Sims Street Life

Us Hosting Ray McGovern coming to Bryan

2009-04-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

I emailed back and forth with Beverly a little bit. Some of you got the email she sent about Ray McGovern possibly being able to come hang out with us and talk about advocacy for peace and truth and justice and fun stuff like that.

I told her it would be cool if he came over on Friday April 17th. She said it was cool if it was just a low-key thing. I was thinking we could invite people to come over for dinner and conversation with Ray at 6:30.

This isn't a for sure thing, Beverly is going to put us in contact with him, but it looks like it could happen and be cool. I was thinking of inviting some anti-war pro-peace and justice folks over to join in the fun. Earth Day is the next day, by the way.

Here's what Bev sent me about Mr. McGovern. Also you can YouTube him and that's cool.

Bio on Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He writes and speaks for the arm of Tell the Word called “Speaking Truth to Power.”

Ray’s earlier career as a CIA analyst spanned 27 years—from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. The ethos of intelligence analysis in those days was reflected in the scripture passage chiseled into the marble entrance to CIA headquarters—“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Ray’s activities are now directed largely at closing the wide gap that has opened up over the past eight years between that ideal and current reality in the US intelligence community.

In January 2003, after it had become clear that intelligence analysis was being corrupted by political pressure to “justify” an unprovoked attack on Iraq, a handful of intelligence community alumni, including Ray, created Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. VIPS now includes 67 former professionals from CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Army Intelligence, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and other US intelligence agencies, plus the intelligence agencies of three “coalition” Allies, including Katharine Gun (UK), Frank Grevil (Denmark), and Andrew Wilkie (Australia).

VIPS’ first paper, a Memorandum for the President sent on February 5, 2003, offered a same-day critique of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s address to the UN. In the memorandum VIPS warned that intelligence analysts were “increasingly distressed at the politicization of intelligence” and “were finding it hard to make themselves heard above the drumbeat for war.” The memo urged the president to “widen the discussion beyond...the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.”

The thrust of VIPS’ next two pre-war memoranda can be gleaned from their titles: “Cooking Intelligence for War” and “Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth: A Problem.”

“Fixing” the Intelligence For War

Documentary evidence dating back to eight months before the attack on Iraq showing that the U.S. and U.K. had doctored intelligence in order to “justify” it appeared on May 1, 2005, when the London’s Sunday Times published the official minutes of a July 23, 2002 meeting at 10 Downing Street. Those minutes, written that same day by a participant, contained the report by the chief of British intelligence, just back from talks with CIA director George Tenet in Washington, that “intelligence and facts were being fixed” around President Bush’s decision for war. VIPS was first off the blocks in providing commentary on this unique documentary evidence, publishing its analysis on May 4—weeks before the corporate press was forced to take note: http://www.tompaine.com/print/proof_bush_fixed_the_facts.php.

The flurry of attention engendered in alternative media eventually embarrassed the corporate media into reporting this smoking gun. The corporate media reports were not only late but anemic, carefully steering away from the import of the Downing Street Minutes, which provided documentary proof of what we had long suspected; i.e., that President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had deliberately lied the “coalition” into an unnecessary war. Since then, report after report have confirmed that the president was a witting participant in the conspiracy to use the ogre of “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq to justify launching the first resource war of the 21^st Century—which, as former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has now conceded, was “largely about oil.” Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz also pointed out that “Iraq swims on a sea of oil,” in referring to the real reason for the attack on Iraq. Both glossed over the fact that a large part of the motivation was also the misguided notion that attacking Iraq would make the Middle East safer for Israel.

Former White House Spokesman Scott McClellan, in his book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, provided a unique, first-hand account of how his former boss and senior aides abandoned “candor and honesty” to wage a “political propaganda campaign” that led the nation into an “unnecessary war.” If further proof were necessary, American author Ron Suskind reported last year that the head of Iraqi intelligence had been “turned” and told his British case officer in January 2003 precisely what then-Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri had told the CIA in the summer of 2002; i. e., that Saddam Hussein had no WMD. On September 18, 2002, former CIA director George Tenet personally briefed then-president George W. Bush on Sabri’s information regarding the absence of WMD in Iraq.

Fourteen additional VIPS papers were produced after the war began in Iraq; a list of titles is appended. The texts of all 17 issuances can be found at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/vips. (PDF versions available on request.)

In addition to co-authoring most of VIPS memoranda, Ray has published many articles and op-eds. These have appeared in newspapers around the country and in Europe— The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, The International Herald Tribune, the Suddeutsche Zeitung, and the Berliner Tagesspiegel, for example). Ray and his VIPS colleagues have also appeared in several video documentaries—notably, Robert Greenwald’s “Uncovered: The War on Iraq” and “Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror” (produced by John Pilger). Cinema Libre Studio has produced a full-length documentary on DVD of Ray discussing US intelligence (Volume 3 in its “Speaking Freely” series of conversations with opinion leaders on world issues: (www.cinemalibrestudio.com).

Ray’s TV, radio interviews and other performances, many of them aired in domestic and foreign media, include:

--Keynote Address Veterans for Peace conference

Seattle, WA, March 8, 2009

(Youtube)

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/030909a.html

--Interview, February 5, 2009, by Afhin Rattansi, PressTV on Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Leon Panetta to be director of the CIA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60J1cVSNzKw

-- Oxford Forum debate: January 22, 2009, “Resolved: George W. Bush Has Made the World a Safer Place” (speaking in opposition)

--News Hour with Jim Lehrer, January 6, 2009 (on nomination of Leon Panetta to be CIA director): http://www.pbs.org/newshour/search_results.html?q=McGovern+AND+Scheuer&x=18&y=11

-- “Trial by Theater: Illegal War.” A 20-minute Culture Project video of Ray being deposed by former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega:

http://www.podango.com/podcast_episode/1527/51599/A_Question_of_Impeachment__Trial_By_Theater/Article_I_Initiation__Continuation_of_Illegal_War_Part_6#51599, November 19, 2007

-- CNN (et al.): Rumsfeld-McGovern Live Exchange in Atlanta, May 4, 2006 (available on Youtube)

-- Major TV-radio networks: replay and commentary re Rumsfeld-McGovern exchange (including imaginative spoof by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show), May 4-8, 2006 (many of them still available on Youtube)

-- Washington Journal (C-SPAN), November 14, 2005

-- Testimony on Downing Street Memos before congressional briefing convened by Congressman John Conyers, then-ranking minority member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, June 16, 2005. The text of Ray’s prepared remarks can be found at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/289

--News Hour with Jim Lehrer, April 24, 2006 (on leaks about wars of aggression: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/jan-june06/leaks_4-24.html )

-- News Hour with Jim Lehrer, June 16, 2005 and August 10, 2004

-- Charlie Rose Show (debate with former CIA director James Woolsey), August 20, 2004

--“Uncovered: The War in Iraq:” documentary film by Robert Greenwald – October 2003

--Panorama (German TV—Erstes Programm, on the coming war), March 6, 2003

Many of Ray’s more recent articles have been posted first on Consortiumnews.com, and often on afterdowningstreet.org, commondreams.org, and counterpunch.org, among other websites, as well.

