Thankfulness.

In preparation for Thanksgiving this upcoming Thursday, I want to use this week to reflect on what I am thankful for in my life -- and to share them.

I've been thinking about this on-and-off all day long in anticipation of writing this post. I am thankful for my family. And my friends -- new and old. And T.

The thing that I find myself thankful for today is something that I didn't expect when I first starting thinking about this: hymns. Yes, you read that right: hymns. I am thankful for hymns, for the people who wrote the words, for the people who wrote the music, and for the people who are updating some of the music today. Hymns take the critically important pieces of faith and boil them down to poignant truths that I always need to hear. Thus I am very thankful for the way that God works through hymns.

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found; / He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground, / Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all— / Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh, / Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness, / Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died, / The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid— / Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay, / Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day, / Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory, / Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine— / Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death— / This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath, / Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man, / Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home— / Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

Beautiful. Just beautiful. What are you thankful for today?

I'm ba-ack!

That's right... I'm back. The previously alluded to Big Secret is still in the works, but I have done my "fall cleaning" and all my blog posts are back up.

What's been going on here? A lot.

I spent a week in Salt Lake City at an academic conference and gave a presentation on my research. I saw some interesting work presented there, which was good. It made me excited to do a really good job finishing up my project and getting my Ph.D. -- and then to find a slightly different research field. It's nice to remember that there are areas of research out there that exist outside of my small, narrow field.

The highlight of SLC, however, was getting to spend the week hanging out with one of my best friends from my previous life in the Big City. She's one of those friends that you can just "be" with so comfortably and easily. So fun. I miss her a lot!

SLC was my first trip out of town from here other than going back to see T. It was weird coming back home and not having him here; for some reason it felt like he should've been here. Long-distance is not fun!

On the flight back from the conference, the girl sitting next to me pulled our her NAIL POLISH and started to paint her nails. Um, hello? Noxious fumes? Small, confined space? Not the best idea. What would you have done? I kindly asked her if she minded waiting until she got off the plane after she was through about three nails; she was really nice and apologetic about it. But still...

Then this week has been a super-social, "Jennifer-has-crawled-back-out- from-under-a-rock" type week. But in the good way. I haven't felt that my extroverted side was exhausted. IT was exercised, but not worn out. It was also really good to get back out and continue building my relationships here. I still am amazed at the providence of God in the community that is here. I feel like I haven't been giving my all in terms of engaging with that community and building up relationships, so I want to work on that. I need to learn to be a little bit less guarded with my evening, not-at-work time. I also need to learn to be more productive during my at-work hours so that I can be more giving of my nights. So much to learn. Life is fun!

Winner!

And.... after a very scientific random drawing (pulling a name out of a hat), the winner of the giveaway is JGR! I'll be in email contact with you....

Thanks everyone for playing!

Where did all the blog posts go?

In case you didn't notice, a lot of my blog posts are currently missing. In anticipation of Big (shhh! SECRET) Things that are happening in the next few months, I'm doing some fall cleaning. Don't worry, I'll be back within a few weeks.

And yes, I did survive yesterday's earthquake! It actually was kind of fun.

Fall, Y'all Giveaway!

Wow; I never imagined that I would get this many comments. Due to a variety of reasons, an executive decision has been made, and this giveaway is now closed as of 8AM PST on Wednesday. Thanks for playing!

It's my first giveaway EVER as a blogger! Shannon, over at Rocks in my Dryer, is hosting the "Fall, Y'all Giveaway" -- the fall version of one of the biggest "carnival" giveaways out there in the blogosphere. (Right, I know. I just used the word "blogosphere." Sorry.)

So what am I giving away? I recently came across an extra copy of the book The Call by Os Guinness. As I am just now starting to get into the book, I can personally say that it's a good one. If you want to check it out, you can find it on Amazon here.

