Monday, September 29, 2008

Blow dryer help needed

According to several of my friends here at work, I don't do so hot with blow dryers. The current blow dryer has over the last few weeks been making some type of noise as if it is struggling to do its blow-drying duties. I flipped it on yesterday morning to get ready for church and it emitted some noise that I could only imagine a terradactyl might make. I quickly switched it off and resigned myself to heading to church with a wet mop. When I arrived at church, Kyle said, "You stayed in bed for a while this morning, didn't you?" assuming that I had slept in and hadn't had enough time to blow dry my hair (this from the guy who has slept through his finals!). Today, I also went to work with a wet head though it was considerably drier at work than it had been at church (thank God it is still 90 degrees here!).

My previous blow dryer met the trash can after it proceeded to shoot flaming fireballs of death at my head. That morning I went to work with half of my hair dry, much worse than either alternative.

So in short, I must purchase a new blow dryer. Does anyone have any reliable recommendations for a girl with straight, fine, thick hair that hates spending time styling her hair and does not like to fork out dough on anything, much less a blow dryer?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Strawberry Quick

Got this link from a friend and was absolutely blown away and pretty horrified. Makes me glad I don't have children yet so that I don't have to worry about this.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Yay for a great weekend!!!

September has turned into super duper busy time for me and especially Kyle. Poor fella. Last Monday-Wednesday, he was in Birmingham, AL for a youth conference (drove the 10+ hours by himself there and back). Wednesday night he taught youth. Thursday, he had classes and then that night we had soccer practice. Friday he spent much of the day with one of our youth who will be heading off for basic training soon. Then we went to Camp Eagle for the retreat and didn't return until Sunday night.

Yesterday, he worked on homework, laundry, drove one youth to work and took another to Sonic, and then had class that night. The rest of the week is looking just as busy since he has class today, FedEx tonight, youth on Wednesday night, classes and soccer on Thursday, and Friday we have our senior retreat. The seniors will spend the night Friday night and then we'll head out early Saturday morning to go towards Tyler, TX for the retreat. Sunday night, Kyle is preaching. Oh yeah...and Rylie is being spayed this Thursday. Craziness! Hopefully things will slow down a bit, particularly on the weekends, after this week.

Our College and Career Retreat was fantabulous. The ladies I went with were wonderful, as expected, and John and Kyle had a great time as well. At 6:30pm Friday night our group hopped into the van to head to the Hill Country (beautiful!!!). We arrived at Camp Eagle at 12:30 am after a few bathroom stops and one missed road. Kyle did a great job driving to and from the camp, my little trooper. Stacy kept asking where he was taking us because it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere, literally. No one had cell phone service and we drove down a dirt road for 8 miles to get to this place. Fun times. It was great to be so disconnected and have a chance to breath. Kyle challenged us through some Bible studies on the life of Noah to be obedient in the little and big things. We shouldn't be afraid obediently pursue great things for God. Here are some pictures from our trip. I hope you enjoy them! I've added some captions that should tell a bit of what we did. Those things not captured on film to show here are: kayaking, blobbing, swimming, hiking, zip lining (at least, not on my camera), and just tons of beautiful scenery.

View from the building we stayed in at Camp Eagle



Stacy, John, and Katie with Cedar the dog (amazing retriever that would dive down in the lake, deep into the lake, to retrieve rocks we'd thrown in). John really loved him as shown in the picture. Cedar really loved John because he fed him Honey Buns. Poor thing probably has diabetes now.


Quiet time next to the river


Pierre David Deer from the wild game farm across the river



Kellie blazing up the rock cliff we were climbing (I just love her expression in this picture)



We all made it to the top alive (sans John who hung out at the bottom with Cedar).

Now begins our Sherpa trek and then rappelling!




John and Kyle went mountain biking (wonderful trails) while Stacy, Katie, and I went kayaking and Kellie studied for an exam she had today (hope you did well, Kellie!).

