have you noticed the birds recently?

i had full intentions of blogging last night but i honestly went to bed at 930 pm and slept right through until my alarm went off this morning. my long nights last week in portland are catching up with me i think


without further ado, here are my 3 things for today


1) in my college bible study tonight, we were studying in Luke 3 where John the Baptist starts his ministry.  and we've all heard about him preparing the way for Jesus and him being able to baptize Jesus and i guess can think that he had a pretty great life.  but the message that God gave him to proclaim??  was a message of truth but was new for the Jews in that culture. in Luke 3:7, he was baptizing and apparently quite a crowd had gathered.  his first recorded words to them was to call them a "brood of vipers" ... not exactly what his crowd was expecting him to say i would imagine.  he calls out their actions, says it's no longer enough to follow all of their rules and customs.  it's no longer enough that you are "sons of Abraham" - that your bloodline makes you God's chosen people. he goes on in vs 8 to say "bear fruit in keeping with repentance".  now getting into heaven means more than which people you belong to. now it's about repenting from sins and the actions that stem from having a repentant heart.  he mentions helping the needy, being honest in your work, showing justice and being content with your wages. these are foreign concepts to people who were raised to believe if you follow all the rules outwardly, then that's enough to earn your way to heaven.  not everyone is called to proclaim the truth with such bluntness, but John was.  he ended up being beheaded due to his telling the king the truth about him marrying his sister-in-law... but he really did lay the framework for Jesus to come and say things like "the commandment says you shall not kill, but I say if a man look on another with hatred, he has committed murder in his heart"....  we all liked verses 5-6 which talk about how John would prepare the way for Jesus - by making the paths straight and even, smoothing out the rough places and making it all level so that all man could see the salvation of God.  the idea that when Jesus came to earth, all became equal in the eyes of God.  it mattered NOT who your great-grandfather was but instead it was about your heart and your willingness to repent from your selfishness

(sorry for the long winded-ness of #1)

2) as i walked riley tonight i couldn't help but notice all the birds that were out ... i'm not a huge fan of birds normally as they tend to wake me up when it's still dark out and they always find my newly clean car a perfect spot for a bathroom break ... but it was nice to listen to them all sing and think about just how many species of birds there are.  God could have given us the robin and the cardinal and we would have never known the difference.  but to see them all - some big, some tiny, some chirp, some sing and some even squawk ... the variety and beauty that they provide ... the magnitude of God's creation is mind-boggling sometimes ... and that is just the birds ....


3) have i mentioned lately how much i am actually enjoying both my jobs ... it's a fairly new thing for me to be so fulfilled and satisfied with what i'm doing.  i've been at the same place for almost 13 years now and i find i'm liking what i'm doing now much more than i ever have before ... i'm feeling very grateful and blessed


good night 
r

it's been a few days

sorry for the lapse in blogging but honestly maine was pretty boring so there wasn't really much that inspired me to write ... and then friday night and sat / sun were pretty much a blur as i was working most of that time as well ...


there were 14 of us all together in maine from my organization, including the CFO, the CMO, department heads, directors and even our new Vice President. (i'm still not 100% sure why i was there ... ha)  anyways, the VP was in her first official week on the job and that was spent with us in Maine ... we hoped we didn't scare her away...


here is one picture i will share with you from my trip.  this was taken thursday night, we did make it to the ocean in honor of one person's birthday.  we went to Cape Elizabeth and got to eat dinner at this really super cute little place called The Lobster Shack.  This was our view while we ate at picnic tables outdoors

breathtaking right???

so i have been mulling a few things over in my head and i plan to have an actual blog tomorrow with my 3 things ...


my epiphany from the last few days is that i was thought i would love to travel for my job.  i thought it would be exciting, see exotic places, the ever change scenery, meeting new people, etc. after this last week of being away, it really is not as glamorous as i once had envisioned it.  it's kind of a pain to pack dress clothes, with matching shoes and jewelry for 5 days.  it's a little sad to live out of a suitcase and be away from things familiar and comforting.  despite the ridiculously comfortable king sized bed with it's 6-7 pillows in the hotel, i missed my bed... i missed my friends and my puppy and even my co-workers.  i like my daily routine and it was disconcerting to have it all different for a week.  despite having fun and laughing a lot with some of the people i traveled with, i missed home. 


