A Tale of Two Road Trips

Also known as "Yes, I am Alive: The Blog Post."  Thanks for the blogger-slacker shout-out by my Phines over at 2Phines.  So its been 2 months since my last post.  So sue me.  (actually I am really sorry y'all.....sheepish grin....)  But lets be real here.  I'm not exactly winning any blogging awards with this site (do these even exist??  Probably.).

I haven't had too much going on lately.

Just been planning a wedding that involves people from 13 states and 3 time zones.

And packing up my entire house and moving it across country and dumping half of it in Missouri and half of it in NC.

And training a new person for my job at Cal Poly.

And leaving Cal Poly.

And driving across the country to live in Wake Forest, NC until the wedding.

But other than that, things have been chill.

Honestly, only 2 really neat things have happened in the last 2 months.  Davys came out to visit me (AGAIN!!) and we took a really, really awesome road trip from SLO to Seattle, WA and back.  I really want to fill you in on our crazy adventures and document them for myself, so those will be my next postings.  And then my brother Ryan flew out to SLO to help me pack and we had another super awesome road trip across the country.  Hence the title of this post.  Two road trips.  Clever, no?

Prepare yourselves to be ambushed with road trip photos and antics for the next few days.

Lucky Girl

I'm a lucky girl.  A really lucky girl.  Know why?  Because I have this really great friend who lives in NC.  She's been an amazing influence in my life for the past 15-some odd years and is going to be my matron of honor in November.  I also have this really awesome friend who lives in MI (well...she's in KY now, but that's beyond the point).  She's been my partner in many adventures and even though I've only known her a few years, it feels like a lifetime.  So when you are a really lucky girl, both of your friends come visit you at the same time!

Tamara and Sarah came to see me in May (remember, I'm playing catch up!).  Even though they had never met before, they took a leap of faith that the other one wasn't totally crazy and came to see me at the same time :)  We had such a blast and it was so wonderful to get to spend some time with these ladies.

There were zebra sightings.

There were seal sightings.

 There were beautiful Big Sur CA-1 coast sightings (complete with some crazy fog).

There were vineyard and tasting room sightings (which may have gotten a little blurry after the 4th one or so...).

There were Madonna Inn sightings.  Complete with cake, of course.

There were baby Pacific gray whale sightings.

There were Avila Beach sightings, complete with a naked guy at Pirate's Cove (nudie beach say whaaaaat!)

There were sightings of farmers at markets.

There were sightings from horseback.

And sightings that involved cookies.

There were Triple D sightings (Keri Jewell, eat your heart out!) that involved some home-away-from-home Jamaican memories for Tamara (and the best dang chicken in Santa Monica).

And, of course, there were sightings of SoCal sunsets.

And you know what my favorite site was of all?  Maybe the one where I came home from work for lunch to a fully prepared meal and 2 of my favorite girls.  Or the one where Sarah got lots of kisses from Belle (the mule).  Or maybe where I woke up with Tamara and Sydney in my bed, just like old times.  Or the one of two of my favorite people sitting on my couch with me watching a movie.

I am super blessed to have both of these gals in my life.  I couldn't imagine life without either one.  And I'm super excited that I will get to be closer to both of them (geographically) in just a short while!

Let there be blogging again!

Hi there!  Remember me??  That chick that used to pretend to be witty and write about her life on here?

I'm alive.  I promise.

Remember how I was feeling super overwhelmed and decided to go slow for a while?  Apparently that translated into giving up blogging for 3 months.  Whoopsie.  Sorry faithful blog follower(s??).  

I am now back on track.  I took a much needed self-assessment and a break from all of the extras that I was doing and got back to the roots of what makes me tick.  God has been super faithful about giving me new energy, excitement about the wedding and my job, and blessing me with some great adventures in the meantime.  

So, here's what y'all missed over the past 3 months:

I'M NO LONGER ON CRUTCHES/IN A BOOT!  Yay!!!  I am 4 months post-surgery now and feeling wonderful.  My physical therapist and my surgeon have been fantastic.  I'm riding horses, back in the gym, and am allowed to try surfing (all very carefully and slowly, of course). Words cannot express how great it feels to not be in constant pain whenever I try to do something.

Sarah and Tamara came to visit me!!!  We had so, SO much fun.  I'll do a whole post on how wonderful these ladies are, but here is a teaser pic in the meantime.

