I travel quite a bit. Ok, not a lot, but a little. I travel as much as most of the people I know. So today while I'm counting down the hours (1.75 to go) until I leave work to catch my flight to Ohio and I was thinking, "surely in the past three years I've encrued enough miles to at least upgrade my flight." This thought came after I realized I'm sitting in row 14b which means I'm in a middle seat. I don't mind the aisle or window, but I hate the middle seat. But no, my measly 4,574 won't get me anything. Stupid airline, stupid miles.
Another amusing anecdote is that this morning I brought my luggage to work. I walked in (actually I made Adam help me) with my suitcases (yup its a two suitcase trip and I don't even have my big dress to haul) rolling behind me (Adam) and I've been storing them under desks all day until wonderful Eleamar comes to pick me up on her day off to take me to the airport during rush hour. She's the best!
I can't wait to get into town and let the wedding festivities and madness catch me up in a whirlwind of emotion for the whole week.
Oh yeah, a real highlight of my trip is going to be family poker night on Saturday! I hope they are still having it somewhere. Nothing like crashing a party. I don't even know how to play poker.
And we get to go to East Side for church on Sunday that will be grand too.
And I get to see my Mommy :) I'm so excited.
Oh yeah and the very best! Andi's getting married!
I'll certainly have pics to post when I get home.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
I've been doin some thinkin'
but not too much... don't worry.
My dear friend Jessica, who has been through everything. we exchange a notebook. we write to each other and mail it back and forth. kinda like a "bff notebook" from middle school. we are both bad at calling each other (and both of us always end up crying by the end of each phone conversation) so this is better. when we get the chance we write an update, a word of encouragement, a scripture, etc. and pass it along. It's really great and fun, and keeps me from crying so much. Good plan.
I received the package in the mail (at first I just thought it was more Oscar winners for Adam's thesis) but then I realized it was addressed to me! Horray! I L-O-V-E mail! Sometimes in my head (but hardly ever aloud) I sing the Blues Clues mail song while I'm walking to the mailbox.
At the end of her note Jessica shared something she was learning about in her discipleship or bible study. "Be still, and know that I am God." She couldn't remember the reference (I didn't either but found out it's Psalm 46:10) but I thought about it in terms of her life and mine for a fleeting moment, laughed out loud, and said to myself "yeah, maybe someday I'll be still." But as it goes, God has other things in mind for me most of the time. The phrase keeps coming up in my head (normally in the form of a song I seem to recall having this phrase as a lyric. Of course I can't remember the rest of the song). So I thought... let's take a looksie at this. So I take a little time over at Biblegateway to look at a couple of different translations to see what I can find out. Sure enough NIV "Be still, and know that I am God" is right there. Ok God, I'm going to stop moving, maybe even try to clear my head of the bazillion things I have to do (note to self: laundry HAS to be done tonight) and know, realize, acknowledge Your presence. I don't know about you but I constantly fail at this (among other things as well). But then in NASB I found this particularly intersting "Cease striving and know that I am God." Hmmmm, very intersting. Cease is to stop and striving can mean struggling. For my purposes, I will use this definition. I know it's a bad bad idea to just use the definition you want.... You can ream me later for it. So in my head God is saying this, "hey silly, stop your struggling, know that I am who I say I am, I am bigger than all this crud you go through here on earth, just chill out." That of course would be some kind of hippy God, but hopefully you understand what I'm saying. We forget how B-I-G and H-O-L-Y and R-I-G-H-T-E-O-U-S God is sometimes. I know I do. He is bigger than anything I could ever imagine. If He's bigger than I can imagine, why can't he be big enough to take care of me and my husband, our finances, our future, and all the rest that give me stomach ulcers.
I'm normally not a big fan at all of The Message, but just for giggles I looked it up as I looked up the others, and I'll let it close my discussion because I actually enjoyed it.
"Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything." (The Message)
My dear friend Jessica, who has been through everything. we exchange a notebook. we write to each other and mail it back and forth. kinda like a "bff notebook" from middle school. we are both bad at calling each other (and both of us always end up crying by the end of each phone conversation) so this is better. when we get the chance we write an update, a word of encouragement, a scripture, etc. and pass it along. It's really great and fun, and keeps me from crying so much. Good plan.
I received the package in the mail (at first I just thought it was more Oscar winners for Adam's thesis) but then I realized it was addressed to me! Horray! I L-O-V-E mail! Sometimes in my head (but hardly ever aloud) I sing the Blues Clues mail song while I'm walking to the mailbox.
At the end of her note Jessica shared something she was learning about in her discipleship or bible study. "Be still, and know that I am God." She couldn't remember the reference (I didn't either but found out it's Psalm 46:10) but I thought about it in terms of her life and mine for a fleeting moment, laughed out loud, and said to myself "yeah, maybe someday I'll be still." But as it goes, God has other things in mind for me most of the time. The phrase keeps coming up in my head (normally in the form of a song I seem to recall having this phrase as a lyric. Of course I can't remember the rest of the song). So I thought... let's take a looksie at this. So I take a little time over at Biblegateway to look at a couple of different translations to see what I can find out. Sure enough NIV "Be still, and know that I am God" is right there. Ok God, I'm going to stop moving, maybe even try to clear my head of the bazillion things I have to do (note to self: laundry HAS to be done tonight) and know, realize, acknowledge Your presence. I don't know about you but I constantly fail at this (among other things as well). But then in NASB I found this particularly intersting "Cease striving and know that I am God." Hmmmm, very intersting. Cease is to stop and striving can mean struggling. For my purposes, I will use this definition. I know it's a bad bad idea to just use the definition you want.... You can ream me later for it. So in my head God is saying this, "hey silly, stop your struggling, know that I am who I say I am, I am bigger than all this crud you go through here on earth, just chill out." That of course would be some kind of hippy God, but hopefully you understand what I'm saying. We forget how B-I-G and H-O-L-Y and R-I-G-H-T-E-O-U-S God is sometimes. I know I do. He is bigger than anything I could ever imagine. If He's bigger than I can imagine, why can't he be big enough to take care of me and my husband, our finances, our future, and all the rest that give me stomach ulcers.
I'm normally not a big fan at all of The Message, but just for giggles I looked it up as I looked up the others, and I'll let it close my discussion because I actually enjoyed it.
"Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything." (The Message)
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Two posts in one day...
This is the best article I've read in a long time addressing "PWs" (Pastor's Wives for those of you who don't know) and the best part about it- it's in TIME magazine. Read it, even if you aren't a Pastor's Wife, especially if you are, or live with one.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1604902-1,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1604902-1,00.html
Fun with Friends
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tomorrow's just a day away....
So many things are getting ready to happen, I've noticed that recently I'm always thinking about the next day rather than living in the present. So much is coming up, I just can't wait! I start to lose sleep and get really nervous when things pick up and I become busy. Kinda like a four year old at the end of a long car ride. So here, I'll list the things that are going on maybe that will help me to stop the shallow breathing...
Adam's writing a master's thesis. This is pretty big news even though most of the responses we've gotten have been "oh, that's nice." (not so enthusiastic) I may even be more excited about it than Adam is though. He is cataloguing sin and redemption through the lense of the Academy Award Best Picture winners. So essientially we are adding quite a bit of movies (80 actually) to our collection. Lots of surprising movies were Oscar Best Pictures, but among my favorites, or ones I'm excited to see for the first time are, The Greatest Show on Earth (I cry every time), An American in Paris, Shakespeare in Love, The Sound of Music, Gone with the Wind, Crash, The Departed, Godfather, One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest, Cimmaron, and so many more. I love movies, I love the escape of them and the technique that it takes to make them.
