just the teeny, tiny tip of the iceberg

I just wanted to let you guys know about this great "bundle" featuring just one of the dozens of new products introduced at Convention. It's priced at only $50 in August (it regularly retails for $63). Just see your Creative Memories Consultant for details or click HERE to hunt one down!

i am up WAY TOO LATE but just have to post this lovely shot

i guess there is more to a scrapbooking convention than good food and new products

I will have to say this was nearly an impossible capture because dozens of Creative Memories Consultants kept trying to "help" me with the shot! When I shared the fact that I was intentionally trying to capture an arms-length self-portrait, you should have seen the puzzled looks!

In case you were wondering, the Greco-Roman theme was part of our closing banquet. And yes, these are real.

I guess you could say we T.P.'d the Minneapolis Convention Center.

It was quite a day. There was so much INFORMATION and so many NEW PRODUCTS - I can hardly keep it straight. I'll be sending out an email on Monday with all of the exciting details (if you'd like to be added to the list, let me know). There is stuff in the way of memorabilia storage and display, digital delights galore, products to decorate your WALLS, holiday items, and so much more.

Of course, there were also several inspiring heart stories. I was especially touched by this one:

Corinne is our 8-yr. old daughter, the youngest of 5 biological children. In May, 2006 (at 6 yrs. old) we noticed that she was favoring her right leg when she ran, resulting in a noticeable limp. After several initial physician visits, it was determined that Corinne had femoral neuropathy (the femoral nerve was not firing, resulting in an inability to use her right quadricep). At the time, we believed it was most likely caused by a severe "charlie horse" she received in March. We were told to expect a somewhat lengthy recovery period, but that the nerve likely would recover on its own.

After many specialists over the next 2 months, a second pediatric neurologist at Gillette Children's Hospital (Dr. Jarrar) suspected that there was more to the problem. An MRI was ordered, and a large tumor was identified on Wed., Sept. 11. The next morning we met with an oncologist, and the following Monday the tumor was biopsied. After numerous other diagnostic and lab tests, the physicians concluded that she had a soft tissue Ewing's sarcoma. We rejoiced in finding out that the tumor was localized and had not metastisized into the bone or bone marrow. On Sept 22, she began chemotherapy to shrink the tumor. On December 18, a team of surgeons at St. Mary's Hospital/Mayo Clinic successfully resected the tumor and performed a rare nerve graft (from the sural nerves behind both calves) to repair the femoral nerve that was severed. We are praying that she will recover significant use of her quadricep over the next year or so, but she compensates so well that no one watching her walk would notice her weakness.

During Corinne's treatment, God enabled us to meet a 10-year-old boy named Victor undergoing cancer treatment. He was in foster care but almost always alone. The Lord drew our hearts to Victor in an unmistakable way. God moved our hearts to become foster parents to Victor, and shortly after, we found out his current foster parents would no longer be able to care for him, that he had the same cancer as Corinne, that it was located in the same place in his body, and that he was on the exact same 'cycle' of treatment as Corinne.

Corinne and Victor had their last 3 cycles of chemotherapy in connecting hospital rooms. They both finished their last bag of chemotherapy within a half hour of each other in July, 2007. Victor is now our adopted son.

In April 2008 routine scans showed that Victor's cancer had returned in his femur (leg), a tiny spot on his spine and a lymph node in his neck. So he is once again doing chemotherapy, this time as one of six children in the nation enrolled in a clinical trial to test out a promising new drug combination.

We would covet your prayers for Corinne and Victor and our family as we walk down a path that we did not choose, but that God chose for us. The Bible tells us over and over again that God is sovereign, and that all of His purposes will be accomplished. We do not know (and will not know) how God is using these cancers and our experience to further His kingdom, but we "rejoice in our present suffering", trusting Him to provide just what we need, when we need it. He is our portion ... and we are fully satisfied in Him. Thank you for helping us to walk by faith on this path.

The above was taken from the Watters' Caringbridge website, which is located HERE.)

As you can imagine, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Click HERE to read a recent Kare 11 News story regarding their incredible testimony of love and hope, click HERE for the related video.

I was so happy to hear that come January, CM will be partnering with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help bless more families like the Watters.

I can't wait.

Bittersweet Memories

VeggieTales and I go way back. WAAAAAY back. My kids are older now and I don't see this beloved food group as often but my heart warms at the sight of them.

By the way, did Larry ever find his hairbrush?

I'll never forget the day one of the kids arrived home from preschool with a piece of throughtfully created artwork. If I remember correctly, it involved Junior Asparagus having some sort of mishap with a knife. (True, this can happen with veggies.) The "blood drips" perhaps took it a step far.

I thought we would surely end up with a visit from a social worker that year. Anyways, I digress. VeggieTales Live is coming to Hosanna! in October. Click HERE for ticket information.

Keep the knives at home.

I stand corrected.

I arrived home from my first night of Convention to find this:

Apparently, Best Buy had a sale which made it impossible to resist.

put on those thinking caps!

So between working out the details of our family band and contemplating the CM Convention menu, I've also been working on an entry concerning postmodernism. Go figure.

Postmodernism is a worldview. Dictionary.com defines worldview as:

• The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.
• A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.

Everyone has a worldview. A worldview is often used synonymously with philosophy or belief system, it is what reality is perceived to be. Because the prevailing worldview forms the basis of the way life is ordered and conducted in a society, an individual frequently accepts that worldview without examination. And, one worldview in vogue in the western world today is postmodernism.

If all of this is just a little TMI this early in the morning, perhaps this will help:

While looking into things a little further, I stumbled upon this blurb on a popular "Po-Mo" website:

It is important to discuss how definitions is [sic] approached from a postmodern perspective. First, as should be evident, there are no universal definitions of any particular word. Meanings are socially constructed...

Whaaat? I wonder how Dictionary.com feels about that. Or Merriam-Webster.

Anyway, one of the presuppositions inherent in the postmodern worldview is that the quest for truth is a lost cause. Postmodernists argue that objective, universal, knowable truth is mythical. Therefore, if we make the mistake of claiming to know the truth, we are "deluded" at best and "dangerous" at worst.

Ouch. Though this does shed some light on perhaps why Christianity is under attack these days. The Bible has an awful lot to say about truth:

Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate for Yourself, [make holy] by Truth; Your Word is Truth. John 17:17

Assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as [all] Truth is in Jesus [embodied and personified in Him]. Ephesians 4:21

And now, O Lord God, you are God, and Your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 2 Samuel 7:28

You are near, O Lord [nearer to me than my foes], and all Your commandments are truth. Psalm 119:151

The sum of Your word is truth [the total and full meaning of all Your individual precepts]; and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever. Psalm 119:160

And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. John 8:32

Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me. John 14:6

For we can do nothing against the Truth [not serve any party or personal interest], but only for the Truth [which is the Gospel]. 2 Corinthians 13:8

If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts]. 1 John 1:8

And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth. John 1:14

Pilate said to Him, Then You are a king? Jesus answered, You say it! [You speak correctly!] For I am a King. [Certainly I am King!] This is why I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth [who is a friend of the Truth, who belongs to the Truth] hears and listens to My voice. Pilate said to Him, What is Truth? John 18:37-38a

For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold. And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions. 2 Timothy 4:3-4

All of the verses above are from the Amplified Bible (you can learn more about the different Bible versions HERE).

I guess it's time to grab another cup of coffee.