Where I am

I realize I have not been on this website in almost 3 years. I am focusing my efforts right now on my new blog www.thingsthatamuseme.com I might return here at some point, but feel free to check it out. Joel

I'm home!

It's Monday morning. I had quite the weekend. I had some great help and was able to fit all my stuff in 6 vehicles in one trip. There's no way I could have got the couches up the stairs without at least 4 people. Unfortunately the fridge would not fit regardless of all the effort. The stairs were too narrow. After many many phone calls and two trips to Renton I finally got a new one, unfortunately it cost me a LOT more money, so now my money is all gone! I knew it would happen sooner or later. :-P

Also they were digging up the sewer line so I can't flush my toilets. I'm sitting here waiting for my new fridge to arrive and i am starting to get really excited. I have had my hopes crushed so many times moving that I have had a hard time realizing that this is actually happening. I have a lot of settling in to do and it's crazy how different it is not having anyone else in the house. Once my fridge is set up and my sewer line is fixed I'll post a craigslist ad for roommates.

Pictures coming soon!

It's Official!

After much waiting and many changes of dates, I finally have a closing date on my house! December 4th. This means I will be moving on the weekend of Dec 5-6th and will be needing some help, so let me know if you're free!

Halloween and such

Last night was Halloween. I ended up saying 'yes' to too many people and ended up going to 4 different Halloween parties. It was fun, but lots of driving around and a bit of chaos. I dressed up as a burgler, but my mask was kinda goofy, so everyone seemed to laugh whenever I'd enter a room. It was a funny experience. I went trick or treating through downtown Ballard and one kid actually pointed and laughed at me. I thought it was funny. I forgot to take pictures, but I'm sure at least one will surface on facebook sometime soon.

The next two weeks at work I anticipate working a lot. This week is our month end and next week is our pre-audit stuff, and the week after that I hope to use my other week of vacation time and pack up and move to my new place. I should be closing "On or before the 24th of November" and I'm REALLY hoping for before because I don't want to have to move over thanksgiving. Since I update my blog so irregularly, if you're one of the few people who read this before I move, you'll likely be one of the people I call to help me move, so beware! :-)

All in all it looks like 2 chaotic weeks at work, then a week of packing and moving, then Thanksgiving so November will be a very busy month where there's not much update so to speak. I'll bust out my camera soon for more pics on my new place.

Vacation

This week I decided to take some vacation time. Not because I have anywhere cool to go, but because our company changed its policy and I have to use my vacation or i'll lose it. So far it's just been low key and I can't believe I haven't been to work for 6 days, it feels like it's just been a long weekend. I hope I'm getting enough rest!

Yesterday I was walking around Fred Meyer looking for things for my new house. It dawned on me how expensive it will be to buy everything. I think I might buy a lotto ticket because that's the only way I can furnish my house. :-)

Waiting

Ever sit in church and feel like the preacher knows exactly what's going on in your life? I had one of those feelings today. His sermon started by saying that God never tells us to wait to live. He tells us to wait on Him sometimes, but we often wait until we graduate college, or get married, or have a house, or have kids, then wait for the kids to leave, then your life is mostly over before you put any thought into living.

Now most of these are a bit beyond me but I have been waiting for my house to close and it is still in limbo. I am behind at work because I have been sick and I have let a lot of things get a bit out of control. Since I'm moving I've been holding off simple things like cleaning my room and the like. Saturday morning as I was reading my bible I felt like God said not to keep waiting and to do something about these things. So I cleaned my room, bathroom and kitchen. It took all day, but it's nice to use a clean bathroom and not need to weave my way to my bed.

Although I am not completely calm about not knowing when my house will close, I'm not going to keep putting off living until it happens. Granted I won't have a lot of free time in the mean time, it's more of an attitude thing. I am trying to make plans and haven't been flexible to God's plan. It'll work out when it needs to. In the mean time, I need to be intentional with my time and not keep putzing around. This being said, it's time for sleep. Goodnight world wide web.

Sick

On the last nice weekend of the year, I got sick. Pretty lame. I am not thinking clearly still due to being sick, so I apologize if this is not coherent.

This week a few things happened. I went to the first small group of the year, watched a few movies, and played quite a few games. I had a great time with my old college roommates at the first(I'm sure of many) baby shower. I also have finally been able to join a worship team at my church, and I will be playing on a rotation.

