The Ray Café

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T14:15:00.001-08:00

Finally a new post! We have been super busy since Don became the pastor at Faith Lutheran. It seems like life has just been go, go, go for several months now. But we know that this is to be expected for a new pastor in a new position and we know things will slow down a little after Christmas and Advent are over. The people at Faith have been wonderful to him and our family. We've had several babysitters so we can go out for the evening, people sometimes sit with the kids and me during worship, we've been blessed to be invited to share meals and/or dessert and playdates with various members at their homes as well. We are so very blessed!

I've been attending MOPS at a nearby church and serving as a volunteer Field Leader/Community Coach for MOPS International. I have attended a few LWML meetings, spend lots of time driving kiddos to school and try to make it to the gym a couple times a week. I've been trying to cook healthier for our family...meaning I've cut out a lot of processed foods and am trying to cook more from scratch, using more whole grains, etc. To that end, I've been doing most of my grocery shopping from WinCo. Most of their prices are lower than other grocery stores (especially the produce) and I'm able to buy so many items in bulk for waaaayyy cheaper than any other way. I can get organic oatmeal for $0.97/pound (no more flavored packets), popcorn (no more microwave), nuts (yay! Healthy, but usually so expensive), cereal, rice, other whole grains, herbs & spices, and sooo many more. I love that I can start my shopping trip with a long list, hit the produce section, the bulk foods section, then get eggs, dairy and meat (all of which is called "shopping the perimeter") and by then, all that's usually left on my list is pasta, canned beans, and bread.


Total: less than $8

So far, this has helped keep our grocery budget to a manageable level, but I'd like to bring it down even more. I just learned about an e-book called
"2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month" and I can't wait to see what ideas it will have. I'll be sure to check back in and let you know how it goes!

Hannah is 7 1/2 and still loves arts and crafts. She started Girl Scouts this year and has been enjoying her meetings and activities so far - their first badge will be a painting badge! Her leader is a member of our church and it's been a great way to meet more friends. Hannah is in 2nd grade and loving it. She is starting to multiply and is reading lots of chapter books - she has over 1,000 recorded minutes of reading time so far this school year. For those of you who are familiar with Accelerated Reader (AR), her initial goal for the first trimester was 3 points. She earned 15. And that's probably all we need to say about her. :-)

Hannah with an art project

Preschool field trip

Bethie is in a Pre-K class at Faith. She has already lost 5 teeth and began reading a few months ago. Preschool is helping her be a little more outgoing, be more comfortable speaking in front of other people, and all that playing on the playground is helping her develop her gross motor skills. It's been a fun transformation to watch.

Noah's 2nd birthday

Noah is 2 1/2 and grows more physical each day. He loves going to Kids Club at the gym where he can run, climb, and play. He loves cars, trucks, and diggers, but it seems like his true, deep passion is for the drums. Literally everything in our house is/will be/has been a drum. He drums with wooden chopsticks mostly, but anything stick-like will become a drum stick sooner or later. He has discovered the drum set at church and as soon as church is over he makes a beeline for them and begins pounding if I'm not fast enough to catch him. Many people at church have said that he really has some rhythm, so we're guessing that drum lessons (and a soundproof room?) are in our future.

Merry Christmas to each of our friends and family. I pray that the season finds you celebrating the birth of Christ and joyfully anticipating His second coming. God's blessings,
--The Rays
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You're Invited - Save the Dates!

2011-06-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Two very important dates are coming up and we’re offering an open invitation to anyone who wants to attend one or both. It would mean a lot to our family, and Don especially, to have you attend. So many of you have supported us these last four years – financially, prayerfully, and in countless other ways. God has used your encouragement and love to get us through this adventure. Now that we are ending one journey and beginning another, we hope to share the celebration with you.

Don’s Ordination

Sunday, July 31, 2011

5:00 p.m.

St. John’s Lutheran Church

4500 Buena Vista Road

Bakersfield, CA 93311

This is the ceremony when Don will officially become a pastor. It will take place at our home church in Bakersfield. Pastor Dennis Hilken (who married us) will officiate and Pastor Ted Hartman (who confirmed me back in 8th grade) will preach. There will be a dinner reception following (I think we’re having tri-tip!). The church would appreciate having an RSVP if possible, so they can start planning. You can call them at 661-665-7815.

Don’s Installation
Sunday, August 14, 2011
4:00 p.m.?
Faith Lutheran Church

4000 San Juan Avenue
Fair Oaks, CA 95628

This ceremony officially installs (Pastor!) Don as the pastor at Faith Lutheran in Fair Oaks. Our California-Nevada-Hawaii District President, Rev. Dr. Robert Newton, will preside. We don’t know as many details about this one yet...we’ll share as soon as we know!

Please let us know if you have any questions. We are so excited about these wonderful events and hope to see you at one or both!

Faith Lutheran Church, Fair Oaks, CA

2011-06-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

I know pretty much everyone has heard about Don's call by now, but here's the official blog post - almost 3 months later! He'll be the sole pastor at Faith Lutheran, in Fair Oaks. Faith was founded in 1940. They have two services on Sunday (though this summer they're experimenting with only one service) with a Sunday School/Bible study hour in between. About 225 people attend one of those two services. They have a school, consisting of a preschool (where Bethie will attend Pre-K), kindergarten, and first grade. We spent a weekend in Fair Oaks last February when Don interviewed. The people were all really nice - we felt so comfortable and welcomed. We're really looking forward to getting to know them all and seeing what God has in store for Don's ministry and our family.

Call Day, Concordia Seminary, May 4, 2011

Fair Oaks is a really neat community. It's about 15 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento. There are tons of huge, mature trees, rolling hills, and very diverse architecture. It's definitely not the cookie-cutter stucco homes we're used to seeing in the newer developments! Much of the growth took place in the mid-1900s. The downtown area is overrun with wild chickens! We can't wait to show the kids - it's the funniest thing. It's such a popular area that it's hard to find available housing in Fair Oaks proper, so we've been looking at rental houses in nearby Carmichael, Orangevale, and (the winner) Citrus Heights.

The church is in the San Juan Unified school district. It is HUGE. There are at least 42 different schools Hannah could conceivable go to. Don and I started out looking at the 9-10 neighborhood schools that are geographically closest to the church, preferring to live/work/go to school in a fairly small radius. We also got some great advice from people familiar with the district (thanks Sandy and Melissa!) to look at the fundamental and open schools. These are public schools that do not have neighborhood attendance boundaries; admission is through open enrollment, which means that families have to apply to attend. This typically leads to a "better" school, meaning more family involvement, higher test scores, more field trips and enrichment activities, etc. This sounded perfect to us, but we assumed that since open enrollment began in January, we would be out of luck - that Hannah would be at the bottom of a huge waiting list. But because of all the budgetary issues and class size changes, we had reason to believe that there might be spots after all. So one week when my mom was here visiting, Don and I took a day and drove up to Sacramento and visited all 9 (!) of the schools that we thought might be a good fit for Hannah. (We also drove by quite a handful of possible rentals, visited with an admissions clerk at the school district, and had a delicious sushi dinner before returning home.) Besides being flat-out exhausted, we came away with our first choice school - our last visit of the day was at Cambridge Heights Open Elementary. We really liked the principal and everything about the school just seemed to fit. Soon after that visit, we applied for an inter-district transfer to at least get her on the waiting list. To make a long story short, she got in! We are so excited for Hannah to attend Cambridge Heights - and Bethie and Noah probably will too. Some of you know that Hannah has attended a different school every single year since she was two years old, so I am just ecstatic to be able to build a relationship with a school and the families there for many years into the future. God is good!

A short while later, we hauled all three kids back up to Sacramento with us to look at rentals. We got to see the inside of 5 that day and I definitely fell in love with one of them. It was a little more than what we wanted to pay, but it was definitely our favorite. We went back and forth, we prayed, I wrestled with God quite a bit, and Don offered them $100 less on the rent than what they were asking. We didn't think the owners would take it and I had resigned myself to a house that, while less expensive, was definitely not a house I really wanted to live in. But, just as Don was about to send off the application for that house, he got a phone call that the owners accepted the offer! I really am excited - I just love this house. It's a 3/2, almost 1600 square feet and recently renovated. See the next post below for some pictures. And as always, thank you for reading and thank you for your prayers. We love you all!

Pictures of the house

2011-06-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

Backyard with new landscaping

Living room. Here, you're standing in the dining room with the kitchen at your back. To the right, there's some built-in storage and a wet bar along the wall along with the hallway to the bedrooms.

Kitchen, looking out to the backyard so I can keep an eye on the kids - score! Notice also the new stainless appliances. Two more reasons to love this kitchen: the garage opens directly into it for easy grocery unloading and there's an indoor laundry room with more built-in storage.

Call Day!

2011-04-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post reminding everyone that Call Day is only a week away! On Wednesday, May 4, 2011, Don will receive his first call into the pastoral ministry. We will be in St. Louis attending the service, which begins at 7:00 p.m. Central Time (5:00 California time). For those of you who want to watch or listen to the service along with us, here is the Call Day website. Please pray for all those involved with making the call decisions, that all the guys get placed in the congregation God has picked out for them. (Please let us know if you have any questions about Call Day logistics, or anything else.)

In other news, we would appreciate your prayers for Noah. He had a 103.5 fever last night and today, though his fever is down, if I ask him if he has "ouchies," he points to his forehead. He had an awful night of sleep last night - waking up every couple hours screaming or crying. It's frustrating not being able to help him and not even knowing what the problem is.

We can't believe our time in Turlock is ticking away so quickly. We've had a great year and Don has learned a lot. The people couldn't be nicer and it'll be hard to say goodbye. We love being back in California, near friends and family. Recently, my mom was here visiting for Bethie's 4th (!) birthday, and she spent an entire (loonng) day with the kids so Don and I could meet my college alumni group's Sacramento chapter for wine tasting in Amador County. Here we are with our friends Chris and Kerri (Kerri was a bridesmaid in our wedding).

May will be a busy month for us, as we spend some time in St. Louis for Call Day, wrapping up our seminary experience and truly saying goodbye to that wonderful chapter in our lives. Hannah, Noah, and I will all have birthdays. Hannah and Bethie will have their last days of school. I'll try to take some time to update on all our fun activities. In the meantime, God's blessings to each of you. We love you!

It's Official

2011-01-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

We have just passed the halfway point in Don's vicarage. Because it's been so long since I've blogged, here's the update: Last summer we moved to Turlock, CA for Don to begin his one-year internship at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. This internship (vicarage) is the last hurdle in the four-year seminary process. When he was assigned here we knew that Good Shepherd was considering calling him as the full-time associate pastor once his vicarage ended. Over the last couple months, the church's board of directors has been meeting privately and with the congregation to asses the viability of adding a full-time staff member. The final conclusion: they will not be calling Don to stay.

There are two main reasons for this. One is financial. The church has determined that at this time they do not have the financial resources to add an associate pastor. Second, it seems that Don would be best suited to being a sole pastor and at Good Shepherd, the position of associate pastor that would focus on outreach just doesn't seem to mesh well with his gifts.

So what does this mean for us? We'll find out for sure on Call Day, on May 4, 2011. Our Lutheran church body is divided up into 35 geographical districts. St. John's Bakersfield is part of the California-Nevada-Hawaii district, which we consider to be our "home district." CNH covers all of those three states except southern California and Las Vegas (those are part of the Pacific-Southwest district). We have a relationship with the CNH district president and the executive director. They are actively working to assign Don to another church in our district, so we feel quite blessed by the strong possibility of being placed nearby. And for now, that's all we know.

In family news, all is well. Hannah is loving first grade and her mornings spent on reading and language in a second grade class. A spot finally opened up for Bethie to attend preschool, which she is ecstatic about starting on February 2. Noah literally runs everywhere he goes and is, as we like to say, "ALL boy." I have been asked to become a table leader for my MOPS group and I recently finished reading the entire Bible - a 2-year project that stretched into 3 1/2. Don, of course, is spending his days writing sermons, visiting shut-ins and hospitalized folks, teaching junior high confirmation, and other pastoral duties. Our small-group Bible study will be serving dinner at church on Saturday night for 60+ homeless people through the Turlock Gospel Mission.

Remember to check out our pictures in the post below to see more of what we've been up to. Blessings and love, from our family to yours.

Closing out 2010

2011-01-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

I've posted some new pictures that span September through the end of the year. Here they are - enjoy!

September 2010

(There are a few new ones at the end of this album.)

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

My Vocation as a Mom

2010-11-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Don has written a new blog post at Love God Not Stuff. His topic is "Vocation," meaning the work that God gives us to do in our everyday lives. I love how Don reminds us in his post (and reminds me here at home) that to faithfully serve in whatever role God has put us is actually God working through us. God uses us in our roles (moms, dads, teachers, doctors, siblings, etc.) to serve others and show His love to them. When I make dinner for my family, I am faithfully serving God. When I do laundry, grocery shop, clean up, read to the kids, wrestle with and tickle them on the floor, listen to Hannah talk about her day while I help her with her homework, give baths, teach the kiddos about God and His infinite love for them, I am serving God in the role He has defined for my life right now. These things take a LOT of time and energy. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am not doing more outside the home - like volunteering at church or with the PTA. But the concept of vocation reminds me that God does not expect me to neglect my family so that I can serve elsewhere. My primary earthly responsibility is to them. They deserve my best - because I am doing God's work by serving them!

So read Don's post and let him know what you think. Have you ever heard of vocation in this way before? How does it affect how you go about your daily life? Vocation looks different in each person's life. How does it look in yours?

Love God, Not Stuff

2010-09-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

Love God, Not Stuff

That's the name of Don's new blog. His first post goes back to the job he had when we got married. That's the job he got fired from right before we had Hannah. Many of you know our story, but not many have heard it directly from Don himself. Check it out to read it in his own words.

Here's his plan from here on in:

At least twice a month, I plan to post things here which I pray will encourage Christians like you and me to Love God, Not Stuff. Generally speaking, the posts will take the form of looking at a thought or an idea or a thing in our American culture and examining it from a Christian perspective. We’ll meet the culture where it’s at, as Jesus did, but we won’t leave it there. We might look at a TV show. Or a song. Maybe even a sermon. A piece of financial advice. A New York Times bestselling book. A news story. Or a website. An advertisement. Stuff.

Check it out. You're sure to learn something new, or at the very least - he'll get you thinking.

July and August

2010-08-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a new photo album with pictures from July and August so far. I included the captions so you can see what we've been up to. Enjoy!

July & August, 2010

First Day of First Grade

2010-08-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

We are here in Turlock, settling in as best we can. We were out of town off and on during July when we were also trying to unpack and get the house settled. Then Don started work at Good Shepherd on July 26. We got used to that routine and now are starting another. Today is Hannah's first day of first grade. She is soooo incredibly excited. She's such a social girl and it's been hard on her not having friends to play with on a regular basis. (We were spoiled in seminary!) The smile on her face was so big when we dropped her off that another parent even commented on it. I can't wait to pick her up at 3:15 and hear all about her day.

After dropping her off, Bethie, Noah and I walked to the park to play. Noah had a blast walking and crawling all over the play structure and then flinging himself head first down the slides. I have to be pretty diligent while he's playing, but it's fun to follow him around on all the toys to see what he'll do next. We should be at the grocery store right now, but as I was eating a quick breakfast and getting things ready, Mr. Noah fell asleep on the living room floor. (He's transitioning from two naps a day to one and some days he just can't make it until after lunch to crash.) So I'll let him sleep for a bit longer before waking him for the grocery store. I want to just let him sleep but we have absolutely no milk and very little fruit in the house. Poor guy - he's not going to want to wake up just to sit in the car and a grocery cart!

More updates soon with pictures from Hannah's first day of school!

P.S. The blog needs a new name! Any ideas??????

New Pictures!

2010-07-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a new web album with pictures from Noah's first birthday, our last days in St. Louis, our trip out west, and just a few here in Turlock. Enjoy!

June, 2010

We're Here!

2010-07-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

We now live in Turlock, CA!!! (Any ideas on a new name for the blog????)

We've been in our rental house for a week now and it's starting to feel like our home. Our TV and internet got set up today, so it's exciting to be able to see what everyone's up to on Facebook and to finally do a new blog post. In lieu of a long post, here are a few pictures:

Here are the kids in the garage on move-in day, followed by one at the Downtown Turlock Independence Day Parade, followed by a series of Noah helping his Daddy install some new door stops.

I know there's tons more to tell about our move, the new house, and our transition, but it's a little overwhelming. I'll try to get things posted little by little and share pictures soon. God's blessings and thank you for all your prayers!

New Pictures and Family Life

2010-05-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

I just got done uploading 300+ pictures from my camera to the computer. I then uploaded many (not all!) of them to Picasa so you can see. Here are the links:

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

I've posted the March album before, but I added a few pictures at the end, in case anyone's interested. :-)

We are busy busy busy! Don finished school on May 20 and since then has finished a couple small assignments he's supposed to complete for vicarage. He has had a few meetings with professors about topics of mutual interest and sat in on a brainstorming panel for Lutheran Hour Ministries for some new curriculum they're developing. We are searching searching searching the interwebs for a house to rent in Turlock. My mom, my nana, and my brother's girlfriend Shay are all up there today looking at a couple for us. We just keep praying that God will lead us to the right house in the right neighborhood in the right school district for Hannah. We look forward to meeting those God will put us in contact with, through our congregation, our neighborhood and Hannah's school. We have reserved our moving truck and are planning to load it up on Monday, June 21. We'll leave St. Louis and head to Mt. Rushmore, through Colorado, down to Las Vegas (visiting the Lied Discovery Children's Museum), and into Bakersfield. We'll spend a night or two there with my mom and then meet the truck to unload in Turlock on June 30(ish). There is a lot to pack and a lot of details to plan between now and then, but we're getting excited. At the same time, we're dreading saying goodbye to the Seminary and our wonderful friends. You can see from the pictures how much fun we have around here!

