Rainy Day...

It's Wednesday and I already find myself looking forward to the weekend..

“- "I've been thinking Hobbes --"
- "On a weekend?"
- "Well, it wasn't on purpose..."”

Delicious Diaper Cakes!

Contributor : Lauren

• Considering the reaction I got from all the boys when we said we were having diaper cake at Rebekah's shower, complete disgust. I thought maybe I should post an example

• .....and here is just a fun little picture of the hostess, and the two women she couldn't have pulled it off without. I love you guys, and can't thank you enough!



• In other news Jami and I will officially take over leadership of our community group at the end of February. I am both nervous and excited of about this new opportunity. I'm praying that we will be gracious leaders, and that the Lord will truly start to knit us together with the people there. I hope that you will all pray for that with me!
• At church we are going through I Corinthians we are at about chapter five and six,  after taking a break over Christmas. I have been so encouraged by these messages. If you have time, I would recommend checking them out

http://www.southsidefellowship.org/weekly/sermons.aspx

10 things about Seattle

This will probably be my only post because after this Tim will make fun of me and I will never write again.   Here it goes anyway.

1. I am very homesick-
   I wasn't expecting to miss my family so much and quite frankly I wasn't expecting to miss Sarah so much.

2. I live in a beautiful place-

no this is not a google image, I can walk to this view from my house- amazing

3. I am blessed with friends here-

     I can't get away from the Slice family no matter where I am.  If it wasn't for Zach and Sarah I wouldn't have my best friend in Seattle, Sean Brereaton.  Sean has been more than willing to hang out whenever I can. 

Autumn and Brent are the married couple that I am living with.  They have been great guides and are willing to listen to me when all I want to do is be a baby and talk about how much I miss everyone.

4. This really is an art filled City-

     There is visual art everywhere and little parks everywhere.  As you can imagine I loveeee that.  

     Also this is a music filled city, I was at a different open mic night Friday-Sunday, that was incredible.

5. The Weather Sucks-

     I did just type that on the one day this week when the sun is shining, but typically it is grey and gross. This has been a bigger adjustment than I suspected, it takes me forever to pick out clothes for the day.

6.  The Lord is working-

      Talk about time for reflection, I have had a lot of time to myself and it has been amazing.  2010 was a little out of control for me, here I feel like I finally have time to think and pray 

7.  No work-

     You may have heard that I had a teller position at Bank of America.  Well I did, the manager hired me and all I had to do was take the teller test.  I took it and there were some questions on the test that wanted you to find the inverted numbers in a sequence.  Being a dyslexic person I could not complete this task and I couldn't be apart of the Bank of America team.  This morning I filled out four Starbucks applications.

8. Healthy Eating-

    Autumn and Brent eat super healthy and that is awesome but I am so hungry all the time.  Also they don't cook meals so I am missing your mom and her cooking a lot.

9. Shopping-

     I don't know how relevant this is to you guys but the shopping here is awesome.  There are like 50billion secondhand stores.  I haven't been doing much shopping because of the job situation but I will soon.

10. I am very homesick-

      I want to stress this point.  The other night I was telling Sean this funny story about the time when I spilled spinach juice on Zach and Sarah's kitchen floor.  All he said in response was, Do you have a life outside the Slices? I guess I do have a life outside the Slices but this family makes up some of my favorite parts of life.

(I am soooo gay)

Train of Thought

contributor:  Sarah


The following is purely a line of thinking that I was encouraged by today.  Sometimes, I am so thankful for the ways that the Lord shows himself to me and encourages me through everyday situations.  For the believer, or maybe just for me, life can be one great big allegory for God's love for us and the Christian "walk".  Here it goes.

