Seriously??

Just when we thought the toy industry couldn't get any more twisted...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/homeless_doll_costs_hairstyling_4Ic0hC7Lacpfo8HQbczsQM

Beware this vlog....

It's freakishly long....

Where in the world is Hannah Grace Fischer?

URGENT MESSAGE. Hannah Grace Fischer appears to be missing. There has been little evidence of her activity on beady beady for the past several weeks and close friends and family are beginning to worry. She may in fact have been abducted by a giant octopus with his head in a fish bowl. It is possible that her dreams have truly come true. And if this is the case, we hang our heads and sigh in sorrow.

If anyone of you has seen Miss Fischer, please contact this blog immediately. Her lack of funny stories and interesting posts are worrying many. Please contact us right away if you have any information.

Miss Fischer, if you're out there reading, please come back to us. If you come back in repentance, we will let this go and never revisit the unfortunate days when you suddenly went missing. If not, we will have to come and find you. And that, my friend, may not be so pretty.

Pondering the future, yet again

Wow, I have been so encouraged/convicted by your posts recently. Thank you, ladies, for sharing your hearts so openly with us. I feel like I've been avoiding reading our blog lately, because I convinced myself that I didn't have the "time" to sit down and really read through and then reply to it. However, I finally did just that, and I am so glad I did! God sure knows what he is doing. I feel like everything I am experiencing - every conversation, every speaker I hear, everything I read, discussions in class, and now the thoughts of my dear sisters - God is using it all to speak to me. There is SO much going on in my heart and mind right now (and for the past year, basically), and it's finally getting close to decision time. The FUTURE. It's so quickly turning into the PRESENT that I don't quite know what to do with it. In just four months, I will be a college graduate and I will be faced with a major decision: what the heck am I going to do with my life?! I realize that in 3.5 years of college plus 4 years of high school, I should have a little clearer idea of the answer to this question, and yet, I do not. However, there are a few things that I am sure of in regards to my future career, and here they are:

1. I want to either directly or indirectly work to help people who cannot help themselves.

2. I have a specific passion for working with women (teenagers and up).

3. I would like to somehow incorporate Spanish into my job.

4. I want a job that will challenge me intellectually, spiritually, and mentally.

5. I want a job that will push me out of my comfort zone.

6. Money is very low on my priority list.

7. I am open to whatever way God wants to use me.

So, if anyone is aware of a way that all of those can go together and provide me with health insurance, please let me know! :)

It was wonderful to spend last weekend with Elisa (we missed you, Katesters and Twin), but it also made me feel a little sad. It is very unlikely that any of us will live in the same place ever again. Sorry if this is going to depress anyone. I have been very blessed with friendships that are full of love, support, encouragement, and challenge - and I'm just starting to fully realize how rare those kind of friendships are. It is my prayer that we will remain lifelong friends, and based on our track record, I'm pretty certain that distance will not put a damper on our friendship. But honestly, life is big and scary, and pretty soon we will all be very spread out! Bah, I'm not ready to think deeply about this yet. Just know that I am SO thankful for each of you and I love you very much!

Well, I better get going and get ahold of my rather scattered thoughts. I pray you all have a fantastic week.

En Jesus Cristo,

Heather Grace

It's not mine anyway.

Do you ever have those moments where you become acutely aware of (and disturbed by) how much you have? You know, like when you look in your walk-in closet, and think to yourself that it is not big enough for all your stuff while wishing that you had more clothes because you never have anything to wear. I get them frequently, yet not often enough for it to really change anything in my heart.
I had one such moment tonight. I have had a lingering cough since this past weekend when Hannah and I spooned for just long enough for her to give it to me. I have been under-rested and under-medicated. So tonight, after hacking up a storm, my mom convinced me to go to the store and buy some medicine. On my way out to the car I realized that my brother took mine. Luckily, I ran into my dad in the parking lot, and took his keys. I drove just down the road to Drug Mart, where I bought Tylenol Cold, and previously viewed copies of Pride & Prejudice and Bella (because they barely cost more than it does to rent them)!
I got home, went in the bathroom to take my medicine, opened it, and saw how few pills I got for $6.00! As I fumed about how I had just been ripped off, I had my moment.

