Refreshed, Rejuvenated, Ready to Go!

After a long, dragging week, I had a great weekend! It was a great kickoff to my last week of work! (yay yay yay!) Friday afternoon, I was able to leave work a half hour early, and headed over to the YMCA to get an hour swim in - I went 2500 yards, which was the longest workout of the week, and finished with 50 yard freestyle sprint, clocking in at 29 seconds! For many of you, this is probably fairly meaningless, but to swim a 29, from a push off the wall (as opposed to diving off a starting block/side of the pool), after only a week back in the water was exciting and motivating! I'm looking forward to heading back to the Y tomorrow afternoon after work, hopefully to swim another 2500 yard workout.

After my swim, our family went to Subway for dinner, and then my mom and I headed to the mall to do a little bit of shopping. I'm not typically much of a shopper - I get bored with it really quickly, but this excursion was fairly successful! After we got back, we met up with my dad and treated ourselves with frozen yogurt. It was a wonderful low-key evening.

Yesterday was a bit more hectic, but fun nonetheless. I spent the day reffing a 3v3 soccer tournament, which featured some really good teams. Because the fields and teams were so small, the play was faster than the typical soccer game I ref, and other modifications to the rules added to the challenge, but it was a relatively good experience! As an added bonus, I ended up getting paid a dollar per game more than I was expecting!

The "brownies" (note hair color)

The gang out for dinner!

Last night, I headed out to dinner with 5 of my close friends from high school. We ate at a semi-fancy restaurant (to give you context, it was the same place that we went for one of our homecoming dinners - fancy enough, but not overly pricey.), then had a night of facials, Pitch Perfect, and a baking adventure that ended in strawberry-blueberry cobbler! Tasty! This week, our group begins to disperse to our respective colleges, as the rest of us slowly follow in their footsteps. It was a great time reminiscing and catching up, but it also reminded me of the weird dynamic of having two entirely different lives now - one at school with all of those friends, and one back home with all of these friends. Luckily, I've been blessed with good friends in both places.

Finally, today was mostly about family. Beginning this morning, at church, I saw two people who are very dear to me - Mike and June. The past three years, they have hosted foreign exchange students. The first one, I was very good friends with, and therefore came to know Mike and June, who are much like second parents to me now. Additionally, I will admit that I have an attraction to anything foreign - people, places, things - so that definitely is a big draw, too. They just welcomed a new foreign exchange boy from Hungary into their home, so I'm excited to get to know him better!

This afternoon my older brother was home, my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and aunt and uncle came over to swim and grill out. It was laid back and not completely overwhelming like some of our family get togethers can be. The food was delicious, our pool was warm, and the sun was out - what a perfect day! We even introduced my aunt to geocaching - and the cache we found had awesome camouflaging - a log had been cut into two pieces, and then a hole had been drilled into one of the pieces, where a pill bottle was placed. The other end was reattached so that the log was in one piece again - so, in order to find the cache, you had to notice that the wood had oddly been cut all the way around. My brother-in-law made this observation, and we came back to supper satisfied (and hungry)!

Although I'm certainly not looking forward to the next week of work, I'm down to only four days left. This weekend has been a good kick-off to my final week, so I'm hoping the next four days continue the trend!

I hope the last few days of your summer find you relaxing in the sun!
-Theresa

One day at a time

For lack of a better word, this past week has been a doozy. My boss has water spurting from around his well at a rate of 75 gallons per minute. It is now 11 days in, which is the equivalent of 1.1 million gallons of water, and there is no real solution in sight. Since I have no words of wisdom or consolation on the matter, every day at work has been a struggle to find the right words and remain positive.
Thursday night, a close friend of mine from school contacted me with more tragic news. A good friend of his had committed suicide. Although I did not personally know him, I knew several people who were closely affected. Once again, I've been at a loss of the right words to say and when to say them.
It's been an emotionally exhausting week, and by this weekend I was relying solely on God to give me the strength and wisdom to even keep me afloat.
Friday afternoon, my front tire popped while going 70 mph on the highway. For anyone who hasn't experienced this, it's terrifying. There's a loud bang followed by a reduction of steering control. Being near the exit for my house, I just wanted to get off the highway. I managed to do so and pull into a nearby parking lot. Purely by the grace of God, my older brother happened to be leaving home at that exact time and saw me. Any other day, he would have been at work miles and miles away. Luckily and thankfully, I remained in control of my car, made it off the highway safely with no injuries to myself or (with the exception of the blown out tire) the car.
This past week has given me perspective. I have to live one day at a time, whether going through the best week or the worst one.
My week culminated with the citywide end of season soccer tournament. After 15 years of playing, this was the first time I participated only as a ref. It definitely caused some feelings of nostalgia, but I do enjoy reffing. Well, really I just enjoy the people I get to spend time with while reffing. Yesterday, things started to pick up, which is hopefully indicating the start of a better week.
Regardless, I've become recentered on Christ, stronger in my ability to admit my weakness and rely on God to give me strength.
Still praying for my boss and all of those affected by the suicide - and I know any additional prayers would be appreciated.
"I know the sun will rise again."