(no subject)
this weekend was really fun. i spent the weekend in cincinnati at kevin's. this was the first time i've been with his whole family at the same time. (his older brother lives in indianapolis, and his younger brother goes to school in alabama, plus his dad's a pilot so it's hard to get them all home at the same time).
his grandparents were there for the weekend too. more about them later...we did lots of fun stuff...on friday, kevin and i went rollerblading while his mom rode around on her new Vespa, and that night we all went to see his sister Lizzy in her school play (Bye Bye Birdie). we played lots of intense Uno..the Daubenmire's don't mess around when it comes to card games. Kevin's grandparents are so cool. His grandpa turned 80 last week, and had never been to a hospital until last year. They're very funny, and they love movies and basketball, and his grandpa is the Uno master. we had birthday cake, and i told his grandpa he didn't look a day over 40..he told he loved me when i said that. saturday morning we went out to breakfast for grandpa's birthday again (i think we celebrated 12 different times in 2 days). Kevin and I went for a bikeride and he took me to this pretty gazebo on a pond, and we fed the fish. There were these gigantic bright orange goldfish in the water..it was very cool. we played more Uno, then watched OSU play in the Final 4. I baked chocolate chip cookies, and we played more Uno. On Sunday we went to church and then out to breakfast at Frische's Big Boy (again, the restaurant staff came over and sang to grandpa). I was excited because I'd never been to a Big Boy, and it's in Austin Powers, so it must be a big deal. They had a breakfast bar (like a salad bar of breakfast foods) and i love breakfast foods, so i was in heaven. so then....Kevin's church puts on this play every year..it's a contemporary spin on Easter..we went to see that....it's so cool. it was written by someone at the church, and so many talented people were involved. i loved it. after the play, we stopped at this little park and went for a walk and i told kevin if he wanted to propose, it would be a very romantic time and place to do it. and he got mad at me because he thinks that someday he is really going to be proposing and i will say something like that and ruin the moment. haha...anyway, afterwards we met up with his family at Skyline, which they (and the rest of cincinnati) are in love with. i'm not a big fan. except the first time they took me there i lied and pretended i liked it. they rip on me all the time for that. later i had kind of a theological debate with kevin's mom, which was very interesting..she's a very smart woman. we were talking about the divide between protestants and catholics, and how protestants can relate to catholics, etc. or as paul isaacs would put it: "speaking both languages." i don't know why i feel this underlying responsibility to defend catholicism all the time. i just think many protestants don't understand it, and that's probably because many catholics don't understand it themselves. i, for example, have been raised catholic all my life , and 20 years later, still have no idea what catholics believe, and why. Mrs. D. said something really cool though. we were talking about faith and works, and she was saying how if you are catholic and you believe that by participating in the sacraments, your faith is enriched or strengthened, that's fine. but when it all comes down to it, what is that one thing you are putting your hope in? Is it your works, or is it Jesus' sacrifice? She described this scenario where you die, there's this circle you stand on, and you're in one of three sections of the pie chart- JESUS' BLOOD, JESUS' BLOOD AND MY WORKS, or I'M A GOOD PERSON. and someone is going to come and pull a lever and only the people on one of those sections will enter into heaven. the other 2 will fall. you want to make sure you're standing on the right one. and that answer should always be jesus' blood, whether you're catholic or protestant. but a lot of people don't understand that. i hear so many people talk about how if you're a good person you'll go to heaven...but you can't ever be a good enough person to deserve heaven. but jesus made it so we can be there anyway. ok sorry that was a tangent.
I liked hearing mrs d. talk about that stuff. she's real smart. she writes books too. cool lady.
so that was my weekend. it was very fun.
i'm looking forward to going home tomorrow (!!!) and summer (!!!) and slovenia (!!!) and life.
his grandparents were there for the weekend too. more about them later...we did lots of fun stuff...on friday, kevin and i went rollerblading while his mom rode around on her new Vespa, and that night we all went to see his sister Lizzy in her school play (Bye Bye Birdie). we played lots of intense Uno..the Daubenmire's don't mess around when it comes to card games. Kevin's grandparents are so cool. His grandpa turned 80 last week, and had never been to a hospital until last year. They're very funny, and they love movies and basketball, and his grandpa is the Uno master. we had birthday cake, and i told his grandpa he didn't look a day over 40..he told he loved me when i said that. saturday morning we went out to breakfast for grandpa's birthday again (i think we celebrated 12 different times in 2 days). Kevin and I went for a bikeride and he took me to this pretty gazebo on a pond, and we fed the fish. There were these gigantic bright orange goldfish in the water..it was very cool. we played more Uno, then watched OSU play in the Final 4. I baked chocolate chip cookies, and we played more Uno. On Sunday we went to church and then out to breakfast at Frische's Big Boy (again, the restaurant staff came over and sang to grandpa). I was excited because I'd never been to a Big Boy, and it's in Austin Powers, so it must be a big deal. They had a breakfast bar (like a salad bar of breakfast foods) and i love breakfast foods, so i was in heaven. so then....Kevin's church puts on this play every year..it's a contemporary spin on Easter..we went to see that....it's so cool. it was written by someone at the church, and so many talented people were involved. i loved it. after the play, we stopped at this little park and went for a walk and i told kevin if he wanted to propose, it would be a very romantic time and place to do it. and he got mad at me because he thinks that someday he is really going to be proposing and i will say something like that and ruin the moment. haha...anyway, afterwards we met up with his family at Skyline, which they (and the rest of cincinnati) are in love with. i'm not a big fan. except the first time they took me there i lied and pretended i liked it. they rip on me all the time for that. later i had kind of a theological debate with kevin's mom, which was very interesting..she's a very smart woman. we were talking about the divide between protestants and catholics, and how protestants can relate to catholics, etc. or as paul isaacs would put it: "speaking both languages." i don't know why i feel this underlying responsibility to defend catholicism all the time. i just think many protestants don't understand it, and that's probably because many catholics don't understand it themselves. i, for example, have been raised catholic all my life , and 20 years later, still have no idea what catholics believe, and why. Mrs. D. said something really cool though. we were talking about faith and works, and she was saying how if you are catholic and you believe that by participating in the sacraments, your faith is enriched or strengthened, that's fine. but when it all comes down to it, what is that one thing you are putting your hope in? Is it your works, or is it Jesus' sacrifice? She described this scenario where you die, there's this circle you stand on, and you're in one of three sections of the pie chart- JESUS' BLOOD, JESUS' BLOOD AND MY WORKS, or I'M A GOOD PERSON. and someone is going to come and pull a lever and only the people on one of those sections will enter into heaven. the other 2 will fall. you want to make sure you're standing on the right one. and that answer should always be jesus' blood, whether you're catholic or protestant. but a lot of people don't understand that. i hear so many people talk about how if you're a good person you'll go to heaven...but you can't ever be a good enough person to deserve heaven. but jesus made it so we can be there anyway. ok sorry that was a tangent.
I liked hearing mrs d. talk about that stuff. she's real smart. she writes books too. cool lady.
so that was my weekend. it was very fun.
i'm looking forward to going home tomorrow (!!!) and summer (!!!) and slovenia (!!!) and life.