Karen's Lord of the Blogs

I'm the worst...

Here it is, the beginning of a new year, ok... it's not even the beginning of a new year any more... it's like, the end of the beginning of a new year. It's the 26th day of the first month of the new year! I'm only now making my first blog entry? What kind of blogger am I?! I'm a slacker. I admit it. It's a good thing my New Year's Resolution wasn't to keep up with blogging. I knew better.

Today, I am at my first concert of the New Year. The Indescribable Tour. Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Louis Giglio. A good tour. All good people. Good show. Good venue. Good times. Plus, my husband came along! Who could ask for anything more!? Not me.

I'm tired, though, and it's cold in here... the production cave. I'm just awaiting my husband's arrival, and the show's beginning. Wahoo! A smooth day for me. The show's first day of the spring leg. A few bumps for them, but all in all, a good day. Did I mention I was tired?

Christmas in the South

Hello all! It's been a long, long, long, long, long time. I apologize. A lot has happened in the last 4 months! I got married. I moved. I've been to Vegas. I have a new job. New relatives... the list goes on and on!

I just wanted to take a short moment to reflect on this new season of my life and this new season in the south! Yep, Christmas is what I'm talking about. The first peculiarity was spending the day after Thanksgiving at the beach. Yep, me and my husband spent the Thanksgiving holiday at the beach with his Mom & a friend. It was fantastic! But weird. Waking up to the sound of the surf is always a welcome noise, but hearing it in November is something to get used to.

Secondly, it's just a complete adjustment to adjust to the holidays away from the snow! I've seen photos from PA with the snow and such, and let me tell you, here in NC, we just don't see that sort of thing. I'm told that it may ice every once in awhile, possibly snow once in a blue moon. Again... weird.

I must confess I get a little weepy every once in awhile missing my friends and family from back home in PA. I get all nostalgic. Last night was the Creative Ministries Christmas party. I nearly had a small meltdown, but my fantastic husband helped keep my mind off of it. And he is fantastic. I couldn't be happier and more blessed to have such a wonderful and understanding husband. He allows me just the right amount of nostalgia, and the right amount of cheering up. I am still the luckiest woman in the world!

So, while this year is quite the adjustment with all these new things. I am blessed with a wonderful family in NC, and my PA family is coming to visit, and I will get to visit them too. So, again... weird, but in a good way. Bring it on... Happy Southern Holidays... um... y'all.

Oh my good Lord, a blog entry!

Well, my friends... I don't even know how long it's been since the last time I wrote a blog entry, but here I am at a milestone, so I figured I would write an entry and say howdy to the internet world. Ok... so most of you, ok, all of you are my friends and know pretty much most every detail of my life, but at least I'm writing a blog entry!

You may wonder what my milestone is today, or you may not, because most of you know what is going on in my life. Well, I'll tell you since I'm jabbering on and on about it. One month from today... 27 mere days, I get to become the wife of the man I love. I get to become Mrs. Robin Parrish. That is the thought that is getting me through the day these days.

One week from today is my last big event with my nearest and dearest friends... Purple Door. Not my nearest and dearest event, but it could be a good time. I would like to ask anyone and everyone who reads this to pray for good weather. AND to ask everyone and anyone they come in contact with to ALSO pray for good weather. It would be such a blessing to end my festival career with a weekend of gorgeous weather at a really cool festival. It may be too much to ask, but I figure with God, anything is possible. He's really blessed me so much so far, why not put the icing on the cake, so to say.

So, two weeks from today, will be the last official Game Day in Lancaster County while I'm still living here. Wahoo! I stink at those games, but they sure are fun to play. Bring on the Settlers... one last time!

Three weeks from today, I will be living in my new home. Whoa.

Four weeks from today, at this moment, we will be kicking people out of our reception and I will officially be Mrs. Robin Parrish. Hee Hee. That gives me goosebumps just to think it. Sigh. I wish it was today.

