and what a day off it twas...

Well, technically my day off is not over yet. But here's the rundown on a much needed day off thus far:

1. Phone call at 8:34 am. This was a call (and message left since I didnt answer the phone, nor did I actually hear it ring...) from the lady who sadly enough had an encounter with my car last night. Well, technically her car collided into my parked one, but you get the point. So now, on top of having no desire to do anything, I also have to be concerned with having a vehicle that has a cracked headlight lens (at least that's what I am thinking the piece of plastic in front of the headlight lamp is called)

2. Phone call at 8:47. This was from my father. Well meaning as he was updating me on the likely cost of repair for his car. Cause I'm driving his car right now.

3. Went back to sleep, which is what I wanted to do before being disturbed by phone calls on the one day all week I can sleep in (have plans tomorrow morning which will prevent sleeping in). And I've had a long week. Every day I was suffering from either lack of sleep or pain from the four-wheeling expediction that used muscles that have not been worked recently.

4. Another phone call. This was one quarter after 10. And I was somewhat conscious or coherent so I was able to chat a bit with my sister Kayla, who was this round's culprit. I am always willing to talk about shoes.

5. Another phone call. Quarter after 11 from my supervisor. By this time I was up and reading. But not doing anything productive. Cause it's my day off and I don't want to be productive.

6. Ate some lunch, since I was up in time for that but not breakfast. Yummy pizza and ice cream.

7.  Watching the snow fall. Cause it's snowing. Yup, snow once again. Really pretty big fluffy flakes. I had been planning on leaving the house, but I don't think I will. So instead I'm cozy indoors with a big hoodie on, watching TV and movies (newest purchased DVD "Wanted"), appreciating the fact that I finally have a DVD player hooked up to the huge TV in my living room and the fact that my universal remote works to control it since my mother gave me the player without a remote. Although I will have to venture so far into my garage in order to tape up the headlight so that I won't have any more moisture seeping in before I can get it repaired. Cause I hear that would be bad. At least I dont have to go outside since the garage is attached to the hosue and a mere 20 feet from where I am currently sitting on my couch. At least, I don't expect I will have to venture out into the snow. Cause it's not on my agenda.

And that, folks, is the utterly unimportant day I have had thus far. And it is not even 3 pm.

and a long weekend it was

fridays are my days off. which is not bad, especially when i have nothing planned on saturdays.

alas that it was not the case last weekend.

i got a phone call midweek informing me that the real estate company was going to have an open house in my current house on sunday afternoon. and since i was busy/gone all day saturday, i did a lot of cleaning and organizing on friday. plus baking for the bazaar that my congregation has, which was on saturday (yay for apple crisp and banana bread) . needless to say, i spent a good chunk of time being a homemaker. not gonna lie, i enjoyed it.

what i didnt enjoy was being up late and getting up early. i mean, finishing everything up on friday night only to wake up early on saturday morning to get ready for a wedding before dropping off my baked goods at the bazaar.

bonus points for me getting tons of compliments at the bazaar over my outfit, especially the boots and the pigtails i had my hair styled in at the time.

then, after a fiasco of me being afraid of having lost my cell phone (well, one of the two cell phones i carry), i got on the road to drive the four hours to minneapolis for my cousin brian's (aka salsa) wedding later that afternoon. i met up with my mother in a parking lot in one of the suburbs so that we could carpool into the city. and get to the spiritual center where the wedding ceremony would take place. it was interesting to watch this particular ceremony since it was the basics of what is needed to get married: vows were spoken and rings were exchanged in front of a gathering of family and friends. i thought it was very nice. plus i loved the music. and i loved the fact that they brought back the old tradition of binding their right hands together for the ceremony. and it was great to have the vows be spontaneous (since they had written their vows but forgot to bring them, which meant that later at the reception they read them so everyone could hear what they had intended to say earlier).

one interesting fact: i was wearing the most popular color of the day, which was variations of fuscia, along with the most popular shoe, which was the tall black boot.

this is a picture of my cousin denise, my aunt teresa, and i as we pose in matching redish colors. denise and i had the boots (along with at least 5 other women at the wedding) while teresa and i had the skirts and sweaters.

