White Water

me at whitewater 2010 showing off my sharpie lightsaber tattoos- don't copy me!

I can't believe White Water is almost here. This is the premier event for 8th graders and it will impact you for the rest of your life. Which leads me to ask, why is camp so impactful? Whether it is summer camp, winter camp, at a facility, run on your own, big church, small church, old, young, whatever, what is it about camp that leads it to changing some aspect of your life? Maybe all the time spent together as a church body? The chance to get away from everyday distractions? The purposefullness of spending time with God while you are there? What is that magic, that camp high that people talk about? Hey I am not knocking camps- they are great, you should go, i am just pondering why we have to encourage people to bring their experience "down the mountain." Every camp has to tell its campers not to let the change they made in their lives, in their hearts stay at camp, but rather to bring it home with them. Why is this something that must be addressed? You would think that we take our other experiences with us and they become part of who we are, why must it be reminded about camp? Do we take camp for granted? I don't know, my coffe is wearing off and so is this philosophical mindset I am in, so I will sign off- but what do you think, I would like to hear?

Where did the time go?

I rememeber adults telling me when I was younger about how quickly time goes by. I am discovering this is a very true phenonemon. I remember when it felt like summers lasted forever ( we used to actually have a full 3 months- just less vacation during the school year) and it seemed to take so long before your next birthday. Time has somehow gotten shorter since then, days definitely aren't as long, whole months can pass by in a blink, and years- wow. This summer has started off at a crazy pace. I am not even surprised that June is almost over, althought I feel like I am still in April. And I know the summer will just continue to go faster and faster. We have so much going on! TNL, LNT, OverNighter, Beach Days, 2 Summer Camps, Allnighter, Weekends- it is an action packed summer!! Really is you aren't coming you are really missing out- come to everything, fill your summer with fun! That picture is me in bygone days when summer really did last forever- like my cute bathing suit!?!

Moving More

I can't believe our church is finally moving. It feels like it has been on the horizon for so long now that een though it is actually here and even now I am kneeling at my computer, that I quickly set up in a temporary location when I heard our servers and internet it available again, looking at blank walls and just everything in pieces and located in a big uhaul outside. I am feeling a lot of things right now. First off, I am feeling very sweaty- yay (said with much sarcasm). I feel a little sad to leave these buildings behind that I have been working in for 10 years. I feel mostly excited about the new property and getting everything set up. Being over there the last several days has been exciting as things are changing literally overnight. I had brought my camera but we were so crazy I didn't even get a chance to take any pictures. I have some that the church staff took of the new property so that is what I have above. I am sure once I stop driving to this campus and show up for work on the weekend I will start feeling a bit more sentimental. As of right now, I don't know what will become of these buildings but it will be interesting to see. Well gotta run- another uhaul load is ready so I gotta go!

Moving Day

I can't believe it is time to move to our new campus! The last few weeks have been spent cleaning and packing. The junior high room looks so crazy right now! Last weekend was the last one we will spend in our old JH room here on the Melrose campus- a little sad. Actually, I am mostly excited because it will be so cool to finally move into our new facitlity. It has been so long in coming! I was cleaning out things in my office and I had an old pictoral directory of the church from 2000. If you wanted, your family could get a picture taken and it would be in the church "phone book". It was cool and kind of ended up being a little bit like a miny yearbook. Anyway, one of the yearbook type pages was about the relocation project- can you believe it! There was info on there about the tent meeting where the project was explained and those meetings were over on the new property a decade ago!!! When I saw that in there I was just shocked that 10 years later we are just now moving in. It feels like it has been so long in coming, and when i saw that info I realized that it has been a really long time! But it is finally here. I wonder what the next 10 years will bring? Only God knows:)

These pictures are from the last weekend service in the JH room. So see all the pictures check out our junior high page and click on the photo album link.

Umm, excuse me? May, where did you go?

Wowee was May crazy! I still can't believe it is over and here we are already a week into June!! Time is a funny thing and my parents were right, it is going faster now then when I was a kid.

