More pictures from the weekend

1. Golden Gate Bridge
2. Eating breakfast on the deck of the house where we stayed
3. Walking on Richardson's Bay in Tiburon

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Hope everyone took some time today to pray for our service men and women who bravely serve our country, and to thank God for those who have died in service as well. Memorial Day was originally started to give honor to those who have died in service to our country. To read more on the history of this holiday, check out Memorial Day.

I had an especially nice weekend, and was able to get away with two of my friends on a little retreat! We had a fantastic and refreshing time together doing a lot of nothing! :) We chatted, enjoyed some wine, walked on the beach, watched chick flicks, prayed together and ate too much. It was quite nice and I'm thankful to Kenny for allowing me to go away for two days and nights by myself like that. :) This picture is of me and my two friends (Sue and Julie) at Richardson's Bay in Tiburon.

Today we enjoyed the day with friends at the park...just relaxing and enjoying the friendships that God has blessed us with. We hope you, our readers, had a relaxing holiday as well!

God moves in a mysterious way

This morning, I woke up to the mournful sound of our crow couple calling for their last baby. I posted a couple of weeks ago, about the crow's nest and three babies in it. Two weeks ago, we woke up to find that two of them had been killed during the night (presumably by a cat). Since the nest was on the ground at the base of our redwood tree, they were easy prey.

Sadly, this morning, the last baby appears to have been killed during the night as I see its remains in the yard. It saddens me, as we have taken such delight in watching it over the past few weeks. Just yesterday we watched it half fly, half hop all over the yard while the parent birds squawked at it to get back to safety. I'm not looking forward to telling the kids; especially Dan and Lizzy.

So this morning, I hear the parent crows calling to each other. They have no awareness of the God who created them and takes care of them. They only know that their baby does not answer. The animal world can be seen as brutal at times, but God is good.

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face."

Hey Carol...

Happy Birthday to one of our faithful blog readers. Today is Carol's birthday! Hope you have a great day my friend! :o)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Kenny (May 18th-he's 42) and Daniel (May 20th-he'll be 9)! We went to the A's game last night to celebrate Kenny's birthday, and we're going to celebrate Dan's birthday today with pizza!

I love you both! :)

~~The A's won BIG...and we got to see a GRAND SLAM in the 8th inning too! Very exciting! :)

Time away...

We had a nice weekend away last weekend, visiting with Jill's parents to celebrate all of the May birthdays in our family! It was good to have time to relax; especially for Kenny.








We also stopped to visit Kenny's mom on the way home. We're going to be moving her up to a place here in Brentwood in early July, and we're looking forward to having her close by so we can be with her more often.








On a side note...the Brentwood Farmer's Market opens up this Saturday! For all of our Brentwood viewers, be sure to go out and support our local farmers from 8am - noon THIS Saturday, May 19th! Check out HARVEST TIME for more info on local farms.

Sad day...

Today we are sad. We had to have our 17 year old cat Harry put to sleep today. :( He was doing very poorly lately, and it was time to say goodbye so he wouldn't suffer. We will miss him.

This picture is about a year old.

Summer is here!

Summer has officially arrived; at least for today. It hit 95 in Brentwood today, and the kids got to use our new pool for the very first time. The water was pretty cold, but they all braved it anyway. We look forward to many hot days spent in our pool. It's 15' diameter and about 40" deep. Nice!

Oh...and one more thing....HAPPY BIRTHDAY today, to Jill's dad Bill. We love you!

Birds must think we're cool...

Well, our mockingbirds seem to have abandoned their nest and their pretty little blue egg. Why? Most likely because of the crows and THEIR nest and babies that are also residents of our backyard. This little crow baby was trying out his wings, and was hiding in the brush next to the redwood tree. Their nest is at the base of the same tree, well concealed.

Who needs a nature walk!? It's all right in our backyard! :)

Happy Birthday Elisabeth Anne!

Today was Lizzy's 6th birthday! We are thankful for her, and pray that the Lord will bless her in the coming year!

For her birthday she got some new clothes, some books, a movie and a couple of toys AND her very own, big Bible. She can read so well now, and as a tradition we have given each of our kids a "real" Bible on their birthdays after they have learned to read.

Happy Birthday Lizzy! We love you!

Walk for Life

Tomorrow, May 5th, is the annual Walk for Life to benefit the Valley Pregnancy Center. The Walk is in Pleasanton, and Nathan will be walking this year to raise money for this worthy cause! Thanks to all who have sponsored him!

Bird's Nest!

We have a mockingbird nest in one of the bushes next to our house. We've been watching them make the nest for about a week, and yesterday we peeked at the nest and found an egg in it!! Very cool! (Jess, you are probably laughing at us after your FUN mockingbird experiences!!)

The kids are excited to maybe get to see a baby bird in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will stay safe there in our bush!

Just to give you an idea of size, the nest inside cup is about the same size as a 1 cup measuring cup. The egg itself is only about an inch long. Mockingbirds typically lay 2-4 eggs, so I don't know if there will be more or if they are done with just one egg.