Split Alliances

My weekend started at the Badgers game!  

Many were not happy that I was cheering red this weekend but hey, give me a break. ;)

Bucky or Buckingham as I learned this weekend ;)

Scoreboard!  Yes, that's correct.  70-3.  Most would think that makes a boring game.  Not me!
That many more opportunities to get excited and dance!

hmm... I'm thinking whenever you have to put that statement on a sign it's not a good thing...

Homemade pizza night at Robs.  Delish!

I was supposed to be running in the Arboretum.
I probably spent more time admiring to gorgeous fall day!

Oh Mr. President

While it's exciting to have you in town Mr. President, you really put a damper on our work day.  We have hundreds of staff, recruits and customers that we seamlessly dance through Madison airport daily and when Airforce One decides to fly the friendly skies of our area (which cancels all flights in and out for an "undetermined" amount of time) our hair begins to prematurely grey.

I didn't have time to stand in line for 7+ hours to watch a speech today.  Had I have known Ben Harper was playing before the speech- it may have been a "sick" day this morning!

TMI

I had a great weekend.  The weather was crisp and perfect as far as fall weather goes.  I'll expand more on my weekend in the upcoming days.  Today however I'm at a crossroads.  Trying to figure out how much information is too much information to write on a blog.  I've already set the standard to not write about my job unless it's fun tidbits. (I guess the definition of "fun" is left up to me!)  But what I'm debating about is my personal life.  Should I purely share facts about things I've been up to, get deeper into my life and lessons I'm learning, or just put it all out there?  I started this blog because I moved to a new city where I knew no one.  I'm now blessed to have friends all over the world and in an attempt to allow them to be a part of my daily journey, I started a blog.

But now I'm thinking that it could be used for more.  Maybe I should share a bit more of my story, struggles and triumphs.  The reason this is so hard?  I don't like to fail.  Much less share it with everyone else.  But maybe that's just the reason why I should.

I'm contemplating...

Getaway

I'm feeling like I need an adventure.  Any ideas?!

By the way, I'll be a Badgers fan on Saturday.  Don't hate me forever ;)

Friends are Forever

Shannon was a close friend in high school, and I was so excited to get to meet up with her at the Wisconsin Ironman this year!  I was volunteering for the event and her husband was competing so we took some time to catch up, and I got to meet Jensen and Bryce.  Shannon and I swam together in high school, and I caught for her in club softball.  Don't you love when friendships pick up where they left off?  So good!

Emily and I met in Marshalltown though the Iowa Valley Leadership Program.  She just moved to Madison for graduate school so we've been so lucky to reconnect and have only the beginning of many fun times in Wisconsin!  We were roasting s'mores at cosi...

Last weekend I spent some time at cheese days...

Whaddup now....

Whoa!

Keeping in mind that the last post was titled "Falling in love costs you friends" my littlest (tallest) brother Bjorn proposed to his fiance last weekend!  Congrats to Bjorn and Alyssa!  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ring was not only real, it was beautiful!  Now Bjorns got himself some big shoes to fill!

Falling in Love Costs You Friends

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

Passionate relationships can leave you little time for anything else Falling in love comes at the cost of losing two close friends, a study says. We probably all know that a passionate new relationship can leave you little time for others, but now science has put some numbers on the observation.  Oxford University researchers asked people about their inner core of friendships and how this number changed when romance entered the equation.  They found the core, which numbers about five people, dropped by two as a new lover came to dominate daily life.  "People who are in romantic relationships - instead of having the typical five [individuals] on average, they only have four in that circle," explained Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford.

"And bearing in mind that one of those is the new person that's come into your life, it means you've had to give up two others."
The research, which has only recently been submitted for publication, was presented to the British Science Festival at Aston University.  Professor Dunbar's group studies social networks and how we manage their size and composition.  He has previously shown that the maximum number of friends it is realistically possible to engage is about 150. On the social networking site Facebook, for example, people will typically have 120-130 friends.  This number can be divided into progressively smaller groups, with an inner clique numbering between four and six.

These are people who we see at least once a week; people we go to at moments of crisis. The next layer out are the people we see about once a month - the "sympathy group". They are all the people who, if they died tomorrow, we would miss and be upset about.

In the latest study, the team questioned 540 participants, aged 18 and over, about their relationships and the strain those relationships came under when a new romantic engagement was started.  The results confirmed the widely held view that love can lead to a smaller support network, with typically one family member and one friend being pushed out to accommodate the new lover.

