hi

It's been a packed week, already. I did manage to take my suitcase in over the weekend; Andrew drove me by the place (the guy knows every nook and cranny of this city!) one night so I knew where to go the next day. No bank yet because I only have a car a couple days a week, so I'll do that later in the week. Ok.

That's all for now. It's been an eventful week, which I may get around to posting about someday. I just didn't want to leave that woe-is-me post below as a lasting indication of my well-being in Australia. :)

Here is a picture of Andrew, my brother Travis and I on top of the Space Needle for your enjoyment.

Andrew in America

They let me back in the country.

Janell, me, Andrew, Lindy & Nate in Kirkland, WA

Andrew and I arrived back in Adelaide yesterday after our flights from LA and then Sydney. I got pulled aside in the Sydney airport and questioned about my returning to Oz so quickly after my last departure, but since I still have time on my tourist visa and ITeams is in process with my work visa it's all ok. And apparently we just missed Lance Armstrong in the Adelaide airport yesterday; he arrived last night for the Tour Down Under, which starts here on Sunday night.

It was a fabulous, although quite busy, trip! I have mixed feelings about being back...it's summer here, yet today has greeted me with pouring rain and gloomy skies. I have much to update the blog with from our adventures in Seattle and LA, and hundreds of photos to sort through! We had a great time with family and friends, a not so great time sorting through my storage unit in LA and running bazillions of errands (but thankfully it's DONE!), and many fun adventures like snowboarding/skiing and Disneyland. It is nice to be back and begin to figure out the next steps, and have a bit of downtime to recover from the madness!

Happy new year, by the way, and while I don't really make resolutions as they are pointless and not motivating for me in the least, I thought of one thing I would like to try this year. I have stacks of books on many topics (theology, psychology, women's issues, various topics in spirituality) that I want to have read but haven't yet made the effort to actually read. I'd like to tackle some of these at the very un-ambitious rate of one per month. That's doable, I think, and at the end of the year I will have read 12 books off my shelf and be that much smarter. This month I'm going to finish one I'm halfway through (fitting as we're halfway through the month). I'll tell you all about it.

And finally, I think I might change up the blog this year. Maybe retire this one and start a new one. New themes and labels (for some reason starting fresh with the labels really excites me!); this one has a lot of years and a lot of topics. I'm keeping the formerly-known-as-Greece-blog, to update with ministry stuff, and will continue to use this one (or the new one) for personal things.

Ok I have a lot of crap to unpack! Bye for now. :)

Almost time to go...

We leave in the morning (Friday) for Seattle! It's been a year and I can't wait. Because of the time zones, our Christmas Eve will be 42.5 hours long, complete with 3 flights and 25 hours of traveling. That is pretty gnarly; we are going to be a barrel of laughs when we arrive mid-day, definitely ready to party that night. ;)

Christmas (and Eve, and the rest of the week)

happy birthday linders

Lindy's 28th birthday celebration - unexpectedly in the urgent care center tonight! Our grandma got a little bump on the head that turned out to need a few staples. She is ok, but we had quite the adventurous evening!

Thanksgiving 08

1. siblings - Trav, Lindy, Nate; 2. Nuncle Bob carving the turkey; 3. with cousins Jason & Dan - friends since babyhood; 4. Dan & LeeAnn's baby Penelope; 5. Food!; 6. LeeAnn; 7. Jon & Stephanie, me & Dan; 8. Dan & Mom and stuffing; 9. an accurate representation of my odd family

rainy days

It's been another good couple of days. It's good to be here. I must admit, though, the fact that I am moving to Greece two weeks from tomorrow seems like some fictional idea...seriously, what??

I spent yesterday afternoon with my brother, and after work Lindy (sister) joined us for dinner. I can't remember the last time we all did something. By the time we decided to drive on over to the Melting Pot for dessert ("This is such a chick place" ~ Travis), I was in tears. With laughter. I can't even remember what was funny, but by the time we paid our bill, we were all struggling for breath and composure, and Lindy was dribbling her drink on the table in front of the waitress. (That's because she was laughing; it was not some distasteful party trick.) :)

Today I had some good time with some old friends. This morning I met Robin and Amy (from SPU) and Amy's two boys for breakfast (pics above). We saw each other with Kristin this summer, so it was wonderful to get some good time in before I leave and at least another year passes! I love all these girls, and their friendship & prayers & support definitely keeps me going at times. Later, I met up with a friend from high school (I don't keep up with many of those!!), Andrea. We've reconnected over the past couple of years over blogs, emails and facebook, and have found ourselves in similar circumstances and walks of life. We had much to connect about over coffee this afternoon, and the time flew by! I'm encouraged by her adventurous spirit (she's the only person I know who has been to Antarctica - twice!) and her easy-going, faithful attitude. It's been great to "re-" get to know each other.

