Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

Non-novel Excerpt

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I’ve been using my extra time to write the past few days.  I thought I’d finally post a little excerpt.  I’m not sure if it’s the best one or right one to share but it’s something.  It hasn’t been edited so forgive any blatant errors.

I shook my head in understanding as Dominic kissed the back of my hands.  I couldn’t help but pull him close for a hug and whispered I’m sorry, feeling like the coward I was.  We stayed embraced for a long time.  I felt his beard gently scratching at my ear.  His hands were wrapped around me, cupping either side of my rib cage.  I felt cradled yet unlike a child peaceful with his mother.  Dominic pulled away first and I think I may have caught a glint of anger in his eyes.  Maybe hurt. I wasn’t very familiar with either from him.  It was a quiet walk to the door where I whispered good bye and shut the door.

Weekend Recap and a Little Catch-up

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I got a call this evening from my mother. I thought it’d be an invite for dinner or dessert after church but all she really had to say was, “You need to update your blog.”  Yeah. And to top it off, she also joined Twitter this weekend.  (btw, Mom, I’m actually enjoying seeing your tweets)

Scott has been working nights all weekend so we have mainly been left to our own devices.  We ate dinner at Mom’s Friday evening before I took the girls to MIL’s to stay the night.  It wasn’t “their weekend” but since we’re going to Disney THIS FRIDAY (can we say i’m freaking out a little about this.  lack. of. planning.) she wanted to keep them.  I stayed in, watching  Twilight, working on the youth group’s web site (finally) and all the usual Internet stuff (blogs, twitter, facebook, email, chatting).

I stayed up late but it was ok because I slept in until ELEVEN on Saturday morning.  Scott was sleeping of course and without kids, well, it was just too easy to keep shutting my eyes every time they tried to open.

I think I got some laundry in and a bit of cleaning and we all threw in a family trip to Starbucks just for fun.  Saturday evening we spent at the church’s fish fry.  The choir was asked to sing and I just about went hoarse trying to sing loud enough to fill the gym.

Saturday night Jill and Heather ended up coming over and watching Twilight.  My DVD hasn’t arrived yet so I rented it on PPV in HD.  I have to say, none of us were a fan of Twilight in HD.  I’ve tried to explain this multiple times but unless you’ve seen it both ways, it’s hard to get out right.  Basically, everything looks real.  And I KNOW that’s kind of the point to HD but it makes it SO real that it almost seems fake, to the point where you feel as if you’re holding the camera RIGHT in front of them.  Or maybe it seems cartoonish.  I don’t know but somehow it completely loses the soap-ish/fantasy/drama look and ends up looking like a documentary.  And a cheap one.  Anyway, it didn’t stop me as I let it play through again after it was over and Jill and Heather left.

Today was the good ‘ol normal Sunday…church, lunch at IL’s, CVS, choir, church, fast food, visit to Mom’s.

Also, here are a few things that have been taking my time/head space

  • Beth Moore’s Esther Bible Study.  This one is really good.  She’s been talking a lot about destiny and courage and I have to say I feel as if I’m being moved. I don’t know towards what yet but it makes me want to jump into something without looking back.
  • Picture collages.  I bought three huge collage frames for the hall. I got one done last night and have 2 more to go!
  • The youth group’s web site.  I’m a link or two away from having it ready to go live.  I will be SO GLAD to have this off my list!
  • I have been extremely busy with my Danny Gokey and One Tree Hill sites.  Epic scenes are being filmed for OTH right now and combined with our visit to Wilmington, OTHblog is taking a lot of my time with filming and spoiler info.  Danny’s site is doing quite well and the news just does. not. stop.  Also with AI on twice a week, it seems I’m forever snapping screenshots, downloading  pictures and videos and copying and pasting news articles.  It’s a lot of work.  And not a lot of return right now.

So I think that’s it.  I’m assuming this week is going to whizz by.  We are thinking of splitting our trip and heading to FL on Thursday night so that’s technically only 3 full days before we go.  Excuse me while I go cry!

