Would You Like Some Socks With That?

I am now an official employee of Dick's Sporting Goods! Doesn't that sound glamorous? :) I'll be selling/picking up/stocking/folding and what-have-you in the apparel department. I must say I was beginning to get pretty frustrated and sad by the fact that not one company/person had called to follow up with any of the 20+ applications I had distributed between three cities. Y'all, that's bad. So, last Thursday I received a random phone call from a local number and was tickled to death to find out she wanted to interview me that day and at the end of the interview I was told to come in at 10 a.m. Monday morning (today).

Since the required dress of Dick's is a hunter green polo that they provide and some khakis (that I must provide), I decided that my current single pair of "dress khakis" are a little snug for all day wear. I proceeded to go find some on the clearance rack at American Eagle... $10!! $10!! It was a good day :) Anyway, figuring I might actually get to do some work today, I washed and dried them so that they would shrink enough in length to fit properly and proudly put them on this morning.

I was subjected to "computer training" for around two hours. Simulation upon questionnaire upon audio-less video was projected at me while managers and various other people came and went and did things that managers and various other people do. I sat. I clicked. I typed. I can't say that I will remember everything that I was "trained" to do, but goodness, there is A LOT to know. A LOT I tell you. I was also told to come in from 4 p.m. to close tomorrow night and I would get some "floor training." Sounds good to me. Here's to hoping I don't confuse the 1 year replacement plan with the 4 year service plan and definitely not the ScoreCard Rewards card. That would be a travesty :)

But... I'm excited! I have something to do, means of income, and maybe I'll meet some nice folks. So, if you're needing any Nike dri-fit, some Under Armour, or maybe a new kayak... come see me. I'll even sell you some socks.

Socks? Yes. There's apparently a program/incentive thing known as SWEET. Socks With Each and Every Transaction. I MUST sell socks. I MUST. Just so you know. I mean, who doesn't need socks?

Happy Monday!

"Winter Storm" 2010

Living in the Southeast, that curious crystallized white stuff that falls from the clouds is very scarce. While most people run each other over in Wal-Mart to rip every bag of bread and carton of milk off the shelves, there are also those of us who laugh and wait for the "winter storm advisory" to be lifted and the weather men/women to hang their heads in shame.

As a side note... what are people doing with all of this bread and milk anyway? I mean, two things that will go bad if you don't consume them quickly. What if it doesn't snow? You're left with moldy bread and sour milk. Get some beanie weenies or some pork and beans, maybe a two liter beverage that doesn't require refrigeration to "be good." Anyway... just something I've always thought was odd.

With that being said, we had 4ish inches of snow on Friday. No joke. It started around 10:40 a.m. and snowed non-stop until about 4 p.m. This may have been the first time since the blizzard of 1993 (when I was a few months past 4 yrs old) that there was actually enough snow to play in... and I'm not gonna lie... we played in it :) I got Emily outside and we threw around some snowballs and took a bunch of pictures and eventually made a pretty awesome snowman (who had a face made from various sized baby carrots).

Emily applying his face

Me with Mr. Snowman (he's very stylish) :)

Some scenery

Of course, every bit of that was melted by yesterday afternoon and now there's sunshine a'plenty (but it's still terribly cold). Oh well, at least the Winter Olympics are on and goodness knows there's enough snow in Vancouver for all of us :)

Hope y'all have a blessed week!

There's Moore Where That Came From

Just a little recap of last night (because I envision you wide-eyed in suspense)...

Emily and I did indeed travel an hour and a half to arrive 2 and a half hours early to the book signing event :) When I parked the car and we decided it was too early to go in and stand around, we set out again for the Chick-fil-a nearby to get some beverages. [Note: this is the extended recap, as you can see. I'm in a mood] I immediately drove back to the Family Christian for fear that every empty parking space was now taken... only to see that I only had to park one space away from where we were when we first arrived. It was early. So, we went in and browsed some CDs and books and various pieces of art and eventually we got a "letter" so that we would know when we could get in line. We were letter H and our "projected line time" was 6:30 p.m. It was approximately 3:50ish. Soooo... we walked, we stood, we read 3 children's books, and stood some more. All the while it was getting very crowded and quite warm.

Fast-forward a few hours and all of a sudden there is a great shrieking and clapping coming from "the table" in the back corner. Mrs. Moore had arrived!! Everyone is now beyond excited and moving closer and closer to "the table" while the As make their way through the line.

Let's fast-forward again another hour or so and we made it! Now, after waiting all of that time, I can't explain to you how quickly it was over... but it was great fun :) Mrs. Moore was super nice and very open for pictures and chatting if you had a quick story to tell her. The woman didn't even have a chair! She stood the entire time signing away and smiling for every picture. So sweet. She seriously just oozes personality and genuinely seems to care about each person she comes in contact with.

Wait, did I say pictures?

Beth, Emily, and myself

The Signature [To Raeann - Jesus is life! Beth]

Guess who else we saw?

All-in-all we had a great time. We even got some Chick-fil-a coupons! How random.

