Everybody:  Explore somewhere new in your current town!

Me: This week I had a race at the Air Force Academy,  went okay, I'm not in the greatest shape yet, but its great to be training and racing again.  Afterwards I visited the Cadet Chapel which is this amazing building. 


The picture on the right is what it looks like if you look straight up inside.  Apparently everything in the building is important somehow.  The backs of the pews are airplane wings and stuff like that. 

Another new thing I did this week was go for a long run with the team at Magnolia.  I'm still pretty slow, but it was exciting to be running in a place I'd read so much about in "Running with the Buffaloes." 

The last thing I did was drive up Boulder Canyon with Nate, we wanted to see Boulder Falls, but the trail was closed. But the drive is gorgeous and we stopped in Nederland for ice cream in this funky little bookshop.  My kind of place. 

It was really fun to explore the state I now live in.  Colorado is so beautiful!  Hopefully you guys can discover something new about where you live this week.  A new coffee shop, or tourist attraction, or a little trail by a river or anything you can think of!

Sunshine for everybody!

So I guess my blog is a little rambling about my life.  Maybe I should keep it more to the point.  So, I'm going to try and do two things:  put up a little sunshine or challenge for everybody, and then something that brought sunshine into my life. 

Everybody: Recently I recieved a note from a friend I haven't heard from in a while.  It made me happy.  So I challenge all of you to think of someone that meant something to you, but you haven't talked to in a while and send them an email or fb message or even a handwritten note. 

My life:  I got to race this last weekend!  It wasn't fast, and I still have a lot of work to do to get into shape, but it was so great to be racing again, and in a buff uniform too! 

Happy note sending!

Lizz

Tunisia

Well, it seems Tunisia is struggling. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/world/africa/15tunis.html?hp

An hour or two ago I read that the president dismissed his cabinet but was retaining power and trying to appease the people.  Now he has fled, and the prime minister is in charge. 

The United States has problems, but even with all the issues we have I am still so glad to be living in a place where I do not have to be afraid of violent political upheaval all the time.  We have a system where politics can be changed in a peaceful manner (with the exception of the civil war).  There are checks and balances to ensure that no one takes over and becomes a dictator. 

email list

Hey does anyone want to recieve an email when I post??  I think I figured out how to do that, so if you let me know I can add you to the list. 

p.s. I'm very sore from my first full week of practice as a buffalo. 

In Response to Nicole

Miss Farr has inspired me to put up another C.S. Lewis quote I read in a Bible Study a couple weeks ago.  It is a passage from his "Weight of Glory". 

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, it at all, only in a nightmare.  All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations." 

There's more, but I'll stop there for now. 

Any thoughts on that view of humanity????

China

Hey so it turns out pressure from the masses really can promote change.  You don't see too many articles about things that China is doing to help the environment, but today's newspaper had this one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/world/asia/10lead.html?_r=1&ref=world

(summary:  lead fumes caused 228 children to be sick, the local environmental official was canned)

China has been undergoing their own industrial revolution in the last decade or so, and in the process is wreaking havoc to the environment.  Now, we maybe shouldn't be too hasty to judge because burning coal is how we got to the top as well, however, since then we have realized the problems it has caused.  So while many of the super power countries are changing their ways and putting in plans to reduce the use of coal to help the air, China has been just as rapidly increasing their use.  The country is rising and stomping out anything in their way, or so it has seemed.  After the Olympics when there was so much pressure on them to clean up the air and the general area there seems to be more being done to keep the country cleaner. 

Stuff

It's amazing how busy you can be when you are on vacation.  This week I have been running all kinds of errands and organizing our apartment and baking and figuring out life in general.  I made a jewelry wall hanger.  It's pretty neat, I saw it in a magazine and decided to try it.  It turned out great!

I also baked bread and hummus which both turned out great too!  Feel like a regular old housewife these days.  But school starts again on Tuesday.  This semester I need to figure out my thesis, so forgive me if I write more about engineering.  And running.  I'm doing indoor track, so hopefully I'll be able to race by the end of this month.  I'm finally running everyday.  But the girls here run a lot faster than I am used to on regular runs, so I'll be sore even from the short ''easy" runs. 

It's finally snowing in Colorado.  Hasn't snowed a ton, but enough to wear hats and mittens and have to leave early to brush off the car.  Kids are sledding in the park.  And I hear it snowed in Seattle, and in Georgia.   So that seems like most of the country. 

Nate and I went to the Laughing Goat Coffee House after church.  That just makes me so happy.  I love coffee shop culture. You can just feel the creativity flowing.  There are always interesting people with interesting conversations.  Today there was some gypsies sitting next to us with the cutest little baby in a little sheepskin outfit.  Not sure what they were talking about but I'm sure it was cultured.  And they have live music and poetry readings and things.  Its not like going to a bar or club where you have the same kinds of people and the same type of music and conversation all the time. 

Anyway, til next time

Lizzy

First Christmas Together

Well, I have several friends who are off doing things abroad, so they have interesting things to write about their daily life.  Following my blog is definately not as interesting as following one like that. But I think what is different about my life right now is that I am a newlywed.  So this Christmas was the first Christmas that Nate and I spent totally together.  I think every couple probably has a very different experience in figuring out Christmas vacation, so I thought I would relate ours a little bit. 

Nate and I live in Boulder, CO, and our families both live in the Seattle area.  Not so complicated right?  Well my family is always out of town visiting relatives over Christmas.  So we decided we would spend Christmas eve and day with Nate's family and then head up to Canada for a couple of days at the Old Dutch Inn with my family.  It was really neat to actually spend Christmas with Nate this year and see what his family traditions are. 

Christmas Eve they have a large (and I do mean large) gathering with his mother's extended relatives.  We had food and sang some carols, read the Christmas story, and then.....Santa showed up!!  Presents for everybody!  It was very exciting.  Then they had a Christmas Eve service at church at 11 pm.  I sang in the choir directed by Joel Ulrich. Then Christmas morning I was rudely awakened by nate shaking me and shouting "ITS CHRISTMAS ITS CHRISTMAS!!!!"  in my ear.  But we opened presents with his immediate family and then went to Aunt Mary and Doug's house and had brunch with the Westburgs.  This wasn't as overwhelming for me becasue I know most of the Westburgs fairly well.  More presents.  In the evening the Perkins family came over for dinner. 

Whew.  While it was fun spending Christmas with Nate and being with all his relatives, I have to say I was tuckered out. 

Then we went to the Old Dutch Inn, in Qualicum, BC Canada.  While Nate's family has large loud gatherings, my family has small quiet ones.  We sit and talk and walk around the town and sit in the hot tub and play games. 

When we got back we didn't really have specific plans, though Nate's family wanted us to have plans and my family doesn't like to plan.  So we compromised and spent every other day with each family.  It sort of worked, but we picked some of the wrong days. 

Overall I think we did well compromising.  It was hard because you want to see your own family and friends, but now you have more family.  At the end of the trip I think it was getting harder for us to be so willing to aquiese to the other's requests even if they were reasonable, but we made it through. 

This is really long and you probably didn't read all of it, but thanks for listening to my monologue about my Christmas vacation.