Adventures with the Ross Family

After NYWC, Justin stayed on Monday to take a seminar presented by the Youth Cartel.  So that meant I had pretty much the whole day to myself! After some researching, I decided to go to Margaret Mitchell's house. I loved Gone with the Wind (book and movie) and couldn't wait to see what this museum had.

But, this meant that I had to drive to midtown Atlanta and navigate those crazy roads by myself. I'm a trooper and made it there even if I passed that museum once, because it was hidden between all these big buildings.

I got here in time for the 10:30 tour, but it was sold out.  I started to think to myself that this is pretty popular. I got on the 11 o'clock tour and walked around the neighborhood until it was time to go on the guided tour.

Nevermind about it being packed out.

There were only three people on the tour. And one of them was me. So clearly, that was just a morning rush.

The tour was neat. I went into the little apartment that she lived in while writing Gone with the Wind. It was a tiny little place, but cozy. It wasn't her furniture in here, but they tried to replicate it as much as they could.

And of course you can't take pictures in the apartment.  So go here on their website and scroll down to look at the pictures.

Which tells me we have come a long way in couches. Couches from 1920's looked so uncomfortable!

Even though we couldn't take pictures inside, I tried to snap a couple of the outside of the apartment.  That is the original brick wall and the door to the kitchen.  And do you see the icebox sitting outside?  It looks like an entertainment center, but really was the fridge of that time!

And don't even get me started with typewriters. What kind of tool is that?  There was a typewriter you could type on to see what it was like. I had to read the instructions just to see how to get the paper in. Nevermind typing on it.  My hands were at a weird angle just type in the keys.  It was awkward.

Some fun facts from the tour:

Scarlett was originally called Pansy in the book.

Hattie Davis who played Mamy couldn't come to the premiere in Atlanta because the theatre was a segregated. She wouldn't have been able to go onto the theatre with the other actors. So David O. Selznick and to change all the movie posters and remove her from them so it wouldn't be obviously that she couldn't come.

It's sad that she could win an Oscar but not sit in the same theatre as her fellow actors.

When the book came out it weighed 3 pounds and cost 3 dollars. By today's standards that means the book would have been around $45 dollars. Remember this was during the depression. And yet it still sold tons of copies. Amazing.

They also had the movie prop of the portrait painting of Scarlett when she was married to Rhett.

And the facade from the door of Tara.

Here I am pretending to open the door.

I'm so glad I did this. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards I did a little shopping and picked Justin up and we drive home for a quick pit stop before we got the kids.

Today was THE day. We were ending the conference out with a bang. David Crowder Band was playing. There was speculation that the Skit Guys might show up. In the other Big Rooms, they played video skits of them and they were funny. But no one had actually seen the Skit Guys. So we're the coming....or not?  Was NYWC playing a trick on us?

Turns out it wasn't a joke.  They arrived and the skits were HILARIOUS!  Turns out they flew in that morning just for us!

And this was the last time David Crowder Band was playing at NYWC because their band was splitting up. It was awesome just listening to them song live.

After the Big Room I went to Raising Your Kids in Ministry seminar. Doug Fields and his daughter Tory Fields spoke at this seminar. I loved this one. I learned so many great points. My favorite point that Doug pointed out was that, "quantity time [with your children] produces quality time."

He pointed out that it's good to spend time as a family together and that you can't have too much time with your kids.  And that investing in your own marriage and children are exteremely important. 

Well.  Now that I am writing this, it seems like this is common sense.

But I guess it takes someone else telling you this to really listen.

Anyways.

The conference went out with a bang.  More David Crowder Band and more Skit Guys.  I can honestly say this was one of the best conferences I have ever went to.  I heard some great speakers and rockin' music.  I was so glad I was able to come with Justin!

Today was all about relaxing. Reflection. And taking a nap.

I had a choice to go to several different seminars or to go to the Blue Like Jazz movie. I chose the movie. It doesn't come out until 2012 so this was going be a sneak peak. I seriously had no idea that this book was being turned into a movie. And I wondered how it could be turned into a movie. The book is good, but a lot of why it was good was the writing style and his point of view. How do you turn that into movie?

After the movie I realized how. You change a lot of what happens in the book.  Change the setting, add some new characters, and some major life setbacks. And voila!  What you have is a completely different story. Or as Hollywood calls it, based on the book.

So. I say this to warn anyone who goes to it to...not expect it to be like the book.

But I'm glad I saw it. It was a good movie and it had some really great points to the story. But I wish that it would have focused more on the redemption and not the fall of Don.  

Seeing someone turn away from God is exhausting after a while.

So that is why I went back to our room and read after the movie.  

And took a nap.

This may one of my most boring-est posts ever, but I truly enjoyed this day. After my nap, I went to the Big Room and listened to speakers and worshipped wih Shane and Shane. It was inspiring and a lot of fun. After the Big Room they had more late night options to go to. One was stand up comedy and I would have really liked to have gone to it. But instead I chose reading in bed.

It was glorious.

Onto day 3!

