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!

Happy Ressurection Sunday!!

As all you old Faith folks know, Rev O taught us that it's Resurrection Sunday. Easter is a pagan holiday. :-)

We had a fun day~church was good, our friends with no local family either came over for dinner. Even though it snowed, it was a nice day!

FRIDAY FIVE

FIVE BEST 80'S TV CHARACTERS
1. Alex P Keaton
2. Alex P Keaton
3. Ricky Stratton
4. Becky Connor
5. Blair Warner

FIVE BEST THINGS AMELIA HAS SAID THIS WEEK
1. "Is this where Jesus roseded?"
2. "I need to see my poopies."
3. "OH NO GRETA! Here comes mommy!"
4. "I need to dress like a farmer's wife. Only boys are farmers. That's what my teacher said."
5. "I don't want to and you can't make me."

FIVE BEST THINGS TO EAT
1. Philly cheesesteak
2. Pizza
3. Fajitas
4. Chili's white chocolate molten cake
5. French fries

The Chef Has Returned

I posted a new recipe over on my other blog. I am going to try to post one a day til my recipe box is empty! Lofty goal. Check it out.

Cheez Whiz and Taxes

I have not fallen in a hole. I am not trapped under something heavy. I have not been sucked into the parallel universe known as Facebook~well, not totally. It is Ebay listing time! AND corporate tax time! My least favorite weeks of the years. Ick. Good news is I made oodles of $$ on my listings and taxes are off in the uber-capable hands of Bert the Wonder-CPA.

I got a call from my sis-in-law Cindy Lou Who (she HATES it when I call her that!) on Tuesday. Seems that one girl from their group dropped out of their trip to the Hearts At Home conference and did I want her ticket? Honestly, I was torn. While a weekend away sounded awesome, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to a Rah Rah Mom event with a group of women I had never met and who would probably be offended by my eye rolling. While I cannot gush that the conference was so awesome and I loved it and blah blah blah, I am glad I went. If you could cut through the cheese, there were some great things. We heard some speakers who cut through the cheese and reinforced the value of days spent wiping behinds and hiding in the pantry for a moment of peace. The biggest thing it challenged me to do was to spend more time with my kids. With 4 of them and running the trucking company and church and school activities, it gets really easy to say "Go play!". And now with the addition of Facebook to my life. . . The other great part of the weekend was I met Cindy group from her church. I was bit worried that they would be all like Cindy. I love my sister in law, she is truly a great mom and friend, BUT I don't know that she and I would have sought out a relationship if I wasn't married to her brother. We are very different people with very different opinions and reactions to things. Turns out, the girls were all really nice. They went out of their way to include me which I really appreciated. I specifically hit if off with 2 of the girls~Judy and Sara. Sara and I decided we were twins separated at birth. We liked the same things and often the same comments would come out of our mouths at the same time. It was neat to chat with her and hear that she was worried that I'd be just like Cindy. We had a good laugh over that one!

The weekend ended somewhat abruptly as Judy got a call that her 10 yr old son, Brandon, had been accidentally hit in the head with a golf club. They took him to the hospital and discovered a brain bleed. They sent him up to the larger hospital and did surgery Sunday morning. He is doing well but will probably be in PICU for a few days. Please keep Brandon in your prayers.

So this may be my last post for awhile. It's March Madness. Yee Haw! Go Hooisers!

Hello? It's ME you're looking for. . .

OK, time is short but I had to talk about this. Who saw AI last night?!?!? Oh my Lionel Richie. David Cook is my new favorite. I did mention he was a fave from his first audition but last night sealed it. Anyone who can make THE WORST SONG EVER into a cool tune deserves to place 3rd or 4th. Not win cuz then he'll sing some awful AI song like Taylor Hicks and we'll never hear from him again. Go David Cook.

Shameless Idol Worship

I love American Idol. I know, I'm a total geek. I realize it's cheesy and very possibly rigged, but I still love it. I have had my share of AI crushes over the years but only 2 have stood the test of time. My first one was this guy on Season 4. I shamelessly fell in love with Constantine. He was just so cool. Totally the kind of guy I would have dated in college if I was much cooler.

Then came Season 5 and I found a man to hold a guitar pick, er candle, to my Constantine. Chris Daughtry. Yumm-o. I loved every single thing he sang. Everything he did was SO COOL. Then they did his hometown interview and his wife looked JUST LIKE ME! She was not model-hotness. She was a cute average American woman. That was just the bees knees.

