just an example of my rewarding job...

yesterday one of our brilliant agents emailed me a template of a flyer he wanted me to set up for him.

so i emailed him back saying, "thanks, mark, i'll get this started but i need you to send me an order form."

now let's keep in mind that "mark" has ordered many many flyers from me. it's always the same process. he's also emailed me many many photos, ad requests, questions about pricing... suffice it to say i've gotten dozens of emails from mark.

today he called me. the conversation went something like this.

him: hi kate, this is mark. i'm filling out this order form you wanted. where should i send it?

me: um... to me?

him: what? just to "kate"?

me: well... type in "kate robinson...."

him: what's your email address?

me: krobinson@.... just send it to the same email address you sent the template to...

him: oh the same one? okay i'll send it right over.

what?

as good an answer as i've heard yet...

"'Hunky,' says High Jack Snakefeeder, looking at me funny, 'do you believe in reincarnation?'"

'It sounds to me,' says I, 'like either a clean-up of the slaughter- houses or a new kind of Boston pink. I don't know.'

go figure

while driving home from work last night i very nearly got in an accident when a median got in the way of where i was trying to slide hopelessly out of control.

fortunately, after a tense, quick, prayer (quite possibly the most pure and purely motivated prayer i've ever prayed) i slid to the other side of the road, and regained control in time to not topple off the side of the cliff or push any other drivers there.

after all that, i got back to carson, where it was not snowing, misjudged the turn into the starbucks parking lot and blew a huge whole in my tire.

hahaha

the first thing i did was drop the f-bomb, of course (let me just confess) and then later when i realized that my Lord had just recently saved my life, and i was cursing over a flat tire, i repented.

His praise shall continually be on my lips. thank You Jesus for flat tires and irritating phone calls and all those things that make up life.

return to your rest, oh my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

it seems unlikely but...

do you ever feel like maybe you need to go buy some peanut butter? right now?

::sigh::

but then when i went to the store i ended up getting a loaf of bread, a roast beef sandwhich and some macaroni and cheese and i never even ended up eating the peanut butter.

the economy of mercy...

"Lord, i have sinned;

i deserve not Thy smile'

i scarcely dare to ask it;

but oh! say to my soul,

even to my soul,

'I am thy salvation;'

let me have a present,

personal, infallible, indesputable

sense that i am Thine

and that Thou art mine."

ms. grant. it's finally time.

just a few quick words...

- my dreams are getting weirder and weirder.

- jess grant. don't forget. chicken little. you. me. sarah. david. steven. melissa. isaac. pizza. let's make this happen, yeah? you should see if mac wants to come.

- Jesus chose me of all people to plant seeds in sweet miranda's life. how humbling. how encouraging. Lord give me guidance.

- remember. you have to start moving. be in motion.

i love weird dreams

last night i dreamed that there was a cat in my room (which is not that unusual).

but one of the other pets was in my room as well. and i couldn't tell which one, only that it was snoring. so i thought i better deal with the one i could see first and i yelled "jerry!"

when i did that my brother sat up from where he was sleeping at the foot of my bed. i asked him what he was doing in my room and he said he came in to write down a zip code that he had heard on the radio. but when he couldn't find a pen he went to sleep instead.

i sympathized with his situation. i had been trying to memorize the same zip code.

this tends to happen in all areas of my life, not just driving

yesterday i pulled up to a stop sign, looked to my left, saw a car coming, conducted a brief internal debate about whether or not to go, decided that i would definitely not go, and immediately proceeded to go anyway.

there's no explaining this type of behavior to myself.

starbucks

starbucks is my arch nemesis. i spend more money there than i did as a 3-pack a day smoker.

also the starbucks pastry case hates me. it just sits there taunting me. it knows i don't eat sugar. it knows it takes every ounce of self control to resist it. but as if that weren't enough... on sunday it goes from being torture in a glass case and at an exorbitant price to being free, accessible torture right there on my church coffee bar.

