The downside of being sick:  not being able to keep much of anything down.

The upside of being sick:  losing 7 pounds without even trying.

I had hit a bit of a plateau.  The 2+ hour commute that the play I’m currently in requires basically eliminated all my workout time.  Then the kidney stone hit and I couldn’t even move.  I was getting frustrated about how slow the healing process was going.

Then the flu hit.

I lost 5 pounds in the first two days of just not being able to keep anything down.  Then getting sick at even the smell of most foods made me unable to eat for many days afterwards.  I went down another 2 pounds.  By this point I was way below the mark for adding my next charm.  Andrew wouldn’t let me have it, though, until I was back to eating relatively normal again and THEN we saw where my weight was.  He didn’t want me to have the charm, then gain weight back once I started eating normally, and then be disappointed and frustrated if I had to take the charm off. 

Well, I’ve been able to eat much better for the last couple days, and I did gain a little weight back, but I’m still under the benchmark.  So today I got my charm!  Hopefully I’ll get NO OTHER CHARMS THIS WAY. 

This charm is a dog paw print – for Luna.  She is such an important part of my life and our little family that she deserved a place in this bracelet.  She’s my best friend and protector and she takes her job very seriously, especially when Andrew is not around.  She’s also a great workout partner!  She kicks me out of bed in the morning when I’m scheduled to go to the gym, and she’s raring to go when I pull out her walking leash.  She prefers to walk, but she’ll run with me too – so she plays an important part in this weight loss journey.  I’m glad to show off how important she is to me!

It took one long month, but I finally turned the last page in Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers.

The uniqueness of this book in that it is written in sort of short vignettes was actually its downfall for me.  There were so many little stories interspersed with a whole bunch of characters doing a lot of different things that I couldn’t keep track of everything.  This month was VERY busy for me, and having to take so many long breaks in between reading, I would get lost when I tried to get back into the story.  So, although I made it through, I don’t know that this one will make this to the top of my favorites list.

With that said, however, I did have some favorite FACTS about this book.

Number one, while writing this book, Dickens got MARRIED!!! As a newlywed I think its just so cute to read a book written by a newlywed.  I also think its hilariously funny how horrible Dickens is at writing about romantic relationships in this book.  I either feel really bad for his new wife and shudder at what their courtship must have been like, or I think they must have a great relationship and he avoided writing about relationships in that way because he didn’t want everyone saying he obviously wrote about himself.  Maybe he decided some things just needed to be private. 

Number two, the original illustrator for this book committed suicide soon after getting the contract.  WOAH.  Good thing Dickens wasnt superstitious – he just hired another illustrator and life went on.  I don’t think that being the illustrator of this book contributed to the suicide – I’m sure it was some other personal problems.

Number three, this book was really hated after its first few installments until the character Sam Weller was introduced in Chapter 10.  Sheesh!  People were hard on this new writer.  This was only his second novel after Barnaby Rudge and no one even read that one!  But, I will admit, Sam Weller was a good character and saved the book for me in a lot of ways too.

Number four, while writing this book, Dickens started writing Oliver Twist.  Crazy!  I would think its hard enough to write one novel at a time.  But 2? Plus the other little plays and articles he was doing on the side?  Oliver Twist is obviously a well known, well loved book, play, and movie!  I will confess, I actually read Oliver Twist first this year – because it was the one I knew the best – but everyone knows it so well I probably won’t write a whole post about it.

Number five, as horrible as Dickens was at writing about male/female romantic relationships, he really blew me out of the water with his descriptions of male friendships.  I think the relationships guys have with other guys is fascinating and unique, especially because its just so different from the relationships girls have with other girls.  But he really gave clear pictures of the way men hang out together, argue, move on, support each other, and challenge each other.

Number six, it’s slightly funny, but I really liked the way Dickens dwelt on (almost obnoxiously) on the use of coaches for traveling.  During this time, trains were coming in, and coaches just couldn’t hold their own very well anymore.  But Dickens obviously loved traveling by coach and wasn’t ready for change.  Authors still do that today – romanticize something old that has been replaced by new technology.  I bet he hoped that he might in some small way sway public opinion and keep the coaches around just a little bit longer.  But my goodness, sometimes I felt he just made them decide to go somewhere just so he could make them go there in a coach!

