Medicine of Immortality "It's a cold, and it's a broken, 'Hallelujah!'"

MiscellaneousPosted by Rachel on August 19th, 2005

Yesterday marked exactly one year since I’ve lived here in Monroe. I can’t believe it’s been that long. What’s even weirder is the fact that I’ve been pregnant for 3/4 of that time. It’s been good so far, and I feel blessed that we have friends nearby and such a nice house to live in. I CANNOT wait until Forrest and Rebekah come down to visit, hopefully sometime next month. I am still kind of hoping to make it to September before Kyrie is born because I want her birthstone to be sapphire. I’ll be exactly 38 weeks on September 1st. That would be a good birthday for her. I’m getting the house all ready for her. Yesterday I did some major cleaning and I’m planning on getting more done today. I swept and mopped all the hardwood floors, so maybe today I can do the same with the kitchen and bathroom floors. Kyrie’s room is getting more organized and ready. I’ve already gotten a little tube of Boudreaux’s butt paste from one of the ladies at our church. I found it hilarious that there was a baby ointment with that name. Apparently it’s the best stuff out there. I’m excited about the baby shower Hollie is throwing for me tomorrow afternoon. I think Rick is more eager for our baby to be born than I am! I’ve been getting way more braxton-hicks lately & they’ve been stronger. I haven’t had anything painful yet though, so I doubt they’re really doing any good as far as progress goes. I woke up this morning and felt like all my joints were out of place. That was not very fun. Has any other pregnant mom woken up and suddenly felt this? I wonder if it’s my ligaments loosening up to make way for the birth. Anyway, that’s enough of my rambling for now.

Zach RamseyPosted by Rick on August 19th, 2005

If you haven’t heard anything on Zach Ramsey lately, check out prayforzach.com. He’s not doing so well.

What’s been going on latelyPosted by Rick on August 19th, 2005

So, I’ve been busy reading, writing, and prepping. I feel like there are a thousand things to get done before the first day of classes and Convocation on Monday night.

I’ve been asked to write for several different print and online magazines lately, but I feel like I have no time. And the baby isn’t even here yet. Ha. Speaking of print magazines, I was looking at a page on Comment online, and I noticed that Teema Saliba works as an Executive Assistant for The Work Research Foundation. I don’t really know Teema, but I have fond memories of playing with fire with her brother, Jad. The world gets smaller and smaller.

I wrote that line about fire, thinking about a Memorial Day at Matt Wilkins’ apartment, but now that I think about it, he might of been with us (A few Wilkins and Peacocks, April Rushdoony, Ginny Ridenour, Marianna Haggard, Biz Newman, etc.) when we got in trouble for lighting our hands on fire, playing with popcorn, and being out at 4 AM at CWSC. Yeah, we got in a lot of trouble for that. It’s really sad that as soon as I start to reminisce, stupid things come to my mind.

I attended a sacramental practicum earlier this week and had a great time. It was mostly made up of Anglicans with a few dissenters. I met several guys that I really enjoyed talking with: Geoff Hatley, Elijah Lovejoy, and Jim Hagan. Matt Anderson came in on the last night, and I finally had support for my non-consecrationist views of the Lord’s Supper. And, of course, Miriam Clement (she’s not a guy). I noticed that I always start my conversations the same when I talked to her: “Miriam, I have a question for you…” Fortunately, she always had answers. (Hey, Joel W., tell Miriam and Jim I said hey when you see them next…I guess I could just respond to my emails…)

Hm. I went over to Matt’s today, and we played Monkeyboat (we played billiards and soccer too, but Monkeyboat is the best) until insanely late. Hmm…Uhh…I’m done.

Note to selfPosted by Rick on August 18th, 2005

Add Mike and Leah.

Ohhh yeahPosted by Rick on August 18th, 2005

So I looked in my mailbox today, and got a notice that I had gotten a $2,000 raise. Then I realized that the department had switched all our boxes, and I really had the box of a teacher I had as a sophomore. I looked in my box, and I noticed I had gotten a $2,600 raise, and I was making more than my former teacher. I am starting to like this new system. Add the Freshman Seminar I’m teaching, and that’s a $4,000 bump up from last year (not to mention the extra $4,000 from teaching that 4 week summer course). Life is good.

