cast and counted

hey. not much to report today.

just got back from a movie. i saw "gangs of new york"...it was a good movie overall...pretty gory for my taste....i'm not to big to admitt that i watched a little of it through my fingers. =) the acting...done well....the story line...interesting....the ending....the jury is still deliberating this one..i'll get back to you later when the votes have been cast and counted.

tonight extra prayers for: nehemiah's mom, nehemiah, meggan & her new marriage, john's dad, john, clint : direction, car, living room service location, budget, and details.

for now..i've got to be off...time for some reading before class tomorrow morning. yippee.

later gators. -me

favorite things

i was just reminded of one of my favorite things, so i thought i'd write about a few :

dogs - with faces full of snow...from searching for snowballs which their owners have thrown onto a blanket of full white. =) will they ever find the snowball? will the snowball even exist after it hits the blanket of snow? who knows...but i like dogs with snowy faces - who give a vailliant effort to finding the answers to these questions.

the smell of lavendar and vanilla...=) the scent in my room right now....mmmmmmmmmm =)
and my mom sent me a package with some lotions,sprays, etc...=) same scent....hey! how'd she know? hehe...=) lucky me.

an im from someone extremely special =) (Clint) saying that he liked your verse, and they think they are falling in love with you all over again ...sigh....=) how'd i get so blessed?

--------------------------song break-----------------------
this is just a song...i think is perfect for right now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

"lately i've been thinking about you,
lately i've been dreaming of you,
and lately i can't get you out of my head.
get you out of my head.

there's something about the ocean
that makes me rise up and praise you
something about the heavens,
that makes me stand in awe again.
something about the sunrise,
reminds me of your faithfullness,
something about the ocean,
and i'm lost in love again.

i'll sing until i sense a smile,
upon your great and lovely face,
until i know your glory is in this place,
glory's in this place, yeah

there's something about the ocean
that makes me rise up and praise you.
something about the heavens,
makes me stand in awe again,
something about the sunrise,
reminds me of your faithfulness,
something about the ocean,
and i'm lost in love again.

- bebo norman
--------------------------------------------

thanks bebo! i've known this song for a while, but it's been in my head all day, so i thought i'd share the wealth....=) don't you ever just look around and find yourself utterly amazed?

i do. it's a wonderful feeling. to "stand in awe"...i don't think i'll ever get tired of finding, and being amazed of God's undisguisable touch on all creation...in the sky, on the ground, in the animals, in a person's eyes, in life, in mystery, in creation, in music, in art, in words, in friends...the world is a terrible and a beautiful place. really unfathomable to think of what heaven will be like.

this week i got to talk to a good friend who recently got engaged! that's happening a lot lately. so strange...but exciting too. michael and heather, kensey and sara....may your relationships be blessed. =) i know they will be. but i'll pray in advance for you guys and your fiances as you embark on this next stage in your lives.

today there was a party in one of the apartments here ---the dutch girls' (astrid & chauntaul's apartment)---------- it was a chance for the "old" to mingle with the "new"---exchange students that is. i felt strangely out of place. my roommates went at 8:30...i stayed behind for a while...some "alone" time in the apartment...i ate some dinner and then turned up some music until it was sufficiently loud, and sang at the top of my lungs for a while...(slight exaggeration) i didn't want the entire apartment banging on my walls....but it's been a while since i've been able to do that...it felt really good. =) considering the song above has been in my head all day, and i sang at the top of my lungs earlier....do you think it's probably one that found it's way out of hiding...if you answered yes you'd win......(in your best dr. evil voice) one million ---pats on the back. =)

went to the party...didn't do much mingling..wasn't much in the mingling mood. =) but it was okay, it was nice to at least see the new faces up close and personal...so shiny and new! i left early...because, much like eggs in a blender...i'm beat.

