Diametral Pitch

2008-06-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

For those of you who read through Google Reader and don't look at the actual blog page, I have moved the blog to a new address. You can find it here:

http://www.simplfynetworks.com/blog

The RSS feed (for subscribing in Google Reader, etc) is here:

http://www.simplifynetworks.com/blog/?feed=rss2

See ya there!

2008-06-02T09:24:00.001-07:00

I was looking into fixing something on Sarah's blog and I happened to notice that Wordpress (the blogging software) has an "Import" feature. You can import a blog from Blogger. Interesting...

So I tried it, and set up a quick blog on a sub-folder of a site I already had registered. Ran the import and WHOOSH! Blog imported. You can see it here. Minus this post, since I did the import before posting this. Also including a post about the new blog location on the new blog location might somehow break the space time continuum.

That's a hard word to spell. Good thing I have spell check.

The point is that I've kind of wanted to move my blog to Wordpress for a while because that way I know I can back up the content and also because there are much cooler themes available. Don't like having to have everyone (all 2 of you) update their bookmarks and links though. So we'll see.

Speaking of blogs, I have been meaning to mention that my sister in law, Kari also has a new blog. It's called K's Are Wild. Their whole family is "K" names. Hence the blog title.

Back to the blog moving thing... I am willing to host a blog for anyone who does want to move from Blogger. The transition is really easy and seems to work well. If we put it on a sub-domain of something I already have registered (like, say diametralpitch.simplifynetworks.com) then it would be free. To register a new name (like diametralpitch.com) costs $9.95 per year.

Anyways - better get back to work. Down in Modesto today and tomorrow. Fun, fun, fun!

2008-05-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

Had a great and relaxing weekend at the cabin. Something I could have mentioned on Tuesday or Wednesday, but hey - I'm a weak blogger. What can I say?

Cowboy had baseball games last night and tonight. Baseball is almost over, and we're glad. It has been mostly good - great coaches, huge improvements in his ability to throw and hit and run, a chance for him to work on discipline... So yeah. Good in the dry oatmeal sense.

Our little Bug started walking a couple of days ago. She actually got going at the cabin, taking bursts of 5 or 6 steps towards Gavin. For some reason, all of our kids have needed someone other than us to get them walking. There's something deep and profound to be learned there, I'm sure. I'm sure one of our kids will discover it with their therapist when they're older. Just making a note of it so they don't have to dig so hard.

Starting to look ahead to a busy and fun summer. One more week of school! The Slussers are coming to visit in mid June. We're spending the next week in Modesto so the kids can take swim lessons and we can just have some Ranch time. We're going to Santa Barbara again in July - something we skipped last year, can't afford this year, but are really, really glad to be doing anyways. That week has been a good one for our family every time.

Bah. Just another summary post. Too much rattling around and too long between posts to get into anything deeper. We'll be around this weekend, so maybe I'll have time to post something more thoughtful then.

2008-05-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

We're going to the cabin this weekend. Leaving tomorrow morning.

The last time we were there was last February. The trip was cut short because we got a call on Sunday morning that Sarah's mom's house had caught fire. About a week later, a tree fell on the back of the cabin and knocked in part of the roof.

Yeesh!

Now a year and some change later, the house is fixed and them back in it. The cabin has been fixed for a while too but we haven't had a chance to go until now.

Our friends Gavin and Lisa (and their kids) are coming along, which is always fun. The kids all love being together, so they tend to keep themselves entertained. I plan on doing a lot of reading and walking. Maybe some guitar playing too, since we'll have room.

How, you might ask, when we have 4 kids and we're bringing old Zeus along? Well, there's a chair up at the cabin that we want to bring home, so we'll be pulling the little trailer behind the van. Luggage will go there to add tongue weight so that it doesn't bounce all over the place. Which means space in the back of the van for a guitar. Whoo hoo!

Other news that I've been meaning to work into a post. We have cats. Three. Got them a while back and they lived inside for a few weeks until allergies drove them outside. The plan was always for them to be outside cats. They're doing well - keeping safe on the back deck as needed and prowling hither and yon. They're three sisters and since Sarah's new rule is that all pets must be named from Jane Austin books, they go by the names of Lucy, Lizzie and Lydia.

Lydia hisses at me every time she sees me. I've never done anything to her (other than holding her to give her medicine).

Cats are psychotic.

Also, my old Camry is finally done. The radio hasn't worked for a long time. The driver's window has been locked in the up position for about 6 months. The AC blows only hot air. Also, the whole car shakes like crazy every time you accelerate.

I was driving it down to Modesto last Monday morning and as Sarah and I were talking on the phone I told her that I was starting to think that at 200,000+ miles and it's current state, it maybe wasn't wise to put more money into the old green machine.

Her mom has been trying to find a home for a truck that belonged to Sarah's grandfather. It's a 2004 Ford Sport Track. I am not crazy about Fords, and had not thought that we'd want it.

Then, after that long, shakey ride on Monday, I used the truck to drive to work.

Smooth. Radio works. Window rolls down (I could go through drive-thru's again!)

She's going to let me make interest free payments. She's glad to keep in in the family and have a place for it. I have a truck!

So there you go. All up to date. Off to finish some work and get packed up.

Cabin, here we come!

2008-05-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

Finishing up down at the office in Modesto. Last week I started coming down over night - just trying to get more done and learn how to do a greater part of the engineering. It's tough being away for two days. I miss the family.

Heavy actually drove down with me this morning since "Wowwee" has been wanting some one on one time with him. I think they've had a pretty fun day. And I'll get to see at least him when I head back to her house tonight, so that's good.

Sarah and the kids make the most of it. She has the older ones sleep on my side of the bed and they watch movies.

Still. We all don't like being apart much.

Cowboy asked me last night if I would wake him up when we left. I told him that we were going to be leaving really early (5:30 am) and that it would be better if he slept in. As we were heading out the door, I saw him appear to see us off. Pretty amazing - especially for the kid who usually is last up in our house.

I went in to say "bye" to Maesie, figuring they were awake at that point. She told me "bye" and then told me to be sure to tell Heavy "bye" for her too. Very sweet.

Good kids. Great wife. Awesome family. Can't wait to go home tomorrow.

2008-05-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

For all those who have recently (or not so recently) read and enjoyed "Peace Like a River" - Enger has a new book out. Sarah got it and I'm about 1/4 through after one night. Rarely can I stay awake to read that long these days, but it's quite, quite good.

Cowboy and I have been working through some of the comics my parents brought up a while back. We're reading the first Marvel Secret Wars series (from 1984). Pretty good. I noticed an autograph on the first page of issue #1 when we started. Didn't remember seeing that before. Couldn't make it out until I saw the same signature at the end of the editor's section later in the comic. Turns out it was signed by Jim Shooter, the Editor and Writer. So that's kind of cool.

My parents only brought up one of the four boxes that I have in my closet down there. I was fairly protective of my comics when I was in the heyday of collecting. Here's what I had written on the top of the box:

Kham, if you read any of these please put them back like you found them. Be especially good to the ones in this box. They are my good comics and need to be taken care of.

There's another note on the top of the box, in my brother's writing:

Chris,
I had to use Spawn #1 for toilet paper - we were out. Sorry.

Cowboy found those two notes quite funny.

2008-05-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

I had a really great story to share from back in college. One about Mike's early days as a Mechanical Engineer.

But alas, it will have to wait. Because I finally got the go ahead. I've been asking for a while, because I am so dang jazzed about the blog that Sarah has started.

I don't know how to explain it really, other than to just say "go check it out"

I'm not going to link it here, because I don't want a hard link from here to there. It's complicated.

Bleh.

Just go check it out.

frog creek cottage dot com

Enjoy!

2008-05-08T12:58:00.001-07:00

Today is the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. Over the years, I've read quite a bit about Jewish history and the events that led up to the establishment of Israel in 1948. No other people group in all of history has been as persecuted as the Jews, and none have overcome so many obstacles. I challenge you to find any people group that even comes close. The holocaust in Germany was just the climax of centuries of pogroms in Europe where Jews were slaughtered and persecuted over and over.

The fact that they still exist, and that they actually managed to establish the modern State of Israel is one of the things that solidifies my belief in the God who calls them His people in the Old Testament. Apparently, I'm not alone in this:

This is a quote from Anne Rice, the novelist who turned, several years ago, from 30 years of atheism:

I stumbled upon a mystery without a solution, a mystery so immense that I gave up trying to find an explanation because the whole mystery defied belief. The mystery was the survival of the Jews.... It was this mystery that drew me back to God. (Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, 308-309)

HT: Desiring God Blog

2008-05-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm very aware of how much we live in, and have become part of, this community.

I tried to replace the half-axle on my Camry over the weekend. I figured it would be fairly easy, because I had helped do it on another car of ours a few years ago and that was easy. I mean - it was our neighbor (a professional mechanic) who did the actual work that time. But I was there and it seemed really simple.

At any rate, I started on the job and quickly found that it was beyond my ability and tools. Mostly tools.

OK - mostly ability.

So I called Mitch. Mitch is the father of one of the kids in Maesie's class. He has also become a friend, as we've spent time chatting a few times after dropping off the kids. He also has a business as a mobile mechanic. What is that, you ask? Only the BEST THING EVER.

He has a big truck with lots of tools on it. When your car (or tractor or forklift) is broken, he comes to your house (or business, or farm, or parking lot), and works on it there. His rates are slightly higher than independent shops and cheaper than a dealership. He is a very, very good mechanic.

So Mitch came yesterday, and worked on the Camry. Got it fixed. Then he and I spent some time looking over the Scout and he gave me a lot of really good tips for how to get it running well.

Then this morning, I took the kids to drop them off. Tuesdays are usually crazy around here. Maesie has horseback lessons with the mom of one of her friends, and then - in the evening - Daisy Scouts (led by the mother of one of her other friends, and meeting at the school). Cowboy generally has either baseball practice or a game.

Today, Sarah also has a hair appointment down in Rocklin. So I was telling Susan (horse) and Myra (Daisy Scouts) that Maesie (daughter) couldn't make it. Myra offered to pick her up and bring her to Scouts. Susan offered to take her home from school, keep her until her lesson, let her play afterwards, then bring her to Scouts.

We saw these same people over the weekend, when I picked up Susan's daughter to come to Maesie's birthday bash and Myra brought her home.

We are part of a community now. We lived amongst more people in Lincoln, but we never had anything like this. I think it's the small school, and just the way things are up here. It's a pretty neat thing.

2008-04-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have just been drinking in Piper lately. Listening to lots and lots of sermons, reading that book with Sarah. It's funny - I even found out last week that our pastor at our new church is a huge Piper fan. So I'm getting him indirectly too :)

His seminal work is "Desiring God". The point of that book (and the core of his entire ministry) is that what God wants most from us is for us to pursue our own joy, and that the place where we will find the most joy is in God. Not some ethereal, other-world joy, but real, satisfied happiness.

Piper argues that God doesn't want anything from us but instead wants us to want everything from Him. He tweaks the Westminster Catechism ever so slightly to read:

The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever

My struggle for the last couple of years had been to understand how I get to the point of actually desiring God. I love Him. I think He's true, and real, and worthy of being served. But to actually want Him. To find enjoyment and satisfaction in Him... That's where I want to be - and I think I'm beginning to get there.

I have been thinking a lot this week about what Kristin wrote on her blog. The kind of comfort that she is finding in Jesus in the midst of such hard, hard circumstances just blows me away. I don't know of any other person (or idea, or medication, or type of meditation, or religious ceremony) that can give the kind of peace that she's finding.

I've never seen anything like it outside of Jesus, but I've seen it countless times in those who know him.

2008-04-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

New Theme! I saw Beth talking about Blogger not being able to swap themes, and then I found out how to do it. Except not really. You have to be able to host the images some where, which means having your own web server...

But it is possible. And this is a very neat-o theme. Guaranteed to stir jealousy in Mike, which is my main goal in life.

If anyone is desperate for a new theme, go and find a free one on the web somewhere. E-mail it to me so that I can host the images for you, and I can give you the steps to "hack" in the new theme. Kind of a pain, but the results are pretty nifty!

EDIT: Decided this theme doesn't fit my blog. I'm going to find something else and send this one to Mike. It'll be way cooler on his blog... For now, back to something minimal

2008-04-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Gavin, if you're reading this - I'm making a formal request to be reinstated in the four wheel drive lawn mower's club. I know that I've been in poor standing for quite some time and that I've sorely disappointed my fellow mowers - cutting an almost entirely flat and non-rocky lawn for all of those years.

As evidence of my sincerity, I'm submitting this picture. I not only mowed (and will continue to mow throughout the entire weekend) the back hill, but I strapped a baby to my back to make it harder.

...

Speaking of Gavin (rough, klunky, transition sentence approaching) - his wife (and Sarah's close friend) Lisa has started a blog. It's a crafty blog, which is what she and Sarah enjoy. Go check it out and leave a comment to say "hi" if you're so inclined.

Sarah has also started a blog. I'm not posting the link yet because there's a few finishing touches that need to be put on it. But suffice to say that it is a different type of blog and it's very cool. More on that later.

A couple more links...

We created a new company (Jamey, Jesse and me) to do Cost Segregation. The web site is here. Purty.

My friend Paul sent me this link yesterday. In Pauls' words:

This group of people ask bands to play impromptu shows in markets, or on the street, in an elevator, wherever, and the tape them. Way cool.

I honestly haven't had time to do more than just go look at the site, but I'm very intrigued, and hoping to have some time to check it out this weekend.

Hmm.... Oh yeah.

The Scout isn't starting. I think it needs a new alternator.

2008-04-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

Things I have seen just outside my office window today:

A pair of jackrabbits.

4 deer, including a young buck with fuzzy new antlers.

A pair of quail (sitting out there right now picking at the ground).

Man I love living here.

2008-04-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Man I love Sundays.

Part of it is that I feel so refreshed after church each week. I really love the teaching at this new church. I come away each week just feeling filled up.

Part of it is the rest. Two kids and Sarah are laying down. Two kids are in the loft drawing, playing games, eating apples, and - because I finally gave in - watching a bit of TV.

