This Week's Top 10 (6th Edition)

It's that time again! I'm a slacker blogger lately, but at least you get the quick version of what's going on.

Top 10:

10: I got to see Matt this weekend!!!!!!! It had been a month since I last saw him. I flew down on Friday after work. Of course I had adventures in the airport. After running all over creation (the DFW airport) I ordered a "regular" smoothie during my lay over. Everything really is bigger in Texas. A "regular" indicates 32 oz. I suppose a large comes in a bucket.

9: Lisa really liked her birthday present. I got her an OSU wine glass and a package of "wine-a-rita". It's not a Margarita, it's a "Wine-a-Rita"! Hope I am around when she partakes!

8: We went to the OSU vs Texas Tech game in Lubbock. We won! It was the first time that OSU had beat Tech in Lubbock in 66 years. Glad I was there when it happened! They have really nice fans, so that was a good experience. Jones ATT Stadium aint got NOTHIN on T. Boone Pickens Stadium. On a side note- what's with the T. Boone? Would you guys accept it if all the sudden I were just S. Diane? Has his first initial been there his whole life? That's strange. That's like having an apostrophe in the middle of your name. HA HA Just kidding (well sorta). I have friends that have that. It's cute. But so help me the next person that has the name La-a (pronounced Ledasha) is going to get an ear full. Give me a break!

[Matt & I at the game. We sat behind the tubas in the band. Every time the team did well, we couldn't see!]

7: We have made progress on the wedding! We ordered Tuxes, Flowers, and sent out half the save the dates (still working on some addresses).

6. I fired my dietitian. Then I hired a new one. The first one I think was for people who needed to be told that fast food was bad for them. Wellllll I have graduated that stage and she wasn't able to give me much advice. So I hired a new lady. LOVE LOVE LOVE her. She's all about natural ways to be healthy and paying attention to the vitamins that your body needs and being more organic. Love her. Maybe I'll start posting some tips that she gives me. She probably wouldn't appreciate me giving out free services, but oh well.

5. On the flight home from Midland I rode on a plane that had a propeller. That was a little concerning. It was already the size of a cracker jack box. You entered from the back. AND THERE WAS A PROPELLER!!!

4. Matt & I ordered a new bedroom set and I am soooo excited. Obviously I'm not going to get to enjoy it until I move there, but I am excited that it will be waiting on me when I do move! The house is coming along really well. Thanks to Matt the yard looks great. The whole house looks great thanks to Matt, I just help out here and there.

3. We ate at the coolest stir fry place called Genghis Grille. It's like subway for stir fry with TONS more options. You just go through with your bowl and throw in meat and veggies, whatever you want and they grill it up and bring it to your table. I like to think that it was relatively healthy. Probably not true, but I am going to think that anyway. Delish!

2. This was my view taking off from Dallas towards home. I hated to leave Matt, but this was such a confirmation that God is good and the Creator of all things. I have seen so many beautiful things in the past few weeks that have reaffirmed my faith in the Lord Jesus. Amongst all of life's stresses and worries, I feel reassured in my faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

** Sorry my Top 10s aren't chronological. I just put them together as they come to me.

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This weeks Top 10 (5th Edition)

As I write this, I am still soooo sleepy! I am worn out from this week! However, I am staying positive and here to report on this week's Top 10.

10. We picked out the bridesmaid dresses. By we I mean Danielle and I. She tried on lots of dresses and we had a final decision made in an hour. It's beautiful, looks great, and it was coincidentally the cheapest. I really do try to consider the expenses of other people in this wedding, so I was happy to report that I had found a dress for my girls that they could not only look wonderful in, but it shouldn't break the bank.

9. After we picked out the dresses we had enough time left over that Danielle and I got to go to dinner together at Cheddars and just hang out and talk and have girl time for over an hour. I really enjoyed getting to visit with her, just the girls!

8. I went to Denver this past weekend for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference. 2000 sustainably focused people were there. I was in heaven. I could openly talk about sustainability issues and people not only didn't look at me like I was crazy, but they agreed with me! I met some really cool people and heard a lot of innovative ideas. There are so many avenues where "Going Green" could save a lot of people a lot of money, you just have to be interested and pursue those ideas.

(Look at this crazy convention center. It's just a big bear looking inside trying to check things out).

7. I rented my first car ever. It's a Nissan Cube. It was fun to drive! I don't think I want one, but if they were giving them away I would totally take it. It's not that different from the PT so I felt comfortable driving it.

PS- Are you aware of how expensive it is to rent a car? It's ludicrous!!!! I did learn that if you book with Hertz they will give you a coupon for the "age differential" if you're under 25. If not it'll cost ya another $100 for 3 days rental if you're under 25.

6. I got to meet Ed Begely (from Living with Ed on Planet Green) at the conference. He was the Keynote speaker. I made an impulse buy and bought his book. He signed it: To Shanna, my favorite little Environmentalist.

I really enjoyed what he had to say. He's a smart man. He also presents on many topics which are just common sense, but I guess common sense isn't always so common.

5. I gave a presentation over my thesis topic. I had about 60 people show up (there were on-going workshops trough out the entire conference and people could choose which work shops to go to, so I was honored that 60 came to mine!). I went to the conference with the focus to collect 100 surveys for research for my thesis. I came back with 130. I am thrilled. I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but I was able to collect some very valuable data and for that I am extremely thankful. The feedback from my presentation (I felt like I was silly and I didn't even read any of my slides, I just talked and talked) was that I was hilarious and had a very innovative idea for my thesis. What a compliment! Fortunately I was at the end of the day and people were getting worn out on being so serious.

