My Favorite Things from 2011

I know..it's been forever. But I figured I'd close the year with a blog and a few of my favorite things from 2011. Happy New Year!

1. My iPad
It's the hype and more. Right after we left Walmart, I slightly panicked and began to experience buyers remorse. You have to understand...I don't buy things more than 100 dollars...like...ever. So when I walked out realizing that I'd just spent MULTIPLES of $100 I slightly panicked. 30 minutes later I was good...and realized soon after, it was the best purchase I made this year. I will always own one.


2. Gungor
I still don't understand how people do NOT know about this band. I discovered their debut "Beautiful Things" pretty late and ran that album on repeat for a good 2 months straight. When they followed it with "Ghosts Upon The Earth" I was FLOORED. Their writing is incredible. The musicianship is impeccable. And the message is spot on without being preachy. It's the business. Their music is the BUSINESS, and if you don't know who they are, I'm dang near begging for you to learn who Gungor is.

Here's an acoustic version of one of my favorite songs "When Death Dies". I just about flipped a brick when I first watched this.

Good music. I mean...seriously...what else can I say.


3. Since we're on the topic of music. Check these kats out too:

I mean really...When has Bieber music EVER sounded this fly?! They groove the MESS out that first verse. GOT. DAWG!!!

4. The Bible

I read the Bible cover to cover this year. First time I've ACCOMPLISHED this. I've set out to do this, countless...I'm talking, COUNTLESS times. I made it through and it was pretty amazing. I've read the New Testament several times, but this is the first time I've made it through the Old and I have to say I received an even deeper revelation of how gracious and merciful God is. The "God of the Old Testament" is often perceived as being the "harsh God" but I have to say I was quite amazed by how gracious He is. After I finished Isaiah, I went to my roommate Kristi and was like "Really? How many times is Israel going to turn from God and how many times is He going to forgive them?!" It's the same cycle over and over and over again. God blesses Israel, Israel sins against God, God disciplines them, Israel repents, God restores and blesses them, Israel serves God for a little then turns away and sins against God, God disciplines, them, Israel repents, God restores and blesses them, then Israel forgets and sins again....OVER AND OVER. How patient and merciful is our God. How relentless is His pursuit of us? I'm amazed. Y'all lucky I ain't God. Folks woulda been DEAD long before Deuteronomy!


5. My last name...
I get married in 42 days (CHEEEEHOOOOOO!!!!!!!) so I've been savoring my last few months as a "Nurse." I've even laughed at a few jokes like I've never heard them before, simply because I know come Feb 12th, it will NEVER happen again. For instance:
Guy at grocery store check out: "Nurse? Nurse is really your last name? Like 'helloooooo NURSE!!!' Good thing you didn't end up in the medical profession, huh?"
Me: "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! LOLOL!!!! TEEHEEHEEHEE!"
Guy at grocery store check out: "Wow...never heard that one before huh?"
Me: "....no....I have."
Guy at grocery store check out: "....::blank stare::...::confusion::....okay, have a good day Ms. Nurse."


6. The epic 'stash Kaleb came home from Europe with...

need I say more...


7. The KENT House...
I'm REALLY going to miss this house. We all move out next month. So many memories were created here. So much GROWING was done here. *sniff* I'm so grateful for the friendships that were cultivated in this house. God knew was he was doing when he placed 4 completely different women in this place. I'm going to cherish the moments spent here for the rest of my life.

That's it for now...Till next year people. Happy New Year!
E

Why I deactivaved my Facebook

I deactivated my Facebook. I was gone for over two months and boy was it a nice nap.

It was way easier than I thought it would be. It was one of those things that I thought I'd never do, or need to do, and then within 5 minutes I decided to do it and done DID it....and it felt good.

Within 12 hours of disappearing into social networking oblivion I received more than one call about "where I was." The kicker was when my DAD called to ask if I was "okay" because he couldn't find me on Facebook....yea....DAD! Hilarity. I guess it was warranted since I didn't say "goodbye." I refused to be one of those people that sets their departing status to "I'm deleting my Facebook" or "I'm spending too much time in here, so if you're my real friend you can text me" type of statuses. Setting a departing status is the equivalent of asking for a pity clap, or worse, looking for people to ask you to stay (stay where???), and I simply refuse to be that chick.

