We had grand plans for a wonderful Valentine's Weekend away. We met my parents in Kansas City, where they were going to play with the kids, and we were going to do dinner, movies, shopping -- just get away. We secured great rates at the Westin using hotwire.com -- the waterfall in the photos below are from the hotel lobby.

Friday afternoon we all arrived at essentially the same time. We were pretty hungry, so we went to Fritz's, a cool restaurant that delivers the food to each table via train. The kids loved it! As an adult, however, I'd recommend the milkshakes only, because the food was pretty horrible. After dinner, we went to Fairy Tale Village in the Crown Center. It was a free exhibit that was kind of like a stage set. There were probably 10-15 different nursery rhyme "homes" set up in this room. Each "home" was interactive and perfectly kid sized. So much so that I couldn't keep up with the kids as I ducked through kid-sized doors and crossed kid-sized bridges. I eventually gave up and just stood by the door to make sure they didn't escape unseen. The kids thought it was fabulous!

After Fairy Tale Village, the kids went swimming with my parents while Jon and I went to see Avatar. The movie was great! But it went downhill after that. At first I thought it might be the food, but it quickly became evident that the "bug" Amara had on Thursday had made its way to my belly. By Saturday morning, the bug had bit Jon as well. The two of us spent Saturday sleeping and trying to nurse down Gatorade and Saltines while the kids continued to explore and have fun with my parents.

Saturday afternoon, Dominic decided his belly hurt, too, and opted to join us. I think he just missed us, which isn't all bad either. We fell asleep watching Olympic speed skating. On Sunday morning, Dominic asked immediately, "Can we watch more fast guys on ice?" I was tickled that he ASKED to watch the Olympics instead of cartoons -- a little protege? We'll fan the flames of the Olympics spirit.

Sunday morning we all felt markedly better -- weak and hungry, but not dizzy and queazy. My parents had set up a scavenger hunt in their hotel room. The kids loved it. Immediately upon finding their treasure, they asked to go on another one, and were quite disappointed when they discovered we had to leave.

Before we left, however, we had to stop at the escalators. It cracks me up how kids are drawn to the moving stairs. They easily rode these things for 15 minutes, and would have continued if we hadn't physically blocked the "up" and prevented them from riding again. Dominic even tried to juke my dad out of position and sneak past him. Funny stuff.


All in all, a pretty expensive sick bed, and not at all the way we intended to spend the weekend. I'm glad the kids had my parents there though, and that it worked out well for them! They'd have been miserable (and so would have we) if we were all stuck sick at home trying to care for the kids when we could hardly stand upright ourselves!

So...that was our Valentine's Weekend! At least we were with the ones we love!

A couple weeks ago we went out to eat at a local restaurant where frankly we spend too much time. Kids eat free though - so it's a popular choice for us!

We were seated at a table, rather than a booth, which put us very close to the family of 6 sitting behind Jon and Dominic. It was a set of parents, a set of Grandparents, and their two children.

During the course of our meal, Jon got up to take a phone call, so of course I stayed at the table with the kids. The Grandfather at the adjacent table struck up a conversation. He was asking about the kids - general questions. Not a big deal. Jon returned to the table and the man kept asking questions - are we from the area. We answered yes, but didn't ask him in return -- we want to continue with our meal. He answered anyway, telling us he was from out of state. He was getting to the point of being annoying. He had his own table to converse with - why was he continuing to interrupt our meal. He was nice enough, to be certain, but he had crossed the "nice" line and was now in the "stop bugging us" category.

As we got up to leave, he stopped Jon and asked, "Can I give you my card?" Jon took it, and we walked out the door. I'm sure my face had a crazy look on it as we got to the lobby and I asked, "Why in the world would he randomly give you his card?" Jon had already put the card in his pocket and didn't dig it out to answer the question, instead simply saying, "I don't know."

Fast forward a day. Jon returned home from work and said, "You know that guy who gave me a card at the restaurant last night? It was a business evangelism card." Essentially the card said call me if you want to know Jesus. It wasn't a tract, but basically, it was.

