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Skipped Autumn and went straight to Winter…

Published
by
Fay
on September 21, 2007
in Life As Normal
. 2 Comments

We went straight from a hot, hot Summer to Winter in about 2 days. The temperatures dropped quickly from 80s, 90s and 100s all the way down to 65 in Fresno!

We had our first snowfall Wednesday night (down to 6,000 feet so it didn’t get us yet at 4,000). I was on my way out to Big Creek and some of the vistas from the windy road were incredible. Mountains looming out of bubbly, wintry-looking clouds…low clouds settled in the valleys and working their way up the sides of the mountains…wind blowing through the trees. It was all very dramatic! I managed one picture before my camera battery went dead, so I put it in our header. I really wanted more of the trees, valleys and mountains in the low clouds, but I’m sure there will be another time soon. It promises to be a long, cold, wet/snowy winter. We need the rain!!

Michael’s 53rd Bday Weekend!!

Published
by
Fay
on September 6, 2007
in Travel
. 3 Comments

Catching up…

Here are some pics from Michael’s Bday dinner at Hazel’s in Modesto. It is a small, intimate dinner house that offers seven courses, all of which are preset except for your pick of entre. It was very English in decor and just our cup of tea, naturally.

Michael wanted to celebrate his 53rd birthday visiting some friends we met on the Worship Institute cruise in January, so we contacted our friends Tim and Darla, who are the Worship Pastors at Ceres Christian Church  near Modesto (about two hours north of us), and spent the night on 8/25 at the Doubletree in Modesto. We laid out by the pool and relaxed, had a sumptious dinner, and then went to Tim and Darla’s church on Sunday worshipping with them. They treated us to a great lunch at the local, favorite Mexican restaurant.

We had a wonderful, relaxing time and Michael got his exact birthday wish.

Great hotel; great friends; great food; great weekend! ;)

Guardian Angels Around My Bed…

Published
by
Fay
on August 14, 2007
in Life in God
. 3 Comments

 angelbaby.gif

This is so cute. I know I sent an email on it, but couldn’t resist posting it here. Maybe you have friends who’d get a kick out of linking to this…

Angels as told by kids

I only know the names of two angels. Hark and Harold.
Gregory, 5

Everybody’s got it all wrong. Angels don’t wear halos anymore. I forget why, but scientists are working on it.
Olive, 9

It’s not easy to become an angel! First, you die. Then you go to heaven, then there’s still the flight training to go through. And then, you got to agree to wear those angel clothes.
Matthew, 9

Angels work for God and watch over kids when God has to go do something else.
Mitchell, 7

My guardian angel helps me with math, but he’s not much good for science.
Henry, 8

Angels don’t eat, but they drink milk from holy cows.
Jack, 6

Angels talk all the way while they’re flying you up to heaven. The basic message is where you went wrong before you got dead.
Daniel, 9

When an angel gets mad, he takes a deep breath and counts to ten. And when he lets out his breath, somewhere there’s a tornado.
Reagan, 10

Angels have a lot to do and they keep very busy. If you lose a tooth, an angel comes in through your window and leaves money under your pillow. Then when it gets cold, angels go north for the winter.
Sara, 6

Angels live in cloud houses made by God and his son, who’s a very good carpenter.
Jared, 8

All angels are girls because they gotta wear dresses and boys didn’t go for it.
Antonio, 9

My angel is my grandma who died last year. She got a big head start on being an angel by helping me while she was still down here on earth.
Katelynn, 9

Some of the angels are in charge of helping heal sick animals and pets. And if they don’t make the animals get better, they help the kid get over it.
Vicki, 8

What I don’t get about angels is why, when someone is in love, they shoot arrows at them.
Sara, 7

Very, very cute… :)

Meet the newest member of our family…

Published
by
Fay
on August 8, 2007
in Life As Normal
. 4 Comments

amber-kitty.JPG

This is Amber, she’s 3 months old and she’s a holy terror — argh!!

