Proof that I'm a Californian

We had an earthquake this morning about 10:45am. The online newspaper said it registered about a 4.3 not huge but not small. I felt it. Stood in my room, feeling the earth shake and waiting to see if I needed to move to a doorway and the earthquake stopped. I went about my business.

It is 3pm and I was just reading the online newspaper...and remembered "Oh, yeah, we had an earthquake this morning! Huh, wasn't that big."

Hello, my name is Brittany and I live in California. Earthquakes are no big deal. That is all.

Toes

In honor of finishing my New Testament: Gospels course, K and I had our toes done on Saturday. I love pedicures. I love having pretty toes. Of course ever since Saturday I've had my pretty toes covered up because, well, it's been a little too chilly for bare toes!

Until today. Today I decided I wanted to admire my pretty toes all day long. Flip flops for me. So here I am in my jeans, long sleeve shirt and flip flops with pretty toes...that are freezing! It may be Spring but it really isn't flip flop season yet.

(I would show you a picture of my pretty toes but I don't know where the camera went.)

The "C" word

Awhile back I decided that I no longer wanted to be a Christian. I told Papa Bear this and he almost gave himself a neck adjustment swiveling his head around to ask "What?!" I told Opinionated Friend and she just smiled and said "My mom decided the same thing too." I'm tired of being a Christian.

I came across this article today by John Fischer, a singer/songwriter and writer who has inspired me for years. The article reminded me why I don't want to be a Christian anymore...I don't want that label. I don't want the label that has been spread around that says a Christian only looks, acts or thinks one way. I don't want to be tied to a system that only sees people who are or aren't and judges accordingly. I don't want the label of Christian anymore.

I want to be a Christ Follower. Someone who messes up on a regular basis, who doesn't "get it" all the time, who regularly needs to be in contact with God for forgiveness and help. Someone who follows after Jesus, seeking out God, who isn't afraid to sit down with people who don't follow Jesus or seek God because I'm not threatened by their lack of belief. Someone who wants to be in conversation with many people, even those that don't think like I do, so that I can learn, grow and be changed and possibly help them learn, grow and be changed. Someone who sees hope and potential in all people. I want to be a Christ Follower with all of that attached to me and so much more. I just don't want to be a Christian anymore.

March 20th

29 lectures
1/2 Textbook
2 Exams
1 paper
ALL DONE!!!!!

Life can now return to normal!

Celebrate good times, come on!

The best sound of the day was the sound of the post office worker stamping that big envelope "March 20th" and throwing it in the outgoing mail. Woo-hoo! I'm done!...for now.

Wednesday Dots

• I have this theory. I can guess how close we are to summer by the driving habits of people in the Valley. Sounds crazy but I know that winter is soon to be gone because the so called "Sunday Drivers" are out in full force mid-week on south 9 and everyone else is driving like maniacs. My favorite one yesterday was the guy that attempted to pass the Sunday Driver on a blind curve. Smart. While we're on the subject of drivers can someone invent a scrolling LED sign that I can put on my bumper with pre-programmed sayings such as: I can only drive as fast as the car in front of me or seriously, if I have to buy a new car because of you I'm gonna be mad?
• How is that one wakes up in the morning with new lines on their face? I don't know where these things came from but I'm not happy with them. Not happy at. all.
• Meggie spoke about unbloggable stuff the other day. I went to post a comment on a blog yesterday and realized that I couldn't for privacy reasons. Do we call that uncommentable?
• There's a reality show that I've watched for a while now that has seemed relatively harmless...until I started reading all the back stories. Yikes! Even if there's just a smidgen of truth to the back stories, I think I'm going to stop watching.
• Tomorrow is writing day. I have the whole day to write a paper for my class. Everything must be postmarked on Friday. Yes, my middle name should be procrastination.
• This morning I woke up with a cold. Not super severe, just enough to make me slightly miserable. Add to that allergies, stress and other loveliness and, well, my housemates just might want to stay clear of me for a couple of days.
• Opinionated Friend is in Rome for a vision trip. She's going to move over there sometime in the Fall to do church planting. She's only been gone a week and I miss her. Not looking forward to the Fall.
• Train Guy and Adventure Boy stopped by yesterday for a couple of minutes. Adventure Boy had been sitting on a stool and left to play somewhere else, so I sat on the stool, to which he came over and got mad! "No sitting on my chair!" My response was "how could you say that nicer?" to which he responded "Please no sitting on my chair!" How can you refuse that? Especially when he has trouble pronouncing the 's' on sitting so it came out more like "itting". Love him.