my bed felt pretty heavenly on friday night, even more so because my pup was curled up against my back :)


here is a pic of him with his new maine lobster chew to i brought home for him

good night :)

r

last week, a 6 hr mtg, this week an 8 hr mtg

yep you read that right.  i'm here in sometimes sunny portland and spent day 1 of 4 in all day meetings ... it's tedious work but the end result should be worth-while!!  so on 1 hand it was nice to be done at 430 and have the rest of the night free but on the other hand ... when your brain is tired ... what do you really want to do??? certainly not go exploring!!

so a quiet dinner in the hotel, quiet reading time in my room and then some adult beverages with some co-workers ... all in all, it's a vacation from what my regular life is like ...

1) our new VP started this week and she is spending the week with us here ... perhaps i should get to know her???

2) an hour in a very nice hotel room with a book and some york peppermint patties is quite luxurious - in case you were wondering ...

3) some of my co-workers are funnier than i knew ....

hope you all had a great day - i heard it was 'eventful' back at my office so i'm more than a little thankful i was here instead :)

night night,

r

travel day

today was honestly pretty unremarkable.  i rode 5 hours in a mini-van with 4 other co-workers to Portland, ME. here are my 3 thoughts about today


1) it's fun to laugh so hard you are literally 2 seconds away from peeing your pants - yup that actually happened to me today


2) 50 year old woman are still deep down high school girls at heart with their gossip and back-biting ... right down to which car they will ride in and which table they will sit at.  i'm very thankful i am the 'baby' of the group and can try really hard to just be 'everyone's friend' ... i will admit it's hard to not get sucked into the drama but i'm going to work really hard these next few days to be not be THAT girl


3) i do love being able to see the ocean / harbor every time we drive somewhere .. one day i'd like to live near the water ... 


more to report tomorrow
good night
r

it's a new week

today was a day to celebrate ... so here were my 3 things to celebrate this day


1) it was my 1st day off after working 29 straight days... prior to today, my last day off was April 13th (Yankees opening day and i stayed home from work to watch all the festivities).  so yes you can say i was more than a little thrilled to have today off!  i am so very thankful for my 2nd job for so many different reasons!  it's work that i enjoy, they are very flexible with my schedule and allow me to work all of the shifts i am able to work, i get along with all of my co-workers, there is no drama to get involved in, the pay is decent, and they keep moving me up and training me in new roles.  june 24th will be my 2nd anniversary with the answering service and i have enjoyed just about every shift!! can you say that about your 1st or 2nd job???


2) it was Mother's Day and i got to spend the whole day with my mom!  we went to church together, grabbed coffee at starbucks and headed on a little 1 1/2 hour roadtrip. We had some really good conversation on the way to our destination so that the 90 minutes felt more like 15!  our destination was the Mohonk Mountain House.  if you have never been here and you live in NY, you are missing out!  the location is breathtaking, the hotel itself is almost 150 years old and when you are there, time pretty much stands still.  there are all these crazy details, all of the fencing and railings are made out of actual trees, all of the buildings were built on and around these huge rocks... there is a very serene lake, tons of walking / hiking trails, potentially award winning landscaping and then there is the food.  now, you pay a very hefty price for their mother's day brunch, but i can promise you, it might just be worth every penny you pay!!  

3) i have blogged every day for over a week now!  for me that is worthy of celebrating!  i have a habit of having great ideas and getting them started and then somewhere along the way i lose interest.  so far that hasn't happened with this.  i think the discipline of it is refreshing in a way.  i have found myself at different times this last week trying to keep my mind open for possibilities of things to talk about on here.  and that has forced me to start looking at situations very differently!


i am headed back to Portland, ME tomorrow!  this time for the whole work week!  in case you were wondering, it's a lot harder to pack work clothes than jeans and shirts!!! 
i am bringing the laptop with me and plan to continue this nightly practice.  


