Jessica's Blog
Friday, March 28, 2008
Just Fun for Friday*~*~ To Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity
This was in my email box a few weeks ago, I just kept forgeting to post it! As a commentary on some of these...
I told my brother we should try the hairdryer on the side of the road thing, he replied "If you want to get arrested, you can just go and do it by yourself". But, since he is such a loyal friend and partner in crime to me and as an offer of goodwill, he then said, "I will sit in the bushes behind you and come bail you out". No matter what, Mike can always make me laugh.
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds".
7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don t use any punctuation.
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat...use a serious face.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme.
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance , Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Coworkers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling, "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
This lovely list gave me a good hard laugh... probably because I am perfectly cabable of such behavior.
~*~Jessica~*~
I told my brother we should try the hairdryer on the side of the road thing, he replied "If you want to get arrested, you can just go and do it by yourself". But, since he is such a loyal friend and partner in crime to me and as an offer of goodwill, he then said, "I will sit in the bushes behind you and come bail you out". No matter what, Mike can always make me laugh.
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds".
7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don t use any punctuation.
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat...use a serious face.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme.
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance , Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Coworkers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling, "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
This lovely list gave me a good hard laugh... probably because I am perfectly cabable of such behavior.
~*~Jessica~*~
Labels: Just The Fun Stuff
Friday, March 21, 2008
Feeling So Springy*~*~
Next to the beginning of Fall, the beginning of Spring is my favorite time of year. It's between warm and cold, dark and light... color and gray. It's also my preferred season for another reason: there are bugs, but then again there aren't! It's still too cold for them to be flourishing in abundance, which is the way I like it. The middle of summer hits and I start wishing we lived in Antarctica. We are finally getting ready to fill up our garden, even though it is very small, we make the best of it. Mom is threatening to dig up the other half of our yard. I'm all for it, we don't need ornamental bushes, we need a real garden! I always grow herbs, but I keep those in pots, so it really doesn't take up any room. It's a little late to start seeds, so I will probably just get some plants. I was really disappointed with the seeds I got last year, I think they were just cheap. I got enough herbage (providing that's a word) out of them to throw a small handful in some soup. I was planning on having bags and bags of them to freeze and dry!
Normally we only do a vegetable garden, but since we have so many ideas for the magazine we will be expanding a little with an heirloom flower garden!
This week in pictures~
It was so warm this week we had to make a pie
If you look very closely, you can see the snow blowing around on Pikes Peak. The only thing that ruins this picture is the houses, oh yeah and the attractive wires...
She's getting so big! This is the first time I've managed to get her smiling...
~*~Jessica~*~
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Finally, A Cloudy Day~*~
I felt like blogging last night, but alas... I was simply too tired. We had a beautifully cloudy day yesterday. The Colorado climate does not afford many "cloudy" days. It always seems to be sunny, or snowing. With the extremely mild (I prefer to call it lame) winter that we have had, I can only imagine how dry our summer is going to be. I would love some rain right now, not a sprinkle; but a good, long, downpour of rain. Last summer we had more hail then we did rain. It always hails here, hard. Sometimes as often as twice a week. As much as love Colorado, I want some rain!
Now that some of my time has been freed a little, I was able to do what I love to do the most, especially on a cloudy day! Read. What better book to read on a cloudy day then Bleak House? It has been excellent so far. But then I don't think I have ever disliked a book by Charles Dickens. I usually keep three reading books going at one time: one book for my bible study; one, good thick novel; and then another reading book that's a little less challenging to read, generally a play, or a Jane Austen novel.
Not much time for reading today though, we are getting ready to launch our new website. We are in the middle of filling right now. Lots of photo tutorials are going in this one, so I think it will be a lot more fun and visually helpful. All in all, way more fun then just a bunch of stuff!
Off to work! Have a wonderful Saturday...
~*~Jessica~*~
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Oh Boy, I've Been Tagged*~
Ella has tagged me! I haven't been tagged for something in a while, so I figured why not. Though I hardly ever know what to write in these things!
So, here it goes!
