Granddaddy and Barbara in Portland

Last night, my granddad and Barbara were in Portland for a quick visit and took me out to dinner. They were on their way back to Texas from a week-long trip in Anchorage, Alaska to enjoy the festival leading up to the Iditarod (add that to my bucket list!). I'm so glad they were able to stop in on their trip back since I only get to see them a few times a year now.

We ate dinner at the Screen Door, one of my favorite spots and a place that is consistently voted one of the best restaurants in Portland. I don't know how, but you can go to any Portland restaurant, any night of any week, and it will always be packed. Portlanders love the local cuisine. Screen Door definitely gave Granddaddy and Barbara a good snapshot of Portland; delicious local organic food, the young city nightlife, waiters with full-sleeve tattoos, all set to the dark backdrop of dreary Portland rain.

Thanks so much for coming to visit, Granddaddy and Barbara! Come back for a longer stay in the summer when it's actually nice out.

this picture was taken after we devoured

the famously delicious fried chicken

Easy Sushi Fix

Speaking of delicious food... when I was shopping at Trader Joe's last week, I came across the best snack/meal idea.  TJs sells packs of Seaweed Snacks (seaweed paper cut unto bite-size squares) which I love even on their own. But at their food demonstration table, they had seaweed squares with a little brown rice wrapped up in them for a yummy little sushi roll.  Brilliant!  So I made these seaweed and brown rice rolls one night this week for dinner when I was having a sushi craving. Add a little avacado, dip in soy sauce, heat up some TJs edamame to go with it and you have an easy sushi-style meal. (I just love Trader Joe's... another great Portland food offering.)

maybe someday I'll be adventurous and even add fish

Pacific City PDW12

Last weekend, a few of us girls headed to Pacific City for the long President's Day Weekend.  We rented a cabin right on the beach in this little ocean town.  It was so nice to get out of the city for a couple of days and just relax. An added bonus was that our phones didn't really have service and we didn't have our computers or internet.  No connection to the outside world... so freeing!

So what did we do all weekend?? We just relaxed - read, napped, walked on the beach, cooked, didn't set alarms, talked, wandered around the camp grounds, and soaked in the hot tub.

the amazing Oregon coast

Kirsten contemplating the oceon

taking it all in after hiking up the sand dunes and rocks

sadly, we found a dead bird on the sand

(and I guess it became our mascot)

the hike from the beach back to our cabin

there's nothing better than sitting in the hot tube on a cold night

me, Erin, Kirsten, and Melissa in front of our cabin

The World As God's Creation

"We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time... He is everywhere, He is in everything, and we cannot be without Him."

- Thomas Merton

"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul."

- Psalm 23:1-3

Mom in Portland

This is long overdue... but a month ago my mom came to visit me in Portland. My parents have both come up several times to visit, but this time my mom came all by herself. In fact, this was her first time to fly by herself and she impressively made it from the Waco airport to the Portland airport without losing her luggage or her mind. Way to go, Mom!

She mainly came to help out with all of my eye surgery appointments and recovery, but I made sure that we simply enjoyed the Portland scene as well. My mom is so laid back and easy going. I loved that she was able to experience my everyday Portland life: teaching the 2-yr-old Sunday school class, going for a walk with me and Amber, volunteering with Megan and I to serve breakfast at the Blanchet house, going to the library, riding bikes, cooking dinner and watching a movie, volunteering at my office, and just hanging out.

I'm so grateful that my mom was able to come stay with me for a whole week. Thanks Mom, especially for being my nurse and chauffeur after my surgery. I seriously don't know what I would have done without you. Come back anytime!

 

I put my mom on a bike in the rain and we biked downtown to the farmer's market.

This experience made her a legit Portlander. Way to go, Mom!

