Des Moines Botanical Center

We went to the Botanical Center this week. Here are pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/works_of_art/

Ryan’s Graduation

Ryan had his Kindergarten graduation today. Erin blogged about it, so here is my addition: video! It’s just a few clips of the hour long program, but I tried to get the highlights. However, the really cute things happened after my stoopid video camera stopped working (batteries died). I least I got him getting his diploma and Christian Character award! That was really neat to see him rewarded for being such a good kid in school. I praise the Lord that He enabled Ryan to be a good student, well-behaved, and so kind towards his friends. We are so proud of him!

(sorry the video of him is not that great. The camera takes better closeups than distant shots.)

Yay, Us!

9th Wedding Anniversary!

My Movie Review…

I was going to write a review of the new Star Trek movie that was out this weekend, but I can’t. It was just too awesome for words. So I thought a visual help would be better:

Now it’s time for another good idea/bad idea:

Good Idea:

Casting Chris Pine as a young James T. Kirk:

Bad Idea:

Casting William Shatner as a young James T. Kirk:

A picture says a thousand words…

Jonah and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I’m in a Hebrew module this week, and it’s been awesome and refreshing! We are translating through Jonah and Ruth, and possibly something else will be thrown in there by the end of the week. On Monday we translated Jonah, and on Tuesday we translated Jonah again, and then got about half way through Ruth.

Jonah is one of the most fascinating people in the Bible. As the professor of the class told us, Jonah had good theology, but a bad attitude. To be honest, it baffles my mind how this can be true, but our prof had us consider how many people we knew who went to good, fundamental baptist churches (some of them even in the GARBC! GASP!) but lived with rotten attitudes toward God, their families, or the lost. Turns out I know quite a few…even myself from time to time. This is a small example of what I love about Seminary: the academic challenge that is fully combined with spiritual challenges, and practical application. Well, that and watching the prof get giddy with delight as he explains to us how the Hebrew word for “Father-in-law” takes it’s roots/origins in a word that can also mean “Circumciser”. All I can say is “yikes”.

Jonah through out the book complains, whines, pouts, and questions God. Sure, in chapter 2 he offers up a fantastic psalms-type prayer, but given what he does before and after the prayer, I’m having a hard time believing it was sincere. Maybe it was. It is interesting to see that God prepared this fish for Jonah as a means of his rescue from the ocean that he was chucked into. He also used this fish to bring Jonah back to where he should have been to begin with.

As we got to the part where the fish spits Jonah onto dry ground, someone in class wondered if the fish had to beach itself to get Jonah out, and then it died. Someone than asked, “Yeah, how far can a whale hock a loogie?” Yes, it is deep intellectual questions like this that keep me going to class year after year. Anyway, about the fish possibly dying after spitting Jonah out, we discussed it for a bit, and then our prof smiles and says, “Well, God never claimed to be a card-carrying member of PETA!” The conversation eventually lead us to finding this delightfully fun website about exploding whales.

One of the issues that Higher Critics have with this book is Jonah’s message. They will say that this book is inaccurate because Jonah was a Hebrew and spoke hebrew, while Ninevah spoke Akkadian. Therefore they would not have been able to understand each other. Yup, this is an actual, real argument. Hilarious. First of all, Akkadian and Hebrew are closely related languages, and it would not be beyond the realm of possibility for Jonah to have learned how to speak a few phrases at the very least.  However something they also don’t consider is that people from both Israel and Ninevah probably knew Aramaic, which was a common language at the time. It is possible then that Jonah preached in Aramaic. This is why books of the Bible like Daniel have portions written in Aramaic. The portion that is intended for the world to hear is written in a common language that they can understand. Which then brings many interesting questions to mind about Bible translations and versions, but let’s not go down that road today.

Jonah teaches us many good lessons: make sure your attitude is right in ministry, God is compassionate even towards the most wicked of sinners, and sometimes God needs to go to drastic measures to break the stubborness of our hearts. Don’t be like Jonah; be open to God’s leading wherever it may take you. Be compassionate as He is compassionate. And, if you are running from God, don’t ask to be thrown overboard a ship during a storm at sea. You might regret it!

1 Zoo + 22 Kindergartners + No Sleep = Fun Times.

This past Tuesday was my last day I had off since Gracie was born. I had volunteered to be a driver/chaperon for Ryan’s kindergarten class and their field trip to the Des Moines Zoo. I was kind of dreading it because the night before I only got a couple of hours of sleep, thanks to Gracie staying up late and waking up early and crying the whole time in between. So she and I got to spend a lot of quality time snuggling on the couch while she dealt with The Gas Bubble of Doom.

