Vital Signs - Part Two

The sermon from the past Sunday was phenomenal! I am feeling so blessed that God has sent such a wonderful message through Pastor Chris to pass on to us. It's so amazing to receive messages like this exactly when you need it. The passage below is how I want to live my life and treat my loved ones. Read it and I think you'll agree! It's something worth striving for.

Romans 12:9-20

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

1 John 4: 20-21

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Man - nuff said. I can't wait for next week's sermon! I hope you all have a blessed week!

Friday Randomness

Enjoy this Friday Flashback while you read!

* STAY TUNED FOR NEXT WEEK'S EDITION OF FLASHBACK FRIDAY *

Four words - pants on the ground. If you were like the other thousands of people that caught the first round of American Idol auditions, you also fell in love with 63-year-old General Larry Platt of the song "Pants on the Ground". He had me cracking up and I just had to hear this song over and over again. It's so catchy! It's so hard to believe that since Wednesday there have been several remixes created of his song. Who'd thunk it?! Click here for all the remixes and below is his orignal audition.

Check Your Pulse

We started a new study at church yesterday that will go through the next four weeks and I am pumped about it. It's called Vital Signs and it focuses on "killing off" the old self and bringing up the new. Man - is it perfect timing for that or what? With a new year a lot of people, including myself, want to focus on being a better person and serving God the best way we know how.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore if anyone is in Chris, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come"

Pastor Chris gave us a check-up list (no pun intended - ya know, like a doctor) on five reasons you may have a bad pulse rate spiritually.

1. Being inauthentic - trying to appear spiritual
2. Being full of pride or judgemental
3. Being unapproachable
4. Lacking passion or a hunger for God
5. Measuring spiritual growth in superficial way
   
   Chris is going to dive more into this in the coming weeks and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me. As I went through the checklist evaluating myself, I already see I'm practically dead! I am certainly guilty of most of these as much as I don't want to admit that I am. I think we all as humans are guilty of some of these, or all of these. I can admit if I'm wrong and I strive to make things right, but sometimes we just fall short. The next few weeks I'm looking forward to this being the stepping stone into a closer relationship with God. It's a journey and a fun journey at that. I've learned so much about myself since we've been attending NRCH and I look forward to learning more.

Goodbye 2009 ... Hello 2010

Has a year gone by already ... really? As I sit here at work, by myself, in the silence, for a half day thank goodness, I'm thinking about what last year held for us. As I think back, I come up with all these thoughts and I feel so blessed:

During these tough times of a recession we are blessed to still have a job.

Despite an occasionally ear infection or stomach bug, we are all alive and healthy.

God has led us to a new church. We finally feel like we are home.

We have amazing family and friends who love us for exactly who we are - good, bad and ugly.

I'm not going to make any New Year's resolutions that I know I can't keep. The older I get the more I realize there is no purpose for these resolutions when you know they don't last long. No Amanda, you will never have a body like Heidi Klum so stop dreaming. Instead, we are making personal goals for bettering ourselves - both inside and out.

I'll strive to trust in God for what is best for myself and my family. I'll keep thinking positive thoughts and know that God has a plan for myself and my family.

As the clock ticks towards midnight tonight, I'll be snuggled up to my sweetie pie (probably already sleeping soundly) with a glass of champagne in hand and I'll be thanking God for all the wonderful and amazing things He has done for us this year. Here's to a wonderful 2010 with even better memories than 2009 held! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy 1st Anniversary Liv and Tim!

A year ago today, Mr. and Mrs. Christensen became one! I am so happy for Liv and Tim and wish them many more years of happiness! We love you.

Say Cheese!

We headed out to the Anne Springs Close Greenway a few weekends ago with Jamie from Oasis Photography for Ethan's 2 year old pictures. She has completed them and they are gorgeous! She is so talented so if anyone is looking for candid style photos, she's your gal! Here are some of our favorites, and I have a lot of them:

I Heart NYC

If anyone wants to experience all the magic of Christmas (and doesn't mind the bitter cold), NYC is THE place to be. The city once again lived up to my every expectation! The cheesy T-shirts are so very true - how can anyone not heart this city? Let me count the ways I love thee ...

BOTH COOL AND INSPIRATIONAL CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS SHOPPING, ESPECIALLY FAO SCHWARZ -
IT'S EVEN AN GROWN UPS' PARADISE

CHILLLLYY WEATHER - AND YES, I KNOW

CARRIE AND I HAVE THE EXACT SAME JACKET.

MAGNOLIA BAKERY

TIMES SQUARE - ONE MY MOST FAVORITE PLACES IN THE WORLD! EATING MY BIRTHDAY CUPCAKE AMIDST
THE SPARKLY LIGHTS OF TIMES SQUARE MY BEST BUDDY, CARRIE CENTRAL PARKCARRIAGE RIDES THROUGH CENTRAL PARKROCKEFELLER CENTER AT CHRISTMAS - JUST ENCHANTING SNOW IN THE BIG CITY! OK, SO IT WAS
FOR A BRIEF MOMENT, BUT IT WAS SNOWING!TINY ROOMS WITH NO AC - IT'S QUITE A FUNNY STORY MACY'S MARVELOUS ARCHITECTUREFABULOUS FOODFABULOUS FRIENDSTHE MET - I FINALLY GOT THERE!

