about a first world pain

For Aaron's birthday, I took him shopping. He and I like a lot of the same stores. He, however, likes some stores that I do not.

Namely, H&M. Don't hate me, Steven. H&M is just one of the many stores that I don't like for the reasons that:

1. They are too overwhelming.
2. There are too many choices.
3. They are busy.
4. They are crowded.
5. They are crammed all together.
6. You see something on a mannequin and must search all over for it.
7. It. Is. Chaos. In. My. Mind.

Ok, so there's that. That is also why I will not shop for clothes at Kohl's or TJ Maxx or other places like that.

There's nothing wrong with buying clothes at those places. I'm sure they might even have something I would like. But, it stresses me out to shop at them.

I like Old Navy. And American Eagle. And Express. Here's why:

1. They always have something I like. 
2. It will come in like 10 colors. 
3. They are all right there together. 
4. They have the mannequin right next to where the item is. 
5. They are smaller stores. 
6. There is a boy side and a girl side. 
7. It is orderly. 

That is what I like.

Anyway, I was washing Aaron's new H&M clothes, and to add to my loathing attitude towards it, they have those stupid laundry symbols. How much harder is it to write out what I'm supposed to do? Who in the world has time to memorize what all of that means?!

And, of course, the one with the square/circle/X means "do not tumble dry."

Bother.

to hurry along Christmas

Is anyone else ready for Christmas? Is it just me?

I'm quite ready.

But, I will withhold from all Christmasy things until after Wednesday at least.

But starting Thursday, I deem it appropriate for Christmas music. 

And our decorations are going up on November 11th. It's on the calendar. So it's happening.

And after those are up, it's all over. 

Christmas movies are allowed.

And the smoker man will be lit often. Just wait until you meet our smoker man.

And present shopping will commence.

And cheeriness will be everywhere.

I just can't even wait.

a Friday flashback

Aaron and I have new friends. I don't know how long you classify someone as a "new" friend. I feel like it still applies though. 

Aaron met Ryan back in the spring. Ryan went with our Journey group to the Orange conference in April.

Over the summer, Aaron said Ryan and his wife wanted to have us over for dinner as sort of a thank you for inviting him to the conference.

We finally got a dinner scheduled at the beginning of August.

So, we went to dinner. Aaron and Ryan already knew each other. I got to meet Ryan. And Aaron and I both got to meet the rest of the family:  Aura (wife), Jesse (oldest girl), Caleb (oldest boy), Leah (youngest girl), Micah (youngest boy), Radar (dog), and Trapper (cat).

Ryan and Aura are very cool people. They're probably our most random friends because they aren't like any of the other people we know in our whole life. 

They have four kids. Four. They are all under the age of seven. And Ryan and Aura make it look super fun and easy (I'm sure it's not always easy, but those kids are always fun for sure). We are not parents ourselves yet, obviously, but we sure are around a lot of parents. And it's quite refreshing to come across parents who just have fun with their kids. They don't complain about them. They love them. And it's obvious. Plus, their kids are so dang cute and funny.

They homeschool, which is awesome. They go to Renaissance Fairs. How cool would that be? They are crafty and make monster hats and homemade magnet white boards and they mummify chickens. 

Anyway, we feel like they should write a book about their adventures. 

Their house is homey and we have enjoyed both of our visits there very much. They tell very funny stories and we sit for hours but it doesn't feel like hours until you look at the clock because it's so much fun.

We went to their house for the second time last Saturday night. They told me they expected to see a blog about our visit. Specifically our dinner that they made us. And I shall not disappoint. So, let's flashback to...

Last Saturday, 10/20/12...

Saturday afternoon, Aaron and I went to the gym. While we were there, Aaron got a text from Ryan:  "Do you guys have any aversion to pumpkin?"

He read it to me. "No, I don't think so," I said.

"What do you think he means by 'pumpkin?'" Aaron asked.

"I don't know. Probably pumpkin coffee or pumpkin cake or pumpkin pie."

"Hmmm...I don't know. With them, we'll probably eat like an actual pumpkin or something..." 

