Stepping Through the Wardrobe

The room didn't look like much. Just a bare floor, bare walls, rain on the window outside--the only furniture in it was a giant wardrobe with the most curious carvings of trees and animals, the like of which I've never seen in this world. And then, like magic, the wardrobe doors opened. And when we stepped inside, it was like another world. The fur coats hanging in rows on either side gave way to pine boughs, and snow was falling gently in the forest. A lamp-post burned brightly nearby, though there were no houses or electric wires that I could see. But we were eager to explore, so we continued on our way.

It looked like winter, at first-- there was a frozen waterfall that we'd thought to climb, but it made our hands too cold. And we passed by a faun's house, a witch's icy throne, and other such things. But winter quickly gave way to warmer seasons, and the land changed. Instead of ice and snow, there were ruins and castles and odd talking creatures living in hiding among the trees. We saw arches being built, catapults being launched, the crowns of kings and queens, and the promise of a fantastic upcoming voyage to sea. But then we passed an arch where a lion spoke to us and said it was time to go back to our own world. So we stepped through the doorway...and ended up back in Philadelphia.

Drat.

(Description courtesy of a much better writer than I. But it still applies.)

Choose or Lose

A video that MTV.com came into Delaware take that features my very good friend Steve. About Senator Biden's bid in the upcoming election.

Steve and I went to Morocco this past summer.

And go Steve for not being afraid to voice your own opinion!

Vacation!

I took a vacation to Virginia Beach September 10-13. Here are pictures!

Spent all day Thursday at the beach. It was windy and warm, once the sun finally decided to show itself!


The statue of Neptune at the beach.


Becky and I at the Naval Base in Norfolk.


Me and my awesome cousins, Danny and Karissa, who let us stay at their house for the weekend!


The nuclear submarine U.S.S. North Carolina. Danny used to be in the Navy (is now in the Reserves) and we were allowed in and on board and given a tour. Now I can say I've been on a nuclear sub. Danny's current job? Building these things (and also the carriers too).


Bet you didn't know that swearing is illegal in Virginia Beach!


Becky and I at the Music Builds Concert.



Jars of Clay.


Switchfoot. I think this is when they were playing "This is Home." Which was one of my favorite performances of theirs. Especially because of the Narnia (and Heaven) references.


Third Day.

And the encore had to be the best ever. All three of the groups came up on stage together (along with a guy from the fourth group who had been playing) and they all did a cover of U2's "When Love Comes to Town." Absolutely amazing.

Without a doubt, it goes down as one of the best vacations I've ever had. (The concert goes down for best ever. Hands down.)

Death Can Be So Inconvenient.

You try to live and love - it comes and interrupts.

This has been a week of sorrow and hardship in my life. My dear friend, coworker and 'grandmother' passed away suddenly on Christmas Eve. She lived a full life, and was a blessing to so many, more than she probably knew. We celebrated her life Friday evening in a memorial service, and it was a comfort to have so many people together sharing their memories of such a wonderful woman of God.

The return to work on Wednesday to find Michelle at her desk was hard. Answering all of the phone calls and having to be the one to break the news to so many people over and over again was hard. Planning for an entirely different funeral that took place on Thursday and then for her service on Friday was hard.

My prayers right now lie with Michelle - she has taken on so much responsibility at such short notice. And the week has not been easy for her, and so consequently for us as well - her father fell and hit his head on Wednesday, and after a lot of hardship and pain, passed away Friday evening as well due to complications from a brain hemmorage.

There is so much pain and sadness and shock running through so many of the people I know and love very dearly, and at this point, all I am coming back to is - why? Why Jean? Why Michelle? Why us? Why now?

I know that there is a much bigger picture that I can't see, and I know that it will be so beautiful when I finally do see it. And I know that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord, and that from what I know of Him, that must be very good. But that doesn't lessen the pain or the confusion or the sadness I'm feeling right now.

It does, however, give me reason to hope, and reason to go on.

Snow Angels!

Making snow angels is so much fun!

