Blue Like Jazz

Reposting a few Donald Miller quotes from Blue Like Jazz... partly because I was thinking about this earlier today, and partly because I was in court and then in an annoying tornado watch all day today, so I'm just now getting time to post something... then I'm off to bed. :)  This book meant a lot to me... I started reading it the same week I started this blog. I find him fascinating and relatable and I love the way he writes, so here are some of my favorite quotes... 

"I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God."

"If you don't love somebody, it gets annoying when they tell you what to do or what to feel. When you love them you get pleasure from their pleasure, and it makes it easy to serve. I didn't love God because I didn't know God."

"Do I want social justice for the oppressed, or do I just want to be known as a socially active person? I spend 95% of my time thinking about myself anyway."

"I wasn't trying to weasel out of anything, I just wasn't in the mood to be on earth that night. I get like that sometimes when it rains, or when I see certain sad movies."  :)

"I think Jesus feels strongly about communicating the idea of our brokenness, and I think it is worth reflection. Nothing is going to change in the Congo until you and I figure out what is wrong with the person in the mirror."

"Everybody wants to be somebody fancy. Even if they're shy… Everybody wants to be fancy and new. Nobody wants to be themselves. I mean, maybe people want to be themselves, but they want to be different, with different clothes or shorter hair or less fat. It's a fact."

"...she believed that all things that were true were rational. But that isn't the case. Love, for example, is a true emotion, but it is not rational... she wanted God to make sense. He doesn't. He will make no more sense to me than I will make sense to an ant."

"I think the things we want most in life, the things we think will set us free, are not the things we need... and that's the tricky thing about life, really, that the things we want most will kill us."

"I found myself trying to love the right things without God's help, and it was impossible. I tried to go one week without thinking a negative thought about another human being, and I couldn't do it. Before I tried that experiment, I thought I was a nice person, but after trying it, I realized I thought bad things about people all day long, and that, like Tony says, my natural desire was to love darkness... sooner or later my heart would testify to its true love: darkness. Then I would get up and try again. The cycle was dehumanizing."

"I love to give charity, but I don't want to be charity. This is why I have so much trouble with grace."

"If we hear, in our inner ear, a voice saying we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to anything, this is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom does not love her."

"Our 'behavior' will not be changed long with self-discipline, but fall in love and a human will accomplish what he never thought possible... by accepting God's love for us, we fall in love with Him, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey."

"Every year or so I start pondering at how silly the whole God things is. Every Christian knows they will deal with doubt. And they will. But when it comes it seems so very real and frightening, as if your entire universe is going to fall apart."

"I wish I were the sort of person who liked everybody and everything. I feel so negative sometimes."

"I don't feel whole here. I feel, well, partly whole. Incomplete. Tired... something got crossed in the wires, and I became the person I should be and not the person I am. It feels like I should go back and get the person I am and bring him here to the person I should be."

"What I wanted was God. I wanted tangible interaction. But even more than that, to be honest, I wanted to know who I was."

"I'm sorry, God. I'm sorry I got so confused about You, got so fake. I hope it's not too late anymore. I don't really know who I am, who You are, or what faith looks like. But if You want to talk, I'm here now. I could feel You convicting me when I was a kid, and I feel like You are trying to get through to me..."

"I don't believe I will ever walk away from God for intellectual reasons. Who knows anything anyway? If I walk away from Him, and please pray that I never do, I will walk away for social reasons, identity reasons, deep emotional reasons, the same reasons that any of us do anything."

"So, when we find somebody who is cool on TV or on the radio, we associate ourselves with this person to feel valid ourselves... we rarely know what the person believes whom we are associating ourselves with. ...because in the end, the undercurrent running through culture is not giving people value based upon what they believe and what they are doing to aid society, the undercurrent is deciding their value based upon whether or not they are cool."

"Satan... wants us to believe meaningless things for meaningless reasons."

"There is something inside me, some selfish beast of a subtle thing that doesn't like the truth at all because it carries responsibility, and if I actually believe these things, I have to do something about them."

