I doubt today’s post will be as creative as yesterday’s.  If it is, then my creative juices are functioning outside my control, and I apologize now for anything that they say.

Seriously, though, I don’t have much to write about. 

Yesterday – I graded my papers, I played games, I checked Xanga, I dropped off the recyclables and put gas in my car, I wrote some, I got dressed up, I drove to CU (at 5:00), I had dinner in the President’s Dining Room in honor of Mr. Ed Spencer’s retirement, I drove home, I goofed off for a bit, I went to bed.

Fun stuff from yesterday – I sat with the Moores and the Messers at dinner, and we had far too much laughter at our table. That was enjoyable!  Especially Julie’s stories about her dad, who still thinks Mike Huckabee is running for President and who just about ordered her to vote for him. 

Today – Well, so far, I’ve gotten up, made Eric’s coffee and lunch, and loaded the dishwasher.  The rest of the day will be a pretty normal Wednesday, I think.  At least it’s the last day of workshops.  These are very mentally exhausting for the teacher, so I’m always glad when they’re done.  Anyway, I don’t think I have any plans for the evening either yet.  So it should be an uneventful day!

Fun stuff for today – Well, I think it might be too early for anything fun to have happened yet.  I’ll keep you posted…

Happy Wednesday!

It’s a Tuesday Countdown…

• Ten: the gallons of gas I will need to fill my car with today
• Nine: the number of papers I have left to read today  (I’m done grading!!!)
• Eight: the latest I hope to leave CU tonight. I have a dinner to attend at 6:00, and I want to be home early.
• Seven: the approximate time Eric left for work this morning. 
• Six: more days of class this semester, and the number of pairs of shoes I’ve bought in the last couple of weeks.
• Five: the approximate time Eric has been getting home recently
• Four: more days until we leave for West Virginia for Eric’s friend’s wedding this weekend
• Three: number of days we’ll be at a hotel this weekend (Friday-Sunday) just relaxing together
• Two: the number of outlets now in our master bathroom (Eric finished his project last night)
• One: a link for all you cake decorators out there who need a new idea.

Happy Tuesday!

It’s cold again.  I know it’s only for a day or two, and mostly in the mornings, but seriously, I am SOOOO looking forward to it being 50+ degrees when I get up!  I had to wear a sweater to church yesterday, and I told one of my friends that it was really hard to pick one because, in my mind, I’d already put away my winter clothes, even though they’re still in the drawer.  But at least it doesn’t look like frost will destroy all the plants as happened yesterday.

Funny t-shirt for all you English majors.  Look here for others that we “nerds” might find funny…

The weekend was pretty uneventful, but relaxing.  On Friday night, we had dinner with our supper club.  Our small group is so large that we’ve subdivided for these events, and each group will meet 3 times before we rearrange the groups and get to know some other couples better.  Our dinner was fabulous (I took the pie and ice cream), and we watched Princess Bride and laughed a lot after dinner.  Oh, and we watched out the windows at the storm that passed to the north of us that set the tornado sirens off.

Saturday was a mostly home day.  Eric worked in the bathroom; I cleaned around the house.  We both goofed off on the computers a lot.  I ironed.  We bought new desk chairs and plastic things to go under them at Office Max (I think), and then we came home, ate dinner, and watched Star Wars Episode II.  Then to bed!

Sunday was a bit busier.  After church, we goofed off some, had dinner, and I graded.  Then I made a taco dip for small group (I had salty snack) and Eric and I made another chocolate meringue pie because he needed pudding.  It’s always fun to cook together.  Then a short rest and off to small group. 

This morning starts another normal week.  Only two more to go (and then finals).  I’m ready to be done!  Happy Monday!

So yesterday’s discussion was certainly an interesting one…thanks to everybody who commented!  And it seems that “controversial” topics are a good way to revive a slow Xanga day…I had hundreds of footprints yesterday.   Anyway, I don’t think I will begin the day with more debate.  But if you want me to share my opinions on something (anything!), just ask.  I just LOVE to wax eloquent.  Ask my sister…

Yesterday, was a productive day.  I went shopping in the morning.  I bought 3 pairs of shoes.  A couple of days ago, I started weeding my shoes out and putting some pairs (old ones, uncomfortable ones) in a pile for Goodwill.  But that also meant that I needed 3 new pairs of summer sandals.  A white sandal, a black dress sandal, and brown casual sandals.  And I found them.  Check out This, This, and Here!

