Billy: The Early Years

I just went to see the movie Billy: The Early Years. It is the story of Billy Graham and his beginnings of becoming one of the greatest evangelists on earth. I went thinking, "This will be interesting. I love biographical things!" But, on my drive home, I found myself crying. I asked God, "What do you want me to do? How can I make a difference?" This movie really puts the weight of winning people to Christ on your shoulders as a Christian. Today, I put my bid in for a Nintendo Wii on ebay. Is that bad? Not necessarily. But after watching that movie tonight, I realize...the importance we put on stupid things. I rushed home from work early JUST to check the status of the Wii. I'm more excited about that than I have been about winning a co-worker or a friend to Christ! How does that happen? I am willing to spend hundreds of dollars on video games but I can't spend 30 minutes showing someone the love of Christ? What? For real? And yet we are so stuck in the rut of Americanized Christianity that we don't even stop to think, "If I don't open my lazy mouth and speak words of truth to this person, they might end up in hell, apart from the greatest love ever known--the love of--the Person of Jesus Christ." How is that okay?
God, precious, precious Savior! Help us! Help me! May I love with Your heart, oh God! Unless I do, I will not see the people who need You. I know I fail, but may I not be so self-centered as to focus on my failures. Imagine how much could be accomplished for Christ if we didn't focus on our failures--but instead we focused on the victory we have in Christ. Imagine that!
I feel like a huge hypocrite writing all this because I struggle SO much. But I want this to be my heart. I want to hunger for God with a burning passion and desire and I want to spread that to other people who need it as desperately as I do. I don't want this to be my whim this week. I want a heart change--I desire a heart change--I HAVE to have a heart change!!!!! Should I post this? I don't want to...I feel like maybe it's too personal...but someone might need to read this just as much as I need to.

Fireproof

If you liked Facing the Giants at all...like even just a little sliver of liking, you will definitely LOVE Fireproof! It has such a good message AND the acting is even a little more advanced than Facing the Giants. I cried...in the theater...right next to Melissa...and I couldn't help it. Tears just started freely gliding down my face as if King Kong were in my eyeballs and they were trying to get away from him. They didn't even ask my permission, they just started flowing. Let's just put it this way: I saw the movie Thursday night and I am hoping to go back again next week and see it again. Kinda pathetic but that's how much I liked it. And I am seriously buying it the first day it hits the shelves. I can't wait to own it. It's really good. I could watch it a lot. Okay, I think I have given this movie enough kudos. Now go watch it for yourself! Wait...I'm not done. Isn't it great that we now have movies with Christian themes in them? And not only Christian themes--these movies are solely BASED on Christianity and the importance of knowing Christ!!! I LOVE it! Yay!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Stefan William Pischedda

My brother is married! And with that marriage, I gained a sister-in-law, two nephews, and a niece. Cool stuff. Anyway...here are some pictures.

Stefan and Amy were crying which made Marcus tear up which in turn had him looking at me mouthing, "Why are they crying?" All I could do was laugh at the fact that everyone was crying. I mean, I teared up a little bit but for the most part, I was just smiling and laughing at them.

This is the car that Amy, Gabby, and I piled out of to walk down the aisle. In this picture, Stefan and Amy are being wisked away to the reception. It's a pretty cool old car--a 1938 Lincoln. Apparently, Amy saw the guy driving it one day and followed him until he stopped just to ask if they could use it for the wedding. Funny. :)

I don't have very many pictures of the actual wedding ceremony because I couldn't take them. I had someone else do it. I have more pictures of the reception, etc. Anyway, here are some pics of before the wedding.

So, I realize the next few of these photos are of Elia but I can't help it. She's so cute. Look at that face! And, on one of these pictures she looks like she's trying to sneak something. And on another one she is just lounging like she belongs on the steps of Stubblefield. So cute.

She looks so much like Liz in this

one:

She skinned her little nose. I don't know if you can see it or not but it's red. Cute but sad.

