The Update- Cars, Concert, & Walk Thru NT

Just to let you know, the Crown Victoria was only out of gas (hooray!), but now it smells like gas because after Caleb & Chase put the gas can in the trunk, the lid to said can was not screwed on completely. The smell is either slowly lessening or I am slowly getting used to it.

The Taurus now has a new starter AND new front brakes. Apparently the breaks were ready to go out at any moment. So, when we thought the starter going out was a craptacular thing to happen, it was actually a blessing from God that I didn't drive the car to work and have the brakes go out on me and possibly get in some horrible car wreck. (But had I been in a horrible car wreck, all the glory would still be to God. As Paul says in Philippians, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.) We'll be picking up the ol' Taurus tomorrow. Paying for a new starter and breaks, while expensive, is a lot cheaper than a new car and hospital bill.

Moving on from the vehicle update, last night we worked a pretty sweet concert. Jason Morant, Nate Sallie, Big Daddy Weave and Todd Agnew. I was pretty disappointed, as were many others, that Jason & his keyboard playing friend Matt only did like three and a half songs. Quite a few people were there just to see them! I worked Jason's merch table to be rewarded by him throwing stuff at me (plastic wrapping and a pen to be more specific). Apparently he gets these urges to throw things at people volunteering for him, at least that's what he said.

Nate Sallie was much better live playing the piano than the album that I'd heard, which was labelled as "pop punk," or as I like to call, "faux punk." The album was pretty much teen-e-bopper music. It seems that he's trying to distance himself from that and has a bit more of a grown-up soulful sound. I enjoyed his performance, not that I'd say it was spectacular or anything, and I really would have preferred more J-Mo instead, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting.

The best part of Big Daddy Weave was the impression the lead singer did of Todd Agnew. They were pretty cool, I guess. Let's just say I'd much rather listen to them than 4Him or Point of Grace. Sorry if you're a 4Him or Point of Grace fan...

I was out in the lobby at Jason's table hanging out while Todd Agnew was on, so I didn't get the full Todd Agnew experience. From what I heard (both sitting there and from people who saw), it was pretty sweet. I guess you've got to be a fan of the distinct voice he has, too. I wouldn't say I'm a fan, but I wouldn't say I dislike it either. He seems like a cool guy. He talked about Jesus a lot.

So, after all the ticket holders left, we did some inventory and the set was torn down. Chase and I got home after midnight and were pretty exhausted. This morning we went to church. We studied some Romans 13 in Sunday school and started a walk thru the New Testament seminar during the service. It was pretty cheesey, but the silly hand gestures and corny jokes do help you (or at least me) to remember the major events of the New Testament. The people who stayed for the whole seminar were middle-aged, old, and then Chase & me. Even though I was way tired, I retained a lot of it and enjoyed myself learning.

We took naps when we got home and ended up not getting to do laundry (for the second day in a row that we intended to), so hopefully we'll get that done tomorrow. I did get some dishes done, though, while Chase was having a BCM leadership team meeting.

Now, as I bring this blog entry to an end (finally), I'm gonna go spend some quality time with my hubby.

Two Dead Cars

Right now we have two dead cars. The '99 Taurus wouldn't start yesterday. Apparently that's because we need a new starter. I drove the '91 (?) Crown Victoria to work after dropping Chase off the last two days. The gas gage was wiggity whack. It said we were on E, but by the time I'd dropped Chase off it said we had more than 3/4 a tank. I stopped and got gas, but it would only let me put in about three gallons. Then it said I was on E, of course. Chase drove it tonight and it died as he was on his way home. Hopefully it's just out of gas. Chase and Caleb are probably putting gas in it (or something) as I type.

But as of today, we do have our new license plates on it!

HP Withdrawal

Ok, so I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Friday night. I borrowed it from the library known as my sister's room. It consumed me so much that I read it in like 4 or 5 days (would have been less if I didn't have a job), and it's still at the front of my mind! I can't talk about it with Chase since he hasn't read it yet and isn't going to for a while. I'm suffering from withdrawal! I got to read books 1-5 back-to-back in the summer of '03 and was spoiled by it. I don't know if I'll be able to stand waiting for the next one to come out in summer of '07!

Yes, I'm an addict and the Harry Potter series is my drug... but it's so riveting!

Links if you've got nothing else to do...

I really don't have anything to do for the rest of the day here at work. So, I'm chatting with Rachel, who is at a one-day temp job answering phones and not really doing anything either. I decided to check some of my favorite web sites to kill the last hour of work, so I'll list some for you in case you, too, are trying to kill some time...

Stuff on my Cat-- People put stuff on their cats, take pictures, email them to some guy and he posts them online. This one never gets old for me.

Mean Kitty-- People send in pictures and stories about their mean cats. This one can get a bit old after a while.

