I love Crazy Bob

"Russia II....China the Sequel...." soooooo funny.

Funny Dinner Conversation (possibly TMI)

John and I eat at our living room coffee table. And we watch whatever show we DVR'd the previous night while we eat. I've been DVRing Jon & Kate Plus 8. John watches it but usually while playing a game on his laptop. So I didn't think he really liked it...I figured it was one of those she likes it so I'll watch it with her type deals. But last night when he started one of the episodes, I had to comment.

Me: Honey, thanks for putting this show on. I didn't know you liked it too.

Him: Are you kidding me? You watch this then want to have a baby which = me getting sex. It's my new favorite.

Me: (LOLing for real!)

I wish I knew more people who used blogger

I have received 3 requests to check out people's facebook space. I refuse because I have to create an account and I can't handle more stuff to log into. But I want to see what's going on. Myspace, twitter (very funny stuff BTW Justin!), facebook, LinkedIn...I just can't take it.

Card list (for my own sanity)

1/3 - Lisa
1/13 - David & Sally's Anniversary
1/21 - Erin (IOPG)
1/23 - Melissa (IOPG)
1/29 - Amy
2/1 - Heather
2/8 - Joe
2/14 - Valentine's Day
2/14 - Valerie's Bday (IOPG)
2/24 - Traci
2/26 - Rene
3/27 - Joe & Krissy's Anniversary
4/19 - Tammy (IOPG)
4/21 - Mom & Art's Anniversary
4/23 - John
5/11 - Dad
5/13 - Kelly
5/21 - Art
5/23 - Aunt Chris
6/1 - Sarah
6/3 - Free & Linda's Anniversary
7/12 - Freebie
7/14 - Papa
8/12 - Kailah (IOPG)
8/18 - Linda
8/29 - Greg
9/2 - Patti (IOPG)
9/24 - Mom
9/28 - Catherine (IOPG)
10/1 - Krissy
10/11 - Susan (IOPG)
10/12 - Stephane
10/15 - Carey
10/18 - Dave
11/2 - Cheryl (IOPG)
11/22 - Robbie
11/25 - Nana
12/7 - Our Anniversary
12/16 - Robbie & Traci's Anniversary

Anyone know when Penny's bday is? Love to add her to the list.

37 cards....totally doable. Suck on that, Hallmark!

My monday happy list

Why am I happy on a crusty bleery-eyed Monday morning?

I only have to work 3 days this week.

It's cold outside. Always a bonus.

I'm not sick any more. HALLELUJAH to the 100th power.

I had a great talk on the phone with mom while driving into work.

I have great plans for this week. Tonight I'm working on Christmas cards. This year I'm putting my all into them. I've learned a lot of new techniques since I started making my own cards and can't wait to use all of what I have/know on cards to my precious friends & family. Tomorrow night I have dinner with my accountability gal pal. It's been a while so I'm looking forward to getting with her. Wednesday mom and I are going Christmas shopping. Thursday, Turkey Day...bring on the tryptophan coma! I think mom & Sarah and I will try and catch a movie together that evening. I don't know when we've done that without any boys tagging along.

I'm more excited than ever to start a family. John and I have really been only 1/2 committed to this new adventure, both of us struggling with our own fears: the economy, can I be a good parent, will we have jobs in 2 years, our house is too small, blah blah blah *gag!*. Well, we just decided that worrying isn't going to add one minute to our lives and handed the steering wheel over to God on ALL of that. John is not worried about being able to afford kids - he knows that with or without the space center God will provide for us. I am not worried about being a good parent because of a tidbit of advice that keeps ringing in my ear that dear sweet Lisa gave me a long time ago - I many not know how but God does. Hopefully by January I'll have some bun-in-the-oven news to post. This was part of the convy mom & I had this morning. She's in on 'the plan'. =)

We'll be taking our tree & deco stuff out of the attic this week so that things will be in place this weekend. Yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I love fall & winter holidays!!!

I've decided not to sell crafts on ebay any more. IOPG girls, if you are reading this don't worry...I'm not leaving the group. I love you all too much to "quit you". But I just don't want to be a slave to crafting for strangers and putting up with the ridiculous fees and rules & the random eeeediot buyer, etc. And you know...I already feel like a burden has been lifted! I can spend my free time making pages for my own scrap albums & making cards for people who really matter. Holy cow what a relief. John and I had a wonderful weekend of shopping & having lunch out on Saturday because I wasn't chained to my craft room. You mean there is a whole beautiful world happening outisde beyond the glitter & ribbons? Get out!

