a happy place

Summer Memories: August 8-11

The excitement began under sapphire blue skies and the brightest sunshine I've ever seen. How does one describe in mere words the magic of "the Happiest Place on Earth"? From the pavement beneath your dancing feet, to the flag topped spires of the castle, with all the music, rides and shows encompassed between, Disneyland embodies the childlike, limitless fascination of imagination. Every detail is perfectly designed to draw you into the world of make-believe; every song tugs at the heartstrings of your memory, stirring up clips from favourite childhood movies; even the smells are cheery: sugary churros, roasting turkey legs, fresh coffee...

I can remember walking in with my family that first day, all of us like giddy little children. We were ready to be amazed, looking for the magic, embracing the colours, the sounds, the laughter and smiles of everyone around us. Every corner led us to something brand new and exciting. Each ride brought a thrill of discovery and exploration. Each beloved character elicited squeals of joyous exclamation. 

Disneyland is oddly...perfect. I mean, until you put all us humans in it. It's so spic and span, seriously you could probably eat off of the ground. You could get lost in that world of imagination, the unrealistic fantasy of storyland...if not for the occasional baby screeching or the overpowering heat or the growing impatience that comes from waiting in too many lines. 

a patriotic place too...

Kind of puts things into perspective don't it? The supposed "Happiest Place on Earth" is a far cry from true happiness and joy. Without a doubt, it IS a happy place but I think it also highlights how inept we really are at creating our own joy. 

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11) 

Truly God blesses us with innumerable moments of joy here on earth. Imagine though, the "fullness of joy"; everlasting joy in His presence. One day we will be there forever, constantly praising and rejoicing in Him.

Disney magic all night long

Basket Case

I have decided that I am an emotional basket case. But aren't we all? Perhaps its just the novel I'm reading.

Emotions are a funny thing. We have so many and yet sometimes only few of them seem to matter. They can make things impenetrably confusing or they can bring your circumstances into sharp focus. I can feel two emotions that should conflict with each other and yet I know the presence of both simultaneously, each as strong as the other. How is this possible? I don't know. I'm a basket case.

Sometimes emotions come as a direct reaction to outward circumstances, sometimes they seem to effect the circumstances themselves. Sometimes feelings are a choice, sometimes they guide our choices.

Sitting in this lonely house, as the halls darken with the setting sun, no sounds but the clicking of my keyboard, the wind through the windows and the growing chorus of frogs, it's easy to sink into the melancholy that has been chasing me the last few days. Yet just hours ago I was laughing hysterically with my coworker as we rushed around closing the coffeeshop, full of glinting sunlight, dishes clinking and music like a static background.

I can look at a picture of my friends and feel a deep penetrating sadness, my heart aching to be with them. I can feel a profound joy at having them in my life, if at a distance. I can cry out of my self pity or I can feel tears well up because I am so touched by their friendships.

What are these wild emotions? Why do we have them?

I'm a reading a book set in a world with only one emotion, fear. A world without ambition, purpose or reason. A world where everything is ruled by logic and order, but as I learn more about this world and see how the characters react to everything, I can see that life without emotion is truly no life at all. And so, though our tumult of conflicting emotions seems chaotic in contrast to the characters in this book, they are truly such a beautiful thing. God gave us these emotions for a purpose. Without emotion, we could not know love, or hope or trust. Of course, there is also the danger of greed and anger and hate. If we could abolish emotion, we could perhaps have true "peace". But we would be incapable of appreciating it. And so we take them all. I suppose we have no choice in this present age and so even suggesting it seems ridiculous but I've just been surmising about these things lately and felt like writing...I trust that God's purpose for emotions will prove itself in the end and I'll take the confusion that can nearly incapacitate me over a world with no purpose.

Anyways, I can't believe it's been over a month since I have last posted. The fact saddens me. It seems I have little ambition for.

Fork, knife or spoon?

