pictures from the fair (part 2)

Remember the photobooth pictures I posted not long ago? Well today I received a couple more photos from that same day! Kristin and her boyfriend (from Italy) Pierre Giorgio went with us to the fair. It was great fun... I think in part because this is the first time Pierre has been to the States. Everything was new to him. Like seeing the fair for the first time again... but through the eyes of someone who has never tried cheese curds. Never seen rides where people pay $30 to be strapped into a seat and launched into the air. Never met a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz. Okay, so neither had we, but he was at the fair and Pierre was really excited to meet him. All in all, a really good way to spend the day!

Matthew and I sporting our tattoos identifying us as 'Authentic Minnesotan's. So many of the booths were branding people as they walked by. I had three on my arm and many more in our 'cheap trash' bag. Melanie, you would've been so proud of all my pens and keychains!

This picture is my favorite. Loreal set up this huge booth where you could try out different hair colors. Classic expressions, boys! (From left to right: Pierre Giorgio, Kristin, Matthew, myself) What do you think- should I go blonde?

It's "Baby" Time!

Jesse and Soar McCall

Jesse and Soar are friends I met while working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Cambodia. Jesse, originally from Oregon, moved to Cambodia with his family and started an amazing church in Phnom Penh. He met Soar while living there, they fell in love and have been happily married for, must be about 5 years now?

Their church family warmly welcomed us to work with them while we were there, teaching english, music, helping with services, etc. It was great! They were very patient with us adapting to the Khmer culture. Plus, God blessed me with a friendship that I knew would span the continents when I left. Soar is such a wonderful woman of God. She has a kind, gentle spirit, and I am so blessed to call her my friend!

So the reason I am writing about these two... they are having a baby! Right now they are in Thailand awaiting little Jessica Faith to arrive (any time now!). Apparently she is taking her sweet time in coming. Their insurance took care of transporting them to Thailand, to a hospital frequented by travelers and tourists. Please join me in praying for Soar as she gets ready to have her little girl. She is a bit worried about how the delivery will go.

"Father, please protect Soar and little Jessica. Keep them safely in Your hands as they go through this transition together. Thank You for the special bond you created between mothers and their babies- I pray that will ease the pain of the delivery. I'm sure You are as excited about Jessica coming into the world as her parents are. Please take away any anxiety they may have, and give them rest and relaxation while they are away from home. May this be a wonderful time for Jesse and Soar to celebrate the love You have blessed them with. Thank you, Father, for creating this new life from that love."

Soar, if you are reading this, hang in there! I miss you!!!

Fresh news from weather.com (3:43 p.m. ET 9/22/2005):
"If there is any good news at this point, it is the fact that the hurricane probably reached its peak intensity overnight. Rita may now be entraining some drier mid-level air from over the western Gulf of Mexico and Texas into its western side, causing the slight decrease in wind speed and increase in pressure. " "Hurricane Rita, now a category 4 storm, has featured a slow rise in pressure. It continues to be very dangerous, however."

Let's remember our neighbors to the south in prayer that this storm will die down quickly before the full force of it can hit land. They have suffered huge losses from Katrina.... "God please spare them any more pain."

*I wonder how
truckers and
taxi drivers
are getting along
these days without
any arms or legs.

Free Fries!

want some? --------------------------->

Today I have declared it to be Lazy Day. I have the whole day off- by myself! So this morning as I was laying in bed watching tv, I saw this commercial for microwave french fries. To tell you the truth, they actually looked pretty tasty. Supposedly, you cook these in the microwave and they don't come out rubbery and soggy, but very crispy. They advertise that you can go to www.freeeasyfries.com and they will send out a coupon to try their product for free.
This comes to my idea. Anyone who wants to join in, go to the website, order the coupon, get the fries for free... then we'll meet back here and trade experiences. Come on, let your curiosity get the best of you this time!

"Mr. and/or Mrs. Ore-Ida? Yes, I was wondering when I should expect my commision check in the mail?"

