Thursday, September 22, 2011

Inside Jokes

On Facebook recently, I reconnected with my old and dear friend, Debi. We became friends in 2nd grade at church (and if you do the math... that was like 34 years ago!) and after high school, we kept in touch a while the way you do and then life gets busy. It was so much fun to catch up with her again. And when we were chatting on FB, she reminded me of something we used to do - something unique to our friendship. Whenever we would write letters/notes to each other in high school to pass in the halls... we would put this at the bottom: "P.S. 234-5847". (That was her phone number growing up- now tell me how I remember that but can't remember to get Sarah to piano lessons at the same time every week?!) Neither of us can remember how it got started, but we ended our chat session with the P.S. and our current numbers. How fun!

And so I've been musing about these little inide jokes or memories or things we will say in relationships that only that one other person will really "get".... here are a few I can think of off the top of my head from my relationships with others....

With my sister.... "I do you like"

With Sarah and Libby...... "Venezoooooola"

With my brother and sister at Christmas.... Exchanging Lifesaver Storybooks

With my mom and dad........ "He/She is a Feducial"

With my friend Sonja's mom..... Ha ha. I can't type that one here. ;-)

With my friend Beth...... "Flower Arranging"

With my friend Tammy..... "Do you want to meet at our hole in the wall?"

(I'm not supposed to share this picture with her trainer! He thinks she's eating "clean" these days!)


And then there's Darcy....no one has as many inside jokes as me and Darcy. We have so many that I'm not sure I even know all of them. Ha ha. Here's a sampling....


Aux Chenex

That's a cute little Putt-Putt

Square Dance Lessons

My huband loves to bowl

GET IN THE CAR

Here's my student ID

I'm sick of wearing your dirty clothes

Sword collections

Moto Photo


Well, I would be here all day if I tried to name them all. There are like 1,000.


And this post has no other point. So don't be looking for some profound connection because I'm not going to make one. :-)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Picture from a walk at dusk










Pastors and Precepts

I'm not sure what is about to come out of my fingers.... my mind is churning and that is a scary thing. But I've been bombarded today with thoughts about who I am and who God is and what on earth (pun intended) does He want from me? Because I sense it's not the minutia I tend to obsess over... but something else.

During my last appointment with Dr. H, he asked me about church and how I'm doing spiritually (and how I need to be asked and how thankful I am he never fails to ask) and I said, "Spiritually, it's just me and God and The Rock. And that's not a bad thing". And by "The Rock", I mean the church I've been attending. My point being I haven't really gotten involved in church as I have been in the past- no bible studies, no fellowships... but the services at The Rock bless me. And beyond that, it's me and God. And I am learning to know in my heart that God is enough. But I don't believe I am in this place to stay here forever. God always has a plan, is always working in my mess to push me to the next level of maturity and He won't waste this time.... but I might.

At The Rock today, the Pastor talked about these three pillars... Closet, Classroom, Community. Closet being your personal, private, secret relationship with God. This is the relationship you have with Him when you go into your prayer closet and close the door and you are alone with Him. This is the foundation of your faith- and I was just hit (hard) by how little time I am spending in that closet these days. How much time I am wasting. How much pain and suffering I have endured and inflicted and how if I don't learn from it or if I am not stronger spiritually because of it... what a waste it was. And some of it is laziness or complacency or life-distractions. But I think it's more than that. I think it's partly fear. When I am alone with God, I feel him nudging me in directions I long to be and yet am so terrified of the journey. I catch glimpses of things he wants me to do and I get excited and then a second later.... afraid. I hear God, but I also entertain the lies of the enemy.

We sang today "The mountains shake before You, the demons run and flee, at the mention of your name, King of Majesty.....There is no power in hell or any who can stand against the power and the presence of the Great I Am".

And I raised my hands in worship and to testify that I believe..... but then... why am I so afraid? Demons run at the mere mention of His name. I serve a God against whom nothing can stand. He's not sending me to scary places, he's going with me. I need only whisper his name... "Jesus".

And when I started to type (and when I gave this post a title), I wanted to share about the contrast between the church where I spent Sunday morning and the one where I spent Sunday night. Because it played into how I am feeling tonight. I want to type this in a way that is not critical. I want to type it in a way so I don't sound like I think I am somehow superior to others. It's not that at all. But this is my blog. ;-) And I am only speaking what I honestly see. But when I attended the service tonight at a different sort of church- the kind where I grew up and have spent my entire life, the kind where things are done "decently and in order" and where "precepts" are very important and where we MIGHT get to heaven if we get it all right and where we beg God to accept our worship and then just sit back and hope he does (and yes, we're pretty sure he does because we have done it all "right").... I felt this overwhelming urge to stand up and shout, "There is so much more!!!! God is so much bigger than you know!" But instead I just let the contrast convict ME of what I had been feeling all day... that God is bigger than I know. And wherever he wants to take me- and whatever he wants to show me.... I don't want to miss it because I am afraid or lazy or distracted or worried about doing it right.

We don't call them "Pastors" in my "church of origin". (In therapy, they call the family you were born into your "family of origin"). And we don't talk much about "Precepts" at The Rock. But who cares?! God wants to know me!!!! The Almighty God wants to spend time alone with me... writing his words on my heart... hearing MY heart.... loving and equipping me. He wants me to fall in love with Him when we are alone and no one is watching me. He wants me to know and trust him. And then he wants me to get out and make a difference in his Name in a place where people are dying without him.

Hallelujah! Holy holy! God Almighty! Great I am. Who is worthy? None beside thee. God Almighty! Great I am.

Here's a link to the awesome song about the Awesome God:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5CWGi82N7k&ob=av2e


Sunday, September 18, 2011

Some of my Favorite Homecoming Pictures

Kaitlyn, Scott, Sarah, Jacob and Alexis. Sarah with her grandparents.

