everyone needs a pod :: day six

I started writing this post a long time ago, but have been INSANELY busy so I haven't had time to finish it or begin any other thankful blog entry. I have, however, been thinking about it each day and have much to add to this, only no time to add it.

I've written about The Pod before.

But in case you weren't tuned in at that point in history. . . I'm not referring to the pea kind of pod, or space kind, or the 'i' kind. It's the friend kind. You know, like 'two peas in a pod'?



Except there are three in this pod ::



However, soon the pod will be changing slightly.

We're about to welcome Brad to the family. Of course, he won't be an official member of The Pod, but because of his relationship with Bree, he'll be a pretty big part of it!

Bree and I met on a rainy evening in Kirkland, WA at the home of some Biola alum who hosted a dessert for prospective Biola students. I don't remember much about the whole interaction, but I do remember feeling like she was the type of girl I would never be very good friends with.

It makes me giggle now. I was so wrong.

Sometimes I'm not super clear about what changed. We started to hang out at the end of our freshman year and right from the beginning I decided I was going to be real with her. Some people are delicate and you have to be gentle. . . others can handle real life without all the fluff. B is that kind of pod. She and I have always been straight with one another. I can always count on her to call me out if I'm ignoring the truth. She always encourages me by speaking the words of the Father. She's beautiful and wonderful and fun!

Favorite memories include the following:

:: Laying out in the G's backyard while they're on vacation. We would always take those times to talk about life's deepest and greatest issues.

:: Drinking milktea at Cafe Veronese with my guitar and our journals.

:: Listening to Mike Bickle sermons on the Song of Solomon and experiencing SO much intimacy with Jesus. 'Okaaaaay, the 100-fold heart of the Father. . . '

:: Cracked out finals weeks and giggles that seemed they would never end. (Don't worry, we didn't literally do crack, it's a coloquial saying meaning that we were really, really tired and it made us a little crazy)

:: Balling our eyes out on the floor at Bobby's house. If it wasn't her, it was me. Every week!

:: Dropping blackberry pies on the floor, eating yellow rice & black beans, and drinking Asti.

. . . just to name a few :)

B2. . . I'm SO happy for you both. I'm so excited that God has done such a work in both of your hearts and minds that has led you both to this place. I cannot wait to celebrate with you all the joys of life and also to weep with you during the inevitable difficult times.

See you on Wed, Pod.

<3 Cpod

busy busy busy :: days four/five

Weekends are anything but relaxing for me these days. Saturdays usually hold an 8 hour shift at Old Navy and then on Sundays I blow out my voice and build up my finger calouses! But for me, busyness encourages thankfulness. Somehow I'm able to appreciate the beauty of small things when there's a bunch of stuff going on. But I'm taking my lunch to catch you up on my thankful heart.

Since I've come home, I've encountered MANY surprises that the Lord had arranged for me. Each little thing is a confirmation that my moving home (although it was not my preferred choice) has landed me in the center of His will! It's only been 6 months, but I'm daily surprised at how much I've done and how beautifully it has been orchestrated for me.

Because I brought it up, I'll give you a little career status update ::
+I work at Old Navy in Puyallup and like it (for the most part). It's fun fashion for the whole family! And I can tell you that the month of December is going to see some pretty incredible sales! [Oh, and if you want a coupon that will allow you to get 20% extra on a gift card. . . comment on this post and I'll send you one soon!]
+I also work at Russell Investments. It's boring and dull, but I like the people I'm working with and I like having a real job at a great company!

Moving on to thankfulness ::
When I moved back to Puyallup, I expected to jump into an internship with the college community at my church, Mosaic. To make a long story short, the leadership of the ministry shifted and the Lord led me instead toward getting involved with Sunday morning worship. I loved it! It was great to play guitar and sing and a few times this summer I led all three morning services on my own!!
Enter George Bedlion III ::
George was the high school pastor at Bethany and had been in the process of recruiting me to start leading worship for the high school group when God began to open the doors for him to plant a church on South Hill in Puyallup. George and I share much the same heart for the Lord, for people, and for ministry. I already had a deep respect and appreciation for him when he approached me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of what he was doing on South Hill. I prayed about it and through a series of dreams, words, and heart to hearts with the Lord, I agreed to plant along with him (and a handful of other families). It has been SO fun to be a part of what God is doing in that community and to see his heart revealed to people. It's like some fresh fire has come to anoint us specifically for this task. He's been providing for all of our needs and I think he's about to blow us out of the water.
We're on week 3 of worship services after a month or so of praying and meeting in homes. I wish I could share all of the stories of the lives and the relationships and the miracles! It's been great! I lead worship every Sunday and am enjoying watching the Lord bless people through music.