Learning to Ride

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We are really behind with Emma on the whole learning to ride a bike thing. She got a bike a few years back and she was too young then and we decided to give it a rest and now here we are at 6 1/2 and nothing.  Today we pulled it out and she started getting the basics (along with dolly of course).  We have a lot of work to do but I think she should catch on quickly since she definitely has all the skills needed.

Do They Ever Grow Up? Really??

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We got HD hooked up today from DirecTV.  Scott was sitting in the living room on the ottoman looking through the channel guide getting excited over the possibilities of watching How It’s Made in HD and…

Scott: Come here.

Me: I’m working.

Scott: Come herreeee and sit with me please.

I walk over and sit beside him, even lay my head on his shoulder and look at the channel guide with him.  I’m expecting him to explain all the great channels we got in HD and…

Scott with a grin: You smell that?

#%O*&#(*U

Where is Edward Cullen when I need him?

AI Top 11

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Trying to make this a quick one…

Michael Sarver Does not showcase his vocals at all.  In fact, he pales in comparison to the original.  He’s in trouble tonight.

Allison Iraheta — Blame It On The Heart: She does well with whatever she sings. Seriously.

Kris Allen Make you Feel My Love – That is one of my favorite love songs ever.  And the way he sang it, almost brought me to tears.  And songs just don’t do that.  I loved it.

Lil Rounds — Independence Day: Did not fit her well.  At all.

Adam Lambert — Ring of Fire: If you can close your eyes and try to ignore the snarling in his voice, Adam sounded good.  But other than that, he was just gross tonight.  And butchered that song.  He DID have one spot were it was impressive but he’s yucky to me.  I do not care to see him on tour at all!

Scott MacIntyre — Wild Angels: Heather and I likened Scott to the guy that writes the music for the elevator or “on hold”.  It was nice and pretty but does it really fit American Idol?

Alexis Grace — Jolene: She lost me on this.  She had some bad notes and I agree..she needs to dirty it up some more.  But not in the same way Adam dirties it up.

Danny Gokey — Jesus Take the Wheel: The beginning was a little scary.  He was talking it a little more than singing it but halfway through he was amazing.  I know he wants to sing mainstream, but he is a ringer for a Christian singer.

Anoop Desai — You’re Always On My Mind: He scared me when he said he was going to change it up, but I thought he did GREAT.  Anoooop!

Megan Joy — I Go Walking After Midnight: There’s not much I liked.  Her voice IS unique but again, it was kind of hokey for me.

Matt Giraud — So Small: Loved, loved, loved this.

Well honestly I think overall Matt and Kris took tonight.  Danny at parts sang circles around them but from start to finish, I have to give it to them.

I think Michael and Scott are going to be bottom 2.

Filed Under: tv

Leprechaun Did What?

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On the way home from preschool today Lexi says:

Mommy, did you know a REAL leprechaun came into my class and sprinkled magic dust everywhere and then he went to the potty and forgot to flush?

I had to ask her a few times to repeat the last part and she insisted he went to the potty and didn’t flush, wash his hands or wipe.  Seriously, what is going on over there?

Most Embarrassing Moments

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Melissa, Whitney and Christina wrote recently about their most humiliating moments. I’ve blogged about at least two embarrassing moments. And then there is this other post where I mentioned some other embarrassing moments.

Well, it’s time to tell them.  The main reason I don’t want to tell them is because they are bathroom related.  And they are not embarrassing because I was in a big group of people, these happened in almost solitude and I’ve tried  to keep them that way but I think it’s time to share.

#1

I rode the bus home when I was in 7th grade.  The bus dropped us off at a four-way stop  and then I had to walk up a hill, down a hill and then up a last hill where our suburban ranch sat on a hill.  Normally Heather walked home with me and Mom was waiting at home but for whatever reason Heather wasn’t with me and at the time, my mom had taken a job for a short time.  Most of my life growing up she ran her blinds/curtain business from out of the home.

