If College Bekah Had a Blog (Part 1)

I've been sorting through old college pictures while working on a couple of projects, and ohhhhhhhhhh the trips I've taken down memory lane. I didn't scrapbook back in those days, so these pictures are shoved in a plastic bag, but I'm so glad they exist. It's fascinating to remember life in the late 90's. The clothes, the hair, the makeup, even the cars. (And these are just a few of the reasons I adore pictures!)

Obviously I didn't blog back then. Shoot, I didn't even know how to use the internet when I went to college. But if I had blogged back in those days, here are a few of the things you would have seen. (There are too many pictures for just today, so I'll spread them over today and tomorrow!)

This was my parents' living room the day before I moved to college as a freshman. Perhaps I should say this was PART of my parents' living room. And yes, I had to share a room. And yes, it took three carloads to get me there. Sweet mercy.

Check out that sweet computer! The big box monitor, the hard drive in front of the laundry basket, and the printer behind it. And the clothes. SO many clothes. (Hanging in the doorway behind me, piled in the chair behind me, piled on the floor in front of me, piled on the chair to the right of the picture, and probably buried in a fair number of boxes, too.)

This was the original Bekah-mobile. My parents bought it when I was in elementary school and it became the car I drove throughout high school and then college, too. By the time I was done with college, it had a leak in the radiator, and I had to pop the hood every time I drove it to refill it. I was so good at it. (Today I'm not sure I would know how to pop a hood if I had to!) The car's name was Lloyd, if you'd like to officially meet him.

My dorm for my freshman and sophomore years. Evans Hall. And by the way, doesn't every girl pose with a trash can the day she moves away to college? (Also: hello, bangs!)

I mean...where to begin on this one!?!?! The TV? The bunny ears? The button down jumper? the VHS tape? Mark Lowry's mullet? Just so many options of things to talk about! (I had a MASSIVE crush on Mark Lowry for most of my high school and college years, so he appeared in a large number of photos. I will spare you most of them. You're welcome.)

My desk. My computer, you'll see, takes up the whole thing. I also have my snack bin close at hand. Some things never change.

My roommate my freshman year, Christi. I really loved living with her. She made our little dorm room a home. (Her mom made those curtains above our heads.) I find it hilarious that we have an iron in this photo, because I'm pretty sure neither of us believed in ironing. We did love that futon though. Oh futons. Do they still make them?

Christi and me again. Hello, turtleneck. This was after I started cutting my own hair. Bet you can't tell. This was also after I started drinking about 64 ounces of Mountain Dew per day. Bet you can't tell that either. (Fun fact: Christi is one of the friends we met up with on our Friendtastic Fifth Anniversary Adventure. She was one of our wedding guests, too! So thankful she's still part of my life!)

At the end of the first semester of my freshman year, Christi and I moved down the hall in our dorm and joined up with two more friends, Christina and Jenny. Happily, I'm still friends with both of them, too! Hi, Christina! Look what I found!!

Talk about a blast from the past! The DISCMAN!!!! (This was obviously before my thermostat broke permanently, as I am wearing that turtleneck again AND a very thick jacket/shirt. I remember that thing. It was WARM!

Christmas with my sister!

Short sleeves this time. And a sweet roll of bangs.

More tomorrow! Hope you enjoy! (PS. It's okay to laugh.)

Having Some Fun!

Thank you so much for your words of kind encouragement yesterday! I am happy to report I did work out last night, and while it may have tried to kill me, it did not succeed! :) The room was so hot, but I persevered!

I thought we might have some fun today! How's that? I found a little "This or That" quiz that looked fun, so I thought I'd play along! (You can play too, if you want!)



Cake or Cookies
Like I can possibly pick between the two when it comes to consuming them! Ha! So I will answer this from a baking perspective. I am a cookie girl. I discovered a couple of years ago that I'm a really good cookie baker! I love trying new cookie recipes and whipping up a batch of something yummy to share. While I do occasionally make cakes, I think my gifts lie more in the cookie department.

Call or Text
Text, text, text! While I don't hate talking on the phone, I just find it easier to text people. They can answer at their own convenience, and I find most people are able to answer faster if you text them. I am also a fairly forgetful person, so a text thread allows me to head back into the conversation to find answers I've forgotten!

Coke or Pepsi
Coke. No question. (Even though I usually drink water, I do have a soft spot for Coke in my soul!)

Dogs or Cats
Boy isn't that a loaded question? We have a cat, so I feel I must say cat, but you do know how much I'd love to have a dog! Fortunately we have the best of both worlds by having Braeya here every day and Phoebe here pretty regularly, so I guess that's a win!

