I thought about titling this post “people”, originally, but after viewing the definition, I switched to relationships. The definition of people can be summed up as “human beings”. Whereas the definition of relationship is; a connection, association, or an emotional or other connection between people. It is very interesting that to just have people in your life and to have relationships in your life are entirely different. There are 7 billion human beings on this planet so we all have people in our life. Its easy to recgonize that people are around you, but its another thing to recgonize relationships and invest into those. Even while I’ve been living here in Hamilton, I’ve seen how the lady at Hamilton flowers is not simply a person. Her name is Darcy and we have a relationship. My cashier at Walmart isn’t just another human being for me to overlook. His name is Billy.He is genuine and great at his job. My heart aches as I write this because of my deep love for people yet our human nature to neglect relationships. Truly, I think I’m crazy sometimes because my heart is SO full of love and belief in people I see. This causes me to love and pursue them and they become relationships. I’m convinced if I could have a super power it would be to know and love on everyone! I just believe in them and want them to feel like they belong. Because the truth is, we all do. Father God has always sought after a family. He gave His most treasured relationship, His only son, so that He could win us back into His family.

Tying that into my small town life, it has been challenging to not be interacting with lots of people living here. Today has ended with my heart being FULL and feeling a relational release I’ve needed since I moved here. I got to have some incredible conversations and time with relationships I cherish! It made me so happy! I had lunch with my best friend and a “little brother” of ours who is a food snob like me, but we splurged a little. I’m proud of him and he has huge things in store. I got to write back and forth with a close friend who is also blogging. Funny note – she says “people” and “peep hole” the same way. This causes endless laughter for many. Then tonight I attended a service with many wonderful and dear friends. There’s the other little brother who has a great nickname that everyone calls him by. He’s about six years younger than me, but has encouraged me in the things of God in profound ways without knowing it. Then there is the relationship of a sweet friend who called me a couple of months ago just to say that I was welcome to live with her if I moved here. It was at the end of that call that I had total peace about moving here. There is another relationship with a girl who made me spaghetti one time I was in town just because she wanted to serve me. There is my sweet friend who has such a passion for the nations that it is making me cry as I type this. She is radiant and I know we’ll minister together someday probably holding orphans in our arms in East Africa or Cambodia. There is a friend here who I laugh and think of every time I see or think of packing peanuts. Bizarre right? Yes, but behind that is a story told in the glorious presence of God. That brother is an excellent servant if I’ve ever seen one and faithful faithful faithful. Then there is someone I have watched at a distance be transformed by a little book I gave them last year, Nazirite DNA by Lou Engle. I even have a sweet mama friend who is likely reading this who looked so radiant in her springtime outfit. She invited me to a footed pajama movie party last week with her kiddos. Don’t worry you didn’t miss the details.!I was unable to go unable to go unfortunately, but was blessed by the invitation. Each face I saw today weren’t just faces of people, but faces with names, stories, dreams, and a destiny. Just knowing them blesses my life. I know that if you have taken the time to read this much and follow my crazy journey thus far that you too are one that makes my heart do somersaults! Tonight my heart is full of love for you. I think of one of my best friends who just had the sweetest baby and I miss them. Or of my friends who’ve adopted two GORGEOUS children from Ethiopia. Or of my dear friends that are new youth and worship pastors in Chicago. Or a friend from Colorado who literally encourages me nearly daily on Facebook. Then my family is out of the world incredible!! I am blessed with relationships and there are thousands of stories like these I’d miss out on if I only saw people.

I’ve been learning more and more everyday that life is about relationships. It is about our relationship personally with God, Jesus,& Holy Spirit, and then relationships with other. No matter where I am in the world, I am surrounded by not just people but by relationships. As I’m concluding this post one of absolute favorite songs just came on my iTunes on shuffle. Its called “Emma (Not Alone)” by Jason Upton. It has helped me in tough times lean on God and know I’m not alone. For those of you feeling alone, seek comfort in the One who loves you more than a human being ever could. Then seek relationships with others. See past just seeing them and seek to know them. You aren’t alone. You were created for relationship.

I didn’t mean to go into all of that, but I love sharing my heart on this.