That would mean I could skip all the goodbyes that will have to take place between now and then. That is REALLY going to stink. If anyone has made any progress on the Star Trek type transporter technology, I'd love to hear about it.

Thank the LORD for email, cell phones, and plane tickets! Now if only someone could do something about the gas prices!

It's been awhile...

Again. I'm such a slacker. I guess life gets too busy for me to focus on sitting and talking about my life. I admire those who put aside the time to do it, because I think it's a very cool thing. I just have to focus on it, I guess. Stacey, for instance, maintains her blog pretty darn well. She also journals regularly and writes some great poetry and stories, so I guess therein lies the difference. Sigh. It's all good. While I can write, I've never claimed to be a prolific writer. I am an award winning poet, however, from my one submission back when I was in sixth grade. I cling to these achievements to make myself feel better when I feel like I should be doing better.

Anyway... today, Saturday, May 7, I hope to make a terribly productive day, with a bit of fun mixed in. In about 10 minutes, I'm off to my local consignment shop to find some summer non-t-shirt shirts. I've got enough t-shirts to last me until the next millenium, but those other shirts are the tricky ones. Then, I'm going to the ReSort, where they take used books for the next book sale. I've got my trunk full of them. THEN, I'm heading into Lancaster to find a particular soundtrack I'm looking for. So much to do. PLUS, Stacey is going to call me about going to the March for Parks in York where Starbucks abounds. It's a beautiful day, I think I'm going to do it.

I want to go to church tonight, since tomorrow is Mother's Day and we've got lunch plans with the fam. Our traditional stop at Olde Greenfield Inn. It's a wonderful spot.

And to top that off, if I happen to get bored, I have Creation apps out the wazoo to work on. So, this weekend should be busy, which is good... because all I want to think about is driving to NC on Wednesday so I can see Robin again. It's been over a month since I've seen my fiance... there's just something wrong with that.

So... here's to a well-planned, productive weekend!

Five Months to Go!

Yesterday was the five month mark countdown to the wedding! There's so much going on... so much to do! And it's still really fun! Today, I bought a cake topper! We also have our flower girl basket and other fun stuff.

I've also started to pack up some of my stuff for my move. There's so much to do, there's just no sense in waiting! I like being prepared. I was a Girl Scout, you know.

Also, something exciting... Robin and I bought a lawn Gnome! His name is Norville. Norville the Gnome. He's terribly cute. And Robin is terribly sweet for letting me buy it for our yard!

So, the invitations went out... I have reports of them having been received. Let the fun continue!

Calm in the Midst of the Storm

Again... I am slacking in my blogging duties. I can't help it! I'm preparing for a lot of stuff, people! And yet I'm still holding it together.

I have to say I'm clinging to God through all of this for all I'm worth, and it's the best I've ever felt about anything. He has given me more that I could have ever hoped for all at once. A wonderful husband-to-be, a fantastic family who loves me, and supportive friends who care about me.

God is also giving me more peace and calm than I could have ever hoped for to do what I have to do this summer. Plan a wedding, staff two festivals, administrate one festival, find a new job, plan a move, see 'Great Big Sea' in concert, and maybe fit a few leisure weekend trips in there, and also travel to North Carolina a couple of times to futher plan our future. And yet, I really do feel unusually peaceful about everything. I hope I can come back to this entry in a few months and see that I still feel the same way.

I'm trusting God more than ever to see me through this. I don't ever want there be a day go by that I don't thank Him for all He's given me... ask for His guidance for what to do next... and tell Robin how much I love him. I think those are some goals that will make the next few months go really really well. And I plan on making sure that happens.

Let the fun begin...

Oh yes, wedding planning. This is going to be fun. Robin and I had our first discussion, last night, about what we envisioned for the wedding. Very funny... very different. But I know, after talking for only one hour, that we can come to an agreement that is uniquely 'us,' that is exactly what we both want. It's going to be great! Probably stressful in some moments, but educational and growth enhancing. I found myself looking at it like a concert or festival... hmmm... 'venue is very important.' 'We need to get to a location first...' All this stuff going through my head... and this is just the beginning! Woo Hoo!

