And "The Eds" Have Returned!

You thought I'd forgotten about these things, huh? Maybe I was inspired to resurrect this from Shell's Maybes Monday last week. Ya never know. :)


Enjoyed: Two birthday parties this weekend. One at Kidsport for Michael's 8th birthday and one for the family February birthdays (my brother, sister, brother in law and nephew.)

Listed: partly because I'm a name nerd, all the young boys at Michael's party this weekend: brothers Malik & Mason; twin friends from church, Olin and Louin; other church friends, Blake, Mason G., Brycen, Austin and John; Classical Conversations friends, Stephen, Michael B., Tony and Christopher. They could have 15 boys and only Jacob from CC was unable to attend.

Chuckled: when Michael would be handed a card and he'd say "Oh, a letter!" and then proceed to read every word on the card

Laughed: with the family as we watched video from 2003 where we saw cutie pie 16 month old Michael & his darling family on a visit to Greenville, SC

Finished: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey -- this "cultural studies in the gospels" was an excellent read; chapter by chapter the author took parables, teachings of Jesus, interactions of Jesus with others and explained them through culturally-appropriate lenses

Picked: up the History of Islam and started reading from volume one of the set given to us in Damascus; the chapter on Muhammad was 168 pages and I'm so happy to report I'm finally on the next chapter, "The Rightly-Guided Caliphate" which is a mere 120 pages. Can you tell I'm not used to chapters being quite that long? ;-)

Continued: reading Tea With Hezbollah with Samer; only one chapter left

Impressed: by Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian who is truly following the teachings of Jesus by loving his enemies while working peacefully for his people's rights; I read about him on the chapter from the West Bank in Tea With Hezbollah

Visited: McDonald's last week for the first time in ages; though it wasn't "my" McDonald's. I've not been to "my" McDonald's since last June or July except for a brief winter night when we -- Steph, Will, Michael, Andrew & I -- stopped by near closing time after Christmas shopping

Tired: from staying up late watching the Olympics Winter Games from Vancouver

Amazed: that the US hockey team defeated Canada last night

Liked: this quote from my current The Voice of the Martyrs publication:

"These dictators just can't reconcile that their people can have freedom in Christ." (pg. 9) -- after sharing how the former president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, would persecute Christians, ban Bibles, raid the homes of preachers and bulldoze churches


Thus concludes this edition of "The Eds." What have you been "edding" about lately?

Michael

Last weekend Michael spent the night with us. It was a pleasant evening so he rode his bike in the neighborhood as Andrew and I walked behind him. We came to the edge of the trees and decided to explore a bit. He walked up a tree that had fallen on another tree. It was like a seesaw and he walked from the part on the ground to the part that was over my head. It was fun to see him enjoying a nature hike.

Michael showing off his two dangling teeth
February 28, 2009

Tuesday Michael and my sister went to visit my parents since Will was out of town. My dad was taking his blood pressure and Michael wanted his taken as well. My dad said Michael was squirming and talking so his blood pressure registered a bit high. The voice on the machine warned that his BP was slightly elevated and maybe he should be checked by a physician if this persisted. Upon hearing this Michael immediately called out with urgency, "Bring me an apple!"

Michael at his birthday party
February 28, 2009

Wednesday I took Mike to our local McDonald's. Most of the time now he draws and talks to me or plays with small toys like Transformers or Power Rangers at our table. (He will play in the play area if there are children around his age.) We got talking about something and I mentioned what a sweet kid he was and then said to please stay that way and not become a crazy teenager who does bad things and decides to not believe in God. Michael was just looking at me with an expression of disbelief so I said "some teenagers decide they don't want to love God anymore." He warmed my heart when he replied with feeling, "But, Susie, why would I do that?" Ah, I pray he keeps that attitude always. He used to share how he told stories to the children of heaven. I pray he stays sensitive to God being in his life always.

I love to hear the kid sing "Jesus Messiah" in the car. Any song really. :-)

April Fool's Day!

I hope none of you got fooled this first day of April like I did. Andrew got me before eight this morning when he was getting ready to leave for work. Granted, I was preoccupied with something when he came to tell me goodbye. He said "3 things" and then told me he was (1) leaving for work, (2) taking his church clothes with him in case he didn't have time to come home prior to the service and (3) he noticed evidence of a mouse in our upper cabinet, but not to worry because he set a trap. My reaction was "UGH!" since I utterly detest mice and the thought made me shudder. What a mean trick! He said "April Fools!" about the time he noticed I was really disgusted at the thought of a creature in my cabinets. (I have chocolate chips in there!!!)



I took Michael to McDonald's today and we had a great time. He told me what he wanted to be when he grows up. It's in the entertainment field, er, ALL OVER that field actually -- movie star, movie producer, Batman, Spiderman, Bible Man, video game creator...stuff like that. He even told me about some of his ideas for video games and how people could earn different levels.

