The Second Day

So the sermon on Easter Sunday was about how "a lot can happen in 3 days". When Jesus died on Good Friday and the disciples' worlds were flipped upside down, it was if all hope was lost. It seemed as if the last couple years of Jesus teaching and performing miracles had been for nothing. But then on that third day, Jesus revealed Himself. He had triumphantly rose from the dead and made atonement for all of the sins for everyone forever. When you put it like that, that is a lot to do in three days. But then again, He is God, and He could have done it in an instant if He had wanted to. In the blink of a human eye, Jesus could have died, gone down to hades, whooped the devil's butt, and come back up to throw a party that same evening. Now, aside from the fact that all the prophesies had said that it was going to take three days, and if it hadn't taken three days we would be living in a very different world right now full of question and doubt about the validity of prophesies and the Bible itself... why did God plan for the resurrection to take three earthly days? Day 1: Jesus died. Day 3: Jesus rose. What about day 2? Why did He allow all that time in between for the sadness, and the feelings of forsakenness, and the evil ones to think they had won? Why the second day? This is one of those questions I am quite content not knowing the true answer until I reach my final home, but while I serve this earthly term, I'd like to muse.

My friend, Hannah, and I had an amazing conversation back in November about patience in God's timing. I actually started this blog post a couple months ago, not knowing which direction it would take or when I would finish it. Today seemed appropriate. I think that even if we don't know why the world had to sit in sadness on that second day, it teaches us that we shouldn't sit around moping because we still have something to hope for. That we should be anticipating a redemption. Hannah talked about how when it seems all hope is lost and your world seems completely irreparable, we must trust that another door will eventually be opened. It may not be immediately, but it will be a door that has something much better on the other side of it. Until then, we wait in that dark hallway. God gives us people to wait with. People to encourage you and people for you to encourage. We give each other hope as well, until a new light shines out from that door we've been anxiously and faithfully awaiting. We wait and continue to hope during that second day, because we know the third day will eventually come. A day of redemption and joy that surpasses what we had hoped for.

I'm thankful for friends that remind me during this time of my life that there is something, and someone, much better awaiting me. They are true blessings and give me so much hope in this long hallway.

James 1:2
Hebrews 10:23
Romans 5:5
Jeremiah 29:11

Lindsey Stirling!!

Yesterday, my good friend Matt and I got to play hooky from schoolwork for a few hours to go down to Denver for a Lindsey Stirling concert! This was just what I needed to help cure my post-spring break depression (not!), but it was such a good time. Now for those of you who have never heard of Ms. Stirling, that is totally understandable, seeing as she is still on her rise to fame (she only started doing ticketed shows less than a year ago!), but you need to go check her out RIGHT NOW! Not only does she have a full-length CD full of her own original music, she also does covers of literally anything, and collaborates with other musicians of any genre! And I have never seen such a diverse crowd of concert-goers. Old, young, the stereotype asian that records the whole thing on his phone, the potheads that smoke the entire concert, hipsters, professionals, couples, groups of girlfriends... She is so contagiously energized and talented and just a thrill to be in the room with and I think everyone there had an amazing time :)

 

Opening Act
(Yes, that is a trumpet. Another couple of extremely talented musicians!)

From her visual effects to her costuming, this girl has it all. Not only is she an amazing violist, she is also a totally awesome dancer! Matt and I were convinced that she was formally trained in violin and dance, but we looked it up later and found out that she learned to dance from watching YouTube! Talk about a go-getter!

Lindsey!

Lindsey with her talented keyboardist and drummer.

The amazing effects on display during her original song "Crystallize".

After the show, Matt's awesome aunt and uncle let us crash at their new place for the night. They had a cat :) My night was made.

Amazing time seeing Lindsey Stirling at the Gothic!

My bff for the night, Macy

Update 4/11/13: LINDSEY IS NOW AVAILABLE TO LISTEN TO ON SPOTIFY!!!

Shared photo book from Rebecca

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly baby photo books are the perfect way to preserve your baby's precious moments.

