Don't Mess...

The title told us not to. We just didn't listen. We thought we knew better. I mean, we like the actor. It seemed like a funny idea. The previews didn't really look so terrible. Oh, but it was. Now, I'm pretty easily entertained. I'll watch a movie all the way through just to give it the benefit of the doubt. And I did that this time, too, but there was no reason to have given it any benefit of any doubt. It didn't deserve it. The first thing out of my mouth when it was over - besides a big yawn - were the words "that's two hours of our lives that we'll never get back." Ugh.
What? You want to know the name of the movie? Ok, it was "You Don't Mess With the Zohan." Just for the record, we strongly don't recommend this movie. Yes, Rick felt exactly the same way about it.
Anyhoo, not that anyone asked for my opinion, but there it is anyway. You can thank me later, unless of course you've already seen it, in which case I expect you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Reader response question:
What's the worst movie you've ever seen?

November

Well, tomorrow is December. I set out this month to write every day. I didn't make it. But I wrote quite a lot. Counting today, I've written 18 out of the 30 days this month. I say that's not too shabby.
I'll try to blog more often than I did before NaNoWriMo started, but it probably won't be quite as often as this month.
Some day I think I'd like to do a lot more with writing. Like I said when I started out on this crazy adventure, I think I'm pretty decent at it. I don't, however, think that I've done my best work this month. What I've done is I've made myself write. And that's something. Write? I mean, right? Lol. But yes, I would like to do more eventually. Maybe I'll follow in my dad's footsteps and write short stories and articles to send off and get published. I think I could see that for me more easily than a novel.
Speaking of novels, though... My mom is the one who inspired me to do this month of writing. I think I said at the beginning of the challenge that this is at least her third year joining in Nanowrimo. Well, this year she reached the goal! Actually, she exceeded it! The goal is 50,000 words toward a novel. Mom wrote 50,051 words. You can see some of them on her blog. You can link to it by clicking on the link off to the side here.
Well, thank you all for your support in my writing endeavors. As I said, I'm not done writing, but am definitely up for a break from it.

Later...

AMBER

Holiday Shopping

Black Friday. Why do they call it that? I don't remember hearing that term until a couple of years ago, but it could be that I just wasn't listening. I've kind of wondered how that term came to be. I started hypothesizing... Maybe it's because of how crazy it is out in the stores on that day. Maybe it's because, like yesterday, it can be so crazy that someone could get killed by the out-of-control crowds. Maybe...
And so, being me, I looked up the history of the name. It didn't say how long ago it was named that, but here's a little bit of why we call it Black Friday.
Apparently, employees of retail stores have called it that for quite some time because of how hectic the day is. Businesses then began using the name to refer to the profit earned on that particular day. We're all familiar with the terms "in the red" or "in the black." Those are used because businesses used to record losses in red ink and gains in black ink. This continues in modern day softward record-keeping. Obviously the day after Thanksgiving is going to show only black. Hence the name Black Friday.
Cool, huh? A little history lesson for you. Later I'll write about our Black Friday shopping experience this year.

the 1st Thanksgiving

Tonight in youth group, we talked about "the first Thanksgiving." Typically when someone uses that term, we refer to the whole pilgrim and Indian deal back in the early days of our country. As we were trying to find what sort of lesson to do, however, we ran across a study on the internet. Why do all the work if it's already been done for us, right? And so, we discussed Cain and Abel's offerings as the first Thanksgiving. Quite interesting. And applicable.

Normally when we think of Thanksgiving, we think of turkey, pilgrims, indians, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. And normally when we think of Cain and Abel, we think of two brothers, jealousy, and murder.

Look at it in a different way.

From the short passage in the Bible about Cain and Abel's offerings (Gen. 4:3-6), we can learn about an attitude of gratitude. Sure, it's catchy, but it's also so important and, ironically, so very easy to forget about during the hustle and bustle of the holidays. When God asked Cain and Abel
to bring an offering, He ended up being pleased with Abel's, but not with Cain's. What we got from that was that Cain basically put God after the other stuff he had going on. I think he gave God his leftovers from his crops. But Abel gave the fat part of the firstborn of his flock. No putting God second there. His attitude said, let me put God first and I know that He'll take care of me. Back to Thanksgiving, sure, we slow down on Thanksgiving day for about 5 minutes right before we pass the gravy to say what we're thankful for, but with what attitude, or with what mind-set do we give thanks? Is it with Cain's attitude of "I'll bring what's most convenient, let's just get this over with, I'm starving, so glad to have a couple of days off of work, please pass the turkey?" Or is it with Abel's attitude of "I am so thankful to God for everything that He has blessed me with so I'm bringing my best possible offering, let's really look at how much He has done for us, so what if the green bean casserole has to be re-heated, I want to give everything I have and everything I am to God?" Do you follow?

So, maybe the real first Thanksgiving, where we can learn about the attitude of Thanksgiving was thousands of years ago with Cain and Able, not hundreds of years ago with the Pilgrims and Indians.

I hope that God accepts my offering of thanks-giving.