We would appreciate prayers for a safe and smooth move (especially for the kiddos) and that God would lead us to the right house and school. You can pray for Don and the people of Good Shepherd for a smooth and joyous transition. As always, let us know how we can pray for you. We are looking forward to seeing our California friends soon!

God's blessings,
Don, Stacye, Hannah, Bethie, & Noah

It's Official!

2010-04-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

We are headed to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Turlock, CA!!!!

The Call Day website is up!

2010-04-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

Call Day is less than a week away! We are so excited to learn where Don and all his classmates will be placed. Go to this website to learn everything about Call Day, including the ability to watch the service live. Click on "Watch Streaming Video" to test it. Remember that Don's service (the vicarage service) begins at 3:00 Central Time and the Call service (the fourth year guys getting their first real pastoral assignment) begins at 7:00 Central Time. Let us know if you have any questions or problems. It's almost here!

Making Memories That Matter

2010-04-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is from an email I received from MOPS International. I needed to share it with all of you and I definitely need to remember it as I go through a busy season of life with my family.

Making Memories that Matter
By Katherine Craddock

Spring is finally here! With this fresh new season comes a flood of memories of the spring before. But as hard as I try, I can’t recall the laundry I folded, the dishes I washed, or even the beloved flowers I spent hours planting last spring.

I remember yelling at my kids for interrupting my email writing, my Facebook time and the season finales of a dozen reality shows that have since slipped from my mind. Those deadlines and projects were so important at the time, but now, like those flowers I planted, they’ve faded away, never to return.

Thankfully, though, I do remember some things that seemed boring and non-urgent. Like the dandelion crown I placed on my daughter’s head and the night we cuddled on a blanket in the backyard and stared at the clouds until the stars came out. And bubbles. Popsicles. Galloping around the yard like a pony. Tackling my boys and playing baseball with them. Slow moments, all of them. Non-urgent moments without deadlines.

There is not one material thing, one worldly accomplishment, even one friendship that I now value more than those precious, fleeting moments with my little girl who’s now in Kindergarten and my boys. For this season of your life, I challenge you: make memories that last. Savor the small. Treasure your time with your babies in your heart, and tear yourself away from the unimportant. You will never, ever regret it.

God, help me slow down once a day to make a memory my whole family will cherish.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

Praise God for this beautiful Easter day and for the gift of His Son. We are so incredibly blessed beyond anything we deserve. Thank You Jesus, for loving me enough to die on the cross for everything I've ever done wrong.

Besides celebrating Easter today, we celebrated Bethie's 3rd birthday today! I can't believe we've had the blessing of Bethie in our lives for three whole years. She is such a sweet, kooky, crazy kid.

We spent 3 1/2 hours with friends and neighbors having an Easter picnic while the kids ran around playing (and getting sunburns). When we finally got upstairs the phone rang and it was Don's mom. She said, "Can I use your bathroom?" I tried to figure out what she was talking about and finally realized that she had driven up to surprise us and celebrate Bethie's birthday - how fun! So we have had lots to celebrate today and we hope you have too. Take a minute and thank Jesus for His love for you. God's blessings and Happy Easter!

2010-03-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

March 2010

Here's a new photo album, consisting mostly of pictures from our trip to California last month. We had a wonderful time. We spent tons of time with family and friends. We celebrated my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary with all of the family on my mom's side. The 24 of us had never all been in the same room together and that day will be a cherished memory. We met my brother's girlfriend Shay and she is a doll. She spent lots of time with us and you could tell she really enjoyed spending time with the kids too. We got to see friends from MOPS and WarmLine - two organizations that were a big part of my life the last three years I was in Bakersfield. Don's brother Dave come up from Pasadena and spent a day with us. We went over to the coast so the kids could spend time on the beach and we could eat lunch at Splash Cafe - my favorite clam chowder ever! Of course, we at lunch at Luigi's - another favorite. Good friends from church hosted a group of us for coffee, wine, and dessert one night so we could see many people all at the same time. We got to see the new construction at our home church, St. John's. They're in the process of building a new sanctuary and chapel - very exciting!

We returned to St. Louis, spent a few days getting the house and our little sleepers back in order, then Don began his final quarter. We're two weeks in and he says that he is enjoying this one the most so far - he truly likes all of his classes. It's going to be a busy one - lots of tests, papers, and assignments due, but it's the last one! He'll be done with classes May 20!

Call Day is April 27. We'll finally find out where Don will be placed for vicarage. Keep us and the whole call process in your prayers please. We'll post our news here and on Facebook as soon as we can.

Hannah is nearing the end of kindergarten and doing great - reading at a first grade level and recently wrote her numbers up to 1,000. Bethie turns 3 on Easter Sunday and is mostly day-time potty-trained. Noah is almost 10 months old and crawls everywhere. He recently learned how to briefly balance on his knees and can also return to sitting from a crawling position. He isn't saying any words or signing yet, but hopefully soon.

That's about it for now. Don's at a meeting for concluding students and I have to get kiddos ready for bed, so I better do that. Peace and blessings to all of you. Keep in touch!

Getting Organized

2010-02-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

I'm not a very organized person. My organizational system usually consists of piles of paper all over the place and a basket to shove it all in when it gets to be too much. I have a hard time throwing things away. I keep almost all my magazines - though I do tear out and recycle all the ads so the magazines take up less space! I enjoy cooking and have tons of recipes - torn out of magazines, free cards that come in the mail, printed off the internet, given to me by family members, etc. I have a recipe book with slots to fill with 3x5 or 4x6 cards and I use it a lot. It's special to me so I only put recipes in it that I love and make regularly. But I almost never recopy a recipe onto a card so that it will fit in the book.

All of this means that my cookbook shelf was being overrun with dozens (hundreds?) of torn-out, unorganized recipes of all different genres, sizes, paper types, as well as about a dozen different magazines I had saved. It's been like this the whole time we've lived here. I've wasted a ton of time looking through the stack trying to find a particular recipe, usually without much luck.

One day recently, inspiration struck. I decided to take a plastic file-folder box I wasn't using and create file folders for categories of recipes. I knew I wanted to file them mostly by food type (chicken, beef, pork, veggies, pasta, etc. I even have one for "Cooking Info," which is filled with how-to articles, ingredient substitution lists, and things of that nature). So I made the folders and finally went through that giant stack of recipes. I filed each one in the right folder and came up with this:

I've been so excited because this system is totally working for me! Because I created it, I was able to make categories that make sense to me and fit the way I cook. The folders are large so they hold any recipe, regardless of its size. If I know I want to cook chicken I just pull out the folder and page through it. If I have some broccoli that needs to be cooked I look for a recipe under "Vegetables." And since I'm someone who likes to alter recipes and combine two or three to suit my purposes, this system works great for that too. I can quickly see several similar recipes that might complement one another. I've completely organized that ginormous pile of recipes and have recycled at least a dozen magazines since starting this system. I love it and wanted to share it in case anyone out there might want to try something similar. (I have a goal of going through and recycling most of the other dozens of magazines I have stashed in various places throughout the house before we move this summer. Think I can do it?)

The other thing I'm excited about lately (though it's not quite at the same caliber as the recipes) is I came up with a way for us to keep track of leftovers and things we have in the fridge so hopefully we'll waste less food. I printed up a blank calendar page and posted it on the fridge. Any time I put leftovers in there or half a can of peaches or whatever, I write it on the calendar. And when we've finished something we're supposed to cross it off the calendar. This way I can quickly see what I have, how long it's been in there and what I need to either toss or eat soon. Here are pictures:

Like I said, this one isn't nearly as exciting as the recipes (for me), but it works for us and has already helped us make use of food we would have thrown away.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me as I celebrate this small victory. I wanted to share my excitement and maybe help someone else out along the way. Blessings!

Eventful Day

2010-02-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

Hannah was off of school today and we were getting ready for a Valentine's Day party a friend and I hosted for some of the sem kids and their families. Hannah was looking for a balloon I wanted to take with us. She came out of the playroom holding her hand out and with a panicky voice said, "Mom, I got a paper cut." The end of her finger had a little smear of blood on it so I grabbed her hand and walked her into the bathroom. Now to back up, several times in the past she has gotten herself into quite a state when she sees her own blood. Her face loses all color and she starts crying that she's going to throw up. Of course she was doing that today so I sat her down on the potty chair/stool in the bathroom, blotted her finger and got a band-aid on it. She began crying and saying she was going to be sick, she needed the trash can, she didn't feel good, etc. I got the trash can out and she about fell into it. I realized her eyes were closed and she was falling off the stool. I eased her onto the ground, called for Don and began brushing her hair out of her face. She opened her eyes a few seconds later...she wasn't out for long, but she definitely fainted. From a paper cut.

So once she was feeling better, it was time to head out in the snow for the Valentine's party. We had about 34 kids and 14 moms/grandparents/caregivers. It was fun and exhausting. You know how adults always ask about kids, "Where do they get their energy?" They suck it directly from us!

I was watching Noah while we were at the party. He's 8 1/2 months old and he can roll pretty much anywhere he wants to go - the girls did too. He can pivot around in a circle and push himself backwards on his tummy, but he can't propel himself forward. He's been getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth since before Christmas - about two months! Well, at the party I saw him up on his knees and he picked his hands up a couple times, like he was going to crawl but then flopped back down onto his tummy. Later this afternoon he was sitting up and I was feeding him pieces of graham cracker. He saw the rest of the cracker on the plate, lunged for it and began crawling! So far the only things worth crawling for are food and balls, but I bet within a couple days he'll be crawling absolutely everywhere. It's a fun transition (and much earlier than either of the girls) and it'll be interesting to see what else he gets into. I'm sure we'll need to do even more childproofing.

To add to the eventful day, my friend Mendy (who did all the work planning the fun party for the kids) had one too. Her son got his first bloody nose at the party and she set a potholder on top of her stove on fire this afternoon. Never a dull moment around here!

I've uploaded some new pictures. Here's the link to one of the albums:

February 2010

They don't have captions yet - hopefully soon! There are new albums for December, January, and February. You can see that we've been having fun at Hannah's school parties, at the Magic House, visiting Grammies in Tennessee, and playing in the snow. Noah's been having fun playing and learning how to eat (food, paper, chalk, etc.).

Keep Don in prayer this week. He's working on a paper (up over 15 pages now), has another paper due Thursday, and three final exams Thursday and Friday. He's been up late several nights in a row, which doesn't agree with him but there's no end in sight (at least until we arrive in CA). Keep us in prayer for safe travel and we'll see many of you soon!

Say What?

2010-02-06T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hannah & Bethie were running back and forth across the living room in their underwear.
B: We're bein' the 'Credibles!
H: Yeah, I'm Bob.
Me: Who's Bethie?
H: She's Alaska.
Me: What?
H: You know, Bob marries Alaska.
Me: You mean, Elasti-girl?

A sample of my life

2010-02-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

Bethie, running across the house toward the bathroom: "My flip-flop is wet!"

Me, while laying on the couch trying to muster the energy to start getting three kids ready for bed: "Why is your flip-flop wet?"

Bethie, hollering from the bathroom: "Cause I peed on it." (Long pause) "The other one's not wet."

More of Hannah's writing

2010-01-25T12:12:00.000-08:00

I may have mentioned before that Hannah is reading at a first grade level, so we're very proud of her for that. She loves art, people, and being outdoors. In fact, lately she's been saying that she wants to be an explorer and an artist when she grows up. She'll go exploring and then come home and make art out of the things she finds in nature. She loves writing too. I find pages and pages covered with random things she's written: words, sentences, equations, things Bethie said that she copied down, cards she's made for people, copies of our family's weekly Bible memory verse, etc. Here's one of the latest scraps of paper I found:

"o.k. everey bute everey bute setid yes ok the frst theyn that we are gunu do is seyn a son ok the son is ckold baonsey boll on the flor it is a rimeyn son"

Do you need a translation? Here it is (for the record, I figured out all of it except "ckold" on my own): "OK everybody. Everybody seated? Yes, OK. The first thing that we are going to do is sing a song. OK the song is called Bouncy Ball on the Floor. It is a rhyming song."

We don't correct every little spelling error, but I did have a talk with her about the "ng" sound. The next thing she wrote had several correct "ng"s in it. (In fact, another paper had the word "loveng" (loving) so she got it really quickly!) That's our girl!

California here we come!

2010-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

We're coming to CA! In just under a month we'll be flying out for a visit (from 2/20-3/2). We're so excited and have begun making plans to see as many of our friends and church family as we can. I set up an online calendar (cozi.com) so Don, my mom and I can all see what the plans are and add things so we (hopefully) don't double-book. It's going to be a busy busy week and we can't wait to see everyone.

Secondly, on cozi I had a chance to enter to win a year's worth of free groceries. Even if you don't want to enter, simply clicking on this link gets me an extra entry in the contest, so if you don't mind, please click!

Blessings to you and we'll see lots of you next month!

Christmas

2009-12-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

We had a truly lovely Christmas yesterday. Don's mom and his oldest brother, Dan, are both here. And my cousin Lauren and her husband Baxter drove up from Rolla, MO to spend most of the back half of the day with us. We hadn't seen Lauren since Thanksgiving 2004 and had never met Baxter. It was really nice to see her and meet him. We had quite the full house! The girls are loving playing with the many new art supplies they received. They each got hand-made rag dolls (named Alley and Sweet-Pea) which they now carry everywhere. Bethie also got a hand-made cedar cradle for her doll from Grammies. She loves it!
Don got me a copy of Martha Stewart's new book, Martha Stewart's Cooking School. Say what you will about Martha Stewart as a person, but I've always said that I wish I knew how to do all the things she knows how to do. I'm looking forward to this book teaching me some of those things!

Our munchkins need some lunch, baths, and naps before church tonight. More later!

Christmas, according to Hannah

2009-12-18T19:34:00.001-08:00

Hannah's kindergarten class made little books about various December celebrations (she is at a public school). I'll do my best to type her 7-page book exactly as she wrote it.

"I selbrat krismis it is my favrit holda. Because we decrat the krismis. I mak cokes with my mom.

We have lights on are tree. We see lights on the haosis. And we like are tree.

I put ornmins on my tree. We like are tree. I put on the anjol.

I like to eat cookies at holdas. They're are yummy. They are gud.

I wear special clothes like Borbey dresis. And sparties Borbey shooseys. (sparkly Barbie shoes - that's my favorite part)

I sing lots uv song at holdas. Like Jingle bells. We like to sing.

I go to my grandma's house. I eat good food. We like food. We git presins."

Merry Christmas!

Some new photos

2009-11-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

So I haven't written any stories about the October photo album I posted most recently...at least the photos have captions! Here are a few new photos of the kids - just click on the album below.

November 2009

30-second update: Don is done with classes for the winter quarter and just has to finish one take-home final. Noah is eating baby cereal and will soon start on vegetables. He can roll all the way across the living room and working on sitting up on his own. Hannah is ready to lose her second tooth. Bethie is mostly potty-trained. I'm busy taking care of everyone and really looking forward to Don's two-week break. His mom and oldest brother are coming up for Thanksgiving week and I know we will all enjoy our time together. The girls are quite excited to see Grammies and Uncle Dan.

God's blessings,
--Stacye & the family

October Pictures

2009-11-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

Check out some recent pictures. Stories to come!

October 2009

Mind The Gap

2009-10-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

Our big girl lost a tooth!

She is totally excited and proud of herself. Apparently sometime after lunch she went to wiggle her (very) loose tooth with her tongue and realized it wasn't there! They had pizza for lunch and Hannah said that some cheese got caught on her tooth and she guesses that's when it came out. But since she doesn't know where her tooth actually is, we assume that she swallowed it (yuck!). I'm a little grossed out by this (and a little disappointed that we won't have her first tooth), but she doesn't seem to be bothered by it in the least. Additionally, Hannah is doing great in kindergarten and loving school. She says that music class is her favorite. She also loves art and P.E. It's been awesome seeing her reading and math skills improving rapidly. She's sounding out many words on her own, using phonetic spelling. For example, she did a journal entry on a summer activity. She drew a herself with a boat on a river, commerating our weekend spent in Hannibal, MO and Quincy, IL where we took an afternoon trip down the Mississipi with our friends. She wrote, "I went to teh Misospipe Revrh." I was pretty impressed!

At the end of today, Don will be (in his words), halfway done with the first third of the last third of seminary (!). Basically, the current fall quarter is halfway done today. Then just winter and spring quarters to go. We can't believe how fast the time has gone. The week of Thanksgiving we will have our next vicarage interview with Dr. Neilsen. He'll be the one trying to match us up with a church for a "convertible" vicarage. Basically, the hope is that Don would do his year-long internship at a church somewhere in the country. Toward the end of that year, if we and the church all agree that it's a good fit (which is usually what happens), Don would be ordained as a pastor in our Lutheran church body and also installed as a pastor for that particular church. He would then stay at that church until he decided to take a call somewhere else or began graduate school or....? (Who knows what God has planned?)