As mentioned above, on May 4, 2006 in Atlanta, at a Q&A session following a speech by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Ray took advantage of the opportunity to quote him back to himself on his earlier claims of ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda and on weapons of mass destruction. Without immediate access to the kind of obfuscation available in “dodgy dossiers,” Rumsfeld was blatantly untruthful once again—actually twice again. CNN and MSNBC did some fact checking and exposed the fresh lies that evening. Other “mainstream media” finessed them, defending Rumsfeld against “heckling” by an “alleged” former analyst of the CIA. Youtube has posted the four-minute debate with Rumsfeld and various commentaries, (Keith Olbermann’s on evening of May 4, 2006, and Jon Stewart’s spoof on Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) “journalists” quizzing Ray a few days later are the best.)

Ray’s responsibilities at CIA included chairing a number of National Intelligence Estimates under presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, and preparing the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) under presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. These, the two most authoritative kinds of intelligence reporting, have been alluded to in examining the performance of intelligence prior to the war in Iraq—and also the still unresolved issue concerning to what degree the president was warned in advance about the attacks of September 11, 2001 and how he reacted—or didn’t. (Both issues remain unresolved, because both parties cringed from allowing them to be investigated properly; a reality that the 9/11 Commission chair and co-chair have now explicitly admitted in saying the commission was doomed from the outset to fail.) The evidence is very strong that the president was adequately warned and did nothing; and that subsequently he successfully enlisted the help of former CIA director George Tenet in covering that up—to the point where Tenet lied under oath before the 9/11 Commission.) This is all on the public record, but ignored in the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM).

During the mid-eighties, Ray was one of the senior analysts conducting early morning briefings of the PDB one-on-one with the Vice President, the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. At his retirement ceremony Ray received the Intelligence Commendation Medallion and a letter of gratitude from then-President George H. W. Bush wishing Ray well in his transition to non-profit work. On March 2, 2006, he returned the medallion in a symbolic effort to dissociate himself from CIA participation in torture. (See http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030206A.shtml.)

A chapter by Ray, “A Compromised Central Intelligence Agency: What Can Be Done?” can be found in Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America’s Promise at Home and Abroad, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. In the chapter, Ray draws on his experience serving under nine directors of central intelligence to discuss in some detail the qualities needed in an intelligence director, and improvements that could be made immediately to enhance intelligence analysis and protect it from politicization. One of the recommended improvements, re-establishing the discipline of media analysis, was partially implemented in late 2005.

Ray also wrote a chapter, “Sham Dunk: Cooking Intelligence for the President,” for the book Neo-CONNED Again!, published in September 2005. The text of Ray’s chapter can be found at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/sham (click on “PDF VERSION” in blue type at the top of first page). There (pp. 3-5) is discussed the remarkable role of a neo-conservative dream-come-true—the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans headed by Undersecretary Douglas Feith. As part of the Bush administration’s promotion for war on Iraq, Feith oversaw an effort to manufacture and market bogus information masquerading as intelligence on meaningful ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda. After an exhaustive search, the intelligence community had determined there were no such ties. But this did not prevent the Feith-based “intelligence” from being stove-piped directly to Vice President Dick Cheney, the president, the Congress, et al. After a protracted investigation, the Pentagon Inspector General determined in early 2007 that Feith’s activities were “inappropriate.”

Ray is fluent in Russian, German, and Spanish. He earned a B.A., summa cum laude, from Fordham College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Designated a “Distinguished Military Graduate,” he was commissioned in the U.S. Army and served two years as an infantry/intelligence officer. He holds an M.A. in Russian Studies from Fordham University, a certificate in Theological Studies from Georgetown, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. A native of the New York City, Ray has been married to Rita Kennedy, also of New York City, for 47 years; they have five children and eight grandchildren.

Where we're at

2009-03-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write something here about us, what we are and what we're doing.
It's funny how anything can become normal if you do it for a few months, and it's fun to remember how abnormal what we're doing is. So here goes. Y'all add stuff I forget.

We are an intentional Christian Service House Love Community
We live close to poverty in Bryan, because we wanted to serve the poor by joining the poor.
We live together because we think it helps us to experience and share God's love.
As a community we try to love each other, forgive each other, share with each other, and have fun together. We try to serve together.
We serve each other by cooking, washing dishes, sharing food, sharing time, paying rent, paying utilities, feeding the chickens, collecting eggs, cleaning the house, making each other chocolate milk (mostly Melanie does this).
We try to be open and honest and sincere with each other. Sometimes we fail, but we try to keep loving each other.
We are on each others' sides as advocates in the world. We try to want the best for each other.

We want to serve Jesus by serving those in need and those who are looked down upon. One way we do this is hospitality. We have a guest bedroom with the goal of giving a temporary home to the homeless. We try to assist our guests in whatever they need, whether it's finding a job, having food to eat, finding a more permanent place to live, or whatever else comes up. This is one of the hardest things we do. It can be discouraging, awkward, and annoying, but it can also be beautiful.
We take an active part in potluck meals that provide food and bring people together in community. These meals are an avenue for sharing the wealth and loving each other.
We want to honor the immigrants in our midst, especially since they are discriminated against and oppressed. To do this, we deliver breakfast tacos along with orange juice and coffee every Friday morning to immigrant workers as they wait on street corners in hope of getting work.

We have started gathering on Friday nights to pray and contemplate God. We take communion together during this time. This is one of the most looked forward to times of the week.

We have nine chickens. They give us eggs to eat, along with endless hours of fun and chicken therapy. We do some gardening for food as well.

Our house community as it is now will likely last until August, when the lease on our house is up and many of the community members will go in different directions. Whether any semblance of what we have right now will continue in Bryan is entirely up to God. And that's just fine :-)

2009-03-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

tolstoy pwns at chess

:)

2009-03-14T20:20:00.001-07:00

this one you can see i think

2009-03-13T14:18:00.001-07:00

lol

2009-03-13T14:17:00.001-07:00

this might be something cool we can help with

2009-03-04T13:00:00.001-08:00

Hey Guys,

I am sending this out to just a few people to let y'all know about an opportunity to help. I know each of y'all are involved with a Bible study or some kind of student group, so this maybe something y'all could help with as a group.

I volunteer with His Grace, a foundation that helps patients and their families on the bone marrow transplant unit at Texas Children's. Over the winter break the Lord gave me the idea of having a benefit concert to help raise money. I never thought it would happen - but through a miracle it has!

On Thursday April 16 (I know it is really close!) there will be a benefit concert for HGF at Life Church in Bryan. Gatlin Elms and Robbie Seay will be playing at the concert.

Ok, now is when I need help. We do not have long at all until this thing happens and I want a full house, I think this can happen if we all work together and advertise at out different churches and groups we are apart of.
I realize this is a busy time for everyone, but please let me know if you could spend a few hours to help, or have ideas. And if nothing else PLEASE COME and bring a friend. It should be a good evening, and it is helping a wonderful cause. Please visit their web page to find out more about HGF: http://blog.hisgracefoundationdonate.org/

Ways you can help:
*Creating a logo
*Creating a web page (or blog - I don't know the difference, but I think one is free)
Work at an on-campus bake sale
Bake
Set up/Take down
TELL YOUR FRIENDS

*These may be taken care, but really whoever can do it the fastest and it looks the best is the one I'm using
blog.hisgracefoundationdon

ate.org
Source: blog.hisgracefoundat...
His Grace Foundation (HGF) is a volunteer organization providing personalized, relationship-based support for families with a child having to undergo a bone marrow transplant due to a form of cancer, aplastic anemia, SKIDS, or a rare degenerative brain disease.
Share

2009-03-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

this is one of my favorite youtube videos of all time. i love everything about this.

