A Brief Memo to my Chin

RE: Hair

I'm returning the dark hairs you've been shipping to me sporadically as of late. I did not order them. Please remove me from your mailing list.

Sincerely,

Me

Looking up to Others vs. Comparing Yourself to Them

I was just reading an article entitled Guard Your Heart Part 2 from the August 2010 edition of Voice of the Covenant magazine. As someone who has tried to play the comparison game plenty of times in the past, this hit home.

"I have learned that while it can be beneficial to look up to the right people, and learn from those who have gone before you in whatever you do, you can't try to be those people. While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it's also a wild goose chase. You never quite arrive.

Oh, but when you find your God-given purpose, you find real satisfaction! When you stop trying to be the next somebody else, and start being the first YOU, then you not only find peace when you get there, but you actually enjoy the journey. It's impossible to enjoy your journey when you are trying to be like someone else."

God made you who you are for a reason. It wasn't just whim. Stop putting pressure on yourself to be someone else, or do things just like someone else does them, or live your life the way God has directed someone else to live theirs. What were YOU put here for?

Hebrews 10:35-36

Hebrews 10:35-36
"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."

Woo hoo!

My boss got an email today from an agent asking for her manuscript! That's request #2!

If any readers (all ..2? of you..) out there are interested in reading the book she wrote, shoot me off an email. She'd be happy to let others read it and tell her what they think. It's a 47,000 word young adult novel with a pretty strong emotional pull. It's about a foster dog she had whose name was Holly. I blubbered every time she handed me a new chapter to read. There are some parts that STILL make me get teary-eyed--and I've read it at least a dozen times by now.

It's that time of the week again.

Friday, ah, Friday.

It was a busy week, that's for sure. I'm really looking forward to relaxing with friends and family.

My husband and I finished the Halo: Reach campaign. Just in case you actually care.

The lady I've been contracting for (is that how you word that? When you're not an an employee, but a contractor? Anyways...) wrote a book, and I helped her proofread and edit it. We've been sending out query letters to literary agents and today one of them replied asking to see the first 2 chapters. We were so excited! That's the first nibble of interest we've had since we started sending the letters out, and it sure knocked our hope level up a notch or two.

In learning about the publishing world, I came across an agent's blog, http://blog.nathanbransford.com/. I like his style, and I also learned a lot from the different posts he's put up on writing, query letters, how to handle a synopsis, etc. Great, great stuff. A quote from his blog today:

"Is the present tense taking over literature? That is a concern of book critic Phillip Pullman, who took a look at the Booker shortlist, noticed that three are in present, and called the present tense a 'silly affectation' which 'does nothing but annoy.' Hate to hear what he'd think of second person future. 'It will be a dark and stormy night. You will be very cold and wet.'"

 I laughed so abruptly, I snorted. I'm sure you're all shocked.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. 

If you don't hear much from me...

This is why.

This is the final Halo that Bungie will produce. We're really looking forward to playing it tomorrow.

Game plan:

1. Get up
2. Drink coffee
3. Work
4. Pick up daughter after work
5. Hit Best Buy for our pre-ordered copy
6. Head home and load that puppy up
7. Not email my husband at work and gloat, even though he would TOTALLY do it to me, were our situations reversed.

Anyways, I heard something today that encouraged me. I was listening to Keith Moore teaching on faith, and he said something that stuck with me. He said that if we give up now, we'll be no better off. Our situation will not improve. It's like a long road trip. You're all excited at first. My day 3, you're pretty much done--you just want to get to your destination! But, if you just up and stop in the middle of the highway, you're not where you were and you're not where you were heading, either!

I'm not quitting! God has good plans for me and my family and I refuse to let go.
 

Been There Photography

My favorite brother in the Lord (don't get offended, you're all my favorites!), Tim, and his daughter Corey, take some awesome photos. They have a website, and if you want some really neat stuff to put on your walls, you need to take a look around!

Been There Photography

We personally have purchased:

This one...

And, this one!

This one shall be mine as well! Muhahaha...ha...sorry.

Milestone!

We bought my 1996 Toyota Avalon in February, 2004. She had under 50,000 miles at the time. On my way to work on Tuesday, I noticed she was creeping up on flipping over to 150k. So, at the next red light, I whipped out my cell and snapped a quick pic. It doesn't seem like it's been almost 6 years since we bought 'er.

EDIT: My mom just alerted me to my math error. We've had the car for almost 7 years-ha! Thanks, Mom!

That'd be a mess...

One of  my daughter's assignments over the next week and a half is to write a research paper on Nevada. I had her make a list of specific things she'd like to study and write about. Eventually, she chose the Hoover Dam. I then told her to make a list of things she wanted to find out about the Dam. Here's the list:

- why it was created
- how it was created
- how it affected them
- how it affects us now
- (note: is it made of pizza? -_-)

Aah, home schooling. It's those moments where I wonder if I should mark up her grade for incorporating the joke, or mark it down for being a smart alec on a school assignment. Thoughts?

Yeah, so...

I haven't posted in...5 years? Bad, Zilla! Really, I'm not being too hard on myself about it. Sometimes we start the right things at the wrong times.

So, with that all handled, you need to know about my chapstick mishap today. I live in Arizona. Today was just a hair under 100 degrees. I was in the car driving home from work when I noticed my lips seemed a little dry. So, I reached into my purse (which had been sitting in the sun) and pulled out my chapstick.

*Smear-smear*

"Gack!"

Apparently it had been sitting in my BLACK purse in the sun for too long, since I had about 10 uses worth of chapstick caked on my lips--haha!

Of course I had to look at myself in the rearview mirror before wiping the excess off.