Archive for November 2010

Sunday, November 28, 2010

thanksgiving







this thanksgiving was different for me. for many reasons, one of the biggest was being away from home. not being with the people that mean the most to me. me being here, them being on the other coast and in tennessee. i wasn't too sure how it was going to go. well, it was lovely:) the Lord really provided such a wonderful day with the most delightful families. i felt grateful that i was able to be a part of that. good company, good food, fun games. happy day:)

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Saturday, November 27, 2010

ticket!

speeding ticket? parking violation ticket? ticket to a show? NOPE! a plane ticket...HOME:) see you so soon southern california! it will be a lovely three weeks, i know it:) good night and good night. or as they say in romania...and in the united states too and other places too...if you are romanian or maybe you just like the language or something of that nature...noapte buna:)

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morning...

i like mornings. everything is quiet. nature and man asleep. i went for a little walk this morning. it is gloomy and cold out. perfect. and i had my little friend, ipod, with me. this song, it came on. i hit repeat. and this is all i listened to for the rest of my walk.
i thought about the fact that God, He is always with us. always. i smiled. and breathed in all of the goodness around me.
happy saturday.

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Saturday, November 20, 2010

WHOA!!!

why i love sufjan. because he is brilliant.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

just to catch up:)

three in one day? yes. it is so hard to keep up to date:) things here are so busy. all of my days just sort of collide and sometimes i just forget and need to post a few things in one day. i think a little while back i wrote about a few students from the school signing with pretty well known universities and some of them are mine:) well, first and only, the students here, they are really smart. i mean it. and here are some photos of that afternoon:)
good noche:)

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thanksgiving feast 2010


last night we had Thanksgiving feast at Montverde and i just have to say it was such a lovely night. the amazing students were there. a few sweet parents. the wonderful faculty and kitchen staff. the food was yum and just the entire night was exactly right:)

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the nicest surprise:)


this morning was very routine. i woke up at 4. got ready...it was a little painful this morning, i was tired:) walked to class in the dark and enjoyed every moment. walked into mckenzie and said hi to Cindy, the sweetest lady:) sat down and worked. got coffee. worked a bit more. and something amazing happened. i went across the hall and as i was chatting with my neighbor, lovely Jen S. peeked her head in so i stepped out. she had a lovely box in her hands with a sweet red ribbon bow. you see, once upon a time i had mentioned my love for cranberries and Jen, she remembered:) and she made me a cranberry pie!!! and let me just say that not only is it the best cranberry pie i have ever had, i am pretty sure that it is the best pie i have ever had...period. i took one little bit this morning when i dropped it off and this evening, i had one very large, yummy slice:) oh my goodness, what a treat. Jen, you are so amazing!
and as if that weren't enough, it came with a sweet heart cutout on top! i don't have the recipe but i will ask and if i have success in getting it, i will surely post the recipe because everyone should have some of this pie:) YUM! YUM! YUM! i have to make treats for Thanksgiving, this would be a good one!....speaking of thanksgiving, i will write about Thanksgiving feast next. it was so lovely:)

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Monday, November 15, 2010

stunning

if you read this, please listen. angels. that's all i can think of as i'm listening.


http://bit.ly/cQPK5V


good night:)

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Sunday, November 14, 2010

gratitude.

