Birthday Weekend continued...

I want to draw your attention to the girl behind me in this picture. The Six Flags people let us in and everyone is scrambling to get to the horse they want. I wanted this grey one, because I love grey horses! So naturally, Andy goes to the brown one beside it, and as he's climbing up the horse, this little girl jumps up onto the horse out of nowhere! Andy of course gets down and goes to the horse on the other side of me. We thought this was hilarious and somewhat awkward for the rest of the ride. She didn't seem to think anything of it...

By 8:00 we could hardly move. On our way out of the park we took a quick picture with Elmer Fudd. Exhausted, aching, and on the verge of heat stroke, we called it a day. We ended up doing Mr. Freeze three times, and I think it was my favorite ride. Andy's favorite was the Titan, but we also had a lot of fun on Superman. It was a day full of memories!

It is tradition for my mom to call me at 8:45 a.m. on my birthday. That's the time I was born. So this morning, I woke up to my phone ringing, and my mom's voice on the other end. Then I tried on my birthday presents from Andy. He got me these TCU nike shorts (I could wear them every day) and polka dot wellies for our trip to Costa Rica. My mother-in-law said it will be raining anywhere from 1-12 hours a day, so we thought I'd need some of these.

My cousin Michelle is coming home after spending two years in Dar es Salam, Tanzania. Andy and I have been using her second bedroom furniture, and needed to get it back to her in preparation of her coming home. My brother was so great- he rented a trailer and brought me some of my furniture from when I was a kid and took away Michelle's furniture for us. We also go to grab some lunch on my birthday! The last time we actually saw each other on my actual birthday was when I turned 19, so it was a real treat! Our birthdays are only 5 days apart, so I will be wishing him a happy 23rd in no time. We went to Fuzzy's and I'm ready to boycott them all over again...intestinal disagreement.

My friends, and the leaders of our Village Home Group, Chris and Jen, came over to wish me a happy birthday. They are so sweet! It was a fun surprise to get to see them and put the cherry on my sundae! What a great birthday weekend- I'm 26 now!

My Birthday Weekend!

I had a great weekend celebrating my 26th birthday with friends and family! This past week, my friend Sawyer took me out to lunch at Lily's on Magnolia (which I've been wanting to try for a very long time)! There I had the best burger of my life!! It was a 1/2 pounder with gorgonzola dressing, bacon, and tomato. It was delicious!

Friday night Andy and I went to Central Market on the strict policy: "If you want it, grab it!" Yum! We left with most of the things you see above: bread, our favorite cheese, crab cake, apples, kiwi, oranges, wine, peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies, etc. We rented Australia from the red box, made a picnic on the floor, and enjoyed!

While we were at Central Market, we made trail mix for our trip to Six Flags! Andy picked one of the pre-made trail mixes, but I wanted to make my own. It included peanuts, sunflower seeds, pecan pieces, pistachios, raisins, and vanilla almond granola. I would have liked to also include m&ms and pretzels, but I couldn't find them, plus the chocolate would have melted. Anyway, this is us at the entrance to Six Flags!

When we first arrived we headed strait for Mr. Freeze, found no line, and took front row seats. It was a blast! 45 seconds later we headed right back in line for another go. In the first three hours of the day we hit 1/2 of the park. Then two things happened all at once: it became unbearably hot and all the rides had hour long waits. This is a picture of Andy in line for some lemonade. We bought one of the souvenir bottles so you can get free refills. We probably spent over one entire hour in line for drinks- at one point I thought I was melting.

We stopped to get on the carousel simply because my feet ached and it was in the shade. Notice our shimmering faces. While I took this picture Andy informed me that I had the biggest pit stains (or as my friend Chris calls them, "puddles,") he's ever seen. It was true. I can't deny it.

My new camera!

I've recently gotten a new digital camera for my birthday. I love it! I mentioned before that I planted some hibiscus in front of the house. I had a new art project all planned out. I was going to take a picture of the flower blooming and then dying. The blooms only last a day, so I planned a day when I would be home the entire time. I set my watch to go off every hour, when I would go outside and take a new shot of the flower. This is a project I will never complete. Since that day, I have discovered that hibiscus only bloom at night. I'm just not that dedicated. Nonetheless, here are a few of the pictures I got of the bud (which remained a bud every hour of the day).

