Happy Ugly Sweater Day!

Tonight Layne and I went ice skating to celebrate both Christmas, Ugly Sweater Day, and Talk With a Fake British Accent Day. Turns out the Galleria has the largest indoor Christmas tree in America! We feel fancy now.

Aaa! Big tree is coming to get my ugly sweater! Now... I feel burdened to say this. The sweater I'm wearing is my dad's (that's why it fits so awfully... I'm not really rectangular, people)... and I want to clarify that on him it is a really awesome Christmas sweater. It's simply the fact of a girl wearing it that makes it that. On him? Not ugly. On me? Um, yeah.

We got to the rink during an ice dancing show, so we had to wait an hour... so we tried on formal gowns!

I love the picture on the left. While we were in the store we talked in British accents the whole time. It was FUN!

Finally on the ice... we had to accept that we looked like spazzes. Yikes. We got pretty good by the end though, I could skate on one foot like a fancy swan.

...My teeth freak me out in this one. Actually I look pretty awful in all of these. Oh well. The sweater in person was more of a Sandra Bullock in While You Were Sleeping kind of look... not just... like... Frosty the Snowman.

We named the tree Bill, and decided that someday we will be in charge of decorating it, and will put a moustached face on it. Yes!

There was this really cute guy there, and he was an amazing skater! Fancy jumps and stuff! Plus, later on he put on a really awesome logger hat with a fur pom-pom on top. Nice.

Waiting for the Zamborghini to be done (isn't my face crazy red!?haha). Yes, a Zamborghini is a really fancy Italian Zamboni.

Attempted ice dancing. We both fell down only once!

We're gonna make this a tradition, it was so much fun... even though I'm partially dead today. My feet blister really easily because they're shaped funny from so many broken toes. Plus we skated for TWO 1/2 HOURS. Go us! Next year, however, our costume of choice will be... ugly sweaters, funny stockings, sparkly ice princess eyeshadow, and FLUFFY TUTUS!

(p.s. the winter olympics are my favorite.)

(p.p.s. i was a little scared of ice skating, and i'm not now... so theres something off the list!)

Is't Possible?

Maybe, just maybe

I ate oatmeal this morning.

And... liked it.

Oh, Amy, you're rubbing off on me with your oatmeal love; turning me, of all people, who used to scorn oatmeal as "gross slimy pig-food"... into one of those healthy rednosed Scottish highlanders in "Wee Gillis".

Anatidaephobia

The fear that you are being watched

by a duck.

-photo via flickr

chim chim cheree!

Last night I went to the amazing Emily's birthday party, with Isaac and Erika. We had cupcakes and girly food (which Isaac was very obliging about) and watched 17 Again, which I honestly enjoyed lots! It was rather silly though, I admit. After Erika left, the three of us sailed paper boats in the freezing pool and climbed onto the roof to see the stars and the city in the distance. We pretended ... ok, so I pretended to be on a barn outside of Lyons.

And felt awfully, terribly brave. Heights, roofs... are kind of high up on the scaredy list. So this was a part of my new experiment. Next on the list?

Overcoming my fear of YMCA Lifeguards. Yes, I'm serious.

They're kinda creepy, and oh so very judgy judgerson. Their faces just scream "oh eh heh heh, I can swim so very much faster than that." But someday soon I'm going to just do it.

I'm going to go to the Y and swim laps,

because right now I'm running, and I Really Hate Running, but I love swimming. I love the water running over my shoulders, and the feeling when you've stretched every muscle you can. It's fun, which is refreshing compared to running, which hurts my brain, it's all bouncy and painful, and therefore I have come to the conclusion that this fear is stupid, and silly.

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes
it is the quiet voice at the end of the day,
saying "I will try again tomorrow".

- mary anne radmacher

scared of a colour?

i read an essay on aliveness (the author had much more poetic terms for it) recently, and the lady who wrote it said that one of her goals was to do one thing that scared her every day.

this does not mean go handle cobras, walk along the edge of a skyscraper rooftop, or play with knives.

it means to face those ridiculous fears that plague you. you know which ones. the fear of singing in public, of starting a project, of talking too loud or too much, of sharing your life, of a certain colour. these are not you.

so i have a mission.

today i am embracing the colour orange. up until now i have feared this colour. it is too bright, too bold, too reminiscent of traffic cones. but this morning i realised that the things i fear about it are things that i actually love. yet somehow that fear has remained.

why do we cling to these fears as though they are a part of us?

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;

but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

.

we can't say that it is in our nature to fear - perhaps in our unredeemed nature, but we have been redeemed. It Is Finished. so when we fear, we are ignoring God's gift. remember here?when we fear, just like when we cease to rejoice, it is as though someone has given us a washing machine as a gift, because they want us to have a better life, and yet we continue to wash our clothes by hand. God first gave us life. and after we messed up, he gave us more life.

so now that we are saved, now that not only our souls but also our lives, the very world we live in is covered all over by His redemption -

do we have any reason to fear?

and closer to the point...

do we have any right to fear?

this embracing life, this casting off of fear - at first glance it does seem humanistic... or even hedonistic. but i believe it to be the opposite. think about it. humanism comes from the idea that man is central. that mankind stands in the center and the entire universe literally revolves around him. God is not in this equation. our lives are our own, and nobody else's.

but our lives are not our own. our lives are God's. they are a piece of his creation, and what is our purpose here but to praise him and to guard his creation against sin? allowing fear into your life is allowing the effects of sin to alter you.

so this is why i am embracing orange today. i may not be able to refute all unbiblical doctrines, i may never save a life, but i can do this. i can fight human nature in this small way.