What did I accomplish?

So after reading my post, Surprise, you may be wondering what I did accomplish from my list.

So here's a breakdown:

#2 ~ Cook 15 new dishes: I cooked 6
#3 ~ Decorate my room: Well I got the bed spread, but it's still a work in progress
#4 ~ Get flowers for 30 people: Got some for 2 people, virtual flowers for Sarah who was having a bum day and my SPS Vicki
#5 ~ Get Maggie to watch a documentary: I still feel badly about accosting her with such a horrible documentary, but she was a trooper. Thanks Mags
#6 ~ Give someone $30: This one just took place, and it wasn't in actual cash, but instead in a gift certificate, which was more than $30 so she could spoil herself and get her hair done. I have a friend whose husband is going into the ministry and she was talking about wanting to have her hair done for his graduation on May 15. So I decided to help her out a little
#7 ~ Have 30 girls nights: I had 10. 1/3 is not to shabby, things just got busy. They were all fun though:)
#9 ~ Help someone who cannot help themselves: I helped 2. Hey, I'm actually ahead on one
#10 ~ Increase my prayer time to 30 minutes a day: This one is just starting to take place
#11 ~ Learn 30 new facts: I learned 3. Well at least that I blogged about. Obviously I can't remember the res, LOL
#12 ~ Learn 30 new words: I learned 6
#14 ~ Meet 30 new people: I met 11
#16 ~ Memorize 30 new verses: I memorized 12. PTL, for Bible Institute!
#17 ~ Pay off my Visa: Still a work in progress, but strides are being made in a positive direction
#18 ~ Put together 30 new Sunday School lessons: Even though I didn't blog about them all I know I did this. Just by doing the math of it along with my own special discipleship lessons that I've been working on
#19 ~ Read 15 new books: I read 7
#23 ~ Sky Dive: It's on the way people. Nicki and I take the plunge in July:)
#24 ~ Spend no more that $30 on each Christmas present this year: A unique challenge, but fun and everyone liked what they got. Just goes to show you it's not all about money
#27 ~ Try 30 new dishes: I tried 2
#29 ~ Watch 30 documentaries: I watched 5
#31 ~ Write 30 new poems: I wrote 1

So, obviously not all of them were completed, but as I said in my Surprise post, it wasn't so much about completing them all as it was about the journey that took me here. Besides, I made it 2/3 of the way through, that in and of itself I think is note worthy. I'll probably still keep up a list of things that I want to do as they come up, but it will be ever revolving.

Thank you for keeping up with my escapades. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. Bye, bye list.

Surprise!

"Choosing a goal and sticking to it changes everything". ~ Scott Reed (Author)

For those that have been following my escapades, a year ago I started my 30 x 30 list. Basically 30 things that I wanted to try and complete by the time that I turned 30. In truth the list was also more about reconnecting with who I was, the things that made me happy, and re-establishing my relationships with people (things that I lost when I was in the Navy) than it was about bragging on Carolyn. But it also helped me establish myself as a blogger and helped me find my voice as a communicator. My friends got to know more about me and I got to learn more about myself.

However, you may be wondering, what prompted my list in the first place? What started it was a picture that I saw online of a skydiver. Skydiving has long been a goal of mine. Why? I don't really know. I'm an adventurer. I love to travel, meet new people, and experience different cultures. I joined the Navy. I've lived in foreign countries, gone tubing on Mt. Etna, gone bungee jumping, been deep sea fishing, and learned how to fire a gun. The list goes on, but I think you all get the point. I'm zealous over live in general. But this jumper that I found online inspired me to think of a list of things that I wanted to do within the next year, Sky Diving being one of them. It almost came to fruition last summer, but I couldn't justify using the money when I knew I had other responsibilities and so I put it on the back burner until I knew that I could save enough and not feel guilty in undertaking the venture. Who knew when that would be? As any hot blooded American woman has come to realize, we often find ourselves on the loosing end of the eternal "Need vs. Want" battle. The unfortunate result is that practicality usually wins out over FUN. Now don't get me wrong, there is a time and a place for both and I don't regret being responsible with my money when I knew I had a pending bill, but I think that each time we loose ground with our dreams a little slice of our authentic self is chipped away. Sometimes irrevocably.

