Most Annoying Blog

I just finished writing this blog. ANd yes, I realize HOW annoying it is. But I'm still going to blog it because I've been really bad about blogging lately. Take my advice, don't continue reading.


I LOVE when kids tell stories about their parents.
As I type, I have a little boy telling me about a helicopter who crashed. "The man inside had his arm fell off." Yes, all this while I'm typing. Now he is telling me that he never cries, "Never, ever, ever." OK, I thought I could listen and type but I think I missed a huge part of that story. His last sentence, "My mom kicks my butt on the bed, then she throws the blanket on me, and then turns off the light and says, 'Goodnight.'"
Before you get freaked out that he is being abused, this is the story that made me walk to the computer to type on the blog:

I just told him to go play games so I could type. He brought his toys back to MY desk and has been talking about how he loves Hawaii and how he thinks there is going to be a hurricane and how he hates hurricanes). He won't stop talking.

Abe: "Miss Elson, the warerabbit ate all the vegetables."
Me:"What's a warerabbit?"
Abe: "It's the warerabbit that ate all the vegetables. When he was little, he didn't eat any of his vegetables. But then he ate them and got big. Grummet ate all the melons."
Me: "Who is Grummet?"
Abe: "Wallace's dog."
(I think it's time for me to leave this conversation. It's just so random and fun...)

So, before you think I"m on crack, let me write down our previous conversation (the one that made me want to blog):
Abe: My mom and dad are being mean to each other.
Me: That's too bad.
Abe: Yeah, my mom wants to marry someone else. Someone who is nice to her.
Me: No... Your mom doesn't want to marry someone else.
Abe: Yes she does. My dad is mean to her.
Me: How is he mean to her?
Abe: When she is in asleep, he jumps on her. And burps in her face. She gets mad.
Me: Oh (trying to get work done)
Abe: Yeah. And she gets mad and comes and sleeps with me. But she kicks me out of the bed.
Me: What?
Abe: Yeah, she kicks me with her feet out of her bed.


Latest conversation:
Abe: Do you watch the news everyday?
Me: No, I don't have a TV.
Abe: Oh, so you just have fans and stuff?
Me: Yeah.
Abe: Where do you live?
Me: By Waimea Bay.
Abe: Do you know tidal waves?
Me: Yeah
They get really big and fall on the whole city and then everyone dies.
Me: Wow.
Abe: I like McDonald's
Abe: I think it's in Kaneohe
Abe: Do you know where Kaneohe is?...

I'm going to go home now.

He Shot Me!

I was thinking that maybe I should give a quick Africa update. Yesterday I had to drive to Honolulu to get my first sets of shots. I got four shots yesterday and have to go back in a month to get three more. On top of that, I have three oral vaccinations to take. The doctor who sat and explained everything to me was so funny. He had a dry sense of humor so I couldn’t tell if he knew if he was funny or not. But a couple of things he said were so stinkin’ hilarious. I’ll tell you them even though the funniest part of them was his accent and body language and I don’t think it will come across as funny.


1. At the beginning of the appointment I asked him if I needed a rabies shot and he said he wasn’t too worried about rabies. But then at the end of the appointment, he said, “Don’t go near any animals in case they bite. That’s just common sense (his favorite saying). All animals bite so just don’t go doing anything stupid like petting them.”
Me: “Well, what about rats, don’t they bite?” (I was thinking about the rabies shot again)
Him: “Of course they bite! All animals bite! Even domestic housecats will bite! That’s just common sense!”
Me: “Oh, right. I’m sorry.”

2. He kept talking about how bad his day was. He was saying that they moved his office so someone else could move into his. So the one we were in wasn’t his. There were all sorts of fake flowers everywhere and tons of pictures of this fluffy dog. He was looking for some band aids and was mumbling under his breath, “This is the worst day…. they moved my office… look at this place! Flowers!!! I look gay! I’m not gay! Look at that dog! Give me a break!”

