Being "Mom"

Wow! Everything my Mom ever said to me growing up is in the video below, and it's amazing how many of these "sayings" I've used myself....and my experience only goes up to 6.5 years!
The lady's name is Anita Renroe, and you can click HERE to go to her website if you are interested in learning more about her. Take a moment to watch this video. It's pretty funny.

HOW SHOULD I HANDLE THIS?

As many of you know by now, I am venturing out into the work world. I will begin teaching preschool the day after Labor Day at HillDale Christian School. I have been so excited about this part of God's wonderful plan for me. I am very much looking forward to it. Last friday night, we had a dinner meeting with all the teachers and the principle where we all received our class list. I have 8 kids in my class, and I finally know their individual names, which has made it more real! I can now pray for them all by name! After talking with each of the teachers about the students that had been placed in their perspective classrooms, one of the teachers offered up a piece of advice about one of the boys in my class. She knows this family personally and has told me that he is VERY attatched to his Mommy, and will probably have a really hard time adjusting to school. So basically, I see myself having to pull him apart from his Mom every Tuesday and Thursday! Something I don't want to do! I, myself, have never had to deal with this because my kids were always happy to go to school. As a matter of fact, Ryan used to cry to GO because we'd drop off his big sister and not him. I guess if it had been an issue I had to deal with, I would have been heartbroken to see my child screaming and reaching for me as I left the buildin. So if this sweet little precious boy has separation issues when the first days of school starts, so be it. I will do my best to make him feel comfortable and earn his trust. Hopefully if won't last long. My main concern is also making the parents feel at ease with leaving their babies with me. After all, they are only 2 and 3 year olds!!!

If you have advice on how I should handle it...pass it on. It's greatly appreciated!

HAIRSPRAY

So, today, my sweet hubby let me outta the house for a bit to meet my best friend at the movies to watch Hairspray. What makes that sweet? Well, he wanted to see it too, but we didn't have anyone to keep the kids, so he let me go without him. (all together now...."AAAWWWW!")

Well, I've always wanted to see the Broadway show, and when it came to town, for one reason (no money), or another (no money), I wasn't able to go. But springing the movie ticket price was more doable, so off I went with only a slight tinge of guilt. (hey...it's a "mommy" thing)

First off....the girl playing the lead role of Tracy Turnblad was PHE-NOM-ENAL! It's hard to believe that it is her very first movie! She looked like a true pro and I couldn't stop smiling whenever she was onscreen! She's so cute! She did a great job, and I can't imagine any other girl (celebrity especially) playing the role!
Secondly, JOHN TRAVOLTA, aka Edna Turblad, was unreal! First off...he had the goofiest expressions on his face and I'm sure it was due to "overacting" since most of his body for the movie was FAKE! (haha) I was also amazed at how "light on her feet" Edna was, considering she was a pretty large lady (shemale)
The other "over actor" was the highly popular Zac Ephron, who is best known for his "High School Musical" fame (loved that one!), but even his portrayal of Troy Bolton was a bit over the top. I think he's a cute guy, but his "contemplative, I'm in a quandary and need to make the right decision" face didn't get any better in Hairspray as he portrayed the heart throb "LINK". But even still, he was fun to watch....and the boy can def. dance.
Also, even though I consider him to be a totally creepy guy, Christopher Walken was really good in his role as Tracy's dad. There's just something about him that gives me chills, yet I feel awkwardly drawn to him as a performer. He's the creepiest kinda cool, ya know?
But once again, one of my most favorite performers was MS. QUEEN LATIFA! She rocks! I loved her as "Mama" in Chicago several years ago, and I loved her in this movie....the only problem was that there was just not enough of her!
So, basically, I've never heard any of the music other than the famous "You can't stop the beat" that plays with the trailers, but I've bee singing (more like humming since I don't know the lyrics) "Good Morning Baltimore" all day! The opening number was great!
I love musicals. The only musical I recall hating was EVITA with Madonna. Yes, the story was interesting, but OMGOLLY! It was horrible having to listen to every line being sung! The absolute only line that is spoken is when her husband says "Eva, you are dying"! AAAAAHHHH! The only thing I find hilarious about musicals is the fact that they break out in song and dance, yet EVERYONE knows the lyrics to the songs, and the movements to the "spontaneous" dance! Or if they are singing/dancing as a solo in the movie, everyone around them is going about their business as if it's completely normal and no big deal! Can you imagine if you had started singing and dancing in the middle of the halls of your high school! The men in white coats would be coming for you with a special made jacket! haha
Well, here's the trailer. If you like musicals, and have the chance, be sure you check this one out! I will definitely be adding this one to my movie collection when it's released on DVD....and, if I can talk Jon into it, we might try to get away on a date to go see it together!

