Hoarding Peanuts

You may have read the title of this and wondered exactly what I was talking about. I'm thinking of starting a running joke similar to the Jeff Foxworthy "You may be a Redneck if..." but titling it "You may travel too much if..." and one of responses would be that you hoard peanuts.

I told Jason the other day that if I ever am cutting it close on a flight and don't have time to grab something to eat, I know that I can get a somewhat filling snack for free on the airplane if I opt for tomato juice and peanuts (the typical size on Delta is .42 oz per package and some of the flight attendants give you 3 bags if you look really desperate!). His response was something along the lines of "you travel too much..."

But honestly, I rarely find myself without a couple of bags of peanuts with me...you just never know when you are going to be stuck somewhere with the only eating options of cash-only vending machines (I never seem to have cash when I need it!) or McDonalds! I think I'd rather eat ten .42 oz bags of peanuts!

Church Shopping

As many of you know, one of our top priorities when moving to Colorado was to find a church to attend. In addition to much-needed spiritual guidance, we were hoping that a church would provide us with a place to plug into the community and meet like-minded people. However, church shopping is hard work! We both grew up in smallish churches and had really enjoyed the couple of months at Eagle Brook in Minnesota before we moved to Colorado, so finding something that we were comfortable with that felt familiar didn't seem like it would be that difficult! There are loads of churches in the Colorado Springs area and many Christian-based organizations are headquartered there, including Focus on the Family and Compassion International, to name a few.

Over the course of several months, we visited quite a few churches - Jason more than me since he was there more often than I was. From the tiny Christian Reformed church where kids run around in "Dordt" sweatshirts (you'll understand this comment if you're Dutch!) and they ask the one visitor to stand and introduce himself to mega churches with thousands of attendees, we experimented with a variety of church sizes. From full choirs during the praise time to an "Earthy" lady with an acoustic guitar, we experienced all sorts of worship styles. From DVDs to in-person visitors who brought homeade bread, we were welcomed in very different ways... And at one point, I think we may have put one on our short list because it had comfortable chairs! (We must have been getting desperate at that point.)

However, I am happy to report that we have started attending Woodmen Valley Chapel (check it out at http://www.woodmenvalley.org/). While it may be a bit bigger than we prefer and the pastor may speak via satellite on occasion, all in all, we are excited to have a church to call home and to start to fellowship with others through their small group ministry. Like so many of the things we've done in our first 6 months of marriage, church shopping was a fun, albeit stressful exercise that taught us more about each other and helped us experience God's guidance in our lives to a greater extent.