And, last, but not a favorite, because its sad, number seven – in the middle of writing this (and Oliver Twist), Dickens sister-in-law died.  He’s a newlywed and now his wife’s sister died.  I don’t know how close any of them were, but I think its safe to assume that there was serious grief.  If it was me, I’d be overwhelmed.  Needless to say, in the process of mourning, Dickens missed his deadline that month for both books.  There was a gap in the publications, but the next month he was back and writing as furiously as ever.  I think it really helps me to remember that this author was a real person going through real life.  It changes the perspective across the board.  I respect him so much for the work he could produce while going through such major life events.

So, technically next I will move on to The Lamplighter which was originally a farce play he created, but he ended up pulling it before the show opened.  Instead, he turned it into a short story that was apparently better recieved.  However, I have to postpone The Lamplighter a bit.  I’m pretty sure my coworkers at the library will disown me if I don’t read The Hunger Games Trilogy immediately (or at least before the movie comes out).  I’ve told them I had to wait until I finished the Pickwick Papers and they’ve been anxiously monitoring my progress.  So, I’m taking a short break (which we allowed for in the alliteration so that we don’t get dragged by Dickens’ demanding dictation…) but I will be back!

By the way, I was able to check out the most amazing book from the library that is absolutely a MUST for this Year of Dickens –  The Life Of Charles Dickens, the Illustrated Edition by John Forster.  It’s huge and beautiful and chock full of fascinating information.  Good thing I work at the library and get no late fees because I have a feeling this book is staying with me long past the 15 allowed renewals!

As my mother recently posted, she and I are doing a year-long alliteration.

Donna and Daughter (in this case, that’s me, although she has two others, plus one grand-daughter…)are dedicated to delving into the delightful, dark, and dreary documents from the desk of Dickens BUT destined to be dragged by Dickens’ demanding dictation, we are free to filter with fiction, facts, fantasy, and further flights that find our fancy.

I decided that I wanted to read ALL of his works (fiction, non-fiction, short stories, articles, etc ALL included) and that my plan of attack was to read them in order.  I started with Barnaby Rudge, one of the two historical novels Dickens ever wrote (the other being Tale of Two Cities).  If you research this work closely, you will find that it was actually published much later than other works, but he WROTE it first, and its publication was delayed.  Therefore I still considered it worthy to be his first, and thus my first.  Plus, I had never even heard of it, and that intrigued me.  It was also quoted as being the “least loved and least read” of Dickens’ works.  Poor thing.  I needed to give it the benefit of the doubt.

And boy was it worth it.

Let me tell you, BR (as I affectionately type it) gets some tough reviews.  As I was reading, I researched some summaries and analyses just to make sure I was following what was going on.  It is set during the time of the Gordon Riots which I really was clueless about.  But I found it FASCINATING! Plus there is a murder mystery that runs throughout and anyone who knows me knows I love a good murder mystery!
He was also criticized because he named the book after the character Barnaby Rudge (Jr or Sr is left to your own decisions) and critics claimed that readers can’t identify with Barnaby as much as Dicken’s other famous characters.  I haven’t read much of Dickens, and therefore haven’t found myself particularly drawn to a character yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed Barnaby Jr and did in fact sympathize with him, and perhaps more so his mother, and found myself distinctly interested in what happened to him.
It does also have some truly funny parts that highlight Dickens’ famous wit, and I really liked that.

It was definitely slow going – I’m not going to lie.  But once the action got started, I was hooked.

A few things I found really cool:
*The character Barnaby Rudge Jr has a pet raven named Grip who can talk and does a novelty act of sorts throughout the book.  He is Barnaby’s constant companion.  Grip was based on Dickens’ own pet raven(s) of which he explains in the prologue.  BUT this very bird inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.  I love knowing things like that.

*The phrase “being read the Riot Act” or some variation thereof was started from the source of this novel.  The group of rioters in the Gordon Riots in 1780 was read the Riot Act and the phrase pops up at least twice in the novel.  It’s nice to truly know the origin of that phrase, since it is one I’ve been known to use.

*and Mom, you’re the only one who will appreciate this, but I came across a word from our Page-A-Day calendar of Forgotten English – and I was able to understand it because I had learned it a few days earlier!  Very cool!

A good source for more info on this novel and the history behind it can be found here.  I’ve also found the Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens to be an invaluable assistance with these “definitely difficult documents”

I last posted about my weight loss/triathlon training goals and the charm bracelet that is going to get me there.  Now its time for an update!