4. I felt an earth quake yesterday!!!!!! Oh my goodness! I was in Stillwater for some training and I thought the lady behind me was kicking my chair and I was about to tell her to stop when the screen started shaking! How incredible!

3. Back to the conference. They had the coolest treadmill that a company was trying to promote on campuses. I wont tell you about it, I'll show you!

The energy produced from this treadmill could basically supply the amount of energy for a computer to run. 50 treadmills for a year= 50 computers for a year. That doesn't sound like that much, but you also have to realize that the treadmills themselves aren't consuming any energy. So there's energy avoidance AND production. They said that they cost basically the same amount as commercial treadmills.

2. I stayed with my good friends Jake and Amanda. Amanda and I are friends from high school and I have been fortunate to see her in Denver 2 times in the last 6 months. They took me to a nice Italian restaurant as an engagement gift. They are too good to me. I really enjoyed getting to visit with them and hold their sweet baby (can't believe she's getting so big!). I even got to visit with Amanda's mom and I hadn't seen her in years. I spent most of my time at the conference, but it was great to have fellowship with friends when I could!

1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

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These week's Top 10 (4th Edition)

It's that time again! Usually I do these things on Wednesdays, but yesterday- oh no was not really part of the top 10. It's been a long time that I have been slammed with bad news after bad news. But alas, after a glass of wine, time with my friend, and a good night's sleep, I have survived and am ready to conquer the world. All in a days work. Or a weeks work. Whichever I get to.

So this week will be a legitimate Top 10 because we have no new followers. Here it goes!

10. Experiencing my first Wine-a-rita at the Tulsa State Fair. DELISH! Getting to go to that fair with a couple of my favorite girls made it all the better.

9. I didn't eat like a crazy person at the fair. 1/2 of a funnel cake and a couple shots of wine-a-rita (and well maybe a few wine tasting pit stops). Oh and I ate a free ice cream cone. Well, it could have been worse!

8. Our save the dates came in! OH HOW PRECIOUS. I love them. I was really nervous when I got the package because it didn't have our company label and they weren't supposed to come in for another week. They were really heavy in a rectangle box. I thought someone sent me a brick. But no brick. Sweet magnets of Save the Date. So yeah, I really like them.

7. I discovered that your clothes fit a lot better if you iron them. I know I'm in the 19th grade and probably should have known that, but it really makes a difference! I don't know how I feel about taking the time to iron out all of my clothes. I might have to discover the beauty of the dry cleaner.

6. I bought some really cool "water beads?" from the fair for my poor dying bamboo plant. It was giving me a lot of trouble and I think these little marble looking things will do the trick. They're supposed to water my plant for a year. We'll see!

5. I got an ammmmmmmmmmmmmmmazing deal on some clothes at Express. First I got a gift card from filling out surveys on erewards.com. Then I went in and found some jeans (a size smaller than I normally wear. Praise the Lord!) and a pair of really cute yoga pants. They were both on sale. My total came to about $30 (for $104 worth of clothes). Then I asked the guy if they had any coupons because Express sends me coupons all the time for $15 off a $30 purchase (although I am fully aware that the coupon is only supposed to be good for full priced items, but sometimes they let me get by). I told him I couldn't find mine at my house. Well he rang me up, AND gave me the discount. I walked out spending $18 for jeans and yoga pants, ON a free gift card. YAY!

4. I reunited with my long lost trainer. Our schedules don't mesh like they used to. Now we're going to work out together on Mondays. I really missed him! He's the nicest trainer in the world (Nothing like Bob & Jillian on The Biggest Loser, but I don't think I would respond well to yelling). He really helps me out AND doesn't cost me a dime. Pretty much the perfect trainer.

3. 1 of 2 tests for the semester is over. I'm not sure that it went well, but it's over. We'll see if my grade makes next week's Top 10.

2. I had an entire conversation about my wedding in Spanish with our custodian. Good to know I still got it.

1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

PS- Hope you're enjoying the new layout! I still don't know what to think about it, but I am glad that I figured out how to change it. Until next week!

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You're in My Personal Space

Oh Americans. We really like our personal space. We're also very careful about who we are personal with. I remember being in Costa Rica thinking "If this man gets any closer to me in the ice cream line, we'll be hugging. Back off dude!" I had to remember is was a cultural thing. So I let him be close even though it made me uncomfortable. And I couldn't get away.
I went to the fair this weekend with some girl friends and there were people every where. Really invading the personal space and WALKING SLOW to make it worse. I thought Meredith was going to take someone out.
The personal space isn't what is peculiar to me, I guess because I get that it's cultural and sometimes you just run out of space in general. What gets me sometimes is the being personal with someone. I have a friend, Lauren, she just loves the hell out of people and she'll tell 'em. Every time we get off the phone she'll say "I love you!" and I'll say "I love you too!". Nothin weird about it. She's one of my closest friends and I love her to pieces. If something ever happened to either of us, I'd be really glad that the last thing she heard me say was I love you. Same with my family- we ALWAYS say I love you. Always. Just how it goes. Matt and I are the same.

Here's the funny part. I have some friends that if I know I'm not going to see them for a while, when I go to leave I'll say "Take care. I'll call ya soon. I love you!". And nothin. Like they didn't hear me at all. I have one friend who I am starting to do it to intentionally because now that I've done it a few times I KNOW SHE HEARD ME! It doesn't make me mad because I know that that stuff just makes some people uncomfortable. Is it a case of selective hearing? I think not. Sometimes I'll even take of the "I" and make it a "Love ya guys!" and they immediately look at the floor and wave. Aren't people silly?

So in conclusion, you don't have to say it back, but just know that I notice! And I love you just the same.

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