It hit me. I am sick and I can get in one of my family's four cars and drive less than a mile to a store, where I can buy medicine. Not only that, but despite the fact that I have been unemployed for the past month, and consider myself broke, I had enough cash in my pocket to buy two movies on a whim. I came home to my bathroom which I share with no one, and took my meds, but was bitter about how much I payed for 24 pills. How much of the world doesn't have medicine readily available to them, or running water for that matter? How many people have never even seen a movie, let alone own them.

Is it wrong for me to own movies, or take medicine? No. But sometimes these little moments bring me back to Earth and remind me how lucky I am to have what I have, and how I don't deserve it, and how it's not mine anyway.

Oh, and add to the list of things to be grateful for: I start work at Old Navy tomorrow, FINALLY!

Hope to see all of you beady beadies soon!

Love,

~Kate

turns out God cares

So today in my Imagination in Culture class (yes, I have a class under that name...oh Cornerstone...) we had a very special guest. His name is James. He goes to Cornerstone now, but he grew up in Sudan. At five, his town was attacked and he and his family literally had to flee for their lives. He told us about watching sisters raped, cousins killed, corpses left behind. He told us how just this past Sunday some of his family members had been in church when the pastor and ten other members were thrown into a back room and burned alive. They had no political involvement whatsoever. They were innocent, there to worship their Savior.

It's hard to hear about these things and be anything but mad--mad at the people committing the genocide, mad at the West for not stepping in, mad at your professor for just moving on with class as usual, mad at yourself being so useless, mad at God for allowing so many lives to be washed away. Something just doesn't sit well when you watch a movie like Hotel Rwanda, feel as though you'd like to vomit and punch through a wall and then realize it's still a reality. In fact, it's so much a reality that someone who's lived through it has come to tell you all about it. It makes it a bit more real, a bit more frightening and a bit more overwhelming.

I am certainly all of those things; but I have to say I'd be at a much greater loss if it weren't for something I read the other day. God, as it turns out, had some earth-shattering news for me. The news: He cares. Everyone has heard that, right? A thousand times. But I doubt that so much as ten percent of believers really believe it. It's one thing to recognize that the Lord likes people, even loves them; it's another to come face to face with the reality that he loves us even more than he loves himself, more than he loves his glory. Don't take my word for it, I heard it from the Bible.

In Isaiah chapter 1, God is grieving over the essential loss of Israel. They have prostituted themselves to idol worship and apathy. God tells them that their religious ceremonies have actually become a burden to him. He detests their hollow religiosity, rooted in ritual alone without any meaning or significance at all behind it. Many of you have read Isaiah and know what I'm talking about. I had, too. But the kicker hasn't come yet. I'm reading through Isaiah chapter 1, lamenting over Israel and trying to check myself, thinking I know what God will say next. I think, "Oh, this is when God tells the Israelites that he wants their true hearts, he wants surrender and he wants passionate, sincere worship." Sounds pretty legit, right? Wrong. Those things may be good, but it's not what God requests. In fact, his answer to their apathy caused me to do several double-takes. Ready for it? Here's what he says:

"16Take your evil deeds

out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong;

17learn to do right!

Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow."

Take a minute to think about those implications. God's request to us does not lie in passionate worship; it stands in seeking justice, encouraging the oppressed, and defending the orphaned and widowed. Wow. God cares so much more for people than himself, that he's one plea for us to come back to him is not even for him--it's for the benefit of others! God's call for us isn't simply to elevate him, his call is for us to emulate him. He wants us to be so connected with him that our heart breaks when his heart breaks, our hands reach when his reach. He would rather have our passion for the things he's passionate for, accomplishing his work on earth than our passion in praise--or worse yet, our passion for praise. And the beautiful thing is when we begin to seek justice, encourage the oppressed and defend the orphans and widows, passion will come automatically--it's the very thing God's addressing in this passage. He knows that that's how it works, because that's how he created it to work. The more love we have for all that God loves, the more, without question, we will love God.

