losing things, both right and left

This has been a week of great loss.
It seems that no matter what I do, I keep misplacing my teeth.
First, last Sunday night, I suddenly found myself without my favorite front tooth.
It had been with me for years, and then, tragically, it was gone.

There was some reconciliation from a certain fairy we all know and love. She both brought me a dollar the following morning and then mailed me another dollar a few days later. I tried placing her handwriting, but to no avail.

Here I am, just five days later, trying to ignite the love I had for my first front tooth with its neighbor, and it decides to get lost as well. I am feeling abandoned. Even worse, toothless.

I sit here typing in hope of additional financial reparations for these disturbances in my life. but no matter the return in cold hard cash, you cannot replace a good work of enamel that has seen you through many an apple and carrot.

fear on the inside, courage on the outside

Daddy gave me until the end of the weekend to lose my front tooth. It had been loose for a while and had this nasty habit of bleeding everywhere.
He distracted me with a trip to Dairy Queen, which he bought and paid for with 'pick a bucket of acorns' child labor. We were discussing him pulling the teeth and while I was paying attention to Mommy's questions, Daddy reached in and pulled the tooth out.
I wanted to make a big deal and cry a good bit, but it wasn't all that bad. Swished some warm salt-water and then off to get a Chocolate Dipped Cone.

Braces and Sleepovers

Alexa got her braces a couple days ago and she is going to a sleepover at my house on Friday & Saturday night!!!.

And a couple weeks ago we went to Alexia's Birthday Party!!. And got a manicure & a face mask. !!.

Duplicity

God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die'... the serpent said to the woman 'You surely shall not die!'... all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.
Genesis 3:3-4; 5:3-5

God told Adam he would die if he acted according to the serpent. But Adam fell curious about experiences beyond his Creator/Sustainer and trusted that he would continue to live: 'Surely if I touch and ate of this simple fruit I will not cease to be... such is irrational'. And you know, the serpent was correct; Adam's disobedience turned out not that big of a deal as he piles on another 800 years enjoying creation, fat and happy.

"This... bread..., one may eat of it and not die... if anyone shall eat of this bread, he shall live forever.'
John 6:50-51

Every person Jesus was speaking to here died. As far as we know, none of them extended their days beyond standard expectations. Ironically, those who chose to eat Jesus' bread failed to match the 800 years which the 'Surely you'll die' Adam enjoyed. Jesus was incorrect; the disciples were fooled... they ate of His bread oand did not live to see the fall of Jerusalem.
God has it backwards in both of these passages: He predicts death but allows life; He promises life but watches death overtake.
That is, unless life as God creates and defines is more than the blood flowing through our veins, neurons firing within our cranium. If by faith we believe that Jehovah Father and Jesus Son knew what they were speaking of regarding the death and life of 'life', we must search out what it is they understand of their creation.
We naturally estimate existence beyond matter... somehow beyond what we ourselves see and feel. Those who deny this seem to do so at great effort on their part, insisting such a belief and then finding a means to its end.

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourself.
John 6:53
If by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus [the] Christ.
Romans 5:17

These claims are a-rational and ridiculous. However, they are at the root of the greatest single force in history. Life is duplicitous; there is some part of us both physical and not. There are answered and unanswered questions about what it is within us that is not physical... answers we have spent history searching, only to begin anew with the passing of generation to generation. We may have clean skin, fresh breath and pure lungs, yet be found an apostate. We may walk the land in frailty and leprosy, yet be sought out as a living saint.

Let us acknowledge the fullness of life in both the physical and spiritual, seek harmony with our Maker and look to His Spirit, His words and fellow saints for guidance to do so.

root, root-root for the home country

210 medals
we dominated table tennis & women's doubles tennis, synchronized diving & non-synchronized diving, women's gymnastics with those using original birth certificates & women's gymnastics with those using revised birth certificates, women's weightlifting & men's swimming...

it's a good day to be a chinese american

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
USA	36	38	36	110
CHN	51	21	28	100