Fun Times in the ER

We spent our first night in the ER last night. Wow, that was fun. Garrett has always been susceptible to the croup, so because of that we've researched all of the ways to help him here at home. We sat in the bathroom with a steaming hot shower running, we gave him a breathing treatment that he didn't want and wouldn't cooperate for, I tried propping him up a lot with pillows. In the past atleast one of those tricks would work and after maybe an hour, Garrett would be fine and go back to sleep. Last night, nothing worked unless we were holding him directly over the humidifier, and even then it wasn't very much help. He was struggling to breathe, anytime he attempted to say anything to us it took a lot of effort for him to talk and his voice was really hoarse. At one point he looked to Keith and croaked, "Daddy help." Finally, at 3am, we headed to the hospital. I've been in an ER a handfull of times growing up for a variety of my siblings, but I've never had to go specifically for me and we've never taken Garrett. Keith was apparently super healthy growing up because he had never been in an ER before. It really wasn't the bad experience I was expecting. I've heard horror stories about people waiting for hours, but we were in and out within 2 hours so I didn't think that was too bad. Garrett was given a steriod to help reduce the swelling in his windpipe, then we had to hold him down so they could do a breathing treatment, and lastly we had the fun time of getting an x-ray on a 2 year old. You have to be part-contortionist to keep that lead apron on, plus hold your child's hands or legs a certain way, and keep them sitting where they need to be, it was crazy, but the x-ray tech was super nice and she got us done really quickly. We were given a prescription for a few more days worth of the steriod medicine and then we got to leave. We finally got into bed around 5:15 or so and I think I basically died because I was so exhausted, I don't even really know what Garrett did (he was in our bed with us), I assume he went to sleep as quickly as I did because I didn't hear anything until 7:30. As the day wears on, he's sounding better and better. I'm in hopes that we don't have to deal with this again tonight, obviously the meds should help that, but it won't prevent it completely. Croup is basically the cold virus that becomes croup in some kids (of course we're lucky enough to have one of those kids), but if you're not careful their vocal cords and windpipe can swell shut, hence the need for the steriods to prevent the swelling when the other remedies aren't working.

We've just had a crazy week and I ask myself on a daily basis when I'm going to get to sleep a full night. As I said in a previous blog, Garrett was sick most of Christmas Eve night with a stomach bug, then I made the super intelligent decision to take down Garrett's crib and move him into a big bed on Saturday. He's almost 2 and a half and too tall for the crib, according to their specs. He used to climb out of it all the time, but when I started making him nap in the big bed, he threw a big fit and stopped trying to climb out. So Saturday night was crazy because at that time we still had his crib set up as a toddler bed even though he looks huge in there. We kept hearing him wake up and then he would switch beds all night long, so Keith (being the kind-hearted Dad that he is) brought him to our bed because he felt sorry for him that his crib was no longer in existence. I can't sleep with a 2 year old kicking and poking me all night, plus he grinds his teeth terribly! So with his issues and Keith's snoring, I got no sleep Saturday night. Then we get the lovely croup episode on Sunday night, so I think I've had 5 hours of sleep in the past 2 days. On top of all of this, our water heater went out on Saturday, so during all of his free time Saturday, Sunday and now today, Keith is trying to get it replaced. Actually he has it replaced, but the new one is leaking, so he's had to buy all kinds of parts and tools trying to fix it. I feel the most sorry for him because he's probably had less sleep than me. I don't know why everything has to happen at once. Of course the crib thing is totally my fault and believe me, had I known the croup was going to pop up out of nowhere last night, I wouldn't have taken down the crib when I did.

I never knew parenting would be so crazy. I guess my parents did it with appearing ease since there were 5 of us, they probably just walked around in a state of crazy all of the time and that was just normal. (I'm kidding, Momma!) Nobody points out all of these fun things when you're pregnant or talking about having a baby. You might hear a few things about the lack of sleep the first few months, but nobody mentioned the lack of sleep for years later on. And to think that I actually want another one. Am I crazy?

Let's All Burst Into Song

I'm sitting here watching "The Sound of Music", which is on TV tonight. First off, I am a big fan of this movie, and a lot of other musicals. I grew up watching them, me and all my siblings would sing along while watching "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" or "Newsies" (which was one of Christian Bale's very first movies, by the way. He's a pretty good singer.) or "Sound of Music. It brings back very fond, very good memories to watch these old movies. However, now that I'm an old, cynical person, I find myself struck by the very odd moments when people burst into song in these musicals. I didn't really notice it when I was young, I just loved belting out the awesome music along with the movie, but now I find myself laughing and asking Keith what he would do if I just busted out singing right in the middle of doing a random, mundane task. He just looked at me as if I had two heads and went about his business. He isn't a musical movie-type of guy. He had actually never seen "The Sound of Music" until tonight when I've forced him to leave the channel where it is, though I don't think he's really watching, just probably getting irritated at me while I sing along and repeat the lines of this movie. But back to the singing, I would like to know where the idea of the musical came from because if someone actually lived like this, they would be viewed as very strange indeed. It's one thing to break out into a New Kids on the Block song because you can't get it out of your head, it's a completely different thing to start singing about what you're doing, and just making up a song as you go. I will admit that I do a little singing with Garrett, and I make up songs occasionally to break up the monotony, so maybe it was a bored stay at home mom who originally wrote the first musical, it was just a script of her day to day life where she sang things to her kids as they did them. I realize musicals aren't really a current movie being made, but they definitely had their moment in time.

I enjoy rewatching these old movies because of the memories that it evokes. I can feel myself being transported back to when I was maybe around 7 or 8 and we were all sitting on my parents' bed with popcorn watching "The Sound of Music". I'm not really sure why we were on their bed and not sitting in the living room, but that's what I remember. Momma or Daddy, you can correct me if I'm wrong on that. I won't forget that time we went to the movie theater to see "Newsies" for the first time. My sister and I fell in love with Christian Bale (atleast, I did, I assume Grace did, but maybe she didn't...). I remember going out and buying the soundtrack just as soon as I could afford it. I guess the appeal back then was partly the music. Our family was always very big into music, so watching musicals was only natural for us. I have no idea if this will be something that gets passed down to my child, my love for musicals. I would like to think so, but you never can tell. So, what about you? Do you like musicals? Did you grow up watching them with your family?

Does Anyone Have a Barf Bag?

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. All of the presents have been unwrapped, the trash can is overflowing with wrapping paper and a million twist ties, toy companies have now determined they are the best theft deterrant, I guess. We had a great Christmas but it was very similar to last year, in the fact that Garrett was sick, AGAIN. Thankfully we didn't have to spend the day at the minor emergency clinic with 105 degree fever like last year, but I would love to celebrate Christmas day with a healthy child and a full night's sleep the night before.

Yesterday, we went to my in-law's for the day and exchanged presents with them. Garrett made out like a bandit with a new tricycle, clothes, a few small toys and a stick horse. He doesn't quite understand the concept of a stick horse. You know, one of those horse's heads on a broom stick that you can pretend to ride around the house. But I'm sure he'll figure it out. Keith's family draws names, which makes things pretty simple. I had his name and he had his mom's name, which translates to me buying everything. I got him a handgun, which he was super excited about. His brother-in-law had my name and he gave me a ton of placemats, cloth napkins, and napkin rings. That may not excite some of you, but I've been wanting a variety of those, so I'm looking forward to decorating my dining room table with the seasons.

After exchanging gifts we all went to Keith's grandparents' for supper and more gift exchanging. Let me just say that their house was super hot! The thermostat was set on 80 degrees (no kidding, Keith checked and almost passed out) and the stove had probably been on for the entire day leading up to everyone coming over. Garrett started getting real grouchy. He hadn't napped at all, barely eaten at lunch, and had just downed half a glass of Sunny Delight (something he had never had). All of those things led to the perfect storm with a toddler, but instead of a tantrum, we had vomiting. Yes, it was a sight to behold. Fortunately (ha!) he only got it on me and the tile kitchen floor. I had already finished eating and Keith was about 3/4's of the way through, so we changed his clothes and headed home. We figured he had just gotten overheated and the Sunny D didn't set well on his stomach. Garrett was already acting like he felt much better, but that wasn't to last. About 15 minutes down the road, he started all over again. Keith and I were doing everything possible to keep from adding to the mess ourselves. I stripped Garrett down to his diaper, covered his carseat with a blanket and then covered Garrett with my coat. We somehow managed to make it home without any more messes.
We unstrapped the carseat and carried Garrett in, carseat and all. He was sacked out by this point. We cleaned out the car, thankfully the mess he made stayed on him and in his carseat. Then Garrett took a quick bath and got ready for bed. His last gift to open at Grandma's was a Buzz Lightyear doll. He has become obsessed with Toy Story lately. Once he was bathed, he seemed to be feeling better and wanted to play with Buzz, so we also let him open the Woody doll that we bought him. He was thrilled and Buzz and Woody helped to make him feel better. He went to bed hugging both dolls with a smile on his face. We were in hopes that we had seen the last of the stomach monster. Ha, ha, again. At midnight (after I had only been asleep for an hour due to getting out all of the presents and stuffing the stockings), I heard Garrett calling me. He had left me a present on his pillow. Really Garrett, you shouldn't have. After cleaning everything up, Garrett and I got into the big bed in his room (he's still in the crib). About 15 minutes later, he christened that bed. I was thinking, "we're running out of beds." So we headed to the living room. I covered one couch in towels, put a trashcan next to him on the floor (not that he understands the concept of aiming), and I "slept" on the other couch. Since Garrett still sleeps in a crib, he's not used to sleeping anywhere without sides to hold him in, so every move that he made woke me up because I was worried he would roll off the couch (he didn't). When I woke up at 4:30 to him playing with Buzz and Woody, I changed the bedding on his crib and put him in there. I crashed in my bed and managed to sleep for about 3 hours before Garrett woke us up for good this morning. Thankfully he wasn't sick, just awake and ready to get up. How exactly can kids still wake up at their normal time after such little sleep the night before? It's so irritating.

