27 Days of Christmas: 1985

Today's 27 Days of Christmas is 1985. I was a year and a half old. I did not look that happy in these photos.

Today's Christmas Photo is of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I took the photo of my TV screen because I was about to watch the classic.

Also, today I received some ram for my computer. I got an amazing deal at Amazon.com. They had 8GB of ram for my mac for $30. What a steal.   I did some research to find out that I cannot use all of the ram, so I have half (4GB) up on my shelf for right now until I get a new computer, and also my old 1GB sticks that I took out. I have noticed a nice upgrade already from my computer, but not the 8GB that I was hoping for.

27 Days of Christmas- 1984

Last Christmas season, I had a great time doing my 50 Days of Christmas Blogging. It was great to have a daily topic that I would blog about. I enjoyed remembering my childhood. This year, I wanted to do something similar, but I could not do the same 50 because I would not be writing about anything different.  I felt like 25 days would be a better amount as well. 50 was great, but it started so early and was lots of remembering. So, after some thought, I decided to do 25 days of Christmas Photos. After I mentioned I was planning this, I got a question from a sister, I believe. The question- Is it photos of this year or of Christmases past. I casually replied that I was not sure and it might be both.

After some further thought, I planned to do both- One a day, of a photo taken that day, then another from Christmases past. After even more thought, I figured that I would do 27 days of Christmas Photos because  I am 27 years old and was hoping to have one a year from past Christmases. I was not able to find one for EACH year, but I got super close, so that is the plan.

Yes, I should have started yesterday, but I am counting Christmas as well, so that makes 27.

Today's past photo is circa 1984. I know what you are thinking, but feel free to omit the "You were so cute, what happened" comments...






















Today's taken photo is of some new decorations that I purchased at the Paws N Shop. They are tea light candle holders (glass). It was taken with my iPod touch with a camera app called White Christmas which lets you add snow and other artifacts.

That much work for $1

There is a family tradition that was started quite a few years ago- going out to lunch after a church service on Sunday afternoons. I have come to keep this tradition for myself, even when I am not near my family. I enjoy getting a meal after church, its a tradition, almost as deeply rooted as the tradition in my family to take an afternoon nap after church. I don't observe that one as much.

Usually when I head to lunch after church, I am looking for the place that is fast and cheap. I often go out to fast food, it completes both of my requirements. I had a coupon for Wendy's and so I decided last night that I would go there for my fast, cheap food to make it even cheaper. Not smart.

I got to Wendy's and there were a few people in front of me. These few people just must have ordered a ton because they walked away with trays full of food. No wonder it took longer than I thought it should have. Once I got to the front of the line, I ordered the new W meal, which was $4.99 and also a Monterey Ranch Chicken Sandwich for $.99. I had a dollar off a combo coupon so it made it $4.98 total. Not too bad of a price for me. I gave the coupon and the lady had to check with her manager. Then the manager had to go and check on it, because this coupon was one they had not seen before. I told them it came in an email that they often send out, but that didn't matter. The manager had to get on the phone in the back to check on this deal... It was $1, c'mon.  So after waiting for probably 3 minutes for this stupid $1 off coupon to be validated, the manager comes back and says she was not sure that it was legit but was going to give me the $1 off anyway. Needless to say, I will not be getting food at Wendy's with a coupon anymore, which is to say that I will not be attending Wendy's much for a while either.


Oh, one more funny thing, While I was waiting for my coupon to be validated, one other cashier came up to me and said "Sorry about the Coupon Nazis, I just accept everything"I think she might have gotten in trouble with that comment because right before I left, I was noticing that the manager was talking to someone and looking at me quite a bit, from a distance. Then, before I left, I went up to get a refill of soda and the girl who made the comment said she was getting yelled at by her manager but it was okay because she was laughing about it.

The moral of the story, don't make fun of your manager, and don't go to Wendy's with a coupon.

A song you have to listen to... a million times

A few weeks ago,  My sister and I drove up to Washington to see my family. My two nieces were getting dedicated to the lord "WE WILL" says my 3 year old Niece when the pastor asks the congregation and the families to say "we will" after statements.. pretty funny.

Anyhow, because of this trip, I needed, for my sanity, to create a playlist that would last the whole time and have some great music, because I did not want to have to switch the music during driving, so just like Melvin Udall in As Good As It Gets, I had it all planned out. I made some great song selections, one both my sister and I would enjoy. I got to the end of my library to find I had 570 songs (or 1.5 days worth). So I had some extra but that works fine for me. Even after the trip I have been letting them play and I am so glad of that because I came across one of my current favorites- Beautiful Things by Gungor.

I know what you are thinking... What kind of name is Gungor for a band?... Well it is a last name. By any means, you need to go listen to Beautiful Things by Gungor, because it is very powerful.

On the way home from Bend last night, I was listening to the song, and had to keep pressing the back button to repeat the song over and over. Before I knew it, I had listened to the song for a whole  1/2 hour, all the way home. It's THAT good!

