Monthly Archives: October 2013

7 Quick Takes: Pumpkins, 90’s Nostalgia, and My Bizarre Life

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Blogging cutbacks. I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year so I’ll be cutting back my blogging to twice a week: 52 Weeks of Blogging with Purpose on Mondays and then my Quick Takes here on Thursday nights/Fridays. Once November finishes and I’ve (God willing) won NaNoWriMo, I’ll be back to posting more frequently.

— 2 —

Nostalgia. Someone shared this list of things only 90’s teenage girls can understand and I got probably 45+ of them. I feel so old!

— 3 —

I don’t think I could make this up if I tried! So I saw this news story…

CBS Sacramento: Auburn Man Arrested For Bringing Chain Saw To Bar Fight

Yeah. I live in a freaking horror movie or something. (This isn’t close to where I live but it’s in the local news area.)

— 4 —

Zoo animals and pumpkins! Did anyone need cute animal pictures to distract them from something? Here you go!

I aim to please. 🙂

— 5 —

Halloween pics. Here are a couple pictures from today.

Costumes from today.
Jon as a Jedi and Daniel as Thomas the Tank Engine.

Jack o'lanterns from this year.
Our pumpkins from this year. The tall one is the old rugged cross and the smaller one is just crosses.

— 6 —

My philosophy on pumpkins. I believe that Jesus is the Light of the World so at least one of my pumpkins is always a cross of some nature. Part of this is that I went to college at a school that had a sizable Wiccan population and Halloween night was a scary time to have to walk home on campus by myself. Having a cross to ward off any evil spirits (which I believe exist but not much past that) helped. I also don’t do scary pumpkins because I know there are kids that have a really hard time with them. (I actually went out to the sidewalk to bring candy to a couple toddlers who were too afraid to come up to the porch because of the pumpkins.)

— 7 —

An offer I might not want to refuse. I got the following email today. It’s a fake so I’m sharing it.

Become a member of the Great Illuminati and posses riches, connections and fame. all the power you ever wanted, don’t miss this opportunity grab it because there may not be another chance.

We open door of acceptance once in ten years, and few are chosen. I really congratulate you for this great offer on your door step. We choose people, people don??t choose us. You can be among the chosen this year. The great association as been in existence since May 1, 1776 named The Illuminati (aka Bavarian Illuminati). What does this mean? The name derives from the Latin illuminatur, which means ??the enlightened?? Who are the Illuminati? They are, in essence, a cartel or groups of elite people. These people are basically rich, intelligent, or possessed special skills of various kinds and industrialists based in Western Europe and North America. The names of certain families persist over long periods of time. Some of the most important names are Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan, Lazard, Warburg, Schroder and Schiff.

We make people great and we rule the world. many of the world’s political leaders & celebrities are members. When you become a member you will have the opportunity to be great and dine with great men from different nations. We rule every social part of the world, music, sports and politics, the second essential component is control of the media. It is controlled through business fashion. We choose men with potentials and we made them what they are today. We are here for you to make your dream come through; if you dream it you can achieve it.

These are opportunity the celebrities and the richest men had, they utilize it and became idol.’s You have more to know when you finally become a full member.

You are advised to fill all the stated information below and submitted to our in charge Co-ordinator on the email given below, for further instructions and direction.

Name: Co-ordinator Rev. Jack Deng
Address: Empire State Building – 350 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10118[1] United States
Email: invitation_illuminati@usa.com

Personal Details:
1) Your full name
2) Phone, fax and mobile#
3) Address:
4) Profession:
5) Age/Sex:
6) Marital status:
7) Scanned copy of your I.D card

In two months the story of your life will change. Do not be the killer of your dream.

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your membership invitation confidential till your membership is processed and you’re made a member. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claimants or unwarranted membership claims by unqualified persons. Please be warned.

Remember, you are expected to complete your membership process immediately and not more than 7 days to the date of notification. Any claim not made at the appropriate time will be canceled.

