Oceanskater’s Blog

I’m turning comments off on my blog until I have more time to spend here. Right now, the only comments I get are spam anyway
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http://oceanskater.vox.com/

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Noodles and Roy are smelling all the candles we bought to give as Christmas presents - to decide which one to give to who. Noodles keeps trying to lick the ones he likes. It’s quite cute

We gave Noodles a bath the other night (because he got into 2.5 lbs of coffee, but that’s another story), and he’s quite a bit thinner than he was when we got him. He only has about 4 more lbs to lose (he’s lost about 12), and then he’s off the diet food and on to some hypoallergenic blend.

Pictures of Noodles:

In the animal shelter (May, 2006):

At our house-warming party (July, 2006):

In his bath the other night (December, 2006):

He’s quite slim!

During our last-minute shopping yesterday, we had several discouraging experiences that threatened my Christmas spirit. The one that really got me thinking was a bumper sticker I saw:

“Republicans Are People, Too. Mean, Selfish, Greedy People”

This was very interesting, especially in light of a recent study on America’s generosity that I had been reading about. Dr. Arthur Brooks wrote a book entitled “Who Really Cares?” and was on 20/20 talking about it. Here are some of the statistics:

Americans are 3.5 times more generous than the French, 7 times more generous than Germans and 14 times more generous than Italians.The American working poor are the most generous by a rather large margin. Conservatives give 30% more than liberals. He adds, “And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less money.” Of the top 25 states where people give an above average percent of their income, 24 were red states in the last presidential election. And the most generous of all are those he calls “religious” - they give 18% more at blood drives and 400% more to the homeless.

Another interesting quote from Brooks: “A person who goes to church every week and strongly rejects the idea that it is the government’s responsibility to redistribute income will give, on average, 100 times more money to charity each year than a person who never attends a house of worship, and strongly believes that the government should reduce income differences between people.” 100 times!

Since “conservatives” do tend to be Republicans, I’m not sure I can agree with the above bumper sticker, especially since I know some really great Republicans

I wanted to post a picture of a house nearby that gets all decked out for Christmas. First of all, this house is huge and without all the decorations, it looks like a castle. Have a look:

This house is huge, first of all! Look at how small this person is compared to the house:

Here are 2 more pictures:

It’s pretty crazy because the house is on a busy street and everyone slows down to take pictures of the house.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

The world has been talking a lot about for forgiveness lately after the tragic deaths at the Amish schoolhouse. So many are amazed in particular at the humility of the grandfather of one of the girls who was killed.

But I’m not really surprised or amazed at all. Because I recognize the power of forgiveness and the freedom it has brought me in my own life.

People often think of justice first, forgiveness second. Forgiveness without justice seems unfair to people, even impossible. And forgiveness without justice also just seems unfair.

We can usually think of 100 reasons not to forgive. They probably sound something like this: He should learn a lesson. I don’t want to encourage irresponsible behavior. She needs to learn that actions have consequences. I was wronged - he needs to make the first move. He needs to ask for forgiveness. How can I forgive if he’s not even sorry?

We can usually think of 100 reasons not to forgive before we remember the one good reasons to forgive: because we have experienced the ultimate forgiveness through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In the New Testament, the most common word translated as forgiveness means, literally, to release, to hurl away, to free yourself. On the flip side of that is resentment. It means, literally, “to feel again”: resentment clings to the past, relives it over and over, never allowing healing.Philip Yancey wrote this in “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”: “Not to forgive imprisons me in the past and locks out all potential for change. I thus yields control to another, my enemy, and doom myself to suffer the consequences of the wrong.”

What that Amish grandfather demostrated is really a very simple truth: our lack of willingness to forgive only hurts us.

“The first and often the only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness…..When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.” Lewis Smedes in “Shame”

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here! That’s because my life has been incredibly busy in the recent days. But there’s a lot I want to share with you.

Since it’s the beginning of the school year, it’s also sort of the beginning of the ministry year, since the church where Alive in Christ meets has a lot of families and college students. So for the past 3 Sundays, I’ve spent quite a bit of time at the church. I’ve also been helping with music at the church that Roy & I attend.

I’ve also attended several seminars over recent months. Just last week, I saw both Stormie Omartian and Steve Arterburn speak. Steve was hilarious, and Stormie was inspiring. Roy & I also attended a friend’s wedding and a family birthday party that actually had a performance by an Elvis impersonator. Quite amusing

I don’t know how many of you have heard of XXXChurch.com. They are starting a new campaign to raise awareness about and find help for pastors who struggle with pornography addiction. I get e-mail updates from them, and today they shared that a professional pornography photographer gave his life to Christ a week ago. Praise God! He immediately called up Playboy and resigned, and just last night, he found a good-paying job in a completely different field. He ended his blog post by saying, “This is, of course, much less than I’m used to making. But it will allow me to take care of my son. Try telling me that God’s not helping me.” Amen to that. His name is Donny. Please keep him in your prayers.Also, keep those affected by all the school shootings in your prayers.

Amazon Grocery? How bizarre!

