Today is special because my dear good friend SKDO is being ordained. She will officially become Pastor SKDO today! SKDO has been a wonderful friend to me throughout our time together at seminary. I love her and her family dearly and am so glad that I was blessed to meet them. I have to smile because SKDO has been a bright light in my life. She has always been there for me and I hope I have been able to be there for her too when she has needed someone. Well last night when I went to bed, it was dark and dreary as the snow continually fell. Then this morning I woke up to the sun shine, a beautiful blanket of snow and a smile across my face. As the sun was shining on the snow, I was reminded of my good friend SKDO. I hope that her ordination is full of light and life and love and joy and blessings just like the light shining on the snow this morning. I had intended to go out to Portland for SKDO’s ordination but in my procrastion (or in the dow of the slacker as our good friend Squatch calls it), I waited too late and tickets were just too expensive. I really wanted to be there but know that SKDO understands. SKDO, know that I am there in spirit today…thinking of you and praying with you. SKDO, you are an amazing woman of God who has so many wonderful gifts for ministry. The people of your new congregation will be blessed to know you just like all of us who know you are blessed to know you. SKDO, I received a plaque on the day of my consecration from some dear friends at my home congregation and today as you celebrate your special day I want to share those words with you. “May this special day be a treasured momento. May it be the centerpiece of all that has preceded it and all that will follow it. May it be a fulfillment of things hoped for and the beginning of new hope. May it be a time of celebration with those whose presence increases your joy. May it be as special as you are.” (Author unknown) AMEN! I just find this poem so fitting for today and since I love poetry, I thought it was a great way to honor you my friend! Love you lots and happy ordination day to you!

I dont remember most of my dreams so Im going to try my best to answer this week’s Friday Five.

Tell us all about:

1) a dream you remember from childhood: The one dream I remember from childhood was this one were a bunch of friends and I were outside playing and a big tornado came up so we all hopped in the back of a pickup and tried to outrun the tornado. We picked up important people in our lives along the way to help them escape

2) a recurring or significant dream: I actually cannot think of a recurring or significant dream that took place. However when I worked at camp, I was always concerned about my campers safety etc. I remember several times where I would dream of a homesick camper or a camper crying and would wake up to that actually happening.

3) a nightmare: I havent really had any scary dreams. However there is this scary man who comes to our church sometimes because his mom belongs to our church. The weird thing is he will come in with a suit on just as church is getting out and will head into the fellowship hall to retreive some food. Recently I had a dream that he came into the church when I was there a lone. It was scary. (And know that when I am at the church alone, especially at night, I lock the door to my office)

4) a favorite daydream: Lately my favorite daydreams are of the fun times I had at seminary. I daydream that we are all together again etc.

5) a dream for the New Year: Ok so this may be lame but Im at a time in my life when I truly feel I am ready to settle down. I know it will happen in God’s timing but sometimes that isnt so easy to wait for. My dream in 2007 is to meet a great guy and start a solid relationship. Another dream is that I will be able to attend my 10 year high school reunion and will be able to catch up with some old friends.

And as an added bonus-a memorable dream that someone has had about you: My friend Heather had a dream one time where these bad guys were out to get her and a bunch of our other friends but I came in as a superhero and saved them. I was tearing off windows, etc. I basically had super powers. It is a dream that makes me smile and laugh because I dont know that Id ever have the strength to take down some big monster but I guess it just means that I will protect those I love and care for!

Wow a whole week without posting. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and hope you all will have a Happy New Year. Im back home after a couple of days visiting family etc. It is always good to spend time with friends and family. It was busy though. My dad and his gf bought a house and are going to move in a couple months so everything my sister and I are storing had to be taken care of. Saturday I helped my sis clean her room. She has posters, etc on all four walls so that took awhile. Then we bagged up some clothes we are going to take to the salvation army, went to the store and got boxes to pack stuff up. We packed up our old stuffed animals, and books and stuff and labeled the boxes so Dad and C can put them in storage in the new house. It was funny cleaning the room because my sister and I used to share it. We were like how did we ever fit two of us in here. It brought back tons of memories and emotions. It was crazy. Some of the stuffed animals of course have wonderful memories. There’s the big Pooh doll that my dad won my sister at a fair. There is the Wrinkles dog that my sister got when she was taking speech therapy. The Speech therapist often rewarded them with prizes. Wrinkles used to be bigger than Ann but now she is much taller than him. Then there was the file box of when my sister and I used to play Dr. We came up with the strangest illness etc. It was fun to look back at that time in our lives for a little while. A lot of the stuff we saved is for when we have children…the doll clothes that actually were our baby clothes etc. Time sure does fly. Hard to believe that my sis and I were once that age. Even though we had to pack up our stuff, Im looking forward to when Dad and C finally move in to their new house.

Just thought Id make a quick post since Im heading home tomorrow for Christmas break. I finally got all my Christmas shopping done today. YAY! Well not much is happening. Just wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May we all be reminded of the beauty of the Christ childs birth and what his birth means to all of us. Safe travels to all those traveling. Again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! “For unto us a child is born…”

I’m sitting at work all by myself. Our secretary is gone to a family funeral. Its Pastors day off. Our substitute secretary just left to go drive bus so Im here by myself with not much to do. Christmas program is over and it actually went pretty well. I was vert pleased with the students. During practices, you often wonder if the kids are going to come through. Last night I had a Christmas event with the youth and also went Christmas caroling. It was awesome! Today Im just hanging out tying up loose ends from everything yesterday. Now that is done, and nothing much to do except write a Jan newsletter article but I first have to decide what Im going to write about. Life is good except my sinuses decided to act up again so guess I’ m going to have to make a run to the store to buy some Sudafed or something. That always seems to do the trick for me! I hate being all stuffed up! Tonight the high school Christmas concert is here at the church. They like to use the church because the church has good acoustics. I’m sure it will be a very good concert. Well guess I should go find something to do for awhile. Hope you all are doing well. Take care. Have a blessed Advent, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

