The Donut Man

Ok,

So, one of my friends loves listening to Adventures in Odyssey.  As a kid, we listened to Odyssey every once in a while, but what we listened to over and over again, was the donut man.  The donut man sang fun songs, crazy songs, and quiet, worshipful songs.  He taught us Bible stories in new ways.  He taught us Bible stories that are more obscure.  Basically he made the Bible really interesting. 

Anyway, I have been on the hunt for his old albums.  Of course we had them on cassete tape, and all I have been able to find on his website in the last few years (when I check every year or so) was new CD's, some of which had the more "kosher" songs from the good old days on them.  But the songs, like the one about worms nibbling on someone's toes b/c he would not worship God, were not accessable.  I just looked tonight b/c I was talking about him and I saw it!  He has released all the original albums on CD.  I am now vowing to buy one a month and collect all of them again. 

Some things I don't like...

1. People who feel like they are too good to wait in line.

2. Hot dogs

3. Mustard

4. Mayonaise

5. Being hungry

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

How do you measure a year???

Yesturday someone reminded me that we had known each other for one year today. This got me to thinking how I have grown in this year.

It has been an interesting year, one full of many blessings. It has also been a year of struggle and growth. I think that what I set out to do at this time last year has not been accomplished. I am trying to decide whether or not I have failed (what my mind jumps to immediately) or if the process is just much more in-depth and longer by nature than what I could have immagined. Of course, there are areas where I see progress, healthier relationships, better life style, etc. Either way, today I am feeling more discouraged than encouraged. Or rather a feeling of purposecd accaptance, that the plan and schedule God has me on is His, not mine, it is under His control, not mine, and in the meantime, I am pushing myself to do the things that aren't natural for me where I am, in order to try to pursue Him more. I think that I am trying to make the shift from, "I'll do this so that I will be able to have or be this" into "I WILL do this because it is right, it is what God asks of me, and it is an act of obedience no matter what the outcome." However, tha latter is scarrier and takes a lot more faith in the goodness of God.

Life is just not fare...

Do you ever wonder why not me? A little over two years ago, God moved me to the desert. Since being in the desert, God has been growing me, healing me, and challenging me in many ways. I love my job, my current living situation and my church. Yet sometimes I see how NOT FARE it is! Not really so much that I am living in the desert, that makes sense to me. Just other people's abilities to do things the way I wanted to do them but was never allowed too. Just needed to vent a bit...

Hamsters!

There is something about hamsters that I love. I don't know why.

So, about a month ago my last hamster died. His name, for those of you who don't remember, was Cody Maverick. After the penguin in "Surf's Up".

I tried to live for a while without a hamster, even added a hamster gadget to my home page through google. Yet, I still wanted another hamster. So I bought a cage on-line (much better selection) Then I had to wait about a week for the cage to come. Stupid on-line pet store, don't they know that there are hamster wana-be hamster owners out there that are waiting to adopt their pets.

FINALLY the cage came, yet I was on my way to stay with my parents, so no hamster for a few more days.

Sunday was the big day, somehow I talked my mom, dad, and brother to go hamster shopping with me... We checked out petco, saw some we liked, but there were no helpful people, rather there was a very grumpy employee cleaning the rat cage, which I guess if I had to pull those ugly creatures up out of their cages by their tales, I would be grumpy too! Then while I was trying to decide whether or not to brave talking to grumpy girl, a man came to buy a feeder mouse, that was it, it was time to check the other pet shop.

We all piled back in the car and headed across the street to Pets Smart. There they had NO teddy-bear hamsters, so I decided that was a no go.

After looking at all the birds and waiting for my brother to run across to walmart (under the guis of going to the bathroom) to buy water balloons, we piled back in the car to go back across the street.

Then with trepidation I walked up to the grumpy girl (with my father by my side because I was scared and asked to see the hamsters (grumpy girl was conveniently cleaning out their cage at the moment so they were already in their temporary holding place.

There were three female teddy bear hamsters (if you don't know much about hamsters, let me just tell you that there are reasons, to buy a female - just look up the difference if you want to know more)

There was one solid brown one, she was very cute, but I had already decided on a name for my hamster - Bumble Bee from Transformers. So, although the solid one was cute I decided to let her go back to her house. Then it was between the two tan and white hamsters. There was one who seemed to snap at people and one that didn't. I went with the one that didn't. As my father was holding her, she peed on his shirt. That however didn't deter us (or him) and we bought bumble bee, along with a little house to hide in and a hamster ball (I had one from cody maverick, but Cody was a dwarf hamster, or to be politically correct a little person hamster) Anyway his wheel was about four inches in diametor and Bumble bee is already nearly six inches long, so you do the math.

Finally, we all went home to my parents. I gathered my stuff or what I thought was all of my stuff since I realized once I was back in Temecula did not include the following items: my pillow, my computer, my phone charger and my toothbrush (my kind roomate had a new one from the dentist and let me have it). While I was gathering my dad found a bucket, cleaned it out a bit, put some paper towels in the bottom, and transfered Bumble bee to her temporary transport container.

Then we drove the near hour home to Winchester. I got Bumble Bee's cage all ready and then let her sleep off the trip.

Since then (that was Sunday) she has spent a couple of hours in a smaller container on a stool next to my bed in the later evenings. This is fun for both of us as she gets treats and fun toys and I have a great source of entertainment. (Her cage can't be in my room b/c she wakes me up in the middle of the night with all her nibbling, scratching and playing).

Here are some pics!

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.