Brrrr...it's cold!

We've got a balmy 0 degrees here....which would be an improvement for some of you northerners....but is pretty cold for us! It snowed some more as well and my kids are going to be so bummed that they can't go out. We have this really nice guy up the street with a scraper/snow blower thing that always walks the whole block and scrapes our sidewalks clean. Which I'm totally grateful for (especially when we have 5+inches) but I'm not sure our little dusting needed done at 5 in the morning! That thing is loud!

This weekend I got out some fabric and made pillow shams for our bedroom (not the project I wanted to do, but it's nice to get something done). I'm going to try and do some curtains today....maybe a throw for the bed. We'll see if that's not too "matchy"

Chris got a ton of work done in the basement, so I'm going to try and clean down there some today. I'm debating painting down there while it's clean before we put stuff in. I think I have enough light blue paint....that would look nice with our brown rugs....I want to keep things nice and light down there since it's such a dark space. I'm thinking of (you know, years from now when we get done remodeling the bathroom and kitchen and get to working on my half of the basement) painting it a very light pink and making it sweet and girly. It's going to be a laundry/craft area.....

I also continued my search for a free piano. We have an electronic one...and it's really nice. Better than the real thing musically.....but I just love the look of a real piano. So, I thought I found one and was really excited because Chris and I looked up the serial number and it was manufactured in 1904.....which would make it an actual antique instead of just more "old stuff" in my house! I set out to go look at it saturday, but I could NOT find this lady's house! They live WAY out (like the closest interstate is a 40 minute drive!) I thought I found it once, but that was someone's driveway, not a road I was looking for. Then I may have found the actual road......but it was a sheet of ice going straight up the side of the mountain and I was afraid to try it. Four wheel drive won't help you much on solid ice! Everything was snow covered, it was impossible. If they list is again this week I'm going to BEG Chris to go look at it and if it's decent (in my head, I've glamourized this thing into a shining gilded glorious thing!) get it for me for Valentine's Day! It's free....so he'd just have to organize his friends to help get it for me!

Jordan is home from school again, due to cold this time....we're still under a boil water advisory, so I'm not sure if they could have had school anyway.

Our experience at "The Ridge"

Chris tells me that's what all the "insiders" call Chestnut Ridge Church....and that we ought to call it that as not to seem like outsiders. So there you have it.

It's definately a beautiful building. They must be doing something (okay, many things, there are lots of great things about the place) right to attract that many people. Not just that many people, but many of them who were not Christians before coming to church. It's a great thing to keep lifelong Christians happy, I'm not downplaying that. But it's a whole other thing to be able to communicate the Word of God in a way that it speaks to someone whose heart had been closed (in the past).

So we got there, take the kids to the kids area. We dropped Jordan off at his room (which was just 4th and 5th graders). He was fine, of course....he's always fine. Plus he had really been looking forward to seeing what the kid's service is like. They do a Bible lesson in small groups, then K-5th graders get together for music and drama, then back to small groups for more on the lesson. They were learning about service and how important it is. Just having Jordan be able to tell us something they learned about is in improvement in itself! He also said for snack they had grapes, cheese, and crackers. Hallelujah! A healthy snack! I'd been fighting with the children's ministry at our old church for years trying to get something other than cupcakes and Oreos fed to my kid right before lunch.

Celia also liked her room. The teacher there really know their stuff (concerning dealing with toddlers). The minute that she showed interest they wisked her right into the room and got er involved in Play-doh. She didn't fuss for one minute. I also noticed during service that of ALL those kids, they only flashed one parent page on the screen. Pretty impressive.

Chris and I made out way to the sanctuary and easily found seats. It wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be, Chris went back out and got us both drinks. They have theater style seating with cupholders (!) and encourage bringing coffee drinks to service. I noticed they had a coffee bar, but was surprised that it was free. Okay, so that was nice and all....not something I base my decision of where to go to church on, but a nice touch.

The music was really good. Everyone on the teams seemed very talented and sincere......which is nice. A little sad because I know if we stay there I'll never have a place among them (I just don't have that kind of talent)....but that may not BE my place anymore. I guess I worry about that overall....just being able to find my place there (whatever it may be) and getting involved. I'm not the kind of person who is content just to sit in a service on Sunday morning and call that Christianity. But the converse of that fear is that it's so HUGE and they have so many ministries, surely I can be used in one of them. I tend to have lots of big ideas and never the resources or support to pull them off.