For those of you who don't know, last Sunday was the Big Bon Jovi Girls Nite. With the addition of my tag-a-long husband. Tim and 10 chicks in a limo. He was in his glory~girls who were forced to sit and listen to him talk! I loved Bon Jovi. They were awesome as usual. When we first got out tix last fall we had heard that BIG AND RICH were going to be the opening act. While I would have LOVED to see John and Big Kenny, I was over the moon when I heard Daughtry was the official opener. Purrr. . . . He was awesome.

So now I can not decide if Chris has actually de-throned Constantine but it's pretty dang close. This season? David Cook is probably my favorite guy singer but he's kinda dorky looking so we'll see. There is no hotness to touch Constantine. I think I'll convert to Greek.

**Thanks to Leenie for the great Daughtry pic**

Who Says You Can't Get Somethin' for Nothin'

Check this out. I am going to McDonald's for breakfast Thursday AND Friday! Meet ya there.

It Was Not Supposed To Happen

It happened. I have an affliction. One I swore would never happen to me. I am a good girl. I plan. I prepare. But this little thing b____ slapped me upside the head. I was watching an old episode of "Dharma and Greg" with Dharma taking care of her new baby brother. I have baby fever. My baby is huge. He is ready to leave home and take a wife. I need a new one. I think I'll go have a drink until this feeling passes.

Influenza

Get your flu shots. We didn't. Doc said it was a "hit or miss" year. Our insurance didn't cover it so we skipped it. That was dumb.

Fab Deal ALERT!

If you love J Crew~and what Calvin grad doesn't?~click here for a great deal! Error on their website and they are honoring the price til it's fixed!

Not a deal anymore! They were $5.25 last night with free shipping.

FRIDAY FIVE

Five Cutest Things About Wyatt
1. He sits up now.
2. He has 2 little teeth.
3. His expansive wardrobe. Who says boys are no fun to shop for?!?
4. The endearing way he yanks on my hair.
5. The 5 am giggling wake up call.

Five Reasons I Am Done with Winter
1. I hate wearing a coat.
2. Static-y hair.
3. My kids are inside ALL. DAY. LONG.
4. My car is gross.
5. My skin is gross.

Five Greatest Valentine's Day Songs
1. Love Stinks~J Geils Band
2. In Your Eyes~Peter Gabriel (The even-a-loser-can-get-a-girl song)
3. Makin' Love Out of Nothing At All~Air Supply
4. I Want Your S__~George Michael (Don't want words picked up on searches!)
5. With or Without You~U2

I Have Found My People

I was at my happiest in the 80's when argyle and monogrammed sweaters were all the rage. I lived in layered polos with the collars up, my sweater thrown jauntily over my shoulders and docksiders. I never embraced acid washed Guess jeans and IOU sweatshirts~I wore turtlenecks with college sweatshirts and pearls. Ah, those were the days. So imagine my unadulterated JOY when I entered the mall and found THESE for my little man.



And THESE for my big man.


And THESE for my girls.






And for me? Nothing. I still need to lose like 30 pounds in order to wear this~~and yes it IS that tiny!


I am SO thrilled to see preppy coming back in a big way this spring. I just adore it and probably always will. So what's one thing you'd LOVE to see come back. A whole look or just one piece you loved? The banana clip? Tight-rolled jeans?

Campaign Promises

We were driving home from Bible study this morning and listening to talk radio. They were discussing the new economic stimulus plan. Rush was talking about the senate version and said "We don't need more money for food stamps!" Greta pipes up from the back, "Yeah! We don't need more money for fruit snacks!" There you have it voters. If you elect Greta she will veto any bill that proposes more money for fruit snacks!

I Dare You

Go ahead. Tell me I don't have the cutest baby boy EVER.


OK, so he does look a little bit like Squiggy. But Squiggy was cute. In his own special way.




He is just yummy. And 6 whole months old. He's 18 pounds and finally learning how to sit up. Sort of.

Aim High

In typical mother-of-four fashion I neglected to post for Greta's 3rd birthday a few days back. Miss Boo hit the Big 3 with much fan fare in Hilton Head. She told me today she was "sad because for my birthday we did not have a cake and lots of peoples like my friend Olivia." (Gee, thanks Shawnie!) I then reminded her she had cake and lots of peoples in Hilton Head AND she got a bike which she could ride because it was warm in HH. She giggled and said, "Oh yeah. I forgot. So when do I get another cake and another lots of peoples?" When you turn 4.

Here is Miss Boo assuming her favorite position, learned by her dear Aunt Kim. She got very mad when I interrupted Dora for a photo op.

Greta has grand plans for life. When asked what she would like to be when she grows up she answered, "The lady who gives kids cheese at Stracks and a princess." Well, we figure she'll be successful as the Princess of the Kingdom of Butt Crack.

Happy Late Birthday Boo! We do love you!