It's Already Over?

So the annual beach trip has come and gone. I must say that seven days of bare feet in the warm sand, enjoying the ocean's breeze and being with family is pretty hard to beat. Sitting at my desk on Monday morning in my cold, window-less office was hardly a joyful experience.

We didn't see as much marine life this year (like last year's phantom manatee), although we did find a man-of-war washed up on the beach. It's bag like body was about the size of three of my fists; its purple tentacles only a few inches long, which means the rest probably got ripped off somehow. I've always been fascinated by these creatures, especially since Lori's horrible encounter with one about 9 years ago, which resulted in a trip to the emergency room and scars across her wrist, chest and legs. Everett buried this year's encounter in the dunes before I was able to snag a picture of it.

How cute are they?!

Other notable events: wiffle-ball on the beach, a trip to the alligator farm, playing Hand and Foot with Kevin, and simply doing nothing but lie on the beach and enjoy the weather (80 degrees...beautiful). Also- Kevin and Everett riding the "swing" at the corner amusement park, which looked more like a catapult that could have shot them 2 miles down the beach. Oh, and as promised, D cooked his famous pulled pork for the fam and it was a hit (that junk is good). We celebrated Father's Day with dad and Robin's 31st bday appropriately with both German Chocolate and Fudge Pie. The tides this year were friggin' crazy! The water came up to the dunes, and completely flooded some of the streets that neighbor the marsh. The marsh grass was completely hidden under the water, making the inlet look like a giant pond. They credited the tides to a full moon and high winds.

Mairin and Rhett putting grass into a bucket to make "a bed" for a granddaddy long legs.

In the setting pictured above, my mom and I over heard the following conversation:

Mairin: Rhett, I love you more than this bucket.
Rhett: I love you more than this blanket.
Mairin: I love you more than Aunt Boo's hair.
Rhett: I love you more than Mema's sunglasses.
(and this goes on for like five minutes)
Mairin: Well, do you know who I love more than anyone in the whole wide world? (pause)...God and Jesus.
Rhett: Yeah me too! (pause)... everybody does.
Mairin: Well, not everyone.
Rhett: Right, like, not bad guys.
Mairin: Yeah, bad guys don't go to heaven.
Rhett: Well...some do.
Mairin: Yeah, but most go to that place... you know, that state, I mean, city, ummm...
Rhett: Yeah, once I saw a bad guy and he was chasing us but we got away.

The conversations of five-year-olds are quite possibly the best in the world.

That's it for now. The rest of our beach pics are posted on our website.

Match Point at Forty Love

We moved to Forty Love Point in February of '87. Now, twenty years later, we've said our goodbyes as my parents have officially made the move to Charleston. There are a lot of memories tied up in that house, in that lake, in that neighborhood, in that town. The one stop-light, one-grocery store, one-of-everything town that has slowly gained three-of-everything over the years (as in, now there's a Subway, Hardee's and McDonald's, and not just a Hardee's).
So many wonderful friendships were born there, and I think about how the Lord so greatly blessed my family over the years...
I wanted to take some time to jot down some of the memories I have in some of the rooms, but trust me...it's not the rooms that matter, just the memories. Memories that we can laugh at and cherish. And of course, it's not memories that matter, just the here and now, but I think it's okay to have fun with memories. Someone once said, "It's okay to look back...just don't stare." And yes, my family makes fun of me for remembering all of this stuff.

The Infamous Front Porch Shot. I was 19 here.

The Downstairs Bathroom
This is where I got the soap-covered sock stuffed into my mouth for being a jerk to my mom. I also got my butt whooped in this room.
This is where I got mad at Laura for getting sick one morning after she spent the night, because I didn't want her to have to go home.
This is where my cousin, Susan, was changing the toilet paper roll, and the metal spring-loaded thingy shot across the room, hit the tile floor, and made a loud noise and my mom said, "I heard that."
This is the room that smelled like potpourri.