WHAT IS IN YOUR BUCKET???

Get ready...ramblings late at night from a thirsty soul.

Since Pastor Ryan is on vacation, the next few weeks at church will be filled with guest speakers on Sunday mornings. It's not that I don't like guest speakers, or that I don't "get anything out of their message", it's just that when you are under the leadership of an awesome man of God as my pastor, you miss it when he's gone. But alas, he deserves a rejuvinating vacation, and I pray he comes back more rested and ON FIRE for the Lord. This past Sunday's first "guest speaker" was certainly no guest. He is well knows to many CrossPointers, and has filled in many times before. Tim Tidwell is an awesome guy. I love to hear him preach. He brought lots of fruit to the table today, and I must say, I'm still feasting! Here's a few points that I'm still chewing on...

Scripture: John 4:1-29

Theme: The Woman At The Well

Now how many times have we all heard sermons preached on this particular scripture? For me it is far too many to count. And as Mr. Tidwell said in his sermon, there are so many different messages that can come out of these words and there's not enough time to get to them all in one day. That's just like God, huh? To fill us full of the scripture, and have it mean something in so many different ways, to so many different people, in so many different stages of life, so many different times of our life! I like the angle presented in this message...

How many times do you think this woman had come to this well with her bucket?

This was a routine for her. (remember that point...I'll come back to it) She probably drew water from this well daily, if not more than that! She carried her bucket to the well-probably a long walk from her home-and all the way there, her thoughts of her life surrounding her. When she get's there...a Jew is sitting near by and asks for a drink. "Wow! What's he talking to me for?? He's a Jew, I'm a Samaritan!" (as scripture references, Jews and Samaritan's have nothing to do with each other...much like many of the racial divides throughout time-black vs white, german vs jew, muslim vs christian, etc).

The verses 7-15 tells us alot about this woman's relationship with God...for she didn't recognize just who it was talking to her. Jesus tells her that if she only knew him, He could give her living water! Jesus is referring to her life style...not her physical thirst. If she would know, trust, love and live for Jesus, he can fill her heart so full that she would not thirst for anything else! (That whole "God shaped hole" that we all try to fill with worldly things at some point in our lives-nothing can fill a God shaped hole but GOD HIMSELF!). He "calls her out" when he asks her to go get her husband in verse 16, and she LIES to Him. Well, she told the truth by admitting she had no husband, but lying by omission is still lying! In fact, she'd had 5 husbands, and was shacking up with a dude even then! When Jesus confronted her with her sins, and offered her a drink from His well, she left her bucket at his feet and ran off telling everyone! (v. 28-29)

So let's turn this into a lesson for the day (one of the many)...as was asked of us in church, I ask you to ponder now...

"WHAT IS IN YOUR BUCKET?"

What is on your mind when you find yourself face to face with the Saviour? What to do bring to him? What do you pray about? What do you anticipate when you approach the throne?

• Do you fill your bucket with your bills and debts? An overly stressed financial situation can cause problems in more than just your checkbook. Marriages become strained over the fight of money, your availability to be used by God is lessened when you're strapped down and can't give to others to help His cause, you can't be obedient to the Lord and give what you want, or should give as commanded!


• Is your bucket filled with all your relationships? The good, the Bad, the Ugly? Are you astrained from your parents, siblings, or inlaws? How about the relationship between a husband and a wife? There is nothing more important than to protect and annoint a marriage with the Grace and Love of God! A couple who comes together before the Lord on a regular basis is taking steps to ensure they're remaining close to each other, and are seeking God and his will for them. Separatly pursuing God is good too, but when you draw nearer to God together, you also draw closer together! (see image below)

• What are your desires? Perhaps a better question would be, are YOUR desires HIS desires? Psalms 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." The closer one draws him/herself to the Almighty God, the less desire you have of your own, and the more desires you have of the Creator. His desires become your desires. So I ask again, WHAT DESIRES ARE IN YOUR BUCKET?

The woman at the well was going about her ROUTINE. It is imparative that believers not get mixed up in a routine! Christ didn't come here and die for us to have a routine! It's just not about a routine, it's about a RELATIONSHIP!

