Week 9

The week started with a meeting of the commencement committee. With fall midterms barely behind us, the committee was knee-deep in making arrangements for the end of the year in May. Where does the time go?


We met in the library coffee shop and surrounded ourselves with all of the necessary supplies - pads, pens, Snapple, coffee, and potato chips.


It was a week full of meetings. Here we have the prestigious members of the social/rec committee (or, as well like to call it, the social/wreck committee) planning the big Bagel Bash coming in December. And really, it looked like a social/wreck meeting with the collection of Xbox controllers on the coffee table, the thunder sticks on the floor that were left over from that morning's Sarah Palin ralley, the full Guitar Hero World Tour set up in the corner and...

...Kevin. I mean, have you ever seen a bigger, more social wreck than this guy?? For clarification, that's slightly chewed P'zone hanging out of his mouth. Oh Kevin, where have you been all my life?

And we haven't really had a social/wreck meeting until we've been ambushed by Eric and a raining fire of countless nerf bullets.

Not to be outdone, Kevin decided that when it comes to nerf wars, size matters.

Then one thing led to another and the whole bloomin' arsenal came out.

So naturally, the rest of us had no choice but to grab a gun and start firing at will. Before the evening was over, there were multiple overturned pieces of furniture and one bloody nose (not mine or there would have been a picture of it).

As far as I was concerned, any bullets than landed in the stink were just going to have to stay lost forever. Guys....sheesh. (Note the overturned recliner and coffee table in the background.)

We got our senior picture proofs this week, and since Rupe was the only one of us who actually liked his photos, he won this prestigious spot on the blog.

I was running rather low on pictures for the week, so I've decided to fill space by giving you a behind-the-scenes look at Pixahoy! (David Letterman used to refer to such attempts as "Hal Guerney network time killers".) This is the nerve center. It's the corner of the producer's apartment where the blog magically springs to life - fully equipped with five different versions of the Bible, a Hebrew Torah, a Greek New Testament, Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, a Book of Order, a Book of Confessions, a Book of Common Worship, about a zillion text books, a pile of index cards, and a USB cord that connects the camera to the laptop. It's all very high tech, you see.

This is the fuel that powers the blog - McDonald's coke and prescription medication. (I keed, I keed. Well....actually....I don't.)

This is where the producer kicks off her shoes when she gets home each evening.

This is what the producer does when she is plagued by incurable writer's block - she window shops on Ebay.

This is where the producer hatches all of her best ideas. (Have I killed enough time yet?)

Week 8

Rupe! It's good to see you again, my brother.


I told Emily that nearly every picture I have of her involves a curious display of her tongue. Her response, "Yeah, that's the plan."


I get this look from Andrew at least once a day. Now, you can't tell from the picture, but he's actually about 5'4" and probably weighs 90 pounds dripping wet. In other words, I could snap him in half over my knee. So really, all I have to say to this pose is...isn't he just so precious??


Occasionally Mindy just spontaneously bursts into tears. I think it has something to do with...


...see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. Their presence sometimes reduces me to tears, too.

You may have noticed from these past few pictures that we weren't having chapel in our usual location. (By the way, awesome gaping pie hole, Anne!) We had to move worship across the courtyard when we showed up for chapel and discovered that it had been transformed into...

...THIS!! The undergrads had moved in and (unbeknownst to us) transformed it into their stage for a production of "Wiley and the Hairy Man". Now I don't want to go into any details, but I've known a hairy man or two in my day, and none of them had a very liturgical ethos about them. Clearly, overcoming the swampish environment of the hairy man so that we could worship would be challenging, but I still thought we were up for it. For instance...

...here, from the Garden of Eden, we have the lesser known Tree of the Knowledge of Snot and Weevils. In the background you can see where Jacob props up his ladder when it's not in use.

Here we see the tree where Judas hanged himself, evidenced by the askew limb that had to be bolted back in place...

...and really, isn't it every preacher's dream to proclaim the Word directly in front of the spot where Judas "fell headlong, bursting asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushing out" (Acts 1:18 - see what fascinating things are in the Bible, kids)??? Alas, less creative minds than mine prevailed and chapel was moved across the courtyard.

As a tip-of-the-hat to hairy men everywhere, we decided to go out for some Greek food. Me, Rupe, Kate...

...and this guy. He's so shady. Literally.

I heart Jeff.

Monte, Emily, and Justin are holding something that I'm sure is probably edible. Emily has the gift of hospitality and loves us with food. And really, God bless her for it! We never complain.

The coffee mugs that we carry around with us stand as testimony that we are a seminary that truly celebrates diversity.

This week we also had family chapel (again, far away from the hairy man - for the sake of the children, you see). So Miss Hannah came to play her clarinet.

And Miss Morgan played the violin. Both performances were inspiring.

I think the hairy man is trying to find a way in.

Grant's daughter is wearing the quintessential little girl outfit - a satin kimono, white tights with rainbow hearts on them, and shiny black snow boots! An outfit of all her favorite things! How awesome is that?

Jeff wants my daughter to know that thanks to this blog, he can see her when she's sleeping and knows when she's awake - just like Santa! (Or maybe a hella creepy hairy man.)

Our CNP group (the same group that pilgrimaged to Louisville together) had dinner at Bonnie Sue's house. When Gary arrives, you know the party has really started - mostly because he's awesome, but also because he brings the food.

Look at what a sweet puppy Jessie is! Personally, I think Brad's reaction is proof that vampires have stolen his soul.

We had a big ol' mess of Chinese food! Thanks, Gary!!

At the end of the week, I made a trip home for Halloween. Here we see Indiana Max getting reading to comb the neighborhood for candy with his friends Brandon and Ian. As you can see, it's very serious business.

