First In!

You might wonder why Jon Logan is racing towards his girlfriend Rachel while she looks like she is luxuriating at the end of the pool. Allow me to explain.

Team Henderson has an informal, friendly competition each Spring to see who will be the first to brave the cool waters of our pool. The pool is not heated so contestants must weigh the relative risk (thermal shock and death) vs reward (winning!) as the days get longer and warmer to decide just when they will go for it.

This year Jon thought he had a stone cold lock on the title as he came over Sunday afternoon with his girlfriend. However, as Jon was distracted talking with us - Rachel- sweet, loving, sneaky like a fox Rachel - raced to the pool and elegantly dove in - claiming the prize. Moments later Jon dove in. Second. Close but no cigar.

Rachel is one amazing woman. We have really enjoyed getting to know her and having a chance to see her and Jon together. They have a lot of fun and we enjoy having them around. I especially love discovering the fun, smart, sassy side of Rachel that was on display for all to see on Sunday.

Designing God

Lots of people design rooms, homes, lives; all sorts of things. I design software. Maybe you design gardens. Theoretically, someone even designed the University of Oregon's grotesque football uniforms!

Imagine if you could design god. Imagine you could make god be just the way you want.

Let's say you can. If so, here's an interesting question. How would you design god in the area of providing Love and Acceptance?

Would you design god in a manner that required you to jump through a lot of hoops before you could gain love and acceptance? Or would you design god to give you love and acceptance without the need to jump through hoops?

I thought I'd share an interesting nugget from last Sunday's sermon. It was a minor point made in a much bigger talk.. but one that made an impression on me.

"Christianity is the only religion in which
you gain acceptance from god before you demonstrate obedience.
In Christianity - we are not obedient to acquire acceptance or love.
We are obedient to get closer to God."

God's design for the world is encapsulated in 1 John 4:19 which states "We love (Him) because He first loved us" God chose plan B.. He gives first - without thinking about our response.

This puts verses like 1 Sam 15:22 into better perspective: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice". Sacrificing is giving up something that is prized by us. Obedience is responding to God in love. Sacrificing is 'doing something'. Obedience is 'being someone' - someone aligned with God. God may be interested in what you do. But, it seems clear He is more interested in who you are - and in being in relationship with you. He demonstrates that by 'showing up' in the relationship without regard to how we behave.

Have a great day knowing that God chooses to love and accept you just as you are.

It's A (Very) Small World

Sometimes I think God just has a good laugh as He does His thing - and we, somewhat blindly, stumble along discovering the wonder of his design! To whit:

Act 1: Salem Oregon
Joel has been 'hanging out' with a woman in Salem, Oregon named Carissa. Carissa's parents - Joan and Dan, live in Newberg, Oregon. Last Sunday, Joel was invited by Carissa to a BBQ at her parent's home. From all reports he had a great time and spent some time getting to know Carissa's family a bit better.

Act 2: Newberg Oregon (A great place to grow)
Sometime between Joel's visit and Tuesday at lunch time - Dan - Carissa's dad - sent an email to his parents - Hazel and Ernie Schutter. So Dan sent an email to Carissa's grandparents telling them about Joel's visit.

Act 3: Sparta Michigan
Hazel and Ernie receive the email from Dan. In it, apparently, are details about Joel's parents and extended family. They immediately print out the email and take it with them that day.

Act 4: Grand Rapids Michigan (A great place for snow)
Tuesday morning Bill and Linda Rexford, Joel's grandparents, run some errands in Grand Rapids. It's about lunch time when they finish and they decide to eat lunch out. Bill has lived in the area on and off for his entire life and never eaten at Steak 'n Shake. Linda suggests they go there; she just feels like it's where they should eat lunch. In due time, they drive in, park and go inside.

Act 5: Steak 'n Shake
Upon entering - Bill and Linda immediately see some old friends. In fact, Bill grew up in the same town as his friend (they were about 4-5 years apart in school) and his younger brother. As it turns out - Bill has been on a missionary trip to Portugal with his friends. The friends are very excited to see Bill and Linda come in and insist they eat together. They have some interesting news to pass along.

So, Bill and Linda sit down to eat lunch with - Hazel and Ernie Schutter. You got it! When Hazel and Ernie received the email - they realized that Carissa (their granddaughter) had invited Joel Henderson (Bill and Linda's grandson) over for lunch! That was the news they wanted to share with Bill and Linda!

That's right! The grandparents know each other well. They live a few miles apart from each other (Casnovia Michigan and Sparta Michigan) In fact, they know the extended family; Bill has taught at a missionary school in Portugal with Carissa's great uncle Dave!

Even more interesting - Dave and Shirley Schutter (Dave is Ernie's brother!) live in Kent City, Michigan - where Joel's Aunt Joanne and Uncle Steve Buckner live. And, they all attend Kent City Baptist Church together.

Act 6: Salem Oregon
Joel's dad (Tod) and Grandpa (Bill Rexford) talk at lunch time (California time).. and Bill tells Tod of the amazing coincidence that occurred just a couple hours earlier! Tod immediately calls Joel to share the news with him. They both have a good laugh.