And to top off my day, I used a gift card for a massage. Now, I've never heard things like "Wow..." and "you're awesome!" and "not many people would put up with this!" from a massage therapist before, all in relation to the state of my stressed out muscles and the digging and, let's just face it, PAIN that was necessary to get some relief. I did get the conciliatory "you're going to really feel a difference" after, which I do. Hopefully I'll get some good sleep for a change and be a little more comfortable now!

home, for today anyway

It doesn't really feel this week like I'm moving anywhere across the world; I'm just hanging out here in Seattle (and Portland, as it were) visiting family and friends like there's nothing out of the ordinary coming up in my life. Happy Thanksgiving week! :)

Kristin & James (courtesy of facebook, thanks!) :)

Yesterday I drove down to Portland to spend the day with Kristin, one of my longest-running friendships (from SPU ~ going on 11 years!), and one of my dearest friends. (Not to be confused with roommate Kristin, who I also love, incidentally.) Kristin and her husband James have been such a support to me on this journey to figuring life out, and their faithful love and prayers have been really uplifting to me over the years. Especially now. Kristin and I had a great time having a long lunch, walking laps around the mall because we were too engrossed in conversation to shop, and then actually shopping. :) It was so great. Thanks for the day, girl.

Other than that, I've done a little shopping with Mom and sister, watched two James Bond movies, squeezed in a couple runs when the rain stops, met with a potential supporter, and managed to feel like all is as it always has been.

Except for the other night, when I had dinner with a family friend who happened to live in Athens for four years, and after said dinner, when I happened to have a minor (not at all minor) "what the crap am I doing" moment (longer than a moment). Some fears, unknowns, questions ... compounded by the negative-ish experience that our friend had in Greece that comes out in her conversations about it...for a good hour or two I felt dread (not doubt or uncertainty) that made me just sit in my room for awhile. Until Sandie called, having just spoken to our staff in Greece, with answers and reassurances that answered all the fears and questions in my head. And hers. :) I'll save that happy story for another post.

But for now, I'm in Seattle, trying to get as much sleep as possible, trying to see friends and enjoy family and pretend everything is the same. For now. :)

updates GAH-lore

I am not exactly sure what day it is, except it must be Tuesday because I am flying to Seattle in the morning. It is good to be moved. I'm staying with my friend Jamie & her husband Jason, in their bright yellow & white guest room. It's hard not to be happy and relaxed in this room. :) I will be here for 9 days when I come back in December, and then I'm off...up, up, and away...off I go, into the wild blue yonder...leavin' on a get plane...into the Great Unknown.

I am doing well. I thought perhaps I was still in denial because I am not really feeling anxious or stressed out or overwhelmed. Being done with moving has helped in that regard a great deal. I had some extended time to just sit and be today, and I realized that while I may not quite be "ready" - who knows if I'll ever be, I feel peace about it and I'm feeling good about this next step. Talk to me in a couple weeks and see if this feeling has lasted :) but for now, I am doing well.

Nick is doing better...I went to the hospital for a few hours again today. He has a genetic mutation that caused the pulmonary embolism suddenly. After his oral blood thinners start working and he is allowed to go home (hopefully tomorrow), he will have a couple of options: 1) take the blood thinners for a year and avoid anything that can cause cuts, bruising, internal injuries, etc. (he is very active and rides his bike everywhere; wouldn't really be able to do a lot of that stuff anymore), then take his chances after a year living a normal life but risk getting more clots, or 2) take the blood thinners for the rest of his life - no clots, but not a normal life either. Sad. The poor guy is tired of being in the hospital, obviously. There will still be lots of tests & monitoring for awhile after he goes home. It's over $3000 a day to be in there, and he's responsible for 20% which is adding up fast too. We are encouraging him to take up crocheting or opera; something non physical. :) He also enjoys being called Mutant and Clotty. We're all just hoping he can go home soon! Thanks for praying.

So tomorrow, it's up to Seattle, hopefully for some rest and good family time. I can't really believe this is all happening so fast. It's an odd transition time; I am neither here nor there, LA nor Athens, really, just in the in-between.

My friend Dana reminded me tonight: worship & serve in the waiting. I like that.

if only I didn't have to work...

I've already said it, but it's so much easier to think about and look forward to Greece when I don't have other things to think about!! :) I am hoping, after my job with the Salvation Army ends at the end of September, that I can take at least a month to get myself ready to go. With larger organizations, future "missionaries" are put through months of training in cross-cultural issues, culture-specific training, language acquisition, etc. I am the first person ever to be "sent" by Lydia Today, so we are making it up as we go along. It will really be like I am plucked out of one life and dropped into another. So several weeks of transition time would be good.


We had family and friends over this evening to eat Greek food and talk about what I'll be doing. It was really good to talk about it. I had been trying to work a bit while I was up here (for my real job), but Thursday I gave that up, and I've been able to relax more and think ahead ever since. So tonight I was prepared to discuss, answer questions, and even look forward to what is coming in just a few months!


