Candy Cane Lane

I've found something else that just makes the holidays even more wonderful for me. Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane Holiday Decaf Green Tea. That's quite a mouthful to say, but when you drink it, it's happiness in a mug. Seriously. It's tastes just like a candy cane. But without the sugar. (I added Splenda.) Yum! I'm just sitting here smelling the box right now, and it's making me happy. Celestial Seasonings makes several different holiday teas, and they're all on sale at HEB right now, for those of you in the TX area. There was a gingerbread kind, a sugar cookie kind, and several others. Check out the website here. Super yum! This will definitely take a bad morning (For example, one where yesterday it was 75 degrees and this morning it's 33 and sleeting... Yes, that IS what happened in Waco today!) and turn it right around!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I LOVE the holiday season! Thanksgiving and Christmas combine to make a wonderful season of fun, family, joy, thankfulness, and lots of good food! Justin and I spent Thanksgiving weekend house/dogsitting for my boss, so we enjoyed having lots of space and cable TV. (Friday afternoon while Justin was working on school stuff, I watched 5 hours of a "What Not to Wear" marathon on TLC. Pure bliss.) Thanksgiving morning we gave back to the community by delivering Meals on Wheels to a few senior adults, and then for lunch I cooked a magnificent feast for just me and Justin. It was delicious and healthy too! :) Then Friday morning we got up early (but not at 4:00 as we have in years past!) and both started and finished our Christmas shopping! Fun times! So it was a highly successful weekend. Finally Sunday afternoon we put up our Christmas tree and now we're ready for Christmas! Just 2 more weeks of school for my sweetheart, then he gets to breathe a big sigh of relief for a little while. We'll be taking our annual trip to the homeland for Christmas, so we'll be hitting Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee on that trip. Can't WAIT for that! I'll have 2 new nephews by then, and I can't wait to squeeze them both! So here's a fun quiz for you to do in honor of the beginning of the Christmas season:

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Very Brady Christmas

For you, it's all about sharing times with family. Even if you all get a bit cheesy at times.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

The Rear End of Luxury

Well, it's finally getting to be that time of the year in Texas when we're pulling our sweaters out of storage. In fact, I even glimpsed a patch of frost on my rear windshield this morning! Oh no! I DO NOT LIKE COLD WEATHER! I prefer t-shirts and flip-flops! But alas, my poor feet are doomed to a couple of months of being trapped inside socks and shoes. However, I've just recently discovered one perk of the cold season. My precious, wonderful husband, being the strong and mighty protector that he is, has recently let me start driving his 2004 Camry to work instead of the less-reliable 96 Grand Am I'd been driving. One chilly evening last week when we were out and about, I noticed some buttons on the dashboard of the Camry that I'd never seen before. There was a right one and a left one, and they showed a picture of a seat with wavy lines coming up from it. So I pushed the one for my side to see what would happen, and lo and behold, 2 minutes later this wonderful toasty feeling starts to emanate from my seat! (At first, I thought I'd wet my pants!) I realized it was a seat warmer! I'd heard of these, but always thought they were for luxury cars and that I'd never own a car that had them! (I realize you're probably rolling your eyes and attributing my naivete to the fact that I lived in Africa for 2 years. I still think a refrigerator is a marvelous thing!) I mean, who came up with that idea? It had to be a woman. So anyways, thanks to my precious husband's generosity and concern for me, I get to drive to work every morning with a roasty toasty rear end. So maybe there is ONE good thing about cold season in Texas. Now I just need a warmer for the steering wheel!

Cutie-Patootie!

There's not much going on in my world right now. I'm ready for Thanksgiving so I can get 2 days off work! I'm pretty sad to not be going home, though. I want to squeeze my new precious nephew! But in the meantime, with my absence of anything interesting to post, I'll just post a couple more pictures that I got from my mom of the two most precious children on the face of the earth.

What an adorable little chunky monkey!

