Catching Up

I haven't done a normal non-book review post for a while, and though nothing really exciting has happened, thought I'd do a quick post so I don't become like my friends Cindy & Steven who haven't blogged since Jimmy Carter was president. Ok, I am exaggerating, we didn't have blogs or internet then. :-)

My preacher brother-in-law, Paul, got ordained this past Sunday, so we all went up to our denominational campgrounds in Stoneboro, PA for the ordination service. He has been preaching for a few years, but completed his course of study and other requirements that are required. To be honest, I have no idea what an ordained preacher can do that a non-ordained one can't, but I am proud of him anyway. :-)

But man, the ordination service lasted forever! I got married, had kids, saw them grow up and go to college during the ordination service! OK, I exaggerate again, but wow. The benches are hard, and a certain part of me was very sore. The service started at 10:00 am. We sang and all that, and then our denomination's president got up to preach the ordination message at 10:25. Don't get me wrong, he is a great & godly man, and I think the world of him, but he IS a long preacher. An hour and ten minutes later, he finished his message. And still we sat. On hard, uncomfortable benches. And oh - I forgot to mention family got to sit way up front in that humongous tabernacle! I was in the third seat from the front.

After the message, there was a lot of reading by different pastors, and for a lot of it, the six guys being ordained had to read a response. They prayed several times, including a prayer around each wife of the guys being ordained. (They each had one wife, though the way I worded it sounds otherwise). I have to admit, I was thinking of ways they could make the service a whole lot shorter! Finally, it was done somewhere after noon, and my brother-in-law is now an officially ordained minister. And no, I don't ever plan on sitting through another ordination service!

Two blog posts ago, I reviewed several books in one blog. To my surprise, one of the authors commented on the review I did of his book and posted a link to my blog on his blog and on his website (Adam Blumer) The link is still there for anyone who wants to see...... :-) OK, it made my day, sorry to go on about it so. :-) I actually thought to myself that I was glad it wasn't a book that I gave an unfavorable review about. And then the next day, I saw an author whose book I did give an unfavorable review to, also commented on my blog. Yikes! He was nice about it though, and to my credit, I did like the other four books in the series.

Anyway, a couple of my friends suggested that I contact a couple of publishing companies to see if I could get books from them to review on my blog. Three have replied so far, and I think all three will do it. I have signed up for one so far for sure, and I can go on and pick what I want to review from a selection they have available, which is cool, as I won't have to review anything that doesn't interest me. Such as gushy romances or marriage improvement books. ;-) I can pick any type of book from that publisher to review. It doesn't have to be fiction. (thanks Judy & Steven for the sugegstion!)

So hopefully, I will be doing some more book reviews on my blog, and possibly participate more blogosphere tours as I did with Amy Wallace. My first book that should be on its way, involves a blogosphere tour. If you don't know what that is, as I didn't before I did one, you review the book on a certain day, post pictures of the book and author if you want, and/or interview questions with the author. The book I will be reviewing for that is "The Justice Game" by Randy Singer, which I have a special interest in as it is. The book is a about a courtroom trial, and the author had posted a description of the trial and a short video to watch, and wanted visitors to his website to vote on the outcome of the trial. He would then write the book according to how the vote turned out. Interesting idea. I can't wait to see if it goes the way I voted. :-)

OK, so that blog wasn't so quick after all. I do have one more thing if anyone is still reading. :-) Someone emailed me a really good YouTube video that impressed the socks off of me. A while back, Barrack Obama made the statement that we are not a Christian nation. In this 4 1/2 minute video, Representative Randy Forbes (Virginia) has an excellent response to that comment. I wish we had more like him. Watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQOCvthw-o