not to us

Here's video of us playing Wii Fit before our Super Bowl party.  Amusing stuff.

Here are two more videos from Christmas morning:

Ruby got a kitchen from Santa

She also got some books from Mommy and Daddy.  It was a great time with just our family, the start of a new tradition!

Lately at Elston Family Church we've been playing a couple of songs from Jonathan Stockstill.  This is one named "Open Up the Sky".  Enjoy:

***Disclaimer: The video is over an hour long, but well worth the time.***

Do you ever feel like you get life a little bit out of perspective? I know that I do. I get my priorities mixed up easily. I forget what's *really* important. I start to focus on myself or the details or the little things, and, before I know it, I realize that I'm missing the boat entirely. I've recently learned of a Professor from Carnegie Mellon named Randy Pausch. Dr. Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 2006. After a full treatment of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, the cancer came back with a vengence. In August of 2007, he learned that the cancer had metastasized agressively and was attacking his liver and spleen. His doctors gave him an estimate of 3-6 months of good health. I am so impressed and inspired by his outlook on life, that I felt led to at least give you the opportunity to be inspired, as well. His talk, "Last Lecture: Really Acheiving Your Childhood Dreams", is very good. It can be found HERE on YouTube. Or you can watch it here on our blog.

In addition, Dr. Pausch felt the need to get his lecture on Time Management in a digital form for his children in the future. For those of you who are excellent at time management and never find yourself up against a deadline or letting down a friend, feel free to skip this part. For the rest of us, I think Dr. Pausch has some very practical and beneficial tips and points. You can find his video lecture HERE on YouTube. OR you can visit his website HERE. The Time Management resources are about 3/4 way down the page under the "Professional" heading. He has made the lecture, power point program, and notes available under a "creative commons" license, which is a legal way of saying that you may use them for non-commercial purposes, so long as you don't alter them, and you give attribution to Dr. Pausch.

Anyway, this man and his family are on my heart. I commend him for the way he is looking forward and giving his children a most incredible gift in their last memories of their father. I hope that his story and his circumstance also helps you gain a little bit of perspective, if you have a habit of losing it, like me. You can keep up with his journey HERE.

Much love, friends.