Quoted

"We need God in ways we do not know. Don't limit your experience of God to what you can think to ask. Ask for the unknown joy."

- John Piper

Sunday Picture(s)

Quoted

"Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave."

- Martin Luther

Amazing Grace

"I once was lost but now I'm found."

Once when Kaylee was around 5 years old, she lost me in a big crowd. Notice I said "she lost me." Even though we were in the midst of a gazillion people, I never lost sight of her. I called to her over and over but she could not hear me above the noise of the crowd. I watched her as she cried. I watched as she became increasingly terrified. I watched as she kept getting farther and farther away from me in her confusion. Finally I just barrelled through the crowd and snatched her up. We wept with relief and she kept saying over and over, "Mommy I couldn't find you." And I told her, "I was right here all along but I just couldn't get to you."

I am moved by how much this memory parallels my own journey toward God. My whole life, I considered myself to be a Christian. I just had no idea what being a Christian really meant. I stumbled through my life in panic and despair. I always believed in God. I just never considered that God believed in me. I may have been out of the will of God but I know now that I was never out of his sight.

Maybe being found means realizing that you were never really lost at all.

Quoted

"There is an endless demand for people to speak, There is a limited supply of intelligent things to say."

Jon Meacham

The gift that keeps on givin'

Kevin has given me some great gifts. But nothing comes close to this one.



I have been coveting a Kindle since they first came out but honestly, I never even considered owning one. It's just a really pricey item that neither Kevin nor I would have thought about buying. But, apparently Kevin's employer has much deeper pockets. They presented him with one for FREE as a thank you gift for some training that he provided. Because he is the best husband in the universe, he immediately regifted it to me.

Now, normally, I am a very generous person. If Kevin offered me something like this, I would usually insist that he keep it. I did not do this with the Kindle because I was afraid he would accept my offer. I'm not proud of this. I'm just telling the truth. I just friggin love this thing and it has made me selfish.

I am still too cheap to buy many books but Amazon has an ever changing selection of free downloads. Most of the free books are Christian fiction and nonfiction. I have not generally been a big fan of Christian fiction. (I usually find it cheesey and boring.) But I have been happily surprised at some of the books I have read so far. Having ten to twenty books to read at all times is like my nerd dream come true.

Quoted

"The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is like the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

Mark Twain

Fremont Street Experience, Las Vegas

While in Las Vegas, Kevin's mom and stepdad took us to Fremont street. This is old school Las Vegas. 99 cent shrimp cocktails. 3 dollar steak dinners. Yard long margaritas. A very happy place. The street is pedestrian only and the entire street is covered by this awning which is transformed into this amazing light show every evening. It was seriously twelve kinds of awesome.

A Baptist in Sin City

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Las Vegas was...way beyond my expectations. One of my friends told me Vegas was like Gatlinburg only with more white trash. In some ways, that's true. But I found much of Vegas to be...dare I say it? Kinda classy. Granted, I am like one of the Beverly Hillbillies when I travel. It doesn't take much to impress me. (Look Kevin! A cement pond!) But this place puts the X in excess.

Neither Kevin nor I are big gamblers but we did come home about 70 bucks richer thanks to a lucky streak on a dollar slot machine. I did enjoy walking through the casinos though. If you are a people-watcher, casinos are the place to be.

The highlight of the trip, for me, was a side trip we took to the Grand Canyon. (More blog about that later.) But we also got to see Mystere. I know Cirque Du Soleil shows are stupid expensive but trust me on this. If you ever get the opportunity to see a show, do it. It's just an amazing experience. Completely unforgettable.

Quoted

"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."

Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

Vegas Part 1

At some point, I am going to blog about our trip to Vegas but this was definitely one of the highlights. Life is filled with moments. Some good. Some bad. Many boring. But every now and again, you get a perfect moment. Kevin and I had just seen Mystere. We were walking back down the strip toward our hotel. The weather was warm and breezy. We made our way through the Bellagio casino and emerged just in time to see the fountain show begin. The shows are incredible at any time but the lights make the evening shows extra special. So I stood on the sidewalk full of excitement as the show began. Three notes in, I started to cry. Frank Sinatra...Luck be a Lady. Come on...it was just almost too much.

The secret to the perfect moment is realizing that life can't be like that all the time. You have to enjoy it for the temporary thrill that it is. You can't spend all your other moments unhappy because they just don't measure up. But you can stand in your laundry room, surrounded by a mountain of dirty clothes, and close your eyes for just a second to remember a warm night in Vegas in the arms of the man you love while Ol' Blue Eyes serenades you.

Then the dog pukes on the new carpet and you get on with a different kind of moment.

Adventure Science Museum

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Quoted

"Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive."

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

Trip to the Parthenon

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After seeing Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the kids were desperate to see the Parthenon. I visited there about twenty years ago but despite the fact that I drove by it twice a day for the last five years, I had never taken the kids there. We made a day of it during spring break. Ava was horrified by the anatomically correct statues, we were harassed by a homeless guy during our picnic and Katie sat in duck poop. Just a normal outing for the Joslyn/Klines.

Quoted

"When I feed the poor they call me a saint; but when I ask why people are poor they call me a communist."

-Dom Helder Camara