No Wheat/No Dairy

A few years ago I found out my body has trouble processing enriched wheat flour so I switched to mainly eating 100% whole wheat products. Now I've found out that I really shouldn't be eating ANY WHEAT or DAIRY. This has been quite a shocker to say the least. A few minor panic attacks, some tears (well maybe just some hardcore pouting), and nightmares of myself with buckteeth eating tree nuts for the rest of my life have left me scrambling onto the internet scouting out what I CAN eat. Since one of my favorite things to eat are noodles and cheese this has been rather difficult. I can also remember as a kid choosing a tall glass of milk as my bedtime snack, and then another, and then another, but getting righfully cut-off by my mom. So anyway, I'm trying to look at the positive of it all. I feel bad for Dan. I've always been somewhat of a bland eater, and he does ok with that, but tonight when I made brown rice, chicken, and vegtables we both looked at it and started laughing at how awesome this was not going to be! He used some cheese and a couple of different types of seasonings and said it actually wasn't too bad. I used a tiny bit of butter with no milk product in it and we got through it. I'll keep searching for what I CAN eat and in the meantime eat some ice cream for me!

Frank and Sally

Here they are. I caught them this morning hanging out resting between meals! Suki "talks" to them through some unidentified language and Meeko has staring contests with them. Riker pees around their tree to establish dominance.

Random Thoughts From the Dornfeld's

-I'll admit, I complained way too soon about the cold weather and school. We ended up having TWO days off from school....ha! It was fun to sleep in those mornings
-we realize that we have so much to be thankful for....through a lot of heartache and tough times we still thank God for so many things...our family, friends, our health, new friends, stable jobs, and many more
-lots of things to look forward to in 09......visiting Dad in Mazatlan this spring, a couples weekend in March, possibly boarding and skiing with some students in February
-my sweet and awesome cousin Jill came to visit last weekend....we had a great time shopping, talking, laughing, finding fun places to go, and most importantly car dancing....it's so much easier...you don't have to use your legs and you've got so many more moves...according to my hilarious and witty "sister"
-a little nervous about my class I have to take to update my Minnesota teaching license...it's hard to go back to school after being out for 6 years!
-we have the coolest new pets...their names are Frank and his wife's name is Sally. They are both healthy and vibrant cardinals. They live in the tree directly outside our dining room window and they are SO beautiful...I know they are only birds, but I had never seen a cardinal in person before. I know, I know, too much excitement at our house, but they are so awesome. I'll try to sneak a picture one of these days as each time I put food out for them they show up immediately. The cats love them too, of course
-we have an offer in on our Bismarck house! We are supposed to close on February 27th...pray that everything goes through!
-it's a secret, but Dan doesn't mind watching "The Bachelor" tv show with me........oh man, he's going to be so mad I put that here:)

A Day to Remember

January, 20th 2009 marked a monumental day in history as Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President. His supporters are anxiously waiting a major change in how American Government is run. Some of his adversaries aren't so sure about him and are having feelings of distrust and disappointment all the way up to feeling anxiously scared that he is the anti-christ. I am a supporter for Obama, but for me I'm mainly excited about yesterday because a black man was elected President and to me it makes me so proud. So proud that our country has made one more step in fighting racism and stereotypes of races that are non-white. It was only 53 years ago that Rosa Parks fought for her right to sit on a bus. If she were alive she'd be 95 years old. What an amazing day this would be for her........................

On that note, I wanted to share something that I learned in my Human and Relations class. My Tuesdays get REALLY long with getting out of class after 9 pm up in St. Cloud and then having to drive 40 more minutes, but I am grateful for the experience I am getting. I'm learning so much already.....things about other cultures and groups in America that I otherwise would have never known. Did you know that Mexican Americans don't really appreciate being called Hispanic? Or that all of the major news networks are ultimately controlled and can be traced back to "certain" corporations that ultimately decide what is put in the news leaving out, sometimes, very important information. What America heard on the news about Hurricane Katrina and what happened afterwards are not always as accurate or forthgiving of ALL the information. Anyway, my professor is encouraging us to not only read/watch major network news, but to subscribe or read free alternative press that offers news on a different perspective than the generally conservative American networks. www.motherjones.com is one of them. Check it out and see what you think for yourself. I know I will make sure to read both sides of a story to get the FULL picture.

Expectations.....and whose are they?

This word has been on my mind lately, actually since we moved and joined our new congregation. At our old church I didn't feel other people's expectations on me as much. I did spend a lot of my time with our student's chaperoning missions trips and building relationships with them. It was obviously easier for me to do with Dan being our youth pastor. Later I started getting involved with a funeral during the summer when I wasn't working. I did this because I felt called to and had we stayed would have continued during the summers. I don't know quite what it was just that I'm a people person, wasn't working, and it "popped" into my head more than once that I could and would want to try that, so I did it.

