Monday: deep thought #1 - giving

Today's deep thought is on the subject of giving money. Don't get me wrong, I oddly enjoy giving away money.

Ok, so the tithe goes to the church. But then there are so many other people asking for money. Some of them are very easy to dismiss ("how did I get on that mailing list?"). Some of them are some what easy to dismiss ("They aren't a Christian organization" or "I don't have super-strong feelings about this cause"). But then there are the half-dozen groups that I really care about because they have close ties to us (church, friends in missions, and giving away goats). I guess the goats don't really have close ties to me but there is just something about them. Maybe in heaven all "my" goats will show up in a herd one day. But I digress...

So how to choose among the half-dozen groups that we really care about? There is some extra money in the budget for extra giving so I guess we got ourselves into this predicament in the first place. And I don't really have an answer for you either. In some ways it's rather annoying because we will have to not give some people money which makes it seem like their cause isn't important to us. But they are.

Could we give up that one extra "eat-out" per week and give the money away? We could. Does that make us selfish. Probably. It's kind-of a hard truth to live with, but I'm also not sure I want to change. But I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

Sunday: wedding pictures

I have all of the wedding pictures posted here. They aren't all great pictures, but I took out the blurriest.

Saturday: goat

I kept laughing about the goat comment, and suddenly this showed up.



I had tears in my eyes.

Saturday: cookies

So I started sharing my electronic to-do list with Ben the other week. I guess it's more than a to-do list...I keep bunches of lists there. One list is "things for christmas." And I keep finding little notes in the spreadsheet now...



They make me laugh.

Oh, I was just informed that Ben moved "make cookies" to the appropriate list since I put it in the wrong list.

Friday: camera cable

I got my camera cable today! I'll be putting up some Thanksgiving pictures shortly, but in the meantime here is Flurry enjoying the packaging. She likes to lick the air in the bubbles.

Thursday: feet

I bought a new foot scrubbing stone over Thanksgiving. It's amazing. I'll be sure to buy new ones regularly from now on.

I also wore different shoes to work today. My feet have been so cold lately and these shoes are warmer, although not as dressy. In the end, they were almost too warm as my feet were a little sweaty sometimes. But it was nice to not be as cold.

Wednesday: work review

I had my bi-yearly review today. I guess it's bi-yearly but this is the one that really matters as raises are based off it. Anyway, I thought it went really well. I'm getting another project to work which is exciting. And I'm on the schedule to get a promotion next year, which I'm also excited about.

Tuesday: laughter

So for Bible study we broke up into guys/girls to pray. The girls ended up laughing more than praying, but I know that is what I needed. It was fun

Monday: a mood

I was thinking about writing a deep thought tonight, but I find myself becoming a bit moody. Sigh. I finished my book last night or I would go read, but I'm not sure what I want to read next.

In other news, I like my haircut more now than I did on Friday. It has un-pooffed and the bangs aren't so prominent. I'm still not sure I love it, but it's ok. I'm thinking about growing it out more since I can't find a short style that I really like.

Sunday: we're home

Hi! We're home. Except I think I left my camera cable at Ben's parents' house. :( So I can't see any pictures of the wedding to see if they turned out.

The wedding went well. Travis and Allison and now happily married. I'll post pics later. Ben might have a clever way to get the pictures to my computer using the PS3 so hopefully I'll be able to post some soon.

The drive home went very smoothly. It took us about 10.5 hours, including a food stop.

Thursdasy: happy Thanksgiving!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! It was a nice day over here...we relaxed in the morning and then went over to the Hilldore party. There were lots of people that we haven't seen for quite a while since we didn't make it to any holiday parties last year. And there was great food.

Wednesday: Ben is n^n!!

Today Ben is 27. The is the last year he will ever be an n^n, as for his 4^4th birthday he will probably be dead. If not he can look at this blog post and laugh. But I won't know what cool things to get him that are part of the 4th dimension...

But I digress. Today Ben is a cube and so I got him a bunch of cubic gifts.

I told him he had to smile no matter what the gifts were. He got some post-it cubes, a candle, a chocolate orange in a cubic box, and a new DS game that I stacked with a lot of old DS games to make it into a cube. He was a little let down when he realized that 6 of the 7 games he already owned.

Tuesday: rehersal

We had the rehearsal today. I was the unappointed photographer. I need to learn about my camera better, but some pictures came out and most of the pictures from Cheryl's camera turned out.

The rehearsal dinner was delicious too.

Tuesday: we made it!

