Just in Case You Were Wondering...

Why do we celebrate St. Valentine's Day anyway? (Yes, it IS technically SAINT Valentine's Day, not just V-Day.) Well, in a nutshell:

"St. Valentine [is] the patron saint of couples and young people in love, with the roots of those beliefs coming from a pair of stories about St. Valentine's involvement with the ancient Romans.

St. Valentine was arrested during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius II.

Claudius had banned his young soldiers from marrying based on the belief they would be better soldiers if single. St. Valentine violated that ban and secretly married young couples until his arrest, the news agency said.

The story ends with St. Valentine converting his jailer before being martyred by being beheaded.

A second story holds the roots of the "valentine," the news agency said. The story involves St. Valentine being arrested for aiding Christians being held in horrible conditions in Roman jails.

While incarcerated, St. Valentine reportedly sent a letter to the woman he loved, signing the letter "from your Valentine." "

Bah Humbug! I mean...Happy St. Valentine's Day!

I'll just go ahead and admit that I have been feeling like a pretty big Valentine's Scrooge this year. What can I say, it's a tough year!

Truthfully, I've never really liked Valentine's Day. When we were kids, my dad always did a good job of making his three girls feel very loved (my mom did, too, but I think it was super special for my dad to be able to do something for his girls). Even when I was a kid, though, I caught on pretty early to the Valentine's popularity contest (who got the most, who you got them from, what kind of card you got, what they said, etc.). And truthfully, I had plenty of friends but I wasn't exactly the winner of the popularity contest. (I do think it's better that they make the kids give a card to everyone in the class now...but we all know there's still an element of the popularity contest going on, as we've all seen how kids give the "best" valentine to their "favorite" kid or whatever.) Once I got old enough to care, I felt pretty left out when all my friends were getting special Valentine treats from their special someone, and as I didn't really date too much in high school, I was never really in on that fun.

But truth be told, I've had Valentine's Days when I've been in a relationship and when I haven't, and either way...not that fun. When you're not in a relationship, Valentine's Day feels like everyone's rubbing it in (I know, if you feel that way it's a personal problem and not everyone else's problem, but it's still hard) and it seems like EVERYONE else IS in a relationship. When you're in a relationship, there are a lot of unnecessary expectations and pressures to spend money, make it special, do something unique, find a good gift, etc., etc., etc.

The idea behind Valentine's Day is a good one--letting the people who are important in our lives know how much we care about them. I guess my main struggle is in understanding why we need a special day to tell people we love each other--shouldn't we be doing that everyday? I guess I understand that some people DO need that reminder because they don't share that everyday, but we all should be showing, through words and actions, how much we love each other every day, whether those people are spouses, significant others, siblings, parents, children, friends, etc.

Nevertheless, sweet Audri gently reminded me that I'm being a little too bah humbug-ish about the whole thing, so I will try to get over it. Maybe it's partially that it's just different this year and when I'm struggling in general, days like this are extra tough. But I DID have a hot date with a cute boy this weekend (so he was six...so what?), and I treated myself to a Valentine's cupcake tonight (hey, when you don't get anything else for Valentine's Day, you have to take what you can get!), and I'll have my little Valentine's blog background for a day or so, and I will tell you about a few people (among many) who I love. I love you all just because you are amazing people and I see God in each of you, but here is one particular thing I can think of that I love you about you (out of many!). It's going to be quick, so even if you don't see your name on here, KNOW THAT YOU ARE LOVED! And I'm incredibly blessed and thankful for your presence in my life. I'm a better person because of each of you. This is just a little kick in my own butt to remind me of the wonderful people in my life, even when I'm struggling. Here goes:

*I love the way Audri always sends me little facebook love notes and she will gently remind me to get out of myself and be okay. And the way we love all the same things. :) Love you, Audj!

*I love the way, when things have been REALLY tough over these last few months, April has said to me repeatedly, "Jen, call me any time. I have an infant. I'm up all hours!" and she hasn't minded when I've taken her up on that offer, calling at ridiculous times of the day and night. Love you, April!

*I love the way my sweet sister always makes me laugh and the way there are no holds barred when we talk. Love you, Meems!

*I love the way my friends are so funny and reading their blogs can always make me smile and brighten my day--especially Chelsea and Josh! Love you both!

*I love reading about Val's beautiful boys and the way she is always sharing recipes and ideas and bits of knowledge she picks up here and there along the way. Love you, Val!