So here it is:

Elaine's Top 6 Reasons for Deactivating Her Facebook:

#6. I was borderline stalker.
Not a creepy one. I turned into one of those people that would replace a phone call or even a quick text with a Facebook profile visit. WACK. That is not relationship. I don't want to be that person.

#5. I needed to spend my time on other things.

Like playing my piano. Although I didn't really do that....or writing...yea...didn't do...that...either...OR!! ORRRR!! WEDDING PLANNING...yes...YES. Definitely did that. And did it quite succesfully I might add. Our wedding is planned....completely.... *bows* thank you.. *bows again*..thank you...

#4.  Twitter is less maintanence.
Yea...that's pretty much it.

#3. I needed to shorten my wedding guest list.
I'm not kidding. You have no idea how easy this was after deleting my Facebook. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I'm telling you, once Facebook was out of the picture, the A & B list became cake. The realization that the people who are close to me are also in my PHONE was absolutely freeing.

#2. I needed to clean "Facebook house".
I have too many "friends" on Facebook and I really wanted to delete a lot of them...I mean a LOT...and the easiest way to do that was to break a way for a minute, come back quietly and make some deletions while people forgot I was gone...SNEEEAAAAAKYYYYY.

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON WHY I DEACTIVATED MY FACEBOOK WAAAAS.

I needed a freakin' break.

Till next time folks!

Love & Marraige

Okay, I know I haven't written for an eternity. I really don't have an excuse. The simple explanation is that I haven't been inspired to write...okay, I take that back...I was inspired once within the last 3 months (or however long it's been) and the blogger site was down for the ENTIRE day. boo...

So why am I inspired. Tami and Jamie's wedding. SIGHHHHHHHHHHH.....they're not married yet. They get married this afternoon, but can I just tell you how excited I am???? I 've been on the verge of tears for the entire week and last night after I got home from the rehearsal dinner, tears came like a raging FLOOD. Then I woke up this morning and cried again. ohhh, friends, I assure you they're tears of unmeasured joy. UNMEASURED. I can't even explain it. I lost count of how many people came up to me at rehearsal saying "You're NEXT!"...yes, but honestly, my head isn't even there right now. (Which I have to say, shocked me a little bit, lol) I'm entirely caught up in Tami and Jamie's moment. Praise God I'm next, but LOOK at this couple! Look at what God has done!!!!

Why am I so affected by this? Because they're relationship was done RIGHT in the sight of God and it's a shining example of what God does when you surrender your life to him. Ohhh, my heart flutters just thinking about it. If only the world knew that this is what relationships could be like...wait a second. If only the CHURCHED knew that THIS is what a relationship surrendered to Christ can be like?! Could you imagine what impact the Christian community could make through our families if every Christian surrendered their courtships and marraiges and families to Christ like this?!

I'm so encouraged. This wedding has ministered to me in ways you would not believe. By the grace, and only by His GRACE have Kaleb & I been able to walk in right standing with God and not sleep with each other, but I'm telling you, our enemy is an opportunist and will use every opportunity and lie in the book to discourage us. ie: "Are you kidding? You're engagement is a year in a half." "It won't be worth it." "You're legalistic. And prude." "You're killing that man." lol, I can keep going. I'd like to say it's a day by day fight against those lies - it's really a MOMENT by MOMENT fight even for your MIND because of the WACK culture we live in. Tami and Jamie haven't even walked down the aisle yet, but it's reminded me "YES. God's way is BEST! It's WORTH it!!! IT's WORTH IT! FIGHT THE FIGHT!!! FINISH THE RACE!!!!" OH geez, here come the tears again.

sighhhhhhh. I have not been this excited about a wedding since my sister walked down the aisle 12 years ago. The newness. The freshness. The purity. It's amazing. I'm so grateful for what God has done. He loves us so much, that he covers us, protects us, redeems us from past mistakes, and gives us the grace to do His will - and then rewards us beyond what we could ever dream or imagine. What Love is that?

Tami and Jamie, I'm so so so so proud to call you my friends. It's an honor to do life with you and I'm so excited to see what God does next. If God has done all this just through your engagement, what will he do through your MARRAIGE?...maaan....."Guns up!" LOL!

