I can't believe it...

Ken Jennings was defeated on Jeopardy. I have been watching him pretty faithfully since early June of this year. I think I could probably count on one hand the number of days that one of his competitors was actually within reach of him on the show. Most days he had $30,000 and his nearest competitor had $3800. I wonder if he actually honestly lost, or if he blew it on purpose?! I have enjoyed watching him, and seeing someone who was so knowledgable in so many areas. But that is a long time to be away from his family and his job, not that he probably has to go back considering he won $2.5 million! Wow!

Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

For any of you who used to watch Saturday Night Live back in the day when it was actually kinda funny, here are some of my personal favorite 'deep thoughts'. I found a website with hundreds of them on there. These were the ones I liked the best:

When I found the skull in the woods, the first thing I did was call the police. But then I got curious about it. I picked it up, and started wondering who this person was, and why he had deer horns.

Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared.

As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way.

When you're riding in a time machine way far into the future, don't stick your elbow out the window, or it'll turn into a fossil.

The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.

Ambition is like a frog sitting on a Venus Flytrap. The flytrap can bite and bite, but it won't bother the frog because it only has little tiny plant teeth. But some other stuff could happen and it could be like ambition.

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.

To me, it's always a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, "Hey, can you give me a hand?," you can say, "Sorry, got these sacks."

If you're a cowboy, and you're dragging a guy behind your horse, I bet it would really make you mad if you looked back and the guy was reading a magazine.

If you go flying back through time, and you see somebody else flying forward into the future, it's probably best to avoid eye contact.

If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because, man, they're gone.

How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have that dangerous beak.

Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he's carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he's carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you're drunk.

Better not take a dog on the space shuttle, because if he sticks his head out when you're coming home, his face might burn up.

Probably the earliest flyswatters were nothing more than some sort of striking surface attached to the end of a long stick.

Most people don't realize that large pieces of coral, which have been painted brown and attached to the skull by common wood screws, can make a child look like a deer.

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."

Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It's a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see.

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to DisneyLand, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said, "DisneyLand burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real DisneyLand, but it was getting pretty late.

If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong, though. It's Hambone.

As the evening sky faded from a salmon color to a sort of flint gray, I thought back to the salmon I caught that morning, and how gray he was, and how I named him Flint.

When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear.

I think a good product would be "Baby Duck Hat". It's a fake baby duck, which you strap on top of your head. Then you go swimming underwater until you find a mommy duck and her babies, and you join them. Then, all of a sudden, you stand up out of the water and roar like Godzilla. Man, those ducks really take off! Also, Baby Duck Hat is good for parties.

I can still recall old Mister Barnslow getting out every morning and nailing a fresh load of tadpoles to the old board of his. Then he'd spin it round and round, like a wheel of fortune, and no matter where it stopped he'd yell out, "Tadpoles! Tadpoles is a winner!" We all thought he was crazy. But then we had some growing up to do.

It's not good to let any kid near a container that has a skull and crossbones on it, because there might be a skeleton costume inside and the kid could put it on and really scare you.

When I think back on all the blessings I have been given in my life, I can't think of a single one, unless you count that rattlesnake that granted me all those wishes.

How are you doing?

I think too often we take these four words too lightly. I have done it, I think everyone has done it. Asked someone how they are doing, and not really stuck around to hear their answer. Or we have probably all been asked this question, and replied 'I'm fine...' or something like that even when we weren't fine. How do you think you would respond if you asked someone how they were and they fell apart and told you all their problems? I think I would probably not expect it, maybe feel awkward. But I honestly hope I would do my best to comfort that person and listen to their problems.

The reason I bring this up, is that happened to a friend of mine yesterday. Someone asked how they were doing, and they told them that they were not feeling so well. Kinda sick, and whatnot. And the person who had asked proceeded to change the subject and totally avoided the fact that this person is not feeling well. I think if you ask how someone is doing, you should be ready to have a full and honest response. Even though most people will just give a surface 'I'm fine.', we should be willing to hear more.

To be honest...

I haven't really been enjoying our Bible studies. Well until last night anyways. I was beginning to wonder if I should even be going to Bible study, of course our Bible study is at Jason's, and it's a couples study, so it probably wouldn't be good if I just up and stopped going. Anyway, last night was a lot better. I think we are finally all somewhat comfortable with eachother and willing to share more openly about what is going on in our lives and our past experiences. There are 12 people (6 couples in our group) and it was a little indimidating at first, but they are all super nice people, and we are getting more comfortable with eachother each week. I think the reason there was such a big shift this week was because our discussion time was much less structured. It wasn't like, okay now let's answer the 2nd question on page 36. It was an open honest discussion about how we could become more like Jesus.