There are many more, but it's getting late and my brain is still kind of on San Antonio time (I'll post about that soon!), so just know that I love you! And as a very wise friend always says, "KNOW THAT YOU ARE LOVED! KNOW THAT!"

P.S. I'm not a TOTAL Valentine's Scrooge. My "hot date" involved spending Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon watching one of my co-workers kiddos so she could surprise her hubby and go on a little romantic get-away for the first time EVER in their ten years of marriage. And I DID make the kids heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast this morning and had them make giant Valentines for their parents. :) See...not a total Scrooge!

SUNSHINE!!!

"Sunshine...on my shoulders...makes me happy..."

Today was GLORIOUS! I CRAVE sunshine. Is that weird? In Portland it happens so rarely that when it shows up, it is like medicine for me. I may or may not have skipped out on work half an hour early to come home and take Allee on a 3 mile run. Okay, so it was more of a walk, but I SWEAR it wasn't my fault--she's still a baby and it was the longest run/walk she's been on yet (my fault--I HATE going running in the rain, thank you, Portland). About halfway through she sat down on the sidewalk and looked at me with her big puppy eyes like, "You can't be serious...we're done now, right?" But she was a trooper and she kept her energy up until we got home. I will admit that she crashed as soon as we got back to my apartment. She's a smart one--fell asleep stretched out about 4 inches from the space heater I had going. Sunshine in Portland in February does not necessarily equal warmth!

It's supposed to hold out through tomorrow, and then I'm skipping town before the rain starts back in. San Antonio, here I come...!

Sunshine Award!

WHAT?! I won a blog award!?!? My dear friend, Chelsea, of "In a Yellow House" sent me this, and I have to say, it completely made my day. Apparently the Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blogworld! Awesome! :) Chels says I should get it "because she is staying positive in the midst of a complete car repair disaster - always reminding us that "the best is yet to come."" Did I mention I love this girl?

The rules for accepting this award are: Put the logo on your blog. Pass the award on to 10 bloggers. Link the nominees within your post. Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Man, if I could award it back to Chels I would, because she's new to the whole blog thing, but her blog COMPLETELY rocks. She is funny and charming and reading her blog totally brightens my day. She's awesome. :) But since she already got it, I suppose I will pass this on to some other folks whose blogs rock my socks (but it will be hard to pick just a few--I faithfully read so many blogs!). My cute sister, for one, who is crazy busy but still takes time to share recipes and fun stories and so much more. :) And my friend, Amy, who has had a CRAZY couple of years that most people would call a nightmare, but she manages to call them blessings. Also, one for Hope, because I keep finding wisdom in her words, and her cute kids make me smile, and one for Renee, who is super honest and open, even when things are hard, and somehow manages to be crafty and creative despite the craziness of being mommy to FOUR little boys. One for Alison, who is CRAZY creative, throws adorable parties and has the cutest home EVER (from what I can tell from the photos), and one for Kathy, who always finds a way to do adorable things with her darling little girls. One for my friend, Josh, because his Open Letters are about the best, most creative things ever, and I love reading about his European adventures, and one for my bestie, April, whose stories of her children's antics ALWAYS brighten my day. I could give out lots more, but we'll call that good for now (mostly because it's way past my bedtime and I want to get this posted!). :) Thanks to all my friends whose blogs ALWAYS make me smile--I love reading about your projects and adventures and comings and goings. :)

And thanks again to Chels, who totally made my day--love you, girl! :) Thanks for bringing a little sunshine into my life (and I, too, LOVE gerber daisies!).

My Yearly Get-Away.

In college, I used to run the SEARCH retreat program. Admittedly, it is one major part of college that I still long for and wish I had the opportunity to still be involved with, especially now that I'm not "doing ministry" full-time anymore. I think that's why I have LOVED being involved in the Young Adult Retreat.

Every year this retreat takes place, usually on Superbowl weekend, although this year it was a week earlier, and I LOVE IT! The first year I was here, I was working at the church, but I just helped out a little with the retreat and wasn't on the team. Last year I had just quit working at the church when they were getting the team together, but I really hoped they'd ask me to be on it, and they did! It was awesome.

