It's A Collision

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:4-7).

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you " (I Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Taking a fresh look at these verses. More like it, taking a fresh look at God. At myself. At life. Being a Christian for 21 years doesn't mean anything. Sometimes I feel like I'm just starting out, like I just found out there is a God. Sometimes I don't even know what faith is. And most of the time I don't deal well with having to trust. That implies limited or no understanding, and that's hard. But since "control freak" and "Christian" don't go together, I know I can't camp here. Not if I want to be happy, or at least finally grasp what it means to live with joy.

This time I can't bring myself to renew the same promises, nor trick myself into thinking I've repented. It has never worked. I can't just pray and say, "Ok, God, you can have me" while hoping for the best. All I know to do is grab a hold of God's pinkie and pray for Him to get me through this moment. And the next moment. And the next. I have to live in the present. I know I am still going to fail and let my emotions reign, but I can't live like that's a sure thing unless I want to defeat myself. It would also cause me to miss out on moments of peace and opportunities to praise.

This is so not easy for me. To praise when life throws a curve? Are you kidding?! I set out to make something work, and it's gonna work!!!

For so long I've had all the right answers. I've quoted Scripture and believed all the right things. But seldom have I thought about this realistically. Of course all you do is trust and obey! There's no other way to be happy in Jesus! That's sanctification in a nutshell. Two little words even a 5-year-old can quote. Sounds simple enough…until you wind up in a "circumstance".

I would venture to say most people have several "circumstances" on any given day. We make small things big, and big things bigger. We find ourselves stressed or frustrated or hurt or angry or disappointed or just plain ugly! Sometimes I feel all of the above and boy is that is a circumstance! Tell me then. Tell me in that moment to trust and obey! Ha! You'll see me turn m my heel and walk the other direction! I could even read it straight out of Scripture, only to shut the Book and go do my own thing. I'm just being real that it's difficult to believe God amid circumstance. So how can I consider praise?

I realize that I am responding in the flesh with these words. I know all too well that the Spirit provides a wealth of faith if I will just draw from it. Yet in the moment all I can see is the problem and the unfairness of it. Of the unfairness of God. I don't like those thoughts but I have to confess them. It doesn't matter what the circumstance is, whatever I face is big and hopeless and final and "out to get me". I see God as something of a trickster, Who gives only to take away, as if life is just one big test and you can't really fully enjoy anything or it will be snatched away. A God Who wants to pour nothing but difficulty into our laps when we submit to Him. A Being who doesn't really care about our happiness, only our holiness.

What has happened to my understanding of God? Why do I fall trap to these lies again and again?

I'm weary of knowing all the right answers and them not being real in my life. I desperately want a correct view of God so I can fully learn to trust Him with my deepest being and my most beloved possessions. I want to find the link between happiness and holiness, an understanding that stems from more than a textbook explanation. I even want to find, in spite of myself, praise spilling from my mouth in the darkest of moments and with the heaviest of hearts.

I really want to get this!

If it ever happens I know that it will be ALL Spirit and none of me, because praise is only natural if I'm directing it at myself. I need to figure out what happened to my new heart and pull it back up to the surface and recover that song that's been lying dormant. And I must not look ahead of this day (often this hour!) or else I will surely conjure up a million negative scenarios that will most likely never take place, and I will spend an hour worrying about it and maybe even crying a little. Over something that is not true! I forecast all these horrible things that will happen and cause misery. A "nothing is fair and nobody cares" mentality; all of it destructive.

It's the lies.

I need Truth!

And so I picked up an old Catherine Marshall read called, Something More. And she has been there! Halleluiah!! I have found somebody with whom I can relate! Most of the time people hide behind their perfect faces and perfect families and perfect schedules. I'm guilty along with the rest of them. Transparency leaves us feeling vulnerable, and so it's much safer to keep our hearts in the shadows and merely socialize instead of experience true fellowship. Can we even find fellowship anymore? Ahh….thank goodness for the blog. He never lets me down and I feel safe with him.

I don't need people to tell me what to believe or do, I need people to tell me they understand.