Unusual Churches

2009-03-02T08:34:00.001-08:00

Found this site dedicated to taking pictures of unusual churches.

Pretty cool photos. Just thought I'd share

Death Row Penpals

2009-02-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

This is how you go about getting a penpal on death row

First go to this site:
http://www.lampofhope.org/penpals.html
pick out somebody you want to write to. Each person has a little blurb written by them when you click on the name

Then go to this site:
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/offendersondrow.htm
Look up the person to see if they're still on death row. The lamp of hope site is not well updated, so they might have gotten off death row or been executed. Also I'm sure that the Lamp of Hope site is not exhaustive so if you find somebody listed on this site that you want to write, feel free.

Then write them a letter

Then put it in an envelope with their address listed as:
Their Name and #
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, Texas 77351

Then put a stamp on it and stick it in the mailbox

Birth on the Kiniry Ranch

2009-02-17T08:20:00.001-08:00

So these babies were born like 30 minutes before I took this picture. A baby boy and a baby girl. So cute! So y'all are probably going to want to plan the Kiniry Ranch Official House Retreat as soon as possible before they get much bigger.

Having a "worship service" at the park

2009-02-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

So about this idea of having a worshipful community gathering at the park that is in addition to the potlucks. Let's share ideas for it on this blog if y'all want.

Here's what I was thinking: We wouldn't want it to suck. How can we make that not happen?

We could have an offering box, where people could give money, clothes, toiletries, sleeping bags, cigarettes, food or whatever they'd like to share. Then somebody could distribute it to people who need it. Like people who need help paying the bills in their house could get some of the money, as well as people who are just broke.

Communion with real wine, and Blue Baker bread. Or malt liquor if we really want people to come.

Tyler hates music, so no music. Unless it's wildly original. Or we could have music just to make Tyler mad.

And what about the folks who just speak spanish? Could we make it bilingual?

We could have people bring a teaching, but if somebody talks longer than 5 minutes I'll probably want to kill myself. I can imagine that we'll have to do something to keep people from thinking "It must be such a pleasure for people to hear me blather on for hours in spiritual jargon so I'll just keep going!" and I'd be in the back trying to drink poison. But it would be cool, as long as we can guarantee that every teaching would be mind-bendingly simple and beautiful. Just kidding, but that would be nice. Maybe if John gives the teaching every time.

Also, we could set up a confession booth in the bathrooms at the park, where the confessor sits on the commode and the confessee sits on the sink. What do y'all think?

In addition, are we going to pray to Mary?

JK LOL but seriously are we?

Let's get together with Lenni and Linda and E and Leon and Lauren and other potluck people and everyone else who would be interested and talk about it.

I love the idea of a church where the offering only goes to people who need it, a church where there's no overhead.

What do y'all think?

Funeral

2009-02-11T15:35:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

Dale's funeral is on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Caldwell.

Does anyone want to go?

Janet

2009-02-10T13:40:00.000-08:00

A Poem about Dale Ellis:

a crow flew here one fall day.
squaking,
crapping on things.
cocked his head
this way and that.

and at the seeds i threw,
pecked.
almost grateful.
cocked his head
this way and that.
maybe to see
if i watched it
like some watch
hummingbirds.

i didn't.

when i saw
its carcass on the sidewalk,
i turned my head
this way and that.
almost broken-hearted.

confused,
I turned, leaving
inevitable scavengers
to collect.

2009-01-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry if i am over-posting.

This is really good though.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/05/AR2009010503341.html?hpid=topnews

this is another community that has chickens..

http://www.theashram.blogspot.com/

2009-01-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

lol.

2009-01-10T23:05:00.000-08:00

this was really helpful for me with the situation with the stuff going on.

"...but where sin has spread, grace is there to cut it down and defeat it. No matter how much sin crept in, there was always more grace. In the same way that sin has reigned in the sphere of death, now grace reigns through God's restorative justice, eclipsing death and leading to eternal life through Jesus, the Liberating King, our Lord." - Romans, chapter 5, verse 20, The Voice

Also, i (and some dan and i) had photoshopping fun time. Sorry/you're welcome.. :)

2009-01-01T23:04:00.000-08:00

a quote from wikipedia, mostly to prove cassie wrong :D

"Roosters are not required, as hens still lay eggs, but these eggs are not fertilized by the rooster therefore they will not hatch."
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken (under the "chickens as pets" heading)

On how to make chicken nests, i thought it was informative but also awesome.
http://www.expertvillage.com/video/25865_chicken-care-nest.htm

#78 - homemade jokes!!!

2008-11-29T22:18:00.000-08:00

- what's the scariest holiday in the 'hood?
+ holla!-ween.*

- why did the lightbulbs not let the new bulb into their group?
+ because they were elightist. **

- what do you call two gay melons who are in love?
+ can't-elope!! ***

- why did the orphan survive the titanic?
+ because it was used to going through hardship. ****

- why did the guy stay lost forever when the map told him to go East on Red?
+ because his name was Weston Green.*****

******

* this one may need to retire for the year... sorry.
** i heard the new friends-of-the-earth bulb group is the hardest to get into. You win some you lose some, bulbette.
*** (not in Texas, little melons..)
**** courtesy of, well, or stealing from, the Honorable John Phelps I
***** think about your child's future before you write it down...
****** Weston and Dan and John! and anyone else!, ya'll should add yours on to here...

Passive Aggressive Notes

2008-11-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

Forever and a day ago ... Chad left a lovely little note above the kitchen sink ...

Chad, this is for you....

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

...things that happen … in Sims Street

2008-11-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

#1: move into a house with people you hardly (or don’t) know

#8: discover the hot water runs to the toilet instead of the shower

#16: adopt taco cabana cat

#17: Set chickens on the dining room table to see if they would fight

#18:

#19: tempt said cabana cat into attacking your hand while you wave it to get his attention from behind the counch

#20: save taco cabana cat from attempts on its life by Via and Rilke

#21: melted two painting buckets into lava liquid

#23: give each other "jail cell" nicknames....meth beth??

#27: put plastic watches on cats

#34: tie-dye roommate’s underwear

#35: watch as police chase fleeing man in front of the house

#45: buy a baby chicken for each member of the house

#46: use hat boxes as roosting spots for chickens

#62- make impersonations from the street.

#65: alphabetize spice rack

#66: learn the alphabet

#93: Burn piñata heads in the grill

written by sims family :)

2008-11-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

#62- make impersonations from the street.

2008-11-05T11:47:00.000-08:00

#17 adopt taco cabana cat
#19 tempt said cabana cat into attacking your hand while you wave it to get his attention from behind the counch
#20 save taco cabana cat from attempts on its life by Via and Rilke

give stuff take stuff box

2008-10-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I received a box from my hairdresser back home with various hygiene items.

No, she didn't send them to me because I smelled back last time I went home, but because while I was with her I was telling her about the potlucks.

She then flooded me with questions about where some of the people in lesser conditions than ours that come to the party in the park bath and take care of themselves.

