No time!

What day is this? is it verse day or remember day or what? I loose track. Ah Tuesday. Well...this day for me has been too short. All days seem too short most of the time. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours to do all the things you must do, plus all the things you want to do. I do feel good about getting some stuff out in the mail. Not all the stuff I wanted to get out (yet) but some stuff. Boriel is my hero and my role model when it comes to that kind of stuff. I'm the worst! when it comes to mailing stuff. I don't know why. I just have this thing about mailing stuff. Don't ask me, I can't figure it out. Must be a shame to my mother too as she works for the post office and mails stuff all the time. Maybe I'm still rebelling....hmmm It was really nice. Well...that might be a slight understatement. I guess the concert itself was wonderful. A few klinkers in the orchestra and the boy solo who sang "In Dreams" was not as good as the one who did it for the movie, but all in all it was a truly enjoyable experience. One that I would highly recomend to anyone. Oh and if you're thinking of going in Pa and money is an issue. Don't feel bad if all you can afford is the cheap seats. Really! We had the cheapest seats in the nose bleed section, but truly it did not matter. We could hear everything beautifully and it just swept us away. It's been a long time since I cried through a viewing of FOTR. Mostly I figure because I'm almost always watching it while doing something else (laundry, letter writing, etc) But I was blown away and the tears flowed freely while listening to the first and second movements. (the Fellowship part) Somehow the rest of the symphony didn't move me as much. I think because it felt (to me) rushed. They did the 3-6 parts in the same time that they did part one and two. It seemed like alot of my favorite parts in the music were skipped. But, what they did include was wonderful of course. The rest of the day was really nice too. Meeting with ringers to (what else) eat! and then to the virgin megastore for the Howard Shore signing. He's a very nice man and if I can figure out how to post pictures here someday, I'll post pics. I got a really nice one of me, and the kids with Howard. LOL!! I let him listen to my ring tones on my phone. Well...one of them anyway. I didn't make his suffer through two of them, but I played "concerning hobbits" for him. He got a chuckle out of it. He says he has LOTR ring tones on his phone too. He has the Rohan theme on his he says. (darn!! I should have asked him where he got it) We were also able to spend some time with our family in Ohio and that was nice. The only part that was not nice, was the 9 hour drive (each way) Ugh!!But I've had no time to get my pictures to shutterfly or made into avatars or anything. I've barely had time to post this and now my dinner is dinging at me. Gotta run.

Frustrated rambling....

Ok, so in the continuing saga of the internet where I work. It's looking like it's more and more likely that soon I will not have access to the internet at all at work. grrrr...All because of these stupid Windows XP computers and how very difficult it is to keep stuff from getting into them. Dont' get me started.Anyhoo....apparently it took the IT guys 2 hours to "clean" the computer of all the garbage that decided to attach itself to my compter and so of course I got a nice e-mail from my boss reminding me about being careful when going to internet sites and all that...blah blah blah....And, long story short, if it starts happening again, they will just have to cut off our internet all together except for the things we have to have for work related purposes. oooooohhhhhhhh!!!! Ok, and now for my positive thought for the day....Had a really funny thing happen at my house. So my kids and I are sitting in the living room talking...and all of a sudden there's a bolt of lightning out the window and few seconds later a thunder clap. Well...right after the thunder clap my youngest son (formerly known as Hobbitlad, now Gil-ga-lad) says. "Fight the Iraqi's!" Just like that. Out of the blue he says that. We all started cracking up because it was just so random! LOL!!! What a strange little boy. Oh and my sister-in-law finally got her rum today. LOL! We had bought her a bottle of Tortuga Dark Rum when we were on our cruise but had no way of getting it to her. Well, my mother-in-law was going to see her today and took it to her. Yay!! She liked it. Oh and I leave tomorrow for Ohio to see my family and Howard Shore. Well...I'm going to his Concert. I'll be going with TrueHeartedEasterling and meeting FredO and Agape there. Yay!! (ok, this posting positive stuff is getting easier. :-)

