Things I love Thursday - Crystal Light to Go

i don't drink enough water. i have a very hard time with this, and one thing i do to help get more liquids in me is add Crystal Light to the water in my water bottle. it makes me MUCH more likely to drink & therefore stay hydrated.

I love Crystal Light On the Go packets as they are just the right amount of Crystal Light to add to a 16- or 20-oz water bottle. my favorite flavor is Natural Raspberry Peach - it's got the best flavor, in my opinion, and it also contains Live Active cultures to aid in digestion. the only problem is that it's tricky to find! only one of my local meijer stores carries it, that i've found... so i try & stock up when it's on sale!!

passing of time

seriously - where does the time go?! people, do you realize it's the 2ND week in AUGUST? I swear i just pulled out my summer clothes. i haven't even washed all my sweaters from last winter yet! i've used my window a/c unit less than a half dozen times. i've been picking ripe tomatoes off the vines for the past 3 weeks, for the love!

i'm not specifically lamenting the quick passing of summer, but time in general. sure, i haven't had my fill of the beach, softball, digging around in the dirt, etc. as much as i enjoy the cold & snow of winter, i'm not ready for it yet!

but more than that, it's a fresh reminder not to play the "i can do this later" game. i'm sorry to break it to you, but "later" actually came & went - twice, i think!!

i've had the blank paperwork for a will, living will, and power of attorney for months... and i had been meaning to get my hands on those documents for about a year previous to that actually happening. i think, "i really need to get back into the scriptures regularly", and make a goal for myself that i'm going to start at the very beginning of next week. or tomorrow. or this evening. and the next thing i know, weeks have gone by and there's a layer of dust on my bible that i guiltily brush off, then lay the bible on my bed to read later. (i drive myself crazy sometimes.. when will i ever learn!)

i often wonder if part of this retrospection is due to being in a place in life that i didn't ever imagine for myself. i didn't picture myself at 29: single, working nights (50-60 hours per week), in a messy house (pesky housework!), lounging around in my pajamas at 11:25am in my pj's on a monday (my day off), living an independent life that comes with occasional disappointments i'd have never thought i'd live. don't get me wrong - i love so many aspects of the place i'm in in my life - and i know with my whole heart that it's not my plans that i'm living, but ultimately God's.

but i do look back and wonder, how did i get here? and how did that happen so quickly?!

life is not all about my problems

i saw this picture today at 22 words and it gave me some serious perspective.
i am so, SO blessed.

thunderous

we had some fantastic thunder & lightning last night! i was working (of course) & was sitting at the "front of the bus", dispatching, which meant i was facing west & had a row of windows in my line of sight past my computer screens. i also zoomed out the traffic camera's & made those "look" so i could see the flashes inside, too, on the monitors. i happened to be glancing up at the perfect moment & saw a thick line of lightning from cloud to earth... it was truly spectacular. it made me long to get out my SLR camera & take some time-lapse photos!

we're probably going to get more storms later on today too... and a small possibility of some severe weather. i hope the storms take the humidity away! (not to mention, make work less busy tonight.. )

Top Ten things I love about my job

(and please note... these are things i love about my job, not the top ten reasons that i love my job... right)

1. job security. there will always be an abundance of stupid people. and criminals. every once in a while, i feel like i actually HELP someone. a true victim... not someone put into their situation as the consequences of their own bad, horrible decisions.

2. making funny comments to my co-workers after hanging up the phone. "guess what this person said they had wrong with them?? A FANNY RASH!" seriously... people want ambulances for the funniest things!

3. great quotes. for example, "the ambulance doesn't treat emotional injuries." or, when searching for the elusive word "anonymous", coming up with "unanimous", or "i want to remain a... a... a mystery!" descriptions of people: "black, skinny, & looks like a troll doll", or "tall, toothless, googly eyes;" "bald on top with long hair on the sides, like Ben Franklin." or even, "no front teeth, just the vampire teeth on the sides." yes, these are actual things that actual people have said. on a recorded line. :)

4. getting the inside scoop. i am nosy!! enough said :)

5. being a go-to person for all my friends' questions. want to register your new handgun? i can tell you where to go. need a CCW permit for that? i'll point you in the right direction. need a PPO? call the courthouse. not sure who handles a certain police/fire jurisdiction? i can tell you, and also rattle off the phone number by memory. want to know if you have a warrant?? ha ha.. i can't tell you that! nice try though! :)

6. telling people the brutal truth, straight out, no hedging. "Just because YOU think the police should come does not make mean that the police will actually come help you. and making threats that 'someone's gonna end up hurt' does not change our minds." "no, i will not give you permission to drive intoxicated just because you called to check the legal limit." no, i do not promise we won't ticket your vehicle if you're just leaving it there for an hour. in fact, now that you told me where a vehicle is illegally parked, i'll send someone out to look for it & ticket you." "no, we will not sit at your house & watch it all night because your drunk neighbor tried to get into the wrong house by accident. HE'S DRUNK!" if you want someone to do surveillance, hire a private investigator. if you need a ride, call a taxi. if you want to know the time, check a clock. if you want to know when you're electricity will be restored, call the ELECTRIC company. thank you.

7. becoming fluent in another language... drunk. i still have some trouble sometimes if the drunk person has a foreign accent... that can get tricky.