Something More isn't preachy. It doesn't provide Scriptural pat answers nor a false sense of security like some do. Ms. Marshall fully recognizes that this stuff isn't easy. She's more like, "I'm right there with ya, girl, but let's not give up!" She certainly doesn't claim to completely understand God, nor His ways. I imagine she struggled as a Christian up until her last breath. But she provides hope amid the struggle. The little snippets of her experience (the defeats as well as the victories) and the anecdotes of other saints who also didn't give up seem to be just what I need. She isn't afraid to ask the hard questions, no matter how silly they sound in light of Scripture's clarity. She knows that faith is so much easier to discuss in a Bible study than it is to practice in the real world. "Is God in everything?" is her first question. Even in evil such as death, illness, and suffering? And while Ms. Marshall's answer is "Yes", she doesn't eliminate the struggle to accept this, even after a biblical monologue painting a better understanding of God.

While I am slow in coming around, the answers are making their way to my heart, and I am facing them, as I mentioned earlier, in a fresh way. Learning and meditation is the step I'm on, and it is a process. I know I will fall, so all I can aim for is a conscious desire to get right back up.

"Grim circumstances of quite a different nature faced our Dutch friend Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie during World War II in Ravensbruck, the Nazi concentration camp. The sisters had been hauled off to prison for aiding Jews in the Dutch underground in their native village of Haalem" (Marshall 28).

Although found in chapter 2 of Catherine Marshall's Something More (pp. 28-29), the following is taken from The Hiding Place (Washington Depot, Conn.: Chosen Books, 1971), pp. 180-181.

At one period of their imprisonment Corrie and Betsie were transferred from crowded cells (where they had been separated for months) to Barracks 28. Within the hour they discovered that their reeking straw bed pads were crawling with fleas.

"How can we live in such a place!" Corrie wailed softly.

Without answering, Betsie immediately began praying, "Show us, Lord. Show us how." Then a moment later excitedly, "Corrie, He's given us the answer! I read it in the Bible this morning. Here—read that part again."

It was in I Thessalonians. "Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus—"

"That's it, Corrie! We're to thank Him for every single thing about the new barracks."

"Such as?" Corrie was trying to look with fresh eyes at the half-dark, foul-smelling room."

"Such as being together here."

"Oh yes."

"And having managed so far to hang onto that Bible."

"Yes—oh, yes. Thank You, Lord, for that."

"And for the fleas—"

"Betsie, I see no way I can thank God for fleas."

"But fleas are part of this place where God has put us. 'Give thanks in all circumstances,' it says. Not just pleasant circumstances."

So the two women thanked God for the fleas.

As the days wore on the prisoners in Barracks 28 discovered that there was an astonishing lack of supervision or interference. Corrie and Betsie used the unprecedented freedom to talk to the other prisoners, read the Bible to them, minister in a myriad ways.

Then one day a supervisor tipped her hand as to why they were given so much latitude. Some of the women had called through the grilled door to ask the supervisor to come and settle a dispute. She refused, as did the guards. "That place is crawling with fleas," the supervisor said. "I wouldn't step through the door."

Corrie's mind rushed back to their first hour in the barracks and to their rueful prayer thanking God for fleas. When she looked up, Betsie was chuckling, her eyes sparkling. "So now we know why we were supposed to praise Him even for fleas. Even the fleas had to be His instrument for our good."

Just wanted to see if this works!

I should clarify a couple things about this blog... I think where I am going with the theology topic pertains to a swing in the opposite direction from what I experienced growing up.

On one hand, you have those who think they are right about every theological detail, to the extent where the point of separation even includes dogmatic stances on "gray" issues. I have seen that over and over... pios splits over Bible versions, Tulip points, and whether one is a dichotomist or trichotomist (meaning, are our beings comprised of two components–body & soul, or three—body, soul, and spirit? All basically futile in argument.) I will say, while the study of the differing views can be healthy and lead to Christian growth (if in the right spirit), they are definitely NOT essentials to the Christian walk.

However, we are noticing the pendulum swing to the other extreme: individuals, churches, and even recent Christian movements that focus on relationship with Christ (which is good), but they, too, are unbalanced. The relationship remains sort of a mystical relationship because there is no substance. They don't know much about the God to whom they are praying because relationship is emphasized over in-depth study of His Word. And both are so crucial!