Patent convenience

I just had a brilliant idea that I was hoping was my original idea that I could get a patent for and then rake in the millions. What was the awesome idea? Was it my original idea?

Well, sadly, it was not original and something similar is coming from LG.
Here it is:
I was doing some laundry and thinking it would be SO nice to have a washer/dryer that connects to a wifi in the home and notifies you via your computer or smartphone when the load is done.

Man, I wish that I could have patented that idea and sold it to Maytag or somebody.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/lg-thinq-linqs-your-smart-appliances-with-wifi-and-smartphone-ap/

Posing Questions

Last night, at my HUB College group from church, we were posed an interesting question to us. It caught me and I thought it would be a nice thing to blog about to get other thoughts.

The question?
Is the Body of Christ (The Church) an organism or an institution?

I would love to say that it is a living organism, growing and changing, and adapting, but sadly, I am not sure I see it that way. The very first thing I thought of when he started that question was institution, even before Andy gave that option, it popped into my head.

Granted, this was an April Fools joke, but still resonates

With so many committees and chairs and ministries within the church, it just feels corporate to me. It seems that most churches forego the change in the life for a corporate feel. The emphasis is on the program, not where it should be, on Christ. We have meetings and classes and budgets. We have small groups, we have ladies bible studies, we have DivorceCare, we have a Video Ministry, we have worship practices to make sure we look professional, we have a woman's ministry, a men's ministry,  a prayer ministry, monthly creative services meetings, weekly run-through meetings, and whatever else. (This is most churches, not excluding mine.)

I am not saying these are bad, and most are needed in one way, shape or form, but that all says to me Institution.
As was pointed out, there does need to be some sort of structure so the church can work. No one wants to go to a church where no one knows what will happen next and there is nobody in charge.

What do you think? Sound off in Comments or on Facebook, whatever is easiest.

Post-Halloween

As many know, I am a cheap-o of whom loves to get great deals. I love to get things on Sale, Clearance, and whatever else is available. That is why I love to get holiday decorations, candy, ect the day AFTER the holiday has past.

That brings us to Halloween. I like Halloween candy, who doesn't right? My favorite seasonal candy is the Little Pumpkins and Candy Corn. They are great. I found out this season, though, that there are certain brands that taste better than others.  I tried an off-brand from Fred Meyer, the Kroger FM Brand, and also the Brachs  brand of these and found that I will NOT be purchasing any type except Brachs from now on. The other brands did not taste near as good as Brachs brand.

If you are going to go Candy Corn and Pumpkins, Go BRACHS, or go home.

Snow and Disappointment (Not from the Snow)

As of this morning, I was very excited for the atmosphere trying to snow. I was at a Men's Breakfast at church and got out of the  breakfast to find a dusting of snow on the ground. Super exciting for me. To me, living in Central Oregon, When it snows, it is just a sign that Christmas is on its way. Of course, the snowing did not last long and melted soon, but it was the first snow of the season that I saw.

Also at the Men's breakfast, I got disappointing news, we will not be having our 2nd Annual Christmas Party (for the HUB College group) at my house this year. I had SO SO much fun last year and think my house works great for it, comfortable, with lots of Christmas Decorations and such. But alas, I think a major reason is because we are changing venues for our regular meeting to our Church's coffee area and we want to be able to fit everybody in comfortably. Last year, we fit, but it was a bit crowded, if we had too much more than last year, we would be uncomfortable. I certainly will miss my house and a huge REAL tree. We will have to work hard at making that Coffee Area really fun with Christmasness. (yes, I meant to use Christmasness, I like it. I think it will be my word for the Christmas season, full with Christmasness.

Say it Ain't So, Hawky

I certainly DO NOT recommend the WHOLE album of the new Hawk Nelson.

Most of the time, I love Hawky. They are funny and have great music and lyrics. I like the Pop/Rock/Punk type of sound they have. I have every single album currently available, but this morning my view changed a bit.

Yesterday, their Christmas album (EP) was released. Of course, I listened to the preview of it and thought it sounded good, and so I bought it. It was fairly cheap and what not so, why not, right?

Well, I was somewhat disappointed. I listened to the whole thing this morning and was not impressed. It has 7 songs on the album, most of which are under two minutes in length. The first four tracks were not that impressive to me.
They were too fast for me with nothing special or  changing about them. They did not take the old songs and make them new, like Shane and Shane's Glory in the Highest Christmas Album, or to the vain of MercyMe's Christmas Sessions. They just quadrupled the speed of the songs and did nothing exciting.

Now, the last 3 songs were a bit better, not too short, not too fast, and, although not changed much, alright to listen to.
Honestly, Joy to the World was alright until the last 30 seconds or so.

If you want to get Hawk Nelson Christmas songs, go for the "Gloria EP" rather than the Christmas album. It is MUCH, MUCH better. If you feel you need to get the new album, I would recommend getting the songs individually, and just get the last 3 or 4, not the whole album.

That's just my take.