All the members and staffs of the great ILLUMINATI. wishes to congratulates you and thank you for being a part of our International membership program.

We wish you continued good fortunes.

Thanks.
JANICE BROWN.
Online announcer

How do I know that this is a fake? The Illuminati would have their own domain for email and their grammar would be better.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

52 Weeks of Blogging with a Purpose: My Letter to Newlyweds

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I’m back this week and writing this before (and probably a little after) Bible study.

Dear newlywed friends,

By now you’ve survived the intense time that is wedding planning and you’ve made it through the ceremony, reception, and possibly (if you chose to go somewhere that rendered you incommunicado) the honeymoon. You might have the “what’s next?” feeling. Here’s some advice for what lies ahead:

01.) You will fight. I don’t care if you lived together for a time before marriage or if you did the “living apart until holy matrimony” thing. Once you said those vows, it all became real and you now have to learn how to share your life and house with one other person. This means arguments over how to the dishes, the correct way to face the toilet paper, probably some words exchanged about finances, and tiffs over things you thought were totally self-explanatory. Guess what? They aren’t.

02.) You will learn to fight correctly. This could be part of the paragraph above but I’m keeping it a separate thing. You might have heard the Bible verse about not letting the sun go down on your anger. Don’t let your anger fester for days but there are times when it’s better to just go to sleep and hash things out in the morning when you both have level heads rather than fighting until 2 a.m. (Ask me how I know this.) You’ll also learn to pick your battles, especially ones where neither one of you will give any ground.

03.) You will learn new ways of doing things. Maybe your spouse has a more efficient way of washing dishes or loading the dishwasher. Maybe they know how to fold fitted sheets rather than just wadding them up and putting them in the linen closet. Maybe it is easier to just toss your wrinkled shirt in the dryer. Learn from your spouse if you expect them to learn from you.

04.) Your relationship will change. As I said, things become real once you’ve said the vows and you’re no longer that cute engaged couple — you’re now those adorable newlyweds. This could be a small change or a drastic change but it’s change nevertheless and you will go crazy trying to make things “like they used to be”. Live in the time/space where your butt is at that moment and you will enjoy things much more. This also applies to when you have kids — lots of change there.

05.) You will learn things about yourself. Living with someone else teaches you things about yourself that are useful to know. You might discover that you actually *like* folding clothes if you can do it with your spouse. You might never have tried parasailing on your own but you tried it on your honeymoon and you can’t wait until you get a chance to do it again.

Above all, you will find out that the curves life throws at you will be easier to handle with someone else there who has your back and you will be a better person for it.

Blessings,
jen

Now go see Becky and what everyone else wrote.

7 Quick Takes: My Week, Requests for Help, and World Series Musings

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Relief. Jon is home after being gone since Monday to our denomination’s pastor’s conference. It’s good to have him home and I’m not just saying that because I now have someone to do the laundry/dishes/cat care. I’ve had a sick kid since Tuesday night and had to haul butt to UCD Pediatrics Urgent Care yesterday — it’s good to not be handling this alone.

— 2 —

The sick kid. Daniel refused to go to sleep on time on Sunday and Monday nights. I thought that it was probably due to Jon being gone on Monday night but he went down super early on Tuesday night which would have been great had I not been hit with restless leg syndrome. (Fibromyalgia, you suck!) Wednesday, he got sent home from school with a fever of 100F and I got the call right as I was putting my feet in the warm water for my pedicure. (I know… #firstworldproblems) His temperature started spiking so that it was 102F by mid-afternoon and I called the advice nurse at UCD Pediatrics Urgent Care to ask what they wanted me to do. The answer: “GET. UP. HERE. NOW!!!!” Diagnosis: a bad ear infection in his left ear and an upper respiratory infection which was setting off his asthma. He’s on antibiotics and I was alternating Motrin and Tylenol to lower his fever. I’m hoping he’ll be back to school tomorrow.

