Come downstairs and say hello…

hear it in the stairwell: Guster-Careful

I am so excited to blog about my weekend because I did so many fun things and have pictures to prove it! And I want to write about the Over the Rhine concert before I forget all of the tiny details that I know Amanda will love. And I want to post pictures of my Withers’ kids at the children’s museume Saturday. And I’ll show you all Levi’s reaction to sledding: Bryan and I took him in the snow for the first time! And moving day #1 results will be posted so all helping on moving day #2 will know what to expect!

Alright, this week is finals week at AFIT so all of the air force grad guys are gathering franitcally and spouting off statistics that make my head hurt, I need to get out of here. Check back later…

pocket change for a miracle

hear it in the stairwell:Delirious?- King of Fools (super old school)

Remember when I bragged about setting off fireworks for Bryan’s birthday (see Nov. 21st) and how I’m the best friend in the world for it? Now I have pictures to prove it…



I’m still working to round up pictures of the lion. Stay tuned.

Ah, the countdown of days I have left in The Hotel begins as my apartment crumbles into little hotel pieces. My bathroom ceiling became a part of my bathroom floor the other day, none of the hall lights are working and my door hinge is still broken! Speaking of my still cool yet rapidly crappy apartment, for those of you who expressed pity for me by offering to help me move, scheduled moves are as follows:

Saturday December 13th: 10 a.m.- around noon. meet at The Hotel

Saturday December 20th: 10 a.m. – finished (this date subject to time change)

Just call if you are available and willing to help or just stand around and tell jokes. Breakfast included:)

I was sitting in the doctor’s office yesterday and in my efforts to stay awake I picked up a Newsweek and began flipping through it. I came across an intriguing article, “Faith and Healing: Is religion good medicine?” It just talked a lot about how doctors are feeling more and more ill-equiped to help their patients because they have no education on how to respond to dying patients who say things like “Now that I’m dying, I realize that I never really learned how to live.” A 20-year doctor admitted that her first thought was “My God, the chaplain doesn’t work on weekends!”

This raises an incredibly interesting question: If 84% of Americans think that praying for the sick improves their chances of recovery, why are religion and medicine still so separate?

Can religion slow cancer? Reduce depression? Speed recovery from surgery? Lower blood pressure? Can belief in God delay death? How do you measure the power of prayer? Can one person’s prayer be more powerful — and more effective — than another’s? How do you separate the health benefits of going to church from the fact that people who attend religious services tend to smokeless and be less depressed than those who don’t? People who attend church regularly have a 25 percent reduction in mortality than nonchurch goers.

Although I’m thrilled that someone has realized the necessesity of integrating religion and medicine, I can’t help but feel the Newsweek article is still way off base. The article references studies where some patients are prayed for and others are not. To think that God would only respond to the group that was prayed for and leave the other group out in the dark is based on total misconceptions of how God responds to prayer. God is not a machine you can pop quarters into and get a miracle soda.

On a lighter note…

Yea! Over the Rhine tonight!

Pictures to follow!

one, two or three

hear it in the stairwell: U2 Beautiful Day

humor for the day

Tommy: Where are we gonna take the deer?

Richard Hayden: I dunno, the vet?

Tommy: You take dead animals to the vet?

Richard Hayden: Why not? I’d take you to the vet.

Tommy: Yeah I’ll take you to the…Um…

Richard Hayden: Got that?

Tommy: Shut up.

The power of Christ compels you

hear it in the stairwell:U2-Joshua Tree

I couldn’t blog this weekend…the server was down every time I tried. So I’m going to make up for it now. Not too many exciting things happened for me this weekend. Friday we saw Last Samurai and, much to my surprise, I liked it. It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed two or so hours of Tom Cruises’ unitooth. So once I stopped staring at the one tooth centered in the top row of his teeth, I was able to sit back and enjoy the Japanese goodness.

And after my 9a.m. final on Saturday (that I aced) I convinced the guys I hung out with that evening to watch The Exorcist! They were all a bit hesitant, not wanting to wet their pants in front of each other. The movie never ceases to shock/scare/disgust/intrigue me but it wasn’t until I arrived home that I realized how freaked out I was. I’m walking up to the hotel (aka my apartment building) around 3a.m. and there are no lights on anywhere in the building. I turn my key in the lock of the front door and as I slowly begin to open the door this horrible screeching noise comes from inside-immediately I stop. Now at this point I have two options: one, I can continue to open the door and greet the demon possessed girl I KNOW is waiting for me on the other side of the door or two, I can run screaming until one of my equally creepy neibors comes to my rescue. I picture my neibor Bruce running out of his apartment in his boxers and I continue to open the door. The screeching continues until the door is open about half way and the BOOOOOM! I wasn’t sure what had happened until I got up the nerve to open the door completely and saw the hinge the keeps the door from swinging completely open dangling in front of the doorway. It’s still dangling there. Every time enter or leave my apartment building I dodge it. I only have a few more weeks in The Hotel anyways, I got my NEW KEY for my NEW PLACE last night:) Anyone want to help me move?? Contact me-possible massage compensations involved:)

Oh, and Kristi…the pictures I keep posting, such as this one: Are of Ryan from the band Guster. I like him….a lot…maybe too much:)

Ok, I’ll leave you all with this:

“Handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already.”-C.S. Lewis

Everyone have a wonderful Monday and check out Stephen’s site. His self confidence needs the support:) (Kidding Stephen, I do like your site. Especially Joe’s part)

http://www.TheReitzTemple.tk

FRIDAY

hear it in the stairwell: Dishwalla

I am so glad it is the weekend AND it is snowing!