As a whole I thought the general idea of the service was fine, but as an outreach. It was very seeker friendly and very informal. The problem is that the majority of the people who attend the service, are not new from the community. They're people who have been attending his church for some time, and just like the service better. A couple main things that bothered me about it were 1) prior to the offering the pastor described it as something we do if we feel led to. Hmm, I believe scripture says (in several places) to always offer a portion of what God gives us back to Him. Personally, if faith were about doing things I felt like, I wouldn't be living the Christian life.
Second thing was that there were young children running around for the entirety of the service. Besides being loud and disruptive, Tad told me that there was a program for them, going on at the same time. I can understand parents wanting their children to be used to going to "big church" as my family called it, but kids aren't going to get anything out of a service by running around screaming for an hour. They could have been up in Sunday School learning.
Hence I agree with Tad and his family on the matter. I also disapprove of the general movement being called "postmodern", but that's a whole different soap box for me.
We did go to the regular service afterward, which I was grateful for. After church we had lunch at a place called Chico's Tacos, which reminded me quite a bit of Rubio's here at home. I had a very delicious, very large California burrito.
Justine was able to drive down from Yakima that afternoon to hang out with us. I got to show her my Romania pictures and such and we spent several hours playing Mario Party. All I can say is, shake the can is a very interesting mini game. Tad's mom ordered in pizza for us, and then Justine had to drive home. I was so fortunate on this trip to get to see all the people I love in Washington.
Tad and I decided to take Valencia to a nearby park to play. She got to run around, sniff, and even go down the slide once. Once we tuckered her out, Tad and I sat on the swings and talked.
Monday we met Tad's dad at Jack in the Box for lunch and then went to Tad's doctor appointment. It was good for me to hear some of the stuff straight from Tad's doctor, gave me a bit more perspective. On our way home, Tad gave me my first Sonic experience. Supposedly we're finally getting one of those in SD in the near future, which I am now very excited about. Tad is a big fan of the limeaides, so I tried a cherry one and he got a mango one. He also insisted that I had to get a Route 44 one, which means it's 44 oz, oh goodness did that take me forever to finish. It was indeed quite tasty though. :)
I am very excited, as you can tell :D
Tad got a call to go fix a computer in the evening, so after he left, his mom and I went to go help a family friend pack to move. We had some good one on one bonding time, which was much appreciated at least on my part. Their friend Nita is amazing, such a sweet, giving lady. She has college age kids, which makes it even easier to get along with her and her husband, cuz they're like our parents right now, haha
Mrs. Tilden and I helped her by putting together some boxes and keeping her company as she sorted out her garage. We got a little tag team action going on when Tad came by and his mom headed home. Tad's been helping Nita with some picture stuff on the computer. We went inside to do a bit more of that, and then Nita did a spur of the moment photo shoot for the two of us, haha. That was really fun. Since I don't always get to see him, I cherish every picture we have of us, and I can never have enough (a bit to his dismay, lol) You can check out my favorites on facebook, but here are a couple of 'em.
Tuesday was leisurely around the house. I worked on things here and there while Tad worked on his computer jobs. Since we had been around the house all day, Tad suggested we do our just us date night that evening. I used the excuse to dress up a bit (cuz girls can't get enough of those, right?). My boyfriend is the sweetest guy ever! He was basically flat out broke the week I was there, but I had asked for a date night, so he took me out to Applebee's.
We shared an order of honey bbq wings and an order of spinach artichoke dip. Date nights are so great. Even spending all day at the house together is a different kind of quality time than spending time out together. After dinner we went for a walk in a park along the Columbia River. We went down to the water and I stuck my feet in and we watched people in their motorboats. It was fun, but still quite hot out, so we went to walk around the mall to cool down.
Tad takes beautiful pictures :)
I didn't have anywhere specific in mind to shop, so we stopped in Game Stop for Tad first. We walked through a souvenir/gift shop place and then shared an Auntie Anne's pretzel. I can't tell you how good itfelt to spend a couple hours just hanging out at the mall with my boyfriend. I almost felt like we had a "normal" relationship.
After the mall we stopped by Paul and Jessica's to pick up something Tad needed to fix the computer he'd been working on. I actually got to chat some with Jessica, which was really nice.
Wednesday we grabbed lunch from McDonald's and then did some errands. While his mom took Jeana to get her senior pictures taken, Tad and I went and got his oil changed and some other things on his car fixed. On our way home we stopped at Dairy Queen and shared an Orange Julius. Dinner with his family was at a Teriyaki place his family had taken me to the last time I was in town. From there we went once more to youth group, which was interesting thanks to some bad attitudes that night.
The remainder of the evening was spent once again at Paul and Jessica's. We watched the last disc of Tsubasa (that I had brought with me from home) and then played Tripoly. And when I say we played Tripoly, I mean we played until 3 am. We were having fun, and I was in no rush to go to bed considering I had to leave in the morning.
Thursday morning I got up at 8 and Tad helped me pack my stuff up. I hate packing, I'm awful at it and I don't enjoy it. I've told Tad that when we're married, he can do all the packing for us, lol. His mom made me a lunch and thne he dropped me off in Pasco. My flights went just fine, I happened to see one of the same airport workers in Salt Lake as I did the week before. She asked if I needed help and then said "Ma'am, weren't you here yesterday?" hahaha I was like "no, but I was last week!" hahahaha, good times.
I had such a great time with Tad and his family, and getting to see Emily and Justine and my aunt. This is definitely up there with my top favorite visits Tad and I have had. And maybe next time it won't just be a visit :)
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