[Inspired by a mention of needing the visit the Grand Canyon by PinkTea Letters]
Seoul
I have to visit Jinny!
England
See the queen
Take a picture in a red phone booth
Listen to the accents
Drive in a cute taxi
Venice
Gotta love the canals!
Sweden
The Motherland
Ireland
More home pride. I'll fit in.
New York City
Never, ever been. Strange, no?
Australia
I need to hear those accents
Hawaii
My family lives there! It shouldn't be that hard...
France and Spain
Sans-puking, please. My brother and sister-in-law went right after they found out she was pregnant...she threw up all across Europe. :(
Texas
Everybody's gotta experience the Lone-Star State, full of Republicans and cowboy hats. (I think)
Eureka, California
This little town in northern California is where my parents met and married just after they got saved. Both radically born again in the Jesus Movement, God brought them together at this communal ranch in Northern California. They have so many stories of what it was like there...the wonderful community they had, how they grew in the Lord, how many people were getting saved. If you were a believer of six months, you were an old one -- so many people were getting saved. People would stop for the night, and the Christians would just love on them and preach the gospel. My mom has stories of girls coming with their babies that were high from going to the parties with their mom, and hitch-hikers and hippies that just came in and got to see the way Jesus' people love each other and got boldly preached to! Someday I have to see this place for myself. I tried to find a picture of the cross that stands on a cliff just a bit away from here, where people would go to be with God, and where so many people got married. These are pictures of the ranch itself.
Judah and I on our Hot Chocolate Date at Higher Grounds
P.S. Higher Grounds' Vanilla Chai Latte is my favorite! Better than Starbucks, better than Dunn Bros...
Ariel and Glorie on the way to Ariel's ballet lesson!!
Glorie and I watched through the glass while Ariel danced away, and Glorie kept wanting to "Dance dat side!" (aka...the room Ariel was in)
Samuel doing what he mostly does...
Sleeping in his swing.
The remodel in process: spackling and painting the play room. Can't wait to show you the final project! (Can't wait to finish the final project...)
My new bathroom! Nice and green...
There's still a little white shelf I need to put up. A candle and picture will go on that, and I'm still deciding whether or not to hang something on the wall.
First, I just have to tell you about church this morning. It turned into a full-blown dance party. We were singing the "People from every nation and tongue...from generation to generation...we worship You!" which turned into choruses of Hallelujah which {of course} turned into Matt's signature "Everybody dance, come on come on, Everybody dance!" Everyone obeyed. :) We danced and danced and sang and danced. It was awesome.
Secondly, I want to point you to THIS POST on Kate McDonald's blog. Please take the time to read the whole thing. She is doing this series of "Sunday Sessions" based on her readings by A.W. Tozer. Now, I have never actually read Tozer for myself (I'm beginning to think I'll have to...Good job, Kate! :), but the quotes she puts in this post make me think I really like him.
At first this post is about the nature of the Trinity, which in itself is just flooring. It just makes me think "I LOVE God!!" because He is awesome (in the classical sense of the word) and unlike any other... Then it turns to explain how the Trinity is an example of something we must approach with faith because we can't fully understand with our minds... Now, I seriously love the quotes she has from Tozer on this issue, as well as the things Kate writes. I have thought about this so many times...the balance between understanding with our mind, but being devoted, engaged, and in full belief with our hearts and spirits.
Please read the post. I'm thankful for who Kate is and the way she writes on her blog. I'm thankful for the ways the Lord has worked in her life, and the way He works through her. Jesus is so amazing, isn't He? The way He uses His people, and the way that even though He is so high and lofty and above all things, He comes and meets us. He meets us...
Let me leave you with some of the Tozer quotes I loved:
“Love and faith are at home in the mystery of the Godhead. Let reason kneel in reverence outside.”
"[The scholar] may compare Scripture with Scripture until he has discovered the true meaning of the text. But right there his authority ends. He must never sit in judgment upon what is written… After the meaning is discovered, that meaning judges him; never does he judge it."
Take that back...my pastor might have called me that once or twice.
I know you're asking why I would dare such thing. To think, the term "crazy" going with Annie.
Don't doubt the pastor, people. Stop doubting! Stop!
