Podcasts
I finally got around to buying an iPod (I've been saving up for awhile), and I am loving it!! I have been importing all my CDs to my iTunes and have put some of my favorites on my iPod to listen to at work (I'm someone who has to have background noise to work).

My favorite part of my iPod, though, is being able to listen to podcasts. I just love it! I listen to them when I'm doing work that is a bit monotonous and doesn't require me to concentrate as much (stuffing envelopes, working on VBS schedule, etc.). Right now I'm listening to Dave Ramsey. I can listen to podcasts on my favorite TV shows (Heroes, Lost, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, etc.). I get a podcast that is a quick ettiquette lesson--only about 3-4 minutes long--that are wonderful (I'm a big Miss Manners' fan, so I like this type of stuff). I listen to theologians and authors that I like (my favorite podcast right now is Ravi Zacharias).

Any other suggestions of podcasts that I should check out? What about cheaper places to download music that iTunes?

PRE-SCHOOL POLITICAL AD

I hate political ads, but this made me laugh!

Miss N-Dog, Part Two

I was wondering if anyone I know actually reads my blog, (cause I never have any comments), and then I went over to my friend Matt Smith's blog, and noticed how my name had been added to his "other blogs I read" list.

:-) Guess that answers my question!

Miss N-Dog
That is a nickname I've acquired since coming to Hurst. I've gotten to know the pastor's family pretty well, and I spent New Year's Eve hanging out with their three daughters (one is in 4th Grade, one is in 7th and one is in 9th). They also had a friend over (the same age as the oldest, I think), and we were sitting around playing a game and talking when one of the girls asked me, "Do we call you Miss Nissa or Nissa?" I told them either was fine with me, just as long as they didn't call me Miss Walker. Then their friend said, "How about N-Dog?" So we started joking around about it...and they started calling me "Miss N-Dog" that night.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to the pastor, his wife and the girls in the hall as we were leaving (on a Wednesday night). His wife was telling a story and they both ended up doing something silly that was really embarrasing the three girls. It was actually pretty funny, but you know preteen and teenage girls--they were embarrassed. Their middle daughter said, "I'm going home with N-Dog"

Every Sunday, their friend passes me during the welcome and says, "Hey Miss N-Dog!" and gives me a hug.

And those 4 girls have called me nothing else since!

And I love it!

Unfortunate Valentines
These made me laugh outloud!!!

And it's official...
4 months and 19 days...that's how long it took before someone here decided that she needed to find me a boyfriend. I thought I was in the clear...guess I was wrong!

No Valentine's Day Scrooges Here!
Today started out differently than my usual Wednesday. Last night I tried to take my Online Church History and Heritage Test and it froze on me. Because Internet Explorer shut down, I couldn't get back into my test...I had a minor panic attack (I even called my mom!), but I did everything that I could to get in touch with my professor last night. So...this morning I called him before I left for work and finally caught him. He was very understanding and set it up so I could take the test online this morning before I went in to work. Whew!!

As a single young adult, Valentine's Day used to be a sore subject to me, but with my growing contentment and my true joy at have my own place and loving the single lifestyle, I decided that I would not be the Valentine's Day Scrooge this year. I wore a new red blouse (with little silver sparkles) in honor of the day. I've been listening to love songs on my Yahoo! Music Jukebox, and have a love song CD playing in my car.

I've noticed that the assistants & support staff here are very festive with holidays. I've had two valentine cards and candy and even a cookie (one of those wonderful sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles). Part of the not being a Scrooge was not eating all of that to make me feel better. I ate two pieces of candy and put the rest in my candy dish. Now the cookie is calling my name. (I won't eat again until Life Group, so I think it'll be okay to eat it now!)

I've also enjoyed hearing stories of what the married people around me are doing for their spouses. So far our minister of music has been my favorite. He made his wife a homemade card with the word SWEETHEART on it. He took each letter and listed something he loved about her. Way to go Paul! Hallmark doesn't have anything on you!

I know I posted this on my old blog last year on Valentine's Day, but it's still my favorite love poem! (Shakespeare's Sonnet 116)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

So...Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Married friends (or friends with a significant other)...what did you do to celebrate today?

Only 12 hours ago...
I was in this very office getting my stuff so I could finally leave! Actually, it was a little later than 10:00 when I left. But I was so glad to be still at church, because I was getting to finally be a part of a Life Group.

Our church started doing Life Groups about 2 1/2 years ago to help build relationships in our church family. It is a place for a person to come and meet with other believers and learn about God, have accountability, and have true fellowship that is based on more than mere pleasantries...more than just the "how are you's?" stuff. It was wonderful!!!! There are 7 of us young singles, plus our pastor who is leading us for now...I'm really looking forward to how we will grow through this group!!

And on a funny note...I had a great kid moment last night.
We have G.A.'s & R.A.'s on Wednesday nights, and I've been helping with G.A.'s. I have the K-2nd graders in my group. We were working on an activity, and the girls kept saying how funny I was. "You're funny, Miss Nissa." I wasn't trying to be funny, but apparently I was being funny.

Well, a very active 2nd grader said, "You should have married my dad." She didn't look at me or anything. She was just working on her activity. I did a double-take, because her dad is married to her mom, so it's not like she was trying to be a little matchmaker. So I said, "(Girl's name), why do you say that?" Her answer: "Because you and my daddy are both funny."

I sat there for a second (trying not to laugh and faint at the same time), and said, "Well, I don't know if your mommy would like that. And if we didn't have (this child's name) mommy and (this child's name) daddy, we wouldn't have (her name). "

She thought for a minute and then said, "Oh...Never mind."

:-) Wow...at least my job isn't ever boring!!!!

Later edit: I realize that you can't read this just looking at it right now, but if you click on it, you should be able to read it.

El Elyon - The God Most High

Right now for my morning devotion time, I am using a book by Kay Arthur called, LORD, I Want to Know You. It is a study on the Names of God. It spends several days focusing on a name of God. Right now the focus is on El Elyon, the God Most High. Today it had me read several passages of scripture and then write down my thoughts on each of them, and then at the end write what I could take and apply to my life.

Isaiah 5:5-7: "And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting;and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!"

Deuteronomy 32:39: "'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."

1 Samuel 1:5-6: "But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb."

1 Samuel 2:6-10: "The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed."

Isaiah 45:6-7: "that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things."

John 19:10-11: "Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above."

Here's what I wrote in my journal:
God is Sovereign. He created the universe and controls everything that happens in it. I cannot possibly grasp this. That's why preachers, scholars, professors, and theologians argue so much about what this means.

What I think--and I know that I am likely to be very wrong about all of this--is that God is in control over everything that happens on this earth. He created it, so it is His to do with as He pleases. Who am I to question the "whys" of anything I see around me? It is by grace that God does not completely destroy this sinful world.

But, God allows me to ask why. He does things/allows them to happen so that I will ask why. And often these ways seem very cruel or unfair to my eyes. But I do not see as God sees. I think that He does this so that my image of Him is not put in this limited box of my understanding. But the breaking of my box is usually a painful process

And it is comforting to know that God's Sovereignty does not hinge on my understand--It just is. Whether or not I "agree with" or understand an aspect of God does not make it any less true.