"The Oak Tree"

A mighty storm blew night and day.

It stole the oak tree’s leaves away.

Then snapped it’s boughs and pulled it’s bark

Until the oak was tired and stark.

But still the oak tree held it’s ground

While other trees fell all around.

The weary storm gave up and spoke,

“How can you still be standing, Oak?

The oak tree said, “I know that you

Can break each branch of mine in two,

Carry every leaf away, shake my limbs

And make me sway, But I have roots

Stretched in the earth,

Growing stronger since my birth.

“You’ll never touch them, for you see,

They are the deepest part of me.

Until today, I wasn’t sure

Of just how much I could endure,

But now I’ve found, with thanks to you,

I’m stronger than I ever knew!

Road Trip...

Well, we are in the middle of our 12 day road trip to raise money for Mosaic and it's been a blast...we started the trip on Sunday when we drove from Louisville to Cincinnati to have a fund raiser there. At 6:01, Monday morning, we pulled out of Mason headed to Virginia Beach and arrived at 3:32 that afternoon. Reagan did really well and slept most of the way. Of course it kind of jacked up her schedule, but she did great for her first road trip. Being here since Monday has been a bit of a whirlwind...we've had 3 fund raisers in 4 nights and have been trying to see friends and eat at restaurants that we don't have in KY. I love being back here to visit. I guess I take for granted the close friendships I made in the short 3 and half years that we lived here. Tomorrow is our last day here and we'll try to fit the beach in as well as a big dinner with our "family" the Jenkins before we head up to Baltimore to "house/apt hunt" on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, we'll head up to NYC to hang out with our good friends Kevin, Liz, and Over, and of course do Manhattan things with Reagan like Central Park, eating Kinishes (sp?) from the street vendors and ride the subway. Sunday night, we will head out to a Young Life camp about 2 hours outside of NYC for a retreat with the Orchard Group (the church planting group that is sponsoring us) until Tuesday morning when we'll venture back home a crazy 13 hours! Though it has been exhausting, it has been so much fun to catch up with friends and for Reagan to see a bit of the east/northeast! Happy trails...!

Manoah's Prayer

I read a verse in the Bible this week that I had never really noticed before (a section of verses actually) that I found interesting...

Judges 13 (the birth of Samson-an angel appeared to Samson's Mom telling her that she would conceive)

6 Then the woman went to her husband and told him, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. 7 But he said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.' "

8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD : "O LORD, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born."

Before Samson was born, his dad, Manoah, prayed for help on how to raise him. Maybe the verse never stuck out to me before because it didn't apply since I wasn't a parent, but now that I am a parent, I can appreciate this prayer. God shows me something new every day!

Tag

Ok, Over tagged me so I'm supposed to list 8 random/weird facts about myself....

1. My two favorite cereals are Cracklin' Oat Bran and Grape Nuts (most people that eat these besides me are over 75 years old).

2. My dream job (besides a mom) is a high school gym teacher/basketball coach.

3. When leaving a tip at a restaraunt, I always make the total even...for example:

Bill: $21.80
Tip: $5.20
Total:$27 EVEN (only if I pay with check card...if it's cash, I don't care!)

4. I go through phases where I obsess with selling things on eBay...now is one of those phases!

5. I ALWAYS run out of conditioner before I run out of shampoo...so annoying!

6. My favorite pizza is green olives (most people know this already).

7. I'm a sucker for fitness infomercials...although, I've never bought anything off of one...I can just watch them forever.

8. I'm not very creative because I can't think of an 8th random fact about myself!

I'm also supposed to tag 3 people, but I'm pretty sure that the only people that read this have already been tagged (except Eeeso), so if you are reading this and haven't been tagged, consider yourself tagged!

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same...

This past Saturday night was my 10 year high school reunion. I had mixed feelings about going at first, but decided it may be fun. Thankfully, I still keep in touch with my best friend from high school, so we went together and our husbands kept each other company while we mingled. It was so strange walking in at first...looking around the crowded room of people from high school...some I recognized, some I didn't. It was fun to hear about where people were living, what they were doing, how many kids they had...the typical reunion discussions. Besides Becca, I haven't kept in touch with anyone from my graduating class, so it was really fun to talk and laugh with other friends I had in high school that were there.

As I was talking to my friends Libby and Emily, we all noticed that not much had changed with people. Most people still looked the same (some of the guys had gained weight, but that's about it), still talked the same, still drank the same amount, etc.

