Win a Nursing Cover

If you are a mom looking to win a beautiful nursing cover, check out the contest at Blend it Baby.

Just wondering...

if anyone still reads this blog. Facebook is clearly an easier tool for internet social networking than blogs are. Therefore, I would rather write a quick note on someone's wall than write a long post on the blog. But maybe I will...

The Ceremony

The first part of our wedding was a time of worship. We sang "Come, Thou Fount," "In Christ Alone" and "There is a Redeemer."



Jeff greeted the guests after the first song.


Here's Jeff saying his vows to me (actually, we both read them because we didn't trust our memories).




We recorded ourselves singing "Treasure of Jesus" by Steven Curtis Chapman which played while we lit our unity candle. We prayed together too (well, Jeff prayed and I was crying).




And, the Kiss!




Before we walked out, we had a time of prayer. Lots of friends and family surrounded us, and several men whom we had asked prayed for us out loud.

More Pictures

Obviously I'm too lazy to write about the wedding, but here's some more pictures anyway.

A Few Wedding Pictures

Shortest update EVER

I'm getting married in 9 days (Dec. 30). I will be Christine Grace Hubel, and I will move to Jeff's house in Bloomington. I'm so excited, thankful to God, extremely busy and very in love. Yes, I will post wedding pictures.

Big Daddy Weave

Well, I can add one more guy to my list of famous people I have met. This week I met Mike Weaver the lead singer of the group Big Daddy Weave.
Here's the story:

Last Sunday Jeff and I went to his company picnic/family day which was held at Midway Stadium. We had lunch and then watched the Saint Paul Saints play baseball. Well, we got bored after about 2 innings (I know, that's a shocker being the baseball fans that we are) and the benches were really uncomfortable and the sun was really hot, so we decided to leave. I had heard once on the Christian radio station that Big Daddy Weave was going to do a concert there that night, but it was not advertised on either the Saints' website or the station's. We had seen "St. Paul" on BDW's itinerary, but we just weren't sure if it was true or not. Ususally Christian concerts get lots of publicity, and since we had heard almost nothing about it, we thought maybe it was a mistake. On our way to Jeff's car, we passed a big coach bus and stopped short because in rather small letters by the left front tire we read "Big Daddy Weave LLC." We looked at each other and said, "It's true. He's here. He's in that bus."

So, of course then we couldn't leave, because we really wanted to go to the concert. We decided to sit in the grass (in the shade) and wait for the game to end, after which we would go back in and attend the concert. We went to his car anyway to get some water, and when we got back to the bus, a car had just pulled up. A few people were getting out with suitcases, and one of them was Mike Weaver (he really wasn't in the bus like we thought). So Jeff walked right up to him, said hi, taked for a few minutes and asked if we could take a picture with him. He was really nice, said "man" and "dude" a lot, told us about the concert and posed for a picture. Unfortunately, Jeff's camera went on the fritz the next day, and the memory card got erased.

We sat around for another hour or so and went to the concert. Since it was not advertised much, only about 300 people were there, which was really nice. They wheeled a stage back by the home run fence, and all the people stood or sat in the outfield. The concert was very loud (they brought huge speakers) and very good. They played a few of the really upbeat (more fun) songs and several worship songs including my favorite BDW song, "Audience of One." Mike also gave a short gospel message which was very good.

It's funny how secular companies plan these family days for fun and have no idea how God is glorified by them. A month ago, Jeff and I went to my work's family day which was held at the zoo. It was great to walk around and marvel at the way God created all the different animals, giving them instincts and camoflauge and using such creativity in everything He made. Then at Sunday's activity, which was all about baseball and beer, we got to attend a concert that made much of God in word and song.

Pictures from Our Trip to Indiana

Hi!

My apologies to all my faithful blog readers who are mad at me for not writing anything in FOREVER....

I'm still alive and all, but pretty busy. I am now working in a different position at my job which is really nice. My official title is "Practice Group Clerk" which means I do stuff like file documents, create new files and work on the Benefits Group's website. It's all pretty interesting, and I'm learning a lot. But it also means I don't have any downtime (like I did in my last position) to find cool stuff on the web, write blog entries and read other people's blogs.

Here's other stuff that has happened lately:

I found out that Nathan and Jessica are having a boy, and he's due Nov. 28.

Jeff and I went on a trip to Indiana to visit his grandma. I'll post pictures when I'm done writing this. We're still dating and really seeking what God would have for us in the (near?) future. Sorry, Heidi, no news yet!

Two of my cousins, Holly and John (they are siblings), got married last month. I enjoyed both of their weddings, and have thought about weddings a lot lately. Jeff and I have talked quite a bit about how we would want our potential wedding to be. We're both highly in favor of not doing most of the "normal" stuff, especially the meaningless things, and only having things in the ceremony that are really important.

So, I hope I satisfied the curiosity of all the people who leave me messages like "Where on earth are you?!?" Don't worry, I'll be sure to post if any BIG events happen, like, I don't know, getting engaged or something.