A family friend came tonight who lived in Athens for 4 years and worked with many of the people I'll be working with. It was so good to talk about it with her. She helped answer some questions about Greece and pr0stitution there. I think I made her miss Athens a bit. :) It was just a good evening for me to be able to be excited and have positive feedback and look forward to this.


P.S. Happy birthday Mom! (With Travis at his graduation last year. The beard is long gone, by the way.)

memory lane

Four girls started college 11 (!!) years ago this fall. They lived in Hill Hall on the 5th floor. Made lots of friends along the way but stuck together throughout their years at SPU doing Bible studies together, terrorizing their floors after hours with "sticker fun," random birthday celebrations, husband predictions, road trips, boys (quite a wide variety), gross dissected animal parts left outside of dorm room doors, the "action bed," lots of talks, and dreams of all living in the same cul-de-sac when they were were "all grown up."

Tonight we met again, all four of us together for the first time since Robin's wedding 5 and a half years ago. Life looks a little different now with husbands and kids (I am seriously slacking in this area!) and three states between us, but what a great time of catching up and remembering what our friendship together was all about. A lot of life has transpired in the last few years, so it meant a lot to be with these girls again, all together.

Kelsey, Robin, Kristin & Amy ~ 11 years later
(We haven't aged a bit!) ;)

boring update post

So, I am in Seattle. The first few days were almost like detox, but now I'm able to relax and enjoy being here. Cloudy Seattle weather has taken over the last couple of days, but for the first half of the week it was glorious - hot and sunny - and it's supposed to be like that this weekend too.

I have spoken three times about human trafficking and what I'm going to be doing in Greece. One more time to come, this weekend. Without the distractions of weekly job requirements and quotas to fill and long commutes and day to day BLAHness, it's been a lot easier to think about moving and being there this week. It still feels like another world in another age, but talking with people about it and answering questions (that I CAN answer!) has been refreshing, in a way. It's nice to be able to think about it without everything else I'm trying to get done edging its way into my consciousness. :)

Just about the time I get all settled in and remember what it feels like to be caught up on sleep and relaxed, it will be time to return to real life.

listening to the rain

I'm home...Seattle home that is. It's pouring rain at the moment and I am inside in my pjs sipping cider with nothing to do today but wrap presents and see about getting some form of exercise at some point. :)

Mom and I went shopping last night for a lot of those last minute detail things for Israel. I leave on Thursday! It feels like I lost Christmas somewhere in between school and packing lists and international travel warnings (our professors are very good [err, obsessive] at updating us on any little detail that pertains to traveling, Israel, our trip, or anything that has to do with anyone who ever went anywhere). I'll have a day to pack when I get back to LA then we're off.

My sister and brother-in-law are staying here with my mom right now while they're in transition with some job stuff. It's fun having them around! They're gone for the weekend to Portland to see his family, so I will have some much-needed forced relaxation for a few days. I have friends to see, but once I get here and I don't have to do anything, it's so hard to want to make the calls and give up coveted do-nothing time! I'll get around to it, I guess. My supply of friends up here has dwindled over the years; it's hard to maintain lots of friendships when only in town for a few days at a time, and when usually I want to spend those days with family. But there are some left. :)

My sister has all her presents wrapped and under the tree...in skull paper. :) She made it herself (this pic is with my cell phone so not too clear). Silly girl.

tired

What a loooooooong day. We gallavanted around Seattle all day long like tourists. It's fun to see cousins we haven't seen in a few years. Tomorrow is the memorial service; we spent some time today talking with each other about our memories of our grandpa, realizing how we got to know this strong man in the weakest time of his life, when his illness had taken over his body. But such character and grace that he showed even at the end of his life was cultivated over a lifetime. I'm looking forward to hearing from those who his life touched tomorrow.

embracing my blackness

Enjoying the fall colors here that we don't have in Cali...

off for clearer skies

Heading up to Seattle tonight, YAAAAY. It's been about 5 months, not long in normal life, but seems like ages with everything that's been going on with family. The memorial service is on Tuesday, and Mom gets home from England on Monday, but in the meantime there will catching up with cousins we haven't seen in years, shopping with my sister, my brother's birthday, etc. etc. I'm sighing contended and anticipatory sighs today. :)

More graduation pictures

So the sunny graduation picture I posted the other day was actually from another SPU graduation (pre-graduation) event that was the day before the actual graduation. It was sunny that day. Saturday, we got the privilege of sitting in Qwest Field for 3 hours as it rained. Actually most of the audience was covered; but the grads had to sit out in the rain the whole time!!! They were soaked through at the end.

My sister likes to take self portraits, but she frequently forgets to zoom out first:

And I wasn't paying attention to my umbrella, I just didn't want to get wet! Oops.

Seattle

Qwest Field, Seattle, after SPU graduation yesterday

my brother the mountain man

graduated from SPU today!

Travis and Mom