this and that.

well, i made the short little drive back to Indiana from California! seriously, though i vote we get rid of some of those states in between. they are totally unnecessary.

things i noticed/thought about on the drive:

-i like driving at night because it saves time. i mean, you'd just be sleeping anyway, so you might as well be driving. but there is one problem. i like the stars. and at night, driving out on an open highway, you can see them really well without all the city lights around. it's just probably not the safest thing trying to stare out my window to get a good look at the stars while driving.

-i really think i could have listened to the Jon Foreman CDs the whole 30 hours and been completely happy.

-this is something i've thought about before, but i'll take advantage of this opportunity to tell you about it. i know you are familiar with this sign:



but does it bother you like it bothers me?? when have you ever seen a deer leaping across the highway like this?? sure, when they are out in a field running, they might prance around a bit...but that is not what they are doing on the highway. if they were, they probably wouldn't get hit by cars so much. i just feel the sign would be more adequate if it pictured a deer just standing there.

-about a week after i got to california, they put into effect a cell phone law. you could only use hands-free phones. so on my drive back to Indiana, and now just driving around town, i feel like i'm doing something "bad" when i use the phone while driving. but then i realize it's perfectly okay here, and i smile and leap for joy and continue my legal phone conversation while driving.

okay, so moving on to being back in Indiana. as most of you now know, i am going to fill in at the O for a few months. i got back in town Friday night, and fly out of Evansville early tomorrow (wednesday) morning. it has been a crazy 4 days!! i won't go into all the details, but i do want to praise God for His faithfulness! from the moment i agreed to go to Haiti, i knew it was what wanted and what God had called me to...but i couldn't see the big picture of how it would all work out. But since then God has worked everything out in ways i would not have even hoped for! He is faithful indeed!!

well, that's all from Indiana...next time i'll be posting from Haiti...

summer in cali

so you saw pictures from my drive to california....but what have i been doing since then, you ask? well, again, i'll just show you in pictures.


VeggieTales. Calvin, Olivia, and I have all the words memorized to the "Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" song. We listen to the soundtrack from the movie all the time, there's quite a few songs from it we could sing for you.




spent some time with Spidey....




Ellie LOVES making tents. and then playing a game or doing a puzzle in the tent.




probably the most popular activity this summer has been duct tape. did you know you can make ANYTHING out of duct tape?? we started with wallets, folders and purses. then we moved on to more advanced things.





Calvin had made himself a whip, so then we thought, why not make a full Indiana Jones get-up? i made him a hat and a pistol. he made the pouch.




i made Ryan a sniper rifle.




Calvin and Ryan playing with their guns. i think they killed Jacob.




dance praise. the "christian DDR". fun times.





the Santa Barbara zoo.




the giant ant-eater. Leah and I decided this must of been the first animal God created. He wasn't quite sure what He was doing yet. :)




Jacob, Ellie, and Grace playing on a turtle statue. it's hard to get ellie both smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.



of course, what's a trip to California without going to the beach?




Ryan and Jacob trying to catch waves.



pokemon. my summer has been filled with pokemon. i had no idea it was still so popular...but maybe i just didn't hang around enough 8-10 year old boys in Indiana. we draw pokemon, play pokemon, watch pokemon, eat pokemon macaroni and cheese...etc.



and while visiting some friends in Orange County, i got to see the wonderful TBN building. the only thing i've ever learned from that station is "pick up the phone, pick up the phone!!! pledge now!!!"

and that's my summer in a nutshell.

rend your hearts.

"rend" by jimmy needham



"you've been tarnished
you've been stained
all the varnish you used to cover up with is peeling away
even now return to me with nothing less than your wounded broken heart"

when i first heard this song, i thought of a verse i had recently read in Jeremiah.

"Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord." Jer. 2:22

there's no doubt we are dirty, wicked, evil people. and something else Scripture teaches us- there is nothing we can do to clean ourselves! we can cover ourselves in varnish, it will peel away. we can scrub with soap, the stains are still there. Ephesians 2:1-10, Colossians 2:13-14, and Titus 3:3-7 are just a few of the passages that remind us of our former selves and make it clear that it is by grace we have been saved. God made us alive together with Christ. a dead person cannot raise themselves, life has to be given to them. a blind person cannot give themselves sight, sight must be given to them. a sick person cannot heal themselves, it must be given to them to be healed. and so a corrupt heart cannot chose to become clean, a new heart must be given to them.

"And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'....Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk." Ezekiel 16:6 & 9-10

and what an amazing thing it is, that God would take us while we were still sinning, while we were wallowing in our blood, and give us life, forgive our sins, count us as righteous and give us a new heart! and now He can say to us,

"You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." Song of Solomon 4:7

i spent a few days over at the Ballock's house...Leah's son Ryan loves playing on photobooth. as soon as we discovered you could make videos, Ryan wanted to make one to share online.