Texas Ranger's Fun

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Texas Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Ranger's Ballpark - Arlington, TX

Friday April 27, 2012

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Over 47 000 fans.

Shared with wonderful friends.

The Ranger's lost :( 

But there were fireworks to follow :)

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Texas - Spring

----- Texas in the Spring -----

One Big Happy Family, Texas - Style

There is a reason that there has been a lack of activity on this blog over the last month. We were invaded (in the very best sense of that term, of course). For 2 1/2 weeks we had the privilege of hosting family on the little corner of Texas that we call home. They came in waves: Sarah & Sophia first; Mom & Mandy a week later; and Dad & Mitch a day later.

We shopped; we rodeoed; we visited with friends; we explored the school campus & the popular sights of the city; we got stuck in traffic (too many times :/); we missed the train; and we ate a little bit of chicken-fried steak, some cajun, a whole lot of BBQ, some fresh salsa, and Tex-Mex too. (Notice the attention given to food in that list. Everything's bigger in Texas, including us, as Sophia put it (referring to all the eating we were doing).) We taught them how to say yee-haw and y'all and by the end I think we were plain ol' successful at tuckerin' them all out.

Reunion with the Thomas clan.

Birthday Boys!

Look!

One of the many turtles that entertained us for a good while.

Sophia took the entertainment to another level.

Texas Wildlife

Trying on a little bit of "cowgirl" @ Justin Boots. 

Fried Pickles @ Razoo's Cafe...fried everything down here!

Stockyards Rodeo

Main-street, Grapevine

"What will you trade me for this nickel I made into a cowboy hat?"

Happy family...even though we missed the "real" train...

A Little Bit of Spring

Mike found this flower lying on the grass all lonesome-like and gave it to me to care for.

It now has it's very own home in one of our glasses :)

I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; 

For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, 

He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.... 

For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, 

And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, 

So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. 

------ Isaiah 61:10-11 ------

Vehicle Batteries & Oven Drawers

Sergeant Emerald (aka. our green Nissan Xterra, a wannabe war machine but definitely failed the 'guts' test) was feeling a little under the weather last week, lacking the energy that usually gets us from point A to point B.

It all started out when I had a craving (no, I am not pregnant) for lemon loaf (thanks to Suzanne who had baked up a yummy lemon cake only a few nights before and got me onto a lemon kick). So, rather than using self-control and moving on with life I began baking a lemon loaf...at 8:30 at night...only to discover part way through that I was out of baking powder. Now, we do have a grocery store about 3 minutes up the road but for the most part I avoid shopping there...because it's a little sketchy. I especially avoid shopping there after dark...because the grocery store suits the area well...sketchy. But the eggs were cracked and there was no going back. So, after telling Mike to come looking for me if I didn't return in 15 minutes I ventured out...in the dark...into the sketchy-ness...with Sergeant Emerald. I found a parking spot in a well lit area in front of a dollar store just down from the grocery store, ran in to grab the missing baking powder, and back to the vehicle (after paying, of course) as quick as I could.

Now, you may perhaps think that this little country-stuck-in-the-big-city girl is exaggerating or being slightly melodramatic about the quality of our neighborhood, and if that is your thought you must be informed of two things: 1) country girls are sensible; it's the city girls who add the drama to the world. 2) I'm not exaggerating...come visit!

I reveled in a moment of relief after climbing back into the vehicle...I had survived. But the next few minutes took this little adventure to a whole new level. Upon putting the key into the ignition all I heard was that infamous little clicking noise...and nothing else. Yup, our mean, green, war machine failed me.

Okay, so this is all getting a little wordy (I have trouble with keeping it short and sweet sometimes) so I'm going to quickly sum up the rest of this incident because I have more to say later on. So, I called Mike. Then I got out of the vehicle and my keys stayed in and because it's a sketchy area I locked the door (manually) on my way out. I felt very dumb. I called Mike again and told him to find our other set of keys. I tried to make it look like I had it all together so no sketchy person would ask if I needed help. I hid out in a dollar store and tried not to look like I was just passing time. Mike showed up with a friend, boosted our vehicle, and we drove back home. Then I made the rest of the lemon loaf and ate it too (well, not quite all of it).

