seems true

thanks to asbojesus for the great work. these both feel appropriate right now. 

i'm curious what your thoughts about either are. mostly the church one though. 

thoughts?

the end?

saw this on the news today, guess we're all doomed?

sorry i've been off the radar in the blogosphere, but hey, I just had a baby 7 weeks ago, what'd you expect? : )   They aren't kidding when they say having a baby changes everything. 

So, funny story from starbucks the other day. This lady came in, and wanted "that coffee/slushy thing." Generally we get that once every couple weeks or so, and we know they mean a frappucino. So we explain that to her, and she says it can't have sugar in it, which it does. So, we recommend the "creme based" frappucino, as that is dairy based and has splenda in it. She quickly fires back "I can't have splenda." So, after discovering she doesn't want sugar, and can't have splenda, we talk her into an iced coffee with cream. No big deal right? Well, right before she pulls out of the order window she yells back at us, "yeah, I can't have splenda, it gives me... diarrhea! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and then pulls off to the window to pay. Then she asks me when she gets there if that was too much info. Trying to be nice I say, "well, we didn't exactly see that coming," and try to affirm that I've heard weirder things. I said she'd fit right in on the barista line jokingly, to which she says, "great! i'll bring you more stories next time." Then as I hand her drink to here she says, "yeah, nothing's worse than being out shopping with your friends and not knowing you've had something with splenda in it until it hits you all of a sudden." To which I think to myself, THIS moment might easily be worse than that moment.

Sorry,you get to share in the misery/awkwardness. 

Hope we live past Wednesday!

baby pics!

Photobucket Album

update to yesterday's post...

so, update to yesterday's post. apparently they've changed the ar-15 they were giving away to a shotgun. I suppose that makes more sense, since you can "encourage" someone so much easier with a weapon that will for sure murder them at point-blank when you ask them if they want to accept Jesus. 

oh, and I skimmed through the 30 minutes of the highlight video from last year, and apparently I was pretty spot on about the "soul-winning blitz." don't even get me started about how sad it is that they are only concerned about the "number of souls you win." 

it's SOOOOOOO like Jesus camp too. The video is terrifying.

In a completely unrelated string of thought, someone told me today that I look like Luke Wilson from "The Royal Tenenbaum's." when I wear a headband, which I've been doing at work because we have a new drink at work.

weird eh? I don't see it.

oh it makes my head hurt...

Wow. So I had zero intention of blogging today at all. It's been a bit of a frustrating weekend (you don't want to know), and I'm really tired. I had my full week at church (40+), and I managed to rock like 30+ hours at starbucks at the same time. Side note: if you ever go work for starbucks, try to not open one morning (thursday), close that night, open the next morning (friday), open again (saturday), and close at a totally different store that night. I tried that last week. Stupid, but it is going to get me cheap insurance, so it'll be worth the stress in a month or so. And I won't have to do that again I don't think, so that'll help.

Anycrap, all my sleepy-crabby-annoyed self aside, I just have to tell you how embarrassed I am about living in Oklahoma when crap like this pops up on national news websites. It's on other sites too, like yahoo, cnn, etc. If you'd like to see their website, here it is. It doesn't even look like a youth website. This creeps me out a lot too. It feels very Jesus-camp-ish.

What's really funny about the whole thing is the website. You should look at it. All I have to say is, if you invite me to something with "red HOT preaching, multiple games, skits, activities, and MUCH more" I'm probably going to try and not snicker while you invite me. And what exactly happens during a "Soulwinning Blitz?" I'm guessing you go around and blanket the neighborhood in teenagers who ask people if they were going to die tonight, do they know where they're going? Followed by a really "great" tract on how to believe in Jesus. Team with the most converts wins extra chances at the AR-15. That's right, they're giving away an AR-15. I don't know, maybe they offer to show them where they're going via the AR-15.

Here's where I get lost though, the big drama from these guys is their AR-15 giveaway. They advertise on their website more than once about the "AR-15 giveaway," and then they say this:

 "Although the shooting competition that was to take place during the Youth Conference had been canceled, due to false statements^* made by the Oklahoma City TV Channel 5 (KOCO) and subsequently reported also by media outlets across the country, an AR-15 was donated last Saturday so that the competition could go on as planned. 

If Congress, back when our country was fighting for its independence could give engraved muskets to the fifteen or so eleven year old boys that their teacher, Mr. Akins, led into battle against the British, then we can give away a firearm still today, especially since our Supreme Court just re-emphasized our Second Amendment rights."

