Compassion Update

My Compassion International child in India left the program. I had chosen a 3 year old so that I could invest many years into the child. However, due to religious conflicts in the country, his family decided that he could no longer attend the Compassion program. Now I have a child from Ethiopia. This time I went with a 4 year old (since my India child turned 4 while I was sponsoring him) and I determined that I wanted to sponsor an African child. Little Anwar lives in Ethiopia and will be 5 in April. His birthday is within a few days of my India child's birthday. Hopefully I will be able to add a girl to my sponsorship soon as well. I highly recommend sponsoring children through Compassion International. I think that the sponsorship is $32 a month, and you can set the sponsorship up on a monthly automatic payment (part of the reason that I cannot remember the amount right now). I think it is also a good idea for a Sunday school class or Bible study group to sponsor a child. There are opportunities for short term, long term, and one time giving. Again, I highly recommend the program and think that it is a cause that should be considered since you are developing a relationship with an individual child.

Random Thought #8

I wasted my 200^th post on a random thought. And now I have wasted 201.

Random Thought #7

I am a peppermint mocha frappachino addict … when holiday season comes, I spend way too much money at Starbucks. Recently when shopping for lemon extract, I found that peppermint and vanilla extracts now come in powder as well as liquid. I decided that the powder might be a good addition to coffee in order to attempt to make a peppermint mocha year round. Today I tried my first cup of peppermint mocha that I made into iced coffee (no blender at the office), and WOW!!! I used 1 extra-bold k-cup on large, 1 packet of hot chocolate, sugar, creamer, and a little dash of the peppermint extract (doesn't take much). So good, although it takes a bit of patience since you have to let the coffee cool for a while before putting it over ice. Now I can have peppermint mocha once a week year round, and save the money that I would be spending at Starbucks. Win, win!!

Random Thought #6

I have found that NBC.com has full episodes online to watch for free for several weeks following a new episode. I love it because now I don't have to watch The Office on TV, but can wait until lunch break during the week! I also do not have to wait until next fall when they come out on video. Now I can catch up on my own schedule.

A Nice Sunday Afternoon

I used to sleep Sunday afternoon away, but here recently I have found that Saturday afternoons seem to be the time when I take the best naps. Plus Sundays are great to spend with friends from church. Here is an example of a perfect Sunday afternoon activity:


Yes, that would be a record player playing a jazz record. I think that record players are the best way to listen to jazz. Jazz just sounds better on a record player. Also, music sounds less doctored on a record than it does on a cd. After listening to records for a few hours we decided to go hike at Bringle Lake nearby. It is just nice, after a week of working in an office without a window, to get outdoors on the weekend!

Really Random Thought #5

Due to working on the judicial campaign, we have tanks of helium and thousands of balloons in our office waiting to be filled. So far an 18 year old has sucked a balloon full of helium for obvious reasons … and my bosses. The 50 year old boss also proceeded to sing "We represent the lollipop guild" following his inhalation. These are the people I am lucky to work for!!!!!!

Really Random Thought #4

It took five trips by air conditioner repairmen to get my air conditioner fixed. What was wrong? Fuse on the attic unit that was the wrong size creating timing issues, circuit board that went out, duct piping instead of vent piping for ventilation (meaning I should have died of carbon monoxide poisoning last year), fan blades that broke, and a fan motor that went out. All of that on an air conditioner that is less than three years old. I would hate to have seen what it was like before the new unit.

National News?

Is this really national news worthy? I really cannot believe that it is the headline story (the one with the main photo) right now on Fox News. Evidently the nation does not know how seriously we take our football, and sometimes our pep rallies, in Texas!

Blog of the Week - 22 Words

I like this blog by John Piper's son Abraham because it is short, sweet, and to the point. It also does not take much time to read, which is a plus since I use reading blogs like other people use coffee and smoke breaks. Often funny, sometimes serious, this blog has quickly become one of my favorites. Given my habit for using too many words to describe so little, I should try to follow his example in using less words to get the point across!

