Guardian

I took the Keirsey temperament Test. Here are my results:

Guardians are the cornerstone of society, for they are the temperament given to serving and preserving our most important social institutions. Guardians have natural talent in managing goods and services--from supervision to maintenance and supply--and they use all their skills to keep things running smoothly in their families, communities, schools, churches, hospitals, and businesses.

Guardians can have a lot of fun with their friends, but they are quite serious about their duties and responsibilities. Guardians take pride in being dependable and trustworthy; if there's a job to be done, they can be counted on to put their shoulder to the wheel. Guardians also believe in law and order, and sometimes worry that respect for authority, even a fundamental sense of right and wrong, is being lost. Perhaps this is why Guardians honor customs and traditions so strongly--they are familiar patterns that help bring stability to our modern, fast-paced world.

Practical and down-to-earth, Guardians believe in following the rules and cooperating with others. They are not very comfortable winging it or blazing new trails; working steadily within the system is the Guardian way, for in the long run loyalty, discipline, and teamwork get the job done right. Guardians are meticulous about schedules and have a sharp eye for proper procedures. They are cautious about change, even though they know that change can be healthy for an institution. Better to go slowly, they say, and look before you leap.

Guardians make up as much as 40 to 45 percent of the population.

That description fits me well --- except for the part about keeping traditions. I definitely could care less about traditions.

I'm not a kid anymore

I hate when I try to do things that I used to do when I was younger and can't do them so well anymore. Yesterday I jumped on a trampoline for about 10 minutes. Today my legs told me that I'm too old and out of shape for that. (hmm.... maybe it's just that I'm out of shape....we can hope!)

This weekend was a busy weekend. We spent Friday night with some "Mexico" friends watching a high school football game. It was a blast to be back in that setting. Then on Saturday we spent some time with Joel's family celebrating Betsy's 1st birthday. You can check out some pictures here. I worked a bit on Sunday then went to Riverview. Noel's preaching through Titus and I'm pretty excited about it. Then we spent the rest of the day with our "Mexico" friends.

I'm super excited about all the friendships we made in Mexico and even more excited at how we've kept them up as we've integrated back into our "normal" lives.

Here's a new picture of Olivia! I can't wait to see her at Christmas!

Disruptive Students

Last night I had a pre-semester meeting for work. We spent about 1/2 hour talking about classroom discipline and disruptive students. This was my favorite story:

A fellow collegue of mine was getting ready to begin her class when she noticed a girl sitting in the front row nodding her head rather quickly in the direction of the pencil sharpener with a painful look on her face. So the instructor glanced at the pencil sharpener where she saw a guy sharpening his pencil. Then she noticed that a rather straight cut had been made across the back of his pants and partically down the side; so he had a nice flap. However, he wasn't wearing anything besides his pants! Not a sight she was excited to see. She always begins class with group work, so she waited until everyone was involved in the work and went over to him and said, "I don't suppose you've felt a breeze lately?" To which he replied, "Yeah, do you like it?"

Hmmm... what are you suposed to do in that situation??? Those college classes don't prepare you for that! What makes the story so much more interesting is to learn that his name is that of a Star Wars character! (and it is not Hans or Luke!)

If you want to laugh at other crazy stories of the classroom, see Rachel's blog --- Highlights from Multi-Cultural Counseling.

Sometimes Confrontation is Ok

Joel and I had some issues with Lowe's and our fence delivery. However we finally got them resolved today and we received over $600 off our bill. I'm so glad the ordeal is over. But we learned a lot about confrontation and how to express disappointment and frustration without anger or being rude.

I'm a letter

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, know and ready by everybody."
2 Corinthians 3:2

So what does my letter say? Do I accurately reflect Riverview? My family? Christ?
This verse has made me think a lot this week.

Let it sink into your heart.

All Puppies Welcome!

After a long frustrating ordeal with Lowe's (the one on Cedar Street in South Lansing), our fence finally arrived. Thanks to the wonderful help of Keith and Jeff, our backyard is fenced in, complete with two gates! They did an awesome job despite some less than ideal conditions --- such as large rock 2 feet below the ground and lots of huge tree roots. JR also came over on Saturday to help us finish the project!


How many panels did we order?


Keith felt very manly using the auger to dig all 38 holes.


Jeff and his son Logan put all the posts in.


Joel and Keith hung the panels.


Stokley tried to find as much shade as possible.

Stokley is ready for all his puppy pals to come hang out in his new yard!

I hate waiting

Usually on Thursday mornings I go into Riverview and do some work for RivKids. Not today. I've been sitting at home waiting for Lowe's to deliver my fence since 9am --- it's now 3:12 and no fence. So I called them. Opps --- they don't have enough panels of fencing and the salesman was supposed to call us. Needless to say, I was pretty mad --- ticked off in fact! Especially since we ordered the lumber last Monday so that they would have over a week just in case they needed to order anything. Arrgh....

I just got a phone call from the manager of Lowe's. They are picking up extra panels from other local stores and are going to deliver it today. She was very nice to talk to --- (she also called and scolded the salesman!)

a picture is worth a thousand words

I've been trying all week to sit down and blog about our trip to Mexico but I haven't been sucessful. Trying to express my thoughts and emotions about the trip has been a lot harder than I thought it would be. So I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.


The City


The store of the family we were building a house for.



leading down to our work site


their current house








the building process


the finished product


VBS -- Mexico style


The team


amazing sunset

I need a Melissa for my basement

Joel and I spent last week in Tijuana with a group of 40 others from Riverview. What an amazing week. I still need some more time to process all of my thoughts from the trip before I can write them all down.

The small group we were broken up into for the trip was amazing. We rode together each day (an hour each way) to our work site. I really feel in love with our group: Joel, me, Jeff (works with Joel at JNL), Laurel (goes to Grand Valley), Stephanie (college student at Olivet), Kirsten (daycare worker in her 20s), Keith (he's going to put up our fence for us) and Tyler (he's joining the marines after he graduates high school). I miss them a lot. Maybe some of them could come live in my basement --- we have plenty of room!

Once JR gets all the pictures together, I'll post some of them.