Yes, I know I haven't been doing well at blogging lately. However, we went to Chris' sister's wedding yesterday, and I had some fun playing with my fancy camera. I had mixed luck. I wound up using the Aperture Priority mode since I tried manual mode during the rehearsal and a lot of the pictures were either under or overexposed since it was really sunny. At any rate, the ceremony was beautiful, the food at the reception was good, and they're married now. Here are a few pictures.

The groomsmen and the minister watching everyone else walk in.

First shot of the bride with her Dad.

Nicole stepping off of the podium after their vows. A decent full shot of her dress. I'm not sure how she could walk in it.

A picture of Chris and I that his cousin took.

His cousin's son was the main attention grabber on the reception dance floor. As soon as the music started he was unstoppable, even though it was way past his bedtime.
I had trouble taking pictures at the reception. I had lots of pictures that were either horribly blurred or weirdly lit. I finally settled on the action setting so as to get the fastest shutter speed possible and tried to shoot around the lights as best as I could.

Easter

Easter: The Book of Revelation God says, when My Son's kingdom breaks into yours, expect a collision. When His way of relating confronts the world's way of relating, all heaven and hell break loose. The battle is on, a battle to the death and to life. The side that appears to be losing is winning and will soon win, visibly and decisively. And the side that seems now to have the edge loses forever. You have been seeking Me for many years. You have heard Me speak to you and you are ready to read My final love letter to you. Prepare to look at the reality of My kingdom as it's coming right now into your life and into this world. Prepare to see My Son as you've never seen Him before. Prepare to listen as the story I tell reveals the movement of history that continually brings you to a crossroad where life-altering choices are required. I want you to do more than understand My story. I want you to be caught up in it, My truth taken up into your life. Picturing reality in graphic images penetrates through, not around, your mind and into your imagination where true facts become living truth, experienced doctrine. Only then will My truth be taken up into your life. There is more to reality than meets the naked eye. Only when you are gripped by what is happening in the invisible world will you live well in the visible world. (from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Hunger

 Love Letter Two: Exodus

God says, I can and I will detach you from everything that numbs your sacred hunger for Me and makes you feel hungrier for something other than Me.

You will never on this earth depend fully enough on My power to live exactly as I want you to live. When you see how particular I am about all the rules you should obey but never do, let the weight of My holiness draw you into the delights of My love. I still want to be with you.

Don't ever forget: I do have a plan, a plan to make you deliriously happy in the circle of My love. As you read Exodus 25-40 where I record all those architectural details about the tabernacle, realize the lengths I'm willing to go to be with you. Imagine Me, the God of the universe, clothed in splendor and arrayed in glory, living in, by My standards, a simple tent set up in a barren wilderness. Sure, it was fancy, but compare it to what you imagine heaven to be. But that's where I lived, just to be near people like you.

As you consider all the laws I gave that you've never kept, and as you see My willingness to go camping to be with My people, know this: I will do whatever it takes to fully restore My family and to be with them forever.


(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Decorating on the Cheap

I finally have an idea of what I want to do decorating-wise in our kitchen (after 5 years here). I've slowly been collecting things that seem to work. The plate racks were a great find and I really like them, especially since the plates had been in our closet for a year or so waiting to figure out how to display them. Here's what I managed to come up with today.

The fake ivy was my garage sale find for the day. $.50 for the three separate plants. I figured for that price if I didn't like them I'd just add them to my next Goodwill bag. But I think this turned out well.

The wine and olive oil containers were things that we've been saving for a while and planning to display. I'm debating filling the clear wine bottle with colored stones or sand, but haven't found anything that seemed to fit the bill yet. The next thing that I'll be looking out for is some sort of curtains that will match the Italian kitchen theme that I'm trying for. Some days I think that the main key to decorating on the cheap is to simply be willing to watch and wait until you find what you're looking for at a good price.