I'm so thankful for Whitewater Church!

What a pleasant surprise!

[Check out our website. . . almost all the photography on it is mine!!]

Surprise #2:
Aubry.

I'm running out of time to write. . . but this here she is.
She and I are one of the few who are back from college and not married.
I'm so thankful for another single girl who is excited about Jesus and loves to hang out.
We hung out on Saturday night and I was reminded about how much I need girls in my life to laugh with and cry with and share stupid stories with.
She's creative and fun and beautiful and I'm SO thankful for her.

i'll say it again :: day three

So I spent some extended time tonight with one of my favorite people on the planet:

BROOKLIN JOY RISSER!!!!!!

I know I talk about my sisters a lot on this blog but I'll say it again. She's so great. She's creative, smart, thoughtful, playful, teachable, and just generally fun.

Today I'm thankful for the littlest person in the Risser family. I'm thankful that God inserted her into our family. . . we'd be kind of lost without her.

setting a standard: day two

Day two is already a big challenge! My thankful heart hasn't been exercised in a while, I guess.

The tension that I'm arriving at each time I propose a possibility to myself is that there are some standard things that people (who have such things to be thankful for) are thankful for. I have to ask myself if my thankfulness for these things is truly from a thankful heart or if its from knowing I just got lucky to be put where I am. Things like a place to live, stuff to eat, people who love me, Jesus. . . you know. I think there are some moments and days when thankfulness for these things hits us and we see them in a new way. Sometimes it comes from a contrast with people who don't have these things. Sometimes it's just the Holy Spirit revealing to us a lack of gratefulness for what His grace has provided.

So today is my 'it's a given' day. That way I can just make it clear to my vast audience that my not mentioning these things throughout the next 15 days is not because I am not thankful for them, but simply because other things tickled my thankful heart on that particular day.

1. My family! We're an odd bunch, but we're pretty great.

2. A good education that will allow me to do many different things in my lifetime.

3. A community of people who love me and encourage me to grow and develop as a person.

4. A car that runs well. . . and it's kind of cute too!

5. A house to live in. With a bed and fresh paint and a closet.

6. For Jesus and His sacrifice. And for my relationship with Him. It's always what keeps me going.

7. Food to eat and a job to keep me above water, so to speak.

8. For friends who laugh and cry with me. Can't wait to find more and grow with those I already love.

this is a test: day 1

Sometimes I brouse Facebook status updates and I come across some interesting nuggets of wisdom (or the lack thereof) and I long to respond with some little piece of wit or sarcasm so as to prompt the writer to actually THINK about what they're writing for all the world to read.
The following (although not particularly foolish) is the comment that prompted this post and the 16/17 that are to follow:

"Let's see how many people can do this. Every day until Thanksgiving, think of one thing that you are thankful for and post it as your status. "Today I am thankful for..." The longer you do it, the harder it gets! Now, if you think you can do it, then repost this message as your status to invite others to take the challenge, then post what YOU are thankful for today."

I'm under the impression that the longer you do it. . . the EASIER it gets. The only reason it would get harder is because you run out of creative/interesting things to say you're thankful for. . . which would suggest that you're posts each day are not flowing from a truly thankful heart.
I totally understand, thankfulness is really difficult because as humans, we just want to feel like we're entitled to the things we like or we want to believe that we earned them and these attitudes don't lend themselves to thankfulness.

No theory can go untested so, in response to this Facebook post, I'm going to post each day (until Thanksgiving) something I'm thankful for. I'll tell you after the next 2.5 weeks if it got harder or easier the longer I go.

Today I'm thankful for LAUGHTER!

Last night I had dinner with my friend Megan and her new husband! We had some great, though provoking conversation, tasty chickpea curry, and ice cream. But the thing that I loved the most was our laughter. There's an odd sense of humor that we share and I love that it brings us together even after months of seperation. I love to laugh!

Please join with me and laugh at some things that I love to laugh at:

A Special Performance

A Dramatic Look

Contageous Laughter

its a good time of year to be a sister!

on being friends/sisters/family: lessons from the puyallup fair

When you're introduced to someone you tell them you're from Puyallup there are--almost exclusively--two reactions you might get.

Reaction #1: (confused expression, signaling the fact that they've never heard of such a strange place as 'Puyallup') "How do you spell that?"

Reaction #2: (a little spark in the eye signaling the fact that they have heard of Puyallup) "Oh! Do you go to the fair every year?"

This is why:

The Puyallup Fair

Every year people come from far and wide to 'Do the Puyallup.' It's an epicenter for deep fried foods, mop salesmen, carnival rides, and 'B-list' performers.