1. Sometimes while I am on my break at work I will read status updates on Facebook while I drink a cup of coffee and rest my weary bones.
2. I have noticed lately that our dear friend, Shelley, uses a lot of quotes as her facebook statuses.  Who doesn't love a good reminder of the ways that people can say simple things so profoundly?
3. This morning I was surfing Facebook and read the following quote on her facebook from a man named William Shedd (whom I am unfamiliar with):  A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.
4. I got to thinking about how this adage might be helpful in daily living, and was reminded of something Zach was talking about during sunday school yesterday morning.  I can't remember exactly the context, but he said that it can be easy for Christians to get so caught up in studying the scriptures that they become almost "monk-like" and are not functioning in the real world.  And the Christian life takes place in a real fallen world.
5. So I began to think of myself as a ship.  i.e. it would be easy for me to lock myself in a room and study all of the time, but the scriptures are applicable to our lives.  The scriptures place a certain calling on our lives.  And it is difficult to implement the Lord's calling on our lives if we don't live them.
6. Next I started thinking about the movie The Book of Eli.  For some reason I was reminded of the scene towards the end when Denzel Washington arrives safely at Alcatraz where all of the forward thinkers are living with the intention of bringing their world back to its former state.  Eli tells them that he has a copy of the Bible to share with them, and Malcolm McDowell's character asks what condition it is in.
7. I don't remember the exact wording, but Eli says something like:  It is pretty beat up, but it will do.
8. At this point in the movie, viewers are beginning to realize the plot twist that the main character is in fact blind, which is what makes his answer regarding the state of the scriptures so beautiful to me.  Sometimes I feel like I can relate so well.
9. The scriptures were "written on his heart", so when asked to describe the bible's  condition, he referred to the battle and struggle that he had gone through getting it there.  Perhaps you can all relate to my feelings of empathy with the character.  Every believer has wounds and scars from the battle, some deeper than others.  But despite our often becoming so weary (is that the right usage, Jim?) in the fight, because of God's great love for us, we will do.
10. So even thought we are safest in the "harbor", to return to my original analogy, that is NOT our purpose here on Earth.
11. It is possible that making these connections seems like a bit of a stretch, but this is my train of thought and you are welcome to get off at the next station. 
12. I greatly enjoyed conversations with friends tonight at bible study, and was thinking back to this train of thought.  Fellowship can be soothing to my wounds.
13. I was also encouraged to read about the success of your first small group meeting, Jim.  We have been so encouraged by the small group that we are a part of.
14. Taylor and Jami: POST!
15. I'm too sleepy to re-read this, so I apologize for errors that I might have missed.

contributor: Jim

Writing on blogs takes me about a thousand times longer than it should. I always draw a blank about how to begin. I'll think of something, figure out how to phrase it, type...then erase the whole thing for sounding trite (I'm resisting that urge right now).

So, highlights from my week:

• Two Friday's ago, the doctor told me I may have walking pneumonia. That or maybe chronic bronchitis. I've been taking antibiotics, but I'm not sure it's working. I got tired just from cleaning up for small group yesterday.
• I was totally snowed in during the storm. One report from about a week before the actual snowfall predicted it would snow but wouldn't stick. For some reason, that's the report I believed and was banking on. I kept looking at the expected temperatures and thinking that even if the air temp was around freezing, the ground would surely be warmer and melt the snow. I didn't take any precautions. I parked in my normal spot in my driveway, at the bottom, and, consequently, couldn't get out until Wednesday. When I was going to work on my normal route on Thursday, I got stuck twice, once when my car slid off the road (fortunately I was only going about 5mph at the time), and another time when I couldn't get the car up an icy hill.
• My small group at church met for the first time last night. The Lord exceeded my expectation in every way. The group was amazingly diverse in age, with couples in their 70's, 50's and 20's, a college freshman, two engineers from Duke and a single mother in her 40's.  Despite the differences, we bonded easily and are looking forward to the things the Lord will teach us.
• Looking back over my post, there were a frightful number of grammatical errors to correct.

Snowlights and Highlights

contributor:  Sarah

Well, folks, it seems the "Great Blizzard of January 2011" (as history will refer to it) is coming to a close.  I am elated to announce that we all survived.  Here are some notable points from this wintery week...

• I too drove in snow and ice for the first time, because although most businesses that provide legitimate services were closed due to inclement weather, I worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  While it was still dark outide, and Zach was still asleep (because banks were CLOSED) I drove through the frozen tundra of death to work, because we couldn't possibly live without coffee...
• I got off a little early on Monday while the snow was still prime and Zach and I went sledding with the Bakers at Simpsonville park.
• It was really fun.
• People were NOT nicer to their coffee providers on account of the winter weather.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that inclement weather forced more jerks to come to Starbucks than normal.  Most of them scoffed at those who were reluctant about driving on the roads, and expected us to read their minds when they ordered drinks.  They also tipped...terribly.
• Guess what.  I got promoted to shift supervisor.
• I miss you all.  I'm sorry to those who have sent me messages this week, and I have been neglegent to respond.
• I'm a jerk.
• A new season of Jersey Shore is underway.  Not that we care....
• Oh yeah...reason #423 why I want to go back to college because the real world sucks:  NGU students were supposed to check-in on Monday and start classes on Wednesday.  Because of the weather, they moved check-in to this coming Monday.  Extra week of vacation.  Yes, please.
• I love you guys.

