It's been over a month since I've last posted anything. I'm sorry about the delay. Things have been a little crazy around here. For the most part things are OK, or getting there, but it still feels like a lot of this is up in the air. Oh, well. Through all of this I have found a new closeness to God and new levels of trust in Him. Through some of the darkest times in these past few months, I've felt the reassuring hand of God working in my life. And through it all, I've known that things were going to turn out fine. But that's not really what I wanted to talk about here. So, I'll move on...

As most of you probably know, tomorrow is my 27th birthday. Most of you are probably saying that this shouldn't bother me. I'm still young. But it does bother me. It's been eating at me most of this week. I'm not sure why, but I feel a whole lot older the 27, but at the same time can't believe that I'm 27. I know it's not a milestone year like 30 or 20 or 25, but for some reason it has really affected me. I find myself dreading tomorrow. I know that it won't change anything, but it feels like it will. I've already gone through my quarter life crisis at 25. I've already thrown my life in the air to see where it lands by quitting jobs and ended up right back where I started. As I said at the beginning of this blog, I feel closer to God than I have in a long time. But for some reason. This one day really bothers me.

I think part of it has to do with being closer to the age where I need to know what's happening in my life. At least this is how I feel. It seems that most people my age seem to have most things figured out. You've settled into a career. You're starting your family. For the most part you know where you're life is going. I don't have anything figured out. I don't have a career. Kids seem so distant to me right now. Life seems so up in the air for me. Jennifer has a career. Our friends are having kids like crazy. It feels like time has slipped away from me and I don't know what happened. My whole life I've had these huge dreams of what I was going to do with my life. Very rarely have they involved a steady and normal career. And until I met Jennifer they didn't usually involve kids and a family. 

I think part of it is the conflicting voices in my head. One says I should give up my dreams and just settle for what I have now. One says not to give up the dreams. Not to forget the things I have now, but to look instead to the dreams that God has given me. The talents that I have. The ideas being planted in my head.

I think the thing that's getting me the most about this birthday is that it's bringing both voices out louder. And with all this screaming in my head it seems hard to concentrate on anything else.

Well, anyway... If you read all of that, I thank you. I don't know if any of it made sense. It's really early or late or however you want to look at it, and sleep has been hard with the voices and all.

As I end this post, I don't want anyone to worry about me. I didn't write these things up here to cause you to worry. I just needed a place to get these things out. Hopefully tomorrow will come and go soon. Maybe my mind will calm down a little after that.

Thanks...

~gs/the walking zombie/the 27 year old who knows nothing but that God is good

Changes to blog

Well. You've probably already noticed one of the changes. I don't know why, but I just like this one better. There will also be other changes to my blog. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I don't feel that it will be the same no matter what. I'll probably still post on here from time to time. But it will not be a day by day account of my life. I can only post that I got up, went to work, came home, eat and slept so many times before it gets a little boring. I will still post things on here from time to time. But probably not everyday and probably not about the comings and goings of my life.

I have several things I'm thinking about doing with this space. One of the is an outlet for creative writing. I don't know how that one will pan out, but we'll have to wait and see. I just wanted to let anyone who does read this not to expect too much out of me on here. I just don't seem to have it in me to do this kind of day to day life reporting. Or, at least, don't have interesting things to write about from day to day.

Well, now that I've said my peace I'll be off and out for a while.

~gs

Weekend With The Coles

Jennifer's parents flew in this weekend to see us in our new home. We picked them up at PDX on Saturday and took them back to our apartment to show them our new place. Then we headed out to a car show in the area.

Then after some fun with the bus system and some broken down buses, we made it back to our place. By then it was getting late. Especially for the Coles who were still on CST. We took them back to there hotel and grab some dinner at the Black Bear Diner. It's a great place to eat, and also right next to the closest hotel.

Sunday morning I could not seem to get up. So, Jennifer went with her parents to Portland First Church Of The Nazarene. One of Jennifer's mom friends is the pastor's wife here. We thought it would nice to go there because of the connection. But the pastor is in the middle of a three mont sabbatical that ends in a few weeks. Jennifer said that the service was nice and that even with the pastor and his wife gone the Nazarene web still holds strong. They met a few people that they knew anyway.