this week was long. good but long. my eyes are burning. i have important phone calls to return. emails to respond to. i am sorry for my delay. tonight was so full. my heart literally feels like it might burst so i just need to write it down before i go back to grading and lesson planning. tonight i was able to participate in CCC and it was possible a favorite for me because the topic was thankfulness. if you know me on a deep level, you know that thanksgiving is quite possibly my favorite day of the year, even more so than my birthday. that one is actually pretty far down the list:) the students were able to compliment one another and they learned about gratitude. and a dance team camp and did a piece about the ultimate sacrifice and it was beautiful. Mindy asked if i would share something very special to me heart with the students and at first i was a bit hesitant about it but everything in me said do it. a few weeks ago, i wrote a little song for my mom and pop. i have been writing a bit lately and that is something i am so grateful for and getting to express my gratitude through song for my parents is special. and i was able to share it with some really amazing Montverde students and faculty tonight. i was honored.
as i was up there singing, it hit me. literally, i was taken back to many many years ago and it hit me. God is so big. i remembered when my mom's papa died. i remember the day that friends came over to mourn with her. i remember that she wasn't able to be by his side, she wasn't able to say goodbye. i remember the tears. i didn't understand. tonight, while i was on stage singing their love song, it hit me just how great the sacrifice of my parent's was and how it continues to be. that they left their parents, their siblings, their lives, all of it behind. for me. for aura. for cheech. for joe. and bec and joni. i can't believe i didn't burst into tears. God was with me.
i am grateful. i am grateful that my mom and dad has such big hearts for their four little ones at the time. that they saw more than what they were living and that they fought for dearest life to bring us to a nation of freedom and opportunity. i am grateful that they knew that there was only one way to raise us, all six of us, and that was in the way of the Lord. i am grateful that they showed us love for the Lord and what it meant to fear the Lord and that really, that means loving the Lord:) i am grateful that no matter how stupid we have been, and trust me between the six of us, that is a lot of stupid here and there, that their love has been and continues to be true and unconditional. i am grateful that they loved us enough to love us tough. sometimes people think there is no necessity for tough love. that is a lie. there is.
i am grateful that there is so much love between the eight of us. it is explosive. i am grateful that sometimes just the mere thought of my family makes me explode into tears. i am grateful that i have the most beautiful siblings on this planet. yes, they are cute, but i'm not talking about that. i am talking about the fact that they are one of a kind. our relationships to one another are full and we are apart but when you love someone, distance can't matter. because love is bigger. and i trust in that, especially from my mama and papa and from my siblings. they are each unique. they radiate with joy and life and when i am home, my heart is heavy with love from being around them. that, my friends, is not good, it is brilliant. i am grateful that some of the most Godly love has come from these individuals in time of great confusion and pain and without judgement or hatred. i am grateful that when we are together we laugh so much it hurts. and that we can share tears together. and that the hardest times in our lives have made us that much stronger. that instead of falling apart, we are bound together. and we share hugs. and kisses. and we eat together. and play BOARD GAMES together! oh, God is so good. so good.
i am grateful that i have never received as much encouragement from any people as i have from my family. i am grateful that when God is moving they don't hesitate to push, like coming here to Florida. it was painful for them to see me go. it was painful for me. but they knew the Lord was moving and they said ok. and that is the kind of love that is so good.
thanksgiving will be hard this year because i won't be home for the first time. but i am going to be in a good place with wonderful friends. friends that i am thankful for. the Lord did not bring me here to be alone. He has provided in the most beautiful ways. in ways that i have never experienced. He is moving me to new levels and that is beautiful.
i have to stop because my stomach is telling me that it needs food and i have so much work but i just needed to get that out. i will continue this gratitude thing in the next couple days because the Lord is just giving and giving. love, inspiration, healing, friendship, wisdom, growth, HOPE. and i don't want to forget it. so i will share it with you by writing:)
noapte buna friends:)
- family, i love you so deeply and Christmas, it can't come soon enough.

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Friday, November 12, 2010

FRIDAY..

today is that day:)

hard not to love this:)

enjoy everything about this day. don't be a negative nancy, find something good in it;)

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

feeling

a whole lot of this right now.

good night.

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life.

it is such a beautiful thing. yes, there is ugly. but without the ugly, you can rarely get to the beauty. both are necessary. one opens your eyes, your mind, your heart, all of your senses to the other. i don't know that i ever believed this as much as i do now. i love that God is so big. so creative. that He is moving. that He never removes Himself from our picture...we do that. but even when that happens, He is just there waiting. today, there is a lot of good and a lot of beauty in the air:)

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Monday, November 8, 2010

18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.

i had the most beautiful conversation about these little verses and i can't wait to write about it later on. these verses really just move me. streams in the desert, rivers in the desert. rivers please. AMAZING. AMAZING. AMAZING.

