Things I love

1) Going on walks at sundown

2) Sunsets at the beach

3) Beach Camping

4) Surfing

5) Swimming

6) Downtown LA (Philippe's, China town, Alvera Street, Union Station, Little Tokyo)

7) Pumpkin Pie

8) Hamburgers

9) Hanging out with kids

10) Sleeping in

A great b-day party

This last Saturday my brother and I attended a cool birthday party for our friend Malachi (he just turned three.

It was a BLAST. There was a petting farm, great games and crafts, a place for the kids to mine for gold, and homemade cookies and cream ice-cream. Enjoy the pics

Kenny Hanging out with a VERY fluffy bunny!

Kenny's wrist, which got stuck in some kiddy handcufs, had to have lots of help to get it off...

Duck!

Kenny holding a really fluffy chicken, if you look closely you can see the beak, but you can't find their eyes.

A busy weekend...

This was a buy weekend.  I spent the weekend in YL with the fam.  Friday night and Saturday noonish, I had work engagements (thus the reason for staying out in the OC).  Both went well and we had fun.  

Then, on Sunday, Kenny and I went to the preschool "new reveal" volunteer training at YLFC.  It was so awesome.  This is something that I remember talking about wanting to do in 2004.  It took us (or rather them, since I am not really there anymore) four years to make it a reality, but it was well worth it.  They had thought through the "what ifs" and "what do we do whens."  It was really exciting to see and to get to be a part in some small way.  It was also great to be with the EC team there and help them out and throw a great training.  Table decor, the new large group stage decor, and great food made the atmosphere great.  Gwin rocked as the preschool leader and I don't think I have anything I could critique (and that's saying a lot since I am a pretty much critical person (although I like to consider it being a realist and just always wanting to improve).  

So, that was my weekend, now on to a quieter next few days at home...

It's been a while...

Sorry all!  It's been a while, life has been a bit overwhelming.  Nothing major, just the regular busyness.  And I haven't really had anything to say.  Well, I guess I could write about church this sunday - I didn't like it.  I normally really like it, but this weekend our pastor was gone, so we had another pastor speak.  I know that it probably wasn't his intention - but what came across is "if you feel bad, or rather not positive, you are in sin b/c you are not worshipping God."  On one hand and to some extent I agree with him.  It is hard to worship God when you are having a bad attitude, but I also don't think that worshipping God is the end of all of our problems.  I think that God is more ok with our messiness than we give Him credit for.  I personally think that people who never had bad days (or weeks) are slightly insane - or incredibly out of touch with their emotions.  Maybe God blesses some people with "happier" spirits than others, I don't know.  What do you think?  

A fun weekend

This has been a bit of a busy weekend.  Friday night we celebrated my mom's b-day.  We went to the Spaghetti factory in Fullerton.  Fun area and a great time.  The birthday was a bit belated since my sis was in the hospital on mom's actual day.

Friday night I spent the night in the OC and then got up and went to Avalon bagels with my sis on our way to a tball game.  While there, we ran into an old friend, which was really fun.

Then the t-ball game.  Always a fun thing.  This was Rebecca's game, Rebecca is a six year old who we have known since before birth.  My sis used to nanny for her and I used to work for her mom. 

After t-ball bre and I decided to head down to Costa Mesa to hunt for a Hurley sale.  We found it thanks to her eagle eyes and found some great deals.  I got a pair of nice pants, a shirt and a sweatshirt for 60 bucks.  

After that we raced back home grabbed some lunch and I went to go babysit two of my favorite kids.  After some Wii and backyard play we loaded up and drove the block or so to my parents.  I told Levi that we were picking "something up"  He didn't know who or what, but he was definitely curious.  I told him to keep watching the door.  Finally my bro came out.  Kenny is one of Levi's favorite teachers (probably second only to yours truly).  So, both boys were pretty excited (as was I since it meant another set of hands while at McD's.)  We had a great time at McD's - it was a lot of fun to be together with three of the greatest boys in the world.  After they played on the playground we got some ice cream - it is a great tool to get them out of the play-place.  

