Mother's Day: A Cyber-Space Scrapbook

Whoever came up with Mother's Day has a terrible sense of timing.  In 2007, Mother's Day fell on a graduation day: namely, Kyle's graduation day, my mother's first-born.

Talk about your throw-back Thursdays!  And no, I did not attend my big brother's High School graduation dressed as a Bulgarian Colonel: the band plays for commencement ceremonies, and that year we wore our marching uniforms.

Two years later, I graduated on Mother's Day!

Along with my best friend and one of Mom's many Rent-a-Kids, because my mom has more than enough love to go around!  And clearly, we weren't proficient at selfies quite yet back in 2009.

What do you think, Ken?  Are you going to keep up the tradition?

Since I'm not in this picture, I feel no need to defend it.  Personally, I'd say it speaks for itself!  Besides, what are big sisters for?

This year, Mother's Day falls on the day before Finals Week.  Maybe that's more the University of Iowa's bad than the founder of Mother's Day's, but either way, the timing is less than ideal.  Throw in there two more necessary trips home this month, and I just wasn't going to make it out to Nebraska for Mother's Day.

The Pancake Family had a similar issue in 2012.  So what's the most rational way to handle such a problem?

Kidnap, of course!!!

My dad, brothers, and sister-in-law got her out of the state and all the way to the first rest-stop on I-80 before she figured out that she was indeed headed for Iowa City to see me instead of Wahoo to go camping!

Last year, Mother's Day's timing turned out pretty cool though:

This year, my Mamma's first grandchild looks more like this:

Here's to hoping for more grandchildren to come, right Grandma Cakes?

But there's no new baby this year, and unfortunately there could be no kidnapping plot either, because now that Mom only has one more kid to kick out of the house (a fact that Dad might be slightly more excited about than Mom), she's still taking care of people.  Only now, instead of taking care of the generation that will follow her, she's taking care of the generation that came before her.

Happy Mother's Day to you too, Mema!

So this weekend, we have a slight problem: while Mom is in Nebraska taking care of people, I'm in Iowa City...

... Doing this.

Therefore, I must send my shout-out to my Mommy in this cyber-space scrap-book from four hours away, because she raised a bird that had to stretch her wings and fly.  But don't worry Mamma, you still have one little birdie left in your nest:

Well... okay, let's be honest: I'd worry if I were you!

So this is just to say that Mamma Bear: You Rock!  First you had this guy, who thought that he was just too cool for school (or hugs from his obnoxious little sister):

But look where he is now!

Maybe he can't quite figure out what a razor is actually for yet, but man does he make cute babies, right?!

And then you've brought this kid from here:

 To here:

 And we all know he's headed places!  (And don't worry if he disappears towards the end of his college career: he's just tied up in my closet to ensure that I get my Bachelor's first!)

You've also gained a second daughter:

 And may I say one more time: she and your son make REALLY CUTE BABIES!!!

My Mamma's Mamma!  Happy Mother's Day to you too, Grandma!

And here you are (or there you are... I'm typing this in Iowa, but you're reading it in Nebraska, so is it here or there?  I love technology!), still being a Super Woman, taking care of people, because your heart is big enough to handle more than most mere mortals!

And hey, I haven't turned out half-bad either, if I do say so myself!

I love you, Mamma!  Thank you for raising me, and for showing me what the nurturing heart of a woman is supposed to look like.  I'm proud of you!  I wish I could be in the same state as you for Mother's Day.  I hope you have a great day with our guys!  Make sure to snuggle with your Grandson, and I will see you next week!

Love,
Your Dolly

Today, at the Foot of the Cross

Happy Good Friday, everyone!  I know, I know, this is the dark, somber, and perhaps slightly awkward part of Holy Week.  It's the day Jesus was crucified as a criminal on a cross, the day He died.  Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, His own people rejected him, and His disciples thought that it was over and all they had lived for was lost.  Not exactly the kind of day to party about.

But the cool part for us is that we know why it had to be this way.  We know that this was God's plan all along.  This was His divine design to redeem a people who had rejected Him since Eden, because He loves us.  Unconditionally, He loves us.  We can look back and see how every prophecy in the Old Testament about the Messiah that was to come and save the world was fulfilled in Christ's life and death...

And His resurrection.  Because another cool part is this: we know how the story ends.  We know that Christ didn't stop with death, but conquered death, passed through it, and came out on the other side as the Victor, the  Conqueror who lives in us today.

So as I sit at the foot of the cross today, yes, it is somber and painful.  It's difficult to see the Man who loves me with a perfect, flawless, inconceivable love wearing my sin and taking my death.  It's hard to see Him where I should be.  But sitting here at the foot of the cross today, I know that He's doing what I can't do.  I know He is everything I can't be.  He is strong where I am weak, and He has power where I am helpless.

I had a debt that I could not pay on my own.  I should've been found guilty, I deserved death, and I didn't belong in the presence of such overwhelming glory of a perfect God.  But Jesus came in before I even knew Him and said, "I know what she is, I know what she's done, and I know what she owes, but I love her.  I will take her debt, I will cover her shortcomings, and I will take her place."

