argh

I have to post something just to prove to myself that I can. It's not like I haven't had things to post about... it's been a crazy weekend! Of course, Sara Keelin was (finally) born at 12:52 in the morning on Saturday. It was such an incredible process to be a part of. I was so proud of both Katie and Stephen, and of course Sara is beautiful and healthy and perfect. On the other end of the life scale, one of my mom's friend's young son was just diagnosed with leukemia... and my sister-in-law was laid off. Please keep Brennan and his family and Kristin in your prayers.

Ok, I know it was not exciting, funny, or any of those things. But it was a post. And I had to do it or this blog would have just gone the way of other blogs before it... down the blog-toilet.

So there. A post. How hard was that, Greer?

introducing...

WebLink Wednesday!!! Since between myself and Stephen I always seem to have websites, blogs, youtube videos, and other interesting internet tidbits to giggle at/ponder I thought that I would set aside a blog entry a week to ruminate on one of my latest finds. Given the historical significance of yesterday's events, I thought it would be fitting link to this amazing photo taken FROM SPACE of the inauguration (taken by the satellite that Google uses for Google Maps). The things that resemble coffee grounds scattered around the Monument and across the Mall are all of the MILLIONS of people who not only recognized the historical nature of yesterday's inauguration but were willing to brave throngs and hordes of people in the frigid weather just to be a small (coffee ground sized) part of it. (They all looked so cold on TV...) I don't even know if some of them could see or hear anything that was going on (I mean, I've been to DC and the Washington Monument is a long way from the Lincoln Memorial... maybe they had a kick-@$$ sound system...) but they were there anyway. I watched most of the news coverage and was excited and moved to be witnessing such an amazing moment in our nation's history... and it was TIVOed on FOX NEWS! I can't imagine the rush of being there. Even if Obama did kind of stumble through his oath. But anyway, congratulations to our 44th president Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden!

PS- Getting excited to welcome Sara Keelin into the world on Friday! I will post pictures and videos!

gooooo me!

I mean, let's be honest. Who doesn't need a little bit of this in their lives? I know you'll all be pulling out your credit cards and copying down the phone number after you watch it.

nest

Yesterday I decided that the house needed to be cleaned. This does occasionally happen. Often it will start with something as simple as realizing that the bathtub might be considered a bio-hazard, which leads to me realizing that I have no desire to kneel down on that nasty hairy bathroom floor, which draws my eye to the inside of the toilet bowl, which then makes me think about all of the bowls that are in the sink... etc. So I commandeered (also can be read as "commanded") my husband to take charge of the kitchen (seeing as how most of the dishes were his and all of the unsorted mail on the counter was his... not that I keep score or anything...) and I would tackle the bathroom. Then began what I like to call the Surprised Sloppy Spouse Moments.

SSSM #1: "Wait... why are you taking everything off the bathroom counter?"
SSSM #2: "The stovetop? You want me to clean that too?"
SSSM #3: "What took you so long cleaning the bathroom?"
SSSM #4: "Why do you need to clean the microwave?"

Now granted, I went a little crazy in my cleaning this time. I entered into uncharted territories like the top of the fridge (which was NASTY, by the way), the top shelf of our bedroom closet (SSSM #5: "Why should I hang up polos? I just keep them all up there until I need them."), the junk drawer in our side table/desk. I even went through my side of the closet and rearranged my clothes by type (pants, sweaters, jackets, then skirts and dresses... makes sense to me). So I realized that it was a little traumatic for Joe, but I didn't realize the extent of his fear until this morning. He had gone into the office to get a little extra work done and came back into the apartment as I was taking things off of our side table by the door.

Joe (the SS): What are you doing now? (edge of panic in voice)
Greer: I just noticed when I came out of the bedroom that this table really should be moved down about an inch or two. It will make all the cords less noticeable, plus there will be more room for the basket I put here for your moped helmet.
Joe: (fully terrified, wide-eyed) What are you, like, NESTING or something?

He says nest like it's a four letter word. Ha.

being of sound mind and body

Things I feel that I must/would like to/wish I could share with the world:

My husband's amazing ability to be comfortable with himself in any situation. (Refer to video of him at Agatha's, linked in previous entry. Yeah, no shyness there, folks.)

My passion for and talent in the performing arts. I figure God blessed me with them for a reason and they're not exactly the kind of talents that are just as fun alone. I envy visual artists their privacy and portability, but I love an audience and a "classful" of kids.

The knowledge that dogs are awesome. And better than cats. It's just true.

Two happily married and supportive parents that you actually enjoy spending time with and don't cringe when people say "you are so much like your mother/father" (shout out to my Dad, who is currently my only subscriber... thanks, Dad).

This video. (Note that this would probably be linked to something different every week or so, but there would always be a link to something ridiculous on youtube that needed to be shared with the world.)

A love for reading. I feel that it makes me a better, more intelligent, more well-rounded person. Even if lately my reading list has included lots of blogs (we'll call it research) and Twilight. Don't judge. It's good. It is. Stop looking at me like that.

The honesty and unquestioning love of my three year old students, the gravity and intelligence of my preteen students, and the passion and drive of my teenagers.

Candy corn pumpkins NOT ONLY IN OCTOBER. I mean really. Why do they take them away?

Fascinating friends. Although I hate that some of them are so far away, I get such a rush of pride and joy in sharing what they are learning, experiencing and seeing of the world.

Innate standardized test-taking ability. Now, I am a pretty intelligent human being in general, but I will be the first to admit that the fact that standardized tests were always easy for me helped me get through high school and into college relatively unscathed. I wish I had a secret I could divulge on the difference between my methods for taking the SATs or something like that, but I think it's basically just luck.