3. After he gave me the shots, he was putting band aids on them and I asked him if they were bleeding. His response,:“Of course they’re bleeding! Anytime you puncture yourself with a needle, there’s going to be blood. That’s just common sense!”

Anyway, I seriously have so many moments in my life where I am convinced that I am on Candid Camera. But the shots went pretty well. The worst part about them was the name of the diseases that they are vaccinating me for: Typhoid fever, Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, meningitis, malaria, rabid rat disease... :).

In other news about Africa, I should be getting my plane tickets soon. They sent me a preliminary itinerary. There are like 10 pastors going and then about seven people like me going from all over the US. Since we are leaving from all different places, we will all fly separately to London where we’ll meet up and go to Africa together. In the group of the seven people, it seems like there are two married couples and the rest are a pretty equal mix of guys and girls. I’ll get to spend about a week and a half in Lodi before I leave from San Francisco for London and then about three days in Lodi after the trip before I come back to Hawaii.

God has been so faithful to continue to prepare my heart. The last two weeks or so, I have been really distracted by dumb stuff going on around me here, but God has been calling me back to Him. The verse Psalm 51:10 has been the verse I’ve been praying, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

I’ll be sure to do a better job of keeping everyone updated.

Friends Don't Let Friends Camp

Jeni and I went camping this weekend with our church. It's no secret that I am not much of a camper... especially when the campsite is only 20 minutes away from my bed, but I went anyway to meet new people and all. But the night actually reminded me of why I don't like to camp. :)

I probably could go on and on, but the major problems were: the puddles of water on the tent floor since it rained all night; the borrowed sleeping bag I slept in that smelled like mildew; the fact that NO ONE wanted to eat smores!!!; a wild rooster climbed on top of our tent at five in the morning to start it's morning cock-a-doodle-dooling; and since I slept (or stayed awake all night) in puddles of water, I am now super sick.

One good thing about having a bad night like that is coming home to a warm and comfortable bed and REALLY appreciating it! Oh, and another good thing... we both got some serious snuggle time in- and not with each other! I spent the night snuggling with our air mattress pump, two pairs of shorts, a spare sweatshirt and a digital camera- and Jeni cuddled with our backpack, the car keys, one phone and three baseball hats. Since the ground was puddling, we had to put everything on our air mattress with us. You can probably understand why we didn't sleep at all.

We only took like two pictures (but we really wish we would have taken more)... I'll try to post them tomorrow.

Sunset

For the wrath of God is revealed in heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish heart were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible GOd into an image made like corruptible man- and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Romans 1:18-23


Last night, Jeni was running on the beach and I was sitting and watching the sunset (my back is bothering me... not that I would be running anyway!), and I was just thinking that God made our earth so beautiful. And no matter how hard we try to capture the beauty with a camera or even art, we can't even come close to what our eyes actually see.

Happy Valentines Day

Valentines Day is a funny thing to a teacher. It's exciting because it's a Day of Love and you just want to love the life out of your little ones. But it's also the Day of Sugar. Everyone and their mom sends chocolate and sometimes pure sugar to school. And it's NOT ONLY for their own child, but enough for EVERY child in your class. You veteran teachers (mom and Jill) are probably thinking, "You let them eat that candy?! You fool!" But I do. I haven't learned yet.

In my 3 lengthy years of teaching I have yet to have a great Valentines or even just an ok Valentines Day (except for today :D. Today was ok.). My first year teaching I spent 4 or 5 hours decorating my room with pink and red hearts. Three to four hours, did you get that? I don't even spend that much time cleaning my apartment. I was that excited about Valentines Day. My kids came in my class the next day and all my boys (4th grade of course) said, "Yuck!!! Why is our room pink?" And my girls could have cared less.

