Sometimes it's best to not even start

I know. The VP debate was soooo last week. And there wasn't anything remarkable about it at all. I was hoping for some major blunders and there weren't any. Sigh... instead we shall talk about my blunders....

Ben says that I overestimate my abilities and underestimate the amount of work a job takes. He says that I don't set reasonable goals for myself. I say that he doesn't dream big enough. Can we clean the whole house, mow the grass, discuss our marriage AND plan our financial future all on a Thursday evening? Yes we can! Dream big!

But... recently I think that I might have taken on a project that morphed into a time-sucking-waste-hole and maybe it was over my head. Maybe. It all started with this dresser:

I had redone it a couple years ago and had decoupaged antique postcards on the drawers and top. It was a unique dresser and I liked it, but it was time for a change. It was time for all of my furniture to match. Like a grown-up. The plan was to paint my headboard and dresser white. In one Saturday. Simple right? Just prime it, paint it and seal it. Yeah.

Well when I painted the dresser last time I was lazy and didn't prime it and the paint started peeling and then the cards wouldn't come off.... and it turns out I needed to strip the whole thing!

Every project always morphs into something that is so huge it's ridiculous. So I drove off to Lowe's and I convinced myself to buy a soy-based paint stripper because I care about the environment and am secretly a closet hippy. It actually worked surprisingly well - it just took longer to soak in and required a little more elbow grease than the burn-your-skin-off stripper. And when I say it took longer I mean that it took all of Saturday and most of Sunday to strip the dresser to look like this:
I can't decide if it looks like a designer urban grit piece of furniture or if it looks like it should be on the side of the road. It also smells like paint so all of our clothes are currently chilling on our futon and the headboard is hanging out in the hallway. Ahhhh!

Now that I've put this much work into the dresser part of me thinks I should just strip it down to the wood and stain it. But that would defeat the purpose of the whole project - to get my furniture to match. So on Saturday I hope to finish stripping it and paint it white! I hope. Anyone who wants to help is more than welcome. I still have a headboard and a nightstand to do. Dream big!

Politics - The new Survivor

While we were hanging out with some friends this weekend, Matt put a finger on why I am so intrigued by this year's presidential race. It's like a T.V. drama. Each day it just keeps getting better. I have to tune in every day just to find out what happened.

When I thought McCain couldn't win, he picked Palin as his running mate and things got more interesting. When I had thought someone had said the dumbest thing ever, they let the vice presidential candidates talk. When I thought that there couldn't be anything left for the candidates to talk about, our financial system tanked and Obama and McCain rushed in to rescue us (which last time I checked they weren't actually economists or on any finance committee). This is like the best reality show EVER. And I get to help vote someone off. You can't ask for better entertainment.

I cannot wait for the VP debate. It's going to be hilarious. Biden says whatever pops into his head and Palin doesn't seem like she is ever really sure what to say. This will be a great debate. I have no idea who to vote for, but I am certainly being entertained while I figure it out.

Favorite quotes from a V.P. candidate:

Biden on the 1929 market crash:
"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'look, here's what happened."
(Roosevelt wasn't president then and television wasn't invented until later)

Palin when asked what magazines or newspapers she reads:
"Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years."

I love this country.

A Timeline of Poop

July 22: A bird poops on me while I am walking into work. Not a good start to a day.

August 21: Again, I am pooped on by a bird while walking into work. I can't win.

September 20: Ben is pooped on by a bird while sitting outside reading. I do a little dance because for one it wasn't me.

October 19: I plan on staying inside and avoiding windows.

Next time I'll get Tooth of the Month

Friday I went to the dentist. I was a tad bit wary about going to a new dentist down here. (Wary, by the way, is the word that lost me a spelling bee. It's not spelling W-E-R-Y.) I had gone to the same small dentist office in Ohio since I was 5. I didn't really want to find a new dentist and I had heard horror stories about dentists down here. Unnecessary root canals. Crowns that weren't fitted. Cavities that didn't exist. So I put it off until it had been over a year since my last visit and I wasn't getting my money's worth from the insurance I was paying.

