sunday.

A Sunday as it should be, full of worship, fellowship, and relaxing. I worked check-in at children’s ministry again this morning, I love getting to greet the parents when they walk in with their kiddos! Come February (when I’ll be able to actually serve in the classrooms, because I’ll have been a member for 6 months) I should know allll their names and faces. All the music at service today was Christmas, lots of festive hymns. The whole church looks beautiful and smells like the holiday, there are lots of real trees everywhere, and all the painting turned out so well!

The day that I walked to church to help paint because the snow and ice prevented any kind of driving!

Afterwards we all helped clean up the church from the services, then headed off to Husky Deli for lunch. Jenna, Dorina, Dustin, Tommy and I all went, and laughed a ton as usual, talking silly things about life. We walked down to Bakery Nouveau after that, and ended up at C&P, my favorite! We played several rounds of bananagrams as we listened to live music, perfect.

Laughing at our silly faces on Jenna's camera

After a few rounds I noticed that the man sitting near us wasn’t reading his book but watching our game, so I invited him to join in, and he took up the offer. That led into conversation about how we all knew each other (church), what we love to do (fellowship), and why (Jesus). He said he wasn’t religious at all, and we said that we weren’t either, and had the opportunity to explain the lie of religion in the face of a true relationship with the Lord. I’ve been praying for opportunities like that :)

I was thinking the other night about how we, as humans, deeply desire to be known. It’s evident in how we connect ourselves in every way possible: email, facebook, twitter, blog. But isn’t this merely a distorted response to a design intended to draw us more closely to the Lord? There’s purpose in design; we were made to be known. It only makes sense that this yearning was designed to draw us nearer to the God who created us and is reciprocally seeking such relationship eagerly. I love the Christmas season and all that it represents because it is a reminder of all that the Lord did to enable that. A reminder of the gospel, the truth that proclaims that we in no way can earn our salvation, and instead, must rely on the abundant and entirely sufficient grace that the Lord, in his goodness, freely gives.

The rest of the evening was spent swinging by the grocery store (finally, some fresh fruits and veggies, I’ve been craving them) and getting things organized at home. After this, I’ll probably read and go to bed early. This weekend was relaxing, but so full of out-of –the-norm fun things that I’m wiped out! Wiped-out, but thankful, and looking forward to the week to come.

Love.

giving thanks.

pictures from thanksgiving! i spent it with the bernheisels on vashon island, the reeds invited me to be part of the family for the weekend. i took the ferry on thursday morning, tyler picked me up in the ice-ready suburban. turns out the bernheisels (katy's family) were still without power from the storm, so katy and i baked all the pies at her house.

pumpkin cobbler- it was an experiment. looks nice :)

pumpkin pie- classic.

peanut butter chocolate pie- the crowd pleaser.

caramel apple pie- another classic.

we also made a berry cobbler, 5 pies in all. after we finished baking, we headed to the bakers house, family friends of the bernheisels, to cook where there was electricity. we munched on hors'dourves all afternoon while we cooked up the goodies.



stuffed mushrooms- sausage, kalamatas, onions, parsley, and more.

gravy duty.

siblings (and in-laws) hanging out while the turkey baked.

playing cards.

all 13 of us sat down over some excellent 2006 bordeaux red wine and sparkling grape juice and loaded our plates with turkey, potatoes, oyster stuffing (that was new to me), regular stuffing, sweet potatoes (with marshmallows of course), green bean casserole, rolls, and more that i'm sure i'm forgetting. i was thoroughly stuffed.

katy and i topped it off with a dessert sampler- we had to try them all of course!



that night we played cards until midnight or so, then slept right on into a lazy friday morning.

lily and i played go fish and admired the candles as we hung out in our pj's.

the reed's christmas tree.

after lunch katy, tyler, lily and i took a field trip to see the lighthouse on vashon. it was a bit rainy, but fun to explore the beach!

the evening was spent decorating the bernheisel house for christmas, garland, a tree, and all the accompaniments. it was a blast!

this morning i caught the ferry back to the mainland, spent the day getting caught up on little things, and have been hanging out with the reeds and the goetz eating pizza and watching movies!

what a relaxing weekend.

more later, when i'm not so distracted by a movie :)

winter storm warning.