I don't remember much about Valentines Day last year except that my kids were pretty wild and one of them threw up. They were wild again today. SUPER WILD. I made the mistake of letting them pick out two treats to eat in class. One boy (Hale) picked out a whole candy bar and ate the WHOLE thing. I didn't know kindergarten could eat a whole candy bar. But he did, and then he chased it down with a package of pure colored sugar. You know the candy. It has a white sugar stick that you use to get the other sugar out with. Just a side note, that was my favorite candy growing up. One of my kids gave me a package of it today- I was soooooo excited. And then someone else took it. Can you believe that? Kindergartener thieves, who would have thought?
BUT.... there were two things that happened today that made my day.

First thing: One of my girls was sucking on a lollipop. She walked up to me, stuck it out right in front of my face and said, "Auntie, want a lick?"

Second thing: That boy Hale, the one who ate 2 and a half cups of sugar today, he's one of my favorite kids. (not that teachers have favorites ;D). He's the most wild kid but he has the SWEETEST heart. Well today he came up to me and said something silly and we laughed. As he walked away and I said to another boy, "Hale is so silly." And the kid said back to me, "Yeah but I hear you yell at him." I think it is funny because A) it's just a random comment. But B) I think kids can see the complex relationships their teachers have with other kids. And he probably thinks it's really weird that Hale gets in trouble all the time but at the same time I'm always hugging on him and laughing at him.

So, I had a pretty good Valentines Day. I know it would be weird if the same two things happened to you, so I'm not going to wish that on anyone. BUT... I hope someone in your life did something to make you smile or laugh.

Livin' the High Life

I don't want to brag or anything, but Jeni and I are seriously living the good life over here. I took some pictures of our theater room for you guys to see what I mean...

Our home theater!

It's Freezing!

For the past week or so, we have had a cold spell. It's the kind of cold that makes you not want to get out of bed. The kind of cold that seeps into your bones and makes it impossible to warm back up throughout the day. People are even wearing beanies and if I had one over here, I would be wearing one too. Last night I was thinking that even though I'm freezing, it's probably actually not that cold... my guess was in the fifties maybe. So I looked it up this morning. The temperature here is:

High of 75 degrees
Low of 69 degrees

No wonder I was so cold! Hahaha...

Donce... donce like you've never donced before!!

