I am about to make a rare comment on someone of celebrity status.
This is a 9 year old girl. She is out in public. She dressed herself.
Why didn’t her mother stop her before she went out the door? No, scratch that…why didn’t her mother stop those articles of clothing from entering the house to begin with?
Granted, I have a two year old who occasionally likes to assert her opinion on what she’s going to wear today, and it doesn’t always “play well together.” BUT SHE IS TWO.
My sister Kelly turned 21 memorial day weekend. So mom and I took her for a mini vacation over to the gulf coast. A last time for everything, right? *coughoilspillcough*
It was a quiet weekend, no raving and partying for this crowd.
We did enjoy the beach though. And when I say “We” I mean the people who don’t have completely rational and founded fears of large bodies of water.
We took a boat ride through the harbor, and enjoyed a double rainbow.
And the sunset was lovely. One of God’s best ideas, I think.
I would like to mention that being the logical person I am, I packed accordingly. I had one small bag along with toiletries and my purse, and in fact did not even wear all the clothes I brought. One outfit I didn’t wear simply because I picked up something extra at a thrift shop. But the second unworn outfit was completely unnecessary.
If I had that much unnecessary baggage, what do you make of this?
I’m just sayin’.
I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe my mom knows something I don’t, based on her years of experience. If that’s the case, I’ll live and learn.
She loves that rug. No clue why…but she regularly lays on, rolls around on, pretends to sleep on, retreats to, and in general shows a preference for it.
She’s never had a blankie or special stuffed animal or toy…maybe she has a special rug?
Lack of opportunity and lack of motivation have created a backlog of blog posts. So here is the condensed version of all the ones I’d have been posting in the last month had I been more diligent.
I have the annual pass to seaworld so when the Saczynskis came to town, Ella and I went with them. Shannon met us for dinner after work. But the day was spent with them, in a crowded park, on a somewhat hot day, and fun was had by most.
Next up, Ella using chopsticks at Thai Thai. No food was actually consumed in the manner seen here.
When we moved here, my sister in law Cherie was about 5 months pregnant. I’m sure there were some downsides to having another family living with you at that season of your life, but God does work things out with timing and all, and I think we were able to help more than hinder. I certainly hope. Cherie is a woman of action, and waiting around for a baby to be born isn’t her idea of fun, so in the last few weeks she went out of her way to keep her mind occupied. Here is a woman 40 weeks 2 days pregnant, using her bowling form to gently poke fun at a girl in the lane beside us who was on a date and was obsessed with “not looking silly.” Ok, on second thought…i’m not posting that photo.
Anyway, here is the end result of that hot mess. Levi Alan Shropshire, a tiny and cute boy.
At some point during this last basketball season, I told my husband I didn’t want to go to a Magic game. Under any circumstances, I just did not want to attend one, I would not enjoy myself and he would not enjoy himself as much as he would if he was with someone who actually wanted to be there. So one evening Shannon says “find a sitter, we’re going out tonight. dress comfortably.” I did not suspect. Not even for a minute.
Where do I find myself? Yes. At a game for watching the Magics do the basketball thing.
I found it more entertaining to watch the txting war going on in the seat in front of me between the teenage boy and 3 girls he was apparently involved with in various forms. But he was trying to end one of the relationships because she was too much drama, and she should go back to the guy (his friend?) she was originally with, because they were a better fit and he couldn’t take her constant crying for attention. Based on the txts, thats what I gathered anyway.
I think it is completely invisible from this photo. But the truck above had a Vermont license plate that read….”Burritos”.
I can only imagine the kind of explanation that man might have.
The house my parents live in was built by my dad over 20 years ago. I think that even before it had a proper porch, it had a porch swing.
Sitting on the swing watching the afternoon storms roll in was a staple of my formative years. If you’ve ever been to their house on a summer afternoon, you’ve done it too. The tin roof provides the atmosphere and relative security. The lightening and thunder the entertainment.
It’s summer. We’ve had some storms. But this is the first one in a long time that I’ve met while on the swing, counting the seconds after each roll of thunder.
I have been driving for about 10 years, and i’ve never been in an accident while behind the wheel.
I’ve been in a few with my mom driving though, specifically one when I was about 5, and I went to the ER in an ambulance with her, and felt important because they asked me our address and stuff like that, and then I waited in a room with a really big male nurse who talked to me about ice cream and cartoons until my mom came back from getting xrays.
And specifically one today, on 528, where there was a ladder in the road and a truck parked right where we really needed to swerve to, and where no one was hurt but that fact is really quite amazing. A few more inches into the treeline and it’d be “blink once for no, twice for yes” for me.
I don’t know how people can operate with the assumption that God is not involved in their lives. Even in my overly logical, nay, Vulcan-ish mind the presence of a divine being and the concept of that being actually involving itself with my existance on a daily basis is so deeply seated in the core of my consciousness that literally the reverse is unfathomable. Not in a “wow, we’ll never know just how big the universe is” but more of a “black is not white” kind of way.
It doesn’t take a hard day to make me consider these things. I thank God for his mercies and grace regularly. However I do thank him a little more effusively when I realize the detail that goes into his delivery.
