He is Always WIth Us! (song & dance from VBS)

More Adorable Overload: VBS concludes

All smiles!

Greg gets attacked by a fan.

Little Luke and his playmate. They were taking turns tickling and giggling.

Here I am, dressed up as Pharaoh. I refused to let the Israelite slaves go from Egypt, then kicked them out when all the first born Egyptians died for the 10th plague!

I had the blessing of babysitting little Natalie (the one in the lighter denim American frock, in front) a year ago... She is SO cute and told her mom that I was dressed up as a Princess... haha. I guess I wasn't a convincing male patriarch afterall.

This was taken the last day, when each group "crossed through the Red Sea"(aka on top of the blue tarp and under "water fabric") before the "Soldiers" (their crew leaders) and "Pharoah" (that's me!) tried to catch up and ended up drowning. Our stories were pretty intense. A lot of people die in the stories. The Bible's kinda un-kid-friendly... haha...

Meet Ransom (dressed as "A Cloud" slash tribute to Michael Jackson):

The Kids got to put their names on the cardboard cross on the 4th day, after eating the Passover meal and learning that Jesus was the ultimate Lamb, the last and best sacrifice:

I loved that the groups were each color coded! :)

Greg and Ransom give everyone high fives on their way out of Bible Bayou. And check out Sarah and Stephanie, some of the awesome crew leaders :)

I think this was when Greg asked "Who had fun this week?!" or something. hahah Yay for so many hands!!

The Green group was preeeeetttyyyy rowdy :)

Greg gets in costume as "a Pillar of Fire". More for fun than anything else... I love the motion.

Darling girls! I loved all the kids so much. What an amazing time...

I worked primarily with Ransom, a rising 6th grader, and Greg, a rising high school senior in the Drama area - also known as "Bible Bayou". Fitting name to go with the "Crocodile Dock" theme, eh? :) It was really fun! We made the bible come to life with over-the-top acting. It was also kind of funny, because the room we were in was also where I got ready on my wedding day!

Here, Ransom and I are preparing and handing out the matzo and parsley for a our mini seder feast:

Greg teaches the kids about the seder. Being a messianic Jew, he was able to also sing a prayer for us in Hebrew, which was awesome. It was super cute to see the kids react as they heard him sing the traditional passover prayer.

Vacation Bible School (with video!)

I am having such a blast at Vacation Bible School this year. Last year was stellar, too, but I feel like I know even more of the students this year and well, I get to play a bigger role and be more into it since I'm not juggling a middle school program at the same time. I wish I had gotten some pictures from when I was acting as "Pharoah" (we're studying stories of Moses in the Old Testament) yesterday. The kids were inflicting the first nine (out of ten total) plagues on me. It was pretty hilarious. They LOVED it. They got to scare me away each time after asking me to let the people go (which, of course, as the story goes, I never did. however, it was more goofy and played up my ways of saying no)... They were locusts (snapping clothes pins), dead fish (plastic fish thrown at me - which they LOVED), boils (i "fell asleep" and they put red stickers all over my face), gnats & flies (which "went in my ears and nose!"), and more.

One of my favorite lines (there are so many good ones) was when I was asking what the bad smell was... and had they showered? (before exclaiming about the dead fish) and one super cute kid looks at me and smiles and shouts "NO!" hahahahaha

Anyways, here's a video of a sweet shy little boy being dressed up and "Watered". And some super cute pics, too :) Enjoy!

So many adorable kids and students! I love 'em all...

Cardo-boxing: Have Fun & Kick Butt!

So, when I joined my gym, I did this sort of introduction/self-analysis with a trainer. We went all around the gym and tried different ways of testing my endurance, agility, flexibility, strength, etc. Turns out I'm very flexible and not in quite as bad shape as I was expecting. At the end, he had me try my hand (literally) at boxing. I was BLOWN AWAY. It was so much fun! The punch is so satisfying. I mean, you can HEAR the effort you put into the punch and there is so much complexity to it all that it works your whole body really well. After only about 10 minutes throwing punches with him, I was exhausted.

... And exhilarated. So I knew I had to try the "Intro to Boxing" course. But that was only 30 minutes and focused solely on technique. It was good, and actually made me quite sore the next day in my ribs, but I wanted more! So, this week I was finally able to attend the Cardio-boxing class.

We started out with four laps in one direction, then switched and ran another four. Somehow I ended up being front of the line and was excited that I was able to go pretty quickly - and steadily, too. The class progressively got more challenging. We did some warm ups, like jumping jacks and whatnot, and finally got into punches. We took turns hitting the bag and learned some more tricky sequences of shots and ducking. Though I felt comfortable with the "boxer's rhythm", I was pretty terrible at doing the sequences properly and in order.

By the end of the class, as we did some last stretches and push ups, I was on Cloud Nine. I found that every time I punched into something (rather than practicing in the air, which we did a lot of), I smiled afterwards. I don't have a lot of anger, so I'm not upset when I'm punching... but I just find it satisfying. The sound you hear as a result of a punch is like a tangible result, much like mowing a lawn or seeing a finished project that you made. I was sweating, hot, and so tired I could hardly do some of the exercises.

But it was awesome. I loved it! I really want to keep this up :) I love cardio-boxing!

BREAKING NEWS ... On Coffee!!

"Fresh, Hot Cup of Cockroaches - Food Media
Source: www.chow.com

Preground coffee is full of roaches, says one entomologist."

UGHHHH disgusting! Makes me even happier that I stick to whole bean...

Hands On Your Head

I just overheard one of the preschool teachers from the day school which plays outside my window say to the kids:

"If you're ready for snack, put your hands on your head."

And I thought to myself how bizarre life would be if the way we treated kids was the way we lived our entire lives. That is to say, how does putting ones hands on ones head have anything remotely to do with receiving a snack? I think that if I were still a kid, it would confuse me greatly. So... if I'm hungry, and I want a snack, and I put my hands on my head...

Will a snack just appear out of no where? Why on my head? Why not on my belly, to signify the hunger?

Okay, so maybe I'm taking this too seriously but it just makes me laugh. We are so odd in how we treat kids sometimes and I wonder if it only makes the rapid growth and learning more confusing and difficult to understand for the little ones. Why not just say "If you want to get a snack, we've all got to be quiet first" or something more logical? I suppose it's the tangible distraction. Putting your hands on our hands on our head keep us from poking others, anxiously picking at our nails, or digging for snacks in our pockets.

It seems a lot like surrender to me. Maybe that's a good metaphor for our relationship with God. Put your hands up where He can see them, and trust that He'll provide? :)

The WHY Questions (Quotation on faith as framework: by Donald Miller)

"I wonder what it must feel like, for those without a faith system, to wake up one morning and suddenly ask why questions, the way I asked them up on that hill in west Texas. I would think it would be difficult to explain pain and suffering, to explain beauty and meaning and purpose with only subjectivity as framework. When I think of this, I think of that Douglas Coupland book with all the nursery rhyme characters who are lost, looking for something good that was supposed to happen but never happens because the plastic surgery didn't work or the drugs started to own them or the depression that is always, always waiting just outside the door found a crack it could slip through to whisper hard and unwanted truths into the ears of the characters whose stories were supposed to come true, were supposed to end with a happily ever after."

~ Donald Miller

p. 24 from "Through Painted Deserts:Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road"