Interesting Cross-Reference

I was presented with these two scriptures in my Bible study this morning. Read and discuss.

Genesis 28:10 - 12
Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

John 1:48 - 51
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Unmentionables

This post isn't about underwear, but about things I haven't mentioned recently. That was just a cheap attempt to get you read this. And it obviously worked!

First of all, I haven't mentioned here yet that I am pregnant. I am four months along with a quickly-growing belly. I don't yet know the baby's gender but will hopefully find out in a few weeks. I am due in March, about a week after my sister Cheri.

I got a new computer about a week ago. It is my first laptop. I am loving it so far. This thing may never leave my house, but I've already used it in four different rooms since getting my wireless network set up two days ago!

I have hardly been playing my guitar lately. Last fall and spring I was leading worship for my Bible study so I was constantly practicing. Then came summer. Then we decided to omit music for this fall. Hence, I haven't had a reason to practice and have really slacked.

I have also done very little crafting lately. Very little scrapbooking. No cardmaking. No random other stuff. Again, a lot of slacking.

Not much blogging lately either as you may have noticed. Wow. I'm starting to feel like a real slacker!

Actually, I have enjoyed taking a break from these last few things but I'm ready to start doing more of all of them.

Oh, I also haven't mentioned anything about the Fantasy Football season. For the last few years, my family has had a league together. I always love it, even though I'm usually near the bottom. This year, so far, I'm 0-5, last place. Yes, that's no wins and five losses. It's not quite as much fun this way. You want to know who's number one, at 4-1? My mom. She picked her team based on their names. And her strategy is working.

Well, there's a little catch-up (not ketchup) on my life!

Dancing Queen - For Real This Time!

Well, I did it the old-fashioned way and went through YouTube (instead of uploading through Blogger like I was trying to do last time) and it worked! Now you can see my silly dancer...

Back to Blogging

Q: How does one know when it's time to start blogging again?
A: When one finds herself with more to say than her husband wants to hear in one sitting!

So here I am, ready to blog some more. First of all, under the headline of Blog World Collides With Real World: Last Friday, I was at McDonald's, a place for Food, Folks, and Fun as the advertisements used to say. And we had all three: in addition to seeing a friend from church there, I saw a little girl running around who I knew I knew from somewhere. I just couldn't place her face, even after scanning all the adult faces in the kids' area where we were. Finally, it hit me. I've seen her face at Hale-Yeah!--that's Brian Hale's daughter. Looking around the room some more, I recognize (again from pics at his blog) his wife (Jacinda) and younger daughter! Unbelievable! Of course I had to go say Hi to this complete stranger who I already felt like I'd met! You can go meet her too at Jacinda's blog!

During the same visit to McD's: As I mentioned, we were sitting in the kids' play area where they have the big play structure for the kids to safely climb up in, across, and slide down. Unfortunately, it's safe because it is totally enclosed, with very few "windows". So when I (rather unwisely) allowed my two-year-old daredevil to go up, while there were about ten or twelve other loud kids swarming, I lost track of her. I sent my four-year-old up. Did you see her? Yes. Where is she? (Pointing up high) Right there. Was she happy? Yes. Okay, fine, if she's happily playing up there, no problem. But I was still searching for her through one of those "windows". Finally, as I got closer, I heard crying over the noise of the other children, and another mom asked if that's my daughter, that she's been crying and is over there, pointing up the stair case. The tight spiral staircase that even a five-year-old couldn't stand up in. After quickly determining there was no other choice, I crawled through the small entrance and up the stairs to find my daughter at the top of the stairs, scared and crying, just sitting there while other kids stared at her, wondering if they should do something before continuing on their journey through the bright plastic cavern. Of course I felt terrible that I had let her go up there and then didn't even know she was crying for I don't know how long. I inched my way down the stairs with her on my lap. One really little girl coming up the stairs stopped when she saw me and just stared. Finally she (rightfully) laughed and went on. We emerged and I tried to comfort my poor little girl who I was certain had been traumatized for life. But she wouldn't let me. The tears had stopped and she wanted to go back and play. Is this what they mean when they say kids are resilient?