We got up and had a great time opening presents. Garrett was thrilled with everything he got and has kept himself busy playing all day (though he did take a 3.5 hour nap this afternoon, so that was wonderful). Keith did an awesome job buying for me, as he always does. I got a new iPod!!! I've only had an iPod shuffle up until now. It's so neat to watch videos on this tiny screen! (I'm laughing as I type that last sentence, seeing as how we still have a 19" TV, I should be used to watching videos on a tiny screen. ) He also bought me a new iron and breadbox (both things I asked for and was excited to get). He picked out a very nice picture to hang in our bedroom (he has great decorating taste, better than me most of the time). I'm still in the midst of trying to decorate our house and our bedroom walls are completely bare after having lived here for almost 5 years. I'm embarrassed to admit that, but it's true. I also got some smaller things like books, socks, a candle, some photo albums, and another season of "Friends". I managed to squeeze in a 30 minute nap while Garrett was sleeping and we've spent most of the afternoon washing all of the bedding that we went through last night and cleaning up the wrapping paper covering our living room floor. I think the bug or illness or whatever it was that we experienced yesterday and last night, is finally over. I do have to admit that this was our first time dealing with a stomach virus with Garrett, so I am very thankful that he hasn't had one before. Now I'm just in hopes that Keith and I didn't catch anything. I'm sure we'll find out in the next few days.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and I pray that we all experience God's blessings in the New Year! Here's to everyone being healthy!

Embarrassing Moments

I was reading a blog that I check periodically and the author had posted a list of her most embarassing moments to date. I found it very funny, but I'm sadistic like that. So I thought I would do the same here. I'm sure my family and maybe some friends will be able to contribute more moments that I'm forgetting. To make it easier for myself, I'm going to attempt to do this chronologically.

~When I started school, I was very conscientious about following the rules and one day in kindergarten I got my name on the board for talking when we were supposed to be lining up for something. I was beyond humiliated.

~Fifth grade was my next year to be in public school (I was homeschooled from first to fourth grades) and I just wanted to blend in. One day in the cafeteria, the lunch lady let go of my tray before I had a hold on it and it spilled, peas flew everywhere, I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. There went blending in...

~Sixth grade was my first year to play basketball. We had a few weeks of practice before the first game so I felt pretty confident in what was to come, boy was I wrong. I wasn't a starter for that first game (is anyone really surprised by that?), but I did luck out and got to be the first to sub in for one of the starters. Unfortunately for me, and my coach, he had never gone over the process for checking in to the game and waiting for the ref to call you on the floor, so I just trotted out on the court in the middle of the game. My coach screamed at me, I ran back, very embarassed. At that point he should have just left me on the bench, but he didn't. After being in the game for a short while I attempted my first shot, I missed, which was a good thing because we were on the other team's side of the court! It would have been much more humiliating to score for the other team than just having missed the shot.

~My junior high class was very small (12 kids) and I was named valedictorian when we graduated in 8th grade. When I got up to give my speech I just broke down and started crying my eyes out in front of a gym full of people. Thankfully we have it on video (insert rolling eyes here) so I can watch this humiliation as often as I want. After standing there for hours (not really) sobbing, I turned to my teacher and told him that I couldn't do it. He was also crying (probably because I was ruining the ceremony), and told me to get on with it already, or something along those lines.

~There's one from my freshman year of high school that I am not going to share, it was beyond embarassing.

~The many times that I attempted to sing a special at church and broke down in tears. I honestly have lost count how many times that happened.

~More than that, the bazillions of times that I've fallen down. I am the world's biggest klutz and have plenty of stories about falling down. On our way to church camp, we stopped to spend the night at a church, I fell down a flight of stairs and sprained my ankle. No fun for me at camp that year, I had to use the handicap showers because I just couldn't stand that long.

~In college, I was playing wiffle ball with my siblings. Second base was a towel, I tripped, fell, scraped my knee off.

~When Keith and I were dating, I was going to church with him one Sunday morning, we had to cross a highway due to the parking at that church, I was hurrying because a car was coming, I tripped over a rock on the side of the road and fell in front of a bunch of people at church. Keith had to take me home to clean up. I was too embarassed to go back that morning.

~Another time on my way into church, I tripped and fell. One of my sisters was behind me and I remember her saying that one minute she saw me and the next minute she didn't. She thought I had rolled under the car and I was going to jump out and scare her. Sure, in a dress, I fell down just to scare you. I wish I had thought of that.

~When I was teaching, I was walking down the hallway and met my principal, at that exact moment my foot slipped out from under me and I went down on one knee. After she asked how I was, we both busted out laughing. But I was secretly so embarassed that I had done that in front of her.

~At 15 weeks pregnant, I was in the doctor's office for a check up. It was one of those appointments where I had to have some blood work done. Afterwards I got light headed while I was standing at the check-out desk paying and making my next appointment. I had to lay down on that lady's desk because I was about to pass out. A nurse had to come and get me. She made me lay down on a cot until I felt better.

~Last summer, a good number of my family was at my house for a visit. I slipped on thin air and fell splat on my face on the kitchen tile. After my mom found out that I was ok, she immediately went to inform everyone who hadn't seen this happen. Thankfully my family is full of clumsy people because then I got to hear stories about other people falling.

That's about all that I can share. I'm not going to share the time that I sneezed and then peed on myself (I was pregnant), or that time at church where I accidentally tucked my skirt into my hose and my DAD was the person to notice and tell me to fix it, or the time I was bad-mouthing a guy I didn't like and forgot that I was in the middle of video taping a church softball game and that guy watched it later on....

My Weekend (and Meeting Beth Moore!)

This weekend, me, Keith, and Garrett headed down to Huntsvegas (as my brother affectionately refers to Huntsville) to attend the college graduations of my brother, Brad, and my sister-in-law, Kristen. They both graduated and looked great in the process and we enjoyed getting to eat out and spend some time with them along with my parents and, for one meal, my sister Grace and her family (Christie and Jesse couldn't come due to work and school ). Kristen graduated on Friday night and Brad graduated Saturday afternoon, of course they couldn't graduate during the same ceremony! That would have been too easy.

Garrett did pretty well, he had his moments, but I brought a ton of stuff to entertain him, including a few of the small things that I had bought him for Christmas, so he did his 2 year old best to behave. Between graduations we all squeezed into my parents' hotel room and exchanged a few Christmas gifts. After supper on Saturday night we headed down to Houston to spend one more day with my family. On Sunday we got up and headed out to church. Brad and Kristen go to Houston's First Baptist Church. It's huge! But very nice and the pastor was great! Once again I wrestled with Garrett during the sermon, he did pretty well, but by this point he had already been forced to sit through two graduation ceremonies so he wasn't thrilled to be sitting through church. Why didn't we put him in the nursery, you might ask? Well, about half of the time that we put him in our own church's nursery where he's been going for 2 years, he throws a huge fit, like he doesn't know these women that he sees every Sunday or the kids that he enjoys playing with. I could only imagine how he would react if we were to try to get him to go to an unfamiliar nursery, so we decided to grin and bear it for one service.

We suspected that this was the church where Beth Moore was a member, but we weren't positive. Brad and Kristen aren't very familiar with Beth so they had no idea if she went there, and there's technically two First Baptist Church's in Houston, so there was always the possibility that she was a member at the other First Baptist Church. As we were leaving, we headed through the foyer and I immediately spotted the back of her head. I knew it was her, and she turned around and confirmed it. I turned to my mom and said, "I just saw her!" Now, I am not the type to just run up to a celebrity, I always worry that they aren't in the mood to sign an autograph or take a picture, so I was just planning to stand back and stare at her and maybe sneak a picture with my cell phone. But my mom had other plans. She marched right up to her and introduced herself and my dad, so I figured since she was already being bothered, I may as well meet her. She was super nice! I told her that I read her blog every day and she hugged me and said, "So you're one of my siestas." (If you read her blog, then you know what that means.) She even posed for a picture with us. She has a grandson who is just a few months younger than Garrett, so we chatted about them for a minute and I told her that her husband Keith and my husband Keith have a lot in common from what I've read about him in her blog. It was so much fun! We only talked to her for maybe 5 minutes, but she seemed very happy to meet us and super sweet. If I wasn't a big fan of her's before, I would be now.

After that we went for lunch at Fuddrucker's and then headed back to Brad and Kristen's apartment to squeeze in a little more visiting time. We headed back home this afternoon.
It was so wonderful to get to see my family and great that we were also able to have Christmas with them!

The Big 2-9

I am having a hard time comprehending the fact that I am officially 29 today. Only 364 days until I am no longer considering to be a young, 20 something. Or halfway to 60, as my loving brother told me on the phone earlier today. It's hard to believe that 10 years ago, I was already out of high school. It's been more than 10 years since those days! I still feel like a teenager. I used to think adults were crazy when they would say things like that and I thought for sure that when I was "old" I would feel my age, but that just isn't true. I don't look in the mirror and see an almost 30 year old. I still think of myself as being atleast 20, if not younger. I'm sure the rest of you don't see that, you can see the grey hairs that are popping up with scary regularity, the little wrinkles I'm getting around my eyes, the fact that I honestly do not have the energy that I hope I used to have. In a way, it's depressing. Had you asked me 15 years ago where I would be when I turned 30, I definitely wouldn't have replied with where I am today. Not that there's anything wrong with my current life, but it just seems like I should be doing more than I am. That being this close to 30 would make me more successful and ambitious. I don't know why I feel that way because all of my life I wanted to be a stay at home mom. I've achieved that, along with a teaching degree that I never really planned on but I'm thankful for. I guess I thought stay at home moms were more glamorous than we really are. There's not a lot of glamour that comes along with washing the same clothes week by week, or picking up the same toys hour by hour. It can be a little monotonous, but I'll take it over the chaos that was my life when I was a working mom for Garrett's first 9 months. I don't know how you working moms do it! You're awesome!

