I resolve to be resolute.

Every year, I make the same resolution. And every year, I break it.

That resolution? To floss more.

Yep. I'm not a good flosser. There. Now you know.

This year, I don't think I'm going to make any resolutions. Goals, yes. Plans, of course. But not any start-on-January-1-and-break-by-January-15 resolutions. I think I'll take a year off.

What about you? Do you make resolutions? Have you ever kept a resolution? What are your goals for 2009?

It looks like we have some passionate people here.

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”

- Jack Kerouac

They were the cool kids. But somehow, we tricked them into being our friends.

At least that’s how it felt at first.

Mark and I bought our house in May 2003 and that fall, we got serious about church shopping. After choosing our church based on the latest Sunday morning start time (just kidding – but seriously, how great is an 11:15 service for two non-morning people without kids?), we were quickly invited to a Sunday school class.

I remember walking into the class the first time, the couple we sat with that day and some of my early impressions of the class and the people in it. But I don’t remember meeting Zac and Mandy. I remember noticing them - they were in leadership. (You know, in charge.) But I can't recall when - or how - exactly we became friends.

The day I do remember is the one that began to seal our hearts together: the day we decided to plant a church together.

From that day forward, we transitioned seamlessly from friends to family. Well, seamlessly except for a snoring incident during our fishing trip to Canada.

Mark and I were one of six couples – three in our twenties, three in their forties and fifties – that planted a church in a nearby community. That group of people was as tight as could be for a period of time, planning and praying, meeting and ministering. That period of time did not last forever, though. And while I still have bruises and scars from that time, I’m so very thankful that through it all, we only grew closer to Zac and Mandy.

We have spent hours in prayer and worship and Bible study and ministry. And we’ve cried together and shouldered each other’s burdens, growing all the while through the pain. But we’ve also laughed our heads off and come up with pages of inside jokes and favorite quotes. We’ve gone from “young marrieds” to not-as-young parents. We’ve gone through job changes, career changes, health problems, family issues and so much more. We know each other’s personalities and tendencies, we know the many ways we are so alike and we just laugh at the few ways we are different.

When we were in the midst of the church plant’s failure, Zac and Mandy were described – not favorably – by another church member as “passionate people.”

And they are. Oh, they are. But in a way that is only glorifying to God and inspiring to those around them. They live life with gusto, whether we’re discussing the ideal thermostat temperature, the winning characteristics of Dorothy Lynch salad dressing or God’s plan for our lives. I love that about them.

Zac and Mandy moved to another state this fall, and I miss them so much. But we got to spend Sunday evening with our friends, and I'm thankful for that time. I'm thankful for their friendship. And yes, for their passion. I love these passionate people.

What are you passionate about?

I hate speed bumps. (Okay, not really.)

Does your family like to tell the same handful of stories over and over and over again until everyone can recite them beginning to end? Mine sure does. And so does Mark’s.

One story that always makes me laugh is about the day Mark was born. See, he was born just 16 months after his brother – he’s what we call a “surprise” baby. (Not an “oops,” not a “mistake” – a pleasant surprise! Well, that’s what I call him. I don’t think I want to know what his mother called him, especially when she had two babies in diapers or, years later, two teenagers in trouble!)

Despite the relatively short span of time between my brother-in-law’s birth and my husband’s, it seems that the hospital had gone through some changes during that time. The most notable change: a speed bump in the parking lot.

A speed bump that my father-in-law found going top speed, rushing his in-labor-almost-gonna-have-this-baby-NOW wife to the emergency room.

A speed bump that we still hear about, at least once a year.

Unless you count sports plays, my in-laws don’t really analyze anything. Lucky for them, I do. And I think that speed bump represents more than just a pile of concrete in the parking lot of St. Luke’s. I think it represents the funny little way God has of slowing us down and making us pay attention.

When we were dating, I noticed that every time Mark would drive over a speed bump in a parking lot, he’d grumble, “I hate speed bumps.” Ev-er-y time. Since then it’s been a little joke between us that when we drive over speed bumps one of us has to say it. Not because we really care so much about the jarring effects those mini-hills have on our car (okay, so Mark cares), but because it’s one of our “things.”

I know it’s not funny to anyone else. But it makes us chuckle.

Thinking about that, I wonder about how many inside jokes and deeper understandings and rich experiences we’ve gained because of life’s speed bumps. And I think about how much we would have missed without those reminders to slow down and pay attention.

Maybe speed bumps aren’t so bad after all.

One thing I know for sure – I am eternally grateful that God chose to give my in-laws a speed bump 32 years ago in the form of a third son. He is the love of my life, my best friend, my favorite person, a good man, and the best daddy Photobaby could ask for.

Happy birthday, Mark. I love you.

Theater movies are expensive. Rental movies are cheap.

When you compare $18 (for two) to $1, it’s a pretty easy choice. And that’s why, when I sat down to make my list of “favorite movies of 2008,” I ended up with a list of “favorite movies of 2007 and 2008.”

