Play catch up

I have all sorts of pictures that never got posted after I first moved to NC. They aren't really organized too well, but I'll try to give a little back story with each of them...


Welcome to the South, where we will put lifts on any car you can think of. No lie, there was a little fold out ladder on the passenger side so that a person could get up to the seat. I cracked up.


Flying back into Chicago. One of my favorite things when I lived in Chicago was the flight in. Air traffic will inevitably back up at O'Hare every time and you'll be forced to circle the city at least once. It's really no hardship when I have the window seat.


Trader Joe's love at it's finest. On my last day at the Northbrook store I went out to lunch with Mike and came back to this.



Seriously, they did a great job. I laughed so hard when we pulled into the parking lot. I even left it wrapped like that all afternoon to entertain customers. I'd be ringing on a register by the front window, from which I could point it out to them, and they'd not know what to say.



Chicago in the rain the morning I left.


Christmas decorations traveling across Indiana



Kentucky? Somewhere around Lexington, KY the drive started getting scenic and fun to look at. (Indiana was horrible and rainy)



On long drives I get bored. This amuses me. It's surprisingly hard to do. Buck does not like matching 76 mph to 3000 rpm so I have to gun the engine a little and hope I can snap the picture at the right moment as the needle is falling back to about 2800 rpm. It took a few tries, but it keeps me entertained for at least 20 miles and that's 20 miles closer to where I'm going.




Tennessee. The most beautiful and scenic parts of my drive were unfortunately after about 7 hours on the road. I'm looking forward to the chance to go back on a day trip. There's supposed to be some great hiking trails and I can't wait to drive on the

Blue Ridge Parkway.

New Store!

When my mom visited in December she wanted to check out the Botanic Gardens at UNCC. They aren't huge, but they're definitely a nice diversion in the middle of the campus.




Now I know it's been a while since I had to think about scientific classifications, but this one seemed a little bit off to me.

I'll try and update more in the next few days. Blogging is tiring :D

Watch the Sunrise

I have this skylight window... (the high one on the right)



Which would be great if it didn't face east. So every morning I am awake by 8 am at the latest. Usually this isn't a big deal because either I'm up and ready to start the day or I go into the living room and fall back to sleep on my sofa.

Ironically, to fall asleep I often pull up pre-recorded episodes of Sunrise Earth. Have you seen this show? I love it. It's just a straight hour of nature goodness. Nothing but bird sounds and sometimes rushing water (depending on the location). Plus it's on Discovery HD giving it high quality picture as well.

Yes, I know I'm a pretty big dork.

Ponder

Sometimes I feel like I'm living two lives.

I don't mean this in a sordid, deceitful way. I guess what I mean is that I haven't fully committed to my new life yet. Part of me feels like I'm still living the same life in Illinois and this whole North Carolina thing is just one long vacation. Is that weird? I don't remember feeling like this when I first moved to Illinois, but maybe I've just blocked it out.

And don't get me wrong, I'm loving North Carolina. Today, February 5th, it was 74 and sunny and I went to the driving range. Seriously. Amazing.

When I was graduating from high school the questions were, where am I going to go and what will I be doing. When it was time to leave Iowa I knew I was headed to Illinois but the unknown was what I would be doing there.

Now I've moved to NC (the where) and I work for Trader Joe's (the what), but I feel like there's still a big unknown staring back at me. (does that make any sense?) Like, now what? Is that an ungrateful question?

I prayed to find a job I could enjoy, and He answered. I prayed for something to catalyze me, to convince me it was time to leave my parents house again, and He answered. Now all I can think sometimes is, this is it?

And then I wonder why I'm so impatient. What am I in a hurry to get to? The rest of my life? This is the rest of my life. Every day is the rest of my life. Why can't I enjoy that? What is holding me back from diving into this new life? Why am I so restless?

So I sit here and play some of my favorite "thinking music" and ponder....

"As I sit here and think
About all that You've done
About how You gave me Your one and only Son
And I'm trying to fathom
All that You are, but so far, Lord
You're so beyond me
I fall down in reverence
And I fall down in fear
And I'm asking You, Lord, won't You please draw near
Won't You open my eyes
So that I can see
The way that You are working in me

All I need is Your love
To come and fill this heart of mine
My heart is a desert that has gone dry
And I need Your love to carry me by

And I lay down my life
And I put it before You
All that I am is in Your hands
And I'm not going to question, why You're so faithful
Why that You give me the blessings that You do have
Let the glory be known, let the glory be shown
I just lift You up unto the throne

You are my God, You are my King
To You I give, I give You everything
All that I need is Your love, my God"

- Shawn McDonald - All I need -
(Big Hooray for Amy Van Gorp who gave me this cd!)