bonds in seconds!

i'm twenty eight years old. i have to use reading glasses when i read and am on the computer. and by "have to", i really mean "prefer to" since i get a headache when i don't do it. so it's not like i'm blind without them or anything. when i first discovered this grizzly truth, i was a sophomore in college and only discovered it thanks to my fabulous roommate leah who said "you get a lot of headaches. you should get your eyes looked at..." i would have never, ever thought about it on my own! anyway, i had to get an expensive prescription because my magnification need was just .50, and the lowest you can get in stores is 1.00. i used those glasses for a few years and then lost them. but no worries! i went back to get more, and my eyes had degenerated enough to need 1.00. so i got off cheaply and bought the $15 magnifiers from walmart that i still use today. lately, i've been saying that i needed to get my eyes re-examined just for routine-sake since it's been about 5 years since my last one. well, today when i was talking to my boss, my glasses snapped in half. the little arm that goes behind my right ear just broke off in my little hand. david said "whoa, that's not good..." so i have several options: 1) superglue them together and live with it (i actually already did this...we'll see if it holds); 2) "splurge" and buy some more 1.00's; 3) get my eyes examined to make sure i'm still at 1.00; 4) tape them up to look as awesome as this guy....

in other news, JENCY IS HOME!!! hurrah!!! it's about time that girl came home to see me and show me pictures and tell me stories. it's all about me, don't you know. seriously though, you really need to track her down and get her to show you pictures and tell you stories. they might just change your life. sample stories: first-hand, front row attendance of the ganges river worship service in varanasi - the "most holy city" where they believe if you die in the city, you immediately go to heaven no matter what; talking to and befriending women who are so entrenched in the religion of hinduism that they truly believe they believe the same thing christians do simply because they "believe and worship everything"; dancing with, playing with, and just loving on little girls who have been sent to live in a home with other girls to be saved from being sold into sexual exploitation; teaching women basic hygiene and health concerns - as simple as "eating vegetables is good for you" and teaching them what actually happens to them each month, since they were clueless. her pictures are amazing - crowded, very colorful streets and rooms where they worked. the faces of indian women and children are one of the most beautiful thing you'll see. i can't wait to go with her next time!! :) :) :)

off to exercise a little and then eat lunch!

happy tuesday~~~

man weekend

so chris was gone last weekend with a bunch of his guy friends. he took pictures half the time, and jeremiah took pictures the other half. he just sent four of the amazing pictures that jeremiah took (chris has some stinking amazing ones too, but i don't have them here at work) and i thought i would post them. these are places that i've never been up in the mountains, but i really, really want to go!! especially the place where they're all floating along!! i don't like murky water, but i think i would make an exception for that! it looks amazing!!!! click on the pictures to make them bigger. they're all "framers". oh man. i need some new picture frames...


i especially love this - it looks like a scene out of a movie. and this is actually the river that was in "deliverance", but it's not the exact spot. maybe i'll shoot my next film here...








bobbing along! bobbing along! on the surface of the beautiful craggy stream!!!!

there's someone in my room!

christopher is back!! HOORAY!!! they did manly things all weekend. they hunted down the 500 pound bear that's living up there, killed it with their bare hands, skinned it, ate the meat roasted on open flame, and made the skin into a rug. not really. they didn't even see the bear. but they did watch a snail that was hidden inside one of their logs on the fire boil as the flames reached it. that's pretty manly. something i'm amazingly excited about is seeing the new hiking places they discovered. apparently they hiked on the river where "deliverance" was filmed. (this is a picture from the internet, not their travels) he said they rock hopped until it got too narrow, the rocks disappeared, and the river turned into a 10-foot wide stream with sheer rock faces going straight up on both sides. beautiful!! i can't wait to see it. a couple of other places they went were new to them, and we're definitely going the next time we go up. what was hilarious was that they didn't eat lunch one time b/c they always got distracted exploring and playing in streams and stuff. someone would be like "whoa! it's 4:30!!" when they had meant to leave around 1 to go eat. men. so after four days away from my husband, he's even more handsome than before. awww...he's my love!!

in other, more interesting and less sappy news, this absolutely amazes me. once you click on it, it should cycle through the different years. be baffled america. colorado folks. they're healthy there. i wonder if the amount of marijuana consumed has something to do with your level of obesity? hm.

