This was a special trip for Madi! Not only did she get to eat dinner with the Disney Princesses, she went to a boutique where they did her nails & fixed her hair up like a princess. Here's the funny part, as we were pulling out of the parking lot I hear Madi say the weirdest thing. She turns to Amber and says, Mom, can I have my "rash". Amber and I look at each other like... What?!? Amber turns around and Madi is pointing to her pink "sash" that she got earlier at the Princess Boutique. We thought it was pretty funny!
The first time was with Mom. The second time was with Dad! I had so much fun riding it with her! She had her eyes open as we were leaving the station... then she opened them again as we were pulling back in. I don't even think she knows there's a 25ft man eating Yeti at the end of the ride!I am sitting in the hotel lobby right now because I can't get a signal in our hotel room (thanks for the free WiFi, but if I can't pick up a signal, it doesn't help much). The trip down here was wonderful! I must have heard Lily give a scream-o "No" a hundred times!! After 30 minutes of screaming she fell asleep. Jekyll and Hyde, when she woke up she was an angel!
After hitting lunch at Chick-Fil-A, we went to MGM (what's now called Hollywood Studios). On a ride where you experience the movies in some sort of boat, Lily decided to throw her pacifier out of the boat (awesome, now we're down to one life saver). Had to make a quick stop at Walgreens on the way home for a few more. Pacifiers make life so much easier!
While at Walgreens, Amber met a former student she taught a few years back. When we lived here 6 years ago, she taught 8th grade at a public middle school here on the westside (just can't get away from the westside).
Tomorrow we hit the Magic Kingdom! Madi's favorite ride of all time is Thunder Mountain Railroad. As we were leaving MGM today she had a sad look on her face... I thought, "Dude, your at Disney! How can you have a sad face?" (If your a parent I understand, but a 4 year old?!). She said, "I didn't get to ride Thunder Mountain". Needless to say she is excited to be able to ride it tomorrow. It's 11:40pm - I'm out, big day tomorrow...
This weekend we'll be hanging out with some of our friends in Orlando. We will be hanging out with friends of Promiseland and some friends who make my kids go nuts when they see them! This is our last chance to go to Disney as a family this year (we bought passes a year ago). I remember the first time we took Madi and Lily, how their faces light up! That never gets old, I love getting away with the four of us!! There's not many things I like more than hanging with my kids at Disney! Hopefully we'll be making a lot of memories this weekend!
On March 18th Amber and I will celebrate being married for 8 years. Our schedule doesn't give us a free weekend until July, so we went and celebrated this past Thursday and Friday night. We stayed at Disney's Port Orleans. This is the view from our hotel room. The first night we traveled to The Polynesian Resort to eat at Ohana's. It was sort of a Brazilian steakhouse with a Hawaiian atmosphere; pretty good food. Following the hostess, we ended up at a table for two right by the window overlooking the water. We had a perfect view of Cinderella's Castle and were able to watch the fireworks as we finished up dinner. We left there and walked around Downtown Disney. The next morning we both woke up at 5:30
. I couldn't get back to sleep so I grabbed my bible, a cup of coffee, and headed for the restaurant. It was like a Mardi Gras theme, there were things hanging from the walls and ceiling. It wasn't a good atmosphere for someone with ADD trying to read the bible.
We went to all four parks in one day, didn't ride many rides just a few roller coasters. Walking around in Animal Kingdom we both come to the conclusion that Disney is more fun with the kids. We did have a great time riding Mt. Everest!! I took this picture with my phone as we climbed to the top. Going backwards in the dark before changing directions for one big drop, it's easily one of our favorite roller coasters! We waited to ride in the front. We had so much fun, we immediately got back in line to ride in the front again! Knowing where the photo is taken on the last drop, Amber and I gave the camera an anniversary pose. That night we went back to Downtown Disney and ate sushi and a bar-b-q pizza (I 
know - great combination!). Amber hates fish, but ate a piece of sushi and actually liked it. After dinner, we hopped in the truck and drove to Disney's Boardwalk. We ended the night with espresso and a rich piece of chocolate cake as we sat at a table outside overlooking the water.
We had a wonderful time, last year was the first time we got away just by ourselves. Next year, I hope to try and get away just the two of us again. I think it's important to take time together to cultivate your relationship with the spouse God gave you. I enjoyed the time together and thank God for giving me such a wonderful wife.
