the God of all Comfort

For my friends who are grieving, and for my own ears as well:

I hear You say,

“My love is over. It’s underneath.
It’s inside. It’s in between.
The times you doubt Me, when you can’t feel.
The times that you question, ‘Is this for real? ‘
The times you’re broken.
The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.

Well, My love is over, it’s underneath.
It’s inside, it’s in between.
These times you’re healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times that you feel like you’re falling from grace.
The times you’re hurting.
The times that you heal.
The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
The times of confusion, in chaos and pain.
I’m there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I’m there through your heartache.
I’m there in the storm.
My love I will keep you, by My pow’r alone.
I don’t care where you fall, where you have been.
I’ll never forsake you, My love never ends.
It never ends.”



Hallelujah.

yep.

Thanks, Katie Apple.

also new in 2010....

...me, budgeting.

Anne's dad has recently offered to help me organize my finances better. Ha. (...or at all? Don't tell Fred!) Annnddddddddd before we meet to discuss my own personal FredSheet in order to have my finances in tip top shape for the days of graduate school ahead, I have done some preparing myself.

By

DeSTRoyING mY CrEDit CaRD. Sigh. I'm not really a credit card "user" per se. I usually just use it if it's no interest/no fees for a certain amount of months, then pay it off before the interest starts. HOWEVER. Circumstances being as they are (I am broke), I've had to make sure to do the grown up thing and (a) pay off the remaining balance before I am broke-er and (b) take back this beloved item that I was hoping would go on sale (again) in order to re buy it cheaper. (Does this make me seem crazy? Maybe). SO. I decided to take it back all together.

Sigh. Lots of emotional pep talking to get me to go through with the act of this treasure being sent back. Oh the colors! Oh the vintage look and feel!?


HOWEVER. 2010 is a new year. It is a new year for lots of firsts. New school. New state. New responsibilities. And so, I wanted to get rid of the card in order to get rid of the temptation to buy before I have the means to pay. If I want it; I can save for it.

I feel like this emotional fortitude is going to be great for my skin.

A Little Artsy

So, one of the true delights of my life is working at A Little Artsy with Casey Wiegand. Not only is she one of the most gracious and welcoming people I have ever come across, but the job is amazing. I love the ridiculousness of the kids and their amazing creative brains.

If you are friends with Casey & Chris, or would just like to spread the love of A Little Artsy located in Snider Plaza in Dallas, please feel free to copy this HTML into your java script code (Blogspot users: Click "Add a Gadget", "HTML code" in your Layout section and copy and paste the code below) to have a button for your blog:

<a href="http://www.alittleartsy.com/" ><img src="http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt52/JennieCBower/logo-1.jpg"/></a>

considering

Welp.

So, I interviewed for a job this week that I thought would be perfect for me. Like, literally. I didn't even have to verbally manipulate my "skill set" to make it sound like I had experience for the job I was applying to. I mean, I have it. AND I could say with good, clear conscience that "yes, I would love to do this." ( I mean, working at an agricultural credit bank....I might have said those words with my fingers crossed?)

But, I didn't get it. And I'm feeling torn. I mean, part of me (the very realistic, sensible part) is so alarmingly UNsurprised that it didn't happen. Great jobs are just hard to come by, apparently, unless you know someone/are related to them (thank you, Stan Bower).

But the other part feels pretty disillusioned still by the fact that I feel like I would have been so perfect for this job. I have the experience; I have the skills. And I would feel like my work in the day-to-day things actually mattered to someone.

So there I am: Somewhere in the middle between feeling unsurprised and more-than-slightly pessimistic and feeling terribly let down at how weird/unpredictable life is.

HOWEVER.

This is where I remember that the friggin' Creator of the UNIVERSE (..."universe" spoken in aforementioned "2010" space agey-voice....) is actually on my side.

On.
My.
Side.

Lalalala

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they neither toil nor spin. Yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these...."

so this is the new year

The year in pictures....



I turned 25. Yikes.


Visited Perfect-ville. I mean, Pella, IA in a trip back in time.


Grand Canyon-ing with the sister.


Tried (and mostly failed) to learn to surf in San Diego.

Moved to Dallas.

Of note for 2009: I actually drove across America. Drove. Across. From North Carolina to San Diego. So. That's interesting I guess. My favorite view had to have been the Grand Canyon. So weird. It is essentially just a big hole in the ground, but it manages to be breath-taking.

The trip across the good U.S. of A did, however, also involve a lot of this:



And now for resolutionssssss. Well, in reality, for me, they only last a good six months. See here.

Scratch that, I'm still "pretty" good about Diet Cokes (the possible source of brain shrinking). I only have them a couple of times a week. Which isn't as good as my resolution (no diet cokes whatsoever), but is a step up from 2008 (a diet coke every day), and a step in between the slacking off of 2009's resolution (diet cokes only on the weekends). All that nonsense just to say: I'm average about resolutions.

But I actually failed miserably at using 2009 to read the Bible from cover to cover. And flossing. Oops. Well, maybe not entirely true, after my multi-hundred dollar visit to the dentist (*** me giving the bird to powers behind the lack of health/dental insurance in my life ***) , I got to flossing again. And someone else is going to have to tell me how I fared about the speaking more kindly resolution. Although, I know I have NOT been speaking kindly to Dallas drivers on I-75 (jerks).

I can definitely say I have been painfully and brutally honest in general about my life/feelings. Annnnnnnnnnnnd there is more than one person out there that can testify to that.

However! 2010 is a new year, and not just a new year that is starting to sound space-agey. It is a new year for ideals that are mostly ignored entirely by mid-February.

And my resolutes are:

Hmm....Well, I need to give this some thought. After all, if I'm going to change something entirely about my life for 2010 ("2010" said in creepy, spacey-echo effect), I'm going to have to give it more than 2.4 seconds of thought.

I'll keep you posted, world.