JENCY COMES HOME TODAY!!! as i type, she's in the air somewhere around newfoundland...i think. the odds are very large that i will get to hug her tonight. i absolutely cannot wait!! i wish i could post some pictures that one of the girls from the trip posted on her facebook. but alas, facebook will forever be blocked at my place of employment. they are beautiful, beautiful women. :)

so in my office at work, when i ask maintenance to close my air vents, it's sauna-hot in here. when i ask them to open them, it's an ice-box. there's no middle ground!! i might bring a blanket tomorrow.

in other, more delicious news, i've posted this before, and i'm doing it again because i'm SO stinking amazed at how good they are. oatmeal raisin cookies, recipe from the underside of the quaker oatmeal lid, with just a few tweaks (marked with a "*"). make them. immediately. don't bake them too long so they're chewy. holy. smokes. they are the perfect cookie. they're chewy, hearty, not too sweet, not too oat-y. perfect. i took a picture of one i made last week, but, again, problems with internet at home + my computer at work = no pictures.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups oats, quick or old fashioned, uncooked
*1/2 cup golden raisins (recipe calls for 1 cup)

*1/2 cup chopped pecans (recipe doesn't call for at all)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats, raisins and pecans; stir in well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.
Servings: ABOUT 4 DOZEN

doldrums

raise your hand if you ever saw "milo and the phantom tollbooth". it's an excellent movie, just in case you're wondering. anyway, there's a part in the movie when milo takes a wrong turn b/c he isn't paying attention, and he winds up in the doldrums. it's a fabulous scene where the doldrums take milo and his car over - they are little drippy characters that laze themselves into a state of doing-nothing-ness. the song is lovely: "don't say there's nothing to do in the doldrums!..." and i suddenly can't remember the rest of the words!! ah. proof that i haven't seen it in entirely too long. anyway, tock the "watch dog" (he has a watch inside his fur...get it?) finally saves him from eternal peril. it's a great scene. all that to say that work today is TOTALLY the doldrums. it's a summer friday, and NO ONE is here. i mean, suzanne and mercy are here. none of our bosses are here. mine just informed me that his vacation started this afternoon, and right as he was leaving, i said "so if i left, no one would know, right?" i smiled, and he laughed. i am beyond bummed too b/c today is a perfect day for him to come to my little window right around 2:30 or 3 and say "lyndsay! go home!!!" but today the last thing he said to me was "thanks for holding down the fort." NNNNOOOOOOO!!! oh well. so i'm just hanging out listening to some gustavo santaolalla on pandora radio, so it's not all bad.

in other news, christopher is gone!!! he and four of his good friends are up at the cabin having a man weekend. HUAH!! and i'm actually a little ashamed to say that it's nice having the apartment to myself. i thought i would be scared or bored alone, but last night was actually quite wonderful. reading, eating a light dinner, and i actually slept the entire night without waking up once. (i don't think i moved at all, either...) when i told chris that this morning he said "NO! we are NOT sleeping in separate rooms!!" hah! we'll get used to sleeping in the same room...eventually...it'll be nice to have him back. anyway, tonight my dear friend beth is coming over. we're going to dine upon my very first attempt at a crock pot recipe (some sort of improvised soup...we'll see how it goes!) i was verrrrrry uncomfortable leaving it this morning. it really is okay to leave it on all day long, right??? sheesh.


and then tomorrow i'm hanging out with my dear friends the burkes all day. here's a fun picture of the whole fam at kelsey's parents' lake house. they're remodeling the house they just moved into, and they have three small ones, so i'll probably do a bit of painting and babysitting and both at the same time. i am so, so, so, so excited!!! it's been TOO long since i had some good time with the burkes. i adore them. but i'm reeeeally hoping that "had none" is feeling MUCH better by tomorrow so i can romp about with the wee ones. he's actually feeling much better than he did the other day. he's been taped to "roast beef" for the past two days. roast beef isn't too happy about it, but it makes had none feel much better not being bent every other second. i honestly can't decide if he's actually broken. it hurts LIKE CRAZY when i bend it, but other than that, there's no sign of breakage. not very much swelling (he just sort of feels overweight) and no discoloration. see for yourself in this nice picture of me wearing the only shoes that don't hurt - my wedding flip flops! haha! oh well. taped to roast beef he will stay until he can be bent with no pain.

since we don't have internet at home and i'm not able to upload pictures from the camera here (my computer won't recognize external plug-ins...it's really weird) i'm trying to post as many relative photos as possible. "had none" was taken on the work camera that actually still takes a 3 1/2 floppy disc. amazing! and my computer is the only one on the floor (in the entire school?!) that still accepts a floppy. i'm supposedly getting a new one this month. which also means bye bye dinosaur camera!!! hurrah!!

