A Single Man

Chris and I watched this movie last night.

I highly recommend it!

vegan for life

my good friend sarah got tatted today, and i got to watch all of the action!

the tattoo she got is the national vegan symbol. she is vegan and very passionate about it. she teaches me about it all the time. she even makes the best vegan cookies around!

she was having so much fun!

the final product!

she got her tattoo done at pincushn's in holland.

her tattoo artist was chris, and she had many recommendations for him from a number of other people. so, if you want a well-done tattoo, go to pincushn and ask for chris.

for all my twenty-something friends

5 Key Things I learned in my 20’s

October 02, 2009

(via Brad Lomenick, http://bradlomenick.com/)

1. Use your 20’s to build a foundation for your 70’s. Create deep roots that will give you a foundation for when you are older. Finishing well means starting well.

2. Don’t worry about climbing the ladder. There’s no longer a ladder anyway. It’s more like one of those spiral staircases. And sometimes you are going across or down when you think you might be climbing. So don’t worry about it. Spend your 20’s learning and having life experiences. Travel, explore the world, take on projects that seem fun.

3. If your “career” path doesn’t make sense to anyone except for you, it’s okay. My 20’s: college at University of Oklahoma, wrangler on a guest ranch in Colorado, management consultant, business development officer, Magazine and media company, strategic business plan developer. WOW. That is all over the map. But God was orchestrating steps very clearly for what was next in my story. And continues to do so.

4. Be diligent and aggressive in developing your friendships and relationships. Create a core group of close friends who you want to do like with. This group may change a bit over the years, but it is imperative to find a circle of trust that you are committed to and they to you.

5. Figure out who you want to be, not what you want to do. Who you are is more important that what you do or where you live. Spiritually, financially, family, emotionally, relationally. Find two or three older, wise “sages” that you can learn from and count on as help.

-Brad

northern michigan

i could sum up this past weekend with three things:
good friends, bike rides, boat rides

chris and i began the weekend by driving up north to harbor springs in the pouring rain with no driver's side windshield wiper. no worries, though--we made it safely to corinne's in harbor springs.

on friday morning, luke, corinne, chris, and i woke up, grabbed coffee at wooly bugger's, and drove to mackinac where we caught arnold's ferry to the island. we chose this line because they gave us a coupon for bike rentals with our ferry ticket purchase--these bikes were the best deal on the island!

we rode the ferry over to the island while rain was misting us, and i was upset that i chose to wore shorts. once we reached the island, though, the sun came out and we enjoyed a beauitful day!













we walked up and down the main road for a little while checking out some shops. after a little while we stopped at mary's bistro for lunch. we ran into alayna g. from hope (she was the hostess)! she ended up buying our table a delicious dessert---thanks alayna!

after lunch we rented two tandem bicycles and rode around the perimeter of the island. the landscape was beautiful! and we all had so much fun riding together.













shortly before dinner, we decided that we had seen all of the island we possibly could without spending too much money, so we headed back to harbor springs for dinner. we took corinne's family's boat out on the bay, and her and luke were great captains and gave chris and me a tour of the area from the water. we then drove the boat towards the docks downtown and went to turkey's for dinner. corinne and i had delicious salads (i had one of the best strawberry-spinach-pecan salads i've ever tasted), and the boys ordered a cutom-made pizza with jalapenos. delicious dinner. we then headed back to corinne's where i fell asleep early while everyone was talking, and chris woke me up and tucked me into bed.

























saturday morning, corinne and i delivered breakfast-in-bed to the boys while they were watching the tour de france. we lied around for awhile then went out on corinne's jet ski. i wish i had a picture of the four of us crammed onto the one jet ski to show you. it was fun!

we then headed for glen arbor. chris and i made a pitstop in traverse city to visit with josh. we had dinner at taco house, and i finally ate a cherry burrito after hearing about them for the past two years from all of the boys. we then met up with matthew and johnpaul, and the five of us went to moomer's for delicious ice cream!













chris and i then headed towards glen arbor, where i was finally able to feast my eyes upon the glory of the most beautiful location in all of michigan. glen lake is gorgeous. chris and i also saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of our lives while en route from tc to glen. sadly, i did not get a good picture of the sunset, nor did i take any pictures while at luke's.

once we arrived at luke's, chris sat outside with the tubergen men while corinne and i watched 'dear john' inside with the ladies. afterwards, corinne, luke, chris, and i went out on the boat for a midnight swim. the moon lit up the entire surface of the lake, and the lights under the boat shone light down into the depths of the crystal clear water of glen lake.

we began the day on sunday by biking into glen arbor for breakfast at art's, and then we went to cherry republic (another place i have been hearing about for a while now). we spent most of the day hanging out at luke's house with his family and riding around on the boat.

luke took some airme pics on his iphone on sunday. here are a couple:













chris and me biking around glen.














the artist that hung out all day painting glen lake.

i can easily say this was one of the best weekends of my summer!

imax

last night, i drove to grand rapids where i met up with chris, ryan, and amber, and we drove to the imax theater to see INCEPTION. we snuck in our jimmy john's sandwiches and enjoyed the movie. the imax was pretty cool because it almost felt 3D, even though it is not. inception was mind-blowing and left me with some questions, but i still enjoyed it, and i loved spending time with chris, ryan, and amber.

afterwards, chris and i grabbed some ice cream from jersey junction and talked for a while. great night.


while i have seen the trailer for HP7 multiple times before, i saw it again last night in the imax, and i am EXCITED.

holland hundred

this past weekend i had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with chris and his family. i joined the cox family for dinner on friday night at chris, his dad, and his two brothers prepared for the holland hundred bike ride the next day.

saturday came, and i periodically received text updates from chris telling me how far along they were, along with commentary about how he was feeling. i shared this news with sarah, chris' sister-in-law, whom i had the chance to spend all day with and get to know a little better. we shopped at the farmer's market, has lunch at the good earth cafe, and enjoyed the refreshing waters of lake michigan at riley street beach.

we finally got a text saying the boys were 15 miles from the finish, so sarah and i met up with amber, ruby, and chris' mom, and we drove to the herman miller factory, where the boys were supposed to finish. we expected to find a big banner reading "finish" and a huge crowd of people waiting for their loved ones to finish their rides. instead, we found a small tent filled with water and bananas in a near-empty parking lot. so, us women created our own cheering section for our men. they finished! and i am so proud of them for riding 100 miles together.













(photo courtesy of amber's blog)

summer cuts

the smell of freshly cut grass is delightful.