I am happy to say that for myself this is not the case. No one, especially yours truly, could have imagined the lengths that my friends would have gone to to help me bring my list and dreams full circle.

"The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” ~ Unknown

Last Friday, my friends threw me an early birthday party. For those that read my post about when to hold a proper birthday party I should have qualified certain things a bit better, as I was given much grief over my ideal expectations. What I should have clarified, and I think I put it to Trish a bit better the other night, was that in a family dynamic it is "easier" to hold to the day and the traditions that come along with it, but when you're on you own, as I am, and your friends are gracious enough to consider and plan a special celebration for your birthday that you don't begrudge that and that you appreciate every moment of the time that was taken to execute the event; and trust me my party was an event. Suffice it to say that my party this past weekend was liberating and hasn't diminished the special day of my birth. As I understand it the reason that it was held a week in advance was because the Instigator is getting sent out on deployment and won't be here for May 1st (which happens to be her birthday as well).

The guise for the night was that Sherri, Anna and I were supposed to go out for dinner and then back to Sherri's to watch a movie that we had been wanting to see. Basically a fun girls night. Sherri was so sure that I was going to sniff something out as I'm usually pretty astute at watching peoples behavior, but with the busyness of school and being preoccupied with my own issues I wasn't really paying attention. I was feeling a bit absent and distant from my friends, but again I simply attributed that feeling to the busyness that had taken over our lives in recent days. Because I know that if something had offended them they are mature enough to come to me directly. So I just continued on with my life and figured it would work itself out one way or the other.

Now normally my M.O. is that I'll go to Sherri's store to visit on Friday's, but luckily enough this weekend was Holland Happenings as so the parking was taken away from down town. Meaning that visiting would have been a little harder than usual. So earlier in the week Sherri suggested that we meet at her house. BTW, Oak Harbor has 4 Mexican restaurants and I only slightly wondered why they picked El Cazador, because Sherri has a Mexican restaurant right down the street from her shop (at the time of that thought we were still meeting at Sherri's shop), but I see now besides Mi Pueblo, it's the only one that could fit everyone and is the farthest away from being found out. Plus with Holland Happenings it would have been hard to not get found out with parking limitations.

I rolled up to the house early, which I usually am, a little surprised to see Sherri there already, but nothing to out of the ordinary. I asked if we were waiting for Anna and she said that we were meeting Anna at the restaurant. We piled into the truck and were off; making casual conversation the whole way, happy to be done with my Math homework for the weekend, happy that I was done work for the day, and looking forward to a fun evening with friends. So we got to the stop light and Sherri said she needed to call Steve to let him know what we were doing so he would know not to call for the rest of the evening. This, I later found out, was the signal for everyone to be on standby. Parking on the exact opposite side of the building from where people usually park Sherri dialed "Steve's phone" and played like he had picked up his phone while he was having a conversation with someone else. I've seen him do this before so when she said that's what he had done, again I didn't think anything of it, except for maybe Steve should be a bit more considerate to the people he's talking to (Sorry Steve it's Sherri's fault. See what happens when deception takes hold on a heart;)).

Anyway, I walked in to the restaurant and looked to my left to see where we might be able to sit, and then turned to my right to see what Sherri was thinking and BAM, there it was, a line of my friends all shouting surprise at me! What? I had no idea what was going on and it took me a few seconds, and Tressa's hug, to finally pick up on the fact that my friends were throwing me a surprise birthday party. It was a lot, albeit pleasant sight, to take in. See I had, for a couple weeks prior, been suffering from an acute case of loneliness, you know the kind that hits you to the core. It was bad. So to see my friends all gathered around for me was pleasantly overwhelming.

After much conversation Kali, planner extraordinaire, couldn't take it any more and ordered me to take my seat so she could tell me about my gift. What I get presents too?!?!?! So I took my seat and she told me that for my birthday that everyone had gotten together to purchase, for moi, a tandem skydive jump (with video) since it's something that I've wanted for a long time. It also helped, I think, that they knew it was on my list. My friends have been super supportive with helping me to achieve my goals that I set out for myself on the list (we even still have a trip to Hurricane Ridge to get in this summer, as I've never been there and that was on my list too. My friends are the best). I was completely shocked. That was definitely something that I didn't expect!!!

Can you tell I'm excited?