"Oh whatever. I doubt that. It will be fine. Tell him we like pumpkin."

So he did.

Ryan texted back that they would have a backup plan just in case. Whatever that meant. We continued our workout.

And a few hours later, we got to their house. They were all outside. We hung out there for a bit.

Then Aura said something along the lines of, "We're trying something new for dinner...I hope it worked!"

Hmmm...what could that mean?! We went inside. It smelled REALLY good.

They opened the oven, and there it sat. A giant pumpkin in a roasting pan.

I thought in my mind. Well, by golly, Aaron was right. We are eating a pumpkin. They have cooked us a pumpkin.

Aura went on to explain that she found a recipe for "Stuffed Pumpkin" in a Halloween craft/cookbook. And they had never had it either. So, we were all to be guinea pigs. And if it was awful, they would whip up some tomato soup.

Ryan and Aura have now inspired bravery in Aaron and I for both dinners we've had with them. (The first was a new kind of salad and homemade soup with new kinds of vegetables we'd hardly heard of).

And good grief, if their kids are going to try stuffed pumpkin, there's no good reason for us not to!

So, Aura sliced up some wedges of pumpkin and spooned some of the rice and bean concoction on each of our plates.

We all joked about the carnage. I mean, just look at that thing...

After everyone had their plate full, we all tried a bite.

And you know what?

It wasn't half bad.

It was actually pretty good!

I had never eaten pumpkin before, but it tasted kind of like yellow squash.

And the rice and beans were good too!

I was proud of Aaron for trying it...I know I've told you about his picky eating habits. But, lately, he's hardly been picky!

I don't think I would classify it as a favorite meal, but I will say we ate a good dinner last night! And it was quite adventurous and fun at the same time.

Ryan promised we would have pizza next time...but even if we don't, Aaron and I will look forward to whatever in the world we will have to eat with our fun family of friends.

about helping Cameron

Last week, we celebrated Aaron's birthday for the third and final time at my parents' apartment downtown.

My mom made him his favorite meal that she cooks:  parmesan crusted chicken with alfredo sauce and bowtie pasta.

Then we walked to his favorite downtown cafe, Benelux, for coffee.

It was fun night with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend, Sarah.

Around 8pm we dispersed. Tyler and Sarah left through the parking garage. But Aaron and I had parked on the street in front of the apartment building.

As we were walking to our car, we were approached by a teenage boy. He looked to be 16 or 17, and he was very visibly upset.

You can't ever quite trust the stories you hear from people on the streets downtown. We've heard a lot of them. Something tragic always happens. Their wife is pregnant and they need to get home. They've walked for miles to find money to get a new tire. They have to pick up their mom from the airport but ran out of gas on the way. You get the idea.

But, this boy, he just broke my heart.

He said he got into an argument with his mom, who had been drinking, and instead of taking him all of the way to his girlfriend's house in Fuquay, she dropped him downtown with no money and no phone.

He said he had been asking everyone for help but had only received a couple bucks.

A taxi cost a lot more than that, and buses don't run all the way down to Fuquay.

He was so sad, with tears in his eyes, and Aaron and I looked at each other helplessly.

We very, very rarely carry cash, and we had driven my car with two carseats taking up the back seat. Not to mention that Fuquay is 30 minutes in the opposite direction of where we live.

We told him we were so, so sorry, and we watched him walk away defeated again.

I was so sad for him. We got in my car and I turned to Aaron, "We HAVE to help him somehow."

We discussed some options, and I finally decided to call my dad.

The boy had walked down the sidewalk, but we could still see him. We watched him get blown off by a few more people.

My parents said they would come down and could probably give him a ride to Fuquay.

I stayed in the car with Penny while Aaron went back out to talk to him while we waited for my parents.

When my parents came out, I watched them talk to him for a few minutes. Finally, Aaron came back to the car.

The boy, Cameron, had used my dad's phone, and it was decided they would take him to the Walmart in Fuquay and his girlfriend's mom would pick him up from there. 