Testing this out....cut

Ok, I asked the question and then answered it myself. I'm gonna give this "cut" thing a go. Her are the lyrics to another Artist Lyrics: Jennifer Knapp Song Lyrics: Hold Me Now Album Lyrics: Kansas From the glass alabaster she poured out the depth of her soulO foot of Christ would you wait if her harlotries known?Falls a tear to darken the dirtOf humblest offerings to forgive the hurtShe is strong enough to stand in your loveI can hear her say....I'm weakI'm poorI'm broken, LordBut I'm your'sHold me now, hold me nowLet he without sin cast the first stone if he willTo say that my bride isn't worth half the blood that I've spilledPoint your finger and laugh if you chooseTo say my beloved is borrowed and usedShe is strong enough to stand in My loveI can hear her say....I'm weakI'm poorI'm broken, LordBut I'm your'sHold me now, hold me now Song. Let's see how this works.It works, it works...yipeee!!

Gaaaahhhh!!!!

I hate computers. Well...let me clarify that. I hate my work computer. See, we have this really pretty restrictive internet policy that I try to adhere to very diligently. I only go to the web (well, mostly) during my breaks, tis my right. No different in my opinion than using the company phone to make personal phone calls during a break, right? So, I try to be very good and only go during my breaks. Well, tonight I went to a site that I had previously bookmarked that had lyrics for Jennifer Knapp songs. I was gonna post another set of lyrics here. Well...just that attempt to go to that site produced a plethora of UNIVITED internet activity that ended up with multiple games and other programs being installed on my computer. WITHOUT MY CONSENT OR KNOWLEDGE!!!!So, I spent half my break time trying to uninstall all these things and now I have to worry about our IT department coming to me and asking me why I'm downloading stuff. Gaaahhh!!!The end result will probably be that I'm not allowed to use the internet at all and that means bye bye to most of my LJ time. Already I cannot access the Fan Club boards from work and many other sites that I would go to DURING BREAKS because of the "surf watch" thingamabob. So...I was going to use this time to journal my positive experience of the day (maybe I'll have to think on that and post it in the next break) and I was gonna ask how you all do that thing where you include a link to your message. I think I've seen some of you refer to it as a "cut". How do you do that? So...ok. My rant is over now and my break time is quickly dimishing. I'm gonna use the remainder to read some of your journals and then I'll get back to work. *walks away muttering* stupid puters, stupid puters.....mmmmmmhehehammgahga hga gkja' ga slgka 'l gjhg

I feel so smart!!!

