kellycain.com

all in a years time…

June 29th, 2009 2 Comments »

It’s crazy that this past Saturday was the one year mark for being at home in America. I can’t believe it’s been a year! I really, really can’t. Oddly enough (they say it takes as long as you are away to reacclimate yourself again to culture) and my, I’d have to agree! About 3 weeks ago I started feeling quite normal again in my own skin, even energy seemed to be restored to my body and soul that was lacking. Something clicked, not sure what. It’s not been the easiest year though, things have been hard, and the picture I had in my head of returning didn’t all pan out. Some things were much better than I ever could have imagined and some, were just simply, different.

Last year, in about a week after my return, I watched my little sister marry her husband Jason.

The next day, I pointed my car east and headed to Wilmington. I would repeat this trip several times, and move in with the Mixon’s for a few weeks. (I’m still so grateful).

At the end of July, I met my future husband. I walked around college campuses with him, retold stories of Budapest and Serbia, sipped on frappacinos, and stayed up insanely late talking with him.

At the end of August, I packed up a moving truck and moved to Wilmington with all of my stuff, on a one way trip east. I didn’t own a car, and had sold pretty much everything I owned (including furniture) before I moved to Slovakia a year earlier.

In the coming weeks life would change rapidly. I bought a car. Got my first iphone. Started working at Port City. Started dating Jer. Purchased a couch.

It was quite a whirlwind upon my return, but it was fun. I was soaking in things that I had taken for granted.

The next few months would bring hardship, cultural difficulty, relational issues, several engagements, trips to Cary, Raleigh, Greenville, Ohio, and back again. Anchored on Sundays and clean breaks between weekends and weekdays that I had never known before. A consistency and steadiness that I craved jolted me for change.

I didn’t hear God – he was so silent, yet I knew he was working according to His word. I wanted Him to speak so loudly like he once did on those quiet Kosice days. But, I couldn’t find him admist the traffic, the technology, and the busy-ness.

A few weeks ago, it was as if God chose to awaken my heart again. I craved His word, wisdom, and stories of life-change.

Here I am once again, looking back, seeing all that God has done in just a year’s time. Amazed at his goodness. Enthralled by the ever-changingness of life and thankful.

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Posted in life, thinking

my famous family

June 22nd, 2009 Leave your comment »

My dad has made it on the news several times (although I can’t find one of those links now – but I will continue to search, for the sake of posting).

My sister just recently made it into an article in the News & Observer about the H1N1 pandemic.

You can see the article here. But also, to make it easy here is the blurb that features my sister:

Volunteers will be evaluated for health and other qualifications, Grach said, and those chosen to participate will be monitored for the vaccines’ potency and side effects for at least a year.

Neither of the H1N1 flu vaccines being tested include live virus, so participants have no risk of developing influenza from them.

Kirby Dibb, 25, of Raleigh, said she participated in a trial of seasonal flu vaccine last fall at Wake Research, and said she also got her husband and other family members involved.

Dibb said she was given a health screening and interview, and then she was closely monitored for several days and weeks after getting the shot. She was also directed to call the research agency if she developed any symptoms, including flu, but she never got sick. She said she was paid $450 for participating.

Now she is planning to volunteer for the H1N1 vaccine tests this summer — but it’s not about the money. She said she wants to make a contribution to society.

“It’s important to have the vaccine,” Dibb said. “It’s definitely a worthwhile cause.”

So famous!

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Posted in family

alone. not alone?

June 12th, 2009 2 Comments »

I’ve been alone all day. It’s been good, different- really. Refreshing to be alone with just my thoughts, to take a nap in the middle of the day, to go to the grocery store in spend as much time as I’d like there. To meander through Target on my own clock. To play with my new twitter background.

Being engaged is an odd time, though I think it helps me deal with some real issues that I’m faced with. I’ve been single for quite some time -(single here means not married) and I loved it! I am so thankful for the time I got to go overseas (many-a time), I got to enjoy single life making new friends, moving to a place of which I wasn’t familiar (several times). And now, another unknown -marriage! We’re reading up in a marriage book that helps us walk through different topics like Money, Conflict, Sex (yes, even that), and Family. It does help, but I realize that I won’t know what it’s like till I get there.

If you’re single don’t mope, be glad you have this time, but also know that when he or she does come along it might send a shock through your system. It has been a big adjustment for me to learn how to live with someone else alongside of me (and he lives 2 hours away). I’ve got to get used to having someone else around – and learning to put him first! It’s not the easiest thing because it reveals my selfishness through it all.

I’m enjoying it too, though. It’s nice to have Jeremy around. His opinion is so helpful often. His ways are so gentle. He is caring and loves me in a different way than I’ve ever been loved before.

Being alone though, is a state of mind. There are many people who are married now who feel alone, for one reason or another, may that never be Jeremy and I. I pray that God unifies us and bonds us together in love, so that the space between is measured in love.

You can’t hope in marriage to satisfy you, cause it won’t. Just like a new shirt won’t. Even a new tv, it won’t.

Let’s put our hope, our trust, our everything in the Lord.

We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. Psalm 33:20

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Posted in God, life, twitter

twitterictionary

June 10th, 2009 Leave your comment »

In the past year I’ve been migrating my twitter account into my facebook account. In that process twitter has expanded, rapidly, and has brought with it, it’s own set of rules and a bit of language. The @ symbols and the “RT” and the bit.ly’s and more.

Just this past week someone said to me,

Your facebook messages are so cryptic. What are all those numbers, letters, and symbols?

