Wooot!

Yup ladies and gentlemen, I did not perish in Northwestern Airlines but I am writing from sunny Arizona on the RP missions trip! What a blast!

I really don't have much time (the excellent Mexican food at Pancho's awaits us), but we've been doing great. Well, all of the girls who got to paint are fine, somehow still not overpowered by fumes in Pastor Maginn's office. I'm not sure that I can say as much for the guys who spent a day and a half wresting Bubba the Stump from the earth (we kindly named him for them). They ended up sawing him down and burying his remaining tentacles under the clay.

Oh, and if you get to this post soon enough, please pray for Ginny and Becky who have withstood a fiasco on the part of Delta. Lord willing, and that's what we have to keep reminding ourselves that they're back in Georgia because of His will, they will be joining us late this evening, a whopping 24 hours later than they were supposed to!!! Yup, very trying but we'll be all the more joyful when they can join us at last.

Gotta Jet! Do keep the rest of us in your prayers as well, we've had evangelism hot on the brain since getting here and our training program begins on Saturday so pray that we will have hearts to hear and learn.

Taggeth was I

Ok, so I was trying to think of an original opener and it don't always pan. I at least have the privilege of being the first to continue Jordan's detestable tag just to get the thing over with!!

Five weird habits:

1. Eat Sun Chips only when I'm talking on the telephone, and then in frightful amounts.

2. Walk along a curb with one of my feet on the curb and one street below giving a hyper-giraffe sort of effect.

3. Drive slowly when I'm in an absolute time crunch and run around the house when I have nothing much to do.

4. Suck my teeth. You know, like what Samwise did.

5. Drink 3 - 4 cups of herb tea a day (of the same cranberry apple flavor).

Grr, could you tell that I was running out of idears before I started?!

And for my six victims I elect Ginny, James, Christopher, Mom, Jamey, and Nirmala (goodness, exhausted my list of blogger friends eh?)

Those unfortunates who have received this nomination must now post five quirky (no pun intended) habits of their own and chose six of their own pray. They must warn aforementioned pray in a comment on their blog and send them back to their own post for directions.

A free woman

Free to sleep past seven.

Free to make breakfast (though I did quite a bit of that during the school year too!).

Free to read John Warburton.

Free to run all of the laundry in the house.

Free to go shopping at 10 p.m. with my mom.

Free to read the bible study chapter more thuroughly.

Free to pack, it's a very good thing too.

Free to have a clean freak mind.

Free to lose it occationaly too.

Free to blog (whoda thought!).

Yes, and free to wipe out my links tab with another template change.


Wanna know what I've been doing these past three days?

Livin' the freedom.

Thank you, Lord!!

I'm alive

But cold.


See you after Monday when my finals are over.

gasp

I only have six more hours to be... however old I am.



What am I going to do?!?!?!?!









Oh yeah, write papers.




:P

Actually it must needs be said that I have a very coolio cool Thanksgiving break, I got to make two pumpkin pies and two slabs of cake (both of which have taken rather longer to eat than Jim's magnificent cheesecake!). We had a hoot all day Thursday with a few family friends and the loads of food that we gals cooked. Didn't play or watch any football, but got to share the couch with Benny for our family movie which about the same thing ;D.

And on the weekend (Friday through Sunday) I had a tremendous time with Ginny and Becky cruising Indy for a get-the-gals-together and also celebrate-with-Cabbage time. See Miss Ginny's post for a bit more illumination (note that the bruises were not my fault!). What she didn't say was that she unknowingly gave me my new rage for the season: mint hot chocolate. If you're ever at Starbucks and feeling non-coffee and/or stingy (I know, that only happens to me once a year too) get a peppermint hot chocolate and absolutely die like I did. Oh the joy!

Sermon notes Oct 30, 2005

Another set of sermon notes, this time out for all to see instead of a link. Again, please see the disclaimer(s) posted on Nov 6 and send a letter to the editor for typeo's (typoes? typos?). And have a joyful Thanksgiving!!!!

Today the scripture readings were from Ps 8:1-9, and Matthew 21:1-17 about Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Mr. York noted that the amount of time that the gospels give to the last week of Jesus’s life disproportionate, spending anywhere from 20% to almost 50% in the four books on this one week. This great attention is also accompanied by many quotations from the Psalms and Prophets [during this time Jesus is fulfilling many of those prophesies!]. We ought to preface our approach to this chapter in Matthew with the knowledge that it is here that Christ is rising to his great battle (and great victory). Many people think that the Lord’s greatest battle is still to be fought, when he comes with His angels at the end of the age. As God’s children we must realize that Christ fought for and earned our salvation 2000 years ago, this was His marvelous work (Matt 21:15).

We first saw the great contrast between the Jew’s expectations and Christ’s actual entrance. We sang Ps. 118 this morning, the one that they quote in v. 9, and this song was part of the Great Halel (sp?!) which all Jews sang around the Passover. They thought about the words of this Psalm: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted,” and their minds were captivated by civil salvation. Here at last was their Messiah, one who could expel diseases and silence storms, coming to overthrow their conquerors forever. What they didn’t notice, however, was the manner of his coming, “gentle and mounted on a donkey” (v. 5 and Is 62:11). It wasn’t with the civil rulers that He had come to do battle, rather their own Pharisees and scribes were the ones confronting him just a few verses down. The Jews forgot what the Passover was about - a lamb shedding his blood to save the firstborn in Egypt.

Misguided as the Jews were, when the King came to Jerusalem he was met with shouts of praise. The Jews had a hope that was only earthy, only temporary, but they were unrestrained in their praises and expectations. What manner of praise and devotion should be on our lips, who know the true implications of the gospel? To our great loss, we are often dead when we read the word, dead when we pray, dead when we offer praise. [The Jews were not ashamed to shout to the heavens] and we, knowing that He has given us eternal salvation ought to do no less.

Finally, we saw that Christ came zealous for righteousness, in His cleaning of the temple, therefore we should repent before Him. Historically (II Sam 5:6-8), there was a saying, “The blind or the lame shall not come into the house” [I’m assuming this includes the Lord’s house]. The outcasts in Christ’s day were prevented from worshiping by the money changers. Then, not only does Christ allow them in and heal the physically blind and lame, but He turns on the true outcasts of His Kingdom, the Pharisees and Scribes. “Have you never read [the Psalms]?” he asks them. The Lord identifies who is truly blind and lame, those who cannot embrace His humility and never had their eyes opened to the word of God.

There is an application here in how we think of people within the Lord’s house. We of the church are often inwardly displeased by people who come in blinded and maimed by the world. But we ourselves wander in our obedience, and presume to work a self-righteousness when God knows that we have none, and yet we see these “messy” people and demand that they clean up their act. What we overlook is that God requires repentant hearts, opened eyes, and straight paths from us as well.