This was given to me by a dear friend. There really is some redeeming value to the 12th Days of Christmas if you look at this way so thought Id share. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

12 Days of Christmas was actually written for Children to help them remember differant things throughout the Church. The “true Love” is of course God and then the one who recieves the things is us… the church.. Anways here is the break down of the days copied out of the bullitin i had stuffed in my bible.
1st Day: The partridge in a pear tree is Christ Jesus upon the Cross. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge because she would feign injury to decoy a predator away from her nestlings. She was even willing to die for them.The tree is the symbol of the fall of the human race through the sin of Adam and Eve. It is also the symbol of its redemption by Jesus Christ on the tree of the Cross.
2nd Day: The “two turtle doves” refers to the Old and New Testaments.
3rd Day: The “three French hens” stand for faith, hope and love—the three gifts of the Spirit that abide (1 Corinthians 13).
4th Day: The “four calling birds” refers to the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—which sing the song of salvation through Jesus Christ.
5th Day: The “five golden rings” represents the first five books of the Bible, also called the Jewish Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
6th Day: The “six geese a-laying” is the six days of creation.
7th Day: The “seven swans a-swimming” refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.
8th Day: The “eight maids a milking ” reminded children of the eight beatitudes listed in the Sermon on the Mount.
9th Day: The “nine ladies dancing” were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
10th Day: The “ten lords a-leaping” represents the Ten Commandments
11th Day: The “eleven pipers piping” refers to the eleven faithful apostles.
12th Day: The ‘twelve drummers drumming” were the twelve points of belief expressed in the Apostles’ Creed: belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, made man, crucified, died and arose on the third day, that he sits at the right hand of the father and will come again, the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

1. A favorite ‘secular’ Christmas song. Well for me this is easy. “Im Dreaming of a White Christmas.” Its one of my faves because having grown-up in ND, I dont remember a Christmas that wasnt white. I also like “I’ll be Home for Christmas.”

2. Christmas song that chokes you up (maybe even in spite of yourself–the cheesier the better)
I cant really think of one that chokes me up. However growing up I remember Silent Night always made my mom cry. It is one of her faves!

3. Christmas song that makes you want to stuff your ears with chestnuts roasted on an open fire. There aren’t too many Christmas songs that I dont like but if I had to chose, Id probably pick Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

4. The Twelve Days of Christmas: is there *any* redeeming value to that song?
Discuss. You know I wish I could say that there is some redeeming value to that song but it sure does get old after awhile. Maybe a redeeming value is that it talks about love a little.

5. A favorite Christmas album-So this one is extremely hard for me because I love to play my Christmas music. However I stick mostly with Christian artists. When it comes down to it, my fave Christmas Cds are Go Fish-More Than a Story and Go Fish- Snow. Snow is their newest Christmas cd and it ranks right up there with their first Christmas cd so I cant pick between the two!

I saw this Birthday Meme on another blog I read and thought it would be fun to do so here is my birthday meme. If you want to play, the rules are to go to wikipedia, type in your birthday (month and day, no year), then list three events that happened on your bday, two important birthdays, one important death and one holiday or observance. So here is the meme for my bday…September 3!

3 events
1. St Gregory becomes pope
2. Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its all time high at the time (381.17) which was shortly followed by the crash of 1929.
3. Holocaust Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz arriving three days later.

2 Important Birthdays
Charlie Sheen
Shaun “The Flying Tomato” White

1 death
Chief Justice William Rehnquest

1 Holiday or Observance
Flag Day in Australia

Let me know if you played too!

This weekend has been busy for me. Saturday the church had their annual cookie and candy bazaar where the youth sell soup and sandwich. It went really well and I was really happy to have 10 youth show up to work. Then tonight we had our Advent Family Night. It was great. We did Holden Evening Prayer, sang a few hymns, etc. It was good. Now that this weekend is over, life should settle down a little as I prepare for the Christmas program which will be on the 17th of Dec.

Advent is one of my most favorite times of year. I love the waiting and preparing for the birth of the Christ child. The birth of this beautiful child brings such hope. He brings light in the midst of the darkness! One of my fave things to do during Advent is to turn on all my Christmas lights, light a few candles, turn off all the lights and just sit in the darkness. And as I sit in the darkness (well not complete darkness), I reflect on how the birth of Christ truly is a reminder that he is the light of the world that comes for each one of us and as that light he brings hope and peace and love. So this Advent season, I pray that you may see that Christ truly is the light of the world; the light that comes to bring light out of of the darkness! Have a Blessed Advent everyone!

1) Do you observe Advent in your church? Yes we do. In fact this is my first Advent here and they have the most gigantic Advent wreath Ive ever seen. Its crazy!

2) How about at home? Actually Advent and Christmas are my favorite times of year. I have a couple of advent calendars in my apt. One is one where you peel off the stickers and the other is one I made at seminary with some seminary friends. Each day has a reflection. Its really cool!

3) Do you have a favorite Advent text or hymn? Hmmm thats a good question. Ill have to think about that one a little longer to tell you what my fave text. I like O Come Emmanuel but probably my latest hymn is a new Advent hymn in the new ELW (the new big in the ELCA). It talks about how Jesus came down so we may have light!

4) Why is one of the candles in the Advent wreath pink? (You may tell the truth, but I’ll like your answer better if it’s funny.) Its for the pepto bismo that Mary had to take throughout her pregnancy for indigestion.

5) What’s the funniest/kitschiest Advent calendar you’ve ever seen? Hmmm Im not sure. Ill have to keep my out for one this year!