san antonio - ready or not, here we come!!!

shortly after returning home from port aransas (a few days), i received a call from my cousin. her and her family were taking a road trip to sea world in san antonio. they invited us to go along, but richard had to work. then richard said to me, "why don't you go sweetheart? you and nathan would have fun." i just assumed that since we couldn't all go, none would go. leave it to him to think outside of the box! so in about 2 hours nathan and i were all packed up and ready to get on the road. they have a wonderful program there where all active duty military get in FREE. on top of that, each military member is allowed to get 5 PEOPLE in w/ them for FREE! score! sea world for free. we had a lot of fun. here are some pictures.

it started out as a chilly day. here are nathan and kaleb sharing a stroller ride:

i have never seen a shark so close (and BIG) before! (i also got pictures of the jelly fish and sting rays, but they weren't as striking as this one.)

shamu show:

nathan and i watching the shamu show - he was NOT taking his eyes off of that whale! (not bad for a self-portrait)

nathan having fun with his new toy from chrisi (it sounds like a hiccup when you shake it like a hammer)

here is the rest of the group, crazy enough to go on a water ride in 60 degree weather! (mid 60s, but still!)

the next day we went to the san antonio zoo. that was a lot of fun also!

i love a good road trip w/ family!!!

oh my - how time flies

what more can i say - time just passess you by if you don't slow down to enjoy it as it happens. that is why i have not posted about our family happenings lately - too busy learning and loving as the future bounds toward us to be the present, then whizzes on to become the past!

so - a few things we have missed on the old blog - this will take more than one post for me to catch up - so bear w/ me please.

richard, nathan, and i went to port aransas, tx and stayed for a few days. richard's mom went along with us. this was nice to spend time all together, and also gave her some long-awaited babysitting chances so richard and i could steal away for some much-needed "date" time.

one day, while we where there, was particularly yucky. rainy and overcast, so we drove a sort distance to corpus christi and toured the uss lexington (aircraft carrier) there. is was a self-guided tour and we had the BEST guide in the whole place! it was SO MUCH fun to have richard show us around and tell us, especially, about where on the ship he used to work, and what he did, and how the one we were touring was similar and different from the one he was on. i really was beaming w/ love and pride for him. you really would, have thought by looking at me, that i was walking right along with the president of the united states, or some nobel prize winner - but no - i was with someone much more important than that - i was with the most amazing husband to walk the face of the earth!

there were also, many beautiful days while we were there. the first time we went to spend the day at the gulf (of Mexico), nathan's silly mama forgot his sunhat. so we had to come up with something. couldn't just let him sit out there and get sunburned on the top of his head so . . . since the water was too cold for him to get in anyway . . . i did the only logical thing . . . yes, that is a swimmer diaper on his head. no - i don't want to hear anything about it. yes, he kept it there the whole time we were out - so there. :p

here are some other pictures from the trip:

after we got back home from port aransas, richard's dad met us there. we also had aunt carol over, and we had a dinner to celebrate nathan's first birthday.

and finally - nothing like a good bath from your gran to make a baby boy smile "happy birthday dear nathan, happy birthday to you"

we had a great time with richard's parents and aunt. and it was THE BEST steak dinner EVER in the whole history of TEXAS!! (thanks for all of your hard work on it dad!

delete from memory???

as i sat the other day, i decided it was time to go through the phone book on our home phone and delete the numbers that we no longer needed. (mostly b/c of moving to tx) when i would come across a name and number that i felt we no longer needed to have saved in the phone i would hit the "delete" button.

the first time i did so, it was to delete a contact from our old church whom i had worked with on a certain project, and we haven't talked since. there are no hard feelings or anything - she was plenty nice and we got along really well, but that one project was the only time we have talked or worked together. aquaintences, but not really friends. i really couldn't see why i would need to have her number so readily available, so i pushed the button to delete it. then it happened, the phone flashed a screen that said "delete from memory?" and prompted me to press "yes" or "no". this all may seem very trivial, but i will tell you, that ONE question turned something that i thought would just be a mindless chore of housekeeping, turned into a soul-searching time of thought and meditation.

"delete from memory" is that what i was doing? (now i KNOW the phone was asking if i wanted to delete from it's memory, but bear with me on this if you will) was i deleting that memory, that time spent, that work we did? no, i wasn't. i was simply taking the number out of the phone. surely that would not delete the memory from my mind. just becuase her number no longer came up in the phone book, i would still remember. i would remember the sacrafice, and the even greater reward in seeing the project to fulfillment. i would remeber the lives that were changed. just because the number was gone, that didn't mean anything - i would remember. then it hit me, how long will i remember? why will i remember? what will i remember? will i still have that memory in 1 yr? in 5yrs? will i remember b/c of how it made me feel? or because it worked to glorify God and build His church communtiy? will i remember how it really was, or over time, will my mind shift the story and make it about something else, forgetting who and why and details.

as i pondered, a sermon i had heard was brought vividly to mind. the pastor read from the book of Joshua. (joshua 4:1-9 to be specific)
he talked about the value of building momuments and remembering the significance of them. we build them as a sign of something. (in the case in this passage, it was of God's never ending and never failing love and provision- He did not abandon or leave His people without a way to accomplish what He had set before them.) but without teaching the significance of that sign to our futrue generations, it will be lost. it will be just a "pile of rocks" as the case was in the passage.

now i had to question myself, what am i doing to preserve the glorious significance of what God is doing in my life here and now. every single day He blesses me!! do i forget? do i even notice? am i showing others what He is doing for me and for them RIGHT NOW? if i don't take note of it, and praise Him for it, and make a conscious effort to pass that knowledge of love and faithfullness and provision on to my own family, and to my brothers and sisters in Christ - it will eventually be "deleted from memory" and what a TERRIBLY SAD SAD day that would be!!

i did press "yes" to delete that number from my phone, with a regenerated spirit to NOT let the wonderful love and perfectly complete work of our Savior be "deleted from memory."

our little guy is VERY expressive!

some people have a certain "poker face" about them. a way to hold in their emotions. a way to keep you wondering what is going on inside their minds. nathan is NOT that person!!



"mama, i have to tell you something"











"i am not happy right now"







.

"i am VERY upset"

"mama, put the camera down please, i am going to need a new diaper soon"















these are in no particular order - just happen to get all 4 at one sitting
this morning.

(sorry - i couldn't seem to get it to rotate the pictures, just turn your head - or moniter, whichever you prefer)