Half Marathon

I'm going to sign up for a half Marathon.  And I think my legs just went numb!  I love running and have since high school but the furthest I've ever run was 8 miles(in the grander scheme of things, not far off of a half marathon) but that was about 5 years ago and it was after an entire summer and part of fall worth of training. The one I want to do is in OCTOBER a meer 11 weeks from now, YIKES.  It's in Mason City( my dad and Nae could come cheer me on!!!!!) and it's small. It's colder up there in October so it would be optimal Meredith running weather but I'm serioulsy scared out of my mind and thinking about it makes me want to cry but this is a life goal of mine and I think this is the year/time to do it in.  I know what I want out of life but sometimes I have a hard time getting down to the nitty gritty, doing hte work and getting it done.  Again, this is where my squiggly line tendencies come out.  I'm asking for prayers for safe training, peace as I try not to think about the magnitude of achiving a goal I've wanted for 10 years but I think I've been a little too scared to go after, and just general discipline.  I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and start walking the walk of a runner!   That sounded weird but I'm sure you all kno what I mean!

History

Some of you, out there in the world wide web who read this and I'm not aware that you do, may be wondering about the name of my blog.  You may not, if so, you can cease reading.  BUT for those of you who are interested, it all came from this song written and sung by Dave Barnes.  It's called Nothin Fancy and I think it is wonderful.  I think "Nothin Fancy" describes me and the way I like things.  I like simple, clean, sofisticated, with alot of personality and a little flair.  And to be honest, I like simple things in life.  Case in point: seeing a friend that I haven't seen in two years, meeting her little boy, driving down country roads on a bright sunny day, with the sunroof open, seeing an old friend's dad who is the sweetest man, and topping it all of with worshipping at the DTC made for a perfect Saturday a couple weeks ago.  Nothing extraordinary or earth shattering happened that day but it was perfect.  I find great joy in simple, small, to the world insignificant type things.  If I ever own a bakery, I want to name it Nothin Fancy.  I just really like it and I hope you all do too!!!
(the lyrics of Nothin Fancy by Dave Barnes are as followed, YouTube it.  It's fantastic!)
There's nothing fancy bout the way i love you,

there's nothing you could not find in any other man.
There's nothing fancy bout the way I love you,
but I love you as hard as I can.


There's no good reason for the way you love me,
but you're my walking dream come true.
There's no good reason for the way you love me,
But I thank God that you do.


I don't know the perfect conversation,
I don't know the way to turn a head,
I don't know the perfect way to prove my love,
But I know I'll love you till I'm dead.


There's nothing fancy bout the way I love you,
It's as simple as the stars in the sky, and the blue in the sea.
There's nothing fancy bout the way I love you,
But it sure is fancy how you love me.

Did you YouTube it?  It's great, right?  I knew you'd see things my way!

Random

So, I've been looking over my blog/some other blogs and realized that I only post things that I deem "major life events" but I don't think that's the point.  Being single and having no children, I feel, means posting things on a very rare basis SO I've decided to use this a a virtual tour of "what's on Meredith's mind" or things I've done or what is happening in my life.  Something I think was pretty cool: last Friday we hung out at Cline's house which was great in itself but they had planned some super fun games from the show Minute to Win It.  Needness to say, I think I dominated.  I'm not a competitive person so I guess I have a lot of talen for doing random/weird things, and I like it!!!!  I also made a 4 layer multi-colored velvet(red velvet cake recipe) cake that was AMAZING, in taste and appearance, if I do say so myself! Pictures to come later, I realized that my camera is permanently out of commission:(  On another note, I am in the process of painting a mural on my bedroom wall.  I was going to buy a painting but at the price of $100 and it wasn't quite what I had imagined, I decided I could do better!  If you know me(and my squiggly line habbits) it is a work in progress but hopefully will be done shortly.  I was blog-stalking( don't judge, you do it too!)  and I was reading how someone had come to Christ and was making a lot of life changes due to that decision.  Someone had made a comment about a link to an anti-GCM website.  I followed the link and for about a week, I really didn't know what to think about the website, the content, etc.  It made me question myself, my friends, people who I look up to and highly regard, and then one day after reading something not really related in 2 Corinthians 9(7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.)  I realized that God gave us all free will and its what we do with it that matters.  It's not what religion we are, what denomination we identify with, who we hang out with or where our loyalties lye.  The thing that matters is if you know the truth about God giving His son for your sins, accepting it, and making choices througout your life to guide you in a direction to continually follow Him and the truth.  Where it leads you, whomever it leads you to, how you get there and what you do along the way are minor details compared to why. 

My Sister- for Cupcake Blog

My sister, Meghan, is 16 months older than me. Still to this day, many people think we are twins eventhough we look nothing alike. Looking back on the last 26 years, there's not one memory that stands out to me when I think of Meghan, there are multiple memories. What does stand out to me is not a single memory but what evokes all of the memories: her charachter. When we were younger, we fought constantly. In middle school and high school I was usually the target of Meghan and her friends' ridicule or witty jokes. Then, on a cold and gloomy day in November 2000, our relationship took a very unexpected turn. Our mom died very suddenly that morning, in our home as my dad was holding her and screaming her name, and as my sister struggled to do CPR to revive her. I rememeber walking downstairs to see what the commotion was all about and Meghan yelled at me to go back to my room. My dad looked at Meghan and told her that from then on, she couldn't cry. He said that she had to be the strong one because he knew I couldn't handle the world that was crashing down around all of us. Meghan, at 17, took that responsibility without question or hesitation. We both became adults right there in that moment, Meghan moreso than I. Through the years after our mom died, Meghan was always there for me. She came home every weekend for the first two years of college, to make sure my dad and I hadn't killed each other. Over Christmas and Spring break she would cook, clean, shop and take care of my dad and I, most often witout any acknowledgement. I ended up at the same college as Meghan where we became even closer, and realized that we might actually be friends! Just like any good friendship, you laugh, you cry, you yell, you console, you encourage, you learn, you grow, and you make each other better just by being there for one another. My life is better simply because I'm Meghan's little sister.

