Ah, Seattle

We live in city of crazy people. 

Seriously.

Apparently, there was a small earthquake this morning.  I found this out by reading through my friends' Facebook status updates.  So, I went to read about said earthquake on the Seattle-Times website.  You can read the article here.

It talks about seismic activity far beneath the earth's crust, the Juan de Fuca plate, no visible damage, etc.   What I found rather disturbing amusing were these lovely sentiments left by people clearly of sound mind:

This morning I found there were cracks in my subconscious.  Posted on January 30, 2009 at 6:48 AM by BallardRider. 

 

I bet it's George Bushs' Fault!!!!!!!!  Posted on January 30, 2009 at 9:46 AM by seattlelovR. 

 

My cat declared an emergency and ordered us to stockpile mice and salmon.  Posted on January 30, 2009 at 9:48 AM by TheWholeTruth.

These were, by the way, the three "notable" comments on the main story page. 

We live in a city of psychos.

So true it's not even funny... ok, it's still funny.

As most of you know, Jason and I met because I happen to love the Sports Guy on ESPN.com. His columns rule, and I was actually googling some stats for a letter I was writing said sports lover when I stumbled across Jason's blog in July of 2006... we just celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary Monday so you can figure that one out!

Anyway, as a devoted Sports Guy fan I was excited to read this week's mailbag where he responds to readers' e-mail. I love Tom Brady- and have since his first season when they won the superbowl and rocked my world!- but Seattle is my sports town. I happen to love this particular letter:

Q: Brady's out. That really sucks. But it could be worse -- you could be a Seattle sports fan. Let me break it down for you: The Mariners are struggling through one of their worst seasons ever. Our Sonics, the only team to win a professional title in Seattle, moved the team to Okla-friggin-homa and stuck us with the Storm. And the Seahawks -- in Holmgren's final year, mind you -- are now without their TOP FOUR RECEIVERS! Imagine losing Moss, Welker, Gaffney AND Kelley Washington. Plus our quarterback is having back problems (including rumors of bulging discs), and our best running back left last week's game with an injury. Of course, a 6-10 record might win our division, which means we get to lose in Round 1. Oh, and the travesty that was the excessive celebration call on Washington's Jake Locker. But on the bright side … well, I give up. Be thankful you don't live in Seattle.
-- Dan Gomez, Seattle

SG: I have to say, that made me feel a little better. Maybe the good people of Seattle should form an organization called "It Could Be Worse," in which they send e-mails to suddenly traumatized sports fans from other cities to talk them off the ledge.

To the Sports Guy, aka Bill Simmons: that's actually a very good idea. We Seattle sports fans are professionals in handling torture and trauma at the hands of our local teams (not to mention referees: don't even get me STARTED on that one... the 2005 Suberbowl will forever be the single worst day of my sports life) so perhaps our grief would best served to comfort others.

Why We Live in Seattle

I keep up with a few Seattle blogs, and one linked to this post in the West Seattle blog.  It referred to Mars Hill, so I decided to read it.

I was impressed with the fact that the author wasn't harsh or criticising, just reporting the facts.  But then I read the comments-- read them, even just the first 5 or 10-- and it made me so sad.  Despite wanting to reply to them and share The Truth! I realized that most of these people aren't coming to Jesus via an online convo, because that's where they can be harsh and critical and hide behind words clearly meant to offend.  If these people were talking to someone from Mars Hill in person they'd never be as brash or intentionally rude... and that is why we live in Seattle, to build relationships with these people who are clearly hurting and in desperate need of Jesus.  That is why so many people live in West Seattle and are sharing Christ with the people they build relationships with there. 

You can find people willing to say dirty things like "I'm wet for Jesus" anywhere, but Seattle seems to cultivate a different breed.  Being faithful to God's word is always going to throw us into the like gay-hating, misogynistic, holier-than-thou religious people bucket even if we are nothing like them.  Choosing to honor the Biblical standards for the roles of men and women will always cause the world to hate us-- apparently my husband and every man at MHC hates me and is intentionally oppressing me to continually push for male-world domination, and I'm just too beat (and dumbed) down to realize it.  I think I'm pretty smart and don't let anyone push me around, so I'm pretty sure this accusation has no grounds other than feminist rhetoric that is causing far more harm to what it means to be a woman, how God created women to be in His image, than help us.  But that's for another day.

Suffice it to say, though it's not popular, we're seen as crazies, and apparently Mark Driscoll is totally rich and duping us all with false spirituality in order to fatten up his coffers (so you know, this couldn't be further from the truth), our family will continue to serve the Lord and to rely on the Spirit to determine our steps and opinions.  Most of all, we'll keep loving Mars Hill for the way it changes our life and, as a result, the city of Seattle as we Mars Hillians keep on loving our neighbors and sharing the love of Jesus with them.

Countdown to September 30th!!