The rest of the family is doing well. I've posted some recent photo albums on Picasa - please check them out! Noah just turned 4 months old and was in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight (basically where the girls always were as well). He "talks" to us all the time and is showing signs of being a thumb sucker like Bethie. He may be able to sit up on his own sometime in the next month - he's sure trying! He has recently begun flinging his upper body backward when you're holding him - I've almost dropped him several times! He can roll from back to tummy (and does so obsessively!) but then he lays on his face and screams. The girls did the exact same thing. It's fun (not). We're still working on his sleep. The last two nights he has only woken up once to eat, which is an improvement. Sometimes he'll nap for longer than 45 minutes or an hour at a time, but not often. He'll get there eventually!

Elizabeth is 2 1/2 and definitely acts like it! She has begun having tantrums and wants things her way. The saving grace is that her moods don't last long and it's usually easy to get her out of them. Yesterday she wanted someone to taste the "tea" she had made. I was busy cooking dinner so I told her to ask Hannah. Hannah was busy drawing or something, so she said no. Bethie headed toward the den where Don was but I told her not to bug Daddy, he was studying. So she took her tea, sat down on the floor in the hallway (and by the way, she was wearing her Easter bonnet), and put her face in her hands. You have never seen such a sad, dejected little girl. She didn't cry or throw a tantrum, she just sat there being sad by herself. So of course I stopped making dinner for the moment and asked her if she needed a hug. She did, so we cuddled and drank tea. Then all was well. Don't get me wrong, she has her share of defiance and tantrums too, but this was an incident that just shows her sweet spirit. Recently Hannah had a minor injury (can't remember what), and Bethie just stood next to her, gently rubbing and patting her arm to help her feel better. She's such a sweet heart!

I've begun another year of MOPS and my good friend Mendy has joined as well. Now that we have the Yukon, we're able to carpool the 20 miles to church for meetings, so that's working out nicely. I'm still going to Bible study on Monday nights, reading through the Bible in two years. I'm now more than two years into the process, which means that we've now circled back and are reading stuff I read last fall. But there are a lot of segments along the way that I never read, so my plan this final year is to catch up on all of those and have read the entire Bible by the time we leave seminary next summer. I've been doing a little child care as well, both exchanging with friends and also for money. I am tutoring a student in Precalculus once a week and participate in various seminary activities. I helped with Field Day, attend women's events, and we all go to the Family Night dinners on Tuesdays.

Finally, we are asking for your prayers. Don's fall quarter tuition is due Friday, October 16 and as of today, we don't know how we are going to pay that bill off in full. God has been so amazingly gracious to us so far - we haven't incurred any debt in the two years, 3 months we've been in St. Louis. We would like your prayers that God would continue to provide and for wisdom as to whether it's time to take out the first student loan. Thank you, God bless you, and as always, please let us know what we can pray for on your behalf. God created us to live in community with each other, even if we don't live in the same state!

Hannah

2009-08-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

Quick Hannah update with a couple pictures. Here's her kindergarten class (she's in red and blue in the lower left corner). She continues to do well and love school. Her teacher told me yesterday that Hannah is a joy to have in class, so that was nice to hear. She also has two loose teeth! She has been soooo excited about those loose teeth. She keeps grabbing the hand mirror from the bathroom and wiggling her teeth in the mirror. She even wants us to call her "Loose Tooth." We've been able to snap her out of several tantrums by calling her that because she gets so giddy she forgets she was having a tantrum. And along those lines, she saw a dentist for the first time since we were in Bakersfield. She doesn't have any cavities and the dentist says she's doing very well. Yay!

Here's another picture from the first week of school.
Time to go make Bethie some lunch. (Oh - if you read this on Thursday, pray that Don arrives home safely sometime around dinner tonight with our new car!)

Randomness

2009-08-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here with a few minutes to kill before we go pick Hannah up from kindergarten - yes, she started kindergarten a week ago and is just loving it. She is making new friends and learning to write her name "Hannah" instead of "HANNAH." She loves art class and music class. She eats hot lunch at school (since we qualify for the free lunch program) and gets to play on the big kids' playground in the afternoons. She almost falls asleep during rest time, but won't quite let herself drop off. I can't believe I have a kindergartner!

Bethie is doing pretty well without sissy around. We have stopped a few times on the way home from dropping Hannah off and played at a park, which helps a lot. By the time we get home, it's almost 11:00 (time for lunch), and then nap is 12:30. She wakes up just in time to leave for the walk back to school. We're working on settling into our new routine :-) Here's one of my favorite pictures of the girls. This is Bethie's attempt at a smile. (We were at the MO History Museum in nearby Forest Park. The plane is an exact replica of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis.)

Noah is almost 3 months old and he's beginning to settle into a routine as well. He smiles and "talks" to us all the time. He loves his sisters and is beginning to reach for toys and shove them into his mouth. His sleep schedule is still erratic - hoping to remedy that soon.

Don is out all day today at a nearby library working on a sermon he'll be delivering this Saturday night. Tomorrow he's going to pick up our new car! Our 13-year-old sedan barely fits the 5 of us and is starting to fall apart. After much prayer and research, we are blessed to have friends who are selling us a 2003 GMC Yukon for about half of what it's worth. We can't wait!

I'm excited for a new year of MOPS to begin and to really settle into a school schedule for Hannah. I'll be tutoring again this school year. I have one student so far, and she may be my only one. Given Don's crazy quarter coming up and three kids at home, it may be best to limit my time away tutoring. We'll wait and see how it goes. I participated in the county library's adult reading program this summer and read 20 books, which earned me two entries in the prize drawings. I won a $20 Starbucks card, so that was fun. Also, Don and I just celebrated 8 years of marriage, so while my mom was here visiting we went to the Muny (in Forest Park) to see their production of Hairspray and out to dinner at The Melting Pot - yum!

Time to leave soon for the walk to school to get Hannah. Feel free to drop a comment to let us know you were here or find us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/stacye.ray OR
http://www.facebook.com/donray

Love and blessings!

2 months old

2009-07-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth, Hannah, & Noah on the 4th of July

We just got back from Noah's 2-month checkup at the doctor. He's doing just fine, except that he's had some congestion the last 6-7 days. The doctor said that he probably has a cold, but luckily his ears and lungs are clear. He weighs 12 lbs, 13 oz (75th percentile) and is 23.5 inches (50th percentile). Our next two goals are to get him on a better sleeping schedule during the day and to get him to take an occasional bottle.

In other news, Don is done with two of his three summer classes and earned an A in both of them. He'll finish his last class tomorrow. He's studying hard today for tomorrow's exam!

Also, after babying it along for several years, our 1997 Dodge sedan is finally on its last legs (wheels?). We have decided to purchase a larger vehicle and it's looking like it will be a 2003 GMC Yukon. Friends in Minnesota are getting rid of theirs and have generously offered to sell it to us for about half of what it's worth. What a blessing! We know that it will be tough to park in some situations and doesn't get great gas mileage, but there are many many other positive reasons for us to buy this car. If all goes as planned, Don will be flying up to Minnesota around Labor Day to drive it home. Hopefully the Dodge will limp along until then!

Hannah starts kindergarten in less than 3 weeks! I can't believe how the summer (not to mention the last 5 years of her life) has flown by. She'll attend Captain Elementary school, which is a public school in one of the nation's best districts. It's also immediately adjacent to the seminary campus and we know lots of other sem kids who will attend kindergarten or first grade there, so we'll instantly feel like we're part of the school community.

We were also very excited this past month as our 3-bedroom apartment grew to 4 bedrooms! The seminary apartments are built so that two bedrooms on each floor can either belong to the apartment on the left or the one on the right. Our next door neighbors moved out and we were able to "take over" their 3rd bedroom, which became our 4th. (If this is confusing, click here to see the seminary's housing page and then click on "The Woods Apts." under Floor Plans on the left. You can also check out the virtual tour if you want to see photos of the apartments.) This awesome acquisition allowed us to create a playroom for the kids. All their toys as well as a desk for Hannah's art projects, Hannah's dresser, and all her clothes and shoes are now in there. That gave us enough room to move a twin-size day bed for Hannah into the girls' bedroom. Just in time - she had outgrown her toddler bed! Their bedroom is now peaceful and (almost) always clean. So nice for resting and reading together in the evening. And Hannah can play alone or with friends in the playroom when Bethie is napping in the afternoon. The rest of the house is now a little neater because all the toys and art supplies have a home. We are so happy with the change and feel very blessed. Here's a picture of the girls having fun in the playroom on the first day we got it:

And here's Miss Hannah - so excited to have a big-girl bed!

Finally, please keep my Nana (Patsy) in your prayers. She had a hip replacement yesterday and we continue to pray for a full and complete recovery. She is so dear to our hearts and we know that being stuck in bed is really hard for her. Please pray for patience for her while her body heals and for her to be able to return to her regular activities soon. Thanks.

My quiet time to do a blog post is probably about over - Elizabeth and Noah are napping, but either one could wake up any minute. Hannah has been playing with a friend, so I had a (temporarily) quiet house! Blessings to you all and thanks for checking in!

Two-week update

2009-06-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Noah will be two weeks old! He is doing well and we are settling into a routine. He eats every two to three hours, so I'm pretty tired (as Don says, Mom's all-night diner is open!). His circumcision is healing well as far as I can tell, having never had that experience before! He will be baptized this Monday, June 15 here on the seminary campus by one of the professors. Dr. Jeff Gibbs and his wife Renee are pretty special to us. We met them on our very first visit here back in 2004 and have grown closer to them over the past two years. Renee is very active with the seminary wives and hosts the Today's Light Bible study I attend on Monday nights. Dr. Gibbs is brilliant and so gracious answering our theological questions when we have them. They often attend the Friday night bar-b-ques with the students and we are so blessed to know them and to have Dr. Gibbs perform Noah's baptism.

Hannah is doing very well with her brother. She still asks to hold him several times a day and is always loving on him as I feed or change him. Bethie is another story. She can take him or leave him. Luckily, she hasn't shown any aggression toward him, but she is having a lot more melt-downs and all-out crying fits. Poor girl. She's two (with all the emotional changes and challenges that come with that), she's very sensitive, and she has to share us with a new baby. Pretty much every evening between nap and dinner is one long crying fit. She's not eating much and really showing her stubborn side. I pray she adjusts quickly and we would appreciate your prayers too.

I've created a new photo album on Picasa with pictures from Hannah's birthday and Noah's birth. Go here to check it out.

Noah is waking up and we have to get ready for tonight's bar-b-que. Love to all!

Almost one week old

2009-06-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd do a quick update on Noah before I feed him one last time before bed. Noah will be a week old tomorrow morning. He's been home for just over 4 days. He saw the pediatrician for the first time this morning and is doing great. He weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz at birth; went down to 6 lbs 12 oz when we left the hospital; and is up to 7 lbs 8 oz now. He's healthy and doing quite well.

Here at the seminary, we gather for Friday night bar-b-ques when the weather is nice. We went tonight and visited with friends and I couldn't help but flash back to last week's bar-b-que. I sat at dinner that night having no idea that at midnight I'd go into labor and have a baby boy by 6:00 the next morning! What a surreal experience I had tonight remembering a week ago.

The girls are doing pretty well. Hannah is such a help and asks to hold Noah several times a day. Bethie is having a little harder time adjusting, as we predicted. Here are two cute things they said recently. Don was changing Bethie's outfit and when he was done she stood up and proudly announced, "Daddy - I'm fancy-tastic!" And Don was being silly another night tying a red ribbon around his head. Hannah said, "Daddy, you're like little red robin hood!" We thought her mix-up was pretty cute.

Here are a few more pictures of Noah - one in the hospital and one in the car ready to come home.

He's Here!

2009-05-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

We are thrilled to welcome the family Noah Cornelius Ray!!!!

Noah was born yesterday, May 30 at 5:39 a.m. He was 7 lbs, 5 oz and 20 inches long. He has a head full of dark hair (though not quite as much as big sister Hannah) and gigantic feet!

I went into labor at about midnight on May 29/30 and after just under 6 hours of drug-free labor, Noah was born healthy and beautiful. He's currently about a day and a half old and sleeping peacefully in the bassinet next to my hospital bed. Our only glitch so far is that he appears to have somehow swallowed some meconium in the womb. We are just so thankful that he didn't inhale any into his lungs. The nursery was able to suck about 3 cc's of greenish yellow fluid from his stomach after he spit up that yucky stuff twice. Since then he's been nursing a little better and will probably continue to be fine from here on out.

Hannah and Elizabeth are just ecstatic about their new brother and are excited to have everyone come home tomorrow. Most people know that we were looking for a Biblical name for our son. We liked the name Noah both for how it sounds and for who it represents. In Genesis, Noah listened to God and, contrary to everyone and everything around him, built a ridiculous, gigantic boat and saved his family. And for those of you who don't know my family, Noah's middle name is after my grandfather, Cornelius VanLeeuwen (who usually goes by "Van"). My Papa is the family patriarch, really for both my side and for Don. He is a wonderful Christian man whose actions show his love for God and his family every day. Cornelius is also a Biblical name and his account is found in Acts Chapter 10. We pray that Noah will grow up to be a great man of faith, like each of the men he is named after.

These pictures are all from Noah's first day, in most cases taken the first time he was held by one of us. You can see how excited the girls are to hold and kiss their baby brother. They've been so cute with him!

We thank you for all your prayers over these last months. Our dear friends are such a blessing to us and we are grateful for your love and care. Please continue to pray for healthy mom and baby and let us know how we can pray for you. God's blessings to our blog readers - we love you!

The Fisherman and the American

2009-04-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

DR: I was reminded of a little parable (included below), after coming across this article on "economic survivalists."

Blessings on your day!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna.

The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish. "How long did it take you to catch them?" the American asked. "Only a little while," the Mexican said.

"Well, then, why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" the businessman inquired.

"I have enough to support my family's immediate needs," the content fisherman replied.

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat...with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution."

He continued with his grand business plan, "You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "20, maybe 25 years."

"But what then, senor?"

The American laughed and said "That's the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions, senor? Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Life at Home

2009-03-12T19:01:00.001-07:00

Our trip to California has come and gone. We had a great time and it went by way too fast. We were pretty busy and are so glad we were able to fit in a day trip to Pismo (including lunch at Splash Cafe - yay! The girls loved the clam chowder and building sand castles on the beach); a day trip to Pasadena to see Don's brother Dave, which included a trip to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens and dinner at Buca di Beppo; seeing a show at the Gaslight Melodrama where my brother Christopher works (he's directing their next show! If you're in Bakersfield, go see a show there!); we went to church both Sundays and Ash Wednesday; had dinner with a big group of church friends (thanks Bob and Charlotte!); ate at Moo Creamery to celebrate Christopher's birthday; lunch with one of Don's good friends, her husband, and their new baby girl; and lots of play time with Noni and the toys and dolls she bought for the girls.

Now we're back in StL, back to real life, back to school (for Don and Hannah). Don thinks this will be a really great quarter for him. He's liking his classes so far and it seems like there might not be quite as much work as the previous two quarters. He's also doing an institutional module (hospital visits) at a hospital in Bellville, IL (about 45 minutes away). It looks like that will take a total of 3.5-4 hours a week, so it's a good thing his schedule is a little lighter otherwise.

The rest of us are doing well too. I'm now 28 weeks along in my pregnancy - officially into the third trimester. Other than some back pain and a little swelling in my hands and feet, I feel pretty good. The baby is growing as he should and kicks me all the time.

Hannah is still our bubbly, strong-willed, people- and activity-loving almost-5-year-old (how time flies!). She told us the other day about a dream she had (now, I'm not sure if these are actual dreams, or just stories she makes up, not knowing the difference between a dream and a fantasy): she rode a pony, a unicorn and a pegasaurus (her word) into outer space. We assumed that she had ridden them all separately, until she clarified that all three were stacked on top of each other and she rode them all at the same time. We were cracking up. She's becoming ever more creative in her artwork. In fact, her preschool was doing a unit on the ocean. The kids were brainstorming about various art projects and murals they could do and Hannah (according to her) was the only one with an idea. She wanted to paint sticks bright colors to look like coral. The teacher used her idea and it looked great. How fun!

Bethie will be two in a few short weeks (there goes that time, flying again). She knows almost all her colors now and sings ABCs and "Jesus Loves Me" regularly. She hates sharing her toys and wants to do everything herself. She totally doesn't get why she isn't capable of doing all the same things her big sister does and can't play with every single toy, all the time, at the exact same time. We have regular shrieking melt-downs as her frustration levels rise. She loves playing with and feeding her baby dolls. Last night I picked her up out of her high chair and she began giving me tons of kisses, grabbing my face and pulling it closer. She's so affectionate and funny.

Click here to see our most recent photos on Picasa, including Valentine's Day and our trip to California. God's blessings to you from us!

California Here We Come!

2009-02-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

Today is (finally!) the last day of Don's quarter and we are headed to Bakersfield for the next 10 days! We are all super excited, especially the girls and their Noni. But when I told Bethie today where we were going tomorrow, she got a little peeved that Noni wasn't at her house right that second. I'm trying to explain that after she wakes up tomorrow we'll get on the big airplane and go to Noni's house, but she's still a little confused. We have a loooonnng non-stop flight from here to LAX tomorrow and return on March 3. Can't wait!