My stumped reaction and friendly, but sarcastic remarks about not asking people were they bath prompted her to mail us the items to take to the potlucks to hand out.

That was cool.

Then, my mother (which, I would really love to have seen this conversation to see if she had told this in awe, shock, confusion, or whatever) told someone she worked with about the potlucks.

That woman is now making up a box of hygiene items to mail to me for us to take to the potlucks.

I just thought that was really cool and really beautiful and just wanted to share that with you guys.

People can be so cool sometimes and it's awesome to see God work in the smallest ways without us even thinking about it.

2008-10-15T15:10:00.001-07:00

#72: Sneak group photos.

#73: Hanging out with the chickens still more.

thanks!!

2008-10-02T14:46:00.001-07:00

Hey -- thanks for what everyone is doing that goes unseen. It is felt. Thank you.

Bonding huzzah!

2008-09-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

So Janet and I talked briefly about this. But I would love to see our Sims Street family bond more. I think we've all been so swept up with everything we've forgotten several of us didn't know one another before even moving into the house!

I think if we are truly going to grow and achieve anything with this house we have to have a solid foundation. While we have a rock-solid foundation of God, I think our next level is the relationships we have with each other at home.

Meetings can be tedious, and while they are can be awesomely productive and we achieve a lot ... I'm not sure how much bonding is going on there. :)

And I'm talking about fun things! Lets think of exciting things for people to do together in the house. We're just going to have to suck it up and realize that everybody isn't going to be able to attend everything or we'd never do anything.

But even if half us could do something together regularly, I feel it would be so positive for us. I dono, this is just me talking, so maybe you feel differently or think we are all already close :) and I'm just crazy - which is a complete possibility at this point in time ha.

So, if you think this is a good idea. Awesome let's start making a list of things like, soccer (ok maybe just Mel and I will like that one) midnight picnics, game nights, I don't know haha I attempted to google ideas for about an hour at work and came up with like the lamest things :)

I don't know, you tell me. Maybe I'm just feeling a strong need to bond with people in the house :)

Y'all

2008-09-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

I see hopelessness everywhere. It makes me glad I have y'all as roommates; I don't know what I'd do without you. Life is just too hard to do it alone.

Thinking about y'all makes me happy! I can't wait to get back.

Good Lord I'm such an utter fool and a failure, and y'all make me feel happy about it. Life is good.

I love ya Melanie Tyler Cassie Chad Janet John Kenn. Or Metylechassiekejohnet. Can we change all of our last names to Kiniedler? You know, like Kiniry plus Schiedler? We could call our house the Kiniedler Family Home. We could have the Kiniedler Family Band.

love,
Dan

Just my thoughts...

2008-09-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

So I wrote this to my friends trying to explain our house and whatnot ... Janet suggested I share it with you guys :)

I've recently moved into a community here in Bryan.

I'm constantly surrounded by a group of people actively seeking to follow Jesus, some, farther along in their walks than others, each serving love in a variety of ways.

I prayed about it for a long time, moving in, and of course fully recognize there will be plenty of speed bumps. But I'm only a few weeks in and I think its one of the best decisions I've made.

It has the potential to do a lot of great things, it also has the potential to do damage. But we have a household, a family now, that recognizes this. So we can fight off those demons in advance and hold our ground when they come.

I think that humanity was created for community. God is a community, a Trinity, a plurality of oneness... and we are wonderfully and beautifully created in that image. Jesus modeled this community with His disciples, sending them out in pairs.

Ultimately, I think our mission is to love -- to love God and to love people. And instead of talking about homelessness over a fancy meal ... we eat with them and invite them over.

I think we will be striving to live with only what we needs, not just wants.

And we haven't decided to take over our neighborhood with our beliefs and pressure them into thinking the way we do. We're just there to show people what real love from God looks like, I think. The way He meant it to be.

Already there have been adventures, tears, laughter, bonding, dancing, singing and spiritual growth. New friends have been found, skills have been taught and we're learning someone about how to love in a different way every day.

I'm so excited about what God is going to do through us through this commitment.

Long time, no post.

2008-09-08T14:03:00.001-07:00

Our house meetings have been oh-so-productive. I don't know about you guys, but most of the decisions we make have been going in one ear and out the other.

We've had some dutiful secretaries scribble through the meetings, would this be a good place to post some of the things we've decided?

I'm not sure how many friendly house-mates check this thing?

Sayonara.

Janet

Intentional Christian Community

2008-08-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

When I think about structure and stuff I get really depressed sometimes. For example, when I was looking at the Simple Way stuff that Janet posted about (that was really good stuff by the way, don't get me wrong) I got really depressed.

There can be so much worry that goes along with something like this. For example, a lot of the people who I talk to who have been in or live in intentional communities talk about how it's SO HARD it's almost impossible (which I don't believe has to be the case by the way) and it can be really daunting.

I think it's that I don't want to follow Intentional Community Structure. I want to follow Jesus.

The only goodness of Intentional Christian Community is the extent that it's full of Love. There is nothing intrinsically good about Intentional Christian Community.

But then I'll have a loving interaction with someone and realize that THIS is what it's all about.

Don't get me wrong, lets have structure and rules and stuff.

My friend Russ who lives in Georgia at a Christian Commune that I really loved living at said that he really wished that when they got together for the community meetings they would say, "So, what are we going to do this week to follow Jesus?" Lets do that. Let's not let it become about maintaining the structure and functionality of the community. Let's make that come 2nd to Love.

So what are we going to do this week to follow Jesus?

Also, I was thinking the other day about how I kind of feel something like the feeling of "being in love" towards all of y'all who are living there. Yes you too Weston. Seriously. I know it's weird. Just thought I'd say it. But I'm kind of somewhat in love with y'all. It makes doing the dishes not feel like a chore.

Love,
Dan

Ah yes...

2008-08-18T18:41:00.001-07:00

Community life begins.

So far, Chad, Tyler, Melanie, Cassie, Dan, Ken, John and Janet have all moved in.

We are still lacking Weston and Beth, people who we are not complete without.

Soon we'll begin the actual work of building something common among us, establishing a pattern and foundation for life on Sims Ave. and reaching out to our neighbors. I'm guessing this will be more work than plumbing and painting. We'll see.

Even though we will all soon be in the same place, I'd like to continue this blog. I think it's a good group-journal.

Mmmkay?

too many thoughts to handle

2008-08-14T21:03:00.001-07:00

hello friends, it's kimberly. you know how I'm like off in the middle of nowhere with the goal of getting experience living in community and also because I am really interested in it as something that will probably be very important in my life? yeah, well I've had lots of extra time to think about things and it seems that right now I need to go a slightly different direction. I like you. I like you all. a lot. but I just can't live with you right now. I'm gonna be living with a friend in college station, not in an ideal location or price or anything and actually I'm stressing about the financial stuff quite a lot, but socially I will have some space and that will be good for the phase of life that I'm in right now, which is a crazy and overwhelming one. I need a lot of quiet time and not chaos and even though living in bryan with you would probably be the good kind of chaos... I just need some time of rest. this summer was supposed to be my time of relaxation and escape from the real world and preparation for living with you, and it has definitely been an escape from the world, but relaxing/preparation - uhhh not so much. so I don't feel like my body or mind or spirit are ready for a whole lot of activity quite yet. oh and if you didn't get the memo I (temporarily?) dropped out of school and like a lot of really unfortunate things happened that I am still dealing with. so yeah things are uh not quite in order right now.

