Will the real Lauren Short please stand up?

Before my weekend in Leavenworth I saw something that my friend Shalom posted on Facebook. So its safe to say this was on my heart most of my weekend. 

My weekend in Leavenworth was amazing.  I got to spend time with my Aunt Leslie who lives in Pullman, my Aunt Shelley, My Aunt Kathy, my cousin Janna who lives on Orcas Island and my mom.  It was truly a girls weekend.  I hadn’t seen my Aunt Leslie and cousin Janna in years.   Or at least it really seems that way.

I arrived Thursday afternoon/evening after work.  That night, while it was getting dark, I sat in the hot tub with a glass of wine because I was feeling the second day sore-ness from the gym earlier that week.  On Friday, we went into town to do some shopping.  My mom, Aunt Shelley and Aunt Kathy did a wine tasting at Kestrel winery.  That night, all of us played a card game called hand and foot.  It’s pretty interesting and far too hard to explain in this blog.  Saturday, I stayed at the cabin with my mom, Aunt Shelley and Aunt Kathy while my Aunt Leslie and cousin Janna went into town.  We rested, played card games and when Leslie and Janna came back, we watched “Big Miracle”.  The final thing we did on Saturday night was go to Leavenworth’s outside theatre to see “The Sound of Music”.  It was a beautiful production.  It was really hard not to sing along!

This past weekend was full of rest, relaxation and fellowship.  The nicest thing was to be sort of disconnected.  All that mattered while I was there was just hanging out with my family and taking a break for a bit. One of the nicest things was that I didn’t set an alarm, I just woke up when I wanted to.   

While in Leavenworth, I did some working on my energy list.  Here is what I came up with:

-setting a goal and accomplishing it

-playing guitar

-giving and receiving feedback on a 1:1 level

-finding inspiration for a new song

-learning a new chord/song on guitar

-a shower after a good workout or camp/retreat

-being around family or friends

-making new inside jokes

-knowing a plan, even if the plan is no plan (relating to hanging out with people)

-planning events for others

-thinking of little details when planning

-bringing up ideas that are new/unique

-going to church on a regular basis

-trying new food/drink

-singing

-making up my own harmonies to songs

-driving with the windows rolled down on a sunny day

-soft and warm blankets

-random road trips/driving somewhere I have never been before

So what I am working on now, is my drain list.  So over the course of the next couple weeks, I will find 20 things that drain me.  It will probably be just as hard as it was to come up with this list but I am hoping to have it done soon.   I encourage you to identify the things that give you energy and drain you.  You’d be surprised what God puts on your heart.   It has definitely helped me to be able to slow down and listen to God and what God is trying to tell me.

Until next time. J

I am extremely excited for this weekend. Thursday after work I will be driving to Leavenworth have a girl’s weekend with some members of my mom’s side of the family. I am excited about this mainly for two reasons. 1)I have never been to Leavenworth and 2)I get to spend some time with family members I don’t see nearly enough.

This is a picture of the cabin we will be staying in. It is called the Icicle Creek Lodge and we found it on http://www.destinationleavenworth.com/  it is a great price for those that want to find a nice place to stay in Leavenworth for a lot of people.

But I have decided to do something else while I am on my little mini vacation. I am going to completely disconnect myself from social media. I am doing this for a few reasons. 1)To spend some time in actual fellowship with my family, 2)To detox from the hold that social media has on my life, 3)To spend some time discerning and praying to focus on what God really wants me to do next in life and 4)To really work on my energy and drain list.  I know it’s only for a few days but we will see if I decided to go longer than this weekend or not.

So come this Thursday at 4:30pm when I leave work and head to Leavenworth, you can get a hold of me via text, phone or email.  I will be deleting all social media apps from my phone, so no Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Pinterest etc.

If you don’t have my number and want to keep in contact you can email me at lshort@gmail.com and we can exchange information! Or contact me on social media until then!

Until next time, whenever that may be! J

Today is my 25^th birthday.

25

Really 25? 25 years have gone by?  It truly boggles my mind how fast the years go by.  I can remember very clearly being a student at CWU getting ready to get out of school.  Now over 2 years has gone past and I am 25.

That’s a quarter of a century! (If you didn’t already know J)

You can see from the picture that my co-workers had some fun with my cube! The balloons is the apple tree and there are pictures of apple products all over the balloons. They put a picture of an apple on my phone and I called it an iPhone. It was fun! 

There was also SO many treats.  Today was a day were I have not counted a single calorie. Its my free day. Which I haven't decided is good or bad because I have a weigh-in Thursday. 

I can’t help but be thankful of everything in my life.  I am thankful that I have a job.  Well two jobs really.  A (new) roof over my head, a family that cares about me and some of the best friends in the world.   Tonight I will celebrate with some close friends at dinner  because I celebrated with family on Sunday at lunch.  We are going to go to Blue Moon Burgers in Fremont. They have an entire gluten free menu which makes for a very happy Lauren!  Afterwards, the party will start at The Dubliner!  They have karaoke tonight which is ALWAYS fun!  It’s going to be interesting how my church friends, blend with my friends from apple, that blend with my friends from BDA.  No matter what, it’s going to be a good night!

I have some ideas running through my head about what to write next.  I posted a status on Facebook and I think that I am going to write my next blog about my energy list. It’s an idea that my friend Nathan came up with. He did it with my best friend Veronica and it was a great experience.  If you haven’t done it, let’s do it together and see what we come up with!

Until next time.