White Feathers and Weird Theology

Ok I've seen websites and heard stories about white feathers or gold glitter dust falling during worship services, and always chalked it up to New Age church services or riled up Holy Rollers; like some goofy late night movie about Pentecostles in the woods in 1849 or something. But.

Before my step dad Rob died he was a truck driver and would have to pack/unpack all the time for the road, with his feather pillow, and his feathers would get tracked all over the house and mom would yell at him. Well after he died mom would find white feathers in strange places and would cry because they were from his pillow and she'd miss him. Till they started showing up in places his pillow couldn't have put them. Then we all started getting them; to the point we all say now "Oh I got a feather today" and think of Rob. Well last year we were reading a book at church about white feathers in church services, and recently our church started seeing them fall. Last Sunday one fell while Garner was preaching. I don't know the theological possibility; I just know in Psalm 91 it says we're protected by the shadow of his wings, and it 91:4 it talks about his protective feathers.

All of this to say yesterday was my sister's baby shower, that I of course set up and decorated for at the church. I found 14 white feathers. FOURTEEN. I put them in a baggie and gave them to Beth. My mom cried and remembered Rob struggling (he came from a Baptist background) with the Holy Spirit before he died, and now she sees him playing in a pile of feathers, tossing them in the air and saying "I get it now! I get it now!" How beautiful is THAT?

B L I Z Z A R D

There are a so many things you gotta love about winter. Like when you have so many pairs of socks on to go outside that your feet sweat, then when you get home and take the boots off the wet sweaty socks freeze in the house because your floors are so cold. Or when you go to turn the car on so it can warm up while you clean it off, and the windshield wipers knock all the snow from the windshield onto your front seat because you can't get the door closed fast enough. Or worse yet, the windshield wipers knock all the snow ON YOU, which then thaws on your way to Target so you get to walk around wet and cold. You know, people who live in Florida just don't get to experience that kinda joy...

Miracle on Kouts Street

Ok, so the retail space I really wanted was only available for sale, not for rent. I couldn't afford to buy so I considered that door closed and looked elsewhere. What I found was bigger but much more expensive; but there were few options in Kouts so that's what I decided on. Well the last 4-5 weeks I've been waiting on the bank, and my flesh would by nature be in a hurry but I've had a peace about it and haven't rushed it. Well. Good thing I didn't sign yet on the expensive place! The real estate agent who had my "Plan A" space for sale CALLED MY HOUSE last week and said when the owners heard there was a girl who wanted to do a wedding store in Kouts, they decided to reconsider, I could have it for rent after all. And the rent is HALF of what the other "Plan B" place would've been. So that's a miracle. But.... went to a store with my sister after church today, and the owner of that store HAPPENS TO BE THE OWNER OF THE PLACE THE REAL ESTATE AGENT CALLED ME ABOUT LAST WEEK. When they realized that I WAS THE WEDDING GIRL they were so excited they walked me over to look at the place, THEN said they know I don't have the money to sign anything yet but they were gonna have the painter come in this week anyway so were there any particular colors I wanted? I crossed the street to the hardware store and picked some out, and this week THEY'RE PAINTING MY STORE in my colors. They don't even know my last name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's favor. That's God:)

Feb 14 and the (Christian) Single Girl

Alas, the dreaded Valentine's Day has arrived. Besides being somewhat sick with a cold, I am going to the school to do not one but two kiddo parties this morning. Then they're coming home for a 4 day weekend, which I would be excited about sans the aforementioned cold. Instead it makes me tired. What perked me up somewhat was a list of "anti-love" songs I just read online, CRACKED ME UP. On the list were favorites like Def Leppards "Love Bites," and of course Alanis Morrisett's "You Oughtta know" (the one where she says "When I scratch my nails down someone else's back I hope you feel it." Dude). But the #1, all time classic was (you're gonna laugh just thinking about the movie scene) Adam Sandler in the wedding singer, drunk and tired and sad after Linda has dumped him, singing "And when I think of you Linda, I hope you ------- choke... somebody kill me please, somebody kill me please...somebody please, pretty pretty please, killl meeeee, I want to dieeee...put a bullet in my headdddddddddd..." And John Lovitz standing like a stalker disco boy behind the curtain, watching. What genius:)

Dancing with Disney

We just got back from seeing High School Musical 1 & 2 On Ice. Oooooooooh...very cool. The cute thing was that my kids ice skated themselves for the very first time last Saturday, so to have that fun but difficult experience still fresh in their minds made the professional skating we saw today even more impressive. Another cute thing: ALL the little girls in the audience knew ALL the words to the songs. And the mommies. Aannd the daddies, though fewer of them sang without looking around to make sure no one SAW them singing. Cute cute cute...The only flaw of the day--and it was a big one--was the minus one degree temp that met us smack in the face walking from the parking lot to the United Center. The wind on top of that horrific temperature absolutely STUNG my skin. Runny noses and watering eyes aside, if your face HURTS it's just too ------g ccoooooooolllldddddddddddddddddddd. But High School Musical was good:)

Alias, revisited

Ok, back in the day (like 2001 or so) Dave and I watched this little show called Alias, every Sunday night with Levi and Bethany, after Bob and Gina's cell group. So THAT seems like 150 years ago at least, considering all that's happened since then (like, all those friends moved away and my husband moved out, just to name a few). ANYWAY, I stopped watching Alias right about the time Vaugn married Lauren and Sidney came back to life; too many "Is it possible for a man to love two women?" lines for me and my rocky marriage to handle at the time. So here we are, 2008, and the world is better for me now; so I was at the library recently and saw they have the whold flippin 5 seasons on DVD!!! So for shits and giggles I got the first disk one night..... AND I'M ADDICTED ALL OVER AGAIN. That's right Sara and Des, pull up a chair for 3 cuz this show is a w e s o m e. I loved it before but it's so cool to watch it now, sans commercials, and oh yeah you can watch 4 episodes in a day rather than waiting 7 days in between episodes. Genius. There's heavy music, hot guys, cool girl fights, cool cars, good writing, and fun costume changes:) Nothing like spending cold winter nights watching a little espionage-- and if there is anything better, it's been so long I must've forgotten what it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!