Summer student quotes

Most of you who teach may be reading this by the pool, in your nice, quiet home, or while your sitting at a coffee shop sipping on a mocha. Lucky you. I, on the other hand, still see students every day and am teaching an online class. Therefore, without further ado, the summer edition of student quotes, including a best excuses section!

Colleague, interviewing a potential staff writer: Why do you feel that you can write?

Student: I have a lot of friends who write.

Student: There’s two really hot guys who both drive Lexuses…I mean Lexi.

Student: If I really wanted to get creepy about it, I could find out a lot about you.

About posing nude for money for a college art class…

Student: I’d do it. I don’t come cheap.

Me: They only pay $30 for four hours of work.

Student: That’s not cheap. That’s three *local restaurant* burgers.

   

Student: Marketing doesn’t look hard.

Me: Have you ever taken a marketing class?

Student: I took a public relations class. It’s the same thing, right?

Student: This place is nice. It’s like a gated community.

Other student: Those aren’t gates. Those are bars on the windows.

Student: What do you do in the CIA? What does that even stand for?

Student: I did bad on this midterm. I studied the wrong stuff.

Me: How? I told you everything that was going to be on it.

Student: I know…I just studied the wrong stuff.

Top three excuses for an online class:

Student: I can’t do the assignments because I’m on a cruise, and it’s $2 a minute to get online.

Me: A vacation does not constitute an excused absence.

Student: I didn’t do the assignments because I didn’t realize I was supposed to check my email every day.

Student sends me an email with the following:

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do the assignments because my Internet connection doesn’t work.”

Again. He/she sent me an EMAIL with that sentence.

Thank you, and good night!

Beach bum

Why I love the beach...

Because I love drinking iced coffee with my toes in the sand.

Because I love hearing the sound of waves crashing into the shore.

Because I love being with precious girlfriends and spending time together.

Because I love to shop. ;)

Because I love to eat seafood with a great view.

Because the ocean is still beautiful even before a storm.

Because if your ocean house has a pool, you can swim at night!

Because, on the beach, there are no calories in donuts. ;)

Because you can relax.

(Though you may get sunburned!)

Because I love seeing seagulls.

Because I love playing in the sand.

Because every wave is different.

Babies, babies everywhere...

You know how some weekends are just good? Not just normal good, but italicized good. Granted, most of the time, I have pretty sweet weekends in general, but this one was overly picture-worthy. =) Be warned: It's an overload of cuteness here.

My husband and I took a quick trip north this weekend to visit my mom, dad, and grandmother...and we had a couple of semi-surprise visitors -- sweet little Brycen, my cousin's son, and my aunt, who brought her grandson.

Brycen, my mom, and (trying to hide, it seems) my dad.

Seriously, how precious is his little face? I couldn't stop kissing the sweet kiddo.

My husband -- Brycen's new BFF

Dinnertime!!!

I might have hogged the sweet redheaded angel and told him I was going to take him home with me. I was just kidding, though! Um...sort of. ;)

He was greatly attached to my hair. Next time, I'll wear a ponytail!!

Reason No. 2 why this weekend was super awesome: ELLA!!! I *might* have left work early simply to see this cutie pie and her equally cute mama.

Is that not the definition of precious or what?

This dashing gentleman is Mr. Anderson, and he is born to be in front of a camera. Seriously. Every picture he takes is just adorable. See below? Yeah, he was about to burst into tears (apparently, only Simba can sing on the Lion King -- no one else at the table is allowed, HA!). Just fyi, he recovered quickly. Maybe he didn't like it when Mufasa died.

And, to relax and unwind, I spent Sunday afternoon at the park. I staked out my dock, took a peach milkshake and my Bible study, and just baked in the sun. I had a few "friends" come by, too. I regretted not bringing any old bread to feed them, but I figured I could make up for it next time.

Some weekends are just picturesque.

Friday musings

Maybe it’s because I’ve upped my caffeine intake in the past couple of days, maybe it’s because my Bible study is rocking my socks, or maybe it’s just that two out of three wins still equal a winning week, but, man, I’m really loving June.

Anyone else feel that way? I hope so!

A lot of things have been running around in my head – some of them deserve their own blog post – but as it’s Friday and I get off in three hours, I cannot give the focus to some of these topics as they deserve. So you get snippets:

* Women need community. Women of the church need to reach out to other women, love them deeply, and encourage them. We all have pangs of loneliness at times. It’s our job to band together to help our sisters out.

* You can’t choose family, but God did. Maybe (even the annoying ones!) are there for a reason. Maybe you’re in that family to help them grow as much as they’re in your family to help you grow.

* I had high hopes of this being the Summer of Me, where it was just one party after another celebrating my Ph.D. Sadly, the Ph.D. is on its last leg of being finished, but, in happier news, I apparently don’t need a reason to party, as I have several trips lined up. Woo hoo!! Beach bound, baby!

* Yeah. I’m super excited about my first beach trip of the summer. Can.Not.Wait.

* If I don’t stop eating blueberries and tomatoes, I may turn into a blue tomato. (On a similar thought, if I injected blue food coloring in a tomato, would it turn blue??? That would be so cool.)