Exploding Dog-- People send in topics and this guy does some cool drawings.

Homestar Runner-- Internet cartoon made with Flash. Much fun to be had here. My favorites there are Teen Girl Squad, Strong Bad Emails, and Puppet Time (the ones that are Strong Bad or Homestar VS. a little girl).

Weebl's Stuff-- More Internet cartoons. Check out the one about Kenya (you'll have to go pretty far back).

Lunacore Photoshop Tutorials-- Tutorials for doing stuff with Adobe Photoshop.



And here's something that Chase sent me last week: Real Life Simpsons Intro-- It's a live action version of The Simpsons show intro. It's pretty sweet even though it's European.

Bombarded

Since Chase is on a trip with the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) down in New Orleans doing relief work for the week (it’s spring break), and I didn’t go since I’ll be taking all my days off work this summer when we go to Poland, I went to visit my parents and sister in Ft. Mitchell, KY (just south of Cincinnati, OH). While I was there I judged an Odyssey of the Mind Regional Tournament, went to Andrea’s bridal shower, visited my Grandma Tate.... AND got bombarded with family drama!

It all came to light just after I had been thinking about how grateful I was that my family lacked the plethora of drama that I hear goes on in other families. The drama goes as follows:

● I have a cousin in jail. She had warrants for her arrest in not one, not two, but three counties.

● I have a cousin in the hospital with a fluid-filled collapsed lung, and he also has a “mass” in his chest. (He’d already survived cancer once, and he’s only 20.)

● There’s drama going on with my uncle’s divorce.

● My grandma had been on blood thinners, bled out one night losing something like 2/3 of her blood (I could have the amount wrong, but whatever it was, it was a lot), she was taken to the hospital where she received a blood transfusion, and she recovered in something like 3 days. She baffles the medical community. Oh, and she also has lung cancer and a pacemaker, (but I already knew that last part).

There’s a little more (mostly details of drama listed above), but there’s no reason to really go into that. Now, all of this drama is in my extended family (from both my parents’ sides), so I can be thankful that my immediate family is pretty drama-free... at least for now. As far as I know, Chase’s family doesn’t have too much drama going on, but now that I said that, there probably will be...

THE Circus is Coming!

Oh, I love the circus, I do! THE circus is coming to town, not just ANY circus, but Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s The Greatest Show on Earth®! As a subscriber to their “E-Zine,” I got 20% off some pre-sale tickets. And, yes, I got some pretty sweet seats. If you can’t tell, I’m totally pumped.

You may or may not know that when I graduated high school, I had every intention of going to Ringling’s Clown College in Florida and joining THE circus. I promised my mom that I’d at least finish college first. For admission to Morehead State’s honors program, I had to write something like page 72 of my future life’s autobiography. Most students wrote about discovering some cure for some disease or accomplishing something that would benefit humanity. What did I write mine on? It was about dropping out of school, going to Ringling’s Clown College, and joining The Greatest Show on Earth® with my (at the time) clown friend and pen pal in THE circus, Larry. Hey, I was accepted to and graduated from the honors program...

Needless to say, I did not go to Clown College and/or join The Greatest Show on Earth®. Not that I’m bitter about it at all, I love being married to Chase and living in Carbondale and working at a tiny Christian radio station. It may not sound like quite as an exciting of a life that being a part of The Greatest Show on Earth® would have been, but it is exciting. In the past year and 10 months, I graduated college, got married, and moved more than five hours away from my family to a place where Chase was the only person I knew. We had our first breakdown on the side of the road (honeymoon), I lived in my first home outside my parents’, got my first “real” job, and went on my first mission trip. I’ve done some traveling with Chase to some cities I’ve never been to before and have seen some great concerts. I’ve met some wonderful godly young ladies and made some great friends, and study the Bible more now than ever before (even more than when I first became a Christian almost seven years ago).

Chase and I will be moving into our second home together in May (where that will be is yet to be known!), and I’ll be making my second overseas trip this summer (Chase’s first time out of the country) to Poland to share Jesus with some Polish college students. I love being married to a campus minister. I love learning more about and growing stronger in my faith and listening to Chase teach, preach and discuss Jesus. The most exciting thing to me right now (leagues more exciting than joining the circus could ever be) is the prospect of potentially being a foreign missionary with Chase.

Looking back, I can totally see the sovereignty of God in my life. There is no way, absolutely no way that we would have ended up in Carbondale, Illinois together pursuing ministry of our own accord. Exciting times are here, and even more exciting times are just ahead, more exciting than The Greatest Show on Earth®.

[If anyone would like to go to THE circus April 13 – 15 at SIU Arena, let me know, I have a code good through Sunday for a discount on pre-sale tickets!]

*That picture of me with the clown nose is from the last time I went to THE circus two years ago.*