daMomb's Xanga

Thanksgiving at our place

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:12:38 GMT

Isn't it amazing how much more festive it is when someone you don't see all the time comes for a holiday? Well, for us, this Thanksgiving, it was Bradley and RJ. Oh, did we have fun!! You'll notice the theme you've come to expect from this site: food, games, family, silliness, fun in general. So, without further ado...

Food:

This was us, gathering for Thanksgiving dinner.

Games:

Pretty much the only difference between Thanksgiving dinner and Monopoly is the game board.

Family:

RJ and Syd (Gracie) ~ soon to be sisters (in law) and Hope ~ another sister

Silliness:

And, just for fun, the happy couple:

We miss our RJ and Brad!!!!! But, boy oh boy, was it ever fun!

OK, so it's a little late.... but what a GREAT birthday week!

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:46:18 GMT

OK... so I'm running a little behind. I loaded the Morse family pix onto my computer and realized that I'd never gotten around to posting our fabulous birthday week in July. It's an action-packed week that has 4 birthdays and 1 holiday.

For my birthday, we went to see Wall-E. It was adorable. Then we picked up a Wall-E cake. Bradley came home for the day. That made it really, really special. My three oldest all went. It was a great day!

Victoria waited at home...

Next comes the fourth of July. The following day is Hope's birthday:

Hope had a friend from church over to go bowling with her and Bradley and Gracie and...

SURPRISE! RJ!!

Here she is, after she snuck into the house while he was napping on the couch. He had a lot of trouble figuring out how she could be there.

Feeling pretty pleased about pulling off a HUGE surprise.

Next birthday is RJ's and two days later, it's Brad's. They celebrated together since she couldn't stay too long and, well, it's more romantic that way!

This last one is actually the girls getting ready for a slumber party style night, but Brad jumped in to join them for the picture. What a cute crew!

It was a fabulous week and it was made super special when our RJ came to make Brad's 21st the best it could be. And it was!!! Thanks, RJ!

The Morse Family Comes to California!!!

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:04:46 GMT

Wow! Our beloved Morse Family came to California ~ everyone except the new Mrs. Jake Mooney, that is. (Hey ~ we missed you guys!) Anyway, what a great thing it was to have so many Xanga folks here to celebrate their being here... BusDiva (Bev), Mark (MarkAlan), Miss Sarah, her mom and brother, and the whole Skaggs family (emttim) who got the Morses here!

People, pizza, and pop ~ party staples!

Where's their pizza??? (These hardy guys were sitting in some serious heat outside!

Oh! And cake. I forgot to say cake.

Oh, boy... I wish I had a video of Autumn playing piano (beautifully!) and singing (also beautifully) a song she'd written. I wept. Here she is with Gracie who had just zipped home between evening classes
for a few precious moments with our friends.

Hope and the Morse boys have a deep conversation.... about Star Wars. Think they
need some more cups? (Richard is probably about to tell a joke. What a fun guy!!)

The whole Morse family (minus Amber) sang some beautiful songs to Victoria before she went to bed. Full, rich harmony! Sooo lovely. I was blown away. I had no idea how much talent this family has!

A wi-fi moment, later in the evening. We got to watch a video of what's going
on in the Morse's ministry in Thailand.

And there we are... most of us, anyway.

What a blessed day ~ and one I won't forget. Thank you all for coming! (I think it must have taken Miss Sarah and her family members an hour to get here!) And now our Morses are back safely in Thailand. Thank you, God, for bringing them here. And thank you for getting them home safely. (Hope Carrie made it safely to Bob Jones!)

Monday, June 23, 2008

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:08:17 GMT

Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
   "You are worthy, our Lord and God,
   to receive glory and honor and power,
   for you created all things,
   and by your will they were created
   and have their being."
                                                                                                (from Rev. 4)

In pursuit of Michelle's worthy suggestion, I offer a Biblical peak into Heaven ~ into real and eternal worship. Oh, to more fully understand true worship ~ the wholehearted, joyful, ongoing worship that goes on in Heaven ~ and to know that for all the worship currently being offered, that it is our unique privilege to join in with the eternal throng to offer worship. Since the creation of earth, God has always had a group from earth joining in with the angels. May we fully embrace this privilege!

