The deal is down - we are now officially property owners!! There wasn't a sold sign in the yard, which was a real dissapointment, but we took our official picture anyway. Tomorrow the work begins and the reality of what we just signed away hits.
I decided to recover the awesome, yet olllld couch we have. First, saving money is always great, but the best part is I can pick exact fabric I want! Sander loves it too by the way...surprising but great! (Its from Ikea of course)
It is taking me WAY longer than I thought it would and the first cushion ended up smaller than the original. The feather form still fits, but it is more compressed and not as comfy. I'll tweak the others and maybe the small cushion will just blend in. Hopefully...
Old and NewI was going through some old Picasa photos and realized that were were on the Isle of Skye one year ago today. It is shocking to realize how beautiful the day was, as Skye is NOT known for its good weather. *sigh* It really does feel as if we never really went...
In memory of one of the most fabulous days in Scotland, I've posted a few of my favorite pictures:
View from the B&B
Group shot outside the B&B
On the road leaving the B&B
Highland Coo
Click here for the full post after the jump…
Last Friday the Fashion Design program at HCC had their big end of the year fashion show and awards ceremony. Sander and I went even though I was only showing a jacket in the show. I had thought they were only giving away a "best-in-show" award, but they added a lot more this year. As they began I was talking to my friend next to me and then we both heard our names. We went up but we had no idea why they had called us to the stage since we had been talking and not listening to the award ceremony. It turned out we each received a $500 Textiles scholarship from the Kingwood Quilt Guild! We were so surprised! Our Textile teacher nominated us for this award and it was a huge honor. It was a fabulous surprise and a way the Lord is obviously looking out us knowing what we need before we need it...as Sander and I were to find out this week.
As I mentioned below, we have an offer on a house. We found out this week what the seller was going to offer for repairs. They barely offered a 1/4 of what we requested. It was discouraging and something we had to think seriously about. But, we saw the scholarship and in several other random places ways the Lord had provided the money despite the reluctance of the sellers. It is easy to get greedy and want the extra money from BOTH places, especially as the list of repairs seems to grow each day. But we had to get to the point Thursday where we firmly knew the Lord had led us to this house and that if the seller wasn't going to provide, that was ok. All money belongs to the Lord anyway - and if we really need it, He will provide it. God has in the past and He will in the future.
In the past few days I've begun to read My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers each day. Tuesday's was so inspiring to me, I have been thinking about it ever since. I don't know if I will ever get to the place of being completely gracious about the uncertainty of life - but I pray that I will. It seems SO freeing...probably because it is just the way God designed it to be! I am so grateful though that God has blessed me with ears to hear and eyes to see...at least in part - I have so far to go, but I am grateful and appreciative for all the grace shown to me in all my failings so far!
Hope this encourages you too:April 29, 2008
Gracious Uncertainty
. . . it has not yet been revealed what
we shall be . . . —1 John 3:2
Our natural inclination is to be so precise— trying
always to forecast accurately what will happen next— that we look upon
uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal,
but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual
life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down
roots. Our common sense says, "Well, what if I were in that circumstance?" We
cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never
been.
Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life—
gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God
means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may
bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an
expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we
are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He
has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we
become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within
us dies. That is not believing God — it is only believing our belief about Him.
Jesus said, ". . . unless you . . . become as little children . . ." (Matthew 18:3 ).
The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not
uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our
certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness,
become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are
complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is
full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, ". . .
believe also in Me" (John 14:1 ), not, "Believe certain
things about Me". Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and
graciously uncertain how He will come in— but you can be certain that He will
come. Remain faithful to Him.
Here is the table I was talking about from Craig's list. I am going to use the fabric in the 2nd picture to make seat covers for the chairs and curtains for the kitchen window.
Today Matt Lauer is in Istanbul with the Today Show- I want to go back! He is going to 5 countries in 5 days. He was in Argentina, Amsterdam, Laos, now Turkey and Istanbul. It has been fun to watch, but seeing a place I have been was the best. I would love to go back and highly recommend Turkey, Istanbul, and the Agean coast to anyone thinking of an overseas trip.
