Grandma's Birthday

It's been two weeks now, but on Sunday, March 21 we got to celebrate Grandma's birthday with the traditional and very yummy ice cream cake. How will we ever be satisfied with just the regular birthday cake? Grandpa and Grandma brought the cake (even though it was her birthday:). The Terry family absolutely loves it when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit - with or without cake.

These get-togethers always make me think though...our house isn't the most peaceful place to visit. I know it's a season and having so many young children can stress everyone out. One reads so many Christian books and blogs about how we should strive to have peaceful and comforting homes. That's not what you'll find here - no matter how hard I try. Don't get me wrong - I'm not giving up by any means. I will continue to "fight" for peace and tranquility and a clean home and will do my best not to get discouraged when all is not perfect. Hopefully, all our friends and family can look past the imperfections because both Vance and I agree; we love having all of you over!

Grandma, I hope this is the best year yet!

Rachie skiing!

Part 5

I have about 7 minutes. The rest of the ski week just went so well, more skiing for me, more playing at the park and then the highlight of the whole week; date night. On Friday night Vance and I go to the old Irish Pub. This is the third year in a row we've done it. It's about a 5 minute walk from the condo. So, we leave Glen and Ryan in charge (usually after the babies are in bed) and we head out.

I absolutely love this place. We order the corned beef, mashed potatoes, cabbage and peas plate. It's huge and we share it with a Caesar salad. The guy Johnny Motambo always plays live with his guitar. He's very funny and about every other song or so a group of people come up to do shotski. It's this old ski that holds four shot glass and four people count to three and then drink. Johnny Motambo usually does this really loud shotski song. It's a ton of fun. Vance and I have never done it. But, this time there was a girl named Becky and she was with two of her friends and she said she would pay if we'd do it with them. I can't handle liquor at all so Vance did it. She told him to choose the drink and he chose rum. She took pictures and told me she would email them to me, but she hasn't done that yet. We'll see if she ever does.

It was a very fun night.

Saturday, the boys and Vance went skiing for the last time and I tried to start packing everything up. Usually, we have to check out by 10 am and we never make it. This time we did. Checked out by 10am and drove home in a snow storm. It wasn't bad. Of course, when we arrived home we didn't feel like unpacking anything. The house smelled so good walking in. It just smelled fresh, kind of woodsy and a little like Hobby Lobby. Vance said this it what it smells like when we're not here to stink it up :).

Here are a few more pictures.

agh...for some reason I can't load the pictures. Look for the next blog entry :)

My Perspective

Yesterday, I posted on my Facebook status about how much I loved the movie Avatar. I didn't get too many responses. In fact, when the movie first came out I didn't hear much chatter on FB or elsewhere about the movie. At least in my personal circle, which is mostly Christian.

I had a conversation with my dad today and he had seen the movie back in December on opening night. He liked it, but had some issues with worshipping a tree, etc. I have a feeling this is how most Christians feel. Christians tend to blast movies such as Harry Potter and praise movies such as Lord of the Rings and yet both have many of the same elements.

Since I liked this movie so much it became a topic of conversation at Vance's Bible study this morning. There was a sense that if a Christian was all she was supposed to be she wouldn't enjoy a movie so much with such a message. Vance and I discussed this when he returned home this morning and agreed that it all comes down to perspective. Yes, Avatar was written and created by an extremely pagan man and I'm sure he meant to send messages such as: the military is made up of testosterone loaded, mindless warmongers, we (especially Americans) are destroying our planet and the real god is mother earth.

I'd like to share what I saw...

Every human is a creation of God. He knit us together in our mother's womb, he knows us inside and out and even knows the number of hairs on our head. Therefore, I believe that we were all created to give glory to Him. If we choose not to love Him there will always be something missing, there will always be a feeling that everything isn't quite right, never completely content, etc. But, we were still created for His glory and maybe James Cameron didn't mean to give glory to God, but He did - granted with some mistaken ideas.

On the way to the theatre the boys and I were talking about heaven. Just dreaming what it must be like. I told them I had been thinking a lot about heaven lately. Many times I think about a time in my life that was so good that I get these overwhelming feelings of nostalgia, wishing I could relive this time in my life. But, recently, I had the simplest thought - the best time of my life doesn't lie behind me but in front of me. No matter how good that time of my life was it cannot compare to heaven. I saw this in Avatar.

The main character, who is a paraplegic, gets a new and improved body, a body four times his regular size, a body so agile he can run and jump among the branches of trees hundreds of feet in the air. The Bible says that in heaven we will have new bodies...

