It Seems

It seems that Sanctity of Human Life is attributed to fetuses, but what about all of humanity? I'm not raising an argument I am only pointing out that the sacredness and respect of human life is disappearing.

In Light of Abortion.. #2

There is also a great site Abort73

On January 21 I got this email from them.
--------------
At about 10:00pm Saturday night (CST), roughly 60 hours before President Obama was sworn into office, the new Abort73.com went live. If you've read my accompanying blog, you know that the launch was bittersweet for me. After more than a year of steady development, I'm thrilled that the new Abort73 is finally up. At the same time, there is still much more to add, and we've had to leave some sections temporarily redirecting to the old site. I would have loved for everything to be finished before we pulled the trigger, but this is too important a moment in history to let the launch slip back any further.
Tomorrow marks the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that struck down all prior prohibitions against abortion. Every year, January 22 is the center of the abortion calendar. This is when abortion gets the most attention on the national level. Yesterday, the first African-American president in the history of the United States was sworn into office. Tragically, President Obama seems more committed to the institution of abortion – an institution that has utterly decimated the African-American population – than any other president in our history. What does all this mean for the future of abortion in the U.S.? I honestly don't know, but I do know that efforts to educate this nation about abortion have never been more timely.
The fact is, presidents can generally only impact abortion on the fringes. Eight years of a president who supported abortion, followed by eight years of a president who opposed abortion, changed very little. We hear the importance of getting the right justices on the bench, but history has shown us that the ideology of the judge doesn't always match the ideology of the appointing president. And even when Roe is finally overturned, abortion would still be legal in most states. There is simply no easy executive or judicial fix, which is why Abort73 has and continues to throw all our weight into education. So long as the majority of Americans fail to grasp the barbarity of abortion, the laws of this land will never change. But as soon as that tipping point is reached, when hidden and abstract injustice becomes real to enough people, that's when victory will come, no matter who the president is!
--------------------

I've ordered a couple of their shirts. They offer flex pricing. Which is really cool, I think. They are an educational site filled with resources for us to share. It's a great tool. At least file it in your brain so you can pull info from it if you ever need to.

In Light of Abortion..

These 2 Articles are from John Piper's blog. www.desiringgod.org/blog
There is a disclaimer at the end of his articles saying feel free to reproduce and distribute the info and if you use it online post a link so I will do that for him. But I found both of these today and I thought they were good. He's got several recent articles on the blog that discuss abortion. Check it out if you have time.

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The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy
January 26, 2009 | By: David Mathis
Category: DG Resources

This week's sermon: "The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy"

Human life is a magnificent gift. No other beings in the universe continue to originate in God's image and live forever.

Despite the deceit and blindness in the world, the Christian church, throughout her history, has recognized the sanctity of human life. But the authority is not merely tradition but texts, like Job 1 and Psalm 139, which teach that it is God's prerogative to give and take life and it is God who knits persons together in the womb.

Luke 1 gives us a glimpse into the womb—and a glimpse into the inspired author's assumptions. Luke uses the word "baby" to denote not only the post-born Jesus in the manger (2:16) but also the preborn John in the womb (Luke 1:41, 44). Luke also notes that the preborn John was "filled with the Holy Spirit," a reality which the Bible only ascribes to persons.

The assumption is that the baby in the womb is a person. And the implication is that human life in the womb should be protected. The church's Savior didn't have to wait for birth to become a person; he was "Son of God" and "Lord" from conception.

-------


Fifteen Pro-Life Truths to Speak
By John Piper January 24, 2003



"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." - Jesus Christ

1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother's womb (except in the case of abortion).

2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.

3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is legal beyond this limit.

4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.

5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.

6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.

7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.

8. Ultrasound has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.

9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.

10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.

11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.

12. The outcast and the disadvantaged and exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.

13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.

14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.

15.Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.

Inaugural Quartet

Pre Recorded. Understandable.

