lotsopics

rolling out the pictures in no particular order...

snuggles from my Bug

 Happy Boy!

 Swinging on his own

 taking care of babies

 doing the Wii at PT...  
I emailed Mike this pic from my phone and he wanted to know if that meant I wanted him to pick on up on his way home from work ;)

then trying out a kids yoga fitness video afterwards... haha!

 picking the berries off the nandina and putting them in her cup

 second nap after his field trip last week

 Our Violas have gotten so big and pretty!

WINNER!!!

Mike's work held a coding competition this eve. There were eight or more teams competing.  And his team walked away the winners!!!  Way to go, Mike!   I got a text that there was a tie breaker.  I wasn't sure if that meant HE was in a tie breaker or if he was just staying to watch the tie breaker.  But when he walked in, there were some shouts declaring they WON!!!  

Here's my rendition of what Mike said was the play by play on how they made it to the tie breaker, 

(sorta like the telephone game b/c I do not get coding language!!)

"I couldn't get the diagonal rows of the tick tack toe to work.  Whenever you entered a "-1" into the spot, it would blow out the whole program.  I didn't think we were going to make it.  So as a hail mary, I decided to encode the whole thing in a tri-fecta (no, a tri space catch).  

And IT WORKED!"

update: that's $50 to the company store (merchandise with the company logo).... ;)  

Our Bird Friends

This is at least the third year that "red-bellied woodpeckers" have nested in a dead part of one of our trees.  I assumed they were red-headed but after looking online, I learned they are called  red-bellied.  We sorta feel like they are part of the family.  Mike and I have both gone out to take pics of them b/c they are so fascinating to watch.  They had an initial hole, then last year they made a hole above the first one, but this year they have come back down the limb to their first home. Its a tree just over our patio area.. its fun to watch them while we are playing outside.  And with these spring days of open windows and ceiling fans, we can hear from indoors too.   

I think this is the female (she has less red).

 And this is the male.

 Peeking in... 

 Female

The two of them seem to squabble a lot.  I have some blurry pics of them squabbling mid air.    And it seems like the male takes more care of the nest??  

The female gets annoyed and fusses at him from a nearby branch.  

They are both in the pic below.

Now this makes us want a zoom lens for our camera.

Sweet & Silly

The sweeties in my shopping cart...

Look at Lily's sweet elbow dimple and forearm chub.  I am numbering my days b/c it won't be long enough that I get to feel some sweet baby chub!

Make a funny face!

"One moh hug!"

Lily has really come out of her shell some lately.  Peter is typically my friendly one who introduces himself to everyone.  Lily has taken note and lately, she has been walking up to and saying hi to people she doesn't know.  "Hi, I'm Lily!"  I know this isn't always a great idea but I don't have to heart to discourage it yet since they are always with me. 

AND.... 

The countdown is on... 

19 days 'til the POOL OPENS!  

Yay for MAY!

Today's Miracle

Mike and Peter leave early on the mornings that Mike is helping in Peter's class.  Then Lily and I come along at normal time.  This morning when we went to leave, I couldn't find my keys.  No surprise there!  Normally, I'd completely get completely flustered by this.  I'm all ready and great, I can't find my keys.  I looked around at all the normal places but no keys.  Mike wasn't answering his phone (of course).  And I had nursery second service so there was no chance that  I'd get a second chance to go to worship.  And as we were telling our kids this morning, everyone suffers if we don't make it to church to worship.    Instead, I called my friend Emily.  They normally go to second service so I thought it was a long shot that they'd be able to get us.   And they are usually more on time than us.  ;)  BUT when I called Emily, she was about to leave, b/c she also had nursery second service.  AND she had an extra car seat.  So we were able to enjoy riding to church with them.  Amazing.  I was just so thankful for God's provision of riding with them.  And for friendships where it just doesn't matter.  And for the chance to see God in the even bigger miracle of me not losing it.  Woah, that's a big deal.

 All three girls were wearing cute smocked dresses so I had to get a pic!

We asked Mike's parents if they'd watch our kids after church so we could go to a mission update.  After we settled into our seats, I was telling Mike about the whole debacle.  He asked me if I looked a few places.  I had.  Then he reached in his pocket, pulled out his keys, then pulled out mine.  Haha!  

Field Trip!

We headed out this morning for the spring field trip with Peter's preschool class.

I don't really look forward to these (bah humbug).  When Peter woke up at 3:55am today, I was tempted to just not go.  But we went.  And it turned out to be really fun!  My van was full... that was fun!  There was another mom (who I didn't know before) and two little girls from Peter's class.  So we were our own little group.  It was great to have an extra set of mom eyes and have their company!

Oh, while feeding the goats (both kids' fave part), Peter gave the goat his plastic ziploc bag to eat...  I spotted it 1/2 way eaten by the goat and quickly pulled it out, mangled and all.  I had visions of Dr. Dennis having to donate his services to the park to do surgery on the goat to fix a small bowel obstruction.  "I'm so sorry.  But my dad can fix it...."  Come to think of it... that's sorta a good spiritual picture of our Heavenly Father.

Wellspring Processing...

This week we did Genesis 32:  The story of Jacob wrestling with God.  It was a hard one for me to understand before working through the quotes below and talking thru it with my Wellspring group.  

Why did 'the man' (who is GOD) not prevail, or choose not to prevail, over Jacob?  This verse helped... 

The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 1 Cor 1: 25b

And in this quote: "At some point the awful knowledge has gripped him that the one on whose breast he leans sweating and gasping is the God of his fathers, who could slay him with a glance.  And for once, since he has no choice, no other hope, Jacob's tenacity is turned in the right direction."  -John White  

Why is Jacob commended in this quote for wrestling with GOD?  He continues to demand instead of humbling himself. (Like I always humble myself.  Um, no.)

But then this quote helped me...

"The conflict brought to a head the groping of a lifetime.  And Jacob's desperate embrace vividly expresses his ambivalent attitude before God- love and enmity, defiance and dependence.  It was against HIM, not Esau or Laban, that he had been pitting his strength, as he now discovered.   -Derek Kidner

God chooses to come to Jacob in a way he can understand.  Jacob came into the world wrestling with Esau.  (After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.  Gen 25:26)  God intimately knows Jacob and how to wrestle just right with him, without destroying, overcoming him.  Much like a father would wrestle with his boy.   And destroying Jacob isn't what God wants.  He is for Jacob.  And we were also reminded of how this is similar to Jesus... Jesus wins us by losing.  

And while Jacob is a wrestler, He is also full aware of his dependence on God (v.10), which is the part that I may not have gotten before.  He is clinging to God & His blessing for life.

"But the question now occurs, Who is able to stand against an Antagonist, at whose breath alone all flesh perishes and vanishes away, at whose look the mountains melt, at whose word or beck the whole world is shaken to pieces, and therefore to attempt the least contest with Him would be insane temerity (excessive confidence or boldness)?  But it is easy to untie the knot.  For we do not fight against him except by his own power, and with his own weapons; for he, having challenged us to this contest, at the same time furnishes us with the means of resistance, so that he both fights against us and for us.  On short, such is his apportioning of this conflict, that, while he assails us with one hand, he defends with the other; yea, inasmuch as he supplies us with more strength to resist than he employs in opposing us, we may truly and properly say, that he fights against us with his left hand, and for us with his right hand.  

-John Calvin