* My women’s Bible study is amazing. The studies we do are insightful, and the women involved are so lovely, inside and out. Also, I love my Sunday School class. We’ve been teaching the singles group for a little over two years now. Amazing to think that when we first started, we had ZERO people come for six weeks (straight) and now we have an average of 8 to 10. Love that group. Love.

* My cat apparently is an attack cat. I always suspected, but we found the proof yesterday. Feathers. Everywhere. No body, though…

* I almost have all my universities cooperating so I can start conducting my dissertation research. I’m in contact with four universities across the U.S. (Louisiana, Arizona, North Carolina, and Ohio), and all of them have different requirements for research on their campus. CRAZY. BUT, the good news is that all of my info has been turned in, and all of them have said I should hear back from them within a week. WHEW. Once I do that, I will collect my research for about a month (hopefully no longer than that) and then it’ll take me about another month to finish my dissertation. So we’re hoping for an October finish date!

* We should begin on renovating one of our two 1960s bathrooms next month. Thank. Goodness. That pink bathtub in the front bathroom is driving me crazy.

I can’t believe we’re already midway through June! Is it sad that I feel it’s going too quickly??  

Oh, because I love this sweet pup, here are some pictures of my Voo.

Someone was not happy with bath time! 

But she does love belly rubs!!!

Obviously, not the Voo. This is my grandmother and my cousin's sweet baby, Brycen. I LOVE this photo. Isn't this the sweetest??

Favorite quotes of the week:

"I do not seek, O Lord, to penetrate thy depths. I by no means think my intellect is equal to them; but I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe, that I may understand." -- Anselm

Do not be quick with your mouth; do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. -- Ecclesiastes 5:2

Home updates

Over Memorial Day weekend, I got it in my head to repaint our office. It was a dull red color, not very inspiring and it made the room look smaller and darker. As it’s on the bottom level of our house anyway and has one small window, I felt it needed to be brighter.

I only needed to paint two walls, also. One of the walls is white and covered with bookshelves and storage space, and the other wall, the one with the window, is a white brick.

Our bookshelves

I don’t have a problem with red. I actually like red. But I wasn’t a big fan of this particular red in this particular room. So I decided it was time to recolor!

Hubby giving me his version of the "duck face" while moving his music equipment. Note the painter's tape in his pocket. This sweet man put up EVERY BIT of painters tape for me.

Starting the priming work!

It only took nine months, but I finally decided on the perfect color: Tiffany blue.

It’s just a bright color, and I thought it would go very well with the white half of our office. And, as Kyle even was a fan when I was finished, I think I succeeded.

My feet after painting. Eek!!! 

SOMEONE put her hand in wet paint -- not once, but twice! Gah!

One happy couple after the painting was done!

…And now the after!

My crafting desk.

FINALLY -- pictures are being placed on the walls!

I still have just a few touch ups, but, overall, I’m quite glad to have one more room in our house painted. Now just one and a half to go!

Of Freedom

Freedom never comes through disobedience. – Beth Moore, “Psalms of Ascent” study

In a few weeks, America is going to have a party. Independence Day, the Fourth of July, will be filled with fireworks, people getting a day off of work, and red, white, and blue decorations. We’ll have barbecues, ice cream, and a hole in our pockets where our money used to be.

We’ll celebrate our freedom, remember our soldiers, and maybe even take a swim in the lake.

But what would Independence Day look like without rules, without consequence? What if everyone stole the fireworks instead of paid for them? What if driving while intoxicated was legal? What if our FDA regulations were not in place regarding the food in our grocery stores?

We have freedom, right? But we have to follow the rules. We have freedom, but there are consequences for breaking the law. These laws were put into place to keep us safe, to keep us from harm. But we are free.

Right?

Then why is it so different when we look at God’s rules? We have freedom in following God’s laws – do not commit adultery, do not steal, honor your parents, love your neighbor. His laws are in place, but we often seem to think that God’s laws, which were put into place to give us freedom, actually hinder our freedom.

If we live in a country where we celebrate our freedom that is based on rules and laws, why would we believe different about our Father’s rules? Man is imperfect; God is not.

I know several agnostics, atheists, and people who generally believe that the Easter-Christmas church visits will somehow get them into heaven. I know people who go to church on Sunday but forget the sermon before they’re out of the parking lot or choose to ignore it because it doesn’t fit in with their lifestyle. I know this because I’ve been that person more than I care to admit.

We can’t pick and choose what we want to believe in, if we choose to believe in the Bible. Our pastor made a fantastic point in church this Sunday when he started his sermon series on Jonah – “When I taught seminary, as I got to the book of Jonah, a lot of students had read scholars who have said that Jonah should not be taken literally. It should be read as a cautionary tale. They don’t believe that there was a prophet named Jonah who was swallowed by a whale and then tossed back up. I, then, would ask them, ‘Do you believe that Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead three days later? Then why is the story of Jonah so fantastic and unbelievable?’”

We can’t decide that one of God’s laws in the New Covenant (Hebrews 12:24) applies to us and then the other doesn’t. In our country, we can’t decide that stealing is okay but speeding is not.

We have freedom in our country, and we have freedom in God. The rules are in place for our protection and safety. Why is that so difficult to believe?