After that we dropped the biggest boy off and went back to the house for some mellow cartoons and snuggling time.  

Then I drove back home.  Today was church and then hanging out with the newest roomates - the two puppies we are watching.  Annabelle belongs to my roomates and Darci and Pasita belong to their parents.  

Darci - but she is so darn black that it is hard to make her out...

Annabelle and Pasita 

My good friend... 

Enjoying Ice Cream

Trying to get the icecream off his face - didn't work so well :)

My buddy again, he is an amazing kid and I love watching him grow up!

Exhaustion

So, Sabrina is finally home.  Which is a great thing, but the bad thing is that they still don't know what is going on.  So, we are just hoping that whatever it was doesn't come back.

On the other side of life, the past few weeks have completely worn out myself and my family.  We (especially my mom, dad, and I) are pretty wiped out.  I can't remember when it was when I felt so exhausted last time.  So, pray that we will all get some rest and recover.  

Anger Management

I watched "Anger Management" today.  I had never seen it before.  I enjoyed it.  The whole chaos of it was hilarious and then the ending was great.  However, if someone ever did that to me, I think that I would not propose to them, I would not talk to them anymore.  Just so you all know!

Critical Observation

Today was a long day - I met part of the children's team from Life Church at 7:00am.  Then went to an all day conference.  It was great.  Really it was, I was able to reconnect with some great people.  I was encouraged to be a better minister to kids.  I also realized that I am getting near the saturation rate of topics covered at these kinds of seminars.  YES!  It is always good to be reminded to remind parents that they are the primary spiritual influencers in their child's life.  That we need to be really connecting with kids, that preschoolers are great people and need a special kind of connection.  Yet, I am much too aware of presentation styles, teaching styles, the way people learn, to stop evaluating the entire time I am sitting through a session.  Usually there is only a few things that I can say "I learned".  Part of that is that I love to learn, so I have learned a lot about my field.  Definitely not everything, but this was a conference directed mainly towards Sunday School pastors so it was at more of a basic level.  I did hear some great presenters/teachers today and was encouraged to grow in that area of my life.  Anyway, now I am home after church.  Was gone a total of 13 hours and since I am still fighting a cold I am done now. On top of all of that during the sermon tonight the pastor mentioned that Nathan who confronted David about his sin, had anointed him as a young boy.  Wait what?  Did Nathan and Samuel somehow merge into the same person?  So, I did mention that to him at the end of service, he seemed appreciative, but really, why must I be so aware of these things?  

Brainstorming

Tonight I hung out with some great friends and worked on brainstorming for the next quarter of lessons that we are writing.  Tonight we hit the 4-6 year old lessons and among a few great ideas, we had a few crazy ones (don't worry none of these made the mark, but caused some laughter).  

My top four favorites 

 - Lock all the children in chains 

 - Draw a picture of the guard with his sword at his throat 

 - Take all the children up to the top of the building and throw them over and see who lives (See Acts 20.)

 - Have a child grab a red cloth and play bull fighting with all of the other children.  This, by the way had absolutely nothing to do with the lesson, but was probably the most random idea that any of us ever had. 

Now - don't you want us hanging out with your kids???

A busy Day

Today was a great Saturday, slept in, hung out for a while, did some errands and then worked on a decorating project.  I had some left over Ikea frames and a large wall that needed some extra love.  So, I bought some scrap booking paper and went to work.  I created five similar scenes, beach, palm tree and surfboards.  Then painted the frames and hung them on the wall...

Frame 1

Frame 2 - that is really a dark blue behind the palm tree not black...

The wall as it turned out.  

This is Annabelle, eating a giant plastic chewtoy fish that we bought her today.  It is kind of funny b/c it is way too big for her but they didn't have the smaller size.  So she has to move it with her paws by pushing it across the floor.  

She loves it though - it keeps her entertained for quite a while!