We needed the break. Went to Picnic Day at UC Davis yesterday. Our first time in a few years. We thought the kids would really enjoy some of the animal events (frisbee dogs, sheep dog trials, etc). We thought we would enjoy being in Davis again too.

Pretty much none of that happened. The kids were bored (partly because they were tired, I think - it's been a long week). We got completely lost in the maze of new buildings on campus that are covering all of the green space that used to be there. Felt a little grossed out and annoyed by what the current generation of college students looked like (yes, yes - I'm getting old).

So today we rest. And man, it's good.

I just finished reading the PDF of a short book by Piper that I saw at the church bookstore today and got interested in. It's called When the Darkness Will Not Lift. It's about depression and it's just loaded with good stuff.

Still hoping to either read online, or buy the one I mentioned the other day. What I love about Piper is that he isn't trite. He frequently says that these things are complicated and that he doesn't entirely know the answer. But he always, always puts the attention on Christ - and I love that.

We picked up a copy of another of his books at the bookstore today that Sarah and I are going to try to read through together and discuss. It's called The Legacy of Sovereign Joy. It's deals with the lives of Augustine, Luther and Calvin and the struggles that they went through in their lives. Looking forward to that.

The other thing I've spent some of the day doing is getting caught up on blogs. I read everyone's blogs through Google Reader, which is nice because it means I always know when there's a new post.

The downside is that I don't see the stream of comments attached to each post. What I need to do is subscribe to the RSS feeds for each of those, but I just haven't felt like going through that.

So today I clicked around and got caught up on the discussions in a few places, and even commented in a few. I so love the way that blogging keeps us all connected and how much I learn from all of you.

2008-04-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes. I've been talking a lot about John Piper lately. I'm sorry - I'm on a kick.

Over the past 6 months or so I've gone from being unsure of him, to kind of liking him, to thinking he may be one of the best theologians of our time. So um - there you have it.

Aside from all of the sermons that you can download from his web-site, they also have a number of his books, in their entirety, available for free download. Not too shabby!

In light of the general malaise that seems to be travelling around the blogging community, I thought I would put in a link to one of his books that I am hoping to have time to read soon.

The book is called "When I Don't Desire God - Fighting for Joy", and you can download it for free here. Looking over the introduction, and skimming some of the book, I saw some references to C.S. Lewis and "Surprised by Joy", which I thought was a great book. There are some references to Piper's most famous book, "Desiring God", but I think the intro of this book is enough to make it a really good read even if you've never read the other.

As I said, I'm hoping to work my way through the PDF as I have time. It looks to be pretty darn good.

2008-04-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

The events of this past week have had me thinking - quite a bit - about animals, and their place in God's created order. There have been many questions about whether we'll see Sierra in heaven. I have answered yes - not because I want to provide comfort - but because I very much believe that we will. I've thought for a long time that I have not ever heard or read a good treatment of the subject.

Looking on the internet, most of what I find is just short, glib answers based on one or two verses.

Today, searching a bit more I found this site. Instead of searching for "dogs in heaven" or "animals in heaven", I searched for "animals in the bible". Much better results, because this page just lists out (with some discussion) the full treatment of the subject, across the whole Bible. Always a better way to approach any subject, because you get the full scope of God's approach throughout history.

I had intended, when I sat down, to lay out the verses that I know of, and detail my thoughts on the subject. But I think this site does a better job of it than I can. He does a survey of the subject, explains why he believes animals will be in heaven, and then goes on to talk about why he believes killing animals for fur and being cruel to them is against what God would have. Overall, a very good read.

The one subject not discusses is whether our animals will be in heaven. The ones that we have come to know and love.

As it turns out, I've been listening to a series by Piper lately talking about what happens when we die. One of the points that he has worked really hard to make is that God seems to indicate a continuity between the current creation and the new creation. A restoration rather than a starting over.

It is said that we will be resurrected - not recreated. Of the earth, it says that the old will pass away, but Piper argues that this is meant in the sense of the old order passing away, rather than a whole new earth being created.

Somewhat of a rambling post, and not the logical argument I had hoped to lay out. Still - go read the first link. I think he makes some really good arguments.

On to the rest of Sunday relaxation!

2008-04-10T13:22:00.001-07:00

Two weeks after we were married, we adopted a little, timid German Shepherd from the shelter in Woodland. She was so shy that she would pee on the floor if we raised our voice.

She grew much more bold, learned to wander, and brought me presents from her romps in Colfax. Pairs of gloves, tool belts with the hammer still attached - even a really nasty magazine.

For twelve years, she was our companion, security, comfort, source of worry and joy.

She had been getting thinner the past year or so - diagnosed with liver cancer about 3 months ago. Spry until the end, she kept hunting for mice and gophers, and insisted on going with us any time we got in the car.

Yesterday afternoon, she started seeming distressed, and was panting. We sat with her. Cowboy read her a book. Sarah and I (at Sar's insistence and over my protests) slept by her little nook last night, on the floor. She never really settled, but seemed glad for the company.

At midnight, I loaded her up to go to the vet in Loomis to see if we could get any medicine to comfort her, and knowing that we might have to make the hard decision to put her to sleep.

She stood in the back seat, sniffing at the window as we drove, and then laid down back there in her typical way.

I stopped after a while to check her, and she was gone. Passed away while driving, and with no visit to the vet required.

We buried her this morning, down the hill near the creek where she liked to dig. We'll have a little memorial with the kids this afternoon.

Sierra was a good dog, and we'll miss her immensely.

2008-04-09T14:11:00.001-07:00

Heavy is in the process of being potty trained. Always fun.

So last week, Sarah and I were in my office talking, and Heavy comes in from outside.

"I pooped". He said.

"In your pants?" we asked.

"No" he said. "On a tree."

"You pooped on a tree?"

"Yep!"

"You mean you peed on a tree..."

"No! I pooped!"

"Are your pants clean?"

"Yep. See?" (the pants come down)

So we (well - Sarah) went and checked. Sure enough, he had pooped right by the tree.

I don't know how he did it.

2008-03-22T09:07:00.001-07:00

Getting ready to head down to Modesto for a few days.

Can you fit 2 adults, 4 kids, 2 dogs and luggage (including a playpen) into one minivan?

Yes. Yes you can.

2008-03-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

I made a very small bit of progress on the Scout today.

There are two main issues that are keeping it from being usable right now. The first is that the front, left tire keeps going flat. I can fill it up and it will hold for a while, so I could still potentially use it until I can go get the tire fixed.

The other issue is the brakes. There was a cracked line coming out of the master cylinder, and it had gotten so bad that the brakes were just non-existent. Even if I pumped them, there was just nothing.

Which made it a bit scary moving it from the driveway to alongside the garage.

So I pulled off the line and went to Riebes to get a replacement. The problem is that my line has 5/16" nuts on it, but it's a 1/4" line. They don't have anything like that.

Over the past weeks, as I've gotten time, I've tried to find a line that would work, to no avail. But after a lot of asking and searching, I finally bought a 5/16" line and used a borrowed pipe bender to get it in place. The threads are right, but the line is bigger than it should be. I assume that means that I won't get quite the brake performance that I should, but at this point, any brakes are better than no brakes.

I bent the line and put it on today. So far, so good. Still need to bleed the line, but with a few pumps, the brakes seem to hold pressure. Whoo hoo!

It's not much, but it is progress.

2008-03-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

I've really been enjoying listening to John Piper sermons lately. I read Desiring God a number of years ago, and have wrestled with parts of it since. Still, I hadn't thought much about Piper until Kathie posted a link (either on her blog or in my comments - can't remember) to a talk from a Desiring God conference, talking about the difference in the Reformed church and the Emergent church.

That sort of clarified for me some of the uncertainty that I've had as I've listened to Emergent pastors. I love some of Rob Bell's sermons, and the amazing social work that his church does in their community. Still, I find myself much more drawn to the focus on God's glory, as taught by Piper and others.

All of that as a rambling prequel to a quote and a link to a recent blog post by Piper.

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love. “When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

You can (and should!) read the entire article here.

Great reading for Easter week.

2008-03-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

My wife says that my blog has been boring, of late. No pictures.

So she took a some pictures to liven it up a bit.

This is the gate we built this weekend. Part of a garden fence we're trying to get done so that we can have a garden that doesn't get eaten by bunnies and deer. Sarah found the gate on Craigslist. It was the stall door from an old barn in Rio Linda. The woman said that the barn had been there since her father was young - at least. Pretty neat, and perfect for a garden gate.

We also made a path of gravel which Sarah lined with rocks from the property. I think it looks pretty nice.

Back on the subject of fence building... Digging post holes is hard work! Especially when you hit rocks in pretty much every hole. We're almost done with the posts, then we need to cross brace, and run the fencing. The trailer is full of horse manure compost from Blue Fountain Farm (where Sarah used to board). We have left over wood that we're going to build raised beds out of. Lots of work ahead, but hopefully we'll have a decent garden!

In the mean time, my arms feel like they're made of lead. I think I need to exercise more.

2008-03-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Around 8 am. Taking a break in Willits (along 101) to fill up the car and stretch my legs.

Got up around 4 am this morning and hit the road shortly thereafter. Wound down some back roads through Penn Valley and onto Hwy 20. From there, through Marysville (stopped for coffee), Colusa and along the north shore of Clear Lake. The sun is finally up, and I figure I'm 1.5 - 2 hours from Shelter Cove.

More later if I can find another free hot spot.

2:20 - On my way home. The last 45 minutes to Shelter Cove was somewhat insane. Went from windy two lane to REALLY steep, windy two lane. I thought my brakes were going to burn to nothing, even going very slow.

Interesting little community. No restaurants open during the day, no cell phone service - but there is an air strip, a small golf course, and quite a few very nice homes.

I'll post some pictures of the house tomorrow if I get a chance.

2008-03-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

We did our first ever burn pile today. Had a big pile of brush left over from early on in the construction process. The pile has been there for a while, and we've just been waiting for a good day to do the burn.

I dragged out the hose after church, and set up a chair and a book, figuring I'd light it up and watch it for a while. Poured on some diesel, lit it up and the fire got going.

Then it got bigger. And taller.

We didn't make that big of a burn pile. I figured on putting more stuff on as it burned down. But even with the size of pile we had, the flames got pretty darn big.

I have to be honest, and admit that I was a bit scared at one point. Shot some water at the fire to try to calm it down and realized just how small the output of a garden hose really is.

Didn't really use my chair at all. Certainly didn't read.

Eventually, it settled down to a more steady burn, and we were able to start the process of dragging over other branches to put on. We wound up getting a fair bit of brush cleared away, and didn't even burn the house down.

So that was good.

Tomorrow bright (dark) and early, I'm off for a long day of driving. Think I mentioned it before - I'm going to Shelter Cove for a framing inspection on a house we designed. Shelter Cove is west of Red Bluff, out on the ocean. Should take about 6 hours each way, and I'm figuring I'll spend a couple hours at the site.

I'm excited to see some parts of California that I don't recall ever seeing before. Maybe if I find some free broadband I'll toss up a blog post on the way.

2008-03-08T14:15:00.001-08:00

This is from a devotional I read today - taken from a Ray Stedman sermon. Good stuff.

For he himself is our peace... (Ephesians 2:14a).

This is not mere doctrine. If you are having a conflict with anybody, this is the way of peace: "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one." Paul starts with a definition of what true peace really is. True peace is oneness. It is not merely the cessation of hostility, the absence of conflict; it means being one. Anything else is superficial and temporary and highly unsatisfactory. You know this to be true. You have made peace on superficial terms and have found it only external. If you merely agree not to fight, it is not peace. And invariably it results in a new outbreak, with all the previous animosity surging to the surface once again. This is why what we call peace among nations never lasts--because it isn't really peace. It isn't oneness at all. It is only a weariness with warfare, an agreement to stop it for awhile until we can all recuperate and rearm. Then it breaks out all over again, because nothing is ever settled.

But here the apostle tells us the secret of peace. The secret of oneness is a Person: "he himself is our peace." And when Christ Jesus makes peace--between individuals or between nations--that peace will be a satisfying, permanent, and genuine peace. 'What Paul is saying is that in order to live at peace, you must have peace. The problem with most of us is that we want to start by clearing up only the results of conflict. God never starts there; He starts with the person. He says peace is a Person, and in order for you to live at peace with someone else, you must be at peace with the Person of Christ. If you have His peace, then you can start solving the conflict around you. But you never can do it on any other basis. So the place to start, the origin of peace, is the settling of any problems between you and Jesus Christ.

2008-03-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how much more we feel the seasons out here. There's the obvious thing - the fact that we actually feel the seasons more. It's colder in the winter here and since we're outside a lot more we know it.

We're aware of them much more than that though. Right now, a lot of the work outside the house is preparing for summer. We're trying to clear brush piles and clean up remaining garbage, aware that the rattlesnakes will soon be back. We'll draw closer to the house then, not wandering out into the grass and brush so readily - and certainly not without much more awareness of the ground.

Sarah said something last week about how even in the short time we've been here, we've noticed changes in the patterns of the wildlife as the seasons progress. The turkeys are not in as large of clusters as they were a few months ago. Now it's smaller groups, usually with a big tom in attendance.

The deer too. The frequency of their appearance has shifted as has the size of groups they travel in.

Starting to see lots of lizards and - of course - we'll soon see snakes. The frogs have laid their eggs in the creek, and those little black spots in the middle have tails. Soon the still parts of the creek will be full of polliwogs, and then lots of bold young frogs.

The oak trees are starting to wake up and get little green buds. Soon they'll go from wintry grey to bright green, before dulling to the tough, darker green of summer.

Just another thing I really love about living here.

2008-03-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy. I only wish I was working on the Scout as much as Sparky keeps teasing me about it. Right now, it's up on a jack waiting for me to get the brakes working. Poor, sad Scout.

Spent the day in Lincoln, working on the old house. Still trying to get everything done for it to be ready to rent. We had renters, as of mid February, due to move in at the beginning of March, but they wound up pulling out after their landlord dropped their rent. Ugh.