Major happies in my heart

Oh goodness I'm just so relieved.

Friday's ski crisis weighed heavily on my heart. I said a little prayer asking "God please let them change the date of the Gay-la" because when I wrote last we still didn't have a firm date. We all had a pretty good guess based on previous years events. One of the guys in my group decided to call the Gay-la organizers. Turns out they didn't have a huge demand for the event this year so they are having it in March at a different location. Crisis deverted. Vacation has been Lazarus'd back from the dead. Game on.

My vacation has been shot, killed & field dressed.

Okay, so John and I are going on a ski trip in January with a group of friends. When? The last week in January. In anticipation, I was cruising the resort website and stumbled onto some disturbing news. For the last 2 years this resort has hosted a gay & lesbian ski week. Great. I did some digging to find that the dates have been either the 3rd or 4th week in January. The resort does not have their 01/09 events calendar posted yet. Honestly, I'm no bigot. I don't care what people do behind closed doors and I don't hate them for their lifestyle CHOICE. But it isn't something I support or want to celebrate.

Before I panic, my priority is finding out when the event it taking place. So I called the resort. The utter chimp who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about. They transfer me to the marketing answering machine. No one has called me back. I did more digging through google to see if the gay community is advertising this event yet. Yes, I went to gay event websites and I'm not ashamed. All of them...ALL OF THEM...post the event as happening "late January 2009 - dates TBD". Hmmmm, late January sounds like the last week in January to me.

The other 4 can still go if they want but John and I are out. And you know what? I'm not sorry that this is a deal breaker. At first I wondered if I was making a big deal out of nothing. But this is how I feel. Anyone thinking of preaching how I need to love the sinner hate the sin, save it. I'm not paying a ton of money and spending my vacation while everyone else at the resort is playing Queen of the Mountain.

Today...

I brought sweet potato casserole in a crock pot to work for the pre-Thanksgiving potluck. I am the idiot who always signs up to bring something that has to be served warm. And every night before while I'm making the dish and agonizing about how I'm going to transfer it to the outdoor location and still keep it warm, I shout out to John, who is resting comfortably on the couch without a care in the world, "Why do I DO this every time? I HATE cooking! Never again. Next time I'm bringing cups & plates!" Yet here I am...with the crockpot on the table behind me, checking it every 20 minutes praying that it cooks in time. Ugh.

This reminds me of something I saw on the drive home from work the other day. The land around my building is a wildlife refuge and edges up to a river. So it is common to see wild pigs, alligators, eagles, armadillos, snakes, vultures, scrub jays, dolphins, manatee and raccoons. I'm used to seeing nearly all of these animals alive accept for the armadillos & raccoons who typically end up as road pizza. So when I see an armadillo along the road alive I'm like "Woohoo! You made it!"

Well, kinda. This little fella was in the median, rooting around for grubs or whatever it is they eat, with his back to home bound traffic. He turns around and slowly walks out into the stream of cars going about 50mph. The driver 2 cars ahead of me slows, swerves, but eventually grazes little Dillo sending him spinning on his hard candy shell. Dillo rights himself and hauls booty back for the grass. I'm thinking "Wow, no way he lived. You go little fella!"

At this point all traffic has slowed. Another car passes and blind, dumb little Dillo turns again and starts walking right back out into the traffic that grazed him the first time as I go by. Really? Dillo...you were just spun out by a huge rubber tire, hit the lottery of life by not getting squished, were able to escape back to safety, take a breather and head right BACK into the arms of death? I slowed & puckered, knowing he was somewhere under my Honda. I didn't feel a thump-thump. *phew!* He made it under me only to take the eternal dirt nap under the wheel of the car beside me.

I can think of many times (besides the potluck sitch) in life where I've turned around and run right back out into traffic. Thank God for His mercy that kept me from being crushed.

Well looky there. My sweet potatoes are done!

My sis's Etsy shop - TigerTribe

I added Heather's etsy store to my list of links I hang out at. She makes jewelry out of vintage pieces.

Maybe one day I'll get my shop going and list some of my paper crafts.

I'm back from the dead.....sort of

So it all started with a sore throat Thursday night (11/13/08) and proceeded with me feeling like a walking corpse. My abs are KEEEEEEELING me from coughing for 4 days. Took Monday off to go to the doc but I'm now out of sick time, so bronchitis be danged...to work I go. I say all that to explain why I haven't written in a while.

