photos from the youth rally, march 19th

stretch... breathe...

Roof open, windows down, music pumping... yes, spring is here! 63 degrees with the sun beating down on my face through the open sunroof is a definite sign of its arrival. Of course it will get colder again before it gets warmer, but who cares... today it's glorious!

A little bit of a rant here. Sorry to you HR folks that like these, but one of my SERIOUS pet peeves are those preachy HR classes on "handling stress" or "focusing" or whatnot. I spent two hours in one today hearing about how to "quiet my mind." As soon as I heard the inevitable reference to Deepak Chopra I tuned out completely. As she was going on about meditating or "whatever technique works for you," Hebrews 4:12 came to mind so I did a little meditating of my own... a picture of a double-edged sword cutting through the crap was foremost in my thoughts! It's funny, we were just talking in Bible study Tuesday night out of Ephesians 4:20-24 about how it's futile to try and change your behavior on your own, and it benefits you nothing. You don't have to go far to hear someone extolling the empty virtues of the "power of positive thinking" (also quoted today). Not knowing God's forgiveness is designed to make you stressed until you surrender to His perfect peace, and no "control of your thought life" is going to change that!

Ahh... That feels better!

24 addiction

Justin and I made the mistake of borrowing the first season of "24" on DVD from Andy. Neither one of us had ever seen the show, but needless to say we were hooked after the first episode. We have been watching nothing but that for the past week or so. We have only one episode left... I wouldn't let Kevin tell me how it ended, but I lost all semblance of self-control last night and went to the website and read all about the last 4 episodes. I HAD to know. Now Justin is trying to get me to tell him what happens. Not a chance!

thumbs down

Had a good weekend, got lots of knitting done. The purses for Alison's wedding are coming along really well.

So don't go see "Fatboy The Movie." It was very, very sad. The guy loses a bunch of weight which is fine, but only after that does he feel accepted and has the approval of his family and others. How sad is that... that his acceptance and worth as a person is based on success at losing weight and his physical appearance. I was afraid for him that if he gains any back he would be suicidal because he "failed" as a person. Wow. I am so glad that my worth is in Christ and not in the opinions of people... and that He made a way to accept me no matter how I fail.

There WAS a really funny short film shown along with this movie though, called "21 Carbs." THAT was worth seeing!

film fest

So tonight we are going to try something new. I've never been to the East Lansing Film Festival which occurs every year. Mark is working the box office this year and persuaded us to come check out a movie. Now getting Justin to watch any movie which is not either comedy or filled with explosions is quite a task, but luckily they had one of interest that's playing tonight. It's called "Fatboy: The Movie." We are DEFINITELY looking forward to that! :-) Mark and some of his friends also won a short film contest where you had to shoot a 5-minute film in 48 hours. They got assigned a "mystery" genre and apparently it evolved into a guy getting "murdered" in Mark's living room. This should be an interesting one. I'll have to check it out on DVD since it's screening on Sunday night.

finally, a work update

I have to apologize to those of you who may have been waiting for a work update. Things have been up in the air (they STILL are in some ways) but I was under a strict hush order for a while.

I am not going to be staying here at the Business Library. That said, I have applied for and have a good chance of getting one of two other open librarian positions back at the Main Library. There was an internal candidate who unexpectedly applied for the Business position, and got it. She is an excellent librarian with a business background so I'm sure they made the right decision. Anyhow, her old position is now open, which is an instruction librarian position. I'd love to have it... it's teaching classes left and right and getting to interact with all sorts of students. The other position that I've applied for is a general reference librarian job, which I would also enjoy. I still have until July left in my 9-month temporary position, and I'm going to be spending the remainder of the time back over at the Main Library, doing projects that relate to both of the open positions. So... please pray that one of these works out! Although I am REALLY going to miss my job at Business, I'm excited for the change... variety is the spice of life I guess.

New cousin

"Everett Shawn Lewis was born at 9:11am on Friday, 3/10...7lbs..." Congrats to mom Jodi (Justin's cousin), dad Josh, and big sister Kinley!

movies, scientologists, and cube farms

Here is an interesting and thoughtful article: "Evangelicals Miss The Big Picture [when it comes to movies]". Book is on my reading list.

