How was your weekend? Mine was good….although it went by quickly! The highlight was the hockey game Jeremy, Holli, and I went to on Saturday night in Philadelphia. It was the Philadelphia Flyers against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Penguins won 8-2. It was awesome. Sidney Crosby had a hat trick…and Jer had these awesome Pens jerseys we wore. Although we risked death by wearing them into that stadium full of Flyers fans, it was a lot of fun to support our team! Can’t wait until the next game!

School is busy but good. I just need to hang in there, and stay on top of things, until Thanksgiving and then my papers due reduce tremendously. Yay! This morning I registered for my winter class, and then my last three classes I have to take in the spring. While I do love school, it will be nice to be done.

It is getting really chilly here. Our evenings have (already) gotten into the 30s, and our days are dipping down as well. It has been sooooo windy here the past couple of days that a lot of our fall leaves are gone and it is beginning to look like the beginning of winter. It will be here soon!

My work’s annual fund raising banquet is a week from today. Please pray that everything will go well and that we have good attendance numbers. This is our major fundraiser of the year so it is important that all goes well.

There is now a Chipotle 30 mins. from here. Finally, semi-decent Mexican food is in my area. I think I have died and gone to heaven!!

Kristin is coming to Jersey this weekend. Looking forward to having her here!

Here is something inspiring for you to watch! The Capernaum director sent this to me. (Capernaum is Young Life for teens with disabilities.)

http://cjcphoto.com/can/

Please take the time to visit, sign up, and prayerfully consider what your role can be in stopping this terrible genocide.
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/evangelicalsfordarfur

I love my leaders.

This is guaranteed to make your Monday much, much better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWs1FF-BS7c

Jeremy, Holli, Lindy, Kelly and I went geocaching today. I had never heard of such a thing before. It was so much fun...you have to check it out!!! Think Amazing Race, but at your own pace and you get to decide where you want to explore. We were able to be outside in the beautiful Fall weather and it was wonderful. A good way to start the new week.:-)

I get to go to a Flyers/Penguins game on Saturday in Philly! GO PENS!

There is a church (Langhorne Presbyterian) that has this displayed outside their building (you know in the little advertising window box thing) and it has me so confused. What do you think it means? "Is it better to be a seagull or a goose?"

Night!

Holli, Lindy, and I hung out last night and went to see Marie Antoinette. The first 45 mins. were decent but the rest of the movie went downhill quickly. (Several people got up and left.) The costumes and sets are beautiful, but the movie is hardly accurate, and I don't know what Sophia Copolla was thinking through about 75% of the movie. Anyway, if you are wanting to see this movie, definitely save your money and rent it!!

But it was fun being with my friends anyway...:)

I have discovered over the past couple of years that, very much like a teenager, I still need about nine hours of sleep every night. It makes such a difference!

I also have discovered how I need to be warm in order to fall asleep. I especially need to have warm feet!!

I didn’t have either of those last night.

What do you need to have in order to get a good night’s rest?

As promised, here is my long awaited update on Amy, Mandy, Kristin, and Janell! I will post pics soon… I only have 15 mins. in which to type this so I gotta move fast.

Amy came out and visited me for a few days. She came on a Tuesday and left on Saturday night. It was wonderful having her out here. She was my first WC friend to stay in my new apartment. Anyway, I tried to show her around and give her the best EC experience I could in the time we had. We went to Lancaster County and had a great time driving and walking through all that county has to offer. I love that place and really feel like God has given me a heart for the Amish. We also went to NYC where I scored us front row, center seats to Tarzan on Broadway for only $20 each (come visit me and I will do the same for you). We also went to Serendipity’s, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, and saw other typical NYC sights. It was a fun day. We also spent time in Clinton, Flemington, Langhorne, Philadelphia and Princeton.

When I dropped Amy off at the airport on Saturday I drove down to D.C. to visit with Kristin and Mandy. Mandy had flown out for the weekend and I was excited to spend a couple of days with them. We had a wonderful time talking, laughing, and catching up. We also saw a movie (Little Miss Sunshine) and drove around the district for a bit. We did, of course, take Mandy to Famous Luigi’s, which has become a tradition for Kristin and I. It was so nice to be with sorority sisters.

Then, a few days after that, I flew home to be in my high school best friend’s wedding. I was the Maid of Honor and of course would not have missed the opportunity to support her by being in her wedding. Her wedding was at her house and it was so incredible to be a part of such a special day at a place where I have childhood memories. I got a lot of time with my high school friends and it was like we had never grown up or left each other. Even though I was sad about not being able to see my family that much, my trip was very much worth it. Janell looked beautiful and she did such a good job with the entire planning, etc.