Silver Linings

To combat the greyness that's taken over again:

Weekend Highlights!
- Going to a DE beach I'd never been to before!
- Breakfast and second breakfast on Saturday.
- A good retreat with Jan, Beth and company. Being able to share what's on my heart. Getting to know, spend time with and invest in the lives of other people.
- Taking care of a necessary evil and in the company of a good friend. It's always much better to have to do the annoying things in life with a good friend by your side who understands the annoyance.
- Hanging out with Bethany and spending the night at her house Saturday night!
- Not getting lost in the city of Wilmington.
- Being the one to help Jill with her baptism on Sunday. Getting to listen to her testimony and hear how absolutely amazing God is. Realizing that there is a much bigger story out there that I rarely focus on because I'm too self-centered.
- Having lunch with the wonderful Emily, who is home from college on Thanksgiving break.
- Seeing Bethany randomly run up to me in the middle of the parking lot at Panera Bread, with her waving my cell phone (which I'd left at her house), saying that here was my phone. No charger, but at least I have my cell phone.
- Praying in a parking lot.
- Thanksgiving Dinner at Karl's house.
- Realizing that, since I had to go to the 6 o'clock service to pick up the glasses I'd left at Lois' house anyway, there must have been a reason for going, and then sure enough, finding out that there was.

Homecoming

This past Saturday was the University of Delaware's Homecoming. Highlights from this year include:

-playing my flute in Alumni Marching Band. Sure, that called for an 8 a.m. rehersal time, but getting up at the crack of dawn is so well worth it.
-catching up with old friends from my marching band days.
-watching the University of Delaware football team beat Northeastern, 30-20.
-playing "In My Life" with the 'baby band' down on the field after the game.

The added bonus was that things were wrapped up early enough so that I could have a decent amount of time to myself the rest of the day. For the first time in a rather long time, I didn't have anything planned (and I purposely kept my schedule open just for that reason - it's been too long).

It was also a reminder of God's faithfulness; I'd been praying and preparing for a potentially "interesting" (the only word I can think of to describe it, a word that can be defined in so many different ways) situation that I could find myself in, a situation that I didn't want to be in. Especially within the last week, I had been (besides getting nervous and worrying) praying for and asking God for the strength and courage to do and say the right things that I knew would need to be said when I found myself talking to a certain person I used to know in band, for I had assumed that they would be there as well. It hadn't even occurred to me to ask God for anything else. When I walked in to band practice on Saturday morning, the person wasn't there. It's amazing the answers to our prayers the Lord gives - totally unexpected, unlooked for, but so appreciated.

Baltimore!

I am off to Baltimore for the weekend to see and spend time with my very dear friend, Tracey! Have a good weekend, everyone!

Renaissance Faire!

Highlights include:

- A Midsummer Night's Dream

- Playing with swords

- Crossing the Kissing Bridge by order of the queen (no, seriously - she told us to cross it, and we couldn't disobey)

- Human Chess Match

-Archery demonstration

- Joust

- Watching Nicole enjoy herself, as she had never been before

Pictures come courtesy of Nicole and Becky!

So What You're Saying Is...

I have to thank Sara E., Jen V. and Joe F. for a most entertaining and enlightening conversation last night! I haven't been that random in a very long time.

"Save the whales! Ahhhh..."

Welcome to the Monkey House!

Back in May, I got to visit the Baltimore Zoo with my dear friend Tracey. My good college friend Megan works there, and being on the inside, got us in to visit the monkeys! My favorite part of the tour was getting to feed the lemurs mulberry branches!

This is Brutus with his branch. If I'm not mistaken, he is the one that has the lazy eye (though you can't tell it from these pictures).

Meet Crispus and Leo! These two definitely loved to jump all over the place! It was fun to watch them jump over our heads and grab the branches.

We had to wear those surgical masks over our faces, so as to avoid the spreading of any nasty germs between both parties.

And I had to post another picture of some of my favorite lemurs. "I like to move it, move it!"

Itsy, Bitsy Spider?

So have you ever been privy to an absolutely hysterical story that you thankfully had no part of? And then suddenly found yourself thrust into the middle of the drama?

My wonderful friend Rachael has been regaling me with stories of vicious spider episodes this entire week. To give a bit of background, her husband and family are away this week on vacation, and she is home, having unfortunately to work this week. Sunday afternoon, I hung out with her and a couple of her friends, and over a wonderful supper was treated a very funny story involving spiders.