I thought I should also update on my reading. I know I have three books listed, and it's a little deceiving. I have OCD tendencies. I'm waiting to read Feminine Appeal until my mom can get a copy, because we plan to read it together. I have read the first few chapters of The Goose Girl but haven't been hooked yet. I plan on The Brothers Karamazov taking a few years to complete, though I've set a tentative deadline for this Christmas. It took me four years to read Crime and Punishment, another book by Fyodor Dostoevsky. One thing I learned in the last book: draw a character tree as you go. The Russian names are so confusing, and each character is called a number of different names by different people. The edition that I am reading has a list of characters and a brief description, so I have made a character web on the inside cover of the book and have read about 30 pages. It's wonderful so far! Here's where things get a little obsessive. I went with my HG to dinner and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince this last Friday! It was my favorite movie in the HP series so far, but it was also my favorite book. All day Saturday I kept trying to think of the things that were left out- all the little details. I found myself forgetting. Unacceptable. So, though I've read it three times before, I decided Sunday afternoon that I should reread it again. When I finished it on Tuesday, I decided I needed to go ahead and read book seven as well. I finished it Wednesday night. Whew...now that that's over, I'm back to my normal reading, but you won't see a post for a while, because I'm attempting to tackle The Brothers Karamazov. If I can actually do it by Christmas, I just might attempt the improbable: Les Miserables.

One thing I like more than having a dog, is having two!

Meet Ella Underwood, or as I affectionately call her, "Miss Ella." Our friends, Chad and Sarabeth, took their sweet boy Owen B to California for Sarabeth's brother's wedding. Andy and I are the lucky people who got to take care of Miss Ella while they were gone. Isn't she beautiful?

We knew Berkley was going to love having Ella around for a few reasons. 1: Berkley is in love with Miss Ella. 2: Berkley thinks I am the most boring person in the world to spend all day with, being that I'm usually reading which is very dull for him. He must resort to staring out the window of our bedroom, wishing he had a more interesting Mommy.

However, I was looking forward to Ella's stay as well. See, in the world of dogs, girls rule. So aside from being the dominant one of the two, Ella is also older, bigger, and stronger than Berkley. She was going to be my puppysitter! (She's also very well behaved in the house...)

Andy warned me that Berkley was also excited for Ella to come because he'd want to get some action. I assured him he couldn't be more mistaken. Ella and Berkley were both "fixed" at an early age to assure that nothing of the sort would ever happen. Berkley proved me wrong within the first five minutes. By the end of the day, I was so tired of yelling, "Berkley, get off! Get off of her!" that I resorted to separating them by the butler door. I've now learned that some natural instincts are irrepressible. (This really only lasted the first day. After that, he realized it was not socially acceptable. Berkley has such manners.)

Sometimes, I would want to walk around without having two shadows. If Berkley was feeling calm enough to control himself, I would put both dogs in the back half of the house. This is how they would spend the rest of the time. Ella would stare at me, and Berkley would stare at Ella.

Ella is in love with the tennis ball. We took frequent trips to the dog park while she was with us. She has a one track mind when the tennis ball is out. We played fetch with her until she refused to move.

It was a good workout for Berkley too. Ella is in love with the tennis ball, Berkley is in love with Ella. We would throw the ball, Ella would chase after it, and Berkley would chase after her. It was wonderful! When we got home, Ella would zonk out on the floor, and Berkley would stand over her and lick her face until we made him stop. Then he'd lick her feet until we made him stop. Then he would decide to take a nap as close as he could get to her. She was very patient with him. :)

I just thought this was a cute picture. Look at Berkley's tongue!

Hydrate or die. Some of you will remember the motto.

I have always wanted two dogs, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to see what it would really be like. Here are my conclusions about the pros and cons.

Cons: 1. Everything costs double: vet bills, food, grooming, bones, etc. 2. It's harder to take them with you places, especially if you're by yourself. 3. Finding people who are willing to take care of your petS when you go out of town. Two is asking a lot more than one.

