Month: September 2010

Monday Morning Meme

Monday Morning Meme: September 13

Karen

Good Morning!

Aren’t you glad I’m here to give you something to blog about?

I thought so. 😉

All you have to do is answer the questions below either in the comment section, or on your blog. And elaborate! Make these questions show your unique and special personalities. This meme entry will post at 12:01 every Monday morning and will be the first postentry listed on WFK all day Monday. (This is an all-day Monday meme, so please, play all day!)

Monday Morning Meme at writefromkaren.com

September 13th Questions:

1. What’s the coolest item you’ve found at a garage sale, flea market, etc?

2. Describe how your day went yesterday, but in the third-person voice. (example: Even though Karen went to the store with a list in hand, she didn’t buy one thing from her list).

3. Do you have issues with people entering your personal space? What do you do when your personal space is violated?

4. What is the one meal recipe you think you’ve mastered?

5. Bonus: Write a caption, poem or short story inspired by this picture:

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(please be patient, it’s a little slow sometimes)

Want to see next week’s questions? Your wish is my command.

random stuff

I Prefer to Think I’m that One Lone Black Sheep in the Herd

Karen

You Are Sometimes a Sheep


You don’t think there is anything wrong with going with the flow, and that includes following the crowd.
You enjoy getting along with other people, and if possible, you prefer not to make waves.

However, you aren’t the type of person to follow anyone blindly. You’ll stand up for what’s important.
You don’t waste your energy on fighting battles that don’t matter. But when something important is on the line, you’ll always stand your ground.
Abundant Life

Teaching: Does the New Testament of the Bible support the death penalty / capital punishment?

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

(Watch Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five here)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

[This article was taken from the booklet, The Death Penalty: Godly or Ungodly?]

We should not expect God to have to repeat Himself in the New Testament if what He said in the Old Testament still applies. Yet people often think that if the New Testament does not specifically state something, it must not be true. However, God’s laws are to be considered binding, unless He tells us there is a change. For example, in the Old Testament God commanded animal sacrifice, so why do we not have it today? We do not just ignore the law because sacrificing animals is distasteful to us, nor do we really believe that God changed and “became more civilized.” Rather, the New Testament specifically tells us that animal sacrifices were made unnecessary because Christ was a permanent sacrifice. So there was a change in the law and God told us of that change.

There are many people who will admit that the Old Testament supports the death penalty, but deny that the New Testament does also. That is just not the case, as we will now show. The first thing to notice in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ never said anything against the death penalty. In fact, he specifically stated that he had not come to put an end to the Law. [6] Even when he appeared before Pilate, Jesus never denied that Pilate had the legal authority to execute him. If he were against the death penalty, this would have been a good place to say it. In fact, there is no record of any person in the Bible stating that the death penalty is wrong in the eyes of God.

People sometimes say that Jesus taught us to love our fellow man, as if the death penalty were not loving. But God is love, and He commanded the death penalty for certain crimes. Furthermore, Jesus got his teaching on love from the Old Testament. When Jesus said the second greatest commandment was to “love your neighbor as yourself,” he was quoting Leviticus 19:18. The Law of Moses did teach love, and part of that love for people and society was to protect them from evil by enforcing the Law, which included the death penalty.

When something is clearly established in the Old Testament as the will of God, it does not need to be repeated word by word in the New Testament so we will know that it is still the will of God. When God wants to change something, like His laws concerning animal sacrifice or circumcision, He tells us. The proper way to interpret Scripture is to believe that God’s will is constant unless He tells us He has new rules for us. In the case of capital punishment for murderers, kidnappers, etc., not only does God not say He changed His mind in the New Testament, He confirms what He said in the Old Testament.

1 Timothy 1:8-10
(8) We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
(9) We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,
(10) for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders [man-stealers] and liars and perjurers–and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine.

It is noteworthy that these verses in the New Testament say that the Law is good if it is used properly, and then go on to say that the Law was made for people such as murderers. If God had changed His mind about what He said in the Old Testament, and decided that we should not execute criminals, this would have been the perfect place to say so. Surely it is not good exegesis of Scripture to read that “the Law is good” and was made for murderers, kidnappers and the like, and then say that according to the New Testament we should not execute criminals.