I should never update until my day is entirely over…

Just encountered Coco again. Bless his heart. His owners let him roam and sleep wherever. So sad. There was no biting tonight thank the Lord.

Also no Walmart run today!!! Lets see if I can pull it off tomorrow. This should be easy!

Lastly, I killed a crane fly just now. My tennis shoes sit by the door. Small town lessons learned!

Today I am writing to tell you about my favorite restaurant here in Hamilton, “Cazadores Mexican Restaurant II”. Now whenever I have traveled here before, I usually eat here, because it is…well the only mexican restaurant here. I understand some of you may be confused right now because the name says #2, but I just said it was the only one in town. My answer is yes and yes. I can only give them the benefit of the doubt that there is an original Cazadores #1 in a nearby small town. The more puzzling question is why are there deer ALL over the restaurant?! I always laughed and again, gave them a benefit of the doubt that they were trying to appeal to those in the South. I enjoyed the bizarre deer and could never understand them…until tonight. I definitely know enough Spanish to get by and communicate in most situations, however I by no means know every word. Tonight as my best friend and I were discussing Cazadores, we decided to “Google Translate” the word Cazadores. Guess what it means (for those of you who haven’t already arrived there)…HUNTERS! Haha! SO the full translation is “Hunters Mexican Restaurant Two”. Wonderful right? I can smile looking at the mounted deer heads now. EXCEPT there is this nagging thought now after trying venison last night, if my “pollo” is some wild game. After all, it IS the country;-) The staff knows me as the “maze girl” because I have to have corn tortillas verses flour tortillas. 

In closing, here is the quote of the day, “Oh did she marry one of my kin folk…” Not kidding! First time for everything

On my ridiculously short drive home of 30 seconds where I usually don’t even wear a seat belt (sorry mom) a dog just ran up to my car!!! Um dog you are only alive because despite my not wearing a seat belt I am a good driver! I honked several times while the dog barked at me until the owner came outside giving me a quizzical look. Really? PS I just saved your dog’s life- your welcome. Ok :-) thankful for angels around myself and little doggies!!

Well today was like any Monday here in Hamilton. I went to work and Walmart :-) Not like that was a surprise for anyone. I had to return some potting soil and buy Antibacterial Wipes. Is this necessary that I am giving a play by play of Walmart shopping? Oh my! Pray for me…My friend Billy was my cashier again, and he asked how my day was going, and if with all my health food if I ate at the deli at Walmart (no).

So today was a BEAUTIFUL day and I would love to be outside except the pollen is so horrible! Everyone here is having a hard time with it and in a matter of minutes outdoors, I am a sneezing wreck! One of my next door neighbors and I were discussing the pollen covering out cars tonight and she informed me that she was going to talk to the land lady about the red wasp invasion. I was taken back by the term “invasion” but it is clear that red wasps are truly trying to invade our area. I told her that I did a cute graceful dance to get away from several a couple of days ago. Don’t let my adjectives fool you, it was not cute and I was certainly NOT graceful. So yay for that being taken care of. I am super cautious of opening the cars on my doors particularly with the red wasps as they like to blend in with my car and hide in the cracks of the doors! YIKES!

It feels like summer here and the already 80-85 degree weather is a little unusual for my liking in March and of course awakening the tree pollen and bugs!

Earlier today, my best friend helped me by finishing cooking my lunch on the stove while I ran to the nearest window to keep cell phone coverage for a call from Africa! Friends are good for all things, even helping you maintain cell phone coverage in the country!!

Tonight I came over to my friend’s to use the internet, because replying to everything via the touch screen on my phone takes longer than I’d like to invest in (but lets face it, I have the time to spare lol). A couple of people over here were eating venison, yes deer meat that someone brought back from hunting. My friend asked me (while I was eating my spinach, carrots, and cucumbers) if I would like to try a bite. SO…I did :-) And it tasted really…uh…meaty. Haha! I’ll spare my other thoughts. I am not a big red meat person, but now I can add that I tried deer to my list! What better way to try deer meat than here in the good ole country right?

