Natalie Blue Eyes

Just a few pics from this weekend. Natalie enjoys tormenting Lexi (black dog) and Mocha. Lexi takes anything, we should have named her Eeyore. Mocha isn't so sure about Natalie. Have a great day!

"Deep fried baby Jesus"

Well, now that I have your attention. This "title" came about last weekend when our friends, Heather and Amy were here. To set the mood, we had been together all weekend, had numerous alter universe experiences, and laughed a ton. This leads us to Sunday night and tired. Tired being the place where all good spiritual conversations get their start. As we were discussing different denominations, Heather said that she believes Oprah is the pastor of the largest church in America. I agreed and said that I believe Oprah's theology is a bit like the movie Runaway Bride. In the movie, Julia Robert's character always likes her eggs the same way that her boyfriend does. I said I think Oprah is like this with Jesus. She appears to have a varying relationship with him based on who she is talking with. Mix this conversation in with a little Taladagga Nights and you get "deep fried baby Jesus." All joking aside, I've rolled this around in my head a lot this week. As Christians we tend to conform Jesus to our ideas, rather then conforming our ideas to Jesus' standard. If I want to do something questionable today, say a sin, I scramble Jesus. I say He is confusing, contradictory and hard to understand. If I'm angry I throw Him into the pot and boil Him. I yell and scream and pretend that He told me this life would be easy, when He in fact, told me the opposite. Sometimes, we even dress Jesus up to look appealing. Very, very audacious of us. We sprinkle bread crumbs on emotions and throw Him into the grease when it's hot. We wait until people are tired and we talk about hell and grandma waiting for us in heaven and we guilt people into conversions, but not relationships. We start as spiritual babies and we are too content to allow others to stay this way. Or worse, we are more then content to never grow up ourselves. As a pastor's wife I have caught myself saying many times, "when we can all graduate from middle school, Christians will be effective." My egg list could go on and on. We poach Him, fry Him hard, and occasionally we serve Jesus over easy, so as not to offend anyone. Jesus is Jesus. He is Savior and Lord. He cannot be changed. Our descriptions hurt us, not Him. We expect lesser things from Jesus when we make Him anything but exalted in our lives. Jesus refers to us, the Church, as His bride. I think it is time we all stop running away.

I'm back...

Hooray for us!!! We finally have the Internet at our house. I can rejoin civilization and be a part of life again. It's so funny that we moved to a huge city, but without Internet, I felt more isolated then I did in Iowa. Anyways, most of you know we weren't getting Internet until I have a job. So...obviously, I got a job. God totally set this up. I'm going to be joining Megan with Hospice. I'll be working as a PRN social worker for hospice. This is ideal for me because I get to tell them when I'm available to work. This is a huge hospice, with over 1,000 patients currently, so they need the help. They tell me that they will most likely be able to schedule me when I want to work. I'm excited and nervous. I went into social work so I could work at hospice. Now that the opportunity is here, I'm a little scared. But, I'm also looking forward to walking people through the only thing we all have in common in this life. I ask for your prayers as I learn. There are five offices, four houses, and a triage location, so I have a lot to learn. Any advice Megan???
As for being here, we are liking it. Natalie threw her first official tantrum the other day. It lasted longer then 30 minutes and carried over into three rooms. Every time I left the room to ignore her, she stopped crying walked to me so she knew I could see her, then threw herself back down and screamed. It was lovely. My mom tells me that persistence is an admirable quality to have. I'll appreciate it more when she is persistently doing something productive. :-) Chris is great and loving it here. It feels like home to him and I can tell he is good. Without corn pollen to be allergic to, he is exercising, losing weight, and moving forward. I didn't realize how bad he felt in Iowa until we were here for a while. However, to all you Iowa folks, we do miss you terribly. I still wish we could have moved you with us. I look forward to heaven for many reasons, one of which is so that we can finally be all together. I'll update with pics soon. Have a great day of worship tomorrow. God is good!

Lots of pictures

Sorry it has been so long. We've been on a trip to Iowa, West Virginia, celebrated Natalie's first birthday, and been busy with summer. I don't have long, but I wanted to put pictures on here for you all. These pictures are from Natalie's birthday party in both Iowa and West Virginia. There are also some from our zoo trip with Padre' and Nanny. Enjoy...more soon. Love you all!

More pictures