Rally the troops!! (Or don't, if you're like everyone else in the movie theater...)

Today my parents came to visit which has been fun. We went to see the Chihuly show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. I bought some little snowflake charms and the woman at the register called them something incredibly odd like snobcakes or snibflakes- something very obviously NOT snowflakes and I didn't want to be rude and look at the little sign near them to see if, for some completely unintelligable reason, they were not actually called snowflakes, but I didn't want her to see me and think me rude, so my mom and I just decided that she was crazy.

We also went to see Narnia, which came out yesterday. You should go see it- it was really good. There is this big battle scene at the end and it was all I could do to not stand up and start clapping and yelling at everyone in the theater to start rallying their troops. (My Avatar agrees with me, hence the Warrior Princess get-up.) Seriously- it was really intense. DO IT FOR ASLAN! (I didn't see anyone else starting to get up like I wanted to, so I just yelled really loud for the Narnians in my head.)

Yesterday we had a snow day from school. YAY! Except that I don't get paid when we have snow days, but I already don't get health insurance, so it probably evens out because if I tried driving and got into an accident, I'd have to pay way more to go to the hospital than it costs me to skip a day of pay. Thus, we should have many more snow days.

Last night, I spent from 7pm to 2am reading. I was in the middle of both The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis, and Esther, by Charles Swindoll so I finished both of those and then started reading Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell- the pastor of Mars Hill- a church in Grand Rapids I occasionally go to. This book is completely amazing (you were right Dustin!) and I HIGHLY recommend it. It's about reexamining the Christian faith, but in such a way that it makes it so appealing when, in so many ways, it is often made to seem the opposite. You should read it no matter how you feel about Christianity and religion- it's amazing.

Finally, a passage from The Four Loves that I really, really loved:
"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. ... We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if he chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it."

It's pretty amazing how He uses everything we go through. :)