And then I realized, as I searched my blog for my recent movies reviews, that if you wanted to hear about the movies I watched this last year, you could do the same thing.

So I’ll keep it brief. The best movies I saw in 2008 were Definitely, Maybe, 21, Juno, Mamma Mia, Dan in Real Life, Waitress and Hairspray. And I won’t lie. I also quite enjoyed Made of Honor, 27 Dresses, Fool’s Gold, Enchanted, Ratatouille and What Happens in Vegas.

Now, on to a more interesting list (I hope): the movies of 2008 that I haven’t seen, but want to. And again, this is more a list of movies from the past couple of years, since I typically wait until they’re out on video. In no particular order, I’d like to see…

• Rachel Getting Married
• Burn After Reading
• Wall-E
• The Dark Knight
• Iron Man
• Hancock
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
• This Christmas
• Nothing Like the Holidays
• Michael Clayton
• Eagle Eye (we’re renting this over the weekend)

What were your favorite movies of the last year? What movies would you still like to see?

Disturbing discovery.

Did you know that if you type in your address at Google Maps, it will show a picture of your house?!? That's insane! And frightening! And, well, I don't know what else, but I don't like it.

Does that freak anyone else out?

Movie Review: Gal pals, a goat house and Greece

As a birthday gift to me, Mark generously said he would watch any girly movie I wanted. So we rented Mamma Mia.

Just in case you don’t know the premise, this musical about a girl trying to find her father before her wedding is based on songs by ABBA and until recently was a stage production. Both Amber and Smitty have seen it on stage and enjoyed it, so I had high hopes for the movie version. Plus, it stars Meryl Streep, and she’s pretty much fantastic in everything.

I was not disappointed. Mamma Mia was great! I told Mark it was like a Disney cartoon for grown-ups – it was pretty and magical and fun.

My favorite part was the friendships portrayed by the two generations of women in the movie. Meryl Streep’s character, a single mother, is reunited with her two best friends from younger days, and Amanda Seyfried’s character, a young woman about to marry, has her two best friends by her side as bridesmaids. The two trios love each other with abandon and sincerity, supporting the main characters when they face difficult decisions and their repercussions – and also just plain having silly, girly fun!

I love that...I want that...I need that.

My least favorite part of the movie was poor Pierce Brosnan’s singing. He was wretched, and all I’ve heard is the final product. I can’t imagine how he sounded before coaching and rehearsal and any digital enhancing!

Another part of the movie I liked was the Greek chorus. During several songs, random people around the main characters would join in the singing or step in as backup vocals. A couple times, the main characters looked at them strangely, as if to say, “What the…? Oh, it’s the Greek chorus. Okay.”

All in all, this movie was a lot of fun. I agree with my mom, who said it’s a “feel-good movie,” and I say rent this one today. Just don’t turn it off after the final scene – the credits are just an extension of the movie with more singing, dancing and fun!

What are your favorite movies about friendship?

A Day in the Life and a Holiday Greeting

[This is the Christmas letter I sent this year. I wanted to avoid the usual listing of events, bragging and boredom. But I wasn't clever enough to come up with something real funny or rhyming. Still, I don't think it's too bad...]

As I walked in the door, Mark said, “Okay, here’s the deal.”

I scanned the room, searching for Annalyn. When I didn’t see her, my mind started racing. Where is she? What’s happened? Did she finally succeed in grabbing a handful of Maggie’s fur? Or sinking her little teeth into a lamp cord?

Not noticing my panic, Mark kept talking. “I was in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, and Annalyn was playing in the living room. I stepped into the garage to throw something away, and when I turned around, well, she must have made a beeline for the kitchen...”

[At this point, we should take note of two things. First, Mark was loading the dishwasher – yay! Second, Annalyn is one fast crawler – um, yay?]

Mark went on to tell me that in just those few seconds, Annalyn had made her way to the cats’ food and water, dumped the water and the food, and was proceeding to put pieces of cat food into the water bowl.

[Side note #2: Annalyn has recently learned to put items into containers, as opposed to her previous skill of only removing items. So not only is she able to dump an entire basket of toys on her head, she can then put one of them back in the basket.]

Of course, my immediate reaction to Mark’s story was to ask the question any concerned mother would have: “You took a picture, right? Tell me you took a picture!”

Umm, no. It turns out that Mark was more concerned with picking cat hair out of Annalyn’s hair [Side note #3: The girl’s hair is finally growing!] and giving her an unscheduled but much-needed bath.

And that right there sums up our life these days: Annalyn exploring the world and wasting no time in her quest to cause chaos, while Mark and I try to take care of her while capturing every moment. So our prayer for you this holiday season is that you will care for each other and capture the sweet moments…even through the chaos and cat food in your hair.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Mark, Mary & Annalyn

Open the gift!

I want an iPod for Christmas. And a colorful scarf and some black boots and a Cricut and a zoom lens for my camera and a professional housecleaner. And some diamond earrings.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be finding any of those things in my stocking, but that’s okay. On Sunday, our church had our annual Christmas program, and I was reminded of a few more valuable gifts I’ve been given.