The gang sings HappyBirthday

Blowing out my bonfire

"I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun." ~ Charles R. Swindoll

For me I think that the best part, over all, was knowing that my friends/church family really support me and as wacky as the dream may seem, to some, that they love me enough to want to see it come to fruition. Because they know it's important to me and they wanted to share in my joy. That's the thought that stops me in my tracks when I think about my friends. I know how much it cost (because of my own research on the activity), and that it might have been a gift of sacrifice for most, but the generosity was overwhelming.

That night, on the way back to her house, peering through the Candy Bouquet in between us, 31 balloons creating static electricity on my scalp, and holding onto my vase of pink roses from Tressa; Sherri told me that not only did they have enough for the present, but for the rental at El Cazador and some left over for Deborah, who babysat for my friend Joy so she could enjoy a night with the girls (she's new in town and still getting to know the ladies of BBC). The girls, Sneaky Sandi, Conniving Kali, and Shifty Sherri, didn't miss a detail! However, much repentance, if it hasn't already taken place, is in their future;)

Seriously though, I think that Mr. Swindoll got it right in the above quote, Friends do make life a lot more fun. I hope that you all have friends that are making your life a lot more fun right now too. If not, what are you waiting for? Go make some. Proverbs 18:24a ~ A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: I praise the Lord for my friends and that they DO make my life a lot more fun. To all that were there, Thank you.

A picture of my 3 boquets
Roses from Tressa
A Candy Boquet & Balloons from Sherri

A Spiritual Birthday

I should have posted this this morning because the day is almost over, but better late than never.

I've got no real insight just a praise that today I turned 8 (in the Lord). Yes, eight years ago today, in a little Baptist Church in Sicily I surrendered my life to the Lord and asked Him to forgive me of my sins and save me from the wrath of His judgement. It's amazing, the work that He does when we're not even looking. Remembering back to that day there's no way that I could have imagined the directions that the Lord would take me in, and the path he would set my feet upon.

I have many verses that I enjoy and at different times certain ones speak to me more, but if I had to pick a verse that best exemplifies the faith and trust that I have in Him it is the one listed below.

Philippians 1:6 ~ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

He is ever faithful, ever true, and ever ready to offer his hand of salvation to those that seek His face and are searching for the truth (John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.)

That God should love a sinner such as I, how wonderful a love like this!

Filler Up

A couple of weeks ago I filled up my gas tank and here is what my total was. I thought it was funny so I took a pic with my cell phone. I mean really what are the odds (no statistics cracks from the peanut gallery;P). If you don't get it, think about what year we are in.

Are we to connected?

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until people start to listen. We are way to connected. As my company's Marketing Assistant I get email updates on what new tools people are using to market themselves and I came across this article. People are now Twittering during church sermons! Which is also encouraged by their Pastor! Let me just put my disclaimer in now, I find this to be completely disrespectful to the house of God and in no way endorse, or think, that anyone should be doing this. I can't even imagine how distracting that all is for everyone else. Sooo if you get caught don't say, "Well I read about it on Carolyn's blog" and "they're doing in in South Carolina". That won't bode over to well with Pastor Sargent. Not that anyone that I know would do this, but I have to put it out there anyway. For those that know what I'm talking about, can you image if this went down as a practice at BBC?

Sufficeit to say I way pretty irritated at reading this article and watching the corresponding video. Just to let you all know, technically I am a member of Twitter, but I only joined so that I could see if would be of use to the company I work for (which it won't). So if you see me on there you won't see any activity, because I'm not interested in being that connected. So please don't add me as a friend because you won't get any tweets from me.

Anyway, why do I find it so disrespectful? Well basically because these people are telling God that He's not worth paying attention to. That it's more important that they communicate their ideas and feelings than letting the Lord deal with them during the message. It's definitely an ego centric way of living life. It's also disrespectful to the others who are not participating in the practice and want to get all they came from the message. I have a hard enough time when someones cell phone goes off at church, so I can't imagine what it would be like listening to all the clicking buttons. One person doing it is not so noticeable, but get even a small group like 10 or 20 people doing it and it would be a much different picture.

Well my disgust ends here and instead I'll just put down a couple of reasons why I think God is worth paying attention to in the hopes that anyone that participates in this abhorable practice will cease and desist, and if you're someone that doesn't I hope that the list is just a blessing to you.