We make no qualms about our utmost respect and admiration for Pastor Mark Driscoll at our beloved Mars Hill Church. His books- namely, Radical Reformission, Confessions of a Reformission Rev, and Vintage Jesus- have been integral parts of our continual transformation from two punk kids who were steeped in sin and trying to figure out how to get ourselves out of it, condemning everyone else along the way, into a young man and young woman continually seeking to confess and repent of our sin in order to see redemption in our lives and those of the people Jesus has us in relationship with.

So, with that, we're uber excited about Pastor Mark's new book, Death By Love. It comes out in September and this is an awesome flash video that gives you a taste of what it's about. I'm pretty sure it's written in the form of pastoral letters from Mark to congregants whom he was shepherding at MHC, so this is a taste of some of the issues he's tackling in those letters. Enjoy!

Dave Niehaus: Seattle Legend

We Haggster's are big Mariners fans. Yes, we are aware that they suck this year- we still love 'em. Tomorrow arguably the greatest baseball announcer of all time, Dave Niehaus, is being inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. We think that is much deserved and we're excited for Dave- I can't think of a sweet Mariners moment without his voice yelling "My oh my!"in the background of my mental play-by-play- and no true Mariners fan can!

Word on the street is that the mid-90's M's pretty much saved baseball and the Dave was a huge part of that, so here's a big congrats to him.

This is a funny video with Dave in from YouTube :)

Le Hair Cut

For any who are interested, there is an album of Tami's cute new haircut when it's straightened.

Feel free to visit the Facebook photo album (you don't have to have Facebook to see it, but FB is AWESOME and if you're under 30 you should have it!):

Hair Photos

So Happy Together!

Well, how one's countenance can change in a few days!

I (Tami) am going to be a nanny. I am absolutely thrilled about it. There is a wonderful family who loves Jesus that goes to our church with a 7 mo old cutie named Brody. The mother has an amazing opportunity from Microsoft to work from mostly from home Tues-Thurs on an AMAZING project that helps equip organizations like the UN to utilize technology to respond more quickly and efficiently to natural disasters, as well as helping provide medications, clean water, food, etc to places in the world with limited access to such life staples. Their family's conviction is that they can only do this if they have a nanny who loves Jesus and loves their son to help out, and, alas, I have been praying about serving a family who loves Jesus as a nanny.

The entire situation is just so perfect and so the hand of God. I have been praying about being a nanny after having the realization awhile back that I have been particularly gifted in helping with children and that until I am a mother myself this would be the best way to serve God and a family desiring a nanny who loves Jesus. Plus, I'm getting renewed vigor to fight the health problems I have and be a better steward of the body Jesus has given me. The family is completely understanding and really works to eat healthily and wants to support me in this, and it will be so awesome to have a job where I'm chasing a kid around all day and not just sitting at a desk. Plus, I'll have Mondays and Friday's off to focus on being a better housewife and not coming home exhausted from a stressful job where all I want to do is escape into the world of TV. I'm simply overjoyed about the entire situation :)

One great thing is that the family completely understands the back situation- the wife, Teresa, actually had an undiagnosed ruptured disk for over a year that required back surgery-- scary! Mine is healing really well and I really expect to be almost fully recovered by the time I start (in a month). Plus, the baby will end up sleeping about 1/3 of the time I am there so they really respect that if I need to rest during that time, no problem. I'm just blessed that they are so great, and that they never judged me for a second and saw who I am and not what I look like. I'm just thrilled. And having a job that doesn't stress me out so much will make life without Jason on weeknights far less painful.

One last note... I was always careful not to get into details about my other job, but it just was not a good place. I recognize the lack of faith on my part here, but there were times where I basically had to lie to customers and basically steal from the manufacturer, etc. It was a finger pointing place where everyone is waiting to blame someone else for any problems and I am just not cutthroat and I hid in the bathroom stall crying more times than I can count. Jason and I started thinking about health problems I have had, and we realized that on days where I had my blood pressure taken after working my rating was VERY high- upwards of the high 140's / high 90's range. Yet when I hurt my back and was all hopped up on narcotics and in crazy amounts of pain my blood pressure was always perfectly healthy- 120/80. And I haven't had any migraines since working there.

[I know this is the same topic but the paragraph REALLY needs a break :) ]Plus, the last week or two of knowing that I would be going back to work there sent me in a downward spiral healthwise and now that I don't have to go back (except for one awkward session to get my personal effects; I'm going to call my boss to officially quit probably late this week after the details of my new job are worked out and I've signed the paperwork to officially accept the position, so Jason and I will go get my stuff a week from Monday) I feel like a literal weight has been lifted and I physically (and mentally, emotionally, and even spritiually) feel SO much better.

Whew! So life is just looking up. I could gush more, but for now I'll just let it rest. We love all of you friends (who have become our family) and hope to see more of you in person :)