Maddy is a Sour Apple

So some time ago I posted a link to vote for Aaron and Kayla's daughter Maddy to make it onto a Jones Soda label (it's still down on the right). And all your hard work of voting paid off. She made it onto the Sour Apple label! I couldn't get the direct label link, but click here to check out the pic on the voting page. And look for her in the store!

me (blondie) getting on the dinner train, to stuff myself with stawberries and cream while riding on a train and taking in the sights of lovely Bellevue (and free wine tasting too!)

on board

so it's not in focus and all that (hey, its a moving train, ok?), but it just looked so holiday-ish....and yummy

what's that smell?

if you ever sniff me like that again i'll slap you

matt and ghost matt

Sandy

Matt T. diving toward the ball as Matt is obviously crushing him in a very serious ping pong game

So...this is our church. We finally bought a building this summer--the old eagles drinking, gambling, smoking, drinking, bingo playing, and smoking some more Lodge. It even has secret drinking and gambling rooms up in the attic, and lots of extra cancer causing elements lurking around from 60 years of vice celebration. Needless to say, its been a long time and a lot of work to remodel this place, and still going. This will be the future site of the Cafe Matt and I are starting. I will include photos of that space later, but for now, here are some of the before and after shots of the sanctuary, the space within the buiding we are using for services. Go!

Matt wishing he was reading a poem up on a big cool stage

Le glorious Eagles bingo hall and dance floor!

more boy band photos

sanctuary

Matt reading his peom

The band

ya, that's right, im a poet

Matt reciting his poem, with matt t. and Aaron leading the humming and clapping

Lame

Well, I guess I have been too busy to post. Plus, I'm super sick this week, and being tired and unmotivated to post in my vast amounts of spare time. Plus, it's hard to have time to write when somehow 3 cars break down in 2 weeks! Still on the pity party cruise..

I was going to do this whole thanksgiving picture post, but my computer keeps getting messed up, and I'm giving up (I think that happens everytime). So here are 3 pics from part of Thanksgiving that I spent with Matt's family. Dave is Matt's brother (one of 3 brothers), and Avery is Matt's niece. And, well, Matt is Matt.

mmatt

Dave

Avery

whiny whiny sad sad

I feel full, and I feel empty. I feel broken this week. I haven’t posted in a while. My laziness has culminated into an overwhelming busyness. My selfishness has germinated into a crop of marred relationships.

So instead of dealing with things in a wise manner, I’ll just complain; what’s new.

On Sunday, I got in a minor car wreck. Some 16 year old girl on a cell phone trying to learn to back up her mommy’s SUV hit me in a parking lot.

On Sunday, Jen Zug, whose sufferings are all too familiar, spoke about her twisted spine of stress. I thought to myself, how blessed I am that my chronic back pain has finally ceased in the last few weeks. I thought how thankful I am that my own twisted spine was almost healed, almost emptied of traces of emotional burden. I thought about my last 6 months of intense pain and intense suffering; battled anxiety and panic attacks over the chiropractic healing process. I thought how grateful I am for the waning season of malaise and affliction.

And that very same day my spine, and my ego, which perhaps are intertwined, were crushed. And so, the very next day, I found myself painfully and stiffly pacing back and forth awash in anxiety over making the call to the chiropractor, often a greater source of pain for me than the initial pain itself. I’m not sure why, really. But my last healing process sent me spiraling into a hell of anxiety attacks over the fear of all the crazy stuff they do. So there I was again, trying to deduce which decision would produce the lesser of the evils.

I called. I found a new one. And strangely, I love him. It is still a huge mental struggle for me, to go in each day, and to survey the room of apparent torture devices that will supposedly heal me. But I haven’t passed out this time—yet. And I have actually been able to gradually regain movement of my head and neck. But let me tell you, “The Scream” painting in the X-ray room sure hasn’t help ease my disquietude about the whole thing.

The flood of insurance agents surely hasn’t been easy either, and has assuredly added to my stress this week.


I finished my final today, and my class, which I was completely unprepared for. So the release I should feel from that load is mostly reversed since I’m sure I failed the final.

And I generally feel drained from inadequacy, and sin. And the weeks events, which include more but less interesting circumstances. And the ravine standing between Matt and me as we lose needed sleep over turning it into a canyon.

And the problem is, the worse I feel, the more I procrastinate about every damn thing in my life, which certainly helps, well…nothing. Better luck next time, sweetheart.