Category Archives: Reece’s Rainbow

7 Quick Takes: Update on the Laptop Situation, Daniel’s ER Trip, and Being Sheenazing

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Interesting… My friend Kristen posted a link to this article on Facebook. I don’t know if the presence of said missionaries is the exact reason why some countries did better than others in terms of development but it is an interesting theory.

— 2 —

Apparently, I’m “sheenazing”. I got nominated for a Sheenazing Award in the “Best Blog by a Non Papist” category. I’m up against Ann Voskamp and Ree Drummond so I’m not expecting to win, but hey… I’d love your vote anyway! To vote, click on the picture.

The 2014 Sheenazing Awards

— 3 —

Orphans. Do you see these darling children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they have an appointment in her country next week.

— 4 —

Touched. I’m a James Martin, S.J. fangirl and after finishing The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, I wrote him a note telling him how much I appreciated his writing and his Christian witness. This week, I got a note back from him thanking me for the one I sent him. This is a guy who has many balls in the air that he’s juggling and I’m touched that he took the time to write me back.

It’s probably fitting that I got through 218 pages of My Life with the Saints (re-reading it) while I was sitting in the E.R. with the wee bairn on Monday.

— 5 —

Update on the Daniel bear. The bear child was completely wired on Sunday night (would not go to sleep until 1 a.m.) and woke up coughing on Monday. It was a school holiday so we lazed around the house all day in our jammies and I did a few breathing treatments on him. The problem: he started “belly breathing” (where you’re using your abdominal muscles to move air because you’re not getting good lung function) and the breathing treatments weren’t helping. I decided to take him to the ER at UCD Medical Center which was packed. Thankfully, there was a bed in the pediatric ER so we got in immediately after being triaged. Daniel was feeling so awful that he was content to curl up in my lap on the gurney. They did two breathing treatments and gave him some steroids which got him back to normal. We also broke in a new resident and a new ER attending physician which was lovely. (It’s funny in a twisted way that we know one of the ER physicians so well that she comments on how much Daniel has grown.) After 6 hours in the ER, we got home around 12:30 and Jon bathed Daniel while I ate something (my first solid food in 12 hours — wheeeeeeee!!!!) and put him to bed while I showered.

Little boy has been home the last few days and has done well thus far. We were doing breathing treatments every 4 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday and we’ve only had to do one of them today.

— 6 —

Source of the Stephen Colbert quote from last week. I found the video with the quote I referenced here on the Colbert Nation site. I’m having issues embedding it so you’re going to have to take my word on this one. The pertinent quote is at the end of the video.

— 7 —

Update on the laptop situation. The case manager from HP called me on Wednesday morning. My laptop is shipping as we speak and will be here on/before the 28th. Of course, I don’t have my tracking number memorized and I’m not checking Fed Ex eleventy-billion times to see if it has cleared customs in China yet. Noooooo…

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

7 Quick Takes: Laptop Update, Folk Music, and 49’ers Fan Schtuff

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

My friend Tim. So how many of you saw the viral video in which a pastor who was a 49’ers fan did an “abbreviated service” this past Sunday? Yeah, he is actually a former colleague of ours from our days in Montana and he is a heckuva guy. He and his wife hosted us several times when we were splitting our time between Great Falls and home when Daniel was in the NICU as well as visiting me in the hospital. He is a native northern Californian who was transplanted to Montana for ministry and is a rabid fan of all the Bay Area sports teams, especially the Giants. (I swear… I can hear him watching the game all the way from Montana when they play.) I miss him, his wife Sandy, and their son John very much.

And yes, he *did* go back and do a REAL worship service after this was filmed.

— 2 —

OMG NCIS!!!!! I got seriously verklempt at the end of NCIS this week. Why? It wasn’t because Delilah was paralyzed after her accident. It was the scene where McGee calls Gibbs down to the hospital and asks if he can sit with him. Gibbs comes down and goes and sits with Tim as a way to lend him some support. I remember the people who came to be with me in the hospital when I’ve had surgery or when Daniel has been in the NICU/PICU/peds ward. They didn’t have to say beautiful words of wisdom or advice — all I really needed was for them to sit with me and hold my hand. It is really hard to communicate just how much their presence meant to me even if they just sat there quietly with me.

— 3 —

Speaking of the 49’ers… We have a bit of a family war going on at the moment because my extended family is mostly in western Washington and of course, I’m down here in northern California. I predict amusing status updates this weekend. I feel sorry (but not all that much) for my evil twin — his wife is a Green Bay fan, his cat is a Panthers fan, and he lives in Seahawk territory. He commented that it’s impossible to watch football right now without pissing anyone off.

