Thursday, January 26, 2006  

Tonight @ Greek class --- SUPERHERO COMICS meet EPHESIANS 3 TRANSLATION EXERCISE!!!!!!!!!!

I've never seen X-Men so i couldn't really partake in the conversations... there was a conversation about Eph. 3:2

1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you... (ESV)

- the word for "Stewardship" in the Greek brought to The 14-Year-Old's mind of when Spiderman is told how much responsibility he had to carry with his gift of abilities. And then other comments were made about x-men characters (i know Spiderman, but not x-men) and everyone was busting a gut over it... Now THIS is my kind of class. Ha!

At first, Mr. Smartypants was not following the conversation. He asked for clarification (he was so completely clueless it was adorable) and when the teacher said that The 14-Year-Old was talking about Spiderman, Mr. Smartypants' eyes got SO BIG like "WHAAAAT ? IS THIS BIBLICAL???????" Then he smiled and i knew he was okay.

It is the 2nd week that The Serious JelloNurse has not been there. I hope she is okay. Last week she was sick. Last week also, we took a 15 min. detour to discuss The Blockhead's home refinishing project... he installed these really huge solar panels so that he doesn't have to rely on "foreign oil" as much. The class was asking him all these questions because the guy is normally SO UNIBOMBER QUIET you just don't know what is going on in his head. He dug up all these pipe things by himself and he started talking on and on about it and everyone was really interested and it was so funny bc it had absolutely nothing to do with class at all. I tried to mention that we should take a field trip there, since he lives close by. I said this TWICE but MY VOICE DOES NOT PROJECT (inside family joke) and no one heard me. I was serious, too!

The Blockhead admits tho, he has no idea how he's going to turn off the heat in the summer time -- it is piped in somehow, and he imagines according to his research that his house will become a virutal oven. OMG.

The best news of the night is that we finally got our exams back and i got a big honkin whoppin A MINUS! I was so happy. He did not give results of how the class did. He said we all did fairly well. The ones i got wrong are ones that i would have not known even if i did study harder. This came at just the right time for me. After spending 15-20 hours this last week studying and parsing and trying to memorize paradigms for the "imperfect active & middle/passive" verbs, i nearly gave up. I just wasn't getting it.

45 minutes before class started, i was at the Mounds View library listening to Diana Krall on my ipod and i had a burst of light hit me and it all started making sense. I've heard this is common with language study. Then at class after i heard how other people were piecing together word transformations, I was able to really clarify it to myself and make it make sense. The only frustrating thing is that i am still seen as the "know it all" in class - and for real, i am totally lost most of the time. The odd thing is that i usually am translating all the verses correctly from the homework - either by guess or i have no idea how. (Some of it helps bc i have the English version memorized so if it is direct from scripture you kind of know how it goes.)

Anyways this next chapter is supposed to not be as hard.

Grammar Teacher Number One is still driving me CRAZY. He talks way too much and asks too many retarded questions. Grammar Teacher Number Two, the girl who i sit next to (we've finally fell into self prescribed seating arrangement that does not vary... odd how humans do that) gave me some signs that she is aggrivated with him too.

Two other things real quick, Tracy, my sister in law has resumed blogging again, YAY! Go team! So check that out, and my brother in law Dan (they broke the mold) has his own website up for his new business and he rocks so you should place a few orders with him so they can buy more rock and roll equipment for their kids bc Adam and The Jer are ROCK STARS! (And Ryan is also a rock star but he will act as the band's agent and manager.) Maybe they can be like a legitimate Milli Vanilli ? Is that how it's spelled? Or HANSON!

G'night ya'll!

   [ posted  @ 8:10 PM | ]

Found another great band - COPELAND. I found them by tracing some links. Found an Anberlin song (thanks Steph) of "Baby Please Come Home" on Happy Christmas, and then heard Copeland for the first time singing "Do You Hear What I Hear." Really unique sound, so i did some more digging on itunes.

I am enjoying listening to full free songs on purevolume.com - don't you? So you can preview some of their tunes on purevolume. I really love their rock sound... Helps me to rock when i am studying Greek. We still have not got our exams back (i cry i cry.) This week it's imperfect active, middle/passive verbs. Have mercy.

Click to see video of Pin Your Wings. Solid melody, great guitar riffs, fun drums.

Oh and here's one more freebie, one we love to rock out to at Jr. High church -- David Crowder Band with "Oh Praise Him" we start jumping when the bass drum kicks in the first verse... get those hands in the air...

   [ posted  @ 8:42 PM | ]

Oh yes.......! American Idol starts again. 4 hours this week, what a great gift!!! I loved watching the show again, what do you think? A lot of talent this time, more than i remember seeing last season. I am excited to start voting again and will try not to miss a show. I had the advantage of taping the shows and ff'd thru the commercials so it goes real fast. The only thing i wish is that we could see Simon in a different shirt, like something with a collar, maybe?

   [ posted  @ 12:23 PM | ]

For you poor souls who don't have ITUNES, i wanted to update you on some awesome music i've been listening to -- well worth checking out.

I found out about this band from a podcast i subscribe to -- they are from Appleton, Wisconsin, called NUMBER ONE FAN. Great modern rock. Love the guy's voice and the guitars are great.

Second is an offering from producer Aaron Sprinkle (if he touches it, consider it gold) Anberlin. Not a good band name, but anyways these guys are great. Kind of european 80's sounding with a real modern rock flare. I can't identify with anyone who doesn't dig this band !

