Step One to Becoming an Official Resident

 I’ve lived here three and half years; I finally had to bite the bullet and admit it to the government.

 Step two’s picture will be available on Monday.

Quote of the Week

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the
Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. – Abraham Lincoln

Stumbled across this…

I have an insane love for old style recruitment/war propaganda posters. I have several hanging around my house.

I think by far this is the most unique one I’ve found.

 

Northern Assumptions

Hailing from the great land of Chicago means I’m pretty much a straight up Yankee. I think Alison Smith was the first person on the earth to ever call me that. I didn’t even know people still called other people that. But moving to Missouri has reaffirmed in me that there really is a northern mentality and a southern mentality. Even if we look at just the tea. I had never heard of Sweet Tea before I moved here, and I declared it to be quite distasteful. I think I even laughed out loud after my first experience, it just seemed so ridiculous that people would actually drink anything like that. Now I’m a really big fan.

 So for the last few months I’ve been trekking to Belton to visit my parents. I have to drive through a lot of country and a lot of four-way stops. Nine times out of ten I’ll be at a four way stop with a monstrously over-sized pick up. No matter who stops first they always wave me through. This has really aggravated me, mostly because it’s really weird and I have no conception of why they would wave me through when they were clearly stopped before I was.

 And then I put on my southern thinking cap and realized it’s the motor vehicular version of opening a door for me. I laughed out loud, as I had literally just mentally chewed out a guy and given him a nasty look.

Where I am from no one opens doors for each other, and as a girl you never walk though a door opened for you, not because we are all bright and shiny feminists, but because it is a commonly known fact that when a door is opened for you (and because it is so rarely) it is generally to view you and your rear as you walk through the door.

Subconsciously the four way stop phenomenon felt freakishly similar which is probably why I was so aggravated, but I had never consciously thought about why I was so disgusted every time it happened to me.

It’s good to know I’m still a good Nothern girl.

An Uncharacteristic Moment

WARNING: This post might surprise you.

So today I did a really funny thing. Something I wouldn’t think I would ever do.

I bought this.

It’s an airsoft gun; it just shoots pellets, but it feels real.

Lately I’ve been watching a lot of organized crime dramas and I’ve had deep uncontrollable desire to shoot a hand gun.

I’m not going crazy, I’ve just decided that this is my version of a stress ball.

Thanks Josh, for helping me realize my dream.

An Unlikely Community

The IHOP community is large and ever changing. When I came here (3 1/2 years ago) it was hard to get connected. I say that not as a judgement but purely as fact. This ministry is large and in anything large it can be hard to find a group of people with similar interests and heart.

 When I came I started at the Forerunner School of Ministry. We were one of the first really large classes. And in a lot of ways we really did start our very own little community. The other community I was immediately thrust into was the Forerunner Bookstore. I started with five other folk, with whom I still very good friends; Jeff, Joe, Amanda, Caroline, and Sarah.

It was here that I found a really tight knit community. Slowly over time the staff grew and changed but we all became close friends and hired our close friends. I think it’s one of the things I value the most in working at the bookstore, we treat each other like family. We work, play, and fellowship together.

I didn’t start working at the bookstore thinking I would find this. I didn’t think that my “connection” could be found through my service. I didn’t think I would want my life to be that intertwined (and some days it is a drag). This little group has surprised me and I am happy to be among them.