new pics

Got some new pics of the hayride... see below! I am also very excited because I now have a new wireless card in my laptop. I know, like I never get online anyway... :-)

dust (and hay) settling

It's definitely going to take me a while to get used to this new schedule. Each day is different, which is so great for variety's sake, but the feeling of it is still really new.

Thursday night Justin spoke on self-control at Christian Challenge. He used another of his famous analogies, this time about standing in line for the bathroom. Our analogy list now reads: Faith is like chicken, salvation is like cooties, we are like a bologna sandwich... and now self-control is like the pee-pee dance. If you have never heard Justin speak, just believe me that they all make perfect sense in context!

So the weekend... This Saturday we had our annual church hayride, or shall I say hay fight. It was great to have a huge crowd this year! We had almost 40 I believe. The first picture is of Jess getting a special pre-hay hair treatment from Justin!

We had the "rowdy" wagon and the "weenie" wagon... I was glad to be a "weenie" this year and keep watch over some of the littlest kids. Justin was a great sport as usual- despite his hay allergies he went on the "rowdy" wagon and got completely covered by hay-slinging kids who got a fiendish delight out of pelting the pastor. Luckily he still had his voice to preach the next morning.

Sunday night Matt treated us to his latest sermon. It was on parenting. He drew on his vast experience with the subject. :-) He DID do a great job of basing it on Scripture and giving examples (fron the kids' point of view at least!)

Yesterday I spent over three hours waiting at the dentist's office for him to tell me that I have to come back Friday to have my 3 remaining wisdom teeth yanked. And he can't knock me out for it either. The excitement never ends around here I tell you!
We did have a fun evening though - we went over to the newly opened Hobby Lobby, the first one we've had up here in Lansing. For you northerners, that's a gigantic home and craft shop that beats Michael's and JoAnn's hands down. Of course they are having all these great opening sales so Justin and I had to hang onto the wallet. We managed to get out with most of our money intact. A little-known fact about Justin is that he used to help design Hobby Lobby stores in his architectural heyday, so it was especially fun for him.

I love fall.

How could any other season be better?

surprise!

Heather found out yesterday how easy it is to actually surprise me... I was totally clueless that she was throwing a party for me and her supervisor Jill at work. She pulled it off by telling me the party was for Jill and telling Jill that the party was for me. Of course everyone else knew it was for both of us. I don't think I've ever met anyone who is as thoughtful of others as Heather.

Yesterday was a long but good day. Carrie and I finally found a time to meet one-on-one. It is so easy to forget how valuable time in the Word is... then when you find yourself teaching someone else how important it is you gain back that appreciation! We started out last night in Galatians and focused on "pleasing man" for a while. It never ceases to amaze me how He has it all there for us if only we'd just want to open our eyes!

Tonight Justin is speaking at Christian Challenge. It got moved back to Thursday nights... a good thing because "FNC: Friday Night Challenge" really lost any seriousness whatsoever when we started hearing "I'll FN' C you there!" :-)

new pad

Here is a picture of the nice cozy corner of my new office.

Below is my actual work area.

Justin bought me the lovely diploma frame as a congratulations (on getting the job and being his new sugar mama) present. I saw these mini lava lamps the other day and was sorely tempted but I'm not sure that's very professional :-) We'll see if I break down!

If you are over in my area (MSU Law College building... in the basement) come over and visit! You might want to call first and make sure I'm there. I have a nice candy dish full of chocolate just waiting for you.

ah, october

This weekend was picture-perfect fall - warm, sunny, and colorful. It was also nice and relaxing. I got some stuff done around the house and put some fall decorations out. The moon was full last night. It smells nice outside.

one down...

I finished my first week at the new job. While I'm really tired I am SO thankful... it's like night and day compared to my old one. I am still working at my old job in the afternoons for one more week, which is really hard because I don't have enough time to get everything done in the mornings, and we are right smack in the middle of our busy time in the afternoons. One more week....

town hall

Tonight we are having our first town hall meeting at church... we have a lot of issues to discuss so I am praying now that God's will would be done there. I will update tomorrow on the results.

I got a new MSU ID card today and had a bit of a melancholy moment when I realized how much older I look in my new photo... I have been working at the library for 11 years. I sent out my "re-inroduction" e-mail to the library staff yesterday and got almost 30 responses from people with their congratulations. I was a little taken aback... I didn't realize just how many people I actually knew here! I have been really guilty of keeping to myself and not pursuing relationships with people at work, which is REALLY easy to do in the library with so many of us introverts.

i can turn off my lights!

You know it's been busy when I don't even have time to blog. :-) I got settled into my brand new office on Monday. Last night Justin and I went over to hang pictures and figure out decorating. I can't tell you how excited I am that I can actually turn off my overhead fluorescent lights... it's definitely a momentous milestone in my life!