Problems

Love Letter Three: Leviticus

God says, You want Me to solve your problems, but you don't know what your worst problem is, the one responsible for all the others. You don't yet realize that distance from Me is the most lethal problem you have.

You assume we're doing just fine together while you run off trying to make life work for you and you expect Me to cooperate. When you read Leviticus, notice that I never solve anyone's secondary problems. In all those verses about skin infection, for example, I never prescribed ointment or simply cured the disease, which I easily could have done. I simply told people they couldn't enter My Presence with an oozing sore. The issue was worship and intimacy with Me, not health, wealth, or personal comfort.

So many people miss that. They identify their needs, then view Me as a God who wants them satisfied and happy before I deal with their unholiness. But because I love them--and you--I've made a way for you to revolve your life around Me as your first thing. Everything else--your marriage, your checkbook, your self-esteem, your cancer--is a second thing. When the first thing (namely, Me) is in first place in your life, every second thing will be yours to enjoy.

You've got a long way to go before that's true in your life, but I have a plan to get you there, to make you holy.


(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Less Sick

Also described as being back to square one. My voice has mostly returned after being gone from Wednesday night through Saturday. I can now breathe through my nose. Oh, and I'm still coughing. See what I mean about being back to square one? I gave in and went to a clinic on Thursday (yes, while I had no voice). Chris went with me to translate, but I still don't think the doc understood that the sinus infection that I had for three days most definitely did NOT cause the cough that I've had for three months. Seems something about that doesn't compute. Anyways, after several days of antibiotics and a prescription-strength cough suppressant I'm still coughing. Maybe not as badly as I was for a while, and I'm starting to think its a mind over matter issue. I've decided that if this is a cough suppressant than it WILL work. Surprisingly enough it seems to be helping. But at least I'm back at work. I can only take just so many days of being home recovering, especially when I can't talk.

So I'm sick

And not enjoying it. The shelf above my desk looks like a pharmacy, since keeping medicine (and herbals) close by is the only way I can be sure and remember to take them. I have a script for antibiotics, and a heavy duty cough supressant. Oh, and orders to talk as little as possible so as to get my voice back before too long. This is obviously easier said than done. That's right, I lost my voice. I was just getting sufficiently fed up with this cough that I have had for a few months when it morphed into something even ickier. Doc said sinus infection, which I guess makes sense.
People keep asking me why it took me this long to go to a doctor for the cough. Thing is, even though I've had it for a few months, there were weeks in there when it sounded like it was getting better. This is a cough that I get every few years, and other than this year it has always gone away on its own after a month or two. My mom gets a similar one around this time every year as well, so I know I'm not the only one. It wasn't till I finally got tired of listening to myself cough (I think I have more patience with it than most people) that I decided to get myself to a doctor. Somewhere in that time my sinuses seem to have taken the day off.
For someone who very rarely gets sick (and I mean maybe 1 or 2 colds/year), it is rather unnerving to have had four sick days already in 2010. Hopefully once I get rid of this cough everything else will straighten itself out as well. Cause I'm not a good sick person.

Severe Love

Love Letter Four: Numbers

God says, the road to life is rough. You will begin every new adventure in life with naïve hope and excitement. Every wedding will begin with passion then move into problems. Every decorated nursery will receive a baby that will present unanticipated challenges. Every church plant, every new ministry, every small group that starts with happy hopes-everything you do, no matter how well organized and well intentioned-will run into trouble.

The road to life will expose you to terrible failure and crushing conflict. But only that road leads to the life you want, the life I give you. Spiritual leaders who teach that I am here to solve your problems and make your lives comfortable and prosperous underestimate the energy (and badly misunderstand the nature) of unholiness in the human heart that I must severely deal with to get you to My party.

And that underestimation leads them to underestimate the severity of My love. My servant C. S. Lewis got it right: I'm not safe, but I am good. I will not coddle you any more than a good surgeon only hugs a cancer-stricken child. I will not coddle you, but I will purify you. And that takes more, not less, than a hug.



(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)