"If you believe something, passionately, people will follow you. People hardly care what you believe, as long as you believe something. If you are passionate about something, people will follow you because they think you know something they don't, some clue to the meaning of the universe..."

"Andrew very kindly explained that if I do not introduce people to Jesus, then I don't believe Jesus is an important person. It doesn't matter what I say."

Thankful Monday!?

"But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors Me.  If you keep to My path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.”   ~Psalm 50:23

(I'm going to make an effort to write today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, since Thursday begins my 10 week break-from-distractions/ time to seriously seek God (and seriously spend my work day doing actual work).  I have missed the last two "Thankful Thursdays," so I want to make up for that today.)

• I am thankful that I serve a faithful God who will never give up on or abandon me!
• I'm thankful for the long Memorial Day weekend ahead! :)
• I'm thankful that I'm getting to know the hearts of some of the girls in my Community Group.
• I'm thankful for adorable white pom puppies!!
• 
• I'm thankful for my family!  My parents are coming down this week to help work on my yard.  Not sure why I wrote help, as I will not really be contributing toward that project. lol
• I'm thankful for Radical... for the reminder that my life can have more impact in one month with the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through me than it would have in my entire lifetime through my own abilities minus God's power. 
• "His power is SO SUPERIOR to ours.  Why would we not desperately seek it?"

• 
• I'm thankful that I'm genuinely excited about spending more time in God's Word and prayer!
• I'm so thankful that I don't have to figure it all out or make the big decisions on my own.
• I am thankful for creativity, and the joy of painting and creating art. :)
• I'm thankful for Malori and Laura, my closest friends, because they love me and I love them. I had a much longer explanation written out, but that phrase pretty much sums it up. :)
• 
• I am thankful for my "new" friend, Brittany Bolt (when she introduces herself, she always says, "Like a lightening bolt" and does the little hand zig-zag hand motion.) :)  She is quite probably the most powerfully Christlike woman I've ever personally known... and I hope to get to know her much better!
• 
• (Her family is from Jamaica, but recently moved to Joplin, and her sister's house was destroyed by yesterday's tornado.)
• I'm thankful that Emily sent out an email at 3am urging our group to pull together and "be the church" and help their family... awesome!
• I am thankful for Ruth and Charlotte, and for the (10 week) Revelation study!
• I'm thankful for my LG friends, and how fun and refreshing it is to hang out with them.  (Pic is the game night at Bobbi's.)
• 
• I'm thankful that God forgives and heals and restores.
• I am thankful that in less than 6 months, I get to go back to Vegas with my awesome and hilarious VCGO friends!!
• Ahh, patriotic ridiculousness.
• 
• The end.

Quotables: Random

"Yeah, I just stare at my desk... but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual work."  
~Office Space... or my life at the moment lolol

"'She was pretty chunky, about 120 pounds.' Um, what the what? WAS SHE ALSO THREE FEET TALL? Men of the world, if you don't want me to lump you into the category of vapid buffoons, I'm really gonna need you to start reining in some of your more ridiculous representatives." ~Laura

‎"Every day of my life is worse than the day before. So every day that you see me, that's the worst day of my life!"  ~Office Space

“We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.” ~Jane Austen

"You better lawyer up, a**hole, because I'm not coming back for the 30%. I'm coming back for everything!"  ~Eduardo Saverin, The Social Network

"I couldn't sleep at all last night, even with the aid of the sleeping pills I've grown dependent on the last two weeks. I'm going to work shortly while on the verge of whatever the opposite of a Jessie Spano caffeine pill freakout is." ~Laura lol

"So what can we do to cheer you up!?" ~George
"Nothing! There is no solution." ~Lucy

"Good... good attitude."  ~George  (Two Weeks Notice)

"It's been a life-long dream that someday someone would tell me I have the personality of George Costanza. And today...today, kids, I'm here to tell you that dreams really DO come true."  ~Laura

"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”  ~Jane Austen

“And every time you speak her name, does she know how you told me you’d hold me until you died, ‘til you died. But you’re still alive… and I’m HERE to REMIND YOU of the mess you left when you went away! It’s NOT FAIR to deny me of the cross I bear that you gave to me. You - you - you oughta know!!”  ~Alanis at her best

