New Sights & Sounds!

As LJ continues to explore new sounds...yesterday the "K" sound and today "F" (those are going to be dangerous combinations!) he also has developed a new skill! He can now clap! We've been working with him a little at a time to try and get him to clap his hands. Up until now, he will wrap his hands around your hands, balls, toys and clap them together, but never his hands. Usually when I attempt to show him how to clap he holds his hands in a fist. Today he kept his hands open and allowed me to clap his hands together. I started clapping in front of him and suddenly he started to do it too! Very cool!

Yesterday I got to meet Bob Blue, the winemaker for Bonterra which grows organic grapes and makes organic wine. They use biodynamic practices which seems a little crazy (one of the things they do is bury - and I'm not making this up! - bury a cow's horn filled with cow manure (and some other things) at the fall equinox for six months. When they pull it out of the ground it is compost. They take the compost, store it in a jar with water and then spray it on the floor of the vineyard twice a year at night. This is seen as a bio-regulator. )

Anyways, you can't argue with good wine! They also use cover crop to help with pest control. It was really inspiring to hear all they are doing to make great wine while trying to work with the earth. It inspires me to be greener for sure! They wines are phenomenal so if you're at the store, grab a bottle and see what you think. 

Summertime Photos

Check out some of the summer pictures...

Olympic Fever!

So, I along with many other Americans watched the opening ceremonies last night. I have always loved the Olympics and hearing the stories that come out of it. Watching the Chinese flag come in and hearing the story of the little boy who was able to walk next Yao Ming. From what I understand (I thought this is what I heard the NBC commentators recall) Lin Hao is 9 years old and was in his school when the earthquake hit. He was buried under rubble, but was able to escape. Once he escaped he helped another student out and then went back to find more. When he was asked why he went back, he said, "It's my job. I'm the hall monitor." Totally broke my heart. How amazing children are, so selfless!

So anyways, I love the Olympics, always have - I'll be watching the gymnastics competitions and swimming for sure. I think I like the idea that we all come together at one moment to celebrate something other than selfish ambition - yes, we want our own countries to wine, but at the same time, we routing for the underdogs, cheering for the stories and passion these athletes compete with and all for the same goal - a medal.

Linkin Park

So tonight we got to see Linkin Park thanks to our friends Aaron and JD. Linkin Park were awesome. The concert reaffirmed why we are at revolution church (at leat to me). I loved watching the concert, but as I did I thought about many of the words to these songs and how everyone around me was singing along...songs about putting them out of their misery. They played my favorite songs - a few that could totally be worshipful. It made me see once again how everyone is searching for something and makes me thankful that my relationship with Christ began at such an early age. I'm thankful that throughout my life when things took a turn for the worse (dad's death, shelby's death a month later, gma kalvin, friends turning on me -the list could go on; like anyone else's list) through all these things I had the hope/knowledge that God was in control and that a better day would come. I pray that LJ will have an outlook like that and that he'll be able to turn to God during his traumatic experiences.

My favorite concert experience-seeing Chester's (of Linkin Park) son (age 4-5) with his huge headphones jamming to chris cornell. Even better was after Chester came out on stage to play 1 song with chris cornell, he went off stage and picked up the little boy and held him to his chest, almost like he was comforting him. It was so sweet.

Digging Linkin Park...does it make me want to change the spelling of LJ's Lincoln? No! And yes, someone did suggest that spelling when I was pregnant, I said the choice was Linkin or Jagger - pick one bc you can't have both...you see who won that argument:)