Look Dad, no crying!

I guess the two trips to the pool have cured Heidi of her fear of having water poured on her head... at least temporarily. We love you!

Bunny bunny

A quick video for the daddy and other viewers. :-)

We went to the White's house this morning to see their prize-winning bunnies. Wow! They are beautiful, so soft, and we learned a lot about what it takes for a bunny to be "just right" for showing them at the Stock Show or other places. Very cool! Heidi loved poking her fingers in the cages and petting them (sometimes it looks more like hitting).

Enjoy! Thank you to Debbie and Parker for standing out in the heat to show them to us and tour us around, and for wrangling bunnies so Heidi could pet them. You guys are great! For those of you who don't know, Matt and I got engaged at the White's back when their hobby was horses instead of rabbits. We went horseback riding there and got engaged in the woods near their home. Love you guys! Thanks for the fun memories.

Little Theologian

Didn't have a chance to put up all the pics or try the video - maybe later this afternoon. In the meantime, I thought I'd share this one for daddy. :-)

DeeDee and I were working in the kitchen while Heidi played in the living room. We kept hearing a little rustle-rustle, so I figured she must be getting into some kind of trouble, tearing papers or something. Nope... this is what I found instead.

Awww...

Starting out our week... Hi Daddy!

Let's see... since the other day, we've crammed in lots of fun with DeeDee and Papa. Sunday we went to church and Heidi had such a blast in the nursery that she didn't want to leave! A good sign. :-) We all came home and had lunch and then we ALL took a nap. What a great vacation for us! We keep staying up until midnight chatting and watching movies, so the naps have been good.

After naptime, we headed over to the Goodrich's house for a pool party and dinner. They have a great huge house and a fun pool for the kids, and lots of toys. Heidi got to play with their little girl, Helena, in the nursery at church in the morning, so they were instant buddies when we go to their house. They played inside with the play kitchen and everybody had a blast in the pool. Heidi doesn't like to sit in the floaties, but she loves being held and "swimming" around as you hold her on her tummy. She's learning to wiggle her legs and arms just a little bit, and can even cling to the side of the pool for a little while too.

When we got home, DeeDee and Heidi played play-dough a little bit before bed, and we actually got her down at 7:30! Not bad for one day... we packed it in. Today (Monday) we have been at home most of the morning playing and coloring, and we're going grocery shopping to cook stuff for the family reunion. Then I may sneak out and go shopping myself or go up to Stampede tonight to see friends.

We miss you daddy! We are having lots of fun and hope you are too. I bet it is incredible! Hopefully we'll talk to you this afternoon as you get ready to rest up for Mt. Sinai. Wow! We love you.

~Mommy and Heidi (the pictures aren't the highest quality, but hey, they capture the moments well enough!)

While you were out

Well Daddy, we promised you pictures while you are in Egypt, so here they are! We've packed a lot of fun into the first day here. Popsicles, swimming in the baby pool (maybe go to the Ulshes Monday), playing in the playhouse, upstairs and downstairs, lots of "bees", and reading books with DeeDee and Papa. The triumph of the day is playing in the baby pool in the front yard, Papa got in the little pool with her, and when he left to go to the garage, she got out and said, "Papa? Where go? Papa." So, after 2 years Grandpa is officially in the club of people that Heidi likes. :-) He even read her a story and tucked her in tonight and she didn't make a peep.

We're missing you and hoping you got some good rest last night so you could have a good first day! If we don't talk to you Sunday afternoon our time, we'll see you on Monday. We love you! It's only Day One but we miss you already. Excited to hear about your journeys from the day!

Green thumb... or zucchini

Well, if you haven't noticed lately, there haven't been many pictures on our blog. This is because our little sweetie dropped our camera a while back so it doesn't work anymore. However, for blog purposes, I have figured out how to take photos with our web cam, so these will have to do for our updates until we get a new camera.

The latest? Well, I can't show you a photo of our fun vegetable garden (on account of our web cam being built into our iMac and not being able to carry the computer outside to take a photo), but I can show you some of the products of our little gardening experiment.