Excited

Tonight:


Anna and David:







and





Adam and I:






are going to







The Hat:





for








Dinner:

Rain

Since it's raining today. I'm reminded of a SheDaisy Chorus. I love the words.
Oh I wish I were the rain
Chorus:
'Cause it can fall as hard as it wants to
Gingerly drip down a lover's face
Cry for hours and weeks on end and never
Feel a bit out of place
It can feed a field
Put out a fire
And never feel the pain
Oh I wish I were the rain

In the Office

Someone put a coke in the freezer and left it in there overnight. This morning it was pooled in the freezer and running down into the fridge.

We have a printer that is malfunctioning and everytime it prints it goes WHHAAAA WHAAAAAHE WHAAAAT WHAWHA EEEEEEEEEEEEET. It's really great listening to it.

I currently have a receipt sitting on my desk that is stained with dried tobacco spit. C has me keep track of his PCard and so he gives me all his receipts. That one he accidentally threw in the trash where it was promptly spat upon. I keep meaning to bring a ziploc bag to store it in, but I keep forgetting.

I splashed choc milk on my light blue shirt when I was driving to work this morning. Soooo I buttoned my sweater over it. R said "What is that, a new style?" I said "No, I spilled on my shirt so I'm covering it up." The supervisor came over and was really nice and said "How far do you live?" I said "20 minutes." He said "If it was me, I would just run home and change my shirt. If I was you I would just run home and change. We aren't busy this morning and there are no inbounds scheduled." So I got to go home and change and stain stick my shirt! Wasn't that nice?

The Ghostbusters Theme Song is playing??? Why? I also heard The Little Drummer Boy earlier???

How many overweight middle aged stinky techs does it take to work on a Motherboard that they ruined last week?

5 Months of Adam

Today is month number 5 that I’ve been Adam Howard’s girlfriend. I don’t know who reads my blog (Hi people) but I’ll just share a bit about him.





Facts:
Adam is a student at Master’s.
He’s a 4th year Junior majoring in Biblical Studies.
He recently turned 22 (so I follow typical Ashley tradition).
He grew up in Orange County with his mom and dad and he has 3 older brothers and 1 older sister.
He got saved when he was 19 and would tell you he has lived a radically changed life from that point.
He is currently working 3 part time jobs.
1. ASB Chaplain of the Master’s College
2. Chapel Tear Down Crew
3. PR/Marketing Rep for Embroid Me…
Adam plans on planting a church in Boulder, Colorado in the next few years.

Truths:
Adam has quickly become the love of my life. He loves the Lord and pursues the Lord in ways that far surpass my own pursuits. The Lord has gifted him with being able to teach (he has other giftings as well, but I will write about those later) and so Adam has a very broad understanding of scripture and is always able to help me and guide me into understanding and applying it to scenarios of life. He has been patient and loving yet confrontational with me as I’ve sinned. I’ve hurt him many times over in the past 5 months but he has held no bitterness towards me. He is so gentle with me and affirms me in many ways that I lack confidence in. He desires to just love me and provide for me and pursue me and is working those things into his everyday life. He swooped in and uprooted me from my routine and overturned my schedules and has been so great for me. He brings me the Word and he prays with me and encourages my heart deep down. We laugh together and enjoy being together. It’s been a great match and a great bond.

Adam moved up here a year and a half ago to attend The Master’s College. Over the summer he lived in an apartment with several (like 4 or 5) guys who all attend Placerita. In the Summer, Placerita hosts Summerfest. Since all of Adam’s roommates were going to this Summerfest thing he decided to come check it out. I play the violin every Sunday night. Adam saw me playing that very violin one Sunday in July. He started praying about me. He started asking friends about me. He gradually worked info out of friends and found my blog. He spent a month pursuing me and praying about me and getting advice from his dad. Adam knew about my divorce before he even introduced himself. One Sunday night when I was over talking to Lisa, Adam came over and introduced himself. The next day I had a Facebook email waiting for me. I wrote him back. He responded. So did I. We hit it off quickly and my friend Susan Isaac told me Adam was a great guy and that she highly respected him. Coming from Susan – that is HUGE. So Adam and I started talking a bit more. We eventually went out on a coffee date and talked for 2 hours with no awkwardness before I had to dash to Sylmar to give violin lessons. After that we talked on the phone a couple times then met one night, went for a walk and ‘DTR’ed. That was August 20th.

