Noah's Ark

This YouTube video clip is from Disney's Fantasia 2000. We used it for today's lesson on Noah's Ark...

Buffy and Muffy go to the Mall

This is the video Ray and I made for Jr Worship. It is a great example of the over-use of the word LOVE.

Latte Art

I LOVE COFFEE

The Evening News and a Worship Service

What does the evening news and a worship service have in common?
I just watched an interview with Howard Kurtz regarding his new book, Reality Show. His book talks about the influence on the network evening news on society and whether or not it will continue to remain relevant in the next generation. The funny thing to me was how much it sounded like the discussions we have pertaining to our worship services. How do we balance the important issues, keeping people interested and yes, entertained? One of the things I found most interesting about their discussion was the fact that network news needs to consider content - are there too many stories about menopause and retirement? Reminded he of our talks about whether we should keep hymns in our services or are we too seeker sensitive. Does that make sense? I think too much.

Birthday Bash

Last night was our yearly Birthday Bash for my dad. Tradition calls for the whole clan to get together and Mom makes her famous apple dumplins. They are awesome and labor intensive - so it's a very special treat - once a year! One trick to eating this wonderful food is making sure that you have enough ice cream to evenly distibute a little with each bite. If you do not budget your ice cream properly you may come up short - which is unfortunate - but frankly, the dumplins are delicious with or without the ice cream.

This year was extra special because my little sister and her family were in town! So we were all together!! As you can see Dad has quite a cute bunch of grandkids. Here they all are minus Brad, who had to run off to his new young adult small group (Bible Study)

The big one

So you have "met" Ray, Hope and Micah. Now it is time to meet Brad. I'm currently twice his age - but he'll always be my baby. I could not be more proud of him. Poor thing, he has certainly inherited many things from me. Most notably, power brows, dimples and my giggle - don't get him started. The best thing about him is his love for the Lord and passion for people. I hope in some small way he got a little bit of that from me. Although I think Uncle Danny has had a powerful influence on that.

It's funny, this year we both became staff members of churches... he beat me though, his picture is already on Loveland's website - http://lovedtolove.com - note the power brows :) Our churches are opposite sides of the Little Miami River, yet both are Loveland addresses. Lots of fun!

The pretty girl with him is his girlfriend, Hilary. She has power brows too :)

Trolls

Well, you've seen a picture of Ray and Hope together - Now here's the little guy. Yesterday as usual I took him to the bus stop for his ride to kindergarten. It was such a beautiful day I decided to go a little early and sit in the sunshine. To help ease the wait, I began telling Micah a story about a troll that lived under the street where the drainage grate is. He was very lonely as he watched the children get on the bus everyday. So his parents suggested he dress up like a human child and ride the bus to school. This story went on until the bus came.

My little man marched across the street to the bus. He seemed to linger a bit with the bus driver. She popped her head out and said, "Nice story Mom!" then she rolled the bus up the street a bit, popped her head out again and said, "Good luck with the trolls!" Wow! in just a few seconds she got all that from Micah... my shy little guy! Silly me - I worried he might not quite be ready for kindergarten.