FY10Q1 part 1

So I'm sittin' here sipping my Bailey's and VIA (Instant Ready Brew-Decaf) coffee just chillin'. Already posted the most ridiculous profile picture up on facebook, already soaked my feet in the bathtub, already sat around my A and watched Bones. I was going to continue to work on my table which I think I began around the same time that I posted my last blog on this thing :P. Sorry, dear friends, but here I was and I thought, "Oh hell yes, I am going to finally write that blog that I've said since January that I'm going to write." Okay, well, it's not the same one I was going to write in January because a lot's happened since then and who are we kidding? My memory's just not that good. But, without further ado, here's our first quarter-ish of 2010 in pics.

First off, my dear dear friend, Mink, moved in with us. She needed a cheap home, we could use a little money off our rent since trying to save for Grad School and are blessed with a big 2-bedroom apartment. We also know a thing or two about how to live together after 6 years of friendship so it's all worked out great. Here's our family photo taken a month or so ago. You'll see pictured: I, the loving matriarch, tenderly but firmly urging lovely, innocent Mink and tough guy Greg to just get along. Okay, that's not at all how it is: in fact, Greg and Mink get along like two schnitzels on a platz. That is funny, I'll explain why; Greg and Mink are food lovers...meaning she appreciates all manner of encased meat and will gladly consume it with my husband while I sit very far away and try not to gag. So, it's just win-win-win for everyone.

As has become our custom now, we headed to Baltimore for "Christmas" with Greg's side of the fam. This always brings many types of merriment, which this year included, but was not limited to:

A Ravens game

with high school friends

Doggie Time

Game Time

Grandparent Time

TAT time!So, it's real late now and I've only just finished January but will get Part II up this weekend. Hope you've enjoyed the update thus far.
Peace out, homies.

jig for a gig

So, I've got my first "gig" this weekend. Gig meaning the first time I'll ever be paid to take pictures of other people. It randomly happened upon me by one of my co-workers. I'm very nervous and also excited. Namely, I'm excited because a friend of mine just notified me that she is also a Canon user and has compatible lenses! Sometimes having the right equipment is all you need to feel confident. (I'm talking about photography here...get your mind out of the gutter!)

So, if you happen to think of me on Saturday or any other time really, I could use your thoughts as I embark on this. I think it will be really fun and I have 2 hours on my way up to Wisconsin to troubleshoot anything that could possibly go wrong. Ha! I never really feel very confident doing new things...or just things! So, I'm trying very hard and I'll have my loyal sidekick with me and that will help, but the nerves are still there (probably always will be). But I'm hoping it's fun and fruitful and that I just capture the Ericksens family and their parents anniversary well. I was told yesterday that I can "be as directive as I want"...at least I'm good at that :) I also, I think, convinced them out of white t-shirts and denim pants.

Anyway, so that's going on this weekend and I'm excited for the opportunity to get to help them out so that they don't have to set a timer, hit a button and run into position to get some nice family photos.

Oh, also, for sh*** and giggles, a friend had up a link to this site and it's pretty much my favorite these days, enjoy! The Sacred Sandwich

Blessings, all! I was going to post about our first anniversary weekend but this came up instead. So, will do that later.

still thinking...and then some

I promised KB that I would give her something to look forward to in the morning which, let's be honest, is a pretty bold calling in the first place. However, I'm going to do my best to live up to this lofty ideal--like I usually do.

So, I'm sitting here at work today with not enough to do to put off yet another month without posting at all! :) I'm also trying to decide whether or not to take some tylenol for what I believe to be a mild dehydration/over-caffeination headache or to continue my routine of drinking a bit-peeing a bit for the whole afternoon. Lucky you. I pretty much didn't think anyone was reading anymore but in case you are, here ya go.