Tradition

Tonight Rick and I each ate a piece of the top tier of our wedding cake. But it's not our first anniversary! Oh no! Well, the cake had been moved around a little and ended up in my Dad's freezer, so I picked it up when I was there this past weekend. We figured, since it had been frozen already once - and we weren't even sure if it would still be good after that - why risk re-freezing it only to wait 8 more months before we eat it. It would take up room in the freezer and then maybe not even be good.

So, we ate it.

It was actually really good. Rick even started to eat a second piece. Started - then he realized just how full he already was.

I've always wondered why we eat that cake on our first anniversary, so, being who I am, I looked it up. It turns out that back in the day, around the time of the first anniversary many couples would be getting ready to welcome a new baby into their home. Rather than bake another elaborate cake for the christening celebration, people would just bake a huge cake for the wedding, and save a portion of it for the christening. So, even though now the expectation of a new baby that soon after marriage is no longer held to, the tradition of saving a piece of the cake lives on.

Interesting, huh?

I thought so. I love looking into things like that, and I figured maybe my readers would find that interesting, too.

Another one I learned last summer, while visiting Monticello is about gifts for the bridesmaids. A lady in a shop there showed us a pewter hand-held flower holder and said that they used to be used as bridesmaid gifts. But that was before they put flowers in them. Originally, people would put some sort of good-smelling herbs in them and kind of hold them in front of their mouths when they talked. Reason? Bad breath. They didn't brush their teeth regularly and bad breath was apparently something they planned for. So, I guess brides would buy a nice one of these contraptions for their bridesmaids to put their herbs in and it turned into a tradition.

Do you know of any reasons for traditions that we do simply because they are traditions? Do tell...

Woot Woot

Let me see if I can set the scene for you... Over 7,000 girls in their teens and tweens. Friday night and Saturday all day. Screaming at the top of their lungs. Loud music. No, I mean LOUD!!! Wow!

These are some of the artists and one of the speakers we enjoyed this past weekend at the Revolve Tour in Portland. It was so much fun!

I have to admit that some of you might not have recognized me this weekend. I figure, hey, I'm here, I might as well enjoy myself. And I did. I was in there screaming as much as the girls at some points. Funny thing: my dad had arranged for me to sing on Sunday morning at his church and I honestly thought about calling him on Friday night after we got out of the opening part of the event and telling him that I didn't think I'd have much of a voice when I got there and that I might not be able to sing. But Saturday I started out in a kind of funk, so there wasn't as much screaming that day. I found my way out of the funk eventually, though, and had a great time still. And no, I didn't lose my voice. I was able to sing on Sunday morning.

Speaking of singing, I was talking with the girls on the way home - in between our dance parties in the car when we were jammin' to our new CDs we had bought at Revolve - and I brought up what we were going to do next week in church. You see, last year when we came home, we gave a sort of report to the church about what we saw at Revolve. I think it was important for both the church and the girls to do this, because it let the church see that there are things going on out there and that the girls are maturing, and it allowed the girls to let the church know some of the things that are important to them. Anyhoo.... so I started asking them about what they liked the most and what they learned and all that, and then I asked them if they'd like to sing in church with me when we do our sharing time. They didn't even hesitate - they said yes! They've got pretty good voices, so we've heard them do a couple of specials in church recently. We're going to sing "In Better Hands" by Natalie Grant - an artist we saw both this year and last at Revolve.

I appreciate all of your prayers. Everything went really well - the roads were super clear except for some fog on the way back, the girls were receptive to what was being done and said, I was patient most of the time :-) The only one that I won't really see is how their dad reacts to them and all they have to say about this weekend.

I apologize if this blog is a little disjointed. I'm pretty tired still. Ugh. But I did want to give my faithful readers an update on how the weekend had gone.

I'm going to bed. Zzzzzz...

Youth Group

It was a success!

Everything went pretty well last night at our first youth group meeting. Yea! We had 5 girls show up and we really think they all enjoyed the gathering. We played Guitar Hero for a little while before getting started, then had some goodies to munch on, played a game, talked about what "youth group" really means, played another game, and then had a lesson. I think the snack might have been a little too much sugar for some of them (as evidenced by their fidgeting during out talk) but other than that, everything went really smoothly.

I can see how this might not seem like such a big deal for many of you, but look at it from my perspective. I started attending this church 14 years ago, my freshman year of college. Since that time, I cannot remember any activities - ever - for teens. There have never been classes, mid-week bible studies, anything, for this age group. For me, as a middle and high school teacher for the past 9 years (can you believe it's been that long?), I have such a heart for these kids that it kills me to see them either going to children's church or falling away from the church.

So, for those of you who prayed, thank you. Keep praying. We plan to do this every Wednesday evening. In addition to praying for the youth group meetings, also remember that tomorrow is the day that I leave with two of these girls to go to Portland for the Revolve Tour. Should be fun! It looks like I also get to see both of my parents on this trip, which will be nice, especially since I haven't seen them since I got married. Looking forward to it!