So I can't believe we have already said goodbye to our old 8th graders and hello to the new 7th! Always a bittersweet time, it is sad to say goodbye but AWESOME so say hello! So hello:)

Here is a picture of the 8th grade class, next week I think I will have a funny video up, although you may not think it is funny since it is an interesting rendition of of a super sweet 80's, maybe early 90's, tv show. Still it is pretty funny because the guy doing the song is impersonating someone else and he does a great job of it- this part you will know.

Also I have a game coming soon- I have several actually but don't want you to get so overwhelmed that your head a splode! (that is an old strongbad joke btw and in case you are, shall we say, older, then the junior high generation, btw means "by the way" although you probably got the strongbad reference)

So keep checking in, I will be better about updating at least once a week, rarely do I do more then that but I will do my best to get back on some sort of consistent basis.

Talk to you soon!

Language

Before I get into the post I must say what a lame month for blogging! I apologize for my lack of bloggy-ness. You klnow how your parents always say, "don't want to grow up so fast, time just keeps going by faster adn faster. Before you know it you are old!" I never really paid attention to it, how could years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds possible go any faster? They are a measured unit of time- they simply are what they are. Now that I am nearing 30, I have noticed that my perception of those units of time is what change. Albert Einstein has a great quote that relates, "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that time does seem to go faster the older you get, even though it is only your perception of it. Maybe it slows down again at some point later on in life- I'll let you know if I get there. All I have left to say about this subject, for now, is that the week goes by and I don't even realize it it seems. I am still stuck somewhere back in November of 2009.



Which happens to bring me to my topic. In late October and ealry November last year, my husband and I had the amazing opportunity to visit his sister, our brother-in-law, and niece over in Germany. We had an absolutely fantastic time, it was such a blast. One of the things that was so cool and so very much appreciated was the fact that many Germans, especially those under 40, spoke English and spoke it fairly well. Here is the thing though, most weren't only bilingual, some spoke 3 or 4 languages. I realize that the borders of our country make it a little different as far as interaction with other languages on a daily basis, whereas over there, you could drive around for 2 weeks straight and hit some part of like 12 nations. For example in Belgium they spoke Flemish, French, German and English. It is a smaller nation surrounded by other nations. I think our lingual isolation could easily be overcome if we taught language better, and if it were more of priority. Did you ever notice how no one had to teach you English? That when you were a kid you just kind of picked it up. Sure you learned words and vocabulary but it was much easier then our High School method of teaching language. I think you should be exposed to more language early on, in preschool and kindergarten. My little niece- fluent in German, she went to a German preschool/daycare type thing and just picked it up. Something about our brains just pick up language easier when we are young, so I think we should teach language then. Not taking any language out of High School- then you could learn more complex language stucture instead of trying to memorize apple is ... dog is ... cat..., etc. We would already know all that basic vocabulary and could instead focus on higher level lingual learning (nice alliteration if I do say so myself:). Then by college how cool would it be to read all those books they make you study in their original language, ok so maybe not all because you probably wouldn't be that fluent in all languages, but even to read some would be such an experience. Not to knock translations but sometimes things just don't translate the same. For example- how cool would it be to read the Bible in some of the original language?! Way cool. We would understand the English word "love" could be one of 3 words in the original language (Greek is what I am talking about here), "philo" meaning brotherly-type love, "eros"- passionate type, desiring love, and "agape" - meaning sacrificial love. All describing rather different emotions and actions.



So to wrap it all up, I wish we taught language earlier in this country. And I wish I knew more languages. My Spanish is super rusty, I was pretty good at it- not fluent by any means, but I defintely could get around with it, when I was in college. I had a teacher that would only speak Spanish to us- total immersion, especially by the end of the class. In the beginning he would answer in english sometimes if we had questions, but by the end, we didn't need him to because we could understand.



The picture is us with my sister-in-law and niece and her German friends- who were awesome and invited us into their home for dinner one night. They made zweiblecochen- not sure if I spelled it right, it's a German dish that is translated literally as "onion cake" and is kind of like a flat quiche- oh and absolutely delicious!







Here is more Germany:

Sorry I Stink

Ok, so I thought I was only a week behind or so but my last post was St. Patty's Day! Wow- that was forever ago. Sorry!

