The long awaited revealing…

Okay, so it may not have been that long awaited, but at least one person has asked me what my Christmas pet peeve is, and so now I’m going to share. I know that its past Christmas and that you are all getting ready for the New Year, but I KNOW that you all remember Christmas carols, and if you’re still listening to them, listen for this and you’ll hear it.

My BIGGEST Christmas pet peeve is that songwriters and poets alike all use the phrase ‘born in a manger’. Does anyone else see a problem with that? The Bible does not say that Christ was ‘born in a manger’, it says that he was laid in a manger. Christ was BORN in a stable, and LAID in a manger. One simple word!!!! Why can’t people get it right? You can’t use syllables as an excuse either because ‘born’ and ‘laid’ are each only one syllable and ‘stable’ and ‘manger’ are each two syllables. The only possible (decent) argument would be the need for rhyming. However, I cannot remember one song in which the word ‘born’ or ‘manger’ was used in the rhyming scheme itself; and even if it was! Substitute out the other word, and you’re fine!!!

So, there you have my biggest Christmas pet peeve. In other news, I only have one more week at home before its back to classes, back to work, and back to the insanity that is my semester. My load is slightly less on the school side, and slightly more on the work side this semester, so we’ll see what that turns into.

Family is all good for the most part. Christmas went well and we managed to survive the ‘day after Christmas’ sales. I’m starting to realize how truly messed up life is though, and that’s quite a bummer.

Love to all,

Skippy

So it's been three weeks, whatever.

Postings, of a general nature.

So, I survived finals. I had five of them: turned my Math paper in on Friday (before finals week) and then came home for the weekend. Got back on Monday and studied like crazy for my Geography final, which I took on Tuesday morning. Wednesday was my hard day: I had OT review at 8:30, Hermeneutics final at 10:30, and Oral Comm. final at 1. Made it through all of those and then went back and spent the next two and a half hours packing and cleaning and cleaning and packing. Mom came and got me and we headed home (by way of Red Bluff of course).

Since then I have enjoyed vacation. I’ve gotten some much needed sleep and managed to watch movies for the first time in forever!!!! Mom had to work this past week, which was handy because it allowed me time to myself to recoup from the absolute insanity that was this past semester.

She got done with work yesterday, and we went up to Magalia to hear my LOVELY MPBC’s Christmas program. We stayed up way too late and had trouble getting up this morning.

It other news, I’m looking forward to getting some NON-school reading done this week, and of course Christmas on Monday. Oddly enough, I don’t feel like its Christmas, I keep thinking that I should be headed back to school because I’ve definitely been here longer than a weekend.

Yes Andrea!!! Jacques Chirac is the French President. Now comes the hard question (and I’m not sure it counts as trivia, but I make the rules for this game and I say its in, so there) – what is my BIGGEST Christmas pet peeve? Even if you don’t think you know, it be interesting to hear what you have to say, so respond – it’ll be fun!!!

As to the house, well……I promise that I’ll explain in full, by the time the semester starts.

Lots of love and joy to all in this happy season – remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!!!!

Major Skippy

Hey ya'll. Sorry its been so long - its just the samo-samo, life is CRAZY. I home right now (again) but I'll be back at school tomorrow. This is the last week of classes for the semester - next week is FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH and NOOO at the same time. Its a mixed feeling.

Home - still up in the air. I know that I said I would explain all this weekend, well, it got shoved to next weekend.

In new News: Andrea, my dear sweet Andrea - you know me well!!!!! But unfortunately, the greatest food on earth does not have a place in either of those acronyms. MPM is Mission Possible Ministries, that's my mission group that you hear me talk so much about. MPBC is Magalia Pines Baptist Church - the church were I spent my summer working. AND, I don't think you get to ask trivia questions, that's my job!!!!

How lets see, what was the last trivia question? Right! The seven partners that just joined together to build a fusion plant in France are China, Japan, India, Russia, South Korea, the European Union and the United States.