I'll be home in a couple of weeks and I can come over to the house and we can talk about things more and stuff. because I don't want to stop hanging out with you and working on things together and having good convos and good relationships and stuff. will you still be my friend?

(this probably isn't news to any of you but I had never officially told anyone. so there it is, officially)

even though my opinion doesn't really matter at all anymore, about the mission statements... I like both dan's and janet's, specifically that janet talks about intentionality and that we need to bring hope/healing to ourselves as well as to the community. just moving into "community" doesn't mean that suddenly things are perfect and people are loving and healing can happen. it doesn't even mean that suddenly we are living the way Christ wants us to. outward love is important, obviously. inviting people to experience the church that we are hopefully living out. but first - what are we inviting them into? are we being loving within our own ranks? what example are we setting in how we relate to each other?

and also, sometimes I think about how it would affect the community if you all lived there and did great things and then suddenly the sims street house ceased to exist. I mean, I'm not really contributing to that at all right now and nothing would ever get started if everyone was concerned about this, but is it healthy for people to form bonds with us if we're not stable enough to tell them that we'll be here when they need us later on down the road? I watched a documentary a while ago about the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and the kids (the "Littles") suddenly have this older, more responsible mentor figure in their lives and the mentors work on getting the kids to break down walls and open up and feel secure and know that they have someone to talk to, a friend! - and then a lot of the mentors, who just happen to often be people roughly our ages, go move on with their lives and the kids feel abandoned all over again. the kid the documentary was about was especially negatively affected by it because he thought he finally had someone to trust. but he was wrong. I'm afraid to commit to a big project like this when I very well may be the one to move on soon and leave the people I become close to in the dust. I got to meet a lot of folks this summer who have been living in community for a while, and one friend from camden house in new jersey was telling me about how both they and simple way had/have this really high turnover rate of people living in the house and how it was really more harmful than helpful to have people coming to live there who couldn't commit to very long of a time. people from the neighborhood would come back to the house asking for someone they had made a special connection with, only to find out that person had moved on to the next exciting thing in their life. and the inner workings of their houses certainly didn't benefit from having friends constantly moving in and out. I'm probably that person, the one who is moving around looking for the next exciting thing to commit my life to. are you? is it okay that we're so young and unstable and think that we can help people? I mean yeah right now we can give them some food and money and a listening ear. but what about in the long term? will it be more harm than good? or maybe people are willing to commit for a while after all?

but back to the intentionality thing: can I urge you to be really purposeful in your interactions with each other? like meet regularly, intentionally, as a house and ask how people are feeling and what are they thinking about things and don't just think that closeness and hope/healing is going to happen on its own, overnight. because it won't. people are still people, terribly flawed and hurting people, even if they're living in magical new monastic intentional christian communities. ask each other tough, challenging questions that might have ugly answers. pry. and then love each other anyway

don't take me too seriously. I'm not trying to be critical of you because I actually think it's really great how things are working out; I'm just writing down things I have been thinking about this summer.

okay enough for now. see you soon. I love you

Vote Cassie in '08 (see post below) and God and his riches.

2008-08-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

Respond to the post below.

And, lately i have really been enjoying this::

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus., Phillippians chapter 4...

It's cool that not only does God "just have enough" for us to live, he is "gloriously rich" and is more than capable of providing for all of our needs (physical and emotional and anything-else-onal). Along with that he also 1 - cares deeply for us and 2 - knows how to meet our needs much better than we do.

And thus, we can trust him with all of the things we need and don't have to fend for ourselves... with a Father that is rich beyond imagine and that cares for us deeply, how could we every worry about not having enough? And thus we can give away what we do have/we don't have to hang on to things/people.... we can relax and allow God to bless us with his riches.

Thought i would share!! Living at Sims has been very good!!!! So excited for more people to move in.

New roommate?

2008-08-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

<----This is Cassie Smith.

She wants to move in with us. I think everyone should have a say in who moves in with us.

How do you guys feel about this?

Cassie has helped us a lot on the house, and she recently asked her landlord if she could get out of her lease and he said yes.

Right now, this is who I think is living with us: John, me, Melanie, Ken, Dan, Weston, Chad and Tyler. Cassie would make 8 people, 3 girls.

Please respond ASAP so Cassie doesn't have to live in limbo.

2008-08-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

I really liked your post, Dan.

And in thinking about what our purpose in this his, and in desiring to really live purposefully and not just muddle through this, I thought I'd post a link to The Simple Way.

A lot of you have probably already seen this, or heard of this. But it seems like they have a really healthy system over there and are doing some awesome things.

www.thesimpleway.org/PSC/index.html

Love,

Janet

Who are We?

2008-08-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

I was thinking that it's probably important for us to decide how to describe our community, i.e. who are we? To see if we're on the same page and so we can tell other people who we are.

Here's what I was thinking of as a discription. Something like, "a family of friends; believers who want to try to live out the Jesus' way of Love together."

What do y'all think?

On another subject, something has died in the area just outside above our front door and it definitely smells like death.

Love,

Dan

Mi casa es su casa...

2008-08-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well, so far, Ken, Chad, Melanie, John and I have moved into Sims Street. It still needs a lot of work, but it's beginning to feel like home.

Appliance question: please respond!

2008-07-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I found someone who will donate a deep upright freezer to us.

Whoopee! John and I will pick it up tomorrow.

Now, here's the question....

Someone offered to sell us a fridge and a stove in "excellent condition" for $150 and $125 respectively.

What do you guys think?

We can either:

a) Go for it and split the cost equally

b) Hold out for something free

For those of you who don't know. We've already gotten a free dryer.

Not bad. Not bad. I'm leaning towards holding out because we've already poured a lot of money into this house.

Let me know what you think.

Love,

Janet

What it could be

2008-07-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

What it could be.

This is from a short story dan lent me, it’s called Walk in the Light While There is Light by Leo Tolstoy. I think you can read the whole thing online for free.

This is one of the best books i've ever read. It has made me understand (in addition to knowing dan :) how the bible looks like in real life. Or, what it could look like. It's so exciting!!!!

Here goes.

