Wiener You Gonna See This Again?!

Last night, my friends Jeff and Amanda had the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in their alley.
Seriously.

This is one of a half-dozen trucks driving around America to say Thank You on behalf of Oscar Mayer for America's help in donating 3 million pounds of food in their Good Mood Mission.
You can read more about it here.We took a dozen pictures for their blog
And were each given a Wienie Whistle

After a delicious dinner (disappointingly, not supplied by the Oscar Mayer Mobile Team), we (a select few) were taken on a ride in the Wienermobile.

Dylan was the most excited

Molly was pretty excited too...despite the bright neon sign next to her chair

The seat backs

My favorite part (well, aside from the license plate, which read "RELSHME") was the fact that the dashboard was shaped like two hot dogs. (And the passenger seat is called Shotbun"!)

I think we ended up with a few more whistles than we need...
and definitely many more than we want to listen to!

Amanda said, "Wow...I didn't think it could get better than the White Trash Trampoline...I was wrong!"

You never know what will happen in that alley.

Arabian Nights...Like Arabian Days

Still going with THIS LIST

in hopes of marking something off of THIS LIST.

And so, last night (and part of this morning) I watched Lawrence of Arabia.
If I'm completely honest, it was too long for me to love it.
I really did enjoy pieces of it...and the storyline, as a whole, was very interesting...but with a running time of 3 hours and 47 minutes, I'm pretty sure I had lost interest before it even started.

What is interesting about this movie:
It is reportedly the longest film not to have any dialog spoken by a woman

(which I read on IMDb while looking up Peter O'Toole during the movie to see what else I might have seen him in...typically I would hit 'pause' while searching, but I could not bear the thought of making this movie last any longer.)

I read this about an hour in to the movie and I hadn't even noticed that there had been no women in the film. Then I began to watch for it...and was so curious as to how the movie did not seem to be any worse sans female roles. I was also curious as to whether or not I would ever have noticed this without having read it first. My guess: nope.

Interesting, but not enough to ever watch it again...or recommend it to others.
Sorry AFI...I would not put this movie in my Top 100.

So Much Time and So Little To Do (Strike That, Reverse It)

I am so much more productive when I have too much to do.

I know this sounds obvious (and, quite possibly, masochistic), but I find that the days that I accomplish the most are the days when I have a seemingly impossible amount to accomplish. And, on the other side, the days that I have three or four things to do, I find that I probably only complete one or two.

I'm not sure if this is a sign of something bigger, or if it's just something I've developed over time.

Either way, I'm not too concerned about it...I was just noticing the difference between my yesterday and my today.

Kenya Feel The Love?

Seriously...I plan to milk those awesome Kenya puns for all they're worth.
It's such a gift that these students have never heard them before!

Here are a few more photos from our Kenya Team dinner on Sunday night.

Christian and his dudes from our teamAll but one girl:
Zury, Bianca, Courtney, Michelle

Our entire team around the dinner table
{well, except for me: I'm taking the picture...and Matt, who was watching the basketball game}

praying over our team

A few team shots out front

You know I can't jump, right?

It's getting closer...it's so fun to say "Next Friday" instead of using a date...that means it's really getting close!

Happy Fourth Birthday, Blog

Today is Flag Day.
Thank you, Ryanne, for reminding me every year!

Today, when I received my Happy Flag Day text, I remembered something:
My blog was born on Flag Day!

Here is my first post:

And here I am, four years later...now with two blogs.
And a combined total of 1,978 posts.

I love you, little blog.
Thank you for being a place that has captured my thoughts and feelings...my moments of excitement and even my heart breaks (of which there have been quite a few in four years!)

Thank you for reading...or, more likely, subscribing.
There is definitely more blogging to come.

Karibuni

Tonight, we took our Kenya team for "A True Taste of East African Food".
We (me, three other leaders, and 8 High School students) are leaving for Kenya in just under two weeks. They will be there for about 12 days and then I will fly to Kitale for another 10 (!!!)

So, as our final team meeting, we joined together for dinner and discussion and prayer.
8 students, 4 leaders and 6 other Mariners Staff members around a gigantic table. Christian (who is Kenyan) ordered all of the food for us...so there was plenty of mbuzi (goat) and ugali (cornmeal). But, thankfully, he also ordered lots of chapati and green grams!