OH MY GOSH! Dentist offices have gotten so high tech. This office that I went to was HUGE! It was like a teeth cleaning warehouse! There was a whole hallway of rooms of hygienists just cleaning people's teeth. I had never seen anything like it. Then, they took my blood pressure. Just to "make sure I was relaxed". (Or for cheaper malpractice insurance. You pick.) But the best part was the x-rays. I hate getting x-rays taken of my teeth. HATE IT. It makes me gag and it's no fun. But this office had digital x-rays. That instantly popped up on a screen in front of me. X-rays of my teeth. Just like that. It was so cool. Well until it showed that I had 3 cavities between my teeth from not flossing. Ever. And a 4th one forming. Guess who is the queen of flossing now?

The downside of the visit was that I had a cheerleader-sized version of Helga the Hygienist who felt that it was her duty to not only stretch out my lips but also floss down to my toes. My gums are still sore. I think she was trying to make a point about flossing. I get it. I'll floss now.

Don't call us, we'll call you

Today I read a job posting for a truck driver.

Wanted: One driver capable of maintaining a hazardous material license. Must be detail oriented and be able to multitask.

I don't know about you, but I don't want hazmat truck drivers multitasking.

It saved a wretch like me

Lately I have realized that I need to be a more graceful person. I need to extend more grace to others and to myself. Especially to myself. I am realizing how my perfectionism is not helping, but hurting me. Philip Yancey defines God's grace as this: "There is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and there is nothing that I can do to make God love me any less."

This is a hard concept for me to grasp emotionally. Grace in the abstract seems good and idealistic, but grace in practice seems stupid. Surely I have to do something for it. I find myself working hard to be good enough for God's grace or berating myself for not being a gracious person. I think that I am missing the point.

The other day while doing my devotions I was reading in Romans trying to understand God's grace more. I know that because of God's grace I have salvation and a relationship with God, but how does grace play out in my daily life. What role does grace have in working out my salvation? I came across Roman 8:1-2: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

Did you read that? There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! That phrase alone is worth a party to end all celebrations! I don't think that I have ever really understood that. I had always held myself to the standard of perfection as a Christian, and I never reached it. I kept failing. And you know what? In Christ it's ok! There is no condemnation for my short comings. God does not keep punishing me because I am not God. There are consequences for my sin and God teaches me to live more like him, but I am not condemned because I am not perfect. I don't have to carry around the guilt of my imperfections and sin. I AM NOT CONDEMNED IN CHRIST JESUS.

Do you know how freeing that is? I can enjoy life because all I have to do is try my best to be obedient to Christ. Once I confess my sin and turn from it I can move on. God does not require me to grovel and pay penitence for my sins.

We serve an amazingly good and gracious God. How can you not love Him?

That's snot my job.

Now I am sick. Obviously I know what my body thinks about camping in the rain. I won't tell you what I think about my body right now because we are fighting. Fighting with snot and tissues. I think I am losing.

Also, nothing says welcome back to work like cold chills, achy joints and 471 unread e-mails. Yep. I had 471 unread e-mails when I logged on today. When I left I had 38. That's a lot of e-mails to read and file. Which made me want to go back home dive under the covers and watch movies until I felt better. Instead I bought myself a sprite and popped some DayQuill. (Mom read: I drank some wheat grass juice and took some vitamin C tablets.) Needless to say today was less than stellar. Hurray that this is only a 4 day work week.

Anyway, back to the vacation stories. Ben and I have this theory that people when they are on vacation think that they are invincible. Which is why they stop in the middle of the road to stare at rainbows, swim in unknown waters and get really close to large dangerous animals. Nothing bad can happen to them! They are on vacation! The stupid thing that we saw someone do on our trip (besides go running towards a bear) was climb over the railing and walk out on to a rock cliff at the top of lookout mountain. Like a cliff that dropped several hundred feet. He walked out onto the ledge to take a picture of a bronze statue of an eagle. The statue was about 5 feet from the railing and I am sure that his zoom lens would have given him the same shot, but nope, he had to risk his life instead. But he didn't fall because he was on vacation! We tried to get a picture of this stupidity in action but our memory card was full and I couldn't decide which picture of us to delete the fastest. Also I needed to go pee. Oh the people you see when you travel....