swangin'

This is one of the more humerous things that has happened to me in quite a while.

Here's the story: I was out at Luke's place a couple of weekends ago, and we decided to swing on the swings. This in itself is not odd. I love swings. I still love swings.

Now, all of the swings that I have been on in the past have had enclosed loops at the top, through which the chain passes so that you cannot swing "off" the set. This set, however, did not have this enclosed loop. It was a hook.

UNFORTUNATELY, I didn't know this.

That's right, boys and girls, I went higher... and higher.... and higher........ and came right off the hook.

Now one would think that this problem would be immediately obvious. However, it was not. My eyes were closed and I didn't actually notice that I was falling until I hit the ground. (I believe that this was a small blessing.) I had no time to prepare for this unintentional landing. Somewhere in this whole escapade, either I sat on my glasses, or they were stepped on. I'm not quite sure, but they were flat, and I was on the ground. And so was the swing.

As I look back, a couple of things are funny: first was the look of horror on Luke's face. second was the fact that I had NO IDEA that I was about to fall.

Aside from a few VERY BEAUTIFUL bruises, and bent glasses, I emerged from this event unscathed. I'm really glad that I fell to the side instead of straight down. It would have sucked if I'd've landed on my tailbone!

LESSON: check the swings before you swing, so as to avoid making a fool of yourself.... :)

enjoy y'all! Drink a cold one in this heat!
r

ways to catch an elephant

Here are a few of my favorite ways to catch an elephant that has escaped from the zoo: (courtesy of my students)

• dig a large hole for the elephant to fall in
• dig a large hole, with a tunnel that leads back to the zoo. when the elephant falls in the hole, you can walk him home.
• use a glad bag (like the ones on TV) to catch him
• minimize it, and carry it on your hand
• drug it
• "put someone on the elephant, and kick!"
• lay out a trail of food that leads to a truck, and when the elephant is in the truck, drive him back to the zoo
• maybe the elephant is a boy, and there is a girl elephant in the zoo, and he'll go back by himself
• call the police, and ask them to help you

My personal favorite is "minimize it, and carry it on your hand". what's yours?

Enjoy!

r

the heat and a new job

Hi all!

Sorry about the lapse of writing... I've been incredibly busy!
As some of you may already know, I got a job teaching summer school at a place called JEI (www.jeilearning.com) It's incredibly reminiscent of GES. Yes that's right. Classroom changes two days in... using rooms in other buildings because of a lack of space... photocopier trouble... language barriers with parents and the staff... and OH YEAH, that's right: Kids who don't speak English right along the ones that do.

I love it. (mostly)

It's been really busy. For those of you who teach or have taught: you remember the first few days of class --> revamping everything after each day. YUP, that's it.
Oh well. It's good. Today was better than yesterday was better than the first day of school. I am, however, definately ready for the weekend!!!

What else? I hate driving in the heat.

(random interjection: I just saw someone I knew from a previous life. WEIRD)

where was I?

Oh yeah. I hate driving in the heat, and I also hate traffic. And if you want to read something great, read Sarah's blog: http://sparrowanne.blogspot.com .

There. That's all I have to say. Have a great weekend!!!

Orange (or copper) and Blue

I'm posting this picture for 2 reasons:

1 - to fulfill the promise I made in the last post about taking a picture of my orange bracelet. Sorry, you can't see the writing on it. Orange on orange is hard to see. (suck it up)

2 - to prove that I was at Rexall place with Robbyn to watch game 7 of the Stanley cup final. It was awesome. And crazy. Even though they lost. Don't worry -- the hockey season will start again in two months, and we can all go through it again. I give the Oilers 100 points for even getting to the finals, for beating the flu, and for overcoming the loss of Rolie. (Robbyn wants me to write: "Rolie for Prime Minister")

(actually, I'm posting this picture for 3 reasons: I wanted to figure out how to do it, and this seemed like as good a time as any. HA)

Here's to you boys!! {clink of glass}

my orange bracelet

I talked about this at church last weekend, and as promised, I am posting it for those of you who didn't hear it.

MY ORANGE BRACELET

Some of you may have noticed that I wear an orange bracelet. Lots of people wear stretchy bracelets for causes they're raising money for, but I don't. My bracelet reminds me of other things. This one came from Thailand, and on one side it says "Long Live The King", and on the other side it says "We Love the King" in Thai. (unfortunately, I don't have a Thai keyboard, and I can't type it out for you. Maybe I'll take a picture of it, and post it here so you can see it.)

When I lived in Thailand, I learned a lot about God through the king. The Bible refers to God as King, and I never really understood all the references until I lived in a country that has a king. And they LOVE him. And they revere him. For instance, if I was in Thailand, and I came into the king's presence standing, the guards would probably shoot me. And I'm not even kidding. To be in his presence, one must be lower than him; usually sitting on the ground, waiing. The respect that they have for the king is unbelieveable.

Then I see pictures of the king in America, shaking hands with dignitaries, at eye level with everyone. And I think "If only you knew. If only you KNEW that if you were in his country, you'd be treading on dangerous ground." And I think it's sometimes the same with God.

In his country, Jesus is revered and worshipped. The angels bow down before him. And he comes here to live with us, and we treat him like a geenie in our pocket, or at best, like a friend. If only we KNEW! If only we knew. Here's the difference though, we can know. And this is what I've been convicted about lately: God has given us his word and his Holy Spirit so that we CAN know.

Hosea 6:3 says, "Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him!" and I want that to be the theme of my existence here. That I KNOW my Lord, and that he knows me. I want to live, PRESSING ON to know my God. Reading his word with new hunger every day. Praying with passion, and living with excitement. I want to know what it means to really worship God in spirit and in truth, and to let God's word change my life.

Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise." That can only happen if I actually READ the words of Christ, and let them ruminate in my heart. That's the way to know.

May that challenge you as it has challenged me.