Is God Enough??

That was the name of my devotional for yesterday and it totally struck a cord in me.

The basis for this devotional comes from 1 Samuel 8 where basically all of the elders of Israel approached Samuel and said that they didn't want Samuel or his sons anymore but they wanted to be ruled by a king like all of the other nations (which were corrupt by the way)...Samuel, disagreeing with this, prayed to God for his guidance and God basically said that it isn't anything personal to Samuel, but it's personal to Him. Despite that though, God still wanted Samuel to give the the Isrealites what they had chosen, so they got a king like all the other nations.

In my devo part of that it basically asked me to pick whether I'm more like the Samuel who is confronted by people asking him to make changes he believes are wrong of the Israelites who are wanting to be like others. After a few seconds it was pretty obvious which one I am...I'm exactly like the Israelites, which I kind of hate that part of myself...always wanting to be like others and if I'm not like others in a certain way, then major anxiety and self questioning follows...it's a problem.

This lead to the following questions...how might trying to be like someone else cheat you out of what God wants for you? And what would your life look like if you trusted God to give you what you needed, regardless of how odd that may seem when compared to other people's lives?? After thinking a little bit, I came to this conclusion: My life would be SO much better!! If I could just stop comparing myself to other people and losing my joy out of it and started to trust that the Lord has got his hand on me in this, that he has his awesome plans for me and he made me unique in some ways for a reason, I would be so much more content with where I'm at and who I am!!

In the final words of my devotional it asks me to sit in a quiet place, and practice feeling okay being different from other people, even trying to view my difference as special or chosen...man is that harder than it sounds!! Being different, I don't want to be different! I think this is the point in life where differences are starting to become even more pronounced which is why this resonated so much in me because it's getting harder now that my friends and I are all pursuing different paths...most people are going to grad school, and I'm not. Most people are taking the GREs right now, and I'm not. Even though it's such a little thing, I think I'd feel so much more comfortable if I was doing all of this grad school stuff just so I didn't feel different and so that I could have a safety net of knowing what's next for me, surrounding me...but I have no desire to go to grad school, it wouldn't be right for me to pursue all of it because I don't think that's where the Lord is leading me. He's leading me somewhere, I just don't know where yet!! I have to keep reminding myself that right now He has got his hands on me and I just need to wait on him to show me what's next because he's got a special and chosen plan for me.

A special and chosen plan for me....I have to keep reminding myself of this daily....a special and chosen plan for me!

Weekly Wisdoms by Grandma Joyce

I want to introduce you to Weekly Wisdoms by Grandma Joyce!

I am very blessed to have both sets of grandparents still kickin it and one great grandma who just turned 94 and going strong! I've got some good lasting genes in me : )

Anyways all of my grandparents spoil me rotten and are so good to me...especially my Grandma Joyce. Here are a few reasons I love her so much:

• She sends me clippings from magazines that she thinks I'll like or find useful
• She's very creative and spends her day doing interior decorating
• She believes in dessert before dinner (yum yum!)
• She's got awesome stories to share
• AND not to mention she's traveled the world.

Recently she's been emailing me (ya she knows to how to email...does your grandma?!) and my cousins weekly words of wisdom and I thought I'd share a few with you....

• Make a list of your ten favorite things; keep it in a safe spot and refer to it the next time you feel sad.
• The very next time you’re angry about something, release your frustration by engaging in a nondestructive activity: hit some tennis balls, go running….Put that negative energy to a positive use that benefits your body and mind.
• For one full week, smile more than usual. Make it bigger and better than before. Smiles are contagious. You will receive smiles in return.

Good advice, thanks Grandma!

Fall is almost here yippy!!

Goodness gracious I'm so bad at blogging...such large gaps!

Once again I've become inspired to blog...and just about life this time! Sometimes I'd like to share with people what's going on in my life and other times I feel really vulnerable and so I'm like this little turtle that starts to poke my head out and then I get scared by something little like grass and I quickly retreat back into my shell...so here it is, I'm not going to be afriad of no grass! I'm sticking my head out of my shell to tell the cyber world about MY LIFE!

Here it goes....

