Saturday, November 14, 2015

But I always thought that I'd see you again

I probably should have made these a slide show. 

Actually, I think I did a few posts ago. 

But whatever. 

Now you get the exciting story that goes with each picture :) 

The Spinster Chronicles does what it wants, baby!

I am organizing all my pictures and I realized I've taken about a billion jump shots. 

It's kind of an odd hobby..making people in religious service take pictures of themselves jumping in random locations. 

But it's my hobby, so deal with it :) 

Here are my favorites!!
Sister Simmons!  
I have jump shots of her in every single one of her areas.
I hope when she goes home (next week) that she marries a great (and hot, of course) guy and has a crazy happy life

Susquehanna - Fall 2015 
Bluemel, Lythgoe,Barlow,Minert, Roesch and Torres (aka Milford and Pottstown sisters)
City Trip # 5- July 2015
Bluemel and Udall
Valentines Day heart attacking

Winter 2015
Wilko and Simmons -Kutztown sisters
 
(don't go to the train tracks in winter..you will run into creepy homeless men..which is what some other sisters and I learned when trying to return for more train track pics!)
Fall 2014
Aguilar and Barlow
They brought me a giant poster with things they loved about me! 

My Birthday- 2015
Udall, Roesch, and Bischoff
City Trip # 3- Jan. 2015
Adams!
Side trip to Valley Forge after 

City Trip #2, August 2014
Larson, Eckman, Brown, and Gomm
Sisters at the Priesthood Restoration Site

I probably knew them 10 minutes when I got them to participate in an impromptu jump shot photo shoot :) 
Susquehanna PA- Fall 2015
Hoffman, Bluemel, and Lythgoe
This was when Sister Bluemel started to openly refuse to jump for me, no matter how much I would shriek at her :) 
Summer 2015
The founders of the jump shot- Jensen and Adams
Both of these sisters were a few weeks from being done the mission and going home. On the way home, we talked about a lot of serious things. I honestly think Heavenly Father prompted me to take them to the city by themselves (my 2nd trip in one week) just so we could have that conversation. 
City Trip # 2- Summer 2014
Hoffman
The most patient and kind missionary I have ever met.
 Summer 2014
Sister Callaway, Kutztown sister
She has the most BEAUTIFUL long golden hair but she didn't like this picture, stating
"I look like a troll" :)
 
Spring 2015
Little sister Lythgoe! 
She is the mission's official highest jumper...sometimes I felt like she'd jump too high and get carried away like a kite! She was just a few days into her mission when I took this picture ;)  
Summer 2015
Simmons and Larsen- Great Bend/Susquehanna sisters
Fall 2015
 
Jensen and Adams
 I still miss these two! 
City Trip #2, August 2014
Sister Andrus (Reading STL)
 During the last few days of her mission on a rainy cold day, on a creepy, twisty back road of PA Summer 2014
The infamous Hoofman, Lythgoe and Bluemel trio :) 
 The day I FINALLY convinced them to go see the covered bridge!
 Summer 2015
Andrus and Nielson
 Funniest sisters EVER. Reading STLs.
Summer 2015
Roesch and Minert- Pottstown sisters
I keep track of Sister Roesch for her mom- she is an only child.
These two are bound to be life long best friends- they were SO much alike! 

Summer 2015
Jensen!! 
This is one of my favorite shots ever. 
Barlow and Lythgoe
Outside the still in construction Philadelphia Temple
City Trip # 5- Summer 2015
The sister who brought me back to the work- Sister Simmons
City Trip # 3- Jan 2015
Aguilar and Barlow
City Trip # 6, Fall 2015
McCuen and Kartchner- Reading STL's
Fall 2015
Elders need to work a little harder on their jumping skills
District jump shot with Barlow and Aguilar
 Summer 2015
Bluemel, Barlow, and Lythgoe- Milford sisters at sunset
Summer 2015
 Lythgoe, Bluemel and Andrus on the coldest June Day ever.
2015
One more Jensen and Adams
  On original Philly cobblestone streets- After we got lost trying to find Betsey Ross's house
City Trip # 2- Summer 2014 
Sister Roesch always looks like she is being lifted into a spaceship :) 
This was on the ground of Pennhurst in Pottstown- one of the most haunted places in PA.
 
Summer 2015
Bluemel and Udall
 The only jump shot ever taken at the abandoned barn/creepy house
Winter 2015



Barlow and Aguilar- the Rickety Bridge picture
Early fall 2015
 Hoofman and Wilko
Sister Hoofman was leaving us and going to Vineland NJ to be a STL
Summer 2015 (the day I went to transfers!)
Bluemel, Lythgoe, and Barlow
The infamous confetti picture
Summer 2015
 Simmons and McCuen- Kutztown sisters
Sister Simmons first "daughter" (she has 4!)
December 2014
 Bischoff, Simmons, and Zeller- Milford West sisters
Sister Zeller is home now- she is getting married on New Years Eve! 
 Summer 2014
Roesch, Udall, and Bischoff
The day Bischoff almost set me on fire! 
Christmas Day 2014 
McCuen, Simmons, Udall, Roesch, and Bischoff
Honestly, their individual jump styles really reflect their personalities :)
City Trip # 3- Jan 2015
McCuen and Callaway- Kutztown sisters
Right after she was trained, Sister McCuen became a trainer!
I  will never forget dinner at Texas Roadhouse with these two, talking about Luke Bryant and why they decided to serve.

