Just Really Sad

This morning at work we found out the saddest news. One of Steven Curtis Chapman's children was killed in a horrible accident. Here is the story from the Tennessean:

Singer Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter is struck, killed by car
By LINDA ZETTLER and KATE HOWARD • Staff Writers • May 22, 2008

Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest child died Wednesday evening after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family's Williamson County home. Maria, one of the Christian singer's six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver's name. The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.

"It appears to be a terrible accident,'' McPherson said. No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.

Singer/songwriter Chapman, who recently was inducted into Music City Walk of Fame, is one of contemporary Christian music's most recognizable and most awarded names. He and his wife, Mary Beth, have long been supporters of international adoption, having brought three girls from China into their family. Maria was the youngest. The couple is so active in the cause that they formed an organization, Shaohannah's Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt.

With his latest music tour, which came through Nashville in November, Chapman started a campaign called "Change for Orphans." He asked audience members at each stop to bring spare change to the concert, where it was counted and given to a local family to aid in their adoption process.

"I don't know of anybody who loves his children more than he does and is so committed to the adoption concept, and to lose one, no matter what the circumstances, is heartbreaking beyond all comprehension," said John Styll, president of the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association. "He talks about his kids all the time. That's his life. His kids are more important to him than music, that's for sure."

The tragedy was announced during Wednesday-night services at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ, which the family attends. Maria had just graduated from the church preschool. And word spread throughout the tight-knit Christian music community on Wednesday evening. Styll got the news not long after Maria's death.
"I'm confident I can speak for everyone in the community to say we will do everything we can to support this family, as we would do at any time, but especially at a time like this," he said.


What else is there but to believe that even in this, God is in control? There aren't any other words to say. Please pray for the Chapman family during this time. If you would like to make a donation to Shaohannah's Hope, you can visit www.shaohannahshope.org.

Funnies

I love www.toothpastefordinner.com. These three made me laugh this morning!

Ciao from Roma!

Ashley & I are in Rome right now, having some fun! So far we have seen the Colloseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, the basilica and Vatican museums, the Sistene Chapel, and the pope. For reals! I will blog a lot more when I get home but just wanted to throw up a couple quick pics of our travels!

Ash & Me at the Roman Forum

Piazza Navonna at Sunset

Me at the Colloseum at night.

My illegal pic of the Sistene Chapel.

Tomorrow we leave for the coast where we will visit Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii. Ciao!

GMA Music Week

Well, we made it here... just about halfway done! Not much time to write but wanted to post a few pics of what's going on...

Here is a picture of the main reason I'm making it through this week at all:

This is my bed in my room at the Renaissance. You'll notice that it is dark in the room... and yet this is when we have to get up. 5:30 am. Shudder. Thankfully, sleeping in this bed is like sleeping on a cloud, wrapped in magic. I have to cherish it, because on my own dime I could never afford to stay in a hotel this nice. So thanks, GMA!

These are some of the other main reasons I'm hanging in there... my friends at work:

This is my intern, Jessica... she's doing such a great job this week! Every time I see her she's running around carrying something or checking something. I'm so proud of her!

This is Kristin. She's our registrar and she's basically an amazing human being. She's worked longer hours than any of us this week and done it all with a smile on her face. She's totally a trooper.

And then, of course, there's the music. You can't go anywhere during the week without hearing music blaring from every corner and seeing artists at every turn. I try not to geek out at seeing the artists too much, although it is cool to see them running around and hanging out with each other.

So far I've managed to drag my sleepy butt to two showcases. On Sunday night I went to the BMI Songwriter Showcase, featuring a whole slew of artists performing stripped down versions of the year's best songs. During this show there was one of those seriously awesome moments that you'll always remember. Leeland sang "Tears of the Saints" accompanied by his brother Jack, and you could've heard a pin drop as his wonderful, distinct voice just rang out this flawless song. Everyone was just spellbound... it was absolutely an annointed performance.

Also got to see Chris Tomlin perform his version of "Amazing Grace," which I also really love.