Right now I'm experiencing discontentment in my life living in Tucson which is a very frustrated place to be at because sometimes I feel as if I'm only living for the next exciting event that's happening in my life...currently that would be the countdown until Fed gets home in the middle of November (sooo far away!! I miss my buddy!!) and because of that I'm not finding joy in the everyday things or even in the opporunity to go to school. I know I'm going to miss school once it's over in May and it freaks me out to think I don't have any clue what I'm doing after and so I want to fully appreciate my time while I'm still in school but when I'm only living for the few exciting moments that are in the future I'm oblivious to what I have now. Part of me thinks this discontentment comes from not feeling at home or where I'm supposed to be, and I don't mean not being in Phoenix, but I'm so ready to be out of academia where it feels like everyone's goals are to get a good rec letter or get into grad school. There's just so much competition in that environment, and I think Tucson is beautiful but it's not where I want to end up...so I think part of it is just not quite feeling at home yet which is probably good because I want some more adventures before I find that place that feels exactly right and I never want to leave! Wait, does that even happen?! Not sure...

That brings me to my next point...I'm still feeling really at peace about my whole future thing. Still scares the crap out of me when I truly think about it but I also have come to this point where I am fully relying on the Lord to let me know what I'm supposed to do and not worrying about the next step, he'll bring me something, he always does so why would this time be any different??

So some new developments in ideas about future career possibilities have sprung up on me in the last month or so....now I am praying to find direction between these two because they are quite different. Drum roll please....ultra sound tech!! or graphic designer! Well ok, graphic design has always been in the back of my head because I love creative things, but I constantly have this little voice inside that tells me I don't have that intrinsic creative quality you would need to be a graphic designer...but do they teach you that in school? Do I have it and I just am doubting it? Now ultra sound tech is completely the opposite direction, I'd be working in a medical field but I'd be working with people in a rewarding setting, and I could wear scrubs all day (heck ya!) but will I get bored of it easily because there's not that creative element? Get my point here...neither one fits perfectly but both could fit and both are totally different! I think the dilemma also comes with not fully knowing exactly what I'd be getting into with either one....hopefully this will become more obvious as time goes.

Other life updates right now include:

• Making progress on my thesis (praise Jesus!)
• Missing my buddy soo much right now I can't wait until he's back into town
• Being challenged by YL but in a good way that makes me re-evaluate where my value is coming from
• Becoming obsessed with chai tea lattes
• Working on week 5 (out of 9) of running which will eventually lead me to running a full 30 minutes which should hopefully be 3 miles!
• Wanting to travel somewhere...Colorado? California? Somewhere close and easy but different...
• Started volunteering at Arts for All...a school based solely on art classes (ceramics, music, drawing, etc.) for people with disabilities

Ok so sorry for the book I just wrote...but I had to update you! Hopefully I can try to keep this up so that my future posts won't be nearly as lengthy and detailed...this is a good challenge to look for the little things during the day (which I'm not very good at) that make an impact : )

Yellow trees...

Well this is my first post since my travel blogging (blogging everyday wore me out! I don't know how people do that regularly)

However, another trip inspired me to blog...

I just got back from a 3 day adventure to Colorado to visit Fed working at Trail West and I'm going through withdrawals now that I'm back to one hundred degree heat, the desert where the trees don't turn yellow and the fast paced life of school, work and YL. There's something about the scenery in Colorado that makes me feel refreshed and alive...I feel at home there.

So far this school year has proven to give me peace about my future...I don't see my future yet but I truly have faith something will work out and am exhilarated by the idea of possibilities!! It feels unconventional to not use something directly in my degree, makes me feel like a failure sometimes but the creative side of me keeps slowly tapping me on the shoulder telling me to look for something that inspires me, something that excites me and makes me feel alive!

Walking around the town of Salida (near Trail West) I felt so inspired by the art galleries, antique shops, thrift shops and coffee shops! For the first time I could see myself living in a small town owning a humble little craft store or coffee shop, knowing all the customers who came into my shop because they're part of my community and living within the aspen trees that turn colors with the seasons! Ahh that sounds perfect to me : )

We'll see where the Lord takes me...he keeps showing me the desires of my heart that I don't even realize : )

Sweet Home Arizona!!