So now we're going through a rental agency. They should start listing it again next weekend. I'm figuring on working down there Saturday and probably next Friday. I think that'll be enough time to finish all of the painting and repairs.

On Monday, instead of going to Modesto, I'm going to go do a framing inspection up in Shelter Cove. That's way up north on the coast - about a 5 1/2 to 6 hour drive each way. Should be a pretty drive, but it'll make for a long day.

Ramble, ramble. Hard to know where to go on nights like this when life is pacing along at such a clip, and I've fallen behind on blogging. Not like you need every single detail of our lives of course. Or want that.

I know Mom. You do. I mean everyone else.

Enough for tonight though. Time to get a bit more work done and then hit the sack.

2008-02-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, my parents went to check out the Hemet dam. Fairly impressive...

There's also a museum there that talks about all the work that went into it, and some of the archeology that was done prior to starting work on the dam. Here's my mom looking at one of the displays.

Hey - wait a second. That guy in the picture looks suspiciously like Kham!

In fact, Kham did work on the dig there, and that was what his hair looked like at the time. How cool! My brother is famous (sorta).

Anyhow - we all think it's kind of neat.

(There Sparky. Didn't even mention the Scout.)

(Still working on the brakes, by the way. Can't find a suitable replacement brake line. Grrr).

2008-02-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

Sitting in the little cafe in Grass Valley where I used to work when we were building the house. Haven't been here in quite a while.

I had to bring the van into town to get the wheels aligned, and since I had some other errands to do I figured I'd just take care of that, work in town for a while, and then pick up the kids at 1:30 when they get out.

The Scout came up last night (along with Val and Randy) and it is now sitting happily in our driveway. Sounds like the brakes are more than just the brake line... one of the rear cylinders is leaking pretty badly too. So it has approximately zero brakes. Better get that fixed.

Sarah has been saying that she's worried that all of the things around the house that still need fixing are going to get put on hold because I'll be so enamored of the Scout. Well, I um... that is... Of course they'll get done!

I wonder if Riebes carries parts for a 1978 Scout...

2008-02-13T15:08:00.000-08:00

Sarah ordered me a neat Bible a couple of weeks ago. It's the Chronological Bible, put out as a One Year. I'm not really following any kind of schedule, since I got it far enough after the first of the year, but it's nice to have an idea of how much is "one day" worth.

The way it's ordered though is very cool. It went a ways into Genesis, with small portions of Chronicles (the parts that list early genealogy) and then went straight into Job. I've been enjoying reading Job this time through - maybe more than ever before. Not really sure why.

What an incredible book though. So intense and complicated. So subtle in the way it draws you into the story (and makes you go "huh?") with the starting exchange in heaven and just so full of incredible insight about God. I think that I could read that book a hundred more times in my life and still never really grasp all of it.

In other news, Val and Randy are coming up for the weekend, and they're bringing up the Scout! That means I'll be able to start working on it a bit more. First thing is to fix the brake line that squirts out fluid every time you step on the brakes. Next is to replace the fuel filter and maybe clean the injectors so it will go faster than 30 mph. At some point I'll probably get it registered (depending on how much insurance is going to be). If I can get it to go at least 45, I could take it to Grass Valley and back, which would be fun.

2008-02-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

We had a busy - but fun - weekend with lots of company.

Our friends Paul and Jess came over for brunch on Saturday. We've been talking about making that happen forever and it was fun to finally do it. Great to see them again.

That afternoon, Jamey and Laura came, along with their kids. They stayed through Monday afternoon since the kids had the day off. Very fun and relaxing for the most part. Having 6 kids in the house is a bit insane - which is why they spent a LOT of time outside.

The girls went shopping on Sunday afternoon and Jamey and I built a tree house for the kids. A tree platform, actually. Though it does have a roof and will - at some point - have walls. It has a nice set of stairs too.

I should be honest. Jamey built most of it. I ran back and forth getting tools, checking on sleeping babies, fetching cold beers and such. Still. I was there.

2008-02-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, we did some more exploring the other day. Went way further up the trail, and found lots and lots of these trail markers. Usually you could stand at one and if you looked for a few minutes, see the next one before going forward.

We made it to the top of the hill, and hit what appears to be a fire road. Zeus was quite tired at that point:

We were rewarded with a neat pile of rocks, a pretty creek and the mystery of roads that kept going in two different directions. We were too tired to explore any further. Maybe when Mike comes to visit...

The crew heading home.

Found one tree that decided to get a jump on spring and start growing. Crazy tree.

We make our way back to the homestead.

There's a lot out there. I looked on Google Earth. Still not sure what the trail is. I think the road we hit is probably a fire road, though all of it is solidly on our neighbor's property. Checked the county GIS maps. Much, much more to explore!

2008-02-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Here's the picture, as promised. Taken on a mysterious, foggy day a few weeks ago by my very talented wife. She also made the cute poncho.

We went for a hike this afternoon and explored way further up the trail. Details (and pictures) to follow.

2008-02-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

I have a really neat-o picture of Maesie that Sarah took and I was going to post it. Then Mike tagged me. So you get this meme. What is a meme anyhow? This, I guess. Neat-o picture to follow tomorrow.

4 Jobs I Have Had:
* Goodwin's bagboy
* Trailer mechanic at a tomato broker
* HP Linux Geek
* Structural Engineer for JDWylie

4 Movies Watched Over and Over:
* Lord of the Rings Trilogy
* Sense and Sensibility
* Strictly Ballroom
* Cool Hand Luke

4 Places I Have Lived:
* Crestline, CA
* San Luis Obispo, CA
* Davis, CA (in a dome)
* Lincoln, CA

4 Shows I Watch:
* Bones
* Moonlight
* American Idol
* Ace of Cakes

4 Places I Have Been:
* All over Turkey
* Bajia de Los Angeles, Mexico
* Prince Edward Island
* Washington, DC

4 People Who E-mail Me:
* Kham
* Mom
* The Grass Valley Library (telling me books are overdue)
* Jamey

4 Favorite Things To Eat:
* Anything from Le Bilig
* Sarah's pulled pork quesadillas
* Mexican food
* Big breakfasts

4 Places I Would Rather Be:
* Paradise Cottage, Summerland
* Home on a Sunday
* The Cabin
* Heaven

4 Things I Look Forward To This Year:
* Vacation to Santa Barbara
* People coming to visit us
* Summertime farmer's markets
* Father's Day

4 People To Tag:
* Sharon
* Marilyn
* Sarah
* Annie

2008-02-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

I was out taking Sierra for a stroll on Sunday and decided to explore a bit. There's a creek down the hill from our house and on the other side of that, it slopes back up to a ridge that's about the same elevation as the house. Our property line is at the top of that ridge. That's our Eastern property line.

Our Southern line is the closest one to our house - maybe 100 feet away. An old, barbed-wire fence runs along that property line. The creek comes onto our property under the fence. In several places, the fence is peeled back and easy to walk through onto our neighbor's property, which is a 200 acre parcel. Their house sits pretty far away from the creek, out of sight of our house, and a long way from the creek. So, I've always wanted to go through the fence and explore up the creek. On Sunday, I did.

Sierra, Zeus and I followed a deer trail running roughly parallel to the creek and heading up a bigger hill. I have seen on Google Earth that there's nothing but open space up there for a ways, and eventually there's some sort of dirt road. We didn't get that far, but we did wander through some really pretty terrain.

A little ways up, I noticed a little metal sign nailed to a tree. It was circular, maybe 3" in diameter, and it had a green background with a raised outline of a backpacker on it. We found a similar sign on the ground a few weeks ago while hiking out the other direction (straight East) and just figured it was an old piece of trash. This one was nailed to a tree.

Further up the hill, I came on another tree - this one with two of the signs nailed to it. Still further up, I found another.

It's all private property around here. None of it is public land - I'm certain of that. But I'm just puzzled by what these signs are. I'm planning on hiking further up the hill at some point and trying to follow the trail signs. No idea what I'll find, but I am very intrigued.

---

In other news - Happy Birthday to Mr. Mike Slusser. Hope it's a great one!

2008-02-03T13:08:00.001-08:00

We decided somewhere in late December that 2008 would be about learning to rest. Last year was so hectic and stressful. This year is promising to be filled with a fair bit of the crazy too, but we want to learn to take time in the midst of all of it to rest.

Part of that has been a real effort to make Sundays more of a Sabbath. We're very much enjoying our new church, and that in itself makes Sundays pretty restful. After church, we're trying to be more deliberate about making the day different. I don't do anything related to work. We try to spend more time outside, or get together with friends.

We're still sorting it all out, and very much learning how to do it.

It's funny - I suppose - that we're just now working on that. I mean - it's one of the Ten Commandments after all. Failing to honor the Sabbath is one of the things that God brought up pretty frequently when He was talking to the Jews about things they were doing wrong.

Oddly enough, it's not something I've heard taught on much, or emphasized in church. I think Troy did a sermon on rest in the late part of last year - in fact, that's probably what got us thinking in this direction in the first place.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

Last thing. I remember hearing somewhere that studies have found that animals in zoos are much, much happier when they get one day out of seven to not be on display. Google doesn't show any results along those lines though, so I probably made it up.

Still, it sounds kind of profound.

2008-02-01T16:17:00.000-08:00

Friday and almost time for Pizza Picnic. Yay!

We've had a cold, and sometimes snowy week. Lots of rain. The snow just barely stuck here, though the higher mountains got lots. Also, we finally got the stone done on our fireplaces, so I s'pose it's time for pictures. I've been horrible about posting any since the house got finished. I'll try to remedy that.

This is the fireplace in the living room. We still need to figure out what we're going to put on the top of the hearth since some dummy (me) didn't allow enough clearance between the hearth and the fireplace...

Here's the gas fireplace in our bedroom. It came out pretty cool!

Also, here's one off the back deck. You can kind of see the creek running...

2008-01-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

What a long day. I feel compelled to write about it, rather than going to bed. Not sure why. Probably the coffee.

Left home at 5:30, driving Sarah's mom's Bronco, pulling the 4 horse trailer. I tugged it up here last week full of stuff that was given to us, and today was the day to tug it back. That trailer is HEAVY, and pretty dang long. So - 55 mph all the way to Modesto. That's really hard to do when you're not used to it!

Went out to the ranch, dropped the Bronco, moved my laptop, bundle of plans, camera and jacket to the trusty old Camry (which, by the way has developed the classic Toyota trick of a non-rolling-up driver's side window) and went back into Modesto.

Met up with Jesse and went over to Uno's - a new restaurant in mid-Modesto - for a 9:30 meeting with the owners. We're doing a Cost Segregation Study for them (long, boring explanation of what that is omitted - thank me later). Walked around the place, took lots of pictures, talked to the owners for 40 minutes so, then motored back to the office - got directions - and set off again, for Turlock, which is about 15 minutes south of Modesto.

Got lost. Got found. Looked at some bolts in a barn. Then went back into Turlock proper (such as it is) and picked up sammiches for the crew back at the office. Took them and me back there and worked for about 4 hours or so.

Back on the road, up through Sacramento and into Rocklin. Got my hair cut. Squeezed in CostCo trip (apples, pears, bread, milk, dog food, detergent, cheese, blueberries, diapers - go!) 30 minutes out the door, with a polish dog, smothered in kraut. Yum.

Loaded the car, drove up through Auburn and past the turn to our house - most of the way to Grass Valley. Went into a little pizza place to register the Cowboy for baseball. Last sign-up - we missed the others. Signed him right up, yessiree (anyone want to buy a raffle ticket?) and then on to home.

Got here to find Sarah and the Cowboy in our bed reading. Stars outside were glowing madly, and the frogs were going nuts down in the creek, which is itself a chatterbox since we've had so much rain.

I stood out on the back a few minutes ago, looking at the trees and stars, listening to the frogs in the creek, feeling the crisp air. Being grateful. I have no illusions that I earned living here, or that I deserve it. Nor do I deserve the amazing family I have. But I am grateful. God is good.

2008-01-22T08:47:00.001-08:00

Spent the weekend in Modesto. We left Friday afternoon, our minivan stuffed full of two adults, four kids, and two dogs. Also luggage, a big gift bag full of hand-sewn presents for our new niece (Jordan) and a bunch of sweets that Sarah baked for the baby shower. It was pretty exciting.

Saturday was the shower. Jordan wasn't supposed to be born until tomorrow (I think) but she decided to come early. She's a very cute little 5 pounder with dark hair that will almost certainly fall out and be replaced by wispy thin blonde - like her big sister.

No boys were allowed at the shower (duh) so we went out to Jamey's property - 10 acres of almond orchard that will someday have a house on it - and let the kids play while we chopped up fallen almond trees with chainsaws. Haven't used one in a long time, but they are fun! I want one!

Also on Saturday I jacked the Scout back up and pulled off all of the wheels. Three of the four had gone flat again, which we suspected was because we didn't clean the rims well enough when we replaced the tires. Took them to Big O and had them do a full service tire change. Put the tires back on Saturday afternoon and fired up the Scout. Vroom! Back in action. Some day soon, I need to rent a car trailer and haul it up here. For now I just tinker with it every time I'm down there. Next thing to fix is a brake line that squirts out fluid and makes braking almost non-existent.

Put the Scout to work on Sunday, hauling piles of wood from the orchard to the wood pile as Randy was cutting up some fallen almond trees in their orchard. There is no shortage of fire wood in Modesto - let me tell you. Worked half a day at the office on Monday before loading up the luggage, kids, dogs and other stuff various and sundry and heading home.

It was good to be home. The house was cold, so we fired up the heater and got a fire going. Sierra settled into her dog nook under the stairs. Zeus wandered around the yard looking for any food that someone might have dropped. Cowboy curled up on the kitchen couch and drew. Heavy played with cars in his room. Maesie cut up little pieces of fabric in Sarah's sewing room. Home. It felt good.

Laura is still really struggling, and they're trying to sort out the best approach. I've been reading a book that Jamey gave me about eating disorders and they are very different than I thought. Please keep praying for her, and for Jamey. They have a long and difficult road ahead.

2008-01-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

A prayer request for you my friends.

