He thinks He's funny

I'm convinced that God thinks He's funny.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's entirely possible that He chuckles up there when some of the things that He orchestrates in my life occur.
Especially the events that I am completely not expecting.
And when things align and fall into place and I realize "ohhh so THAT'S why that happened..."

This is all very vague, as it should be because this happens all.the.time.

Take my life at the moment for example.
Had you asked me 4 years ago where I thought I'd be in August 2012 I would have told you searching (and hopefully landing) a position as a high school biology teacher with plans to go on for my masters and become a guidance counselor.
I would have said that I would likely be either in a serious relationship leading to marriage or even perhaps engaged.
Had you asked me if I thought I would ever move to Champaign, IL, I would have laughed.
Had you asked me if I thought I would ever change my major one semester in to Psychology, I would have thought you were crazy.
Had you asked me if I thought I would ever work full-time in Pro-Life ministry, you probably would have gotten a blank stare.

But God has funny, tricky ways.

"You sneaky Mom!"

And what's even more flabbergasting to me is that He's had this plan all along, but He would never force it upon me. Sure, He definitely intervened at times by placing people in my life to influence me in one way or another or even making it so that certain plans I had just didn't work out, but at the end of the day, my fate is up to me.

I get to choose whether or not I want to follow the plan He has laid out for me.

I get to choose if I listen to His call or not.

I get to choose His will over my own.

And so when I'm finally able to look back and laugh because it all makes sense now, I have to think that He also must be laughing. 

Just the fact that I can already see the puzzle pieces beginning to come together makes me hopeful for the future, that perhaps someday I'll understand where He's taking me and why.

just call me "grandma"

...actually, call me something older than "grandma" because even my own grandmother goes to bed later than me....

it's 9:30pm and I'm ready for bed.
aka I'm in my PJs, my face is washed, teeth are brushed and I'm about to snuggle in for a couple chapters of my book (Pierced by a Sword...highly recommend it)

Why you ask? Am I not a 20something who should be out with friends and living it up every night of the week?
Why yes, yes I am. And that's the problem.

This weekend was a ball of insanity.
Fun insanity, but insanity nonetheless.

Friday was nothing but an ordinary workday, and I went to a local brewery with my roommate KJ. It was really nice to spend some time just the two of us out of the house.

Saturday was the beginning of the insanity.
Let me walk you through it.
There was a Salesian workshop for student leaders at Newman that all of the staff was invited to attend and it was actually really great. We left the house for that at 9:45am. It began at 10am.
The workshop went until 4pm at which time I spent an hour before 5pm mass in the chapel. Very nice.
Mass finished at 6:15pm and my roommates and I (along with one of the FOCUS men) headed to the Urbana Sweet Corn  Festival. Delicious.
I left the festival at about 7:50 to go to Newman for an Illini Collegians for Life meeting.
The ICFL meeting ended at 9pm and I left Newman to go to the "Fever" house (an all male Catholic men's house) for a beginning-of-the-new-school-year party.
We left Fever around 10:30 and went home.

Today was another day of insanity for it was the epic Quad Day.
Long story short, was at Newman by 9am, Quad Day began at noon, ended at 4pm.
BBQ at 5pm. Was there until 7:45pm.
Came home.
Here I am.

So I'm going to bed.
Judge all you like.
Call me an old woman.
I don't care.

My book and my bed are calling to me.
I must go.

Buenos noches

AMDG

I (and many other family members) received this email from my Grandma on Tuesday:

Dear Family & Friends,

I visited my oncologist yesterday and got a clean bill of health.  That makes 11 years of being cancer free--PRAISE THE LORD!!  Thank you for caring.  It is the love, prayers and concern from all of you that has helped make this sometime scary journey an easier road to travel.  I am going to offer a special mass of thanksgiving for all of you.

Love & hugs,   Kay

#happiness

life is pretty good.

so after the dilemma that was my bike, it feels so great to have a mode of transportation once again!

for those of you who aren't in the loop with what's been going on with my bike, here's the low-down:

I bought the bike online.

wait...Best Buy sells bikes...?

They delivered the bike.

hey UPS, thanks for being morons. seriously?!

I assembled the bike.

"hope that's a fully assembled bicycle..."
it wasn't.

One week later I finished assembling and filling the tires so I could ride it to work. (this was a Tuesday)

A couple days later, the left pedal was loose. 

I tightened it.

The next day, the left pedal was loose again.

I tightened it.

I rode it all weekend and continuously had to keep tightening my loose pedal.

On Tuesday, I left after work and after riding 5 blocks, my pedal fell off.

Fell off.

All of the threads on the pedal and inside the crank were stripped.

Oiy vey.

Clearly, something went wrong.

Either I put it together incorrectly or I received defective parts.

Regardless, I have a warranty and dang it, I need new parts!

So, I called Customer Service, the lady I spoke to was super nice and one week later I got the parts in the mail. Well, let's just say that replacing the crank on a bike is a lot more difficult than one might think. I tried to do it on my own...ok, so I only tried for like 3 minutes...and realized that there was no way that I would be able to do it on my own.

Good thing one of my very dear friends and self-proclaimed big brother, Patrick, lives literally a couple blocks from me. (which is very exciting since he is marrying one of my other dear friends, Lori, next weekend!)

I texted him asking if he might have the tools to repair said bicycle and of course, he did.

I then may or may not have asked if he would fix it for me...and he obliged.

Though, I don't think he knew what he was getting into because he fixed it dressed in what looked like work-type clothes :)

BUT IT'S FIXED!

All thanks to nice customer service people and Pwood.

thanks big bro!

Until next time....

Quick takes - supa late vers.

[1/7]

PEACHES!!!! The peach tree in our backyard has been harvested and they are delicious!

[2/7]

One of my favorite things to do when I'm home is try out all of the hairstyles on my sister that won't work with my too-short-newly-trimmed hair. Unfortunately, with her kinky locks, some hairstyles...such as this one...just end up looking like a bad 80s attempt.

[3/7]

This is America.

I love the country.

[4/5]

No pic...but I am going back the CU on Sunday. Boo.

[5/7]

Apparently I can't count...see #4.

[6/7]

A few of these flew over my house last night!!! I stopped eating my dinner to go look at them. And ran through the streets like a child. It was magical.

[7/7]

Sour cream rhubarb pie with meringue :) love love loooooove

I'm getting way too cool

I'm seriously way too cool. Face backspace no I want to erase that that's not right I think morgan is a fart head and she's cute and she know a race that

all of this technology has gotten a little crazy. I can now write an entire blog post by simply talking into a computer. Ridiculous.

-----

Too much for me. Seriously. Maybe someday when I'm feeling uber lazy, I'll allow my tablet butler compose my blog posts. We'll see. 

Anyway, my week fundraising at home is almost over, but I think its definitely been successful....lots of interest and support from everyone I've spoken with as well as from my home parish which was a pleasant surprise. And most exciting is that I'll be making my way to Warren, IL tomorrow morning to meet with one of our former pastors who was extremely influential in my pro-life involvement. All exciting stuff :)

That's all for now, I best be off to bed but for your viewing pleasure, my very first instagram photo...enjoy :)

http://web.stagram.com/p/259676252599529786_209134907