Thursday, October 30, 2003  

   [ posted  @ 2:17 PM | ]

Sad, sad news today... Mike Yaconelli, considered by many to be the father of youth ministry was tragically killed in a car accident this morning. Dang. This is a VERY big loss for Youth Specialties... and all of us who depended (if that is the right word) on Mike for inspiration to hang in there and persevere in church ministry to young people. I just found this out a few minutes ago... and will only know when we get to heaven what God's plan for this timing was...

Of Mike, I present Paul's words, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." Col. 1: 10-12

One of Mike's last articles... haunting, but touched my life as they all do...

   [ posted  @ 2:15 PM | ]

Tonight I saw EGG NOG at the grocery store. I almost bought some but i had enough calories in my cart as it was. I really want some though. I love that stuff.

I don't drive at night hardly at all anymore. It's kind of weird. I went out tonight and felt like a really old lady and wanted to turn around bc i was too scared. Yeah. Well plus it was raining, and my wipers probably need to get changed again. Seems like i just did them but only 1x since getting my car in '99 have i replaced them so i guess it's been long enough, cheapskate. Get some new ones.

I didn't go to Zone tonight. They had a hayride but i doubt many ppl showed up bc it's raining and they said go rain or dry, and i can't afford to get another cold bc who would ever do my job at the stupid STORE?!!! I could write you tales too splendid to mention regarding that adventure, but we are so short staffed right now i want to shave my head and change my name so no one can find me and drift away into the fog so that i don't have to go back. Found out they are going to be taking two of our 5 key holders out for three weeks straight to do overnights to reset our "live ink" planograms, and that means i will be at my wits end worse than i already am.

Started sending resumes out again which is a really bad idea... bc they say never to take a position in ministry as an "out" from another job. A church in Burnsville called and wants to interview me next Monday or the following one. As they called on my home phone (which i do not answer... it being like a hotmail e-mail account... for junk callers only), i bought myself some time. That was part of my drive tonight, to see where that place was, and i couldn't find it in the dark. I was laughing pretty hard in the car bc the church i thought it was, was not it. I drove around the parking lot (for one of the coolest church buildings i've seen yet) and then was looking for the non-illuminated sign) and it said something something of the something ascention... and i started laughing bc that was not it!!! But it was right where the map said mine was supposed to be (River Hills UMC.) I would only take a full time church position at this point if it seemed PERFECT like a totally perfect fit and i had NO RESERVATIONS at all. And i was reminding myself on the drive up there that i hate HWY 13 and driving thru Savage... i hate that drive... it's so ugly. But i guess if i did get hired, my lease is up in 3 months and i could just be out of here and move too. It would be a good "time." Not sure what to do about that interview... I don't think i 'd fit in at a UMC (for you non church people that is United Methodist. They have a new "open door open heart open mind" slogan which means just about anything goes... Not good.)

Truth be told i think retail has got in my blood and i would kind of miss it. I am in need of therapy. What did that 2nd last sentence just say????

Anyways so on Sunday i'm leading worship for both Jr. & Sr. high... one in the morning and one at night... so i'll stay up in New Hope all day... we practice at 3:30 for sr. high so that will be a great day. I really can't wait. I've been reworking the hymn "Be Thou My Vision" and i think we could do it, but i've never played with the sr. high crew yet and they are really talented... so we'll see. (Why is it that most teen worship teams never have any guy singers????) OK don't answer that, i already know.

And finally... i want you to BEHOLD, THE POWER OF CHEESE.

   [ posted  @ 6:41 PM | ]

I finished reading "The Christmas Box" last night...... very short book... almost like it's there and gone but gee did it make me cry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had not known it was supposed to be a tearjerker book. Someone should have warned me but i do sleep with a box of kleenex just because my nose is a tricky rigged up mess most of the time. Isn't it weird how books can make you cry? [It didn't MAKE me cry... duh, but you know what i mean.] I would not put it high on my list of highly recommended books in the world, but it was a good read... I have the trilogy so i will see what else is with the book but i don't know that those are christmas-oriented, so i may wait till after the season to read them.

