Overdue pictures

Joy being given away:


Just before the vows:


Lighting the unity candle


And the kiss:


The FTAers that were all dressed up from the wedding:


Just moments after Will kissed Lee:


Ben and Lee:


Sarah doing dishes afterwards:








Shot to a week later because I left my camera at Sarah's house:






Will telling one of his infamous tales during icebreaker time:


Thumbs:


Points:


"It's all about me" - Will:


We had a lot of left over tomato soup last week, so Jimbo and Dave had some sort of contest:


Altoids:




Lee's Big 2-7:


Rachel and I sharing some BBQ Pork at the bash:


"Metamucil!?" - Lee:


The Quickerts doing the coolest thing I'd ever seen:

Staples

When you open a new box of staples do you ever feel like "there is no way I'm ever going to use all these staples"?

Wellness Resources

I left my paycheck at work yesterday, but since we were open today I decided to go in in the morning and pick it up. So I go in there, and I see Mary and Katie

"Hey Christine" - Mary
"Hi, I forgot my paycheck" - me
"What are you doing right now?" - Mary
"Do you want to work?" - Katie

So, I worked today, and it was spontaneous and good.

Muffin

Muffin has lots of little quirks. He loves cream cheese for instance. Sometimes he goes crazy and starts running and pooping all over the place. He loves having his mane fluffed. He's always vigilantly waiting for when I wake up so he can crawl on my back and sniff my face. Sometimes he squeaks when he yawns, and sometimes for no apparent reason at all. If you leave him on his own for a few weeks he completely lets himself go - like one giant clump. He has the craziest sounding growl in the world, he can do it for sooooo long, and if he opens his mouth to eat a cat treat during the growl it sounds like he's saying "mmmm mar mar mar." He's scared of everything, one sudden move and he is definitely under that bed. I remember trying to let him go outside back when we lived in Richfield, you had to stand holding the door completely still and you couldn't move your body even an inch until he made his way through the door. Sometimes this process would take 20 minutes or more. You pretty much just had to pick him up and place him outside. He kisses forheads. I kiss his forehead and then he kisses mine! It's sooooo cute. He can be a bit of a grouch, and he's got the prettiest eyes in the world!

Anyway, he used to do this thing where he'd very softly rub his head and nose on your arm and if he feels comfortable enough with you he'll very gently bite your arm until you pay attention to him. I always loved it because it would always throw me so off guard.

He hasn't done it for a long time, but he just did it! I wanted to just eat him up.

Muffin is so cute!

Are you kidding me? Saw 2?

Straight C's!

Clean room, clean laundry, cute cat.

I've been a wee bit crabby today...which I'm not feeling too good about

but Jene just sent me these!

Wednesday nights...

The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.
- C.S. Lewis

Man, I just had the most incredible night.

I was driving to Caribou after work, but I happened upon Lake Calhoun during the sunset. It was way too breathtaking of an opportunity to pass over.

So I changed, right then and there in the car, into some running clothes and gave that lake a run. It was incredible. By the time I got back to my car, it was pitch dark, but the random lights here and there reflecting off the lake were still more beautiful than my heart could handle.


I got to caribou, ordered a coffee, arranged myself so that I was curled up by the fire, and read the rest of The Sacred Romance. Can I just say that this is, save the Bible, the best book I've ever read in my life. About five months ago I tried to read it and had to put it down because I didn't think I was ready for it. I understand more now why I did that because I couldn't think of a more appropriate time to read it than in these last few weeks.

Over the last month or so, the underlying theme in everything that God has been showing me has been hope. I don't know, maybe that's been the theme the entire time and I'm just finally getting it...I went to a seminar in Illinois about hope, and the guy running it encouraged us to be allowing every single moment in our lives to be invigorating our hope for what is in store for us when we finally get where we're meant to be. And of course there were those five hours I spent watching The Shawshank Redemption which led me to write down every verse in the bible that used the word "hope."

Man, hope.

Of course we're dissapointed [in the things we put our hope into - careers, relationships, vacations, etc.] - we're made for so much more. "He has also set eternity in the hearts," (Eccl. 3:11)..." If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy," C.S. Lewis wrote, "the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."


