Some updates:

first, on running:

Well- fortunately, Jonathan and I have been keeping up with our rec center/work out goals. 

Unfortunately, about a a week ago, while running I felt a sharp pain in my ankle each time my foot hit the ground.

the next day it was my ankle+heel and achilles area.

the next day it was ankle+ achilles+ foot and shin.

the next day it was ankle+ achilles+ foot +shin+ knee

and by yesterday it was a straight knife like nerve pain from the tip of my toe to the base of my tail bone.

My entire right leg is out of order.

sad face.

:(

Cole from A Space of My Own,

(an avid and skilled runner as opposed to myself...)

suggested that my physical body was essentially not keeping up with my super-human, endorphin-driven motivation to get in shape.

Definitely likely, seeing as how my body has never been asked to do much of anything beyond getting me from point A to Point B. 

And now it's upset at me for making it run. Suck it up, body.

Cole suggested weight training which I will definitely be adding to the routine.

If anyone has any additional knowledge/suggestions/insights/encouragements- please post:)

Other updates:

3 weeks into my next to last semester of law school, and I'm feeling-

eh-ish about classes.

I think because I feel SOOO close to the end, I have the drive and energy needed to make it through, but none of my classes are very exciting. Particularly the one I am currently sitting in-

(yes, I am blogging in the middle of Conflict of Laws)

so, really, not much of an update in this department. 

In other news- 

A couple wonderful generous friends of ours recently gave us a gift that was an incredible, unexpected blessing. We are so so thankful for the people in our lives that live out the community that Christ call us to.

I'll don't want to announce their names to the entire blogosphere, but you know who you are:

THANK YOU!

I'm going to attempt to collect a few scattered notes from the remaining 45 minutes of this lecture.

PS- I've been gone so long, I'd love to hear updates from anyone else willing to share!!

Also

Prepare to be amazed

I treadmilled (my new word?) over 15 miles this week!

I realize that walking/jogging 2-3 miles a day does not exactly constitute the pinnacle of fitness

But it's a start!

And I am truly having the time of my life:)

Apparently, working out produces unnatural amounts of endorphins and adrenaline in my blood stream-

if I would have known this, I would have started working out years ago!

(I'm not kidding, when I leave the gym I don't feel like doing anything but going back to the gym...jealous?)

side note: my much more stable and level-minded husband does not share this explosion of happiness and motivation after a good-work-out. He says he just feels tired. Which is unfortunate.

Anyway...

I just wanted to share my new found treadmill excitement with you.

happy treadmilling:)

I Lyle LOVE IT!

This Gentleman...

is Mr. Lyle Lovett.

Maybe you've heard of him,

Perhaps not.

But you definitely should. 

My wonderful parents bought us tickets to his concert last night and it was truly one of the best times I've had in a while:) Thanks mom and dad!!

Go here to listen to one of his songs that happens to be a personal favorite :)

Hope you are doing well this Wednesday!

Guess what everybody??

I'm BACK!!
That's right...back to school and back to the blogosphere.
(try to contain your enthusiasm:)
I'm back and I'm ready.
Ready for everything this year will bring, ready to graduate in May and take the bar, ready to exchange bad habits for healthy ones, ready to spend quality time with the people I will miss when i leave this place, ready to read and read and read, ready to be able to run 2 miles without stopping and fit into my old jeans again, ready to dig deeper and learn more and stress less and invest and trust and experience and be surprised by all the good things God has for me this year!

For anyone who finds this as hilarious as I do, I am in my 22nd consecutive year of school. I'm a 22nd grader!!
While I am antsy with excitement for what the next chapter will bring, I'm trying my very hardest to soak up this last year of school and glean from it all i can. This is the last year for first days and last exams. Its the last time my schedule will completely clear every 4 months and I will get a clean slate 3 times a year. This is the last time I'll get to experience the camaraderie and reward of tackling yet another law class/exam/paper.
This is sure to be a year of lots of lasts, and lots of firsts.

...it's good to be back:)

studying hard

5  amazingly productive hours of studying happened today.

my exam isn't for another 3 days...

...I'm just not sure y'all can understand how miraculous this is.

off to enjoy a movie and cookies w/ the hubs,

we deserve it tonight:)

ps. see you all with REAL posts after finals. bleck.

Memoir

So, on April 18th, I have to turn in--

my memoir.

truly the easiest, and yet, somehow, the most difficult task I have undertaken.

On the up-side, it is truly the first paper I have set out to write in at least a year and a half that hasn't had me feeling like this:

The down-side, however, is that my general attitude toward school work remains the same:

But I have to say, the idea of writing my story

how I got here

how I've changed

what I've learned...

it's exciting!

I'm anxious to see what I actually get on paper. You know how some days you journal or blog and you're amazed at your mystical skill of getting all the discombobulated thoughts in your head onto a piece of

real, tangible paper.

and then other days you're like...

...blah. no words in my brain.

I'm just hoping that what I produce is genuine.

Not so much for the good grade,

{who can really give you a bad grade for writing your own life story?}

but for me.

This year has been a bit of a mystery for me as far as law school goes.

I don't know why I'm here or what I'll become

or if I'll use this degree.

God has given me a simple peace,

just the understanding that I am where I am supposed to be

and nothing more.

I have a feeling that writing this paper will a little piece of my journey.

Maybe I'll let you read it when I'm finished :)

Eustace and me

My favorite passage from one of my very favorite books comes from C.S. Lewis's "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." In it, Eustace, who began the journey as a self-consumed boy has stumbled upon a hidden treasure and transformed into a dragon. He has tried several times to rid himself of the awful dragon skin, but it comes back thicker and stronger each time. Then, Eustace has an encounter with Aslan that changes his attitude for the remainder of the book:


"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off -- just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt -- and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. There he caught hold of me -- I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on -- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phony if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they're no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
"After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me . . . in new clothes -- the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here." [116-117]

Isn't that just beautiful? I can't tell you how many times i have felt like i am in Eustace's shoes. There I am itchy and squirming and attempting with all my might to rid by self of bad habits, bad attitudes, bad influences---and to no avail. And yet there God is, ready to do away with all of those things forever, ready to put in their place new and beautiful things. But I'm afraid- afraid that it will hurt, afraid that nothing will change, afraid that I'm stuck this way.

But- God loves us enough to never leave us stuck this way. He's a God on the move. He's constantly moving, molding, teaching, shaping, and redeeming us for His glory.

Recently, life has left me feeling a bit like Eustace. The Lord has dug into my life with his mighty hand and removed some things that I thought I really needed. I'm feeling "tender" as Eustace says, and the water "smarts like anything." But the  good news is- I know what comes next. I've been here before. Next comes the refreshing, invigorating, living water. It comes all over me, seeping into every compartment of my life. I love that. I live for that. I trust the Lord in times like these knowing that in His perfect love, he never takes away what he doesn't intend to replace with something far more valuable.

So I ask for your prayers during this time- simply pray that I would trust and wait and be watchful. Pray that my eyes would be opened, and ready in time, to discover the next step that the Lord has for me.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

—Isaiah 26:3-4