Monthly Archives: August 2009

Poor baby Gemma

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

Gemma took a hard fall a couple of days ago running to get into the car to take Gavin to school and smashed her mouth up pretty badly.  She had to get stitches (2 inside and 2 out)  and they are worried about her teeth, whether or not permanent damage might have been done.  After the stitches are out and the swelling goes down, she has to see a dentist to make sure her little pearly-whites aren’t going to fall out or something worse.

She came over after the stiches (where she did not cry one little bit, even when she got the shots) and I watched her lip just swell and swell and swell.  When she tried to eat a little and it hurt, very quiet tears streamed down her cheek.  She is such a sweetie-pie, no drama.  Turns out, though, that popsicles are the ticket!  Gemma is in frozen-treat heaven!

gemma-hurt-006

I love you, my little GemGem.

Norma Kamali at Wal-Mart!

9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

Has the earth ceased to revolve?  Have we found the Wizard?  Do monkeys fly and did the cow really jump over the moon?  What on earth??

O happy day!

I found an entire section of Norma Kamali fashions at a Wal-Mart the other day.  Praises be!  pictured: Norma for Wal-Mart

 

I’ve admired her collections for Spiegel catalog for many years.  Everything seems so flattering, so classic.  But I’d never purchased anything.

Naturally a collection for Wal-Mart is the lowest possible rendition of her things, but still wondrous and I was bowled over by finding it, nonetheless.  The colors, the flow, the style, the quality so far above the usual Wally-world offerings.  I prompty purchased a strapless “little black dress” which I have no idea when I’ll use, and 2 pairs of bermudas for my upcoming trip for a grand total of $32.  Talk about value.  Even the hangers are adorable!  If Norma can make the common-way-past-her-prime woman  feel good in a black dress, she is simply, a jersey knit genius.  I intend to return to buy everything.

Norma on youtube??!!

I just discovered this, too!  Can it get any better?  I submit to you that it cannot.  This is THE black dress.  I won’t look like this in it, but I think she may have captured some of my very being in this short video.

MORE Norma!  I have found my favorite designer ever.  I love you, Norma Kamali.

That cute Kelley family

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

img_19672 

Stephanie and Tristan have been married since December 27, 2001.  I told them, having been a retail store manager at the time of their wedding (they got engaged and planned  a wedding during THE most brutal 4 retail months in an effort, I was quite certain at the time, designed to kill me), that I would eventually forgive them for their timing.  And I can truly say I have.

img_1971

Tristan told us he could remember church people (at The Assembly of God in Fort Wayne, IN) saying things like, “There go those red-headed Kelley kids,” about him and his sister when they were little.  Maybe they knew, or maybe they were unaware, but that little Kelley kid grew up to be an awesome man.  I am so honored to call him son, so glad he married my daughter and is a daddy to my grand-bebes. 

And the kid can play the drums.  Geesh.  And just about every known instrument in the world. 

img_1993 img_2038 img_2070

Now I have my own little red-headed Kelley kids to chase after.  Ahhhh.  The grandbebes.

img_2039 img_21681

Gavin is 6.  He is in the first grade now and if he has his way will never. miss. one. day. of. school.  Not ever.

img_20692

Guinivere is 4 and knows a secret at all times.  Listen closely and you may get to hear it.

 img_2089 img_21521 img_2185

Gemma is 2 and so delightfully good at it!

img_2141 img_2077 img_2113

Stephanie and Tristan are a colorful couple.  He is simply the most amazingly intelligent person in the fam.  We all call Tris about everything.  Everything!  And he knows everything about, well, everything.  He works at Dare2Share by day and teaches music lessons (need some?) and does consulting and building websites in his “spare” time.

img_2054

Stephanie is hanging at home with the kids these days, planning future trips and vacations to New York and London, their favorite cities.  She is exquisite and unique.  She is passionate, but so level and cool.  She is a suburban mommy with big-city taste.  She is so good at mothering these three, I wish I’d have had her as an example back in the day.  And she loves Tristan.

img_2245 img_2247

Tredessa and Stormie did this photo shoot for Steph this summer (a delayed birthday present).

img_2259 img_2274

I think they are a beautiful and dazzling family and I am certain there is no prejudice in that!

img_2233 img_2298 img_2278

all photos taken in Denver

Tonight!

