Sandy Monster

For those whose lives are in harm's way, dear Lord protect them under the shadow of your wings. For those who have been injured or whose loved ones have been killed, dear Lord comfort them under the shadow of your wings. For those who rescue and bring aid, dear Lord guard them under the shadow of your wings. For those who seek courage to face an uncertain future, dear Lord renew their strength under the shadow of your wings. May God's face shine on us and be gracious to us, that the shadow of God's wings may give us strength and courage! May God look on us with favor and give us peace, that the shadow of God's wings may enfold us in love. Amen."

David and I lived in NYC for three years and we both feel immense love for that city. We've got tons of friends up and down the east coast, and it seems like all fared well in Sandy. GTS, David's school, was right in the heart of Chelsea. We were on 20th St, between 9th and 10th Aves--which is about 4 blocks from the Hudson River. Following Sandy and our friends still at GTS via Facebook, lots of folks said the Hudson River was right outside their windows--which is insane to think about. 

We had some of the best times in NYC...my sister Liz lived there so I got to see her a lot, David and I both started and finished Grad School there, we spent a lot of time in Harlem with Mike and Jess, we had Thirsty Thursdays with The Joneses (how do you spell that?), and we've had some amazing Halloween memories...(had to go there since Halloween is tomorrow and it's one of my favorite Holidays).

Halloween 2010 may have been the best yet for David and I. We were Popeye and Olive Oyl, and we had an amazing time! (Don't mind Casey/aka "Jokers Girlfriend" in the back. Hot, I know. Try to focus on David and I, okay? She's taken.)

Halloween 2011, like I said last week, we stayed home and gave out candy b/c...

1. we didn't have many friends in Columbia yet, its okay. we're not sad.

2. We wanted to try the "we have a house, let's have trick or treater's come" thing. I told you how that turned out.

So for Halloween 2012, we're trying the Combo. I love dressing up--I think it's fun. So Friday night, we went out as Tooth and Tooth Fairy. Yes, he's got a toothbrush on his crown. Why the crown, you ask? WHY NOT! (Although we did have a lot of drunk people saying, "heyyyy, KING TOOTH!! AWESOME!", David just smiled and said things like, "yep...I'm the King Tooth... that was my plan.."

                        

Emily and Santi as Crazy Cat Lady and one of her cats...and Brent as a Creeper. I don't know if that's what he called it, maybe "Creepy Mask Guy", but it was really weird and scary. Should have won the costume contest...

I'm dressing up at work tomorrow as well...not sure what I'll be yet. And then we'll stay home and hand out candy, and scare kids with our scary dog. Who needs Spiderwebs and Ghosts on their porch when they've got one of these?

It's Friday...Friday

Happy Friday Before Halloween!!!

Now that we're too old to Trick-or-Treat, we'll be home next Wednesday handing out candy which is not as fun as Trick-or-Treating. No one ever said it was, but this was a realization we had last year.

 Last year--our first year to have a house to give candy out of-- it involved a lot of...

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..."Ding Dong"...

Colonel Mustard: "BARK BARK BARK!" (HACKLES UP...looking really scary though the glass door)

Bean: "I'm gonna grab the candy! David---grab the DOG!"

David: "I'm trying!"

Bean: "He's GONNA SCARE THE KIDS AWAY!"

(cue babies crying and kids running away...not really)

Bean: "Happy Halloween!!! What are you supposed to be? It's okay, eh heh... he's a nice doggy...(under breath--David--get the dog BACK)."

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He really is a nice doggy by the way-not mean. He likes his butt scratched and he wears shower caps. What's not to love?

Did that Halloween-last-year-reenactment come out as stressful as it felt? Because it was stressful. You can't watch a movie b/c the doorbell keeps ringing, you can't keep the dog calm because the doorbell keeps ringing, you don't know how much candy to give out b/c you don't know how many kids are gonna come (or teenagers, if you were me when I was 15). And then you turn out the lights when the candy is gone. That's the rule, right? I think not everyone knows that rule. We got some ding-dongers after the lights went out...like 10:30pm...NOT COOL.WE ARE OLD AND IN BED AT 10:30.

But since it's the Friday before, we are going out. We're dressing up. And hitting one of the best Columbia bars. The Whig. Tonight is Whig-o-Ween, and I'm super excited (wish it had something to do with the former-band, Ween).

What are we dressing up as you might ask?

That's right, we're going to be The Tooth Fairy and a Tooth. Thank you Pinterest. (and thank you David)

And I am all...

But I have an amazing husband who doesn't mind being a TOOTH for Halloween! Yes! Success! Pictures to come. Stay tuned.