A) is for Amy. Thank you, Amy, for still reading this on the rare occasion that I post. And since you called my bluff, I'm going to do my best to remember the article(s) and tell you my response. I am resisting the urge to just copy and paste my comments that I made on CT's site. But a lot of those were in response to fellow responders to the articles anyway, so not much help.
So...I felt that the main article started out well because I think it's true that perhaps the church does not do a great job of preparing people for marriage. And I suppose he might even be correct that because of the whole "no ding ding without the wedding ring" thing, perhaps churches should be more prepared to need to discuss marriage with younger aged people. (The above was a quote from one of my favorite theological movies, Robin Hood: Men in Tights). I also am a firm believer that people should get married at the point at which the Father tells them to do so and not earlier (or later). So, in that sense, I'm a supporter of "early marriage". However, I disagree with the validity of getting married because it's hard to stay chaste and think that in far too many instances, many folks in the fellowship put too much stock in sex as a motivator. I'm not saying we need to be gnostic and pretend it doesn't exist or that it doesn't matter what you do with your body. I'm just saying that perhaps it's-in a lot of ways-not supposed to be as big a factor in our decision-making as we tend to perceive it to be. Though, one of my friends mentioned that they liked the author's take because they found it to be more earthy...that he just sorta said, ya know, if you love somebody and you know they're the one, marry 'em. And I found that interesting. And if in that instance, those people are 20, then yes, c'mon ch....urch, help them understand how to do it well. But I feel like that for people who are 40 also. So, those were some of my main thoughts about it.
I did not appreciate 2 of the articles that appeared along with this one in the CT magazine that came out. One mentioned that parents need to be prepared to help their children who want to get married young with their financial burdens (paying for school, etc). This seemed kinda out of touch with reality (at least my family's reality) and to lack an understanding of building responsibility in your children, young or adult. The other was an article about the older days when females who were physiologically mature were married and began to reproduce much earlier than women today. His concern is that he sees many women who are terribly saddened by being unable to bear children or who bore children with health problems, etc because of their older age. That is a good pastoral concern, I just think that in answering it, he might have made the problem worse. I mostly think this because he stated that those who follow the Son's primary role is to raise a family. I think that's a) incorrect--some people are called to celibacy, some to marriage without children and some to marriage with and are called to minister no matter which of these is the case and b) very hurtful to folks who want to bear children and can't and tells women that they are "deficient" or in some way, less of a woman if they can't bear children and this is not the case. One woman wrote an article and her concern was for openness to any of the options that the Father might call you to...like celibacy being valid, etc. And also giving a warning to not overly emphasize marriage amongst youngsters because there might be some not called to be married at all and also because it causes a pastoral situation in that those who do not get married feel, once again, like there is something wrong with them because they're not getting married young.
Okay, so, sorry, I feel like I went on and on. But those are the thoughts I remember having and what I remember about the articles I read. So, Amy, what are your thoughts? :) And anyone else can feel free to share theirs as well. Anyway, I found it all very interesting and good to think about theologically and also in a sense as to how we can be helping people do marriage well.

B) I'm trying to think of what else to write now. I always want to include something funny but I can't think of anything...might be because of the high pitched whining of the reel-to-reel recorder near my desk. This isn't really funny but it is kinda light-ish. It's about movies. We rented The Spirit (Frank Miller) and Twilight. I had told Greg earlier that night that I was possible up for watching a romantic movie and/or one that I didn't have to think about. But, see, I only am in a romantic movie-watching mood about 4 times a year, if that. So, he had to jump on his chance. And so the "jumping" wound up with us watching Twilight and us not thinking that it was as bad as we had thought maybe it would be. That's not to say it's getting an Oscar, but it wasn't bad. And, it made me curious about the books, which I had already considered reading but had not yet picked up. I really do have a soft spot for vampires, though. I was most intrigued by Edward's family and their stories so I'm really hoping there's something in the book that goes into them more. I'll let you know whenever I get around to reading the series. As we all know, like with the unfortunate 6th film in the Harry Potter series, the books are usually much better and I'm starting to think that when I can, I will see the movie first. An unfortunate circumstance where I can not reverse what is done is in the case of the Sherlock Holmes movie due to doom theaters this Winter. Don't get me started on that :) Oh, the Spirit was fun, too. We were REALLY glad that it was not really like Sin City...it was like a parody of it. And so was rather enjoyable. No good moral or anything but a really fun action flick...though we are still not sure why the Octopus was called "the Octopus" minus one vague reference to 8 arms at the end.
Anyway, there ya go.