Back to business, I call myself a "Crazy lady" because I just re-did my bathroom. I am sore, and I am tired, but it's done. The walls are green, the shower is scrubbed to perfection (imaginary perfection), and you could eat off the floor. Before I go any farther in the story, let's all agree that we're glad that there were no rivers of blood this time. Oh, the memories.
I've been meaning for a while to do these things...I definitely wanted to paint the room. The blue it was before didn't quite match my taste, and I just really needed the room to be my own...to be comfortable, to be pleasant to walk into. So, I painted it the same color as my room. {Pictures to come}
But scrubbing the shower...don't think me gross that I procrastinated. I totally sprayed and wiped the whole thing before I ever got in there, but I knew I really needed to do a toothbrush scrubbing for my own sake. Ackkk. Pink stuff. Yuck.
This stuff I had to clean off was leftover from the people before me. Let me tell you, it's not fun to think about pink stuff created by someone else sitting on your shower. "But Annie," you say while you try to get all mental pictures out of your mind, "why are you telling us about it if it's so un-fun to think about?!!?!! Now I will have nightmares!!" Don't have nightmares. And let's stop talking about it, because, well, you're right. It's not fun to think about it.
So I scrubbed it all. It made me mad sometimes! I would just let out a yell at it--that always helped. I love how satisfying it feels to get bleach on everything. Even if a piece of plastic is stained, at least you know you killed the bacteria when you sloshed the bleach on it. (And if I'm in any way wrong about that assumption of having killed the bacteria, please don't tell me. Thanks.) I scrubbed and scraped. Little known fact: a screwdriver is your handiest tool when cleaning a shower. It's the perfect size to fit in those tiny little spaces, and, let's face it, there is stuff you have to scrape off. Okay, we'll stop thinking about it again.
Let me tell you, my bathroom is beautious!!! It's wonderful! It's breathtaking (still need to get that candle to finish off all the cleaning/paint fumes left)!!
Yes, you're allowed to be happy for me. My muscles are sore, and I'm tired, and there's more to clean and paint (clean my room, paint the playroom), but I am done for tonight!! Weee!!
Sometimes I have strange ponderings that go through my mind. They are standing questions...ones that will eventually get answered but there's really no way for me to find out yet. They're exciting, and they're somewhat beautiful. Don't you love the paradox of how we actually know nothing about our next step, but God knows everything about every breath of our lives we have yet to take.
Just now I was wondering (not for the first time, mind you) what the first lullaby my babies will ever hear me sing will be. When I rock Glorie, or Judah, or Samuel to sleep, the first words out of my mouth are always "There is a rainbow of mercy around You..." from Matt Gilman's "Closer" and soon after that is often some lines from "Sing to Jesus" or "Amazing Grace" or (more recently) "More than Ashes" by Tim Reimherr.
Of course there's wonderings like "Where will I go to college?", but that's kind of normal.
Another one I think about is significant dates. Just think, if your parents got married on April 21, 1973, they probably had twenty-something April 21st's before that...April 21st's where they had no idea that in just a few years that day would be so important. Who knows what will happen to me on November 8 in the years to come! I could just be on my way to Target to buy groceries one year, or I could be flying to England, or I could be watching a baby take his first steps, or (best of all) I could be enjoying Jesus' reign on the earth. Have you ever thought about that?
Check out the pictures of TheCall at Shelley's blog. At the party the day after the event, she put up a slideshow of about 300 of her pictures. AMAZING. I just stood there and watched...
So, I love stuff that gets you involved in direct communication with people you otherwise wouldn't have met. Like craigslist...I love craigslist because you meet people that you would NEVER have run into if you weren't selling that crazy orange stuffed chair you've had for forever but don't need. Ebay's kinda fun that way too, but not as fun as craigslist. Once I did a sock exchange. That was fun, and I got a fun stripey pair of socks. The trouble with the sock exchange was that it was hard to find enough people to pass the baton on to. Kind of like friendship bread...only you know everyone you give friendship bread to. Oh, herman. Herman never ends.
Rambling aside, I've signed up to be part of this happy exchange:
It's put together by the oh, so wonderful Kate McDonald. If you want to join in, just go to her blog and comment on the post! Plus, I love that you are to put an encouraging note in the ornament you send. Yay for encouraging people you don't even know!
