Four Years Later....

You know you are (still) in love with someone when, for your 4 year anniversary….you volunteer to go to The Simpson’s Movie…because HE’S a big fan and the producers of the movie thought July 27th was such an auspicious date that they had to release it then.
And really – for such a momentous occasion (the movie – not the anniversary), it’s really much better if you’re in line with everyone else waiting to be among the first to see it.

I remember when we heard this movie was coming out a year and a half ago…and I thought to myself – if he thinks we’re going to see THAT on our anniversary – he’s got another thing coming.

It’s funny how things change, and how you mellow out as even small bits of time go by. It’s only been 4 years, but we’ve come a long way.

Culvers

My husband loves the fast food chain, Culvers. When we go on roadtrips, he likes to plan our stops around Culvers locations because we don't have them here in our part of Colorado. Their butter burger and the peanut butter shake is enough to make him weak in the knees.

So imagine our surprise when we were driving through a seldom-visited part of our town this morning in search of a quick breakfast sandwhich...and there it was - a brand new Culvers. I didn't notice right away....until, that is, Greg yelled:

"OOOOOOOoooooohhhhhhh MMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!"

I just about dropped breakfast and looked around wildly to get a last look at the oncoming car that was clearly going to take our lives.

But no. It was the Culvers dining facility that caused such an outburst and then an excited conversation.

And then at work, a serious of excited emails.

And now, this evening, guess where we're going out to dinner?

An Internet Forward to Share....

For whatever reason, this made me laugh, and I had to post it.


Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer.
They had been going at it for days, and God was tired of hearing all the bickering.
Finally fed up, God said, "That's it! I've had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours; and from those results, I will judge who does the better job."

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

They typed letters.

They e-mailed.

They e-mailed with attachments.

They downloaded.

They did spreadsheets.

They wrote reports.

They created labels and cards.

They created charts and graphs using PowerPoint.

They used Excel for accounting work.

They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency, and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.

Jesus just sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers.

Satan started searching frantically, screaming: "It's gone! It's all GONE! I lost everything when the power went out!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work.
Satan observed this and became irate.

"Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?"

God just shrugged and said, "Jesus saves."

The baptism

Recently, Greg and I attended the baptism of our neighbor's 5-month old baby girl, Anya. It was a Catholic ceremony, and, having been to a few Catholic baptisms...I wasn't expecting much.

And I'll preface that with the ceremonies I've been to haven't had much meaning, sort of the "ho-hum another baptism" approach from the priests and the parents. And, at one, I asked about the meaning (I wanted to hear from the parents what it meant to them) and they couldn't tell me. Not one bit about if this 'saved' the child or not, if she was consecrated to God now that this was done, why they did it, and whatnot.

I really enjoy the traditions of the Catholic and Episcopalian churches...but I get disappointed when the congregations don't know or care as to what's going on.

So I wasn't expecting much for this baptism either.

And then the priest came out and began talking - and I could tell he really, really loved what he was doing. And in his prayers, I could hear a genuine love for God. And then he took little Anya and began with "Anya, today we, your family and friends stand together and claim you for Christ, and all that is Good and True in this world".

We claim you for Christ....

And he talked of how dark the world has become, and yet how we have these tiny rays of light, these people who can grow into light itself, and here we were claiming Anya's little life for Light and Love at 5 months old. He then had each of us swear something like an oath that we, her neighbors and family would stand in the way of Darkness and shelter this small child from any evil or harm that may come her way. That it was our duty as those closest to her and her parents to protect them from things that would harm or drive wedges into their relationships with each other because the family must remain strong.

He admonished us not to ourselves fall into dispair, for though our path through this world is difficult, the Light we follow is more powerful than any darkness that would claim our joy.

We claim you for Christ....

When we were done, it was through a veil of tears that we left that little church. I thought about tiny Anya, and what our small prayers may have done for her life this day. I can't really begin to guess, but I also think that we underestimate what our prayers and goodwill can do.

