You know, Summer is supposed to be an easy-going laid back time.  Somewhere along the way…oh say, around 1987…I missed the boat on easy summertime living, and I’ve never caught it since.  I graduated in 1987, and two days after graduation went to work in a grocery store which meant working every major holiday for nearly a year until I decided that going to college might be a good idea.  Then I went to college full time and worked part time.  That killed two more summers for me.  After that I got married in June of 1990, worked part time for the next month and a half, and then got a full time job.  I have worked full time continuously for 19 years.  Since I haven’t had children I’ve never had even a maternity leave that just happened to fall in the summer.

Yes, I’m whining a little, but the older I get the more I love Summer.  However, I’m forced to enjoy it from a work cubicle, and occasionally I get to walk by a window and long wistfully for tire swings and swimming holes.

This summer so far has been especially busy.  Between home improvement projects, workplace and job description changes (which includes moving my office/cubicle), and normal housework obligations it seems I can hardly catch a breath of Summertime air.

We did enjoy a wonderful two days in a cabin along the New River in Virginia for our anniversary last week, but it seemed we barely got there when we had to leave.  I wanted to stay there at least a month or so basking in the tranquility.  Look below and you’ll see why:

Would you want to leave?   Actually, I’m thankful for those days, because we unplugged and just enjoyed Summer’s grandeur and each other.  Oh, I long for simplicity.  I would give up every piece of technology I own to live simply.  I’m not sure my husband could, but I would…in a heartbeat.

Right now things are changing rapidly, and I’m a little powerless to do anything about it.  I am facing quite a bit of change at work which has not been voluntary.  I am glad that I still have a job, but I’m a little apprehensive about all it entails.  I will most likely be moving away from what I’m comfortable in doing (transcription) into a more demanding administrative role than I’ve had before.  While I don’t easily embrace change I know that it is inevitable. My faith in God tells me it’s all in his plan.  Nothing stays the same forever, and God allows change in order to open up new opportunities for us either currently or down the road.

My  regret is that life seems to be passing by so quickly, and I’m not able to savor it like I want to.   I want to spend more time with my husband and parents.  I want to be there to see our newborn nephew grow and change, but alas, I am where I am.

I’ll just have to savor the little moments that I get.

I have run across several things word-related lately…too many to count.  I always say to myself, “Oh my gosh…got to blog about that”, but then I get distracted by chocolate covered raisins and/or malted milk balls, and the idea is gone…poof!

Yes, I have food issues…what else is new?  I also have a cool new lamp from my new favorite store, IKEA.  IKEA, where have you been all my life?

See the malted milk balls and chocolate covered raisins got me off track…anyhoo, back to the real subject of this post…words!

Something wild has happened in this technological age. We are becoming more and more reliant on the printed word…or dare I a coin a new phrase and say “e-printed” word?  Our love affair with the printed word is flourishing in the 21st century…e-mail, texting, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and the internet in general are so driven by printed words.  Unfortunately, it has revealed the fact that maybe the public/private school systems have delved too much into social studies and have not spent nearly enough time on the basics like English.   Now, I’m far from perfect when it comes to spelling and grammar, but at least I have a basic grasp of spelling and sentence structure.  I tend to laugh off most gaffes, but my husband got a reply e-mail from our cable provider the other day that butchered English composition to pieces.  I nearly spit Lipton Mango-Mandarin iced tea all over my screen when I read it.   Here is what it said:

Dear Mr. Sprouse,

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable Email Support.

I understand that you would like to know about is that you will not receive an e-bill ftrom your
bank any more.

I apologize for the inconvenience and would be glad to assist you.

The letter which you receive states that you were receiving the bill from your bank which will stop
from June, 30th 2009 and to receive a bill you will have to register to PayXpress.

However, you can continue to pay the bill through your bank and the only thing is that you will not
be receiving an ebill from your bank.

That is the formal letter from Time Warner which is not a fraud as it is a notice regarding that.