Andi's Wedding! It's been such a long time coming, :) I've been waiting since high school to go to this one. I was informed yesterday that it is 18 days away. Horray! This also means many things: I'll get to be in Ohio again (it better not be snowing), I'll get to see friends and family (especially my Nicky and Jessica), and experience the pure joy of when two people who love each other are joined together as one (oh yeah, and the wine at the reception!).
DTS graduation- can't wait to pinch Jackson's cute little cheeks and see Danny, Jessica, Mike, and Kristi's cheeks too!
Adam's going to Tampa to visit Ryan and Laura.... Not that I wouldn't want to go visit (of course I would want to see Laura's massive belly!) but what it really means is Girl's Night at Cara's House! I'm planning an awesome girls movie, girly night. Nails, hair, junk food.... Did I mention girly?
Last but certainly not least.... Tomorrow. Wednesday. It's my first "real" day off in a long time. Didn't have to rearrange my schedule or anything. Just have a day off. I'm going to run errands by myself, do some shopping, and mark some stuff off my ever growing "to do" list.
Adam's writing a master's thesis. This is pretty big news even though most of the responses we've gotten have been "oh, that's nice." (not so enthusiastic) I may even be more excited about it than Adam is though. He is cataloguing sin and redemption through the lense of the Academy Award Best Picture winners. So essientially we are adding quite a bit of movies (80 actually) to our collection. Lots of surprising movies were Oscar Best Pictures, but among my favorites, or ones I'm excited to see for the first time are, The Greatest Show on Earth (I cry every time), An American in Paris, Shakespeare in Love, The Sound of Music, Gone with the Wind, Crash, The Departed, Godfather, One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest, Cimmaron, and so many more. I love movies, I love the escape of them and the technique that it takes to make them.
Andi's Wedding! It's been such a long time coming, :) I've been waiting since high school to go to this one. I was informed yesterday that it is 18 days away. Horray! This also means many things: I'll get to be in Ohio again (it better not be snowing), I'll get to see friends and family (especially my Nicky and Jessica), and experience the pure joy of when two people who love each other are joined together as one (oh yeah, and the wine at the reception!).
DTS graduation- can't wait to pinch Jackson's cute little cheeks and see Danny, Jessica, Mike, and Kristi's cheeks too!
Adam's going to Tampa to visit Ryan and Laura.... Not that I wouldn't want to go visit (of course I would want to see Laura's massive belly!) but what it really means is Girl's Night at Cara's House! I'm planning an awesome girls movie, girly night. Nails, hair, junk food.... Did I mention girly?
Last but certainly not least.... Tomorrow. Wednesday. It's my first "real" day off in a long time. Didn't have to rearrange my schedule or anything. Just have a day off. I'm going to run errands by myself, do some shopping, and mark some stuff off my ever growing "to do" list.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Reposter of Writing
I guess I've just become a reposter. I'm posting the link to a very interesting social experiment done by the Washington Post.
What would you have done?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=emailarticlepg
I would have said "Wow that's amazing," and wanted to have stopped, but I wouldn't have, I would have kept walking. Goes to show how busy our culture is. I wish I was of the mindset to pay attention to the fabulous "average" things around me. Note to self: Pay more attention.
What would you have done?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=emailarticlepg
I would have said "Wow that's amazing," and wanted to have stopped, but I wouldn't have, I would have kept walking. Goes to show how busy our culture is. I wish I was of the mindset to pay attention to the fabulous "average" things around me. Note to self: Pay more attention.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Please pray
You may have gotten an email from me about this but I wanted to post it in case there are more people than I know who read this. Essentially I'm going to just paste my email in here for you all to read.
I know this sounds like a forward but it's not, I promise. Some of you know that my mom was down here in sunny Dallas for Easter, but we weren't her real stop. We were her layover on her way to San Antonio. We were so happy to have her, but I'm even more glad to have had her go. You see she was going to San Antonio to help out the family of a friend of hers. Jan has been a friend to my mom for years and Jan asked for mom to go to San Antonio with her to help out her sister and niece.
