Risk Taking according to Ang

Yesterday was a day full of risks for me.  Please don't judge me as being too pathetic.

• Lunch at a non-drive-thru restaurant with the family:  Yesterday was Opening Day for Pony Baseball.  Our middle child is playing t-ball this year so we all piled into the Tahoe and headed over to the ball park in the morning for the Opening Day parade and Austin's first game.  After over 2 hours at a crazy ball park packed full of people we all piled back into the Tahoe and decided to have a sit down lunch at IHOP.  Now this may not seem like a big deal but for our family, it is.  Since the boys were born we have rarely done this.  When we eat out we either go through the drive-thru or choose take out.  The kids actually did pretty well.  I think it may have had something to do with the fact that they were giving out pictures of Sponge Bob Square Pants for the kids to color.  Austin will be the first to tell you that they are not allowed to watch this so I think they thought it was pretty cool to get to color a picture of him.  After the game we went home and laid the boys down. They both swore they were not tired, but I convinced them to lay in our bed to "rest" while watching a few cartoons. It was not long after this I walked in and was greeted to this picture.
  
  
  

• Driving on E:  After the game myself and three of my girlfriends had plans to go out and watch a movie and have some dinner.  I rarely go out and do this.  In fact, the last time I remember going out for dinner and a movie with a girlfriend was when I switched jobs three years ago!  On my way to pick up one of them I realized my gas gauge was very near E.  Growing up I had it put in my head that if you ever got down to half a tank it is time to gas up.  I've grown out of that mentality now, probably not a good thing, but I have.  Yesterday I was running a bit later than I wanted to so I decided to go for it.  The good news is I made it home last night and this morning the car started no problem and I made it to a gas station.

• No Fandango:  I don't go to the movies very often anymore.  I have a couple girlfriends from work who "kidnap" me from work for my birthday each year.   But other than that the only movies I see are 2 or 3 times a year with my daughter.  I always order my tickets ahead of time on Fandango and print them.  I don't want to take a chance that the movie is sold out or that I have to stand in a long line and get a bad seat or worse - I might miss the previews!  But my printer is dead right now.  We can make copies with it but no luck printing anything from our computers.  So I decided to risk it.  We got to the theater less than 30 mins before the movie started.  I got my tickets and we even made a quick trip to the snack bar for soda and popcorn.  AND I did not miss any of the previews!

• Sushi:  I make many people cringe because of how raw I like to eat my red meat - but I am NOT a sushi person.  When I worked in internal audit and traveled the group I worked with were sushi fanatics and they always drug me along with them.  I got pretty good at finding other things on the menu that I liked.  I was brave once and they fed me some sushi.  It was eel and was disgusting.  Afterwards they admited that the eel had smelled "a little funny".  Nice to know after!  But last night my friends talked me into giving sushi another try.  It's been almost 10 years, maybe my tastes will have changed.  I did order some seared tuna just in case as a fall back (red tuna of course!).  But I must say - I loved what they had me try.  I think I just might have to give sushi another try.

So - all in all - yesterday was a day of risks for me.   But it was a wonderful day full of people who are very special to me.  I really need to do this stuff more often.

Horton Hears a Who

If you are interested, I've done a post on my other blog regarding the movie Horton Hears a Who which came out today. I am planning to take my daughter to see the movie in the next week or so and will post what I think afterwards. However, I'm expecting it to be a very good movie.

If you are interested in my other post please visit it at Ang4him - Horton Hears a Who & Abortion. I also suggest visiting the Mercy Seat Blog - All Whos Who Have Blood that is Red.

New Veggie Tales Movie

Tyler had a half day at school today and one of the moms made the suggestion of us taking the kids to see the new Veggie Tale movie. Since we are doing a huge upgrade on the system at work and I'm limited on what I can do, I figured I would take a half day.

So we went to see the movie today and we both really enjoyed it. I was kind of wondering if this one would be able to tie in a lesson about God like others have. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did. In the movie (without giving anything away) it teaches that even when the King (God) is away (or seems to be), His help is always with you. It teaches that we can trust the King to provide for us and we can rely on Him, His strength and His wisdom.

Tyler and I talked about these things on the way home and how the things in the movie apply to our relationship with God as our Father and our King.

Here is a trailer if you are interested in seeing it.

The Golden Compass

I had seen this book before and actually almost picked it up a couple times. After doing some research, I am now glad I did not. This is the first book of a trilogy (His Dark Materials) by Phillip Pullman, an avowed aethist. I don't have a problem necessarily with a book written by an aethist, it is his purpose for these books that concerns me. Especially since the first book (Golden Compass, known as Northern Lights in Britian) is now being made into a movie.

Phillip has been very upfront about his beliefs and his intention to "kill God" in the minds of children. The movie which is scheduled to be out the beginning of December and stars Nicole Kidman has been toned down according to critics. This is an attempt to draw in children and their parents in hopes that they will request the books for Christmas. From my research each book gets worse (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass).

The more research I do regarding this trilogy series the more I'm convinced this is not something I want my children watching or reading. In the end, every parent needs to make their own decisions, but I thought it would be good to share with all the parents who read my blog some items about this book/movie which the entertainment news surrounding the movie is not revealing.

The main little girl of the book, Lyra has a companion throughout the book, a shape-shifting daemon named Pantalaimon who goes by the nickname Pan. This is just one of many things that concerns me. According to one review

Second, the device of the daemons, animal-shaped companions to all human beings in Pullman’s universe, is brilliant. The daemon concept is marvelously conceived and carried out. Pullman brings his readers to believe in daemons as an integral part of his characters’ lives, to the point that we are actually shocked when we learn that the villains have been separating children from their daemons.

These sound too much like "spirit guides" to me. Another item of concern is the Oblation Board.

I've listed a few links below and you can do your own google/yahoo search as well. Even reviews which are favorable make mentions of things that raise alarms for me. For being an aethist, there appears to be an awful lot of ties to the occult in these books.

Snopes - The Golden Compass

Daemon - Wikipedia

Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club Review

Northern Lights - Wikipedia

Phillip Pullman - Wikipedia

Bridge to the Stars - View on Religion - once again a site that recommends the books, however this page is very insightful.

As a parent I would suggest you look into this yourself to make a decision prior to allowing your children to watch the upcoming movie or read the books.