In news about my house, my move in date is getting pushed but I don't know how long. I'm still looking for roommates. Currently there are only 2 guys who are interested and I'm praying about what to do.

This week is my month end, so I'm hoping to get better quickly so i can work efficiently.

Made me laugh

I decided I'm going to start posting things that I find funny. Hopefully you will find it funny too.

Click to see the clip from the tv show Community

http://www.hulu.com/watch/97892/community-la-biblioteca#s-p1-st-i1

Long Overdue Update

Many of you have been reminding me to update my blog, but I keep forgetting. Sorry! I know it has been months, so I will give a brief run down of the last few months.

Went hiking up Mailbox peak - hardest hike I've ever done.
Became an uncle for the second time.
Introduced my 3 year old niece to sparklers.
Brought my brother and sister in law on their first overnight hiking experience.
Went to Mexico with my family.
Joined a worship team at my church (Bethany in Seattle)
My truck was broken into - they stole my registration to my truck and insurance card
Bought a town house.

Instead of overwhelming everyone with one long blog explaining each thing, I'll say ask me and I'll give details.

As for my house, it's a 3 bedroom townhouse and I went to take a few pictures of it on Saturday. I have posted the pictures here. It should be finished being built mid October and I can move in hopefully the third weekend of October. I'm still in the process of looking for roommates to help out with the house payments. I haven't posted anything on facebook yet, so please leave comments here and not there for the time being. :-)

With all of this going on, I will do better keeping this up to date with things I'm looking for and when I will have the house warming party. I have lots to do!

Washed by the water

I'm not sure if I'm in the eye of the storm or if it is over, but either way, I am washed by the water.

The good the bad and the ugly

THE GOOD
Yesterday the weather was SO amazing i had to go outside and do something. My friend Kathryn is a member of the old wooden boat club (or something like that) on south lake union and a group of us were going to go sailing. The sailboats were all checked out for the entire day very early in the morning so we decided to go rowing on lake union instead. Now for some reason Kathryn decided to jump in her boat and take off, and me and Dave were there kinda scratching our heads. We didn't know if she had checked out one boat or two, and just then a guy who was working on a boat next to where we were standing asked if we were planning on using that one. "Sure" i said. He handed us the oars and without any other questions (or instructions) we left. 2 1/2 hours on the lake in the boat...it was great....besides the whole sorta taking it without checking it out or anything. We returned it in pristine shape, so all was well. That evening i joined half of seattle at Alki to watch the sunset. It was great.

THE BAD
Last week I was really sick and had an awful week. Couldn't concentrate, canceled all my plans besides sleep and work. At the end of the week my boss called me into her office and told me that my work isn't so hard that being sick should slow me down. She proceeded to insinuate that I'm not needed but she will give me a second chance. As a result I canceled my plans saturday and worked 11 hours and 3 hours sunday instead. Somehow i don't think it's going to be enough.

THE UGLY
It doesn't look like work will ever lighten up. I will continue to work to keep my job. However the future looks grim. I had to quit Young Life and I have more food in my cubicle than my cupboards at home. How I find these jobs, I don't know. I'm just happy I'm one of the few that still has a job....but the question lingers...."This is my life.....is this how I want to life it?"

San Juans

This last weekend a group of us went to shaw island as a sort of retreat or getaway. It was exactly what i needed. 2 days away from the computer, 2 days with my phone off, 2 days with some newer friends just chillin. I finally got to make my crepes that I've been wanting for so long and it was so nice just to eat a few meals with people. I really like this new group of people i've been hanging out with and I can't wait to do more trips with them. It was just the perfect balance of being playful and goofy yet having some time to be serious and talk about Jesus. Besides being sick it was basically an ideal weekend.

This week i've been fighting this cold and trying to stay caught up in the process. It's been rough. That's why i've not updated my blog. I'll try to keep up on it more. :-)

Camp

This weekend I went to Miracle Ranch for a 'Fusion' camp where there were (i think) 5 different small groups. Monday of last week my Young Life area director sent me an email asking if i would play guitar. I didn't know exactly what that entailed but i said yes. I have never played so much guitar in my life! My fingers are really sore, but it went well. My Young Life team had 7 kids and 3 other leaders, so I actually didn't have any responsibilities other than music, which was nice, but since they wanted songs 'the kids knew that were on the radio' or somethin, it also meant i had to find songs that were appropriate to sing and learn them. It was pretty crazy and now i'm prety tired. When i woke up this morning we had roughly 3 inches of snow so i was afraid i was going to be snowed in, however by the time we left it was melting, so that was nice.

