a startling statistic

i went to a seminar this past week about the effects of technology on youth today. it was very enlightening and i learned quite a bit of new information, but one thing has really stood out in my mind. apparently, a few years ago a study was done on the effects of the tv show, friends...which, is one of ryan and i's favorite shows! it is so funny! anyway, apparently, the results showed that adolescents (of any age) who watched friends were 50% more likely to engage in sexual intercourse within the year of their watching. that is a ton of kids! the sad thing is that there are shows much worse than friends on today that kids are watching (i.e. desperate housewives, grey's anatomy, etc) and i imagine that if they did the study again, the statistics would be even higher. in fact, kids between the ages of 9 and 11 were asked to name their favorite (and most frequently watched) tv shows and do you know what they said? the disney channel, nickolodean, desperate housewives, the office, and grey's anatomy. what are such things teaching kids about what life should be like? what are such things teaching us?! 

a few new pictures...

 

Ryan got a hair cut, I'm starting to look preggo, and there's some beautiful foliage right outside our back door! 

Oh the joys of pregnancy!

As I near the 16th week of my pregnancy, there are a few things that I'm a little slow in adjusting to. As many people know, one of the joys of pregnancy is random cravings. It's like all I have to do is hear someone talk about some kind of food and I HAVE TO HAVE it, and quick. Of course, since we have limited resources right now, the getting it doesn't always happen, but Ryan is good about letting it happen if it can. Unfortunately, some of my cravings hit when I am talking with people from Alabama, which is bad because we don't have all of the same restaurants. Like I was talking with my Mom a few weeks ago and she mentioned Guthrie's and I couldn't get it off my mind for days...in fact, now that it comes up again, I could really go for some of that amazing sauce with some fries and chicken! But sadly, no Guthrie's anywhere close to me. Today's random craving actually developed from a random dream I had last night. In fact, all I remember about the dream is that I was with my mom and she was drinking Diet Dr. Pepper...and, as she's always so nice to do, she shared some with me. Since I woke up, I've been yearning for a Diet Dr. Pepper. But, that's a no-no for preggos! (which I actually just learned a few weeks, thankfully!) So... I found myself actually buying a Dr. Pepper. The sad part of the whole story, I don't even like Dr. Pepper, I only like the Diet...but I drank some and pretended like it was the good stuff... and it worked, kind of. =)

We go back to the doctor tomorrow. No..stop that question you are about to ask me...No, we will not know the gender of the baby after tomorrow's appointment. We'd like to know, and we will eventually find out, but our doctor has told us that she won't tell until us until I am 24 weeks along. I know-that's really late. I know-ridiculous! But oh well...we will find out eventually! And, I'm looking forward to being that far along because not only will our little baby be that much closer to coming out of me, but we will be back home by then-yay! 

Until next time...

Oh one more thing-very exciting news! My sister-in-law is getting very close to having her baby! She definitely sounds ready for little Roxie to be here, and told her yesterday that if she's not born by next Thursday, then they will induce! Whoohooo!! Here's a picture of her and her sweet husband (I actually stole this from Carol's page! :))-doesn't she look just beautiful?!?!

No escaping it..

You know, God does funny things sometimes. We have a new counselor at Genesis, and I was talking with him last night about his practice. He recently got his training in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and so I was asking him a few questions about it. I recently read a paragraph about this technique that was squished into one of my counseling books. I had been terribly dissatisfied with the short explanation the book gave, so was so excited to hear someone who knows how to implement the technique. I still don't really have enough info to explain it well, so look here!  Anyway, it has proven to be a very effective tool in working with people who have simple phobias, as well as people with post traumatic stress disorder (it's used quite frequently in the military, I learned). The jist of it is that it takes people to a similar state as the REM sleep pattern. Our new counselor told me that he thinks it's pretty fascinating that God actually created within every person the ability to get to this place and have to deal with their problems through their sleep patterns...which, I thought, "Hmm..that is really amazing!" Well, little did I know I would have such an experience not long after talking with the counselor. 