After watching I got a little sad, thinking Sander and I are done with our adventure days. But, when I think about it, life is an adventure right now. We are settling into Houston and have accepted it as our permanent home for the foreseeable future, which includes making major life decisions. We've even decided to buy a house!
We have a contract in on a house, which if all goes well, means it will be ours May 15th - Yikes! It really feels surreal, but it has been an incredible growing experience for Sander and I together.
I just got back from an amazing trip to Israel. We had some equipment being built near Haifa, and I was given the opportunity to go do the inspection. It was really and truly a gift from God, and while it was an incredible experience, it's also incredibly difficult to describe what it felt like...so I'm not really going to try here. I'd be glad to go into it all in person or on the phone or something.
So I got there on Sunday afternoon and headed straight to Jerusalem, where I stayed for three days. My hotel was on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus did a lot of His teaching. My room looked out to the courtyard of the chapel built where He ascended into Heaven.
I took the first three days to do some sightseeing, and the company I was visiting even arranged for a private tour guide - very cool. I spent the first day just going around Jerusalem - there's probably more history packed into the Old City than in the whole of America. The second day, we went out to the Dead Sea region and saw the Dead Sea, the caves at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and Mosada, the cliff-fortress-city that was the last stand in the Jewish Wars against Rome. The third day, we headed back out the Dead Sea and drove up the side of the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee. We saw among other things the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus, the various villages where Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John came from, the town of Capernaum which Jesus used as a hub for His Galilean ministry, and the site where He fed the 5000.
Then it was off to Haifa (a city on the slope of Mount Carmel, where Elijah took on the prophets of Ba'al) and to real work. There, I spent two days in spirited negotiations making sure everything we designed and paid for was built correctly. The second evening, I took the train back to Tel Aviv and stayed on the Mediterranean coast, then caught a plane back to Houston the next morning.
It was an awesome trip, and one I'll never forget. Pictures are up on our picture site, which you can access from the link at the top. They'll say way more than I could ever write here.
Sander
http://www.txtag.org/
I just got my toll tag at the above address! It works throughout Texas AND I don't have to pay any extra charges like I do in Houston. Whoo hoo! Get yours today!
As of Tuesday I officially finished my first semester of fashion design classes! It has been a whirlwind as I started just 3 days after we moved to Houston. With one project after another I haven't really had much time for anything else. I realized just yesterday how non-stop it had been. So, now I am taking the much needed "free-time" to make dentist appointments, get in touch with old friends, and check un-read emails that have stacked up for months.
One I came across was this article from the Wall Street Journal. I think it is appropriate anytime, but even more so as Christmas is coming. I wonder what a survey would say if they asked people how they see Christians and Christmas relating. (Our sermon on Sunday asked us what we thought the most important thing about Christmas was. Since we were in Church, of course we knew Jesus was the right answer. But, what the pastor pointed out was what is really the most important thing for us is what we fight for and protect. Is it the tradition of how/when you open gifts what you are going to fight for and protect? Or will you fight and protect how you celebrate and recognize Jesus' birth? To be honest, I realize what I fight for is what food I will eat [its tradition!] or what ornaments I will hang [they are my special ornaments and it isn't Christmas without them!].)
I thought this article and the sermon point were both really applicable to all of us at Christmas. What do you think is more important - your traditions and the "right" thing or reflecting who Jesus really is?
When people look at us, do they see Christ?Written by Tony Woodlief
October 22, 2007 58 CommentsA few weeks ago the Barna Group conducted a survey of 16- to 29-year-olds (Christians and non-Christians) to assess their impressions of Christianity. The findings, especially as Christians once again find ourselves poised to descend into the muck of national politics, ought to be troubling.
Researchers offered respondents 20 perceptions of Christians — 10 positive and 10 negative — and asked which apply. While considerable majorities perceive that Christianity has good values and principles, and is friendly, an even greater majority think it teaches the same basic ideas as other religions — and that this is a good thing. Still greater percentages of respondents, meanwhile, perceive Christianity as judgmental and hypocritical.
Lest anyone conclude that this is simply the assessment of heathens, half of the Christians surveyed say that Christianity as practiced today in the U.S. is not only judgmental and hypocritical, but too political. It’s hard to write off the opinions of the non-Christians regardless, because the average non-Christian respondent to the survey has five Christian friends, while four out of five regularly attended church themselves (probably as children) in the past.