Sarah's sister-in-law, Laura has struggled for years with an eating disorder. In the past few months she's in an all out war against that and panic attacks. She was in the hospital for a few days a couple weeks back, and she went back today.

Sarah and I have been praying all along, but we've tried to really ramp up and focus our praying recently. We wanted to ask that all of you would do the same. We're convinced that prayer is what she needs most, so please get to praying!

I love knowing that I can put a request like this out here and get some real warriors working on it. Looking forward to sharing how God answers.

2008-01-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

So for Christmas, one of the presents the Cowboy got was a couple of illustrated Bible books. One was the New Testament, and the other is Genesis. Not comic book Bible, like I had (and loved) as a kid, but the whole text, just with lots of illustrations.

They use the International Childrens Bible translations, which - as I learned - has an interesting quirk.

Cowboy flew through Genesis, reading the whole by either the night of, or maybe the night after Christmas. Afterwards, he came and asked me if "Genesis" means anything in some other language. I said that I thought it meant beginning. He said "Hmm. Well they sure have a lot of sexual relations in that book".

You see, while my Bible translates it "Adam lay with his wife" the ICB translates it "Adam had sexual relations with his wife". Why? Why would you do that? (yes Julie - that is a "Friends" reference).

So um yeah. We had to have a little talk right there. It had to involve just enough detail to explain that when Lot's daughters got him drunk and had "sexual relations" with him that was a bad thing.

Yeesh! You try to protect your kids and then they get their hands on a Bible! I'm tellin' you.

But he really loved Genesis, and he's working his way through the New Testament now. All done with Matthew and part way through Mark. One passage that just killed him - had him rolling on the floor laughing - was when Jesus healed a blind man and asked if he could see. The guy says that it just looks like there's trees moving around. Jesus goes back and heals him more (I guess) and then they look like people.

Cowboy thought that was about the funniest thing he'd ever read.

I'm glad that he's enjoying it - and that he's reading it. Even if it meant having to try to explain "sexual relations".

2008-01-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

The picture of the Scout, as promised. Tell me that's not the coolest truck you've ever seen... Even with the bozo behind the wheel.

Going down to Lincoln today to try to get the house readier to rent. Sorry, Mike. More readier.

Planning on doing some painting, and getting some pictures so I can list it on Craigslist. We'll probably go down Saturday too. What a pain!

Work has been very, very busy. The Building Code changed as of Jan. 1, and of course we've been too busy getting jobs done before the change to actually sit down and understand the new code. So the past couple of weeks have been "Learn the new code" time. I take comfort in the fact that the plan checkers that I've talked to at several cities and counties also haven't figured it out yet.

2008-01-04T06:40:00.001-08:00

Clearly I've lost my steam on the other line of thought. So I guess I'll put that to rest for now. Maybe I'll feel inspired to come back to it some other time.

New Year, same old drivel, comments on. OK - cool.

We went down to Modesto on Christmas afternoon and wound up staying until New Year's eve day. That's the longest we've stayed in a very long time, and it was nice. Sarah's mom just moved back into her house a few weeks ago (she's been in a trailer beside it since February, when a small part of the house burned and filled the whole house with smoke). Very nice to have a comfortable place to stay down there again.

Mostly comfortable, that is. Very few rooms had doors. And she didn't have any silverware until Sarah found it on the 2nd day we were there. Still.

Her mom has an old 1978 Scout pickup truck down there that they used to use as a ranch vehicle. For a few years, it's just been sitting there looking sad. She almost got rid of it a few months back, but I asked her to keep it and let me have it.

So Randy and I spent some time getting it running again. I'll have to post some pictures of it, and me in it after we got it going. Think "big, stupid grin".

Should wrap up quickly since I'm not sure how much longer we'll have power and/or internet. There's a huge storm that rolled in last night and is supposed to last through Sunday. I think power came on and off a few times during the night. I'm expecting it to possibly be out for some longer spans before the storm is done. Lots of rain and some pretty high winds.

We're all battened down for the storm. I filled up some big water jugs (no power = no well water). We've got flashlights around, lots of food, and a pile of firewood on the back deck.

2007-12-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

Taking a break from the other posts, I just wanted to tell everyone Merry Christmas!

2007-12-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

I was at Cal Poly for two years. As I said, I was very involved with Inter Varsity (along with other Christian groups) while I was there. I was in a dorm Bible study my first year, and volunteered to lead one the second year.

I went through a class in the Spring of the first year, to learn how to lead a study. The things I learned there - about how to break down a passage of scripture (observe, interpret, apply) and how to effectively lead a study group (ask a question - wait, wait, wait longer... someone wants to answer but just hasn't yet) have been incredibly useful in my life. It also meant that I lived in the Freshman dorms a second year. That's where I learned the very useful talent of being able to go to sleep, even if someone is screaming or playing loud music right next door.

I also volunteered at First Presbyterian Church to help with the Junior High youth group. I don't really remember why I picked that particular church, though it probably had something to do with them seeming to not have a lot of college students (and so having a need for someone to help out). I had a GREAT time with those kids and with Jackie, who did all of the kids and youth ministry there.

The summer between my first and second years at Cal Poly, I was on the SMT with Kim Tapley and Dale Wellman. They were dating at the time, which you might expect to have been awkward, but it wasn't really. We had a long summer, including a trip up to the church in Santa Cruz. Very easy summer, since we all had lots of experience and got along well. Ate vast amounts of Taco Bell (K&D's food of choice).

I was also on the SMT the summer after my second year, along with James (whose last name I can't remember). I was the lead member, and it was just the two of us. That was more challenging since James had never done anything of the sort - but it was a great summer too. My last time on the team, and my next to last summer of being at camp.

One major thing going on during my two years at Cal Poly was Carrie. We started dating early in my first year. I had known her through camp for a couple of years, and - in fact - had seen her respond to an altar call there and become a Christian. She also went on the trip to DC.

When she was getting ready to go to college, she found that UC Davis was the best choice for what she wanted to study. I looked into it and saw that Davis was a great engineering school too, so I went through the process and got a transfer. I had never been to Davis, and didn't know anyone else up there.

We broke up the summer before I was to go up there - or maybe near the end of the school year. I honestly can't recall. I actually don't remember the details of exactly how we broke up. I do have a vivid memory though of a conversation we had at camp that summer. We were sitting on the steps, outside one of the cabins close to the big field, and she told me that she didn't really believe in God any more - or at least not in the same way. She believed that He loved us, and that was about it. She didn't want to talk about it any further. She walked away from Christianity, and so far as I know never came back.

That conversation had - and has continued to have - a big effect on my theology. It's one thing to discuss the topic of "Can a person lose their salvation?" It's another thing to see someone accept Christ, to know them for several years after that, and then to date them for two years - just to see them completely abandon it.

For the record, I don't believe that a person can lose their salvation. The Bible seems pretty clear on that. The Holy Spirit is a seal, and one that can't be broken.

I have no clue what that means about Carrie. Not any clue at all.

2007-12-17T22:41:00.000-08:00

Hmm. So Sarah says that she thinks it's silly of me to have turned off comments. Mike says I'm a comment Nazi. Kathie cried and then wrote an incoherent post. Yeesh. What have I done? They'll come back soon. I promise.

Sarah also told me (via the live kind of comment) that she thought I ended rather abruptly and didn't describe what it was that changed my mind. Fair enough.

So while I drove to Modesto and back today, I thought about that. Here's my conclusion:

Throughout High School, I was reading the Bible, talking to friends (a lot with Scott Nelson in particular), going on youth group trips, and - of course - going to Camp as both a camper and a counselor. I was learning about God, and beginning to draw nearer to Him, but I wasn't sold. More than not being sold on what the Bible said about Him, I think I just wasn't committing.

What happened in DC - the most significant part, I think - was a speaker one of the nights giving an invitation. He said that he thought that God was calling some of us, and that we should stand up if we thought that might be us. I stood.

There's a verse in 1 Kings where Elijah is talking to Israel. We heard a sermon on it this week. Elijah says to them:

“How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”

That's what happened to me in DC. God said "quit messing around and choose", and I chose. It was a real turning point, I think - because I went away to Cal Poly fired up. I was in my dorm Bible study through Intervarsity, and attended the Friday night big group. I went to Campus Crusade meetings. I found a little church in town where the youth leader needed help and got involved with the Junior High.

I quit testing the water and dove in at that point.

---

So there. That's a better summary, right? Oh yeah - comments. Dad gummit.

I don't know where I'm going with this, really. This seems like enough for tonight though. More later.

2007-12-15T21:40:00.000-08:00

I first heard the gospel - or at least first understood it - at Camp Maranatha. It was at a camp fire towards the end of my first time at Teen Camp. Devin brought Mike along the year before, and then Mike invited me. It was the summer before our sophomore year - 1988 if my math is right.

The camp fire was led by someone named - I think - Scott. He laid out the gospel pretty simply, and then gave an invitation for those who hadn't received it to do so. I did, though I didn't stand up when he asked who had prayed that for the first time. I figured that since I grew up Catholic and went to CCD, and had been baptized, I had done it somewhere along the line. Also, I was a coward and really didn't want to stand up.

I did, in fact, grow up in a strong Catholic family. We were faithful attenders. I was in CCD, and was an altar boy. In fact, at one point Dan and I were the only two altar boys at our church. We would attend 2 or even 3 masses a weekend sometimes, just to be sure that the priest had at least one altar boy helping out. As with a lot of the things I did right as a kid, I'm sure that it was mostly Dan's dedication, and my willingness to go along with it. But still.

So I knew about God, though I really had never understood the gospel before that camp fire. I'm sure it was put out there in my years of CCD and I just missed it. I also know that I was wrestling with where I stood on the whole God thing. Somewhere around 8th grade I started toying with athiesm. I can remember reading "Cat's Cradle" and understanding that he was saying that religion was a load of bulls**t, but that it was good because it made people happy and kind. It rang true to me, and terrified me at the same time.

Still, I heard Scott (or whatever his name was) lay out the gospel, and it rang truer. Man fell with Adam and has been fallen, and sinful ever since. We aren't good, and can't be perfect, but God sent his Son to be perfect, and to die so that we could live.

I prayed that God would forgive me that night, though I would wrestle throughout the rest of High School with how much I believed it. I remember Darlene running an activity that first year at Teen Camp. There was a line in the middle of the A-Frame floor, and you would stand on one side or the other depending on how much you agreed or disagreed with statements she read. The statement was "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you really believe it."

I was on the far side of the room that stood for "agree". Just me, all alone over there.

I really thought that, and argued about it with Christian friends in High School. I was on God's side, and believed the Bible (mostly) but I just couldn't quite believe that it was the truth.

Still, it was that weak-faithed kid who went back to Teen Camp the next year, preceded by a week as a counselor at Kid's Kamp. And the next year (still wrestling) I was asked (along with Mike) by Darlene to be on the Summer Ministry Team. We traveled around leading Vacation Bible Schools, and counseling at camp. Poor Ellen having to put up with the two of us. Funny and amazing that God would use such a flaky kid as me to be on that team, but hey - He says He likes broken jars.

The summer after I graduated High School, Dave Crimi was organizing a group to go to DC 91. It was a big conference in (duh) D.C. and the trip was going to involve a lot of sight-seeing along the way. I was invited, but I didn't have the money. Actually, my parents probably would have found the money if I had asked, but I don't think I did. Just assumed it wasn't for me.

Dave called a few weeks before they were leaving and said that the airline was giving them a free ticket since they had bought 10 others. Also, there was someone in the church who wanted to sponsor somebody to go. Did I want to come? How could I refuse? So I went.

Now, I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain that there was no free ticket. And I think the anonymous person in the church was Dave. That didn't hit me until several months after getting back from the trip, and I never did ask Dave. He felt that I should be there, and he made it happen.

That trip changed my life, and solidified my faith, just before I was to head off to College. I came away absolutely fired up about God, and about serving Him, and learning everything I could about Him. Crazy.

---

OK, I'll wrap this up now. My apologies if this is horribly boring. It's just all been rambling around in my head, and I've felt compelled to put it down on paper. Or um - on e-paper. More later, I think. Probably.

2007-12-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

Things have been incredibly busy of late. What else is new?

Trying to get the old house ready to sell, and still a long way from having this one done. Work is insane because the building code changes on January 1, and everyone wants to get their projects in before that.

Could ramble in a lot of different directions - about the carpet going in here and such, but I've felt inclined to delve into some longer posts on other topics. Think I'm going to turn off comments for a while too. Not that I don't like comments - I love comments. But I've become aware of how aware of them I am.

Mike's crying right now as he tries to process that sentence. "Did I teach you nothing?!?" Sorry.

So yeah - okay. I'm thinking I've got maybe three or four posts in me - history of me and God and camp - that I wouldn't mind writing down. I'll try to get the first one going pretty soon here, and I'll turn off comments, and we'll see if anything comes of it. M'kay?

No - don't answer. You can't.

2007-12-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

I realized today - or yesterday - or somewhere in the blur of days - that I didn't have Annie's blog on my links page. That's fixed now.

For those of you who don't know, Annie is Sarah and Rosasharn's mom. I first met her at camp a long time ago. She was a young mom. Sarah and Rosie were little. Don't remember how little - but little. I was in High School and in my first year on the Summer Ministry Team, along with Mike.

I sat in a few early morning prayer meetings with her at Family Camp that year. I still remember the way she prayed. I can't describe it, but if you go read her blog, you'll get a sense of it.

Anyhow, thought I would remedy my lacking link list, and also - hopefully - point a few readers her way.

2007-11-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

The lion pictures as promised. We finally got them on the computer yesterday and zoomed in and out to try to make sense of them. I'm still convinced it's a mountain lion, but the fence nearby gives an odd perspective. A small one maybe? Not sure...

2007-11-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

Our first night in the house by ourselves.

The painters left on Wednesday afternoon. Mom and Dad got here a few hours later. Julie came on Thursday morning, and Thanksgiving dinner was made amidst the chaos of a not quite complete house. Dad and I got the stove put the rest of the way together and pushed into place in time for what needed to cook in/on it. Then we got the dishwasher put in place to be sure it was ready for after-dinner dishes.