I love this picture because it seems to me that what's happening is Azlan is in his carseat wailing, and Patriot is pointing and laughing. Oh, the pitfalls of being the younger sibling! I know how you feel, Azlan. :)

He's Finally Here!

My second sweet nephew has made his entrance into the world!

Azlan David
Born November 6 at 7:30 p.m. EST
9 lbs., 5 oz., 21" long

He's pictured here with Mommy, Daddy, and big brother Patriot. I LOVE the look on Patriot's face - What is THAT thing Mommy is holding?! :)

I've Always Wondered...

I heard a song on the radio this week that REALLY touched me. I've always wondered about things like this, but I've never heard anyone else talk about it. But in this song, Todd Agnew expresses perfectly the things I've always wondered about Jesus' life on earth:

Todd Agnew - Did You Know?
From the album Do You See What I See?

Were Mary’s the first eyes you saw
Or did You remember choosing that shade of brown?
Were You surprised at the shepherd’s crazy story
Or did You know You wrote the song the angels sang?

What was this life like for You?

Did You know?
Did the cross cast its shadow o’er your cradle?
Did You know?
Did You shudder each time Your hammer struck a nail?
Did you know?
How much heaven and how much earth
Were in this baby at His birth?
Did you know? Or did you wonder?

Did you remember the brightness of Your glory
Or did You just notice it was cold and dark here?
Did You know Your name or did you have to be told?

Were You just a baby or were You as old as time?

What was Your life like?

Did You know?
Did the cross cast its shadow o’er your cradle?
Did You know?
Did You shudder each time Your hammer struck a nail?
Did you know?
How much heaven and how much earth
Were in this baby at His birth?
Did you know? Or did you wonder?

What a moving thought, and how appropriate to think about as the Christmas season approaches. May we all meditate on the life of Christ and all He gave up to come to earth as a man to die for the sins of you and me.

Ding, Dong, the Mouse is Dead!

Many of you know that for the past 2 weeks, we've had a mouse in our house! The problem is that he hasn't been technically IN our house, more like UNDER it. He's been scritching and scratching underneath the kitchen cabinets, but we couldn't find any holes in the cabinets to make us think that he could get out into our kitchen. So the glue trap we set out could do absolutely no good, since we couldn't put it anywhere where he could get caught in it. Instead, we'd just hear him at all hours of the day and night. Justin (a terribly light sleeper) would even be woken up in the middle of the night by the noise. (I, however, could sleep through an atomic bomb blast.) So we told the apartment management about it, and they sent over an exterminator last Friday. He couldn't really get to the mouse either, but he did find a little hole in the cabinet under the sink. The mouse probably hadn't been getting through this hole yet, but he probably would. So the exterminator put little cubes of poison in nooks & crannies all over our kitchen, and we just had to hope that the mouse would eventually get into the kitchen and eat it! (Can you believe us actually WANTING a mouse to get INTO our kitchen?!) In the meantime, he just scritched and scratched away, making himself at home under there! Until yesterday, we finally had some action. Apparently the mouse finally clawed his way through that little hole under the sink, and the first thing he did was proceed to consume a whole cube and a half of poison. Not the most intelligent thing to eat in a human kitchen. This was like his whole body weight in poison! So, needless to say, he didn't last long. Justin got home from school yesterday and found the poor little guy croaked in the middle of the kitchen floor. Thankfully, he died in the middle of the floor instead of curling up under the cabinet and kicking the bucket there! So thus ends our Mouse Saga. We're leaving out the poison for a while longer in case there was more than one of them, but we didn't hear any scratching last night. I can't help but be a little sad, though. (Justin can't believe I say this! He HATES rodents.) But I had pet gerbils and hamsters when I was a kid! So how is the little guy we just killed any different than little Trixie I had when I was in 3rd grade? The difference is that Trixie didn't live under my kitchen cupboard and keep my husband from sleeping at night. So I guess if either the mouse or my husband had to go, I'll keep the husband. :)

The Symphony's A-Comin'