Most disturbing is that the perception garnering greatest agreement among respondents is that Christianity means hostility to homosexuals. More than any other image, this best defines what Christianity is to young non-Christian Americans (80 percent of young Christians, meanwhile, confirm that it is an accurate perception of Christianity).
I can sense some commenters to this post already thumbing their way to Leviticus. My goal is not to provoke an argument about what Christ does or doesn’t say regarding gays. My point is that our words and actions shape how others see Christ, and a highly-respected research organization reveals that a great many young people perceive Christians not as a body of grace-filled believers, but as a crowd of angry, hypocritical politicos. It puts me in mind of a vignette in Philip Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew, about a woman whose life has been destroyed by drugs and prostitution. When someone asks her if she’s thought of going to a church for help, she replies: “Church! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”
Regarding the homosexuality finding, when researchers delved deeper, respondents told them that Christians not only hate the sin, but make clear their contempt for the sinner. A majority of young Christians, further, say that their churches have elevated the sin of homosexuality so that it is somehow a greater sin than others, all while failing to offer meaningful guidance about how to interact with gays in a manner reflective of Christ.
All of this — the perceptions of how Christians behave toward homosexuals as well as the general perceptions about Christian hypocrisy and mercilessness — can be summed in what the researchers say was one of the most common unprompted perceptions, that “Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.”
We get overwrought, especially in election years, about the state of the country, and the evils of politicians (who almost always come, it seems, from one party and not the other). What if we took four years off from national politics, and devoted them instead to the politics of our own hearts? It seems that — in the eyes of young Americans, at least — many of us Christians are decidedly unchristian in our behavior.
Perhaps the silver lining in this cloud is that non-Christians seem to sense that Christ would not approve. Maybe, despite our sins of anger and hatred, despite our forgetting that we are forgiven as we forgive, and our overlooking that we are saved by grace alone, so that no man may boast — perhaps we may at the very least not sully the name of Christ in our zeal to condemn.
I’m going to try to think less about what Jesus is going to say to other sinners on judgment day, and more about what he will say to me, and to all of us who claim to represent him.
Click here for the full post after the jump…
Sander and I are off tomorrow morning to hear this "definitive" speech by Romney. My sister Victoria works as the Bush Presidential Library and has miraculously managed to get not one, but TWO tickets to this invitation only speech. Romney has chosen to fill it with only his invited guests and the press. We'll keep you updated.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16933414
All Things Considered, December 5, 2007 ·Click here for the full post after the jump…
In a speech at Texas A&M University, Romney will try to dispel concerns
about his religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The speech
has been compared to John F. Kennedy's address to Protestant Evangelical pastors
in 1960, and he hopes it will give him an easier forum to explain a complicated
religion.
For example, last week during the CNN/YouTube debate, Romney was
asked an awkward question for a Mormon: Does he believe every word of the Bible?
"You know," Romney sputtered uncharacteristically, "yes, I believe it's the
word of God, the Bible is the word of God. The Bible is the word of God. I mean,
I might interpret the word differently than you interpret the word, but I read
the Bible and I believe the Bible is the word of God. I don't disagree with the
Bible. I try to live by it."
Romney did not say he believes the Bible is
inerrant, which evangelical Christians do. Nor did he say he believes the Book
of Mormon is a new revelation from God, which Christians reject. Such
theological shoals are difficult to negotiate in sound bites. And so Romney is
offering a summary of his faith on his own terms – uninterrupted – in a speech
in Texas on Thursday.
Shaun Casey, an expert on religion and politics at
Wesley Theological Seminary, says Romney will be talking to the people he needs
to in order to win the Republican nomination: the nearly 40 percent of white
evangelicals who hold an unfavorable opinion of the Mormon faith.
"He has to
show that his Mormon values are equivalent with evangelical, Christian values,"
Casey says. "The difficulty is he really can't drill down very far doctrinally
or theologically because of some of the historic differences and the historic
animosity between evangelical Christians on the one hand and Mormons on the
other."