Now that I'm out of my Bible college bubble I realize that being a Christian isn't about legalistic rules. Yes, freedom in Christ is a beautiful thing! Yet that doesn't give us an excuse to remain ignorant about the character and working of God through what is called theology. Theology simply means the study of God. If we neglect that, our faith is going to be based on fluff. And even those of us who have received a foundation in theology, if the study of God is not emphasized, will raise children and grandchildren who run the risk of developing unbalanced Christian lives.

People "do" theology every day without even knowing it. We all stand for views we know little about. I am guilty of that all the time! We will not truly have an authentic relationship with God unless we know who He is. And we won't know who He is without diving into His Word. So I guess the purpose of this blog is, without bringing up the other end of the pendulum or rather, assuming it exists (theological arrogance and legalism, that is), I am just hoping for more of a balance. And that we as individual Christians can be instrumental in encouraging our churches toward this balace by our life example.

You can't have substance without relationship, and you can't have relationship without substance. I am simply focusing on the latter statement, which is a new trend I've experienced at this time and in this corner of the world. I'm not experiencing the former statement as much as I used to, though it still exists.

I was hoping the last few paragraphs would bring the balance aspect to light, but clarification can be a good thing. So please read the following with this tedious and unintentionally preachy disclaimer in mind. :)

Any takers to start the first ever perfect church??? j/k

**********

Jeromy and I have felt a huge need for the local church to offer classes/courses in theology. I think a lot of pew-sitting Christians hold to a blind faith, and that the biggest reason they fear sharing their faith is because they don't know what they believe or why, or at least can't explain it. I went to Bible college and still don't have answers to many, many questions! Maybe the church is comfortable with settling for this kind of shallow understanding of their faith. It's easier to be ignorant about tough questions and just simply follow a list of rules.

Christians today seem to want to appear spiritual/godly. We want to know we are ok, yet we don't want to check our innermost being that God knows all too well. We're afriad of what we'll find...that we're not as spiritual as we thought. We are afraid we will find complacency and arrogance.

But...a new heart will push past the tension and probe the depths. That's maturity. True faith will want to grasp concepts like "sola scriptura" and to be able to understand why the ESV version of the Bible is just as ok to read as the KJV, that the text is still inspired. A new heart will seek out and take advantage of opportunites to grow in knowledge and truth, so that we can accurately pave the way for a lost soul to know our Savior too. But for the very least, for our own growing experience!

Many doubt the sufficiency of Scripture, or even the relevance of learning theolgoy. The fact is, we can find answers to most of life's questions, at least with as much revelation as God has given us. We can't, however, accurately solve age-old debates such as God's sovereignty vs. man's free will nor explain the Trinity, which is not even a biblical term, etc. Because God is God, there will always be some element of mystery. But...I believe we can understand more than we think.

We shrink from the questions of others because they boggle our own minds. If only the church (I say the church because this should be the highest equipping priority) would do more than preach morality and allow their congregation--struggling saints like you and me--the chance to really know our faith, this wouldn't be as big an issue. But instead they resort to Sunday School lessons and potlucks. (Not as a rule, but a very real trend.) There is no excuse, with the wealth of resources out there from which to choose. And even then, what it really comes down to is individuals taking responsibility for their own sanctification. Go beyond sitting in the pew. Get involved. Start a home study. Learn how to read and apply the Bible. Purchase a Greek or Hebrew lexicon even!

Jeromy has been taking a couple of online theology classes, and I have been fascinated, going through the material and video sessions with him. I am learning things that I had forgotten or wasn't even taught in my own doctrine courses! These sessions are greatly helping me understand things like why I can trust Scripture is innerant as well as infallible, and things like why I believe one cannot lose their salvation. They are answering questions most believers hold in their hearts, including some who just don't care enough to pursue answers, or simply don't believe answers are out there. Or, perhaps they are afaid of what God might ask of them once they lose their ignorance by gaining insight. Do we want God to use our lives or don't we?

I'm just saying theology is good and needed and too often underrated among believers in general. There is maturity in wanting to know what you believe and why. It's sanctifying and God calls us to it. We can only feast on "milk" for so long before we are found out!