Well I'm finally back in the states : )

Feels so good to be home!!

I realize I never wrote in my blog about Germany...mostly because we didn't have internet and because I was just exhausted.

So here's a little summary of my time in Germany:

• Berlin was really cool to see...we took a free tour of the city and learned all about the history of Germany which of course included two of the biggest events in history: WWII and the Berlin Wall. It's crazy because there's a cobblestone line placed where the Berlin wall used to be and it just cuts the city into two, literally straight down streets. It also was amazing because the buildings are all really new because 80% of it got demolished from bombs during the war!
• Next was the forrest region of Germany which was absolutely gorgeous!! Germany is covered with 35% forrests so it is green everywhere! We took a hike through the forrest and tried traditional Bavarian food which was tasty but not something I'd want everyday.
• Then we went to the town of Dortmund and the Ruhr region and went to a museum of an old coal factory which is a big part of the Ruhr region. We ate cake and played put put because that's just what you do in Germany I guess?
• We made it to a town called Aachen with a famous church...then drove to the three country corner were Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany meet...that makes 8 countries Mary and I have been to! We ate lunch in Belgium and dessert in the Netherlands!!
• We traveled to Koln where they have their famous dome and we also learned that this was the founding place of cologne, you know like perfume. One of the bridges there also had love lockes lining it...I'm thinking we need to start one of those here in AZ!
• Our last day in Germany was spent by the Rhine river at a castle and just hanging out in a small town. By this point we were all exhausted so we just enjoyed the German atmosphere.
• Mary and I made our final trek home and good news...we're home now!!!

Thank you to Anna for showing us around Germany and her family for housing us most of the nights!! I would not have seen nearly that much of Germany had it not been for you all, so thank you again!

Now it's my last week before school starts...kind of want to cry when I think about school starting not because I don't like school but because it's my senior year ahhh!! What am I going to do afterwards?! This will be the pending crisis for this year ha but I have faith that it will all work out : )

Day 45 - Lounging around Florence

Today was planned to be a relaxed day and that's what it was : )

It was nice to sleep in, gradually head out to the city and take it all in at a leisurely pace.

Highlights of the day:

• 1 Euro Gelato that was cheesecake yum! First place I've found with that kind
  
• Buying leather goods at the leather market
  
• Having a quiet time at the top of Piazza de Michelangelo overlooking the city


• Taking a nap at the top of Piazza de Michelangelo overlooking the city


• Tortellini for dinner


• Lemon cookie gleato

So there was our day...mostly spent overlooking the city, I think it was just what we needed!

Tomorrow we're off to Germany. I'm not sure what our internet situation will be like but I'll keep notes and update my blog when I can!

Look what I found today buddy!

1 more week in Europe : )

Day 45 - Cinque Terre

I think I'm in love with Italy now...Cinque Terre was BEAUTIFUL!! Next time when I come back to Italy I want to stay in one of these towns for a couple days.

We took the "Cinque Terre Trek" tour from the same company as yesterday's "Best of Tuscany" tour. Since this one started an hour earlier, because the drive was over two hours to get to Cinque Terre, they gave us a boxed breakfast which was delicious! As we got closer and closer to the sea the views became amazing! The water is so many shades of blue, it was what I pictured Greece to look like, but not Italy.

We started on our journey in the town of Manarola. Our trek to the next town took us through wine vineyards which are situated on the steep hills and cliffs and along the coast which was breathtaking! The next town we stopped in was Corniglia which was a little bit bigger than Manarola but still not that big! We stopped for lunch here and had typical cuisine for this region which was sea food and pesto pasta (yum my favorite!). It was so nice to sit on the restaurant's terrace, enjoy a nice meal and look out to the sea. Another reason I love these towns is because part of their charm comes from the bright colors of their buildings, they're just so fun!

After lunch we took our final hiking trek to the next town of Vernazza. This part of the hike was a bit more challenging but nothing we couldn't handle. Also by this point the sea was getting closer and closer to us and all we wanted to do was jump in! So the first thing that we did once we got there was jump in...I can now say I've swam in the Mediterranean Sea! The water was super salty but super clear. The view of the beach with the towns was one of my favorite as we were swimming, it was just crazy to think we were swimming in a town in Italy!