The Study
This is where I would watch Saved By the Bell and the Brady Bunch re-runs after school. I would help my mom in the kitchen with dinner during the commercial breaks.
This is where Robin and I played Nintendo -- she once beat the entire Mario 1 game in between our mom calling us for dinner and actual dinner time (after we had mastered it, of course).
This is where we first discovered the Internet. Our dad purchased "Prodigy," and soon thereafter AOL-- he helped me create bballsax as my screen name, which I used forever.
This is where I emailed Gina, even though calling her would have been faster, and that's back when we actually really knew that was true.


The Living Room
This is where I would play the piano, mainly learning from Robin; when she would play, I would try to sneak in the door and hide behind a chair to listen. I always got busted.
This is where we danced to The Entertainer and Fur Elise.
This is where we watched old movies from our childhood or our mom's childhood.
This is where mom would bring us to talk when the guys where watching TV in the den
This is where the 20+ year old Ficus tree lived

Whoa, look at that mullet!

The Dining Room
This is where we shared holiday meals. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, some birthdays.





The Kitchen
This is where we had dinner/supper every night. My dad calling it supper and my mom calling it dinner.
This is where we stood around and talked when we were all back in town.
This is where Robin, Stacy and I locked the pizza in the oven by turning on the "self-cleaning oven" selection, which burned the pizza into an unrecognizable disc of black soot.
This is where we learned to make homemade chocolate chip cookies, cakes, pies.
This is where our mom made innumerable amounts of meals for our family.
This is where you could look out at the beautiful sunrise, or watch a family of ducks swim by, or watch the grey storm clouds rolling across the sky, and soon thereafter, the rain pelleting the water. I loved it if we got white caps out there.
This is where my mom found a dead scorpion on the floor after Robin had just prayed about needing one for her bug project. Okay, Lord...wow.
This is where you could eat off of the floor because mom kept it so spotless.



The Den
This is where I watched The Cosby Show every Thursday night with my mom.
This is where I threw the scissors cuz I was angry, which punctured a cushion in the couch (another butt whoopin).
This is where our dad would open the French doors, turn on the stereo and blast 2001 across the lake on game day.
This is where we had our first CD player. Stuart gave it Steph as a gift. The first CD she had was The Police, which I would listen to over and over again because it was a CD
This is where I had my 7th grade slumber party, at which we watched all of the Jaws movies
This is where we put our Christmas trees, which we would cut down at a local country tree farm


The Stairs
This is where our mom told us to NOT leave our "stuff". We would leave our shoes there, books there, whatever there, instead of taking it upstairs. That's where I got it from... no "stuff " can be left anywhere.
This is what we rode down on a cot mattress when our parents weren't home
This is where we sat and talked.
This is where I had to stand when my mom measured my prom dresses/bridesmaid dresses that needed to be hemmed

The Screened Porch/Back Deck
This is where we would sit in the dark and listen to the frogs and crickets and watch lonely boats with their green and red lights navigating through the waters.
This is where we would have dessert in the summer time
This is where Stephanie had her quiet time with the Lord in the mornings
This is where I tried to turn grapes into raisins
This is where Mittens and Buttons would lounge in the sun



So......... there is my sentimental sap list of a few memories that have popped into my mind. Of course there's more in there, but this could go on forever. Goodbye house!

I'm Tenseventeen

So I'm 27 now. I don't feel too different, although I think I can actually feel my metabolism slowing as I type. No more eating cake whenever I want to, I guess. I think 2007 is one of those years that I would look at as a child and think, "WHOA. In 2007 I will be 27." Yes, child, you were right, and now it's here, and for some reason, the Lord has let you live. WHOA. In 2048, I will be 68. My dad will be 107. My husband will be 75. Or I could be in heaven, not worrying about how old anyone is or typing a Blog or sitting at work on my day off waiting on a proof from the printer. Not that my idea of heaven is that I won't have to work on my day off... no no. Just saying that in heaven, all of this earth stuff will be the last thing on my mind.
Anyways...Below are some pictures of Stabler and Sadie celebrating my birthday with me...

Hi, I am Stabler, and I'm a good sport.

Hi, I am Sadie, and I'm going to rip this d&%@ thing off my head as soon as you're not looking.