Well, the drive to Michigan took 12.5 hours. That's right, 2.5 hours longer than it should have. The first problem was snow. It was snowing pretty heavily in NY just as we were leaving, and so the roads hadn't been plowed or salted. Ben did the driving but was rather stressed. The next problem was snowplows. There were two in front of us plowing but not letting traffic go by. So we followed them at 30 mph for about 30 minutes. After that it cleared up and I drove while Ben rested. We went back and forth a few more times but ended up getting all the way to Hudsonville instead of stopping. One of us got just enough rest in time to relieve the other for a while.

But a few good things about it taking so long...we got better gas milage and I was able to see my dad before he went to work.

Sunday: polar bear and potluck

Today is WoW's 4 year annivesary, so they gave everyone a pet polar bear. I've decided it's going to replace the white kitten as my favorite pet. (Although I did tell Flurry she can be an honorary polar bear since they're the same color and in the same cat family.) Oh, I'm the owl next to the bear.



There was a potluck at church. We were the 4th-from-last people to get our food and there were slim pickings for the sides. There was plenty of meat though. So we decided to get dessert at the same time as our food which was a good idea because those were going quickly too. But it was fun to have lunch our friends (and actually we ended up eating dinner with them too).

Thursday: better

So today went much better than I expected. Yesterday's worst thing is getting worked without problems. The thing I don't know how to fix I have a few ideas to fix and know more now, although I haven't figured anything out quite yet. Oh, another things seems very lost and I'm not sure what to do about that. The other problems are not really problems just things I need to do.

And tomorrow is Friday!

Wednesday: not a good day plus landscaping

Today the last 30 min of work was rather terrible. One thing after another went wrong. Some where small things and easily fixable, some I'm not sure how to fix, and one is bigger and more annoying.


But the landscaping was finished when I got home and we went to some friends' for dinner and that was delicious.

Tuesday: potluck

We had a potluck with our Bible study tonight. It was a lot of fun with good food. Ben also had his first birthday cake of the year.

I know this picture is blurry, but I really like it. I think the bluriness makes us cute.

Monday: deep thoughts

Well, I've found several college friends' blogs and family blogs lately and you'll probably see them show up on the side bar, although I doubt you'll really care. However, after having so many blogs to read I realize that several of them have a lot of deep thoughts. I'm always complaining that I don't have deep thoughts, but I realize that isn't true. So I'm starting a once per week series on my deep thoughts.

Upcoming topics include: abortion, giving, working, consuming. Hmm, four weeks. That'll be enough to start at least. You will start to see the liberal Christian side of me.

The first one was yesterday. :) I decided that it was deep enough to be part of the series.

Sunday: serving dinner

After church our Bible study served dinner at the Y for people. After being the first person in the serving line and having to say "no" to a lot of people (no, we aren't serving seconds yet; no, you can't bring food home to your husband) I have a glimpse at how hard similar social work jobs might be. You do good/nice things for people but you have to serve so many people that you also have to put your foot down and say no a lot. I'm sad to think of the people who didn't get food today because I couldn't give their spouse food to take out of the building, yet the coordinator of the event said not to.

Moral of the story: don't ask if you can do something, just do it. I saw one guy packing up some food to take home that we gave him because we assumed it was for himself.

Moral number 2: if there are two lines, hit each line once because they won't recognize you as quickly.

Saturday: laziness and hard work

Today Ben and I buckled down and worked on leveling our characters. I hit 72 near the end of the night and I forget what Ben is up to. Amalle (my character) did a lot of running, blasting, healing, and carrying while I did a lot of sitting. Ah well, it is nice to have days like this...while several weekends have been fairly lazy this one tops them all. I got the essential chores done (kitty litter, cleaning the kitchen, and putting the laundry away) and told myself that was all I have to do this weekend.

For all of you worried about my health sitting here so much, tomorrow will be much different since we have church and some plans for afterwards. And next weekend I won't be letting myself off so lightly. :)

Thursday: WoW

The WoW expansion came out today. Below are some screen shots that I thought were related to me/funny/cute (in that order). So far it's been fun, but I'm tired. Oh, the 5:45 morning haven't been bad. Getting up hasn't been too bad, by the time I need to pick Ben up I'm usually ready for a little break, and ending early is always nice. I'm going to do it tomorrow and then probably not for a while again, but will keep it as a viable option if I ever should need to have more at work time than Ben.

Monday: work

I had to go into work early this morning - 5:30- and so I'm starting to get a bit tired. This whole week may be early days, although I don't need to be in quite so early tomorrow. But it is a good thing that I went in early as by 8am, when we normally go in, I had already got people working on several things.