Balance. If my Mom has taught me anything (and she has), it is that balance in the key to a happy, successful, fulfilling, and somewhat peaceful life.

My Flip video camera. It. Is. Awesome. And completely idiot-proof. Which makes it even more awesome.

Something to be nostalgic for. While I am so happy to be where I am in my life, I know that there is so much that I have to look back on with tremendous fondness and gratitude.

promo

Some new videos up on my youtube channel... one of them is of Joe, taken last night during our Atlanta excursion to Agatha's Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre. They give you a new identity when you come in and some people are fortunate enough to get a speaking part. Apparently they scope out the table and see who they think would get the most audience reaction (or if it's someone's birthday or anniversary of what-have-you then usually they will get a bigger role). I guess they could tell what a ham Joe is... anyway, the video is hysterical. And the others are of Wonder Dog doing her thing (flyball, of course). Some of you (namely you) were requesting flyball footage, so there ya go and there ya have it.

this is why i have dogs

So I'm sitting on the couch wasting time in my usual ways while my ever diligent husband works on God knows what on his own little macbook on the kitchen counter. (You can always tell work has gotten serious when it moves to the kitchen counter. That is when Greer stays quiet and far-ish [it's a small apartment... "far" is relative] away.) And relatively out of nowhere I start having a mild "oh-my-goodness-i'm-basically-an-adult-no-wait-i-AM-an-adult-and-my-life-is-changing-and-so-are-my-friends-etc." kind of anxiety moment. Maybe it was talking to Katie about baptism dresses... maybe it was going to see HSM3 (shut it) with a bunch of girlfriends and realizing how much we brought up the average age in the theatre... maybe it was looking at the blog of an old McAlisters buddy and seeing how grown up and mature and... well... ADULT she looks and sounds... but whatever. It happens.

And then I turned around and looked behind me on the couch.

And Freak Dog was sitting there panting with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. And he has some kind of pimple type thing on his nose (yes, we are considering actually changing his name to Medical Mystery... or Vet Bill... but Freak Dog works for now) which makes him look even more like a goober. And Wonder Dog was sitting in front of him alternating between licking said bump on Freak Dog's nose (gross, I know) and chewing on his ear. And they both looked so freaking happy about it.

And I laughed. And that is why dogs make life ok.

start praying, folks...

Because the world is ending. My father joined facebook. And has flair. And joined a group called "I Heart My Prius". The email requesting that I be my father's "friend" was quite enough. But seriously, Dad... flair?

Oh, and then my "aunt" Karen decided to join and befriend him. Her joining was definitely the more shocking of the two (at least I know that my Dad has always been hip to the latest technology trends... so it was kind of bound to happen...).

And now they write on each others' walls.

resolved

I am not the type to get "touched" by a scripture reading at church. I usually listen to them and read along and think about them and analyze them the way we used to do in my New Testament class in college, but they don't usually resonate with me. I am also not really the type to make New Year's resolutions. In this blog entry, I am going to go against both of those in one fell swoop. Prepare ye.

Christmas Eve was a bipolar kind of affair for my family. It's usually one of my favorite parts of the holiday since it is when my mother makes her kick-butt spaghetti sauce and danish cucumbers and all of the family is together and we dress up and go listen to harp music at church. It's always lovely, it's always calming, and I always find the holiday spirit in many ways that night. For the most part that was all still true this year, but we did have some unexpected drama that kind of put a damper on the evening. Let's just say that some of the adults behaved a bit more like teenagers than might be appropriate. And not in an "OMG it's Christmas" kind of way, but in a "I'm going to kill you because you drive me crazy so let's yell about it" kind of way. Fun times. But anyway, we all managed to sit down for our spaghetti without anyone pulling out anyone's hair, and we all dutifully trooped to church and sat near the front (my family is kind of snobby about their church seats). I felt that it was good for us to be at church. First of all, no one had to talk. Second, we could take the time to reflect on why we were all here together in the first place. The first reading (the epistle) seemed to fit right in with what I wanted to get from the service and I felt as if God had put it there for me and my family as a reminder. And for once I didn't brush off that feeling or scoff at myself for being "mushy" or whatever. I re-read the passage and pointed out the part that struck me to my mother, who rolled it up and brought it home. (PS- I saw that she had torn that sections out and put it in her bathroom. I guess God talked to her too.)

I went back a few days later after even more (and much more serious) drama occured and re-read the passage, expecting that it would have lost some of its sparkle. I was surpirsed to find that a different part of the reading grabbed me and again resonated somewhere inside of me. So I decided to take this little snippet into my heart and make it my resolution for the year of sorts... here is the passage so that I can make this make better sense (it's from Titus)...

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope an the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds."

The first part that struck me (on Christmas Eve) is the bold section. I had never thought of "self-controlled" as a trait that God would specifically want us to strive for, but it makes complete sense. So this year, I'm applying that to my eating and exercise habits, the amount I sleep in every morning, and trying to plan my classes and my choreography so that I am getting the most out of myself and the people I work with. Upright will manifest itself in the way I handle myself in disagreements and when I get frustrated in my classes, and godly in my relationships within our new church and my attention to God.

The second part that struck me was the last phrase: "zealous for good deeds". Not that we perform works of good, but that we actively seek them out and are excited to peform them. That we celebrate not only the action of performing acts of kindness, but the opportunities to do so. I hope that I can be that way in the coming year. And in every year for that matter.

Happy New Year!