Attempt numero 5

Don't get too excited that I'm back - not that you would - because things are about to get supercrazy around the Rose Monkey Ranch, as two baby twins are on the way... but then again, this blog might be just what I need to keep things on track in my life! So this is attempt #5 to enter the great blogosphere. Who knows, maybe the fifth time's the charm (since the third time certainly didn't work)?

(BTW - Aww! Baby twins! So much fun to say! The husband is probably tired of hearing me say it in my little baby voice... which, I might add, I try not to use in any other context!)

Right now I'm enjoying the summer, working at the seminary in the communications department and tutoring at a learning center, as well as working on my internship for school. Believe it or not, this is the calm before the storm - since I will be taking four classes next semester (the most I've taken thus far) AND getting closer to the day I'm looking forward to so very much: the day our twins come to live with us!! :)

This is truly a unique time in my life. I'm 15 weeks along, and Saturday I'll be 16 weeks. In 13 days, which may as well be a year based on how it is just ddrrraaaawwwwing out, I will know the gender of my little twins! As soon as I find out that crucial piece of information, I can get to work decorating their nursery and picking out clothes and other fun and fabulous baby things. In fact, I can already see an obsession on the horizon. If there were alert departments for such things, a warning would be out right now and the sirens would be sounding. But you know what? I can't do a blasted thing until I know what these twins are going to be. So really I should savor my final 13 days of being pregnant and yet having nothing baby-related on my to-do (or to-buy) list. After all, this certainly won't be happening again for the foreseeable future. ARGH but I'm just so ready to know, so ready for the suspense to come to an exciting end! This is what's on my mind right now.

Oh yeah, one other major thing is on my mind: how incredibly grateful I am for a good report at the doctor's office yesterday. I just went a month without a doctor's appointment for the first time ever in my pregnant life. I thought I was going to go crazy not seeing the babies, and I didn't even have an ultrasound scheduled for yesterday like I always have before. However, much to my delight, the doctor wheeled in the bedside ultrasound and let me take a peek at the little taters. And, even more fabulous, she kept telling me how "perfect" everything is looking and how cute they are! (Granted, I'm sure she says all her patients' babies are cute, but it still made me feel good! I mean, who doesn't want cute babies?!) Oh my goodness, hearing that they are in perfect condition right now was such music to my ears. The type of twins that I'm carrying is a particularly risky type (although it could have been much riskier than it is), and being a mom now, I can't help but fear the worst sometimes - so words can't describe how relieved I was to get good news after an entire month of no news at all. Thank You, Lord! And to any straggler readers out there, please do keep the twin babies in your prayers - of course they have a long way to go!

Well, it is time for me to go work some more on internship stuff... but I'm hoping to be back much more frequently! Stay tuned! :)

Yoo-hoo!!

*this was actually written a few weeks ago, but never got published here! More posts to come soon... promise :-) *
If there were a book about running off what little blog readership you may enjoy, I could write it. But here I return all over again, like a dog returning to its v... never mind, awkward analogy.

Welcome back. It's a new semester, a new day. I'm working now, and I'm kind of getting in over my head in everything in life right now... but somehow I'm loving it, as usual! Once again, I have a whole new stack of books to read the size of which Levar Burton would envy. I bet he's never even read this much, despite his decades-long(?) career at Reading Rainbow. (By the way, I just realized he has a Twitter account, and it's highly disturbing. Thank you, Google.)

I had to be at school at 8 this morning for a special class session. If you know me, you know that is not a good time for me to be anywhere. But it was quite interesting and helpful, and I am very glad I went.

Now I must go read Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry, which I am reading for a class. I must note that it is sort of fun to read this book 12 years after it was written, now that the whole purpose-driven thing has suffered a bit of a backlash, as has the classic youth ministry concept. But regardless, I am learning a lot from it, and I often find myself wondering what people were even bothering to criticize to begin with. Argh, am I making sense? I think a nap might be in order for me!
Much love, yo!

Return of the Rose

So I think I am about to make Attempt #3 to make this blog thing work. I really need an outlet for all the crazy ideas (which my dear Grandma born in Mississippi would pronounce "idears") spinning around in my head, and where else but here? Believe it or not, I have actually had reasons to account for my lack of posting:

1. I think of all these funny stories but hate to share on here because I'm afraid I'll wind up accidentally hurting someone's feelings.

2. I fear my stories aren't any more amusing than anyone else's, so therefore no one would be interested.

3. I have an unwillingness to share anything that could possibly be construed as controversial on here for fear of hurting people's feelings.

4. My fears of Internet technology.

I'm always so blasted afraid of hurting people's feelings. But considering I try to go out of my way to be diplomatic, I guess it's worth the risk! Here's why I want to blog:

1. Perhaps something I say could encourage someone who stumbles across this thing.

2. Maybe people out there will be easily amused by my everyday stories, because I am easily amused by the everyday stories others share.

3. I need to be more disciplined.

4. I don't need to be afraid of Internet technology. This is 2010.

And no, I never overthink anything! ;-) And now, without further ado, let's see how it goes....

Hey, Ava-baby!

Hey, Ava-baby!

(Said as O.J. Berman would say it in Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

Miss Meli Mac Mac Mac!!!

Assuming there's a "you" out there reading this, you should check out my dear old friend Melissa's blog.
I am absolutely loving it and can't wait to watch her become the Pioneer Woman of Pittsburgh! (Even though she actually has quite little in common with Pioneer Woman... except that blog superstardom surely awaits! That and she could totally take on anyone in any of Pioneer Woman's photography contests.) In fact, I hope to make Rose Monkey bigger and better in the near future, and Meli is totally my inspiration for doing so. After all, none other than Melissa Ann McMasters (thank you MAM) got me writing to begin with, back around 1989, when we were next-door neighbors on Bobbitt Drive. At the age of 5. Yes, folks, that is what we did for fun. I showed up at her house one day and was zazzled (I am so sleep-deprived that I am now inventing words like "zazzled") to see that she had in fact written multiple books, and I made up my mind to do likewise. So we would get together and write, you know, in between playing Barbies and trading erasers and listening to the "Buster" soundtrack and pretending to be British royalty and all the other things typical elementary schoolers do.

I will be forever grateful to my parents for choosing to purchase the house next door to hers, because many of my fondest childhood memories -- and beyond -- have somehow wound up involving that girl. Sometimes I wonder how different things would be for me today had I grown up next door to someone less amazing, less talented, less brilliant. It would not have been a good thing, my dears.

And on that note, I am off to get some reading done for class. Au revoir!

So very busy...

... but this article is too good not to share:
Christopher Hitchens' brother Peter traces his conversion to Christianity