Don is currently at his last class for the quarter. He has to answer one question for one assignment and turn that in, and then he has to finish one take-home final. The final isn't due until next Friday, but he's going to try really hard to finish it tonight so he doesn't have to take anything to CA with him. I'm praying he finishes!

We're planning to visit Don's brother in Pasadena and maybe some of my family too. We want to spend a day at the coast (yay Splash Cafe!) and we also have several fun visits with high school friends and church friends planned, too. It's going to be a busy fast trip and we're really looking forward to it. Keep us in prayers for a safe trip. Blessings to you all!

It's a...

2009-01-23T18:31:00.001-08:00

Boy!

We had our comprehensive ultrasound today, which measured the baby, determined (his!) gender, looked at the heart, stomach, placenta and umbilical cord, diaphragm, brain, and other things. We learned that we are expecting a healthy baby boy! We are very thankful that he looks healthy and rather stunned that he is a he! Don and I keep saying, "What do we do with a boy?"

Here's another picture of his face and hand. He's a thumb sucker! (Just like Bethie.) We'll see if that continues once he's born, but he was sure going to town during the ultrasound. We could see his mouth opening and closing as he tried to get his thumb in there. It was very cute. We learned that he weighs exactly one pound now and is measuring about a week larger than his gestational age (the girls both did also).

If you're on Facebook, I've posted all the ultrasound pictures there, if you want to see more. (Just go to the Photos tab on my profile page - they should be easy to find.)

The Great Tragedy (subtitle: Kiss my wrist, please)

2009-01-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

Miss Elizabeth has a had a tragedy:

I don't even know how she got this gaping wound, but for the past several days, at least ten times a day she says, "Kiss my wrist, please." She says it so sweetly and we just kiss her wrist and move on with life...at least until the next time. :-)

(By the way, when I was uploading this picture, she saw it on the computer and declared, "That's my tummy!)

Even though Elizabeth won't be 2 until April 4, we definitely have a two-year-old in the house! I like to say that we have entered Do-it-myself-land. Our sweet-tempered girl now has a temper of her own. She throws tantrums when she's upset. Sometimes she simply collapses into a pile of mush and just sobs. It's funny to see how she's different from Hannah though. Hannah would (and still does) throw tantrums because she's mad and she's trying to get her own way. Often, Bethie's are because her feelings are hurt and she's so sad she just doesn't know how to deal with it. It's so sweet though because she'll ask for a hug through her snot and tears and as long as she has a hug, her teddy, and her thumb, she's happy. Here's a picture of her and teddy. Of the picture, we say, "It's just so Bethie."

In other news, we had our vicarage interview yesterday. We met with Dr. Nielsen, the vicarage supervisor here at the sem. We had about 5 pages of paperwork to fill out about our (mostly Don's) history and background, strengths, desires, preferences etc. in a vicarage congregation. The normal track is for Don to finish this school year and we would move somewhere in the country this August for a year-long internship. But it's looking more likely that Don will be asked to defer his vicarage and we would go in August 2010 instead. We'll keep praying about all the things involved with that and we'll know for sure if he's going to be asked somewhere around mid-March to mid-April. Keep us in prayer for wisdom and discernment to know God's plans for us.

We're trying (kind of) to get used to this cold weather. We haven't had any snow or ice really to speak of yet this winter, but it's dang cold! Tonight the low is supposed to be 3 (no, I didn't forget a digit), with windchills around -12. They're warning people not to go outside unless they have to. Unfortunately, tomorrow is my day to help take care of kids in my MOPS group, so the girls and I will be leaving the house at 8:00 or so tomorrow morning (when it's a balmy 4 degrees!). Argh.

Finally, we have our comprehensive ultrasound scheduled for Friday, January 23. We should be able to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. (!)

That's it for now. More later!

The Number of the Day is...

2009-01-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

32! Today we celebrate the blessing of Don's 32nd birthday. (It's also Epiphany - the day we celebrate the Magi coming to worship Jesus.) Don's really busy this week - he has three papers still to turn in, so we didn't do a whole lot to celebrate. Hannah and I baked him a cake this afternoon and after we returned from the Seminary's family night dinner he opened his gifts and we did candles and cake. He's pretty tired after finishing one paper today and starting another.

Speaking of being busy, we have been. The last few months have been busy, and add to that me being pregnant and tired and I haven't kept up on the blog much. Just today I finally downloaded 122 photos from my camera that had been sitting there since early November. Then I uploaded them to Picasa.com so whoever wants to look through 100+ pictures may do so. To see our public gallery, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/rayfamilyblog.

My mom and grandparents came to visit in early October. My grandparents hadn't been to St. Louis before, so we had a great time visiting the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour, going up inside the Gateway Arch and visiting the Museum of Westward Expansion underneath, touring the Kemp Auto Museum, frozen custard at Ted Drewe's, root beer floats at Fitz's, attending our church here, and spending time together as a family. What a blessing and the girls loved having Noni, Nana, and Papa here. Here are some photos:

This one was taken at the top of the arch.

We've been busy with other trips and activities too, but I'm starting to get pretty tired myself. I'll just wrap up with a request to keep Elizabeth in your prayers. She's had a cough for a month and the doctor put her on antibiotics. Pertussis (whooping cough) is going around here in St. Louis and even though the pediatrician doesn't think Bethie has it, they tested her anyway. She coughs off and on throughout the night which affects pretty much everyone's sleep except Don's (and even his sometimes). We'll find out on Friday if she has pertussis, but please pray that her cough goes away and that we can all sleep through the night again. Thanks, and as always, please let us know what we can be praying for for you. God's blessings, Happy Epiphany, and Happy New Year!

Sesame Street is brought to you today by...

2008-12-02T07:37:00.000-08:00

The number 5!

Yes, the Ray family will soon include 5 people. Our third child is due in early June. That means that I am 14 weeks along and feeling pretty good. The first trimester was hard, as it was with both the girls. But my appetite is returning to normal, nausea is abating, and I'm feeling (a little) less tired. Hannah is quite excited, kissing my tummy at random times during the day. Elizabeth of course doesn't get it, but occasionally she'll put a ball or something in her shirt and say, "Baby tummy."

In other news, we had a great Thanksgiving break and week. Don got a two-week break between Fall and Winter quarters. We spent a few days at home together and then traveled to Sedalia, MO to visit Sandy Ashlock again. We enjoyed our time with her and her dog Abby and were able to attend services at Our Savior Lutheran Church again. Their LWML group has been so generous to our family with gifts to the girls and assistance for tuition and books. Hannah and I attended Sedalia's annual Cup of Christmas Tea with Sandy. Hannah loved her first grown-up tea party!

We arrived home Monday of Thanksgiving week and on Tuesday morning Don's mom and his oldest brother arrived to spend the rest of the week with us. We toured the Anheuser-Bush factory, ate dinner at 11-Mile House, ate a delicious turkey dinner, and Don, Dan and Judy went up in the St. Louis arch. The girls loved spending time and reading with their Uncle Dan. We'll probably spend part of our Christmas break in Tennessee with Grammies and Uncle Dan is planning to come up from Texas, so we'll all be together again soon.

My mom arrives from California on Saturday, and we have some events planned then too. She and I will attend Advent by Candlelight at our church here. Don will preach his first sermon on December 13, so Mom will be here for that. We'll attend our church's Christmas production, "Stringing Lights," on December 14. The girls will have fun with their Noni at the Seminary's children's Christmas party too.

Here are some recent pictures:

(Halloween at the Magic House. Hannah was Fancy Nancy and Bethie was Baby Jaguar.)

What has happened to my Country?

2008-11-11T07:35:00.000-08:00

And no, I don't mean the United States. I'm from Bakersfield, CA, the West Coast home of country music (the "Bakersfield Sound"). Here's a portion of an article from Wikipedia: In the early 1960s, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, among others, brought the Bakersfield sound to mainstream audiences, and it soon became one of the most popular kinds of country music, also influencing later country stars such as Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, The Mavericks, and The Derailers. (Stacye's note: The Smokin' Armadillos are another country group from Bakersfield.)

So country music is in my blood and it's my favorite kind of music, aside from contemporary Christian. Imagine my surprise when I heard on a country station here, "Coming up next, it's Kid Rock followed by Jessica Simpson." Since when do these two sing country music? What's happening to the world?

Now in the interest of total honesty, I kind of like Kid Rock's current country song, "All Summer Long." If I've heard Jessica Simpson's song, I don't recall so I can't say whether I like it. But I just don't get it. Country music isn't perfect, but it's a lot more uplifting and joyful than most other secular music, in my opinion. I hope it doesn't start a downhill slide into music I wouldn't let my kids listen to. (Wow, do I sound like my mother or what?)

Hannah Update and Prayer Request

2008-11-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

Quick update to let everyone know that Hannah got her staples out last Thursday. Her head has healed really well and she's doing great. She continues to get lovely scrapes on other parts of her body though. I told her tonight that she's getting really good at getting scrapes and maybe she could stop practicing for a while? She asked, "Why?"

We are requesting prayers for friends of ours, the Hintz family, a seminary family who began vicarage/internship in Oklahoma this past summer. They have four beautiful children and were expecting number five this past Tuesday. The day after the baby's due date they learned that the baby had passed away in the womb. Nothing will ever fill the hole he leaves in their family and our hearts are heavy for them. We mourn with them for the loss of baby Samuel and take comfort in knowing that he is healthy and perfect with our Lord and Savior forever. So please keep their family in your prayers for strength and comfort during this sad time, especially as they hold a memorial service tomorrow evening to say goodbye.

Parenting

2008-10-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

We recently returned home from an all afternoon/all evening visit to the ER. Miss Hannah was playing on our of our office chairs when it tipped over backward, slamming her head into the edge of a door. The result? Four staples.

After a few touch-and-go moments at first, she was a champ. In the waiting room we had to keep reminding her to calm down and just sit. She couldn't understand why we didn't want her horsing around with a 1-inch gash in her noggin! She had no signs of a concussion and is doing fine now. We'll see how sleep goes tonight though...

In other family news, Bethie is a full-fledged walker now, loving her new-found freedom. Don is busy with classes as always and I'm doing the usual. This weekend is the Seminary's annual women's retreat and I'm really looking forward to that. I enjoyed last year's retreat, even though Elizabeth was with me since she was still nursing. This year I'll truly be on my own for 24 hours - wow! Corollary: Don will be alone with the girls for 24 hours - keep them in your prayers. I know they'll do great and enjoy the time with Daddy.

Real life (i.e. dishes) calls. Keep Hannah in your prayers for a full and speedy recovery - no infection or complications. God bless!

What happens then?

2008-10-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Don's forward-looking question in response to the recent $700B economic bailout, and now the additional $250B unprecedented government investment in banks: "And what happens when the United States government fails?"

Haggai 2:7 says, "'And I will cause all the nations to shake and the wealth of all the nations will come and I will fill this house with glory,' says Yahweh of Hosts." In other words, the collapse of the nations of this world will precipitate and usher in the second coming of Christ. And both will happen, though we know not when.

And while followers of Christ can be certain of their eternal security and salvation, it remains true that a collapse of the world's economic powers will be absolutely horrendous--especially for those who have placed their trust in the riches of this world and not in Christ.

Christ is our Rock, our Redeemer, our inheritance--our eternal security is found only in Him. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).

Let us store up our hearts in Christ, who will never drop in value, never fail, and never need a bailout. His love endures forever.

Did You Know?

2008-09-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

DR: I watched this video as part of a parenting class at church today. As a parent of young children and as someone who thinks often about the future and appreciates the value of education and diversity, I found the video stunning. Pass it on.

God's love and blessings,
Don, Stacye, and the girls

Yay Bethie!

2008-09-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hot off the press! Elizabeth really began walking last night! She just took off around the house, often saying, "Chase you" when she wanted me to follow her. She'd stop on a dime, whirl around 180 degrees and take off the other direction. I was amazed. I told her that she was pretty sneaky, that she was a lot better at this than she let on! She still crawls a lot and doesn't seem real eager for anyone outside the family to see her walk, but I bet this next week or so she'll really be taking off. I also have a feeling that she won't want to walk outside. She seems to want to be really confident before she'll actually do something physical.

In other news, we just rebuilt our computer to rid it of a nasty Spybot32 virus/worm thing. Don, bless his heart, spent two days rebuilding it and stayed up until 4:30 a.m. the other night/morning. He did it for me, knowing that when he's in class this is the only computer available to me.

Hannah loves school. She and I are going on a field trip tomorrow. We'll ride the school bus to Eckert's Farm tomorrow to pick apples. She's so excited about it that she can't even talk about it in a normal voice. She growls like a dinosaur! Here's a picture of her on her first day of school.

Hannah wants me to play with her and we're headed to the library soon, so I'll be a "good mom" and wrap up my computer time! Here's one last picture of Elizabeth trying to become our dinner.

Full of hot air

2008-09-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

DR: The third weekend in September, nearby Forest Park (larger than Central Park in New York--believe it) plays host to a "balloon glow" and hot air balloon race. Last year, we went to the race; you can check out our old post about that here.

This year, however, we went to evening-before-the-race balloon glow, where all of the balloonists(?) fire up their...well...their fire. And balloons glow all around. You can walk all around, and under, and sometimes touch the balloons are they are being fired up.

It's an impressive waste of propane, I must say. A conservative estimate suggests it's enough to roast a few hundred million slabs of meat on the grill. I like meat.

And speaking of meat, did you know that the hamburger (and the ice cream cone!) made its world debut at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis? And we've been joyfully clogging our arteries ever since.

Here are some photos from our hot air adventure. Enjoy.

God's love and blessings,
Don and the girls

Out for a walk...finally!

2008-09-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

At 17 months, Miss Bethie is finally, finally, finally taking a few steps on her own! Her first official steps were last Friday evening. We were visiting with friends after a BBQ dinner, enjoying the fabulous weather we've been having. The four adults were talking together and the three kids were downstairs playing. Bethie came crawling up the stairs (she loves "teps") and our friend Autumn was helping her up. Suddenly Autumn wasn't holding on any more and Bethie took three steps to her Daddy! She did it again twice more (to much cheers and applause) and promptly burst into tears and refused to try again.

So we've been taking her outside as much as possible to practice. It finally dawned on us that our apartment is so small that she really hasn't had a lot of practice walking. If she's inside, she crawls and if she's outside, she is carried or is in the stroller. Over the last few days, she has been (mostly) eager and cooperative walking while holding onto our hands. But as soon as we try letting go, she bends her knees and sits on her tush. But yesterday while waiting for Hannah to finish school I was placing enticing objects (my keys! a pencil! my phone!) on a bench and letting her walk about 3 steps to get them. She kept this up for a while and then was done - totally refused to do it again. Can you say "stubborn?" (And yes, she can.)

So we'll just keep trying it and one of these days her brain will figure out that her body's been capable all along and she'll just take off. We'll try to get a photo and post it!

In other news, Don is dropping one class (Pauline Epistles) and replacing it with another. Yesterday was a really hard day for him and he was having a rough time getting all his work done. I think this change will be a good one - we'll let you know.

Hannah is loving her new preschool. Yesterday she got to bring home the "Buddy Bag," containing a Curious George animal and two Curious George books. She gets to take George with her wherever she wants and will tell her classmates about George's adventures tomorrow. Wish I could be there to listen!

Here's reason #105 why you should childproof your house and not let small children play in the bathroom unsupervised! (This was back in June.)

And going even farther back, in case you wanted to know how to dress when going out to get the mail, Hannah and Don will demonstrate (Be sure to note Don's oh-so-cute hat and Hannah's blankie tied around her neck like a cape):

Stay tuned for more fashion tips and walking updates!

One day at a time

2008-09-09T04:07:00.000-07:00

DR: Well, by God's grace, we survived Day One of the Fall quarter. I purposely loaded my schedule heavily on Mondays and Thursdays so that I could have a lighter Tuesday, part of Wednesday, and Friday available to do the significant amounts of reading and writing that I know these 5 1/2 classes will demand of me.

Monday (by choice) is a very heavy day for our family--heavy for me in terms of classes and heavy for Stacye in terms of not having me around to help with our family. My first class begins at 8:00am and my last class ends at 9:30pm. I am in class for nine of those 13 1/2 hours. We we both tired last night.

But it's only nine Mondays, and it does afford me longer stretches of time during the week to get my voluminous reading and writing done, which is a real blessing.

The classes I am taking this quarter include: Pauline Epistles & Acts, Worship, God & Creation, Homiletics I (Preaching), and Theology of Mission. I also have what is called a Lectionary, which is a one-hour once-a-week, one credit class (hence the 5 and 1/2 classes).

There promises to be many moving parts this Fall--lots of diverse reading and papers due throughout the quarter. One day at a time. By God's grace alone.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Love and blessings,
Don, Stacye, and the girls

D.M., this one's for you!

2008-09-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

DR: A friend of ours, D.M. (who has a very active blog of her own), bumped into us at the seminary's Fall kick-off picnic the other night and plainly reminded us, "You need to update your blog!" And then she promptly lamented the lack of iced tea in the beverage coffers, which we jointly affirmed as her empathetic brother and sister in Christ.