Cool Geek

That's right! I'm a cool geek. A cool technology geek, actually, according to nerdtests.com. I may not be able to compete with NerdDad's scores but at least I'm cool.





Did I mention the quiz said I was cool? I already knew about the geek part, but no one has ever officially verified my coolness.

Dancing Queen

Two blogging firsts: 1) My first home video post and 2) my first post in a long time!

I avoid dancing in public. Others who know me well enough to have seen me dance will attest to my lack of rhythm. I have higher hopes for my daughter. She has always loved to dance and never ceases to entertain us.

UPDATE: From my first look, the video isn't showing up. Can anyone see it???

UPDATE 2: I have tried again but again it seems to not work!!!

Neat Video

I just watched this. It is very powerful. It might look cheesy at the start, but hang in there.



HT: Blog Hero

What Accent?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I'm not from the "Midland" area though I do distinctly remember a college dormmate who lived down the hall and around the corner saying that when she heard me talking from my room it sounded like I had a Midwest accent. (That was probably her way of telling me I was too loud, too.)

I also can't resist posting something saying I have a good voice for TV and radio. I always thought it would be cool to be a radio DJ. But I think I would have trouble talking to myself--I think I need a live, physically present audience. Hmmm.... I'll have to work that one out....

So, what's your accent?

HT: Tales of a Music Mama (who I don't have a link to yet but read all the time!!! Sorry Flo!)

Give Me a Sign God

Conversation with my almost four-year-old son on our walk home from Starbuck's tonight:

Him: Mom, what's that sign say?
Me (helping him sound out the words): Right turn only.
Him: Right turn only. That's going to be my memory verse for today.

Little Laugh From Sara

After teasing my husband about not liking to have lights on in the house at night...

Him: Has anyone ever told you you're mean?
Me: No! (pause) They're too scared.

Ha! Well, I thought I was funny.

After Years of Mystery...

There is no more wondering about which Springfield the Simpsons' home is in.

Deja Vu

After studying through Jonah as I had mentioned in an earlier post, I just kept on reading and went through Micah. There were a couple of verses in chapter two that I found really interesting. To summarize the situation, Micah is living during this time where no one in Israel is following God. They have all turned to foreign gods and are doing whatever they darn well please. Micah is a prophet appointed by God, but not accepted by the nation's leaders. In fact, they have even apparently appointed their own prophets. Micah's message is of doom (followed by reconciliation, but mostly doom) for the nation and no one wants to hear that.

Here's verse six: "Do not prophesy,” their prophets say. “Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”


And, my favorite, verse 11: If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!


So, I'm reading this and thinking about how far these people have strayed from God. And then I started wondering if this is at all like the church today. I don't mean that the American church has completely turned from God, but I'm wondering: Are there Biblical truths that are "unacceptable" within the church? Do we try as best we can to ignore those teachers whose messages make us uncomfortable (regardless of whether they speak the truth) and surround ourselves with teachers who give us messages of comfort and prosperity (even if it's a little off the mark biblically)? Although I can't think of a real concrete example, there's something about Israel's response to Micah that feels vaguely familiar.... Is it just me?

Okie Tan

Growing up, I used the term "okie tan" to describe the sun tan lines you get from wearing a t-shirt. Everyone I knew in my hometown of Bakersfield, California called it the same thing. I moved away to the big, big city of Fresno and heard a friend say "farmer tan" (or "farmer's tan") to describe that distintive tan. I had never heard that term before. The conversation probably went something like this:

friend: ...So now I've got this dumb farmer tan.
me: What?
friend: My farmer tan.
me: What?
friend (impatiently): My farmer tan. I've got a farmer tan. See? <pulling up short sleeve to reveal contrasting skin tones>
me: Oh! You mean an okie tan!
friend: What?
me: An okie tan.
friend: What?
me (impatiently): An okie tan!!! <pulling up my own short sleeve to reveal contrasting skin tones>

Of course, that's how a lot of my conversations go... So, I've been thinking about this recently and googled "okie tan". The search turned up ONE occurrence of its use.... by a girl in Delano (a city 30 miles north of Bakersfield). So apparently the use of this phrase is limited to a very small region although it is widely used within that region. Isn't that weird?

