the dog days of summer...

Mia, our friend and neighbor, at Disneyland with us yesterday

Above: Matt at his new locker!!

Crave The Wave (above) {Chris Gniffke hanging out with the kids}

Above: Kelcey, Jon, Matt & Cole at the Dog Beach



Jon & Cole hangin with the Dinosaurs in Palm Springs

Jon at Soak City, Palm Springs

Daisy, after her "dip" in the ocean... she hates going in the water at the beach. Needless to say, Cole put her in.




The boys, body surfing...

Lately: Having a good time, trying to get the boys ready for school...
we're having a Big Back-To-School Party tomorrow... I'll post later about that. 26 kids... eek.

VBS!!

This is the end of VBS... we were all a little crazy by this time... here's Miss Penny with the boys


Chris & Ben "Ned & Jed"... they were awesome...

Vienne looked so cute on "Champagne", Nadia's horse. I took this portrait of her, along with a bunch of her and her kids; can't wait to give them all to her.

This is a pic of Nadia... isn't this a great shot?? :o)


Just before the water came and sprayed all over us!! I had no idea that those long tubes would be spraying water everwhere... thanks for the warning, Matt!!

jon & his group at snack time

cole & his group at rec time (he's the one with the big mouth...)

cole & jacob

matt & erik at the closing session friday

Shoeless Joe and other great stories...

Here's Eric Wakeling preaching at church on Sunday... he did an awesome job... it was really good.

But, you may ask, WHY are you sitting WAY BACK THERE???

Well, Matt, the "would-lose-his-head-if-it-weren't-screwed-on-but-I-love-him-to-death" guy, forgot his flip flops at home. We pull into Fruit Street and he looked at his feet and gasped. I was NOT going back home at that point.

So we sat waaaayyyy back there, trying to hide his feet from the congregation, but they're so big... oh well. The odd thing is: sitting back there is a whole other realm.... you get alot of people who, God bless them- they want to be there, but it seems that they are all trying to hide back there, in the corner, in the darkness of the sanctuary. No one claps, no one sings, no one really laughs at any jokes (although Eric said his hilarious (albeit misguided) comments about the Mac vs. PC and I laughed really loud and everyone turned to look at me as if to say "don't you know?? No one laughs here..."

I've been in that place; when you want to be there at church because you know you need to be in God's presence because you are so dark you can't feel that He is with you... it's hard to remember that He is, when you feel so blue. But you know if you could just get there; get in the door... hear the music - perhaps that will help. I don't want to assume, though, that every one sitting there was feeling like this, but for many it seemed to be the case... the look on their faces when they slipped in the door...

VBS this week... what a blast. AND I'm 43 today... it's good. It's been a nice quiet birthday. I like my 40's - alot. I just need to get this weight off. I'm getting SO desparate I don't know what to do.

My dear friend Judi and I went to Bed Bath & Beyond (you have to say that like Superman!). Here we are goofing around with some massagers.

here's a cute picture of Jon... he's such a nice guy.

Speaking of nice guys... don't you just LOVE the Hankins?? Aren't they just SO cute?? Here's Janice and Cassie. I took this while Bill was fixing my old 1940's phone!! I'm SO excited that it works again...

and here's my little Coley with Daisy; this is her favorite place to be... in your arms with her paws on your shoulders, snaggled up against your cheek... what a lovey.

My Dinner Party

In response to Eric's challenge to list whom we would have to dinner if we could pick 6 people, dead or alive, to have at our table ( and Jesus doesn't count in the 6 because we would all have him, of course). So here goes:

1. Martha Washington; I'd love to know what that time was really like... the day-to-day thing, of how life was, how they really felt about being thrust into such a role, etc.

2.Walt Disney; What a great guy to have at a dinner party... he'd probably tell so many great stories, I'd love to know what he was really like.

3. Leonardo DiVinci; just because he's AMAZING.

4. Judy Garland; It would be nice to just sit with her, talk with her about everything; hear her stories about everything she saw and did, even as a kid.

There are so many incredible people... I'd love to invited some that made this area great and talk to them about what southern CA was like when there was no one here yet, when it was still just ranchos...

(above is a picture of Clodomiro Sepulveda and Peregrina Rosa Yorba, 1885 - their two family's ranchos combine into what James Irvine later purchases and makes into Irvine Ranch- but prior to that: what was this area like? What was it like to stand on top of the hills on the Yorba rancho and look out over the land?? i wish my eyes could see what their eyes saw.)

I'd love to talk with Peter Minuit who negotiated with the Indians for posession of Manhattan - what did it look like?? How did it grow? What troubles did you encounter?

Anyway, I'll finish my list eventually....

Who would YOU choose??

HE WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD!!!

Oh my gosh... Andrew got SHOT in the HEAD!!

He is one of our tour drivers for our Beach Tour -

his brother has been involved in gangs and the other night he was outside his house and there was a drive-by shooting! eek...

A bullet went right through his front temple and out the back...

He's totally fine!! He came in the shop yesterday, talking, walking around, everything... wow.

It's a neat testament, too, because he used to be VERY involved in gangs years ago and now is out; he holds Bible studies at his house and is a great witness to all who meet him. Now it seems God has spared him so that he can continue his work!!

Way to go, Andrew!!!!

I've been remiss lately...

way too busy lately... and too blue for some reason. the weight of the world is on my shoulders sometimes. that, and the fact that the kids are driving me to drink! :op

Here are the kids at "Crave the Wave" with Ben - they love it (and Ben too!) They're here with Sabrina Faire and some friends they brought, Eddie and Andrew.



Here's Chris Gniffke... he's SO awesome... here is a pastor that totally cares about these kids and their hearts and their walk with God. Actually all of our pastors are like that- we really are blessed at our church to have such great people...



Here's Paris' birthday celebration!! The first is her with her friend Lindsay and then below is Paris and Ashley, our cousin: