What Happens When You Just Start Typing

I’m not afraid to admit that “The Bachelor” is one of the highlights of my Monday. (Okay, FINE. It’s THE highlight. Happy?) I just can’t! Stop! Watching! It’s ridiculous, but also wonderful. More than anything, this show teaches me how NOT to behave. Because holy honey mustard on a cracker are these people inane.

I got Joey and Sam’s wedding invitation in the mail today! I am so. Excited. And cannot WAIT to go to Austin and hang with the posse! March 20 cannot come soon enough.

It makes me really sad that I don’t get the Fox Business channel. This means I can’t watch John Stossel! I have to settle for reading his BLOG, which is definitely not as good because the phrase “Give me a break” is infinitely better when Stossel says it out loud versus when he types it. Ugh.

I still have not seen Avatar. I definitely need to see Avatar. (And let’s make it clear that this is definitely more “need” than “want.”) But I just have to see it on the big screen before it goes away! It’s too much of a cinematic event. But by now just about everybody has already seen it! To quote Clue, “Won’t anyone go with me?”

Okay, first of all: why is there an entire program about chocolate on TLC? The World Championship of CHOCOLATE? That’s just…why would they do that to us? Second of all, and perhaps more importantly: why did I watch it while getting ready to go to the gym? Yeah, I frequently have TOTALLY AWESOME ideas like that.

My cousin and my brother came by for a little N64 and SAG Award (What? Who doesn’t love awards shows??) fun on Saturday. And apparently the night before they had been out at our family’s land in the boonies making a fire and doing who knows what else. My brother OF COURSE wore the same jeans over to my apartment. Now my couch smells like it’s been sucking on the business end of a barbecue grill.

Furious

2010

-Ten year high school reunion.

-Turning 28. That’s drawing steadily closer to 30.

-Not 2009.

-Fresh slate: lots of things in the works… some coming soon… and some coming not so soon. Suffice it to say that the list of goals and dreams for this year are long. It’s January 7^th and I’ve already crossed two items off my list.

Goal #1: I started reading Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” over Thanksgiving break. I returned from Mexico 520 pages into the 762 paged book. I couldn’t bring myself to read it during the crazy month of parties and work. I brought it with me back to Texas but didn’t want to steal myself away from friends and family to spend time with Howard Roarke. Determined to complete the book at the start of the year I began reading it on the flight home on the 31^st. I finally finished that sucker on January 2^nd. Turns out it’s not even on the recommended 100 books before you die list from BBC. Dang it.

Goal #2: I save receipts. I claim that it’s to make sure they go through my checking account correctly. I keep them just in case I need to return something. But the truth is… I had receipts from Chipotle dating back to February. Was I really going to take back my burrito? I stored all of those receipts in a large drawer in a dresser. There were hundreds of them. I went through them all and threw all but 15 of them away. It feels amazing.

Other 2010/28 year-old goals: Run 2 races (1 of them being a ½ marathon). Read “Mere Christianity.” Create and hold to a financial budget that includes saving and giving. Travel out of the country. Write a manuscript for the book that’s been rolling around my head for 8 years.

Just a few… there are some more that are going to stay close to heart for safe keeping. But more than any hope I have for the year, I am waiting in expectation for all that the Lord has in store. For “many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21) I trade in my lists for whatever he purposes this year!

Closing with some thoughts from my current read, “The Furious Longing of God” by Brennan Manning:

The furious longing of God is beyond our wildest desires, our hope or hopelessness, our rectitude or wickedness, neither cornered by sweet talk nor gentle persuasion. The furious longing of God, as Dan Berrigan writes, is “not to be reduced to a thing, a grand ideal; it is not to be reduced to a plaything, a caged songbird, for the amusement of children.” It cannot be tamed, boxed, captivated, housebroken, or templebroken. It is simply and startingly Jesus, the effulgence of the Father’s love.