This year, our team was back together again, and it was AWESOME! Lots of things were different--the priest who usually helps us has been reassigned to Grants Pass (waaaaay Southern Oregon), so he couldn't come to any of our meetings, the amazing woman who usually co-leads with that priest found out she couldn't come, we had to have it a week early...but all in all, it was okay. It was awesome to have basically the same team together again--we all knew each other since we'd done it before so we worked really well together. My teammates are some of the most amazing people EVER, so it was a blast to hang out and pray and play and minister together.

Two of the lovely women on my team--love these girls! :) (This was on the last day...you can see in my eyes that I was both exhausted and sick...but cute photo, otherwise!)

I had to write a talk about "The Authentic Life"--basically about how to figure out God's will for your life and then follow it--something I am decidedly NOT an expert at, and something I have been struggling with greatly lately. *sigh* So writing this talk took no small amount of effort. It's not really something you can just wing, either, when you have to talk for 30 minutes and are expected to have a powerpoint with video clips and the whole nine yards. I wrote my talk about 12 times in the past several months, and each time it just wasn't doing it for me. I finally got something put together, and when we got to the retreat center, I realized I had forgotten my notes in Portland. I frantically tried to recreate them from my powerpoint and the book we were roughly using as an outline (luckily my talk wasn't first!), and then when I got up there...very little of my talk was what I planned to talk about! But it went GREAT!! People were laughing and engaged the whole time (for some reason, apparently I can be pretty funny when I'm speaking in front of a group, because I can definitely make people laugh, but I don't really feel like I'm a funny person), and I think I got through what I was supposed to talk about and made the points I needed to make. Interestingly, I don't totally remember what I talked about. Before my talk, I asked God/the Holy Spirit to just give me the words people needed to hear, and apparently that was what happened. So cool.

I love this! This was right behind us in the room where we gave all the talks, did music, etc.

My good friend Deborah and I were in charge of music for the weekend, and boy do I love doing music with that girl! She's a great musician and (at the risk of sounding boastful) we sound pretty great together. So despite still suffering from the plague (2 1/2 months--ugh!), I managed to sing and not cough into the microphone. And despite not really picking up my guitar in the last, oh, 5 months, I played for several hours over the course of the weekend--in front of everyone--and it didn't completely suck! :) This is good news.

Anyway, despite being sick and exhausted and stressed out, it was a great weekend for me in a beautiful place, and we had a wonderful time. One of the priests I was talking to about things going on in my life said, "So...what are you doing to take care of you? I hear all the things you're saying, and I can tell you're a very busy person, but what are you doing to take care of you?" Ummm...yeah. I'm working on that.

Don't worry...I had already gotten my turn earlier in the day from the lovely woman in front of me, JoBeth. Love this girl!

You Know It's Trouble When the Guy at the Shop Recognizes You and Knows Your Name.

So, did I ever tell you about the drama with my car? I forget if I did or not. Well, I won't bore you with the past details, but I'll give you an update (if you haven't heard about all the drama and want to, ask).

My car has been in the shop since Monday night when it was towed there from the airport. Yep. Nice, huh? This is the 10th time my car has been at the shop since the end of August when Jiffy Lube FORGOT to put oil in my car. So here's what happened...

Last week my Check Engine Light (CEL) came on AGAIN. I about freaked out because I was sooooo frustrated by the situation. I took it back to the shop where my friend Tim (aka, the shop manager) quickly plugged it in to run the codes and figure out what was going on. It had tried to overheat a few times since I got it back at the beginning of January (it was in the shop for 10 days over Christmas, too), and twice since the CEL came on again. Also, my heater hasn't been working. Again. So the codes in the engine read "Multiple Cylinder Misfire" and "Misfire in Cylinder 2." I looked at Tim and said, "Wait a minute...isn't this what it was just in for over Christmas to get fixed? This cylinder misfire business?" And he explained that they fixed what they thought was the problem, turned off the CEL, drove it to see if it would come back on, and when it didn't, assumed it was fixed. Apparently not. I also told him about this overheating business and he said it was not related. Ugh. So we made an appointment for me to drop my car off this Wednesday after the technician who's been working on my car got back from vacation.

So, Monday, on my way home from work, my car said it was overheating. Again. But as per usual, if I could find a way to make sure I kept pushing the gas and didn't really stop too long or have to sit idle, it would cool back down. However, several times when I had to stop at a stoplight, my car would start shaking violently and the CEL would start flashing rapidly until I could start going again. Scary. So I called my folks and freaked out on the phone with them, telling them about the whole overheating, so cold I could see my breath with no heat to be had, shaking, light flashing thing. They basically said, "Well...just be careful until you can take it in again." Yep. That was pretty much the plan anyway.

