Didn't Think I Could Do It, Did You?

I thought last Friday that permitting myself to take a couple of days "off" from blogging would enable me to wind down, relax, chill out, whatever you want to call it. And by the way, that's the first time in my whole life that I've used the phrase "chill out," which means that my inaugural usage of "24/7" can't be far behind.

Anyway, right after I made my vow that I was going to take a relaxing break from blogging for the weekend, I backed into a car in a parking lot (only hurt mine, not theirs, thank goodness), received a letter from the city that one of our dogs had "traumatized" a small child (for the record: one of our dogs got out accidentally and ran toward the street barking...the "small child" was about nine and barely even blinked, but the father was none too happy and immediately committed the numbers on our mailbox to memory), and then to cap off the day Alex authoritatively shut a locked door. With my keys on the other side.

All in all, big fun.

Saturday at lunch I told David, "I feel like someone has rammed a steel rod into each of my shoulders," but I guess there's really no point to me telling you that because that's as far as the conversation went since I had to retrieve Alex from the other end of a long bench and give my "Alex! Knees or bottom!" ultimatum so that he would sit down and eat his lunch. And that always makes me feel like those four years of college and two years of graduate school are reallllly serving me well.

It didn't help matters that I spent half of Friday night sleeping in Alex's bed (he had a bad dream) on top of, as best I can remember, a stuffed Elmo, a stuffed monkey, a stuffed Blue, some Happy Meal toy that I believe is also used as a weapon in parts of Asia Minor, a small dump truck that squeaked, and a Thomas book with those little squares that make all the chirpy noises that supposedly enhance the narrative, though I would beg to differ.

So I was REFRESHED Saturday morning, as you can imagine. The Blogging Sabbatical was off to a GREAT start.

All righty. Moving on.

New senior pastor. David and I found out who it is a couple of days before the official announcement. I'm sure you're shocked, because, well, word NEVER gets out about stuff like that in churches. A-HEM. But here's our guy. He's preached at our church several times, but I never expected for him to be our senior pastor because 1) he's 27 (TWENTY-SEVEN!!!) and 2) he has such a huge heart for overseas missions that I didn't figure pastoring a big church in Birmingham, Alabama was part of his plan.

About a month ago, though, I realized that he was definitely making an impact - especially on the 20-somethings - when a former student of mine mentioned that she and her boyfriend had been driving up from Auburn every Sunday to hear him preach. He's smart as the dickens - he has five college degrees, one of which is a PhD., and did I mention that he's TWENTY-SEVEN?!?!?!

So everybody click over to our church's website right now and take a look at the recommendation video...I really do believe that he's exactly what our church needs. And say hey to my friend Sandra (who looks after me like I'm one of her own and has a sassy Texas accent to boot) while you're watching.

Last thing. I called Emma Kate the SECOND I walked in from church yesterday (although I did not casually toss my Bible on the couch as I made my way to the phone like Holly Hunter in the Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom movie - and if you know the specific scene I'm referencing, you are my FRIEND FOR LIFE). I gave her all the scoop on the senior pastor stuff at my church, and she mentioned the importance of God taking us out of our comfort zones from time to time (which the new guy does BIG TIME), and then she referenced a sermon that she'd been listening to that morning. When she mentioned the preacher of that sermon, I said, "Hey, you know that a couple of girls who comment on the blog go to that church."

And she said, "HOLD ON ONE MINUTE, MISSY. They read YOUR BLOG?" [apparently, it's very surprising to EK that members of large churches in Texas would come within earshot of anything I have to say :-)]

"YES, Emma Kate. I've TOLD you all of this before."

"Well, this time I'm just gonna have to write it down."

Then, I explained how all the members of the Blogging Dynasty (Sarah, Bev, Barb, Judith, etc.) are connected, and I promise you that she was taking notes ("Wait! Hold on! SHE is her MOTHER? I had no idea! Well that's just so fun!").

When I finally got to the end of the explanation, she said, "Well. This world just gets smaller and smaller, doesn't it?"

And it does, y'all. In all the best ways.