Chim Chim Cha-RUDE

Ok... so the chimney sweep blew us off. Either that or he thought it was last week. Neither my roomies or myself were terribly disappointed--we enjoyed each other's company at dinner. My friends definitely get a kick out of the fact that I have a blog. I suppose my sister and a few others are the only ones who read it... but it is fun for me.

Thanksgiving and poppa and snow

I drove to my sister's for thanksgiving. A drive that should last only 5.5 hours lasted just under 10 due to a bit of snow and lots of cars in ditches. I was a little tense when I finally made it to her house. I think it quit snowing the moment I pulled into her driveway. FIGURES.

Her house had signs in it hand made by my nieces that said "WELCOME KERMA" and just "KERMA". It was fun. My neices and nephew are great. My nephew insists on playing me in foos ball knowing that I will kill him every time (not letting even a little boy win). He is so great - he makes up metaphors. Its funny. He scored a few goals and said "wow, I was almost on the right page there". WHAT? Love that kid. The second youngest is starting to call him by name and no longer just "boy". However, the youngest, with the few words she has learned, seems to think his name is "boy" as a result. But when she says it, it sounds more like "bow". This little one also seems to think that I am her "poppa"... one or both of her grandfathers. So one calls me Tooma, and the other "poppa". She would pat me on the back to get my attention saying "poppa, poppa, poppa, etc...". It definitely took me a second to respond.

The oldest makes great signs for me then hangs in her room most of the time I am there. I went in there once or twice to talk to her. She read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe recently and I think we will see the movie together over Christmas in Florida.

Turkey comas for all.

K

Chim Chiminy, Chim Chiminy, Chim Chim Cherooo

We had our chimney "swept" yesterday. Sunday, I know, its wierd. I got home from church, well really from lunch after cleaning up church after church. Oh to have a building for church - but thats a different tangent. The chimney sweep... yeah, he was pretty. I came home with an outdoor fire pit, the copper kind. I was assembling said fire pit in the kitchen. The roomies were just "assembling" in kitchen and we all found a mutual admiration of the chimney sweep. One of the group suggested that we invite him to our house dinner. Not one of us budged, although, we all agreed. Then from nowhere came a boldness that I had not before experienced. I asked a man whose name I do not know to dine with me and my roomates. He will probably bring a wife or something. Fun to meet new people nonetheless.

That night, my roomies and I had a fire. It was splendid. We have been looking at the empty cold fireplace for far too long. However, we evidently shut the flew (sp?) a bit too soon. I woke up this morning around 130a to a living room full of smoke. Our house smells like beef jerkey. I suppose there are worse smells.

We are going to have a holiday party. We have invited 140 of our "closest" friends. I hope we can manage to finish the basement by then. I leave for my sister's tomorrow by way of my uncle's house. I bought new tires today as I heard mention of snow. I do not like to drive in snow.

May the busiest travel day of the year bring you nothing but peace.

Hasta.

K

Seventh Grade

Today I worked the marsh for the last time of the season... and the x-mas tree gig did not work out. My last day at the marsh was cold and short and with seventh graders. If you are a little familiar with things in the adventure challenge world, than you will recognize the name of this element: Incomplete Bridge. I have done it many times. The participants have to create a bridge from one platform to another using two boards. Neither board is long enough on its own. Well all was going as usual, when a smallish girl was catapolted into the air about 4 feet. It was funny. I had not seen that before. She was ok, so feel free to laugh... her teacher did. Poor thing was far more worried about getting in trouble for swearing. She said something to the affect of "oh my... S@$T" . The group never refocused after that. Sadly, I had to fill out my first "near miss" report. Why are those necessary anyway. "Oh, by the way, someone did not get hurt when..." I don't get it.

Here's to building those bridges.

K - lastima

OLD MAN WINTER

Today I was out at the marsh to run a teams course for some 8th graders. It was cold. I felt like a wimp. My toes hurt really bad. Anyway, the group was an hour and a half late for the course. THis left a mere hour really to do anything with them. It was frustrating for all of us, but they were really great kids. I cannot believe how cold it is... From sweatshirt to long john weather overnight. Time to warm up my car 20 minutes before I go anywhere. The outhouse at the marsh is made of metal. When a person goes in there, so I found today... since it was so cold... it is like a refrigerator. The cold is just colder and much more intense. Its as if it is insulated, which it is not.

