He is my sanctuary.

He is scary yet sweet. Underrated and misunderstood. He can be lonely if we are unable to appreciate him but overwhelming if we let him in for too long. Sometimes his presence is warm and other times it is empty, stale, or cold. He is too important to ignore yet difficult to make a priority. I neither honor nor cherish him appropriately. Although he can be hard to find sometimes, he exists somewhere, always. He is not God. He is silence. And he is my sanctuary.

It has become obvious to me lately that I have a very unstable relationship with silence. Sometimes we do well together and other times we do not get along. It is the times when my own thoughts are so loud I can't concentrate that I realize I am navigating through an 'off-time'. So I have to deliberately refocus...to quiet my thoughts, slow down my mind and breathe in the stillness. But in the busyness of life and the constant urgency that surrounds us, it is hard to find the tranquility and peace he provides. I have only discovered a few circumstances that consistently give me the opportunity to find that peace and quiet. To return to equilibrium. To find my inner balance and strength. And just as in many relationships, I have my ups and downs with him. Sometimes we engage in a power struggle that consumes too much wasted time and energy. And other times we relish in one another's company. But we must continue to work on our relationships with him - because it is he who replenishes our energy for thought, for contemplation and for passion. For life.

The ocean, our Earth's pulse, provides one of those opportunities for me. I love the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, breathing in the Earth's marrow and distinctly breathing it out - over and over again. But it is the moment right before the wave regathers its strength - that sweet moment where everything is still and silent, despite the constant motion - it is that moment that refocuses my mind and silences my urgency. My relationship with him is best when the ocean is our foundation or our backdrop. I feel most alive when I am consumed by the ocean's prodigious presence. And since I am unable to get a daily dose of the ocean to replenish my strength, I have had to search for a similar fix in the routine that is my daily life.

Once in awhile, I go on a run that mimics the feeling the ocean brings. I ascend on a journey with no music and no company...and amidst the hustle of traffic, the hollering trains and the echos of barking dogs - I find the peace that can silence my eagerness. In that stillness, I am able to refocus on what is important while letting go of the heaviness and useless stress that weighs me down.

I am reminded of the beauty life has to offer - even amidst the ugliest of times...you know those times when you leave the stress of work only to go home to a different kind of stress, the times when you wake up and go through fifteen outfits before you decide on one that still doesn't look good or the times when you're uncovering your car buried in snow, swearing at the piercing wind that you thought was behind us for awhile. Beyond that ickiness, there lies potential. Potential to breathe in the fullness of life while breathing out all that holds us back. Because sooner or later, the snow will melt, the stress will fade, the difficulty will be overcome and the days will get longer...

And if you allow yourself to see it - there is beauty in all of it. And he will help you find it.

amor.

love, noun, verb, loved, lov-ing
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection
3. sexual passion or desire
4. a person toward love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart


Valentine's Day, noun
1. February 14th; a day designated to celebrate love and to share affection

Of course we have a day to celebrate love. Why not?! I am typically not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, not because I don't love or because I don't want to celebrate affection for those whom I love, but because of the pressure the day brings, the commercialism it exemplifies and simply - I think we should put as much effort into affectionately honoring our loved ones every day as much as we do on the 14th of February. But so it goes. We have a day designated for it and stores like Target won't let you forget it.

So, in the spirit of the week, I thought I'd share some of the things I love...

words of affirmation. (and candy) 

grandparents.  

my husband.  

haddie lu.

the fall color. 

jack and eddie.

traveling. 

caribou coffee.

the fourth of july.

my mom.

haddie lu.

the minnesota vikings. (okay...and brett favre).

my waldron side.

my wobschall side. 

watching the sunrise on the beach.

oh, did i already mention haddie? :)



summer days in minnesota.

days spent on the lake.

being a gustie. 

my favorite little friend, ally.

my dad. 

the way i feel when i'm around the ocean. 


HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

10 movies in 10 days

That was the challenge. Successsss (as Borat would say). Well, to be completely honest, it is more like 9 1/2 movies considering we turned one of them off half way through. You'll find out which one that was... I had to stick around campus this past week and Mike is coming off of a really busy season with the Vikings so we thought we'd ask around to gather some movie ideas based on some of our friends' favorites. Each one was recommended to us and it ended up being a great variety of films. We came up with an award for each. Enjoy :)

Our top 2 favorites: Gran Torino & Inception

Gran Torino wins the award for Best Character. Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) quickly transitions from a hard-hearted, insensitive bigot to an admirable neighbor and friend. It was a great film all together - a definite must-see. You gotta love Clint Eastwood, directing and starring...what a guy!

Inception wins the award for Best Picture. From an all-around perspective - the acting, production, idea behind the film, etc. - it was the best! Of all 10 movies, we'd recommend this one first. And if you've seen it, let's debate about the end because we're very opinionated over here! :)

The Time Traveler's Wife wins the award for most interesting story-line. It's a sad and touching story about a man who travels through time but stays in love with the same girl throughout her lifetime. It helps that Rachel McAdams is one of my favorites. I haven't read the book but it's on my list, especially after the film. I would definitely recommend it if you're in the mood for something different.

The Social Network wins for Best Performance. Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg and was awesome. I bet we'll see more of him coming up... The movie itself was so-so for me. I'm not sure why it won so many awards but I think it's an interesting story of Facebook (although I wonder how much of it was realistic). Good for a snowy afternoon if you don't have much to do.

