a little story

so the other night i made chili for dinner. i called mark from work and told him i had made chili and that it was in the fridge and he should heat some up for dinner. later when i got home i asked him how it was and he was like, oh it was so awesome. great.

so the next day i went to make pasta and i was like, where did all my spaghetti sauce go? i could've sworn i had made a lot more than what was there, but i was like, oh well, i guess this will be lightly sauced.

so then later that night mark came home and we were going to have the leftover chili for dinner. i get it out of the fridge and start putting it in bowls and he leans over my shoulder
and says: um..the chili i ate last night did not look like that.
denise: what do you mean? this is the only chili in there.
mark: no, what i ate was in a small blue container.
denise: mark, that was spaghetti sauce.
mark: i ate spaghetti sauce for dinner?

and we died laughing. he had literally eaten a bowl of spaghetti sauce for dinner. not meat sauce, just plain, tomato sauce. i was like mark, i asked you how it was and you said awesome. he said, it WAS awesome.

my recent letter to our senators

Dear Senator Dole/Burr,

I don't know if you'll actually read this but I'm contacting you in regards to the economic relief issue you're working long hours to understand and remedy for our country. As a Republican voter and supporter for NC I'd like you to know that I am against the government stepping in to relieve these companies.
As a child, I was disciplined for things I did wrong, which taught me to change my behavior and do things the right way the next time. If we bail out these companies, practices similar to theirs will continue to be practiced, in different manifestations as soon as they are allowed to function again. If we let the companies die, I am willing as a citizen to let that affect me financially in order for the American economy as a whole to be disciplined and reformed. We are much better off disciplined and free than spoiled and controlled. Let's learn from history and let the collective aggregate knowledge of the "Invisible Hand" work under God's direction and sovereignty.
This is all the power I hold, to simply write to you and make my voice, maybe, be heard.

Sincerely,

Mark Flanders

more conversations

mark: what's with everyone in the olympics getting caught doping? how can they live with themselves, having everyone think they are olympians when really they are cheating
me: i guess they just figure everyone does it. everybody cheats. i mean, remember that bobsled team that the coach got caught putting weights in the front of the sled, or something like that?
mark: that was cool runnings.

mark: did you know rainn wilson has a podcast?
me: who is rainn wilson?
mark: dwight. from the office. he writes about books and like, people who write books.
me: you mean authors.

me: what's wrong? (mark has been trying to write a long paper for a few hours and he looks frustrated.)
mark: i'm not smart. i'm just not smart. do you think i'm smart?
me: well....you're well-rounded.
mark: so you're saying i'm fat.

(next scene: i am laying on the couch because i accidentally fell asleep in the middle of the day and slept for 2 hours. mark comes bursting inside the house and jumps down on top of me on the couch. so he is giving me zero time to ease into waking up.)
me: ugh...go awaay...you're ruining my shalom.
mark: your shalom?
me: yes- my shalom. my peace. i had peace all around me until you came in here.
(keep in mind i have just been sleeping and my mascara is now smudged underneath my eyes and my hair is frizzy and dented.)
mark: you sure don't look like shalom.

you smell terrific

mark does this to me almost every day when he's sitting out on the porch reading and i am inside cooking. it's still funny.

setting goals

I'm having to write my goals in six areas for my "Foundations for Ministry" class:

1. Spiritual Formation
2. Relational Health
3. Integrity of Character
4. Personal health and well-being
5. Vocational Experiences and Competency
6. Ecclesial Connections

Its hard. Whenever I'm writing goals down, I have to avoid a lot of optimism and steer more towards practical things I will actually do. I've written 10 pages on all these goals and after finishing, I'm laughing inside because my first goal should be that I actually look over all this work again.

I'm going to try to get Jarred J. and Josh A. to help me follow through on some of the specifics that I've set.

One of my personal health goals is to eat one bad meal per week. That is probably the most difficult goal I've set. To be honest I've been convicted several times over the past few weeks over the verse, "their god is their stomach." Philippians 3:19. I used to fast, I haven't fasted in a very long time.

Anyways, I'm sure you've heard the saying, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Well, thankfully I was assigned to plan, but try writing down some goals yourself...

Denise has written down a goal, tracking daily her grocery budget. She challenged herself by knocking down the previous month's expenses for groceries 25% and she's on pace now to make her goal! Its such a little thing, but its added a little fun to our day.

"Do it, do it."

me and mark have had a few funny conversations lately. i think i've told some of you about them, but for the others, here's what we've been talking about lately:

mark: you are really one in a billion, you know that?

me: thanks. what are you gonna do if i die?

mark: uhh, probably wait a few months and then start looking

me: a few months?? 

mark: a few...years?

me: i thought you said i was one in a billion

mark: yeah, that means there are like 6 or 7 other girls just like you

(next scene. we are driving. mark is driving slow as usual.)

me: mark, why are you going five under?

mark: i'm trying to go the speed limit

me: don't worry about the speed limit, just drive.

mark: that's the wrong advice. i know the wrong advice when i see it, and that's it.

the next one is actually me and emurr.

me: i think i want to work in an orphanage, like in haiti or guatemala or something. but i've never worked in an orphanage, so i don't know what it's really like or if i'd be good at it.

emurr: you know there's an orphanage in charlotte

me: an orphanage?

emurr: yeah, a real, live orphanage

me: i think they're called children's homes

emurr: whatever, there's one in charlotte.

also, here's a story from mark's office. they apparently hired a guy to do mark's job before they hired him but the other guy didn't work out. mark's co-workers said the kid would like disappear right before meetings and just not show up to stuff. so they started calling him waldo, as in "where's waldo". but they just started calling him that and he would be like, why are you guys calling me waldo, and they'd just laugh and say, "cause that's your name!" one day they actually taped a where's waldo poster to the door of his office. these guys are like 50s-60s. so needless to say, waldo was fired and mark was hired. and the bar was not set too high. their nickname for mark is ned, as in ned flanders, the crazy neighbor in the simpsons. so we were at a knights baseball game with mark's company this weekend and they kept calling him ned all night. well when we were leaving, one of the guy's wife said, bye, nice to meet you ned. and her husband started dying laughing and he was like, no honey, that's just his name at the office. his real name's mark. we just call him ned. she goes "oh." i think she had never seen the simpsons and it did not make any sense to her why they'd call him that.

my cousin Will

Will is pretty impressive when it comes to sports. I played with him this weekend quite a bit and he is almost as good as me when it comes to golf. Here's a video of him in action!


Notice a certain quote: "Past the women's.." where Will remarks that he hit the ball past the Lady tee box. We had made it crucial in our game that day that each man hit it past where the women tee off from. Thought you'd like to know that....