About one week after I conciously started trying to lose weight, I lost the first five pounds and was able to get my first charm!  Andrew wants to be a part of this process, so he keeps the charms and when I reach the next benchmark, he is the one to give me the right one (we’ve picked a specific order).  Here is my bracelet with the first charm:

I picked a Q as my first charm simply because we can NEVER find anything with a Q initial on it.  I’m a brand new Quillen, and the bracelet is brand new to me, so it seemed like a good fit! 

My bracelet stayed like this for almost 3 whole weeks….  After losing the first 5 pounds so quickly, it was frustrating that this next 5 pounds was taking its sweet time to go away.  But I kept working hard, and just the other day it paid off!  Now my bracelet looks like this:

Technically, that is a total of 3 charms, but it is a bit of a long story about why the heart bead got added into the bunch.  It’s an extra one, so we combined it with the I Am Loved heart charm.  This is one that Andrew picked out specifically – and it is his favorite out of all the charms.  He wanted me to remember, especially this early on in the process when I’m still getting frustrated so easily, that he loves me completely, however I look, and however fast the weight comes off (or doesn’t!).  I got to add this right before our trip to Virginia for Christmas which I am very excited about!

So, 10 pounds down!  30 to go.  Stay tuned!

It’s time for me to get serious about weight loss.

My struggle with weight started a long time ago – right around the end of high school.  I was in a sledding accident one winter – I slid headfirst into a tree.  Needless to say, I had a major headache that day.  Unfortunately, I had a major headache for many days afterwards.  In my journals I stopped keeping track at Day 300 something.  All the medications and doctor’s visits and remedy attempts have become a bit fuzzy for me now, but I remember that it was linked to the severe TMJ I have (possibly connected to the head to tree incident) and that I was put on certain medicines for it.  During that time I was highly active – I was playing volleyball, I was playing tennis, doing lots of active things, but I was gaining weight at kind of a surprising rate.  At the same time, however, someone close to me was going through a severe eating disorder, and the last thing I wanted to think about was dieting or keeping track of what I was eating or how many calories I was burning.  I just let it go. 

We eventually found out that one of the side effects of the medication was weight gain.  We weaned me off of it, but by then the damage was done.  I was quite a few sizes bigger than I had ever been before, and I was heading to college.  That first year of college I became very serious about working out, eating carefully, everything I was supposed to do, but the weight only came off in tiny little stages and I got frustrated.  And I still didn’t want to talk about it much or make a big effort towards weight loss, because of the person close to me who was battling her eating disorder and finally starting to gain some weight.  It’s hard to try to lose weight when losing weight is the enemy to someone you’re around and they are desperately trying to do the opposite.  I let my issues fall out of mind. 

Since then its been an on again off again thing for me.  I go through spurts where I lose 10 or so pounds and then I get stuck at a plateau, or my birthday comes (with cake, of course), or the holidays show up again with all their deliciousness, or I’m so busy that fast food becomes the norm, and up I go again on the weight scale. 

BUT NO MORE!

For the last year and a half I’ve had the goal of completeing a triathlon.  I trained very hard for it in Virginia, but wasn’t able to sign up for a race.  I then moved to this very high altitude city and realized that I was in no shape at all!  It’s hard to breathe up here!  Not to mention I was starting new jobs and getting married.  Triathlon training just didn’t happen.  We recently joined a gym to help me get over the high-altitude issues and I’m finally back to being able to work out without absolutely dying.  The triathlon is next June, so I have until then to get into tip-top triathlon shape.  But in the course of starting real training, I realized how out of shape I really am, and how overweight I have gotten.  And it’s not okay with me anymore.  So along with the goal of becoming a triathlete, I’ve added the goal of losing 40 pounds.  AND I came up with a really great way to keep me motivated.  Here it is.

That’s a charm bracelet.  I’ve alwasy wanted a charm bracelet – one with charms that really meant something for me specifically.  My mom has one from when she was younger, and I used to love wearing it and playing with it.  But I’ve never had one of my own.  Until now.  You’ll notice that there are no charms on it – yet.  I lost almost 3 pounds, which put me at the starting weight for this 40 pound loss process.  Now, for every 5 pounds I lose, I get to put a charm on the bracelet!  I’m so excited!  I worked very hard to get to the point where I could wear the bracelet, and now I am extremely motivated to keep working that hard so that I can put on my first charm.   I’ll post pictures when I do!