What is everyone else doing this Friday before Halloween? Does anyone else think that the scariest part of Halloween are the people working at the Halloween stores?

<3 LYBI

Rev DW

Now a Guest post from Rev D.W. Wagner:

Over the last week and a half, we've been reading about Jacob and his children. Jacob, if you'll remember, is a twin brother (Esau), and some people say that these two are the basis for Jacob and The Man In Black/Smoke Monster from the tv show "Lost." Don't know about that, but I'm sure there are other blogs that can help you with that one. Bean Comment: See Lost Info Here (SPOILER ALERT 1 AND SPOILER ALERT 2)

Anyway, Jacob fathers 12 sons and 1 daughter, and some of you may remember the story about his sons from the musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." It's a great story, but before Genesis tells that one, it tells about Jacob fathering all those kids. If you're thinking, "man...13 kids?!?!?! That must've been one tough woman," that's not quite how it went. 

Jacob has two wives named Leah and Rachel. Both of them are barren, so God intervenes, first with Leah. She has 4 boys (see the chart). Rachel is unhappy (jealous) that her husband's other wife is producing children while she, Rachel, is barren, so what does she do? Well, what any sensible woman would do! She has her husband, um, "produce children" with her two of her maids, Bilhah and Zilpah. Both of them beget two boys each -- so, according to custom, Rachel "has" 4 kids. Apparently, "biological parentage" wasn't really a thing in the old days -- but Rachel doesn't become any of the 12 kids' biological mother until later. 

Long story short -- it seemed like a complicated family tree, so I wanted to write it all down to try and get it straight. Hence, the chart.

Another note: between Jacob's 10th and 11th sons, he and Leah have a daughter, Dinah. If you're unfamiliar with the story of Dinah, read Genesis 34. You'll be surprised that one is in the Bible, and not the premise for a violent Martin Scorsese revenge film. 

Bean Comment: Like these pictured. 

Essentially, she gets raped by a sleazeball named Shechem, and her brothers are (commendably) angered by this. Shechem asks Jacob for Dinah in marriage, and he and the brothers say, "okay, but only on the condition that you and all your townsfolk get circumcised like we are." They agree, and while they're in a weakened state, two of the brothers come in and slaughter everybody and recover their sister. Jacob scorns them for this, and the story ends with this line: "Should our sister be treated like a whore?" 

Bean: Wow, Thanks David for that uplifting story of Genesis. With all that said, we'll just slowly and quietly move out of there and go on to Exodus. (cue Family Guy Kool Aid Man slowly tip-toeing backwards out of room)

<3lybi

Best Ever

Momentary Break from Bible Reading--I never said thats what this blog was all about, okay?

I had the most amazing weekend spending time with some of my best friends from all over the country....

Cat, Dot and Kristina...my Boulderite Bridesmaids and Besties...the artists in my life...the baker, the musician, and the outdoorsy educator...I am always inspired by you three. Thank you for good music, good talks, and good laughs, and great memories as always.


This pic is from another wedding weekend, but these are my Colorado girls (who should move back South already...no pressure), and another bestie, Whitney (who has video footage of me could be worth a blog post)..

(Whit, Bean, Tina, Cat and Dot)

This is from this weekend...my ladies. (And my brother in law, Matt).
(MB, Dot, Tina, Matt, and Cat)

In addition to them, we got to see Mike and Jess this weekend. They're our stalker-friends who lived in NYC while David and I did, and then they FOLLOWED us down south; except they moved to the better, prettier Carolina...and we live in South Carolina, so I'll let y'all figure that out. Mike and Jess are our best music makin', game playin', beer drinkin', back kickin' (literally) friends.
(Mike, David, Gross Moustaches, Bean, Jess, and the beautiful Bride, Danielle)

In addition to those great friends above, we got to catch up with our other Stalker friends who FOLLOWED us to NYC, and then continued to follow us down south, but they're in Tennessee now. Brad and Gale are our role models basically. We talk about Camp Mikell for hours, we talk about life, families, all while they're trying to freeze me out of their house and pumping me with Miller Ladies.
(Gale is right next to me, and Brad is right behind her in pic below).

We all had the most fun weekend with some little mishaps, but overall, one of the best times I've had in a long time--thank you Bryan and Danielle for an amazing wedding weekend. We even spent part of Friday night snooping through the hidden floors of the Haunted Windsor Hotel where we stayed for the wedding (mostly ghost hunting, ya know...no big deal). We saw things that were weird and scary and all of that made for one of the best weekends ever.

