you're the whole world and you barely know, so

kelly has requested a blog post - "a long one" - lets see what I can do.

so, my loves, I have recently finished both my take-home midterm for diagnosis AND my 18 page Inductive Bible Study! HOORAY! turning that puppy in last night was one of the more gratifying moments of my life.
interestingly, I'm big into pet names recently. nothing like "hun" or "girl" or "sweetie" or anything traditional (and lame). but weird ones. I think its because I'm with a baby 2 days a week and been talking to Timmy and Shelbs a lot... sweet pea is my favorite, followed by pumpkin, (with variations such as pumpkin pie, pumpkin head).
not normal. not at all. is this what its like to have kids?

I'm lacking anything very exciting to say at all. I mean, I've been in the library or at cafe europa, my study place of choice, pretty much every day since I got back from spring break. so. not all that much to report.

Oh here's something. Sunday at church was just one of those amazing Sundays at church. It was baptism Sunday, I worked in the nursery, and the sermon was PHENOM. Michael Hidalgo is just amazing... every week he expands my understanding and teaches me something new. Allison (who goes to church with me) have discussed how we are a little sermon-snobby nowadays that we are in seminary in such intense Bible classes, and Michael is pretty brilliant.
So anyway, he was talking about heaven on earth, and how often we miss it. He told this story about the parting of the red sea and the people walking across to freedom. There were two of them, walking to freedom, who never looked up. They walked through the parted sea, never realizing the miracle around them, complaining about the mud. They complained the whole way across about their having to trudge through the mud, wondering after why everyone seemed to celebratory, cynically commenting that freedom was not a whole lot different from slavery. The question is: how many times in our lives are we too busy looking at the mud to notice God in our midst? (there was also a lot of scripture in there too... don't worry). Needless to say, he went on to talk about all the distractors in our lives (namely cell phones, etc.) and asked this question... if you were the devil, what would you want to distract us from? Heaven in our midst. Getting us to look at the negative is the easiest way to avert our eyes from the truly good and miraculous. He challenged us to be the kind of people who, instead of always just talking about Jesus, "maybe just become the kind of people who point out Jesus wherever he exists." How amazing that I drive straight into the mountains every morning? I don't often enough recognize the miracle of God in my midst... something to think about, for sure.
And then I cried like a baby all the way through the baptisms. They were adult baptisms, done by full dunking, which I had never seen before... very cool.
A little girl named Susanna in Sunday school said to us, "You know that big tub of water downstairs? Someone told me they were going to dump people in it. Is that true?"
Teachers: "yeah, it is! Thats called baptism."
Susanna: "whats a baptitism?" (note the two t's)
us: "thats when you stand up in front of the whole church and tell them you have Jesus in your heart."
Susanna accepts this, but comes back about 5 minutes later...
"But what are they REALLY going to do with that water???!"
What a lovely Sunday.

today it rained a little, and now it is absolutely the most beautiful sunny evening time of the whole year. not all that warm - just lovely, you know? I kept thinking of that line in my FAAAAVE poem, "I am not sorry when sun and rain make April." beautiful. happy April!

lastly, I'd like to remind you that my birthday is next Friday, April 11. and I LOVE my birthday. more proof that I am my mother's daughter.

and also I'm watching You've Got Mail right now. I love that movie. but be honest. does ANYONE talk out loud while they send emails? I mean really.
THATS ALL.
big hearts.

ps - I'm thinking about cutting my hair to about shoulder length. and making it blonder for spring. thoughts?