Sometimes I'm slow

I have been working a lot lately. I definitely can not sustain this amount of work, but currently I am just happy to have a job. I'm being a little more conservative with my spending until i have a good couple months' bills covered before I do anything. I keep hearing more and more people losing their jobs. I think the national average is almost 8% now! So 2 out of every 25 people are jobless! I'm hoping to get everything under control here in the next month or so and cut down below 50 hours a week somehow. :-)

God has been trying to teach me something and I just have been getting frustrated. I feel like I'm trying to fit a square block in a circle hole and it's just not fitting. (thus the picture) I'm realizing that I'm just like the 3 year old who just keeps trying over and over to rediscover that it isn't fitting. Currently I'm giving my square block back to God. Either He needs to reshape the square block or the circle hole, because it doesn't matter how many more times I try, it isn't going to fit unless God reshapes one or the other....or Both.

Rested

I figured I'd counter my previous post. This last week was absolutely exhausting and these next few will not get any easier. Instead of coming up with huge plans this weekend I planned nothing. Friday night there was a worship night at my church which was exactly what i needed. Saturday morning I walked I'm guessing 5 miles or so on the Burke-Gillman trail while reading the book the Alchemist. I managed to finish it on that walk. It was quite an intriguing read. Then a few hours later i met up with some people to play volleyball/bocce ball/toss frisbees and it was just so nice to run around and play. A small group of us hung out for the rest of the day. I met most of them just a few weeks ago, but I had a really fun time just hanging out. Today I went to church and hung out with my friend Jill and got some stuff done. So it was quite a restful/enjoyable weekend.

I was supposed to work this weekend but my boss changed her mind around 7:30 friday night when she sent us home. I'm not sure how she knew how exhausted I was, but I hope that this will be enough rest to get me through all of this week. My 10:00 bedtime during the week has been really helpful thus far...when i've been able to keep it. (this is just a goofy pic from one of the 'parks' in seattle. it was just too cool not to take a picture).

Exhausted

After being in Seattle, I am finally feeling like this is home. Unfortunately I have over committed myself so much that I have had little time to take care of myself. Two weekends ago I went to a cabin in the woods and just hung out. It was really fun to get away. Last weekend I went to a retreat with my church (bethany) and met a lot of people my age and that was really fun also. This last weekend i was supposed to go to Young Life Camp, but there were 7 guy students so all 6 guy leaders didn't need to go. So i stayed home. I worked Saturday so it was good that I stayed home.

Due to all my commitments I haven't made time to spend with friends just hanging out, having fun. I'm working from about 7am-7pm and our company just started layoffs so it's not going to get easier. every weekday night i have something going on except thursdays, but then i book my thursdays out so i don't have any nights free. So soon I will need to cut something out. Unfortunately I know what needs to go, but I don't want to let it go yet.

Today i spent the better part of 10 hours cleaning my room. I got rid of some junk i had in boxes, but didn't get rid of it all. Although it's nice to get rid of a lot of junk, it was not a fun day. :-P I just hope i can keep it clean for a while now that it's clean.

The next few weeks are going to be really busy at work. I have to learn my new responsibilities with the person leaving, we have all our other work that is half a month behind and also we have an audit. So my hours will only increase.

So right now i'm feeling really overwhelmed. Even though i had a day off today...i need a day off! I guess what i really need is a sabbath. This just came to me right now, so i guess i'm going to do that next Saturday or sunday. Cancel my plans and sabbath it up.

25 Random things

A lot of my friends are sending out a message with 25 random things about themselves. I have been compiling my list all week. Here's what I came up with:

1.) Due to watching so many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tv shows, I always wanted to explore the sewers. This desire actually didn't go away until college when I finally realized how gross that would be.

2.) I typically shave at night.

3.) I hate cucumbers more than any other food.