I’m now going to the gym 7 days a week – and I’m really enjoying it!  I do a mixture of things, from Zumba, to Spinning, to Volleyball, to Running, to a yoga/dance class called WillPower & Grace, with a bit of strength training thrown in.  A co-worker of mine belongs to the same gym and she and I have been going to Zumba and WillPower together.  Andrew comes with me sometimes too, for volleyball and strength training, and it’s fun to do parts of it together.  He has been such an encouragement with this, and was right on board with the charm bracelet idea when I asked him about it.  The journey of losing 40 pounds begins with a single step I suppose, and my journey starts now!

I just think this is so crazy that I feel the need to share.

We have a serial vandal at our library.  Our cute little library!  Here is the story:

As in most librarys, we have chairs and study carrels placed around our library.  Some of these are near electrical outlets, and some are not.  We don’t have an overwhelming amount of access to electricity (and some of our patrons have complained about it; it is being addressed in the plans for the remodel supposed to happen in the next year or two) but there is usually enough to keep our laptop and other electronic device users happy. 

Well, one particular study carrel is located near an outlet.  For safety, we have child safety things (I’m sure they have a name, and I’m sure I don’t know what it is) in all of our outlets that adult patrons can simply remove in order to plug in their devices.  Someone at this study carrel has removed the child safety things, broken off the prongs, shoved them into the outlets, and then painted over it with nail polish.

WHAT?!

And not just once or twice, but at least 3 times over the last 2 weeks.  This is not only annoying, but dangerous, as the nail polish can act as a conductor which could create all kinds of serious problems and injuries.

The management of the library decided to address this issue by plugging in a surge protector into the outlet, and then covering the outlet with the said study carrel so that the outlet itself wasn’t easily accessible, but someone needing to plug in a device could use the surge protector.  They sent out an email explaining this to everybody so that we weren’t surprised at the rearrangement, and to just keep everyone aware of the situation.

Well this morning at the brief meeting we have before we open the library, our general manager informed us that the outlet is STILL being vandalized!  They checked on the outlet in question and what they found was that the surge protector has been stolen, the study carrel moved (not exactly back to its original position, but haphazardly pushed to one side in order to expose the outlet), and the same vandalism with the nail polish done again!

WHAT?!

Who does that to a library outlet?  Who does that to ANY outlet?  What do people have against access to electricity?  The only thing we can think of is that possibly this person really likes that particular area, and is also particulary laptop user UNfriendly and wants to ensure that no laptop user will encroach on his/her territory.  But really sir, or madam, this is not the way to go about that.

So I guess from now on we will all be keeping our eyes peeled for any person or persons in that area and our noses peeled for any scent of nail polish.  Never a dull moment at the local public library, I tell you what.

This weekend marks the fifth year anniversary of something horrible that marked my life in indescribable ways.

But I believe in the soveriegnty of God and that all things happen for a reason.

I also know I wouldn’t be who I am today or where I am today without what happened to me that night.  And I’m pretty happy with how things are.  So I’m okay with it.

But, like every other person who survives a traumatic experience, I get a bit distracted during this time of the year.  I take time away every year at this time to go away on my own, to think, to reflect, to hang out with God, and to just refresh.  I take time away from people, from other memories, and from every day life and go somewhere surrounded by untouched nature, someplace beautiful and quiet.

This year is no different, except this year my husband will be there with me.

But I know that my mother sometimes struggles with this decision of mine to go away by myself every year.  So I wanted to write a quick post of something I wrote in my journal last year on my weekend away.  (I write in third person for things like this.  It makes me be a bit more open, when I can put my feelings and situations on a third party – I feel less like I’m writing about myself)  Maybe it will give a small glimpse into why these few days away every year are so important to me, and how much I really do get out of them.

~

Betsy fixed a quick lunch and picked up her book to read while she ate.  Although she had only begun it the day before, she was already fascinated by this book.  A new realm of philosophy opened up through the engaging fictional storyline and she had been hooked by day one, jotting down notes in the margins, underlining sentences, and starring interesting passages.  A phrase had caught her yesterday, one so simple yet profound, one that Betsy wanted to define her weekend.

          “…to rest, to think, to be alone and alive.”  Betsy loved the togetherness of ‘alone and alive’, as if they were united.  Perhaps it is when we are alone that we truly become alive, not conforming to anyone else, but just existing as ourselves in our truest form.  Perhaps we cannot really be alive until we’ve spent some time alone.

          Betsy thought about that and decided that was what she wanted to get out of this weekend.  To be alone and alive.  It wasn’t about independence or loneliness; it was about remembering how to be alive.  And to do that, she HAD to be alone.  And she was going to have to face some of her fears along the way.

