things i can not comprehend.

so as a part of the reading plan that i have started this year for Lent (and beyond) i have been making my way through the book of Job. up until now, i thought i understood this story: Job is a good guy. Satan gets permission from God to torture Job. Job loses everything. His wife says 'curse God and die.' Job remains faithful and God blesses him. the end. what i never knew was that all this happens within 39 verses. (the first 32 and the last 7 if you wanted to know) who knew that the book of Job was 42 chapters long? not me. the whole rest of the book is conversation between Job and his 3 friends who came to comfort him. this is where i start to lose the story. i really have trouble understanding what everyone here is saying. apparently the friends aren't doing so good a job of being comforting, because Job keeps having to respond to everything they say. it seems like they're arguing, but as i read it, they all seem to be saying the same things in general. whats with the disagreement? i must be missing something. or maybe everyone else is missing something. maybe i just have the extended version of Job in my Bible and everyone else's is only 39 verses long.
for a long time in my life, i avoided the book of Job like the plague. it was suggested to me that i should read it during a really low point in my life, but i thought that just seemed a little cliche, and besides that i already knew the 39 verse version of the story, so i just never read it. now that i've started, it seems to have brought up more questions than it has answered for me. why DO bad things happen to good people? does the Devil hand-pick ALL the people that seem to be going through Hell on earth? Why does God just sit back and let us suffer and give Satan the power to bring us to our knees and lower? how would i react to the loss of everyone i most loved? and what in the world are Job's friends talking about?
maybe its not for me to know the reasons why. maybe all i need to know is that the same God who allows pain and devastation into our lives is the same one who will, in His great love, pick us up and put us back together again.
my thoughts and prayers and love go out to my sister's sister-in-law and her family. by God's grace may you have the strength to praise God through this storm.

billable work.

i spent two and a half hours of my day today printing, copying, and counting 550 pages of calculations which left me with one question:

who decided that 'a buttload' is not a billable amount?

i would like to find them and just point out that their logic is flawed and i have the papercuts to prove it.

first in flight.

another unfortunate name surfaced on the corporate website: Wilbert Wright. i can't decide if thats worse than April Showers or not.
do you think the parents hate their kids that much? are they just performing some sort of social experiment through their children? did they not realize the long term implications of naming their children? were they hoping they would increase their chances of being famous by giving them such odd names? opinions?

science fair scam.

yesterday afternoon, i got a call from my brother. i should have known something was up.
he was calling to ask what i would get him if he did well enough in yesterdays science fair to go to the state competition. he told me it was in the sisters handbook that it was job to bet against his academic success. my 'sisterly duty' i believe it was called. i should have known something was up.
we agreed that five dollars would be a fair bet. he hung up quickly, promising to call me back after the results of the judging were in. i should have known something was up.
shortly after that conversation, my dad texted me to say they were waiting to find out whether alex got first or second after which he would go to states. turns out, there were only two kids in his division and they had known for two weeks that they were both going to states regardless of their scores yesterday.
i should have known.
this morning, i put five dollars in an envelope and dropped it in the mail on my way to work. if mailing 500 pennies wouldnt cost more to send than what theyre worth, i would have done that. little punk. ticket scalper. but really i guess i only have myself to blame.
i should have known.

happy fastnacht day.

ok so from my understanding, Fastnacht Day only exists in Germany and Pennsylvania Dutch country and is really just another name for Fat Tuesday. it is celebrated by eating extra-fatty donuts (who knew such a thing was even possible?) that are made with the express purpose of using up all the fat, lard, sugar, and butter that you supposedly fast from for the next 40 days of Lent.

apparently its a big deal. one girl in the office said it was one of her favorite holidays. and i wished another girl a happy Fat Tuesday and she said 'whats that?' i didnt realize just how different living on the other side of the state could be when i moved here.

Lent snuck up on me last year, and i didnt end up doing anything different for those 40 days. this year, i know it starts tomorrow, but i still dont know what to do. my BFITW (Best Friend in the World) and myself once started adding something to our lives rather than taking something away, and we read through a few lesser known books of the Bible over 40 days. i've been thinking of going that route this year, since my new years resolution already cut a lot of sweets and snacking out of my diet and added a workout regiment. (apparently thats the 'official' term for a lifting schedule or plan) i've been tossing around the idea of 're'-reading 40 days of purpose (cuz i didnt actually read it the first time) or just picking up my Bible again and hopefully begin a habit of reading every day that will last beyond Easter, or something else along those lines. any suggestions for my lenten activities would be appreciated.

check your wallet.

when i came into work this morning, the little red light on my phone was lit up, which means that somebody called me over the weekend. this never happens to me. not only does no one really have any need to call me at work, but no one even knows my work phone number (myself included). i mean, i've had a few wrong numbers, and someone last week from a doctors office was trying to remind someone who wasn't me about something important, but this was the first time i had a voicemail. so after i read through the little 'quick reference' guide about my phone to figure out how to check my voicemail, i pushed the right button, entered my extension and even managed to remember my password (it helps that i use the same trick that my Dad uses and just have the same 4-digit code for pretty much everything) (my code isn't the same as his) and i listened to the message from Friday evening. it went something like this: 

"Hi, this is Shur-Fine. We have your wallet here and you can pick it up anytime."

my brief moment of almost-panic was quickly dispelled by glancing into my purse and seeing my wallet was in fact there. (not to mention the fact that i had it last night when i got gas and i havent been in a shur-fine anytime recently that i can remember) this discovery brought about more questions than answers: could your message be any less informative? who are you trying to reach? where are you located? is there a number i can reach you at? are you sure you meant to call this number? where did you get this number? is there even a shur-fine anywhere near here? why would you give your business such an apathetic sounding name? (it sounds like their spokesperson should be a 14-yr old boy and their tag-line should be 'whatever')
i guess the bottom line here is i still have my wallet. but there is someone out there who does not. if that someone is you: check your local shur-fine.

stupid groundhog.

you might be a havener if...

after making something delicious, your kitchen looks like a tornado went through it.

and this wasnt even my best work :)

i made soup last night. like the kind with more than two steps and that doesnt involve a microwave. we had a 'soup'er bowl party at work today and everybody brought in soup and sides and donated money for a local soup kitchen or food pantry. apparently my soup was pretty good, cuz i brought less than half of it home. it probably helped that i had it close to the front of the line-up :) one girl even asked for the recipe. i told her it wasn't difficult to find - just go to recipezaar.com, type in 'easy soup' and its one of the first ones that comes up. i was glad that she appreciated the humor in it rather than being upset that i didnt bring some sort of secret family recipe to share. the leftovers will come in handy while i am sick and snowed in this weekend.

one cute mug.

literally. i have the best dressed mug in the office :) thanks Stasi!!!