Why haven't we heard from Joni in so long? Has she fallen off the face of the earth? Well, no, it's nothing that dramatic. I usually do my blogging at work, but for the past 2 weeks at work, I've been so busy that I literally haven't even had time to check my personal email, much less blog! Why have I been so busy?! Well, it's actually a pretty exciting event. We're hosting the Kiev Symphony Orchestra & Chorus for a concert this coming Monday. This is the only private symphony in the Ukraine, and it's a part of a larger group called Music Mission Kiev. Check out their website to learn more about this amazing group and their ministry in the Ukraine. They do an American Symphony Tour every couple of years to raise funds and awareness for their ministry, and this year the church where I work is blessed with being a stop on their tour. So it's a HUGE undertaking and keeping me REALLY busy. Thankfully it all seems to be coming together beautifully, and we're looking forward to an AWESOME concert on Monday. So for any of you who are in or around Waco, consider coming to the concert! It's really going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For those of you who aren't close enough to come, please pray for us, that everything will come off smoothly and that I don't have any nervous breakdowns in the meantime. If you want to be REALLY impressed, check out the website I made about the event.

This Sounds About Right...

You Should Rule Mars

Mars is a planet that shines brightly and loops wildly around the solar system. You are perfect to rule Mars, because you are both energetic and independent. Like Mars, you seems attractive and bright to others - but you're difficult to pin down. You are a great thinker, but you only think in the present and ignore the future. Full of enthusiasm and inspiration, you are into your own thing... and rather insensitive to others.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatplanetshouldyourulequiz/
What Planet Should You Rule?

Facing the Giants

Just in case there are any of you who don't read my husband's blog, I also wanted to let you know about an incredible movie that opens today in theaters across the nation. Facing the Giants is a movie about a high school football coach who is experiencing defeat in every aspect of his life. The movie explores how his faith plays into that. It was produced by a church in Georgia, and all of the actors in the movie are either church members or attend that church's school. None of them are professional actors, which makes it even more amazing that this movie is SO GOOD! Justin and I were privileged to see a sneak preview when it was here in Waco, which is why I can already rave about it. Please, everyone, go see it!!!!! Check out the movie's website, where you can find trailers, information about production, reviews, and more. For those of you in Waco, it's playing at the Hollywood Theater this weekend. BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!!!!!!! Please support this movie this weekend, because if it doesn't do well, it won't stay in theaters. It's worth it!!!! GO!!!!!

Mad at the World

I'm just grumpy today, so I'm going to rant about the 2 things I have to be grumpy about at the moment. First of all, the poor season premeire of The Office.

I feel the same way, Dwight. After having several days to think it over, it wasn't that there weren't funny parts of the show. The "gaydar" stuff, the calculator in Jello incident - those were just dang funny. But in general the content of the show was too uncomfortable to be enjoyable. My analysis is that the reason this show is so funny is because there is no one in the world who is really like Michael Scott. He takes the worst things about every person, and multiplies them by 1000 in himself. No one acts like he does - he is absurdly way over the top. This was indeed the case in this episode, but the problem I had with it is that there are actually people in the world who think the way he does about homosexuality. Sure, no one would think that it's ok to befriend your gay coworker by forcing him to kiss you. But still. It just wasn't funny, and that disappointed me. So for those of you who watched the show for the first time at my insistence, please accept my apologies. The show is usually in much better taste. This season had better get good FAST!

And speaking of fast, this leads to my next complaint, and probably the reason I'm so grumpy today. FedEx. Do they know the latter part of their name stands for "Express?" So why does it take me 7 days from when they first attempt to deliver a package to my house to when I actually acquire the package?! I won't go into all the details of how ridiculous this experience has been, but I will just say that I don't know if I've ever had an organization of this caliber be so unfriendly and unhelpful. It's like they don't want me to be able to get my package and they were purposefully trying to keep it from me. Nothing about their website or 800 phone number or location (once I finally found it) was designed to help me in this circumstance. So I'm done with FedEx. Please, if you ever send me anything, just use the good ol' US Postal Service. God bless America.

I've already got a post planned for tomorrow, and I promise it will be more upbeat!