Little Rock vacationPosted by Rachel on August 15th, 2005

Here we are in Little Rock, Arkansas. I love it here. It’s a beautiful, clean city with much less humidity. I found that kind of surprising since it’s only 3 hours from Monroe, but there really is a noticeable difference. We’ve been having lovely weather and got to enjoy the rooftop pool at the hotel we’re staying in. We came into town on Saturday evening and had a fabulous time getting to know Greg and Melody Mattson. They’re so much fun! We stayed with them for Saturday and Sunday nights. They’re great hosts and I think they could become great friends. We also got to meet their friends, Marcus and Shannon, along with their cute baby girl, Aithne. We got to visit and have theological discussions all day long yesterday. It was so thought-provoking. I loved how our diverse backgrounds and views bounced off each other and made us all think. I’m so happy that there’s so much diversity in the body of Christ and yet such a strong bond of unity because we’re all one family. Anyway, it’s been great so far to have a little break from the normal routine. I am a little anxious to get back home for Kyrie’s birth (not that I’m expecting her that soon, but you never know). I guess that’s all for now.

35 weeks and 1 dayPosted by Rachel on August 12th, 2005

Random # 4,086Posted by Rick on August 12th, 2005

1. Well, Rachel is 35 weeks today. I should take a picture sometime today.

2. I watched Sylvia last night. If you’re interested in Sylvia Plath’s life, go rent it. I don’t think it does her justice, but it tries. It’s pretty informational. Gwyneth Paltrow plays SP. Paltrow seems to be in a lot of literature related movies: Possession, Emma, Great Expectations, Sylvia, and Shakespeare in Love to name a few.

3. Got some reading done this week, but not as much as I’d like: William Sydnor’s The Prayer Book Through The Ages, JE Booty’s Classics of Western Civilization volume on John Donne (which has a great bio), Webber’s Ancient Future Faith (again), Ryle’s Holiness , Talley’s Origins of the Liturgical Calendar (again). I’m currently wading through the Sykes/Booty edition of Studies in Anglicanism and waiting for a couple books to come in the mail.

4. I have to walk with the students at summer graduation tomorrow.

5. Katherine Branson and Tim Nadreau’s wedding is tonight.

6. We’re going off to Little Rock tomorrow after graduation. We’ll be back, probably, Wednesday.

7. I’d really like to get on a boat and enjoy a lake right now.

8. Hopefully I’ll have more incentive to blog once the baby is here.

9. It looks a bit sunny by the pool. I’ve only been in there a couple of times since we put it up, but that’s not really that surprising.

10. We had breakfast at Sonic today. I tried their SuperSonic breakfast burrito, and it’s pretty good.

Almost 35 weeksPosted by Rachel on August 9th, 2005

I had an encouraging midwife appointment today. Kyrie has dropped (although she’s posterior, just like I was… aw ) and my midwife doesn’t think I’m going to make it to my due date. That would be ever so wonderful. We just have to make it to 37 weeks since that’s the earliest I could legally have a home birth. I’ve read that babies usually drop around 2-4 weeks before they’re born if you’re a first time mom, so we’ll see how true that statistic is.

Our midwife also brought a friend/client with her. She’s pregnant with her 11th baby. So between her, me, and my midwife, there were three pregnant ladies in our home today. My midwife is due in November. Everyone seems to be pregnant these days. But anyway, it was fun talking to the midwife’s client (I can’t believe I’ve forgotten her name already). She’s charismatic, my midwife is catholic, and we’re… presbanglutheran. I dunno. But it was fun because we’re all different denominations and we were all talking about our faith knowing it’s the same. It was nice.

But anyway, now we’re all excited and hoping Kyrie will come soon!

“The Mother” by Gwendolyn BrooksPosted by Rick on August 2nd, 2005

Abortions will not let you forget.
You remember the children you got that you did not get,
The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair,
The singers and workers that never handled the air.
You will never neglect or beat
Them, or silence or buy with a sweet.
You will never wind up the sucking-thumb
Or scuttle off ghosts that come.
You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh,
Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye.

I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed
children.
I have contracted. I have eased
My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck.
I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized
Your luck
And your lives from your unfinished reach,
If I stole your births and your names,
Your straight baby tears and your games,
Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches,
and your deaths,
If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths,
Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.
Though why should I whine,
Whine that the crime was other than mine?—Since anyhow you are dead.
Or rather, or instead,
You were never made.
But that too, I am afraid,
Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said?
You were born, you had body, you died.
It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.

Believe me, I loved you all.
Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you
All.