These verses in Timothy echo Romans 7:12, which says, “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” It is important to note that murder, perjury and kidnapping, crimes we have examined in this booklet, are all specifically mentioned in the New Testament in the context of the Law being good and made for such people. In verse 10 above, the NIV has “slave traders” when the Greek text actually has “man-stealers.” In the ancient world, most people were kidnapped for money. Today, kidnappers sometimes kidnap for ransom money, but in the ancient world the easy money came from selling the person as a slave, which worked especially well if the one kidnapped could not speak the language of those he or she was sold to. The familiar story of Joseph being sold by his brothers into slavery is a good example. Since slavery was common in Bible times, kidnapping someone and then selling him or her as a slave in another country was a way to get quick money. Thus, while the NIV translation can be defended culturally, it is really too narrow. Many other versions have either the more literal “men-stealers” or the more modern “kidnappers,” which does include slave traders.

It is clear that the Apostle Paul did not consider the death penalty an ungodly thing. When he was on trial for supposedly causing riots across the Roman world (Acts 24:5), he made the following statement: “If I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I refuse not to die” (Acts 25:11). It can hardly be imagined that Paul would say such a thing to a Roman governor if in his heart he felt the death penalty was wrong. Since Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25-29) and was being accused by Jews, he could probably have found a way to save his life, so it would not have made sense for him to mention the death penalty if he believed it was wrong. Acts 24:26 says that the Roman governor was hoping for a bribe, a fact that Paul could not have been ignorant of. Thus, a study of the New Testament reveals that it supports the death penalty just as the Old Testament does.

You can read the original article here.

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If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).

More from Write From Karen

Saturday Stuff

Where’s Tom?

Karen

I stood frozen in front of the flickering images on my TV.

I quickly squeezed my eyes shut, effectively blocking the image from my eyes, but not my brain.

I must be dreaming.

I opened my eyes …

The nightmare was still smoldering. I dropped to my sofa and stared. Tears began tickling the corners of my lids – I did not try to stop them.

“Do you know where Tom is?” my sister said. She looked at her cell phone. “I can’t get a hold of him.”

I gasped.

“What?”

My sister didn’t hear the newscaster.

I knew where Tom was.

I looked back at the TV – the buildings continued to burn.

*************************

Write up to 100 words, fact or fiction….

This is a themed writing meme hosted by Jenny Matlock. The goal is to write something that does not exceed 100 words (not including said prompt). The prompt appears in bold.

Abundant Life

Where Were You on September 11, 2001? Where Was God?

Karen

Nine years ago … can you believe it’s been nine years since our country was attacked?

Where were you? Do you remember?

I was on a shuttle bus, on my way to campus for class. The bus got quiet as the news was broadcast over the radio. I remember walking onto campus and heading to my class in the Public Affairs building. It was eerie – people were shocked and walking around like zombies.

It was deathly quiet.

I joined the crowd of people huddled around the TV’s in the lobby just in time to watch the second plane hit. It was surreal and many, including myself, openly cried at the sheer horror of watching people jump to their deaths to escape from being burned to death. I have no idea what happened after I witnessed the second plane. I must have gone through the motions of going to class and then driving home because the next thing I remember is being home and talking to Kevin on the phone.

The boys were allowed to watch a little of the disaster on TV at school. I remember we had some pretty interesting discussions about what happened when they got home.

I’ve heard many, many, MANY people ask “Where was God on September 11.” I’ve also heard many people blame God for what happened. God is NOT to blame. Our God is love, and “in Him is no darkness.” It’s important to understand that when bad things happen, like 9/11, it’s not God’s fault. Let’s not forget who rules this world – Satan. Let’s put the blame where it belongs.

Because I’m a Christian and it truly bothers me whenever I hear people blame God whenever something bad happens, or somehow thinks it’s God’s will to allow things like this to happen, I’d like to post this article from the Truth or Tradition website. If you’re confused, angry, or scared about the negative things that happen in your life and you feel like God has let you down, perhaps reading this will bless you.

Where was God on 9/11?

How sad that such questions will continue to remain unanswered because most people in the world lack true knowledge about the Word of God. Rather than let Him speak for Himself by reading and properly understanding the Bible, far too many well-meaning people, Christians included, will venture their own groundless opinions about the critical issue of God’s relationship to evil. Even sincere and loving Christian leaders, called upon for some spiritual explanation by those still grieving, can say only what they have been taught, and the traditional responses to which they are shackled will bring little comfort.

Some will mention “evil,” but fail to mention the Devil (Hey—just add a “D”). Thankfully, some Christian leaders will tell the truth that it was Satan who is ultimately responsible for this unspeakable evil, but the majority of dear people asking questions will be left with the false idea that God allowed it to happen as part of His overall will. It is very hard to see how that idea will enhance either their love for or their faith in our heavenly Father. In fact, it will no doubt turn many away from His outstretched heart, wherein lies their only hope for truth, which is the only basis for genuine comfort, strength, and hope.

