can someone please explain this to me?

Did anyone else out there see the woman in California who stole a U-Haul, and then proceeded to turn it into a high speed chase? I saw the clip on the news.

I am not sure, but I believe she (yes, it was a SHE) was "on the run" for a little over two hours. Here's my question...

WHERE (the heck) DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!!

Seriously, lady. Reason with me here. You are being followed by cops and media helicopters. The whole world can see you. Where are you going to hide?

So, she's on the run for two hours, and it's nearing the end. She decides to get out of her car while it's still in drive to start running. (Because if you run, they're really going to have trouble catching you.)

So, she's running down the middle of a highway access road and attempts to open the passenger side of someone's car door. (Genius!) It was locked, and they pulled away from her as soon as they realized what was going on. So, logically, she decided to try the next car, but it was too late. Seconds later she was tackled by a policeman, and her runaway efforts proved fruitless. At least for her sake there was a dramatic ending.

I'm just gonna assume that she is a wackjob unless someone can give me a better explanation.

Some of You are Party Poopers

You know who you are.

Anyway, here's the story behind the last post.

Matt and I are in a bad habit of waking up about 30 minutes before church on Sundays these days. So since it takes me at least 20 minutes to get ready (without a shower), I don't have time for a big breakfast before church. Usually I grab a piece of bread and put peanut butter on it and take it to go. Turns out Matt has a serious aversion to peanut butter breath in a car setting. I don't get it, but whatever. Every time this happens, he gets fussy.

So this past Sunday, in my own defense, I pointed out to him that every Saturday he makes himself a Tuna sandwich and that every time instead immediately recycling the can or throwing it away, he leaves it on the counter. As a result, anytime I go near the kitchen, I get strong whiffs of it. I pointed out that his tuna is much more atrocious than my peanut butter breath. He disagreed, which lead to a confident assertion on my part.

"I guarantee you that EVERYONE in the WORLD would agree that your tuna fish can smells worse than peanut butter breath."

So far, I am right.

*******************************
Okay literally the second I posted this blog for the first time, my party pooper friend, Rachel, (the one to whom I was referring above) voted in Matt's favor. I lose. And now she's more of a party pooper.

to our anonymous readers out there: i'm giving you permission to respond

Okay. We need your honest opinion. This is serious business so pay attention.

What smells worse? Peanut butter breath in a car setting or an empty aluminum tuna fish can sitting out in the kitchen all day?

Believe me, it matters.

I'm gonna go ahead and take it as a compliment.

Preface: I try really hard not to talk about politics - mainly because it is nearly impossible for me to debate without becoming extremely heated, emotional, and frankly... irrational. If you don't believe me, ask Sarah Michel, who has had the opportunity to experience this firsthand. I'm also probably overly sensitive to the fact that for many people, opposing political viewpoints are difficult to overlook. So usually, I keep quiet. But don't let me fool you. I have strong opinions.

That being said, I have a confession to make...

When Matt was in Haiti, I started watching "The O'Reilly Factor" every night. Since then, I have become a dedicated viewer, and watch as often as I am able. Yes, I even read his most recent book, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity. (BTW, it was very funny, and I suggest it.) As you may know, most other media outlets do not portray O'Reilly or Fox news in a positive light, and many consider Fox to be slanted to the right. Indeed, many of my closest friends (ahem, candid communication) share this viewpoint as well.

So I was happy to learn about this article by Lawrence Solomon of the Canadian National Post, which I also suggest you read - that is, if you care.

Some of my favorite excerpts are:

• "But those who identify O'Reilly as a knee-jerk conservative have come to knee-jerk conclusions of their own. O'Reilly does not pigeon-hole easily. He campaigns against greed on Wall Street. He especially campaigns against Big Oil, believing the oil majors manipulate supply to gouge consumers. He wants government to be pro-active on the environment, calling people who deny global warming 'idiots.''
• "Watch him and you will come to realize why his show has been rated No. 1 in cable news for 97 consecutive months now."
• "Who watches O'Reilly? According to Pew Research Center, his viewers are the most knowledgeable on the air..." (Btw, that's the part I am taking as a compliment.)
  
• "FOX dominates not because it appeals to those on the political right -- only 38% of FOX viewers consider themselves Republicans -- but because it appeals to people across the political spectrum. More people who identify themselves as Democrats watch FOX than watch CNN, the No. 2 news channel. In fact, FOX's non-conservative viewership exceeds CNN's entire viewership."
• "My advice to FOX's critics: Try it before you slam it."

Couldn't have said it better myself. In case anyone out there still doesn't believe, I think they should check out this study on election coverage, by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Let's just say the Fox results look fair and balanced to me.