So pretend that it's Monday and you're reading this post....I typed it in word because we've been without internet for almost a week! And now that our internet has returned, I'm just now posting it.

"Well yesterday what started as cute little snowflakes quickly turned into a raging winter storm producing sheets of ice that sent more people spinning than those actually moving in a linear direction. At noon I left to go get more contacts at costco and then use the internet at a coffee shop, and waiting until 4pm to head home was a mistake. I knew I was in trouble when I started fishtailing before I could even get out of my parking spot. California was a total disaster, and it’s flat! Having zero experience driving on ice, I quickly learned what to do and what NOT to do. Don’t worry, I didn’t hit anything. I tried to turn and use my brakes as little as possible and hardly went faster than a crawl. I watched at least 3 cars spin out right in front of me, and definitely slid around a lot. I had to backtrack quite a ways just to get to a road that was decently driveable (35^th), so all in all, it took me around an hour to get home from c&p. Which translates to an average speed of 3mph.

Whew. I seriously considered parking at the church and walking back, which would have been a freezing cold hike, but at some points being frozen to the bone seemed a better alternative. I’ve never been so glad to be back on my street with my feet on the front steps of my house! The neighborhood kids were all playing in the snow and greeted me with a huge hug when I got out of my car; I love it when they do that :) I felt like I was sliding all around for a solid 20 minutes afterwards, and I certainly don’t intend to move my car for a while.

Well anyways, enough of that. Here are some pictures of the snow, the first three from this morning before work, and the last one tonight after I got home.

Likey and Pooshka enjoying the snow.

Accumulation on my window just before I left for work.

What I thought was a lot of snow.

"A lot of snow" revised, part one.

And now I’m off to enjoy my  cheesy greek pasta bake- Bill (preceptor) gave me the recipe, basically it’s a bunch of mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, feta, chopped kalamata olives, and tomato basil marinara, mixed up with noodles and baked. I’ll call it icebox cooking….whatever was left in the fridge is what went in. I think it turned out well :)  "

snowflakes.

This weekend has been a blast in every way possible. Two all-star ones in a row! I finished up my long term care rotation on Friday, and it definitely had the feel of a last day. My preceptor wasn’t in the mood to do work either, so we took plenty of time to talk about life, visit with other staff, make Italian sodas, talk with the residents, and procrastinate in general. We did get all the essentials done though!

Friday night the girls in my community group tapped back into our middle school days and had an old-school sleepover. We made tacos for dinner, then had snacks (popcorn, chips and salsa, angel food cake with cream and strawberries, rocky road ice cream) the rest of the evening. We played mostly question kinds of games. We know each other, but there’s so much more of each of us to know! Normally games like that are more silly and superficial, but we have some thinkers in our group, so it got deep fast. Questions like “what’s your biggest fear?” and “who has shaped who you are the most?” were the norm, often with follow up questions like “how do you see the Lord in that?” It was the most intentional sleepover I’ve ever been to, it was great! We stayed up late, of course, because that’s what you do, watching a movie until the wee hours of the morning. Then we hunkered down throughout Dorina’s apartment and slept in late. Orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast, another throwback! I think I ate those at least once a week growing up. We drank coffee and talked the morning away, then everyone kind of split to do their own things that afternoon. I hit up the gym, then finished my homework so I wouldn’t have to worry about it for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday evening showed up in a hurry: dinner at Endelyn Joes. I’d never been before; it’s a restaurant that re-decorates from time to time with different themes, changing their menu to match. Current theme: Chicago. I had the gorgonzola pear ravioli with aged basalmic sautéed onions and some other yummy things that I can’t remember, and it was packed with flavor. I enjoyed every bite (and every minute). Dessert was a strawberry/blueberry/apple fruit tart with caramel and ice cream on top. Mmmm. Lots of wandering around Barnes and Noble after that, which turns out, is a great place to spark all kinds of conversation. Take note friends: go there on a date. Or maybe I’m just a bookstore and library junkie. We were thoroughly familiar with the layout of Barnes and Noble a couple hours later, stopping here and there to solve riddles from “creative thinking” books and learning about random things like different ways to tie ties and the Amish culture.

