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Quotable

"That will either drive me nuts or drive me to pee my bed."

-- Stephen Stone, on falling asleep to the sound of waves hitting the beach

Wedding Pic

Is it weird to post photos of an event you didn't go to? I really wanted to be at Jared and Beth's wedding, but with Aubri being totally grumpy last week (read: she cried nearly all of Saturday she was awake), we decided only Johnathan should make the 7 hour trip. I was really excited to see what he brought back on the camera, so here are a couple of those.I hope you two enjoy your honeymoon! 

  

Birth News

It turns out that Autum (the girl below in black, who IS smaller than me) is now much smaller than me. She gave birth to son Wyatt in an emergency c-section earlier today. Word is there is some trouble with his health (he's pretty small, and had the umbilical cord around his neck) so they are being kept until Tuesday. Please pray for full health for both Autum and the baby.

Johnathan and I are getting closer to meeting our little one, who is due to arrive in about 61/2 weeks. Someone just donated a crib and mattress to us, so the only piece of furniture left for us to get is a dresser. This is fine, as we don't actually get to move all of Aubriana's stuff into her room until our roommate Danielle moves out, about three weeks after the baby comes. I don't mind this, although I am having trouble finding places for all of the stuff-- baby clothes and other gifts-- that we have been receiving. It's driving me nuts-- apparently I'm overly zealous when it comes to clutter because I'm not allowed to clean Johnathan's office. Ever. I'm not even allowed to touch the various deodorants (at last count, 5!) lining the book shelves. So my patience is being a little stretched, although I have been getting creative.

Weekend Part 1

1.-2. On Saturday Randolph Volleyball won their first home game of the season! Johnathan was, of course, very excited and we certainly enjoyed the victory. 3-4. It was also parent's weekend so we "adopted" some of the girls for the afternoon, got some lunch, watched some TV, and played a rather tepid round of Uno. 5-8. We returned to the college for evening festivities-- which included a pumpkin walk, a round of singing, and then some standing around. It was such that if you didn't know any better you'd think there was a cult on campus! I enjoyed it, as I got filled in on some of the ghost stories pervading Randolph's history, and when we met up with the girls in the haunted "West End Parlor" we talked for hours!

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The Kitty

The Kitty is a moody creature. His love language is "after midnight." Yes, I know this doesn't correspond with Gary Smalley's fave five, but "after midnight" is a truly viable category in this case. The Kitty also believes that "the bathroom" is his secondary love language, and when The Kitty is in "the bathroom" with you "after midnight", he purrs.

The Kitty throws fits. He makes a point of swatting at my legs whenever I tell him "no." Very sweet Kitty.

The Kitty is a hunter. He eats bugs, ambushes me in the hallway, and tracks Danielle on the stairs. And The Kitty is not daunted when his prey fights back. The proof of this is his engagement of Husband-- big, scary black man that he is-- in mano a mano combat. Brave Kitty.

"Mama Day" and Reality

My roommate Danielle is Haitian, although she grew up in America and only lived in Haiti briefly. Nevertheless, she heard enough stories and experienced enough of the effects of voodoo that I think she can get angry about our (American Christians') lack of sensitivity to spiritual warfare.

We were discussing the spiritual gifts the other day-- particularly those which many Baptists believe have "passed away." I don't know how we got there, but we started discussing her background. I remembered how a year ago I was finishing up Gloria Naylor's novel Mama Day and telling her about the book. She shivered at some of the parts I described and explained, "I can read or watch pretty much anything-- Harry Potter, Rush Hour, etc.,-- but books like this, where it's real, truly bother me. I don't know if that book is something I can read." [The novel is a strange love story with parts that focus on the hereditary "voodoo" powers of Mama Day and her rival, Ruby]

So I asked her about it. She started by explaining that Haitians dedicated the country to Satan when they received their freedom (in a gruesome way, as she tells it). In Haiti, "Catholicism" might be synonymous with "voodoo", and one of their last national leaders was on a hunt for 2000 human hearts in order to rededicate the country to Satan. According to Danielle, people were disappearing left and right until he was kicked out of office.

Even though I feel more and more horrified every time I think about it, now I know what to pray for. I hope, if you care, this helps! It's not just poverty and strife that afflict this country-- it's spiritual warfare!

An Ode to Tat

It's very strange, but I am earning my Master's in Education. I know, I know. This is a funny thing to say is strange. But it's because I really don't care about education. Not when I'm in classes, anyway, although recently I've been allowed to branch out a little bit and do some research on online programs. This research actually pertained to about 75% of my life and I was ridiculously interested.

Did you know . . .
1. Employers are beginning to acknowledge online degrees to be just as valid as traditional degrees, as long as the school is accredited, of course.
2. Research indicates that online learning outcomes are level with traditional learning outcomes.
3. Interviews with online users have stated that having to actually read the text and read what experienced students have to say helps them achieve more learning outcomes than the traditional classroom allows.
4. Faculty still struggle with teaching online classes because of the time commitment required (all feedback must be written) and because of trouble with delivery software.
5. Market research companies estimate that almost 7% of higher learning students are participating in online classes.
6. Almost 50% of graduate schools offer online master's degrees.

So, why am I oding my sister, you might wonder? (She's the "Tat" of the title. It' a long story involving volleyball and various inappropriate nicknames.) Because while I care about online learning research, she cares about the world of education. I learned more from her experiences as a special ed teacher, and her knowledge and passion in our one Sunday afternoon of conversation (thanks for getting married, Matt!)
than in my four completed classes of education.

I wonder what the research says about the efficacy of teacher education as opposed to getting out there and just doing it?

From My Vacation . . .

The characters: Me, Janell, Tatiana/Becca, Missy, Brittany and Matt (at their wedding)

The characters: me, Johnathan, Virginia Beach

Last Night

One of my favorite people got married last night. Matt's wedding was probably the best I've ever been to-- very personal and holy. I also got to see some old friends-- Matt's family, of course, and Bobby and Amanda and Rob and a few other people I used to spend a lot of time with, include a friend I've made recently via this weblog, Los. By the time we left and arrived home I had been awake for nearly 22 hours and was alternating between hilarity and exhaustion. Some pictures will follow once I can figure out how to get this computer to allow them!

On Friends and Meaning

I think that with the advent of Myspace and Facebook the meaning of the word "friend" will be forever different. I was talking with my former roommate Tyler, and asked if what we were listening to (we were in the car) was Todd Agnew. "Yep. Hey, he's my friend, you know."

"Really, how'd you meet him?"

"Oh, I didn't meet him. He's my friend on MySpace."

Huh. Weird.

So my co-worker Faith has a picture of Michael Tait in her cubicle, and yesterday I asked her about him.
"Yeah, we're friends."

I smiled-- this type of thing I understood, now!-- "On Facebook or MySpace?"

"Oh, um. Both, I guess. But I meant that we were actually friends. Like we know each other."

Huh.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of the changeable nature of the English language, has anyone noticed the new verbs out there that are related to these networks? Two days ago, a girl I knew facebooked me to see if I was going to Jerry' funeral, and Johnathan was myspaced by his friend Sean to remind him about their lunch meeting.

This is why I love English. And frankly, I don't know how dictionaries keep up.