there's no place like gnome.

Hint #11 : Spinach salads with my new blackberry ginger balsamic vinegar.

Hint #12 : Polka dots.

Hint #13 : College campuses. An overnight ninth grade confirmation retreat to Gustavus last Tuesday night made me remember and miss my years at Luther College. College = awesome.

Hint #14 : A new-to-me book, left in my mailbox at work. I used “choose your own adventure” books as a sermon illustration during Lent; someone was listening and remembered!

Hint #15 : The butter-and-saltine challenge was completed last Tuesday. I made homemade Twix bars which, in theory, look and sound delicious. They are meant to be made with whole crackers, not crushed ones, so my bars … kinda … fell … apart. The staff still seemed to appreciate the taste of them and made a game out of matching the bottom parts to a top part as they fell apart once cut. “It’s like a puzzle!”

Hint #16 : A vase of fresh-cut flowers outside my office door once again.

Hint #17 : Dinner with C and his family for “fishy meatballs;” my first experience with salmon loaf. Verdict: pretty darn good. Dinner followed by a game of tag in the basement.

Hint #18 : I purchased this poster. I love the boldness of the color along with the truth in the statement. I’ll hang it in my apartment next year, knowing my roommate will totally agree. Right, Jeanette?

Hint #19 : My bestest friend, Adam, has decided on and been accepted to Luther Seminary beginning this fall! woot! I am so excited to spend time on campus with him as a fellow student and to take a letterpress class with his new bride!

Hint #20 :

I have literally said three words all day. I said “no thank you” to the woman at the gym who asked if I wanted to use the remote. That’s it. Besides that short sentence, I haven’t spoken at all today. But that’s okay.

It’s been a good Saturday. A productive Saturday. I woke up early to the wind howling and rain pounding – the first real good thunderstorm of the summer. Read a few chapters in my book while drinking coffee. (The Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. It’s a educationally disturbing book about where our food comes from and solidifies my current decision to not buy meat.) Laundry. Cleaned. Organized. A walk to the gym. Blogged. (With a ring pop.)

The day wasn’t without a few sewing projects. I made a coat hanger organizer for my plastic and paper bags that used to simply occupy the floor of my closet. I finished off the bag pictured below; it’s made from clearance pillow cases I scored at Target. I didn’t have any fabric to match for the handles but while cleaning my bedroom, I found this tie from a shirt that I have; I wear the shirt but never the tie along with it. Sure. I think it works. A little strange combo but I like it.

Cloud nine. High as a kite. Right side of the bed. Call it what you will, life is good. Many people and factors play into my overly happy demeanor of late. Here’s a beginning list:

Hint #1 : Sunshine! After nine or so days of constant cloud cover and rain, it’s amazing the difference the sun makes!

Hint #2 : Potted plants in my window. See previous post.

Hint #3 : An Art Scraps visit this past weekend in St.Paul. Scored deals for VBS decorations and craft projects, not to mention a free large sheet of sticky glow-in-the-dark paper.

Hint #4 : I scrubbed my floors. Love that clean lemon smell.

Hint #5 : Strawberries for $1.50 at Target.

Hint #6 : Nearly perfecting my iced coffee technique with my french press.

Hint #7 : A delicious dinner that turned into a late night of socializing with my supervisor and his family.

Hint #8 : Trampolines.

Hint #9 : I wore a cardigan on Sunday to church – really, no surprise there. I walked into the confirmation room and Brandon greets me, “Pullover? Pullover? It’s a cardigan. Thanks for noticing.” (A quote from the movie Dumb and Dumber)

Hint #10 : It’s going to be a girl! Finally, in a family overridden with boys, my cousin, Marissa, is due to have a girl on October 3!

It’s been a pretty slow blog week. Not much to report. But I’ll try.

