The ugly truth

Damn paparazzi! How did they find out?? Well, I guess it's out there now. Please remember to keep our kids in your prayers...


http://larknews.com/november_2004/secondary.php?page=1

Maintaining Relationships

I wrote this for last Sunday's church-bulletin-newsletter-thingy and I thought I'd put it here to get your thoughts. Thanks ~ t.

One of the most difficult things in life is to maintain relationships. People are quirky, strange, and full on crazy! More often than that though, life takes us at a speed that we focus so much on getting and doing rather than being and maintaining. It is hard work to keep up relationships, but we so badly want to get to know people and grow closer to them. We need people — it’s how we were created! Why, then, do we do so much to short circuit our friendships, when they are exactly where God wants to work in us to change and transform our lives? We will purposely distance ourselves and find petty reasons to assume the worst of those in our lives. Or worse yet we decide without effort that the investment’s not worth it. We give up because of fear, loneliness, or laziness. It’s like a marriage. Without choosing everyday to love, honor, and care for each other, you can start to drift away. It starts small, Obligations with work or the home or the kids become tasks that are easier to focus on and control rather that dealing with what’s not being talked about.

So, how do we revive passion? How do we stay true, honest, vulnerable, and sincere? How do we maintain authentic relationships?

It takes a lot of risk and it takes a lot of faith. Faith that God is involved no matter what we think! We may not always believe it, but he is always with us. And he’s using everything to heal us and make us more like him. It also takes our willingness to risk it all with each other. We need to risk being ourselves—OUR TRUE SELVES— and risk being accepted completely as we are. Sometimes that means letting people care for us, serve us, and know us right in the middle of our mess! We don’t need to be perfect; we just need to be willing.

Re: Lithuania

Hi, Grace! It is so good to hear from you! You are very good at email. I am glad you got 100% on your book report. You are so smart, that I knew you'd do well. That is awesome! I am having a good trip to Lithuania. I am going to teach at their church service tonight. They have church on Wednesday nights. I will be with the orphans on Sunday, and I will tell them more about Jesus. I am also having a bit of a bad trip, only because I am missing you so much. I love spending time with you, and it is hard to be away. I will be home in less than a week, now, so be brave. Please be a big girl and help Mama. Hug your brother and sister for me too. I know it is hard for them to have me away. I am so proud of you, and I love you more than you'll ever know. You are my joy, Grace, and I can't wait to see you again. I have to go, but I will write to you soon. I love you! Papa xoxoxoxoxo

Lithuania

hi,papa! it`s me grace.I wanted to know how you were doing in lithuania.I miss you so much , school is doing well and I got a 100% on my book report and we had snow today right when we woke up. are you having a bad trip? are you with the orphans yet? well if you are please bring jesus into there hearts.jesus wants more children you know so... please email me back(I miisss yoouuu so much) love, #grace#

J'ever notice?

Ty Pennington & Nate Ashmead are one & the same. I truly think they were separated at birth. I'm sitting with my kids watching an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition and I'm captivated by the freakish demonstration of similarities.

Life Coach

The other night I was watching one of my fav reality shows on Bravo (yes, I'm a junkie) and during the show, they had the main person meet with a Life Coach to help her figure out who she really is and what she really wants from this "process." I was suddenly captured by the idea that here in the USofA we are so aware of our rights and our individuality and yet we can't decide what we want and we have no concept of our true selves. We're so clueless of our disconnection. What irony: I want what I want when I want it and to be the first to have it yet I don't know what it is... I need somebody to tell me. I hope this doesn't offend anyone who subscribes to this notion of using a Life Coach -- I guess it's kind of like secular spiritual direction -- I was just intrigued.

Paradise

Got here last night around 7:00pm... Not sure if we're ever leaving :)

Hope that's not a problem...

www.theshalomhouse.org

Found it on ebay

My friend Brig sent me this link not so much for the items being sold on ebay but rather the amazing explanation of why this mom needs to get rid of said items. If you've ever been to the grocery store w/ children in tow as a solo parent/guardian/babysitter, you will truly empathize!

PLEASE READ - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675

My nephews

As most of you don't know, I have an older sister, Lupe, who lives quite the amazing lifestyle. Part of that includes spending her summers with her family at their beach house in an exclusive little community located in the panhandle of Florida known as Seaside. Below is a link to the feature film my 13 year old nephew, Eric, wrote, filmed, & directed this summer while at their second home. My nephew, Jay, was allowed a part in it as well.

Although I'm not very close to my family, I am proud and in awe of my nephew's creativity. Make note of his name; it'll probably famous one day.

http://web.mac.com/eichtolu

What did they just say?

I just witnessed a commercial where a group of middle aged guys are jammin out, crankin the blues at the local pub singing a tune which should be a swank little version of Elvis' Viva Las Vegas but instead I hear, VIVA VIAGRA!

