Happy Birthday, Seth!

Today is my oldest brother's birthday. He is turning 30 today! I could make some sort of obnoxious comment about how old he is, but I'm afraid that, in his senility, he wouldn't get any jokes I make. You know how old people can be.

Seth, thank you for being my big brother. For teaching me the joy of being a gamer, for letting me follow you around at school saying, "Hi, Big Guy!", for babysitting me when I was a brat, for reading Hitchhiker's Guide to me and most of all, for growing up to be my friend.
I love you, Big Guy.

Happy Birthday!

Questions I Wish I Didn't Have to Ask

"Where are your underpants?"

"Whose poopy is that?"

"What are you eating?!"

Helmet Art

Joshua and I have combined our talents to make his motorcycle helmet a work of art. I designed and drew the pattern then Joshua did the meticulous work of cutting out the stencil from masking tape. Then he put the tape stencil on the helmet (NOT as easy as it sounds! You try putting a flat thing on a round thing and see how well it goes.), taped off the rest of the helmet and spray painted it. Because of the camera flash the paint may look white in the pictures, but it's actually silver.

We're both really pleased with how it came out. We're probably going to paint something on the sides and when we do I'll post more pictures.
So what do you think? Not bad for our first helmet painting. Now we have to figure out what we'll do on my helmet.

Blindside

Throughout the five years that Joshua and I have been married we've discovered our opinions are not always identical when it comes to books, movies, music, etc. But one thing we've always had in common is our love of Blindside's music. Here are a few of my favorites.
(As always feel free to ignore the videos and just listen to the music.)

All of Us
Sleepwalking
Shekina I really like this one. If it seems like you can't understand what he's saying at certain points it's because he sings part of the song in Swedish. How cool is that?
After You're Gone This video is actually for some sort of wrestling thing, but this song is so good I thought I'd post it anyway.

Embarrassing Jonathan

I thought long and hard about whether I should post this picture. In the end, as you can see, I decided that it was too good to keep to myself. Not only did I snap this picture of my brother sucking his thumb, but I also managed to show off his increasing baldness.

Jonathan, despite my little sister meanness I really enjoyed seeing you a few weeks ago. I liked having you around to just hang out with and I liked hearing you laugh. I guess the only thing I didn't like about your visit is it reminded me of how much I miss having my brothers and sisters nearby. I love you, Jonathan.
(There, did that mushy part make up for the embarrassing picture?)

A Playground Sunset

My Beautiful Family

Sabbath Quote

"The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than its hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?"

---"Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band
(You can hear the song here.)

My Peaceful Neighborhood

I'm feeling down. I'm having trouble exactly pinpointing why I'm feeling so bummed out, but I do know one thing that is contributing to this. Last night a man killed himself at the high school right behind our house. He called the police and when they got there he shot himself. (You can read the story here.)
The high school parking lot is like a second back yard to us. It's an ideal place to teach little people to ride bikes or rollerskate.

But now it is stained with blood.

I realize that this isn't a big deal compared to what happens in inner city areas everyday or even compared to the violence that has taken place at other high schools. But this happened in my back yard. And the next time we go for a relaxing Sunday afternoon walk we will walk on sidewalk that witnessed death.

And consider this: Where is that man now? Is he even now begging to be allowed to return to this life, which now seems a pleasant place when compared to the fury of hell? Or was he my brother in Christ that lost hope?

This used to be a peaceful neighborhood where nothing ever happened- or so I thought. I guess this is really the neighborhood I live in- a place where people hurt so much that death is a gift to them. So does this change who we need to be here? How are we to be Christians here? How do we shine in this dark place?

They Win

Well, I've finally conceded the match. My kids have me beat. I reached this conclusion after discovering that little, adorable 5-month-old Evangeline is fully mobile. She does this goofy belly flop thing that can move her across the floor at a shocking speed. So now I have a baby that can get into everything, a 4-year-old with a mouth and imagination running on overdrive and an almost 3-year-old that likes to eat light bulbs and thinks he's Spider-man.
So you see, it's hopeless. My daily life looks something like a circus. I could try to fight my children for my sanity or maybe I should just hang on and enjoy the ride.

Hey, Good Lookin'

Take a gander at my niece Olympia. She's a cutie, eh? She takes ballet (hence the tutu) and she was over here today for a photo shoot. I'm quite pleased with how the pictures turned out and whether their success was due to the photographer or the subject matter I couldn't say, but it 's a close call. ;o)

May I Introduce...

Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the newest addition to our household- a motorcycle!


This is a purely practical second vehicle for our family. Never mind the look of jubilant glee on Joshua's face and the very comfy second seat for yours truly. We got this bike for practical reasons only. Yep, that's right, no fun factor here at all. (And if you believe that I'll tell you another one...)

