"Mommy! Semi!"

That statement was what we heard the whole car ride to Cleveleand over Easter weekend. "Mommy!" (sometimes I would ignore him because Jason encouraged me to), and in that case we were greeted with Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, MOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" To which I replied "what". And Dawson would say "semi" very nicely. For all 3,987 of them we saw on the way there. Sometimes he did change it up a bit and proudly proclaimed the presence of an airplane. (That sentence was chock full of alliteration.) Why can't semi drivers become airline pilots?

We stayed at Jason's Uncle Jeff & Aunt Diana's house. We always have fun when we stay there. Fun and way too much food. It was at dinner where Jason found this particular little gem:

That's right. The butt crack grape.

He was very fond of this find. He wants to sell it on ebay for millions. When he turned it over it was even more interesting. It looks like 4 grapes in one:

This is the kind of stuff we do when we go to the Conrad's. We take pictures of grapes that look like butt cracks and then we laugh about it for a long long time.

Here's proof that all we do is eat...

One of the main reason's we wanted to go to Cleveland was because Jason's cousin Gib and his wife Janessa just had their first baby. Isn't he cute stuff?

Dawson thinks little Gibby is cute stuff too.

On Sunday we went to church. Can I just say something about church on Easter Sunday? Don't you feel like you are walking into "The Women's Sunday Best Fashion Show?" The one day of the year where all women must shop for weeks to proudly display their ensemble. Women checking each other out to see if their outfit is better. You've got women walking around in prom dresses. Okay not that bad. I had on my white shirt, black tank top, long necklace, dangly earrings, black dress pants, with my black shoes (with cute buckle on top) and my and my hair was down and curled...But you get the point. Anyway, after church we gave Dawson his easter basket. We wanted him to search for it, and he did, and he found it. It was full of Nemo fruit snack bites (and candy for mommy and daddy) and we put a hot wheels car in there too. Would you believe that Dawson walked right up to the basket when he found it, and reached right for the car and nothing else?? We're talking about a boy he eats all day long if you let him.

So I'll leave you with the videos of the easter basket...

Asa King of Judah

I just have to share one more interesting tid-bit I read last week in the book of 1 Kings. Aren't you excited?

I Kings 15:11-14

"Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made. He even deposed his grandmother fro her postition as queen mother (whoa! bad grandma!) because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole"....

on to verse 14...

"Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life."(emphasis mine) I've always wanted to write that. Like I'm a scholar whose knowledge is so vast and great that the emphasis I place on a sentence needs to be declared as mine. I feel great.

But isn't that interesting? I had to look up high places online. The answer I found in wikipedia said that in Old Testament times a high places was considered such because it was a place of worship of a god (or gods), usually set on a hill. So how could it have been said of Asa that his heart was fully committed to the Lord although he didn't remove the high places? Especially since that was his job. He was king. Besides, he got rid of all the other crap. Why not that? I actually don't know the answer to this, I have just been meditating on it since I read it. If you have thoughts, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear it.

Anyway,

Since I'm still trying to get pictures and video to build my stash back up from my spring clean, I only have a couple of pictures here to share. Both of them are pictures Jason took that I thought are exquisite because I wanted to use that word in a sentence. Here's the first one:

I call this "sign". Because it is one. Isn't it neat? This makes me want to own a business.

This picture is of the sand dunes where Jason, Jenessa and I went when we were visiting in Colorado a few years ago. But I think this picture looks fake. Doesn't it look fake? I'm telling you it looks fake. So your answer is yes, it looks fake. But it's actually not. After looking at it a while I got to thinking, "this place could be God's ant farm". Except no ants live there. That I know of. And besides, the ants would have to be really really big. Like as big as dogs.

Flashback: 1977

Who was born on this day, March 13, 1977?

Jason David Wilkins.

That's who!

Who said the 70's were devoid of color?

I can't get over how much Dawson looks like Jason in this picture. Look at Jason's hot mama! What ever happened to that couch?

Take a look at that cake! I want a piece! Jenessa, is that you beside your big brother trying to hold him back from getting burned by his candles?

Somewhere deep down, Jason really was happy with his mounds of birthday gifts.

"Golly Gee Guys! Look what I got!"

Actually I want to take just a minute to point out the COOL blue drinking glasses in this picture. Jason got the wine goblet it looks like. He just turned 8! Break out the wine! Just kidding. But that cake icing looks real yummy.

