Because of a quirky college schedule, my sister drove up from Richmond to spend the weekend. She likes all of the progress in the nursery, which she was a part of painting right from the beginning. She has worked her fall semester so that she has Friday afternoons off, so odds are we'll see her a bit more often!
We enjoyed Maryland Day at the University of Maryland on Saturday. Last minute invite from my brother and SIL, who had come down with their neighbors to enjoy the day. I've lived within walking distance of UofM for something like 15 years now, and have never attended Maryland Day. It was a good time. Basically, they open up the campus to the community and have free shows, the spring football game, and carnival type food.
There were demonstrations at some of the buildings, but we didn't see those until we were in our car headed home. Anny mostly liked the idea of playing with the chemistry students, and my goal is to make sure she gets to do that next time.
Lots of walking, but good times overall!
Sunday was my Ordination Service. (See previous post below) It was neat that my sister happened to be here, and that I guilted her into coming. I was more neat that my grandfather made a special and rare trip back from Rehoboth, DE, for the service. He was ordained as an elder many years ago, and it was special for me to have him there. My aunt also gets a big shout out for doing all of the driving and coming to church too!
Gramps and Pam have been at all of the milestones in my faith journey: Confirmation in 1992, Ordination as a Deacon in 1996 and yesterday's Ordination service.
Because I work in the Presbytery office with a lot of Ministers, and am close to one of my bosses, she came out and participated in the service as well. She has been excited to watch me grow over the past several years, and wanted to be a part of it. I'm glad that she was.
We all had a nice but quick lunch before heading home. A great way to spend a morning.
My sister left late last night so that she can get ready for exams. She had sure better not be reading this blog instead of studying..... I'm just sayin!
A special weekend that could not have gone much better. Now comes the rest of the week.......
April 30, 2007
April 25, 2007
Respect Your Elders!
It's official, so I'll officially blog about it:
I'm going to be an Elder at my church!
For more information, try looking HERE.
Or Wiki HERE.
(Wow, NOTHING on the actual PC(USA) website about what an elder is or does....)
Anyway, the long and short is that in the Presbyterian Church, Elders are the leaders of the church. Our church has a good, strong group of elders as decision makers, which is really important. I know of churches that just throw people there because they're willing to volunteer. I have attended two meetings so far, so that I can hit the ground running in May, and the people on our Session are committed to the mission and ministry of our church.
I'm honored that I was asked, and humbled too. The role comes with responsibility, and I think I'm ready for that responsibility.
The spot became open when someone resigned from the session about halfway through his three year term. I will not comment as to why, except to say that he did not share the same vision for the church as 99% of the congregation. My term, then, will end in December of 2008. I have the option to be re-nominated for a full term after that.
With my history, we joked that I would end up on the Education Committee. I have done Sunday School and youth ministry at other churches, and am wrapping up Confirmation Class at this church in two weeks. Education seemed to be the easy fit.
But it's the middle of the year, and changing things around would not make sense. I was prepared to join any of the committee's. I like the idea of expanding my knowledge to other aspects of the church. The man who left his position was the chair of...... Education. I found out yesterday that I'm going to chair the committee! I've always enjoyed the spectator role in committees. In my work life I have always been in charge of taking notes, which means I could interject when I want to, and use the note taking as an excuse to not participate.
Now I will chair a committee. I'm excited, to be honest. I acknowledge openly that I have confidence issues. To name it: I have no confidence in almost any decision that I make. Now I will have no choice but to at least fake confidence, which will hopefully lead to change in my mindset.
Also - when I thought that the other Elder on the committee was going to be chair, I gave her advice that I don't know that I want to follow. She was nervous about being chair since she had no direction to follow. I told her that with no template, she could run the committee structure how she saw best. Now that I'm in that situation, I find myself grasping for a rule book of some sort!
I'll come up with something. I'm sure I'll write about it, too!
I'm going to be an Elder at my church!
For more information, try looking HERE.
Or Wiki HERE.
(Wow, NOTHING on the actual PC(USA) website about what an elder is or does....)