Pros: 1. They entertain each other, leaving you some time to yourself. 2. I found that talking to two non-responsive beings is much better than talking to one. 3. Better photo opportunities. 4. When you've got as much hair as Berkley, a little more doesn't make much of a difference. 5. When you go walking, you feel like you're driving a sleigh. (I tried to get a picture of this, but we always took walks first thing in the morning, and Andy was at work. It's hard to take candids by yourself.) 6. Leaving them at home is guilt-free!

So, don't just get a dog. Get two!

This Momentary Marriage by John Piper

John Piper always has a way of telling me something so that I cannot argue with him. And I also can't get angry with him. It's one of the reasons I love reading his books, this one included...

After being married to Noel for forty years, Piper decided to write this book. In it, he explains that the primary purpose of marriage is to showcase God's covenant-keeping love with his people, his bride, the church: "Marriage is not mainly about being or staying in love. It's mainly about telling the truth with our lives. It's about portraying something true about Jesus Christ and the way he relates to his people. It is about showing in real life the glory of the gospel. Jesus died for sinners. He forged a covenant in the white-hot heat of his suffering in our place. He made an imperfect bride his own with the price of his blood and covered her with the garments of his own righteousness. He said, "I am with you...to the end of the age...I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Matt. 28:20; Heb. 13:5). Marriage is meant by God to put that gospel reality on display in the world. That is why we are married. That is why all married people are married, even when they don't know and embrace this gospel" (26).

He then goes on to talk about forgiving and forbearing your spouse. The greatest lesson I learned here was this: "The Lord "bears with" us every day as we fall short of his will. Indeed, the distance between what Christ expects of us and what we achieve is infinitely greater than the distance between what we expect of our spouse and what he or she achieves. Christ always forgives more and endures more than we do. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Bear with as he bears with you. This holds true whether you are married to a believer or an unbeliever. Let the measure of God's grace to you in the cross of Christ be the measure of your grace to your spouse. And if you are married to a believer, you can add this: As the Lord counts you righteous in Christ, though you are not righteous in actual behavior and attitude, so count your spouse righteous in Christ, though he or she is not righteous...Marriage is meant to be a unique matrix for this display of God's grace. This is what marriage is for ultimately- the display of Christ's covenant-keeping grace" (46 - 47).

After that, Piper talks about the biblical responsibility of headship for every husband and the biblical responsibility of submission for every wife. He talks about the calling of some to a life of singleness. He talks about the divorced. He talks about the secondary purpose of marriage: to raise children to become disciples of Christ. He mostly talks about how the family of believers supersedes kinship: "Man-wife-children families are temporary blessings for this age. In the age to come, they will not exist (Matt. 22:23-30). But the church will exist as a family forever" (106).

There were no new miraculous revelations in this book, but it served as a reminder of the purpose of God in this life. The display of God's character in order to spread his saving gospel of grace is the purpose of my life. So as a teacher I am called to show my kids who God is through my job. And as a wife, I am to show God's never ending covenant with his people through my never ending covenant with my husband.

So...single, married, divorced: read it. Let it be a reminder to you too of your purpose in this life.

Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse

I love this author's writing! This is my second book of hers to read, and it was good. It is the story of a little Jewish girl who attempts to escape to America at the beginning of WW1. It is a series of letters she writes to her cousin, Tovah, who because of her wealth, was able to stay in Russia. At twelve years old, this little girl survives the harassment of Russian soldiers, being separated from her family, suffering illness after illness, with strength and an irrepressible hope for the future. Reading level: 4.2

Like I said, this book is good, but...it's nothing compared to her other book, Out of the Dust. Every person in the world needs to read that book. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. So, though it's a little rude to ignore the above book, I'm going to instead recommend the following (what I deem as one of the best pieces of young adult literature out there):

It is written in free verse. It's so raw and creative. The story, as well as the writing, will take your breath away.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I got the desire to read this from Tim Keller's book The Reason for God. He had a quote in it, and I was so taken in by it that I knew I must read this book. I had thought it was just some scary classic. It was so much more!

This is a quick read- a little over 100 pages and I read it in two short sittings. In the last chapter I have scrawled notes all along the margins. So many times as I was reading I felt such familiarity with the transition back and forth from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The battle of good and evil (or my sin nature and my new nature in the Spirit) within me was encompassed in this book. I should never desire to separate the two, as the book shows, because I would die of shame for what the evil in me would heartily accomplish. Thanks be to God who restores all that my sin has broken!