The Big Announcement!

Ok, my friends are going to have to forgive me. I'm in North Carolina. I can't personally call everyone... it would be rude to my fiance. What?! What did you say? Yep... I said fiance!

Last night, on Oak Hollow Lake in beautiful High Point North Carolina, Robin Parrish asked me to marry him, and I said yes. I am a very, very happy woman. I can't stop smiling. Everytime I happen to look down at my hand and see the beautiful ring he so skillfully kept hidden from me all day, I can't help by smile. Not just smile, BEAM. I can't imagine that I'll ever stop smiling. I know all you married people out there are going... oh yes, you will, but I know you'll let me enjoy the moment for a good long time. Thanks!

We started out the day with me almost killing his plans by my asking to drive for the day. Everyone who knows me knows how I love to drive, and I really wanted to get to know how to negotiate High Point a little better, well he would have none of that. He said he wanted to drive. Ok, I said. No problem. Yeesh (I thought.) :) Little did I know.

We went to Krispy Kreme for breakfast. See, we were celebrating our Valentine's day yesterday, since we didn't get a chance to when I was here for that, since Robin was really sick. So, this was a special day. Then, we went shopping. Robin loves shopping. That's one of the many reasons I knew right off that this was a great guy. One of the many.

We had lunch at Chick-fil-A. Yum. We went to Costco where they had gas for $1.94! Can you believe that? I had to pay $2.05. Ok, I digress... I bought the Spongebob Squarepants movie for $14.99. Can the day get any better? Of course it can... We went to the movies and saw Robots! Krispy Kreme... Chick-fil-A... Spongebob... Ewan McGregor! And yet there was more!

We came out of the theater and it was a little chilly. Robin looks up and says, 'it's cloudy.' Hmm... yes. It was. Very observant today. I later learned he had wanted the proposal to be at the lake at sunset. No sunset when it's cloudy. He is so sweet. So, we're driving to dinner, and I asked him where we were eating, because he was just driving, and he said 'oh, I don't know...let's stop here first. I haven't been here in awhile.' The lake. To be honest, I kind of had an idea what was coming, but I didn't want to make it obvious, and I was very excited and nervous, too, so I just kept being me. We pulled into the lake, and I said 'Are we getting out? It's cold.' He, of course, wanted to get out, so we did and walked down to the dock, and I plopped myself down on the edge of the dock, which further complicated his plans... but I hadn't done that on purpose. I just wanted to sit on the dock.

So, finally, after about 10 minutes, it was pretty cold, he asked if I wanted to go, and I did, we got up to leave, and started walking back to the car and I'm thinking, 'ok, now or never... maybe I was wrong, maybe this isn't it...' and he stopped me. He had the most wonderful speech planned, and I can remember he said the most beautiful things that I totally agreed with and loved, but couldn't repeat them if I had to because my heart was pounding and my head was spinning, and I knew what he was getting to, and I was so excited!

So, he pulled the ring out of his pocket and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes, and the rest is history! I spent the next hour or so trying to get ahold of ANYONE on my cell phone to tell them. Thank heavens Stacey answered her phone so I could tell someone! BLESS YOU, STACE! And now, here we are... I will be Mrs. Karen Parrish. Wow. WOW! Just, WOW!

My Life as A Doorstop...

Last night, some friends and I went to my favorite restaurant, TJ Rockwell's in Elizabethtown, PA. They have the awesomest food and beverages in the land! This being such a fine eating establishment, there is generally a wait to be seated. Not usually a long wait, and believe me, it's totally worth it, but tonight, we happened to be waiting in the doorway. I was given the opportunity to hold the door open for the majority of the people coming and going while we were waiting to be seated. It was brought to my attention yesterday that I had not blogged in awhile, and as suggested, as my long-awaited return to blogging, I will recount some of the comments made to me while I was holding the door open:

1. Thanks!
2. Are you taking tips?
3. I don't want to squish you back there.
4. Thank you.
5. Boo!
6. Hey thanks!
7. Oh! I didn't see you back there... thank you.