I am painting my basement. Its orange. I like it. It has flowers too. Also orange.
May you all find Donald Miller and introduce him to me.

K

UPSIDE DOWN

I get Newsweek. I like it. I read it. It was an early Christmas gift from my sister. There was a big article in it about the new movie... Brokeback Mtn, or something. It is starring my now "ex" celebrity crush, Heath Ledger. I guess that God never told him that he was supposed to marry me. Now he is making movies about being in love with another hottie man. My world is turning upside down.

Then there are all these questions regarding theology and eshcatology and soteriology and all those other big evangelical college words. THings that I have never thought about because I was taught a certain doctrine. The problem is that I did not realize it was doctrine. I thought is was just what "Christians" believed. Turns out, much of it is not biblical... it is speculation. Why do they go and teach "speculation" to Sunday schoolers. Again... upside down. No worries. The core of my faith remains, probably strengthened by the fact that I cannot pretend to understand. Unfortunately some claim to not only understand but to have the absolute and final word on topics that are biblically vague at best. I am excited and nervous to see what happens with this unearthing of random conservative paradigms that are shifting.

I leave next week for my sister's house. It should be fun. I am really looking forward to seeing her family and eating her food. Her mother in law once tried to set me up with a nephew. That was wierd. I hope he is not there.

Peace, turkey and yams.

K-L-U

The Best Part about my Year in Cincinnati

... was definitely the chili. MMMMmmm. Skyline Chili. Ok, the best part was meeting my pastors and dear friends then moving to Chicago-land with them. But other than that it was a 3-way with cheese. Love it. So tonight we made Skyline chili for the college students... there were mixed responses. As always, you love it, or you hate it. One can grow to love it after hating it, but after a long time following the first introduction. Also, it does cause some gastro-intestinal alarm. But, some things are worth a bit of temporary discomfort. MMMMmmm. Skyline Chili.

Today was church. Pastor made clear that he expects his staff to fail, for that means they are trying to do things. He did emphasize that he did not expect them to fail at the same thing weekly, as we should learn from our mistakes. I cannot remember any hard failures lately, which means that I am not living as I should. I am not taking risks. I am living safely, not as I am intended to live, not trying to use the talents that I have been given. Maybe I have failed miserably and simply choose to deny it here on my blog :-) DARE TO FAIL. My new slogan.

MY SOAP BOX TIME
I am single. I have read "single" books. I have listened to "single" radio broadcasts. The church at large seems a bit baffled about what to do with us... the single people. When they are not asking us if we have met someone or trying to give us advice on how to meet someone, they are definitely trying to get us to all hang out together as if we could not possibly have anything in common with the "married" people. I for one am a bit tired of hearing how to be "single" from someone who got married at the age of 21. It is not as if we are miserable in our existence. We have fun in ways that "marrieds" and "married with children" cannot have. Most of us do not believe that our life will be better when the wedding bells ring as "marrieds" seem to think we believe and continually remind us that it is not so. I do not wish for conversations to revolve around my singleness... especially when visiting people I do not often see. "Single" does not define who I am... I simply check a different box on my 1040.
SOAP BOX OVER

Peace and marital bliss...

K

OOOH WINTER CAMPING 

RECIPES FOR DISASTER

Just kidding, sistah. No disaster at all. I called my sister today for a recipe to make some kind of meaty substance to take to a potluck deal. It was yummy. But then, there are the left overs... do you leave them at the host's home, or do you take them home yourself. I know my roomies would thoroughly enjoy them and frankly, I did not know the hosts all that well. When would I get my dishes back? I dont know. Is there an etiquette book about this?

The party itself was very fun. It was for my instructor at the much beloved HoneyRock (see link). It seems there has been reformatting of the programs there and he has found himself released of his position. In short, it all sucks very much. However, he urged us to not be upset and looking for someone or something to blame. Rather, we are to pray for the place, for the leadership and for his family. They are amazing people, very gracious. I love the place, but I will admit, I get angry at times. I know it still is full of amazing people and potential. I am sad the graduate program that changed my life so much, visibly or not, has been canned.

