The Hoober Bloob Highway

OK, this is the actual 24 minute video. My kids just watched this, and I'm laughing but grossed out at the same time! I haven't actually seen this since I was a kid, so it was a fun stroll down Amnesia Lane. Finally, at the end, the singers start singing about the "Hoober Bloob Highway" and the "Creator" sends Bub off down this long, golden ramp from heaven to earth and shouts, "Happy birthday!" It is at this moment that I make the completely disgusting connection that the "hoober bloob highway" is actually the birth canal!!! Hahahahahaha! I will refrain from regaling you all with the off-color humor that followed... Unfortunately, I have a very odd sense of humor to which Sing4Joy can attest. (Just ask her about which part of the body of Christ I am...lol)

So without further adieu, I give you... The Hoober Bloob Highway!


Online Videos by Veoh.com

It's All About MeMe!

Found this over at Halfmoon Girl's page and thought it looked like fun. Here are the rules of this MeMe:

1. For each letter of your name, write a word that describes you.
2. For each letter of your name, write a word that describes GOD.
3. For each letter of your name, write the name of a character in a movie you like.
4. For each letter of your name, write the name of a song that is fitting for your life somehow.

Here goes!

Words that describe me:

K inda quirky
I mpatient
M usically inclined

Words that describe God:

K ing of all creation
I n control of everything in our lives
M adly in love with each of us

Movie characters I like:

K ing Louie from "The Jungle Book"
I nman from "Cold Mountain"
M rs. Threadgoode from "Fried Green Tomatoes"

Songs fitting for my life:

K illing Me Softly by the Fugees
I n You by MercyMe
M ight Be Today by Danny Donnelly

Your turn now!

Webgem of the Week: "Tears of the Saints"

Let me just say, I heart Leeland. What an amazing CC band! (read: contemporary Christian) They have such a fresh, musically innovative way of spreading the Gospel message of love and forgiveness. This is one of my favorite songs of theirs, beat out by, "Carried to the Table," a song in reference to Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan and grandson of Saul, who is brought into a place of honor in King David's household, but that is a WHOLE other blog! (And quite possibly my devotion at Chicas '08, but I digress...)

Anyhoo, I hope this will bless everyone who watches the video and stirs up in us a few things:

1) The desire to serve the homeless in our country; and,

2) The desire to minister to the spiritually homeless in our own neighborhoods, churches, and families.

When you listen to the song, you immediately have images in your mind quite similar to what you see in the video; however, I think there's a whole other side to it that is even more unpleasant to the palate, and that is: how many of these "lost" and "crippled" are there walking around well-dressed, sitting next to us at church, working down the hall from us, driving nice cars and living in suburban homes? When is the last time any of us extended a truly listening ear to someone who felt alone in a crowd of friends because of something they were going through in life? I know I have felt like one of those people over the last 2 1/2 years. Just because someone is a Christian, calls themselves a Christian, or attends church regularly doesn't mean that they are not in need of someone to be the hands of Christ reaching out to them, even if their need is unspoken. When is the last time we quit focusing on being THE person who leads some "poor, lost soul" into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and just focused instead on being examples of love and grace, stepping back to watch God do wonderful things that might or might not involve our interference?

May we be that light of love to the world for Christ. Amen.

Carpal Tunnel Lawnmower

Mowing a lawn isn't supposed to hurt this bad. I'm only 31 -- this is as healthy and fit as I'll ever be!!

I have spent the better part of the last week "springifying" my yard and garden. I have worked like a man and weeded, hauled soil and compost, mowed, and am getting ready to plant my garden and fertilize my yard. Rather than basking in the soft glow of a Central Texas sunset with a co'beer in one hand, looking out as the successful master of my domain, I feel like I've got arthritis already!

I'm actually quite proud of myself. I have prepared my soil and selected my plants in preparation to enjoy more homemade salsa and fresh herbs for my ventures into Italian cooking. My garden yielded a great harvest last year, so here's hoping my green thumb hasn't turned gangrenous and rotted off yet.

As for the lawn, it's been mown and mulched and after tomorrow, will be properly fertilized. I have this sickening obsession with having the most awesome yard in the neighborhood. The main reasons why I care are twofold:

1) There are several widows and single women of all ages living on my street. 100% of them, except for yours truly, has a lawn service taking care of their lawn. We all have sprinkler systems, so they basically have lawns that survive (I won't really say thrive) with little to no interaction on their part. I take pride in the fact that I do all of it myself with no assistance and no childcare. It's just a part of being a homeowner, and I take massive satisfaction and pride in knowing I'm not only doing it, but doing it well.