What else happened in May? Hmm. Well, we went to the BMW golf tourney and saw Wayne Gretzky, who winked at me and then turned and hit a hole in one. No, not really. But we did go to the tournament, at which I froze my bippy off b/c it was stinkin' cold. That same day we went to the Armed Svcs Parade downtown, which was really neat to see. That same day we went to see Spidey3, which was entertaining.... All 15.5 hours of it. That was a fun day. We went home to my parents a few weekends ago (pre-move) to divvy up the items that were not going to make the move to Charleston. One of the coolest items I got was my great great grandfather's Bible from when he was a medic for the Union Army in the Civil War. You can still read the notes he wrote in it, although they are fading. How cool is that?! Also, I now have in my possession my kindergarten cookbook. You know, where you and your classmates would tell the teachers how to cook your favorite recipes, and they would then somehow transcribe them into book form and then hand it out of the class so that your parents could think it was cute and then you could laugh at it, in this case, 22 years later. I chose to inform the world how to make pizza and hamburgers (still my favs, no doubt). I was pretty close on the ingredients, but then for both I said, "put in the oven at 2 degrees for 14 hours and then eat it." I bet that would work.

Rob and Molly were in town from Chicago a few weekends ago. They came over with James and Darla and the kids, and we enjoyed a Sunday afternoon cookout. Avery and Marin & Emma and Noah, are so precious. Here's a picture of the babies:

Marin Moore (left) and Noah King

We went to Charleston Memorial Day weekend, which was "clean out D's grandparent's attic" and "move in the parents" weekend. We were able to spend a lot of time with our oldest nephew, Justin, while in the attic, which happened to be 3 billion degrees. We cooked out at Robin's Sunday with both our family and D's mom and aunts. It was a lot of fun.

Justin in the almost-emptied attic.


Robin holding Gina's baby, Davis.

Currently watching... something between "nothing" and "whatever's on" since after all, it is re-run season. Currently listening to... Brooks and Dunn (Greatest Hits Collection), Jack Johnson, and checking out Maroon 5's new album (It Won't Be Soon...). Their stuff sure has evolved since their last album from FIVE years ago. Maybe "evolved" is the wrong word, because I do believe it means changed for the better and not sure this is true of their new album.

Current flowers in the window box:

A pink Dahlia. So pretty!

So it's June now. Holy Cow. Anyways, I want to end this monthly update with the words to You Alone Can Satisfy. Yeah, I know this song is "way old" now, but we have switched from Media Shout to ProPresenter for worship, and I am having to re-type all of the songs into the new program b/c their import system leaves room for improvement. I don't mind it so much because I get re-reminded of lyrics that otherwise might get lost in my head through the music (if that makes sense). I was typing this the other day, and was like, "man, how true."

You Alone Can Satisfy

I have bowed at the altar of the world and its lies/

Now I long to return to
You/You alone can satisfy/
I have wasted affections/On the things You despise/Now I
long to return to You/You alone can satisfy/My bread of life/
You're my provider/You fill my soul with living water/
Beneath Your wing/There is a shelter where I hide/You alone can satisfy/
There's no fortune or pleasure/That this world can provide/They
have failed and they always will/You alone can satisfy/You're the
Treasure that I've found/You're the meaning of life/You're
my deepest desires fulfilled/You alone can satisfy

April 2007

We spent Easter weekend with my parents at their house in Chapin. They are moving to Charleston on May 25, and once they are there, it will be rare that we can go to their house and spend the weekend with "just them" because of all of the other family and friends in the Charleston area. It was "just them" in Chapin, which always resulted in spending time with...just them. We had a great visit...enjoyed my mom's cooking as usual and worshiped at Saint Andrews Pres for probably the last time ever. Will I ever sing "Christ our Lord is Risen Today" again on Easter morning?

The weather in the first part of April was unbelievable. I would walk Sadie twice a day just to get outside and soak in the sun and enjoy the azaleas, which were in full bloom all over the neighborhood. Then the temperature dropped Easter weekend, and a frost wiped out all of the beautiful flowers. Here's a picture of our yard in bloom before the frost.

Adam and Andrea came to visit the second weekend in April. We had a great time catching up with them. We took a hike up to Jones Gap with Sadie, which was fun, but the trail to the waterfall was closed, which was disappointing. We mainly relaxed most of the weekend, which I think we all needed.