Eggs or Pancakes
Both? I will go with the responsible adult answer and say eggs, because they are better for me and we do eat them way more often. But I won't lie: I love a good pancake now and then. Saturday morning pancake treats? OKAY!!!! Now here's a fact: I do not like pancake syrup in my eggs. They must be kept entirely separate.

Facebook or Twitter
Facebook. I don't really love Twitter all that much. I appreciate the recent character expansion, because now it actually works for me, but I still much prefer Facebook. I use Twitter more for business purposes, so it's like an actual news feed for me. Facebook is more like a living room full of friends!

Instagram or Pinterest
Ugh! How to choose? To me, this is comparing apples and oranges. I adore Pinterest and use it like a search engine. I hunt it for recipes, crafts, and anything else I need. But I don't use it as a true social media tool. I do follow people on it, but I don't hang out there wondering what they're going to pin next. I search based on what I want, regardless of what everyone else is pinning. But Instagram? Oh, it's my happy place!! I love all the pictures!

Marvel or DC
Neither. Not into anything superhero or comic related. I actually don't even know the difference between Marvel and DC.

Paperback or E-book
PAPERBACK. I really dislike reading ebooks. I need to hold a hard copy in my hand, smell it, feel it, write in it - you get the point, right? I will read an ebook if I need to for review purposes, but I always have to re-read it in paperback so I can mark it up.

Summer or Winter
SUMMER. When is it coming back again? Tomorrow? Oh, no? Well that's too bad. I'm so ready for shorts and sunscreen and long walks and fire pit dates. And ice cream.

Sweet or Spicy
Sweet! I don't like stuff that's super spicy, so sweet please!!

Tattoos or Piercings
Piercings, I guess, but only in the ears. LOL! I do not have any tattoos, nor do I want any. The very thought of it makes me shiver. I don't get into that much concentrated pain. I did get my ears double pierced, and I don't need anything else pierced. I think nose piercings look cute on some women, but let's face it: we do NOT need to draw more attention to this nose!

Tea or Coffee
Ha! Does that even need an answer? Coffee, baby!

Yoga Pants or Jeans
Yoga pants! The day I discovered those was a sweet day indeed. I would live in them all day ever day if I could possibly get away with it.

Zoo or Aquarium
Hmmmmm. I love aquariums, but I love the bigness of zoos. So I'll go with zoo. But you're not getting me in the reptile building at all. Being stuck in a building with a bunch of snakes?  Uhhhh no.


So there you go - play along if you want! :)

Quitter

It's a good thing when you can laugh at yourself, right? I did a lot of laughing at our stories this week, and hopefully you will too! Enjoy some of our "Valentimes" and other stories!

Listen here

Mondays are usually my busiest days of the week. I spend several hours editing the podcast and I have many house chores to complete every week. Every now and then, my long to-do list exhausts me, but usually it has the opposite effect. I thrive on crossing items off the list and actually feel pretty energized at the end of the day.

Usually.

Then there are days like yesterday. My mind spun most of the day, because I'm in the home stretch of prepping for some speaking, and I'm in that phase where I cannot afford to forget anything. I'm terrified something ridiculously important will fall through the cracks, so I'm trying to pay extra careful attention. I'm praying hard over the event at hand, and I'm working to make sure I have absolutely no regrets about the amount of time and effort I've put forth in my preparation.

All of that, of course, in addition to the aforementioned typical Monday tasks.

At the end of the day, Ryan and I went to work out together, and about three-tenths of a mile into my run, I was done.

Mentally done.

I couldn't focus on the run because my mind was still spinning with work stuff. My body was tight and tired from not working out for a few days. I was utterly distracted by conversations happening around me, and worst of all, I was letting Satan fill my mind with a bunch of lies.

I knew it was happening, but I didn't fight it very hard.

And finally, 1.8 miles into the run, I punched the red button on the treadmill. Ryan looked over and asked what I was doing.

I quit.

He just stared at me, because that's not like me.

I quit. I don't care. I'm done.

And with that, I stepped off the treadmill and sat down to feel sorry for myself until he was finished working out.

I don't tell you this story because I'm proud of it. Quite the opposite, actually. But I tell you because we all have days when we quit, and I think we can learn two things from it.

First, we need to apply some grace to our lives and understand that one bout of quitting doesn't make us quitters. I'm not a failure because I failed at yesterday's workout. I may have made a poor choice I regret, but I am not a personal, total failure because of that choice.

Secondly, we need to allow those quitting moments to fuel us to do better next time. I'll get back on that treadmill today, and I won't quit. I may not feel any better than I felt yesterday. I can't guarantee I'll be free from Satan's pesky lies. But I will not quit. I will fight through it, and even if I come away with a terrible time on the clock, I will come away with a full run.