So, thank you, D., for giving us the gentle nudge we needed to update our slice of the web. We hope you enjoyed the baked beans, by the way. And indeed, you humble us with your sometimes three-a-day blog postings...we will never measure up to your Royal Blogness. But please know, this one's for you!

And while I'm thinking of it, feel free to mention to your esteemed husband that if it weren't for our professors assigning so much high-fallutin reading, maybe this full-plated sem student might actually get off my theologically-bound duff to do a blog posting once in a while. As if theology was important or something. Geez.

As an aside, I do feel secure in using such a phrase (duff, that is) in this here family-style blog, because "duff" is a theological term, insomuch as God gave us one to sit upon as we read Walther. Who was not a duff. But who likely sat upon his own to write about others he deemed as such. In a theological sort of way, of course. Or it could refer to beer, if you're a Simpsons fan. And I know there are some of those on the seminary campus--Simpsons fans. And duffs.

Well, back to the point of this blog post. Which was...? Oh yes, the need to update our blog with a new post.

Prepare the way

2008-08-28T07:01:00.001-07:00

DR: Stacye has lovingly reminded me that it has been some time since yours truly has done a post on our blog. And so it's about time.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to share with you that I am writing a book. My prayerful goal is to have upwards of a 300-page manuscript completed and submitted by Summer 2014.

I believe Christ will return soon, yet also believe that millions of souls in America are not ready for Him to do so. Indeed, I would offer that even many American Christians are not ready for Christ to do so.

I observe this particularly in the way we steward our material possessions--or shall I say, cling to them--which has a tendency, I believe, to crowd God out of our hearts and minds.

In this context, I believe God is giving me the opportunity to prepare the way into people's hearts and minds for His return, and specifically calling me to disciple Americans in the area of our financial stewardship and abundant material prosperity.

I believe He is calling me to instruct those in our nation to bring Him our goods and material possessions and not to be arrogant, deceitful, prideful, and self-centered.

I believe this heralding call to Americans must be done with boldness, confidence, and trust in Christ and reliance upon God's Word...but also with magnanimity and gentleness. I believe it is my role to be a salient, actionable force for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom as He uses me to prepare people for His imminent return. I believe God will, at least in part, use the book I am writing to further this purpose.

I believe that many people will come to hear my words, be they in this book, a speech, a sermon, or otherwise. And yet, this is not about me. Not at all.

This is all about Jesus Christ and all about preparing people's hearts and minds for His imminent return. Are you ready?

God's love and richest blessings to you as we serve Him,
Don, Stacye, and the girls

Home Sweet Home

2008-08-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

We are home from our trips to Sedalia, MO and New Braunfels, TX. We had a wonderful time both places and are also happy to be home. It's very very late right now, so I'll just post a couple photos now and post more about our trips later.

Our family with Sandy Ashlock (former member at St. John's Bakersfield) and Pastor Chris Kellog at Our Savior Lutheran in Sedalia, MO.

The family at Schlitterbahn waterpark in New Braunfels, TX.

Wordle

2008-07-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

I found something new the other day, thanks to one of our Facebook friends. It's a website called Wordle that creates a word "cloud" based on text you paste in. The more frequently a word is used, the larger it appears. Then you can play around with the colors, fonts, etc. Here's a Wordle from one of our earliest blog posts, as we were getting ready to leave Bakersfield and move to St. Louis to begin seminary.

And this one was from a stewardship post Don did a while ago.

Here are Hannah's and Elizabeth's birth stories that I wrote soon after they each were born:

We've had fun playing around. Don also plugged in the gospels, the book of Philippians, and some other things. Maybe we have a little too much time on our hands... :-) Enjoy!

Booster Club (edited)

2008-07-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hello! We have been enjoying our summer and keeping busy. The girls and I went to the local community pool today and had a blast. They have a huge zero-depth entry wading pool with a slide and fountains. The last time we went the girls shivered through it, but really enjoyed themselves today. Bethie had great fun crawling around and playing with all the toys she could get her hands on. She still isn't walking, but loved the relative freedom the pool gave her. Hannah splashed and waded, going deeper than she had last time. We'll probably go back this week again and take Noni when she's here next week.

In other news, Hannah is now sitting in a booster seat in the car. She's quite proud of her new "grown-up" status and Mommy's glad because it'll be a lot easier to move the carseat and carpool with friends to outings. Hannah's been playing with friends as much as she possibly can this summer. Our new downstairs neighbors have three boys, 5, 3, and 1. Yesterday Hannah played in their wading pool with them and had a blast. It's so great to have neighbors and playmates right here on campus.

If you have any contact whatsoever with my mom (Noni), you already know that Elizabeth is beginning to speak in sentences. Most are just two (maybe three) words, but her longest one of note was, "Milky milky please thank you Daddy." She does a great job telling us what she wants and most of what she says is easily understandable. Execptions to the rule are "kee-nahn" (carrot) and "goy-yo" (yogurt). The word "Bible" is very clear; the problem is that "diaper" also sounds like "Bible." Go figure! Any animal vaguely horse-like is a "ho-see" (one of my favorite words by far). She copies everything she hears us say ("Yi yuv you"). Her funniest non-sequitur is "feet!" She'll be playing, babbling, or talking about something else when suddenly she'll exclaim, "Feet!" It cracks us up every time. When Don asks her for kisses she shakes her head back and forth, which usually means that she wants a nose rub (Eskimo kiss).

To wrap up, here's a photo of the girls having a tea party at the Magic House. And we pray you're enjoying your summer as much are we are!

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

We have had a great day today. We headed over to nearby Webster Groves with friends to watch a parade. We sat right at the end of the route and had great seats in the shade. It's been a gorgeous day - breezy, low humidity, and in the mid 70s. We came home and packed up lunch stuff and headed two buildings over to our friends' house for a BBQ. Bethie slept, the grown-ups ate and visited, and the other kids screamed and ran up and down the hill jumping into one or the other of the two kiddie pools. The weather was still beautiful and we had a wonderful time. We're home now, Hannah's watching Monsters, Inc. having some quiet time on the couch. Soon Don will have to try to get some homework done. We still haven't decided if we're going to go out tonight to try to see some fireworks. It depends on how the evening goes. Here's a photo of us at the parade:
God's blessings on your 4th of July celebrations - thanks for checking in!

One year ago today...

2008-06-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

...we left California. Don just figured it out. We left Bakersfield on June 21 to spend two days at Disney/California Adventure. And on the 23rd we left California, passing into Arizona. Wow. I can hardly believe it's been a year.

I count July 1 as our first day in St. Louis - it was the day we actually got our keys and had our apartment walk-through - plus it's easy to remember. I think we'll bake a cake or something and have a family celebration on July 1. It's crazy to look back on how far we've come, how much we've settled in, how much the girls (especially Elizabeth) have grown and changed. Here's a glimpse:

July 4, 2007 (Bethie was 3 months old)**** April 20, 2008 (Bethie @ 1 year old)

Don doesn't think Elizabeth has changed much...what do you think? She has a little more hair I suppose... :-)

Couple updates: Hannah went to VBS last week and met a new friend, Mya, who will be in her preschool class next year. They were just bestest buddies for the week, so it's great to know she'll have a friend as soon as school starts. Elizabeth is crusing all around the furniture now and really growing in her thinking and problem-solving skills (no, really). She still has no interest in walking/standing/pushing her scooter by herself though. Maybe she'll walk by the end of the summer. Don is in the 4th week (of 9) of summer classes. His first 4-week class ends this week and he'll start a new one on July 7. (His 9-week class continues the whole time. Confused?) I've been carting the girls all over - VBS last week, Tower Grove Park today, the Clayton community pool tomorrow, the library every Thursday, and more to come. I'm still working on the Today's Light Bible readings, trying to read through the whole Bible in two years (before we go on vicarage). When I started we were in the Gospels and have worked our way around to the Old Testament again. I'm in 1 Samuel now.

That's about it for us. I'm reading John Lescroart's Betrayal and it's due back at the library on Thursday with no renewals, so I better get crackin'! Love to all - thank you so much to all of you who keep us up to date on your lives and bless us with your prayer requests. Many of you are on our family prayer board. Keep in touch - we miss you!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

Warning: Commercial plug

2008-06-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hannah and Elizabeth recently became members of TotSpot. Rather than try to describe it myself (I described it to Don as Facebook for kids), here is what the homepage says:

What is TotSpot?
TotSpot is a place for parents to publish a page about their kids and share with family and friends. It's part online babybook, parent journal, and social network. Childhood is an ongoing story and TotSpot is the first site that makes it super easy for parents to securely share their kid's story with friends and family.

We were invited to join by my friend Kerri and her daughter Anya. So we joined along with maybe 600 other people who were invited. TotSpot just today made the site open to anyone who wants to join, even without an invitation. So if you have kids and want to try it out, be sure to search for our girls (HannahGrace and BethieJoy) and request that we be friends. Even if you don't have kids, you can sign up as a "grown-up" friend and see what we're up to. (Don't worry, I have to approve all requests, so I'll know all of their "friends." No strangers allowed.)

All's well that ends well

2008-06-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Quick update to let everyone know that everything's fine here. We didn't end up having to return to the basement last night, so we had a nice quiet evening. I did pack the diaper bag with snacks, water, a flashlight, candles and a lighter, just in case. Our neighbors said that last summer they were down in the basement for quite a while and the power ended up being off for 4-5 days (we've heard horror stories about that experience!). But we all realized that none of us had anything for light in the event the power went out again. So I was temporarily prepared, though nothing happened. But we need to think about permanent solutions so we always have light, water, and snacks. Oh the joys of living in the midwest!

In other kid news, Bethie is finally crawling (at 14 months)! She started two days ago and is so immensely proud of herself. We can hear her coming from the other room, breathing hard and giggling. She arrives sweaty and clammy, but with a big grin on her face. She's pretty slow, and as Don says, is so awkward she looks like Frankenstein, but she's doing it.

Don's leading worship at church tonight, so I'm on my own for the evening with the girls. Hannah's about to have a tantrum, so I better go. God bless!

Not in Oz yet

2008-06-06T14:04:00.001-07:00

We are currently down in our basement waiting out a tornado watch (gotta love technology!). The tornado sirens have gone off twice and we've been down here for about an hour and a half. The kids are doing great - especially now that we have snacks. The sirens went off just as I got them both down for naps, so I think naps are now out of the question. Hannah doesn't really understand, which is fine with me - I don't want her to be unduly scared.

Praise God for good neighbors! We've been playing games, kicking a ball around, eating snacks, visiting, drinking our neighbor's homemade beer (!), and talking about all the creature comforts we want to bring down for next time. The worst has probably passed, but we'll stay for a little longer. Then someone (Don) will probably run out for pizza or sandwiches before the next cell comes in later this evening. I'm sure we'll be fine, but if you're reading this sometime Friday afternoon or evening, say a prayer for us and all those in our area. God bless - we'll post again tonight or tomorrow when all danger has passed. Love to all
--The wind-blown Rays
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Birthday Bashes

2008-06-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

Since our last update, we've celebrated two more birthdays in our house. Hannah turned 4 on May 19. We celebrated with Daddy on May 16, since he was headed out to New York the next morning for a week-long "field trip." That evening, we gave Hannah her main present (paid for by mom & dad, Papa & Nana, Grammies, and Noni) - a Fisher Price digital camera. Then Don left for NY and Noni (my mom) arrived for the week. She was here to celebrate Hannah's actual birthday (we went to MoBot that day) and we had a great time. Once Don got home from New York, it was time to have Hannah's birthday party. We decided on Wednesday, May 28 (which was my 31st birthday) because our venue of choice, CiCi's Pizza, lets kids eat free on Wednesdays. Here are a couple shots of both birthday girls at Hannah's birthday party.

Two days later Hannah got to go to her friend Allie's birthday party. Allie had a very girlie "makeup" party. The girls got to fix their hair, put on finger- and toe nail polish as well as "real" makeup. Hannah had a blast. Here's a picture of her "handiwork" and another of her dressed up in one of Allie's outfits. Too cute!

In other news, we've been talking for a couple days about cutting Hannah's hair. I finally decided to take the plunge and go for it. It's a little shorter than I had planned, but we can still put it up and we can always take her somewhere and have someone else clean it up. For now, it works. It's cute and it'll be cooler this summer. Here she is:

Finally, a few new Hannah-isms for you to enjoy:
On one of our first warm days, Hannah was so excited it was warm enough for her to wear “pants with short sleeves” (shorts).

Hannah told me that she and her doll Brooklyn were both having babies. The babies would be twins and their names would be Geyser and Ladybugger.

I was telling Hannah that I had a cold and wasn’t feeling well. She responded seriously, “Being sick is no fun.” Then she brightened, “But CandyLand is fun!”

It took us an especially long time one day to get to school. I began to say that we’d try a different route the next Tuesday. I said, “I think on…” and she cut in, “Northbound 70?” Obviously she’s been listening to the traffic reports!

We learned recently that Hannah is trying to wean Brooklyn (her doll). Hannah’s “boobies” produce soy milk that is a “vanilla-y-ish flavor” with chocolate chips in it (!).

Look for another update soon on Bethie!

You know you need a break when...

2008-05-13T10:24:00.001-07:00

DR: I just saw on Stacye's Facebook wall a quote from Calvin. I immediately thought, “John.” Nope. It was the “and Hobbes” one.

Seminary academia has officially taken my brain cells hostage.

It's what happens during finals week around here.

Spiritual blindness

2008-05-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

DR: I was reflecting recently on the Gospel of Mark, at the end of chapter 10, where Jesus Christ restores the sight of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar. A few thoughts came to mind which I recorded in my journal and came across again today; I had never before considered this paradigm:

How does a blind man realize he is blind? Is it because he is able to innately perceive his own blindness? What if a blind man was born into a cloistered community comprised exclusively of blind people, every one of whom had never left the confines of the compound or communicated with the outside world? Would any of them realize the others were blind, let alone themselves? Indeed, how could they? One’s blindness becomes evident only within a community of sight. If a blind man is to understand the reality of his sightless condition, he must first be made aware of it by one who sees.

There have been many instances in my own life where I have been blind to the truth of a given situation or been blind to the reality of my own sinfulness. Sin, pride, arrogance, and an unwillingness to see the truth...these (among others) can all be factors which prevent us from seeing things as they truly are.

I believe that only by being made aware of our blindness within a community of biblical sight and insight can we begin to perceive our condition. Receiving the Holy Spirit and studying God's Word in loving, honest, and accountable relationship with others helps the scales of our spiritual blindness fall away. Christ restores our sight, often by working through such means.

The blind beggar, Bartimaeus, helplessly pleas the merciful plea, "My Lord, let me see!" And Christ's response to him, as it is to us? "'Go, your faith has saved you.' And immediately, he regained his sight and began to follow Jesus on the journey." (Mark 10:51-52)

Jesus says, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind” (John 9:39).

Amen.

God's love and richest blessings to you,
Don and the girls

We made it

2008-04-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

My last post asked for prayers, as Don was in the middle of the busiest week of the quarter. Praise God, we made it through! His week was hugely helped by Friday's Hebrew test being postponed to Monday and all the other papers and tests were finished and studied for on time. He even earned a 98% on one paper! We went out to sushi on Friday to celebrate. :-)

It's hard to believe that there are barely two weeks left in the quarter! Our first year has gone by so fast and I know that the rest will fly by even faster.

May will be busy, as Don will soon begin preparing for finals (5/13-5/15). Graduation for the concluding year students and (tentatively) Hannah's birthday party will be May 16. From May 17-25 Don will be in New York City for a cross-cultural module and my mom will be visiting from May 18-25. Then once Don returns, he has about a one-week break before beginning a full summer school schedule on May 27. And somewhere in there we'll celebrate Hannah's 4th birthday and my 31st. Whew!

Here are a few pictures from Bethie's first birthday. She really enjoyed her carrot cake!

Finger lickin' good!

This is about as messy as she got...where's the fun in that?

I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

Fancy Nancy

2008-04-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

My mom has informed me that I don't take enough pictures of Hannah (as compared to the ones I take of Elizabeth). So I thought I thought I'd show you some from last week - the Week of the Young Child. To celebrate this special week, Hannah's preschool class got to dress up as their favorite storybook character. Hannah's favorite character is Fancy Nancy (she even wanted to name Elizabeth Fancy Nancy). We own the original book and the sequel, Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy. Can you tell she had tons of fun?

Here she is with her preschool teachers. Mrs. V was Emily Elizabeth (from the Clifford books) and Mrs. Deidrich was the Cat in the Hat.

We have a few prayer requests. First, tomorrow (Tuesday) is "Call Day," when many of the men here on campus will find out where they will be spending their one-year vicarages or (an even bigger deal) learning where their first church will be once they graduate next month. Call Day is a huge deal around here as four+ years of hard work culminate in finding out where you and your family will be living and serving the Lord. So please keep all the guys and their families in prayer as they find out tomorrow and begin preparing for this huge change in their lives. (If all goes as scheduled, our Call Day will be in April of 2011.)

Second, this will be Don's busiest week so far. He turned in one paper today (on less than four hours of sleep) and still has three quizzes, two papers, two tests, and a partridge in a pear tree. Sleep around here hasn't been great lately between the earthquake, Elizabeth having an unexplained bad night, and Hannah having two terrible nights in a row. We could all use your prayers for sleep (!) and for Don to have clarity of mind and focus as he gets through the next four days. Thank you!

