Love Can Be

These Harry Potter movies get scarier and scarier:

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/movies/article/let-the-potter-hysteria-begin-again/108108

But it looks very good :)

Ten Feet Tall

Time flies. Even when I try to stop it by filling my days with fun activities and remembering every moment, it still goes fast. It's almost the end of July! Crazy!

I've been cleaning out my new office, trying to get everything ready for the new girl coming to the office and it's amazing what can be thrown away. I think it's a good lesson to me, that the world doesn't end when I throw away a box of things I thought would be important. Just chunk it, get rid of it, cleanse your space. I should take notes and move this cleaning spree over to my apartment - or better yet, my room back at home.

I would create a new Top 3 things to do this week, but last week's to-do has rolled over.

Hello Dolly

As terrible and catastrophic as hurricanes are, I can't help but really like the moments right before the storm hits. It is very quiet, very eery and you can just feel the power of the storm on the horizon. Growing up in Louisiana, hurricanes became commonplace, always around, forcing plans to change, Homecomings or weddings to be moved. It's a familiar catastrophe. I was never truly threatened by them living far from the Gulf, but as we saw with the storms of 2005, hurricanes are not quiet things. They are strangely poetic, as close to a world-wide bath as you're going to get.

Leaves No Doubt

It's already Wednesday and it still feels like Monday. It's been a tough week. I feel one step behind at work, almost as if I can't keep up. I know I'm smart and can do my job well, but sometimes it gets to be too much.

I have cut back on my TV viewing this week. I have only turned it on when I'm going to bed, which I think is a vast improvement. It's amazing what you can get done when that thing is shut off.

Stephanie Top 3 Things to Do This Week:

3. Clean out my closet for goodwill
2. Go to LifeWay to buy a new devotional book
1. Re-budget my monthly expenses - I've only brought lunch once in two weeks!

In honor of Mamma Mia, here are my new favorite lyrics:

So I say thank you for the music,
the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty?
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me...

Since You Went Away

"There are people on this planet whom only you will be able to reach, because of where you live and what God has made you to be. If just one person will be in heaven because of you, your life will have made a difference for eternity."

--Rick Warren, "Purpose Driven Life"

"The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it."

--William James

Absolutely Positively

More wedding time! Had another great weekend in New Orleans at yet another wedding, but thankfully no caught bouquet this time.

Friends are fun. Even though I complain about being out late a lot, and being sweaty in over-crowded bars or clubs, I know that I would rather be there with my good friends than alone in a cold apartment. I'm just bah-humbug too much, and I'm working on it.

Stephanie's Top 5 Things to Do This Week:

5. Dust
4. Buy trash bags (this one is getting interesting)
3. Organize my desk at home
2. Order personalized stationary
1. Go see Mamma Mia with Liza!!

Stephanie's Top 3 Things NOT to Do This Week:

3. Stress about wedding talk
2. Leave late for work
1. Skip breakfast - most important meal of the day!

Sometimes Gentle, Sometimes Wild

[Wildflowers in February, 7.13.08]

Like wild flowers, gentle in the sun
You stand taller than all the rest and
No sooner do I step forward for you
Do I realize that you are already there
Waiting for me at the end of the aisle
In the gentleness of the sun
And in the wildness of the flowers in my hand...

Wal-Marks

Looks like Wal-Mart is jiving to a hip new groove...

http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=129515

Melted Ice Cream

I've got my memories
Always inside of me
But I can't go back
Back to how it was

I believe you now
I've come too far
No I can't go back
Back to how it was

Created for a place I've never known

This is home
Now I'm finally back to where I belong
Where I Belong
Yeah, this is home
I've been searching for a place of my own
Now I've found it
Maybe this is home
This is home

Belief over misery
I've seen the enemy
And I won't go back
Back to how it was
And I got my heart set on what happens next
I got my eyes wide it's not over yet
We are miracles and we're not alone

And now after all my searching
After all my questions
I'm gonna call it homeI
've got a brand new mindset
I can finally see the sunset
I'm gonna call it home...

Switchfoot, "This is Home"

In Faith

Back to reality. Back at work. Back before I knew it.

But what a great vacation. I've found the secret of fulfilling vacations. Take a vacation the week of a Friday holiday, starting the Friday before. That way, you are really only taking 40 hours of leave, but you get an extra day for free! And you feel like you are gone for two weeks because you have two weekends in between. Brilliant!

Found this fun website where you can build your own robot from Wall-E. A good time waster!

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/buildabot/index.html

Stephanie's Top 5 Things To Do This Week:

5. Completely un-pack
4. Bring lunch every day to work
3. Celebrate Katherine and Stacey's birthday!
2. Vacuum
1. Exercise at least 3 days

Word of the day: veto

When I Wake Up

Wedding time!

I had a great trip to West Palm Beach for the beginning of my vacation and to see Jason's family and cousin get married. It was a really fun time - definitely a lot of family time, but really, really wonderful people.

So I'm still on vacation, which is a wonderful feeling. A refreshing, a recharger, if you will. July 4th is this Friday. We can't forget to stop and remember why we celebrate. This country is safe and secure because of guys my age that went to war to protect little 'ol me. I don't want to forget why we are lucky to be American.

Song of the Day: "Not as We" -- Alanis Morissette