Hello!

I really shouldn't be blogging right now. I have tons of work to do. However, I am going to write a quick post. Here's what's currently on my mind.

1. The weather. It's been raining all morning. Last night I was driving home, thinking about what a perfect night it would be to sleep outside. (I love sleeping outside directly under the stars. Our swing in the backyard is my favorite outdoor bed.) Anyway, I listened to the weather and discovered it would be a horrible night to sleep outside. First of all, it was 91 degrees at 9:30pm. Too hot. Second, a "cold front" was moving in. With the cold front, there would be lots of rain and thunderstorms. Sleeping outside when it's pouring down rain is rather uncomfortable.

2. My marketing class. I am planning on writing a post about my marketing teacher, but I am going to wait until I have a larger block of time for writing. He's an interesting guy.

3. A comment from my last post. I'm not sure if I should attempt to reply to that comment, but I think I will. I am currently forming a post in my head about feminism and my views on it. For now, here and here are couple of articles that answer the question "What is feminism" much better than I ever could.

4. My sisters. They're so cute! I love watching them work and play. Yesterday my nine-year-old sister Abigail made a "big country breakfast" (her words) for us girls to eat. She made eggs, bacon and ????. I don't remember the third item. It was either toast or grits. Then Abby & Ally put on a show for me. They played a sing along tape they had and made up motions to go with the songs. It was quite amusing watching Allyson - she was so serious!

That's all I have time for right now. I must now return to my pressing responsibilities!

~ God bless you and have a wonderful day!!! ~

Mrs. Chancey's Speech

I was thrilled to recently discover that you can download Mrs. Chancey's speech from Vision Forum's Father/Daugher Retreat. Ever since I first knew about the recording of her talk, I have REALLY wanted to listen to it. Wednesday I downloaded it and copied it onto a CD. I listened to it twice that day! Mrs. Chancey is one of the ladies who started the Ladies Against Feminism website. Here's the download of the message from Old-Paths (scroll down the page a little). I found out about this download from Crystal's blog. Enjoy listening to it!

Retraction

A while ago, I wrote a post about property taxes. In that post, I stated that "I am grateful to say that our family has never, to my knowledge, used any property tax money." Well, I just realized that is not true. I had completely forgotten that property taxes fund public colleges as well as elementary, junior and high schools. Anyway, I guess my brother and I have used up some of that property tax money my parents paid.

Supreme Court

A few days ago, I wrote a post asking some questions about the Supreme Court. Well, here's the information regarding our judicial monster. (Okay, some people may not think it's a monster, but I think it has become a nine man dictatorship. Whatever they say is law; there is very little action taking place to curb that power. What real power do the other two branches of government have when one ruling from the court can negate everything the other branches have done?)

The Supreme Court consists of 9 members. The current members on the court are: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor (who recently announced her retirement), Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anothony M. Kennedy, David Souter, and Stephen G. Breyer. Four of the justices I could name from memory, but I had to look up the other five. Maybe after I get back to reading "How to Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary," I will know more about each of these justices.

Here is a little more information about our government. The U.S. House of Representatives has 435 members. This number is now fixed, but it was not always 435. There are 100 members of the U.S. Senate - 2 from each state. The electoral college consists of 538 votes - one for each representative and 3 from the District of Columbia.

Birthday

I posted a few pictures from my birthday below. I had a wonderful day. I am so blessed to have a family that I can share special moments with. We pretty much followed our scheduled plans for the day. We went to breakfast at La Madeleine's and then to the Botanic Gardens. After that we came home and had a little celebration. In the evening, we had a wonderful time of family worship in the back yard. As Dad always says, we were making memories.

Part of the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. They were pretty, but I think the heat has taken some of the vibrance out of the flowers. We were rather hot ourselves walking around the gardens. July in Texas is not the coolest time of the year. The little girls' hair was soaking wet from sweat when we left. I think mine was too! It was wonderful, though, just looking at all the beautiful plants and pools/ponds. The creativity God displayed when creating the world continues to amaze me.

Big sister and little sister. Twenty-one and three.  

Breakfast at La Madeleine's 

The family. Abigail, smile!  

Allyson in front of the flowers. 

