I LOVE 4 am phone calls...

No really! I do!! That's not sarcastic! My phone rang at 4 am last night and it was Jean calling to tell me that baby FINALLY came! AND, I have been right all along, it was a GIRL!! Elizabeth Christine showed up about 4 am New Jersey time and weighed in at 6 pounds 11 ounces. Both mommy and baby are doing great, and will be sent home from the hospital on Wednesday. She said that an email and photos will be going out to everyone then, so I am sure I will be posting those then, but I had to share my excitement! I was WIDE awake after I hung up the phone with her, so I lost a couple hours of sleep last night but it was totally worth it :) I'll be heading back to New Jersey to meet this new little "almost" niece of mine over Christmas, so I'm sure I'll have more pictures to share then, but for now, that is my exciting news of the day! What a fabulous way to start finals week! Ok, I'm off to the post office--months ago Jean asked me to mail something pink if it was indeed a girl because she wanted her little girl to have something pink right away, so baby isn't even 12 hours old but I've already paid Target's baby section a trip this morning...I'm going to go get this in the mail....praise God for healthy babies!!!

Photos for the Glory of Christmas

I thought I'd post some pictures to go along with my rambling rants that I posted about the Crystal Cathedral earlier this week....enjoy!

The Christmas Tree and the reflection

Camels!! The coolest part of the whole show--every time they appeared Sophie would hit me and say "the camels are coming!!"And the donkey...

Paige and Chris looking adorable in the gift shopSophie and I

My Sanity in the Midst of Chaos

One of the things that I had been praying for most of last year was a small group of women that would form a covenant group--a group of women that would be intentional with one another, would meet regularly, pray together, share stories, and be authentic with each other. I had two amazing friends last year (well they're still my friends this year!) who would do that, but I really wanted an intentional group, but wasn't really sure how to go about forming that. In September God finally started moving people into place and our covenant group formed. Thursday mornings have turned into the time of the week that I look forward to the most, as we gather in one of our apartments, share breakfast, share our weeks, and pray for one another. It's become a place where masks can come off as soon as we walk into the room and where we can be real--we can be crabby, frustrated, upset, joyful or stressed and we know that we are in a safe space. Here are the five women who have been an unbelievable gift to me this year!



Lisa, Rebecca, Christina, Jenn and I

A Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I posted my "I'm Thankful For..." list already, but here are some photos from our day. We decided to try the potluck Thanksgiving dinner with the Presby group again and I have to say I think this year went MUCH smoother! No one stayed up all night, the oven wasn't destroyed, and we didn't have countertops FULL of left overs! Sophie was housesitting in San Marino for a gracious family that allowed us to invade for the day.

So this was my first Thanksgiving in Southern Cal. I was around on Wed. last year to help with the cooking but then I left Thursday morning to go to Colorado to see family, so this was my first Thanksgiving with weather in the low 70s...there just seems to be something wrong with this picture!

Sophie and I trying not to get TOO wet! (hey it was warm, but it wasn't THAT warm!)

Denise & Pocket salting the turkey the night before

Attempting to save the juice for the gravy Sophie and the herd of dogs she was watching for the week...
Tina and Maria making gravy Tim and Lassie...ok the dog's name wasn't really Lassie....

The group shot Tina, Rebecca and Pocket Making sure Kernie got fed too.... Awww...we like each other!

Dave's Top 10 Reasons Why Men Should NOT Be Ordained

The following was presented by Dr. David Scholer at the Fuller Follies (Fuller's annual spoof/talent show) in 1998 and was how he closed our last class today in Women, The Bible and The Church. I think most of us women who are heading into ministry have heard one or more of these excuses as to why we should not be pastors, so our class greatly appreciated his taking the time to rewrite them with humor...

10. A man's place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are most suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be "unnatural" for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowing achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football games shows this.

5. Some men are handsome; thus they will distract women worshipers.

4. To be ordained as a pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes otherwise than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. (my personal favorite...) Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father's Day. By confining themselves to the traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

A Fabulous New Website

For those of you who are looking to stay caught up on some of the current dialogue surrounding issues of faith and religion, Newsweek and the Washington Post have teamed up to create a new site, titled On Faith where they post a new question at least once a week about something going on in the news. They have a ton of different pannelists that will then write in with their opinions and the general public is welcome to respond to the opinions that are posted. Among the pannelists that regularly respond is our very own Dr. Mouw, Fuller's President. Other well-knonw names include Madeline Albright, evangelical evangelist Luis Palau, Desmond Tutu, Rick Warren, Auschwitz survivor and author Elie Wiesel, and a host of other names that are all well known in their religions. So for when you need a study break or just want to be updated on what's going on in our world, check out http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/

Family Togetherness....

My parents came for a weekend visit back in October. This was the first time they had been out here since moving me in, which I'm not really sure I count because they essentially saw Target, Home Depot and my apartment at that point (which isn't even the apartment I'm living in any longer). This trip was great, they had a chance to meet my friends, visit my church, see me lead a worship service, explore Santa Monica and just hang out. Here are some pictures from the weekend that my dad finally sent to me....I love that he has a new digital camera, but we all knew that getting the pictures off the camera in a timely manner would be an issue for him! So here they are, a month and a 1/2 later...

My mom with Jenn and I on the Santa Monica pier

Coffee stop in Malibu on our driving adventures...Jenn and I dutifully posing for DadSo, who do I look more like??