Revisited...

I have received a couple really nice comments on the post from the other day about church and my faith... comments that have got me thinking further on the topic, and there are a few points that I feel I left out in my original post that I want to make, if you will bear with me.

~I am in no way ashamed of, or regretful for, the childhood I had. There was much that I learned along the way that still sticks with me to this day. There is much that was good in that life. I just had to learn to keep the good and let the rest go. I had to learn to use that good to form a foundation that I can continue to build more good on.

~Although this journey is an intensely personal journey of faith, I am not on the trip alone. Mike is there with me every step of the way. Mike has been there for me every time I face a point in life when I struggled with the past, and how to move on. Mike is the one that gave me the strength to stand up and be my own person. I know that sounds contradictory, but it isn't. I needed him there to tell me that it was okay to be whoever I needed to be. In an odd, paradoxal way, his approval was what I needed to move on and learn that I don't need the approval of others. I could not do this without him, I don't want to do this without him. And at the same time, Mike is on a journey of his own, but that is his story to tell.

~I don't have all the answers for you. I don't even have all the answers for myself. I am learning, I am growing. All the Bible knowledge in the world doesn't equal spiritual maturity. I am seeking, I am craving, I am learning.

~I am not going to say that the church that we go to is the right one for everyone. That is very important to me. This church is the right one for US. This church is not the reason we are getting back to God, but it is a tool to help us along the way. The important thing is that you find what is right for you. Find a place where you can grow, where you can learn, where you can ask questions, where you can form your own faith.

Tomorrow, I think I will move back to lighter topics, and tell you about how I came to be a Blue October fan. This is important, because that story leads to the story of how Mike and I came to be a couple.

Our Weekend Trip

So yeah... I failed at getting the pictures of me and Mike that I said I was going to try for. I did however get some pictures of the place that we stayed at!

We went to Lake Charles and stayed at the L'Auberge Du Lac Casino (means Inn on the Lake) (yeah, I am nerdy enough to have looked up the translation when we got home. We were there to see Blue October, a band that both Mike and I have a long history with.

We arrived in Lake Charles around 2pm, and went to check in to our room. The service at this hotel and casino was outstanding, I must admit. The lady behind the check in desk was very polite, and friendly, and made me feel like a guest in their hotel, not like I was inconveniencing them by making them clean a room for me. We went upstairs to our room, and found a beautiful room, done up in a slightly Western theme, straight down to these amazing chairs:

which for some reason really fascinated me and prompted me to take another picture, even closer, of the feet on the chair... did you catch those in the first picture?

Yeah... that's a hoof. I don't even like Western themed stuff, and I would SO put these in my house.

Anyhow, after checking in, we went down to the casino and contributed a little of our money to the economy of Louisiana, and then had some amazing Creme Brulee gelato in the dessert shop there. We met up with Mike's brother and his wife for the buffet dinner, which was somewhat of a letdown for me. The selection was not that great, and the food was very bland.

The advantage to being there was that while we were eating, 4 out of the 5 members of Blue October came in to eat their dinner, and we got a chance to say hello to a couple of them. It was really nice to see that they still remember us, even as big as they are getting.

After dinner, we hung out for a while until it was time for the show. It was a free concert by the pool in the casino, so there were TONS of people there, and only about 1/3 of them there to see a band. The band Ours opened, followed by Switchfoot, and then Blue. Mike and I found some comfy pool recliners around the other side of the pool to relax in and watch the show. As it turned out, we could see the projection screen perfectly from where we sat, and there was a cool breeze blowing there as well. The music was wonderful, and it was really good to see Blue in concert again (one of these days I will tell you about our history with Blue).

After the concert, we met back up with the family, and went to the cafe there and had some dinner, even though it was midnight. And then back to the room to crash!!

All in all, a really great trip, and a great time spent with family.

Oh, and here are a few other pictures I took...

The view from our window of the front entrance and fountain

A closer shot of the fountain

The beautiful golf course there on the grounds

I have a feeling we will be back there again...

Pancakes, Pictures, and Paraphernalia

Mental paraphernalia, that is (and yes, I had to look that word up to get the spelling correct). I have a lot of random things to share with you today, so I am going to group them all together in this one post. This one, wonderfully aliterated-titled, post.

Last night, Mike and I wanted a snack, so I made up some pancakes. I realize this is not groundbreaking news, but you haven't had my pancakes. I make a really mean flapjack, my friends. I worked for two years at a Wendy's during the breakfast rush, and I know my pancakes. I make them big, light and fluffy, really cake-like. I am not a fan of the crepe. I smothered mine with strawberry jelly, and went to town. It was wonderful!