Supreme Court

I was listening to Sean Hannity while I was running errands the other day. He has something on his show called "Man of the Street" where he finds people randomly on the streets and asks them questions relating to politics. Most of the people that ended up being interviewed were older college students. The questions he was asking were, "How many justices are there on the Supreme Court? Can you name any? Who is the Vice President of the U.S.? What does the Supreme Court do?" It was rather interesting listening to the responses. NO ONE he asked knew how many justices there were. One person didn't know the name of the Vice President. No one really knew what the Supreme Court did. Only two people could name any justices. Can you, without looking up the answer or getting any outside assistance, name any Supreme Court justices? Do you know how many people are on the Supreme Court? Do you know if "justices" is supposed to be capitalized when they are referred to as Supreme Court justices? (I don't know the answer to that last question.) I thought that would be a fun quiz for the day. I will put the answers in a future post.

Summer Classes

I am afraid my blogging has been a little lean of late. (Okay, non-existent, though if you could see my draft folder you would know that I have not been entirely ignoring my blog.) The reason for this will be obvious in a moment. I started summer college classes last Monday. I am currently taking three classes. One class is online and the other two meet M-Th at 6:00pm. These classes last 5 weeks. When I registered for these classes, I did not think I would have a problem actually attending the classes. I thought all of my difficulties would be with completing the homework and studying for the tests. However, after the second night of attending class from 6-10 in the evening and then driving an hour home, I was exhausted. I am feeling much better now, though, because my weekend was very restful. So far, I have been able to keep up with my homework, text readings and studying. We'll see how the semester turns out. Only 16 more classes, 4 more weeks. I think I can make it.

To be honest, I really don't like college. I never have. I just don't fit into the culture very well. Plus, it's a little strange spending hours of time studying about how to work in a corporate setting when I hope to never step foot into one. I want to be a homemaker and a mommy. I don't want to be a career woman. (Never have.) That's why I can't wait to get out of college. And that's why I'm taking on an extra amount of stress this summer. If all goes well, I will be done with college in December. Yea!!! And no, unlike what my grandmother told me, that's not the point where I advance from being a college student to being a career gal. Anyway, I can't wait to finish.

When I have a little more time, I intend to blog on my evolutionary, psychology entrenched, multiculturalist professor. He gets on my nerves sometimes. He's the type of guy that makes me dread attending class. I keep reminding myself, "Only four more weeks." And after this evening, it will be only 3.75 more weeks!

I figured it out!

I have been trying to decide what I want to do for my birthday and I just figured it out. On July 16 & 17 there is a gun show in Fort Worth. I could go to the gun show and buy a handgun. And then I can get my concealed handgun license. (You have to be 21 to get it.) Yes, that would be a wonderful way to celebrate turning 21.

P.S. I'm not really going to get a handgun and my license. The gun would cost too much and I would have to take a class first. Besides, I don't really want to haul a gun around everywhere. I just thought the idea sounded very "cowgirlish" and like a great way to celebrate living in Texas.

Getting older

Last night I attended a bridal shower. It was for the bride-to-be of the son of a family our family has known for a long time. (Did you get that?) It's one thing when your female peers start getting married; but when the it's the guys - wow, it just makes me feel old. I guess I am getting a little older. On the 17th of July, I will be 21. Something about twenty-one sounds so grown-up. In the idealistic plans I made when I was 17, I was suppose to be finished with college and married by the time I was 21. Honestly, though, I am content where God has me at this time. I think I need to start verbalizing that more often. I am sure my dad is tired of hearing me complain about being an "old maid." While I'm kind of on the subject of relationships, let me recommend the #1 best book I ever read about male/female relationships and waiting on God in this area of our lives. The name of it is Emotional Purity by Heather Paulsen. It really deals with the heart issues surrounding the whole dating/courtship discussion. The book is mainly written for women. It does not have a lot of specifics (at least I don't remember a lot), but there are plenty of principles shared that can be applied in numerous situations.

Church

The topic of church has been a difficult one for our family, particularly of late. I have not blogged on this topic for fear of saying something inappropriate. This is an area where I am somewhat hazy in my understanding of what the Bible teaches/requires (especially in regard to church structure/government.) Our family knows most certainly what we don’t like about the modern church in the US, but coming up with an answer to the problem is a little more difficult. For instance, Dad has a very strong conviction that the church should be supporting, not tearing apart, the family. Practically speaking, that means the church should be encouraging its members to have family devotions and to spend time together instead of pressuring them to become involved in the myriad of family-splitting activities offered.