I will shut up now.

It's official. I now participate in blog games.

I've been tagged! Two in a row makes me a sellout. So here it goes.

[1] Grab the nearest book.
[2] Open to page 56.
[3] Find the 5th sentence.
[4] Post the text of the next 2-5 sentences and these rules.
[5] Tag 5 peeps!

Here it is.

“In the twentieth century, however, violence has been inspired as much by secularism as by moral absolutism. Societies that have rid themselves of all religion have been just as oppressive as those steeped in it. We can only conclude that there is some violent impulse so deeply rooted in the human heart that it expresses itself whether socialist or capitalist, whether religious or irreligious, whether individualistic or hierarchical. Ultimately, then, the face of violence and warfare in a society is no necessary refutation of the prevailing beliefs of that society.”

Reason for God by Timothy Keller

There it is.

I won't be rebellious this time. By the way, no hurt feelings if you don't play. I tag:

Honey :)
Tracy G.
Katie W.
Sally L.
Leticia M.

Eight Things

My cousin, Tracy, tagged me to play the 8 things game awhile back. So here it is. :)

8 TV Shows I Watch:
1) The O'Reilly Factor
2) The Office
3) Seinfeld
4) Everybody Loves Raymond
5) John & Kate Plus 8
6) Saturday Night Live
7) HGTV (Any House Flipping/Home Buying Show)
8) House

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1) Chuy's
2) Maudie's
3) Potbelly's
4) Z Tejas
5) Manuel's (Okay can you tell I love Mexican Food?)
6) Eddie V's
7) Musashino
8) Maki

8 Things that Happened to Me Today:
1) I was excused from running for awhile because I left my running shoes in Houston.
2) So I went walking on Town Lake. (Thank goodness for a job in real estate.)
3) Listened to a John Piper sermon.
4) Got a new travel sized Bible.
6) Spilled my coffee all over the floor at Starbucks.
7) Watched the inauguration.
8) Paid a pretty penny for continuing education courses. Poop on that. Who needs a Realtor?

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Andrea's Wedding
2) Graeme's wedding in Destin!
3) Summer... always, and especially this summer because BFF's Andrew and Rachel Erwin are officially going to be in Austin!
4) Having a kid eventually...
5) Getting another nephew in April!
6) Watching God do more miracles in my life and my family members' lives
7) Jesus returning to and ruling the earth
8) Okay, maybe this is weird, but my 10 yr high school reunion

8 Things I Wish For: (don't know if "wish" is the right word for these...)
1) Godliness with contentment
2) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (does that count as just one thing?)
3) friends
4) California weather in Texas - year round.
5) for healthy, organic food to be as cheap as fake, unhealthy food
6) This is also strange, but I wish that I can have fraternal twins (boy and girl) in at least one of my pregnancies. Kills two birds w/ one stone if you ask me.
7) a house that stays clean
8) a life work that fits my talents, personality, passion and experience (aka a miracle)

8 People I Tag: Um, rebellious Leah doesn't want to do this part.

Why?

Okay, maybe you will think I am crazy after this post, but let's be honest... you probably already do. Let me preface what I am about to say with this- I love the church and the people in church. However, I can see why people think Christians are wackos. There are tons of little idiosyncrasies in American Christian subculture that are pleasantly entertaining if you have a sense of humor. If you don't have a sense of humor and a love for the church, then they are mostly just annoying. Let's be honest, churchgoers are an odd bunch - there is plenty to make fun of. Without a doubt, I'm guilty of a number of these oddities.

Here is one that keeps getting me recently. Pastors, preachers, youth group leaders that REFUSE to use the word "wife" for their wife. Instead, they must ALWAYS refer to her as their bride. Seriously people... why?

One of the first time I heard this phrase used, I was in youth group (maybe at summer camp), and the speaker explained that he never referred to his wife as "wife," but always as his bride. I don't remember his exact reasoning, but it had something to do with the fact that "wife" had a negative connotation. Of course at the time, I thought that was romantic and sweet. Now I just think it's funny and a little weird. But I still hear it from pulpits and sermon podcasts ALL the time.

All you have to do is imagine this word substitution taking place in normal conversations to see how silly it is. "Hey, have you met my groom, Matt?" "I just went to New York with my bride and my brother and sister-in law." "My groom is a real estate agent." Now do you see my point? People would laugh at you behind your back if you talked like that.

Surely you have now seen the light and agree with me. You can chuckle to yourself next time you hear it in a sermon. Apologies to the romantics out there.

