Sunday, December 31, 2006

Milestones

We passed a new milestone today. Georgia grabbed a good handful of beard hair. I've been wondering when that would happen. Her mom and aunts were real good at it. It looks like the skill didn't skip a generation.

Yesterday and Friday I worked in the garage some. Among ather things, I rewired an old ceiling lamp that my dad had made out of an old acetelyne lamp. It used to hang in my parents house. Actually I have two. I hung the first one in the garage and have the second ready to go too.

I may blog some more later, right now I'm off to the mall with Sara, Rebekah and Georgia.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. All the kids and baby Georgia were here. We had Christmas dinner and breakfast Christmas morning.
Christmas Eve mom, Doug and Janie, and Heather and Randy were here. It was a real good time of seeing and talking to everyone. We had barrel cooked tri-tip, and other delicious dishes. Rebekah had done apple and pumpkin pies for dessert. After dinner we opened presents.
Christmas morning Jan made a great breakfast with Swedish Pancakes, bacon, saugage, English Muffins and bagels. Anna and Ken cooked the sausage at their house and brought it over. When breakfast was over we opened our stockings. It is always fun to see what stocking stuffers everyone has come up with.
By early afternoon everyone had left for other festivities and we spent a peaceful afternoon at home.
It was a great Christmas.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Wireless

Rebekah and Jan got me a wireless router for Christmas. They decided I should open it early, so I did. It works very well.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Over the weekend I was part of the Urban Mission Fresno project. We started on Friday evening at the Mennonite Biblical Seminary. For dinner we were sent to restaurants that were supposed to broaden our horizons. My group, made up of more veteran Fresnans decided the Chinese buffet we were assigned to was not outside our box so we went to a Pho restaurant on Kings Canyon. It was good. A couple of us think nezt year we'll offer a list of restaurants that really should broaden a few horizons.
Saturday the team I was with spent the day in downtown Fresno near Broadway and Divisadero at the World Impact building. We helped get ready for their Christmas Open House. We cleaned up, hung lights, and generally decorated. As 5:00 pm approached we also helped get food ready.
When the doors opened at 5:00 most of us worked food booths. I served egg rolls. People loved them. Lots of people from the community came and enjoyed the evening.
When we were finished, about 7:30, we cruised a few neighborhoods. We were given directions that took us to the westside, the Rowell neighborhood and the downtown area.
On Sunday we went back to World Impact and cleaned up, then had a touring church service giving us a look at some of the areas in town that World Impact is impacting. We were greatly blessed by the opportunity to see their ministries. Our weekend ended back at the seminary at 3:00 pm.
It was a great time. The staff was well prepared and worked hard to give us a missionary experience.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Thursday Afternoon

This afternoon I met at Starbucks with my men's group from church. We meet every Thursday. Mostly we talked about Acts chapter 20. That's where Mountain View is in our annual Bible reading. It is always a great time. It is good to get together with the men and talk about God and come to him in prayer. I look forward to it every week.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Cookies


Tonight I made Scotch Shortbread (p. 674,Boston Cooking School Cookbook, 1944). I used the wooden mold my Aunt Sibella gave me when she found out I like cooking shortbread. It has a Scotch Thistle carved in it. I plan on taking the cookies to school tomorrow. I made enough for home too.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Since a week ago yesterday I've been meeting with a friend and going for a walk before work. He is a former Calwa student, although he was a middle schooler when I started working there so I didn't have him in class. He is a fire fighter and in lots better shape than I, but he seems to be okay with me as a walking partner. We have settled on a route that takes us down Cedar Ave. to the railroad tracks on California Ave. It is a little less than a mile one way and gets me back at work by 7:30 which is a little later than I'm used to, but plenty early nonetheless.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Newness

We had a great weekend. Saturday Sara sent me a text message asking if we felt like having company, which of course we did. So, the Woodys came up.
I got to have Georgia at 5:30 or so on Sunday morning while Sara got to get a little sleep. I greatly enjoy those mornings. Sara, Ricky and Georgia came to church, making everyone happy. Lots of people had been praying for and looking forward to getting to see the baby. It was a great day. Georgia's aunts had a wonderful time showing her off. They really love her.
I imagine everyone who has ever been a grandparent can relate to what it has been like these last few weeks. Even before the birth, I was realizing that this is a new amazing time of life with interesting things around every corner. I think grand babies make you pay more attention to life.