-------------my muscles are starting to atrophy...it feels like i'm about to fold in half by the pressure of my own muscles contracting at the same time....ouch. =) but it's good pain. it means yesterday "counted" as good exercise ---------------------

the pains of messing with my school, and of them not understanding the importance and immediacy of time pressures on me....are wearing me out. really.
one big ball of confusion....why can't i just graduate already? i've overdue!!! it's time!!!! i want out! they just don't want to let me go i tell you!!
why do we have to pay so much for our educations? i do not like money, or the stresses or pressure it brings.

okay...so, now i need to go. it's late..and i'm sleeepy. =) see you tomorrow.

feeling friskis =)

whew!!! today was a long (but thrillingly active day) i'm exhausted!!! i went with rebecca to friskis och svettis.....step aerobics...wow. i'm beat...but a few more sessions there, and i'll be in as good of shape as i've ever been in. hehe..it was really really great! just what i needed...finally exercise!!!! yeah!!! =)

but now..i'm exhausted...so..it's off to bed for me...before classes resume, ugh..tomorrow.

ah, this morning in my quiet time.....a verse that i've decided i really like found me..
Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good.
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk
humbly with your God."

succinct i think.
i'm going to sleep well tonight..hope you will too.

=) me

who's counting?

hej!
not so much to report today! although it was a much busier day today - surprisingly. finally got some things together to mail home for Chrihmmm.....huh? oh..heheh...you'd like for me to repeat that..hehe....easy, I said i'm finally mailing things home for Chrihmmmmmm.....okay okay...for Christmas..=) yes,i'm extremely late...but it's so much more fun to add an element of surprise to the whole gift experience. both sender and receivers will be pleasantly surprised. =) i hope. =)

anyway, i'm up way too late for an evening which preceeds a day full of classes...so i must be going...um..now.
until later~ me

superbowl sunday away

today was fairly uneventful....guess the superbowl is going on at home today. maybe there will be some commercials worth a laugh or two, maybe the game will have a play worth a laugh or two..i don't know. to be honest, i wouldn' t have even known that the superbowl was going on today if clint hadn't let me in on the secret. he's going to a superbowl party this evening. =) good times...

tonight i had a rather unfortunate run-in with my "germs" - my german friends...the only other people staying on from the last semester in sundsvall. 10 of us gathered downstairs to hang out for a little while, and celebrate the return of rebecca - who left for the weekend for her birthday. sometimes my times with them are so awkward. i could literally feel my skin crawling this evening....my "american-ness" was obviously throwing off the balance of the rooms collective atmosphere...ususally, because they are my friends, they will try to curb their tendencies to speak in german when i'm around, in order to include me. tonight, however, things were a little different. i could tell that my being there was making them uncomfortable...some days it's just like that more than others. it's understandable really....an entire room full of german speaking people, and i alone am the only uni-langual unit. ouch. let's just put it this way..you know it's bad when a joke is made..and you know it's something about your inability to 'understand' the language, but you don't know "exactly" what's been said...and everyone laughs, except for you. really, it just makes me feel like an ignorant bore. i'd rather be bored and alone for the evening than mocked in a different language - given the option to take an out..i took it. =)

this afternoon i discovered something scary hiding under my bed. a monster....no! it's worse!! there was a "european - fitted sheet" under the mattress pad on my bed..which, if you've never seen one..it's completely different from those we have in the US. they are complicated devices, usually made of terry-cloth..like a towel....and if they come from ikea..usually white...on the underside they have several strings which you have to tie together to keep it on the bed. well..when i moved in here i had no idea what it was, and assumed it was just a layer of protection for the mattress..i put the mattress pad on top of it, and covered it with my own fitted sheet (a normal one..ah the joys of elastic) and my regular sheet, and my bedspread.

well, upon hearing jeffery, one of my friends from belgium, recount his cleaning frenzy when he moved in..and the horrible state of filth his bed was in..i decided to more closely inspect mine. "okay, the mattress pad looks fairly clean" i thought "i'm in the clear"..then i gently lifted a corner to reveal (EEK, GASP, AAAHHH) more human hair and bodily fluid( of who knows what kind) than one would care to see in a lifetime-- collected in the most strange fitted sheet that i've ever taken the pleasure to peel and scrape off of a bed. hehe..okay, you caught me, this is a slight exaggeration, but it's more fun for me that way.so..=) i promptly postponed my clothes "laundry time" and "knighted" the day....Bed Clothes laundry day!!