Like I said, it makes my head hurt. And it kinda makes me ashamed of Oklahoma. Fortunately, they aren't the majority, otherwise I would probably look at a non-neighboring state as my new place to live. 

Who exactly donates an $800 assault rifle to a church anyways? Don't even get me started on the implications of this stuff. That's like it's own blog post itself, but one I won't write, because it would be a stupid long rant of stuff you probably know already. Things like "Jesus seemed to prefer non-violence" and "I didn't know the Bible and the Constitution were interchangeable in church settings." 

If you are looking at the website, check out "Crunch Revival" boy there. He's scary, but not in a chuck norris kind of way. That's for sure.

I'm sorry WHBC, I think I'll have to skip your youth conference. You can keep your little "Soulwinning Blitz" and I'm going to keep my $45. 

Guess I should look into a flak jacket soon too. Who knows when one of these kids may stop by to catch me during the blitz? Hope it isn't last year's winner, packing his AR-15. 

monday is a weird day

Okay, first off, let me just bust all over the "great state" of texas. Texans think they are absolutely amazing and all, but no more! Between my buddy Wes' stories of SAD, which for those of you who don't know means SA-Dallas. (i'll leave the first 2 to your imagination, think traffic and all things miserable) The today show has undone anything good that Texas had going for it in about 4 minutes. Oklahoma's got weird places and crap and all, but nothing as bad as the museum Plano is boasting. Ugh. 

Now an odd local story. I have this guy who rides a bike near my house, and one of these days I'm going to take a picture of him because you all need to see him. He's just weird. 

He rides a bicycle (nothing fancy, probably the wal-mart special), with a motorcycle helmet. Think the one where the whole front is a piece of plastic. Almost like those face shields the morgue guy on CSI wears, but tinted black so you can't see his face. next, throw in blue jeans, a long sleeve shirt with a khaki vest, as in the fall/winter insulated vest that you wear in the cold. And leather work gloves. And I've seen this guy probably once a week for the last 6 or 7 weeks. So, basically, he's dressed for fall yard work and motorcycle riding all in 90 degree weather. I'm wondering if he's a vampire or something, and exposure to sunlight will end it all for him. But, I'm a little worried to just roll down the window and chat, I mean, what if he IS a vampire? Or at least creepy. I mean the work gloves and the vest make me wonder...

still stuck on community...

So this week I got to see some really good friends that I haven't seen in what feels like a really long time. It was really good to see them too. We're both pregnant fam's and are due like a week apart from each other. Pretty nuts how that worked out (and no, we didn't plan that). We talked photography some though (totally different from my other buddy's stuff because it's outdoors and on color slides, zero photoshopping!) and what it's like living out by the grand tetons. I'm still jealous they live there in a lot of ways. Oh, and I got my butt kicked at Wii bowling, but that's alright. I'm neither a Wii owner, or much of a bowler. 

Anyways it was really great to see them and catch up. And it reminded me of why Courtney & I are so spread thin in the "people we see often" department. Don't get me wrong, we have people we see often, and I am SO thankful for those people, because they are such a vital part of our lives (you know who you are...mc's!). They keep us sane frankly. But, at the same time, I see the value of of having more than one couple that we can really hang out with and really be ourselves and be transparent with too. And for us, even being in the same chapter, in that we're both about a month out from our lives taking a major chapter change, being able to talk about that stuff, and the things we keep hoping for in our lives and the lives of our kids (which btw, totally looking forward to raiding the parks in OKC with Luke), it is just good for us. I wish we had more of that honestly. I mean, I left their house that night feeling like I'd been with family, but that's to be expected as this guy's been like a brother to me in a lot of ways for a good chunk of my life. But even more than that, I left feeling like I'd just gotten a reminder of what deep, Jesus-centered community looks like. To be together, to share in the ups & downs, to eat together (which I hadn't planned on, but Myra doesn't let you come over and party without making awesome food!), and to laugh and have fun. I don't think you can ever get enough of that. I know I don't at least.

And it's always fun to listen to Bobby & Jamie talking in their own little "semi-cowboy spanglish" that they've got going on. Hilarious. You don't even know. 

So yeah, that couple hours was something I deeply needed, and so enjoyed. And it left me wishing that I had that more often. And it leaves me wondering where exactly to find that too. That unfortunately hasn't changed for me. I'm looking forward to the day it does though. Apparently the UMC has decided to make it a major point of importance to find young people to bring to the church, I hope we're not starting that project too late. I hope it pans out because I find myself longing for that kind of community. 

What are you longing for? What is the thing your heart wishes for deeply?