I Got Tagged!

RevKim tagged me for this meme of six unspectacular things about me. Oh, how to choose?

1. I have ten fingers and ten toes.

2. My vote in the presidential election is not going to matter one iota because of where I live. But I'll vote anyway.

3. My favorite color is blue.

4. I would dearly love to live in a place where I didn't need to have a car.

5. I hate, I hate, I hate school fundraisers. Children selling cheap-assed crap because schools aren't funded adequately just plain sucks.

6. Autumn is my favorite season. I'll be glad when it hits here- it's still summer here at 86 degrees!

I'm going to break rule #4 below, I'm too tuckered to tag anyone right now. Play if you like!

Meme Terms and Conditions
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. List six unspectacular things about you.
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.

The Big Read

I got this over at Alex's place. This is from something called 'The Big Read', from the NEA came up with a list of their top 100 books and they estimate that the average adult has only read 6 of these books. I will highlight the ones I've read. Cut and paste into your blog and let us know which you've read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks1
8 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I've read 43 of these- not bad. I'm a little sheepish about a few of them that I haven't read, but I just haven't been able to get beyond chapter one of several of them, including Moby Dick and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Also, I don't think that Mitch Albom book belongs in this company of great books, but that's just me.

Well, looks like I've got some reading to do. Happy 4th of July everyone!

I've Been Tagged

Singing Owl tagged me for this meme, so here goes...

Rules: The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions/statements about himself or herself. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Ten years ago:
In June 1998, I was living in a small town in Missouri working as an Associate Pastor in a church of another denomination. One does not need an MDiv in this particular denomination. I didn't yet know that I was a Presbyterian at heart, but I did know that I no longer belonged in that denomination, as I had decided not to seek ordination by that body. By this time, I had already submitted my resignation to the church and was looking ahead to my August wedding, moving to Denver and beginning seminary that Fall. From there everything changed. Thank God!

Five things on today's "to do" list:
bulletin
laundry
sit and do nothing for at least 10 minutes!
sign grant applications on behalf of some inquirers and candidates
research c-pap masks- I am desperate for one that I will actually use!

Things I'd do if I was a billionaire:
pay off debt!
buy my Mom a house
set up an educational fund for my kids
pay-off my Presbytery's court costs (property issues from a large church leaving the denomination- ugh!)
do all I could to bring an end to human trafficking
support mission

Three bad habits:
chewing my hair
procrastination
throwing clothes on the floor

Five places I've lived:
Wyoming
Indiana
Texas
New Mexico
Budapest, Hungary

Five jobs I've had:
birthday party clown (not anywhere near as fun as it might sound)
car-hop
waitress
English teacher
physical therapist's assistant

Let's see, I tag PK, grace-thing, RevKim, Lutheran Mom, and Mags

Two Things Meme

RevHipChick tagged me for this meme tonight.

Two names you go by:
1) Mama
2) another name, similar to "Iris" (but I'm not telling here, at least not yet...)

Two things you are wearing right now:
1) a really ugly, but oh so comfortable, sundress
2) um, underwear

Two of your favorite things:
1) the laughter of my children
2) chocolate

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1) to know which 300 words to shave from my sermon
2) to lose about 50 pounds

Two favorite pets you have or had:
Shadow and Emmy- my kitty cats.

Two people you hope will fill this out:
anyone who wants to!

Two things you did last night:
1) I saw the "Sex and the City" movie last night. It was very satisfying for this fan!
2) I put drano down my bathtub drain

Two things you ate last night:
1) vegetarian BLT (made with smoked tempeh)
2) chocolate covered raisins at the movie

Two people you last talked to:
1) my sister
2) my husband

Two things you are doing tomorrow:
2) preaching
3) sleeping

2 farthest trips taken in the last 5 years:
1) to Virginia in 2004 ( was extended a call to a church out there. I wanted to go, but hubby didn't.)
2) to St. Simon's Island, GA- also in 2004 for the Princeton Youth Ministry Forum. Very fun!

Two favorite holidays:
1) Holy Week- hands down, my favorite time of the year.
2) Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages:
1) good ol' H2O
2) Cabernet

Thanks, HipChick!

A President's Day Meme

This is from Songbird. How better to honor President's Day?
Herewith, five Presidential questions.

1. Can you name the American Presidents we are honoring? Bonus: Any idea when their real birthdays are? (Don't look it up.)
Yes, Washington and Lincoln. I can't think of Washington's actual birthday, but Lincoln's was February 12- same as my Daddy.