The next day came and I decided to give Sergeant Emerald a second chance (well, actually, this would be his third chance because we had to boost him once right after we got back from Christmas break). He worked once, then twice, and then left me stranded at another grocery store. So again I called Mike and again he bothered one of our friends to come rescue me. By this time Mike was getting tired of being a student as well as a knight in shining armour and I was getting tired of being stranded so we took a vote and decided to do something about the Sergeant. Being that we are very educated and experienced in the area of vehicles and mechanics (that's sarcasm, if you didn't catch it) we self-diagnosed his battery as being the problem and drove straightway to the battery store (aka. Costco), picked up our solution to the problem, and brought both it and Sergeant Emerald home again.

Because it was thundering, lightninging (apparently that is not a word but why does lightning not have an equivalent verb form to thunder...don't those two generally come together?), and pouring rain, we decided to hold out on installing the new battery. Well, none of it ended up letting up and I needed the vehicle in the morning to get to my shift at the pregnancy center so, in the dark and storm, we headed out to change the battery. Now, everything went relatively smooth...until the last few seconds of the job, that is. Mike is a perfectionist; that can be both good and bad. This time it was bad. The rusty bolt that is supposed to keep it all in there was just not as tight as he thought it should be and in an attempted to right that wrong the whole thing went wrong. The bolt broke. That put a damper on things...as if we weren't damp enough already from being out in the rain.

After staring at our dilemma for several minutes I came up with the brilliant idea that we should glue it back together. Mike didn't think the idea was near as brilliant as I did. I was talking super-sticky glue, of course. He looked at me like I was from another planet. (It was much too late at this point to go hunt someone down to drive us somewhere to get something to replace the bolt...and Mike had class the next morning at 7am...so we were rather limited on our options of what to do next). His brilliant idea sounded much more complicated to me: find something in our apartment with a bolt, take it out, and use it to patch up Sergeant Emerald. My thought was, oh great, tonight we are going to be sleeping on a three-legged bed. Well, it ended up that the bolts in the legs of our bed frame wouldn't fit...so we moved on to the rest of the furniture. Finally, after about 20 minutes of looking, we came to the appliances and wouldn't you know it, we found a prospect. We unscrewed it, tried to put the oven drawer back in place as best we could (I just have to be a little careful when opening it now), and tried it out on the Sergeant. Who would have thought that vehicle batteries and oven drawers had so much in common!?!? But, hey, it worked like a charm.

Moral of the story: Cravings, when indulged, may lead to problems you were neither looking nor asking for...but you might luck out and end up with a good story at the end of it all.

An Extra Dose of Fun

My family is all about surprises....One time my dad had me organize our Oregon Coast road trip just to distract me from the surprise Disneyland vacation they already had planned (I spent a lot of time researching places to stay and see when I found out it was only a decoy...but Disneyland sure was fun!). Another time, while Mike and I were dating long distance, I was sent out by my mom to take something to the garage freezer where I discovered Mike standing at the door. The surprises certainly make life interesting and add an extra dose of fun to my already very blessed life!

A couple weekends ago I had just gone back to sleep after dropping Mike off at the airport in the early hours of the morning (so he could go be with his family for his Grandmother's funeral), when my phone rang. "How would you like some company for the weekend? Mandy and Mitch have found a flight and are flying in tonight." How would I like company? Oh my, how I would like company! That morning they had randomly checked flights to Dallas, knowing I was home alone for the weekend, and had found a last-minute seat sale.

What an extra dose of fun for me! We had a wonderful weekend together, just the three of us, hanging out, shopping, eating at some Texas favourites, and exploring the city. (By the way, did you know that Fort Worth is the #1 tourist location right now in Texas? This we heard at the tourist information center.)

