Thursday, August 30, 2007

Heirloom Dress

Anna Ruth is wearing a dress that one of Rich's sisters wore when she was a baby. I thought it looked so adorable; she looks like a little prairie girl!



















Thursday, August 23, 2007

Security Breach

We have a sliding glass door at the back of our apartment, and as added security to the lock on the door, we also have a stick that is placed between the doors. Anna Ruth has taken to getting the stick out from its place, walking with it, hitting things with in, and then putting it in random places around the house. Needless to say, many a night the stick has uselessly lain beneath the couch or another hiding place. Who knows why she loves that stick so much? Hopefully it's just a phase...

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

8 Random (and sometimes funny) Facts you may not have known about Rich

1. Rich went by his middle name, Gabriel, until he started high school. He decided to change it after experiencing the horrors of middle school name-calling. All the other guys delighted in calling him “Gabrielle” and even a particular teacher couldn’t seem to pronounce it right. The final straw was his name being misspelled on the 8th grade graduation cake. He took advantage of the transition in life and friends as he went off to high school and resolved to be called Richard from then on.
2. There seems to be a common theme in Rich’s life—head mishaps. Starting from when he was just a wee lad on a snow-covered hill near his home where a fast-moving sledder propelled him 20ft. down the hill landing him on the street directly on his head, to basketball and football accidents in high school, to a very large TV falling on his head in college. Hmmmm, that does explain a lot….
3. Rich is the middle child out of 5 siblings and also happens to be the only boy. You’d think he would be an expert on women, but somehow that knowledge eluded him.
4. I believe Rich has a real artistic talent. When he was in high school, he painted a basketball game scene that was pretty good, and he often sketches things that are surprisingly good. I’ve tried to convince him to pick it up again and practice so that he could paint something to hang in our house, but he insists he isn’t that good and just doesn’t have the time to get better.
5. One of the things I’ve come to realize since Rich and I have been married is that he has the worst memory of anyone I know. It truly seems as though information goes in one ear and out the other. He will freely admit this fact, though we often have small arguments about things people might have said or done, and he is dead set on his account and promises me that I’m wrong. I do the same, and then the argument is over. Within a day or two, he suddenly remembers something and concedes that I was right all along. It’s perplexing to me how he can remember all the math formulas and rules for structural engineering, but not what time dinner will be served.
6. Rich attended The Citadel (The Military College of South Carolina) for undergrad and Virginia Tech for grad school. His father and grandfather also attended VT.
7. Rich has a love for poetry. Every so often, something will remind him of a poem or author, and he will go to the back room and bring out an old English Literature textbook from college and begin reading to me. At this point, I usually protest and tell him to read to himself. But he insists that poetry must be read aloud and that I will learn to love it, too if only I would listen and try to understand it.
8. Rich has been on TV once. (Since a TV was once on him, it’s only appropriate, right?) He was competing in the Penn Relays, and the media was focusing on Alan Webb (currently the top miler in the U.S.) who had just finished his race, while Rich was about to begin his.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Big Balloon

The nice guys at the Ford dealership gave Anna Ruth a big balloon from one of the cars on the lot.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy...

What are we to make of this antiquated tradition of Sabbath day morning and evening worship services? This phenomenon is only seen in the most conservative reformed churches. Is it only the result of tradition, or is there a firm Scriptural foundation and norm for this activity? Robert Rayburn gives a short explanation, defense, and praise of morning and evening Sabbath day corporate worship. At our church (Red Mountain Church, PCA), much is made of the biblical illiteracy of our culture, and this recognition drives pastors and elders to be careful in sermons to make their message intelligible (by explaining terms such as sanctification, etc.) and to use our "own poets" to preach sermons to us. As laudable as this is, there are possibly even more effective approaches, as Rayburn says here regarding a second service:

...such a service provides another opportunity for ministers to preach and teach the Word of God. All the more in our day, when the church is not as biblically literate as it once was, reducing the number of times Christians hear the Word read and taught is hardly a recipe for spiritual prosperity or renewal. I give my own testimony as a preacher that, were it not for the evening service – a well attended evening service for which I am very grateful – there are a many parts of the Bible the congregation would never have had taught to it and many biblical themes that would never have been taught so comprehensively were I limited to a single sermon each week.

A second and third defense of the practice can be found here and here.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

She walked a few steps in her Daddy's shoes...

...but that was as far as she could make it. She just loves getting in Daddy's shoes. I think she knows how funny it looks and likes to make us laugh.