After seeing Jon's recent blog, I couldn't get enough of Michael Sweet. So enjoy a little blast from the past>
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year of the Rat started last night at 12:03 am in my neighborhood! It was a little like this:
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Last week Betsy, Holly and I had 2 nights of fun with 2 different age groups of girls. The first 2 pictures are of the younger girls. We had 7 of them over for a pancake dinner at Betsy and Holly's.
For those of you that don't know Betsy and Holly, they are roomies in a big Victorian in downtown San Jose. They are in college and go to the Gathering / College Group at Hillside. They also are leaders here at KidTrek/Farm Drive. We had a blast with these sweet, young, fun, loud, crazy girls. They are very sweet. We want to be a good, positive, clean, fun, influence in their lives.
Yes, they all love whipped cream! They couldn't get enough of it!
The next 2 pictures are of the older girls (5th grade and up) also from KidTrek. Betsy, Holly, Stacy and I had them over to my upstairs apt. for lasagne. We all sat around a table in the living room...very cozy.
KidTrek is great for homework but what's more important is the relationships that are being built because of it (KidTrek is our after school homework time). We hope that by spending a lot of time with the girls, and doing fun things with them, they will not only know we love them (and we do!) but they will also know we are safe and we are leaders that they can come to if they ever need us.
Relationships.Relationships.Relationships.Relationships.Relationships
For those of you that don't know Betsy and Holly, they are roomies in a big Victorian in downtown San Jose. They are in college and go to the Gathering / College Group at Hillside. They also are leaders here at KidTrek/Farm Drive. We had a blast with these sweet, young, fun, loud, crazy girls. They are very sweet. We want to be a good, positive, clean, fun, influence in their lives.
Yes, they all love whipped cream! They couldn't get enough of it!
The next 2 pictures are of the older girls (5th grade and up) also from KidTrek. Betsy, Holly, Stacy and I had them over to my upstairs apt. for lasagne. We all sat around a table in the living room...very cozy.
KidTrek is great for homework but what's more important is the relationships that are being built because of it (KidTrek is our after school homework time). We hope that by spending a lot of time with the girls, and doing fun things with them, they will not only know we love them (and we do!) but they will also know we are safe and we are leaders that they can come to if they ever need us.
Relationships.Relationships.Relationships.Relationships.Relationships
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
A Birthday Party
On Saturday the 26 of January, we had a celebration of my (Pete's) 50th Birthday Party. We invited a few of our friends plus the kids in the neighborhood. Below a few play dodgeball.
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I had to prove to myself that I could keep up with the older boys so I played soccer with them for about 2 hours before my party started. We won.
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These two girls are sisters and live across the driveway from Patty and I.
A few guy friends ...
One of the fathers in the hood volunteered to cook up some food. He did Barbacoa. It's meat cooked in it's own juices. It was excellent! Our next door neighbor cooked some spanish rice too. Also delicious! I thought their food made my day a very special one to remember. We used the downstairs apartment (Farm Drive's main room) for the food.
Heavy rain was forecasted for that night. It was a nice warm day and the rain held off till the party was over. Yay! Below are some very special girl-friends!
We were able to use both the downstairs apartment and the outside play area. Since the rain held off and it was fairly nice outside, we were able to be outside also. Even had our firepit going.
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It was a a very special party and it meant a lot to me to have so many friends, both old and new share this day with me! Thank you to all who helped and those who attended.
I had to prove to myself that I could keep up with the older boys so I played soccer with them for about 2 hours before my party started. We won.
These two girls are sisters and live across the driveway from Patty and I. A few guy friends ...
One of the fathers in the hood volunteered to cook up some food. He did Barbacoa. It's meat cooked in it's own juices. It was excellent! Our next door neighbor cooked some spanish rice too. Also delicious! I thought their food made my day a very special one to remember. We used the downstairs apartment (Farm Drive's main room) for the food.
Heavy rain was forecasted for that night. It was a nice warm day and the rain held off till the party was over. Yay! Below are some very special girl-friends!
We were able to use both the downstairs apartment and the outside play area. Since the rain held off and it was fairly nice outside, we were able to be outside also. Even had our firepit going. It was a a very special party and it meant a lot to me to have so many friends, both old and new share this day with me! Thank you to all who helped and those who attended.Saturday, January 26, 2008
Younger Boys Nite Out
Friday night we took the younger boys, (elementary school age) to Chuck e Cheese. They were all excited all week anticipating Friday night! The seat belts in the car had a hard time holding them on the way there! A night of pizza, soda, and huge amounts of tokens were all part of the action.
A few even got to meet Chuck himself.
One of them had a hard time breaking away from the action to eat Pizza. He was so enthralled with the car video game he was playing. I had to tell him the idea of the game was to stay on the road. You figure out which one I'm talking about below.
Robbie made the comment that this is the training ground for future casino players!
A few even got to meet Chuck himself.
