I'm sure most everyone reading this blog has heard of Sherwood Picture's latest movie, Fireproof. Hopefully you've all gone and seen it too . Since I was gone last weekend I had to wait a while to watch it, but we finally went to see it this past Tuesday. My initial reaction was WOW.
Now, for those of you who thought Facing the Giants was poorly made and cheesy, I might be slightly biased. I personally loved that movie, yes, even with bad acting at times. I loved it for the impact that it could and I believe will have on independent Christian films.
But anyway, back to Fireproof. This movie surpassed Facing the Giants in virtually every category, and it went far beyond what their previous films had done. Overall the acting was very well done except for just a few spots. The story was fantastic! I won't spoil any of it on here, but it was done so well, I can't even begin to say how much I enjoyed it. Coming from a movie soundtrack fanatic, I thought that the music was great also.
Here's a short clip from the actual movie (don't watch if you don't want spoilers!) with one of the songs that I loved...
Fireproof has a message that was so unlike anything the mainstream media throws at us constantly. The story was touching, and was very applicable to my own life even without being married. Why? Well, I've had so many struggles in how I treat others, and as Caleb's father is guiding him through trying to teach him how to love his wife all of the time even if she doesn't respond the way he wants I was thinking about myself the whole time. So often I've felt like saying, "Well, I could treat my sister better, if she wouldn't be so stubborn." or, "I can't love her until she says she's sorry." I'm sure the same could be said about me as well on the flip side of that. Responding to challenges in relationships in a Christ-like way was very convicting for me.
And of course, the kissing scene . I'm assuming most everyone heard about that as well, but just in case you didn't...Kirk Cameron made a commitment never to kiss another woman on screen other than his wife. So, at the very end of the movie when the characters kiss, it's actually his wife on screen. That in and of itself was enough for me to love this movie!
If you haven't had a chance to go, I would strongly encourage you to take the time and go support this movie in theatres. It's done surprisingly well, so maybe it will stick around in theatres for a while longer. Go see it, you won't be disappointed!
Yeah, I'm starting to figure this out. Juggling a senior year in high school, individual music practice/group practice, and team policy debate kind of sucks the time out of your life. But you know what? I'm surviving! I'm actually getting things accomplished this year! Yay Toni! Yay!!! Ooookay, enough of that.
Last week most of our spare time was spent running, jumping into the back of a pickup truck, bagging thousands of phonebooks, and getting blisters on my toes. Yup, we dropped phonebooks for a whole week. I never knew where everyone lived around here, but now I do. We bagged thousands and thousands and....ok, maybe it wasn't that many, but it was several thousand phonebooks. I saw some really really nice areas of town and some really, REALLY scary parts of town too. It was an interesting overview of the area I live in to say the least. In the process I almost fell off the tailgate of my dad's pickup several times while we were driving, I nearly broke my thumb, and I got into a fight with some sticky weeds that got all over me one night.
There were enough phonebooks to build a couple of thrones on the back patio
Look at that concentration! I could go into the "phonebook bagging 101" teaching profession.
This was just one of the several times we filled up the back of the truck--there was plenty to go around.
While trying to get all of the route done by our deadline, I was gettting ready to go out of town for a few days. Several ARCers had the chance to drive down to a newly-started club and put on another one day workshop and then participate in a Round Robin the next day with four rounds. Both were a big success! The workshop went great--there were about 25-30 students there, eager to learn and a lot of fun to work with. One of my favorite parts of the day was a practice debate round with the purpose of practicing flowing. We had two teams present a real full length debate round, and in between each speech the teachers would go around the room and check everyone's flowsheets and give a pointer or two on how to improve. I learned a lot myself .
Another fun aspect of the trip was that I got to go down and stay with Charity and Kathryn Grace. The three of us girls were adopted by an amazing host family who I loved getting to know better. They also had the prettiest cat, not like it mattered, but hey, it's worth mentioning right?
Finally, Saturday was upon us. *Insert scary intense music* Every year around this time I start to panic about debate again. Maybe I forgot how to do it over the summer??? What if I can't fill up my time??? Help!!!
Well, by lunch time I was having a blast. Yeah, I'm a little rusty, and I have a TON of research to do, but we were okay. All of the rounds went great, and we ended up going 4-0 which was a nice surprise. In the process I learned that I can't translate numbers very well (I like billions better than millions). I also learned that I need to bring water bottles (duh, I knew that, I just didn't for some stupid reason). I listened to Brian using blisters as an analogy (very creative). And I decided that I really like India (or had I already decided that?). I'm really starting to get excited about the coming year in debate, I think it's going to be a blast! (and yes Paul, you can say I told you so, or something along those lines).
Unfortunately since I was so busy the whole time, I took a grand total of 10 pictures *major gasp* and none of them were really any good, so here's just one to sum the whole experience up...
And there you have it folks, courtesy of Mrs. Morgan. I think it should become the new ARC mascot.
Oh, big newsflash--Toni is now on Facebook. Happiness.
And last but not least, I also learned since I posted last that Patti can kill you in a game of Pick-up-Sticks and that I stink at the game.
Last night we were able to have a bunch of friends over--or as my dad put it, we had dinner so that Josh and Paul could meet each other . Well, I guess there was more reason than that, maybe we just like having people over, I don't know. Anyway, whatever the reason, we had a lot of fun.