I still kinda feel like I have tiny shards of glass on me though. I wonder if it’s psychosis?
I don’t need to preface anything by bringing up the whole “we already know we aren’t going here because Shannon prefers a different teaching style” but I DO need to preface by saying that of all the churches we’ve visited, with the exception of east coast and my parents church, this is the one we kind of “know everybody” and know the church not just by reputation.
We were led to the nursery by a kindly type lady. If you come in the main entrance, you have a long walk to get to the kids area. Sucks for guests. Also, looking around and looking at the printed materials in my hand, I feel like they have never heard of color before. The essence of neutral is brown. and the essence of brown is neutral. with a hint of pastel in the bulletin and on the website. but otherwise….NEUTRAL.
Second service is remarkably uncrowded.
Start with a song I don’t know, music is led by Wild The Younger, and wife.
Pause for a few minutes of old school greeting. There is actually enough time for a full on conversation.
A Young man gets up to make announcements. NO SLIDES, Videos, anything!!!! Just straight up reading and expounding on the announcements in the bulletin!!! I haven’t seen this in years. Brings up two other men to talk about youth camp. Ah, here is a video. So, I guess one use of media for announcements? So weird.
Shannon points out my grandparents – during the greeting time I mentioned that I didn’t see them and he said “yeah they probably sit up front, third row” and I said “now way. They are mid-back sitters.”
I called it.
Announcements end with a round of applause?!
Now for baby dedications. Which includes a 4 year old.
I realized that we are 20 min. into the service and we have sung 1 song so far. Oh, ok the band comes back out. a 3 pc + 3 backup singers. They all got the skinny jeans memo.
Asked to be seated, then pastor wild says there are people in the back to pray with you and to go back there if you need prayer. Then they start a slightly too fast acoustic version of “here I am to worship.”. Lots of people seem to be going for prayer though, so that’s cool.
On a personal note, I think I have a hard time with asking strangers or people I don’t know well for prayer. If I need other people to pray with me about something, it’s usually an extremely personal issue and if I don’t know you really well, it’s probably none of your business. Why would I ask you to pray about it when I don’t even want you to know about it?
Is that me being a normal private person? Or is it me being prideful and stupid?
Back to the service – we have had 3 or 4 more songs, very acoustic-y, And we are siting down. I can’t figure out why. By the way, the 90′s called and asked for their praise and worship back. “white as snow” really? Around a campfire maybe. On a Sunday morning…hm. Moving on with ” all creatures of our God and King” and that I dig. If you’re going to take it back…take it WAY back. Stand up for the last chorus. Still standing for next song…I guess that’s why they give you a sitting break, I think this is the 8th song.
It ends abruptly with a turning to the psalms.
Curve ball – we are interrupting the introduction to the sermon to sing “joy to the world.” which he claims has nothing to do with Christmas. Lyrically. It’s not about the Lord’s first coming, but rather his second coming.
And that is essentially what the message is about. Why hasn’t Christ returned yet? Men are wicked and profane God’s name continually. The psalms depict Gods justice, his wrath, his hatred for wickedness. So why hasn’t he come yet? It’s his long-suffering. His love for us, as Paul says, that stays his hand. He wants all to receive his forgiveness. Every man will have the opportunity.
When he does come, we will know it. We won’t wonder. We won’t be confused – and there will be no escaping it.
He goes on to Talk about the second kingdom. Heaven, when it’s all said and done.
I feel like we’ve heard more than a few sermons about heaven lately.
I’m getting muddled on his point(s) here at the end. He is tying it into doing Gods will “on earth as it is in heaven” and so forth.
He prays. The band is back on Stage. Oh, but not all the band. The lead girl and the bass player are missing. And the pastor stays at the pulpit. That’s always a little awkward – he can’t NOT sing, but he also can’t sing loud. Awkward.
Delayed for a myriad of reasons, but posted by request…
Church #10
Coastal community church. They meet at the Port St. John community center. It feels so “been there done that” I’m trying not to chuckle.
Child Check in is acceptable, someone leads us to where we need to go. The nursery is located in the game room, so all the diaper bags are stacked on the pool table.
We make our way to the main service, and walk in to “I am free”. My husband kindly steers me away from the donut table which is located on the back wall. And I steer him away from sitting in front of the sound booth, because…it’s oddly the most conspicuous seating in the house.
Pastor greets everyone, makes a few jokes and asks folks to greet. Very structured yet informal. I can appreciate that.
Shannon comments on how horrible the backdrop is. I agree…we could use something a little less…textured pink.
Next song, then some announcement videos, starting with one about their new building in progress.
Uh-oh…during announcements I took a minute to actually look at the bulletin. I got smacked with the Holy Grail. Yes, papyrus AND comic sans ON ONE SHEET OF PAPER. Give me a minute for my pulse to return…
Also would like to note the intense use of live type in all the videos. They are also waaaaaaay longer than they need to be. by like…90 seconds.
Weird transition from high volume kids camp video into worship.
Shannon is convinced the worship leader looks like Bill Murray. I see it. Also James Lipton on acoustic guitar.