Currently we are between churches. I think my parents were burned out by our last church experience. After being heavily involved in planting the church, our family jumped into church activities with both feet. Dad was on the board of elders and taught an adult Sunday School class; Mom was in charge of the nursery and then later taught the 2-3 yr. old class; Josh played guitar on both the youth and main praise & worship teams; Amanda joined the puppet team; and yours truly taught Sunday School and helped out every Sunday in the children’s church (I only attended a few Sunday morning services the entire 2 ½ years we were there.) In addition to all of our “official” activities, my dad (since he was on the board) frequently had to deal with church controversies. The emotional stress was the most difficult on my parents. After the church split and the pastor left, Mom and Dad decided it was time for us to leave also. We were plainly and simply worn out.

It’s kind of funny that we would become so involved in all the various age-segregated activities. We have always theoretically believed that families ought to worship together in church, but the practical has never seemed to match up to the theoretical. Our family is now at a point that we are saying, “No more!”

Well, now that we’ve decided that we don’t want to attend a church that segregates the family, the trouble is finding one that keeps them together (and matches up with a number of other criteria). We found a church through Vision Forum’s NCFIC website. There’s just one problem, though. The church is located 1.25 hours from our house – and that’s a best case scenario. We visited it a few times and loved it, but it would be extremely difficult for us to commit to a church that is so far away. Plus, I think my parents want something a little more home-churchish. I’m not really sure how we’re going to find another church that meets all of our criteria, but my parents feel we need to continue our family church services for a little while longer. I hope it’s not too long, but I understand their dilemma. When we find a church, I will be sure to let everyone know!!!

That's what I've been trying to say...

Here's a great blog post by R.C. Sproul, Jr. The point he makes in his post is one that I try to remember after I have a discussion with people regarding public education. I usually come away from those discussions trying to recall exactly why secular schools are so bad. The last paragraph is one I particularly like.

"To paraphrase myself, any parent who would remove a child from a school because of sodomite propaganda, but would not remove their child from a school that will not name the name of Christ, worships the god of middle class morality. And that god cannot save. This is what ought to turn our stomachs, 'Jesus doesn’t matter here.'"

Independence Day!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having/had a wonderful 4th of July. Our family just returned from Arkansas where we celebrated our nation's birthday. We actually celebrated yesterday, because some of our assembly had to drive home for work tomorrow. Our family stayed at my grandparent's lake house (mobile home) on Lake Erling. My grandparents and many of my cousins were there. It was so much fun being with my extended family for the fourth of July. My mom’s sister, Aunt Laurie, and her family moved to Tennessee from Paris, France a couple of weeks ago. It was great getting to see them so soon after they moved back to the states. My granddad has worked hard getting his lake house set up for us to visit. We spent the weekend barbecuing, riding a 4-wheeler and dirt bike, kayaking, fishing, playing games and enjoying the wonderful scenery. My grandparents are blessed with 14 grandchildren. I think that's pretty good for only having 3 children of their own! (Personally, I would be thrilled to have 14 children. Think how many grandchildren there would be then!) I have a lot of pictures from the trip I am going to post. First, though, I will try to explain who everyone is.

1. Craig family - My mom's parents - Mama & Papa Craig
2. Our family - Mom, Dad and five children - Amy (20 - yours truly who will be 21 in 13 days), Josh (18), Amanda (13), Abigail (9) and Allyson (3)
3. Sutton family #1 - Mom's sister, Aunt Natalie, and son, Matthew (18). Her husband and two other children (Jackie -20, and Phillip - 16) were not able to make it.
4. Sutton family #2 - Mom's other sister, Aunt Laurie, brother-in-law, Uncle Mark, and six children - Steven (16), Nick (15), Melanie (12), Jacob (7), Rachel (4), and Jonah (23 mo.)

If you are observant, you may wonder why my mom's two sisters have the same last name. The answer is quite simple. They married brothers. The reason I took the time to explain all the names and families is because my pictures would be quite confusing without the explanation. Without further ado, the pictures.

Aunt Natalie with three of her nieces.


My cute little cousin Jonah!!!


Line up of the boys. L-R: Matt, Nick, Josh and Stephen


Mr. Jacob.



Me (Amy), Jonah, Allyson and Rachel. Do you know how hard it can be to get young children to look at the camera? Believe me, I tried.


The whole crew minus my grandmother (who was taking the picture) and Dad (who was loading kyaks.)


Cousins cake baking.


Abigail helping to make the cake.


Papa Craig displaying the final product. (I know this picture of the cake isn't the best, but trust me... it looked and tasted great!!!) 