However, there is a crucial balance that becomes difficult when one begins to pursue theology. I have met too many seminary students and grads who speak of their simple faith and passion for God drying up because they have immersed themselves in words like efficatious, soteriology, and imputation. So we must be careful to keep perspective.

In sum, at times the church is often sub-par when it comes to equipping its saints in this way. Each generation of ignorant Christians is only going to produce the same. At the same time, teaching theology for the purpose of knowing God and desiring Him more is the objective that is probably most biblical. We study because we love God and want to emulate His Son, not because it will make us into prideful know-it-alls and great debators. We are to speak the truth in love, but we must first be thoroughly familiar with what that truth is.

And while we encourage our local churches to see and meet the need for deeper theological understanding of their members, each one of us must still take the initiative because we are adults.

October 10, 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

The air has turned autumn cool, but these two hearts are still basking in the glow of the summer heat – August 12th, to be exact. This “collision” (love story), which initially took place this week least year, continues to keep us brimming with anticipation for what this journey holds for us.

We just wanted to take an opportunity to share how we are doing, and to thank you for generously being part of our beautiful wedding and all the events surrounding this exciting new chapter.

As a senior in high school, the BQ (Big Question) is always, “Where are you planning to go for college?” Just before college graduation, the typical BQ is, “Where will you work next year?” Fortunately, since Jeromy and I experienced a whirlwind romance with a relatively short engagement, we didn’t get too many of the, “So when are you guy stying the knot?” Thankfully, we haven’t even experienced the classic newlywed BQ, “When are you planning on having kids?” Bless you ALL for that! We’re not telling. However, the BQ we ARE getting lately, is, natch, “How’s married life?”

Where to start?!

When we told one man in our church we were getting married he said, "The sooner, the better. It frees you up." So we took his advice! He's wasn’t kidding. Being married has freed us up in so many ways. The best part is not having to go to separate houses at night, that was such a hassle! It’s nice to have everything we need in one location. We have our apartment organized as well as we can with what we’ve got. We haven't really decorated yet, as it’s difficult to come up with a “theme” in a 2-bedroom apartment. Plus it’s expensive. But we love our little home, even if all we have are picture frames and candles. What more does an American couple really need, anyway?! Our condo is set in a quiet, woodsy neighborhood and is a perfect place for starting a life together.

Lately we've been having wonderful Sunday School and Bible study groups, very challenging and great for fellowship. We couldn't wait to spend more time getting to know other Christian couples around here, now that we’re no longer hermit wedding planners! We've also gotten involved in the church's missions & evangelism ministry, and we’re veryexcited about that. We’d like to develop some life-long friendships, and I think we’re finding that at our church!

If we’re going to invite any of our friends and family into our home for dinner, I (Tara) better learn how to cook! Our good friend Joe gave us a Rachel Ray cookbook that we're beginning to wear out. We both like to eat fairly healthy and are having fun trying out new recipes. We usually cook together, which has been enjoyable quality time. I don't know a whole lot of husbands who actually like to spend time in the kitchen (unless it's to raid the fridge!). I'm more of a natural baker than a natural cook, which isn’t good in the fact that we both have a terrible sweet tooth, but I love making desserts for Jeromy. If you’d like to come over, though, we can now make some killer spanikopita turkey burgers, and the oriental chili we made the other day was amazing! So, if you’re up for a good dose of heartburn, come visit us!

For those of you who missed the actual wedding, here is an overview of the day:

The wedding in and of itself was perfect. 70 degrees and blue skies set the tone, and everybody was smiling! The music was amazing. Dan Harney wrote us a song that was us to a"T", and the congregation joined us in singing "In Christ Alone" and "How Great Is Our God". Jeromy and I wrote our own vows. The flowers and sanctuary decorations were beautiful. There were no glitches. By God's grace, we were relatively calm and able to enjoy all of the events!

We just want you to know that the most important thing to us was not the flowers or dresses or cake, but our sacred ceremony, our vows to one another. Also, the offer to all our friends, family, and even acquaintances an invitation to rejoice and celebrate alongwith us. A wedding and all the events that surround it only happen once in a lifetime, and we are so blessed and grateful to have received so much love and support of this union. God has been present in our relationship from day one, and we have found Him continuing to bless us as husband and wife. Married life is wonderful. I am still amazed at how naturally we fell into becoming husband and wife.