We value you as a customer, and please feel free to E-mail us again or contact our Live Chat at the
following link: (removed protection of the innocent—Vicki)

Customer Support is available 24×7.

Sincerely,
Louis

Wow, the only thing about that letter that gave me any comfort was the statement that customer support is available 24 x 7.  I can only hope they speak better than they write *bursts out in laughter*.

Hey, if you can’t teach ‘em to write then point out their mistakes in your blog…that’s what I always say.

Wow, May has been a busy month for us!   At the end of April/1st of May we went on our yearly family beach vacation:

Our Beach Rental

After that there was tons of work to catch up on at home and at work, but then two weeks after that we watched Eddie’s sister reach a long awaited milestone in her life.  She graduated from college!

Little Sis Graduates from College! Oh, and she's having a baby in June too!

May went like a whirlwind, and it may seem like we are busy, busy, people, and we are, but Eddie and I have become quite addicted to our Netflix streaming video…not to mention our DVR.  Netlfix streaming is great, because we’re watching whole seasons of TV series we never get to catch while they’re actually on.  We’ve watched all seasons of The Office, and our favorites right now are 30 Rock and Jericho. You can also watch movies via Netflix Streaming video, but you can’t get new releases.  BUT for $8.95 a month you get the streaming and one DVD at a time, and that’s quite a deal.  No, I’m not being paid to advertise for Netflix, but I believe if you like a product or a service you should tell people about it!

Oh, and I’ve finally been sucked in by the Jon and Kate Plus 8 phenomenon.  Will Jon and Kate make it?  We’ll see, but personally, I think the only way they can is to step out of their fishbowl life.  The new season starts tomorrow, so my DVR is set.

Well, back to our lives…we’ve sort of started a tradition of sorts…if you can call working on a holiday a tradition…Memorial day is our working holiday meaning that we tackle a home improvement project that desperately needs tackling.  Last year it was constructing our mailbox flower garden…

2008 Mailbox Flower Garden

…which I’m happy to say still looks okay a year later considering the fact that I’m a notorious brown thumb.  I just need to take out the Winter Pansies and let the summer perineals flourish.  I also need to weed out all the evil Bermudagrass that would desperately love to take over the WHOLE GARDEN!  I think Bermudagrass is what Satan uses for his lawn.  It’s EVIL AND THE GRASS EQUIVLENT OF KUDZU!

Well, this year it was well past time to get rid of the nasty carpet in the cat’s room and the upstairs hallway and put down hardwood-style laminate like we have downstairs.  Carpets and cats are just a nasty combination, and our cats had literally clawed the carpet to the baseboards at the door of their room.  It was hideous!  Also, when we moved into this house back in 2003 I still did medical transcription from home, and that room was my office until I went back to work in the outside world in 2004.  The bedrooms desperately needed paint at the time, and I remember being stumped for a color for my office and the guest room.  Somehow, what I thought was going to be a more beigey color turned out to be pink, but we lived with it for 6 years.  Let me tell you pink is not a good color in a room where you keep animals.  No matter how much you clean (and we clean a lot) the walls just get dirty, and at some point Mr. Clean Magic erasers…as good as they are…just don’t work anymore.  So, here’s the room after we tore out the gross beige carpet and right before we began painting yesterday:

And this is the cat room after paint, and some flooring.  We were exhausted…especially Eddie…and the flooring work will continue tomorrow:

I just love that wall color!   It’s official name is “Delta Sandbar”, but Eddie calls it “Wendy’s Frosty Brown”.  After six years of doing home improvement projects I have finally gotten the hang of picking out colors for a room.  The room has a south facing window, so I knew I could go darker and not make the room feel too boxed in by dark color.  However, I do find myself craving chocolate every time I walk in there.

So, that was our May!  June will be busy too.  We have a new nephew scheduled to make his appearance in the world, and of course, Netflix Streaming will continue to demand our time!