whatever, starbucks. don't pretend you're being charitable, donating your weekend markouts to a church. it's because you hate me.

i quit smoking cold-turkey. why can't i quit starbucks?

on basically any given day you can find me there, reading, or at the register cringing as i flawlessly order a ridiculously complicated cup of coffee that somehow needs 16 words to order.

what i really hate is when i have to enter "starbucks" in my checkbook register twice in one day. it's not pretty. if you were to read my checkbook register (what's wrong with you? why would you do that? give me back my checkbook) you would probably see, more than once, and entry for "starbucks" for $4.65, followed immediately by an entry with the same date for "don't judge me." $4.65.

ugh. i'm pretty sure in the starbucks vs. me battle, i have come out the loser. i have been tried, as it were, and found wanting. wanting that $100 per month i spend on coffee. for crying out loud... that's disgusting.

i love four-day weekends

and haven't had one since i got out of the army.

but starting tomorrow... four wonderful days off. how exciting. no skirts, slacks, boots, sweaters or blouses for four days. no driving to tahoe in a snowstorm, no real estate ads.

also, i get to meet jessi davis for lunch, which is pretty exciting, and not just because i've been craving chorizo for nearly three weeks.

coffee with dad after prayer meeting... good times.

and you know what i found out? if i devote just a little time to communion with my Lord before bed... not just reading the word, but some one on one facetime with Jesus... if i don't fall exhausted into bed with the cares of the day on my mind but hang out with Him for a few minutes and just talk... i don't have to wake up under it every single day.

man. God is good beyond anything you could imagine. He continually amazes me.

Lord, let me never get so comfortable that i cease to be amazed by You.

satan loses. it says so in the book

so i picked up the paper this morning to discover that reno has just had it's first (and by the grace of God, last) school shooting.

apparently a student at one of the reno middle schools took a gun to school and shot at another student twice, wounding him in the arm. A ricochet bullet also wounded another student.

a teacher talked the shooter into putting down the gun and that was the end of the incident.

and all i could think was, thank You, JESUS.

not one child killed. Praise God. not one. haha.

we win.

grace

"Heaven knows, i'm coming back this time

i'm guilty of this crime

that i've been walking out on You

i've run across the world

and walked in barren lands

You've knocked this fool right to the floor

i'm coming back again"

is it too late in the year to ask for snow boots for my birthday?

i just went out to my car to sweep off the foot of snow that has accumulated since i parked it outside my office.

and now these stupid loafers are full of snow. haha

good times.

so i'll let my words be few...

Jesus i am so in love with You.

these are things that i know

let me just share with you a few notable events and things you probably already know about kate.

an iraqi policeman once proposed to me and promised that when we went back to America he would leave his other two wives and all 12 children behind.

one time, a doctor tried to point out to me that there was not and old lady in my hospital bed with me and i held up my right arm and asked triumphantly, "well who's arm is this then?". 107.7 was my temperature when my landlord found me unconcious in my apartment in korea. that was noteworthy as far as i was concerned.

i get a disability check every month for a skin disease. what? i know. what if i were to get a disabled veteran license plate? then when i got out of my car people would wonder what leg-less old man i beat up and stole a car from.

i've been healed of a skin disease. noteworthy? most certainly.

when i was a child i had countless nightmares in which a kidnapper would come to my house, politely ask my parents' permission to kidnap me, and upon acquiring it, take me away.

i cannot whistle.

i am insufferable about military movies. i mean seriously. i am a geek when it comes to military movies. don't watch one with me. i will point out every inconsistency i see even if i don't know what i'm talking about. sheesh. i do not like people like that.

that stupid pit bull puppy is kind of growing on me. kind of.

i met a lady named kate on a subway in washington, d.c. she was carrying a t-square and she gave me her business card. this woman draws tuna fish for a living. i'm not kidding. pictures of tuna fish. she draws them.

