The realities of Gustav

I grew up landlocked in Oklahoma. Hurricanes were not one of life's realities for me. Gustav is making things personal, though, as it threatens to rage its way through Louisiana and also make its influence felt in Pass Christian, MS. Pass Christian, if I remember correctly, was the town hit the hardest by Katrina. One of my former roommates, Leah, and her family (the McBrides) have been living there for the past year, rebuilding and providing hurricane relief. They won't be going far when Gustav hits so they can be immediately available to provide relief once the storm passes.

It's easy for all of us to keep an emotional distance from this kind of devastation when we have no personal connection. I'm just as guilty of that as anyone. But just because we may not have met the people involved does not mean that they are any less valuable and loved in the eyes of God, and we should give these nameless faces more than just our sympathy. So please pray for the people in the path of Gustav. Prayers are far more than just sympathy after all; they are powerful. Pray for the safety of those involved and for the future of those who may lose their home, perhaps for the second time in three years. And pray for people like the McBrides who will be providing relief in the midst of the threat of damage to their own home. Pray that they will be safe and encouraged and a light to those in need of a real hope.

For more on how you can specifically pray for the McBrides and other rescuers, check out the website for their organization, Project Reclaim. You can also go here for information on how to provide financial support if you should decide to help out in that way in the days following Gustav. I promise you it will be money well spent, and you can be assured that every penny you give will go to the relief effort.

Blogs and dogs

I discovered thepioneerwoman.com today, and since Justin left for his deployment this morning, I spent a ridiculous amount of time there reading and browsing through. She has an interesting story about transforming from a city girl to a...well, pioneer woman, and her blog also has a big following because she posts lots of tasty looking recipes! I particularly like that she includes pictures of each step, so even a culinary novice like me can't get too lost. (I think.) I have grand visions of trying out and perfecting several of her recipes while Justin is gone and wowing him when we gets back. Ha. We shall see.

So in the spirit of discovering new blogs, I'm curious. Is there one (a few, several) that you really enjoy keeping up with? What are they? What keeps you coming back?

Oh, and news! Justin and I finally found our beagle yesterday! He is full of energy but at the same time quite content just to sit with you and be loved on. His name (currently) is Elmer, and if you're curious about him, you can see pictures and a short description here. His foster is holding him for us until I fly home from Oklahoma on September 11, when I will pick him up and officially adopt him and have him to myself for a week. Yikes! (Oh yes, and I'm flying to OK for a week. I wasn't sure I should fly home, but when I found out my aunt and uncle will also be in town, that sealed the deal. And on top of that, my college roommate will be in town before running off to England to get her PhD and become the world's leading Shakespeare scholar.)

Things I love about living in North Carolina

Now that we've been in North Carolina for almost three months (craziness!), I thought I'd introduce you to a few of the things I love about this area.

1. Magnolia Trees

They're everywhere and they're huge. There's even one on our property! But really, it's pretty awesome just having trees everywhere you look. Unless, of course, they have been torn down and replaced by ginormous fields of tobacco.

2. Farmer's Markets and Fruit Stands

There aren't as many fruit stands around as there were when strawberries were in season, but I still love being able to buy local fresh fruits and vegetables by the side of the road. I'm getting so spoiled that I don't want to buy them from the grocery any more. Plus, I like learning what's in season when. It makes me appreciate each season more, and I just feel less...processed, I guess. Just this last week I made peach cobbler out of locally bought peaches and an apple crisp from apples my neighbor shared with us that fell off a friend's tree. Yumminess.

3. The Weather in General and the Absence of Wind in Particular

It does get hot and humid here, but for the most part I enjoy the heat and the knowledge that I won't have to put up with very cold or very long winters. And it really hasn't even been that hot. The highs have been staying in the 80s and 90s for the most part. Plus, after training for a half marathon in Altus, OK, and facing a minimum of 10-20 mph winds on practically every single run, I am reveling in the gentle breezes of North Carolina.

4. Day Trips to the Beach

The ocean is an hour away, and we can be at a handful of perfectly adequate beaches in under two hours. Enough said.

5. Weekend Trips to DC

The place where we met, got married, and made many amazing friends is only a four-hour drive away! Plus, there are just a whole lot of cool things to do and see there. Free museums, anyone? Yes, please! I know we won't get up there as much as I would like, but I still love that it's so close.

6. Proximity to Three Major Colleges

University of North Carolina, Duke, and North Carolina State University are all within an hour and a half's drive. That's great for athletics in general, and in North Carolina, basketball in particular. I'm also really looking forward to getting acquainted with the performing arts schedules.

And the thing I love most of all...
7. I Get to Live Here for More Than Six Months!

Although friends will always come and go in the military community, I am happy that my days of having to start fresh every few months has come to an end.

Come visit, and I promise to introduce you to any or all of these amazing North Carolina perks.

What's one of the favorite aspects of your city/town/state?

