Giant Tomatoes Take Over Salem

The city is all in a frenzy over the giant tomatoes that have invaded. Eye witnesses in South Salem say the tomatoes are larger than a VW Bug. No one knows quite what has happened here, but everyone has their own theory. Elise M. says, "They just grew and they grew and they grew!" "Steroids," was one more neighbor's explanation. Another witness simply screamed, "Noooooo!" and ran away in fear. So far the tomatoes don't seem to be causing any chaos. Residents here say that if the tomatoes prove to be "just tomatoes," they will have a record breaking batch of salsa!

Elise's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Today was Elise's first day of kindergarten. I am way more excited than sad so it's a good day. On her first day of preschool I cried in the car a little bit on the way to drop her off. But this year I am just so excited to see her growing up and becoming more independent. I didn't cry at all when I dropped her off. She quickly busied herself with an activity soon after we got in to the classroom. She was totally fine without me. I'm sure she was thinking, "Gee Mom, would you hurry up and say hello to the teacher then LEAVE!" A funny side note . . . I asked her, "What would you like for lunch today since it's your first day of school? You get to choose." Out of the blue she replied with, "Raspberry pancakes!" Until today, I'm not sure I've ever made raspberry pancakes and if it ever did happen, I'm sure it wasn't for lunch.

He's Asleep!

Today was our trial run for our new fall schedule. After a lot of thought, we decided to put Elise in to afternoon kindergarten. My HOPE was that Shawn would be able to nap right after we get back from taking her to school and then I would be able to use that time to work. Well, over the past few weeks, Shawn has decided that taking regular naps is no longer fun. He would much rather terrorize the house and fly off furniture and build bouncy houses out of the couch cushions. Gone are the days where he would run in to his room and climb into bed on his own. Right when it was time to start adjusting his nap schedule to be a little earlier in order to fit the kindergarten schedule, he decided to not nap at all. After a long weekend with Mark home, I'm back on my own today and it's time to get serious!! So we took Elise to school this afternoon (not technically her first day of school. There is some sort of testing they do but it's the same time she would normally be in school.) After we got back home we grabbed the dog and went for a bit longer walk . . . you know . . . to get him nice and sleepy. . . . mmmmm . . . didn't work. So we came back home and I thought I'd lay down with him for just a little bit (you'd think I'd learn that I can't just lay down with him for a little bit. It's all or nothing.) But finally after two baby gates stacked on top of each other in his doorway, about 45 minutes of crying, and one trip to the bathroom, he finally fell asleep!!! Yeah! When he does manage to nap it's a good two hours. He's only got one hour today though before we need to turn around and go get Sister. But he's ASLEEP! I did it! I feel like I accomplished something great! Thank you Jamie D. for the extra baby gate! I feel like the parent again.

Guilt?

I recently received an e-mail from a dear family friend whom I have known for a long time. It was in response to my last blog entry. She really gave me something to think about. GUILT. What is it? What's the difference between guilt and conviction? I use the word guilt a lot in daily life. "I feel guilty for leaving my kids at Grama's all day." "I feel guilty like I should be getting something done right now." I probably am not using the word correctly even in those type of situations. Guilt in the spiritual realm is something I've always thought I did not have a problem with. Accepting Jesus' forgiveness has never been an issue for me. I've always known and believed that God loves me no matter what. But how well is God going to use me if I never open my mouth?


Here's a bit of my e-mail back to her, "'Guilt? I'm not feeling guilt.' I thought what I was feeling was a genuine desire to be on fire for God. I want to be passionate. I've never had trouble accepting that Jesus loves me. I've always been secure with that. What I'm not secure with is my own response to His love & forgiveness and the truth of the Good News. I know I am saved by faith and not works. I also know that we are called to be fishers of men and I am feeling that I need to be a little more bold with my 'lures.' So I don't know. Is that guilt? Is that conviction?"

Am I Living Out My Purpose?

This morning a friend of mine wrote on her blog (http://allthingshenderson.blogspot.com/) a bit about Senator Kennedy's memorial service. She included a portion of President Obama's speech:

"We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know what God's plan is for us. What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and with love, and with joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of others."

"Live out our lives . . . with purpose . . ." " . . . we can know that we spent it well . . ." What does that mean? For so many it means being a good person, treating other like you'd like to be treated, maybe throwing in some volunteer work here and there. Yesterday, Pastor Steve Dangaran at our church here in Salem, gave an amazing message. I was in tears. I was convicted of how I am not living out my purpose as I should be. Yes, we should love. Yes, we should be generous to others. Yes, we should treat others as we would like them to treat us. But by far, the most important purpose in my life should be introducing others to the One who loves them more than anything they can imagine. The One who wants us to spend eternity with Him. The One who created the Universe; everything in it, the mountains, the sky, the trees, every hair on my head (even the ones going gray). While I'm loving, and giving, and spending time with people, I NEED to be showing them who Jesus is. I NEED to be telling them truth.