Two years passed: Julius completed his studies; and during all that time he did not once see his friend.
One day, however, he met him in the street, invited him home, and began to ask him how and where he lived.
Pamphilius told him he still lived in the same place with his mother.
“We do not live alone,” said he, “but many friends live with us, and we have all things in common.”
“What do you mean ‘in common’?” asked Julius.
“In such a way that none of us considers anything his private property.”
“Why do you do that way?”
“We are Christians,” said Pamphilius.
“Is it possible!” cried Juilius. “Why, I have been told that Christians kill children and eat them. Can it be that you take part in doing such things?
“Come and see,” replied Pamphilius. “We do nothing of the sort; we live simply, trying to do nothing wrong.”
“But how can you live, if you have no property of your own?”
“We support each other. If we give our brethren our labors, then they give us theirs.”
“But if your brethren take your labors and don’t reciprocate, then what?”
“We don’t have such persons,” said Pamphilius; “such persons prefer to live luxuriously, and they don’t join us; life among us is simple, and without luxury.”
“But are there not many lazy ones who would delight in being fed for nothing?”
“Yes, there are some such, and we willingly receive them. Not long ago a man of that character came to us - a runaway slave; at first, it is true, he was lazy, and led a bad life, but soon he changed his life, and has now become one of the good brethren.”
“But supposing he had not ordered his life aright?”
“Well, there are some such. The old man Cyril says that we must treat such as if they were the very best of the brethren, and love them all the more.”
“Can one love good-for-nothings?”
“It is impossible to help loving a human being.”
“but how can you give all men whatever they ask of you?” asked Julius. “If my father gave all persons whatever they asked him for, very soon he wouldn’t have anything left.”
“I don’t know,” replied Pamphilius. “We always have enough left for our necessities. Even if it came about that we had nothing to eat or nothing to wear, then we ask the others and they give to us. yes, it sometimes happens so. Only once did I ever have to go to bed without my supper, and that was because I was very tired and did not feel like going to ask any of the brethren.”
“I don’t know how you do,” said Julius, “only what my father says: if he didn’t have his own property, and if he gave to every one who asked him, he would die of starvation.”
“We don’t! Come and see. We live, and not only do not lack, but we have even more than we need.”
“How can that be?”
“This is the way of it: We all profess one law, but our powers of fulfilling it vary in each individual; some have greater, some have less. One has already made great improvement in the good life, while another has only just begun in it. At the head of us all stands Christ, with His life, and we all try to imitate Him, and in this only we see our well-being. Certain of us, like the old man Cyril and his wife Pelagia, are our leaders; others stand next to them, and still others in a third rank, but all of us are traveling along the same path. Those in advance are already near to the law of Christ - self-renunciation - and they are willing to lose their life in order to save it. These need nothing; they have no regret for themselves, and to those that ask they give their last possession according to the law of Christ. There are others, feebler, who cannot give all they have, who have some pity on themselves, who grow weak if they don’t have their usual dress and food, and cannot give everything away. Then there are others still weaker - such as have only just started on the path; these still live in the old way, keeping much for themselves and giving away only what is superfluous. Even those that linger in the rear give aid to those in the van.”

There is more. Go read it! 
What do you guys think about living this way?

"This is not a feel-good post..."

2008-07-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

Someone else should probably write about what we did yesterday, not me. Suffice it to say, it was amazing, an incredible amount of work and our hearts were deeply warmed by the caring (and skilled) Lifechurch friends.

But, I'll leave that story for somebody else to post. Instead, I'm going to write about what we did today.

Today (Sunday) we threw one of these out of a truck:

Cute, isn't it? Yes, this bad boy probably weighs around 100 lbs--something which wikipedia thinks makes it "portable."

Ha.

Portable, my ass.

We borrowed a saw like this from someone who goes to Lifechurch for the workday yesterday. It was too late to take it back to the church by the time we finished last night. So, with great effort, we loaded it into John's truck and drove to a friend's house to store it in their backyard overnight.

This morning, sore and tired, John and I woke up early to bring the saw back to Lifechurch. Now, when I say tired, we are really, really tired.

So, we groggily load it in and I climb into the back to hold it down.

We pull slowly (read: groggily) out of the driveway and into the street. But at the very first turn, as the truck swerves, the saw shakes to the right, then to the left and then flies violently out of the truck bed and crashes in a huge heap on the road.

I was using my legs and arms (all 4) to hold this table in place. And as I felt it slip from my fingers I shouted an obscenity that expressed very deeply how we would be feeling for the next 6 hours or so.

Long story short: We said we were sorry, cried and carried the broken pieces of the saw into church during the middle of the service this morning.

Lesson learned? None. There were absolutely no life lessons to be learned from this experience. Except that the people at Lifechurch are really, really nice. But I think we already knew that.

A desperate entreaty

2008-07-20T21:11:00.001-07:00

Hello friends and fellow commoners,

I'm writing you at 11:12 p.m. Sunday. We just got back from working on Sims St.

We are so close to moving in and so far from making the house liveable.

Please, please, please, please help.

This week we need to clean up the mess we made from painting and shop for supplies for the people from the church to use on Saturday.

They'll be working from 7 a.m. until early afternoon this Saturday.

Please, please, please, please help.

Thanks,

Janet

We're meeting at Mel's house at 7:00 tonight...

2008-07-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

analogy explanation

2008-07-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

i felt like the analogy was true about what i was thinking/feeling but lacked explanation::: the new food is not actually food... maybe i'll be hungrier than i am now, and hopefully less rich. The food is doing god's will and community, things that i do every once in a while, (sometimes it's great, sometimes not). Either way, it probably won't look as extravagant as the way it does when i do it now (the delicacies) but will be more like regular meals... anyhow... i hope that is explanatory...

2008-07-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Janet, your post a while back makes me breathe easier and remember that fears and other normal-human emotions are OK. It also makes me want this to be beautiful and fulfilling for you and makes me wonder about how i can be a part of that.

Kimberly, you need to come. I mean, do what's best for you. But come. :) To your question, we want to have big decisions be a consensus of everyone living there if at all possible. We haven't had a lot of discussions/decisions about things to happen in the house as of yet..

Dan, I'm interested in simplicity too. I'm interested in whatever you're interested in, because you're living a beautiful life that i want mine to be more similar to.

John, thank you, thank you, for your words about God... Let's do that, yes, yes. I want that very much. Thanks for talking about God -- and for not letting us have bullshit! lives.

And so.. just a few thoughts in addition.. I was thinking today of a good analogy for my thoughts towards the whole thing. It was hard, because there's a lot of different factors about everything to consider, but analogies are very, very helpful to me. I finally decided on one, after many attempts.

I kind of feel like I am like a very constantly-hungry person who is going to live in a foreign, very food-filled place. In the place that i live now, when i do eat, it has been of a lot of these random delicacies that sometimes are very nutritious, sometimes very much not, and it's been hard on my body.

But the place i'm traveling to has the foods that i was made to be eating, and a lot of it. And I think, at first, the new food won't feel "right" at first (sometimes a person with anorexia's digestion system has a hard time processing the food it needs after going without it for so long) and i might not even like the taste of it, but after a while, my body will adjust to getting the nutrients it needs, and I'll get used to the taste and will probably love it much more than any of the delicacies i was eating before (like how sushi takes a few tries before you actually like it).

These are my thoughts. No pressure: I think the above will happen over time no matter what, just situationally, a group of people doing the things we want to do, but am also OK with it being bad and hard at times.

I think what we're doing may be very close to the type of life we're "supposed" to live, and am so serenely happy i get to do it. And sometimes worried, and sometimes wanting to control, but mostly very grateful... to be eating... regularly..

Work schedule

2008-07-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Thursday: We'll be meeting around 7 p.m. at the house to decide which rooms need painted and to pick colors for paint.

Thursday or Friday evening: Whoever can go, we'll work out a time to go supply shopping at Lowe's or Home Depot or....whereever.

Saturday morning: Let's start work at 9 a.m. We'll be painting, laying tile in the bottom floor bathrooms and sanding some floors. That'll also be a good time to put contact paper in the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. If we hear from Phil, we'll try to install A.C.'s and stoves then as well.

