It's that time again!

If you don't have one of these...

or something similarly wonderful that will change on it's own, don't forget to "Spring Ahead" tonight! Daylight Savings Time is upon us and I don't want you to miss church in the morning! ;)

Halfway there!?!?

Mid-Term done. 15 lectures, one paper and one final exam to go...in the next 2 weeks. Excuse me while I go into hiding!

If you are a Youth Pastor/Director/Worker look out!

This morning I turned on my cell phone and received a text message that went like this: When you get up, call me.--Opinionated Friend.

Okay. So I called but not exactly when I had gotten up, true confessions here. I didn't turn my phone on until after the 8am meeting. I digress. Opinionated Friend (OF) didn't pick up, which is a little strange cuz she usually does, which set into motion my brain. My brain in motion is not always a good thing. I thought of all kinds of different scenarios of what was happening with OF and what she might possibly need to tell me so urgently. I had ordered my very big coffee (did I mention the 8am meeting) and was sitting down to do a little studying when I got another text from OF: In a car accident last night, at urgent care. WHAT!?!? (Yes, that was the second scenario btw) Several texts flying back and forth later it turns out that while OF and her passenger are okay, her car not so much. :( We eventually actually talked and I went back to studying.

About a half-hour later I received another text: Rear-ended yesterday, not going to make it to the meeting. WHAT?!?! Two people that I know in the same day have car accidents?? AND they are both Youth Pastors! I went to our monthly Youth Workers Meeting and said "Stay off the roads."

So, if you are a Youth Worker in the general vicinity of this town drive carefully!

Before you hit forward...

I love email. It makes my life so much happier to be able to communicate via email rather than talking on the telephone. I don't, however, appreciate the email forwards.

There are certain people in my life that deluge my inbox with forwards about trivial stuff all.the.time. Love the people, don't love the forwards. Chain mail forwards are awful and I usually hit delete without reading them. Guess I'm gonna have bad luck for the next bazillion years. The ones that really drive me crazy, though, are the ones that are supposedly to "help you" but really are meant to scare people. Watch out when leaving the mall! Don't roll down your car window! The cops aren't really the cops! Yeah, don't really love those. Those are usually sent by women to other women because, well, we fall for these things.

My best Internet friends to help decipher fact from fiction are two sites, www.snopes.com and www.urbanledgends.about.com I use them all the time and guess what??!! About 99% of those emails are false. False, I say!

So, my blog reading buddies, the next time your receive one of those emails before you hit forward, take the time to go to the websites above and check the email out for yourself. Your friends will be glad that you did.

Sillyness

This morning my hair dryer decided that it was done working...before I had the chance to use it. Not drying my hair in the morning is not an option. Not a pretty sight. Luckily there was another hair dryer in the house, though when it tried to eat my hair, I decided I was going to buy a new hair dryer.

My favorite place to purchase such items is that one big store with a bulls eye for their logo. They have all the items sitting out so you can "try them out" before hand. I like that. But seeing as how one of those stores is 30 minutes away, I decided to just go to the local store and take my chances.

It is amazing how difficult picking out a new hair dryer is. Seriously. Way too many options, gizmo's, gadgets and varieties to choose from. There was one for fine hair that promised add volume and bounce without fly-aways. OK. There were many that have the retractable cord, which was very enticing but I wasn't willing to take the chance on the cord deciding to stay inside it's home. Next. There was one that had free items in the box! Wow! But then I saw it. Not just a silver or black or blue hair dryer but a red one. Ooohhhhh... Lightweight, fast dry, that might be the one...but wait, what's that! A pink one! I was reaching, reaching, reaching for the box when I saw the problem. My mind flashed back to the the mornings close encounter and my decision was made.

I am now the proud owner of this:

Red is such a pretty, pretty color.

Dear Body,

I listened to you yesterday, I really did.
I listened when you complained about getting up.
I listened when you said, "Stop doing that I hurt."
I listened when you said, "It's time for food."
I listened when you said "Don't go there, just stay home."
I listened when you said, at 8pm, "I'm getting tired."
I listened when you said, "Wouldn't it be nice to snuggle up in bed?".
I listened when you said, "Turn off the TV and go to sleep. I'll wake you when it's time to get up."
I didn't hear the giggle at the end of that statement though.
I did hear it at 2:30am.
And I wasn't laughing.
I wasn't laughing at 3am.
I wasn't laughing at 4am.
I wasn't laughing at 5am.
I wasn't laughing at 5:30am when you finally relented and let me sleep.
I really wasn't laughing at 6:20am when my alarm went off telling me "Get up for church!"
I wasn't laughing at 7am when I finally made it out of bed, nor was I laughing when I said to the lady behind the counter at the coffee shop, "Make it the biggest one!".
And I'm definitely not laughing now. Now when I need to listen to lectures, read my textbook and try to retain what I'm learning.
I'm not laughing and tonight, I'm not listening!
Grumpily,
Brittany

Give yourself a break

Once a month during the school year ('cuz that's when it's offered) I go on a silent retreat day. I drive over the hill, as we call it in this neck of the woods, to hoity-toity land to a retreat center where two amazing people have prepared a day long prayer retreat for about 12 of us. After spending much, much time in front of computer, behind a desk, in an office, in a youth room, basically, inside, my favorite thing to do is to sit outside and pray.

So that's where I was yesterday. Sitting outside praying or not praying. Usually I feel this need to complete all the work handed to me in a timely manner, making sure to talk to God about everything written down on the piece of paper I received at the beginning of the day but not yesterday. Yesterday I put the paper down, picked up my notebook and wrote these words, "Today I give myself a break." I didn't force myself to follow the outline, to come up with words to say to God, I just sat and listened to the birds, watched the squirrels run around, pondered the drops of water from the recent rain dripping off the roof, enjoyed the feel of sunshine warming up my legs. I gave myself a break.

God showed up there. God was there all along. God spoke, I wrote. I spoke, God held. God was silent, I was silent. I don't do it very often but yesterday I gave myself a break. I highly recommend them.