4.) My dream car is a 1952(or 1956) Ford Pickup(the only difference is the grill and the gas tank)

5.) The first mountain I climbed was Mt. Juneau and the whole way up I swore I'd never climb another mountain again. (I changed my mind once we reached the top).

6.) I have shared living quarters/sleeping quarters with 94 different people since I left my parents home for college. (Minimum 28 days each)....(aka I've had 94 roommates that I remember....it could be more)

7.) Growing up I never wanted to leave Puyallup. I turned down a number of opportunities to go on trips to cool places. I don't know why.

8.) I hate wearing dirty socks. Hate it.

9.) If I could live somewhere for a year it would most likely be New Zealand.

10.) I love climbing, but I'm afraid of heights.

11.) I can wiggle one ear at a time.

12.) The thing that makes me feel the most lonely is cooking a whole meal for one.

13.) I have been in an 8.0 earthquake

14.) I have driven I-5 from Skagway, AK to Tijuana, Mexico(2 separate round trips from Bellingham, WA).

15.) I've never seen the movie 'Titanic'.

16.) I think it's funny when people try to figure out my middle name.

17.) I misspell the words congratulations and guarantee almost every time. I tend not to use them in writing for this reason.

18.) I raised ostriches growing up. (Among other animals)

19.) I have an unusual fondness towards benches. I don't know why. I just like benches.

20.) I don't balance my checkbook. (I'm really good at keeping tabs in my head though).

21.) I really like it when people wave.

22.) I feel closest to God when I'm walking down the beach at night.

23.) Gelato Sorbet is my favorite desert.

24.) Every time there's an awkward silence I think about Abraham Lincoln. (Thanks Adam).

25.) I was on the chess team in Jr. High and our team won state.


So how well do you know me? Did anyone know more than 20/25?

9 Days....

So I realized at bible study tonight that I needed to write on my blog, as per the goal...Carlee you are too funny. As far as my goals are going, I have read half of "The Giver"...and so far it's awesome! I'm familiar with the first chapter of Philippians, but not memorized fully yet, and I'm playing my guitar more, but nothing written yet.

In the last 9 days, I have worked a lot...likely too much, I have community Group tuesdays and now I am going to a Men's group Wednesday nights, but it's been nice not to have young life while work is crazy. Saturday was an all day Young Life conference and I had breakfast with Carlee and Timothy up in Everett beforehand, and after I went to Jenn and Carlos' for the birthday party and house warming party and congrats to Amber and Isaac on their pregnancy party. It was fun.

This weekend I might join Matt for a fun little outing to a cabin then superbowl at Timothy and Carlee's. Next weekend is a retreat with the church I go to here. The retreat will be up near Mt. Baker, so that will be really fun. Lots to keep me busy.

Birthday stuff

I've been working a lot lately, and haven't had a lot of free time to just rest. So yesterday I just sat at home and did nothing. I played a little guitar, goofed around on the internet, watched a movie...just vegged and it was nice. This morning when I woke up, I had a random urge to go to my favorite benches in Seattle and play my guitar. There were a ton of people who apparently walk this strip so it took forever to take the pic above, but it was worth it in the end. :-) It was really cold though.

Wednesday I joined a men's group at Bethany(my church) and we're going to read the pastor's book called O2. I'm really excited because I've heard really good things about it, so I'll let you know how it is when i've read it. :-) The other two books I have decided are on my 9 books to read are The giver and the alchemist. Both have come with great recommendations. Let's see how much time i can fit in for reading.

The rest of the day I decided I didn't want to drive anywhere far. So it appears I'll just be hanging out in ballard or go to downtown Seattle and taking more pictures. I'm not sure. I just want to be outdoors and I don't want to have to drive far to get there. We'll see where I end up.

To 'Be' or to 'Do'

So something struck me at church tonight that i think is too profound for an accountant's mind. My pastor was talking about Acts 1:8 where it says "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth". He mentioned how this is what St Francis meant by "Preach the gospel on all occations and only when you have to use words." So BEING a witness and not going out to DO witness as an afternoon project.

This really put a deep impression on my heart in regard to Christianity in general. How some people "do" christianity vs. "BEing" christian. For example, it's easy to 'do' good things, it's altogether different for one to 'be' good. Similarly, it's easy to go to church and do things in the name of Christ, but it is altogether different to 'BE' Christ.

Thoughts?