“I know what you must be thinking: ‘Poor little rich girl, what does she know about misery?’”  ~Rose
“No. I was thinking: ‘What could have happened to this girl to make her think she has no way out!?’” ~Jack (Titanic)

“All that I know is I don’t know how to be something you miss.”  ~Taylor

"The Lord has blessed us with less than $10 each!"  ~Chet, when I asked how the garage sale went that morning! Hahaha

"Give him a bad doggy trrreat!"  ~Gloria (Modern Family)

Worth watching. :)
 

MM ~ CHA Sports

Hey, remember when I lettered in three sports without possessing any athletic ability!? :) lol

GOLF ~ For whatever reason, I decided to play golf my Junior year at CHA!  Dad, who is an excellent golfer, bought me new clubs and shoes and a golf glove and all of that, and he coached me for a while before golf season began.  We spent plenty of time out there, but I could tell it was somewhat hopeless... even on minor details like the bizarre and awkward golf grip, I never seemed to get it quite right.  Nor could I ever figure out which club to choose for each shot without someone there to help me decide. 

The CHA men's golf team was competitive, and Coach Pulliam put most of his focus on them during our practices.  We girls resented that, so we would putt around for a few minutes and then grab coffee or pop or something and sit around a table outside and talk. =)  There were only five of us on the team and we really did have fun together.  None of the girls were technically "good," but I was the worst player.  So at tournaments, I would be paired up with the worst players from the three or four other schools we were playing, where once again, it was all about having fun!  None of us cared much, and I remember one tournament where we all agreed to cheat and give ourselves better scores just for dignity's sake! lol  What I remember most, and why I didn't play again, was the last tournament of the season.  It was brutally hot but it had rained the day before, so it was also slick and muddy and miserable.  No more serious golfing for me!

*I would, however, be up for a fun game with Natalie and Bobbi sometime! :)  I have no aspirations to be a great golfer, but the courses are gorgeous, and it can be a lot of fun when you're with the right group!!

VOLLEYBALL ~ I was the varsity team manager/water girl for three years, mainly so I could hang out with my friends on the team and get out of school for all the big games and tournaments!  I went to all their practices and helped Coach Ferguson before and after the games, and I would encourage and cheer for the girls.  And, of course, I made posters and banners for any major games!  So many memories, both at CHA and the dreaded Sunnyside gym, with Tina, Shilony, Sam, Jana, Heather, Kate, Emily, and of course, Jenny Womble!  I loved going to Tri-State and the team parties and being in on the "Faith Friends" thing.  I did pretty much everything except play volleyball, which I had zero desire to do!  (*Being the manager was not a nerdy or belittled thing at CHA, so I always had a blast and felt very included and loved!  And I enjoyed being in on all the team gossip and being the first to report it to Lynda and Mom, who would dramatically overreact every time!)

BASKETBALL ~ Same thing (being the team manager), only volleyball season was far more fun for me!  The basketball girls were a bit more serious and a LOT more cocky.  It gets old having sweaty towels hurled at your face by girls who are angry over fouling out or losing. Ummm, it's not my fault that you suck. lol  This got better the older I got, of course. Sidenote: I was affectionately known as the "gum girl" for bringing a bag full of gum for them every game. lol  Strange, I know, but it became an expected thing.  My favorite memory is the Tri-State tournaments and working with Jean Ko, one of the foreign exchange students.  She was always fun, and she and I were Julie Methvin's biggest fans! :)

Anyway, the top five athletes in each sport automatically "letter."  And since there were only five girls on the golf team, I was in! :)  They decided to honorarily throw me in for the Volleyball and Basketball group too, so I got the CHA letter jacket for Golf, Basketball, and Volleyball. lol  And I have always found that to be incredibly ironic, but really nice.  Having said all that, the jacket was bulky and ugly to me, so I believe I only wore it once...