— 4 —

The Boxer. I think I’ve posted this before but it’s a video of Allison Krauss and Shawn Colvin doing a cover of “The Boxer” from a concert honoring Paul Simon. It’s one of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel songs and it’s nice to have a recording that I can sing along with in my specific register. (Not that I was doing this at 2 a.m. or anything…)

— 5 —

Also a fan of this one… This is “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” from a Bob Dylan tribute concert 20 years ago. There are others I like from this particular concert (Tracy Chapman singing “The Times They Are A-Changin'” for example) but this particular one fit with the Shawn Colvin theme of the last Quick Take.

Aw heck… here’s Tracy. I love her performance because she doesn’t embellish anything in the song and her bluesy voice just fits perfectly.

— 6 —

Last video, I promise. I’m listening to Simon and Garfunkel as I blog this.

— 7 —

Orphans. Do you see these darling children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier has been submitted to her country.

— Bonus —

Update on the laptop. I received the hard drive from my old laptop in the mail on Tuesday. I was WTFing until my mom pointed out that this was not a bad thing in case my backup on my external hard drive is messed up. I got ahold of my case manager at HP yesterday and he told me that the ETA for the build of my new laptop is January 24th and he’s getting it shipped to me 2nd Day Air so I’ll get it on the 26th. *sigh* It means sharing a Macbook with Jon for another week or so but I’m getting a new laptop out of it so I shouldn’t complain… too much. #stillwhining #firstworldproblems

Pray for Jon. I’m not the easiest person to live with when I’m going through laptop withdrawal symptoms.

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

7 Quick Takes: My Christmas Wishlist

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7 Quick Takes

Linking up with Mary Kate as well for her gift-giving link-up.

— 1 —

Gift cards from Barnes & Noble. I have a NOOK. I like to read. Enough said. 🙂 I’m also having to replace books which were damaged while they were being stored and it makes more sense to get them on my NOOK.

— 2 —

Gift cards for Kohl’s. I’m slowly having to replace out my wardrobe and I’m fond of the stuff at Kohl’s. I can try stuff on in-store and I’ve actually found clothes that I would wear when I’ve shopped there.

— 3 —

Peace on earth. A girl can dream, right?

— 4 —

A Kiva loan. Kiva loans allow you to loan money to entrepreneurs all over the world to help them become self-sufficient. I’ve made 17 loans and only $200 has been my own funds or new loans that people have given me as present. This means that those funds have been loaned out several times over and it’s honestly the highlight of my month to get an email saying that I have Kiva credit. I’ve made loans to 12 different countries on 3 continents and 16 of those 17 loans has been paid back or is in the process of being paid back. (One person did default and unfortunately that does happen on occasion.)

— 5 —

A Target gift card. Daniel needs some long-sleeved shirts and I’m a fan of Target’s clothes on him. I love the Circo and Cherokee brands and I find that they hold up to lots of abuse.

— 6 —

For Daniel to develop speech. He’s making so much progress right now in that area but it’s hard to be patient sometimes. I did get to see him say the letters in his name when I was dropping him off at school on Tuesday. When his ABA tutors have been working with him, they make him sound out words.

— 7 —

For Brett and Iris to have families adopt them. Do you see these lovely children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier has been submitted to her country.

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

7 Quick Takes: Jeans, Snow, and Advent Music.

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Orphans. Do you see these precious children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier has been submitted to her country.

— 2 —

Because, you know, speaking normal English would defeat the point. My tasoni friend sent me this. I understood and resonated with all the jargon spoken by the blogger about his autistic son and am shaking my head because my people use a whole different set.

— 3 —

Let it snow. We might actually get a trace amount of snow in Sacramento on Friday night. It’s down in the 20’s at night right now which is freaking out a lot of people and making me laugh because the 20’s are a walk in the park compared to some of the temps in Minnesota and Montana when I lived there. (It was -25F in Great Falls this morning according to some of my friends there.) The hard thing for me is that our washer/dryer are in a laundry shed so I’m going to be getting up shortly, putting on fleece, and going out there to sort through clothes and find something for my wee bairn to wear to school tomorrow.

— 4 —

Jeans. Last week, I was getting a pair of my 4 year old jeans from Lands’ End out of the dryer to wear them to the airport to pick up Jon and discovered that they had a massive hole in the rear end. (Thankfully, I discovered this BEFORE I wore them.) I went onto the Kohl’s website to order more, figuring that I wouldn’t be able to go shopping before Black Friday (when I wanted nothing to do with retail) only to find out that Jon was fine with watching Daniel so I could go after his eye appointment the next day. OK… It was too late to cancel the order on the Kohl’s website so I just kept those and went out to shop the next day. End result: 4 pairs of jeans that fit me (after taking them to my seamstress to be hemmed) for less than the cost of 2 pairs of jeans from Lands’ End. I still have one pair of 4 year old jeans from Lands’ End left so I actually have enough pants for a change.

— 5 —

Advent music. My friend Thomas of Fuller Life put together an amazing playlist for Advent.

— 6 —

More Advent music. Bonnie of A Knotted Life has a great playlist as well that she shared a few weeks ago.