The only reason I included this post-wedding picture is because of the look on my aunt Edna's face. She is directly to the right of me and she is making such a goofy face. You can't really tell in this picture but when it is enlarged, it is pretty humorous. It is totally her personality. :)

Now for the reception.

Mr. and Mrs. Pischedda:

There is one picture I really wanted on here because it's cute. He's carrying her down the steps. But, it won't load. So, I will have to skip it. However, there are more random pictures below of the reception. We kinda made fools of ourselves but it was fun.

We all have cake on our mouths/faces if you can't tell. Marcus is picking his nose. Cute.

Crazy, crazy!!

I said this to Teffy and Amy: "I want a picture with each of you for my blog!"

So, I got one of each.

Teffy, being the sweet brother he is, grabbed my camera, started to take a picture of me alone, and said this: "Put this on your blog. You're a beautiful woman, Kermy." Aww... So, I will put my loner picture on here for my brother Teffy.

Not feelin' too beautiful in this pic but okay...thanks Teffs. :) Kermy wuvs Teffy. MOOOOOOOO!!!

Marcus and Pam.

Elia and Elizabeth.

The Mr.

Gina, who does this remind you of?

And the Mrs.

That's all for now. It was fun and very joyful. The only thing is that there were four very important people missing: Gina, Raphael, my mom, and my dad. It is accepted that our parents couldn't be there. Kind of impossible and quite frankly, the norm. But, I wish that Gina and Raphael could have come. They couldn't. But Teffy was okay with that. He understood. Love you Gina and Pel.

The Wedding Rehearsal and Dinner

The wedding rehearsal was to start at 6:15...and I think it did. But, for once in my life I was early. So was Teffy. So, we took a picture together before anyone else got there. I like his face...he was trying to get the camera straight. Right after this picture I noticed a tiny speck of something on his shirt collar. Thinking I would be a big help, I decided to try to get it off. Little did I know, there was a smudge of mascara on my thumb...hehe...oops.

Okay, so I finally got to take a picture of the two of them together. Ain't it cute?

And then Uncle Marky (aka-best man) showed up and entertained Elia for a few minutes...except she kinda looks bored in the first one.

Gabby posing unbashfully (is that a word?) for the camera. Her comment while looking at the first photo: "That IS cute!"

Gabby and Elia--soon to be cousins. Gabby is very excited about this fact.

Me and my brother Marcus. The first picture we took, Marcus decided he wanted to cross his eyes. I woulda put that one up on here just to show you his personality but, heck, I felt like I looked fatter in the other picture. So, this is the one you all get.

I captured Amy Burk capturing someone else...

The shadows look WAY cool. Too bad I didn't mean to do that.

So, during the rehearsal (while I was suppose to be listening) I got distracted by this hearty little laugh coming from behind me. I turned around and Elia was laughing very hard at something very simple: a leaf. I tried to capture it but, as usual, she moved before I could.

Okay, now to the stars of the show...

This sitting down picture is while we were waiting to start. Amy: "There go the shirt sleeves." Apparently, she knew this was going to happen. Not surprising...Stefan is pretty predictable.

Randy, Marcus and Pam listening intently to Pastor. Marcus looks kinda angry. And Pam looks kinda happy with her finger smashing her cheek. And Randy is half there.

As I was walking down the aisle during practice, my sweet little Elia walked past me and right before she was snatched out of the way her little hand reached up and gave me this. The first flower she ever picked for me. :) Not thirty minutes later she decapitated it. Good thing I got a picture.

Is this not one of the cutest things you ever saw?
He's so sweet to her. He protects her from the other kids. I like how she's looking at him.

Just some pics of the dinner. No captions needed:

Wow. That took forever. I am tired, I have a cold, and I need to go to bed. SO, the pictures of the wedding will have to be posted later. Probably tomorrow night. Until then...

