a nutshell update

I'm feeling a need to categorize my crazy life of late. Here are the bullet points:

About a week ago I finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. It offends some, but inspires most. I suppose I can see why it offends some, as through most of the book God is depicted as a motherly figure in the form of a large black woman. The Holy Spirit is played by a small Asian woman and Jesus is, well, a Middle Eastern carpenter. The story's central character is a man named Mack who meets God in the woods in human form and spends a life-transforming weekend delving the depths of his soul, his pride, and his pain. He emerges a different man, as should anyone who reads Young's book. It has challenged my faith in a way no other book has. I highly recommend it, even if you're of the variety to end up offended.

I am now reading The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. Its a fun read involving my favorite pasttime. More on that when I've finished.

Speaking of knitting, last night I finished a sweater I've been knitting for over a month. Today I'm wearing it at work. So far no one has told me how awesome it is, which concerns me, because its pretty awesome. I'll have Hunkyness take pictures tonight and post them soon. By the way, if you're ever interested in taking a look at my entire collection of knitted and crocheted goods, they're all here. There's also a link under Life in Pictures in the sidebar.

Now I'm working on two new projects, both with ridiculous due dates. But, I'll do what I can, hoping to avoid carpal tunnel or arthritis in the process.

Its still very weird seeing my grandpa without my grandma. We still refer to his house as Grandma and Grandpa's, a habit that will be hard to break. Grandma is still a hot topic of conversation and storytelling, a habit I hope we never break. And sometimes for no reason at all I cry or get angry at the smallest things, and I think its my heart still dealing with the loss. Hopefully Hunkyness can hang in there until I've gotten past the hardest part, because I'm a little unpredictable right now (well, more than usual anyway).

I love the Olympics. Along with Bela Karolyi I'm outraged at the gymnastics scoring debacle, but excited to see the U.S. doing so well. Its been really fun watching Michael Phelps be the first Michael Phelps. And that 100 meter dasher Usain Bolt of Jamaica ... I swear he has wings! I've been staying up too late and watching too much TV ... but I do love the Olympics.

I've learned it's important to be careful where you leave fancy gift chocolates lying about ... because if they're within jumping distance the dog will surely find them, eat them all, then throw them all up, leaving large brown stains on the white carpet, then be so hopped up on sugar the rest of the night you'll want to kill the cute puppy that hours earlier you were afraid would die of chocolate poisoning (oh, but what a way to go). She's OK today, spending the day up at my parents'. Hopefully she's running off the last of the sugar and caffeine coursing through her 11-pound body.

I spent three full nights last week helping Amy get her wedding invitations done. Because of Grandma's death the invitations ended up being a last-minute project. But, after a little hard work and some help from a somewhat-helpful Kinko's employee, they were finished! If you're so lucky to be an invitee to this very exclusive event, please be overly impressed by these invites. We invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears ... literally.

I don't know when this happened, but some time over the past couple weeks (as my husband was letting me sleep in due to extra tiredness from family events) the days have gotten shorter. This morning was the first morning back into the routine for me and it was dark when I awoke for our morning walk! I'm already not a morning person, but when I have to get up before the sun, I get particularly angry. Oh well, its a small price to pay to get to my favorite season, Fall.

Those are the highlights. This weekend we celebrate Amy's 26th birthday and on Wednesday Rachel, Amy and I are spending the day at the spa. We're all hoping by next weekend my brother and sister-in-law's baby is born and we'll be heading to San Diego to celebrate and meet Madeleine. Then we're in September, and wedding planning and festivities step up a notch as we all prepare for Hans and Amy's nuptials. How exciting.

And before we know it, Christmas will be here. How did that happen? I've only barely gotten used to writing 2008.