This blog is much more serious than usual. I understand that life is not to be taken as anecdotal humor and random occurances. It is just those things that keep me smiling - I therefore, generally wish to pass them on. I have many a serious issue to take up with the world at large. I will start with the protestant church. Being a conservative evangelical myself, although I recently just came face to face with this fact about myself, I feel we have majorly dropped the ball in terms of any kind of social justice or ecological issue. As we try to pick up the pieces, let us not be concerned with what side of the political spectrum we will appear to fall into. Let us just love people and be good stewards of the earth as we are called to do. It has nothing to do with war protesting and tree hugging. It has to do with living out our call on a daily basis in every way. We need to be extreme. My soap box is over. If anyone even reads my blog, please know that I will be much lighter again in my next entry.

Peace be with you - spiritually, physically and socially.

KLU

Unicycle

I wonder why its not called a monocycle, or an egocycle, or an i-cycle. Just kidding on the last one. Anyway, the other night, I was walking to the SRC (work out facility for the non wheaties reading this), and I passed a young girl about the age of 8 with her mom, who was walking, but the girl was definitely riding a unicycle. It was unusual. I wondered if the girl was practicing in hopes to someday be in the circus, which seems unusual that a parent would support this dream in the place of academia and intellectualism. At any rate, the young girl seemed to be having a wonderful time, perfectly oblivious to the oddness of the whole thing. Her mother seemed proud.

Onto more important things... ALIAS> coming right along. The first episode of the season was definitely terrible. It is getting better. More than anything tonight's episode was great because I had a bowl of popcorn and peanut M&Ms. I usually go for MilkDuds with my popcorn, but Aldis had M&Ms. There was an unfortunate turn in the evening when I was jumping up and down looking in my pantry to find marshmallows to throw at my roommate when I accidentally inhaled a bit of M&M right into my lungs. I am still a bit wheezy. I feel as if I have hard candy coated chocolate covered peanut pieces in my lungs - and I do. Tonight was also great because I am wearing my favorite pair of socks. They are my favorite for 3 reasons... 1. They slide so great on my wood floor, I feel like Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" except for a few key biological differences, 2. They are warm and 3. They do not make my shoes fit weird while being thick enough to be warm.

So since the previous paragraphs are rather random, I will continue in this vein. I want a concordance for my Bible. I have wanted one for some time. The thought of having a big old thick concordance makes me smile. But my pastor today informed me of a great program that has a concordance for your computer. He said I would never go back to a hard copy. So I wonder... is it more important to be technologically savvy when I like the process of physically looking things up in books... I don't know. I like books. I like to flip through them. I like the way they look on shelves. A concordance on my computer does not offer any of those qualities... it simply adds CONVENIENCE. What is a girl to do?

PEACE,
Freelancer

Today I

Today I did not have to work. Well, I was suppose to work. I scheduled work. No work (that is for money) happened. So I painted my bathroom again. It needed a 2nd coat, and the trim needed to be painted - it was only primed. It is bright green. I watched a little bit of the Maury Povich show. Do you remember when that show was not scandalous. It has taken on a rather Springer-esque quality. It used to be much more a cross between Oprah and Dr. Phil. I wonder if Maury is still married to Connie Chung.

The highlight of the day was definitely hearing Milli Vanilli singing "B-B-B-B-Baby - Don't forget my number" on the radio. I love this radio station "the nine". They play whatever they want whenever they want... Milli Vanilli case and point. I recall driving up to Disney World, when I lived in Southern Florida with a youth group that my friend was in for Disney's Night of JOy. (I definitely saw Stryper and PEtra and Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, and maybe Steven Curtis Chapman, and Whitecross there. I bet Mylon La'Fevre was there too.) Anyway we sang Milli Vanilli all the way there. It was before the scandal of the lip syncing all happend. Do you remember "Puttin' on the HIts". It was a show or people who wanted to lip sinc. I think this show is to blame for the pain wrought upon the Milli Vanilli duo.

Today, I also cooked for my roomates. I made spicy pumpkin soup. It was fun. I don't think one of them liked it much. Her brow furrowed with every bite as though she were trying not to heave. I loved it - thanks for the recipe, BOSS.

The PW