You could hear that ambivalence at Bob Evan's restaurant in
Springfield, Va., where a group of men met to study the Bible on Wednesday
morning. While Mormons insist that their faith is Christian, Lou Preebee says,
they hold different views of the role of Jesus, salvation, the afterlife and the
Trinity.
"By definition, you have to wonder if Mormonism is an authentic
Christian faith. Most evangelicals would say definitely not," Prebee says,
adding that electing a Mormon president would send a signal. "It gives a
validation of Mormonism as a legitimate Christian denomination, which it is
not."
Computer programmer Eric Hughes is willing to consider Romney — and he
says Romney's speech could help or hurt his vote.
"Probably the biggest deal
breaker for me would be if he were to go up there and claim that fundamental
Christianity and Mormonism are identical," he said.
Why would that be a deal
breaker?
"There are so many chameleons," Hughes says, "I would love to see
somebody who can be completely open and honest with their faith."
Ralph
Weitz, a lay minister, says he, too, is troubled by the doctrines of Mormonism.
"But on the other side, the Mormon faith does bring some values to the
table, just like Kennedy's Catholicism did," Weitz says. "And he needs to
clarify how much he will be controlled by the denomination, versus a faith that
brings value."
In September 1960, then-Sen. John F. Kennedy made a speech to
Evangelical leaders in Houston, Texas. Like Romney, Kennedy faced questions
about whether he would follow the wishes of his church in public policy. He
declared he would not. And he warned about religious intolerance.
"For while
this year, it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed,
in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew, or a Quaker, or a
Unitarian, or a Baptist," Kennedy told the conservative pastors.
Kennedy
added: "It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that
helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the
victim, but tomorrow it may be you, until the whole fabric of our harmonious
society is ripped at a time of great national peril."
But much has changed in
nearly a half-century. In 1960, political candidates were not expected to wear
their faith on their sleeve, as many do today. Kennedy also represented a
religion followed by nearly one-third of all Americans. Mormonism claims about 3
percent.
And yet, some evangelical leaders have been receptive to Romney's
message. Albert Mohler at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville
has not endorsed Romney, but says he finds him an "attractive candidate."
"I
find him attractive in terms of his policy positions," Mohler says. "And, I
think along with many evangelicals, I would find Mitt Romney very attractive in
terms of who he is as a man, as a husband, as a father. I think you're looking
at someone who really does have the kind of experience, who carries himself like
a president, and one that evangelicals could see in that office."
Mohler says
evangelicals who say they won't vote for a Mormon may reconsider:
"If, for
instance, there is a liberal Democrat, a Hillary Clinton, for example, at the
top of the Democratic ticket, I think an awful lot of evangelicals will
discover, 'Well, you know, a week ago, I didn't think I could vote for a Mormon.
But now, I think I will.'"
Mitt Romney hopes to make that easier for them,
starting with Thursday's speech.
So much and so little has been happening here in Houston. We are settling into a schedule of work, homework, errands, and road trips. It hasn't been too exciting, thus no updates.
Fashion classes have been really fabulous so far. I am in an incredible art for fashion class with so many inspiring students. The creativity of all the other students oozes out
BLAH BLAH BLAH..........ugh.
Signed, Whitney
[Sander takes the wheel]
Right, so Whitney's in a couple classes that are really cool, and a couple that are not-so-really-cool. There's a lot of ooze in her art for fashion classes (as you've already heard), but from what I can tell, it seems to make them all work better. It's the class where she made that concrete silhouette, and since then she's made some more cool art projects, one of which was based on our experience in Istanbul. She has also just made a hat out of a shoe that she took apart, and it worked out great. She's consistently getting "top marks." In her sewing class, she's actually made a skirt and jacket...albeit a jacket from the 80's complete with double breast and shoulder pads, but that's because the teacher's old and doesn't seem to like to change her assignments from year to year. The other classes are boring and she'll take every opportunity to get out of them that she can, so we'll just leave it at that. Also, through a random friend of a friend, she's gotten to be a dresser at a bunch of fashion shows, the latest of which was a show by some big name designer at Reliant Park (whose name was actually so big it didn't fit in my head). Good stuff there.
