kellycain.coma place to explore…

I found this post and had to share it – below is the copied content, I was so amazed at how high quality their design was even in 1965! And, the THIRD  most printed book other than the Bible, I had no idea!

I was reading up on this because of an article, I hopped across regarding Ikea’s switch to Verdana from Ikea Sans/Serif.

Something inside of me leaps when I hear of others talking so controversially of fonts and typesets! Sure, there is a lot going on in the world that is much more urgent, but TYPE is the way we communicate those urgencies.

My parents like to keep the annual IKEA catalogs – it says it is the most printed book after the bible. Yesterday my mum showed me this…. the IKEA catalog from the year 1965.

It is not in the best shape and the front cover is missing, but still an extraordinarie experience to look through.

“Furnish 2 rooms, kitchen and hall for less than 3300 crowns” it says here on the ad below.

Like something? You could try if this order form still works….

Just wanted to share this slide show of the past year of jer and I, I’m not surprised that a lot of these photos were taken while we were in the car – we’ve driven a lot of miles! Jeremy’s total is in days spent in the car, those 2 hour trips add up!

blog post I’ll write (on here) as a single woman. As Kelly Cain. My blog’s name will stay the same, though, so don’t fret all of you RSS readers out there.

I’m not quite so sure why I’m awake – I’m ridiculously tired, but awoke this AM at 5, and just haven’t been able to go back to sleep since. I’ve tried, believe me, I want to sleep. My mind is overloaded currently with details, ribbons, paper, and fonts, guest lists, volunteer lists, nametags and flowers. While, these are by no means bad things to think about, I wonder if my mind or my body could handle much more of this pace and amount of information.

In just 2 weeks, I’ll be Kelly Smith. Just yesterday I joked that if “I have to put on a white dress and have everyone stare at me so that Jeremy and I can live in the same town, then so be it!” We’re excited and ready to not have to say “bye” every 5 days. These past few weeks have been strange really – I haven’t known how to cope with the goodbyes as frequent as they were, and the hellos as infrequent as they seemed to be.

In the past few weeks it’s as if God is giving me some treasured time with some friends that I haven’t seen in so long! On the way to Emily’s wedding, I met up with Holden and Michael and got to meet their brand new baby boy (and his monkey rug) Whitt! That night Jeremy and I stayed with Renn and Roger in Kannapolis (right outside of Charlotte) before heading to Emily and Thad’s wedding on Sunday! I cannot say enough how great it was to see these precious friends from college! It was so good tor reconnect and get to catch up on life! When I came back to Wilmington I got to see my sweet friend Lindsey who labored in Slovakia all last year with her stint team. A few days later I was hanging out with Jeanette, another dear friend from college, whom life and distances have kept us from seeing each other for over 2 years! With most of these friends, I had not seen them in at least a year, most of them 2 years, and some of them even longer! But, oh how sweet it was to reconnect and to be able to see them before the wedding festivities!

There seem to be so many life changes around me as well that I haven’t hardly had a chance to fully comprehend babies born, engagements galore (tis the season), and weddings. It’s a busy time, a good time! I have much to be thankful for! And this is perhaps the last blog post I’ll write for awhile, well at least till after the wedding and honeymoon, we’re 10 days away!

I know that this is word – “provision” is so easily tossed around, but I feel like it’s been the theme of my song. I’ve seen God provide in ways I didn’t know He would/could/wanted to…

I’m thankful for the way He’s made a way for Jeremy and I to live in Wilmington, the way He seemingly restored my transmission and the way He’s providing for itty bitty wedding details – and bigger ones, financially, and in many other areas. I stand in awe.

I was reflecting on His provision, trying to sum it up in a few short adjectives. I came up with these.

God’s provision is complete, thorough, and perfect.

I’ve seen God provide in ways that I didn’t understand and later came to realize…that without me doing anything, God does provide. Trusting God is a whole other ball game, but it’s beautiful and brings peace.

Are you trusting God for provision or are you relying on your own strengths?

I have this little audio clip from Alistair Begg that Jeremy sent me days after we met. So interesting that now I will be marrying the guy that sent me a clip titled “How to Avoid Marital Failure.” Nonetheless, these little nuggets of wisdom ring so true to me that I thought I’d share them with the blog world.

Before Alistair launches into his main clip about marriage, he first addresses the single population, speaking very highly of them, challenging them to pray for the marriages around them. That God uses singles to minister to marrieds more often than you might think.

Here are the ways to avoid marital failure according to Alistair Begg:

1.Do not be so foolish as if to maintain as if it could not happen to you.

2.Do not allow the business of life to disguise neglect

3.Don’t make the mistake of taking each other for granted

4.Be daily in prayer for the health of your marriage and the harmony of your home

5.Be sacrificial in the expression of your love for each other

6.Be imaginative, daring and occassionaly extravagant in displaying your affection (he adds righteousness is not a synonym for boring)

7.Be sure you don’t use your children as the glue that holds you or the wedge that separates you.

8.Be ruthless in resisting anyone and anything that will draw your affections from each other.

9.Be ready to listen to and ready to speak about whats going on inside each other’s heads.

10.Be certain that a great marriage is possible with divine enabling and human effort.

11.Be aware of how quickly time is passing and seize the day.

Audio below:

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Thoughts?

I’m in “Premarital Counseling” or as I think we’ve renamed it “Marriage Mentoring.” We’re reading through a book titled, “Strengthening Your Marriage.” I was warned that the book was written in the 70s and may have some examples that are culturally irrelevant, but I was advised that the content is solid.

It is in this book that I am reading through the 2nd chapter, “The Wife’s Responsibilities” which advises in biblical counsel for “wives submit to their husbands, as to the Lord.”

Sure, I’ve seen these verses, they’re not new – there is talk of submission laced throughout Paul’s writings. I just never chose to take a closer look, because I didn’t feel that it was of much relevance to me, until now. The chapter brings up a few (practical) ways in which wives can submit to their husbands. I find them, interesting, because frankly reading Proverbs 31 and trying to extract my version of burning the midnight oil and gathering wool and flax is a bit more difficult (although, no less relevant).

So, here are 15 things that wives can do to submit – according to Wayne A. Mack:

1. Making the home a safe place (a place of refuge, not of bickering)

2. Being trustworthy and dependable.

3. Maintaining a good attitude

4. Discussing things lovingly, openly, & honestly.

5. Being satisfied with her position, her possessions, her tasks.

6. Being longsuffering, forgiving, and forbearing.

7. Showing an interest in his problems and concerns.

8. Being an industrious, frugal, ambitious, and creative member of the team.

9. Offering suggestions, advice, and corrections when needed in a loving fashion.

10. Keeping herself beautiful, especially in the inner person.

11. Maintaining a good spiritual life.

12. Cooperating with him in raising children.

13. Building loyalty to him into the children.

14. Being grateful to him.

15. Showing confidence in his decisions.

I like this list. I suppose because it gives me practical ways to love & respect my husband. Ways that I can do self checks, and even ask him how I’m doing in these areas once we’re married.

I’m having to take a closer look at this topic of submission. I think it’s been misconstrued and used wrongly, I think it’s been overworked and under valued.

The biblical picture of marriage is beautiful, but without submission it simply won’t work. This is why we must take a closer look.

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.

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!

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

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.