Green sherbet or wasabi?

We had gone out after the Nobuaki seminar and ate at a Chinese restaurant. I love it when there is all you can eat sushi. Joshua had come back from the buffet line with a huge amount of wasabi. When I asked him if he liked wasabi, he replied that he thought he was getting green sherbet, so he got a large helping. We spent quite a while at the restaurant visiting and eating. The kids had a great time today. It was the first Karate seminar for Hannah and Ruth to go to.

The cause of much toil

Here is the offending part from our van.
After church this evening I crawled underneath our white van and removed and replaced this sensor which controls the fans. After being eaten alive by many mosquitos I cranked the van and had the fans running in the front of the engine. As the temperature starts to warm up that should keep the engine running cooler.
God is very good!

Une nouvelle perspective au règne de la terreur

Hannah and I were talking the other day and somehow the conversation turned to the French Revolution. She said that it didn't sound very nice, all the chopping off of heads. She said that if she was there then she would have them bake cookies for each other and just be nice. She also said that if they wouldn't be nice than she would chop off their heads.
She told me that they must be much nicer in France now since they don't chop off heads.

Father/Daughter date night

Ruth, Hannah and I had a great time at the Father/Daughter date night yesterday. There was a 50's theme, so everyone was dressed up.



We had a great time roller skating together.

There were several fun games and activities. After the games we had root beer floats.





The girls had a fun time.

Skateboarding with my son

Joshua is getting pretty good on his skateboard. We went skateboarding over spring break. This picture was of us skating down an oil road. We had a lot of fun.

Joshua goes down hills much more naturally than myself.

It was a beautiful day to be outside.

My bi-kikkle

Elijah was very excited to get his first tricycle the other day for his birthday. He was going through the house happily exclaiming,"That's my bi-kikkle!, That's my helmet!". The tricycle is small enough to fold up and go into the back of the van when we go places. He is growing up so fast.



This was a picture of him on our way up to visit grandparents. He was eating a huge sandwich with bread from the bread machine.
Ruth has been getting very good at making bread. A new loaf comes from her hand almost daily.



Hannah, whose birthday is also this month had received a dollhouse play set for her birthday. She has really enjoyed playing with it. Right now I hear Elijah trying to show Hannah how you are supposed to play with dolls. (He likes to pull off their heads.)

More to come later.

This is a real cup of coffee!

This is a cup of cappuccino that I had the week that I was in Austin for the Technology conference. Notice the size of the cup compared to my computer setting next to it. When I first came to Texas, I hardly ever drank coffee. I enjoyed having great fellowship over a cup of coffee the other day with a great brother in the ministry. He drinks his coffee only black. I prefer to ruin mine with ample amounts of cream and sugar. My 4 year old calls anything in a coffee cup, coffee.

Did God dump out a box of birds?

While we are driving to Karate class, I never know what questions I will be asked by my 4 year old.  Here is a sample of some of the questions from one trip.

• Dad, can you sit on rainbows?
• Dad, are those clocks real? (He was referring to the instrument cluster on the dashboard of the vehicle.)
• Dad, is the engine running? (While we are driving 65 down the road.) Dad, I don't hear the engine running.
• 4 year old:  Dad, are we there yet? I'm tired of driving.  Dad:  You mean, tired of riding?  4 year old:  No, I'm really tired of driving.
• Dad, what book are you reading now?  What's happening in your book?
• Dad, why are there lights on poles?  (Referring to the street lamps)
• Dad, when God made birds, did he just dump out a box of birds and make them? (This is usually what happens daily with his toys. :-)

You never quite know what the next question is going to be when he starts to speak.  Each conversation is an adventure.  I am thoroughly enjoying each moment that I am able to spend with my kids.  They are a truly a blessing to me. 

At the TCEA Technology conference

We made it to the Technology conference yesterday evening.  We had left after Sunday Morning services at about 2:00PM.  There were four of us in all from the school riding together. The drive here to Austin went with out incident.  We stopped at a Buc-ee's on our way here.  I had some really good hot chocolate from there.  It's flavor was Strawberry-Dark chocolate.  I also had a peppery turkey sandwich with pepper jack and jalapenos.   When we arrived to the hotel every one else went out somewhere.  I stayed in and got to talk to my kids through Google-Talk.  I am very proud of my family.  My son Joshua led the B.T.C lesson in my absence.  He did a really good job leading the class.

