Clothes

"The Mother of all Sales"

 

That was the subject line of a quasi-spam email I received today from a favorite women's clothing store.  How is that not irresistible??  Mother of all sales?  Yes, please!

 

Sadly, it's not time to shop for Rach clothing, it is well beyond time to shop for Hubby clothing.

 

PS - I still have not purchased shoes since July...come July 25, 2009 I shall go nuts in the nearest shoe store and have already started a mental list of "Shoes I Need To Buy".  Strangely enough, sneakers that are not Kangaroos are on that mental list.  What in the world has happened over the past year?!

Love

Sometimes we all need a little reminder of this...

 

April 30, 2009
Love Is a Choice
by Rick Warren

In our Devotionals series, Pastor Rick Warren discusses the Bible passages that inspire him the most. Today's Devotional is based on this passage:

"...That you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (Deuteronomy 30:20 NIV).

Love is a choice and a commitment. You choose to love or you choose not to love.

Today we've bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable, that it's something that just happens to us; it's not something we control. In fact, even the language we use implies the uncontrollability of love. We say, "I fell in love," as if love is some kind of a ditch. It's like I'm walking along one day and bam!—I fell in love. I couldn't help myself.

But I have to tell you the truth: that's not love. Love doesn't just happen to you. Love is a choice and it represents a commitment.

There's no doubt about it, attraction is uncontrollable and arousal is uncontrollable. But attraction and arousal are not love. They can lead to love, but they are not love. Love is a choice.

You must choose to love God; he won't force you to love Him (Deuteronomy 30:20). You can thumb your nose at God and go a totally different way. You can destroy your life if you choose to do that. God still won't force you to love Him. Because He knows love can't be forced.

And this same principle is true about your relationships: you can choose to love others, but God won't force you to love anyone.

Kids

Today is Bring Your Child To Work Day and I got to be a stop on the scavenger hunt that was one of the organized activities my office was doing for the day.  Two groups of kids (ages 6-14) came to my action center and had a series of questions for me:

 

What's your name?

What's your job title?

What exactly do you do for your job?

And one bonus question.

 

The first group was a bit younger (I have no idea how young, they were between 6 and 7 hands high...yes, being the former horsewoman I am I still measure things in "hands", what's it do you?)  The conversation went a little something like this:

 

"What's your name?"

 

"Rachael"

 

"What's your job title?"

 

"Auditor"

 

"What does that mean?"

"You know how you have rules at home that your Mom and Dad make?"

"Yeah, like 'don't jump on my bed'?"

"Yeah, kinda. Well the government makes rules about how the Company runs our business. My job is to make sure the Company is following all the rules."

"So like what kind of rules? I don't see any beds to jump on."

The little guy who asked the question was adorable and said, "I bet they pay for candy, it's less expensive than pencils."

I wanted to hug him.

(Bonus Question: What's your favorite color? Answer: Purple.)

Nonsense

Obviously this woman is speaking nonsense.  You can see that right? 

 

She claims, "Each faith by itself is enough to fulfill a person spiritually."  "It's all there. I am not saying you have to go somewhere else to be complete. Some people don't need glasses, some people need single lenses. I need bifocals."

 

She is wrong. 

 

She claims that by reciting the shahada she has not denied anything about Christianity. 

 

She is wrong.

 

Let's not get into my feelings about her being an ordained minister (for I'm sure this could just as easily been a story about a man), but I was pleased to read that the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island where she was ordained has effectively un-ordained her.

 

Seriously?  How long has this gone on?  How long was The Way, The Truth, and The Life not preached as the only way to the people of her church who have been placed under her care?  No one gets to the Father except through Jesus.  Jesus plus nothing.  How did she miss that as a teacher/preacher/priestess?  Hopefully in her quest to learn more about both religions she will come to that realization and be able to minister to others who have been deceived by The Enemy.

 

Need to learn more about the inconsistencies between Christianity and Islam?

 

This week's sermon at church was on Islam and how their belief structure compares to Christianity (part of a series entitled "Destination Truth" which started off examining Christian beliefs and in it's second have has been examining other world religions and now they compare with Christianity.)  Check it out on www.frontlinedc.com.

Baltimore

Yesterday we went to Baltimore. Two of our sights during our tour were unexpected surprises.

