Gotta Love the Car

Well, as I type this blog post, I am sitting in my car. I have either posted a blog about this or a facebook update about this, but for those that don't know, my car is my favorite place to be on Wednesday nights.

I live too far from the church to drive home on Wednesday evenings, so I have gotten into the habit of sitting in my car listening to the radio while I wait for evening services to begin.

So, here I sit.

For those that are curious, I am listening to NPR on the radio.

My Blackberry is plugged in so that I don't run down the battery while I type this.

And I am sipping a soda (Gasp! Yes, a caffeinated drink.) as I am waiting to go in.

It is my metal/plastic safe haven.

As I sit here just a little bit longer, I will take a moment to wish all of you a very Happy New Year.

Ode to Lisa and Nichole

Okay...this is my ode to Lisa and Nichole who both made me feel so much better tonight in my misery (long story).

So, I am going to take a moment to tell you about them.

Lisa has promised to smock me a pair of overalls for many years, but still hasn't gotten it done, and every 30+ year old needs a pair of smocked overalls. Also, she and her husband have "lied" to their kids and told them they were taking a trip to see plantations and civil war sights when they were actually going to Disney World.

Nichole laughs openly at me and has been known to start quite a few emails to me with the phrase, "I'm going to shoot you." She also is the human weather channel and most times of the day can be found actually watching for incoming storms to tell everyone about.

Regardless and because of these things, these two ladies are two of the most wonderful people I know. They let me randomly call, text, email, and IM them with usually the same complaint, and they listen and commiserate each and every time.

Everyone needs a Lisa and Nichole.

Best Money I Ever Spent

Well, folks, I am blogging to you from the comforts of my car. Yes, that is right...my car. Seems I have a VERY flat tire.

I will admit that when I saw it, I felt momentary panic because I only know how to change a flat tire in theory. Fortunately, I remembered that I have a membership to AAA. And I have decided, after the panic wore off, that it is hands down the best money I have ever spent.

So, now I am just waiting for Roadside Assistance to come change my tire so that I can be on my merry way.

Do you think I can convince them that washing and cleaning my car is part of their normal roadside assistance duties?

Plan of Attack

In my last post, you read about my grand plans. Well, I have taken my grand plans and created a plan of attack (I realize that I am letting the organizational nerd in me shine through).

To start my plan of attack, I wanted to reorganize my bean storage, but the current "bag they came in" system wasn't working. As I was digging around in my grandmother's utility room on Christmas day looking for the trash bags, I stumbled upon a huge number of large mason jars. Those were perfect.

Since I don't tend to eat much meat (childhood trauma with both chickens and cows--but that is for a later story), I do lots of beans and rice. One day as I was flipping through the TV channels, I stopped on an episode of Martha Stewart. I sometimes secretly wish I could do all the things she does, so I watched it for awhile. She was using mason jars as a storage system for beans, and while that wasn't just innovatively mindblowing, it was something simple that I could do.

So, I spent last night with the plan of attack of getting my beans (and rice, too) organized into the jars from my grandmother's house.

Now I know what you are thinking, you are mentally making fun of my love of all things organizational. All I have to say is that when my beans are neatly displayed on my food shelf, and I can grab them quickly to add to a recipe, you will be oh so jealous.

Grand Plans

I am packing up getting ready to head back to Houston in the morning. When I get back, I will have a relatively light week. The office is only open until 2pm each afternoon this next week. Plus, while I still need to finish my lecture for a conference I am speaking at, I can also plan to get other things done.

So, I have made a list of "Grand Plans" that I hope to accomplish this coming week.

1. Go see a couple of movies.
2. Clean out my overstuffed closet.
3. Clean out my utility room.
4. Clean out my dresser.
5. Replan my bean storage system (my grandmother sent me home with large mason jars).
6. Replan my rice storage systerm (again, the mason jars).
7. Plan my meals for this month.
8. Bake some homemade bread.
9. Hem my pants.
10. Figure out what Houston-winter clothing will actually work for Colorado-winter clothing.
11. F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. clean up my office at church.
12. Read a book (or two, or three).

I will let you know how much progress I make.

Bible In a Minute

My niece was reciting this to me this evening, so I thought I would look it up to share with everyone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Merry Christmas from the booming metropolis of Troup, Texas. I hope everyone has woken up to a wonderful Christmas morning.

All is quiet here in my grandmother's house. We did all of our Christmas stuff last night, and today, we are getting ready to head over to my aunt's house for Christmas lunch.

Once we get back to Troup this evening, I will sit down and update my blog. In the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I Only Have Myself to Blame

Whew...I am finally home. Yes, even after much declaration that I would not set foot into the stores today, I ended up going Christmas shopping. In my defense, I realized that I was missing a couple of gifts because I forgot one person (yes, I know I am a horrible relative) and the other person's gift never arrived.