So, there you have it. My life as a doorstop.

What!? Two days in a row!

I know, I didn't mean to shock anyone by writing two days in a row, but... well, here I am! I have time, so I'm going to do it, darn it! First though, I need to go make pancakes for dinner. Stand by...

Wow. Those were some tasty pancakes. Not as good as Pampered Chef's bake mix pancakes. I would highly recommend those, if you've never tried them. Tonight, I had Bisquick Blueberry pancakes. They were tasty. The sad part is, I can't eat nearly all of the pancakes that the mix makes, so I end up pitching more than half of it. Oh well.

So, the big snow storm we were supposed to get today. Didn't really happen. I stayed home to work, for fear of the snow, but it didn't really happen. I have to admit, I really enjoyed working from home. I got to periodically jump on my exercise bike, have the travel channel on most of the day, while I was working, and make whatever I felt like for lunch. How great is that? I won't get used to it, though. I know it won't happen very often. Plus, I never know if I will have internet access at home or not.

I've also been having some seriously vivid dreams lately. Consider this a ranting aside, if you will. I don't think I've gone a single day in the last two weeks without having a dream. Most of them have been good dreams, but I have had a number of nightmares. What is the cause of that, I wonder? If anything, I've been taking less drugs to sleep. Maybe that's the key.

Anyhoo... there you have it! Two... count them... two blog entries in a row!

Elusive Sleep

Did you ever feel like you were trying really hard for something, but it was just out of your grasp? You keep persuing and it's just out of reach. I'm dealing with that in several areas of my life right now, but the most physically obvious is my sleep. I have been trying method after method to bring sleep to me. First off, to complicate, some of the prescriptions that I'm taking make me sleepy. You wouldn't think this would be a complication, but, alas, it is. For they make me almost too sleepy, so when I take them at night, I can't wake up in the morning, so I take them in the morning, and I struggle to stay conscious through the day. I'm convinced this will even out eventually.

Secondly, I had been taking over the counter sleep aids to fall asleep and stay asleep. This works splendidly, but to be honest, I don't think it's healthy to rely on a sleep aid to try and sleep all the time, even though it works GREAT! So, for the past two nights, ok, three now... I haven't been able to go to bed as early as I would like, or to fall asleep as quickly. I have a feeling it's a lot like it would feel like to beat one's head against a brick wall. However, since I have never experienced this, I am only speculating.

This theme has begun to spill over into other areas of my life. The beating of one's head is that of which I am speaking (trying to avoid the dangling preposition, and it comes out all 'formal'). Anyhoo... there are things in my life that are out of my control and that drives me absolutely crazy. As anyone who remotely knows me knows... I am a bit of a control freak with a touch of OCD on the side. I know... go figure. But when things are out of my control, and I try really, really hard to take control and it doesn't work, I get frustrated.

I'm feeling a little on the outside of a lot of areas of my life right now, and I know some of that is my fault... probably a good portion, but there's the little voice in the back of my head that keeps thinking that it's not all my fault, and somehow, I am on the outside looking in... almost pounding on the glass, and I can't break through. How about that for a metaphor, huh?

Going home

It's Tuesday, and I'm heading home from North Carolina. The worst part of this trip is that I have no idea when Robin & I will get to be together again. In the past, we've always had another trip planned, but this time, we don't. It's getting a little expensive to fly, which is the best way to travel. I sure wish I was independently wealthy.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful, which I knew it was going to be, Robin still recovering from mono, and Robin kept telling me he didn't want me to be disappointed with our first Valentine's Day together. The truth is, it was disappointing, but not because we couldn't do anything, but I felt more disappointed because he wasn't feeling any better. I know it was misiniterpreted, but that's the truth.

