Not the Veggie Tales I remember.

Last night, we decided to rent "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." My previous experience with the Veggie Tales videos has been that they are either Bible stories or fable-like tales, directed at children to teach Biblical values. For example, "Rack, Shack, and Benny" is a re-telling of the story of Shadrack, Meschach, and Abednego. Rack, Shack, and Benny are workers in a factory that makes chocolate bunnies. One day at work, all of the employees are told to bow down and worship the giant chocolate bunny. R, S, & B refuse, because their parents had taught them to worship God alone. At the end of these half-hour tales, there is a summation given by "Larry the Cucumber" and "Bob the Tomato" which gives a scripture reference, and encourages kids to live out the principles illustrated by the story they have just seen.

We expected the same type of lesson from "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything," and were very disappointed. The story lacked the usual wit of the creators, and the only lesson taught was a very subtle message of "do what's right." There was no mention of God. The best reason given to do what's right is so that your kids will be proud of you. Not a terrible reason, but not exactly Christ-centered either. While we intend to purchase several Veggie Tale videos as Grace gets older, "Pirates" will not be one of them.

A new era

Tonight, Rob and I watched election returns. We sat, hand in hand, awaiting the results, then they came. Wolf Blitzer announced that Barack Obama is the President-Elect of the United States of America. What an historic moment. Whether you supported Obama or not, it is undeniable that for this country to elect a man as President who is not white is a monumental feat for us.


We are awed, and stunned, and amazed, and incredulous. Right after the announcement, we said a prayer that God would change his heart on the abortion issue before he takes office, and that he would be a man who listens to wise counsel and seeks to do the will of Him who, ultimately, placed him in that position.


May God bless you, Senator Obama. I pray that you really will bring to this country the "change we need."

Faith, Loss, and Rock-n-Roll

Last night, Rob and I made the trek to Birmingham, AL - about 2 hours away - to see Michael W. Smith and Stephen Curtis Chapman in concert in their "United" tour. They began by doing a couple of worship songs together, then Michael left the stage for Stephen's solo portion of the concert.


He began by thanking his friends, meaning the entire audience, for our prayers and support during the difficult time his family is working through. For those of you who don't know the story, on May 21 of this year, the Chapmans tragically lost their daughter Maria Sue in a car accident. What makes the story even more horrendous and difficult is that their older son was backing out of the driveway. He did not know his sister was there. Mr. Chapman was not only open and honest about his loss, he was downright raw, saying that he wasn't sure how to perform for us when all of us knew of this loss. He didn't want to pretend it didn't happen. He expressed his brokenness, and also made a strong statement of faith. He said "I don't know much, but one thing I know with every fiber of my being is that God is faithful."


When he sang his new hit song "Cinderella," about not wanting to miss a single moment of his childrens' milestones, there was hardly a dry eye in the house. The song was written prior to the accident, but he said that many of his songs have taken on new meaning since then.


Without further ado, he finished out his set with a mixture of old and new songs - some of which I loved, and a couple of which were too loud for my more mellow tastes. Then Michael came back out and joined him for a walk down memory lane, with each performing segments of the other's earlier hits. Then Michael performed his solo set, again a mixture of old and new, loud and mellow, and finally the duo ended with a few worship songs that had all of us on our feet, hands raised to Heaven in worship of our glorious God.


Overall, we enjoyed the show. We got home quite late, almost 1am, paid and thanked the sitter, and hit the hay.


What I came away with was a deep sense of Mr. Chapman's faith, as well as having my own faith encouraged. I know that when something inexplicable happens in my life, my response to the grief is often an inability to pray. When I had a miscarriage before Grace was born, I could not even give thanks for my meals without bursting into tears. Watching this man who lost a daughter literally grieve in front of a large audience, yet express his unwavering faith in a merciful and gracious God, was incredibly moving. I pray that the Lord will continue to comfort and strengthen the Chapman family, and that He would continue to reveal Himself to all of us. May I be that faithful when trials come my way. Lord I'm not asking for trial, but when it comes, help me to be strong in You.

artsy fartsy

Now that we're mostly settled in to our new place, I'm back to making cards, and I've even started a scrapbook of our summer trip! I just finished making a birthday card for a very dear friend of mine. I think it may be the nicest card I've ever made, aside from my card-making classes, so I decided to take a picture. I wanted to record it not only to share with my crafty friends, but also to remember how I did it!

For some reason the "add image" feature isn't working so here is a link to the pic on Facebook.

http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=827363&id=618796876

Getting over the Flu

Superbowl Sunday 2008 - the Mellen household was very excited, because the Patriots were not only in the Superbowl, they were going for a perfect season! We had a nice party with some neighbor families - a casual potluck kind of affair, with kids running around everywhere and more food than we could possibly eat.

Then the unthinkable happened - the undefeated Patriots LOST the Superbowl! We were more stunned than anything - the heart and soul of our sports world revolves around the Red Sox, not the Patriots... still, we HAD expected a New England win.

The next day, we woke up sick. All 3 of us. Sore, scratchy throats, throbbing, congested sinuses, body aches, coughing, sneezing - a real Nyquil kind of cold. Rob went to the store for Alka Seltzer and baby Tylenol & Ibuprofen. This cold is hanging on... I saw on the news last night that the Flu is striking late and hard, and Idaho is one of the 31 states where it's been reported. We don't actually live in Idaho, but we're pretty close to the border, and I go to school there. Well, not this week - I thought it best to spare my classmates from the possibility of contracting this nasty bug.

It's been almost a week since the Superbowl, and we're still not 100% better - although we are coming out of it - enough that we're planning to attend the local Caucus this afternoon.

Here's hoping that you & yours manage to avoid the Flu this year. As for the Giants, congrats... I didn't think you had it in you.