[insert your life here]

There are several things I have lined up to write off of but the availability of time for me is shrinking rapidly. Starting Monday I will be working two part time jobs and taking a class at Cascadia. So, pretty much, I will be waking up at 5-6 in the morning (some mornings) and running till 12-1 at night. And I can't quite explain to myself why I am so excited to start this. But I am!

I get to work for Wells Fargo from 5-9pm Monday through Friday. That's 20 hours a week (with the possibility for more)!! I wish I could've found this job earlier... no wait.. actually I don't. Then I would've missed out on some of the most amazing worship and fellowship times. SO, I am just glad this is starting now.

And hopefully I will have time to write things meaningful and not just blah blah blah!

So I am presently copying a rad CD to my hard drive (using Windows Media Player for a change. I finally discovered the annoyances of realone.) Gatsby's American Dream! Their new disc is awesome. Ryan and I went to their CD release show at Easy Street downtown on Tuesday. The lead singer looked so happy to be on stage... a bit too happy for the typical emoesque band but I enjoy things atypical. His goofy-excited-dog-like demeanor was great! And the music was enjoyable, to say the least.

***

Carly and I had art class today and our usual goodbye salutations run as follows:

Carly: Having completed the task of strapping her bike to the bike rack on the duck, Carly reaches into her backpack for her keys. Turning to Leah she says:: Well, that was fun!

Leah: Having just completed lifting her bike into the truck and securing the locks on the canopy turns to Carly and replies:: As always.

Carly: Embraces Leah.

Leah: Embraces Carly.

Carly: Tomorrow.

Leah: Same time; same place.

Carly: Alright, Love.

Leah: Love!

***

she's real cool.

***

The awesomest Josh I know was in town today! yay for Josh Newton!

Josh, Ryan, and I got to sit down and have the bestest form of conversation: talking about Jesus! Feeding each other spiritually, just as Christ intended we the church to do. I love being witness to God's plan in action. It makes me kind of giddy

Josh has been reading this awesome book called The Purpose Driven Life. Here are some quotes from it:

"The point of life is learning to love--God and people."

"The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now."

***

Josh also asked the question: What are the first five words that come to your mind when you think of God?

mine: love, grace, second chance, hideaway, comfort

Now it's your turn....

(why do I all the sudden feel like a PBS show gone wrong?)

but seriously! Try it, comment (reply) it, if you'd like.

***

Saw Finding Nemo again tonight...

"RIGHTEOUS!! RIGHTEOUS!!!"

...sigh, Sea Turtles... Eustace.

***

There was this crazy, random, spontaneous combustion of grass particles today by Thrasher's Corner. (I do believe fireworks were mildly (largely) involved.) Anyway, there were some ten+ fire trucks down the street from Ryan's so Josh, Ryan and I did a mini adventure and I got to take pictures of the fire trucks and water and fire men and hoses. This one lady firefighter saw us walking by and just looked over and smiled. If the rest of today had sucked, she would've made it better for me. The simple act of smiling is a beautiful thing.

***

I woke up at 500 am today.... so I am 3.5 hours short of having been awake for the past 24 hours. Kind of fun... kind of mind numbing... kind of wishing this cd would hurry up and finish burning... kind of thinking it would be great if I could spell at 130 in the morning...

***

oooh! last track...

***

So, can I just say: God is incredible! How he configured this whole mess of a world to be... even in the mess there is abundant joy and peace to be found... and happiness. What an awesome idea that could only come from the most Sovereign of all. And the whole fact that he encourages us each step along the way through prayer, devotions, relationships, the natural beauty around us (sunrises and sunsets, both of which I had the pleasure of appreciating today... awesome!). I am esp. tonight thankful for the encouragement through relationships (and sunsets). Kyle talked about prayer on Tuesday night and it really smacked me upside the head that there are people out there praying for me... more than I could even know... and You: you may not even realize how many people out there lifted you up to Jesus tonight. God didn't put us on this earth to perform radial symmetry and gravitate towards our centers... he put us here to Love Him and Love Others... otherwise we will implode from the pressure of the overflowing love God pours into us... we need serve it to others... empty our cups so God can fill them up again.

***

Just this second I got super excited for Creation and the traditional battle cry:

I LOVE JESUS/YES I DO/I LOVE JESUS/HOW ABOUT YOU?

***

Ok, the CD is done burning and I am going to bed. Tomorrow I start working on booking my flights to Lithuania!

goodnight.

PS: Travis, thanks for opening all four doors on your car tonight just for Alexis, Sarah, and I. You're awesome! It's so special to have such gentlemanly guy friends.

I am really enjoying that jelly fish.

jelly jelly jelly jelly

If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 5:30

***

Oswald, the other morning, brought this to my attention. Though I am beating about the thick in regards to this because the right hand of my life isn't a "sin," as the NIV put it. But it is still something splitting my devotion to God, and maybe that is the sin.

To paraphrase Oswald's reply: It is better to be ugly before people and beautiful before God, than to be ravishing before people and hideous to God.

So maybe the outcome will make me loathsome to various people in my life, but I know, God's plan is better than my own and He will work it out and keep the right people with me and lead the others on to better things.

anyway.

Had a wonderful weekend with my extended family (on my father's side). I stumbled out of my tent Saturday morning only to be greeted by my Grandmother summoning me from the window of her Sun Storm RV, "Oh, Leah! We're leaving in a half hour to go find a waterfall."

"Um, OK Grandma... why?"

"So we can take pictures!"

(If you knew my grandma you would know the tone of voice with which she spoke those words.)

So my grandmother took Bekah and I to a beautiful waterfall about 10 minutes (driving) away from camp. It was beautifully tall and breath-taking. The sun was still low in the morning sky so only a small portion of it was lit. Seeing the water cascading down the rocks--throwing itself from the high ledge to the lower pool-- was like watching professional divers in the olympics. We took lots of pictures. I climbed up the rocks on the side of the waterfall and waited there for over an hour to get the perfect lighting on this one portion of the fall... I didn't wait long enough but Bekah and Grandma were ready to head back to the campsite after we had spent 3 hours scoping the waterfall so I took the mediocre shot and scaled back down the rocks.

so fun.

The rest of the campout was grand. Playing games with the cousins (they were quite fond of Apples to Apples.) And a marshmallow contest with my Aunt Billie Jo and Thomas. Thomas' was the first to flame, Aunt Billie Jo's was the largest, and I won for last to flame and longest lasting... Somehow I developed the skills of making top quality massive marshmallows.

so fun.

anyway. There's the small bits of life.