It didn't bother me when Keith turned 30. Of course he's 2.5 years older than me, so I was just happy to still be 27 when the big day came around for him. It didn't even seem to faze him. Although sometimes he will say that he can't believe he's 31 and he feels younger than that, so I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one.

I'm in hopes that 364 days from now when I turn 30, I won't be a blubbering mess, mourning the loss of my youth. I want to embrace each new decade with the excitement of what it has in store for me. I don't want to constantly be living in the past with my rose-colored memories, I want to be ready to make new, more exciting memories.

Can anybody tell me exactly how an almost 30 year old should feel? Because I'm not feeling it.

I Should Buy Stock in Kleenex

Well, it's that time of year again. Nope, I'm not talking about Christmas, I did that in a previous blog. I'm talking about the time of year where everyone and their dog gets sick. It never fails! I don't know that I'm necessarily "sick" because it's so hard to tell the difference between a cold and allergies. But on Saturday my head started stopping up and I started sneezing to beat the band. We also had a cold front come through our area that day, so it's very possible it brought along some of my allergy buddies. Or I could have caught one of the billions of cold viruses out there. You know how they say that once you've had a virus you can't get it again because you're immune to it? I don't know if I believe that, or there are a bunch of new viruses out there. Because when my son comes home with a cold or something similar, I typically get it. I would think that if he's caught one of the common cold viruses that most children get when they're little, I more than likely would have caught that same virus when I was little, but apparently not. I've probably been exposed to, caught, and been immune to a bunch more viruses than the average person. I am the oldest of 5 kids, so that was 6 more people (counting my parents) in our house growing up, bringing home germs that I'm sure I caught and am now "immune" to. I also worked at a daycare for 2 years and taught school for 4 years and was exposed to a ton of nastiness, shouldn't I be immune to most everything out there? Apparently not.

Since my birthday is on Thursday and then Friday we leave to go to my brother and sister-in-law's college graduations, I want to be healthy! I've been hearing a lot about the "Neti Pot". My mom praises it, my mother-in-law praises it, I've heard news specials about it. So I figured this might be the way to go to help me get this out of my system. I've looked at a few local places for it and couldn't find one, but found something with a similar design in our local Target's kitchen section, so I bought it. I also bought a cart full of medicines that I haven't tried yet. Something is bound to work! I got home this morning with all of my purchases and immediately tried out my Neti pot. It felt really weird, but it did seem to flush out my sinuses. (If you don't know what I'm talking about or how they work, just google it, I'm not going to attempt to explain ). It also temporarily gave me a sinus headache, so I'm not sure if that was just from the water pressure in my sinuses or maybe the water was running into blockage, I don't know. But I made a stupid move after using this. I decided to also try out this medicine called "Zicam" which is supposed to shorten the duration of a cold. It's probably not the best idea to try out 2 new things at the same time because after using the Zicam I literally sneezed my head off (ok, not literally...). But I honestly don't think I have every sneezed that many consecutive times. So who knows if it was the Neti pot's magic or I'm allergic to the Zicam. I think I'm going to eliminate the medicine for now and just use the Neti pot and see what happens. But I can say that I don't feel any better after using both of those methods.
My goal now is to be sure that Garrett doesn't catch anything. I would honestly prefer to be sick all of the time, if it meant that he was never sick. I'm not saying that to be mom of the year, I'm saying that because I can't stand it when he's sick. He's still not quite to the point of being able to tell me where it hurts, or being a willing participant in taking medicine. Just this morning I attempted to give him a little Benadryl because I've noticed his nose has been running. He let the medicine trickle out the side of his mouth and run all over his nice, clean shirt. Mad doesn't really describe what I was feeling at that particular moment. He needs to be held down and sat on until every last drop of medicine is down his throat. Not really something I enjoy doing, but when he is really sick, I have to do it. He's not sick right now, so I didn't attempt another dosage. But I did buy a package of the Benadryl that's now in those thin strips of medicine, instead of liquid. Whoever came up with doing children's medicines in those thin strips are genius! No mess, once they are on their tongue the child has a really hard time spitting them out, it's pure brilliance.

I also want to thank the makers of Tylenol PM. That product is another example of brilliance in medicine. When you're not feeling well, sleep is sometimes elusive, but take a couple of those babies and I'm out like a light for a good 8 hours. I love it! This morning I felt so refreshed after a good night's sleep. Now I'm just praying that this sickness, or whatever it is that I have, will go away soon.

Here's hoping that my family can atleast avoid illness during the days leading up to, and including, Christmas. Last year we weren't so lucky, so I'm hoping we will achieve that goal this year.

The Golden Compass

I wouldn't normally blog about something like this, but I've read about it from multiple sources and thought I would share my thoughts, briefly. There's a movie coming out tomorrow entitled "The Golden Compass". It appears to be another fantasy-type film along the lines of "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings". Hollywood has really done their darnedest to make this an appealing movie. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (the newest James Bond) are starring in it, for heaven's sake! But I would highly recommend you research this book turned movie before heading out to see it. The author's name is Phillip Pullman and this is just the first in a trilogy and from what I've read, it's also the most tame of the three books. I found a blog that really describes the issue the best, so I'm just going to let him inform you of what the problem is.

"This is not just any fantasy trilogy or film project. Philip Pullman has an agenda -- an agenda about as subtle as an army tank. His agenda is nothing less than to expose what he believes is the tyranny of the Christian faith and the Christian church. His hatred of the biblical storyline is clear. He is an atheist whose most important literary project is intended to offer a moral narrative that will reverse the biblical account of the fall and provide a liberating mythology for a new secular age.
The great enemy of humanity in the three books, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass (together known as His Dark Materials) is the Christian church, identified as the evil Magisterium. The Magisterium, representing church authority, is afraid of human freedom and seeks to repress human sexuality.
The Magisterium uses the biblical narrative of the Fall and the doctrine of original sin to repress humanity. It is both violent and vile and it will stop at nothing to protect its own interests and to preserve its power.
Pullman's attack on biblical Christianity is direct and undeniable. He once questioned why his books attracted little controversy even as the Harry Potter books attracted so much. He told an Australian newspaper that what he is "saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.""
Taken from: http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=1065

On a side note, I find it interesting that he proclaims to be an atheist, yet he's written books about killing God. My understanding of atheists is that they don't believe there is a God. So if you're an atheist why would you even worry about killing a God that you don't believe exists? Just some food for thought.

Obviously you need to research this yourself before making a decision, but I am asking that you do just that. Research. There are very few movies out there that I would recommend you do this, but if this author's ultimate goal is to kill God, I definitely don't want to contribute any money towards his pockets by heading off to see this movie. From other sources I have read, this initial movie is basically harmless, but Pullman's agenda includes getting children interested in this movie who will then head out to read the trilogy. That's when they will be exposed to his motives.

I realize that there are many authors and movie producers who probably feel the same way as Pullman does and yet I may be an unknowing fan of their work. The difference that I see here is that I am unaware of those other unnamed authors and producers writing a book or making a movie whose target audience will be junior high age children and have also openly stated that their books are about killing God. Of course if you know of some of these other people, please let me know!

If by chance, you have read these books, or you have another side of this story, please share it with me. I would love to hear your thoughts.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I can't believe today is the last day of November! This year has honestly flown by. I'm so excited that Christmas is almost here. It's my favorite time of year and always has been. I just love everything about Christmas. I'm especially loving the joy that Garrett is getting out of the holiday so far. He loved helping me decorate our tree last weekend and he enjoys moving ornaments around on a daily basis. He's broken 2 or 3 of them already. He enjoys pointing Santa out to me anywhere that he sees him, he runs to be the first one to turn on the Christmas tree lights every morning, he loves playing with the nativity set that I've put on the hearth. I'm trying to insure that he learns early on that Christmas isn't just about Santa and presents, but that it's Jesus' birthday. (Yes, I know that Jesus probably wasn't really born in the month of December, but there's nothing wrong with celebrating on December 25th.) I think it helps that his Sunday school class and Mother's Day Out class both sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and talk about His birth and how it all happened. I'm sure he doesn't understand everything, but I'm glad that he's learning the real meaning of Christmas. He walks around singing Happy Birthday all of the time now too. It's really cute!

One new tradition that we're starting this year now that he's older and willing to watch longer movies: we're watching Polar Express. I think it has a great message, so I definitely plan to make watching this movie an annual thing. Probably if we buy it we'll watch it more than just this time of year, but it's on TV (right now, actually) and we also rented it last week, so he's really getting into it. If you haven't seen that movie, you definitely need to rent it! It's so good! The music is great too.

I'm looking forward to having a bake-a-thon next week. This will be the first time that I've had Garrett help me with baking, but I think he will enjoy it and he'll be a big help. I love making chocolate-dipped pretzels, cookies, and I plan to include peanut butter balls in our baking this year, maybe even some fudge too.