I started this experiment with the hopes that it would be a fun venture, and we would maybe get something out of it too. With a lot of work, Lowe's gift cards, and lots of weed-pulling and watering, I wasn't sure if it would be worth all the money and effort. I mean, $60 of materials better mean that we're getting at least $60 of vegetables back, right? I have hopes for what the little garden will produce, but keep telling myself I'll be happy with anything small now, and we'll improve and learn for next season.

Anyway, at long last, we have a little something to show for it. Probably one of the biggest zucchinis I've seen in a long time. Success! And the plant is huge - the leaves are probably 12" in diameter. The radishes - a little small, but I attribute this to the fact that I planted them too close together, so most of them are growing as long skinny veggies rather than round. Lesson #1 for next time, so still a success. (sorry, straight out of the garden, dirty fingers and all)

I know that these 3 veggies are not actually worth $60, several hours, a slightly higher water bill and the extra time out in the sun, but hey, I didn't get into gardening for that reason alone. I think it's neat to put hard work into something and see the fruits (or vegetables) of your labor. :-) I guess it's more of a hobby, and you happen to get food out of it too! So, where I could spend $60 going to the movies a few times or going bowling or buying/reading a new book, this is one of my hobbies now.

I am a gardener. Not the best, we don't have the largest "field," but it sure is fun. I think I'll try it again next season. My goal? I wanna take one of those photos like in Little House on the Prairie where they go to the garden and come back with a basketful of fresh colorful produce. Maybe if the timing is right I can do that soon.

So far, I figure I've made back about $2. :-)

In the meantime, fried zucchini anyone?

Hospitality

Can I take just a moment to brag about how wonderful my neighborhood is (in particular, the neighbors on either side of us), and how much I love living where I do? I'll walk you through the last month or so, so you can get a good picture of it. Granted, all of us happen to work at the same ministry, so we would expect to be friendly with one another... but check this out.

March 12th - We go to Israel for 12 days. Our neighbors on the left take care of our dog for 7 of those days - and just about any other time we need it. And our dogs play together in the yard on a regular basis.

March 25th - Our neighbors on the left have a difficult season in their lives, so I take dinner over and put flowers in their kitchen while they're out of town so they don't have to cook when they get back.

April 3rd - One of the neighbors on our right side (in our rent house) comes over for dinner. I don't have any sugar for sweet tea, so she brings some.

April 4th - Several of the girls from the rent house come over for a potluck dinner.

April 5th - I go over to the girls' house to watch TV with them.

April 6th - Matt and I both go over to the girls' house to watch LOST together because we don't get ABC on our TV.

April 9th - Our neighbor on the left comes over to do maintenance on our riding lawnmower to prepare it for summer. He borrows it to mow his lawn, and in return keeps it in tip-top shape for us and shares the cost.

April 10th-11th - We go out of town, so one of the girls watches our dog for us... again.

April 12th - Heidi and I go outside in the front yard. The girls are having a picnic dinner on the lawn, so we stop in for a moment. Our other neighbor texts to see if she can borrow some vegetable oil. Sure. I tell the picnic girls to come over when they're done and we'll watch a movie. I want to make banana bread, but don't have any sugar. They'll bring some, no problem. (update - and some extra flour)

We have learned about hospitality on our trips to Israel - how you can't survive in the desert alone, how accustomed they are to serving one another out of necessity, how a woman and her family (daughters, grandkids) will make homemade bread and sweet tea (syrup!) for 50 people in a matter of minutes, because it's what they DO. They just do. No questions asked.

I'm also reminded of how the first church functioned this way. They had all things in common and shared their possessions as if nothing were their own, but belonged to the group. I recently read an article in one of the (pretty liberally-minded) magazines that I subscribe to about doing this very thing - offering up your possessions and services to those around you. It really is a neat idea, but one that is ancient, Biblically-based and the way it's supposed to be.

I know that they way we live with our neighbors is just a taste of what the Bedouins in Israel or the first church in Acts experience(d) on a daily basis, but I'll say this: if we ever move to another house, city or state, I will want to find a community like this one.