whatnot

christmas 2004

my wonderful family...jothan, joel, james, g-maw and james, chloe, kara, randy, and jothan again.

ok, so our family is a little unconventional...and brian is picking up on it....a little sample.

aunt kathy, aunt marge, mom and aunt kris

uncle john

uncle jim

...and brian...

again, a little on the odd side, but this was the first thing that brian saw when he walked into g-maw and g-paw's house, an iraqi christmas.

mom and dad...


uncle jim and aunt marge

uncle john and aunt kris

and christmas wouldn't be complete w/out chi, aka "wonder dog"

grandma and grandpa kept up the festive spirit as well...

we had a wonderful time this christmas. we were missing randy's wife mariah and shawn and his wife kerri. my cousin joel is in boot camp, and will be in iraq in a year, so it was wonderful to have some time with him. we ate way too much and played so much euchre and had a marvy-fab time!

life in a law office....

conversation on the phone today:

hill: good afternoon.

lady: yes, um, i just called and don't know who i talked to.

hill: that's ok. what do you need?

lady: i was wondering, how many weenies come on the 50 person tray? i need to make sure i have enough weenies.

hill (trying hard not to laugh hysterically): ma'am, this is a law office.

lady: oh! oh my goodness, i am so sorry!

hill (trying to sound like it happens every day): that's ok. bye.

if you ask for bread, i will not give you a rock.

sometimes i think this way.

"ok Lord. i do so much that is good and right and have helped so many people this week. you see that i am in financial difficulty. don't you think that i have done enough for you to help me out now??"

it is like i think the Lord has a point system.

helping mom and dad with gas money: 5 pts
being hospitable: 3 pts
giving counsel and listening with a nice "i-am-here-for-you" face: 2 pts

weekly total: 10 pts.

1-3 pts gets three good things for you this week.
4-7 pts gets five good things for you this week.
7-10 pts gets you a good week with extra money thrown in.

it is hard for me to remember that nothing that i do merits anything. anything good that i do doesn't make me inherently good. anything good i do is because i have Christ.

just because i do something nice for someone or am good for five minutes, i think that that merits me something. but God doesn't work on a point system. he works on the basis of mercy and grace. i deserve a huge expenditure and high bills with nothing in my checking account. but instead, i have medium expenditure and medium bills and just enough money in my checking account.

i think: i do something good--i get a reward.

i don't think: i did something bad--i get my punishment.

thank you Lord for your mercy, and not giving me what i deserve

i would just like to note...

that i am in ohio and it is snowing. I MISS OHIO!!! they are medium flakes and they are the fluffy kind. not the wet ones that don't stick. these are sticking. they are swirling down in a lazy pattern with no particular destination. they are so fascinating to watch. just like everything else like God created, it amazes me that he could create something like that. where everything is so different and unique. that we could never hope to recreate it. i love my God. i love snow.

things that i love this friday

1. the fact that it was so foggy this morning i couldn't see the car in front of me.

2. i went to aussie burger three times this week.

3. i was told i lost my $40 check i thought i already deposited, so i have $40 more to put in my checking account today.

4. i am going to my cousin randy's wedding tomorrow. and that means seeing family. and that means chop souey at grandma's......i can't wait!

5. i am wearing a sweatshirt and jeans to work.

6. i have a car that gets me places and it is SOOOOO cool. josh mccarnan told me i need to get a rack for the top....next big purchase!

7. the fact that i work with heidi of expressions, and work is never dull.

8. i changed from my skirt into jeans last night right next to the student center, and bridge of nations without anyone knowing any different. that takes tallent.

9. did i mention i went to aussie three times this week? leon and nick are going to get me a tshirt for $10....maybe a green one.

10. i got an aussie burger license plate thing for the front of my car.

you are cordially invited

to a christmas cookie baking party.

sunday december 19 year of our Lord 2004.

after the sunday night church service.

email me for more details if you would like to come.

something wicked this way comes

"Now, look, since when did you think being good meant being happy?"

"Since always."

"Since now learn otherwise. Sometimes the man who looks happiest in town, with the biggest smile, is the one carrying the biggest load of sin. There are smiled and smiles; learn to tell the dark variety from the light. That seal-barker, the laugh-shouter, half the time he's covering up. He's had his fun and he's guilty. And men do love sin, Will, oh how they love it, never doubt, in all shapes, sizes, colors, and smells. Times come when troughs, not tables, suit our appetites. Hear a man too loudly praising others, and look to wonder it he didn't just get up from the sty. On the other hand, that unhappy, pale, put-upon man walking by, who looks all guilt and sin, why, often that's your good man with a capital G, Will--. For being good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two. I've known a few. You work twice as hard to be a farmer as to be his hog. I suppose it's thinking about trying to be good makes the crack run up the wall one night. A man with high standards, too, the least hair falls on him sometimes wilts his spine. He can't let himself alone, won't lift himself off the hook if he falls just a breath from grace.

