Life and Death

Alyvia the Christmas MerLady

It's official: We have the CUTEST niece ever.  Sadly, she lives with her parents in Idaho, which is a long way away from here.  BUT here's a video we took in Nampa at Christmas as proof that she is, indeed, THEE CUTEST little Lubiens there ever was!

Nashville+Snow=Insanity

Planning

I am a planner. I love to plan. I love to plan menus and schedules and budgets.

I am terrible at following through with my plans.

Does that mean that I love the thrill of planning and then straying from the plan? Does it make me feel spontaneous or rebellious?

Or do I just lack self-discipline?

This is Crazy!

So as you may be seeing on the news, Nashville is currently experiencing the second worst flooding in its history. Trevor and I are safe and dry...our yard is washing away as we speak, but we are thankful to be inside and okay.

If you've missed out on the action, check out this video from cnn.com. Trevor and I watched this happen live on TV yesterday afternoon. It is right next to the freeway exit by our first apartment. CRAZY!!

We know people whose homes are mostly underwater, roads are totally washed out, trees are being blown over, and schools all over are canceling classes tomorrow. It feels unreal, but again, we are so thankful to be safe and relatively unaffected. If you think about it, pray for people who are stuck in buildings and people who have lost everything.

We'll try to keep everyone updated. For today though, we are enjoying the time together, playing games, cleaning, cooking, working, and resting. I guess no matter what, it's always good to be a Lubiens.

How to Eat an Elephant :: Lesson One

Hold your nose, take a deep breath, and try not to throw up.

Not Nearly Enough...

I didn't accomplish nearly enough this weekend. I am sitting here in our freezing little house (because we're too cheap to turn up the heat) and I'm sad. Well, sort of. Not moping around sad, but a little scrunch my nose up in disappointment sad at not getting more done this weekend. I did rest though. And watch a movie with Trev. And brunch with Trev. And rearrange our room. And clean out the closet. And make an even bigger mess in the junk room. And clean the kitchen. Several times. And bake - several times. And go to Starbucks with Trev. And go to church. And sing on the worship team. And go to a University Ministries meeting. And make some Christmas exchanges. And do a little shopping, both grocery and otherwise. And cook dinner for tomorrow. And write a blog...

Maybe I'll have more success next weekend. :)

Just Wednesday

My boss writes his notes for me while on the eliptical each morning. You can imagine how fun it is to try and decipher them....

It's Been a Good Day

Today has been a good day.

Our alarm went off at 5:45. We got up and dressed and I took Trevor to meet the guys for a little pre-birthday golf outing. Meanwhile, I stopped by Starbucks on the way to the grocery store (got a free upgrade all because the Barista was pleasantly surprised that I gave a tip) and I was reminded why I love going to the grocery store at 7:00 on a Saturday morning. Everything is freshly stocked and besides a few employees here and there, I've got the place pretty much all to myself. I pulled out of the parking lot with groceries in tow by 7:40 and was home with groceries put away by just after eight. I quickly cleaned up the kitchen, which I'd been neglecting to do for a few evenings :\ and headed upstairs to print off some music and get myself showered and dressed in time for...

My first recording session with The Nashville Choir!! We recorded in the RCA/Victor studio on music row. The room was amazing - apparently a TON of film scores are recorded there. So I recorded all morning and had a blast!

I left the studio to pick up Trevor, who was freshly showered and shaven (and HANDSOME) after his golf game, and we went to the airport to pick up Kendra who is staying with us for a few days!! We got home and gave her the tour and played our guitars and now we're headed to Trevor's 30th Birthday Bash.

Can this day get better? I submit that it can....

Grow Up

I have to grow up.

I don’t want to, but I have to.

I want to rest on the assurance of things I’ve done already, things I’ve seen, things I know are safe, comfortable, easy.
I have to grow up.

I have to put childish things behind me. Laziness, procrastination, disorganization.

I don’t want to grow up.

I don’t want to, but I have to.

I have to grow up.

Bye Bye Bean

My best childhood chum is moving across the country in the opposite direction today.