A Tribute to Beth

I don't care how cheesy she is. I love this woman. Her writing and Bible studies have had and still have such a tremendous impact on my life. Her style isn't too profound or intellectual, but her words are filled with faith and hope and power. What an excellent reminder for any of us who will ever teach or write or use words to share Christ!

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." - 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Praise God for Beth Moore!

Lego Man

"No I wanna go outsiiiiide." "No I wanna watch Caillou..." "No I wanna drink coooooffeeeeee."


I love this little munchkin.

finding things

Maybe it's just because he's a boy, or maybe it's because he's Matt, but it seems that Matt is always looking for things that 1- aren't lost or 2- are right in front of his face. This morning as we were leaving for church for example...

Matt: Do you know where my Polo Pullover went?
Leah: Is it in your closet?
Matt: Didn't see it.

Two seconds later...

Leah: Here it is. Let's go.
Matt: Where was it?
Leah: In your closet.

It doesn't matter if it's an apple in the fridge or a box of cereal in the pantry or a pair of jeans or the checkbook. I wonder how much time he'd spend looking for things if I wasn't here to ask.

Day 4 in the Melting Pot

Sunday, December 21

Matt on the subway. The rest of us usually were quick to grab seats. Result = Matt's left standing a lot. Is it me, or does he sort of look like the uni-bomber in this pic?

We woke up in time to get to Redeemer Presbyterian's 2nd service, which was about one subway stop away from our Hotel. FYI, Redeemer is church home to Pastor Timothy Keller. For Presbyterians (Presby Church of America), Keller is like Billy Graham. He is also pretty popular if you go to Austin Stone. Whatev. I'm weary of churchy trends right now, but I love Keller. He is author to three incredible books that I read this last year. 1- Reason for God, 2- The Prodigal God, and 3- Ministries of Mercy. Also, I first heard his sermon series "In Christ Jesus" about a year ago, and it was profound - to say the least.

So visiting Redeemer was definitely an item on our list this time around. It was a Christmas service, and bc of the diversity in NYC they read all the passages of scripture in different languages (Hebrew, Taiwanese, German, etc.) I loved it, but I'm biased. Brooke and Peter loved it, and they weren't biased... so boo ya.

Next, we tried to go to Serendipity, but the wait was like 2 hours and we had skipped breakfast. So we settled for a Pizza place called Patsy's that Brooke and I had gone to the last time around. Next up? The MoMA! (Museum of Modern Art) Haha. I can't even begin to tell you how much we loved the MoMA.

LET'S JUST SAYYYYY that we don't have much of a taste for modern art. However, we were thoroughly entertained. Let me share...


Meet the pile of bricks. Nope, there's not anything more to this. It is literally just a pile of bricks displayed on the floor of the MoMA. My inquisitive sister did some research when we got home and found out that the MoMA paid $1M for this pile of bricks. If you think this is art, then I think you're a nut, and that's just the honest truth.

Some of our other favorites? A piece of yarn tacked to the wall, and a white canvas painted white. Also, the museum has a temporary exhibit featuring art by Marlene Dumas. I would post pictures, but you would probably report me because that woman is seriously disturbed. Whatev. If you're into that kind of thing, you should google her. It's inspiring.

Don't get me wrong, there were several displays by very talented artists. We were just taken aback by some of the other stuff that somehow qualifies as art. Maybe I'm not cultured enough, but I still think you're a nut if you think that pile of bricks is anything special.

NEXT. Top of the Rock! Last time in NYC, we did the Empire State Building which was crowded and overpriced. This time we took your advice and went to the Top of Rockefeller Center instead.

A view of Central Park from Top of the Rock.

Ah, another TOTR advantage- You can see the Empire State Building from the top of the rock.

Aawwwwwwwweeeeeeeee. Haha. Matt has hoodie-hair, and I'm not doing much better.

Well the day gets better yet. Let me pause to say that at this point, one of us is NOT in a good mood. One of us has had enough of the "art" and the crowds. That one is Peter. Haha. We love Peter. He has a very strong personality, though, so usually if he's not happy, then we must all ignore him in order to somehow be happy. On the other hand, when he's in a good mood, he's always the life of the party. Needless to say, it's getting a little old, but to me and Matt it's a little funny. Brooke, on the other hand is a little fed up w/ the 'tude. It is right at this point that we decide to go to Carnegie Deli for dinner. Bad decision.

Now we had been there before, and so we knew what to expect, but we forgot to consider that the setup is Peter's worst nightmare. In a word? Crowded. On top of that, as a party of 4, we got seated at a table for 8, right next to another party of 4. On top of that, they don't take credit cards, and Peter's not very tolerant of cheap people. And on top of that, the food was average. This was all adding up to disaster. It all went down the crapper when I asked Brooke and Peter about their exact plans for Christmas Day, which uncovered a little miscommunication. Aaaah.