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think, ,
UPDATE 8/16:  OK.  World class musicians.  The Word of God and a zeal for it.  Love for people.  Scriptures on seeking God and finding His joy.  Major prayer covering.  What does it all add up to?  W O W !  Amazing music.  A spontaneous prophetic song that set people to dancing and shouting (you know-Zechariah-esque rejoicing and worship that could be heard afar off?).  Omygoodness!  What a night it was!

Robin’s Front Porch

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

OK, everybody, here is what I want you to do: go to www.hgtv.com and check out my beautiful sister-in-law, Robin’s, front porch on Rate My Space.

I think you can link directly HERE.  The descriptive tag-words used were things like shabby chic, distressed, and steel and it is titled, in the “porches” section of Rate My Space, “Super Sweet Space” by robinelise.

I am pretty sure when Joe and Robin sided their house earlier this year and decided to add this unique touch, they had planned to paint the trim  to a pristine white again, but after seeing the effect are re-thinking that position.

It’s really pretty when family is sitting on it! :)

s7300011

My niece, Elise, and my brother, Joe

Go, rate!

Heaven Fest Staff

Stuff I Actually Think, ,

Here we are.  We actually got together for a photo on a hot, sweaty festival day.  This was taken on the main stage at about 6:30 pm, between Skillet and Third Day.

They were re-setting the stage and Kori (Media Director) got us up there for a shot with the crowd in the background and suddenly, stage manager, Brian Paris (DP’s cousin) started telling us that the Third Day band manager wanted everybody off the stage.  Hilariously, DP and Luke and I all started to comply when Tredessa was like, “Get back up here.  We are getting a picture.”  And I had to laugh to myself, because, yeah-I wrote their check, you know?  Have mercy!

So Matthew Greenleaf, one of our awesome photographers, took a quick shot.

chronosimages-staff

Then Luke “front lit” us via Photoshop and “magically flipped” his and Tre’s credentials.  This is a cropped version of Luke’s and I have got to say, I like how blue my eyes look, thank-you, Luke.

chronosimages201081-copy

But I had asked to have 20 pounds and 10 years shaved off, and if it wasn’t too much trouble – the roots needed a touch-up.  C’mon, already!

BTW.  AA doesn’t mean “all authority”

Being “staff” and having the double-A credentials doesn’t mean too much.  It mainly means the-buck-stops-here and handle-all-complaints and how-are-you-going-to-fix-THIS-mess-??.  We are volunteers, too.   It was an honor to serve with almost 1000 other people to make Heaven Fest 2009 work.  The day we quit serving is the day we shouldn’t be “staffing” HF!  We are humbled to get to be a part.  No joke.  Humbled.

“Everybody Oughta go to Sunday School…”

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

If you have ever been a pastor or paid local church employee or just a really good church-type person or the offspring of one of the above and have cut your teeth on the back of a pew and know every song in the hymnal by number and have a perfect-attendance Sunday School pin or church softball league trophy on your dresser, you are probably reeeeeeeeeally irritated at those people who rarely attend church.

And they probably reeeeeeeeeally tick you off when they tell you they can feel close to God while they are in the mountains fly-fishing or hiking a trail or sitting in a meadow watching elk.

I know I have been bothered by that in the past, you know, as a girl whose very first full sentence was, “I’m gonna go to church!”  And boy, did I!

And while I sometimes (often?) smugly sighed at people who said things like that  (“God is in the trees, God is in the sunshine”),  making a facial contortion that read: well, you just don’t have revelation about the local church-you are uncommitted, I can admit that I felt a little jealous that they got to sit by a lake while I handed out bulletins or filled in for a missing nursery worker or tried to unjam the copier for a Sunday School teacher who should-have-been-prepared-before-Sunday-morning-for-crying-out-loud!

God must find us all so amusing.

I love the local church because she is a crack-up.  But we have got so far to go in understanding how our local gatherings could serve the Bride and the Church (big “C”) and  bring joy to the heart of God.  We have the Bride scrubbing the floors of our Temples of Religiosity when she should be served and made ready by Friends of the Bridegroom.  We have just gotten this so backwards.