Monday night I had to go pick 2 friends up at the airport. So I packed Allee in her bag and headed out. My car started overheating after about 2 minutes. Awesome. So I had to pull over a couple times on the freeway, in the pouring rain, to try and let it cool off a bit. Doubly awesome. I finally made it to the airport, and I was waiting in the pick-up line to meet my friends when the car started overheating, the shaking, flashing CEL thing started again, it starts making this bad noise, then the OIL light starts flashing, and smoke/steam starts pouring out of the engine. Great. So I call my friends and tell them my car is freaking out, and they walk down to where I'm at in my smoking, now dead car. Fan-freaking-tastic. I was on the phone with my dad, freaking out, and they went and asked security what to do. They pushed it over into a police parking spot, out of the line of traffic, and my dad and I agreed I should just call a tow truck and rent a car.

So one friend waited with the car while my other friend came with me. Renting a car really stinks. No, seriously. I hate it. The first lady wouldn't take my debit card and I operate on the no credit card policy, so that didn't work. She did, however, give us the phone number for a tow company, so we got them headed our way while we went to the next counter. The lady finally helped us, telling us the best rate we could get was $54 a day (HOLY FREAKING COW!!). But this was pretty standard, so we went with it, especially since there weren't any other options, and she was fine with my debit card. Phew. I rented it for three days, hoping my car would be back by then and I could move on with my life. The tow truck got there at the same time we got to the car, so we hopped in and drove over to meet them.

We drove to the shop with the tow truck, then I took the guys home. What a freaking nightmare. I basically was having a nervous breakdown about calling the shop and Jiffy Lube and everyone again, so I made my dad make some calls, too, which helped. (I hate being a girl sometimes! I TOTALLY feel like I'm being taken advantage of in a lot of ways because I happen to be A) a woman, B)young, and C)not that knowledgeable about this car stuff. Ugh. So thanks for your help, Dad.)

Anyway, as of Thursday, the shop was still in an "authorization hold" (whatever in the heck that means), trying to figure out if they're replacing the engine again, fixing it, or what, and I was supposed to take the car back. Tim at the shop told my dad he could get us a better deal on a car, so I agreed to take it back. However, I was supposed to take it all the way back to the airport (about a 30 minute drive if traffic isn't horrible), so I called Hertz and begged and pleaded to be allowed to take it back to their store right down the street from my house, and they agreed if I could be there by 6 PM. The weather was awful and traffic was even worse because of several accidents, so I made it to the place with about 10 minutes to spare. I walked home in the pouring rain (luckily only about 10 minutes away--better than an hour on the train and then a 20 minute walk, which is what would have happened if I had to take it back to the airport).

I had read Audri's facebook post about getting a rental car from $10/day in Vegas on Priceline, so I decided to try and find a better deal. Lo and behold, Hertz (the same one I had just returned my $54/day car to) had one for $22/day. Funny. So I booked it through next Wednesday morning, and Friday morning walked back down to Hertz to rent ANOTHER car from them. Awesome. It ended up being even less because I told the guy about the whole fiasco with my car and he gave me a discount for being a Costco member. So I rented a car for 5 days for $100 less than I just paid for 3 days (can you say ridiculous?). And the best part is, I worked it out so I can return the car to the airport before I leave Wednesday morning to go to San Antonio for a conference, which means I don't have to try to find someone to drive me out there at 4 AM. :) This is excellent news.

So, the update is...there is no update. My car is still at the shop indefinitely, and it's costing me hundreds and hundreds of dollars already without knowing what will happen with the car itself. I am so freaking sick of the whole situation I can barely handle it, and I have no idea what the outcome will be. All I know is that if they don't fix it right and I have to get it fixed again, or if I have to fight to get reimbursed for all these crazy expenses that I should not be incurring, I've been told I should contact an attorney. I've already written a nasty-gram to the Better Business Bureau (which did elicit a response from the Jiffy Lube guy, after they'd been avoiding my phone calls and the calls from the guy at the shop), and I'm not the kind of girl to just go suing people, but this is getting ridiculous, and I can't afford it. Seriously, can't I just catch a break already? Sheesh.

So that's where we're at right now. I'll keep you posted.

What About Us?

Not gonna lie, I thought this was amazing.

And what an INCREDIBLE selection of talent. I love stuff like this.