Yesterday I went to his house and I went walking while he biked nearby. I always enjoy those times of talking with him. He made some comment making me realize he knew he could not have superpowers when he grew up (I can't be SuperMichael here, but maybe in heaven.) We discussed what made Batman and those guys heroes and agreed it was protecting the weak and oppressed and doing good. I shared how he could be a superhero by living as Jesus did, by loving and serving others.

I still chuckle when I think that our conversation concerning King Arthur lead him to put Abe Lincoln in the category of those living in "ancient times."


In crazy, shaking-my-head, kind of news I read about an Australian island, Macquarie, that wanted to protect the bird population so they got rid of all the cats. This caused a rabbit population explosion which lead to a loss of vegetation which the birds needed in order to survive. So this "environmental devastation" ended up costing about $16 million to fix. Now it's been decided that rabbits, mice and rats are bad news (tend to agree) so they are going to drop poisonous bait from helicopters to, hopefully, deal with the rodent problem. I wonder if PETA knows about this.

This month
1. Mail taxes to Uncle Sam and Nanny State
2. Pay estimated taxes to those same two demanding relatives
3. Get driver's license renewed
4. Get car inspected

Michael @ McDonald's Today

THIS goofy little guy, my nephew Michael, made me laugh today. I took him to McDonald's and he informed me that he found out his dad watched Sponge Bob (wow, he has a Wikipedia page!) on the computer without him last night! Who knew Will would sneak in an episode of a cartoon while Michael was in la-la land? That Will! Maybe he created the Wiki page...hmmm.



Also we were watching the NCAA tournament game with Louisiana State vs. Butler. Our McDonald's recently was remodeled and now has a large-screen TV. So, anyway, we were watching the last bit of the game ("19.4 seconds and we'll go, OK, Michael?") and Michael decided he was going for LSU. Maybe that name sounded cooler than Butler. So when the game finally ended about 8 minutes later -- who's counting? -- Michael was happy "his" team won. Of course Victor (the manager) was pulling for "the Butlers." I just laughed when Mike said that because an image of these kind of guys came to mind. I could imagine a whole basketball team full of stodgy-looking older gentlemen with British accents.....

Anyway... it amused me.

Maybe I need to get out more.

I am going to bed now. Unless I get interested in the Duke basketball game that Andrew is watching. It's March Madness!! The only time I really watch much basketball these days. Back in high school, I'd watch it a LOT.

Oh, this picture of Michael was at his birthday party. He wanted fried chicken.

I got tagged . . . Random things about me

A friend tagged me on Facebook today. Here are the instructions and what I wrote. I figured I'd post it here as well. Doing this made me think back to some of my favorite memories. Yes, my life is oh-so-exciting, eh?


Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, its because I want to know more about you :-)



1. I am the oldest of four children. The next oldest is my brother who is just 16 months younger than I. The "baby" is almost 13 years younger and in between Daniel and David is a sister, Stephanie, who is almost 7 years younger than I am. Daniel and I used to play like we were brothers growing up. When Steph came along, she joined our "brotherhood" for short time. Then Daniel and I grew out of it, and I was a sister again.

2. For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed talking to people who are not from my area. Whether they were merely Yankees or genuine foreigners, I have always enjoyed talking about cultural/regional differences and languages/accents. It's just one of my thrills in life, I reckon. When we went to New York City a few years ago, I wanted to know from which Asian country this particular group of tourists came. We were on a ferry at the time. Unfortunately, they were not the look-around-and-make- eye-contact variety although I tried and tried to get someone to look my way so I could begin a conversation. FINALLY a short man looked up and saw me so I smiled and asked "where are y'all from?" China! Ahhhh, he then practiced his English on me and asked how he was doing with it. So cute.


3. One of my favorite memories from my teen years is being a page in Raleigh. Although I was scared about going, my dad insisted that I go and I ended up loving it! In fact, the next few years, I went to Raleigh as much as I could each summer. I even lived with Representative Peggy Wilson for a couple of weeks and went with her to a reception then Governor Jim Martin held at the governor's mansion for the GOP members. (Rep. Wilson didn't have time to drop me off at her apartment so she said to come along as Gov. Martin wouldn't mind.)

4. I was a page the week of July 4th. In celebration, they wanted a few pages to each read one of the Bill of Rights in front of the NC House of Representatives. I read one of them and afterwards Rep. Bill Hurley (D-Cumberland County) came up to me and said his mom was a Fuqua. After checking the family tree once I got home, I found out we had the same ggg-grandfather.

5. Somewhere I have a picture of me from my sophomore year of high school when I went with a couple of my teachers and some juniors to the Republican National Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. We had a great time and met the Republic of Georgia's President (?) who was meeting with Representative Howard Coble at that time. I have an official Washington picture of our group and those foreigners as well. (I like foreigners.)

