Learning to Live

Today was a great day. In some ways it was awful, but in most ways it was great. And it was great thanks to some random guys we met at a gas station in Audubon, Minnesota. It all started when my friends and I left Duluth around 9:47 this morning. We were attempting to return to Concordia in good ol' Moorhead (across the entire state of Minnesota). The key word in the previous sentence is attempting.We had a countless amount of people tell us we were fools for doing this. "You're going to die." "You are driving into a blizzard." "Watch out for the weather." Blah blah blah. Naturally, we didn't believe any of this and figured we could do it. The weather was clear heading out of Duluth and we figured we would be golden. Boy, were we wrong. The weather started looking pretty rough halfway into our drive. Kim's wipers were proving to be impossible to work with. We were all stressed out and Mary's noises definitely were not helping the si...

We are constantly reminded how important it is to count our blessings and realize all the fantastic things we have in our life to be thankful for. After all, not everyone in the world is as privileged as we are. I'm not saying that to sound snotty, I'm saying it because it's true. Anyway, it's a fact that there are a lot of things to be thankful for. But have you ever thought about ALL of these things? I bought a devotional for the coming year titled "One Thousand Gifts"  by Ann Voskamp. It's somewhat of a prequel to her book with the same title. The subtitle of the book is: "Reflections on Finding Everyday Graces." So far I am really enjoying it. It helps me remember to take a step back and appreciate everything this beautiful world has to offer. There are some great devos to do whenever I feel like it, but that is not the only part of this book that intrigues me. The biggest reason I chose this particular devo is because of the fact that th...

I realize I'm a little late on this one. But better late than never. Well, 2012 was a good one, but like most people I am anticipating the things this next year has to bring. Many people decide that a new year means a new them and they decide on some sort of "New Year's Resolution" that they will most likely end up not following through with. In previous years, I have joined this group of people in setting unattainable goals for myself. While I still have some specific examples in mind, I am hoping to finish out 2013 stronger than 2012. I am choosing to not focus on one specific thing I would like to change, but instead I am going to focus on constantly bettering my whole entire self. (Cliché yet again. But think of it this way, now there is *hopefully* no possible way to let myself down.) However, even though I have said I have no "real" resolutions, the new optimistic me does have some things she would like to work on: -Cussing less. (This is for Jo...

I have been struggling with coming to terms with exactly what happened in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday. I know that I live entire states away from Connecticut, but I still cannot fathom what unfolded there on Friday morning. On Friday night I avoided social media sites because I could not comprehend or understand. I still don't. I never will. Will anybody? Today my family was talking about the different rumors we had heard. My cousin, Alex, who works as a second grade teacher at South Elementary, told us that she is now forced to think about where she would hide her kids. She described how unsafe the portables are and how she has no clue what she would do. It made me sick. We shouldn't have to think like this. I finally brought myself to read the Star Tribune today and think I was able to finally realize that this was indeed "real life." As stupid as it sounds, this doesn't seem like it could be a true story. But it is. One of my Facebook friends expressed...

Hard to believe my not so baby brother turns 18 today. Granted he's towered over me for years now, and could have kicked my ass at the age of 14, I like to think I'm still the boss. Although there have been times where I'm almost positive the kid is adopted, I can actually say I appreciate the person he has grown into. Sure, he's pretty socially awkward, and I still have moments where I contemplate if we're actually related, but it's been great watching him grow into an almost mature adult. However, we definitely have our differences and aren't afraid to express them. We always debate about which one of us is more intelligent than the other and while I may have a higher GPA and more social understanding, I'm also smart enough to acknowledge the fact that my brother is somewhat of a genius. Our mom encouraged us both to start reading at a young age and it definitely stuck. But while I chose to read books that can be categorized as "brain candy,...

As we all know, yesterday was Thanksgiving. A day we've come to believe should be filled with gorging ourselves and remembering what we're thankful for. I get that. And I think it's cool. Really. Food, family, thankfulness, naps and football make for a beautiful day. But I think we forget to remember what we're thankful for every day. Every year we go around the table and say what each of us are thankful for. In the past answers have ranged from "the Wright brothers" to "toilets." This year we had some other interesting answers, "mermaids, rainbows, unicorns and fairies" and other thankful statements ending with "go Tigers" referring to our recent trip to the Metrodome.  However, there was one thing we constantly kept coming back to- family. Grandpa started it all when he said he was thankful for his nice, big family, "took two wives to get here but we made it." After that, we all came back to our fantastic family and ...

I know I blog about a lot of super cliché things like 100% of the time, but life is full of cliché messages we are supposed to pay attention to. Today was a pretty big day. Not only was it my half Birthday (only 1.5 years until the big 2-1!), but I signed a lease. I realize this is a normal thing for college students to do when they are trying to get off campus, but it just seems like this can't be real life. When did I get old enough to sign a lease? Am I really a sophomore in college? The weirdest thing about it all is the fact that I'm going to have my own room in a house that's not my parents... I don't know if I like the whole concept of buying myself food or paying for my utilities. I guess I have to accept the reality of it all though. Life is happening-fast. I often find myself saying, "I can't wait to be married" or "I want a baby right now." I find myself getting so caught up in the future that I forget about living in the now. And ...