"Don't judge me..."

I was chatting with my roommate this morning and I think we both came to a pretty awesome revelation.

We were having this conversation about how Christians are mostly categorized as judgemental and closed minded and how extremely frustrating it is to have to battle that perception. It's like, you have to break that stereotype of the "judgemental Christian" before you even begin to try to have a positive conversation about the Gospel....and then it hit me....

Jesus spoke the truth, and spoke it BLUNTLY, but was never...ever...ever accused of being judgemental. Isn't that interesting? God in the flesh, the sinless man, the One person who's ever walked the earth and had a RIGHT to be judgemental was never accused of being such. In fact, it was the opposite. He was accused of being a friend of sinners by the so called religious. (Matthew 9:10) He ate with tax collectors, the most hated (and crooked) group of people in society. He had mercy on an adulteress caught in the act, and saved her from being toned to death. (John 8:2-11) So why and HOW is that Christians, the people that are supposed to be LIKE CHRIST, categorized as judgemental? What are missing? What is it about Jesus' ministry that we're not getting???

Jesus met needs.

Wow....is it really that simple?

Man, did it sink in this morning. I understand why the non-religious get upset when they see people preaching on the street. It is WAY too easy, to stand on a soap box (literally and figuratively) and speak the Gospel. It's a whole 'nother story to actually LIVE the gospel, get INVESTED in the lives of the people you're trying to reach, and meet their life needs. That right there, takes TIME. ENERGY. And usually MONEY. And ironically, the majority of Christians today are not doing that.

Jesus is serious about meeting needs. Look at this:

 Matthew 25:31-45
  ³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
   ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
   ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
   ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
   ⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
   ⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
   ⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

That's....heavy.

Perhaps the next time someone says to a Christian, 'You're closed minded" or "Stop judging me", rather than getting upset and pitying ourselves, maybe we (Christians) should seriously stop and take a close evaluation to see if they're right. If I was to be honest with myself, the majority of the time I have NOT met a need, is because I was being self righteous. Or another word for it....JUDGEMENTAL.

Luke 18:9-14
 ⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
   ¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
   ¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I had that "sinking" feeling after reading this passage today. Honestly...I had to repent. I've prayed prayers along the vein of "Lord thank you that I've lived like this and not that."....are you kidding me? How arrogant is that! That IS being judgemental!!! First of all, in comparison to who GOD is, I haven't lived righteously. Not even close. It's God's GRACE that has kept me and nothing else! That self righteousness keeps us from meeting the needs of those that need God the most.

So they next time you're in a religious debate, rather than arguing why your view point is right and there's is wrong, perhaps you should end the conversation and make an effort to meet a need that person may actually care about. THEN, they may be willing to listen to at least half of what you have to say about Jesus. 

Til next time.

Sicky.

This hot toddy is missing one key element...and it's not the lemon...and it's not the honey...

I woke up on Tuesday and felt like I'd just been hit by a truck. I need to stop making statements like "I don't get in car wrecks" or "I don't get sick" because it never fails, within a week what happens? I get in a car wreck (which happened within one week of me making the "I've never been in a wreck" statement) and within a week of me saying to my roomies "I haven't been sick in YEARS" I contract the worst ailment I think I've had since college, which was about 6 years ago.......I've been out of college for six years......::blank stare::

::shaking head::....re-homing.

Getting sick makes you real religious. I've been praying constantly these last three days. You know that scripture "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."....yea....the Spirit was definitly groaning on my behalf on Tuesday and Wednesday because there were indeed NO words for the pathetic-ness I endured. (<----yes, I made that word up) I....couldn't....move... My head was pounding for TWO DAYS STRAIGHT, it was painful to move my body because I was so achy, yet it was uncomfortable to stay still because my body was aching, I was coughing like crazy, although it wasn't a cold because I wasn't congested, I couldn't eat anything because I was nauseous, dehydrated, and to make matters worse, the fever TOTALLY sweated out my hair which I only pressed two days prior. TICKED. >:(  Well really, the hair was the least of my concerns, but now that I have to go back to work tomorrow, it's just become a concern. :-/

Kaleb did what the good fiance's supposed to do and brought me over some chicken noodle soup, meds, and gallons and gallons of gaterade. Apparently Kaleb thinks he has the super duper immune system because he kept on hugging me and everytime he would he'd exclaim "You're so skinny!!!!" ::insert pause::......yea.....lol...that man....I think it was his way of building me up...maybe? lol...This was by far THE worst Kaleb has ever seen me. I had to have looked a complete sloppy, no showering, gross as all getout, MESS... but I was so sick I didn't have time to be even halfway insecure about it. And I figured, this is my future husband, we only go forward from here. What a relief.