— 3 —

Forty to Forever. From my Facebook wall:

OK… I’m the social media person for the Forty to Forever fundraiser and we’re trying to raise money for families adopting kids internationally who have special needs. We need two things:

1.) We desperately need churches who are willing to sponsor families with prayer and also with funding to a degree. This doesn’t have to be costly and there is information on the website about what to do. If you ladies could talk to you church councils/pro-life groups/ missions people/women’s ministries/whoever, I’d greatly appreciate it. If you can’t find the answer to one of your questions, let me know and I’ll get the information for you. You can find most of what you need here.

2.) We need people who can commit to being prayer warriors and praying for us/the families/the kids one day a week during Lent. (We could also really use it right now.) It’s a fifteen minutes per week commitment and if it would help, I can send you prayers, a litany, or whatever you need in terms of help in how to pray. The page for sign-ups is here.

The website is http://www.fortytoforever.com/ and we’re also present on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks!

— 4 —

NaNoWriMo fundraiser. I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo this year and I’m pondering the idea of making it into a fundraiser for Brett. I’m thinking of offering to let people read my manuscript for a $10 donation. What say you, readers?

— 5 —

World Series. The Cards just took Game 2 and I was happy that they showed up to play tonight instead of sending their middle school doppelgangers. (Obviously, I’m rooting for them and not Boston.) The series goes to St. Louis next and I’m hoping the Cards do better on their home field.

— 6 —

Orphans. Do you see these two cute children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier is on its way to Iris’ country.

— 7 —

World Series fun. You have to love it when the *ORCHESTRAS* from the cities of the World Series teams start trash-talking. 🙂

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

{Virtual} Coffee Date (vol. 11)

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{Virtual Coffee Date}

Once you’re done here, go visit Karianna and the other coffee drinkers.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about having to get Daniel to go to bed while Jon is out of town. He didn’t sleep well on Sunday or Monday night (as in not asleep until almost midnight) so he crashed around 6:00 tonight and I had to call my mom to see what I should do. Her advice: let him sleep.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I skipped this week’s topic for 52 Weeks of Blogging with Purpose. It required more thought than I was capable of giving it last night (especially with a kid who did not want to go to bed) and something had to give in terms of blogging on a schedule.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m thinking of decreasing my November blogging so I can focus on NaNoWriMo. I’d probably take part in 52 Weeks of Blogging with Purpose and the 7 Quick Takes at ConversionDiary.Com but that would be it.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m pondering ways to make my NaNoWriMo piece into a fundraiser for Brett. His adoption grant is doing well because of the money transferred to it after Russia’s adoption ban went into place (families with kids had the option of donating their grants to waiting kids who were adoptable) but it would be good to raise a little more to help his forever family out a bit.

Thanks for having coffee with me! See you next week!

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: October 20, 2013

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY October 20, 2013

Outside my window… sunny and in the low 80’s.

I am thinking… about NaNoWriMo and possibly making mine into a fundraiser.

I am thankful… for the chance to have ice cream last night. (It’s a rare treat for me.)

I am wearing… gray “Run for Hope” shirt and black shorts.

I am creating… NaNoWriMo plans and blog post skeletons for the week.

I am going… to focus on getting through this week with Jon gone. At least he’s only a couple hours away by car instead of across the country.

I am wondering… why drivers in Elk Grove and on CA-99 heading to Sacramento are of the opinion that my turn signal indicates that they should pull up alongside me and refuse to let me change lanes. Seriously y’all, it’s not a race.

I am reading… Pastorix by Nadia Bolz-Weber.

I am hoping… my nausea goes away because it has made today miserable.

I am looking forward to… my pedicure on Wednesday.

Around the house… vacuuming and mopping to do tomorrow while Daniel is at school.

I am pondering… various plot devices to use.

A favorite quote for today… “??…my idea of God is a not divine idea. It has to be shattered from time to time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence?..?? — C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

One of my favorite things… Daniel bringing me blocks and practicing saying words or letters with me. The hearing aids are helping.