… I’ve been recovering from a cold for the past week. The lock-in and only two hours of sleep did me in. I’m still sniffling a fair bit but the sore throat has made its leave. Combine the cold with the rainy weather and it’s been a good week to hibernate at night, go to bed early, or cuddle up with a new movie. Which leads me to –

… I’ve been pretty disenfranchised with chick flicks of late and haven’t been a fan of the ones I have recently seen. But I’ve always been attracted to the Irish accent and landscape so I rented Leap Year via itunes on Friday night. I may or may not have watched this one twice in my 24 hour rental period. Friday night I was completely engaged and then again over breakfast on Saturday morning. I love Amy Adams and the man with the Irish accent wasn’t bad on the eyes in the least. If you have seen the movie or do see it, I’m interested to know your opinion of the ending – that was where the movie and I parted ways. Not simply because it was over but because I disagreed. On a related note, renting movies from itunes may become a new weekend habit – so easy and convenient.

… I was led to rent Leap Year because I saw a trailer for the movie during my on-demand viewing of last week’s episode of The Office. (Applause for the show once more – I thought it was a great episode. “Isn’t it too early for ice cream?” “No. It’s never to early for ice cream. And this is mayonnaise and black olives. *takes bite* Ick.”) The trailer for the movie featured a song whose singer sounded so familiar but I couldn’t place it. Googled it. Snow Patrol. A Snow Patrol song I hadn’t yet downloaded. Love Snow Patrol. Yet another thing of beauty to come out of Ireland. (In addition to the accent and the landscape. We’ll throw men on that list too.)

… Before you even begin reading the paragraph that follows this ellipses, I warn you that what I will continue to write is a pointless story. It’s my month to lead the Friday communion services at the care center and assisted living facility in Dawson. The afternoon begins with a service at the care center and I then walk the 100 feet to the assisted living facility and do the same service over again. (It was a rainy and windy day on Friday. I lost quite a few pieces of Jesus, er, wafers in my journey outside.) After the second service, I stick around for lunch (coffee and bars) with the assisted living folks before making communion rounds at the care center. While having lunch, one woman seemed to be having the sniffles too. She pulled a kleenex out of her sleeve to attend to her nose and I thought to myself, “How cute is it that old women keep kleenex in their sleeves?” She’s not the first woman that I have seen do that. I preached this morning and thought I would try my hand, well, forearm, at such a strategy. I stuffed a kleenex up my sleeve and before I began to preach, right as people were singing the gospel alleluia, I tried to find it. Couldn’t find it. I looked all over the floor behind the alter. No kleenex. I grew worried it had fallen out elsewhere and that I looked like a ninny who was losing her marbles. Hmm. I preached. Served communion. Shook hands. No kleenex. I went to teach confirmation. Rolled up my sleeves. Pink kleenex on the floor. I told this same story to the fifteen confirmation students who were present. Yeah. It was a waste of their time too.

… My sister went to prom this past Saturday and was voted as prom queen! Woot!

… I preached this morning (see the post previous) and always consider it a small victory when I can make the congregation laugh. Check. There is a clear difference between our first service and second, the traditional and contemporary split, noted also in the volume of laughter. The first service typically just smiles loudly. My supervisor is usually pretty mum with sermon feedback for me; he finds value in me learning to self-evaluate. I understand this but always wonder what he is thinking. Today he told me – positive feedback brings me warm fuzzies. Check check.

– is who left these outside my office door …

There’s no place like gnome received a blog shout-out on Our Little Slice of Happy, a blog I just discovered tonight. (I’m glad you commented on my post, Sabrina, so as to lead me into your blog world! And I have clothespins for you, as promised!) The blog is the humorous and sweet tale of C.’s family, written by his parents, Aaron and Sabrina. You’ll remember that C. is my good four year-old friend. We shake hands together. Play together. Generally have fun together. The whole family is wonderful! And remember how a few weeks ago I mentioned that I would miss the season of Lent? I loved reading that I wasn’t alone here and being reminded that Grace is a great church family!

I went a bit overboard – the clothespins came in bags of 50 – so why not cover, tape, and modpodge all of them? I’ll find uses for them, probably never all 50 at once but a few at different times. Comment on this post and tell me how you would use colorful clothespins and maybe you’ll find a few in your mailbox! (For serious! What am I going to do with fifty of these?)

My garden is growing … somewhat miraculously.

The flowers are farther along than the herbs but there is finally a bit of green showing through with the chives and oregano.