Once the ladies left, I jetted out to St. Louis, MO to see Landon.  He moved there at the end of April.  We went to our good friend Tim and Bridgett's wedding and spent a teeeeensy bit of time at our new apartment.

Then I headed off Ruidoso, NM for the bi-annual Equine Science Society meeting.  I absolutely love the desert, and Ruidoso was beautiful and didn't disappoint.  I even accidentally drove through the Indian reservation and saw tons of horses, elk, and cattle allllllll over the road.  And per annual tradition, we had a bangin' costume party (cowboys and aliens this year), complete with a bathtub full of goodies.  Which resulted in us getting kicked out of the casino.  Now that's the sign of a good time!

The school year finished up strong.  Students graduate, we had cookouts for many of our classes, and there was a super fun year end celebration where my fellow faculty members honored me with a beautiful custom belt buckle.  It was really touching and wonderful.

I went home to NC for a super brief stint (more on that later).  And then I came home and two days later Davys arrived for a sweet adventure that consisted of a road trip through the Pacific Northwest (also more on that later).  

So as you can see, I've been busy.  But wonderful.  And I'm excited to be talking to y'all again :)

Go slow.

The past 2 weeks have been very stressful for me.  I have been putting out huge and unexpected fires at work in conjunction with a few very large, planned events.  By putting in 14 hour workdays consistently including the weekends and mares foaling out at 2am, I am literally exhausting all of my mental and physical resources daily (being on crutches at my job is no easy physical task.  I can confidently say that I crutch at least 2 miles every day).  Trying to plan a wedding with people in 3 different states and 2 different time zones, resigning my position at my current job and constantly explaining to students why I am leaving, and trying to help out with other prior commitments hasn't made the situation any less tense.

I am normally a person that people call on when they need extra help on a project, or someone to vent to on the phone, or someone to bring cookies to an event.  I have had to turn down a lot of those requests these past two weeks, and I have gotten some very disappointed and hurt reactions from people whose feelings I hurt by not being there for them when they needed me.

This has caused a lot of self examination over the past week, and I've discovered that I'm not the person I want to be in several areas.  I am serving people out of obligation rather than because I love them and want to bring them some happiness.  I am not honoring the Lord like I should in my work, in my home, or through my exhausted and selfish attitude.  I have a lot of learning and growing to do in my relationships with my students and in preparing myself for the roles that I will serve in my marriage with Landon.

I was very overwhelmed by these feelings and was feeling pretty discouraged the other day.  So I shared some of this with my mom (she's awesome...have you met her? ;) ), and she sent me the "mantra" that she has started trying to live out every day:

Go slow.
Be God struck.
Grant grace.
Live truth.
Give thanks.
Love well.
Become the gift.

Its a shame we can't figure out who came up with this, but they are a genius.

I am determined to GO SLOW.  I can't improve in these areas of my life if I can't focus on them and give them attention.  I'm pretty sure that I've never gone slow a day in my life, but there's a first time for everything, eh?

This week I graduated from a soft cast into a walking boot.  If you read my previous post about how much crutches suck, then you will understand how ecstatic I am to be in a walking boot.  My surgeon sad that I can begin to bear weight on my ankle as long as it is not painful.  The goal is to get me totally off of crutches in about 2 weeks (yipee!).

As excited as I was to get the soft cast off at my appointment, I was very hesitant/scared to put weight onto my leg for the first time in several weeks.  So now I am tentatively crutching around at a snail's pace trying to ease my foot back into activity without stressing it too much.

If I try to go too fast into this process, I will be doing more damage to my ankle and will prevent it from healing properly.  I will continue to struggle with the repair process and I will be in pain.  Can I crutch somewhere faster than I can gimp?  Absolutely.  I'm actually pretty lightning fast on those suckers.  Will it do my ankle any good?  Not a lick.  If I don't ease it back into normal routine, I can't use it.  If I go fast, I'm either going to screw it up or risk never having forward progress because I'm not paying attention.

Anyone see a parallel to life here?  Cheesy?  Yes.  True?  Yes.

I am so determined to get myself back on track with the way that Christ wants me to love other people and honor and glorify him in all that I do.  I am determined to go slow.

You may not be having a 14 hour workday that kicks your butt today, but have you gotten swept up in the world of social media instead of having a conversation with someone you love?  Have you gone through the routine of your day so many times that there is no meaning behind your actions and they are now simply habit?

Go slow and take a closer look around.