Anyway, it felt a little impersonal to me.....but I think most of that is me having to adjust than anything the church is doing. I mean, it's been 3 years since Chris and I sat through a service together! That by itself is an adjustment. Plus I know no one there, so it's hard to feel that you fit in among so many people. They have a MOPS group, so I'm going to e-mail the coordinator of that and see if Celia and I can get involved there....meet a few other moms and kids.

We picked a good week to go since they are starting a 5 week series on "7 deadly sins". Today Tim Haring spoke about pride. It was quite good. Not life changing or anything....but you get out of it what you put into it. We're going to go for a couple weeks and see what we think.

Charlie Hall and Bebo Norman

Chris and I got to check out the Charlie Hall and Bebo Norman concert at Chestnut Ridge Church last night. It was really awesome. We saw Charlie at Willow Creek Church in Chicago when we were there for the arts conference. It was overwhelmingly awesome at Willow Creek, but I figured part of that was the venue (Willow Creek is an awesome place). But, Charlie was just as good last night a Chestnut Ridge! He also had more time so we got to hear commentary between songs. Both he and Bebo were pretty funny! Bebo's music was also great....but I prefer the "rock" of Charlie Hall. Plus, Chris and I had to leave early because we told Heather we've be back by 10 for Celia, so we had to leave before Bebo really got into his set. We did get to see and talk to Charlie in the hall as we were leaving, which was also pretty cool.

Chestnut Ridge is one of the churches that we're excited to be checking out during our "shop" for a new church home. I was surprised that I wasn't overly impressed with the Chestnut Ridge's worship team (they did an opening set). They were having some sound issues....and I know how hard it is to work with all that stuff when you have a guest group come in...things are changed to suit them. We're planning on going to the 11:00 service this Sunday. Jordan has already been to a Saturday night service there and enjoyed it, but they only have children's church on sunday, so I'd like to go then.

Celia peed on the floor in Heather's new kitchen. I kind of figured that would happen...but she had done so well with the potty training, I was hoping it wouldn't. Unfortunately....when you're new to the whole "peeing in the potty" thing, it rates way down on your priority list. Definately under running around the kitchen with your friends. So today we work more with running around the house, naked, potty training.

I'm also hoping to get to Morgantown and get some shopping done. Walgreens has a toilet paper deal (free) so I want to stop there. Plus I'm hoping to go check out this piano. It was list in the Giveaway section of our local paper. I've been wanting a "real" piano for quite some time. We have a very nice electronic one, but it's getting older and needs some work. Plus...the real thing is just a status thing for me. Anyway, the guy gave me manufacturer and serial number...Chris and I are estimating that it's form 1904! Which would make it an actual antique instead of just plain old (like most of our other things). The guy said none of the keys are broken, none of the strings or hammers are broken, though the hammers have grooves from playing the strings. So I'm hoping to go check it out then talk Chris and Bo into getting it for me. We'll see how that goes! We need a bigger circle of friends for projects like this!

Chuck is already here working on the bathroom! Hopefully we'll make some good progress this weekend and I can work in there this week! We're just at the point right now where it's all plumbing and cement....nothing I can help with.

Goofy kids at lunch.

Here are my two goofballs eating lunch. Ignore me and my blanket wrap. It's 70 in here and I'm still FREEZING! One of these days I'll figure out how to edit these videos so I won't be in them at all, just some funny kids!

Well, maybe just a little water....

Pleasant surprise this morning.....we still have water! It's not drinkable, but you can still flush toilets! I went with my friend last night to one of the sites where they were giving out drinking water than the guys working there had been told the whole city would be out by midnight.......thankfully it seems they were wrong! Local news here is a real waste of airspace and cover nothing....so everything you hear is just that...something someone "heard" from somewhere else. Very frustrating! We're still under a boil water advisory, and morning new said they didn't find the leak....so I got everyone nice and clean then filled the tub again. Just in case.

Chris and I are still hoping to go to our Charlie Hall concert tonight....unless Heather jumps ship. (not that i could blame her) She was talking last night of taking her kids and staying with her mom for a few days....I doubt she'll go unless we really do run out of water. I feel so bad because she stopped over last night after worship team practice. It was the first one without Chris and I.

