The following is a video that a friend of mine put together for our Friend Day here at church. The theme was looking at how Jesus modeled relationships... and I showed this right before my sermon. Thanks Steve, for your help in this. It turned out great!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Photo Tour - Emily's Room
We bought Emily this new cool bed right before we left Missouri!
She loves it!
These next two pictures are of Emily's huge walk-in closet! Amazing!
She loves it!
These next two pictures are of Emily's huge walk-in closet! Amazing!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
True Comfort
I ran into this a couple of days ago and thought it was great... I don't know who it originated from but here it is anyway:
"I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God's dealing, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly, he said things I knew were true. I was unmoved except to wish that he would go away. He finally did.
Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left. I was moved, I was comforted. I hated to see him go."
"I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God's dealing, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly, he said things I knew were true. I was unmoved except to wish that he would go away. He finally did.
Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left. I was moved, I was comforted. I hated to see him go."
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Disney Trip 6
Our last day at Disney started around 3:30AM. We had to catch an 8:00PM flight… and Magical Express wanted to pick us up three hours before that departure time. Yuck. Melissa and I both had that nauseous feeling you get when you don’t get enough sleep. We got home around 10:00AM central time and got Emily back for her afternoon session of Kindergarten.
Magical express was cool… mostly because it was free. But I do like being able to have the choice to go somewhere on my own. I really wanted to play mini-golf over vacation… but we weren’t able to on the day we had time because it had stormed in the afternoon and Disney shut down Blizzard Beach early… along with all the buses that traveled to it… and the mini-golf course that I wanted to play at was next to Blizzard Beach. If I had a car… we could have all just driven there… but as it turned out… we couldn’t get over there. Magical Express is less stressful… a rental car is more flexible.
I decided on this trip, for the first time, to completely avoid any park that was going to have extra magic hours. Having tried it this way… I will never go back to Extra Magic Hours. The lines were not bad and we were never left wishing we had an extra hour to finish everything. The crowds are better when all those extra guests are not flooding into the park.
Fastpass was another issue that evolved for me. I found out from a Disney podcast that while the cast members won’t let anyone enter the fastpass line early… they will late arrivers through. So if my FP window is for 10AM to 11AM and I show up at 5PM… they’ll still let me in. This knowledge lead to a decision to get as many FP’s as possible early in the day. So, for every park… I’d have everyone else go to a non fast pass ride first thing… while I would go and get a FastPass for a headliner ride first thing. When you get FastPasses first thing… the window to get another fast pass opens up sooner.
For instance, at MGM studios… I got FP’s for Rock ‘N Roller Coaster first thing… and next time I could get a FP was 10:00AM. So while everyone else watched a show… Aaron and I ran back to Tower of Terror at 10:00AM to get another set of FP’s there. The next time I could pick up a FP now was around 12:00PM. So around noon, I picked up some FP’s for Star Tours. There were nights were I would have sets of FP’s to four different rides. So we’d use them up after dinner. These little babies are lifesavers… especially when I found out that I could use them anytime after my arrival window starts.
Magical express was cool… mostly because it was free. But I do like being able to have the choice to go somewhere on my own. I really wanted to play mini-golf over vacation… but we weren’t able to on the day we had time because it had stormed in the afternoon and Disney shut down Blizzard Beach early… along with all the buses that traveled to it… and the mini-golf course that I wanted to play at was next to Blizzard Beach. If I had a car… we could have all just driven there… but as it turned out… we couldn’t get over there. Magical Express is less stressful… a rental car is more flexible.
I decided on this trip, for the first time, to completely avoid any park that was going to have extra magic hours. Having tried it this way… I will never go back to Extra Magic Hours. The lines were not bad and we were never left wishing we had an extra hour to finish everything. The crowds are better when all those extra guests are not flooding into the park.
Fastpass was another issue that evolved for me. I found out from a Disney podcast that while the cast members won’t let anyone enter the fastpass line early… they will late arrivers through. So if my FP window is for 10AM to 11AM and I show up at 5PM… they’ll still let me in. This knowledge lead to a decision to get as many FP’s as possible early in the day. So, for every park… I’d have everyone else go to a non fast pass ride first thing… while I would go and get a FastPass for a headliner ride first thing. When you get FastPasses first thing… the window to get another fast pass opens up sooner.
For instance, at MGM studios… I got FP’s for Rock ‘N Roller Coaster first thing… and next time I could get a FP was 10:00AM. So while everyone else watched a show… Aaron and I ran back to Tower of Terror at 10:00AM to get another set of FP’s there. The next time I could pick up a FP now was around 12:00PM. So around noon, I picked up some FP’s for Star Tours. There were nights were I would have sets of FP’s to four different rides. So we’d use them up after dinner. These little babies are lifesavers… especially when I found out that I could use them anytime after my arrival window starts.