          Betsy quickly cleaned up her lunch things and packed a backpack of supplies.  She was going on a hike before she lost her nerve.  She had looked through the trail guide when she had arrived at the cabin and noticed one that looped around the large beautiful lake.  It was said to be fairly easy although it was about 6 miles long, and one significant portion of the trail deviated from the lake and wound its way through the woods.

          Betsy was scared of woods, and she was terrified of being alone in the woods.  She had planned to just do the other half of the trail, and then simply turn around and come back the same way.  But to be alone in the woods was to be alive, and that was what this weekend was about.

~

          The woods were beautiful.  Had woods always been this pretty?  Every step was unique, the leaves, sticks, trees, and dirt making new patterns and scenes unfold before her.  Betsy almost wished she had been here a few hours earlier when the rain was the strongest, to have seen all these leaves forced off their branches, a torrent of red, brown, and gold.  She imagined them swirling all around her; it must have been beautifully tragic.

          The trail was a 6 mile loop around the lake, although one entire side of it wound its way through the woods before finally coming out to a path that stuck close to the water’s edge.   Betsy had opted to do the woodsy part first, to get it over with.  Plus the trail picked up near her cabin, so she could do the hard part, then the nice part, and be finished right by her cabin.  Armed with phone, camera, water, and her map she set out on what she assumed would be a 2 hour trek.

          To keep herself from getting scared, Betsy tried to focus on her environment, observing and enjoying the little things.  Parts of the trail with an especially thick canopy of trees were still very damp from the earlier storm.  Betsy liked these sections because they were cooler, smelled sweeter, and the ground was softer under her feet.  But they were darker, which lent an air of creepiness.  The brighter sections, with shafts of sunlight and beautiful views of the lake and the paddleboats and canoes, were dry and brown with a hard, packed trail.  The balance was nice, though, and she found herself stopping often to take pictures of something especially breathtaking.  Before she knew it, she had broken free of the woods and had another 2.5 miles of open trail along the water and the beach before turning back to the cabin areas.  She had conquered her fear, and she had done it alone.  She really did feel alive.

I thought it was time for a change on here as well as in our apartment, so I finally changed the look of my blog!

I currently really love gerbera daisies.  Once I had decided on colors for my wedding (blue and green, to match the aquarium that we would be taking so many pictures in front of) I spent a lot of time googling images of blue and green bridal bouquets to see if something struck my fancy.  I liked calla lillies and these gerbera daisies the best and was able to get a bouquet made with them.  I like them because they are super cheerful and they come in pretty much every color imaginable, which I appreciate.  The other day was our three month anniversary and Andrew got me a bouquet of orange gerbera daisies (amongst other flowers) as a surprise.  I’m not sure he intended to get gerbera daisies, or whether he just picked ones he thought I’d like, but it was still pretty cool.  So now they are sitting on one side of the room on our table, and the bouquet from our wedding is on the other side of our room on our bookshelf, and it only seemed appropriate to have it on my blog as well. 

I just recently finished reading a book called The Language of Flowers and in the midst of a beatifully written novel, it emphasizes back in the Victorian time when people gave and picked flowers based on what they MEANT.  Each flower, and in some cases the color of the flower, conveys a different meaning.  I think the exact meanings have been argued about and have certainly evolved over time (it seems like everything now has some very positive meaning, where as back in the day it could mean something as harsh as infidelity, mistrust, misanthropy, etc), but this book was about going back to the origins of such a language of flowers.  It really made me think about what gerbera daisies mean.  I probably filled my wedding with the essence of jealousy, or am filling my home with images of deceit.  So I looked it up.

As far as I can tell, daisies all by themselves mean Loyal Love, Purity, Beauty, and Innocence.
Gerberas specifically seem to mean Innocence.
I’m okay with that being in my home!

(Calla Lily, by the way, means Magnificent Beauty.  I’m okay with having had that in my wedding too!)

You’ll also notice the marriage ticker that I’ve added towards the top of the page that tracks how long we’ve been married.  I’ve seen them often on other people’s blogs and thought they were very cute, so I finally figured out how to add one to mine – no easy task I might add!  Now maybe I’ll be as good at remembering the little anniversaries as Andrew seems to be!

It has been such a big week for us!  Last Friday was our first day back to work after the visit to Virginia and since then we have been back in the full swing of things. 