This message gave me conviction and I've been thinking of it all week. Far too often, I get mixed up in the day to day grind, that is not nearly as hectic and bad as I might believe it to be...especially when you consider the hectic, chaotic, and torn up lives of others. Ashamedly, I get so wrapped up in outside influences...TV (tivo is a great invention, but should be used wisely more wisely in our home! We watch far too much tv now!), internet (i.e. blogs, MySpace, etc...while they are excellent resources for connection to the outside world, too often I find myself spending many many hours surfing the net when I could be surfing the word of God and finding more of his desires for myself). I realize that these are all tools used by the greatest deceiver of all time to thwart my use to the Kingdom of God. My goal is to connect the desires of my heart with the desires of my head. My head knows the logic of turning the tv off, and setting limits for those outside influences. But apparently my heart has not caught up. It's time to draw near to God. I put my trust in the Lord, and not in the deceit of my enemy.

I leave you with this verse:

Psalms 145:1-4,10

1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. 4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. 10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!

May blessings from the Lord be abundant in your favor today....

SOOOO PUMPED!

So today, the kids and I went up to the school because Megan had been asking to see my classroom and she wants to help me decorate. I intended to go up for an hour or so, maybe clean a few shelves and then go over to a friends house to let the kids play. Once I arrived, there were other teachers there that had their children with them, so our kids got to play together...basically, we weren't leaving anytime soon when they were having such fun! I started cleaning out the desk, the cabinets, and before I knew it, I had a mountain of junk in the center of the room! This room had not been fully cleaned in several years, because I found multiple teachers names laying claim to many items in those cabinets....many of whom haven't taught at this school in several years! But, I had a great time cleaning out and deciding what to keep, what to toss out, and what to put in a pile for "fair game" in case any of the other teachers needed it. At one point, one of my dear friends, and FAVORITE teachers at the school, Mrs. Cathy Hunt, came in and she gave me a great deal of help trying to decide what to decorate the room with, what to put on my bulletin boards, etc. Then we decided we needed to go to the Teacher's Pet store just up the road. It was so much fun going in there and getting things for my classroom. I didn't buy much, because I wanted to wait and see what all had been left for me, but I will definatly need to go back! After heading back up to the school to work on our classrooms some more, the kids got settled in and actually layed down on the nap mats to watch a movie, and Ryan fell fast asleep! (I wish it was that easy at home...at school, he's always out so fast!). Before I knew it, Jonathan was calling my cell phone to ask where I was...He'd been calling me at home and I wasn't there....it was 5 o'clock! I put in a good hard day up there and time flew by so fast! I still have so much to do, and it will take such a long time to get it all ready like I want it, but it has just created so much spark in me that I can't wait to get back up there!

Who knew I'd be soooo excited about getting back into work! When I left my ambitions of teaching many years ago, it was for no other reason than, I WAS BURNED OUT! Even when I sent my precious 2 year old Megan to school, I admired the teachers then, because I just didn't have it in me! But what a transformation the Lord has done on my heart! He's given me a fire and desire for it again and I am so excited. Perhaps when I was in childcare before it just wasn't the right direction....I thought I was interested in running a childcare development center (NOT daycare...I hate daycares...they have low paid workers which create low "care" for the children....believe me I was one of them at one time!). But now, I'm going to be teaching Pre 3K (2 and 3 year olds), and the only drawback is that I'll be pottytraining them! But hey, it's nothing I've not mastered before!

What's more, is the group of ladies I'm privileged to work with, are all truly hand picked by God! The director of the kindergarten has lead so well over the years that she's been there, and she is really great at fostering close relationships between all the ladies by scheduling "girls nights", luncheons, and weekend retreats. I believe that God had this planned for me all along, and I am really excited to finally be part of it all!

Praising God for a job sent from HEAVEN!

IT'S INDEPENDENCE DAY!

One of my FAVORITE Family holidays has now come and gone. Independence Day is always a blast in the Barrett/Vinson houses. My parents started this tradition several years ago, and it's one day that is talked about for months leading up to, and for months well after it's gone. My entire family comes together for some awesome BBQ, mom's potato salad (even though I've got the job of bringing it now), Jon's famous Baked beans, and for dessert, Mamaw's banana pudding, and Aunt Sherri's famous Chocolate pie. IT'S AWESOME!
Now that there is a pool at Mom's house, there's always swimming involved, and this year we added, CMT KARAOKE REVOLUTION in which Lauren kicked our booties singing Martina McBride's "Independence Day" (although, I think Mary got her back later!), and my Dad has bought another 4 wheeler that is just the right size for the kids, so they had a blast with that! The day was awesome! I love any chance I get to spend time with my family, because whether we realize it or not, these are memories in the making. It's easy to get caught up in the day to day hassle and even overlook the times we all come together, but I am proud to say that we all have started making the most of our time together. I know this is special for me, and I hope that my kids will grow up knowing just how special it is when they look back on pictures taken through the years....here's a slide of a just a few pics I managed to take today!