Oh yes, sitting at the cross today, I know the weight of what happened the day that the Lover of my soul died.  But I also know that I'll see Him again three days from now in the garden, and He'll call me by my name, and even after all of the pain, all of the shame, even death, He'll still love me.  Here at the foot of the cross today, I'm not alone.  I'm not condemned.  I'm not worthless.

I am cared for.  I am redeemed.  I am loved.

Adventures in Kansas City: A Summary in Pictures

Last year, a friend of mine and I celebrated Spring Break by going to Chicago.  This year, we decided that taking a road trip together was a wonderful tradition, so this year we went to Kansas City!  Kansas City is closer to Omaha than Iowa City, so I drove home the day before and got to spend a little time with my parents the night before we left, which is always a plus!  I then discovered on the way out the door to go pick Sami up that I forgot my debit card at home... In Iowa City.  So we had an hour detour to the bank which started off with "Hey, I need some cash please," and ended with "You qualify for this, this, and this, and we can do this, and I'm going to reverse these fees for you, too!"  So with my financial life all organized and stuff, we set off!

Turns out driving through Missouri is MUCH more interesting than driving across Iowa!  And driving with a friend helps, too!  As I was the wheel-man this year, I don't have any pictures from the drive, but it was exciting to spend some interstate-time looking at hills and stuff for once instead of corn.

Our first stop was Waffle House.  I'd never been there before, and it was a whole lot of food for not a lot of money, which was wonderful!  (We are both college students: the key word this trip was "free!")

From there, we went to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum... which was FREE!  And also huge, and epic.  Observe:

Frederic Edwin Church, Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, 1870

I don't remember what this painting was called or anything, I just wanted the dress!  Like, seriously, can I please get married in this dress?!

Jacob C. Ward, Natural Bridge, Virginia, 1835

"The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real-- it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live."

I don't know what this was all about, they were just hangin' out in front of the museum!

We stayed with my friend's aunt and uncle, who were very sweet and took great care of us!  We all went to a BBQ joint called Jack Stack's.  It was crazy busy when we got there, and after we were seated and they took our order, it was taking a long time, but we were having a great time chatting and stuff.  Then the manager came to our table and said, "Well, I have good news and bad news.  The bad news, you already know, is that your food is taking way too long.  We had a mix-up in the kitchen, but the good news is that your food will be out soon, and your dinner is on us tonight!"  So all four of us had really yummy food totally for free!

One of our goals for this trip was to see how many of Kansas City's fountains we could take pictures of.  Unfortunately, it was still kind of cold, and so most of the fountains didn't have water in them yet.  So on our way out to our Saturday adventures, we saw this one (pictured below) and said "Oooh, a fountain!  With water in it!  We have to stop and take a picture!"  So we did :)

We then made a stop at WalMart for cheap sandwich-makin's for lunch (a regular WalMart, not a Super WalMart!  Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've been in one of those lil' baby WalMarts?!  That was so sweetly nostalgic!  Anyway...), and then we went to the Kansas City Zoo!  I may have been raised with the Henry Doorly, but this zoo was awesome in its own right!

Sunbathing in fifty degree weather... Clearly, this otter lives in the Midwest!

What were all of their peacocks doing in cages?!

Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?

Happy camel!

While their peacocks may have been in cages, their kangaroos weren't!  We were worried at first when we saw the first two running around loose, but then we found that they weren't fenced in at all, and they had a sign asking us to stay on the path, because the animals were out and about!

I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine!  And he shall be my Squishy!

While they maybe didn't have as many different kinds of animals as the Henry Doorly, they had more of the animals that they did have.  For instance, they didn't have three different breeds of lions, they had five or six of the same kind of lion, so they could have a bunch more space and a bunch more friends and they were all happier!  Plus they had happy camels... And free kangaroos.  It was awesome!

From there we went to the Crown Center, where we got lost in an underground parking garage again, because I guess that's a crucial part of our spring break tradition!

We spent the evening wandering around a shopping plaza near my friend's aunt and uncle's place.  We took pictures of the awesome buildings and the fountains (both with and without water), and then we did a lil' shopping!

That night for dinner, we went to a place called Brio.  It was FANTASTIC!!!  I highly recommend it!  It looked super-duper fancy, so when we went in we felt slightly under-dressed, but it wasn't priced any worse than Applebees.  We didn't wait very long for a table, and the waiter spent more time waiting for us to make up our minds and answering our questions than we spent waiting on him.  And on top of the excellent service and agreeable prices, the food was delicioius (as was the Mojito, because it was spring break, so I went a little crazy!)!

I can't believe I ate the whole thing!!!

Then we went back to the house and colored... Because we're college kids who spent an hour in the Crayola store at the Crown Center!  The next morning, we hit up one more mall for a little more shopping where I spent twenty bucks on a shirt, since I only go shopping maybe once a year, so I can go a little crazy, right?

So I can mark another city off of the map, and I enjoyed another trip with an awesome friend!  Who knows where our adventures will take us next year!