unexpected

tonight i found myself with an unexpected free evening. i was planning on going to the high school football game, but the day's rain postponed the game until monday. i eventually found myself browsing the walls of blockbuster looking for something fun to watch. i narrowed my choices down to charlie wilson's war, a spanish movie called la misma luna and dan in real life. i wasn't completely sold on charlie wilson's war, i felt like keeping up with the subtitles of la misma luna would be too much work for a friday night, and although i'd seen dan in real life when it was in theaters, all i could really remember about it was that i liked it. so dan in real life came home with me.

if you haven't seen it, i definitely recommend it. i've been pretty tired lately. a bit worn out and grumpy, too. things are fine overall, but i haven't completely felt like myself. i got to go on vacation last week and visit my cousin jeremy, his wife(my cousin-in-law) kierstin and their son (my nephew cousin) eli in tennessee. it was a much needed and enjoyable rest filled with good conversation, good laughs, good music and really good food. a refreshing time. i always love being with that part of my family.

i mention that because i think it helps (me, at least) make sense of why this movie got to me the way it did. in one scene, there is a family talent show. the two brothers perform the song, "let my love open the door":



i know i've heard this song before, but i heard it differently tonight. i felt as though the words "let my love open the door" were being sung to me by God. a reminder to not close myself off from Him. while i was in tennessee i came across John 14:1, where Christ says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." i guess my heart has been troubled lately and it hasn't really been open to God. i've been trusting myself more than anything.

after the movie, i looked up the lyrics to the song and here is what i found:

When people keep repeating
That you'll never fall in love
When everybody keeps retreating
But you can't seem to get enough
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

When everything feels all over
When everybody seems unkind
I'll give you a four-leaf clover
Take all the worry out of your mind
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

I have the only key to your heart
I can stop you falling apart
Try today, you'll find this way
Come on and give me a chance to say
Let my love open the door

It's all I'm living for
Release yourself from misery
Only one thing's gonna set you free
That's my love

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

When tragedy befalls you
Don't let them bring you down
Love can cure your problem
You're so lucky I'm around
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

pete townshend is the name of the guy who wrote the song. i don't know anything about him personally, but despite some of the lyrics being a little cheesy, i feel like these are words that the Savior could have written, especially when it says, "Release yourself from misery. Only one thing's gonna set you free. That's my love." it was a great reminder to me that the Lord has given me a new heart and that the only place to put my trust is in Him. the last place i expected to be reminded of that truth was in this movie. glad that game got postponed.

circle f flashback

today i got to visit friends at circle f. although i don't work there anymore, i love to visit when i get a chance. i was particularly excited to go today since i knew a lot of the counselors this summer back when they were campers. it's crazy to me to look at pictures from almost ten years ago and then today...

me with Jordan, one of the guys in my first cabin, in 1999

me with Jordan today , who is now a sophomore in college

me with Logan, in 2001

me with Logan today...could i look any smaller???

Afton, me, Cecily and Ashley in 2002

me and Afton today

me and Cecily today

me with Austin in 2002

me with Austin today, as he prepares to be a freshman in high school

Jake on my shoulders, with Drew in 2003

me and Jake today

i feel so fortunate and blessed that i've gotten to be a part of something so cool, and that i have so many lasting relationships because of it.

juno

i've always been a fan of movies. when i was in high school, i would spend summers catching the twilight showing of movies at the amc theater for something like 4 bucks a ticket. i loved it. every now and then a movie would come along that i would see in the theater multiple times. for a while i had a crush on sandra bullock and thought she was the best thing ever, so i saw movies like speed 2 several times in the theater just because she was in it. seeing speed 2 more than once proves how much of a die hard fan i was back in those days. i actually remember seeing the first speed with my dad and telling him i liked it so much that i thought it was better than the lion king. to this day, i have a soft spot for her.

one time my cousins were in town and they introduced me to the joy of watching happy gilmore. we laughed so hard at that movie and ben stiller saying, "read the name tag. you're in my world now, grandma."

i think in my junior year i became fascinated with the cheesy horror flick and wasted more hours than was healthy on viewings of i know what you did last summer.

while i was home in tampa over christmas, i saw a movie that i'd been hearing a lot about called juno. the short synopsis is that it's a story about a junior in high school named juno who becomes pregnant and decides to give the baby up for adoption. while there were a few moments that made me uncomfortable, it was the most fun i'd had at a movie in a long time. line after line had me laughing out loud. i read a lot about movies and i so appreciated that the laughs mostly came from clever dialogue. and for all of the sarcastic one liners, it had a lot of heart and sincerity.

