The Birthday Dinner

We took a brood of peeps out to Ohana's Steakhouse in Clive for Calebbers dinner. 

The figur'in was that he would have a great time and we know for a fact that we enjoy their kibble.  It's one of those joints where the chef cooks everything right on the "griddle" in front of you all the while doing tricks and lipping off to whoever is brave enough to talk back.

That was Robby.

This was the first time that I have ever seen Robby at a loss for words.  The guy spoke so fast (and in a somewhat noisy environment), with such a good vocabulary that poor Robby just couldn't keep up.

Regardless, we had us some fun and some good food.

Caleb opening his gift from Aunt Doris.  Is a Scrabble junior type game.  It's been attempted as it's laying all over the kitchen table, but I think it may have been on a night when much too much other stuff was going on.

Opening his card under the watchful eye(s) of Aunt Doris, G'ma Marlene, Aunt Molly and G'ma Schmitz.

Aunt Doris is holding up the shirt that G'ma Elaine got for him.

Here is the lad behind the stove with Chef Nicholas who is going to "teach" Caleb the fine art of flipping a half of lemon and catching it on a two prong thingymabob.

The new chef with weapons in hand!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!

The little Chinamen turns 8 years old today!  We had a birthday dinner for him last Friday night at Ohana's steakhouse, of which I'll post something soon.  Then we let him open his presents on Sunday night around the fire while G'ma & G'pa, and Aunt Molly were here.

Today, since it's Tuesday and we normally pick up two extra kids from school, we decided to pick those two boys up and bring them over to play as normal. When it was about time that their parents would have come to get them, we headed up to the Pizza Ranch in Altoona for supper.  That was quite the fun experience!

Here's the birthday cake that G'ma Marlene made him.  It's from the movie Big Hero 6.

Little Mr. Gorgeous cheeks posing with his cake.

The little ham, waiting patiently for cake and ice cream.

After cake n' ice cream, it was outside to the fire pit...

The anticipation of what will come out of the bag...

Looks like it was a winner!  What was it?

It was a nasty ol' Seattle Seahawks pennant, that's what.

Followed up by a "Beast Mode" number 24 Marshawn Lynch t-shirt.  In a St. Louis Rams house, no less!

And then there's KC Chiefs boy Robby checking out the new Playstation game that turned out incompatible with our system... that was awesome.

And a new monster truck since Robby and Caleb broke the old one.  The old one was, in my opinion, the best remote controlled truck ever.  East to steer.  Rechargable batteries and so on. 

Presents opened.  Happy boy.

Aunt Molly, Robby, G'pa & G'ma trying to stay warm around the fire.

Aunt Molly and the birthday boy.  I zoomed in on them, with flash and it distorted the colors so I included it for two reasons;  there's not a lot of pictures of the elusive Molly floating around and I think distorted colors are cool. :-)

So there we have it.  Another birthday in the books.  We now have 8 and 10 year old boys!!  Yikes!

Easter Morn'in

I forgot to post after this fine, fine morning! 

We had an Easter egg hunt, both high and low. The low part, was the real eggs that they colored earlier in the week.

The high part was the plastic eggs filled with candy, coins, religious symbols and so on.

 The low part...

The high part...

And so it went. A great weekend was had by all to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Critters...

One of the interesting things about living where we do, which is not really city, but not really rural either, is that there are critters. A sundry assortment of them, I might add.

We have coyote, deer, fox, raccoon, skunk, ground squirrels, regular squirrels, snakes, salamanders, moles, stray cats and dogs and the list goes on.

Here's the thing.  I don't really care for critters other than my own dogs and other peoples pets when I visit.  Sure I like to watch deer stroll thru the yard even though I have been relieving myself in the early morning while taking our dog out, and a deer runs by and nearly causes another form of "relief" that I am unprepared for.

So, last weekend I was out tilling the gardens, getting them prepared for Spring planting when Robby came around the corner and said, "Dad, I just saw a snake!".  I grilled him on the whereabouts of this current incarnation of Satan himself, and he said... to my horror, in the garage!

I go around the corner and there he is;  laying right where the garage floor and the outdoor slab of concrete meet.  So I, like any full-grown adult male, issue a command for one of the boys to go around back of the house and summons Mama to come out and deal with this wretched situation.

Mom comes out and after a few attempts to get the snake moving in a direction that is acceptable, he went down beneath the garage floor in an effort to haunt me for the next 9 months...  great...  If you would like a far more in depth depiction of my love of serpents, click here.

Then, Mama put a bird feeder out and it finally attracted birds after a week or two.  Very nice!  It also attracted a very nimble squirrel!

This is a bad picture, thru the screen, after he did his most acrabatic feats, but he was perched upside down using his back legs and tail as leverage, front paws and mouth to get to the bird food!  There's dedication to a craft and then there's dedication to a craft!

And then tonight...  I go downstairs to procure a malty, highly hopped beverage and glance over towards the door from behind the bar.  I see what I believe to be, a dead rat.  I muster courage that would cause most men to faint and head over to check out the carcass.  Turns out it is a camoflauge bandana from one of the boys' halloween costumes.

Such is my life...

Tetherball!

So we have a new toy!

Tetherball.  One of the great joys of growing up!

Getting smacked in the face with a tetherball.  That's what I'm referring too!

Calebber practicing...

The battle with Mama!!

Part Duex...

Happy Resurrection Sunday

Without this weekend, what would Christianity mean?  What would be the point of anything we do?

As Christians, we would only be left with Christmas, or the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  While that's certainly a remarkable event in the history of mankind, that God, the ultimate king, would present himself to mankind in the form of a helpless, homeless baby, it would be pointless.

Jesus fulfilled over 100 Old Testament prophecies, that only He could fulfill, in his 33.5 years of life. 

In addition, He took every transgression that I've committed, every hurtful word, every bad deed, things done in the darkness of my very soul, and presented them before God on the cross, and took MY punishment...  He was whipped, spit on, beaten with sticks, mocked and tortured for MY sins.  
Matthew 27

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.

38 Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days,save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Your sins. 

Isaiah 53 New International Version (NIV)

53 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e];
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Both the saved and unsaved, no discrimination.  All we have to do is accept him as our Lord and Savior and we are forgiven of all we've done.  

We should be fundamentally changed in His grace and mercy.  

We should see the world differently than we had before.  

We should view enemies in a different light just as He did.   

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NIV

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

The Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit, with Dad woefully under-dressed for Easter Worship service. 

I found this photo somewhat ironic on this morning.  God is the light of the world and promises to provide for us, everything we need, just as He provided food and shelter for the Israelites as they wandered for 40 years through the wilderness.  A dog is perfectly satisfied by laying in the light and warmth of the sun. She has everything she needs to be perfectly content.  I am not as smart as a dog as I continue, day after day, straying from the light and warmth and comfort of the Son to fall to the darkness of old habits and seeking fleeting happiness in earthly things...  


That is why I need a Lord and Savior in Jesus Christ.

Today is the day we celebrate his rising from the dead and the cleansing of ALL OF MY SINS!  Past, present and, thankfully, future as I try to walk in the Light.

Christ is risen!  Hallelujah!