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