I listen to this rather serious radio show, where everyone from co-dependents to porn addicts call in to get serious help. Yesterday, this woman called in because her boyfriend talks about farting and burping too much. It was just hilarious compared to everyone else calling in with DID and sex addiction.

I don’t know why, but I think the whole Bush/Blair conversation that was inadvertently caught on microphone was hilarious. It doesn’t even bother me, really, that Bush swore. But I can’t help but keep saying, “Yo, Blair! Thanks for the sweatah!” (Of course, that’s my Boston accent coming out.)

It probably also goes without saying that I am thrilled that Bush vetoed the Stem Cell bill. Thrilled! He’s right - he said in a press conference that these embryos are not “spare parts”. It’s sad for me to hear people call stem cell research on frozen embryos “progress”. What’s even scarier, in some ways, is that all these frozen embryos even exist. That’s a whole nother topic. But I heard a radio show today with families who adopted the embryos and now have babies.

The original couple who sued for gay marriage to be legalized in Massachusetts are splitting. Crazy (as in hard to believe/imagine).

A friend who came over for our house-warming party last weekend said the pictures I post of Noodles look nothing like him. So here he is again.

Noodles in Kitchen:

Noodles in Dirt:

Noodles Getting a Bath:

Noodles After His Bath:

I’ve been a crazy traveling woman! First, I was in upstate NY at a family member’s wedding. Then I was home for a few and my mom came to travel with us to a family reunion in Amish Country, Pennsylvania. Now, we’re home again.

It was quite a different experience to see so many Amish and Mennonite folks all over the place. Quite honestly, I can’t say I know the difference between the two, but I’m told they wear different head coverings They run a good number of the grocery stores and other businesses around the area, and so they all shut down on Sundays. Not a bad policy. It is kind of strange to think about people who don’t use electricity running businesses that require electricity. We stayed with my great uncle who I haven’t seen in probably 20 years, so that was cool. He has a neat accent, and I’m told it’s actually quite mild compared to most native PA-ers.

I also got to have “church” with some of my relatives who are born-again Christians. We were all going to go together up the street to a church some of my family has visited, but when we got there, the doors were locked and no one was there for church! My uncle vaguely remembered the pastor at one recent visit saying something about concentrating on home groups and not meeting as a congregation for a few weeks. So I suggested I get out my guitar and we would have our own church service! It was actually totally awesome. God showed up and I was totally blessed, as were others. I know we blessed God’s heart as well.

Besides all that, everything was so peaceful there. It was hard to come back to the city, to all the hustle and bustle and noise, to the rude people with music blasting out of there cars, the pedestrians who walk out in front of traffic. Last weekend, I was so thankful to be back in the city. This weekend, not so much.

And I keep thinking about how Roy ran in the road after Noodles. He dropped everything without a second thought in order to make a mad dash for his beloved dog. How much greater lengths does our Heavenly Father go to to rescue us when we are in trouble. The greatest example is Jesus Christ. God sent His Only Son to earth to rescue us when we were in trouble. Awesome

Hello, blog friends! I am alive! I realized I haven’t written since the move (which we survived). We even got a dog from the animal shelter. He’s very cute.

Then I went to California to visit my sister, and got very sick. I am still getting over whatever it was. It was not fun; that’s for sure.

Here’s a picture of the new addition to our family:

(EDIT: Somehow, my picture got inserted into the wrong place in my post, but it’s actually quite funny, and I’m going to leave it there.)

So, tomorrow, we’re moving. Fun times. It’s not supposed to rain tomorrow - thank God! I’ll be without Internet access, at least for the weekend. Not that I post enough for you to notice I’m gone, but I thought I’d let you know just in case.

A small problem has arisen and that would be that I cut the heck out of my finger at work today and now it’s in a splint. The finger’s OK; I didn’t need stitches, though the doc said if I had gotten checked out in a more timely manner (oops), he would have used that glue stuff. But since I didn’t (oops), I need to wear this splint so the wound doesn’t re-open.

Moving is going to be a lot of fun with a huge splint on my middle finger. “See” you in a few days.

I don’t know if people from outside New England hear about this stuff, but Patrick Kennedy has been on my heart and in my prayers this week. If I understand one thing, it’s the heartbreak of addiction, and the heartbreak of having a family member in & out of rehab. I guess that’s actually 2 things Anyway, if you’re the praying type, do say a prayer for Patrick and his family.

Did I mention that I had a birthday this week? I went to my 2 favorite restaurants - Taco Bell for lunch and Shawarma King for dinner! Roy got me a little gourmet carrot cake - num, num. It was all-in-all a good birthday.

And as of 1:30 PM today, Roy & I are officially homeowners! I feel so grown up. Now we can get a dog! I went to the MSPCA to visit some dogs last week, and left practically in tears. I wanted to take them all home, especially a cute pit bull terrier named Bella. She was the only dog not barking, and when I put my hand near her cage, she just gently licked it over and over! It just broke my heart. I think I’m going to have to stick to looking at the dogs on the MSPCA’s website.

Sorry I’ve been absent for so long. My site was down for almost a week, and I got out of the habit of updating.

Tomorrow, I’ll be 31. So old!

The closing on the condo is supposed to be this Friday, God-willing.