Say cheese

Isaiah and I had a major incident over dinner tonight. Lately, if Isaiah thinks food doesn't look good, he just won't eat it. He won't even try it. I'm tired of his crying and ruining entire meals for the whole family. So the second he didn't want to eat the chili my mom made (and I had only given him a tiny spoonful anyway, anticipating that he might not really want it even though it is most certainly delicious) I gave him a warning that if he didn't try it he was going straight to bed. He refused to try it, so I carried him kicking and screaming (he was kicking, I was screaming) up to his bedroom. I told him that he could come down when he was ready to eat his chili.

He came down almost immediately, apologized to my mom for not eating it, and ate his chili without too many problems, just a few bad faces. But he ate it, all but three kidney beans. So that was pretty good.

Tonight, when I was putting him in bed, we were talking about what happened at dinner. I said I was sorry for yelling at him at dinner, and he said he was sorry for not eating his dinner. And I could tell he really was sorry. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Isaiah: I have an idea. Next time maybe we should have mac 'n cheese, complain cheese, lasagna and chili all mixed together. That sounds good!

Me: (kind of laughing) Do you mean complain cheese or plain cheese?

Isaiah: Complain cheese (giggling)

Me: Plain cheese?

Isaiah: No, complain cheese! (laughing)

You just never know... From the mouth of a three-year-old...

Happy Baritone Day

Ok, so I don't usually blog during a Steeler game, but those weird uniforms are buggin me out.

So for the last week or so, I've been trying to get in touch with a woman who lends instruments to students and schools. A music teacher at another school gave me her name and information. I contacted her because I have a new ninth grade student who plays the bartione horn but doesn't have his own instrument. (He played the school's instrument at his previous school.) As a music teacher with a small band, I will do just about anything to get more low brass!

So I played phone tag with this woman for most of last week. Apparently I was calling her husband's business line and she wasn't getting the full messages.

Eventually we connected and made an appointment for 1:00 today. So this afternoon I found my way down to Canonsburg, and her house was about 3 miles off I-79. It wasn't really to hard to find, although I was winding down country roads for those 3 miles. I saw a sign that said "Dangerous Intersection," so I slowed down. I came to what might be considered an intersection... two country roads intersecting. But dangerous? Hardly. It made me laugh.

When I got there, she was working on several baritones out of the back of her minivan. She was quite an eccentric older woman who apologized for not having a chance to clean the baritones because she was too busy putting shoe polish on the outside of the one baritone case... what? Through the course of our half hour together she told me the story of how she ended up lending instruments. Apparently this woman's husband is a millionaire. She has a passion for music, kids and education, and shopping in second hand stores and on ebay. Somehow these passions came together, and now she has a storage unit full of instruments that she will lend to just about any committed student or band program for absolutely free. Amazing!

The music teacher that gave this woman's name to me said she has witnessed to this instrument-lending woman, and that she's not a Christian and doesn't intend to become one. But I couldn't help but think how God blessed me, my student, and Eden Christian Academy today... all through someone who doesn't believe in Him.

As a little aside, when I got home, I got to clean the baritones out and grease up the slides, lube the valves, etc. Of course I had to play them a little (the veggie tales song is pretty fun...) and see if Isaiah could make decent sound. And he did! It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, just to see this little person making such a big sound on a big instrument! Dan did take a video and, if my laptop's memory wasn't completely full, I could download it and post it here. If Sam had been awake, I would have had him try it too. All you really have to do is make rasberries into the mouthpiece and some sound will come out. Sam would probably be an expert!

On my mind...

I know I haven't blogged much lately. I haven't forgotten about all of you. There has been a lot going on, some things I can't really discuss on my blog.
Here's a quick summary:

• Dan has accepted the position of director of the Lighthouse. This means a lot of major changes for our family. The biggest change to me is that we are leaving our church.
• I'm realizing a complicated aspect of being in a pastor's family: You don't get to choose which church you attend. This kind of stinks because I really like Bakerstown. If I was in a different situation, living here, I would go to Bakerstown. I've never been comfortable at a megachurch. I want to be at a growing church where people know each other, yet quickly integrate newcomers. I have a deep respect for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. While other denominations are debating whether homosexuals should be a part of church leadership, whether scripture is without error, whether Jesus is the only way to receive salvation, etc, the Alliance is debating whether family church camp attendance should be "expected" or "required" for ministers. I don't say that to ridicule the C&MA. I say that to emphasize that the C&MA knows, without question, where it stands on the major issues. I'm not saying that I would never attend a church of another denomination. I'm saying that, given the choice, knowing what I know about the C&MA, I would prefer to attend a C&MA church. It's not that the people at other churches aren't nice or don't love Jesus. It's the church leadership that I might question, and the district and national leadership that I might question. And non-denominational churches? It just doesn't seem like there's much accountability there. This whole discussion became a whole lot churchier than I would have liked. I'm not a terribly churchy person. I believe in Jesus. That's all.
• I turned 30 yesterday. In my head, I know it's just a number. But it's pretty hard to say the words, "I am 30." Is this what I thought 30 would be like? Definitely not. I feel so much younger than 30-year-olds always seemed to me. I think I'm in the best shape of my adult life. I'm getting more confident, caring less what people think about me. I still think too much about how people see me. But I'm getting better about it.
• I had dinner with a new friend, Andrea, tonight. We both had our 30th birthdays this week, so we decided to go out to celebrate/lament. There was more celebrating than lamenting! Anyway, we had a great time at Atria's just talking and getting to know each other more.

Craziness...

We have really had a crazy couple of days. Dan's marathon was great! The boys and Lorrie and I arrived in Erie when Dan was just over half-way through the course. So we got to cheer him on all the way to the finish line! I still can't believe he ran 26.2 miles. It blows my mind. I don't think I could even run .26 miles! =)

Sunday afternoon we got home and collapsed. Dan's clothes from the weekend needed washed, the boys' beach toys needed cleaned and put away among other things that we let slide for the weekend. But we just relaxed happily waiting for the Steeler game to start. We were playing in Cleveland, and they were predicting 50 mph winds from hurricane Ike, so we were waiting to see how the game would go.


We were having strong winds at our house too, and around 8:15 (right at kickoff!) the power went out for about five minutes, giving us a little scare. We heard a tree fall in the woods, but it didn't hit the house. Then at half time the power went out for good. We just went to bed, hoping it would be back on in the morning. When it didn't come back on, we went to my in-laws' house, which is right around the corner. We really couldn't stay at home because, with our well and electric water pump, we didn't have any water either.


Several days and many calls to the electric company later, we are finally home. Phew! Now I have to clean up everything from last weekend's adventures!

From an undecided voter in a swing state

I have been really into this election process. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have some understanding of the issues, where the candidates stand on the issues, and how the election process really works.

Also, although I am a registered Republican, I don't fully align myself with the party's beliefs. According to a survey I took yesterday, my beliefs fall on the Right side of Libertarian. Interesting.

All that aside, I had a thought yesterday. Romans 13:1-2 says, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." Therefore, I have total peace about our next president. God will place in authority whomever he needs to, in order to fulfill his purposes. Who I see as the best candidate may not be the one God places over me. And I'm ok with that.