There was no "transition" of sorts; itwas as if we were always married and as if this is how it has always been - even though that was not the case! We are amazed at the growth in our sanctification even in the last two months, and that has evidenced to us that we were brought together, hugely in part, tolearn to more clearly reflect Christ. We both will freely admit that we each play an instrumental spiritual role in the life of the other. There is truly a sweetness in this love that is entirely God-breathed. It is a beautiful thing to follow God's plan.

Enclosed are a few pictures we thought you might enjoy. We especially wanted those who did not get to attend the wedding to see the joy on our faces and the beauty of the day. We skittered off to Seattle the next day after staying at a Victorian B&B in Annapolis. Seattle was Jeromy’s idea, and it was a good one! We spent half of our stay in the city, experiencing Pugit Sound and the Space Needle while enjoying a cup of joe at the first Starbucks. The last leg of our trip was spent at Mount Rainier! We stayed in a perfect, cozy little cabin at the base of the mountain and took hiking trips during the day! Thebest part of the whole week was that we didn’t get a drop of rain! In fact, we got a bit sunburned! God gave us amazing weather while we were out West. We would HIGHLY recommend adding Washington State to your list of places to visit.

To view our wedding and honeymoon photos, click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tichners/sets/72157594338493464/detail/

Again, we thank you so much for embracing this marriage, for your prayers and tokens of love. They are all eternal investments.

Blessings,

Jeromy and Tara

We thought it might be fun and meaningful to post the vows we wrote for each other on our wedding day (8/12/06). We want to get them printed up and framed someday....perhaps on our anniversary! We take these promises seriously. They are for life.

*****

Jeromy's vows to me:

Tara, God has been preparing us for His service from the beginning of time. It is both His gift and my joy to become your husband. I could not have prepared myself for the love God has poured out on me through you.

As your husband, I vow to submit to Christ, for doing His will is our source of life and joy. I commit my life to faithful leadership. As Christ did, I will pour myself out for you. My love, acceptance and encouraging companionship will cultivate your fellowship with God.

I will be your source of strength, unfailing love, and protection. I honor you as my beloved helper. With patience and transparency I will communicate with you. We will celebrate the peaks of life and overcome the struggles, together, as one.

As I am captivated by your love, I will find satisfaction in you alone. Forsaking all others, I will cleave to you alone. I will nourish and cherish you all the days of my life.

Tara, it is before my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and our friends and family that I commit these vows to you. May I bring you good, and not evil, all the days of my life.

*****

My vows to Jeromy:

Jeromy, it is by God's grace and love that I become your wife today, and it is my highest earthly delight! As the Spirit enables me, I will both internalize and live out the vows I commit to you this hour.

Jeromy, you are God's man and His best for me, and so I have chosen and will continually choose to love you. For the rest of my life I will stand by you. I will support, respect, and honor your person and position, submitting myself to your leadership as the head of our family.

I will be for you a source of joy, companionship, and refreshment as I work alongside you to make our life together and our home a Christ-centered haven. I will ever be a safe place where you will find grace, forgiveness, and unconditional acceptance. Preferring you above all others, I will display to you kindness, affection, admiration, and faithfulness. I will work toward a growing communion with God alongside a deepening communication with you, so that at all cost we will remain of like mind and spirit. I will offer my heart openly and honestly to you in all aspects of life and actively seek to meet your needs. It is by God's strength will I bring you good, not evil, all the days of my life, that I might magnify God's glory as your wife.

Jeromy, it is before my Lord and Savior, and before our friends and family that I commit these vows to you.

Friday, February 23, 2007

I have restless fingers syndrome.

Not really, just need to type. The only time I really get to blog is at work. The official title of my position is LOCATE: Child Care Counselor. I work for a non-profit organization called the Southern Maryland Child Care Resource Center (mouthful!), an aspect of which is a referral service. I take calls from parents looking for child care, and I give them information on licensed family and center providers in the tri-county. There is also some counseling involved, such as how to screen providers and identify quality care. The process averages 30-50 minutes each. Some days it's crazy busy and I'm sick of talking by the end of the day. Other days, like today, the phone is s l o w ... On top of it, it's jeans Friday and I just want to go home and spend time with my sweetie! Although, that does give me BLOG TIME!