Happy Memorial Day and thanks to to all the troops, past and present, living and deceased who have made it possible for folks like me to enjoy doing anything I want on this weekend and every other day of my American life.

SALUTE…AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!

One my favorite pastors, Dan Burrell, wrote a great post about using God’s name in vain.  He referenced the practices of Jewish scribes when they wrote the word “God”:

Devout Jews refuse to even write the word, “God” thinking it too casual for Someone so sacred and significant.  Instead, they will cite him as “G-d”.  In Biblical days, Scribes, who made copies of scriptures prior to the printing press, were required to use a fresh quill each time that they began writing the name of God.  They also took a ceremonial bath prior to the first stroke.  At the conclusion of each stroke of the quill that was required to write the name of God, they would repeat the bathing and take a new quill.  It served as a constant reminder of the majesty and authority of the One Whose words they were copying.

Wow…that would surely cut down on my production as there are some days I probably transcribe the word “God” a hundred times!

Times have surely changed.  People use His Name so casually and flippantly now…

I read a great post over at Biblical Christianity about verbing nouns (and yes, I just verbed a noun, because the word verb is a noun,  Oh look!  I did it twice!)

Here are the gems of that post:

The process of verbing nouns is an old one. Many Hebrew verbs are just verbed nouns. You’d just take a noun, and put it in the Pi`el, and voila! (or, more appropriately, hinneh!) A verb is born!

****

The maddening thing about English is that if enough people say something stupid long enough, it makes it into a dictionary. But then again, as a man once wisely said (of made-up words), “If you go back far enough, they’re all made up.” True, that.

But sometimes it can be funny when it shouldn’t be. When I was taking prayer requests during a class I taught at Talbot, a brother who was a pastor mentioned that they had had to funeralize several people recently. It made me think of a woman I’d heard on Oprah (no idea how I’d happened on Oprah, so don’t even ask), who mentioned having been “sexualized [i.e. molested in some way] several times.)

So you can verb any noun by simply adding -ize.

****

Of course, as I’ve said, my least-favorite very-popular verbed noun is impact, in the sense of have an impact on. My reaction is always the same. It’s properly an intransitive, but it is used as if it were transitive. I dont care if it’s in a dictionary; when someone says, “That (sermon, book, article) really impacted me,” I always say (if alone) “Eww!” Or perhaps, “I’m so sorry.”

Because a wisdom tooth can be impacted; stools, bowels, and colons can be impacted.

But, properly, people aren’t.

Or — merciful heavens — shouldn’t be.

Funny and thought provoking stuff for those of us enamored by language.

Thanks, Kyle, for sharing!

In recent weeks my job has been shifting a bit.  In some ways it’s been unnerving…I’m not a person who likes change…but in other ways there have been some unexpected blessings to the change.  One of the blessings is that transcribing and writing is sort of like therapy for me.  The rhythm of it soothes my anxious soul, and the concentration on producing a good transcript takes my mind off of  more troubling things.

The other blessing is that I am continually being fed the Word of God from a man God has used to reach the world for over sixty years.  I have been struck at just how timely messages that Dr. Graham preached 30 to 40 years ago are to the present day.  If somebody had just handed me these transcripts without dates at the top I would’ve believed  they were given just last week!  It’s really quite amazing.

The reason I am doing this project is because we have a new database into which we are pouring all of the transcripts.  Some of the electronic files are…for lack of a better word…jibberish as they were scanned hastily when the offices were moved from Minneapolis to Charlotte.  Fortunately, most of the hardcopy is scanning well, but hardcopy that was typed on thinner stock does not scan well.  The only option left is to retranscribe them.  While that can be a tad monotonous I feel as if I’m going to seminary for free!  What a blessing….

I know many Christians who voted for Barack Obama, and when I ask some of them how they can justify voting for a very leftist politician they say, “Well, because we Christians need to back off on the homosexual issue and the abortion issue because they are never going to be changed to our liking.  There’s more important issues we need to be focusing our energy on,  and I think Pres. Obama is the man to do it.”