After stopping back by the house for a minute I headed to Dorina’s to meet up with her and the Reeds, and the girls snuggled on the couch while we all watched part of The Bodyguard.

When I woke up this morning there was snow on the deck! I didn’t believe it was snow at first, because it was just sitting there. I’m used to it melting the second it hits the ground. But I went outside to check, and sure enough, it was snow! First of the season I think, unless I missed some. I still walked to church, cold but dry. Today was my first morning to volunteer at the children’s ministry. I helped check kids in, the system is so efficient, props to whoever designed it. I got to see lots of adorable little munchkins and talk with Katy and Tyler, who were also working at the front desk. After that, we headed upstairs for the 11:15 service. Music was great today- some of my favorites.

This afternoon was decorate-the-church-day, so we blasted some Christmas tunes and spent the hours painting, wrapping, hanging, lighting, decorating in general. The pot luck lunch consisted of primarily two food groups- chips and dessert. I figure if that’s all that’s available, it’s a great excuse to indulge! After that down in the children’s ministry we spent plenty of time cutting out LOTS of snowflakes and handprints.

We hung the snowflakes from the ceilings of the classrooms (I got to be on the ladder- woohoo!), and made the hands into Christmas trees. We then relocated upstairs, where Gary and I were assigned the task of wrapping some of the pictures on the wall upstairs to make them look like presents. Of course right after we finished were we informed that there were other plans for the room…so we proceeded to unwrap all our hard work. Bummer.  On to the next task…bowmaking. Only to find that we couldn’t do that EITHER because we had the wrong ribbon. So, seeing as it was 7 o’clock and tasks were sparse, we decided to call it a night.

So here I am, writing this post in Microsoft word, because our internet has been out all weekend. To be posted asap :)

cheesy squash.

mac'n'cheese for dinner tonight, homemade, with veggies! kelsey knew of this recipe that used butternut squash puree, so we decided to be adventurous and try it out. the result resembled that of a cheap artificial cheese store-bought kind with its vivid orange color, but it tasted delicious, and was creamy and flavorful. (wish an added dash of salt and pepper.)

lori had some leftover samuel adams from the birthday party this weekend too, so she donated a few to the cause and we all (the three of us, plus susie and lori) sat down around the table to eat the mac and some roasted sweet potatoes. the sam adams selection included a variety of different brews, so i tried a holiday porter, which was carameley and full of flavor. it was fun to sit down all together and just hang out, we're usually always so busy!

i forgot to mention that we also started the day off right with some pecan caramel brioches and top notch espresso from bakery noveau. what a treat! too bad i missed my spin and abs class tonight, haha, i'll be making that one up sometime :)

it's been great to have the two of them in town. i love being around friends who know me so well and for so long. we talk about real life things, it's natural, and i appreciate it.

the wind is gusty and blustery outside. i think i'll go to sleep while i can listen. like rain. though wind is sometimes more creepy.

p.s. i forgot to post this picture from my flight back to texas:

sweet view, only slightly hindered by the enormous engine outside my window. row 31 window seat = row 31 engine seat. at least i got some good reading in.

okay, goodnight for real.

eh?

I expanded my list of countries visited to include Canada yesterday! The Whites are in town from Texas, and we decided to take a day trip up to Vancouver. It was fun to drive according to kph and see things written in French! We started off at Granville market- so much to see, so many beautiful foods.