Your very own direct chatline to God!

Oh, I think you will all be amused by what I found today.
I can't even come up with a decent explanation- just go see for yourself.

*CHAT WITH GOD*

I found myself most curious as to how someone would set something like this up, so I went, chatted, and found myself fighting with whatever ignorant computer they have hooked up to this. When I asked what my favorite movie was, after saying, "The obvious one" and me asking again, "What is the name of the movie?" The response I got was "IKEA". Then I was asked, "What is IKEA?" My next question, "How many hairs are on my head?", was answered with an equally unimpressive, "about one million". I know it's all a joke, but it's still fun to prove it's fake. God knows EXACTLY how many hairs are on my head. He knows our thoughts before they even take form and come out of our mouths.

Chat site aside, so many people out there genuinely want to hear from God (and ask for His direction for their lives), but are not willing to put in the time and effort to wait for His voice. (Of course I am included in this many times) There are so many interuptions, distractions, and 'not enough time'... but somehow we find endless hours to watch tv, talk on cell phones, or browse the Internet. Have we destroyed our attention spans? Prob'ly.

Sometimes I feel like a goldfish, swimming in my little bowl. I swim each lap forgetting the last (and any lessons learned during previos laps)...

...I'm working on it. Or more I should say, He's working on me.

*sigh*

Morrie Schwartz's dancing days before ALS

I finished 'Tuesday's With Morrie'. The last chapter I found myself wiping away tears like I was right there in the room. I don't think I'm ruining any 'surprise' ending for anyone- anyone paying attention at the start of the book knows what the outcome will be. Morrie had such great words, I wanted to share a few more before moving on.

On the topic of aging:

"All this emphasis on youth- I don't buy it, " he (Morrie) said.
"Listen, I know what a misery being young can be, so don't tell me it's so great. All these kids who came to me with their struggles, their strife, their feelings of inadequacy, their sense that life was miserable, so bad they wanted to kill themselves...
"And, in addition to all the miseries, the young are not wise. They have very little understanding about life. Who wants to live every day when you don't know what's going on? When people are manipulating you, telling you to buy this perfume and you'll be beautiful, or this pair of jeans and you'll be sexy- and you belive them! It's such nonsense."

Weren't you ever afraid to grow old, I asked?

"Mitch, I embrace aging."

Embrace it?

"It's very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it."

Yes, I said, but if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, "Oh, if I were young again." You never hear people say, "I wish I were sixty-five."

He smiled. "You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more and do more. You can't wait until sixty-five.
"Listen. You should know something. All younger people should know something. If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow."

Powerful words, aren't they. While reading this book, I couldn't help but think about my 'teacher', Marian Olson, who passed away earlier this year. Sometimes it was frustrating going to visit her, because I knew she would challenge me- she always challenged me. But to this day, I still remember words of wisdom she poured over me. (It's because of her that I am now almost debt free, student loans and all- she taught me the importance of getting rid of it as soon as possible) I always knew she was praying for me, too. I'm pretty sure she's still praying for me, even from Heaven, that I'll make right choices.

If you haven't already, I hope you'll consider reading 'Tuesday's With Morrie '(all 3 of you). I promise it will impact the way you view life and aging.

funny little raindrop.

More like 20 kabillion funny little raindrops.

This morning, early, it started raining. It rained so hard, that when I looked outside it looked and sounded like it was hailing. The thunder and lightening were quite exciting also. But all this was not so exciting to little Cristina that knew she would have to walk to work. Our truck hasn't been working for a couple of months, and Matthew went out to a guy's farm to help him out for the day with a few projects. When I thought I would have to get drenched in the rain, there by the door waited my Audrey Hepburn-esque raincoat and matching umbrella. My husband was so thoughtful to lay them out for me (they were actually a gift from him this spring). So I put on my flip flops, capri pants, and raingear, and headed out the door. The next apartment building down, half a dozen residents (special needs) stood waiting under the awning for their rides to work. I quite enjoy it when they are outside (and they usually are) because most of them will greet me when I say 'good morning'. One guy shouted out a, "HAVE A NICE DAY!" as I walked through the deep puddles.

