Another Educational Outing

We spent the afternoon at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and found it to be quite interesting. The most interesting thing about the museum was its smell. It kind of smelled like a bathroom or like Disney World, when you are standing in line amidst several warm bodies. So, does that mean that all bathrooms smell like Disney World, or that Disney World smells like one big bathroom? They smell the same. So...we had fun. We took some more pictures and saw a few interesting pieces. I really like the Dale Chihuly chandellier. It was very colorful! They had a pretty interesting array of artsy chairs that you could sit in. I had to pull Shannon from the spinny red one. Overall, I give the museum a B-, and Shannon agrees. Part of my grading is based upon the construction that they are doing, which was the reason several exhibits were closed. Unfortunate, yet still a good time was had by the two of us. We then made our way downtown and found a Starbucks and found nourishment for our bodies and good smelling things, as opposed to the lavatory-like odor that permeated the museum. It was great, and we checked out the downtown for a couple minutes and took some photographs and then made our way home by the graces of the Mercury Topaz, which decided to cooperate today. We did say a prayer on its behalf. Again, I had a great time with my lady!

It's Miller Time!

Today, Shannon and I went on the Miller Brewery tour. It was a ton of fun, and about the only educational activity we have participated in this break. It was kind of like a field trip that you take in elementary school, but this time we learned about how beer is made. It was quite interesting. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and acting goofy and stuff. I almost died when I ran in the middle of the street for a picture, and Shannon died laughing. The guy driving the mini-van that almost hit me thought I was crazy. To top it off, when we got in the car, it wouldn't start! Fortunately, being the expert mechanic that I am, I gave the starter a few taps and we were on our way. Shannon said that I am her hero! I had a great time with my lady! Check out all of the photos from our trip here!

Missing my Love on Christmas! II

J: Dear, dear Christmas. I could not agree more with Shannon about the difficulty of Christmas day. During one of the most romantic seasons of all, a season filled with love, I was away from my sweetheart, Shannon. I had a great time with my family and friends during the day. We laughed a lot, exchanged gifts, and ate a ton of food. My family still maintains the tradition of waking up long before the sun comes up to start the Christmas day by the fire and with the reading of the Christmas story from the Bible. This proved to expecially difficult, considering I was up late talking with Shannon, and waking up before seven is a foreign task to me. Early as it was, it was a great time. It made me realize that my family does not simply wake up so dang early because we want to open gifts. We do it because that is what we have always done as a family. It is definitely a family thing. We love each other and thats just what we do. I know it sounds crazy. Even though I had a ton of fun with the folks, siblings, and close family friends, it was not complete or as full as could have been with Shannon be hundreds of miles away. I look forward to being able to share Christmas with her one day.

Missing my Love on Christmas!

S: Oh happy happy holidays! I really am a sentimental fool... I love traditions and all of the memories that go along with such romantic times like Christmas! I knew Christmas this year would be difficult for a number of reasons: 1. my love, best friend, and favorite person to be deliciously sappy with would be hundreds of miles away from my holiday celebration, and I away from his. And 2. not just one, but both of my siblings and their spouses (and my nieces, born or not) would be away this holiday as well! The 20th and the 23rd were difficult days. (=I left Joshua in VA; and then my siblings went on their ways)... Christmas day: ended up being delightfully relaxing and fun with both my mom and dad. We took it easy in the morning, laughed and talked and then headed down to my cousins' house in Illinois. That was also fun in a new sort of way despite missing some of the old cast members. More food, more talking, more laughing... and while I did not wake up early in the still dark morning, bounce down the hallway with excitement spilling out in squeals... eager to see what Santa had left me that night... I do have a new sort of appreciation for Christmas; for the family it brings together, for the love that is shared (though I could not be with mine) it really is a great time, and I still do have alot to look forward to... !

Grace II

S: Whoa life!!! Now that my food, sleep and family tanks are refueled from this past weekend, I can now pause to look at all of the fun that makes life move in fast-forward. It hit me right away the first morning as I awoke to my mom superhumanly juggling a momentarily fussy grandbaby, while stepping over, feeding and cleaning up after 8 rambunctious little puppies. What used to be the quiet and mostly tame house I left for school was now positively overflowing with new life, activity, smells and noises. My adorable niece Haley is a poignant visual reminder of the passage of time. Her size, weight, amount of hair, and rapidly developing communication skills remind me that alot of life can happen and change in just a month! Not only this, but my beautiful pregnant sister and her expanding waistline are cues; little markers as to how life keeps moving whether or not I'm there to witness it. My old highschool has practically doubled in size with the addition of a new gym, and I just recently found out that my 50-something (though still young-hearted and spirited) dad is now preparing to make a dramatic career change! Talk about craziness! Josh wrote this weekend that Grace is the ability to accept change. I've definitely realized this past weekend. That no matter how great everything used to be, just because it's different or changing now doesn't mean it's not as good (or better)... that my sentimental side should not be overwhelmed merely because things are not like they used to be or have changed since I've left them. This was an interesting realization, because just as I was accepting the differences and changes and growth in those loved ones around me, it was brought to light how badly I also need it from them. I am not the only one extracted and returning to life with the old memories still in mind... I too need their grace in the differences, changes and growth that happens in my life. And thus is the beautiful, although stretching, cycle of time. It wasn't really until I recognized my own need for grace, that it made me much more open and desiring to give it. I guess its made to work out pretty nicely in the long run.

