It's a Christmas Miracle

I know I have been to Minnesota before. In fact, I did live there for ten or six years, depending on how you count them. But for some reason I was completely enamored with all the winter wonderland that was Minnesota this Christmas. It was so beautiful.

It was also really great to get to see my family again. I hadn't been up there since August of 2007 which is a really long time for me. Staying again with my brother and sister-in-law, a.k.a. disneyland, wasn't a bad deal either. I felt like a celebrity driving around in my brother's cadillac complete with a working radio and heated leather seats. Plus they have a really cute house on the lake that was totally frozen over. Matt and Shannon each took me out on their snowmobiles and we went all over Coon Lake, on the trails on Viking Drive and way back on the trails though the woods. I thought it was amazingly fast and cool with the scenery seemingly flying by, well, until Matt informed me that we were actually going about as slow as molasses. What the?!?! 

You also can't spend time with the fam without including hockey of some kind. I think because Matt and I grew up partially in Nebraska, the hockey blood doesn't really run through our veins, but it's fun to watch and yell things like "my cousin Jack is my hero," which, he really is. That dude can skate. He scored once and got an assist for the Pioneers, which I think is like the best high school hockey team in the state. This all made my six year old cousin Luke REALLY mad though because he was cheering the whole time for the other team. Loudly. Even though he was sitting in our section. Next to me. With a bright orange Bears hat he liked to take off and swing around.

I'm also a huge fan now of Guitar Hero, and can play a mean "Welcome to the Jungle" on medium speed. You know, we all have our gifts.

Now on to the Christmas miracle. My sister-in-law Shannon had planned this dinner on Christmas Day evening for me and Matt and her so we could spend time with her cousins. Honestly, we weren't too stoked about it, and we weren't too shy about letting her know. I mean, we already were going to a breakfast and a lunch at other family's house, so it was seemingly a bit too much. But we humored her. On the way back home Matt and I were going on and on about our dad and how it was fun to see him but that it's ok that we don't see him at Christmas. We pulled up to the house and there was a Honda Civic with a Nebraska license plate. I commented on this being similar to Papa's car, but didn't think anything of it. Matt said it was weird that the car had a number 4 on it because my dad always numbers his company's cars. And just then he stepped out, looking just like Indiana Jones as he always does lately in the winter. NO FREAKING WAY. Shannon called him a week earlier and invited him to come. So, no cousins, but my own father! Now why didn't we ever think of that? We had a really nice dinner, thanks to her, with my dad and taught him guitar hero, topping off the night with a few rounds of Hearts and 500. And of course, plenty of popcorn. He went back the next day after taking us out to breakfast (I actually had lunch for breakfast, as usual).

I am hardly ever really surprised, so that was something else. A Christmas miracle, I would say!

Here is Matt and Shannon and I saying goodbye to Papa!

Draggin'

This week has kind of dragged by. I was supposed to work today and only have Tuesday and Thursday off. But Anchor called me yesterday and asked me to wait to come in until after Christmas since they don't have a lot of patients right now due to the holiday coming up. Also, there was no sense in me training when I am leaving for Minnesota tomorrow and will probably forget what I learned over the week+ I would be gone from Anchor. So it was good logic by my new boss there. She's got me scheduled for several days after Christmas, praise the Lord. I need the money and something to do. 

I did have a great Monday and Wednesday at MARR, by other place of employment. My officemate is very much into the holiday cheer. I told her I wasn't really big on Christmas and she said "don't worry, keep trying, you'll get there." I liked that. It sounded like I wasn't completely hopeless.

It is weird spending a whole day talking to no one. This happens somewhat often since I was laid off. That's what happened yesterday. Well, I did talk to my roommate on the phone and I did talk to the insurance customer service rep to find out about COBRA benefits. But to have no real human conversation until my small group at 7:00pm is still kind of weird. I got a lot done yesterday, cleaned the house, etc. I long for a week though when I am working and have more to do. Let's pray big for January when both facilities I work at are expected to have more patients! I know they are out there, but they need the resources and motivation to COME IN.

