Shall We Gather at the River

Today, my sister Danielle was baptized. As her younger sister (by almost 10 years), the thought about her being baptized or not never crossed my mind. I always assumed she had been baptized before or shortly after I was born therefore, I didn't remember it...

It's amazing how you can live with someone almost your whole life and still discover new things about them every day...

The seriousness of the occasion really struck me as we stood beside the lake on this beautiful hot August day. A simple act of submersion that symbolizes so much more. The process is over in about 5 seconds, but the grace and forgiveness that Christ gave to us is everlasting.

As we stood on the shoreline, I began to daydream about what it would have been like to be baptized by John the Baptist- or better yet, Jesus Himself. My dad is a close 3rd though, and he has had the honor of baptizing my entire family- including his own mom and dad who came to Christ later in life.

Wyndham stood with me amazed as we watched 6 other young people from church profess their faith publicly.. it made me want to get baptized all over again-- I feel like I have learned so much more since I was 12.

My mind wandered back to last Sunday when my dad had a small commissioning ceremony for Randy and I at church as we are leaving for Ohio soon-- He quoted from Isaiah 6:8, "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, 'Here I am! Send Me!"

That passage is often quoted for people entering the ministry (such as ourselves), but truly, it is for all believers. I think of my sister and the 5 others who were with her today-- God has a plan for all of them, whether it be here in Muskegon, some distant land far away. We can show the salvation and grace of Christ in our every day lives, wherever we may be...we are all called to go forth for Christ.

One of my favorite memories from this day was shortly after the service as over. Wyndham ran up to Danielle and said, "You went under the water Auntie! You love Jesus Auntie".





A child's prayer...



Today we were at the River... someday, we'll all meet again at the real river...I can't wait...

Child of the 80's

So, as you all know, we have been living with my parents these past several months... as we are preparing to move out in a week, I decided it was high time for a garage sale around here. Not only do we have several items we personally need to ditch, but my parents still have a basement FULL of clothing and toys from our childhood.

Let me take you back to a decade you're all familiar with...one filled with Top Gun, blue eye shadow, tight-rolled pants, scrunchies and side pony tails...the 1980's.


These are my very first kindergarten book bags... Does anyone remember "The Getalong Gang?"...


A Vintage Hello Kitty-- (the original) and my glowworm. I used to huddle myself up in my mom's huge dress jacket during church service and play with the glowworm in the dark perfume soaked caverns...


Dude.. not only did I find Teddy Ruxpin, I found his friend Grubby too! I also found a matching raincoat for Teddy as well as several books that go along with them... Do you think I could sell these for some serious cash?


Every girl's friend- Rainbow Bright- though she's absent from this picture, I found everyone else I had- Starlight the horse, a Sprite doll and a card game with all of the characters... Is it just me, or is "Murky Dismal" a weird name..even for a villan?



SHE-RA!! Princess of Power! She could kick He-man's rear in a street fight:)


Polly Pocket and Charmkins anyone?


A random 80's smattering... yes, that is a Fraggle in the carrot car...


Carebears, Launchpad McQuack, My Little Pony Pencil case, and the "Mac" Moon guys from McDonald's.


Muppet Babies-- anyone having flashbacks of Nanny's green an white-stripped tights? They never showed above her knee...?


Voltron...I think that this was kind of like the Transformers if I'm not mistaken...

This New Kids on the block memrobelia was "Hangin' Tough" in the basement too... I used to have a pin of Jordan Knight as well...

Some other items I found- not pictured: Mall Madness, Clue,Cabbage Patch Kids, a half decayed JEM doll, a Barbie waterbed that converts to a keyboard (that one was a REAL stretch), many MANY McDonald Happy Meal toys, and my "diploma" graduating from the Nursery at my church.

It was fun walking down memory lane before we move out- even if I had to have 3 asthma attacks in the process!

Toddler Flashdance

Striped cotton dress...headband...lace leggings...need I say more? Please excuse the horizontal view- I haven't quite figured this whole "photobucket" thing out yet!

Dora the Explorah

Wyndham seemed to gloss right over the Elmo stage and is now a full-fledged Dora the Explorer worshipper. Actually... I kind of like it too! There's always a problem to solve, a map to read, a song to sing and a Spanish word to learn. So for, I've learned up, down, open and close! More than I even remember from High School:)

Wyndham was so engrossed in her Dora dvd one day that when I gave her a 5-minute warning that it was going to turn off she said, "No turn it off. You go to the bathroom and fix your face and fix your ears, OK".