How exciting is it to imagine that other world? I mean, really. It seems childish sometimes to let our imaginations run wild...but we've got to let them run wild...whatever our wildest imaginations can hold about Heaven, what lies in store for us is far beyond it. Think of the hope that can arise from our own imaginations!

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him
- Corinthians 2:9

We cannot outdream God.







The White Stone
You'll have to forgive my stream-of-thought-ish post, but now I want to talk about this "white stone." It's probably one of my favorite things to think about in regards to Heaven. I guess it was one of those things that was so confusing to me the first time I heard about it that I could not stop thinking about it. It comes from Revelations 2:17:

And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.


The authors of The Sacred Romance on page 162 describe it this way:
When we get to heaven, God will give us a white stone with a name on it that only he knows; the kind of name one lover calls another in private because it reveals something very personal about their relationship.

George Macdonald, a theologian, describes it this way:

It is the man's own symbol - his soul's picture, in a word - the sign which belongs to him and to no one else. Who can give a man his own name? God alone. For no one but God sees what the man is...It is only when the man has become his name that God gives him the stone with the name upon it, for then first can he understand what his name signifies...Such a name cannot be given until the man is the name...that being whom He had in His thought when He began to make the child, and whom He kept in His thought through the long process of creation that went to realize the idea. To tell the name is to seal the success - to say "In thee also I am well pleased." (Unspoken Sermons) (bold is my own emphasis)

So.....exciting.

So, anyhow, that's the short version of what God was showing me tonight. I was excited about it and knowing how easily it is for me to forget the things God shows me shortly after they've been shown, I felt like I needed to get it down before I went to bed...If you read through it all, wow, thanks!

Yeah woo Jess!

So I went to go see Jess at Starbucks this morning and she made me a huge Venti Caramel Macchiato. Can I just say that this is the best coffee drink I've ever had in my life? Jess made it with whole milk and then skim milk for the foam because she said it's better that way. It must have been because it was amazing.

Yesterday I set my alarm to wake up at 5:30 this morning, to drive to Lake H. and run, but I forgot to actually set the alarm...so at about 8am I woke up all dissapointed...

There's always tomorrow, or tonight, or both!!!

Yesterday

The day started off with a wedding. Tears for Joy...and Chris.

I'm sure I'll post pictures on here shortly. It was such a sweet wedding, and the vows were so touching.


After the wedding Keith and I were talking, and he told me to have one of the guys kiss Lee at small group and say it was from him (Keith). So I just said "Will will probably do it" as I motioned to him across the room.

Shot to a few hours later when Will reluctantly walked up to Lee and said "hey man, how ya doin?" and then kissed him on the cheek. It was genuinely one of my favorite moments of all time. The only thing better was Lee's reaction.


Then I talked to Ally on the phone for a long time; we were talking about the Amish store where she likes to stock up on groceries, she said you can get boxes of spaghetti for 10 cents.

Can I get a WHAT?!

The simple decision that I was unable to make by myself.

I wanted to go see a movie tonight, but when I got to the cheap theatre all ready to see The Island, I saw that Must Love Dogs was playing. Scarlett Johansen clone thriller? or John Cusack romantic comedy?



So I called my mom.


After her wise advice (thanks mom!) I decided to see The Island.

3 things

1. The interviews are just rolling in. Two analyst position interviews. I've gotta brush up on regression analysis dogs.

2. Ever since I decided my favorite meat is Italian Sausage, I don't even understand why I would ever buy any other kind of meat! Ground Italian Sausage is better than ground hamburger in both spaghetti AND Sloppy Joes. Italian Sausages are better than hot dogs. Bratwurst is also better than hot dogs. Anyhow, I've decided Italian Sausage is going to be a "trademark" of mine. If you want Italian Sausage, you come over to my house.

3. I'm going to the Walker Art Museum now, all by myself!

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure - Phillipians 2:13

I had an interesting bus ride today. I found myself listening in on a conversation that a man in the back of the bus was having with someone on the other end of his cell phone.

He was talking about an experience he'd had the other day where God called him to go up to a stranger and talk to him. He kept saying to the person on the phone "The Lord was telling me to say these things. My thoughts kept interrupting it, claiming these words were coming from me, but why would I say that to myself? I wouldn't." Knowing that he was being commanded by God to speak to this strange guy, he decided he had to obey.