We left Seattle around 7:30am, so by the time we got to the market around 11, we were sufficiently hungry. Kelsey and I split a piece of Italian focaccia and Thomas had a multigrain mini baguette while we explored and admired the pastries, fruits, pastas, and cheeses. There were some bagels that looked absolutely delicious, I wish I would have bought some to bring back to Seattle to enjoy for the next few days. We walked around the outside of the market as well, and ended up kind of behind a yacht repair shop.

Next stop: lunch. Parking is basically almost impossible around the city and the signs are hard to decode, but we snagged a roadside spot and set off to find an Indian food restaurant that was recommended, only to find it closed. So we started walking along one of the main streets to one called Vij’s. We sat outside in the heated enclosed area, where they provide blankets on the back of your chair! We used them, it was chilly. The food was tasty, we shared a red bell/portabella mushroom curry dish and a lamb with coconut something or other dish. Both came with naan, and we ate every bite. (except maybe one or two of the beet salad….it wasn’t our favorite.) We were tempted to get some authentic Indian chai, but knew about a legit Italian bakery that supposedly had the best pastries around, so set off to find it instead. The neighborhood was beautiful, lots of colorful houses, almost colonial style, with steps that lead up to a porch and the front door, and plenty of autumn leaves.

It was a nice walk, though by the time we were back at the car, our toes were thoroughly frozen. On to the bakery, where parking was an issue again. We got lucky and found a garage for only $6, so we parked there and stayed for a while, then walked to the bakery where we each got a cappuccino. I tried the biscotti (what a treat!) and Kelsey and Thomas split a chocolate croissant. We sat and warmed up for a while, intending to head out to Stanley park, but were thwarted by the rain instead. So we walked the few blocks to the Vancouver Public Library, which was an architectural delight and quite fun to explore.

We perused the English fiction, the teen hits section, and then went all the way to the top to see rare books and photographs. Kelsey pulled out an old microfilm and we read the Canadian paper for December 8^th, 1941.

By that point, it was 5pm and pitch dark, so we headed off to find some dinner. More trekking through the rain, this time to Chinatown. We wanted to find some good, dirt cheap no-joking Chinese, and we did. For $8 we all three spit some fried rice, chow mein, sweet and sour chicken, and broccoli chicken.

It was tasty and authentic. We almost got some classic Canadian poutine as well, but (a) were full and (b) decided to get out of Chinatown pretty quick, as it started looking kind of sketchy.

After the walk back to the parking garage we were cold again, so we went to Café Artisaino, where we all three shared a chai to warm up.

We drove through Stanley park, though it would have been nice to see in the daytime. We got some sweet views of the Vancouver city lights from the overlook, and caught a raccoon trying to break into a trashcan for some dinner.

The drive home was rainy, the kind that is already back on the windshield the second our wipers wipe it off, and full of good conversation. All in all, it was quite the adventure of a day. Multicultural, good food, and lots of walking.

Just the way I like it.

row 20, seat e.

Have I mentioned how much I love flying?

Especially when this is the view:

Note both Mt. Rainier on the right AND Mt. St. Helens on the left. Too bad the scratchy plastic airplane window was in the way. I admired them until they were out of sight as I tried to savor (but in reality inhaled) my warm blueberry bagel, an airport tradition.

Also, my gate was decked out to provide a blast to the medieval past experience:

Everyone was staring as they walked by, totally jealous! I don’t know what the occasion was, but I was glad to claim A9 as MY gate. Of course, at the last second, they switched me to A8… so I didn’t actually get to walk through the castle doors to board the plane. Maybe when I fly home for Christmas it will be something else. Maybe Narnia, and I could be off to a magical world of talking animals and adventure.

Why the occasion to fly? Headed home for the weekend for the funeral of my grandfather, whom I have called Big Daddy all my life. And a Big Daddy he was indeed! Surely that’s where I get my sweet tooth. When I was little I used to go out to his warehouse and find him tinkering away at all his clocks, fixing and restoring them. Big ones, tiny ones, hundreds of them, if I recall correctly. A whole warehouse full. All just tick tocking away.

