Recent Posts

Categories

Interwebification ♥

I am an artist & teacher with a ❤ for visual expression, educational methodology, homesteading, & Jesus. My geek-love is The Joshua and we have three peanut-butters: Caleb, Jack, & Louritta.

I Got an iPod. Life is Good.

10/08/2004

Yeah. It’s pretty sweet. I have The Message Remix on it and sometimes it reads scripture in between song and it’s so cool cuz they’re short but easy to understand. Jesus is one contreversial fellow!
Anyhoo, life is good. It’s busy, but good. I’ve been blessed with some great stuff lately. I went to Haleigh’s surprise 13th birthday party yesterday and it was so amazing. I thought it would be like “Woo! Par-tay!” But it was different. It was all older (then Haleigh) women and we shared how Haleigh had impacted us and wise words of advice for her life. After everyone shared, her mom asked her if there were any recurring themes between what everyone said. Haleigh paused and said, “Um…Life just gets harder so be prepared.” It was funny.
But, the best part was just seeing and being a part of this group of women connected throughout time, coming together to bless another young woman. What an amazing experience.

Mmmmm…

10/06/2004

So, Coldstone Creamery is making their pumpkin ice cream again. Mmmmm… My favorite is pumpkin ice cream with heath bar, walnuts, & caramel. Oooo…so good!
Anyhoo, I’ve had a busy week. Both Josh and I have had interesting job advancements that include no pay increase, but could eventually be beneficial. So, that’s interesting. I’ve been crazy busy and having a hard time sleeping. I know, that’s crazy!
I used Sam Brown’s artwork in some lessons on themed art in my class today. The kids would draw a given theme, then I’d show them the drawing Sam Brown made for that theme. Then we’d have discussions about ways to better compose your picture and simplify your image down to the essential elements. They really enjoyed it and it was a blast to teach.
So, hope you enjoyed the super random blog. Crazy.

I Am Equal to a 13 Year-Old

09/29/2004

The rules for the volleyball league I’m playing in are kind of funny. They require that each team has a minimum of two women. (I’m proud to say that my team has only 2 men and we still kick boo-tay!) Anyway, the rules also state that a child who is 13 or younger may be substituted for a woman.
WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?! Are they saying that women suck!?! Since when does a fully grown smack-the-ball-in-your-face woman have equivalent worth to a 13 year-old??? Was women’s suffrage for naught?
Man, before we know it 13 year-olds will be able to vote.

Scrambling

09/29/2004

Man, am I tired! The last two weekends have had out-of-town conferences for me to go to which has packed me full of information and social gatherings. Now, I’m scrambling to get things back on track. School has been going well and my students are right where they should be. Volleyball has been a total blast and my team has won our first two games. Everything else has been taking the hits. My laundry for instance. Yesterday I had to invent an outfit with all of the “leftover” clothes. You know, the ones you don’t wear unless you have to.
I got five hours of sleep yesterday. Last night I got 7 which is still not enough for me, but I at least feel better than I did yesterday.
It also doesn’t help that every stupid night for me this week has something scheduled. WHEW! I was all pumped for Saturday, thought I’d slow things down with some beach time. Then I realized that I have to go to a technology class. WILL IT EVER END!?!
Regardless, I am currently working on several blogs I’d like to share and I’ve also been putting together my list of Top 10 Favorite Movies that I’ll eventually post to my critics page.
Life is so crazy sometimes.

Cows

09/21/2004

Yes…it’s an e-mail forward. I know…THE HORROR!!! Anyway, it still makes me smile whenever I get it forwarded to me. Plus, this one had some add ons at the end which were mildly amusing.
—
DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So what?
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support
a man in a foreign country who has only one cow — which was a gift from
your Government.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you
for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised
when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating
You have down sized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
Produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give
Excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don’t know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don’t milk them because you cannot touch any creature’s private parts.
Then you kill them and claim a US bomb blew them up while they were in
The hospital.
IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can’t figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best looking cow.
CALIFORNIAN
You have a cow and a bull.
The bull is depressed.
It has spent its life living a lie.
It goes away for two weeks.
It comes back after a taxpayer-paid sex-change operation.
You now have two cows.
One makes milk; the other doesn’t.
You try to sell the transgender cow.
Its lawyer sues you for discrimination.
You lose in court.
You sell the milk-generating cow to pay the damages.
You now have one rich, transgender, non-milk-producing cow.
You change your business to beef.
PETA pickets your farm.
Jesse Jackson makes a speech in your driveway.
Cruz Bustamante calls for higher farm taxes to help “working cows”.
Hillary Clinton calls for the nationalization of 1/7 of your farm “for the children”.
Scharwzenager signs a law giving your farm to Mexico.
The L.A. Times quotes five anonymous cows claiming you groped them.
You declare bankruptcy and shut down all operations.
The cow starves to death.
The L.A. Times’ analysis shows your business failure is Bush’s fault.

