so this is growing up.

PITTSBURGH.

i have always loved my city. even during my teens when most kids hate their hometown and are dying to escape, i found myself content with PGH. perhaps it was in my blood. my great great great grandparents on both sides of my family immigrated to pittsburgh from poland and scotland, over a hundred years ago.

then my great grandparents (on both sides) would eventually settle in lawrenceville, one of pittsburgh's largest neighborhoods. my parents would both grow up in lawrenceville and meet there, fall in love-marry-& have children there, and continue to live there now in the same house my dad grew up in. i loved living in this old, decrepit, lower-middle class neighborhood with its row homes, graffiti, and pure-blooded Yinzer's. i laugh at how it has became a renewedhub of artists and hipsters, when it was once so white trash (and thank goodness it has not lost its roots).

(44th street in l-ville)

although i have not lived in pittsburgh for the past 2 1/2 years, it always remains home in my heart. i know the city like the back of my hand, and have family on all sides of the rivers. i love our culture and our pride. i love our slang and the way pittsburgh has ability to laugh at itself because of it. so what if we talk funny? if we spoke proper english we'd sound like robots anyway. i love the Penguins and the Steelers, and well i love the Pirates...stadium. i love french fries on salads and sandwiches. i love the large senior community, especially my parents neighbors. i love bridges in various designs and colors. i love the old charm mixed with new and up-incoming. i love that all our sports teams are black & gold, definitive and unified.

i just spent a little over a week visiting friends and family in this city i grew up in. i enjoyed every minute of it and i usually do. i feel so blessed to have lived in one place most of my life and to have really known that place. i feel so blessed to have most of my family and quite a considerable amount of friends concentrated in one city. i was born here, grew up here, was educated here, fell in love here, and was truly loved here.

i learned a lot living in indiana for two years, and i absolutely love living in denver now, but well pittsburgh will always be near and dear to my heart.

so pittsburgh this post is for you. thanks for the memories.

"...and all i ask is that you'll be there when i return."

love & peace,

laur

asleep the snow came flying in.

sometimes when i listen to certain music it's as if i have a new sense of purpose.

it's as if the world is opening up and the future seems less daunting.

i can take on anything, go anywhere.

sometimes the music takes me back several years to other places i've been.

sometimes it makes me laugh, cry, dance, smile, dream, and hope.

my father always listens to a lot of instrumental christmas music with versions of all the classics updated with synthesizers, harp and steel drums, changed slightly to give them a different feel, yet beautiful none the less. my favorite are the new takes on traditional hymns. they give me goosebumps every time i hear them. they also stir my soul. i am reminded about why the holiday season is so important.

as this year is coming to a close, i look back at it seeing all that has occurred, and i can't help but think how meaningless it all would be for me if not for my loving Savior who has truly given me a life worth living.

i read an article recently in a magazine about prayer. the person writing it had no real faith in anything, and it made me think how meaningless it must be to pray when you don't know what or who you are praying too. it seemed empty and dark. a one sided dialogue. as Christians, yes, prayer might not always be answered in the way we would individually hope for it, but we always know Christ is listening and knows what is best for each of us. we know that He LOVES us, and to be loved is one of the greatest treasures on earth.

it is such a beautiful thing to BELIEVE, to believe in something that isn't about me, my wants or desires, but to believe in something that is above myself and all of the world. but also to believe in something that teaches us how to truly love the world.

all else is meaningless underneath the sun.

thankful.

God you are so good.

i take you for granted what sometimes feel like almost everyday.

i thank you for family and friends.

i thank you for bringing us to denver, CO and for CCU.

i thank you for our residents and students.

i thank you for our home and our jobs.

i thank you for cranberry and sugar.

i thank you for taking care of me, loving me, blessing me when i fail to honor, love, and serve you with everything. please change my heart daily LORD and let it serve you. PLEASE.