Then last night we hiked it on over to the Wildhorse to see Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, and Third Day. Talk about a line up! Unfortunately we missed most of Jars performance, but Switchfoot handily made up for that with an amazing rocking good time. I have only seen them once before live and it was at the Fair St. Louis so I was like, half a mile away. This was way better, obvs... we were right up near the front and it was just so fun! Jon was looking a little worse for the wear with some seriously overgrown and underwashed hair, but I'll overlook that. So I let my hair down and got my hands up and had a great time. During one song Jon came down into the audience, got up on a table, sang the rest of the song, then rode back to the stage on some dude's shoulders. Fun! Bummer, my camera died after about the first three minutes but I did manage to snap one or two blurry photos...

Third Day ended out the very late night, but it's never too late to stay up and see Mac Powell and his handsome mug. Snapshot of our conversation:

Ben: Do you guys want to stay for Third Day?
Heather: Uh, have you SEEN Mac Powell? And his beautiful blue eyes?

No, but seriously, their music is pretty good too.

Well, that's the last of my updates for now... tomorrow is Dove Day! Don't forget to watch it live on Gospel Music Channel at 7 central, woo-hoo!

Happy Things From Today

1. Having Scruffy as my buddy at the house and bed warmer-upper since Ben is gone
2. Lots of pretty sunshine (even though it was kinda chilly outside)
3. Wearing my new yellow shirt - and the color yellow in general
4. Listening to Sleeping at Last even though I couldn't go to their concert like I wanted
5. Dearest friends coming over and watching some classic Office episodes
6. Ben coming home Thursday night instead of Friday

TUNA! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Last night, after a nearly five-month long hiatus, my favorite funny show returned to television: "The Office." Piled on our couches with our friends Jon, Heather, Grant, and Lila, we basked in the golden glow of our television set. We squealed (and then shushed each other) as the cold open began with all our favorite characters milling around their nondescript office area. We groaned and covered our faces in horror as Michael and Jan's disturbing relationship took a turn into painfully and awesomely awkward before their dinner guests' very eyes. We howled with delight as Dwight showed up with his straight-from-the-19th century former babysitter and explained their relationship as "strictly carnal."

Jim so desparate to leave that he nearly ditched Pam.
Serenity by Jan candles.
Michael's attempts at Charades.
The Dundee hurtled from Jan's insane hands into Michael's precious tiny plasma tv.

And then, AND THEN, AND SERIOUSLY, ARE YOU KIDDING ME:

"Hi, Dan here with your channel 4 Pinpoint Weather Alert. If you'll take a look with me here at Macon County up in Kentucky, you'll see some pretty serious storm clouds... now this spinning area on the radar is where we've had one person, excuse me, two eyes, (yeah, he seriously said that) that have spotted what may have been a funnel cloud formation."

So, let me get this straight, Dan from Channel 4. You interrupted the final minutes of my favorite show for this?! First of all, do the people in Kentucky not have their own weather people that could tell them this? Second of all, if it is, in fact, as bad as you are saying, then those people probably don't have power and can't watch you giving this report anyway. Third and most importantly, there was a commercial break THIRTY FREAKIN' SECONDS AGO... you couldn't have done this then?

It wouldn't have been so bad, honestly - I know it is their job - except he just kept going ON and ON. We were ten minutes into "Scrubs" by the time he finally wrapped it up. I could've given that report in about 15 seconds:

"Okay everyone, listen up. Look at this map. See all these red parts right here? Right, if you're in one of those, sorry, but it doesn't look too good. Get in your closets or basements (too bad no houses in the South even HAVE basements) or bathrooms right now. Folks in Bumpus Mills, PeeDee, Stringtown, Hackberry*, this means you. Now sit tight and I'll be back at the next commercial break."

*Names of REAL towns on the Kentucky/Tennessee border

See, would that have been so hard, DAN? Hmm? But nooooo, because of you and your great affinity for all your meteorologist technology, and because of Nashville's general tendency to freak the ef out any time it looks like it might rain hard, I don't know what happened once the cops showed up outside Michael's door. Did they take Jan off in the back of a squad car? Did Dwight pull out his spud gun in defense? Did Pam get back at Jim for trying to ditch her? Did Andy actually invest in Jan's candle company? I'll never know...