Dinner came together, and was eaten (yum!). Then we decided to go for a walk.

At the end of the driveway, we saw some deer running up the hill. Then we saw something else in the grass. Not a cat. Not a bobcat. Oh. That's a mountain lion! It was about 150 to 200 yards away, and it noticed us too. It stopped, and turned to watch us for a while, before following the deer.

I have known that they live around here, and have had some mixed feelings about it. About the same feelings I had that day. On the one hand - yeeks! On the other hand - way cool to see one in the wild. We have a fairly far away picture that I'll post when I can.

Finished our walk by heading up the road to Jane's. She sold us the land, and lives on about 60 acres where she has three dogs, a bunch of cats, a pig, some goats, and a whole lot of horses. She boards for others, and also breeds - so its a good sized place.

She told us that the mountain lion is a female, who is known to come around some times. She's lived in the area for a while and has never hunted anything other than what's out in the wild. No livestock and no kids or dogs. So that's good, I suppose.

OK - enough lion talk. Sorry. It was really cool though.

So everyone left this morning, and the house felt pretty lonely. We're really glad to be here, but it needs some time before it really feels like home. It was really great that the first meal cooked here was Thanksgiving. It was also really great to have Mom, Dad and Julie here for our first stretch. Their help with things made a huge difference in how settled we felt, and just having company for a while helped us settle in.

Here we are now though. Kids are asleep. Dogs are settled in. Sarah's crashed out in our room. Most of the lights are off, and let me tell you - it is dark out there. A full moon, our one porch light, and that's it. You don't see any other lights from here, and you don't hear anything. Peaceful, yes. Unsettling too! Going to take some getting used to.

I better settle in myself.

2007-11-21T07:48:00.001-08:00

Painters are putting our house back together this morning, and planning on heading home mid-day. They got the kitchen and pantry done, along with all of the bedrooms and the kids bathroom. There's still a fair bit they have to do, and I think they'll come back somewhere down the line for that. It may be after New Year's since they're really backed up on work. We'll see.

Mom and Dad are on their way up. Julie's coming tomorrow morning. Sarah's working on getting some of the dust out of the house. I'm trying to get some engineering done. Crazy, crazy.

Hopefully, we'll be able to get the stove all hooked up and moved into place. It's close, but I need to adjust the legs and I'm a little worried that the tile extends just a hair too far off the counter so that we'll have a hard time getting the stove put in place.

The outside of the house is a mix of absolutely gorgeous trees, a few giant piles of garbage, and a lot of little piles of garbage. I think I'm going to borrow the Bronco and horse trailer from Sarah's mom next week and try to make a couple of big loads. Have to keep reminding myself that we can't get it all straightened out at once.

I'm also going to go down and get our dogs this afternoon. We left them in Lincoln for a couple of extra days until we got a bit more settled. They're going to be extra craziness since we decided to hold off on building any kind of a fence. Zeus will be fine, but Sierra may be a challenge. She may be spending a fair bit of time inside, and on the back deck.

OK - better get back to work!

2007-11-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

The troops are all asleep in our room again. Sarah too. The painters are settling in for the night. Looks like they'll be here until Wednesday afternoon finishing up everything inside. Just in time for them to get home for Thanksgiving.

Made a trip down to Lincoln today - with Maesie keeping me company. Returned the U-Haul and cleaned up the house a bit more. Going to be lots to do there, but its a bit better now at least.

Feels a bit like camping out here, with our one finished room (our bedroom) and our garage packed full of everything. Tomorrow they'll finish the pantry, so we can move in food and the microwave. Kitchen maybe too, which would be nice!

We're getting there - though it feels nothing like what we expected our move in would feel like. A lot like life, isn't it?

Tomorrow, I'll go to Modesto to work and Sarah will take the kids 5 minutes (as opposed to the 50 we've gotten used to) to their school. I'm glad its a short week, with Thanksgiving to look ahead to. Such a strange, in-between time.

Better get to bed for tonight.

2007-11-17T23:32:00.001-08:00

So here we are. It has been an exhausting day, both physically and emotionally. Two trips up here, a garage packed full of stuff, a house in Lincoln that is mostly empty, but also a complete disaster with all of the little things that didn't make it into boxes.

It was tough to stand in that house before we left. So empty and chaotic at the same time. So much not our home any more. Just like that. It was a good home. We liked taking walks from there, around the big park nearby, and up into town. We liked the fact that Fourth of July fireworks could be seen brilliantly from our driveway. We'll miss that house.

Crazy to be up here at night though. The stars are just incredible.

Not sure what else to write. Need to get to sleep, I think. But we are here. Here we be.

2007-11-17T06:35:00.001-08:00

Today's the day! U-Haul and horse trailer are parked out front. Tonight we'll sleep at the new house, such as it is...

No carpet in any of the kids rooms. Paint is partly done, and we'll have painters camping out at the house with us - probably until Wednesday. Hopefully they'll have everything done. We'll see.

Don't even know how to describe what's going through my head. "Evacuated?" Not exactly that. Hard to say.

Anyhow - gotta go get started.

2007-11-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

The plan is to move this Saturday! Hopefully most (or all) of the painting will get done this week and we'll get either a final from the county or at least an "OK to occupy". There won't be carpet yet, but most everything else will be done!

Its exciting and overwhelming at the same time... More on that - I'm sure - as we do the actual move.

I thought I'd make a record of what the past few months have looked like in terms of our schedule.

Mondays are my Modesto day, so I get up around 5 or 5:30 and head out the door. Sarah's Mondays have been insane. She has to get all the kids up, dressed and fed and be out the door by about 7:40. Its about a 50 minute drive from here to their school (it'll be about 7 minutes when we move). Drop them off, then find somewhere to kill time with the two younger ones until she has to pick up Maesie at noon. Cowboy is done around 3, so after getting Masie she has more time to kill. Sometimes she would do our grocery shopping in Grass Valley (about 15 minutes from the school in the opposite direction of the house). I get home late that day, so usually she would do the evening routine by herself too. Yeeks.

Tuesday through Friday, we get up and I take the older kids to school. I also bring my laptop and briefcase with me so that I can try to get my work done. It got a lot easier once we got internet at the house, but it was still a bit nuts working out of the garage and trying to squeeze in stuff between directing subs and picking up kids.

We also had soccer practice on Thursdays, so on those days we had Maesie's practice at 4:30 (during which the Cowboy would do his home work) and then his practice at 6. After that, we would head home - usually getting dinner on the road. Sarah and the younger kids would grab dinner at the Lincoln Farmer's Market while they waited for us.

Saturdays were game days (in Grass Valley) so - depending on how early the games were - we would get up, get dressed and make the hour drive up there. A lot of times we would go by the house afterwards to look at stuff together and sometimes try to get stuff done while the kids played.

We've been going to church every other week or so. Sometimes we've just wanted to give the kids a day to be at home without having to go anywhere. Those days, we've done "Church at Home". Originally, it involved me teaching a lesson, but it has evolved into the kids spending the morning working on a play that they put on for us later. So far, we've seen Jonah, Noah and David and Goliath. David was today. Heavy was supposed to be a sheep that David was herding back at home, but the prop we had was a horse, so that's what he was. Close enough!

Oh yeah - I forgot that part. Three weeks ago, while Sarah and her mom were taking the kids down to Ojai, Heavy slipped while getting out of the car. He hurt his foot pretty badly. Sarah wound up taking him to the ER down there, where they took a lot of X-Rays and determined that it wasn't broken.

After two weeks of him not being willing to put any weight on it (and this from Dynamo Boy) Sarah took him back to the doctor up here. More X-Rays, a specialist, and in the end a cast for two more weeks. We've got one more week of that and let me tell you - we're ready for that thing to come off.

So yeah. That's the craziness (or a some of it anyhow) that is our life. Don't get me wrong. I know how lucky we are, and I know that craziness is far from the worst thing in the world. But man, oh man - I'm looking forward to moving up there!

EDIT: Just noticed this is my 300th post. Neat!

2007-11-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

So close...

2007-10-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Is it stating the obvious to say that I haven't felt much like blogging lately? The house is moving along - getting very close really - but I'm finding it hard to want to talk a whole lot about it.

We're supposed to be excited right now. We're close to finishing and moving into this great house in a beautiful place. And we are excited, I think. On some level anyways. Mostly we're just exhausted. Worn out with decisions and details and activity. How do you even talk about it without sounding like a whiner? Everyone dreams of building their own house, and all I can do is complain.

So yeah. Not sure how to write blog posts any more, because I am just so worn out. We both are.

I guess I just chug out a post and let the impression be what it may. Because I do really believe that blogging is more than just a fun thing. That its a good thing - a way to keep in touch with my family and friends and to encourage each other. Also, I don't like having fewer blog posts going up than Caballo No Nombre.

We really are getting close. Did I say that already?

It may not be done by Thanksgiving, but I am fairly certain we'll have our permit finalled, and we'll be - at least partly - living there. We're at the bottom of the bucket on construction funds, which is a source of a lot of worry, as is the impending mortgage that this house will come with. We need to get this house ready to rent, since we can't sell it at today's prices. The engineering business is picking up somewhat - and there's some really solid things on the horizon, but you just never know.

The HP job fell through, which - I think - is a good thing. There would have been some nice security in that path, but I think that God doesn't want me to feel secure right now. We're working on dependence, and boy oh boy are we ever working on it.

Bleh. Jumbled, funky post, but I needed to get it out. Barf out at least part of what's rumbling around in my head so I know I did, and I can move on to more interesting blogging.

For now - time to hit the sack so I can get an early run at Modesto tomorrow morning.

2007-10-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

Happy 40th Birthday to my big brother, Kham. Wish we could be there!

2007-10-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Read an incredible sermon by Spurgeon tonight.

I've not read many of his sermons before, but I think I'm going to have to start.

An excerpt:

Instead of being discouraged because what we do is unworthy of God, and insignificant compared with what was done by others, let us gather up our strength to reform our errors, and reach to higher attainments. Let us throw our heart and soul into the work of the Lord, and yet do something more nearly in accordance with our highest ideal of what our God deserves of us. Let us excel our ancestors. Let us aspire to be even more godly, more conscientious, and more sound in the faith than they were, for the Spirit of God remaineth with us.

2007-10-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

2007-10-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

There's been something I've wanted to blog about for a while now. A thought that I'm not sure how to put into words. Here goes though.

It starts sounding like a bad thing, or like I'm frustrated - but that's not it.

Stick with me.

Another crazy week, with sickness, tiredness, business and mahyem. Wednesday I'll meet with the SIP folks to either get us a ton of new work, or maybe not have anything come of it. The HP job that I was hoping to hear about by next week will be up in the air for at least three weeks - maybe more.

We're getting close to having the house done, and that's exciting, but pretty scary too. Funds for the last leg will be tight. That new mortgage is big. We'll still have the mortgage on this house, and it has a lot that needs to be done on it (baseboard, paint...) Haven't even started the process of figuring out how to rent it. And we'll be moving too. Crazy.

Add to it the close of September, where I've had my worst month to date in terms of what I've earned doing the engineering.

There are times (lots of them) where it feels like it's just too much. And the thought comes into my head that things would be so much simpler if we had just stayed in this house. Or if we had done the reasonable thing and bought a slightly bigger house in Lincoln, or in Modesto.

We would be way less stressed out. Our money situation would be way more clean and orderly. Things would be simpler - and oh that sounds good. Simple. Easy.

The story that keeps coming to mind though - and the one that's encouraging me - is the Exodus. Egypt was hard, but it was a known quantity. The labor was hard, but they had food, and no one was trying to kill them. I can see where at times, the Jews really wanted to go back there.

But they were called somewhere else. And I think that we have been to.

I see glimpses of it as I spend time around Grass Valley. The people I meet. The way I can relate to the hippy artist at the cafe today that really liked the dress that Sarah made for Maesie, and took the time to say so. He and I are very different, but I feel like I can relate to him more than a lot of the people around here that are ostensibly more like me.

And the quiet out at the house - or the joy I get watching a group of deer or wild turkey walk through our yard.

So I'm glad that we're living on the edge, though it's just overwhelmingly hard some times. It makes me so aware of my need for God, and it drives me to Him. I think that God likes us to live there, for that purpose, and because it allows Him to take us to bigger places.

I keep thinking of Kathie, and the way she has taken this hard path - away from family and friends, but into the world where she is changing it and being changed by it.

That's really living, I think.

2007-09-28T21:14:00.001-07:00

Watched a new show tonight, Moonlight. Yes, it's a vampire show. Really, very good though. Well written, interesting, neat cast. I think it could be a good show.

I know. I say that about all the vampire shows.

Tonight, my brain is rumbling like an overfull tummy.

My goodness. Did I just write that? I'm sorry.

Still, the brain is busy. House is moving along at a fast clip, and there's lots to plan so that things can keep moving. There's the engineering work, that is slow but still there. I'm talking to some folks about getting back on with HP to offset the slow-down in the engineering work. That looks like it has a decent chance of happening, and I'm glad, since it will help with the finances, and such.

I also thought it fit in nicely with the fact that the engineering was slowing down so much. But then I had a conversation on Monday with the CPA that is also the owner of the building in Modesto where the engineering office is. We've been talking about helping him with some "Cost Segregation" studies. I've done some learning on it, but wasn't sure when an opportunity would come up. Well, one has - and we're diving into that. If it goes well, it could be something that we do a lot more of.

Then, yesterday, I was leaving the cafe in Grass Valley and had a bit of time to kill before I needed to pick up Maesie. For weeks, I've driven by the office of SIP Home Systems. SIP (Structural Insulated Panels) is a somewhat new way to build houses. We've engineered a few of these for folks down in the valley, and I thought I'd pop in and see if they did their engineering in-house, or hired it out.

Turns out they hire it out. Turns out they were just talking about the fact that they have maxed out the other engineers they use and need to find another engineer to use. Preferably one with experience doing commercial jobs, and apartments. Also one with lots of capacity because they do a ton projects.

Hey! We've done those. Lots of projects sounds good too!