I think the thing Adam and I have seen to be the most encouraging in our relationship is the way the Lord has answered the prayers we have prayed together or for each other. Those prayers have brought out a lot of sin and a lot of necessary growth in light of that. These’ve been some hard months but really sanctifying. And that is a blessing of this relationship. It hasn’t been all hard and trial filled though. We’ve had some good times and some fun adventures.

We’ve already accomplished one of my dreams which is: To write a song! We pulled the words straight out of Psalm 145 and wrote a song in just a few hours.
We’ve traveled to Kyle, Texas where we spent Thanksgiving with Adam’s folks.



















We’ve traveled to Orange County where we played on Adam’s brothers worship team one Sunday morning, followed by a brief dinner with the Pope.
We’ve started a journal that we keep together where we chronicle things of our relationship that we don’t want to forget about/what we’ve learned/what we’ve prayed for.
We’ve finished one semester as a couple. And are beginning our second. (It’s like I’m back in school)
We’ve laughed and I’ve cried. Maybe Adam has cried too. I know he has come close.
We’ve watched Fireproof and Benjamin Buttons.

We’ve celebrated our birthdays and Christmas and New Year.












It’s been a good season. Full of growth. Full of richness. Full of profit. Full of blessing.

We’re gonna keep going.

Did You Know?

There is wood in ice cream?



I was reading through my 'On Board' Paperwork from W and I got to this:
1. WE LOVE ICE CREAM … Because it tastes good, of course. But also because it contains cellulose (wood) fiber. As do countless other products that might surprise you — toothpaste, photographic film and insulation, to name a few. For more than a century, W has developed leading expertise that unlocks the potential within every tree to help create solutions for people and the plant — from diapers to homes. The best part? Trees grow back. We’re proud to be making the most of this remarkable gift from nature — today, and for centuries to come.

Cellulose fiber is wood. So start looking at your ingredient labels and see how much wood you are eating everyday. The average American eats 14-15 grams but we should have 20-35grams. Check out this quick read about wood fiber in your diet.



I will post about mud next.

Celestial Follow Up

Adam and I were able to see the 3 planets all at once. It was so COOL!

Celestial New Year's Eve

Read this:

Celestial Show Set for New Year's Eve

Editorial Director
SPACE.com robert Roy Britt
editorial Director
space.com – Tue Dec 30, 11:47 am ETA delightful display of planets and the moon will occur on New Year's Eve for anyone wishing to step outside and look up just after sunset.


Venus, brighter than all other planets and stars, will dangle just below the thin crescent moon in the southwestern sky. It'll be visible -- impossible to miss, in fact -- just as the sun goes down, assuming skies are cloud-free.


Soon thereafter, Mercury and Jupiter will show up hugging the south-southwestern horizon (just above where the sun went down) and extremely close to each other. Jupiter is very bright and easy to spot; Mercury is faint and harder to see, but it'll be apparent by its location just to the left of Jupiter.


Jupiter and Mercury will set less than an hour after the sun, so timing your viewing just after sunset is crucial. You'll also need a location with a clear view of the western horizon, unobstructed by buildings, trees or mountains.


All the planets, along with the moon and sun, traverse an arc across our sky called the ecliptic, which corresponds to the plane in space that they all roughly share. For this reason, you could draw an imaginary line from the general location of Venus and the moon, down through the other two planets, and the line would point to where the sun went down. This line could also initially help you find Jupiter and Mercury.


Weather permitting, you can get a preview of the sky show on Tuesday, Dec. 30. On this evening, the planets will be in nearly the same place they'll be on Dec. 31, but the moon will be midway between Venus and the Mercury-Jupiter pairing.


One last trick:


Venus is so bright you can see it during daylight if you know where to look. Given Venus' proximity to the moon on New Year's Eve, this would be an excellent moment -- just before sunset -- to use the moon to help you find Venus and gain bragging rights for being one of the few people to be able to claim seeing more than one planet during the daytime (Earth being the other one).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081230/sc_space/celestialshowsetfornewyearseve

Penguin Baseball

Click the guy and the penguin will drop then click again to take a swing. =)

Official

So today I officially signed all the paperwork and am no longer a TEMP! My life is no longer my own.