Every year, our pastor shares the same message during the church's Christmas program. He describes several extravagant gifts he's seen in catalogs and online, and then he talks about the greatest gift of all, the one that so many leave unopened year after year.

Though my brain can hardly comprehend it, my heart is awed and thankful that the God who created our world came as a baby to save us from ourselves. I opened that gift almost 20 years ago, and no bracelet or CD or pony could ever eclipse the wonder and beauty of that present from God.

God has given us many other gifts, too, including the two my pastor focused on this year: peace and forgiveness.

Peace is hard to come by during this holiday season. Between parties and cookies and presents and bills and shopping and cooking and decorating and cleaning, well, it’s difficult to find a moment to remember why we’re doing any of it in the first place. It’s not easy to take a deep breath and meditate on God’s love and the peace that passes all understanding. It’s easier to go, go, go until we reach the point of breakdown, exhaustion and “I can’t wait for the holidays to be over.”

I pray that we find peace in the midst of our Christmas chaos.

Forgiveness is even harder for me. Accepting forgiveness of my sins in general was easy when I asked Jesus to live in my heart two decades ago. As a child, my biggest sins were picking on my little brother and lying to my parents about practicing piano. But these days, my sins seem so much larger, so much more serious, so unforgivable.

Oh sure, I know God has forgiven me. But for so many mistakes, I have not forgiven myself.

And on top of that, much as I hate to admit it (since it’s yet another sin I need to confess and accept forgiveness for), I hold anger and bitterness toward other people in my heart. People I need to forgive. People who don’t deserve my forgiveness…any more than I deserve God’s forgiveness.

I pray that we can forgive and be forgiven during this season of love.

We’ve all been given the gifts of salvation, peace and forgiveness. So what are we waiting for? Let’s open those gifts already!

One year I got real ambitious.

Two years ago, I decided to be a crafty girl. I wrapped all our gifts in brown craft paper, tied them with red ribbon (okay, and some yarn) and added a homemade gingerbread man as a tag. And when I say "homemade gingerbread man," I mean a wooden painted thing to which I added puff paint and hot glue. You can see my handiwork above.

Please note that those lovely gifts are piled on our deep freeze in the garage. Because my cats, loves of my life after my husband, daughter and every other person I've ever met, like to eat paper. Especially when it's wrapped around a gift.

I can't even remember what I did last year. My brain was still on maternity leave at that point.

I considered doing the craft paper again this year, with green ribbon/yarn and Christmas tree tags. But even though I still have a jumbo-sized roll of the paper, it sounded a little too ambitious for this year. So I bought coordinating paper and tacky bows...and have yet to complete the wrapping. About 2/3 of my gifts are piled, wrapped, on my freezer (where else would I store the Christmas gifts?). The rest are sitting in various places in the garage, mocking me and wondering when I'm going to realize Christmas is just TWO DAYS AWAY. (Oh wait, no, it's tomorrow. Hmph.)

Maybe by the time you read this post, I'll have gotten my act together and wrapped those last few gifts. Maybe. If that miracle happens, I'll include a picture of those bright and festive boxes stacked on my freezer.

Because what says "Merry Christmas" like a pile of freezer presents?

What's your wrapping ritual? Do you do matching paper? Do you prefer bags and tissue? (Oh yeah, I think that's what I did last year - all bags, all the time.) Are you all wrapped and ready for the big day??

I thought it would be different.

My child has never met a stranger. I don't know if it's her God-given personality or some residual effect of being cared for by a revolving panel of nurses in the NICU. Either way, she's a people person (like her mother). Even in the last few weeks as she's started to be a little clingy to Mark and me, Annalyn is still as friendly as can be to every person she encounters. Cashiers, church nursery workers, Salvation Army bell ringers - really, everyone. They all love her, and she loves them. Granted, she's constantly telling these people, her friends, "Bye-bye!" But that's just because it's the only real word she knows.

So I was convinced that her first visit with Santa would go well. Annalyn would be that rare child who would not be scared of ol' St. Nick. She'd smile up at him and say, "Woof! Bye-bye! Bah, bah, gubah!" And he'd laugh his jolly laugh and say, "Merry Christmas, sweet girl! Of course I'll bring you a giant cat that won't mind getting its tail pulled!"

The reality? Not so much. I honestly didn't even see Annalyn look at Santa. But considering how awkward he was with her on his lap (seriously, Santa?), I'm not surprised she was not at ease. And quickly started crying her head off.

The grainy pic above is the free one they were giving out. I wish they would have captured the moment about 11 seconds later when she actually started crying. Not because I enjoy seeing her cry! (What kind of parent do you think I am?! The kind that can't help but grin when her sweet darling baby girl sticks her lip out and cries when she doesn't get her way? That kind? Oh...wait...) No, I wish I had that picture because it really defines this experience.

Poor child. I thought I'd be a bad mom if I didn't give her this classic childhood experience. Turns out she would have been happier if we'd have stayed at home and watched The Grinch.