   [ posted  @ 4:35 PM | ]

My friend Steve called to report Snow in Mankato this weekend. Man that was the one good thing happening around here. No flakes up here yet. I am hoping to see some soon maybe a few times this week. I've been listening to my Christmas music non stop and watching my Christmas movies. I always start the year off early with "White Christmas" and "Holiday Inn" and "Remember the Night" and then 1949's "Holiday Affair." Then closer to when i get my decorations out I start to watch "Preacher's Wife," and "Muppet Christmas Carol" and "The Homecoming" (waltons). Then really close to Christmas i drag out the big ONES... "Miracle on 34th St." (both old and new versions) "It's a Wonderful Life" and the Peanuts one and of course Rudolph among others of my favorites like "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

I expect to put my tree up mid-November. When I put up my tree, I usually have the National Lampoons Christmas Vacation movie on ... that is funny. Then i play other movies while I put up the decorations bc it takes me about two days to get it all done. This year I have to make more room because my sister Amy gave me a village and I have collected a lot of the pieces of the Coca Cola one thru Hawthorne Village... $$$$. But it's really great! I could easily fill a good sized house with all this stuff I put up. This year i may have some peoples over to string popcorn too. We did that one year around here and it was really cool.

It definitely has turned colder which is leveling out my moods... work has me ready to jump off the highest tower of a tall building... had it not been for the change of weather and times... i would be at the end of my rope. Funny... at the store, it was BLAZING HOT because our heat is controlled by the central offices in OHIO and we can't do anything about it at the store level. They've been doing some overnights, so the lights don't shut off all nights, and i think the fans shut off. So the cash office was like 90 or 95 degrees yesterday. I was sweating thru my clothes YUCK counting drawers and i was dying in there. Seeing as the male managers i work with are as lazy as can be i took it upon myself to call our corporate facilities and left a message with one miss Linda Brown that we are BOILING and someone had better turn the heat off bc customers are starting to complain. (The only relief (no pun intended) you get is if you go into the lady's bathroom which is about 30 degrees) ... LOL.

So she had someone fix it, and by 10 a.m. we were just cooling off enough for the losers i work with to start complaining it's too cold. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Had a terrible weekend so bad i can't even tell you about it on here but i do have to say AGAIN that i can't believe the idiocy of the RETARDED people who wait outside in their cars on a SUNDAY MORNING to get their free after rebate CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPP. Nothing in this WORLD annoys me more (besides maybe the people who call every single morning asking when we open... GRRR.)

I desperately need time off and am not getting it. Silent Night, Holy Night... Holy crap... I'm sick of work.

   [ posted  @ 2:36 PM | ]

If the sun is as large as that depicted in most textbooks, then a true-to-scale solar system has Pluto, not on the foldout leaf, but as an unseeable microbe, several miles from the book. If you unraveled the DNA found packed into any one of the billions of molecules that comprise you, it would stretch out six feet.

   [ posted  @ 8:29 PM | ]

We live in a twisted world, don't we? Tonight after my 14 hour long marathon shift at work (don't ask...) i needed some groceries so i went to my most unfavorite place in town... CUB FOODS. [By the way, as an aside, Cub is doing this stupid promotion where if people put "I love my Cub" bumper stickers on their car, they could get spotted and win a new SUV. I wish i had a bumper sticker that says "I hate my Cub." That store SUCKS.]

Anyway... I got a few things (avacados, raspberries, strawberries, a tomato, t.p., tuna, bread, green beans whatever...) and then went to the checkout. Found one with only one customer in it. Set my little basket on the register thing and i hear "K.T. Oh-Clair!!"

It was Mary ... a former student of mine. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't even looking for her and i picked her lane. Mary dropped out of the church scene when she became pregnant at the age of 15. Catholic family... already had 6 kids under the roof with a 7th on the way... then Mary got knocked up and her step sister who was living with them got pregnant right after her so there were THREE pregnant women under one roof. OMG i feel so extremely sorry for that dad. Can you imagine? Talk about a fertility cycle... She said that her mom gave birth 17 days before Mary did, and then her step sister popped 19 days after Mary. CAN YOU IMAGINE?!!!!!!!!!

But i told her i was proud of her and that i missed her a lot. She said she didn't know if i was still in town... and that her baby girl is doing fine. Yeah one of my star students... the teenage mom. Hard to think about it but that's the grace of God, right?

