Ok. First post from work. Being productive as always. This post is aimed towards two certian people who berated me for not posting enough. New post. No comments. What the crap is up with that? Come on. Work with me people.

Mean Things About You

Some people don't appreciate John Piper. So here is another post. Since I have nothing really to post on my blog - I'll just write mean things about people. That sounds like fun.

But maybe not.

So instead I'll enlighten you on the art to "Getting a Life".

1. Buy an RV. Seriously. It's the only way to go.

2. After that I guess the sky is the limit. You have a life. Congratulations.

What you do with it is up to you.

Let's go over some options you have.

1. Professional Noodling.

2. Solve the world's "plumber crack" problems.

3. Join the Jingle Bell Mafia. (Registration required)

Well that should get you started. Enjoy your life!

"When the glory of God himself saturates our preaching and teaching and conversation and writings, and when He predominates above our talk of methods and strategies and psychological buzzwords and cultural trends, then people might begin to feel that He is the central reality of their lives and that the spread of His glory is more important than all their possessions and all their plans."
~ John Piper

Does anyone see the point to folding underwear and matching socks? There is none. Who cares if your underwear is wrinkled? Even if you get in an accident, apparently all that is required is clean underwear, not pressed underwear. Socks never match up after coming out of the dryer anyway, so you might as well dump the whole pile in your drawer and match them as needed. Folding underwear and matching socks is totally pointless. So is making your bed.

It Builds Character

Ok. So a long time ago I promised to write some more about the tough love of my parents. So here it is.

When I was little we bought a new mini van. And shortly after getting our van my mom drove down to drop something off at our neighbors house. Now, we live on a small rural one lane, no outlet road. Since only about 15 cars drive down this road a day, it's generally not a problem. However, when two school buses meet, then it's time to pull out the lawn chairs and sit in the front yard and watch.

Being a kid, I was enthralled with all the new gadgets of our van. I thought it was pretty cool that we had vinyl everything in the van so we could hose it down. We were driving back from my neighbors and I decided the middle seat isn't cool anymore, and the front seat really is where all the action is. So move I did. At the same time our neighbors dog ran out in front of us. My mom can't swerve, cuz it's a one lane road, so she slammed on the brakes. Good thing that dashboard was there to catch my face.

My mom's response was a little less sympathetic than I would have liked.

"You broke the cup holder!"

Sure enough, I snapped that thing right off.

"Mom, my chin hurts."

"You broke the cup holder!!!!"

Thought we already covered that. "But MOOOOOMMMMMM, My chin really hurts."

"Now we can't use this cup holder!"

"MOM!!! I hit my face on the van and it hurts."

"Oh. Well why were you walking around in a moving vehical anyway. Sit down and buckle up."

Oh the happy childhood memories... We never did get that cup holder fixed. It made our new van that much cooler - It had carpet AND a cupholder!

Down in Front

Not much exciting has happened in my life. Except for yelling at the guy at the movie theater. But that was a total accident. I didn't mean for my voice to carry 4 rows to him. And I really wasn't bothered that he was standing in front of me. I mean the movie was over. Oh well.

A little girl from VBS drew me a picture. Of me. She gave me either eyebrows or devil horns. I am going with eyebrows. I don't think I could handle devil horns.

I'm only 21

I'm getting over being sick. And I've decided that having a fever is like going through menopause. Hot one minute. Cold the next. Menopause at the age of 21. That freakin' sucks.

This picture was taken at a winter retreat we helped lead for high school students. That was the hardest retreat I had ever been apart of.

Amberly overheard one girl telling someone how appalled she was at the type of people who were coming to her church.

"Don't they know that only preps come to our church? What were they thinking?"

To which Amberly replied with:

"Umm... I thought churches were supposed to be filled with Christians. Just a thought."

Not much you can say to that.

I finally figured out how to post pictures! Isn't that exciting? Now all I need is either a scanner or a digital camera.



Fall Conference. Amberly and I have too much fun with group pictures.