This chapter also warns us about our fruitfulness. Christ was in earnest about producing the fruit of repentance, as seen in Matt 21:18-22 where the Lord curses a barren fig tree. He is gentle and forgiving He also looks for rich fruits of righteousness as we walk with Him. I personally thought of a verse in Matt 5 that we are looking at: “Therefore let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

~~~

DV

That means Deo Volente, God willing, and is the big arc over everything that’s coming up for me.

Are you ready? The big news at last??

So, God willing, I’m gonna be part of a short term Reformed Presbyterian Missions trip to Phoenix AR in December. Whew!

This post has been a month and a half in the making by now, but I found out about this opportunity provided by RPMissions, applied, got accepted to the team, yeppers, I even bought my flight ticket last night. It is a very exciting thing for me, (geez I haven’t even been up in the air before!) but let me give you the quick and dirty from the RPMissions web site.

Phoenix, Arizona (December 27, 2005 - January 9, 2006)
RP Missions has a great need for young people to labor this winter for two weeks in Phoenix, Arizona. This small congregation is hoping to benefit from the work of the team to make new contacts in its community and to implement more outreach efforts around the greater Phoenix area. Mission team members can expect to do some door-to-door work, possibly help organize and carryout a backyard Bible school or vacation Bible school. Team members will also seek to encourage the members of this congregation by joining with them in worship and midweek Bible studies. Individuals who have abilities to communicate in Spanish would be a great asset to this team. One day of this trip will be spent touring the Sedona Valley and the Grand Canyon. Participants will fly to the Phoenix International Airport.

Ages: 16-32
Size of team: 6-10 participants

I first thought about a missions trip when musing on how much free time I have now (comparatively) and how quickly I know that that’ll change even in the next semester. If I wanted to seriously pursue one soon (even this winter, thought I) early October would be high time to research, perhaps even too late. The next day I when mentioned the thought to mom she immediately threw in a lot of encouragement. We even excitedly talked about the possibility of ministering in a Spanish speaking country (since I’ve been taking Spanish) even though we were pretty sure that there were no RP churches in South or Central America. Well, I got online the next day and, boom, the first entry on the list was the one posted above – Phoenix, Arizona. It was the only trip I saw for this winter, and there I may use some of my Spanish. Cool Beans!!

I believe that the next day was a Sabbath, and during our fellowship lunch we had two young missionaries-to-be give a brief testimony. If I recall correctly, Brandon and Megan were taking mission trips to Australia together even before they were married (stuff that Joleen, their six-month-old daughter, wouldn’t remember and therefore didn’t comment on). Now God has called them to relocate to Australia long term, and what struck me was how He used a smaller venture to guide them, teach them things about themselves and Himself. Of course I realize that many short term missionaries don’t have this strong connection between the field and their future homes. I don’t have the foggiest idear of where I’ll be in five years either! But planning and planting in smaller ways is exciting. Wondering what God will do with even a small seed is exciting. Watching as He still leads me for His name’s sake is downright thrilling.

What makes your rising sun so new?

Oh

My

Goodness, Igotanearlybirthdaypresentyesterdayafternoon ::takes breath::

My parents got me a palm pilot¡!¡!¡

BoooYea!! It was a total surprise but I came into the den while everyone else was talking. Mr. Benny nearly jumped out of his skin and came whirling over to me waving his arms like a disjointed scarecrow. Unfortunately, since he does this kind of thing all the time, I lost my change to begin suspecting something. I was at the computer doggedly surfing when Mom burst into the happy birthday song exactly fourteen days early. Yes, I was flabbergasted at this confrontation, but dribbled into pools of delight upon opening the gift. Mom has always been telling me how cool it would be if I had one of these babies and then they went and got me one that was juuust perfect. It’s gonna be so fun and helpful!!! ::sigh::

Quick update on the patient from yesterday:

Amy has been a bed bug for a couple of days now, but is improving by the grace of God. She had more cards and flowers today, and got in a couple of movies this afternoon (one of them, Anastasia, was a dreadful animated musical whose villain was physically falling apart throughout the film!). She does seem to be feeling better too and has had a great (sleepy) attitude the whole time.

Durst I say it that I still might be able to come to Lafayette this week? Nah, I’ll just appear and haunt the Boilermakers :o)

Barg (pronounced with a hard g as in goof)

That's what they put on movie tickets. I guess they thing it means bargain (someone smarter than I can perhaps enlighten me), but Jims and I agreed that it's really an expression of disapproval, disesteem, or disfavor. No, I'm not actually grumpy right now, I just feel a bit... barged that I told peeps that I was coming to the fireside chat and didn't actually show. On Sunday afternoon my friend called in sick. I had noticed that she was hoarse all week, but then it just settled in her chest and she just couldn't come. We weighed some possibilities but since we had had company that afternoon, and Dad was preaching that night, I thought we'd dis-complecate our evening and just call it off. Once I thought about it yesterday evening, though, I was really glad that it didn't work out. And this is why.

Jims had an operation this morning on her poor 'ittle nose. She had an Xray of it recently and apparently it has been broken or blocked or un-goodified for quite some time. It is our hope that the operation today (which will perhaps involved quite a bit of pain, so be praying) will alleviate her breathing problems and even alleviate some of her migraines.

So to make a un-complicated story short. It would have been a bit barg if Erin and I had gone and then come in really late and slept really late for everyone to work around us. This way all of us got up at a just the right time and had a calm morning to see Amy off at 8 . It would have been extreme barg if we hadn't really thought it all the way through and sent Amy with me so that she had come in really late and started this important week all groggy and warn out. God had a way of preparing a way for her when it was really important that she be allowed to heal!!
But if nothing else... we are headed over for the Thanksgiving Psalm Sing this Sunday night (very coolio) and I had the time to study for my big fat Spanish test today!!!

Not to us, not to us

“We are broken we are bitter/ We’re the problem we’re the politicians

Politicians… Politicians…”

Do you ever wake up with one of those loud songs you know stuck in your head? Probably not the best way to start a peaceful day, but that little voice has been shouting in my head for hours. Hey maybe that’s part of the reason that I’m up and working on emails and blogs already.

First, big news. Today is the second day of Presbytery, which is a meeting of all the pastors from all the churches in our slice of the RPCNA. This is the time that they discuss policies and hear reports and also approve the work of men who are pastoral interns, like Dad. He’s been working on the first stage of pastorship: licensure to preach and he had five tests (some verbal, some written, and one huge term paper) in this stage. This time he was supposed to bring that last test before the Presbytery and even perhaps begin the next test for licensure to receive a call. We just got word that his last test was completed for the first stage. Dad is licensed to preach!!! Woooooo! He’s a licensed preacher of the RP church!! Huzzah! God was willing and He made it happen!!

Whew! Ok those who read this post Friday morning be praying for him and thanking the Lord for this big step.

The rest of my news is small compared to that, but I’m pretty excited about this weekend. At IUK one of my friends is a girl named Erin who has taken Spanish with me for three semesters. I got to know her and her fiancée early on and we’ve become pretty tight nit. Anywho, I’ve invited them to visit our church several times by now, especially since they live in Marion along with about half of our congregation who commute. The whole catch is that they are Wesleyans, and if your now anything about Armenian Westlyans and Calvinist RP’ers (Reformed Presbyterians) you can see that there’d be some problems there.

But alright, I’ve also been wanting to visit more RP college groups in our area, and having been down to Indianapolis several times over the summer and school year (you guys rock!!) I thought about visiting the Lafayette RPC, which is about the same distance away. This city is the stronghold of Purdue University, and though I will have to wear my IU colors incognito*, I have really wanted to visit there because I know they have a strong group of Christian students. Well I’m finally going to be able to make the Fireside chat this Sunday evening, so I’m really looking forward to that. And Erin has agreed to come with me! Yippee!! (not only will I have a friend while in enemy territory {jk!}, but a riding buddy really makes it easier for me to go at all)

