Collector's Edition 1

"My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don't waver. Stay on track, steady in God." --Phil. 4:1 (Msg)

Alright people, you heard me talk about it a few weeks ago: I'm really enjoying ready parts of The Message translation of the Bible. I think it's really helping me get a perspective I've been lacking on the relevancy of Scriptures. It's like I've read a bunch of stuff before but I've just been reading it, ya know? And I read most of Philippians this morning and I'm finally grasping some of the things Paul talks about. God is good.

I have been SCRAPBOOK/PICTURE happy lately. Yes, I am a scrapbooker. And pretty proud of it. I love having the memories captured with random notes and things you wouldn't remember unless you wrote it down. I printed off a bunch of picture from things that have happened recently: weddings, Ponte Vedra, my birthday (so far), etc. and started making pages. Now I just need to go to Mamaw's house (my mom's mom) to use all her fun stuff to make the pages cooler!! Man, I love spending time with Mamaw. She's really fun but also proper. (Haha - she would laugh out loud if she read that.) She's gotten me really interested in geneology also, which I would love to sit down with her and talk more about.

When we were little, my brother (the Fireman) and I would always have tea parties at her house. We LIVED for those tea parties, and dadgumit, if she wasn't planning on doing it that time, we were SAAAAAAAAD. It was definitely one of those traditions I miss.

Since those times, I have become obsessed with collecting teacups and saucers. Okay but here's the thing...

...I only have like 3. ::gasp:: I know, I know. What kind of "obsessive collector" does that make me. Not much of one... But they're just so beautiful! Things like:

and just make me so happy!! (I'll take pictures of the ones I actually own soon and post those.)

Not a tea set, just the teacups. No, they're not practical, and yes, I'm very picky about which ones I like. (That first one YES, the second one I'm still thinking...)

I just thought you'd like to know about some hobbies of mine. Scrapbooking, taking pictures, (potentially) geneology, and (eventually) collecting teacups. Am I strange?

Don't answer that.

This day's been crazy, but everything's happened on schedule.

What a fun weekend! What did I do? Not much of nothin'!! YAY! It was fab. Let me quickly recap my Thursday for you, since I chose not to post about it when it was all fresh on my mind.

My work gets a discounted monthly rate at the Rush, where I'm already a member, so I thought, hey - it's $10 cheaper a month, of COURSE I'm gonna get that changed. So it seemed like it was going to be easy at first. Those beefy goons that run the place started talking to me about how to go about changing my rate. Well, we were NOT on the same page and right before I was about to sign my life away (again.), I said, "Now this is just to finish out the year I have left on my contract, right?" (wrong.) WHOOOOA - then back it up, no way am I signing my life over to you guys again for 3 more years. Once was bad enough, and I blame that on age and inexperience (now that I'm so much older and more mature... right?). Anyway, I fought my way through it and stood my ground until I got exactly what I wanted - the corporate rate for 1 year. And NOW I'm an elite member which means that I get to bring someone when I go work out! Yay!

Later that night - Thursdays are pool nights, by the way - we were at the pool hall and I was in a match. Without going into tons of (boring) details, everyone who plays APA pool (just one of the kinds of pool leagues) gets a ranking. It goes from 2-7 (7's will whoop you with their eyes closed) and I started as a 2, played well and moved up to a 3. Okay, that's all background. So I'm playing and I'm not in a good mood because I'm getting schooled. The girl I'm playing is a 4, so she had to win 3 games to beat me, I only had to win 2 games to beat her. (Still with me here? Anyone?) As I said, she was killing me and beat me 3 times in a row. Game over. So I piddle over to my table, take my stick apart, put it back in the case and then the other team came over and said "There's still one more game." Wait, what?? Wasn't 3 bad enough? I'm GOING HOME!! Okay, so I wasn't that dramatic, but you get it. Turns out, since I got beat so badly LAST week, I moved back down to a 2, which means she had to beat me 4 times and I only had to beat her twice. So I'm all frustrated and I just want to get it over with but instead of STINKING like I had been, I started playing awesome. And I ended up beating her!! CRAAAAZY!

I'm sure you're just dying to hear about the rest of my weekend, and I'm sorry to disappoint, but I've GOT to get back to work. :) TTFN.

And the Olympic Medal goes to...

We've been watching the Olympics like CRAZY around my house, which is always very entertaining. You will never meet someone more into the Olympics than my dear sweet mother.