A few plans for the rest of the week: ABA therapy every afternoon from Monday to Friday, pedicure on Wednesday, leading Bible study on Thursday, and massage on Friday.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

7 Quick Takes: Posts To Write, Prayer Requests, and A Favor

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

No guarantees. Probably 7 years ago (maybe more?), I received a comment on my old Livejournal from a young Russian woman named Anna who runs a Christian website called Pravmir. (The English site is here.)I helped her edit a few English translations of articles for the site before I ended up with a job and ran out of time; but I’ve kept track of her on Livejournal. A few months ago, her husband died suddenly, leaving her widowed in her 30’s (I think she’s my age) with a little daughter named Natasha. She has been a beautiful example of faith in the midst of all of this and wrote a beautiful piece called “No Guarantees” today. You can find it (in Russian) here. If you open it in Chrome, the browser will translate it for you.

— 2 —

Posts to come: Birch Box. I registered for a Birch Box and received it on Tuesday. I’ll try a couple of the products out this weekend and let you know how it goes. 🙂

— 3 —

Forty to Forever. From my Facebook wall:

OK… I’m the social media person for the Forty to Forever fundraiser and we’re trying to raise money for families adopting kids internationally who have special needs. We need two things:

1.) We desperately need churches who are willing to sponsor families with prayer and also with funding to a degree. This doesn’t have to be costly and there is information on the website about what to do. If you ladies could talk to you church councils/pro-life groups/ missions people/women’s ministries/whoever, I’d greatly appreciate it. If you can’t find the answer to one of your questions, let me know and I’ll get the information for you. You can find most of what you need here.

2.) We need people who can commit to being prayer warriors and praying for us/the families/the kids one day a week during Lent. (We could also really use it right now.) It’s a fifteen minutes per week commitment and if it would help, I can send you prayers, a litany, or whatever you need in terms of help in how to pray. The page for sign-ups is here.

The website is http://www.fortytoforever.com/ and we’re also present on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks!

— 4 —

Orphans. Do you see these two precious children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are compiling their dossier to send to her country.

— 5 —

Wow. A couple weeks ago, I posted a prayer request for Elizabeth of Keep on Spinning. She’s been fighting breast cancer for the last 5 years and the cancer this time is back with a vengeance. She was supposed to get chemo on Tuesday but her white cell count had tanked and made her ineligible. Instead, she showed pictures of her son Danny (who is looking GOOD despite his own medical issues) and her husband Dixon shaving her head.

OK… seriously, it’s incredibly humbling to see a woman brave enough to show her head being shaved. I mean, this is probably totally normal for her now but still… I don’t know that I would have the courage to show mine being shaved if I was in her position. Keep praying for her because she’s got a “hard row to hoe”.

— 6 —

Posts to write (maybe): potty-training. This isn’t a for sure yet but I might be writing on potty-training Daniel. I haven’t decided because I don’t know if I want to let some things in my life be private and if that is really one of them yet. In the meantime, I’d love tips if y’all have any.

— 7 —

The shutdown. Attention Congress:

YOU. SUCK. BOTH PARTIES. (Note: I’m a blue dog Democrat and I am criticizing my own party. That’s how pissed I am.)

This was 16 days and billions of dollars flushed down the toilet that did not have to happen. There are people who had to borrow money to pay their rent and mortgage, feed their kids, and keep utilities on while Congress got paid and got to keep their gym memberships. To the Congresspersons who either gave up their paycheck or is donating it: you rock and I will gladly support y’all with fundraising if I happen to find your arguments convincing. To everyone else, let me reiterate that YOU. ALL. SUCK. I will make it my mission to get your butts out of office in 2014. Count on it.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

The Religious Climate in My Part of the World

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Jen Fulwiler of ConversionDiary.Com is doing her “What is the religious climate in your part of the world?” post and it has been really interesting to read the comments on it. As there are people who have commented and linked up who are from the USA, I thought I’d share as I live in a place that is a bit different.

