Happy Birthday Travis!

After seeing my birthday song on Chris' blog I thought I'd "sing" one to my brother since today is his birthday and he's my only "little" brother. Here's a picture of the big 21 year old on his new motorcycle following the "song" with me and my dad.

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Travis! Happy Birthday to you!

Jeopardy! Brain Bus

So the Brain bus was in Lexington today. Patrick, Todd and I were there to experience it. Only 1000 people were able to take the pre-test today (10 questions in 5 minutes) and we were among them. I personally went b/c I thought it'd be fun to write about or tell my kids some day, "Yeah I took a test to be on Jeopardy! once." I'll be posting pictures on my yafro soon so be watching out for them. :) I think Patrick could have passed if he had taken the test I had, unfortunately he had a different version. Oh, well it was a fun way to pass the afternoon.

New Pictures

I finally posted some pictures from this past week. I'm sorry I'm not going to let you be lazy. You will have to click on the link to view them all. I'm trying to write comments for each of them and I think you can comment on the pictures too. Enjoy!


See my Yafro Moblog

Class Entertainment

So apparently Thursday is the official, "No power day" at SBTS. This time we were relocated to a chapel room for class where it was pretty cold, which was quite a contrast from sweating last week. Well, I must admit I had not completely finished my reading assignment for my class. That was really bothering me. Not just because we were to have a quiz, but also because I just hate not doing things right. Well, we sit in our pew and wait for class to begin. Dr. Vickers begins class with prayer, "and not just a generic prayer but one that was very personal and serious" (see Wes's Blog). Then he told us that we are all Masters level students so unless anyone objects, he's not going to give us quizzes every week. Not just because we are masters level students, but also because of the amount of class time they would take up each week. Bwana asifiwe! However, this does mean our midterm and final are now worth 40% each! (Note to self: study hard!)

Well, during class we had a few comical moments. I thought I'd share those with my readers. If you'd like a serious recap of the class check Wes's blog, he's more likely to cover that aspect of class. First there were two funny quotes I must share:

"Cheat every single week."
"I'm one minute away from writing on this wall!

I'll also attempt to share the funniest thing but I'm not sure text can do it justice. Here's what he wrote on the overhead projector (not the wall, he managed to control himself):

No Milk

-Associate with milk

-Dairy Section

-0 cow

The context of this message was an example of "Building a hedge around Torah." This is how the Pharisees would make laws to keep them from getting close to breaking the laws. So Dr. V wrote suppose we make a law that says we cannot drink milk. Well, some people might think that in order to keep from drinking milk we should stop associating with any of our friends who might drink milk. Not that they are bad, but we might stumble. Well, then some people might take that a little farther and say, "I saw you in the Dairy Section!" and you might defend yourself saying, "I didn't drink milk!" but they'll give you that look because they *know* where you've been and they've made a rule against going to the Dairy section. Well, some may even take it farther and say you should not even look at a cow.

Anyway, it was really funny and it definitely made it's point.

Productive Day!

Wow! It's 2 PM and I've already accomplished so much today! I woke up a little after 7 and then I went to clean house for a lady (and earned some money, yeah!). Then I went home to eat lunch and take a shower. Then I re-arranged Kidz Zone so we can play in there tonight. Then I went to get my license renewed and I registered to vote! Then I came to the office and did some of my homework. Wow, I'm finally registered to vote! And now I guess I'm an official Fayette Co. Resident. Does that mean I have to start saying I'm from here? I accidentally sort of did that once and it freaked me out... I'm not sure I'll say I'm from here. I think I'll keep my roots where I've spent most of my life for now.

Space Heater

It's the second day of classes and I've already turned on a space heater in my office. This is ridiculous!

Crazy Technology

Ok, I must admit it took me a while to be ok with the paying bills online thing but I just paid my cell phone bill using the telephone and that really freaked me out! I didn't have to dial anything! The voice recognition was so good! I'm completely amazed/scared. How long will it be before we're all out of jobs and replaced by computers? Maybe I should start using my computer science degree so that I can have some sort of job security in maintaining all the computers that replace all the people who have jobs...

Upside Down

God's been challenging and teaching me so much lately I'm not even sure where to begin. I think the process began a long time ago so starting at the beginning would make this post even longer than it will turn out so I'll just pick up somewhere in the middle. If you want more information, we can talk.

While I was in Florida with the Youth at my church I got to know some of the young girls better. As I did, my heart broke for them. Many of them are struggling with self esteem issues and boys, and all the things girls deal with in HS. I was able to share some scriptures that God used to encourage me during those times of my own life with them. That was exciting, but that wasn't the end of it. Through several different circumstances in my life, I really feel like God's challenging me to do something I totally don't feel worthy of doing. But I know that His power works best in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9) so if this "project" is going to come about, it'll be through His power because I don't have it in me alone. So if you would pray for this project, which seems like it might be a long process, I'd appreciate it.

