CFA Seminar 2012

      Well, hello world.  It has been a while since I was got on here to report about our life.  This week has been a whirlwind in Orlando, kicking off with our Chick-fil-A Seminar.  Every year, we head to some fun location with 4,100 CFA peeps for 3 days of a massive CFA pep rally (if you want to read about last year's, click here).  There is great food, and it feels like a giant family reunion.  Chick-fil-A treats us so well, and I feel so enormously blessed to be with a company who takes the time, energy and resources to invest into us.  The first night was an awards ceremony, and at the end, Martina McBride came out and did a surprise concert for us.  She has an incredible voice and was so gracious.



We got to hang out with good friends - some of whom we only get to see once a year at Seminar.  Here are Kristen and I.  You made the blog, Kristen!



There was this huge piece of balloon art right in the middle of everything that we were constantly walking past.  There were many speculations about what this thing could possibly be.  We landed on it being a giant zygote.  It required several pictures.

Another amazing thing about this year's Seminar is that some of our good friends were awarded a store of their own.  It was this crazy secret for about 3 weeks that we got to be in on, and then, we got to see it all play out on stage.  Congrats, Kristin and Glenn - you guys will be amazing in Encinitas!




Since we were there over Valentine's Day, they hosted special dinners poolside for us all.  There were beautiful, fancy invitations delivered to our rooms.



And, we had a delightful, full evening under the stars with our friends.  Not that we could see many stars due to the light pollution in Orlando, but it was nice to be outside.



Seminar is such an amazing time.  I really could go on and on talking about it.  Here are a few more tidbits.
-  As of last Friday, Chick-fil-A is debt free as a company!  I feel like this deserves so many more exclamation points than I am usually comfortable giving anything!!!!!!!  I think the Cathy family should give our government some pointers, because this required sacrifice and was hard, but they did it.
-  I wish that everyone, everywhere had to wear a name tag that identified who they are and where they are from.  It is so nice to be able to figure out who everyone is and be refreshed on people's names who you may not have seen in a year.
-  Though it may be a bit nerdy, I love going to all the sessions and learning.  Most "leadership" principles can be applied to almost any area of your life, and it is fascinating to soak in new information.
-  It is a bit exhausting to be running into people you know and love every 10 feet or so.  It is a bit like summer camp in that way, and when it is time to leave, you are pretty ready to go.  John and I are both split down the middle with extroversion/introversion, so it definitely used up all of our extroverted energy.
-  Truett Cathy is getting old, and I feel that it is such a privilege to see him speak.  He is 91!  I imagine that it is truly amazing to look around that giant stadium of people and know that God brought it all about through him.  Truett is a hero.  He is also forever immortalized on these M'M's that they gave us.



-  They announced that next year, Seminar will be on a Cruise.  Watch out world.
-  Every year, I fall more in love with our company.  We may sell chicken for a living, but it is so much more than that.  I love the family that we belong to.  Thanks, Chick-fil-A, for being amazing and exactly what God has for us.

That sort of sums up our time at Seminar.  Next episode I will be blogging about our time in amusement parks - Harry Potter World was awesome!

Love Letters

A blogger friend is hosting a "Love Letter Link-Up," and I thought I would join in by writing letters to some of the things and people that I love.

Dear Nap-Time,
You are one of my favorite times of the day.  Seriously.  I look forward to you and mourn your parting when our time together is over.  Thank you for being so consistent and for allowing me the time to be able to eat 6 packs of Smarties with no one grabbing my legs and begging for them.

Dear Smarties,
I bought a bag of you this week just for me to eat.  While this may not have been my brightest moment, I am so glad to have reconnected with you after all these years.  I ate you for lunch yesterday, which didn't go as well as I might have hoped.  Today, I am using you more wisely as a "treat" instead of a meal, and this means that we can continue our relationship.  Which I look forward to.



Dear Traveling,
I love you so much!  I think of you often and dream about our next rendezvous.  I am looking forward to a big adventure with you at the end of April, and I am excited to see all that is in store for us.  You remind me how big the world is, how creative my God is, and that my life is so different from so many others.  You even let my kids come along sometimes, which is so kind of you.



Dear Traveling without Kids, aka Vacation,
I am really, really looking forward to you next week.  I mean, I love my chitlins so very much, but I love my hubby even more, and I am stoked beyond words to be heading out to see you!

Dear Valentine's Day,
Thanks for giving me an excuse to make really cute notes with treats from my children and to teach them more about God's love.  I love that everything is pink and red for a few weeks, even if you are an overly commercialized holiday made up by the card and candy companies.



Dear JPS, Lover Boy, Rock-Star Hubby,
You are the best husband God could have ever given me.  He knew!  I love that even in a week with long days and some discouraging moments, you have taken the time and energy to connect with me.  I love that the giddy pre-trip feeling has set in, and we woke up making jokes, knowing that a fun trip is right around the corner.  I am thankful to do life with you - the good and the bad - all of it.



Dear God,
There are not enough words.  Thank you for everything.  Thank you for saving me and loving me, in spite of and because of the wretch that I am.  I am so glad that life is really about you and your story, not mine.  I do not understand everything that you choose.  Sometimes I wish I could underline those words and shout them at you.  But, I know that when I feel that way, I can feel your still, small voice reminding me that you love.  You love.  And, that is enough - though I will never understand it.  Thank you for being infinite in the face of my finiteness.  I look forward to seeing you clearly some day.