8. great explanations. mostly - people trying to make up stories of how there car was "stolen" when in reality they just traded it for crack. again. or how they got "robbed" when the person they gave their money to didn't give them any ______ (insert any/several of the following - weed/sex/guns/crack/purebred pit bull/candy/etc.) in exchange.

9. geography knowledge. if they ever make up a game about grand rapids geography, i will NOT play against most of my co-workers. i will, however, play against you. and likely win. :)

10. realizing that i really have things pretty good. there are lots of people in this very city who are going through terrible things. i may complain about my life from time to time (*ahem*) but i'm doing LOADS better than a lot of other people. amen.

seth turns 3

yesterday, my nephew seth turned 3 years old. he is my sister's oldest child, the first grandchild born to my parents.

at the time he was born, i was playing the piano in the wedding of a close friend of mine. the church happened to be literally right around the corner from the hospital - a useful location as I managed a few extra minutes between the ceremony & reception to go see him.

one of the cutest things he did as an infant was stick his lower lip waaaaaay out just before/as he started crying... and it always managed to quiver a little. it was the cutest thing! one couldn't help but laugh at him.

seth is a great kid. he loves to give & receive hugs & kisses, tell jokes, play with his little sister, run around in circles, watch for the mail/garbage/fire trucks and school buses, read, talk, and sing. he also highly enjoys rides on grandpa-great's "cadillac"!

before he was born, i was talking with a good friend of mine who was a new aunt at the time. she told me that she was amazed to realize how much she could love a child that wasn't actually hers. i was kind of surprised at her sentiment at the time... however i have realized this very truth for myself. i am looking forward to someday having my own children (hopefully), but in the meantime, i will thoroughly love & enjoy both seth & his sister as much as i can!

history

a few years ago, i took a trip with my parents to eastern europe. we visited budapest, hungry; krakow, poland; and prague, czech republic. the last leg of our journey was then spent in munich, germany. we stayed with friends of my dad, volker & su. we were able to spend some time in the village of pipping, which is a little ways outside of munich. through some connections of volker's dad, horst, we got a tour of the church in pipping from a history professor who gave us a lot of background into the town. who knows whether this is where our ancestors are from, but it was still fun! here are the notes i took about it... it's a little long, so feel free to skip to the pictures!

The Village of Pipping was founded in 1325. There was an average of 50 people living there, on the river Wurm. The land was sold to a duke, Sigmund. Sigmund established 3 churches, 1 km apart, in the 1400's. Also established was the village/town of Blutenburg ("like blossoms"). Sigmund had a house built here, just outside the village of Pipping.

This specific church was established for the poor village of Pipping. The purpose of building the church was because the villagers could not afford to go on a pilgrimage to Austria where St. Wolfgang was buried to visit his grave. Once the church was built here, they could worship. The town of Pipping was made up of mostly farmers who were poor. None of them had their own full section of land to farm on, but split a section of land between several families. Fathers would pass down their section of land to their oldest son. Because the portions of land were so small already, they would not be split between all the sons. The younger children would have to move out of Pipping because there was no hope for their future. Thus, the rest of the children in the family would relocate to other parts of Europe or to the States.

The church building is 500 years old. It has the original main structure with a wooden beam ceiling (constructed without using nails). The bell tower burned about 250 years ago, and was reconstructed; however everything else is original. There are frescoes in the alter area that were painted by Jon Polock, who also the guy who painted the frescoes in the Frouenkirk in Munich. Because of the duke's connections, he was able to get a famous Polish painter and also a renound archetect & builder, both of whom went on to build the Frouenkirk. St . Wolfgang's in Pipping was one of Polock's first works, thus his proportions are not always accurate.

To create the frescoes, the stone walls were first painted with a coat of chalk. While the chalk was wet, the frescoes were painted. When the paint and chalk dried, it created very permanent paintings. This method was pivotal in the preservation of the frescoes.

A few hundred years later, the people in the church decided that the "style" changed' and they didn't like the frescoes anymore. They painted over them, and left the walls plain white. About 150 years after that, they removed the paint and found the frescoes in wonderful condition.

The balcony is original, however the organ was put in about 50 or 60 years ago. It had to be made special due to the structure of the church. The original church door remains in place, and they still lock it with the original, very large key. There's no heat in the church as the design did not lend itself well to this modern addition.

The outside of the church is white. The outside is indeed white, however recently the caretakers have discovered that underneath the outside layer of paint are original frescoes that also were painted over. Thus far, only a few test sections have been restored, but the church doesn't have any money to do further restorations.

signs of spring

last monday, on my weekend, i had an opportunity to go visit a very dear friend of mine, becky. she lives about an hour away and i do NOT see her nearly enough! we had a great time chatting the day away about everything in life - family, friends, dreams & hopes, health, worries, shopping, movies, technology... and everything in between, it seemed.

i saw signs of spring all over the place on my mini-trip. sun, coolish-warmish breezes, things starting to turn green, veggie plants starting inside in pots, and...


baby chicks!


becky & her husband paul raise chickens & had just gotten a new batch of about 50 chicks a few days before i was there. they were kinda hard to photograph... the little buggers move quick!


becky's daughter, alia & i got a good close look at them. they'll 'grow up' soon and start laying eggs by the fall. but for now... they're just cute!