I'm all out of news. Nothing of interest took place today. A lot of sitting and staring at this machine and occasionally getting up to go and grab another 7-UP... but other than that, nothing you'd be interested in knowing. So, I'll leave it at that. I hope you all are having a great week, and if you're in the South East, start hunkering down for the "winter weather."

Take care,

Elbow Deep In the Dishwater of the World

I don't know about you, but I really hate doing dishes. I don't mean rinsing and loading, I mean scrubbing and drying. Yuck. There is probably physical pain I would rather endure than doing a sink full of dishes... but I digress.

One thing that I have learned from doing the dishes, however, is that because I do them slowly (you think I'd be faster since I hate them, right?) I have a lot of "alone time" to think and ponder on life. Sometimes I'm not so sure I like that very much. I think about what I have to do in the days following and the latest tragic story I read in Time magazine. I think that maybe someone will call me soon excitedly telling me I'm just the applicant they're looking for! Then I think that maybe nobody ever reads those ridiculous online job applications. I think about school and life and where I'll be in ten years and if I might sadly still be here taking night classes and waiting tables (not that there's anything wrong with that, if you are). So basically, you can see why I hate the dishes. Of course, my life isn't tragic and more often than not God uses this alone time to tell me so.

We can get so bogged down in our circumstances that we miss the bigger picture. So what that McDonald's hasn't called? Maybe there's a better offer waiting just around the corner. We're impatient people. I'm an impatient person. I'm a planner. I want to know what's going on and when and what should I expect. Sometimes I need to just be still. Not stop living or just quit trying and refuse to care. Not that at all. I've been thinking about Psalms 46:10 ("Be still and know that I am God...") recently and how that scripture is constantly taken way out of context. Rather than poorly dictate what I had in mind to share with you, I just found this article by Jason Jackson while searching for different translations of said scripture. I encourage you to go read it and find a place where you can "be still" before Him and allow Him to work in His timing so that you may ultimately give Him the glory.

I love this paragraph from Jackson and think it adequately sums up all that I came here to say today:

So as your world crumbles around you, the call from Scripture is: don’t flinch in faith in God. Stand still — not because of a self-made confidence, not because you are the most composed person in the face of disaster, not because “you’ve seen it all.” Be still because of what you know about God.

What do we know about God? First of all, do we understand who He is? He is everything. He is healing, He is strength, He is wisdom, He is courage, He is comfort, He is anything. Anything you could possibly think of that you need, He is.

What do YOU need today?

So Long, Insecurity!

You need to know that I absolutely adore Beth Moore. I think that she's an amazingly gifted Bible teacher and so anointed to minister to women of all walks of life... and she's coming to Birmingham/Fultondale, Alabama next week to sign her new book!! In preparation for said event, I went to the Family Christian bookstore tonight and purchased books (<-- link to Amazon where you can get So Long, Insecurity for 52% off of retail price!!) for myself and for Em's mother to take with me on Wednesday. There was a little piece of card stock in the middle of each book that told me that Beth wasn't personalizing books or posing for pictures and that only books purchased at Family Christian would be signed. Now those first two bits of info I understand because Fultondale is her third stop of the day and she will be there for only 2 hours. However, are her people really going to tell someone to leave if they purchased their book at LifeWay? I don't think so. That would be sad. I don't think Beth would approve.

In other news, I wish it would either rain or not rain at all. Today we had something akin to someone putting their hose pipe on "mist" and waving it around in the air. Ridiculous, really. Just enough to need to turn on your windshield wipers about every minute... by hand... because there is no "mist" setting for windshield wipers. I was a little irritated. Which is sort of silly I guess. There are far bigger things to worry about than having to constantly move my left hand, but I'm allowed to vent here, right? Ok, I'm finished now.

I sadly don't have anything else of worth to share with you at the moment. I know I said there would be gobs of posts about real issues coming up soon... but I've procrastinated and haven't written them yet. I apologize. I will return on Sunday night and update about my sure to be eventful weekend, and maybe even drop a few "serious posts" on you as well.

Y'all take care and have a blessed weekend! Go buy Beth's new book, So Long, Insecurity!

 

Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated with Beth Moore or her people. This "advertisement" is solely due to the fact that I love her work and think that you should too.

Guess What?

I've had an idea! Shocking, right? Today I was sitting at the kitchen table doodling on one of Emily's notepads, and suddenly I had produced a new little scribbling of words on a page. It's not fabulous, but it's new. So I thought I would share. I'm also unsure of a title, so for now, I'll pull an Emily Dickinson :)

From darkness to daylight

And shambles to splendor

We rise from our hiding places

Breathing deep and stretching our arms upward towards the unseen

In our awakening we find freedom

To create, to explore, and to live

To live without fear or oppression

And in this freedom we will thrive

I'm also mulling over some new posts. Just various observations and thoughts that I'll soon share here. Maybe one later this after or possibly tomorrow.

Also, for you bookworms out there, Angie Smith of Bring the Rain and Jessica Turner of The Mom Creative have an amazing book club known as The Bloom Book Club where women (and men) get together and read a book over the course of a few weeks. They post their thoughts in video form and there is a separate Ning community for group discussion. Currently we are working on Same Kind of Different As Me. It's not too late to join in!!

I hope this week finds you blessed!