The Stingy Cookie Monster

The other day, Greg had a rough go of it at work….he crashed our company’s main external website and then cheerfully, and obliviously I might add, left to go play volleyball. He came back to absolute pandemonium and much reprimanding. When you are a US Government defense contractor….it really is quite unacceptable to have the main website offline.

So. It was a bad day.

As he flopped on the couch and lamented the fact that he would soon be an unemployed couch potato, I made him chocolate peanut butter chip cookies to cheer him. And they did, very much. He loved that recipe – the cookies were exquisite. So I packed some in his lunch the next day for after the meetings with upper management.

But he ended up going out and he never came up to grab his lunch from me, and thusly it wasn’t until the end of our work day did he remember his cookies. (Side note: We work in the same building. Not the same department, but the same building. I’m upstairs, and he’s downstairs locked away behind strict security access) He asked me to please remember to bring them down for him so he could munch on the way home (His meetings went fine – the managers were understanding and Greg is still employed).

We got to the car and 2 of our friends were also leaving, I asked Greg if he wanted to share his cookies with them, since there were plenty at home. He heard something to the point of ‘Do you want your cookies now in the car?’ and I heard an enthusiastic YES!

So I offered his cookies to our friends and gave Greg a funny look when his eyes POPPED as one of the two cookies were accepted. We smiled and said bye and hopped in the car.

And he didn’t move.

So I inquired as to what was up.

And this was his response:“What in the HOLY HELL inspired you to give away one of my cookies?!?!?!”

And I said “You TOLD me to!!!”
And he said “In 4 years of marriage what of my behavior has EVER made you think I would be willing to share cookies with ANYONE!?!?!”

And I didn’t have a snappy comment for that. So I hollered “YOU are a STINGY COOKIE MONSTER!!!!!!”

So he grumbled the whole way home incoherently about ‘Cookie Rations’ and whatnot, and promptly ate a few more just to comfort him when we got home.

And I went upstairs and laughed and laughed and laughed.

And then wrote this blog so you could laugh too.

Signs and Wonders

I’ve been working at applying to colleges to find a suitable place to obtain my Masters degree. One of the draws of working at my current position is the fact that my company will help fund such an endeavor, and so – I thought I’d give myself a $10,000 raise and go find a degree program I want.

So originally I was going to get a dual master: An MBA and a Masters of Science in Emergency Management. And I was going to get it from a school that had both a traditional and online program….so off I went down that road. But, before I started classes, my company changed the accreditation policy for what schools they accepted, and my school didn’t fall into that….plus I was rethinking another 3.5 years of school – so I went for another school here in Denver. Very prestigious, I began the application process….Greg graduated from there and the total cost of his degree was around $28,000. So imagine my surprise when I calculated my tuition at $75,500!!!!! Even with my company’s help – I would have to fund this endeavor with my whole salary for the next 2 years. Thus, I promptly dropped THAT program.

And now, I’m currently applying to yet another school – this time in Colorado Springs. The exact same accreditation – and at $25,000 for two years, it seems a much better bargain. But, again, I have to send transcripts, essays, letters of recommendation, application fees, applications, and on and on….

So I told Greg (jokingly) that I thought all this was a sign from God that I wasn’t supposed to go get my Masters and that perhaps I should forget about the whole idea and continue on with my happy little life. He disagreed and said no, God was clearly testing me, and my perseverance. We laughed…and then I had to think out loud on this whole idea. How are you supposed to know what is a test, and what is a stop sign? How many people – when left to their interpretation, interpret it incorrectly and drop out or push on needlessly?

Better yet, is there a wrong choice?

One can only speculate at this point – but it doesn’t really apply to me anyways. I’ll be hard-hearted, or full of perseverance (whichever you prefer) and busy getting my application in.

Open Wide!

I went to the dentist yesterday for an evaluation. To see what braces could do for me, what kinds of braces there were and, more importantly, how much these braces may cost. . .

I'm getting braces next month.

However, this was after 3 hours of evaluations, impressions (with the goopy ceramic stuff that they say should taste like fruit punch but doesn't), discussions, calculations, and bargaining.

And after all this, I've concluded that orthodontists should NEVER eat onions for lunch. No matter how tantalizing the sandwich.