Of course, the main purpose of this trip was for my 30th birthday, but it was also a trip to take with my best buddy, Carrie, and our hubbies. (We just decided to take them along for the ride to be our bodyguards, but don't tell shhh) It's a shame that as long as Care and I have been friends, we have NEVER taken a trip together! Aside from one camping trip and one trip to the mountains, this was our first trip together. I am so glad we were able to have this experience together and we had the best time! We unfortunately didn't get to ice skate like we planned due to the long line and weather, but I told Chris we'll just have to go back next year! Happy Birthday to me! :)

Before I forget, I just have to tell the story about our room and no AC. When we arrived Thursday night in the room, we entered a sauna. We were literally ripping our clothes off as we're entering the door. There were two windows that we opened immediately but that did not help much. Once we determined that the room did not have a thermostat, Adam got on the horn to the front desk. He asked if they had AC and the guy said that there is usually one in the window, but they take it out in the winter. Adam laughed because he thought he was kidding, but the guy didn't laugh back. We were like - WHAT! We are Southerners and therefore do not take out our AC ever. It was so funny. The running joke of the weekend was that "They take it out for the winter", like the trashcan that didn't come with the room. They take it out for the winter.

Gobble Gobble

In the spirit of my most favorite holiday, I've been thinking of all the numerous things I am thankful for in life!

• Our wonderful Saviour from which nothing in life is possible or good
• My funny, warm and endearing husband. He makes life intriguing, fun and exciting every day
• My amazing son whom I am so lucky to be his mother. I am so blessed to be able to watch him grow and prosper every single day.
  
• My wonderful family on both sides
• My friends, especially those who love me exactly for who I am, nerdy and all
• My crazy and hair-brained puppy - she makes life sweet
  
• My health - I take it for granted quite often and I'm so glad that I am healthy
• All the yummy food at Thanksgiving. I could eat it over and over again - wait I already am!
  
• All the cool things in life - Starbucks coffee, Glee, Twilight Saga ... the list could go on and on
  

Memories of Granny

My mom has put together a few blogs on her site in memory of my late Granny that passed away on Sunday. It's so wonderful to go back and remember all the good times growing up. I will always remember the good times. Check out how much I look like my mom when she was young. It's crazy!

http://theramborgerduo.blogspot.com/2009/10/our-fond-memories-of-grace-fae.html

http://theramborgerduo.blogspot.com/2009/10/our-fond-memories-of-grace-fae_27.html

http://theramborgerduo.blogspot.com/2009/10/our-fond-memories-of-grace-fae_28.html

Day Six: Wilmington Family Vacation

This s a day late and to be honest, I am beat. It is now Saturday and we are finally home and settled in. It's 8:15 PM and I should be parking my butt upstairs and watching TV, but I decided to write a short blog. We took zero pictures yesterday so I'll just blog...

Our last day I was quite sad knowing it was our last chance to do something fun and relaxing before heading back to the real world. We got up and decided to make a trip to this tiny seaside down called Southport. You have to take a 30 minute ferry over and there is a schedule in which you can see which times to catch one. We were trying for the 10 AM ferry and got there literally two cars too late. I was so bummed out and I pouted quite a bit. The next one was at 11:30 but I knew E nor myself would NOT sit there in the car for an hour and a half. We decided to drive back towards town to let E play in the park while mom and I walked across the street for coffee. We then headed back and got in line extra early to make the ferry. E was excited and he kept saying "Boat" and "wawa" (ya know, for water). I think he enjoyed the trip over although he would have loved getting down and running around, but that wasn't happenin'.

Southport was an adorable town - it looked like something right out of Mayberry. We had pizza at a little pizza joint then walked around for a while. There were antique shops all over and an adorable toy store called Bullfrog Corner. We let Ethan play around in it a bit until he started pulling all the toys and books off the shelves and we decided to leave. After about an hour of walking around, Ethan passed out on Chris' shoulder. Too bad because he missed our trip to the ice cream parlor! Ha!

Once we got back to the house, Chris, E and I crabbed for a bit then had dinner and called it a day. It was such a wonderful trip and I am so glad all of the family, minus my dad who is at home healing from knee surgery, could come down. We had a great time with all of them and made memories we will never forget. I just now wish I could look out my window and see the shimmering ocean and hear all the boats passing by. ahhhh I can picture it now...

Day Five: Wilmington Family Vacation

Today was a lazy day. We hung around the house in the morning until Pop and Nana left just before lunch. The afternoon turned out to be overcast so we headed down to the Fort Fisher State Park take Abbey for her first experience on the beach. The beach was absolutely pristine and quiet. There were only three or four people on the beach so it's almost like we had it to ourselves. Ethan loved chasing the seagulls while Abbey loved running in and out of the surf. We brought leftover waffles to feed the birds but Ethan kept munching on them, so you'll see him doing that in several pictures. Oh boy - I better start saving now for the groceries I'll be purchasing when he becomes a teenager.

After the beach, we stopped at a little park and fed the ducks (with the little bread we had left from Ethan munching).