Change can be hard -- but it can also be good

I sit here nearly in tears after tossing and turning all night.  Mark and I are seriously thinking about moving.  We had a lot of criteria for a move.  We would only move if we found a better house that was one-story, no pool, in the same town we live in, and on the same side of this town...that was within our price range.  We may have found it but it hasn't been built yet.  We're talking to the realtor today that is selling some new houses.

In anticipation of another change, Kathryn came home this weekend from college.  The three of us will officially join Abiding Grace Lutheran Church and sign its charter today.  I have very mixed emotions here.  I absolutely had to leave my former church because the "senior pastor" preaches stuff that is repugnant to me.  (I totally put the words senor pastor in quotes because I think it is silly that he calls himself the senior pastor when he is the only pastor there.)  I'm grateful I don't have to listen to his hate-filled sermons anymore, but I hate what he did to a loving Christian community.  I feel he is a sick man and I'll leave it at that.  Abiding Grace Lutheran Church is a loving place -- and I would rather be there.

Last night, we spent a couple hours clearing out Kathryn's room.  We have probably 5 bags of trash at the curb, 5 bags to take to GRACE and a couple bags of yarn to donate to a knitting group.  Her room and closet seem bare.  This was where the tossing and turning came from -- I feel we are throwing or giving away her childhood.  She isn't a child anymore, she is an adult, but it is hard to see so much stuff go.  We still have boxes under her bed and her bookcase to clean, but her room is much different now! 

I haven't actually talked to my son in awhile -- I think I need to fix that today.

Time marches on.

How Short is Your Attention Span -- a small rant!

I use social media networks. Facebook is now out-of-fashion for the younger group -- since we, their moms and dads are on it. They have turned to Twitter for now, which I love. But both sites may be affecting our attention spans!

(photo borrowed from greencountryok.com)

A couple weeks ago, I went to the play "Oklahoma" in Oklahoma at Discoveryland. If you really want to see "Oklahoma" done right -- this is the place to go. They have a huge outside stage and real horses led by real cowboys! I digress. I was sitting on the second row and the family in front of me kept checking their smartphones to check in on facebook. Folks -- this is rude behavior when you are at a performance!

Did you get that if I was on the second row and they were in front of me -- they were on the first row! Even if you don't like the play, like the song they are currently singing, don't like the ballet part (raising my hand here); it is downright rude to the actors and the audience to check your phone.

Come on people -- we can all go two to three hours without being "connected".

Not thinking...or thinking too much!

So yesterday I went down the road to get my haircut and Kathryn went with me. I was driving back on the freeway and part of the time I was following an "Express Catering" truck (roach coach). I passed him and then about another mile down the road, Kathryn said "where are you going" as I was passing the exit to our house. I replied "hmmm guess I wasn't thinking."

In reality, this is what I had been thinking and told Kathryn as we meandered back to our home. "That catering truck reminded me of an ice cream truck and that made me remember that someone had posted on facebook 'If kids get ice cream trucks, why don't adults get margarita trucks?'...and this led me to think about the dacquiri/margarita shops in New Orleans where there are many flavors of the drink against the wall...and this led me to think about self-serve yogurt shops that have popped up all over the place...and then I remembered that Cassie's yogurt here in Grapevine has both cupcake batter and cake batter and I want to get in and see what the difference is...and that they had updated their fb page that they have a new flavor, root beer float, and I wonder what flavor they got rid of...

So In reality, I was just thinking too much to make my exit!

This Amazing Journey

When God shut a door on me a few months ago and it became apparent that Mark and I were leaving our church of 25 years, I had no idea what an amazing journey He would lead me on. I am so humbled and honored at the same time to be seeing his glory at work.

First, we started attending another Lutheran church in the area. I mentioned it in another blog post and going to Rejoice was wonderful. However, that's not where the journey ends.

A group of people that were leaving the old church met with the bishop and he gave us the go-ahead to start a Synodically Authorized Worshiping Community and at that meeting a "Launch Team" was formed. I got on the launch team simply because I had my laptop and I was taking notes at that meeting. I am the note-taker for the Launch Team. It is simply amazing and awe-inspiring how the Holy Spirit formed our group and works with us. Everyone in the group has such a gift to give (ok -- my gift is just that I can type fast). We have financial people, insurance people, a great techie guy who set up a wonderful website, people who know how to find a place for worship, we have a person who knows people at the synod office and therefore, knows who to talk to about various things, organized people who can organize a meeting, -- it is simply amazing!