2) The majority of lawns that are maintained by the owners are done by the man living there, and of course, they all seem to know what they're doing, and their lawns are always green, mown, and look great. I've declared an unofficial war on the men -- I want to have a lawn that even the guys are envious of and even would assume that a man is taking care of. Take that!

Let me take a minute to throw something spiritual in here: one of the biggest struggles with sin that I have is with pride. I am uber-competetive, to a fault, and oftentimes my pride is what fuels this characteristic. I have never before taken the time to properly care for my lawn, so I'm trying to use my competetive nature as motivation to be more consistent without letting pride gain a foothold here. Isn't it irritating when the Holy Spirit gets you all convicted over yard work?!?

I had to get all of my outdoorsy responsibilities checked off my list before this weekend, as I enter my third semester of Parish Lay Ministry Academy. To figure out just what the heck I'm talking about, take a peek. I am officially halfway through my training and on the down-hill stretch. If I can just pin down my internship project and get that monster under way, I'll be money. (Boy, is THAT a whole other blog...)

Here's to spring and being a better steward of my little piece of dirt...

**The evil lawnmower picture was snarfed from a fellow blogspot site called Toon Club.

Prayer for Brae-Brae

I don't know who Brae-Brae is, but from the perspective of a child, I thought this was neat. I found this over at Hearth & Home:

God be in my head, and in my understanding.
God be in my eyes, and in my looking.
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking.
God be in my heart, and in my thinking.
God be at my end, and at my departing.

We All Need A Barnabas

Pop quiz -- who is Barnabas? Fine, smarty pants, you got that much right -- he did preach and prophesy with Paul. What else do you know about him??? Yeah, that's what I thought! You know about as much about him as most of us, which isn't much.

Today at my Women in Ministry luncheon, our devotion was about this mysterious man of ministry (HisGirl, that sounds like a character from one of your youth programs!). There are a smattering of passages in Scripture which show Barnabas in action, and he is actually someone worth taking notice of from time to time.

My favorite passage that we looked at was Acts 4:32-36. Specifically, he debuts in v. 36. Barnabas' given name was actually Joseph (gee, what a rare name, right?). We also know that he was a Levite (Sing4Joy, do you think he was a cohen?!?) who selflessly sold a field and gave the proceeds to the apostles to be distributed amongst the needy. That's STILL not what I love about Barnabas. Here it is: his name means, "Son of Encouragement." Wow! I am really into names and their meanings, and I love this little factoid about him. During the devotion, we read further passages from Acts that highlighted Barnabas doing just that, being an encourager for Saul/Paul.

We were then asked to consider who has been a Barnabas to us and what their encouragement has done for us. Futhermore, we were asked to consider who might consider us a Barnabas. I had two thoughts on this:

1) I have lots of people that I call acquaintances, even many people I call friends, but a very small group of "inner circle" friends that function as Barnabases to me. (Is the plural of Barnabas "Barnabii?" I just don't know...lol) Anyhoo, I could list three off the top of my head, but the first one that always, without fail, springs to mind is Sing4Joy. She is the embodiment of Galatians 6:2 for me: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Her spiritual gift is definitely that of nurturing and empathizing, and she has come alongside me, taken my yoke, and hitched up to help me with my burdens. She cannot take them away, but she sure makes going through life a lot easier. There are things that she has not experienced and can't understand from that perspective (thank God), but her encouraging, empathizing nature has been such a blessing that I can't imagine how the last 2 or 3 years of my life would have gone had God not put her in my path. Barnabases don't make life easier, they help us to refocus and get back on the horse. They allow us to be who we are, love us unconditionally, ask us questions, direct us back into Scripture, and we are better people for having them in our lives.

2) Oh dear God, don't tell me I'm a Barnabas to someone else! I feel like such a selfish pig almost 100% of the time! I feel like so many times I'm the textbook example of what not to do/say/feel, etc. Ask Sing4Joy about which part of the body of Christ I said I was the other day...HA HA! I know many people are very kind to tell me that I inspire them or they don't know if they could do what I'm doing, etc. I don't feel like they've seen the full picture of who I am somedays, but then again, I'm sure everyone feels like that to a certain extent. I can be a very negative person, but I always call that "realism." Is it realism or pessimism? I don't know. When I hold the yardstick up to myself by which I measure others, I just feel like I'm always coming up short. Despite how much I can be down on myself, what I took away from it was this: I need to be more conscious of the example I'm setting, because I just might be the only example of Christ someone sees in a day, and I sure don't want to mess that one up just because I was having (another) bad day.

So who is your Barnabas?