AND HERE IS A LITTLE SOMETHING I SAW POSTED ON MYSPACE TODAY...THOUGHT I'D SHARE THIS TOO...

TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

-- Happy 231st birthday!!--

I'm honored to be a citizen within your borders.--

Thanks for my freedom.

TO ALL AMERICANS WHO SERVE IN UNIFORM:

-- You are heros. --

I wish America honored you every day like they have today, because you continue to be heros the other 364 days of the year.

-- Thanks for my freedom.

TO MY JESUS:

-- Without you, there would be no America.

--Without you, our troops would have nothing to fight for.

-- Without you, we would be nothing.

-- Thanks for our freedom!!John 8:36

-- So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

LOVE, PAIN, AND THE WHOLE CRAZY THING!!!!!

OK. So I let it happen. I let my CRAZY sis in law Mary talk me into trekking over to Atlanta to see Keith Urban in concert. For those of you who know my wacky sis in law personally, you know that Keith Urban is a package deal when your are friends with her! It doesn't matter if you only know her at church, play in the bunco group, or whatever...eventually you hear KEITH talk! She's been a fan for a long time, and she's nuts for him.
So anyway, back to the story. A few months ago, she found out he was coming to the Phillips Arena in ATL, and sent out a bulletin here on MySpace asking if anyone was interested. I remember showing a slight amount of interest, and POOF! All of a sudden, I was an honorary Keith NUT! She had us tickets, emailed me the seating info and even had a 360 degree camera angle at the Arena! I was a little excited, because the seats were great, and we were bordering front row with the placement of the stage setup! Granted...I don't know a lot of his songs. I certainly have heard them. I just don't listen to the radio a bunch, and therefore I barely know his lyrics.
Well, before I even GOT to the concert last night, I had been given the 411 on all things Keith! Everything from what kind of water he drinks (only drinks Figi), to the fact that he carries a trailer behind his bus that holds his motorcycle ( a Harley that he rides while out on tour). After we parked, we happened upon his tour bus, and stalked them waiting for a glimpse of his golden locks in the 90 degree Atlanta heat. Finally after giving up on that chance, we went to find nourishment to continue the Keith Hunt! We walked about 10 blocks to get to the Hard Rock Cafe and sat down for about an hour to cool off, and rest. (For the record, if you're planning to visit Hard Rock anytime soon...get the "Joe Perry's 'ROCK YOUR WORLD' Quesadilla...they're DIVINE!) I always love my visits to the Hard Rock and this was no different.
After a very good lunch, we walked around ATL and visited Centennial Olympic Park. At first glance, it was huge and majorly crowded, but we went in anyway, and it was really pretty. The Olympic fountain was still there, and it was a perfect day for it to be up and running. There were tons of kids jumping in it everywhere, and it made me wish my kids were with me because they would have had a blast. We then walked back to the Phillips Arena area and stopped in at the CNN building. I had no idea what we were walking into when we got there, but I just wanted to get out of the heat and have some air conditioned relief. We walked in and realized that it was also one big Food Court Mall! Haha! We could've saved ourselves the long walk to Hard Rock and just eaten there, but OH WELL! We walked around in the shops and wasted time, and then Mary had to take one last stalk of the tour bus! We went and watched the top of the bus for another 20 minutes or so to no avail. We did however see a drum line of a local High School band rehearsing to what we later saw on stage was a performance with KEITH! Kinda neat!
Back to the CNN building, we waited in the air conditioned comfort for the Arena to open....and finally THE CONCERT BEGAN. Mary did a great job getting us seats. We were right on the side of the stage, but we were so close to everything, we saw everybody as they were getting ready to go on stage to perform. The Wreckers opened up for him and did a great job. We saw them standing below us waiting for their time to go on, and it was neat to see that side of everything.
Keith put on a great show, and being as that was my first time to see him live, I had nothing to compare it to. Mary said it wasn't his BEST performance but I thought it was great. He gave alot of attention to the fans in the crowd. He sang a lovely song and dedicated it to his wife who was off filming a movie in Australia. He did an awesome encore...and got a new kind of "wave" going....everyone did the wave but had their cell phones all lit up & held up high, and it looked sooooo cool!
So, did I enjoy myself? YES! Would I go again...probably. Will I stalk him like Mary? Nah. Will I ever have to bail Mary out of jail for jumping onto the top of his tour bus....QUITE POSSIBLY!
BUT...THAT'S LOVE, PAIN AND THE WHOLE CRAZY THING!
THANKS MAR! HAD A BLAST!!!!