Xavier's Pet!

Xavier has been asking for a pet. I am not an animal person by anyone's standard. Also, as long as I'm renting we are not allowed to have pets which is FINE with me! We were shopping for a birthday party a few weeks ago when we found these little toy animals which grow when you let them live in water for three weeks. So we brought a little lobster home to watch him grow. Xavier has talked about him like a pet and named him Hermie. This works for me! No training, No feeding. No clean up. No shots. Just 88 cents for three weeks of enjoyment!





Day 2, I think he had already grown a couple of inches overnight!






Week 2, he was promoted to a larger tub after this picture






Week 3 - I put him back in the old tub for perspectives sake

On another note we did something new and exciting today - with the help of our dear friends the Uchida's we purchased our first ever plane tickets! This August we will be flying (Lord willing) to Hawaii with them to visit their family and friends! We are very excited but it still seems unreal. I have never flown, I have never seen a palm tree, I have never seen ocean water which I would want to go into... this will be monumental! Being the newbie I am I picked window seats so Xavier and I can see just a bit more of the grandeur of our great big God and what he has created and perfectly maintains. I'm fully expecting this to be a huge worship experience! Please pray for us that our focus would be God-ward in anticipating and enjoying this gift! I've already been convicted that I am excited to tell people that I'm going to Hawaii so they will share my delight. Shouldn't I be even more excited about going to Heaven? Shouldn't that preoccupy my thoughts and overflow in my speech? And the kicker is - I can offer anyone I talk to a free invitation to join me by trusting in Christ's saving death and resurrection! Oh Lord, grow this heart in me!

Easter

We had so much fun celebrating Easter! I'm not very successful at getting holiday pictures because I'm not a very aggressive photographer. I always feel bad for the kid surrounded by relatives calling, "Over here" "Now look this way" "Here sweetie, look at me!" So it's very rare that I end up with a picture of children actually looking at me. I found myself walking around behind Xavier and my nephew, Braden, taking pictures of their backs while they were hunting eggs and realized what a fruitless effort it was. Here are two I did snap which we can look at in a couple of years and actually be able to tell who it is and what they were doing.




I wanted to get a full group shot because there were so many people there I love (including my brother-in-laws parents and our dear friends the Uchida's!) but my sister Cheryl, her husband Addie, and my darling niece and nephew weren't with us so it just didn't feel the same. We missed you guys and are looking forward to seeing you Saturday!!!

My favorite Easter decoration I saw this year was a wooden cross someone had standing in their front lawn. It was about 5 feet tall and I could tell that there was something written on it as I was driving past. I slowed down enough to see on the cross bar it read, "SO YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO". Another one I loved were the banners waving from a big old church next door to my work. They were bright purple with a gold crown of thorns on them and simply said, "Thank you Jesus!" The Lord gave me a sweet season of contemplating the price he's paid for my soul. No one needs a Savior more than me!Thank you Jesus!!!

I saw these cute little toys while I was shopping before Easter and couldn't resist picking them up for my nephew to play with on Easter. I figured I would get some for Xavier too so they could both play, but apparently the novelty increases with age. They have suction cups and springs so a few seconds after you push them down they pop up in the air and you can catch them in the basket. No one was very successful at it, but Lori and Jason seem to be enjoying themselves with Xavier. Braden was in the background throwing one up in the air and trying to catch it. I love being silly with them :-)

Nicknames and Super Powers

Xavier has been telling me about a movie he watched at daycare called "Shark Boy and Lava Girl". We saw it at the library this weekend so I decided to watch it with him and get a perspective on what he had seen. This boy has two imaginary- friend-type characters which the movie is named after. They call each other various nicknames throughout the film and at one point Shark Boy calls Lava Girl, "L.G." I told Xavier I have a coworker who always calls me, "L.G." (I requested that he find a nickname for me which was maybe a bit cuter and more feminine. That didn't work out so well so we've settled on "L.G.") Here is the conversation that unfolded from there:

Me: L.G. can be my Super Hero name

Xavier: Nuh-uh, you don't have any super powers!

Me: Sure I do. I'm electrically charged and shock everything I touch (this is true, not counting an absurd amount of people, in the last week I have shocked myself of a hamburger bun and a plant! I don't understand how this is physically possible! I defy physics)

Xavier: Well I have a real super power!

Me: What's your super power?

Xavier: Trusting in the Lord

Me (laughing): Where did you get that power?

Xavier: That's easy - it only comes from the Lord!

I love this little guy! "My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right" Proverbs 23:16