When I've missed a few days of blogging, I always feel compelled to write some sappy title and apologize profusely for missing the days.
And then I always feel really, really cheesy and shallow. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe because it's really okay if I don't blog every day. Maybe because I write the apology out of a false-sense of duty rather than really trying to say something I want to say. It just never feels true. I do enjoy it when I blog every day, don't get me wrong. I just always feel fake when I apologize for not doing it.
Moving on.
The elections. They happened. Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will." That's all.
California. I had a marvelous time. I didn't really do anything California-y, except eat In-n-Out. Exampled here:
It was a very different experience from DC. I feel like I hardly engaged in the actual day of prayer, because most of my work was outside the field, where I could hear the noise, and I interacted with a lot of people, but I didn't really know what was happening on the stage. Working the volunteer check-in with Christina and Bethany kept me busy...thought about half-way through the day we thought we were about to go crazy. Eventually, the booth was shut down (once there wouldn't really be any more volunteers checking in) and we hung out backstage for the rest of the night. Highlights for me:
This is Congressman Trent Franks. I know, because I have his business card. Yes, his business card. It says: Trent Franks. Member of Congress. United States of America. It has the seal on it.
He walked up to our volunteer check-in table and asked me "So, how does someone find the stage around here?"
I had no idea who this man was, other than that he was wearing a suit and looked important because he had a pin with the seal on it. I asked, "So, you need to get backstage?" He said yes, and after fumbling to explain how to get there, I reverted to: "Would you like me to show you?" So, we start walking, and I introduce myself. "Hi, I'm Annie." He responds with "Nice to meet you, Annie. I'm Congressman [and everything was fuzzy after that]." And then, no joke, I said "OH!" and he said "Yeah!". And then there was awkward silence.
He was really, really kind and humble. I wanted to treat him special and open the door for him, but he wanted to open the door for me. He told me about his newborn twins, and how excited he was for "the first babies of his life". As we walked, I went through in my mind how to introduce him and find the right person to get him backstage...only, I had missed his name! What was I supposed to say?? So, I had to ask him: "Sorry, Congressman....?" And that's when he pulled out the business card and re-introduced himself.
When I saw him on stage holding one of the Bohlender babies, I was so excited. He prayed for Mercy, and for mercy for our nation, and I decided it was one of my favorite moments of the day. That is, other than when I myself held Anna. That was my personal highlight.
The day after TheCall, the extended Call family went to a party at a wonderful house, and we had fun and hung out, and kinda debriefed altogether about how incredible the day was. I was cuddling one of the girls, and Jesse stopped to say hi to the baby and then told me that he had heard that the Congressman was actually holding Anna, not Mercy, on stage. In the hand off, I guess they were confused, and it will forever go down in history that the wrong twin was called. Oh, twins.
Then, I had the best plane ride of my life. I held Mercy B. the entire way, and then fed her at the end and carried her through the airport. Sweetness.
Now, onto the college situation. Don't even ask. I have so much to do for applications, but I am so tired of thinking about it. It is now officially the Lord's job to think about it, and I'll just listen to hear what He has to say. How does that sound for a plan? =)
Lastly, I'll leave you with the song of the week. I don't think it's on a cd yet, but it's a song sung over San Francisco. Amen, and amen.
If you read Randy's blog before, and found out about the guy jumping stage, GO BACK NOW and see the pictures. Incredible.
Second, serious. This is why we have TheCall. Allen is explaining here a dream he had a little while ago. SO intense. I wish the video was complete, but this is the best I got right now.
So, yesterday was TheCall California. I don't quite have time or imagination to recap it all here, so I am going to send you to THIS POST on Randy's blog. He sums it up fabulously, especially the oddball-stage-intruder guy. He is absolutely so right that the whole situation took less time to happen than it takes to read it. I was in the crowd for the few minutes it happened, and I turned my head, looked back at the stage and there were ten guys crowded around what looked like a piano, hurriedly shimmying off the stage. Hmmm....
Also, be sure to check out the pictures he linked on flickr from our amazing photographer Shelley Paulson. Check out her blog HERE.