1. 1 Peter 5:7 ~ Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (Some days I can't even wrap my head around the fact that He, God, the Almighty, cares about little ol' me. If He cares so much about me the least I can do is pay attention to His leading in my life.)

2. Hebrews 4:15 ~ For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (He's worthy of being paid attention to because who, besides Jesus, can truly say that they haven't given into temptation at some point and time in their life. If someone can withstand the temptations of Satan I think that there's LOTS to be learned there.)

It's short, I know, but I want to hear what you have to say and why you think, or hopefully know, that God is worth of being paid attention to. And if you don't know here are some websites to help you discover the truth.

~Are you a good person?
~What's a standard?
~E-Life Bible Studies

Love and Friends

Change is never an easy thing, and for about a month I've refrained from mentioning the moving on of two very dear friends of mine due to the sensitivity of the situation. But now that things are getting fairly back to normal I thought I would post the pics from the fun Saturday luncheon that we shared last week.

It was sometime in March when Pastor Jeremiah told me that the Lord was moving his ministry to TX. To say I was shocked would be an understatement, but I would rather see him and Shannon where the Lord wants them, rather than where I want them. Plus I knew that I would be in more than capable hands with Pastor Sargent. However, it is sad to see such good friends move on. Which is why last Saturday the ladies of Bible Baptist Church got together as held a Birthday/going away luncheon for Shannon. Here are some pictures from that fun day. Also if you head on over to Just Passing Thru you can see the videos of the song that we sung and the skit that we performed for the enertainment. Sherri got a much better view of us than my video got.

Anyway, here are some pics from that day. . .

Some Ladies at the luncheon

Alyssa and Kali made the cake

It's not a proper luncheon without games

Ladies trying to figure out the answers

There was a relay race

Ready, Set, Go. . .

The candles were lit

Shannon got all but one out

As I stated earlier, it's sad to see friends move on but the peace that comes from everyone being of one accord with the changes that God wants to see take place is indescribable.

John 14:27 ~ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

There was a lot of love there that day shared by many friends! Love you Shannon

#2 on my list, Cook 15 new dishes (#6)

Rice Lasagna, what? That was the first thing that came to my mind when a friend told me that she found this recipe for me to try; And of course I can have it because it's GF. I wasn't really sure that it was going to hold together very well when I first heard about it but it turned out wonderful. Not to mention that it's cheaper to make than regular lasagna since I didn't have to pay for the noodles, which can run upwards of $6 a box.

So what occasion would warrant me making a lasagna, after all it's only lil' ol me. The occasion was Shannon's Birthday/going away tea that we held last Saturday. Even though they've moved to TX the theme was Italian because that's Shannon's favorite. Italian, as any Celiac knows, is a nightmare food to contend with. Sure they make GF noodles, but they don't make the same delicious Italian fare that I've long been acquainted with (living in Sicily spoiled me). However, it kept all week and made some pretty descent left overs. I dont regularly like the idea of left overs, but this kept really well.

So without much further ado I give you Rice Lasagna.

Rice Lasagna
Serves 8

Ingedients
3c. hot cooked long grain rice
2 large eggs
3/4c. grated parmesan cheese
2c. shredded mozzerella cheese
1c. low fat ricotta cheese
1lb. lean ground beef
1/4c. chopped parsley
1 jar (15.5 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 Tbsp chopped oregano

Directions

1. Cook rice according to directions on package. Generally it's 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of dry rice.

2. After rice is done combine rice, 1 egg and 1/3c. of parmesean cheese in a bowl.

3. In another bowl, combine 1 egg, the mozzerella and ricotta cheeses, 1/3c. of parmesean cheese, and parsley.

4. In a large skilet brown the beef, stirring and breaking into bits, drain, and add the sauce and oregano. It's probably a good idea to do this while the rice is cooking so as to save some time in the kitchen.

5. Evenly spread half the rice mixtre into an 11 1/2" x 7 1/2" x 2 1/2" baking dish.

6. Top wiht half the cheese mixture, followed by the meat mixture and repeat layers. Sprinkle with the remaining parmesean cheese.

7. Bake at 375 deg. for 20 minutes (that's a lot shorter than regular lasgana) or until hot; and serve with your choice of vegetable.

