After church today Paul and I decided to go to the Sonoma County fair. We got really lucky too, because as we were walking toward the entrance these two older ladies were walking out and asked it we wanted two free tickets. We accepted their generous offer and saved fourteen bucks! The fair was pretty fun - we saw a sheep shearing contest, lots of pretty flowers, and some huuuuge Holsteins. We also saw a goat named Sonya (that's for you, mom). =)

Yesterday we drove to Dillon beach which is located about a half an hour from our house. It was so windy that it almost wasn't enjoyable, but it was pretty and we enjoyed seeing our proximity to the coast. (Now we understand why we get so much fog.)

Right now Paul is at a place called Finbar Devine's with some guys from our church. Everyone at church has been very welcoming to us - inviting us to dinner, softball games, Bible studies, etc. It's been great. We have so much to be thankful for.

We got a little kitten today from the Rooks! We are so excited!

But, we are even more excited that Andrew and Bekah's baby was born today! Congratulations Andrew and Bekah!!

My favorite "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey. Not everyone finds these funny, but I do - and I hope you do too. Also, I'm bored at work and have nothing better to do but write a meaningless blog.

As we were driving, we saw a sign that said "Watch for rocks." Marta said it should read "Watch for pretty rocks." I told her she should write in her suggestion to the highway department, but she started saying it was a joke, just to get out of writing a simple letter. And I thought I was lazy.

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh no," I said, "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is, "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, "Probably because of something you did."

If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Brave man, I guess I'm a coward.

Laurie got offended that I used the word "puke." But to me, that's what her dinner tasted like.

To me, it's always a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, "Hey, can you give me a hand?," you can say, "Sorry, got these sacks."

The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.

One of the teachers from Harvest Christian just e-mailed us some photos she took during our trip. Here are some of our new friends/co-workers:

Thea (art), Chelsea (1st gr.), Me, Paul

Kari (5th gr.) and Paul

Me and Terra (choir)

Chelsea and Jason, Me, and Paul - smelling his armpit

We didn't go on this walk, but apparently everyone else did.
Jason (4th gr.), Chelsea, Thea, Kari, Lauchlan (6th/7th), Shelley (2nd/3rd gr.), Jon - the one being held (the principal), and kneeling is Elizabeth, but she doesn't work at Harvest.

It was cool to be able to go to the conference with the rest of the staff - we feel like we got a jump start on getting to know everyone before the school year starts. We will be working with two other married couples (Jon & Thea and Jason & Chelsea), so it will be nice to not be the only co-workers who happen to be husband and wife! We hung out a lot with Jason and Chelsea, in fact, several hours on their 2 year anniversary - they might have hated it, but were at least too nice to tell us to get lost. Everyone we met was very nice and fun to be around - we look forward to working with them in a little over a month.

One of the best things about moving from an apartment to a house has to be, being able to do laundry without having to go get quarters, and having a spot to line dry clothes.

This is how we've been spending the morning while our clothes flap above us in the balmy breeze:

Tough life, huh?

Some snapshots from Paul's birthday celebration - including a scrumptious dinner at McNear's Saloon in downtown Petaluma (located only a few blocks from our house!) and a homemade birthday cake.

Happy 27th birthday to Paul!

A little kitty visited me in our yard this morning. It was pretty much the excitement of the day. It wasn't wearing any tags nor a flea collar, so Paul and I are assuming that it is a feral cat. Also it drank a lot of milk - something most pet cats aren't usually super interested in.

I asked Paul what he thought we should name it (not that it's ours) and the first name that came to mind was Agamemnon - a pretty big name for such a little guy, so I'm calling him Aggie for short. We'll see if sweet, cuddly, Aggie ever lazes about in our yard again. I hope so!

Moscow and beyond

Howdy, Erica and I recently returned from Moscow, Idaho where Logos School Holds their annual teacher training seminar. The seminar was great. We learned a lot and can't wait to put these ideas about classical Christian education into practice. If you have heard us talking about classical schools and wonder what it is all about, here is a link to the essay that started the most recent movement of classical education: http://www.issuesetc.org/resource/archives/sayers.htm
We also had the opportunity to spend the week with our future co-workers since most all the faculty attended the seminar. They are all awesome people and I am excited to work with a group that understands and is excited about Christian and classical education.
So for the time being I will be studying a lot and learning (hopefully) a lot.
talk to you later.
paul.

Here are a couple of pictures from my cousin Katelyn's wedding from which we just returned. It was a fun day as we got to hang out with cousins!

We are excited as tomorrow we fly to Idaho for a week of teacher training. I'm sure that we will learn a lot and have the opportunity to meet some pretty cool people. Paul is hoping to get a book signed by Doug Wilson - we'll see if he actually does! He'll post more on the conference and what he's been doing to prepare for teaching once we return.

Thanks to those who have been continuing to pray for us throughout our move. We've had a lot of fun our first week living up here and we love our little house, but it's been surreal - I keep thinking that eventually we're going to go "home." Nothing feels super familiar yet and the few places that do (namely, Petaluma Market and Tagliaferri's Deli) are the places we went to the first time we ever visited Petaluma and we find ourselves frequenting them repeatedly. They are like our macaroni and cheese, if that makes sense. Paul and I both feel that it will be nice to start working again. But we're trying to relax and make the most of our summer vacation since we won't have time off again for awhile. Except for the two weeks for Christmas...and the week for Easter...and then all of next summer... =)

Our very own white trash Independence Day celebration.

The church we attended on Sunday.

Our trip to the countryside. (Really, this is only about 5-10 min. from our house.)

Father's Day A's game.