Next we took a train to the neighboring town of Monterosso...there was a beach here too so Mer and I got some gelator and headed down there just to relax, well I went to relax and Mary went to jump off of rocks into the ocean. It was interesting because the beach was made of pebbles and we kept finding these bright green and red rocks...I could probably have sat there and collected pebbles all day if I wanted to. Afterwards we took a ferry boat back to the very first town, which we hadn't been to yet, named Riomaggiore. Once again another beautiful sight, although we didn't spend much time there because we took the walk from there back to our first stop at the town of Manarola to meet up with our bus for our journey home. The walk between these two towns is called the Via Dell Amore (Love Walk) and most surfaces of this walk were covered in locks which it is said if you put a lock with you and your love's name on it, throw the key into the sea, as long as the key remains in the sea you two will be together. It was quite cute, might have to bring back a lock with me next time I'm there ; )

We got back on our bus and headed on our two hour ride back home to Florence. Today was an exceptionally awesome day!

Day 44 - Tuscany!!

Today was our "Best of Tuscany" tour that as you can probably guess took us all around Tuscany!!

Our adventures started once we got to Siena which was about an hour and fifteen minute ride from Florence. I had no idea that Florence and Siena have some bitter history between them but apparently they do which I thought was interesting. We had a guided tour of the city which is broken up into 17 contrades each with their own flags, churches, and meeting places. Apparently these contrades are a big deal in the town because they make up their own communities and living within one binds you to certain customs and identity. These contrades become very competitive during the early Palio which is a midevil horse race around the famous Piazza de Campo...I found this very interesting so I'm going to tell you about it!! So there are 17 horses and a lottery decides which contrade has which horse...it is up to the luck of the draw as to which horse a contrade has. In preparation for the Palio there are great parades and celebrating beacuse it is a religious celebration of the Virgin Mary after all (still trying to figure out how the two connect but whatever) and the day of the Palio each contrade brings their horse into their churches and blesses the horse good luck...if it poops in the church, this is supposed to be a good luck sign hmmm. Anyways moving on, on the day of the event the whole town crowds into the Piazza de Campo to watch the 90 second bareback horse race around the campo...whichever contrade wins goes nuts after they win and they get a banner and bragging rights for that year until the next year roles around. Interesting right??

Piazza de Campo

Banner hanging in the winner's contrade from the Palio

View of Siena

Also while we were in Siena we got to go inside the Siena Cathedral which has beautiful marble scenes on the floor and is covered in black and white marble because those are Siena's colors.

See the black and white...cool huh?!

After Siena we traveled to a vineyard for lunch! On our tour of the vineyard we got to see the famous Tuscan white haired cows (they're massive!!), the vineyard, olive trees and where they store their wine. Afterwards they fed us lunch which was DELICIOUS!! We ate bruschetta with their extra virgin olive oil and white wine, next was pasta with ragu sauce and their red wine, afterwards was salad with cheese and some meats and finally we got biscotti with desert wine. Full meal right?! The views from the vineyard were unbelievable...this was the Tuscany I expected to see but better!!

TUSCANY!!!

White cow

Wine & olive oil

Next we headed up to a small midevil town on a hill called San Gimignano. We found the "World's Champion" gelato and had some of that there...I've had better, I'm just saying! Next we climbed up to see some more awesome views and bask in the Tucsan afternoon...Mary and I found a great place (another hangout spot) and just wanted to sit there but we had to meet back up with our tour because we were leaving for a countryside drive of the Chianti. We got to see fields of sunflowers and even pass the town of Volterra (where Twilight New Moon was shot!) as we headed towards Pisa.

Grad pic : )

Could have stayed here all day...view from San Gimignano

sunflowers : )

Ending in Pisa we got to spend some time taking really cheesy pictures with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, of course. Also I learned that the reason it's leaning is because it was built on silt and mushy soil at the time and originally when it was built only 3 stories were built, then as a time of war approached it was abanoned and finally 100 years later the top 5 stories were compelted. Apparently had they built it all at once it would have collapsed!

We made our way back to Florence and had such a great day! I recommend taking this tour for sure, it was great! Tomorrow Mary and I are off with the same tour company to Cinque Terre, hopefully it's as great!