Americans inundated by postmodernism’s “truth” that “there is no such thing as truth” are stuck between a rock – “no standard for right and wrong beyond the mind of man” – and a hard place – their visceral knowing that what happened on September 11 was wrong. What standard can we use to evaluate Osama Bin Laden’s assertion, which he bases upon the words of the Koran, his source of “truth,” that what happened was the will of Allah? We can, and must, use the God-breathed revelation from the Creator of life. And what is the chief difference between the Bible and every other document purported to be the Word of God? The rock, Jesus Christ, who went through a hard place, the world.

Where was God on September 11, 2001? His answer to that question, taken from His own Word, is: “I was right there looking on in great pain, and unable to stop those planes from crashing into those buildings.” Yes, we have by now heard countless stories of how He worked in a myriad of ways to keep people away from the Twin Towers that day, and to save as many as He could who were there, but He could not stop those planes from hitting the Towers.

You may be thinking, “What? He’s God! He can do anything He wants to do.” If so, you are contradicting what He says in the Bible. No doubt those who believe that well worn lie do so because of misguided Christian teachers who continue to propound the fallacy that “God is in control,” and that whatever happens is somehow in line with His will. Apparently Jesus did not understand that, however, because he encouraged us to pray that “the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Why should we pray that if everything that happens is God’s will? Good question.

How do we know that God could not stop those planes? Because He did not. The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8), which means it is impossible for Him to do anything that is not loving. Is it loving to “allow” (that is, be able to stop something from happening but choose not to) thousands of innocent people to be killed? No. Okay, then we know that God didn’t allow it, and since He sure didn’t cause it, that means He couldn’t stop it.

That certainly brings up the question: Why couldn’t He stop it? And the biblical answer is: He did not have enough human cooperation. Hey, did God stop Goliath? Did He stop the 850 prophets of Baal? Did He stop a number of Old Testament armies bent on destroying Israel? Totally–because David, Elijah, and other people stepped up and did their part. And will God one day stop the Devil, as in crush his ugly head? Absolutely. Why? Because Jesus Christ stepped up like no other man and perfectly cooperated with God, all the way to the Cross.

Jesus Christ is the subject of Scripture from Genesis 3:15 to the last page of the book of Revelation, and what the Bible says about him is either true or false. Scripture, history and the human experience of those who trust him combine to prove that he is the crux of history and the linchpin of life. Those who follow him must proclaim that the written Word of God found in the Bible is the only source of truth because it is the only book showing who Jesus Christ is and why he is man’s only Savior from sin and death.

Scripture says that Jesus Christ is also the only valid “image of the invisible God.” As such, it is he who most vividly shows us God’s heart. Jesus Christ is the key to our understanding that God is not in control of everything that happens; that God’s will does not always happen; that God never causes or “allows” evil; that God gave free will to all men; that God weeps with us in our trauma and sorrow; and that He is there to comfort us.

What happened September 11 should make clear to all men that we live in a perpetual war zone. September 11 was a manifestation of the spiritual war raging between God and the Devil, and that war, fought on the earth between godly people and evil people, will go on until Jesus Christ comes back to the earth and wins it! Remember that it was his love for people that cost Jesus his life, because the Devil’s total hate could not coexist with such pure love.

What you have read so far may have raised many questions in your mind. Great! Because the Word of God has the answers. Here are some links for you to pursue your quest for truth and spiritual understanding. Enjoy.

God bless you and be safe.

General

Counselor Without Portfolio – A Tribute to Michael J. Armstrong

Karen

Four years ago, my friend, DC Roe, sent out a request to the blog-o-sphere. He wanted to know if people would be interested in writing tributes honoring the victims of 9/11.

To his great surprise, an overwhelming number of people said yes. Project 2,996 was born.

From the Project 2,996 website:

On September 11, 2001 almost 3,000 of the world’s citizens were brutally, and publicly, murdered. We all cried, and we all swore that we’d never forget. But a few years later I realized that I knew nothing about those people who were doing nothing more than living their lives. In 2006 I asked other bloggers if they thought it would be a good idea to take the time to learn about the victims and try to keep their individual memories alive. The response I got was overwhelming. And Project 2,996 is the result.

Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, whatever you may think of what has happened in the years since 9/11, I don’t think it’s too much to ask to learn about just one victim.