I have always been known to have a big bladder.  My mom tells a story of when I was potty training and held it for a day or something.  I can now and have always been able to “hold it in” for long periods of time.

For whatever reason, I didn’t use the bathroom before I left school one day and I REALLY had to go.  But I figured I could make it.  But my leg was shaking and I was almost literally holding it in on the way home.  And then there was that walk up two hills to our house.

I remember I was wearing white shorts.  I think I had a navy t-shirt and a brown braided belt on.  And I’m pretty sure I had white kids and white socks.  I got up to the yard and realized what kind of emergency state I was in.  I was going to have to throw down my bag and hope I made it.  But then I got to the front door and it was locked. I fumbled for my keys and could. not. unlock the door.  I knew I could make it, I just knew it, but then suddenly I couldn’t.

I looked around and checked to see if anyone was around.  The only problem could be the two kids that lived across the street.  They were in elementary school at the time and probably home.  But no one was outside.  So before I had pee running down my leg, I squatted.  Right there with my clothes on on my front porch.  Why I didn’t think to run to the side of the house or something I don’t know.  So of course when I went, it was a lot of pee.  And it ran down the steps and onto the sidewalk.  The whole time I was just hoping no one decided to go down the road.  And thank goodness, no one did.

I’m not sure of that was more mortifying or the part where I had to walk in the house a mess or maybe when I had to drag the hose around the house to clean off the porch.  What’s funny is when I told my mom and sister this, they had no clue it had happened that day.  Let’s just hope those neighbor kids aren’t telling this story at family functions.

#2

This one might be more embarrassing just because it happened only a few months ago.  I was sick with diarrhea.  I thought I was pretty much done with it so when Scott suggested I ride to the bank with him and the girls, I agreed.  But I decided to stay in the car because I wasn’t feeling so good when we got there.  Scott was taking FOREVER and I could feel it coming on.  I tried to call Scott and get him to come back out but really wondered what that would do since our bank doesn’t have a public bathroom.  I got to the point where I HAD to do something.  So I turned on my mommy voice and told the girls we had to go.  I carefully made my way to the driver’s seat and drove us to the next shopping center over.  The Subway we often go to is there and I knew exactly where the bathroom was.

It wasn’t far, but…I didn’t make it in time.  I didn’t have a full-on accident but let’s just say I had to change when I got home.  I had the girls with me and the bathroom was one room.  And of course the minute I pulled down my pants and sat down the girls very loudly say something to the effect of, “Mommy, why do you have poop in your pants??”  I just prayed no one outside heard.  So I went to the bathroom, the kids continued their child-like questions.  “Mommy, why are you pooping so much?’ “Mommy, you STINK!”  I calmly tried to explain through my hands that were propping up my face that  just like they had accidents sometimes, Mommy had an accident.

This whole time Scott is still at the bank.  It should be way past time for him to come out and without a cell phone, I was very sure he was confused and possibly calling the police or walking home.

Thank goodness when I finally managed to get us out of there, I didn’t get too many stares and Scott was walking around the corner from the bank to the Subway.

So that was it, the most embarrasing that it gets.  And maybe more so now that I’ve actually told people vs. when it happened.  And I promise I’m fully capable of properly getting to and using the toilet.  Who thought of this blog topic anyway??

Wilmington Report and How Awesome God Is

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Our 48 hours in Wilmington was for lack of a better word, insane.  If you want detailed reports of filming and such go to Thursday filming report or Friday’s filming report.

If you want the short of it basically the entire cast ended up filming on Thursday including guest star Nick Lachey.  And I FINALLY got a picture with Chad Michael Murray.  We stayed outside standing on a sidewalk freezing for hours on end both Thursday and Friday waiting on them each to have a break in filming to come speak to us.   We didn’t get to go to the reunion dinners as planned but ended up talking to several people at filming (including Carolyn who reads this blog and her two children!).   Like I said there, it was nice to hang out with people who knew as much or more than I did about OTH.  Thursday night we went out downtown hoping to run into cast members but didn’t find anything.  We did however hang out with 3 other fans that were really cool.