Let's pause. I'm trying to think of a situation where I would be able to do something like this, and I can't. When I feel like God is telling me to do something, do I obey? Do I even allow myself to recognize it as God? When I don't feel like obeying, do I simply convince myself that they are my own thoughts and not from God at all?

So without retelling the entire story, I'll just say that I am 100% confident that this man changed the stranger's entire life. As they talked he was relying completely on God to tell him what to do or say next. He was, in effect, prophesying to this man, telling him personal things that only this stranger and God could possibly know. Telling the man the steps God was asking him to do in his life. I know I'm not giving a lot of details, but this was one of the most amazing stories I've ever heard.

A little while later after I got off the bus, I sat down on a bench and prayed and cried and thanked God for people like this man. I thank God that there are believers who are willing to put themselves in awkward positions simply because they know God is commanding them to do so. How much would our world change if every believer had such a heart?

Pictures!

These are the girls from the first FTA gathering!


Lee's "mullet" from the 10-mile run:


Here are the FTA cowgirls:


Fondue night!


Rachel cutting bread on fondue night:


The cheeese:


Here's my adorable neice, Charlotte:


and then there is this really cute cat picture I found online:

Who knew?

From an email I just got from my parents:

Most Fun U.S. City Is...
It's not New York, New Orleans, or even Las Vegas. The city where you'll have the most fun is...Minneapolis.

That's the word from game maker Cranium, Inc., which commissioned Bert Sperling, who masterminded the "Best Places to Live" feature for Money magazine, to rank 50 cities for their fun factor. This was determined by the city's number of sports teams, restaurants, dance performances, toy stores, and the amount of the city's budget that is spent on recreation, among other factors.

And why did Minneapolis beat out cities known for the classic fun factors of sin and sun? According to Cranium, the goal was to find a city that is an "outrageously fun experience with something for everyone." Minneapolis won because it's the home of Mary Tyler Moore, four professional sports teams, and the best mall in America. Minneapolis has more theaters than Boston, more parks than Denver, more golfers per capita than any other city in America, and with 10,000 lakes in the state, Minnesota, has more coastline than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined. It even has 15 dog parks. Woof! Cranium CEO Richard Tait said, "It's almost a no-brainer" to crown Minneapolis the Most Fun City.


Perhaps even more startling than the fact that Minneapolis is No. 1 is that New Orleans is No. 50. Does that mean a trip to the Mall of America is more fun than Mardi Gras? You decide.

Here are the top 50 fun cities, ranked from top to bottom:


Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Orange County, California
San Jose, California
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago, Illinois
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Washington, DC
Oakland, California
Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
Portland-Vancouver, Oregon-Washington
San Francisco, California
Baltimore, Maryland
Milwaukee-Waukesha, Wisconsin
Denver, Colorado
Detroit, Michigan
St. Louis, Missouri
San Diego, California
Indianapolis, Indiana
Cincinnati, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sacramento, California
Nashville, Tennessee
Las Vegas, Nevada
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas
Nassau-Suffolk, New York
Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, North Carolina
Omaha, Nebraska
Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, Virginia
Houston, Texas
Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, Ohio
Dallas, Texas
Memphis, Tennessee
Orlando, Florida
Louisville, Kentucky
Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
Riverside-San Bernardino, California
Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, North Carolina
New York, New York
Boston, Massachusetts
Hartford, Connecticut
Austin-San Marcos, Texas
Newark, Newark
Miami, Florida
Bergen-Passaic, Newark
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona
New Orleans, Louisiana


Seriously, who knew?

I do what I'm told

My friend Andre (the friend who is in the band I told you about) left me this message while I was axis:

Imeatingthebread (6:44:05 PM): hey christine
StepfordMustDie (6:44:06 PM): homework then axis!
Imeatingthebread (6:44:09 PM): get all your friends to do this
Imeatingthebread (6:44:10 PM): FOR TRIPLE J
click on here http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/net50/default.htm

and type into the artist field: "Jane Vs World" and the song field: "B-Grade Lisa Loeb"
we're not yet listed on the menu, but hoping if we all get our neighbours, work-pals and school friends to vote at least once this week, we might just get it added!
Imeatingthebread (6:44:20 PM): vote for us to be on radio !
Imeatingthebread (6:44:21 PM): :-)

Help a brotha out.