After shoes, I needed some groceries, so I went to both Sam’s Club and WalMart in about 90 minutes!  I got in, got what I needed, got out.  And the cute little greeter at Sam’s saw my CU sweatshirt, and said his nephew attended there years ago and his church was sending children to Junior Jam soon.  So fun!

I spent the afternoon grading and writing on Xanga.  I got all but one paper graded, but I have time to do it today, so I will.  I just didn’t care enough about hydrogen fuel cells to grade the paper fairly, so I decided it would be better to leave it.  I also talked to my sister for a while in the afternoon.  Then in the evening, we had dinner and watched television and played on the computer.  I also finished a book before bed.  Lovely, relaxing evening!

Tonight, we are going to some friends for a supper club, which should be fun.  I have to bake a pie when we get home though.  I better rush home after school, or I’ll never make it!  Anyway, Happy Friday to you all!

My Perspective on Christian Fiction (hereafter called CF):

Let me begin with two caveats.  First, keep in mind that I do sometimes read CF.  Honestly, Redeeming Love by Rivers is one of my favorite books.  And I have read Kingsbury’s first Baxter series (all 5 books), and I cried when the mother died.  I have read other books that have been recommended or I’ve just picked up for a light read.  So I’m not opposed entirely, all the time.  Second, I am not accusing anyone who likes these books of being less spiritual, less thinking, less anything.  I’m not sharing these thoughts to put you down (if you like CF).  However, I do have my own opinions about this genre and here are my primary concerns:

1. These books are not realistic.  Take Kingsbury’s Baxter family, for example.  How much can one family go through in five books: cancer, AIDS, 9/11, premarital sex, cohabitation, affairs, adoption scandals, drug addiction, near-drowning, family crises, personal crises, and on and on and on…  Seriously, it just doesn’t happen like that. 
     Also, all the “bad” stuff all works out fine in the end.  Regardless of the family crisis, no one stays angry
or holds grudges. They forgive and move on.  The sister whose daughter is nearly drowned and suffers brain
damage (Book 4) “really” struggles to reconnect with her role as mother
but finds herself blooming into a tender-hearted woman who can even
love her husband after he basically deserted them out of guilt. 
     And the “happy ending” is guaranteed, even if it takes a couple of books to come. Take the ending of Book #1 of the first Baxter
series. It was so frustrating to me!  After struggling like a “good
wife” to reconcile with her wayward husband, he’s tragically (yet
conveniently) murdered at the end of the book, and two books later,
she’s married to her first love whom she should’ve married after high
school. 

2. These books can be emotionally unhealthy.  Sometimes, CF novels are pretty much emotional porn for “good” women (sorry if that offends people).  It’s addicting, and we have to have the happy ending where “the girl waits patiently for her good, though slightly flawed man until through struggles and separation, they are finally united in eternal bliss”.  It’s escapist.  It’s shallow.  It makes us wish our husbands really did those kinds of things (when they don’t always) and really were those kinds of men (when no such man actually exists anywhere).  A more realistic story for Baxter book #1 would have been to watch the reconciled couple actually fight (for 4 more books) to have a marriage that was based on love and honored God.  Instead, the struggle was replaced with his murder and her eventual marriage to her “true” love.  And honestly, because they were so “perfect” for each other, the new couple wasn’t very interesting for much of the other books. 

3.  The end result of #2 is that CF books are good for a light, mindless read.  You don’t have to worry about sex  (or other “bad” stuff) popping up, but neither do I get any glimpse into a real struggle.  “Happy ever after” doesn’t help me live this life; it gives me a place to escape from it.  And while that can sometimes be a good thing (I told you I do read the books sometimes), that is ALL that most Christian women read.  And they “live” vicariously through these, often historical, novels where men and women were exotic and strange and find themselves in some new and exciting circumstances every other chapter.  They are romanticized.  Everyone loves these books about the Amish communities, but my in-laws live very near some Amish, and they aren’t much like these books would suggest. It’s a false, shallow world where the stuff that happens in our lives doesn’t happen.  And exciting, romantic things happen instead. 