1. WHERE DO YOU LIVE?

A small town that serves as a bedroom community for Sacramento, California.

2. WHAT IS CHURCH ATTENDANCE LIKE? ARE THERE MANY CHURCHES?

According to my husband the Lutheran pastor, our town is about 50% unchurched. We’ve got a range of Protestant churches: Lutherans, Methodists, Church of Christ, Episcopalians, Assemblies of God, a couple non-denom churches (which in Tim Hawkins’ words are “Baptist churches with a cool website”), Southern Baptists, a couple Spanish-speaking Pentecostal groups (one of whom borrows our church building for worship twice a week), and Seventh Day Adventists. We’ve also got a Kingdom Hall (Jehovah’s Witnesses) and a Mormon meetinghouse that has two wards. The Catholic parish in town has 5 masses on weekends, 2 of them Spanish-speaking. I have no idea how full the masses are because the Catholics tend to keep to themselves here and not do anything ecumenical with the ministerial association. (It’s a bummer – I loved the ecumenical stuff we got to do in other parishes.)

As you get into the immediate suburbs of Sacramento and then into the city, you’ll find more ethnic churches and non-Christian communities.

3. HOW APPROPRIATE WOULD IT BE FOR A PERSON TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE OR SHE IS A BELIEVING CHRISTIAN IN CASUAL CONVERSATION?

I tend to err on the side of not making a huge deal out of my faith because I was raised agnostic/unaffiliated and I find the “do you know Jesus?” questions to be a bit irritating as a result of dealing with overly enthusiastic people trying to convert me. Having said that, I usually find out where people fall on the spectrum of practice the second I comment nonchalantly that my husband is the pastor at Metanoia*. They usually tell me their entire religious background as well so it doesn’t surprise me to hear that someone is an ex-Baptist, ex-Lutheran, ex-Catholic, etc.

4. WHAT KIND OF FAITH DO THE POLITICIANS CLAIM TO PRACTICE?

It actually took a fair amount of searching to find out what my Congressman claims to be (Catholic) and what my senators are (both Jewish women). Our governor is CINO as far as I know. Unless you’re really lobbying hard for a certain religion’s vote, people don’t bring their personal religion into politics.

5. HOW COMMON WOULD IT BE TO SEE A FAMILY WITH MORE THAN THREE KIDS? WHAT ARE THE ATTITUDES TOWARD FAMILY SIZE?

4 kids is usually of the upper limit for most families here with 2-3 being “normal”. I’m sure there are probably some families with more but I don’t run into them. A family that size is usually a blended one. Having 5 kids under a certain age would probably draw stares, have allusions made to the Duggars, and would likely result in comments like “Do you know what causes that????”

6. WHAT WAS THE DOMINANT BELIEF SYSTEM IN YOUR AREA 50 YEARS AGO? WHAT IS IT NOW?

I’ve only lived up here for two years (I’m from San Jose originally) so I don’t know for sure what it was in the past. My guess is definitely Christian but I couldn’t tell you what the split was between Catholics and Protestants. I do know that the Catholic community 50 years ago was largely Portuguese as we’re a big wine-producing area and one of the members of my husband’s (Lutheran) parish is from a founding family.

These days, it’s mostly unaffiliated. The Protestants seem to be part of the non-denom/Baptist/AOG crowd. The Catholics seem to be mostly Hispanic, given the number of Spanish masses at the parish in town.

7. DO THE PEOPLE WHERE YOU LIVE SEEM HAPPY WITH THEIR LIVES?

People tend to be “busy” and find that being busy gives meaning to their lives so I guess the answer is “yes”? It really varies depending on what is going on with the economy and what the state reps are doing at the Capitol.

*Metanoia isn’t the actual name of the church. I value my privacy so I use a pseudonym for the church’s name.