Rudolph's Revenge

Wednesday

Last night, my aunt came up to visit and brought us some gifts. She gave me some yummy smelling bath products and Ben got some fire-hot habanero salsa. He was awake all night with a burning sensation in his chest!

Tonight, Ben is teaching Hebrew and preaching in Exodus.

I found out yesterday that we will need to go to Louisville once more and do an interview. In Spanish. I have never had to do that before, and interviews are always nervous anyway, so I hope that I do well.

We also got news that our housing is ready Louisville, so we can move in anytime. That is really good news for us and we are happy that we got the place that we wanted. It has two bedrooms and study making it very convenient for Ben's work and research. We are planning to move in the week after Christmas because the teaching semester begins for me on January 7th.

In exciting family news, we found out this week that Ben's cousin and his wife are expecting their second child next summer. This is a wonderful blessing for their family, and with a daughter that is sooo cute, we are sure that the new addition will be adorable.

This is their little Madelyn:

'Tis the Season!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We went to Monroe and visited Grandmother and Pappy (Rogers). Then we had lunch with Meemaw (Hickman), Ben's parents, and Wade and Jackie. At dinnertime, we came back home and ate tamales with my mom.
We ended the day by watching Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It is such a fun holiday movie with big musical numbers and no representation of actual human emotions. Just warm and fuzzies. Watching Holiday Inn is a new Thanksgiving tradition for us. If you like holiday movies, I highly recommend it.
The ABC television network offers 25 days of sometimes crappy, often tearjerking, holiday movies, so that is a good place to start getting into a festive spirit.

Here are some pretty holiday pictures to get you in the mood:

Have you heard of this?

I saw this report on CNN about Freegans who, although they have money, choose to forage for their meals.

According to Wikipedia:

Freeganism is an anti-consumerism lifestyle. The lifestyle involves salvaging discarded, unspoiled food from supermarket dumpsters that have passed their expiration date, but are still edible and nutritious. They salvage the food not because they are poor or homeless, but as a political statement.

They believe that they can find just about anything and everything in the trash. Soooo, they go to the trash bins at restaurants, corporations and grocery stores and pull out what they want. They not only find food, but also pet products, home furnishings, etc.

As a further sign of my obsessive cleaning, I was watching this and just hoping that they clean up the trash after they go through it.

While I certainly object to waste and hyper-materialism, I am not here yet. And, it is freaking me out. I can't stop thinking about these people digging through the trash and what else might be in there. These are pics of actual freegans digging through dumpsters:

And here is Ben posing near the trash that was all over the street in Rome. I have a feeling there are not a lot of Freegans in Italy:

Great Commercial

This commercial made me laugh out loud and that ain't easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUv_FAL2jik

Thank you, Jennie O. You have my business.

Conversation on Highway 80

Ben: What is that in the road?
Me: I don't know. Looks like a trash bag.
Ben: I can't go around it.
Me: Oh no!
****SMASH*DING*DING*CLATTER****
Me: What was that?
Ben(laughing hysterically): a trash bag full of aluminun cans *gasp* (continued laughter)
Me: Look, those people are pulled over. They lost that bag out of their trunk. They probably spent all morning collecting cans for extra money and now they are all over the highway.
Ben: That was hilarious! *gasp*laughter* You have to blog about this.

Today, I am thankful for a husband who is easily amused and loves to laugh.

Lifetime Movie = Thankfulness

I am not usually a fan of the Lifetime movie. I do watch a lot of re-runs on that channel, but the "Moment of Truth" movies are not exactly Oscar caliber. Today, I got lazy and did not feel like looking for the remote.

This movie came on called Shattered Hearts - I know what you are thinking - that title could represent any number of Lifetime plots. But this particular movie was about a high school couple and their families. The boy is diagnosed with cancer and he and girlfriend run away together. There is this one scene when it is Christmas and he is sitting in his little hospital bed with his little bald head and he is crying and apologizing because he had been feeling sorry for himself. The website says that this is based on a true story. I don't know about that, and wouldn't actually recommend the movie, but I am thankful that I watched it.

You see, just this morning, I opened another email about a family needing prayer. A young wife, six months pregnant is living on one failing kidney. Yesterday, we got an update on the 21 year old son of a friend. They are struggling to deal with his chemotherapy and praying for healing. And I've been complaining about crowded stores, a messy house and long drives.

So, today I am encouraging myself and you to stand in that 45 minute line at Wal-Mart and be thankful that you can stand. And when you are going nuts cleaning up after Thanksgiving this Thursday, thank God for each healthy appetite as you wash those plates. Rest and be thankful and pray for those hurting, sick, and grieving.