america's drive-in...

i would consider myself proud to be from the pacific northwest. i mean, i grew up here and i embrace the culture, for the most part. but, for a while now there's been something missing. so, i fully support whoever decided to correct, what i can only call a huge oversight by the fast food community. SONIC has finally come to town!!!

i guess i should clarify by saying that it hasn't exactly come to my town, it came to hillsboro which is actually about 45 minutes away. but, after two years of the commercials taunting me, causing me to salivate, not unlike pavlov's dog, do you think i would let a little drive stand in my way? heck no! so, a friend from work and i set off on a sonic burger adventure, with our motto being, "just because we can." the crazy thing...we apparently weren't the only ones craving cherry limeades at 7 pm on a monday night, because we found ourselves in a line of cars waiting for an open stall. someone asked me today if i would do it again, drive all that way for a hamburger? the answer...yes!!! there's just something about it. a comfort thing maybe. or, maybe it's just because i can, when a week ago i couldn't. i will definitely go back. besides, i'm dying to try the cheesecake bites!

the thing that made the whole adventure even more exciting...the christmas ships. apparently every year, the boats in the marina decorate for christmas and parade up and down the columbia river. as we were crossing the bridge, we saw the ships. for a second i actually became one of those "looky lou" drivers i hate so much. those people who slow down on the bridge to check out whatever is on the river with little disregard for the people around them. anyway, we took a chance, pulled into a park, and got a show. it was pretty cool! just another thing that makes this place i live in unique. here are some pics!

oh, christmas tree...

to me, the holidays are all about traditions. the things you do every year to celebrate with your family. as i get older, i feel like the lines around those things that i loved so much grow thinner and thinner. some of them i've outgrown. (i mean who wants to sleep on the floor in front of the tree on christmas eve when you're pushing 30? am i right?) but, some have just fallen by the wayside, or have been forgotten.

so this year, my roommates and i are trying to create some new traditions. we went and bought a tree, from the same guy we bought it from last year. we joked about how some day we'll learn his name, so that next year we can say "hey joe, the christmas tree salesman guy, how's the wife and kids?" and then five years from now, we'll go to buy our tree and he'll say, "hey girls, i set one aside for you, just the kind you like." he'll refer to us as "the girls" as many of our friends are prone to do. ok, maybe none of that will ever happen, but isn't it the season of hope?

anyway...here are some fun pics of our christmas tree adventure.

jess...pretending she could actually pick that thing up by herself. i'm pretty sure we chose the biggest one on the lot, it was real heavy.

joe looked at us kind of funny when we asked him to tie it to the roof of ang's car, but he did it anyway, cause that's just the kind of guy joe the christmas tree salesman is.

note to self...when you're the tallest one in your household, always vote no for the largest tree on the lot, even though we have 9 foot ceilings and have the room for it. Or maybe that should read...BECAUSE we have 9 foot ceilings and EVEN THOUGH we have the room for it. if you could see the bottom of this picture...you would find my tiptoes balanced precariously on top of a step stool.

so, the tree is now complete and our house is decked out for the season. i guess as christmas gets closer, we'll keep our eyes open for other traditions we can start. oooh, maybe caroling?

oh, the weather outside is frightful...

i learned a new word over the thanksgiving holiday...perfidy. it means the ultimate act of betrayal; treason. i didn't learn it in practice. i haven't been betrayed, as far as i know. i learned it from my seven year old nephew. scary, i know. i asked my bro-in-law if he ever wonders how his son got smarter than him. of course he said no (my brother in law is really smart). which is where my nephew gets it, his parents. my genius sister and her genius husband are breeding genius children. i'm not bitter, i'm just saying.

here is the conversation i had with my nephew after that last question to his father...
jarod: the internet, beckie.
beckie: what about the internet, jarod?
jarod: it will make you smarter.
beckie: oh really? is that where you get all of your knowledge from?
jarod: probably.

that kid cracks me up!

everything...

i recently promised a friend that i would never become one of those people that pours out my heart and soul on my blog, for the whole world to see. but, every so often i hear a song that just speaks to me and i want to share that. i know God sees music in my life as a way to get through to me, i love these words...

find me here
speak to me
i want to feel you
i need to hear you
you are the light
that's leading me
to the place where i find peace, again

you are the strength, that keeps me walking
you are the hope, that keeps me trusting
you are the light, to my soul
you are my purpose...you're everything

you calm the storms, and give me rest
you hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall
you steal my heart, and you take my breath away
would you take me in? take me deeper now?