The truth is God loves us. He created us. The truth is we are ALL sinners. The truth is God is so Holy, so good, so unexplainable that we in no way deserve to be in His presence. The truth is God so desperately wants us to be in His presence. The truth is He is pursuing us. We mess up and mess up and mess up and God pursues us still. The truth is He provided a way to bring us from our lowly, sinful human existence in to his presence. The truth is He sent His Son, Jesus, to die a torturous death; to pay the penalty for us. Jesus, God in flesh, the One who was sinless, blameless, perfect . . . He suffered in your stead! There is a Heaven. There is a Hell. God wants us with Him. This is truth.

Oh God, please use my fleeting presence on this earth to have an everlasting impact in the life of someone.

Elise Loses Her First Tooth

Elise lost her first tooth this morning. She is out at Grama's for the day so I missed it, but they made sure to document it well. First, here is some sideways footage of her trying to pull it out this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOBRWtEKI9I


Around 1:45pm I was driving down the road (on my way to get a pedicure! I have the whole day to myself. A great early birthday present!) and I got a phone call from Grama & Elise. She had lost her tooth while eating mandarin oranges. How funny! After all the apple and crunchy cracker eating in an attempt to get it out, she loses it while eating mandarin oranges. Pudding or Jello might have been funnier.

I just received a notice from the Tooth Fairy council. It says, "I hear your child has lost a tooth. Congratulations! I know this is an exciting time for your family. However, new requirements are now in place which state that the 'parent or guardian of said child must be witness to said tooth and verify its authenticity prior to a visit by the Honorable Tooth Fairy.'" Great!!! That works out perfectly for me since I won't see her before tomorrow. I would have been so bummed to not be around when the Honorable Tooth Fairy made her very first visit to Elise. Being Mom is so cool!!

Camping Adventure Part II - The Wind's A Changin'

Drinking cocoa at Camp Side-of-Road


We fell asleep, and awoke to, the beautiful sound of a rushing river. In the daylight was realized we had pulled off in a beautiful area. There was a path that took us down to the river and we all took a little walk. Elise thought it was fantastic. It was "Fairy Land." With a full night's sleep and renewed enthusiasm, we set off to find a place to camp. The real Frog Lake? Some place else? We weren't quite sure.

We stopped at Timothy Lake so the kids could see this really cool reservoir where the water was pumped under the road and out in to the canyon on the other side. The water shot out like 15 fire hoses and the sun was hitting the spray just so to make a perfect rainbow. Spirits were definitely high at this point. We stopped in at a campground on Timothy Lake just to check out the availability. Of course there was none, but the camp host told us that since we had our reservation for Frog Lake for two days, they HAVE to hold it for at least 24 hours before they can give it up to someone else! Wahoo!!! "Let's go to Frog Lake! We've got plenty of time!"


We find Frog Lake. The kids are ready to get out of the truck!!! BUT, guess what? The camp host gave our spot away already! She said the policy is 12 hours. Check in is 2pm. So that meant that sometime between 2 AM and 9:30 AM she gave our site away. The middle of the night???Hmmmm!!! Very odd. And we are very disappointed. We drove back down the road to Clear Lake. Oh Clear Lake!!! We love you! The camp host there was totally cool. He confirmed that it is 24 hrs. that they have to wait and asked if we wanted to file a complaint. This guy told us that he too had a family that hadn't shown up and if we just waited three hours, the site could be ours. In addition, there were two other family's taking off early who's sites we could take. Wahoo!! Our luck had finally turned. We parked the truck, got the boats out, and got to the business of having a fun time. All was well from then on. We got our campsite and finally could relax.

We had a fantastic time at Clear Lake. It was beautiful there! The kids had a blast. Elise caught her first fish!! (she also caught a salamander and a piece of wood with someone else's old line attached to it.) Shawn practiced casting and is really good at it. See video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL2njN0dbhE
There were baby salamanders and newts all over the beach. We probably saw 100 of them! We had fire roasted brie with cherry tomatoes for dinner. (So gourmet!) We roasted marshmallows. The kids fell asleep that evening so quickly and slept well all night. I didn't hear a noise from any other campers in the whole place. Beautiful!!!!