Family Night.... with Star Trek

If you are my niece Amanda, then you are WELL AWARE that the new Star Trek movie came out on DVD (BluRay!) on Tuesday. Of course, we couldn't watch it until I was not working, so that brought us to Thursday!! We were fortunate enough to have a few EXTRA family members over for our family fun night... Eli's mama and dad had an appointment, and we were happy to "babysit"... here he is having some banana while Uncle Ryan looks stuff up on the computer...

While they were waiting on my famous homemade pizza's to be done (my blog, they are famous!), Ben showed Papoo his new book on 100 Wonders of the World. I think he was impressed to hear that Papoo has actually seen most of them! I did think it was kind of funny that just about the only one he HADN'T seen, is in Israel... you know, where he LIVES 1/2 of the year! HA!

Tiny pizza for the little one!

Yes, Rochel... I did cut it up for him after taking the picture. Seriously, he stared at me like, "What am I supposed to do with this? I'm a BABY you know!!!!"

Might be incriminating myself with this picture and Eli might not come back, but if you are going to be here on Family Movie night, then it includes eating homemade pizza in the Living Room, watching a movie! He loved the flick, by the way.... who wouldn't? We all said several times that we wished Amanda was with us! She LOVES this movie!

And I will leave you with one last picture...

Little Miss showing off her prizes from Read-A-Thon! No trophies were given out this year, but she was quite pleased with her gift cards and ribbon!

... not so RANDOM forgiveness

If you are have spent ANY time "here" then you are aware of my fascination with things that are NOT so random. I really do seek them out, and make myself pay attention when they occur. For crying out loud, I changed the name of my blog BECAUSE of it... ha!

*warning... This is ANOTHER "running" story.... and yes, I STILL just stop while "running". I've decided to just embrace it.*

Anyways, another such incident (you know, RANDOM) occurred this week. It made me smile for a good 43 minutes, so I feel the need to share. Plus, I have decided to give up scrapbooking all together, and am just going to get my blog printed at the end of the year. This is something I don't want to forget. This story, not getting my blog printed.

It starts with me running. "Running". It has become a little more than exercise these days, and certainly more of an exercise in focussing on the fact that I CAN run. I know many people that are too sick to leave their home, let alone Run for Fun. Believe me, I am grateful, even when I am contemplating calling Ryan on my cell phone and begging him to come and get me!

ANYWAYS, I decided on Friday, that I would listen to a SERMON while I was out. I'll be honest, Ryan had put it on my ipod for me a good month ago... it was from a Sunday when I was working, and our church is kind enough to send us CD's of the sermon's since Ryan misses 1/2 of them each week doing the Children's program. Turns out, it was from September 13th.

This is the passage...

2 Corinthians 2:5-11 and it's about forgiveness... Which I immediately said to myself, "I don't have anyone to forgive..." and when our pastor, Lou, brought up the fact that YOU might be the one who caused something that needs to be forgiven, I decided that probably didn't apply either. HA! At least nothing came to mind... *Lets just say, if that's not true, feel free to leave a comment... I changed them to be moderated first, so I will call you, THEN delete your comment!!!*

So, I believe you get the picture that I am assuming this sermon "doesn't apply" but I figured, Lou's funny, I'll listen anyways. Plus, REALLY tired of my music.

At the start of the sermon, Lou prays this prayer...

"... You have ordained all the words that appear in scripture. But also by your Providence, within history, within time, You have allowed us as a congregation to be in THIS book, at THIS time, and in THESE verses on THIS day... and we are going to assume, Lord, that that is not an accident, but that you have something for us..." of course my ears perked up, he's speaking my language. I did chuckle a little, since I wasn't hearing it live.

It was a great sermon with some fun Beatles references (told you Lou is entertaining!)... then he brought up the fact that "sometimes we need to forgive that person who said those things that were so hurtful..." and how we hold onto our anger... "You know when you are driving in your car alone, and all of a sudden you are having imaginary conversations with someone who's not even there, and you're getting angrier and angrier while driving, and they aren't even THERE!" I nearly tripped. Seriously.

See, this week, someone I LOVE said something that hurt my feelings and rather than just blow it off as them having a bad day (I mean, Ryan DID point out to me that people don't usually TRY to hurt your feelings!!) I really struggled with it all week. I let it make me madder and madder... and it was just so stupid (me being that hurt, not them actually saying what they said...).

It occurred to me I needed to forgive, and probably ask for some forgiveness, too. Then I just couldn't stop thinking about that beginning prayer. How Lou said that God's providence brought this passage to us on this day, which was originally September 13th. I think he should have added in "and on November 13th when Jennifer gets around to listening, that's Your plan, too...". I just love the fact that God uses people to bring to us exactly what we need, when we need it, and usually without them realizing it. It just wasn't RANDOM that "I decided" to listen to that sermon on Friday morning. I love moments when I can see clearly. And nearly trip. Ironic!

... now, if we could just get Lou over for a little Beatles RockBand!

It's a good day...

Did you know that if you start this movie at PRECISELY 8:44.45pm, it will be 10:04pm when lightening strikes the clock tower in the movie? Precisely.