My knots hurt

Amber, how long you got that massage bed here?

My morning conversation with the maintenance man

So, the maintenance man was working in my neighbor's apartment this morning...and we had a little conversation as I was leaving to go to school. He asked me when I was graduating, and what I was studying, then he asked if I was going to graduate school.

"No, I'm just going to get a job" - me
"You should go two more years, and get your masters" - him
"No, I can't afford to do that" - me
"Go two more years and then work two years and it's paid for!" - him
"Noo, haha I don't think I'm going to do that" - me
"Just do it" - him
"haha, I don't know..." - me
"say yes, please" - him
"we'll see" - me
"please say yes"- him


He really wanted me to go to graduate school...

Avril

Last night at Leaning Tower of Pizza, Avril Lavigne came on the radio. It was her first single...you know the one I'm talking about...(chill out, whatcha yellin for?)

Peter goes "remember when you picked me up from Mankato, freshman year, and we heard this song on the radio for the first time, and we were like 'we kinda like this, who is this?'"








"all I remember was that all summer I could not, for the life of me, remember what her name was" - me
"and now she's a superstar" - Peter




So young.

I think I know the answer now.

Shawshank Redemption

I'm watching The Shawshank Redemption.

I just cried for the last 10 minutes...from when Brooks has his knife up against Hayward's neck to just after he dies. My entire body was literally shaking. I was biting my pillow to muffle my screams and just could not stop crying.

That has got to be one of the most painful and heartwrenching scenes ever made for a movie.


If you could explain to me why that scene hurts so much to watch, I would really appreciate it. Is it the way it's filmed? Is it the sympathetic shots that do it? Or is it the underlying message beneath them? Both? Why is it that I just cried so hard? And why did it make my heart hurt so much?

The Great Flood of Minnesota

...not as tragic as the one in Genesis or in New Orleans, but a flood nonetheless.

So there's a thunderstorm covering the entire state of Minnesota right now. All the way from Lake Superior to Iowa I think.




We were sitting in Jodi's living room talking, when this woman knocked on Jodi's door and frantically asked us for a flashlight.


Woah. We didn't even know it was raining.

We looked outside and saw that her neighborhood was under water. It didn't take us long to figure out that we needed to move our cars.

So we ran out to the street, but by the time I got to the sidewalk I realized that I was underwater all the way to my thighs...I started swishing/swimming to my car, and in the process of doing that my shoe fell off...so I'm standing in the street outside my car (which was immersed in water all the way to the headlights), without one shoe.

"Where's my shoe??" I cried. "I think you're shoe is lost" Kate replied. "Are you okay??" - Jodi. "I'm missing a shoe!! It should be floating, it's made of rubber!! Where is it!?" A few minutes later Jodi shouts "there it is!" it had floated like 2 car lengths down and into the middle of the street...we laughed, retrieved it, and put it in its place (on my right foot)

Ohhhh, the adventure...then we ran inside...all pretty soaked at this point. Then Jodi decided she wanted to play in the flood...so after I got done calling my parents, I took some pictures of Kate and Jodi playing in the flood and then I ran out and started playing too (Krista held my camera).

"I'm going to do underwater push-ups!" - me

And I did.

In San It Ty

After we'd had enough, we came inside...I took a shower, and Jodi french braided Kate's and my hair...and eventually the floodwaters receded enough for us to get in our cars and drive home...pretty sure the rain is going to keep on going through the night.

Never thought I'd have an opportunity to do underwater push-ups in the street. Who knew tonight would be my night?

a potpourri about how cool my friends are

The other day itunes played The Subterraneans by Jane vs World...and I was getting into it and getting all excited because this is totally the band that my friend Andre is in now! It's super poppy and Andre used to be all into the whole "wear black clothes/hair, sing emo music, and choreograph hardcore moves with our other friend Joe" thing. What can I say? Andre's an interesting amalgamation of hilariousness and talent.

And here's Joe and Andre outside of my Australia apartment just before breaking out into some of them hardcore moves (if you look closely at the hoodie joe is wearing you might recognize it as the hoodie belonging to me, Christine Grue):



and now he is a proud member of Jane vs World, a female fronted piano based pop group.


