CD's I'd like to hear:
Keane's "Under the Iron Sea"
India Arie's "Testimony: Volume 1, Life and Relationships"
Dashboard Confessional's "Dusk and Summer"
Guster's "Ganging Up on the Sun"
I think I'll stop by Best Buy tonight and pick up the new India Arie CD...I feel like I owe it to her to actually buy her album this time since I've burned her last two. Her music is just so uplifting--I look forward to hearing her new songs!
Here's another update from the Sholer Shire. We did the frame walk-through last Friday, which is basically walking through the house to get a good look at it's innards before they put the sheetrock on. It was really surreal going through all these wires and pieces of wood knowing that in a few months, we'll actually be living in it!
Mid-September is the estimated move-in date they gave us. That would be perfect, considering our lease at our place ends October 1st.
I'm so excited to decorate our house!! It's weird, but taking trips to Home Depot are now fun because we get to look at all the possibilities for what we could do to the backyard, kitchen, bedrooms, etc.
My random ramblings are as follows:
-I love love LOVE making CD compilations for people. And this weekend I was definitely productive in my CD mixing. I made a new "catchy songs" mix of all the songs currently stuck in my head for myself, a Father's day mix for my dad, and a summer rock mix for bro to send to him in Santa Cruz. I've said this before, but if there was a full-time job making specialized musical mixes for people, I would be in heaven. I'd like to think of it as my artistic contribution to the world---so please don't hesistate to ask for me to create a playlist for you!
-This weekend was another wedding, Mindy and Cory's. It was fun and ADX dominated the dance floor (see picture above for example). Another one bites the dust, folks.
-So in our bible study, we're going through the book of Mark. We only go through about one chapter each time we meet, so that there's enough time to discuss the meaty questions. Well this week, we read the passage of Mark 26:36-74 and then split up into two group to discuss. Our group ended up being all the girls in our study, and two guys: Bill, the international ministries director at our church, and Frank, the post-doc from China who just became a Christian last fall. Frank immediately wanted to talk about the part of the chapter where Peter disowns Jesus three times.
You see, Frank is going to go back to his job in China soon. His job working for the government---the Communist government that isn't so keen on Christians. Frank wanted to know what he should tell his boss and his co-workers when they asked him if he became a Christian during his visit to America. It's a tricky thing, because if Frank answers 'yes' to this question, he has the strong potential of losing his job. And by losing his job, he wouldn't be able to be an example of Christ's love to his co-workers. And it's not an issue of Frank being ashamed of being a Christian because he is so desperate to share Jesus with his peers in China. But he was just openly asking if it would be the equivalent of disowning Jesus if he didn't give his co-workers a direct 'yes' when they asked if he was a Christian.
Bill had an interesting view on the whole scenario. He asked Frank what the members of the Chinese Communist party think of when they hear the word "Christian". Frank, in his broken English, said that Christians are viewed as a large organization. Bill asked if this 'organization' was seen as a threat to the government. Frank replied that the government thinks it could be a threat and that Christians want to overthrow the Communist party. Bill then asked if Frank wanted to overthrow the government and the answer was a definite no. So Bill then concluded that it wouldn't be wrong for Frank to say he wasn't a Christian, because the concept of a Christian in China isn't what Frank resembles. Rather, Frank is a Jesus follower--no religions or organizations involved.
This conversation prompted me to think of how in similar, yet different way, the term "Christian" in America has so many organizations, people, and doctrines associated with it that it has become a distorted term to label people who actually just want to follow Jesus. Plain and simple. I wonder how someone's reaction would be different if they asked you if you were a Christian and you answered, "Actually no, I'm a Jesus follower." Even though this would be redundant, since the term Christian translates into 'disciple of Christ', I think people would react differently. It would maybe clarify things ("Oh, so you want to try and love people like Jesus did?") instead of distorting them with an inaccurate term ("So since you're a Christian, that means you hate gay people and always vote Republican, right?")
But despite whatever we say we are, it will all mean nothing if we don't follow through with our actions. So I guess the best thing I can hope for is that people know I'm a Christian, or a Jesus follower, or whatever you want term you want to use, by how I act and not by what I call myself.
And thus completes my random ramblings. Peace.
Today was a good day, plain and simple.
First, we went to Knights Landing (a small town of about 800 people 10 miles outside of Woodland) to help Cody and Diana paint their house. This couple is ambitious folks---not only are they painting the entire exterior of their house, they are ripping out a few walls in the bathroom, redoing the flooring in their bedroom and living room, and converting a small storage shed behind their house into a guest cottage. Holy crap, I'm glad we're buying our house new because I'm just too lazy and impatient for a bunch of house projects. Anyway, they treated us to a meal at the local Mexican restaurant, Los Yaquis, and I got a delicious burrito with marinated pork...mmmmm.
Then David and I took a trip to Trader Joe's, which always brightens my day. We hadn't been in a while, so we ended up buying a good amount of things we needed, but mostly things we didn't need but really wanted. The Cuban Mojito Simmering Sauce sounded too yummy to pass up. And I had to buy another box of the Vanilla Cake mix because honestly it is the best tasting white cake I've ever had. Throw in some tomato/basil hummus, Frenchberry lemonade, gorgonzola gnocchi, and butterscotch morsels, etc. and we finally dragged ourselves out before we did anymore monetary damage.
Later in the evening, I went to Mindy's bachelorette party and it's always fun to see a random assortment of ADX girls. I can't believe Mindy will be Mrs. Champagne next weekend!
So all these things together amounted to a great day. And now, on to what the next day brings...
DAVID AND I ARE BUYING A HOUSE!
That's our big news. And yes, it's ridiculous that I'm just posting this here now since we reserved the house in April, but better late than never right? To make a long story short, we were not at all expecting to buy a house this soon. We were thinking that we would start looking for a house maybe in a couple years. But David just happened to be at the KB Homes sales office at the right time, learned of a cancellation of a house in our price range, and we decided to snatch it up since it was such an amazing deal. Seriously, this was a toal God thing, such a blessing. I still can't even fully believe it. Like when we had to go to the KB home studio to pick out countertops and carpet and tile, it didn't feel like we were picking out things that were going to be in our very own house.
So the specs on the house....3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a combined living room/dining room area, a good size kitchen, an attached garage, and a cozy (aka tiny) backyard. It's located in east Woodland, where all the new housing developments are going up, so that will make both of our commutes shorter...a huge plus. I'm just excited to be able to have more than 6 people over without feeling totally crammed. I'm excited to have a guest room to offer people to stay in when they come to visit us. I'm excited to have a separate room where we can put the computer in, so I can be online while David is asleep. And most of all, I'm excited to have a place of our own.
As the house goes through it's different building phases, I'll be posting more pictures. Here's a few pics of what our house looks like now!
