Preparing for Travel

Today, we booked a trip to Sequoia National forest in September. We are going to stay at Dandy's Cabin. We are pretty excited. My folks are coming down to meet us there.

Tonight, I was reading Tom Sawyer to Maile and Arden and Maile said, "Dad, I've been writing our list to take with us to the cabin. It has Fire, and love, toys, bumpy things, and fruit".

That was good for a deep smile!

I love lego land!

Check out these awesome scenes created from lego land.
They have a whole new Star wars area that just came online a short while ago.

More holiness give me

Sometimes the battle for right and wrong heats up and it becomes blatantly obvious where to be. Other times it is so subtle that a mere distraction could derail you from your course. At times like this I love the words of the Hymn "More holiness give me"

More holiness give me,

More sweetness within,

More patience in suff'ring,

More sorrow for sin,

More faith in my Savior,

More sense of his care,

More joy in His service,

More freedom in prayer.

More gratitude give me,

More trust in the Lord,

More zeal for His glory,

More hope in His Word,

More tears for His sorrows,

more pain at His grief,

More meekness in trial,

More praise for relief.

More victory give me,

More strength to o'ercome,

More freedom from earth-stains,

More quest for the throne,

More fit for the kingdom,

More useful I'd be,

More blessed and holy,

More, Savior, like Thee.

Just a minor set of goals...

A great day

Last week we finally earned our Legoland tickets (the kids read 1,000 books). So, we got the tickets on Friday and have already been twice. It is nice to not worry about "getting our money worth" so we can go and hang out or go on rides, or not. Legoland really is a lego lover's dream come true. There are so many lego things to see! Yesterday Arden and I went on one roller coaster that had a fairly steep initial drop and at the other side of the drop Arden said "I don't think this was a very good idea!" The people behind us got a kick out of that. Afterwards, Arden was pretty excited about it. We had a great day yesterday, I replaced the brake pads and rotors on the van, we went to Legoland, went to the beach, and had brats and hot dogs and homemade french fries for dinner. Just a great day!

My Sweet little Maile

Today for bed time stories I was having the bears play with a train. The little bear got in front of the train. And Maile pipped up and said "Little Bear, you be good or I am going to take off your meat!"

That was a bit morbid, so while trying not to laugh I attempted to encourage her to use polite words.

The next phrase was "Little bear, you be good or I am going to pull out all your soft". Then she looked at me and said "soft, like fur."

I lost it at that point and had to record this moment.

gun laws

"Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms under our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"

-- Patrick Henry [3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836]

Why I love Carlsbad

So, I've been thinking about building shelves for one of our closets because I know Anna would really like them. It will require 2 sheets of plywood and roughly 5 2x4s. Today I was talking to my neighbor Ivan and mentioned the idea and he said, "Hey, Megan has some wood over there you should see if she would let you have it." So I asked and sure enough, they said I could have it, that they were happy to be rid of it. That haul provided me with 2 of the shelves and the 2 x 4s. So I thought to ask Ivan if he had a saw (he has everything). So, I'm sitting there for about 10 minutes getting the wood together and double checking my measurements and he comes out and gets a mitre saw out for cutting the 2x4's then a circular saw for the plywood. Then a pencil, a square, safety googles, and various drill bits for handling the screws. (He is a construction framer by trade).

I'm somewhat overwhelmed at his willingness to help out (but he is one of the most friendly people in the world.) Then he asks if I like spicy food. I say "Yeah, usually, as long as it doesn't burn me up!"). And then I start cutting the wood. By the time I am done with the first one he has brought a plate of chicken tacos and beans and a soda. How can you not love a neighbor like that!

Then we were talking about cars and things (he is rebuilding his datsun 510-and I mean completely rebuilding) and he offered to help us change our oil on our cars. (He spent an hour doing the brakes today).

Yes, yes, I do know how to change oil, I just don't have most of the tools for it. (Oil pan, something to lift up the car). Anyway, he has all that, so next Saturday, we will plan to fix the car.

Everyone needs a neighbor like Ivan. Everyone should be a neighbor like Ivan.

Going on ... our kids get along wonderfully (his are 14, 12, and 9). Also all our other neighbors are all great. Today there was about 8 kids just playing between the houses and it was just so fun. A little piece of heaven on earth. What wonderful neighbors we have.