Then they came home and changed and picked me up and we headed down the the Oregon Zoo. We had a great time and some some great animals. We actually saw some that we didn't see the last time we went because it was a lot cooler and cloudy so more of them were out in the open.

After that we came back to Beaverton with the hopes of going out to Borders. But the bus that goes out there doesn't run after 7 or so. So, we just walked down to Burgerville for some dinner. I have to say I was impressed by the quality of food. I don't think I've ever actually ate at one before, but I really liked it. I even ate a Walla Walla Sweet Onion Ring for my dad. It was really good.

Well, that's all the adventures for so far. I'll update again in the next few days as things happen.

Some Pictures from a Weekend with the Coles

Steve at the car show

Cheryl at the car show

Can I have me treat from Sampson yet?

Are bald eagles really bald?

The Cole Exhibit at the zoo

Here grizzly, grizzly...

Here's to Walla Walla

So, Long Time, No Update

Well, it's been awhile since I last updated you all. So, I thought I'd say a few words. Work is going good. My schedule is now Monday to Friday 6:30-1 or 2. I like this because it gives me the weekends off. The main reason I have this schedule now is that I can't get to work until at least 7 on Saturdays and they didn't like that very much. So, we switched it up. Also this will give me the weekends to spend with Jennifer, seeing as those are her days off too. She is supposed to start work sometime this next week, but has to wait for the paper work to be done, so probably not till Tuesday or Wednesday.

Jennifer and I tried to make it in to get our Oregon Driver's License on Friday, but we didn't have the right papers to show our residency here so we will try to make it back in tomorrow after I get off work, if Jennifer doesn't work. We'll have to wait and see.

Then the big news that everyone is talking about is that Harry Potter 7 came out. I wanted to go out to the midnight release, but there was no way we would have made it back home, so we made the trip out to Border's Saturday morning to pick it up. I haven't read that much yet. Unfortunately I have to sleep sometimes. If I had been able to get it Friday night I would have stayed up reading it, but I can't do that now. Maybe tonight, but we'll have to see about that.

This morning Jennifer and I got up and went to church for the first time while here in Portland. We took a short bus ride over to St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church here in Beaverton. We neither one really felt at home in this church though and are not too sure if we will go back. But oh well. We knew it wouldn't be easy to find a new church. We have several more that we'll try though. We'll keep you updated on the church search.

I think that's it for now.

Well, if you've been reading Jennifer's blog, you know that tonight we went to the Portland Beavers game against the Tacoma Rainiers. We cheered for the home team as you might expect, but unfortunately the Beavers lost 8-3. We did have a great time at the game though and are looking forward to many more outings to PGE Park in the near future. In case you don't know the Beavers are a Triple-A farm team for the San Diego Padres. The park was really nice. The seats need more leg room, but what's new about that. I'm sorry, we didn't bring our camera, so no pictures for now. Maybe the next time we go.

Well, I think that's it for now. I'm still not feeling too great. This cold seems to be sticking around rather than getting better.

First week of work...

Well, this was my first week of working again. But, it has also brought on a bad case of sickness. I woke up Friday morning not feeling good, but thinking it would go away. Well, it didn't. It only got worse. My sinus' were draining like crazy and I was starting to not feel good at all by the time I headed home. I'm still not sure how I made it home that day without collapsing, but I did. I wasn't on my feet for more than a few minutes though once I got home. Jennifer had some Sudafed left over and so I took some of that I started to feel a little better. I went back and forth between sleeping and being awake for most of that night. I have to say that Jennifer took pretty good care of me. But all through out the night I was going from burning hot to feeling cold, while still being extremely hot to the touch.

Needless to say by the time work came around I was not feeling very alive. So, I waited until the others got to work and regretfully called in sick. I hated doing this, but I didn't feel I had much choice. I didn't think they'd want me to get everyone else sick and I doubted that they would want a zombie wondering around their store.

Aside from that this week has gone really well. I think I've shown them my worth by being able to do so many things that not everyone can do. It feels good to have new people complement me. I must say that I like this new store. True it is about twice as big as my old one. But it's a really nice place and the people are nice too. I wasn't too sure about meeting all the new people, but they actually remind me of the people at the other store. It's strange how that works.

Well, I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'm feeling better by Tuesday.