 

the Portland Winter Farmers Market on the Park Blocks

 

We had lunch with the Schoberts and Mom was able to meet Baby Trey

Chiqui invited us over for dinner at her house - she made a delicious Philipino dish,

followed by cakeball lessons with her girls

Mom helped build the pinata for my Portland party,

along with West, Jason and Drew

3 Yr Portland Anniversary

This past Wednesday, February 1st marked my 3 year anniversary of moving to Portland. In these past few years, I have soaked in everything Portland and surely by now I can consider myself a "Portlander". So I decided to throw a party to celebrate this wonderful, wacky, super weird city that my friends and I are so lucky to live in.

So Wednesday night, my house became the heart of Portlandia. People joined in the festivities by wearing their favorite hoodie and skinny jeans, plaid shirt, thick-rimmed glasses or biking attire. We listened to some Modest Mouse and Blind Pilot (both local bands), played lots of ping pong, ate gluten-free/vegetarian/vegan/organic snacks (well, actually we ate Velveeta queso and cakeballs), and everyone brought their favorite local beer to share. The party wouldn't be complete without a homemade pinata of Mount Hood - a project that I put way too much time and evergy into only to see come crashing down with a swing of a stick from Megan Steele.

The party was a blast (I've decided to host more random weeknight parties) and was a great reminder of what amazing friends I have here in this wonderful city. Here's to a great 4th year in Portland!

clearly marked food - in case of any food allergies

everyone made sure to get their daily dose of Vitamin D

in order to avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder

Megan and I with our awesome tats

you can never have too many tats!

Jamie - our personal tattoo artist

Happy Birthday to Drew!

anniversary cakeball

Scott and I dominating in doubles ping pong

Megan busting the Hood pinata

a porch full of bikes... soooo Portland

I Can See!... Kind Of

Ever since 3rd grade, I've been burdened with bad eye sight. But never again will I have to deal with contacts of glasses (well, at least not until I'm old and need bifocals); because last Wednesday I had laser vision correction surgery! I originally thought I would have LASIK like most people, but due to the shape of my eye, my doctor recommended that I have PRK laser correction surgery. I'd never heard of this surgery, but apparently 20% of "LASIK" patients actually get PRK.

The main difference in PRK surgery is a longer healing process. Instead of cutting a flap on the surface of your eye, the surgeon chemically removes the top layer of cells on your cornea and then uses the laser to reshape your eye. So instead of simply replacing the flat over your cornea, your eye has to regrow those cells over several weeks (TMI??) causing blurry, ever-changing vision. The actual surgery took less than 10 mintues and I was awake the whole time. I was given a Valium pill to "help me relax" - which I think only made me crack dumb jokes with the nurse about how it felt like she was waxing my eyebrowns as she taped my eyes open.

You hear stories from lasik patients about how they went under the laser, opened their eyes and could miraculously see perfectly! It was quite disappointing for me to go under the laser, then open my eyes only to see a whole bunch of blur. "Um, excuse me... could you just hand me that laser real quick? I think I just need a few more zaps to clear things up." I knew this was normal and expected, but it was still a bit of a letdown.

They gave me some super cool sunglasses/goggles that strap around my head, a whole bag of eye drops and sent me blindly on my way. My sweet mom, who flew all the way up to Portland to take care of me (more on that later!), drove me home, put me in a dark room with my goggles, and continued to wait on me hand and foot for the next several days. (This may be hard to believe, but manicures and foot massages highly increase the comfort of an eye surgery patient!)

So what do you do when you're practically blind, can't drive yourself anywhere, can't read or watch movies, are sensative to light, and have a mother who won't let you look at a computer? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And for me, that is torture. But I've tried to enjoy some down time and let people take care of me. I can't wait to actually be able to see clearly again and I know that these few days/weeks of blurriness will be worth it in the long run.

So if you see me in the next week of so and I don't wave and say hello, or if I stare directly at you and don't recognize you or realize that I'm making direct eye contact with you, just have a little compassion on the little blind girl... and maybe drop a quarter in my coffee cup.

I was looking through the comic strips in the paper yesterday (with the paper about an inch from my face and my eyes squinted) and this is the first one I read. I laughed out loud, showed it to West and Megan and said, "This is me!!"