Convention

09/20/2004

I went to the communist…I mean, the California Teacher’s Association conference this past weekend. I had a blast and got to hang out with some fun people. I just laugh at the mob mentality of the whole thing. I actually felt ill witnessing all of the anti-Bush stuff everywhere. They make it seem like every single thing that’s wrong with the world is Bush’s fault, never mind their Democratic congress, or even the Senate. No, it’s just Bush. It’s such narrow thinking that I wonder if most of them look at the facts at all.
I’m also amazed by the shift towards Communist thinking. We need universal health care, universal retirement plans, universal…everything. It just frightens me to see how poorly the government spends the taxes I currently give. I can’t imagine what would happen if we gave them more.
Another thing that irritated me was the never-ending complaining about teachers’ rights. These people are all looking quite nice… which only makes me assume that they are able to pay their bills. What more do they want? Is there ever a point where the teacher’s union would stop and say, Oh, we have everything we need now. We’re happy! No. There’s something in humans that makes us desire to be the underdog. Even to the point that we specifically look for things to complain about. Is there ever a point where we are happy? Where we’re just satisfied with what we have? Where, while we seek an ideal in life, we are still content and thankful for all of our blessings?
I also got a card that listed all of the union endorsed people that I should vote for this year. How dumb do they think I am that I would just blindly vote for the people handed to me on a list? Does anyone actually do that? Is it any shock that every single person on that card was a Democrat? (Well, of course they had to be Democrats, because it’s common knowledge that Republicans are against education. Right? I still remember the bill by the Republicans where they wanted to burn down all of the public schools and just throw kids in a giant pit until they turned 18. It’s a shame that one didn’t go through.)
I could rant for hours more about stuff that irritates me when it comes to unions and certain political advocate groups. The prevailent thinking in those groups is so shallow or misinformed. I think I may have persuaded a few others that Republcans aren’t a bunch of idiots though, so I think it was a successful weekend.

The Thing I Hate the Most

09/15/2004

This blog has overtaken my journaling, so this entry is a bit more personal than usual.
The thing I hate the most about my miscarriages is not the blood, the pain, the tears, or even the fact that I don’t have a child. Those things are bearable with a bit of godly perspective.
The thing that I hate the most is that it has taken something I love and made me hesitant. I love children. I have always loved children. I have been the one that walks into a room and, bypassing the boring adults, makes a v-line to the kids. I love their joy, their sense of play, and the funny things they do. Even when they’re cranky. But now, I walk into a room, see kids (especially young ones), and hesitate. I didn’t do that before. I look at them and think, “Can I handle this today?” Usually I tell myself to get over it and force myself over to interact with them. It’s like getting back on the horse after it bucks you off.
And I hate that hesitation. I feel like something I have loved so much has somehow been broken and now I can’t enjoy it the way I used to.
Yesterday I was talking with two ladies from my work who are pregnant, and I notice that they hesitate around me too. Before, people would tell me all about their pregancies and babies and stuff…now others hesitate too. And that bothers me. But then, I look at it, and know that I would do the same thing around someone who had lost several babies. And that they are just being sensitive. And I’m thankful for that.
And I wonder, if in some bizarre way, my brain is operating my life on defense mechinisms. If I spend my time with people who have no children, or hang out with Jr. High kids (because they’re not even concerned with having a baby and hopefully aren’t getting pregnant anytime soon), am I just avoiding children? Before I wouldn’t say so, but before I didn’t hesitate. But now, looking at myself from the outside, I wonder a little.
I keep remembering how God used barren women to minister in the Bible (mostly Old Testament). One that stands out to me is Rachel. In Genesis 29:31 it says, “When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”
This shows me clearly that God has the right to close my womb. He has the right to determine if, how many, and when. And he has good reason to make those decisions for me. Even looking at this verse, I see that Rachel was loved, and he was using the pregnancy as a way to lift Leah up, and probably to show Rachel who was the true God in her life. And, if that’s what God is doing in my life (which I don’t have the mind to know), then I think that is awesome. Because, I know that I am loved completely and deeply by my husband and that is the greatest gift ever given to me by any human being. I don’t even deserve that, yet I have been so blessed. And, for THAT I rejoice and give praise to God for all that He has blessed me with. And I submit my life to His will, knowing that it is the very best place to be.

I Need Another Dinosaur!

09/13/2004

I went to the local flea market a couple weeks ago and found some great rubber dinosaurs. They’re pretty large and I thought their expressive stances and huge muscles would make for good drawing exercises.
So, I got three. There is John, who is a velociraptor with a large fin on his back. There is Ringo, the bumbling stegosaurus. And then there is the cute triceratops, Paul. But I have no George! NO GEORGE!!!
I need another dinosaur.

Newer Posts
Older Posts
© 2024 Steph Lewis |