Sunday: We'll finish up any work we didn't get done on Saturday. We'll start in the afternoon, say around 1?

Next Saturday: Workday with Lifechurch peeps. Let's all be there to help out and show our support for them. And also to make sure they don't get carried away and demolish the house. That's supposed to scare everybody into coming up. :) It's pretty exciting: they're going to help us install a railing on the stairwell, install doors, floors, steps, hang blinds and more!

Please let us know if you can be there. With a specific task list, hopefully we'll be able to get a lot done. Get excited!

If you're not around to help out, don't feel bad. We understand. They'll still be lots to do when you get here. :) But there's still lots of things you can do from home: Pray for us (this is probably the most important); scrounge your local craigslist, freecycle, garage sales or friends for a fridge, freezer, washer, dryer, window units, space heaters, seeds for the garden and more; make curtains; send us some cash to help pay for supplies; come have coffee with us some other time when we're not working to feed our souls :).... These are just some ideas. Feel free to add your own.

Love, Janet

oh land-lordy! ... sponges... and the bullshit-negator

2008-07-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

hey guys, i haven't had any luck getting phil on the phone to talk about the necessary repairs, rent, etc. so, for you prayin' types, if you want to pray that he doesn't throw us any loops with that, it would be good. god is good, and it will all fall together regardless.

speaking of that, i feel like we haven't been talking too much about god's role,or g-d's role for you mewithoutYou types, in all this. i really want him to be our source, our motivator, and our backbone. i feel like sometimes i just want to live with a cool group of people that do things that make me feel good about myself and not part of the PROBLEM. but a good deal of me has been saying to the other bit of me- Bullshit! you are thinking you are doing a good thing but it is bullshit! and i kept wondering why i kept feeling like i was calling bullshit! on myself (this is all in my head and perhaps unintelligible). maybe i've been thinking too much about how i want it to be, and how i want it to look. i feel like god nudged me today to get me to ease up and just think about how great it will be to have him love on us and love each other. i guess because i only partly know some of you, that is harder for me to visualize. i feel like i could try to bullshit! love you, but then that would make me part of the PROBLEM. so, i really want to be asking god to make my heart know its need for him, and to want to soak him up. and maybe, as a bunch of wet sponges, we'll be good at loving each other.
i think maybe i've been thinking about this because in the last few weeks i've been observing the differences in personality, methods of communication, and preferences we have. holy shit it's going to flop if we don't have love! so dan, kim, janet, thanks for being vulnerable and saying true things.

Simple living and raising chickens

2008-07-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about living simply and how we all probably have different ideas about what that is. This worried me a bit because I was thinking about how some of our ideas on this could lead to conflict, and I was also worried because I wanted people to comply to my own views on what 'living simply' is. As in, there are some things that I wouldn't want to have in the house that someone else might want in the house. But I'm starting to realize that that isn't the biggest deal, and I'm realizing that it's more important that everyone has as much say as anyone else on what they have in the house. I was feeling a little too important, thinking that my ideas about what people should have matter more than their own ideas.

That being said, I'd like to have discussions about simple living and we can throw ideas around and find out where everyone is on that. I would like it if our commune-ity could be an experiment in simple living for us.

For example, my goal is to be able to give my car back to my parents and not have to pay insurance/gas/repairs/tickets/registration/inspection/oil change expenses. But I don't know how feasible that is. Then I can just bike around.

Plus we're going to have a garden at the house in addition to the one in Neal Park, and we're considering having chickens in our chicken coop.

I think we should all gather and watch "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" at my place, and then have a seance to summon the spirit of Saint Francis into our midst. Then we can just sing songs while doing garden work in rags and it will be fun.

Kelly is in the hospital and she's having surgery on her throat tomorrow morning. If you want to visit her she's in room 206.

I think I might have a hookup for free nightly Chinese food. If it works out we could put baskets on our bikes and ride to HEB in Bryan and pick up lots of Chinese food, then ride out to the park to share dinner with the folks there.

I'm really excited that I get to live with y'all :-)

Love
Dan

Feelin' hopeful! Let's paint this weekend!

2008-07-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

last night was great!

chris and dalene, our friends from church, are planning a work day for their team to come out to the house and do a lot of the heavy work. huzzah!!! (as dumpster dan would say) they came to the house last night and checked it out to see what needs to be done. It will be Saturday, July 26, from 6:00 am to noon (tentatively). Their main priorities are, in some order from greatest to least: living room floor, upstairs great room wood floor, upstairs bathroom floor, linoleum on kitchen floor, a step from the kitchen to utility room, hanging doors (inside house), hanging blinds, replacing flooring by back side door, and removing all garbage from premises in a big trailer. hurrah!

so, what we need to do this week. select what rooms we want to paint and how. this weekend, we can do all the painting if that is possible (then on the work day they can do the floors more easily, and if time, help us with any further painting). let's decide on the painting before friday, so we can get all the stuff together and hit it hard core on saturday. do you guys want to meet thursday night perhaps?

2008-07-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

hello, it's kimberly. I thought it would be a nice gesture to let everyone know that yes, I am still alive. I'm in Illinois living with a community on a farm until late August or early September, I'm not sure when yet.

I'm getting cold feet too, Janet. Last week I was seriously thinking about backing out of the Bryan community and leaving Texas asap (it's still a big temptation), but I think I will try to resist that urge at least for now. I'm concerned about how to work out the structure of living together since not everyone is in town. Y'all are probably figuring things out on your own, but I would like to know what people are talking about. Are you meeting regularly to discuss things or just letting it happen naturally? And what do people think about decision making type stuff? Consensus or something else? Reading your posts has made me a little less anxious, so thanks. I like communicating with the whole group instead of just between individuals; it's more communal :)

Oh, and what is everyone's general time commitment for this? Mine is probably through May, but I'm not exactly sure yet.

Also, sorry I'm MIA for all the remodeling work - you guys are so great for doing all this! I have some curtain making skills to lend if that's still needed in September, but I'm thinking you may need privacy before that. When are people moving in, by the way?

2008-07-14T10:12:00.001-07:00

Some wonderful people from Lifechurch have offered to help us out with the house. I don't know about you guys, but this is a huge, huge relief for me. Look how good God has been to us! We have already gathered wonderful people who are willing to sacrifice their own space to live together, a great house with a nice landlord in a perfect area and now even help making the house liveable. I'll let you know when they're going to come out so we can be sure to be there to help them.

I'm off work this morning, so I thought I would take advantage of this opportunity to actually post something honest on this site, and invite you to do the same. I've experienced and am still experiencing a fair amount of anxiety about living together next year. I'm scared that we won't get along, that it will be too cramped, that the top floor will fall off the house, that I won't be able to handle being around people so much, that I won't get to spend the time I want to with John, etc. It's funny because a few months ago, I was so excited and so ready to do this, I could barely stand living in our apartment any longer. And living with you was one of the main reasons John and I decided not to skip town as we had planned to this fall. So, maybe it's just cold feet.

The other night it occurred to me as I was trying to fall asleep that living in this house is like a reward. I don't know what I've done to deserve this, but somehow I've been given the chance to dramatically and profoundly expand my understanding of what it means to love people and to think of others as better than myself. And even more so, I might actually be able to think less about my own needs and understand slightly more of how Jesus feels about me. I am normally very self-focused and self-indulgent, so this is a big deal for me, although some of you probably already feel like this is happening in your normal life.