Lil T Update

It has been a while since I wrote an update on Lil T on the blog, so I thought it was about time. Lil T seems to be settling down a little bit FINALLY!!! I can actually have him on the couch with me, laying down, while I watch football on TV. He seems to be calmer when football is on. I don't understand that! Last night I bought him a stuffed duck that quacks. It looks like the toy is designed for bird dogs, but I thought it would be funny to watch him carry the duck by the neck or wing. He did not disappoint! At first, he was scared of it because it was something new in the living room. Then he started to warm up to it, so I made it quack. It feels like it has an actual duck caller in it, so that quack is a pretty good imitation for a squeaky toy. The quack scared him to death. He started whining and crying and scampering all over the place. It was hilarious. I finally convinced him to come back around it and start playing with it again. However, I could not resist and had to make it quack again. More whining and crying and running. I threw it in the floor and curiosity got the best of him. He just had to drag it around by its wing and bring it back to the couch. He became braver and braver and started shaking the duck like he does his other toys when his paw accidentally stepped on the quacker. He shot off that duck like someone had shot him. It was hilarious! I think it is going to take him a while to really warm up to the duck. I found out I could make him jealous too by putting the duck on my chest. He did not like it that the duck was getting more attention than he was. All in all the duck proved to be worth the purchase price and will probably provide many hours of entertainment for Lil T's mommy!

We had a thunderstorm last night, and Lil T does not like thunder. If it is just a small storm, he usually does not get too excited. However, last night lightning struck the water tower behind my house. When I say behind my house, I mean directly behind my house. Where my backyard ends, the water tower begins. The lightning was close – very close. So close that the sounds and the light were simultaneous and jolting. Not just a little flash either. Bright white light that is blinding and thunder that rips through you like you have been shocked with electricity. The noise sounded like every tree in my backyard had fallen to the ground and crackled like the trees were on fire. The lightning was so close that now my small TV has a funny purple line in the top third that makes people's faces on TV look green. The lightning was close! After looking outside to make sure all of my remaining trees were still standing and not on fire, I decided to check on Lil T because I did not hear any noise coming from the kitchen, and there was no way that he was asleep. When I walked into the kitchen, he was hunkered down in his playpen where he sleeps, shaking. Anyone that has seen my dog when you walk into the kitchen knows that he must have been scared out of his mind. Usually my dog starts jumping and turning circles anytime you walk into the kitchen no matter the time of night or day. Lil T was so scared that when he did finally jump out of the playpen after being petted for a while, still shaking, he crept around the kitchen with his tail between his legs. It was quite a sight to see. After some TLC from mommy and cuddle time, he was back to his typical turning circles self. Lil T is just a little scaredy cat!!

Really Random Thought # 3

Most weddings cost thousands of dollars. Most divorces cost at least a thousand dollars. A marriage can be dissolved in a matter of minutes. A divorce proceeding usually lasts less than ten minutes from start to finish. During that ten minutes, a judge decides what is in the best interest of a couple he has not met and a child that he barely knows the name of. Contested custody is worse. The parents leave it up to a judge that has never met the child to decide what is in the best interest of the child because the parents aren't capable. Sad.

College Football

Last weekend is an example of why football season is my favorite season of the year. It started on Thursday with USC losing. I did not watch the game. I had no interest in watching USC blow out Oregon State. I am going to have to learn to flip it over just to check the score every once in a while because I missed an excellent opportunity to watch the supposed "good enough to be an NFL team" Trojans fall. Saturday was even better. Texas made Arkansas look like a high school team. Alabama embarrassed Georgia quite possibly like they have never been embarrassed before. I venture to bet that we will not be seeing the funeral attire for a while!! Michigan knocked off the top ten ranked (OVERRATED) Wisconsin team. Those victories meant that three of my favorite teams had favorable outcomes in what were supposed to be tough match-ups. I love football season!!

Really Random Thought # 2

I was excited about the possibilities of the Vice Presidential debate several weeks ago … then I realized today that it is on a Thursday night. I had been looking forward to The Office new episode up to the point I realized there would not be one. Now I am disappointed. I vote for all future debates to be on nights where there is no football and no episodes of The Office (including syndication). However, they might have to create a new day of the week to accomplish this. I would vote for that as well, so long as it is not a work day.

Really Random Thought # 1

I am going to start posting some of my really random thoughts that are not long enough for entire blog posts, but I want to throw out into the blogosphere just for the heck of it. This announcement is the first really random thought.