Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

We went to a niece's baptism today and it was a very lovely experience. My sister and sister-in-law both did excellent jobs with the talks, the music was great, and it was just a very nice service. But I have to say that my favorite part was when we were singing primary songs while Sage and her grandfather were getting changed out of their wet clothes, my mom (who was chorister) was taking song requests and someone asked for "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." There was a quick debate on whether we should include the jumping up and down on "sunbeam" a la primary singing time. It was decided, much to all of the young children's delight, that we would include jumping. The really great part was seeing the Bishop and 1st councilor, who were both sitting up front and are rather tall, jumping up and down with the song. That made me smile really big.

Nathan Rides a Bike

Another one for the "Nathan is growing up list", he can now ride a two wheeler. He also basically taught himself to do it unless some aunt or uncle was helping him behind our backs.

The first video is of Nathan practicing in the backyard. Unfortunalty the space is a little small for him to really get going.

The second is when we walked over to the local school and just let them ride in the open space. He does much better when we doesn't need to worry about running into things. Next on the agenda is to find the bicyle pump so that we can pump up the tires and make it easier for him to ride.

Field Trip to the Japanese Gardens at CSULB

Nathan's Kindergarten class had a field trip to a lovely Japanese garden at the local University. It is so local that the kids walked there. It was a long walk but they did walk the whole way. Well, except for Nathan. Josh and I came along and I brought the stroller for Joshua, but of course Nathan rode in it almost as much. Here we are almost mid way to the garden. On the left is the dance complex for the university. It has rather avant gard architecture but it is better now that the paint job has faded. When it was first completed it was rather garish but maybe I don't have good enough taste. You will see it used from time to time as an other world setting on a Power Ranger episode. Seriously.

Here we are with the kids mobbing the docent at the beginning of the tour.


And here is a photo opportunity on the pseudo half moon bridge. It isn't a real half moon bridge (a full half circle aka a higher arch) because of safety and insurance reasons.

The tea house. The kids like the explanation about the door being so small as to prevent a fully armoured samurai from entering it.

Josh observing the fish and probably wanting to join them in the water.

And here is a group picture. This was a silly one that was taken after the "real" one. Nathan's expression is the same in both so I figured that most people would find this one more interesting.

Home Project

Isn't it nice when you can identify a good home improvement project, have most of the needed materials already, and be able to complete it fairly quickly. I've needed a good space to hang my broom, mop, dustpan, etc., since we moved the reptiles into the laundry room and told Richard that I was looking at the space next to where the old built in ironing board was. He suggested removing the cabinet and filling in the hole so that there would be a nice big space to hang things.
Here is the view of the cabinet out and framing in.

Here is the space after the drywall and mud and taping.

And here is the finished product. I was glad to be able to find the paint stored in the garage and that we didn't make too many holes hanging the hooks. And it is soooo nice to have someplace to hang all my stuff now.