So Coffee I. V. firmly in place, I stumble into ACA ready to drive a few kindergartners to the Zoo. It turned out that I didn’t have to drive because one of the kids moms brought her 16 passenger van so we were able to combine several car loads into one vehicle. As Luck would have it, I got to sit between two girls from Ryan’s class. I shall call their names “Cutie Pie” and “Demon Child”. “Cutie Pie” was a sweet little girl, who was very excited about everything. I showed her pictures of our new baby, and she oooed and aaaaaaahed appropriately. I decided I liked her, and that she could marry any of my boys if she wanted to.

Then there was “Demon Child”. She said everything VERY LOUDLY AND RIGHT IN MY EAR. And that was before she decided to start yelling. She thought it was funny to scream in my ear, sneeze on me, spit on me, lick my arm, poke me, and say things like, “I’m gonna shake my booty” and other slang terms for various and sundry body parts. When you are running on 2-3 hours of sleep, this is the last thing you want. In fact, I’m willing to bet if you had a full night sleep, you still would not want to deal with a kid like this. On the way home, I had to tell her that I had Mrs. Jeske’s phone number on speed dial, and if she didn’t stop I was going to call her. That finally calmed her down to Mildly Obnoxious, instead of Extremely Obnoxious.

When we got to the zoo, the kids were divided up amongst the parents, and Mrs. Jeske, Ryan’s teacher, floated from group to group taking pictures, etc. Mrs. Jeske, she’s a clever lady. I was about to be grumpy about this, but then I realized that she had to deal with Demon Child plus 21 other kids all by herself 5 days a week! The grumblings died before they even began. If I could give out Congressional Medals of Honor, she would get one.

In my group I had Ryan and three other boys. Two of those boys had their dads with them, too, and one of their moms came to, so we all pretty much had to just keep an eye on our own kid, plus the one boy whose parent didn’t come. I kind of felt sorry for him, but he seemed ok with it, so then I thought maybe he had loser parents. Nobody wants loser parents showing up and crimping your style.

I was proud of Ryan and our group. The boys were all well behaved. At home Ryan can be bossy, loud and obnoxious, but he also capable of friendliness, kindness, and sweetness,  and that was what was on display that day. And believe me, he wasn’t doing it just because I was watching. Usually Ryan has to sneak off to school and behaves perfectly behind my back with his other nice friends. Then he comes home and behaves in normal kid fashion, i.e. the Tazmanian Devil.

I am posting picturesof Ryan and his friends rather than the animals. Mostly, it’s because I didn’t really get any good pictures of the animals. Ha! Just kidding. It’s because Ryan and his friends were being so funny. They all had their zoo maps, and they kept looking at where they were on the map, deciding where they would go next, and then running off to the next exhibit. They were like a bunch of minature tourists out to see the sights.  It was priceless.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted, but we had had a really fun time. Ryan told me that the next time he went on a field trip, I had to come with him. This made me happy, because I remember when I was a kid, and if my parents had wanted to come along on a field trip, I would have been MORTIFIED. There might be a day when Ryan decides he’s too cool for me to hang out with him and his friends, so in the meantime I had better take advantage of this while I can (even on little amounts of sleep). So for now, I’m Ryan’s Way Cool Dad. But don’t worry, I’m prepared for the Day of Mortification, the day when Ryan must not be seen with me in public. At all. I have a file tucked away on my computer called “Embarrassing Baby Pictures of Ryan”:

“So, you’re Suzy? You know, my son really likes you…you wanna see some baby pictures?”

Checking the map…

And ZOOMING off to the next thing to see! I love this picture. This is pretty much what the four boys did all day.

We paused for a class picture, and yes that’s Ryan’s friend giving him bunny ears. He was unaware of it, so I took a picture. And then told him.

If you look closely, there is a snow leopard up in the tree.  The Tiger was pacing his cage looking at the four boys with ravenous eyes, but I didn’t get a good shot of that.

They are running down the path to go see the Giraffe exhibit (which turned out to be closed because of construction)

The lioness was hilarious. She was sleeping flat on her back, and at one time had all four paws sticking straight up in the air.

Time to go home! Fun was had by all. This is Ryan between his friends. That’s Cutie Pie who has her arm around him. The boy next to him had his arm around him too, but he moved to fast before I got his picture. This picture almost made me cry.

I think Ryan might be popular in his class. He might even grow up to be a popular high school kid. That would be weird. (I never really was popular when I was a kid, and now that I am popular and cool and the epitomy of what everone wants to be, it really doesn’t matter anymore. )

Fun was had by all! And a big thanks to Irv and Jan who yearly give us a zoo pass so I could enjoy this day for free!

I, Hammurabi, am, like, totally AWESOME!!!

Well it’s all done but the crying! I finished my final project this morning for Akkadian, and that class is now done with. It resulted in some very cool learning, many sleepless nights, and several people questioning my mental health as I trudged through this class with a stupid and excited grin on my face. Sure there were times where I wanted to through the whole thing out the window and just be done with it. I’m glad I didn’t, because I finished the class. As Rhino the Hamster says in the movie “Bolt”:  You can do the impossible, IF YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!

