Monthly Archives: June 2003

Random Bursts of Thought

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I’ve been puzzling about what to blog for the last few days. As I can’t decide, I thought some random bursts of thought might be the best way to get everything out of my head. Enjoy.

  • We’re filling out our paperwork for Jon’s approval as well as his first call. Right now, we’re looking at (in this order): Region 3 (Minnesota and the Dakotas), Region 1 (Pacific Northwest — my preference though there isn’t an ELCA seminary up there), and Region 6 (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan) which could easily be replaced with Region 5 (Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan). Jon’s approval date is August 18th and we are praying that he gets approved (no reason he shouldn’t — it’s just that we’ve learned after my candidacy experience that there are no guarantees) and on September 18th, we’ll go into the Bishop’s draft for a region. It’s smaller than THE DRAFT in February (everyone and their mother who is graduating from seminary in the spring) so we think we’ll get to find out our synod at that point. I want OUT of Ohio if we get Region 6 so it’s easily switched with Region 5 where there are TWO ELCA seminaries.
  • My boys turn a year old next week. To celebrate, they’re getting wet food on Thursday or Friday. (We feed them dry food because it’s better for their teeth.) I can’t believe how much they’ve grown — they were tea cup kittens when we got them last August and now, they’re probably flour cannister kittens. (September and October were the most fun because then, they were “beer stein” kittens.) Cullen is very precocious and Finian is a mellower and bolder version of his brother. They protest soundly when I’m taking a bath without them and they’ll get up with their front paws on the edge of the tub and bat at the bubbles. Finian actually got all the way up on the rail last night and didn’t notice that I was petting him with a wet hand — until I had to towel him off before he was allowed to jump on our bed! (Whoa!!! A new way to bathe the kitties!)
  • Blair Hornstine, the brat who successfully sued to be valedictorian, has admitted that she did not properly cite materials used in some articles she wrote for her local newspaper. Her defense: “I am not a professional journalist. I was a 17-year-old with no experience in writing newspaper articles.” Uh huh. Sweetie, even us COMMONERS know that if we lift words from someone, we need to cite them. I mean… didn’t we all learn to do this during our freshman year of high school (or even earlier)?!?!?! Something that warms my heart even more: She also faces controversy at Harvard University, where she has been accepted and intends to enroll next fall. She has been a frequent target of critical columns in The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper. Nearly 1,400 people _ some of whom say they are associated with the university _ have signed an online petition asking Harvard to rescind its offer to admit Hornstine. Blair, let me just say that you deserve all of this because you sought to promote yourself above all others. I hope Harvard does rescind your admission because you plagarized other peoples’ work. (I checked the Harvard newspaper article and apparently, admission can be rescinded for plagarism. Boo yah!) I also hope you lose your lawsuit against the school district and the judge tells you that you are a snot-nosed, spoiled brat and should pay the legal fees of the school district AND punitive damages for the negative publicity you’ve caused them. (Thanks to Mac, my favorite right-wing fundie blogger for the heads up on all of this.)
  • Some lawmakers seek congressional hearings on Iraqi weapons. Well well well well well… appparently the findings aren’t exactly gelling with the Bush propaganda from before the war, meaning that we just wasted countless Iraqi lives over some information that may not be true. The best thing yet on this was what I heard on CNN Headline News while trying to fall asleep last night: “Americans don’t care about this — the war is popular in people’s minds.” Ummm… actually quite a few Americans care that we were probably acting on doctored information. And for the record, I’d be calling for these hearings even if a Democrat was president — I’m not into party politics thankyouverymuch. Oh yes… Texans might want to dopeslap Tom Delay for the following words: “The detractors from our successes might want to congratulate Saddam Hussein on his ability to hide them or destroy them.” Yo moron: why would we want to congratulate a dictator who killed thousands (if not millions) of people??? We wanted him out just as much as you did; but we wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t going to make us look like idiots to the international community. (Methinks the gene pool needs some chlorine…)
  • Yo Natalie Maines: I and many others appreciated your words in London — heck… if I’d had the funds, I would have bought every Dixie Chicks album on the market in support of your good judgement in questioning the government and their policies. However, you really didn’t help your case here. I know Toby Keith is being a jerk and I know that he’s been ragging on you by posting that stupid doctored photo on big screens at his concerts. Heck… his song (“The Angry American”) made me ashamed to be American. However, you didn’t have to stoop to his level by wearing the FUTK shirt!!! All you did was prove that you might be worthy of some of that criticism and that shirt overshadowed the good in your words in London (the good being that not every American loves Bush or agrees with him and we thankfully have the right to criticize the government).
  • To Congressman Tiberi: Your letter to me proved that you really don’t give a rat’s butt about the needs of your constituents. Thanks for making me feel like I wasted my vote in November when I helped you get elected. I hope you are soundly defeated in 2004.
  • In a previous entry, I asked people to leave me questions in the comments section that they wanted answered. Only one person did. C’mon… I know y’all are interested in my life (why else are you reading my blog???), so could y’all please leave me some questions in the comments section of that entry????
  • I’ll have my new layout up for this journal/blog tomorrow. In the meantime, if people know where any pictures of flaming tongues are on the internet, please let me know. 🙂