One small brag, I am done Christmas shopping! I'm so excited to be done and I can't wait to start wrapping presents. Yes, I'm the weirdo who loves wrapping presents. It's fun for me to try to make a present look nice and use pretty paper and bows. I'm really excited to give Keith one of his presents. His family draws names and I drew Keith's name this year. Since I'm the only person giving him any Christmas presents I wanted to give him something really good, and I think I accomplished that. I'll find out on Christmas Eve when we exchange gifts with his family. I'm a little nervous because it's more money than I would normally spend, but I think he'll be excited when he sees it.

I am sad that I won't be celebrating Christmas with all of my family again this year. I will get to have a mini-Christmas with my parents in a couple of weeks, but I would love for all of my family to be able to get together for Christmas sometime soon. I'm sure it will be awhile before that happens, but I will pray hard that it happens sooner rather than later. I am glad that I'm able to start my own family traditions with Keith and Garrett. Most of them mirror the ones that we had growing up, but I'm enjoying passing my family traditions down to Garrett. Honestly, I'm also passing them to Keith. His family never really made a big deal about Christmas. Everybody would get one big gift, they didn't typically do stockings, and they didn't always have a tree. It makes me a little sad when I think about what Christmas was like for them growing up. But Keith doesn't feel like he's missed out on anything. I'm sure he thinks I'm a weirdo for going all out like I do every year. But he never complains. He's a great guy.

Everyone better be sure and post blogs about your Christmas when it's all said and done! I love hearing about how other people celebrate holidays.

I hope everyone has a super, Merry Christmas!

Little of This, Little of That

A few random things to share.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that we bought a treadmill. Well, it arrived this week, so the website we ordered from was apparently legit. Good to know. The treadmill is nice and much bigger than I thought it would be. Keith and I put it together Wednesday night and set it up in our guest room. I learned that evening that my husband had never been on a treadmill before. After putting it together, I hopped on to give it a test run (not literally). I cranked it up to about 2 and a half miles per hour, and that was plenty fast for me, someone who is pretty out of shape currently. Keith tried to bump it up more and gets me to 3 mph where I finally told him to knock it off. So after 5 minutes of walking I got off. Keith then took his turn. He realized that 3 mph for someone who hasn't been exercising regularly is pretty brisk. He actually put himself up to 4 before discovering he couldn't walk without holding onto the side bars and he broke out into a sweat. I laughed. Atleast now he knows what it's like to walk on a treadmill, and he discovered he needs to do it regularly (so do I).

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and we all have plenty to be thankful for. I discovered this even more so yesterday. After stuffing ourselves, Keith headed out to his family's gun range along with his dad, a friend, and his friend's son. Briefly, I just want to inform everyone who does not know Keith, he is super hyper about gun safety and always has been. He double and triple checks to be sure guns aren't loaded before doing anything with them. We keep all of our guns locked up in a gun safe. Keith also refuses to do target practice with just anybody because he knows that there are a lot of people who aren't safe to be around with guns. So, he figured that the group he was going out with yesterday were safe to shoot with. Well, he figured wrong. His friend got out a gun and laid it on the tailgate of his truck. I never found out what exactly he was doing to the gun, but he hadn't loaded it yet. However, he accidentally bumped the trigger and the gun went off. Apparently there had been a bullet in the chamber that he was unaware of. The bullet went through the side of his truck and passed in front of Keith, missing him by about a foot. Keith said he could actually feel the bullet going by and he thought he had been shot. His dad came running over as soon as he heard the gun go off and Keith was hollaring at him to see where he was hit. Keith was afraid to look himself over because he didn't think he could handle seeing blood pouring out. As soon as his dad had checked him out and told him he was fine, Keith almost threw up and passed out at the same time. He was so shaken up over it that he was still white as a sheet when I saw him about an hour later. He had to just sit there for awhile before he felt like he could head back to his parents' house (which was maybe 5 minutes away). We've been very thankful since then and have thanked God many times. I can't even imagine where I would be if things had been different. It's a good reminder of how brief our life is here and that we have no control over when our time is up here on Earth.

And to end on a light note, I thought I would share with you a funny moment with Garrett. Just a little background, Garrett is still picking up words and saying more and more all of the time. He has said many 3 word sentences, but that's about it. Today I got out all of the Christmas decorations and put up the tree. Then I had Garrett help me decorate, not much got done, but it was fun watching him hang 10 things on one branch. While he was decorating, I was attempting to get a cute picture of him that I would be able to use for our Christmas cards this year. It wasn't really working out, so I asked Garrett to come and stand in front of the tree for a second and say cheese. Anytime I get out my cell phone and act like I'm going to take a picture with it, he comes running and screams cheese, he loves it! But for some reason the process isn't quite as fun with the digital camera. So his response to my request for his cooperation with a picture was this "I don't wanna say cheese". I was floored, simply because he said this with crystal clarity as well as the fact that he's never said such a long sentence before. So my response was just to laugh and attempt to get his cooperation without him realizing it later on. I did get a couple of good shots, thankfully. But now that he's discovered he can say this, everything is "I don't wanna...". I'm quite sure this is going to get old real quick, but I was really proud of his language abilities at that particular moment.

You Don't Have to Live Like This

Last night our Sunday school class went to hear this speaker. His name is Rob Bell, and I'm sure you've probably never heard of him. I know he was unfamiliar to me, up until about 2 years ago. Our class did some video devotionals by Rob Bell 2 summers ago. We were knocked out by some of the things that he taught in them. There was one that I will never forget. The video starts out with Rob telling a story from his past when his son was young, less than a year old. Their family had gone to a cabin somewhere for vacation. One morning, Rob and his son got up early and went on a walk in the woods surrounding the cabin. He had his son in one of those backpack, baby carriers. After they had walked a good ways, it starts raining, so Rob reaches back to pull his son's hood up over his head and they take off back for the cabin. What Rob doesn't realize is that his son has pulled the hood back off of his head, so he's getting soaked. Rob is very set on getting them back before they get too wet, but by this point it is pouring down. This entire time, his son is back there howling up a storm because he's uncomfortable and just does not understand why in the world his dad is allowing him to get wet. What he doesn't realize is that his dad is trying his best to get them to the shelter of their cabin. In this video, Rob compares this story to our relationship with God. We may be in the midst of getting rained on in our lives and we think "where is God in all of this, why isn't he doing something to help me!" What we don't realize is God is right there and he's taking us to shelter, we just may not get there as fast as we want to. That story has stuck with me over the past 2 years, maybe because I was 7 months pregnant with my son at the time of watching this video, I'm not sure, but, to me, it makes a strong statement in the fact that we need to have faith that God is going to see us through the rough times in our lives, regardless of how long we have to endure those rough times, He is right there, walking us through them.

Steve, our former Sunday school teacher, associate pastor, pretty cool guy, found out that Rob Bell was on a speaking tour through the country and wanted to know if our Sunday school class would be interested in attending. (Of course he didn't ask us this until after he had already bought him and his wife front row tickets, so we got stuck in the nosebleed section while he was getting sweated on by Rob. Just teasing, Steve! ) So we had a group of 22 people head over to hear Rob speak last night. I was really impressed with how many people were there. I am a terrible guesser when it comes to numbers, so while I want to say there was a couple thousand people there, that's probably not anywhere close to being right. But for the locals, if you're familiar with Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, that's where we were and it was about 3/4 full. Rob started out talking about the gods that people worshipped thousands of years ago. Initially, I was worried that we were going to be in for a long night because I could not see where this was going. We didn't really have any idea as to what he would be speaking about, just that the title of the tour was "The Gods Aren't Angry". But after going through and sharing with us some interesting facts about the different gods and what they were responsible for (the same god that was responsible for hunting was also responsible for small animals, kind of ironic), he also went over how the sacrificing part went. Basically it boiled down to this, people sacrificed (either gave crops, or killed animals (even their own children in some cases)) important things in order to appease the gods, if they were being blessed, they gave more in order to continue to be blessed, if they were suffering, they still gave more in order to try and get the gods back on their side, so it was a vicious cycle, with no one winning. So then Rob tells the story of Abraham. Abraham had a son named Isaac who he was asked, by God, to sacrifice. So Abraham obediently takes Isaac to the mountain willing to sacrifice him. At the last minute, an angel stops him and gives him a ram to sacrifice instead. Now, what Rob pointed out that was interesting is that most new Christians, or people who aren't really familiar with the Bible, if they are to read this story their initial reaction is to be horrified. What kind of God would ask someone to kill their child, and on the other side of that, what kind of person would willingly go out and do this? But the point he was making was that during the time of Abraham, those other things were going on with the other gods where people were sacrificing their first born children with much frequency. So for Abraham this really wasn't totally abnormal. He knew the other gods were demanding this, so he easily assumed the same from the God he worshipped. But God did this in order to prove to Abraham that He is NOTHING like those other gods. He isn't going to ask you to sacrifice your children in the hopes that you will get on His good side. He went on to share some other stories from the Bible and talked about the fact that Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice so this wouldn't have to be done anymore. I'm leaving a lot out here, I'm just trying to touch on the high points for me. So I'm sorry if this sounds somewhat scattered.

At the end he began sharing stories of how people have done their own "sacrificing" for their friends and loved ones. One single mother of 4 was given a house by people in her church, simply because they knew she was newly divorced and about to lose her current house. Another family had lost their job and were having trouble putting food on the table, so some friends from church took them to Sam's and bought them $900 worth of food. One woman had been severely scarred on her face by a bad accident, the doctor wanted her husband in the room as he removed her bandages, her mouth was all crooked because it had been badly torn, she was disfigured, yet her husband leaned down and kissed her and said "I like it!" These are all stories that really touched me and made me ask myself what I'm doing for other people. What are my sacrifices? In Romans 12:1, we are told to present ourselves as a "living sacrifice". We don't live in the day and age where we have to drag animals or crops to an altar to sacrifice, but we should be sacrificing of ourselves in order to serve God daily. It was a very important message that I needed to hear.