i will turn 23 next week.

i met a man named faye who has been a gunner in the air force, an army photographer and a zooologist and had 2 strokes. he has killed a man-eating tiger in indonesia, saved two nearly-extinct species of birds and run the isthmus of panama 6 times over a 50-year period...2 hours faster the last time than the first. i saw news articles, pictures and a piece of tiger skin to prove it too. noteworthy? i should say so.

i have tasted the amazing grace of an amazing God. I am in love Himself and out i will not go.

psalm 149.6

let the high praises of God be in their mouth

and a two-edged sword in their hand

my enemy is already overcome

why do i refuse to acknowledge it in my actions?

deliverance is sure

victory is certain

praise

peace

praise

Lord increase my faith

hey guys

hey david, guess what, buddy? we're all on the right track. we're getting closer to where we're called to be. fun? rarely. awesome and exciting? most definitely yes.

and kelly? you encouraged me very very much this morning. thank you.

Lord

thank You for abundant grace.

also, while we're on the subject, for being incredibly faithful in the midst of my faithlessness.

ugh

Lord

i need some grace today...

Jesus...what can i say about You?

so for anyone who doesn't know... i met this girl a few months back. she thinks she's a witch. that's not Christianese for a less polite word, i mean she is involved in witchcraft... one of the biggest vices here in the mission field we call carson city.

and you thought gambling and prostitution were our problems didn't you? haha.

but this girl... it's so obvious that she's trying so hard to be something she's not. she's not a pagan. she's a sweet, lost, dying girl.

and i've never in my life known more clearly than i did the moment i met her that i was face to face with a divine appointment. amazingly, i still screwed it up. i choked.

but God, being the amazing, merciful God that He is, placed her a second time in my path, months later, and this time i jumped at the opportunity. it's not often you get a second chance like that.

anyway... most of this is old news. but i got to hang out with her last night. and even though she's still so hardcore set on her beliefs (seemingly) i can see changes. it's like everytime i see her i get to minister to her a little more deeply. which is cool because i feel so inept most of the time. but the miracle, my friends, is in the hearer. never forget that.

and it would be easy to believe that someone like this could never be saved ... if you were an idiot. but i believe in a powerful God who's arm is not too short to save. a God who saved saul of tarsus and, possibly even more amazingly, who saved me.

and i know that He put her in my path for a reason. He has so clearly claimed her soul for His kingdom. the question now is not "if" but "when." she very much thinks she wants to go to hell but He will fight her every step of the way and i will plead the precious and powerful blood of Jesus over her life.

Jessi Davis you will live.

oh for crying out loud

when will we learn that "freedom of speech" and the right to a captive audience are not the same thing?

can you imagine if the comments had come from a conservative viewpoint, the red-faced fury that would be spewing from the tolerance and diversity crowd?

this one's even worse. i mean come on. we're not even pretending anymore, are we?

thank you ... so much

amy! for finally getting the action lowered. you're wonderful.

song 5.16

His mouth is most sweet,

yes, He is altogether lovely.

This is my Beloved

and this is my Friend
O daughters of Jerusalem

the Lord will perfect that which concerns me

is that the most amazing thing i can imagine? yes.

i don't know if i've mentioned this before but i hate the word blog. i hate it so much. ugh.

now.

i finally got all the wet stuff out of the garage last night to prevent mold. didn't want to do it but i did. it wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it would be. not even close. i had the night to myself and it was actually kind of nice.

the heating unit or whatever that caused the flood was located just above and slightly in front of katie's study desk. amazingly, all the water flooded forward, and somehow (i can't see how at all) her books and computer were untouched. thank You Jesus.

unrelatedly... when was the last time you read psalm 138? or better yet, prayed it out loud?

in the day when i cried out to You,
You answered me and made me bold
with strength in my soul.

actually just read it. and 139.

and 119.

might as well just set aside some time.