We had a great time at Disney with the Mclendon's! As always we had some great family time. Here are some highlights of our short trip:
On the way down everyone was excited! On the way back, it was oddly quiet... I turned around and wondered why they were being so well behaved:
Walking thru the store Madi had her blanket. When we went to leave, we didn't have it. We looked all over that store for a 36inch green blanket! All over! Every aisle! Every clothing stand! Amber called me from the car and said, "Just forget it, we need to leave". We had been looking for it for a while. Leaving the store, I said a short prayer out of frustration, "God, show me where that blanket is." I immediately looked to my left and saw a little green blanket on a table. That was nothing profound, but it was a small faith builder. Does God care about a little green blanket? Probably not, but he does care about my trust in Him. That simple, seemingly insignificant prayer, turned out to be quite significant for me! 
I did it! I ate some cranberry sauce today. If you were in the Thanksgiving service Tuesday night you found out that cranberry sauce and I don't get along- yuck! As I looked across the spread of all the food today that I was thankful for... there it was, cranberry sauce. I remembered all the people that raised their hands Tuesday night saying that they liked it. Now, this was the giggly stuff out of a can, you know the stuff with the flavor ridges. Well I decided to eat a little. Here's a picture of me trying to do it. It was a success, down the hatch. Still gross, nonetheless I kept it down. Seriously, what do ya'll see in that stuff?!?
Ok, so the traffic wasn't so bad, what made the trip so long was the fact that we had a one year old and a four year old. Between potty breaks, lunch, potty breaks,stopping for coffee, and potty breaks -what was supposed to be a five hour trip turned into a seven hour trip. About every hour for the first three hours Madi would ask, "Are we were almost there?" All I could reply was that, "We're getting closer!" Then she would say, "Ok, well tell me when you see their house." On the last 45 minutes of th
e trip, I promise Madi asked those same questions every 3.5 minutes. Again, all I could say was, "We're getting closer!" When we pulled in the driveway we were all ready to get out! After Dinner, Grandaddy pulled out this crawling tube. Here are a couple of shots of the girls - yeah this is my other daughter Lily. I have been getting ragged by some of you that all I put on here is pictures of Madi. So, here's one of Lily. They had a ball in that thing! 
This morning we are loading up the van and heading to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. I turned on the TV this morning and the topic was traffic! They tell us, "whether your traveling the skyways or the highways today you will run into congestion." Gotta love that! I hope it won't be like this!!! Anyways, please pray for us and others as they travel for the Thanksgiving holidays. Hope everyone has a...
Friday and Saturday I had a wonderful weekend with Amber and the kids at Disney (to clear things up, yes that is a Minnie Mouse doll in my hand, Madi made me hold it for the picture). As we were leaving on Saturday afternoon, I saw a minivan that had written on the windows in shoe polish, "Headed to the happiest place on earth!" You have to agree Disney is pretty magical. Upon checking into our hotel Friday afternoon I looked over at another desk registrar and saw the clerk giving a Disney sticker to one of the children in line. Madi and Lily were in the stroller, so I asked our clerk if I could have a sticker, "Just one", I said. I knew Lily could care less about a sticker of Mickey. The lady replied, "Just one?" I replied, "Yeah, just one, unless you want to give me more." She then began to pull off the roll of stickers two or three arm lengths and handed them over to me with a smile and said, "Have a magical day". Madi about fell on the floor when I showed her the gigantic roll of Mickey Mouse stickers (A four year old can only handle so much, Lily on the other hand just wanted to eat them). Before we got on the bus to the Magic Kingdom I counted the stickers. I asked the lady for one, "just one", and she gave me a roll of 29! Then it hit me, "That's why Disney is the happiest place on earth!"
Why isn't the church the happiest place on earth, I thought to myself? Why shouldn't the church be the happiest place on earth! It should! We've got the life changing message of Jesus Christ! Hopefully, it's changed our lives. Jesus puts a high value on people and so should we. When visitors come to church do they feel important? Do they feel like the people of Promise Land went the extra mile for them? When a new student visits on Wednesday night or Sunday morning do we make them feel like they are the most important person there? Or do they sit alone, waiting for someone to reach out to them. Yeah the Gospel confronts sin, people can take offense at that. That's ok, that's the truth of scripture. But, there's no reason why people visiting our ministries shouldn't ever think, "That's the happiest place on earth". The church is the Body of Christ, we have been changed by the Gospel. This life is no longer about me, it's about other people. That's what makes Disney the happiest place on earth, when you go there you feel "important", you feel like "you matter". Other people matter to God! Especially those visiting our ministries. Let me challenge you, the next time you see a visitor, try your best to make that person (or family) "feel important" so they can have a reason to think that the church is the happiest place on earth. Disney should never have an edge over the church!
