Ode to the Awesome-You see, because Im part of this realm, I get to change the title days later...

Generous? Check.

Caring? Check.

Non-judgemental? Check.

Loving? Check.

Crazy? Check.

Obnoxious?  Check.

Loud? Double Check. Actually, lets go ahead and make that one a triple. 

Big? Abnormally.

 Charming? Check. I mean, no one can resist these faces. Just look at Sarah and Gabe.

Great Hair? Have you SEEN my fathers head? Many people would kill for that shine! Check!

Stunningly good looking? (Ha. How is that even a question?) Check.

Think we are waaaaayyyy funnier than we really are? Ha. Haha. HA HA HA. Amateurs. 

In short, this is them. My peeps. My blood. My Team....(insert dramatic pause)..My Family

Basically, we rule the world. Our own world that is. We each go and spread our love in our own lives. Truth be told we are all probably hiding in the shadows trying not to disturb or unearth any stones in the world(except maybe Gabe...He does what he wants. :D ), yet somehow manage to  brag about how we rule the domain that is our lives. Yeah..we really are THAT awesome. I mean..this is just a picture of us. Wait til you see their KIDS!! We are making the world a more beautiful place, one offspring at a time. 

Haha. Well, that was written for those family members who read my blog. They get it. But other non blood related readers, don't beat yourself up for not understanding. No one is perfect. Anyways, these individuals are my all. They have each become something new and exciting in my life this past year. I miss them very much. Being with them, sitting on couches, benches and the floor of my parents home makes life easy. Hours go by like minutes. I never laugh as hard as I do when I am with them. They are beautiful and make me want to be a better person. I am so proud to be apart of a family where, for lack of better words, awesomeness abounds. :) I am so blessed.

Dreams

I have been dreaming a lot lately. And the most random people have been in them too. Some have been good, some have been sad and others have been just straight up weird. What causes such bizarre memories to come back or new thoughts present themselves is beyond me. I am also catching myself thinking of old memories that are brought out by the smallest things that have nothing to do with the memory. For instance, while washing my hair the other day, I all of a sudden began thinking about a summer in the OLD Concordia house on College Drive when we had puppies and Daniel Gorres family was in town. WHAT??!?! Where did that come from? Im confused.

Anyways, here's to another weekend sitting in my coffee shop. :)

This could be the start of something wonderful...

So God opened a door for me today. It is big and has shiny, bright lights blinking around it.


I have been looking for something. Some sort of guidance or push towards what to do. What is the next step? As my sister put it, things were starting to get messy. There was no clear target or goal in the future. Today I received an email that has allowed things to become a little more clear. Yes, this is a short and vague blog, however more will come when things are stapled down. :) God is so good to me.

Sickness

So..I have had this stupid cold for over a month now. It was never very bad but just held on enough to be annoying. After the past two weeks of being coughed on, wiping little noses for the millionth time and dosing out medicine, I have finally called in sick. A few days ago I could feel the cold relapsing or a new one catching on. Needless to say, I AM SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED!!!!!

Im tired of taking care of sick kids, Im tired of hearing about sickness, being sick or seeing sickness. I am so done with it all. I am ready for spring and clean air and healthy. I am so ready for healthy. So that is my rant for the day as I sit curled up on my bed taking a sick day.

A Story Worth Sharing

This beautiful lady, is my Grandma. She is funny, chatty and has more sass than should be legal at the age of nearly 91. She is my favorite story teller and is a walking keepsaker of my families history. This story is about her Grandmother whose last name was Phalen. My great-great grandmother was not even born when her family left Ireland. In fact, she was born on the boat in route to America. Everyone on the ship was very excited and held a small "meet and greet" for the new baby girl. Even the sailors and ship captains got to come see the bonny wee lass. One sailor in particular took quite a fancy to the small infant. He was young, around the age of 16 or 17. He told his fellow sailor that someday, he was going to marry that baby girl. He kept in close contact with the family upon their arrival in America and 18 years to the date, he married my great-great grandmother. They must have kept in the Irish community because they had a daughter who married a man with the last name O'day. Then they had a beautiful girl named Margaret Mary O'day. She found some stubborn, German named Willehardt Dahlke and married him. And those two were a match made it heaven if I ever saw one. The fact that those two were together until the day my Grandpa died shows God has a WONDERFUL sense of humor.

So I may not have as much Irish in me as I would like, but I will take a little Irish with a story like my mine over more hot blood any day. Happy St. Patrick's Day Mo Charas!!!! And may your day be blessed with these words from an Old Irish Blessing:

“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”

Norway

I haven't been on a trip in almost 2 years. Our family friend, Brandt is getting married in a few months in Norway. My sister, Sarah and I were just talking about she and Chad going and how cool it would be. It brought up all my old memories of my beloved trip 2 summers ago.

This was my view from my cabin that we stayed in while visiting the island of Austevoll. Mind you, this was at like 10 30pm. The sun sets only for like 4 hours.

This beauty is my #1 girl. She is so wonderful and I miss her SO much!

This was most of the Norskies from my Junior year. They had no idea I was coming, so it was a huge and wonderful surprise. Best day of my life.

This waterfall was about 3/4 mile from Mariannes house where we were staying. It freezes in the winter and you can walk behind it at all times. Absolutely breathtaking

First day there, and I was breaking Norwegian law. We crossed the fence and climbed to the top of the waterfall and this was the view we had. It blew my mind. It was very surreal.

This was the night before I left. I miss these guys so much! I got to see Even last summer when he and Vetle were on their world tour.
Every day I wish I could go back and see the people, the places and all the beauty that abounds in this small Scandinavian country. I joke about going and living there for a year quite often....Or am I joking?

Do The HARD Thing

I wish I could have one of those moments where I stop and move in slow motion as the world speeds by me. Its very strange to see all the different victories and struggles each person deals with every day. We all fight our own demons every day, yet we still manage to get up the next day and do it again and again and again. Its truly remarkable. My mother came upon this statement a few years back and tried drilling it into my little brother's head, when in reality, I think it stuck in mine. "Do the hard thing."

How many times in our lives do we just skip out and go the easy route? We go on and on about passion and our dreams, goals, wishes and lives, yet do we really want to ever put in the work? Some do, but others just cover it up by today's thinking behind what is right for "me." We have stopped doing the hard thing. It says in the Bible that "No sin is greater than another." And I believe this to be true in every account. I feel as if this has been taken to the extreme in today's society. Because we all sin and none is greater than another, we feel like we are justified in doing things like murdering, committing adultery and allow homosexuality to be socially acceptable. But hey, its ok. Because my sin is no greater, so its okay. I am finding that good Christian people are making this excuse. Saying that it is ok, because I know I am sinning but I know God forgives me. Where is the part where it says, we should refrain from it all!?!? Its very perplexing and is something I am struggling to understand.