It probably has already dawned on all of you that the funniest things that happen to Jeni and I involve her planning something and somehow that thing goes really bad for only me. Actually, I think it’s just God trying to get me to lighten up. Let’s face it, I am the more uptight one of the two of us (big shock, I know!) and one day I’m going to try and learn my lesson of not letting Jeni get me in awkward situations.
An example of this was Tuesday night. In church, they announced hula lessons would be starting up again on Tuesday nights. So Jeni went and talked to the lady and reported all the answers to my questions: “Yes, it’s lessons. Yes, it’s for complete beginners. Yes, it’s no big deal if we join in.” Then, when Tuesday night rolled around, she had to go see someone and off I went to the hula lessons with our friend Suzie. In case none of you know this, I am not a dancer. Well, I love to dance, but not in public. I have never taken a dance class (unless Salsa aerobics counts, but my friend Tiffany can tell you how well I did in that class)… I can learn a sports play pretty quickly, but choreography???? Come on! I can barely spell it!
The night started with two drug addicts fighting in the parking lot. It has nothing to do with our class, but it set Suzie and I on edge… we were freaked out, but also strangely fascinated. So, "class" started by all of us sitting in a circle and introducing ourselves (there’s only five other people there besides Suzie and I). Then the instructor, Marlene, whips out a calendar and starts telling us all the dates of the PERFORMANCES!!! She’s just going on and on about when we’ll be performing for the church and at this function and that event….. I thought I was going to choke on my coconut shells! (ok, there were no coconut shells) But then I realized she was talking about the month of April which is when I’m going to Africa. I interrupt and tell her I will be in Africa and Suzie shoots me this look like, “Hey, thanks!”. As if performing a dance that you have no clue how to do in front of your whole church isn’t bad enough, Marlene told her that she’d been wearing a different colored costumes because they all already had theirs and there was no more fabric.
Then we line up and class starts. Let me tell you how seriously Hawaiians take hula. Anything revolving around the Hawaiian culture or ancient customs is treated with the highest respect. There is a certain way to act, dress, look and dance… definitely no laughing out loud. I thought it would be a fun night of us white girls trying to hula, and laughing hysterically… but it was totally opposite. It was SO SERIOUS!!! We had to learn dance steps, arms movements and then she actually taught us the first couple of steps to a song! I was absolutely dying. Have you ever been in that situation where you feel so uncomfortable and awkward and you finally resign to the awkwardness of it? I just kept looking at the clock thinking, “It’s almost over… I can do this for ten more minutes.”
It wouldn’t have been so bad if she wouldn’t have yelled at us so much. “Stand up straight! The hula is graceful! There’s no punctuation in hula! (still trying to figure that one out) You look like a wave, up and down, up and down… you need to be smooth! This is not about you! This about worshipping the Lord- so focus on Him!” I had the under-my-breath giggles, but poor Suzie looked like she was going to bust into tears. I felt so bad for her! I wasn’t as stressed as her because she kept thinking about the performance.
After class, Suzie and I laughed (after everyone else had left). I went home and told Jeni about our night. We were laughing so hard. Then she said, “Oh, she did mention something about a performance, but I guess I really wasn’t paying attention… and something about not having enough costumes… oh, and maybe that’s why she gave me the name of someone who teaches hula lessons…”. I made Jeni call Suzie and explain to her that all of her horror could have been avoided if Jeni had paid better attention.
As for me, I really don’t know when I’m going to learn my lesson about listening to Jeni. A lot of times, she has great ideas! It’s just that the ones that backfire, backfire REALLY badly!

Teacher of the Year

How do you lose a 300 pound student with stars bleached into his hair? I have no idea... but it happened to me about 20 minutes ago. He asked to go to the bathroom and about 20 minutes later I remembered he was gone (it's VERY hard to keep track of three students).

I went outside to find him and there he was- riding on the back of the security guard's golf cart riding in circles around the parking lot. Another instance that makes me wish I carried my camera around EVERYWHERE!

Easy Street

Hey, is anyone wondering why I'm writing so much lately? Well, I'll tell you, Ashley! :) I have nothing else to do! :) Our second semester started last week and I'm teaching a study hall class now instead of English. I have 16 students total spread out throughout six periods. And I have an aide. So my schedule looks like this:

Period 1: 5 kids
Period 2: 3 kids
Period 3: 1 kid
Period 4: 1 kid
Period 5: 3 kids (but one is the WORST case of ADD I've EVER seen, so he counts as more)
Period 6: 3 kids

It's very hectic... ok, actually, it's not hectic at all. Right now, my one student and my aide are sitting at the table reading books. And I am here writing. And that is pretty much how my day goes.... rough life. :)

Jeni, on the other hand, has a much more hectic schedule, at school and after school... so it looks like your stuck with me and my looooooooooonnnggg posts and bad pictures for a while!

My Ride to Work

Ok, these pictures are really poor quality.... I was running a little late and didn't have time to actually stop and take the pictures. But Jeni and I had a conversation last night about us needing to take more pictures here because its so unique. So, here's my ride to work... at least the pictures I was able to take while driving. So safe, I know! :)




Pipeline Beach. There's a big surfing contest going on right now. I think Jeni and I are the only two people on this island who have no idea which contest it is.


Sunset Beach... I was driving... there were huge waves this morning and I managed to not get a single one!

My favorite part of the drive... cows!!! It's like having a little bit of Lodi here with us in Hawaii! I need to actually stop one day and take better pictures because the colors are so vibrant.

Baaaa....

Ummm... yeah, these pictures are awful :).

