Thousand Foot Krutch

Thousand Foot Krutch
I love this band. I listen to them daily. Even though we are looking at another camera, we all look like we're alert for it being a fan signing and it's 11:30 p.m. on a Friday.

30 April 2010

Alcohol and mosquitos?

Found this on facebook...next time I get a mosquito I am going to use this idea!

"Several years ago while attending one of our son's baseball games, I {some random lady I found this on one of my friend's facebook pages} smacked a mosquito that exploded blood all over my arm, realized I was surrounded by strangers with who knows what diseases, and decided to run home and clean it up. I doused it with alcohol, and to my amazement, within 15-20 minutes the large bite was dried up and GONE. First, though, it itched worse than ever, before drying up. Now I do this with every mosquito bite and it always works for me (but not for others for some reason)."

So now you know...alcohol works for more than just checking out of the world! (and she means rubbing alcohol by the way).

Babies, babies, babies!

The adorable precious little angels God gives are everywhere, it seems. I am not pregnant myself; I am still a happy virgin and proud of it. I will be waiting until my wedding night, thank you very much.

I do however know many, many pregnant people. It's strange how excited women get - despite the sickness, they never seem to blame their baby, never once. That's because as women we have a special relationship with children - we carry them inside of us for months, and they live on 3% of what we intake during that time, according to my friend's baby book. They need their mother; without the mother they would die.

It's an amazing gift God has given to us women in spite of the problems we possess. It shows that He does NOT blame us for eating the fruit. It is not, I want to add, women's faults. ADAM, the man who was in charge of the woman, was ALSO there. He was standing right there listening to the snake and did not stop his wife from listening at all. And that is why, really, he got the worst end of the deal.

Anyway, we are blessed. Sure, it's annoying, it's hard, it's tiring, and once the baby comes it's a lifelong commitment (trust me, few kids leave at 18 and never return - my family is the prime example of that).

But still. Holding the baby, feeling its warm body sitting on your lap, holding it while its sleeping, have it smiling at you, kissing you, hugging you, wanting to be near you...it's euphoric and addicting. I can see why mothers become incredibly attached to their children - they were once inside of your body, and now are outside of it, but still want to be part of it. As they grow older they don't want it, but still. At one time they were completely in love with you, and they still are.

So it's that time of the year...babies! I wish I was married so I could have a baby! I'm enjoying my free time, and of course I want a whole flock of children, 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or a dozen or two dozen. Eventually they just walk right out! lol. I want a lot of arrows in my quiver for the Lord, and I want to bring about new life. I am also fine adopting children, and will probably foster or adopt many, many children. Maybe I can't run an orphanage, but I can adopt one.

27 April 2010

‘The Back-Up Plan’ becomes a first-rate plan

Movie Review
Rachel Weatherford

This was supposed to be in the Arrow, but it was so good they were jealous of it and decided not to publish it. Go figure! I'm joining the starving artist brigade.

In a comical twist of fate, Jennifer Lopez’s character, Zoe, the owner of a pet store, decides to be artificially inseminated after years of dating and getting no commitment. After her first and only appointment, she hails a cab and meets the guy of her dreams, a cheese farmer named Stan, played by Alex O’Loughlin. Even though it’s clear they are both attracted to each other, it takes awhile for them to enter a relationship. After they become a couple they learn that Zoe is pregnant from the in-vitro fertilization, a rarity, and getting pregnant with twins on the first time is unheard of, except, of course, in Zoe’s case.

During her time alone, Zoe gets involved in a single mother’s group, who add to the movie. One woman still breastfeeds her three-year-old, and another is a tough, in-your-face woman who is the core of one particularly wide-eyed scene later in the movie. The leader of the group is a former hippie whose funniest line is, “Some of us don’t have penis partners.”

Zoe and Stan begin to formally date shortly after Zoe joins the group. They go to the birth of one of the single mothers, who insists that Zoe is her focal point, forcing her to stand there and watch her give birth, which gives the perfectionistic Zoe a comic shake-up. The other woman’s birth scene was portrayed so well that, even though it should have been a weird moment, it was really light-hearted and easy to handle instead of awkward.

Another hilarious scene is when Zoe is at the doctor’s office. The doctor says, “There’s two heartbeats.” She replies, “The baby has two hearts?!” Then the doctor says, “No, you’re carrying twins!” And that is when Stan faints.

The couple are not without trouble. Zoe believes Stan doesn’t want her children, but later realizes she read his reactions too deeply, providing a touching commentary on the consequences of jumping to conclusions and miscommunication.
Abortion nor adoption were discussed after Zoe found Stan. Zoe’s attitude was that if Stan wouldn’t accept her children, he wouldn’t have her, and since Stan was crazy about Zoe, he accepted her children. Throughout the movie he is nervous, and another father he meets on the playground gives him some not-so-helpful and frightening advice. Of course, they get engaged after the twin girls are born. At the end of the movie, Zoe throws up and the viewers are led to believe that Zoe is pregnant again, only this time with Stan’s child instead of a stranger’s.

We get some slapstick comedy, like falling, spilling, and water-spraying. The greatest supporting actress was the dog, who alternated between begging for food and growling at Stan. The dog did not have any back legs; its back legs were a cart it used to run around with. The movie was hilarious and excellent, and it felt original instead of just being a worn-out romantic comedy movie.