I'm going to meet with them next week to show them some of the jobs we've done. I went this morning to a "home raising" event that they put on. I guess whenever they stand up the walls of a house, they invite lots of folks, including contractors who want to get on their list of recommended installers, homeowners who are thinking of building with SIP, and - apparently - engineers that are interested.

If you're bored by now, feel free to stop reading. Just clearing my head. If you were bored by paragraph two, well then that's your fault. You should have learned long ago about this blog.

So yeah. Neat to see those panels going up. Great to meet some other folks in that company too. And I'm standing there, hanging out, and this guy shows up and is walking around watching and I think "That's Professor Hull." One of my engineering professors from Davis. The one I worked with on my senior project. I did a really poor job on my senior project.

Naturally, I went and said "Hi". He vaguely recognized me. I apologized for being such a dork with that project, to which he graciously said something about it being related to my age at the time.

Man's a genius - Berkeley PhD and publisher of incredible research on Biomechanics. Look him up. Nevermind, I will. We chatted a bit. He's recently bought some land outside Lincoln and is thinking of going with a SIP structure. We chatted some more. He asked for my card because he'll need someone to engineer it.

Well of course he'd ask me, since I did such a bang-up job on that senior project.

Sheesh.

The day went on from there, but you get the picture. A full and weird day. An odd and eventful week.

I think I'll go to bed.

2007-09-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

A couple pictures are in order...

First, our tree-slung broadband antenna. I find it kind of neat-o. Others will probably say "Hmm."

Next, the camp set up by our painters in our loft:

And here's some apples that Sarah and the kids turned into caramel apples. Its "Apple Week" at their school, and this is our contribution:

Here's the finished product:

2007-09-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

We're connected!

The broadband company came yesterday and put an antenna up in one of our trees. There's a cable running from there to the garage (it'll go to the house later). The bottom line? We now have broadband out at the property!

This will make it so much easier to get things done and stay connected with the office on these days when I bring the kids up here.

The connection is fast too. It works over a radio connection to an antenna on a hill only a few miles away, so it's about like using DSL. Quick response, quick downloads. Whee!

The painters are up here this week. They're going to work some long days and camp out up in our loft (they're from Modesto). They've got quite a set up there right now - cots, food... they even brought a portable shower that uses propane to make hot water. I'll have to snap a picture later of their "camp" and post it here.

Maesie is here with me, watching a dancing princess movie on the little TV. I'm happily blogging away... I even brought up a a Thermos of coffee, so its just good all around.

2007-09-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

The kids were off today, which made it feel very vacation-ish. Our weeks have been so full lately, with the school routine Monday through Friday and then soccer (in Grass Valley) on Saturdays. We've stayed home from church a few times just to have a day where we don't go anywhere.

On those days, we do "Church at Home" - which usually involves a couple of songs together and a lesson that I prepare. Last time we did it we had the big kids put together a lesson for us. They did "Jonah" which turned out to be quite good. Maesie was the ship captain and then ducked into the bathroom to change into the big fish. Cowboy was Jonah and spent the costume change "glubbing around" (as it was written in their script) in the ocean.

Heavy had been in the ship - a little tent shaped like a train (we used our imagination). He hopped out and did some glubbing around of his own during that part because it looked pretty fun.

So yeah. Today, all of us at home. I cleaned the office this morning, made a few calls, and got some work done. The engineering has been slow, which has been good timing, since there is a TON going on up at the house right now. Cabinets are in and doors are hung. They'll start painting next week, do tile the week after, wood floors, finish electrical and plumbing the week after that.

Financially, not having a lot of engineering work is not a good thing, but I'm actually looking at getting an IT job again for a while. We still have a fair bit of engineering work, but it is slow enough, and our expenses high enough that some extra moolah could be good.

Had a realtor come look at our house here in Lincoln and his prognosis is that it will sell for a fair bit less than even my lowest expectations. So I think we're going to try to hold onto it as a rental for a while. The upside is that not selling it will probably help us all to transition out of this house that has been our home for 8 years, and through 4 babies coming home.

Tomorrow I'll be out at the new house, building the side deck with Sarah's brothers, and Sarah will have the 4 wild things in Grass Valley for soccer. Hate to miss the games - they're really exciting - but I'm glad to get that deck going.

Last thing. I learned recently about itunes U. A few universities have put lecture recordings up that you can download and listen to for free. I've started the Old Testament series from the Reformed Theological Seminary. Fairly interesting, though I'm hoping the professor gets a bit more excited and a bit less methodical as he gets into the actual content. Everything so far has been introduction about the approach he plans to use. The book of Genesis is one of my favorite in the Bible and I love how alive and real the people in it feel. Hoping he captures some of that in his lectures.

Anyhow, that's it for now. Time to go get the pizza for our Friday pizza picnic. Sarah got me some Fat Tire, so it promises to be a fine evening.

2007-09-12T22:11:00.001-07:00

Its been a busy week at the house. The ceilings got painted over the weekend, and the finish guys have been busy since Tuesday. They put in the knee braces for our reclaimed beams:

They also have been hanging doors and putting up the window casing:

Today, the cabinets got delivered, which was really exciting. They're not all in place yet, so it was hard to get any good pictures, but they'll be getting set over the next few days. Here's what the truck looked like:

We are hanging in there, just trying to keep our sanity and also appreciate how exciting all of this is. Some interesting things stirring in the "how are we going to afford to pay for this house" realm that I'll describe soon.

I have had the chance a couple times in the past week to talk to Jane - the woman who sold us the land, and who will be our nearest neighbor. Its been a long time since we talked to her. Kept meaning to head up to her place, and was always busy trying to get stuff done with the house.

It was really good to chat with her again. Surprisingly enough, a lot of the people who live in our area (by which I mean a fairly large swath, since many have huge parcels) all know one another, and consider themselves "the Neighborhood". They get together for meals sometimes, and help out if someone needs the help. Jane is excited to have us over for dinner and to introduce us to "the Neighborhood" - which is just really cool, and really unexpected.

Finally, I wanted to mention that in my drives up to school with the kids, while they are coloring or playing in the back of my Camry, I've been listening to sermons on my RCA, wannabe iPod. Of course there's been lots of Ray Stedman (my old standby), but I've been listening to a lot of John Piper too, and I'm really enjoying him. Heavy, intense stuff, but very, very good.

2007-09-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I've been online so little these past weeks that its been hard to get a post up. First things first - an update on Sparky and Kathi. Bumping this up from his comments a few days back:

Kathi had to return to the hospital for a second operation, re-opening the same incision, but that was for a "plumbing" problem (clogged ureter), thankfully. No sign of the new kidney being rejected!

This has put me way ahead of her in the race to recover, but I can't gloat too loudly. She said the second surgery was about ten times more painful than the first, for some reason. But, we're both on the healing track now. And getting lots of sleep. Did I mention, no sign of kidney rejection?

So thanks everyone for the prayer - and keep it up!

We've been splitting the job of taking the kids to and from school (and spending the day either at the property or in Grass Valley). On the days I go, I'm working out of our garage, at a little folding table - a ridiculous site, I'm sure. Sometimes, I'll go into Grass Valley and hang out at a little cafe with free wireless. Very cool place. On Friday the table across the room from me had a woman named "Emerald" doing mini-readings for various folks who came to her table.

I wanted to snap a picture with my phone, but was sure I'd get caught. Also wanted a mini-reading, but I figured it would be something like "Your life is a roller-coaster about to plummet off the edge! Get off while you still can!!"

A lot more to report, but I just don't have it in me. The drywall is done and the ceilings are painted. Trim starts tomorrow and cabinets go in Wednesday. Its all very exciting, but colored with a great deal of exhaustion and worry.

I will remember this as one of the most insane (I hope) and trying years of my life. I think I'll also remember it as the year I finally learned to really trust in God, and to thirst for Him. My prayer has been that I will learn to desire Him, and I think that is even taking shape.

Enough for now.

2007-09-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

The Cowboy has started drawing comic books. He did an entire series about a hero called "Transoforman" a couple of weeks ago. There were morals at the end of each, and supporting players that carried over from one issue to the next.

On Friday, he drew another, for his new friend at school. Here's the cover:

I noticed that he's doing some interesting things with frames inside the comic. I'll bet Devin knows some techincal term for it...

This too, in a battle between Transforman and his enemy. I think that's Transforman's fist and foot in the first and third frames, and the bad guy's gun in the second. I don't know what you call this kind of framing, but I know I've seen it in comic books, and it cracks me up that he's picked it up from the books he's read...

Spent yesterday caulking and painting the trim in one of our bathrooms. We have lots of that stuff to do before we move, which seems both really close and really far away. The kids have a week off in mid October, and we hope to be far enough along (or done) by then so that we can move.

Give us a couple of months to rest and then we want lots and lots of visitors! Seriously. If you're in the area or want a vacation, we're going to finally have a house big enough to host people comfortably in and we're looking forward to it.

Heck, maybe Devin can come and teach the Cowboy a few things about comics.

2007-08-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Wanted to pass on the latest info I have on Chris and Kathy. Got an e-mail from a friend and former co-worker who talked to Chris on Thursday and has been in touch with Kathy's parents...

It sounds like everything went well and they are both recovering. Chris is probably going to get sent home Saturday or Sunday, and Kathy should be a few days behind.

Thanks for praying - and keep it up!

Also had some newer house pictures to share. The color coat got put on this week. There's a base coat that is a really pale yellow, and it has an antiquing stain over the top. The pictures aren't a perfect representation, but you'll get the idea...

2007-08-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

OK kids, prayer request.

My friend (and former co-worker) Chris - known around here at times as "Sparky" - is going in for surgery on Wednesday. His wife has struggled with Lupus for years, and has had an extraordinarily tough time of it these last few, as her kidneys have failed.

Chris is going in to donate one of his kidneys to her, which will (as I understand it) make a HUGE difference in the quality of her life. He's been working on getting approved for months now and Wednesday is finally the day.

Their two kids will have both parents going in for surgery that day - so pray for that family (Chris and Cathy) please!

2007-08-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

The kids started school today. The school is great, and their teachers seem nice, but we're kind of reeling.

We had to be up there last night for Soccer practice. Finished with that at 7 pm, and headed home, vowing to get them clean and in bed quickly so they wouldn't be too tired on their first day. Had to go pick up our vegetable delivery, which was only a short detour. Should have been, anyways.

We wound up about 2 miles from home with a flat tire. Ugh!

So I quickly dropped out the spare, jacked it up, started switching the tire - and the van rolled off the jack. Forgot to set the emergency brake!

But - as it turned out, we were driving through a retirement community and a security guy had stopped to be sure we were okay. So we used the jack from his truck to jack the van back up (since mine was on its side, pinned under the body of the van). No damage to the van, tire changed, and home.

Then showers, pajamas, and bed for the kids. We packed last minute stuff and then I made a run to Kragen to get a tire patch kit. Came home, patched the tire, inflated the tire, took the van to get gas, packed my work in my brief case, and we settled into bed.

Woke up early this morning, all of us up, dressed, packed, and away we went. The kids to school, me to the property to work at a little table in the garage, Sarah and the youngest two to poke around Grass Valley until it was time to pick up Maesie.

Today was somewhat atypical. The plan is to split the days between us, with me taking them up a few days a week and working out of the garage. Its not a bad place to work really. I have power for my laptop and will - in a couple of weeks - have broadband, which isn't essential, but is handy. The other days, Sarah will take them - hopefully helping out in their classes one of the days while Heavy hangs out here with me.

This is our life right now. Trying to stay on top of things with the house, with our house here, with our kids. Trying to make this all not to exhausting for the kids. Trying to keep our sanity.

We'll do it, with a huge portion of grace from our God, with a LOT of teamwork, and with a fair bit of coffee on my part. How Sarah survives our life without coffee, I really don't know!

The past months have been the most challenging of our lives, together or apart. The ones to come are going to be more of the same. God is teaching us huge things through all of this. Something really amazing this past weekend, that I started to blog about and then realized that (no offense) it just wouldn't make sense to anyone but us.

Enough of that though, huh? How about a few more house pictures? The drywall is up...

2007-08-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, the real chaos is starting - or started actually, on Tuesday. The kids had their first soccer practices up in Lake of the Pines - by the new house.

I know - we're crazy to have signed them up for soccer. We did it back when we thought we'd be living in our house by now. And then we thought that even though its going to add to the craziness of living here and going to school up there, it would be a good way for them and us to meet some people.

We had no idea. And can I just say - God is good.

So, we got there to Maesie's practice, which was first. The coach's wife - Lisa - was really friendly, and introduced herself right away. We got to talking to her and she mentioned that most of the team is made up of families that go to church together at Calvary Chapel Grass Valley, which is right at the turn towards our new house and was where we figured we'd go to church.

Sarah mentioned that she knew a woman that went there - someone she had met through Maesie's ballet class. Turns out that woman's best friend is one of the other parents on the team. So pretty quickly, we were meeting the whole crew, and getting invited to their midweek small group Bible study (which has child care - whoo hoo!) and just generally made to feel very, very welcome.

I can't tell you how great it was to so quickly get introduced to the rest of the team, and to know that as soon as we're up there, we'll have a circle of people our age, with kids our age, who share our faith - that are ready to welcome us in and get to know us. God is good.

In other news, I kinda sorta volunteered to be an assistant coach for the Cowboy's team.

I know.

2007-08-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

So, um... Am I the only one to notice that Katie Cruce posted a comment on Kathie's blog?

And that she has her own blog now? Go, get caught up.

2007-08-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

There's a lot going on in this picture...

First - the house. This is the same angle I've posted a lot (the "Sparky" shot) and you can see the stucco brown coat is on. Sarah got some good pictures from a few different angles. I'll try to get those up soon. Its late though, and this picture really needs explaining.

So we were going up there today (of course) to get some stuff done. We drove by a house that had some things in front with a "Free" sign. That little pool was there, and after a quick discussion, we swung back around to check it out. Then we had to make a quick detour to the hardware store to get some rope, so we could tie it on top of the van.

It was a bit of a slow drive from there (with an occasional "thump", "thump" as the pool tried to take flight and was talked down by the ropes), but we made it.

