Spring is Springing - and Snow is Coming - Maybe??

It is officially spring and I love watching the colorful offerings of our Creator. It is supposed to be one of those perfect early spring days - we're watering because we haven't had much moisture this winter. That is supposed to change this next week, but we'll see! As soon as the sun is fully on the patio, I am going to go out and clean up all of the baby equipment - car seats, bases, stroller - fun times!

It was spring break this week - for everyone except Kristen and her cyber classmates - their professors continued to pour on the assignments. Not fair! So I had the girlies - all 4 - more than she or I expected.







Care Bear, first grader, is quite the artist and writer. She writes a book about every other day. In fact, she wrote one for St. Patrick's Day which her teacher read to the class. This day she was really in the Easter mood. My neighbor is de-cluttering (and, believe me, she has a lot of clutter - she hoardes and is now de-hoarding) and brought me 4 bunnies she'd acquired years ago whose price tags had never been removed. Just enough for the 4 girls. Care Bear found them before I planned to give them, but I'm glad she did, because it kept them occupied all afternoon. She spent the afternoon creating an original Easter basket, complete with directions.

Then she began writing a book - here is my favorite page.

I ordered tickets for Kristen and the two bigger ones to go to Disney on Ice Thursday night. I decided to keep the babes instead of going with them so that they could probably enjoy it more. The twins went to sleep at 7:30 and slept 12 hours. And Kristen and the big girls got to sleep in until 8:30 the next morning. Good for everyone. There is nothing more fun to me than seeing their smiling faces first thing in the morning.








DC is on his way up to the mountains above Denver where he and the other three members of his long-running quartet will record the next 3 songs on their first and most likely only CD. These guys have sung together for 25 years and have many favorite songs. They sing mostly southern gospel, but are often asked to sing at the funerals of the wonderful saints of our church. It's hard on DC to do that, but I understand why their families honor their desires for these churchmen to sing. We are really excited to hear the end result, which will have 10 of their favorites. I now totally understand why CDs cost so much - the amount of work that goes into producing one is incredible.

Today is a very special day for one of my nephews, David. He is a cadet in his junior year at West Point. David began planning his career at West Point and beyond when he was in 7th grade. He is an amazing young man.

David is an extreme runner - meaning that his running career has expanded from doing it for exercise in his neighborhood to coming up here to run the Bolder Boulder every Memorial Day, to marathons, to 50 mile runs in Central Park, to a 100 mile run while he was home for Christmas in Oklahoma. I thought of David when I read this quote in Rick Warren's devotional one day this week:

"In the film Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says, 'I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God's pleasure." Later he says, 'To give up running would be to hold him in contempt.'

There are no unspiritual abilities, just misused ones. Start using yours for God's pleasure."

David has become involved in the Wounded Warrior Project. He has such a heart for soldiers who are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with life-changing injuries. Today's challenge began as a dream back during Christmas break when he ran that 100 miles, and is being carried out today.

The event itself actually began yesterday afternoon at 5:00 and will end today at 5:00. He is running around his high school track in Yukon, Oklahoma for 24 hours, which he computed to be 135 miles. David's story has been featured in newspaper, on radio, and on t.v. in the last two weeks or so. Here are two videos from Channel 9 in Oklahoma City - very short and informative. I have to say I had tears in my eyes as I watched them. Please go here and here to see what is going on. His goal was $10,000, but last I heard from my brother, it has exceeded $19,000 as of 1:00 this morning.

I wish I could be there and walk a few laps with him. I am a very proud aunt.

UPDATE: David is on his way back to New York and West Point, to begin classes again tomorrow morning. He is, of course, very tired. He ran 107 miles in the 24 hours, after having a rough time early yesterday morning. But he persevered and finished the course. The amount raised has risen to $25,000.