in other news, not to be mean or anything, but i'm very disappointed in my blogging friends. there are quite a few blogs that i visit on a regular basis, and NONE OF THEM have been updated recently. well, maybe a couple have been updated within the past two weeks or so, but the great majority of them have been sitting abandoned since april. shame on you! shame on you all!!! you're a disgrace to the blogging world. the last time you updated your blogs, it was april!! (man. yancy always comes up with these great slams like "Rock Creek Baptist Church was celebrating it's 1st Anniversary the last time you posted." and it's funny b/c rock creek baptist (where derek's family goes) has been around forever and ever. but i can NEVER think of clever things like that. i'm just boring.

on a lighter and much more hip note, check out this video. i don't do graphic design, but it is oh so very cool. from the "goodexperience blog" (formerly "this is broken): "This super-creative four-minute video, created in a single take, features a trampoline, some very good athletes, an unusual camera angle, and some thoughts on graphic design. Worth watching. (Don't miss the "status bar" on the bottom of the screen.)" have fun!

not as expected

i've got a broken toe!! it's the piggy that "had none" on my left foot. i kicked the tool box last night while walking by it (it was my fault that it was laying in the middle of the floor anyway) and now it's just RIDICULOUSLY painful, swollen, but not purple. i would expect it to be very purple. well, in looking at it again, it actually is purple. oh wow. i've heard of people having broken toes and thinking "ah, it can't be that bad...it's just a toe." well i've been proven WRONG. sheesh. i'm walking around saying to myself, "it doesn't hurt. i'm not going to limp. it's not painful...gah! it hurts!!!" but i suppose life will go on. :)

in other news, i have a spam blocker for my work email, but i still get to see them just to make sure it's okay to delete them. i got one with THE BEST subject in the entire universe today. "In Santa versus the Hippies, you play an elf charged with the job of reinstating the Christmas Spirit of a commune of Hippies." i don't ask questions. i just delete them.

in other, more thrilling news, JENCY called me this morning! she's in london due to be home on tuesday. my phone rang and it was WAY too many numbers to be a normal caller. i NEVER answer my phone if i don't know who's calling me, but today i said out loud, "i wonder if this is jency?!" i said hello, and it was her!! we had a marvelous conversation. i can't wait to hug her neck and hear all her amazing, life-changing stories. what a mighty God we serve!!

chiropractor advise

okay. back when i rambled about not going to the chiropractor, i got all kinds of good responses from friends (and even some strangers!) about why i SHOULD go. so i did. and i liked it...well, i grew to like it. having someone crack your neck three times a week in a manner that seems like it's going to break off is a little disconcerting at first. anyway, i need some more advise.

my main problem is in my neck, but he would also crack me right between my shoulder blades. great! where i'm tight most of the time during the day!! it felt great at first, but in the end of my third week going, it started hurting. and every time i went, it would hurt more and the pain would linger longer. until one day i told him how bad it would hurt when he did that, and he tried doing it another way thinking it was just the downward-pushing pressure that was hurting. nope. it was the *pop* itself. it brought tears to my eyes. when i asked him if it was normal, he said "no, it's not normal" and told me to stretch and try icing it. but it would hurt for about 15 minutes afterwards and stop, and i would forget about it until i was lying on the table again, so icing it was never in my head. so i left in pain, and the pain stuck around (like, pain so bad i could barely walk and was having a hard time breathing...) for over an hour. so i called and set up a time to talk to him about it. he asked if i had ever had an mri (what my doctor said i should do, unless i wanted to see a chiropractor first...) i said no, and he said i might want to do that. *sigh*

BAH! any of you chiropractor-goers ever experience building pain like that when you've been going for a while? oh, and there were no improvements on my arm pain either, just for the record. so i stopped going to the chiropractor, and haven't made an appt for an mri...GAH! i'm just sick of this...

in other news, we're basically moved in and settled in our new place! there's a few remaining things to organize and find places for. but pretty much, we're moved in. come visit!! :)

georgia aquarium

oh how i wish i could more easily post pictures...alas, our new apartment doesn't have internet, (which is actually a good thing!!) and i never bring my camera to work. but i burned some pictures on a cd to send to my bro-in-law, so here are some highlights from the GA aquarium from a few weeks ago when we went to visit colin and caroline.

beluga whales!! they look like angels b/c they're so white and so graceful. they had to tear chris and me away from the tank!!!

this was the looooong underwater hallway that i almost panicked in because it was so crowded. sheesh! half of it was a moving sidewalk-type thing, and half of it the people had to walk through. the lady overlooking that part of the aquarium kept shouting over the loudspeaker in a not-so-kind tone "PLEASE KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!" it really added to the experience...*sheesh*

my favorite picture from the tunnel. awesome!
one of the whale sharks!!! my goodness they're big.













