat them after they made them, but I think most of them ate them while making them. They are so fun to work with!

Well, today is Friday, which is my day off, so I'm going to go try to be productive! Hope everyone has a great weekend.