During prayer someone’s cellphone is making the speakers buzz. Not mine…dag, yo! airplane mode!
Intro clip from “Bolt”…(added later…this clip pretty much had nothing to do with the sermon now that I’ve heard the sermon.)
And the Pastor looks like the Spencer Breslin. According to the screens, he is Dr. Brookins. Who knew PSJ had so many look-a-likes?
Humor is definitely this guy’s thing. We are like, 5 minutes in and it’s clear that he gets easily sidetracked with his stories. He also brings up A.D.D. a lot, attributing his squirrel-like tendencies to that. He launches into a long story about kids T.P.ing his house. In the story, he goes outside, the boys scatter into the woods, but he notices down the street a running car…with the keys in it. He assumes it belongs to the boys who did it, and he yells out “I have your car and your keys, you’ll get them back when you clean this up.” and waited. In the end, the boys one by one come back, drink some hot chocolate, and then clean his yard and wash his car for good measure.
He compares the TP-ing story to the story of Jonah. Jonah ran off thinking he could escape. But God “held the keys to his car” so to speak, and was willing to give them back to Jonah when he finally obeyed. I can see his point, it makes sense. He talks about understanding Jonah’s point of view, based on what we know historically of Nineveh…they were pretty barbaric apparently and it would be insane to walk into their city and start yelling the message God had for them. From a logical point of view, he says that it looked like a plan for certain death. So running made sense. But only if you discount God.
A few more stories, a few more points – he is certainly engaging as a preacher. He said a few things that made Shannon and I chuckle. At the end he speaks a few words about not running from God, and about salvation. The main thing I would take away from the message is the obvious Jonah lesson on knowing God, or knowing about God, and ignoring or disobeying.
Close with a woman singing “set me free” by casting crowns. She has a decent voice. As she is singing, people are leaving – it’s a little weird. we haven’t been dismissed, but…I guess there is confusion on whether the service is over or not? I felt like it wasn’t. So we stayed put til she was done singing.
Then we picked up Ella and got out quick. I would have been interested in observing their tear-down process, but we were in the van before I could blink.
If I didn’t know that cats loudly scream in exactly the same fashion as what I’d imagine a woman being beaten with a hot branding iron sounds like…I would be calling 911 every stinking night to report domestic disturbances.
This neighborhood has a cat problem.
Nice for when Ella has a random sighting and yells out “cat!”
Not so nice when 11pm rolls around and I have to remind myself that we have nice neighbors, and too many cats.
I’ve wanted to visit this church for like 8 years now. Or something close…my friend Jennifer went to a church in ormond beach that is a part of the same organization, and when I visited her then I remember enjoying it. So here we are.
We drop Ella off in the “narnia room” explain her recent violent behavior (vomiting) and to come get me if she starts acting weird.
Walk into the sanctuary and Shannon and I both have flashbacks to the embassy…see the pics at the bottom.
We find a seat and are immediately greeted by an enthusiastic man named Tim who has probing questions. Expresses deep admiration for our past and future.
Worship starts with “forever” a little fast on the tempo. Oh hey, Tim again! He gets up and reads a long but inspiring passage of scripture.
It’s worth mentioning that the makeup of the band is half adult, half teenager.
Sing two more songs in the same key and they both have the word “exault” in them. Roll that into “how great is our God” Chorus and a girl steps up and reads another passage of scripture. It is well integrated. I like it. Oh, OK now she is spending a minute to exhort the young people.
A young man (ie late 20s?) takes the mic from her and continues in the same vein, he seems very pastory so lead? Youth? Dunno. I should mention finger picking in the BG the whole time, so it wasn’t weird.
Back into how great is our God.
And now welcoming guests, tithe offerings during verbal announcements.
They are apparently having a church picnic this afternoon complete with wiffleball tournament.
Oh snap! They dismiss the children but also…take a five minute break? This is weird. Perhaps this is in Lieu of the “turn and greet”
Takes us a little by surprise.
Three women come up and talk to us. Apparently I’m “adorable.”. One of them looks like Amber Tamblyn, and she insists that we look familiar and she thinks she knows us. Then ANOTHER Tim comes up and talks to us. You can have a lot of conversations in five minutes, it would seem.
The young man gets back up again. he is preaching on Ezra 9-10. And he says they are finishing up the book of Ezra, so that makes me think they/he are a expository in preaching. That possibly is a mark against them from Shannon…he prefers topical preaching.
I’m looking around the room and there are still children here so perhaps they weren’t….dismissed? I must not have been paying attention.
Young man preaching from hardcopy notes. Just don’t see that very often these days.
The subject is faith. The isrealites had to get rid of the foreign women, because they were turning the mens hearts away from God.
He likes to yell and then whisper. He yells about temptation. He whispers about Gods love. He talks to the kids about obedience.
Shannon says he Is 100% sure this is the youth pastor.
And wow, an abrupt ending! A brief closing prayer and that it – no song, no business, it’s done.
The second Tim comes back and says “wait, what’s you’re last name?” turns out he went to highschool with Shannon, so they chat for a minute.
This is a 9 year old girl. She is out in public. She dressed herself.