I have dreams pretty often, usually they are majorly affected by what I watch on tv. I have gotten so that I don't like watching anything remotely violent at night because I have terrible dreams (latest cases: Iron Man and that show, The Unit). Plus, with all my raging pregnancy hormones, my dream life has been all the more active. So, last night, I had this very vivid dream and I really feel like God was telling me that I really need to deal with this. A dear friend of mine from back home died unexpectedly a few weeks ago. One moment, all was well, and the next-he was in eternity (and ultimately for him, all was even better)...but it has been a hard thing to process for many of us. Me, I have pretty much been avoiding processing it, which has been easier than one might think. Since I am living many miles away and since I only have been able to talk with him sporatically since our move, it's almost like if I don't think about it, I can pretend he's still around...I know it sounds insane, but so it goes. Anyway, he was in my dream last night, alive but with some problems. For some reason, he was blind and quite slow of speech, but he really wanted to talk with me. His brother kept bringing him to me and saying, "You really need to talk with him....please just talk with him." And I kept saying "No I don't want to deal with this now, I'll deal with it later." And I'd go away from where they were...but they kept ending up near me again, only for his brother to be telling me the same things. And he himself kept trying to talk with me, but I just wouldn't do it... I kept pushing him away, again and again, saying "I'll deal with this later..." I woke up quite startled by my dream and with a very heavy sense of sadness that I kept pushing away dealing with my friend. And then, as I lay there in the middle of the night, I recalled my conversation with the new counselor at work... that God has made up so that sometimes we deal with our emotions even in our sleep. And I realized, that maybe God is saying it's time for me to really deal with this loss.. 

I still don't really want to...it's easier to pretend otherwise, as selfish and crazy as that is... but I don't think He's going to let me not deal with and process this loss. 

So, heavy I walk today filled with sadness over the loss of a dear man. 

A Communion Story

As most of you know, Ryan and I have been attending an Anglican Church as of late. There are a few things a little bit different there than from our previous church experiences. One of the things is that the Communion is practiced differently. Instead of the elements being passed around, each person walks to the front to receive them, first the bread and then the wine. We have gotten fairly used to this practice, but encountered something a little different this morning. We were sitting in our chairs, awaiting our row's turn to go to the front. I usually like to spend this time in prayer and dwelling on the act of Communion, which I had been this morning, but as the row in front of us went, I began preparing myself to get up. In other words, I was just kind of looking at the front of the church, waiting... and something quite funny caught my eye. See, just before we even begin even talking about Communion each week, the children are all brought in from their kid's service. So, there's a lot going on and all of the kids go up with their parents to partake in Communion. Well, they can partake or not partake (for the ones who don't, I'm assuming the ones who have yet to receive Christ themselves, walk up to the front with their parents and cross their arms over the front of their bodies. When the pastor sees this, he bends down and prays over them-a beautiful thing really)..anyway, the particular kids who caught my eye were a little bit older and were two brothers who were both partaking. One of the boys got to the wine first, but the other (younger) brother was close behind. As the chalice bearer was walking over to get some grape juice for the first boy, the younger brother kind of ran up behind/beside his brother. The older brother proceded to shove (and hard, I might add) his younger brother out of the way...like he was afraid the chalice bearer might give the juice to his brother before him. As I watched this interaction, I chuckled to myself. But then, I started thinking a little about it. And I thought that it was a great picture of how we can be sometimes...almost as if we are subconsciously afraid that God might run out of grace for us, so we don't want to share it with anyone, when this is actually the complete opposite the message of the gospel. We cling to the grace God has so richly poured on our lives, but look around us with eyes that see others as not worthy to receive that same grace...when really, we aren't worthy ourselves, by any means! The beautiful thing about the gospel IS that God sent Christ for the redemption of the whole world, that there really is enough for everyone-even for that one that doesn't deserve it in your own eyes... because when you really look deeply at that person, you might end up seeing something quite unnerving--it's actually you.

stretchy pants

As you all know, Nacho Libre is one of my favorite movies of all times-a movie full of deep wisdom! I recently recalled a great quote from Nacho himself: 

"When you are a man... Sometimes you wear stretchy pants... In your room... For fun."

As a slowly growing baby makes my stomach protrude a wee bit more each day, I think Nacho just might have been on to something. Though, I might change it a little:

"When you are a woman...sometimes you wear stretchy pants..in your room (and elsewhere)...because they are the only thing that fits..." 

one down...

two to go! trimesters, that is...yep, amazingly, i am already a 1/3 of the way through this whole pregnancy. some days i hardly believe i am really pregnant. then i look down at my slowly growing belly, squeezed into my jeans and poking out my shirt just a little bit more every day--and well, i know it's true!