Understanding God's Will

What do you do when you think you are aligned with "God's will for your life", but then realize that you might in fact be completely off? Maybe you've determined which path you should take based on your own feelings or what the people and culture around you tell you is the right way. And you just assume that that's the right path because it's the norm. It's the path that most people seem to take. It seems to be a reasonable and safe path. It's simply the path you feel you should take. Yes, it's the path that God is trying to lead you down... right?!

"God's will for my life"... I put that phrase in quotes because it's a phrase that is thrown out nonchalantly in the Christian culture, and I just don't think it's that black and white. I don't think that God has a set "will" or "path" for my life that I am supposed to robotically walk down as if it is the Yellow Brick Road leading to Paradise. But I do know that God loves me and cares about me and wants me to make "good" decisions as to how I live my life and what path I walk down.

Recently as I've been praying, I have started questioning my perspective of "God's will for my life." I talk to him about what I want/don't want, how I should feel/how I don't want to feel, what actions I should take/what I should steer clear of. And I ask for his help; for him to show me the right path. And he doesn't. Things remain unclear. I still don't know what path to take. So I just stand there. And I turn cold and irritated and lazy.

And then I realize that my expectations are way out of whack: I talk to God about my predicaments and he waves a wand to heal them. I don't think this is exactly how the whole "personal relationship" with God works. So I've come up with two different perspectives on taking steps towards the "right" path; two possible answers to my question of "God, why aren't you doing anything?!?"...

1) Help yourself. I don't mean abandon God because he's too busy to help or he simply doesn't care. I mean don't underestimate your role in your current predicament. You play a part in the solution, too. Sometimes you have to take the first steps of changing your attitude, or letting go of your selfish desires or maybe inching your way out on a limb.

2) Maybe you're stuck in your current "predicament" because that's where you're supposed to be right now. I sometimes pray for God to take away certain thoughts or feelings in me. And despite me trying to escape, sometimes they linger. Maybe I just need to have a new perspective - instead of focusing on what I want, maybe I need to be more attuned to what God has in store for me.

So instead of praying with tunnel vision, I will try to pray with a new perspective. And instead of tip-toeing down my own narrow path, I will look for the path that allows me to run with a freedom that I didn't even know existed.

Kyle Lake
These thoughts were prompted by a book I'm currently reading titled Understanding God's Will by Kyle Lake. Kyle was an amazing man who started and pastored University Baptist Church in Waco. He was a friend of my family and an amazing influence on many young people in the Waco community. Kyle passed away at the way-too-young age of 33 years old. Kyle was a deep thinker and took life seriously, yet fully "lived it up" and challenged those around him to do the same. I love the benediction he gave every Sunday and I think of it often: "Love God, embrace beauty, and live life to the fullest."

Come Thou Fount

For some reason, each new year seems to bring with it anxiety. At midnight we throw confetti, blow horns, give kisses/hugs/high fives, and toast champagne. And then the next morning, I roll out of bed feeling pretty drowsy and am slapped in the face with a new year.

For a moment, I feel like I've been punched in the stomach. The wind has been knocked out of me and I need to quickly pull it together. I hyperventilate for a few minutes as I try to figure out a plan for the coming year of my life: my living situation, my career, my priorities, and how to improve in all aspects of my life.

I finally give myself a pinch and realize that although it is a new year, January 1st is just another day. So I push all of the chaotic planning aside and thank God for this one day. I thank him that I'm alive and breathing (even if my breaths are fast and labored), I thank him for my job (even if it is hard starting back to work after vacation), I thank him for amazing family and friends (even if many of them are far away), and I thank him that I don't have to be in complete control (because everything doesn't revolve around me - thank goodness!). And just thinking about all of this last night led me to be extra thankful for a God who is always there as my most trustworthy and dependable friend, and puts up with all of my self-pity and complaining (New Year's Resolution: less self-pity and complaining?).

So this year I resolve to let go of my urge to constantly plan my life and simply give thanks for each day. (See this quote from Cry, The Beloved Country.)

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

This hymn is a favorite of mine that proclaims that God is the giver of all good things and implores us to willfully give our heart to him.

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for they courts above."