Since we lost Pudgy  earlier in the year, we’ve slowly inherited a major mouse investation and they’re so cute, with big brown eyes and big round ears, that I could not use the neck-braker traps or the goo traps; it seems so cruel! We put down a live trap, but they were too smart for that!

So, since Kitty, Lil’ Bit, the Arching, Hissing, B _ _ _ _ has joined our family, we haven’t seen any mouse signs, not from the first night of her introduction (we haven’t found any little mouse bodies either — hoping they don’t get too brave — I’ve warned them to stay away or it’s curtains!).

So with squirt bottle in hand and folded up newspaper, the training begins__beating her off my sliding glass door screens as she tries to get to my precious golden finches and hummingbirds…off my table where she wants to chew off all the African Violet leaves and flowers…off my furniture where she dashes up to me and scratches the arm of whatever seat I’m sitting on after being disciplined for just having done that…well you get the picture…

She is cute though and in our hearts, so she’s here to stay…help!! :0

So to sooth myself today, after being out at our Big Creek Hydro facility this morning, I took the back road up to Huntington Lake and took the long, scenic route home. It was absolutely beautiful…guess I’m lucky this is my view driving back to my office. Enjoy!!

I want your cameras!!

Published
by
Fay
on August 7, 2007
in Life As Normal
. 2 Comments

OK, niece families. What cameras are you all using? I love the pictures. They are so clear and bright and beautiful. I have a Canon PowerShot SD450 (digital) with zoom capability and all my pictures are turning out too big and too grainy when I try to upload them to my precious header images!! What’s up with that???! I want what you guys have (like I said to Barney in an email this morning, said with a pouty voice!!!)!

Or someone give me some training and tell me how to adjust the settings on my Canon. I also have a regular Canon 35mm… What am I doing wrong? I want the great closeups with the clear edges and bright colors. OK. I feel better. Someone share please…

Signed,
Frustrated :(

Happy Birthday to you, you’re another year older today…

Published
by
Fay
on August 2, 2007
in Life As Normal
. 3 Comments

Well, Nana made it through another year (that’s how she expressed it)!

We celebrated her 70-something birthday at the Cheesecake Factory Tuesday evening. We gorged ourselves and had a wonderful time. She was in all her Queen Bee glory!!

Catching Up From Vacation

Published
by
Fay
on July 13, 2007
in Travel
. 1 Comment

Well, once the IWI conference began, we were on the run from sunup to sundown on Tuesday morning until late Friday night. Thought I’d have time to keep up with pics and blogs, but no such luck.

We had a wonderful, wonderful time at the Dallas Gaylord Texan Resort. What an incredible place! In the end, we forgot that we were indoors. It had a constant maintained atmosphere of about 70 degrees with river walks and plantings, and so you forgot you weren’t ouside. I would highly recommend it to anyone seeking a great-escape, especially the pampering at the spa!!

We headed home fatigued, yet full of new ideas and leadings from God. So…we keep, keeping on and waiting to see where He’ll lead us next.

Spencer Begins IWI Classes Today - Dallas July 2 2007

Published
by
Fay
on July 3, 2007
in Travel
. 1 Comment

Mom spent the morning with Spencer in his week long School of Audio class. He’ll be learning from one of the most knowledgeable guys in the business who puts on all the big audio events for things like the Super Bowl and other large worship conferences. Matt, our sound guy from India will also be teaching and running the sound for the event. Spencer was so excited after the morning event that he could hardly eat lunch and ran back to watch them all set up and be with “the guys!” I’m so glad. He really loves it!!

 Just a quick blog. The girls spent the afternoon at the mall shopping. Dad went back to the spa and we converged for a wonderful, lovely dinner at the upscale Ama Lur, southwestern cusuine restaurant at the Gaylord.

