garden state and other random updates

I saw the movie Garden State and it is awesome. What a great independent film with a great soundtrack. Everyone should go see it.

Here's the random updates:

• I did it! I got up early on thursday and worked out. YAY. I have given myself a loophole and that is if i walk/run the night before, then I can sleep in.
  
• The nibble on my car got away. She wouldn't take the bait. Oh well. Dad and I spent friday evening cleaning my car. So now its like having new car.
• I went shopping in harrisonburg and was able to find some pants. Yay! I still want to get more clothes, but it'll have to wait until things slow down. Besides the JMU people drove me crazy.
• Work is officially crazy busy! It fun to run on adreneline right?

I also have to let everyone know that I have AWESOME parents! Dad came over on Saturday to mow and take care of landscaping stuff. Mom made me yummy broccoli salad. Are there two better people out there? I don't think so.

random thoughts

The past few days have been busy and its not going to slow down. My team has been working overtime to prepare for the students. Next week the crazyness will really begin. So here's the random scoop:

• I've made a resolution to start working out in the mornings. I think its the only time that will work in my schedule. I read that you burn more calories if you workout in the morning because it boosts your metabolism. Also a friend was telling me that they have to get up at 4am every morning. So I decided 6am wasn't so bad. :)
• I have a nibble on my car. That's right someone asked about buying it. I'm not sure how interested they are, but its a start.
  
• I've been biten by the shopping bug. This time of year I feel the urge to buy a new wardrobe. I started looking monday & tuesday night. But the urge hasn't gone away. I might have to make a trip to charlottesville this weekend. Shopping anyone?
• I've decided not to buy an ipod. I know its sad. But a friend pointed out that I probably wouldn't use it that much. I have access to my music via my computer most of the time. So it wouldn't be a good use of my money. Now I have to figure out something different to do with my unexpected money. Any ideas?
  
• I'll be starting an accounting class next week. Its the last prerequisite before I start the MBA program. Actually its optional since I took an accounting class when I was in college. But I didn't get a very good grade and it was a few years ago. So I decided it would be good to brush up on my skills.
  

I guess that's it for the randomness. Peace out!

weekend in dc

Well, it was an interesting weekend. We left for dc on friday evening. Overall we had a good time. But here are the important points.

• My sleeping bag was left behind.
  
• I lost a contact lens.
• I forgot my toothbrush and toothpaste.
• My running shoes got ruined.

Now the weekend is over and my busy time begins.

Check out this article about singleness being a sin.

if i had a million dollars....

Well not quite a millon, but how bout $400. Today in the mail I had a check for $400!!! It was a refund from my escrow account. Since I wasn't expecting it, I did a little dance. My first thought was now I can buy an ipod! My mom's advice was to not spend it, which I told her was way too practical. So then she came up with decorating my extra room. I kinda like that idea, but its something i would do anyway. Send me your ideas.

This weekend I'll be in DC with the youth group. We are doing another service project. We should have a good time. Next week work will be really busy. This year we will be working on every student computer. It should be over 500 computers. We have never done this before and it is going to be a crazy time.

what should i do with my room

How did it get to be Monday already? I didn't get enough done over the weekend for it to be over. What should i have done you might ask? Well putting the laundry away, washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, organizing my bills, and clean the floors. Did you know that wood floors seem to always be dirty. So if i didn't do those things what did i do. Well Friday night the youth group went door to door in broadway collecting canned food for the broadway food bank. Afterwards they watched a movie outside using a projector and a sheet. I left early and hungout with Adam and Bryan. It was his last night in Harrisonburg. I know he's going to be really happy in Ohio, but I will miss him. On Saturday I hung out with mom & dad in the morning. We picked out new glasses for dad looked at couches. Since it was saturday, I took a nap in the afternoon. Then I hung out with Bill at Dave's Taverna. Nothing too exciting. Sunday was all about church. Church in the morning and church in the evening and a nap in the afternoon.

About a month ago I got new tires at costco. When I picked them up, they informed me that Nitrogen was used to inflate them. Since then everyone asks why they used nitrogen and won't that explode in an accident. So here's the answer. No it won't explode and it is used because its better for the tires. You can read more about it here.

I'm trying to decide what the extra room in my house should be. Any ideas. I've been thinking through all the rooms in the game clue. So far I like the idea of a conservatory, but I don't play any instruments. A ballroom would be unnecessary. It could be a library, I do have books. It could be a study since I already have a desk. However I never use this room or the desk. So far its been a place for the cats to hang out. I'm also trying to get back into scrapbooking so it could be a room for that. I've got the color picked out, sage. So what do you think? It'll probably end up being a study/library. But that seems sorta boring. Help me out.

a little relief

I was a lot less itchy today. YAY!
Work was pretty productive. I had lunch at Qdoba. They have really yummy vegetarian burritos. All day it felt like friday, but its not. After work I stopped by Jeb's new store. Its a really nice place. I also stopped by circuit city and bought a new cd by Badly Drawn Boy. I just discovered this group, and I really like them.