Finally, I Can Get Into Shape, Maybe...

We broke down and made a big purchase that I have been hoping for. I am so excited to finally add a treadmill to our household! This particular treadmill has the space saver feature, so for now we plan to just put it in our guest room, until the time comes when we have another child who needs that room and then we'll be able to fit it in our bedroom. I have debated off and on over the past 5 plus years of marriage whether or not I wanted to buy a big, bulky piece of equipment like this. I always figured that I would just walk outside or do an exercise video, but has that happened? Of course not. I have walked off and on outside in our neighborhood since we've lived here, but this is Texas and we're limited with the number of days with good weather where we can actually workout outside without needing emergency care.
Over the past month or so it has really hit me that I'm getting older. I have honestly been overweight my entire life so that part has really never bothered me (I know many of you are in shock right now since body image is such a big thing in today's society). I was brought up to love myself regardless of how big or small I may be. But now that I'm pushing 30, I have been reminded many times that I need to get healthy. It's not so much about losing weight as it is about getting healthy. However, I know that I have to lose some weight in order to be healthy and I also need to get active. Yes, I do have a 2 year old who has taken on the job as my personal trainer ever since he started walking, so I do get some activity chasing him around and my heart gets a good workout when he scares me to death by attempting to stand on the back of the couch, or falling on his head on our tile floor. But really I need something a little more monotonous. I figure a treadmill fits that bill. On top of the aging aspect, I also have a strong family history of diabetes and I have an equally strong fear that I will one day be diabetic. I'm in hopes that if I start now with getting healthy, I will either prolong the diagnosis or maybe even eliminate it. Heart disease is another issue that I face in my family tree. My paternal grandpa has recently had 2 heart attacks along with multiple strokes in the past. He's doing pretty well now, but his mom died around the age of 60 from massive strokes. Unfortunately it is an all-too real scenerio that I do not want to replay 30 years from now. The healthier I am, the better.

I've been looking around for the past few months for a treadmill. Initially I had planned to buy one off of craigslist, since I have such a huge infatuation with that website. But I was a little horrified to see many pictures of these treadmills being sold for $300-$400 sitting in people's garages covered in dirt. Keith and I (and Garrett of course) went to Sears and Academy today to check out some treadmills in person. Then we got home and looked some up online. I found a great deal at a very random website. I'm crossing my fingers that they're reputable because it's just one of those online places that doesn't have a storefront anywhere. It looked pretty nice and a lot of other websites linked to this one, so hopefully that means something. If not, you'll be reading a blog in the near future about how this website ripped us off.

So, now is the part where I set some goals for myself and have my friends help to keep me accountable. Between now and the end of the year, my goal is to walk on the treadmill 3 times a week. I can't honestly say how long I will walk, but definitely no less than 30 minutes to start out with. Then once we start the new year, I plan to up that along with eating better. I really think I can do this and I feel motivated to get into action. You guys help me stick with this! If you have any tips as to how to keep myself going, please share them! One thing that I know will help me to stay motivated is the fact that this will give me a block of time to listen to my iPod. I know that's goofy, but I have limited amounts of time to actually listen to it, so I'm looking forward to getting myself up on that treadmill and singing my heart out to Rascall Flatts, the Bee Gees, Phillips, Craig, and Dean, Firehouse, REO Speedwagon, Nickleback, etc. I love music, all kinds, and love to sing along. So if you happen to come by my house during the day, sometime in the future and you hear somebody singing at the top of their lungs, it will probably be me on my treadmill. You may want to come back later because I'm sure I won't be able to hear you.

Good Eatin'

I read my friend Steve's blog yesterday where he was talking about eating at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. This got me to thinking about the first (and only) time that I've eaten at this restaurant.

Back in June, Keith and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. Over the past 5 years we haven't really done anything special to celebrate our anniversary, but we thought this was an important one so we decided to go to San Antonio for a couple of days. This was my first time leaving Garrett overnight and I was so ready to get to sleep in for once in the past 2 years! We went to San Antonio and stayed in a nice hotel. When we first got there, the SA Spurs were having a parade down the river in celebration for their NBA championship. It was a little chaotic downtown, but neat to get to see the actual parade from our window.

On our last night in town (we did all the typical tourist stuff while there, Alamo, riverboat tour, mall, etc) we decided we wanted to eat at a really nice place. Keith had been to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Chicago, and maybe another city like New York?, and really enjoyed it, so he wanted us to go there while we had the chance. We saw the address where it was located and figured it wasn't but a few blocks past the mall, which was where we had been walking to every day. We figured we could handle that walk and got started. Now, first thing is that this is the month of June, in San Antonio, Texas. At 5:00 pm. It was hot and humid outside. By the time we were halfway to the mall, we're both sweating. Because Ruth's Chris is a nice restaurant, I had called to check on their dress code and learned that I would be fine wearing nice capris. So I ironed mine and Keith's clothes and tried to make us look as nice as possible with what we had brought. By this point in our walking, all of that effort had gone down the drain. I'm sure we looked like someone had thrown us in the pool with our clothes on. Once we got past the mall, we looked ahead a few blocks and see the interstate! Not only is it the interstate, but it also doesn't have sidewalks running underneath it. We cannot see Ruth's Chris on this side, so we assumed it's on the other side of the interstate. Now, we have two options, one, we can hike under the interstate probably walking alongside some homeless people and will be mistaken as one ourselves since we look awful by now, or two, we can get a cab to drive us like 3 blocks. We got a cab. Keith is very familiar with the cab routine, but this was my first cab ride. Thankfully he had the a/c going full blast so we were able to dry ourselves off and fix up as best as possible before arriving at the restaurant. When we walk inside Ruth's Chris, the hostess of course had seen us arrive in a cab. She asks us where we're staying and after we told her the name of the hotel, she says, "Oh, we have a free shuttle that takes our customers to and from the downtown hotels. Be sure to let your waiter know when you're finished with your meal and the shuttle will take you back." Boy, didn't we feel dumb! We could have saved ourselves permenant sweat stains on our clothing had we asked about a shuttle, but who knew? Live and learn.

Seeing as how we arrived at the restaurant around 5:00, we were two of the few people there. I'm sure they thought we were senior citizens in young peoples' bodies, but we were hungry. The food was excellent and the service was outstanding! It is definitely not the place to go for a cheap dinner, but you will get your money's worth. Keith and I both had salads for an appetizer, delicious steaks for the main course along with several side dishes that were outstanding, and then it was followed up with dessert. They also brought us a small loaf of bread while we were waiting for our salads. I cut off slices for the two of us and while we were eating them, the waiter comes over and replaces our loaf with a new one! On the one hand that is so wasteful! I hope someone took that loaf home and ate it because it was good. On the other hand, it's always nice to be treated as if you're someone super important. We would take a sip of our drinks and someone would immediately come to our table to refill them. Impeccible service, most definitely! The final bill wasn't too bad considering how excellent the whole experience was. We paid a little over $100 for everything including a (very generous) tip. Of course that could have been their early bird special. I am definitely ready to go back for more of that great food!

Random Thoughts

~The movie "1408" was weird.

~I heart Craigslist! I have found so many great deals on there, mostly toys, but hey, when you're paying half of the brand new price for something that looks brand new, it's a great deal.

~I hate daylight savings time. I guess we're technically now getting out of daylight savings time(?) but I still hate having to change the clocks twice a year. It's a pain having to adjust to the new times, especially getting my child adjusted.

~I am so excited it's November! I love the holidays and I can't wait to put up my Christmas tree and all of the decorations.

~I've already started listening to Christmas CD's in the car.

~I love it when my house is clean. Not necessarily spotless, but when everything is picked up and there isn't any noticeable dirt, it's a nice feeling.

~I hate to dust.

~Garrett's bedroom window has a big bush in front of it and it scares me sometimes at night when I go in there and there's enough light outside to where that bush casts a big shadow on his window. I need to buy some long curtains for his room. I wonder if it scares him.

~I got out the pottychair yesterday. I'm nervous about beginning potty-training with Garrett. I think I'll just take it slow and just start out by introducing the chair to him and see where that leads.

~I am addicted to reading. I have read 10 books in the last 7 days (around 200 pages each). It's not a good thing because then my housework and my playtime with Garrett suffers, but if I'm in the middle of a good book, it's so hard to put it down. I think I need to hide the library card from myself for a while.

~I heart my iPod, but I wouldn't mind one of the fancier ones with the screen and more space.

~I can't wait for the new season of Lost to start! I will be glued to the TV every week when that show comes on. Don't call me during that time!

~I wish I could hire a stylist to come over every morning and fix my hair. I feel like it always looks unkempt, even if I actually attempt to do something with it.

~I'm getting 2 cavities filled on Tuesday. That should be fun.

~I just ordered some of my Christmas gifts online. I love doing my Christmas shopping online, it's so easy!

~I love to buy gifts for my family. It's so fun to pick out things that I think that particular person will like. Keith's family is hard to buy for though. Especially his mom and sister. I always dread picking their names during the annual name draw for the Christmas exchange. Luckily this year I drew Keith and he drew his mom. I'll make him figure out what to get her.

~I am really ready to start working out and get into shape and lose some weight. I want a treadmill in order to do this. I'm dropping major hints in order to get it for my birthday next month. It doesn't have to be a fancy one, as long as I can walk on it, it will be fine.

~I hope we get snow for atleast one day in our area this winter.

