Can You Hear Them?

The angels. They are singing. Loudly. The Hallelujah Chorus. Why? I'll tell you why. This is no longer our house. It is done. The very nice people moved in today. I love them. We are now the proud owners of only one home. Yippee.

Of Sliders and Sox

Oh what a week! All kinds of fun and games. Things have been pretty stressful around here with the house not selling thing and business woes so some fun was just what we needed! Wednesday I blew off all my chores and went to meet Christine for breakfast and to shop ALL ALONE at The GAP. Oh the fun. Got some great deals for the kids for summer~gotta love those clearance racks. Now for the fun with pictures!

On Thursday night we met Dad and Judy at the Cell for a Sox game. They had the tix and parking passes so we needed to figure out a way to meet up. Dad called Tim's cell as we were coming up to the Dan Ryan and asked where we were. We told him and looked out our window and they were right behind us. Couldn't have planned that if we tried! Anyhoo, our tickets were for the JIM BEAM CLUB. The pic above is the view from the seats. Even better, it's all you can eat and drink! I think I slipped into a food coma somewhere around the 6th inning. The cherry on top? The Sox beat the Yankees! I hate the Yankees.

It was a week of firsts for Wyatt. We took the kids to White Castle for the very first time. Everybody but Greta loved it. She was very put off by the lack of cheese and small square burgers. Here is the Boy with his new favorite food~sliders. He scarfed almost a whole one all by himself.

Lastly, Caroline and I went to the Sox game on Sunday afternoon~great tix again courtesy of Dad. We were right by first base and had a great view of the game! Only downer was I believe we were seating in the Ligue Family section. Holy drunk dudes, Batman. Since we were right near the visiting dugout all the drunk folk from all over the park came down to heckle the Orioles. We got there a bit too late for autographs but Caroline did get to run the bases!

The view from our seats.

AJ Pierzynski with a bit of a lead.

All the kids running the bases. Caroline is there with the Schutt boys.

GO SOX! Caroline got really good at screaming all of her favorite players names. Over and over and over. She also truly believed that the Fan-O-Meter would go up if she shrieked loud enough.

We had passes to the Stadium Club so we went to share some nachos and hot chocolate before the game. I *thought* I saw Ron Kittle at one point so I ran around like a crazy woman trying to find him. I know I can stalk him out here but hey. He's my fave.

Here he is.

Creed~Not Just a Really Cool Band

The Apostles’ Creed

This creed is called the Apostles' Creed not because it was produced by the apostles themselves but because it contains a brief summary of their teachings. It sets forth their doctrine "in sublime simplicity, in unsurpassable brevity, in beautiful order, and with liturgical solemnity." In its present form it is dated no later than the fourth century. More than any other Christian creed, it may justly be called an ecumenical symbol of faith.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

_________________________________________________

I had a very interesting, very brief conversation the other day about the Apostle's Creed.

Person A, speaking of someone else~"They go to one of those super conservative Christian Reformed churches where they say stuff like the thing. You know the 'I believe in God' thing."

Me~"You mean the Apostle's Creed? 'I believe in God the Father. . .'?"

Person A~"Yeah, that thing. I think it's wrong that they put things like that ahead of the Bible."

Me (trying really hard not to call her/him an idiot)~"The creed is a centuries old statement of our shared Christian beliefs. Completely and totally based upon the Bible. I grew up in a very traditional CRC and no one there put it above the Bible."

Person B~"Yeah, I'm glad we don't do that kind of stuff here (my church). The only reason I have even heard of it is from that Rich Mullins song."

Me~"Um, we totally do. Our church's foundation is built upon that creed as a summary of what the gospel teaches. I wish we studied the foundations of our faith more."

Person B~"But people in THOSE churches just recite that stuff from ritual. It doesn't mean anything."

Me~"Perhaps some of them but not the majority. There are lots of people in our church who have no idea what they believe other than that they love Jesus."

Person A~"Isn't that all that matters?"

At this point we were interrupted by someone else and that's where the conversation ended. It has bothered me ever since. Have we really gotten so "back to basics" that loving Jesus is all that matters? "Love the Lord your God" is the very first commandment but do we not have a responsibility to understand what it is God did for us on the cross and how our lives should look in response to that gift? I love my church and it's heart for sharing grace with the people who have not found it yet, BUT I do miss the foundations of my youth. (Good grief, I sound like I'm 80.) I have often blamed my church for their "failure" to teach these things to the new believers who join our church. I really think the blame doesn't really rest on the church leadership completely. Could they do a better job at offering classes and preaching from Lord's Day 1? Absolutely. Can you force people who do not feel it's important to attend? Nope.

I think I have such a hard time understanding this because I am a researcher. I would never make a major change in my life without weeks of Googling and reading and talking to people "in the know." It floors me that people would make a decision to follow God and join a church without understanding what that church teaches or believes. I think that is one of the reasons why lots of churches today struggle with a revolving door membership. People's hearts are touched and they get all excited and join. They don't get involved or deepen their understanding and relationship. So after the novelty of the church thing wears off they are gone~onto the next new thing.

So my question for you is loving Jesus all that matters? My answer? Yes and no.

Who Says You Can't Say "LORD" on American Idol?!

OK. I confess. As soon as my Chris Daughtry was done singing we switched back the White Sox slaughter. (Gulp) I missed this. What do you think Simon thought of THAT?!

It's Baseball Season, Baby!

My White Sox started off the year yesterday with a bang. It was a great game which ended with Caroline in tears and Tim swearing at the TV. So we are officially tied with Detroit for last place. Ah, baseball has begun!

We also had a baseball related moment on Saturday night. Since we didn't go to Memphis for Spring Break like we usually do, Tim and I decided to go away for just a day~without the kiddies! We both have lost some weight since last spring and needed some pants that would not fall off our new slimmer hips. Part of the fun was going to be using our Lettuce Entertain You gift cards from Christmas for dinner at Maggiano's with friends from church. Long story short, they ended up having to cancel due to husband-wife non-communication (like that NEVER happens to us!) so we were looking for somewhere else for dinner. We discovered Holy Mackerel. Being fans of great seafood we figured we'd give it a try. It is connected to Harry Caray's which gave us the heebie-geebies but for good fish, we'd get over it. Well, turns out we were grossly under dressed for Holy Mackerel but not Harry Caray's so we took a table and opened our menus while surrounded by Ryne Sandburg's jersey and Mark Grace's glove. Ick. That was the first problem. Second issue, we were sitting in the laps of the people next to us. They don't separate the tables there, just sit you down so you are in essence sharing a table with strangers. Cub fan strangers. Third problem. Price. Dude, I think Dutchie is living high on the hog with this racket! So unless we were going to split a cup of minestrone we needed a plan. Tim is firm that he is not getting up and leaving. People would see him. Good grief, you would have thought Linda was sitting with him. So I whisper, "Follow me in 2 minutes." Watch how cool I am.

I reach into my purse and press the button to make my phone ring. I "answer" it and leave the table. While walking away, I call my sitter and starting saying things like, "What's wrong?" "Do you need us to come home?" while standing right by the hostess stand.

Hostess: "Oh! Is everything OK?"

Me: "Oh yes, but that's our sitter. We are going to need to leave. I'm so sorry."

Hostess: "Oh no problem! I'll tell your server you were called away."

Me: "Thanks so much!"

Tim slinks out through the bar and we make our escape. We are so smooth. We went to the Reel Club instead and had a fab dinner and we were able to use our gift cards. We will go back there soon! We will not be showing our faces at Harry Caray's again. We are a class act!