Bowling!

Easter Photo Blast

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter!  Our church service was beautiful and meaningful. We had time with family.  The weather was beautiful.  And now, better late than never, I have photos to share...

My Easter Eve

Memories in Photos

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning we saw this in our neighborhood...

See it? 

I got all excited and Mike was a good sport to follow it a bit so I could get photos.

We both laughed about it as we used to see hot air balloons frequently when we lived in New Mexico. In fact, about once a year we would wake up on a Saturday morning hearing the WHOOSH sound they make as the local balloon festival often blew many over our neighborhood. I capitalized that WHOOSH sound as it can actually be a really loud noise, not a gentle sound at all.

Can you see the flame shooting up inside the balloon?  

That is, of course, how the air gets hot. Otherwise it would be a cool air balloon and it wouldn't rise. Still, who first thought it would be a good idea to shoot a flame up inside a flammable balloon as it held your life in its basket?  

We actually got to ride in a hot air balloon in New Mexico, thanks to our friend, Jim, and our friends, Bob and Marcia. Jim owns a balloon and Bob and Marcia were the chase crew. We got our turn to be a chase crew as well. That was kind of fun and a bit scary.

Did you know a balloon can't really be steered?. The pilot just makes it go up or down until finding a breeze going the way he wants to go. Sometimes there is not a breeze going exactly where planned.  Sometimes the balloon take an unexpected route. That is why a chase crew is called a chase crew. 

Sometimes there isn't much of a breeze at all. Sam and I had our ride together. Although he is 6'4" now, he could barely see over the top of the basket then. I couldn't bring myself to hold him up very far as I had wild worries of dropping him over the edge if we hit a bump.... An air bump.  That wasn't really a worry. Our friend, Jim, kept piloting us higher and higher, trying to find a good breeze. Sam and I went very, very high!  I don't remember how long our ride was, maybe 30-40 minutes. When we landed, we'd only gone about one block.  Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience. Thank you, Jim! 

The part I did not know was that those graceful balloons do not always land so gracefully. They bounce!. The chase crew has to grab onto the basket and be human anchors. Sometimes the anchors get bounced around a bit as well.  Who knew? 

Anyway, blue skies, no clouds and a hot air balloon made for a lovely drive to church.

Communion Class

Saturday morning I taught a communion class at our church. A few years ago I wrote a little curriculum for this purpose. I wrote it to be done in four different lesions. The first three lessons are to be done at home with parents, and then we all get together for the final class.

In this class we start off learning about the Hebrew People being slaves to the Egyptians. I teach a bit about Moses and the plagues in order to teach what the Jewish Passover Celebration is all about. 

Then, we fast forward to the New Testament and talk about Palm Sunday and Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem. We move on to the Last Supper and talk about how it ties in with the Passover. I love when it seems the kids are catching on. We talk a lot about Jesus taking on our sins, forgiveness, grace...

We talk about baptism being a time when God is initiating our faith and that communion ia a time when our faith is nourished. Both are times when God has used something physical, water and bread and wine, in his plan to draw us to him.

After all that history lesson we talk about the meaning of communing with each other. Living in community is sometimes difficult but they learn we are taught to worship together and to serve Good together. We aren't to be long ranger Christians.

We take time for crafts as well. Each year I try to search for a craft that will leave the students with something to remind them of what they learn. This year I brought clay, that pick like thing that is meant to pick the meat of nuts out of the shell, and some cross do-dads. Take a look at the cool results! 

When I am done, Mike spends some time giving further instruction. He lets them see and taste the elements of communion. He tells them about different ways communion might be served in other churches. He gets right down to the nitty gritty kind of advice that can be so useful. You know, advice like sitting near the back when at a new church, giving you a chance to observe their traditions so you know what to do. It is really kind of a fun class and I always enjoy teaching it.

Little Girls and Easter Dresses

I had a very busy weekend, as usual... In a good way. I took a lot of cell phone photos!  I won't dump them all on you at once but you may want to prep yourself for a week of  photos.

So, let's start with Friday. I often work long hours during the week but am allowed to leave early on Friday if I am caught up. So, I started off by enjoying mall lunch with Mike, Eric, Maria, Cordelia and Elise.  

I don't suppose our funny little mall lunches look like anything special to anyone else, but I think we are making memories for our granddaughters... And ourselves. These little girls probably think all families meet at the mall almost weekly for lunch. Like most traditions maybe, it didn't start out as something we planned to do regularly. In the winter it was a place where we could eat and then let Cordelia run around, before Elise was even born. Somehow along the way, we realized we had ourselves a quirky little family tradition.

It is a weird little tradition, but it is our precious little weird together.

After lunch it was girl time!  It was our afternoon to shop for new Easter Dresses! No I don't think an Easter dress is an essential thing for Easter. I think Easter would come in all its glory no matter what we were to wear. However, our little granddaughters love dresses and I love any excuse to see them twirl and dance around in all their girly cuteness.