Pass It On

Teaching high school can be pretty hilarious if you take a step back and just observe. One of the things that is pretty comical is how much stuff the kids get away with. It always surprises me because I was never bold enough to try many things in high school.

One of my favorite examples of kids getting away with things is the univeral use of a school pass. Let me explain. At our school, the pass is a light purple color. They are supposed to be pretty detailed so that security or another teacher can tell if the student is where they are supposed to be or not. But, like me, many teachers don't actually take the time to read passes of kids they don't know. So what happens is something like this.... I am walking back from the copy room and a group of kids is doing something suspicious. When I give them "the eye", one kid pulls out a purple colored piece of paper and waves it at me- and I pretend that someone has actually given them permission to be doing that ridiculous thing. But, the pass could theoretically (and most likely) could be a month old pass to the library. The two most recent examples actually made me laugh out loud as they waved their pass at me.

One was a group of four kids who snuck off campus last week to get lunch at the gas station across the street. I was already inside when they walked in. When they saw me, they stiffened, but the most brazen in the group waved a pass as if it were perfectly natural and not something they could be suspended for. I chuckled and nodded back as they headed for the soda and hot dog machines.

The second happened just an hour ago. There are three buildings on campus that are three stories tall. I was on the third floor of one of the buildings and as I came around the corner, there were four students CLIMBING ONTO THE ROOF OF THE BUILDING on one of those maintainance ladders. They all looked super guilty when they saw me (much less professional than the gas station girls) but one bravely waved that pass. I should have read it just for fun. Or checked with whatever teacher wrote it to see if their assignment actually involved four students climbing onto the roof of a three story building. But again, I gave my "approval nod" and walked on.

You might be wondering why I just walk away when these things are happening. I'm kind of wondering that too. :) Actually, one of the first things you learned as a teacher is to choose your battles. If you were to take on every cause, every kid, every broken rule.... life would be miserable. So I try to use my energy on things I deem extremely dangerous or harmful: weapons, drugs, fights, bullying.... Also, in a school of 2,000 kids, tracking down those kids is near impossible because when you ask for their name, they always mysteriously forget it. Of course, I guess I could just look at their pass! :)

Animal Magnetism

My writing for today has a theme.... can you guess what it is?


CREEEEEPPPYYY CRAAAWWLERSSSS
At church on Saturday night, I saw my first centipede. These fun little critters are guys you want to keep your eye on because although their bite doesn’t hurt too bad… the after effects are terrible. Someone explained it as, “It feels like someone is holding something hot on your arm that is continuously burning you." Although I have been introduced to my fair share of creepy crawlers here in Hawaii, I have never had the pleasure of meeting a centipede until Saturday. I was happy to see one so I would know what to look for in the future. It wasn’t too traumatic because we were outside and it was walking away from us.

Then, as we were walking home, I saw my SECOND centipede. Since it was dark, it bothered me a little more, but I was still pretty calm. I stayed calm UNTIL we walked in our apartment and there was one crawling across the floor!!!!!! This sucker was like 6 inches long!!!! And even though Jeni tried to be soooo brave, I got stuck with the job of taking care of this gnarly thing.

I doubt telling this story will do justice to what actually happened… but I’ll try.

Our first thought was to flush him, but we discarded that idea since we don’t know if they can swim. We found out later that they do have super powers- swimming happens to not be one of them. So Jeni grabbed me the biggest knife in our kitchen (anyone want to come over for dinner?) and I chopped him in half. AND THEN BOTH HALVES STARTED CRAWLING AWAY!!!!! We were freaking out! Now I had TWO centipedes to capture and kill! So my screaming assistant grabbed a fork and a jar filled with water and its lid. Since they just multiply when you cut them in half, we decided to drown it… or I should say THEM. In the meantime, the backside of the centipede (not the head half) stopped moving. I went to scoop him up first because it appeared to be LIFELESS. As I went to get him with my trusty fork (you’re still invited to join us for dinner) HE CAME TO LIFE AGAIN!!! The details are a little fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure Jeni was running around in circles screaming her head off… it was like a bad scene from a horror movie.

