Happy Birthday Stacey!

Here's your birthday song! I hope you enjoy it!

Maybe You Already Know About This

But I just saw that a movie is coming out based on the book Twilight that all of you guys are so in love with. Comes out November 21.

Another Product

Another product that I'm surprised I like is something I bought because I was out of face lotion, and I needed to buy something cheap. Anyway, I was looking, looking, looking, and not finding anything that made my socks roll up and down. Finally, I decided just to go with whatever looked like the best value. So I got a giant tub of (and I even laughed at myself for this) Jergens All Purpose Face Cream. Old lady stuff. I was a little bit embarrassed to be seen with it, to be honest. I took the stuff home not realizing that you have to wipe it off with a tissue after you put it on. When I saw that, I really thought I'd done something dumb. Anyway, I decided to give it a try. MAN! It's like a miracle cream! It leaves my skin soft, takes ALL of my eye makeup off (which I can NEVER do, even though I don't wear a lot of eye makeup), and my makeup looks SO GOOD when I put it on over this stuff! I'm with the old ladies on this, Jergens All Purpose Face Cream. The package hasn't been redesigned since 1972, but man is it good stuff.

I Got a Haircut!

And I like it too. It is the middle of the night, so it looks bad right now. Tonight I'm just happy to have my work done, and that tomorrow is Saturday. I turned one of my assignments in an hour late, so I hope that it won't be counted off. I'll try to make the blogging rounds in the am. We'll see.

Visitation

We went to the visitation for Jo-jo tonight. The last visitation we went to we told the kids beforehand how we expected them to behave and we told them that if they wanted to see the body they could. Neither of them were interested last time. This time however, Daniel wanted to look. I was surprised, but I had told him beforehand that we didn't know if they would be showing the body because the man had died in an accident, so it may not be in good enough condition to show. I think that got his curiosity up, so he wanted to see him. Well, the funeral home did a pretty good job considering what they had to work with, but Jo-jo still didn't look very good. And he was my son's first body.

I was surprised by the questions he had for me though. They were thoughtful. He wanted to know why our bodies were left behind when we died. Good question. I couldn't say for sure. Maybe it's so that when we die, our families don't have to wonder what happened to us. After some thought, I guess it's because the truth is, if you believe the Bible, that we were made to always be in our bodies, but when Adam and Eve sinned, it brought death into the world. Death is therefore unnatural and so it is not really natural for us to be separated from our bodies. That is, it was not God's original plan for us. I guess what I'm saying is that it is part of the curse from the fall of man. Maybe that's why I feel so ill every time I see a body without a person inside. It's just so wrong. Daniel took it pretty well, he had several questions throughout the evening, but I can't think about what they were now. Daniel said more than once after the visitation how sad he was for Jo-jo, and he didn't seem to grasp that Jo-jo is fine now. He's with Jesus, it's his family that he left behind that we are sad for, because they will miss him terribly. Daniel's six. That's just not how he sees it. I'd better leave my bedroom door open tonight, in case he needs me.

Very Sad News

Corrections made:

Our church has made it a priority to find the un-churched and bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Today a young man from our church who just got serious about the Lord had a motorcycle accident and passed away. He has a young son and a 9 month old son. He and his wife just married two weeks ago, and they were learning what it means to be followers of Christ (they had made their decision to follow Him about a year and a half ago). We have the confidence that we will see him again in Heaven, but we are very sad for his wife and children. Anyway, his wife needs your prayers as she is now the mother of a newborn with no daddy to help raise him. His children need your prayers too. Everyone needs their daddy.

Why Am I So Excited?!

Because my boy just discovered that he has his first loose tooth! WOOHOO for the big boy! (Waaaaaah! for me) The next 2 younger than him cousins have already lost a couple of teeth, and while it didn't seem to bother Daniel, I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen for him. I have heard of people that never lost their baby teeth and so are walking around as adults with little tiny baby teeth in their mouths. I was afraid Daniel would be one of those flukie things, but mostly I was concerned about it because he has a couple of teeth that grew in pitted, and I am anxious to find out if his adult teeth are going to be weird like mine. I hope it's just all the antibiotics I was on for ear infections that caused my lack of enamel and not genetics, but when his baby teeth grew in like that it scared me.

So...Wyoming?

Have we settled on a place for our new commune with earthship housing and people we'll all like? I really liked DC's Wyoming idea. We could stake our claims. We could have our own vegetable gardens and we can raise cattle and chickens together. We could harvest our own power and collect our own drinking water. The government couldn't interfere in our lives because we wouldn't need them! (Of course, they might mistake us for a cult and take our children from us, or storm our compound - think FLDS or Waco/Ruby Ridge.) But if we pay our taxes, maybe they'd leave us alone. Then when the Apocolypse hits, we'll all be safe and secure in our obscure little commune in the vast Wyoming wilderness. No one would even have to know we were there. Also, if we lived that far out of civilization, it's likely that when the next (inevitable) plague hits we won't be affected by it. We'll have to have fashion mags though, because I do not want to be stormed by the feds while I'm wearing my prairie dress because my one fashionable outfit is hanging on the line. Can anyone here sew, BTW?

The Answer to Many of Our Problems

I just saw these houses discussed on tv tonight, and I think it's a great idea! I am not an environmentalist, but these houses make a ton of sense! They don't cost much to build, there are zero utility bills... Guys. Really. We need to start our own little commune/neighborhood where we live in houses like this. We can help each other build them, and maintain them, and add on to them. They can make 8 inches of rainwater a year last all year. They have atriums where they grow their own food. Another added benefit is that we would get to stretch our artistic muscles while we did it. Very good idea. Plus, if we didn't have utility bills out the wazoo, it would make gas hikes less of an issue until they find a way to power our cars using human breath. So what if the name of the type of house is stupid, we could rename ours "Pretty Inexpensive to Build and Run, Which Makes Us Smarter And Wealthier Than You houses"! I wanted to embed a YouTube video, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Maybe someone who knows how can tell me.