This ailment wouldn't have been so bad if the symptoms didn't change everyday. Consistency people. I can deal with CONSISTENCY. But dude, the symptoms I had on Wednesday were completely different from what I had on Tuesday, and what I had today was completely different from what I had the previous days. You can't even judge if you're getting better when this happens. Thankfully, even though I'm still experiencing symptoms today, they're considerably less than what I went through these last couple days...Back to work tomorrow. Even though I'm coughing like an old lady....with emphysema.

I'm learning Spanish.

I'm marrying a Mexican.....

teeheeheehee!...Why is it still funny to me?! Kaleb keeps saying that people are going to think I'm Dominican when they see my last name...I said they'd probably just think I married a Mexican. (*blink*blink*)

Anywho...I find it utterly unacceptable to have the last name Jimenez and NOT know a lick of Spanish.

So the other day after having lunch I turned to Kaleb and proudly asked, "Cuantas pelotas tiene usted?!" My accent was perfect, and I knew it. I smiled and waited for his answer, but he didn't answer right away. He laughed. Once he realized what I was ATTEMPTING to ask, he paused at the dishes and responded "Uhm...Dos!" I was confused. There were way too many plates in the sink. Adrian, my future brother started cracking up. Thanks Rosetta Stone for placing pelotas and PLATOS in the same lesson. Nice.

Breakdown.

So it finally happened. The unexplainable deafening wireless static at the end of OWOC's Christmas presentation dress rehearsal pushed me over the edge. I totally lost it and broke down into a million tears.

Now, in hindsight, it's absolutely hilarious. It's quite astonishing that I've made it through the last three years of unexplainable hisses, buzzes, random static, inputs showing up or not showing up where they're supposed to, random drastic monitor changes, tripped breakers, and all kinds of other drama, withOUT breaking down....::reflecting::.............yes...quite impressive indeed.

Not exactly sure what caused the break. Kaleb & I were at eachother's throats the entire day (for what reason, I don't even remember). Couple that with a billion little projects going on at work, coupled with my bedroom (my home, my oasis) being in complete shambles because of my schedule, and simply not having enough hours of the day, and then add on a dress rehearsal (the last chance I had to get things together technically) and the audio not working the way I wanted it to... That was it. I completely BROKE...DOWN.

Some may be surprised to know I cry alot.(SHOOOOCKER!!!!) But seriously. I'm very emotional. I tend not to mind the fact I'm emotional, until I can't contain it in front of other people. Loosing it in the privacy of my bedroom is one thing. Loosing it in public...SUCKS. lol. And it wasn't like a weepy, cute little cry...oh no...It was the kind of cry where I couldn't even catch my breath. "I-I-I'm so sorry!!!!!!" I sobbed to Isaac & Sara. sigh. Forget about the audio. At that point, I was so embarrased about bawling I could care less about the audio, I just needed to stop crying. And the more I tried to stop, the worse it got. They stopped everything and prayed for me right then and there. Yea...you know it's bad when you get the drop everything emergency prayer.

sigh...my eyeballs were sore the next morning. (Just incase there was a chance of me forgetting my breakdown: FAIL!) I woke up, and drove immediately to the church. While I had peace of mind, I was not yet confident that I had everything together. Come to find out that the deafening static that came through my PA at the end of rehearsal was a TV station sitting on the same exact frequency that my mic was sitting on. So when I turned off the transmitter, the receiver picked up the station, blasted its signal through the PA, and as a result, everyone's ears bled. mm...lessons in wireless audio. >:( At least that issue was explainable. ::shrugg::

So the result. All the wireless audio for the OWOC Christmas Presentation was flawless. Quite honestly, at the moment of my breakdown, I kinda knew it would be. It's always when you're at the complete end of your rope that God steps in. And it just so happens, He never messes up.