The outdoor fireworks watching and chigger attracting audience.  

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

Once upon a time, (Wednesday evening to be exact) I went to see the Rangers play against the Angels. It was a great ball game! It was the first time I've ever been to a Rangers' game where they won. They were leading 6-4 in the top of the ninth inning and had two outs and two strikes on the current batter. Everyone in the stadium stood up for what they expected would be the final pitch (which of course would be a strike and the third out.) Well, that's not what happened. Instead, Dallas McPherson, of the Angels, decided to hit a home run. That home run tied the game. So, instead of leaving the stadium, we had to sit through the rest of the ninth inning and the next two innings. Finally, the Rangers scored and we have all lived happily ever after. Except for Kenny Rogers. The End.

Oh, by the way, the Rangers beat the Angels 18-5 last night.

More ballgame commentary:

One of the songs they played at the ball game has been stuck in my head since Wednesday. I decided to put the words to it on my blog because it is a great Texas song. I need to make sure that everyone knows I'm still very Texan.

Deep In The Heart of Texas
Click here to hear the music
The stars at night, are big and bright,
deep in the heart of Texas,
The prairie sky is wide and high,
deep in the heart of Texas.
The sage in bloom is like perfume,
deep in the heart of Texas,
Reminds me of, the one I love,
deep in the heart of Texas.

The coyotes wail, along the trail,
deep in the heart of Texas,
The rabbits rush, around the brush,
deep in the heart of Texas
The cowboys cry, "Ki-yip-pee-yi,"
deep in the heart of Texas.
The doggies bawl, and bawl and bawl,
deep in the heart of Texas.

Baby Announcements and Sibling Campaigns

It has taken me a few days to catch up on all of my blog reading, so I did not realize until Wednesday that Amy at Humble Musings made an announcement that she was going to have another baby. She used a really cute powerpoint presentation to make the announcement to both her blog readers and her husband. Congratulations! Anyway, it reminded me of how Mom has announced her pregnancies in the past. Nothing really creative has ever been done, but I did think Abigail's introduction to the world was neat. My mom found out she was pregnant with Abigail (Baby #4) right before Dad's birthday. So, for his birthday, she wrote in his card something to the effect of, "Honey, your birthday present will be arriving in about 9 months." I knew about the announcement beforehand, and I couldn't wait to see Dad read his card.

Allyson's (Baby #5) announcement was less official. It basically consisted of Mom saying, "I'm going to have a baby." I was glad to be the second one to find out. (Dad, for some reason, had to be the first.) You don't know how surprised and elated I was. After Abigail was born in 1996, I went on a "More Siblings" campaign. It seemed everyone in our homeschool group was having a baby and and I wanted our family to have another one also. I decided we could have a boy and name him Daniel. (That's what we were going to name Abigail if she had been a boy.) Anyway, a few years passed and no more siblings were born. The campaign was forgotten about and dropped. I thought our family was permanently stuck with just 6 members. Then came Allyson!!! During the first few months of Mom's pregnancy, I was really hoping she would have twins. The sonogram ruled that out. Then the last month arrived. You should have seen me. I went into full "big sister, second mother" mode. I was really hoping the baby would be born early. (Not too early, of course!) Allyson was due September 4. Around August 16, I was constantly expecting Mom to be in labor. Precious little Allyson finally arrived September 2. Do you know how much fun it is having a baby sister when you're 17? I got to play babies all over again - only this time with a real baby! Anyway, after Allyson was born I remembered my "More Siblings" campaign and started it up again. This time I wanted a girl and I was going to name her Avery Hosannah. (Avery was the other named we were considering for Allyson. I don't think my parents liked the meaning as much. Allyson means "Truthful one." Also, when I told people we were thinking about naming her Avery, they would say something to the effect of "Oh, you mean like the jewelry," or "I've known some boys named Avery." Personally, I think it's a pretty name.) Anyway, it has now been almost 4 years since Allyson was born. I don't think I'm going to have any more siblings, but you never know...

Vacation Pictures

This is the wharf where we spent the majority of our vacation time.


This is me after I got sunburned. (But you can't see the sunburn in this picture.)


Josh enjoying the sun. (He didn't know I was taking his picture.)


I know this isn't a great picture, but, as my brother would say, it has a lot of subtance to it. (Meaning, it shows what we spent most of our time doing.)

Here is Josh and all the kiddos waiting to go eat. (Don't they look ravenously hungry?)


And here I am waiting to go eat.