   [ posted  @ 7:37 PM | ]

My Zone was fun tonight. We played an ice-breaker where you light a small match from a match book, and have to say as much as you can about yourself before it goes out. Then the next person has to say one thing they learned about you and then all their info. It was fun. No one got burned.

i think.

For snack someone brought Krispy Kremes (which were still warm from the donut shop) and Krispy Kreme hats too. So we all wore them the whole night. Next week we're going on a hay-ride... but i want to go on A SLEIGH RIDE!!!

Yes i have the Christmas spirit.

Well i have to work at 4 a.m. Pray for me. Or pray that the coffee will work. It usually does.

   [ posted  @ 7:21 PM | ]

When I was in college, students used something called the "ten minute rule."

If you go to class and your professor is not there, you wait 10 minutes before everyone decides he's not coming and you all get up and leave and go back to your outside life.

I remember having arguments with the professor (not me personally but the class itself) that the "ten minute rule" was not university policy, and technically we could get marked absent or held accountable for that time if'n he did show up 3 minutes after we left.

This morning, I went to work at 4 a.m. bc that is what the schedule said. I even called yesterday to confirm this (because one time i showed up at 4 and didn't need to be there) and no one else is there. I made up a new "twenty minute rule" to wait for the rest of my crew and no one showed up so i left. I am needless to say very ticked off. I even asked my boss on the phone yesterday if Rebecca and Pat knew they were supposed to be in @ 4 and he said yes. I bet that in his mind meant that they put it on the schedule which Rebecca & Pat probably didn't check.

GRRRRRRRRRRR!

So here i am all high on caffine and won't be able to go back to sleep until 6 when the rest of the ppl get there, and am going to have to work till 3 or 4 p.m. when i should have been off at noon or one and i 'm really crabby now. Really, crabby. Really.

   [ posted  @ 2:29 AM | ]

We had to do show-n-tell on Wed. night @ Zone, and i brought my copies of Holiday Inn & White Christmas and my Carpenter's "Christmas Portrait" CD bc i love Christmas.

Will we have snow this year?

   [ posted  @ 1:19 PM | ]

Gen Boykin has repeatedly told Christian groups and prayer meetings that President George W Bush was chosen by God to lead the global fight against Satan.

He told one gathering: "Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this." read article

   [ posted  @ 6:40 PM | ]

Hello earth dwellers.

I just am happy to report that we are getting our holiday set done @ the store. Did you know that at the end of September we got all our popcorn tins w/ santa on them ? I was so excited. And it's getting colder out which i love. Puts me in a much better mood.

Tonight is Survivor Night! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS> Go Drake!

   [ posted  @ 2:03 PM | ]

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE. What is Up!?

Worked a 12 hour day yesterday. Came home for my lunch and read thru Ephesians. It calmed me down some.

I had a sandwich tonight w/ white bread. It's been a looooooooooooong time since i had white bread. I've been on somewhat of a restricted diet lately... (restricted means if it doesn't come from a drive-thru window or cereal box i won't eat it)... and i bought a sandwich at the grocery store. Normally i eat wheat bread. Well, wheat bread and something on it. But one night i had nothing else in the house so i just ate a piece of bread.

Not sure why i just told you about that but now you know.

It's getting colder and the leaves are falling off fast. I love it!

   [ posted  @ 10:15 PM | ]

You know that song "You make me feel like dancin'" by Leo Sayer?

What's up with that?

I remember one day in one of my radio classes in college, Dr. Tremblay (we called him Dr. T.) was making fun of 70's music and started singing that song. It always makes me think of him.

Well it's not like it's still on the radio but there's always MusicMatch.

   [ posted  @ 9:30 PM | ]

Can i please just rag about this terrible weather one more time? OK well you know it will be more than once but OMG this weather SUCKS! It is in the 80's! It should not be this way! When leaves start to change colors and drop, it should be 50's if not 40's outside. I want SNOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Yesterday i was informed that my boss's promotion basically depends on MY performance from now until Nov. 1. OMG that is so retarded i can't even tell you. He's going to "let me" have 10 hours of overtime a week to get the store looking better. Why the HECK is it my responisiblity?! How screwed up can you be?!!!!! I 'm not even a manager! He knows i'm the only one who would come in extra i suppose. I am really mad about it but there is nothing i can do... he probably won't get promoted. (The reason it rests on me is bc when he first came to our store he said his forte was Logistics and thus that is what should be the best in our store but it is not bc we don't have enough PEOPLE to do the work. So guess who gets to do it all? Me.)