Okay - new question: What is the name of the French president?

Love to all -
Skippy

I think this is the longest I've ever gone without posting . . . its kind of odd. I keep forgetting that I need to post, sorry!!!

Anyway. Thanksgiving is tomorrow!!!!! (I don't know why I'm excited, all I should eat is turkey.) But my grandparents are here, that's always entertaining. And I'm home until Sunday - which is definitely happy news!!!! AND I not only got to have my best friend come home with me for a while yesterday, but the two of us got to go get my other best friend from the airport!!!! Good times!!!!!

As far as the past month . . . I've been home every weekend, which makes it kind of difficult to study a lot. Last weekend was our annual MPM Retreat, and that was fun. We heard happy news (YAY for Rufus Kumquat the 3rd!!!!) and went door to door on Saturday morning; the rally went really well and it was REALLY great to be at MPBC once again - I missed it!!! Sunday night was fun (singing with Doug and Corinne) and the food was pretty good (Baptists sure do know how to do Thanksgiving!) This week was short (we only had two days of classes) and that was DEFINITELY a happy thing!!!!

In other news - still looking for guidance and direction. Praying for those who ask for it, still willing to know more.

Trivia - YES Lesa!!!!!!! And yay Google!!!!!

New question - what 7 partners just joined together to build a fusion testing plant in France?

Love to all!!!!!
Skippy

What is this? The Andrea and Brady show? Doesn't anyone else have some input???

Correct Brady!!!!!! Angel Falls in Venezuela is the highest waterfall in the world.


Well, we're full swing into basketball...okay maybe half swing. We had a Women's Basketball tournament this weekend: three days, four teams, six games, 18 hours on the time card. Our girls did pretty well, and we were mostly injury free until tonight.

We have a tournament just after Thanksgiving, but that's it for the month of November - which is SUPER exciting because it means I might be able to concentrate on only 10 things instead of 12 for once.

Home is interesting as ever, I really will have a nice long blog about the whole story the first week in December. Until then, just keep praying.

Which brings me to another point - prayer request.
I have several, but I've shortened it down to this: I need some guidance and reassurance from God about everything that's going on and where He wants me to be headed. If you think to pray for me, I would greatly appreciate it.

And again - if you have anything you would like me to pray about, just let me know and I'd be glad to do so!!!!

New trivia!!!!!! Africa has three 'great' lakes - what are they?

Love to all from the beautiful Simpson bubble,

Skippy

P.S. Duane-n-ator - you called me General the other day on the phone - does that mean I get another promotion?

Delayed for reasons out of my control.

I really REALLY would have posted on Wednesday, but Blogger wouldn't let me. And I have tried several times since then, and FINALLY today it let me on.

So there's my excuse. Deal with it.

K. Updates on the home front - life is interesting. That's all I'm saying. I'll fill ya'll in later.

Updates from the school front - Soccer is OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I managed to survive through Midnight Madness!!!! Yay God for strength and patience and factors out of my control!!!!!!!!!!!

Updates on . . . another front - I got glasses!!! Oh wait, I told you all that. Well, you'll just have to wait for me to have a cute picture and then I'll put it up. Maybe.

Trivia answer - Yes dear Andrea!!!! That is correct!!!!! The Great Antilles are made up of four islands, five nations. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an island, then you have Jamaica, Cuba and Puerto Rico which is actually a dependent and not an independent state.

New Trivia: the highest water fall in the world is?????????

Love to all from the Skippy!!!!!

Major Skippy

P.S. MPM folk - Retreat weekend the 17-19, RALLY on the 18th!!!

Lala, whatever.

Lalalalala - so its been a while.

I'm SORRY Brady!!!!!! (See, I can write to you other than in an email!)

Things have been INSANE!!! I know that I say that all the time - but for real - INSANE!!!!
School and work and school and work and homework and coming home to have a crazy weekend and then back to school and work and school and work and then maybe I can sleep after.....oh say - finals?