More tonight…

Summer Vacation - Sunday, July 1st - Just Hanging Out at the Gaylord

Published
by
Fay
on July 1, 2007
in Travel
. 1 Comment

Just a day of complete relaxation at the hotel!

We started the day out at the indoor pool and then Nana and Gail decided to go exploring and check out the outdoor pool. The rest of us got cold in the pool and decided to check out the spa services. The spa comes with the room and what an incredible treat it was!

Gwynneth and Gail were all excited to share their walking adventures around the miles of perimeter of the hotel, but once again we were rained out. Driven in by the rain, we all converged at the, you guessed it, the Java cafe, our favorite place to hang out and people watch. We decided we could spend most of our time there just watching the day go by and all the interesting goings on. Spencer decided it was time to take some candid shots before going up to our room for an afternoon siesta.

Refreshed and ready for dinner, we made our way downstairs and had a leisurely dinner. Matt, our way-cool sound guy from India, saw Fay and came over to say Hi and met the rest of the family. We’re getting excited about the start of WI’s events. Spencer will begin his 5-day School of Audio classes with Matt and Vic tomorrow. Mom will sit in in the AM just to see how it all goes, so we decided to take a walk to the convention center and check out where we’ll be attending the events. Just as awesome and incredible as the rest of the hotel. Once again we were drawn by music coming from one of the rooms. Fay peeked inside and discovered that the WI worship team was rehearsing for the week’s events. Excitement is in the air!

We ended our day at the Java Cafe and made our way up to our rooms. A good kind of tired and relaxed, Fay types on into the night, uploading pics and writing blogs while everyone else falls quietly to sleep…

Summer Vacation - Saturday, June 30th - Six Flags Over Texas

Published
by
Fay
on June 30, 2007
in Travel
. 2 Comments

So here we are traveling again!

This is Summer vacation 2007. We’re attending the Worship Institute yearly conference. This year the institute has changed the name to Transcend 1.0. This is the organization that Fay traveled with in April to Mumbai, India.

We arrived early so as to be able to relax and have some family fun time. Family attending are Nana, Auntie Gail, Dad, Spencer and Mom (wish the rest of you were here, both family and friends!!)!

We’re at the fabulous Gaylord Texan Resort in Dallas, Texas. It sits on 4,400 acres and is comprised of the hotel, grounds, parking areas, a nightclub, beautifully landscaped grounds (both inside and outside the hotel - when you’re inside the hotel you forget you’re inside because it’s landscaped like you’re outside with rivers and walks and landscaped areas), and lots of shops and eateries.

We went to Six Flags Over Texas today and had fun, even though we were totally and completely rained out!! It didn’t matter, because between the humidity (we were already sweating profusely) and the downpour, we spent the entire day wetter than wet!! So here we are having fun in the rain…

Wet, Bedraggled Six Flaggers!

Unbelievably wet, tired, and ready to return to the air-conditioned comfort of our rooms, we go back to the Gaylord, freshen up a bit, and head downstairs to the Java Coast Cafe for a late-nite cup of Jo!

Drawn by a great drum beat and music coming from somewhere, we make our way to the cafe patio. The patio loft overlooks a lower level area that has a river running through it with a double-staircase winding down; very dramatic and beautiful. And Lo! and Behold!, a not-so-private wedding reception is going on (we have conversation wondering how much this reception cost?!). We’re chair-dancing to some great tunes care of the the wedding DJ and settled in ringside and watched the festivities below. So much fun!!!

Gail and I recounted our hair-raising experience on The Texas Giant; the most brain damaging wooden roller coaster ever…I really thought I was going to die before it was over…and watched as the wedding festivities wound down and took in the richness of our surroundings and the day. How much fun could anyone be having???!!

More tomorrow, and I’ll be faithful about posting blogs and pictures galore. Family and friends, feel free to comment. Comments are always welcomed (and then I’ll know you’re watching)!

Ya’ll come back now, ya hear…