Wow...Has Time Passed

It's almost August and I can't believe where the time has gone. I was looking through old posts and saw one of my oldest when he was having trouble sleeping in his room by himself. He looked like such a little guy then...now he's getting more and more grown up. Our youngest will turn 1 this next month...WHAT?!

We'll also celebrate our 10 year anniversary this year. I found this picture of the flying monkey with the hour glass...I thought it was cute and very appropriate. Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Wizard of Oz? It seems just yesterday since Jim proposed on the yellow brick road by the Lion and the ruby slippers.

Boy, time has flown by...and it's been great, exciting adventure!

Have It Your Way....NOT!

Tonight we went to see The Simpson's Movie. It was really good...just like watching the series had been back in "the day". As a follow up to the movie, we decided we would go to Burger King because they are having a big Simpson's promotion. We thought our oldest could maybe get a toy or two (I guess they talk) and we could kinda continue the theme of the night.

Now let me also add that I am not the biggest Burger King fan. Every once in a while I'll get in the mood for a Whopper, but as a rule I'd rather have Wendy's or even McDonald's before BK. I'm a big french fry person and theirs are kinda gross because they at least used to have batter on them. But I digress.

So, we order our food and got a kid's meal for our son. I looked to make sure there was a toy in the bag and take it to our table. When he pulled the toy bag out of the sack it was a little tiger thing. I'm like, "That's not going to work...let me get you a Simpson's toy." Thinking that maybe they were trying to get rid of these old toys.

When I took it up to the counter the people behind the counter said...yeah we have that or an otter. I'm like, "WHAT?!" There's Simpson stuff all over the place, the bag it came in is Simpson's, the paper that my sandwich came in has the Simpsons on it. I said, "He'd like a Simpson toy please."

The girl behind the counter said, "We don't have any." I was puzzled that on the day the movie opens they're either out or have yet to receive them...always holding out hope I said, "Oh, well will you have them next week?"

She says, "No, we won't get them at all...our regional manager didn't want to get the toys...so all we'll have is the endangered species toys."

Now I'm just aggravated...but not at the girl...I told her, "That's just dumb...I'm not upset with you...but tell your regional manager that that's just not even right. You'll have more than just us coming in for these toys and you all are going to get the brunt of peoples' anger."

She kinda grinned and said, "You know if you want to complain, just call the 1800 number and complain..." She actually told me this twice throughout our visit there...

So, apparently if you want BK Simpsons toys you have to drive quite a distance to get some...the 3 BKs around Huntington don't have any.

Well, It's Almost Here

I remember when it first came out. I was in college and we made it a weekly event. We'd gather together, I think it was on Thursday nights, in one of our dorm rooms and watch the adventures of this kinda strange family. We laughed and began using their catch phrases, "DOH!" "Don't have a cow, man." and others.

It was more than a animated sitcom, it became a chance to get together, have snacks, quit studying and watch FOX. I'm looking forward to seeing the Simpsons Movie...I just hope it's as good as the hype. I look forward to hearing some more wise words from Rev. Lovejoy...he's quite interesting.

But, my favorite Simpson is Maggie...when I took the Simpson's Personality Quiz, I was Lisa...who are you and who is your favorite?

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

While we were at MGM Studios we went into this play area based on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Our oldest had never seen the movie. Tonight we had a chance to watch it. He said he really liked the movie. It was neat to re-watch this movie and be reminded of our trip yet again. Thank goodness for Video on Demand!

What a Shame

I know I had been out of touch for a couple of weeks but didn't realize how much I had really missed while we were down in Florida. Yesterday I received what we call the "Mid-Week Bulletin" from my home church in Ohio. They have a new pastor there as of July 1 and this is his second newsletter since he began his appointment. Usually I use these newsletters to determine what kind of theology the pastor has...sometimes I have agreed with the pastor serving my home church and sometimes I haven't.

It was a breath of fresh air to read this week's letter from the Pastor as I found his comments both interesting and true. This week's topic looked at the recent declaration of the Pope that other Christians are either defective or not true churches. He continued that Roman Catholicism is the only true religion.

After all of the work that has been done to create Christian unity, this statement comes out. It's hard to think of unity when a leader of a whole religious group makes a statement like this. And it's so sad.

The community I grew up in is 75% Roman Catholic...needless to say I had and still have many friends that are Catholic. One of my dearest friends and I have had great faith discussion...in fact she's one of a small group of people that I really trust to keep me focused upon the important things. When I was in seminary we had a partnership with he Catholic seminary and the Lutheran seminary. We were all required to take a class at another seminary in order to truly experience an ecumenical education. What will that look like now?

I remember as a child my friend Mary could never attend anything at my church. We had neat youth group trips...awesome youth activities and she could not ever come with me. In fact the only time she stepped foot in my church was the day of my wedding. I didn't understand why she was never allowed to come when I was a child. We were friends who both believed in God and in Jesus as our savior...why couldn't we worship together from time to time?

All I can say is what a shame.

When You Use Your Cell Phone at Dinner

One of my favorite places to eat at Disney MGM Studios is the 50's Prime Time Cafe. You enter into "Mom's" house and inside this restaurant there are different rooms that look like a 1950's kitchen. They have great food (fried chicken just like grandma used to make, meatloaf - not my favorite but our oldest loves it, and YUCK! greens) and even better desserts (the S'mores dessert is to die for.) Along with great food they have rules:

1. No elbows on the table
2. You must at least try your veggies in order to get dessert (much to my dismay as I was force-fed (with airplane noises I might add) greens before I could order my S'mores)
3. No cell phone use at the table.

If you disobey these rules you could get called on it, corrected or forced to make restitution in front of the whole "kitchen". This is what happened when Jim was checking email on his cell phone.