"The intimacy of a relationship - your emotional engagement with it - correlates very tightly with the frequency of your interactions with those individuals," observed Professor Dunbar.

"If you don't see people, the emotional engagement starts to drop off, and quickly.

"What I suspect happens is that your attention is so wholly focussed on your romantic partner that you just don't get to see the other folks you have a lot to do with, and therefore some of those relationships just start to deteriorate and drop down into the layer below."

Randoms

1. Life happened.  Meaning I skipped the jog and went full throttle into the run without realizing it.  I'm a little overwhelmed and out of breath and the pace needs to slow a bit but the journey's exhilarating!
2. The traditional wedding march will never be played at my wedding.  They play it over the whole campus at work when we have  a new customer sign with us which means that it's played all the time.  (yeah for job security! boo for constant wedding music!)
3. I'm volunteering with the youth ministry at my new church and all the kickoffs happened this week!  It's exciting to see how they run their ministry and how it affects the people that are a part of it.  
4. I've gotten decent (on the fringe of good!) at frisbee this summer.  Super excited about this fact.  It's all about the wrist people!
5. I've had some delightful people really pursue friendship with me already and I'm ever so grateful.
6. I have a new dishwasher.  It now runs for a normal amount of time unlike the last one that thought seven hours was acceptable to get the dishes clean.  He was fired.
7. I'm going to a cyclocross race to watch Brad White compete this weekend.  Yeah for Brad! 
8. Next week is our users group meeting at work where over 5500 customers visit us for the week and we entertain/ educate/ host them.  Because of this, our food staff (who are artists in the kitchen) are prepping for next week already.  So this week and next week we have great restaurants in town cater to our staff for a hugely discounted amount.  The fact that I miss our chefs desperately tells you how good our lunches really are!
9. I love being near so many lakes.
10. It's official.  I finally have a WI drivers license and license plates! 

Peel Those Eyes Open!

I saw this on MSN (unfortunately my main source for news these days right along with the Today Show before I go to work...!)  But I find this article totally legit and admit it, no matter how exciting our job is, we all fall into work fatigue every once in awhile!  (Especially those of us behind a computer all day!)

5 Ways to Beat Fatigue at Work


Try these 5 easy tricks for jump-starting your energy when you feel like you're on the verge of dozing off...
 

Eat a Tiny Square of Chocolate

Chocolate has been shown to not only boost our mood, but eating it helps the body release energy-boosting feel good endorphins. When I'm about to fall asleep in my chair, I have a little square antioxidant-rich dark chocolate. Does the trick.

Drink Two Glasses of Cold Water

Not huge glasses--little cups will do. Here's why: One of the major causes of exhaustion is dehydration (sometimes you don't even know you're dehydrated; instead you just feel sluggish). A high school teacher of mine used to have us drink two cold glasses of water after lunch in calculus class, and I swear it kept us going through that boring hour. Go rehydrate your cells right now!
 

Doodle
If you're yawning and having trouble concentrating on a conference call, consider pulling out a pad of paper and a pen and letting yourself doodle a bit--that's right, hearts, unicorns, rainbows ... whatever goofy thing comes to mind. I recently interviewed an expert for a magazine article who told me that doodling can help the brain focus. So surprising, right? And when you're focused on what you're doing, you're less likely to be zoning out and thinking about a nap.

 

Snack on Something

Vitamin-C Rich

Slice up an orange or run out for some lemonade at the cafeteria--the point is, get a bit of C. Past studies have correlated C with vitality and even reducing the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. Worth trying!

I'm not going to lie- I wouldn't be caught dead
doing this stretch in my office!

Stretch       A simple forward bend, according to Chinese medicine, can activate a reserve of sustaining energy that rests between the kidneys.

Spinning

Whoa!  Who would have guessed that after only living here for 8 weeks my social life, volunteer schedule and work have all three plummeted out of control ;)  I suppose fall kickoffs have a bit to do with that but once I regain conciousness, I'll tell you all about it!  (which means later tonight!)

Doing Dating Detective Work

This post was copied from http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/09/doing-dating-detective-work/  Both Jon and his guest bloggers sarcasm keeps me rolling!

ShareThis(Lyndsay Rush is hilarious. Her last guest post blew up and I think this one is even better. She shares some great ways to identify a potential Christian when it comes to dating. (Unless of course, you feel called to date hot, non-Christians and win them over for the Lord with your dates.) I’m a big fan of Lyndsay. Enjoy!)