In the Office

Someone has hooked up their iPod to the speakers and I just heard the Batman TV theme song and now the full Gilligan's Isle song is playing. Why? Why me *inserts earphones and turns up CHRISTMAS MUSIC**??

Christmas Music

I feel like I'm missing out on Christmas and I dont like it.. and it's not my fault so don't think this is a post about being too busy.

In my life this year there has been a serious lack of Christmas music. I've reached the point in my adult days that I can no longer wait until Thanksgiving to play Christmas music. So normally in October I bust out my favorite CDs and start playing them. However:

1. Work
2. Church
3. Eateries and shopperies

1. Until just 3 days ago we had a Christmas Grinch in our office who would NOT put Christmas music on. It's December. It's freezing outside. We have a Christmas tree up and shining in the office. But NO Christmas music anywhere. It started becoming a battle. The minute the gentleman who handles the music would step out of the office or go to lunch, a lovely co-worker would intervene with Christmas music, but the minute she left we were back to Lifehouse or Coldplay or Eagles.. .all very good music. But I can hear that 340 other days of the year. So what did I do? I brought in my own Christmas CDs and listened to them at my computer with my little earphones. What did that accomplish? A little bit. I got to listen to Christmas music. But the minute I had to move or get up it was back to Dave Matthew's or Colbie Callait or Queen .. all good music, just not fitting the mooooood. I began to resent the guy in control of the music who was really not supposed to be in control of the music. I began to feel really bad for my coworkers. I could listen to my personal Christmas music and even then it was interrupted. But Christmas is not a personal holiday and deserves to not be interrupted! So I had been working on mustering up some courage to confront this person. Couldn't do it. I didn't want the one co-worker who stepped up everytime to be left alone in her endeavors. I had planned on marching over to the gentleman and saying HEY! Give me Christmas or I die! But I know he doesn't work that way. If I challenged him he would become angry. So I waited. Several times I began an email to him, but I had to wait until my heart was more right and to make sure I could really phrase things kindly. Eventually, Tuesday I sent him an email. And mooooooooooostly since then we've had Christmas music. Still heard some Lifehouse yesterday and some Coldplay this morning. But at least I know my coworkers and I are cheered by the fact that we are hearing Christmas music after it was a bit of a battle to get it going and that we get to hear it for the few days before Christmas comes.

2. Our worship pastor at church whom I love and am thankful for and who does great work. Has refused and deprived the church of singing Christmas songs these past 2 Sundays at church. Mom sent him an email to find out what was going on and he stated that most Christmas songs words weren't what he was looking for in quality/standard that he chooses for the church and so he has avoided them. I wasn't sure what to think of that? My first response was that after coming through my divorce and it officially taking place at Christmas time I had worshipped to Christmas music over the past 2 years like never ever ever before. All those lines that you memorize when you are 4 and sing over and over and over every year had never been truly discovered or appreciated by me until just 2 years ago. So to say that Christmas music isn't worshipful - or at the least that there are just a few songs that are - hurt my heart a bit. I understand his desires and his approach and his goals.. just not sure that I really agree with him on this. Especially in light of Christmas music having a general lack this year.

3. When eating out or in retail stores. To me (- though I haven't paid attention at every place -) I am just not hearing Christmas music. I asked today at a local BBQ place why they weren't playing Christmas music and the guy just glazed right over the question basically stating that he had no idea why.

Sidenote: Everything says Happy Holidays. It's amazing that that only took like 3 years to reach full effect.

You know that song Where Are You Christmas? by Faith Hill? I don't really like that song.. but the title is reallly true this year. 'Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you?' Christmas is disappearing. There are many responsible for that, but we need to speak up so that we literally don't have to one day wake up and wonder where Christmas went.

Can you guys (who don't read my blog anymore) comment with some lines from Christmas songs that you find to be worshipful? Let's see what we can find.