Aaron said that he definitely wasn't in a good family situation, but he was going to be 18 in just a few months, so he couldn't really get too much sympathy from social services.

My mom later told me that Cameron told them he has ADHD as well.

Cameron has been on our minds a lot, and we made sure he knew that we would all be praying for him.

My mom told him that she would hate to think of one of her kids wandering around downtown looking for help, and she was so glad we could help him.

He was very thankful, and I'm glad we stopped. I was still a little hesitant sending my parents off with a strange boy. I get nervous about stuff like that just because you never know if you can trust people. But I guess I realized it's not my place to worry about that.

Jesus would have helped Cameron. And He wanted us to help him too. I'm glad we didn't miss the opportunity.

about David and Goliath

This month in MiNi CiTy at Journey, we are learning that God helps me do big things! All of our stories for October and November are about David from the Bible. David the shepherd, David the warrior, David the king...all of the really cool stories about David, you know? Because God helped David do A LOT of big things.

This past Sunday, I led worship with the kids and then our really awesome storyteller, Piper, came up to tell the kids the story about when David defeated Goliath.

When I heard that was our story earlier that week, I didn't think much of it.

If you're anything like me, you've heard the story of David and Goliath like a billion times before. 

But, the cool thing about God is that His stories never get old. And as soon as Piper started telling the story, I was entranced just like the kids.

I hadn't really thought about the story of David and Goliath in a quite a long time.

Can you imagine a GIANT person? Like, I've seen a couple basketball players in my life that were maybe a little over seven feet tall. And one time at the Ripley's Believe it Or Not museum there were like statues of the tallest man ever...he was like eight feet tall. Well, Goliath was even TALLER!

And all of the Israelites in King Saul's army were terrified of Goliath. Every day, Goliath came out to mock them. And they let him. They forgot that they had a God who would help them do big things! 

But, don't worry. David took a break from watching his sheep and came to bring his brothers a snack.

When he heard Goliath come out and start his daily taunt, he was like, "Why are you letting him talk like that? Don't you remember? We have our God to help us! He will help us do big things!"

So, David went to gather 5 rocks. Rocks.

And he got out his trusty sling shot.

And he went to fight a GIANT.

A giant with a big helmet and armor and a sword and a shield.

And he slung that first stone around and around.

And BANG! He hit Goliath!

Right between the eyes!

Goliath fell over, and David won!

But not David really...GOD won!

God helped David do a REALLY big thing! And he did it in a way where he would get all of the glory! Because there is no way a little boy could sling shot a rock into a giant man without help from a really BIG God!

And that very same God lives INSIDE of me! And He's inside of you too if you've invited Him in!

Jimmy said on Sunday, "You have God IN you...so live like it!"

And that's what I want to do. And I challenge you to do that too!

"We have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles for us." 2 Chronicles 32:8

a Penny post

I'm going to be a wreck when Aaron and I have kids. I think I'll cry at every little thing they do. Not really. At least I hope not.

But, our Penny girl graduated from her beginner's training class last night, and I teared up. I had to fight back some tears. It's true. What is wrong with me?

It was mainly because we really liked her teacher, Amber, and she told us Penny was her last student because she got another job. She was saying bye to Penny, and Penny was giving her lots of kisses. And Amber said she loved Penny and that Penny was her favorite, secretly. (And obviously)

And I just got sad that Penny probably wouldn't see her again. :(

Anyway, I'm crazy. So let's move on to happier things.

Penny got an "A" in her class that she was in all by herself! The odds were in her favor, I suppose.

We were very proud of her.

Before we went in for her exam, we gave her a little pep talk in the car. We told her to just do her best and we were proud of her either way. (Again, we realize we're strange.)

If you remember her picture from her first day of school...

She wasn't too sure about it.

But, by last night on her sixth class...

She couldn't wait to go!

She performed all of the commands for her test very well. We were a little nervous, especially for her to stay in place for 15 seconds. But she did it...twice!

For all of her hard work, she got a fancy certificate.

We are so proud of Penny (and ourselves) for learning so much in school.

You know it made it to the fridge...