The now infamous Carnegie Deli.

Yikes.

This night needed redemption... and fast. All I wanted was for Brooke and Peter to be happy and nice to each other (for my own sake, people), and for Brooke NOT to go back to the hotel early, and also I wanted dessert. About 45 min to 1 hr later, after some failed attempts to find dessert, God saved the night by directing us to this little non-touristy Italian restaurant called Mimi's in East Midtown.

They were playing lively music, and they had GREAT cheesecake. In fact, after we finished off the first order, we ordered another one. They also had very clean bathrooms, and some delicious coffee. Sigh of relief. Everyone was happy and our night wasn't ruined.

Ironically enough, on the way home, Matt tripped on an icy curb, skinned his knee, and almost hit his head on a streetlight pole. Why is this ironic? Because without a doubt, Matt was the best-behaved all day. I don't care what they say, bad things happen to good people and vis versa. And karma is a joke. (Thank God for that.)

The Big Apple - Day 3

The 3rd day went much better than the 2nd. We woke up, introduced Brooke and Peter to Ess-A-Bagel, and then walked over to the Theater District to pick up tickets for Phantom of the Opera. Yes, we got boxed seats. (Don't kid yourself, they were actually cheap.) Peter also made dinner reservations for us for 11pm. Only in NYC, my friends.

Second item on the agenda? Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge! Once again, we braved the dirty subway into Brooklyn, and came out less than 1/4 mile from the bridge. Pictures below.

Here's the four of us + Downtown Manhattan in the background.
Here's us, or as Matt likes to say it, "The Gibsons."

I really enjoyed walking across the bridge. Mind you, this was the day that it didn't get above 22 degrees. And the wind chill was negative for at least a part of the day. The last time I came to NYC (December '05), I was grossly unprepared for the weather. And that can ruin your trip if you're touring a city where walking outside is imperative to doing anything- I know because it nearly did ruin the last trip. So, I was over prepared this time. I wore at least two pairs of long underwear under my jeans and two tops under my sweaters, in addition to more layers, gloves (pop top mittens, to be specific) that went all the way up to my elbows, socks that went to my knees, and a scarf, ear muffs, and a beanie. So, needless to say, walking outside was no trouble this time around.

Peter was cold and windburned. Matt leisurely skated/slid across the bridge like a child. At least this time I wasn't the one acting like a child. Brooke had the baby to keep her warm. Here's one more picture for you.
Next we took a break at Starbucks, hopped back on the Subway, and decided to continue braving the cold on a walk through Central Park. It's huge.

Here's the ice skaters. See if you can find Matt in this picture.

Here's Matt. He was using his Uggs to slide down hills. As you can see, it was icey, and not very safe to be walking on. We saw several people completely bite it.

After CP we did a little more shopping (Maternity GAP and Bloomingdales), and then started looking for a place to eat lunch. We winded up at a random little cafe (I think it was called Oxford Cafe) that was marginal... but when you're hungry, everything tastes good. We went back to the hotel to rest before our big night. Since Brooke is now 30 yrs old and pregnant we needed to make sure that she'd be able to stay up till 2am or however late we'd be up.

That night, we headed to see Phantom. I was thoroughly made fun of for ordering Junior Mints to go along with my cocktail before the show started. Now who is being childish?

Sort of blurry, but don't you like Brooke's winter white coat?

The show was awesome!! It was really good, and then... the best part of all... PASTIS! Pastis is a little French restaurant (I think it's in the West Village). In our touristy book, it said that you're most likely to spot someone famous at this place, but we had no such luck. (We didn't know that when we made our reservations. One of Peter's clients had suggested it.) We couldn't read the menu, so we just figured out which item was steak and got that. Matt got Spaghetti. Spaghetti at a French restaurant? Whatev.


We also ALL got dessert. Yes, 4 desserts. It was so good. I think Brooke and Peter have a picture of me and Matt at Pastis on their camera, but I don't have one. I will post some more pics when Brooke sends me hers. Anyway, it was a great end to a great day. Highly recommended if you are in NYC. And it was surprisingly not as expensive as we expected.

By the way, joke's on you. Matt is not in that ice skating picture. Second half of the trip coming soon.

NYC Day 2

Friday December 19

Our original plan for Day 2 was waking up at the crack of dawn and heading out to Ellis Island/Liberty Island, but that plan changed fast when we decided we'd rather sleep in.