Overall, it was a fantastic trip! We are not sure of when our next trip will be. I would say next September during free dining… but there’s a rumor going around the Disney fan sites that Disney is going to start making guests pay tips to the waiter and waitresses on top of the cost of Disney’s Dining Plan. It makes less sense for us to go during this time frame if this turns out to be the case. So, we are waiting to see what happens… but would love to go back in September of 2008, November of 2008 or January of 2009. Melissa and I might even stay a night this summer when we are there for General Conference. We’ll just have to see!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Disney Trip 5
So… our last full day at Disneyworld was spent at Magic Kingdom… and I gotta say… this was my favorite day of the trip and my favorite trip to the Magic Kingdom. Disney is doing this thing called ‘Year of a Million Dreams’ and they give away various prizes and things. All week, we’ve seen families get thes things called Dream FastPasses… which means for select rides, these families get to bypass the standbye line and pretty much get on the ride in five minutes or less.
Our first ride on this morning was Buzz Lightyear’s space ranger spin and as we got into line… we saw a group of Disney cast members in the line. The first person said… “Congratulations, you have been awarded with a Disney Dream.” And the second person handed every person in our party a set of Dream FastPasses… for nine of the biggest rides at the Magic Kingdom! Needless to say, we were very, very excited! It changed the whole complexion of the day. Instead of rushing to the big rides right away… we were able to go at a more leisurely pace.
Another very interesting thing happened. Later in the day, we rode a ride called the Transit Authority… mostly just to get off our feet for awhile. This ride takes you through various Tomorrowland attractions… like Space Mountain. At this particular time… we rode through Space Mountain when it was shut down for repairs… and the lights were on and we could see the track. It was very weird. I had never seen it that way before. Too bad I didn’t have my camera out. It would have been a great picture.
We ate dinner at the Liberty Tree Inn… which was a family style character meal. It was all Thanksgiving types of food and I know that this was Melissa’s favorite meal. I’m not sure about my parents… but I think they enjoyed it too. Emily got to visit with a bunch of different characters while we ate.
I was able to experience one new attraction at Magic Kingdom: Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. I found this to be a nice addition. I already liked the characters found in Monster’s Inc… and to have the audience participation and ad lib performances by the various characters of the show really made it a unique attraction. I would give it an A- grade.
If you asked Emily what her favorite ride of the week was… she would tell you Peter Pan… a ride that she didn’t get to go on last year. She loved this classic ride in Fantasyland… and it made it all the better when we bypassed about an hour wait in the standby line. She also was brave enough to ride Splash Mountain twice and Big Thunder Mountain twice! She also really enjoyed meeting Ariel in ‘Ariel’s Grotto.’ That was a thrill for her and ‘Ariel’ did a great job interacting with Emily.
We stayed the whole day and decided to bypass the fireworks and get an early jump on sleep. It was going to be an early morning the next morning for us. We did some shopping on main street, and I got my tradition WDW bobblehead. A Mickey Mouse inspired by the Fantasmic movie… we had a blast on this day!
Our first ride on this morning was Buzz Lightyear’s space ranger spin and as we got into line… we saw a group of Disney cast members in the line. The first person said… “Congratulations, you have been awarded with a Disney Dream.” And the second person handed every person in our party a set of Dream FastPasses… for nine of the biggest rides at the Magic Kingdom! Needless to say, we were very, very excited! It changed the whole complexion of the day. Instead of rushing to the big rides right away… we were able to go at a more leisurely pace.
Another very interesting thing happened. Later in the day, we rode a ride called the Transit Authority… mostly just to get off our feet for awhile. This ride takes you through various Tomorrowland attractions… like Space Mountain. At this particular time… we rode through Space Mountain when it was shut down for repairs… and the lights were on and we could see the track. It was very weird. I had never seen it that way before. Too bad I didn’t have my camera out. It would have been a great picture.
We ate dinner at the Liberty Tree Inn… which was a family style character meal. It was all Thanksgiving types of food and I know that this was Melissa’s favorite meal. I’m not sure about my parents… but I think they enjoyed it too. Emily got to visit with a bunch of different characters while we ate.
I was able to experience one new attraction at Magic Kingdom: Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. I found this to be a nice addition. I already liked the characters found in Monster’s Inc… and to have the audience participation and ad lib performances by the various characters of the show really made it a unique attraction. I would give it an A- grade.
If you asked Emily what her favorite ride of the week was… she would tell you Peter Pan… a ride that she didn’t get to go on last year. She loved this classic ride in Fantasyland… and it made it all the better when we bypassed about an hour wait in the standby line. She also was brave enough to ride Splash Mountain twice and Big Thunder Mountain twice! She also really enjoyed meeting Ariel in ‘Ariel’s Grotto.’ That was a thrill for her and ‘Ariel’ did a great job interacting with Emily.
We stayed the whole day and decided to bypass the fireworks and get an early jump on sleep. It was going to be an early morning the next morning for us. We did some shopping on main street, and I got my tradition WDW bobblehead. A Mickey Mouse inspired by the Fantasmic movie… we had a blast on this day!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Losing Teeth
I have not fallen off the planet... just been very busy and not able to update as often as I would like. Please check out my sidebar for new features... which include a new reading and film website that will make it easier for me to share what I've been reading and watching! If you put your cursor over each movie... the first part of my review will pop up on the movies that I left a written review for. Cool stuff. And until I can get back into the blogging swing of things... please enjoy the following description and video:
Emily lost her two bottom front teeth this summer. Here is her explanation of what happened after she lost tooth #1:
Emily lost her two bottom front teeth this summer. Here is her explanation of what happened after she lost tooth #1:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)