Here is something funny because I am so crummy!


Sad News

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Buttersworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch.. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was considered a very smart cookie, but wasted much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.......

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.


PS- thanks Sierra for the laugh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was reading up a bit on St. Patrick- who is he? what did he do? Since yesterday was St. Patricks Day I was a bit curious. I didn't do a ton of research, basically I just looked it up on Wikipedia- which I do have to say, the article was well cited by a vast number of sources so it is probably fairly accurate. Anyway, this is a small portion from it that tells just the basics of who Patrick was and what he did.


"Patrick was born in Roman[ruled]Britain ... When he was about sixteen, he was captured and carried off as a slave to Ireland. Patrick worked as a herdsman, remaining a captive for six years. He writes that his faith grew in captivity, and that he prayed daily. After six years he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and then that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away he says, where he found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to his family, now in his early twenties.

Patrick recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home:

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us. . .

. . .something can be seen of Patrick's mission. He writes that he "baptised thousands of people". He ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities. He converted wealthy women, some of whom became nuns in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with the sons of kings, converting them too."

Patrick brought the gospel to the Irish people- he was basically a missionary. I think that it is pretty cool that he is still honored today. We celebrate St. Patrick's day on March 17, the anniversary of his death which is believed to be March 17, 460 or 490 -ish AD. This man is revered in Ireland as a foreigner who came to "walk among" the Irish people and he talked to them about Jesus. He himself was a Catholic and so that was what he taught them and you can see the lasting impression he made as Irish and Catholic are often words that go together. Sometimes I think we push and try to hard to talk to people about God instead of being open to God working. Hey I am not saying that we shouldn't talk to others about God but maybe we need to change our viewpoint. I really like how St. Patrick said he walked among them, not that he converted them. It is not our job to convert people, everyone must make their own decision about God and His Son. I guess I want to ask what kind of impact are you having on those you are walking among? Do people see God in you? When you feel that small voice inside pushing you to bring up Jesus or to tell someone you are praying for them, to be kind to your enemies, to not gossip or retaliate when someone hurts you- do you listen? Walk with God and walk with people.

Anyway- I hope you had a great St. Patty's Day.

Time Change

Maybe I am just getting old but the time change has thrown me so out of wack! I am totally dragging- I mean I don't get it, it is one hour, shouldn't be that big of a deal but man am I sleepy! You junior highers must be hit super hard, although I know a lot of schools changed their hours so you don't have to get up quite as early. I think that is awesome and in no way begrudge the fact that I had to get to Roosevelt at 7:08 because class started at 7:12. Insane!!!! So I am glad that the times are later now for you because that truly was ridiculous. I don't think anyone was awake until like 3rd period. We would get out at like 2 something but I would have much rather slept in. Anyway, I am sure it was still a little rough getting up this morning. Right now I am seriously tired and it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I got the same amount of sleep last night, I guess it just "felt" earlier when I got up this morning. I even took a nap yesterday! That is why I interjected the comment about being old. Maybe you have a harder time adjusting to these things when you get old. I know at Starving 2 Serve my knees started hurting, no reason, or at least I didn't do anything. I think maybe it was the cold or the fact that I was standing basically the whole night. But here's the thing- that was the same for everyone- difference: I am old:)

What do you do when people are hurting?