I'll start it off:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel:
O come, thou rod of Jesse, free,
Thine own from satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell thy people save,
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave

Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

O come, Thou Wisdom, from on high,
and order all things far and nigh;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

http://www.liturgy.co.nz/reflection/oantiphons.html - straight scripture for the verses of O Come O Come Emmanuel

12 Days of Gifts

Costs: $86,000 dollars.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas,

My true love sent to me

Twelve drummers drumming,

Eleven pipers piping,

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle-doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree!

So how much does everything cost? Here's a breakdown for each item.

1st Day of Christmas
A PARTRIDGE

COST: $20 (last year: $15)

Also on 1st Day of Christmas

A PEAR TREE

COST: $200 (last year: $150)

2nd Day of Christmas
Two Turtle Doves

Cost: $55 (last year: $40)

3rd Day of Christmas
THREE FRENCH HENS

$30 (last year: $45)

4th Day of Christmas
FOUR CALLING BIRDS

$60 (last year: same)

5th Day of Christmas
FIVE GOLDEN RINGS

$350 (last year: $395)

6th Day of Christmas
SIX GEESE A-LAYING

$240 (last year: $360)

7th Day of Christmas
SEVEN SWANS A-SWIMMING

$5,600 (last year: $4,200)

8th Day of Christmas
EIGHT MAIDS A-MILKING

$52 (last year: $47)

9th Day of Christmas
NINE LADIES DANCING

$4,759 (last year: same)

10th Day of Christmas
TEN LORDS A-LEAPING

$4,414 (last year: $4,285)

11th Day of Christmas
ELEVEN PIPERS PIPING

$2,285 (last year: $2,213)

12th Day of Christmas
TWELVE DRUMMERS DRUMMING

$2,475 (last year: $2,398)

The total cost of 12 days of Christmas in 2008 for your true love? $86,609! An increase of about nine percent from last year's cost of $78,100.


And for those of you who get bored with the song.. you should check out Relient K's version of the 12 Days of Christmas. They do the whole song quickly and add a chorus that says the following:
"What's a partridge? And what's a pear tree? Well I don't know so please don't ask me, but I can be those are terrible gifts to get." It's great.

None of these items are on my Christmas list.

That's me!

A lady in the sales department at work was just on a call and I overheard her say, "We have one girl in here who is wearing mittens. That's how cold it is today."

That girl with the mittens has also been called "Snow princess." and "Alaska W Gnome."

Rain!

I LOVE THE RAAAAAAAIN! It's been raining all day.. and I don't mean overcast with a chance of drizzle.. or enough to just make the roads wet..it's good and raining outside. Enough rain is happening right now that you have to use your windshield wipers when you drive and you gotta wear a hooded jacket when you're out..ahhhh.. so great. Christmas.. here I come.

Christmas Trees

Up until yesterday I was able to say, "I've decorated 4 Christmas trees this year and notta one of them has been my own." Yesterday my parents got our Christmas tree and it was my job to put the lights on it. Then I had choir practice so couldn't decorate it. By the time I got home last night all the decorations were DONE. So in essence this year.. I can say I decorated 4-1/2 Christmas trees. That's a lot. I'll try and edit this post by adding a pic of our tree later.. when I'm home. Mom, get a picture ready.

Spreeder

This is a webpage that lets you insert a text and then speed read it. The setting are adjustable. I'm sure I'll never use it, but to me it's a cool concept.

http://www.spreeder.com/

Taco Bell

I think this story is precious!

Bored Thoughts

I am currently housesitting for a family from church. They have 2 dogs and a cat. The other day. I was in a different room of the house than one of the dogs. And I thought I heard a noise. So I went and found the dog. She was laying on one of the girls beds and had somehow pulled back the fitted sheet and ripped a hole in the mattress pad and was pulling the stuffing out. It was so random! She didn't chew a hole through the sheet and she didnt chew a hole in the mattress(phew!) but I was like...... what possessed you to do this?

I don't know how many know this.. I meant to blog about it a long time ago(but then my niece was born two weeks early and I felt lame posting pictures of a bass instead of her, ya know?). But I got hooked up with an awesome bass and amp and cord for a super great deal (courtesy of Ed at Cassells). I had taken a semester of bass in college and really liked it and always talked about starting it up again and now I am! I've been taking lessons from Todd Johnson and it has been really great! I'm enjoying it and he has been so encouraging!