Pueblo Comp

We had our longest drive as a team down to Pueblo, CO last weekend for a comp. Eight of us met at 8 am Saturday morning to start our long day. We had three girls this time! The other car b-lined it down to Pueblo and got a legitimate lunch. Our car ate snacks in the car so we could go shopping at REI. Personally, I think we made the better choice. Spencer was such a good sport about hanging out with the females. Once we got down to Pueblo, the weather was SO WARM. Jeez, it must have been like 70 degrees. The four of us did yoga in the sun until our heat started :)

The comp was at YMCA-Pueblo. It was bouldering and top-roping, with your score being comprised of your hardest three climbs from each section. If you climbed three routes in the category above you, you got bumped up. Knowing this, I tried to plan accordingly by climbing 2 high-scoring intermediate problems and all the upper beginner routes. Sadly, the super awesome but super tall 50 foot top-roping wall completely wore me out and I couldn't actually get both my intermediate problems :( I am not looking forward so much to our scores coming out this week. But it was so awesome to climb on such a cool wall and see some of the friends I made last time! I feel like I pushed myself a lot harder this competition and I'm sad there's only one Rocky Mountain comp left that we'll be attending. After a long day and stopping to get pizza at Pizza Casbah, we got back around 10 pm.

Nicole crushing, as is tradition

I think my new friend pulled off the pink shades nicely

Nora gettin' it on the big wall! Yes, that is a crack feature.

Nick on the bouldering wall

One of the most frustrating climbs I've ever done- but there were Dum-Dums at the top :P

Classy Team shot
(myself, Nora, Brian, Andrew, Nick, Esteban, Nicole, Spencer)

Retail Therapy

Free smells. You're welcome, men folk. And close lady folk.

Pow Pow

After a couple of times out on the slopes now, I officially understand why snow sport aficionados love the "pow pow." It's like falling on a pillow! If someone could guarantee that ski slopes would be covered in that delectable white softness every weekend of winter, I'd buy a board, boots, bindings, and season pass right now. But sadly, I learned last weekend that the ski slopes can also be covered in snow's evil sibling- ice. Unlike powder, ice aims to make you feel like you've broken a bone every time you stray from the upright position, which if you're learning to ski or snowboard, happens a whole lot. Nonetheless, I've had so much fun learning to snowboard better and trying to teach it as well! And I'm so lucky Lindsay has let me borrow her gorgeous board the last couple weeks!

Weekend 1: The Powder Obsession sets in
Snowy Range was seeing some of the best powder they'd had in a couple years. I didn't take very many pictures because I was way too busy shredding the slopes... or trying to. I got to go up with Nicole and we met up with Spencer and a couple of his friends.

Weekend 2: Ice is a beginner snowboarder's worst nightmare.
After a couple days of snow during the week, we hoped that Snowy would have retained some of it. We were so, so wrong. Every slope was a hard, icy surface of pain. I went up with my new friend, Kayla, and we tried to teach Nate-dog how to carve the mountain, which proved to be very difficult considering I was having a hard time even standing up most of the time! We ended the afternoon on a high note and enjoyed some brews from the brand spankin' new Snowy Range Brewery.

Forever A Disney Princess

One year ago...

Kari and I did the WDW Disney Princess Half Marathon!!! I can't believe it's already been that long ago, and how much has happened since then. I still haven't washed my Sleeping Beauty sweatshirt, although I think the last of the pixie dust has just about all fallen off :(

Tonight as I was going through old pictures, I was transported back to all the positively magical emotions from that weekend- seeing each other in the airport for the first time in months, trying on our princess costumes with all the pieces, meeting and carpooling with our "Disney moms" at 3 in the morning, running through Cinderella's castle, crossing the finish line holding hands with our arms held high...

I am still so proud of us for running the entire race. Minus stopping to take pictures, but we won't talk about how often that was and how it affected our final time, we ran every step!! Even the last few miles, we were the only ones running along in the rain and struggling up that blasted highway off ramp, and that's way more important than any time we could have tried to beat. We definitely earned that next day, experiencing Around the World at EPCOT. I really could go for some Mickey Mouse shaped food right now.

Princesses in the Airport

Pixie Dusting :)

Royal Manicure

Mickey Food (and a famous turkey leg) from Magic Kingdom

We conquered every. single. mile. together.

Traded in our running shoes for TOMS the next day :)

But we kept the crowns.

Rewarding ourselves justly the next day at EPCOT Center.

These are the times I never want to forget. The joy of seeing an old friend after a long separation, the pain and perseverance of exerting my body and mind for a long fought-for goal, the magic that a couple of twenty-somethings can still feel when they see their favorite Disney princesses, the fun of seeing random people in McDonald's at 4 am, the comfort and trust of being with someone knowing that we're still there for each other even when our hotel is overbooked and gets changed or she's making me drink ridiculous amounts of water to stay hydrated or I'm singing as loud as I can the last 2 miles to make sure we finish strong... These are the experiences I want to tell my kids about. I hope they're not afraid to go out and make memories and put their bodies through hell and really get excited about things. And most importantly, that they're not afraid to invest in and really love on someone, and be loved in return, so they have someone as awesome as I have to make some unforgettable memories with.

