Britty Gumpa

Here is a video of Brita in the back seat. You can hear people who had gotten out of their cars talking to Brett about the situation. For some reason, when Brita, Brett and I get together, one of us always has trouble talking...

traffic

A group of us went to Mammoth this past weekend, and we decided to leave early on Sunday rather than Snowboard. Well, apparently everybody had the same idea. We ended up parked on the freeway for 20 minutes. It took us about 2 hours to go 30 miles. We definitely had to put on our patience pants. Here is a video of us moving very slowly... I am using "Videoegg" for the first time, so I am not sure how this is going to work! I will post a brita video after this one...

The significance of insignificance

The other day one of the faculty at Westmont sent us a link to "Hubble: The most amazing space photographs in the universe."

The email said that these pictures, "illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful." -- Michael Hanlon/AH (Nov 25th, 2006)

As I looked at the photos, I was pretty amazed to say the least. I started to think, "who am I, to think that I am anybody!" I am very small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things! However, I was also reminded of the fact that I have a God who thinks that I AM important! So important, in fact, that he sent his one and only son to die for me! Amazing

Not only did he do that, but he created this AMAZING universe that we only catch a GLIMPSE of through these photos. I don't know about you, but sometimes I get that strange feeling in my stomach when I try to think about the universe, infinity, and how God has been around forever... there is no beginning and end to God's existence. As a human, my mind just CANNOT get around the idea of something not having a beginning and end. I guess that is what faith is all about. I think seeing these photos is a good way to keep me humble! Anyhow, I thought these photos below were pretty stinking amazing. I basically pasted the entire website below... so enjoy!


The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth

In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth

At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula, which looks like the eye of disembodied sorcerer Sauron from Lord of the Rings

The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre

In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon)



The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'

Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way

The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation


The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born

Another Musing.....

The other day I "Googled" my name because I wasn't sure if my blog was accessible to the outside world. The sixth entry was, "Mouw's Musings-The President's Blog." It is the new blog of the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, Richard Mouw. Richard is my dad's cousin and I've had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and eating dinner with him as well. Also, he spoke at my graduation from Wheaton. Anyhow, I thought it was so cool that we choose almost the same exact name for our blogs! Crazy! I wonder if I could get him with copyright laws :-) Haha, I wouldn't want to do that anyhow! I thought his first entry in his blog is a great reminder of God's presence in our lives, no matter where we are... the internet, my space, blogger, facebook, etc: He is there! Here is Richard's entry...

December 4, 2006

Launching a New Blog:
MySpace

Those who know me well thought they would never see the day, but indeed it has come: I am launching my own blog.

Now, it wasn’t so long ago that I wouldn’t have known the definition of a blog, much less its purpose. I am always a little behind on these things—and confess that I have to endure more than a little teasing from my son, Dirk, who is certainly more technologically savvy than I.

Yet I cannot ignore the upside of this whole blogging business. I spent a lot of time this summer exploring blogs—take note, I might be reading yours!—and became quite intrigued with the immediacy of this new way of communicating. So here I am, plunging into the adventure myself. It offers an opportunity for me to share with you, my friends and fellow bloggers, the things that are on my heart in “real time,” so to speak.

One thing that has been on my heart lately is space. Along with exploring blogs this summer, I became familiar with MySpace. I did some browsing, and was amazed by the sheer volume of this phenomenon: thousands and thousands of pictures of people supposedly inviting you into their “space.”

When I look at all those pictures, I think about how, in some primordial sense, each of these folks realizes that they are not alone. I think that, at some level, they realize the truth of the Psalmist when he said: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” Or in today’s vocabulary, we might say: If I retreat into my own website, my own blog, my own MySpace…there, too, I am in your
presence.

As Christians in this MySpace culture, we need to be reminding people that everything we call “my space” is also, in a very profound sense, God’s space. We are inescapably in God’s presence.

Whether it’s on MySpace, in classrooms, or in the workplace, each person we encounter in our day-to-day lives has a God-sized space within their souls. This is a space that can be filled only by a relationship with the one true God.

Richard J. Mouw

Shakey Face Galore...

When I went home, Chad and I had some fun with my parents’ new camera. We did this thing that he and his college buddies do when they are together, referred to as shakey face! Now, I must warn you, it looks a bit funny and isn't too flattering. :-) But don't worry, I'm not proud!





The key is, you have to make your face totally relaxed and then shake your head back and forth. Chad and I had to do tons of takes because we were still learning the camera and there was a little bit of a delay. But beware, sometimes too many takes can give you a head ache! :-)

Hair Do's and Don'ts :o)

My niece Maddie has pretty long hair and loves to have it done in special ways. Luckily for her, Aunt Jamie had some time to "make her pretty" (even though she already is!) this Christmas. Here are some pics of the lovely ladies....



















Post French Braid Shock Syndrome ...



And Jamie even took time to make us the "Girls with Curls!"

Ba!

Today I am going to post pics of the youngest niece in Philly, who wasn't allowed to (or wasn't given the opportunity to) go to see Charlotte's Web. Her name is Evelina... Evie for short. She will be two in March and is pretty much a stinker! BUT, she is such a cute stinker! Definitely expressive with a great sense of humor. By the end of the trip she was calling me, "Ba!" It was so cute! So basically, she was the "belle of the cameras" so there were a larger percentage of pictures to choose from! (Note: when i said in my last post that I had 700 pics to choose from, I did not take a single one of those pictures. I didn't bring a camera home because I knew there would be plenty of pics to share!) So here is Evelina!!

This is a post bath pic with her Uncle Chad. Her hair is not done yet here... she is gonna have great ringlets someday!

Opening other people's presents before it's time :)

























Evie and I sing this song called, "Skid-a-ma-rink-i-dink!" It's got hilarious hand motions and this is Evie and I cracking each other up :)

Scavenger hunt...

I never got around to blogging about my time in Philly, and I have over 700 pictures to choose from, so I decided that instead of being overwhelmed about choosing pictures, I would just do a couple each day.







Finding the clues...








For Toby, Maddie and Josiah's Christmas present, I sent them on a scavenger hunt that gave them clues as to what they were getting. The clues were a bag of popcorn, a spider and a pig. The last clue told them to go to the computer, but before they could go they had to guess what the present was. Toby raised his hands in the air and yelled, "Charlotte's Web!" Josiah said, "We've already seen that video!" I replied, "I know, but there is a new one with real people and I'm going to take you to the movies!" At the computer I showed them the trailer for the movie so they would get even more excited.

These kids have never been to a movie theatre, so it was a real treat! They loved the popcorn and Sprite and Josiah didn't sit down the entire movie (The kids only get one half hour video a day, and only watch TV if football is on. Josiah had never seen a screen this big!) It was awesome to take them to their first movie! Not sure yet, but it might be a yearly occasion! :)