the gift goes on!

ok - you may remember my "major award" for my poem 'the vine'...the one i had to pay a "nomial fee" to recieve...a fee that exceeded $170... is not the only thing i have been awarded! also, my poem is going to be published into a coffee table anthology called 'immortal verses'. a publication which i can purchase for the low low price of $49, and for which i recieve no royalties...although i do "retain the copyright to your own work of art". AND for a small fee of $25 i can fill out an artist biography that will go on the facing page of my poem! hoo hoo!



needless to say, i view all of this with a great deal of skepticism. but hey, if you all want to buy a $69 (your price, not the artist price) coffee table book of poetry, i can hook you up!

redrum

oh boy - curtis didn't scoop the new frog eggs, and now there are a million tadpoles (tiny) amid the few i saved (big - one with a FOOT GROWTH!), and i have steeled myself to kill them (the little ones). i have already been outside this morning with my goldfish net, scooping and scooping...they are tricky little buggers - maybe it's the will to live? so now, i have a bucket full of tiny tadpoles, admittedly with a couple of big ones that i couldn't avoid, and i am going to flush them. or maybe get curtis to flush them...i am trying to convince myself it's not murder, but...i sort of subscribe to the monty python philosophy "ever sperm is sacred". and now that i think of it, the little tadpoles look an awful lot like sperm. i think i will have to get curtis to flush them...

welcome home, me!

jericho is falling...

apparently, life is falling down all around my home while i am gone... while the tadpoles are thriving - i will probably be home before they hop away, hooray! - new frog eggs were laid while i was here, and although i told curtis to scoop them, he forgot/didn't, and now there is a new generation hatched. which means when i get home, if i want to fill the pool for the girls to swim, i have to murder hundreds of princes! (you know, frogs turn into princes if you kiss them) i don't think i can do that. life is sacred, even slimy tadpole life. sigh...



also, it appears that satchmo, in a fit of boredom and as a cry for attention, ate baby beauty, our blackmoor fish. i can't tell you how sad that is. i have been nuturing baby beauty with great joy. now he is dead. sigh...

and to top it off, curtis says the house is an abominable mess. and i am coming home on sunday. anyone want to make bets on whether or not he will remember/have the time/have the energy to clean it - even though i asked? oh dear...

a moment of depth

i am a little confused. i've been reading the OT (joshua, judges, ruth and 1 samuel) since being here in KY, and it has been very interesting. i do not feel like i know this God. maybe it's reading it in a new translation for the first time in many years, but the God of israel - while willing to forgive and redeem under the right circumstances - is incredibly harsh. father's sacrificing virgin daughters, slaughtering 10's of 1000's of women and children, smiting people left, right and center. i guess i see why - he is holy, and they are worshipping idols left, right and center, but it made me uneasy. maybe, though, i have gotten too far from his righteous anger, too used to the "nice" version of Jesus we all know and love. but as i think about it, when i read the gospels earlier this year, Jesus was pretty stern, too. he was not fooling around. yes, he was full of love, but he was unyielding too, and gave impossible commands, and demanded obedience. so maybe the God of the OT and the God revealed through Jesus in the NT are not that disparate, but they sure feel that way. i am going to have to think about that some more, i think. all i know is that if i were an israelite back in the day, i would have lived terrified. and maybe i ought to live with a little more of that reverent 'fear of God' in my life today...cause to be honest, i act like an israelite an awful lot...

the thrill is gone

i don't know what to do... for the first time in 4 years i find myself wanting to go home, while on vacation here in KY. my mom is stressed about her job, and never home. my dad is lacking joy, and my girls are driving me nuts. if i leave, though, it's a family betrayal. so i will stay. but i am hoping things look up... sigh...

updates galore!

false alarm.... it wasn't feet...it was, apparently, tadpole poop. a long string of tadpole poop. ah, well. i figure it takes a thriving tadpole to create such a thing! :) i am awaiting more pictures, but what with my slighty insane husband working til 3:30 in the morning, i don't expect to get them promptly. i'm surprised he can form a complete thought on that kind of schedule!

there is a new problem in the elliott household - the furnace is leaking, and a huge water spot has shown up on the kitchen ceiling. my father is beside himself. my mother provokes him by telling him it's not a big deal. they roll their eyes at eachother behind their backs. we are eagerly await the furnace guy to put an end to the marital unrest. i have been spending a lot of time looking like i'm not listening.