We didn’t plan to end up so close together in the first place... just both happened to jump at opportunities east of the Mississippi after college.

I miss hear already which is strange and probably a bit inappropriate because we never saw each other, and I’m terrible about remembering to call, so we only talked on the phone a few times in the past four years. But it was nice to know that if I wanted to, or if I needed her, she was a measly two hours away. I’m kicking myself for not spending more time with her while we could. Wish we could have at least met for a Saturday or two every once in a while…

My heart is heavy in her absence, which is so utterly selfish because I couldn’t be more excited for her: Moving to THEE PERFECT city for her, her boy, and their dog; Living downtown in an unfathomably amazing location, with hundreds of new things to explore along every neighborhood street; Fantastic job opportunities await…

Maybe too my heart is realizing that now I’m all alone out here…realizing how exciting it would be to be moving back to a place where I could be a 15 minute walk from my BFF...or a 4 hour drive from my family..in case I wanted them to join me for dinner some Sunday afternoon...

I love you, Bean, and I'm so excited for the new things that await you. This muggy, ridiculous, wild mannered South will miss your glorious presence. Save a spot on the floor for us as we’ll have to visit you and Ashton SOON!

home is no longer my home

I started to title this post "home sweet home" but then I couldn't.

I'm sitting in the office at my Dad's house in Colorado, on a crisp, beautiful Summer Sunday morning, and having an absolutely smashing time visiting my family this weekend. Friday night we went to a Rockies game and watched our hometeam soundly defeat the Cubs. We played all day yesterday at our favorite Denver summer spot, Water World, and made the two and a half hour trek back to Yuma for dinner at my favorite mexican restaurant. After dinner we caught up with my favorite Yuma aunt, uncle and cousins, and chatted into the night/held a quick make-shift early birthday with my sweet mama.

After the day ended, I fell asleep next to my sister in a room that is not my own. There's been a little bit of shuffling around in the Campbell house, and my sister Kirsten now resides in what was my room (for one summer while I lived in this house after college). This change is certainly no problem for me at all because she's an almost 18 year old girl who needs her space and I'm glad she can use the room that I might have maybe stayed in once a year for the rest of my life.

What this change does represent, however, is how I've grown up and replaced my thoughts of home with a different place. While I will always say that Yuma is my home, ie: flying HOME for the weekend; going HOME for Christmas; as I began to title this blog "home sweet home," I realized that Yuma is not my HOME. My home is the little brick house in Nashville where Trevor will be waiting with open arms when I fly HOME on Monday.

My family will always represent my home of the past. One that I will cherish, and hope to visit often. But Trevor represents my home, both now and always, and I can't imagine it any other way.

Lazy Saturday

It's 10:13 a.m. and we're still in bed. I am thoroughly awake, and have been playing on facebook for an hour, however. I should prolly get up and be productive. Especially because I've been home one evening out of the past 4 and did nothing relating to housework that night either...

Laundry, here I come.

Where we've been

Oh my gaahsh...you thought we fell off the face of the earth, didn't you? Well, we were close. After almost a month of company following a week of General Assembly and two weeks of intense GA prep, we were exhausted! BUT we had a fantastic time, and now we're reasonably rested and ready to reflect. The posts might be kind of random, but I hope to share some pics and video from our summer so far.

A major part of Trevor's new job for the first few months was helping plan Trevecca's promotional stuff for General Assembly. He even convinced them that he could build and furnish the booth for the convention center at 1/2 the cost. It was a TON of work, but he pulled it off beautifully! My photos aren't working right now, so you'll just have to take my word for it tonight. I'm sure we'll blog on General Assembly more in depth, so I'll leave it for that post. I know, I'm killing you with the suspense...

Then Mom and Jenni came on Thursday the 2nd to spend the long 4th of July weekend with us! We relaxed and shopped, played MarioKart Wii and ate lots of yummy food. The only thing we didn't get to do was see fireworks (it rained) but that just means that they'll have to come see them next year.

Unfortunately, Jenni could only stay for a few days, but mom got to stay through my birthday on the 15th. We had so much fun together. One Saturday we went down the the farmer's market and the bicentennial mall, enjoying the sites and fun things the city had to offer.
This little boy was making smoothies and lemonade at his parent's fruit stand in the market.