Gratitude

J: Well, today is Thanksgiving. Actually, it would be more accurate for me to say that, today was Thanksgiving. Things are kind of winding down now. Today was probably one the most relaxing, lazy days I have had in a long time. It was definitely a great Thanksgiving! I watched some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, carved the turkey, got my Treptophene fix, napped, and watched "Miracle On 34th Street" with the family. The common thread throughout all of this is the constant eating of pumpkin pie, apple pie, and more turkey. I love it. I can now listen to all of the Mannheim Steamroller and Bing Crosby Christmas albums I want, watch holiday classics such as "White Christmas," "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer," and "Elf." The spirit of the holiday season has officially been ushered in. Hooray!

One of the Thanksgiving traditions that I like is the sharing of what we are most thankful for. After the Thanksgiving feast, everyone sits slumped in their seats barely able to hold themselves up because they are so full, with their belts loosened and eyes slowly glazing over because the treptophene. Everyone quickly thinks of something to share with the rest of the table, and simultaneously makes an effort to listen to whoever is sharing. I think that this is a great tradition, but I must admit, during this time my eyes are focused on the couch, anxiously awaiting my post-feast nap. I know I probably sound like an ingrate, but really, I'm not. I have so much to be thankful for, and I am more than willing to share it. It's just kind of funny that this is generally the only time we share these blessings; at least intentionally. It makes sense though. It is Thanksgiving day.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm not just referring to the good things in life: beautiful Shannon, a loving family, good friends, and God's providence. These are certainly blessings, but its those difficult things that I struggle to be grateful for too. I'll refer to them as, blessings in disguise. Gratitude is much like grace. I don't always get what I want, and things don't always go my way. During these times when things just don't go my way, I have two choices: I can either thumb my nose at God, or humbly express my gratitude. I can recall one experience in my life where I felt this way. I felt broken, like everything had been stripped from me: control, understanding, and peace. I had no idea why things were going the way they were and I had never felt so hurt and empty in my life. Anger was my initial reaction, naturally. This, however, didn't last long. Again, I reached a breaking point, a point where God had me pinned. I had no other choice but to surrender. My pride didn't want me to surrender, but what I wanted was no longer an issue. And that was it. Surrender. Giving over all control and doing so with a grateful heart.

Gratitude is one of the keys to maturity. It is kind of like, taking everything in stride and doing it with a smile. It's similiar to having grace. When we are able to say thank you in those difficult situations, or times that don't necessarily go in line with what we wanted, we are admitting that there is something much greater than ourselves in control. When we are grateful, there is a change inside, a maturation of our hearts. His desires become our desires and we come closer to the heart of God.

Grace

J: Today is an absolutely beautiful day here in Virginia. I am officially home for Thanksgiving and Shannon is up in Wisconsin. I miss her. She would really enjoy the weather here today. It's snowing. It's the kind of snow that falls really slow, but thick. The sky is gray, and the ground beginning to blend in slowly with the sky as the snow covers it in white. I love it. It makes me think of when I was a kid, anticipating a big snow so I can get out of school. There is something very invigorating about the snow. It heightens nostalgia. Kind of like the way wind makes you feel alive. That's what Shannon always says. She loves the wind because it makes her feel alive. I love the snow because it makes me feel nostalgic. Everything always feels so sterile when it snows. Life is covered in white, and people don't really move. I can remember going on walks in the snow as a kid with my dad and sisters. We would walk in the streets late at night, and it was always so peaceful, so innocent. No one else was out. No one was driving on the snowy streets and no one dared to walk in the cold. We were the only ones alive. It always had a sort of erie feel to it because it was so quiet and peaceful. It was abnormal, but the good kind of abnormal. The kind of abnormal that makes you feel like you are in on something special, a once in a lifetime opportunity. These were special moments for me when I was growing up.
Sometimes I wish I could experience those moments again. The snow is certainly a reminder of how things change. Life is so different now. It is difficult when the people in your life are changing, and when I am changing too. It is an adjustment, or a realization that I don't always have to be right. I can't make a life plan. I've tried that, and they never seem to work. I can never make a plan for someone else's life either. My ideal may not be their's. And that's ok! I don't have to always be right! Change is good. The curveballs we get thrown in life our good. It is all in the way we view them. We can either accept them with gratitude or live in denial and anger. I feel like that is my current battle. I am learning that grace is the ability to accept change. Growing up is a good thing. Life is the best it has ever been! I'm in love with the most beautiful woman in the world, I've got a great family, and great friends; I never imagined that it could be this way. It's so different then I expected.
These are very formative years. People change, and I'm changing too. God give me grace.