here's an idea of how big the tank and groupers were in comparison to the people standing in front of the tank. the tank was about 5 times bigger than our camera could capture. it was AWESOME. and the huge groupers literally just sat there and stared out at the people. the four of us cracked up a number of times by making them talk. "duh...." and stuff like that. it was hilarious at the time. we just sound like idiots when i type about it. oh well...













and here's another good shot of the whale shark - he was SO BIG!!!

indescribable business

the subject is supposed to mean "indescribable busy-ness", but i like business....so i shall leave it be.

i just finished reading a new (to me) blog in its entirety, and i have a confession. i'm completely and utterly jealous of the amount of comments he gets on each post. i'm not mad at you, my readers. i'm just letting you know that it will make me feel hip, awesome, and even more loved if you comment every once in a while. and i know you're out there. there are way too many of you that tell me in person or email me and say that you read my blog (even parents of friends of mine - i know you're there!!!!) for there to be the ghost town of comments i receive. come on people!!! and now i'd like to send a shout out - YIP! - to all those who DO comment on my post. you know who you are, and i adore you. truly.

in other, less self-focused news...well, maybe it is as self focused since it's about me. anyway, the past two weeks have been SO BUSY CRAZY INSANELY BUSY. i'll start with last last thursday. we finally moved everything out of the old apartment into the new one, and cleaned the HECK out that old thing. chris actually got the nasty old stained tub looking nice and shiny. it was nothing short of a miracle! i think we should get our deposit back SOLELY because of that. alas, i think we shall see that 300 dollars not. oh well. so friday after work we swung (swang?) by the old place one last time just in case, and then dropped the keys in our landlord's little dropbox and said goodbye to our dear, wonderful, first apartment. funny mushy story: (if you're easily nauseated by mushy husband-wife stories, skip the next paragraph)

while cleaning the place up sometime during that week, chris mentioned that the song he will always think of as the theme song of that apartment was the glen miller orchestra version of "when you wish upon a star" - the song we left our wedding reception to (though no one could hear it) and just a dern good song. i was shocked, b/c going through my mind when he was about to say it was "when he says what song he thinks of, i'll tell him that mine is...no way!!!" the same that he mentioned. okay. so that thursday when we had finished cleaning and were taking pictures of all the little idiosyncrasies that we wanted to remember, and we looked at each other before walking out. then it hit us - our first apartment together. our expressions grew sentimental, and we hugged. (don't worry - this will stay G rated) then we rocked back and forth slightly (like we do sometimes during hugs) and chris proceeded to make me cry like a baby by quietly singing the melody to the glen miller orchestra's "when you wish upon a star" (it has this long instrumental intro). it was amazingly special, as cheesy as it sounds. i'm tearing up thinking about it...as much as i struggled to love that apartment toward the end with all the spiders and inconveniences, i really, really loved it solely because it's where our life together began. *sigh* sorry. i had to ramble.

okay. so back to our crazy busy-ness. when we left our landlord's house, we drove straight from there to the cabin in nc to celebrate the mother-in-law's birthday. colin and his new woman caroline were there too! so it was really fun. a bit awkward for her to meet the parents for the first time in a very busy, new-york style deli, but fun all the same. we had a great time shooting the b-b gun, fleeing from the bear (he's up there, we just haven't seen him yet, although caroline thought she did when a giant black dog ran up on them), playing apples to apples, and just spending time together in that amazing place. God is so good!

then straight from there, we went to chris' parents' house to housesit while they stayed at the cabin for the week. the mess at our new apartment stayed...but staying at his parents' house is really, really fun. it's big and clean and has a pool and sally the spastic dog and lots of cranky cats. living out there was fun but hard when trying to balance the car situation. we only have one, and chris usually walks to work, or i just drop him off. but living out there, his parents let us borrow his mom's car...alas, we fell in love with it. an infinity G35. DANG. i can't think about it. i miss it. anyway, so in the middle of that week was july 4th and we went to see ratatouille (fabulous!!) and had friends over to swim, and then went to a wonderfully fun party with some church folks. the weather was perfect, the live music was entertaining, the company was delightful, and the food was delicious and neverending! so that made the next day feel like sunday, monday and thursday all at the same time. it was technically thursday; it felt like sunday because the 4th felt like saturday being off all day; it felt like monday because it was the first day back to work. weird. so that messed me up.