But the greatest part is that before we truck over there, she thought it best to come to the evening service in Kokomo so that we can leave straight from there. I shook my head this morning as I realized that this was a major answer to many weeks of prayer. I haven’t prayed in the way that I ought to have, but wow, God is faithful. I was just concentrating on working out the trip to Lafayette but here was my big chance to invite her to an actual worship service, and I didn’t even think about it – Mom had to suggest it. This whole thing came together when I wasn't looking for it at all. So you can be praying for her heart while in Kokomo, and for both of us in Lafayette with a group of mostly strangers. Oh, and pray that we get there safe and sound, I’ve never been to this city before and we’ll have to find everything in the dark!

::sigh:: The sun is out and I’ve been looking at a screen all morning. Sounds like a good time to break off and rake leaves. Watch for another post this evening with the continued adventures of Canny. There’s more to tell!

* This may be a good time to clarify my stance on the entire IU/Purdue question. Obviously, for a Hoosier who has spent all their days contemplating this aspect of their future, there can be party lines and wild color waving, and all of it matters. But for a Texan who could never even enter the Aggie v. UT debate with much fervor, for better or for worse, it all means peanuts. I landed in Indiana and find myself in a city called Kokomo which happens to have a university branch three miles down the road. Where am I going to school? Where I get both inexpensive education and fresh bran muffins every day. Now that I do go to IU however, I feel responsible to side with my own colors and staunchly say that IU is the best place in the world. With me, however, this never conflicts with the fact that some of my favorite people are die hard Boilermakers, had I settled in Lafayette I would have just as quickly thrown my cap in there. For now all alliances are tempered by particular situation, and living at home with those muffins sounds just fine to me.

P.P.S. The title was a reference to Psalm 115:1, but read it and keep going - it gets better

Secrets of the Kingdom

I started typing out my sermon notes a couple of weeks ago, found that they could be useful for a friend. We are in the midst of a fascinating series on the Psalms in the life of Christ and if I continue to get them typed out each week, I'd like to put them up here for anyone to read if they are interested.

Just a few things to bear in mind
1 These notes were written for a friend who shares all of my religious assumptions, so if it seems like a letter - it is! I went ahead and threw terms in there that I knew she'd know and left them in tact when I uploaded to the internet. If anyone finds these notes and starts cropping up problems, first see my two other points below, but then go ahead and comment objections/questions/confusion. If I can't re-hash it clearer for you I'll find someone who can.

2 I am not a pastor! These are layman observations from a layman who loves finding all sorts of conclusions/applications/rabbits-to-chase from solid teaching. If you've heard the sermon yourself (or, heaven forbid, if you are Mr. York) be gentle with those sections in brackets, my mind was whirling and I just put down what came in it.

3 These are simply notes, therefore they are the condensed form of the major points that stuck out to me, not a transcript of Mr. York's every word. If you read something that doesn't seem to smack right, you're probably right and I just made too many connections in my head and not on paper.

Sermon notes Oct 23, 2005

Breath of death

Just because I should be doing something else (writing two articles for the newspaper, one for the church, and one for Spanish class. seriously), does that mean I shouldn't blog? Aw, why not.

I agree with my wise mother that comments on teeny weeny posts like my last one only encourage laziness, but I love to hear from you guys! Today I got up at 8, a bit later than I am wont, but I knew that we'd be cleaning for guests that that seems decidedly easier than getting your brain all geared up to write. We had a great family from church over to lunch, the Brookshires, and they have two girls a bit younger than Ben. As they got here way before lunch began, we thought that we'd pull out Monopoly. Boy had it been a while! Amy was made Chief Banker and Teller while I was appointed Moderator of the Landed Gentry (I kept the place cards). This arrangement would seem to give us both a powerholding edge, but it was not to be. Not far into the game I was rather surprised to find that everyone had pulled way ahead of me. Houses and five hundred dollar bills were flying about while I rejoiced when I actually got into jail for a while so that I could stop paying rent. I had not thought my business skills to be so inferior, but by the end of the game all were counting their bills and slips (the bank ran out of money and manufactured some of it's own with lined paper) and I was lucky to have five hundred dollars. Amy, on the other hand, was coolly numbering bills into the thousands and was the winner when the game prematurely closed.

Speaking of spaghetti (yes we were) there was another appointment today that I couldn't seem to get right. The womenfolk were preparing the sumptuous Italian lunch, and since I could never chop tomatoes correctly I volunteered to make garlic toast. Ha, I thought, bread is a second nature to me [well at least it should be from the amounts I eat!] I'll have these little dudes so beautifully baked that you'd think they were made by Mussolini! Sadly, this was not far from the truth. Although I have by now learned the art of butteration and golden brown toasting, I still can't judge how much garlic salt to put on!! When we settled down for lunch I was happily tasting my masterpiece when a wave of astringent garliciness attacked my taste buds. I quietly gulped the raging tidbit and hoped that one bad bite on one bad piece. But a few minutes later, amid the chuckles and crunches of a happy meal, James gave a sly look my way and said, "Hmm, this toast is pretty... spicy!" Ah well, I think I'm doing some things right. I mean, if that's how my mentor cooked toast, it means that I wouldn't be such a hot national leader either!




Oh I just experienced a magnificent quote from my little brother. The things I'm privilaged to hear these days.

"Wow, I'm getting to the point that I have to pull the hair out with my earbuds, it's getting so long.

::silence::

I know that you didn't need to know that, but it's a new thing with me."

Bothers.

A week gone by and no post. If it is any comfort, last week was a cool week, an exciting week, an eventful-life-changing-direction-finding sort of week even.


And tomorrow I have a large Composition paper due.



And tonight's post is going to be wery short.












If you are wondering about the title (about the word itself, that is, not the period, I don't know where that came from) then this little notey will only help you or confuse you more:
If you are a family member or dear friend, I think that you may realize word that I might have used and suddenly become graitful.
If you are not and therefore clueless - consider yourself spared.
























































Congrats for scrolling all the way down here, but the post really was short, see?

Beauties and Dangers of the season

We have been having such beautiful colors lately. What with the sunrises, the sunsets, and the brilliant fall foliage it's hard to steer straight on the way to school! I have been taking a few pictures of the sky, but what I could get for you today was just a couple clips of the tops of trees (perhaps I’ll steal from James, the master photographer, soon but this is what I could get myself). Enjoy!




Silly me for moving my hand, but you certainly get the impact of the color.

I love how the leaves glow in the morning! The trees in our neighborhood look like the northern apples, layers of gold and red and green.

And yet after my beautiful travels, I was attacked by the local wildlife. Such menace and peril!!

Caught under a wall

I have a bone to pick tonight. Well, perhaps it’s more of a problem to diagnose, or maybe just a confession to make - but before we get to all of that, let me share with you the Tale of the Concrete Fisherman.

Once upon a time, there lived a well meaning chap who wanted to do some fishing. Having no block and tackle, he looked for and found a similar tool, hitched it up on his back, and began watching toward the stream, determinedly but awkwardly. When he found a spot that he liked, the fisherman swayed from side to side for a moment and then suddenly cast his fishing device straight into the river. For the tool he had chosen to catch fish with was a concrete wall.

After thus setting his fabulous-fish-catching-environment, the poor dolt waited for some water to build up, and crawled out onto the wall (which had remarkably fallen upright) in order to secure his prizes. There was a silvery flash below him – a fish! [Note: Please refrain from any vulgar exclamations of “to catch a fish/ so juicy swEEET!” until the narrative is complete –Ed.]

The foolish Fisherman stood in the middle of the river with his heels in the running water, batting at the fish which had collected below him. He let his hand first follow one and then another, teetering on the wall in his eagerness to grasp something. Soon, however, the pull of the whole stream was too much for him and he was swept back out into the current, still fitfully snatching at the fishes around him…

*********

Charming my dear, you’re probably thinking, But how on earth this relates to any nonsense under the sun is beyond me!

I guess that this story expresses how I’ve felt lately – just swept under the wave sometimes. Call it the ending of my freshman honeymoon period, call it a tiny spark of concerned responsibility, call it an irregular chocolate/coffee cycle (hey I’m working on that one), but in the midst of great classes and plenty of time to work I find myself unhappily loafing about like … well like a guy floating gently towards the water fall. Where do I like to put the blame? On the computer, of course.