Today since I was unexpectedly off, I treated myself by going to see the movie Twilight. My friends went to see it while I was in DC in November, and since I've read the books too it was a must see. I really liked it, actually. It reminded me though of why I had a hard time with parts of the book. It's the same thing about Christmas I don't like. It's the whole "magic" thing. You know, that unexpected excitement and anticipation of something coming that's awesome and unknown. In the Twilight series it is love between Bella and Edward. They just feel differently with each other and it's unexplainable. It's the same feeling a lot of people get around Christmastime. That there's something different about it, that the unexpected happens, that joy and hope somehow can break through any barrier this time of year. I just don't believe in that. I do believe in Jesus, and the Hope He brings when you're in relationship with Him. But I don't think that's particularly magical. I like C.S. Lewis's description of Jesus as the Lion, he does not always feel safe but He good.

Maybe it's like my coworker said, someday I might experience and believe in this magic, at Christmastime, or otherwise. For now, I am just satisfied in the fact that Christmas gives me a great reason to see my family which lives so far away, and God has blessed me in that I really rarely feel alone and my needs are taken care of this season.

I am now in the shipping business!

In this period of marginal employment, I've been trying to brainstorm ways to make some extra dough. Dave Ramsey says you should get extra jobs and sell everything but the kids when you're trying to get out of debt and increase your cash flow. In my case that would mean selling my cat, and I'm not willing to do that. My next best idea: selling books on amazon.com.

I have A TON of books, mostly from school, that I probably will never read again and don't really need for reference. Surely some other suffering student also has a temporary need for such torture, right? So starting approximately 48 hours ago I put about 15 books online, mostly from school but also books like Kite Runner and the Time Travelers Wife that reading one time was definitely enough. Guess what. In just that amount of time I've already sold six books, including my most expensive one, Statistics for the Social Sciences, Seventh edition. What up!! I am making the most massive post office run tomorrow. I want to be a good seller, you know, keep that feedback up!! I have been really pleasantly surprised by how many books I've sold. So far I've made almost $70.00! 

8 Things

My cousin Beth tagged me a while back to do one of those get-to-know-you type blog entires, which I guess is like the updated version of those chain emails we used to get all the time that you had to forward to all your friends, change your answers, and re-forward. So I'm going to honor Beth's tag below, but I'm going to change it to include one that I found on my friend Ami's blog that I liked better:

8 Things

8 TV shows I love to watch
1. NCIS
2. Simpsons
3. Seinfeld
4. LOST (I almost forgot, but it's only on now like 3 months out of the year)
5. Stormchasers
6. Fox & Friends
7. 90210 (the new version)
8. Sportscenter

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Mi Taco
2. Five Guys
3. Surin
4. Brickstore Pub
5. Savage Pizza
6. The Vortex
7. Chinese Hot Pot
8. It should be a restaurant but it's not- Stephen's baked beans and ribs, Rochelle's pot pie

8 Things that Happened Today (oh the interestingness of a life marginally employed!)
1. Asked Sox if she was having a good nap sleeping in her favorite spot on her Mommy's bed.
2. Watched two NCIS reruns.
3. Mailed a box full of fun stuff to my friend Carly in Tanzania.
4. Made pistachio bark.
5. Talked to Nathan, Rochelle, Ami, Dave, and Jamie.
6. Printed off a letter to get my HSA started.
7. Scared the crap out of Rochelle when I called in a breathy, serious tone and said "do you have a minute?" (I was just going to ask her to help me write captions on my blog, oops.)
8. Read more of "The Prodigal God" which is an excellent book.

8 Things I Look Forward To
1. January, when hopefully I'll be working more.
2. Seeing my family over Christmas.
3. Learning what it's like to work in a behavioral health hospital.
4. When my roommate gets home from work.
5. The Christmas season being over.
6. Having a full-time job with benefits someday (hopefully next year).
7. Keeping up working out and eating healthy-ish.
8. Going to Mi Taco tonight.

8 Things On My Wish List
1. Being a full-time missionary one day
2. Having a family of my own
3. A new dishwasher, microwave, and kitchen floor.
4. Going on a mission trip sometime soon.
5. Traveling somewhere new when I turn 30 with Gates and Melissa.
6. A day when there is no more sorrow or pain (heaven, probably, is the closest)
7. Lobbying for more resources for addicts and alcoholics and their families
8. Reform in the Republican party

8 People I Have Tagged, please feel no obligation.
1. Rochelle
2. Jamie
3. Nathan
4. Matthew
5. Danielle
6. Courtney
7. Kate
8. Alli

Angie and Courtney, to me: "hey want to go camping in Dec? It will be the awesomest ever." Me: "Sure, I'll blindly trust you. Sounds amazing!"

Somehow I got roped into going camping last weekend.