A Story

It’s another beautiful day. Of course, it’s always a beautiful day here. You might even call it heavenly. I often enjoy just being still, like I am now, and drinking in the glory of the endless day. I’ve been here for quite some time now (not that there’s anything such as time here) and I never cease to be amazed at the light of this place. It’s as if everything is shining with a brilliance of a thousand of earth’s suns. Hmm, how strange it is to think of the sun. I haven’t - what’s that? It sounds like quite a commotion. I’ll go check it out. There’s always a party of some kind going on here, I wonder what it is this time? It looks like it’s the angels making all the noise- oh! Great joy of all joys! Another brother has been reborn! Praise the King, He’s brought in one more to join our ranks! It’s sounds like it’s a pretty young one. Ah, it’s a teenager. He’s got a tough life ahead of him from what I hear his family is like. But I’ve seen young ones with worse families than his make it to the end. It’ll be rough going for him, but it was rough for all of us and we made it here by the grace of the King. I look forward to meeting him in person here someday.

I like the look of him. He reminds me of how my son looked at that age. Ah, my son. It won’t be long now until he’ll be showing up here. He makes me so proud! I could spend days (if there was such a thing, of course) just watching him living his life. He’s doing far better than I ever did, let me tell you. Sometimes, when I’m watching my son, I’ll see that the King is watching him, too. If I thought I loved my boy it’s nothing to the love that’s on the King’s face when He’s looking at my son.

I wonder if I’ll ever understand that love of the King’s. When I first got here and first saw the King face to face I plumb near dropped through the floor- well if I’d been standing on a floor I would have dropped through it. There was the smile that I’d tried to imagine for so many years- nothing like I imagined it for no imagination can comprehend such a smile. And then His eyes hit me. It’s like when you stare at a fire on earth and you keep staring until everything else seems to disappear and you feel like you’re falling into the fire and when you look away everything else seems so mundane and bland. But imagine never having to look away. That caught me off guard, that’s for sure! I frankly don’t know if I’ll ever get used to those eyes even after I’ve been here for a few millennia.

Well, His eyes are nothing compared to the Love that shines from every pore of His body. It makes Him so bright. What do you think is lighting this place after all? Hey! Something else is happening! Didn’t I tell you there’s always a party of some kind happening here? A new arrival! Here she comes now. Just look at the expression on her face, will you? Ah, now she’s meeting the King. That’s always a private event. There she goes crying now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone arrive here and not start crying as soon as they met the King for the first time. I know I was blubbering like a baby when I got here. Not that I was sad obviously. What a thought! Being sad here! There she goes meeting and greeting now. Oh, and look at that reunion. That must have been her husband on earth. Come to think of it I do recall that man telling me of his wife. I’ll let them enjoy the moment and I’ll come back later to introduce myself to the newcomer.

I was in the middle of a thought a moment ago... oh, yes- I was thinking about being sad here. While it’s true that there’s no such thing as pain or grief here, I do still see the agonies that are happening on earth. I see children being murdered and fathers abandoning their families and cruel men killing my beloved siblings of the faith. What torments men devise for one another! And besides that I see our enemies from Hell piercing, wounding, and killing many and dragging off new prisoners to their endless torture.

I know the King sees this, too. It won’t be long now. He’s going to put an end to it once and for all. I can hardly wait for it! What glories will shine then as the King rides in with all His powers and defeats the Enemy for good! If you think there are some great celebrations here just wait until then! No words can describe it. Just thinking about it is thrilling! I know that- Oh look! Another new arrival! Hey- that was my next door neighbor on earth! Praise the King, he made it! If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some celebrating to do.

Our Trip to the Zoo (Part 3)

The last of the zoo pictures.
Have you ever seen giraffes run? It's so fun to watch! I still can't figure out how those thin legs can hold up that tall body.


The hippo is an amazing creature. It's an animal of enormous size, (reminding me of how I feel during the ninth month of pregnancy) but it moves with a gracefulness that is surprising. This hippo's name is Blacky and he's 57 years old.

Our Trip to the Zoo (Part 2)

For your viewing enjoyment: more zoo pictures!
This was definitely one of the coolest parts of the zoo. There was an exhibit where we could touch sting rays. (Their barbs had been trimmed so they were safe to touch.) We were supposed to put our hands in the water palms up and touch the bellies of the sting rays as they swam by. It was really amazing. They felt velvety and slimy at the same time. I won't forget that anytime soon.
Lily and Malachi watching the giraffes. The kids really enjoyed them.
This was Malachi's favorite animal. He really likes zebras so we made sure we visited them twice. Lily's favorite animals were the frogs and snakes. As much as I love her, we only saw those animals once.

Our Trip to the Zoo (Part 1)

We went to the Cleveland Zoo this weekend and we had such a good time! Here are just a few of the pictures we took.


The tank this shark was in was huge! We stood right next to the glass and the fish would swim right past us.
Malachi really enjoyed watching this gorilla eat. Every time he took a bite Malachi would laugh and laugh.

There was this really spiffy Dinosaur exhibit. The mechanical dinosaurs would move, roar and even spit! Malachi and Alyssa really enjoyed that, but Lily was a tad too scared.
More zoo pictures to come!