Three Dollars Worth of God (and an Update on Talia)

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

Wilbur Rees

After studying John 6 and considering the reasons men and women followed (and still follow) Jesus, a friend shared this poem with me. I know I am guilty of this cautious reception. I pray that these words and the following will "explode my soul" and transform my mind.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:1-2

Talia Update

Our small family has been hit with illness again. Talia has been running a low-grade fever for several days. Her little nose is constantly running and we discovered that a tooth emerged from her upper gums. Her fever finally broke and an irritating rash appeared. Cold, fever, teething, and itchy rash have put her out of commission and caused cancellations to several plans for this week. A few nights ago she was so tired that she lay down on her belly and started to fall asleep on the carpet in the living room. Poor girl. Mommy got a cold (fairly mild) and Daddy got another miserable cold. Anyone wanna' come over?

Prior to illness Talia was spending a great deal of time on all fours. She has figured out how to pull her knees under her hips and is enjoying rocking back and forth. While at the peek of illness, she was too exhausted to progress towards crawling. She seems to be regaining interest in trying to crawl. Talia also played Peek-A-Boo with us a few days ago. She had soaked her shirt so I took it off her chest. Before we could put on a new shirt, she began imitating Daddy and me by placing the shirt over her face and pulling it down. All three of us were in stitches! She seems to be imitating us with greater frequency so we have begun some baby sign-language. We'll let you know how that goes in the future. Talia has also begun pointing and using her pointer finger to touch. She is also picking up items using her thumb and index finger. Talia loves to eat peas. She excitedly grabs several and shoves them in her mouth. As you will see, half the peas end up in her mouth and the other half end up on her face, or arms, or clothes, or seat, or Mom, or floor, or... Talia is enjoying babbling. She is practicing the following letters: B, D, F, G, M, T, and V. Needless to say, she is so much fun! Enjoy these pictures (most taken prior to illness).































P.S. Happy Birthday to Grandma Poole!!!!

Prepare to Be De-Muggled

In case you visited our blog in the last few days, you will notice the geocaching video has been removed. It is a great video, but we were annoyed that it started to play commercials every time you opened our page. If you missed it, or would like to see it again, check it out here.

In the last two days we have hiked 12 miles in pursuit of geocaches. We have enjoyed scenery, historic points of interest, and several geocaching firsts.

First #1: Geocaching unencumbered by terrain. We got this backpack to allow us to find geocaches on varying terrains. It is Talia tested and Talia approved.



First #2: Finding a Quarry Fortress! It was interesting to discover this historic landmark. We hope to go back and learn more (we were so intent on First #4 that we didn't stop to read about the area).



First #3: Underground lakes and saber tooth tigers! Hawver Cave was discovered in the early 1900s. Inside was a stash of bones believed to have been the remains of mastodons and saber tooth tigers. The cave, which also contains an underground lake, was open to exploration until a few years ago. Unfortunately, disrespectful visitors left so much litter (such as broken rafts) and tagging that the state park was forced to close the cave to the public. A picture of some of the fossils retrieved from the cave can be found here along with some links to news articles. There's also this video about the cave which shows why they needed to put the steel bars at the entrance.



First #4: Our first FTF! Geocachers enjoy many types of finds, but being the first to find (FTF) a newly hidden cache is an extra special treat. You have to be quick, because some caches are found the day they are posted.



First #5: Amazing rock formations! We have seen beautiful scenery around many of our caches, but this was probably the most impressive sight yet. Check out the pictures in the following section to get an idea of the size of these rocks.



First #6: A locked cache! Apparently this cache was planted by the state park. We had to find the combination at a previous hideout.



First #7: Our first DNF! There is no boasting in this first! We did not find (DNF) this cache after searching for more than 15 minutes. Apparently the previous geocachers did not cover the cache when they left because a rattlesnake was nearby. Being exposed, it is possible that the cache was muggled (stolen). We will watch the online log to see if anyone finds it in the future. If they do, we will give it another try.



First #8: Geonapping! Talia was worn out from hiking so she took a nap.



First #9: De-muggling some friends (family)! The Sanders invited us over for dinner so the least we could do was open up to them the world of geocaching. We found two caches within half a mile of their home.



First #10: Geocaching in the dark! Well, we didn't intend to be hiking in the dark, but this cache took two and a half hours of hiking round trip. It was a two to three mile hike in on a horse trail with some steep and rocky grades. We decided to hike back to the road and take the road back to our cars. While this route was safer as we were able to walk on a smooth road by moonlight, it also probably added another mile to our return trip. Here we are with the sunset in the background.



Here are some more recent pictures.



Yes, she has a cold :(.





The kind of treasure Angie would like!







Jon cleverly calls this, "the state plant of California." It sure is everywhere!

Of course there are more pictures in our Flickr album. I also plan to write about Talia soon. Check back later or cheat and check her out on Flickr:).