Just for fun: a Foxtrot comic. I totally thought Steve was getting a super cool robot when he said he got to test an android.

Sunday: gourmet grilled cheese

Ben made me a grilled cheese for dinner while drinking a glass of sparkling white grape juice, so I asked him if he felt all sophisticated because you always see people in movies cooking while drinking their glass of wine. Or at least that's what I remember.

Saturday: more Flurry

Well, it was a Flurry day again. We took a lot of pictures of her. We also did some chores and played Warcraft. Ben and I got our latest characters to 70 just in time for the expansion to come out.

Wednesday: leaves

I went into work early today, so I got to leave before it was dark. :) We didn't rake all of the leaves over the weekend so we finished today...it was still warmish too!!

I have a donut waiting for tomorrow...how exciting is that?

Tuesday: election 2008

Well, last night I finally decided who I was voting for. Ben and I had been planning on going to the polls after work, but at the last minute we decided to go before work and there wasn't a line, which was great.

I started a new notebook at work. It's like starting a new tube of toothpaste...it's all clean and uncreased.

I had a meeting that was over half made of Mikes.

I got some free and delicious cake!

Monday: Flurry

Flurry is enjoying having boxes to play in and on as we unpack a bit more.
I felt like a glorified secretary for a significant part of today. It is important to do the stuff I'm doing, but it is also easy and rather mind-numbing so it gets passed down to the newest people.

Sunday: Happy Birthday Luke

We went to a surprise party for Luke tonight and had pie.

Saturday

Well, today went well. I wasn't as tired and Ben and I got a lot of chores done. And I played a lot of Warcraft.

Friday: brinner and exhausted II

Since it was halloween, we had brinner at Dusty and Laura's so we could pass out candy at the same time.

However, at the end of brinner I was exhausted again and so took another long nap. I guess it had sort of been a stressful day if I tilt my head and squint funny. I'm not really sure what's going on.

Thursday: exhausted

I was exhausted today after dinner, so I ended up taking a two hours nap. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight :)

Wednesday: snow!

So it snowed yesterday. :) It mostly rained, but there was a little snow in there too. The when we woke up, there was snow on the ground!



Work has been ok. Some days have been flying by, others dragging. Not having a largish project to continuously fill my days has been annoying.

Monday: not much new again

Well, there wasn't much new again today.  I made some apple crisp with the last of the apples.  They were still good, just not very hard and not great for eating alone.

Sunday:errands

Today Ben and I did a lot of errands after church.  I had a 15% off to Kohl's so we both got some new work clothes.  I'm rather sad to be out of juniors and into misses for most of the clothes I've been buying lately, but oh well.  We also got our TV tuner and groceries.  It was a nice day, so we had to rake too, but that didn't take very long.

Saturday: rainy corn maze

Today I went to a corn maze with some ladies from church. The only problem was that it was raining out.  Really rainy.  But besides that it was fun. :)

Here we are afterwards...

Thursday: not much new

Not much is new.  Warcraft has been fun.  My nap was nice.

Tuesday: misc

We finished the desks. They are also nice for guests. :D

I finished the Pickwick Papers (finally).

Monday: colonoscopy

Well, I'm sure everyone will be relieved to know that I have no colon problems. The doctor declared me healthy and told me (well, told Ben actually) to come back in 5 yrs.

Overall, it wasn't really a terrible experience. The two worst things were having to drink a lot of water with medicine in it over a short time and peeling a sticker off of myself from one of the vital sign measurers.

I'm pretty sure that Ben found me rather funny afterwards though. I was holding the pop after stopping by McDonalds he had to keep talking to me telling me to stay awake. My response was that I was awake...I had to hold the pop after all. However, I only remember about half of the trip. Then we got home and it was all I could do to make it to the futon and fall down on it. I also asked if the doctor gave Ben a picture of my colon. I still think that it would be cool...I mean, pregnant women come home with baby pictures and people with broken bones come home with bone pictures, why can't I have a colon picture?

That's all the funny stuff I guess. I proceeded to take a long nap and was more normal when I woke up.

Sunday: pre-colonoscopy and desks

Well, today has been pretty laid back. We got my desk hutch and drawers put together, so that's almost done. Flurry supervised.


I'm also having a colonoscopy tomorrow, so today was my clearish liquid diet day. It turns out that one package of jell-o is more "food" that I expected and chicken broth actually has a lot of flavor. I'm not very hungry right now, but I do feel like eating. Most things sound really good right now. But I guess I can wait until tomorrow.