Day 43 - Eh?

Today at breakfast we met some new friends...two guys from Toronto and another guy from Colorado. They're ending their month long journey through Europe with Florence being their second to last stop and heading to Rome on their last leg...so Mary and I got to give them our new found advice for things to see and do and place to hang out (like our favorite hangout spot!) in Rome.


Mary and I headed into town to start our day of sightseeing which first place we found ourselves at was the leather market which is AMAZING! So many leather things, who knew?? But as we were looking at the leather market a huge black rain cloud decided to come hang out too so all the leather people were racing around pulling their tarpes over their leather goods so it wouldn't ruin it, clearly this was an emergency situation!


We met up with our new found Canadian/CO friends and decided to go into the museum inside the San Lorenzo paraish of the once ruling Medici family which was neat to see and perfect timing because that black rain cloud was now angry and making a ton of thundering noices! Inside the museum we saw Michelangelo's Madonna & Child, Night & Day, and Dawn & Dusk. Apparently the Medici family and Michelangel were pretty tight (here's where I'd be crossing my fingers to show how close they were).


Next we literally ran across the street for lunch because by this point it was still pouring rain outside! Lunch was delicious, my first pasta dish which was excellent!

Afterwards the rain stopped and we decided to wait in line to go into the Academia to see the real David statue. Of course we weren't supposed/allowed to take pictures of the David but I did, woopsies!! The David was really cool to see, it's much bigger in person than I expected and it's just crazy to think that once was a block of marble and now is this perfectly proportioned man! Also I learned that his right hand is made much larger to represent the hand of God...cool huh?!

Check it out...there's me with the David!! Can you see me?

That doesn't look suspicious at all!!

There were other neat paintings and statues in there...many of them tell Bible stories which I liked because I do better with pictures and images : )

After spending a couple hours in there we headed out to the Florence Duomo and Baptistry. The facade of the Duomo is amazing and even just looking at the doors there's tons of different faces on there, insect and animals...I wish I knew what they all represented. The Baptistry doors are known to be "masterpieces"...they're gold and massive, so I guess that's why they're considered masterpieces. After some jumping pics and new running pics that we learned from our new friends we headed over to a super yummy gleato place...ohhh it was delicious!!

Outside of the Florence Duomo


This was our best jumping picture...we weren't quite on our jumping A game that day.

Running pic

Best gelato I've had so far!!

Jared is a Gelato Grouch!!

We headed over the Arno river and made our way to the Michelangelo Piazza because we heard there were great views up there and at a church just past it. Our black rain cloud that was there earlier in the day decided to come back and it started pouring on us!! At one point I stopped caring if I was dry or not because I was so soaked it didn't matter...although you'd think that would be uncomfortable it was so beautiful on top overlooking the city that it probably was one of my favorite memories from this trip : )

View from on top of the hill

View from the church...pretty sunset with the rain clouds

Jumping in the rain...thought this pictures turned out cool!

We were able to catch a bus back down into the city (praise Jesus because it was pouring again and we were far from home) and made it back to our hotel to get dry clothes and head to dinner. We said our goodbyes to our new friends who went off to Rome in the morning...so fun meeting new people along the way!

Day 42 - Arrival to Florence

After 3 blocks of lugging our huge bags (bad idea to pack so much!), one metro line, one train and one bus we finally made it to our B&B!!!

One of our first questions to the guy who runs the B&B was where is a good place to eat lunch?! We were starving by that point and the guy ended up making us lunch here at the B&B! It was so nice to just relax and then have our meal just ready for us AND it was delicious!! We got to hang out with him and his friend Anna who is from Poland and was studying here in Florence so that was fun to talk to locals and friends of locals : )

That day Mary and I just took this day to chill and relax so we watched the finale of the Bachelorette yay!

Clearly that was a lot of work and it made us hungry again so we headed to a place down the street that offers 10% off to B&B customers so we decided to try it and it was once again delicious! I could definitely get used to the Italian food here.

Day 41 - Vatican...which makes our 5th country we've been to so far on the trip!