Our trip was a one of new experiences for me and the world of food was no exception. As you can probably imagine, we ate out quite a lot being on the road for so long. Incredibly we stopped at only TWO places that I had ever been to before: Starbucks and Subway. The rest of the fast food places or restaurants were new to me, so I got quite a good sampling of American food. :) Those who know me, know that food is rather important to me and I can be quite passionate about it. I like a lot of different foods, LOVE to cook and try new things and just really enjoy eating good food. I'm particularly a fan of intelligence displayed in cooking and always look for creativity in making a dish go beyond your average chicken and potatoes. Of course, I wasn't expecting particularly awesome food on this trip as I knew it would be mostly fast food places, which are generally less than exceptional, but it was fun to try new places.

Early in the trip we went to a Steak and Shake which was pretty cute and quick with satisfactory food. The shake I had was a little disappointing as it was pretty much just ice cream which I had to spoon into my mouth or risk fainting from the exhausting task of sucking the sludge up a straw. (wow that makes it sound REALLY distasteful...it really wasn't that bad.) My favourite part of this place was just the setting. Little 50s diner-ish with happy music and lots of natural light. Arby's was also pretty good. I had a beef sandwich...kind of their big thing...with a beef dip. Nothing really to rant and rave about, oh except I REALLY liked their curly fries. Those were pretty fantastic. Mostly I was impressed that their food wasn't swimming in grease or flattened into a smushy mess. Also, there was quite a stack of sliced meat on the sandwich...which is important :)

I also went to my first Chick-fil-A! I had heard SO much about this restaurant and didn't realize it was only a fast food place. My expectations were pretty high as I walked in and I wasn't disappointed. I mean, not that the chicken sandwiches were anything really all THAT incredible but they were definitely good. They're fries were rather lovely tasting as well. Mostly I just had a lot of fun there with my friends.

doesn't it just look so yum!!

I must say, the giant fresh leaf of lettuce was pretty beautiful and the spicy cheese was delish. Oh and I must give them some points for having real LIVE flowers in those vases. That was nice to see in a fast food place.

bawk bawk bawk

ketchup, a must-have

cracking up because Cort was taking a million pictures

Our trip to Cincinnati for the express purpose of a meal at the Cheesecake Factory was pretty fun. Now THAT was a great restaurant. Jess and I shared a teriyaki chicken meal which was rather wonderful. The white chocolate raspberry cheesecake we shared was AMAZING. One bite and I pretty much melted. So creamy and silky and AWESOME. It was just a beautiful taste, exquisite...if that makes any sense. Suffice to say, I'm a fan.

Cincinnati as we were leaving. For some reason I like this shot even though it was taken rather spazztically out the window as we were flying over the bridge and is therefore just awesomely blurry. Just a happy memory I guess.

Drove the half hour back to the museum with Cort, Caela and I in the backseat. Pretty much my favourite part of the night as Caela and I spent the whole time giggling, while everyone took turns teasing, making ridiculous jokes and just having a blast.

The last place worth mentioning was actually at Silver Dollar City in Missouri. There were various little food places throughout the park that cooked their dishes in these HUGE skillets. Lots of great spices, flavourful meats and perfectly fried vegetables made this meal one of my very favourites on the whole trip! Simple yet impressively well put together and basically a party in your mouth. Loved seeing the chefs at work, hearing the sizzle of flaming hot skillets and the parade of happy smells delighting my nose. Eating under the shade of a million rainbow-coloured leaves added to the atmosphere making the experience sublime.

impressive right????

oh wow, I'm hungry just looking at this!

Oh and I have to mention Andy's, the fabulous ice cream place we ate at 3 nights in a row while we were in Branson. Pretty incredible soft serve there! Open late, made fresh every hour, tons of options, just basically a lot of fun to stop at. 

And so that concludes the food part of my journey. I encourage you all to head out to a new restaurant some time soon and try something out of your ordinary. Who knows, maybe you'll find a new favourite!

