trash, Jesus & life.

So I'm sitting here in my loft...
There is happy, snoozing, dirty, shedding dog to my right.  a nasty rawhide bone to my left.
and surrounding me is the most putrid odor I have smelled in a long time.  Turns out, one should not neglect to take out his or her trash even if it isn't full.  oh, and maybe running the garbage disposal instead of forgetting and allowing nastiness to rot.  UGH.  SO GROSS.  I have my windows open, I've Febreezed the heck out of the place, and even lit a few yummy candles in hopes that it will change.

now all I have is a nice, glowing, stinky (trash+New Zealand Spring Showers=really nasty combo), drafty loft. 

*sigh*  i'd rather change baby diapers than deal with disgusting trash.  turns out, today I got to do both.

On to the topic at hand here...

Jesus.

I am reading (for the second time) a book that a friend gave me before I moved here.  It is about the person(ality) of Jesus.  The author takes stories from the gospels involving Jesus and then sheds some light on his personality.  I must confess that after years of reading/hearing the same stories over and over again, I have become a bit desensitized to the power of their message as well as the awesome person of Jesus.  And when I say awesome, I don't mean "totally cool, dude"-- No.  Not at all.  I mean something I hold in awe.

One thing the book talks about is Jesus' scandalous freedom.  How incredibly respectful, loving, thoughtful and intentional he is...all the while doing what he does, with no regard for what other men/women may think of him...only who he is before God (well, he IS God...but he was "doing the will of my Father who sent me."

I have never thought that being offensive was okay.  But I think that Jesus' kind of offensiveness is.  People didn't know how to handle him living freely before God.  They were threatened by his authority and power.  They couldn't understand how love and compassion could be possessed by the same person who was just and was brutally honest.

I like that.  I want to live in freedom to the point where I'm offensive for the right reasons.  Fear of people doesn't over power and dictate how I live my life.  I want God and I to be so close that everything I do comes from a heart that is following hard after Him.  I don't want to be worrying about being politically correct, or socially acceptable.  Loving God is neither of those, these days.

PICTURESSSSSS!!!!!   (not too many of kidlets...whoops)

 This picture is an indication of what great senses of humor the line-cooks have at work. 

I ordered a half wedge salad, chopped up.  (the chopped up is a special request that most of the pantry cooks do for me with no complaint...except one, it seems)

I am generally too short to see the entire plate of food in the window, unless I stand on my tippy-toes.  So i came up, and grabbed the plate without looking, saw the cook snickering and then saw what I had grabbed. 

he chopped up a tiny bit of iceberg lettuce, chopped up the cherry tomatoes, chopped up half a hardboiled egg, put it on a saucer and served it with an oyster fork.  (the two dressings were them making fun of how much dressing i normally ask for).  

the cook who made it, Blake, thought it was hilarious.  He literally couldn't stop laughing at how clever he was.  It was clever.  

after encounters like these, I just walk away smiling.  Work isn't supposed to be this much fun.

This is me and Katie.  She lived here during the summer, but recently moved back to Morris, where she's originally from.  At first we weren't sure about each other...but we soon became friends.  We both can be sarcastic, and we can both cook a mean Mac n' Cheese.  (obviously the only two things you need to build a friendship, right?)  Anyway, we had a celebration because Katie finished her Calc class (why she was here for the summer)...and only McDonald's could do it up right.  We had lots of fun.  I already miss Katie..and I hope that the few hours that separate us will not keep us from seeing each other.  She's a good egg.  =)  

[katie, I know you will probably not like that i put up these pics of us.  But they're so fun!  and since when do we care what people think of us, right!? =)]

 The other night, some friends and I hung out...pretty late. (we'll leave the specifics out of it).  During that time, we played banana grams.  Then one of the guys decided to use all of the letters and make connecting words.  It started out with "Uninquisitively" and he tried to keep up the big words as long as possible.  It was quite impressive. 

 Karlina came up to Ender while he was on my lap and put her play cell phone up to his ear.  She said, "Hiii" and proceeded to have an entire conversation between her and Ender "on the phone".  Most of it was gibberish, but it was SO cute! 

Last but not least...one of my absolute favorite snacks.  You might be thinking, "But Suzy, you don't like chocolate!?"  I don't.  But I'm not sure you can constitute nutella as chocolate.  And honestly, there are very few ways I like to eat it...except this one.  Mmm the contrast of salty sourdough pretzel nibblers and the smooth, hazelnutty deliciousness of nutella.  SO. GOOD.

Mmmmmm

Ok now I'm hungry!  

au revoir!