What Real Baptists Should Look Like...

I LOVE www.yearbookyourself.com... Brother Preacher Pastor J.D. Miller and Mrs. S. D. Miller, piemaker extraordinare, from the glory days when the balcony was full!

fall again

Time again for chilly nights and warm wool. Although it looks like we're in for a week of Indian summer.

I bought my first skein of pricey yarn today. It's a silk and merino wool mix. It's soft and lovely, will make a nice Christmas gift, and I only bought 1 SKEIN. That should be plenty for a neckwarmer. I still need to buy the bulk of my stuff at Hobby Lobby if I don't want to go bankrupt.

I had a the nice surprise of receiving an unexpected check in the mail yesterday, just in time for missions month. Last year I got a nice fat check from my oboe selling just in time for missions month. I love it. God rules.

I'm at the reference desk tonight. Ellie and Justin came in to surprise me for a mini take-your-child-to-work hour. :-) I was so happy to see them. I hate working night shifts - I only get to see Ellie for an hour or so in the morning, as she's sleeping by the time I get home. She sat at the desk with me for a few minutes and "answered" a reference question.

Obama rally

Wow, there is a huge line stretching way past the library to who knows where. Obama is scheduled to speak this afternoon at 2:30 and it's like someone declared a campus holiday. It reminds me of 1992, my freshman year, when Ol' Bubbacakes Clinton (as I fondly refer to him) came, except that the crowd wasn't nearly like this. Also, I was behind him in the bleachers in an MSU sweatshirt. (Yes, that was me. You may laugh now.) Everyone seems genuinely excited, not just to be missing class, but actually to see Obama. You can see at my pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/praise711/sets/72157607664629160/

vocabulary

It's such a fun surprise when I hear Ellie say something new. Her latest favorite words: "belly button" and "chocolate milk." We got her a new kitchen set, and she's been "cooking" up a storm for us. In the fake food set that we got to go with the kitchen, her favorites are the broccoli, donut, and aforementioned chocolate milk container. She was especially delighted with the mini colander, as she always pulls my full-size ones out of the cupboard. She's also bringing new meaning to the phrase "contemplate your navel" as she'll stand in front of the mirror and examine her belly.

We're looking again at a house that we put an offer on last year. Our offer wasn't accepted, but the house is now priced lower than our initial offer. We're hoping that we can jump on it. It's an old, quirky, rambling fixer with a ginormous fireplace and stone lions out front. More on that to come.

street preaching

Along with the changing leaves and chill in the air, a sure herald of fall is the official opening of the "preaching corridor" by Wells Hall. I'm always interested to see who is out each year. In the 90s when I was a student, there was a guy who called everyone fornicators. I got called a fornicator once and thought it was funny. Glutton, liar, prideful, lustful, sure.... but despite being in college I was not actually a fornicator. There are usually several groups out, and each has a slightly different approach - from huge signs, to tracts, to a flannel-graph looking board to illustrate the Bridge (although this picture has the earth and the clouds, not two sides of a chasm that some of us are used to.) One thing that they have in common is that they are all very loud, and it can be quite the cacophony - especially when a campus atheist comes along to shout them down.
Through the years I've heard many different approaches by Wells. One of the best, most honest dialogues I've ever heard was between an open-air evangelist that the Navs sponsored to bring to campus and some students who had gathered around. He spoke only loud enough to be heard by the group, and he answered every question he was asked. He was starkly honest with some guys who asked him about specific sins in his life. It was the first time I'd ever see someone be completely vulnerable and bare their soul, stains and all, for the sake of ministering to another person. I'll never forget that. He also handled an angry, red-faced professor with grace and wit. The prof was insisting that an obscure Old Testament passage disqualified Jesus from being the Messiah. The evangelist handed the prof his Bible and asked him to find the passage so they could discuss it. Of course the prof had no idea where it was, so he threw down the Bible in disgust and walked away.
Today as I was passing through the new crop of preachers, I noticed something different. The guy with the big sign was speaking loudly still, but he was not yelling. He also wasn't listing off sins like the guy at the flannel-graph was. As I walked by, he was saying "All these things won't satisfy. You'll get a degree, get a husband or wife, get a great job, kids... but you'll still have an emptiness inside. Those things won't fill that hole." His words grabbed me because they were true. He was speaking to something that the students would feel - if not at that moment - maybe after waking up in a strange place after partying all night, maybe after realizing that they've given up something precious to a stranger, maybe after a disastrous grade report. I prayed that his words would stay in people's hearts as they walked by, and that they wouldn't scoff at Jesus as the answer just because the "nutty" folks at Wells said so.

learning to sing

Ellie loves "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." She has no idea what she's saying yet, but it's pretty cute nonetheless. She also loves eating yogurt, which is pretty obvious here as well.