We had a good laugh at it. Jon's presence can often be foreboding - he happened to be in jeans and a long-sleeved thermal t-shirt with "graffiti" type writing on it that day. It wasn't graffiti, but was likely interpreted as such. And Dominic had just been given a fresh mohawk (see photo below).

Apparently this gentleman looked at us and thought, "They need to know the Lord."

He was right - we DO need to know the Lord. But thankfully, we DO know the Lord.

The more I thought about that interaction, the more it really bothered me. He looked at our appearance and made assumptions. He struck up a conversation with us, but didn't get to the heart of the matter. Then based on assumptions, slipped his card into our hands and left the rest up to us.

Two things bothered me:

1) The assumptions he made couldn't have been more wrong -- yet how often do I do the same thing? How often do I judge a person based on how they look? And knowing this -- knowing that people judge based on appearances, I always try to present myself and my family in a positive light, reflecting God. But this man apparently didn't see that.

2) If you're going to share Jesus, share Jesus! He was bold enough to interrupt our meal and ask questions. He was even bold enough to offer his card. But if the purpose in doing all this was to spread the Gospel, then he totally missed the mark! Think about how much more blessed we ALL would have been if he'd have started a conversation about Jesus, and we ALL could have praised Him together. Now granted, I could have done the same -- brought Jesus into the conversation. But my point is -- his whole point in starting conversation was to give us his card. Why didn't he just tell us what he wanted to tell us, rather than beating around the bush?

What are your thoughts on "Business Evangelism?" Has anything similar ever happened to you?

So much for that thought...

I'm a northerner... I can handle cold... I can handle snow... I've lived the greater part of my life with below zero temps for at least 3 months of the year.



But then I moved south.

Snow in the south... just makes me grumpy! My magnolia tree feels the same way.

(OK, I overexaggerate -- but I did think I moved out of this white mess.)

Last night we decided to have a family date night and take the kids to a concert. The concert featured Meredith Andrews, Pocket Full of Rocks, and Todd Agnew.

First, of course, we had to go to dinner -- at Mama Fu's -- had never eaten there before. Very yummy! We were joined by our friends, Michael (behind the camera), and Julie.

(By the way, the kids love potstickers.)

Anyway, following dinner, we headed to the church for the concert. It began at 7pm and lasted until 10pm. Kids were SPOILED and got to stay up WAY past their bedtime.

What really struck me about this concert that it was WAY more about the message than it was about the music. Even more -- they probably talked almost as much as they sang -- and it didn't bother me in the least. In fact, I was captivated by it. As Todd Agnew said, "I'm a story teller" -- he sure is, and a great one at that.

Those 3 groups have a heart for the Lord, and their music and concert was spent pointing people towards him.

While Pocket Full of Rocks was playing, Amara was completely jamming out. She turned to me and said, "Mommy, I believe they dreamed of being stage God singers, and that's what I dream of, too."

While Todd Agnew was singing, Dominic turned to Jon and said, "See Daddy, that's why I wanted a guitar for Christmas."

We were hoping a concert wouldn't be too much / late / long for the kids. Judging by their reactions, it's right where we were supposed to be.

Those God-dreams are good dreams!

We got a considerable amount of snow over the past weekend. I must qualify that - we got a considerable amount of snow FOR THE SOUTH last weekend. It was really just a "normal winter" for what I grew up with, but down here, it was a lot.

Enough to make a snow man!

Unfortunately, it wasn't very good packing snow, despite how wet it felt and the amount of slush present on the streets. Because of this, the kids quickly got bored, and instead took cues from Daddy and pelted me with snow balls as I tried to sculpt the masterpiece.



Once the body was formed, they were very helpful in placing his hat, scarf, face, and arms. The face is where the vampire comes in. We used blueberries for the eyes, celery for the nose, and cherries for the mouth. What I didn't account for was the dark juice of the berries. The kids pushed a bit too hard as they were placing the features, and burst the berries. Of course, you all know how dark blueberry and cherry juice is. Well, the cherry juice "bled" down the snowman's chin, giving him a distinctly vampiric appearance!

The kids still loved him though!



And of course, once Daddy was done shoveling and the snowman was built, we had to do a bit of sledding. We really should purchase a sled - those garbage can lids just don't have the go-power necessary!



All in all, a fun southern snow day!