Look Out Moms...Disney's got it out for you!!!

SPOILER WARNING - If you haven't seen Disney's new movie The Gameplan don't read this...I might ruin it for you!!

Tonight we treated our kids to a movie and took the kids to Disney's "The Gameplan." It was a GREAT movie!! We laughed louder than I have at a movie in a long time, and we cried...for awhile I had Sarah in my lap telling her, "it'll be okay, honey, it's a Disney movie, they always have a happy ending" and it was true...it had a happy ending and all was well, everybody wins, and we all wiped away our tears.

On the way home, however, we got into an interesting conversation which caused me to pause. You see...in this movie the little girl's mother dies and that's why she ends up with dad, not that he knows that for most of the movie. Isn't that what happened to Bambi?? And Nemo?? Who's the writer in the Disney movie house that's got a thing against mothers?? Who starts the conversation?? "Hey, we need a new Disney movie...let's off a mom, send the kid to live with dad, and all will end up happily ever after...works every time, right??"

EXCEPT for MOM!! She's still DEAD!!

And let's think about this...Did Ariel have a mom?? Cinderella was an orphan but not before Dad made a really bad decision and remarried. Snow White was another victim of an evil stepmother after her mother dies in childbirth...obviously, these dads have bad taste. Aladdin? Dad took off, mom died. Jasmine? She doesn't have dear old mom around either. Belle? No mom. Hunchback? Orphan. Mowgli? Orphan.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention, as my kids pointed out to me as I was bemoaning the demise of all the Disney Princesses moms that not ALL the Disney character's moms die. In 101 Dalmations, for example, or The Incredibles, mom managed to stay alive.

Still...to all you Moms out there...if your child dreams of someday being a Disney Princess (or Bambi) watch out...your days are numbered!!

I have to brag just a little!!!

Okay...so the brag is really for the program because I'm the loser kindergarten mom that totally put off this project that I did for my daughter instead of with her...

Do I get Brownie points because it will be something she will treasure for YEARS to come??

I have SO been wanting to make her an ABC book for the last, oh, year and a half, and just never had time...

Well, with the motivation of her needing a "family project" to share with her kindergarten class and my FABULOUS new scrapbooking software I made a 24 page brag book (8x8) in about an hour and a half...printed it off on my computer...trimmed, loaded into the album I had bought to do this project a YEAR ago...and I have the totally cutest project ever!!

I used a preloaded book that you can finagle and play with a little and I dragged and dropped pictures into it and LOOK WHAT I DID!! I'm so excited about it I couldn't wait to share it even though it took longer to load it than it did to make it in the first place!!

It's missing some letters of the alphabet and some obviously important people like the Nations because I didn't have pictures of them on my laptop and didn't have time to fight the dinosaur to pull them off the old PC but I can update that over our two week break, take some posed pictures to fill in the odd letters (q for quilt maybe?? Maybe a picture with the queen?? Maybe a picture dressed up AS a queen...that might work) and whallaaaah!!

What I couldn't get done in a year is now done in a couple of hours and some photo paper. I LOVE DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING!!!!!

Another favorite!!

 

Here is one of my favorite pages...

 

It's been a long time....

since I've posted! I guess I'm speechless!! That's hard to believe, I know...me? speechless?? The truth is I've been up to my eyeballs learning about Arizona history so I can finish up the credential...almost there, I took my last final on Saturday...whew!! I just have one more hurdle to go...the big state test...which scares me to death!! Meanwhile I've taken up a new hobby!! Digital scrapbooking!! I've already scrapped 20 pages in the last 7 days!! I will see if I can figure out if I can upload pages here to share!! I've always loved scrapbooking but doing it digitally has SO MANY advantages!! Way less stuff to log around (just my laptop!!)...No wasted stuff or pictures, everything is fixed with the undo button!!...really cute stuff you can download for free if you know where to look!! Last but not least, I can share my scrapbooks with friends and family all over the world with a single email!! I love it!!

Wow! Somebody thinks I'm NICE!!!

I've sure got them snowed!! Seriously though, my friend Amy gave me this award and I'm very grateful!! It's always nice to get an attagirl and especially right now when chaos abounds at work (another story for another day!!)

Here's the award!


Now I'm supposed to pass it along to 7 other people. I have loads of people I would love to encourage but not many of them blog...my friends, Lisa and Tracy, at work have been great to keep me plugging along on our stress filled campus. My fellow fourth grade teacher, Angela, has been a GEM!! AND she bought me lunch yesterday!! My friend, Kathleen, who brings me Starbucks and helps my kids with her homework is an absolute dear and a LIVESAVER to this very tired mom...All the people, there are way too many to name, who prayed for me during my thyroid ordeal...Thank you!!

There are a few who do blog...my best friend Heather whom I MISS terribly now that she is living in Florida but calls me regularly and never stops loving me despite the miles that now seperate us.

My friend,Amy, who gave me this award. She is an awesome prayer, mommy, and writer and she encourages me with her Love for the Lord and her persistance in the midst of life circumstances.

My friends, Dave & Lori who have loved me since my college days! They are the kind of friends you can get together with after years of being apart and it seems like we were never apart!

My brother in law, Mike, who has an unfailing love for the Lord and an unwavering desire to serve him.

My friend, Laurie, who is one of the most FUN moms I know!

My friend, Niki, who is a great mom and friend and is one of those people that would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it!

Last but not least is my friend, Amy R. who is apparently my southern lost twin sister. We have a scary amount of things in common even though we've only met once in real life!

Wow! Look at that, I came up with 7!! I didn't think I had that many friends...now I REALLY feel loved!!!

God is bigger than my confusion....

I'm not sure I've ever read the book of Habbakuk before.

I've joked about the name. I've argued the pronounciation. But I'm not sure I've ever read it before...I must have, I had to read the whole bible through when I was in College at Biola, but I sure don't remember it.

I love this book because Habakkuk, a prophet from God, is not afraid to ask the hard questions. In Habakkuk 1:2-4 Habakkuk cries out, "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you 'Violence!' but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice nver prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted."

How often have you or I watched the news and thought, "How long, O LORD, must a call for help, but you do not listen?"

When we watched the Twin Towers fall, watched the war in Iraq escalate, attended the funerals of fallen soldiers, seen a news story about a baby shaken to death by his mother's boyfriend, been involved in a lock-down because some crazy guy is driving around the local Wal-mart parking lot shooting people...

When we see these things, the temptation is great to cry out "ARE YOU THERE GOD?? Why aren't you DOING something about this??"

The answers aren't always the one's we want. The answer Habakkuk received surely took him by surprise. In verses 8-11 God goes on to tell Habakkuk that He is going to raise up the evil and allow them to be stronger. WHAT?!?

The very hard truth is sometimes God allows evil to bring people to God. I can tell you from my own experience of going through this process of figuring out what was going on with my thyroid, facing the very real fear that it might be cancer, caused me to draw closer to God than I have in a very long time. God chose to spare me, for now...no one knows the day or the hour that we will be called home.

God's ways are not our ways...but we like to try to put God in a box.
God's purposes, His plans, never fail...but we try to tell Him how it should be done.
God is God...but we try to be God ourselves.

It's hard to be faithful in the midst of confusion. Habakkuk was faithful. He brought his questions to God, and he allowed God to be God. It is my prayer that I will be able to do the same. How about you?