Zoe's friends went all gansta in our front yard.

Whenever I go home, Max and I don't let the weekend pass without a cut throat game of Quiddler (like Scrabble, only with cards instead of tiles)...

...and as you can see from this hand, while I was busy spelling actual words, Max had nothing in his hand but the lyrics to Old MacDonald.

That's right. I skunked him. HOLLA!!

Zoe never challenges the master at Quiddler on account of she's yella. That's right - you got SERVED, sista!

Week 7 (The number of completion for you Johannine scholars!)

You surely notice a sparseness of photographic evidence that Week 7 actually occurred. Here's the thing...

At the end of Reading Week, I did, in fact, drop the hot pink camera in the parking lot at Wendy's (or, as my family calls it, "the fancy place"). After Tryg (my brother - see pics below) and Brandee (sister-in-law, see other pics below) sat in Wendy's sweating bullets because I was letting Emma and Josiah run loose all over "the fancy place" with my camera (they were so sure one of the kids would drop it), Auntie Dawn ended up being the destructor of such a nice looking, spunky little pink camera. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth! Okay, not really. Mostly just some gasps of horror and, if memory serves, a "Smooth move, Exlax!" from Tryg (oh, junior high, how we miss you). But to its credit, the spunky pink camera did come apart with amazing pinache when it hit the pavement. It had attitude and flare until the bitter end!

So no, there aren't really any pictures of Week 7. It seems an interesting bit of biblical irony that Week 7 would end up being so incomplete when the Apostle John wrote his Gospel in cycles of 7 since 7 is the number of God's completion. All I have to say about that is clearly Christ's beloved never owned a pink camera. But here's the thing...

Some of you were so despondent over the death of the spunky pink camera and fearful that this little pictorial journey might come to a grinding halt that I have been gifted with a new camera!! Now I know what you're wondering - you're thinking to yourself, "...but is it pink??"

YES, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!! THE NEW CAMERA IS PINK!!!! I mean, is there any other kind of camera?

So we're back in business - me, Itsy and Bitsy, and our new pink camera. (You might be interested to know that hamsters are actually much more resilient than pink cameras when dropped. You can drop hamsters over and over again, but a pink camera you can only drop once. Anyhoo...)

So come on back next week for another chapter in our plucky little journey! Oh...and thanks for the new camera!

SAY CHEESE!!!

Fall Reading Week

Reading Week always means I get to take a trip home, even if it's only for a few days. But I get to do fun things with my family. For instance, here you see me preparing to serve dinner at church with mom. I expect to receive a tersely worded e-mail from her shortly about posting this goofy picture of her. But hey, I look good!

Here we see mom instructing me on the proper way to slice a bundt cake. Apparently my almost masters' degree doesn't increase mom's confidence in my ability to wield a knife.

Max, on the other hand, was just tickled to be in the same room with cake.

We had excellent help and lots of amusing conversation with our friends Liz...

...and Bill (always dapper in his hat).

That looks like some mighty fine cake cuttin' to me. That's like, ninja level cake cutting. Wax on, wax off, grasshoppah.

Did I mention that we had cake?

Posting this picture on the internet has just guaranteed that I will be receiving no Christmas presents this year.

I also got to go to one of Zoe's drill meets. It's all very serious - lots of standing at attention, saluting, formation making...

...splitting a can of Coke with your best friend...

...making dorky faces at your mother. Okay, perhaps it's not serious at all and the military just has the wool pulled over our eyes.

I don't remember what this is called, but it's like a big game of military Simon Says. All of the students from each school stand in formation and have orders barked at them. If you blow it, you get dismissed from the floor. Zoe (front row, left end) was the fourth cadet to be dismissed, apparently for making eye contact with the drill sargeant. The nerve! I bet if the military had staring contests, she would totally clean up.

I got to spend time with the rest of the family, too. Here's my brother, Tryg. I don't recall if this was a really annoying game of "I'm not touching you," or an emphatic request for me to pull his finger. Really, it could have gone either way.

And while the grown ups (whatever!) talked, we turned the photography assignment over to Emma...

...and Josiah. Let's see how they did...

...A still-life. Very nice...

...A close up for Mr. DeMille. Good, good...

...A shot of daddy's ass. Interesting choice of subject...

...A random tonsil search. Always a good idea...

...Ummm, okay, I think we're getting distracted. Maybe we should try to coax more emotion out of our models. How about rage? Could you give us some abject rage?...

...Yes!! Excellent!! What about total disinterest?...

...Perfect!! How about a dash of fruity cousin in the background?...

...Spot on, I say!!...

...And clearly we've come up against a brick wall.

Before heading back to school, Zoe and Max and I took a trip to the pumpkin patch. Here we see Max hanging out at the petting zoo with Larry the Llama. Or maybe it was Llarry the Llama.

It's almost like they're looking in the mirror.

We made friends with some scarecrows.

We stumbled across this scarecrow of Big Bird which is every bit as creepy as it sounds.

Max nabbed this very rotund specimen.

Zoe opted for a more petite gourd.

For me, it's not about size as much as color. I like for my pumpkins to still have some green on them. It makes them look like they're not quite finished...like me.

Egads.

And doesn't this picture of a 14-year-old girl with her mom pretty much say it all?

Max was much more compliant.

Have you ever seen a more gorgeous head of red hair?

Have you ever seen two more gorgeous heads of red hair?

True story. As we were passing through the pumpkin farm market on our way out, Max, who is amazingly brilliant and wants to work for NASA when he grows up, points to this piece of produce and says to me, completely seriously, "Mom, you should have gotten that pumpkin. It's still really green."