Act 7: Somewhere else in Salem Oregon
Carissa receives a call from her mother, Joan, with pretty much the same story as Joel received from his dad.

Act 8: An undisclosed location in Salem Oregon
Joel and Carissa hang out later that night. And.. they conclude that while the Hendersons/Rexfords/Buckners were all emailing and calling each other about the wild story.. Carissa's family was pretty much doing the same thing.

And, Carissa shares with Joel - Hazel and Ernie's visit to Steak 'n Shake was pretty much as improbable as Bill and Linda's. They rarely, if ever eat there!

So - just how small a world is this? You're born in California. Move to Oregon.. meet a girl.. and go for Sunday lunch in Newberg Oregon.. and two days later the grandparents are talking about you at lunch at the Steak 'n Shake in Grand Rapids Michigan!

Coincidence? You be the judge.

Finally, as an aside, as Joel puts it: "Apparently there is a fairly constant speed at which news travels; we may have stumbled across a new and exciting scientific discovery!"

Botanical Gardens

Last weekend we had the pleasure of taking Grandma Elsie to a local Botanical Gardens. The gardens comprise many acres that meander across beautiful hillsides and valleys.

The day we picked turnout out to be absolutely gorgeous.

It was a treat walking with Grandma and having her identify many of the plants were were seeing and telling stories about her lifelong love of gardening - and especially orchids. She shared with us how she had personally grown and enjoyed a great many of the bushes, trees and plants over the years!

It's pretty impressive to see how well Grandma can get around. The layout of the gardens required lots of up and down climbing.. and she did just absolutely great the whole afternoon.

One part of the gardens is the Arid House which houses hundreds of species from around the world. The oldest individual plant was from 1933 - a full 8 years after grandma was born. And, yes, if you read the text in the picture.. we found it!

As you can see from the photos - there was a lot to see and learn. One of our favorite sections was the Chinese Herb Garden. Within the garden are dozens of plants - each of which was marked with its medicinal uses. Take a closer look at the plaque from the Strawberry Geranium for an example! Apparently, it's quite a versatile plant!

It was humorous to think about the time and effort that goes into nurturing some of the scruffy looking plants that we saw. I think Julie's comment was something like 'man, that would be the first weed I would pick and throw away if I was tending this garden!' And I think she was right.

It was a fun afternoon and the gals picked up a couple plants to plant in our garden to remind us of the trip for years to come.

Enjoy the pictures.

Get a Job!

As many of you know.. Grandma Elsie came to California a couple weeks ago to hang with her two families out here (Ron lives in the East Bay city of Fremont).

It was great to see her again. We miss her and enjoy having her here. However, apparently she thinks when she visits it's appropriate to just come in.. plop her aged heinie in a chair and doze through the days. Like being 82 means you don't have to do anything!

What'z up with that?

You can imagine how well that went over with Julie; having to wait on Grandma morning, noon and night. 'Julie, can you bring me..', 'Julie, darling, can you..'. Elsie was driving her NUTS!

And.. to make matters worse..we didn't have any chocolate in the house to make everything all better. Well, last friday.. it all came to a head.. and Julie snapped!

She threw Grandma in the car... drove to the Scharffen Berger Chocolate company in Berkeley.. and told her - 'Grandma - it's time you did something for ME. Get out of the car, walk your well-rested butt into that chocolate factory, find yourself a pair of stylin' ear muffs and hairnet - and make me some chocolate! NOW! And don't come out until I tell you to!'

Elsie was justifiably shocked - as well as scared. Because, Julie quite obviously meant business. So, she did as ordered and got out, walked in and got to work.

Elsie had been working 3 days straight (all the while Julie was telling people that she was back visiting Ron and his family) when the Berkeley PD called to inform Julie that the city has some old-fashioned laws about elder abuse. Something about break times. Time off. Days off. Blah-blah-blah.

Julie, annoyed, drove back to the factory to give the radicals a piece of her mind.

Thankfully, the cops intervened and helped calm Julie down a bit (or 'tased her' as the police report reads). Once sedated she feasted on some chocolate Grandma had made, gave it some further thought, then relented - allowing Grandma to come back home.

When I returned to our residence that night I found Elsie asleep in a chair - exhausted from her labors; and, Julie asleep on the couch right next to her - a smile on her face and an empty chocolate wrapper crumpled in her hand.


[Author's Note: the events of that day may not have occurred exactly as reported above. It is possible that I made the whole thing up. The actual events might have been more like Julie really loving having her Grandma around.. and that Julie and Grandma enjoyed a wonderful day of sight-seeing at the chocolate factory. I admit that. But how much fun is that to say? Two sentences. Boring.]

Arbor Days

One of last year's yard projects was the construction of an Arbor (1st picture - when just completed). We needed to get a wisteria off the fence that it was slowly pulling down due to its weight.

With the help of Bill and friends Jon and Eric we put this bad boy up in hopes that we would be able to 'train' the wisteria up and over it this year.

Well, here's an updated photo of the wisteria (click it for a better view) which is in full bloom right now.