School And A Possible House?

School has started. I got my grades back from my first assignments. I definitely got better grades than I deserved on both. I even got a perfect score on one of them! Anyway, I'm glad it went better than I thought it would.

I talked to a couple of mortgage people. The good news: we qualify for any loan we want. The bad news: we still need more money than we currently have. I don't think it will take too long once I get going at a new job.

I applied at Office Depot today. I had my first job there, and I really liked it. Hopefully I answered all their weird hypothetical questions to their satisfaction. (Things like "Have you ever done anything you aren't proud of?" "Have you ever in your life lied to anyone? Ever?") They didn't have us answer those things the first time I applied there. I answered honestly but I don't really know how to answer those things the way they want, and I'm afraid that not answering "correctly" will cost me the chance to work there. Hopefully I'll get a call back. Otherwise it's to the internet to apply for ::shudder:: McDonald's.

Anywho, just an update. See y'all later.

Oh yeah...

See my new mouse pad? Got it for a dollar at Target! Love it!

Okay, here's a photo of it in front of my hand-held mirror because the computer only takes mirror image photos. Not sure why...anyway, the mirror was Jeremy's idea. He's extra clever.

A Source Of Encouragement

I have to admit. I thought when we moved things would be different. We were going to live with Jeremy's parents long enough to get a house and we were going to be out in 2 months. Tops. I like to think of what Mark Hall (lead for the Christian band Casting Crowns) says: "When you're doing what God asks you to do, aren't baby angels supposed to appear from the sky and give you stuff?" Well, why not? I deserve baby angels! I'm doing what I know God wants me to do! Where are they?

I was talking to my sister-in-law Stacey the other day about it. They had the same problems (sort of). They ended up moving in with their parents when they moved to town because they needed to sell their own house before they could buy a new one. Well, they were here for more than 3 months when they got an offer on their house. By the time they had been here that long, they were starting to wonder if they had made the right decision. She told me that she had been talking to God one night and finally said to Him that unless He found a buyer for their house, they were going to have to move back. The next morning their realtor called and told them there was an offer on the house. They were in their new house within a month. They had lived with her parents for 4 months. Jeremy's parents have been great, but you know it's not easy to live with people (or have people living with you). Everyone wants their own space, and I'm starting to wonder, are we ever going to be able to get our own place? Instead of money showering down on me, it seems like there's a giant money magnet sucking it away, and while I am being very conscientious with our money, it's always gone after I pay bills and buy food every payday. We can't save anything - there's nothing to save. In any event...

...In that same conversation I had with Stacey, I was telling her that since I got here, it is very clear that any talents I used to have, have somehow seeped from me. I am unable to do the few things I used to be good at, and the things I used to be bad at, I'm even worse at! She reminded me that Satan doesn't like when we get serious and start working hard for the Lord. He's going to fight us as hard as he can on this, and that adversity is often a sign that you're doing something right. Ahh how I needed to hear that. What she said to me really meant a lot, especially since I bombed a skit we did in church last week. I have never done badly in a skit or play. I am a natural ham, and appearing before people doesn't bother me at all. I spazzed! Flat out went blank, and had to stand there in front of my new church family for a good 30 seconds trying to think of my part. It was gone. Usually, I can fake it, but not this time. Bye-bye brain. Anyway, Stacey is the person who organizes the drama at our church and she's very good at it. She's always had a good memory and can memorize her lines in no time at all. She is also a perfectionist, and she doesn't like it when people don't take their roles seriously. It's understandable, if you want to do something that puts you in front of the whole church, you need to be prepared. And this particular skit was about throwing yourself into everything you do like it's all for God. And I didn't even know my lines! Ouch. Anyway, this week has been pretty unpleasant for me. I feel so useless, talentless, and rotten right now. I have really needed to recieve grace and understanding from the people around me. Thanks Stacey.

My Silly Girl

I was just putting a movie into the computer for Launa to watch while I grab a quick shower. She noticed that I slipped the disc in upside-down and said something to me about it. I told her that that didn't really matter because as long as the label is facing toward us, the computer can read it. With fake sincerity Launa replies, "Oh - interesting!"

School's In Session

I'm starting a new class. The teacher wants us to tell the class something that makes us unique either to our class or the general population. I HATE these kinds of questions! They cause me to have to bee a little more introspective than I like to be. So I need help! What makes me unique? (Besides my freaky teeth, cuz that's all I can think of, and I don't want to talk about that.)

New Blogger In Town

Yay! My veterinarian brother-in-law that I've mentioned and even shown (think Wesley from Princess Bride) on this site now has his own blog related to veterinarian stuff. Really guys. Dr. Bern is VERY good at his job, and is in my opinion world class. If you have any questions regarding your pets, he's doing Q&As, and I'm sure he would love the opportunity to answer any questions you have. Here's the address: http://avetsguidetolife.blogspot.com/. Now go visit him!

I'm A Dork

I put my good playlist back up. (And added to it!) I love the songs I put on it so much, that even though I have things to do, every time a song comes on I think, "Ooh! I love this song! I'll just stay til it's over, then I'll get to work!" And then another good song comes on, and I go, "AHWHWHW! This song is great too! Ok, I'll stay til this song is over, then it's back to busy for me!" But darnnit! Awesome songs keep coming on, and I can't tear myself away! Well, now it's quiet 'cuz I'm posting, so I'd better post and hurry and leave before something else great comes on! I'd better mute my computer before I publish!