So, we filled up the pool and let the kids play. Didn't have suits, so we got creative. The Cowboy was in just his shorts. Maesie in just her skirt. And Heavy in just his shirt. No diaper, because those get wet and heavy and because - hey - you only get a few years of your life where you can play mostly naked and not get arrested.

Got a fair bit done - hopefully drywall will still get started this week.

In other cool news, our solar got hooked up and activated on Wednesday, so our meter - which had been reading 27 KW-hours (from running the well and power tools) is now reading 999961. Which is to say, -39. Although I have to admit to being disappointed that it doesn't come up as an actual negative number, that's still pretty neat.

EDIT: Okay, a couple of other pictures:

2007-08-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

I killed my first rattlesnake. I'm sorry Kham. It had to be done.

Went out yesterday morning, planning on spending the day out there. As I was getting set up to start work, I noticed I had a voicemail on my phone, so I went to check it as I walked out behind the garage a bit. Looked down and - WHOA - about 5 feet away, partly under a board, was a big snake. It was just sitting there watching me.

I got a stick (a long one) and poked at it to be sure it was a rattler. Yep.

So I went and got the shovel. Then I stood at the far end of the boards, flipped over the pile, and went after it. It took a few tries. I was - I'll be honest - pretty darn freaked out.

I think it probably took me about half an hour to finally settle down.

It's looking good to get drywall going early next week. I'm figuring on us spending the day up there Saturday so I can get a few more things done, and we can get the inside cleaned up. Hopefully we can then get them started hanging on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tape and texture should take about a month, then we move on to cabinets, painting and finish work.

So, if things go well, maybe we'll be done in 8 weeks? That's a total guess, but hopefully not too far off the mark.

2007-07-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

I've got to be honest. We're barely holding on.

Witty banter aside (What - you say - there's been witty banter here?) I have to say that this year has been really challenging, and I think some of the hardest is yet to come.

In two weeks, our kids start school up by the new house, which is going to be just getting drywall on Monday. For probably a month and a half, we're going to be driving them up (45+ minutes) every day. Sarah will do some days, and others I'll bring them up and try to do my engineering work from the storage room in the garage.

We're trying to start moving some stuff into the storage area we're renting, and other stuff into the attic of the new garage so that we can (hopefully) list the house some time soon. Our realtor is telling us that the market is not good and it will be even worse if we wait into October.

The project budget continues to be a bit of a mess, though we've taken a lot of steps to get it under control. It's better, but not great. Our regular finances are tricky too - lots of gas being spent on driving to and from the property. Smaller paychecks for me since so much of my time has been going toward trying to keep this project moving.

Then there's the kids, and all of that goes along with them. Keeping track of what's going on with each one. Trying to give them what they need and keep them from going nuts, getting bored, killing each other, breaking things...

Moved the Bug out of her little cradle finally and into her own room and crib. Last time we'll do that - or so goes the plan.

It's just a lot to process. We're excited about the changes that are coming, but man - we are so worn out. I had to take off from the office last Monday and just go walk for a while. I was completely overwhelmed with it all, and felt like I was going to fall apart. Called a friend to pray for me, and just walked around the town for a while. Wandered into the downtown library and found a Bible to read in the stacks until I could pull myself together. Not that I did the pulling of course since - you know - the whole reading the Bible thing. Still.

This is not a whine-fest post. Well it is, I suppose. I mean - if you're so inclined, prayers are treasured. Really.

It just seemed like I should write it all down. Be honest about where we stand right now.

So there it is.

I'm off to bed, and in the morning heading up to try to knock out a long list of little details.

So off I go.

2007-07-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well, we finished Buffy. It was a couple of weeks ago actually. I have to say - though there were some parts of some seasons that were not as good as others, the show was surprisingly good from start to finish.

We're not quite done with Northern Exposure and I'm not even sure we'll get the last disk. For a show that has been just amazingly superb through all of these seasons, the last season has been a real disappointment. Joel is not even there in most episodes, and the cast just seems like odd caricatures of themselves most of the time.

We have found a new love though. And you're probably going to laugh at us, but hey - we only get seven channels, and a couple of those are pretty fuzzy.

On Monday nights, PBS has "Antiques Roadshow" and "History Detectives". Great shows!

I mean - I know. Nothing new. Most people have at least seen the Roadshow once or twice. But I'm telling you - it's kind of addictive. You sit there, hanging on the words of the antique geek that's telling the history and you get drawn into the story of the thing. And then you either gasp at how incredibly much the thing is worth, or you sigh in disappointment, and look at each other and say "Hmm". Good stuff.

So let's see... the last three posts. Kids - check. House - check. Buffy and/or TV watching habits - check and check.

Am I getting repetitive?

Am I getting repetitive?

2007-07-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Wow. The weeks just keep getting crazier!

We went down to Modesto Sunday afternoon and stayed at Sarah's brother Jesse's house. Worked at the office Monday and Tuesday. Came home and worked out at the house half day on Wednesday. Worked hard here in the office Thursday, and then spent this morning out at the house again.

A couple of things going on out there that are keeping us busy.

One is that there are lots of subs working right now. Today there was a tractor guy digging a small trench I needed to comply with an electrical change the county asked for - the insulation crew doing their thing - and the painters staining the windows to prepare for drywall.

The other thing that is keeping me very busy is that there is a big stack of minor things that need to be done before drywall, and I don't want to bring up the framing crew again because the budget is already enough of a mess.

So I'm doing that stuff in little nooks and crannies of time.

Our friends Gavin and Lisa are going to meet us up there tomorrow and Gavin is going to help me hang a couple of decorative beams that need to go in before drywall. Hopefully I'll also get to take care of more of the little detail stuff while we're up there.

Everything else will have to get done next week, since I'm hoping to get drywall hung sometime late next week. Whee.

Need to get some pictures tomorrow and hopefully get them posted soon. We have a brown coat of stucco on now, and hopefully garage doors got installed this afternoon. We'll see!

2007-07-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

Sarah was planning on taking our Little Bug for her 6 month photos soon, but decided to go take some shots out front, and see if she could get any good ones. Oh my. There's a ton of good ones, but this one was probably the best:

I took some pictures of my own the other day when she was playing with a plastic knife that belongs to the older kids. She looks especially dangerous and unpredictable in this one:

I need to get some house pictures up. First coat of stucco is on, so it really looks house-ish. Hoping to get all of the framing done this week so that we can do insulation and - maybe - start drywall next week. Getting garage doors on Monday and appliances delivered (to live in the garage until stuff gets done) on Friday.

2007-07-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Heard a great sermon at church yesterday from my friend Joe Womack. I'll post a link to it when it gets up on the site - its worth a listen.

He based it on a devotion that he read by someone named L.B. Cowman. Its taken from a story in Numbers 13:33, where the Israelites see that there are giants in the land that God has sent them to and decide that they want to go back.

The thrust was that these people knew that God was capable of taking them into the land, and they also knew that He was willing. What kept them from going in, and turned them back to the desert was that they knew that facing giants would be hard. So they settled for less so that they wouldn't have to go through that.

Here's a great quote from the original devotional:

God has nothing worth having that is easy. There are no cheap goods in the heavenly market.

The sermon really hit me, because I had been awake the night before, worrying about this house we're building and thinking "We would have been better off to just stay in this house we're in. The mortgage would be easy, and I wouldn't have to stress out over all of this".

The thing is - I know that God led us to this land and to build out there. Before finding the land, we prayed in real sincerity that we didn't know where we should move to and asked that God would show us. We were open to whatever, and He took us there. I'm not sure why, or what's going to come of it. But of course its going to be hard, if its worth having.

Why would I want the life that can be had easily?

EDIT: The sermon got posted. You can listen to it here.

2007-07-13T16:06:00.001-07:00

Geez, where to start?

OK - so Tuesday I flew to So. Cal. to go do a structural visit for a set of apartments being built in Hesperia. The first of those I've done, so I was a bit nervous, but I think it went well. Had some time to kill afterwards, so I took the back route past Lake Silverwood and up into Crestline.

Mom and Dad were out of town, but I got to go peek in their window and see the kitchen remodel, which was fun. Weird being in Crestline after so long (its been at around 2 years). Weirder still being there alone in a quiet car.

Got kind of nostalgic and bummed out driving around and seeing things. Not that they've changed that much, its just that my relationship with all of it has changed. I kept thinking of the verse that says that "God has put eternity in the hearts of men".

I've always thought of the eternal as a future thing, but I was thinking - as I drove - that maybe it has to do with the past too, and why we feel nostalgia. I don't want to have lived there in Crestline forever - I'm glad that I've moved on with my life, and found new places and people to love. There's part of me (all of us?) that wants the old to still be there too though - unchanged. Its like kids growing up, I suppose. You want the old and the new all together. The eternal.

So then on Wednesday, Sarah's mom came up with Jo - the daughter of Val's long-time pen-pal from New Zealand. By long time, I mean 25+ years. We took Jo out to the house and Nevada City (where the streets were thronging - on a Wednesday night - with a street festival). Got home late. Got up the next day, and after some mad hours of trying to get work done on my part, headed to San Francisco to shop, meet up with Julie, eat at the Cheese Cake Factory, drop off Jo at her hotel, and get home way too late.

Val went home this morning and took the puppy with her. We've concluded that our life up here is too insane already (duh). Also, Cocoa is just crazy about, and loves to play with, Chance - Val's grown Chihuahua.

Can I just say that its a good thing Blogger has spellcheck? I would never successfully spell Chihuahua otherwise.

OK, so last thing. I found out how to aggregate all the blogs you read on one page. If you have a google account, you go here. You subscribe to the blogs that you read and it shows which have updates. When you first load them, everything is marked "unread" so you have to mark all the existing stuff as "read".

I put in all of the blogs I read, as well as most of the links to the blogs on your blogrolls and put out an export file here. I think you can import that in Google and save yourself the time of having to add everything. Easier to just delete the ones you're not interested in. Or whatever.

Anyhow, I'm finding it to be kinda handy. Always know when there's new posts now!

2007-07-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

Bought a table this afternoon - off Craig's List. We've just started using it, and its proving very helpful in getting stuff we'll need for the new house at really great prices.

On the way back home, we saw something that cracked us up. There's been a sign at the corner of Sierra College and Highway 193 for a few months now, advertising for "Snake Fencing" - which seems to be a booming business. Lots of folks pushing out into the country and wanting a way to keep out the rattlers. Here's the sign:

Well, someone got creative and put up another sign next to it recently.

I love that they not only did this, but that they took the time to make the picture really detailed. The feathers in their hats, the little fencing vests.

Brilliant.

2007-07-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have a new motto. "Embrace the Chaos".

Not sure how its going to work out - its kind of new. I'll let you know.

In that spirit, I have some news. We went to Modesto with 4 kids. We came back with 4 kids and a puppy.

We've named her "Cocoa" - or "Cocoa Puff" if you prefer. Randy found her wandering around the golf course parking lot and brought her home. She's at least part Chihuahua. The rest is most certainly not mastiff, but that's about all I know. I'm really hoping its not Mexican Hairless. Because, eww.

The picture of the kids is from the parade yesterday. Lincoln does a pretty good parade, even though it was a zillion degrees already at 9am when they started. The town (and region) does have an insane number of princesses. Miss Teen Lincoln. Wee Miss Placer County. Little Miss Ambassador to Jordan from the greater Auburn Area. Its crazy.

Had Gavin and Lisa and their kids down for a ranch dinner (tri-tip, calico beans, potato salad, garlic bread - all the standards from meals with Sarah's family). Yummy is not a good enough word.

The kids went nuts on a Slip 'n' Slide on the front lawn. We watched the neighbors set off their fireworks, and then watched the city show. Really good - and far better than last year which went on and on and on with occasional "mini-finales" followed by more one at a time shots. I'm sure I blogged about it because that's just the kind of grumpy person I am.

Tomorrow we're headed for Ashland to meet up with my whole family for a weekend get-together. Should be fun (and hopefully a bit cooler!)

2007-06-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

So we spent Sunday afternoon trying to get the house ready for Stucco. Had a crazy busy day of doing that, fetching a play structure from someone up there who was giving it away, eating pizza in the future kitchen with Gavin, Lisa and their kids, giving Heavy a hose bath (in which he shed more dirt and grime than a kid that size should be able to contain) and - in a crazy fit at the end - realized that I had lost the only key to a borrowed truck.

The good news is, the house is now wrapped. The truck is now back (with a re-keyed ignition and two keys). We're still sane. Here's what the house looks like:

We're getting a hotel in Modesto this weekend so we can go stay comfortably for a few days during which we plan to have Sarah's mom watch the kids a couple of times so we can go to a movie, a dinner and/or coffee. Really, really, really, really looking forward to that. Its about as close to a vacation as we're going to get this summer.

Lastly, thought I'd share some Cowboy art. Found on the front and back of a card for his sister. The letters are grass - full of bees at first, and eaten by birds later. I didn't know that birds ate grass, but still...

2007-06-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

Man... Can we just have Summer last forever?

I'm telling you - its amazing the change we've seen in the Cowboy these past two weeks. He seems like himself again, rather than the frequently sullen-faced, easily angered kid he was the last couple months of school.

I think some of it is the removal of influences. He didn't make the best choices of friends this year and by the time he realized that (or at least I think he realized it) he was already in the routine of spending lunch and recess with them.

It seems like he's also benefiting from having the long, unscheduled hours that Summer affords to browse through books, draw page after page, and just generally be creative.

Had to share this poem he wrote for Sarah yesterday:

I love you so.
Just like my blankie oh.
Yes I do,
just like the Sacramento zoo
kangaroos.
Oh yes I do,
just like a cow's moo.
Oh yes I do.
Love your buckaroo,

2007-06-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

OK - now this is cool.

Maybe I'm late to the game, but today was the first time I've heard of this. Its called "Freecycling". From the front page of freecycle.org:

When you want to find a new home for something -- whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old door -- you simply send an e-mail offering it to members of the local Freecycle group.

Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself. Simply respond to a member's offer, and you just might get it. After that, it's up to the giver to decide who receives the gift and to set up a pickup time for passing on the treasure.

Our main rule: Everything posted must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages.