You Know Your Life Is Sad When...

... the highlight of your week is looking forward to The Office premeire tonight. I can't wait for this, though! I have been anxiously awaiting it all summer. I am totally on the edge of my seat to see what's going to happen with Jim & Pam! For those of you who have never watched this show, don't be afraid to start now! The episodes are usually each their own story - they're not really one long continual story. Some of the things will get funnier as you get to know the characters and their stories, but I don't think you'll be missing too much by not having seen the previous seasons.

... the greatest accomplishment of your week is scoring the highest points in your family's fantasy football league. There's only one team in the league that is definitely better than mine, and that's my 2-year-old nephew's team (maintained by his dad). Since I played against him the first week, I've got a loss on my record. But I should be able to blow away everyone else in the league and finish up second place for the season. (That's some pretty confident talk for a girl who doesn't know squat about football players. I just like the game.)

... you get fighting mad when one of your husband's professors treats him unkindly. It's a long, gruesome tale that maybe Justin will share on his own blog. But when he told me, I seriously considered writing that professor an indignant email. I reconsidered, though, considering there may be some ramifications on my precious husband if I sent a nasty email to his professor.

... unrelated things at work get you singing songs by the Wiggles. I had never heard of the Wiggles until I went on vacation with my 2-year-old nephew (the same one who's beating me at fantasy football). Then I discovered this great Australian foursome who sing and dance, they're totally cute and my nephew is in love with them. So anyway, at work, the youth group has a basketball event they call Hoop-De-Doo. I saw a flyer for it and had a sudden brain wave. Don't the Wiggles sing a song called Hoop-De-Doo? In fact, they do.

Hoop-De-Do, Hoop-De-Do
I hear a polka and my troubles are through
Hoop-De-Do, Hoop-De-Do
This kind of music is like heaven to me
Hoop-De-Do, Hoop-De-Do
It's got me higher than a kite
Hand me down my soup and fish, I am gonna get my wish
Hoop-De-Doin' it tonight

I'm trying to convince the youth group to use this as their theme song this year. They don't think that's as great an idea as I do.

... you're sitting at work with things to do, but you'd rather be blogging! Wait, that's not sad. That's ok.

Another Anniversary!

Three weeks ago Justin and I had our one-year wedding anniversary, and it just occured to me that I didn't post anything about it. What a terrible wife I am! Sorry, sweetheart! Our trip to Gulf Shores was our anniversary celebration. But that's not the intended purpose of this post, so I'll try to stay on track. The anniversary that I celebrated yesterday was one year at my job! I've never worked that long at anyplace before, so it was quite a milestone for me. I am so blessed to have the job that I have, and my bosses are fantastic! So here's to another good year!

The Floodgates of Heaven

Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. ~ Malachi 3:10

Sometimes there are days in my life when God just gives me so much joy that I don't know if I'll be able to contain it! Wednesday was one of those days for me. The first good news came in my assistants' meeting that morning, when they told us that the church had passed a new budget and we were all getting raises! Big raises. They did it on a percentage base, and mine is almost $1 per hour more. What a blessing that is for us!!!!!!

The second good news came that afternoon when I got a call from the Music Minister at our church who told me that I had been chosen to be on the Sunday Morning Praise Team. I had auditioned the week before, but I really didn't expect to make it. But I had just done my best and told God that if He should choose to use me to minister in that way, I'd do my best for Him. But if He didn't choose me for that ministry, that I would apply myself to whatever other ministry He puts in my path. I really do want to use this as an opportunity to minister to the congregation at Highland and help lead them into more genuine worship. So what a privilege to be chosen for that ministry!

So I just wanted to take this brief moment to testify that God REALLY DOES prove Himself faithful in pouring out blessing upon us when we give our best for Him.

