mw2

On Saturday, I had the fun times of hanging out with a few different gals from the youth group, and one of the things we did was play video games. We started with Left 4 Dead 2 then progressed to death matches on Modern Warfare 2.

It ended up being one girl against three because we kept trading off one of the controllers and she beat us all. This was my first time playing MW2, and I thought out was such fun that I asked Eric to play with me, thinking that I could hold my own while conveniently forgetting that he probably has days of practice on me.

After the first couple of rounds, I was getting really frustrated, so we went to the smallest map, turned the radar on, and Eric resorted to simply knifing instead of using any of his firearms. I still lost, but only by about six kills. ;) Yeah...he's got gaming skills!

intro to Rainier Valley

Last night, Eric and I went out to dinner with a friends of mine from high school. His sister, who lives in the area, is going to China soon, so he came back from Michigan to spend time with her before she takes off this summer.

This could only mean two things: 1) hanging out, 2) Ethiopian food. My friend and his sister are friends with some Ethiopians who run a restaurant, so we decided to meet there. Lo and behold, said restaurant is only a mile or so south of us on Rainier Avenue.

So we met up and got to meet the owners of the restaurant and some other friends of my friend's who met us for dinner, and it was all well and good. Delicious food!!

At the end of dinner, cop cars and aid cars began screaming down Rainier Avenue. None of us knew what was going on, but later, we found out that there had been a shooting down the street--the second time in a week at that location--and that the SPD gang unit was called in. Welcome to the neighborhood?

In all honesty, this news broke my heart. We live in such a mission field with needs all around us, and there is so much brokenness just down the street. Trying to figure out where to start or what to do to meet these needs is overwhelming. Please pray with us to know how best to approach our community.

the dude date

Eric and I hadn't been on a date in awhile, so we decided at the end of work on Friday to reschedule my chiropractic appointment and have a night to ourselves instead. We ended up going to Southcenter for dinner and a movie, and halfway through eating, I realized that we were on a "dude" date.

See, we grabbed food at Johnny Rocket in the mall, then we went to see The Avengers, which, I have to say, is an amazing movie. LOVE Joss Whedon. :) Anyway, burgers and an action flick definitely make for a good time for guys, and although I highly enjoyed our evening, I told Eric that the next time we go on a date, we're totally getting pedicures.

HA! Just kidding, the idea of a stranger touching my feet squicks me out. Even though I probably could use a professional pedicure, I ain't gettin' one if I can help it!


Anyway, if you haven't see this movie yet, I highly recommend it as it is absolutely delightful. The action sequences were stellar, there were great one liners, and most of the acting was pretty dang spectacular.

On a side note, this film doesn't pass the Bechdel test because even though there are multiple women in the film--with names!--who talk about things other than men, none of them--as far as I can remember--talked to each other, and that is a shame. They are strong characters, except for the form fitting jumpsuits and wedge heels they all seem to wear, and I would have liked to see them in the same conversations. Still, I appreciate that they aren't always needing rescuing.

On another side note, after we got to the mall, I realized that I hadn't brought chapstick, so we spent 20 minutes roaming the mall to try to find a place for me to buy some--I'm kind of ocd about chapstick--and all we found were tubes of lip balm for $8. Srsly? Lip balm?

On an even different side note, I also noticed once I sat down for dinner that the jeans I was wearing had a tear under the right butt pocket that I had forgotten about prior to dressing for the date. I was VERY glad that I had brought along an extra large sweatshirt so I was able to wear that and hide the hole easily. Phew!

If you've seen The Avengers, what do you think about it? Like me, did you fall in love with the Hulk? He easily became my favorite character, and I didn't know it was possible to love a villain as much as I enjoyed watching Loki be, well, Loki.

Commencement for Mom (Shaw)!

Shtuff

Life has been crazy busy for us and those around us lately. Last week, Eric and I both shared our testimonies at TYM, and the youth attending were very receptive to what we had to say as well as being grateful that we showed them our trust in sharing some painful experiences from our pasts. God is good, and I praise him for using what the devil meant for evil to bring glory back to God. He is awesome.

Friday night, we hosted a board game night at the church for the youth, and the first wrench in our plans was the wedding that was going to happen the next day which they were already setting up for that night. We had to make some adjustments to our plans and hosted downstairs, and it was incredible how many kids showed up. I think we had around 20-25 teens show up, which is a lot for our little church, and it was a great night! We also had a couple of younger neighbor kids come in, and even though they were a lot younger than the target audience, we were hard pissed to kick them out.

Several of the teens that came don't attend church and/or believe I'm other faiths, so it was great to see them join our community even for a little while.

There have been two recent births, one from church, one from work, and both deliveries went well and babies and mothers are healthy.

My folks are sharing at TYM tomorrow about missions, and one of our girls who recently returned from a trip to Guatemala will also share about her experience. Our co-youth pastors are currently in Africa on a missions trip, so we continue to keep them in our prayers. They started in Uganda and are now in the second half of their trip in Ethiopia.

This Saturday, my mom is graduating with her MA in Missional Leadership, so that entire day is going to be pretty crazy busy, but my grandma is coming up, so that is very exciting! She had brain surgery last fall, and her recovery was slow and discouraging, so this is great news that she can still travel and is well enough now to be able to do so!

As you can see, lots going on!