I'm still really liking my job. I've been there 2.5 months now. The people there are so kind and so funny. It's been a great time. I've had many many spiritual conversations and have fallen in love with all of the operations guys. Probably not professional for me to say I love my co-workers but I do and I pray for them all the time. No word on permanence of the position yet.

Tomorrow night is an acoustic night at church. I'm really looking forward to it. Nate is bringing his upright bass, we will have an extra guitar and Mike is bringing his ukelele that has a hook up. Should be superfun. I've been in the Sunday Night Band for the past 5 or 6 years and it is one of my favorite parts of every week.

This morning at violin lessons. My first student was sitting in her chair getting her violin out of the case. There was a piece of paper on a boombox that is kept in the room and we could hear something rustling against the paper. So I looked over there and the paper was kind of moving. I was like ,"what in the world is that?" she was like "i have no idea." so I told her to back away a bit and i nudged the paper off the CD player and there was a giant cockraoach sitting there. Oh it was so gross. So we calmly walked out of the room and I went over to Ed and told him there was a giant cockroach in my room that I didn't want to take care of. So he did. Except he didn't get it... So I lived the lessons on the lookout for that gross bug.

What is it with giant gross insects/arachnids lately?

Also, I finally went to the Farmer's Market over in Newhall. Sarah DeWolfe and I went on Thursday and ate delicious tacos and fresh horchata. The produce looked amazing but was expensive so I passed on any purchases except for one thing. I bought some Tzatziki.. I can't say no to that stuff. I love it so much.

My friend Jonn gave me a CD to listen to. It's an oldie, but I had never bought it. It is praise from Oasis Church in downtown LA. Titled Bring It On, the cd is pretty amazing. Probably a bit wild for most of the folks who read this blog, but I turn it up and bump bump in my car everyday now. It gets stuck in the head like good music should. Makes me happy and makes me want to sing. And it praises Jesus!

Wood Spider

There was a spider exactly like this one at work yesterday. HEEEYOOOGE (huge).

The 4th day of the 7th month of the year 2008

Chelle and I decided to head out and watch fireworks. We got in the car and drove away but the road ended up being closed so I was like, "well I guess we will just watch them from Target's parking lot, IIIFFFF we can find a spot to park." We pulled in, quickly found a parking spot, walked to the cart rail thingy in the middle of the parking lot (that was filled with people hanging out) and waited oooh about 4 minutes when we saw a tiny fireworks show a ways away. Bear in mind that just about every year I am sorely disappointed by the fireworks I see out here. Meanwhile a giant firework exploded over our heads -- the mall was getting warmed up. Oh baby. At 9:30 the fireworks started and they were huge and loud and right ahead of/above us. It was PER-FECT!! They lasted 20 minutes and car alarms consistenly went off. That's when you know it's good. Some car in the parking lot was blasting patriotic music. So we were surrounded by booming fireworks, car alarms, and a car radio playing American tunes. It was great. I personally feel that no 4th of July is complete without one hearing the song Proud to be an American (which as the finale was going off was playing on that car radio.) It was spontaneous just like our trip to Ventura and the whole day turned out just right. Many thanks go out to Michelle and to her parents for flying her out.

Now we need to go work on our 1000 piece puzzle. You may not hear from us for a while. =)

Our Thrift Day

Moses? Christmas pageant costume?




















Are there any Sesame Street characters that are orange? Michelle pimped the collar, Oh SNAP!



















Like the wilting flower in the middle? Reeeeeeeeeeeeally makes a statement.






















Couple things: #1) Tapered at the knee. #2) Broad at the shoulders (showders if you are Michelle). Remind anyone of ... ANY (and by any I mean ALL) of the Ashley's? (As Michelle says, "You can only fit 2 in the backseat of a 3 seater backseat, not because of hips but because there is not enough showder room.").



















It's slightly precious don't you think?




















I think this hat is loud enough that it speaks for itself.