I of course love it with all my heart. They're about to start an east coast tour in Australia, and I think Joe is touring with them as a drummer...so man alive how fun would it be to see that!


Here's a sample of random lyrics that I heard while I was typing this (imagine sweet pop piano playing as you read)

"we've got nowhere else to go...but San Francisco City..."

"boy from canada...told you all about what's in vegemite"

"woah oh woah woah, you said my non-prescription glasses...made me look hardcore"

"jack finds his pen and takes it, says 'hey man, we're going to make it, graduation! it's overrated.' Such is my life with the subterraneans"

"I used to...ba ba ba da...write baaaaad...[piano solo]....poetry...ahh-oooooo"

"boy I don't want to be your B-grade Lisa Loeb any more, woah woah oh woah, ah wah ah oh"

"bah bah bah bah bah bah, Sebastian steps down from the tower in my mind"

"Sebastian are you as confused as I?? Bah bah bah, bah bah bah"



This band is already hitting the airwaves in Austin, TX...should be just a matter of days before it hits the U of M airwaves. We are always following the footsteps of Austin. Austin, sigh, how I love thee...but I've digressed.


Here's what I found from PopBoomerang about the band while I was doing some google research:

*JANE VS WORLD*

The worst kept secret in the Melbourne pop scene is that Popboomerang Records has signed new pop group Jane Vs World and will release the bands debut 6 track CD “56K Hearts” early 2006. Jane V’s World feature ex Sarah Sarah lead vocalist Kate Duncan who has teamed up with keyboard wizz Jadey O’Regan to craft cute pop songs about popular culture & of course broken hearts! The band are putting the finishes touches to their full line up as we speak & will hit the live scene very soon. Listen out for the first single from the EP “B-Grade Lisa Loeb” which is released to radio next week.


And here's another cool thing about one of my friends...last weekend my friend/EP roommate, Sara, and her family went out to eat with Josh McDowell before he spoke at their church, and I just saw this picture of Sara and her brother and Mr. McDowell on her xanga. Look how happy she looks! I love it.

The Finish Line

Congratulations Lee-am and Kremer on a run well-ran!

Sunday

So today was absolutely fantastic.

Woke up real early to go check out Lee and Kremer running in the 10 mile! Yay! And we met Lee's parents which was awesome because they're real sweet, and Lee is the spitting image of both his mom and his dad. It's kind of mesmerizing.

Anyway, so that was fun, and then by the time we got home (which was much later because it was quite a little obstacle course getting home with Summit closed for the marathon). Then I called people, watched Celeb. Pok. Show., took a short nap, got the food together and headed over to Sarah's house. We cooked and stuff, and then people came over...and it was AWESOME!

There were only seven people there...which was sort of a blessing (besides the fact that we had way too much food since we were expecting 20). The conversation got pretty deep, and it felt like everyone was really comfortable being open with each other. One of the girls just moved from another state, and she told us how at home she felt with us and The Rock already, that it was a refuge for her already...how encouraging is that? To know that the group already has formed that environment, and it's only the first week...so, pretty much, the best FTA ever. I'm just using her as an example though, I think overall it was a really uplifting and refreshing evening for everybody.

And what does FTA mean to us next week? Well friends, next week it means Freeing Tom Arnold.

Free Tom Arnold!

Old Red

I'm at Caffetto (where else would I be on my day off?)

30 minutes ago I left my apartment. I opened the car door, sat sideways on the seat so I could roll my pants up above my knees before swiveling on into the car. The other day I got home from meeting with Lee and Rachel and the bottom of my pants were all wet. My roommate Nikki asks "was it raining?" "no...oh, my pants? my car floods."

My car floods, and I've found that my crocs are ideal driving shoes.


So I was in my car, trying to brake as little as possible because whenever I step on the brake it makes a screeching whistley sound (a-like so: "screeeeeeeeeeaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech") and it's really nice out today (76 degrees), so when I was on the highway my car overheated. I blasted the heat until the check gages light turned off. It did. No bigs.

Never during this flooding, screeching, and overheating did I stop singing along to the music or to really even think twice about it...because it's just Old Red...he's quirky.




"Until you thought twice enough to decide it warranted a blog entry." - y'all
"Touche" - me