After a fun day of sight seeing, it was time to get to work.

If you call this work....

The theme this week is Romans 8:14-15:

^12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

 ^15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

So.  Are you adventuously expectant or predictably unremarkable?  (As Reggie Joiner asked us.)

The one thought that I took away from him is that we have to allow ourselves to process our doubt.  And if we don't allow our students to wrestle with their doubt, their faith will never be their own. 

Profound.

And the worship music has been amazing!  Starfield pretty much rocks.

After the Big Room, I chose to go to Kara Powell's Sticky Faith seminar.  This seminar shows us that after high school, committed youth group kids leave the church in droves.  What can we do to keep them from isolating themselves during this time?  How can we help them in their spiritual lives.

I took away many things from that seminar.  But here's the one thing that stuck out at me:

The kid's table is never cool.  Even when you are a kid.

And this is so true.  You know, you get stuck at the kid's table at Thanksgiving while all the adults are eating at the "big table."  We can't do this to kids in church either.  Kids and students are just as much a part of the congregation as anyone else. 

And share your faith with your children and students.  Don't ask them questions without answering questions that they ask of you.  Every Sunday while we are driving home for church, I ask Jax about what he learned in school.  I always tell him what I did in Sunday School, but only because I wanted him to know that the whole family goes to Sunday School.  But this is actually a good thing!  I'm sharing what I learn just as much as he is sharing with me.  What a great point!

The Big Room in the evening rocked as well.  Starfield did an amazing job of leading us in worship.  It gave me goosebumps!

And Harvey Carey was a hoot to listen too.  He preached out of 2 Kings 6 with the main verse being:

¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Harvey prayed that God opens our eyes to what HE is doing.  Sometimes you just gotta stop and pray and ask God, "what's next?"

And then it was time for dum da da dum....LOST and FOUND!  I just love them. 

And just because I don't think my blog as gone this long without some sort of picture of the kids; here's Julie bathing in the kitchen sink.  They are having a blast.  I talk to Jax on the phone at night and he doesn't seem to miss me at all.  In fact, I do believe that my phone calls are interupting his fun!

We made it to Atlanta!  And Georgia welcomed us in style….

After checking in our hotel and registering for NYWC, we headed out to the World of Coca-Cola.  It was a short brisk walk from our hotel.

I was excited for the taste testing room.  But first, we had a little bit of a guided tour.

There were lots of memorbilla.

It was at this point on the tour being surrounded by Coke EVERYWHERE, that I would have found it funny to bring in a Pepsi in and drink it.  

 Hindsight is 20/20.

Anyways, after a little history of the company we went into a theatre and watched a 6 minute musical.

Yes, musical.  A cartoon musical.

Of random characters singing about how great coke is.

Both Justin and I looked at each and wondered, “just what in the world are we watching?”

After the torture, we were able to go on a self guided tour.  At this point, I’d like to mention there was a 4-D film we could watch.  Nothankyou.  I’ve lost my confindence in the ability of Coke making good movies.  4D or not.

So we looked around and enjoyed the memorbillia.

And then I learned about how Coke tried to change their recipe in 1985.  I had no idea.  That must have been a very difficult time for Coke drinkers.  I saw news footages of them picketing the Coke builiding demanding the old “Classic” coke.

Hence, the reason why it was always called “Classic” coke as I grew up.

I was amazed.  Justin couldn’t believe I didn’t remember that this happened.

I was 5, Justin.  5.  My main focus in life was to grow up and be like She-ra.  Cause Princess Aurora rocked.

Anywho.  We also got to sit on the couch from American Idol from Season 5.  I don’t remember who was on Season 5, but that couch was not comfortable.  Probably didn’t help the jitters of all the contestants.

And then, at long last…the tasting room!

This was the best part.  We started in Africa.

The very first drink I had was Bibo Candy pine-nut.  It looks friendly enough.  Y’all that tasted like pure coconut!

And for those of you that know me, I HATE coconut.  It tastes like sun tan lotion.  It’s not a flavor, it’s a scent.  So this drink was awful.  Where was the coconut in the picture?  Or is that a coconut with green hair and shades?  Either way, not a good way to start off the tasting.

And Spar-berry tastes exactly like Nyquil.  Moving on…

Asia was fun.  I enjoyed Vegitabeta.  I didn’t have high hopes for it seeing that there were carrots on the label.  That and the name practically says vegetable.  But it was surprisingly delightful.  I had seconds.

But don’t drink Smart.  That was a liquid watermelon jolly rancher.  Whew..that was sweet and syrupy.

Latin America didn’t disappoint.  Delaware Punch (grape), Inca Cola (like rootbeer), and Lift (apple) were pretty good.  Nothing too awful there.

Europe had an interesting mix of flavors.  Bitter Lemon from England was refreshing.  Beverly from Italy was REVOLTING.  As in Justin remembered that drink from Epcot’s tasting center. 

Y’all I would rather drink the coconut drink or Nyquil drink than to ever taste Beverly again. 

So there you go.  Next up, CNN!