Translation: fix your face: put on make-up, Fix your ears: I'm guessing fix my hair? Or maybe she meant put on my earrings..? She loves to watch me get ready in the morning. What a ham. She totally knows how to stall and work the system:)

Randy recently saw a special on comedy central that mentioned this Dora phenomenon. Brian Regan is the comic in the clip below- Check it out to get a great dose of parenting humor... warning: you will never be able to say Dora the Explorer again without a John F. Kennedy accent... you'll see...

A New Church for a New Generation

Well, the Lord has done it! He's opened a door, and we are stepping through. Randy has been hired as an associate pastor overseeing college and youth at Grace Chapel in Minerva Ohio. What brought us here you ask? Randy's parents have been attending the growing church for the past 4 years, and we have always enjoyed attending it when we were down for a visit.

Because the church is growing, they've gone "mobile",meaning, they are currently meeting in a local school while they raise money for a building. The youth has been booming and until recently, the senior pastor has been doing double duty for the adults and youth... very tough. The board decided to begin searching for an associate pastor... right about the time we were searching for a church... :) You see where this is leading, right?:)

We haven't been sharing much in way of specific interviews, openings, etc. with many people as we didn't want to do the whole, "we're moving... mmmm... no we're not" thing... been there, done that- never again.

Anyway, this past month has been a complete whirlwind beginning with school getting out, our trip to San Diego, and Randy getting hired at Grace. We've had to make some big decisions pretty quickly here, but God has been providing open doors and encouraging people every step of the way.

We went down to Ohio last week to begin house hunting (HOUSE hunting-- oh to have a house again:) and laying on the guest bed was a small book entitled, "If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat" by John Ortberg. Hmmm... hint hint from Mom and Dad Ross. They know that as exciting as this has all been, this is my first big move of my lifetime, and stepping out in faith isnt as easy as it sounds.

The biggest challenge for me these days isn't the fear of the unknown-- I'm actually really excited about being a part of this community with Randy and Wyn... but it's the thought of leaving my family here in MI- my foundation, and my oh-so-muppet-like music job which I have loved so much. I have been enduring mood swings and emotional break-downs and giddyness every other day or so. I feel like I've hit early menopause or something!:) Plans are coming together for our transition though, and it's hard to deny God's provision though it all.

We set up 3 solid days of house hunting with a local realtor in Ohio last week. Randy's parents had passed an adorable "For Sale By Owner" that they thought we should call on. We did, and got a tour by the house's owners-Eileen and Bob. Newlyweds (at 75!), they've decided to sell both of their houses and purchase a condo. Believe it or not, it was the best location, cutest house with the most updates and... the lowest price!! Amazing!

We ended up going through the house several more times (one with Randy's parents), and we begin to get to know Bob and Eileen. She got divorced in the 1970's, and eventually moved into the house with her widowed father in 1981. She was a single lady who tried to fix and maintain the house the best she could-- and she did a great job. New roof, new furnace, central air, all new windows in the entire house, updated plumbing and electrical.. this lady knew what she was doing.

Then, she met Bob... a veteran who worked at the electric company with her. They started dating and the rest is history! They are adorable. They told us that we were the first couple that they really WANTED to buy the house. That meant a lot. I love buying houses with history... I swear that "house kharma" exists:)It means a lot to me that we are buying the house from Christian people as well.

We are now in process of buying the house, and are just waiting for a closing date. Here are some pics of our cute new digs.



Here is a pic of Bob and Eileen. So cute...



House stats: 3 bedrooms, 1 bath (soon to be 1 1/2 after some renovations we are planning). It is the smallest of all of the houses we have owned, but so cute, so affordable, and so accessible to the church and church people. I feel very random and "bunnytrailey" right now... which is much the way I've been these last few weeks! More job, house and move details to come! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

ABCs

So...Wyndham is ready to start kindergarten...SERIOUSLY! This girl knows her alphabet and can count to 20...one time she even counted backwards. I guess that's what you get when you're living with mom, dad, auntie, grandma and grandpa at the same time. She's got 5 tutors:)

Californeye-YEAH!

So there is a reason that I haven't posted anything on the blog recently... Randy and I celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary in San Diego California from June 26-July 3rd! We had been saving up for a while and knew that this was going to be the big year that we made the trip.

Randy lived there until he was almost 13, so basically, California is his "home". All of his childhood stories take place in this magical world where weird dessert plants consume the landscape, you have to shoo geckos out of your house instead of spiders and the temperature is 75 degrees year round. Pretty idyllic if you ask me.... and it was!

After much debate, we decided that Wyndham would stay with Grandma and Grandpa as our trip consisted of a LOT of driving and sight-seeing-- not exactly a great set-up for a 2-year old. In hindsight, we are glad we stuck to that plan. Traveling by plane has gotten SO much crazier and stressful than ever before-- obviously, 9/11 has changed traveling forever.