so then his parents came home on monday afternoon and we had concluded to leave our junk there and go pick it up monday after work. well, monday morning chris called me saying that his aunt (dad's sister) had had a massive heart attack, was in the hospital, and was not expected to make it. *sigh* calls like that are never expected, never fun, and always sad. the pattens and the slatens are very close, and this was a huge blow. so we both left work monday to spend with family in the (horrible) waiting room. aunt betty wound up passing away late that night. *sigh* so tuedsay and wednesday were awful - hard to concentrate. wednesday night was the visitation at the funeral home (which i just don't like anyway) and as one of her son's put it, "this is worse than a 40th high school reunion! i don't know any of these people!!" i was okay though b/c i wasn't expected to know anyone!! anyway, yesterday (thursday) was the funeral, and it's weird to say that it was a good service, but it was. her sunday school teacher did a great job with the little homily thing, and i think it meant a lot to the family. after the short graveside service, the whole crew headed over to her sister-in-law's house for food and fellowship.

it's weird how funerals always pull families together. we sat around and ate, talked, laughed, told stories, played music (lots of musicians in the family) and sang, for at least 4 hours. why in the WORLD do we wait for something like that to happen to get together? these people live in town! we never see them!! *sigh* changes must be made.

my goodness i'm rambling...so that makes today, friday, feel like who KNOWS what day. i'm so confused.

in the middle of the craziness, we've gotten the new apartment looking a little bit more like a place that's livable!! the kicthen is almost completely put together, and the den is looking pretty dern good. our giant closet (i like to sit in there when i rarely talk on the phone!) is amazing too. the bedroom is getting there. the only thing that's a complete dump is the 2nd bedroom/music room. we'll get there this weekend. i just know we will!!

i have more to say, but i have declared this post long enough. to come later will be a telling of the comical changes of plans for this weekend, a cry for more advise on chiropractors, comments about internet radio stations, and thoughts on curly hair.

and i JUST discovered that blogger offers spell check. who knew???

smooth as glass

jennifer glass. a woman of truly astonishing qualities.

she's strong. (and oh so hot-ah!)


















has an impeccable sense of fashion.





















is kind to the animals.















takes all safety precautions, just in case.
















knows how to have a good time!


















and yet knows when to call it a day.
















today is the day she was born.
her sense of humor is not worn.
she flies through the air,
she's so smooth up there.
so today, smooth girl, toot your horn!!

jennifer glass. a year older, and still smooth as glass.

hiding place

we went up to the mountain last weekend, and it was SO FUN! it was the mother in law's birthday, and the kids went swimming on sunday. which translates into the boys went swimming, the girlfriend took a nap on the rocks, and the wife (that's me) took pictures. i've never liked merky (is that spelled right?!) water...



this is a little spot that we've been to multiple times on the way up to the highlands. it's SO fun! here's the leaping place.



















here's the slide. if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see chris yellling at colin...or something! we're not sure what was going on!!


















and here's the crawl...
















to get in "the spa"!! the looks on their faces is CLASSIC. this picture is currently the background on my computer. the water actually looks a lot bigger and overpowering than it is. i mean, it IS big, but not as big as this picture makes it look! and apparently, the water is rushing over you so fast that you must tie the drawstring on your swim trunks OR ELSE! and i'm pretty sure they know that from experience from the past few years! haha!




we took more pictures, but these are all i have on my computer at work. more to come later!! (maybe much later...we don't have internet at home anymore...which is actually a wonderful thing! less time surfing and wasting time, more time together and doing productive, edifying things!)

thickburger

oh man. i just ate this. the only reason my conscience let me get it was that i had decided to eat only half of it. fine. that's great! it'll be a great lunch. mmm hmmm....so i ate half of it.



then i ate the other half. i'm so ashamed. *hangs head* and as i hang my head, i see my growing belly and hips and behind and increasing scale reading and accept it as my own fault. alas. i shall never be one for eating only salads.






if you aren't convinced that i have done an awful thing. drink this in for a while....BLEH.




was it worth it? let me think...yes. it was worth it. but i won't be eating again for another week. that sourdough burger deserves the "best hamburger" award it received back in 2005. i might even put it up against chili's peppercorn...nah. that's the best burger in the world hands down. try it next time you're in chilis and in the mood to spend all your fat and calories in one sitting.





in other news, the new apartment lays in wait for its new owners to straighten it up. well keep waiting, little messy apartment! we're at chris' parents' house all week!! WAHOO! our goal is to swim at least once a day. sunscreen it up folks!


in more bizarre news, what in the world is the world coming to?!?!?