With the advent of three writing classes this semester (Comp, Lit, and Journalism), I’ve spent a lot of time on the computer. But somewhere, among the necessary research, I found that I was loosing major chucks of time in black holes like “I’m-scoping-out-the- background-info-real-quick” or “That-extra-source-is-just-around -the-corner.” In the midst of wandering from link to link, bedtime would crop up and I would find that two and a half hours had disappeared into the fog.

The problem (for me) doesn’t stem from a rabid desire to defy sanity, or see how many web cookies I can munch on. The very allure of surfing is its usefulness. And at first, the endless possibilities of a search engine spread a cheerful glow over all my work. Did I need to profile a new professor in the Art Department? Ah ha! Here was a list from his old Alma Mater of all the art pieces he’d ever exhibited! Oh Ho! Here was another site that had all of the courses he taught at his last university! And best of all was that juice page of links which handed me all of the web sites which related to my thesis.

Riiiight.

And so, as I said before, I fell off the deep-end of search engines and resurfaced with some big holes in my day, day after day after day. That is why my complaint against being a Google writer came out in a story. If you stop and think about it, hoping to find a choice feast for your professor from one search word is a bit like throwing a wall into the creek for some fishes. It’s one thing to hope that a specific, authoritative web page will slosh up against your net; it’s another thing to plunge into a current of links that will teach you the meaning of “relevant” through the eyes of 54 different webmasters. The internet and its search options for a few occasions – yes. Search engines as the quick answer for all literary research – an unhappy no.

When I came out of the twilight zone I was greeted by Late Evening on Planet Earth, and believe me it was not a happy landing. As I wailed to my Mater one night, “Two hours in the middle of every day! Poof!! Gone!!” In the wordage of someone who to spent all of his time lifting rocks and mentoring padawans – Distressed I was.

So where does my story end, the bottom of the lake? Well, with all this water still in my eyes, I can't really say. But, if you’ve stuck with me this far, you deserve to have some concessions. I admit that you, the readed, might have gotten this revelation long ago. You may be thinking that anyone who imagines that Google and spell checker are the keys to happiness deserves to go over a waterfall or something. My answer is that redemption comes to the dolts of the world as well and I’m a work in progress. Since the evening of that outburst to my Mom, I’ve been aware of my tendency. Not totally victorious, but aware. I'm beginning to see that not only are there other ways to fish for thoughts, but better ways to discipline one's life. My hope is that tomorow I will find a footing or get some tackle and begin to learn to pull the perfect catch.

New innovations all the time

Hola, soy una loca ¿no?

Well, in our own language - I have indeed found a blog skin that I like very well. And if it lasts for two weeks, well we have a winner. But as I said, I am finding new ways of doing things all the time, trying to find that little artist in me somewhere.

Hence the colors on this post.

¿Te Gusta?
(That means - Do you like it? for y'all uno-lingual peeps!)

Sometimes...

you feel like a gutted fish

Spilling one’s guts

But please don’t do yours. I just got finished with mine.

Went down to Indianapolis this weekend, and it was s-WEET! They had a progressive dinner/costume party at 2^nd RP and Jims and I were privileged to attend. She went as an actress and I went as a reporter. Unfortunately we didn’t take many pictures, and the only picture that I could find was this one.

::cough:: We had a blast - the peeps down there were great, yummy lasagna, and uh, meaningful skits based on nursery rhymes. (I never knew that The Old Woman who lived in a Shoe had such modern application until now!) Is there any better way to spend a Saturday night?

Aaaanywho. In the lesser important realm of school, I’ve been doing articles on Lawrence of Arabia, skits in Spanish, other things that… I … can’t remember now.

Ben’s going down to Indi himself this weekend to participate in the Fall Ministry Project. It was a very cool time for us last year, but I’m too old now (and can’t really spare the time). It’s a good opportunity to have some fun with kids from all over Indiana, spend a night at the church, and then go out and spend Saturday working at the host congregations. Sycamore RPC (the congregation in Kokomo) is both sending youth down and hosting whoever gets chosen to come up here. We who are staying still get a piece of the action because we can volunteer to go up to the church ourselves and we may get to host some kids in our home. Pretty cool beans.

Urg. That phrase is the secret signal that I’ve absolutely run out of everything to say. Catch up with you later!

Oh, and I will be changing this skin until I find an accoutriating look, advise as you see fit. If you’re thinking that the word accoutriating is a big vague and may not even exist – hehehe you’re beginning to catch on…

Work, such as schoolwork or piecework, that is done at home [that's right, Homework!]

Though changing my blog skin was cleverly plotted to distract my readers (no real post in days after all), certain grumps have made it clear that they are not to be put off. Very well then, I shall tell you the tale.

First, I no longer have my job. Now now, don’t splutter popcorn all over your lap like that, it isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds! God has provided other means of income, and there are advantages in leaving the post of Main Building Custodian behind. The first reason is really God’s will. As Mom always reminds us “You don’t know what He’s sparing you from, when He takes something away!” She’s absolutely right, and not knowing what it is sounds good for me!

Of course what's one of the great side benefits? The same thing that slew Gollum’s kings and gnawed high mountains down. More Time! Extended duties at The Correspondent, long reading assignments from writing classes, the next level of Spanish, these things take my time and particularly my evening time. Quite often I feel that I’d trade two good hours of morning for an hour of evening; there’s nothing to distract you but what you must get accomplished before bed!

The last plus here is that I'm not really loosing money, I have two small sources of income which I didn’t have last semester. There's now a regular check from The Correspondent for my duties as the Entertainment & Reviews Editor, and a new babysitting job. I combined the two and they add up to about the same as what I got cleaning at the Mission. Now I’m working at (or falling headlong into!) the things I love. Huzzah! Huzzah! As Ginny very often says, God is so good!!

Whew! So this week has been my first week of free evenings , and woooooo badger have I needed it!! I had an uber hard, uber important paper due for Eng Composition last week (was it only last week and not lifetimes ago, my precious gray cells?). Anywho, that finally got, uh, turned in. This week on Monday evening (whither art thou oh cells?!) I had an uber UBER important Lit Criticism paper due, and it also landed on the prof’s desk in time. Alright, so both of these papers only averaged about 6 pages ::cough:: double spaced buuut, I'm just a fish so I can get all psyched up about it, right?

No?

oh.

Now that those are out of my hair (hair? I still have hair now?) methinks I’ll turn my attention to a newspaper article that is due Monday afternoon. Or how about the Review of Literature and the Research Proposal due for Composition? You see how these things go.

I certainly haven’t been without my fair share of fun and games in all of this. Right at the beginning of this long week, I and my forlorn brother found ourselves abandoned with a lone wiener - a single frankfurter! - in the fridge. It must be said that later that evening we noticed a note from Mom, “There are pot pies, burritos, and pizza in the freezer. Have fun!” Be we, for shame, did not see it (or them) and so what followed could not be directly blamed on us. There have since been splendid feasts of lasagna, or sloppy joes, but on this empty Monday night Ben and I broke from our bounds! We flung ourselves into gastronomic bliss and went to Sonic!! ::sigh:: I’ve wondered if the everyone understands what Sonic truly does for the world, but in our family it has always been the epitome of burger happiness Can you imagine, oh my tots, what followed? We visited, not one, but two ice cream parlors to sample and compare the mysteries of Peanut Butter Moose Tracks.

And, to conclude, I’ve been in front of a computer a lot lately, not the ideal place to spend one’s youth, and it has a way of making me an extreme grump myself. This evening, for something like 79 seconds, I slowed down down down, went outside, and took this. I couldn’t help but smile at how beautiful He has made His world.

p.s. There’s something going about that has me excited (if you know me, yes the hopping up and down, shaking my bangs kind of excited). I shan’t spill the beans now, just be aware that somewhere tonight there may be a cabbage all ebullient over something…

Muhahahahaaaaa!

Oh yes










I've done it again

Pirating

And I've never licked a spark plug
and I've never sniffed a stink bug,
and I've never painted daisies on a big red rubber ball,
and I've never bathed in yogurt
and I don't look good in leggings ..."
Pa: "You just don't get it!"

"And we've never been to Boston in the fall!"

What is a Cabbage doing right now? (please don't read this if you haven't been to my blog before!!!)

"Hmmmdmdmmdmm... "

::going around online and commenting::

::whistling::

And yet, what is so wrong with this picture? Is it possibly that the cabbage is supposed to be reasearching books on John Keats instead of commenting?? Evil Cabbage!

