MOVIE REVIEWS

Take 'em with a grain of salt, because these are based purely on my own opinions, and several of the movies are horribly outdated (because, for the most part, Michael and I find ourselves a bit busy to be watching movies when they actually come out :) ).

1. ECLIPSE -- (soap box alert) well you knew I had to review this one, since I've always been a fan of the books, and a lukewarm fan (as much as I can be as a woman who is *gulp* like 10 years older than these kids) of the movies. Let me say first off, that these movies really are terrible quality in both acting and special effects. That just goes without saying, and if you don't agree, you're probably a little biased and affected by the books, rather than the actual movies, although you may not be objective enough to realize it. hee :). Apart from that, here was my take on the third movie of the Twilight series: when all of the hype began with the first movie, I shrugged my shoulders, got in line to buy my ticket, and enjoyed each of the first two (again, as much as you can enjoy films like these, that are so obviously geared toward pubescent girls). But with this third one, I just couldn't help but notice how, leading up to the movie, women and girls seemed to be getting more and more out of hand. I mean, really? It's a story. And really? It's about vampires for Pete's sake. And really? It's the same love story told a different way that's been told for hundreds of years. That aside, I was convicted and pierced during the viewing of Eclipse. It made me so sad to know that thousands (maybe even millions) of girls and women are watching this movie, and aspiring and hoping for something that isn't real, and in fact, is destructive - harmful to real life. There were so many worldly, fleshly ideas portrayed in this movie, it grieved my heart for the impressionable teens of our time. Maybe part of that is because of the book I just finished writing, which I've attempted to make an antithesis of worldly, fleshly ideas, to help girls who struggle with self-image. Maybe part of it is because as the series goes on, it's more and more unbelievable and filled with false ideas of love and romance and fulfillment. Maybe it's because for the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I am really, truly finding what it means to be filled by Jesus and His truth and His Word. And I can tell you, this movie is a far cry from anything to do with the truth of God and His purposes for us here. So if I'd been there viewing on a strictly entertainment basis, I probably still would have come away thinking "meh" (in the words of Jason Cox), but from a spiritual standpoint, it really stuck in my craw. So there you have it.

2. MONSTERS VS. ALIENS -- yes, we've just now seen it. Last night, actually. And Michael and I both thought it was cute and funny, and definitely worth seeing if you haven't yet. It was fun and refreshing - a nice break from a day of hard work :)

3. 2012 -- yes, we've just now seen it. Tonight, in fact (we're making up for lost time). And it's ridiculous. It's like all of the disaster movies about the end of the world you've ever seen in your whole entire life, with all of the special effects, along with weird, haphazard plot lines interwoven throughout, and a whole whole lot of people dying over and over again, with one family (the family of the hero/main character, of course), prevailing against all odds. Blargh.

4. KATE & LEOPOLD -- again, I just watched it recently. I know it came out forever ago. I thought it was cute...even though it wasn't believable at all. Meg Ryan was bitter and unattractive and quirky, and Hugh Jackman was smitten with her for who knows why. I was a fan in the end because it ended all tied up in a nice, neat romantic bow, just the way I like things. Had it pulled a City of Angels ending, it would've had no redeeming value whatsoever and me and Meg would've had words.

And there's your pointless movie review of films probably most of you saw years ago :)

FAMILY TIES

A few events involving family that we were blessed to be a part of this summer...

Me and my mom flew to Colorado to watch my cousin Kenzie get married. The scenery was beautiful and the bride looked gorgeous. We were SO glad we got to go.

(my other cousin Jordan and his wife, Reiko)

My twin cousins, Christian and Christopher came to visit from Georgia last week. They were baptized on their birthdays, so we celebrated both while they were here. Their dad (my Uncle Charley) passed away years ago from a brain tumor, and we are SO proud of these boys and the way they've grown and learned to entrust their lives to God. My dad has worked hard to fill the shoes of a male mentor and father-figure; he baptized them at our church.

Bennett made cookies this weekend with ingredients he picked out and helped with, to take to Mimi and Poppy and Uncle Joe Joe (he was SO proud of them :) ).

MAY I RECOMMEND

I'm in a pretty intense Bible study right now, and I've decided I'm not quite ready to disclose everything about it yet - still in the midst of it, still processing everything I'm learning, etc. However, I still have several seminars and books to recommend, for anyone who's interested, all of which have given me at least a little to chew on, and most of which have given me a LOT.

Seminars:

1. Beth Moore's "So Long, Insecurity" -- this seminar really blew my mind. It was amazing. I'm pretty sure it's available online now as a podcast (not positive, but back in April when it went down as a live simulcast, they were saying it would be available in July. I am thankful God led me to attend back in the spring.