Last night I had a dream that I had a baby girl. Here are some vivid details I remember for those that want to try and 'figure' it out. The labor (though I didn't experience that part) took only 3 hours - I imagine in reality this would be AWESOME! She weighed 12 lbs, which shocked my mother but to me that seemed like no big deal. She was so tiny and precious with blonde hair all over her little peach fuzzed head. I named her Collin, which is weird because that's a boys name. I kept thinking "Why didn't I pick one of the several girls names I love?. Can we go back to the hospital and have a do-over on the birth certificate?" I think this comes from spending all Saturday and Sunday watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. One of their 8 kids is named Collin. Oh, I also remember taking the baby home but not using a car seat, I kept her in my arms. And I didn't wear a seat belt either. I remembered thinking "Man, my first day at this and I'm already a sucky parent." Then when we got home the baby turned into a little blond furry puppy. So WHAT IS UP WITH THAT???

In real life, I try and compare having kids to owning a dog. Since I don't have kids it's the only parallel I can draw. And I know it's a silly and unrealistic comparison, but I compare it only in the sense of how your life changes and you have to care for something that cannot care for itself. I truly hope parenting is way better than dog ownership because frankly I HATE HATE HATE being a dog owner. I have the most ungrateful and bi-polar dog that ever was. How long do Jack Russell's live anyway? Kidding. Not really.

On to other things, as I was cruising through the thousands of card making blogs I visit so my morning starts out happy, I found this picture that makes me just giggle. Please enjoy.

TTFN

Where's My Bailout?

I never promised not to post about politics.

Self Discovery & Changing the Way I Think - My Victory

So last night was praise team practice. I love singing in a group but singing alone terrifies me like you wouldn't believe. It makes me all self-concious, sweaty, and kind of makes me want to run out of the building in tears and go puke in a corner. And I don't know why because I've been involved in some form of music ministry for about 10 years.

Actually, now that I think about it I do know why. First, my voice isn't 'soloist' quality and I know this and I'm okay with this. I feel like a fraud, like I'm trying to be something I'm not. Second, I don't like being that much in the spotlight. Surprised? No, it's true. I'll let you in on a little secret: I couldn't fully appreciate the magnitude of my own wedding ceremony with those 225 pairs of eyes on me the whole time.

So back to practice...my leader feels compelled to start giving me the lead on some parts of this new song we are working on. She'd like to eventually give me a whole song. Cripes! I get all panicky just thinking about it. Anyway, we practiced it last night and yep, still had all those familiar anxieties. But when practice was over I got in my car and where I would normally think "Can't do this crap anymore. I'm quitting." instead I thought "I did it. I didn't die. I didn't pass out. No one ran out of the building bleeding from their ears." Yeah maybe it wasn't as spectacular a performance as I would have liked. But I think God was somehow honored by my attempts. This realization is UTTERLY HUMBLING. I actually can't stop crying as I write this.

I trust that God will take this teensy 2 mite offering and multiply it for the good of His Kingdom.

Funniest work conversation ever

Someone in my office sneezes. It sounded like an 8 year old girl's sneeze. It ended up coming from John, the mighty hunter of the group.

Jay: John sure has a nancy sounding sneeze. Hey Jennifer, can I get you a tissue?

Rebecca: Jay, you know he could kill you, right?

Jay: Good thing he can’t bring firearms to work.

John: I don’t need a gun. I have my knives.

Rebecca: Jay, he could probably field dress you with a thumb tack and a spork.

John: I kill deer. Field dressing Jay would be child’s play.

Jay: Hey, I killed a snake the other day.

John:
Way to go Daniel Boone. Shall I give you your raccoon scout badge now?

Rebecca: (dying from laughter)

The real me

Okay, this blog has mainly been used to express my outrage at things going on in the world. It was never meant to be all about that. So here's a little list I felt compelled to post so any readers won't think I'm perpetually bent.

Puts Happies in My Heart:

• Colors. All colors. And how they work together to create emotion.
• Photography. I wish I knew more about my digi camera. Mom & I talk about taking a class at the college. Def on my To Do list.
• Music...all kinds. Yes, I can even appreciate some country songs.
• I'm starting to love the idea of being a mommy some day. John and I talk a lot about our hopes in the role of parenthood. I think it will be fun.
• Prayer. I'm learning more about what "pray without ceasing" looks like.
• Thinking about my ski trip in January to Lake Tahoe NV.
• Seeing the sun peeking through clouds on my way to work. I almost drove off the road this morning because it was soooooo breathtaking.