You and your prayers are all a blessing to us. We praise God for you!

An earthquake!? In Missouri!?

2008-04-18T03:02:00.001-07:00

DR: We were woken up at 4:36am Central Standard Time this morning by an earthquake! Being a native Californian, I (Don) have lived through probably a dozen or more earthquakes in my life, including the big 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. Some Californians think they're fun. I think those people are weird. If you're one of them, you're weird. After experiencing the big earthquake in 1989, I can't say that I am particularly scared by most earthquakes, but there are lots of other things I'd rather do with my time, given the choice!

We've heard here and there that earthquakes can happen in the Missouri area, though they are incredibly rare, particularly when compared with the activity along the West Coast and up into Alaska.

The earthquake this morning woke up both Stacye and Hannah, and they woke me up. I probably would have slept through it were it not for their "enthusiasm." :-) I have slept through earthquakes before.

This morning, I went in and got Bethie from her bed in the event this one kept going, but it lasted only about 10 or 15 seconds.

I told Stacye, "Well, depending on the location of the epicenter, my guess is that was about a '5' on the Richter Scale." Well, this one this morning registered a 5.2 and the epicenter was about 125 miles east-southeast of our home in St. Louis, MO, across the border in Illinois. After I reported the facts to Stacye, my loving and honest wife who does an excellent job of keeping her husband from becoming too proud said, "Show off."

No damage. We are fine. We gave a science lesson to Hannah, all the girls went back to bed, and I'm up now to study.

Here is a link to the U.S. Geological Survey online that details this morning's earthquake. I am amazed by the technology that exists to report these things. Any earthquake, anywhere in the world, up on the Internet in real time.

Have a blessed day and weekend --
Don and the girls

Quotables

2008-04-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

"The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity but its sending capacity." -Mike Stachura

Quotables

2008-04-10T03:48:00.000-07:00

DR: this is a busy week for me academically (several tests and papers due), so perhaps more on family and sem life this weekend, when we have an opportunity to "come up for air" and give you an update on how things are moving along.

For now, I wanted to share a quote with you I came across this morning in my personal reading; this one from the book The Churching of America, 1776-2005:

"In all that is important, the Church must stand firm in its witness to the truth that is eternal and unchanging… If it is to remain true to its vocation, it must take its stand against the world, against the age, against the spirit of the age—because the world and the age are always, to a degree, to an important degree, in rebellion against God.” -Will Herberg

Amen!

God's love and blessings,
Don and the girls

He is Risen!

2008-04-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

As we reflect on the past Lenten season and the celebration of Easter, we are once again reminded of God's grace and love for us. How incomprehensible that God would send His beloved Son to inhabit a human body and be put to death on a cross, carrying the sins of the entire world with Him! And yet, even more astounding - Jesus didn't stay dead! He rose again on Easter day, proving that God has power over everything (even death!), sin has no hold on us, and we have a God who loves us more than we can fathom.

Hannah asked me in the car today on the way to school, "Mommy, when Jesus was on the cross, why did He say, 'Forgive Me'?"

What an awesome opportunity! I explained to Hannah that He actually said "Forgive them," and then I explained what He meant. On the surface, Jesus was asking God the Father to forgive the ones who had nailed Him on the cross and written his death sentence. But, much more importantly, He was asking God to forgive all the billions and trillions and zillions of sins committed by every single person who has ever lived on planet Earth. Every single one of us is a sinner. And the Bible says that even one teensy, tiny sin sets us apart from God. We are totally lost, helpless, and hopeless. BUT! God loves us so much, that He made a way for our sins to be forgiven - Jesus. Because the sinless, perfect Son of God took every one of those sins upon Himself, they have been paid for. God now sees me (and all believers) through the "lens" of Jesus - He no longer sees my sin and accepts me with open arms into His presence. This gives me the assurance of Heaven when I die. Praise God!

So anyway, I explained all of this in "3-year-old language," and Hannah was satisfied. But what a way to start the morning - I think I was still waking up at the time :-)

Okay, now that you've gotten through the theology, we have a new slide show below with Easter pictures. This was a really neat Easter in some ways. It's the first time that Hannah has been old enough to understand what Easter is really all about. She understands that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. She can tell you all about the empty tomb how the angels told the women at the tomb that He was alive. She knows that He appeared to and visited with many people over the next 40 days. It's really cool that she asks to read her Bible at night and is starting to get the idea that everything that happened in her Bible really did happen.

It was kind of a hard Easter though too. For one, it was the very first Easter of my life that I wasn't with my family. We didn't go to church on Maundy Thursday (too late at night for the girls), missed most of Good Friday service (traffic), and then our Easter celebration was actually on Saturday (our church has a big "Eggstravaganza" on Saturday and encourages members to worship then, leaving room Sunday for visitors). So on Easter Sunday, we didn't go to church, but spent the day together as a family, reading the Easter story out of several different books Hannah has and the girls were given Easter gifts from us. Hannah did get to hunt for her Easter eggs and she loved that. But to top it all off, it snowed on Easter! I mean, come on! Apparently this is one of the coldest, wettest springs St. Louis has had in a while. Great. Thanks. Can I please wear short sleeves one of these days?

So anyway, enjoy the pictures. I especially like the ones showing what happened when Bethie found one of Hannah's shiny new eggs and discovered that there was something inside!

Hannah can read!

2008-03-19T17:53:00.001-07:00

...sort of. She knows all her letters and knows what sounds they make. She can "sound out" the individual letters of a word, but until now hasn't quite gotten the idea that she can put the sounds together to "read" the word. Tonight, she sounded out a word and (finally, with help) put the sounds together and figured out what the word was. Here it is:

~~Gob~~

er, God.

(As she was sounding it out, more often than not, the "d" was a "b," but I imagine that's pretty common for kids to do.) Later, she looked a sheet of stickers, some of which said "God" on them, and she was able to pick out the word God every time.

So I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, but I can't help but think that it'll just be a matter of time before she can read on her own. Too fun! I can't wait to share my love of books with her. I'll just have to be wise to the tricks (as a kid, I would stuff a rolled up towel or clothes against the bottom of my door so my mom couldn't tell my light was on when I was up past midnight reading Little House on the Prairie or Anne of Green Gables). Though wily Miss Hannah will probably come up with things I never would have thought of...so stay tuned!

New slide show - with some pics from California

2008-03-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Domestic Life

2008-03-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

Update from the domestic side of Ray Family Life:
Wake up, eat breakfast, do dishes. Play, eat lunch, do dishes, take naps. Make dinner, eat dinner, do dishes (or not), get ready for bed. The end, see you next week.

Just kidding...kind of. The boring truth is that we haven't been up to much lately. We had a couple "nice" days (low 60s, which really was nice for us), but now we're back to cold rain again. Hannah was inside all day yesterday, so I set up her tent (from Nana - similar to this one, but in pink camouflage) in the living room. She loved it and she and Elizabeth spent quite a while playing and going in and out. She ate a "picnic" lunch in there and of course wanted to sleep in it for her nap. Luckily it fit in our bedroom and her mattress fit inside as well (more on why she's sleeping in our room in a minute). She conked right out and took a 2+ hour nap - and I had to wake her up! Then her friend Allie came over and the two girls had a blast coloring and "hiding" from Bethie in the tent. A success! And she slept in it last night and did great, except for waking up once, flailing against the sides, scared. I got her calmed down and she was fine.

Hannah's on Easter break this week from school, so we don't even have that to distract us. since there's not much else to do, I'm letting her watch a little more TV - currently Bob the Builder. Later we'll probably play Candy Land - Dora, natch. (Side note: when we first got this game and I began teaching it to Hannah, I realized why it has been such an enduring classic for 60-ish years. I probably could have said nothing and turned her loose and she would have figured it out. It is such an intuitive process and she just "got it." She's really cute - a game just isn't complete if she doesn't get a "pink card," one of the various pieces of candy that sends you forward or backward. She doesn't care which direction she goes, she just wants the pink card. She's just barely starting to get the concept of winning and losing...darn. I liked it much better when she had no concept at all - games were much more fun.)

Bethie is still Bethie. We can't believe we're less than 3 weeks from her first birthday! How did that happen? She still just scootches around on her tummmy - no crawling, no pulling up, she can't even sit her own self up from a prone position. When we pull her up though and help her "walk," she screeches and wiggles and takes off - usually after Hannah. When you try to sit her back down she stiffens up her whole body so you can't sit her down. She would probably "walk" around the house all day if our backs could handle it. She's a very sensitive soul. She often cries because her feelings have been hurt. Her face just collapses and if she's laying on her tummy, she puts her head down on her hands and sobs. If she remembers to put her thumb in her mouth or has a parent nearby to comfort her, she calms down pretty quickly. (One of the worst offenders? Leaving her in a room and shutting the door behind you. We've asked Hannah not to do this because Elizabeth just wails - it's pure torture.)

Bethie says "baby" and "uh-oh" and can make the sounds for mama, daddy, apple, and several others (she just doesn't match the meanings yet). We're finding that she's quite the mimicker. She repeats many many sounds she hears - anything from letter sounds to tone of voice. She signs "more" and "all done" and is starting to sign "please." She now copies us and folds her hands when it's time to pray before meals. When we ask her to give us something she complies. And since she eats absolutely everything she finds on the floor, she knows that when she hears, "Now what are you eating, child?" she pulls the offending object out of her mouth and hands it to me (unless it's especially tasty, like dried orange Play-Doh, in which case she cries as if you ran over her puppy).

Ever since we got back from California, she had been waking up earlier and earlier. When it was 4:10 a.m. and nothing worked until I nursed her, we decided something had to be done. So we moved Hannah on her mattress into our room, intending to soothe Bethie upon her early-morning wake up, but not take her out of bed and make her figure out that she needed to go back to sleep. That first day, she only got one (long) nap and went to bed at 6:45 p.m. She slept until 5:45, I nursed her on the couch (instead of our bed) and put her back in her own bed. She went right back to sleep until 8:00! It's been pretty much the same since last Thursday night. This morning I didn't nurse her until 6:45 - 12 hours of sleep! So Hannah will probably move back into their room tonight and we'll pray that Bethie keeps sleeping well. We'll see!

I'll leave you with a few recent Hannah-isms. Thanks for reading!

(On the plane to California…)
H: Mommy, did you remember to pack my vitamins?
M: Yes, they’re in your shoe (meaning, in her shoe in her suitcase).
H: (totally confused and looking at her feet) I didn’t feel them.

H: Mommy, tomorrow can you play Dress-up with me?
M: Sure babe.
H: I mean Snake. (Then she lays on the floor and wriggles like a snake to demonstrate - don't we all get Dress-up and Snake confused?)

I was explaining to Don why Hannah had a grilled cheese with mayonnaise for lunch and she interjects, “I don’t want to discuss it.”

In Hannah-land, Spaghetti = Stabecki.

We were trying to explain the time change and Daylight Savings Time and she said, “So that’s why last night it was still morning?”

Bethie was saying the sound “ah, ah” and Hannah exclaimed “Mommy, Sissy’s trying to say ottoman!”

Hannah’s friend Anna explained to me that her mommy and daddy like it when she drinks beer because it’s healthy for her.

We were listening to a Superchick song called "So Bright", and when they repeat “So bright, so bright, so bright, so bright…” she asked, “Are they saying ‘pretzel?’”

(Here you can tell she still has a few, uh, minor gender identification issues to work out…)
H: I’m the Princess of Jazz.
M: Can you scat?
H: Yeah. (She skips across the kitchen.) That’s my scatting…Have you met my wife? He’s nice.
M: What’s his name?
H: Jasmine. He likes people.

(Finally, a stewardship interaction to warm the hearts of both her earthly daddy and her heavenly Daddy.)
“Especially coins are really important for God because they’re silver. I’m going to give this big big big one to Jesus (a quarter) because it has a bird on it."

That's My King!

2008-03-10T04:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Ray Family!

DR: This post officially marks our longest "blog dry spell" of 17 days without a new post...thanks for your patience!

We are safely back in St. Louis after a wonderful trip and visit with many family and friends in California, thank the Lord.

We are just about ready to begin the second week of our Spring quarter at the seminary. My schedule is absolutely nuts, and Stacye is a fantastic support for our girls and me as we continue to march on this journey together in Christ.

I estimate 14-hour days M-F and 4- to 5-hour days Sat-Sun, for the next 9 weeks. That's about 80 hours/week, if my math is right. And I don't think that's much of an exaggeration, really. It's just plain crazy.

I frankly don't always agree with how much the seminary throws at us, but it is what it is. I think an unfortunate consequence of having this much "stuff" given to us is that it implicitly teaches future pastors that < insane busyness = "productivity" >. But I'm not at all convinced Jesus wants us to run around like frantic rats. As Lily Tomlin once said, "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."

But what do I know? I'm just a first-year seminary student who isn't supposed to know anything. Rats!

Enough lamenting, I wanted to share with you a really powerful 2-3 minute clip I recently came across called "That's My King!" I tried to upload the video from our computer to this site but it wouldn't work. So instead, here is the link to the site where I got it from. Just click on the words "click here to preview" underneath the video box and it will play.

It is an audio excerpt from a sermon delivered by the late Rev. S.M. Lockridge. You'll just have to watch it and listen to it--I pray God's Spirit moving through Pastor Lockridge moves and touches you as it has me. Frankly, I watch it often when the stress, busyness, and minutae of seminary nags at me. It reminds me of the God who loves us and whom we serve. He is awesome, He is everything, He is our all in all!!!

Be blessed this week. Christ does indeed loves you, even when it may not feel like it. And we love you too. Hope to talk and visit with you soon.

Don and the girls

We're Here!

2008-02-21T14:17:00.001-08:00

We have arrived in California! We are thoroughly enjoying our visit. Praise God, our trip out on Monday was pretty uneventful, as much as a flight across country can be. The girls did really well, even though neither one of them slept much at all. By the time we arrived at my mom's house and got them to bed, it was going on 10:00 (midnight their time). Then of course they woke up at 4:00 and 5:00 AM (which is their normal 6:00 and 7:00 St. Louis time). But now they're both on kind of normal schedules, so that's a blessing.

On Tuesday we just relaxed and napped a little, catching up on some sleep. I've been to two of the Bible studies I used to be involved in and the whole family went to soup and salad dinner and the Lenten service at church last night. It's been great to see our family, friends, and church family. We have a couple playdates and meals with friends planned. Don had lunch with a friend and is enjoying being able to study lots of Greek. Yesterday Hannah got to spend a couple hours with her friends at St. John's preschool. What a special experience! And of course, Noni and her girls are just soaking up every minute they can.

We're really looking forward to this weekend too. On Saturday, we'll spend the day with some of our out-of-town family members who are able to drive up for the visit, including my brother and his wife, driving in from Las Vegas (Happy Birthday Christopher!). We're praying that Don's brother Dave (whose birthday is also soon) will be able to join us, but he's been pretty sick. My grandparents and a few sets of aunts, uncles, and cousins will join us as well. Saturday night and all morning Sunday we'll attend a total of four church services. It will also be such a blessing to see and visit with many members of our church family. Sunday afternoon will be an open house for us to visit in a more casual setting. (Thanks Larry & Pam & others!)

Monday, if the weather's nice, we really want to go over to the coast. As Don put it, we want to get some sand between our land-locked St. Louis toes! And one of my favorite foods in the world is the award-winning clam chowder at Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach so a trip to California wouldn't be complete without it!

And finally, another huge blessing for us is our visit tomorrow with our dear friends, the Marmolejos. Sadly, Anissa's grandfather passed away, so they're here in Bakersfield (from Texas) for his service. Three of their four children are our godchildren and we just love their whole family, so we are really looking forward to visiting with them tomorrow.

Our visit is already going by too fast and we are enjoying every minute of it. We're praying that everyone stays safe and healthy and for a safe trip back to St. Louis on Wednesday. Oh - it's about 30-40 degrees warmer here and apparently we are missing the worst weather St. Louis has had this winter so far. There's about 2 inches of dangerous sleet, snow, and frozen rain on the ground with more to come tonight. The schools and much of the city are shut down. Our friend reported that she saw 7 accidents on her way to work - a 3.5 mile stretch of freeway! Yet another reason to be glad we're in California this week!

Blessings to all - we're so happy to be here!
Love,
Stacye, Don, Hannah, & Elizabeth

The Soundtrack of My Day

2008-02-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

Here are some things running through my (already crowded) brain today:

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey
I've been for a walk on a Winter's day
I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A.
California dreamin' on such a Winter's day

When the wintry winds starts blowing
And the snow is starting in the fall
Then my eyes went westward knowing
That's the place that I love best of all
California I’ve been blue
California, Here I Come
Right back where I started from

I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California girls

So if you haven't guessed, we are doing laundry and packing today to fly to Bakersfield, California tomorrow! We are very excited about our first trip home since we moved to St. Louis - especially Hannah. She's been running around like a maniac all evening. Right after she woke up this morning, I asked her what she thought we should do tomorrow. She had obviously forgotten that tomorrow was "the day" and immediately decided she wanted to go to Mrs. V's class (her preschool). I started to say no, maybe something else, and she began to get very emphatic with me. Until I said, "I was thinking we should take a short trip to, oh I don't know, maybe BAKERSFIELD?!" and she got so excited. She's been on a high all day - too excited to nap even.