That's one "chunk" of the changes, however they are all somewhat related. I've also been reading several books (Boy Meets Girl, The Challenge, Emotional Purity) and studying scriptures on roles of women- in general and in relating to men. Whoa! Do I still have so much to learn! Some of the highlights of things I need to do/change and will share publicly (some because I need to apologize to so many people that it's easier to do it here publicly) are:

-First I need to apologize to every guy who has ever opened a door or done any other act of chivalry to me. I'm sorry that I have not allowed you to do this as a brother in Christ without me taking it beyond a nice gesture in one way or another. I'm trying to learn how to be treated like a lady from any male and to trust that everyone always has pure motives.

-I'm also trying to learn not to initiate anything between me and any of my male friends. Even if we're "just friends." I want to give you all the opportunity to "be a man" and be in the lead of relationships. Ladies who might think this sounds crazy, I don't mean that I have to allow relationships to go deeper than I want them to just because he took it there, but just that I'm going to try to guard my heart by not trying to make a relationship deeper than it should be. I think as girls we often want to know people so we'll seek deep relationships faster than we should. Maybe I'm just talking to myself, but that's ok too.

-Another area is having a male authority figure in my life. It's kind of funny that for the past 7 years or more I've been striving to be this independent woman who can take care of everything on my own. Well, my granny was my big, "help I can't decide" person to go to but since she's passed away I've really struggled in not having anyone to turn to. My dad's not a Christian so I've never really turned to him for advice, plus he never seemed that decisive (wonder where I got it from?). But after reading I Peter, I've realized God purposed for him to be my father and in that sense, I need to be submissive to him. So after many nights and days of praying about it, I called my dad and asked him to be an authority figure in my life. How weird must it be to have your soon to be 25 year old daughter call and ask you to tell her what to do?!? The interesting thing was, he had been trying to call me to do this very thing about our birthday dinner this weekend! God is so cool! My dad said, "Well, I'll start by deciding about this weekend..." and he did. This also fits in with some of the things I've read about how women are more emotional than men and that men should be the decision makers because they don't "take it to heart" as much as us girls if things don't go right. And it's true because when I look back at some of the things I have experienced a lot of emotional pain from, many of them are from times when I made a decision on my own and then things turned out bad and I felt responsible. In my family situation things can turn out bad real easily, but if my dad will take some responsibility and make decisions, I won't carry the guilt with me for years to come! I'm so excited about this! I'm also praying that by giving my dad a responsibility he should have had long ago, he'll also want to take it seriously and maybe, just maybe he'll turn to Christ for help! Pray for him!

Ok, this is way too long so I'll stop now. I pray I'll be able to follow God's guidance in my life.

Finish the Quote

So I don't know movie quotes (see Chris' blog) but I didn't do too bad on this quiz. Have fun and let me know how you do!

Limbo

I have finally found the game I can win at. Aside from playing while on roller skates, I can only recall two games of limbo and I won both of them! So maybe I can convince the people in Greece to add the limbo to the Olympic sporting events and I can compete in the Olympics. Ok, so maybe not... I've seen people in Kenya go much lower than I did, but it's fun to think about it for a moment. What would the Olympic limbo uniforms look like? How would you train? I also decided that height has nothing to do with it. Joe, who's pretty tall came really close to winning. There were about 8 of us in the last round but somehow I was the only one who made it through. Amazing! It's kind of strange because I would think that those younger girls would be much more flexible than I am. Maybe it was luck or maybe they moved the bar up or something. I'll have to watch the video to investigate.

Limbo anyone?

Grown up at 25?

Today I started to "feel my age" a little bit. I've reached the point where there are students in college who never went to High School with any of my classmates. It was so hard to meet kids and ask them where they are from and know that they wouldn't know anyone that I know from their home town (well, maybe if they have a younger brother or something).

Many times working at the BSU I don't feel like I'm much older than the kids there. Maybe it's because there are a lot of grad students around that are my age. Yeah, there are moments when I *know* I'm no longer a college student, but I have never felt like "these people are younger than my younger brother" even though many of them are. It's so weird to think that some of the kids there are 6 years younger than me!

Well, they say you're only as old as you feel, so in that sense, maybe I'm not so old, but tonight as I was trying to figure out a time to eat with my family I had a moment of, "Am I the only grown up in this conversation?" but moments after being hung up on I found myself having very childish urges to behave like a spoiled little kid, and maybe I still did, but I tried to be better than I wanted to be. I'm ok with being a child at heart, I just hope that I can act like a grown up when I need to. I'm kind of glad that I can control myself and not act as childish as I am often tempted to, but sometimes I just want to be the kid in the relationship. Well, at least I'll have practice, right?

