Check out these links I've stumbled across...
Plan a money-free weekend
Lifehacker brought us a link to a great article on things to do when you plan a money-free weekend. Gas prices may be going down, but I imagine we all could use this idea.
Veep Watch: Bobby Jindal
As the election season progresses, be watching for potential VP candidates. Here's a spotlight on Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and also his religious beliefs.
Does Archaeology match up with Biblical Accounts?
Dr. Leen Ritmeyer was recently interviewed on his discoveries about Calvary and the tomb of Christ. This guy knows his stuff!
A Father for the Fatherless?
The subject of adoption is everywhere I look lately. I have friends who are adopting, friends who are adopted, and my google reader subscriptions even seem to be developing an adoption mindset. How does that affect me? You? Our relationship to God? Check out the link above, this article, this friend's page, and this friend's page. (How's that for a 4-piece McNugget bonus?)
Sunday, July 27
Saturday, July 26
SeaWorld
To begin our vacation through North Texas and Missouri, we met up with the Haiglers, Hills, and Burnetts, and took Caleb and Anna on their first trip to Sea World!
Caleb got a chance to touch and feed the dolphins there!
(Anna fell asleep)
Caleb got a chance to touch and feed the dolphins there!
(Anna fell asleep)
Sunday, July 20
Some may boast of prowess bold
of the school they think so grand,
but there's a spirit that ne'er be told,
it's the Spirit of Aggieland.
We packed the car and went on a road trip in early June. It was a trip of nostalgia, visiting friends, taking family photos, and staying with Aunt Sheesha (according to Anna).
I never understood why Dad and Mom had to take us sight-seeing as kids around the Texas A&M campus, but when we found ourselves doing the same to Caleb and Anna, it suddenly made sense. Seeing places that held dear memories for us brought the desire to share them with our kids.
Bryan/College Station has changed in so many ways in the decade or so since we've been in classes there. The southern edge of town is nearly the middle now. There are more restaurants than you can shake a stick at. (?) New construction of homes and shopping areas are springing up everywhere. Even in the summer, the campus was active with new student conferences, and traffic was still a consideration. Yet several places remain and flourish that we absolutely have to visit when given the chance.
One is Double Dave's Pizzaworks. Oh, the peproni rolls (yes, that's how they're spelled)...
Another is Freebird's World Burrito. Caleb and Scott shared a son/dad experience -- a half bird for C and a Monster for S.
We visited with our friends Kyle and Christine, who are about to leave Texas to plant a church in Virginia. Since we saw them and spent time with Will, Reese, and Luke, their house has sold. Praise the Lord! Check out their blog for information and updates.
Our friend Liz took some great family pics of us on the University's West Campus. If you're just that curious, I may be able to email you a link to the proofs. They turned out great.
We spent a great few days with Licia at her house during this time. If we'd had a little more time, we would have gone to Sunday services at Central and hugged the necks of several friends while there.
The Lord really grew us and blessed us during our years there. It's so much fun to go back and visit. Thank you Lord for using that time in so many ways, bringing Scott and me together, and placing people in our lives to invest in us so that we'd be prepared to invest in others!
but there's a spirit that ne'er be told,
it's the Spirit of Aggieland.
We packed the car and went on a road trip in early June. It was a trip of nostalgia, visiting friends, taking family photos, and staying with Aunt Sheesha (according to Anna).I never understood why Dad and Mom had to take us sight-seeing as kids around the Texas A&M campus, but when we found ourselves doing the same to Caleb and Anna, it suddenly made sense. Seeing places that held dear memories for us brought the desire to share them with our kids.
Bryan/College Station has changed in so many ways in the decade or so since we've been in classes there. The southern edge of town is nearly the middle now. There are more restaurants than you can shake a stick at. (?) New construction of homes and shopping areas are springing up everywhere. Even in the summer, the campus was active with new student conferences, and traffic was still a consideration. Yet several places remain and flourish that we absolutely have to visit when given the chance.
One is Double Dave's Pizzaworks. Oh, the peproni rolls (yes, that's how they're spelled)...
Another is Freebird's World Burrito. Caleb and Scott shared a son/dad experience -- a half bird for C and a Monster for S.
