I'M GOING TO RUSSIA!!!!

That's right folks, I'm going to Russia! This August for 10 days with WAY FM, Mission Network News and Orphan Outreach. St. Petersburg and Leningrad to work in orphanages. Need to raise $3,500.00 by July 1st! Ahh! So Excited! :)

More details coming soon...

A Few Of My Favorites

In discussing my new blog, I have mentioned a few other blogs I follow. I have had a couple of people ask me to send them the link, so I thought I would dedicate this post to just a few musicians/blogs that I follow.

MUSICIANS
Here are a couple of lesser known musicians that are AMAZING!

Vicky Beeching

Vicky Beeching is such a talented worship leader and songwriter. I had the privilege of hearing her perform live as she led worship at my church a couple of months ago! She has a 3 track EP available on iTunes and a new full length album coming out in April 2010!

Check out her website at http://vickybeeching.com

Also check her out on iTunes and facebook!

Aaron Niequist

Aaron Niequist used to be the worship leader at my church. Though I love our current leader, I miss him! Aaron is an incredible songwriter and performer. His latest album "With Broken Fists" is great.

Check out Aaron's website at http://www.aaronniequist.com/ and find him on iTunes!





Joshua Spier

Ok, so Josh is my cousin, but he is seriously Amazing! I have watched him compose a song in my car as we drove to a tiny recording studio in Caledonia, MI. His talent in singing, songwriting and performing is just... beyond words. I say that as a music lover, not as family. I highly encourage you to check out his music!

Visit Josh's website at http://www.joshuaspier.com/... do it! :)







Blogs*

Cake Wrecks
For anyone who loves cake, loves cake decorating or just loves when people mess up royally, this is a good website. The things people put on cakes... seriously? (G- PG)

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/





Failblog
Oh how people fail. It's incredibly funny and sad at the same time. There are no words for this site, but if you ever feel like you're having a bad day, go to this site and see what it's like to really fail. haha. (PG-13 for the most part)

http://failblog.org/




Probably Bad News

It is amazing what gets published in our newspapers. Some publications are online and some are actually printed on paper, either way, it is funny! (PG- PG-13)

http://probablybadnews.com/





Work Fails & Job LOLs Monday thru Friday

We all have crazy jobs. This site posts some of the more amusing or... awkward moments at other peoples workplaces. (I just started following this yesterday) (PG-13 - R)

http://mthruf.com/






Oddly Specific

Some signs aren't playing around. They tell is exactly how it is. I wish more signs were this honest, it would be more amusing. (PG- PG-13)

http://oddlyspecific.com/






(the customer is) Not Always Right


For anyone who has worked in customer service, you know that customers say the most ridiculous things and no, they are not always right! This site tells those stories. You think "no one could be this dumb" or "no one would really say that." Oh yes they do! (PG)

http://notalwaysright.com/






Failbooking

If you're not addicted enough to facebook, check out failbooking.com. For me, my friends don't say enough ridiculous and embarrassing things on facebook, but other people certainly do! Yes, some may be intentional, but some times people just don't think about what they are publishing to the world on facebook and it can be quite hilarious! (PG-13 - R- probably more R)

http://failbooking.com/





*Like most blogs, some days are better than others. Some days are also more "appropriate" than others. I make no guarantees that the sites will be funny every day, but they are amusing for the most part. The ratings are estimated for the typical post.

Enjoy! :)

God Week

Well, here we are at Sunday again! I had expected to update my blog well before this, but I had quite the busy week. It was nice catching up with my friend Kaylee on Monday. Tuesday I got medical insurance (woo hoo!) and took a walk in the wonderful sunshine. Wednesday I had an Irish themed Bible Study at my House Church. Thursday I had a counseling appointment. And this weekend... well, my family plans were canceled, but I ended up working on a couple of other things. And now we are back to my favorite day of the week... Sunday!

My therapist said it perfectly when she said I was having a "God-week." Well, every week is God's week when you think of it, but there is definitely a lot moving in my life right now!

I am looking into opportunities to get back into music and theater. The theater part may have to be put on hold for a bit, but I would love to find a group to sing with. In my fantasy world, I would find a group like "Glee" but really, any group of fun people singing good songs would be great. I need to find my hobbies again as I've lost touch with them.

Friday I applied to go to Russia this summer with Way FM and Orphan Outreach! If approved, I would be going for 10 days in August to St. Petersburg and Leningrad to work in orphanages. We'd be working with orphans of all ages, but for a portion of the trip we'd be working especially with teenagers who are about to age out of the system. Many orphans who age out of the system turn to drugs, prostitution or suicide because they have no where to go and no hope. We will be working with them in many ways but one way is to give them hope through showing them the Love of Jesus Christ! It will be such a heart-wrenching and amazing experience I am sure. I will hopefully find out this week if I am accepted and then I will be doing lots of fund-raising to meet the financial portion of the trip! Look for more to come on this blog!

I am loving my job, though it does have it's stressful moments. I know I am a temp so I could be let go at any minute, but right now I am grateful to have a job and with such great people!

