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This is My Story and I'm Stickin' To It

Now for something completely different...

Here's the story, of a lovely lady
Who was bringing up three very lovely girls
Two of them had straight brown hair, from wherever
The oldest one had curls

Here's the story, of a man named Smith
Who was married to said lady in the first verse
In addition to the girls, they had boy
Alas, he had no curls

Then one day when this lady started blogging....

That's my Samantha/Brady Bunch inspired intro to my bio.  Hope neither of them hurt too much.

Name: Lexie Smith

Birthday: October 1967

Birthplace: Colorado

Current Residence: Texas

Languages: English, Texan, prayer      

Family stats: 1 hubby, 4 younglings

Politics: Generally, Republican.

Age: Do the math. :)

Denomination: non-denominational

Calvinist or Arminian: Huh? 

Education: Bachelor’s in Education from the University of Texas (Hook ‘em.) 

Occupation: Former middle school English teacher in public school; current COO of Smith Inc.; Principal/Teacher of the Happy Jack Skool of Lurnin’

Eschatology: Not firm. The bottom line is to live my life according to Matthew 22:36-38

Favorite quote: “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” Psalm 37:4-6.

Favorite movies: Band of Brothers, When Harry Met Sally, Jaws, Toy Story 2, Beauty and the Beast, The Wedding Singer, Office Space and Star Wars - Episode I

Favorite books: The Bible is essential. Here are some of my favorites: Ramona series by Beverly Cleary; Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose, Boundaries & The Mom Factor by Cloud & Townsend, The Sacred Romance by Curtis & Eldredge, Before We Get Started by Brett Lott, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell, Being the Body by Chuck Colson, Mere Chrisitanity and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Your God is Too Small by J.B. Phillips, and Material World: A Global Family Portarit by Menzel. I’ll stop there.

Favorite authors: Beverly Cleary, John Eldredge, Charles Colson, C.S. Lewis

Style of music: Can listen to different styles. Quite the music snob when it comes to 80’s dance music.

Favorite artists: U2, Yanni, Harry Connick Jr., Lawrence Welk (every Saturday at 6 on PBS), Mercy Me, Michael W. Smith, Steve Taylor, Rich Mullins, New Order, selected Cure; Vivaldi, and Bach (love the fugues)

Pet Peeve: Those awful silver silhouettes of women on vehicles. Ironic that the guys usually driving those look nothing like the male equivalent of that icon. What are they thinking?!!! Inconsiderate smokers also bug me. Combine those two things and….ugh.

First Car: 1985 Mercury Lynx hatchback…black

Childhood Memory: My dear first grade teacher who made me feel special.

Testimony: (Here’s the choppy mid size version….is it a car or a testimony?)
Got saved in ninth grade when I moved to East Texas. Remember praying in the backyard, telling God that if He was real I wanted to know Him. Learned about Jesus when visiting a local Baptist church. Believed in my heart and confessed with my mouth that day. Began attending a local non-denominational church so regularly that my parents were afraid I joined a cult. Cut my biblical teeth on lengthy debates with my step-dad over major theological issues. I didn’t realize until years later that I was trying to answer questions that people had argued over for centuries. I now realize how valuable that was in regard to my learning Scripture. Didn’t attend church regularly in college. Attended a few Bible studies. Mainly sinned on the side of omission as opposed to commission, but did my share of stupid stuff. Got back in church after college. Began attending even more regularly when I left my illustrious retail career for teaching. Met hubby in church. We still go there. God’s good.

Unusual Fact: I would be absolutely thrilled if my books were spine labeled and shelved in Dewey Decimal order. Oh, what bliss!

Area of Expertise: That’s such a relative term.

Last Good Book Read: Before We Get Started by Brett Lott

Last Good Movie Seen: In Good Company

Inspiration: I get inspiration from the Holy Spirit (not in the “let’s canonize that” sense…in a more day to day way), the Word of God, reading good writing, certain parts of nature, special people in my life and a variety of other stuff.

Personality type: Favorite paradigm says melancholy/phlegmatic. Also like the animal paradigm where I am a golden retriever. As for the ubiquitous Jung typology that I finally took – INFJ on my first run through of the test.

Cuisine: What someone else cooked, most of the time. Hubby is wonderful in that area.

Motto: “Help Me, Jesus!” (Said like Eddie Murphy's Aunt Bunny as she fell down the stairs.)    

Theme song: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Favorite color: purple & blue  Favorite flowers: bluebonnets

Favorite time of day: dusk, dawn, night Favorite season: spring

Favorite places to be: I really like my bed, but don’t know that it’s my favorite place to be. I also like being with my family, being at church during praise & worship, the scrapbook store, and the library.