Yesterday we talked about a subject at TNL that allowed a lot of people to share some ways that they are hurting. I feel a couple of things about this. I am so sad that such young people have such hardship in their lives, really heavy burdens that too often they seem to be shouldering alone. Second is amazement of the resiliency of junior highers to continue on in spite of a really tough reality and hope that they will rise above their current situation- and I know that they can. In the midst of experiencing anothers heartache, I often feel at a loss for words, for how to comfort without seeming cliche. I find the answer in Romans 12:15 "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." Sometimes all you can do is cry with someone, the only comfort you can offer is "I am here." While this seems like you are doing nothing the truth is you have validated their pain, confirmed for them that they are not crazy or wrong to feel the way they do. Empty condolences offer no real help and while just sharing in their hurt doesn't help in the standard definition of the word would lead you to believe, I think it can help just knowing that you aren't alone. My heart is heavy for these people I talked with yesterday and for those I know have such brokenness but I didn't talk to. I look at the sea of faces and I see so much in them, so much potential, so much joy, so much innocence, and so much pain. I wish I could make it better for them but I know I can't. I know the only one who can help is God, He can work in a heart and a life that may not get better in this lifetime but He promises to make a new life for those who follow Him. He is the only one who can keep you from ever being alone. He is the ultimate Counselor, the Prince of Peace. He is faithful, even when we are not. Those who follow are pulled into His promise, adopted into His family, and has a place in eternity with Him. I have no other comfort then that, knowing this life is not the end but the beginning to our lives with Him for those who know Him. Oh how I wish they all would know Him! I know He wishes that too.

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

You may or may not be aware of the fact that "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" is back at Disneyland. What is it you ask? Well- the idea first came out and was realized in the 60's for a special thing they were doing in Illinois. Disney had always been a huge admirer of Lincoln and he also happened to be the head of the Disney Studio and therefore one of the leaders in something called Audio-Animatronics. That is how the Tiki Room works, the Pirates, anything that moves "realistically" and talks. So Disney made a talking Abraham Lincoln for this fair thing in Illinois. Then he brought it to Disneyland to the Opera House on Main Street. It was gone for about 5 years now where it was replaced by a sweet show with Steve Martin and Donald Duck titled "The First 50 Magical Years" or something like that that debued during their 5 year long 50th birthday celebration. Well in January they brought Mr. Lincoln back.

This last Monday, I needed a day off and so I went to Disneyland. I had an incredible time!!! The Cast memebers were so great, I got free parking, free buttons, and felt super well taken care of. I went on rides, drew Pluto and all around had a blast. I learned 2 things- (well more then that but the rest for a later time) 1. that the Jewel of Orleans- my favorite jewelry store (it's right in New Orleans square across from the guy that paints umbrellas), is closing- I am soooooo bummed!!! But more importantly 2. That Mr. Lincoln was back and better then ever. The show was so good! It reminded me of all the reasons I am proud to be an American, and taught me more about a great leader from our history who was a man of deep character, who faced very difficult circumstances, and who followed God.

I hope you get a chance to see it in person but if not I got this off of youtube. It is fairly long but oh so good. It is in 2 parts- make sure you start with the one on top:)

Punxsutawny Phil

Do you even know what that is? That is the name of the ground hog that tells us if we will have 6 more weeks of winter of if we are in for an early spring. The whole deal around Groundhog Day, if he sees his own shadow- you know what I am talking about, yes?

Punxautawny is the name of the town where all this groundhog stuff takes place and where Phil lives. But why is this a national holiday? Why do we have Groundhogs day in the first place? While I was determined to find out. After some extensive research I found that Phil's first prediction was in 1887 and that he is wrong more then half the time. Still I was no closer as to learning how we even care what a groundhog thinks about the weather. I continued searching and I came across this:

"The story of Groundhog Day begins with Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Celebrators of holiday eventually declared clear skies on Candlemas meant a longer winter. The Roman legions, during the conquest of the northern country, brought this tradition to the Germans, who concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather or "Second Winter." German immigrants brought the tradition to Pennsylvania, but how did Punxsutawney Phil emerge?

In 1887, a spirited group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney dubbed themselves "The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club." One member was an editor of Punxsutawney's newspaper. Using his ink, he proclaimed Punxsutawney Phil, the local groundhog, to be the one and only weather prognosticating groundhog. He issued this proclamation on Candlemas, and yes, Groundhog Day. Phil's fame spread, and newspapers from around the globe began to report his Gobbler's Knob prediction. Today you will find 20,000+ in attendance an millions watching on television or via the web."

Strange but true. If you actually read the whole article probably you are wondering what "prognosticating" means so I'll throw the answer to that in for free: "to make a forecast; prophesy."

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Introspective

Looking back over my last few blogs I have noticed they are about things to think about. I guess I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, just reflecting on things in my life. I am still processing and don't really have much to share except that which I have been and am about to post on here. Because of my introspective state I gues you could say I am hearing things a little differently, external things are impacting me internally. So I got hit by something today that I wanted to share with you.