Like Rhino, Hammurabi was pretty much of the same opinion of himself. He thought he was pretty awesome. For my final in this class, I had to translate his Sippur wall inscription. See, long before there were blogs, people took clay tablets and little styluses and spent long hours writing various things out. Centuries later Archaeologists uncover these things and get excited, even if it’s some long dead persons shopping list. Hammurabi’s Wall inscription was full of self-glory and praise to false god’s. He takes a paragraph to describe himself as “Hammurabi, the mighty king, the king of Babylon, the king of the four world regions (i.e. the universe), the Creator of the land, the king whose deeds are pleasing to Shamash and Marduk (false gods)” it goes on. He mentions how he even “dug the Euphrates to Sippur” and that he “raised the walls of the city as a great mountain” and founded Sippur and Babylon to be the eternal dwelling place of peace.

Whatever, Hammurabi. There is more pretentiousness found on one tablet of his than you can find in an entire Starbucks cafe. (Note: I love going to Starbucks, but I think some people go because they are supposed to. I don’t, I go because I HAVE to. Big difference I learned more than just Akkadian in this class. There were many interesting historical things as well. We translated a very small portion of Sennacherib’s Prism, in which he relates how he laid siege to Jerusalem and King Hezekiah. As you may imagine, Sennacherib tells the story from a different perspective, and leaves out a few details that the Bible mentions.  We translated a bit written by Nebuchadnezzar, The Flood Epic from Gilgamesh, and some of Hammurabi’s Law Code.

But it’s over now. All done with classes (until my module starts on Monday . I will be taking another Hebrew class, and then the following week I will take Israel in Prophecy, which sounds like it will be very interesting indeed. But this class, this class has been wonderful. Monday afternoon I got together with the other two people in the class to go over our final. I mentioned how much I’ve loved this class and my friend in the class told me: “You are a sick person. You need help!”

Well we always knew this to be true, right? Now we have proof.

Amazing

Grace Rebekah born on April 27th. 9lbs 10 oz.

And just in case you missed the birth weight:

Praise the Lord for this little miracle!

Warning: Animal at Large

I woke up yesterday afternoon feeling a bit tired and not in the mood for foolishness. I had worked two night shifts over the weekend and I was tired. So of course, the moment I got up, my cell phone rang, but I let the voice mail get it. To my surprise, the caller actually left a message. To my bigger surprise, it was from the police department. Apparently, they had found Rosie, and she was ready for us to come and pick her up.

Huh? I didn’t know she had escaped! Sure enough, I stumble downstairs and look in the backyard: the gate was standing wide open. I had forgotten to latch it this morning when I took the trash out, the wind had blown it open, and Rosie made her escape to live the wild and crazy life. But, alas, crime does not pay. The police had picked her up, and had her in custody.

Ankeny has some fairly strick leash laws, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to just “pick her up”. Sam and I went down to the police station to get the little varmit. And yes, when I got there, the officer issued me a warning citation for having an “animal at large”. He told me if it happened again, I would be fined and possibly have a court appearance. Great.

I wasn’t angry at the officer. I’m very glad for the very strict laws that Ankeny has. When I was a teenager I lived down the street from a pit bull that terrorized the nieghborhood, and nothing was really done about it. However, I couldn’t  help but laugh at the classification “animal at large”. It makes Rosie sound like some sort of dangerous criminal instead of a wimpy little fail dog. The lady officer brought Rosie, and this lady was very obviously in love with her. Rosie had been working her charm once again, I see.

Anyway, we took the little criminal home, and she spent some time in solitary confinement, and was required to do some community service, which involved going on a walk with us that evening, in the hopes that a brisk evening walk would put Erin in labor (it didn’t).

Rosie did get a mug shot however. I must tell you this is a real picture and it has not been doctored in anyway. I’m serious.

As this picture shows, it appears she had quite the time on her grand adventure. I’m not sure where she got the jaunty straw hat from, but she looks like she had a great time. The investigation is still on going as to what she was doing in the time she was gone, but for now, Rosie remains under house arrest.

If she escapes again, be ware of her big bulgy eyes. They are lethal weapons.

ACA Spring Concert

For those of you who could not make the trip out to Iowa to watch Ryan and his class sing in ACA’s Spring Concert (all 2 minutes of it), we are pleased to bring exclusive video footage of Ryan and his class singing their little hearts out.Every class, DK-12th grade had some part in the concert. Now as far as the elementary classes went, I thought Ryan’s class did the best. Maybe I’m prejudiced, or maybe it’s because his class was the biggest, but I thought they did the best job: they sung well, stayed in tune, and behaved themselves, three things I am unable to do whenever I sing in public.

Anyway, without further ado, Ryan take it away: