ASK YOUR FRIENDS

By the way, I'M LOOKING FOR A JOB IN IOWA!! God brought me around, and I really think it's where I'm supposed to go, next at least, so I'm following Him and looking for jobs! AND, apparantly, from all the job sites I've been visiting, networking is the KEY to job-getting :)
SOOOO everyone, look out for those job openings! Ask your friends if they know of any sweet jobs for a motivated, creative, really cool advertising graduate in advertising, public relations, graphic design, or something communications related.... then MENTION ME! and email me, so I can send them my sweet resume that I spent 2 weeks perfecting :)
LOVE
christina

RACE FOR THE CURE

Support your local Race for the Cure!! I'm running the SURVIVOR table at the Central Park Race for the Cure, and I couldn't be more pumped. So find someone that's running, or run yourself and support breast cancer survivors and breast cancer research!

love, christina

I

Changes

Just got back from the library. Being in the library, looking at the stacks and stacks of books, reminds me more and more that I'm not who I want to be, or not who I percieve myself to be. See, I'm wandering through the stacks of books, attracted to the simple girly titles, all the while feeling guilty that I'm not looking for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sylvia Plath. Isn't it weird how you have this idea of who you are, even though it's crazy different than the truth? I wouldn't know what to do with Sylvia Plath even if I bought the cliff notes.
I'm learning more now than ever that I know myself less and less. I mean, I KNEW who I was in college, I knew that I was the one to call if you didn't want to study, the one to throw the dinner party, the one to call if you needed some free counseling and "wisdom" from someone who's been through it. While I was IN college, I loved the social life much more than the classes. Now, being out of school, I wish I could go back and have 24 more hours in every day and suck all the learning out of Iowa State. Now that I have every night free, I long for the textbooks I sold back, wishing I had my advertising books so I could read up at night and feel a little more confidant when applying for jobs the upcoming morning. I don't know, it's just so weird to not have "student" "advertising major" "Iowa State University" and "Campus Crusade for Christ socialite" to define me. What defines me now, that I'm not an advertising student at Iowa state spending too much time socializing up the school? What kind of music do I like, now that I can't depend on having a Christian radio station to put on whenever I need some tunes? What kind of books do I like when I don't have a discipler or the local Christian culture telling me what the next big author is? Tough.
Man, my life is strange right now. I never in a million years would have expected for this to be my life right now. I feel like this year is such a long waiting moment in my life. Waiting for adulthood, waiting to find out who I really am without Campus crusade telling me, waiting for New York to feel like home, waiting for a "real" job. It's strange, this life of mine. I am so used to "glass-half-full" life theology that it's hard for me to really look at my life and ADMIT that it's tough. But the thing is, I'm doing alright. Little by little I am finding out who I am. Making the decision to be faithful even when I don't understand. Praying that my self-righteous pride will shut itself up while I just try to do the best that I can. And try to push the mother guilt away while I attempt to raise these children the way their parents want me to and push away my questions about whether they'll turn out really weird after watching this much T.V. What a year. :) But the thing is, I'm smiling my little face off right now, listening to John Legend on the computer (a singer I found all by myself and LOVE LOVE LOVE him) and thinking that I wouldn't trade my life for the world. because I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I know that learning all this is going to make me who I am, future tense :). I'm making no sense, right? Well, somehow in this moment, I'm happy, standing in this gap. I suppose these next couple years after college, I'll be climbing that mountain on the other side. And I'll come out on top,

you'll see :)

headed HOME! (well, to Iowa at least)

headed back to iowa for a wedding today, will be in my favorite state for a couple days then heading back here for a much-needed break from traveling. whew it's been a crazy couple of weeks! today, I actually answered to "mommy." must have been out in the heat too long haha.
The mom's getting home in a couple minutes to relieve me from work to rush to the airport, but I'll elaborate quickly on the toilet story.
OK, so my friends arrive here, only to find out that the toilet has just broken (by no fault of mine, I assure you.) I tried to act positive, since my friends did just spend a whole day on a plane goingn all over the country AND stopping once for gas because of some weather. I quick thought up a plan... "OK, guys, here's the deal. I don't know when this is gonna get fixed, so we're going to have to make do. We'll make good usage of toilets elsewhere and if push comes to shove and we just have to go #1, we use the shower! No big deal!" Of course inside, I'm thinking.. "Use the shower? What kind of barbarian must they think I am? Ick!" But don't judge us! What choice did we have? I had assured the parents of the kids that my friends would "only be here to sleep" since the parents suddenly had a problem with friends coming to stay. Because of this, the frequent treks up to the parents bathroom just steps from their bedroom door would just not be acceptable. So, we made do. Only once did we have to make the tiptoe trek upstairs during the middle of the night for an emergency REAL TOILET stop. I can't believe I'm telling you all this, but I just can't help myself. I mean, this is my life. Why does stuff like this happen to me? Probably because God knows I can handle it, that instead of sending me crying on the floor, it makes me laugh instead. :) The good thing is, my friends were really good sports about it, and we all adjusted to the plan pretty easily. I DID assure them that I would be bleaching the entire shower and shower curtain, after on the last day Hannah informed me that her feet were sticking to the floor a bit! Eww! But anyway, that's life :)
Being home was so good.
SO SO GOOD.
After arriving at the family reunion in what I felt was a very cute little New Yorker outfit, the intense HEAT (that I'm so not used to, spending all day in a cushy AC'd house) sent me straight to the pool, which we basically didn't leave all weekend. Of course I didn't pack AT ALL for this little plan, so I had to make a last-minute trip to Walmart to get some pool clothes. It actually didn't turn out that bad, though, because shopping at Walmart (there aren't any around here surprisingly enough) was AMAZING! You can buy so much stuff there for little money! So much more than in New York! so I didn't mind. I mean, who can really complain about "having" to buy new clothes, I mean come on. So that was so good.
Two girlfriends at the reunion this year. I don't know that significant others have ever come to a family reunion before, but Katie's been around so long that she practically IS family already, and Amy is quite a nice addition as well, if I say so myself. Her and Scott are still in the honeymoon stage of their relationship, I think, so they're a little different than Katie and Brett, who have been dating since they were toddlers or something like that (haha jk guys!) No, but it was cool to have them there. Really missed the family that wasn't there, though! Sarah Moore, missed you! Come back to us! Her dad sure misses her too, I'm sure he'll be happy to have her home. Since she's been in Michigan he's been just looking for reasons to go visit that girl. So sweet. Let's see, what else happened. It was just a really low-key reunion. I like some structure to my vaca's (just ask the people who've gone on spring break with me and hopped into the car to be greeted with a packet of information of all the towns we'll drive through, options for food and eating, and coupons I've garnered from the web,) so I didn't know how I would like it, but it was great. Not to say I'm not already training for the dance-off and three-legged races that will be held at next year's event, but this was really nice. Kudos to Allison. A wonderful time was had by all. Ok, i have to finish getting ready for Iowa so everyone, have a nice weekend and keep cool! I know I'll be trying!
christina

Some pics from family vaca

Us girls laying out on the dock



the family eating lunch at theh lake house