this past tuesday we went to the union gospel mission again with the high school youth. there were quite a few of us that went this time, which was awesome. taylor, nick and i were on the hot line where we served up a hot bowl of beef stew and bread for the homeless. dylan ran the ice cream bar (chocolate something that resembled ice cream). four others were on salad detail and ewok, logan and josh were running around setting places for those that came to eat.

it was a good day to come and serve. it always shows me (and i hope those that go with) how blessed we are. i was talking with a guy that was "in charge" of the kitchen that night, and we were discussing the women that come to the shelter for food. i always feel sorrow for those...especially those that have little children in tow. it always breaks my heart to see these kids that have virtually nothing. but i do what i can to help. even if it is just giving a smile while handing over a steaming tray of food.

one woman came in and had four kids with her. the eldest was very polite and was telling us that she is going to be holding the younger children's trays. "just a little bit of stew in the bowls please," she would tell us.

another woman came in and had two children with her. the girl (who couldn't have been older than my eldest) asked me what kind of earrings i have.

"they are titanium," i replied back to her.

"that is sooooooo cool," she said with a huge grin on her face.

i told her thank you and handed her some bread and stew. she gave me a big smile and had a twinkle in her eye.

as we finished serving the rest of the men, women and children, i watched as these highschoolers handed out and served. many people think that highschool youth are just in a phase and that they really can't accomplish anything, but so many times, i am humbled by them. they were just giving of themselves, becoming servants instead of masters. following Jesus' commands and humbly lowered themselves to help others...

ah, rainy days. i don't really like the rain of spring. i just want warm weather and summer to get here. i know that rain is important. i have to reseed some parts in my yard and the rain is free water for my grass. i do like summer rains though. i love the summer rain in the evening. i especially like them with thunder showers and lightning. they are great. the bolts shooting across the sky and a large boom afterwards. God's own show. the static in the air. that smell that enters my nostrils and puts a smile on my face. sorta like that beach smell.

when i was a kid and the spring rains would be pouring buckets upon us, my dad would pick up my brother and wombmate from school. he would ask us how our day went and if we had any homework to do. i loved it when we would get home on a rainy day, because my dad would then make us popcorn to eat while we did our homework at the kitchen table. and it wasn't that microwavable kind. it was the good stuff. made in the pan, and then later on, in the popper. he would add all the salt and butter, the buttery salt, lawry's, seasoned salt, etc. we would eat so much and drink our pepsi. afterwards, when the last kernels were popped and the only thing that would be left in that bowl was the salt, i would wipe my butter stained finger across that curved wall and gather as much salty goodness as possible and just enjoy that taste...

yesh, it's just a image on coins, but this is my very first HDR image. nothing great of course. but i'm learning the art. the coins above represent different countries that i have visited or passed through. can you guess which coin goes to what country?

here are the answers.

put on your sunday best, kids...we're goin' to the dump.

the last few mondays, it's been sort of our destination lately. you see, rin and i have been cleaning house as much as we can. we started about three saturdays ago. on this day, rin and i began in our room, going through our old clothes and old papers. also going through things that we just don't need as well. 4 big black bags of clothes got sent to st. vinny's and we wound up with seven big black bags of trash and shredded paper. that next monday we went and dumped the trash at the, well, dump. the girls were both disgusted with the smell that it put forth.

the next saturday was working in the boy's room and more of our room. plus other places that needed to be cleaned out. six more bags later and the dump was in our sights. this past saturday, we were able to finish up the majority of gutting the house of the things not needed. rin found old past paid bill slips and old year's papers that weren't needed anymore. i got to clean out the garage yesterday and found more stuff for the dump. i had a huge cardboard box that i used for garbage and a couple smaller boxes. those got taken to the dump today. we are also having a garage sale here in a few weeks, so we've been putting off things to the side for that day.

last night, after we finished our shredding, we found more things that needed to be destroyed, so they are waiting in our bin. soon i get to actually start the cleaning of the house now, not the cleaning out of the house. and then the yardwork begins...

i've been messin' with some macro shots and did this little ditty. i know, not the greatest, but i'm still learning.