The sweet little things

I've been blessed again with another visit from family! My mom and her parents were able to visit for almost a week and what a week it was! I don't even know how to express how thankful I was to have them out here. We packed our days with fun things to do including a trip to Yellowstone, shopping around Jackson, and a trip to Idaho Falls. I have to say though, my favourite parts were just the simple things, the quiet moments that brought me back home:

coffee time in the morning, long and drawn out, chatting about anything and everything

laughing and teasing each other in the long car rides

walking in the sunshine by the river

snuggling with Mom while watching a movie

hanging at Elevated Grounds for hours, learning how to knit and purl

Mom finally seeing a moose, enjoying a few minutes just watching him

It's those little things that I really appreciated. The hours of just talking, as those who know me, is pretty much my favourite thing to do! This little taste of home was so fantastic, but also has me aching for the rest of my family and home life. Yet at the same time, I am so content to finish up my work here, still praising God for the opportunities I have here. Now, with only a little over 2 months left down here, I don't want to spend my time just waiting to go home. I want to enjoy each day, value each friendship, invest in my JHBC people and embrace the time I have in Wyoming.

I was thinking lately on how God is so sovereign and truly His plans are beyond me. You know, of all my siblings, I was always the "homebody". I was always the one who just loved chillin' at home, planning family outings, morning "talk time"; I was never planning on leaving for long and wanted to live the rest of my life in Abbotsford. Yet out of all of them, I'm the one God sent away for a year and a half! (Granted my younger sis has yet to graduate and may be off to Africa for all I know!) It astounds me again and again how much He has taught me and how I have grown in Him. Where before, I was all but terrified to leave home, my family and my comfort zone, now I have learned that my security is in Him, the one person that will NEVER leave me. So many things have changed in my life, so many more things will change in the coming months. Yet I know that wherever He sends me, I will always have Him and truly, He is enough - more than enough.

Slaphappy

As I drag my sleepy self around this morning I can't help but think back in appreciation for the reason for my drowsy-ness. After a long exhausting day of working on the AM book, I had an amazing fun-filled evening that has me still smiling this morning.

After dinner a bunch of us went out to the volleyball court and played several exciting games. I love how volleyball out here can be both competitive and hilariously ridiculous...at the same time! What with the pickles (yes pickles, this isn't a typo) in the grass, the ball getting stuck in the tree, the collection of unique sounds each person makes (okay not everyone makes unique sounds but I make up for those who don't), the nicknames that spring up, and the matrix-like acrobatics that have us landing on our faces, the game never gets old! So after playing until it was too dark to see the ball and hit it effectively, we headed in for a game of Fish Bowl (a lively combination of catch phrase and gestures). Shortly after that ended, Caela and I had a little laughter fit in which we lay on our backs and laughed for like 5 minutes straight, I'm not even kidding. my abbs were SO sore, I could barely breathe!

But the night doesn't end there! The whole group wasn't interested in playing another round of Fish Bowl so most of them left and headed to bed. But seriously, it was only 11! the night was still young! So the Rohrers and I headed to the lodge and after snagging the usual from the bread walk-in (chocolate-chip M&M cookies...and Tim grabbed some brownie cookies too...which we decided tasted an awfully lot like...squished, round brownies...surprise surprise), we sat down to play a game of Rage. Just one game mind you because SOME people wanted to sleep...cough cough...Missy and Micaela...

Well, what started with one quick game turned into two, plus a couple bind rage rounds. Not only that but the games stretched on and on as we constantly collapsed with laughter, unable to breathe or concentrate. It got the point where everything was hilarious. I mean, I was already at the point earlier as I lay gasping on the floor with Caela but now all four of us were barely able to sit straight. And so everything elicited uproarious laughter from "is there people in there?" (which scared Missy half to death) which turned into a ridiculous horror story about a lactose intolerant man wearing a day pack and talking on the phone (which scared Missy even more) to "why is there so many comfy chairs at this table" to "why is the coffee still on, we're gonna burn the place down". The climax was our two rounds of blind rage in which everything was just plain ridiculous and we ended the night with an amusing search for light switches (as they are NEVER where you expect in this place!). I don't know that I have EVER laughed so much, for so long in my life.

As I climbed into bed at 1am, I was still smiling. Oh the joys of slaphappyness!