Anne with an E

I caught part of Anne of Green Gables the other night.  It was on from midnight to 5am, so I didn't watch all of it.  But what I saw was about a thousand times funnier (in a witty, dry sense of humor) than I'd remembered.  What a little drama queen, but still she is endearing!  The way she always says "Anne with an E" and the way she hates her red hair... hilarious!  She reminded me a bit of my friend Sarah Bliss, who would never simply call something "good," but "exquisite."  The more poetic or tragic you could make it sound, the better.  I kinda loved that about her, though!  Her emails were always a treat.

Anyway, I especially loved Anne's overdone and insincere apology to Rachel.  Certain things I remembered correctly, like Matthew reminding me of Grandad.  But it's interesting how differently you see things as a child.  (Like thinking Marilla was coldhearted, Matthew and Marilla were married, Gilbert was a jerk, and Anne was not at all overdramatic.  False.)  If you've seen the movie, that might make sense to you.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite quotes...

Anne:  My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That's a sentence I read once, and I say it over to comfort myself in these times that try the soul.  (in the orphanage waiting to be adopted)

Marilla: I'm not suffering for company, particularly a girl who prattles on without stopping for breath! She's no good for us. She has to go straight back where she came from.
Matthew: Well, we might be of some good to her.  :)

Anne: You don't want me? You don't want me because I'm not a boy? Nobody ever did want me. I might have known this was all too beautiful to be true.
Marilla: Come, come, now. Don't cry. It is not your fault.
Anne: This is just the most tragical thing that has ever happened to me.

Marilla: Well, what's your name?
Anne: Would you please call me Cordelia?
Marilla: Call you Cordelia??
Anne: Don't you think it's a pretty name?
Marilla: Is that your name?
Anne: Well, no, it's not exactly my name, though I would love to be called Cordelia.
Marilla: I don't understand what you mean.
Anne: Cordelia is a perfectly elegant name.
Marilla: What is your name, child? And no more nonsense.
Anne: Anne Shirley. Plain old unromantic Anne Shirley.
Marilla: Anne Shirley is a fine and sensible name, and hardly one to be ashamed of.
Anne: Oh, I'm not ashamed, but if you are going to call me Anne, would you please be sure to spell it with an "e".
Marilla: What difference does it make how it is spelled?
Anne: It makes a lot of difference. Print out "A-n-n" and it looks absolutely dreadful, but Anne with an "e" is quite distinguished. So if you'll only call me Anne with an "e", I'll try and reconcile myself to not being called Cordelia.
Marilla: Very well then, Anne, with an "e", how is it that you happened to be brought and not a boy?
Anne: If I were very beautiful and had nut-brown hair, would you keep me? 
Marilla: No. We have absolutely no use for a girl. Well, don't stand there gaping. Come along; bring your bag. Now that you're here, I suppose we'll have to put you somewhere tonight. Take off your hat. You must be hungry.
Anne: I can't eat. I can never eat when I'm in the depths of despair.

Mrs. Cadbury: Tell me what you know about yourself.
Anne: Well, it really isn't worth telling, Mrs. Cadbury... but if you let me tell you what I imagine about myself, you'd find it a lot more interesting. lolol

Anne: Please don't come in, Marilla. I'm in the depths of despair!
Marilla: Oh, fiddlesticks!
Anne: Can't you even imagine you're in the depths of despair?
Marilla: No I cannot. To despair is to turn your back on God.

Marilla: Weren't you taught to say your prayers?
Anne: Well, Mrs. Hammond told me that God made my hair red on purpose, and I've never cared for Him since. LOL

Anne:  Farewell, my beloved friend. Henceforth, we must be strangers living side by side... but my heart will be ever faithful to thee. [forbidden to see Diana]

Anne:  I know I chatter on far too much... but if you only knew how many things I want to say and don't, you'd give me some credit.

Anne:  Laura Spencer is giving a comic recitation, but I prefer to make people cry.

Anne:  I shall never forgive Gilbert Blythe. The iron has entered my soul, Diana. My mind is made up. My red hair is a curse!  [for calling her "Carrots"]

Gilbert: Look, I’m sorry I ever said anything about your hair. You have no idea how sorry. But it was so long ago. Aren’t you ever going to forgive me?
Anne: You hurt my feelings excruciatingly.

