Jesus Camp

I saw "Jesus Camp" a couple of weeks ago and have many thoughts on it. It's getting late now, so I'll return to this post later. If you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it, as it is portrayed in a very non-biased way.

Check out the film's website:

Jesus Camp

Sneak peek at Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

From HPANA.com

Ella, Thanksgiving, Snow, etc.

Yep, it's high time I updated this thing! Thank you to Carrie, who reminded me to do so :)

Well, let's see...

This past Monday I started another job (I'm still at PBK!). I am now nannying for Ella Josephine, who was born on October 9th, putting her at 8 weeks old! Her parents are wonderful and Ella and I have lots of fun together. I'm currently nannying three days a week, 7:30am-5:30pm, but will go to full-time sometime in March. She's so tiny and smells so good. She's half Korean, so has a full head of dark hair, gorgeous eyes, and great skin. What a lucky little girl!! I love it when she is alert after feeding: her eyes get all wide and she stares and coos. Today it actually sounded like she growled at me, which was really funny. Ella is also a very good eater, and I love feeding her! Her mom is breastfeeding and therefore pumps while she's at work, so all I have to do is heat up bottles for Ella, preferably BEFORE she wakes up. I'm learning her routine more and should have it down pat after next week, I hope. Today she slept for a good two hours, which I was glad for. Poor little thing was really tired. I LOVE holding her and feeling her weight and warmth against me. She likes to fall asleep on my shoulder and snuggle into my neck. I'm in love with this little girl already, and I can only imagine how her parents feel!!

My Thanksgiving was good. Meagan and I went to the Thanksgiving service at church, which was really good. It was a small service, but nice and quiet as we listened to the rain beat against the windows. The only thing that was off about the service was that Pastor Dan roped off the entire left side, so we all had to sit on the right. It felt terribly unbalanced and irked me the entire time! Later on I told Dan that the feng shui was off, and he just laughed. He did make a note in his bulletin not to rope off one side next year! After the service, Meagan and I headed to Edmonds, where we caught the Edmonds/Kingston ferry to her aunt's house. We decided to walk onto the ferry and only pay 6.50, rather than drive on and pay about 28.00. We're sure glad we did, too, 'cause the wait for cars to drive onto the ferry was over two hours long. Aye! So we went to Meagan's aunt's house, where I met lots of her family, ate yummy food, and relaxed. It was nice to be out of Seattle, and taking the ferry always makes it feel like you've actually taken a real trip somewhere. Oh, and when we docked in Kingston we were greeted by bag pipers!

So all the rain we got earlier this month as since turned to SNOW. Snow in Seattle = BAD NEWS:
1. The City of Seattle owns a handful of snowplows
2. Seattle is comprised entirely of hills
3. NO ONE knows how to drive in snow, therefore schools are closed when an inch or less hits the ground

And it's been snowing since Sunday. I have to admit, it is actually pretty, especially since now so many houses of Christmas lights up and stuff. Queen Anne looked like a postcard Sunday night! I think the best part of this whole ordeal is that the Seahawks beat the Packers Monday night while playing on a football field that resembled more of a hockey rink! Crews kept having to shovel off the yard lines so the game could go on, and it took on average 8 hours to get home from Qwest Field because the buses stopped running! Oh, Seattle...
Here's the pic that graced the front page of yesterday's paper:



Go Hawks!!

Oh, and here's a cool picture of my friend Tara, who got married two months ago. I know Tara through Pottery Barn Kids, and she and I are becoming good friends. I played Scrabble (or "Scrabbish", as Tara called it) with her and her husband, Dan, last night. They're lots of fun and crack me up. Hooray for new friends!!

"Never build on a flood plain"

The title of this post is a quote from my high school geology teacher, Mr. Alexander. "Never build on a flood plain" was one of the most important things that he wanted us to remember from his class. (The other two being "Don't sleep on the toroweep" - one of the levels of the Grand Canyon, and "Granite rocks!" You gotta give the guy a lot of credit for getting 17 and 18yr olds excited about rocks)
Anyhow, I am reminded of Mr. A's class as I watch the news and read the Seattle Times. Western Washington is now way more than just soggy. The non-stop rain that began November 1st continues, and many areas of the state are experiencing extreme flooding. As of tonight, as least nine people have died in the flood and Coast Guard rescue divers have been called in on several occasions to air lift people from their homes. Entire houses have been swept away, either by raging rivers or land/mudslides. Thankfully, Seattle is comprised entirely of hills, so we have not been experiencing much flooding that I am aware of. We're all just really soggy and sleep really well at night with the percussive patters of rain on our rooftops.
If you think of it, please pray for our state and the people who are suffering because of this severe weather.

The Great Reversal

From Vaux Community, London

Walking with the crowds, carried along by the pressing forward. Each one eager to get ahead, but each one starting the same - born as a baby and from then on struggling towards meaning, power, and influence. Be someone, be remembered, make a big impression; leave some indelible mark in your three scores years and ten.

From birth, a struggle to find eternity, to burst through life with such dazzling intensity that everyone will remember forever. But walking the other way, picking out a route against the crowds, a solitary figure passes me, passes all of us, a quiet chaos in the crowd.

Christ, eternal, omniscient, creator, beyond time, source of wisdom, and beyond petty claims of influence...in very nature God, slips into reverse and walks back past us - away from kingship, away from power, away from influence, away from eternity, away from wisdom, toward infancy, calmly stepping into the body of a tiny child.

And even as this baby grows, figuring out how to control the body he himself designed, he still walks the other way, realizing that life cannot be found in the struggle for permanence, but in giving it up.

The great reversal subverts me. Tired of pressing forward, I realized I need to turn, for what I have been searching for has just walked past me the other way.

I have been contemplating this while working retail this holiday season (it's the holiday season for retail already!) I keep being reminded that the fact that Jesus came to earth in the form of a tiny, helpless baby and in the humblest of circumstances is more than enough for me at Christmas. It's more than enough that the Savior of the Universe became human and lived and breathed with us for 33 years before sacrificing himself on the Cross, for me and my sins. What else could we possibly need or desire?

Things I have done...

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends (I seriously have the most amazing friends)
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country (Oh Scotland...)44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over(and I'd do it again in a heartbeat)
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Brought to you from my friend Lisa :)