The thermometer read 9° F when we woke up this morning. Cold but not all that strange for a Tennessee winter--unless you consider that Wednesday’s high almost reached 70°! From snow to warm weather to a touch of snow again--I’m getting confused (or at least some Bradford pear trees I saw the other day are as they are getting ready to bloom).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NATE! We celebrated Nate’s third birthday on Tuesday. It was a small party with just the grandmothers invited over for supper and a cake. Before they came I got the video camera out and filmed the most precious conversation between Vicki and Nate as they decorated his cake together. By the time Mom, Aunt Mar and Pauline arrived he was so excited I thought he was going to jump out of his skin. And later when we lit his “fires” on his cake and sang Happy Birthday to him he clasped his hands to his chest and had that “for me!?” look on his face. I think he had a great party.
VALENTINE’S DATE. Vicki and I put off our Valentine’s activities until Friday night. We went out to eat at The Depot in Springfield and then to see a movie. They were showing The Pink Panther. I was hoping Steve Martin would pull this off but the story bumbled right along with Inspector Jacques Clouseau. It’s pretty bad when Vicki and I are pointing out all the obvious and simple things they could have added to the screenplay to have made the story funnier and better. There are several humorous moments in the film but basically if you have seen the trailer to the film you’ve seen about all that’s worth seeing.
JENNA’S BAPTISM. The little bit of snow canceled a few activities yesterday (like Jenna’s ball game) but we still had church as usual. Her baptism was scheduled for this morning and it was a beautiful sight to see. Vicki and I got a small chuckle because she had a time getting her feet back under her when Bro. Bill raised her back up (we were told the same thing happened to the gentleman who was baptized after Jenna). She also participated in her first communion service this morning. As an active deacon I helped to serve in this ordinance and was able to serve Jenna which was very special for me. Mrs. Phillips, Jenna’s teacher at school, came just to see her baptism. It was one of several things that made her day.
We gave Jenna a necklace with a cross charm and a personalized Bible to mark the occasion. We know she really appreciated it because her “thank you” was so very sincere.
A QUICK VISIT. Will, Darice and their kids dropped in last night for a quick visit. They are taking a vacation this week to go to Mississippi to visit with Darice’s relatives and stopped here to spend the night along the way. This will be the first time they’ve been down to see Darice’s mom and step-dad since Katrina. We let the kids stay up late to get some play time in with their cousins and they did their best to make up for lost time. Emily sure is cute. She had a lot of fun playing with Ben. He was letting her “hit” him and he would fall over like it had been a knock out punch. She laughed and laughed. For a 17 month old kid she’s learning to hold her own with all the others. We ate breakfast with them this morning and they came to church long enough to see Jenna get baptized before hitting the road.
COMPUTER GAME REVIEWS. I’ve never reviewed any computer games before but there are two games I have downloaded that Jenna and Ben really enjoy playing. Since both games are free and exist for special reasons (and run on both Mac and Windows platforms) I thought I’d share....
The first game is named Ben’s Game. It is produced by the Make-a-Wish foundation in response to the wish from a little boy who has cancer. In this game you travel by skateboard through the inside of the human body shooting cancer cells and fighting things that make life miserable during chemotherapy. While it is impossible to get killed in this game it can take a while to complete if you have to make repeated trips to the hospital for health, home for attitude or the pharmacy for medicine (when these run low you simply become less effective in fighting cancer). This game is a public beta release so it is a little rough around the edges but still fun to play.
The other game is Food Force and is put out by the World Food Programme. You will need QuickTime installed on your computer to play this game (a free download for either Mac or Windows). The goal is to provide food to the nationals on a fictional, war torn, island nation in the short term while helping them become self sufficient in post war reconstruction for the long term. The game is designed to teach you how the WFP works in a fun way.
A PRAYER REQUEST. Jackie Swann, my first cousin, is having surgery tomorrow. He has been having a lot of trouble walking lately. His neurosurgeon feels very confident that doing some surgical work on his back will fix the problem. I certainly hope so and I am looking forward to his being fully functional for the Threshermen’s Show in July.
Joe