Well, needless to say, we finally caught BOTH halves and drowned them. Sorry for any nature lovers, but it had to happen. Then I took pictures of him and he now sits by the front door as a warning to his little centipede friends. If you look closely at this picture you can see both halves. I tried to get a good picture of his nasty little head with his mean pinchers and large teeth, but I couldn't get the right angle. You'll have to take my word for it.


FRONT ROW SEATS
Ok, I have to write about this. We have mentioned before that there are like 8,938 cats in the little complex where we live. Some belong to people as evidenced by their collars. Some supposedly belong to other neighbors, which I don’t believe too easily because they don’t have collars. And then there are the strays. There is always some cat drama going on. For example, there are two cats that think they belong to us… they are always on our porch and even try to open our screen door! I actually appreciate their presence because someone told me that they eat cockroaches. And two cats attacked one our friend’s cat a couple a week ago and after the fight, a leg had to be amputated. He’s not used to having only three legs so he still tries to scratch with that leg and his little stump wiggles back and forth. Kind of gross.

But anyway, lately, we have been treated with front row seats to a live show every few nights. Now, its not a hula or Tahitian fire dance… its two cats who sing in the middle of the night! And not just a few notes… an entire concert! One starts in… and then apparently gets the other one going. And they sound like screaming babies!!! The process of them waking me up is so bizarre… first I get that groggy feeling knowing that I’m hearing a sound I shouldn’t be hearing. Then I think it’s a baby crying because our neighbors have a four month old son. Then there’s one screeching part of the song that gives it away that it’s a cat. After a few minutes of listening to this, the second cat joins in and I wonder WHERE ARE THESE CATS (because they sound like they are right outside my window) and WHY AREN’T THEIR “OWNERS” MAKING THEM STOP??!!?? You would think it would only last a few minutes; but I’m always surprise by their vocal endurance as they continue to sing… and sing… and sing…. It reminds me of those old Garfield (I think it was Garfield) comic strips where he sat on the fence with a cat friend and howled at the moonlight.

The bad news is we haven’t figured out a good way to make them stop yet. Jeni tried yelling, “Shut up!” but that seems to only seems to work on the neighbors barking dogs. I tried slamming the door (hey, it was the middle of the night, it was the best idea I could come up with), but so far none of those things work. We are completely open to suggestions!



WHHHOOOOO GOES THERE?
I’m not sure which is worse- having an animal like a cat or dog make noise all the time… or to have an unknown animal making a noise right outside. There has been a mysterious animal lurking around lately. Our house is on stilts (see pictures from earlier posts as reference) so it is quite possible that whole clans and packs of wild animals could take up residence under us. This explains why I have been freaking out about the weirdest, strangest unknown noise that has been floating in through the window.

When I asked someone at youth group what they thought it was, their answer was an owl. Ok, so it does kind of make a “Hoo…hoo..” noise… but an owl living under our house??? I'm not so sure about that. Plus, wouldn’t a singing cat attack a hooting owl?

Good Mornin'!

I was cleaning out my memory card and found this picture I took one morning before church.

Santa's Favorite Cookie Tester

We were cleaning up our Christmas decorations tonight and noticed Petie rootin' around. We were busy putting things away so we didn't think much of it but then he started making weird horse type noices. We looked over to find him fully dressed like one of Santa's reindeers. At first my feelings were hurt. I thought that maybe he wanted to ride off with Santa. But then I realized that he was just having fun.
Petie is so funny like that.

fOnDue pArTy

Before I begin, I must first apologize to those of you who are going to wish you were in Lodi on December 27, 2005. Believe me, you're going to wish you were! Josh and Amy threw a Fondue Party, or as I like to call it- a FunDo Party. It was very "fun to do". They invited a bunch of our childhood friends and their spouses. Amy was a great little hostess! And her and Jaime decided to show us their recently learned "Thriller" moves during clean up.... wow.

