Bible Bowl Pics

I am generally opposed to posting pictures of other peoples' children on the internet, so we'll stick to adults and group shots.

Asleep on his feet already and we hadn't even left yet! He was driving, though, so he had plenty of time for sleeping on the road.

Yes, the adults enjoyed the gymnastic centre as much as the children did.

Our angels on Saturday morning (not the most flattering picture of some of them). Oh, and isn't the hotel room lovely? Nice and shiny, yes?

And at the end of the day.

Tired? Whatever do you mean?

This is what happens when I let an eleven-year-old mess with my camera.

Maxey Park under water

So the "post-rain" pics proved popular over at Lubbock Daily Photo (sorry, I could only keep up the alliteration for so long), so here are a few more, for your viewing enjoyment:


Those weird spinning things.













Some trees, near the said spinning things.













Tire swing in the playground (think how fun it would be to swing above the water! Never mind getting dirty!).











More playground













There was a "dry" entrance to the connected equipment, and people were on it (including Chad, apparently)-- and I would have joined them if not for the fact that I was wearing scrubs.
















I know this is really gross, but I was extremely curious as to what was going on down there! I haven't been back to investigate yet.

Camp Adventure

Just before Brown Bag (in the flag room).








Kris addressing the assembled aim students and campers at Brown Bag.







Eli speaking on Wednesday night.








Chad asked me to get a picture of he and Eli together...








I think this may be more what he meant.








Everyone ready for the talent show.









Robbie, the excellent, and also well-dressed, emcee.

And the lovely Shannen, sharing her talent with us.

Working (but not dusting)

Over at Lubbock Daily Photo, I joined in with the monthly theme day on Thursday; that theme being, "Men at Work." I had a few photos that I was not enamored with from earlier in the month, so on Wednesday at lunch I went outside (during another ever-popular dust storm) to catch these photos of roadworks that will never, ever be done.



This is similar to the picture I actually used, which prompted someone to comment that the men working looked like Fraggle Rock Dozers. Well, compared to that car, they certainly do.











I missed the rope/hook thing actually being lowered, because I was walking out of the building at the time. I do not know what they were doing with it.











I'm pretty sure this is a support pillar for a flyover of some sort in progress. (Ex-Aimers will be interested to know that you can almost see Daybreak in this picture.)

And here are our faithful Dozers once again. The gentleman off to the right never moved the entire time I was out taking pictures.

Geese and bicycles

Here we are again... These are the mad geese that like to snack on humans. They followed Chad to our car the other evening, after (apparently) chasing him around for a while and biting his trousers. So it is not just me, and now he understands that I am not making all this up. They seemed intent upon chewing on the car, too, but then made the tactical decision to back off and seek out some food across the street.





Fortunately, the geese have not yet tried to eat my bike. I rode it to the supermarket yesterday, but it had to wait outside while I was shopping.

Finished!

Here we have it, quilts #3 & 4. I admit that they are getting (a bit) easier; turns out I am learning how to do this as I go along. These are checkerboard quilts, as was the last one (my first quilt was a nine-patch, which I made for my sister's 21st birthday). Admittedly, the checkerboard is about the easiest quilt on the planet to make, and the nine-patch is probably second easiest, but at this point I don't care. I can get to complicated later on.




Anyway, this one is for a wee girl at church. The top is from the same materials I used for my last one, so it's nothing exciting, but the backing I bought just for this quilt-- and I quite like it. This quilt is fun on both sides.









And this slightly more manly quilt is for the wee girl's brother (didn't want to leave him out). This is the first time I've sewn with denim, apart from occasionally mending some jeans, so it was a new experience. I was quite pleased with this one.

Beware of dirt

I'm busy watching the South Plains go flying by my window... yes, that's right, we are having a dust storm. Here are some photos:


Chad had to go running this morning as part of his training for the half-marathon. He came home coated in dirt. This is the park they ran in.












Driving home













We could film the tornado scene from The Wizard of Oz out there today.













The sky is still looking orange-y, and the wind is about 45 mph with gusts up to 61 mph. Visibility is 1/4 mile. Not sure how long this is planning to go on, but we aren't going for a walk today, that's for sure.