Sunday morning.....oh the options! I think this Sunday we're checking out the church that's our current favorite....a mega-church the next town over. We also have several in our town we'd like to check out. Yesterday the music pastor at one of them took DH to lunch and told him how much they would love to have us there. He and his wife are great people and we'd love to spend more time with them, but I'm worried the church itself might be too similiar to the one we've just left on some issues (halloween, alcohol, homosexuality)......but we'll see.

So we continue on with Commondo Potty Training.....Day 2. Seems to be going well so far! No accidents and she tells me when she has to go. I really hope this happens.

Since Jordan's home I've got some cool science experiments to try.....static electricity! One where you mix salt and pepper together and ask him to separate them (!). Then you show him how you can make a balloon staticky and it will pull the pepper out. Another where you can make a meter to measure the static properties of different things.

Water, water everywhere....but not so much here.

It seems there is a water problem in my city....they think a water main broke under shifting, frozen ground. Maybe under the river! So some places are without water and we're all under a conservation warning. I went ahead and put some water in the tub, just in case we run out....for flushing, you know! It's kind of...silty, so not for drinking (not that I advocate drinking out of the bathtub anyway!) Will be good to have if we need it though. We have plenty of bottled water in the basement so I'm not worried on that account.

Potty training is going well! Only one partial accident....plus she poopied in the potty (which she hasn't done in ages!) I think it scared her a little because she looked frightened and the minute she was done she hopped off the potty and RAN out of there! She did come back to check out the poo though.....

She also emptied my "put this junk away" basket from the steps.....which made a huge mess but give me a good opportunity to sort and actually put the junk away!

Evolution and Making Change $$

Well I think we're going to try potty training today. Lately she hasn't been peeing on the floor when she decides to strip.....so we're going to stay home today, tomorrow, and saturday.....and see what happens. I figure if she's not trained enough to wear panties by saturday, then she's not ready yet. So we're just going to get the house nice and clean...maybe start on some Valentine's cookies.

I struck gold at Kroger with my free detergent coupons while Jordan was at his guitar lesson (they are across the street, along with several other stores. We usually run over there because it's easier to strap Celia into a cart and browse for half an hour than chase her around a music store!)I found 4 packages of my free detergent, so we got those. We decided not to go to church as Jordan's teacher called and the boys weren't having class....so no need to rush home. I stopped at the bargain store down the road to look for sheets for sewing. Nothing there, but I did find a really nice wool sweater for $1.50! Plus a bunch of high end scrapbooking stuff and some expensive baby blankets for really cheap, so I'm thinking of buying them and eBaying (I started eBaying again and it's going pretty well) Of course, those would also make pretty baby cakes.....so maybe I'll get a few for that too. Chris came home the other day saying how he thinks I should start making and selling them, so I'm thinking about it again.

We have parent teacher conference, so looking forward to that. He brought home math homework that seemed just ridiculous to me yesterday. It was an exercise in money and making change....but it was things like "Make .49 out of exactly 19 coins." Other than the whole logic/brain teaser aspect (which I know has points on it's own) can anyone help me figure out a life application for that or a connection/prep for higher math?

Plus they started talking about evolution....his teacher said "ask your mom about it because we as Christians don't beleive that". Okay, now I don't beleive every theory out there.....because lots of theories are just that.....theories. But I'm also not going to say all the fossils of dinosaurs, primitive man, and micro-organisms are fake just because they aren't in the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God....written by the hand of man. Can you imagine God trying to explain micro-organisms to Moses or Jacob? It would be like trying to teach your toddler algebra. And for what purpose? They needed to know that God was an all powerful creator....he created the heavens, earth, and everything in it. Not scientific details about things they couldn't possibly comprehend while they were trying to save the Israelites! Just because old testament man couldn't understand it, doesn't mean that God can't create it. Or evolve it. Or do anything he wants with it really......

Sorry, I got off track there. It was just difficult to have a deep theological discussion with a 9 year old while trying to figure out how to make .49 with exactly 19 coins! Not that I'm likely to discuss most of that with his teacher either (seems kind of nit-picky on the math and I'm certainly not going to debate religeon with her...what's the point? We both believe in the same God and salvation through Jesus....the rest is just details.