We visited with our friends Kyle and Christine, who are about to leave Texas to plant a church in Virginia. Since we saw them and spent time with Will, Reese, and Luke, their house has sold. Praise the Lord! Check out their blog for information and updates.
Our friend Liz took some great family pics of us on the University's West Campus. If you're just that curious, I may be able to email you a link to the proofs. They turned out great.
We spent a great few days with Licia at her house during this time. If we'd had a little more time, we would have gone to Sunday services at Central and hugged the necks of several friends while there.
The Lord really grew us and blessed us during our years there. It's so much fun to go back and visit. Thank you Lord for using that time in so many ways, bringing Scott and me together, and placing people in our lives to invest in us so that we'd be prepared to invest in others!
^(keep)
Just a quick up-keep blurb about new McDonaldSpot features:
- a new layout... what do you think?
- a third playlist on the finetune player (lower right side) -- Kid Music -- a mix of silly songs, traditional songs, and kids' worship tunes
- if you'd like to keep listening while web surfing, click Pop the Player Out on the black screen, and your music won't disappear.
- McNuggets are here! I plan to make this a weekly or semi-weekly post, depending on how many interesting links I stumble across.
Saturday, July 19
McNuggets (7/19)
Welcome to the first installment of McNuggets!
Do you remember how those little tidbits were once rumored to be many things other than chicken? I think I even heard Kangaroo once. Well, you can expect to find a true hodgepodge of link tidbits with every 6-piece McNuggets you encounter here at the McDonaldSpot. Expect some thought provocation, some silliness, and some curious things as well.
(tip of the hat to Tim Challies and his A La Carte series, as well as Sarah Jo and her For the Love of Links series for the great idea)
JellyTelly
VeggieTales founder Phil Vischer is launching a new venture this fall. Check out the preview now!
Trust
Don't miss this great photo from Iraq.
Drive-Thru Kid Wash
Beat the heat and give your kids a treat with this cool DoItYourself sprinkler project.
Wordle to get the gist
Use Wordle (a tag-cloud online program) to highlight frequent appearances of words in a text. Here, find the wordle of the complete text of the ESV Bible (OT and NT). Make your own if you'd like!
Like to write in books?
Use this neat trick to prevent, yet at the same time enable, compulsive book-writing, even in those that aren't your own.
Send a Surprise
You've got to see this unique idea for sending greetings to a college student, friend who moved, or anyone else, for that matter!
Hope you enjoyed this order of McNuggets. There will be more to come soon!
Do you remember how those little tidbits were once rumored to be many things other than chicken? I think I even heard Kangaroo once. Well, you can expect to find a true hodgepodge of link tidbits with every 6-piece McNuggets you encounter here at the McDonaldSpot. Expect some thought provocation, some silliness, and some curious things as well.
(tip of the hat to Tim Challies and his A La Carte series, as well as Sarah Jo and her For the Love of Links series for the great idea)
JellyTelly
VeggieTales founder Phil Vischer is launching a new venture this fall. Check out the preview now!
Trust
Don't miss this great photo from Iraq.
Drive-Thru Kid Wash
Beat the heat and give your kids a treat with this cool DoItYourself sprinkler project.
Wordle to get the gist
Use Wordle (a tag-cloud online program) to highlight frequent appearances of words in a text. Here, find the wordle of the complete text of the ESV Bible (OT and NT). Make your own if you'd like!
Like to write in books?
Use this neat trick to prevent, yet at the same time enable, compulsive book-writing, even in those that aren't your own.
Send a Surprise
You've got to see this unique idea for sending greetings to a college student, friend who moved, or anyone else, for that matter!
Hope you enjoyed this order of McNuggets. There will be more to come soon!
Friday, July 18
C+A+L+E+B = 5
I can't believe that my sweet boy is 5! We celebrated his birthday at Mimi and Pawpaw's on Memorial Day Weekend.
Below are some pics from his birthday breakfast at our house.
Still pretty groggy...
Below are some pics from his birthday breakfast at our house.
Still pretty groggy...
Opening presents did the trick!
Anna looked on while she scarfed down some cereal.