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Sunday, November 7, 2010

happy harvest:)

i just finished a majority of my grading so i really wanted to take a few moments to post a few thoughts. yesterday was a really miserable day for me. i am not exaggerating, i truly was just not a happy camper the slightest bit. you see, i was supposed to see sufjan. ticket bought, day planned out, everything good to go. and i have waited years and years for this and the time had finally arrived. right, well, it didn't happen. i was shocked, mad, sad, irritated. you name it, i was feeling it. my car decided it was going to have issues and that they were going to be major enough that it would prohibit my travel to see sufjan. i was miserable, like i said. i cried, i napped, i cried some more. oh gosh, it was just a disaster. i know this may seem silly to some of you but the truth is, i don't care. please don't take offense, it is just that if you know me, you know how important this was to me, and you would not think it silly at all:)
i had some very wonderful individuals talking me through the process. they made the misery a little less but i don't know that i will ever really be ok about missing that show. last night i was able to spend some time with lena and it was exactly what the doctor ordered.....ehehehehehe:) we talked and laughed and shopped til we dropped and at the end of the night had some so yum vegetarian chili. thank the Lord for good chili:) seriously, that time was so good for my achy heart. they have christmas already. and dude the dog has antlers.
today was just a blessing. not in disguise, just outright in the open. i woke up and had a few a few very nice surprises:) among them were a very nice youtube video, a very nice email, and one very nice short story written about a photo i posted a few posts ago:) you are still invited to contribute. the one i got, i will post it soon! mosaic had their annual harvest festival and it was a really neat thing to be a part of. really. they set up outside in the open. stage, booths, food, everything. and gave thanks. it was a time to acknowledge how abundantly the Lord gives. how lovely is that?! there was music. we sang how great thou art and oh my goodness, i felt like my heart was going to explode when we began to sing the lines:

When Christ shall come,

With shouts of acclamation,

And take me home,

What joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow

In humble adoration

And there proclaim,

"My God, how great Thou art!"

i looked up at the sky and the clouds were quickly passing by. it was so cold and breezy and perfect. and the Lord was in our midst. and i couldn't help it, i just wept. it was just so beautiful and the thought of the Lord returning to gather His people, it is just the most perfect thought. it was such a beautiful time listening to the singing all around out in nature. renaut gave a beautiful message. just beautiful. and after, he acknowledged orphan sunday which just moved me to the core. families from the church spoke about their adoption experiences. from local to international and the Lord's anointing was and is so obvious on them. beautiful children and beautiful individuals who so willing and sacrificially opened their homes to welcome these ever so precious little ones. such sweet moments listening to their stories. one family even said they were in the process of bring home another child from the ukraine. i love that. oh that we would just desire to somehow reach out to the orphans, the widows, those in need. it was just a nice service. afterwards, the festival began and the people were wearing big smiles:) it was so nice. and marlena and i took a photo togetha:)

wowee:)

caleb and marlena...quote unquote.

and mom, this one is for you:) don't mind the trucks in the background:)

it is a time of thanksgiving. remember to always be thankful. for so many things. i've got ccc tonight so back to grading!

ps...i just found out i am going to be part of an iron chef club...aura, be so jealous:) or just start your own, all the cool kids are doing it.

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Thursday, November 4, 2010

rainy days...

swan lake + a rainy day = perfect:)

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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

dear florida,

tonight i am wearing cowboy boots. ok? ok.

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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

who would win????

in an all out war between red gummy bears and swedish fish.
this has been keeping me up at night lately. if you give me an answer, make it good, and hopefully, it settles the issue. over and out.

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tuesday...


i know i'm a few day late with october, but october is probably one of my favorite poems year round. it belongs to robert frost. if you are not familiar, you should be:)

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--
For the grapes' sake along the wall.
good day.

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Monday, November 1, 2010

my little home:)

you have asked and now i am responding with photos:)
hopefully that is enough to convince you to come visit me:) you should, and when you do, you might like it SO much, that you end up staying:) good night and good night.

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