"Duwahdoowah!"
Silly carefree cabbage, no such sounds shall sound from her when it's 3 am before Oct 3 and that Keat's paper is due!

But what is this? A twix wrapper discarded on campus somwhere?! Evil little Cabbage!!

::bobbing around and fliding her way to other and other blogs, commenting on them as if there were no Tuesday (which for this week, there isn't any more, think about that one!)::

Look out oh brainless cabbage, Keats still sits on his library shelf and Rudy shall land in class in 10 minutes!!!

"Ah ha! One last blog to comment on!"

Buggers. This one's mine.

I am alive

But I don't have the time to blog now.

Last Friday the Correspondent held a 9-4 retreat (or call out) and of course all of the editors had to be there to cheer on the troops. That took all of that day.

On Saturday I spent a blissful day pouring over books on Ernest Hemingway for a 5-6 page paper on his story "Hills Like White Elephants" that's due soon. I'd only recommend it (the short story, not the paper) if you're over 18 and willing to be majorly depressed. Hey, then why did I read it??

Yesterday we had church in the morning, Fellowship lunch after that, and then many people stayed because there is a group of young people who finished a church membership class and were interviewed for uh, church membership! Then we had a special evening time as a local Baptist church invited us to come over and share with them about Psalm singing, very cool!

Today I have to go to school early to make up for a computer class that I missed on Friday. From thence I shall haste* me to lunch, spanish, and literature.


*You know that you're a good spanish student when you begin to wonder if this isn't pronounced ahs-teh!!!

Tootles!!

Thinking of you

It's my Granny's birthday today; she's the only one I've ever had. And since I've been thinking about including some more pictures on my blog, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to some things that remind me of her. A caption, a blurb of Ganny, if you will. Pictures taken 1000 miles away that show that she's close to me wherever I am.





This first one goes with a story that Granny told me when we were driving home from Lufkin one day. If you'd like to read the whole thing you can look back at a previous post. My main memory was laughing with Ganny harder than I've ever laughed before.





This one's inevitable, every time we set about to make gravy with Granny (or rather, watch her make the gravy) we have a big laugh about how the gravy grows while she's cooking it. Let me show you what I mean:

::Granny making some rue with steak grease and flour, sometimes she gets one of us to stir while she to the fridge for butter and lettuce::
::Granny comes back to the gravy and begins to add flour, and then goes off to the oven::
"Now, y'all will have to remind me about the rolls so that I don't forget 'em!"
::onlookers eye the gravy, portion still under control::
"Canny, will you mix up some tea?" Granny asks ::coolly adding more flour::
::the girls get ice from a hoary machine in the recesses of the freezer while Dad walks forward::
"Isn't this gravy too thick?"
"Yes, yes it is, Scooter can you get me some milk?" ::out comes milk::
::the onlookers eye as the gravy pan is engulfed in a white torrent::
"Oh the bread!" ::Granny comes just in time and eyes turn from the glistening lake of gravy to the hot rolls::
::the cooks returns:: "Alrighty, now we'll just put a little more flour in to thicken it up"
"Oh granny, the gravy looks great."
"Well, let's just add a bit more I know it's almost there..."

By meal time, with our two gallons of gravy, Granny is sure to exclaim that there is enough for Cox's army. I'd much rather have a picture (and a taste) of Holcomb Gravy right now, the best I could do was share a photo of the always-absent gang who were supposed to be there helping us eat. Sorry that we never got to meet them, Granny, but I'm sure they would have loved it awful much.





Well, it's just a can of hair spray to most of you, but it was something that we could always find in Granny's bathroom cabinet, and I remember sitting around with my sister one day and playing with that can, making up stories in our mind of which letters we'd press to take us away to exotic Australia. I've started to use more aerosol hairspray myself (as opposed to, ah hem, nothing at all) but when I get a purple Aussie in my hands, I know that the original ones belonged to Granny, and I remember how the littlest things in her home could conjure up magic for us.





Of course, Granny has made us somewhere near 0.84 tons of breakfast, lunch, and dinner by now. Whenever we've been off on a trip, and now when we visit from Indiana, it never fails that we find fresh milk or Bodacious BBQ or roast and cornbread smiling in the fridge. But back before that, back when it was the greatest adventure of all to spend a night at Ganny's house, there was Alto Gumbo. But what was ALWAYS in this fine dish that dismayed the heart of a 1st grader? Lima Beans. It's true. Although I'd just adore those old beans now in my seniority, I'm afraid that they were meticulously extracted back then. But I think that the tradition will carry on, as I plan to make my kids some Alto Gumbo some day, and then I shall eat it with relish!





And I know that is is one which Granny should know at once, not from the fact that I bugged her her about it to no end when I was 11, but that it belonged to her mother, Verna Holcomb Black. I hadn't had a real locket before and I loved the smooth, weathered face and large, simple frames for pictures. But though Granny was very proud that I liked it (which only increased when I found out whose it was), she refused my perpetual requests to keep it. 'Til finally came my birthday, and I opened a gift where the locked was resting on a new chain. Now I save it for special days, and take it out to wear every birthday. If ever there's a fire in our house, I know what I'll grab before hopping out the window. Some things are irreplaceable.

A thoughtful thought

In the words of Rafiki, "Change is good." Hair change, blog change, little sister age change (woot for your b-day cake Jims!! very good choice), and finaly brain change. Could perhaps the world keep the same and I change for a day?

Something told the wild cabbage that it was time for school...

In the early 1900's Rachel Field wrote:

"Something told the wild geese
It was time to go;
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered, -- "snow".

Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned, -- "frost".

All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly --
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

This is definitely a more applicable poem when one reads it in Indiana. I heard wild Canadian geese today somewhere in the deliciously overclouded sky, and we’ve even noticed the nip in the air and a yellowing in the leaves. Fall is coming!!! (And hey, this poem’s been one of my favorites for many years, so I thought I'd make you read it heh.)

::watches as blog readers begin to glaze over::

So it’s a children’s poem.

So it is my secret and evil design to take up more room with this blog.

You have a problem with that?!

::sigh:: The other thing which that delicious cool hearalds is class. I’ve gotten my first full week under my belt, ah hem, and since this earns me all the privileges of a seasoned scholar, you can just call me Dr. Jones from henceforth! Actually what you’ll probably be calling me after this is Miss Tardy Blogger since I must now bow before both editor and professor in my time.

And so since I must spend all of my time getting to know these people, anyone who’s interested can learn a bit of the teacher lineup for this semester:

Barbara Greer (Sapanish) – She’s easier than last year’s profesora, let me tell you that! I appreciate that though she’s teaching a second year course she still speaks very slowly and is more concerned with concepts than exact replication. At least at the beginning of the semester that is! I do regret that the only description I can give of her is that she resembles Edna Mole, without the glasses and 60’s dressmaker attitude.

Donna McLean (Journalism) – Well she’s really the faculty advisor for the paper, so I’ve never sat down to hear her lecture before. She a helps us editors to avoid some militant one-sided-ness, she encourages us to take up an idea and go with it, she just brings adult poise into the office.

John Rudy (Literature) – late 60’s or early 70’s, thin and sardonic, calls himself a Brad Pitt look alike out of sheer delight for irony. Earlier today I was given some friendly advice by a student who’d taken from him before. “If you wanna do well with Rudy, in your papers be really sarcastic and really well researched.” Figures somehow. It remains to be seen where a cabbage can take such a task, but I have to admit this dude’s got a ton of literary knowledge to recommend him.

Suzanne Carey (Writing/Research Papers) – incredible that I should get a writing teacher with that name, and I must confess that I was a bit more inclined to like her from the start. :o) She’s elderly, talks ve-ry dis-tinct-ly, and spoke at fond length over her two puppy dogs. But she’s quite well read and isn’t afraid to handle the gritty topics that come in research materials such as Hemingway. She’s teaching muchos freshmons so the talks on How to be a Good Writer, My Dears are a wee bit unnecessary for me, but the class will be a great prep for the research papers types (MLA APA) that I’ll need to use these next few years.

Debbie Jones (Computer) I’ve only seen her once: she talks, we listen, we click. Good system. I’m quite pleased that the class only has four lectures and a test, but that means that I shan’t see much at all of Mrs. Jones.

Loverly, aint they?

And what does Cabbage do this morning?

Today I:

Drop my sibs off at the church building for a work weekend

Hop over to the bank for a major new deposit

Eat eggs (not my fav dining luxury)