Those of you who know my mom know she'll do anything for anyone. She's wonderful in that way. But more and more as she has spent this past week there in San Antonio my heart has been convicted for Jan, her sister Julia, and of course Janet.
You see, Janet, Jan's niece, was diagnosed with bone cancer in her leg. Janet is 16. She opted to not have her leg amputated (she was a runner and soccer player for her high school) and instead to have a knee replacement. She's been going through chemo for the past year almost. My mom was to go down to just help clean up the house (that has been used less and less as most of their time is spent in the hospital). But instead Janet was in the hospital still (she was supposed to be released earlier this week before starting a new round of chemo), having complications to the last round she had received.
Janet was supposed to travel from San Antonio to Austin this week to interview for a full ride scholarship to University of Texas. She was unable to make her Monday appointment and it was rescheduled eventually to today with the help of her doctors. She has needed to increase her amount of morphine to be able to leave the hospital to travel to Austin today.
The whole point of me posting this, is to plea that you would pray for Janet, Julia, Jan, and their whole family. Especially as she has had to delay her last round of chemo and will be having tests this next week for her kidney troubles caused by this previous round.
The San Antonio newspaper ran a story about Janet yesterday. It will give you more details about her drive to live and succeed in life, warning, it will make you cry.
This is the direct link to the story:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/global-includes/printstory.jsp?path=/sports/hssports/soccer/stories/MYSA041207.01A.HS.JonesDuffey.3b752d8.html
Please read it and please pray. Feel free to make this a forward if you want.
Love, Grace, and Peace to you,
Cara
Those of you who know my mom know she'll do anything for anyone. She's wonderful in that way. But more and more as she has spent this past week there in San Antonio my heart has been convicted for Jan, her sister Julia, and of course Janet.
You see, Janet, Jan's niece, was diagnosed with bone cancer in her leg. Janet is 16. She opted to not have her leg amputated (she was a runner and soccer player for her high school) and instead to have a knee replacement. She's been going through chemo for the past year almost. My mom was to go down to just help clean up the house (that has been used less and less as most of their time is spent in the hospital). But instead Janet was in the hospital still (she was supposed to be released earlier this week before starting a new round of chemo), having complications to the last round she had received.
Janet was supposed to travel from San Antonio to Austin this week to interview for a full ride scholarship to University of Texas. She was unable to make her Monday appointment and it was rescheduled eventually to today with the help of her doctors. She has needed to increase her amount of morphine to be able to leave the hospital to travel to Austin today.
The whole point of me posting this, is to plea that you would pray for Janet, Julia, Jan, and their whole family. Especially as she has had to delay her last round of chemo and will be having tests this next week for her kidney troubles caused by this previous round.
The San Antonio newspaper ran a story about Janet yesterday. It will give you more details about her drive to live and succeed in life, warning, it will make you cry.
This is the direct link to the story:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/global-includes/printstory.jsp?path=/sports/hssports/soccer/stories/MYSA041207.01A.HS.JonesDuffey.3b752d8.html
Please read it and please pray. Feel free to make this a forward if you want.
Love, Grace, and Peace to you,
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Quickie!
To let most of you know that flights from Columbus (CMH) to Dallas (DFW) are really cheap right now ($200 round trip)... so stop making excuses and come visit! For us to take the same flight from DFW to CMH it's $100 more a person. SO The moral of this story is, come visit! :)
Monday, April 9, 2007
He is Risen!
Happy belated Easter! We thoroughly enjoyed our day with my mom who made a short visit in town. Saturday night after she came in we met my Aunt Candace and her roommate (who were in town from Austin) at Chuy's for dinner. It's the best Tex-Mex there is. Then we went to service at our church Fellowship for Easter services. Not that church isn't fun, but here's where the real fun started. We drove south on 45 to Ennis to look at the Bluebonnets that are in full swing this time of year. It was a little chilly but it was so much fun!