    • That is all.

    Friday Five! (Yeah… I Know It’s Saturday.)

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    1. How many times have you truly been in love?
    Twice

    2. What was/is so great about the person you love(d) the most?
    Compassion

    3. What qualities should a significant other have?
    Compassion, similar faith convictions, sense of humor, ability to be self-sufficient without you (i.e. know how to cook/take care of finances/clean), intelligence

    4. Have you ever broken someone’s heart?
    Yep

    5. If there was one thing you could teach people about love, what would it be?
    You need to wait and let it blossom before you act on it.

    My Brother’s Report on the House

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    My parents are in Ireland right now and asked my brother to send them reports on how the house and the cats are doing. He’s known for his strange reports, most involving destruction to the house and injury to my mom’s cat. So… here is this year’s report on the house, with the caveat that it is not politically correct and all. (It’s meant in humor.)

    [tic]

    Dear parents,

    Yet another episode of my watching the house has come and gone and things couldn’t be better, although I should mention we have a few guests at the house currently. You see, the repairs have been costly every since CHP shot holes in our roof and the monsoon came through, so I figured I would expand my income by taking on a few tenants, so I went down to the old Feed and Fuel and found some nicem individuals, Bubba, Moon Dog, and their entourage. SInce you two have the biggest room, I gave them that one. They pretty much keep to themselves and are quiet during the daytime, orta sleeping in a pile like dogs do, but they are a lot of fun at night. I did not understand why they needed to sacrifice a goat in the middle of the bed, esspecially since they are vegetarians, and I’m still not sure why they had to eat the drapes and a few of our paintings, but I am amazed at just how many tatoos you can get on an orange tabby, well a rather bald orange tabby now. They tatooed the faces od dogs on each of her flanks, so she’s aftraid to turn in any direction. SHe just walks straight, or at a slight angle, so she bumps into a lot, but the bikers love it. They even gamble based on wher the cat will end up. Trail KItty is in the corner of the kitchen in the fetal position rocking backward and forward, eyes fixed forward, doing the kitty equivalent of muttering softly. I guess he doesn’t like it when they ride their Hogs though the house, hogs they found
    up in Quicksilver.

    Their rent was still not enough to fix the roof however, so I took on a group of Muslim extremists and put them in Jenny’s old room. They immediatly destroyed all the computers and burned them as the Great Satan and began removing all the alcohol from the house, which saddly included the moonshine stills the bikers had set up. The bikers in turn sacrificed one of the hogs and served it to them, which led to the manufacture of bombs and, well, we still have most of the living room left I shoiuld stay. I think if we get a few cubicle dividerswe can live in relative privacy.

    Of course when the building inspector came by wantingt o condemn the house, I chased him off, shooting at him and accusing him of being a communist. He said he’d be back with back up, so I’ll be waiting for that. Anyway, I hope the trip is going well. YOu might want to buy a tent incase I can’t fend the state off.