4. And finally, call me a snob, but CF is not good literature.  The people you meet in CF aren’t really well-done characters who grow organically and change into better, more human people through suffering.  The plots are cheesy, driven by emotion instead of real action and the choices of the characters.  They try so hard to avoid all the “bad stuff” in secular novels that they become moralistic, and thus, most of them lack any real value. 

So that’s part of my problem with CF.   There are other issues I have (why would an unsaved person even want to be the kind of people described as “Christian” in those books most of the time?  Why would I, for that matter?), but that’s enough for now.  Feel free to respond.

Yesterday was pretty much about meetings, workshops, and classes.  And I did some research to catch up my files about past classes for tracking purposes.  And I made tortellini for dinner.  And then I worked on the computer for the rest of the night.  And we finished by watching MythBusters. 

The other morning, Eric told me that I’d been talking in my sleep and grinding my teeth.  I think the only word he could remember me saying was “worthless” or something like that.  I had dreamed pretty hard that night, but I don’t remember what the dreams were about.  Apparently, something was bothering me…

Eric left for work early this morning because he got up early.  When I asked him about it, he said he’d “stopped sleeping, so he got up.”  How profound he is…

I wish I had interesting things to talk about on Xanga today, but I really don’t.  There are two and a half weeks of school left.  The students are tired and not able to accomplish all the stuff they have to do, so they inevitably relegate my stuff to the “don’t finish” pile.  But that’s how it goes this close to the end of school.  I’m running out of motivation, too, to be honest, but I will slog through until it’s finished.  And we are very close to finished…hallelujah!

Happy Thursday!

It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday.  I opened windows and went outside as often as I could.  I even ran some errands with Karen just so I could go out in the warmth and sunshine.  And it doesn’t even bother me that it’s supposed to be cloudy/rainy for the rest of the week…days like yesterday are like a guarantee of more to come.  So I can wait a day or two, since I know it’ll get nice again soon.

I got most of my papers graded (all but two, but I have time to get those done during today).  I also cleaned my kitchen, swept the floor, finished the laundry (one last load), tidied up my house, collected our recyclables, made dinner (crockpot pot roast), and read some.  Eric, when he got home, cleaned the garage, worked a bit more on the bathroom, cleaned out his car, and fertilized the lawn.  Aren’t we just beaver-like!

Today is back to CU.  My comp classes are meeting as workshops for the next four days (one group per day), so they’re pretty low key.  I have a quick meeting with my dept. chair this morning (nothing too exciting), and I think that’s about it. 

It would be interesting to go to chapel, but I don’t think I’ll make it.  At the end of the year, they stop bringing in pastors to speak and start having more fun/interesting speakers because the students are just tired and stressed out.  So, there are a lot of musical guests (Josh Bales was here last week) and special events.  Today’s speakers are Clay Crosse and his wife.  I guess they’re sharing their story/testimony of how God saved him and their marriage from pornography.  Probably a good message for college-aged guys (and girls) to hear.

And a fun Wednesday link for you.  The Worst Baby Names according to Ancestry.com.  Click on the links down the side to see the actual names.  Happy Wednesday!

I got home from Xangafest last night and my husband waved to me from the master bathroom as I drove into the driveway.  I went upstairs to see his ‘surprise’ and found that he’d spent the evening installing a second electrical outlet in our bathroom.  It’s a job we’ve needed done since we bought the house (the bathroom only had one outlet, right beside the sink, which meant I couldn’t dry my hair while Eric shaved or brushed his teeth…very annoying!). He got the wall patched up last night, but now it needs sanded and painted.  So we are using our hall bathroom for a day or two, but by tomorrow or Thursday, we’ll be able to be in the bathroom at the same time if we need to!

Xangafest was, of course, great fun.  It turns out that I actually know a lot of more my Xanga friends in real life, than I realized.  Of course, most of them I met 10 years ago when I worked at summer camp, so it’s been a while.  But still, it was great fun to make connections between people!   Thanks for all the hard work, Marla!!!