2. Why do you suppose car sales are an important aspect of our President's Day observations in the U.S.? (Feel free to be whimsical.)
Well, it certainly would be one way of "honoring" our current President, by hanging around car salesmen and buying a Hummer.

3. Have you ever been President of a club or organization? How did that feel?
Yep. When I was a teenager, usually it was very exciting to be elected and then would kind of suck to have to do the job. Gratefully, since then I have not been President of anything.

4. If you could have dinner with any President of the United States no longer living, who would it be? Any particular questions you would like to ask? (Please feel free to substitute a nationally appropriate elected leader, such as a Prime Minister.)
hmmmmmm..... I guess Harry Truman because I would like to ask him about what he was thinking and feeling as he made the decision to drop the bombs on Japan.

5. On a more serious note, what are the qualities you hope for in our next President? (As above for those who live in other countries.)
I hope the President is honest, a peacemaker, inspires with hope rather than with fear, is able to mend ties abroad, but, above all, has wisdom. Also, I hope the President cares more about the country than getting re-elected.

ETA: Is anyone else having problems with the "spellcheck" and "add image" buttons on blogger?

Ten Things About Me

Alex tagged me for this meme. I think I may have done this one before, but I will try to think of some new things to share with you all about moi.

1. My left hand is bigger than my right hand, by quite a bit.

2. When I was a teenager, I boycotted Universal Studios for two years because of the movie The Last Temptation of Christ. I had never seen the picture, of course. This stand of mine prompted my mother to declare that I was "moral to a fault." Alas, she was right.

3. I later rented said movie in my early 20's and was ticked that I had given up seeing lots of good movies those couple of years over ....that.

4. I have never gone skinny dipping, but it is a desire of mine to do so before I die. Actually, I've thought about it as a reward for after I lose weight. I don't really want to skinny dip while I'm still fat.

5. I may have mentioned this on my blog before, but in 1996 I ran into George Clooney in Bratislava, Slovakia. I had accidentally wandered onto the set where they were filming The Peacemaker. George just kind of smirked at me and I got the heck out of there! I haven't seen the movie. Is it any good?

6. I went to church by myself for most of my adolescence.

7. I used to love to go cliff diving. Now, not so much.

8. I never dreamed of being a mother. My husband and I had lots of conversations prior to getting married about not being parents because I wanted it to be crystal clear that I didn't think that motherhood was in my future. You may not believe this, but after I said, "I do," I began to have the desire to be a mother.

9. I've been a vegetarian for about 8 years.

10. I'll share with you why I use the pseudonym "Iris." When I was about 3 years old, I used to tell people that my name was Iris. My parents don't know where I heard the name, but I guess I fell in love with it and wanted it to be my name. My mom also tells me that I would answer "Iris" when asked, "What is your name?" However, I would answer with my real name whenever I was asked "Who are you?" So, I knew who I was. But my name was Iris.

I tag PK, LutheranMom, and tngirl

Four Things Meme

RevKim tagged me for this meme ages ago and I'm finally getting around to it!

Four Jobs I've Held
carhop at an A&W drive-in
birthday party clown (not anywhere near as fun as it might sound)
English teacher
room service waitress

Four Films I Could Watch Over & Over (And I Do!)
These are not necessarily the best film I have ever seen, but are ones that make me happy!
Spirited Away
The Princess Bride
When Harry Met Sally
A Fish Called Wanda

Four T.V. Shows I Watch
Heroes (The pacing has improved. That last episode was just made of awesome!)
Ugly Betty
Pushing Daisies
How I Met Your Mother

Four Places I've Lived
Casper, WY
Budapest, Hungary
Abilene, TX
Denver, CO

Four Favorite Foods
homemade chocolate chip cookies
pesto made from the basil I grow on my back patio
my great-grandmother's oyster dressing
grilled vegetables

Four Websites I Visit
of course, the wonderful blogs in my sidebar (I can lump all those into one answer, right?)
my bank's website
For Better or For Worse
the Opportunities List of PC(USA)'s Church Leadership Connection website

Four Favorite Colors
cornflower blue
black
crimson
midnight blue

Four Places I Would Love To Be Right Now
anywhere by myself
on a massage therapist's table
in a bubble bath
not here

Four Names You Love, But Could/Would Not Use For Your Children
Lydia (was going to be our daughter's name, but we found that the name didn't match the baby!)
Meredith (my cousin's daughter's name)
Zachary (my husband didn't want to name our child after an old boyfriend!)
Charlotte (my husband had a bad association with this name.)