~I think it's funny when Garrett calls me and Keith by our first names. I probably won't when he's doing it a couple of years from now.

~I'm so glad that my son has some manners. Thank you, welcome, sorry, bless you (he doesn't have please quite down just yet). He even tells himself "Bless You" if he sneezes. I hope that will continue on for the rest of his life.

~I'm worried about one of my grandparents dying. Currently all 4 are still alive and healthy, but I know that isn't going to last forever. It will be very sad to lose someone whom I have been close to for the past almost 30 years.

~I love getting pedicures! I used to think painting your toes was stupid, but I didn't know what I was missing. When you have it professionally done, it's super!

~I think golf is the most stupid sport ever.

~Whoever came up with the idea for Netflix rocks! (I'm actually a Blockbuster On-line person, but I know Netflix originated the idea.)

Home Again, Naturally

Bear with me, this is long and mostly just a recap of our visit.

So after the initial insanity of our flight to Indianapolis, we did eventually make it there. My parents are currently living in an apartment while they get their church going, so we kicked my brother Jesse out of his room (thanks, Jesse!) and put a twin air mattress on the floor for Garrett. Let me just start by saying that Garrett is a wild sleeper, he thrashes and cries out in his sleep. The first night he didn't get into bed until midnight due to the crazy day spent in Memphis. Keith and I didn't sleep well due to adjusting to Garrett's weird bed antics, but we all got up Friday morning pretty well refreshed and just happy to be there. My mom had the day off for fall break, which also meant that my brother Jesse was home from school. My dad had worked extra time during the week so he was able to be off that day as well. Unfortunately my sister Christie did have to work. That morning my other sister Grace came over with her 2 kids Riley and Jake. Garrett was excited to see his cousins. Jake is only 8 months younger than Garrett, so they're becoming closer and closer the more they see each other. Us women were wanting to go shopping so we decided to bring the kids with us. This meant 3 women with 3 kids ages 4, 2, and 18 months attempting to shop in Kohl's. It took us an hour and we weren't really finished, but it was time to meet the guys for lunch. I got a good deal on a winter coat for Garrett. Yes, we live in Texas, but there are many days where it's really cold outside and I am having trouble finding a nice, thick coat for him to wear this winter, so thankfully I found one on sale there. I also had to buy him the prerequisite Indiana clothing. He already has an Indianapolis Colts jersey that my parents sent him for his 2nd birthday, and a pair of Indiana Hoosier shorts sent to him by one of my close friends who still lives there. Since I lived 9 years of my life there, I am a Hoosier fan through and through, so I bought him an IU jacket with matching pants. I'm sure everyone in Texas will love to see him wear it, but I love it so that's all that matters. I also bought myself (and my dad) an IU Christmas ornament, so I'm really excited to put that baby on the Christmas tree this year.

We then met up with the guys at Culver's. Even though we have Culver's here in Texas, Keith and I had never eaten at one before. It was really good. Since the kids weren't really cooperating with our attempts at shopping, we all ended up heading home. My mom helped me to get Garrett down to sleep for a nap and then she and I left for more shopping at Target. (Grace had gone home so that her kids would get naps as well.) Riley's birthday is next month, so I bought her birthday present while we were out with plans to give it to her before we left. It was nice to spend some alone time with my mom. We don't get to do that very often anymore, especially considering I'm the oldest of 5 kids, there are now 3 grandkids, plus 3 in-laws added to our family, so alone, quiet time is pretty rare. Friday night we ate a yummy, home-cooked meal by my mom at their apartment. Roast, mashed potatoes, all the good stuff. Friday nights are when my dad's church has Bible study (currently). So my mom stayed home with the 2 boys so they could get to bed at a decent time and the rest of us headed out to someone else's home for Bible study. It was really good. They are in the midst of discussing relationships and Friday night's lesson was focused on the parent-child relationship (namely discipline). It was very good and I learned that I definitely discipline out of anger which is something I need to work on. It was fun though because my dad was teaching the lesson and he had 4 out of 5 of his kids there, so we all enjoyed sharing our moments of discipline growing up. I think the rest of the group got a kick out of hearing our stories. Everyone was really friendly. They have a good, solid group of people that they are starting their church with.

On Saturday we all left and went our separate ways. The women and children (minus Christie again, due to working at her darn job ) headed for Greencastle. As luck would have it, my best friend since I was born, was in town visiting her family. She now lives in Florida. I haven't seen her since she got married and she now has 2 kids. Her sister was in town with her and she and my sister are best friends (weird, I know). So we all made plans to meet up at a tea room type restaurant. We obviously weren't thinking. This was 6 women with 6 kids (all under the age of 5) in a place that really wasn't meant for kids. I mean, the tables had thick pieces of glass on top of the table cloths. Unfortunately my son got a hold of some metal silverware and started banging away on the glass. Apparently the manager didn't like this, so she came and took it away from him and brought plastic instead. I honestly didn't think he was banging that hard and he wasn't being loud, but of course after she took it away from him he got hysterical and wouldn't sit there any longer. So my mom ended up holding him the rest of the meal. But all in all, we had fun, it was so nice to see Mary again and her kids are adorable. After eating we all went to a local park for an hour for the kids to play. We decided later that we should have just picked up McDonald's and eaten lunch at the park. We probably would have enjoyed ourselves a lot more.

After the park we were supposed to meet the guys at my Aunt Pat's house. She lives out in the boonies on like 50 acres. It was so pretty because there's a ton of trees and with it being fall, the leaves were turning and some had already fallen. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the leaves and the adults had a lot of fun taking pictures of them. We were able to get some really cute outdoor shots of everyone. Aunt Pat made us a nice, big homemade meal which included steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, homemade yeast rolls, etc. It was all so yummy. She always goes overboard when we all come out for a visit.

The next day was Sunday and we all went to church. As I mentioned above, my parents have moved to the Indianapolis area to start a church. They currently meet in a historical building called the Interurban Depot, it used to be an old train station. It's really neat, with brick walls and really high ceilings and cool windows. They had almost 30 people in their service, and that didn't count an early service that my dad held for the first time with a cheer group who left for a competition earlier that morning. I think my dad said there were about 15-20 people in that service. So it was a good morning for them! The service was awesome, totally laid back, and very inviting. One of the neat parts of it was during their Sunday school time they are learning the books of the Bible. I've grown up knowing them, but I realize that many people (my husband included) don't know them, so I think that's a great idea, considering a good number of their people are new Christians or younger kids. My siblings, plus atleast one other girl, do the praise and worship songs, and they are great. I know Christie is praying hard for someone to join their church who can play the keyboard. She would then be able to get out her drums and add them to their music, but for now they have the keyboard and 2 guitars. After church we all (all as in the majority of the people in the last service!!) went to eat at Pizza King. Now, for those of you who don't live in the Greencastle/Indy/Plainfield area, you probably haven't heard of this pizza place. I grew up getting pizzas or subs from the local Pizza King every Sunday night. It was our weekly tradition and I loved it! I've craved Pizza King ever since we moved from there and every time we go back I have to go there and eat. Their pizzas are a really thin crust and all of the toppings are chopped up really fine. They also cut the pie up into square pieces, which I think contributes to it's appeal. It was very yummy. I love the actual restaurant too. It's set up like a train station, with each booth having a window on one side that looks onto mini train tracks. The mini train actually brings you your drinks! Plus each booth has a small TV where, for a quarter, you can watch cable TV at your own booth. Pretty awesome! Especially considering we had kids with us and cartoons kept them quiet so we were able to visit and eat in peace.

Sunday afternoon was pretty quiet with all the kids down for naps and everyone else resting. My mom and I played Skip-bo, which is always a fun game. Then once the kids were up from their naps we had the Toy Party. The Toy Party is something my mom implemented way back when I was probably 7 or 8 years old. It was about 3 or 4 weeks before Christmas and of course us kids (there were 3 of us at that time) were desperate to open one of the many presents already sitting under the tree. So one Saturday my mom kicked us all out of the kitchen and we weren't allowed to come back in until she was ready. After an hour or more, she called us in and it was so cool. She had decorated the kitchen table with toys and Christmas decorations. Each of us had our place set and next to our plates was a wrapped present. My mom had made chicken nuggets and fries. My dad put on an apron and folded a towel over his arm and pretended to be a French waiter, with a silly accent and everything. We "ordered" our food and they both served us. It was a lot of fun. We then got to open our presents. (I burned my finger on a candle, but didn't tell my mom because I didn't want to ruin the fun we were having.) It became a yearly tradition up until we got married. Once we were older, we started drawing names for the toy party and exchanging presents that way instead. After us three oldest ones got married and moved out, it became a movie exchange party. Anyway, I say all of this to say that my mom is starting a new tradition where she wants to have a Toy Party for her grandkids. It won't necessarily have a Christmas theme since she knows that we all won't be around at the holidays, but whenever all of her grandkids are together she will have a Toy Party. Since this year it was close to Halloween, all of the grandkids wore their costumes. It was really cute. Garrett was a turtle, Jake was a lion, and Riley was a beauty queen/princess. They each got a few smaller presents, plus one bigger present and they all had chicken nuggets and fries served by my parents, just like always. The table was decorated really cute with a variety of different toys and we spelled out "Toy Party" with blocks. I think the kids had fun and we got some cute pictures. That night after everybody went to bed, Keith, Christie, and I all watched a movie called "Bugs" (I think) with Ashley Judd. It was really weird and not a movie I would recommend. But I enjoyed getting to spend some time with Christie and watching a movie I hadn't seen before.