In the past, Elise was quick, very quick to choose her dress. She was very decisive and wouldn't be talked out her choice. Well, she now likes to take her time. She and Cordelia both pretty much wanted to see all their choices in most of the stores in the mall. They even enjoy trying them on, something I find a bit annoying for myself. It makes hair so full of static. Elise didn't care.

We shopped until I was about to drop. Admittedly, I do not have very good shopping stamina.

This is not the dress Elise finally chose, but it was my favorite.

I love Cordelia's expression here. This was the dress she chose but it was not available in the proper size.  As you can see, that news did not please her. No one can look as crestfallen as this little girl. Not to worry; she recovered quickly.

No, no spoilers here. Next week I expect to show photos of these sweet girls in their Easter best. You just have to wait! 

How to Eat a Sandwich

Spring?

It snowed today, but may be 79 degrees this week-end. That has gOt to be confusing to the birds! 

Vision Beyond Borders - Saturday Volunteers

This picture hangs in the entry of the warehouse and offices at Vision Beyond Borders. I thought you would like it.

As I have told you before, Vision Beyond Border's main mission is to deliver Bibles to places where they are not freely available. Often, this means someone has to put their own safety and freedom at risk in order to do it.

When carrying out their mission they so often became aware of needs of the people they are meeting.  This led to them taking on many challenges as they try to help in other ways. They help with orphanages. They have safe houses and work to rescue women from the sex trade. They deliver clothes, shoes, seeds and more, depending on the needs. 

Saturday morning a group of us from our church gathered at the Vision Beyond Borders Warehouse to work once again on repackaging seeds to donate to people who are deprived of the ability to purchase their own seeds.  We are repackaging them so they take up less room for shipping or delivering via someone's suitcase. It also demonstrates they are not being taken in to sell in stores. The bottom line is, there are thousands and thousands of seed packets. We are stubborn people who want to finish this project we started, even though it turned out to be a much bigger project than we expected.

These are all people with busy lives. These are people who could surely find things they need to do for themselves on their fee Saturday. Yet, they came. Once again, they stayed longer than they meant too as well. 

These people, these friends from church, are the cream of the crop.

Does Dad Know Where We Are?

We seem to be people who acquire quirky dogs.  Maybe all dogs are quirky. Maybe that is the second best thing about a dog. The first, of course, is their extreme loyalty all wrapped up in pure joy.

I have told you a lot about Bode's ability to chew and eat pretty much anything. He started right off by eating our plastic vertical blinds.  That wasn't a good idea. He ended up with a partial bowel obstruction, which leads to all kinds of messy. A month or so after that, he did it all over again. We now have curtains.

Our last dog, Grady, was a wonderful family pet.  He had one giant flaw, though, which caused us a lot of worry. He was a gentle boy with us but he seemed to think all other dogs were a threat to his territory or his people. He was extremely protective. That is a good thing if you have a dangerous invader situation. It is a bad thing if you order a pizza. He also thought most people were a threat, at least at first. He thought WE were scary as well, if we wore hats! 

Anyway, with Bode, we really, really wanted to socialize him and keep him from being aggressive. Well, mission accomplished. Bode loves everyone!  A lot!  Sure, he will act protective with a stranger entering our home, but once he has met someone, they are soon his BFF.

Bode started out loving other dogs as well. He is crazy when our granddogs, Bumblebee and Betty come to visit. Early on, when out walking him, he wanted to greet all dogs and thought they would all be thrilled to play with him. Sadly, they sometimes had a different plan. 

We often encounter loose dogs when out walking, even though we have a leash law.  With our last dog, he would strain on the leash to get a fight started. He was fearless. Bode... Not so much. Bode may be playing it smarter, though. He simply freezes when approached by another dog. He lets them smell what they want. He does not make eye contact.  It usually works out ok for him but it is sad too see him so terrified.

Mike takes Bode for a daily walk. They have a route they enjoy and they know which yards have scary dogs.  Bode enjoy that walk.

Yesterday, I was off work early and we had a lovely day happening. I decided to treat myself and Bode to an afternoon walk. I upset him right away because I started off going the wrong way. He kept trying to explain to me that I was doing it wrong. It reminded me of a story about our daughter, Maria. 

When Maria was 2 years old we moved to the Seattle area for two years while Mike was in college out there. One day, I was driving Maria somewhere and decided to explore just a bit. When she realized we were off the route she knew, she became worried and was questioning my navigational skills. Finally, the loud little two year old voice from the car seat  behind me inquired, "Does Dad know where we are? "

Yesterday, I could tell Bode was wishing Mike was on the other end of the leash so he didn't have to be so worried.

I kept trying to walk with Bode on my left. He kept diving behind me, trying to get on my right. He was so adamant about it, I thought maybe Mike now walked him that way. I gave in to having him on my right and we continued on. He was fine for awhile. 

When we crossed the street and my right side was on the inside of the street, Bode then scrambled to my left side. It kind of felt like he wanted to protect me from the street traffic.

Wrong! 

I started to notice Bode's reaction each time we heard a dog bark. Thankfully most were behind a fence but Bode cringed and pulled away each time. It soon became apparent he wanted to keep me between him and the yards with dogs in them! Whatever, Dude!