The question today.

So, I am reading this book by the poetic and dazzling-wordsmith, Frank Viola, From Eternity to Here, and today, in reading Chapter 14, “God’s Quest from Moses to Solomon,” as he parallels the Tabernacle of Moses with that of the Tabernacle of David during the 40 years when they were both “up and running” just 6 miles apart, but actual Presence of God was resting in the ark of the covenant in David’s little tent, I am hit between the eyes with this question:

Where MAY God go to FREELY express Himself?

Because that is where we are going to find Him, where He is able to freely express His heart, His plan, everything about who He is.

And, O God, may it be when  your people gather, wherever they gather to worship You.  May our local churches be places where the people can rejoice and sing and dance and enjoy Your smile and Your favor and Your Presence.  May it be where they can serve You and bring You glory and be part, with many many people, of building You a home.

But sadly, in looking back over even (or especially) my own life as a bona-fide, militant church attender, I can see so much of it was a practice equal to the worship at Gibeon when the ark wasn’t even there (from the book):

“Over in Gibeon, the Tabernacle of Moses stood.  On Mount Zion the Tabernacle of David stood…[At the Tabernacle of Moses] the priesthood of Israel is fully active.  The priests are sacrificing animals and slinging blood at the brazen altar.  They are marching through the religious program, passing out the bulletin, lighting the candles, ringing the bells, and following the liturgy.  But there’s one problem: there’s no ark.  God is not there.  Does this bother them?  Apparently not.  They continue on with the ritual.” 

 

I wanna be where He is.

And He is in the stars and the moon and the sun.  He is in the air I breathe.  I hear Him in the rushing river on the mountainside.  He walks with me in my own little garden in the cool of the day.  And I want to be in Him and Him in me.  And when I gather with His people on the streets or in our homes or in the hallways of a building on a Sunday morning, may we collectively BE a place where God may freely and creatively and joyously express Himself.

It’s time to walk the 6 miles, even if that is out of a time-honored, traditional institution like, say, Sunday School (this is NOT an anti-Sunday School post, btw) to be where the Presence is.  It really is.  How fruitless and sad to go through the motions without Him there…

www.thetentdenver.com …Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  David’s, humble, canvas tent: create the same welcome…

*Song, “Everybody Oughta Go to Sunday School.”  I actually grew up singing that both at home during our “family Altar time” and in Sunday School.  The second verse was “Everybody oughta stay for church.”  There were about 5 or 6 verses designed to help me know how to sling  my bloody sacrifices around.

How do you know if your criticism is actually constructive?

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think,

Criticism, constructive versus destructive

Question:  How do you know when your criticism is actually “constructive,” rather than “destructive?”

Next question:  And if you offer me some, to make me better, of course, may I also offer you some?

Destructive criticism is, among other things:

  • Hurtful or humiliating, especially if done publicly or behind some one’s back
  • Manipulative and controlling
  • Laying blame or creating guilt
  • Very self-serving for the critic (my wants, my needs, the way I want to see it, I’m disappointed, made my life harder, etc)
  • Attention-getting: look how much I know about your job/performance/life/business
  • Bad timing, just “telling it like it is” when it is right for the critic, not the receiver.  This is in horribly bad taste.

 

Constructive Criticism is more like:

  • Helpful in making us aware or improved
  • Expressing concern and caring because we have the same goals and are both working toward a common outcome.
  • Keeping open or re-opening communication that has been clogged up because of relationship.
  • To clear the air when things have felt funky.  Get together and get clarification for peace, for unity, for an ongoing future relationship.
  • Motivates us to do better, go the next mile, improve and keep getting better (think of Jesus with the Woman at the well; when He exposed her sin, He did it to set her free and she brought the whole town to Him!)

Last question:  Should I say, “I am going to give you some constructive criticism,” or do you think the recipient of it knows the difference when I am through? 

Stuff I actually think…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Speak words of life regardless of how much some one has messed up.  Like they don’t already get that usually??

Mary Kay Asher of Mary Kay Cosmetics fame always said that criticism was stacked between 2 big compliments in her company, which is why a lot of women probably don’t mind driving pale pink cars, you know?

 

Not sure how I feel about the tomatoes representing the criticism in this image???