After the reunion, my husband asked me if I was glad that I went, and my answer was yes. I was glad to be able to reconnect with some of my old friends, however, the reunion made me reflect on change. As we looked around and noticed that not much had changed, it made me wonder how much I have changed. It made me compare my priorities from high school to my priorities now. I could walk away from the reunion and have the "see ya in 10 years attitude," but I am challenged to change over the next 10 years...to be bolder, more ambitious, and more loving, so that at my 20 year reunion, someone would notice a change for the better.

"Tighter than a Boar's Rear at Fly Time!"

When my dad was growing up, he had a grandmother (Grandma Telly) that would have sayings for different situations in life that were usually pretty funny, yet useful. He grew up on a farm, so some of the sayings could be a little gross.

I went to the doctor today for my weekly check-up and was reminded of one...

Two weeks ago when I went to the doctor, I got excited because she said I was one cm dilated. I thought this was good considering at the time I had one month left to go until my due date. However, last week when I went to the doctor, I got the same report...one cm (still 9 to go)! When I went to the doctor today, she said I had made some progress, but was still between a 1 and a 2. As I was leaving the office, I laughed to myself because I knew if Grandma Telly were here she would say that I am "tighter than a boar's rear at fly time." Kind of gross, I know, but true! Here are some more of her fun sayings...

"Busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kickin' contest."
"Suckin' on a hind one." (you'll only understand this if you grew up on a farm)
"Funnier than a rubber crutch in a polio-ward on a hot summer day."
"Busier than a one-armed paper hanger."
"Slicker than snot on a door knob."
"All I can see is the front of her back."

Vegas Baby

I had created a post on Wednesday about leaving for Vegas, but I must have done something weird because it didn't work out too well...

So, we are now in Vegas (got here late Wed. night) and it's been a blast. We are staying at the Paris (except tonight me and Carl are staying at the Bellagio). The first night, when we got here it was about 1am eastern time, but we didn't want to call it a night on our first night, so we checked the place out a little, ate at a small cafe, and finally made it to bed at 6am eastern time! Rough. But we got to sleep in and sleep at the pool so it didn't really matter. We spent about 4 hours at the pool and then went over to the Forum Shops at Caesar's and looked around there. Last night, while everyone else went to Phantom of the Opera, Carl and I saw "Ka" which is one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. It was so much fun.

Then, we met up with the rest of the fam for dinner.

Today we are spending more time at the pool, shopping, going to the "O" Show (another Cirque) and eating at Bobby Flay's restaraunt. I'm not sure what's on the docket for tomorrow.

Though most people think Vegas is sin city and all there is to do here is gamble...but come and experience the food, shows, shopping and sun and you'll see that there's way more to Vegas than gambling!!!

Support Hose!

I must say that so far (29 weeks), my pregnancy has been great...of course I have been more tired than usual, but I never had to go through morning sickness, which I am VERY grateful for! In the last few days, however, I have had the pleasure of experiencing fat feet. The doctors call it edema, but I think that is just a more fancy way to say that the feet are just plain FAT!

Carl and I went to Orlando this past week for the National New Church Conference, and this is when they really began to blow up. I don't know if it was because of the hotter weather, but they got huge! It didn't help much that the one day that I was out in the sun, I got sun burned which made my feet look even more desirable.

I had to call and change an appt. at my drs. office and while I was doing that, I just asked the nurse if there was anything I could do to reduce the swelling besides elevate, stop eating salt, and drink more water. I wasn't very excited about her response...."the only other thing I can suggest is support hose."

Support hose! I instantly had this image of me wearing sweet nude colored hose around my fat feet throughout the rest of the summer...very attractive. The best feeling about being pregnant is the anticipation of meeting our baby and seeing what he/she is going to look like, but I must say, I'm also looking forward to getting my feet back...at least I've been told they go back to normal after the baby is here!!!

Seven Degrees of Moweaqua...

I'm sure everyone has either heard of the game or once played the game "Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Well, this weekend I determined there was a new version...

