Soda - a crazy idea

Sometimes when my mind is busy thinking about one thing or another I am lead to think through ridiculous ideas. Today's ridiculous idea came to me midway through my morning run: give up soda for a year, starting August 1. I love soda and that is exactly why I think I want to try to give it up for a year. It is my go-to drink at times and I need to consume more water, I don't want to crave soda I want water or juice or crystal light or something other than soda to be my go to.

I like a good diet coke or frozen coke from time to time, not to mention a delicious dr. pepper.

I think I am going to try it, I make no promises that I will actually make it a year but what the hey here is to 12 months without soda.

Favorite Websites

I love the internet and can't fathom life without it any more, for one reason or another I have decided to post a list of my favorite websites. The websites are listed in no particular order.

• Shutterfly - I LOVE making photobooks! At one point in life I thought I would actually scrapbook like everyone else in the world, when I realized that would not happen! I am not creative enough and far too much of a perfectionist when it comes to certain things to actually scrapbook - however I have found great freedom in digital scrapbooking and love the quality of these books! I have also used them to make Christmas Cards, post cards, journals for work, and several other projects. I LOVE shutterfly.
• Facebook - I know it maybe totally cliche, but I love facebook to a certain degree, yeah the petty stuff and the complaining gets annoying, but I love that I am able to easily connect with friends, see pictures of friend's kids, and connect with some people that I haven't talked to in forever. Granted nothing replaces actual phone calls, skype meetings, handwritten letters, and actual visits - facebook works well for me in the digital world.
• Pintrest - LOVE IT! I love all the ideas that I am able to pull off of here and make happen. There are lots of things I will never have time for or will never actually make but I have actually used quite a bit of stuff off this website. It has ideas and everything! 
• Raverlry - This website has lots and lots of crochet patterns (knitting too but I have no clue how to knit, so am only interested in crochet patterns). It has some for free and some you have to purchase for a reasonable price (usually). I have found lots of patterns that I love on this website, I am thankful for the ability to see other patterns and see people's pictures of how their item turned out to know what a certain project may look like
• Pandora - How brilliant! I love the ability to create radio stations and tailor them to my liking. I have lots of different stations all for different moods and things. I love not needing to haul around cds or my ipod and just being able to play pandora whenever I want.
• Oremus - I love having an NRSV version of the bible available online, one that I can pull scripture off of to put into documents or whatever the need may be. The NRSV is my preferred version of the bible.
• All Recipes - This is my go to for trying new recipes after pintrest, of which I have discovered many of the pintrest recipes I have use are originally from allrecipes.

pressure to be epic.

The title of this post is because for some reason once I haven't blogged in a while I feel some strange internal pressure that the next blog must be AWESOME, which really, I am not sure where this pressure comes from but it exists inside of me, so don't expect epicness in this post, rather it will be ramblings.

The last month has been NUTS to say the least, but wonderfully nuts! I just returned from the National Youth Gathering with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - I traveled with the Northeastern Minnesota synod (550 of us), 21 from the congregation I serve. The 11 day trip came with lots of challenges, fun, and ways in which God met us along the path. It was marvelous. At the beginning of the month I got to stand next to my best friend as she got married back in South Dakota. Wonderfullness abounds.

July's Yay God moments:
-Marc got a new job!
-Katie and Andy got married
-The Synod Journey -ELCA National Youth Gathering
-several trips out kayaking
-a fixed sump pump and sewage drain (the broke sump pump and sewage backing up into my basement was less than fun - but now that the problem is remedied it is nice to not have to worry about them)
-sleep - I was long over due for some good sleep
-planning season - now that some things have come to an end it is time to ramp up the planning for next school year and summer - never a dull moment in ministry
-my closet remodel (sounds lame but trust me the closet needed finishing) is done (just need to hang a set of shelves)
-my family and friends who have helped me keep my sanity during this all
-yarn - one can never have enough yarn while going on 26 hour bus trips (one way)


Dear Sarah,
    You now have broke your blogging silence feel free to go crazy and blog away - no pressure now, the lame post is over.
Love, me

The Chaos in my world

Here is a video glimpse into what my world is like at moments, the video is of Dakota & Nala playing. I have my brother's dog, Nala, while he is out east interning for the FDA. Normally the dogs are amazing but sometimes they go crazy in turn driving me crazy.
I am prepping to leave for the Synod Journey to the ELCA National Youth Gathering tomorrow and know I will miss my sweet puppy like crazy!

Crosslake Run Series & Grandpa's Run for the Walleye Review

Sweet run series shirts: Nike Dryfit! I am impressed

Run for the Walleye shirt and the run series shirt

    I am running in the first ever Crosslake Road Race Series, I was excited when I somehow stumbled upon the series. It is three races: Grandpa's Run for the Walleye (July 7), Crosslake Dam Run (August 4), and Crosslake Monster Dash (October 27). It is looking like it will be a fabulous series. I am thrilled that it is super close to where I live, so I don't have to drive far and the price was super, particularly since when registering for the run series you get a Nike dryfit shirt, that was a pleasant surprise.
    This past Saturday (LOVE SATURDAY RACES, since I can only run Saturday races due to my call), was the 15th annual Grandpa's Run for the Walleye. The race was very well organized and they had a run for little kids ranging from 0-10, they ran in 2 year blocks (0-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10). The kids looked like they had a marvelous time running. All the kids who ran also go some sort of a prize for running, a ribbon and something else (sand pail and shovel, bubbles, etc.).
    The 5k run was great, I am a little disappointed because I missed my goal time by about 58 seconds. I got trapped while on a narrow part of the trail running behind a group running 8 wide without an option to pass right towards the end. But it was a marvelous run, they had water stations well spaced out and it was a gorgeously warm day to run. Crosslake is a beautiful place to run for sure.
Note to self:
 -at the end of a race don't get stuck behind large groups of people
 -hold your head up you ran well and almost met your goal
 -continue to rotate the music on your ipod you loved the new music to run to
              -not every song is intended to be run to

Upper South Long Lake

Upper South Long Lake

Tons of lily pads and flowers out! LOVE IT!

Finally got back out on the lake and paddled upper south long lake. The lake is a decent size for a good afternoon paddle but wouldn't be enough for a day trip. The lake was surrounded with trees and homes. There are tons of residential houses around the lake and not many if any resorts which is nice.
The lake was busy for sure, one of the problems of paddling on a Sunday afternoon. The Police were out on the lake which made things a little interesting as well. With all the boats on the lake it was a little choppy.
I would rate the lake a 7 out of 10. It was smallish and crowded. But it did have quite a few varieties of birds, at one point there was a loon within five feet of my boat.