I'm totally signing us up for this!

2007-06-18T22:08:00.001-07:00

Spent half the day out at the house this morning - trying to get things ready for the stucco crew to get started. We have power now - and water! That may not be that exciting to you, but trust me. Its exciting.

Power means no more generator - the thrumming monster that ruins the quiet and sucks down gasoline. It also means that the well works and I don't have to bring bottled water to drink. Turns out our water tastes really good - which is, um - really good.

The septic contractor was out there working today too, digging a trench from the garage to the tank (so much for the quiet. But tractor loud is way cooler than generator loud). Hopefully, in about 3 or 4 weeks, I can hook up the toilet in the garage half-bath and we can get rid of the ugly port-a-potty. By then we should also be able to start storing stuff in the garage, since it will be lockable. That means we can begin the process of moving out there.

Looks like the only way we'll be able to pull of being out there in time for the new school year is to borrow Sarah's mom's fifth wheel and hook it up as our "residence" and live in that and the garage for a while. The garage has a half bath, and I figure we can set up couches and a TV in there too. There's an upstairs storage area which is huge, and we may be able to set that up as a kids bedroom. We'll see.

The budget woes are slowly being resolved. We've been looking at areas to cut back and I've been crunching numbers to try to get a more accurate gauge on where we stand and what we need to do. My mood still swings from terrified to hopeful to depressed to excited and then back to terrified. I was thinking I should have a little mood indicator at the top of my blog.

Nah.

OK. Better get to bed. Modesto day tomorrow.

2007-06-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

You know that part of the building project where the couple realizes that they may not have enough money to finish the project? And where they start grappling with the reality of the mortgage that they're going to be carrying? And they wake up at 4 a.m. so stressed out about the whole thing that they can't sleep? And then they start getting angry with each other and throwing blame?

We're there. Except for the last part.

We've hit a point where I'm not sure that we're going to have enough money to finish this house off. We've gone over budget a fair bit - some by decisions that we've made, but the majority just by things costing a lot more than we had anticipated. And the mortgage is going to be pretty insane.

I have to tell you - its terrifying and frustrating.

But here's the really cool thing. Sarah and I have been talking this over the past couple of days, and working through all of it, trying to figure out what to do. And we've been in total lockstep. And the thing is - its really my fault. I've been in charge of the budget for this project. But we've been working it out together, and it has been really great.

There's another cool thing too. I'm convinced that God is going to work all of this out. We're going to have to do some figuring, and probably some hard work, and make some hard decisions, but that alone - I assure you - will not be enough. Its going to take some miracles.

In other news, the Cowboy turns 7 tomorrow. We're now a week in to Summer vacation and the kids are just starting to find that old creative rhythm that only comes with extended down time. They read about Knights in an encylopedia and came up with a "knight" game. He drew up shields for each of them, and then created a couple of dragons that they're going to fight:

Pronpop - Age 20

Strongest Part - Bottom Teeth
Part that can make you die - Under (lower) sharpest flame
Disguise - Princess
Dream - To take over the castle and be princess
Which tent it flames - #17
Secret Weakness - Songs send her dancing out

Odomouizkomo - Age 10000

Strongest Part - Claws
Part that can make you die - Pointiest part of flame
Dream - To have the whole world to himself except for the other dragons
Which tent it flames - #6
Secret weakness - Sword fights, jokes, tricks

2007-06-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

The Cowboy's last Tee Ball game was yesterday morning. A bit sad to not have that any more, but also nice to have one more thing cleared off of our schedule.

In the afternoon, we went out to the house to do some more clean up. We're trying to get the big trash pile out there cleaned up since its now full rattlesnake season. We're hearing there's a lot of them out this year too. Yuck.

Sarah was picking up trash in the house and found a snake under a piece of plastic. It quickly slithered away and down a hole in the floor so she didn't get a good look at it. The head was somewhat wide, and it had rattlesnake-ish coloring, but she didn't see any rattles. What impressed me is that she went on working after that. Didn't pick up any more plastic, but she stayed in the house and kept cleaning. Made me proud!

I, on the other hand, was in the loft, on a stool, screaming and refusing to come down.

A lot has happened in the last week, and hopefully a lot more is going to happen this next week. Here's a few pictures, including one from the classic corner angle that we've been taking all along - inspired by Sparky.

2007-06-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

School's out! Summer vacation!

We have been so ready for this. Its going to be an insane summer, but I think a fun one too.

Whoo Hoo!

2007-06-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

For about a week now, the Cowboy has been walking around a lot holding his arms down at his sides, and slightly away from his body. Kind of like guys who have really huge muscles hold their arms. At the same time, he's had a really stone-faced expression on his face. Really weird.

We've asked him a few times why he's doing it, and haven't gotten a good answer.

Today, Sarah asked him again, and finally got an answer she could understand. Mostly.

"I only like my arms to touch my body on the even numbers".

2007-06-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Its a funny thing, building a house. You learn a lot about yourself.

There are so many decisions along the way, and as you struggle to make the right ones, you start to get some insight about what motivates you.

We always said that we wanted to build a house that was welcoming. A place people would like to come. Well built, but not flashy. Its funny though, how easy it is to start thinking in terms of how people will see it, rather than how they'll experience it.

I want our house to be a place that people love to come and visit. That's restful. That draws attention not to itself, but to the amazing creation around it. The line between that, and vanity is a slim one though. Really slim.

We're at a junction, I think. The framing is close to being done. The rough plumbing, electrical and HVAC too. Soon (I hope!) we'll be wrapping, insulating, hanging drywall. The house will really start to take shape. We're buying appliances, light fixtures, water heaters...

At the same time, life keeps moving. Maesie graduated pre-school today. The Cowboy has one more week of 1st grade. Tee-Ball is almost over. Its getting hot. Well - hotter. The Bug is growing fast. She's almost too big for her little cradle in our room, but she still sleeps there. Probably be there 'till she's 12 or so. Heavy is cute. And 2. He responds with "Why?" whether you tell him no, he can't have a cracker, or yes he can.

Its going to be an odd Summer. No trip to Santa Barbara, like we've done the past few years. A lot of unknowns to sort through - one of the biggest being where we'll live when school starts back again in early August. The kids are signed up to go to the new school, but the house won't be done.

I think we're doing alright though. Running on faith. Doing this with four kids is insane, but I think it would be insane-er without. They keep us grounded, and force us to pull our heads out of house mode and just live life.

Feh. Rambling. Sound like an English major or something!

Time to go to bed. Another busy and great weekend ahead. Tee-Ball tomorrow morning. Graduation party for Sarah's cousin (in Modesto) in the afternoon. Church on Sunday and maybe the chance to sneak out to the property - or "the house" as we are starting to refer to it - and eat some ice cream. Probably go see Odin (the horse) too. And the goats (Mr. and Mrs. Goat). And the Sheep (Violet, Beatle, and that other brown one). And the cat. And Jake the dog who is still unsure of me even after I've given him cookies, scratched his chin and told him he's a good boy.

2007-05-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

Spent the whole day out at the property cleaning up. All of us - the whole family. It was great. And it has really needed to be done for quite a while.

The kids helped some, and played some. I think they had a good time.

We also got to see the new windows which are about half way done being installed. These pictures don't do them justice, but here they are anyhow:

Tomorrow we're going to go to Calvary Chapel Grass Valley (the closest church to the new house. I've listened to a few of the sermons online and like the teaching). Sarah has a friend from Maesise's ballet class that goes there, so we'll try to meet up with them.

And Monday? I'll be working on the house with Fred. No Modesto trip this week since they're not working on Monday. I'll work via scanner, FAX and e-mail.

Oh yeah. One more picture, just because I like it.

Notice the really insane way they have the tiles stacked up ready to use. It creeps me out to look at - feels like one stiff breeze and the ground will be littered with broken tiles. They'll start installing them next week - which is good!

2007-05-25T15:42:00.002-07:00

Star Wars was released 30 years ago today.

Yes. I'm a geek.

2007-05-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

The windows go in tomorrow - which is really exciting. They're one of my favorite parts of the whole house, and they've been sitting in a storage container just itching to get installed.

It's a real test of faith, building a house. So much is unknown, and so much of what you do know is contrary to what you originally planned. I don't know how people that don't know God do it. I mean - I don't know how people who don't know God do much of anything, honestly.

I worked out there Tuesday with the crew, and we didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped. Some good progress though. Here's a couple of pictures I took with my phone:

That one's pretty cool because you can see the stand-offs where the solar panels are going to be mounted.

That's a shot of the garage. You can see the doors and windows are in place there. Its almost ready for stucco.

We'll be out there tomorrow and I'll try to remember to bring the camera. Hopefully some of the windows will be in place to take pictures of!

2007-05-20T22:43:00.001-07:00

Up late getting ready for my weekly Modesto trip tomorrow morning. Should be a busy day. A few loose ends to tie up from last week and probably some stuff to work on while there.

Tuesday, the crew is coming up for the day and I'm planning on being out there with them. We have a lot to get done and are hoping to hit it in little one day a week spurts since they have a ton of new work ramping up down there in Modesto. Not the least of which is finally getting started on rebuilding Sarah's mom's house.

Went out tonight and met our friends Gavin and Lisa along with their kids. Had pizza in the future kitchen. Showed them the progress on the house (last time Lisa was there it was bare land!) Took the kids down to the bit of water that's left of our creek to check on the tadpole/froglet/frog population.

We've been watching them the past week and a half or so. They were mostly tadpoles - some with tiny legs. Getting to be fewer in the little area. I think the older ones are finishing off those legs and hopping off to explore (or become bird food). A few are left, including one really tiny frog with just a hint of a tail.

The roof is papered and batted and there are big pallets of roof tiles out there. I would guess we'll see our roof go on this week. Mostly. I guess they have to leave it off where the roof meets stucco walls. Details, details, details.

In other news, I got to play on the worship team today - AND - I got to do music for the kids. Been a long time since I've done the latter, and its something I hope to do more of the next few months. Maesie bumped up into the Cowboy's class (since she's a big 5 year old now) and they have both been very excited about that.

Enough rambling. I'm off to bed. I'll definitely have many pictures soon.

Maybe.

Maybe Not!

2007-05-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

I got an espresso machine for my birthday last month, and I've discovered something.

I really like espresso.

I've been a big fan of coffee since we had kids. I never drank it before, but have become more and more fond of it these past years. Of late, I was brewing it pretty strong, and ordering Americanos at Starbuck's. That's espresso and water for those who don't know - about like brewed coffee, only stiffer.

Along with the machine, I got a set of cups that look like this:

So I made some espresso, and really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed only using enough coffee for what I was drinking at the time, rather than brewing half a pot only drinking a couple of cups. Now I'm hooked. I have a double shot in the morning (the caffeine equivalent of 1 1/2 cups of brewed coffee for those who might be tsk tsk-ing me) and I'm good to go.

But the big drink around these parts - for everyone who's not me - is tea. Maesie went to a Tea House for her birthday a couple weeks back, and the Cowboy got out of school to go along. She wasn't crazy about it, but he fell in love.

Since then, he's been having tea in the afternoon, and sometimes with breakfast. Decaf, of course. With lots of milk. And a liberal bit of sugar.

We're thinking he really should have been British. The tea, the intellectualism, the bad teeth.

OK. His teeth aren't bad. A couple are missing though. Like in this picture from this week's T-Ball game:

Speaking of Tea Balls, I've found that when loose tea is left in one for a day or so after the tea is made, it swells up to hugeness. Fills the whole ball. Oddly creepy really. You think I'm exaggerating, but try it.

What's that? Are we still building a house?

Yes. Very much.

Haven't gotten any good pictures lately. Went out tonight and saw some neat progress (the septic tank is in place and the roof is getting papered in preparation for tile) but didn't get any pictures. I'll be out there next Tuesday - and possibly over the weekend. I'll try to get some good pictures then.

2007-05-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

I was e-mailing back and forth last night with my stucco contractor. I've known him for a while - he used to go to church with some good friends of ours, and his grandson was in pre-school with the Cowboy.

I apologized at one point for having tried to call him so many times that day. Told him that I get a bit spazzy when I get stressed, and then asked if its always this crazy building a house. I thought his reply was priceless:

Chris,

Yes, it's always this crazy when building a house. The problem isn't just the fact that there are hundreds of details that need to be figured out, it's really a psychological test that takes us into our deepest inner self where our expectations and hopes collide with our wallet! Factor in the same for each spouse, and you have the possibility for an exponential melt down on every level of personal preference!!! That's not an easy situation for anyone to endure, and loads of people end up divorced as a result. "Nice house! Where's ole what's her name"? "Oh, sorry I asked"!!!

Hang your sheetrock after we lath.

Good night.

G.

2007-05-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Crazy potpourri blog post - GO!

I feel compelled to point out that I am no longer a Lakisha fan. I enjoy watching Blake, Melinda and Jordin, but am fairly indifferent about who wins. Maybe a slight edge for Melinda.

I am however, a big Apolo fan. I only wish I could be that cool. I'd also like to look good in headbands like he does.

Speaking of fandom, I discovered tonight that I am a Gomer. No - not just because my brother may have called me that once. Apparently, that's what the fans of Third Day call themselves.

Went looking for who else sings with Mac on By His Wounds and found that there's an entire album of collaborative songs all pulled directly from the Bible. Way cool.

Also found that they have a deal where you can start a window that cycles through playing a random selection from every song Third Day ever recorded. Like a super-charged Pandora, but with only Third Day music.

So pretty much not at all like Pandora. But still neat.

Let's see... brain on shuffle...

We bought a mattress on Sunday. We've been married over 11 years, and have always slept on left-over and hand-me-down beds. And we've talked forever about getting a new mattress. So we did. A Tempurpedic - memory foam. King. Its really, really, really, really comfy.

OK - last thing. In a really bizarre move, the Minnesota Star Tribune decided recently to cancel the column of James Lileks and turn him into a reporter covering the police beat. I kid you not. A lot of people are scratching their heads about this one - including Dave Barry.

That's it. I'm done.

Except to say that I sincerely apologize for this blog post.

Sincerely.