I too wrote a tribute to one of the fallen, but I published it on my old self-hosted blog, which is now defunct. I’d like to re-post the tribute here in the hopes that it permanently stays on the Internet for all to read and remember.

REMEMBER 9/11 – DO NOT EVER FORGET

Nine years ago today, America was attacked.

At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, the first plane smashed into the North World Trade Center Tower – lives were snuffed out, the world went dark for many. Cantor Fitzgerald, a global financial services provider company, located on floors 101 – 105th, was destroyed: 658 out of 1,000 employees were never seen again.

One of those employees was Mr. Michael J. Armstrong, age 34.

Michael J. Armstrong had an uncanny way of looking people deep in the eyes and telling them things that stuck with them, that sometimes changed their lives.

There was the confused, rambling Grateful Dead fan he met on a train in 1993, who was hooked on drugs and on the run from his parents.

The young man wrote Mr. Armstrong a letter shortly after their meeting that Mr. Armstrong’s family found in a drawer when they cleaned out his Upper East Side apartment after Sept. 11.

“After talking to you,” the young man wrote, “I’ve worked everything out with my parents and will be returning to work for them and continuing a drug-free life. I have positive goals but I almost threw them away. I just want to thank you for helping me.”

There was the man from the Upper East Side who served time in prison. When he got out, he was shunned by most people; Mr. Armstrong went out of his way to talk to him, to make him feel welcome.

“Since Sept. 11, we’ve realized what a great impact he’s had on people’s lives,” said Catherine M. Nolan, whom Mr. Armstrong, 34, a vice president of sales at Cantor Fitzgerald, was to marry on Oct. 6.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on February 3, 2002.

Armstrong was vice president of sales for Cantor Fitzgerald. He was busy doing his job, minding his own business working on one of the 101 – 105th Cantor Fitzgerald floors of the north tower. Cantor Fitzgerald was directly hit when the plane crashed through. Cantor Fitzgerald was one of the first companies to be completely destroyed.

From the Cantor Fitzgerald tribute website:

On the morning of September 11th, we lost more than a team. We lost family. We mourn the losses of our siblings, our best friends, and our partners. We cannot imagine work or life without them nor their many unique qualities and characteristics. They have enriched our lives immeasurably, and in us, their spirits shall live on.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s former New York office, on the 101st-105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, or about two-thirds of its workforce, in the September 11, 2001 attacks, considerably more than any other company.

Armstrong’s life was just beginning. He was engaged to be married to Catherine. His life ended prematurely at 8:46 a.m., September 11, 2001.

From Michael Armstrong’s website:

Michael J. Armstrong’s Biography
(August 31, 1967–September 11, 2001)

He was hungry early on. Somewhere on a home-movie reel from 1969 a chubby-legged toddler still waddles about wearing an oversized bib, a small foreshadowing of an insatiable appetite that would not be satisfied by food alone. Ten years later he had become the master of restraint, often making a chocolate bar last a whole week. With Mike, the things he loved in life were always savored. A native New Yorker, he loved his city with a passion. He loved people. He loved good food. He loved sharing good food. He loved a long talk that would carry into the early hours of the next day. He loved defending an underdog. He loved a good dig. He loved a good comeback. He loved a big crowd. He loved sports. He loved the excitement that hangs in the air before a big game. He loved loyalty. He loved the loyalty of a good friend. He loved. He loved as well as anyone can love.

Circumstances did not beckon him to find himself until the end of his sophomore year at Xavier High School in lower Manhattan, a school his older brother had graduated from two years before. Mike was not happy there, and his poor grades reflected it. In the spring he was asked to find another school, and in the fall, a season that usually brings about wilting, he began to flourish. He started his junior year at Loyola High School, a small school in the heart of Yorkville. Loyola was halfway through administering a high school education to many of Mike’s elementary school friends. The prodigal son had come home, home to a school that would have welcomed him with a partial scholarship two years before but was now understandably tentative about taking a risk on a kid who no longer showed much promise on paper. He put his best foot forward, however, and it didn’t take him long to show everyone that he was well worth the effort. While never a straight-A student, he did well at Loyola. He cared, not merely about the difference he could make for himself but the difference he could make for others. His quintessential talents lay far deeper than getting respectable grades. His true gifts, the ones that flowed from him so effortlessly, were much more far reaching. He was wonderful with people. He was a natural public servant, and his classmates soon saw it. At the end of his junior year, his first year at Loyola, he was elected president of the student body. And so began a love affair that would see him well in to adulthood. He worked tirelessly for Loyola for the next seventeen years of his life. Always eager to see old friends and make new ones, he would be at Loyola fundraisers with bells on.