I made a quick stop at Costco and discovered that tide, bounce, and downy had instant discounts. I am a sucker for that since its the only was to save more money at costco. So I'll let you in on a little known fact about me. You know how some people are obsessive about cleanliness. Well I'm obsessive about having plenty of cleaning supplies, personal products and tp. So the funny thing is that i'm standing in costco looking at the bounce. I know that there are 2.5 boxes at home. That is over 500 sheets and knowing this i buy another box. Now I have over 700 sheets of bounce. I would have to do a load of laundry every day for 2 years to use them up. How crazy is that? I also bought shampoo and conditioner even though I don't need it just because they came with soap samples. I hope you are getting a good laugh because I got home and laughed at myself. :)

Ok, I wanna get your opinions on something. A friend of mine told me that guys want a woman who will nag them about their shortcomings. They want to be made better. Do you guys think thats true? Because I dont want to do that. I have enough to worry about with my own issues. I don't want to be incharge of someone else. Shouldn't it be that each person worries about being the best they can be? A person needs to be happy by themself before they can be happy in a relationship. Well that's my opinion. Whats yours? Leave a comment or send me an email.

itchy & scratchy

i have never been so itchy in my life. I highly recommend that you never ever get chigger bites. Today was pretty ordinary. Work was good. Dinner was pizza at church. It was good to catch up with Kathy, Steph, Rebecca, and Dawn. Then I had Mom, Dad, and Patty over for creme brulee.

Not much else exciting to report. Life will be busy for the month of August. Let the fun/busyness begin. :)

My week in the hollar; aka Harlan, Kentucky

Well, here it is finally. My essay. "What I did during my week in Kentucky". Actually there isn't too much to report on. What has taken the most time was organizing the pictures. So check them out. Now that I've got it figured out, I should be able to post picture more frequently.

The week was good. We were there with a group from Newton, Kansas. I really enjoyed getting to know them. What cool kids. Of course it was fun to hangout with our youth group too. They are also cool kids.

We split into four groups. My group consisted of Aaron, Laura, Stevo, Mark, Jason, Elizabeth and Frank, Colleen, Nels, and Katie from the KS group. Our project was to construct an addition to Tammy Rice's house. Her health is bad and she needs a bedroom and bathroom on the main floor.

When we arrived on Monday the foundation had been laid. So we put in the floor, walls, insulation, roof, and siding. It was a lot of fun to see it come together, especially since my house was just built. The carpenter leading our group was Carroll. He is a 50ish man from Kansas. He lost his wife to a car accident five years ago.

On Monday and Tuesday evening, there was an organized program. We sang praise songs and had an informal speaker. Wednesday we only worked till noon. Then we headed to a lake for an afternoon of swimming and lounging in the sand. In the evening we had a picnic. Then went to a park for a blue grass concert. We played volleyball with some of the townies.

Thursday was another full day of construction work. This was the day I had a bizarro experience. Carroll and I were unloading drywall off a truck. He kept asking me questions like: are you married, have children, what do you do, how far is harrisonburg, how old are you? I answered them all, trying to be the happy outgoing sponsor. Later he says to me "I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse." So I say ok. And he says "do you like ice cream?" I say of course. Then he says "To thank you for all your hard work, we'll go out for ice cream tomorrow". Now I'm assuming he is refering to the whole group, so I say sure. As I walk away, I realize that he meant just me. Now I'm feeling strange. That evening at dinner he sits beside me. How bizarro. So later I tell Amy about it. At this point I'm not sure whether he meant just me or the whole group. I rationalize that I am only feeling ackward because we are both single and he was asking sorta personal questions. Amy tells me to trust my instincts, but I convince myself that I am reading too much into the situation. I pray that God will make this whole thing go away.

So the next day I try not to think about it. I've decided to pretend that I misunderstood and thought the whole group was going. I'll tell him that I can't leave the group. This gives me some peace. At lunch we are all eating together and talking. Carroll starts to say something like "i'd like to.." but he gets interrupted. I decide that he was going to invite us all to ice cream and I was reading way too much into it. Now I'm feeling really relieved and can't believe I blew it out of proportion. Of course he wasn't asking me out, that would be silly and probably against SWAP rules.

Friday evening they invite the families to join us for dinner and then a slide show. It was fun to see the pictures from the week. At the end of the session the newton group leader asks his kids to have a short meeting. Sarah has our kids get together for a short meeting too. I'm on my way to our meeting room when he walks up and asks if i'm still interested in getting ice cream. So I quickly say that I couldn't leave the group. He said he understood my position.

How bizarro is that. Now I don't think he really was asking me out on a date. I'm assuming he just was being nice, but I still think its strange. How do I get myself into these situations?

All in all it was an AWESOME week. The only down side was chiggers. I came home with at least 100 chigger bites. Mostly on my legs. Boy do they itch.

We got back around 3pm on Saturday. I spent the weekend itching, doing laundry and enjoying solitude.

Monday night I hosted small group. We had a special guest visitor from Nebraska. Jen is here for a week. I made brocolli cheese soup and creme brulee. It was great to see Jen again and play with Nevin. Patty and Connie weren't able to be there. Connie had a drs. appointment in Charlottesville. Patty stopped over when they got home. It was good to spend some time together. Sam also stopped by to show off his new phone. How cool, I'm jealous.

I guess that's all for now.