other than that, we hope swimming lessons will resume today - having been cancelled the last two days due to an overchlorinated pool... how frustrating! but, no cancellation phonecall so far this morning, and optimism is peeking it's head out of my heart! i am keeping my mental fingers crossed....

proof of life

good morning! it is the "quiet hour" ... when grams has left for work, meg is still alseep in her bed, and kyra is devouring another book on the couch. i quite love it...not to mention the cat just leapt up onto my lap and is purring like a madwoman....ahhhh....

and curtis sent me proof of life of the tadpoles! hooray!



he says he thinks he saw one with feet, but couldn't get a picture because it was down near the bottom of the pool...but how exciting! i miss watching them grow, having never seen a tadpole grow into a frog, but i will take comfort in the fact that these frogs would not have lived if i hadn't rescued their eggs! i am a rachel, frog rescuer! lover of living creatures everywhere!

genuinely quiet mornings are so rare - i am going to go and take advantage of it... i hope you all have a wonderful day!

a major award!

i love presents! if you want me to know that you like me, love me, or think i'm great, gifts are definately the way to go!

so, i pull into KY tired and hot, and my mom covers my eyes and steers me toward my (our... no, no, i'm pretty sure it's MY) anniversary present... a beautiful, antique roll top secretary desk! oooo! ahhhh! it so lovely! it even caused me to think about turning around and driving home, so i could put it in the livingroom! i looked all over online to find a picture similar enough to give you an idea of what it looks like, but i didn't see one that did it justice, and there is no digital camera here, soooo...you will just have to wait and see! :)

and for the record, i do accept gifts smaller than antique roll top desks. infact, since i already have one of those, you should just cross it off your list entirely!

OH! BIG NEWS! earlier in my blog, i posted a poem i wrote, called 'the vine'. well, a while ago, i submitted it to a national poetry contest, and won "outstanding achievement in poetry" award! hooray me! unfortunately, it's not a cash prize - but there is a lovely crytal trophy i can get ... by either going to las vegas or sending a "nominal" fee of $169 (which includes a "free" subscription to some national poetry "news" magazine...but, oddly, not shipping and handling). i kid you not - this is the picture they sent me in the email i recieved....



sadly, i think i will have to forgo my lovely crystal prize. too bad - i could have put it on my new desk....

sunday

happy sunday!

the girls are in the backyard pool, the humidity is high, and the sun is blazing! can you say, "good night sleep"? :) i am going to go read my book - i hope your afternoon is as lazy as mine!

we have arrived!

ah, there's nothing like pulling into insane city traffic after 7 hours of empty highway's going 70mph... so soothing... %$@!$#@^$#!&*@#!

but, nonetheless, we have arrived! all in one piece, and i will be posting most of the time i'm here..so don't be strangers! :) leave me lots of lovely comments!

love me!! (take that however you want to!)

life goes on

ok - i am going on vacation, but i will try to keep posting! while i am gone, please remind curtis to:

1. check on, and feed, the tadpoles

2. feed and water the cat, and scoop his litter

3. feed the goldfish

4. water the plants (especially the lillies!) if we go too many days without rain

5. feed the birds

looking at that list, and including The Girls and curtis, i nurture a lot of life! that makes me happy!

good news!

good news! the tadpoles are voluntarily swimming this morning! and they are bigger! and they are ALIVE!!! now i almost wish i weren't going to kentucky on saturday... i want to see my babies grow! :) all of you, please remind curtis to nurture them, ok?!

the ordination service went well... a lot gray hair, and at least one woman who sneered at my (fabulous!) shoes, but it was full of God, and lots of genuine warmth toward us (and all the other candidates), so... onward to our greencard! yikes!

what's new pussycat?

congratulations to curtis! tonight we go out to the booming metropolis of highpoint, nc, to see his ordination officially transferred. and, yes, it really is as exciting as it sounds. for those of you drawing a blank, it's a lot like changing schools halfway through your degree and having to make up some of your credit hours since your new school doesn't count certain of your previous classes toward your degree. so curtis has had to take 2 more classes, (he was ordained in our previous church denomination), and now after tonight will be an official wesleyan reverend. i honestly, as much as i'm proud of him, feel weird about being married to a reverend. it's a little weird, don't you think?

on the plus side, the tadpoles are still alive - hooray!