Whenever I see the word "highlights" I always think of the children's magazine

Contributor: Lauren

• On Monday I drove in snow for the first time ever, which is in part thanks to my mom helping me to wait so long. I made it all the way across Greenville and in to little old Simpsonville. I know it's little, but it was a proud little moment for me.
• The last two days have been typical movie watching, hot chocolate drinking, walk in the snow.... snow days
• I went back to work last night and overcame my fear of the dreaded black ice
• Grover is still here, clawless, but ferocious as ever
• Slowly starting to plan for Rebekah's baby shower, the count is up to fifteen people. I better hurry up since I lost some  time on Monday and Tuesday
• Oh I set up skype this week. Haven't actually tried it but I'm easing my way in
• Hope all is well where ever everyone is hailing from now!

Yellow Snow

Contributor: Zach

Ike hears, Falling Snow
A Canvas, White...Cold

Like Midas, He Turns it Gold

Retribution...

Contributor:  Tim
Today, I was able to visit the Herringtons at the church Phil pastors, Atascocita Community Church.  I greatly enjoyed the time I got to spend catching up with Phil, Jennifer, and Carl as well as meeting their two youngest daughters, Becca and Reagan (I'm not certain of the spelling there. Regan? Ray gun?).  I especially enjoyed the part where they fed me (spaghetti made with venison that Phil hunted himself).  The highlight, though, came when Jennifer, amidst laughter, asked to share a story from the first time our two families met.  I had to promise I wouldn't share the story with the subject before she would tell me.  I have decided to immediately break that promise only hours later and the actual decision to do so came much sooner.
As we all know ever since Sarah has been able to speak, the rest of us have suffered under the tyranny of her exquisite memory when it comes to our past grievances against her as well as embarrassing moments from our childhood.  Considering her penchant for such recall, it is now very apparent to me that she has either been holding back some choice moments or can only remember those things which we do not want her to.  I'm certain I will regret this later in life as Sarah will remind me of the time I posted an embarrassing story about her on the internet, but everyone will have mysteriously forgotten what that story was. 
According to Jennifer, our families were introduced by a mutual friend.  I say "According to..." not because I do not believe her, but I have no way of verifying or refuting the details and do not want someone coming back later and saying that it actually happened some other way. I don't care.  Assume that all the rest of the story is according to her.  This mutual friend had previously gone to church with us and recommended Phil and Jennifer meet the Slices.  Phone calls were made and a dinner was arranged at our house.  The main course for the evening was pork chops and I think we can all agree that mom makes excellent pork chops (Sarah would probably especially agree).  As everyone had finished eating for the most part, the children had gone off to play and the adults had sat around the table getting to know each other better.  At some point during the conversation, mom was horrified to discover, along with everyone else in the room, that one of her children was not finished eating.  Sarah, who was a little over a year old at this point, had been picking pork chop bones out of the trash and was eating whatever meat she could find left on them.  Naturally mom was mortified, but her guests found it to be such an amusing occurrence that they still remember it some 20 odd years later.
I hope that all of my siblings are able to come visit me as soon as possible in Houston and spend some time with the Herringtons, but I must warn you, Sarah, that they think you eat trash here.



Highlights of Today- Purpose Statement

contributor:  Sarah

1. This blog was inspired by a conversation that I had with Taylor a few days ago.
2. She asked me to tell her "little things" that were going on in our lives, so that she wouldn't feel so far away.
3. Because human contact is becoming more and more inconvenient in this day and age, I figured this would be a compellling avenue for us to share day to day happenings with one another.
4. Also, I thought it would be funny.
5. Simply post as often as you would like with a list of "highlights" or various occurences from your day that our siblings might find humorous, interesting, or encouraging.
6. Make sure you indentify yourself as the contributor. 
7. And I could use some help on the "About Me" section--that means you Jim and Tim.
8. Here goes Friday's highlights:

• We just rearranged our bedroom.  I love the fresh feeling of change.
• I recently got this new pillow at Ross for $5.99. It is awesome! I love the ruffleness of it, the burnt orangeness of it, and the $5.99ness of it.

• I just found Ike underneath the bed trying to get into a bottle of prescription meds.  I didn't even know he was unhappy.
• And the best for last:  On my day off this week I did a bunch of laundry, so I was delighted to put on a clean work shirt this morning.  I worked from 7:30am until some time after 2pm without realizing that there was a pair of underwear (from the laundry) stuck in the sleeve of my shirt.  I realized in the middle of helping a customer, and could barely contain my laughter to get his muffin for him.