Third is Ann Lynn (not a girl) more rock. Good rockin' stuff. I don't own this album yet and it's not on itunes yet. You can preview a lot of their music for free on their website. Smart! I like their song "The Scene." Easy to play along to...

Nickel Creek's latest is worth a buy if you like their music to start with. They are really experimenting away from bluegrass of any type. It's more just folk rock now but this album is a lot about heart break - sounds like the kiddies are finally growing up.

That's all from my corner of the www for now.

   [ posted  @ 7:24 PM | ]

Got the pix :) What a great trip. It now seems like months ago that we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked some more... Must thank AMANDA for being trigger happy with the camera. I will try to snap a few more of us this weekend, date night this Friday is cooking together @ my place. Happy & thankful. What a great God Who has blessed us so much.

   [ posted  @ 9:25 PM | ]

This is a work-related post so ignore it if you go "zzzzzzzzzzz" but anyways i've had a few people ask at work and at home here about the news that came out today regarding OfficeMax closing 110 stores. I saw the press release on our portal page and read it -- we all knew it was coming - it must be done, and no it has no affect on my job or even the market in which i serve.

~ Read article here ~

The bigger news is that OMX is opening 70 new format stores called "Advantage" and i've seen pictures -- these stores are so cool and futuristic looking. Really going to do great things & help a lot -- a few of these stores have been opened in the twin cities - with a much less "big box" feel - much more "penny candy" and "interactive" look to them.

I'm not real comfortable posting insider information, which i did get a fair dump of today -- my boss let me in on some interesting happenings, but i do feel awful for all the employees at these 110 stores who will be out of work. There is no secret that since our merger w/ Boise in 2004, things have been a complete roller coaster and the element of change is truly enough to drive one insane... any company experiences change, but our company is really trying to get a grip while it maintains #3 office supply chain rankings. There was no other choice but to close more stores who are just wrecking the curve and sapping resources.

My solution? I got out of logistics just at the right time - and when i switched to the sales end a few months ago, i don't think i could have made a better move... Basically i get paid a nice chunk of change to help customers pick out technology, and spend the majority of my days at the till. I don't have any huge responsibility, per se, and am not looking for advancement. They'd have to offer me a 20 or 30% hike in pay to make it worth my time, when right now all i have to do is take the money from customers and send them back to their cars. Nice life.

So no, have no fear, my store is not closing. We had an extremely prosperous 2005 - one of the best performers in this area, and we'll keep kicking butt in '06.

   [ posted  @ 4:39 PM | ]

If you happened to be in Chicago this past wknd and noticed four hip jeans-wearing kids walking around with monster huge smiles on their faces, that would have been us four kids - bumming around freezing but having the time of our lives. Us: Matt & Me & his sisters Amanda and Bethany. WHOO HOO! I'll post pictures sometime this week [again with thanks to our trip photographer, Amanda with her huge Canon camera !]. The biggest highlight of the trip for me tho, beyond any of the beautiful buildings or art work or stars at the planetarium was meeting Matt's sisters - they are totally spectacular, beautiful, FUN, and i don't think 4 people could have got along better even if it wasn't windy & freezing cold outside! Beyond the fact that we walked about 498,327 miles - their smiles are permanently etched in my memory -- and it was just an awesome trip! [Okay just so i don't sound retarded, the other major highlight of course was being with my guy and being able to look into his eyes any time i wanted to see his smile and hold his hand! OF COURSE!]

The trip was required at this time bc Amanda (Matt's younger sis) is jetting off to Thailand to get married in a few weeks and i would not have been able to meet her until after her wedding and that bummed both of us out since we were getting to know each other via email and this is a really long sentence so far so i'll put a period right here --> . Then since i was also getting to know Bethany (Matt's older sis) i wanted her to come along too and we worked out a great weekend together... So much fun; i miss both the girls already and can't wait to see them again. I think we'd all agree we were instant friends - with the smiles to prove it.

I had only been in Chicago one time before, when some college friends and i went to Moody to hear Ravi Zacharias speak - it was at night and we were in & out of the city within a few hours. This time i definitely got the full sensory tour with some seasoned Chicago tour guides - as Matt and Amanda had lived there or near there before. So we had such a great time. I would love to go back again when it's warmer and discover some of the more hidden or out of the way places too. It's very easy to travel with Matt -- we had long periods of endless discussion but also great times of silence and reflection too... two people who get along THIS GOOD belong together! I don't mind bragging about the fact that he treats me so well -- i rejoice in it and don't deserve him but intend to try to spoil him as much as he spoils me. :)

Anyways - we did hit a few big attractions: The Planetarium, Art Museum, Navy Pier, and for my family, a little smile that Matt's dining bill at a coffee shop we stoped at was at total of $5.12 -- hint hint guys! :) [But just to be fair to him so no one ever would get the wrong idea, no he did not buy anything containing caffiene, God Forbid, he won't drink it; what it was, was juice and a muffin.]

Now my family is all smiles and me too so i'm going to take my smile and try to have some fun at work. If Bethany and Amanda are reading this, THANKS AGAIN FOR COMING DOWN THERE AND HANGING OUT!!!!!

   [ posted  @ 10:03 AM | ]

Woo hoo 2006 oh yeah baby! Bring IT ON!

This is THE YEAR i take over the entire world. I'm determined.

Work's good, Matt's great, church rocks, Greek will resume next week, and Chicago, here we come! Details to follow...

Until then, go watch some Teen Girl Squad and "have a nice day" !

   [ posted  @ 8:43 PM | ]

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