Flashy Leggings

Last weekend was the last of Half Acre's Friday Night Bouldering Series competition to ever be held on our current wall. At the end of this semester, it's getting torn down as part of the renovations to the gym and a bigger, better climbing wall will replace it... in a year. What we're gonna do with ourselves until then, I have no idea. I'm freakin' out just a little...

But on to highlights! The competition had a great turn out from UW students and Casper, WY and Colorado residents alike. It was a toss up for which category I should enter in. I had placed in the intermediate category at my first comp when there were few girls and I had seen only one female enter the marathon category at the next one, so with more girls at this comp than I had ever seen before I had no idea which basket I should put my eggs into. I decided to shoot for doing marathon and it ended up that was the wrong choice, but I think I'd been screwed either way. My climbing is at such an in between level right now. When I can flash 9 out of 10 of the beginner routes but can barely do 2 or 3 of the intermediate, it's a wake up call once again that I need to step up the training and really commit to moving past that beginner level.

I made some awesome new friends this competition though! I hope to keep climbing and hanging out with them in the future.

Gameface on.

Showing off our beautiful leggings.

Reppin' the UK gear

wooooo

And a climbing pic, just to prove we actually did climb.

Heading to satisfy those post-comp munchies.

Weekend of Love

I was so lucky to spend Valentine's Day weekend with my best friend and my family. It was straight up amazing that the timing was so perfect. Kari and I had an entire 24 hours to ourselves to catch up and eat food that wasn't exactly good for our diets. Then we stayed at my parents' house and got to go wine tasting and see an archery tournament! Sunday morning before everyone had to fly back, we met up with Dave for breakfast. All in all, a very special weekend that definitely had me not wanting to come back to school!

We <3 Orange Leaf

Sunglasses these days...

One Love @ Raising Cane's

This is Merlot :)

The little bro crushin' it on the archery range.

A rare and happy reunion .

"Wtf are you and why are you holding me so tight?"

Window Kitty

I saw this lovely little thing sitting in a storefront window last night. It was rolling around and curling over itself right up by the glass. When we came near, it sat up all straight as if it was embarrassed that we'd seen it in its happy, little stretching fest.

Over here, darling

The Sink

I'll be the first to admit, I am not the best roommate in the world. I have a tendency to not immediately clean up my messes, let dishes soak in the sink a little more than they should, and eat people's food that I think has been sitting in the fridge too long (sometimes "too long" is a couple hours). I'm not perfect. But I forget that just because I accept my imperfections, doesn't mean I have to make my roommates deal with the repercussions.

So when one of my roommates sent out an e-mail to the other three of us detailing every mess I had made that weekend and how we all need to abide by our roommate contract, I was super offended. How dare she not realize that I am trying to do the dishes in a more timely manner or that sometimes I honestly, accidentally forget my towel on the floor in the bathroom. My passive aggressive-ism that only seems to flare up when it comes to roommate ordeals began to rear its ugly head. How long could I leave that huge pile in the sink before she got fed up and did them herself, or even better, openly confronted me? Those dishes weren't even all mine! Maybe I would start using all paper plates from now on, or I could start rearranging her things in the shower. My plotting started to get out of hand...

But thank goodness, this all happened on a Sunday and God wasn't finished showing me the lessons He wanted to teach me from His message that morning. I had spent most of the day pondering over how my current trials and sufferings were producing perseverance, totally ignoring what the other 75% of the sermon had been about. I was practically relishing in the "woe is me" circumstances that I'd been experiencing lately, almost taking pride in how it was okay for me to be feeling cranky on the inside, as long as I was suffering for God. Just leave me in my room to suffer, please. I probably should have given the rest of the message a little more thought. In the latter part of Philippians 3, John writes about followers of Christ being citizens of heaven, and he challenges them to act like it. Yes, as a follower of Christ I was going to suffer my own daily battles, but that does not give me the excuse to pout and ignore the higher callings that are instilled in us when we learn the love of our Savior. If I did anything besides doing every single one of those dishes, how would that be showing my citizenship to heaven and being a good witness to my roommate? As small a thing as it may seem, and as hard as it is to choke down the pride and humiliation, I'm glad that God is teaching me that there are much more important things to worry about regarding my relationships with those around me. Loving, serving, and humility are more important than who has to clean out the sink.