I went to bed at a good time but was tossing and turning all night.  My wife and I are not away from each other very much and I am not able to fall asleep well without her near.  At about 2:30AM I decided that I wasn't going to ever fall asleep, so I went downstairs to the lobby and would study and have some coffee until 5:00Am when the fitness center opened.  It turned out that coffee wasn't made until 5:00 either.

The receptionist said that I could use the fitness center if I wanted.  They had several nice machines in there to use.  I brought my computer with me and listened to educational streaming while I exercised.  I stayed in there from about 3 to 5 and then came out to the lobby to have a cup of coffee and enjoy the granola bar and pop tarts that I brought with me.  I must say that the coffee, (Free Starbucks Coffee) is very good.  I will probably be very tired later but I have had a very good morning.

Today I will be going to an Adobe academy class from   8:00AM to 5:30PM, digging into some of the details of Adobe products.  I need to go for now and get ready to go as it is already 6:20AM now.

I think I see a shark......no wait it's a whale.

We took the kids down to Houston today to visit some skateboarding parks there.  On the way there we passed by a lake and Jonathan, my 4 year old said that he thought he saw a shark in the water.  When I explained that there more than likely were not any sharks in that lake he said...."wait, it was a whale that I saw".  
A stump in the water can be just as much to a four year old as a stick can be in their hands.
When I was a kid a stick could be a gun, a sword, a horse, etc.

The kids had a lot of fun on their skateboards.  Joshua was brave enough to try going down the half pipe twice.  I was doing good just to ride on the flat surface.  I managed to strike up several conversations with several people who were there.  There were some kids there who were extremely talented at doing flips on skateboards and bicycles.


Jonathan and Hannah were real proud of their scooters.  They rode all around inside of the skate park, back and forth.  I can say that I am thoroughly convinced in the benefit of knee and elbow pads.  I only fell to the hard surface a few times.  There were some young kids who would wince at my catastrophic skateboarding.  When I fell the earth would shake.

We have been studying the book of James together as a family and we are in the middle of chapter 2 right now.  James is a great practical book, that always gets quickly to the heart of the matter.  My desire for my kids is to grow up having that type of wisdom to draw upon.

Dead as a door knob

Elijah giving his baby a ride. 

I was cutting up some meat this evening and one of my younger kids had said that the meat was "as dead as a door knob".  It is funny what kids say.

Elijah was learning some colors this afternoon and got stuck on the word burgundy.  He was going around the house repeating "burgundy" in a cute baby voice, over and over again.  

In the picture, Elijah was giving his baby doll a ride in his dump truck.  Elijah's baby always has a smile on it's face.  He loves having his picture taken.  If you pull out a camera, you must take his picture quickly, because he immediately wants to see the screen and look at the picture.

Wow, one week of the new year is officially gone.  It is truly amazing how fast time flies by.  It is my prayer that we all may use our time to great ends in this current year that we are in.

A week in the life of.......

This has been a crazy week.

Monday my car engine seized up.  I had not driven the car during Christmas break and when I got in it early Monday morning it started making the most terrible noise after I left out.
We had been studying the book of James as a family in the evenings.  We talked that evening about how God uses trials in our life to produce patience.  I had asked the kids how it could be that my car engine could totally ruin but I could still be content that God would work everything out in his time.  Joshua said that I could be content because I still have feet.  :-)

 Tuesday we hit a skunk on the way home from Karate class.  No more commentary is necessary on this one.  :-)

Wednesday I found a wonderful deal.  At Wal-Mart they had several real bargains on the reduced rack.  I bought about 70 cans of pringles at 33 cents a can,  Kool-aid brand packets for 5 cents each,  bags of marshmallows for 25 cents each and sugar sprinkles for a quarter each.  The checker looked at me like I was crazy, but I have snacks for work for about a year.

Thursday I had a couple of kids on my bus arguing about which of them looks more like Elvis.  :-)

Friday was extremely busy.  No rest for the weary.  The kids have really been enjoying working on Khan Academy.  It is a great website that will track your progress as you watch educational videos and work on problems.

Today we had a great workout this morning at Karate class.  I am about to go and cook a homemade pizza for the kids.  :-)   Later today I plan on helping the kids finish their Ocarina kits that they got for Christmas.  Their kits are coming along nicely.  They already have them assembled and glued.  Now, all that is left is sanding and finishing.   I will post pictures when they finish them.