Last Day Of Kindergarten

This morning has been kind of emotional for me already.
Today is my youngest child's LAST day of Kindergarten.
Today was the last time ever that all of my 4 children will walk to school together as my oldest is off to Junior High in the fall.

I didn't think that I would be emotional about it, but I really am. :(
Last time that I'll ever do Kindergarten vicariously through one of my kids. In the fall, he's off to Grade 1. *sniff, sniff*

I must say - I'll really miss our Kindergarten teacher and especially our Educational Assistant, Kelly. They've been awesome.

School Assignments

I handed in two school assignments last week (on May 3rd) and I got the marks back last night.

100% on BOTH!!!!
This is the feedback from my prof for the first assignment:

Well done Cindy. You have captured MasterFile Premier well - it is indeed aimed at public libraries. The match of the biographies with book clubs was good - I had not thought of that use for it but will try it next Book Club meeting I go to.

This is a tool that anyone working reference in a public library will become very familiar with it - I think there will be more links to more full text (electronic) in the future.

Feedback from my second assignment:

Good assessment on each of these

Glad you liked the poetry index - it is a little known tool but is great for looking for any poetry imaginable. And I agree with you on the National Geographic site - I found it cluttered and disorganized - which was a disappointment given the NG's reputation and excellent magazine. I think they had so much they wanted to share they lost the focus of organization

Good work Cindy"

YAY!!!! I am so proud of myself!! So, with these marks I have

Assignment #1: 100%

Assignment #2: 86% (I know... I was cheesed off too, but hey. I passed.)

Assignment #3: 100%

Assignment #4: 100%

Overall average: 96.5%

YIPPEE!!!

"Love Wins"

I have had Rob Bell's book "Love Wins" in my "To Be Read" pile for some time... And to be completely honest, I was very intimidated in even starting to read it.

Don't get me wrong.
I love Rob's point of view on Christianity and our journey of faith.

I didn't want to start it because I didn't want to have to finish it. (Weird, I know, but true.)

But there's so much in this book that is stupendously amazing. Here's a few passages that thwonked me on the soul...

"Central to their trust (meaning church fathers like Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory Of Nyssa, Eusebius, Jerome, Basil and Augustine) that all would be reconciled was the belief that untold masses of people suffering forever doesn't bring God glory. Restoration brings God glory; eternal torment doesn't. Reconciliation brings God glory; endless anguish doesn't.Renewal and return cause God's greatness to shine through the universe; never-ending punishment doesn't." (emphasis my own) - page 108.

"What happened on the cross is like...
a defendant going free,
a relationship being reconciled,
something lost being redeemed,
a battle being won,
a final sacrifice being offered,
so that no one ever has to offer another one again,
an enemy being loved."
-page 128.

(In talking about the 8th miracle that Jesus performed in the book of John's Gospel - how Jesus rose from the dead)
"The tomb is empty,
a new day is here,
a new creation is here,
everything has changed,
death has been conquered,
the old has gone,
the new has come.

John is telling a huge story,
one about God rescuing all of creation."
-pages 133-134.


Honestly, I found this book to be completely compelling and thought provoking. In reading the chapter about trusting God, I was challenged to the core like I have not been in quite some time. (Rob used the parable of the Prodigal Son to make a point of how we need to trust God's perception of us more than our own perception of us) How Rob used the parable was effective and a big "ah-ha" moment for me. We can choose to believe that we are like the prodigal son - that we are worthless and that we always make bad decisions, or we can believe God's version - that we are worthy to be sons and heirs in Christ Jesus - not anything based on what we can do, but all based on the love that God has for us.
We could also side with the son who stayed behind with the father - the one who did the right things (stayed home with dad) - who ended up feeling angry and cheated because HE had never had a party thrown for him. What really jumped out for me was there were two sides of that story that I had never seen before.
It's not as simple as "Son Who Is A Screw Up vs The Good Son" or even "Son Who Throws Himself On His Father's Mercy vs The Son Who Didn't Need His Father's Mercy" - it's that one son believed his father's perception of him (the prodigal), and the other did not, and the second son was believing that HIS works would earn him favor with his father (which we all know is self-righteousness).

