Cigarettes and M&M's....what life is made of

Jaala kicking Rus' ass at a thumb war!


Snuggles, fruit loops and stories *I mean REAL fruit loops, I wasn't talking about Papa! hehehe

Our beautiful Mikey and Leishabeth.

Jaala is 9!!!!!!!!!!!

The amazing cake!

Jaala didn't exactly get what was on her list, for her birthday, but I think she had a great time anyway!

We spent it at Grammy and Papa's, with Mikey, Auntie Erin and Uncle Rus *who is one of Lei's favorite people!*

Hard to believe she's 9. Life changes so fast.

I know I've been MORE than a little absent from here. Sometimes it feels like keeping body and soul aligned takes more than all my time.

Some days I feel very inadequate for my job. Some of the kids I have right now, are very difficult, VERY relationship resistant. It physically hurts when I cannot find a way to reach them. I know they'll be leaving us and if I haven't had a chance to touch them, I worry that I have been ineffective.

It's spring break now, and I'm totally enjoying the time at home with my hooligans!

Jaala and Leisha had a sleep over in Danielle's room, it was a riot, and the next day, they took the city bus to the mall to go shopping as a treat from Danielle, for Jaala's birthday. It's pretty awesome having a big sister!

Updates include, we are all recovering from the car accident, we are still renting a vehicle, as Kyle, knowing we are in NEED of money, is still dragging his heels on signing the marital assets contract, which would give me my share of the proceeds of the sale of our former home......it sold in June of 08....yep.

Lei's anxiety really went haywire after the crash....we're managing one day at a time.

My ribs are healed to the point that every day isn't painful, however I am reminded that they are not completely healed, when I make sudden twisting movements. OY!

I just read a really great blog post that I wanted to share. I read a blog called "Debunking Christianity" *as if you're suprized*

By John W. Loftus at 2/19/2009

One of my problems with the Christian faith is that in every generation it reinvents itself to face the challenges of each generation. One would think that if a faith that was "once and for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3) this wouldn't be the case. Christian theology has changed so much that one would not even recognize the Christianities of the first century or two. Let me just mention some theological changes:

Creation - Not until around 200-700 AD did the
church accept creation ex-nihilo.

Hell - From fire and brimstone to the absence
of God to annihilation

Baptism - Probably from Immersion to sprinkling; from
adults to infants.

Atonement - From ransom to satisfaction to
penal-substitutionary to moral influence to relationship theories

Predestination - Possibly "mixed" to Calvinism to Arminianism to Calvinism back to Arminianism

Christology - From Paul to Chalcedon to Kenotic theories

Inspiration - From who knows what to mechanical to verbal-plenary to inerrancy to neo-orthodoxy.

Women - From servants who obey in quietness to teachers and ministers and professors

Slavery - From Paul (Philemon) to southern Slavery to
abolition to anti-racism.

There are other theological ideas not mentioned, and there are many details to fill in about these particular ideas, but I dare say if today's Christians went back in time to first century Christianities they would not fit in, nor would they be considered orthodox in most Christian communities. Most all Christians today would actually reject the Christianities of the past. They would reject their theologies, their ethics, and perhaps their church polity (not mentioned previously). In fact, they would simply reject the
Christianities of the past!

But what happened is that the church reinvented herself over and over in every generation in response to the challenges of her day. The church and her theology is like a chameleon to me in this respect. But the point is that it changed so slowly that few notice in today's world these drastic changes. Christians today wouldn't even admit that many of the earliest Christianites would be considered Christianity at all! And I know for a fact
that the Christianites that will exist in the future will almost certainly be considered strange to the Christianites that exist right now. I'm not looking for an explanation here, although I know what Christians will say. I'm simply pointing out that Christianity today is probably so far removed from the earliest Christianities that this is evidence that the church is a human not divine organization, one that flows downstream along with the history of human intellectual and cultural life. And I'm claiming this will continue to be true in the future too. At 54 years old I myself have seen these changes slowly take place inside the evangelical church for instance, with "Open Theism," the "Emergent Church," eschatological "Preterism," and an acceptance of babies out of wedlock, divorce in the church, abortion, homosexuality, and so forth. So I ask, which Christianity is the correct one? There are a multitude of them which exist today all claiming to be the true church, but most all of the present ones would reject most all of the ones in the past, certainly the earliest ones. Do church history. Do historical theology. It'll probably change your views about the church being a divine institution. It's not at all. The evidence suggests otherwise.

Follow the evidence, okay?