"A Town of War Widows"

FYI -- Just wanted everyone to know that the article is out! "Why, what article do you mean, GGG?" Oh, only the ARTICLE FOR WHICH I WAS INTERVIEWED BY GLAMOUR MAGAZINE! Coolio!!

By clicking on the title of this blog, you can read the article online, which is only part of the experience. The picture you see of all of us standing there is a full, two-page spread on p. 332. I am towards the back due to height discrimination. (Yeah, all of us tall girls always get crammed in the back where no one notices us...) It's a great picture. It was taken at the new Central Texas Veteran's Cemetery (is that the right name? Not sure...) on a blustery day in January, and we were all popsicles by the end of the shoot. Thank goodness I had done my research and watched several seasons of "America's Next Top Model" and knew how to "bring it" and "look fierce" even in subzero temperatures. (OK, it was really only about 50 degrees, but for a Texan w/ no coat on in the wind, that's a fair assessment of the weather...).

Turning the page, the picture at the top of the page reminds me of my reaction to being at this photo shoot. This cemetery is very peaceful, near FT Hood, but far enough off the beaten path to be quite serene. The rolling hills and excellent view of the central Texas landscape are quite fitting for soldiers of all ages and walks of life who have gone to that AA in the sky. (For all you non-military types, "AA" isn't what you think -- it means, "Assembly Area." That's a phrase Tom used just before he died.) Anyhoo, this cemetery has barely been open for 2 1/2 -- 3 years. I was instantly struck by how many graves there already are; it simply took my breath away. Then, as we all emerged out of our cars to await instructions from the crew, it further wrenched me as I looked at all of us and realized what it meant. For every woman there, there was a man who wasn't. They represented entire families who will walk around for the rest of their lives with this scar tissue on their hearts that will be like the remnants of a tattoo that's been removed: you can't see its details anymore, but you can see where it was, and the scar tissue may heal over time, but the outline of the tattoo is never completely gone whether or not you want it to be...

If you look down at the bottom of pp. 334-335, there are some pictures of our guys. There is a picture of Tom standing in water at the beach holding our son when he was 4 mo. old on our one and only family summer vacation to Destin, FL. He is right on the crack (how fitting! haha!!), top row, on the left of said crack. He would just die if he could see himself in a nationally circulated magazine w/ no shirt on! hahahaha!!!!!

While I wasn't mentioned by name, I did actually get my own paragraph, but it doesn't sound very good. My paragraph is the one that begins, "One widow, in her early thirties with two young kids..." The guy that wrote the article didn't accurately relate what I was trying to convey about how my faith has played into all of the events post-11/30. He says that I mention that my faith has allowed me to, more or less, gloss over stages in the grief process, which couldn't be further from the truth! I told him that my faith has helped me to navigate my grieving process more smoothly than some. I also said that I never really had that angry, "I hate God; it's all His fault," feeling. I also never felt the need to question why this happened; it was enough to know that God had a plan and that all things work for good for them that love God (Romans 8:28). To add a rotten cherry to this funky dessert, he paints a picture that everyone sitting there at the table is making faces at me or rolling their eyes or something. Didn't happen! What I told him in the interview was that some people, especially some at FT Polk, didn't buy what I was trying to tell them about how God was getting me through every day and so on. Now all that talk about the plastic surgery IS true; we sat there and talked about it for quite a while. Out of the 20+ women there, I would bet that at least 50% or more of us had breast implants. But that's a whole other blog!!!

It is a loooong article. For the most part of what I have skimmed, the guy who wrote the article did a pretty decent job. I think my part was a little botched, but then again I don't always say things the way I'm thinking them, so it's possible I wasn't a very good communicator. I was very disappointed that one girl got so much press time, but I won't say anything here that is negative. I'll just leave it at that. I do think, however, that I came away with the overall feeling that military widows are hung on their late husbands and can hardly move forward after their loss. They feel all this guilt, they drink a lot, they crave physical contact with men but are unwilling to date again because they feel it's too soon or they worry that others think it will be too soon. I have to say, I feel NONE of those things. I wonder if that makes me a terrible person, to be quite honest. On one hand, I consider myself one of the better adjusted of these people and am incredulous that everyone else hasn't grown a spine yet. On the other hand, I worry that my progression through my own grief journey is viewed as irreverent and like I never loved Tom. I certainly don't begrudge these women their own time to work through things. I do believe that sometimes people bog down and allow their new status to define who they are, and I find that to be massively unhealthy. As for myself, I know better than anyone besides God just what all I've been through, what I have sorted out, prayed about, sought guidance about, what things about which I cannot talk about to others for various reasons, what things will always break my heart regardless of passage of time, etc. I answer to God alone. Case closed.

So, for what it's worth, read the article and let me know what you think!