It's a lovely, rainy Saturday and Ellie is not wanting to take a nap, no matter how much Mom might want to. She's currently playing hide and seek in the new cupboards we have in the basement. I'd like to have an hour to knit her some little legwarmers to go with her new MSU Spartans cheerleader outfit... I know. I broke down. I'm getting her pompoms too for the homecoming parade. Pretty pathetic. We're going to pull her in her wagon with the rest of the MSU Libraries crowd. Oy.

a long stretch

I've gotten the blogging bug again. It's been a full summer since I last posted, and Ellie is now running around the house saying things like "spatula" and "awesome." We've had a busy past few months, including a trip to New England where we all got sick, lots and lots of weddings, and new things to do at work.

In addition to the blogging bug, the knitting bug is back as well. Christmas is just around the corner, so craft season has officially begun. Let me know if you have any cool patterns to send my way.

I'm going up to the U.P. with Julie S. for a women's retreat at the end of the month. It will be nice to take a long drive with such fun company, and I'm sure the foliage will be gorgeous. I have become such a homebody that I hate leaving, especially without Ellie, but I think this trip is going to be a real blessing and a needed breath of fresh air. Not to mention all the knitting that I can get done in the car!

The Scowl...

Sara and Ellie
Originally uploaded by sfaalum2000

Stephen got a picture of Ellie's famous face. :-) He and Stacey were up for a visit this past weekend. It was great to see them. This picture was taken inside the MSU stadium entrance, where they have the original Sparty statue. Ellie didn't like Sparty very much. He was a little large and freaky for her taste. She was showing her displeasure here.

walking!

Miss Elinor began her journey on foot last Tuesday, April 29. She's up to about five steps on her own now, and can get up and walk from sitting without holding onto anything. And yes, the cabinets are being baby-proofed as I write. Her vocab now includes "all done, all gone, ball, glasses," and I even made out "bye-bye Carolyn" the other day (after Carolyn was long gone, of course.)

We spent last weekend in Oak Brook, IL at the LOEX conference (of instruction librarians). Justin and Ellie had some adventures while I was working - visiting the Billy Graham Center museum at Wheaton, and getting slightly lost on the way back. We stumbled upon the delicious Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant, and Justin discovered that he loves chicken cacciatore, which I happened to despise as a kid... the thought of it still makes me grimace. I had a delicious steak and gorgonzola salad with candied walnuts and dried cherries... YUM. We also saw our friend Travis from back in the Christian Challenge heyday, who lives and works in Chicago.

I also had a surprise visit yesterday from Jason, who is supposed to be in California! I got a call from the reference desk saying that someone named Jason was here to see me, and lo and behold it was Jason Perez. He came over for dinner and helped us to inaugurate the new grill and commit some American Idolatry.

74 degrees

Another beautiful spring day on campus.

restoration

I read a great word from Chuck Colson today, in response to an extremely interesting and revealing dialogue on evangelicalism and politics (found here). "My one prayer would be that Christians would understand better what they really believe — the core of their beliefs, why they matter, why we believe them and how to present them winsomely in a world that is so polarized and divided and alienated. Let's be agents and instruments of reconciliation, which is what the Gospel enables us to do." Amen to that.

round the bend

This week has been the one where you can finally exhale after holding your breath waiting for Spring. The magnolias are starting to peep out and it's been over 60 degrees for more than two days in a row. Ellie had her first picnic out on the front lawn last night - a feast of bread, cheese, cheerios, and baby food.
Ellie now has three teeth - one bottom and her two front ones. After her first birthday (photos here), it's so exciting to see what comes next. She's babbling on and on constantly with almost words... sometimes you can make out ball, book, please, etc. but I wish I could understand the lively play-by-play that she gives about everything around her. Soon, I imagine. She is also almost walking... she's down to that last one-handed grip on my finger to steady her as she toddles along. She hasn't taken her first steps alone yet, but I'm sure she will any day now.
Please pray for our friends the Cobbs. Matt just lost his mom - she was not even sixty years old yet. It's heartbreaking knowing that she won't see her grandson Jackson grow up, but a comfort to know that she is assuredly "absent from the body (and) present with the Lord." (2 Cor. 5:8).