the reception was almost overwhelming with the selections of food since it was a potluck. and people provided a lot of food. i enjoyed the variety of noodle salads in particular. after the reception the dance started. an eclectic and awesome selection of music began. unfortunately i had to leave early since i needed to get back on the road. so at 8:30 pm, i took off so that i could begin my drive back to bemidji since i had to work in the morning, which is the plight of pastors everywhere.

and so i rolled into my driveway and pulled into my garage at 1:15 am.

only to have to clean up what little mess was left.

and then to get up early to get ready for a long day at church since it was confirmation day with open houses in the afternoon. and of course, everything that could go wrong did. the power point did not want to open at church, but i manage to fix that. then somehow the prayer list didnt make it to the lecturn, so i had to "wing it." then for the second service, i specifically put out the lessons and prayer list for me, but by the time i got there in time to read from the list, it had vanished. so of course i had to get the bulletin and read the lessons from the Bible itself. which seldom happens in our culture of having the Scripture printed off in neat and tidy pages. then the service was about 2 hours long as we provided the 14 students opportunities to each read their faith statements. it was a nice service but long.

i really enjoyed going to peoples' houses and spend time with them outside of the church building. even being as exhausted as i was due to lack of sleep (9 hours total over the previous two nights).

so by the time i got back to my house in the evening, i was ready to crash. which i did.

the great outdoors

So today I was fortunate enough to get to spend time in the great outdoors. My supervisor Mark and I (after having a text study which abounded with local pastors and robing up to walk through the Lutheran liturgy for some students who are from an evangelical tradition) set out with four-wheelers. We toured the woods at a parishioner's house and I was able to see the deer stands (two simply ladders up in trees and two stand alone structures that remind me of tree houses). The "sissy stands" were dubbed Spongebob and Patrick. Pretty fancy and I didn't fall out of either of them. Success!

But back to the four-wheelin adventure,

So after a very brief instructional on how to not kill myself on the machine (and how to start it, use brakes, shift), we took off. Through a very, very, very, very bumpy field. It looked nice for the beginner, but those pesky gopher mounds were disguised behind the tall grass. So I was not having fun learning how to control the 4w (as I shall henceforth refer to the four-wheeler). No fun a'tall.

But it got easier with time. And with smoother trails. Even going up and down hills was easier than those pesky gopher mounds.

Oh, and highlight of the day: I jumped a log. And it was the first road block I ever encountered on a 4w.

And I didn't even have to get off the 4w and use my very own two legs to do so. Somehow I managed to get the 4w airborne. Mark thought it was fantastic and one of the coolest things ever, but I just remember being freaked out that I was in the air for a split second and not connected to the ground. Even better was the fact that the log I managed to spring over like a sprightly deer had been an extreme challenge for Mark to get over.

So I just hope that I did not get injured or sustain whiplash or something from this excursion. Cause that would be no fun. No fun a'tall.

I did love being out in the fresh air and doing something more active than I had been while cooped up indoors.

And I get a decent story out of all this.

stress and sweets

I am tired. No, I'm not overworked. But I am definitely exhausted from the stress of always having to defend my personal opinions. There is no fun in always, always feeling belittled simply because I interpret the Bible in a different way. At least my mind no longer feels as though it's going to explode due to being overworked as I seek to use words. Down side is that my back is feeling the pain, especially since I put all my stress in the small of my back.

I am angry, frustrated, irritated, etc. I want to focus on the good that God does in the world, and I most definitely do not enjoy focusing on the law (the stereotypical rules) verses the gospel (hey folks, Jesus died for everyone, not just heterosexuals!) in the Bible. I want all of us to get along, but I know that is not always the case. However, I do expect respect from all sides. Nothing is worse in my opinion (besides lying and hypocrisy) than the unwillingness to listen to others.