Part of our discussion focused on God's will for our lives. Do you think it is just one path that you can choose that makes you in God's will? Or are there different choices you can make that are still in God's will? Or someone suggested that God can use you whereever you choose to be, or is that just a copout answer for doing what you want to do? Some people suggested Bible passages where God REALLY didn't want someone to do something, so he prevented it from happening. Even though it wasn't a bad thing, just a place he didn't want them to be. Just an interesting thought.

Jason and I are going to buy our first wedding gift on Saturday. A pretty sweet digital camera :) I am so excited about it, I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. Just like Christmas has come early for us! We just need to figure out who gets to keep it at their house until the wedding :P hehe

Arleen

I got a call tonight from Shirley, Arleen's mom, letting me know that Arleen's flight home has been confirmed for Sunday, December 19th at 2:42pm. She sounded SOOOO happy about it! I am also super excited! I think of how much has changed in the last year and I am just amazed to see Arleen's reaction to all that has changed. I miss her! I think that she will have a hard adjustment, coming back from Taiwan in the middle of winter (she was complaining last time I talked to her that it was cold there, only +20C). I also can't imagine getting used to sleeping when you were awake, and vice versa. So exciting...

Yesterday...

It was an interesting/educational day yesterday. Learned some things about a close friend of mine that I never would have thought. Not that they are bad things....just things, that are interesting and we had a good chuckle over. And the women sitting in the food court next to us, I think were appalled that we had the audacity to discuss those topics (they shouldn't have been listening in) in a public place. It was cool bonding time :)

When I got home mom said that they had gotten some not so good news. My first thought was that maybe gramma was sick again or something of that nature. But an old friend of my sister's, who she had had a falling out with a few years ago passed away. She was 28. We grew up for most of our years next door to her family until her parents divorced and they moved away. I guess it's prety uncertain as to what caused her death. But they found her unconscious on her floor of her house, and took her to the hospital and her brain was swollen and they put her on life support, then they realized she was getting worse, so they took her off of life support, and she died. She was a single mom of a 4 and a half year old boy named Damian. She was not a Christian. :(

In Flander's Fields by Lt. Col. John McCrae

In Flander's Fields
the poppies blow
between the crosses
row on row
that mark our place
and in the sky
the lark
still bravely singing flies.
Scarce heard amid the guns below
we are the dead
short days ago
we lived
felt dawn
saw sunsets glow
loved
and were loved
and now we lie
in flander's fields.

Take up the quarrel with the foe
to you from failing hands we throw
the torch
be yours to hold it high
if ye break faith with us who die
we shall not sleep
though poppies grow
in Flanders Fields.

In grade eight, Mr Katzman, our teacher made us learn that poem to recite it during our school's Rememberance Day assembly. I just typed that out from heart. It is amazing how vividly I remember that poem, and I even remember the inflection in which he taught us to recite it. Praise God that we live in a free country! I am so thankful for those who gave their lives in pursuit of that freedom.

Premarital counseling

Yesterday Jason and I had our final session of premarital counseling. We got to the subject of sex this time around. After hearing about some ministers that my friends had for their counseling, I have to say, I was interested to hear what Leyton would tell us. He had good stuff to say, but nothing terribly in detail, so I won't be looking at him funny up at the pulpit on Sunday. The one story that he shared that I thought was just hilarious was about his dog that he used to have. They had the dog trained to balance a treat on his nose and not eat it until they said so. He said that they were mean, they'd put the treat on his nose and say "noooo, nooooo, nooooo..." For quite some time, before they finally said "okay, you can have it". Leyton said that's kinda the way it is with Christians when they are engaged, then get married. "noooo, nooooo, noooo....okay, it's all yours". Jay and I were laughing pretty hard by that point. So true ;)

US Election

So Bush was re-elected. I am not sure how I feel about that. He does have a lot of similar morals to myself, but I am still not sure about that whole war in Iraq business. I have to admit that I did not follow the campaign that closely, and until a month or so ago, I didn't even know who John Kerry was. I first was introduced to him in a cartoon that I found on the internet. It is a parody of 'this land is your land' with him and George W. Bush. I have watched it quite a few times and it still makes me laugh. I thought I would post the link, as I am not sure how much longer it will be available for our viewing pleasure.

http://www.jibjab.com and there is a link on that page that says "this land, click to watch", and that is where you will find that hilarious clip. I hope you enjoy it as much as Jay and I did ;)