Random Thoughts Vol.18

My poor blog. So neglected. I can't blame Facebook this time, however. Life has just been busy. Alas, I have some free time on this early Sunday evening, so I'll take some time to share some thoughts.

Today was our first Sunday in our new church building. Yippee! It's very exciting, and even though we've only been at Vineyard 2 years, it is an important milestone for us. We found out about this church because of the sign marking the future site, so now to be in the building on that site is very fulfilling.

I recently went to a conference for church called "Naturally Supernatural", and all I can say is that it was life-changing for me. I left there a different person, and I'm so grateful. It's amazing to me to realize that not only does Jesus forgive us of our sin, but he also doesn't want us to harbor any shame for it. He truly is AMAZING!

The picture at the beginning of this post is of a book I read last weekend. I HIGHLY recommend it. It is called Chasing The Dragon and it is the story of a woman named Jackie Pullinger and her life as a missionary in Hong Kong. It will stretch you!

Two weeks ago my cousin's 24 year old son shot himself. So sad. The funeral was packed full of young people...I've never seen anything like it. So many who seemed so lost and so shaken. I spent most of the funeral praying for those around us, for God to speak to them, and to reach out to them in their time of need. Come, Lord Jesus!

On the adoption front, there is no new news. I recently read an evaluation on how things are a year later in Guatemala. The corruption is improved, but, because there is no new adoption process working, children and babies are being abandoned by birth mothers. In Guatemala City alone, over 70 children were found, and 14 of them had already died. The thought makes me sick of children dying for lack of a process when many families, including ours, are simply waiting here for there to be a way to adopt them. There isn't much more I can say than to plea with the God of Justice to act on behalf of not only the Guatemalan children, but also orphans around the world.

Whew, that was heavy! On to much lighter thoughts! I'm looking forward to watching The Amazing Race tonight. It's my favorite reality show, and it has proved stellar this season. All I can say is giant cheese wheels! I'm also watching Survivor, and cracking up at the guy who kind of looks like Qui Gon Jin from Star Wars. All I have to say about American Idol is that I miss David Cook. Heroes is quickly losing my interest, partially because 24 and Lost are SOOOOO good right now. I wish that this TV potpourri was dispersed better - there's too much to watch now and the summer will be empty.

I realized I never posted about my scrapbooking weekend. It was AWESOME and I had a wonderful time with my friends. I don't remember exactly, but I did about 32 sides, I think. I've scrapped a couple of times since then. In fact, I might work on it tonight. I have to say, in case you haven't heard this, I LOVE my Cricut machine! That thing is the best! I'll include some pictures of pages in the kids' albums (which is what I worked on at the crop), as well as a calendar page I did in my family album.

Here are the pages I did for Michael's birthday. His theme was patriotic, with different monuments decorating the kitchen. I was so pleased with my catchy title (always a challenge for me!)


I just like these pages in Madison's book. Very girly!


These pages in Max's book show how I can use one cricut cartridge and get different looks, which is cool.


The last couple of years I have done a December calendar page and then wrote a long journal entry about how we spent the holiday. I really like how this works out and would suggest giving it a try.


Coming to this blog a week from today: Max's 5th birthday. Stay tuned!

My Favorite Things - Vol. 2 - American Idol

It's that time of year again. American Idol is back in full swing, and it's finally to the portion of the show where I start watching. I'm not into the early audition episodes, so I only catch bits and pieces of it. I really start watching when you can start voting, although I watched the Hollywood episode last night, while flipping over to catch The Biggest Loser, another one of my favorite things. The only problem with The Biggest Loser is that I can't stop snacking while it is on! It's like watching these people work out and deprive themselves of food is more than I can bear and the next thing I know I'm at the pantry looking for something to eat. I could probably use some help with that, but I digress...

This is suppposed to be an American Idol post, so I'll get back on the topic. I've watched American Idol since the top 10 of the first season (which I've watched reruns of on American Idol Rewind and man, are some of them just HORRIBLE singers!). My favorite season continues to be season 2, with Reuben, Clay, and Kimberly. They were all excellent singers. I'd like to pretend the Fantasia season didn't happen - I'm NOT a fan. And, as much as I enjoy Carrie Underwood now, I was always sad for Bo Bice, who was one of my favorites. It's a shame Bo's loss didn't net him the career that Chris Daughtry's loss got him.

I liked some of the changes to Hollywood week, especially the exclusion of the group sing portion. It was always a lot of fighting and whining, which, although it can be entertaining, would just become annoying. That said, no one should be allowed to play the drums and sing, especially a Tom Jones song. I'm not sure the instruments really added anything - they didn't show too many people who were successful with it. The homeless kid is getting on my nerves, and I don't think the Janis Joplin/rocker nurse is going to make it too far. My favorite of who they showed (that I saw) was one of the first guys - the one who sang "Love the One You're With".

So, what did you think? Any favorites? Who are your favorite idols from the past? What would be your audition song? Mine would be DankaShane (sp?).

My Favorite Things - Vol. 1 - Lost Season 4

So, Ryan and I have watched the TV show "Lost" from the very first episode. We were hooked from the start. I have been known to listen to podcasts online featuring information from the writers/producers, as well as read message boards for theories. But, I have never posted a frame by frame analysis of what Mr. Eko saw in the black smoke monster, though I was grateful someone else did. "Lost" was the reason we bought a new VCR, since we had lost the remote to our old one and thus could not program the new ABC channel into it and had no way of recording the show (it is a "watch after the kids' bedtime" show). Anyway, the show has had it's highs (Hello, they took Walt off the raft!) and lows (what was up with the Jack's tatoos episode?) and we have hung in there. Even through the death of my favorite character, (I don't want to spoil past seasons too much, so HE will remain nameless), we have persevered. Well, I must say, that perserverance paid off last night. WOW! The new season premiere blew me away, and resurrected those feelings of seasons past when my mind races after it's over and I have trouble falling asleep. It was so intense at times, I felt like maybe I shouldn't watch. So many questions, I can't take it! So many questions, yet I want more! Let's hope the writer's strike gets settled soon so we can have more than 8 episodes this season, and won't have to watch shows like "My Dad can beat Your Dad."

Here's the web address for the entertainment weekly recap/analysis of last night's episode. You'll have to copy and paste, since I still can't get the blog to post links.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20036782_20037403_20175395,00.html