Now, I'm leaving in less than an hour, and I'm pretty sad about that. I don't want to leave. Especially since I've had a chance to help out a little bit, running errands and such, and now I feel a little like I'm abandoning them. Plus, with the added fact that I won't know when I'm going to be coming back.

Oh well, as we keep reminding each other, God is in control.

Sitting at the airport...

Here I am again, sitting at HIA. Waiting to board my first of two flights today on a dinky little airplane. It's a ridiculous hour of the morning. It's not even 6am yet. At least when I started typing this. By the time I post, it will no doubt be after 6. Still... what are all of these people doing up this early?! It's EARLY, people! Go back to bed! I wish I could.

I'm excited about this weekend, spending my first Valentine's day with Robin. It should be a great weekend, even though he is still recovering from Mono.He's getting better, so that's a good thing, but 'taking it easy' is the theme of the weekend.

Tina, one of my NC friends, is picking me up at the airport and we're going out for breakfast when I arrive in Greensboro. That should be fun, provided I don't fall asleep in my food.

So, I hope everyone has a great weekend... I might try to keep up with my blog this weekend, but I make no promises.

Happy Monday!

It's Monday. It's an absolutely beautiful day outside. The sun is shining, birds are singing... I love it. It almost feels like Spring. I won't get too excited though. I know another blast of winter is just around the corner. I will, however, enjoy it while it lasts.

So, the weekend was wonderfully uneventful. I slept a lot. I did my laundry. I cleaned up my house. I even started my taxes. I couldn't finish them because I need a different form this year, but I got a good start on them! I went to church. It was really nice and uneventful.

On Friday night, my parents and I went to a Spaghetti Dinner with my brother to benefit the 5th Grade class camping trip at his school. It was fun. Seeing his students, good food, hanging with my family. Here's the funny part...they had these 'gift baskets' that you could buy little raffle tickets to win. The tickets were a dollar a piece, and I bought five, more to benefit the class than anything. I never win stuff like this. Well, I'm sure you can tell where this story is going... I won one of the baskets! I'm not even sure what's in it. I really wanted to win the Playstation basket... but no luck. The one I won has little food stuff in it. It's pretty big. Even funnier, my mom won another one of the baskets. Hers was tickets to the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater. There were only, maybe, five baskets, so it's funny that I won one, and my mom won another one. Yay, us!

I didn't watch much of the Super Bowl last night. I got a nasty headache, so I couldn't even go watch it with my friends. I was bummed about that, but at least the headache went away pretty quickly, and I got a good night's sleep. That's always a good thing.

Prayer Requests Aplenty...

Hello my little group of friends who read my blog. I have a few prayer requests to pass along. Prayer Request #1. My boyfriend, Robin, is very sick. He has mono. I blame myself. I had mono when I was in high school, and once you've had it, you can't get it again, but you are still a carrier until the end of time. I feel horribly guilty, even though there really wasn't anything I could do about it, aside from the obvious. So, please pray for a quick recovery, regained strength and lots of good rest in the meantime. We both would appreciate it! I am making a trip down there next weekend for Valentine's Day even if I have to sit there and watch him sleep. I want us to be together on Valentine's Day, darn it!

Prayer Request #2. My friend, Stacey, is recovering from her second and final surgery to correct her Ulcertive Colitis. This is an amazing step forward for her, but I know prayers for a smooth transition into her new 'system' would be appreciated. Quick healing and return to 'normal' would be great.

Prayer Request #3. My headaches. I am trying some new drugs for my headache prevention because as of late, my headaches have been more frequent. So far, I have been headache free since Wednesday, which is a good start, seeing as how I've only been on the combined new stuff for about a week and a half. I'm praying that this will work and my headaches will become much less frequent, or if I get them, they will be much less intense.

Finally, Prayer Request #4. Please pray for Robin & I and our relationship. Every thing is absolutely great. Totally. I just know that I would appreciate your prayers as we continue our relationship that everything we do would be with our focus on God.

Thanks! I appreciate all of you so much!