the very first sign of spring

I haven't even noticed any crocuses yet (maybe because we still have snow on the ground) but I did see the very first sign of spring yesterday - the tree in the picture is just beginning to bloom. It's still in the 30s and 40s here with snow showers on and off. I'm waiting for the proverbial lamb of the end of March, but I don't think we will see it this year.
We are going to see some warm weather next week - in Oklahoma. Hopefully that will not include tornadoes.
Ellie's first tooth FINALLY poked through on Tuesday! You can barely see it but you can definitely feel it. She's been teething on and off since about 4 months old, so needless to say it's a relief to finally see some results. I can't believe that she's going to turn 1 in just over a week. Her vocabulary now includes, in addition to Mama and Daddy, "up, down, uh-oh, dog, no, Ellie, bye-bye, nose, duck," and several other noises that we can't quite recognize yet but I'm sure she knows exactly what they mean. She also recognizes, but can't quite say yet, the words bath and "sneezy juice" (her Zantac which makes her sneeze everytime she takes it.)

Finished!

For the last month or so, I've been going gung ho on a paper that I'm presenting on Friday. It's done. The relief is palpable. I still need to prepare my presentation, but that's what tomorrow is for. sigh...

It's early spring here - Spring Break is upon us and the students are all off to various exotic locales. We used to refer to the week following Spring Break as "Baked Potato Week," as one can count the leather-like tans that are so jarringly out of place in the middle of a Michigan March. I've always loved Spring Break on campus, as it's so quiet - you can almost hear the sap stirring in the trees. I also love the fact that I can park on the Circle near the botanical gardens as there's no one around. As I was walking in past my favorite, towering white pines this morning, I realized that this is my fifteenth Spring Break here at Michigan State. I remember the first one as vividly as if it were yesterday - I can never forget the moment when the Lord first spoke to me. In the solitude of my first early spring here is when I surrendered my life to Him, and I watched as the winter clouds cleared away.

It is also nearly Ellie's first birthday. Tomorrow she will be eleven months old. We're going to Oklahoma the week before the big day so that she can meet her great-grandmothers and all of the uncles, aunts, and cousins for the first time. It will also be her first plane ride. We'll see how that goes! She's so squirmy right now that I don't know how she will manage to stay on our laps for the duration of the flight, unless she falls asleep.

break dance...

Another dance you'll never see in real life...

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spartan snow

I got a chance to go up in the new MSU stadium tower this morning . I was poking around on the 8th floor and found the press box. It was kind of surreal and peaceful to see the field and stands covered with a blanket of quiet, undisturbed snow. Behind me I had a fantastic view all the way out to the West Side of Lansing.

Fun at the doctor's office...

Ellie usually hates visiting the doctor, but she's old enough now to really enjoy the endless supply of paper on the table. This was a special treat... before they stuck that thing in her ear!

I would highly recommend a cellphone with a video camera to any parent by the way!

catching up

With Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year all passing by in a whirl, I have a few pics to post and catch up with day-to-day life here. We had about a foot of snow before Christmas, as you can see in the first pic, which melted all at once during a freak 60-degree day, as you can see in the second pic, and then I went on a very brief excursion to Philadelphia for one day of the ALA Midwinter conference (American Library Association - and third pic.) That particular photo was taken from my 27th floor balcony.
It was nice to get a full night's sleep... although I missed Justin and Ellie, and was exhausted from the whirlwind travel.
Other than that, work has been busy, church has been a little crazy, and we are still trying to get ourselves together for a Christmas / New Year's / Thank-you-note picture that needed to go out weeks ago. Ellie is now nine months old- hard to believe. It will be April and her first birthday before we know it.

adventures in opticianry

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the optical profession... In the over 30 years my dad has been in business, I have to say this is the strangest thing that's ever happened at his shop. Luckily, no one was hurt... but I think someone is about to lose a driver's license.

Original story from the New London Day

15 minutes...

Stephen and Stacey's dog is not the only one who is a "local celebrity." This little blurb ran in our campus paper, the State News, this morning. Good thing you can't see the picture!
Hello, my name is Sara Miller