Well, after very little sleep all weekend and a nice long nap this afternoon, I'm ready to tell my tale. It was a great weekend. First of all, I've been going to these events for so long that I know alot of the event staff and other youth leaders and kids and seeing them here each year is like a family reunion of sorts.(lots of hugging. Not unlike a ringer get to-gether) A couple of guys that were in the youth group (now almost done with college) came out for the day. Had dinner Saturday night with my two good friends who live right her in Rockford, but with our busy lives and so on, it gets hard to see them very often. It was nice to visit and get re-aquainted with them. And my trek....was......fantastic. Oh my gosh..I just feel so good about it. Thank you all who were praying for me. It worked!!! I had some other prayers for me as well right before the treks were to begin. I was really nervous and scared about the whole thing right up until I started. 10 minutes before the trek was to start I was still trying to decide which clips to use and all that. I had the LOTR Trivial pursuit game set up in the room and as kids and adults started coming in, we played a round of the game. It was a fun way to stay on topic while people were still ariving. Well, the chairs in the room began to fill up and people started sitting on the floor. And still they came. The room I was assigned to was a meeting room in the hotel. It had a big conference table in the middle of the room, (which was too bad because it meant there wasn't as much space in the room) I'm guessing there ended up being about 50-60 people in the room and they were packed wall to wall. Still a bit nervous but glad to see people were interested in the topic, I began. I started each session the same way even though the topic was slightly different. I started by reading Tolkien's quote from the forward of "Fellowship" about how he dislikes allegory. I made it very clear up front that I was not trying to say that Tolkien himself "meant" any of the things I was going to be talking about, except in the way that he was a Christian himself and his Christianity came though in his writing. Then I had some LOTR trading card boxes that I had filled with Andes Mints. I passed them around and offered one to every person there. I said this was a symbol of what this trek was all about. That LOTR was full of little "goodies" if you just look, but that it should in no way replace the real "meal" found in the scripture. With those two intro's I would then show a clip or read a section of the book and start the talk. The first session was all about finding ourselves in the characters of LOTR, the second about finding Christ and the third about redemption, hope and mercy in LOTR. It actually became hard sometimes to keep the conversations in the topic. Sometimes folks would start getting into something that really belonged in one of the other sessions and I would have to say..."ah...that's for the next session" There was some good participation and no one seemed bored. I had some new thoughts, some things I hadn't thought of before and some new insights from the kids and the adults. After the sessions, I would usually have one or two adults or kids come up to me and tell me how much they enjoyed it and sometimes offer suggestions or further insights. I even had one lady from a church ask if I would be interested in giving this talk at their church sometime? I gave her my e-mail addy so we'll see what happens with that. I had many unsolicited compliments including the guy in charge of the whole event who said he had heard that my trek "rocked" He was approached by and adult leader who said it was really good ::squeeee::I was so relieved and pleased and proud of myself when it was all over. And I had a really good feeling of accomplishment and in a way validation. Some of you may know about some of my past "issues" with our youth leader over the whole LOTR thing (too much to explain now). It was really cool to be able to look at him and say (not in words, but just with a look) "See, all my time reading the books and going to the movies and talking online with people has paid off! and I have not traded my faith for my love of LOTR"

I'm off

Well...I'm off in a few minutes for a weekend with over 1000 teenagers. It's hard for me to decide who is more fun High Schoolers or Ringers. There are many similarities I've found. I think the thing that draws me to both though is their ability to "play"High School kids can play because they haven't been told not to yet and ringers can play because they've rediscovered (in some cases) that they can. I love that. Oh and can I ask for some prayer coverage for my trek tomorrow? I'm really quite nervous about it. I'm not a good teacher, my words tend to get muddled. Please pray for me that God will give me the right words to say to help these kids see the beauty that is LOTR and more importantly, the Gospel. Also, if you could a more frivolous request....I'm considering dressing in full hobbit garb for the trek. I'm beginning to get cold feet though. I have lots of people encouraging me to do it, but I'm just not sure. I'll let you know when I get back what I end up doing. LOL!! Should be funny if I do. Have a great weekend everyone!!

And now for something completely positive....

Went to Tori's play tonight. Anything goes. Can I just gush for a while about my daughter? She was soooo cute. Well...when I could see her that is. She was only chorus (I know, there are no small parts only small actors) and most of the time I couldn't see her where she was on stage. But when I could see her she looked absolutely radiant!! She looked so comfortable up there and she was having so much fun!! Her and I are going in a week to try out for the summer musicals at the local community theatre. The one's we're trying out for are "Showboat" and "Suessical the musical" I really, really hope she gets a part. I don't even care all that much if I do or not, though it would be great, but I really want her to get a part. This is her second play in High School. It's so cute, they let the kids write their own bio's for the program and both this play and the last one she lists the people she's thankful for. She always puts her family first (this is me beaming with pride) and she'll put some of her friends, but she also always includes Sean as one of the people she's thankful for. Last time she listed him as one of her inspirations. I think I need to take both programs and send them to him. He needs to know how much of an inspiration he has been to her. She is so determined. One of her goals in life is to one day work on a film with him. :-) I think she could do it. Remember at the Oscars when Charlize Theron was thanking her mother for being there for her and believing in her. I had tears in my eyes watching that, because I could totally see Tori up there someday saying something similar. I'm just so proud of her. I hope she can overcome the strikes against her and really make this happen. I wish I knew what to do to help her.