A Fine Farewell

Simply put, we had a crowd of people over today for a goodbye (and kind of birthday party - there were lots of treats on hand). Thank you Hart family, Aunt Judy, Allerton family, Biel family, Dusek Family (missed you, Michelle), and Ross family. To make things simpler Candi decided on hot dogs and side dishes. To make things more complicated I decided to make "gourmet" hot dogs. We had tangy, Southwest, Seattle-style, the Works, and cheesy dogs.

How could I have forgotten to grill the onions!

We had a great time! Once again, I thank the Lord for our trampoline. I couldn't have asked for a better time of family and friends before I leave. Everything that was important to me was there today (except for those unable to come) - thank you all.

The Pumpkin Patch

This is from the Pumpkin Patch in Wilcox. The weather was beautiful, the company was great!

You load 14 tons and what do ya get?

These are belated pictures are of the yard work last week. Special thanks to everyone appearing below, Changing Times Travis (who came on a very busy day and weekend, put in at least two hours of hard labor at the Sickels minimum security prison), and Don (who lent the use of shovels and a good wheel burrow). You'll have to come over for dinner if you want to see the yard (mostly) finished.

The one of Dean and me is the ceremonial last shovel full.

Thank you, Nori, for taking the pictures.

Thank you, Candi, for encouraging me to not quit.

Thank you, God, for healing us all up and giving us great rest for recovery..

Let it rain

Today we are having our first monsoon rains. Actually, it hasn't started raining yet. However, it smells like rain and looks like rain is coming. The cooler temperatures from the clouds and the wind blowing hard makes it feel like rain. I love this time of year. I love the rain even though it does significant damage here in the desert. The stuff that does survive is that much stronger.

I'm pretty sure there is some spiritual truth in all that. If you can find it let me know. I know that when bad storms come in my life, the stuff that is gone after the rain usually didn't need to be there in the first place. I don't know how, but I get attached to the most insignificant things; things that are probably idols in some personal way.

God references water, pure water, fresh springs, rivers of life constantly throughout the NT and OT. It is the thing we are most dependent on for life.

John 4:

10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

A little of this, a little of that

There's been a lot of little things to write about lately.

Nori and Christian have either completed or are within a couple of weeks of completing their respective grades/classes. We started them both in November; Nori in 2nd and Christian in 1st. I'm so proud of the work they do.

A friend and I hung gutters on our house last Saturday. I wish we could save all the water for the winter season. I just don't think it would be that cost effective. Anyway, the guy that helped is an extremely handy guy and has helped me learn a lot about fixing stuff 'round the house.

We watched Jumpers last night. That was actually decent. I assumed before hand that it would be a cool idea with a poorly developed storyline, so-so acting, an underdeveloped plot, and loose ends. I got what I expected. However, Darth Vader did a better job than I thought and I am still wondering what I would do if I could teleport anywhere I wanted. Would I be a good Jumper or a bad Jumper? Would people hunt me down as monstrosity or abomination?

I'm leaving the Pirating business, er, Secret Agent business and going into movie critiquing. Think I'll make it?

I start the next class as Liberty U next week - Daniel and Revelation. It probably won't be easy, but classes from there encourage my faith and challenge my beliefs.

Our pool is going great the 2nd time around. It is really nice to relax in with all this heat.

Two weeks until the circus - swwweeeeeeeeeeetaaaaaah!

Candi and I have almost been married 10 years... well, o.k. almost 9 years and that's almost 10! So, it doesn't seem like we've been married for almost 20 years - amazing. I am extremely bless to be married to her; I can't wait to see the rest!

Don't go angry - just go.

Mrs. Pipes and the kids took Pork Chop back to his native country last Thursday. They told me they caught one of his brothers to look at for a while. When they put him back in the little pond he was in he attacked the tadpoles that were nearby. Evidently he destroyed about four or five tadpoles in 30 seconds. They said it was obscenely violent.

Now we're all nervous to go wading in the Sabino waters.

While they were doing that, I was doing a run that has become a great weekly event for me. I've been running on the Phone Line trail. The whole trail is eight miles round trip; I've only completed 5.5 of it. The first half goes through some steep up and down sections - mostly up though. My goal is to run about 30 minutes out and 20 back. The best pace I can keep on the first half is 11-13 mpm with one two minute break.

I shoot for 20 back because it becomes almost a sprint on the way down (that is, if I still have enough stamina and strength to move my feet that fast). It is quite a rush sprinting down a 5% declined trail which is only about 3 ft. wide and has a 30 to 40 foot drop on one side. It's really a blast. It's nice to have the time away, an hour each week where I'm not thinking about anything but not face-planting on the rocks, and the fresh air.

By the way, we now have six or seven tadpoles in our backyard. Always an adventure over here.

Thank you to everyone that paid their respects to Lani last week. The ice cream was great!

These are some pictures taken on the trail when we hiked it with my dad last summer.

We're coming up on the sum - sum - summer time. Pretty exciting. Last weekend was a blast. We hung with my Aunt and Uncle who live here in Tucson (and played Uno!) Friday, the Allertons on Saturday (hiked and grilled in the mountains - no Uno), the Harts (and played Uno!) on Sunday, and then a various group on Monday. We swam two of the four days; not too bad! Luckily, I got out of work a bit early on Memorial Day so I could at least lay around and chat with friends.
The kids are done with school for the year and are registered at Wrightstown Elementary. We visited the school and like it a lot. It's a cute little school in a pretty nice area (i.e. lots of money) so we feel pretty safe sending the kids there... money = good morals? Maybe it's a false sense of security but it's still a sense of security.
I'm still in training and doing all I can to get rated and off these long hours. I love and hate ATC.
Our house is coming along nicely. We got some major projects done. They were enough to satisfy our itch to throw all of our money into house projects. Some nights I wake up dreaming about additions and painting!
I fixed our computer last night. The power source broke on our Dinosaur computer ('99 Micron AMD 800 MHz - it's like a cheetah... with two legs) so I bought a new tower and moved everything over. It was interesting and I only had to guess on a couple of cables. It just made me want to do more upgrades now that I feel comfortable doing it. Isn't that just like a man? We do things we feel comfortable with and that we know how to do because our egos are so fragile. But things that are hard, uncomfortable, unfamiliar we shy away from (like stepping out on a new job or business, or trying to actually get to know our wife and kids...).
Anyway, I just went from computers to a deep theological discussion on why America has so many school drop-outs, gangs, broken marriages, drug problems, murder, rape, theft, molestation, and hate... men not taking responsibility for our roles given to us by God. The moms and sisters and mothers are left trying to fill needs that God didn't equip or expect them to fill.
It's 0700 in the morning so I'm going to stop there. Hope you all are great!