The following weekend began Fence Project 2007. We decided that putting up a wooden fence was worth the investment, considering our dog could jump over the chain link one, and therefore, we had to take her out in the backyard with a leash. We have wonderful friends who came and spent lots of time helping putting up the wooden monstrosity. It was a success! Sadie has yet to scale the wooden barrier, and we can now send her outside to chase the squirrels and chipmunks, which makes her little heart so very happy. I think it's great too, except when she comes inside dirty. Just a preparation for messy children, I guess.

We traveled to Charleston the final week in April for Dave and Davies wedding. It was a nice reunion, because all (most) of the old trainers were there, including Jermile, Wreck, Chris and Tiffany (who are pregnant), Bunch, Jeremy, Jonathan...etc. The wedding was at the cotton dock at Boone Hall, and it was stinkin gorgeous. The weather was perfect, the decorations beautiful. The Lord wasn't really honored (or mentioned), but it wouldn't make sense to mention him if the couple doesn't love him. Regardless, that part made me sad.

Here we are...standing where Alison and Dave said their vows. Pretty cool setting. Oh, by the way... We celebrated our 2nd anniversary on April 23!

So before I close, I must make mention of the stomach bug that rocked my world two weeks ago (and Donald's world, and Garrett's and Allison's and Joe's. 5 of us in our small group). It was the week in between building the fence and going to Charleston. It hit me the night of our anniversary, after small group at the Selby's. I missed two days of work, and Donald did too. I remember thinking, "will my life ever be normal again??" as I laid in bed for nearly two days, just waiting for the next trip to the bathroom. Truly an experience that humbled me and sent me to my Lord in thanksgiving for my health and left me in wonder about how I would react if I felt like that everyday.

Currently listening to: KT Tunstall (anything but Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, which I don't like); Bon Jovi; Matthew Smith of Indelible Grace, a worship ministry of RUF; and Donavon Frankenreiter
Currently reading: Spiritual Leadership, by Oswald Sanders. A requirement of my job...I am to present what I've learned from chapters 15 - 18 to "the class" (co-workers) on May 10.
Currently watching: Lost, Planet Earth, The Office, and Cosby Show re-runs when D has them on..oh...and American Idol. We are down to four, and I'm a fan of Jordin Sparks and Blake.

May is here and I'm now 27! I'll tell you all about the transformation next month.

The Big Boat 07

Our vacation began at 6am at the Childress home with Kelly and I deciding that it would be a greater sacrifice to lose the home to fire than to robbers, and therefore, the lamp with the paper-like shade should not be left on all week. After gassing up, and purchasing my traditional road trip waxy mini chocolate gas station donuts, we hit the road for Jacksonville. Surprisingly, the trip went by rather quickly, even after a stop at Cracker Barrel. We arrived at "Port Jax" and embarked around, oh, I don't know, and headed to our rooms to check out the view and the digs. The ship was a bit smaller than last year's, but there was still much to be eaten, and friendly faces ready to make my bed, serve my dinner, entertain me, etc. We played cards that afternoon, and then headed to the dining room to eat some dinner, and by doing so, quickly established our pattern of eating, playing, eating, playing. Eating.

Here we are...The fabulous foursome

Our first stop was in Key West. My friend Kelly, who is a sailboat captain in the Keys, had sent me a group of pictures of her and Mike in Key West the previous Friday...So, basically she created a photo scavenger hunt for us (Kelly and crew were arriving by boat to Key West the same day we were! But just a few hours after we were leaving!! Bummer!). So out of the pictures she sent, we found some immediately, while others we had to hunt down before jumping back on the boat. I was grateful that she took the time to help entertain us!
We rented bikes that day, and were very glad we did, because we were able to see a lot more things and cover more ground. For lunch, we had great burgers at a place called Jack Flats on Duval Street, which I'd highly recommend. Also, Steph had told me about a hotel that you could go to the top of and look out over the city and harbor, which we ended up stumbling across, and so we were able to check out the view. It was pretty cool!

Here's the view from the top of the hotel.
Here we are at the southern most point in the USA (continental)with our fake friends (umm..the statues). Apparently these people are a new addition b/c everyone who sees this pic says they weren't there last year.

Here we are on our bikes on a beautiful street in Key West.
"Hi...I'm Kelly, and I like biking in my jean mini skirt."

We snorkeled on Tuesday in the Bahamas. It was a gorgeous day, but the water was extremely chilly, and the boat was pretty rocky due to rough waters. A girl was puking over the side of the boat, but she claimed it was b/c she was car sick from the ride to the docks. Hmmm...
We were able to see a fair amount of beautiful fish, and some wreckage from an airplane. Well, really it was just a whole airplane covered with sand, after years of being down there, which seemed like it was planted, but they claimed it was from the making of one of the Jaws movies. We also had the opportunity to snorkel in "shark infested waters," which John and Donald did (so they wouldn't look like weanies), but me and Kelly opted out. Kelly's excuse was that she didn't like being around fish in the water (hence her screaming when the 4 inch long ones came near her), and my excuse was that I was sick of getting in and out of the freezing water, and I didn't think getting in for 2 minutes just to say I swam with sharks was worth it. Yeah, yeah-- I'm sure you don't believe me. So anyway, the sharks I did not swim with were on avg 5-6 feet, and it was pretty cool to see them. They pulled up the chum cage at the end, once everyone was up, and threw out the fish chunks to the sharks, which then went into a feeding frenzy. That was pretty sweet to watch too.

Beautiful water!

"Hey you... Fuzzy guy. Hey. Guy with the pink shirt--
There's a shark behind you!"

After our snorkeling adventure, we had our bus driver drop us off at the Fish Fry, which is a line of restaurants that specialize in, well, fried fish, and we picked out one that claimed to have "the best daiquiris in the country," or world or something, and it turned out they were right. They were very, very good-- as long as you mixed them up pretty well. After a feast of conch fritters and Miami Vice daiquiris, we caught a cab to the straw market, which was starting to close down, and then ended our stay after perusing the city a bit more.

After another day at sea, the trip ended on Thursday, and we were greeted in Greenville with cold weather and rain. I was grateful to have three more days before returning to work, to recoop, although I think the extra time turned me to an even bigger zombie. Well- I managed to survive, as I sit here a week later, after the completion of my post-vacation work week. SO- we had a great time on the cruise. John and Kelly were easy to travel with. We ate lots. Played lots. Were lazy lots....

Mid-March Madness

We are leaving for a cruise on Saturday, so I thought I'd write about what has happened so far this month before five days of a sunny vacation warps my memory and it all becomes a blur.

Mairin turned 5 on March 6th and had a birthday party that she "didn't need to invite Jesus and God to since they'd already be there." I still have not sent her a gift and need to get a move on it before Christmas rolls around. Donald had a birthday this month as well - his 34th - and a few of our friends came over for cake and ice cream to celebrate (Jesus and God were there too). Our friends just "showed up" per my request, and he was surprised, and it was fun, and it made him happy, which made me happy. You only turn 34 once.

March Madness has been extra fun this year, even though there isn't really a team I care about involved. I guess it's because there have been a lot of very close games and lots of OTs. Needless to say, VCU beating Duke in the first round was oh-so-fabulous, and sorry Adam...Jermile...James, but THAT was an exciting game. Winthrop winning their first game ever was cool, and I was absolutely not happy when Ohio St ended up beating Xaiver. OMG!!!!! That's when I hate OT. It would have messed up everyone in the world's bracket had Xavier pulled it off, and that would have been great. I'm looking forward to the National Championship game... but I don't really care who's in it.

I planted a garden this week. A flower garden. D is working on herbs and vegetables. I am working on flowers. I received my flowers in the mail in the form of bulbs and baby sprouts with teeny roots. I saw an ad in the coupon flyer that comes in the Sunday paper, and like any self-respecting grandma, I couldn't resist. Less than 20 bucks for over 50 perennials was a steal, and so far, I've been very satisfied. Of course I spotted the ad amongst other geriatric-aimed ones, selling things like flowered mu mu bathrobes, coin collections, and plates with dogs painted on them. Oh- and life size porcelain dolls named Rachel or Sammie. So- despite being the only person under the age of 72 who has ever ordered flowers through the mail, I am proud of the garden and will show you pictures if anything comes to fruition. Right now, it just looks like a cemetery because of the 50 kitchen skewer sticks I used to mark where everything was so that I can maybe distinguish my freshly sprouting flowers from freshly sprouting weeds. Hopefully the sticks won't truly be grave markers as they look like. P.S. Steph says you're supposed to plant bulbs in the fall, which makes sense, so I might not see any flowers until 2008.

