Lost and Found

Powerful church service this morning. Did you ever notice that both brothers in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15) have the same problem? They both made a deal with the father. They treated family as a business relationship. The younger thought that he could be happy by taking what was his and leaving. The 0lder thought that he could make dad owe him something by staying and always obeying, but with a cold heart. In both cases, the kids didn't get the whole idea of a father's love.
Anyway, on with the post. Here's a video that we put together for the sermon this morning.

It was shot on Saturday and Wednesday by Jody Dorrell and edited by me with lots of help from Josh Bell (the guy playing the son). Thanks to Jay for the idea and vision, Jody for the gear and shooting expertise and Josh Bell and Howard and Dawn Duff for their acting skillz.

The Dog Saga Continues

Well, we are just about a month away from our new puppy... Here are some new pics and movies.

A few of you have asked what happened between the stories of Lexie and this new puppy. Sorry for the confusion, I need to read my own blog a little better, but here's the story:

Lexie is an amazing dog, but she was never going to be ours. We were greatly blessed in the time that we got to know her. But, it was pretty evident that she was not the right dog for Noah. One of the keys to a therapy or assistance dog for him is that the dog needs to be low energy. Noah needs a dog who will have a calming effect on him. While Lexie could be calm with Noah when he wanted to be calm with her, the dog's natural response to a human touching her was to get more and more wound up. Noah needs a dog who will usually be calmer than he is.
Also, most of Lexie's significant skills would be lost on Noah. Drop a fork and instantly, Lexie would pick it up. But, Noah can pick up his own silverware (and does whether he's eating or not). It would have been a loss for someone in need of physical assistance not to have these skills and so it would be wrong of us to keep Lexie.
We miss her terribly, but are excited at her future with someone who really needs exactly who she is.

So, we wait for the puppies to grow up a bit more. We will then be able to go and take a close look at all ten dogs in the litter to find exactly the right one for what Noah needs. We are working on names now, but that's a secret. Noah may have some ideas on that front too!

What does david really do at work?

Left over footage from a Sunday morning video.

Thirty Four!

Woo hoo! Happy Birthday to Emily!

Crabbing!

Another day on the dock netted us ten good sized crabs (and 20 more that we released). Noah played with them more alive than cooked and has a few pinch marks on his hands to show for it. It's hard to keep a determined seven year old out of a game he wants to play. As hard as it is to watch, sometimes it's just better to let the crabs do the teaching.

Andrew and Elaina worked hard bringing crabs out of the water and into the big bucket (with lots of terrified/excited screaming). Elaina got so good she even caught two at once!

Then came dinner; what a fun mess! Noah only seemed to want to play with the shells. Andrew had a great time smashing things with his hammer. Elaina did very well and has the cut up hands to prove it. Because crabs contain trace elements of mercury (something the boys systems can't process), they didn't get much meat, but had a ball anyway.