Thursday, July 17
Science around every corner
I love that we can travel easily to the beach for one particular reason: the hands-on science lessons for the kids! (I don't care much for Texas beaches, and I don't get excited about hanging out on the beach in general) The cool thing Caleb discovered on this outing with some of our church staff was that many shells were washing up on the shore, complete with their original inhabitants living inside!
Here is our good friend, Bo, helping Caleb search for more critters...
Here are a few more fun pics!
"Yea, water!"
like brother, like sister...except she wouldn't get wet.
"Yea, water!"
like brother, like sister...except she wouldn't get wet.
Saturday, July 5
WALL-E thoughts...Compacted (heh heh heh)
[update: on further review, I was still a little disappointed, but I didn't mean to spend so much time on the soap box below :) ]
****WARNING: If you're determined to see it and don't want anything spoiled, skip the post entirely*****
**********SPOILER ALERT*************
(don't say I didn't warn you)
We took Caleb to see his second movie in a theater yesterday. His first was the VeggieTales movie about those adorable but lowly Pirates. It was GREAT!
For his second, we chose WALL-E by Disney/Pixar. Admittedly, we didn't know much about the plot except for the vague inference of the boy Wall-E making friends with a new-fangled girl robot. We left the movie with mixed reviews. Caleb would say it was fun (but not overly enthused). Scott was very impressed with the computer animation, and rightly so! I was somewhere between non-plussed and irritated.
The characters of the movie were great: the diligent, nostalgic, and very endearingly expressive trash compacting Wall-E; the cool, determined, and sleek Eve; the petite and tenacious cleaner-bot; and steadfast, hale, and strangely charming little cockroach. The animation was truly stellar (pun intended: much takes place in space). All in all, I had no problem with the general story line: robot is lonely, meets girl robot, desires innocent companionship and romance like he has seen on film clips of Hello Dolly.
My problem lies with the premise. Enter the hero, doing this daily job faithfully: compacting trash into efficient little cubes. The problem is that he's stacking cubes into huge skyscrapers that dwarf the actual skyscrapers of the big American city he occupies. This city has long been abandoned and the other WALL-E robots have broken down, but still Wall-E remains resourceful and even finds time to glean sentimental items from the trash heaps (a light bulb, a Rubik's Cube, Christmas lights). See, the earth has been abandoned after the all-controlling BigBox store has taken over every aspect of society, society has over-consumed and trashed the world, and thus society has been relocated to a giant space cruise ship. The hope is that once the robots get everything cleaned up, everyone can return. There's just one thing (OK, maybe several): Wall-E is all that remains after 700 years, and the space cruisers have become (all of them) morbidly obese and technological hermits.
Seriously, must we brainwash our kids with hyperbole? I've taught Caleb about being a good steward since he was 2, and I'm ready to start with Anna. I want to teach them to take care of their toys, others' belongings, and why litter is bad. They need to know that having stuff is not what makes a person happy. I want them to realize that all we have is from God, and He wants us to practice stewardship and simplicity for the time that we're here on Earth.
But, good grief! I'm getting a little agitated by the current trend of promoting Eco-issues to the point that we're worshiping the environment instead of the Creator. I won't even start on what I think about Global Warming, mercury-filled halogen light bulbs, and carbon footprints. It's time that being Green takes a permanent backseat to being Godly.
Should you go see Wall-E? Use your discernment. At the age of 5, Caleb was a little oblivious to the propaganda, but I will still work to make sure he understands what the truth is. Had Wall-E been built on a different premise, it would have been GREAT. If I had it to do over again, though, I'd skip it and see that VeggieTales film again on video.
****WARNING: If you're determined to see it and don't want anything spoiled, skip the post entirely*****
**********SPOILER ALERT*************
(don't say I didn't warn you)
We took Caleb to see his second movie in a theater yesterday. His first was the VeggieTales movie about those adorable but lowly Pirates. It was GREAT!
For his second, we chose WALL-E by Disney/Pixar. Admittedly, we didn't know much about the plot except for the vague inference of the boy Wall-E making friends with a new-fangled girl robot. We left the movie with mixed reviews. Caleb would say it was fun (but not overly enthused). Scott was very impressed with the computer animation, and rightly so! I was somewhere between non-plussed and irritated.