As we were driving around (I have no idea where) we passed the Charm City Cakes bakery and I got to see what I can only assume was Duff's motorcycle and I think the delivery van. It was great. Getting into the actual bakery is "By Appointment Only"...and cakes start out at $500 so we did not have an appointment and had to get our dessert fix elsewhere...and boy did we ever!

Next up was Hampden. Quirky, old, and home to Dangerously Delicious Pies. We selected a Baltimore Bomb which involved the infamous Baltimore Berger cookie. We were lucky enough to get one straight from the oven and the smell was insane. When we arrived back home we cut ourselves some slices, warmed them up and tasted the most decedent pie ever. This, once again, sparked my desire to someday have a pie shop (which at one point was a cookie shop idea...may eventually be pie and cookies because really...what more perfect desserts could you want at the end of a meal?)

So on a rainy and blah Saturday I checked-off two venues off my Food Network "Someday I want to go there..." List.



Note to Self: Buying an entire pie for two people who are not beach ready, but will be leaving for the Caribbean in two weeks is not wise.

Teeth

So last week I went to the dentist.  As I believe I have mentioned before (but am too lazy to look up my previous "dentist" post(s) ) I never hated the dentist until I became an adult.  Strange, but true.  At this check-up I received the most devastating news.  I had not one, but two cavities?!  I have never had a cavity in my life and now...two?!  The dental hygienist again recommended that a change one of my regular medications (to which in my head I responded, "No way, it took me forever to find it, screw teeth!  Literally rip out my teeth and give me screw-in teeth!")  This was not the most devastating part of the news. 

 

I finally have to have my wisdom teeth removed. 

 

I have pretty much spent my teenage years to the present avoiding this very situation.  I have extremely small teeth and quite the large mouth.  Sadly, even though three of my four wisdom teeth are settled in just fine, one of them is being a bit of a poo and won't come out to play wreaking havoc to my gums.  This messed up tooth is home to one of my cavities, and, no surprise, the other is located in the tooth right next to it.  There is no turning back now...apparently all four must be removed*.

 

The hygienist proceeded to tell me how she was a "big chicken".  I mentioned that I needed recommendations since I wasn't a huge fan of the guy that removed Hubby's wisdom teeth.  She got all excited and told me the oral surgeon who removed her wisdom teeth (as well as many others she named which I forget) was great and "very attractive".  I believe I managed to get out a muffled giggle so she would feel like she had done her job and made me feel more comfortable.

 

Yesterday, I attempted to look up the oral surgeon that had been recommended...granted she only gave me a last name and the fact that he was "very attractive" (try plugging that into United's Dentist Locator).  I found one that matches that I believe is in-network (since all others that had been recommended in the past had been out-of-network...big bummer).  Once I find out if this is really "him" I will probably throw it over the fence to MrsH to do some medical investigating for me...since I'm not sure "very attractive" is on my list of qualities I want in a man who will be drugging me to sleep, ripping out pieces of my body, and watching me drool for approximately 45 minutes to an hour.  Goodness gracious.

 

Don't even ask me how I am supposed to take the post-op medications considering I am allergic to 4 of the most common antibiotics in the world (hence the majority of the fear of this whole ordeal...who the crap knows what all I am allergic too...including anesthesia...I have no idea...) and can only take large pills (which means all but like 2 on the market, one of them being those tiny red Sudafed's that keep me and my nose in working order) using a straw which is expressly forbidden for wisdom teeth extractions (this is only because I'm a pansy, I know, I know).

 

So there you have it.  My trip to the dentist.  The goal is to get everything taken care of before vacation time...or before I pansy out...or before something worse happens to my teeth. 

 

Phew!

 

 

*Since moving to Virginia I have also been told in so many ways by multiple dental offices that if one is with-child while still possessing her wisdom teeth her head will inevitably explode.  Since this was not currently on my list of reasons why I fear childbirth, I dismissed them all as insane.  Surely my amazing doctor would have pointed that out to me and I trust her judgement far more than these crazy dentists (most of which I cannot understand due to various language barriers and those ridiculous masks they refuse to take off even when just trying to have a conversation).  I'm just sayin'...

 

 

Legos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuM2H6uFG2M

This guy's Lego animation to Eddie Izzard's stand-up routines keep me entertained for quite sometime on Saturday.

Be aware language is not great, but with a British accent it's entertaining.

I also recommend the Death Star Canteen bit and I don't know the first thing about Star Wars.