Life in Southern Maryland is what you make of it. St. Mary's County is a penninsula, so you can either go north, south, or....north or south. Waldorf is the closest "big city", but my former host father stated most accurately by calling Waldorf "one big store." Basically, that means there's just a bunch of malls and restaurants crammed together, which makes both shopping and eating a most difficult task on the weekend. And with a 45 minute drive, we never venture there except for weekends, so it's just not fun.

However, one of the two perks of Waldorf is Bed Bath & Beyond, which is where we used up most of our wedding gift cards to purchase all our house necessities. But even that got old. How is it we all seem to need so much junk?! Those cards are long gone, though, so now we never go there. :)

The other perk of Waldorf is Thai Flavor. Jeromy and I have a running joke because he called it "Thai Taste" by accident one time, and now we like that name better. :) They make the BEST satay in the world! Ok, so I've only had it at a couple other restaurants, but that's about the validity of most statistics anyway, right? I didn't really like Asian food before I met Jeromy. But then I met Jeromy, and now Asian; namely, Thai, is my obsession!

I think I grew to love Asian because it's healthier and fresher than a lot of other restaurant choices out there. (Especially Mexican!) At least you feel it's healthier because you're eating rice and broccoli. Sometimes I'd like to hold onto my blissful ignorance. Because if you don't want me to ruin you, don't look up the nutrition information for the majority of menu items at Panera Bread. Panera Bread!!! Trust me. You might as well eat at McDonalds.

And then there's coffee. This county needs more coffee shops! There are three that I know of. One is a tiny, highly over-commercialized Starbucks with uncomfortable and dirty seating, and is always cold. Then you have Brewing Grounds, which was half my weekly employment from November to January. I loved learning how to make espresso and interacting with people in the community. It's got the best ambiance in the county as far as I'm concerned. They just aren't open late, yet I can't complain because as a former employee, the hours were great!

On the other hand, the Coffee Quarter, which is where Jeromy and I met (besides here on Myspace!) is also nice, but the quality of the coffee-making isn't worth the price for a decent latte. That, and the only time we can really go there is Friday night. But after a few Friday night outings at the Coffee Quarter, we've about had it with the abnoxiously LOUD teenie bopper Emo groups. We'd rather sip coffee together somewhere that doesn't require yelling in order to hear one another!

So...what's a young, Christian, newlywed, coffee-drinking couple without children to do on a Friday night?

Actually, since Jeromy and I get up so during the work week, we tend to feel exhausted and spent by 9pm, even on weekends. How pathetic is that? Personally, I enjoy the early morning better than the late night because the day is fresh; full of light, energy, and mercy. The day's events are a mystery, with an element of anticipation that lingers only as long as my heart allows. Too quickly I find myself embracing the day through a lense of tasks and responsibilites that I make stressful or mundane, and that strip me of the day's initial wonder. Perhaps that's why I do love mornings so much. There's always a possibility that in all of God's prompting, He will actually get my attention; much greater a feat, and keep it. I long for that every day, but I'm usually too busy doing in order to be. Abundant life is what God offers, but sometimes I just grope for life at all. Maybe in the morning, things will be different...

Evenings are ok, if there is enough caffeine and liveliness to keep us going. However, we usually wait until in the moment before we finally ask the question, "So, what should we do tonight?" I don't recommend that because most everything spontaneous we can think of involve spending money.

Take Valentine's Day, for example. This year was acually our first Valentine's together because though we were a couple last year, I had to be in Charlotte that week. So then now we finally get to be together for the holiday, all thoughts and plans fail because we have a huge ice storm the night before and I hit my head and we spend 4 hours in the ER. So much for making that red velvet cake... But it didn't feel right not doing anything for Valentine's Day, but it's hard to be too sentimental when it's the day of and you have to rack your brain for something special. It's just not the same.

