more confessions

i have an old obsession... one i actually had to surrender & give up, because it verged into addiction. 'buffy the vampire slayer' and it's spin off, 'angel'. this may surprise some of you who know i'm not really a vampire/demon/witch kind of girl - but there you have it. i never missed an episode. never. i even gave them up for lent one year, and the entire duration of lent they ran reruns! (it was a mercy from God straight to me!)

i have a new - not obsession, not yet - but fun website, www.hulu.com, that has full episodes of all sorts of things, from last night's 'daily show' to 'silver spoons' (i kid you not). i did a little searching and they have the full first 2 seasons of both 'buffy' and 'angel'! they're free, streaming episodes, so last night i watch some 'angel'.

remember - i've seen these shows before. i know how they started, and i know how they end. and i was still on the couch, with tears rolling down my cheeks... "but he loves her so much! why can't they be together?" ... my heart just aching for that poor, handsome vampire and his tormented soul.

i think there may be something wrong with me. :)

and now for something completely different

hooray summer! the pool, the popsicles, the sleeping in and eating random meals at random times... ahhhhhhhhh.

summer is also a time of transition, though. our best friends are moving away - far, far away. my daughter is gearing up to start middle school. (middle school, people!) my brother & his wife are having twins! (yeah, they have no idea what they're in for... he he!) my dad might be getting a new job. my dear brother, vincent, has his second book of poetry coming out! woot! woot!

nothing stays the same, no matter how much you might want it to. but over all the years and changes we've had, even just in our little family, i've learned that change can be a beautiful thing. usually in life, if things don't change, they die... so i am going to embrace change this summer. i am going to celebrate my friends before they move, and find ways to keep in touch after they're gone. i am going to help kyra get excited for middle school (eep!!!). i am going to cheer for my dad, no matter how the job thing works out. and i'm going to love my brother's twins and support them however i can - albeit from afar. :) life is an adventure, and you can learn to love the ride, or fight it - but change wins out. nothing stays the same. and that's not necessarily a bad thing!

my own rebuttal

my previous post raises the questions, doesn't it? if God is really God, why doesn't he intervene? how come so many innocent people are suffering so much? how can you look at the world and say that God is good? why was i born here, into this luxury, and not in sudan or sri lanka or uganda?

i don't have the answers. i have some vaguely formed ideas, and some half-formed theology, but no answers. but it doesn't change the fact that i believe he is at work in our history somehow, in ways that i don't understand. perhaps that seems naive to you, my fearless reader, but i have had enough experience with the surprising power of God in my own personal history to know that even when i think otherwise, his back is never turned.

and i'll leave it at that.

and a little child shall lead them

this is excerpted from an article on msn...

"Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism....

Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone.

Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge? It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.

Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs — turning corn into fuel — is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple."

it made me think of what Jesus said. "And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place ... Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world." (matt 24:6,7) now, i'm no crazy, sign waving "the-end-is-near" fanatic, but i take comfort in knowing that, if you'll pardon the simplicity, "he's got the whole world in his hands." not just my future, but our future as a planet. and it makes me mindful of the rest of matthew 24 - be watchful, hold fast, don't let your love grow cold. don't panic, and don't be decieved. it's easy to panic in the face of all the pain and confusion we are faced with every day... i am particularly prone to it. but i am going to hold on to that little children's song... he's got the whole world in his hands. thank God.

the best 8 year old ever!

sorry it's been a while... i've been too tired to type....

but moving on! meg is the most fun 8yr old ever. she is my little fashionista; a drama queen; a laugh a minute; and so totally cool & brave. this week, she found 2 dead snakes - a poisonous copperhead & a ribbon snake - and put them in her purse (she was mid-bike ride) to bring home and make sure we all got to see them.

then she began working on turning them into skeletons, so she can keep them forever. using the "wisdom" of her uncle vincent, we've been letting the bugs have their way with them, covering them at night to protect them from dew & critters. after one day of this, we had already partially skeletonized snakes!

but, alas, upon returning from errands this morning, she discovered that some bold (and desperate!) critter had snatched the half decomposed ribbon snake in broad daylight...leaving her only with one snake skeleton. she was heartbroken, truly. but at least it was the copperhead - it's a far more interesting snake as far as she's concerned. she keeps saying to me, "i bet not every house has it's own snake skeleton!"

indeed, megan, indeed.

of course it happened in italy!

a 43 year old italian man kidnapped his ex-girlfriend from a local pub monday night, in order to force her to do his ironing. now i have a legitimate reason for never doing the ironing - i am preventing future kidnapping plots!

who knew!?

i also just learned, from the nature adventure camp leaders (The Girls are at nature adventure camp this week) that the only place in the world venus fly traps grow wild is in north carolina - specifically within a hundred miles of wilmington! and they are an endangered plant! and further research reveals they are an herb... an herb, people!

who knew!?

miscellania... or... why i may never eat ice cream again.

first, i have to say, walking into a house that someone else has cleaned in your absence is a beautiful thing. beautiful. noting that your feet no longer stick to that spot on the floor... or seeing that fuzzy, floaty cat hair wiped off all the surfaces... these are things that deserve their own mastercard commercial. priceless.

