Saturday Night Out--at Church?

You know we keep churches in a real box. Plan the week to go to church for an hour or so on Sunday. Multiple services sandwiched back-to-back don't leave much time for doing something radically different.

Saturday night--Feb 28th was different. One service--lasting 2 and a half hours complete with two 40 minute messages and some really awesome music to kick off a new series of study.

Sometimes you have to do something different to have really awesome God experience. And worshiping with 1300 other people is not something that happens to me every day. The band rocked and God was glorified.

In the same way we keep churches in boxes, we often keep God in a small manageable box as well.

But for us we need to remember Romans 6:23. And a God that can save us from our sin and death should not be kept in a box.

Miracle Baby Jax turns One!!

It is true--the miracle baby turns one today!!!

Jackson Gray, the child that was the object of so many prayers and who demonstrated God's love in a most personal way turns one and is the light of many lives.

This shot is from Disney--but he is climbing stairs and really coming into himself.  And he is the cutest thing going.

It has been a great year of watching Jax grow and develop. He is funny and has a genuinely good sense of humor. And I love the way he smiles--not just with his mouth--but his whole face and even his eyes light up.  A smile designed to melt the coldest heart.

Happy Birthday Jax-- you are a great kid.

What a Great Gift

Thanks Mommy! I love to dig and I love dirt. Who knew that you thought of everything and I have my own personal sand (dirt) box?

Wow this is great. I bet there are lots of treasures here. I know there are a lot of peanuts. Squirrels. I love those tree rodents.

The dead plant needs to go though. No problem--I'll dig it out and then play with it all around the deck.

Boy what a great view I have from up here.

Mommy--why aren't you amused that there is dirt all over the deck and me? I thought that was what the play box was for--digging and spreading out?

I love Saturdays they are such fun.

Helping Daddy with the Pool

The amount of help I get while doing normal maintenance tasks can be really amazing. Makayla just wants to be part of everything I do.

That can be good or bad. In this case there was some risk that she would fall into the pool as I was lowering the water level in advance of the expected storms.

But Makayla was just enjoying racing around the pool cover. Boy will she be in for a surprise when we are ready to actually open the pool.

I wound up closing the cover over the opening to ensure she wouldn't accidentally become a statistic. The water looked pretty cold--and it was cold. But still clear. So I'm excited about pool opening day!

Snow Day - This is March?

I am continually amazed about how the entire region I live in gets excited about the prospect of a snow day!

It began yesterday and by evening everyone was convinced that we would get an unscheduled holiday--and it happened just that way.

The schools are closed and I even got a day off to deal with the white stuff falling from the sky.

And of course you know how I feel about snow--white, fluffy, cold and a real pain. Send me to a sandy beach with palm trees and a place to lie and soak up some rays!

A Nor'easter--brings terror to the hearts of mariners, but to those in the Baltimore-D.C. area it brings a holiday of sorts.

Of course the flag on the front of the house says it all-- "It's Five O'clock Somewhere." And the reflection of the fire in the window of snow, shows how we are dealing with the cold, white stuff. I'm reminded of a song that goes, "O the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful!"

Wine Tasting Saturday

Saturday, the last day of February we had a very enjoyable experience in attending a wine tasting. We made our second ever visit to the Iron Bridge Wine Company to taste some wines and enjoy some food with friends.

We actually started with the reds since we really prefer reds. The tasting was excellent and we were able to taste a wide variety of wines and even bought a few.

Attending these is a lot of fun and allows the tasting of wines we otherwise might not get to enjoy. There were a number of gems in the wines we tasted and I will be reviewing a couple of them in the near future.

Two that both Chris and I enjoyed were:
Possum's Vineyard Shiraz, 2004, McLaren Vale, Australia and
Mas des Aveylans "Cuvee Prestige" Syrah, 2004 Rhone Valley, France.

Bottom line though--a great Saturday afternoon activity.

I Have an Idea

Think about it. What does the look on this child's face portray? Someone is going to hear about a great idea welling up in the mind of the cutest 3-year old in the world! And that someone is probably Gramma!

And yes--this was taken during our visit to the B&O Train Museum and Ethan was on overload with great ideas!

And this one is for his Mom. Who says he doesn't smile for pictures? This is a smile. Sort of.

Ah the joys of a creative mind and a devious spirit!

And of course, the joys of being three and free. When the biggest decision of the day is do I chase the dog or beat on my brother, again.

One more time then--I have an idea and you are bout to hear about it.

Be the Big Dog and the Circle of Life

Oh--the size and speed difference. I love it when the big dog comes to play. I get a chance to see what Makayla may grow in to. Ben is Jeremy's Keeshond--and he is both beautiful and well mannered.

It is always a lot of fun to see the dogs play together. And they do play.

They play hard and fast and constantly. I love seeing how tired Makayla is from playing with Ben. I'm sure Ben is a tired puppy too--after playing so hard with Makayla.

A--the joys of puppy hood. Our neighbor noticed how big Makayla is getting and remarked that she won't be a puppy much longer. I don't know though. I mean--I think I'm still a youngster and I'm sure it is the same for dogs. They don't even know they are getting older. One day, Makayla will be the big dog for some young pup--just like people become grandparents for young ones.

And maybe she'll think--wasn't it only yesterday I was chasing the big dog? And now I'm it.

Man's Best Friend: A New Chainsaw!

Gotcha! Thought I was going to rant about the cutest dog in the world again didn't ya!

Nope--today it is about the power of a chainsaw to remove felled trees from the yard. We had a huge walnut tree topple during a wind storm last June, which I was only able to just clear off the property but the bulk of the huge tree was still creating havoc in the forest behind the house. And then, two weeks ago, a dead tulip poplar fell into the yard.

Now I had a small, electric chain saw suitable for heavy pruning--but it was no match for the bulk of the walnut now the tulip poplar. So--as with any task, I needed the right tool for the job.

Enter, my new Homelite 20" Bar Chainsaw straight from Home Depot.

It cleared the downed tulip poplar in no time and is tearing into the felled walnut tree as well. Pre-Springtime and early-Spring is the best time to work in our woods because the low green bushes are not obscuring visibility and the job goes really fast.

Chris and I have been working since we moved into the house to clean up the forested area behind the house--and the windstorm last year which felled the walnut tree really dealt us a set back. Hopefully, we are back on track to clean the mess up and beautify the area.

The reviews on the saw are mixed--but mine works great. So far. And the yard really looks very nice and it was easy to do. My saw has started easily and run well--through the first tank of gas. We'll see how it goes, but so far so good and I'm looking forward to using it even more.

As you can see--there is a lot more work to do to get the area back into shape. And tools and heavy equipment are going to be required. I even think the chipper queen of Howard County may get a chance to do her stuff some Saturday afternoon not too far off!

Watching the Pens on Sunday

Well, it is probably pretty obvious that we are both Pittsburgh Penguins hockey fans.

What could be better than a Sunday afternoon together watching hockey? Maybe watching baseball at Camden Yards--but probably nothing else.

The other thing here is that we were watching the game on our formerly small HDTV. Shortly after the game (a loss to the Capitals) and also following the loss by Syracuse to Villanova, I succumbed to Chris' and Jeremy's suggestions that the screen was too small and we went to our favorite electronics boutique: a/k/a Best Buy, and upgraded the screen size. The event precipitating this was confusion over the score of the basketball game due to the incredibly small size of the numbers in on the screen.

But it was a great Sunday with Jeremy and I really enjoyed it.