Prayer part 2

Last week I wrote here asking for prayer for a school in the area. One of their students had died, the second student to die in 3 months. Today I write to ask you to step up those prayers a little more. Another student has died. Too much grief, too many questions, just too much in such a short amount of time. Words fail.

Studies as of today

3 lectures listened to--5 more to go I think.
Final chapter read in text book.
1 paper to write...that I still have no idea about!
1 Final exam looming.
1 week left.

We interrupt this blog...

Today is a very special day for a very special lady. I know she reads this blog and I know that she loves to see pictures of her grandkids on this blog (which is why she reads the blog at all!) and knowing that today is her very special day I had every intention of taking a new picture of her grandkids to post and commemorate this day...it didn't happen. Searching among my pictures I found the following taken at "Church Camp", as Train Guy likes to call it, this past September. It will do the job. So without further ado, Happy Birthday Grandma Ruby! I hope your day is filled with love. XOXO

By the way the two other people in the picture are me and Ruby's daughter, known on this blog as K.

Prayer

My friend Nancy works with High School Students in a nearby town. For many, many years she has helped them write and produce a newsletter for teens-by teens. Every year there is a fresh batch of students who come on board the newsletter staff and Nancy invests her time, energy and great love to help them achieve amazing goals and tackle tough topics. I have a hard time thinking of anyone who has given more of herself to helping young people find their potential and worth, who will walk with them through really hard life stuff and who will go to the mat to fight for the young people she works with...even to the feet of God.

Over the last few years the school has had to deal with the death of a number of students due to accidents. This last December a student died after suffering a seizure on campus. As I listened to the stories of pain and grief that Nancy shared in December, my heart ached for the teens who have had to face the cold reality of death so much in such a short time.

Yesterday and today they are having to deal with it again. One of the students on Nancy's newsletter team presumably drowned yesterday. There are many things in life that are not understandable even when relying on God's wisdom and this is one of them. So today, would you pray for the students at LGHS? Pray for the parents of this young man, for those who were with him, for the administration, for the community and pray for my friend Nancy, as she grieves alongside the students that God has entrusted to her care.

Not a typical Monday

This morning I woke up late. Well, later than I have been which I will completely credit to the time change cuz my body thought it was one time and it was really another which meant I slept to the usual time but it wasn't the usual time. Confused? Yep, so's my brain.

Anyway, even though I had slept later I really wasn't ready to tackle the day yet, so I snuggled under the covers and turned on West Wing content to just relax. That's when I heard the car coming up the driveway. Actually, I heard the unmistakable sound of a car's tail pipe scraping the bottom of the driveway as the rest of the car headed up. Being the early hour (for me) that it was, I wasn't looking forward to having to answer the door but nothing happened. No knock, no sound of feet traipsing across the porch, nothing. Figured it must have been the electric company reading the meter and resumed my West Wing enjoyment.

It wasn't until after I was up and getting ready for the day that I received a text message, "Your Katrina house is on your deck." I raced to the door, flung it open and joyously took in the site of this:

This is a Katrina Cottage Bank...you can see the slot in the roof line where change can be put. Last Thursday at our Youth Ministry Team meeting I had shared the idea of building a Katrina cottage bank (idea ripped shamelessly from the PC(USA)'s One Great Hour of Sharing) in which people could put their change as a fundraising venture for our Mississippi Trip's. The youth will be coming up with a calendar, like the one from One Great Hour of Sharing, that highlights something we take for granted here that the people in Pearlington have to live with everyday. An example is taking a shower with water that doesn't smell like sulfur. Anyway, that was Thursday night and fabulously talented friend N created and built this fabulous bank, delivering it to my house this morning. What joy!

The morning also brought a letter from a local TV station that went like this:

Dear Brittany,

I am pleased to inform you that because of your outstanding community volunteer service, you were nominated for the 2009 Jefferson Awards presented by us.

What?! Oh my goodness. It doesn't matter that other people were chosen as the finalists, just the fact that someone thinks that the efforts that are being made for Mississippi are honorable is enough, enough, enough! It was not a typical Monday...thanks be to God!

It's that time again!

If you don't have one of these...

or something similarly wonderful that will change on it's own, don't forget to "Spring Ahead" tonight! Daylight Savings Time is upon us and I don't want you to miss church in the morning! ;)

Halfway there!?!?

Mid-Term done. 15 lectures, one paper and one final exam to go...in the next 2 weeks. Excuse me while I go into hiding!

If you are a Youth Pastor/Director/Worker look out!