C) I am listening to Pandora right now and there's some Jack Johnson song on and one of the phrases I just caught was "She's one tough enchilada filled up with nada". Awesome.

D) We're not up to much new which is why I haven't said much lately. We just said good-bye to our friend, MJ, who just left to go back to Korea. We will miss him very much, but I guess we all know what that's like, eh? We're hoping that maybe MJ and KB can go travel around together since they both like it so much and love taking pics so much. And because sometimes it's lonely being in another country where the majority of folks don't get Americans. :)

E) We will get pictures up of 2009 adventures soon...our laptop just died which means we have to both get the photos off the hard drive (provided it's not fried) and then we also need to get an external hard drive to hold the photos...and we thought we got one from ebay but long story short, I think we were conned. Bummer. So, in any case, pictures pending.

F) I'm also forgot I should continue to be CG...so I just went up and CGified what I could find, sorry if I missed anything. But changes are you can't get here except by proxy anyway ;)

G) I hope you feel sufficiently like it was worth waking up this morning, katherine. But I'm pooped so I'm signing off now.

H) The End.

almost T-giving

I don't like spelling out the entire word anymore so you'll have to appreciate the non-chalance of T-giving. It's like how one of co-workers names is C---stian. But I always spell it "Xian". Anywho, we're gearing up for the holidays here.

But I was so dismayed when I walked around campus on Wednesday and saw that physical plant was putting up christmas lights already!! Ugh, Blanchard lawn has already been transformed into a whimsical sea of multi-colored lights! Nooo, I thought. And then yesterday, we drove through Glen Ellyn and noted that there was a giant red bow complete with giant green garlands adorning every light post not to mention the giant tree which obscures your view of oncoming traffic at the corner of Main St. and Crescent. But don't pay no nevermind to that because we've decided to sneak Xmas into Halloween. Maybe it's the passive aggressive Suburban way of saying "Hey evil, take this!" (and they bite their thumbs at evil and all that jazz).

Now, don't worry I love a well lit tree and gaudily adorned abode as much as the next elf, but seriously, can't we wait till after T-giving?! I mean it almost would be appropriate to wait till Advent, but I admit that's too long to wait, even for me. I prefer the leaving up of the tree till February. Cuz I mean seriously what Holiday do we get next? Valentine's? Gag me. Patrick's? Hardly worth the mention. And waiting all the way through Lent seems so much like fasting...oh wait. Anyway, all that to say, our falala-ing and yulelog-ing will transpire as the Collins have always celebrated, the day after or the day after the day after T-giving.

But in traditional procrastinatory fashion, as this is a pseudo T-giving post, I'm going to put up pictures of Halloween :) And then maybe in Advent, I'll put up pics of T-giving and the tree dressing. PS--I must admit it is hard not to put up the cresch (spelling?) that K got us in China!!!! Can't wait for that. We definitely have plans...

My hot Professor Plum with the Rope [in the Billiard Room or
Ballroom depending on the places we were celebrating this year]

Lessons in cheap costumes: have husby bring home box from work,
instant Starbucks beverage!

we went to play Whirly Ball with the Psych department from Wheaton, doesn't that sound kooky? it was and Whirly Ball is fun, but kinda hard. I love that picture where Greg's drinking from my lid. That sounded far more sexual than intended...sorry. But since you can see the picture you know I mean nothing by it :) And there's Jenn, she was Abby from the show NCIS.


But, I'll leave you with these gems of pictures. Look, I'm a venti soy decaf no whip mocha! And check out that handsome handsome devil of a man. Yup, he's my roommate.