Friday Five: Looking Forward, Looking Back

Sally with the RevGals says: When I began work here at Downham Market a wise friend told me that after one year I would see a few changes and sense God at work- years two and three would cause me to question and to wonder why I had chosen to accept the post here and in year four I might see the beginnings of something new.And so with that in mind alongside yesterdays celebrations I bring you Friday 5 Looking back, looking forward..

1. Share a moment/ time of real encouragement in your journey of faith
You know, at first I was drawing a blank for some reason, but as soon as I thought of one instance of encouragement, many others began to flood my mind. One such time was in my first year of seminary when the pastor I worked with at the time declared that it was time that I started to preach. I was terrified because in my past life in another denomination a pastor that I had worked with never let me preach, saying that I wasn't ready. So, I preached my first sermon a few weeks later and I must have said some apologetic or self-disparaging remarks about myself during the sermon because one of the older gentlemen in the congregation took me aside after service, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Don't ever let me hear you put yourself down or apologize for who you are in the pulpit ever again." It was a scolding that is one of the best moments of encouragements I've ever had.

2. Do you have a current vision / dream for your work/ family/ministry?
Although I have just begun in my ministry as a hospice chaplain, I am aching to stay home with my children. My dream right now is for my husband to make enough money for me to be able to quit my job. I'd love to stay home while also doing some pulpit supply and continue moderating the Presbytery committee I serve until my daughter is old enough to go to school in a year. My dream also includes a congregation here in town that is the right match for my gifts and experience that would be ready to search for a new pastor at about that same time.

3.Money is no object and so you will.....
I guess I already answered that one.

4. How do you see your way through the disappointments? What keeps you going?
For me, it is important to let myself feel disappointed and not try to act like it doesn't matter. I bitch and moan and eat some (okay, lots) of chocolate. I pray and ask that I might be able to trust that God has plans and purposes for my life.

5. How important are your roots?
I am close to my parents and my sisters, but not so much my extended family. Both my husband and I moved around a lot as kids, so we are both prone to restlessness and wanderlust. We are trying to provide a more grounded upbringing for our kids, which is why we decided to stay here in this city for awhile.

Five Things I Dig About Jesus

I was tagged by Cathy. This has been all over the blogring, so I'm going to dispense with the instructions.

Five things I dig about Jesus...

1. He loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.

2. He was a holy man AND knew how to have a good time.

3. He liked short people, including children and tax collectors.

4. He was completely present with whomever he was with.

5. He didn't teach the hokey-pokey, but he told us to love God and neighbor and to spread it all around. That's what it's all about!

I'm not sure if there's anyone who hasn't already done this, but let's try tngirl, Singing Owl, Lutheran Mom, Pastornines, and grace-thing

Eight Random Things

Towanda tagged me for this "Eight Random Things About Me" meme the other day while I was out of town. Since this meme has been all over the blogring, I'm not going to bother sharing the rules, especially since I'm going to disregard them anyway! I'll try to share different things than the "Six Weird Things About Me" meme from several weeks ago!

Let's see....

1. My older sister's and my middle name are each one half of our mother's name.


2. I hate, I hate, I hate it when someone squeaks a balloon. It hurts me physically..... really.


3. My second toe is longer than my big toe and I don't mind! My mother's toes are the same way and she once told me when I was a little girl that it signified that she was the boss! I like that interpretation!


4. My daughter went without a name for her first two days of life because she didn't look like the name we had originally chosen. The name we came up with suits her quite well!


5. I don't understand underwire bras. I mean, I know they are supposed to be more supportive, but I have been professionally fitted and still can't find one that is at all comfortable.

6. I'm discovering that it sucks to still be on vacation, but not be out of town. Well, at least when you have kids and school's out for summer!


7. I just fed my kids cereal for dinner.


8. I wish I had a gin and tonic right now.

Seven Things

SingingOwl has tagged me for this here meme.

So, here are "Seven Things You Really Didn't Want To Know About Me and Because Of That You Never Thought To Ask"

1. I moved over 20 times before I was 10 years old. My Dad was neither a pastor nor in the military, just a restless soul.

2. I am addicted to TV show, Heroes. Before this show came on, I never felt the need to read the online forums like Television Without Pity. Now, I read the online "graphic novel" (comic book to me) and read the forums about theories about how the season will end. Will Peter explode and destroy New York? Will Sylar kill Nathan and become President? Will the indestructible cheerleader ever have a bad hair day? Yeah, I'm a freak!