Ryan was kind and helped me rally after the workout so the whole evening wasn't a loss. And today I will get back on that machine and prove to him the words he spoke settled into my mind.

Yes, I quit. But today I will begin again!

Pheebs!

As you probably gathered from the Shuffle yesterday, we had a little visitor this weekend! YAY!!!!!

Phoebe's people were busy with some wedding related festivities, so she came over to spend the weekend at our house. Break. Our. Hearts.

It probably wasn't one of her more fun weekends to hang out with us, because while it wasn't horribly snowy or icy, it wasn't a sweet weather weekend, so we couldn't go for fun walks or anything else. Womp, womp. But if she was in the mood to be a cuddly couch potato, she scored pretty big!

Take a look!

We heard that after she spent a month with us this summer, she (ahem) tended not to be a very good eater when she went back home. It was so weird because she ate like a champ for us, on a very regimented schedule, with no issues. I have no idea what fell apart, but it seemed to fix itself when she came back. Boom. Eating.

 Fetch and belly rubs? Okay!

 She sat through rehearsals for my upcoming speaking. To be fair, she slept through part of it. I wasn't sure how to feel about that.

 Olympics with Daddy Ryan!

 Hugs with Bekah Mom!

 Naps ON Bekah Mom.

It did snow a little on Saturday, and that was fun to play in while it came down!

 Some light reading...

 Catching up on the news...

 Being left is NOT her favorite. So when we got home from church on Sunday, it was as though we had just returned from a seven day voyage. She crawled right up into my lap and cuddled forever.

 Not our best "family" selfie," but we got tired of trying and just called it done.

Braeya, of course, was NOT happy about this, but we loved having our borrowed girl for the weekend. Hope she can come back to play soon!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Before I tell you about our week, I thought I'd share this link with you, since I'd asked you to pray for my friend Michelle. Maybe you'd like a face to put with the name! The Fox affiliate in their area featured her on the news this week, and this is a link to that story. (Note for any of you who may live in that area: I read on her prayer support Facebook page that they have an abundance of breastmilk offers now, so they're covered!)

The most recent update I have seen indicated that she is making impressive improvements beyond the doctors' expectations, but they have put her name on a heart transplant list. They are trusting God with the timing of it all, believing if He intends to heal her heart, He will do so before a transplant becomes available, and if not, then one will become available at the right time.

Now...on to the week!

* We ended up not spending the night in Berne after we spoke last weekend, because we heard some snow/ice/wintry mix messiness was headed our way. We were so glad we went with our gut on that, because it did indeed arrive in the middle of the night, and our church canceled services Sunday morning. We were able to rest, which I think we really needed! Ryan made waffles for us, and we had a leisurely day at home. Check out this pretty delicious thank you gift we received that day from one of our friends! Three cheers for chocolate covered strawberries! And to round out our day of food, apparently, I baked cut out sugar cookies so the kids could decorate them the next day!

* Monday, as you already saw, was the day we had our niece and nephews all day. It was a full, full day of busyness! We made plaster handprints, decorated cookies, made breakfast for lunch, went to visit Ryan at work, watched some Olympic coverage, did homeschool, and the boys took simultaneous naps. Win, win, win, win, win!

* Tuesday, my brand spankin' new sparkly shoes arrived in the mail. I was so excited! (They're for one of my speaking events coming up.) Because Ryan had a meeting the next day and couldn't come home for the Valentine's lunch I had planned, I baked his white chocolate raspberry cake that night and we shared it with our small group! And he brought home my Valentine's roses (which, by the way, I'm still enjoying to the fullest).

* Wednesday was Valentine's Day, and I already told you about that, too! But in the spirit of the Shuffle, I'll remind you that we had dinner at Red Robin and then a surprise, impromptu dessert stop at the Cake Bake Shop. For the record, my piece of cake ended up lasting four meals. LOL!!! I was determined to make it stretch!

* Thursday was a cold, rainy, yucky day around here. A good stay-at-home kind of day. I was excited to get more fun mail: more things for speaking. I love it when prepping to speak means getting presents, even if I don't get to keep them! My fun was short lived...that night, I was down for the count with a relapse of my stupid cold/yuck. It wasn't nearly as bad this time, but that night was not fun. (I've read that this year's adventures in cold and flu often come back a second time. Lucky!)

* Miss Phoebe came to stay with us on Friday! Her people had some things to attend this weekend and asked if they could leave her with us for a couple of days. Let me think. OKAY!!! We spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch, and then when Ryan came home, they had fun playing together, too! Ryan and I began rehearsing for the next round of speaking (he's running my Power Point), and Phoebe slept through the whole thing. I wasn't sure how to feel about that!