Once we got inside the Vatican and our tour guide said as of when you walked through those doors you are officially out of Rome and in the Vatican...Mary and I looked at each other and said number 6!! Which is the number of countries that we will have been to by the end of our trip...we were pretty excited to add that one to the list : )


Day 41 - This day was all about the Vatican but not before a little mishap in the morning…I went to withdrawal money out of the ATM (bancomat as they call them here), it read my card, took my pin number, asked how much I wanted to take out, gave me back my card and then never gave me my money! So I freaked out a little, but like anything it ended up being okay pheww!


We headed to the Vatican, signed up for a tour and got on our way. Our tour guide was great and pointed out some really useful things to know and see…I sure wouldn’t have wanted to tackle those museums and galleries on my own because there’s so much to see it almost starts to look the same! It was neat though they had statues from the Forum in there, baths used by ancient Romans, tapestries of Christ’s life, tile mosaics all on the ground and of course the Sistine chapel. He talked for quite a bit about the paintings in the Sistine chapel and our tour guide pointed out significant figures throughout it…the painting on the ceiling, you know the famous one with the two fingers almost touching, is the story of creation...that particularly famous part of the painting is representing God creating man. But I was surprised at how little that portion of it is, it’s always talked about and I expected the whole ceiling to be that one part of the painting but turns out it’s a small part to a much bigger picture. I’d just to like to point out that in the middle of creation and the ceiling is when God made Eve…that’s right, women are the center of the universe, okay okay that’s a little dramatic but still makes me feel better about myself to know how much God values women : )

Afterwards we went of the scavi tour, which scavi in Italian means excavations. So it took us to the crypts below St. Peter’s Basilica where the Popes are buried but what we focused even more on was what’s underneath the old Popes…mausoleums and the Apostle Peter’s tomb found just in the 1940’s! It was neat to see where Jesus’ best friend was buried and look what’s on top of him, one of the biggest churches in the world. Mary was in catholic heaven here…me not so much, but it was neat to see the Vatican.

Afterwards we went back to our favorite hangout spot…the fountain, one of many, but this one is just special to us because it’s not a well known one, it’s pretty modern and you can walk in it. It felt like we were at a water park or something sitting there with the splashing water and people coming to just relax. So we just got some gelato and hung out there for a while until we headed back to our hotel for our last night in Roma!

Day 40 - If I had my own fountain....

So during one of our days in Rome, Mary and I were sitting waiting for one of our tours and she asked me what I was thinking about and here was my response "I'm thinking about if I built my own fountain I'd want there to be seats all around it because I love just sitting on the fountains and I would tell people, beacuse my fountain will be a big deal and a big tourist attraction, I will tell them never to put railing around my fountain so everybody could enjoy it...and I'd also put foot recliners so you could just relax"...random I know but this day in Rome really showed me how much I love fountains!!

Day 40 - Our second day in Rome went a little something like this...We started off at the Spanish Steps which had a ton of steps (shocking right?!), a beautiful site of Rome and we bought some artwork from a local artist. Next we headed to the Barberini Plaza which had a really cool fountain of Triton spouting water out of a conch shell and fish underneath him…sounds weird but it was a neat fountain (see picture below)! Afterwards we walked up the hill (one of the 7 here in Rome, learned that yesterday!) and found this intersection with four fountains and one of the corners had a neat little church inside of it which apparently can fit into one of the piers of St. Peter’s...just goes to show how big St. Peter's is and how small in comparison this church was.

Next we headed to the Trevi Fountain which of course I threw in my penny so I have to come back one day! I was reading that the God Neptune is the guy standing in the middle with two tritons on the side with horses which symbolize the two conditions of the sea. Although filled with a ton of people it was so nice to just sit by the fountain, feel the cool water and just relax…the fountains are probably one of my favorite things here in Rome, also because you can drink out of them, Ancient Romans know what’s up with their free water!

Next up was the Pantheon, which has tombs of Roman kings and the artist Raphael. Later we headed over to the Plaza Navona which was another favorite of mine because it had another neat fountain (yay!) and some gelato!

Afterwards we tried to see the Botanical Gardens across the river but it didn’t work out so we headed back towards the Trevi Fountain so we could get some good dinner (which we did!) and see the fountain at night!