My Piano...and the Dorks Who Play It

First of all, I have to ask...do you like my new glasses? ;) Sam, I posted this picture for you. I look like a complete dork. I was by myself in this picture. It was almost 2 am. I had been "playing" on my piano and right before I got in bed, I decided I would take some pictures of my piano (for you, Jamie). As you can see, that is not what I accomplished. I started making weird faces and taking pictures of myself. I was tired...forgive me. Anyway, so Sam came over Monday night and spent the night with me and she was looking at the pictures on my camera and said, "I like this one! I want one!" Why? That is beyond me. But, here it is especially for you, Samantha, dear friend and sleepover buddy. Cheers with E.L. Fudge. By the way, did you like those cookies? I never asked you.

So, who do you think the following is? a) Carmen or b) Sam

Sam seriously asked me this question: "Is this you or me?" She went on to explain how it looks like her kind of. While she was explaining, I thought to myself, "HAHAHAHAHA!!! That's funny Sam! Because I'm CROSS-EYED!" But then, she proceeded to tell me that it was in the nose area. How in the world she came up with that, I do not know but it was definitely funny. Worth sharing? I don't know. But, I live in Shawnee, Oklahoma and one has to scrape for interesting things and pictures to share, okay?

Okay, that's enough of the photos I took of myself. NEXT!

Here she is, Jamie. One of a kind...

Look at it! All nestled in my room as if it actually belongs there(cuz it does)! Yay! I even took some videos for you. Will they play? I do not know. However, it is the thought that counts, right? The first video is self-explanatory.

This next video is kind of weird. My hand looks like the hand off of the Addam's Family. Creepy. Oh well. The song I am playing is actually not a song at all. I made it up (although it sounds strangely familiar). However, it is so easy, Bilbo Baggins could play it with his big fat hobbit toes. But, I personally think it sounds pretty in real life. Anyway, who really cares? Here it is!

Okay, so, Sam and I had a sleepover Monday night, right? We were tired...but far from cranky. It was 1:30 am and we were banging on my piano and telling stories in word and instrument. I must say, we were pretty good. This first picture is of Sam post-playing piano with her nose while she was listening to me trying to convince her to do it again so I could get a picture of it.

Yay! She did it!

And this is Sam playing with every thread of emotion in her Beethoven-like heart:

And I, with my hair in my face, am Mozart-like:

Now, it is storytime. Sam is the narrator and I am the musician. Warning: the following story is not verbatim--but close enough. Sam: "Once upon a time there was a leprechaun(sp?) that jumped out of the bushes in the forest." I followed with some high-pitched notes which implied that the leprechaun was bounding through the forest with innocence and glee. "He found a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it." Three very quickly played high notes instrumentally illustrated the sparkling gold. "Suddenly, it began to hail..." To which I responded with some very dark, deep, low notes all the way at the other end of the keyboard...danger is on the way...an ominous sky and sudden large, icy precipitation dropping from the sky. "...Skittles. He was catching them on his tongue." Whoa...I jumped all the way to the higher notes on the keyboard. 'Twas hailing SKITTLES not hail! Sam abruptly stops the story to laugh and ask me this: "Does it help you to act it out?" Why did she ask that? We discovered me doing the following during the Skittle Hailstorm:

"We" discovered me. I say "we" because I hardly realized I was doing it...I was really into the story. Weird, huh? Anyway, this was a reinactment. I bet the first time was way better.

Okay, next it was my turn for narration. Sam sat down at the piano and got prepared to play according to my story. Me: "A stork flew in..." The look on her face was priceless as she just took both of her hands and put them on some high and low keys. I SO wish I coulda captured that face! I mean, how DO you personify a stork with piano keys? I couldn't tell you...

Needless to say, I am very happy with my piano (whose "cosmetic scuffs" barely exist!) Look how happy I am pretending like I can actually play:

And, look at Sam's cool photography! (Ignore the improper hand posture...)

Okay, that's all.