...until I watch it again online later today.

In Need of a Good Pruning

I know that title sounds kinda kinky, but hear me out...

Today I pruned back two bushes in our backyard. These are butterfly bushes, and we just recently discovered that at the beginning of every spring we're supposed to cut them back almost to the ground. We had never done that before, just assumed that they were supposed to be sort of wildly unkempt and overgrown. But no, that is not the case. So today I went after them, with a giant pair of pruning-gardening-thingies... did I mention our complete and utter lack of gardening knowledge?

I stood outside surveying the task at hand and wondering where to begin. I could hardly even get close to where I needed to cut because of the explosion of branches. Pushing a few aside, I maneuvered the cutters around a branch probably an inch thick, and laid into it, squeezing with all my might until with a satisfying SNAP the branch broke. So I did it again. And again. It felt... good! Good to hack away all the excess, even though if plants had feelings I'm sure it would've hurt like hell. And it got me thinking, "Man, I totally need to be pruned by God." Cutting away all this garbage that I think is pretty when in reality all it is doing is keeping me from growing properly. Being pared down, even though it hurts and it would be easier just to keep expanding out-of-control. Not leaving one single branch untrimmed out of wishful thinking or selfishness, but surrendering every piece to be stripped of the unnecessary. Left exposed so that the rain and sun can reach the roots and make me strong and so that none of the old dead crap can get in the way of new growth.

So I kept cutting and cutting and thinking about this, and when I was done I had two huge piles of branches, and two ugly little stumps of bushes, and two really sore armpits (seriously, what muscles does pruning use, because I don't think I'd ever used them before). I hope I did the right thing and that from the two stumps will spring up new green stalks and that mid summer they'll be in full and fragrant lilac bloom. And I'm praying that I have the good sense to let God prune me, too.

PS. On an unrelated note, Scruffy just came and stuck his nose under my arm as I typed, which is dog for, "Don't forget to post about my new haircut please." He does look pretty keee-yoot! Here he is modeling the new hyena-style do. I swear, if I take half as many pictures of my future children as I do my dog, we'll be set.

Hot & Cold

Well it was a crazy night at the James' household. For the second time in the past few months, our heater stopped working. Last time it broke we paid a semi-helpful man an exorbitant amount of money to fix it, so I was pretty annoyed when I checked the thermostat before bed and it said 62 degrees.

Would this have happened last week, no biggie - we had outrageously beautiful weather and heat and air were unnecessary. The past couple days however, the nights have dipped back down to the 30s.

So to compensate, we bundled up in our finest long sleeves and pajama pants and brought in our two space heaters and set them on high blast, closed our bedroom doors to create a little hot box, and snuggled down under the covers, huddled together for warmth. After a while, nice and toasty!

Ben & I in our pajamas

Cut to me, waking up at 3:30 am, boiling hot. If you know me at all you know that I loathe being hot. So I dramatically flung the covers off, peeled off my leggings, turned off the space heaters, swung open the doors, got a glass of cold water, and flipped my pillow over to the cool side.

Had I not still been half asleep I probably would've realized this was an overreaction because three hours later I awoke in an icebox. Like I think I could see my breath. Like the thermostat said it was 52 degrees.

In one daring move I jumped out of bed, pulled the leggings back on, shut the doors, turned the space heaters to the "tropical heat wave" setting, and dove back under the down comforter. Then, of course, I was cozy and warm and in no hurry to leave my bed and get ready for work.

So, in summation, our heater is still broken. Here's hoping tonight goes better.

A Late St. Patty's Day Treat

One headband with sparkly clovers on springs...

+ One reluctant subject...

+One persistent photographer...

+One near paw-punch to the face...

= Scruffy finally succumbs to the St. Patrick's Day Festivities

We Gave It the Old College Try

Tonight Belmont University, my dear alma mater, nearly pulled off an incredible upset of Duke in their first round tourney game. We lost in the final few seconds by one measely point. It was a really exciting game to watch and I was so proud of the way they played and the recognition they'll get because of it! Great job boys!

























PS. My bracket has veered a little off course... but I am still confident in the mascot method. It will prevail in the end, I'm (kinda) certain!