lightening, gorillas, friendship, wealth, and babies in tummies

 the title should give evidence to the fact that this is going to be a post filled with a whole lotta random... and no, there is NOT A BABY in my tummy (yikes!).

we traveled down to so cal (southern california for you non-californians) last weekend to celebrate michael's g-ma's 90th b-day (post coming this week). to get from our neck of the woods to so cal we must travel over the grapevine (which i have yet to see an actual grapevine on).  while driving over and through the grapevine we were surprised by a lightening show.  

the lightening show was brilliant and majestically terrifying.

as josie's teeth chattered from the backseat, noah and emilie were enamored by the show, "i think God is spoiling us with this lightening show. i can't take my eyes off of it!"   emilie chimed in, "i think God is entertaining us for our long (6hr) drive there."
as their Spirits were struck by the lightening, i was struck by the worship happening from the backseat of a station wagon.

 because we were in so cal (which happens 2x a year at most) we squeezed in a couple visits with some of our favoritest people EVER!

first,  a visit with the crutchfields.

i'm crazy (literally) about this baby
(whose dad is my emmy award winning friend-
yeah, i'm going to say that every time i mention him, and 
whose mom is my God-sister)! 

we also met up with "uncle pluto" (known to most people as jeff) at a delicious burger joint

near santa monica.

uncle pluto currently works at paramount studios for an emmy nominated show.

uh huh, we know people who know people who have been on the cover of PEOPLE, 

or who could potentially be on the cover of PEOPLE. 

it is important to see those people who just by being with them you are scooped up, wrapped in their arms, and squeezed tight.

on our way home from so cal we stopped at a car dealership to check out  a vehicle we had seen on line the week before.  we did our research and had decided this particular vehicle met our checklist of requirements. we were especially pleased to discover this particular suv was marked down to $5, 000 less than the blue book value.  we worked with the nicest non-haggling used car salesman ever who lowered the price even more to fit our budget.
we brought home a "new to us" 2007 Saturn Outlook. this suv is a bit too classy for these joneses. it has a c.d. player (exciting for us), leather seating for 8, bun warmers, lumbar support (oh my back is happy), automatic rear door opener/closer (what will i do with all that spare time), and 10 cup holders!  noah got in and said, "this car seems too rich for us, i don't feel like i belong in this car."
after he said this i responded, "that is exactly how i feel in our family." it's too much too take in, but i will!
 

we returned home sunday evening to what was suppose to be a much needed uneventful week.
for the most part it was until i picked noah up from school wednesday... "noah how was school today?"  noah's eyes lit up as he began to tell of the afternoon's event, " i was in science class, and the door opened, standing there was the school secretary and a GORILLA!  the gorilla came in the class started messing with another kid, and then came towards me.  it messed with my desk, and messed up my hair, and then it gave me a reese's candy bar, and left."  not the answer i was expecting, but i was glad to see the "no child left behind" act at work! hehe.
i asked noah why he thinks the gorilla came to his class scoping him out to give him candy.  he had no idea why.  i have a pretty good guess as to why... because my  boy is DELIGHTFUL and AWESSSOOMMMEEE, and even a gorilla knows that!
noah returned to school the next day with a curious george card containing a "thank you" note addressed to the gorilla (i sure do like that kid).

as i type i'm reminded of another after school conversation from a couple of weeks ago. noah was telling me about a boy who had misbehaved during class, was sent to the principle's office, and who has not returned to school since. the boy shared with noah that he was "going to juvy."  noah went on to share what the other kids in the class said about the boy. we talked about rumors and how quickly they spread.  then i asked noah what he thought of the boy.  noah said he was sad for him.  he shared a bit of what he knew about the boy, about his broken home life.  as noah spoke i heard grace. i saw my boy looking at his classmate's wounded heart. i was pleased that noah wasn't joining in on the rumor weed.
before we arrived home we had prayed for the boy twice. noah has continued to pray for him since.
later i thought of Proverbs 23:15-16  "My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right."   i grabbed noah, hugged him, and whispered in his ear, "i delight in you." may God continue to lead him in wisdom and grace.

last night we were seated at the table for dinner and josie prayed, "Jesus, thank you for this day, thank you for our food, and thank you for putting me in my mommy's tummy so i could be in this really good family."  tears welled up, with eyes closed and head bowed i smiled and whispered to my Savior, "thank you, thank you for rescuing me, redeeming my life, and putting me in this really good family."   

i am blessed.