3. No one over the age of 18 months is allowed to touch me with their feet. This includes my husband and children who all have rather nasty feet. After 18 months, a child's feet have been walked on long enough to have lost their cute, soft, "babiness" and have turned into sweaty, smelly, "Bam-Bam" feet. Yuck.

4. Before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and began using a C-Pap machine at night, I would wake up in the middle of almost every night sitting up in bed with my legs crossed, my pillow in my lap and my head resting on my pillow. This was from the time I was child and everyone just thought I was strange or doing it on purpose. The reality was that I would stop breathing when I was lying down and I sat up in order to breathe.

5. Right after my daughter was delivered via emergency c-section, my doctor showed my husband my uterine fibroids before he sewed me up. It's strange to know that my husband has literally seen inside me.

6. Dick Cheney spoke at my high school graduation. You see, I graduated from Dick and Lynn's alma mater. It was 1990 and he had just become Secretary of Defense, so Secret Service was everywhere, which completely sucked! I don't remember a word that Cheney said.

7. My feet grew 1/2 a size with each baby. These are the kind of things that they don't tell you!

Since tomorrow is Friday Five, I'm going to break the rules and not tag anyone. If you want to play, let me know and I'll visit!

Friday Five: Surprised By Joy

Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No."He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. (John 21:5-7)

Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (Psalm 30:5b)

Songbird says: This week I've been watching parents of the young people slain at Virgina Tech trying to make meaning out of the lives of their lost children, and each one seems to begin by focusing on something joyful about that child. It's a gift that most humans have brains wired to respond in that way. For some of us it can be harder to work our way out of dark places, but I believe joy remains the key. It is the spirit of resurrection.

Tell us about five people, places, or things that have brought surprising, healing joy into your life.

1) My husband, J.
I was not one of those little girls who had her wedding planned by the time she was 12. Before I met J., my longest dating relationship had been 4 months and I honestly didn't care if I ever got married. I met J. on New Year's Eve ... at a bar. (Anybody who knows me well thinks that is hysterical!) When I met J., my thought was ,"Oh, there you are!" We were married 8 months later and will celebrate our 9th anniversary this August. Actually, we celebrate 2 anniversaries each year; the one in August and another on New Year's Eve.

2) My children, J.H. and C.
Experiences like a few nights ago notwithstanding (see last post and comments), my children have brought inexpressible joy into my life. Before I met my husband, I never really imagined myself as a mother. In fact, I told J. that if having children was very important to him, he probably shouldn't marry me. However, the strangest thing happened, I said "I do" and then I wanted kids. It was truly that instantaneous!

I love my kids for all the ways they remind me of myself and my husband and for all the ways in which they are completely and utterly their own persons. For instance, my daughter at 3 years old has already told me all about her wedding. She says she's going to wear a white dress, white tights, white sandals, white gloves, and white headband.

3) City in the Bible Belt
I've written before about how wonderful our experience in this city has been. I never imagined that we would like living here as much as we do, as I had no idea how much this city had to offer in the way of of museums, parks, etc. I'm not sure how much longer we'll be living here, so I have been making a list of all the things I want to make sure to do here before we leave.

4) Spiritual Direction training
Last September, a pastor in our Presbytery who has a spiritual direction practice (is that the right term?) called me out of the blue to ask if I would be interested in a joining a spiritual direction group. She said that my name kept popping up to her in prayer and on my end, the topic of spiritual direction was constantly coming up in conversation and in my readings. It has been absolutely fantastic to practice many forms of prayers and learn how lead groups in these disciplines. This is year one of a 3 year course to be certified as a spiritual director.

5) RevGalBlogPals
I had been craving fellowship with a community of women pastors and for months I had been searching the Internet for such a community. However, when I would plug in "women pastors" or "female clergy" and so on in the search engine, it would only come up with sites for pastors' wives and sites dedicated to arguing against women becoming pastors. How great was my surprise and joy when I read about RevGalBlogPals in a September issue of the Christian Century! I am inspired, challenged, entertained and empowered by your posts and I cherish each and every encouraging, kind, funny and smart-assed comment you make my blog! I only wish I had found you all much, much sooner!

Yeah, I'm Weird.