1. I don't think anyone would know this, unless they were standing right in front of me staring at my head... but I have lovely scar that goes RIGHT between my eyes. I fell out of bed when I was 6 or 7 years old and split it on the bed frame. In some odd way I liked that big gash between my eyes. It was one thing that made me stand out from everyone else. In the tone of nah nah, I've got a pretty red line between my eyes and you don't! In a strange way, I still like that scar. I don't pay a lot of attention to it. In fact I hardly ever notice it, it's just there. I don't think my face would look right if it was gone!
2. My favorite drink from Starbucks is an iced Caramel Macchiato. It's practically the only thing I drink in the summer! In the winter I switch to hot ;)
3. Unlike a lot of people, I like to fly (as in fly in a plane, for those who might wonder if I mean flap my wings). I like layovers even better, that way I get to take off and land twice.
4. My favorite history based movie is The Patriot
5. My comfort dessert is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and crushed peanuts! If I'm really feeling low, I have to watch Pride & Prejudice with it!
6. When I'm feeling sentimental, I like to watch Sense & Sensibility.
7. I love to go for a walk when it's half sunny and half raining
8. Any and all of my friends are online, only!
Hmm, that's all I can think of! I'm passing this on to Mrs. Connie , Lee & Emily and Jocelyn!
Blessings! ~*~Jessica~*~
So, here it goes!
1. I don't think anyone would know this, unless they were standing right in front of me staring at my head... but I have lovely scar that goes RIGHT between my eyes. I fell out of bed when I was 6 or 7 years old and split it on the bed frame. In some odd way I liked that big gash between my eyes. It was one thing that made me stand out from everyone else. In the tone of nah nah, I've got a pretty red line between my eyes and you don't! In a strange way, I still like that scar. I don't pay a lot of attention to it. In fact I hardly ever notice it, it's just there. I don't think my face would look right if it was gone!
2. My favorite drink from Starbucks is an iced Caramel Macchiato. It's practically the only thing I drink in the summer! In the winter I switch to hot ;)
3. Unlike a lot of people, I like to fly (as in fly in a plane, for those who might wonder if I mean flap my wings). I like layovers even better, that way I get to take off and land twice.
4. My favorite history based movie is The Patriot
5. My comfort dessert is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and crushed peanuts! If I'm really feeling low, I have to watch Pride & Prejudice with it!
6. When I'm feeling sentimental, I like to watch Sense & Sensibility.
7. I love to go for a walk when it's half sunny and half raining
8. Any and all of my friends are online, only!
Hmm, that's all I can think of! I'm passing this on to Mrs. Connie , Lee & Emily and Jocelyn!
Blessings! ~*~Jessica~*~
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Obsessive Compulsive? Maybe. Maybe Not.
I was reading an article this morning, I don't usually read articles related to medical anything, but this one caught my eye. It was about people who are compulsive "hoarders". Not people that just save some things (come on, everyone does that), but people who will practically bury themselves in their house with junk. People who are truly afraid of throwing someting out, not matter how obvious it is to another person that they will NEVER need it. These "doctors" will actually dedicate their career (or a portion of it) to understanding why someone is a true, dedicated pack rat. It's amazing what people will study.
They do brain scans, compare brain waves, and even compare all of the 23 (I think it's only 23!) chromosomes in the DNA of so many people. With tons of different behavior studies, psychologists and psychiatrists and so on trying to figure out why these people are so obsessed with "hoarding" stuff. Why they feel they have to save every little thing because "they might need it". They want to know how to "help" these people out of what is to them, a disorder. It is a disorder, in a respect, but they are looking in the wrong place for the answer.
I think what kept me reading this "why are they a pack rat" article anyway is I wanted to see what words would be mentioned. Words like "fear" and "control". I think the word "fear" was used, but not in the context I was looking for. The best reason they had so far is that part of issue is genetic. Oh fine, there's something new; they have a nut for a relative.. that must be what the problem is. They have a degree to say something like that?
I have known, and still know, people that were/are pack rats. They had to save every little thing. Their house became unusable because of how they lived. Every corner, every square inch of floor was covered with stuff that should have been put in file-13 a LONG time ago. Stuff stacked to the ceiling. They could no longer sleep in their own bedroom it was so filled with junk. Personally, I never looked to see if the bed was even visible.