This new job is going to be a ton of work but wonderful. The flexibility and the freedom of it are so awesome, and I have a great, fun boss. This week alone has already made getting the degree worthwhile. I finally have the authority to organize my own time and prioritize my own projects... even keep my own hours to a degree. I don't have to ask permission to take a break or even use a fork!

I'll put a photo up as soon as I have 2 seconds to take one.

adventures in nerdiness

I was having such a great day at work on Friday that Mark talked me into marching in the MSU Sesquicentennial parade with him and a bunch of librarians. So... I went to represent for the 'brary. Our library director and the former director got to ride in a convertible and the rest of us walked behind, carried signs, and handed out these maracas with the library name on them. Kids were pretty excited to get them... wish I could say the same about their excitement level at seeing a bunch of librarians! ;-) We did get some interesting cheers though... "We love the cybercafe!" was one... "Yeah Dewey Decimal" was another... but my favorite was definitely "Go Periodicals!" I had to shush a couple would be-hecklers despite myself. The parade itself was fun - there were something like 150 entries and 7 bands. Every department from MSU and a bunch of organizations had entries or floats. We were behind the sinking Titanic, complete with smoke coming out of the smokestacks. You can see the float behind Mark in the second pic. I'm not sure what that represented in regards to MSU but it couldn't be good!

lunch anyone?

Have you guys seen this one? I guess that snake bit off more than he could chew! You can click on the picture to see it bigger. That's the other end of the snake sticking back at a right angle to the gator's tail (it took me a while to figure that one out... you can see the shape of the front of the gator inside the snake... cool!)

Fight to the death
The carcass of a 6-foot American alligator is shown protruding from the mid-section of a 13-foot Burmese python on Monday, Sept. 26, in Everglades National Park after the snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole and literally exploded -- killing both animals. ``Encounters like that are almost never seen in the wild. ... And we here are, it's happened for the fourth time,'' said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor. In the other cases, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.
(AP/ Everglades National Park)

starting soon... hopefully!

It looks like I will be starting the new job, at least for part of the day, on Monday. My bosses are trying to work out a deal that will make the transition smoother for both departments. I will probably be spending my mornings at the new job and my afternoons back here for at least a week and possibly two. This isn't set in stone yet but I should know more soon.

I had an evaluation today too. That went well - they usually do - but I can't help being nervous for them anyhow.

holding pattern

No news yet on when I'm going to start the new job. I'm working on tying up some loose ends here at work and trying to go out with as much integrity as I've tried to have all along. Hopefully that can be a witness as I've been so frustrated here.

By the way I forgot to mention that Alli has a job now too, which is exciting because we were both looking for a while and ended up getting hired on the same day! I thought that was cool.

Last night we had a nice dinner with Jordan and Drew. I cooked up a big lasagna and all the trimmings as we figured they don't get home cooked meals at the frat house very often. :-) Justin and Matt even used their day off to clean the whole house. I was VERY impressed.

more good news!

Wow, it has really been a week full of good news. Alison just called to let me know she got engaged this morning! Congrats to her and Taure, my new brother-in-law... Alison has been planning her wedding for as long as I can remember so I'm sure it's going to be quite the extravaganza. My dad is going to be HUGELY enjoying all the kvetching he's going to get to do over this one!

secret service

Matt bought a new automatic gun that shoots those red plastic bead things. I'm sure it has a real name but being gun illiterate I couldn't tell you. Anyhow he has been shooting up the pear tree while waiting for Stumpy, our resident tail-less squirrel to show up. (Don't worry, the little pellets don't hurt.) Today after church he was feeling quite official in his fancy getup so he decided to put on the suspenders, grab my sunglasses, and play Secret Service. (Justin was down in the Situation Room so he missed out ont he action.) I think we watch WAY too much West Wing around here.

camping

Just got back from our camping trip. It was fast but fun. Last night was beautiful; clear and calm and all the stars were out. Matt and Scott even caught some faint northern lights wen they walked around the lake.

We (Jolee here) made a new friend as you can see in the first picture. The farm cat took a liking to us, unfortunately for Chelsea who was freaked out by it the whole time. It was particularly enamored of Kadee and kept jumping in her lap and snuggling up uninvited.

We also had a Pastor Appreciation moment as you can see in the second photo. "That's Pastor Stupid to you" was about all I could think of when I saw them sitting there. Leave it to our buddy Sot to come up with such an expressive article of clothing.

We were woken up this morning by shrieks from the girls' tent (due to a spider of course.) And I think somehow I managed to pitch our tent on top of an anthill. Kadee did help me put it up though but i'm not blaming her since she has had less experience with tent-raising!