I dedcided while making it, to use as much rice as I could and so I made the final layer the rice one, which is OK too. Maybe next time I'll follow the direcitons to a "T", who knows. Either way it's delicious:) Enjoy!

I have a new poll up

As of today I have exactly 2 weeks until I turn 30. . .

Growing up we almost always celebrated our birthday's on the actual day. I don't think I have any memories of us having birthday parties on a Saturday or Friday, unless it actually was that day. Maybe my 10th birthday is an exception because it was a slumber party, but that's about it. My Dad was a stickler about that and now looking back I appreciate it. Sure my brother and I were the only kids having a party at 4 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon, but it reinforced the fact that the day was special, even if it was just because I was born. That was the day that God chose to have me come into the world, and it deserves to be recognized as such. Now that I'm older, I'm pretty much a stickler for that tradition as well and will carry it on with my own kids one day. But this is what prompts my new poll. I want to know what others think about when they celebrate their own special day.

Vote away guys, it will be up until the end of May!

Improv Everywhere

A few years ago I came across this improv group on YouTube so I'm posting some of my favorite videos that they performed.

In order to give you an idea of what these guys do is they are an improv group that performs in everyday life without letting those everyday people that surround them in on the joke. Some of them are very funny indeed.

Enjoy!!!

Food Court Musical


Best Buy Improv


Frozen Grand Central Station


Slow Mo Home Depot


Hi 5 Escalator


The Human Mirror


and one of my faves

The Redheads Protest Wendy's


I think one of the funnest parts is watching peoples reactions to them. But also if you watch most of them, they're really all about getting people to interact and share experiences that they normally wouldn't share with people.

How shallow are you?

I think that in general terms we as a society, at large, are pretty shallow beings. We like to think ourselves capable of being everyone elses judge and that you're only useful, talented, or capable of doing something special if you're attractive and skinny. Post the American Idol and phenomenon that is reality TV we think that we are competent to pass judgment on those that are put before our eyes without giving them a fair shot. We've become cynical and incapable of thinking that someone should get a fair shake at life regardless of how they look on the outside.

This clip, I think, shows what people are really capable of thinking with only something to look at and no back story. As you're watching listen to the snickers and look at the rolling eyes. The irony of course being that the people in the audience would probably high tail it in the other direction if informed that they would have to do the same thing. Just because someone is favored with a face that is easy on the eyes doesn't mean that they have any talent coursing through their veins, in fact I tend to find myself being judgmental in the opposite direction, which is that upon looking at someone extremely good looking that they have nothing to offer and are as shallow as a wading pool. In my defense I've found that statement to be true in my life, it doesn't mean that it is unequivocally true it just means that's what I've experienced. In any case beauty and talent are not necessarily synonymous with each other. It just means that is what's been shoved in front of our face time and time again and what we've come to value as a society.

Seriously watch the clip! and see whether or not cynicism takes hold of your heart first. I had heard about the clip, but still approached it with a vague sense of wonder. Rooting for her on the inside, but also doubting that Susan Boyle was going to surprise me at all. Shame on me.

1 Corinthians 1:27: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

Jump roping for the Navy

A coworker sent this to me. The jump roping here is amazing! Way to support America:)

The Best Deal Ever

In all of the sickness of last week I forgot to blog about the greatest deal that I've ever made in the case of school books:) And it happened totally by accident.

So all of my homework and tests for math are done in a online program called My Math Lab (courtesy of the folks at Course Compass). This program by itself costs $71, and if it's purchased inside of a book package the whole cost for the my math book and the computer code for My Math Lab costs $177. Oi Vay!!! Well in my effot to conserve what I could on my Visa I decided that the cheapest route to take was to buy the My Math Lab from Skagit, and the text from eBay. Which I did. Via eBay I ended up paying $59 for the text book, with the CD's from the book, and the correesponding answer books. So with the $71 for the My Math Lab and the $59 for the text I ended up spending a total of $136, a savings of $41 if I had bought everything from the campus book store. Not bad, I thought initially, it could have been worse. However, it actually gets a whole lot better!

When I received the text book from the seller on eBay, it came with a un opened My Math Lab code, which meant that it had not been tied to a class yet, which also meant that I could return the one that I spent $71 on and get that money back! So, what did I end up spending on my math book + My Math Lab a whopping $59!!! This is the greatest deal that I've worked so far for one of my text books. Especially since the code was so ecpensive by itself. I mean they don't even include a disc or anything. Crazy!