When I got to work, furniture was moved into very strange places. When my manager came in early to get some paperwork done, it was literally raining inside the store. He and the bookkeeper were running all over trying to get buckets under most of the big spots. A giant, industrial fan blew all day long near the area that got it the worst. It made it hard to hear the phone ring, and we constantly were explaining to customers what was happening. A few of the mattresses took the brunt end of the rain too. One had about a four foot radius wet splotch from the drops. I took all of my customers there and made them lie down. It was great fun!

The day was long and tiring, but overall I guess it was good. I think the rain made it more interesting actually. Customers like giving full reports of the strange weather in Minnesota. Amazingly, most of it dried up by mid afternoon (except for the flooded streets where cars were stalled). Not for long, though. Around 8pm it started to rain again pretty heavy. By 8:20 or so, it was raining REALLY hard, and the news flashed warnings constantly. At closing time, we realized the roof began leaking again. This time it was worse than the morning. It felt like someone was poking holes in the roof! It was a funny sight, though, the 3 of us salespeople and 4 warehouse guys trying desperately to track down recycling bins, trash cans, and vases to catch the water. We moved the furniture out of the path of the leaks, and watched as water ran down one wall like one of those fung-shui fountains.

It will certainly be interesting to survey things when we go in to work tomorrow. If it's not still raining, I suspect there will be little men running all over the roof in search of holes.

Peace out yo!

...there was a church made of legos

Sorry to disappoint you, this is not my church. It was sent to me in an email. Someone had a LOT of patience to sit down and build this thing! I included a few interesting things from the 'builders'.

A few quick facts:
*How long to build it?
It was about a year and a half of planning, building and photographing.
*How many pieces of LEGO to build it?
more than 75,000
*How big is it?
About 7 feet by 5 1/2 feet by 30" (2.2 m x 1.7 m x .76 m)
*How many lego people does it seat?
1372 This is really awesome!
*How many windows?
3976 It features a balcony, a Narthex, stairs to the balcony, restrooms, coat rooms, several mosaics, a nave, a baptistry, an alter, a crucifix, a pulpit and an elaborate pipe organ.

...there was a break in the clouds.

This morning's worship service at church was amazing.

First off, during Sunday School, we had our ground breaking service for our ginormous youth building we're putting up. We are SO EXCITED about this building going up, because it will be used as a tool to reach over 7,000 area youth (our youth group averages about 100-150). It will be a great place for youth to hang out with their friends, play video games, drink coffee, play basketball, and grow closer to their Creator. There are so many students in the area that don't have a place where they feel they can belong, and they constantly get kicked out of area restaurants and coffee shops b/c of their age. Please remember this in prayer, as it is a HUGE undertaking.

After Sunday School, we went in to the service feeling refreshed. This is rare with all of the stress Matthew and I have had with his paperwork (he is STILL not allowed to work till the government renews his work permit). After a wedding we attended yesterday, we've been at each other's throats less. The father of the bride spoke, and told us it isn't about 'hoping to have a good marriage', it's about DECIDING to have a good marriage. It's a constant battle to choose not to respond harshly to a sarcastic comment, or to choose to get tasks done around the house without even being asked. It's all about the choice. It's a choice to love unconditionally or build up walls. We felt like we've been losing that battle. It's easy to get frustrated when things aren't going the way they should be, right? Not a good excuse.

This morning during service, Pastor purposely placed worship at the end of the service so anyone who wanted/needed prayer could come forward. We realized that we have only given bits and pieces of our whole mess to God. We needed to surrendur it all. SO we sat down beside our Pastor (who also did our pre-marriage counseling) and told him what's been happening. He prayed with us, and I felt like blinders were taken off of my eyes. I'm afraid of not being taken care of. Lately I've been struggling to make decisions about everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. And I've been putting the entire stress of providing for the two of us on my shoulders. Pretty stupid when God has always taken care of us financially (even when neither of us had a job!).