I never considered them to have a disorder though that needed to be analyzed by a scientist. We knew what the problem was. Their "stuff" made them feel safe, made them feel they were in control. It's like that verse in the Bible, how we shouldn't store up earthly treasure... because our treasure is in heaven. But they don't know that. I believe that these people, in the back of their minds, think that all of this stuff you can collect on earth is going to save them, or keep them safe for now. Because, really, if you don't want to believe in God, something has got to keep you safe, right?
I know others (let's be honest, these people are scattered about all over the place like a disease), they may still be little clutter-buggy, but their security is not quite coming from how much stuff they have, but more from how much it's worth. Money makes them feel safe, valuable things make them feel safe. A good job makes them feel safe. They could never ever give those things up, because goodness gracious, what if something goes wrong!? There is no possible way for them to trust something they can't see, and that's God. For something to be safe, it has to be visible and tangible. There is no "minds eye" for them, they have to put their trust in something that they can see... and for some, this is taken to a height labeled "hoarding".
I'm not a scientist, but those people that were being analyzed, I bet not one of them was a true believer.
They do brain scans, compare brain waves, and even compare all of the 23 (I think it's only 23!) chromosomes in the DNA of so many people. With tons of different behavior studies, psychologists and psychiatrists and so on trying to figure out why these people are so obsessed with "hoarding" stuff. Why they feel they have to save every little thing because "they might need it". They want to know how to "help" these people out of what is to them, a disorder. It is a disorder, in a respect, but they are looking in the wrong place for the answer.
I think what kept me reading this "why are they a pack rat" article anyway is I wanted to see what words would be mentioned. Words like "fear" and "control". I think the word "fear" was used, but not in the context I was looking for. The best reason they had so far is that part of issue is genetic. Oh fine, there's something new; they have a nut for a relative.. that must be what the problem is. They have a degree to say something like that?
I have known, and still know, people that were/are pack rats. They had to save every little thing. Their house became unusable because of how they lived. Every corner, every square inch of floor was covered with stuff that should have been put in file-13 a LONG time ago. Stuff stacked to the ceiling. They could no longer sleep in their own bedroom it was so filled with junk. Personally, I never looked to see if the bed was even visible.
I never considered them to have a disorder though that needed to be analyzed by a scientist. We knew what the problem was. Their "stuff" made them feel safe, made them feel they were in control. It's like that verse in the Bible, how we shouldn't store up earthly treasure... because our treasure is in heaven. But they don't know that. I believe that these people, in the back of their minds, think that all of this stuff you can collect on earth is going to save them, or keep them safe for now. Because, really, if you don't want to believe in God, something has got to keep you safe, right?
I know others (let's be honest, these people are scattered about all over the place like a disease), they may still be little clutter-buggy, but their security is not quite coming from how much stuff they have, but more from how much it's worth. Money makes them feel safe, valuable things make them feel safe. A good job makes them feel safe. They could never ever give those things up, because goodness gracious, what if something goes wrong!? There is no possible way for them to trust something they can't see, and that's God. For something to be safe, it has to be visible and tangible. There is no "minds eye" for them, they have to put their trust in something that they can see... and for some, this is taken to a height labeled "hoarding".
I'm not a scientist, but those people that were being analyzed, I bet not one of them was a true believer.
Monday, March 10, 2008
A Quiet Sunday~
Yesterday was so nice, sunny skies and nothing much to do. We haven't had two days in a row like that for a while. I prefer our Sundays to be like that way anyhow, lazy and quiet! After breakfast we had our "family" church. Even though I sometimes miss being around other believers every Sunday, I enjoy our fellowship being among our family only. Rather then trying to worship to music that more or less resembles rock concert materiel, we have been learning hymns together. I love hearing my 5 year old brother sing "It Is Well with My Soul".... and 2 year old Zusanah sing "He Lives"! That's the only part she knows, "He lives", but she sings it all the time, and swings as she sings!
The weather has warmed up to a lovely 55 degrees, so my brother and I have been walking more. A complete relief from almost a month of mostly no exercise, blah. I'm a stickler for a cloudy week, but we have been in the house so much, the clear blue sky is far more appealing.
Walking this morning I realized that out of anyone on the street we have been blessed with the better view. Anyone who lives across the street from us, has a four-sided view of, what? Other houses! Most of our time is spent at the back part of the house, which backs up to a nice large field, we can still the other half of the neighborhood, but they are a ways off. We can see storms come over Pikes Peak, the sunrise, and part of the sunset. Every time I look out the window, I don't have to look at another person! Relatively speaking anyway...