-r

saturday night musings

happy saturday everyone!!  it was a gorgeous day today in upstate NY (well, i will say it looked like a gorgeous day out as i sat at a desk with a headset glued to my ear from 1200-830pm... anyway, i digress )


my thoughts for today are kinda jumbled and all over the place


1) a random shout-out to a co-worker!!.  when i walked into my part-time job today my "saturday buddy" Amy told me she was excited i was blogging and was even reading my blogs on her phone.  such a small statement but it made me happy :) so thanks for reading A!!  let me just tell you, amy is a very cool person and her life is very much like a musical, at times she will burst into song and at other times speaks in a random accent ... but even if i didn't know that much about her, i would know she is amazing for 1 very small fact ... she shares my mutual love and admiration for one Logan Echolls.  (if you do not know who i'm talking about, i feel very sad for you) so thanks for reading Amy!  i've subscribed to your blog too! i don't think i have enough thoughts in a day to measure up to your level of blogging ... lol


2) i'm not sure how i feel about this whole growing old gracefully thing ... first of all, am i old enough to have to think about aging gracefully?  apparently i am as i currently sit with hair dye in my hair, coloring both the roots and the dreaded grays.  do we really only get 1/3 of our life to have beautiful natural colored hair???  although if i had to vote, right now, i will take gray hair over wrinkles ... which i know are only minutes away from appearing - see i am focusing on the positive which means it still counts as blog worthy!


3) looking back over the past week, i can say that focusing on the positive and things i can share has kept me in the right frame of mind (most of the time).  when i focus on the good, i don't get bogged down in the drama and negativity that can potentially surround me at the office. i've liked reading back on what i've already written about this week and while nothing is at all earth shattering, for me i think it's good progress. i'm happy to look for life lessons in small details and even happier to have a routine in which i share those lessons with others ...


thank you to those who have read my posts this last week!  thanks for the encouraging words and please feel free to comment on here or on facebook if you want .. just knowing i have readers encourages me to continue on this journey in positive-ity :)


-r

sometimes i back away ...

instead of 3 things, tonight i just have 1 ...


my dog and i "play" this little game most nights.  he thinks the bed is too high for him to jump on himself.  therefore he comes to the side of the bed where i am sitting / laying and looks at me, as if to say, "a little help please". but when i reach down to pick him up, he backs away from me.  yep, it's that annoying.  i don't know what goes through he head .... is it a game to him? is he resisting submitting? eventually when i reach out to him, he lets me pick him up.  some nights this is the 3rd or 4th attempt. other nights, he hides under the bed and i shut off the lights and climb into bed... 

it's a good thing he's so cute huh?

i sometimes wonder if this is how we look when we accept God's help.  we know we need His help, so we approach Him and ask for the help.  He reaches down His arm to help us and we back away. why? because we are stubborn and think we'll figure it out on our own? because it can't be that easy? so we ask again and again back away when the help is offered... 


i'm thankful that God is a merciful God and has more patience than i do with my dog some nights.  because otherwise, He would have already metaphorically speaking shut out the lights and gone to bed on me, convinced i was going to sleep under then bed instead of accept His help.


i get really mad at myself sometimes for the mess i left myself get all tangled up in.  to so quickly amass so much debt and seemingly do nothing about it for a really long time. i have the tendency to ignore little problems and hope that they work themselves out.  and i'm guessing that is what i thought would happen here.  
confession time:

1. i never looked at my monthly statements, in fact i switched to paperless bills which meant i had to deal with them even less.  
2. i went online monthly and paid off the minimum payment. 
3. i never looked at the amount of interest i was being charged, nor did i look at my actual balance that was accumulating.  some months, because of the interest, my balance would increase instead of decrease.  

it never occurred to me to seek God's help when i was in this mess.  i think i thought because i had gotten myself into the mess, God would expect me to figure a way out of it. 


please let me be a lesson to someone else out there ... credit card companies are from the evil one. they are sucking the life out of most Americans and we don't even realize it ... 


r