If she could sit at home all day, have someone pick up Nick from school, tell someone else to make dinner and clean the house, etc., make one of us help Nick with homework, make him shower, and put him to bed, she probably would glue her butt to the couch and watch every event. She might even drink some Red Bull and coffee just to keep her going through the night! :) Okay, so I'm playin' about most of that, but she LOVES it. And her excited spirit is totally contagious.

I've watched almost every swimming event, diving event, synchro diving, (good) track runs, and some gymnastics. AMAZING. (Now, I won't get all opinionated and tell you that they've been favoring the Chinese in most every event that isn't cut and dried... but that's what's happening.) Other than all the silly politics surrounding the games (and the girls beach volleyball outfits), the Olypics are the most wholesome thing on tv right now. I love having something on at our house that everyone can agree on and we all feel proud to support our country, even if it is just from home.

Well, sorry there's nothing more exciting going on in my life, but to be honest, I'm kind of glad. Things have slowed down a lot, giving me a little breath of fresh air.

Oh yeah, and I didn't start school this week.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friendship.

I really felt the urge to post this quote I just read from the Bible study I'm doing. The writer, Kelly Minter, is talking about living in Nashville:

"I've made some pretty amazing friendships here --the kind of friendships your heart always holds out hope for, but that you're not sure you'll ever find. They aren't perfect friendships, but they are lifelong, deep, and full of whatever says "home"."

Can I get an AMEN? :) There are just times now, when I stop to think about it, that I'm so grateful for life's changes. Things change, your environment changes, your school/work changes, your group of friends changes, your LIFE changes, and God always has a plan for the changes to come. I'm just grateful that all my changes feel like they effortlessly fall in my lap. Crazy cool.

Can we say...

B-E-A-U-TIFUL!?!?!

(me with Mrs. Geyer and Mrs. Walker)

Some people have put up with 22 years of me.

If you hadn't noticed from Saturday's post, I had a birthday this weekend!!

Don't I look older?!


My one "opening" present. :)


"Oh my goodness - you guys REALLY shouldn't have!"


"...but I'm sure glad you did!"


And dadgumit if I didn't make the best wish ever (I'll give ya 2 guesses) and missed one of the candles! Does that mean it won't come true? Do I have to wait until NEXT YEAR to wish it again?!? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Well, it was a strange birthday for me, I must say. I was feeling very selfish. I'm willing to admit that here, because let's face it - when it comes to blogging, you gotta keep it real. So I spend the weeks leading up to my birthday saying, "Oh no, don't worry about getting me anything - there isn't anything I can think of that I want... just don't worry about it!" and being serious about that. Well then it gets to be my birthday and I am totally bummed that I didn't get anything!! Hmmm... logic here? Anyone?

So Jason and I spent the day together and he took me out to J.Alexander's (can anyone say YUMMMMM?!) and we had a fabulous day together. Then Sunday, when I had "family birthday time" I expected to go out to dinner like we usually do, but for whatever reason, my dad just didn't feel like getting out. Oooh - shot to the heart! I'm already sulking about not getting to open any presents at this point, and now I'm feeling even more sorry for myself because I don't get to do exactly what I want. No, no, the steak dinner that my family is preparing for me will not be good enough because it's not "out to eat". Yes, it all seems ridiculous now, but man, yesterday, it was not.

As you can tell from the pictures, I did get to open a gift and holy moly was it a good one! I mean, I had hardly mentioned to my mom that I was looking at those bags and she got the EXACT one in the EXACT pattern I wanted.

Eerah-eesh - oh sorry, I was trying to take my foot out of my mouth.

Now honestly, who would want to put up with 22 years of this!!! I LOVE YOU FAMILY!!!

Guess what???

It's my...

BIRTHDAY!!!


Yay me! :)

Who in the world are YOU?!

UPDATE: Oh, c'mon people. Seriously? No one is reading my blog? I mean, it's nothing SPECIAL, but I just THOUGHT that there were those out there who cared about my life and all the goofy random things that happen. Maybe not. Maybe it's just me, writing to me.

*Is the guilt trip working??? :)


Okay, the second post of the day, and it's gonna be short and sweet.

Who are you?

