Sporadic Birthday Party

So yesterday at our staff meeting Justin announced that they had some "sporadic baptisms" at Shorewood campus last weekend. Sporadic was clearly not the correct word...spontaneous would have probably been a better choice.

So we had a "sporadic birthday party" for Tyler last night. We didn't know it was his birthday until about 8:30 pm, but being the fine hostesses that we are, we pulled together a pretty good birthday...Lucas brought the card and the gift, Joni Kay had already made dinner, and Breanne whipped up a cake. I did a whole lot of nothing, so I cannot take any credit for anything.

There are two songs on the radio right now that I cannot stand. Although I am morally opposed to the lyrics of both of these songs, I find myself singing along when they play on the radio. It is infuriating. I heard the song Lips of an Angel twice in a row on two different radio stations today while driving, and I didn't change it either time, even though the lyrics are about still being in love with an ex while with someone else. The other song that makes me furious is Dirty Little Secret...nothing like telling teenage girls that if a guy tells you to keep it a secret, you should listen.

And now it is sleeting. The first "snowstorm" of the season is upon us...I love how everyone reacts to the first snow fall...schools have already announced cancellations for tomorrow. I think I used to like snow when it meant I didn't have to do anything. Now it is merely an annoyance.

On Grey's Anatomy they just separated 2 adult conjoined twins.
Talk about weird.

Musings

"Faith revolves around a crisis in personal relationship more than intellectual doubts...
Faith offers the option of continuing to trust God even while accepting the limits of our humanity, which means accepting that we cannot answer the 'Why?' questions...
For many people, it takes the jolt of tragedy, illness, or death to create an existential crisis of faith. At such a moment, we want clarity; God wants our trust."
(philip yancey_reaching for the invisible God)

"If knowing answers to life's questions is absolutely necessary to you, then forget the journey. You will never make it, for this is a journey of unknowables--of unanswered questions, enigmas, incomprehensibles, and most of all, things unfair."
(jeanne guyon)

*
I hate that women are the emotional sex. It really frustrates me. I tend to be emotional. (Gasp!) I know, shocking. And in turn, I tend to have an identity crisis every other month or so, and I keep wondering if this will ever stop happening. I have no reason to feel this way, it just happens. And when you're younger, this is perfectly acceptable--the feeling of not knowing who you are or who you are supposed to be. I always assumed, though, that by the time I finished college, I would have all of that figured out. Seriously, your mid-twenties sounds so old when you're in high school.

But guess what....I don't have it figured out, hence the recurring crises. (I think my current moodiness has been heightened by the thunderstorm...I love thunderstorms. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow.) And as something of a control freak, the idea of letting all that go and trusting God...well, that is a bit outrageous.

It's official.

The Christmas Season has begun.

Those of you who spent Friday shopping know that this is true. But it's true at 28W729 Richard Drive, because I came home from church tonight to find our Christmas tree up and decorated, with multiple bins and boxes strewn about the living room. All in all, it's a very festive atmosphere at the moment. We are even playing Christmas radio on the internet, and the house has an air of cinnamon and Christmas cookies.

I do enjoy the Christmas season. But I'm afraid that I'm going to be on Christmas decoration overload this year. It seems that everyone has taken it upon themselves to be the Griswolds this year. There is a house on Book Road that looks ridiculous. Although it also looked ridiculous for Halloween, so I don't think it's just this holiday...they're just a little out of control in general. But my biggest pet peeve about Christmas (well, actually most holidays) is inflatable yard ornaments. I'm sure I blogged about this last year too, but in case I haven't made it clear...I hate inflatable yard ornaments. I find them obnoxious and terrible. I will most likely rant about this again at some point before December 25th.

I must say, I think this year we had the most enjoyable family Thanksgiving we've had in years. Everyone was pleasant and agreeable, and we managed to play several games together without getting frustrated. This is unusual for my family. The best part of playing games, though, is that we tend toward playing games of speed, which is difficult for my grandparents. But they try their best. Brent (my cousin) taught us the game of Speed Scrabble, which I highly recommend, as it is much more enjoyable and fast paced than regular Scrabble, but it was exceedingly difficult for Grandma and Grandpa. At least you can always count on not being in last place when they play. And my grandpa thought Leonardo DiCaprio was an Italian director. I love him. (My grandpa, I mean, not Leonardo DiCaprio.)

Here's the grandparents and grandkids...

We're a pretty good-looking bunch.

The weather made for a highly enjoyable weekend. And Lucas got to experience it all with me. I guarantee his blog post about Thanksgiving will reflect different experiences than mine...

Parents are the bane of my existence.

Not MY parents. My students' parents.