25 April 2010

'Hounddog' is Dakota Fanning's saddest, most disturbing movie

Here's the trailer for the movie "Hounddog" starring Dakota Fanning, Robert Wright Penn, David Morse, Piper Laurie and a few others.



It's actually a decent, touching movie. It starts out slow but gradually improves itself, especially after Dakota Fanning, who plays Lewellen, a nine-year-old Southern girl obsessed with Elvis Presley music, gets raped and tries to deal with the results. Her father, portrayed by David Morse, gets struck nearly dumb by a bolt of lightening on their farm.

The interesting dilemma is the issue of Lewellen's father. Lewellen's aunt claims that Lewellen's grandmother (Lewellen's mother's mother) is in love with Lewellen's father, implying some hinky-pink on the part of the grandmother. The aunt says that the grandmother is keeping the aunt and the father apart so she could have her. It turns out that both Lewellen's mother and aunt desire Lewellen's father, and the aunt wants to take care of Lewellen because she belongs to Lewellen.

It seems that this neglected tween has more people who love her than they actually show her, revealing that, for whatever reason people do things, love (even if it is a twisted, ugly form) is at the root of it - or so this movie indicates. Lewellen's grandmother is cold-hearted and emotionless; her grandmother is obsessed with sin and believing that her granddaughter is a sinner, forcing the girl to pay for her parents' sins by being overly authoritarian. The grandmother is also the reason why Lewellen's parents got married and why Lewellen has never known her mother's sister, her aunt who later comes so they can move in together and Lewellen's aunt can raise her.

Lewellen's father is self-obsessed and indulgent of his child, though there is some implication that Lewellen's father beats her after we see a mark and Lewellen says she will kill her father someday (which she does when she allows a rattlesnake to bite him and not warning him - she merely calls out that she loves him). Since there is only one bed in the two-room house Lewellen and her father live in, the viewers assume that the girl and her father share the bed. This is enforced by a scene when the girl brings a blanket and wraps her father in it and sleeps at his feet under the same blanket. Since she's only nine, there's no reason to believe the father's hurting her sexually, although based on her promiscious tendacies I sort of decided he probably did. Why else does a nine-year-old motherless girl want to see a boy's penis?

Lewellen was a disturbing girl, before and after the teenage boy raped her. Although I don't believe she should have been raped, she certainly didn't help anything when she took off her clothes in front of him and started dancing like Elvis Presley. I understand she is nine and is in love with Elvis and I understand why, but still. She shouldn't have done that.

Her friend Buddy is the classic example of peer pressure surrender. He allows her to get raped so he looks cool in front of her rapist. Lewellen isn't a great friend to him, but that's low. It's clear he just wants to be accepted by these older boys, and will do anything for it. The movie tells us that seeking to be with 'cool' bad kids just leads to a world of hurt and trouble. Just stay away from them.

What should we get from the movie? Pick real friends, don't be too obsessed, and ultimately we decide on what we do in life. We have choices and we make them. Just make the right ones.

The movie deals with grief, promiscuity, betrayal, friendship, family, secrets, lies, sex, race, drinking, parents, children, music, influences, peers, boys, girls, and, of course, rape and the consequences thereof. It is a deeply moving, slightly frightening tale that, in reality, could be someday's story - and maybe it really was.


Rachel

20 April 2010

God fully loves us and accepts us, and we are pleasing to Him

Recently I've endured quite a scene, but I believe it's something everyone goes through at some point. To encourage people with how I've dealt with it, I wanted to include it in my blog.

Criticism.

Mistakes.

Blame.

It takes two to tango and blame is mutual. One person usually is not completely at fault, though they may be more responsible than others. We live in a society, not an individualistic environment.

I don't want to go deeply into details in an effort to avoid gossip, but last week became extremely stressful for everyone involved and, when stress runs around, there is usually problems. And the lower man on the totem pole gets the brunt. Which I'm fine with. NOW. I want to be stronger. My reputation is in God's hand - there is nothing I can do to save it.

Although I feel incredible peace after a sweet time with God, I still feel pain somewhat. I was completely blindsided by the confrontation; I am not a person who pays particular sense to anything. Drama does not mean anything to me. I avoid it at all possible costs; I am non-confrontational. However, I am completely tempted to leave the environment and leave them with more problems. I am struggling between being glad they confronted me and annoyance that they felt able to correct me while displaying hypocritical characteristics.

I dislike hypocrites. Be innocent as a dove and shrewd as a serpent.

I also understand that I am in a spiritual. I just want to encourage everyone that if someone addresses something, you are either in the wrong or involved in a spiritual battle. I've been at the forefront of a spiritual battle, but I also brought it upon myself and furthered it because I would not back down. I don't even know what's right or wrong.

Now, I'm sure this is very confusing, but I just want to put something out there. God fully and 100% loves us, accepts us, justifies us, redeems us. We are pleasing to Him. We are His children. The other people who hurt, confuse, and blindside us are also His children and deserve the same thing. Who knows? Maybe because you shine like a Christian someone will be saved.

Lots of Love,

Rachel