2. Anything by Jim and Karen Evans, who have a website set up with seminars that you can watch on the internet weekly if you want. These seminars have amazing material for marriages. Michael and I have been greatly blessed by the things they have to say. Their website is www.marriagetoday.org.

Books:

1. So Long, Insecurity -- yes, Beth Moore also wrote it as a book. I didn't think it was as jam-packed with amazing, helpful stuff like the seminar was, but it's a good read, and had a lot of helpful stuff in it.

2. A Hunger for God -- Um. Wow. I don't even know what to say about this book by John Piper. It, along with the study I'm doing right now, has rocked my world and turned my perspective and desire for Jesus upside-down. This book is specifically about fasting, and it's unbelievable. Definitely real spiritual meat. You can actually download it as a PDF to your computer from online - if you're interested, let me know and I'll get you the info.

SUMMER STUFF

Some things we've been up to...

Michael is the neighborhood Pied Piper. No joke. These kids follow him around and come to the door asking if he's home. He's trying to figure out a way to retire gracefully from the job. :)

Summer Spectacular 2010

This picture does NOT do the show justice. It was a three-night story of Elijah, and it was AMAZING! Bennett learned SO much, and he still asks every week when Summer Spectacular is going to come back.

Jasper John's new favorite past-time. I can't even complain about the mess because it keeps him off my hip for a few minutes!

We took Bennett bowling for the first time with some good friends who also have a little boy,

and after he figured out how to roll the ball, he loved it (here he is doing his "Bowling Dance").

Daddy teaching him how to roll the ball.

Mommy re-teaching him how to roll the ball.

(he said it went too slow the other way)

My big guy with his teeny-tiny bowling shoes :)

Brothers. Oy vey.

**scroll down to the MY HAIR post to see the long-awaited, highly anticipated pictures of my haircut and color**

EYE SURGERY

Okay, the last one on the list will have to go first, because I have to disclose this while it's happening, and ask for your prayers.

I took my sweet Jasper John to the eye doctor this morning, and was shocked to hear that he will in fact have to have eye surgery. God has given me peace about this since a few hours ago, when I started crying in the doctor's office, but I'm still rocked by the news.

For those of you that didn't know, at Jasper's 15 month appt., his pediatrician determined that he has a lazy eye (which I pretty much already thought, since his left eye often gets "stuck" when he's looking over his right shoulder). He referred me to a pediatric eye doctor and said typically they'll do drops to blur the stronger eye's vision, to strengthen the weaker eye, or a patch or glasses, or blah blah blah. The WORST case scenario was surgery, and seemed unlikely from his initial impression. Boy-howdy was he wrong. It's not actually a lazy eye at all, and he does need surgery.

The eye doctor told me almost immediately that there is no other way to correct this, other than surgery. It mostly freaks me out because it's his EYE, for crying out loud, but I have full confidence in this doctor, who comes highly recommended, and is also a living-it Christian, and there are several positives about the visit as well. Here's a break-down of the info (especially for family):

1. He was born with it - it's a congenital eye defect. Nothing could have prevented it, it's just the way it is.
2. The torticollis he had as a baby probably wasn't as bad as we thought at the time, because he was compensating for his weak eye by tilting his head.
3. Because he has tilted his head to look at things, it has preserved the vision in his weak eye, and his vision is unaffected (praise the Lord!). So there are NO complications there!! :)
4. This surgery is minimally invasive, takes 20-30 minutes to complete, and is an out-patient surgery, where we can take him home about an hour after it's done.
5. Side effects include blood-shot eyes for several days, discomfort/pain for a couple of days that can be easily treated with tylenol, and giving drops for several days to prevent infection.
6. The surgery involves pulling and tightening a muscle in the eye, and only the outer layer of the eye is involved, which is a GOOD thing.
7. He will be wearing a patch for an hour each day to get him ready for the surgery.
8. The majority of the time, one surgery is all it takes to fix everything. Occasionally a second surgery is required when they're older. Regardless, the condition is completely fixable.

If you're reading this, our family would greatly appreciate a prayer/prayers for our sweet Jasper. Specifically, for this upcoming surgery (which will probably take place at the end of August), and also that he will begin walking soon (he cruises and uses his walker all over the house, but isn't actually walking by himself - he turned 16 months yesterday). He's had a lot of random health issues since birth that have run his mama ragged over the months, and though I don't talk about it a lot, it stresses me out quite a bit at times, and I have a tendency to worry about him, rather than leaving him in God's hands, Who is far more capable of taking care of him and meeting his needs than I am.

It's so hard to have something "wrong" with your child, and sometimes it feels like there's more wrong than there is right with my baby, though I know it's not true. The truth is that he is a healthy, growing, developing boy, and there are so many families out there who are dealing with health issues far more serious than ours. But it's still hard and it still hurts.