Well, it seems that Pres. Obama is focusing on the issues that you consider irrelevant.  Are you happy with that?

I’m indignant today over the state of our country as well as the state of the church.  I honestly cannot believe that some  Christians are caving to the pressure to accept homosexuality and homosexual marriage as normal.  Rick Warren has now done a 180 since November on Proposition 8.

Rick…Rick…you stood so strong for so long.  Your inauguration invocation was bold by invoking the name of Jesus several times when a select minority hoped you wouldn’t utter His Name even just once.  Why cave now?  Is the President offering you and your church immunity if you turn now so when he does invoke hate speech laws similar to Canada’s your church will be safe?  Is the almighty dollar your ultimate caving point?  Are you afraid that the spotlight on you will dim if you don’t float on the winds of popular opinion?  If any of this is true then, Rev. Warren, you and your church have definitely lost your PURPOSE as far as I and many others are concerned.

Also, Pres. Obama has appointed the person to his Faith Based Committee who was his most vocal critic over Rick Warren being his choice to give his inaugural prayer .  This is the article that really got my blood boiling today, because this seems to be another appeasement appointment for Obama, and I have no doubt that Pres. Obama fully supports the radical views of Mr Knox.  Just take a look at the heart of the article:

In a debate with the Rev. Gino Jennings recorded Nov. 28, 2004 at the First Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Philadelphia, the two men sparred over various biblical verses references homosexual behavior.

This included the Book of Romans, in which St. Paul wrote, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

After reading the scripture, Jennings asked, “Do you believe that? That if a man lie with a man or a woman with a woman it is against nature?”

“I do not believe it,” answered Knox, who at the time was the program director for the group Freedom to Marry.

Jennings responded, “So this is a lie?”

Knox affirmed, “That is not true.”

“Paul did not have any idea of the kind of love that I feel for a partner when I am partnered. He didn’t know what that was about,” Knox said. “The straight man, the heterosexual man who got the privilege of writing the book, the educated, rich, heterosexual man, Paul, who got to write the book, didn’t think it was natural because for him it must not have been.”

Jennings later responded that Paul was not the sole author of the writings. “So you are saying Paul was just closed-minded. I totally disagree because the book says this, the book tells us that all scripture, all of the scripture, not some of it, but all scripture are given by the inspiration of God,” said Jennings.

Hey folks…you may not feel as passionate about this as I do, but you do need to be informed about the type of folks Pres. Obama is appointing to committees that decide what organizations get faith-based initiative funding.  You may brush it off now, but you can’t say you haven’t been warned when the implications of all this hits home.

Oh, and to top it all off Tony Blair (who I thought was more conservative than most in Great Britain)  had few “enlightened” things to say  this week when he decided to jump on the recent hot trend of criticizing the Pope over the church’s hard line on sexual morality.  I’m not Catholic nor do I agree with the Pope on all things theological, but I think it’s another sign of the apocalypse when folks start bashing the Pope as vehemently as he’s been bashed recently.  Here are a few of Tony’s comments:

“Actually, we need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith,” Blair said in an interview published in Attitude, a magazine aimed at gays.

and this…

“And there’s probably that same fear amongst religious leaders that if you concede ground on an issue like this  because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end?” Blair said.

“You’d start having to rethink many, many things. Now, my view is that rethinking is good, so let’s carry on rethinking.”

And then he tried to gloss over his criticism with this…

“Look, there are many good and great things the Catholic Church does, and there are many fantastic things this pope stands for,” Blair said.

“But I think what is interesting is that if you went into any Catholic church, particularly a well-attended one, on any Sunday here and did a poll of the congregation, you’d be surprised at how liberal-minded people were.”

So, “Rev. Tony” you say that religious leaders should submit to opinions of its parishioners and should change their views to match the views of the day instead of standing on scriptural beliefs or time-tested moral values?  To think…you just converted to Catholicism in 2007.  Why would you convert to a religion who holds values you are most adamantly against?  Frankly, I’m confused.