There was another very long, detailed article about Scientology in Rolling Stone last week. Read it here. This is especially interesting for those of you (myself included) who wanted to cover Scientology in our cults class. I think we'll give Kevin a break from teaching for a while though! :-)

And while we're at it... the inventor of the dreaded office cube has officially said it was a bad idea! For all of you cube farm inhabitants, here is the article from cnn.com!

happy tornado season!

Discovery Channel has a cool website... apparently they have a show coming up this Sunday called Super Tornado. Guess what I'll be watching! If you go to the website you can "build your own tornado..."

the tease of spring

We had a gorgeous, 60+ degree weekend... but I am trying not to get too excited just yet as it's going to snow tomorrow. We had some pretty awesome thunderstorms last night and this morning too. Poor Scrappy is scared of them. Little Scrap can run up to a big scary pit bull, whack him in the face and bite him, but he is still scared of storms! We had said pit bull run into our backyard yesterday when Scrappy was out, and he let him know who was boss! I don't know where the pit bull came from, but Chelsea was NOT happy about it either. I don't think there was one hair on her back not standing up as she was barking like crazy.

Last week was Spring Break, so it was deathly quiet in the library. No shushing necessary! It was great for a few days but I started to go legally insane by Thursday. I'm glad the students are back bustling around and making noise. It's been a busy night but I like helping people out.

Justin has been looking at digital cameras this week and I hope we'll get one soon. Be prepared for lots more photos upon its purchase. Better yet, pray that it doesn't meet some random fate. His first one got dunked when he tipped over in his canoe with the camera in his cargo shorts. The second one's button jammed and can't be fixed. I think we're going to get a different brand this time, just to break the jinx if nothing else!

peace and quiet

I had some much needed peace and quiet this weekend as the guys have temporarily vacated the premises. Justin and Matt will be back tonight from their weekend in Tennessee, and everyone else is gone on Spring Break. I spent the weekend knitting, shopping, ironing, and watching chick flicks. (sigh of contentment....)

The idea of spring is firming up just a bit around the edges here in Lansing. I try not to get too hopeful in March, becuase just when you have a nice day it turns around and snows. Spring is such an excruciating season in the north... It was in the 40s on Sunday which was nice enough for me to take Chelsea out for a walk on the River Trail. You can see in the photo how high the river was when it was frozen over, and the ice is not completely gone yet.

auntie alison!

Chelsea was very excited to meet Auntie Alison, because, of course, the only reason ANYONE comes to our house is to play with her! What other reason is there? Anyhow you can see them having a lovely time here.

Justin left today for Tennessee with Matt. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend... Marie suggessted that we decorate the man-pit (the basement) with pink and flowers and lace so the guys will freak out upon their return. I'm not sure I have that much ambition! I've already made my once-monthly post paycheck visit to Hobby Lobby and would be happy just sitting on my booty and knitting scarves all weekend. Maybe a little shopping... OK, maybe more than that...

Last night I spoke at Christian Challenge. It was fun, I haven't done that in quite a while. I spoke on communication. I know, hypocrite. I warned Mandy that I am a crappy communicator but she wanted me to speak on it anyway. It's always good to look back at the biblical principles on this subject.

On a side note... happy birthday to me! 13 years ago today I turned my life over to Jesus. Talk about the best decision I ever made... It's amazing to me how much of His greatness and grace I still don't understand. I can't believe how I lived without Him for almost 19 years.

the brief...

It's Tuesday evening and Alison should be back in Boston by now. Chelsea was so worn out from being hyper while she was here that she slept all day Monday! Of course, she was spoiled with a new collar and toy, and now knows who I'm talking about when I say "Auntie Alison!"

We went shopping on Saturday and found a bridesmaid dress... and very nearly a new wedding dress too but we managed to escape the store in time. :-) Saturday night we went to Mongolian BBQ for dinner. yum!

Short post today, more to come later.