When I got home from work, this was waiting for me:

Mike bought it for me as a surprise, and it came in the mail yesterday. I had no idea it was on its way, so I was wonderfully surprised. I have an amazing husband, the kind that sees things that I would like, and loves to surprise me with them. And excited? you better believe it! I did a little bit of reading in it last night, and it gives all the information that you could possibly need, from how to take pictures without using a telescope, to what kind of film to use, what cameras work best, etc. And also exciting is the idea that I am going to be buying a "old-fashioned" camera at some point for astrophotography. Turns out that digital cameras dont have the exposure time, and the sensitivity to light that regular cameras do, so YAY! I will get to do some equipment shopping in the near future.

This Thursday I am taking off work at noon, and Mike and I (along with Mike's brother and his wife) will be headed to Louisiana to a casino there. Our main reason for going is to see Blue October in concert there (more about our history with Blue October in another post), but let me reassure you that we are planning on enjoying the buffet dinner, and planning to do a bit of gambling. I am really looking forward to this trip for a variety of reasons. It has been probably close to two years since we have seen Blue in concert. I have never stayed in a casino hotel room before (YAY!), and the buffet? Do I even need to go into my love of food, and what a buffet means to me? Most importantly, I am looking forward to a trip with Mike and our family.

My boss, the preacher, gets back from his family vacation on Thursday. They have been gone for three weeks now, and it has been really quiet around here. While that is nice for a while, I am looking forward to having them back and there being a little more life around this place.

I guess that is all for now, my friends. The clutter in the brain is cleared out, and I can focus on the work at hand.

I will leave you with this question though... what sorts of clutter do you find in your mind today?

A Few More Thoughts...

Here's a few more thoughts from the weekend trip to Houston...

~Thai food is wonderful! After the show we went to the Pad Thai restaurant in downtown Houston, and due to the early hour we arrived, we had the entire place to ourselves, which was good, because they were gearing up for a party later that night. We had the chicken sa-tay appetizers with entrees of chicken and pork pad thai. The flavors were so rich and wonderful, and very difficult to describe. It is a definite must-have-again.

~To the grandma with the Fran Drescher voice sitting behind me during the musical: shut up. Didn't anyone ever teach you that making critical comments during the performance is rude? Even if you are complimenting the talent of the actors and dancers, don't mess up the magic with your droning voice making comments like "that was a perfect note" during the closing notes of a very passionate moment on stage. And I realize you are probably hard of hearing, and don't know how loud you are really speaking, but please.... shut up.

~There is a such thing as appropriate dress for these occasions. Now obviously, with this being a matinee performance, I didn't expect tuxes and evening gowns, but dress nicely, people, please. It is a sign of respect for the quality of show that you are about to see. This is an afternoon at a Broadway musical, not a quick trip down to Wal-Mart to pick up some flea dip for your dog. Things I saw people wearing that really bothered me (and Mike can testify that I am not making this up):

1. Flip flops. Yes, seriously, flip flops. When did society get the idea that flip flops are suddenly acceptable footwear for a dress up occasion such as this? And I don't care if they are made of leather, plastic, or foam... I don't care if you cover them with rhinestones, butterflies, and unicorns... they are still a flip flop. Now I don't know about you, but in my family, flip flops were perfectly good attire for mowing the lawn, wearing around the house, or the aforementioned trip to Wal-Mart (if you couldnt find your shoes), they were NOT something that you wear to a Broadway show.
2. A button-up Harley Davidson shirt, made of denim, on a woman. I know we live in Texas, I know this... but seriously? How redneck do you have to be?
3. Shorts. Enough said.
4. Jeans. Now let me start with saying that we live in Southeast Texas, and around here, I KNOW that for some guys, putting a nice long sleeve button down shirt with a pair of clean jeans and some cowboy boots is about as dressed up as you are gonna get. I understand this, and for that reason, I just smile at the man with the Texas flag shirt, jeans, and boots, because I know that he put forth the effort to actually dress nicely. This IS goin'-to-the-theater duds for him. But women.... women.... don't wear jeans to an event like this please? Please?

So there you have it... my weekend in review. Over all, it was a great great weekend, and there were a lot of things that I thoroughly enjoyed. Traffic was very light in Houston, which is a rare thing indeed, and we made really good time travelling back and forth. The show was spectacular, and I could not have asked for a better performance. And I got to spend a lot of time with my husband, and that is always a good thing.

Now I can begin the countdown to going to Lake Charles to see Blue October in two weeks!!