Anyway, the long and short is that in the Presbyterian Church, Elders are the leaders of the church. Our church has a good, strong group of elders as decision makers, which is really important. I know of churches that just throw people there because they're willing to volunteer. I have attended two meetings so far, so that I can hit the ground running in May, and the people on our Session are committed to the mission and ministry of our church.
I'm honored that I was asked, and humbled too. The role comes with responsibility, and I think I'm ready for that responsibility.
The spot became open when someone resigned from the session about halfway through his three year term. I will not comment as to why, except to say that he did not share the same vision for the church as 99% of the congregation. My term, then, will end in December of 2008. I have the option to be re-nominated for a full term after that.
With my history, we joked that I would end up on the Education Committee. I have done Sunday School and youth ministry at other churches, and am wrapping up Confirmation Class at this church in two weeks. Education seemed to be the easy fit.
But it's the middle of the year, and changing things around would not make sense. I was prepared to join any of the committee's. I like the idea of expanding my knowledge to other aspects of the church. The man who left his position was the chair of...... Education. I found out yesterday that I'm going to chair the committee! I've always enjoyed the spectator role in committees. In my work life I have always been in charge of taking notes, which means I could interject when I want to, and use the note taking as an excuse to not participate.
Now I will chair a committee. I'm excited, to be honest. I acknowledge openly that I have confidence issues. To name it: I have no confidence in almost any decision that I make. Now I will have no choice but to at least fake confidence, which will hopefully lead to change in my mindset.
Also - when I thought that the other Elder on the committee was going to be chair, I gave her advice that I don't know that I want to follow. She was nervous about being chair since she had no direction to follow. I told her that with no template, she could run the committee structure how she saw best. Now that I'm in that situation, I find myself grasping for a rule book of some sort!
I'll come up with something. I'm sure I'll write about it, too!
April 24, 2007
A Good Lesson....
Kind of wish I learned this lesson earlier in life, but this is a funny clip!
Snl_dontbuystuff
Uploaded by shosterman
April 21, 2007
Interesting...
You can now reach me at either http://rob.mdmonroes.com or at the old address.
Please update, though!
Shouts go out to Jason for catching it.
Please update, though!
Shouts go out to Jason for catching it.
April 18, 2007
Welcome to My New Home!
You were just redirected, did you notice?!
Though mdmonroes.com is not fully operational yet, I have only a placeholder on it mainly, I thought it was time to run over my blog.
And I beat Sarah to the punch!! If it was a race, I just won!
Welcome all, to my new place on the web.
**If you are one of the two people that link over to me, please update your links! Thanks.**
Though mdmonroes.com is not fully operational yet, I have only a placeholder on it mainly, I thought it was time to run over my blog.
And I beat Sarah to the punch!! If it was a race, I just won!
Welcome all, to my new place on the web.
**If you are one of the two people that link over to me, please update your links! Thanks.**
April 17, 2007
I Could Not Say More Than:
In response to the pure terror that was April 16 at VA Tech, I don't believe that I can add anything to the things that have been said:
A collection from pastors within our presbytery: http://www.thepresbytery.org/Home/VoicesofFaithVirginiaTechTragedy/tabid/21020/Default.aspx
A Local Pastor: http://web.mac.com/royhoward/iWeb/SayingGrace/Blog/Blog.html
A friend and Tech Grad: http://wonderlis.blogspot.com
Another Local Pastor: http://churchforstarvingartists.blogspot.com/2007/04/jesus-knew-something-about-people-with.html
Official PCUSA Bloggers: http://pcusablog.blogspot.com
Teacher friend of my Brother: http://turnerland.blogspot.com/2007/04/are-you-serious.html
I just don't understand how this could happen. I do understand how to pray for all of the victims, students, faculty and families effected. I think I will do that.