One of the Carolina Jasmine that I planted last year has taken off and is doing well. See below. Thank you Lord for blessing us with beautiful and amazing creations...even the simplest of jasmine...

Steph and Ev and the kids traveled to Charleston to visit Robin's family last weekend, St Patty's Day weekend, so we decided to join. After all, all three sisters are only in the same vicinity two times a year, so we better take every opportunity that we can get. Of course we had an absolute fun, great, wonderful time. It was surprisingly cold in Charleston, which totally paralyzed those of us who had already welcomed upper 70's with a warm and unrelenting embrace. We really enjoyed spending time with the kids, even though Mairin and Rhett banged on our door at 7am and then proceeded to break in using the old credit card trick with the help of a certain big sister named Lexie. It was nice snuggling with them after the break-in, though. We are all ready for our beach vacation in June, which I can't believe is just two months away!

Green dots are in

So I married a fabulous handyman named Donald, who just installed a spotlight on the back corner of our house, which, until now, was a dark scary place where I had to stand in fear while Sadie did her business every night. She will no longer have any privacy as the glorious beam of light illuminates the night and shows me that there is no boogie man lurking in the shadows. Thank you, wonderful handyman, Donald, who ran the electricity from a switch in our kitchen all the way to the far corner of the house. Amazing. I just have to brag. Oooo...and he just brought me a glass of grape koolaid that he made and it's soo good. This boy's got skillz.

So that is it for now. I will give a full report after the cruise

February 2007

Donald's family came to visit this month! It's the third year that they've come to Greenville during President's Day weekend. We had a lot of fun! Friday night we enjoyed some pulled pork that D smoked that day, and it was unstinkinbelievable. I seriously could not get over how good it was. (That will be our meal at the beach house this year-- we're packing the smoker in the Grand Prix, I don't care how tight it is). Saturday we took them to Falls Park downtown, then to the outlet mall in Gaffney, and then to The Beacon for dinner. Cheeseburger A'Plenty, please.

Sunday we headed up to Biltmore, and it was a beautiful day, yet very very very cold. The snow on the ground wasn't melting...at least not in the shadows.
So Sunday night was the traditional Rose Family Sunday dinner - mac n cheese, collards, fried chicken, rice (in this case, Hoppin' Johns), and sweet potato casserole. Yum! It was very nice to see everyone since it was Christmas when we saw them last!!



Radical
Did you know that radical Muslims pay for commercials over in the mid-east that try to convince people that America is bad b/c we own Pepsi, which stands for Pay Every Penny to Save Israel. WHAT?! This is paranoia at it's finest. Straight from the AP:

"In the Gulf, flyers list U.S. companies that should be boycotted. One said people should stop drinking Pepsi "because it is an acronym that stands for Pay Every Penny to Save Israel.'' "O Muslim, you will not die for not buying Jewish products,'' it said. Calling Pepsi a "Jewish product'' is ironic, given that Pepsi was one of many multinationals that wouldn't do business in Israel during the 40-year Arab commercial boycott of the Jewish state."