You Matter

YOU MATTER

When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

I found this on a photographer's blog http://jameschristianson.net/index.php?page=35 and I really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed his photography. He mostly photographs weddings and engagements but I think that he captures the beauty of everything, flawlessly. Lately I've been running into quite a few blogs that I am falling in love with. My current favorite obsession is http://enjoycupcakes.com/blog/ because she is doing what I would one day love to do and is doing it flawlessly as well. I feel like my personality is mirrored by her blog, sounds corny but I truly am in love with her store, cupcakes, everything. I hope to one day visit California to visit her store. I think everything that she has on her blog is amazing, from where she has vacationed or even her friends' blogs, they are wonderful.

Changes Part Deux

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

While I don't completely agree with everything that Darwin said/taught, this I have taken a special fondness to. As stated in an earlier post, change is not my thing. BUT this week I've been reveling in it. I am currently on my third day of my new job, and Praise the Lord for my new job. Not only is it a complete change from my last job, it's so much more than I deserve and God has blessed me abundantly more than I could have ever imagined. Just a few examples: New Blackberry that I can do anything with, they pay the bill, and I can stop paying for my old Razor that I've been holding onto since I moved to Des Moines; New laptop computer(it's a Dell but who is going to turn down a free computer), monthly massages, week long trip to Salt Lake City, UT in September(all expenses paid), endless amounts of great healthy snacks in the break room(no charge), and while I haven't actually started doing a lot of my job(training starts next week when my boss comes from KC), it's been relatively low key and easy going, which I do expect some tight schedules and rough deadlines but I havne't had to answer a phone or listen to someone complain at me for three days and I feel like I'm going to wake up, realize it was just a dream and have to go back to my old job(BUT I won't), just to name a few. One of the manager's that interviewed me said that she remembered that in my first interview I said that my dad taught me to work smart and not hard and I think this job is going to help me do that. I feel so blessed to even have this job, with the economy still being not the greatest and hearing of friends getting laid off. Another blessing came in the form of three filled lawn bags on the porch when I came home late last night. I had gone over to Meg's house to hang out with her and when I got home I found the yard had been mowed and all of the grass clippings were bagged and set on the porch. Yes our yard was getting a little long, which everyone noticed who was over at our house this weekend. In our defense, Ashlyn tried to start the mower, but couldn't get it so we left it. I believe that a guy from each of our bible studys' came over with mowers and mowed the grass for us. I'm a very independant modern girl who likes to show the guys that girls can do anything they can but I am just so humbled and blessed for guys like the four who came to help us, expecting nothing in return. Right now, I'm feeling very overwhelmed by God's blessings in my life, in the form of a new job, friends, family, acts of kindness, hope for the future and so much more. I know there will be more struggles and hard times to come but right now I'm going to enjoy the blessings God has given me and will continue to praise Him in good times or in bad, either way He either brought me to it or He'll have to take me through it.

Changes

Well in the last 6 months or so, a lot of things have changed. I moved from my apartment on the south side of Des Moines to a house on 32nd street west of Drake. I now have 4 other roommates as opposed to living with my sister AND we have one bathroom. It is wonderful so far. It's great to live with other girls from my church. It's been since my first semester of college that I've lived in a place with more than just one other person. I deal with change about as well as someone would deal with a shot in the foot but I think that God is really challenging me and making me trust Him. I wanted to move and I wanted a change and He gave it to me, I can't go back on a prayer that He answered. I know it's not going to be all fun and games and wonderful times but I understand that it will challenge me and my relationship with God and other believers, and that I am excited about. I have freaked out about little things; when I move out am I going to be able to find everything that I came with?, what if something of mine gets broken, what if, what if, what if, bottom line it's just stuff and it is most likely replaceable. If it's not replaceable I didn't unpack it, and if I happened to unpack something that is irreplaceable well you can't take it with you when you go........... that sounds heartless and makes me feel bad if I were to loose something like my mom's ring but it is the truth and I know God has His hand in everything so I'm going to leave it at that. AND in other news, I got a new job. I actually started praying for a new job in May of 2009, almost a year ago. I felt like this job was not for me and that my time was limited. I really didn't want to start the whole job search thing again, with all of the economic downturn layoffs, but started searching I did. While I was searching for a new job over the last 11 months, things at my current job got worse and worse. Most days were so stressful and hard to handle, I was daily getting migraines and drinking way too much coffee just to function. I just kept praying and asking God for something to come up. I knew that it had to be God who brought something my way, that it wasn't my own strength or knowledge or fantastic resume that was going to do it. Long story short, I started praying at the beginning of March to have a job at least lined up by April 1. I didn't give God a deadline, I just was at the end of my rope and desperately needed to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I knew that if it wasn't in God's plan that he would give me the strength and patience to endure. I am a realist who is a closeted pessimist masquerading as an optimist. BUT I did get my job offer on March 31, which is amazing and I love God's humor in the whole thing too. I my initial interview was early March and my last interview wasn't until the 31st due to schedules and delays and then they called the me the same day(which is ironic in itself because after my first interview the lady told me not to expect a call for a couple of days because of the way things go) and I got the job!!!!!!! I was nervous about turning in my two weeks notice but low and behold the Lord comes through and my boss was very gracious about my leaving. Praise the Lord for unanswered prayers, answered prayers, struggles, triumphs and change!