"I AM MY BELOVED’S, AND HIS DESIRE IS FOR ME." Song of Solomon 7:10

It’s going to be a furious year.

Fingers Crossed for 2010!

Even-numbered years tend to be big for me.

In 2008, I landed my current job that led to my many wonderful friendships.

In 2006, I graduated from college.

In 2004, I frolicked (yes, frolicked-- harder than it looks) across Europe and studied in Oxford for a semester.

In 2002, I graduated from high school.

In 2000, I moved to Houston and got involved with my kick-a color guard.

In 1998, I graduated from eighth grade. Yes, graduated. From the only school I'd ever been to. IT WAS A BIG DEAL.

Oh, and in 1984 I was born.

I can't think of any monumental events that happened in an odd-numbered year.

Fingers crossed for 2010!

Happy New Year!

Slightly Distracted

Family traditions are straight up random when they don't belong to your family. We had an "Awkward Family Christmas... Party" for our youth kids this week and we spent part of the evening sharing traditions. A lot of people all wear new pajamas on Christmas Eve. Several families actually hide pajamas for everyone to hunt. One family plays a giant game of hide and seek in the dark late Christmas Eve - this includes Grandma.

I didn't ever think of our family traditions as odd... until I verbalized them to several people this year and everyone shook their heads knowingly. "Yep. Your family is weird too." Perhaps it was the fact that all of the kids slept in the same room (even as recently as just a few years ago), or the random assortment of goodies in our stockings (batteries, tic tacs, and a lint roller), but I think it was the fact that we still claimed our spots for our Santa gifts when I was 20 years-old. We also used to identify the earliest time everyone could wake up on Christmas morning. As soon as we stepped out of the Christmas Eve service at church, the bartering would begin. When we were really young we used to open Christmas gifts around 6:30am. We've now progressed to roughly 8:30 or 9:00am. I think Clay would still prefer for it to be earlier.

Christmas Eve for the past few years has been spent at my Aunt and Uncle's Church. We usually attend a later evening service. It's beautiful. They usually have a professional vocalist from the Houston Opera, a full orchestra, and a massive choir. The pipe organ is gorgeous. As I look around and see teenagers checking fantasy football scores and texts on their phones, I can't help but notice my own distractions. I have to turn off my desire to wonder about the fonts chosen for the bulletin or the turn-around for the next service. "You do not work here. Stop worrying about child-care." The distractions of the season are everywhere and they beckon us to concern ourselves with just about anything but the Christ-child in the manger.

We started a new sermon series in youth this past weekend entitled "Unwrapped." Our hope is to strip away everything that's been added and pull out just the story from Matthew and Luke. We spent this past weekend remembering that Mary was not chosen out of her perfection, but out of her willingness. This weekend we will examine that first "Silent Night" that was probably anything but silent. For while our Savior was sinless, he was most certainly fully human... and much crying he probably did make. You get the idea.

All this to say, in ten days, when you sit by yourself... or with your crazy family - in front of a tree, around a table, in a wooden pew, or on a cushioned chair... remember the 42 generations who awaited the birth of the Messiah. Recall the young teenage girl who gave up her expectations for God's amazing reality. Picture the infant breathing his first gulp of air and wailing - and then the man who cried out and gave up his last breath on Calvary. This God made flesh has come.

"Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isaiah 25:9

Vignettes

When Lara went to England for eight months, we agreed that neither of us would watch our beloved “A Goofy Movie” until we were reunited again. Sometime while she was gone, though, I found myself holding the DVD case and contemplating the cover art.

“Do you think it would be cheating for me to just, like, watch the trailer?” I asked my friend David.

He considered for a moment. “I don’t think it would be cheating. I just think it would be like if you had a boyfriend and hugged another guy for a little bit too long.”

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Once late at night, my college roommates and I realized that both of the bathrooms were out of toilet paper. Not wanting to go to the store so late, we discussed our options. Someone suggested we just pee in our backyard until we could replenish our supply. There was a beat, and then Kisha snapped us out of it.