how can i stand here with you and not be moved by you?
would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

cause you're all i want, you're all i need
you're everything, everything
you're all i want, you're all i need
you're everything, everything

152 insights into my soul...

recently i realized that i've fully embraced the northwest culture...by visiting starbucks on a regular basis. the funny thing is, i'm not a huge coffee drinker, but for some reason i feel the call of that grande caramel no whip mocha just the same. i always think of that scene in "you've got mail" where tom hanks says that starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. oh how i relate, because making decisions is not my strong suit. that's why i made those decisions once and then i just get the same thing every time. but, i also really love the atmosphere of coffee shops, all warm and cozy smelling like coffee. people sitting around reading, studying, playing games. great place to people watch.

i began to frequent starbucks on the way to work because i'm not a morning person and something about the thought of caffeine or the smell of coffee helps. i've been told that you can teach yourself to be a morning person, but after getting up at the same time for almost a year and it not getting any easier, i disagree. i'm the type of person that thinks a good day is getting to work without having to say a word to anyone before i get there, which is difficult to accomplish when faced with the entirely too chipper drive thru lady who wants to talk to me about my job, her job, the weather, and how sales are going that morning. i feel the desire to strangle this woman while saying, "i don't care if the peppermint mocha is the hot item today i just want my coffee so i can go," in the nicest way possible of course. i'm not normally prone to violent outbursts, but when there is an extremely chatty woman in between me and my caffeine, i get a little disgruntled. i'm beginning to realize that i might have a problem, i'll get some help for that.

search for the holy grail…

have you ever been to church in a movie theater? i can now say that i have. i’ve been church hunting for a couple of months now and it’s no easy task. i kind of had it in my mind that it would be easy, almost fun, but i was mistaken. there are so many questions…what am i looking for? strong teaching, great worship, community. so, in my search, i've been visiting anything and everything. this brings me to the movie theater. the interesting thing about churches in the northwest is that you tend to find what seem to be extremes. you have your traditional, hymn singing, walk in an know exactly what to expect churches. and you have your, meet in a theater or pizza place, extremely non-traditional, everything new, church starts. my experience yesterday was with the latter.

i visited a 3 year old church start called “coram deo.” here are three new things, or “never before’s,” that i experienced….1. i've never before heard a pastor use the words, “chill, money, tight, or my bad” before in my life. granted, this pastor was at least my age, maybe younger.
2. i've never before been told we needed to hurry up and leave because the movie starts in ten minutes and there are paying customers waiting to get in. (side note…the theater we met in was showing SAW) 3. i’ve never before been to a church where everyone looks just like me…young twenty something-thirty something. since i've moved here i've often wondered where all the young christian people are, well i found them, it just took me a 45 minute drive to get to them. which brought up another question…do i want to go to a church where everyone looks just like me? i don’t think so.

so, the search continues...

oh canada!

so, my job has the greatest perks in the world!! this past weekend i had the opportunity to go to vancouver canada to "work" at a collegiate conference. it was a lot of fun! i've lived in washington most of my life, just 6 hours from the canadian border, and i've never been. until now that is!

i have to say that visiting vancouver, bc and being from vancouver, wa is extremely confusing. but other than that, i loved my time there. vancouver is a great city. lots of culture and interesting people. the conference was great as well. almost 200 college students taking over a hotel in downtown! we had an amazing speaker, steve saccone, from mosaic in LA. he talked about taking advantage of every opportunity you're given. as christians a lot of time we "burn daylight" or spend a lot of time praying about something, or waiting for the right time. i really enjoyed what he had to say. and the worship team, justin cofield band from austin texas, some of the nicest people in the world and sickeningly talented.

saturday we went out to prayerwalk the city. this picture is of us getting lost and trying to find the university we were supposed to be looking for.

sometimes getting lost has its benefits. vancouver, bc has a little nickname, it's called hollywood to the north. if you look real close at the license plate on this taxi, you'll see that it's from new york. as was every other car on this street. also, the banners on the light post are also from new york. in our search for simon fraser university, we stumbled upon a street they had blocked off and were getting ready to film on. unfortunately we were too chicken to ask what it was.

the northwest sun!