A collection from pastors within our presbytery: http://www.thepresbytery.org/Home/VoicesofFaithVirginiaTechTragedy/tabid/21020/Default.aspx
A Local Pastor: http://web.mac.com/royhoward/iWeb/SayingGrace/Blog/Blog.html
A friend and Tech Grad: http://wonderlis.blogspot.com
Another Local Pastor: http://churchforstarvingartists.blogspot.com/2007/04/jesus-knew-something-about-people-with.html
Official PCUSA Bloggers: http://pcusablog.blogspot.com
Teacher friend of my Brother: http://turnerland.blogspot.com/2007/04/are-you-serious.html
I just don't understand how this could happen. I do understand how to pray for all of the victims, students, faculty and families effected. I think I will do that.
April 13, 2007
Check the Box!
April is National Donate Life Month, which focuses on Organ Donation. Please read the following, which was taken directly from the OrganTrail.
************************************
Dubya sez, "Be a Donor!"
Also, check out info about the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.
"As of January, 2006 there were over 92,000 individuals on the waiting list for organ transplantation, and the list keeps growing. It is estimated that approximately 5,000 individuals join the waiting list each year. See “Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action,” Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2006) www.nap.edu. Every hour another person in the United States dies because of the lack of an organ to provide a life saving organ transplant.
The lack of organs results from the lack of organ donors. For example, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients in 2005 when there were about 90,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list, there were 13,091 individuals who died under the age of 70 using cardiac and brain death criteria and who were eligible to be organ donors. Of these, only 58% or 7,593 were actual donors who provided just over 23,000 organs. Living donors, primarily of kidneys, contributed about 6,800 more organs. Between them about 28,000 organs were transplanted into patients on the waiting list in 2005. (See www.optn.org).
The 2005 data on cadaveric organ donors suggests there were 5,498 individuals who died that year that could have been donors who weren’t and that had they been organ donors there would have been approximately 17,000 additional organs potentially available for transplantation. (See generally, www.unos.org and www.ustransplant.org). However, these numbers to some extent are only estimates. First, they exclude individuals dying over the age of 70. Second, the data are self reported for eligible donors. Indicative of the absence of precision in this area is the report from the Institute of Medicine. According to the IOM, it has been estimated that donor-eligible deaths range between 10,500 and 16,800 per year. See Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action,” Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2006) at page 27. www.nap.edu
Using the 2005 figures for deceased organ donors, this would suggest that between approximately 3,000 and 9,000 decedents could have been donors but weren’t. Further, if one assumes an average of three solid organs recovered from each of them, there could be between 9,000 and 27,000 more organs that might have been available to transplant into individuals on the waiting list.
The data for eye and tissue is, however, more encouraging. On an annual basis there are approximately 50,000 eye donors and tissue donors and over 1,000,000 ocular and tissue transplants.
This Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (“UAGA”) is promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (“NCCUSL”) to address in part the critical organ shortage by providing additional ways for making organ, eye, and tissue donations. The original UAGA was promulgated by NCCUSL in 1968 and promptly enacted by all states. In 1987, the UAGA was revised and updated, but only 26 states adopted that version. Since 1987, many states have adopted non-uniform amendments to their anatomical gift acts. The law among the various states is no longer uniform and harmonious, and the diversity of law is an impediment to transplantation. Furthermore the federal government has been increasingly active in the organ transplant process.
Since 1987, there also have been substantial improvements in the technology and practice of organ, eye, and tissue transplantation and therapy. And, the need for organs, eyes, and tissue for research and education has increased to assure more successful transplantations and therapies. The improvements in technology and the growing needs of the research community have correspondingly increased the need for more donors."
************************************
Dubya sez, "Be a Donor!"
Also, check out info about the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.
"As of January, 2006 there were over 92,000 individuals on the waiting list for organ transplantation, and the list keeps growing. It is estimated that approximately 5,000 individuals join the waiting list each year. See “Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action,” Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2006) www.nap.edu. Every hour another person in the United States dies because of the lack of an organ to provide a life saving organ transplant.
The lack of organs results from the lack of organ donors. For example, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients in 2005 when there were about 90,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list, there were 13,091 individuals who died under the age of 70 using cardiac and brain death criteria and who were eligible to be organ donors. Of these, only 58% or 7,593 were actual donors who provided just over 23,000 organs. Living donors, primarily of kidneys, contributed about 6,800 more organs. Between them about 28,000 organs were transplanted into patients on the waiting list in 2005. (See www.optn.org).