Was there something else??

Oh yeah, meet with me academic adviser about becoming queen of the world just because I got a scholarship... hmm would I have to eat eggs?

Oh, and start my first day as full time college student, yeup that's what it was...

Servanthood, spanish, and sponge cake

Wow, five more days until I officially start college. Does this mean I'm a big girl now? No, I'm afraid that it doesn't, in fact I'm feeling smaller and smaller by the day (but that's another research topic for another time!). I miss my bro. Didn't think that I'd re-get to know him like I did this summer, and I thought that when he left I'd be coolio and nothing would be missing, but that's what you get for thinking, I guess. Guys out there in the world, you do have an ineffable input that we gals can't get anywhere else.

But looking ahead after these next five days, I'm ready and charged to be back at school (yup, IU Kokomo too!). I'll be taking five classes this semester (six if you count the lab for the computer class, which I don't).

Spanish 203 (2nd Year Spanish) 1-2:15 pm Mon, Wed
English Lit 202 (Literary Interpritation) 4-5:15 pm Mon, Wed
English Writing 132 (Elementary Comp 2) 8:30-9:45 am Tue, Thurs
Computer Science 100 (Computing Tools, Ha!) Lecture & Lab 8:30-11:15 am Fri
Journalism 290 (Internship in Journalism) ... all the time.

On that last one says "internship" but it really means: become a public servant through working on The Correspondent. And although we don't have an official class period we do have meetings twice a week and articles to work on basically always. It do pay a mite, (only a mite) - the real plus is the experience in working with the team (us against the uninformed world, baby!), of both writing your articles and proofing all of your minions's articles, of trying your hand at faculty profiles or cd reviews or hard news. Yeah that'll be a big, lovely hunk of...um, fun. Hmm. But all that is nothing, my love, compared to the real task of being an entertainment editor when you're real desire is to bring intelligence, culture, and Christianity to the paper. This is for real, and may prove to be a very difficult balancing act, that or a very easy compromise. Y'all pray for me that God would mercifully give me the discretion (and diligence) to stick to this position and be a clear light for Christ to shine through.

Spanish is gonna be cool, again. :o) I'm excited to be taking it with my one good friend that I have at IUK. We took the same Spanish class my first semester and Providentially got the same Spanish classes both last semester and this. Erin's been a real gem for me, because as many nice people as there are in the world (even some very kind mature Christians whom you really agree with), you still find only so many that you just click with. Erin and I clicked our first semester, and we've been just hanging out when we could during school and summer. Her fiancee is an awesome chap, a bit random and concentrated ("you can see the wildness in his eyes, he kindof goes 'click!'"), but very very nice. You'll just have to experience Chad yourself to know what I mean. Anywho, these two have been solid friends to have - they've gotten me out and around some, they're still in college but they're also just a bit older than I am and are looking towards their adult life like... little adults.

Did all that seem to make sense? Have relevance? No? Well here's something that's very relevant and exciting. James of very Jamses is going to have a party ("but a party on a summers day... well!") this weekend, down down in Indi and it is going to be THE COOLEST. I can't spill all the beans but she is The Ultimate Wizardess of Party Planning and this latest installation (don't you heave when critics call movies that? "The latest Tela Tubie installation is just ripping!" ug) as I was saying this latest investiture shall methinks show the hight of her powers. Ahh all those poofy pink decorations and white sponge cake... Wait, that was my birthday.

Evil Pumpkins

::hypnotism::

This is a real post. This is a real post.

More Headlines

Garsh!!!!





I had such a cool blog in my head this morning, but I couldn't possibly get near a computer: I was having to take a shower, spend an hour giving a violin lesson to a gal at our church, then play dollies with her little sisters. Cool things, don't get me wrong, but very unconducive to blogging. Now, I have exatly 58 minutes to impress all you peeps with my wordsy flair (ha!), practice me violino, write something to impress my Editor in Chief with my wordsy flair (hahahaha!!!), and go online and see if I can buy some of my books cheeper then $158,568 (the bookstore price). See how much I go through to get to you guys?

So what's up in the world? Well, was glad to hear that the Discovery is on solid ground again, as of late last night/early this morning/whenever (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10340044). Since the previous shuttle flight so greatly affected the area that we were living in, I suppose that some of the residents of East Texas took to heart NASA's plans with the whole shuttle program. We had to deal with the tragedy while it was literally falling all around us, but I personally felt that I really wanted them to get up on the horse again and continue with exploration and progress. I was pretty pumped to hear that they'd gone through with their promises and launched another flight (although heavily modified with extra scanners of course), but to have Discovery back with no loss of life was a real mercy of God.

On another tangent, Josh and I will (DV) be attending our last college Bible study tonight. ::sniffle sniffle:: Yeah, it's been the coolest to 1) have something to look forward to every week, 2) have a constant informal setting of interacting with PEOPLE MY OWN AGE ah hem, 3) (and probably the most long term impact) have another means of grace in my life - a group of people expounding the Scriptures from their own lives. Take it when you can get it, folks, because it can be a really neat thing.

Oh, and such superlative grammatical expresssions as "very unconducive" and "a really neat thing" are the direct result of wating 'til this late hour of the morning ;D to do my blogging. Take a lesson, my children, and write early in the day when you can make sense. Sabe?

On that same subject, my loverly brother Josh is going to leave me this Saturday. Do you ever miss someone before they've even started packing? ::looks around:: No? Oh, well I do.
Had my first real fender bender today (I knew it was coming) but it was so very mild that all you can tell for it is a corner of the license plate is bent. lt was a very low speed someone-backing-into-you-in-the-Kroger-parking-lot kind of bump. I did stop and honk, but the lady couldn't see me. In the end God is a very merciful God - of all of the horrible things that might have happend to me in the 3 or 4 years that I've been driving, this was the only one that actually came about.

Ho Hum. I think that I shall post this now, but it is such a very bad blog that I don't promise not to change it later! Haha!

Hmm??

But why not, after all?

A Chronicle of the Fair of Ginny

(or at least a modest couple of tales)



(If you don't like long borring blogs, and pointless stories of very small children, we'd highly recoment that you skip this blog and try a story by Mr. Edgar Allen Poe - he won't tell about the Elkhart fair, but he will make you bald with fear and keep you wide awake.)

Yes, best beloved (to steel a phrase from Jims), you shall now here the tale of our stay in the land of Goshen. This was not the locale near Egypt where the Jews met a 400 year captivity, but I refer to the metropolitan Goshen Indiana (reportedly home of 29,000 residents, but you'll have to ask a local) where aformentioned Jims and I spent the weekend visiting Ginny's clan, the Landows.

My first lasting memory of this visit? Well, though we did see them at church, give and get many hugs from the Elkhart congregation, and had a nice ride to their home past the burnt truck, I must say that my most solid first impression was the one of Mush Casserole (no pun intended). Ah yes, a casserole! At once I knew that we were at home in this place where macaroni goes into a dish, but is never seen again. We sat down to lunch with Mrs. Landow, her mom, Ginny, and David (her bro) and began to partake of this marvelous mixture of pasta, tomatoes, peppers, and chicken. I do hope that Mrs. Landow never sees this and takes offense, but the reason this was so much fun was that it was in the midst of a lull in conversation and someone said:
"Is there cheese in this dish?"
The cook pauses, thinks and replies, "No, I'm sure that I didn't put any cheese in there, but if you want cheese you can certainly imagine that's what it is!"

What a laugh! Imagination food is the best kind, and Mush Casserole (and finds of other "secret ingredients") furnished the rest of the lunch's giggles and quips.

The Landow's house itself, oh best beloved, is settled in trees and hills. These were, no offence indended to Central Indiana, a sight for very sore eyes. There was even a creek and a river at the bottom of the hill just like there was in Shiloh, but these I'll have to see ::cough cough:: next time I'm up. Most of our time, however, was spent at the fair, and the Elkhart county fair is the largest county fair in Indiana, and third largest County Fair in the US! Ain't that somthin'?

Ginny herself had been showing animals and projects at the county fair for 10 years, and was on the fair board after that (if my chronology's correct) so she knew her way around and walked with the greatest efficiency. Many times as we headed off for our next site, she took the lead and soon her authoritative cowboy hat could be seen yards ahead of us. But then she would stop and wait, as any good tour guide would, turning to us with a look of "Poor short little people, they'd probably wander around the maze of donut stands, or get eaten by a display cucumber if it weren't for me!" Then I would mournfully remind her that some of us were more vertically impaired than others, and our strange little band would continue.