Just smile and nod

I have this good friend Chris. We grew up together, lived down the road from each other, went to the same elementary school, were homeschooled together, went to the same high school, went to the same church. We even have the same last name and initials. Our families are from the same general area in KY so we must be related.

So one day he calls me from his school and asks me if I want to go to Michigan with him to visit some of his friends. When I asked why he wanted me to go he replied with:

"Well, I don't want to be the only guy going... that would be weird."

"Chris, I don't solve your problem."

"Oh. Well but you're different Andi."

Thanks Chris. Thanks a lot. Still not really sure how to take that...

**************
Question to ponder: Have you ever wondered what an acorn tastes like?

Go Dayton.

See. There are some great things about Dayton.

Yesterday at VBS a couple crew leaders came up to me and said:

"Will you please teach the rest of the shark song? My kids won't stop singing it."

I win.

Lava Lava Island

Mass chaos.

Today was the first day of Lava Lava Island Vacation Bible School at my church. My church is affectionately referred to as "controlled chaos". Not so much with VBS - more chaos, less control.

After I took over the game time I began to teach the kids a fun song about sharks attacking a swimmer and the swimmer dying.... and... well that's about as far as we got; snack time was starting. I know. The first time I heard it I thought the same thing.

This is the worst church song ever. We just killed the nice swimmer. We should have a milestone tied around our necks and be thrown into the sea.

We didn't get to the part about the big party in heaven with Jesus. See the party in heaven part really makes the morbid kids rhyme fun and lighthearted. But I didn't get to that part. All the other crew leaders hate me now. I can't go back.

Delta Queen Kappa Scoot

Justin owns a yappy little dog. A Papillon to be specific. One night some of us were chillin at his crib, bored out of our mind. We decide to rent a movie. Much to everyone's chagrin, Amberly and I volunteer to go pick out a movie. People have been hesitant to send us out on errands ever since we were sent to pick up snacks and came back with salsa and grapes (it made sense at Kroger). And then there was the time we took Justin's car and changed all the radio pre-sets to the lite-rock station....

Anyway, about the time we decide to go get a movie Zach (also known as yappy little dog) runs in the room and Amberly and I decide to take him as Amberly's "seeing eye dog". We figure Hollywood Video will probably kick us out, but there's a Blockbuster fairly close by.

We get to Hollywood Video, Amberly dons my sunglasses, I lead her in, and Zach yaps around our feet. We expect to be asked to leave; we had our arguments all planned out. But instead the clerk says, "That's a cute dog."

What?!!? There is no way she really thinks Amberly is blind. No freakin' way. But apparently she does because when I run out to the car Amberly and the clerk have a great conversation. Amberly turns her back to the clerk and starts to talk to her.

"Ma'am, I'm over here."

"Oh, sorry about that."

"That's ok. You can hold on the counter if you would like."

"Thanks."

She really believed it. It took all we had not to burst into laughter in the store.

That is my favorite Amberly/Andi (also known as Scooter and the Queen) story. Amberly is leaving for summer missions next Friday. I am going to miss her soooo much!


******
To the lady in Kohl's: Side ponytails went out a long time ago. Let the 80's die.

The New Look

Blogger is the devil.

I had to change my template because the other one was crappin' out on me.

Hope you enjoy it.

There may not be many more posts - I am going to drop kick my laptop after this one.

Cleveland Rocks

Wow. It's been a too long since I've last posted. I was going to post sooner than this - I swear. But after finals and I returned from my trip, the stupid lightning knocked our phone and DSL out.

Anyway, I just returned from my FIRST EVER BUSINESS TRIP! I went to Cleveland for the Great Lakes Photonics Symposium. Let me tell you - it was so exciting!

Well some interesting things did happen. Here is a journal entry from that trip:

6/9/04
This is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in! But first let me tell about my trip up to Cleveland.