Anne:  Look at that. [sunset]  You couldn't enjoy its loveliness more if you had ropes of diamonds.
Diana: I don't know about that.

Anne:  Wilt thou please give me a lock of your jet black tresses?
Diana:  But I don't have any jet black dresses.
Anne:   ...your hair.

Matthew: Puffed sleeves. (complimenting her on the fancy new dress he'd bought her.)
Anne: The puffiest!  :)

Matthew:  Mrs. Spencer made a lucky mistake, I guess.
Marilla:  It wasn't luck, Matthew, it was providence.  He knew we needed her!

Anne:  Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.
=)

MM ~ OSBCSBC

Today's Memory = the Old School Bagel Cafe Saturday Breakfast Club... or as I like to call it, OSBCSBC.  Bobbi, Natalie, and I would go for an early morning jog at LaFortune... another group would run at Riverside... then we'd all meet for some awesome food at Old School!  (Thought of this thanks to my phone getting the message that Chet had "checked in" at OSBC this morning! lol  No clue why it keeps sending me those.)

And the good news is, soon, this happy little summer post-workout tradition shall resume! :)

And on a more random note...

• Reading Radical by David Platt with my small group this summer!  We've just barely started it, but I think this is going to be good!
• I'm also currently reading Battlefield of the Mind (which will have its own post sometime soon) and Shania Twain's autobiography.  It annoys me to have several books going at once, but it is what it is.
• I saw a precious turtle on my drive home today.  Peeking his tiny little head out of his tiny little turtle shell, thinking about moseying across the highway.  I talked to him for a few minutes as I kept driving down the road, and I'm going to believe he heard me and chose to turn back. :)
• 
• Pic = the turtle Nathan rescued. :)
• That was the moment I decided I needed to do a bullet list, so I'd have some reason to throw that into the blog. lol
• I'm into red nail polish lately.  Sally Hansen Honeymoon Red, to be exact.  Love it!
• Something Borrowed = terrrrrible.  I don't understand what makes a movie a "romantic comedy" when everyone falls in love with the wrong person, passivity is rampant, deception and cheating are rewarded, and the only redeeming character is alone in the end. Ugh, reminding me of my feelings toward Valentine's Day.
• Shocking, I know, but I may start watching the Thunder games right now.  I care a bit more than normal lately.  The problem is that there are so many great shows to choose over that... we'll see.
• Sometimes I really want to be an Army Wife. :)
• Most of the time, not so much. lol
• Other things I "sometimes" want: write a book, work for a ministry, get a roommate, adopt a child on my own, go to school and become a psychiatrist, run a marathon, move to a new state, work with youth, volunteer at a hospital, the list goes on and on....
• What is stopping me?  Confusion/Indecision.  (It's part of the whole spaghetti brain thing.)
• What I always need (and need to seeeeek): WISDOM.  And the determination to move foward when I really believe something is from God!!
• That's all for tonight.

Spaghetti

"So Grandmother (Who is always teaching the kids something. Always. Just ask them.) began to explain that boys brains are like boxes that open and close. Everything has it's own box. Only one box is open at a time. No box touches any other box. And they even have a NOTHING box (I'm so jealous of that.). They can open and close those boxes at will. When they are thinking about "work", they aren't thinking about "home". But they can drive home and close the "work" box and open the "home" box.

Girls, on the other hand, have brains like spaghetti (which my boys found HYSTERICAL) and each thing is like a string that touches every other string. It's all there. All the time. Connected to everything else. The only time something is "out" of our thinking is when it's solved or finished or taken care of. Otherwise, it's there. Always there...

She also told them that when you ask a guy what he's thinking about and he says, "Nothing," he means it. I added that when you ask a girl what she's thinking about and she says, "Nothing," she's probably mad at you."  :)

(~Blog excerpt from Mrs. Troop)

Reading this made me laugh, and I think it's completely true.  That's it for today.

Thankful Thursday (29)

"Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart."  Colossians 4:2

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Today, I'm in a slight hurry, but I'm thankful for...