Anyway - prayer group is going well . . . classes are going well (think I'm gonna meet my grade goal!) and work is going well. We're gearing up for Midnight Madness - if you read this and you go to Simpson, you had BETTER be there!!!!!!! (for those of you who don't know - Midnight Madness is an event put on by the Athletic Department once a year in October to get the students pumped up for basketball season.)

God is good - all the time!!!! Just thought I'd throw that in there, to remind you all in case you forgot!!!

I got glasses today - its been interesting, to say the least!!!! Maybe, if you're lucky, I'll a post a picture.....maybe not.

Congratulations to both Brady and Andrea!!!!! You are both correct - isn't it crazy that a lake is almost 10 times saltier than the ocean?!?!!?!? It's crazy!!!!!

K, new trivia. This is a multi answer question - what are the Greater Antilles???

Love to all!!!!

Skippy

MY FEET HURT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that's how I feel about that!!! Just thought you like to know!!!!! And so far tonight, homework seems to be going fairly well, so I can take a moment and post!!!

Two days!!! Do you see that?!?! TWO DAYS!!!!! Since then, I'm back at school. Today was okay - but I've been on the run since 8 this morning, and I'm tired!!!!

We had two soccer games today - Men and Women vs. Menlo. Both teams lost, but they both put up a good fight!!!!

Other than that...not much is going on. I can't post a new trivia question, because no one answered my last question!! So get on it people!!!

Love you!! Skippy

Hey folks.

Well, its been a long week. Lemme give you the Cliff Notes version:

Disneyland was GREAT!!! We had a blast!!!! The flight home was good, the drive up to Biggs wasn't bad. When we got home K and the kids had moved out, so we had lots of adjusting to do. This week was okay in classes, although I had a LOT of catch up work to do. Work went well, but I was exhausted by the time the week was over. We had a long weekend this weekend - THANK YOU JESUS!!!! So I didn't have classes on Friday and I won't have classes tomorrow. Because of that, I have appts tomorrow, and the last - my favorite!! - is with my chiropractor!!! So after over a month, my hip finally gets to go back where its supposed to!!!!!!! YAY ME!!!!!!

Last night I spent 9 hours babysitting 5 children under the age of 11. It was great. No really, it was fun!!!

Okay, leaving now because, well, because I want to.

But wait!!!! Trivia!!!

The last question was about Czech and Slovakia - brownie points to Lesa for getting the right answer!!!!

This weeks question is . . . what percent of the Great Salt Lake is salt? And what is the average for the Oceans?

Love to all!!!
Skippy

A week and a day - I'm back to long periods of time between posts - SORRY!!! I thought that I had posted something last Sunday night, apparently it didn't go through. I don't remember everything that was in it, I do know that I said I was VERY excited, but I didn't tell you why. In fact, I believe I said that it would all make sense on Tuesday night. The reason? Lemme tell you:

Monday - I went to three classes and then my sister picked me up and we rushed home and picked up mom and then rushed the airport. We flew from Sacramento to LAX where my grandfather picked us up and took us back to his house.
Tuesday - we got up and that afternoon my sister took me to CBU (California Baptist University) to surprise (and I mean SURPRISE) my best friend, Rebecca. She had ABSOLUTELY no idea that I was coming!!! It was SOOOOO much fun!!!!
On Wednesday Grandpa brought us into Anaheim and dropped us off at the Disneyland hotel. We spent Wednesday in Disneyland and went to dinner at a place by the hotel called Hook's Pointe.
Thursday we went into Fantasyland (early entry!!!) and then over to California Adventure. This was Mom's first time on Soarin, and she loved it!!!!! Jocelyn, although she has been on this ride several times, still loves it, as do I.
Today (Friday) we're headed to Goofy's Kitchen for a character brunch, and then into Disneyland to finish up. We're watching the parade of dreams this afternoon, and the last thing on the agenda is the 50th Fireworks show. Inbetween the parade and the fireworks is my FAVORITE part of the whole place - Fantasmic. It is the best music!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!