So, about noon today, I set off towards the mall. I ended up going to one that was terribly near me because I also had a haircut appointment. I cruised down the interstate towards this mall, and as I neared my exit, I saw a massive back-up of cars. I thought that certainly there must have been a wreck. Nope. No wreck. It was all cars trying to get to the mall.

I should have come to grips with reality right then, but the lure of a fresh haircut kept me going towards the mall.

Fast forward a few hours, and I successfully navigated through most of the shops in the mall with no luck as far as gifts go (although, I was highly tempted to purchase a retro Green Lantern watch to give to my dad as his Christmas gift; I don't think he would have dug it quite as much as I did).

Well, my hair is freshly cut, and I am sitting on my couch. I would proclaim again that I refuse to hit the stores again. However, I am still short 2 Christmas gifts. What if I wrapped up my extra cans of Muir Glen tomatoes? Could those be considered reasonable Christmas gifts?

Last Day to Christmas Shop

Good morning, all. I am typing this new blog post from the comfort of my cozy bed (thank you, Blackberry). I really should be getting up and getting stuff done, but it is my day off, and I am not feeling highly motivated.

However, laying here a little while has given me a chance to mentally go through my checklist of Christmas gifts and realize that I still have a little shopping to do.

About 3 months ago, I got industrious and I shopped online for all the gifts. I was scoffing in the face of Christmas because I had all my gifts purchased by November 9th.

Well, Christmas scoffed back. One of my packages (a gift for my dad), never arrived, and a couple of others ended up sending notices of being sold out.

So, today will be a shopping day--my last shopping day before Christmas because I R.E.F.U.S.E. to go to the stores tomorrow when people are off work and frantically buying their last minute gifts. Although, I will admit that it is kind of interesting to watch the husbands (who waited till the last moment to shop) search through the picked over merchandise only to be forced to leave with either a holiday hot chocolate pack or an "As Seen on TV" item as their wife's gift.

Well, I think I have finally decided what I need to get for my few remaining gifts. I also feel fairly certain that I will have to brave the mobs (even on a Friday) to do so.

Hmm...

I took this post straight from my friend Lynn's blog (lynnslittlelessons.blogspot.com), but I located the video so that you could watch it as an illustration.

*******
Randy [Harris from ACU] then showed a video where Joshua Bell, a classical violinist, participated in a social experiment in January 2007. He positioned himself at the L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION which is part of the subway station in Washington and played some of the hardest classical pieces for 43 minutes.

Over 1,000 people passed by while he was playing and paid him no attention. These same people would have had to pay $100.00 for the cheapest seats to hear him in a concert, but they paid him no mind.

He had put out a case to collect money and had only raised $12.00 before a lady recognized him and gave him a $20.00. Here is what that lady had to say, "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?"

Randy used this to further his point that we are surrounded by the presence of Jesus and do we take the time to notice it or not? As we rush about and scurry we may miss the Lord of Lords and King of Kings because He almost never appears the way we expect it?

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells what is going to happen at His second coming and what He will say to the sheep and the goats. Basically he either praises them or condemns them for the way they treated Him when He was poor, hungry, sick, thirsty, naked and in prison. Both groups question when they had seen Him at all, to which He replies "Inasmuch as ye did it(or did it not) to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."

They had missed Jesus by not recognizing His presence in people.

********

What an interesting illustration. In this time of hustle and bustle, are we slowing down to notice the people around us and see Jesus in others?

Finally Updating

So, I am finally getting a chance to update. Things have been quite busy here, but I can't actually remember what has been going on, so I will give it my best attempt to update you.

1. Yesterday was Sunday Funday for my church and two others. We took 60 kids to play LaserQuest. If you have never had the chance to do this, I highly recommend it. It was quite fun, and I think I took too much pleasure in "shooting" the kids.

2. I ordered the George Barna book called Revolution from Amazon. When the box came, instead of a book, it contained the Wii game Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Dance Party. Trying to get that returned while explaining that I did NOT order it was way more difficult than it should have been, but that will have to be a separate post.

3. I have continued to L.O.V.E. my Dyson. My carpet is super-duper clean, and I generally vacuum for long enough each evening that I am thinking I could count the vacuuming as my exercise regime each night.

4. I think I will be losing another toenail. Saturday morning, I was trying to dash out of the church office before the alarm system was set, and I ran smack dab into a desk. O.U.C.H. My toenail is now purple and black.

5. My new check-in system kiosk arrived. While it looks really nice, it is rollable and if you stand behind it as you roll it around, it looks like it could either be a rolling pulpit or a rolling bar. Neither of which would be appropriate for me to roll around (especially on a Sunday).