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Posted At: 11:15am by Rachel Engebretson
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I know this probably shouldn't be so exciting...I mean, everyone has them now...
And so do I! Yay!
I wanted to hug my English teacher when she said we needed one for the class.
"I can buy a flash drive? You mean...I have to now?"
She looked at me the same way a cow does at an oncoming train.
It's really insane how much I love my new toy.
"Check it out! It's this tiny piece of metal...And you insert it in his USB port here...and then, you put stuff in it! Is that not amazing!!! Okay, now watch me take it out again..."
I'm almost scared to see what will happen when I buy my first computer.
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Posted At: 9:50pm by Rachel Engebretson
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Besides the fact I've been cutting back on coffee and still maintaining a decent level of a sane outward appearance, I've been doing pretty good the past few weeks. I feel I should write a blog post now, to fill in the blanks before I write another. Yes, that was obvious. Bear with me.
I'm getting comfortable with the fact that I'm a senior now, only one more year of high school and I can break free of that joint and actually start learning. I walked through the halls today, finding my locker, and wondering...maybe it truly was disturbing if I felt the school had become my second home, complete with taxpayer-funded evolutionists for science teachers.
On a really happy note, the more I work at the vet clinic, the more secure I am in my goal of being a veterinarian. I yearn for the day that I can walk in a room, have a decent conversation with the client about actual medical matters, give a shot, sound smart, and walk out without having to mop up afterwards.
Of course, I know it's not that easy. I'm joking, mostly.
Not having a lot of time on the computer, I've borrowed minutes here and there trying to sort out the psyche that is MouthHouse. I've come to the conclusion that it is a much more complicated beast than I eariler anticipated. I probably won't be able to figure it out, not even close. I admire Stan and Pastor B for taking so much time to think it out. There's no "True solution" at all. It's...almost that simple. Mouthhouse is like a country full of a certain group of people, and then years later, having another group of people move in unsuspectingly with green cards and temporary Visas - oh wait, never mind. Wrong comparision.
Anyway, I feel as though Higher Things as a whole will never be ripped apart, regardless of what happens internally, or even externally. We're too close for that. Our sixth sense that allows the MouthHouse kids to find each other in conferences, regardless of thousands in a crowd, will probably never let us cease from adapting to new situations. Change has been happening for a long time, and like a bacterial skin infection, the end result is what seems huge, while problems have always existed. (Okay, ignore the horrific analogy there.) This may sound incredibly liberal of me, but perhaps change is good.
If you're completely confused now, that's great. We can be completely confused together. :-)
I just thank God all the time for the wonderful friends I have through Higher Things. It's like a support group, Misunderstood Lutheran Confessional Teens Anonymous! Or not! But close, right....? Maybe? No? You still with me?
I'm suddenly craving sleep, like a pregnant woman craves pickles with ice cream.
Why not.
Goodnight, everyone.
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Posted At: 9:32pm by Rachel Engebretson
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Okay, so my whole "Post a couple times a week" goal didn't quite play out. I think it went as well as my "Eat less Nutty Bars" goal and my "Try to save gas by running on empty for several miles!!!" goal. Neeeeah...Doesn't work.
My excuse for not posting is probably because I've...uh...
Been working?
Sure, let's go with that!
I love my job at the vet clinic. But I probably haven't posted because I haven't really been on a rant long enough to type it and subject others to it. But oh well.
Okay, so last night...My family watched the Corpse Bride. You know, that Tim Burton movie. It's basically about this man betrothed to a woman he hasn't met, and then being dragged into this freak-Purgatory-like underworld where skeletons do dance numbers and he's suddenly married to another skeleton, who happens to not do dance numbers. Thank goodness.
So, at one point, it seems as though he's married and/or in a relationship to two women at once. He's only met one of the women for less than 5 minutes, and they're suddenly in love. Then he marries for the sake of it. What kind of message is this sending to our young children?? Just kidding, I'm sure the writers didn't mean to suggest a legal loosening including polygamous relationships under civil unions. Not at all.
Does this post have a point? Not really.
Maybe I could do another post on my experiences in the vet clinic. Yet that might be gross.
Lysol and vomit do not mix, people. I'm just saying.
Okay, so maybe my next post will be a little more constructive...And only watch the Corpse Bride if you enjoy alternative lifestyles and musicals with dead people. And if you dig the Tim Burton soundtrack deal, then yes, it's good stuff.
It's a Monday, what can I say...
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Posted At: 8:18pm by Rachel Engebretson
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My dad recently returned from the North Wisconsin district convention, and gave me one of the super cool new Luther's Small Catechisms. Thanks, Dad, it rocks!
Besides looking good (Maroon vs. Blue...) I'm digging the appendix. Very handy stuff about the church year, salvation passages, symbols and what not.
Okay, now you can go back to your lives and regular programming...But check out the catechism. It's Luther-friendly! 
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Posted At: 9:57am by Rachel Engebretson
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To jump right into the story, our church has had a long-standing tradition (Gotta love those) of holding Sunday school on holidays. So, naturally, there was hardly anyone in Sunday school, and even less people to teach on Easter.
“Rachel will do it!”
So, in no time at all, I found myself in front of a small classroom of bright-eyed boys, with only a Bible and a white-board to save me. There was a kid with ADHD, and another kid who smiled at ADHD. Well, at least he’s smiling.
Now for a lesson.
It just so happens that Bibles and white-boards, while helpful, do not create Sunday school lessons. So I resorted to the age-old art of stalling and making meaningless small talk while my brain searched for a lesson. ADHD did his best in responding to it. He climbed on the table.
“No climbing on the table, Jonathan,” I said, trying to make helpful advice.
“BORING!” he screamed.
“Good call,” I responded. “Thanks for the suggestion. We’ll have a boring lesson today. Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3.”
Jonathan sucked on a popsicle cross while the other kid sighed and did what he was told.
“I’ll try to make this enlightening chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans as fun and interesting as possible,” I said while scribbling on the white board. “Happy Easter, by the way.”
“I like eggs,” said Jonathan.
I figured outlining the basics of faith would be a good Sunday school lesson. Come on, what do they usually do, talk about Bible stories? Oh wait…Woops…
JUSTIFIED. I wrote that in big letters on the board. “We’re going to talk about justification. It’s a very important concept,” I said. “So let’s break it down. First, “just”, which means legal, right, correct…”
“What does the last part mean?” asked Jonathan.
“Um, it’s just a suffix…”
“Fried!” he said. “Just-i-fried!”
“No no no…” I said. “It’s “fied…”
“You mean fried, like in French fries? So we’re fried in Jesus?”
Mouth agape, I tried not to picture in my mind how various marketing companies of the secular society would run with that horrific theological analogy. Imagining Joel Osteen saying, “Be fried in Jesus, folks!” didn’t help either.
Finding my grip slipping on these people, I had no choice but to use it to my advantage.
“You’re fried,” I said, pointing to Jonathan. He quit his giggling. “Like French fries,” he repeated.
“No,” I said. “When something is fried, it’s dead. You’re dead in your sins. You’re fried on this world by yourself.”
He sat down, playing with the popsicle cross again, but was listening.
I pointed to the cross I drew on the white board. “This is how we’re justified,” I said. “We were fried in our sins, and guilty, but Christ took our place and became our sin. Because of this, in faith, we are not fried anymore.”
Jonathan stared at me. “Okay,” he said.
I sighed in relief. My impromptu Sunday school hour was over.
Next time we’re going to talk about Noah and the ark, or something simple like that…
Or maybe French fries.
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