The World Will Never Be the Same

I'm sure all of you have already seen the news headlines about the tragic and sudden death of the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. He was snorkeling off the coast of Australia and was killed when he accidentally cornered a stingray, which attacked and pierced him in the heart. I have to say that if there was any way I think Steve would've wanted to go, it was like this. He did so much for nature and wildlife, making lovable even some of the world's ugliest and deadliest creatures. I believe his work will continue in the many he has inspired. My prayers are with his wife, Terri, and their two children.

Life on the Beach!

Ok, now that it's been about a million years since we returned from vacation, and you have all despaired of me ever blogging again, I'm finally going to post some vacation pics. Really we've only been home 2 weeks, and those were perhaps the 2 busiest weeks I've ever experienced at work. But now it's Labor Day Weekend and I have a glorious 3-day weekend! So if you're lucky, I may even post TWICE! HA! Ok, let the pictures begin:

This is the fantastic group that went to the beach: Me, Justin, my sister Jessica, Patriot (Jessica's precious 2-year-old son), Matt (Jessica's husband), my mom, and my dad. This was taken on the road right outside the house we rented for the week, so as you can see we had a great location right on the beach!Our neighborhood also had a pool, so we spent quite a bit of time there, too. Patriot wasn't so excited about the beach (He didn't like the sand sticking to his feet!), but he LOVED the pool (as you can see by his face in this picture!).The older boys sure liked the beach, though! They spent hours out there surf fishing. The mostly caught just crabs and mackerel, but then when they went pier fishing, Justin caught a lizard fish and Dad caught a shark! Just standing here at our beach, though, they did spot several schools of rays, some dolphins, and even a manatee!At the pool, we played a fun game where I would throw a Nerf water football, and Dad and Matt would both jump in and see who could catch it. This is quite possibly my favorite picture of my dad. EVER. So that is a short recap of our fun family vacation at the beach. Hopefully we'll make it a family tradition!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

We're back in town after an awesome family vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I don't have pictures ready to post yet, so it'll be a couple days before I can post about the vacation. Here's a hilarious video to keep you entertained in the meantime. These guys are geniuses. Don't try this at home.

My Achilles Heel

As most of you who know me will already be quite aware of, I love board games. Any game, any time, let's play. There is nothing I like to do better with the people I love. Part of the reason I enjoy games so much is that I'm GOOD at them. I win a lot. Not all the time, but certainly often enough to keep my confidence up. However, after much playing, I have finally discovered my Achilles heel: Trivial Pursuit, Pop Culture DVD edition. I CANNOT win at this game. Now this may be because of the fact that every time I've played, I've been on the opposite team from my husband, who is a virtual encyclopedia of random knowledge. Despite this fact, I have beat him at other Trivia games. But never Pop Culture edition. So for all of you out there who think it's impossible to beat me at a game, let's play Pop Culture. I'll go down for sure.

The Law of Undulation

I'm currently reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. For those of you who haven't read it, Lewis assumes the persona of Screwtape, a demon, who is writing letters to his nephew demon, Wormwood, to teach him how to influence humans, particularly his own "patient." So far it is an amazing and insightful book, and it is full of truth and powerful application for my life. Last night I read Chapter 8, which moved me so much that I wanted to post the text here so that everyone could read it. Please take the time to read the whole text. Remember as you're reading it that it is written from the perspective of a demon, so in this letter, "Enemy" is referring to God and "Our Father Below" is referring to Satan.

Humans are amphibians — half spirit and half animal. . . .As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation — the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life — his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth, periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good
unless you make a good use of it.

To decide what the best use of it is, you must ask what use the Enemy wants to make of it, and then do the opposite. Now, it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. The reason is this. To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself — creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.

And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now se that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to override a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creatures to stand up on its own legs — to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with, the better. He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

Another boy!!!

I just realized that I never posted the news we heard from Justin's sister. Yes, that's right - we're expecting ANOTHER NEPHEW due in December. Congrats, Nicole and David! They're looking at being more traditional with their names than my sister. Last I heard, they were wanting to name him Joshua Daniel. Daniel is Justin's middle name, so that's a sweet tribute to Uncle Justin. Yay for nephews! It's going to be quite a family Christmas for us!