Well, THAT was interesting....

This morning, we went to church. Sunday School was first, and we enjoyed a deep study dealing with the subject of Soteriology (the meaning of the death of Christ.) The people were kind and welcoming, helping us find where we needed to go. I was, for some reason, very aware of my "first impression" of being back in church in the U.S.A. It felt kind of strange, so different from our international experience at the church we attended in Sweden. There is definitely a feel of being in the Bible-belt. Our church in Sweden was relaxed, international, contemporary and welcoming. The pastor was soft-spoken and intense in a quiet way.

The pastor we heard this morning was the exact opposite. He was the "old fashioned Bible preacher", full of energy and vibrance and enjoyed pounding on the pulpit as he hollered and drove home his points. Several times, I had to hold back a giggle by digging my fingernails into my palm. I don't know why it struck me as funny, but it was just SO DIFFERENT from what we have experienced. It truly added to the reverse culture shock I think we are feeling. Like I said, it was interesting.

After church, we indulged in something we have missed for the past 18 months. You'll never guess. So many times when we lived in Sweden, we'd say something like "Oh, man, I wish there was a Shoney's breakfast bar around here!" Yup. We had Shoney's breakfast bar for lunch. I can't tell you how good it was. Actually, it was scrumptious! You shoulda been there.

Yesterday, we went to .... oooohhhhh, ahhhhhh, how wonderful, the LIBRARY!! We wandered around the children's section for a good couple of hours, getting our bearings and in absolute awe at the selection of children's books. ~N~ was so overwhelmed that he sat down after about 10 minutes and said he couldn't find anything. I sat down with him and explained the whole truth about the library. A library is full of everything you ever wanted to know about anything. Look for something that looks interesting to you, pull it out, look at it and decide if you want to take it home. I told him I wanted him to choose at least 5 things. He promptly went on a search and started finding books he was excited about. One disappointment though. When we lived in Sweden, he read a couple books from his school library called Sir Gadabout. Our computer search showed zero results for Sir Gadabout. Anybody out there heard of these books?

I asked one of the information desk ladies how many books we were allowed to check out, and do you know what she said? "There is NO LIMIT." My jaw hit the floor as I laughed in surprise. "WHAT? You are kidding!" Nope. You can check out an unlimited number of books and videos. Who'd a thought it. I also have the privilege of utilizing the whole Rappahannock Regional Library system, which includes 7 libraries! When we lived in Texas, we could only check out books from the library in the district where we lived, and there was a limit on the amount of books one could check out. Hence, my excitement.

I checked out "Homeschooling: the Middle Years" and "Raising Lifelong Learners." I was so happy to have something to read, and I was needing some support and confirmation in these areas.

America's Funniest Home Videos is on in less than 15 minutes, so its time to wrap this up and fix a quick snack before we gather together and laugh so hard it hurts. I love to laugh, don't you?

Rejoicing and Giggling,
Marla