“Guys,” she deadpanned. “If we peed outside, we would still not have toilet paper!”

I think we laughed for about five days after that one.

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Sitting in our boring Literature for Children class one day, Lara and I took a break from our regular note-passing when we noticed our fellow classmates were squealing and screaming at something at the front of the room. Apparently there was a particularly large spider crawling across our professor’s desk, and none of the girls in the class would go near it. Finally, one popped up, dashed to the desk, and dispensed of the spider. The room was quiet with awe, until Lara broke the silence by meekly yelling out, “Bravery!”

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I hoodwinked the group into watching yet another movie- this time “High School Musical.”

At one point in the movie, a heartfelt Troy Bolton asks, “Have you ever felt like there’s this whole other person inside of you, just waiting to get out?”

“Yeah,” David responded. “It’s called being pregnant."

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And these are a few of my favorite funny moments from college.

Happy Turkey Day

We finished our feast on the beach after hours of snorkeling... fresh fish, fajitas, ceviche, guacamole - todo esta muy bueno.

Beyond thankful for so many blessings. May you be blessed this day!!

-Ginger and Valerie

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

Thanksgiving Potluck

I’m surprised Val hasn’t fired me.

I have been woefully negligent when it comes to contributing to this random mess of a blog. We had a plan… and even a schedule. We both try and blog at least once a week… occasionally one of us will make it twice. This was not one of those weeks.

Next week will not be one of those weeks, for we are fleeing the country. The family is picking up and heading to Mexico to celebrate Thanksgiving. One of the girls at work asked me wide-eyed, “Are you going on a mission trip?” Um. Not exactly? I’m sure we will have opportunities to love and share with the people we come into contact with, but it will be at our hotel in Play Del Carmen and we will more than likely enjoy it without the turkey.

I don’t really enjoy Thanksgiving food. In fact, last year we all traded in the turkey for filet mignon. That’s right. Thank you Lord. When I was little (read: up until college) I would fill my Thanksgiving plate with dark meat, ketchup, crescent rolls, and maybe carrot sticks for good measure. I didn’t really care for anything else and the smell of German noodles kind of made me sick. Come to think of it, the smell of boiled onions at the other grandparent’s house also made me sick. I don’t think I’ve ever thrown up at Thanksgiving, but then again, I don’t think anyone ever forced me to eat green bean casserole.

ALSO – (random side tangent) why didn’t my family ever get the whole bird on the table like every movie ever made? Never. I’ve never gotten a piece cut at the table. I heard some excuse about the electric knife not reaching into the dining room and making too much noise.

Thanksgiving mash-up menus… jealous? I’m not.

Grandma Ann and Grandpa Joe’s:

• Turkey
• Stuffing
• White Rice
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Baby Pearl Onions
• Crescent Rolls
• Cranberry and Orange Relish
• Asparagus
• Pumpkin Pie
• Pecan Pie
• Vanilla Ice Cream

Grandma Doris and Grandpa Glenn’s:

• Turkey
• Stuffing
• German Noodles
• Green Bean Casserole
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Crescent Rolls
• Canned Cranberry Lump Thing
• Beats?
• Chocolate Pie
• Lemon Meringue Pie
• Pecan Pie
• Pumpkin Pie
• A bazillion deserts that sit in Tupperware on the washer and dryer

Best Thanksgiving Memories:

• Getting to drink soda.
• Going to a movie every year… nice tradition.
• Spending it freezing in Jamaica.
• Almost dying when the car was stuck in the snow in Red Cloud New Mexico (no yelling by my parents in this moment.)
• Sledding in the Sand Dunes of Red Cloud New Mexico
• Really fun time with cousins
• Really boring time with cousins
• Standing in a giant circle dressed up, holding hands, and praying together.
• Going around the table and saying what we were thankful for – Clay’s answer was highly sarcastic.
• Having so many reasons to give thanks.

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:1