Check out how great he was here: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dfw/obituary.aspx?n=george-john-mellina&pid=146402122&eid=sp_shareobit

It was good to be home with the family- I’m telling you, they could be a comedy show of their own. Those Mellinas are stinkin hilarious. Especially when you put all those brothers together and they get to telling stories….like the one where Richard convinced Ken to falsely own up to burying Mau Mau’s watch so only HE would get whopped with the fly swatter instead of the three of them. Or how BigDaddy installed a fire alarm on the OUTSIDE of the house so that the village of small children (that included my dad, his 3 brothers and 2 sisters, and the other 15 or so neighborhood kids) that lived on Mistletoe Dr could all know when it was dinnertime. Or when all 8 of them loaded into the station wagon to drive to LA from Fort Worth and had to fight for floor space to sleep in the single hotel room that they slept in which only had one bed. They’re a hoot- I love that Mellina sense of humor.

I started a new rotation this past week- 3 weeks of long term care at nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities. (Ironic, no?) The days are long, as my commute is over an hour to and from. This past Wednesday I put in a 12 hour day, 4 of which were spent driving. I don’t really feel like I’ve learned a ton, mostly I’ve been watching my preceptor put a bunch of numbers that correspond to something coded in a handbook on a lot of forms I’ve never seen. I also work at 3 different facilities, all of which do things a little differently, and under two preceptors. All those constantly changing variables makes it a little hard to establish any kind of norm or standard.

On the plus side, although my commute is long, it has a phenomenal view:

I could look at Mt. Rainier all day. Clearly. Half the pictures I take are of that mountain. I just think it’s phenomenal!

Here’s a fun one of the downtown area as well, from I-5 north:

Standstill traffic provides such opportunities to take pictures. Don’t worry, I’m a safe driver, I promise :)

This past weekend’s sermon was especially convicting. Mark preached on Luke 12:1-12, which talks about the fear of man vs. the fear of the Lord. He pointed out that the fear of man has no rightful place in our lives; after all, our God has conquered fear and death. Why is this so convicting to me? Because I do fear man. I think everyone does, to some extent. Not just a tangible fear, one of being attacked or something like that. But rather the more subtle fear that exhibits itself as people pleasing. Fear of what people think. Fear of losing control. Of making mistakes. People do all of these things, myself included. And it’s a sinful mentality, because it elevates a person, idea, or opinion. While we claim Jesus as Lord, men become our functional god, they are who we seek to please. They sit on the throne of our lives, and become our purpose. Mark talked about four ways to overcome the fear of man: (1) by living for judgment day- ultimately, these people who we fear have no eternal impact on us. (2) by being willing to suffer- after all, as believers, we are already dead to this world, it holds nothing of lasting good for us. When we realize that, we are free from being constrained by it, and things like criticism and ridicule are insignificant. (3) by the love of the Lord- who is sovereign and purposeful. This allows proper perspective. (4) by the fear of the Lord- as we are commanded to do. If we fear the Lord, there is no room for fear of man. Those four things are not like a checklist though, they’re characteristic of a mentality, an orientation of the heart. One that takes a long time to develop and hold fast to. Once I wrap my mind around it a little more I might write on it again. For now, I’m thankful for the grace that we don’t earn our salvation, we don’t serve a God who turns his back when we aren’t good enough. Because the reality is, we aren’t, and we never can be. And yet despite this, Jesus delights to intercede for us. Why work so hard to earn something that we will never be able to do enough to merit, and which has already freely been given to us?

This afternoon was such a treat- I got to spend time with the Whites, just talking and relaxing and laughing and doing life. Kels and I walked down to the Montgomery Plaza starbucks and I indulged in a pumpkin spice latte while we talked about real life heart and soul kinds of things. I value those conversations. Then Thomas cooked dinner with us- pancakes, eggs, and fresh fruit. Brinner, yes please.

Tomorrow morning is an early one, in the 5am hour again. BONUS that it’s daylight savings time! An extra hour will be nice :) Even so, I should be heading to bed.

Until next time.