On Monday my mom had to head back to work, but my dad had the day off. He took us around and showed us a variety of stuff, mainly places where they were looking into possibly buying a house in the future, or where my sister and her family might buy a house. It was fun to look around the town. We had lunch at a place called "Red Robin" which was good (all the fries you can eat) and we went by my mom's work so we could see her office. When my mom got home we visited some and then I made supper. I wanted to fix a meal at some point and had thought about doing breakfast, but there wasn't a breakfast time where everyone was available, so we just had breakfast for supper. It was fun making the meal and we had a nice evening together (minus Christie again! because of work, but we did send her a plate up there). The kids all put on their new pj's from Nana and Pawpaw and we attempted to get a few pictures of them, they weren't too cooperative, but they did have fun tackling each other and Pawpaw.

Tuesday morning we got up and prepared to head home. Of course that's always tough. On the one hand, we were ready to sleep in our own beds and not share a room with Garrett at night (he either climbed into bed with us or I ended up on the air mattress with him each night), but on the other hand, it's always very hard to leave your family. Especially since I don't get to see them very often. My dad took us to the airport on his lunch break and we said goodbye outside. That was actually a little easier. The last time I was up there my parents took me to the airport and waited with me and I cried buckets when I had to get in line for security. It didn't help that Garrett was reaching for them the whole time. It was really hard. So I'm glad I was able to avoid that, even though it's also nice to have someone seeing you off at the airport as well. Initially our flight did not have a good start. We had been sitting on the plane for about 10 minutes when the pilot comes on and says that they had to update some paperwork in the cockpit, so it would be a few minutes before we would be ready to take off. Keith and I were already on edge after our trip up there, so we were both very stressed after hearing that. But after about 15 minutes we were pushing back from the gate. After we took off and were able to turn on electronic devices, we got out the DVD player. While at my parents' we discovered that the DVD player itself worked just fine, but the battery was fried. So we went to Walmart and bought some other kind of battery-type thing where we just plugged the DVD player into it and it worked just fine. Unfortunately, Garrett remembered all of the fun he had with shoving toys inside the DVD player on the trip going there, so he wasn't really interested with sitting there and watching a movie. Somehow we managed to keep him mostly happy up until about 30 minutes before we were supposed to land. Then he snapped and decided he wanted out of his seat belt, immediately. He went into hysterics and wouldn't stop. I picked him up and held him trying to muffle his screaming with my shirt and a baby wipe, but that didn't work. After about 10 minutes (I'm not kidding) of non-stop screaming and crying, Keith took him and he got quiet and went to sleep. I'm sure our fellow passengers were hating us right about then, but honestly, what can you do? I was trying everything. Thankfully nobody said anything to Keith about holding him when we landed, and he stayed asleep up until we got our luggage. Then we had to wait for a shuttle bus to take us to the terminal where we had parked (of course we landed in a different terminal than the one we took off from, that's just Murphy's Law). After about a half hour of waiting and then riding the shuttle, we were finally at our truck. It was nice to be headed home after that horrendous display that Garrett put on in the plane. I was worn out. We got home around 6:00 on Tuesday night, Garrett was in bed by 7:00 and we were in bed by 9:30.

Garrett has been asking where everyone is now that we've been home for a day. It doesn't quite make sense to him that he was just playing with Nana and Pawpaw and now they're not here. Thankfully we will get to see them again in December when Brad and Kristen graduate. We're looking forward to that!

The Flight

Well, I promised a blog about our trip to Indiana so here goes... This is going to be a 2 parter, atleast.

I have to start from the top, which would be the actual plane ride there, which was something I had been worried about. Our flight was initially delayed about 30 minutes, which is becoming more and more typical in today's airline industry. Once we boarded and were settled into our seats, everything started out smoothly. Garrett was distracted through take-off with new snacks and a new sippy cup with his favorite "Queen" on it (Lightning McQueen, for you non-Cars fans out there). We then got out the always-loved DVD player with an assortment of DVD's to make this 2 hour flight pass by in the blink of an eye. But, what happens? The DVD player won't work!! I made sure to charge the battery for atleast 24 hours prior to packing everything in our carry-on bag, but for some reason the darn thing would not cooperate. So, plan B consisted of allowing Garrett to pretty much do whatever he wanted to ensure a happy flight for everyone involved. This basically included shoving toys down inside the now-defunct DVD player, but hey, he was quiet and happy so in turn, I was happy. This DVD glich should have been a sign of things to come...

About an hour into the flight Keith turns to me and says "Do you smell that?" Well, when you're traveling with a 2 year old that isn't the best thing to hear, but thankfully he wasn't smelling a dirty diaper, but smoke. (Also, not something you want to hear mid-flight...) I initially chalked it up to my husband's over-active sense of smell and his mechanical abilities which allow him to always assume the worst of other mechanics, particularly those who work on planes. But unfortunately this was not to be just a figment of Keith's imagination because about a minute later we see 2 flight attendants "running" up to first class, one grabs a flight extinguisher and another starts pushing buttons on some control thingy that happened to be inside one of the front over-head bins. We see 2 or 3 first-class people standing in the aisle while the fire extinguisher is being used. The pilot then comes on to tell us that there has been an "electrical issue causing an odor" and we would be needing to make an emergency landing in Memphis. Now, the next thing that happens is our plane starts a nose dive (basically) in order to land. I'm not one to suffer from motion sickness, but this was rough enough to even get me a little queasy feeling. Thankfully it didn't bother Garrett's stomach, but it did affect his ears so we were all treated to a little screaming courtesy of my son and his ears that needed popping, while our plane dive-bombed it's way to the Memphis airport. We had to disembark and sat around at the gate waiting to hear something. After about 30 minutes we were told that they were still waiting for a mechanic to come to our plane and check out the problem, so it would be atleast another 45 minutes. Keith and I took advantage of this to get a bathroom break and let Garrett run around a bit. After an hour, we were then told that the FAA had said that our plane was grounded until they could figure out what had caused the smoke, so a plane was going to have to fly to Memphis from Dallas to pick us up and take us on to Indianapolis. This would take 5 more hours and this was "the best that American Airlines can do". As one of my fellow passengers shouted, "5 hours is the best American Airlines can do?! I guess we should have all flown Southwest. You may have to hop and skip all over the country but atleast they get you there!" Needless to say, we were NOT happy. After eating lunch, getting another bathroom break, and trying to keep Garrett from rolling around too much on the floor of the airport, we finally get the announcement (about 6 hours later) that the plane has arrived and we would be boarding momentarily. 30 minutes later, another announcement is made saying that a gauge isn't functioning properly on the new plane and we were going to have to wait for another mechanic to come out and check on it before we could board! At this point we all thought we were being filmed for Candid Camera. How in the world can this kind of thing happen? During this 6 hour stay in the beautiful (yeah right) Memphis airport, we were forced to watch non-stop cable news. One of the stories that was repeated over and over (and over) that day? How American Airlines had broken records on their profits made in the previous quarter. Not something stranded AA passengers wanted to hear. Another fellow passenger (can you tell we were all friends by this point?) said that they made such a profit because they apparently got rid of all of their mechanics. By this point Keith is ready to just ditch this plane, get a hotel room, and then rent a car and drive out the following morning. I was also feeling the same, but I knew that our time with my family had already been cut into, so I didn't want to lose any more if possible. Thankfully the gauge was fixed quickly (probably just ignored due to the almost mutiny they had on their hands), we were loaded onto the plane and then sat there for another 30 minutes. By the time our plane took off into the air, we had been in Memphis for 7 and a half hours! Garrett was not the least bit thrilled to be strapped into his seat yet again. Thankfully the majority of our fellow passengers were drunk from the bar next to our gate and the rest of them were very understanding so we didn't get one dirty look or rude comment resulting from Garrett's lack of enthusiasm. So you might be wondering what kind of compensation American Airlines offers to their passengers in this kind of situation. (Maybe some of you already know because you've been there before.) We got.........(wait for it)........a $12 voucher for a sit-down BBQ place inside the airport! Isn't that just the greatest? And definitely practical for the family with a small 2 year old. So needless to say we didn't enjoy that lovely piece of Memphis heaven.
This is just the flight there, I promise to write more later about my actual visit and the flight home. Thankfully none of them are as traumatic as this one.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

Next week we will be flying the friendly skies. Well, not really, that's Delta's slogan right? We're actually flying American, I don't know their slogan. I would wait until closer to our actual trip to write this blog, but I'm going to be pretty busy during the next week getting ready, packing, cleaning, etc.

So, "where are you going" you ask? We are flying to Indianapolis for a visit with my family! I am really excited. I've been thinking about the last time I've seen most of my family. I realized that the last time I saw my youngest brother Jesse was back in February, my husband hasn't seen him since last August, more than a year ago! The last time I saw my dad was for one day in March, when he flew to Dallas for a Bible conference, and the last time Keith saw him was back in December. The last time we both saw my mom and my sister Christie was in June when they came down for a visit. I will also be seeing Grace, Paul, and their kids, but I've seen them pretty recently. Up until a couple of weeks ago, they lived in Texas, but I'm still excited to see them too. If it was up to me, I would definitely see everyone more often than I do, but God called all of them up to the Indy area to start a church and who am I to argue with God? Keith and I haven't been called to go anywhere, so we're still in Dallas for now, which is fine, I'm at peace with being here. Plus, I still have my brother Brad and his wife, Kristen, with me in Texas, so we're not alone.