Didn't Julie do an excellent job this spring of getting it off the fence and up and over the arbor? We're really happy with the way this project turned out and specifically wanted to share it with Bill and Linda (along with the rest of you). So - Joanne.. would you please make sure they see this if you can? I would greatly appreciate it.

And - notice.. the old fence is still standing!

Have a great day!

Who say white boy can't dance?

Wanna see how we roll in the 408?
Yeah, you know you do.
Check out the music video we just layed down. Forshizzle!!

Starring ... Tim, Jon and Tod!


<----CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO ENJOY!! Thanks go to Mix-master A (for Auntie)!! You rock! Click here if you like your links old school!

Two favorites - Dump Week and Grandma Elsie!

We LOVE dump week! What is dump week? Well, once a year in Santa Clara - we can pretty much put anything (except toxic stuff) outside on our curbs and the city will come and haul it away for free. When you live in a place where it costs a minimum of $50 to go to the dump.. you really appreciate dump week.

The accompanying picture shows you the pile outside our house. In the words of our neighbor Tim - "very manly pile, guys!" Sweet.

This picture shows another of our favorites; Grandma Elsie who is visiting this week! With grandma and Julie in the picture you get a sense of how much stuff we had out there.

BTW.. grandma and Tod 'dumped' on Tim and JT last night in Euchre. No one can defeat grandma Elsie!!

Friday Get-Away Day

Last friday both Julie and I were off work. So, we decided to get away and have a fun date in San Francisco. We started by walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. Julie's been all the way across before.. but it was my first time.

It's a little less than two miles across; about 0.8 miles between the the two towers that define the main span. Of course, that's in human steps.


However, in terms of miles of wires... well, there are over 80,000 MILES of wires that form the 'cables' that hold the bridge up. The second picture is a cutaway of the main cables which are about 3 feet in diameter. If you click on it and blow it up.. you can see each individual wire that forms the cable. There are 27,000 in each cable. It's a pretty cool thing to think about how such an amazing feat of engineering ever happened. I wouldn't know where to start. Well, actually, I would start by being afraid of heights and giving up!


After we walked across the bridge I took Julie to Fort Baker which is on the north (Marin) side of the bridge. You can literally walk UNDER the bridge which is a great view. The third picture is one from the road you can walk to go under the bridge.

Finally, we ended our afternoon by going in Sausalito - a beautiful city right on the bay with gorgeous homes built into the mountain side. We grabbed some food and did some, well, shopping!


It was a fun day and a fun date!

Disneyland

How sweet it was to fully assemble Team Henderson for an assault on Disneyland last Friday. Three of us flew into Ontario airport to meet up with Hannah who had been visiting.. a friend.. in SoCal. From there it was, thankfully, a short ride to Anaheim and Disneyland.

Any great adventure starts with a vision and a goal.. and Hannah shared hers with us early on. She was going to get her picture taken with 20 characters! With that fire fueling our entry into the Magic Kingdom.. we donned sunscreen (for you folks in Michigan - sunscreen is a product that protects you from the Sun's rays)... and began our journey.

It was just great to see Joel and Hannah enjoying being together and making their dreams come true.

It was nice to just see Julie breathing! I say that because the day before she was running a temperature of 102.5 and was flat on her back on the couch. I'm not exactly sure how she did it. It was definitely an answer to prayer that she made it through the day and was really enjoying herself. Since the entire trip was her idea it was great that she had a chance to enjoy it.. even while coughing up her lungs.

Of the many fun times throughout the day (including planning the big picture at Splash Mountain).. one of my favorites.. actually occurred in the car driving to the park. You see - we had told Hannah a couple weeks ago that we were going.. but were planning a big surprise for Joel - so don't tell him. And, of course, we had done the same for Joel - telling him Hannah had no idea.. and that we were surprising her. Then we just sat back and waited for them to ask each other how surprised they were.. which happened in the car.

It's fun having really smart kids.. because it doesn't take them very long to figure things out. When they figured out we had snookered both of them.. well - let's just say they commented.

It's nice to know we still got it!

Another very memorable part of the day was capturing a picture of the illusive Peter Pan. To be honest, we weren't completely sure that Peter wasn't just an overly eager guest the way he flitted through the park with obviously glee trying to avoid capture. And, he almost did avoid capture by Hannah - until he made the big mistake of taunting her. At that point it was "game on" - and with big brother Joel executing a textbook flanking maneuver in advance of Peter.. well, Peter went down.. as you can see!!

Finally - we did find out that Team Henderson has an interesting affect on Disney characters.

It seems that whenever a member of our team entered a picture line for one of the characters.. they would develop an interesting need to .. "wet their fins" or "take a honey break" .. or whatever cute way they had of saying they needed to "take a break". We dubbed this Team Henderson Urinary Disease... or THUD for short!

Okay - enjoy the pictures of our journey. And.. if anyone tells you the US economy is hurting and the price of gas is killing travel. Have them go to Disneyland. The crowds were huge!!





BTW.. yes! Of course! Mission accomplished! Hannah got pictures with 25 characters (horses count! right?)! Score!!!!