The Beast

Yesterday there seemed to be quite a bit of hype over the day being 6/6/06. Purgatorio had a post on it, and one commenter posted the following which I thought was quite funny:

From Sam Storms newsletter:
666.0000: Number of the High Precision Beast
0.666: Number of the Millibeast
6, uh…what? : Number of the Blonde Beast
1-666: Area code of the Beast
00666: Zip code of the Beast
$665.95: Retail price of the Beast
$699.25: Price of the Beast plus 5% state sales tax
$769.95: Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul
$656.66: Wal-Mart price of the Beast
$646.66: Next week’s Wal-Mart price of the Beast
Phillips 666: Gasoline of the Beast
Route 666: Way of the Beast
666 F: Oven temperature for roast Beast
666k: Retirement plan of the Beast
666 mg: Recommended Minimum Daily Requirement of Beast
6.66%: 5-year CD interest rate at First Beast of Hell National Bank, $666 minimum deposit
Lotus 6-6-6: Spreadsheet of the Beast
Word 6.66: Word Processor of the Beast
i66686: CPU of the Beast
666i: BMW of the Beast
DSM-666 (revised): Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Beast
668: Next door neighbor of the Beast
667: Prime Beast
999: Australian Beast

Jason and Jodi Walter

A couple weeks ago, I got to attend Jason and Jodi's wedding in New Mexico. I am so thankful that when my friends get married, they strive to have Christ-centered weddings and not couple-centered ones. Since the whole point of marriage is to display Christ, a wedding should accomplish that also. I felt priviledged to be a part of this wedding and to witness the covenant that Jason and Jodi made with each other. I know God will use their marriage to display Himself to the world and to teach both of them more about Himself.

My latest adventure

Here you go, Heidi; I know how much you wanted to see this picture.

I had never been on a motorcycle until last Saturday, but I really enjoyed it. It is a very strange feeling to be cruising down the highway with no walls around you, but it was fun (and very windy).

Divine Drama

I just started a book by Michael Horton called A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of Christ-Centered Worship. In the second chapter he summarizes a common postmodern mindset and compares it to a movie script. Instead of man recognizing his place in God's master drama of the universe, he wants to star in his own impromptu monologue. Here's a great quote from pg. 34:

While today our identities are more the scattered clippings of ideal images packaged and marketed to us in a barrage of advertising masquerading as entertainment, the "self" who is rendered in the biblical drama of redemption is a solid self only because he or she belongs to a story that is much larger than oneself. In the former, the identities of others (usually celebrities) are consumed and made a part of my life and identity. In the latter, the real identities (not images) of the many biblical characters become the context in which my life makes sense. It is here where strangers and aliens finally belong to God and become part of his family throughout history. In the former, even God himself is "appropriated," drawn into our script, ending in futililty, while in the latter, even the most villainous character can be drawn into the divine drama by the director as a new character.

Because this book was copyrighted in 2002, reality TV (which is probably America's current main type of entertainment) had not nearly reached the level that it has in the last couple years, and it did not have the impact that it has today. Michael Horton could not have had a full understanding of where it would lead, though entertainment was already headed that way. His perception of what was happening is accurate, and things are so much worse now. Today it has truly caused people to think that they can be the next celebrity and star in a TV show if only Hollywood would discover them. It makes them completely focused on themselves, and they spend endless amounts of time and money making themselves appear better.

I love how he summarizes the attitude we should have. We should recognize that we are part of the grand drama of the universe. God has chosen to use both those of us that love Him and those who don't to make His name great and His glory shine. And, by God's grace, we can even have joy in this fact. Christians get to enjoy making much of Him forever. This gives true meaning to life.

There is no situation in life where you can make plans and arrange things and just add God in later. He writes the script and directs the drama. Therefore, He is the foundation upon which we build everything that we do in life. I pray that God would increasingly show me my role in His master plan, and use me to bring glory to His name forever.

Donner Expedition - Chapter 6

After hearing that we had potentially been chased by a criminal, we were more scared than ever. But, the policeman assured us that the man did not have a white SUV of any kind, and that he would know if the guy had gone to the campground because the man's tracking device would have alerted the police. Next he explained a few facts about fires to us. Apparently a fire that has been completely doused can come back. I guess firefighters experience that all the time. Who knew?

Then the policeman offered to go back to the campground with us so we could get our stuff. Of course we would not have gone back in the dark alone (who cares what we had left there when our lives were in danger?), but we felt fine about going back with him. He also wanted to see if there were any signs of our "visitor."

When we got there, we found everthing exactly as we had left it. The dishes we had cooked with were still on the picnic table. Our tent was zipped, and nothing had been moved. And there were no footprints anywhere in the muddy ground. We now fully understood just how much of the experience had been in our imaginations. And it all started because of the fire (which had completely died down at this point). My uncle laughed at us, and then he asked the policeman to turn on his siren as he left! Not funny!

So, the moral of the story is this: Don't do something if you are clueless about it. We were clueless about camping and failed to follow the advice we had received (especially "camp near a family"). The result was disaster. We were able to still have somewhat of a camping experience by using someone's yard, but that's not exactly what we had set out to do.

In the end, we did not have a sucessful trip by which we proved to our guy friends how much we could do. But we did have lots of memories and one heck of a story.

One Month!

Yesterday, May 8th, marked one month of dating Jeff. I was at work all day and had to go straight to church for my last Greek class. Jeff and I exchanged e-mail congratulations, but I didn't think I would see him that day. When Kerry and I got home around 9, I walked into the house not thinking anything was unusual. Then I saw Jeff in my dining room holding a rose and waiting to congratulate me in person. I gasped (no screaming, Marissa) and was so happy just to see him there. He's so sweet!