In other Hannah news, she's conviced that when she turns 4 she'll be a teenager. She also told me when she grows up she’ll be a real mommy and have a real baby, a baby boy. He’ll have spiky up rainbow hair and she’ll take care of him by nursing him, reading to him, giving him hugs and baths. And I can't remember if I posted these of not, so if so, I ask forgiveness for being a doting Mommy: (Who knows what conversation precipated the following comment of Don's, but Hannah's response was priceless)
D: I was a naïve nerd (in high school). I still am sometimes.
H: You’re telling me grown-up things.
D: Why don’t you say a grown-up thing.
H: Blee blee blah blah blee blee blee.

Another time, Elizabeth took a bite of food and sneezed, blowing it all out of her mouth. Hannah's response, "Bethie bless you’d all her food out!"

And Hannah “lost her finger” at school (just pretending) and told Daddy that she needed scratch tape to put it back on.

In family news, Don is officially done with Winter Quarter. He took his Greek Readings final last Thursday and is pretty sure he got an A both on the final and in the class. His Hebrew class is different though. Quarters are 10 weeks and Elementary Hebrew is 15 weeks. So he still has 5 weeks of Hebrew to go after we return. He got a huge packet of homework to do over the break and has a test the first day back. Luckily though, the professor agreed to give the guys up to a week to take the test if they need extra time. So he plans to just plug away at the packet and see how he feels once class starts again. Next quarter he'll take Hebrew, Hebrew Readings, Pastoral Ministry, Intro to Historical Theology, and Lutheran Mind. I don't know too much about "PMin" or Lutheran Mind, so I'll let Don describe those when he has a chance.

And finally, here are a few new pictures:

Here's Hannah at "Messy Play" at the Clayton Family Center.

"Freedom! Escape! So long suckers!"

Most of Hannah's preschool class at the Museum of Transportation, culminating their unit on trains.

So please pray for safe travel for us and blessings on our trip to Bakersfield. We may update the blog from there, so look for new stories and pictures soon. God's blessings!
--Stacye & the Travelin' Rays

His Amazing Grace makes national news (an update)

2008-02-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

Praise God...just 24 hours after 6 people lost their lives in the senseless shooting in Kirkwood, Missouri, hundreds of community members gathered together in unity for Christ to shine His light and love to a darkened world...

Here's the story on cnn.com.

Love and blessings in Christ Jesus,
The Rays

Our hearts are heavy...our prayers continue... (revised)

2008-02-08T05:33:00.000-08:00

Our hearts are very heavy because of a tragic shooting that took place last night at City Hall in Kirkwood, Missouri.

A disgruntled man who had experienced frustration with the Kirkwood City Council in the recent past shot and killed Kirkwood Police Sgt. William Biggs on his way into last night's council meeting. He took Sgt. Biggs' service weapon, entered the council chambers, and fatally shot Kirkwood Police Officer Tom Ballman immediately upon entrance. He then shot and killed three city officials--Councilmembers Connie Karr and Michael Lynch, (both pictured in the "Kirkwood City Council" link above) and Public Works Director Ken Yost--and wounded two others, before being fatally wounded by responding Kirkwood police officers.

The two people wounded were Mayor Mike Swoboda and a journalist in attendance. The journalist was shot in the hand and is expected to fully recover. Mayor Swoboda was shot in the head and has been upgraded to serious condition but remains in ICU. Please hold Mayor Swoboda and his family in your prayers as he comes through this horrible tragedy.

You may have heard about the story already, as it has made national news. Here is the link to the full story on cnn.com

Local churches will be holding vigils this afternoon and evening, to continue to bear Christ's light in this dark world, and to continue to pray for all the victims and their families. This is especially hard for the small and tight-knit Kirkwood Police Department, who just two years ago lost another officer in the line of duty.

Our hearts are very heavy for all involved and for our community. Please join us in praying for our community.

A quaint suburb of just 27,000 residents, Kirkwood is about 10 miles west/southwest of Concordia Seminary, and the home to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod international headquarters. Just four blocks away from Kirkwood City Hall is Concordia Lutheran Church, the field work church of our seminarian brother, Jerry Hays, and his family, who lost their 9-year old son in a helicopter accident in December.

We are to be Christ's light in this dark, dark world. Let us take this opportunity to express God's love and grace as we pray for all those involved and for the healing of our nation and its communities.

In Christ's love, serving Him with you--
Don, Stacye, and our girls

Snow

2008-02-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

We've had more snow...lots of it. We've heard that it's been years since St. Louis has had this much snow all at once. The best part is that I have an awesome husband and the first morning after it snowed, he and our neighbor went out and cleared the snow off our car and our whole parking space. And everyone in our apartment building shared in the snow-clearing duties for the stairs and walkways. So we can get to where we need to go without stomping through 7-9 inches of snow, but also when we want to go have fun in it, we can do that too.

And have fun we did! Hannah and I spent much of the day today playing outside and sledding. We had a ball. Unfortunately, Don thought maybe he was getting sick and Bethie has an ear infection, so they stayed inside. I didn't take any pictures today, but I "borrowed" these from our Seminary President's wife's blog so you all could see how pretty everything looks. Enjoy!

The Chapel

The Dining Hall

A strange specimen, foreign to us native Californians

Luther Statue

Benches outside the Chapel

Quotables

2008-02-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

A Chinese proverb Don came across recently, with an all-important twist we've added for Jesus:

If your vision is for a year, plant wheat.
If your vision is for ten years, plant trees.
If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.
If your vision is for eternity, plant Christ.

May God work in and through you to sow seeds of Christ wherever you go. We plant and water the seed, and He grows it (1 Cor. 3:5-9).

God's love and richest blessings as we continue to serve Him together,
The Rays

Preschool decisions

2008-01-22T12:12:00.000-08:00

We're in the middle of a difficult decision regarding Hannah's preschool for next year ('07-'08). Due to the lovely road construction and freeway closure thrust upon us by the lovely state of Missouri, what was a 25-30 minute drive has become a 40-50 minute drive (one way). So all-told, it takes me at least an hour and a half in the morning and almost two hours in the afternoon to do the whole trip. This quarter, Don has Tuesday afternoons off, so he does the Tuesday pick up. This is a huge blessing to me - in fact, he's gone right now picking her up. Elizabeth is sleeping, and I'm blogging. Nice.

Next year when she is at school three days a week, I think it would just drive me absolutely crazy to be in the car that often for that long. So we are looking at about 5 LCMS preschools that are anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes away. I'll go visit a couple this week and a couple others are having open houses in February. We're praying that God leads us to a school that will be perfect for her spiritually, academically, and socially; that will be closer to our home; and affordable with the help of financial aid. So for all you prayer warriors out there, we'd love to have you praying right along with us.

The girls and I saw the new Veggie Tales movie last weekend. It was Hannah's first movie in a theater and she did pretty well. I could tell she got kind of restless and spent some time standing up rather than sitting on the hard booster seat, but overall she enjoyed it. I thought it was great. It had such a wonderful message for the Christian life. Without giving too much away, it was a reminder that Jesus is coming back someday and we a) have to be ready and b) have work to do. It's not enough just to sit around and while the days away. God intends for us to put Christ's love into action: helping people, doing God's will, spreading the Gospel, and being in the Word. So the Pirates learn that by doing the right thing (i.e. God's will), they become the heroes they never thought they could be. I highly recommend it.

Let's see...what else? Elizabeth is scootching all around the house. She's just barely getting up on her toes and elbows and doing pushups or sometimes getting up onto her knees and doing that classic baby rock. But she's not actually crawling yet. Oh - our friends next door were given some toys from someone at their field work church. Their daughter is a little too old for the toys, so Hannah was the blessed recipient of tons of new Dora the Explorer toys. She got Dora's talking house and lots of dolls and accessories. If you have any idea how much Hannah loves Dora, you'll know that she's in heaven. It's so fun to see her having a ball with her new toys. And a total blessing that these toys (that we can't afford) were a gift from God. What a cool reminder that He loves each of us so much that even a 3-year-old's Dora obsession does not go unnoticed.

And finally, here's a Christmas picture of both of them. Those of you who are parents of 2 or more kids know the frustration I have recently discovered trying to get a decent picture of both of them at the same time! And remarkably, most of the "good" photos are of Elizabeth. Hannah is the one who is usually making faces, fidgeting, showing her underwear, looking at her sister, getting up and running away, etc. I get so frustrated trying to get the "perfect" picture and Don ends up reminding me that the "perfect" picture is near impossible and to just let it go. So I guess I'll either learn to do that or else learn how to PhotoShop two photos together...

Our Favorite Salad (otherwise known as "Even Hannah will eat it")

2008-01-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd do a posting looking at the lighter side of life this evening. I made our family's favorite salad tonight. I got it from my WarmLine cookbook - it's called "Patty's Famous Garlic Salad," from Patty Reis, a good friend and mentor from Bakersfield. It couldn't be easier, I usually have the ingredients on hand, and (gasp!) even 3-year-old Hannah will eat it. (This is especially a big deal, because pretty much the only thing she won't eat is any other kind of salad. This one - she asks for second and third helpings!) Here goes:

Finely mince 4 cloves of garlic (I use my Pampered Chef chopper). Put them in the bottom of your salad bowl and add 4 tablespoons olive oil and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Use a fork to mash them all together as best you can. Add a whole head of romaine (clean, dry, and torn into pieces). Mix it all up with your hands, kind of smushing it all together as you go. Shake on a few ounces of shredded Parmesan cheese (2-4?) remix, and serve. That's it! Between the 3 of us, we easily finished the entire salad tonight with our ~~stabecki~~ spaghetti. Of course, you have to be willing to smell like garlic, but hey, garlic is good for you right?

In other light news, both Don and I have joined Facebook. It's been fun to reconnect with college and high school friends, see pictures, and find out what people have been up to. So if you're on Facebook and haven't found us yet, we'd love to have you look us up and connect!

Let's see...Elizabeth has 8 teeth now and is working on her first molar. Her 9-month doctor appointment was Monday. She's 28" long and weighs 20 pounds. She's in the 75th percentile for everything. She got one shot and seems to be doing okay. The erupting molar seems to be causing the most problems at the moment. Today her lunch was cut up canned sweet potatoes and finely chopped chicken breast. She ate the whole thing and I happened to look up at her and see her grinning broadly and signing "more"! It was her first totally self-fed meal. Definitely a milestone.

Hannah is getting more verbal and expressive. She loves telling us about her dreams in the morning. It's hard to tell whether these are real dreams or just things she imagines while awake. The other morning she said that she was playing a game with her friends at school and some of the friends sneezed and their faces got stuck together. She thought this was pretty hilarious. Also, we've recently learned from Hannah that armpits are a delicacy in California; they’re served in fancy restaurants for $13 and are served with marshmallows. When Hannah hears Elizabeth crying through the baby “remonitor” she often begins singing “Jesus Loves Me” to Bethie – through the “wrong” side of the monitor. (I've tried to explain that it doesn't go both ways and that Bethie can't hear her, but she persists.) She sometimes asks for the “humidityfier” to be placed in her room and she likes playing with magnets to see what things in the house are "magdedified." Another time, she graced us with this important command:
H (eating peppermints and interrupting): Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.
D: Hannah, I’m talking to Mommy. Is it something you need now?
H: Yeah.
D: Okay, what is it?
H: Smell my mouth.

And on that note, I think I'll call it a night. God bless!

Life, leadership, love, and leaves

2008-01-06T12:24:00.000-08:00

DR:
Life is good. We have not been without our challenges (I am taking Hebrew, which has been harder than Greek was for me, and all four of us got sick at different times over the Christmas break), but overall we are very blessed. For one, it's my birthday today and thanks to the support of friends and family (some of whom are babysitting for us), Stacye and I are going on a date tonight! :-)

And then it's back to work, and the main reason we came to St. Louis in the first place... We begin the home stretch of the winter quarter tomorrow, and I have begun to get more involved in our field work congregation, St. John in Ellisville, MO.

I have been asked and accepted the invitation to serve as the "Traditions Venue Leader," beginning in part this year and then in full next year and beyond. Traditions is St. John's Saturday evening service, and is a bit more...well...traditional in its worship style than the Sunday Praise (blended and contemporary) or Warehouse (very contemporary) services. As the venue leader, I will have the responsibility to lead worship and/or preach most weekends at that particular service.

There are typically about 125-150 souls who regularly attend the Saturday evening service each weekend; a fraction of the 2,300 who attend St. John's eight weekly services, but not much smaller than the average-sized 200-member church in America. I am humbled they have asked me to serve, and am excited and grateful to have the opportunity to gain so much practical leadership experience so quickly in this "church within a church."

I also taught bible study at St. John for the first time today; Romans, chapters 7-8...a theologically loaded section of the Bible that is "shallow enough for a child to wade in, and deep enough for theologian to drown." I think the "youngest Christian" among those in attendance at the class this morning has been a follower of Christ for longer than I have been alive, and the eldest has been a Christian for nearly 90 years! I estimate there was over 500 years of collective Christian life experience in that room today, not including myself. And I was supposed to teach them something! Humbling to say the least.

We really enjoyed our time spent together in God's Word today. What wonderful saints they are. Praise God for their years of commitment and faithful service to the Lord; our church would not be here today were it not for the sacrifices they've been making for the better part of the last 100 years.

I thought I would close my note to you today with some pictures I took of Hannah yesterday afternoon. When we came back from running some errands we noticed a bunch of old fall leaves that had piled up in front of our apartment. Who could resist!? A 3 1/2 year old girl with some energy to burn and her silly daddy with a camera in hand certainly couldn't, that's for sure. So enjoy...here's Hannah romping around in some St. Louis leaves.

(our closing comments follow the pictures)

We love you. We encourage you to allow God to bless you in a special way today. He loves you so much.
-Don (& the Ray ladies)

Quotables

2008-01-02T03:56:00.001-08:00

"Everyone who is born of God conquers the world; and this is the victory which has conquered the world--our faith." -1 John 5:4

Quotables

2007-12-31T21:07:00.001-08:00

"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading." -Oswald Chambers

Such sweet words for the soul as we travel on this journey of faith, together with you...

Love in Christ,
DR et al

Please pray for our seminarian brother and his family

2007-12-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

We were deeply saddened to learn today that Caleb Hays, the nine-year old son of seminiarian Jerry Hays and his wife, Gretchen, died yesterday morning in a helicopter accident, along with Hays family friend and pilot, Dan Dase. Here is a link to the news story, as reported by The Dallas Morning News.

The Hays family was visiting family and friends in Texas over Christmas break. Jerry and Don serve together on the Concordia Seminary Student Association.

Indeed a sobering reminder for all of us that life is precious and that we draw each of our breaths but by the grace of God.

Please lift up your hearts and prayers with us in support of the Hays and Dase families, that God grants them all His abundant peace and comfort during this very difficult time. May God bless you richly.

In Christ,
Don, Stacye, Hannah, & Elizabeth Ray

Let's just say marketing was not their speciality...

2007-12-28T06:01:00.000-08:00

Click here to read a funny post from the blog of the wife (Diane) of our seminary president (Dr. Dale Meyer).

Those funny Lutherans!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

We pray that everyone had a Merry Christmas yesterday. We did except...poor Hannah got some kind of bug and spend most of the morning and early afternoon "gaking." The good news is that she hasn't gaked in 16+ hours, so hopefully the worst is behind us. She slept well last night, but this morning all she's done is lay on the floor, watch her new Dora movie, and eat a few Saltines. So keep her (and us!) in your prayers (so far, no one else shows signs of getting it, but you never know).

Otherwise, our Christmas was really nice. We spent the day as a family, opening presents, eating, and resting. We had planned to go caroling at a nearby hospital with some other sem families, but with Hannah feeling cruddy, we decided to try again next year. Hannah got lots of art stuff, some new books, new Barbie-type dolls, and from Santa, a new Bible, which she loves. It's the same Bible they use in her Sunday school and while it's still not the actual Bible, the stories are longer than her toddler Bible and incorporate a few phrases from Scripture. We read quite a bit from it yesterday.

And now begins "the twelve days of Christmas," which has a special significance in our family. Not only is January 6 Epiphany (the day we celebrate the Wise Men bringing gifts to the baby King), but it's also Don's birthday. When Don was growing up, they didn't really do stocking stuffers, but each member of the family would have a basket with 12 small gifts in it and they would open up one each day after Christmas leading up to January 6. That's a special memory for Don, but I've never been able to get my act together enough to buy 12 small, meaningful gifts for him or anyone else. One year I tried stuffing his stocking with small things from the dollar store, and while he was sweet about it, the truth is that my oh-so-practical husband really would rather not have gifts that aren't useful. Anyway, in honor of the twelve days of Christmas and Epiphany, I thought I'd post this video I found on another blog I enjoy reading.

In other news, Bethie now has 7 teeth (if I don't post that now I'll forget to) and she enjoyed her first Christmas as well. For her, it was a perfect day - she got to be at home with her favorite people, take all her naps in her bed, and get lots of attention. She got to scoot around on the floor eating scraps of wrapping paper and ribbon. She got a Rock-a-Stack from Grammies, so of course that's tons of fun. Her favorite thing seemed to be a floating Baby Einstein book. She chewed on and turned the pages of that book for the longest time yesterday.