* Ryan worked yesterday, so Pheebs and I stayed home, working on projects in the office. We did go visit him a couple of times because it's one of our favorite things to do. Since he had a long work day, it was nice to have Phoebe hanging out with me! (Braeya was in her usual spot underneath the comforter on our bed. HA!) We were glad to have a night at home: pretty snow falling outside, Olympics on TV and coffee in our cups! (Yes, Phoebe is trying to read my journal.)

The Saturday Six

One.

44 sets of twins in ONE CLASS? I would never be able to keep up. I have a hard enough time learning names/faces. Give me that many people who look alike and I fear I would not fare well. But it's a pretty cool world record!

Two.

Anyone else think all the jumps in figure skating look exactly alike? This 2 minute video shows the difference among all the jumps. I think essentially I learned I could tell the difference if I could always watch in slow motion. And even then I might really have to study. Possibly a confirmation that I was indeed not meant to be a figure skater?

Three.

This story is pretty new to me, but when I saw an article about it, I wanted to share it. The doctor in the article is part of the Sunday School class we attend and she's talked often about this woman who has done a remarkable job of losing weight over the last few months. The newspaper covered a celebration in her honor, so now I have a face to put with the name. Pretty wonderful story of courage!

Four.

I've never heard of this before, but I loved reading about it on Tamar's blog this week. Ponyhenge! I won't say more...just go check it out!

Five.

In case you want to see more about The Cake Bake Shop we visited on Valentine's Day, you can check it out here. (Note: I hear it is nearly impossible to get in without a reservation. Somehow we majorly lucked out on that one! But you can drool over their menu and if you're close enough, make a reservation to visit!)

Six.

Source

A few years ago, I fell in love with Irene Hannon's writing. I love her contemporary romance and her suspense books equally! (I even interviewed her on the Conversation Café a few months ago.)

Irene has a host of books from years ago that I'd not read yet, but my friend Shari bequeathed a couple to me after she read them! So my first pick was The Best Gift, which is part of the Love Inspired line of books and is the first in a trilogy called Sisters and Brides.

Obviously I figured I would love it because Irene wrote it, but then I also figured I would love it because I knew it involved a bookstore. Who can't love a book about a bookstore?

The Best Gift opens with three sisters, Morgan, Clare, and A.J. awaiting news of the contents of their late great-aunt's will. When her attorney divulges Aunt Jo's wishes, all three girls are stunned. Each one stands to inherit a sum of money, but only after they complete a task laid out by Aunt Jo. They have six months to honor her wishes, and if they complete the task required, they receive the inheritance. If they don't, they forfeit everything.

A.J.'s inheritance is half-ownership of a little bookstore in St. Louis, named "Turning Leaves." She's charged with the task of retaining her portion of the ownership for six months and working full time in the store during that time. The other half of the ownership goes to the store's current manager, Blake Sullivan, who must also work full time alongside A.J.

Though A.J. has nothing in particular to lose or leave behind in her current life in Chicago, she begins to wonder what she's gotten herself into when she arrives in St. Louis and meets Blake. A.J.'s free spirit, people-loving heart, and desire to try new things absolutely clashes with Blake's regimented, predictable ways.

Blake digs in, determined to preserve the integrity of the bookstore he and Aunt Jo managed together for so many years, and A.J. digs in just as fiercely, determined to breathe new life into not just the bookstore, but the community.

When the bookstore and other small business owners in the little community receive word that a corporate developer is eyeing their block with an intention of bringing in newer and bigger opportunities, they have to figure out how to band together to save their livelihoods and their community. And that means Blake and A.J. have to figure out how to make their personal and business differences work together, too!

I read this book in less than a day and have to find books two and three now, so I can figure out how Morgan and Clare's adventures panned out! I loved the characters, as I always do in Irene's books, and I loved the setting of the small community. 

Out of the Mouths of Babes (Big and Small)

Need some funnies for your Friday? I have a few!

The first comes from when I had the kids earlier this week. As you may remember, Braeya is NOT fond of children, but she did make an appearance late in the day to see what all the fuss was about - an action I'm pretty sure she soon regretted.

Whenever she hissed at them, I gave her a stern "BRAEYA JO," and our niece said to me, "She has a middle name?"

So the next time Braeya hissed, our niece said, "BRAEYA JONES!!!" I cracked up!

"No, no. Not Jones. JO." But she kept calling her Braeya Jones the rest of the day.

A few minutes later she said to me, "Does Braeya have a last name?"

I told her it was Shaffer, just like ours, and she looked absolutely astounded. She whispered, "We are all Shaffers??"