A funny story from the ball game on Saturday: they picked some guy to play a game, and if he won, he and his entire row would win a chili cheese dog or something.  So they had him on camera on the big screen.  The funny part is that, when people realized he was wearing a Michigan shirt, they started booing him from around the stadium.   So he  showed off his shirt as much as he could, won the game for his row, and then the Reds people played “Hang on Sloopy” when the game was over.  It was very fun!

Today, I feel like I have a ridiculously long to-do list, but it’s mostly just little jobs, so it’s not really that bad.  The clutter in my house is starting to really bug me, so I will need to clean up a bit today.  I will wait to clean bathrooms until the master bath is in working order again.  And I MUST grade at about 8-10 papers today (workshops tomorrow). 

And maybe, since it’s so nice, I’ll just chuck it all (except the grading, of course) and go hang out with Karen or just be outside!   Happy 70-degree Tuesday (at least in Ohio)!

Just a quick update of the weekend for you all (I have a number of things I have to do before class today!).

Friday night: Nothing exciting.  Meatloaf for dinner.  Watched some television and played on the computer.  I might have read a book in there, too.

Saturday: We went to the Reds game (it was an afternoon game).  They won 3-2 (the winning run scored in the bottom of the 9th), and we had seats in a catered suite.  There were chips/dip, tortilla chips/salsas, wings, potato skins, hot dogs/brats, pizza, veggies, peanuts, popcorn, and deep-fried cookie dough for dessert.  It was definitely the way to watch a ball game…I’m not sure I would be able to go back to the “cheap” seats, now!  As I expected, the peanuts were fantastic!  No one believed me that I suck the salt out of the shells before eating the peanut (I don’t eat the shell), so they made me demonstrate!  Saturday night, after getting home from the game, I finished my book while Eric played on the computer.

Sunday: Church in the morning, then dinner (tilapia), then we spent most of the afternoon working outside in the beautiful weather.  We cleaned up the flowerbeds some and Eric rebuilt my porch swing’s stand.  Then small group in the evening and some relaxing after that. 

So that’s all I’ve got for now…off to accomplish my actual work now!  Happy Monday!

It’s raining this morning, but it’s already almost 60 degrees outside.  I think I’ll wear a skirt despite the rain. 

I did not get all my grading done yesterday.  I did some of it.  I did a good bit of writing.  I did a couple of other small work-related projects.  But I’m not done grading yet.  Oh well…

I also didn’t get the garbage out.  Our garbage people come on Thursdays, but usually sometime in the afternoon (anywhere between 1 and 5).  But sometimes they don’t come until the evening.  And some weeks, such as this one, they show up at 9:30 in the morning. Since it usually takes a couple of hours for me to remember to put the garbage out, when they show up that early, our garbage is not usually there.  Thankfully, we only make about a bag of garbage a week these days.  So it can wait another week.  But still, I’d love for them to actually have a schedule!

In the afternoon, I did some running around.  I need a couple of new clothes items (jeans, grey dress pants, some cute spring shirts), so I went to the mall.  I tried on lots of things.  Nothing.  I left the mall empty-handed.  I guess I’ll have to go back with Karen along for input.  That’s what sisters are for, you know!

After a quick stop at WalMart, I headed home, wrote some more, made dinner, cleaned dinner up, read a book, did a load of laundry (jeans), and went to bed.  Not terribly exciting.

Today is Friday!!!  I have classes, a department meeting, an advising meeting at 3:00, and then I can come home.  It should be a fun weekend.  Relaxing tonight and Sunday, but tomorrow, Eric and I are going to a Reds game.  Eric is graciously coming, too, because I really wanted to go.  We were invited to sit in a box with catering.  Eric doesn’t really like sports, so he gets bored.  And the trip will take all Saturday (afternoon game), but out of love for me, he’s going.   I really appreciate his sacrifice!  And I haven’t been to a ball game in years, so I’m excited to go again.  I’m going to buy peanuts in the shell!

Anyway, off to shower and get ready for the day…happy Friday to you all!