The Risser Family does frequent the Puyallup Fair once a year to take part in the cultural ritual. We escaped this year without any giant stuffed animals from the carnival games or fancy smoothie makers. . . but we didn't manage to keep away from the micro-fiber brooms, duffle bags with super fantastic heavy-duty zippers, or the few extra pounds that simply can't be avoided when the whole town smells like curly fries!

Trip # 1: just the girls.

As is tradition, the Kalles Jr. High Orchestra performed. The next child in our family with hands big enough to wield an instrument was among the brilliant sound of the strings. And not too happy that BJ and I were there snapping picture after picture of her. (But what are sisters for, if not to embara--I mean--spice up life!! :)

While Jillian and Mom stashed the violin and left-over school gear in the van Brooklin and I decided to take part in the true culture of the fair. . . the art exhibit!

Obviously surprised that this piece is featured at the Puyallup Fair and not in the Guggenheim in NYC, here is a shot of Brooklin observing a statue of two large bell peppers. I think they're hugging.

Jillian & Mom rejoined us after our thrilling walk through the art exhibit! Enough waiting. . . Time to hit the concession stands!!

First stop: A fair burger of choice. For the girls it was the 'two-fer' cheeseburgers. Mom and I opted for a fair burger appropriately dangling with grilled onions!

You probably don't believe that Mom was even there. . . but I just feel that it's not polite to take pictures of moms eating hamburgers. I knew she would appreciate it :)

Next stop: The scone booth.

Now this is sometimes when people get confused. Hamburgers, corndogs, curly fries, and Hawaiian style shaved ice make sense when it comes to a fair. . . but scones?!

It's a Puyallup Fair tradition. People stand in line for way longer than they should to purchase a small scone with a whole lot of butter & raspberry jam on it! They've been $1.00 for the last 200 years and then they raised the price 2 years ago to $1.25 and there were riots in the streets of Puyallup for weeks!!

Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it was kind of an upset to have to give up that extra quarter. . . oh but SOO worth it!

Here's BJ with the tickets to redeem our three scones.

Ready to dig in!!

Let's stop and think about what the natural next step would be after stuffing ourselves full of food. . . walk through the cow barns, of course!!

Okay, that was enough of a break. . . time for one last food experience.

Like I mentioned before, the Puyallup Fair is home of all things fried. Fried pickles, fried twinkies, fried oreos, you name it. . . it's fried. Oh and don't forget the Krispy Kreme & fried chicken sandwich. . . topped with raspberry jam.

We decided a less extreme dessert would be sufficient for our visit. An Elephant Ear!

Before you freak out and assume we actually ate the ear of an elephant. . . please understand that dough, when rolled extremely thin and deep fried looks strikingly like an elephant ear.

Don't forget slathering it in butter before dumping cinnamon & sugar onto it!

Jillian looks less thrilled to self-inflict heart disease after two bites--typical.

Trip # 2: The whole Fam!

This trip was less indulgent. And instead of cool & drizzly. . . we were standing in hot & sunny. Yuck.

Nothing super memorable went down except just spending a day together with the whole family. It was kind of weird because I can't remember the last time all 6 of us went somewhere (besides graduation).

It was funny to see Tobin spot random friends from high school as we walked throughout the pathways of the fair. It was good to hear some of the stories Jillian had from when she and her friends came to the fair a few days before. And Brooklin entertained us all with her daring question asking and sample snatching.

But the one who we learned the most from was this cool camel.

I don't know what his name is, but I do know he's a dromedary camel. He was one of the main features in the 'Animals of the World' exhibit. After taking this picture, I realized there was another animal in his pin. It was significantly smaller than this camel and looked disinterested in the camel. I thought it was funny that it was there so I asked the farmer, expecting to hear that the smaller animal was the baby camel.

Here's how the conversation went:

Me: So, what is that? (Pointing to the mystery animal)

Farmer: Oh, that's an alpaca. I usually don't like to bring him because there are other people here showing alpacas, but he's the camel's friend.

Me: He's the camel's friend?

Farmer: (a little defeated and confused) Yeah, you know, this camel can get so moody and strange when he's by himself and one day I realized that they're friends and if I bring the alpaca he'll be fine the whole fair.

What?! A camel that won't survive the fair without an emotional breakdown unless he has his alpaca friend with him?!

In addition to being hilarious, I was struck by the poignancy of the camel-alpaca relationship. I hope you have an alpaca. . . some one you lean on when it seems like all eyes are on you and you might crack under pressure. I hope you have someone to share your 'pen' with. Someone you can 'chew your cud' with. I know it's cheesy. . . but these are the types of relationships that make life super fun and adventurous!!