1.  Orbit Bubblemint gum. :)  FAB-ulous!
2.  Finally having been to McNellies (awesome cheeseburger and sweet potatoe fries) and Kilkenny's!
3.  Finding and joining an awesome new gym... and that Dentist Niel & Gina are also members there! :)
4.  Being sore from the BodyPump class last night.  (thankful that it must be working)
5.  The Freedom Riders, for their heroic courage and integrity in the face of irrational and violent hatred.  (Yes, that was on Oprah yesterday.) 
6.  Dependable and thoughtful friends.
7.  Ruth inviting me to do Beth's Revelation study with them... yes, please!

Song of the week = Cheeseburger by VeggieTales... because it's fun and I know all the words, and because I'm in the mood for another McNellies cheeseburger right about now!

Quotables ~ Oprah

"I have never felt that I was living in her shadow, but that I am living in her light. And I'm happy in my own light as well, so all I've ever wanted to do was cheer her on!" ~Gayle King 

(I just love both of them, and I will totally cry when the last show comes around.)

*Much like my feelings on Ellen, I don't agree with her on everything - especially her views on God, but I love who she is at heart.  I really believe she is generous, loving, funny, passionate, beautiful, and brilliant in many areas... so in honor of her last season, here are some of my favorite Oprah quotes!!  I will miss her show.

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.

Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn't changed who I am.  I still have my feet on the ground; I just wear better shoes.

Love is in the details.

What we're all striving for is authentitcity, a spirit-to-spirit connection...  She is the mother I never had, she is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person. (of Gayle)

Every time you state what you want or believe, you're the first to hear it. It's a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don't put a ceiling on yourself.

I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.  And excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are.

If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.

If friends disappoint you over and over, that's in large part your own fault. Once someone has shown a tendency to be self-centered, you need to recognize that and take care of yourself; people aren't going to change simply because you want them to. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time!

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

Your true passion should feel like breathing; it’s that natural.

You don't become what you want, you become what you believe.

Some women have a weakness for shoes... I can go barefoot if necessary. I have a weakness for books... If you're going to binge, literature is definitely the way to do it.

What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine... I believe there's a calling for all of us. I know that every human being has value and purpose. The real work of our lives is to become aware. And awakened. To answer the call.

Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.

When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are.

You are responsible for your life. You can't keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.  You are where you are in life because of what you believe is possible for yourself.

Self-esteem comes from being able to define the world in your own terms and refusing to abide by the judgments of others.

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.  

I don't want anyone who doesn't want me.  If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn't want you, nothing can make him stay.

What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people's lives.

I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become. If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think. 

Often we don't even realize who we're meant to be because we're so busy trying to live out someone else's ideas. But other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny.

In every aspect of our lives, we are always asking ourselves, How am I of value? What is my worth? Yet I believe that worthiness is our birthright.

I trust that everything happens for a reason, even when we're not wise enough to see it. 

MM ~ Tulsa Run!

Running the Tulsa Run (9 miles) with Michelle and Laura last year was memorable and fun... as fun as running can be!  It was October 30th, 2010.  (I know this partly because of them writing "Diva Dash" and dating my signature wall.) =)  The weather was chilly but mainly great for running... I really have no excuse to ever complain after what the OKC runners went through yesterday!  Several other friends ran it, of course, because I have so many ridiculous running friends! :) 

Laura ran the entire thing, while Michelle and I walked then ran to catch up with her over and over.  They met at my house and Mom drove us and took us home... and we ate at Los Cabos with the girls after the race!  I mainly remember eating the "Sport Beans" (aka overpriced tiny bag of jelly beans) and trying to imitate the race walkers with Michelle.  Those people are intense! I'm sure we looked ridiculous.  What I love about the Tulsa Run is that their photographers were clearly visible, so you knew exactly when to smile and look alive during the race! lol  Having said that, I didn't buy any race pictures to post here. lol  But Laura bought the one of us victoriously crossing the finish line, so I have stolen it to put on my blog. :)

 The whole group before the race!

 Before... then after. :)

Our happy Finish Line shot!  Get excited!!

Our "fan club" after the race! ;-)