Keeping the Faith

PK and I went to see a movie last night. It was the first movie we had seen together without kids in two years. Because his work schedule isn't traditional, his days off are Tuesday and Wednesday. We do lots of lunch dates while the kids are at school, but not movies.

We went to see Soul Surfer at the dollar theatre. We call it the dollar theatre, but it is actually a dollar seventy five theatre. Semantics. We can take all three kids and let everyone have a snack for less that what we would pay for admission at the regular theatre.

I digress...

We let Rachel babysit. Yikes!! I have let her stay at home with the kids while I ran quick errands, but I was a bit nervous about an entire movie. PK pointed out that we let neighbors' kids who were Rachel's age at the time babysit our kids when they were babies. Of course, Rachel wanted to know if she would be paid. I responded like every responsible mother, "Uhhh, yes! With food on the table, roof over your head, clothes to wear, money for Youth Week at the church, money to go bowling and the 5 dollars here and 5 dollars there to do whatever it is you are asking me for at the moment." She replied with a precious eye roll.

We liked the movie. I had heard so much hype about it that I may have been expecting a small spiritual revival. It had small bits of scripture woven throughout and a taste of one of my favorite worship songs, but it wasn't overly religious. However, it was very nice to sit through a movie that wasn't drenched in sexual innuendos like the previews for animated movies directed toward children. That may be another blog post. I'll come down off of that soapbox before I get started.

There was a message of hope and perseverance. It was based on a true story of a girl who is a surfer and while surfing was attacked by a shark. She lost her arm and defied the odds to surf again and to become a professional surfer. There were clips at the end of interviews with the actual person the movie was based on. She did say in one interview that her courage came from Jesus Christ. I think her real life faith was probably stronger than the movie portrayed. The clips at the end may have been our favorite part!

PK and I were discussing it on the way home because he was singing Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman which was the song I really like. The basic them of the song is that we not only praise God when things are going great, but we praise him when we hit our lowest of lows.

I told PK something I heard in Sunday School a couple months ago had really stuck in my head. We are working through a Max Lucado book so I'm not sure if it is something he wrote or a comment someone in the class made. How we react to the situations we face, when the storm hit, really speaks to the level of faith we have in God. If I am faced with a trial and fall into a puddle or worry constantly, where is my faith? It is important to take things one minute at a time if necessary and remember that no matter the situation God is still on His throne. He is still worthy to be praised in my lowest of lows. He works good from the situations I think are unsurvivable. Many who oppose Christianity watch us in our times of trial to see what we are going to do with our faith. Do we keep the faith or do we wallow in our own self pity? Do we count our blessings or linger on the trials at hand? It isn't an easy lesson to learn, but it makes life so much more bearable when we can give every care to God and trust Him to move. When He does move we roll with it whether it is His will or ours.

Princessess Are Useless

A couple weeks ago we were playing a family game of Apples to Apples Junior. It is a word association game. The "judge" reads a green apple card that has a word on it. On one of Hannah's turns the word was "princess." The other players have red apple cards in their hands with words on them. Once the "judge" plays a green card the other players choose one of their words that the "judge" will most associate with the word on the green card. Once everyone plays a red card, the judge reads through them and chooses which word he or she most associates with the word on the green card. We cracked up when Aaron played the word "useless" for "princess." It was even funnier when Hannah chose that as the word association.

So...last Saturday P.K. was invited to speak at a Navy JROTC Ball. We hadn't been to a ball since we left California. It is always fun to get dressed up and the ceremony is packed with tradition. Hannah and I had a conversation the night before the ball.

Hannah: Is tomorrow the ball?

Me: Yes.

Hannah: Are you going to wear your new dress?

Me: Yes. Do you think I will look like a princess (thinking any 6 year old would appreciate that)?

Hannah: Princesses are useless (flips her hair and walks out of the room).

P.K. and I had a great time. The ball was more low key than the Navy or Marine Corps Balls we had attended in the past. The instructors for the JROTC program are all retired active duty. It was nice to hear their stories and learn about the program they now work with. There is an almost immediate bond between military spouses. I can tell you more about the two women I shared dinner with that night than I can about some people I have known almost two years. P.K. did a great job on his speech. Once the dancing began, we made our exit. That crowd was a bit too young for us.

Here we are all decked out. I had such a hard time finding a dress. P.K. went shopping with me and made it much easier. The next time, I think I will find cute COMFORTABLE shoes first and then find a dress to go with them.

Date Night

P.K. and I had been waiting for a chance to see the Star Trek movie. Since he was in town for the weekend, we decided to take advantage of having so much family around and leave the kids for a few hours.

We spent a large part of the afternoon scanning some of my grandma's old pictures. We didn't even make it through a third of her collection. I don't know how many times I have sat and gone through them. I know I pull them out every time I visit. Grandma even keeps a lot of her pictures in old cigar boxes. (Now that I am typing that I wish I had taken a picture of the boxes. Mental note for the next trip.) She can remember the smallest details about the pictures and has stories to go along with many of them. (Another mental note...save more time on the next trip to scan the rest of the pictures.) They are all saved on P.K.'s computer so I will have to save sharing them for another post.

P.K. and I had fun sitting around my aunt's kitchen table with her and my grandmother looking at those pictures. My cousin eventually joined us. We quizzed Grandma on names, dates and places and laughed hysterically at old hairstyles and fashions.

As it got closer to dinner time, I ordered pizzas to be delivered to my cousin's house and we took the kids over there. She has four kids and when mixed with my kids they are all basically stair steps. Everyone has a friend and they all get along really well together.

P.K. and I ate dinner at Hacienda. He had never been there before. We had some time to kill between dinner and the movie so we played a Star Trek Voyager video game in the theatre arcade. I have awful aim and lost terribly, but it was fun!

The movie was good. It is hard to compare it to previous Star Trek movies or even the individual series because it has all new characters with the exception of Leonard Nimoy who played Spock in the original series and returns in this movie as the same character. For me, the movie took an unexpected twist. I missed having all the characters from the series in the movie, but it was still good.

After the movie, we picked the kids up and went back to my dad's house. It was such a great date night!