Monday, May 14, 2007

I'm being eaten alive...

...by mosquitoes every time I take the dog out to potty. I've called the complex, but it needs to be fixed like now. Seriously, they are biting me through my pants and shirt sleeves! How do you combat that?! I'm going to by some bug spray today.

Not much going on. Weekend was nice. I got my mom and charm for her birthstone kids necklace, but it was a doggy one with Sprinkles' birthstone. :-) She said she liked it, and she actually added it to her necklace. Yea! Went to Taste of Addison -- it was fun to watch Katelyn enjoy the rides.

I was catching up on the message boards this morning (the ones on the churchofchristsingles.com) and I noticed a comment in a thread that sort of alarmed me, so I went looking for what they were referring to. Apparently some members of the site talked to the webmaster and got another member kicked off for doctrinal errors/being a wolf in sheep's clothing. He posted that he had "found the right Jesus" on a thread, and instead of being happy for him (after years he had gotten out of the ICOC and was finally getting over some super bad things from that) and helping him in some doctrinal errors he might have had, they freaked out because he was now attending a Christian Church, and they have instruments there. I guess my questions are:

1. Will using instruments really send us to hell? I don't use them out of preference, but I know people on the site that would say VRCC is super in the wrong due to the praise team. There's an argument that mikes are instruments even. Is that really a "salvation issue?"

2. Am I really to be so closed minded as to believe that the church of Christ members are the only ones going to Heaven? Am I a bad person and putting my soul in danger for not falling for that and preaching that? Who am I to judge that? I believe to go to Heaven you must follow the plan of Salvation -- repent, be baptized, and the like, but who says someone who does that but goes to a church with another name is going to Hell??

I'm just sort of troubled by the thought that they kicked him off the site without trying to seriously help him in any way. When I look at it all, I could honestly be up to be kicked off the site based on what the conservative people on the message boards say. I've told most of you that I have been called a "false teacher" before, and it really makes me question whether my beliefs are firm enough or right. I need to study more, but never have I found a place in the Bible that says what some of these people are saying. Of course I also haven't found a place that says the way to save souls is to be hateful to those in the church that you slightly disagree with, so yeah...

It's boggling my mind right now.

Monday, May 07, 2007

You Know It's a Monday...

...when you look over and a student is writing on the bottom of his sock with your overhead marker, then replaces the cap, and puts it back on your table. Apparently his sock "felt weird" and writing on his sweaty sock with my marker would make it feel better. WHAT?!

Moving on from that bizarre happening: my weekend was sort of nice. I got to enjoy some time with my family. Katelyn spent the night at my house on Saturday night. That was her first night away from home without her parents. It was actually really fun. She kicked me out of the bed a few times, and she woke up around 6:30 am with the dog (total conspiracy on their parts!), but we had fun. She was very well behaved, and she obeyed whenever I asked her to do something. Love spending time with her. :-) If you haven't noticed by now, I've decided to post the pictures of the last ducky cake finally. This one turned out the way it was intended to all along -- upright and looking as if it's floating on a pond. This one was for LaRae's baby shower, and I actually was quite relieved to be done with it. While it turned out great, I can't say that I'll be making another one again super soon.

So the plea for Sprinkles is null and void.... I think. I am going out of town two times this summer: once for CAMT and another time to go to Michigan to see my grandmother. It's going to be a huge financial strain to do this stuff as is, so I was getting worried about what to do with Sprinkles. There is no way I can afford to board him, and he needs to literally GO somewhere rather than stay home alone and just be let out a couple of times. He's still got some puppy tendencies, and not enough human contact would make him eat my couch or something else equally odd. I think I have it ironed out though, so we'll see.

Oi! I just finished a bunch of VBS stuff. I'm literally drained right now. I think I've been using my brain too much all of sudden. Just kidding. :-) Really though, I'm super excited about VBS this year. I think it's going to turn out great, and I can't wait for this first meeting to really start the planning. I think I'm off to go read some more of my HP book. I'm on the 6th one now. I was here at 6:30 this morning to work on copies. I was unable to get to the copier (bc someone was here even earlier than me!) until 7:30 -- isn't that just a poke in the eye?! I did get all my copies (until finals) done by 8:10 or so. I think I'm going to get here right at 8:15 tomorrow, so I can sleep in a bit. I'm soooo looking forward to summer! 94 blessed days of summer and only about 15% of it is earmarked for school stuff (and I intend to keep it that way)! 12.5 days left of school...that's not much longer! Let the happy countdown begin!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

The Post You've All Been Waiting For!

I'm an aunt! .... again. :-) I've been holding off posting this until I could really sit down and do the post justice and until LaRae blogged about it (although she did that a while ago). Now I don't have much time to do this, so I'm going to have to count on my super power of being able to blog fast to make this work.

Joshua Ray was born on April 16th. Whoo hoo! He's big and beautiful. I absolutely love him, and I am very proud of him. I didn't get to have much time with Katelyn when she was this age, so this is all new to me. No, I have not changed a diaper. My gag reflex gets set off with poo, and I'm absolutely petrified of getting peed on! (Think Drew Berrymore's cry of "he peed in my mouth" from Riding in Cars with Boys. Yeah, that's enough to scare anyone away from changing a boy's diaper!) Anyways I figured it would be fun to tell you about what led up to Joshua's arrival--

Sunday, the 15th, LaRae, Randy, and Katelyn all came over to eat dinner with me and change batteries in my smoke detectors (alarm was beeping -- really annoying). LaRae sat in my IKEA chair at one point and talked to me about how uncomfortable she was and how Joshua could come anytime, and she'd be more than happy. They leave. About 2 hours pass, during which I plug in my cell to charge in the bathroom (away from doggy teeth). I happen to go into the bathroom and realize I've missed about 5 calls from LaRae -- her water had broken! So I tell her me and Sprinkles will come sleep there since Katelyn was already in bed, but it will take me about 45 minutes to get there. According to Randy, LaRae hung up the phone, they turned around, and there I was dog and bag in arm. :-) I'm not quite sure how I moved that fast, nor do I have any clue how fast I was driving, but I got there quick. They went off to the hospital, and Sprinkles and I bedded down for the night (after I sent about a million emails -- seriously -- to people at school with plans and such for the next day).
Monday morning Katelyn woke up around 6:30. Go figure we all woke up at that time because around 3 am me and Sprinkles ended up going to her room to comfort her and then falling asleep in her bed with her! Twin bed + sprawled out 3 year old + sprawled out dog = cramped. We ended up going to my house for me to shower and drop off the dog, and then we went to story time at the library with Heather and Charlotte. (LaRae has cool friends.) LaRae actually called me about 45 minutes before Joshua was born, happy as a lark, wanting to be on speaker to say hi to Katelyn, and wondering what we were up to. (Yeah, drugs = gooooood!) I couldn't believe how quickly he was born after I talked to her. We were able to go see him after story time; although, he did not come out of the nursery until around 3 that afternoon, so there was a long bit of time with LaRae and I just visiting and waiting for him. It was sort of nice; we don't get much one on one visit time, so it was like a last time of just getting to chat with her before her life got turned upside down with two kiddos.

Anyways, now I'm trying to give them space to start a routine even though all instinct tells me to go over the a lot to see him! :-) I'm also really trying to give Katelyn a lot of attention when I see her, so she doesn't feel all left out now that new baby bro is here. I love Katelyn so much; how great is it to have another child in my life to love so deeply!

I better go. I'm updating more soon (hopefully) with some HP theories as well as a plea about the dog. He's fine, but I need some help... nothing big. Stop worrying about me, dork! :-)