Our present body is only a "tent" which we will put aside. 2 Co 5:1-3, 2 Pet 1:13-14
God, through Christ, will deliver us from this present "body of death" (which is the sinful nature). Rom 7:20-25
God has prepared us for the purpose of being clothed with our heavenly body. 2 Cor 5:4-5
Although we do not know exactly what our new bodies will be like, we know that they will be like Jesus. 1 John 3:2-3
Our new bodies will be like Christ's glorious body. Phil 3:20-21, Rom 8:28-30, Ps 17:15, Ro 6:5-8, 1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:17-18

When the main character learns how to connect with the beasts of this world it made me think of the passage with the lion and the lamb and how it must have been with Adam and Eve before the fall.

When all the tribes came together to sing and worship it made me think of how every tribe and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and how day and night we will be praising Him.

James Cameron was created by God and even though he has chosen in His heart (for the time being) not to serve Him, in my eyes He has unwittingly brought glory to the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

When we left the movie theatre it was as if we had just awoken from a dream. Have you ever had dreams about heaven, about being able to do something that would be impossible awake? I have and there were so many things in this movie that reminded me of these dreams. So, whether or not this movie was created to have people look down on the human race as a whole and how terrible we are - I CHOOSE to see something different and can't wait until I get the chance to see it again!

Quick thought

I've been procrastinating all day, but I had to write down this one thought before I forgot - and then I'll start cleaning :)

The other day Rachie had an accident at nap time so I had to wash all her blankets, including her favorite blanket which she can hardly sleep without. So, that night it was still in the laundry and I told her she couldn't have it. Oh...and when she goes to sleep with her blanket she always gets a corner and puts it in her nose. It's the strangest thing, but it's her comfort - I guess it's better than sucking her thumb. So, when I told her she couldn't have it she said, "Oh, I'll never get to put a blanket up my nose again."

If I hadn't been so perturbed I would have LMAO :) I'll have to remember this one for a good laugh ten years from now.

Part 4

I'm already out of time for today, but I wanted to post something that I thought was super cool in school today. For history, we were studying the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Get this, the Bill of Rights was ratified on March 4, 1789 - exactly 221 years ago TODAY. This has happened a couple of times and the boys and I always find it really cool when we study an important event in history and it happens to be the same day currently.

This is Tristan in the zero entry pool. He got quite comfortable after a few days and it was even hard to keep him from walking into sections that were too deep. I have another child with no fear. I think the only one who has any caution is Kael

Even though Wednesday was a day filled with lots of work (i.e. teaching Rachie to ski, keeping the babies occupied, etc.) we still went to the pool after dinner. I think everyone slept like rocks that night.

Thursday was Vance's turn again. They left early and came back as late as possible. I cleaned the condo, re-organized the food, dressed everyone in their snow clothes and went to the park. We made a snowman and I think they played long enough and hard enough to get all the cabin fever bug out.

Part 3

I've got about 5 minutes before everyone starts getting themselves into trouble again. Glen, Ryan and Will are all doing Math. Tristan is taking a nap and Kael, Morgan and Rachie are watching Word World.

I left off on Tuesday, a great day for me because I got to ski with the boys and it really was a beautiful day. My favorite type of skiing is when the snow is well groomed and the sun is shining. Of course, that evening I took everyone to the pool again. Vance doesn't usually go, but since Glen and Ryan do pretty well helping me, it's usually not too hard.

Wednesday we decided to take everyone up. So, I packed a huge lunch and got all the babies dressed and we took a small stroller and skis for Glen, Ryan, Will and Vance took his snowboard. It wasn't too hard getting on the bus, but you should have seen the looks on the people's faces. We had to take two buses to get to the top because the Gondola wouldn't have held our whole family. When we switched buses, Vance left Will's ski boots on the bus. So, I continued with everyone and Vance had to got back and find the bus we took and get the boots. Ugh! What a hassle that was.

This ended up being a great day, however. I taught Rachie to ski. This was the first time we put her on skis. We didn't get to the mountain until about lunch time so I rented skis for her half day. $15. It was worth it. She did so well. I was surprised.

Glen and Ryan worked with Will. He skied for the first time last year, but needed a little refreshing. After a bit of practice Glen and Ryan took him up on the Gondola to the top of the beginner hill.

Vance and I took turns watching the "littles" and trying to keep them from getting too bored. We bought them some hot chocolate, walked around a lot, played in the snow a little and what was really great is that every day about 3:30pm people dressed as chefs come out with a plate full of freshly baked cookies and hand them out to anyone who is around for free. The kids loved this. Once we found this out, we made sure we were at the bottom of the hill everyday around this time. It's amazing how much of a crowd these "chefs" draw - some people can be very rude.

Out of time...will continue tomorrow.