True, camping outside in North Georgia is not equivalent to my previous coldest outdoor moment, which took place in the frozen tundra of my second original homestate, and included the Vikings and a large amount of Leinenkugals, brats, and layers of pants. But it was still dang cold. The temperature in Chatsworth, Georgia was a toasty 45 degrees for a high, and about 23 for a low. It was basically just cold enough to make it miserable unless you found a lot of random things to laugh about and had Dave McNay's pants.

You see, Angie, Courtney, and Laura Rod are EXPERT campers. I mean, REI toting, cook your own food over an open flame, sort of campers. I think they hadn't been camping in a while or something because somehow there became an urgent need to go camping one
more time before the year was out. I've always wanted to go camping and I don't mind a certain level of what some might call "craziness" in my life, so I agreed, somewhat reluctantly to go. I was mainly just worried I wouldn't come back with all my fingers and toes. Fortunately I have a lot of friends with camping gear, so I was fairly well prepared.

All in all, it was pretty fun. Especially Saturday, when we went for a nine mile hike in the Georgia mountains. It took about 4.5 hours. I was pretty sure the trail would never end because it was one big loop of doom, but amazingly enough, it did. It was really beautiful and it turns out that hiking is a good solution for feeling cold. Laura Rod bailed on us for the hike, but she did get to see the strange rock formation that is legendary to Fort Mountain State Park. No one has any idea where the rocks came from but they have some good guesses, which include civil war soldiers, Indians, and honeymooners. On the way back from the hike, we went into town to get some more firewood (we weren't that hard core) and came upon the Chatsworth Christmas parade, which blocked every road back up the mountain. The lady at Bi-Lo said that we should just watch the parade, after all, they hand out free camping. I don't think she had a clue of what we had been through that day. Luckily, we came upon a Murray County policeman and we secretly followed him through some back roads and made it "home".

Especially after you see the pictures, you can tell why we ended up packing in 30 min and leaving at 8:30am on Sunday morning, heading straight for the comforts of Cracker Barrel. Camping is probably awesome when you don't have to give yourself a pep talk to get out of the tent to use the bathroom. Although the bathrooms were AWESOME, and heated! We all seriously considered moving our sleeping bags in there. I have never been so grateful for a shower and my bed.

Courtney's amazing flame. What's cool is that she let me light her portable gas grill the next day. But I wasn't doing as good enough job getting the match to the gas so she stuck my hand in there, nearly creating an opportunity for me to have my hand in a similar flame. Neat.

Snug as a bug in a rug! With Angie's cup besides me. Thanks for the surprise cup Angie and to Stephen for the headlamp! I was reading a really good mystery book in this picture about teenagers who got murdered in the woods. Probably not a good choice.

Our "home".

Will this hike ever end?

Happy before the hike and before L-Rod had to leave us!

A Note To Jess

I decided that since you aren't sure if you should keep blogging, maybe I should do it for you. That was made MUCH easier when I went signed into my blog and found that you had selected to stay logged into yours at MY computer. I guess that is sortof like giving me permission to mess with your blog a wee bit.

That being said, I am glad you survived your wickedly cold camping trip this weekend, and I think you should blog about it and include several pictures. I think you won't regret having this catalog of memories to look back on someday. It is always nice to see where you have been and what God has brought you through and you will never know who your writings will impact.

Keep in touch and stay cool over the summer.

Rochelle Marie Ringsmuth Tynes

The end of the blog??

So as you can tell, I haven't been blogging. I just lost a lot of the old love and motivation for doing it, and now EVERYONE seems to have a blog, so I'm having a hard time believing I guess that it's worth doing one about my life. I have no kids, no camera to take pics with (it broke), although I guess I do have very out of the ordinary things happen which I could blog about. The other cog in the wheel so to speak is that it's hard as a counselor to feel able to blog, because there's so many things I can't blog about and I started to get real paranoid that a client was going to find it.

Of course though now that I've taken a five month hiatus, a ton of blogging ideas are popping into my head. Like the other day I was telling a story about this lady who had a panic attack on the plane I was on recently. She was in the middle seat and the flight attendants and me (who was sitting in the window seat next to her) tried to calm her down. Of course I was trying to use my cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques (which are not finely tuned, by the way) by having her breathe slowly and picture something like a beach, etc that might make her feel more peaceful. Only worked for about ten minutes. As I was telling this story to my roommate I said "yeah I wish I had a blog to write this on because that would have been a good one." She said, "you do."

So anyway, if you have any opinions about whether or not I should keep blogging, please let me know.