Random Neural Firings

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:57:18 GMT

In my ongoing effort to keep Xanga alive (with a hearty THANK YOU to all of you who still offer at least the occasional post!!) I offer some random pictures with no other consistency factor than that they are of people and animals who live here.

We've had more hatches:

The little white one on her back (also shown below) had some hatching problems. It was a bit overdue which can cause the shell to stick to the baby. She hatched in Hope's hand with a little shell peeling assistance from Gracie.

She's so tiny compared to the sibs, but very cute. Nothing wrong with her vocal cords. You can hear her from anywhere in the county.

Hope and Gracie (Syd) with some fluffies.

This chick was one from the batch from the last post. Isn't she getting big?

Hope. No reason for the picture. It's just Hope.

Although Gracie (Syd) has her first year of college behind her, we're finally going to tie off her high school home school transcript. To graduate (at our house) you have to put on a cap and gown and walk to the front yard to have your picture taken. Not much pomp and circumstance in that, but it got the job done.

The vile kitty graduated too, I guess.

And that's a wrap from our house. Post if you've got 'em, people!

It's officially spring at our house!

Fri, 09 May 2008 06:58:22 GMT

The chicks are hatching...

Aren't they cute??

This is Gracie's evil cat, staring mercilessly at the mom and her babies:

"My name is NoNoBadKitty. What's yours???

Hiding from the vile kitty.

We had our RJ here for Easter!

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:49:21 GMT

What a great time! There were games...

and more games....

and more games...

And there was food:

like this Easter egg cake made by Gracie (Syd) to celebrate Brad and RJ's first anniversary since he'd met her in person.

And a wi-fi breakfast:

We toured Brad's apartment by his university and the U.C. Davis campus (as much as could be seen in a few hours, anyway.)

It was very easy to picture a future Professor Brad:

His bike's in there somewhere:

But Gracie's Easter break had been the week before, so she was in homework-land for much of the visit:

Above, she's getting a consult from Professor Brad on some calculus issues while RJ waits patiently.

This isn't really homework. She's looking through the Spanish/English parallel Bible that she got for Easter.

I wish I had pictures of the trips to San Francisco, Alcatraz island, the Redwoods, skiing at Lake Tahoe, and bowling, but you can imagine it must have been fun!

Hurry back, RJ!

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:24:01 GMT

The ever-increasing godlessness of our country has its repercussions. And now we're looking at one.

This week, in a secret trial unknown by any of those who follow these things, a court decision was handed down, rendering homeschooling illegal in California!

HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) has now swung into action and is seeking to have the decision changed to just affect the family who was at the center of the problem. Apparently, this family had been in and out of court for the past 20 years for various reasons that involved their children. The decision in their case now, if not changed, affects all homeschoolers, making it illegal for us to educate our own children even if we're doing a good job of it.

Here's a link with some more information. It includes a link to Dr. Dobson's website and a petition that everyone's being encouraged to sign to have the decision "depublished," which would make the decision applicable only to the family that was involved, not every homeschooler in California. Please consider signing it, if not for yourself, then for those of us who could be impacted by it. Our children should not be wards of the state!!

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000006731.cfm

Please also pray that God would have mercy on an undeserving state for the sake of His remnant that lies within. Pray that our right to homeschool would be restored!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unrelated update on our Victoria: The first few weeks after surgery were a nightmare, day and night. After a month, we'd started really settling out into something closer to our old life.This past week, we had the feeding tube that was surgically installed pulled out and replaced with a normal, non-surgical tube. She now has one tube going through the abdomen to her stomach and one to her intestines. And both can be changed out at home when it's necessary! She's doing so well! God has been abundantly merciful; Victoria is a trophy of His mercy. And we are most grateful.

Victoria's surgery

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:41:13 GMT

Victoria's surgery (to have a permanent access installed to her intestines for feeding purposes) is tomorrow. We'll have to be in Sac by 8 AM for a 10:00 surgery. It should last about 2 1/2 hours. She's expected in be in about five days.

Bradley plans to come home for the weekend to be with the sisters who remain at home.

We'd appreciate your prayers for the surgery and recovery time. Pneumonia is always a post-surgical concern, particularly for someone who can't move about or deliberately take deep breaths. And then there are the other kids while I'm away. And my sleep through all this....

Thanks so much!!!

Hot Chocolate ~ and Cups

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:06:59 GMT

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything ~ they just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.