It was even more stressful because the airline didn't get our bags on the right plane as we traveled out west, and we didn't have any luggage until the 2nd day of our trip! Luckily, we had packed some spare undies in our carry-on bags, but we were still pretty frazzled by the time we arrived in San Diego that first day. Between missing Wyndham, being EXHAUSTED from getting about 2 hours of sleep, worrying that someone on our plane was a highjacker and our missing luggage, I was a mess. I literally sat on a little bench outside of the airport and cried out loud like a baby.

Randy and I handle these kinds of situations differently... I have a melt down, and Randy just gets angry... It's a GREAT mix when you're trying to deal with a stressful situation:) Anyway, the airport ended up giving us $50 to pay for any immediate items would would need (i.e. deoderant, toothpaste) as well as several vouchers for free food and coffee. In the end, it all worked out, but I can attest to the fact that you really find out what you're made out of when crisis strikes!

We stayed in the cutest historic hotel downtown called the Sofia Hotel in downtown San Diego. Adorable, quaint-- so fun-- see fun pics below. Our first full day, we explored the San Diego Zoo which is said to be one of the best in the WORLD. One foot inside and you can see why. It was beautiful! It makes John Ball Park Zoo look like a pet store!

One of the tour guides said that the Zoo's plant collection is actually more valuable that their animal collection-- They brought in so many plants to build the animal's habitats, it now houses some of the world's rarest plants. SO cool. We also explored Balboa Park which is kind of like a large outdoor cultural center. It houses everything from museums to the zoo, to an ampitheater and botanical gardens. Paradise...:)

Our 2nd day in town, we met up with Randy's parents who were also on a California vacation in the area visiting friends. I was so thankful that we could experience this walk down memory lane with them. We had lunch with some of their family friends- Jan and Al Menconi- who still live 3 doors down from the Ross's old house.... They said that they bought it for around $67,000 in the 1970's... houses on that street are now going for around $800,000 and up!

After lunch, we toured one of the Christian schools that Randy's dad and several good friends helped to found back in the 1980's.
(Santa Fe Christian) We also HAD to have some ice cream from the legendary "Yogurt Mill"... their child size yogurt is like a PINT!!! After eating our gigantic yogurts, we decided to hike through some mountains that the Ross family used to explore.... not a great idea in 100 degree weather after eating dairy products, but we managed:) It was so cool to see this piece of history and understand their story.

We also had the chance to drive up the coast to La Jolla (pronounced "La Hoya"), to see the beautiful coastline and the seals that inhabit the beach. So fun! My favorite beach of all however, was the beautiful shoreline on Coronado Island. The waves were fun, the water was refreshing and the sand glistened like gold. I will never forget it.

It was difficult to leave S.D., but we looked forward to driving up to L.A. to explore all the fun touristy things there too. On our drive up to L.A., we decided to stop at Saddleback Church for a Saturday night service. This is Rick Warren's church (Purpose Driven Life). We recently saw him on a news program getting interviewed about being a part of the "emmergent" church movement, so we thought it would be interesting.

The next morning, we decided to attend another church service at
Grace Community Church in West Hollywood-- John MacArthur is the pastor here and also a well-known Christian author. I LOVED going to church while we were in California. It really made the world seem smaller to me-- there are Christians EVEN in Hollywood:-).

I picked up a book while in LA called, "I Sold My Soul on Ebay- thoughts on faith through the eyes of an atheist". I would highly recommend this as an insightful look at how unbelievers perceive the church today. An atheist is challenged to attend 15 different church and write his thoughts on them. It was an especially interesting read as we have several of the churches in the book. Check it out sometime!

While in L.A., we drove around Beverly Hills-- secretly hoping to see someone famous:) We walked up Rodeo Drive (ho hum), and also did the "walk of fame" in front of the Chinese and Kodak Theater. It was pretty touristy, but fun to see anyway.

Our final day, we went to Universal Studios. I have never been to a theme park except for Michigan's Adventure and Cedar Point, so this was a treat for me... the best part of the day? Seeing parts of the set for one of my guilty TV pleasures- "Desperate Housewives". We didn't get to drive down Wysteria Lane, but we got some great pictures of it from the parking garage!:)

I feel very blessed to have had a memorable and safe trip. This was truly one of the highlights of our marriage thus far. Beyond all of the fun historic things we got to see and experience, it was so meaningful to be there together... still completely in love after 5 years:)

Al, Jan, Big Randy, Joyce, Me, Lil' Randy

Gaviota Circle- One of Randy's childhood homes

The famous Yogurt Mill!

A beautiful view from El Cajon

The Sofia Hotel

I don't care how weird he is now, Tom Cruise will always be a "Tiger Beat" icon to me!

I am the muppet queen and couldn't resist!

A bird's eye view of Wysteria Lane