Can't wait to hear what everyone ELSE did to celebrate TODAY!

Seasons of change...

The Process of our Living Room... has another chapter. The bookcase we got from Ikea! Ryan put it together for me with relative ease:) Now I am in the process of adding treasures to it... I prefer not to have something out just because it's cute (although that happens a lot, too!), and so far the pictures on the top are really meaningful to me.

LOVE the picture on the top left "To everything there is a season" (I got it at Ross!!) I love Ecclesiastes 3, and the sweet reminder that while there is a time to weep, there is also a time to laugh! Isn't that encouraging? And I also love the fact that if you read FURTHER, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men..."... and also v14, which you can look up yourself, just for fun! This picture reminds me of all this, and mostly to DIG DEEPER, read FURTHER.

The picture on the far right is the Oregon Coast, which we all know was super special to all of us! LOVED the time I spent with our family there... we just made so many special memories.

The picture of Ben and Great Grandma Tuinstra. I think of so much when I look at it... Ben RELAXED for once! A reminder of a SWEET day with Grandma, where she remembered Ryan and that Ben and Carly were his kids ~ it was really precious. Grandma's hands, so visible, so loving... so often folded in prayer for US, daily in fact. The sweet little smile on Grandma's face... and how she wanted to hug Ben that day, and a reminder of how she hauled Carly up into her lap in the chair to snuggle her. And finally, a reminder of Where she is today. Where's she's wanted to be her whole life. I had the black and white printed for our stairwell, but decided I needed it to be much more visible to everyone.

So far, The Shelf is also holding our collection of scrapbooks, and Ryan's prized Peanuts Books collection (not on the shelves when I took the picture...) and a picture of Ben and Carly and Torrey at the beach this summer (who DOESN'T need to be reminded of the carefree days of summer and the relaxing beach and your best buds??!)

and a picture of Eli that Rochel just gave us. And Cassidy. HA!

Oh! And here's what we did this weekend!!!! We were relying on Mom's pictures, so I figured you might was well just check out Rochel's update!

Girl's Night Out... with Eli

I'm patiently waiting for Rochel to post Birthday Party Pictures so I can do a weekly update post.

While I wait... Ryan's parents came to visit this past weekend. Truth be told, they came for Eli's First birthday party, but we stole them to stay at our house. I came up with some excuse about Helping Rochel Out since she's packing. Ha! Silly girl fell for it! So, Ryan decided he wanted to take his Dad to see the Orlando Magic game (because they were playing the Piston's) for HIS birthday (Dad's, not Ryan's...) so the boys took off for Orlando Friday afternoon. That left The Girls! Well, and Eli, since he's somewhat attached to his mama. Anyways, Carly and I and Rochel, Eli and Mom did a little Christmas shopping... and had a little fun at JoAnn's, too! (which brought about the Quote for the week... see sidebar on left) But my favorite funny moment was Rochel showing us her new refrigerator at hhgregg. She hugged it. Yup, and while she was embracing it, the salesman came around the corner. Might have been even funnier hearing her try to EXPLAIN why she was hugging it. HA! It is a pretty nice icebox, I must say. We had a yummy dinner at the Macaroni Grill (mmmmmm), then went home to get the "Little Ones" to bed (that would be Carly and Eli). While sitting around my living room with The Girls was so fun and refreshing (you know, AFTER the kids were in bed!), my favorite part of the night was this:

Carly getting to hang out on Ben's bed/Grandma's bed, reading to her Grandma. It was really sweet... she was happy to "show off" how she raised ALL THAT MONEY for the Read-A-Thon!

Read-A-Thon

Carly's Read-A-Thon is over! She read 15 books/chapters during this past week, and was able to raise $100. THANKS to all her GENEROUS supporters! We will let you know if she wins that trophy!!

Shameless Solicitation

... well, since I'm NOT homeschooling, we have another fundraiser to solicit for... hopefully the last of the year.

Read Around the World. That's right, a Read-A-Thon. Now, Ben has decided NOT to participate ("I read anyways!!" So this makes NO SENSE to him...) so this one's for CARLY! Last year, she won a trophy for the Highest Donations Received in her classroom. All she had to say THIS year was, "I'm working for another trophy!" HA! You might be wondering WHY you never heard about this LAST year... well, her ONE and ONLY donation was $20 from her mother who felt very guilty for NOT encouraging her daughter in the Read-A-Thon by soliciting pledges from all her friends and family. Ironic, since her FATHER is a Librarian!

Here's how this works:

IF you choose to participate and help Carly get a trophy (I mean, help raise money for the school... ALL money collected goes RIGHT to the school, so this is a 100% profit fundraiser!!) then just email me what your preferences are. You can sponsor her for a certain amount per book read (and for Kindergarten to 2nd Graders, "one non-chapter book" or "one chapter" of a chapter book = one book) or give a flat one-time donation. Would you like a Guess at how many she'll read? MMmmmmmm, I'm going to ballpark it at 20.

That's all... EMAIL ME... you know, for CARLY!!!!