Spring 2015
McCuen, Simmons, McGuire, and ??? 
(we ran into them randomly!)
Jan 2015 
McCuen!
 She is a "gissionary"- A ginger Sister Missionary
City Trip # 3- Jan 2015
Udall and Bluemel
The day we flew kites and drew the Plan of Salvation in the park in chalk :) 
 Spring 2015
Jensen and Adams!
 (they might be kind of my favorites)
 Not only are they the founders of the jump shot- they are the only ones who have attempted to do it going down a fairly steep hill. 
Summer 2014
Sister Asi- Kutztown sister
 Spring 2014
Simmons and Ricks, Broomall STL's
Winter 2015
Sister Ricks served in Cape May and knew most of my family- they all loved her- she is amazing.  
Simmons and Foster- Broomall STL's
I got them 26 different donuts at this place they love- Sister Simmons kept trying all the odd flavors and saying "This is gross, you have to try it!" 
Spring 2015
Gomm and Larson- Susquehanna sisters
 Fall 2015
Simmons, Udall, Roesch, Bischoff, and McCuen
I still haven't forgiven Roesch for this- Everyone is perfectly in synch and it's the Philly skyline and she is doing her "I am being abducted by aliens pose' right in the middle! 

City Trip # 3- Jan 2015

Well, that wasn't excessive or anything. 

But I have the best memories of everything from jump shots in the city to teaching in the freezing cold with these missionaries. 

I don't want to forget them.

Lori Ann

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Take me home

 My sunday school class. These kids are so much cooler than me :) 

 I keep driving home at sunset, due to the time change. I LOVE it! 



 This was a picture I took through a chain link fence in Philly- it's the skyline  (kinda) during fall! 

No picture could ever capture how amazing this looks in real life. 

In other news, I am moving into my own apartment again! 

Get ready for some late night crafting fiestas, people! 

I can't craft late at night at home because my dad has the WORLD'S BEST HEARING and will constantly yell "What the hell are you doing up at 2 am with all these stickers?"

You can't put art on a schedule, Dad. Did Van Gogh's dad tell him not to paint late at night on a work day?

No one understands crafting artists :) 

All my greatest scrapbooking collections have been made at night :)

More details to follow!

Lori Ann

Monday, November 9, 2015

The night is yours alone


Do you ever have those moments of realization?

When it FINALLY occurs to you that you are never going to have certain things? 

It's a feeling like drowning. 

And I'm not talking about love and marriage, in case you were wondering. 

The more marriage counseling I do, the less interested I am. 

I am more talking about my family relationships. 

I realized this week that I am an 'over empathizer'.

When I think of each member of my family, my heart breaks for the struggles they've been through, for the good and kind people they are, and for how hard they are trying. 

I hate to see them in pain or sad or not having the things they want or need. If I can help them have those things, I will. 

And I think I have been expecting that from them. 

Even though I know it's not healthy. 

And I just realized I'm never going to get it. 

My family (with one exception) is more of the under empathizing type. 

Kind of the "I'm not going to help you because helping you only makes you weaker. True love is helping a person be as strong as they can be because life is tough". 

They will point out your flaws, your errors, your mistakes, your weaknesses and make you feel like there is nothing good or helpful about you at all. 

Which, if you are also an under empathizer, is great. It fuels you to be stronger and better. 

But, for me, it always feels like an attack and I wonder what I did to make this person be so harsh. 

I just now realized that this was their way of showing love. 

Only it still really, really hurts. 

Because it's not my way. 

I don't know why Heavenly Father made me this way. 

I wish I could be tougher and not be so knocked down so easily. 

I wish I didn't over empathize. 

It's probably what led me to becoming a therapist. 

It's probably been the motivation for a lot of things in my life. 

And it never ends well for me. 

Because you can't ask people to over empathize with you. 

I know this post is kind of emo, but I wanted to put this out there, so that I remember this realization on days when I feel alone and attacked and lost. 

Lori Ann

p.s.- I am making my blog private again. It's probably the right move for me professionally and for other reasons :) 

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

You'll know it when


I am committing, in front of my cat Sugar and all of you, to make this my very last fall post. 

But, oh my gosh, I am glad this will the final fall picture I post. 

Because it's the BEST ONE EVER. 

And it REALLY looks like that. 

The orange trees turn the air a different color and I drove home right at sunset and, at the risk of sounding totally insane, it almost brought tears to my eyes how beautiful is it. 

Fall is dying but it's such a beautiful last week. 

It's so easy for me to know there is a God in the fall.

 I see His work in everything.

 I feel His love everywhere. 

Now, just to survive winter, spring, and,,,,*sigh*,,,summer....I HATE summer!

Lori Ann

Every Sunday's getting more bleak

Today, I went to the city with the sister missionaries. 

It is always nice to see the city that I love- Philadelphia- through the eyes of someone who did not grow up out east. 

It was especially fun to take Sister Aguilar as she goes home in 3 weeks. 

She is an amazing natural poser. I never have to give her any directions :) 

Sister Barlow dreads the camera but is a good sport! 

Apparently Philly really loves you and wants you to know it! 

Independence Hall. One of my favorite places.

I hope you are enjoying these last few days of fall (well, leafy fall...or maybe spring, Sarah!)

Lori Ann