I Asked The Lord That I Might Grow

Prayer answered by crosses by John Newton

I asked the Lord that I might grow

In faith, and love, and every grace;

Might more of His salvation know,

And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,

And He, I trust, has answered prayer!

But it has been in such a way,

As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,

At once He’d answer my request;

And by His love’s constraining pow’r,

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel

The hidden evils of my heart;

And let the angry pow’rs of hell

Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed

Intent to aggravate my woe;

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,

Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?

“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,

I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,

From self, and pride, to set thee free;

And break thy schemes of earthly joy,

That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

Flying Down Mountains!

So, recently in my class, we've been studying Flight and animals that God designed to fly. We've studied the Wright Brother's and their first attempts and then their successful first flight. My dad has been helping out- because he's really nice and he knows a lot about flying (he had his private pilot's liscense for many years). Recently Dad's been designing different gliders to test out for my class. He just finished designing one and wanted to try it out by launching it from the top of Rattlesnake Mountain, across the street from our house. We drove up and launched it 5 times- each was unsuccessful. The left wing was a bit heavier than the right and the nose "cannard" (the little wing on the front that produces lift and counter acts the tendancy for the wing to flip backwards) produced too much lift than desired, causing the main wing to stall. Basically, to not be too technical, the nose went up and the whole glider rotated to the left. Here's the video to see our trial #3.

When the last trial was finished, since I was the "retriever," I just decided to try and fly the plane down the mountain as far as I could. Well, on my way down, I found that someone else had been up there and had been doing a little bit of sledding with some left-over wood siding. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "wouldn't this be really fun?! I'll wait 'til Mom and Dad are down on the road below me and I'll slide down on this 'sled,' right to the truck door!" When they finally got on the road below me, I sat down and slid within 30 ft. of the truck. It was so much FUN! I really wanted to record it, but the batteries in my camera died. Not, to worry, I'm always up for a second chance at spontaneous fun! Up the hill with my new sledding partner in hand, I rearranged the batteries, hoping to trick them into giving me just one more chance at recording my adventure. I sat down, turned on the camera, and this is the result: (hope you enjoy!)

I kinda look like the uni-bomber with my hoodie up ;) I couldn't get the siding that I was sitting on to move at first because I was stuck on a rock. Obviously there isn't much snow left on the mountain because it hasn't snowed for 2 1/2 weeks or so. This snow, that you see, is only there because it is on the north side of the mountain and doesn't get much sun. Hope that all of you are enjoying your winter no matter if there is or isn't snow and no matter if you get the chance to be spontaneous or not- I would highly suggest safe spontanaity, though! It's tons of fun...try it sometime!

El Hombre.......;)

    Yes, it has been a while since I've made an entry into this "web log." But, hey, I've been busy teaching and otherwise a bit distracted...hee,hee !

So, I know a number of you have wanted to see a picture of Vic, my boyfriend...hmmm, that's still a bit weird for me to say, even though it has been 3 months. Well, here are some pics of Vic (and I) at various functions:

The Family celebrating the summer birthdays! Can you find Vic?

Me and Vic eating hotdogs at an Oakland A's game a few months ago.

Us girls at the same game! Boy, I love baseball games! But it seems that every time I travel 4 hours, to the Bay Area, the game that we watch has always turned out to be only 2 hours long. A serious disappointment! We kept cheering for a tie so that we could watch extra innings. That is a long drive for only 2-2 1/2 hours of game time. But I guess the fun is the whole journey there, the game itself, and back again.

All of us after the game. The A's were playing the Angel's by the way. The A's won, no homeruns, and hardly anyone made it past 1st base. A pretty boring game, but at least we got to sing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" in the middle of the 7th. And, we were there, in person and weren't watching it on TV. By the way, has anyone been watching those great "come-back-kids" the Red Sox! Yeah! Go Sox! Beat those Indians!

Vic and I went to a friend's daughter's wedding up at Montreaux Golf Course. It was really pretty. They got married on one of the holes (I couldn't tell you which one). The cake was very cool! It looked like Alice in Wonderland. Here is a picture with a filter on it. I took it with Deana's camera. She has this neat function where if you choose one color, it will pick up only that color and everything else is black and white.

Here is the table setting. Could you tell that the bride REALLY liked PINK?

For my birthday, I requested a tea party. So, my kind sisters, family and Vic, made a whole HUGE spread of yummy tea food! This was the menu (we call our house, for tea parties: "The Little Round Tea House"!):

Sandwiches:

Caprese, Welsh Rabbit, Smoked Turkey, Cucumer and Mint, Radish with Chive Spread, and Deviled Eggs

Pastries:

Ginger Buttermilk Scones, Fruit Scones, Crumpets, P's-n-G's (yummy chocolate/almond tartlets; called P's-n-G's because Trina inserted pennies and quarters in the tops for 26 years!)

Spreads:

Lemon Curd, Honey Thyme Butter, Clotted Cream, Raspbery Jam

Dessert:

Lemon Mother Bars, Chocolate Brownies

And, A Selection of Fine Teas!

Man, if your mouth isn't watering by now, then I would assume that you've never been to a real tea house, or enjoyed the delights of a formal tea. (Or maybe, you just don't like tea:).

Finally, Vic invited me to the Navy Ball. So, my dear sister Trina made me a very gorgeous dress and I "got cleaned up right nice" and "sauntered on over to the Ball!"

So, that is all for now, on my Quarterly Update. Hope you enjoyed the synopsis!

P.S. I've always thought that a man looks- dare I say- hot (?) in a uniform  

More Pictures of Costa Rica

If you'd like to see more pictures of our many adventures in Costa Rica, click on the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/christikng

The past week...