Eat Pray Love wins for leading to the most reflection. It's about a woman who goes on a journey to find her true happiness and in the process she uncovers a lot about herself. The therapist in me appreciated the nature of the movie considering I think we all need to continue to search for meaning in our lives but the realist in me also knows how stressful and difficult that can be. The jury is still out on this one...I'm not sure if I would watch it again or recommend it to many. I haven't read the book but I heard it's better.

Reign Over Me wins for being the most heart-wrenching. The story of a man who struggled to get through the loss of his wife and 3 daughters to the 9/11 attacks was heart-wrenching. It was definitely Adam Sandler's most mature film. I also found a special interest in his psychological struggle from PTSD given my background in psych. It was a solid film - although we couldn't keep it together during certain parts, we both really enjoyed it.

Garden State had the best soundtrack. The music is what makes the special moments throughout the movie memorable. Our memories are engaged and we are drawn in through the music that brings the emotions of a scene to life. Coldplay, The Shins and Iron & Wine have been 3 of my favorite artists lately and you can find all of them on this soundtrack. Check them all out-they're awesome. It's an interesting story, too. Not my favorite of the bunch but I did enjoy it. And I really like Natalie Portman.

Valentine's Day had the best cast. Lots of big names if you're into that kind of thing. Not my favorite story all together and I'm not a huge Valentine's Day person but Ashton Kutcher is one of my favs and he was one of the main characters so that helped (plus, Dr. McDreamy, yeahh). Tis the season.

The Back-up Plan wins the irrelevant award. I don't have much to say about this one...if your husband likes Jennifer Lopez, go for it...otherwise I'd pass.

Precious wins the award for being turned off after 35 minutes. I don't know if it was our mood or what but we both agreed it was the worst one we'd seen since Training Day. Yikes. I know it was nominated and won a bunch of awards but it didn't win anything in our house (other than being the worst). And too much swearing for me.

The movies that remain on our recommended/must-watch list:

The Pianist

Red

Toy Story 3

Vantage Point

Despicable Me

Avatar

Julie & Julia

Mamma Mia

Any thoughts or other recommendations?

Cruising the Caribbean

 I often find myself thinking about what I was doing in previous years at particular moments.  It's easy to think about holidays or other major events in that sense because they tend to stick out in our minds. But have you ever just thought on a random day, 'what was I doing last year at this moment?'  Last year at this exact moment, you would have found me preparing my belongings and trying to arrange them carefully into a suitcase.  We were getting ready to embark on a family vacation that included 19 Wobschalls and 1 ship.  Yes, holy ship - that's a lot of Wobschalls!  

But we had a fantastic time. As you will see, there was lots of laughing and many smiles. And we have even more memories. :) 

February 13-20, 2010

This is why I love the ocean. 

Preparing for the Valentine's celebration with the fam. Of course we had our heart-shaped sunglasses ready for the Caribbean sun!

Ironic I know, but really not the 2 people you're hoping to see in your stateroom while floating in the middle of the ocean. 

We stopped at St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Cocoa Cay, which left 3 days at sea (and I survived each one this time around-thank you Dr. Shahr!)

Marcus and I waiting in the hallway for the rest of the group to get ready for dinner. (This was typical-I'm pretty sure we were the first to be ready every night!) We're easy aren't we, Marcus?! :)

Part of the group...our Valentine's dinner!  

Formal night 1 of 2. 

Y-M-C-A! Disco night dance party was awesome.

I will never forget this moment. Grandma Wobschall got swept up by a huge wave and I happened to be standing next to her at the time-thank God! We can laugh about it now because Deb (or Sara) happened to be taking pictures at the time so we got the whole thing on camera. I wish I could find the pictures of her almost under the water. This is us laughing right after it happened!

The Wobschall family! Although we don't all share the last name Wobschall anymore, Grandma-the adorable little lady in the middle with the white sweater, started it all. Grandpa had just passed away a couple weeks before the trip but it was quite a celebration of their family. What a fantastic group they are.

I always looked forward to our towel animals when we came back to the room for the night. The elephant was my favorite! It is the simple joys in life that I hold onto...

CHICKEN FIGHHHHT! Pretty sure I won, right Trish? Just kidding... But really, sweet goggles Mike! :)

I think we crammed 10 Wobschalls into a van meant for 6.  It was a bumpy ride but it made for some hilarious memories. Riley got so burned this day that he was wearing yogurt (literally) for the rest of the evening to try to cool down. Poor guy. 

The sunset is my favorite part of the day. There is something so peaceful about watching the sun fall beneath the horizon. 

They had a Walk-for-Wishes benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation so of course we participated! Make-A-Wish is one of my favorite charities. If you ever need a reminder of how sweet life is, go online and meet some of the precious kids that live among us @ www.wishmn.org

Formal night 2 of 2. 

 I love these people. 10 years ago I had no idea how much a family I hadn't met could ever mean to me...but it is clear to me now :) I really do have the best in-laws out there. 

Girard the Giraffe was adopted into the family and will accompany us on all future family vacations. 

The morning we arrived back in Miami. Hard to complain considering the view but tough to be home!

Alright Wobschalls, are you ready for another one? I think 2012 sounds pretty good! Get it goin' Jimbob! :)