Sadly enough, I am not finding my usual comfort in baking for others. Yes, I made some awesome apple crisp and puppy chow for a meeting tonight. But baking didn't work like it usually does. Usually the preparation and cleanup helps me to relax. I like to bake for others. I like to wash dishes. There is just something comforting about this routine. So simple and effective. Maybe I should make some more bread from scratch just so I can take out my emotions while pounding or kneading the poor, defenseless bread dough. Cause that was fun the other day (Saturday, when I was up and moving at 4:30 in the morning to take someone to the doctor then stayed up to bake bread).

Here's to hoping that crocheting will provide a mindnumbing and calming effect.

Or the fact that I will be joining a college community band since, being the band geek that I am, I miss band.

Or the fact that within the next few weeks I will be hanging out with old friends and family.

Oh, and prayer will be essential. Mine and that of others.

Snow!!!!!!!!!!

That's right. In the midst of the freakish October I can recall, we received a slight dusting of snow this past weekend.

Did I mention I like snow?

Did I mention that I'm upset the leaves on the trees are dropping before they change colors?

Did I mention that I'm glad the leaves are falling so that I can see more of the sky and sun?

I love autumn and winter, but I am now realizing that I was not quite ready for snow to fall before October 11th. Which it did. I guess I shouldn't complain too much since I live in northern Minnesota, but still...this isn't Canada...which is even colder than the USA. And a majority of our great country is already freezing. So weird.

Oh, well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the freakish weather. I mean, my first month in Bemidji had numerous record warm days. And now October is the exact opposite.

On a note unrelated to snow, I preached again today. Second time since I've been here.

And I totally rocked it.

I think this is because it was not being recorded. For some reason, I always do much better when there is no video or voice recording. And the self-designated camcorder man was disappointed to have forgotten the video camera since I had a good sermon.

I didn't go all controversial. (which would have been kinda fun to go all hellfire and brimstone on Bethel Lutheran since the passage from Amos 5 is layin the smack on Bethel) I spoke from the heart, which is always a good idea when preaching.

I also had a children's message. I read a gift from my sisters, a book called "Bossy Bear." I still hold to my claim that I have no idea why on earth anyone would choose to give me a book with that name. But it worked out well, and I even made sure to show the congregation the pictures, not just the kids who came forward. :)

Well, I think that I'm going to take a nap to recuperate from getting up at 6 am in order to finish the sermon...

Indeed

I wish I could think of creative titles for these posts.

Anyhoo, I'm tired. So maybe that's part of it. Last night through this afternoon I was with 14 sophomores and juniors on their confirmation retreat. I had spent the entire day shopping and relaxing since Fridays are my day off, then I was the fortunate one who coordinated the retreat. So I was there. After getting lost (and by lost I mean I was miles away from where I should have been...) and arriving late, I was able to put effort into chaos management.

Let me elaborate:
1. 14 teenagers. I should not need to say more, but I will.
2. Crazy ideas. The resort we were at was along a lake and had a pool, hot tub and sauna. The weather was cold. As in, 40s. Which means that someone thought it would be a good idea for them to jump in the lake (and I cannot imagine the water being warmer than 40 degrees), run up the hill and jump in the hot tub. Which means that all but 3 did. Insane, but they found it amusing.
3. Fire. That's right, we had a campfire. Cause that is what should happen at retreats. Of course, it had been raining off and on for the last couple days. Which meant that the wood and firepit were wet, but there were a couple of troopers (and not the kind that works for the state highway department) who were able to get a roaring fire going. Until it started to rain again. Which means that our worship was relocated and ended. Which means that their focus was completely broken and I was sad since it was going so well.

At the same time, I did enforce the bedtime, and was quite surprised that none of them compained since they were all falling asleep by 1 am. Weak. Very weak. Even I had gone to bed the night before at 3. But I admit that I was ready for bed by then.

This morning I made a lot of pancakes and eggs. Which was an experience since I had never made pancakes before. I had eaten a lot of them, but never made them. Sad, I know, but such has been my existence. I went from novice to expert pancake maker in one morning. So not only can I make awesome brownies (which I had brought with yesterday) but I can make breakfast food.

At the end, I did not have one kid say they had a horrible time. None of them complained that I read a picture book to them. Most thanked me and said they had fun.

So in other words, SUCCESS!!!!