Hope you enjoyed the stroll down birthday aisle.

Some of these pictures I had never seen!

HAPPY 31ST BIRTHDAY, HONEY!

However, Nevertheless

This morning as I was reading my bible I came across a word that struck me to the core for some reason. The word was "however". I'm currently reading in 1st Kings about the life of Solomon. The paticular chapter I was reading this morning was chapter 11. The previous chapter was devoted to the Queen of Sheba and all the things Solomon accomplished. God reminded him to obey Him and mind all His statutes and commandments just like his father David did.

First thing this morning I read1st Kings 11:1

"King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women..."

Now I don't love many foriegn women. Were you wondering? But, when I got to the word "however", I had to pause for a moment and think. I thought to myself, "self, I don't want God to have to put a "however" beside my name, if He ever decides to devote a chapter in a book to me."

I kept reading. And I came across another word.

Nevertheless.

God said to Solomon: verse 2 (a)

"You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods."

And after God told him that this is what the narrator had to say: verse 2 (b)

"Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love."

So I paused for a minute and I thought to myself again, "self, I don't want God to have to insert a "nevertheless" beside my hame if he ever decides to continue on with that chapter in that book he writes for me.

Not that I expect God to write a book about me. But someday, Dawson will grow up and read this blog and he'll know that his mommy loved God and ifDawson decides to write a book about me (I'm nearly certain I'll be famous one of these days) maybe he'll leave those 2 words out.

And that's bible lesson #123 code A Section 2 for today.

ANYWAY,

tangent:

The many diet and healthy living books I have read all say "the key to losing weight is to eat breakfast." So today I did.

This is what I had.

I can feel the pounds melting away as I write.

Joy's blog reporting. Over and out.

Letter to Spell Check

Dear Spell Check:

I'm quite concerned with your spelling abilities. Mainly because I was nearly my school's 5th grade spelling bee champion and I feel that I have adequate spelling skills on most occasions (unless I'm in a hurry) but you don't seem to think I'm capable. And, you don't even know me.

Today you put a very red underline under my words "ha ha" in an email. When you are laughing in an email, how do you spell it? I spell that "ha ha". Isn't that reasonable? Am I over stepping my spelling boundaries? You don't even give me other options for that.

On another occasion I was well pleased to emphasize the importance of a day I was excited about in all caps. But you would have none of it! "Friday cannot be capitalized!" "Off with her head!" But this time, I didn't even get the red underline rejection. You corrected it for me! I didn't want it corrected. Oh woe is me. Oooh but I have learned ways to get around your shenanigans. I bet you're dying to fix that word. I'm the ultimate spell check hacker. Sometimes I click "ignore" when you want to fix a word I like to use, such as "hmph". There are no vowels in that word but I believe that it clearly defines my feelings of angry resignation to something. Don't you?

Spell check, don't you think I have feelings? Do you have feelings? I would let you capitalize Friday if you really felt that great about it. I would.

I want to end this letter on a good note. There have been many of times over the course of my computer literate years that I have been so grateful for the use of spell check. Mainly on papers I wrote for college in the wee hours of the morning with only Mountain Dew to keep me awake. You were there for me. "Tut-tut, you misspelled the word the" and clearly, a college student should not be making such ridiculous mistakes in a paper for a composition class! So thank you spell check! Should your name be capitalized? Because I didn't do that just now...

Can I get a witness?

Saturday morning Jason left to go help some friends of ours move. So Dawson and I were left to ourselves most of the day. I just say that to state the fact that there are no witneses to this story other than me, Dawson and the good Lord

Dawson was napping, so I put in a Hillsong worship DVD to have some background noise while I read. The next thing I know, I can hear a little chatterbox in his bedroom ready to get up from his nap. I put him in his highchair and was getting his lunch around and Dawson says -and I quote- "Uh-oh Jesus!" I look up from what I'm doing and he is watching the worship dvd as the credits had just started rolling.

Now, I asked him to repeat it but he wouldn't.

Was he concerned for Jesus, that He wouldn't get anymore praise time because the credits had started rolling?

Several mornings ago I was getting ready to leave for work and Jason was getting Dawson situated in the car seat so we could head out. Jason said "bye-bye Dawson, love you". No response. So he tries again. "Dawson, love you.." Dawson emphatically yells out. "NO! I ride school bus!".

I'm not sure what the correlation is there.