Our message today (from Dan;) was all about "hearing the call from God" and being open and listening to it. Sometimes we ignore it. How do you decipher when/where you are being called? I know there have been times I've ignored God's call only to hear it dimly in the background. Eventually it becomes so clear that I can't deny it anymore. Helping at funerals for example...I didn't offer to help the first time it popped in my head, it was probably the 3rd or 4th time.

So how do you tell the difference between God calling you or someone's expectation of you? Dan has always been SO good about this. He treats me like any other congregation member and doesn't expect me to do things just because I am his wife. These expectations are not from him. When someone approaches me and tells me that they think I should do this or that I get a weird and anxious feeling. I don't like it that's for sure.

Dan hadn't even been installed at our new church and I was already asked to be the vice president of an organization in our church. I wish I felt honored, but I didn't and I don't. Every intuitive nerve in my body tells me that it's not God calling me to do this, but it's an expectation of humans that the pastor's wife is "supposed" to do things like this. I've never even participated in this organization before let alone I'd have to lead it a year from now. How about an invitation to join them first or a we'd love to have you instead of a we think you need to do this. Every time I'm approached with a request with the expectation that I do this, I pull further and further away from even wanting to join them at all in the future. Is there a discriminatory term for this, you ask the pastor's wife to do everything because she's supposed to. I'll call it pastoral spouse expectivisim.

Don't get me wrong, I really like our new church. I just don't like some of the expectations some of them are putting on me. I don't buy into stereotypes that that's just what pastor's wives do. That might be ok for some, but not me. I am my own person. I have a name, a personality, a sense of humor, a brain, likes and dislikes. I have my own opinions, feelings, prayers, and hurts. I am NOT just Dan's wife. I don't want a label and frankly the more people try to put one on me the more I push away. More importantly my God has expectations for me and places he wants me to be, things he wants me to do and if I'm running around filling everyone else's expectations and not his then I don't think that's right.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to feel and be called by God, not by people who think I should be doing something because it's the stereotypical role a pastor's wife has taken on. I know that those expectations will NEVER go away, but it at least feels better to somewhat vent about it. To remain true to myself and then to calmly and patiently listen to where I am truly feeling called by God.

There it is..........becoming a Befriender in our church has now popped into my head twice today. Hmmm.........maybe that's God calling? We'll see;)

It's Cold!

Need we say more! Here's a brainteaser on the weather tonight. Can you figure out what it means?

Sorry, my job tends to bring out my creative side. I sometimes get stuck outside of the box!

I can't sleep tonight as I'm wide awake and extremely crabby that every other school district in the whole state of Minnesota is either closed or 2 hours late and we're not. We do whatever St. Cloud does, but when you compare and contrast the two school districts you'll find the major difference is a word by the name of "rural". Rural means one who lives in the country. Country means wide open spaces. Wide open spaces means possible blowing snow. Blowing snow means icy roads. Icy roads means a longer commute to work. Going back to rural/country and the fact that it's -24/-50 something windchill that means EXTRA time to get to work! Do you think they'd believe me if I showed up two hours late and said it was so darn cold my car wouldn't start.....even when it was in the garage?

And I thank you for listening to me rant about that!

By the way, I just gave you the answer too!

8 hours later........I have been corrected. I got a call this morning at 5:45 saying SCHOOL IS CANCELLED! Me+Sleeping in= :)

Welcome Back to Work

We've been MIA for awhile.....we're actually huddled around either our heating vents, blow dryer, or fireplace trying to stay warm. Suki is so cold she's even tried to burrow herself into a pile of underwear and socks on our bed, clean ones mind you:) That's right, you heard me correctly as well. Suki is now allowed to venture back upstairs when we are home. She practically races up the stairs when we let her out and runs from window to window or dives for one of the beds and falls alseep. The kitty prozac seems to be working and she's adjusted to her dosage as she no longer wobbles and slurs her words.

We enjoyed our Christmas break, but accidentally deleted ALL of our pictures:( Well, I accidentally deleted them all. We went to Mayville, Jamestown, and then Bismarck. It was hard to come back home and we both agreed we probably should have waited at least a few more months to go back to Bismarck.....too hard to leave and we actually ended up staying an extra day.

On another note I thought I'd leave this post with the image I received as I returned to my 60 degree office this past Monday morning. It's not everyday that one is greeted by a furry friend! We don't know how long we laid there, just that he didn't smell yet......