Sarah and Roman. (Sittin' in a tree...)


I made her necklace for the night as a surprise. Go me!

Sarah and her little sister. (Sarah is wearing 4 inch heels.... )


So fun!



Monday, September 12, 2011

American Picker

Out for a walk last night, I discovered this treasure that someone had put by the side of the road for the garbage. It's weathered, but I like it. Now I just need to get some real plants/flowers to put on it. Maybe I will grow an herb garden on it!!! :-)

Fall/Yardwork/Decor

As it turns out, I don't mind yardwork TOO much. Thankfully the people who lived here before me took alot of time on the landscaping in front of the house so really all I have to do is maintain it. I put down 6 bags of mulch over the weekend, plus did alot of weed-pulling, trimming and I mowed the yard. And of course, splurged on a few cute items including the little metal sunflowers in the foreground of the picture and the bright red mums up by the door!

I LOVE mums.

I also put some bigger mums in the flower "beds" built in beside my mailbox. For these, I chose the white ones with the yellow centers that kind-of look like daisies (my favorite of all flowers). They haven't completely bloomed yet- so that is something to look forward to!




Did I need this little angel? Probably not. But she was only $5 at Michaels!!! :-)

After a weekend spent outside (I am seriously sunburned, too, btw)... now I have to spend a couple days hitting the books hard before my parents arrive later this week for a visit!!! Woo hoo!!!! I am so excited!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Ten Years Later

I don't know who lived in my house in 2001, but Sarah's window still bears a reminder of the day that changed our lives. When we moved in, I thought about trying to scrape it off... but today I'm glad I left it.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Office Update

Brought home an olive green wingback chair from the store- very comfy. And then I moved the little table that used to belong to my grandma over to sit beside it and replaced it with a maple table that I put the printer on to make more space on the table for working. The maple table is from the store, as well, and has two drawers for pencils, pens and paper, etc. I'm going to get a lamp to put on the table beside the chair OR a floor lamp to put behind the chair.























Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Wordless Wednesday
















Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Pope is Right

So... my neighbor's mail was delivered to my box by accident a couple days ago and it was a copy of a newspaper called "One Voice" which is "The Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Birmingham In Alabama". (Vol. 41, No. 31, September 2, 2011 - so as not to be guilty of plagarism as I quote from the article in a minute!) I decided before I returned it to its rightful owner, I would read it. There were some interesting tidbits, but I was especially interested in an article called "Cradle Catholics Haven't Done Enough to Evangelize, Pope Says". When I think of Evangelism, I don't generally think of Catholics.... so my first opinion was that the Pope was probably right. ;-)



But then I also found some of what the Pope had to say to be very convicting for us "Cradle Church of Christers" or just Christians in general.

Here are the highlights:

"Cradle Catholics haven't done enough to show people that God exists and can bring true fulfillment to everyone."



"We, who have been able to know (Christ) since our youth, may we ask forgiveness because we bring so little of the light of his face to people; so little certainty comes from us that he exists, he's present and he is the greatness that everyone is waiting for".

Ouch.



The day's reading was from Psalm 63... "the soul thirsts for God in a land parched, lifeless and without water". He asked God to "show himself to today's world, which is marked by God's absence and where 'the land of souls is arid and dry and people still don't know where the living water comes from'. May God let people who are searching for water elsewhere know that the only thing that will quench their thirst is God himself and that he would never let people's lives, their thirst for that which is great, for fulfillment, drown and suffocate in the ephemeral'.



That part gets me because I, myself, when I am thirsty, search for that water "elsewhere", I suffocate in the ephemeral (the temporary) when I KNOW only God can really quench my thirst and it is not God's will that I live without The Living Water. How can I be showing others what they need when I don't even grasp it myself?


"We want to ask (God) to forgive us, that he renew us with the living water of his spirit and that he helps us to celebrate properly the sacred mysteries."


Celebrate properly the sacred mysteries! Isn't that beautiful? Yes, Lord, renew me with the living water of your spirit so I can celebrate and be a better representative to a dry and weary land where is no water.



Monday, September 5, 2011

College and a Lovely Rainy Day

I unpacked the remaining ten boxes from my move last night and got the office more-or-less set up. I've got an olive green wing back chair at the store that I'm going to bring home and put in the corner. I apologize the picture is blurry. There is no light in this room. I bought a floor lamp, but ended up moving it to the living room so I am going to have to get another one.This semester I am taking Ecomonics (again! Don't ask.....or I will start to cry), Statistics, Legal Environment of Business and one called Organizational Communication where we write a bunch of business documents (letters, resume, etc.)




I was most afraid of Statistics....so far it's okay, but I'm still nervous. The Business Law class is the most interesting... although I have to wonder what ANY of this has to do with Accounting. Ha ha. :-) I guess at 41, a person doesn't want to undertake any unnecessary tasks. But, if I want the degree, this is how it must be.


Here is where I sit to do alot of my reading:




And here is my view from that chair. Today it is rainy and cool, so I opened the window so I can smell my evergreens and hear the rain. Peaceful!



Now to stop blogging about it and get back to the books......

Elizabeth

Libby got this delivered to her this week at school. It's something she made two years ago! Apparently she won an "Honorable Mention" and we never knew it. Go Libby!! :-) And before I forget (again), a while back I posted a picture of her in band and said she was in the last chair in the clarinet section. She corrected me and told me that she was actually in the first chair in that picture. It was supposed to be her friend Alice, but they switched at the last minute because Alice didn't want to sit on the end by the audience. I have no more to say as I think you can conclude on your own why Alice and Libby aren't in band anymore. ;-)