Read it- you will love it.

Happy Birthday Andy

Again, apologies that I don't have pictures for this, but we have one broken digital camera and one working (but non-digital) camera.

Andy turned 26 on Sunday! All weekend we did whatever Andy wanted. We started celebrating on Friday: Andy came home early from work and we headed straight to Golfsmith, where he got to purchase new golf clubs! He has been waiting for this day for a long time! Everyone pooled together and he was able to get the very set he's had his eye on: Callaway X20s. We went to Central Market, picked up some crab cakes, our favorite block of cheese, meat, baguette slices, and a bottle of wine. We added some grapes and strawberries, and our favorite date night meal was complete! We set this delicious spread all over the coffee table and feasted while we watched The Incredibles.

Saturday morning we were up early and heading to Leonard Golf Links, our favorite driving range to try out those new clubs. We stopped at Panera for breakfast and swung by the house to pick up Berkley and take him to the Kimbell's lawn. This is Berkley's favorite place to go. As soon as he's off the leash he makes a mad dash for the water fountain. He spent the entire time splashing around in the fountain, chasing after his wubba kong, and having the time of his life. We all got home completely worn out, spending the rest of the afternoon snoozing on the couch.

That evening we went to our friends Jimmy and Waverlee's house. They just finished building a house out in Aledo, so we got to see the place- it's beautiful! We spent a great evening with friends, delicious food (Jimmy, those bacon wrapped stuffed jalapeno peppers were to die for!) and fireworks.

Sunday morning we made it in at the Village and heard Matt give a fabulous talk on Luke 19.11-44. Every Christian needs to hear this message- it was terrifying and assuring at the same time. Click here to hear this great teaching: http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/sermons On our way home we ate lunch at Red Cactus (one of our favorite places to eat that is now open on Sundays!) We wanted to walk around TCU and see all the new buildings, so we picked Berkley up and took him with us. We stayed in this huge lawn and threw the frisbee until Berkley refused to move and passed out on the grass. We walked around the new campus while it started to sprinkle and ended up at a tree swing. Andy pushed me on the swing for a while while Berkley just sprawled out on the grass watching. It was my favorite part of the entire day.

So, that was our Birthday/Fourth of July weekend. It was a wonderful time for our family. Happy Birthday Andy!

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

I was reading through some journal entries and came across one in 2007 that mentioned how I was reading this book. It has taken me a loooonnnngg time to read. The first reason is that each chapter is independent of the others. This book is actually a series of radio lectures CS Lewis gave during the last years of WWII and the immediate years after the war. Because each chapter covers a completely different topic and doesn't build on itself, I felt comfortable leaving it for long stretches of time without feeling like I had "forgotten something." The second reason is that I am drawn so strongly to fiction that it takes a good amount of discipline for me to continually stick to a non-fiction book. (As you can see now, discipline is something I am in great lack of.) Despite these things, this is a quick read. Each chapter feels new and the book itself is not long.

If you were to flip through the pages of my book, you would find notes scribbled in the margins. Questions, comments, worship springing up from what was read. This is a fabulous book, centered mostly on Christian Living. It covers topics such as (church) Membership, Why I'm Not a Pacifist, On Forgiveness, etc. to name a few.

My favorite chapter, titled the Inner Ring, was the most applicable chapter I have read in the last few years. It's relevance spreads across all cultures over all periods of time. It is the idea that there is an inner ring, a group of people on the inside, which you desire to be a part of. There exist a plethora of inner rings of all kinds. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this chapter:

"In the whole of your life as you now remember it, has the desire to be on the right side of that invisible line ever prompted you to any act or word on which, in the cold small hours of a wakeful night, you can look back with satisfaction? If so, your case is more fortunate than most" (150).

Unless you take measures to prevent it, this desire is going to be one of the chief motives of your life, from the first day on which you enter your profession until the day when you are too old to care. That will be the natural thing- the life that will come to you of its own accord. Any other kind of life, if you lead it, will be the result of conscious and continuous effort. If you do nothing about it, if you drift with the stream, you will in fact be an "inner ringer" (151-152).

Of all passions the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things" (154).