This morning I turned on my cell phone and received a text message that went like this: When you get up, call me.--Opinionated Friend.

Okay. So I called but not exactly when I had gotten up, true confessions here. I didn't turn my phone on until after the 8am meeting. I digress. Opinionated Friend (OF) didn't pick up, which is a little strange cuz she usually does, which set into motion my brain. My brain in motion is not always a good thing. I thought of all kinds of different scenarios of what was happening with OF and what she might possibly need to tell me so urgently. I had ordered my very big coffee (did I mention the 8am meeting) and was sitting down to do a little studying when I got another text from OF: In a car accident last night, at urgent care. WHAT!?!? (Yes, that was the second scenario btw) Several texts flying back and forth later it turns out that while OF and her passenger are okay, her car not so much. :( We eventually actually talked and I went back to studying.

About a half-hour later I received another text: Rear-ended yesterday, not going to make it to the meeting. WHAT?!?! Two people that I know in the same day have car accidents?? AND they are both Youth Pastors! I went to our monthly Youth Workers Meeting and said "Stay off the roads."

So, if you are a Youth Worker in the general vicinity of this town drive carefully!

Before you hit forward...

I love email. It makes my life so much happier to be able to communicate via email rather than talking on the telephone. I don't, however, appreciate the email forwards.

There are certain people in my life that deluge my inbox with forwards about trivial stuff all.the.time. Love the people, don't love the forwards. Chain mail forwards are awful and I usually hit delete without reading them. Guess I'm gonna have bad luck for the next bazillion years. The ones that really drive me crazy, though, are the ones that are supposedly to "help you" but really are meant to scare people. Watch out when leaving the mall! Don't roll down your car window! The cops aren't really the cops! Yeah, don't really love those. Those are usually sent by women to other women because, well, we fall for these things.

My best Internet friends to help decipher fact from fiction are two sites, www.snopes.com and www.urbanledgends.about.com I use them all the time and guess what??!! About 99% of those emails are false. False, I say!

So, my blog reading buddies, the next time your receive one of those emails before you hit forward, take the time to go to the websites above and check the email out for yourself. Your friends will be glad that you did.

Sillyness

This morning my hair dryer decided that it was done working...before I had the chance to use it. Not drying my hair in the morning is not an option. Not a pretty sight. Luckily there was another hair dryer in the house, though when it tried to eat my hair, I decided I was going to buy a new hair dryer.

My favorite place to purchase such items is that one big store with a bulls eye for their logo. They have all the items sitting out so you can "try them out" before hand. I like that. But seeing as how one of those stores is 30 minutes away, I decided to just go to the local store and take my chances.

It is amazing how difficult picking out a new hair dryer is. Seriously. Way too many options, gizmo's, gadgets and varieties to choose from. There was one for fine hair that promised add volume and bounce without fly-aways. OK. There were many that have the retractable cord, which was very enticing but I wasn't willing to take the chance on the cord deciding to stay inside it's home. Next. There was one that had free items in the box! Wow! But then I saw it. Not just a silver or black or blue hair dryer but a red one. Ooohhhhh... Lightweight, fast dry, that might be the one...but wait, what's that! A pink one! I was reaching, reaching, reaching for the box when I saw the problem. My mind flashed back to the the mornings close encounter and my decision was made.

I am now the proud owner of this:

Red is such a pretty, pretty color.

Dear Body,

I listened to you yesterday, I really did.
I listened when you complained about getting up.
I listened when you said, "Stop doing that I hurt."
I listened when you said, "It's time for food."
I listened when you said "Don't go there, just stay home."
I listened when you said, at 8pm, "I'm getting tired."
I listened when you said, "Wouldn't it be nice to snuggle up in bed?".
I listened when you said, "Turn off the TV and go to sleep. I'll wake you when it's time to get up."
I didn't hear the giggle at the end of that statement though.
I did hear it at 2:30am.
And I wasn't laughing.
I wasn't laughing at 3am.
I wasn't laughing at 4am.
I wasn't laughing at 5am.
I wasn't laughing at 5:30am when you finally relented and let me sleep.
I really wasn't laughing at 6:20am when my alarm went off telling me "Get up for church!"
I wasn't laughing at 7am when I finally made it out of bed, nor was I laughing when I said to the lady behind the counter at the coffee shop, "Make it the biggest one!".
And I'm definitely not laughing now. Now when I need to listen to lectures, read my textbook and try to retain what I'm learning.
I'm not laughing and tonight, I'm not listening!
Grumpily,
Brittany