Now, I'm not a big spider fan, by any stretch of the imagination. I generally loathe the creatures, for the idea of them crawling all over me just makes my skin crawl. It doesn't matter how big or small they are, they're spiders, and therefore I strongly dislike them. Rachael is the same way, though I would say she takes the dislike even further, so far as to literally get into hysterics when they appear, hyperventilate, cry. I will admit to at one point being close to that point in my fear, but I think traveling to Morocco and seeing some of the huge critters over there took away some of that.

Her story involved a huge spider making its appearance in her home Saturday night late, and her attempts at killing it. It was approximately the size of a half-dollar coin, and was very acrobatic in nature (jumping at will in all directions, and zooming all around her family room). She said that she fretted about the house for approximately 10 minutes before desiding to stun said spider with Resolve before mashing its guts into her carpet with a heavy-duty cardboard box. No sooner had she killed Spider #1 and gotten ready for bed when Spider #2 reared its ugly head. She attempted to kill it via the same way, but it was too quick for her and ran under her entertainment center. Cut to Sunday afternoon, prior to us having dinner, when it finally showed itself and was treated to the same fate as Spider #1.

Now, her retelling of the story was absolutely hysterical, for she included all the little motions, quirks and nuances that come with hearing and seeing a storyteller, despite my abhorrence of these creatures. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was indeed a funny story looking back on it, and I had absolutely no involvement with it, whatsoever. That made it safe. Or, so I thought.

I hung out with Rachael again last night for a girl's night, seeing as her family is still away, and she was getting lonely. We were in the middle of the movie when I saw it. Yes, another spider. This one, according to Rachael, was the biggest one she'd seen thus far. And when I say big, I mean big enough to fit the circumference of a coffee mug (body and legs included).

I pointed it out to her calmly (all the while thanking God that my feet were off the floor and resting on the coffee table), and she proceeded to act as I knew she would. I kept my eye on it while she rushed to the laundry room to grab the Resolve. But because of the quick movements, Spider #3 bolted underneath the entertainment center. After moving some of the kid's play things away from the general area and procuring a flashlight, I got down as close as I dared to the entertainment center and shined the light, hoping to draw the spider out so we could kill it. I saw nothing (Rachael, meanwhile is curled up on the sofa). She goes off to see if she can find something heavy which to use to kill the spider once it appears, while I search the areas on either side of the entertainment center. And I find it, hiding within the cables underneath her work desk. I calmly tell her to hand me the Resolve. And then many things happen in very quick succession.

I spray it once, and it runs, heading towards my feet. I continue spraying madly, while Rae starts to frantically shake her hands and wonder what could be heavy enough to squish it. I point out the very heavy, very full CD case sitting next to her, as I continue to spray this thing. I'd never seen a spider running that fast, nor could I believe that the amount of chemicals I was spraying it weren't killing it. She dropped the CD case on it and proceeded to squish it into the carpet, all the while screeching. She pulls it away to see a very unsquished spider still running like mad. I continue to spray, attempting to not let her hysterics get me all worked up, but the thing starts crawling all over the CD case and again towards me. Rachael runs off to try and find something heavier, and I keep spraying. It's still not dying. Rachael isn't getting back to me fast enough, so I resort to grinding the bottom of the spray bottle on its by now very wet body (because it just did not want to die). The first very hard hit didn't kill it either. Nor did the second. The third one finally started to slow it down, and by the fourth or fifth its body was starting to fall apart, and then I kept hitting it, just for good measure. Only after its body was completely mangled and in pieces did I stop. (You can call me extreme if you like, but when you don't like spiders, you make sure they're completely dead. Especially if you try to kill it goodness knows how many times before hand using lots of chemicals, heavy CD cases and lots of hitting and it still refuses to die.)

And then the two of us looked at each other and laughed and laughed. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. My friend complimented me on how calmly I handled the entire situation, but that was just on the outside - my insides weren't too happy with me at that moment. The beauty of the whole thing is that we used carpet cleaner on it, so all we had to do in order to get the spider stains out of the carpet was clean it up. That, and the entire house smelled clean like Resolve (to the point of producing a headache).

While she described the whole ordeal to her husband over the phone, I took it upon myself to declare to any other spiders that might have been lurking around the family room, "Okay, you've seen what happens to your friends when they show their ugly faces. That will be your fate, should and when you choose to show yours. It would be in your best interest to immediately vacate these premises, if you value your life. This is your only warning! You show your face, you die! Now, leave!"