“I feel very blessed…” said our waiter as he cleared away our empty appetizer plates. He was responding to one of the many questions we had asked him throughout the night as we flirtatiously tried to determine if he was single and–even more important–a Christian.
I couldn’t tell you what he said after that because with one distinct word he had told us all we needed to know. Let’s just say he had us at ‘blessed.’
You may be rolling your eyes at this ridiculous assumption but the chances are you know exactly what I am talking about. Truth is, when you are a single Christian person in your 20s or 30s, this amateur detective work comes with the territory.
Whether you have Facestalked someone in order to examine their “religious views,” invited them somewhere on a Sunday to ascertain their church involvement (or lack thereof) or dropped your Christian school background to study their reaction, you’ve undoubtedly played a part in the Christian dating version of Clue; Professor Hot Guy with the Donald Miller Book in the Religious section of Borders.
And like any good Christian single, you know the importance of this due diligence. If you don’t nose around for a few weeks and read into specific word choices, you’ll miss your chance to determine their ‘pursue-ability’ and probably miss out on your future husband/wife.
Or at the very least the chance to evange-date them for a few weeks.
With that in mind, I bring you some helpful hints for discerning whether or not the hottie at Starbucks/guy in class/girl volunteering at the soup kitchen is in fact a Jesus lover.

1. Show them your ‘Beloved’ tattoo and see if they get it.

2. Put your hand on their back when you say hello and see if they bow their heads and assume you’re praying over them.

3. Pull a ‘Paul’ at the beach and slyly draw half of the Christian fish in the sand and see if they complete the symbol.

4. Try and drop Darwin into small talk and see where they stand on evolution vs. creation

5. Invite them to watch a Harry Potter movie to determine what they think of the dark arts.

6. Go in for a full hug and measure the seconds it takes for them to switch it to a side hug.

7. Say, “Oh rats, I forgot my Bible at home–do you have one in your car?”

8. Observe if they have ever Retweeted @CSLewisDaily or @OswaldChambers

9. Do a quick Facebook photo scan and see if they’ve been out of the country helping children at least once in the last 3 years

10. Hum “Come Thou Fount” and see if they join in.

11. Keep your eye out for encrypted scriptures in their graphic T’s

12. Drop a “my body is a temple” line near a group of the opposite sex at the gym and see who takes the bait.

13. Pay attention to his/her email sign off. Look specifically for “His,” “Decreasing as He Increases,” “Addicted to Jesus,” and “Warmly,”

14. Slap them in the face and see if they turn the other cheek.

15. In the facial hair arena, be on the lookout for the “spiritual scruff” aka a soul patch.

16. See if she owns a tank-ini or wears a XL t shirt over her bikini at the beach

17. Check to see if he put a ring on it, and by he I mean her dad and by ring I mean promise ring.

18. Ask him about his career and listen for him to use the words “will”, “purpose” or “calling”
19. Drop a homeschool bomb and see how they react.
20. Watch him greet his friends, if he ever uses the word ‘brother’, you’re gold.
21. Check their DVD collection for, “Fireproof”.
22. If you’re feeling bold, ask him to draw his dream woman. If he simply writes ‘Proverbs 31′ on the paper and passes it back to you, you’ve got your answer.
23. Pretend you need help figuring out a math problem involving 10%. Her speed at calculating will let you know if she tithes or not.

Armed with these tips and more, you will have no problem determining your crush’s Christianity, and consequently, their date-ability.

Happy hunting my friends. And godspeed.

For more great stuff from Lyndsay, check out her blog http://www.lyndsights.com/

Wisconsin Big Cat Animal Rescue

During one of my moms visits to Wisconsin we went to the Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue.  It was an incredible organization that is doing so much for these big cats that were never accustomed to living in the wild.  I took these pictures so you can see that you're pretty close to the animals.  They'll show you how they feed them, and you can see just how much love they have for the owners.  I fell in love with these big cats! 

Information pulled from their website...