The 2005 data on cadaveric organ donors suggests there were 5,498 individuals who died that year that could have been donors who weren’t and that had they been organ donors there would have been approximately 17,000 additional organs potentially available for transplantation. (See generally, www.unos.org and www.ustransplant.org). However, these numbers to some extent are only estimates. First, they exclude individuals dying over the age of 70. Second, the data are self reported for eligible donors. Indicative of the absence of precision in this area is the report from the Institute of Medicine. According to the IOM, it has been estimated that donor-eligible deaths range between 10,500 and 16,800 per year. See Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action,” Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2006) at page 27. www.nap.edu
Using the 2005 figures for deceased organ donors, this would suggest that between approximately 3,000 and 9,000 decedents could have been donors but weren’t. Further, if one assumes an average of three solid organs recovered from each of them, there could be between 9,000 and 27,000 more organs that might have been available to transplant into individuals on the waiting list.
The data for eye and tissue is, however, more encouraging. On an annual basis there are approximately 50,000 eye donors and tissue donors and over 1,000,000 ocular and tissue transplants.
This Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (“UAGA”) is promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (“NCCUSL”) to address in part the critical organ shortage by providing additional ways for making organ, eye, and tissue donations. The original UAGA was promulgated by NCCUSL in 1968 and promptly enacted by all states. In 1987, the UAGA was revised and updated, but only 26 states adopted that version. Since 1987, many states have adopted non-uniform amendments to their anatomical gift acts. The law among the various states is no longer uniform and harmonious, and the diversity of law is an impediment to transplantation. Furthermore the federal government has been increasingly active in the organ transplant process.
Since 1987, there also have been substantial improvements in the technology and practice of organ, eye, and tissue transplantation and therapy. And, the need for organs, eyes, and tissue for research and education has increased to assure more successful transplantations and therapies. The improvements in technology and the growing needs of the research community have correspondingly increased the need for more donors."
April 12, 2007
QOTD on Google Today
I gotta work out. I keep saying it all the time. I keep saying I gotta start working out. It's been about two months since I've worked out. And I just don't have the time. Which uh..is odd. Because I have the time to go out to dinner. And uh..and watch tv. And get a bone density test. And uh.. try to figure out what my phone number spells in words. - Ellen DeGeneres
Wow - Ellen hit the nail on the head. Today it's raining, though, so I'll just watch TV when I get home.....
April 02, 2007
Change for the Sake of Change?
Absolutely. Enjoy the new color scheme.
More changes are coming soon. Someone made me jealous by getting her own domain...
More changes are coming soon. Someone made me jealous by getting her own domain...
April 01, 2007
How to Celebrate an Anniversary!
Go to a wedding of two great people!
We had a great weekend "away" down in Nothern VA! There were a ton of people we didn't know at the beginning of the festivities, and a ton that we hung out with anyway.
Anyway, since I was in the wedding party, you get a special treat of ANOTHER picture of us, and I'm in a tux. I think the dark color hides my belly, so I don't mind the tux pics as much!
Anny and I took a couple of other pictures of just the two of us, but we like the one with the baby bump! There will be a picture (from the pro's) of the three pregnant ladies, due in May, June and July. It was a cute set up.
To Dave and Joo: Thanks for having such a great party...I mean wedding! We wish you many happy years together.
We had a great weekend "away" down in Nothern VA! There were a ton of people we didn't know at the beginning of the festivities, and a ton that we hung out with anyway.
Anyway, since I was in the wedding party, you get a special treat of ANOTHER picture of us, and I'm in a tux. I think the dark color hides my belly, so I don't mind the tux pics as much!
Anny and I took a couple of other pictures of just the two of us, but we like the one with the baby bump! There will be a picture (from the pro's) of the three pregnant ladies, due in May, June and July. It was a cute set up.
To Dave and Joo: Thanks for having such a great party...I mean wedding! We wish you many happy years together.
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