I already told you about the harness racing, which was a most enjoyable time, but perhaps my favorite part of the fair was the night ride we took on the ferris wheel. I had only been to a fair one other time a few weeks ago, and then it was only for a few hours, we didn't go on any rides, or see any animals, so I hardly thought it counted. Now when Ginny had asked me up, my one request was that we ride on a ferris wheel, because I'd never had that experience under my belt. Now that we had been around for a few hours I was seized with the desire to sit down on any ride that would fling me into the air. Our party stopped (by now it was Ginny, Jims and I, and a chap that goes to the Elkhart church named Christopher) and powwowed a moment. Heads were nodding, Yes, we could go on one ride tonight. Ginny called up here sister Becky and we scooped up ride tikets.

Now here it must be added, that Christopher very gallantly offered to treat for the whole ride, and when he went toget the tickets he was charitably repayed for his generosity by getting ripped off of $15. The ticket lady never gave him his change. ?!?!?! Can they do that? We gals were wrothfully contemplating fetching
fair security, when Christopher quietly pointed out that the lady was contemplating the same thing for us. A reluctant retreat was sounded, and we arrived at our ride a bit crestfallen and seethy.

But let me ask you, best beloved, would you advise one who had always been afeared of hights to find her way to the highest point in the fair? Nay, I wouldn't either, but that's exactly what I did. We were all settled in our little... our little coop and began our upward journey when gasp I realized that I had absolutely nothing below me. Did I bemoan my foolishness? Did I ask myself WHY I had come to this very tall place? No, my whole attention was wrapped in attaching myself securely to the middle pole so that I did not dash my silly self out on the earth many miles below. A fictitious danger? Nay, I saw with my own blue eyes that every time we came to the ouside of the circle I, the poor cabbage, was sitting in the heavens with only night air to break my fall!

This story (as truly told as any legume might have done it) does have a happy ending, best beloved. I received a few confused laughs from my party of protectors, and found that if I kept my back to the great frame of the wheel, the ride was downright fun. At last I was even able to scoot back a bit and pretend that I was on a veranda that was lifting me up and down over the fair.

But so much for grandious goals of grownup guts, I'd better stick to bumper cars...

Pickle juice

We’re baaaack!!!

For those who didn’t know that Amy and I had departed for the weekend to Elkhart for the greatest fair ever - we did. Well, it was at least the best fair I’ve ever been too anywho. Is any of this making sence? We drove up to worship with the Elkhart RPers on Sunday, heard Mr. York preach a very cool sermon that we missed when we were going on to Covfamikoi. Then we spent the rest of Sunday, all of Monday, and Tuesday morning with Ginny of Ginnys and saw the Elkhart county fair. Woot! Weela!! Huzzah!!!

Now as I have an unaccountable desire to dive into a tub of cold water, I shall be brief and leave you with some education points, things I’ve been having on my mind the past three days.

The most important things to remember about a county fair:
1) If you find SPF lip balm floating around in your purse, actually use it the next day…
2) A chicken by any other name will smell
3) You can go to the Rabbit Club booth, buy a salad and cheep subs and… fried rabbit Ewww!
4 ) Only kiss a duck in extreme private
5) Harness racing is really cool. You have these horses hitched to small single-man buggiesthinggies and they trot as fast as they can around the ring. If they break into a gallop they are disqualified, but it was actually riveting, these were beautiful expensive animals and they were all real competitors.
6) If you are a certain Cabbage (or pea?) watching harness racing, every horse you chose to cheer for will end up in 5th or 6th
7) Wear close toed shoes – “The horses have been here!”
8) Carving bunnies should be left to Michelangelo, not lumber jacks with chain saws
9) Every expensive teaspoon of beverage you can buy is worth it


P.S. I was intending to post my one picture from the fair on this blog, but I shall have to ask the certain person's permission if her hat-ed head and sweater-ed shoulders can appear on the interweb. :P

Tales of the Crimson Motorbus - Part One

Disclaimer: Though the characters in this story have been maintained so that the readers cannot help but know who they are, we fear that the events have been woefully distorted due to the unbalanced imagination of the blogger...

Swoosh. The red getaway van courses onto the interstate leaving Indianapolis, bound for Kentucky. Who are those outlaws inside the stealthy 15 passenger ride? A tall man, commandingly whiskered, unravels the coded maps. Beside him the lovely pilot, custodian of the ice box and the educational tapes. In the chamber behind them is a valiant crew of travelers: El Giusante - ever wondering weather she should study her map or liberate more calizonies from the cooler; L'italiano - a cool damsel changing between portly Victor Hugo and British pop opera; The Mushroom - a youth of many skills: guitar skills, lawn skills, Uru skills; and the newest Indiana Jones - tall, dark, and handsome, intriguingly whiskered as well. To complete the crew is Nameless Jamie - a pirate of many skills as well, exemplified in the ability to sleep under any amount of noise and baggage. Whither, oh ye braves, shall again such a crew assemble into such a van?!

Many bumps and bathroom breaks later the ride is complete, and the travelers disembark. What is it that they have come so far to see? The beautiful fields and horses of Kentucky? No, they came to see a baby spray spit bubbles over a camera, to hear Christ proclaimed in worship, to watch high school guys tell a skit in dance, to throw their hearts into singing the poetry of God. They came for the summer family conference of the RPCNA. They came for Covfamikoi.

Thump. The sound of heavy travel bags hitting the lobby floor. As the voyagers adjust from the midday brightness, they see in Glide-Crawford Hall an average dorm house lobby. Red carpet and dark wood pillars, tranquil counselors behind registration tables, the very bricks that had seen 80 years of residents, all conspire to assure them that RPers would not be lost in the bluegrass, registration was under control.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Grunt. Thump. Thump… Another sound, that of El Giusante ascending too her room. Little did she know that six days of practice would lend wings to her puny legs. The college-age girls had the privilege of rooming the third floor, and in a place with few elevators this meant 25 fine cardio workouts a day. She finds her room, plunks down the bag, and thumps off to find her way, wondering what the week has in store.

On the Road Again...

Hullo all. It seems that my leaving is the most constant source of posts – that shall be an interesting point of research some time...

Today’s matter, however, is to announce that I’ll be going to a church related conference in Kentucky tomorrow, and shall hence be unassailable by the wiles of the internet world until Friday. My loverly family (all five of them) shall be accompanying me on this journey, as well as a russet colored chap who happens to be our pastor’s son. The aprox. 6 hr ride shall be completed by the presence of Alexandre Dumas in the form of The Man in the Iron Mask. This conference may be a golden opportunity to get to know the presbytery better, so pray that God put His blessing on us. Tra la to you all, dahhlings.

Light for them that sit in Darkness

A week already gone by?! See the post by Ludvig, my esteemed colleague to find out what really happened this week. What I give you now is a book report that I wrote this afternoon for Church book reports tomorrow. The book is very keenly recommended, one of my favs.

Book Report: Light for Them that Sit in Darkness

This book that I'm sharing is John Bunyan's Light for Them that Sit in Darkness. It's author is famous for Pilgrim's Progress, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and many other masterpieces of Christian literature. God brought this book into my life during a time of real struggle - I took one look at the title and thought "This one's for me".

This book was written in I674, three years after Bunyan's release from prison where he had been kept for 12 years. The subtitle is (and you'll have to pardon my reading, some of his sentences are pretty long): "A discourse to show how Jesus Christ undertook to accomplish by Himself the eternal redemption of sinners". In the Editor's forward, they said that Bunyan was concerned with some grave errors of his day. There were those who believed that the Bible was of no importance and a person's own inner light was the essential guide for salvation. Bunyan published his book to show that the light of the Word would reveal the truth about Christ, the only means of salvation. And so all throughout his book, it is just riddled with scripture references (on one page I counted 11) worked right into Bunyan's sentences.

"Alas!" said Bunyan in his preface, "How ordinary a thing is it for professors to fall from the knowledge they have had of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and to be turned unto fables, seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils..." He was convinced that the cause of this trouble was that people did not have or retain knowledge of Christ's Person, or did not know "the reason of His coming, doing, and suffering".

