Fan the Flames Baby!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for MONTHS!  Way back in the dark and dreary winter months, Mom managed to acquire tickets for Beth Moore's spring speaking engagement here in Boise.  Miss Beth is one of my very favorite authors and probably my FAVORITE speaker!  Her words have administered comfort to my wounds, encouragement to my soul and simply drenched me with HOPE!  I have devoured her books, enrolled in her bible studies, and watched her television appearances whenever possible.  This woman is simply awesome!  If you aren't familiar with my Miss Beth or her work, you should be!  She has an unbelievable testimony, a fantastic sense of humor, an amazing energy about her, a darling little accent and oh, yeah, she has that extremely powerful women's ministry going for her too!  As I said, she is just awesome and to be able to see and hear her in person this weekend was SO wonderful!  Her message was POTENT to say the least!  I am so fired up right now about guarding my gifts and using them FOR HIS GLORY!  Some powerful words were spoken over me this weekend and some of you might know what that means--there was some powerful RESISTANCE as well!  What a weekend OUTSIDE of the conference too!  Are you ready for this?

     

Beth spoke downtown at the Qwest arena--were my beloved Steelheads play!  The event was general admission so there were no assigned seats.  I have never seen such chaos!  It took us nearly 45 minutes to move TWO BLOCKS into the parking garage!  Traffic was HELLISH and ironically enough, so was my attitude!  To cope with the situation, I did the Christian thing and started calling people jackasses!  I screamed at least twice while simultaneously attempting to violently displace my steering wheel from the steering column.  I made humorous but slightly rude comments to pedestrians, which, even more humorously, could be heard by the pedestrians through my open sunroof.  Oops!  Meanwhile, while frustratingly stuck in traffic, we watched the line of women waiting to get into the arena stretch nearly AROUND the block.  I was convinced that not only could I NOT find a place to park the truck, we wouldn't be able to find a place inside to park ourselves either!  However, just so you don't think I was the only one behaving badly, Mom did make a comment about the creepy man of questionable character sulking around on the fifth floor of the parking garage!

     

We eventually made it inside and found three seats precariously perched on the first row of the balcony.  They made me slightly nauseous but I WAS BRAVE (and only once dropped my book on the head of a passing woman below)!  The arena was packed and I have to admit it was amazing to look out and see ALL THOSE WOMEN gathered together.  What was even more amazing was the fact that we were at a Christian Women's Conference in the very same arena where, at the last hockey game, my nephew learned at least five new words, NONE of them which I (nor he) shall repeat.  Instead of my favorite chant (He shoots, he scores!  Hey goalie, you suck!) reverberating off the walls, songs of praise and worship hung in the air.  There were uplifted HANDS instead of uplifted FINGERS!  Amens left our mouths instead of broken, bloody teeth!  To make matters even more bizarre, Mom, Laura and I chose seats right under. . . 

THE GIANT BOTTLE OF BEER!

     

Me, Momma and Lo

I have to admit that even though I posted these pictures because they are of my B-E-A-utiful mom and sister, I am secretly thrilled to be able to post a picture where my hair is actually done, I have make-up on and I even brushed my teeth!  It seems all of my self-portraits are dirty, sweaty, ugly pictures.  So, this is what I REALLY look like MOST of the time, okay?  ;)

Beth spoke both Friday night and Saturday morning so Laura and Danny got a hotel room right there in The Grove.  What a fun room and an awesome view!

I'm not sure who had more fun . . .

Jacuzzi Garrett?

Limo-spotting Makayla?

Nakey Claire?

OR . . .

     

Aunt Tess?

Yeah, it was definitely Aunt Tess!

BUT, her enthusiasm was to be short lived!

Mom and I were returning to my house for the evening, so we said our goodnights and headed back to the parking garage.  After a night of heavy preaching (and the first warm summer night of the year) we decided we could use a couple of ice cream cones for the drive home!  We jumped in the truck, tried briefly to make some sense of the mess we found there, closed my center console (that I didn't remember leaving open) and headed up Vista for our ice cream.  We were ordering cones when I reached for my "tire money"--the stack of quarters I keep for airing up my perpetually low rear tire.  Well, what on earth did I do with all those quarters?  Did I move them?  Did I air up my tire 27 times without remembering?  Hmmm.  Maybe Mom mistook them for her own stack of tire money--that she keeps in my truck?  Maybe she just moved all five or six dollars worth of quarters into her pants pocket so she would have that change-in-my-pocket jingle as we walked around downtown?  So, as I began to suspiciously ask her just exactly what she did with my money, I my blood ran cold.  Open console.  Missing money . . . creepy man of suspicious character sulking around the parking garage.  It took us about two seconds to realize someone, of suspicious character, had been rummaging through my truck.  And then we took inventory of the missing.  I lost some silly stuff (which I'll tell you about in a second) but poor Mom, he took her cell phone!

the crime scene.

I know what you're thinking.  Yes I locked it.  I think.  Probably.  No, I did--I'm pretty sure? BUT I might have accidentally unlocked it when I put the keys in my pocket?  Or pushed the 'unlock button' on the key fob instead of 'lock'? Or, or, or . . . I really don't know what happened except that I MIGHT have called some people jackasses and got really pissy just before being thieved from.  (Not that I think THOSE particular jackasses were the ones who did it, but I guess that's what I get for behaving SO POORLY.  I guess I had my hockey game face on!).  There was no sign of forced entry so I guess I ULTIMATELY didn't get it locked.  My bad.  No, HIS bad for climbing into a truck that wasn't his and stealing the girl stuff out of it!  I decided, mostly on a matter of principle, that we should definitely file a police report.

     

this was great fun, going to the police station at 11 pm on a Friday night!

Sitting in the police station while waiting for an officer, Mom and I rehashed the situation.  We talked about why he took what he took while leaving some of our more valuable possessions behind.  Suddenly I began to remember the evening and all that had transpired PRIOR to me parking and ultimately failing to lock my truck.  

We had decided to take my truck that night and, as I had been at work all day, I had some things to unload before we left.  I cleaned off the passenger seat and took the stinky work tub from the back seat.  And then, for reasons that I can only describe as divine intervention, I reached for my camera too.  I told Mom I just didn't feel like leaving my camera in my truck that night so I unloaded my both my camera case and my Camelsback as well.  Keep in mind, my camera hasn't left my truck in months!  I take it EVERYWHERE right now, just in case I happen to encounter a spontaneous adventure.  Sitting in the police station it occurred to me MY MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION could have easily been taken from me that night!  And I cried.  I cried out of sincerely relief and gratitude.

I AM SO NOT DONE WITH THIS YET, BUT I WANTED TO GET AT LEAST THIS MUCH UP SO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN PATIENTLY WAITING, COULD READ IT!