just in case you haven't heard...

this morning i am watching the news...here are two interesting pieces of info i thought the blogging world might find interesting if you haven't already heard:

1. a couple tied the knot in Michigan in the SHOE AISLE at TJ Maxx. the bride had always imagined getting married there...

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/offbeat/99364869.html

2. Robert Pattinson is making a new movie with Reese, and they are filming in chattanooga/georgia! the movie is called "water for elephants"...interesting.

happy THURSDAY...

the real world

i have no new exciting news for the blogging world- this past wkend i went home and hung out with michael and friends. it was really nice to be home, i always cherish it as long as possible.
this week is going to be a little crazy. i signed a lease for an apartment and i can start moving in on thursday. i am super excited and a little sad too (to be away from home for real). i feel like signing that lease kindof put some order to my life. i felt like a nomad traveling from hotel to hotel- which is where i am right now! i'm also really stressed about moving and packing...i despise packing. it is awful. it is maybe one of very few things in life i despise. when i was younger, i always waited to the very last minute to pack, and usually mom ended up doing it for me because i put it off for so long or just didn't want to deal with it. isn't that terrible? i also despise flying---which goes hand in hand with packing. imagine that. and my dad is a retired pilot! ha!
anyway- that's a quick update....more to come!

Discipline

so i was thinking a few minutes ago what i should blog about. i was thinking i could give an update on this job i've taken, or talk about the lonely hotel room i'm staying in where i'm laying on my bed watching the bachelorette...or i could write something sortof deep! i decided on the latter, only because i feel like all of my conversations and interactions today have been somewhat surface. i also have a reason to write about something "deep" because i was interested in the real definition of the word "discipline".
with that said, the webster definition of the word "discipline" is this: "control gained by enforcing obedience or order; orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior". when i started this blog, my intention was to write alot about running and training for a marathon or half marathon. and how sometimes those trainings can be analogized to life. i feel like you can only write about so much with that topic. but today, i was thinking how this pertains to my whole life (the word discipline).
i've been trying to read the Word almost every day. not only because i know it is the right thing to do...but because i've realized more and more my need for hearing it, gaining direction, encouragement, and for deepening my relationship with the Lord. and He's given us all of those things in Scripture. i guess my point is that i want to be more in tune with being disciplined in spending time with the Lord---not just with reading my Bible, studying it, and hopefully by God's grace and Spirit, applying it, but also with prayer and community with other believers.
last thing- this came from the book Valley of Vision, a book of Puritan prayers. i love it- it seems like every single prayer in this book is so applicable and you can relate so well with what each of them says.
"Teach me that it is wisdom for me to pray for all I have, out of love, willingly, not of necessity; that i may come to thee at any time, to lay open my needs acceptably to thee; that my great sin lies in my not keeping the savour of thy ways; that the remembrance of this truth is one way to the sense of thy presence; that there is no wrath like the wrath of being governed by my own lusts for my own ends."

new beginnings...

my life has changed tremendously since monday...actually last friday. i had a job interview in brentwood, tn last friday and the job was to start monday morning at 715. that meant, i had a couple of days to get my bearings in brentwood, find a hotel to stay in this week, and i felt like i had to figure out life as we know it for this chapter. do i sound dramatic enough yet?

i'm excited and scared at the same time about this phase of life. i almost broke out in a panic attack/tears when i was sitting in the office manager's office...just because i knew my life was changing. and can i just reemphasize that i don't like change. it stinks. to me, it is one of the hardest things. especially when ALOT of different little things change all at once. it's like i realized my "home", friends, environment, everything i knew that was familiar was going to change. and looking back on one of my old posts about looking to the next thing, it's funny to me now. because this new chapter was right around the corner and i didn't know it.

i've learned a few things this week about work and people in general. and i can't think of the actual quote right now, but several things this week "brought me down" and all i could think was how discouraged i felt. but then a quote or song or something came into my head that said you just had to prove yourself and pick yourself up and try harder/work harder at fixing whatever is going wrong. obviously i went through 2 years of school learning things and i know i can do it, but ALL the time we have to look beyond our own skills/strengths and onto trusting the Lord.

i miss alot of things already about home. and tomorrow i'll head back to memphis to seriously think about moving/apartments/this job/etc.
life as i know it is definitely changing...