6. The most common spelling of my name is with a "z," but since mine is really short for Susanna, mine is spelled with an "s." Although my name is often misspelled because of this, what I like about the "s" spelling is that my name begins how Jesus ends. And I have "usa" in there as well. Two "things" that I love: Jesus and the USA.

7. In high school, I played basketball and had many lovely nicknames because my basketball coach loved nicknaming me. *ahem* He also taught me how to drive and when he saw my dad coming out of the school building upon our return to the school, Mr. B got out of the car and kissed the ground and said "thank you, God!" trying to make my dad think I was a terrible driver. (You just had to know Mr. B.)

8. I usually buy 10 to 20 lbs of carrots every 10 days or so. This week I got a little crazy and bought 28 lbs. People who see my cart full of carrots often ask if I have a horse. No, just a juicer that loves carrots.

9. While at ACC one of my teachers, Division Chairman Byron Robinson, once asked me to see him in his office. He gave me a Gideon New Testament and asked if I ever thought about becoming a pastor.

10. On my first posture performance in freshman speech (high school), I made an E minus. My dad's reaction was, "An E minus? I've never even heard of an E minus." Thankfully I improved a lot and made an A on my Robert E. Lee speech later that year.(Actually it may have been an A- because I went over and had points subtracted for that.)

11. When I went to the WILDS with my high school, each morning we had to tidy our room before we all met for flag raising. The girls in my room woke up late (because we stayed up past lights out talking and laughing and eating) so we were scrambling to get ready. I personally emptied the trash can three times in an effort to clean the room, but still our room was messy and the five of us were punished by picking grass off the steps. I still remember we passed the time by singing "I've been working on the railroad" and other tunes.

12. With few exceptions, I hate talking on the telephone. I much prefer face-to-face talks with my friends or keeping in touch by e-mailing or instant messaging or posting on blogs and group forums.


13. I've always been interested in names. Years ago this interest lead me to Babycenter.com where I ended up meeting a great group of ladies who have remained dear friends. Never knew I could grow to love people I never met before until then.


14. I love my dear nephew Michael. I often go to McDonald's with him where we hang out sometimes for hours. We have made many friends there over the last couple of years. It's great to go there and know the workers' names. By the way, most of them call me "Susie." (I think they got that from Michael.)


15. About two years ago I prayed for God to help me see people with compassion and love. Since then He brought people into my life that others may find undesirable, but I have learned to care for them deeply. I am very thankful for what God has taught me through them.


16. At a time when I was a bit disenchanted with some things about Christianity, God used devout Muslims to make His Son more precious to me.

Michael aka "Cody"?

While at the beach last week, Michael watched a few minutes of a Disney show called Zack & Cody. He thought Cody was a cool name so he decided to adopt it for himself. He even told his mom he would tell the child-care worker at the gym about his new name. He informed me at McDonald's on Monday. Previously he shortened his name to "Mike." He even signed my dad's Father's Day card "M-i-k-e." But Mike is a normal nickname for Michael. Cody is just a name he liked and decided to call himself.

Note: This beach picture was from August 2007 not this most recent trip.

today

Had a good day. Took Michael to McDonald's earlier than normal. I wasn't going to go today, but he will be at the beach all next week so I figured "why not?" Plus the new toys came out today and I was curious what they were -- Kung Fu Panda. Hmmm. Michael liked them pretty well. He told me what he knew about the movie from watching advertisements on TV. The local police were holding their Special Olympics fundraising drive so it was pretty exciting around there. The officers were on the roof with their bull horns. Some were standing around the building shouting at passing cars. Quite loud, but I felt safe, lol. I saw my cousin Duane Flood as he is a Graham police officer. He told me he and his wife had a baby boy 7 weeks ago, Dylan Dea. Dea is his late grandfather's name. So Duane has Macie, Dexter and Dylan. He said he was done having kids now.

I had a nice time at McDonald's. Saw my friend Martin. He actually sat with me and Michael while on break. I asked about his family and we talked a bit about trivial things. I saw some of my other friends: Kita, Victor, Stacey, Pedro (who had 25 stitches in his eyebrow area due to a mugging!), Salvador and Rolando. Didn't see Angie because I left early. She and Grant were probably at the pool anyway. It hit 96 officially and that tied the old record.

Tomorrow we leave for the beach. I think I'm going to bed now. Should be back on Monday evening if all goes as planned.

From my talking with Michael today:

Michael told me that he cannot wait to be "ten plus" so he can get this Indiana Jones video game or something. I asked why he had to be "ten plus" and he said "because of the kissing." Upon further questioning, I found out 6 year olds do NOT like to see kissing, but 10 years old do because "they are teenagers." Ahhh.

Also Michael told me he swims like a fish and he loves his new goggles because he can see underwater good. He was diving off the diving board into 8 and 10 feet of water. That's impressive to me because I don't like water over my head. I'm glad he is learning to swim at a young age.


Okay, off to bed!