they've done it again

so im mildly obsessed with NappyTabs. don't judge me.

here's their latest masterpiece. and yes, i noticed the shout out to bleeding love at 1:18.

brianna's baptism

i headed up to chi-town a few weekends ago to see my brand new niece get baptized. mary had pulmonary embolisms (read: blood clots in her lungs) so we got to see her in the hospital on saturday. on a happier note, notre dame won, barely, but whatever. we also managed to spend an hour at borders, matty and i watched hurt locker in our hotel room, and we went to a sweet seafood restaurant where i got a very delicious steak.

thank goodness ben remembered his camera since no other martin's did. where the heck is MF when you need her?

katie, bri, and jeff at brunch little house on the prairie bri

gpa and gma martin lots of martin faces

why am i rooting for the phillies like they're the cardinals?

dear philly,

congrats on the win tonight. i'm sorry, but there is absolutely no chance that you'll actually win two more in the bronx.

this makes me sad for two reasons:

1. i HATE the yankees
2. im a sucker for the hometown hero, ryan howard (who by the way couldn't find a way to make solid contact if he was being pitched a watermellon)

so since your season is basically over after tonight, here are just a few things to work on for next season:

1. a closer - lidge is ridiculously awful and the rest of your bullpen is less than helpful in the 8/9th innings
2. new outfielders who know how to charge a shallow fly ball and throw out a tagging runner. seriously, every little leaguer knows this. yes, feel free to be ashamed of yourself.
3. figure out who's supposed to cover 3rd base when a dude steals second. that was just the definition of embarrassing for all 17 of you who could've/should've/would've been covering.
4. oh and seriously, ryan howard, get it together already. you're all st louis has left these days since the cards decided they'd rather try for the pennant next season, with mark mcgwire as our hitting coach . . . . what was wrong with getting hot when the post season started, ill never know.

anyways, good luck next year (except when you're playing my birds),

allie

i tend to enjoy the other guy more than the original.

wow. me gusta mucho. sometimes i think i like the cover versions of songs instead of the real thing. this is evidence A.

Evidence B? the fray's cover of heartless.

gmail went down and i was sad

why gmail failed today

very interesting.  i love twitter - it tells me everything i ever needed to know about my pop culture life.  

true that, double true!

article: the 12 most annoying people on facebook

so so so right on.  

rest stop

i'm home right now after being gone for most of the last few weeks of july and getting ready to head to kenya later this week. its been busy busy busy and from the look of my bedroom floor you can tell i've been living out of a suitcase and not taking the time to unpack in a very neat and orderly way.  and i wish i could take a deep breath and breathe for a few days before heading of to africa - but instead my "to-do" list just keeps growing and growing.  and i know when i tell myself, "its ok you'll sleep on the plane" that rest is nowhere near the top of that list.  

but i am longing for rest.  i'm longing for boredom.  i'm longing for the chaos that is my brain right now to be paused so i can gain some sense of (cheap) control.  you know, that was my goal for this summer - to be bored.  i thought i really could pull it off in may.  i looked at my calendar for the summer and saw i had 3 major trips - one right in the beginning, one right in the middle and one right at the end.  and i THOUGHT, that was ALL i would do this summer would be:  go on those 3 trips, hang out with HS girls and sleep in a lot.  HA.  i laugh at myself now for being naive. i know myself better than this.  

and then i was reminded today of what REAL rest is.  and that i can experience rest at any time, anywhere, and that it has pretty much nothing to do with whether or not i've gotten 10 hours of sleep that night or not.  instead, i'm reminded that when i actually take the time to see who i am and then whose i am - that then, and only then, is my heart ever truly at rest.  i like to think that doing nothing and having nothing required of me is what will make my heart feel rested.  and sometimes this is necessary.  but i OFTEN believe the lie that this is all i need to feel recharged.  b/c my problem is that i am often trying to do it all on my own.  I'm trying to save myself and everyone else with no reliance on anyone or thing but myself.  and man is it exhausting.  and yes, i'm learning.  and yes i'm growing, and yes its not always this way, but i really am longing for is the day when i see my need for christ as so important that i'm going to him and his word first before i go into "allie can fix any problem you throw at her on her own" mode.  

because that day will be a very very restfull day.