Me...I'm back at designing offshore oil platforms and stuff. Not much to report, although I am in the midst of a pretty good practical joke on a co-worker. Can't say much more, but it's a good one. What else...I'm sick of the election and it's still a year away...I've started back up with New Testament Greek...I just killed a fruit fly that has been buzzing around here for days...my hair's growing at an alarming rate...oh, and my watch flew off my wrist and broke after 5 long years of faithful service and 3 real-life resurrections (literally, it stopped 3 times but magically restarted and I never changed the battery).
Oh, this is cool: we've settled down at Bridgepoint Bible Church and found out that the church was originally planted by the same guy that planted Grace Bible Church in College Station. So while we were "Central People" at A&M, we're apparently "Grace People" in Houston. Now we truly are spiritually healthy. Haha...
Good books I've read lately: The Weight of Glory by CS Lewis, The Passion of Jesus Christ by Johnny Piper (it's good for devotionals), and Many Waters by Madeline L'Engle. Those of you who went to Arapaho Elementary...who am I kidding...Mark if he's reading this, will remember that as the 4th book of the Wrinkle in Time series that Miss Loeliger read to us in 4th grade. And I'm happy to say it's even better than it was during story time. Word up for my sophisticated tastes. I'm currently in another book on the Balkans - The Fracture Zone - at the behest of a Serbian friend, but it's not too stellar. It's written by a journalist and you can tell with some of the weird things he says and the way he's not that great at telling a story.
Well, that's it for me right now. I'm going out to look for a new watch. Whitney's scampered off to watch the Project Runway Season Premier with her sister, we still miss Aberdeen, and we're looking forward to Pumpkin Pie.
The End.
Retractions: We actually have 100 senators, not 50. Still, 41% ignorant, partisan opportunists is a sad number.
Sander and I went as a nerd...aka himself, and I went as a hula dancer. Oh yeah. I got such a workout doing lunges all night as I womaned the throw the ball through this hole booth. It was fun, but so busy! It made me want kids and not want kids all at the same time.
More soon!!!!
So here is the brief story:
Rush Limbaugh spoke against the men who lie and say they have served in the military. There are quite a few "fake soldiers" who claim to have served for one reason or another and he spoke out against the way they cheapen what is such a noble job.
However, someone seems to have only heard a snippet of that broadcast. That someone happens to be 41 US Senators...yes, 41 of the 100 chosen to represent our nation.
Check out the ebay auction for more info:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-Harry-Reid-Rush-Limbaugh-Smear-Letter_W0QQitemZ260170172469QQihZ016QQcategoryZ4105QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
If only this is what we had to look forward to as election season comes upon us!!
Watch the video and tell me this couldn't be prime time tv??
Yeahhhhhh!!!! RabbleRabbleRabble!!!
Cameron says Brown 'looks phoney' | ||
| Conservative leader David Cameron has said Gordon Brown looks like "a phoney" as they went head-to-head in their first Commons battle since July.
The clash came with the PM facing claims he "bottled" a snap election - and stole Tory policy ideas on tax. Mr Cameron said the PM was treating people "like fools" by denying opinion polls led to him to reject a snap poll. But Mr Brown pointed to the grammar school row and said he would take "no lessons" from Mr Cameron. Since his weekend decision not to hold a general election Mr Brown has sought to regain the political initiative with statements on Iraq and on his government's tax and longer-term spending plans. But those tax plans - on inheritance tax, "non-doms" and green taxes on flights - have prompted accusations from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats that their policies have been stolen. In the Commons, Mr Brown faced a volley of abuse from Mr Cameron, who accused him of lacking courage and "bottle". 'Flunk an election' The Tory leader mocked the prime minister for denying that he would not have called an election even if the polls showed he would have secured a 100 seat majority. "Do you expect anyone to believe that?" asked Mr Cameron, who added that Mr Brown's failure to hold a referendum on the EU treaty also "damages your credibility". "You are the first prime minister in history to flunk an election because you thought you could win it." He made fun of Mr Brown's book entitled Courage, saying: "Do you realise what a phoney you now look? Have you found a single person who believes your excuses for cancelling the election?" He pressed the prime minister to say if the draft pre-Budget report that was written before the Conservatives' conference had included plans to cut inheritance tax or on levying non domiciles. Mr Brown responded that the government had raised the exemption on inheritance tax on 10 occasions