So, at what point are we finally a "grown up?" I think we've all agreed that 23 is the "peak of your life," but when are you "grown up?"

All Missionaries

Today I was able to go and listen to two of my favorite people in the world speak. I wonder how many times I will listen to the story of "Sophia" and cry. I'm glad that I'm not numb to her story. Each time I hear it my heart aches to live out the joy of Christ like she does. This time we were told a little more about her story, so that was fun. :)

While K was talking he also said something that I really enjoyed hearing. He said we are all called to be missionaries. He talked about when he called the mission board about applying they asked him about his call and he told them, "I read the Bible." He talked about how the "Great commission" is God's commandment to all of us. If you're "called" that's a second warning! All of us are to be obedient and be on mission with God wherever we are here, near, or far away (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria or the uttermost parts). So, what are you doing to be on mission with God?

I also felt a conviction about starting a BS group to go through On Mission with God. That's something I've felt like I should be doing for a long time. Pray that I'll find some people to do the study with. I've went through it a little over halfway on my own, all the way in a group so now it's time for me to step up and lead another group through it. Let me know if you'd like to be part and I'll pray about it.

So far behind!

Wow, there are so many things I've thought, "I want to write about this on my blog" about lately (well, the past month really). Hopefully I'll get around to it all soon. Maybe I should post a list to keep myself accountable to write about the things I want to write about. Here are some late topics I want to write about:
-Return trip to PKI
-Summary of Beth Moore conference
-God's turning my world upside down (what I'm reading and studying)
-Maryland and Rafting Trip
-First Day back in class

It seems like there were other things I wanted to write about but I have forgotten them. But today was an uneventful, yet eventful day. Yesterday and today we have been helping new students move into their dorms at UK. Today we only "worked" from 9-12. We moved 2 students (both were Internationals though) in. So needless to say, we had a lot of free time. I made use of some of that free time by reading Men's Health. Then I joined in the "game" of passing around inflatable globes. Well, one of the globes got out of control and hit one of the girls in the face and broke her glasses! So at 12 we all went to Wal-mart to try to get them fixed. We struck out at the first Wal-mart but they recommended another Wal-mart. We were in luck! They had a pair of $50 frames that her lenses fit in! So we all pitched in $10 to pay for her new glasses. So we all decided that our "Fall Move In" t-shirts weren't really free; They were $10 shirts. Sad times! But I guess it could have been worse.

Well, Lindsey should be here soon so I'm going to try to clean up a little bit. Wait, clean up my apt for Lindsey? hmmm.. Ok, maybe not. :)

The Ark 2

On April 1 I heard about the rebuilding of the Ark on Air1 so I went to this website and read about it and thought that it was pretty interesting. Nick accompanied me to a wedding in MD so we decided to schedule a stop at the ark. It has been under construction for 30 years! They build as they receive funds (you can learn more about making a donation on their website if you're interested). There has been tons of concrete poured and as you can see from the picture about a third of the steel beams are up. Here's a picture of the start of the structure:



In the first picture it might not seem so big since we're standing so close to the camera but this picture will help put the size into perspective:



There's a part of me that wants to donate money because I'd like to see if finished, but I know it'd take a lot more than my measly donation to see it completed. They have plans for a school inside, among other things. Wouldn't you like to go to "God's Ark Elementary." I think Nick would consider going back to elementary school to be able to say that. Anyway, if you're ever driving on 68, stop by and see the ark.

M & M Commercials

One of my life dreams used to be to meet the writers of the M & M commercials. Today I was eating some Peanut butter (the best kind of M&Ms) M&M's and since I was near my computer I thought I'd go to the website on the bag. I was super excited to see a link to commercials but these "commercials" were nothing like the ones I used to love. These would definitely be low budget commercials that might make a fun screen saver but just don't make me want to get M & M's. What is up with the "Chocolate is better in color" thing? I think it's better with Peanut butter. :) What's wrong with "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand?" Those were the days. Times are changing and I think I'm being left behind.

Chill Bumps

Tonight as I stood in Rupp Arena, a place where I must admit I have had chill bumps a few times before as they dim the lights and the Kentucky Wildcats come onto the floor, I experienced chills on a whole new level. I was actually warm (so much so I took off my cardigan) as we stood there singing praises to worship our God. Rupp was packed. There were only a few empty rows up in the "nose bleed" section, but I'm sure if you moved all the people seated on the floor to the bleachers, it would have been full. It was so amazing to be part of thousands of women (and a few men) singing praises to God. I literally felt like my chill bumps had chill bumps on top of them! My legs have never felt so "bumpy." I think the worship was so incredible because it was a continuation of what was already going on in many of our lives. And the study was also amazing! Before we got into the Word, she said that she's never had so much going into the preparations for one of her events as this one and that the people here had really out done their expectations for a planning crew but she also said, "God has come to outdo you." And I believe He did and He will continue to do so.