I subscribe to a daily email article from this guy named John Fischer, it is called "The Fischtank." Anyway, his article today really made me think, in fact I am still thinking about it. Let me let you read it first then I will tell you some thoughts.

Character development
by John Fischer

I know I've used this before but I can't help it. Never have I witnessed a part, a character or a situation as a dramatic production that is closer to my deep-seated fears and misassumptions than what I find in the character played by Peter Facinelli in the movie The Big Kahuna starring Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito.

I keep coming back to it because I have quotes from it in my speaking notes and when I go on the road and prepare for a new talk I run across them again and sometimes I find something new that didn't hit me as strongly as it did before. Probably because I wasn't ready for it. Truth is always like that.

Peter Facinelli, who plays Bob in this movie, is a perfect example of a kid who grew up Christian, went to a Christian college, took on all the trappings of what a Christian is supposed to be and do, and truly means it, but when thrust into the real world with two seeking individuals who to him would simply be non-Christians, the holes in his character, the missing links of humanity, the inability to connect with what should be naturally human become glaringly obvious. So much so that towards the end of the movie, Phil (the Danny DeVito character) makes an observation, "Your problem, Bob, is that you haven't lived long enough to regret anything."

To which Bob replies, "You're saying I have to go out and do something bad so I'll have something to regret?" (Exactly what I would have said, by the way.)

Phil: "I'm saying you've already done plenty of things to regret you just don't know what they are."

Ouch! That's the part that always nails me. But then he goes on to say: "It's when you discover them (the things you regret), when you see the folly in something you've done, and you wish that you had it to do over, but you know you can't, because it's too late. So you pick that thing up, and carry it with you to remind you that life goes on, the world will spin without you... Then you will gain character, because honesty will reach out from inside and tattoo itself across your face."

This adds new meaning to "pick up your cross and follow me…" Instead of dragging around some imaginary bloody beam of wood, what if Jesus meant for us to face into the failures, disappointments and mistakes of our lives and own them instead of excusing them or skating over them, and let them become a part of who we are and are becoming? Pick them up and carry them around as reminders of why there had to be a cross in the first place. So many Christians are like Bob: they're trying so hard to be good Christians that they wouldn't recognize their own cross if they tripped over it. Their cross is all the things they should be regretting but don't know anything about. Believe me, I can speak with certainty about this because I'm an expert at it.

Picking up your cross then would mean moving on in spite of your mistakes, failures and regrets. It would mean growing through regret and forgiveness, and finding hope on the other side of the cross.


I guess it has just got me thinking. There are plenty of things I regret in life however none of them are recent. And I don't believe we are to carry all our mistakes around with us all the time- Jesus paid for those mistakes, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. I am no longer chained to those sins, I am set free. But maybe that is what Jesus means by "pick up your cross and follow me." Too often I am overly impressed with myself- I need to rememebr why there had to be a cross- me, my mistakes and imperfections are enough to keep me away from the ultimate lover of my soul, so to make me perfect God sent His son to the cross. That's all I can articulate just now- still processing through the rest.

Let me know your thoughts

Cool article

I subscribe to the Worth the Wait newsletter. They are a company that makes purity rings and when you buy one from them they will send you an email like once a month with a different little article about purity, or a question of the month- different things like that. Anyway, this was this months article and I thought it was pretty cool and I wanted to share it with you. Let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions.

Purity Equal Happiness
"One of the biggest cultural problems of our society is that it makes no attempt to draw the line between how we act before we get married and how much success we eventually enjoy in marriage. The thing very few tell you is this: The way you conduct yourself before you get married will have a huge impact on your long-term happiness in marriage. Don't expect to have little discipline, ignore the future impact of your choices, and pray for a miracle after you say "I Do", and expect long-term happiness. It won't happen. The way you conduct yourself before you get married, the discipline you acquire, and your ability to look to the future instead of living for the moment will help to insure the kind of love story you desire and the happiness that will make life good. Abstinence/Purity is more than just not having sex before marriage. It is delaying sex until your marriage for the greater good, knowing that if you can wait, it's going to make you adult life less-complicated. Studies say that one in three married people in the United States is happily married. I really believe you are the generation to restore marriage and family to what God designed it to be, but this will only happen as we realize that purity equals happiness."