Unhealthy obsession: Pulling all-nighters all too often.  

Weaknesses: chocolate, sweets, napping, procrastinating, staying up too late, chocolate, good sweet tea, books and staying up late.

Aversions: being outside when it’s really hot & humid

Long term goals and/or dreams: Overall, I want to live my life to the glory of God. In addition to the usual familial & relational goals, I’d like to:

*own a publishing company with hubby *develop flexible routines to accomplish my goals in exercising, reading, writing, scrap booking, blogging, etc. 

About this blog: My prayer is that your visit(s) to our blog will at times challenge, encourage, and amuse you, with the end result being beneficial to your off line life.

Thanks for playing along.

Comments

Material World is one of my favorite books, too. Do you have the companion book, Women in the Material World?

Posted by: Samantha at August 17, 2005 2:18 PM

Nice getting to know you, Lexie. Eldridge has been labeled an >"open theist" (i.e. heretic) by the Reformed camp (see Tim Challies et al), as has C.S. Lewis to some degree, but I will open that can of worms after I finish reading The Sacred Romance (one of my mom's favorite books, too--she's read all of his stuff and agrees with much but not all of it--I think that's a healthy outlook).

Interesting that we have the same temperament and four-letter type. Melancholic-Phlegmatic actually translates Beaver-Golden Retriever. Sanguine is Otter and Lion is Choleric. I like that system too but Gary Smalley (its creator) has updated them on his website to more boring terms. I still like Smalley though :)

Posted by: Marla at August 17, 2005 3:17 PM

I also really enjoyed reading Eldridge's books, and maybe I'll blog about them later. For me, he is in the "inspiration" category rather than the "systematic theology" category.

Oh, I am a melancholy/choleric. There isn't a phlegmatic or sanguine bone in my body :) I haven't taken the animal test, so I can't comment.

You sound like a very fun person. Since you live in Texas but you don't like going out when it's hot and humid, doesn't that mean you are stuck indoors more than half the year?

Posted by: Hannah at August 17, 2005 7:00 PM

Hannah, melancholic=beaver...so far there are at least three of us here!

Posted by: Marla at August 17, 2005 7:54 PM

I hear ya on the all-nighters, Lexie!

Your conversion sounds similar to mine, complete with wanting to know God if He was real and lots of deep philosophical conversations!

So, sometime you'll come hear a concert and then we'll stay up all night & eat chocolate, yes? (Anyone else care to join us?) :-)

Posted by: Bonnie at August 17, 2005 8:54 PM

Am I the luckiest woman to call you friend, or what??? I love you! I had to LOL at the silver ladies on the mud flaps - they are all over down here aren't they?

Posted by: Lynn at August 17, 2005 9:33 PM

Marla,
I may have got it wrong - I thought you were Reformed?

Lexie,
Haven't read Eldridge. Love some of CS but not his take on purgatory. Perelandra is probably my favourite - which isn't most peoples. Mere Christianity is good. I didn't like The Screwtape Letters though. I don't get into the devil's advocate thing much.

Material Girl? Wasn't that Madonna? Or am I totally off the planet?

In my van listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees so what can anyone expect...

Posted by: Catez at August 17, 2005 10:34 PM

Lexie, this was a fun and interesting way to get to know you better. We share the *same* taste in music (minus, uh, Yanni). And my grandfather knew Lawrence Welk...

And you are an INFJ? I am an ENFJ.

And I LOL at "what someone else cooked".

Posted by: mopsy at August 18, 2005 7:28 AM

Okay Lexie, I MUST correct you! Chocolate is NOT, I repeat, NOT a weakness! Studies now show dark chocolate is acutally good for you! By grace, I bestow this informative tidbit to bring you much freedom in your life! Go! Eat dark chocolate! BE FREE!!

Posted by: t.smith at August 18, 2005 9:45 AM

Lexie - fun to read more about you.

I heartily concur about the heat and humidity, and YES, we do have to hide inside often. I call summer here the real austin winter. We do our indoor rainy day activities durring August. (or live IN the pool, not at) :-)

How about we pull an all-nighter scrapbooking event, complete with lots of chocolate!

As for CS being "open" (the theology wasn't really articulated during his day) or Eldridge, etc. . . I am of the opinion that every person and teacher has their own little heresy (or three or four) and I discern who I read by how loudly they promote their heresy. No one is right on everything, the mirror we look through is too cloudy, but it is possible to stick to, focus on, and live by the essentials which we can know for sure and that have been made clear to us. Christ is the savior of sinners among whom I am foremost.