No, really. I want to know! :) If you are reading this blog RIGHT NOW, then pretty pretty please comment and let me know who you are! You don't have to sign up or anything, just say "Hey, it's Becca and I'm reading your blog today!" Ya know, something like that.

It just hit me the other day that it might be more than Alex, Emily, Becca, and Jennifer M. that read this! If so, I'd like to post things that are a little more fun/relavent for everyone!

NO EXCUSES!! Send me a comment!! :)

Not-So-Silly Bible

I've never really been a HUGE fan of "The Message" Bible translation. Sometimes I think that what it says is downright silly. But today, as I was doing my Bible study, it said to read Colossians 3:1-17 three times and try to read it in three different translations. My small Bible I keep at work is ESV, then I looked up the passage online and read it in the New Living Translation and then from The Message. It still is a little funny to me, because of the way it's worded. It's like, I really don't see Paul sittin' in the jail cell saying "It's your basic, all-purpose garment," but ya know what? For the purpose of truly understanding what he was telling the people at that time, I think The Message does a pretty good job. It's like if Alex was explaining the passage to me in a way that we would normally talk, or like a contemporary sermon. I really GET it.
Anyway, here are the verses as they read from The Message. (Feel free to follow along in your own Bible to notice the differences.)

Colossians 3:1-17

1-2, So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
3-4, Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
5-8, And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
9-11, Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
12-14, So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
15-17, Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

Plant Funeral and Future Inspirations

Well, if you remember from a month ago, I said "It'll be lucky if it doesn't die." in reference to some plants I had in my cubicle? Well, yeah, umm... some bad news. The pretty orange plant that Jason got for me when I had my wisdom teeth out, is officially d.e.a.d.



Oh, you poor poor plant. You never had a chance did you?



You see, there are still a few small blooms in places, but let's face it: it's dead.

Anyway, that's depressing, but here's something that's not! My friend Rachel at work made this amazing piece of art for me. It's going to sit on my desk forever and ever. And I think I'm going to just put the whole thing on the copier and make another one for my room at home. Yeah, I'm sure that'll work.



The point is: Rachel is amazing. She is so thoughtful and has such a heart for others. She's always been one of my biggest cheerleaders at Chattem for getting a full time job, and this was her way of saying congratulations to me. She has definitely been an inspiration to me to take a minute to think about other people and do something to make someone else's day. Just like she made my day!!

So along with all this creative inspiration, I found a semi-friend's blog about her craft projects. (Okay, so a semi-friend means that she knows Becca and Keith and I've spoken all of 10 words to her over the course of 2 Super Bowl parties - just to clarify.) She has such awesome scrapbooking pages and it really started making me think about how important it is to keep memories preserved. I have a scrapbook I made of my senior year of high school and it's so special to look back and think about who I was and what I enjoyed at that time. I bought some paper and will be embarking on the wonderful journey of scrapbooking sometime next week!

YAY ME!

Livin' the High Life.

Helloooooooooo!! For those of you who didn't know, I got to spend last week in Ponte Vedra, FL for Chattem's National Sales Meeting. It was AH-mazing! I had never flown at all before - not even been to an airport - and I got to fly on the company jet! AHH!! Okay, so it wasn't that scary and it was definitely a sweet ride. The flight took all of 45 minutes from Chattanooga and since I'm so used to 8 hour car rides, I was freakin' out. It was awesome that we left at like 8 something and within an hour or two, I was standing on the beach. Whoa.

Anyway, I got to do all kinds of ritzy things I would never get to do otherwise: yacht ride, spa, company jet... yeah, you get the picture. Don't worry - there was still a lot of work going on. We had meetings and presentations from 8-5 pretty much every day we were there. And most nights were planned activities. The sad thing was that I only spent a total of like 2 hours on the beach - 1 1/2 hr. on the first day and 30 minutes another day. Other than that, it was a fantastic trip. I missed J a lot... adding him would be the one thing that would have made the trip even better. :)

Now it's back to the real world and doing two weeks of reports to make up for being gone! Yeesh. AND EMILY AND DAVID ARE GETTING MARRIED ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!! AHHHH!!!! I couldn't be more excited! The Geyers, Walkers, and Rochas have been such wonderful couples friends, and now we don't have to say Bourke and Geyer, we can just say Geyers. :) Though, I'm still not used to calling Alex, Alex Walker... and to be honest, sometimes I call Becca, Becca Power, and I didn't even know her before she got married.

I need help.