My House Church friends are so wonderful and I am so lucky to be connected with them. It was clearly an intentional God thing that we all got together and stayed together after our 6 week series back in October/November. Cassie, Jessie & John, thank you for being you, I love you all! :)

And I am very grateful for such amazing friends and family. I got to seem my niece and both my nephews this week which was such a treat. It was sad that the family plans this weekend were canceled, but I look forward to next weekend when I will see them again. And all my friends are wonderful. I am especially looking forward to spending the day with Ryan, Amanda and Annika, as well as Amanda's family as we celebrate Ryan's birthday!

If I can ask for prayer requests though, I am struggling with particular people in my life and acceptance of the choices they make. I want to show them love but it's easier said than done sometimes.

Also, I was asked to share the links to some of the funny blogs I follow, so my plan is that some time this week I will do a "who to look out for/who to follow" type blog. I have some ideas going.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and since snow came to visit Michigan on the first day of Spring, I also hope we see sun and warmer weather in the near future!! :)

Grace & Peace
♥

Jesus, Lover of my Soul

I ♥ Sundays. Sunday might very well be my favorite day of the week.

I think it should be noted that the only reason this journey is taking place, the journey from pessimism to optimism, is because of Jesus Christ. By the Grace of God I am even here and I have not always appreciated that simple fact in the past.

Today at church we continued our Lent Series on Jonah. The book of Jonah is probably the most comical book of the Bible and I have enjoyed going through this series both at church and at Bible Study.

This week there was a lot to the message and frankly it would take me a long time to go through all of the good points. It's better to just listen for yourself once it is uploaded to the website (probably by Thursday) at marshill.org.

However, there were two points of the service that were really good for me at this point in my journey. The first was a line in a prayer we said together. It stated "let us not sour the joy of life." I feel that was very much what I used to do... sour the joys of life with my negative outlook. Now, I am trying to stop that and cherish the joy of life. Perfect Timing. God's timing!

Second was (long story short) about how God does not look down at us sitting in our troubles, sorrow, despair, etc. God is not above humbling Himself and joining us in whatever we are going through. He is a compassionate and sympathetic God. And the whole time I was listening to this part of the sermon, I kept envisioning Jesus, not just standing there feeling bad for me when I was at my lowest points, but sitting next to me and crying with me, entering into that space and that emotion. One thing my pastor kept saying was "God wants to enter into those times with you so that you will never have to be alone." How great is that? Some times, especially for someone like me who suffers from depression, it is easy to feel all alone, but I will never be alone because God is always with me!

I bought a ring for myself recently. It has a lot to do with the events that sparked this change in heart, change in attitude. I won't get into that here, for reasons stated in my last post, but I had the ring engraved on the inside to say "Jesus, lover of my soul." I wear this ring to remind myself that the only man I need in my life is Jesus. I am whole because of Him!

Here are some photos... maybe not the best quality, but it does the job! :)






You can kind of make out the engraving...

Grace & Peace
♥

Trust (or lack thereof)

So, I had published a new post today that I felt I needed to delete. It is unfortunate that I feel as though I am unable to share everything about my journey because there are some people following my blog that I cannot trust with my personal information. One day I hope that blogspot will allow individual posts to be privatized.

In the mean time, I am happy to share the rest of my journey with anyone who follows this blog. I hope that everyone understands that this is very much a journey, but hopefully I can feel support and positivity from my followers.

♥

Finally!!!

So, I've been talking about starting a blog for some time now. I'm going to be honest, I don't know what I will write about and who will care, but it's done. Finally!

A couple of things about my blog. First of all, the URL. "Erasable History" is taken from a line of a song called "Day to Day" by Chris Bryan- he is an amazing musician who went to Hope College! It's from his first album, "Shades of Blue." The line states that "the future's just erasable history." And I like that. A lot of times I feel like I don't know what is going on and of course I don't know what will happen in the future. But sometimes I feel like there are aspects of my future that are going to happen because of the decisions I've made now. I like the reminder that no matter what is going on now or what has happened in the past, the future is still open.

Chris wrote in his bio on his website that with lines like that, he was trying to be witty. Well, yeah, it is, but I found something from it, so it's not all fluff!

My title, The Journey from Pessimist to Optimist is really where my life is right now. For some of you who know me, describing myself as a pessimist isn't too big of a shock for you. For others, you wouldn't describe me that way (and I love you for it! haha). But a huge part of my pessimism is in my internal dialogue. I *was* always so negative. Now I am working on being positive and happy and for a natural pessimist, that is A LOT harder than it sounds! So, it's a journey and if you are reading this blog, I hope you can encourage me to stay positive!

That's it for now. Like I said, I don't know where this is going or what kinds of things this blog will hold. And if I actually remember to update it regularly, I'm curious who will follow it. But, one thing you can count on (and if you know me at all, it will not be a surprise) my posts will probably be on the longer side. I'm not good at keeping things short. And it's my blog, so I don't have to! haha!

♥