Okay, I have to go now. I must finish getting ready so we can be down at the restaurant on time.
Love to all!!!
Skippy

From the Skippy . . . take 2?

So. What do you want? Updates? Trivia questions? RBI's? (Random Bits of Information - I just came up with that myself, right now!!)

K - updates = life is crazy. Class is awesome. Work is tolerable.
It has been brought to my attention again that I have learned a lot this summer. Through the whole thing with Dad I was learning; and the month at Magalia was an EXTREMELY educational experience. Now I'm back in classes (which is the obvious place of learning) plus I'm in meetings and at games and being a prayer leader and all that stuff. So all around - I'm learning a lot.

Random bits of information - we had a theft in the dorm. It's a sad thing when your home isn't safe. Like my home-home is safe. But this is my school home and it makes me sad that the home that I'm at now is not safe.

TRIVIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When did Slovakia split from Czech? And what is that split known as?

Skippy

God is good!!! All the time!!!!

Three days!!! How's that for a change?!?!?!?

Not a WHOLE lot has happened since my last post. But there are a few things. First off, Harold got to come home from the hospital yesterday!!!!!! The second thing is that the rally went really well!!!! (Thanks again Duane!!!) And the third thing is . . . last night I had a conversation with an old friend, and I feel like I have the friend back better than ever. YEAH GOD!!!!! Oh, and another thing to say YAY God to - my financial aid is (finally) finished and I get to continue to go to school!!!! God has blessed me (once again) with money from an unexpected source and has continued to provide for me!!!!

Lastly - I REALLY love my sweatshirt!!!! And I love sleeping under so many covers that you don't really move throughout the night because of all the weight. Good stuff!!!

Okay, going now. I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and I'll begin to post more often and post shortened posts.

Coming next time:

the first trivia question of the semester!!!!!

Until then;

Major Skippy

From the Skippy:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. That's about how I feel, and about how I'll continue to feel, until oh . . . say . . . graduation????

So I know its been a while (18 days to be exact, although the first 10 don't count cuz I TOLD you I couldn't post then) and I really am sorry. Every time I go online I keep meaning to post, and then I forget or I don't have time or I have to work on that pesky little thing called homework.

And I know that you all know that my life is CRAZY insane, but let me give you an idea of my normal week. 15 units (that means 15 hours of in class time and 30 hours of homework). 15 hours a week for my Athletic Student Clerk job; three hours a week for my Book Repair job; plus whatever home games we have that week (I'm working pretty much all of them.) So pretty much - life is insane!!!!

However, there are some other things going on in my life that I'd like to share with you!!!! This year I'm a prayer-leader on my floor. I have ten girls who have been 'assigned' to me, and we meet once a week and pray and hang out and talk and whatever. We had our first real meeting on Monday night, and it went really well!!!! We talked about the ground rules and about the importance of going to God with confidence. I had 8 out of those 10 show up and we just about filled my room!!!

That's a total praise, here's a total prayer request: my brother-in-law is in the ICU right now, he had a series of small strokes. They are running all sorts of tests (yesterday and today) and we don't have a prognosis but it looks like he's getting better.

In other news - we have a RALLY this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SO excited!!!! I can't wait to see everyone again!!!!!! (Heather, are you coming? I still can't finish that scarf!!!! :( )

Anyway, I think I'm done now . . . . . . so love to you all,

Major Skippy

So, I week and a day . . . I'm on a roll!!!!!

Actually things have been crazy this week . . . wait a minute, that's nothing unusual. I moved to school this week, but I'm home for the weekend: RALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I go back to school tonight, but I'll be home next weekend for the baby's 1st birthday party, and then I go back to school and start classes.

Anyway, I won't be able to post much for about a week and a half because I don't have my computer so I can't post from my room and that's really the only time I have to post. I did get all the way moved in to my room. I know who my suitemates are, and I can't wait til they get here!!!! (there, whatever) But it turns out that I won't have a roommate, which is pretty awesome. It means that I have more space and I have alone time. And it also means that when I have prayer meetings I won't have to talk to anyone about making sure its okay that the group of girls is in my room.