So, back to the actual leaving on a jet plane. Keith, myself, and Garrett will all be boarding a plane next Thursday morning around 9:30ish. I have flown somewhat regularly and Keith flies frequently for work, so neither of us are scared of flying or nervous about the actual flight. What gets us shaking in our boots is the thought of a 2 hour flight with a 2 year old! That's downright scary if you think about it. But what's even scarier? Driving 15 hours with a 2 year old. So give me the 2 hour flight anyday. Garrett has flown before, back in February when he was about 18 months old. It was just me and him and I didn't buy him a seat, since it isn't required until they're 2. He was actually pretty well behaved, considering. He did hit the guy sitting next to us a few times, but that man was super nice and very helpful to me throughout the entire flight. I'm in hopes that Garrett's second plane ride will be just as smooth, especially since he will be in his own seat and Daddy will be with us to help out. We'll have our own little row of 3 seats, so the only potential people to be disturbed by him will be those in the row in front of us. Hopefully it will be another family or grandparents who love all children, regardless of how many times the back of their seat might accidentally get kicked.

I'm not sure how many of you keep up with the news, but as a mom, who is also about to fly with my small child, I do keep up with the news. Especially the stories of all the families who have been kicked off of flights in recent months. I realize that most of the time there is more to these stories than meets the eye, but I'm still horrified for a lot of these parents who are kicked off of their flights simply because their child is talking loudly. I think the airlines need to loosen up a bit. All children under the age of 5 or so have issues with sitting still and being quiet for long periods of time. Should these families not be allowed to fly simply because they have a small child? I don't think so. Maybe they need to have a designated section for parents with small children on their flights. That would minimize the number of people who might get upset about your child talking loudly. Now, I am not saying that parents should allow their children to run up and down the aisles of the plane, or sit back and watch while their toddler is throwing a fit. Parents should have control of their kids as much as possible. Honestly, if my toddler starts throwing a fit on the plane and I'm unable to distract him with a different toy, then we will be heading to the bathroom to have a "come to Jesus" meeting. Of course, does that then mean that when we get off of the flight some of the people sitting within earshot of the bathroom will immediately call CPS on me for spanking my unruly child? Probably! That's what's wrong with this world. People don't want children acting up, but they're not ok with parents who choose spanking as their method of discipline. How exactly would one impose a time-out on the airplane? "Son, sit there in your seat, where you'll be sitting for the next 2 hours, and have a time out" how exactly is that supposed to work? I'm not anti-timeouts at all, I just think that sometimes some discipline methods just aren't going to work in some situations.

Now, with all of that being said, I will be heading to the airport as fully prepared as I absolutely can be with MANY things to distract and entertain my child during the 2 hour flight. I've bought quite a few new toys, books, stickers, crayons, markers, small containers of play-dough, many snacks, etc. Plus we will be bringing our portable DVD player and many DVD's that Garrett likes to watch. I think we'll be ok and he'll behave himself for the most part. But, if you're a parent reading this, we all know that sometimes kids just have melt-downs for absolutely no reason at all. You don't see it coming, and then, bam!, your child is screaming and kicking. I will definitely avoid anything that I think will bring one of these tantrums on, but sometimes there's no avoiding these things, like fastening the seat belt. I can see that becoming a major problem, I'm just in hopes to have him completely distracted with something else, so that I can quickly snap the seat belt into place before he realizes what's going on.

So, in closing, if you happen to be flying from DFW to Indianapolis next Thursday, you may see us. We'll be the ones carrying a huge bag stuffed to the brim with toys and distractions and hopefully we'll have a happy, content child with us who will make everyone around us say "What a great child, your son is so well-behaved". Hey, we can wish, right? Hopefully you won't see us on the news as the next family to get kicked off a plane. I'm afraid if that was to happen, my husband would also be arrested for punching the flight attendent who attempted to do this. That wouldn't be good.

I will blog when we get back to let you know how the flight and the visit went. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to share as well (hopefully none of my husband in a prison cell).

The Proposal

This Saturday marks the 6th anniversary of the day Keith proposed. I'm not really sure how many people typically keep up with that kind of thing, but for me that day was a big deal. Keith and I had been dating for almost 4 years before he proposed, so I was more than ready for him to pop the question. We had been discussing marriage for probably a year prior to the big proposal, but didn't really have a timeline for when we would get engaged. I was in college and knew I wouldn't graduate until May of 2002, so we knew we couldn't get married before then. A couple of months before the question was popped we actually had started looking at engagement rings. One Sunday we thought we had found the one, but it just wasn't meant to be. Then we talked about designing a ring and having one specially made, but honestly that was going to cost more than either of us wanted to spend.

The big day finally came. It was a Saturday and we were out ring shopping, which obviously wasn't a new thing. We ended up at a little jeweler in Tyler. He had the perfect ring with the perfect price. So Keith bought it and we went back to his parents'. Once we got there he refused to let me have it until he personally cleaned it within an inch of its life. He's very meticulous like that. After drying it with a hair dryer (yes, you read that right), he called me into the kitchen and said, "So, do you want to marry me?". Of course I said yes, obviously. Then I immediately called my parents and sister. (A few months before this, Keith had asked my dad for my hand, old fashioned, but very sweet and appreciated by my parents, who were more than ready for him to propose.) We then told Keith's family (they weren't home at the time) and everyone was very excited for us. After a few weeks of discussing we agreed on getting married on June 1, 2002, which was 2 weeks after I graduated from college. So we weren't engaged for very long, but we dated long enough to make up for it.

Planning the wedding was a lot of fun. One of my younger sisters had already been married (and she was actually expecting her first baby when Keith and I got married), so we already had a few ideas for where to shop and things like that. Since I was still in college, most of the wedding plans were made on the weekends or on the internet. Wedding dress shopping was a lot of fun. I only tried on a couple of gowns before I found the one I wanted. Keith and I had decided we didn't want a reception so that eliminated a lot of the planning. (We didn't want a reception because of the hassles, the fact that my dad's church really didn't have a facility large enough to hold one at that time, and we just wanted to leave for our honeymoon!) We didn't really have any crazy things happen when we were planning this. Everything went pretty smoothly. I do remember that the day of our wedding we had 2 Jehovah's Witnesses show up at my parents' door and of course I was the lucky person who answered. But other than that, everything went off without a hitch. It was a great day!

I'm always a little surprised when I hear about people who knew each other less than a year before getting engaged or married, but I know everyone's story is different. While I would have loved to marry Keith sooner than we did, I know that my timing is not God's timing and it happened the way it did for a reason. Because Keith had been working for almost 3 years before we got married, we were able to buy our first house within 6 months of getting married, which was so nice. I'm not really an "apartment" person. I can barely manage to contain my frustrations with our neighbors here in our housing addition, I'm not sure what would have happened had we lived in an apartment for very long. But I probably would have been on national news for killing someone over the volume of their stereo or something like that.

In January, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our first date, so I'll try to remember to post around that time to share about our first date and some of our dating experiences. Just FYI, I use the term "celebrate" very loosely. I am married to a great husband, but he isn't so romantic as to really acknowledge these "anniversaries" beyond saying something along the lines of "really? I can't believe it's been that long" whenever I mention it. So, don't start thinking we're going on a cruise for the anniversary of the first time we held hands or something. But we do celebrate the important wedding anniversaries so that's the main thing.

What This World Needs

I am copying this blog from my sister's blog. Obviously if you've read this on her blog, then you don't need to read it here. This is for my friends who don't read her blog. I found it to be very inspiring. My favorite part is "Jesus is the only way to God, but we are not the only way to Jesus." It's so true! I could preach an entire sermon on this song and the truths that it presents. But I'll refrain.

This is the very first song on Casting Crowns' new cd "The Altar and the Door." I recommend everyone go and buy this cd (or download from iTunes). It's so great. This one is one of my favorites. These words are great but the music makes them all the more powerful. I encourage you to get ahold of this cd. I've highlighted the parts below that struck me, personally, the most. Hope y'all enjoy!What This World Needs

Galatians is the main basis for this song. False teachers were slipping in and adding to the Gospel. Jesus + being good = the believer's life. Paul builds in a foundation for the Galatian people that it is by faith in Jesus that we are saved. Even today, we, the church, are in danger of adding to the Gospel. Jesus plus my denomination. Jesus plus our style of worship. Jesus plus good behavior. We must be careful not to strap ourselves to the Gospel.~2 Corinthians 6:3-13 / Colossians 1:13-23 / John 17 / Romans 12:9-21 / Matthew 7:1-3 / John 7:24 / Romans 16:17-19 / Philippians 3:18-20Written by Mark Hall and Hector CervantesSpecial guests – Gunnar Miller, Madison Miller, Logan Miller, Tripp Weir© 2007 My Refuge Music/Club Zoo Music/SWECS Music (BMI) (admin. by EMI CMG Publishing)

What this world needs is not another one hit wonder with an axe to grind
Another two bit politician peddling lies
Another three ring circus society
What this world needs is not another sign waving super saint that's better than you
Another ear pleasing candy man afraid of the truth
Another prophet in an Armani suit
What this world needs is a Savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love them in their time of need
A Savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love
That's what this world needs
What this world needs is for us to care more about the inside than the outside
Have we become so blind that we can't see
God's gotta change her heart before He changes her shirt
What this world needs is for us to stop hiding behind our relevance
Blending in so well that people can't see the difference
And it's the difference that sets the world free
[spoken]People aren't confused by the Gospel, they're confused by us
Jesus is the only Way to God, but we are not the only way to Jesus
This world doesn't need my tie, my hoodie, my denomination, or my translation of the Bible
They just need Jesus.
We can be passionate about what we believe, but we can't strap ourselves to the Gospel
'Cause we're slowing it down.
Jesus is going to save the world, but maybe the best thing we can do...
Is just get out of the way.
Jesus is our Savior, that's what this world needs
Father's arms around you, that's what this world needs
That's what this world needs