Evil Ducks

Ducks, they are sweet, harmless, kind creatures that bring up such images as yellow rubber duckies in a child's bubble bath, Donald Duck and his lisp, or a line of baby white ducklings following their mother. I do not think of evil, demonic, hitmen ducks who loiter outside your car waiting to attack you as you pick up your morning coffee.

A few weeks ago I stopped at my local Starbucks. As I pull into a parking space by the sidewalk I notice two ducks waddling around in front of the store fronts. DUCKS on the sidewalk. There is a creek, small river, drainage ditch about 300 yards away on the other side of some parking lots and a shopping center. I can only assume that this is where these ducks originated from, but now they had taken up residence in front of a dry cleaners and donut shop (I'm not sure which one was their primary destination).

I know you're thinking: "So? It's ducks, Katie, bit deal." Well these were not cute little white ducks with yellow bills but weird looking ducks with black and white feathers and red bills. Demonic Ducks! And I'm convinced they were staring at me. Since I felt silly pulling out of my parking space and moving my car I went ahead and got out and just hurried in the other direction to complete my coffee run.

As I walked back to my car I noticed the ducks were now directly in front of my car as if they were waiting for me. And, like any normal person, I had a momentary freak out. What was I supposed to do with two ducks blocking my car. Are they attack ducks? Do they want my coffee? Have I, unbeknown to me, started some sort of poultry war?

I mustered up my courage and began to walk to my car door thinking if I ignored them they would ignore me. WRONG! Duck #1, the aggressive one, starts waddling toward me. TOWARD ME! In this moment I wasn't sure what to do, so I scurried (yes I'm a wuss) to the door, hopped in my car, and promptly locked my door. I'm not sure if I thought the duck would somehow grow in height and develop hands or if maybe he was some sort of ninja duck who could jump up to my window and open my car door with his webbed feet.

From the confines of my car I looked out at this duck now staring at me through my window and I had to laugh at myself. I had just run from a duck, a demonic duck, but a duck no less. I live a very peculiar life.

So what I'm going with the next time I have to wear a nametag

Home

Last night, my grandfather was called home by His Lord and Savior. He joins my grandmother who passed away three years ago and they are both now delighting in the presence of our gracious and loving God.

I rejoice that they are together again, that they are free from the trappings of this world, but mostly I rejoice that they have finished the race set before them and have heard the words "Well done my good and faithful servant." This life they lived on earth was but a vapor compared to the eternity they begin in the presence of a God who called them to Him, loved them to the point of the death of His Son, and now delights as they worship Him in His presence.
I wrote this post three years ago about the death of my grandmother and it rings so true to what my heart is feeling now with my grandfather's death. I miss them both dearly and yearn for the day I will once again be with them, as we join together at the throne of God.

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Planning and Thinking (I'm multi-tasking)

I'm up to my eyeballs in VBS stuff. Well maybe not literally, but at least up to my knees in boxes and decorations and crafts and referee jerseys and raglan shirts and tents and fake turf and then just the regular Sunday stuff.

But I am ruminating on a topic. So I put forth to you a few questions. When you hear the word beauty what do you think of? How would you define beauty? And, is beauty important to you?

Think before you speak

TRUST ME ON THIS ONE.

It can save you from a red face and the sound of laughter surrounding you at all times.

Oh, and if you do mis-speak be ready for whatever you said to be shared with everyone you know.


SIGH.

Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside

"You were TOTALLY cool before cool was cool."

And then I danced

In two weeks I will be running my first-ever VBS. Oh, I spent 6 years working at summer camp and worked for 6 years in a school but for some reason I'm filled with a mixture of excitement and total and utter fear over this excursion into the world of kiddo day-camp. Maybe it's because I'm in charge, me, of about 100 kiddos. Luckily our old children's director is helping (she's a pro) and we have amazing volunteers but to be honest I would feel more comfortable running a meeting, organizing a business plan, or doing anything with statistics (did I mention I'm a nerd).

The best part of all this is that I get to show off my goofy side (which usually doesn't appear in those business plan meetings I was mentioning earlier) because along with two other ladies, I'm leading our singing and worshiping time . . . on stage . . . dancing.

This of course means that for the last two weeks anytime I'm in my car I'm listening to the 13 or so songs that we'll be singing and dancing (I use this term loosely mind you) to in two weeks. The ironic part, I like them. In fact I ROCK out to them. With choreography even.

See we make up movements (the loosely termed dancing) to go with the songs because that gets the kids more involved and participating. So for the last two weeks not only have I been listening to, singing along with, and generally rocking out to the music, I've also been car-dancing with possible movements.

I know I must look like a nut to the other drivers out there on the road, and if they could hear what I'm singing to I would be more entertaining. But for the next two weeks if you see a blond doing her own choreographed show in her car give a honk cause it's probably me.