I was kidding about all the stalker comments before, btw. Love you all!

Fall...sup sup

Since this blog doesn't have a purpose yet, I am just going to use it to share about my life. For family and out of town friends and whoever else feels like they don't get enough of me and my constant Instagramming and Facebooking, and lets not forget...Pinteresting. So for those folks...sup sup. (some of you will get that).

If anyone else lives in the Southeast, you'll know that it just got chilly yesterday (and this morning as well). I love fall; sweaters, boots, skinny jeans, drapy tops, non-frizzled hair (yeah I said Frizzled since this was one of my favorite book series ever)...

So today, I'm pulling out all the fall stops...brown/mustard and red, and leopard wedges that go with everything--brown or black, so they're basically the best shoes ever. Plus in this picture my legs look abnormally long and thin (which I'm LOVING), so I'll take it. Musta been that 10K.

Also, since I'm not in the mood to blog about Lot's children impregnating themselves by their father and then him offering them up to be um...used by other men...I'll just talk about tofu instead. I mean, what really can you say about Lot and that whole story? A lot of things in the Old Testament and crazy like that. So back to tofu. (yes, this is stream of consciousness blogging and yes, my brain skips around this much). Did I mention one of my best friends and college roommates is a tofu guru? She's also an incredibly talented Healthy Food and Fitness Blogger and the author of Eating Bird Food, but she taught me (a vegetarian for 13 yrs) how to do tofu RIGHT. It involves a lot of time to draw moisture out of the tofu (we do this all day long), but not a lot of work.

Here is her recipe link: http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/myrecipes/crispy-tofu/

and here are some pictures that I've used to accompany that link--behold, my dinner last night.

My last trick that is not in the recipe is to cube your tofu into pretty small pieces (like dice-sized) and then I also throw them in the broiler on high to absorb that last bit of moisure (so its not soggy), and to crisp the nutritional yeast crust. Amazeballs.

<3lybi

Beginning of Week 2

Ah Monday...the best day to procrastinate at work...not really. But since it's lunchtime and the egg salad I packed was a little funky smelling, I didn't eat it. So needless to say, I have plenty of time to not-eat during my lunch break. Plus my BFF Kristina actually asked where my newest post was (OMG...thank you one-reader), so I figured I'd get a move on.

So-hows everyone doing with their bible reading?? I've kept up thus far. One week down: WOO HOO! I have kind of wanted to read it in order though because I'm finding that sometimes I need to backtrack a little bit to see what I read the day before. I asked David (priest husband, remember?) why we're reading it section by section (like a little Genesis and a little Matthew, etc.) and he said it should coincide more with the readings at church. (Which it did this past Sunday if anyone noticed). Oh, you weren't at church? You're screwed. Jk, love ya, mean it. Er...bean it. Speaking of the Bible, check out this image I found from our Public Library today. Guess we're not alone in this Bible Quest...since it's the Most Read Book. I guess I'm not totally surprised, but now I feel like I'm accomplishing a big chunk of my "books to read and re-read in my lifetime" list, that I'll have to share at another point.

Here's the link to See whats coming up this week, Week 2.
http://www.edusc.org/component/content/article/70-clergy-resources/835-readings-a-meditations





Confession Time: I got a little off track Thursday because my little sister came to town to visit her BFF and moi and so, what can I say? I had company. But I caught up yesterday by reading half of Thursday, all of Friday and Saturday.

In other weekend (non-bible) news, I also ran my first 10K Saturday morning with David. That was hard and my legs are still feeling it today. There were about 500 uphills, and for those of you that are familiar with Columbia, SC, here's the map of the 10K (and proof that I did it, thank you Nike+.

 

And whats even crazier than that is that David and I both got 3rd place in our SEPERATE age categories (He's over 30...I'm not). So yeah, we won hot pink medals.  This was us "posing for a picture" that we asked a stranger to take, and evidentally the iPhone was set on video. Does this ever happen to other people? I had to share it anyway because I think its hilarious when this happens. (In our minds we're saying, "what is taking her so damn long? Oh well...just keep smiling with your 3rd place medals.")

Also, our good friends Dan and Anna (shout out--sup Danna!) came up for the GA/SC game...lunch, tailgating, hanging out with their cute babies, doing some shopping, watching some PATHETIC football.

Alright, back to work.

<3lybi

Day 2

                              

It's like a clerical collar, ya see? David, we could be TWINS! (sorry Matt, he's my twin now). Is that weird?

I digress...

Here is Davids write up about that crazy geneology from Matt 1 (Warning: Nerding out on the Bible is about to happen, no Pinterest links below. If that's what you're here for...read on).