We even found a part-time pastor who is GREAT. He could be hired away at any time, but I am going to let the HS handle that. I found it is much better if I just get out of the way and let God work.

When I left the old church and said that I would be willing to help start a new one; I had friends and family who said -- oooh that is so hard to start a new church. Well it hasn't been hard; it has been such a joy to be part of this. I can't even put into words how awesome it has been to see how God uses each of our talents (that He gave us to begin with) to make something wonderful. One of the themes of the ELCA is "God's work, our hands". This is so true with this endeavor.

We had our first picnic/worship service a few weeks ago and had over 50 in attendance. We will start meeting regularly on August 15 and I can hardly wait.

I am so EXCITED. One of my friends on the launch team even changed my ringtone on her phone to the the song "I'm so Excited" by the Pointer Sisters. I think I'll change her ringtone on my phone to be the same.

My new church got its name because we wanted to emphasize that Grace is freely given by God to each of us -- the new church is Abiding Grace Lutheran Church. Come join us if you are in my area! We start worshiping on August 15!

How many email addresses do I really need?

I have used kimingvtx@yahoo.com as my main email address for a very long time.  When gmail came out, I grabbed kimingvtx@gmail.com.  Then I realized that I could add another yahoo address to my account and I added mathtutorkim@yahoo.com.  Recently I was giving out my email address again and I always have to say k-i-m-i-n-g-v-t-x very slowly and it was getting tedious. Also if I have to update my resume, I didn't want to use that one.  So I created kim.saunders@live.com  (which I will also use, I guess, if I ever leave Grapevine Texas).  I also have a TCC email address.

I'm slowly moving some things to gmail in anticipation of getting my Droid Incredible phone.  However, I'm keeping all the email addresses  -- I should be pretty easy to get a hold of!

Why my marriage works

Mark and I are very compatible. Right now I am at work and I need to scan something for a friend. I know how to scan -- I scan old pictures alot. I can't get this particular computer and scanner to talk to each other. It prints just fine from the computer, but it won't scan. HMMM.

I think, "if Mark were here, he could fix it and then I could scan the item". See, we are just that compatible. He fixes computers, and I use them. I am pretty savvy on software issues, but hate hardware issues. If the computer can get the all-in-one device to print, why can't it get it to scan?

I need Mark here. Instead I think I will just take the object home with me and scan it there. Mark has recently bought me a cool new printer/scanner....and it works!

Thanks Mark. I love you bunches -- and not just because you can fix hardware issues.

Love of Learning or Learning for the next task

So last night I listened to an interesting podcast -- Bad Philosophy Episode 63 http://www.badphilosophy.com/blog/2010/04/19/episode-063-one-big-shiny-piece-of-paper/

Yes, my son, is on the podcast as well as a couple other college guys. They made some interesting points on this one. The podcast subject was prompted by the resignation of the Dean of the Honor's College at Texas Tech. He resigned because he did not agree with the university's administration's desire to achieve Tier One status -- or at least how they were going about getting it. Apparently research is a BIG deal for Tier One schools. When a professor has to do more research, he has less time to teach an honors course -- therefore, fewer professors were available to teach honors and they had to cut from 80 honors classes to around 50! That does not sound like progress to me.
I'm not really sure they talked about all that -- I read it in an article on the subject.

The guys did talk though about the value of a college education and the difference in getting a "universal education" and getting a degree to allow one to go to work. Universities were formed to do both I think. However, as Kevin said, some people just sleep through the classes that don't help them in the job market and manage to pull C's. They possibly listen more in the classes that they might be using in the marketplace. Most universities have a core curriculum that includes math, English, history, arts, etc. This is designed to give the student the universal education.

When did we get away from learning something just to expand one's mind and get to only learning what one needs to learn for the next task at hand. Where is the love of learning? Can we get it back? Should we?

Note: The guys on the podcast are Honors students. Kevin graduated with Honors last year and the other two will graduate next month. I think they tend to have more of the "love of learning".