since 1997. He said the Tory leader would have to explain why the Conservatives' plans would only generate £650m rather than the £3.5bn that they claimed. Name calling Mr Brown said he would not take lectures from a man who had been for grammar schools, VAT on air fares and museum charges and then went against them. Mr Cameron said if the prime minister had questions about Tory plans he should "find a bit of courage, get a bit of bottle, get into his car, go down to Buckingham Palace and call that election". He added: "For 10 years you have plotted and schemed to have this job, and for what? No conviction, just calculation. No vision, just a vacuum. "How long are we going to have to wait before the past makes way for the future?" Mr Brown countered that Mr Cameron had said he was "a man who wanted an end to the Punch and Judy show" and "name calling". "We are the government that has created 10 years of economic stability in this country. We are the government that adopted a minimum wage against Conservative advice." Mr Brown said Labour had made the Bank of England independent and delivered record rises in investment in health and education. Lib Dems claim ideas "We will continue to govern in the interests of the whole country," he said. Earlier Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, Vincent Cable, told BBC News 24 that Labour had actually stolen their ideas, rather than Conservative ideas. He said: "Most of these policies were set out by the Liberal Democrats. We had set out this policy on changing the basis of aviation tax, the Tories pinched it from us and now the government have pinched it from them. "I mean for the Tories to be bellyaching about it, it's like a gang of thieves complaining about their houses being burgled." |
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Click here for the full post after the jump…
The Polish government has blocked an EU-wide day to celebrate the abolishment of the death penalty, saying it is hypocritical to celebrate abolishing one form of killing while still advocating abortion and euthanasia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7001538.stm
Hi!
It has been way too long since we have posted on here. Moving back to Texas has been even more of a challenge than we thought. We moved into our apartment on a Wednesday, and the follow Monday I started Fashion Design classes. It has been on hectic rush ever since with commuting, errands for the apartment and the classes, working on one of my many projects, visiting friends, seeing family, and more. We still haven;t worked out a great schedule yet to manage everything and still sleep and eat regularly, but hopefully we will soon. As for me and my classes, they are a surprise! A pleasant one in some ways as they are much more challenging and thought provoking than I thought they would be. Some are a waste of time, but I think that is required for any degree/school you attend. = )
The classes I really like this semester are Textiles, Art for Fashion, and Apparel Construction - all of which have on-going and time consuming projects. I just finished my first "little" project which required that I design a dress form from paper mache. We were then required to pick a prominent artist or designer and portray their philosophy or heart behind a certain piece of art they have created. I chose an early piece of Georgia O'Keeffe's art. The pictures are below. My inspiration for the base came from the way she chose things from her natural environment to paint, so I chose a piece of concrete with rebar sticking out as that is from my natural environment. I then have tulle coming from the base, out through the heart from inside of the form. This is to symbolise the intuition and soul she saw behind objects in nature (as well allude to her home at Ghost Ranch). The color shooting out from inside the form echoes the colors and forms of one of her early water colors of the prairie. I have also included Stieglitz, the man who first displayed her works in New York and later became her husband and lover. I have him behind the tulle as I have also included the Imagest poem In a Station of the Metro on the body of the dress form. I included that poetry, music, and other artists greatly influenced O'Keeffe, especially as she joined the inner circle around Stieglitz in New York. Imagest poetry was being written at the same time O'Keeffe started her career and shares a lot of the same qualities that she projects in her painting - get rid of any unnecessary fluff, get to the point, leave an image in the audience's eye, and then let them interpret the image for themselves. It is much more challenging and time-consuming than I ever imagined, but I am enjoying it as well.
We'll keep you updated on how the rest of this month goes!
Have you ever had movers come in and ask immediately for a cup of tea? I put the kettle on and fixed their 'white' teas. Now I am hiding out in the bedroom trying to stay out of their way as they are so friendly they just talk and talk if I am in the living room. I think I'm going to miss the British more than I know.
This past week has been difficult saying goodbye to some truly great friends. Well, I honestly don't like to say "goodbye," so it was more of "sees-you-laters". This probably has less to do with some nice idea that we will all meet again, but more to do with my denial that we are actually parting. I get so weird emotionally during times of change. I want to cry, I feel like crying, but something inside can't grasp that this is actually a goodbye moment. It won't be until I have actually gotten on the plane at the airport that I'll actually realize I won't see everyone again for a really long time. Sigh.
Overall I am extremely torn about this transition. One the one hand we have had an incredible time this year in Scotland, have been included into a great circle of friends, and have experienced so many new things/ways of doing things. But on the other hand we have had a really hard time adjusting to the weather, the 6 hours of twilight in the winter, and coping without our close Texas friends and family. In Aberdeen everything is close, the countryside is all around you, and you have to drive for hours to find a 6 lane highway. In Houston we certainly don't have that but we do have incredible food, diverse cultures, and affordable clothes. One side doesn't necessarily win, but being a bit closer to family does tip the balance. But even that is hard to get as excited about as we will still be 5 hours away from most of our immediate family. My sister and her husband have moved to Houston while we have been gone though, so I am excited to see how that helps.
Our leaving "dos" have been really fun, so that has helped alleviate some of the sadness. Scott MacDonald gave us a Quaich, the Scottish cup of friendship. You fill it with whisky and then pass it around, everyone taking a sip as you go.
Mmmm…Famous Grouse is the only whisky I've been able to stomach yet.
We also had a great dessert party to say goodbye to all the friends we made through the Hebrew's Study, Breathe, SNAC, and YA.
As you can see, we had fun. Too bad I forgot to bring out the camera until half the people left. Well, that just tells you how much fun we had.
Our last Sunday at IBC (International Baptist Church) was difficult too. Sander and Chris played one last time in the band and we had a nice time to say farewell at the coffee fellowship. The church "family" there has been so welcoming to us and instantly let us jump in and serve in the band, Sunday school, and the youth. It was our first experience in a small church and we loved it. When we said goodbye it was wonderful to know every family's name and have a connection with each one. We will really miss that.
Elspeth, Me, Valerie (my neighbor), Kirstie, and Val. These, minus Valerie and me, are the girls that just started SNAC this past year.
The band.
Sander and I with pastor Andrew and his wonderful wife Laura.
Adios Aberdeen – We'll miss you!!!!
Click here for the full post after the jump…
We are packing up and saying our good byes here in Aberdeen. It has been a hard and emotional weekend so far, but more about that serious stuff later.
We know we will be facing a lot of changes and some reverse culture shock, but the biggest shock could be the weather.
Look at this comparison:
HOUSTON, TEXAS
Here is an interesting article from NewEnviromentalism.org
The Endangered Species Act keeps on not saving endangered species.
Environmental activists are howling over proposed revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) is circulating a draft revision to the ESA that, according to Defenders of Wildlife Executive Vice President Jamie Rappaport Clark, "takes a wrecking ball to the whole Endangered Species Act."
But taking into account that its goal is to conserve and recover endangered species, the Act already seems pretty well wrecked. Since 1973 some 1,264 species have been put on the Endangered Species list and there are 286 candidate species waiting to be listed. The idea behind listing species is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would devise plans aimed at recovering listed species so their wild populations would grow to the point where they could maintain themselves.
How successful have the Feds been at recovering species? Not very.
Since 1973, only 40 species have been removed from the endangered and threatened species list and only 15 of those have been de-listed because their populations had recovered. The other de-listed species either went extinct (nine species) or shouldn't have been listed in the first place (16 species). Only about one percent of listed species have been declared no longer in endangered or threatened by extinction. Despite this sorry performance, the activist group Endangered Species Coalition hails the ESA as "one of our nation's strongest environmental laws."
One aspect of the draft revisions of the ESA that raises the ire of activists is the proposal to permit compensation when a property owner shows that a government action aimed at protecting an endangered species has diminished a property's value by at least 50 percent. The Center for Biological Diversity tendentiously declares that this draft provision would "bankrupt the federal agencies by diverting conservation funds to pay landowners and corporations to obey the law."
