Ni hao, etc.

My Chinese lessons are progressing...I'm terrible at pronounciation. Xiaolei is very kind to me. She is even going to show me how to make cucumbers and garlic, my very favorite food from China which I have yet to find in any restaurant here.

yay!

Here is my new punch buggy! thanks Kadee for the pic!

showoff

Here is my favorite pic of Chelsea per Alison's request...

more doggy pics

Sorry for all the doggie pics lately but I thought this one was great... from si.com

it's been a long time

Sorry all for my lapse in posting. It's been insanely busy. Justin and I aren't going to get to celebrate Valentine's day officially until Thursday, although he did stop by my office this afternoon to deliver some yummy chocolate and cashew poppycock... YUM!

My new car is awesome. I keep forgetting to take a photo. This is the first time I've had a car that was made in the same decade as I've owned it. And it is also my first car with cupholders. Yes, I know it performs great, drives like a dream, is in wonderful shape, and gets good gas mileage... but it has CUPHOLDERS! and a BUD VASE! :-)

Tonight we're having our annual Valentine's Day fundraiser spaghetti dinner to send the youth to camp. It's always a lot of fun. The older folks like it especially.

My resume and cover letter are due in on Friday. A little more tweaking and I will have them done. Writing cover letters is so excruciating. I am good at them but it takes me hours to get mine finished. One of these days I'm going to submit one that says "I'm Awesome, Hire Me and Not The Other Boring People."

Yea, Alison is coming to visit next weekend! I'm so excited! I'm as bad as my mom... I told Chelsea that her Auntie Alison was coming to visit. She just perked up her ears like Auntie Alison was a new kind of doggie treat or something.

That's the scoop for now. More later. Happy Valentine's Day!

pups

I loved this photo from cnn.com. That is one excited pup.

punch buggy!

I'm so excited, I got a new car! 2003 VW New Beetle! Manual transmission, dark grey, charcoal interior... and of COURSE the standard flower vase! Photos soon...

serious tornado nerdiness

So they are changing the Fujita scale... for all of you multitudes who care about such things you can read about it here... Hey, Justin doesn't call me the National Weather Service for nothing!

oy oy oy OY vey

I am so busy it's insane! To think at one time I had to beg for work. ;-) Anyway I have a new class to teach on Monday and about a million other things to do, not the least of which is finishing my cover letter and getting all that submitted. I'm also thinking about buying a new car... alas, poor Gertrude, she is needing fixing again. So far the leading contenders are the Scion xA and the soon to be released Toyota Yaris. They are small, funky, and cheap, which is what I am looking for, and of course my Mini Cooper is still just a dream. I've also considered a Chevy Aveo... I know, an American car, and it's ugly... I never thought it would happen. But it is so stinking dirt cheap I can't pass it up. A test drive will tell more.

Anyhow back to work work work! Oh, I almost forgot, I created my first blog template! It's a sample one and I'm not going to update the blog but you can see it here. I wanted something to put into my interview presentation that showed my web design and made people laugh.

good news on cnn

Hey I was so excited to see this video... check it out! What an awesome ministry. I loved hearing some of the comments of the people the girls were talking to. The people that object seem so ridiculous... you can try but you can't deny that this is exactly what Jesus' love looks like. Go CNN!

here's your sign

Sorry I'm feeling a little sarcastic today. :-)
Check out this hilarious site: Church Sign Generator

yay chinese!!!!

I am so excited, Xiaolei is going to teach me Chinese! finally I get to learn! I hear it's insanely hard but I have always wanted a crack at it. Hope I can learn more than nin hao, sai chien, and zhong gua. (hello, goodbye, and China for all you mei gua rens.) If anyone knows any good books for Chinese beginners, please let me know...

rooted and grounded in love

I have a new understanding of what Ephesians is talking about. Last night we had a random visitor at church (we get a lot of random visitors at church) and this lady wanted to talk. Kevin sat down and talked to her, lovingly, kindly, and patiently for three hours, listening to her story - and in return was called a racist, a hypocrite, and told that just maybe a few of the things that he had to say were worth listening to. He didn't bat an eyelash, just shared how much God loved her and told her sincerely that he'd keep praying for her. This morning I was reading Ephesians 3 and verses 16-19 stuck out to me:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

When we're rooted in God's love, it doesn't matter what people say to us because we know that His love for us is greater than anyone's words or opinions. I can't imagine how may people would have gotten into a screaming match (or at least really offended) with this lady. When we know where our roots lie, we have that power that fills us with God's fullness and doesn't leave any room for our own power, pride, or ego. We don't have to fear the words or actions of man. It's this vision of God's greater purpose that is so lacking in so many believers... it grieves me. I pray that God opens the eyes of the people around us to see that ministry is possible in His power. If we're not rooted in love, we need to ask Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith, and that he'd replant us in His soil.

ouch!

My fascination with photos of giant sea creatures continues... check out this giant jellyfish! How would you like to step on THAT at the beach? CNN.com says:

"One Echizen kurage (jellyfish) can be up to 2 meters (6 feet, 7 inches) in diameter and weigh up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds)."

And no... I didn't eat any jellyfish when I was in China...

"South Korean fishermen have been suffering similar woes, but China, where giant jellyfish are a delicacy often served dried and dressed with sesame oil, does not seem to have registered the outbreak as a major problem, Japanese officials said.

Seaside communities in Japan have tried to capitalize on the menace by developing novel jellyfish dishes from tofu to ice cream, but for some reason the recipes have failed to take off."

midweek

I wanted to put up this photo of Alison (my sister for those unaware). I thought it was a great shot.

My job was posted today, so it's time once again to revamp the resume! I'm pretty excited though... since I am already doing the job that's posted, I fit the description to a T. My boss has been fantastic with helping me prioritize projects to help me be competitive for the spot.

In other news we started our women's Bible study up again last night and are using the Serendipity group study bible so that everyone can take turns learning how to teach. I've missed the group a lot over break! I particularly miss Denise who should be coming home tomorrow from her South African version of "Meet The Parents" (or in this case extended family). I can't wait to hear about her and Bambi's trip... not in Zulu though I hope. Before they left she was constructing her own Zulu phrasebook with essential entries such as "fat white girl." I'm trusting she didn't need that one! ;-)

Our impeccably-behaved dog scored a personal best this weekend... she managed to bust open a thick cardboard box from Sam's Club full of granola bars, and proceeded to ingest 25 of them, including wrappers. Now she is only a 75-pound dog... I'm sure more like 85 now... but I know of no one who weighs 2 or 3 more times than that who could actually eat 25 granola bars in one sitting. I called the vet first thing in the morning and he said just to keep an eye on her in case she started getting lethargic. Since she was tearing around like usual I didn't worry too much about it, and the wrappers have since been appearing in, shall we say, interesting places. I think Chelsea could fill up her own blog.. "The Devil Made Me Do It."

Our internet at home has been on the fritz this week so the promised entry about our vacation, complete with photos, will have to wait until Comcast gets its booty in gear...