I had to change into a skirt on the way here - I figured it would look more professional and such. So I stopped at a grocery store since changing clothes and driving just seems like a bad idea, almost as bad as changing drivers while driving. I parked fairly far away from the store so I could change in my car, and since it was raining I was confident that no one would park next to me. As soon as I get my pants off, a guy pulls up next to me! HOLY COW! The thought crossed my mind to just drive off, but what would I do then? What if I got pulled over? I can just see it: "Yes, Officer I am driving in my underwear, is that a problem?" So I decide to stick it out and pull my skirt on as fast as possible. Why does my foot decide to get stuck in hems at such bad times? Luckily, my parking lot neighbor decided not to subject his cell phone to the rain and stayed in his car without looking over to mine. I pulled my skirt on right as he stepped out of his car and looked into mine. What ever happened to privacy? Geez! And why didn't I ever get my windows tinted, dangit?

So I make it to the hotel just fine and fully clothed - and this place is nice. Valet parking - they take your bags as soon as you pull up and you don't see them until you get to your room. So I check in and I feel a little out of place - as if any moment someone is going to stop me and tell me to stop pretending like I am grown-up and to go find my mommy.

Anyway, I like my room - the toilet paper even has the ends folded into triangles. There are two nice queen-sized beds, which I promptly jumped on. My rooms overlooks the beautiful Atrium and pool - which is closed - grr. The only view I have of Cleveland is in the emergency exit stairwells - which is fine because who pays upwards of $250 a night and uses the stair? So I can enjoy the view by myself!

I learned a few things on this trip:

1. While wearing open-toed shoes on a business trip is good, having on red toe-nail polish is bad. It screams "Hello. I am a business professional by day and a hooker by night." I guess I should ditch the stiletto heels and leather corset as well.

2. The brake repair industry must be alive and well in Columbus. They seem to enjoy going from 70 mph to 0 mph in a split second. My car has good brakes. Dang good brakes.

It was a fun trip and I look forward to more! Oh yeah and it's wonderful to be done with school for the summer!!!!

Public Exodus

What do you think?

Eye Twitch

The project from hell is finished. Now I await my grade.

Between papers, finals and presentations there won't be much time to post on here. Catch ya in a week.

Happily Ever After

Today was a kind of bad day. It wasn't a move to Australia terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. But it wasn't a good day either. Just kind of bad. I was trying to figure out why it was a bad day; it wasn't because my hair looked like it was styled by a blind person with no hands, or because I almost rear-ended a car, or because my eye twitch returned thanks to Mr. Stress. No, it was because today I found out that one of the most attractive guys I work with has a girlfriend. Stupid girl.

This stupid girl is probably a good thing though. I was beginning to feel a little guilty praying for his salvation for the sole purpose of dating him. Now I'll have to pray for his salvation because God loves him or something like that. (I wish sarcasm was more evident in writing - then I wouldn't seem so shallow)

Besides that my mom always told me that I should never date an attractive guy. Something about other girls noticing him, and always having to worry. My good friend, Amberly, advises that I find a guy that no one else would want so that he would be mine all mine. So as soon as I find an unattractive guy that no one wants I will be well on my way to happily ever after.

In an attempt to take a shallow post deeper, I would like to post my list of non-negotiables for a guy. That's right. I have it in writing. 15 things that any guy I would date has to have. Hangs on my wall where I can see it every day.

OH MY GOSH ANDI! 15!!! Holy cow! Are you trying to stay single???

Yeah I know... but I know guys who have met all 15 items on my list. I don't think it is an unreasonable list - and besides, I would rather set the bar too high than too low. I've seen too many people set it too low.

So for all of you that have asked for my list here it is in no particular order: (except number 1... though I guess it doesn't matter since the essence of the list is that they are non-negotiable - you can't just slide by with meeting 14 - have to meet all 15!)

1. Strong, growing Christian with the same convictions as me
2. Doesn't abuse alcohol or drugs
3. Honest
4. Trustworthy
5. Servant's Heart
6. Has goals and plans for his life and be pursuing them.
7. Consider education important
8. Respect Authorities/elders
9. Hard worker
10. Keeps his word even when it is hard to do.
11. Has a job, or be actively looking for one.
12. Well respected by his peers and his authorities
13. Sense of humor
14. Manages money well
15. My parents and my sister MUST like him

If you are a single guy who has met all 15, please send a resume with a cover letter to andicandi@juno.com.