The characters of the movie were great: the diligent, nostalgic, and very endearingly expressive trash compacting Wall-E; the cool, determined, and sleek Eve; the petite and tenacious cleaner-bot; and steadfast, hale, and strangely charming little cockroach. The animation was truly stellar (pun intended: much takes place in space). All in all, I had no problem with the general story line: robot is lonely, meets girl robot, desires innocent companionship and romance like he has seen on film clips of Hello Dolly.
My problem lies with the premise. Enter the hero, doing this daily job faithfully: compacting trash into efficient little cubes. The problem is that he's stacking cubes into huge skyscrapers that dwarf the actual skyscrapers of the big American city he occupies. This city has long been abandoned and the other WALL-E robots have broken down, but still Wall-E remains resourceful and even finds time to glean sentimental items from the trash heaps (a light bulb, a Rubik's Cube, Christmas lights). See, the earth has been abandoned after the all-controlling BigBox store has taken over every aspect of society, society has over-consumed and trashed the world, and thus society has been relocated to a giant space cruise ship. The hope is that once the robots get everything cleaned up, everyone can return. There's just one thing (OK, maybe several): Wall-E is all that remains after 700 years, and the space cruisers have become (all of them) morbidly obese and technological hermits.
Seriously, must we brainwash our kids with hyperbole? I've taught Caleb about being a good steward since he was 2, and I'm ready to start with Anna. I want to teach them to take care of their toys, others' belongings, and why litter is bad. They need to know that having stuff is not what makes a person happy. I want them to realize that all we have is from God, and He wants us to practice stewardship and simplicity for the time that we're here on Earth.
But, good grief! I'm getting a little agitated by the current trend of promoting Eco-issues to the point that we're worshiping the environment instead of the Creator. I won't even start on what I think about Global Warming, mercury-filled halogen light bulbs, and carbon footprints. It's time that being Green takes a permanent backseat to being Godly.
Should you go see Wall-E? Use your discernment. At the age of 5, Caleb was a little oblivious to the propaganda, but I will still work to make sure he understands what the truth is. Had Wall-E been built on a different premise, it would have been GREAT. If I had it to do over again, though, I'd skip it and see that VeggieTales film again on video.
Friday, July 4
Coming Attractions
Yes, I know that this is a sorry excuse for a blog post, but in order to keep me accountable and also to wet your whistle:
Coming Soon to a McDonaldSpot near you...
(in some order, but mostly chronological)
Coming Soon to a McDonaldSpot near you...
(in some order, but mostly chronological)
- My thoughts on Wall-E ***spoiler alert***
- Caleb's Bday
- Trip to Aggieland
- Sea World is cool (and really hot)
- Road trip! Canton and Missouri
- BIG Tahtors. Dey're Tomin'! (harvest is here!)
- A new regular post series with random links I've come across (fun, strange, crafty, etc.) PLEASE help me with names by posting a comment or responding to the poll on the right sidebar! Clever phrases or names are encouraged! Puns are even better! For some reason, most of my ideas seem to be food related...
Tuesday, July 1
The Moment has Arrived!
...talk about a loaded title...
I'm referring to the posting online of Scott's sermon during our church's Generations series based on Titus 2, which speaks to different generations within the church body.
The site is relatively new, and they've changed video players, so I've yet to figure out how to embed the file straight to the blog. When that happens, I'll post it anew!
Until then, you can watch the sermon in full here, but be sure to click on Generations #4 -- College Students (but boy, does the message apply to all of us!).
We've had a loaded summer as well, so be looking for upcoming posts documenting our month of June!
I'm referring to the posting online of Scott's sermon during our church's Generations series based on Titus 2, which speaks to different generations within the church body.
The site is relatively new, and they've changed video players, so I've yet to figure out how to embed the file straight to the blog. When that happens, I'll post it anew!
Until then, you can watch the sermon in full here, but be sure to click on Generations #4 -- College Students (but boy, does the message apply to all of us!).
We've had a loaded summer as well, so be looking for upcoming posts documenting our month of June!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)