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Update and our little monkey

Just a quick update. Tonight we have our one and probably only soccer practice for our intramural soccer team. I think we're going to name ourselves the "B Team" since we don't expect to be a real threat to the competition. We just want to play for fun. And fun it will be! We'll see how my knees hold up. I played a few games of indoor and outdoor soccer my senior year of college with no major injuries. Amazing, I know. We'll have to see how this goes. (For those of you who don't understand the context of these comments...I tend to have trouble with soccer though I love it. I've had surgery on both knees, a broken clavicle, a broken foot, several sprained ankles, busted lips, etc. I guess it's more of a nonreciprocal relationship. I love soccer; it hates me).

Kyle and I are leaving on Friday for a retreat with part of the college and career class. I am really excited about the opportunity to get to know the ladies more who will be going. They are so much fun! I hope to post pictures of the trip soon (Note to self: remember to take your camera and charge your batteries and download the pictures you currently have on the camera).

Oh yeah, here's quick update on Rylie for all of you who care (Mom does because she calls Rylie her granddog since we don't have children yet). Here's a picture of Rylie on the way home from Lake Mineral Wells State Park. We stopped by DQ and gave her a small ice cream as a treat for her good behavior (she's just like Kyle in her love for ice cream) and this is a picture of her after her post-ice cream nap. :)We took her up there on Labor Day weekend to go hiking. She did really well on the car ride there and back. She did fairly well during the hike except towards the end when she got tired (she's still a puppy). The car was back up the hill but she only wanted to walk downhill because it was easier. She didn't understand that she had to go uphill to stop hiking and to get to rest (very deep and applicable to life but I won't go there). We're having her spayed on September 18 so I hope all of that goes well.

Some of you may know that she's been getting out lately and we first thought that someone was letting her out because we couldn't find any spot that she would've climbed under. Next we figured out there there were some spots in the fence where the chain-link wasn't attached to the top bar so she could put her weight on it and climb up it, wiggling herself out to freedom. Last Saturday we were outside fixing all of these suspected routes of escape. I was outside the fence helping Kyle secure the chain-link to the top bar. All of a sudden Rylie begins to climb the chain-link fence to get outside to me. She put her paws in the holes and climbed up and over. I wish I had a video because she strained terribly to make it and it's a very cute face. But now she must remain tied up in the backyard until we think of some solution. We're leaning towards the underground electrice fence but we aren't sure yet. In the meantime, she's awfully pitiful being tied up all the time. Poor thing. Anyone have any advice? We'll gladly consider it!

Friday, September 5, 2008

International Students

While I have been here at Southwestern I have been exposed to so many wonderful international families, families from Nigeria, Cameroon, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Romania, Argentina, India. It has been such an encouraging experience. These kind friends love Jesus and want to be best equipped to minister to His glory. They are great people. I could write so much about the encouragement and kindness I have been the recipient of from all these wonderful people but that would make this post entirely too long.

At the church fair last night (the church fair happens once a year where the area churches set up booths during the seminary picnic so that new students can find a church to join), one friend from Malaysia came to our church booth and introduced me to his wife and son. His wife asked if anyone at our church could help her practice her English. She wants to raise her TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score so she can study here at SWBTS. It reminded me of my friend from India in the D.Min. program who will often come to my office or Mike's office to practice his English on us. According to him, it is much easier to speak, and particularly to read and write English, than it is to hear and comprehend it.

This has gotten me to thinking about the wonderful opportunity our churches could have to minister to these wonderful people. How simple would it be for a native English speaker to sit down and converse with one of these international students to give them the chance to practice their English? It would only take time on our part, nothing more. And the benefits we both would receive would be tremendous. We would be helping fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to get a better grasp on the English language, allowing them to better function in day-to-day life in America as well as enabling them to better understand their studies here at SWBTS. (I'll tell you one thing, if I was pursuing a degree in a second language, I would be utterly lost. These are really intelligent people but without practice, English is such an intimidating barrier.)

In the meantime, we would be building relationships with believers from different cultures, reminding us that God is not just an "American" or "English" god but the God of the universe and He is worshipped by people around the world. We would develop a love and respect for their culture and their country, placing in us a greater burden for missions around the world.

What would be the best way to go about doing a ministry like this? I'm not sure if God is calling me to take part in something like this, but it's a great thing to think about. Let me know what you guys think, especially those of you who are part of my church family.