Now there's a good time!

I had a root canal today. Now there's an interesting procedure.

You go in to the dentist with mild tooth pain and you leave feeling like he did a spin-kick to your face twenty-five times.

Wow! Thanks, doc! I feel much better!

A Birthday Song for Papa

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY!!

PSALM 29

Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones,
Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The Lord is over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars,
Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes them also skip like a calf,
Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire.


The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth,
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everyone says, "Glory!"


The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood,
And the Lord sits as King forever.
The Lord will give strength to His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace.

Celebration!

Anna Grace is now 3 years old! We all had a splendid time celebrating with her. We asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and we attempted to accommodate within reason.

She wanted a pink cake- so Lydia made her a yummy pink cake.
She wanted new boots and a pink coat for her birthday- no problem!
She wanted soup to eat- we went to Panera Bread (cheap date!).
She wanted to see Happy Feet- so we saw it in the IMax....worst movie I have seen in a long time. The anti-Christian message is outrageous. The premise is that religion is a farce that is trying to cover up the true meaning of existence- which happens to be rebellion and partying with penguins with Mexican accents. I could talk for hours about how much I hated that movie, but this post is about how Anna's birthday was ruined by a ridiculous movie... I mean this post is about the great time we had celebrating Anna's birthday.

She now claims that she is a big girl which means that she has a lot of new things that she has to do and things that she will no longer do- such as wear diapers to nap (that is scary).

Lydia is the one that made the day so great for her though- she even decorated the house while Anna was asleep so that when she woke up she would be surprised. It was fun.
(Click on the image to see a larger collage).

Happy Thanksgiving From Union Avenue!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Eshelmans of Union Avenue. We hope that you had a great day giving thanks to our covenant keeping God. He truly preserves his people from generation to generation.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD,

all ye lands.

Serve the LORD with gladness:

come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he is God:

it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,

and into his courts with praise:

be thankful

unto him,

and bless his name.

For the LORD is good;

his mercy is everlasting;

and his truth endureth

to all

generations.

Three?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA GRACE!

Psalm 3:3

But thou, O LORD,

art a shield for me;

my glory,

and the lifter up of mine head.

A Good Reason For A Pretzel "Cigar"

There are many reasons in life to enjoy a fine Utz' Pretzel "Cigar" with those that you love. This week it is the near completion of the Wendler Avenue Apartment One redo. We have actually had a lot of fun this month amidst the busy schedule of work, school, family, church, remodel.
When I lived at Wendler we called this room the study. Our children refer to it as Brian's room. It is hard for them to understand why Brian does not live there anymore and why they have to keep going there despite the fact that he is not there any longer. We just smile.

We tore out the old carpet and painted it with a nice fresh color. We redid the floor as well as hung blinds and curtains. I said to Miss Moes that this would make a perfect nursery/reading room for the next tenants.

Here is the breakfast nook. This room was white (but I do not think that we painted it when I bought the house in 1998...so we can just say that it was time for a fresh coat of paint).
We like the color a lot. It looks more minty in the picture, but it is actually a Fire-King Green. Nothing says 1930 like Fire-King Green. We also hung new curtains and blinds in this room.
Here is the kitchen. We did the lower areas in the green that Ray Lanning will covet and we did the top in a fresh white. I am pleased with how well it goes in the kitchen.

Here is the new floor that I have been working on. It is in the hallway as well as in the bathroom. I cut my finger while laying it and Anna obsessed over that for awhile.
Here is what I call Brian's room.

It is the infamous room that burned out in 2001, leaving us as sojourners in Grand Rapids. (I am sure that everyone has a story to go with that experience... like the maid walking into Shawn and my room at the Residence Inn and we not knowing Spanish could not explain ourselves!)

We also did cadmeon leather walls in this room to help maintain flow. We added new curtains and blinds in here as well.

We will show more as we finish. We have about 20% still to finish. We we very glad to have all of the help from Miss Moes as well as Mrs. Lanning coming and kidknapping our children today so that we could paint. (And yes, they came back in fine shape.)

Upples and Ben Oh Nos

Anna and Owen have such a great time dancing. I think that they want to dance almost every day. We tell them that it is not Presbyterian to dance- but they do it anyways!

The fact is that when a home is filled with music and dancing- it is filled with joy. We take joy in the fact that our home is a great place to cut a rug!

Anna's New Joy

Anna has found cookie making to be a great joy. She has made two batches of cookies this week and they were a yummy treat. The first time she had enough Hershey Kisses for the cookies. Today she seemed to unwrap two too many. My thought is that she wanted to eat the extras before we saw her.

We caught her though!

Another political post. Sorry.

Stop racism in the state of Michigan.

Make sure to vote YES on proposal 2!

What is Proposal 2?

Proposal 2 is also known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), and will be on the Michigan ballot on November 7, 2006. Proposal 2 would amend the state constitution to “prohibit state and local government from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the areas of public employment, public contracting and public education.”

More information here.

Autumn Time Goodness

I was just hoping that a friend of mine had made an apple crisp. Yummy warm apple crisp with vanilla ice-cream and drizzly caramel. Any suggestions?