Caitlin Nicole Babcock MA-IPCR

Caitlin graduated from grad school!!! She is now officially a Master of Peace and Conflict Resolution. I am so proud of her!!

Headed to the school for pre-graduation prep ... We may have been a little late.

Robing up! But only for pictures. There was still 2.5 hours until the ceremony.

Cait's "International Peace and Conflict Resolution" cohort.

(Not a great quality pic, but you get the idea.)

This is the fourth time I've been to a Caitlin Babcock graduation and I'm still so proud of the girl!!

The Babcock family. Notice the fifth member? Yay Emily! Only 2 more weeks until she's officially a Babcock.

She did it!!!

Caitlin and her friend Maureen right after they got their official diplomas.

At the celebratory dinner afterwards. We went to a fabulous Italian restaurant and they surprised Cait with a "congratulations" strawberry and cookie plate.

 

 

 

KJV word ... Concupiscence

Two things you may not know about me ...

1) I am a King James Version girl through and through. I grew up reading the King James and it's my go-to version now. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate other versions (some of them), because I do use them sometimes, but my KJV Bible is the one that gets the most (basically all) the use.

2) I love the 1828 Webster's Dictionary. Love it! It's my favorite dictionary of all time.


Put those two together and what do you have? A Christine that understands what she's reading :) You see, as much as I love the KJV, even I have to admit that sometimes there are words that make absolutely no sense to me. For example - today I was reading in Romans 7 and I came across the word "concupiscence" ... no clue what that means! But all I have to do is take out my handy dandy (heavy!) 1828 Webster's and ta-da! Now I know what the verse says.

So, I thought I'd be helpful to all of you KJVers out there and let you know the meanings of the old English words that we don't use anymore as I come across them. Sound like a plan?


CONCUPISCENCE ...
"Lust; unlawful or irregular desire of sexual pleasure. In a more general sense, the coveting of carnal things, or an irregular appetite for worldly good; inclination for unlawful enjoyments."

(in case you were wondering - this word is in a whopping 3 verses in the Bible - Romans 7:8; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:5)

Look who's blogging!

The plan was to let the blog go, because clearly I'm terrible at it. But I kind of like to blog and I want a place I can write about life from time to time. So let's catch up, and then we'll see if anything gets posted on here ever again ...

Since I last posted ...

* I go to a new church [very interesting considering I was at the last one for 14 years, but I love the new place!]
* I got a new car [it's a 2003 Honda CRV and it's beautiful!]
* I have a new job [the daycare I worked at is closing :( Now I'm a nanny for 2 adorable little people that I LOVE. If I blog more you'll be seeing them often!]

Those are the big things ... the little things will show up in time :)

-Christine

hahaha ... Maybe I'll post 6 times this year.

Wow ... all I ever say on this blog is "sorry for not posting" or "I'll be posting more soon" or "I don't have internet access at home!!" (still don't by the way). Oh well, I guess I'll just post when I think of it and you can all read if you want when you think about it. That should work out well :)

Guess what? I'm going off sugar. Completely. At least for the next 3 months.
No candy, chocolate, desserts, cookies, etc ... but also nothing that has sugar in it (like bread and a million other things that you wouldn't expect to see sugar in).
Not fun, but necessary.
Actually ... I'm kind of looking forward to the results. I'm hoping to feel better physically, but I also have a feeling that my wonderful God will be teaching me some spiritual lessons through all of this. Like self control ... that's never been a strong point for me.

I had my coffee with cinnamon in it this morning instead of sugar. Yech! It will definitely take some getting used to.

Prayer Request

A friend of mine (she has asked to remain anonymous) has been told by her doctor that she may not live through the night. She has cancer and had stopped responding to treatments a month or so ago. I, along with her family and many of her friends, believe that this is not to be the end for her. God still has more glory to get out of her life. So, I am asking that those of you that believe that God heals would pray for the healing of this sister.

Thank you.

Memories ...

Tonight is one of those nights where you take the time to think back on your life ... all of the people and the little moments that made you into the person you are. And I have to say - although tonight that look into the past is making me rather sad and melancholy - I have had a really, really great life. Raised by both of my parents. Spent much of my time in church. Always had friends I could call on. Did well in school. But most importantly - I had a God I could always, always, always rely on. No matter what. He was always there. And He will always be there. And not just for me - for everyone that follows Him.

That was just a reminder to all of you - God is real. And He loves you.

Hey look, I'm posting on my blog!

As you can see, I am again making changes to my little corner of the internet world. Trying to put together a blog that says, "Hi, I'm Christine. Now please forget about me and focus on how wonderful my God is." Easier said than done, especially when you don't have internet access at home (this is a recurring issue for me). BUT, I am going to try to post once in a while ... really ... I am ... pinky swear ... (note the word TRY).

PAUSE

Hi everybody! Since I apparently have decided that I'm not going to be writing on here very often, none of you know that I'm at a leadership/discipleship/ministry training in the middle of the USA for the next 8 weeks (I've already been here for a week). I have SO much that I want to type out here and let all of you know about, but I've decided instead to put the blog on hold until I get home. I found that just thinking about what I wanted to share and how I wanted to share it was very distracting. And I want as few distractions as possible right now. I've dedicated and set apart these 9 weeks for the Lord and I want to keep them that way.

When I get home I will either be closing this blog or changing it all around. My life and thoughts have gone in a new direction (a wonderful new direction) and if I choose to keep this blog I'm definitely going to make it more of an extension of the new me.

I hope all of you will still be around in 8 weeks. Because if I choose to keep this blog I think it will end up being pretty inspiring. God is definitely working.

See you in 8 weeks!! :)

Allergy testing and H2O

The newest round of tests for my itchiness are allergy tests. I had the environmental test two weeks ago. They pricked me with 14 different allergens. Turns out I'm allergic to cats, tree pollen and dust mites. Now I'm in the midst of a chemical test where they put patches of the chemicals most commonly used in everyday cleaners and shampoos and stuff like that on your back and leave them there for 2-3 days. We'll see how that goes.

This morning I showed the patches to the boys I nanny. The oldest one (he's 6) was super interested and asked lots of questions. And when I told him the patches were bothering me he very sweetly offered to let me smell the cleaners in his house and he would watch to see if I sneezed. Later on he asked me if I was allergic to H2O. I said no and then he asked if there is carbon dioxide in H2O. Instead of answering him I asked him some questions of my own:
Me: "What does the H stand for?"
6-year-old: "Hydrogen."
Me: "Right. And what does the O stand for?"
6-year-old: "Oxygen."
Me: "Right. So is there carbon dioxide in water?"
6-year-old: "No, but there are two Oxygen atoms and one Hydrogen atom."
Me: "Umm ... Right."
He's too smart for me. :)

This is probably materialistic of me ...

But I want an iPad. Mostly because I want to be able to update my blog from anywhere. I have all kinds of adorable things in my head to tell you during the week, but I rarely succeed at actually getting them on my blog. So sad.

The thing is, I don't even really want an iPad. Too distracting. I need an update-bloginator. Someone should invent that.