weekly gratitude

thank you uggs for being ugly enough to only wear at home  when it's freezing

Talking to Blake and Brigette is always fun. There are virtually no limits to the conversations and boundaries that probably should have been there for the full length of friendship have long been dashed.

That's fine.

But when they are telling me how cold it is in Los Angeles, I feel a burning desire to pour ice water in their sweatshirt hoods so that when they pull said hood up it pours down their respective backs.

(No, I don't really want to do that - but Rose did it to Sean once and I'm pretty sure he's still holding a grudge)

Still, their "cold" is not even my "high" for the day. 

I'm pretty sure they're talking 60 degrees and "Oh my god, I'm shivering, why did I wear flip flops!?"

Portland didn't even hit 50 degrees in the noonday sun yesterday.

But you know what? I love it. I don't lay out to tan in the middle of summer so I'm not really jonesing for the chance to not do it in the middle of winter. 

The only problem? My beautiful, cold, arctic north isn't really luring my other two-thirds to come visit me any time soon. 

Maybe if I get a string and tie one of those Tasty N Sons chocolate potato doughnuts to the end and dangle it in front of them? 

Hmm... It'd have to be a pretty long string. 

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1. Thank you Lisa and Helios for letting me crash your Friday night (have I mentioned that I so didn't mean to do that?). Lives get busy, I know that, but I was still feeling down about having not seen my adopted aunt and uncle for over four months. Jared, Mike and I had been talking a few nights earlier about how much we missed them, so while out in their area of town I decided to swing by in hopes that I might catch one of them for a quick "hello" - I hit the jackpot. Both! (If you know Lisa and Helios, you know that the odds of finding even one of them home is a feat, let alone the complete pair!). So what started as a "pop in and say hi" became long conversation, hugs, tears, laughs, amazing pizza and a bottle of wine. And I for one left with the renewed sense of love and hope in life that only the Ovandos can bring. Oh, how I love them.

2. Thank you for Saturday night drinks with Caitlyn and Miss Wendy! While you know the usual trio is Caitlyn, Jodi and yours truly, we subbed Wendy in for the first time in forever, taking full advantage of her Saturday night freedom. A bottle of wine and a couple egg & bacon sandwiches later, Saturday night after work was all that it should be (minus Jodi, who, let's face it, should have been there too). 

3. Thank you for this. And this. It's all very exciiiite. 

4. Thank you for the wonderful Martha Metzler who wrote a beautiful guest post for me over at Salt + Light! This was the first time I've been able to collaborate with another blogger and it was so exciting! If you haven't trolled around Martha's blog, you should probably get on that. (I'm also on the edge of my seat again because my girl Kate at Daffodil's has agreed to lend her voice to Salt + Light too!) I just love this little community in our corner of the interwebs!

5. Thank you (again) for My Name Is Hope. I actually finished it last week, but I didn't get a chance to do a proper rundown. The verdict? Awesome. It gave me so much to think about, and especially, how to think about things. I've mentioned before that while I've never been truly depressed, I have had a fair struggle with anxiety and worry. John Mark has given me a whole new arsenal when it comes to battling those unsavory things and I can feel the weight continuing to lift. Most notable among these tools? "Prayer changes reality." Why this was such a groundbreaking thought to me, I'm not sure. But with this in mind, my prayers feel stronger and truer, and my faith more powerful. It's a good feeling.

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So I apologize for the past two weeks of "Weekly Gratitude" coming on Monday rather than the usual Sunday. The two-fold theory there is that 1) I usually cool it with blogging on the weekends and 2) I've been quite shleppy the past two Sundays. In reality, my plan was to get back to the late-night Sunday posting last night, but I opted to stay up late talking to the aforementioned SoCal-dwellers and reading my new favorite blog Nat The Fat Rat, trying not to be too envious of her incredible writing abilities. 

No word on how successful I was at that last item. 

Oh, and then there's this...

You need to hit some high notes? Orion's your man.