Enough about me--What about you? What are some of the things you're concerned about or excited about this year? Thoughts? Revelations? Confessions? Please post them. It will make me feel less vulnerable. :)

Commune-ity Fun Work Afternoon

2008-07-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hey :) :)

It's my first post!!

We're getting together tomorrow to clean, work, make our living space live-able and great. (see Janet-o's list below.) Come if you're in town. If you're unable or not in town, just do whatever you're doing and feel glad in your heart that these things are happening.

We'll be going tomorrow at 2 pm. Do you know how to get there? Are you in town? Call us, let us know.

Enjoy Elvis.

Blood, sweat and tears...(Not really tears, but definitely blood and sweat.)

2008-07-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, Dan, John, Cassie and I spent this morning cleaning up the hou

se. We managed to get A LOT done in a short amount of time. I thought I'd post some pictures as an introduction to the house, and then further down I'll post the list we made of what else needs to be done in order to make our home move-in-friendly.

1403 N. Sims Street. Notice the nice tree.

Here are some rooms of the house during the clean-up. I would have loved to take before and after pictures, but my camera died. So, this is somewhere in the middle when the batteries re-awakened.

We found some strange things, including an almost-exploded ancient jar of apple sauce and some jars of unidentified rotting-ness (not pictured due to the freaking pain it is to post pictures on blogspot).

But the best part was the incredible piles of stuff we were able to throw out of the second story window and pile by the curb and under the car port.

WARNING: LONG LIST

And now, on to the list. Don't be intimidated, some of these things are quick fixes. This is for us to see what else needs to be done for each room. If you see a task you're itching to do or a cost you're willing to cover, please give a shout-out to somebody in town. Or, better yet, show up at the house as a surprise!

Main Room

Replace floor boards

Sand and finish floor

Paint

Curtains/blinds for 3 windows

Clean windows

Fix glass in door

Downstairs Bedroom 1

Fix glass in door

Steam-clean carpet

Fix/take off door to main room

Downstairs Bathroom 1

Serious cleaning needed including windows

Repair fan

Install 1 door

Repair other door frame including knobs

Shower curtain

Take out carpet/floor

Lay tile/lineloeum

Downstairs Bedroom 2

Clean carpets/windows

Kitchen

Clean cabinets

Fix outlets

Repair drawers

Remove cabinet doors

Clean window

Install fridge/stove

Paint

Take out carpet/put in linoleum

Utility Room

Install washer/dryer

Clean windows/cabinets/floors

Downstairs Bathroom 2

Paint

Fix outlet

Shower curtain

Tile floor

Clean HARDCORE

Downstairs Hallway

Fix glass and lock in door

Weatherproof both entries

Replace board by door

Re-tile (Price check: 150 square-feet)

Get rid of wasp nest

Fix screen door

Install shelving for mail/tools/coats/shoes/etc.

Stairwell

Clean and paint railing

Install railing

Clean carpet

Upstairs Hallway 1

Clean carpet

Install ceiling fan

Upstairs Bedroom 1

Replace floor boards/fill in holes

Sand, finish floors

Upstairs Hallway 2

Clean carpet and window

Install curtain of someone is going to live there

Upstairs Bedroom 2

Clean carpet and windows

Install doors

Paint/scrape paint

Upstairs Bedroom 3

Clean carpet and window

Install bar in closet

Upstairs Bathroom

Clean HARDCORE

Rip up wooden floor

Install linoleum/tile

Put door back on hinges

Outside Porch

Replace roof

Clean up trash

Paint metal supports

In addition, we thought we should probably spray for bugs and buy locks (in case of robbery), toilet paper racks and towel racks for all the bathrooms.

In conclusion, here are your happy cleaners (minus me--I am taking the picture). Salud!

floor boards and windows all have to go...

2008-07-11T16:09:00.001-07:00

yeah! i'm a blogging rock star... i think i have like five of these things now...

anyhow, whoever can should come down to the house tomorrow morning, perhaps at 9:00 AM, if their disposition allows. 1403 North Sims Ave will soon turn into 14 oh I wanna be there 3 north sims ave. haha.

so- if you read my previous comment... i could use some help with measuring and counting floorboards that will need replacing. if you have a tape measure, and some chalk, then bring it. also, you may want to bring work gloves. does anyone have a crow bar?

in other news, acme glass called today. their mirrors want you to stop looking at them! haha. all jokes. i mean that they set an appointment with us to replace the windows next friday, 7/18/08, sometime in the morning. that means they need one of us to be there to let them in. i can probably be there, because i usually get friday mornings off, but it would be good to know if there is anyone else who could make it, too.

Success!

2008-07-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

I figured out how to let everyone post on here. You should have gotten an e-mail with an invitation to add to this blog. If not, write your e-mail in a comment and somebody will add you to the list. Post away, friends!

Keys in hand

2008-07-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, ladies and gentlemen. We have signed the lease!

We paid Phil a $700 deposit and now the real work begins. (Ask one of us* about paying us back your part of the deposit)

If you haven't heard from *Dan, Melanie, John or Janet about the house, then let me write it here:

It's awesome, but needs some work. It's the perfect size, in a great area with friendly neighbors and has lots of space for us to stand and turn circles with our arms outstretched.

On the other hand, the house is in a serious state of disarray right now.

Here are some of the most pressing needs:

* to be seriously cleaned

* to have all the junk moved out

* a stove, fridge installed

* air conditioning units installed

* broken glass on the doors repaired

* plumbing and electricity repaired and turned on

Those are all the things that Phil has agreed to do. Now, Phil is a super-nice guy, but he's short on cash and lives about an hour away. So, if we can help him out, let's do it. We might even make some cash doing so.

There's other things that need to be added/done as well. These are less important, but might add to the fun of living there.

* floors refinished upstairs and downstairs

* carpets cleaned

* washer and dryer installed

* some touch up painting

* cabinets in kitchen repaired

* floor in downstairs half-bathroom repaired

* porch roof repaired

* garden planted

Overwhelmed yet?

John and I are the first people whose lease will be up. We have to be out of our apartment by Aug. 1. I think most people have a little extra time. But if we can get as much done as possible this month, that would be awesome.

Please, please lend a hand and a tool and some expertise if you are in town.

One other thing: I'm not aiming to be a blog-hot. I want everybody to be able to post on this site, not just comments. If anyone knows how to make this blog poster-friendly. Let me know. :)

Love,

Janet

Welcome

2008-06-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

This is the beginning of Sims Street Life — the blog for our little commune-ity.

Since we're scattered across the map right now, this blog is a place for us to make sure we're on the same page about our house, our lives and our new houselife together.

Let's start by posting an entry about what your goals are for the community next year.

Also, we found a house on Sims Street! (hence the name) It's a five bedroom, two 1/2 bath with a huge yard and lots of open space. It's $700 per month. It's in a great neighborhood surrounded houses and restaurants. The thing is, the house needs A LOT of work. We're looking to move into it by the end of July, so please volunteer to come help out. I'll start making a list of tasks in the next post. The thing is, we want to make sure everybody's okay with the house before we sign a lease. So PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS BLOG to let us know if the house is okay.

Love,

Janet