Say Cheese!

Well.... we are back in California and it is so amazing to be at home with our family. We flew back Christmas Eve and got up Christmas morning for church. Then we came home and opened presents and hung out with the fam. Blue skies and warm weather has NOTHING on being with your family. We'll write more later, but I wanted to share some pictures with you all. I got a new camera for Christmas and took 266 pictures in one day! :) I was just testing it out. But, if you've never hung out with our family, it gets pretty goofy... if you have hung out with us, this should look familiar! :) There was a little bit of singing, a little dancing, a little napping, grapefruit eating (that accounts for the looks on my dad and brother's faces), lots of laughing.... and Josh and Amy officially launched their modeling careers.....

The Reason for the Season

I read this editorial in our local news paper. I know it's long but it is well worth it.
-Jeni

There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays.

His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!

So she and the children left, and he stayed home. A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more tan a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the filed near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.
The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside.

But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. THe man tried to get their attention, bu that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a breadcrumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on. Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn.

Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?"

He thought for a moment for and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into the barn, got one fo his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese.

He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn-- and one-by--one, the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" THen he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. WHy would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"

Suddenly it all made sense. That is what GOd had done. We were like the geese-- blind, lost, perishing. GOd had his Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us/
As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul because quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer:

"Thank You, GOd, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm."

I think this article is amazing, especially considering the fact that it was printed in a secular magazine. But there is one thing that the editor did not touch upon. The fact that Jesus went through the most excruciating and humiliating death known to man. And why would He do that? For us.
Read this verse:
"... looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews12:2

The joy set before Him... what was that joy? Something so strong that he went through the shame and pain. Shame that He despised. It was the chance to have a relationship with you and with me.

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." -Jesus (John 15:13)


"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." -Jesus (John 14:6)

I pray that we would all grow closer to Jesus. That we would know the extent of His love towards us. And for those who don't know Him in a personal way, I pray that now is the time. If all you see is a storm when you look at your life, He is waiting to bring you to the safety of His love and peace.


Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Gobble Gobble

Our parents came to visit us for Thanksgiving. It was awesome!! We got to hang out with them for 8 days. It was eight days of laughter, eating, and even a couple tears.
I didn't realize how awesome my parents were till I went to college. When you're raised with something you don't know anything different and therefore can't completely appreciate it (I think). In college, I didn't have my parents right there. And I missed them tremendously. I missed seeing them all the time. But we were able to talk on the phone and I went home every Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter Break, and summer. And they always traveled to Boise or other schools to watch our games. But even still, I missed them a ton. And now... the time I get to see them is even less. Jaime and I have really been missing them.
All that to say, it was SUPER nice having our parents here.
Pictures and stories are coming...

Happy Pig-Day!

I know it's usually Happy Turkey Day.... and we did have a turkey, but the main focus of our meal was a little something called kalua pig. If you have never tried it, is is amazing. What makes it so delicious is the fact that they cook it in a traditional imu- which is a an underground method of slow cooking the meat. It ends up with an amazing smoked tasted to it. Jeni knew some people who were cooking the pig in their imu for a fundraiser and we were thrilled.

So, for 12 people, we had kalua pig, a 20 pound turkey, five pies, and all the other usual suspects. Did we eat it all? Yup, most of it! Since Jeni and I have been looking forward to it for so long, we fixed it for leftovers for every meal. My dad finally put his foot down and said, "No more pig, girls." That's kind of embarassing, I know, but you all deserve to know the truth.

Sorry to those of you who are vegetarians. We had a vegetarian as a guest for Thanksgiving dinner and she actually leaned over to the bird and said, "Hey little turkey.... I wonder if you were a boy or a girl." I'm not joking at all.... that's a good way to not get yourself invited back next year.

Some pictures of a small imu and then the guys that cooked ours (not really):