O, Christmas Tree...

Today marks an important holiday moment in the Dalton household: the first broken Christmas tree bulb. Actually, I came home to two broken bulbs on the floor. Apparently the cats had a busy day.

Here's a picture of our lovely tree (it's a bit Charlie-Brown, but this is our third year with it and it was free to begin with, so you can't really beat that!):

Derek

So, everyone says we look alike. What do you think?

We had a blast. Dinner, drinks, bowling, laughing, sharing, planning.

Good times :)

tiring weekend, short work week, holiday ahead

This weekend was fun, yet exhausting. I slept for almost 11 hours Saturday night and still woke up extremely tired. Go bucks! *weakly waves rally towel in the air*

I feel desperately in need of some rest. Whatever that means. I often feel like I'm waiting for life to "slow down," but we all know that's kind of a joke. Does it ever slow down? I feel like life has been kicking my ass lately, however, and I am ready for that to stop. Can a sista get a break?

But there are only two more days of work left (technically, less than that. We all know McGraw will be kicking us out early on Wednesday), and then I'm free for 5 long, blissful, glorious days of Thanksgiving break. Some things I'm looking forward to:

• Eating lots and lots of food at Craig's dad & stepmom's house on Thursday
• Eating more food at Craig's mom and stepdad's house on Friday
• Spending time with Craig's family (I heart them all)
• Getting some crocheting done for baby nephew Noah (shh, remember Brian and Sam don't know yet)
• Sleeping in on Friday while the crazy people go out in a sleep-deprived, psychotic shopping frenzy and see how many Elmos and PS3s they can rip from one another's hands. No thanks.
• Seeing Mom and the sibs in Toledo
• Seeing Derek and Dana (yay!)
• Visiting El Zarape in BG (oh, chips and salsa, frijoles refritos, best margaritas in the world...here I come!)
• Taking Monday off

Ah yes...the holidays are upon us...

Less than 24 hours and counting...

Go Bucks!!!!

(click here)

Fight the team across the field

Show them Ohio's here,

(We've got the team why don't we)

Set the earth reverberating

With a mighty cheer,

Rah! Rah! Rah!

Hit them hard and see how they fall,

Never let that team get the ball,

Hail, hail, the gang's all here,

So let's win that old conference now!

Random things

Here are some random things that have been clunking around my head this week (well, random to you maybe, but not so random to me. God tends to work in themes. Or maybe he just repeats himself. Kind of like the tips for good reading interpretation--you can pick out key ideas just by looking for repeated words. When God's got his finger on something in my life, it tends to become clear as one [or two] things come up in several ways and through several means in one small span of time.)

• Being forgiven doesn't make sin any less icky. I can be secure in God's acceptance of me and yet still experience the painful consequences of my bad choices. This is not fun.
• No matter how I feel in the moment, God is totally in control.
• God's purposes for me are always good, and I can trust him.
• Trying to manage and control and manipulate is pretty much a guaranteed recipe for anxiety.
• On the other hand, trusting God is the way to real peace (the deep kind, not the superficial kind). When I live here, no matter how bad I'm feeling, it can feel good underneath.

"Cleanup Day" at work...

...is today.

Good thing, because I just dropped macaroni and cheese onto my keyboard. Nice.

the Charlie concert

Well, my mind is still pretty fuzzy from last night's sleep-deprivation, but here goes... The concert last night was amazing. Some things that amazed me:

• that this guy spent two years living in the mountains, filling his time with nothing but Jesus and feeding his body with nothing but wheat flour and water
• that he also drove 6 hours in a 10-year-old Dodge Stratus ("Don't talk about my car that way!") to play a show in my friends' basement; oh yeah, and he did it with only one working headlight
• that Jesus never gets tired of me
• that, in spite of all my striving and sweating and straining to fix myself and do everything "right," the one thing Jesus really wants from me is my love
• that it's possible to sit and have a conversation with the God of the universe
• that all my life I've wanted to make my parents proud and never felt like I could...and then I met the perfect God of heaven, and somehow I make him happy; I don't get that, but it's sweet

There's more, but that's all for now. Oh, and here are some pictures (they posted out of order for some reason):

Charlie: "I feel like a girl!"

Singing at church before the teaching

Chris's dream come true: a jam session with Charlie

Jamming














Claire--the youngest fan in the room

My eyes feel like they're going to fall out of my head. I like my new job (really, I do), but today was rough. I've never spent so much time on one chapter. One long, painful, blantantly grammar-and-style-rule-disregarding chapter. Ugh.

Editors, please show some love and respect to your proofers. That's all I'm saying.

Exciting Things

Here are some things I am currently excited about:

• I learned to crochet yesterday! I started a baby blanket for my little nephew who will be here in the spring. (Shh--don't tell Brian and Sam. It's a surprise.)
• I get to meet (technically, reunite with) my brother Derek in about 2 and a half weeks. Super exciting.
• Charlie Dodrill is coming to Columbus this Saturday. More specifically, he's coming to church with us and then playing a private show in my friends' basement. Does it get any cooler than that?
• Christmas is getting closer.

So yeah, exciting stuff. However, the flip side of all this excitement is that because of my jacked-up personality (just kidding, I know God made me just the way I am on purpose...but seriously, don't you just sometimes wish you were wired differently?), I can quickly go from excited to overwhelmed. I can quickly go from anything to overwhelmed, actually. So I have been overwhelmed lately. My brain has been on overload for the past week or so, and I'm starting to feel like it's me (rather than the broken TV) that has sparks flying out the back.

So if I snap at you or freak out right now, I apologize. I'm just so excited :)

The free TV...

...is back in the trash. The picture got worse, and when Craig tried to fix it, it went from green to red to fuzzy. And then sparks started coming out of the back.

Ashes to ashes, dumpster to dumpster. Oh well.

love debt

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law." - Romans 13:8

A lot of the time, I feel as though people owe me something. What if I really lived as though I were indebted to everyone? As though I truly had "a continuing debt to love"?

Now that's pretty different.

Can I just say...

...that I freaking love this girl?

Check out the latest blog of my friend Christy. She's a college friend. We're super (super) different. But knowing her has enriched my life. She's got some wisdom that just oozes out of her.

Enjoy.

Dumpster-diving: finding treasures in unexpected places

Yesterday my husband found a 27" flat-screen TV in a dumpster.

He brought it home. It works. The picture gets a little green sometimes, but other than that...

If anyone knows anything about electronics and how to fix that, let me know!