Sermon in Malachi: "Return to Me"

Today our Pastor, John Meador, started into a series on Malachi. I was encouraged and challenged by the "introduction sermon" he shared this morning as it brought a timely reminder to my life about the tendency to stray from true worship, the gracious love and rebuke of the Lord, what He requires in response to His Word, and the consequences of not returning to Him. 

If you have opportunity I encourage you to read through Malachi this next week (it's a short book - only 4 chapters). I have included below the sermon notes from this morning and the things which especially stood out to me as we looked at the over-all theme of this book. These are the last words spoken to Israel for 400 years. For 4 centuries, until the time of Christ, God's people didn't hear another word from Him. How important are these last words?!?!

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Background to the book of Malachi:

• Even after all the incredible things God has done for the nation there is an incredible indifference to Him on the part of the people.
• These are the last words spoken to Israel for 400 years, until John the Baptist comes on the scene. For 4 centuries, God's people didn't hear another word from Him! How important are these last words?!?!
• Malachi is God in quotes - it is Him speaking very directly to the nation of Israel.
• Malachi shows what God has to say about spiritual life, worship, relationship (Historic Israel becomes a picture for us today).

 Key Verse:

"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the Lord of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'"

----- Malachi 3:7-----

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God's Reminder Is..."I have loved you" (1:2)
     This is the foundation on which this book is written and upon which Israel's relationship with
               God exists.   
     He loves them with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3) - "everlasting" = eternal, unchanging
     Why this introduction?
               He wants them to know that the hard things He is about to say to them (His rebuke of
                       them) is encompassed by His love - this is the basis for His rebuke.
               In reality, they cannot experience this love of His fully unless they heed the hard things.

The Response Is...Indifference (1:6)
  God: "I have loved you."                                         Israel: "How have You loved us?" (1:2)
  God: "You have despised my name."                Israel: "How have we despised Your name?" (1:6)
  God: "You are presenting to me defiled food." Israel: "How have we defiled You?" (1:7)
  God: "I do not accept your offering."                    Israel: "For what reason?" (2:13-14)
  God: "You have wearied Me by your words."     Israel: "How have we wearied You?" (2:17)
  God: "You have robbed Me."                                 Israel: "How have we robbed You?" (3:8)
  God: "Your words have been arrogant."             Israel: "What have we spoken against You?" (3:13)
 
   God's rebuke is meant to humble the people and show them what to turn from in order to come
               back to Him.
   God knows when His people's heart is not really His - when they are just going through
                the motions. Israel questions whether God's judgement is true (forgot His
                omniscience and perfect ability to judge) demonstrating their indifference, but
                ultimately their pride in saying that they are more accurate evaluators than
               God, Himself.
                       "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."
    Israel: "It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge..." (3:14)
          Why do we serve God? For what gain? For what purpose?
                The example of Job - will a man still serve God for nothing?
                Serving God isn't about our gain, it's about who He is.
    Our actions and passions reveal the reality of our love for God (what's in the heart eventually
                shows).

God's Continual Call Is..."Return to Me" (3:7)
      Israel: "How shall we return?" (3:7)
      2 Cron 2:14 - REPENT
      The tragedy of not heeding: We know from both Israel's response in this book and also
             from future historical records (particularly the New Testament) that Israel did not
             heed the Lord's warning. It was the descendants of the recipients of this book who
             rejected Christ. This was the ultimate tragedy of not heeding the rebuke of the Lord.

     Warning to us: If we do not heed the Words of the Lord, if we do not heed His discipline
             and rebuke, we risk the great tragedy of also missing the most important things.

"He has told you, O man, what is good;  

And what does the LORD require of you 

But to do justice, to love kindness, 

And to walk humbly with your God?" 

----- Micah 6:8 -----

"Return to Me, and I will return to you."

-----Malachi 3:7-----

  

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We celebrated the 2 year milestone with some Cajun food at Razzoo's in downtown Fort Worth. It is a restaurant that Mike spotted during one of our first times in the downtown area and he has been wanting to try it ever since. It took us nearly a year and a special occasion to finally do it! We didn't try any gator this time; we stuck with the shrimp, catfish, and a tilapia po' boy instead.  It was all very yummy!

