Lessons to learn from kids

Lesson 1: Never stop learning. We were having dinner with our neighbors Monday night and we were talking about the miracle of a little kids brain. They are like little sponges that are absorbing at rapid rates everything around them. They are way more observant than we adults are. May we return back to our curiousity and hunger to learn as these little ones do.

Lesson 2: Never give up on hope. I came across this scene the other day where we put Josh in a little toddler flotation device aka 'the muscle suit' and Emily has discovered my old super 'Brian' cape that she loves to wear and becomes 'strong emily'. I was reading an article the other day about hope and how controversial it can be. How dare we even suggest there is such a thing as hope when we live in a world full of global problems and pandemics. Yet this is our mission as the church. To bring hope to one person, one marriage, one family, one child at a time. So let's not forget our super hero mission that Christ has called us to.

Lesson 3: Get out there and climb something. Sorry about the sideways film job on this. But it's hard to imagine how high this bunk bed would have appeared to this little 2 year old man. Yet with wreckless abandon he enthusiastically tackles this feat celebrating the thrill of the climb when he gets to the top. We were discussing in our small group last week the concept of something being 'gloriously treacherous.' Whitney piped in with an image of climbing a mountain. When you set out to climb a mountain there is a glorious and treacherous aspect to it. It seems that danger and real life hang out at the same places. So dare to get out there and experience some scary thrills of living by faith and climbing some mountains with God.

Princess Emily

OK So I'm going to post my very first blog entry. Emily and I (Whitney) attended a birthday party of one of Emily's classmates in preschool this morning. The party was held at Sweet & Sassy (a salon and spa for girls.) It's kinda like Libby Lu but they cut hair and do pedicures too. Well, to start this princess party off, a very bright pink LIMO pulls up at the front to take the girls on a ride. OK, did I mention this was a party for a 5 YEAR OLD!?! It was cute but strange to see nine little 4 and 5 year old girls hanging out the window of a limo. My biggest shocker was when I stepped into the store and witnessed a 1 year old (maybe 12 -15 months old) getting a pedicure!!! She was playing with the bottle of polish while she had her feet soaking. I wanted to take a picture for proof but I'm not sure the parents would have approved. So just try to picture a cute very little girl with very little hair sitting in a pedicure chair with a teenager massaging her little feet. And I'm pretty sure she wasn't part of a birthday party.

Emily (on the left) with B-day girl

OK back to the birthday party. After the limo ride, the girls were taken to a room to pick out their princess gown. Once they have their gown on they moved to the next area where each girl got an up-do with tiara in place (and LOTS of glitter), nails polished and a little sparkly makeup. Then it was off to the runway. As each girl was crowned a princess, they announced their name and a few facts about each "princess." One fact was the princess' favorite royal pet. Most girls said dog, cat or horse. Emily said her royal elephant. Not sure where that came from. They ended the party with the traditional cake and the very anticipated goodie bags. I have to say Emily had a blast at the party and looked so adorable all dressed up. I just hope she did not get any ideas for her 5th birthday party!

Hurrication

So, yeah on Sunday night we headed out west to my parents place in Wimberley and during our stay my wife ran across the term 'hurrication.' A hurrication is an unplanned vacation that is caused by a large storm (a.k.a. a hurricane) that knocks out your electricity and water and forces you to retreat to a beautiful home in the hill country. On Tuesday our neighbors Tommye Jo and David C Barrett decided to hurricate with us as well. They stayed for four days and three nights. I must say there is something about an uplanned spontaneous hurrication that truly was an incredible time. We had a blast just hanging out, getting to know each other better, playing disc golf, shopping (yes there was a moment that David and I traded in our man cards and were both pushing strollers and sipping venti frappacinos at the outlet mall - man it feels good to get that off my chest). I have heard from so many people that the community aspect of this storm has been the gift we have all cherished. Neighbors now know each other, famlies have reconnected and talked for the first time in years, husbands and wives finally got to spend time together, etc.

Hurricane Ike

Well as you know Ike came through our city early on Saturday morning and left quite a devastation in its path. We went back and forth on whether to stay or go but decided to stick it out. Most of the people we talked to had never really been through a direct hit of a hurricane and so didn't really know what to expect. So we made sure we had bottled water and then went and grabbed batteries and flashlights and some food and gas for our cars. Friday night was a beautiful night as we had a nice calm breeze as the hurricane approached. Around 9:00 or so that night we put Emily and Josh (see picture above) in the closet under our stairs (a.k.a. 'kid bunker'). We also had a family from 2 doors down that stayed with us as they had 11 family members who had evacuated to their house. So we waited and waited. I fell asleep around midnight and woke up around 3 AM when the winds started really picking up. Our power was knocked out around 4 AM. The next 2 hours or so felt like about 2 days as I laid on the floor of our living room, Whitney and the kids were holed up in the bunker and our neighbors were on the couch and a twin mattress in the living room. The winds of a hurricane are crazy. At first we experienced incredibly strong gusts coming from the north and blasting against the house. My main concern was about our big dead oak tree right next to our house falling through the roof. Every time the big gust would kick up I would brace as I would hear branches snap, things fall on the roof, small crashes outside. Everytime I would think, "Is this the gust that's going to knock it over?" So I found comfort in praying to God for His protection and claiming Him as our refuge and tower of strength. Around 6 AM my dad actually got a cell phone call through and I was able to talk to him for a few minutes during the hurricane. He informed me of the storm's path and it looked like we were o.k. as far as tornadoes were concerned. Around that time the winds totall shifted and started blowing against the south side of the house. The storm then began tapering off and was pretty windy and rainy into the early afternoon. Below is a picture of our backyard that really sustained little damage other than a big branch that fell on our fence.