At a recent seminar at Seattle University, Holly Fretwell, a senior fellow at the Property Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, offered some case studies showing why compensation to landowners is not only fair but also in the interests of saving endangered species. Fretwell cited the case of Ben Cone, a tree farmer in North Carolina. Cone owns 7,200 acres on which he raises southern pines in an 80 to 100 year rotation—that is, once he harvests an area, he allows new trees to grow for 80 to 100 years before harvesting them. This kind of forest management is very favorable to wildlife and his woods attracted and sustained a wide variety of animals, including 29 red cockaded woodpeckers The woodpeckers were listed as endangered in 1970, three years before the ESA was enacted. Red cockaded woodpeckers prefer to make nesting holes in pine trees that are about 80 years old.
Suspecting that Cone's woods might be home to the woodpecker, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) which administers the ESA, required Cone to pay a biologist $8,000 to find woodpeckers in his forests. In 1991, once the woodpeckers had been identified, the FWS prohibited Cone from harvesting timber on 1,560 acres of his land in order to protect woodpecker habitat. The cost to Cone: $1.8 million. Note that the Fish and Wildlife Service paid nothing and the taxpayers in whose names the woodpecker was being protected paid nothing; the only person out any money was Ben Cone. Between 1983 and 1991, Cone had been harvesting 919 tons of timber annually.
Cone, trying not to lose more money and control over his land, increased his rate of harvest on the land he could still access more than 10-fold. His goal was to prevent his pine trees from maturing into trees suitable for nesting woodpeckers. Obviously, this was not good for the woodpeckers the FWS was supposedly trying to help. Later researchers found that as Cone's problems became widely known among North Carolina foresters, many also feared that the feds would some day prohibit them from harvesting their timber. They began to cut their trees on a faster 30 to 40 year rotation in order to prevent woodpeckers from inhabiting their woods. Ultimately, Cone had enough money to hire lawyers to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service for compensation. Afraid that they would lose the case, the feds eventually settled with Cone.
Others have not been so fortunate. Fretwell briefly discussed the economic harm to the impoverished city of Colton, California, caused by uncompensated efforts to protect the Delhi Sands fly. On the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Margaret Rector's 15-acre property plummeted in value from $831,000 to $30,000 once it was declared suitable habitat for the Golden-Cheeked Warbler. As Fretwell noted, "Under the Third Amendment to the Constitution, Americans cannot be forced to quarter soldiers in their houses, but under the ESA Americans can be forced to harbor listed birds, snails, wolves and bears."
The Fifth Amendment also guarantees that private property will not be taken without just compensation. In other words, cities, states, and the federal government can't just take someone's property to build worthy projects like schools and roads without paying them for it. And while it would be far cheaper if the land were just seized, we don't do that and claim that such payments would "bankrupt" government agencies.
Why should the case be any different for protecting endangered species? The draft revisions of the ESA would partially right this current wrong, but why should landowners be compensated for only 50 percent of their losses? We would all think it unjust to give people whose land is taken to build roads and schools only half the value of their property. If the public values endangered species (and most of us do), then it seems only fair that we fully compensate the people on whose land they live for taking care of them for us.
I'm freezing. It is 55 degrees outside and the wind is 15mph from the north. I'm a little confused as 1) I thought it was August, 2) I thought it was supposed to get warmer in the summer!!!
To add to it, no one here seems to mind and continues to worry about Global Warming. Wouldn't that be a good thing to people who haven't felt the warmth of the sun in two years? I would be ok if people at least acted a little sad that it was still cold. Instead they say things like, "Well, Tuesday was really nice, wasn't it? I was almost roasting that one time I went outside." It was about 63 degrees on Tuesday and the sun stayed out about 2/3 of the day.
Well, I have turned on the heater and put some socks on. I'm sure I'll feel warmer soon...
Here is a little somthing though that shows I'm not alone in my thoughts:
We had a complaint so - warning! Gross-eshness ahead.
Also, I thought I should let everyone know publicly that the following picture is not a stock file. No, it is in fact of an item once owned by Sander and CSISD. Interesting, eh?
Hey Ray-stalkers!
Just wanted to let you all know that we've finally made all the comments to the Turkey leg of our trip and that they're up and ready for viewing. See what everyone's talking about at picasaweb.google.com/sanderandwhitney!
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