Lastly, due to not being in a big city with my bank, Chase bank, I have learned new ways to manage my account. Thankfully my new job set me up with Direct Deposit but I had to ask previous to moving what to do with other checks I received. Today I got to use my “Chase Bank” Android APP to scan and upload a check for the first time. Pretty cool right? I was impressed! I’m so thankful for incredible technology that allows me to do things like deposit checks without driving 100 miles to do so. Another side note with technology is that I had a funny conversation with a Sprint representative on Saturday. I was calling him about some repairs that I needed on my phone. When he looked for the nearest Sprint Store to my zip code he said, “WOW…um…I’m sorry mam but there isn’t one within 50 miles of you.” I laughed and told him that I already knew that and a search for within a 100 mile radius would pull a couple.

I got to speak with my dad tonight and my mom last night so that was refreshing! I’m thankful for incredible friends and family!

Goodnight y’all! I learned the correct way to spell “y’all” as in my head I always spelled it “ya’ll”.

Ok the title is actually two seperate stories not to be confused as a statement. As much as you’d like to believe that there is something as exciting as blueberry sunsets here in Hamilton, there is not. I still find Tulsa to have the most consistently incredible sunsets I’ve ever seen. In Colorado Springs the mountains were always in the way and here there are trees everywhere. I love the big open sky of “Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains”…ok I’ll stop;-)

Since I ended up staying home and didn’t meet any politicians or have a dog bite me, I thought I’d write about a story from my first night here in the apartment. Yes this is where the blueberries come into the picture. My drive to Hamilton from Tulsa was absolutely crazy. I’ve made this drive about 5 times before with little problems. However what should have been a 8&1/2 to 9 hour drive turned into 12 hours due to highway construction. There were other humorous events that took place but they are irrelevant to blueberries. I arrived at my apartment around midnight. I unloaded all of my necessary items including groceries which I placed on the floor of the kitchen. I brought some of my frozen fruit from Tulsa that should’ve lasted just fine with the drive time I’d planned. As I unstacked some cups from home, deep blue liquid went flying all over the counter, wall, and floor of the kitchen! I was shocked and confused. Apparently a bag of frozen blueberries leaked out of the plastic Whole Foods bag and into just one of the cups. Thankfully only that one cup had juice and it hadn’t spilt on my other things or in my car. However it was spilled all over the kitchen. At this point I was so tired and frustrated that I just laughed and scrubbed down everything I could and decided I’d figure something out the next day. I showed my boss the stains the next day when she came over and I told her my story. What a way to make an entrance to my nice new apartment right?! These are probably the newest and nicest apartments in Hamilton and because of that the land lady is understandably super anal. We have thorough inspections once a month so I have to make it appear as if nothing happened The walls are flat and stain if you get water on them let alone blueberry juice. There is evidence everywhere that previous tenants have repainted parts of the walls. For my own comfort I’d like to think they spilled blueberries too! :-) I’ve now primed and painted our wall, a job I never foresaw myself doing in the first two weeks living here. When I went to get the paint at…wait for it…Walmart (of course! Where did you think I went?), I was thoroughly entertained at how the mixing machine worked. Yes this city gal has never seen a paint mixer before. I honestly assumed that you just bought the can of color.

Walmart count for today is 1 :-) I went in sporting my hot pink Texas shirt (don’t worry Oklahoma you are still my #1) and I was asked about it twice haha! I FINALLY bought a loofah which I kept forgetting to get “in all of my other trips. I spoke with my current favorite clerk, Billy. He is mid age with long hair and commutes from Fayette, Alabama every shift which is over an hour away. I told him I saw a sign for it on my drive to Windham the other day. He is very friendly and since I am a frequent shopper there, it makes me feel like I actually know someone here.

Tonight I especially miss Tulsa and all that entails from sunsets to my dogs, my family and friends, and Victory. Probably the biggest adjustment living here is not being around an average of 100 people everyday. Maybe that’s why I don’t mind the trips to Walmart that much ;-)

Crane Flies killed today: 2
I now know why none of my neighbors put their porch lights on. I know that is common sense, but I was thinking safety. Now I’m thinking whatever minimizes bugs at my front door.

Tonight’s serenade is a lot of dogs barking in the distance as well as crickets. It beats the cow mooing that I heard Friday. More on that topic soon.

Lights out on all fronts. Goodnight!