What to post about. What to post about. Well, we went camping last night. And I am not sure if I’m really alive this morning…er, afternoon. I got about 45 minutes of sleep. Rachel got about an hour. She’s konked out right now. I got about three hours earlier in the day. I smell like woodsmoke.

I noticed this on Barlow’s blog. My presbyterian pastor is involved in this somehow. I remember him telling me something would happen this summer. *sigh* I don’t really have the energy to comment on it.

Rachel and I finally worked on a registry. We didn’t really find a playard that we liked there.

I’ve gotten a lot of reading done lately. Several books a week. I can’t really remember anything I read more than a week ago, but I’ll comment on what I can think of. I wasn’t really impressed with Robert Webber’s Ancient Future-Evangelism and Blended Worship as much as I’ve liked his other stuff. I will also recommend skipping She Can’t Even Play The Piano!: Insights For Ministry Wives.

I strongly recommend Loving Homosexuals As Jesus Would: A Fresh Christian Approach.

A Season in the Desert: Making Time Holy and A Table in the Desert: Making Space Holy are both okay. They have great insights, but the writing can be cumbersome for the style in which it’s written. W. Paul Jones has a unique perspective being that he’s a former Methodist pastor with teaching experience at Yale and Princeton who is now a von Trappist monk. If you are interested in the subjects, the insights are worth the read. They’ve been especially fun for me because he makes a lot of analogies concerning life using the image of a baby in the womb.

I just started Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth. I can’t wait to get some sleep so that I can enjoy reading.

I’ve picked up all sorts of cheap books here in Spokane, including Bard Thompson’s Liturgies of the Western Church for a quarter.

I hope this post made a little grammatical sense.

“Ants do what ants do, without pondering about their options. And when a boot flattens their ant friends and blots out several months of their work, they do not speculate on the meaning of it all.” -Paul W. Jones, A Season in the Desert: Making Time Holy

“I knew what I had now. I had a vision, fit for a life’s wager. I could drink to the “dream.” And my wager was this: If there is a God who makes this divine-human promise, we will be co-creators. But if the vision is only a cruel tease, I will still live the vision so that my life is a protest against a Godless universe.”-Paul W. Jones, A Season in the Desert: Making Time Holy

As I was watching Police Academy 4 last night, I noticed that Tony Hawk was David Spade’s skating stunt double. Pretty sweet, huh?

I had a prenatal exam today. Kyrie’s head is down, and her estimated weight is 2 lbs., which is great. Her heartbeat was 156. Nice and fast. I’m still measuring small, but the baby’s just the right size. That’s all that matters. Rick and I did a bunch of registering at Target today and I had to be pulled away from the clothes more than once. I love baby girl clothes, but I guess we need more practical stuff as well.

We’re still having fun in Spokane, and I don’t really want to go back… but I am thinking about decorating the baby’s room and all that fun stuff, so that gives me some incentive to go back home. For now, we’re enjoying beautiful summery weather, the new above ground pool that my parents bought, and a knock-hockey board constructed by Forrest and Rick. Knock-hockey is something Rick and I discovered last year at camp when we were counselors.

I think I’ll go join Rick and watch Police Academy 4. *sigh*

Here’s the link.

Hi there, Nikkiana here. I’m currently in the process of converting Rick and Rachel to WordPress. Please be patient while we’re making the switch!

- Nikkiana

Last night was freezing. It’s in the 90’s in Monroe. I sure don’t miss hot Monroe, but Spokane hasn’t really been all that great weather-wise. This is normally the best place to be this time of year.

I am amazed at the amount of flack I get for not going to Auburn Avenue. People take it as a personal insult that my beliefs are different than they once were.

I am finding “reformed catholicity” to be an odd thing. Why is there the need to express being “reformed?” I am reformed. It’s not something that really comes up in my own “catholic” endeavors.

I hate that I have to qualify everything. I can’t wait til I can password protect this blog so that the people that come here just to find something critical to say about me will have nothing to read.

I love watching my child move with her mother’s stomach. She’s very still whenever I talk to her.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the Resurrection…not about details like sex, or anything like that. I couldn’t care less whether we have coitus in the Resurrection or not. Sorry, I have bigger concerns. I can’t wait to have true friendship with Christian jerks (honestly, I don’t really care, but I’m trying to convince myself that this is a good thing. Of course, I’m a Christian jerk to a lot of people). I can’t wait until I can love everyone the way I love my six-year-old sister-in-law or Helen Bryson (an 92 y/o lady at Salem who says I give the best hugs).

I can’t wait to talk with old friends. Life is so divisive. So many things in life divide. Distance. Relationships. Doctrines. I yearn for the unity that isn’t possible at this time in our history. I wish it weren’t so. I still love you all.For the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

After moving back to the South, I can’t believe the amount of racism. Don’t get me wrong. It works both ways. I haven’t always felt this way. I remember when I used to read Jon Barlow’s comments and get so annoyed because I thought he blew race relations out of proportion. But they really are bad here. It saddens me how many things we do to promote it…how easy it is to flick a racial joke out of our mouths and say, “It’s just a joke.”

On the other hand, I find it so sad that Spokane is so white. Different cultures really add to the experience of life.

I’m amazed at how people spend more time criticizing differences than celebrating differences. Why is being different offensive?

I’d like to sell half my books. Many of them just aren’t useful to me anymore. I have a good thousand books in my work office that I could live without. Okay, honestly, I just don’t want to pack them the next time we move.

1. I really want a hybrid car.

2. I really want a house run on hydro-electric power.

3. I’m not a liberal. Really.