Thursday, July 31, 2008

New Friends or What I like about being a Christian.

The whole reason we had VBS and the block party was becuase a group from Ft. Mitchell Kentucky came and hosted it for us.

On a regular basis I remember reasons reasons why I love being a Christian. That probably sounds kind of cheesy, but it is true. I really do enjoy being a Christian. This last week I was reminded of a couple more reasons why being a Christian is great.

One thing that stood out to me, is how in Christ, you have an instant connection with people you have never met before and don't have a lot in common with (aside from a relationship with Jesus). I hadn't met most of the people before last week, and we were able to all hang out, have a wonderful time and get to be good friends in a relatively short time. When you have the most important thing in common, the rest is not so important.

Another reason I am glad I am a Christian, is that God knows exactly what you need when you need it. I had been struggling with a couple things and their coming was like an answer to prayer. Through various conversations and simply through the time spent hanging out, I felt like I had some clarity on things I had been working through. God is so good to take care of his children! He knows what we need better than we do. He is so faithful and gracious to bless us so much more than we deserve.

Oh, and we had lots of fun, which is always nice. Here is their whole group.

Sunday they did the worship at our church, which was a lot of fun to have something different.


On a strange note, Gunnar and Joby (their pastor) showed up at church wearing matching outfits. See, there is Gunnar.
And there is Joby. Their shirts were pretty much the exact same color (the lighting kind of makes them look different in the pictures). Ironically, neither guy picked out his own clothes.


One of the things that was really fun was getting to go along with them in the afternoons to some of the beautiful places in San Diego. Such as La Jolla Cove.

Jen, Maria, Bj and Jonathan...there are seals somewhere behind them.


We introduced them to the Stuff Christians Like Blog. It is funny (especially if you grew up in Christian circles), you should check it out.

Another thing that really blessed me was how sweet they all were to Grace. Here we were at dinner the other day...Jonathan (from Kentucky) took the picture, but I love how everyone is looking at Grace (or taking her picture). She of course ate up all that attention. It is cool how in Christ we really are like family. I think as a child I experienced that love, and I am glad Grace can too. I think it is so good for kids to have so many layers of people to love them.

The last picture is from late Thursday night in the church parking lot. It was after 11 and we were all tired and goofy. Hence the below picture:

Maria by far has the best form.

We tried to get Grace to jump too, without a lot of luck. I did well that time though. Figures.

I am so thankful to each person who gave of their time, energy, money to come out and bless our little church. It was reminded me to make myself available for what God has for me, you never know how you could bless someone.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Block Party

Friday afternoon and evening we had a big block party at church. Now to be totally honest I didn't really know what a block party was before this, and I still am a little fuzzy on some of the details.....I think it is a block party becuase it takes up a lot of space (like a block) or you invite your neighbors (ie the people on your block). Regardless of my confusion, I called it a block party like everyone else, in an attempt to look cool.

Esentially, we had a huge party at church, with all the things good parties have. Like music, food, friends, a jumpy thing, cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones and people running around shooting Gunnar. More about that later.

The music was a local bluegrass band. The lady on the banjo usually plays the piano at our church, I was shocked that she plays the banjo too.

There are some of our dear elderly people from church. They are so cute, we love them.

There is the pastor of First Baptist Fort Mitchell helping out with an important element to the success of the party: the food.
Sondra, another new friend from Kentucky helping out with more food.




Angel (yet another friend from Kentucky) helped out with the cotton candy. Maria, talented as she is shaped her cotton candy into a rose. She is amazing!

Grace loved the jumpy thing. Is there a better name for those? hum, I should find out. Anyways, she pretty much would jump up and throw herself face down. It didn't look that comfortable but she seemed to enjoy it.


Oh, we had bubbles too, so it really was the party of the year!


As I mentioned earlier, there were people running around with guns trying to shoot Gunnar. With paint balls. Our church has a huge lower lot and so we opened that up, added some barrels as cover, and released a bunch of guys with paint ball guns. We actually had a good amount of local kids come for that, so that was really cool. Pretty much the guys from our church (or the Chapel) we really excited to shoot Gunnar. I think becuase shooting a pastor is fun, but shooting a former Navy SEAL is even more fun. All in all, he was a pretty big target. So much so, that he even was shot by someone on his own team. I guess it was just too much to resist.

Thankfully though, he came prepared in his Navy issued camouflage and his sheriffs issues bullet proof vest. Sometimes it pays to have hook ups. :) He actually took the vest off due to the heat or intense ridicule, I didn't really get those details. Either way he has a lot of welts from getting shot, and a lot of good bonding to look back on. And he looked quite dapper, if I do say so myself.

That is an air tank to fill up the guns. I would offer more of an explanation, but I really have no clue how it works.
Aww, I heart him.

Lastly, Grace sporting her hula skirt and eating popcorn. I really think it needs no explanation. If that doesn't say fun, I really don't know what would.

Monday, July 28, 2008

VBS

Last week a group from Ft. Mitchell Baptist Church (in Kentucky) came out and hosted Vacation Bible School at our church. They brought some kids with them, which was great, becuase we only had a three kids from Valley Center the first two days. By the end of the week I think we had 12 kids, so that was very exciting.

Grace LOVED the whole thing. I mean, really, what is there not to like about VBS? There are fun songs with hand motions, crafts, story time, outside games, snacks and friends.
Grace got to hold the Bible up for the pledge to the Bible. By the end of the week, she was a pro.

Craft time!

Outside game time


Song time!



Snack time!



She made a Ukulele (or "luke-a-lady", as she calls it) which she loves!





Sea creature bowling...

more "luke-a-lady" fun


So much to post, so little time....

Well, seeing as I didn't post at all last week, becuase I was out having so much fun, this week I have ton's to blog about.

The highlight, of course, being my adorable little niece that was born Saturday morning. My amazing sister-in-law Ann did a great job, and they are both doing well, although a little tired.

So anyways, I thought today I would give you a preview of the subjects that I will be posting on later this week:

1. Fun with Tia
2. Fun at Vacation Bible School
3. Fun with new friends
4. Fun at the block party
5. Fun with Baby Elena

I have a ton of pictures to sort through, so stay tuned for more Hanson fun! :)

Here we are Saturday night at church.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

update

We are hosting a group from greater Cincinnati out this week doing VBS at our church. My darling sister Maria is staying with me for the week, so I don't think I will be doing much blogging, as if we are home, we will be doing really important things, like searching YouTube for fun videos and updating our status on facebook. You know, the important things in life.

All that to say that one of the guys from the trip has a blog and so you can hear what they are doing this week. Grace is LOVING VBS so that is fun.

http://www.fmbcsandiego.blogspot.com/

Oh, and no baby cousin yet, I will be sure to let you know if she comes along.
I have been taking pictures so I will post those later of all the fun fun fun.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Valley Center Cemetary

Grace and I spent an hour or so at the cemetery on Friday while Gunnar was in a meeting.





I thought this headstone was cool.