Yep. All of us and Braeya Jones.

***

The next one comes from the carpool lane, and my apologies to those of you who saw it on Facebook already. Repeat!

When the kids got in the car, Sister wished me a Happy Valentime's Day, and as we drove through town, I noticed a florist making a delivery to one of the offices. I pointed it out and said, "Hey look! Someone is getting flowers!"

Sister: It's for Valentime's Day.
Me: I know! Hey, Ryan gave me flowers, too!
Sister: Did you say thank you?
Me: Of course!
Sister: I want to hear it.
Me: What?
Sister: I want to hear what it sounded like when you said thank you.
Me: Thank you so much! I love them!
Sister: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that's going to make me cry!
(Pause, pause, pause)
Sister: Did you have to live with your boring parents until you met Ryan and got married?

I kind of felt like that last part was a loaded question.

***

And this one is from the Big Kid: Ryan.

When we were at Red Robin on Valentine's Day, they had their televisions set to Olympic coverage. He could see one right behind me and at one point, he read me the lineup for the evening.

Ryan: It's skiing, speed skating and figure skating. But it says Paris for the figure skating.
Me: Paris? Like the country?
Ryan: Yeah.
Me: Could it be pairs?
Ryan: No. there's no apostrophe
Me: There is no apostrophe in pairs.
Ryan: OH! Well then yes. That makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

(There actually was an apostrophe in later versions when referring to pairs' figure skating, but it still cracked me up.)

***

The funny part is over now...just wanted to thank those of you who are praying for my friend Michelle. They're still needed! 

Happy Valentine's Day 2018!

For those of you who were here early this morning and found no blog...I apologize! We got home about 9:00 last night but someone was running about 8000 steps short for the day and had to finish those before she could do anything else. By the time everything else was finished, editing pictures felt too daunting a task.

But here I am with a few for you this morning!

Hope you had a good Valentine's Day! Hey, before I get started, I do have a prayer request for those of you who are praying people. I have a friend named Michelle who is from my hometown. She's 31, so we have a bit of an age gap, but I know her best from the many years of our childhood when we participated together in the Easter Pageant. Her family and mine spent a lot of time together in that play! Michelle is married now and has four daughters, the youngest of which is not quite two months old. A couple of nights ago, while at home, her heart rate skyrocketed over 200 and she called 911. They rushed her to the hospital and stabilized her. They did a heart cath and it came back clear, but yesterday she coded five times and had to be shocked back each of those times. She had a heart biopsy and has been transferred to a different hospital with a more specialized heart unit. Obviously this is really scary, and last I heard, they were talking the possibility of even needing a transplant. If you happen to think of her, her husband, her daughters, and her whole family, they're asking for prayer! Thank you so much!!

And now...Valentine's Day 2018 in Shafferland!

I adore roses and look forward to Valentine's Day each year so I can enjoy a bouquet of them. Ryan laughs at me because I literally carry them from room to room with me so they're always in view and I can fully appreciate their beauty.

I had planned to make a special lunch for us on Valentine's Day, but Ryan ended up having a meeting at work and couldn't come home. Womp womp. So I made the dessert for the dinner the night before and shared it with our small group, too! White chocolate raspberry cake. Pretty yummy!!

We did go out for dinner last night. Last year was the first year we dared to venture forth on Valentine's Day, because we're not really a fan of crowds. We tried Ruby Tuesday last year, and it wasn't too busy. This year we did Red Robin and it was also blissfully calm. (Red Robin is one of our favorite places, but we don't have one in town, so we don't go often.)

(I'm not sure what happened to me. I was all put together when we left home, but all the pictures taken out, I look bedraggled and sad. It was a bit misty, so I think my hair was growing and I just could not get a good smile and bright eyes going to save my life.)

After dinner, I thought we were just heading home to watch the Olympics, but Ryan had a surprise up his sleeve!

The Cake Bake Shop is this darling little tea-room feeling shop down near Indianapolis. I'd read about it and one of Ryan's co-workers loves to go there. It's pretty fancy and definitely a splurge for our budget. I'd been dying to try it, and he treated me to it!

My favorite thing was that they were all gussied up for spring in there. YES!!!!

I ordered a piece of millionaire cake and Ryan ordered a cherry cheesecake. Both were huge and delicious. I couldn't finish even half of mine. Carryout!!!

(We had our own little coffee pot!)

 We retook this three times and I'm still all hunched over and weird looking. But I got tired of trying.

The display case. See the huge cakes on top? See what I mean?

Goodbye, Cake Bake Shop! We loved you!

And Happy Valentine's Day from Shafferland!