I would like to say that thus ends the saga of the spiders, but it doesn't. My friend emailed me this morning to tell me that, after getting back from dropping me off, there in the middle of the floor in the family room, sitting proudly like he was king of the mountain, was Spider #4. And almost right after I'd given him the talking to! The nerve! Well, Rachael decided to 'change things up' a bit by using Oust, figuring it couldn't hurt to try a different chemical. Well, Spider #4 is now currently the nicest-smelling alive spider ever to walk on the planet. It didn't work. He ran off before she could finish him off. The saga continues.

And the moral of the story, children: Keep a bottle of Resolve handy should any spiders decide it might be fun to try and run up your legs. It kills quicker and smells just as fresh as Oust any day.

Happy Birthday!

My dear friend Laura had a birthday over the weekend! She threw a 'surprise' party for herself Friday evening, little knowing that the true surprise paty was the next day - a day of fun outdoors, complete with hiking and lots of outdoor excitement! It is such fun to spend time with her. Happy Birthday, my wonderful friend!

Good, Better, Best

5 Good Things About My Weekend:

1. Kathy got married!
2. An absolutely gorgeous day on Saturday.
3. I received some much needed encouragement on Sunday morning during Sunday school.
4. Getting several nice compliments.
5. The huge stack of mail that had been gracing my desk was finally put to rest in either 1) the trash can, 2) file folders, or 3) my journals, thus clearing off my desk!

5 Better Things About My Weekend:

1. Hanging out with Becky to see the new Jane Austen movie Sunday afternoon.
2. Trip to (the outskirts of) Baltimore with old and dear friends on Saturday night to visit Megan and Jordan.
3. Getting to sleep in on Saturday morning.
4. Seeing my family in NJ.
5. Realizing that pre-season football has already started.

5 Best Things About My Weekend:

1. Spending time with God.
2. Spending time with family.
3. Spending time with friends.
4. Spending time in reflection.
5. Spending time just being.

And, as a bonus --

5 Happy Things About Today:

1. I saw three deer (two bucks, one doe!) this morning while driving in to work, and then once I arrived, a butterfly landed on my car.
2. The office was very quiet today.
3. Chocolate!
4. Being productive.
5. Knowing that I get to share about my Morocco trip tonight with one of my supporters.

Stephanie Weber Colmery

My very wonderful friend Stephanie got married last month! Her new husband's name is Doug, and even though I don't know him that well, he makes her very happy. I wasn't able to attend their wedding because I was in Morocco (07/07/07). She had an open house/reception at her family's house that I was able to go to and see her and Doug and just celebrate with them.

Stephanie and I have been friends since highschool. We both worked together at the bookstore, and then together at Great Stuff. We ended up going to UD together, and took several classes together. We did Marching Band one semester together, and then regular band for a few more semesters after that. And we were both involved with InterVarsity during college too.

Some of my best memories of the two of us are when she and I would walk back to where my car was parked all the way across campus after band practice and I would give her rides home, and we'd talk about what God was doing in our lives and the struggles that we both faced in college and life. I'd go home with her after band and just visit with her family and consequently, I was able to watch and get to know her younger siblings as they all grew up, and she has quite a few of those! She was the one who taught me the beginnings of playing the guitar and most recently let me borrow her guitar to take with me to Morocco. She singlehandedly saw that I got to go on one of the spring break trips that IV sponsors every year while I was in college, and one year for my birthday made me a little memory tape over the course of a semester that has her reading Scripture verses and singing songs on it. She spent a summer during college in Uganda and then just last year spent approximately six months working in Sudan as a nurse. Now, she works right down the road at the local hospital, doing what she does best, which is serving and loving others.

She is one of the most beautiful women I have had the privilege of knowing, and always has time for those she knows and loves, not stopping until she knows how you're really doing, and I am incredibly thankful that I get to call her 'friend.'

Odds

So what are the odds that you'll run into a friend, on more of a whim rather than planned, and you'll find that they are reading the exact same book as you?

What are the odds that, when asked where they are in the book, they'll be in exactly the same part of the book as you?

And what are the odds, when wanting to know exactly what page they're on because this is just too much of a coincidence, that you'd both be on the exact same page?