There is a huge map section at the Bicentennial mall. This one is 3-D.

This one is huge...maybe bigger than a regulation sized basketball court?

There is a giant amphitheater at the mall that looks up at the state capitol. I wish I would have gone and stood down there so you could see just how big it is...

That night, we headed down to Centennial Park to watch people swing dance.

She also got to watch Trevor and I play softball which we love to do in the summer, and we all got to go to a couple of minor league baseball games - thanks, Trevecca!

Trevor was able to score extra tickets, so Stephen and Brian came too. They're cool...they play worship with us at church.

(We had great seats)

We tried to go to the Loveless Cafe for lunch, but even at 2:00 in the afternoon, there was a line out the door. Come visit us on a weeknight and we'll be more willing to take you out there. It is an experience for sure!

I'm a little disappointed that I've been working on this post for an hour and I'm not even close to covering all the fun we've had this summer. I haven't even mentioned our amazing week with Torrey and Anni last week...that's definitely coming in another post. Trevor is ever-so-patiently waiting for me so we can go home, so I'd better wrap this up. There WILL be more to come, I promise...and with more frequency then I have been posting, to be sure!

Note to Self:

Buy this book

Friday Mornings

Who doesn't love Fridays? But mostly the afternoon/evening part when the work week ends and the weekend begins. However, for me, there is even something about Friday mornings that I love - how the air feels crisper and the sun shines more brightly. I love the view of the big tree outside my window or the pond just beyond the parking lot. All basking in the warm newness of the Friday morning sun. Okay, that's deep and silly, but really...I wish I had a camera so I could show you. Friday morning just.feels.perfect.

Also wonderful: The Krispy Kremes placed tauntingly in the kitchenette by my friend Kathleen. MMMM...can you beat a fresh Krispy Kreme? It's definitely worth the calories with my morning cup of Seattle's Best coffee with a touch of Italian Sweet Cream creamer.

On my desktop awaits a soon-to-be-finished analytical spread sheet of state convention offering info for my boss...gotta get to that. There's also the stack of mailing files that have to be filled with samples and put away, and then the blank files yet to be labeled. Other odds and ends await as I progress through the day, but right now, Friday morning makes everything seem bearable...even pleasant. I love Friday mornings!

Making Progress

We started this morning at 8:00. We finished *almost* this evening at 9:00. About a quarter of the living room (including the bay window) has yet to be completed, but we're so close. And tired. We are so close and so tired. Here are some pictures of the living room phase
Before:

Before: (stay tuned for the fireplace makeover next)

Getting closer...

I over budgeted a little for the floors, so we had some extra to buy a rug for the living room. Trevor likes the one I picked...and he is so tired from all his hard work!

Well friends, I am about to fall asleep as I type. Tomorrow comes early with church worship department rehearsal at 8:20. Hopefully we'll get a chance to work on finishing things up, but since Trev worked so hard today, I'm not going to press my luck. Whatever strength he can muster for tomorrow will be fine with me.

Progress

Entryway phase I is complete. Hardwood is harder to rip up than I anticipated. Trevor told me it would be, but I'm not sure I fully believed him. We got it though. Here are some before pictures and some of the entryway floor as we get ready to begin laying the new stuff down.

Floors TODAY!

Today we begin our biggest DIY home improvement project to date: ripping up all the carpet downstairs and replacing it with this:


Gotta get to it...I'll post pictures as we go, and hopefully by Monday night - a final product!!

I Notice Things

Just some random thoughts from this morning. And it's not even noon. *sigh*

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So you know when you’re at work and someone says: “Before I bother someone important, I think I’ll ask you.” Awesome.

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I really like confetti. I like to let it fall through my fingers. I often make spiral bound books here at work and think the little rectangular hole punch leftovers would make perfect confetti. Thus, I often ask myself why I don’t save such punches in a shoe box and use them at birthdays and in presents. And then I remember: confetti is only fun for the half-second it spills out of an envelope or floats in the air. After that it’s just irritating.