when you wake up to a crisp, sunny, northwest fall day, there is no better place to be. i'm not biased or anything, i'm just sayin'. this past weekend, we were blessed with wonderful weather and took full advantage of it.

my parents came into town on saturday and we always try to do something fun and touristy when they come to visit...so, we went to pittock mansion.

it's this cool old house on top of the hill in portland. it was built in 1914, i won't give out all the details, but it's really cool. the grounds have a beautiful view of the city and mt. st. helens, hood, adams, and rainier. it's amazing!

saturday i also found myself at my fourth bebo norman concert. some may say i'm obsessed, i like to think i'm just a loyal fan. for those who might question my motive...i just really like his music!!!

anyway...the concert was in this cool old theater in longview and we had great seats. what i love about christian concerts is that, yes in some aspect they are there to perform for you, but when they do there job well, there is also a heart of worship. aaron shust and brandon heath opened up for bebo. it was a great combination of giftedness. the night ended great and was a lot of fun! i found myself being really thankful that God gave me an appreciation for music. it touches me and speaks to me in a way i don't fully understand, but i'm thankful for.

win the day for crimson and grey

i've come to realize that i become a total girl when i watch football. i understand the game, i know what's going on, i can follow along and cheer with the best of them. and, i actually enjoy watching it. but, i also find myself feeling really bad for the other team when they get booed. and, i comment on things like a player losing his shoe when he gets hit, not on the hit itself which was obviously so good that it knocked a guys shoe off. i find myself distracted by the fact that the kickers name is so long that it goes onto the shoulders of his uniform. i'm a total girl. hey, at least i can admit it. me and some friends went to seattle this past weekend to enjoy a cougar football saturday.
for the last couple of years washington state university has been playing an "exhibition" game the first part of the season. that's what i call it, because they pick some random southern team, that they think they can beat, and play them in seahawk stadium. this years chosen team was baylor. let me say that the baylor bears gave us a run for our money. but, in the end, after a really sloppy game, the cougs won. it was fun to be immersed in the college atmosphere again, i had missed it. there is a sense of comraderie among cougar fans that you can't explain. you get this feeling that if you needed it, any one of those people would have your back just because you have WSU in common. it's great! there was also something really fun about 14,000 cougar fans invading downtown seattle, which is essentially husky territory. yeah, there was some name calling, but that's all part of the fun!

summer breeze...makes me feel fine

fall is on its way. i can feel it. i can feel the chill in the morning when i leave for work and my almost-daily coffee order has turned back from iced to hot. it's sad, but true. however, labor day weekend gave us one of the last beautifully warm days we'll probably see. so, in honor of that i joined the thousands of other northwesterners...and enjoyed the outdoors. check out the pictures of this grand adventure....

stop one:

i had never been to the rose garden when it was in bloom. i can honestly say it has to be the best smelling place on earth. not only does it have beautiful flowers, and a great view of downtown portland, but it also reminds me of why i love living in this area so much...cultural diversity. we saw and heard so many different ethnic groups....russian, east indian, asian, hispanic, etc, dressed in their national dress and speaking their national language. i love it!

stop two:

we had never been to the waterfront before, sad but true. we always said we should go, just never had, until today. although the willamette is not the most breathtaking river, the view of the city scape is.

stop three:

Superman Returns: The IMAX Experience®

note to self..."superman returns" in imax...not the best experience. there's nothing like seeing lex luthors larger than life bald head on a 72 foot dome screen to make you nauseus. i guess in Kevin Spacey's defense, it wasn't necessarily lex luthor that made me nauseus, but the special effects around him. i'll stick to educational movies at the OMSI theatre the ones with lots of wide shots of scenery and geographical locations, so "greece: secrets of the past" here i come!! aside from making me sick to my stomach, the movie also reminded me of one of my greatest pet peeves...parents who overestimate their small children's ability to sit through a two and a half hour movie. i love it when the climax of a movie is interrupted by a child in front of you standing to stretch and the one behind you asking his parent if they can leave while simultaneously kicking your chair. i'm not bitter, i'm just saying.

first things first

hello friends! this is my first posting on my blog and i feel a little bit of pressure to make it interesting. so, to remove that pressure from myself, i'm just going to say...the purpose for this blog is #1...to keep friends and family updated on the happenings in my life...and #2 to give me a place to "journal" all of the adventures this road takes me on. so, i hope you all enjoy the journey with me....