However, the evening ended in fireworks because we both suggested something stupid and fun, and just went with it. My suggestion was to order pizza (which we rarely do since we make our own most of the time). I know...it was Valentine's Day and all...but I just know Jeromy loves Papa Johns. So then Jeromy thought it would be fun to go to Target and purchase gifts for one another. That was that. A planned date night!

After calling in our order we drove over the bridge to pick up our order at Solomons. Since it was starting to get late, we decided to eat the pizza in the truck on the way to Target. In a strange way we felt like we were dating again because over the course of those nine single months we had spent more time in that Chevy S10 than any actual building. That piece of red metal is like family to us now.

By the time we pulled into the Target parking lot we had polished off the entire pizza! (That is, five pieces for Jeromy, three for me!) We turned the store outing into a sort-of game. We each were given a limit of $10, and couldn't let the other person see the gift until we got home. That wasn't all that easy, either! People gave us strange looks all throughout the store because we must have looked like we were about to rob the place, the way we were being all secretive. But it was so much fun!

I found Jeromy's gift almost right away. It was easy. Drum sticks. This is a long story, but I was going to give Jeromy drum or voice lessons for his birthday. I was given some names and numbers of instructors in the area, which I copied on a piece of scratch paper and stuffed down into my purse. On Christmas Day we visited some amputee soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital in D.C., and happened to run into some White House officials and others who had also come to encourage the soldiers. Also, my uncle introduced us to Bob Dole, a several times acquaintance of his. Former Senator Dole was looking very aged and thin, but was most pleasant to us. After our brief conversation I thought to give him a gospel tract, which he accepted. Well, I later found out that when I had shoved that piece of paper with all those numbers inside my purse, it had slid inside that same tract I gave to Bob Dole! I bet he'd make a rockin' drummer! Conservatively, of course...

Jeromy picked out a card game and cartons of Play Doh for me. How romantic! We spent the rest of the evening chilling on the couch and comparing our Play Doh creations. Did you know they make confetti Doh now? It's white with colorful sprinkles!

Papa Johns hawaiian pizza: $12

Silly gifts from Target: $20

Gasoline: $2

Funky, original, spontaneous Valentine's date with your husband, minus the overbaked red velvet cake and overpriced Hallmark card: PRICELESS

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Jeromy and I don't have cable. We both grew up with the TV on in our homes non-stop, and now we've chosen not to create an entertainment center shrine in our living room. The main reasons are, first, that we don't want to waste our lives mindlessly clicking the remote. The other is to escape most of the trash that permeates the tube.

I do catch Food Network shows at the gym (Go Rachel Ray!), and on occasion we do watch movies on our actual TV set, but we just don't pay for further television reception. In fact, we recommend the two most recent flicks we rented: "The End of the Spear" and the 2006 version of "The Ten Commandments". Both are highly engaging as well as thought-provoking -- yes, and entertaining. Still, they both resulted in sanctifying conversations between Jeromy and I after viewing them. I like movies that do that.

However, there is a downside to forgoing TV, and that is because I just found out one of my relatives is on American Idol! No joke.

Now, I've only watched one season of that highly overrated show, which was the year of the infamous William Hung. I literally couldn't help it. At the time I was working as a nanny for a family enthralled with American Idol. I would be hiding in the basement typing up emails while upstairs they blasted the show on their plasma TV and surround sound. I simply could not NOT hear it. I would be typing away, occasionally snickering at the latest contestant flop. Then I heard for the first time that now-familiar Asian voice belting out those unforgettable lyrics, "She bangs." I shall go no further with that. However, it got me upstairs and I ended up watching the rest of the season. I am a sucker. Thank you, Sweeney family. :)

Today my mom sent me an email with pictures of this guy named Chris Sligh. Apparently he's married to my second cousin Sarah (formerly) Quebe. Years ago we used to play in barns and trees at family reunions. They live in South Carolina now, so I probably haven't seen this girl for 10 years or more. Now she's married to Chris Sligh, a presently advancing contestant on American Idol, 2007. Wow. Makes me want cable just to see that. However, I did find some videos on YouTube of Chris' initial performance. Check it out. Let me know how he does since, you know, we're losers by the world's standard and don't have TV.

Looks like Chris has got voice AND charisma. Plus hair Richard Simmons only dreams about.