— 7 —

Potty-training. I think I should be getting time off of Purgatory for the time I spend potty-training Daniel. We’re on our second shot of it and it’s a headache for me, especially as nothing we try seems to be working. I have his ABA therapists working with me on it and even they are a bit stumped because this is definitely not anything they’re used to (and these are people who have been in the business for a fairly long time). Pray for me.

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

Quick Takes: Lots of NaNo Stuff, Justice Being Served, and Daniel Being Ornery

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Orphans. Do you see these sweet children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier has been submitted to her country.

— 2 —

NaNo Update. So far, I’m a bit ahead in my “2000-words-a-day” plan and as I’m going to be with my family this weekend, it’s probably good to have that cushion though I’ll be focusing like mad tomorrow so that I don’t get too far behind. I’m also probably going to give up Facebook this weekend with a few exceptions so I can spend my computer time writing my NaNo piece. We’ll see.

— 3 —

Justice being served. Those of you who read my {Virtual} Coffee Date for this week know that one of my college group leaders at the church I attended from 1998-2001 was murdered in his office and found on Saturday morning. On Wednesday, we got the news that they arrested two people suspected of killing him. I’m not angry at his killers as much as I’m just sad.

— 4 —

Fundraiser for Brett. I’m willing to kill people off creatively for a donation to the adoption grant of the precious boy on my sidebar. $10 gets you killed off creatively with a couple caveats. If you give $25, I’ll send you the manuscript of my NaNo piece. Just make the donation to Brett and email the receipt and how you’d like to die to jen @ grace-filled dot net.

— 5 —

Thankful. One of the people doing NaNo is a CSI and she offered to answer all of our questions. There are 8 pages of questions and her answers in the NaNo forums. I’m incredibly grateful that she offered this because it means that my novel went from “no chance” to theoretically possible.

— 6 —

Boundaries. My precious sweetling is testing the patience of his ABA tutors this week. He tried going up against his lead tutor and consultant today… and failed. Both of them have been doing this for a while and have absolutely *NO* problem saying the dreaded n-word (a.k.a. “no”). He has tried going to Jon or me when his tutors are refusing to back down and we just turn him around and send him right back to them. Oh well… it’s developmentally appropriate to test boundaries — just no fun for the parents.

— 7 —

“Bones” moving to Fridays. I’ll have to start watching Bones on Hulu or something because they’re moving it to Fridays… which is when I watch 3 hours of CBS stuff. As much as I like Bones, I like Hawaii Five-O more.

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

7 Quick Takes: C.S. Lewis Plaque at Poet’s Corner, Grousing About Politics, and NaNoWriMo Updates

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Quiet here. Becky of From Mrs. to Mama didn’t post a link-up this week so I didn’t post on Monday and as I’m doing NaNoWriMo, I’m focusing my writing time on my murder mystery for this year. I’m about 10,000 words in and kinda-sorta on schedule. I’m going to start trying to do around 2,000 words a day so I can finish early because I know I won’t be able to write much over Thanksgiving due to family commitments.

— 2 —

There will be a plaque in memory of C.S. Lewis placed in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey on November 22nd (the 50th anniversary of his death). Westminster Abbey does not finance the plaque (they just give permission to place it) so various academic societies dedicated to the study of Lewis’ works are trying to raise the funds for it. The cost will be ?20,000 (about $30,000 in USD) and there’s a link here where you can donate to the cause. I have vivid memories of Westminster Abbey from a 24-hour layover in London 15.5 years ago on the way to Ireland and I remember Poet’s Corner so I’ve donated.

— 3 —

Fascinating. From Facebook, here are stunning portraits of remote tribes before they pass away. It’s NSFW due to cultural beauty standards being what they are but it’s amazing.

— 4 —

Shaking my head… I had someone snarkily remark last night that I should know what’s going on with the parish because, after all, I’m the pastor’s wife. Ummm… if she’d been paying attention for the last 2.5 years, she would probably have heard me say *MONTHLY* that being the pastor’s wife just means I’m married to Jon — he doesn’t tell me anything.

*smh*

— 5 —

Orphans. Do you see these darling 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.

— 6 —

Just wondering… If the Affordable Care Act was the work of a Republican president (let’s call it “Romneycare” because it was based on that legislation), would there be as many people engaging in partisan grousing about the website not working? Because as anyone who has ever dealt with the roll-out of software or a website knows, you don’t know what bugs exist until you have a high volume of users. (I grew up in Silicon Valley. This is in my blood.)

It’s also completely unsurprising that insurance companies are engaging in shenanigans. When Jon and I were having to insure ourselves 10 years ago, maternity coverage was an extra $490 per month. It was cheaper to be on the Pill. I also have to laugh when Blue Cross of California claims to be “not for profit” because they are making a bundle on insuring people in California now that insurance companies who don’t want to be regulated have fled the state.

— 7 —

Fundraising for Brett. I’m planning to use NaNoWriMo to help raise funds for Brett. Once I have things figured out, I will let y’all know.

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

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.