i stripped the entire thing...grabbed the mystery sheet with a plastic bag, and put it in it's proper place....THE GARBAGE!! vacuumed my mattress...and washed the mattress pad, and everything else on my bed which had previously been in any way connected to the bed. luckily the mattress pad had been between me, my sheets, and the "mess" the entire time...but still!!! anyway, tonight i'm going to sleep well, knowing my bed isn't keeping deep dark secrets from me. (it's just not right i tell you!) maybe you should see if your beds' have a deep, dark, (hairy) secret that they are hiding from you!! note:: this does not apply to you if you are the only owner your bed has ever known....you're probably safe..and if not...well, it's your own fault. buyer beware!

today i did laundry, wore my hair curly, hung out with a lot of germans, read hosea, ate fruit salad with my roommates, opened a can of peaches to find out that they were not "preserved" as they should have been....threw rotten peaches out over the balcony (to the horror of my roommates) - who appearnatly would never do such a thing in germany..they suggested i flush them down the toilet...but i think that they compliment the snow rather nicely. they look like the yolks of some very large eggs. maybe i'll sit outside tomorrow and take pictures of the passers-by trying to figure out exactly which enormous bird dropped these monstrosities on the ground below...which came first? the chicken or the egg?

i found out that my sister can't see me living in nashville for the rest of my life. she told me "maybe temporarily" but not for the rest of my life...funny how now that i'm the one entering the real world i look to my younger sister for advice. but what can i say? she knows me. and she witnessed me trying to fit into the nashville scene this summer...with all of the plastic people with perma-grins- people i genuinely adored....but people that i'm not much like. i've always wanted to work in the music industry...and that's where i felt i was being led for the longest time. now..i don' t know which direction God's taking me...but i'm just goig to let Him lead on for a while until He decides it's time to let me know. my dad thinks i would be good on star search..=) maybe i'll try out for that when i get home. hehehe

took a picture of the sky today. i'd like to post it sometime if it's possible. once again it was beautiful...and different. earlier in the day it was really interesting outside, because there was a light fog outside..and the sky was a little gray and dark because of it, but the ground magnified what little light got through...and the snow glowed so brilliantly that you nearly needed to cover your eyes. it was pretty strange, but interesting. hopefully someday you'll see.

people i'm praying for double-time tonight:
ahmad, nadine, my dad, sarah, clint - direction, john

wishing everyone sweet dreams in a *clean bed* tonight
~me

Hej och valkommen!

Hej och Valkommen!

Well, I've put this off for far too long. Today is the day I'll begin to keep track of my time here in Sverige. True, that it's almost over, but at least this way (hopefully) my friends will be able to find me. =)

I've watched so many great new friends head home recently, although I'm not yet prepared to go myself. Sweden has been filled with fun and mystery. Ice hotels, Igloos, Extreme Ironing and all of the other cold hard facts you'd expect from such a place - how it warms my heart. =)

Tonight has been an evening of not much consequence. I wish I could report the things Jared is able to report right now on his site Alaskagron, but I haven't yet made my way to visit Paola in Italy....hope I get to sometime soon. Today I studied....and I'm sure tomorrow the same fate will find me. =) But, it's necessary for now, and an okay excuse to stay out of the cold.

I'm staying in Sundsvall, Sweden. Not at all a bad place- or by any stretch of the imagination a big place. It's size reminds me of Stillwater, so it doesn't seem as far from home. It's true that we don't get as much sunlight here, but I think the awe-inspiring skies which God's paintbrush chages with the hours, makes up for it. It's so wonderful to be able to look up towards the sky and see on one side perfect red clouds, glowing like embers on top of a pink sky, where the sun hasn't yet said it's farewells...then to turn and face the other side and see a great white moon basking in the daylight against a clear blue curtain of sky. It's difficult to see where day ends and evening begins, but it's simple to look up and smile, and to remember that these are some of the beautiful mysteries that wait to be discovered, and for now...I get to just relax and be thankful that I've been able to glimpse God's work displayed in such full form.

Anyway, I guess for now I'm going to get back to my books. =) Hope you enjoyed the read!