And on top of it we are switching over to a new Point of Sale system with all new registers and a whole new system in 2 wks and no one has been trained. I love my life.
Really.

   [ posted  @ 10:52 AM | ]

I wish i was more tired bc i have to work early. Zone went really cool tonight. Pastor Aaron (they call him A.C.) came and sat in on it. A few students were missing. A.C. asked me to lead sr. high worship for him on the first sunday in November. That's the BIG TIME stuff there so i'm kind of honored about that. Is that correct grammer? Grammar? Grandma?

ok.

Today my soap, Guiding Light, sunk to an all-time low. They had a puppet on there. The puppet was cute but i was sitting there going DUDE some little kid is going to be flipping thru the channels, land on this and then go WHOAAAAA! When a soap has a puppet on it, you know they must be sinking.

Soap. sinking. bad image.

OK.

I haven't blogged a lot i guess nothing new is going on here. I wish it would get cold.

   [ posted  @ 8:18 PM | ]

i had a cold.
now i feel better.
i hate warm weather.

   [ posted  @ 3:29 PM | ]

I went to my first ever BIBLE QUIZ MEET today! It was up at Grace Free church in Fridley. I went to cheer on the 37 students from Crystal who were part of small quiz teams. They had to memorize Hebrews 1-4 and then did all sorts of stuff during their quiz. I was really proud of them all. I didn't get to see any of the sr. high teams compete though. The kids have to sit on these butt-pad sensors on folding chairs and the way they "buzz in" to answer a question is by jumping up enough to set off the sensor and then the Quiz Master sees their light on the score board. Teams are usually about 5 students a piece, and if you get four q's in a row correct, you "quiz out" and have to have a sub come in for you. I would have LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEED to do something like that when i was a wee-one. :)

So that was a blast. Edge (jr high church) went OK... as far as the music thing i had to lead. We had a make-shift band... Geoff jumped in on drums about 30 seconds before we were set to play ... he had not rehearsed with us. That was basically a bad idea to let him do that bc he doesn't really know how to play and he doesn't keep good time... But i guess it went ok. I find it really hard to say no to pastor's kids... i have no spine. (We went so fast thru Light the Fire Again i was out of breath dude.) Most of the team decided we need to be more definite on who is showing up each week so we don't have these OMG moments when there are not enough musicians to make us sound like something. If only my work schedule would cooperate. I will have to talk to Pastor Craig more about it.

One good thing over all thru the day is that i am finally really remembering names/faces. There are so many students to get to know and i feel terrible starting every conversation with "have i met you before????" But i don't think they care. And then i turn it on them and go "well your name is Lindsey but do you remember my name??" Some do... some don't. So i don't feel so bad. It's become sort of a game for me to remember their names... I'm getting much better at it. Sometimes i rehearse them in my head on the way there. "Now if i see this person with those glasses what is his name again?" haha And another good thing that is happening is that a lot of students are recognizing me and more comfortable with me bc i'm there more often now and i think they realize i'm going to stick around.



And what is up with the WEATHER?!!! Just as i added another heavy blanket to my bed bc it was so cold at night, it goes back up into the 70's. GRRRR. Irritation station.

   [ posted  @ 5:50 PM | ]

Check out these awesome stats.

My church reports that it has --674-- total volunteers in our children's ministries (not incl. teen ministry). If each volunteer serves a min. of two hours a wk (a low figure that doesn't take into account prep time), they donate a combined 1,348 hours a week. Read on...

That's a total of 70,096 for the year. That's a gift of 1,752.4 40-hr work weeks. That's equivilant to 34 full time employees. If we were to pay for what our volunteers donate in time to the church, it would cost over one million dollars a year.

Whoa!

(Source: our monthly newsletter.)

   [ posted  @ 5:22 AM | ]

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