It amazes me that God deals with all of our junk individually and collectively, and still loves us. Knowing the Lord does not guarantee that bad things will not happen to you. Look at all of the people in New Orleans, and those that lost loved ones on 9/11. I'm sure plenty of those people know the Lord and seek Him out daily for His provision. I can only imagine what they are feeling right now. But God is sovereign... and He promises to calm the storm inside of us, even when things seem impossible around us.

I'm not really sure why I went into detail about my marriage. I know it's 'out there' for anyone to read... but I trust there is someone out there that needed to hear what's on my heart.

If you are interested in hearing our pastor's sermon from today (it was REALLY good), go to http://www.willmarag.org/ and click on 'sermons online'. It's not been posted yet (I just checked), so wait a few days and click on the 9/11/05.

...Tuesdays With Morrie

Something for us all:

"Dying," Morrie said, "Is only one thing to be sad over, Mitch. Living unhappily is something else. So many of the people who come to visit me are unhappy."

Why?

"Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it."

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things."
"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

Brighter Than Sunshine

Last Christmas Matthew bought me a book, 'Tuesdays With Morrie'. For some reason I put it in a giant tupperware box. I then put that giant box in our guestroom aka The Abyss. Since this is not Q&A time I will not be offering any explanations for my actions. Last week we cleaned up that room, though, and Matthew came across the book. I think it was actually crying out from the bottom of the box, "FIND ME! YOU NEED TO READ ME!"

So I started reading it last night- and it is really good!

The author, Mitch Albom, has a great way of capturing his audience, with a subject that seems like it could fill maybe 2-3 pages. There is so much wisdom, I find myself wanting to memorize many parts word for word. Since I have the attention span of a goldfish, that probably won't happen.

You'll be reading about this in future blogs, so I'll give you a bit of background on the book. Mitch goes to college. He gets to be very close with one professor, Morrie. Mitch graduates. Mitch gets to be very successful. Mitch finds out Morrie is dying of ALS. Mitch visits Morrie, hence the title, 'Tuesday's with Morrie'. Morrie is extremely wise, and open about the life lessons he has learned and the dying process.

One afternoon, I am complaining about the confusion of my age, what is expected of me versus what I want for myself.

"Have I told you about the tension of opposites? he says.

The tension of opposites?

"Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle."

Sounds like a wrestling match, I say.

"A wrestling match." He laughs. "Yes, you could describe life that way."

So which side wins, I ask?

"Which side wins?"

He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth.

"Love wins. Love always wins."

...tradition!

Pictures of us taken from a photobooth at the State Fair last week.

Matthew and I have a tradition- well several actually, but this one is a favorite. If you received a wedding invitation, you witnessed the beginning of that tradition.... and now it is has become an addiction of sorts. We love photobooths! Sometimes before we jump in, we figure out a story to play (not really on this strip though- I'll share some of those another day).

What I find really interesting, though, while waiting for the strip of pictures to come out, is looking at all of the examples posted on the side of the booth. If you've ever watched the french-subtitled movie 'Amelie' you'll know what I'm referring to. The story that lies behind each discarded strip.

Sometimes there is a lone child sitting there, smiling nicely in the first, contorting their face in the rest. Was it that their parents forgot to take them for professional pictures that year and thought, "Hey, this place only charges $3!". News to parents: it doesn't matter if you spend $3 or $30, the kid will always make weird faces when noone is watching.

What about the guy sitting there with that odd look on his face. Does he pay the $3 only to leave the pictures behind, so the world will not forget him? Maybe he imagines the love of his life is sitting there next to him. He looks sad.

The pair of friends making goofy faces- those are not often left behind. The pictures are a memory- split so each friend has something to remember the other by.

Ours will never have to be split into pairs... and that makes me happy.