I have a student whose mother insists on "teaching" her at home...why pay for piano lessons if you're going to do the job yourself? And if I try to correct what her mother has taught her, she doesn't listen. Oh, and she has to call her mom "Mommy." I have another mother who came in last week and asked me if her daughter's recital piece was too easy. (Um, no. Your daughter still doesn't know her notes, so it's definitely not too easy.) I have another student who says his mother won't let him practice playing loud. (What?) Oh parents. What do you do with parents who are weird?

I know you're not supposed to have favorites in life....but it seems that I always have one. I have a favorite piano student. She is amazing. She learned her whole recital piece in one week (it was perfect when she came in yesterday!), and when I asked if she wanted to learn another Christmas song, she picked one out and then admitted that she had already "kind of" practiced it. And it was nearly perfect too. She is such a sweetheart, and I love her enthusiasm for the piano. Reminds me of a kid I used to know....

It seems that there is something in the water in the greater Naperville area...I found out last night that 2 more of my friends are pregnant. So I will only be drinking bottled water from here on out. It's catching. Watch out.

Little-known fact about Charissa #27:
Sports movies generally make me cry. It's kind of pathetic, I know. I feel like Shelley. But the story of the underdog winning the big game....gets me every time. Hoosiers is one of my all-time favorite movies. I loved Remember the Titans. I cried at Glory Road. And probably countless others. But there is a movie coming out that was previewed when I saw James Bond the other night with Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox (which of course caught Breanne's attention) called We Are Marshall. I know that I'm going to go see it and I'm going to cry, especially since there is a plane crash involved....
The funny thing is that I don't even really like or care about sports for the most part....but those dramatic sports movies--every time.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

I think one of the worst jobs ever has to be the people who stand outside--in front of stores, apartment complexes, restaurants, wherever--dressed in costumes. I mean, most of those costumes cannot possibly be comfortable, this time of year it's probably really cold, you know people are laughing at you as they drive past (and not in the I-think-that's-kind-of-cute-and-funny kind of way, but in the look-at-that-loser-you-couldn't-pay-me-enough-to-do-that kind of way), and it has to be really boring. I say this because today I saw 2 separate instances of this kind of ridiculous advertisement. It can't really be effective, can it?

So I have stopped xanga for 2 reasons:
1.) so that people who are not xanga subscribers can leave me comments
2.) because xanga is blocked on our church's server, which means I can't post while at work. I know, it's very disturbing, not being able to blog while working.
3.) this looks cooler than my xanga anyway. (I know I said I only had 2 reasons, but that one just came to me.)

Book Road between 75th and 87th streets has to be the epicenter of Naperville's skunk population. I can't remember a time in the last month or two that I have driven down that road and not smelled a skunk.

So I came back to the real world and I stopped posting. My apologies.

Chicago is, well, wintery. It was wintery when I got off the plane last Friday, much to my chagrin. But I suppose as there's nothing I can actually do about it, I should not complain. In fact, as of this moment, I resolve to complain about the weather less. I would say I won't complain at all, but I know that won't happen, because winter and I....we don't get along so well.

One night recently I came home to see a possum in our driveway. It got scared by my headlights (which are so ominous and menacing), so it started running for shelter.....unfortunately the only shelter it could find was behind our garbage cans. He looked so terrified and anxious to find a hiding spot....I almost felt sorry for the little guy. This is a huge shift from my last encounter with a possum, in which it was on the front porch and I had to call my roommates to chase it away so that I could get in the house. Note, I did say I almost felt sorry for it. Not quite.

So I am becoming increasingly alarmed that I have not even begun my Christmas shopping. Apparently I was supposed to have started a few weeks ago....according to every store in the greater Naperville area and the city of Yorkville, which already has Christmas decorations adorning their street lamps. It looks quite festive but is beginning to freak me out. JoniKay already has her shopping done. While I find this a bit absurd (she has already begun the wrapping process--who wraps Christmas presents before Thanksgiving?), I must admit that I am a bit jealous. At this stage I don't even have any idea what is on the Christmas lists of those for whom I am buying. (That was kind of an awkward sentence...but you get the idea.) Who decided that we needed to start focusing on Christmas the day after Halloween? Poor Thanksgiving....it gets lost in all the hustle and bustle....

Here's to Thanksgiving--a glorious day involving the consumption of entirely too much food, none of which you get to eat on a typical basis. I love turkey. One week from today, I expect to be enjoying turkey in the company of my family. Here's to the absence of chaos....for once. (I have the greatest Thanksgiving story of all time.....it involves my aunt, a pumpkin pie, and a fiasco....I'll save it for later.)

I have a new cell phone number..... in case I missed you on my email list, my new number is 630.340.1891. Guess I'm officially a "local" now.

And if you think of, please feel bad for Shelley. She has been sick for almost a week now, and she keeps asking us to feel bad for her. Her grace period with me has ended, but if you think of it, let her know that you feel bad for her.