We messed around with Josh's camera contraption.
And played Ultimate Frisbee (pretty much the only sport I can semi-play).
We also played Apples to Apples and found out that Michael's cards described him well.
And finally, we took a group picture to prove that we had fun.
Oh, and since I posted something about everyone else's birthdays, I realized that I had forgotten two very special people...
Katy and Hannah had their birthdays last week...I just neglected posting about it . Happy birthday girls! Even though I know we don't always get along, I love you a lot!!!
I had forgotten for a few hours that today was 9/11, till we drove past the gigantic flag in town that was at half staff. Every year it amazes me how long ago, and yet how recent this date seems in my memory.
So, where were you on 9/11?
I was in Long Beach, California, in bed since it was so early there. We had a TV in the house, but we hardly ever watched anything broadcast, it was just for videos. So, it was weird to me to hear the TV on so early in the morning, especially since my parents were listening to the news. Keep in mind that at this point, I had just turned 11, and was virtually oblivious to current events although I was slightly clued in to the election the previous year.
When I first saw the TV, it took me awhile to figure out what was happening. I remember the initial reaction I had when I finally realized that this wasn't an accident--this was on purpose. Of course, my next thought was, "We're next!" If Washington D.C. and New York City had already been hit, logically Los Angeles would be pretty high up on your next hit list.
My family was glued to the TV the entire day. My little brother Michael was just over a year old at the time, and was still having a ton of health problems so it wasn't unusual for us to end up at the doctor's office every week or so. To my dismay my mom informed us that we had to go to one of his appointments that morning. I was so scared, I didn't even want to leave the house. I still remember the dead silence in the car while we drove there.
About 3 and 1/2 years later, while we were on our big, 8 month long trip, my mom, Beth and I were able to visit NYC for just a few hours. One of the few places we made sure to stop at was Ground Zero. When we finally got there, it was so strange, because in some ways it looked like time had stood still. The buildings all around the Twin Towers were still blackened and had boarded up windows.
It's still hard to believe that 7 whole years have gone by since that horrible day. In some ways to me it seems like much longer, but at the same time it still seems like yesterday.
It's also so sad when you realize how much in America is still the same. I remember the next Sunday in my Bible class how we were discussing if this was a wake up call to America. I thought that it was, and at that point it seemed as though we were responding well to it in my eleven-year-old eyes. Didn't you see all those people praying on TV? How everyone is getting along better now? How so much of what we worry about in life just doesn't seem as important?
Well, here we are, 7 years after the fact. Not much has changed. In Walk Through the Bible, the keyword assigned to the book of Judges in the Old Testament is "Cycles", because the Israelites were in a continual cycle of God's blessing, then apathy, then punishment, then repentance, then blessing, and over and over and over again.
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
Are things in America hopeless? No, of course not. But, are we humbling ourselves, praying and seeking, and turning from wickedness?
I'm sitting here updating, wondering why I'm updating when I should really be in bed. Well, for now you can just ignore that, and be glad I'm doing it, right?
Yesterday just about everyone in my family got lumped together in one big birthday outing and went ice skating. We had a ton of fun, and had a lot of people who came along with us.
"Help us!!!"
Christina doing her best Michelle Kwan impression.
Alex and I--notice our matching sweatshirts???
Christina and I, very happy
The whole group on the ice. Needless to say, we were pretty much the only people on the rink.
Today was the Austin Rhetoric Club's One Day Workshop, and in my humble opinion, I think it went really well. I taught Stock Issues and Logical Fallacies with my debate partner, Brian (who agreed to put up with me for a year--yay!). Anyway, I think that this might have been the biggest workshop so far, which is always nice. We had around 10 students in each group who rotated through 3 classes each flight. I was really wondering this morning if I would make it, since we stayed at ARC late last night and I got up at five this morning. But, as the day wore on, I figured out that I would survive. On a side note, I came away $10 richer from a speech competition that the student teachers did. I did impromptu in front of everyone with a pretty horrible topic from Gov. Sarah Palin. Drumroll please...
"The only difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom is lipstick."
I figured out afterwards that I wasn't really on topic. But, at least I had something to say.
On a happy note, my dear friend Lydia finally got home today *starts singing the hallelujah chorus*.
Hello! I'm an eighteen year old high school student who LOVES being homeschooled! I'm a violinist who prefers Irish fiddling, and I love to talk. Well, to be more specific, I love to give speeches and debate in the NCFCA. Hope you enjoy your stay here!
. Since I was gone last weekend I had to wait a while to watch it, but we finally went to see it this past Tuesday. My initial reaction was WOW.
. I'm assuming most everyone heard about that as well, but just in case you didn't...Kirk Cameron made a commitment never to kiss another woman on screen other than his wife. So, at the very end of the movie when the characters kiss, it's actually his wife on screen. That in and of itself was enough for me to love this movie!
There were enough phonebooks to build a couple of thrones on the back patio
Look at that concentration! I could go into the "phonebook bagging 101" teaching profession.
This was just one of the several times we filled up the back of the truck--there was plenty to go around.
. Happy birthday girls! Even though I know we don't always get along, I love you a lot!!!
"Help us!!!"
Christina doing her best Michelle Kwan impression.
Alex and I--notice our matching sweatshirts???
Christina and I, very happy
The whole group on the ice. Needless to say, we were pretty much the only people on the rink.