One of them had a hard time breaking away from the action to eat Pizza. He was so enthralled with the car video game he was playing. I had to tell him the idea of the game was to stay on the road. You figure out which one I'm talking about below.
Robbie made the comment that this is the training ground for future casino players!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
A Couple of Things
Around the middle of the day, I decided to go for my usual Saturday jog. On the way to the car there were a couple of guys that were out front and they asked where I was going. ( a standard question around here, they always want to go with you if they can!) I told them I was going to the local high school to go run around the track. They of course asked if they could go and I said yes but it is pretty boring around there. Ronnie (pictured below) ran with me for about a mile. I was impressed. I encouraged him to go out for the track team or the cross country team when he gets to high school.
I asked him how things are going with his aunt and their little newborn baby which has Down's. He is still in the intensive care unit in the hospital because he cannot eat on his own. I asked Ronnie if he has seen the boy yet and he said no. He needs medical records to get in and he doesn't know where they are. I asked him if he knew what Down's syndrome is and he said he did and he knew of Steve's grandson (our landlord) has the same thing. They went to the Monterey Bay aquarium once together.
I enjoy these moments when I can get these guys alone and talk.
Last weekend, Patty and I went over to Capitola to get our monthly fix of sun and ocean. We were sitting on the bench that are overlooking the beach and waves and I had my camera with telephoto lens with me. Patty asked me to take a picture of this girl that reminded her of her sister when she was a little girl. I said yeah right. Nothing like a middle age man taking pictures of little girls with a telephoto lens at the beach. I handed her the camera.
The waves, the ocean, the sun, it was a wonderful day!
Meanwhile back at the Center today. ( I said a couple of things!) A couple of nicely dressed men from the Jehovah's Witnesses stopped by to talk. I engaged them for awhile and asked them a bunch of questions. They were really focused on the Kingdom of God and Jesus's immenent return and real soon. I forgot how much they focused on this. I asked them to look around and told them they were standing on a place that God's Kingdom was already established and very busy at work. Below them at that very moment Bible Club was going on and many children were hearing about the hope that is here now, not sometime in the future. It's amazing that people can get so wrapped up in the hope of Jesus's return and the establishing His Kingdome at that time instead of getting busy and establish it NOW!
I asked him how things are going with his aunt and their little newborn baby which has Down's. He is still in the intensive care unit in the hospital because he cannot eat on his own. I asked Ronnie if he has seen the boy yet and he said no. He needs medical records to get in and he doesn't know where they are. I asked him if he knew what Down's syndrome is and he said he did and he knew of Steve's grandson (our landlord) has the same thing. They went to the Monterey Bay aquarium once together.
I enjoy these moments when I can get these guys alone and talk.
Last weekend, Patty and I went over to Capitola to get our monthly fix of sun and ocean. We were sitting on the bench that are overlooking the beach and waves and I had my camera with telephoto lens with me. Patty asked me to take a picture of this girl that reminded her of her sister when she was a little girl. I said yeah right. Nothing like a middle age man taking pictures of little girls with a telephoto lens at the beach. I handed her the camera.
The waves, the ocean, the sun, it was a wonderful day!
Meanwhile back at the Center today. ( I said a couple of things!) A couple of nicely dressed men from the Jehovah's Witnesses stopped by to talk. I engaged them for awhile and asked them a bunch of questions. They were really focused on the Kingdom of God and Jesus's immenent return and real soon. I forgot how much they focused on this. I asked them to look around and told them they were standing on a place that God's Kingdom was already established and very busy at work. Below them at that very moment Bible Club was going on and many children were hearing about the hope that is here now, not sometime in the future. It's amazing that people can get so wrapped up in the hope of Jesus's return and the establishing His Kingdome at that time instead of getting busy and establish it NOW!
Guys NIte Out
Last night we had about 6 junior high boys go over to Robbie's parents house for a guys night out. (Thank you Chuck and Kim!) We played Halo all night, literally. Well I heard they stopped at 2:30. I didn't make it. Not that I couldn't but I had to make sure Cosmo was not lonesome! They really get into it and enjoy playing for hours.
Robbie set up 3 tv's and connected up so we played on 3 sets and had 3 teams for awhile. Then we changed and had the older guys play the junior high boys and me. (Not that I was any help). I actually figured it out that if I go into the open and draw the enemy out to kill me, that leaves them open to be picked off by me teamates. I'll do anything to sacrifice for the team!
He just got killed. Oh well, you can continue to play in about 5 to 10 seconds.
The guys. It was even hard to get them to stop long enough to take a group picture.
Robbie set up 3 tv's and connected up so we played on 3 sets and had 3 teams for awhile. Then we changed and had the older guys play the junior high boys and me. (Not that I was any help). I actually figured it out that if I go into the open and draw the enemy out to kill me, that leaves them open to be picked off by me teamates. I'll do anything to sacrifice for the team!
He just got killed. Oh well, you can continue to play in about 5 to 10 seconds.
The guys. It was even hard to get them to stop long enough to take a group picture.
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