As I was typing this right now I was thinking about how much I am blessed by friends. God is good in that I have been able to make and maintain friends at all stages of my life. Thanks everyone for your friendship and know that I love you very much!

I typed this in 12 mins. Go me!

I was talking to my friend Kristin about this yesterday, and when I read my friend Hannah’s blog today I was reminded about how much this issue impacts my heart. It is the issue of relationships, particularly of those between men and women. Ahhhh, amore.

I just got done reading a book called Sacred Marriage, which I know I have mentioned earlier in my blog. Seriously, you NEED to read it, single or not. This book changed my life and has opened up my eyes to marriage and it has been wonderful. Anyway, it got me thinking even more about the subject of relationships, and particularly why God has me in the state I am now, which is that of being single.

I should mention here that while I would definitely prefer to be in a relationship, and to have a family someday, I really am OK being single. God has really provided for me and I have had many opportunities that I would not have had had I been married. (Although I’m sure that can be said as well vice versa.) And why do I want to be married? There are lots of reasons, but truly my number one reason is because I think it would better enable me to serve God and love others. Really. Someone once told me that you will see your worst sin when you are married. (The book talks a lot about that.) While that totally freaks me out, I want it very much. I want to be refined and I want to be able to grow from the wonderful/challenging/etc. relationship of marriage. It is a desire of my heart, and I don’t think that God would be cruel enough to place that there and then leave me hanging.

But yet sometimes I think I am still single because I am being punished. I am being punished for all the bad things I have done, for not being beautiful enough, for not being a certain size, for not being whatever. While I am content, I still wonder why God has me in this phase of life. Maybe that is the sinful part of me, the part that isn’t trusting in His will and His timing. I don’t know. It is a hard place to be sometimes.

I also get frustrated because I know of a lot of wonderful (and very pretty) women out there who have amazing hearts and love Jesus very much. But, because they don’t fit a worldly idea of beauty, they are often passed by. They are such gems and while this might be part of God’s plans for their lives, to wait for a bit, I often think it is because most Christian men are being sucked in to the very superficial teachings of the world. I have seen this happen firsthand several times over. This makes me very sad indeed.

Anyway, on a related note I am going back on a diet tomorrow. This seems to be the story of my life I’m afraid. And to be truthful I am doing it for superficial reasons. Sure it is a great thing to be healthy, to love your body and keep it at it’s best because it is a temple of God and we need to be good stewards of all that He gives us including food, but really I am doing it because I am feeling the pressure to fit into the world’s standards. Ugh, yet again.

This is me confessing to you that this is a struggle of mine.

Are there really good Christian men out there who will love me for what God designed me to be? Who will take me as I am no matter how I look, no matter what degrees I have, no matter what my job? Who will want to partner with me to love and serve others? Who will commit to helping me grow in Christ?

I am praying that I will be that way when I am a wife, and that my husband will have lots of grace.

I don’t need a man to complete me, or because I am occasionally lonely, etc. I know that marriage is not the answer for that. I am not looking to a man to be the answer to my longings or problems. God is all that and more. God is my soul mate.

I am just writing down the thoughts that are in my head. Your comments and prayers are appreciated.

Delish!

I love food. I love to prepare it, serve it, and eat it. Heck, I also love the food network on TV! It has always been a dream (one of many) to open up a café/bakery of my own. Or to have a job like Rachael Ray – that would be AWESOME!

Anyway, today I had a chicken sandwich for lunch. They asked me what kind of cheese I wanted…swiss or american? When I drove away I thought – wow the only cheese they had were “country” cheeses…too funny! And then I thought about how when I was in Sweden they called thousand island dressing american dressing. I wonder if in places like Canada if they have american cheese too…or if they call it by another name? Dumb, I know, but I seriously thought about this for like 30 mins. today…lol!!

In lab today one of my lab mates brought in some chips. They were, I kid you not, shrimp chips. They were regular corn chips – I mean they were crunchy and shaped like fries, and their first ingredient was wheat. She finally convinced me to try one and it tasted exactly like shrimp. It was sooooo crazy! I love shrimp, but I think I will stick to the real thing. There is just something about eating a chip that has fish listed as one of the ingredients that grosses me out.

In my next blog I will share about my time with Amy, Mandy, Kristin – and CA!