It is the very mark of a perverse desire that it seeks what is not to be had" (154).

P.S. If you click on any picture of any book on this blog, it will take you to the book on amazon.com where you will be able to get more information about it, and my hope is, purchase it. (You may also borrow any of these books from me if you don't want to buy them.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society

I came across this book about a year ago. Andy and I were spending an evening walking around downtown. I found myself, as always, in the children's section at Barnes and Noble. I saw the cover of this book, and it reminded me of The Royal Tenenbaums, one of my favorite movies. I read the back, then the first chapter, sitting on the floor against the bookshelves. I knew right away I would like this book.

This is Trenton Lee Stewart's first children's book. This is not a new book, and Stewart has already come out with two more books about the Mysterious Benedict Society, which I will now have to buy and read this summer. Through a series of tests, four extraordinary children are chosen by Mr. Benedict, to form a secret society. They are to be planted in an evil school as spies, and are to conquer the ringleader, Mr. Curtain. The action kept me interested, but also a love of the characters did. They all have two things in common which brought them together: they are all without parents, or a family of any kind. They are all exceptionally talented in different ways. Reynie, the main character, has an incredible ability to solve puzzles. He's the natural leader of the group. Sticky, has a photographic memory. He can read at an incredible speed, and remember every detail of anything he's read or heard, word for word. Kate is smart, but not incredibly so like Reynie and Sticky. Instead, she is as brave and adventurous as any child could be. She keeps a bucket attached to her by a belt. In it she keeps things like: rope, swiss army knife, a magnet, clear fishing line, a penlight, super strong glue, a slingshot and marbles, etc. Her physical aptitude and agility is her strength. Constance is the fourth member of the group. She is rude, obnoxious, and doesn't seem to have any special ability besides rhyming, though this perception of her is shattered at the end.

I like this book because it's very different. The writing style is dry for a children's book, which I liked. It's also very clever, and would be a difficult read for some young readers. It also has parts that could be scary (children being kidnapped, punishment at school, the dangers of being a secret spy, etc.). For those of you who are parents, I would recommend this book. I would say it's written at a 5th-6th grade level, though it says it's for students grades 5-9. I would let my child read it in 3rd or 4th grade if it was in their reading level. Boys would probably enjoy it a lot more than girls. Enjoy!

(By the way, I'm glad I have the "I'm a teacher, so I have to read kid's books," argument to fall back on, but if I'm honest with you, I love them. So, you adults who think you can't bring yourself to read a book for kids, that it won't be entertaining, etc. just need to try it. You may just find that you love them too. Happy reading!)

No pictures

So I was going to post a blog to tell you about the gardening adventures I've been having, but when I went outside to take some pictures of the beautiful hibiscuses, I realized our camera is broken. Something about the lens...

I have an SLR camera, but it's not digital, so I took pictures with those. However, it will be months before I finish the roll and get it developed. So... this blog is going pictureless for a while. I'm hoping to get a new digital camera for my birthday. We'll see ;)

Things I was going to post about and have pictures of:

*We celebrated our friend Emily's birthday at Dutch's two weeks ago. I had great pictures of the whole group, and some of the guys (who just found out Jesse has a Harley Davidson- I won't tell you how much Andy went on about how cool the bike was and how cool Jesse looked on the bike, and how cool it would be if he could have a bike to look cool on.) You can imagine how thrilling this conversation was... ;)

*My mom came into town last weekend and we got to spend lots of time together. She is my favorite shopping partner, so we did what I like to call "buying." (Andy knows I do not like to shop- who likes looking at a bunch of things you don't get? Buying is what I like to do.) Banana is always hit or miss for me, but this time it was a huge hit!! Thanks to my school for giving me a visa check card at the end of the year, I have some new clothes for next year!

*I dug up the purple flowers I had put in our flower beds a few months ago, replacing them with some bright pink begonias. I also pulled out our big pots that sit at the steps up to our house and filled them with bright pink hibiscus. The two flowers match so well, and I had such a great time planting them. I got up early Monday to do it, which was our one day of cooler weather (by cooler, I mean upper 80s). It was so fun, and Berkley loved sitting on the porch with some ice cubes for toys watching me work the land. What a joyful morning!