Donald and I watched a Fox News Special in early Feb that talked about radical Islam - wow- It was absolutely crazy. They have cartoons, I'm talkin' children's cartoons, where the super hero good guy is praying to Allah while jumping off a cliff, with bombs tied to his body onto a Jewish army truck, which then blows up. They have Mr. Rogers type programs, where the little kids are singing cute little solos, which, when translated, are saying, "I'm going to be a soldier and kill Americans when I grow up." I'm not exaggerating. Ok, so I must give a disclaimer, just like E.D. did on Fox (10 times), that the program wasn't talking about your average Muslim-- but rather, the extreme radicals. Ok, so there's my disclaimer. A lot of the program focused on martyrs, aka suicide bombers. Supposedly the only reason they do it is b/c A. it's the only guaranteed way to heaven for them and B. 72 virgins will be waiting for them there. (And the mothers of these martyrs, rejoiced in their sons' deaths, which is unbelievable). I wish everyone in the world could have watched this program. It's indisputable how nutso these people are. I would have a link to the video on here, but it's not available online. Robin- I'm sure Jim would LOVE to see it. I'm sure he'd some how try to excuse all of the nonsense.
Well, nonsense or not, I must say that it is totally intriguing. Their faith puts mine to shame. "But wait," you say, "They are trying to earn their way to heaven..." True, but I'm guilty of the same thing. The only difference is that my religion doesn't call me to earn my salvation. I just try and do so b/c I am weak and the desire to save myself is a result of my foolishness, just like them. This fool is so grateful for my Savior.
So- the moral of this story is that they need Jesus just like me, and they scare the poo out of me. Watch the video and you'd be skeered too.

Listening
Fav lyrics of the month:
Fighting thoughts of fear/ And wondering why He called my name/ Am I good enough to share this cup?/ This world has left me lame/ Even in my weakness/ The Savior called my name/ In His Holy presence/ I’m healed and unashamed -Leeland "Carried to the Table"

What am I doing here/ If you're not with me?/ What have I got to live for, if it's just my own dream?/Take it back to the beginning, back to the start/When gravity's pulling, you're still holding my heart/You come crashing down -Mat Kearny "Crashing Down" I think this was intended to be a love song, but I like pretending it's talking about my relationship with the Lord.

So I love hymns, and an album was just released called "Music Inspired by the Motion Picture Amazing Grace," (which, by the way, I'd never heard of that movie until JUST NOW when I was typing this-- a trailer just came on TV--weird) and there are artists on there like Chris Tomlin, Shawn McDonald, David Crowder, etc. and songs on there such as It is Well, How Great thou Art, Great is Thy Faithfulness, and so on. SO I was hoping for a really great compilation of hymns, BUT it's just ok.

Reading
I am currently reading "Desiring God" (John Piper), which I have now started reading for the third or fourth time since college, when I bought it to help me figure out why I didn't desire God. I still haven't figured it out quite yet (and when I say "started reading" that's what I mean- "started." I've never finished it. I don't want to mislead you in to thinking I've actually read a book 3 or 4 times. I'm not that faithful. Well, with the exception of any Berenstain Bear or Little Golden Book in my childhood collection). But anyways- it's good, and right now I'm at the part where he's explaining what Christian Hedonism is- in Piper's words:

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in. Christian Hedonists want to make God their God by seeking after the greatest pleasure—pleasure in Him."

Watching
D and I don't watch a whole lot of TV...at least not an a nightly basis. We are currently recording Lost, House, Friday Night Lights, ER, American Idol, and The Office (so, that's not a lot...is it??). Normally when we have a free night, we will catch up on our shows. For instance, D had a dinner program last night, so I watched the last four episodes of ER and last week I caught up on Friday Night Lights. The only show that D cares to watch is Lost, and we've yet to start watching it. We usually watch American Idol together, but the show is getting really annoying. Well...maybe it's always been annoying, but the whole "Simon-is-such-a-bad-guy" thing that they try to pull off every year is getting even more obnoxious. Donald and I pretty much always agree with whatever Simon has to say, yet everyone boos him, and Paula and Randy always say something retarded in response, and then Ryan Seacrest tries to instigate a fight. Same story every time. D and I have our Idol-watching down to a science: fast forward through all the fluff, listen to the singer (but not for long if it's bad), then fast forward through Randy and Paula, listen to Simon, then fast forward through Ryan, and so on. It cuts a 2 hour show into about 45 minutes.

In addition to the Rose family visit, other things I want to remember about February are: Snow, Valentine's at Stax Grill- with the unbelievable crab cakes, Team Spann beat 4 other teams in Balderdash at Dion's, Mom and Dad came for Sunday dinner, Super Bowl Party, 109 Forty Love Point, circa 1987, is on the market (sad!), Dewa and Arie are leaving us this summer! We will find out for sure this week if it will be Iowa or Colorado (sad!!)

"This white stuff is freaky!"