Anyway, I had to share that because it ended up being sucha great deal:) Maybe I should major in economics;)

Home a whole week

Well I tried going to work this morning but along about 10 I started to get a headache and not feeling well again so I came back home. It is really rare that I'm like this so I'm really curious as to what brought this on. Anyway, thank you all for you well wishes and comments. Overall I think I'll be OK, it's just gonna be a little bit in coming. However, I was able to have time this afternoon to work on some math, which will be good progress towards this summers goal of graduation. For all those nay sayers that gave me a raised eyebrow about taking Statistics I just got a 90% on my first test. So. . .even though it's the beginning at least it's looking to be a strong one:)

The other welcome event that came out of this week was a phone call from my Dad. It's really not fun getting sick when you live on your own and you have to take care of yourself. In fact my Dad was sharing with me, when he called on Tuesday, that the first time he got sick after he moved away from home he actually went back to have his mom take care of him. I live a little farther away so that's not an option for me, but I might have seriously considered it if I did. However, that being the case I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and lonely, dreading having to get up of the couch to get myself some juice, in order to take my Tylenol, and wishing that I could just get some rest from the aching fever that had been plauging me for two days when my phone rang and sarted flashing my Dad's phone icon letting me know that it was him. It was really nice to hear his voice on the other end of the phone and the fact that he was calling to check on me was really nice as well. He was making sure that I was taking mediceine, getting rest, and wanting to know if I had gone to the Dr. They were small questions, but big to me, and ones that I think a lot of people take for granted when they have their families around the all the time, and something that I hope I don't take for granted once I get the opportunity to have it in my life.

So that was my week. Hopefully next week will be better and I'll have things that are more interesting to blog about.

Sick (Part 3)

So hopefully I'm at the end of this miserable run of the bug that I've had. Mid day my temp was down to normal, and stayed there all day, but here I am at here at bed time it's back up to 99. I hope it goes down so I can go to work sometime this week. Thie bug is N-A-S-T-Y! I talked with another friend tonight that was down for a full 5 days. I felt better today than I had in the past couple, but you wouldn't know it by talking to me, nor by looking at me. My nose is all red, swollen, and chapped from blowing it all day. My eyes have red circles around them and I've been crying off and on for the past 3 days because when I am sick like this I tend to get a bit weepy and sentimental over everything. I ready for this to be over with already. Especially since I want to be well for this weekend and the events that surround it. Sunday my choir has some special music prepared for our service, and I really want to be there for it, and Saturday we have a special ladies luncheon for Shannon's departure:( (Part of me is still in denial). Anyway, this really needs to end soon!

Sick (Part 2)

Yesterday's temps: Morning 101, afternoon 99, evening 100. And this morning it was at 99 again so I'm hoping that I'm at the tail end of this nasty bug.

Suffice it to say I did not make it out to the Lords supper last night at church. Another update to come later as progress towards healing gets made.

Sick:P (Part 1)

I hate being sick! It's such a waste of time. This morning I woke up at 3AM with a fever of 101. Somewhere around noon I thought I was beating it, because it dropped to 100. However, after my nap it rose again to 103. Right now it's really frustrating because tomorrow night is the Lord's Supper at our church and I want to break my fever so I can go. Well, typing that thoroughly wiped me out!

It's countdown time!

I really menat to put this up 30 days out, but things got busy for me with the start of school. It's my birthday counter, and YUP I'm entering a new decade! The 30's:) I'm happy about it overall. First people never think that I look 30, it's usually about 25, and second the older I've gotten the more secure I get with myself and the decisions that I make and so I'm looking forward to what's to come. Here we go, the countdown has begun!

An epic journey

I was sent this website by a coworker the other day.

These two guys, local to Whidbey Island, are going on a journey of epic proportions. Over the next two years they are are going to ride their bikes around the world in order to raise money, and awareness, for an orphanage in India (the Servi Domini Orphanage). I'll be looking forward to seeing how their journey, and fund raising, progress.

Since this blog post will be good and buried in a short enough time I'm posting their website to my sidebar as well so that people can read it as they want.

I myself have only ridden a bike for recreation, but I definitely give them props for following their passion (the same for anyone else out their who has found their passion and is embracing it).