After graduating from Loyola, he attended Syracuse University in upstate New York, but again the fit wasn’t right. After a year, he came back to his beloved New York City, but not without having cemented several more lifelong friendships at Syracuse, for embracing people from all walks of life always came naturally. It was on to Fordham University in the Bronx, and again, a perfect match. While at Fordham, he acquired the nickname Posse, or Poss for short. While rumors abound regarding the origin of the name, most seem to believe it is derived from the popular slang word for group, which, since he always had large numbers with him, seems to be a legitimate theory. Again, the friendships made at Fordham were of soul-piercing quality. Many of them got stronger after graduation. New ones were born at alumni events. As a fellow Fordham alumnus twenty years Mike’s senior put it best, “I knew we would be friends for the rest of our lives. We were suffering from the same disease. We both loved Fordham.” With Mike, there were no boundaries when it came to forging a new alliance—not age, not race, not religion. A superb judge of character, he had a way of cutting straight through to the essence of what really mattered in an individual. Having been the recipient of second chances himself, he was quick to give someone the benefit of the doubt. He knew what it was like to stumble, yet he repeatedly found his way. He was eager to see others do the same. He was wonderfully human.

His sweet disposition and hardworking nature paved the way for many progressions throughout his eleven years in the working world. He left his first job as a credit analyst with the factoring firm Milberg Factors in August 1992 to join the Office of Management and Budget for the City of New York, where he worked as a budget analyst for over four years under David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani while he put himself through graduate school at night. His newly acquired master’s degree and his appetite for the financial world led him to his role as director of investor relations at The Bond Buyer, a publication for the municipal bond industry, before he joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1999. He became a vice president of electronic trading at Cantor, where his love and admiration for his colleagues ran deep.

The past, and Mike, is forever a part of us. Somewhere on a home-movie reel from 1969 a toddler still walks. Only now, when we view him, we know how steady and sure those steps became. We know what paths those feet took. We know the difference he made to all of us.

Michael J. Armstrong is survived by his fiancée, his family, and innumerable friends.

One of the few people in this world who would give the shirt off of his back for anyone. Loved by many. We miss him. Andrew Lindner, friend

Mr. Armstrong, we will never forget you.

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 11, 2011: Project 2,996 has a Facebook page.

Day-By-Day, Life

On the Hunt, Upcoming Photography Session

Karen


(photo credit)

I went shopping today.

All.

Day.

Long.

If you don’t know? I’m not the biggest fan of shopping. In fact, it’s pretty safe to say, I loathe it.

But here’s the thing, we’re hosting Kevin’s family for Thanksgiving dinner this year (we switch off with his two sisters, so this means we host dinner every third year), it’s our turn, and we use these dinners as an excuse to spruce up the house a little bit.

We did the kitchen back in March, now, it’s time to turn our focus on the living room and dining room.

After we finished our weekly grocery shopping torture errand, Kevin and I went to look go look at “our” sofa and love seat. We’ve been looking at this one set for a few weeks now and we keep coming back to it.

And the cherry on the milk shake? The set was on sale. In fact, if we paid cash, they would knock an extra 20% off the price.

*ZOINKS!*

But still, we hesitated. We hadn’t checked out one last furniture store and Kevin, being Kevin, would never let me live it down if we bought this set and then we saw something else we might have liked better. (And yes, we would known about it because even though we buy something, Kevin still looks for that object long after the transaction has gone through. It drives me nuts! And then, God forbid the thing goes on sale – I never hear the end of it!!).

So, we went and looked. And Kevin actually saw a few sets that he really liked. But none of them were recliners, and the set we’ve had our eye on is not only a recliner in the sofa, but in the love seat, too. Which is a huge plus. (I didn’t tell him this, but I personally didn’t like what he picked out and they were so not comfortable, but when we’re out looking, I’ve learned just to keep my mouth shut and let the man look. He ultimately comes around to my way of thinking sooner or later. HA!)

It was time to pick the boys up from school by the time we finished looking at these sloppy seconds (*ahem*) and we took the opportunity to weigh the pros and cons of all of the sofas we looked at at this point.

By the time the boys walked up to my car, we had decided to go ahead and buy the set we liked and take advantage of the sale price. (The sale ended at midnight tonight).

We dropped the boys off, went to the store and bought our set. Kevin feels pretty good about it (the price was still a little high, but I’m El Cheapo and really, anything over ten bucks is too expensive in my book) and it will take about one or two weeks before they come in.