This may not be new to anyone, but it shattered my worldview. All this time I have been thinking, "how to I glorify God?" and answering it with, "use your gifts! Pray! Read the Bible!" When in reality I should be answering it, "seek justice! Encourage the oppressed! Defend the orphans and widows!" Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what this looks like; but boy am I excited to find out. I know the Lord will teach me because he's commanded me to do it! Praise God for his infinite wisdom!

There are a thousand things more I could say, but this already looks like a novel-post by Kate (hehe, you love me, Katie) so I'm gonna scoot. I love you all so much and I hope this challenges you (Kate, Heather, Hannah) as you embark on your mission fields. Peace.

-e l i s a

A Rollercoaster of a Day...

Rocking babies to sleep. Parking fiasco. Bible Study. Parking Fiasco. Sick documentary. Parking Fiasco.Encouraging talk. SYTYCD. Good food. I think that adds up to one weird day. Let me go back and explain.....

Disclaimer: This blog may contain overly dramatized descriptions of actual events, mostly because I'm feeling melodramatic at the moment.

First, I woke up at what felt like an ungodly hour (compared to when I normally wake up), got ready for my disgustingly long day, and left my apartment to go to the church and rock babies. And while I rocked babies, I got to talk to a woman who was in the nursery with me about her vast experiences in missions. It was awesome and encouraging to talk to her, and it was heart warming to rock/ sing a beautiful baby to sleep (I can't remember the last time I held a baby.... and I forgot how much I like it!)

Then, Hannah and I departed for school. We were 30 minutes early for our classes, which SHOULD be enough time to find a parking space. But alas. I drove around for 20 minutes to every lot and/or garage that I know of but was unsuccessful in finding a spot. So I made one. Sort of. Anyway... I'm sure you can tell where this is going.

Cut to midway through the day when Hannah calls to tell me about the sea of parking tickets that is Cleveland State's parking lots (because I wasn't the only one to make my own parking spot). Alas, I don't have time between all of my classes/ activities to move my car thereby saving myself from imminent parking doom. So I know that I have an unsightly ticket on my window, and am left to dread actually finding it for the rest of the day.

Let me explain why I am soooo worked up about this ticket. I pay $160 a semester for a parking pass. As do thousands of other people. Enrollment at our school is up 18% since last semester, but the number of available parking spaces has decreased, meaning that the already terrible parking situation has gotten worse. There literally aren't enough spaces for the number of people that need them. So those of us who have already payed for the right to a space make our own because we feel we have no choice and then they ask us to pay more in the form of a ticket, despite the fact that it is their fault that we had to park illegally in the first place, because they sell more passes than they have spaces... and I could go on and on about how screwed up it is that I got a ticket.

Fast forward to my last class, persuasion, where we watched a documentary on the Milgram Test. That's the one where people are asked to give a test to a person in another room and shock him when he gets the wrong answer, at increasing voltages, despite his cries for help. What the subject doesn't know is that the man in the other room is not actually being shocked. Anyhow, I knew about the study, but I had never seen the footage of it until today. And man, it is stressful to watch. You watch as people exhibit behavior that they would never ever condone, all because they feel like they don't have a choice, or like they won't be held responsible, yet they continue to push the buttons that "shock" the other guy. Sometimes, the people break into fits of nervous laughter as they deliver shock after shock to the screaming stranger. 2/3 of the people deliver shocks over 300 volts. Sick. After watching that, we discussed how people may have felt coerced into delivering the shocks because the guy leading the experiment was telling them that stopping was not an option. I wanted to scream at the people that they had a choice and that they didn't have to keep going. They could challenge their authority! It was just a guy in a white lab coat!