on sunday, my roommate and i checked out the kite runner, a faithful adaption of one of my favorite books. it tells a pretty heavy story and we felt like we needed a pick-me-up after watching it. my roommate thought juno looked funny and i thought i could handle seeing it again, so we headed back out after a quick bite to eat at home. what i didn't expect was to like the movie even more after seeing it the second time. even tonight lines from the movie ran through my head and before i knew it i was laughing to myself. i'm a big fan of sarcasm, and i felt like this movie had plenty of it to go around.

below is a video of two of the guys in the movie that shows a quick clip with one of my favorite moments between juno and the father of her child, paulie bleeker. it's nothing fancy, but simple and funny...to me at least.

random and funny

last october our church staff went to a conference in atlanta. we were treated to music from a variety of artists, many i had never heard of. my favorite performer i heard during those days was a guy named dave barnes. if you haven't heard of him, check him out (especially the songs "until you," "what am i gonna do" and "butterflies," just to name a few).

he happens to be coming to orlando this tuesday for a concert. i already have a meeting scheduled during part of the show, but i'm hoping i'll at least get to catch some of it.

some friends and i were talking about how much we enjoy his music and they told me he has some pretty funny videos on you tube. so i checked some of them out when i got home tonight, and this was one of my favorites. it's pretty random, but gave me a good laugh and some good tips for your upcoming valentine's day.

my morning

i usually try to do something energizing on wednesday mornings since it is a youth group night. recently i've been going to the gym, but today i decided to get out and explore an area of town i've not really been to before. so i braved the orlando traffic (it took close to 45 minutes to drive about 9 miles!) and headed over to winter park to enjoy the coldest morning of the season so far. here are some pics i took to document my excursion.

as i walked down park avenue, i saw this really cool old car.

this is a shot of the amtrak train station.


central park.

most of the benches in the central park have these dedication plaques on them. this was one of my favorites.

this was by far my favorite find of the morning. a time capsule buried into the ground back in 1976.

since it was cool enough for me to wear a long sleeved shirt without sweating, i was in the mood for something warm. determined to not get something from a chain coffee shop, i found this shop. this is the inside of the shop, and below...

...is the outdoor seating area of the shop. while the mocha was good (although so strong that i was still jittery when i got home), i'm sad to say that the organic cookie i picked up was a letdown. i'm a big fan of cookies, and this supposedly good for me cookie tasted anything but good. at least i know better for the next time around.

chili's in lake wales

i love the melted part.

rocking out

I think that in the years to come I will look back at this summer as one of the busiest I've ever had. I could write a lot, but just wanted to post two pics I took with my cell phone this past weekend. My favorite band, Lifehouse, came to Tampa and I got to go to the show with one of my favorite people, my cousin Justin. The first pic is the band after their last song and the second shot is one of Jut & me.




The show reminded me that I love Lifehouse and my cousin Jut even more.

weekend menu

For the first time in about 7 years I had a weekend during the summer to do almost anything I wanted. While I feel a little guilty about all of my friends that are working hard at camp, I have to admit it was a blast. I ate with a different person at every meal this weekend. And I ate out, so I need to be hitting the gym again this week. Here was my menu for the weekend:

Friday
1.) Lunch at Qdoba with Selig, one of my high school students. We ran some errands and I forgot to pay for the fax I sent at Kinko's, so we made our way back there before heading home.

2.) Mid-afternoon snack with Travis at Chick-fil-A. Check out the monster fudge brownie a la modes that they hooked us up with.



3.) Dinner at the Puckett's with other Christ Kingdom staff. Bubbalou's pulled pork and homemade whipped cream!

Saturday
1.) Panera breakfast with my friend Anne. We use to help out with the middle school students at UPC back in the day. It was great to see her. And I ate healthy there with a smoothie.

2.) Lunch at ABC Pizza, an old restaurant in Tampa. $7.99 for a large pizza and 2 liter bottle of Coke! Even better was getting to visit with Martha, a friend of mine from high school. We'd not seen each other for at least a year, so I loved catching up with her.



3.) Father's Day Dinner with the pops. He went for the steak, I just had a side salad. My body needed a break.

Sunday
1.) My traditional Sunday morning Panera breakfast bagel where I catch up on some of my one-year Bible reading and usually see a Puckett or two.

2.) Lunch at Chipotle with my small group.

3.) Another side salad dinner, this time with my roommate Dan. We went to Bennigan's, where my friend Beau (one of my favorite Circle F folks) works. We got to sit in his section and hang out with him.

All that to say I've definitely been putting my Cingular rebate card to good use.