Posted by: Annie at August 18, 2005 9:54 AM

Catez, I'm newly Reformed ;) ...I'm still figuring it all out (and probably will be until I get to heaven) but God's sovereignty is what converted me. It seems that the Presbyterians more than the Reformed Baptists are heavy on the Eldridge critique. Having been a part of so many non-denominational groups, I think I don't see certain things as black and white.

Annie, someone made a similar comment (which I agree with) on Challies. Balance is key and I think would help dissipate, or at least ease, the tension between those leaning toward the suffocatingly conservative Reformed camp and those leaning toward the dangerously liberal Emergent faction. More on that later...it's ridiculous how I always give my future posts away :(

Mopsy, let me know if you want to join my blogroll of ENFJs--we've only got 3 so far.

Posted by: Marla at August 18, 2005 10:36 AM

That would be great, Marla! There don't seem to be very many blogging Es...?

Posted by: mopsy at August 18, 2005 10:43 AM

Samantha, I checked out both from our library. Talk about perspective.

Marla, I’ve heard some rumblings about Eldredge. I agree with your mom’s approach. I also like Hannah’s distinction between inspiration and theology.

Hannah, what Annie said about August being our winter is true. I either go from AC to AC or AC to pool, mostly AC to AC for me. And most years it’s only 2 or 3 months.

Bonnie, thanks for the invite…may have to take you up on it sometime.

Lynn, I love you too! You’re my face to face Intellectuelle pal.

Catez, haven’t read Perelandra yet. Will have to because of your recommendation. Are you serious or joking about Material Girl? I had to double check my typing and make sure I didn’t write Material Girl. Material World is an amazing book that photographs typical families from different countries in front of their dwellings with all of their material possessions. Material Girl was Madonna.

Mopsy, get out! So, did you ever meet Lawrence Welk? I knew it was risky putting Yanni up there….he’s fodder for much humor. His Reflections of Passion and Live at the Acropolis are my favorites. I don’t aspire to owing his whole collection like I do U2. Not sure about the I vs. E deal. I can do both. I wonder if all the straight up E’s are out doing stuff inside of writing about doing stuff.

t. smith – thanks for the reminder about dark chocolate. I’m afraid my tendency is to use my freedom as a license to sin when it comes to chocolate! J

Annie, you’re actually close enough that we could do an all nighter. If you’re serious, let me know. That sound great! Scrappin’, chocolate, and good conversation. Cool.

Whew…that was long.

Posted by: Lexie at August 18, 2005 5:06 PM

Hey, Lexie and Annie, I know both of you are older than me, but I just can't pull an all-nighter anymore--and I'm only 24. Maybe that's because I'm still breastfeeding my 15 month old. Before baby, I could survive on little sleep and stay up all night. Will that ability return someday? I sure hope so!

Oh, Lexie, I forgot to mention that I'm a U2 fan. My husband recently said he'd never heard of U2, and I had to argue with him that U2 really is a famous and well-known group. He wouldn't believe me. :)

Posted by: Hannah at August 18, 2005 6:13 PM

Lexie, my oldest daughter graduated an Aggie-"Saw 'em off!" Sorry, couldn't resist! In the movie Troy, there are actual sawed off horns on the mast of one of the boats! It's a thank you to Texas A&M for their architectual assistance on the movie sets! I'm with you and Annie about the heat and humidity thing - I live in Sugar Land TX, outside Houston. I even park my van most times so the sun shines through the back windows which are dark-tinted, instead of heating up the front through the windshield. And to think my daughters played soccer and softball in this weather!

Posted by: t.smith at August 18, 2005 10:33 PM

Lexie,
LOL. I thought you said "Material Girl" when I commented. I hadn't heard of "Material World" before. Ok. I get it now.

Posted by: Catez at August 19, 2005 2:41 AM

And I was joking. Material Girl has a real catchy hook though.

Posted by: Catez at August 19, 2005 2:42 AM

Hannah, not nursing definitley makes a difference.

t. - great trivia to look for if I watch the movie again. Central Texas' humidity is nothing compared to Houston's. I'm so thankful for AC!

Catze - Material Girl does have a nice hook. The muppets did a fabulous parody of it called "Cereal Girl', which could easily apply to me.

Posted by: Lexie at August 19, 2005 7:03 AM

One of my highlights of this year has been to read through the Ramona series with my 7-year-old. Reading Ramona the Pest is one of my favorite childhood memories, and I can't believe I'm a "grown-up" now and have the opportunity to see for the first time again through my daughter's eyes, whether it's Ramona, Meg and Charles Wallace, the Pevensies... oh what joy!

Posted by: Renae at August 20, 2005 7:54 PM

Your blog is very interesint

Posted by: Milen at September 1, 2005 10:03 PM

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