Now it doesn't mean the future will be perfect, you and your future husband are bot imperfect sinners but wouldn't you want to do all you could to set yourself up for success? If you knew a way to step around future heartache and pain wouldn't you want to go that way? You can't stop all pain or avoid all pain in your life but waiting until you get married is something you can control, that you can decide to do.

I got a dog

He is pretty cute. Right now his name is Little Buddy. We have danced around the idea of changing it to something tough like Maximus, but we are a bit partial to "little buddy" since we have been calling him that since we got him.

Animals are a lot of work. Actually I am lucky. He isn't very big which means small size poo, and he doesn't need to walk for hours because his little legs are doing like quintuple speed to keep up with me. But there is extra time involved. I have to get up early, spend time with him and take care of this little fuzzy life that lives in my house. I don't mind though. He is a really good dog and a bunch of fun, so the freedom that I gave up is worth it to me. You will probably see him at Christmas TNL- so don't miss it!!!

Did you know dogs dream. I can tell Little Buddy is dreaming because he twitches and whines, even barks sometimes in his sleep. I hope he is having fun adventures chasing rabbits or something. Why do they move like that when they are sleeping? I don't think I do that but maybe I do. I shall have to videotape myself sleeping some night and see if I do funny stuff in my sleep as well:)

Christmas!!! Holy Smokes!!

Every year seems like Christmas comes up so quickly but this year seems like it is in HYPERDRIVE (or HYPERACTIVE for those who made catch this extremely subtle movie reference). I have not gotten a single gift for anyone! Not one! Some of you junior highers may be thinking, "I am in the same boat" but here is the dilema for me- I like to get people things that they asked for. And the lists from my family are starting to get pretty picked over as in other family memebers have already bought x, y, and z. So what does that leaven me with? I think I might have to buy gift cards- which aregreat, I am not knocking them by any stretch of the imagination, in fact I love getting gift cards, but to have everyone open their present and it is a gift card gets kinda boring after awhile. Because I like to see what everyone is getting, we actually go around one at a time and take turns opening so you can see what everyone gets. It is super fun:) Anyway, watching people open gift cards is about as much fun as watchigna snow globe, it's cool for like 2 minutes and then you are bored to tears. Plus they aren't very fun to wrap and I really like wrapping presents. I always buy wrapping paper and Christmas cards after Christmas, because they all go on sale, and then I save them for next year. Genius, I know.

To almost completely switch subjects, the intial blog I was going to write about had to do with Christmas but none of this other stuff. I really wanted to tell everyone that I heard on the radio this morning that Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer is on TONIGHT!!! on CBS at 8pm!!! You cannot miss the claymation-y-goodness that is in store tonight. I love the Christmas specials. I don't own this one or How the Grinch Stole Christmas- which is another one of my favorites, a very close second to Merry Christmas Charlie Brown! which is my all-time favorite Christmas special. So I have to watch them on TV. I haven't seen Rudolf in forever, for a while they kept playing it the day after Thanksgiving and I wouldn't even start looking at my Christmas TV schedule until December so I kept missing it. So I want to catch that and grinch, and Mickey's Christmas Carol, because I really like that one too. I have the Peanuts one on DVD, like I said, and Elf, and A Very Merry Muppet Christmas (also a winner)so I'll be watching those on my own schedule, but i can't wait to watch Rudolf tonight- you should watch it too!!!