That being said, I choose to praise God for His many blessings and provisions today, that He made very clear to me in the midst of my sadness about this diagnosis.
*Thank you, God that Jasper's vision is great, and that it is not affected.
*Thank you, God for leading us to a capable Christian eye surgeon who can bring spiritual comfort along with the physical healing.
*Thank you, God for the way you love us and hurt over us, just like I hurt over my sweet baby.
*Thank you, God for going ahead of this procedure and preparing the way, even now.
*Thank you, God that I have such a loving, compassionate husband, and mom, whom you used to comfort me after receiving the news.
*Thank you, God for the way you care for and provide for our family.
*Thank you, God, that you never change, no matter the news or circumstance.
*Thank you, God, for making me Jasper John's mommy.

Thank you for your prayers. I'll keep you all posted on everything.

A LIST

A list of things to come:

1) Another month in pictures of the boys and what we've been up to (since I've been terrible at updating pictures lately).

2) An added picture of my hair, a couple of posts down. Three days has helped....a little.

3) A big fat post about some things God has been teaching me, and some books/seminars I highly recommend.

4) General family updates, including my twin cousins' visit this week, and Jasper's eye doctor appointment, which we're going to on Thursday.

THE BOOK

First off, I'm sending my query letters, book synopsis, personal biography, etc etc. (all that the literary agent has requested) on Monday. I'm posting here about it now to ask all of you who read my blog, and all of the people who love and care about me to pray for the success of this book on Monday. Pray that it will go into the hands of a literary agent, and then to a publisher, who sees its merit and quality, and good message, who wants it to help other young women the way I want it to. I say THANK YOU ahead of time for your prayers.

And here's a little more info on it, since I have been so vague up until now:

1. It is titled A Fat Girl's Revolution.

2. It is a Christian fiction novel, geared towards young adult through middle-aged women, especially those who have ever had a hard time with appearance, weight, self-esteem, etc.

3. It's about a young woman who struggles with her weight, her self-image, etc., and with God's help, works to overcome this, and revolutionize her life. It's also a supernatural love story, involving a man who has been a part of her past and who wants to be part of her future.

4. After editing (still finishing up a tiny bit), it is still right around 90,000 words long, which is a pretty average-sized book in the publishing world.

From all of the research I've done, it looks like the basic process for submitting a novel is submitting a query letter, then being asked to submit a partial of the novel (usually the first three chapters), then the entire manuscript if they are interested. After that, the literary agent and myself decide if we are a good fit for each other, and we sign a contract. Then the literary agent attempts to sell my book to a publisher. Whew! All of this takes weeks and weeks, so I'll have to wear my patient pants for a while :)

So for now, I covet your prayers on Monday in particular. Thank you, my dear friends!

MY HAIR

I dyed my hair reddish-auburnish this morning. It isn't drastic, but I like it, even if it is an amateurish job (digging the "ish" today). I've been getting antsy and bored with my hair for a while now, and since I adore red hair, I thought I'd go that route, in a very conservative, cost-effective way, of course, because I'm just not brave enough to do something crazy. Anyway, I'm going to try to post a picture of it later today.

***Update***

I'm waiting three days to post a picture, because I just got my hair cut as well, and the lady butchered it. Totally my fault since I won't shell out the money to book an actual appointment with somebody recommended, but STILL! Did she HAVE to give me BANGS?! When I didn't even ask for them? Great Clips, I never know what I'll get from you, and it's rarely ever good. Yet I keep coming back for more. Why? Why do I do this? Shame on me!

Anyhow, I'm depending on the three-day rule, the one where they say it takes three days to get used to your hair, and then you kinda-sorta like it and don't mind it so much. *crossing my fingers that the rule works in this situation* So I'll post a picture here in a few days...maybe.

***Picture Update***

And before you say I was being overdramatic, or it's not that bad, or not bad at all, please keep in mind that I waited well over my three-day rule to take and post the pictures, and my hair is pulled up half-way (which will most likely be its perpetual state for the next month or so). Plus, I figure a big fat smile makes a rough haircut travel a long way, as evidenced by the first picture. I'm still digging the red, but I have GOT to break down and get myself an actual person to go to from now on, rather than placing the fate of my hair in the hands of scary people who have no business wielding scissors of any kind.

PROTEIN

My son ate bugs yesterday. On purpose. And he liked it.

More specifically, they were roly-polies, and more specifically than that, after eating them, he laughed and then said with a big grin on his face, "I want to go find some caterpillars and snails and butterflies, and eat them TOO!"

I was speechless. My first order of business was to make Bennett brush his teeth several times. Michael, of course, thought it was hilarious, and reminisced about his own bug-eating days.

It's never a dull moment in a house full of boys.