You would have thought it was a SNL skit. It actually would have been more palpable if Will Farrell was in it.

Truly disturbing.

Judgement

I despise when I feel I'm being judged. Aside from the obvious reasons... it really causes me to second guess and criticize myself in true OCD fashion. And I'm just not sure that's healthy. It always whammies me in a way that brings me back to that little chubby girl who was just a little too loud, a little too silly, a little too odd (frankly) for appropriate neighbors to allow in their house to play with their little darlings. So then I question and scrutinize every action and word and dwell in the land of regret and "dammit, why couldn't I have..."

I wonder if men go thru this...

I wonder if anyone other than a melodramatic hag as myself goes thru this...

a view on success

Success, I've learned, has little to do with the performance of God's will. Sometimes we fail because of our own stupidity or shortsightedness, and we must learn lessons from our own mistakes. Sometimes we fail because of someone else's failure, or because there was too much rain or too little rain. In these cases, there are no corrective lessons to be learned.

Success is not an automatic consequence of obedience. "A righteous man falls seven times and rises again" (Proverbs 24:16). Saint and sinner alike must take their lumps and go on to the next risk. But for the believer there is one guarantee. We have a dependable God who made a trustworthy commitment that no matter what happens -- success or failure -- he will use it for ultimate good.

Robert D. Lupton, THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM: CELEBRATING THE GOSPEL IN URBAN AMERICA

Full Time Ministry

Bill's officially full time starting tomorrow w/ the church. What a trip. On paper, we totally look like crap & yet, we feel now's the time. We're going to be stretched betond belief over the next few months as God takes us to a deeper level of faith & trust. Keep us in prayer...

Contentment

Honestly, I don't know what my problem is. I am rarely content. I think in almost every circumstance I could find something else that could be tweeked and then made "perfect." I seriously don't know what my problem is. My thing right now is absolute dissatisfaction with my house. I'm sick of it and I want to move. No particular reason. I just think that somewhere else would be better.

I sometimes wonder what is it about my past that makes me so critical. And if it's just part of my personality, how annoying that God used those ingredients in my recipe!

BTW

Anyone hear about a group in Hong Kong trying to label the bible as "indecent"? If this movement is successful, all bibles will need to be labled with a warning which states it is inappropriate for children and only adults 18 and older will be able to purchase it.

Read more here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272955,00.html

Mmmm . . .

I should blog but there's not much to blog about. So, I just decided to change the layout.

go Alanis, go Alanis, go, go, go Alanis

So Alanis Morrisette has come out with a "remake" of the Black Eyed Peas, My Humps. I have to admit I am a big fan of hers and see Jagged Little Pill as necessary to complete a true ecletic CD collection. I think her music is extremely expressive, empowering, and truly feminine -- the good, the bad, & the ugly. Aside from all that, she makes an interesting statement with this video. As according to the Chicago Tribune:


The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps," though a huge smash, was widely mocked for its vapid, suggestive lyrics. (Sample: "The boys they wanna sex me, they always standing next to me, always dancing next to me, tryin' a feel my hump, hump.") The video, featuring Fergie, the group's lead singer, was, if possible, even tawdrier. Full of non-stop teasing and thrusting, it's the kind of hip-hop booty porn that would make great torture material for Muslim prisoners at our Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Dressing herself Fergie-style, with baubles and bling, surrounded by black-clad male dancers, Morissette retained the original's visual sluttiness but replaced the Peas' thumping rhythm track with a pensive solo piano. By removing the intoxicating bass line and clearly enunciating the crass lyrics, she gave the song's sexpot swagger a new tone of sadness and desperation while simultaneously parodying her own artistic tendencies toward self-absorbed angst.


Here are the links to both videos. Curious as to what you think.

Black Eyed Peas version, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj9swNR5-lY

Alanis Morisette's version, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g

Amazing Grace

Headed to Chicago tonight for Grace's bday which officially is tomorrow. We'll be getting her first American Girl doll, hanging with friends, doing lots of other girly things... It's so crazy that my eldest is 8. I mean she came out weighing 8lbs and now she's 8.

(Holy crap does time fly.)

Blessings to you my first born child

the one we waited so long for

the one we cried so much for

the one that changed all that was real

the one that still forces me to be

so much more

GH2

I'm in hell. It's bad enough God humorously chose a soulmate for me that actually listened to, bought the cassettes of, and still knows all the lyrics to every crappy 80s hair-band song that ever existed -- I was a new wave punk girl myself (as if there were any doubt) -- BUT now, thanks to some garage band geeks from wherever the hell New Jersey who finally focused all that retarded air guitar energy into actually creating a video game, I'm stuck listening to Warrent every morning, noon, & night! A CURSE UPON YOU GUITAR HERO FREAKS!!!


"Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me" Psalm 27:7

e.e. cummings - i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)