6-12-11 Thank You Lord

    All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

Yes it was a full, busy, and very blessed Sunday. Sermons were inspiring and convicting both. It was nice to have Akihiro & Carrie home; Akihiro had some sobering words about life in Japan since the earthquake/tsunami. We need to be more diligent in our prayers for that lost country; they are in such great need of the peace that only comes through the blood of Jesus Christ.  Singing was wonderful (as usual). I love our congregational singing; we are so so blessed with strong song leaders who do an excellent job of leading 200-300 (??I’m not a good judge of how many people are there) people in a cappella worship.  Some days the singing is just nicer than others; I don’t know why that is, but it might be because of the songs that are chosen. Our kids always comment after church when there are lots of songs that they know…they enjoy it more and can sing more of them.  Of course all the songs are nice, with meaningful words to ponder, but the kids all seem to know and love the same ones, and they enjoy our song worship more when it’s songs they know, like Trust and Obey, Open the Wells of Salvation, Just Over the River, and so on. So maybe that’s why the singing was better yesterday - - we sang a lot of the more familiar hymns which most of the children would know. Whatever the case, we are blessed and thankful to enjoy such beautiful singing.

It was nice to have the van back after two weeks of problems with it and two visits to the mechanic … until it wouldn’t start after church!! (GRR)  After a nice walk home, we raced through chores, Josh had a power (short) nap, and we headed to the Turkey Festival Parade. (Just kidding about the nice walk home, heehee. Actually Levi had driven separately due to milking late, so he took Jesse home and they both came back with a car. The rest of us hung out in the van enjoying the beautiful day -  it was warm (75 or so) and sunny, but not hot.)

Waiting for the parade to start.

My favorite part of the parade. Such a unique sound.

Josh was so cute! (umm, isn’t he always?!) (yes I know we’re all extremely prejudiced but that’s ok) This was his first parade, and he was all eyes and ears. When the candy started coming, he pretty quickly figured out how to run and get it. He would race out as fast as he could, making a beeline for one piece of candy, grab the candy as fast as he could, and race back as fast as he could. He only got one piece per trip, even if there were a bunch more right there! See, he usually had a piece of candy in his other hand, so he only had one hand to pick up with! And oh, his excitement was by far the highlight of the parade. Two-year-olds are so precious – the Terrific Twos is a great stage. NEVER believe the lie of the Terrible Twos.

Shooting water everywhere!

 

Laughing and laughing and laughing – and ASK trying to talk on the phone with little success, because - - -

 

these Harley riders were so loud! They all revved their engines as high as possible in front of the announcers’ stage – incredibly amazingly annoyingly obnoxiously LOUD!!

An 8N like Jesse’s will be someday.

Home for Grandma Steiner’s 65th (belated) birthday party. We were thankful Grandpa & Grandma Rinkenberger could be with us again. It’s always good to see them doing well. We especially appreciated Grandpa’s prayer before supper– he was thankful that they could visit the old people at the nursing home yesterday morning, and that he & Grandma could still be together in their own home. We too are very thankful that they can be together in their own home, and that they can visit the old people.  It was kind of cute to hear Grandpa praying for the old people – I guess I’ve considered he and Grandma to be old for awhile now. Grandpa will be 90 in September, and Grandma will be 88 in October. Sure glad they’re not old yet!

Duck Duck Goose!

We were glad Thing Four could be with us for Thing Two’s birthday party, although we missed Aunt Devon who was flying home from Phoenix.

 

It was really cool out – 72 or so. Delightful!

 

 

After supper, little girls played - - -

little boys played - - -

and big girls and big boys played - - -

And I think we all had a great time (I know I did anyway!) (Although we were disappointed that ASK got called in to work. Everything’s more fun when she’s with us, but that’s how life goes sometimes.). While waiting for my turn to bat I took a few pictures, but they were all of my team, and specifically of Uncle Kenny because he’s so hyper.  (Speaking of Hyper (the black kitten) – after last night, three different kids at two separate times decided that Hyper and Uncle Kenny are a lot alike. So Hyper’s name was changed to Kenny.)  Anyway. Uncle Kenny is right-handed but he can bunt left-handed. His best bunt was pitched by Grandpa Steiner, who liked to send him golf-style pitches, as in he rolled them on the ground. The kids were in stitches when Uncle Kenny sat at bat Indian-style and bunted the stopped ball two inches. Fair ball! And he got on base easily because, although Grandpa’s a good pitcher, he doesn’t move too fast – and UK races like a madman around the bases!

An argument over batting order led to two batters at once, one left-handed, one right-handed. Catcher Silas threw in the towel and let them do their own catching – too many swinging bats for him. Smart boy.  Jesse got a good hit . . . Uncle Kenny had to give in on this one!

Crawling home after hitting one to the beanfield. Grandpa picked up an extra softball and surprised him by getting him out from behind :)

Since I was in the outfield without my camera I didn’t get a picture of when Uncle Kenny got his hat and glove mixed up – Kate was racing to third base when UK tried to catch a ball with his hat. She was safe….although I don’t know if anyone noticed or cared – we were all laughing too hard!  Uncle Dave had some fun shenanigans too - I was way out on the levee where he had hit the ball when he crossed home plate to score – walking on his hands the last ten feet!

Ending score – nobody knew, nobody cared. We all scored because we had a great time, no one got hurt (although the shed gained a little character), and wonderful memories were made.

Thank you Lord for Your blessings on me.