"Oh, it would be lovely if you could just be fine, act fine, not think of it all the time. But it's hard, right? with the last piece of lemon cake waiting in the icebox, middle of the night, not yours, but you lie awake in a hot sweat for it, eh? do I need to tell you? Or, a hot spring day, noon, and there you are chained to your school desk and away off there goes the river, cool and fresh over the rock-fall. Boys can hear clear water like that miles away. So, minute by minute, hour by hour, a lifetime, it never ends, never stops, you got the choice this second, now this next, and the next after that, be good, be bad, that's what the clock ticks, that's what it says in the ticks. Run swim, or stay hot, run eat or lie hungry. So you stay, but once stayed, Will, you know the secret, don't you? don't think of the river again. Or the cake. Because if you do, you'll go crazy. Add up all the rivers never swum in, cakes never eaten, and by the time you get my age, Will, It's a lot missed out on. But then you console yourself, thinking, the more times in, the more times possible drowned, or choked on lemon frosting. But then, through plain dumb cowardice, I guess, maybe you hold off from too much, wait, play it safe.

"Look at me: married at thirty-nine, Will, thirty-nine! But I was so busy wrestling myself two falls out of three, I figured I couldn't marry until I had licked myself good and forever. Too late, I found you can't wait to become perfect, you got to go out and fall down and get up with everybody else. So at last I looked up from my great self-wrestling match one night when your mother came to the library for a book, and got me, instead. And I saw then and there you take a man half-bad and a woman half-bad and put their two good halves together and you got one human all good to share between. That's you, Will, for my money. And the strange thing is, son, and sad, too, though you're always racing out there on the rim of the lawn, and me on the roof using books for shingles, comparing life to libraries, I soon saw you were wiser, sooner and better, than I will ever be..."

my daddy....

yesterday was daddy's 49th birthday. all day he had been reminding us just like a kid that it was his birthday and that he didn't want any presents (he knew we had gotten him stuff) and that he didn't want a special dinner (he knew mom was having a dinner all planned at 6:30) and that he didn't want singing.

when he got home from work, he dropped his stuff in the entryway and started toing the tevye dance from Fiddler on the Roof (which heidi has not seen.....) from the song "if i were a rich man". you know the one where he is stomping and clapping and snapping and shaking his belly??? yeah, my daddy was doing that in the hallway. mom and i were about to die with laughter. we were both red-faced and gasping for breath. if you know my daddy, you know that is a LEEETLE out of character. =) mr. "i-am-so-serious-and-all-i-tell-are-corny-jokes" daddy.

we got thru the dinner and to the presents. his first present was socks. he got up and jumped up and down and yelled "socks! socks! they gave me socks!" the whole time my family was pounding the table, yelling "happy happy happy happy" and an occasional "birthday" thrown in. the decible level was UP. then we yelled the whole "happy happy birthday from all of us to you, we wish it was our birthday, so we could party too!" from emporor's new groove. hence the random "happy happy happy happy" yell-age. when he got to the coffee beans, he did the tevye dance but sitting down. that takes tallent. and daddy has lots of that. then he got to THE BIG ONE. all four of us went in together to get him a coffee maker. it had the pretty paper from williams-sonoma on it and a nice ribbon with a gold sticker. he pulled off the sticker and stuck it on his forehead and then tied the ribbon around his head like a rambo. he looked like a mix between the last samouri and the karate kid. he got so excited when he opened it up. i was so glad. i was worried he wouldn't like it. but it is really cool, cause i programed it to start at 5:30 when he woke up this morning, so when he came down, he had a pot of coffee, nice and piping hot. it is a grinder and maker all in one. very cool. very high-tech.

we had french apple pie for dessert that my mom made. OH! i forgot. we had steak, baked potatoes, salad, and artichoke heart salad for dinner with nice dinner rolls. the steaks were top sirloin from fresh market. amazing. well we ate our dessert in front of the fire. it was a fun fun day.

i just love my daddy. he is an amazing man. i have always been really close to him and we have so much fun together. my favorite times are our daddy dates. we used to go to breakfast together every saturday morning. sometimes we would go to lowes or home depot. or we would have our devotions. it was wonderful. we used to go to this place called marcy's diner. it was a greasy spoon and had the best greasy spoon coffee i have ever tasted. now we pick a fun looking place and just go.

my daddy is one of those men who is constantly giving. he works so hard. not for himself, but for our family. to make us comfortable and happy. he works on the weekend to serve others in the church or at his office. i go help him on tuesdays and thursdays at his work, and countless people when i have met them have told me what a sweet father i have and what a wonderful man he is. he is always ready to listen and give wise counsil to anyone. he doesn't just give money, but anyone who comes to our house is welcome. even when we didn't have that much money, he was always ready to open the home to people. he gives his time, energy and love to us and it is so evident that Christ lives in him.

i love my daddy so much and am so thankful for him.

a fun sounding proposition.

a lady stayed at our house last night and each summer she drives up to maine and takes a three day canoeing trip from maine back to boston..............any takers? she is a single lady that lives in burlington, ma and she is really cool! anyway she invited me up to boston sometime, and then told me about the trip each summer.......i smell a road trip!