For four minutes of pure childlike joy, click this link!

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/videogaga/8081/puppets-rule-ok

My morning just got off to an unexpectedly awesome start. Yahoo had the above story featured on its home page, verifying my personal opinion that "Everything is better when puppets are involved. This is just a FACT. And this fact is especially factual when it comes to music." On this Sunday morning, the only thing I have to say to that quote is AMEN! (And that's a very reverent Amen, I promise.) The article goes on to include several music videos featuring puppets, including a couple new (fairly entertaining) ones I hadn't seen or heard about. (I can't, however, say that I recommend all of the older ones.)

But the music video that starts me singing and spinning in circles like a carefree kid hopped up on sugar is Weezer's video "Keep Fishin'." The article has this to say about the video: "Weezer's 'Keep Fishin'' is still perhaps the ultimate puppet video of all time, trumping all others, as it starred the entire cast of The Muppet Show." And trust me, the Muppets add a whole new level of happiness to this already upbeat song. The video was released a few years ago, but its affect on me hasn't lessened even a tiny bit. If you haven't seen it, watch it now! I promise it will keep you tapping your toes for the rest of the day. And if you have seen it, I know you won't be able to resist watching it again either.

Katherine, this one particularly goes out to you.

Enough about me

Time to share some more inspiration. I saw some of these recreations of children's artwork on the talented Rebekah Chapman's blog. They are just so inventive and fun, I couldn't resist sharing too. I'm impressed with the artist, and her recreations make me all the more amazed at the imagination of children.

Very cool, right? Whether you agree or disagree, share a link to or a picture of art that makes you smile.

I am a bad daughter

I shamelessly put my dad to work this week, taking advantage of his mad yard maintenance skills. He helped us figure out and buy a lot of the tools we need and also how to get started on things like getting our lawn/yard in better shape.

It turns out that my yard is a veritable jungle. Thanks to our crazy squirrels, baby and school-age oak trees are growing in all kinds of inappropriate places, including in our flower bed and under existing bushes. Ferns are everywhere too, and some are as tall or taller than our house! Plants of almost every variety are growing without restraint all around our backyard fence (two have already fallen in the midst of one storm), one mature tree just behind our deck is in fact growing up through another mature forked tree, and there just generally seems to be no rhyme or reason to just about anything growing on our property.

So, here a couple pictures I thought you might enjoy from some of our major projects this week. Here you can see my dad and Justin taking down a dead, not-so-little tree that's too close for comfort to our deck and house. Dad's using the rope to direct the falling branches away from the house, deck, and Justin. Those branches had an impressive amount of force behind them!Here's a better view of the tree.Needless to say, that was quite the project. It took us about three hours to cut off all the branches and then cut those up into firewood. But we ended up with a lot of firewood, and Justin and my dad managed not to kill themselves! We did leave some of the tree, though. Here's a goofy pic of the "tree sculpture" we ended up with. No longer a threat to our house or deck!And I won't bore you with this too much (or is it too late already? ;-), but I have to show you a before and after picture of my major project--cleaning out our absolutely overrun flowerbed. This particular task, believe it or not, took me two days. There were a lot of major roots to clear out too.

Before:

And after:

(By the way, that "tree" growing by our front door is actually one of those giant rebellious ferns I mentioned earlier.) Now it's time to fill up the flower bed! Oy. But it sure is nice to finally know how to go about some of this stuff.

What have you recently learned to do that you're proud of?

In exactly two hours my dad will be flying into Raleigh, and he'll be here for a week. I probably won't be posting much this week for that reason. But you never know.

So for now, particularly if you are looking for a boost today, check out this post. I'd like to write more about it, but I'm still taking it in. It's all about allowing the scars that others give us to be a part of our history but forbidding them to define us because God does not define us by our scars. And if you're looking for a laugh, check out the rest of the site, which is all about crazy, silly, downright absurd, or sometimes serious or even harmful things Christians often do.

Now I don't know what to think

Justin and I went to the beach yesterday just because it was close enough for a day trip. We sat on the beach reading, swam, and when we saw lightning appear at 2:00, we went to an ice cream shop that serves Hershey's ice cream, which might just be my new favorite food. Road Runner Raspberry and Chocolate Moose Tracks. Scoops of pure yumminess. Then we drove around the coast some more, but ever since arriving back home, we have pretty much been all about the Olympics. So I promise, I won't write about them forever, but what can I say...I can't tear myself away, and I'm okay with that.

This year I'm still addicted to watching all the sports, but I'm also really intrigued by how China is using its time in the limelight. I'm in awe of it and saddened by it at the same time. If you saw the opening ceremonies, you saw a truly jaw dropping show. Each element was marked by artistry and extreme precision. Maybe any country could have pulled off that kind of precision, but to me, it seemed a mark of what a country that emphasizes the whole above the individual can accomplish. And the whole thing was absolutely gorgeous.