As an added bonus, these students had never heard ANY chapati puns. "Chapati in the USA" got a great laugh. I can't wait to pull out my YEARS of over-played Kenya puns! They won't even know what hit them!
I could--without a doubt--eat chapati and green grams every night for the rest of my life. Especially if they are Rebecca's green grams (the House Mom for the Oasis Girl's House)
At the end of the night, Jeff prayed over each of our students (in English) and then Christian prayed in Swahili. I began to cry almost instantly. My heart loves the sound of Swahili...I think it just feels like home. But there is also something so moving about the fact that our God speaks all languages...that Christian was praying to the God who loves each person--United States, Kenya, Afghanistan, Antarctica--and knows each of their hearts, thoughts, fears and failures...that is overwhelming to me.

I could leave tomorrow.
I mean, I have things to do before I go...but I'd be willing to leave tomorrow.

I Don't Want to Wait...For Our Lives To Be Over...

I love to watch Television.
I love to watch TV on DVD.
I especially love teenage dramas.

Veronica Mars
The OC
One Tree Hill
Felicity
Gilmore Girls
Gossip Girl

And, most recently, Dawson's Creek

Granted, the costumes are incredibly terrible (late-90's grunge/velvet/baggy jeans, meets East Coast layers/convertible pants/Velcro sandals)...and the storylines are pretty crazy (in the most recent episode I watched, all but one character talked about having sex...and at least four of them actually did have sex--during commercial breaks, of course.)

Clearly, this is not the most wholesome show, but I can't wait to see how it ends. I'm almost through with season 4 (of 6 total seasons), and I have no idea how it will end.

I don't think I would recommend anyone else begin watching it, but Dawson, Pacey, Joey and Jen (oh, and Jack), I enjoy spending my evenings with you.

Babies Are Over-Rated.

I don't love babies.
I know this sounds ridiculous...like something said simply to get a rise out of readers.
In fact, this is 100% true.

I'm really not very stoked on the idea of babies.
They are kinda boring. And loud. And expensive.
They don't sleep when you want to sleep.
And, honestly, most babies just look weird.

I'm in favor of others having babies.
Great. Procreate.
But, as for me, I'm cool. Thanks.

**Where is this coming from?**

This afternoon I went to visit my friend, Sue, and her newest (of three!) children.
His name is Paxton.
He's tiny. And has sweet little Filipino eyes.
And I'm pretty sure he already really likes me because I used to yell at him through Sue's belly all the time.

I love my friend Sue. {And my friend Courtney, who was there through the visit, too!}
And I love all three of Taffy and Sue's kids ...I will run around, laugh and play with them all day...

But there is something so beautiful {and desirable} about the silence in my house right now.

And the fact that I will get to sleep in tomorrow.

So...no babies for me, thank you.

Glee Can Build A Beautiful City...Yes We Can...

It has been really, really fun watching Glee this year. I was super behind on jumping in and had dozens of conversations in which people would say, "Really? You don't watch it!? This was your life...you would LOVE this show!"

Well, all of those people: they were right. I love this show. I have cried at two of the last three episodes.

My favorite part of this show's popularity is how many more people understand what I'm talking about when I say I was in Show Choir in High School. For years, we would joke about it and no one knew just how great of a joke it was...and now, it really means something. We were called Soundsation (14 couples--all blue sequins-ed up) and Choralistics (about 30 girls). It should be mentioned that I just found (and joined) the ETHS Soundsation Facebook Fan Page. Yep, it exists.

Clearly, we didn't do as many dance numbers in the halls of the school...but we did have our share of closeted homosexuals, boyfriend/girlfriend madness, cheerleaders, Rachel-esque soloists and even a number involving a train.

Oh, and at our "regionals"...we were number one...three years in a row.
Take that, Vocal Adrenaline.

So Much To Say...

I'm at a place where I have so much to write that I actually have nothing to write.

I prayed aloud on my way to work today. Many of the things I said caught me off-guard. I was puzzled as to how I could say something that I needed to hear--needed to learn--as if I'd known it all along.

• I don't want to be someone who only talks about work; though I've rapidly slipped back in to that. That's frustrating.


• I also don't want to be someone who is so caught up in the work I'm doing here that I miss what God is trying to do with me here...or somewhere else, for that matter.


• I'm losing it. I'm losing my ability to be as perceptive as I used to be. I was so good at hearing the unspoken things. And now my life is loud and I'm missing God's quiet whisper...but the worst part is, some days I don't even miss it.


• I have been running at high speed...and enjoying it. I'm laughing a lot, and checking loads of items off of my to-do lists, but I'm missing the stillness. The silence. The rest.

I had it.
I miss it.

I know that I could re-learn it...I just wish I hadn't lost it.