Have you ever heard "okie tan" before? What term do you use to describe a t-shirt shaped tan? And where did you learn that term? Leave a comment.

Gangster/Folk Crossover

You've seen them here before: The Conchords. Here they are hilariously funny again....


HT: Hale-Yeah!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (pictorial edition)

With happy kids

Eating lots of food

In airports

At the pool

Listening to my son's mariachi band

Surrounded by beauty

Sand everywhere

Observing wildlife

On the beach


With family

We're in the News

Well, sort of. Look for my family's appearance here as "irate summer travelers". Yes, we have been awaiting our passports (after applying over eleven weeks ago), wondering if we will actually be able to go on our vacation to Mexico. After a little help from Congressman Devin Nunes and his staff, our passports have been processed, overnighted to us, and should arrive in the next hour. Of course, as of a few hours ago, it doesn't matter since the new (as of 1/1/07) requirement that travelers to Mexico and Canada must have passports has been temporarily suspended due to the State Department's inability to process the "massive surge" passport applications they have received in the last few months. Well, either way, we get to go on vacation!!!

Cool Cooking Site

I know, I know.... I don't post for over a month and now two posts in a day! I just like to keep my readers on their toes! Actually I just thought I wouldn't remember to post this later. I was looking for info on grilling artichokes and came across Cooking for Engineers. From my brief visit it appears to be a great site. The guy has a very cool table format he uses for recipes and he uses lots of pictures--always good. Check out this lemon bar recipe to see what I mean. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the recipe in table form.)

Jonah, Part 2

So I just read chapter 3 and was struck by another little thing. It's verse one: "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." So, Jonah rejected God's first command by physically running away from God. God spares the guy's life from drowning and then allows him to live on dry land again (instead of inside the fish). Jonah doesn't really deserve it, but God allows him to live anyway. That should be enough. But then, on top of that, God reaffirms Jonah's position as prophet by giving him a second command to go to Nineveh. Unfortunately, as we'll see in chapter 4, Jonah still has a bad attitude about the whole thing. Does he not realize the grace just extended to him??? Anyway, it's just encouraging to know that God doesn't think in our terms--our usefulness to him is not over because we have walked away from him and his ways for a period of time.

Jonah and The Big Fish

I was just reading Jonah and made a realization in chapter 2 where Jonah praises God for sending a fish to swallow him and, therefore, saving his life. Jonah starts by describing his descent into the sea: "all your waves and breakers swept over me." I love how visual his description is: "Seaweed was wrapped around my head." (Where else do you find seaweed in the Bible?!) And that's when it hit me. Jonah didn't know his life would be defined by and remembered for these few days. He didn't know his name would always be followed by "and the Big Fish" (or "and the Whale" for those of us who were taught inaccurately back in the day). He was just Jonah the prophet. And he thought his life was over. And for good reason considering he had just blatantly disobeyed God. But no--God provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. Now, I'm thankful for all the things God provides for me, but I sure hope He never has to provide a fish (or any other creature for that matter) to swallow me.

Jonah didn't know how his story was going to end, and we never know either. I love to consider whatever circumstances I am in, no matter how good, bad, or (more often) mediocre, as having the potential to become something that will define me (or someone else) or that will be remembered by many for many years. Not that I'm looking to be thrown into a sea... but I guess sometimes that what it takes!

In the Beginning

This is my 3.5 year-old's account of creation as overheard in the car tonight: “On the first day, God created light and dark. On day two, God created squishy fish and pens for people to write with. On the next day, He made creatures and squishy fish and animals that creep and crawl and hop and gallop. On the next day, he made light and dark and Adam. On the next day, He made people and cars and trucks and helicopters and boats and tractors. On the next day, He made engines and buses to go everywhere. And shapes and colors. On the next day, He made toys to go in the stores. On the next day, he made numbers and letters. The end. Wasn’t that a good Bible story?”