Sweet video

I like skateboarding- I don't mean doing it, I am not that cool- but I like watching tricks and stunts that people do. I am always amazed at how high, how fast, and how many spins, flips, etc. they are capable of doing- all under human power, you know, no motor. (that was a huge run on sentence by the way). Anyway- I think that stuff is cool to watch. You gotta check out this video, it is not like other skateboarding videos, same tricks and stunts but the kid is in a wheelchair! Incredible stuff he does. And when he takes off his helmet, he looks like he is only 13-15, so you age, and he is super sweet. Check it out!!! and let me know what you think:)

I am back

I don't know if you know but I was out visiting family in Germany! That is right-I was in 4 different countries in the last 2 weeks, USA, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. It is kind of sad to say but I didn't realize Luxembourg was a nation until very recently. It is very small and maybe I learned about it in school but I just don't remember studying it in school. I have to say it has a pretty interesting history, as I learned while I was there, and I absolutely loved Luxembourg City, but I don't recall it being on the big map of Europe in "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego," which was the sweetest game show for junior highers back in the day. Rockappella the singing group did all these cool little jingles and you had to know geography and histroy- so much fun. There were 3 contestants and the one with the highest score at the end got to do the final challenge where there was a big map- huge really, that you would run across. The host would say a country and you would run across the map and put a flag on the country. If it was right it would light up. You only had a certain amount of time to get all 15 countries right. Sometime you got Europe or South America- you just never knew what map you would get so really you would need to study all of them. The hardest was always the Africa map. It was so hard because there are so many different countries in Africa and you would have to label 15- you just don't know which 15 they'll pick. So maybe you know where Ivory Coast is but you mix up Narobi and Namibia and you are finished! Anyway- I don't remember Luxembourg being on the map of Europe but maybe it was:)


So I had fun- here are some pics of me in Luxembourg!

Friends

Transparent relationships are so important. We need to have another person in our lives that knows us, the real us, someone we can depend on and who depends on us. We need real friends- the kind that encourages us when we are down, stands up for us when we are in trouble, and helps us when we are in need.

Eccesiastes 4:9-12 says this: Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

We need to have people like this in our lives. Here is a cool story about friendship:

Friends forever.....The orangutan was in a rescue and not doing well. This old hound wandered in absolutely emaciated and the orangutan snapped to like his buddy had arrived. He stayed with the hound night and day until he was well and in the whole scenario, found a reason to live. They are now inseparable. Isnt that sweet?

Oh the Things You Can Think

I know my blog is called "al's thoughts of the day" but I don't always have thoughts on here. Sometimes I have games or random pictures. I was thinking about that today as I was thinking of some thoughts for my blog. And honestly the first thing that came to my mind was the book "Oh the Things You Can Think" by Dr. Seuss. That got me thinking about Dr. Seuss books and how much I liked them as a kid. The Cat in the Hat wasn't my favorite but I love the Grinch. There is also this cool story about these bird things and some have stars on their bellies and some don't and how they were being prejudiced against the different star bellies and things would go back and forth- sometimes stars were cool and sometimes they weren't till the end where they agreed it didn't matter. If you know the title of that one- let em know please. i seriously haven't read it since I was like 9. I also liked "I Can See with My Eyes Shut"- it was funny. Anyway, thinking about Dr, Seuss got me thinking about my college, UCSD, because our library there is named after him. It is called Geisel Library because that is Dr. Seuss' real last name. It is a super sweet library, it was designed to look like a tree. There is a picture of it below. It is in commercials a lot (not as a library, but playing the part of other buildings because it is so interesting architecturally). There is a little museum inside to Geisel with some first edition Dr. Seuss books and stuff like that. Thinking about the library got me thinking about the smell of libraries. It doesn't work in newer libraries- it takes at least 10 years for the smell to permeate the building and then only if the library contains a lot of books at least 20 years old. The library smell is a combo of aged paper and leather, with a little bit of musty-ness thrown in on top. I love the smell of libraries. Just thinking about it makes me want to go to one now. But the one closest to my house is fairly new and doesn't really have the smell, so then I was thinking I should go down to UCSD and visit- it is a great campus to walk around, so many interesting things to see. Thinking of UCSD makes me think of how I want to walk down the walkway that looks like a giant snake again- it is cool, and the other neat things there- Virtues and Vices lights, the silent tree, the singing tree, the test columns-turned-art, the ocean view- oooh and the new campus I haven't seen yet!

So there you go- not just a thought of the day but my train of thoughts for the last couple of minutes. Enjoy:)