David celebrated his 39th birthday on Sunday. He decided he wanted to go to church (we haven’t been in a month, with sick kids). Eva is in the big 3-year-old class now, and though she seemed a bit confused by going to a new room, she soon caught sight of Nicole (who lives down the street), sat down next her at the art table, and settled right in. We were too late to put Amanda in the nursery, but I wasn’t disappointed. I’m pretty sure that’s where she caught her cold, which mowed our whole family down for a month. Too many people assume runny noses just mean teething, and put their kids in there anyway, to chew on all the toys. We just carried Amanda into the service with us, and she took a long nap in my arms. A guest couple took turns sharing parts of the message, which was all about how God’s love is unconditional, just because we’re His kids. We could never earn it, and never lose it. It’s a good reminder to stop striving, stop disqualifying ourselves, and just let Him love us. And to let that love transform us, so we can share it unconditionally with others, as freely as it was given to us.
When we got home, David made himself an ice cream sundae for lunch, and opened presents. I gave him some CD’s, a movie and a book. He opened a package from his sister Laura, and laughed as he saw she had sent him a contraption for surfing in your backyard, called a “Skimboard Surfer”. It’s basically a huge Slip-n-Slide with a board. She knows that the hardest part of moving away from SoCal for him was not getting to surf anymore. He wanted to try it out right away, so he mowed a strip of grass in the backyard and set it up. He hooked it up to the hose, jumped on for his first run, and promptly landed flat on his back, smacking his head on the grass. From then on he stuck to sliding on his stomach, but the board would get caught halfway, and he’d keep going on his bare belly. We finally figured out that he was supposed to fill the bumpers along the edge with water, so the water could collect deeply enough in the middle to actually form a wave. Oh, and Dave had forgotten to take the plastic wrapper off the board, too. I guess he was just too excited to read the directions. LOL!
In the evening we were supposed to go to a picnic with friends from small group, but we had a huge thunderstorm brewing, so everyone came to our house instead. Almost everyone made pasta or green salads, because it was too hot to cook. I had made cupcakes as a surprise for Dave, and we sang “Happy Birthday” to him as he blew out a single candle. The guys all wanted to try out the Skimboard Surfer in the backyard, but huge flashes of lightening, rolling thunder and pelting rain kept them inside. The air was hot and humid, so we opened all the windows, hoping for a breeze, and set up fans in every room. We had huge gusts of wind too, powerful enough to blow the blinds off of one of our windows, and blow over our neighbor’s basketball hoop. We had a great time, and they were such gracious guests. Everyone helped clean up the kitchen and pick up all the toys, so our house actually looked better when they left than when they arrived. That was sweet of them!
Happy Birthday DAVE!!!!!!!
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