keepin' it real

College roomie Jen (who I'll see in less than a week--yay!) tagged me in this photo blogging thing.

Here are the rules:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.
Tag some people to play.
That's it, easy as PIE!

So here I am, just after walking in the door from church.You can see how thrilled I am to be doing this . . . but I love Jen, so I thought I'd keep it going.

I tag Holly at River Ramblings, Cousin Beth at From The Oregon Coast, Karen at Dwayne, Karen, Zach, and Brandon, and Kiel at Cocoa Cream's Craft Closet.

chemistry!

When I walked into my classroom this morning, I saw this on my bulletin board, courtesy of my speech and yearbook kids:


Do you think they're trying to tell me something?

my (current) favorite things

• Spending time with family.
  My brother got married last weekend, and nearly all of my dad's side of the family was there, as well as my mom's siblings. It was great to see everyone, and I had a wonderful time at the reception! (It did get a little long, though . . . as you can see from the picture of me and Val!)
  

• Coffee.
  Yeah, this one is a negative, but I've been enjoying it. I normally drink decaf at home and at work--and I make a really good Irish Cream Latte using my Irish Cream syrup and my Magic Bullet--but when Val's home, that all flies out the window. She's my enabler . . . she just has to say the word "coffee," and I'm studdenly all about Starbucks. Or Barista's. Or even Scooters. And I never think to order decaf. On Sunday, we stopped at Lincoln Espresso (at Aunt E's suggestion) on our way to the airport. It was amazing. Good thing we don't have one of those around here--I would definitely be a regular!
• Tutoring.
  I've met with the girl I'm tutoring twice now, and it's going really well! She's close to my age and speaks English pretty well--she has trouble with verb tenses and pronunciation, mainly. I'm really enjoying getting to know her!
  
• Being alone.
  My sister is moving in with me after she graduates, and I'm really enjoying my last few weeks of living alone. When you live alone, you get to be really selfish. Don't want to do the dishes? Want to drink straight out of the milk carton? No problem! Plus there's the whole sole possession of the remote control thing. Don't get me wrong; I'm thrilled that she'll be here . . . I'm just making the most of these last weeks of solitude. (Oh, and if you drop by this week, you might want to stay away from the milk.)
• Yearbook.
  I can't even begin to tell you how much I love being the yearbook adviser. It's the best part of my job! Our final deadline is at the end of May--which means that all the students will be long gone by the time the deadline hits; however, I've found that I kind of enjoy the stress of finishing pages at the last second! (I also love the feeling of sending the pages away!) Plus, Val has already offered to help me . . .
  
  
  

the noticer by andy andrews

What would you do if a man you'd never met seemed to know everything about you? And not only that, but he knew what you'd need to do to fix the biggest problem in your life? This happens to the people of Orange Beach, Alabama, when they meet Jones, an old drifter. He has amazing insight into the problems in their lives, and everyone who meets him leaves changed.

Let me start off by saying that this book is a very quick and enjoyable read. However, it wouldn't even make my top 20 list, let alone be "the best book I have ever read in my life," as one of the book's endorsers calls it.

Chapter two focuses on a couple on the verge of divorce; Jones' description of love "dialects" sounds suspiciously like the love languages popularized by Gary Chapman. Advice in other chapters, while good, also isn't anything new--at least to me. Perhaps someone who didn't come from a Christian background would find this information more original. That said, I did appreciate the reminders that intentions don't mean anything if we don't follow through on them (Chapter 7) and that we have to deal with the consequences of our actions (Chapter 8).

Thomas Nelson has billed this book as "self-help," and it obviously is, though it's based around a fictional narrative. While there are Christian principles throughout, it's not overtly Christian, which will make it more palatable for a mass audience. Sin, which is at the heart of most of the problems, and a relationship with Christ are not mentioned. I know that the goal is to sell books, but I would have appreciated more of a biblical perspective, since it's put out by a Christian publisher (Thomas Nelson). However, most people will probably enjoy it just the way it is, and I expect it will make the bestsellers list.

(I received an advance copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through its Book Review Blogger program: http://brb.thomasnelson.com)

the bride was beautiful

You have to check this out. It's beautiful, loving, and ultimately heartbreaking. I'm not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes at the end.

(HT: Tim Challies)

who cares about spiders when you can have snakes?

Remember last summer when I spent a week visiting my grandma and being terrorized by horrible spiders? Well, her house doesn't seem to have a spider problem anymore, and I think I know the reason:
Meet our "friend" the snake. I wish I had a clearer picture of him. But here's his skin . . . at least we assumed it was his skin. Now I'm not so sure. Those pictures were taken at Thanksgiving. No one saw the snake at Christmas, so when we were there for Easter, Mom and I decided to go snake hunting. (Why? Because we're clearly mentally impaired!) We didn't find "Blackie" . . . but we did find snake #1: snake #2 and snake #3 Obviously, none of these snakes is the one we saw at Thanksgiving, but snake #2 looks suspiciously like a mini version of that snake. This leads me to four questions:

1. How many offspring can a snake have?
2. Just how many snakes are in that basement?
3. Are any of them poisonous?
4. Why on earth would my dad just look at the snakes and not try to kill them???
   

it's been a while

I haven't posted in two weeks. First, nothing "blog worthy" was happening, then I went to Kansas for Easter, then I was really busy with work, then I got sick. Now I'm healthy and less busy, so hopefully I'll get some things posted soon . . . especially the snake pictures. I read another book review blogger book, too, but I still need to write the review, so look for that in the next few days. And I've started tutoring--I definitely need to talk about that. Just wanted you to know that I'm still alive, and I haven't forgotten about my blog!