secondly, yesterday while watering the lawn & garden (because it was wednesday & we all ought to be doing our part to conserve water, people!), we saw, and killed, our first natually occuring black widow spider. we've seen them at the science museum, but to have one crawl around in your backyard where the children play is a whole new ballgame! i have to say, though, it was the most elegant, delicate & beautiful spider i've ever seen. so smooth and shiny, so black... and red, with it's long, long legs tapering down to a tiny sharp point. if we were out in the woods somewhere, hiking or something, it definitely would not have met such an untimely end...



and at last we come to why i may never eat ice cream again. "edy's slow churned rich & creamy frozen yogurt blends" i saw a print ad for this stuff and decided to give a whirl, what with not wanting to consume my daily caloric count in phish food alone. not only is it perhaps the richest & smoothest cold treat i've eaten in a long, long time, it is half the fat, and so, so so delicious. even the plain vanilla is so so so delicious. if you didn't tell me, i wouldn't have known it was frozen yogurt, even. go try it, people. it's at your local kroger, food lion or harris teeter just waiting for you in the ice cream section.

confessions

i've been meaning to blog this for a while now, but kept forgetting...

a couple of weeks ago, two sunday-best-dressed (hats included) older women rang my doorbell. and i knew what they wanted. i was going to ignore them, but kyra and meg had their faces pressed up against the window, belying the idea that no one was home. so i put a polite smile on my face and opened the door.

sure enough, they wanted "to be sure you read your bible." at this point, i ususally try the old "my husband is a pastor" line to get rid of them, but it ususally goes one of two ways - either they congratulate me and leave, or they latch on to me and how good God is, etc etc etc. these particular ladies were the latching kind. now don't get me wrong - God is good. but ringing my doorbell is just annoying, and i felt no warm, fuzzy "kinship" that inspired me to hallelujah's, if you know what i mean. i came to the conclusion that even christians don't like doorbell ringers. i mean, there might be some of you out there who love the door to door ladies in their wide brimmed hats - and i have a friend who likes to have long discussions (arguments) with jehovah's witnesses, even invites them in to talk - but for the most part, i don't think the door to door thing does anyone any good, and i don't know anyone (even among my christian friends) who welcomes it. in the wise words of john mayer, "did anyone ever change their mind because of something someone yelled real loud one time?"

maybe that makes me sound cynical - but i don't mean to be. it's just that when Jesus talked about us being "salt & light" i think he meant more living our ordinary lives in ways that change the "flavor" of our interactions with people, not so much making awkward front door conversations. i'm willing to concede that i could be totally wrong, but it's where i stand. thanks for letting me get it off my chest.

so much for national pride...

*sigh*

as a canadian, there are many things i have nationalistic pride about. but in the last 2 days i have been alerted to 2 news articles that make me hang my head in shame.

first, in vancouver, they are using cardboard cutouts of policemen holding radar guns to intimidate speeders into slowing down. lifesized cardboard cutouts. anyone remember flat curtis? like that, but not meant to be funny. a spokesperson for the police there warns that there may a real policeman lurking behind the cutout, so the public will respect the cardboard officers. nothing like being a real, live policeman hiding behind a pretend policeman to make you wonder about the career choices you've made....

and even worse, from my home province of alberta, a stellar example of small town canadian ingenuity. it actually hurts my heart a little bit to type this. an 18 year old stettler man tried to eat his underwear in order to beat a breathalyzer test. i swear i am not making this up. he was in the back of police car and ripped the crotch out of his short and stuffed it into his mouth, believing the cotton would absorb the alcohol. how drunk do you have to be to think this will work? i've always thought that 21 was high for a legal drinking age, but this young man is definitely an argument for raising the age at home.

i swear there are things i am proud of about the true north, strong and free... just right now, i'm having a hard time thinking of any....

here come my 15 minutes

i got interviewed for the news today! how fun is that? i am taking a fitness class at a local gym that is being featured in the "health" section of the news, reminding people to stay active even though it is ONE HUNDRED AND THREE DEGREES outside. granted, we had a lovely, cool spring, but this heat exploded upon us, and i don't think we were prepared at all. but back to me... i'm going to be famous! :) sort of...well, not really... i'll probably get cut... but it was my first news interview, and darn it all, i am proud of it! wral @ 5:30 next thursday people - be there or be square! :)

in other news, vincent has a shocking story about elephants in kansas that's definitely worth reading... if only for the pictures! i have no idea where he finds this stuff...

indulgences

once, many moons ago, i lost a lot of weight. a LOT. and much of it was lost by being brave and cutting out the indulgences of my diet... things that now i don't even miss. but last night, i was at the grocery store, and you know what they say about not shopping when you're hungry...

there it was, cold and smooth in the freezer.... ben & jerry's phish food ice cream. mmmm. smooth (like only b&j can make it) chocolate ice cream with rivers of gooey marshmallow & soft caramel with fudge fish... oh. my. gosh. 4 servings per container, 270 cal per serving, 100 cal from fat - and i can eat a pint of phish food without blinking. i did, in fact, used to do just that. but i could not resist... i bought it.



now every day i carefully sliver my teaspoon under a thin layer of chocolaty goodness, and savor a mouthful of unbelievable goodness... but only one. well, maybe two. but that's it. this phish food is a slippery slope, people. you gotta keep a tight grip on the reins!

oh, happy day!

my crazy, lovely, talented and funny brother, vincent, is restarting his blog - monkey's eye view - one of the best written, most random and funny blogs out there! the first new post should go up tomorrow, but if you've never perused it before, you would definitely get a kick out of reading some of his old posts! go check it out - and welcome back, v! i missed you!