"The link above represents a quick look through scripture and using concordances (indexes to find words in the Bible) to locate words and names quickly. More research needs to be done with this passage, and I’m sure that an in-depth study of the lineage of Christ is out there and has already been done, and it looks a lot better than mine.

The genealogy included here is a bit more confusing than what we would consider “acceptable” for an ancestry.com pedigree. Reasons for that may include the presence Levirate marriages (which would force a widow to marry her deceased husband’s brother, possibly in the case of Shealtiel and Zerubbabel), curses on future generations (possibly in the case of Joram and Uzziah), and differences in names (translations, interchangeable usages for the same name, etc).

The genealogy in Matthew 1 goes through all of Israel’s recorded history, starting at Abraham, the father of the world’s three major religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam); continuing through the tribes of Israel (Judah); continuing through the story of Ruth, who is ancestor of Jesse and King David. It then continues through the Israelite monarchy (told in 1 and 2 Kings), which included some good kings (Hezekiah and Josiah, and to a lesser extent, Asa and Jehoshaphat) and some bad kings (Manasseh, Amon, others).

What does this tell us? First and foremost, it reminds us that Jesus descends from Abraham, and the line connecting them runs through the line of David. Along the way, Israel’s relationship with God is a rocky one: there are periods when Israel is faithfully obedient, and then there are periods when they’re anything but. The last several generations includes names not mentioned elsewhere in scripture – ordinary nobodies. 

While Christ’s family tree is full of unfaithful people and others we haven’t heard of, Christ himself becomes the epitome of what being faithful to God looks like. That God can work through such a history of lost, unfaithful, and ordinary people to work to the perfection in Christ tells me that God can work through “ordinary nobodies” like us as well".

 

End of Day 1

The second I left work I sat in my car and got my Bible app loaded. I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. It won't happen again, well...it might. So, as soon pushed "play" for Genesis 1, I hear the voice of Katniss Everdeen. I guess my iPhone defaulted to my iTunes Audiobooks once plugged in. Genesis is awesome so far, there's this thing called the Reaping where kids names are drawn each year by the Capital to attend that years HUNGAH GAMES (you have to say it like Effie Trinket to be in the cool club).

Once I realized that I can't plug my phone in to my car, I just pushed play and listened from my phone. Genesis 1-3 some may recognize, the beginning of time. Creation of things and people. Original Sin. Psalms...super short and easy to read, and Matthew 1. Ah Matthew. If anyone has chosen to do this also, can I get a collective, "HUH"??? Don't get me wrong, I love genealogy, but you lost me there. Maybe I'll have David (my Episcopal priest husband...yeah, I'm married to a priest, it's okay b/c we're Episcopalians) do a little genealogy lesson for those who are also undertaking this challenge.

Day one, success.

Day One

So I started this email to some girl friends, and then decided post it. No, I have no agenda. No, I'm not trying to force anything on anyone (except wine...Episcopalians love wine, every day).

So... the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina has issued a challenge to folks to read the Bible in a year. I first heard of it and was like, "please whatevah...' (Barn ladies will get that if they remember me talking in my sleep). When I first heard Bible Challenge I had images of the Documentary Jesus Camp and I wasn't interested (can I say Yikes without offending anyone?) Yikes. Anyways...after marrying the priest and already turning down an invitation to join some other groups at church (QUIT JUDGING ME), I figured one thing I could try would be this. No pressure...I'll do it on my own...If I fail...only you all will know and y'all will love me anyways...but I wanted to put it out there if anyone else had time to do this and wanted to. 

So to be really lazy (and because I know myself well enough to know that I won't do it after work when the Housewives and Flipping Out are on), I downloaded the Bible app because it has a read-aloud option. So i'm going to try to do this on my commute to and from work. Hell--the radio ain't got anything good (okay, that new Carrie Underwood song is good and I love me some Rihanna and Beyonce). So, Day One... this is the plan.

October 1: Genesis 1-3; Psalm 1; Matthew 1

Its 5:04, and I'm still at work (OMG...how annoying), so I'll do it on my way home...see how it goes. Rumor has it the reader on the app even has a British Accent. HOT. I'll report back on that once I actually start. Am I procrastinating already? Crap.

And for overachievers (this won't guarantee you a spot in Heaven so no need to rush), here's tomorrows assignment. 

October 2: Genesis 4-6; Psalm 2; Matthew 2



Now, I'm outta here and off to the dog park with Colonel Mustard (aka da tweetest boi). PARK TIME!!!

Bean