And so expounding this theme, Bunyan starts at the beginning with the promises about Christ and how perfectly he fulfilled them. Taking a verse from Acts 8:13, he asks "What is this Jesus?" or in modern speech "Who is he?" "What was it for him to be of the seed of David?" And what about his being that seed according to the promise? etc.

Next he has two "observations" (there are no chapters in this book, they're in big brackets called "Observation First" and "Observation Second" but it's just wonderful stuff!). Just the title of the first one is "That in all ages, God gave His people a promise and so ground for a believing remembrance that He would one day send them a Savior". He expounds that a while, then moves to the second observation. Then he has another big clause about how Christ addressed himself to the work of redemption by "taking on our flesh", and "being made under the law". And on it goes.

It's a very earnest book. It is, as I said before, reasoned and hugely supported by the Scriptures, and it is a very faithful and refreshing dealing about our Lord.

More Cheese

[Decided to be cheesy again and sabotage letters that I’ve sent to people recently. After all, why rewrite the same news?! This is gonna be repetitive and fragmentary, but hey, at least I’m alive.]

What's up with my life? Well, I'd have to say for the most short term - I'm trying to get a summer job. Yes, it's pretty late to start looking, but a lot of the last half of May was spent it preparing for my homeschool High School graduation. And a lot of the first half of June was spent recovering from it (I still have a dozen thank you letters to write!). I do have the very good fortune of knowing where I'll go to school. In the fall I'm headed for Indiana University Kokomo (which is 3 miles from our house, incidentally). There are no dorms, so I'm a commuter, and I'll be majoring in English or Humanities - for starters, that is.

Where has God taken me since last year? Well, up here! We moved to Kokomo last August, became members of Sycamore RPC, and my Dad is a pastoral intern working on his license to preach. We all really love the people up here (in Indiana, not just Kokomo) the RP church has been so very loving and kind. I've basically been in independent non-denominational churches all my life, so I'm able to view this experience as the new kid. Pretty cool. ...

And no, none of my friends really ever caught on to Candy. The closer friends I had down in Texas did call me Cabbage, though. It was simply a diminutive nickname - not an insult like it sounds!! ...

Did you like Batman very much? I did, I actually got to see it a second time within the next couple of days because we went first with some friends and then our siblings wanted to see it! I'm gotta try to have a dinner and a movie with Amy, my sister, and see the third Star Wars again. With such big juicy movies it's kindof a shame to see them in theaters only once!! ...

Yes, we were very seriously considering a preliminary get-to-know-you trip to the UK, but now it seems much less likely. God moves in mysterious ways and for this summer the doors simply didn't seem to open for Scotland. It's too late now to sign up for ECHO but I won't be sad. There's plenty for me to do here, and I'm actually looking forward to spending a quieter summer at home in Indiana. Josh (my older brother up from Texas for the summer) and I have been able to go down to Indy a couple of times to a Bible study for college age students and we've both really enjoyed it.

You mentioned riding lessons. Do you ride horses? That's extremely cool. I had a horse once a long time ago, but I haven't really been able to ride any since. Yes, Amy and I are trying to get a job for those "long Summer days" perhaps not one as interesting at yours (our brightest prospect is Kroger right now) but we've been praying for God to guide us to whatever work (in a job or school or help) that He would have us to do. ...

[As I said in my last post, some of those prayers have been answered. And today I'm hitting the grind again - turning out a new resumé and applications]

Huzzah

Read back over your old blog titles some time (or at least the ones from the last two months) - if you're like me you'll see some fascinating highs and lows. You might have gathered from mom's blog that we had a church backyard fellowship night last Wednesday night - volleyball is so cool. And Fireflies!!! Oooo, I don't like bugs in my ear, but aren't they the most wondrous little creatures?! If you go riding through the country it truly looks like the night sky has come down into the field. ::sigh:: It was a nice night of Psalm singing, hot dogs, bubbles (with a big bubble wand) et all.

What does I now? I looks out the winder and I sees an overcast sky - my first reaction? Yippee!! Rain! Wind!! Mud puddles!!! But when I thinks about it I sees that if Josh and I are attending an outdoor concert in Indianapolis then we'd better hope that the rain don't travel down there. That or bring hats tethered with lightning rods.

This concert comes with attending Bible studies with the Covenanter Young Adults, the college-student-type ministry of a church in Indianapolis. Josh and I have gone to three of the Tuesday night studies at the home of an Associate Pastor there and have really loved it. This evening we'll be able to go to an outdoor concert of fireworks, picnic food, and George Gershwin music. Should be very coolness.

Oh, and last night we Jones girls hosted a party at our church that had a good 20 young ladies. Yeah, it was actually a ton of fun. I should have Amy write a full length review, but you can go to Ginny's site and see the very biased review :P.

Now me thinks me gets ready for me's picnic.



Oh, and this morning I just up and prayed that God would even get us some babysitting work (Amy and I have been trying to find more work), and at 10:30 or so Amy got a call from a neighborhood lady that we've been getting to know. She needed a babysitter right away, and off goes Amy. Our God is abundantly gracious and full of tender mercies.

Back from the void

Started this last night, and though I don't normally blog on Sunday felt that it was good to regain some ground in the blogshpere.

Giving this another shot. Tonight I'm just gonna try to turn the gun back on myself, take the chair, and ask a question.

What mercy has God had for me today?

Well let's see, He blessed our concert. Today was our grand smashing finale to the KASH (Kokomo Area Schools at Home) String Ensemble - our big spring concert. We played three major pieces by Bach, Beethoven, and Rossini - all adult repertoire, all full length pieces. God was merciful to bless us with calm minds and sustained strength - I've been at concerts before where we practiced so hard that we were too tired to give it our all at the performance. We got lost only once in the whole hour and even then we could have all panicked (I know I sometimes do), but we just took a breath, and found a way back into the piece.

God allowed us safe travel in our car. Ok, so we only went 5 miles all day long, but this is just something that's been on my mind that is so easily done and difficultly undone. Over the course of the week, however, I've been down to Indy and over to Marion and that eventually adds up to make 100 miles I've traveled this week. In none of those miles did we destroy any lives, harden any hearts, or even chip an inch of paint on our new van. Only God could have accomplished such a feet, and only His gracious heart ordained it for us.

God gave us a sermon today. Mom recently suggested that while the four kids are here for the summer, the five of us could read a devotional work in the afternoon (this does not replace family worship with Dad, it's an extra opportunity while we have the summer time). The work that we hit upon was a collection of sermons by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones called Spiritual Depression. I haven't got time to give the book justice at this point, but even with it's highly specified subject, and it's surgeon-like deliberation it's already bypassed my expectations. Let it suffice to say that he unashamedly began his "diagnosis" with some very cut and dry Calvinistic theology about conviction of sin, and justification before sanctification. Wow, just getting to hear this stuff every day is a blessing.

That's just three, and those are side issues compared with His mercy, His offer of total salvation and holiness, being renewed this morning. In the face of all sin and sinners, great is His faithfulness.

Here we are.

Well, I'm graduated.

How does it feel? Well, if it takes a village to raise a child it takes a fleet of galley slaves to graduate one. My family banded up and worked like a team of paid designers and caterers, they moved chairs and tables, set up the sound system, framed pictures, arranged balloons, even printed my acceptance speech! ::many bows to Mr. Benny:: Mom, Dad, Amy, and my BF Esther all wrote killer speeches (and still found time to help me organize and scrapbooks and baby toys!). My Granny put her life on hold to host us in high Southern style (with enough gravy and cake for Cox's army!!). Garsh, where does it all end?!

Dozens of people spent a whole Friday evening celebrating with me, junior high conductors whom I hadn't seen in a few years, old friends of my Grandmother's whom I couldn't tell from Adam. My Aunt drove 2 hrs from Miniola, my Uncle Lee actually slipped away from his work and drove 30 miles one way to stay for an hour. And then there was my Uncle Keith Carnes who traveled from Austin a whopping four or five hours one way, only to drive back that night because he had to work the next day!! Man, what did I ever to to interest or help these people? That's what I keep asking as I receive card after card in the mail. For now I'm putting the gifts back in a bank account, but why should they bother to send their money across the country at all?!

So yeah, I'm graduated, but it took the sacrifice of a lot of people, and a the abundant grace of God to provide for me. A week, heh, that I'll never forget.