Sounds an awful lot like politics to me.  But wait…I briefly forgot you were a politician and NOT A RELIGIOUS LEADER.  Silly me.

See, that’s the point.  Politicians and government want power over EVERYTHING including your religious views and what you should accept as normal.  These are just a few examples of the gamut of things that have developed in just the last few days.  Do you see a pattern here?  They have effectively wormed their way into every aspect of our life, and the shocking thing is most people a.k.a. “sheeple” don’t even care.

So, those of you who voted for Barack Obama and consider yourselves conservative Christians how do you feel about your vote now?

Lord, You are teaching me.

If I am to be a simple scribe for the rest of my life so be it.

I will do it for Your glory as a service to You without complaint.

If You someday take me beyond that so be it.

I know You will equip me.

But today I found joy and contentment in just being a simple scribe.

Vicki Sprouse 2009

My friend Kyle shared this poem last week which I just had to post here.  Very good Dr. Reppert!

Does your spell check work?

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

I have always been a frugal soul.  Even as a child when I got a whopping $2-per-week allowance I didn’t just go out and just blow it at Sky City (the Wal-Mart of it’s time in my small town).  I gave a lot of thought to my purchases.  I would even save for weeks to get something I really wanted.

Fast forward 25 to 30 years and I’m still the same way.  As a norm I’m not an impulse buyer, but I won’t say I have never caved to impulse.  Hey, nobody’s perfect…

My husband is EXACTLY opposite, and I won’t lie and say it hasn’t caused some friction in our marriage, because it most definitely has over the years.  It’s probably the biggest issue in our marriage, but with God’s help we’re still standing…martially and fiscally.

I get my cheapness honestly.  My dad’s side of the family, the Longs, are notorious penny pinchers.  Some of them are so tight I swear I hear them squeak when they walk.  My grandmother was the tightest of all.  She saved EVERYTHING that had any practical use at all such as bread bags or any type of container.  She only turned her hot water heater on when she wanted to take a bath which was usually just once a week, and in the Winter used to move to her basement and cook on a wood cook stove so, in her words, “I don’t have to pay to heat the upstairs for the Winter.”

There’s really nothing wrong with that mentality.  My grandmother grew up in the depression years, and even though the depression did not hit Western North Carolina as hard as it did the more Southern States times were still tight, and you saved everything you could.  It was  necessary.  Luxury items were unheard of, and the example of a  luxury item back then was  just a simple orange that each kid got at Christmas time.

As a wife who does the majority of the grocery and necessity shopping I have shopped at discount stores for years.  For many years my husband worked commission-only jobs, and things weren’t always easy.  My ingrained tendency towards frugality, I believe, is partially what saved us from financial ruin at times…that and the generous provision of the good Lord.  I thought nothing of shopping at places like Dollar General, the Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and discount grocery stores like Aldi and GO Grocery.  Actually, I’ve always gotten a great thrill out of finding a bargain.  While some women get excited when they find  designer shoes marked half-price I get a buzz when I find bags of  frozen chicken breasts…buy one bag get one free, or two for one packs of deodorant at Wal-Mart.

It’s just how I roll…

Anyway, I  find it very amusing that in these tough economic times the way I have shopped and lived for nearly 20 years is suddenly “in”.  Just a few years ago people would kind of look down their nose at me because I didn’t always shop Fresh Market or get my clothes from Nordstrom and Macy’s.   Some of these same folks are now coming to me asking me where I found the cute top I have on and asking me about the best products at Aldi.

Suddenly, my lifestyle is chic, and let me tell you that’s one French adjective that has never been hurled in my general direction before.  I have to say I kind of like it, and it validates the fact that there’s nothing strange about my shopping habits at all.

Oh, and that cute top I have on today…it came from Ross and cost me all of $7.99.