I struggle with:

• Understanding Holiness. I don't know where CSI and Survivor and scrapbooking and going to the movies and sometimes despising answering the phone on weekends and listening to secular music and joking around with my friends fits into a life of holiness.
• Being compassionate towards those I feel are stupid and made their own mess.

I want to:

• Keep a cleaner house. John deserves to live in a home that he doesn't always have to clean himself.
• Learn to play the guitar but I don't know if I have the time or enough interest to dedicate myself to the learning part.
• Make more cards to let people know I love them and that I'm thinking about them.
• Be a better friend to Sarah, Lisa, Krissy, Traci & Rene.

Need to:

• Raise a higher standard for how I live. I believe this starts with studying God's word.
• Stop being so lazy and just GET ON THE TREADMILL already.
• Start thinking about a set of measurable goals and a time-frame for completion.
• Not sweat the small things.

Can a person be TOO green? Find the answer below.

Just cannot wait until next Monday.

This article may be old news to some, but I just read it this morning.

Apparently some members of the Greenie Weenie army in Texas believe earth could use a big ol' scrubbing, clearing out 90% of the nasty humans in order to make life easier for butterflies & waterfalls.

"We're no better than bacteria!" University of Texas biologist Eric Pianka recently announced. "Things are gonna get better after the collapse [of the world's human population due to a theorized airborne virus plague] because we won't be able to decimate the Earth so much," he added. "And, I actually think the world will be much better when there's only 10 or 20 percent of us left." ***Rebecca adds: I love how he assumes HE'D be of the remaining 10%.***

Pianka dreamed disease "will control the scourge of humanity." He celebrated the potential of Ebola Reston, an airborne strain of the killer virus, to make Earth nearly human-free. "We've got airborne 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that."

How is this guy not being treated as a terrorist? Can someone please get this Pianka fool a big glass of kool-aid?

Reflections on Birthday-ness

So my bday was Friday, Nov 7th. The work day part of it was fine. My coworkers tried teasing me about my age. I'm now 34...what is so tease-worthy about that? I'm not one of those girls who gets all diva-y about growing older. I own it. Yeah, I'm not 23 anymore, but denying my age or keeping it a secret doesn't make me any less 34. I don't get the whole "a lady doesn't tell her age" crap.

I got to talk to Heather for a bit. She sent me a Happy Birthday text and I thought that alone was really sweet. She's my middle sister and lives in Portland. And she doesn't always remember people's birthdays but so far she always gets mine right. =) But then she called that evening and since the fam was over for cake we all passed the phone around.

Sarah stayed after everyone left and watched Get Smart with us. (Funny movie!) It was really nice to get some time with her without Brian around to be all smug and antisocial. Sarah is my youngest sister. Oh...and this was the best birthday gift EVAR....Sarah told us all that Brian's status has been downgraded from Fiance to Boyfriend. teeheehee. I'm hoping that by Christmas he'll be downgraded from Boyfriend to Common Passerby. Evil, I know. But whatevs. She said she's ready to reestablish her relationship with God. THAT my friend makes me want to do cartwheels.

My in-laws, my dad, my mom & stepdad all played nice together. Not that they don't, but we are seldom all together like that. I just love family mingling. We had a great time taking pictures & laughing. I see some crazy scrapbook pages in my future.

Monday's Mental Midget List

I'm starting a new series. Every Monday I will post something that I hear from NPR that displays bo-tarded qualities. And I'm not even going to esplain which part of the story earns it a spot on my list. I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Today I hear of some mayor who is pushing for a type of foreclosure prevention program. He hopes that it will impeded the process so that people can stay in their homes. Noble? Not so fast. He is pushing for this program because he is beginning foreclosure proceedings on his own home. During the interview he explains, "being mayor doesn't pay that well. I only make about $48,000 a year. In 2 years I've burned through all my savings." Then he goes on to explain that he quit his lucrative real estate job in order to focus on being mayor.

Ahem.

Mood - Disappointed

I am utterly ashamed of the people in this country. I hope you all enjoy getting exactly what you deserve for the next 4 years.

Goals

verbage to come later. I have to sort it out in my head first.