I'm hoping that we can move this year.. I don't know where God might move us. Praying, but not sure. We don't want to live in a neighborhood anymore, I think everyone has pretty much had enough. So we'll see.
The other half of my day yesterday was spent changing my blog, you might have noticed;). The floral mess had to go. I like to design, but occasionally I, (ahem) OVER design! I will be fixing the sidebar over the next few days as well. Since I put my blog in the magazine, I realized I had better clean up the mess! I love to change graphics. I change graphics the way some people move furniture. I will be changing other things as well, like the blog name. No more am I going to attempt to come up with frilly names for my blogs, nope I'm going plain jane. As plain as my name in fact.
Hope everyone is blessed with beautiful day...
~*~Jessica~*~
The weather has warmed up to a lovely 55 degrees, so my brother and I have been walking more. A complete relief from almost a month of mostly no exercise, blah. I'm a stickler for a cloudy week, but we have been in the house so much, the clear blue sky is far more appealing.
Walking this morning I realized that out of anyone on the street we have been blessed with the better view. Anyone who lives across the street from us, has a four-sided view of, what? Other houses! Most of our time is spent at the back part of the house, which backs up to a nice large field, we can still the other half of the neighborhood, but they are a ways off. We can see storms come over Pikes Peak, the sunrise, and part of the sunset. Every time I look out the window, I don't have to look at another person! Relatively speaking anyway...
I'm hoping that we can move this year.. I don't know where God might move us. Praying, but not sure. We don't want to live in a neighborhood anymore, I think everyone has pretty much had enough. So we'll see.
The other half of my day yesterday was spent changing my blog, you might have noticed;). The floral mess had to go. I like to design, but occasionally I, (ahem) OVER design! I will be fixing the sidebar over the next few days as well. Since I put my blog in the magazine, I realized I had better clean up the mess! I love to change graphics. I change graphics the way some people move furniture. I will be changing other things as well, like the blog name. No more am I going to attempt to come up with frilly names for my blogs, nope I'm going plain jane. As plain as my name in fact.
Hope everyone is blessed with beautiful day...
~*~Jessica~*~
Thursday, March 6, 2008
~*~21 and Counting~*~
Wow, I haven't blogged for over a month! I have missed blogging, but I don't believe I could have thought long enough to write something other then the magazine! We have had some set backs with the Spring issue, mainly computer problems. It's only when you need a computer to work that it decides to break down. They're tormentors.
The magazine has come out wonderful! I'm so excited, we can't wait to have it in "magazine" form! We had way more pages then we thought we had for this issue. So instead of 76 pages like the Holiday issue was, we ended up with 104 pages. I couldn't believe we went over 28 pages!
With the magazine to do with this month, it left us little room to do other family things. But, last Saturday I turned 21. I felt a little "old" this birthday. I know everyone who is twice my age is going to roll their eyes at that, but that's what I thought. I started thinking about when we moved here, which was right after my 17th birthday. Four years have gone by already. I can remember each year, and specific things about it, it really doesn't seem like it's been that long... but it all did pass.
I'm not quite where I thought I would be, I don't think I planned to be home at all when I was 21. Had God not changed things, and the way I thought as well, who knows where I would be right now. I have an idea of what I could have turned into, I'm so thankful that I didn't.
I look at my brothers and sisters and I'm so thankful that I have been right here, and I didn't have to miss a thing! I can't imagine not being here for the birth of Evie and Zusanah! Or having to watch my siblings get older from a distance, just so I could go sit in college dormitory alone.
Rather then have to go and work for someone else, I can work for myself and with my family; and I get to do it with my Mother!
I could have missed all of this~
Mom and Me*~
~*Baby Zusanah*~
~*Baby Zusanah*~I was working at my computer the other night and looked up to see seven children all huddled on the couch! That's what happens when everyone is forbidden to touch the thermostat, you can either love each other, or freeze.
~*Sleeping Evie
God knew that I would have hated being anywhere but at home. So here I am, still home, and happy that I was able to celebrate my 21st birthday here.
Labels: birthdays, family pictures, Thoughts