But...it's estimated that China spent $100 million on this ceremony alone, twice the amount of the last opening ceremony at Athens. I know Americans also spend exorbitant amounts of money on sports and big performances, but it's kind of hard to accept that a country with so much poverty would spend such an extreme amount simply to dazzle the world. A friend of mine even told me this morning she read somewhere (and I can't confirm this) that thousands of peasants were hired to build the Olympic structures and were then forced out of the city a few months ago and told that they were not to be seen while the Olympics were going on. China's censorship reflects this same kind of attitude: We can't cure our problems, but we can make them "disappear" so others can't see that our problems exist. That saddens me. And it is contrary to the ideals they so beautifully expressed during the opening ceremony--replacing the Great Wall with openness and desiring harmony with the environment.

That said, I did a little research on how many people are living in poverty in China. Did you know that they have reduced their poverty rate from 64% in the 1970s to 10% in 2004?? If that information can be trusted, that means 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty in one generation. Wow. I truly did not see that one coming. Maybe China is making better decisions with its money than I would have guessed.

If you saw the opening ceremony, what did you think?

The Olympics. Is the thrill gone? Was it ever there?

For as long as I can remember, I have always looked forward to the Olympics, and the summer Olympics are my favorite. If they were a holiday, I would rank them close on the heels of Thanksgiving and Christmas. That is how happy they make me. I love watching the competitions and hearing all the inevitably sentimental stories of what the athletes have gone through to get there. I am fascinated by the 14-year-old gymnasts and the 41-year-old swimmers making a fifth Olympic appearance. Their stories are that much more intriguing to me because, for the most part, unlike pro sports (in my opinion) the Olympics are more about honor, guts, and glory and less about mega fame and fortune.

My favorite sports to watch are the most graceful ones--diving, gymnastics, and in the winter, figure skating. I can't even do a cartwheel, so I am captivated by the performances of people who (literally) stretch the limits of the human body.

But the buzz doesn't seem to be as big this year. Of course, criticism of China/Beijing has been eating up more of the press time, whether that criticism has to do with human rights concerns, pollution, or media censorship. And on top of that, it seems more and more athletes are failing drug tests. That honor I mentioned a few sentences ago? It seems like it's becoming as polluted as the streets of Beijing. Of course, this does not apply to all athletes, but like pollution, corruption can cast an ugly fog over everyone involved. Will our finest athletes ever again be free from our suspicion? I'd like to think so, but this is just one reason the thrill seems to be subsiding.

How does the Olympics, and this year's in particular, rate for you? Are you looking forward to watching any particular sport or athlete?

Cast your vote

I'm tempted to say it's been an icky day. But really, it hasn't been all bad, and it can't be because my friend Joanna is getting married today.

Happy wedding day, Joanna and Ryan!!!
I hope it's been a truly glorious day.

So today I have had a sore throat, which I have the privilege of sharing with my dear husband. Really, as someone who works from home in my pajamas half the time, I have no reason to complain about being slightly ill. Justin, however, does not work from home and is flying tonight.

Then there's the project I took on, supposedly for the month of June, that is still rearing its ugly head from time to time. Most of today has been devoted to it. It's been a nice source of income, but the project is turning into a royal pain. The problem with editing is that there is ALWAYS more that can be done. But at some point, authors and editors just need to call it a day. And it's hard to turn your writing over to someone else. This wasn't meant to be a post about my somewhat mundane editing job (I'm okay with the low glam factor), but now I want to share one story with you anyway. When I worked as an editor in DC, one of our first-time authors (a college professor, no less) was so flustered about having editors chop away at the book she had written with such loving care that she wrote to tell us that in one particularly bad fit of worry, she had driven to work only to discover she was not wearing any shoes.

But on to the real reason for today's post. I found out today that the Air Force will be leaving me spouse-less for the first two weeks in September as Justin goes on his first overseas adventure to Turkey. Justin's mom and grandparents were planning to come visit during that time (and if you're reading this, we'll be calling later to figure out what Plan B should be, I promise), so the timing is not ideal, but as far as I'm concerned there's never an ideal time for Justin to leave. Obviously I wish he could always be around, but his absences are made worse by the fact that I am a total wuss when it comes to being left to myself for any significant length of time. I'm sure you all know this about me. I have to be around people!

But lest I give the impression I am sitting around sulking, let me assure you that is not the case. I'm trying to figure out where I should go while I'm "unattached." The one wrench in my planning is that I will have to put in 40 hours of work from Aug 29 to Sept 9. Any suggestions?

Random acts of kindness

Justin had to work on Saturday and has today off as a result. So this morning was one of those rare lazy mornings when we could wake up without an alarm and still pretend to be asleep even after waking up. So to celebrate, Justin brought me breakfast in bed...and gave me my computer in the meantime. Now that's love...feeding my belly and my addictions. :-)