We completely rearranged our main room.  It’s not a whole lot of space to begin with, but to move everything around was a bit more of a job than I think either of us expected!  We did it one night after work and I think everyone (Luna included!) is happy with the new layout.  It makes things a bit more open and comfortable and there is more room to play right in the middle of everything!  I enjoy change, and I often felt the need to rearrange my room while I was growing up – I’m very thankful that Andrew was so on board with it too. 

We also had a very important meeting at our church this week.  Due to a previous meeting and conversations, I was incredibly nervous about this one, but God really worked in some hearts and answered prayers, and now I’m very excited about what God is going to do with us and in our church in the near future.  It’s exciting to be in the middle of something and really see God working.

I’m also very excited because I am now the proud owner of THIS!

It is a beautiful Trek Lexa that I was able to get on sale.  Last summer I started training for a triathlon but was unable to complete one before the holiday season was upon me with the production of Scrooge, a new engagement, and then a move to Colorado.  I temporarily put training on hold while I acclimated to this place (and this altitude!) and got settled after our wedding.  Now I’m getting back in the swing of training with the hopes to compete in the Greeley Triathlon here next summer.  The next step in my training was to get decent road bike for racing, and I am so excited to get off a gym bike and get outside on this one! 

Another exciting thing in my life this week was that I finally completed the second cross-stitch in a set I was doing.  Here it is:

The first set of hands that I cross-stitched I finished months ago and we were able to display it at our Virginia reception.  This one took much longer, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.  Next I get to start working on a cross-stitch pattern made from a photo of Andrew’s and my actual hands in the I-Love-You sign handshape with my bouquet of flowers as our background that was taken by my brother-in-law at our wedding.  It was made as a gift for us, complete with everything I need to make it, and I’m really looking forward to working on that. 

We also got cable and Internet at our apartment this week!  Andrew has been patiently waiting for it, and this month room opened up in the budget.  It was the right time too, because he needs it for school, and he starts classes back in just a couple weeks.  So therefore I have plenty of Internet to post pictures and blogs!  We’ve been catching up on some favorite TV shows and enjoying the freedom to check our email without having to go somewhere else for free wi-fi. 

And finally, tomorrow is our 3 month anniversary!  I can’t believe it has already been 3 months!  It has definitely been the best 3 months of my life so far.

So it’s been a whirlwind week but a really good one!  Anything new and exciting going on in anyone else’s week?

We just got back from a wonderful visit home with family and friends, as well as our third (and final!) wedding reception/celebration.  I’m in no rush to make the 25 hour drive again, but it was so nice to have those few days at home!

I would spend time detailing the reception, but my mom has done a wonderful job blogging pictures about it – so you should go see her page!

We arrived home to a very intense reminder that God is a God of the little things:

Our apartment complex has a LOT of parking, and there are no assigned parking lots per apartment.  There are about 3 spots per apartment, so it is pretty much guaranteed that there will be enough parking somewhere in the vicinity of your building.  We have a row of spaces right outside our door that we try to park in, but there is a never a guarantee that those will be available.
Last week on the day that we were leaving, we were blessed with the ability to park both our regular cars plus the rental car right by our door which made loading everything much easier.  We also felt safer leaving our cars right by our door while we were gone for 8 days.  Our rent is due by the 5th of every month, and since we were arriving back so late on the 4th, we went ahead and paid our rent a week early, informing the main office that we were doing so because we would be out of town.

When we came home last on Thursday night, we were surprised to find the entire parking lot, EXCEPT for the row of spaces by our building, completely blocked off due to new paving.  We found a note attached to our door (they were on all doors) when we got in.  It was a notice (from the day before) that the parking lots would be paved over the next two days and that all cars in the first area needed to be moved by 8:30 am on Thursday morning, or they would be towed at the owner’s expense.  The row that our cars were in were scheduled for the next day and needed to be moved by 8:30 am on Friday morning.  I was suddenly overwhelmed by the way that God had worked everything out way before we even knew something needed to be worked out.  He allowed us to get those three spaces by our apartment, otherwise we never would have thought to move our cars to that particular spot.  If we had parked even one row over, our cars would have been towed at our expense.  If we had stayed in Virginia one extra day, or even had car trouble on the way home and missed being able to move our cars before Friday morning, our cars would have been towed at our expense.  It seems like such a little thing, a simple matter of parking, but God’s sovereignty permeates even the little things.  We have all our cars safe and sound and a nice new paved parking lot to park them on. 

Be encouraged by this, as I was, that the God who is in control of something seemingly as minor as this, is also in control of the little AND big things in your life.