How do you win? To be entered, please leave a comment on this post and include the name of the book you read during high school that was your favorite. I'll close the comments on ... just closed, sorry!, and I'll pick a random number/name out of a hat on Saturday. Please make sure that your email address is accessible in your comment (as in, if you're not a blogger, please leave "joebobsmith [at] gmail [dot] com" in your comment as well). Offer is open to US residents only, and I'll pay postage! Oh, and I'll throw in a copy of one of my favorite mix CD's, so you can also include the name of your current favorite song if you'd like.

So, come out, come out.... and comment! I know everyone likes free stuff.

(Oh, and if you're interested in entering other giveaways for other cool free stuff, check out the Fall, Y'all Giveaway link above!)

Home again, home again.

I'm back from the Big City and currently buried knee-deep (actually, probably at least chest-deep) in work. I'll write more later about what it's like to visit a place you just moved away from 2 months ago. (The short answer: interesting but really weird.) Happy Monday to all!

Reading material.

I'm heading to the Big City this weekend to see T (Thursday through Sunday!) I am not happy to be exchanging this gorgeous, sunny 85 degree weather for rainy, grey 45 degree weather, but my excitement about spending the weekend with T makes up for the less-than-optimal weather.

I am quickly becoming a California girl.

But I don't want to leave you with nothing to read while I'm gone. So here are several fun, interesting and/or thoughtful links for your reading pleasure:

• If you've seen the news recently, you've probably heard about the Southern California wildfires. Mary has been blogging in the midst of the fires, and she has some incredible pictures. Check them out.
  
• Poignant post about rain that reminded me that sometimes hard times make you feel more alive.
• Has everyone found Postsecret? If not, you can find it here.
• Curious about what the life of a PhD student is really like? Please check out PhD comics. You can find the latest comic here, and some of my favorites (that are very, very true to real life) are this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one.
• Last but not least, my next new recipe to try. It's that pumpkin-y time of the year!

On being green.

I had a haircut appointment yesterday in the Big School's downtown at 10am at a new place. Well, new to me since I'm new to the area. Since it wasn't that far off campus (please note that the Big School's campus is over 8000 acres! So "off-campus" a good walk.), I decided to bike there and then to work instead of driving there and back before biking in to work. I felt very, very "green" today as I biked into downtown, and also very happy to have survived my first bike ride off campus! It also was a gorgeous, sunny day where I could bike in jeans and short sleeves very comfortably, which helped. The only bad part of the whole excursion was realizing that I had to put my bike helmet on over my newly cut and styled hair.... oh well, better safe than not!

But seriously, I felt like the environment loved me.

SO COOL.

I finally sat down and tried the "photo stitch" program that came with my digital camera. It's an incredibly simple way of creating huge, sweeping landscape-type pictures that are actually a combination of multiple pictures.

It is perhaps the coolest thing EVER.

Here are my three photo-stitched pictures (click on the picture to enlarge it):

From the Bonnevile Salt Flats

At Muir Woods National Monument:

Sunset over the entire Bay Area while camping this past weekend at Mt Diablo State Park:

Camping!

What did you do this weekend? Something fun?

I went camping!

If you know me, you know that I'm a beginning camper. As in, I like to camp but only at real campsites where I'm not required to hug a tree. Which is an opinion that I was threw out when a few guys in the lab started talking about us all going camping. Thankfully, the great state of California has some incredible state parks with beautiful, well-kept campsites...

... including a park that is supposedly the largest state park in California, and which has (again, supposedly) the largest viewshed (area of land you can see from one point) in the world, next to Mt Kilimanjaro. Plus it's only an hour away! So off went the entire lab, on our first California outing.

First thing after setting up our tents: hiking! We went up to this ridge first:

Where T(m) found out where helium balloons go to die.

Me at the top of the ridge at the beginning of the hike:

Between the ridge and the summit, I found my new favorite tree in all of California under which I want to have a picnic:

And finally, we made it to the top! Here I am with M with one of the beautiful vistas behind us (looking south).

And now with the view looking towards Nevada behind me (and lots and lots of wind!)

Our two fearless camping organizers (J and T(m)).

The whole group at the very top of the summit.

The view of sunset from under my 2nd favorite tree on the mountain.

A better view of the sunset.