Tea, Swans, & Goodbyes

So in honor of Jana leaving the Crescent City, the President's team had tea today at Windsor Court, which is always a good time. There were lots of laughs, some crazy stories, and (as always) excellente' food and tea. Also, there may have been an incident that involved the accidental decapitation of a swan. But don't worry. We took pictures for the crime lab, and there WILL be a full investigation. :)

The Swan: Before & After

Vanee w/ absolutely no remorse

The President's Team

Me & Angelia

Jana opening gifts

--Other noteworthy things that were discussed over tea:

~ a traffic jam today on I-10 due to an escaped alligator that was hit by a car...how do you claim that on your insurance?

~ the lack of basements in homes in Oklahoma, resulting in tornado evacuations to New Orleans--go figure

~ tote. enough said.

~ "I mean, you don't have to chase me down to give me a tip. Really. I'll just take it."

~ Vanee: "Do you want white or dark chocolate?" Me: "I'm an equal opportunity chocolate eater. I don't discrimate based on color."

~ To: Jana From: Cinderella

We'll miss you Jana!!!

Hug a Cheesecake

Happy National Cheesecake Day!!!

(aka Cheesecake Awareness Day)

In celebration of this most wonderful holiday, we did the obvious...devoured some cheesecake...

Exhibit A: the cheesecake

Exhibit B: cheesecake leaving the building

This goes out to all those lonely cheesecakes, who had no one to share this momentous occasion with, who remain on the cold, dark shelf yet long to one day be a part of one of the best holidays ever :)

So, If you have not done so today, HUG A CHEESECAKE! Because cheesecake needs love, too.

Walk It Out

So, this weekend was semi-restful and muy fun. I had a three day weekend, was very productive, and got to take a nap for the first time in FOREVER! Ok, maybe not forever, but a reaaaallly long time. The rest of the weekend consisted of a little bit of the following:

This might as well have been our living room Friday night.

"I'm worried about your salvation...and stuuuff."

One of the best parts of the weekend was walking and talking in the rain. God revealed several awesome lessons through stories I have told a million times, but I had never grasped what he was doing through the situation. God truly has a plan to work everything for good, whether we realize it or not. And it's especially awesome to finally realize how and when He was working in the situation, whether it's 5 minutes after the fact or 5 years, as was the case this weekend.

Change-It's a Comin'

Do you ever just wake up and realize that everything has changed? This happens pretty often in my life. But what's worse is when I start noticing the changes as they happen. I'm not sure which is worse---to suddenly realize my life, job, friends, family, etc. is different or to see it start changing and know there is nothing I can do about it?

Of course, change is not always bad. Many times change results in excitement and a better situation. But most times it's bitter sweet. There's an excitement about what is in the future, but there is sadness that life as I know it is about to change. A lot of change is coming my way--change that I never expected and didn't really want. But as the time draws near and I slowly grasp that it's inevitable, I'm starting to get excited. Yes, I'm still sad, but at least I'm prepared. I'm a very sentimental person, so I'm not surprised that I would have these thoughts. However, I'm ALWAYS surprised that it never gets easier. But that can be a good thing. And after all, easy doesn't equal happy, so it's all good. :)

I'm still not sure which is better-being surprised or being part of the process. So for now I'll just assume that both are a part of life and both can be teaching moments. So good or bad, exciting or sad, ready or not, here it comes. And I'm alright with that.

Use It AND Lose It

So, of course I have a hundred thousand million (aka billion) :) quotes on living life to its fullest. Recently, I was going through some I haven't read in a while and thought they were worth sharing. So here goes...

~ "Don't be afraid of the unknown in the journey; be afraid of missing the life God has appointd you to live." (Claude Hickman)

~ "It is easy for your heart to trick you into trying to save your life, but if you let it, it will certainly cost you the life you were meant to experience: the life on the journey." (Claude Hickman)

~ "I am convinced the great tragedy is not the sins that we commit, but the life that we fail to live...At worst a passive life is only pitied, yet God counts it as a tragedy when we choose to simply watch life rather than live it." (Erwin McManus)

~ "Don't make a living. Make a life." (Samuel Zwemer)

~ "If you want to save your life--lose it on the things that matter. Lose your life with all your might." (Claude Hickman)

Dry Hands + Breakfast = Happiness

Hand dryers...just when you think it can't get any better, along comes breakfast.

Serve

"Every day do something you don't want to do. Pick up someone else's trash. Surrender your parking place. Call the long-winded relative. Carry the cooler. Doesn't have to be a big thing. Helen Keller once told the Tennessee legislature that when she was young, she had longed to do great things and could not, so she decided to do small things in a great way. Don't be too big to do something small. 'Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.' (1 Cor. 15:58 MSG)."

- Max Lucado Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot

Live It Up

~ “We wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the one that is… we think of how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time that we can never be sure of reaching…Thus, we never actually live, but hope to live and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.”

- Blaise Pascal

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

- Matthew 6:34 (MSG)

Take advantage of today, and truly live. Don't worry about things that may never happen, and don't wait for the perfect time to do what you really want to do...it may never come.

Let the Adventure Begin

So if someone randomly asked you for advice on life based on what you've learned so far, what would you say? Where do you even start to sum up all of life's lessons?

I was asked this recently, so I decided to look through some letters and posts I'd written to see what the overall theme was for my life. While I found many, many, many lessons, two main ideas stood out that I've been reminded of repeatedly (but obviously haven't quite yet learned). The first is that God provides, and I just have to have faith in this fact. Obviously, God doesn't act in my timing or even in the way I might want, but He definitely provides. And usually His way is so much better than I could have ever imagined.

The second lesson is that we only have one life, so we need to take advantage of what we have while we can. I really love to be adventurous and to do random things and experience all life has to offer. But sometimes it's easy to get caught up in our day-to-day roles and jobs and forget that we haven't really lived. I believe we should try to never live the same day twice, but sometimes that's pretty hard to do. Then again, some days are worth living twice.

There's definitely a difference between living and being alive. Being alive involves eating, sleeping, and functioning in the world. Living, however, involves adventure, personal growth, and a true realization of how valuable we are simply because we are created and loved by God. Several quotes have helped challenge me in this area and have motivated me to live rather than merely being alive. Some of my favorites are listed below:

~ “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow…what a ride!”

~ “Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.”

~ “May you live all the days of your life.”

~ “Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you want, but you can only spend it once.”


Ok, so that's my advice. It's obviously not everything I've learned, and I'm sure it's nothing you haven't heard before, but we all need to be reminded sometimes. So there you go... let the adventure begin.