Who dat? Well, that's Nathan. For you who last saw him when he was 3 feet tall with big ears, here's the big version.
Nathan called tonight to tell us he scored 
a promotion at Apple. He was is and always will be stoked about that. Life hasn't been that smooth sailing for him the last few months, but hopefully the boat will come about and starting going downwind. Much smoother that way. All it takes is HIM increasing and US decreasing. Nathan always has some kind of gizmo going and he wants me to play with them. Here he is showing me his I-phone and I'm as inept as usual with such inventions. What else is new in our lives? Well, we are all alive and well. Here's the last "all of us" family photo so you can see us for yourselves.
That's us, there on the right, unless it flipped and went somewhere else when I got all this pasted up and laid out. But you can tell from the crowd it's all of us. From the left you see Zack (14), Becca with the long dark hair (hanging with Nathan), Jackie just below her and Nathan towering over me. The guy near my right ear is Jake who has grown at least 6 inches in the last 6 months since this photo was taken and under him is Elijah (6) and Leah. How about something a bit different? Down below on the right is me and a bunch of 2nd graders.
One of the fun things I got to do at work was to go to schools and teach about mosquitoes. Talk about a crazy thing to do. I'm no entomologist but you don't have to be too sharp to teach 2nd graders
about bugs. Just read 'em a story and show some pictures. I've gone from university students to 2nd graders and come October 31st unemployed again. We just love adventure.
The girls + Jake and Max the dog. That's how Jackie looks nowadays without a knee brace, crutches or other helps. She's thrilled to be walking, working and bringing home money. We were sending it out so long it's great to see it actually coming in again. A few of the little guys still try and push her around. One tried to headbutt her helper yesterday and when she got home she was about ready to move--anywhere! We have a really nice house we rent with a very big yard (garden for you Brits and cousins of Brits) for the kids, dog and cat to play in. Here's what it looked like a couple of weeks ago when Tropical Storm Kay came blowing by. It hovered over us for 3 days and brought tons of rain.
As you can see, we did get some rain. The boys had a great time playing in the 40 mph (68 km) wind and rain. Leah, the mom in charge of the wet clothes and mess, wasn't nearly as excited about it as they were when they came in soaked to the bone. One really bonus of this storm was I had two days off work.
So, there's us. Hope you enjoyed spending a few minutes with us. You know what would really make our day? For you to send us an email kind of like this one and show us what's going on in your part of the world.
Oh, let me tell you about what happened to me at work the other day. We'd been out trapping mosquitoes and in 3 days brought home about 700,000, which didn't make a dent in the population where we were at. I had to dig through them and put 'em in petri dishes. That's a lot of dishes. To do that you obviously don't want them flying around so we put them in the freezer until they are dead. So I had a pile of 50,000 frozen mosquitoes on my desk and I started to put them in petri dishes. A pile like that tends to spread out on the desk so when some fell I didn't think much of it. But then I thought I noticed one twitching so I looked a little closer.
...Twitching? How could you be twitching? Must be the wind from the A/C blowing this way. So I kept on working. Bzzzzzzz. A mosquito went flying by my ear. I looked closer and lots of them were twitching. Not good. I only had to squeeze them into 12 or so dishes so I thought maybe if I worked fast, I could get them in and refreeze them. I don't really like to touch them, though they are pretty soft, but in large numbers they really stink. About that time a few more went flying by and then circled back to get even.
I work in the lab. In the lab we don't want to introduce poison so I'm looking at this pile wondering what to do with them. I ran into the kitchen and found some window cleaner and came back and started spraying the pile with that. You know what this reminds me of? John the Baptist. No, I haven't been drinking. I'm completely sane (allegedly).
I'm reading a book about icons and how they fit into the Church. Perhaps you are wondering about my sanity, right? Really, icons are awesome and the stories they tell are quite interesting. Anyway, John the Baptist came to us in a flash in the gospel of Mark and appeared in the desert telling us we better repent: The ax is at the roots and if you don't bear some fruit, you'll be cut down and burned. That's my version of it. So how does a pile of half frozen and all-alive mosquitoes remind me of saint John? I saw that pile as my life. When it's lying still and not doing anything, life's good. But when the passions get caught by some enticing little (or big) opportunity to sin, it can fast turn into a mess. How easy it is to say something about someone that need not be said: Bzzzzz, goes a buzzing mosquito. Or how about seeing something on the Internet you don't need to see? Bzzzzz. Did that fine looking girl catch your eye? Bzzzzzz. Is that really how it happened? Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
The icon of John is looking toward the icon of Jesus (not shown) and His head is bowed and his hands extended. 
What you are seeing is an icon that says, "I must decrease and He must increase." And that's what we need too. In his eyes you can see he's asking for mercy and showing thanks for the mercy he has received. He's perhaps even praying on our behalf. In church we stand in front of this icon, and many others, and extend our hands toward Christ along with John balancing our prayers for mercy with intercession. There is a cloud of witnesses that assemble with us in church--we are not alone no matter how small the group may be that is meeting in worship. Being not alone is a good thing because together we can move toward Christ and if we are moving with a heart of repentance, we know that when the books are opened up and read, we'll be fine. Until then, we should be living the best life possible. If someone like Paul could say he was the "chief" of sinners, we need to take a good look at ourselves and see how we measure up. Do you think of yourself as a sinner or do you just cruise along and figure with it's all a done deal so when you die you'll just ride the rocket up and all will be cool? Unfortunately, in our era, people tend to think that it's all grace so what difference does it make how you live? I believe it does make a difference. A huge one. Our life in Christ is meant to be transforming, going from "glory to glory."
At the Baptist church we used to go to, there are stained glass windows all around. They are really cool. When it's dark, you can barely make out the details of what you are seeing. That glass scene on the left would be obscured if it were dark outside. The lighter it gets, the more details you begin to see and the clearer the image of who's who. The more we are filled with the light of Christ, the more people can see Him in us. So that's the point of killing those mosquitoes before they kill you.
The window cleaner kind of worked. It made them dizzy and they couldn't take off. So I put some newspaper on top of them, wrapped 'em up and put them back in the freezer and let them peacefully slip into a colder and happier place. Actually, I killed them! The particular species of mosquito I had on my desk is a highly aggressive one and a vector of some not- so nice diseases. I wonder how my career as Bob the mosquito guy would have gone if I'd allowed those pesky 50,000 critters to get loose in our offices? It makes me wonder how our lives in Christ will fare if we don't take care of all those little sins that constantly try and distract us from our relationship with Jesus? Well, that's about it for now. I really hope your life in Christ is truly going from glory to glory to glory and that the light of heaven is illuminating your innards and the fragrant aroma of Christ, who loves YOU very much, is blessing all those you come in contact with. Feel free to leave any input you might want to share with us.