So, without creating a twitterictionary – because I’m sure that already exists, I will attempt to explain what these things mean. Especially so that later, you can refer to this post as a mini twitorial. (Upon further research, it does exist – it’s called Tiwtteronary.)

RT – stands for “ReTweet” it’s when someone you follow on twiter makes a statement that you really want others to see, or a link that is worth passing along, this is a RT.

bit.ly – a url shortening site, just like tinyurl. Twitter only allows users to post 140 characters, so that things will be kept short and sweet (tweet) – (I can’t help myself). With this 140 character limit you don’t want/need to post links that will steal all of those characters away. thus bit.ly and tinyurl.com

tweet- is a singular message sent through twitter by someone.

@- this is the call center for your twitter name. it’s how i differentiate someone’s real name, ie Jeremy Smith, and his twitter name @s1174430, as you can see a twitter name can be a collection of numbers (in his case a student id # from Cedarville days) or your actual name, like mine @kellycain.

When someone wants to speak “at” me through twitter, they will put @kellycain

Twitpic – this is a service that allows you to upload pictures and send them to twitter – sort of like a new version of photo bucket or webshots (wow, remember webshots?)

Tweetdeck, Tweetie, Twitterific- these are all 3rd party apps, that make twitter easy (and fun!) to use. Most of these can also be found on many phones.

DM’s- Direct Messages are a way to send links, messages, etc through twitter without the whole wide world seeing your thoughts.

Syncing with Facebook – the average facebook user changes their status through facebook, most twitter users, sync their twitter account with their Facebook account so that they don’t have to update in both places.

Twitter in Plan English – I have posted this before, but it’s too good not to post again.

Twitter in Plain English from 140.tw on Vimeo.

Why get on twitter? What’s the purpose? Honestly – it’s fun. It’s a way to stay connected with people. I find that I know when my friends are sick, pregnant, even when they are going to the store. I find out when new albums are coming out, when Zack Morris appears on the Jimmy Fallon show and much more.

Twitter is a way to find out useful and useless information in a fun way.

With that said, follow me on twitter. Tell them I sent you.

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Posted in blogference, twitter

the world of google docs

June 8th, 2009 Leave your comment »

This is how I function best lately – with google docs, forms, and spreadsheets. It’s very helpful especially in shared environments. Thank you google, once again!

google docs

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Posted in life

detailing

June 7th, 2009 1 Comment »

I finally got to the fun stuff of wedding planning. The picking out of fabrics and foods, places to go beforehand, honeymoon, bed & breakfasts, trolleys or limosines, the fun intricate things that will make our day ours. This weekend picked up speed in wedding planning land, Jeremy pitched in big time fielding (please notice all of the baseball terminology) quotes for honeymoons, going to left field for groomsmen attire, and bringing it back home with making some rehearsal dinner decisions. All-in-all a great and productive weekend.

I feel like I’ve finally gotten some footing with some planning and am excited to see some more things come together in the coming weeks. We’re into countdown land now – and time is drawing near for the big day, and the rest of our lives. I’m trying not to be sappy – it’s just exciting!

Really only… left!

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Posted in life, wedding

a study on gentleness

June 5th, 2009 Leave your comment »

I’m doing a study on gentleness with a friend and I’m 3 days in – and already I’m very convicted and in need of change. In need of Jesus to rapture my soul.

Here’s a few questions that this book asks of me:

1. Are you approachable? If not, what keeps others at a distance? If so, what is it that makes people comfortable around you?

2. What is the connection between love & gentleness?

3. What is your response when someone interrupts you? Are you kind and gentle or are you rude and disrespectful?

4. If your gentleness is an indication of your love for God, how much might an acquaintance say you love God?

Okay, talk about being hit in the face with a true reality – my lack of gentleness, which is an area that I want to reflect God in, that seemingly, I am not.

Oh Lord, give me gentleness.

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Posted in life, thinking

movement building

June 4th, 2009 1 Comment »

I suppose that word “movement” has been deeply engrained in me, maybe because of my history with an organization that mentions this word quite frequently.

I saw this post on Carlos Whittaker’s blog about 7 keys to movement building. I’d like to share it here.

[The best 3 minutes of your day]
A few things I think we can learn from this video.
1. One man can start a movement.
2. A movement need not be started by the most skilled member of the movement.
3. When beginning your movement and you look around and no one else is joining the dance, just keep dancing.
4. When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
5. Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
6. When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go. There will be no stopping it.
7. The very people who are staring at you like your nuts as you movement alone, will be the very same people dancing the hardest in the end.

I like this. Especially #2 and #5. What are your thoughts?

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Posted in life

when you dig, dig deep

June 3rd, 2009 2 Comments »

I feel as if those “call before you dig” signs could apply here.

It’s interesting what happens once you get started and realize that God has a lot of things in store for us. He’s more interested in the deep heart work and the continual than the temporary and uncomfortable. To me, my life so far as been such a journey of figuring out who I’m not. I’m so interested to find out who I am. I haven’t had a lot of jobs in the working world – but I have held jobs that cause me to ask the harder questions of myself about calling and about deeper things than how fast I can type and if my resume is sharp. (because I type fast enough and my resume is a seemless collection of things I’ve learned but doesn’t necessarily reflect the heart of who I am.

I’ve need to call before I dig. I need to call on God to ensure that the process I’m about to undertake will lead somewhere – besides just feeling lost. Which, currently is a bit how I feel. Of course, it does have a bit to do with the pace at which life seems to be changing both in the working world and in my personal life.

So, be sure to call before you dig, and while you’re at it, dig deep.

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Posted in life, thinking