Lots of pink

I just realised that, in what was a serious oversight on my part, I never posted these pics on here! And I was so proud of myself, too...

This was my most recent baby blanket; I decided to try quilting one instead of crocheting, just to see how I liked it. And also how good I am at it. This is not, however, the quilt involved in the sewn finger incident.






Another shot, this time showing the backing. The bear pictured belongs to me; Chad gave it to me after he proposed, so I didn't give it to anyone. He was just happy to be getting his picture taken.

New arrival on Aisle 3...

Well, I don't fall into either category, and I have to say I am thankful for that. After we adopt, of course, I will be a "new mom", but in a slightly different way. Anyway, it is nice of the shops to offer these reserved parking spaces.

Chad in training

So here we have my husband, proudly sporting his new "Team in Training" t-shirt. He is running a half-marathon in May as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society team, to raise money for treatment and cure for these diseases. His fundraising goal is $5000; a link to his site where you can donate is in the sidebar. If you have a spare $5 you can give to this cause, we would be so grateful! And so would the thousands of patients who depend upon the efforts of organisations such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Icicles on the roof

We woke up this morning to icicles in a more conventional location-- hanging off the roof! I haven't investigated yet to see if any have landed on the stairs today. (If this statement makes no sense to you, then see one of my other blogs and look at yesterday's post.)








Not certain as to why this one came out so dark. We've noticed several times that we will get one or two really long icicles, like the previous picture, and then a bunch of smaller ones clumped together like this.










A few more, just for fun. And the sun, ably abetted by the lack of wind, has melted them all off already. However, I do not know what the actual temperature is.

Snow-- again

The apartment parking lot, Kenosha Avenue, the church parking lot across the street. Taken from our patio.








So we were driving down Quaker, and I took a moment to reflect on the curious ways of this city: two weeks ago, when there had not yet been any winter weather and all we had was a negative forecast, the Lubbock school district cancelled school. Today, when there was real, live snow both on the ground and falling from the sky, school was in session. School districts in the surrounding areas, however, delayed for a couple of hours.


Maxey Park. I don't know what the geese do when it snows, but there weren't any to be seen this morning.

Who am I?

I have no idea what species of waterfowl this particular bird is. If anyone knows, feel free to enlighten me. I've seen a few of them around the playa lake before, but this is the largest one I've seen thus far.

Okay, I know this it not technically a good picture, but I really like it! The combination of a shaky hand and a shaky car (I left it running to keep warm while waiting for Chad after work), led to this very blurry look at Slide Road.

Fly away! Fly away!

I thought about posting this picture in black-and-white, since there is no colour in it to speak of anyway. But I'm not sure how to do that without giving myself a serious headache. I'm sure there is a nice widget (or whatever they are called) somewhere on the internet to do it easily, but I don't have it yet. Anyway! I admit that Chad and I scared these particular geese on purpose to get them to fly a bit, so that I could get this picture. Unfortunately, the goose that tried to make a snack out of my leg last winter is not among this group, so I can't even call it revenge. Regardless of my evil intent, I do like watching geese whatever they are doing-- flying, swimming, landing, or in this case, running for their lives.

We went for a walk today

We walked from our house to the library, about a 3.5 mile round trip. There is a park with a playa lake in it next to the library, so we had to go round the lake. This area is a means of drainage from the street (just in case it rains) into the lake. On the way there, I crossed on one of the concrete bits as well, but I didn't think I could be lucky enough to not fall in twice. So I crossed on the bit level with the street (thus adding a few feet to my trip). And I took this picture of Chad as he was halfway across.

Mission Fare

So I've decided to "try my hand" at a daily photo blog for a few days before becoming official, that is, before actually joining the daily photo community. Click the "Lubbock Daily Photo" link to see it.



In the meantime, here are some pics from the Mission Fare last Sunday:



Montevideo, Uruguay












Lima, Peru

Arecibo, Puerto Rico (and the missionary's son!)

Kigali, Rwanda, Africa

Casa de la Esperanza (Children's Home), Anahuac, Mexico

Short-term Missions

Local Outreach Projects

And our own booth for Nottingham, England. We played Disney's Robin Hood, on the basis that you can't separate Nottingham and Robin Hood in the minds of Americans, and it was quite an attraction for the children.