Nothing else is really going on . . . that I can think of. Lemme know what's goin on with y'all - I feel very far out of the loop/

Love to all my Magalians!!!!

Major Skippy

Okay - so it's been a whole week. Sorry - I've been a little busy. Nothing really is new, worked all week and did a destructive recovery on my dear Jimmy - I've finally gotten everything downloaded again and all is well!!!! The problem is that now all the hardware still needs to be fixed but its taking forever!!!

Congrats to Chris and Mandy on their beautiful wedding today and good luck for your future!!!!

It was REALLY great to get to see everyone (Doug, Duane, Corinne, Lesa, Cathy, Heatherly and Sam, Rebecca, Debra etc etc) and great to hang out with Lesa!!!!

Tonight I'm in Corning (go figure) with my sister and her roommates, I'm going home tomorrow for Church. Monday I've got stuff to do in Chico and I have to say goodbye to one of my best friends. Tuesday is goodbye to two of my other best friends. Wednesday is load up day and moving day and saying goodbye to my other best friend and my mom! :( That's the plan for next week - and after that its all work and school.

Going now, stuff to do - people to email, organizational needs to be met!!!

Well . . . my wonderful lovely absolutely awesome southern girls and guy are gone. :) I took them out to LP's house last night, and we shed lots of tears, and then I found out I had locked my keys in the truck. I'm so brilliant, I know it, you don't have to say it. So my sister came and bailed me out and then I came home and stayed up too late knitting and working on my computer. This past week has been interesting. Monday I did lockers, and since then I've done locker combos and entering them into the computer, and between the girls and I we finished two hundred packets and sorted all of the stuff that needs to be filed. Yesterday Karen and I cleaned the house like CRAZY before the summer missionaries came over (Erica is allergic to cats). It was really fun to get to spend all that time with my nieces and my sister while we were actually getting something done!!! I can't wait to get to church tomorrow and see all the kids and Grandpa Emmons!!!!! I smile just thinking about it!!!

Also, I have an announcement to make: as of Tuesday evening - thanks to the Duane-n-ator, I am officially-

MAJOR Skippy.

Yes, that means that I got a promotion!!!!! And it makes me very happy!!!! And I have every intention of living up to that promotion!!!!!
So, on that note, I'll sign off:
Yours forever,
Major Skippy

So I'm home now. I'm still sad that I had to leave Magalia. I should have posted before I left, and the day that I had to leave, but I didn't have time. So here's some back tracking.

Last week we had two VBS's. We had around 100 people every day at Magalia, we had three kids make professions of faith and we had lots of fun singing the songs!!!! Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn to go down to Yuba City to help set up the tent for the Migrant VBS that is taking place this week. We got back around 11, and I crashed out for a couple of hours. Sunday was a long, LONG day, and it was a sad day. The evening service went well, I think. I miss everyone so much already its not even cool.

Today I spent the day at work with Mom doing lockers - yeah! not really, but I got them all on!!! - and then I sorted the filing. There was a whole mail tub of it that hadn't been filed since spring of 2005.

This week I'm working with Mom and spending time with my wonderful missionary friends before they leave. :(

Here's some pictures!!! The first two are of the putting up of the tent.
It went from this:


To this:


And ended like this:


And this is me and my WONDERFUL missionary friends:


So I'm going now, what with pictures and all this post is long enough.

Love to all - Skippy

I of course forgot to post a picture - thanks for pointing that out!!!!

So here is Georgie (foreground, big and black) and Gunner (smaller and brown and in the back) along with Doug (green shirt) and Duane (he's with Gunner). Getting up on Gunner was new and interesting. Getting up on Georgie was an adventure.