Both of us are grateful for each and every day that the Lord gives us together. It is a blessing to be able to share life with someone, to learn from each other, and to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 3:18) together.

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And this [we] pray, that [our] love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment , so that [we] may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

-----Philippians 1: 9-11-----

Sunday Afternoon Picnic

It was a beautiful afternoon and I am so glad we had  an excuse to get out and enjoy some of it. After church we met up with Travis and Lydia and headed to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. These gardens are one of my favourite places in all of the city! And what better way to enjoy it than with a Sunday afternoon picnic with friends?

Travis and Lydia are friends of ours that we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know especially this semester. They are a couple who passionately love the Lord and love people and this they very contagiously spread on everyone they come in contact with. Although we see them most every day (or at least every other day :)) it was fun doing something besides sitting in separate corners of our tiny apartment studying and reading. Lydia was my partner in crime for making the picnic happen!

Tim Horton's fill-the-gap-er

Every true Canadian dearly misses at least one thing whenever they leave the country: Tim Horton's. (for our family & friends who are insulted by that statement, don't worry, you're on the "we miss list" right next to good ol' Timmy's ;)).

Well, like good Canadians, the other day Mike and I were bemoaning the fact that we must endure this crazy Texas heat without any access to a refreshing and so-delicious Tim Horton's Iced Capp. But the Lord has graciously seen fit to provide for us during this time in which we are outside of the great land flowing with maple syrup and iced capps :). Thanks to Suzanne who discovered and shared the wealth with us, today we enjoyed a Frozen Cappuccino from QT (Quick Tripp). While it is not quite on par with a Timmy's Iced Capp (impossible to match - its kinda like Texas and hockey...leave the ice to the Canadians), it was pretty yummy and it will definitely fill the gap.

Mike loves when I take pictures while he's trying to study - there's some good Canadian sarcasm for you ;)

P.S. If you non-Canadian's cannot understand the depth of our attachment to this place see the following link for greater insight as to the importance and to just how far the Canadians will go to ensure their daily cup of Timmy's: Tim Horton's in Afganistan.

Letter L-ing it from Canada to Texas!

Letter L-ing it across the continent (in honour of the Lorusso name, of course ;)) 

1 province and 7 states, 4 430 km, 46 driving hours, over the span of 8 days...brought us back to our home in Fort Worth, Texas. What sweetened the deal is that we got to share it with friends. John and Jackie Rice mentioned several months earlier that they'd possibly be interested in driving down to Texas with us and we took them seriously...and made an adventure out of it.

On our honeymoon we somehow got stuck in a time-share presentation (after being warned many times prior by my dad to watch out for them :))...we were shocked and annoyed that they especially tried to influence us towards buying with the idea that we NEEDed a vacation place to regularly take our family in the years to come. Since when did our blessings and privileges become needs? I think of this often now anytime that we travel and it has caused me to be even more thankful for opportunities to go places, see things, to enjoy life and the world which God created!

Butte, MT (looked at the copper mine mansions, walked up to the headframes (required trespassing, but after we had been given 'permission' by one of the locals))

Salt Lake City, UT (explored the state building, toured the Beehive house (Brigham Young's historic home), got asked to leave the Beehive house because we wouldn't convert, walked around the Temple square, took pictures of Tim Horton's coffee cups with the statues of the Mormon founders/leaders)

Zion National Park, UT (rode the shuttle through the canyon, drove through a mile-long tunnel, hiked, hung out with the squirrels, nearly died of heat exhaustion)

Las Vegas, NV (walked the strip, explored the hotels and casinos, went outlet mall shopping, relaxed at our cheap and beautiful resort!)

Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV (probably our favourite part of the Vegas chapter - toured the resort, ate at the buffet (thanks Dad&Mom :)), watched the fountain show 2x, watched John and Jackie fight off cockroaches during the fountain show)

Hoover Dam, UT (drove across the dam, toured the power plant and visitor center museum)

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ (rode the shuttle/hiked the rim of the canyon)