We went to Providence, Rhode Island to check out the area for church planting along with Boston (only about 45 minutes north of Providence). While we were there, we went to a church plant that is 6 weeks old in downtown Boston. After church, we took the pastor and his wife out to lunch. Before we got our seats for lunch, Carl spent the time talking to Hank while I talked to his wife, Julie, the whole time. We hit it off and had really good conversations. During one of our conversations, it came up that I knew Brian and Allison Moll. She said "Oh, I know Allison...I grew up with her." I said, "I grew up with her too...where did you grow up?" She said, "Decatur...so you know Allison's uncle, Terry Maurer." I was so excited because Terry was my youth minister when I was a kid growing up in the small town of good ol' Moweaqua, Illinois! We got called to our seats and the subject got changed back to the challenges of church planting.

On our way out, we offered to take them home so they wouldn't have to ride the T (the subway system in Boston) and got back on the subject. Julie said, "So Lindsay, did you go to Little Galilee?" (the Christian camp in Illinois we always attended in the summer). "Of course," I said...after talking more about Little Galilee, we figured out that I went to one maybe two weeks of camp with her youngest sister and my brother and sister went to camp with her other sister! Crazy! It was so much fun to reminise about the midwest classics like Monical's Pizza.

When we dropped them off and headed back to our hotel, the more excited and baffled I became at the small world. My friend Erin and I like to joke, that though Moweaqua is your typical small town with only one blinking flashlight and not even a fast food joint...everywhere you go, you meet someone that knows someone that once lived in Moweaqua. So, when you meet someone new and find out they lived in Illinios somewhere, just ask them...Mowequa? (if you can figure out how to pronounce it!)

on the move

For those of you who don't know, Carl and I are moving to Louisville, KY for one year where he will be on staff at Southeast as a Church Planting Pastor. After that year, we are planting a church somewhere in the northeast...(Boston, DC, NYC)...not sure exactly where yet. It's exciting and scary all at once.

I started packing boxes this week...ugh...I have a lot of work ahead of me. We are moving on Sept. 27 and he starts work on Oct. 2. I don't have a job yet, but am sending my resumes out and am hoping to find one quickly. Keep us in your prayers as it will be a big transition...not really the move to Louisville since we will both be closer to family and good friends, but the move to the ne in a year will be big. I'll keep you posted!

Just felt like doing a list...of my favorite preachers...but I'm doing 11 because I wanted it to be better than a Top 10...

1. Carl Kuhl...(I may be bias on this one)
2. Billiam (aka. Bill Hybels..The Creek)
3. Ed Young Jr. (Fellowship Church)
4.Mike Breaux (The Creek)
5. Jon Weece (Southland)
6. Dave Stone (Southeast)
7. Bob Russell (retired Southeast)
8. Erwin McManus (Mosaic)
9. Rob Bell (Mars Hill)
10. Kyle Idleman (Southeast)
11. Dick Alexander (Clovernook)

"Ignore the lie, not the child..."

So I’ve recently been introduced to this clinician named Brian Post (www.post institute.com) through my work who has done a ton of research on parenting and also the human brain. I have listened to some of his seminars on cd and read some of his materials, but yesterday in supervision, I was exposed to him on DVD. He introduced a concept that was fascinating to me in working with kids (as a professional or a parent)…the concept was, “ignore the lie, not the child”. He explained that children, and adults as well, only lie when they feel scared or when they feel like there is no way out. So, instead of scolding the child and punishing them for lying, he suggests that the parent should do everything in their power to make sure the child knows you love them and that the child is in a safe place. The result is that the child automatically stops lying. He claims that if parents do this consistently for 2 weeks, that they will see huge results and he has research to back this up. So, the scenario goes like this…
Traditionally, parents respond this way…
Dad: “Did you eat all the cookies out of the jar?”
Child: “No, I haven’t touched it.”
Dad: “Well, you are the only one home and there were cookies in there 2 hours ago, and I didn’t eat them.”
Child: “I don’t know what happened to them, but I didn’t eat them.”
Dad: (yelling) “I don’t know why you are lying to me about this, but go to your room and think about what type of punishment you think you should have.”

Post claims it should occur like this…
Dad: “Did you eat all the cookies out of the jar?”
Child: “No, I haven’t touched it.”
Dad: “Honey, you know I love you right? You know that no matter what happened, I will always love you and nothing can change that.” (Dad leaves it at that and comes back a few hours later).
Dad: “Honey, you know that when you lie to me, it really scares me and hurts my feelings because it makes me think that you don’t trust me and that you feel like I am going to hurt you in some way? I just want you to know that I love you, but when you lie, it really hurts me.”
Post says after 2 weeks of responding gently this way to the child, the lies reduce by at least 50%.
Interesting huh?