Don got some pint glasses from Schlafly Bottleworks, a local brewery with beer we really like. (For all you Bakersfieldians, it's a lot like Lengthwise, only much bigger.) He is also excited to try making creme brulee with his new kit and blow torch. I got a Harry Potter movie, some jewelry, new dish towels, a Concordia Seminary sweatshirt, smelly-good lotion, and a cranberry candle.

These small gifts were certainly a joy for us to give to each other. Still, we know that the best present of all was the one Hannah opened first: the baby Jesus.

Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year!

And Since We've No Place to Go...

2007-12-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

...Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

~~My mom and nana~~ Some of you out there check the St. Louis weather ~~every day~~ occasionally and already know that it snowed here pretty heavily last weekend. Hannah loved her first real snow and while Mom & Dad also enjoyed playing in it, it wasn't so fun dealing with the practical aspects. As you'll see on the slide show, on Sunday morning Don spent about 40 minutes clearing snow off the car, trying to clear it out of our parking space, and shoveling the sidewalk. By the time he was finished and we added in getting ready time and slower drive time, we made it to church about an hour and a half later than we originally planned.

I quickly learned to carry Hannah into and out of the car because it seemed that no matter where we went or where we parked, there were several inches of snow and ice on each side of the car. I saw several parking lots that were totally cleared of snow, but of course none of the ones we visited had that honor. We learned to shovel and salt the porches, stairs, and walkways. We scraped ice off of our car numerous times.

On Saturday morning we woke up to snow. There wasn't much - only 2-3 inches maybe. But it was enough to sled so we ~~scavenged~~ borrowed some sleds from the neighborhood kids and found a hill right behind our apartment. Elizabeth was napping, so Don and I (and some of the other kids) got to sled with Hannah and experience her first snow right along with her. We were the only adults out "playing," which was kind of weird but we had too much fun to care.

Then on Sunday we let Hannah skip her nap and we went sledding again. By then we had 6-8 inches accumulation and the sledding was great. We went over to Concordia Park with some friends and found a looooong hill to sled down. Hannah was awesome - she kept going down by herself, either on bottom or tummy. She'd rock herself back and forth and would veer off course, almost crashing into trees. But thankfully, no injuries except some very cold toes by the time we got home. What a fun weekend!

Andy by now (Friday), almost all the snow has melted. I've been struck that something that can look so beautiful can then look so dang ugly when it gets dirty and full of dead grass and leaves. It's really pretty nasty looking around here now and I can't wait for it all to melt now.

So here's our slide show - enjoy! And if we don't get a new posting up by Christmas, just know that we pray that your celebration of Jesus' birthday will be full of peace, joy, love, and of course thankfulness to Christ for coming to earth to provide salvation for you. Merry CHRISTmas!

Stacye's long-overdue-update

2007-12-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

Things are humming along here. We had a great visit with my mom the first week of December. Noni loved seeing her girls and celebrating an early Christmas. Hannah has gotten very into "awt" (art) lately, so most of her gifts from Noni and Nana (my grandmother, who also lives in Bakersfield) were art-related. She got feathers, pom-poms, buttons, glue, stickers, paper, and "glue glitter" so that she can decorate to her heart's content. She also got a mini Light Brite and tons of Perler beads (these beads are her favorite thing to do at school and she has already made several projects of her own here at home).

Elizabeth got some fun toys too - things she can chase after, stack, nest, and of course, chew on. Speaking of Elizabeth, she got her 6th tooth yesterday. Now she has 3 on top and 3 on bottom. If she doesn't get any more for a while she'll end up looking pretty lopsided because the third one on top is on the opposite side from the third one on bottom.

In other news, the girls are finally sleeping together in the same room and Don and I have our room back! They've been in the same room for about two weeks now and are doing great. And it's so nice to be able to read or put laundry away in our room at 7:30 at night! And also, we don't have to be so quiet in the evening because the girls are now on the opposite side of the house (before, one was on each side, so no matter where we were, we tried to talk quietly for their sake). So it's quite nice to feel normal again when the girls are sleeping and not tippy-toe around.

We're trying not to get all rushed and hectic this Christmas season. Since Hannah's still so young, we don't have as many school/Sunday school programs, Christmas parties, and other "must-dos" as we might have in a few years. I'm still trying to keep things simple. Having said that, we still need to send Christmas cards; figure out, create, and mail Christmas presents to our family in CA, TN, OH, TX, and GA; buy each of the girls' ornaments for this year; wrap the girls' gifts we have so far and hide them from Hannah; try and take some (nice) Christmas pictures of the girls together; figure out and create gifts for Hannah's teachers; go to Hannah's school Christmas party and program later that same night; and of course spend some time together as a family, worshipping the Christ Child, and teaching Hannah what Christmas is all about. Whew! (future pastor's editorial comment: we'll be sure to keep that last part at the forefront of all we do... :-) )

I'll wrap up by saying that we hope and pray that you also try to take time to breathe, spend time with your family, and focus on Jesus Christ, who came to Earth out of love for YOU, so that He could live an obedient life in your place and die for your sins (and ours too!). He loves you so much, He wants nothing more than to have a deeper relationship with you, regardless of how far or near you are to Him today.

We pray that Holy Spirit will be in your heart, giving you the peace that only God can give. Merry, Merry CHRISTmas! With Love,
Stacye, Don, Hannah, & Elizabeth

The Refreshment of Contentment

2007-12-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

I read this devotional today from Dr. Scott Rodin, President of the Christian Stewardship Association, based on Philippians 4:10-13. May it be a blessing to you, as it was to us. -DR

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

How do you define what is enough for you? How much is enough money to make, to save and to spend? How do you define for yourself what is enough clothing, enough food, enough electronic gadgets, enough television channels and enough time to watch them, enough sporting events, enough shoes and enough popularity? How much is enough for you? That is an intensely personal question. No one can answer it for us, but we answer it daily by the choices we make.

The enemy is at work in our world determined to help us each answer that question in exactly the same way. Regardless of our income, our lifestyle, our investment portfolio or class, our enemy wants us to respond in unison with one voice and answer, "just a little more."

You can be a discontent millionaire and a discontent pauper. Discontentment knows no economic boundaries. The common denominator is a gnawing desire to have what is just out of reach or what someone else has, believing that it will finally make us truly happy.

Discontentment dries our spirit. It does so because, at its core, it is an indictment of God's gracious care and provision in our lives. It accuses God of holding back and holding out. It assumes that we deserve more, but somehow we are not receiving all we really need.

The Apostle Paul turns this idea on its head when he says that he has learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance. Wealth and the accumulation of stuff is of no consequence. Contentment transcends what's in our bank accounts and storage units. For Paul, and for all of us who are in Christ, the secret is not a mind manipulation process or a new form of the power of positive thinking. It is the truth of God's presence, provision and providence in our lives. It is a daily trust that God is always near us, will always 'supply all of our needs, according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus', and is sovereign over every circumstance in our lives.

Presence, provision and providence. Because of his certainty in them, Paul could write from the bowels of a dark prison with a spirit of contentment. In the midst of the most demanding of situations Paul knows this contentment, because, for him, Christ is enough.

Is Christ your full provision today? Can you rest in him, knowing that regardless of your situation, whether in plenty or in want, you are content in him? If you can know and claim that contentment for yourself, you will also know the refreshing release from the anxious striving for more and more. And your spirit will be refreshed.

Prayer

Gracious Lord, my provider and constant companion, help me today to be released from the bondage of always wanting more. Forgive me of my lack of trust in you, and for seeking happiness in the accumulation of things or experiences, instead of seeking my only contentment in you. I give myself back to you today and ask that your presence, provision and providence will be the sole source of my daily contentment. I know you want the every best for me, and I trust you with my life. Refresh my spirit and give me a heart that is at rest and content in you alone. I pray this in your almighty and gracious name, Amen.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We've been Elfed!

2007-12-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

Check it out!

Hebrew characters and online characters

2007-11-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

DR: This week begins the new quarter. I am learning Hebrew for the first time, and taking a Greek Readings class, to help keep fresh the Greek I've learned recently.

Hebrew is full of strange characters and odd-sounding words I've never seen or heard of before, and which are unlike anything else in the galaxy, I'm convinced. It's just plain weird.

But I guess anyone learning English for the first time would say the same about this language. Can you imagine being a non-native English student trying to understand our strange idioms (which seem "normal" to us) like "the whole kit and kaboodle" or "have at it"??? What kind of stupid sayings are those?

And so why should I expect Hebrew be any different? It's got its quirks, but so do all of us. And God still loves us. So I guess I should strive to love Hebrew, too. Aw, shucks.

And now, from Hebrew characters to online characters...

Stacye and I sheepishly entered the online world of Facebook this past weekend. We have heard a lot about it, mostly from friends of ours in the 18-25 year-old range, but had not yet explored it for ourselves.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Facebook, it is an online gathering place of sorts that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. Each person has their own page where you can post pictures, upload videos, share favorite quotes and books, email each other, have online discussions about things of common interest, you name it.

Facebook essentially allows people to keep in touch and build relationships with each other using the Internet as their "meeting place" versus having to travel to an "old-school" Rotary Club meeting or community center gathering. It's made up of many networks, each based around a company, region, or school. You can join the networks that reflect your real-life communities to learn more about the people who work, live, or study around you.

Anyhow, you can check it out at www.facebook.com where you can easily set up your own account if you don't already have one. This is the way today's youth talk and connect with each other.

And while joining Facebook won't stave off the wrinkles and gray hair that come with the joys of parenthood (and Hebrew), maybe it will help us stay in touch with our friends, family, and frontiers of society a bit more effectively.

Off to study Hebrew. Eventually. First, I need to see if I have any new Facebook friends!

Love and blessings,
Don, Stacye, and the girls

True quotes - Dr. John MacArthur (revised post)

2007-11-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

DR: Below is an excerpt from a message Dr. John MacArthur delivered on the National Day of Prayer this past May. He boldly and directly confronted the morally depraved state of our nation, coupled with what we can do in response, and what God promises to do as well.

Dr. James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, devoted two full days of his own national radio broadcast to airing edited portions of Dr. MacArthur's comments. You can listen to the edited portions of Part I of Dr. MacArthur's message here, and Part II here. And the entire written transcript of Dr. MacArthur's remarks can be found here on his website, Grace to You

Here is the quote I pulled from Dr. MacArthur's closing comments that touched my heart, and I pray touches yours as well. You can listen to an edited portion of the quote below firsthand; it begins just before minute 24:00 on Part II linked above:

"What do you have to pray for? You have to pray for the Word of the living God to be proclaimed across this nation. And if it's not being proclaimed in churches, it's not going to be proclaimed anywhere else.

This is not a time for weak men in weak ministries preaching weak messages. This is a time to call on God to raise up a generation of passionate faithful gracious loving preachers of the Word so that a nation can listen to God...

Your prayer and mine has to be that God would raise up faithful preachers and people who would proclaim His Word across this land. Pray for this generation of young men that God will call and shape and send, pray for pastors everywhere. Pray for lay people, for Christians to be bold.

There's only one solution and that's the truth--the truth by which God saves, by which God sanctifies, and if this nation will respond and listen to His truth, God will open the flood gates... But there's no other way than that people listen to (God) and walk in (His) ways. It's not going to happen if there's a famine of the hearing of the Word of God.

Pray that the Word, as (the Apostle) Paul said, would have free course and that it would run with all its power across this land. With all its beauty and magnificence, all its power and grace, that people would hear and believe and be saved and be obedient.

I don't know what God's plan is, I just see here what His heart is. 'O, that My people would listen to me,' (Psalm 81:13) that's the heart of God."

God be with you and bless you richly this Thanksgiving,
Don, Stacye, Hannah, Elizabeth (& Grammies!)

More True Quotes

2007-11-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

(not as profound, though observant)

Hannah: Mommies don't have beards.
Mommy: No, Hannah. They usually don't.
H: Some Daddies have beards.
M: Yes, sometimes they do.
H: My Daddy doesn't have a beard. He has a chin.

(bawling and whining, in the middle of a looonnngg tantrum)
H: IIIII'm getting tiiiired of thiiiiiis...
M&D (laughing): Yeah Hannah, we are too.

(in the middle of a nap-time temper tantrum)
H: IIIIIII caaaaan't sleeeeeeep...
M&D: Um, yeah. Walking out to the living room and crying isn't usually conducive to sleep.

(at least once a day)
H: At my school, where Mrs. V. lives...
(and this is followed by some story about her preschool and her teacher, Mrs. Vande Vrede)

(we often hear this one when she's supposed to be taking a nap)
H: There's a bug beezing around my room.

And the kicker...Here's the background story: Hannah is currently sleeping on her mattress on the floor of our room while Elizabeth learns to sleep through the night in the crib in the girls' room. When I put Hannah to bed I sit on her mattress with her for stories and prayers. A few nights ago Don asked me not to sit on it because it's meant for kids, not adults. Of course, I forgot and last night I did the same routine and sat on her mattress. After the story, here's what she said:
H: Mommy, Daddy has told you several times not to sit on my bed because it's not for big people. It's supposed to be for kids. So maybe next time you can make it easier and just remember what Daddy told you and not sit on my mattress.
(!)

True quotes

2007-11-18T18:52:00.001-08:00

"I believe that it is actually much easier to imitate your hero than to be yourself: to claim your own identity and calling; to wrestle with your own brokenness; and to struggle minute-by-minute with God to figure out what is the best way to lead in your context."

-Christian author and columnist Angie Ward

God's blessings and a broken heart

2007-11-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

DR: We got to talking about money recently. For a moment during our conversation, I thought back to the path God has had us on financially in our lives, and what a blessing it has been.

I think God has given us enough first-hand credibility as a family to be able to speak forth frankly and empathetically about money and material possessions, particularly in regards to what the Bible has to say about it.

I would like to share with you our story as a married couple and family:

From 2001-2004, Stacye and I together as a household were among the top 1% of wage earners in Kern County, CA. Plainly stated, we made a lot of money.

In March 2004, being 7 months pregnant, Stacye resigned her job in anticipation of becoming a full-time stay at home mom. In late April 2004, I was unexpectedly fired for sharing my faith in the workplace. Nearly overnight, we went from being in the top 1% of money-makers in our county to both of us being unemployed. That is, both unemployed with a mortgage to pay and a baby due literally any day.

Thanks be to God, a position opened up at our church at nearly the same time I lost my job. I went to work for St. John's for three years, before enrolling at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis this past July.

And now, I am a full-time student and Stacye works only minimally part-time to ensure she can continue to be at home with our daughters. Thus, our current annual household income ranks us among the poorest in the nation.

And, in the 6 years since we've been married, our giving as a percentage of our gross income has consistently and intentionally risen year over year, and God has blessed us to be able to be debt-free (we had between the two of us over $100,000 in non-mortgage debt when we got married). During that same time, our savings increased, we never missed a mortgage payment--not one--and we never had a single late payment to any of our creditors. Thanks be to God, our credit scores are among the highest in the country.

We've been financially wealthy...a "middle class" family...and now--by the government's definition--poor. We've been in debt beyond (not just up to) our eyeballs, and we've struggled with the temptations that having lots of disposable cash on hand can bring. We've given away more than we think we can afford and we've seen God's hand guide, bless, and protect us all along the way.

Were it not for Him, we would not be where we are today. And thanks to Him, we are content. Truly.

In many ways, we can identify intimately with the Apostle Paul when he says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:12-13).

It grieves me--indeed it breaks my heart--to see just how deeply people struggle with money issues in life. Because I've been there. We've been there. It particularly makes my heart heavy to see souls who place too great a value on their financial wealth and material possessions. Stacye and I confess that we used to define ourselves in our heart by how much money we were making, even by how much we were giving away. But God doesn't define us that way; that is the way of the world!

The Apostle Paul urges us in Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

What does that mean? It means that we shouldn't seek after the things of this world to define who we are. We should not devote our lives to the pursuit of material wealth and status, but rather to the Lord and what God genuinely desires for us. We are to seek God's will, not our fleshly desires. We are to use our resources in accordance with God's will, not what the world tells us we should do. The two, indeed, are often in direct contradiction to each other. God's will leads us to glory, the world's will to death.

Oh, God, the burden I have for doing the Lord's will and helping people overcome the inestimable and worldly attraction of material wealth and possessions. Oh, my Lord, my heart is heavy. I pray. I pray...

I do believe, indeed, that this is one of the greatest challenges for American Christians today: learning how to use our money and our material possessions in accordance with God's will, and not in the ways of this world. The battle is fierce, the enemy is powerful, but thanks be to God that the Lord has already won.

Let us walk forth in this confidence, looking only to Him--not to our money and our material possessions--to derive our sense of self-worth and purpose in life.

With God's love and richest blessings,
Don Ray

Jump!!!

2007-11-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

Praise God, I passed Greek! And as you can see, I gleefully joined my brothers in the post-Greek ritual dive into the Concordia Seminary campus fountain! The very COLD fountain, that is! (Be sure to turn up the volume on your computer to enjoy the slideshow to its fullest!)

Thanks be to God and His work through Stacye's steadfast support, Dr. Voelz, my studious brothers, and the prayers of many, I got the second-highest final grade in our class. And I am absolutely thrilled to have passed! Thank you for your continued love and support.

Taking a dip for Jesus,
Don, Stacye, and the girls