what a girl wants

i want my daughters to grow up to be fabulous women with lives full of people who love them, who love God, and have a strong sense of their own worth and beauty. and in the meantime, i want to be a good mom, who leaves them with memories they can hold on to, rather than ones they have to "deal with". i want to be able to sit on the porch with them when they are grown and talk about life, to have grown into a friendship with them like my mom and i have.

i want to look back over my lifetime and be able to say that i said yes to God, and did whatever he asked of me - that i used my gifts well. i want a 'well done, good and faithful servant'.

i want a lasting marriage that doesn't just hold out til the end for the sake of blind committment, but rather one that continues to grow in love and intimacy and respect. i want to learn to love curtis better. i want to feel like the center of someone's universe...

i want big lillies that aren't eaten by rabbits. i want regular time to hang in my hammock and sleep. i want to be a better human in the mornings. i want to always live where it is warm, and there are living things to get lost in... (i stood out in the street last night at dusk while 4 or 5 bats - sorry, dad - swooped and dove not 10 feet above my head... it was amazing!)

i want to write a book that people read and think is fantastic!

i want to grow old and beautiful - the kind of woman you want to sit beside and talk to, because she is so wise and gracious and funny - i want to be the kind of person peter and john were... "...they were unschooled, ordinary men, and (others) took note that these men had been with Jesus." i would like to have that tone in my life, too. i want to find a way to live that gives more life that it consumes. i want to figure out to live according to Psalm 119:73, 74... "You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands. May all who fear you find in me a cause for joy, for I have put my hope in your word.”

i want to always have parties that people look forward to coming to, because they know they are going to laugh hard and have a great time.

i always want to have cute shoes and style.

i want to live so that the people that i love always know that i love them.

i think that's it... there is lots more that i "want", but they fall far more under the catagory of 'that red sweater', and not really anything you would want to build a life around!

your vote is needed!

hooray! over the weekend, my tiny circular frog eggs have grown to have tiny little tails and are about the size of a pencil lead! around each little froglet is a clear yolk sack... they are safely floating in the big bucket. now my problem is that the last week of their growth into frogs, should they live, they will be in the care of *gasp!* curtis, since i will be in kentucky. do we trust him to nurture the little froglets and feed them goldfish food and talk to them and encourage them and nurture their tiny hearts? i don't know! feel free to cast your vote in the comments section!



in other "hooray!" news, my daughter was baptized yesterday! it was a glorious day for a mom... she wants to follow Jesus so much! I was bursting!

oh happy day!

good morning! we woke up to what we have to assume are frog eggs in our swimming pool! oh happy day! we are going to nurture them and talk to them and see if we can grow them into frogs! hooray! curtis is very skeptical... he doesn't even agree that they are tadpoles, but it's 3 against 1 in that argument, and The Girls and i remain optimistic! i will keep you posted, and if they don't die, i'll take pictures for you! (this one is from the web) of course, we will have to remove them from the pool, first off..

oh! and there was a new and different yellow bird on the feeder this morning...one that isn't even in our 'birds of the carolina's' book! the sun is shining, the air is refreshing, and life pulses all around us!

"In a great chorus they sang, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!" - Isaiah 6:3

i love a rainy night

i woke up to the sound of what you southerner's probably would call "a gully washer"... it sounded like God had turned on a faucet, rather than raindrops. i loved it. i laid awake in my bed and listened to the rain and thunder, feeling so warm and cozy in my bed. after a long hot week, there is something very soothing about waking up to a grey and drizzling sky, don't you think?

as i watched the gold finches on the feeder in the rain this morning, it occurred to me how much glee-delight-whimsy God expressed when he made all of this...the creativity is endless! and frankly, some of it has no purpose other than to be gloriously beautiful. i feel like it's a good day to be alive!

did you miss me?

good morning! thanks to the encouragment of sabrina, lu and oz, i am going to try beginning again! hooray for new beginnings!

considering that this is the month i was going to go on "mental vacation", there is a lot going on! it seems that every night and weekend we have something, and i feel quite a bit of pressure, rather than rest. in 2 weeks, though, i head off to visit my mom and dad, and that will be lovely, i'm sure! i always get to rest when i'm there.

i am trying to think of something more important i can say, that will "draw the reader in", but that's it for today, i think. if something occurs to me later, i'll let you know!

thank you, sabrina, steve and luaskya... it's nice to be wanted!