As I said - AHHHHMAZING.
Baked my noodle for suresies!

I think I'm going to have to buy my own copy of this book. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to others.
Beware those that have small views of God and of His Kingdom - you will not like this book. (As per usual with Rob's stuff)

Genius. Pure, utter genius....

Mother's Day

So. I'm laying in bed (fully clothed) with my laptop. Hubby gets out of the shower, dries off and comes over to get dressed. He gets half dressed, then lays down beside me. He ogles my cleavage (which I'm very proud of as my boobs are pretty small and with small boobs you don't have much cleavage), and waggles his eyebrows and says, "When do I get to give you your OTHER Mother's Day gifts?"

I looked up at him and said, "Because every Mother's Day needs a Mother's Night?"

He burst out laughing and said, "Exactly!! Perfectly worded!"

I gotta admit - I stole it from this video....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0DeIqJm4vM&feature=feedu

Weird.

So I finished up and submitted two assignments for school the other day (yay!) and starting printing out the next module.
Like normal, I have my reading material out of my textbooks to do, and I have reading material that I needed to print off (like normal). Then I see another assignment and a self-test. Again - totally normal.
Then I read that I have a Midterm Exam.

And then I read a note attached to the Midterm Exam that I have to write the exam on campus and that I have to give my prof minimum 1 week notice as to when I'm going to write the exam.

All of a sudden, I was having a hard time breathing.
And I thought I was going to throw up.
And my hands and feet went numb.
I couldn't shake the dread and anxiety that had suddenly engulfed me.

Take the test on campus???? What were they... nuts? Or were they just trying to kill me with stress??

And then it wasn't playing around anymore.... I REALLY couldn't breathe.
Like. Really. Could Not. Catch. My. Breath.

So what do I do?
Of course I Google "panic attack".

"Symptoms of a panic attack can include the following:

• Palpitations, or accelerated heart rate - Check.
  
• Sweating - Check.
  
• Trembling or shaking
• Sensations of shortness of breath or smothering - Check.
  
• Feeling of choking - Check.
  
• Palpitations, or accelerated heart rate - Didn't notice, but it wouldn't surprise me.
  
• Chest pain or discomfort - Check.
  
• Nausea or abdominal distress -Check.
  
• Feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or faint -I def. felt unsteady.
  
• De-realization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself)
• Fear of losing control or going insane
• Sense of impending death
• Paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensations) -Check.
  
• Chills or hot flashes -Annnnnnd, check.

So out of 14 physical manifestations of a panic attack, I had 9. NINE.
All over having to write a midterm on CAMPUS!!!

Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of one of my most favorite people on the whole entire planet, and she was able to chat me through it via Skype while she was working.

I ended up having the panic attack at 1:25 pm and I had to be at my daughter's classroom at 2 pm, AND I still had to eat something for my lunch.
Talk about stressful.

So, in hindsight, I had a panic attack in November when I was touring the Library on campus for my final assignment for my previous class (although I thought I was just hypernervous about the whole process at the time...). These are the first panic attacks I've had in over 11 years. I wonder why I've just started getting them back now, of all times.

Weird.

Hubby was very thoughtful and understanding about it, and he was extra kind to me that night. (And yes, I was STILL shaky from the adrenaline dump from earlier in the day)
It's times like this that I wish a teensy bit that I wasn't so phobic about seeing a psychologist, just so I could talk about it and get more ideas about the triggers and how to handle it better.

He Is RIsen!

Luke 24

Jesus Has Risen

¹ On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵ In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” ⁸ Then they remembered his words.

⁹ When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹² Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

On the Road to Emmaus

¹³ Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles^[a] from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶ but they were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. ¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

¹⁹ “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰ The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹ but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. ²² In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³ but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. ²⁴ Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

²⁵ He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

²⁸ As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. ²⁹ But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰ When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³² They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

³³ They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ³⁴ and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” ³⁵ Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

³⁶ While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. ³⁸ He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

⁴⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. ⁴¹ And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³ and he took it and ate it in their presence.

⁴⁴ He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. ⁴⁶ He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

The Ascension of Jesus

⁵⁰ When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. ⁵² Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ⁵³ And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.