Instead we woke up at 11, went to a bagel place called "Ess-a-bagel" where some angry Jewish dudes were serving up some of the most delicious bagels I've ever tasted. Mmm. I got the Cinnamon Raisin Bagel, toasted with butter. There was probably a whole stick of butter on my bagel- and it was worth every gram of saturated fat.

Next we took a trek down to Ground Zero and Wall Street. Last time I came to NYC there was a little more to see at Ground Zero, but since they have started construction on the new buildings, there really is just a big space down there. The weather was also blizzard-like, so it wasn't the most condusive for exploring. Matt did take my picture in front of GZ.

As you can see, I was very happy about it.


NYSE/Wall Street!

Peter and Brooke arrived around 1pm on Friday, and we ended our Wall Street trek to go meet them for Lunch at John's Pizzeria in the Theater District. Also highly recommended.


There's Matt and Peter at John's. Afterwards we wanted Matt and Peter to see the ginormous Macy's with 3 or 4 different Starbuck's inside, so we walked the overly crowded streets of Times Square in the freezing snow/slush, and everyone's feet were wet by the end of the afternoon.

After a little shopping, we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit before we headed out for dinner, and what an event this was! Before our trip, I bought a highly recommended "Not For Tourists Guide to NYC..."and actually went to three different bookstores to find it. So, we used the trusty book to find a restaurant we wanted to go to called Grand Sichuan Int'l...Chinese food.

Brooke had a craving, and well, she's pregnant, so she was pretty much determined to eat Chinese food that night, and there was no stopping her. The rest of us wanted to earn our dinner, so we hiked about 7 long city blocks from out hotel to the restaurant. (I almost fell and broke my neck like 25 times because of the ice but that's another story.) You can imagine how happy we were to reach the destination (9th Ave and 50th St) only to find that the Grand Sichuan Int'l was nowhere to be found. Let's just say it put Peter in a good mood.

Not. He would have burned my NFT book if I had let him get a hold of it. It got worse before it got better. Thanks to the trusty Blackberry, we were able to get the Restaurant's number and figure out the address, which was nowhere near where we were. So we got in a taxi, gave him the address, and he dropped us off at the wrong location. We of course got out, and it took us about 20 more minutes to figure out where we were and what we were doing. We tried several times to change the plan and just try something nearby, but as I said before... Brooke + pregnant + craving = determination. We tried to consult the NFT and a concierge in vain. Fortunately, all it took was one more taxi ride, and we finally got to THE Grand Sichuan Int'l! Also fortunately for Brooke, it was a hit. I'm afraid to think of how Peter would have reacted if it had been a bust.

The funniest part was that we kept asking the people at the location we ended up at if they had moved or if they had shut down a location, and they just looked at us like they didn't know what we were talking about. Well, all you have to do is google "Grand Sichuan Int'l" to see that the location we originally tried to go to was shut down a year or so ago by the health dept. Whatev.

It was totally worth it. Afterwards we made Matt ride in the front of a Taxi back to our hotel so that he could have the full experience. They didn't make me ride in the front because they knew I'd have a heart attack.

New York, New York! Day 1.

Day 1 in a nutshell. Thursday, December 18.


We left for the San Antonio airport around 6:30 am to avoid any surprise traffic delays. We got to the airport way early and we were offered an earlier flight to NYC. Yes, please!

We got to NYC around 4pm eastern time, and we decided to take the adventurous (aka cheap) route to our hotel. Yes, we took the bus/subway into midtown Manhattan from La Guardia. It was quite interesting. Memorable moment of the day...

Hotel Check-in People: "So how was your taxi ride from the airport?"
Matt: "Well, we actually took the subway."
Hotel Check-in People: Funny look/"Wow, we've never heard of anyone doing that before."
Leah: "It was definitely cheap."
Hotel Check-in People: Laugh.

I must add that we found that route on several touristy websites. We definitely considered that it might not be the best way to go (think big bags on a crowded subway train), but decided to stick with it because we had seen the route in multiple different books/websites. Whatev... it was easy, and we came up out of the subway RIGHT next to our hotel, the Doubletree Metropolitan (51st and Lexington!)

There you go. Our first night, we walked all around midtown... Rockefeller Center/5th Avenue/Times Square. We wandered around and found a restaurant we had seen in one of our tourist books called Burger Heaven (chain) in midtown. It was delectable!


Next, we did what any young, love birds would do in NYC, we went ice skating in front of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. Sorry, we didn't get a picture making out.


That's me in the back. GIRL skated in front of our camera!


All of our touristy books said that the Rockefeller rink would be crowded, but it really wasn't bad. We only waited like 15 minutes to get on the rink. The central park rinks were much more crowded.