    [/tic]

    Commencement Pictures

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    Richard was brave enough to post pictures of himself in a funny hat for *HIS* convocation, so I thought I’d volunteer Jon for some academic robe posing of his own. 😀

    We're marching to Zion...
    The faculty leading the procession to Mees Hall

    Some strange person is waving to the camera
    Jon waving in the procession

    Yeah... I know it's blurry. The lighting was crappy at best.
    Jon receiving his diploma

    Two generations of Kibler pastors
    Jon and his dad Ray

    I know I'm short. Deal with it!
    Jon and I. Yes… I am wearing a dress. It does happen on occasion.

    One happy family
    Ray, Jon, and I

    Jon and I and some seminary friends
    Thuan (Ed’s wife), Ed, Jon, and me

    Being a Copycat

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    Rachel, the question-asking kiwi, invited people to ask her questions (within reason) and promised answers. I thought her answer entries were cool, so… I wanted to try it. Leave your questions in the comments section. One caveat: keep them decent because I’m not answering questions about my availability (VERY much taken) or my bra size or anything like that.

    Saying Grace

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    In small group tonight, we were talking about prayer and witnessing before diving into the Book of Revelation. One of the contexts given was saying grace in a public place like a restaurant and it reminded me of this…

    Since I embraced Christ at age 14, I’ve been fairly intentional about praying before I eat. I was subtle about it at first and got bolder as time went on. By the time I left for college at age 18, I was praying before meals regularly. I wasn’t obnoxious about it — I’d just bow my head for a few moments — but I was very conscious to do so. At first, this really puzzled the motley crew of non-Christian influences with whom I hung out in college and the joke became that I was “waiting for the Lactaid to kick in” if I was eating with Das Group. People knew to just hold off on conversating with me for however long my head was bowed and I didn’t make a huge deal out of it.

    I was really focused on being inconspicuous at first because I thought I was shoving my faith in peoples’ faces but everyone was really OK with it and some people actually told me during some of the deeper one-on-one conversations we had that they really thought that it was cool. Others would bow their heads with me if we were all going out to eat and my friend Amy actually asked if we could say grace when we ate together in our apartment during our senior year. Granted, it was a silent prayer but it was a time to give credit to the One who made it possible to have the food on our plates. I’ve gotten lax about my quiet times lately and even praying before I fall asleep (I tend to fall asleep *while* praying a lot of the time) but I’m still very vigilant about saying grace. This puzzles me because I’m doing the little prayers instead of the big ones; but by the same token, I’m also acknowledging my gratefulness to the Lord for what I have and that I would not have it without Him.

    Another thing that came of saying grace was that it taught my friends about how much my faith meant in my life. In November 1999, my life was in pieces (literally) and I came into the dining hall one morning in tears. I was eating alone and my friend Amy came and sat down with me and asked me what was wrong, which made me cry harder. She then said the most magical words I’ve ever heard, “Jen, do you want to pray about this?” The reason they were so magical was that Amy was a non-believer (at the time) and it was like “SHE UNDERSTANDS!!!” She offered her hand and I took it and we prayed silently for probably a good 10 minutes. I still get weepy thinking about it because I don’t know if Amy will ever understand how much it meant to me that she sat there and prayed with me. All I know is that she understood that prayer was important in my life at the time and she wanted to help me in a way that was meaningful to me. Other of my friends would ask me to pray with them (also non-believers at the time though some have come to Christ since our graduation) and though I’d be judicious in my wording, it was still an affirmation of my faith and in a way saying that they understood the power prayer could have. Saying grace was a way I could witness to people about my faith and it was an expression of my dependence on God for everything.

    I heard a lot about being intentional and praying VERY audibly in restaurants as a way of witnessing. (By “VERY audibly”, I’m talking a voice level 3-4 times above normal.) I think that instead of praying so loudly that others DEFINITELY hear us (cf. Luke 18:9-14), we should pray as we normally do and let people notice us. Believe me… they WILL and I’ve gotten comments on it even when I’ve prayed silently to myself at $tarbuck$ (literally waiting for the Lactaid to kick in). I remember the impact it made on me as a newly-minted Christian to see two people praying over their bear claws at $tarbuck$ and I think that it can have similar impacts on other people.

    My $0.02 for what it is worth.