Then... and bear with me here, because I'm about to make a very dramatic leap....I made the connection between myself and the subjects of the Milgram Test. Here I am being told by some phony authority (CSU parking services) that I need to pay some ticket despite the fact that it goes against what I believe about what is fair. Yes, it is a small ticket, but the shocks started small too... and who knows what they will ask next. That's why I've decided to challenge the authority and fight the ticket. It's the principle of the thing. And I will not give into a band of rent-a-cop conspirators!

Actually seeing the ticket on my windshield started a whole new wave of anger in me. But then I went home to a great evening including a great phone chat with Jim Whiteman (!), a GREAT meal (recipe to follow), and an episode of So You Think You Can Dance that wiped away all of my angry feelings.

AND, here's the recipe for the dinner that made me feel [almost] completely better. It was easy, vegetarian, healthy, and delicious! I created it, and will definitely be making it again!

Spicy Black Bean Mozzarella Wrap

Ingredients
1 spinach tortilla
1 spicy black bean burger (thawed)
1 2 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese
Romain lettuce
Sunflower seeds
Garlic Expressions Salad Dressing

Heat skillet to medium, and spray with a little nonstick cooking spray. Cook black bean burger for 6-7 minutes, flipping frequently. In the mean time, shred lettuce, and put it in the wrap with sunflower seeds and mozzarella. When burger is cooked, slice it into strips. Put it on top of the wrap. Sprinkle with dressing. Wrap it all up, and enjoy.

That's all I've got. As if that weren't practically a novel....

Much Love,

Kate

Just floating by...

Hello friends! Sorry for the long blog absence. These past few weeks have been extremely FULL of classes, adjusting to new roommates, a new schedule, a visit home, and having a visitor of my own, and I have just not had any time to sit down and write. I think we're all in that same boat, so for those few people who actually follow our blog, I apologize for the lack of action. 

I'm not really sure what to write about, because honestly, there is so much going on in my mind right now that I am having trouble focusing on just one topic. In fact, I feel like I am floating through most of my days (not floating in a light and fluffy way, more like life seems to be floating by me). I can't seem to focus my energy on one thing at a time, so everything I do comes out half-hearted. This is SO not like me! I am normally quite determined and motivated, or at least able to fake motivation, and I can usually pay attention to what is happening in the present. This past week especially, I don't feel like I have experienced anything in the present. It's like the present happens and I am just observing it from the outside, it doesn't affect me directly. I do not think this is a healthy way to live life, but I can't seem to get myself out of this rut. After talking to a few friends, it seems that I am not the only one feeling like this, but that still does very little to force me back into my normal routine. Is it just because this is my final semester of college? Is it because I am anticipating the future too much? Maybe because I am close to making some decisions that may greatly affect my life? Who knows? It's making me a little sad that I can't seem to just enjoy the present, because this is my last chance to live with my Taylor friends and be without real-world responsibilities. 

(I started writing this blog last night and am now continuing it Sunday morning, so I'm sorry if there is a lack of “flow” in my ramblings.)

Last night, after talking to Toby and taking some time to reflect on what I’ve been feeling lately, I think I may have found a cause for my rut. I identified a certain friendship in my life that is going very poorly. It’s someone who I am very close to, but I feel like recently there has been constant tension between us. It has made it very difficult for me to approach this person about anything, and that really hurts! I am trying to make attempts to reconcile this relationship, but I feel a little like those attempts are being rejected. I don’t even know if the person is aware of it, but I feel like I am tiptoeing around “person” so much that we aren’t even friends anymore. Anyway, I think my lack of motivation is partly due to senioritis and anticipating the future, but it is also due to this almost-broken relationship and the sadness I am feeling as a result of it. If you are wondering what you can pray about for me – this is it.

Well, folks, I think that is all for now. Hannah, Elisa, and Katie: I miss you all VERY much!! I am so appreciative of your friendship and support, and I love you mucho, my sisters.

Peace, Heather Grace

Vlogggggggggggggggg!

YAY!