mmmm Turkey

So I know that Thanksgiving is just shy of three months away...but I can't wait for it to get here. Not only do I get to spend the holiday with people I hardly ever get to see, but I get to eat Thanksgiving food!

Although I love the Christmas season as a whole, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. You don't need to buy gifts, and you get to spend the day eating yummy food and hanging out with friends and family. Even though I don't enjoy the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as much as I used to, I still love having it on and listening to it in the background. Thanksgiving just feels different. Probably because when I wake up Dad usually already has the Turkey in the oven and the smell drifts up to my bedroom. I love that smell.

I can't wait for Thanksgiving. I just know that this year is going to be extra special.

Adventures in Babysitting

All week I have been taking care of two girls: Olivia, a 6th grader and Leanna, a 3rd grader. Their parents are in New York, so I'm staying at their house too look after the girls. We've had a good time...Here are a few of the highlights:
* The girls go to bed at 9pm. Tonight, just a couple of minutes after she had been in bed Leanna comes out and says, "Jeanne, there is a big bug in my bed." Oh boy. Unfortunately the role of babysitter is by default, also the role of bug killer. So I go into her room to find a cricket wandering around her bed. I don't really want to touch it...but I had to get it out of her room. Unfortunately for me the stupid bug jumps off her bed into the area between her bed and nightstand. There was no way Leanna was going to be able to sleep until I found the bug and disposed of it. Just getting the bug off her bed was not comfort enough. And understandably so. So I ended up having to move her entire bed and crawling around on the floor in search of this blasted bug. But miracles of all miracles! I found it and threw it outside. Victory is mine! And cute little Leanna can sleep in peace.

*I have to help Leanna with her hair in the mornings. She takes a bath at night, and when she wakes up her hair can be pretty wild. I have never had to help anyone else with their hair before, let alone a little girl. But bless her heart, she has been patient and understanding. I had to try and curl her bangs yesterday, but it wasn't exactly going well. I was terrified I was going to burn her with the curling iron, all the while trying to make her bangs curl under instead of sticking straight up. In the end they looked suitable...but she gave me one of those looks that said, "Mom is way better at this, but I am too nice and polite to say anything." It was actually pretty funny. She is so cute!

Many other stories...but I am tired. Time for some sleep.

Help Has Arrived

Enjoy your new template.

<3 the blog fairy

Sad, Sad Efforts

How hard could HTML really be? Those were my famous last words. As evidenced by my very sad sidebar, HTML is obviously smarter than I am. I managed to get one link to work. But one link only. Everything else was lost in cyber space. I can see I am just going to have to have someone fix it for me. Help.

Star gazing

Last night I saw the most unbelievable shooting star. The night was especially dark, and as the star shot across the sky it left in its wake a wide and dazzling tail. It was beautiful. I was speechless.

It left an ache in me though. I live right in town; and the street lights, stoplights, casino lights, car lights, and cop car lights do a pretty good job of making sure the night sky is unreadable. I miss the days at my Dad's house where all I had to do was step outside and a million twinkling lights greeted me from above.

It got me to thinking about what I would most like to do if I could be magically transported there, right in this moment. The answer is easy. I would love to take a walk down my Dad's country road. It would be dark, quiet, chilly enough for a jacket. The stars would be out in all their splendor and I would not be walking alone. I would be with someone who could appreciate the moment. The beauty. The silence. I would stop in the middle of the road in front of the old barn that I have always wanted to explore. There I would tilt my head up and just gaze at the sky until the muscles in my neck begged me to change positions and move on.

I'll be home in November. Maybe I'll get my wish.

In a nutshell

Too many thoughts and experiences to make a coherent paragraph. I'll just make a list.

* I'm starting work on my Masters. My first class is "New Testament Studies," and it begins in about three and half weeks. I literally have thousands of pages to read before the class begins. Only have 125 read. I'm a little freaked.

* My job continues along just swimmingly. I'm up to my ears in copyright law...just when I think I have a rule figured out I find out that there are ten different exceptions that apply on different days of the week, in different types of weather, and is dependent on what I'm wearing. Basically what I'm saying is that copyright law is downright confusing.

* I had a...how shall we say...unusual experience this weekend. Unfit for blogging ears. You may however, call me, and I will divulge all the sordid details.

* I have two female friends from church who are both married and think it is a crime that I am not. They have made it their mission to point out to me every male that walks in the doors who looks single. The decided this weekend that it would be a good idea if I had business cards made up that they could hand out to single males that they think would be a good fit for me. I hope they were kidding.

* I'm going to Illinois for Thanksgiving and I couldn't be more excited about it. I miss my Dad.

* I'm trying to decide if I miss teaching. I don't miss the lesson planning, or the disciplining, or the meetings and inservices. I do however, miss my students. Most of them anyway. It was fun for a season, but God has moved me in another direction and I must admit I am very pleased.

* I'm starting a campaign to get more personal email. Real letters would be even better. The art of letter writing is so beautiful. I want to get more of them. Anyone want to be my faithful penpal?

* I have been having some disturbing dreams lately. Not nightmares, but dreams that are a glimpse of what my life could look like in the future. In them I am watching my life unfold almost as if am watching a movie. Sometimes I wake up and I am sad that the dream is over because what was watching happen was so good. Sometimes those dreams are almost worse than nightmares. My subconscious is teasing me with what I want but don't have yet. Bummer.

* God is faithful. Just like He was faithful in bringing me here to the desert, to CVC; He will be faithful in the future seasons of my life.

* That is my life in a nutshell.

Happy anniversary

Today is my anniversary. Exactly one year ago today I left Illinois to make the two day drive to Carson City, NV. It hardly seems like a year ago that I took one last look at what had been my home and started west.

I have days where I miss Illinois, miss the Midwest. But really, I think that I am just missing what is familiar. To say that it is hard to start over in a brand new state, thousands of miles from what and who you have always known would be a gross understatement. And yet, I have done it. There have been days when I have wanted to pick up, ditch this new life and move back. But I haven't. And I'm glad.

One year. Hardly seems possible. Happy anniversary to me.

Confessions

Alright...I admit it. I read the end of a book before I will commit to reading it. Some people consider this among the seven deadly sins. "What???" they exclaim in horror. "You simply can't do that. It just isn't the way it's done." But I do it anyway, and I'll tell you why.

If I don't like the way the book ends, I am not going to like the journey of getting to the end. It is just a simple fact; the biggest reason why I read the endings first. Besides, just because I know the ending doesn't mean I know how the author gets to the ending. That is fun part of reading a book anyway. The journey of getting the end. I enjoy the journey more if I know where I am going.

I spend quite a bit of money on books. Why would I want to spend 13 or 14 dollars on a book that I am not going to like reading? So when you think about it, reading the end of the book is also good stewardship. I am making sure that I am not wasting my resources on a book I will not enjoy, and therefore not read more than once.

The only exception to the rule is mystery novels. I still enjoy trying to figure out whodunit.

The group Avalon sings a song called "The Greatest Story Ever Told." The greatest story being salvation; Jesus drawing us to Himself. I got to thinking...I know the ending of this story too. Jesus has defeated Satan. My victory has been won. Ultimately God has chosen to let me read the end of His novel. That is what I call cool.