Us in a field of Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower
Indian Paintbrush
Moo Cow!
All Tuckered Out!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Wow! A week!
Jury Duty
Some of you have been wondering... "Did Cara get eaten alive in the court room? Was it one of those hostage situations where they take a jury member hostage until they are allowed to leave?" No, no, I'm alive and well and looking into a career in law (kind of just kidding on that part). Jury duty was the most interesting thing I had done in a long time. It was entertaining and made a difference to society. So I retract the phone calls I made that were like "man I can't believe this. I've been chosen for jury duty, that sucks." I feel American and proud, and strangely Texan for the duty that I've served.
Adam kept reminding me of the Pauly Shore movie from when people really liked Pauly Shore of the name Jury Duty and kept asked me if I thought it would be like that. I've never seen the movie though... sad.
To make a really long story short, I was an alternate juror in the county criminal court. So essientially I was the 13th member of a 12 man team. I even got the worst seat by the bathrooms in the deliberation room. I also got a special seat in the courtroom all by myself rather than in the box with the 12. But it also meant that chances were that I wouldn't actually have to vote on the fate of the 21 year old man who was on trial before us for aggravated robbery. And in truth I was ultimately useless to the court system, but the whole experience of seeing how evidence is laid out by the prosecution and tossed away by the defense was completely fascinating. At the end, the jury decided the man was guilty as charged and also in an interesting Texas twist, the defendent chose that the jury would decide his sentence and not the judge, so he was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Books
I spent four hours yesterday organizing our bookshelves. Then I realized how sad that was. Adam always says that books are the one thing he doesn't mind investing in, especially good books. And boy does it show. So I finally got all the piles on the floor up into one of our many bookshelves and then explained to Adam how they are supposed to stay that way. His only complaint was that I didn't leave much room to grow (come on! I got them all off the floor) but I also deep cleaned our whole house as well. There's nothing I like better than taking a shower in a slippery, clean bathtub in a hair free bathroom.
Some of you have been wondering... "Did Cara get eaten alive in the court room? Was it one of those hostage situations where they take a jury member hostage until they are allowed to leave?" No, no, I'm alive and well and looking into a career in law (kind of just kidding on that part). Jury duty was the most interesting thing I had done in a long time. It was entertaining and made a difference to society. So I retract the phone calls I made that were like "man I can't believe this. I've been chosen for jury duty, that sucks." I feel American and proud, and strangely Texan for the duty that I've served.
Adam kept reminding me of the Pauly Shore movie from when people really liked Pauly Shore of the name Jury Duty and kept asked me if I thought it would be like that. I've never seen the movie though... sad.
To make a really long story short, I was an alternate juror in the county criminal court. So essientially I was the 13th member of a 12 man team. I even got the worst seat by the bathrooms in the deliberation room. I also got a special seat in the courtroom all by myself rather than in the box with the 12. But it also meant that chances were that I wouldn't actually have to vote on the fate of the 21 year old man who was on trial before us for aggravated robbery. And in truth I was ultimately useless to the court system, but the whole experience of seeing how evidence is laid out by the prosecution and tossed away by the defense was completely fascinating. At the end, the jury decided the man was guilty as charged and also in an interesting Texas twist, the defendent chose that the jury would decide his sentence and not the judge, so he was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Books
I spent four hours yesterday organizing our bookshelves. Then I realized how sad that was. Adam always says that books are the one thing he doesn't mind investing in, especially good books. And boy does it show. So I finally got all the piles on the floor up into one of our many bookshelves and then explained to Adam how they are supposed to stay that way. His only complaint was that I didn't leave much room to grow (come on! I got them all off the floor) but I also deep cleaned our whole house as well. There's nothing I like better than taking a shower in a slippery, clean bathtub in a hair free bathroom.
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