Dear Lily and Bella,
Each day I am so thankful for you.  I love the ways that you are growing into little people with big personalities.  Lily, I love that I can hear you singing Jingle Bells from your room right now.  Bella, I love that you are asleep right now, rubbing your little belly button with one of your hands to soothe yourself.  Those precious little things are reminders that this time of life will be fleeting - the time when you need me like you do right now.  Though some days are hard, I love being with you, getting your hugs and kisses and seeing your joys.  What a privilege it is to raise you both!



Welp, that wraps up my little love letter fest.  Clearly, it was in no particular order.  Linking up with Lindsey!

John's Channel: Standing on the Shoulders of a Virtual Giant

      My palms are sweaty.  I haven't been able to sleep for the last few nights.  I have a reoccuring dream that I stumble without clothes into the blogosphere only to be pushed off a cliff and fall forever through cyberspace.  Yes, Carol keeps telling me it is just a blog post, but it is so much more than that--this is my pilot episode. 
      To prepare for this, my pilot episode, I followed the path traveled by many a great scholar, I went to Google.  Yes, I googled "how to make a successful pilot episode."  It felt as cliche as looking up a dictionary definition in preparation for a sermon, but it was all I had.  Honestly, I discovered nothing of true value except that a related search was "how to have a successful first kiss."  After chasing that rabbit for...well, let's not get hung up on how long I was distracted by this topic...I came back to my original topic.  (Side note: wikiHow claims there are 19 steps to a first kiss, not sure what joke to make about that one) 
      The only two morsels of information my attention span allowed me to pick up during my "pilot episode" research is that:
-  First, the pilot should start with a teaser. Hence the ridiculous peice of drama that was the first paragraph--I'll try to steer clear of those in the future.  
-  Second, that you have to introduce the main character(s).  In this case, that would be...well, me.
      I am the "John" of the "John and Carol Show."  If you've been reading the blog for any amount of time, you know more about me than I am sometimes comfortable with. (Don't think I haven't had Carol go back and pull content off the blog after it was posted...)  That's okay.  This blog has been a great thing for a our family.  
      All of this to say, I'm standing on the blog shoulders of my giant wife (I am secure enough in our relationship to not edit those last two words, but I'll find out later if my security is misplaced).  It's a little intimidating joining this adventure at this advanced stage, but here goes nothing.  And I guess, if my character never really takes shape, Carol can just kill me off (blog sense, not in real life) in a not-too-distant episode.  
      Amidst all of that, I forgot to tell you about myself.  First, I get distracted easily.  And:
      -  I'm 6'4"
      -  I run for fun...sick, I know.
      -  I love my family (that was a shameless ploy for an "ahh" from what I know is a largely female   audience).
        -  I seek to know and love Jesus.
      That's all I'm going to share for now.  It's the first episode after all.  I can't give it all away. 

If my show doesn't get cancelled, future episodes, may or may not include:


      -  My Drive (and Crash) Towards Perfection
      -  Kids Don't Make Your Life Easier...They Make It Better
      -  Bucket & Sucket Lists (I apologize in advance for this one)
      -  Two Older Sisters, No Brothers and It Shows
      -  I'm Not Even Going to Try to Change the World
      -  Entitlement: Thank God I Haven't Gotten What I Deserved
      -  Me-Me Conflict
      -  Sabbath-ing With My Hands
      -  Why I Love Being a Dad

If you have a request, let Carol know. In conclusion (I learned to say that in my high school speech class) thank you for loving my wife...she is everything she's cracked up to be and thank you for watching the show.

Cleaning Confessions and a Moonlit Walk

      All right, I am just going to warn you now - if you are a clean freak - STOP READING.  Okay, you have been warned.  The last 3 weeks or so I have been trying to stick to a cleaning schedule of sorts.  I kept seeing these things on Pinterest about how to keep your house clean in 10-15 minutes a day, and I thought, well, there are a lot of things that I do for 10-15 minutes a day.  I could definitely give that time to trying to keep my house a little more clean.  I don't need to read every Facebook status that my "friends" have posted all day.  Maybe I should wash our sheets and towels.
      I grew up in a very clean home, and I remember liking that as a kid.  I want my children and husband to have a clean home, and I know this is possible.  We pick stuff up off the floor around here, but that is really different from actually cleaning things.  So, this cleaning schedule has been mostly a really good thing.  Every day I check it and see what my task is.  Some days are more cringe worthy than others - who ever likes to change their cats' litter box?  Other days I think - "oh, that's it?  that's so easy!" about something like dusting upstairs.  I tried to keep it pretty even from day to day, and I am on a two week rotation with most tasks.  That is clean enough for us, and I must say, it is much cleaner than before.  I am still working out the kinks, but so far, I think it is going well.  And, I will not have to wonder how long it has been since that particular toilet was cleaned.
      So, that is my little encouragement to you - you who probably already do a lot better at this than me.  There is usually time and space to start doing the things that need to be done anyway - I just require a system, apparently.
      Last night, John got home right around 5, and since it was such a nice day, we decided to go for a walk.  "Moonlit" somehow implies that this was romantic - I assure you, it was not, though the moon was out.  We had the two friends in tow, and though it was a little lacking in romance, it was rich with quality and moments that I hope make up the fabric of our family's life.  Time together, enjoying God's rich creation and the gift of one another's presence.

Here's a glimpse.

(I like the one on the left.  He will be posting on the blog tomorrow!)

I could see the moon in the water, but sadly, it didn't translate on film or pixels or whatever.

Thankful for these moments, especially after a whiny day with friends.  Some days are like that.