Early Christmas....

My parents came for an early Christmas celebration the first week of December. I had a concert with the OCMCO that they planned their trip around. We also did some Christmas shopping and went to Disneyland, which is the only place we took pictures!

Christmas 2009

This Christmas has been pretty exhausting for me, I've had a hard time getting into the season. To be completely honest, it's because I really thought I would be pregnant this Christmas and I'm not, which kind of dampered the joy of the holiday.

But, I got to see my parents this month and now I get to hang out with Ryan's family all week, which is fun. So I shouldn't complain too much.

And I am really, really excited about the gift I got Ryan.

Merry Christmas from Dwight

For all of us Office lovers....this is fantastaic



Thanks XJane :-)

Four Years....

To start out our anniversary celebration I made Ryan a really fantastic dinner tonight....now he just needs to come home and enjoy it (he said he'd be home at 6 and it's 30 minutes after, but in all fairness I didn't tell him I was making dinner).

Cornish hens & veges, rye/wheat/sunflower seed bread & butter, and a bottle of nice Malvasia Bianca we've been saving for something special (the hens have a little of this in their marinade as well).

I'm getting really hungry....

Thanksgiving

I don't know where to begin on catching up on my blogging....so for now, here is how we spent Thanksgiving!

Pike's Place Market

The Space Needle (thanks for the photoshopping Mark! - it's actually not possible to get two people and the entire Space Needle in one picture without a little help from technology...)

Half-caff americano with SF Vanilla and 2 inches of soy please.....at the original Starbucks :-) It was BUSY! I also got a mug with the un-censored original Starbucks logo on it

Hanging out with good friends! this is dinner at Ivars. We had a great time seeing everyone! The little guy is getting so big...

Seattle nightline....the majority of these great pictures are courtesy of Mark -thanks!!!

View from the Space Needle

The last thing we did before heading to the airport was have lunch on the top of the Space Needle. The restaurant rotates 360 degrees so while you are eating, you get to see the entire city. It's beautiful!

Thanksgiving dinner - homemade chicken vege soup and bread. Thanksgiving day was really the only day out of our 5 day trip where it truly rained all day. We also saw The Blind Side and I loved it!

Blogging

My life has been too busy, exhausting, complicated and fun to blog much lately. But I've been itching to get back so maybe I'll post some Seattle Thanksgiving pics soon.

life-changing

The death of these two men and this man changed me. Or perhaps I should say the lives of these men, before they died, changed me. The realization that life is short, and the many things they did with theirs', is difficult to deal with.

We're thinking about Josh a lot tonight, but whenever I can't think of him, I can't help but remember the other two as well. I'm sad and happy at the same time.

Freedom

I'm reading this fantastic book called "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller and have about 100 quotes I want to share...

My favorite section so far is on freedom, and is essentially an apologetic defense against the idea that Christianity limits personal growth, potential, and freedom to choose because of its constraints on a person's beliefs and daily practices. I like the section for its relevance independent of the apologetic argument though - the ideas he expresses are generally applicable without any type of religious attachment.

Essentially, we usually think of freedom as the absence of any type of confinement or constraint. He goes on to argue that confinement and constraint are actually what leads us to liberation - i.e. freedom. He gives an example of a person practicing piano for years and years, which places limitations (since the person gives up the freedom to do other things with the time spent practicing), but in doing so, unleashes an ability to be musically creative and accomplished - a freedom that very few can achieve without first placing on themselves the confinement of practicing. "You've deliberately lost your freedom to engage in some things in order to release yourself to a richer kind of freedom to accomplish other things."

He then gives discusses the way many people in our society give up their time and energy for things that don't bring freedom - in this case, still placing constraints on themselves, but not for the purposes of achieving a greater freedom. "In our society, many people have worked extremely hard to pursue careers that pay well rather than fit their talents and interests. Such careers are straitjackets that in the long run stifle and dehumanize us."

"Disciplines and constraints, then, liberate us only when they fit with the reality of our nature and capacities. A fish, because it absorbs oxygen from water rather than air, is only free if it is restricted and limited to water. If we put it out on the grass, its freedom to move and even live is not enhanced, but destroyed. The fish dies if we do not honor the reality of its nature."

"In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions."

He then goes on to discuss the way relationships with others restrict us in a way that is actually freeing, just like the piano practicing...

Anyhow, really good book. I don't have the mental energy right now to do more than publish massive quotes like those above, but hopefully someone else finds it interesting too. :-)