Well, I have to be at my church by 7 am to go for part 2 of the event so I better stop blogging.

Third Day

Here's a picture from the DVD Recording:

Florida Trip

I just wanted to give a small report on my trip to Florida with the Youth. I must say it was nice getting to know them and spending a week in Florida is always nice too. Our focus for the week was on prayer. We studied and several different "methods" of praying. We went through the ACTS (Adoration Confession Thanksgiving Supplication), a praying in faith Bible Study, looking in the newspapers for things to pray about, and several other ideas. We also went to Panama City and had a Bible story and craft with some kids on the beach. That was pretty fun. I think that will be something I will incorporate into family vacations if I ever have a family. It was fun and easy. We also spent some time meditating on scripture and encouraging each other. Overall, I think it was a great trip. God also used this time to give me a burden to share more with the young girls. So many of them are struggling with self esteem and boys. Pray that I will be available to God to use me to encourage and teach these younger women (see Titus 2 for teaching younger people). Thanks for your prayers!

13 going on 30

Last night I watched this movie with K and M. I must admit I knew very little about it before we watched it, but I do remember thinking it would be cute, and it was. It was also a little sad and cheesy, but that's ok.

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a movie about a girl named Jenna who on her 13th birthday wishes to be "30, flirty and thriving." And then she wakes up and 16 years have passed and she will soon be 30. She's a magazine editor with a wardrobe full of clothes. It was interesting because she's achieved "everything she ever wished for" but she finds herself very unhappy with the way she's handled life as she discovers her new lifestyle. She has a talk with her mom where she asks her mom if she could have one "do over" what would it be and her mom says she's happy with her life the way it is. Her mom says she's made mistakes but she's learned a lot from trying to make them right (something like that anyway). So this inspires Jenna to try to make things right. She finds herself chasing her childhood "bestfriend" that she had ditched to be "cool." Too bad he's getting married to someone else. Anyway, she gets the chance to "make things right" with her past, but I must say the ending was a little cheesy... granted the whole premise was pretty far off to start with so what can you expect?

One thing I really liked was I felt like it might show young girls that "being cool and popular" has it's price and in the end it's not all you think it will be. The way you treat people is much more important than being one of the coolest girls in school at someone else's expense. Too bad there are some scenes/words that would keep this from being a movie that I'd recommend for young girls. I wish there was a way to encourage the movie makers to make more wholesome, clean movies.

Anyway, just wanted to share about the movie. This is probably the most recent movie I've seen-how sad is that! haha

Book Reveiws

I'm trying to set up a new blog for book reviews. I'm trying to set it up so that several people can contribute to this blog and it will only have book reviews. I figured many of us read the same books and have similiar interests so this would be a easy way to get reviews on books without looking through all of our blogs and all of our posts. So, if you'd like to be part of this, let me know what e-mail address to send your inviation to join the group to. I tried to do that for a few people and Lindsey was the only one that it seemed to work for. Maybe she can share how it worked for her...

Guilt or Disbelief in the Power of the Cross?

I'm sure we all have them; We all have our "pet sins" - those things we can't seem to forgive ourselves of or let go of. Today I really felt convicted about holding onto guilt from things in my past. Today I realized that it wasn't really guilt that was the problem. I finished reading "Boy Meets Girl" by Joshua Harris today. In this book he talks about "reverse pride" where we refuse to accept God's forgiveness. I don't think this applies just to sexual immorality sins, but to all of our sins. Fortunately the Cross "undermines our self righteousness" (179). There's also a quote from a story he relates from Rebecca Pippert's "Hope Has Its Reasons." I'd like to encourage you to insert your "pet sin(s)" in for the word abortion:

"If the cross shows me that I am far worse than I had ever imagined, it also shows me that my evil has been absorbed and forgiven. If the worst thing any human can do is to kill God's Son, and that can be forgiven, then how can anything else - even my abortion - not be forgiven?"

I have so much to learn! Luckily He's paid the price not only for my "pet sins" but also for my pride that has kept me from feeling the forgiveness I felt today. Praise the Lord!

Praise the LORD , all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.

Praise the LORD (Psalm 117)

Men Are Fools

I'm not saying I think that all men are idiots, so don't freak out. I just wanted to share this cartoon from a collection of cartoons titled, "Men are Fools" (click on the title to see them all). Don't worry there's also a group of "Women are fools" but I haven't looked at them yet.