2007 Books

Ok, I am copying Rachel too. I had a list going on the blog where no one else could see it, but I would like to have a link to my books, so I decided to make a post for it. I'll add more as I think of the others I have read.

Rating System 1 (Lowest) -10 (Highest)

Books I have read in 2007:
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - 7
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - 9
Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer - 8
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez - 8
The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright - 6
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith - 7
His Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt - 9
Looking for a Miracle by Wanda Brunstetter - 7
Beloved by Toni Morrison - 7
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - 9
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates - 8
Blessings by Anna Quindlen - 8
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - 10
Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout - 8
The Awakening by Kate Chopin - 8
Life of Pi by Yann Martel - 7
The Englisher by Beverly Lewis - 6
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - 10
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - 7
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls - 8
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - 9
For Better For Worse by Carole Matthews - 7
Next by Michael Crichton - 8
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller - 7
The Warrior by Francine Rivers - 8
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina - 9
The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez - 9
Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza - 9
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue - 9

More Vacation Pictures

A sweet picture with Mimi

Another sweet picture with Mimi
Caleb doing his favorite thing while camping...digging through Mimi and Pops' buckets of stuff!
Chris reading Caleb a book.
Aunt Kathy came to visit us!

Vacation Pictures

Here are pictures from our vacation to Eureka Springs, AR. We camped with my parents in their RV.

Went on a walk one day and got stuck in the rain about 3/4 of a mile away from the trailer. Chris ran back pushing Caleb in his stroller.

Another picture from the walk. Chris and Caleb going over a bridge. My dad to the right.
Chris and I went to The Great Passion Play and saw the Christ of the Ozarks Statue while we were there.
Caleb in his new camping seat that Grammie and Gramps gave him for his birthday! He is such a big boy!
Caleb playing with his percussion toys that Uncle John gave him for his birthday. He loves them!

Back From Vacation

Well, we are back from our week of vacation to Eureka Springs, AR. We had a great trip and a great birthday party for Caleb before we left. I will post pictures on here as soon as I can from everything.

The night before Caleb's party, we all went to Master Grill at Firewheel Mall which is a Churrascaria like Texas De Brazil or Fogo de Chao. I am not a huge fan of meat most of the time, but it was fantastic. The food was so great, and it is about half the price of TDB or FDC.

So, if you have not been to a place like this, I recommend it. Even if you aren't all that nuts about meat!

Baby Gates

In the past month, we have finally gotten to where we needed to have baby gates. So, a few weeks ago I went to Target and bought two. Aren't they doing a great job? :)

We did finally use them correctly, but we did go about a week with them being used like this. Chris thought I should post this to show everyone how great of parents we are! :)

A Flight to Remember

One of my greatest fears came true this morning. I fell/flew down the stairs of my house face down...the whole flight of stairs! Praise God I didn't have Caleb with me! I had glasses in my hands (and one of them had water sloshing in it), and as I was adjusting it at the top of the stairs, my foot must have slipped. And down I went.

It's amazing what goes through your head in a split second as something is happening to you (Can I stop this? No, I can't...just let it happen.). And then also as soon as I hit the downstairs floor, another round of things was going through my head (At least I'm not knocked out. Did I break anything? What happened to the glass cup I was carrying? Am I about to start really hurting somewhere? I am covered in water! Now I'm going to have to re-do my hair!)

I seem to be ok...at least for now. We'll see how I feel in a day or two. Right now I just have some ugly carpet burns and some pretty scary bruises. But I feel extremely lucky to be feeling ok. Ever since that happened this morning, I have been thanking God over and over and over that I'm ok.

I told my mom on the way to work that I'm going to start going down the stairs on my bottom from now on. :) So if Caleb thinks that is the only way to go down stairs his whole life, this may be why. :)

Caleb's First Haircut

Before

Caleb had just woke up from the car ride when we brought him in. He didn't know what to think of the whole ordeal.

After

Caleb had quite a bit of hair cut off, so he looks much less shabby now! It is really cute!

Movies

My mom and I went to San Antonio last week. While we were there, we thought we'd catch a movie. Since I have a one year old (almost), that is about how long I have been out of touch with current movies, tv, life in genereal, etc. My mom had heard that 'Knocked Up' was supposed to be a cute move. It was NOT a cute movie and by no means do I recommend it to anyone. With that said...

the most interesting part of the experience was that a couple walked in about 10 minutes before the movie started (while it was still light in the theater) and sat in the front row. They IMMEDIATELY starting mugging down and making out. My mom and I were cracking up laughing about this whole senario. Mom kept saying we were about to see someone get knocked up in the movie 'Knocked Up.' I really wanted to go sit right behind them and giggle, make jokes, or just ask them to stop.

What I don't get is why they sat in the first row...with the lights on...to make out. Why not sit in the back row? Or at least wait till the lights go down? I guess I'll never understand. This was the first time I have seen something like this happen, and I was shocked. But it was interesting that it was happening in that movie of all movies. :)

Videos of Caleb Walking

Ok, I tried putting two videos of Caleb walking in Photobucket from my camera and upload them on here. Didn't work. If anyone has done it before, what do I do to get it on here without having to link to it? Thanks for the help!

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u185/stephaniemcarroll/?action=view&current=Picture455.flv

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u185/stephaniemcarroll/?action=view&current=Picture452.flv

The Pledge of Allegiance

On Mike Cope's blog two days ago (this post), he talked about a church that said the Pledge of Allegiance on Sunday because of Memorial Day. Here is a quote from this blog:

"The Christian assembly is the place where we remember that there is only one ultimate allegiance, and it is to Jesus Christ. It is where we remember that any other ultimate allegiance is idolatry.
The early church didn’t pledge allegiance to Rome. They confessed Jesus as Lord — which was a political statement over against the confession that Caesar is Lord."

This made me think about the Pledge when I heard it on KLTY yesterday morning. If it does not belong in the church, does it belong on Christian radio?

I have never had a problem with the pledge. I feel that God does honor governments that are put in place, and he wants us to honor them some too. I don't feel like saying the Pledge is a big huge deal. Maybe I should. Maybe since I've had to say it in school my whole life, I just don't think much of it.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you feel churches should or should not say the pledge in their worship assemblies? Is it wrong for a Christian radio station to have the pledge aired?

Let the discussion begin!