I Jeff Kozlowski, established "Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue" in March of 2005. I have been working with big cats for about 8 years, and have had my own since 2002. I am licensed by the USDA as a rescue and educational center.
I started out by thinking that if you take pictures with these animals, it would make a lot of money, which it did for the first two months... I made about $200-$300 per hour. Then I realized all the stress it causes the animal was too much. I stopped the picture taking and started doing some investigating on what actually goes on during this photo business, as well as what happens to the animals afterwards. My findings were disgusting. I then contacted rescues around the U.S. and my findings were even worse about the abuse of these animals. I then decided my goal in life will be to give what I can and help these majestic creatures as much as I could.
One big cat rescue turned away hundreds of cats in one year. So then I started Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue with the money I had from pictures and donations. I built cages on land donated for the rescue. I started with six cats and in less than a year, I ended up with 26 big cats... 16 Tigers, 7 Lions, and 3 Leopards. The worst part was I turned away over 50 others. If they did not find a home they were probably euthanized. My goal now is to give thee cats a home where they can live out their life, and not be made to jump through fiery hoops or sit on a table to have pictures taken of them with people at resorts or fairs. Here they can simply run, play, and relax as they please, and receive plenty of love and attention.
We are open to the public and run on "Strictly Donations". We invite schools and groups there not just to look at them, but also to learn. We want the public to know that these cats are NOT pets, and could never make good pets. They are not meant to do tricks, and are not for people to exploit them to the point where it harms the animal.
These animals were not put in nature to jump through hoops or perform tricks, or to pose for pictures. These cats come from private owners who can't take care them anymore, zoos who think they are no longer beautiful enough to display to the public, and people who use them as cubs to take photos (who later dispose of them when the cubs are no longer small enough to handle, and simply get new cubs). Or just simply animals that need a home.
My last objective is to get the state of Wisconsin to make some legislation to protect these animals. Wisconsin is now one of five states left, that does not have laws regarding the ownership of large cats. Yes, that means that anyone in the state of Wisconsin can legally own one. What does that mean? All the people who have them in others states with legislation and can no longer have them there, they come here where there is no legislation. The bottom line is, my life is now dedicated to the big cats, and I will do whatever I can to save them.
Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue & Educational Center gives these cats a chance at a peaceful and happy life, and a chance for the public to learn about them, and the abuse that they endure elsewhere in captivity. This rescue is good for the community, it's families, and the cats. We are a federally licensed facility. Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you at Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue & Educational Center.

 

Sushi Mania

We had a sushi and four square party awhile ago and it was mmm mmm good!  Being that I'm considered a four square pro (self proclaimed) I was mildly offended with the fact that overhand was allowed.  Gasp!  The night was redeemed through the exquisite rolling and careful ingredient discovery of the mouth watering sushi.  So good!

p.s.  To any sushi enthusiasts out there.  By the end of the night we were experimenting with mexican sushi, dessert sushi, pb and j sushi....  let me know if you'd like recommendations!

Pics of my Pad

I'm really moving up in life.  I've downsized from owning my own house to renting a one bedroom apartment. ;)  It actually feels pretty good to decrease my belongings.  But I've gotten a few requests to see pictures of my apartment... so here's to my tiny new abode!

Laboring through Labor Day

I had a great long weekend in Minnesota with family!  Time was spent closing up the cabin on Gull, recrafting two stools for my apartment and watching a few of Livs games at the U.  I really enjoyed the drive to and from as well, so beautiful!  Can't wait to do it again when the colors have changed!

Cooper loves me.  Especially because I secretly give him treats ;)

Bjorn and I working hard or hardly working?!!

Gull Lake

Grandma's Cinnamon Rolls.  You may have the recipe but they will never taste like hers!

I need to live here...

The Marriage Dance

In response to my last post... I figured I couldn't say it any better than Tim Mackie.  Good stuff!

http://www.blackhawkchurch.org/resources/message_archive.php#

8.29.10 / The Marriage Dance


Tim Mackie, Teaching Pastor

"I Don't- The Case Against Marraige"

by Jessica Bennet and Jesse Ellison

This article appeared in Newsweek and has caused quite a stir.  What are your thoughts?  I'll share mine soon! ;)

"Boomers may have been the first children of divorce, but ours is a generation for whom multiple households were the norm. We grew up shepherded between bedrooms, minivans, and dinner tables, with stepparents, half-siblings, and highly complicated holiday schedules. You can imagine, then—amid incessant high-profile adultery scandals—that we’d be somewhat cynical about the institution. (Till death do us part, really?) “The question,” says Andrew Cherlin, the author of The Marriage-Go-Round, “is not why fewer people are getting married, but why are so many still getting married?”

Check out the full article here...
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/11/i-don-t.html

Peeping Tom

He was watching me all night.  What a creeper!

Congrats Luke and Becky!

I want one...

Goose is a new addition to the Bagnall's! 

Luke and Becky got him earlier this summer. He has a huge personality... it's especially funny when he takes a running leap in order to bite Luke on the head ;) He's a soft coated wheaten terrier.  I'm not sure which side of the family he takes after...