La, la, la, la

So the carnival went REALLY well. We did have the dunk tank and the bounce house and the pony rides!!!! And I got to help with the horseys!!! Duane and Doug brought Gunner (who belongs to and is strangely similar to Duane) and Georgie (who belongs to and is strangely similar to Corinne) to the church for the pony rides. Doug led Georgie with Jody walking behind him with her hand on the saddle in case the child started to slip. Duane led Gunner and I walked behind him doing what Jody was doing. I held the lead rope while Duane loaded kids and Gunner kept snotting all over me and biting me (he got smacked for that) and nudging me (he kinda got smacked for that). We had over forty helpers and at one point we had over 100 people there. And, after it was all over and done with, I got to ride the horses!!!! Both of them, not at the same time. I had never ridden a horse, and so I told Duane that I didn’t want a pony ride, I wanted him to teach me how to ride, and he did…kind of. Anyway, so I got up on Gunner and rode around the building pad (they’re getting ready to build another building, so there’s the pad that they’re going to build on.) once and then I got up on Georgie (that was an adventure, you can see why in the picture) and rode her for quite a while – at least it seemed like a while, I’m not really sure how long I was on her – but it was REALLY fun!!!!!! And then I cleaned up and then I went to a concert at the church where I got to see a few of my favorite people.

Sunday was fun: church, lunch (at Happy Days, where else when you’re going with Doug?) and then the missionaries and I went back to the church and started decorating for VBS this week. About 4:30, the four of them found out that they were not only speaking in the evening service, they were leading the music as well!!! So we went to dinner (GREAT pizza – I have really got to stop eating that stuff, but its just SO good!!!) and then we rushed back to the church and started to frantically get ready for the evening service. I ran the power point, so I was trying to put in all the words for the songs they were singing. And then Matt got up and gave a presentation on his trip to Brazil which lasted . . . a long time. What was funny was that he thought he was controlling the power point with the remote, but he wasn’t because for some reason the remote wouldn’t work. Anyway . . . then we did a slide show of the pictures from the carnival, and that was fun. And then . . . we were done. So I went home with Duane and Corinne (YEAH for the Honda!!!!!!!) and took a shower and went to BED!!!!

This morning started bright and early; up at 6am, ready at 7am, out the door at 7:20 when my ride got there. Rewrote the Bible study that I was going to do; did the power point for the worship rally; learned all about hooking up the computer to the projector, and had Chex Mix (traditional style) for breakfast – good times. The actual VBS went really well: we had 64 kids and 34 helper-teacher-leader people. We were late getting started, but that’s usual for Monday of VBS; but the rally went well and the kids liked Arctic Edge fairly well. The time between the rallies I did my Bible study and I walked around taking pictures. The closing rally went well, Erica taught them “I Know that I Know that I Know” and we sang Arctic Edge again.

Then we went down to Stirling City (oh, side note, they almost forgot my lunch!!!!) and did VBS there. We had 10 kids, and it went fairly well. But it bugged because we didn’t have as much time . . . and I REALLY wanted to make a scrapbook and didn’t get to – but it’s okay because there’s still time!!!

Anyway, I’m leaving now, because I have things to do and sleep to catch up on etc.

Love from: Skippy

Free Carnival Today!!!! (Tomorrow) from 10 am til noon!!! Dunk tank! Bounce house! Pony Rides! Games, prizes, food!!!! That's what I'm doing tomorrow, the kickoff Carnival for the Magalia Pines (and Stirling City) Vacation Bible School(s) 2006!!!!

Other than getting ready for VBS, and the Carnival, I haven't done much. VBS this and VBS that and Carnival this and Carnival that and we're doing two VBSs so that adds to it all the more!!!! Magalia Pines does their own VBS and then they put the VBS at Stirling City on as well. It should be fun!!!!!

I'm finding more and more that I am less and less of a perfectionist . . . in some things. Some things that I used to FREAK OUT about, I don't so much care anymore. Other things I still definitely care about, but there are some things that I'm losing my perfectionist grip on.

Going now, hopefully for some food. Later!!

Skippy