May 28, 2008

new obsessions

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/ - are you kidding me? this stuff is hilarious!!
"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb."
my favorite (and most applicable) one:










my latest favorites from my other obsession:


May 22, 2008

#1-PRAY; #2-the iron giant and lessons


please pray for steven curtis chapman and his family. i find myself thinking initially, for some reason, and since he's famous, he wouldn't need as much prayer as someone down the street from me. how painful it must be to have lost their youngest child in such a horribly, seemingly preventable accident. please pray for the brother who ran over her with the car. please pray that God - who, as his manager said on the website, was not surprised by this, and who will use this for His glory and good (He says so: "...in all things, God works for the good of those who love him..." romans 8:28) - will use this use this tragedy to touch lives and show Himself to people. please pray for steven as he steps on stage as his job, that he will be able to show the love and grace of a loving and grace-filled God, that he will be able to continue performing and speaking the truth to thousands of people. pray that God would take the chapman family into a deeper relationship with Him and that this death would bring them closer together instead of farther apart.


in other news, have a i mentioned the iron giant here before? i can't remember. if you've never seen it, watch it immediately. you would love it!! it was one of brad bird's first movies (he wrote and directed 'the incredibles' and 'ratatouille') every time we would look up anything about him (chris does research on pixar movies and people a lot...) it would say "the creator of the under-appreciated masterpiece 'the iron giant'...." and things like that. one of our friends mentioned it once as being his favorite movie. we found out that tim keller preached a sermon on it. we said "we must see this movie!!" so we went to mckays and bought it. it. was. amazing. i cry easily in movies. that's an understatement, since i cry easily all the time. so it might not mean much that i bawled during this movie, or that now when i watch it, knowing the story, i bawl through the entire thing. hah! anyway, you would like it. i promise. not to mention the fact that harry connick jr is one of the voices. he's so dreamy!!! and jennifer anniston and vin diesel are main voices too. haha!! so anyway, we wanted to give it to hudson for his SEVENTH birthday (i can't believe he's that old...i started keeping him when he was 4 months old....) so we ordered it from amazon.com. the next day after i ordered it, we saw it for sale at the bilo. SERIOUSLY? we were amazed.

in other news, coming soon - new pictures from my first trip to the cabin since october! we had a BLAST with old friends and new friends alike!! even though chris was kinda sick, and even though we didn't see precious the bear, we had a great time. have you gotten quelf yet? you must get it and play it. we had the MOST fun with it. hannah had to roll the dice from 5 feet away from the board and if it didn't land on the board she had to move back a space, i had to play the entire game with my clothes inside out, drew had to wear lipstick, we had to put one of the cards in the middle of the board game and call it "chewy" and pull a hair from anywhere on our bodies and put it on "chewy" before rolling our turn...yeah. it's a weird game. but it's SO FUN!!!! :)

our small group served dinner at the methodist church in our neighborhood last night, and the devotional was about knowing who Jesus really is. the pastor said that if we truly love Jesus, we'll do what He asks us to. one of the guys there mentioned how a lot of times people are afraid of God, and therefore His commands are a burden. fearing God and being afraid of Him are very different. i'm learning this lately - to not do things God is urging me to do just to avoid hell or just to check off the list that i did it, ie, to avoid His wrath and anger - but to do it out of love, just like i would do anything chris asks me to do, not just to appease him, but because i love him.

But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:18-22

May 15, 2008

OH OH MANDIE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BEAUTIFUL GIRL!!!


someday, i promise you someday!! we WILL make it to the aquarium. we will stop saying that we're going to take you, and actually take you. :)

fear not, for He has made you; He has called you by name - you are HIS! when you pass through the waters, He will be with you. when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. for He is the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior! you are precious and honored in His sight and He loves you. (isaiah 43)








speaking of birthdays, chris gave me an everybodyfields cd (YAY!) and a card with fake tickets to a show in them. they were fake b/c the tickets weren't on sale yet. well, we bought them yesterday! we have great seats! guess where we're going???? here. i'll give you a hint......:) :) :)




May 06, 2008

thank you guys so much...for the...HOUSE!

first of all, i must say this. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CAROLINE!!!! what a beautiful day for a beautiful sister to turn 28!!! i hope it's overflowing with beautiful blessings!











now on to business. what you hear is true. chris and lyndsay bought a house. the signatures are official. alls that needs to happen now is to get approved for that loan, get the inspection done and wait a couple months, and we'll CLOSE. it's not really all that weird either. it feels really natural. like it's the perfect next step. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! what a provider He is. we were thinking about maybe looking for another apartment or MAYBE a house in the next few months. a friend from work sent an email around last thursday saying they were selling their house. we had been to this house before and LOVED it. and actually, when we were househunting last year, we compared the ones we liked to this house even though it wasn't for sale. "man! if we could just find one like that house!!!" buddy did we snatch it up quick. the timing works perfectly for when they have to move out and when our lease is up. it's just awesome - AWESOME - how God provided for both couples involved!!!

THE FRONT. beautiful, glorious front porch!!! WITH a swing!! :) and the little tiny tree that you see is "little stick". one of the stipulations of buying the house is that we take very good care of him. not, like, officially. but these are our friends so we talked about silly things like that. i love it! and i actually had a dream night before last that i broke little stick. i think it's anxiety that they'll come back and visit a few years from now and little stick will be dead...let it not happen!!!



THE BACK. notice the GIANT back deck! :)













BACK YARD!!!! are you kidding?! it's HUGE!! sitting out on the back porch feels like you're out in the suburbs - it's quiet, secluded b/c of all the trees and bushes, and apparently when it's that time of year the lightening bugs are EVERYWHERE. other than those types of bugs, the back yard isn't buggy (ie, mosquitos) and there are bunnies and butterflies!!! oh boy!! and i must say that a fence and puppy dog very well might be in the slatens' near future thanks to this back yard...:)
**EDIT** our dear friend jeremiah, in chris' words "was very quick to point out all the possible locations for a slip and slide in the back yard." oh. my. word.



KITCHEN! i love the kitchen. counter space! cabinets! WINDOWS!! glory!!!












DINING ROOM. RED! enough said. and AWESOME windows.












DEN pic 1. that fireplace works, dude!!













DEN pic 2. beautiful, glorious windows!!













BEDROOM 1. bigger than what we have now! one thing we must get creative on is closet space. the house was built in the 1930s and apparently back then you were taxed according to how many rooms you had, and a closet counted as a room b/c it had a door. so they built no closets. the renovators built in two small closets (one in each bedroom) so we'll need to get a wardrobe or something. and the bedroom's big enough to take one! hurrah!! :)




BEDROOM 2. this is a terrible picture of it, but whatever. there's the other fireplace! and it's really small, but we won't really be using it for anything other than really small people...someday. and until then, it'll just be a computer/music room.








SUN ROOM! i LOVE this room! it's practically ALL windows and leads out to the back deck.










we didn't get any pictures of the basement, but it's (what i call) HUGE and perfect for storage. there's a fan down there that kicks in when the moisture gets to a certain level and it works so well that the people living in it now have their bulk paper towels and toilet paper sitting out on a shelf. the washer and dryer are down there too...which, btw are STAYING with the house. what a gift!!! :)

the handsome smile of a home owner. i hope we did everything right....:)