Get A Room

Dear Man and Woman who usually sit in front of me in church,

I am so happy that the two of you have so much passion that it makes it difficult to contain yourself, and I am so glad that you find each other so irresistible that you can't keep your hands off of each other...in church. 
However, I along with others I'm sure, would really appreciate it if you could save some of that heated passion and desire for places other than in church. It is very distracting and quite frankly, it's disrespectful. Trust me, I've tried diverting my eyes, but your lovefest is in my line of vision looking up to the stage. I've tried switching locations, but I get there before you and somehow you two find me and sit in front of me every time. So please spare me from having to endure watching the two of you love on each other like you are the only ones in the room. I know this would probably be difficult for you, but did you ever think about just settling for one of you putting your arm around the other? I know that's probably not enough physical contact for you, but you should try it out and see how it feels. 


Sorry for the inconvenience this probably causes you,
Laura

To Lean or Not To Lean

As I get ready to fly home for Christmas (insert enthusiasm here!), I am reminded of a certain theory I hold about those who fly. If you have traveled with me or even been near or spoken with me shortly before or after I fly, you have probably already heard it. 
I believe there are two kinds of people who fly...those who lean their seat back and those who don't. 

I am a proud member of the "those who don't" group. I just figure that flights are already cramped as it is, so why make it even more miserable for the person behind you. I'm a pretty short girl (a quarter of an inch shy of being 5'2), and I cannot imagine what it would be like to be tall and on an airplane.

One particular incident sticks out in my mind as to what made me become so anti leaning your seat back. About 6 years ago (I was 17), I was on a 7/8 hour flight coming back from Europe, and the lady in front of me, while I was eating my meal no less, leaned her seat back shortly into the flight almost causing my drink to spill all over my food and me. After I finished my meal I did my share of courteous traveling no-nos...aka pushing my knees into the back of her seat intermittently. Hey, I told you I was 17, can I pull the "I didn't know any better card"? So the lady's daughter fought her battle for her and turned around and asked me to stop pushing my knees into her mom's seat; I then asked her to ask her mom if she could not lean her seat back all the way. My excuses were that I was tall (which was a lie) and I had a jelly fish sting on my leg that made it cramp up (which was true btw). The lady's excuses were that her legs were getting stiff. Well anyway, to make a long story short, that was the longest 7/8 hour battle I have ever fought with a complete stranger. We both were stubborn and neither of us was willing to accommodate to the other. Oh and since I had lied and told them I was tall, I had to wait until they got off the plane before standing up. 

Back to my theory now that you have some background info. I guess I should throw a disclaimer out there and say that I'm not trying to insult you depending on which category you fall into. It is just some assumptions I have theorized about. 
I feel that people who lean their seats back are very self-centered. They only care about making themselves more comfortable even at the expense of making someone else more UNcomfortable. I also feel that they are rude. I like to put down my tray table, lay my head down on it, and take a little nap sometimes. I really don't appreciate it when I am minding my own business off in dream land, and I get woke up by someone's chair getting leaned back putting pressure on my head. When that person in front of you puts their seat back, you might as well say good-bye to any plans you had ]involving that tray table. Say good-bye to using your laptop, reading becomes difficult for me sometimes because the reclined seat blocks my lighting, napping like I already mentioned, and sometimes eating your pretzels and drinking your complimentary beverage (if your airline has not already taken that away)...it all becomes uncomfortable, difficult, and sometimes impossible once that seat goes back.

Now there are some exceptions. For instance, if you lean your seat back and no one is behind you...the assumptions don't apply to you. Or if you turn around and politely ask the person behind you if he or she would mind if you leaned your seat back...the assumptions don't apply to you either. In fact, if every person that has sat in front of me who reclined their seat turned around and politely asked...I would probably have a completely different attitude about this whole theory. 


Now for those of you like myself who don't recline their seat...we are ones who put others before ourselves. We make sure everyone else is taken care of before attending to our own needs. We are polite and considerate of others. Maybe that is just how we are, or maybe we know what it feels like to have that seat invade our personal space, and just choose not to put someone else through that.


So next time you are on an airplane, take a second or two and think before pushing that button to recline your seat. Or even thank the person sitting in front of you for not making your flight uncomfortable or miserable.

These Past 9 Years Have Gone By So Fast

Today, my oldest nephew turns 9...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!!!! He had his family party over the weekend and today he's having 9 of his friends come over (with him and Joseph it makes 11) to play football and eat home-made pizza. What a handful, good luck Kathy! Michael and Joseph (one of my other nephews) have been diligently working on their playbook for the big game today!

Here are Joseph and Michael, the team captains/coaches of the day!

I've been feeling homesick lately, and missing out on celebrating Michael's birthday certainly doesn't help. I did get to talk to the birthday boy last night, and it sounds like he's been having a great few days of birthday-ness. I just can't believe my sweet nephew is 9 years old already! I remember sitting in the hospital waiting room anxiously waiting to meet him. I've watched him grow up before my eyes, and I can't wait to see what his future brings for him. So here's some pictures of Michael over the past 9 years...

Precious Michael, my brother, and sister-in-law

Michael and I before my 8th grade graduation, May of 2001

Kisses from Michael 4 years ago...look at little Charity in the bottom right corner!