Friday evening we stayed in.  Heather slept and I caught up on all my posting and pictures and Grey’s Anatomy.  I finally went to sleep around 1 I think.  Heather had the weirdest allergy reaction around 2.  Her eyeball turned red and swelled until it was bulging.  It was WEIRD.  We went out to CVS and got her some drops and Benadryl which helped enough that we didn’t rush to the ER.

Saturday we slept in as much as we could until time for the studio tour.  Which was great because we saw some sets we didn’t see last year AND we were able to peek at the call sheet for next week and got to see that one of the biggest scenes of the series was being filmed next week.

That Part About God

Most would call us lucky, but I have to say I think God blessed us this weekend.  I think this is where that “peculiar people” label will come into play but I have to say Heather and I literally prayed God would grant us favor this weekend and we’d get to see filming and meet some cast members.  And wow, did he deliver.  Just go take a look at all these pictures and you’ll see that we got pictures with or at least saw almost every single cast member.  But even more than that, I wrote in a post on OTHBlog that I really wanted to meet the creator of OTH.  I heard he was in town and it was one of few chances.  Here’s what I wrote:

Honestly, I’m dying because Mark is in town.  I REALLY want to meet him.

MARK, COME FIND US IN WILMINGTON!!

Now here’s an excerpt from one of my filming report posts:

You guys know I was dying to meet Mark…it was on “the list” when we left.  Heather and I decide to get some ice cream this afternoon at Kilwin’s.  We’re sitting on Market in my car facing across to the RiverCourt and notice a white van.  It doesn’t appear there is filming but it definitely meant something was up.

When we got there, there was a group of 5 or 6 people with some sort of lens/camera looking out over the RiverCourt and downtown Wilmington.  And THEN a white van pulls up and out steps Mark.  OMG.  We do a little fangirl scream b/c omg, we were the only fans there and there stands MARK who we’ve been dying to see.  So random!

He joins the group and they work on whatever scene they were working on.  They walk down to the water line and face Market street and point and talk and do whatever they do.  My gut said it was some sort of scene for the finale since we know Mark is directing.  So Heather and I have squatted on the picnic bench there and when they move to go back towards the parking lot, we call him over and say we want a picture when he is done.  He says he can do it right then.  We tell him we’ve been wanting to get his picture the whole trip.  We mention we run this site and he thanks us for our work.  We tell him thanks for all their work on the show that we love it.  And then Heather and I go scream in the car. LOL.  Yes, we turn into fangirls when we arrive in Wilmington.

Now let me tell you why I know this was a direct and specific answer to prayer.  While we were standing in the cold and wind on the sidewalk Friday afternoon, we were just about over it.  We wanted to leave and get warm but couldn’t hardly tear ourselves away never knowing when one of the cast would come over.  We were going back and forth, wanting to get some ice cream or something (they have this GREAT place called Kilwin’s!).  I suddenly felt God saying “GO AND COME BACK!!” and it was just like that over and over GO AND COME BACK!! GO AND COME BACK!!  So I said to Heather, Let’s Go!  So we did.  We got our ice cream and we went to sit in the car with it.  Then Heather looks across the river where the river court is (If you don’t know the show, the River Court is one of the key filming locations from the show) and she says there are white vans over there (which means that is cast or crew traveling around town).  So we start going back and forth whether to go over there (which didn’t look like anything was going on) or head back to filming.  And then I heard “Go NOW”.  I was about 3/4 the way through my ice cream and I said we’re going to the river court and handed Heather my cone so I could pull out.  We pull into the river court and there are the few crew members there.  We were sitting there literally less than a minute and another van pulls up and who but Mark Schwahn jumps out.  The story above tells what happens but ya’ll??  That wasn’t an accident!  I know it sounds dumb but I just know it’s true!

So when Heather and I prayed I said, “God, we’ll give you the glory and praise” so this it.  God, thank you for caring about what I care about and helping us find that needle in a haystack.  You are awesome and thank you!!