Alex tagged me with this meme. ETA: I just discovered that Cheesehead also tagged me for this one. My weirdness is known to all, apparently! :)

I am to name six aspects of my weird self! Only six? I could go on and on, but here you go:

1. I like to drink water and I like to drink lemonade, but I don't care for lemon in my water.

2. The only Rolling Stones songs I like are in a minor key (e.g. "Paint It Black.")

3. I can whistle a tune through my rolled up tongue. My kids love it when I whistle "This Old Man" (also the tune for Barney's "I Love You" song.)

4. I hate, I hate, I hate going clothes shopping. When I need to buy new clothes, I need a chaperon to accompany me or I won't try anything on and I'll gravitate to the bookstore.

5. I don't like french fries or popcorn.

6. When I was a little girl of about five or six, I would play "church" and serve communion to my dolls. I heard the call to the pastoral ministry early in life!

I tag Hipchickmamma, Lutheran Mom and Mags

Friday Five: Birthday, Redux

Reverend Mother said: Yours truly had a birthday this week, and while we've done the birthday thing before, I'm going to do my best to come up with new questions...

1. "It's my party and I'll [blank] if I want to..."Favorite way to celebrate your birthday (dinner with family? party with friends? a day in solitude?)
Get a massage! I don't care about anything else, just get me to the spa!

2. "You say it's your birthday... it's my birthday too, yeah..." Do you share your birthday with someone famous? (Click here to find out!)

I'm pleased to say that I have the same birthday as Mother Teresa. (I got to meet her in 1994- another post!) Also, according to the website provided by Reverendmother, I share a birthday with Pee Wee Herman ("I know you are, but what am I?") Also, my birthday is the same as Alexa Vega, the little girl from the Spy Kids movies. My kids are major fans!

3. "Lordy Lordy look who's forty..."Milestone birthdays: a) just like any other birthday--they're just numbers, people. b) a good opportunity to look back/take stock c) enjoy the black balloons--I'll be hiding under a pile of coats until the day is over d) some combination of the above, or something else entirely.
I guess I choose "d." Of course, I'm not yet forty! :P

4. "Happy birthday, dear... Customer..."Have you ever been sung to in a restaurant? Fun or cringe-worthy?
If I get free dessert, sing off key all you want!

5. "Take my birthday--please"Tell me one advantage and one disadvantage about your particular birthday (e.g. birthday in the summer--never had to go to school; birthday near Christmas--the dreaded joint presents) EDITED TO ADD: This could also simply be something you like/dislike about your birthday (e.g. I like sharing a birthday with my best friend, etc.).
I have a late August birthday, so school started that day several years. Poop.

Oh, How the Years Go By

I've seen this meme around the blogring the past few days and, since I can't think of anything else to write about, I'll give it a whirl.

Twenty years ago, I was:

• in the 9th grade and captain of the cheerleading squad;
• living with my family in the least populated state in our country;
• being trained in Youth Evangelism Explosion;
• feeling conflicted about what I was being taught in YEE;
• very, very, very boycrazy!

Fifteen years ago, I was:

• a Sophomore at a small, church-related university;
• a Bible and Religion major;
• sporting a very, very short hairstyle;
• probably in the midst of final papers for the semester;
• beginning to wonder if I would remain in my denomination;
• still pretty boy crazy!

Ten years ago, I was:

• living back in the state with more antelope than people;
• serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer working with at-risk Junior High students;
• paying the bills working part-time at Pizza Hut;
• beginning to gather seminary applications;
• a serial dater (still boy-crazy!)

Five years ago, I was:

• living in the Mile High City with my husband of 3 years and our 1 year old son;
• still boy crazy, but only for the two boys in my life;
• newly graduated from seminary (well, 6 months earlier;)
• working as an on-call chaplain in a local hospital;
• preparing to move to another state to begin serving in my first call;
• knowing in my heart of hearts that said first call wasn't the best match.

One year ago, I was:

• enjoying the Advent season in our newly purchased home in city in the Bible Belt with husband of 7 years, 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter (now girl crazy, too!)
• serving as part-time Associate in gift of grace from God congregation;
• having fun writing two dialogue sermons with my beloved colleague for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day service. I didn't know it would be our last Christmas serving together;

Yesterday, I was:

• cleaning the house like a mad woman because I just couldn't take it anymore!
• helping my little girl get dressed up in her "pretty dress-up, dancing dress" to go to the choir concert of two of our high school youth;
• planning Christmas Eve service;
• reading the Television Without Pity forums on the TV show, Heroes, because I'm in serious withdrawl! January 22 until the next new show!
• feeling restless, yet grateful.