We have been out of state the past few days. It was great. Thursday night we headed to Randy and Deidra's place, on the other side of Chicago. It felt like it took forever to get there because we missed a couple turns along the way. I thought for sure the kids would fall asleep in the car since we didn't even leave until almost 6:00...yeah, not so much. They were wired when we got there and then stayed up playing with their cousins until almost 10:30 their time (which is 11:30 our time since they're an hour behind.) It took awhile for Noah and Ellie to wind down and yet they were still up at 5:30 (Chicago time) the next morning! Not cool.
We went to the Jelly Belly Factory in Wisconsin on Friday. It rained/stormed most of the day so we found inside things to do. We were able to try lots of yummy samples after the tour and buy some huge bags of fruit snacks and jelly bellies for super cheap prices. Deidra bought a little bag of the "bean boozled" flavors so I was also able to try "baby wipes" later that night. Ick, although it tasted how I imagined it would. I also had toothpaste, but that just made me feel like I had just finished brushing my teeth.
The next day was sunny and hot. Deidra and I kicked off the morning with a trip to Old Navy to hit their $2 tank tops sale. We were also armed with 15% off coupons so I scored 5 tank tops (some for me and some for Ellie) for $8.50! And we were in need of some with how unexpectedly warm it was that day. Weather.com was wrong in their forecast for our time away so I felt fairly unprepared when we actually got there. We went to a playground/splash area near their house. It was fun, although Ellie wasn't really into it. She ended up falling asleep on a towel in some shade instead. The backs of my shoulders burned and finally started feeling better today.
That night we hired a baby-sitter and went out on a double date. We headed into Highland Park in hopes of hitting the Anthropologie store (which I've always wanted to visit) and were bummed to find out it closed about two minutes before we pulled into the parking lot. Oh, well, maybe next time. Instead, we drove on to find a Frank Lloyd Wright house and also found a second one we weren't expecting to find. We also drove by the house where they filmed the scene from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" with the nice car and how it falls through the windows, etc. We ended at Border's and had some free drinks thanks to some coupons Deidra had. I'm glad they included non-coffee drinks since I'm not a coffee drinker but the fruit smoothie type one I had was deeeelicious. We came back and watched a John Piper sermon (during which Tim fell asleep about 5 minutes into it) and then debated predestination/free will. Randy thinks we go to heaven based on predestination; I disagree. I will tell you this, though: Tim and I are not late night people. Randy and Deidra are. With the time difference added into it, it made it hard for Tim and I to function by the end. Here is my advice: Don't start theological discussions/debates late at night if you are not a late-night person. My brain felt like mush and I couldn't think straight.
We left after church the next day and headed to Indiana to visit our friends, Jack and Kelly. We got there around dinner time and it was great to see them. After cleaning up from dinner, we wives excused our husbands to go to a coffee shop Jack was wanting to show Tim and they were able to end their Father's Day away from the kiddos and have some time to catch up which also gave Kelly and I a chance to chat.
Kelly has been one of my closest friends since our freshman year of college and she is so dear to me. I think that when we are together, we are very raw and honest with each other and the struggles/high points we are going through in life. We can cry together, laugh together and relate to just about every thing - especially having sons close in age and daughters even closer in age.
We went to Monkey Joe's the next day which was a really fun place and the kids loved it. After nap time the weather was insanely hot and the only way anyone really wanted to go outside was if the sprinklers were on. After dinner Kelly, who is a helper in Vacation Bible School at her church this week, took Owen and Noah to the first night of VBS. They didn't get home until 9:00 and Noah was talking non-stop about it. I'm going to be calling a church in our area this week to see if he can attend their's. He has a preschool friend who is going to be there and the mom was asking if I would be willing to bring Noah, too. The only problem is that it starts at 4 years old so I have to see if Noah could slide in still (when it is going on, he will have less than a month until his 4th birthday.) Our church doesn't have VBS and, based on Monday night, I think he'll love it.
Kelly and I escaped Tuesday morning and went to the mall to walk around a bit and get some time away. We left after lunch and got home around dinner time last night. And that was our vacation.
Tim is off work until Monday, however, so today began our "staycation" in which we will be doing projects around the house (Tim is upstairs painting right now) and hitting the Spring Lake beach (which is where we went earlier and had a picnic lunch.) The water in Spring Lake is so much warmer than Lake Michigan. It felt wonderful earlier. Even Ellie loved being in it (finally!)
I hope everyone else is able to get some time to relax and play, whether at home or away (didn't mean to rhyme that one...)
3 comments:
Sounds like you had a great time! My family is coming up to Allegan the 3rd week in July and staying at a friend's cottage. We'll have to try to get together that week! I'd love to see you and some of our Pickett girls again!
I had to laugh at the "night people" comment. Necessity has made us into night people. Otherwise we would never see each other without short people running around our ankles! (It didn't help that IL time is one hour behind MI time:)
Anyway, your mention of the predestination thing....I'm not sure exactly what you mean. I think you mean that Randy believes in predestination....period....not that if you DON'T believe in it, you go to hell. There is a difference there.
Predestination is believing that in God's sovereignty, he "elects" or "predestins" people to Himself. A long discussion that can't be had easily over computer (and apparently face to face at 1AM!)
Something I am learning though, is that I have a lot to learn about God's character and His Word. It's so tempting to try and make God in our own image and believe the things that "seem" right to us. As an example: I mean, really, why would God want us to suffer? Why does god allow pain? Why why why? God's "will" for our lives is to conform us more and more into HIs image and His Son's likeness...however and whatever God uses to do that is up to Him.
There is a lot to learn about this topic...like, if we have a"choice", why did God choose to harden Pharoah's heart against Israel? Couldn't he have just chosen another way? What is the relationship between God's sovereign will and human choice? It's complicated and simple all at once, but like I said, a conversation for another day.
I would recommend a couple of books that I am currently reading: Chosen by God (RC Sproul) and Just Do something (Kevin DeYoung). Good stuff.
PS- PS- Thanks for the ca-UTE pic of the kids:)
Deidra - I definitely did not mean that you go to heaven based on whether or not you believe in presdestination but that Randy believes those who go to Heaven were predestined to do so. I've done more researching on it and I have found that for every verse on God choosing us there is one supporting free will as well. Personally, and this isn't meant as a cop-out, but I've chosen again to just drop it. I believe I'm going to Heaven and whether it's because God chose me or because I chose Him, I guess I won't know until I get there. And maybe not even then because will it even matter at that point?
I know that I can't pick and choose what things to like and not about God and I'm not going to sit and question His judgment; I just honestly can't understand this one since both concepts of predestination and free will are spoken of in the Bible. Like you said, not a discussion over the computer. =)
I think it took close to one hour to do those pictures and we had only a few that were able to be chosen for printing. =) The next time you guys are here you can see the one where it looks like they're strangling each other. Ah, kids...
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