Which works out perfectly, because we need time to get our floor installed.

We headed to Micheal’s next. (Micheal’s is a craft store). I’ve been toying with the idea of painting our front bathroom and doing sort of a sunflower theme in there. (Hence, the sunflower picture you see above). I have no idea where the sunflower idea came from, but that’s what I’m shooting for now. We bought four really big sunflowers for our over-sized vase (and they were 40% off – SCORE!). I’m even thinking about buying a few prints off istockphoto.com and getting them framed, but Kevin thinks this might actually end up costing us more than simply buying ready-made art. I’m not so sure – I have a few ideas up my sleeve on how we could possibly make it affordable, but again, we’ll see.

After Micheal’s, we went to Kirkland’s to try and find a funky mirror to put over the new table in the foyer.

No luck. We saw several interesting pieces, but nothing that was our style (whatever the heck that might be – I KNOW our style, I just can’t put a name to it). We did see one really thought-provoking piece though. In fact, Kevin spotted it and sort of talked me into being interested. I might talk more about this piece in a few days, it all depends on whether we buy it or not. I think we’re leaning toward buying it right now and if we do, we will be taking about two giant steps out of our comfort zone – it’s that out there. But we both like it, in a “let’s do something surprising” sort of way, so we’ll see how we feel about this piece after a few nights of sleeping on it. (I was actually going to link to this piece through Kirkland’s website, but I couldn’t find it so – BOO!)

Next? We went to Lowe’s to try and find a paint color for our living room. Unbeknownst to my sister-in-law, the color she picked out for our walls almost perfectly matches our sofa and love seat and I can’t quite visualize how that might look – khaki walls, khaki furniture, won’t that look just a little TOO perfect? But my sister-in-law is assuring me it’ll look fabulous (matte walls against glossy furniture) so AGAIN, we’ll see. I think Kevin and I are going to try the color and just see where it takes us. It’s a bit darker than we’re used to, but I trust my sister-in-law’s taste, so we’ll …

Well. You get the idea.

(Side note: I did find a mirror that might work over that foyer table, though).

Ugh. My brain is spinning from all of the home decor ideas swirling around. It’s like one big echo in there (because we all know my brain doesn’t take up too much space). I think if we can get this thing to come together, it’s going to look awesome. I hope.

******

I finally made an appointment to get Dude’s senior pictures taken today. We only have until October 15th to turn in his senior portrait in order to make the yearbook deadline so we really need to get this taken care of.

Dude has flat out refused to do the whole 50 poses-changing clothes thing, so we’re just going to get some head shots. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Dude is my low-key sort of son. He likes to keep things simple and unassuming.

His appointment is this coming Tuesday at 4:30. (I was surprised that they were able to get me in so soon). We’re going through About Faces Photography (love that name) and though I’m looking forward to getting some really good pictures of Dude, I’m not looking forward to the process. The package we’re paying for only has between 5 to 10 poses, so I’m sure it won’t take that long to get through, I just don’t know how comfortable (or terrified/annoyed) Dude is going to be.

The gal told us that we will pick the photos we want right after the session. They are familiar with the school’s portrait requirements for the yearbook, so we won’t have to worry about that part. All we’ll have to do is pick out the best one and preen like proud parents. I’m sure we’ll buy extras.

So that’s something else I need to do this weekend – take Dude out to buy him a new shirt. Preferably something a little nicer than a plain t-shirt, which is his style of choice.

Dude also had a senior meeting this past week at school. I’ve yet to figure out what that was all about, so we’ll likely sit down and talk about that, too.

******

Kevin is playing at a private birthday party tomorrow night, so I will be taking that time to get some work caught up. I have a feeling I’m not going to have a lot of time to get any work done this next week, what with us moving furniture and getting ready for the floor guy.

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We also need to hem Jazz’s band pants. Though he doesn’t have any idea when he’ll be required to wear his uniform for the first time, experience tells me it’ll probably be the next football game, which is this coming Friday.

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Two of my four textbooks have shipped. Yippee! I hope the other two get here in a timely manner. I”m really looking forward to starting this class.

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I caught Kevin looking at help wanted ads today. I talked him off the edge. I really think he should be the stay-at-home dad for a while and let me bring home the bacon.

Don’t laugh. It’s gonna happen. 🙂

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I’ve been drinking the Reliv. Actually, it’s one scoop of Reliv and one scoop of some sort of protein powder that Kevin drinks. I have to say, I do feel like I have more energy.

But it’s early yet. Let’s see how it performs, long term.