Michael on St. Patty's day 2007 riding the train into Chicago

Michael is probably the BIGGEST Bears fan that I know. It amazes me all of the statistics he knows about them and his undying enthusiasm! He is definitely a football fanatic!!

This was taken near the end of 2007, beginning of 2008. Michael grew his hair out because he wanted to be like the Jo Bros (aka Jonas Brothers) I believe. This is one of my favorite pictures of us.

This picture was taken this past summer, when the whole family went to an Indians game.

Freedom

In Sunday School, we have been doing a 6 week study on the book of Hosea called "The Greatest Love Story Ever." The focus is on the heart wrenching love story of Hosea and Gomer (which is symbolic for God's undying love for Isreal). Here's a little background for those unfamiliar with the story: God told Hosea "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness." Gomer bore Hosea 3 children, and then leaves them and continues on as an adulteress and acting in prostitution. Then God tells Hosea, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Isrealites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." So Hosea goes and buys Gomer out of slavery for 15 shekels of silver and about 10 bushels of barley.

First of all, I cannot imagine marrying someone, whom I was told WILL be unfaithful to me, let alone going and buying them from slavery knowing of the awful things the person did. Hosea wasn't even sure if their children were his. Yet the more Gomer went out on him, the more Hosea loved her; He gave her everything, most of which she did not deserve.

This week we focused on how Hosea bought Gomer from slavery, and how God bought our freedom through His son, Jesus. God's unfailing love gives us FREEDOM. The world's definition of freedom is the absence of restraint or repression; independent; not subject to some authority or obligation; choosing for oneself; not confined. But through God, freedom is living the way you were designed to live...living in fellowship and relationship with God. Captivity is anything that hinders the abundant spirit filled life God planned for me. In this world, we are held captive to so many things, men, women, alcohol, drugs, sex, and the list could go on and on. The irony is that you'd think freedom wouldn't have boundaries, but His boundaries all you the most freedom and are there to protect you.
I just got so much out of this lesson, and a huge part of that is due to Amy, my teacher. She is so passionate and energetic about what she teaches us. She has opened my eyes to a new perspective on the story of Hosea and Gomer, and it's safe to say that their story is now probably one of my favorites from the Bible.

In, as we like to call it, "big church" Dr. Lincoln preached about the gift of Grace. He talked about how grace is a free gift from God, and don't we all love free things! This gift is something we cannot pay God back for, we must simply accept it. This part of the sermon really stuck out to me, "No matter how much I want to give a gift, unless the person wants to receive it, it won't matter or make a difference." You can be so excited about the "perfect gift" you find for someone, but if he/she doesn't want it, there really is no reason for the gift anymore. This concept can be applied to so many different things in life.
Receiving comes first; God intends for you to live life as if it were a gift.
Before we went into our last song, Dr. Lincoln told us that if there was anything burdening us or needing God's grace to ask, "God put your grace on this fear of mine." He told us we could just stay where we were or go up to the altar, whichever we felt comfortable with. During the song, I looked around and saw so many sitting down with their heads down in prayer. That moment, along with the song we were singing, touched me so much.

To sum it up, the main theme of the day yesterday was God's grace and unfailing love and secondly Shandon. I absolutely 100% love this church. I have been going there for about 2.5-3 months now, and it has already had such a huge impact on my life.

That Time of Year

So for the past few months I've really been working on changing my attitude and the way I view things. I figured, hey I'm in a new place so why don't I work on a new me? I wouldn't call my former self a pessimist, but I certainly was no optimist! In fact, I would get annoyed when people would say "At least..." or "Look on the bright side..." or "There are people worse off..." But it's all true. I just wanted to feel like my problems were, for that moment, the worst. I wanted to be able to gripe and complain about how bad off it is for me, and basically have my own little pity party. Let's face it, I'm not a 100% changed woman, but I can honestly say [working on] changing my attitude has been one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. I've stopped looking at all of the burdens in my life and started looking at the blessings. It's not always easy, and some days my blessing is just being able to get out of bed in the morning but it has made my life so much better.

One of the areas I'm really working on is my attitude about the holidays. Ever since my mom died, I have hated them. Before she died, I loved holidays; I loved decorating the 3 Christmas trees we put up in our house and decorating and cooking the food for all the other holidays. I guess I started hating the holidays because it was just another reminder that she wasn't there, and it was just too painful. This holiday season has an added tough factor; it's the first set of holidays without my grandma.

Well me and my new attitude have really got to thinking, and we decided that this negative nancy/scrooge attitude is something my mom would not want for me. In a deeper sense, this is not what God wants for me. Instead of focusing on how much the holidays are going to suck without them here, I'm focusing on the blessings. There are the obvious blessings I get from being a Christian, and the blessings that I sometimes take for granted such as having food to be able to put on the table and a warm roof over my head.

I didn't get to be with my biological family for Thanksgiving (which was hard and didn't help my growing homesickness) but one of my best friends who is pretty much another sister to me came down so I wouldn't have to be alone. We didn't do anything special for Turkey Day really so I didn't get to really try out my new feelings toward the holidays. However, I am so ready to try them out this Christmas!!