Storm Chasing (sorry mom)

I have been trying to be more spontaneous in life recently. So today I hear Tornado spotted in Yukon and it was a beacon for me to grab my camera and keys and jet out the door. One of my life goals among many, is to see a tornado with my own eyes. I did not get such luck today. It started hailing so I pulled into a farm metal overhang and hung out for 10 minutes while it passed. The hail was about softball sized...no joke...Anyways, that lightened up my day a little and got my heart pumping so I thought I would share, and share the pictures!

Seriously? What happened to my childhood

I titled this blog like I did because I find it is a question I honestly think about everyday. 

Carl, Cara and myself babysat a 3 year old the other night. I watched Thomas the tank engine movies with him among helping him with puzzles and just talking with him. This child had nothing but a smile on his face and nothing but encouragement to give. Thats when I started to look back and think about how simple life was then, and how simple my mind was then, and I realized that my whole life is a quest to get back in the mentality of a 3 year old. If you were to ask me 3 months ago where I thought I would be, my answer would never be right on.  And thats the way its been since I went to college. I feel that it is that way for a reason in my life right now though, I have learned more in the last 6 months than ever in my life. In the spirt of learning many things about myself, I have decided to share them.

I love family....My brother, my little brother, Dad, Mom, Step Dad, Step Mom and Cousins and Aunts ETC. I have learned so much about what it means to have the love of parents, in these last few months especially. I have learned about the love of family all around this last year.

My brothers...Love them....I love showing up at my house at 2am and seeing my older brother yelling at my xbox cause he died in grand theft auto. I love texts from my little brother at 2am asking me what I am doing because he still isnt aware of the time change from Oklahoma to Oregon. I also love that both stories of my brothers derive from a 2am time. 

I love my sister-in-law. I was interested to see how the living situation would be having a girl around yelling at me to pick stuff up, however in my many many many roomate flaws I have,  there is so much I cherish about her friendship. I love our bi-monthly grocery shopping trips and watching Top Chef, The Office, Storm Chasers and 30 Rock every week. And I HATE that 90% she is right (thats right, I am not giving you that 10%, its mine), it makes her advice harder to take.

Carl and Cara as a couple I love. The are an inspiration to me as a couple and individually. I love late night talks in our living room. They somehow always know how to tell me something that points me in the right direction.

I love my friendships... I have the best friends of all time.... 

I don't know what I believe when it comes to christianity anymore (thats another blog post). I feel people get too caught up in logistics and little things that really should have no impact in how they love God or other people, just what denomination they choose to side with. So right now I keep my thinking simple...I love...more on this at a later blog post.

I feel that in the last year of my life I have seen more brokenness than love. I feel that for every story I hear about love or times I witness true examples of love, I see three times the amount of brokenness in peoples lives.

I realized that all it can take me sometimes to turn from a horrible day to an accomplished amazing day, is a scooter ride around the lake on a nice day.

I am done hiding things from people. I lived at SNU for 2 years where anything that was not accepted in chapel I should probably keep to myself. Now, I don't care.

Music has never been more important in my life.

Hanging out with a 3 year old for an hour can make my week.

UPDATE ON THOMAS LIFE

So here it is, my much delayed entry into the world of blogging (aside from my photography blog I update every year).  

To update those who have not seen me in a while or heard from me... I dropped out of SNU due to the fact I dont have $22,000 laying around, as frustrated as I am about that, that is a whole different blog post. 

I am currently attending Oklahoma City Community College and I actually love it. I am going for my Paramedic degree, since being a lifeguard I have enjoyed that kind of work and I feel and hope it is a route I will do well in. 

After dropping out of SNU Carl, Cara and myself decided to all get a house together. I thought this would be a good move for a few reasons. One because I have always wanted to live with Carl and that dream was shattered due to marriage(still love you Cara). The second reason is I feel that I am in a place in life where I do need someone to keep me in check in a few areas of my life. 

I work at a local camera shop which is much different from any job I have ever worked, for a number of reasons. The most interesting change is that this is a small town camera shop, we have our "regulars" and although it is no corporate chain, it is cool to be a part of a small town shop like that. I still work at Apple sometimes. Photography has been much more busy than last year but I love it. 

Other than that I am alive and breathing....and surviving