The aftermath of Ike has been quite devastating for such a large very populated area. We live right next to the Woodlands in Montgomery County and have been told that power could be out for 2-4 weeks. In our neighborhood we quickly discovered that no electricity also meant no water (yeah!). So on Sunday morning before our electricity-free church service we all took baths by filling a pitcher of nice cold water from our bathtub and pouring it over ourselves in the shower. Our kids (who up to this point had thought this whole hurricane thing was like a big party) weren't really fired up about the whole cold bath thing. Below is a quick video of Ike from the kids perspective - party time!

Finding the Good in the Bad: You know as devastating as this storm was we saw some good things out of it. It was awesome to see our neighbors all come together and help one another. On Saturday night 18 of us in the neighborhood pooled our resources and I grabbed my gas grill and we all had hotdogs and chips over at Ted and Shelly's across the street. We then sat around candle light and played Taboo and enjoyed some great fellowship. Without TV's and computers and other electronic devices we were all forced to sit around with our neighbors and loved ones and just talk and hang out together. I saw neighbors helping other neighbors with chain saws and cleaning up. So there was plenty of good that God can bring through this calamity.

Surfin' in my imagination!

My kids have always had a facination with my guitar case. It's always been the object of their desire and no matter where it lingers in a room they will quickly spot it and begin climbing on it and balancing on it. They simply love it! This video records the latest breakthrough in the coolness of the guitar case as Joshua has now transformed it into a surf board that he then wipes out on as he catches some sick waves. I must give props to Ralph from Ralph's World as Josh sings one of his hit songs "Surfin' in my imagination." Once again, you just gotta love the wild ride of raising kids!

Our Gift to the World

I was taking a few moments to pray this morning and I was focusing on praying over my daughter Emily as she had her second day of pre-school today. As I prayed I found myself praying over her protection and those types of things but then I started praying that God would use her and her child-like faith and smile and personality to bring light to her world and to her pre-school. It was a comforting thought to me because sending her off to school even two days a week has been a little hard in that it's a small step of letting her go and letting her grow. After I finished praying I was thinking about how Scripture says that children are a gift from the Lord, but how then we have the opportunity to raise them, pray for them, teach them and then give our children as a gift to the world. I just got real excited thinking of my daughter and my son going into a hurting and dark world and shining the light of Christ and bringing hope to those who are hopeless. The bottom line is God uses people to show a lost world that He is a good God and that He loves them. It's awesome to think that God could use Emily and Joshua to show someone out there in the world that there is a God who cares about them and desires to know them.

Tales from the Weekend

We had a chance to retreat to my parent's place in Wimberley over the labor day weekend. We mega shopped on Friday at the San Marcos outlet mall which is a riduculously huge mecca of consumerism. Got Emily some clothes for pre-school. On Saturday got to play some golf with my two brothers, my dad and uncle which was alot of fun (even if the golf was quite ugly). Later that day we went and took a dip in 'blue hole' which is a swimming hole on Cypress Creek. It's kind of like stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting with kids and families everywhere swimming in this incredibly refreshing water. We tried to break in to the local teenager group and see if they would let us try out this ring thing that swings back and forth and you're supposed to in theory run and jump and catch it. Well we failed quite miserably the first time or two but eventually represented and earned our stripes. We learned some new vocab from the locals. If you show some skills on the jumping ring catch thing its called a 'clean dirty' but if you make a complete mockery of yourself it's called a 'dirty dirty'. So just in case you want to sound hip with the local young people there you go. I got to visit with my cousin, Michael Scott for a while on Saturday night as he will be heading out overseas with the marines soon. It really gave me a whole new persective on our military guys getting to talk to him about his training and what he'll be walking into over there. On Sunday we went to the Austin Stone and caught up with Matt and Jennifer and their kiddos for lunch. And we topped off our long weekend on Sunday night by watching the Sound of Music. What a great movie. We were all singing the whole time and just having a jolly good time. Anyway it was a great weekend. We got in yesterday and I had an opportunity to officiate a funeral service this morning for Russell Hughes who passed away Saturday after a long battle with cancer. It was a great service and a wonderful tribute to a guy who taught us all alot.

Lastly, Emily had her first day of school today. She was decked out in her new little dress, pink backpack, lunch box, thermas, etc. I think she had a great time and the teacher said that her favorite time by far during her day was the music time where she danced her heart out. Like Father like daughter. Sure made me proud!