Precious Little Ones!

Ok, so any one who knows me knows I love to brag about my precious niece and nephew. They are just so sweet and bring such joy to our family. Here are a couple of pictures of Kylee and Hunter in their new bunkbeds. Are they not some of the cutest kids you have ever seen?

My Wife, the chef

My wife has been dazzling me with her culinary delights. She cooks dinner almost every night. I have some pics from a night when she baked salmon in a lemon butter sauce with some garlic, green peppers, mushrooms and rice. It was really good.... mmmmmm

Jonathan Edwards and John Piper

There is a lot of reading going on in our house these days. Daniel is in the midst of working on his thesis. He is writing on the relevance of Edwards' epistemology for postmodernism. For those of you who are thinking "what the crack?", epistemology is the study of the forms, sources and methods of knowledge and postmodernism is in part the rejection/skepticism of static, timeless, universal knowledge. Some of you may still be thinking "what the crack?" and that's ok. I spend about 75% of the time asking the same question.

Edwards is an interesting individual and comes from an even more interesting family. Here is a quote from Marsden's book, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, " Jonathan Edwards is sometimes criticized for having too dim a view of human nature, but it may be helpful to be reminded that his grandmother was an incorrigible profligate, his great-aunt committed infanticide, and his great-uncle was an axe murderer." Who would have ever thought one of America's finest philosophers and preachers would come from such a background.

This afternoon Daniel and I strolled around Barnes and Noble and Borders looking for Marsden's book and perusing the shelves. I came across a book by John Piper, The Purifying Power of Living by Faith in Future Grace. Being the Piper fans that we are, we decided to purchase Piper's book. Interestingly enough, the final chapter of Piper's book is entitled, The Debt I Owe to Jonathan Edwards.

Piper is well known for the premise of his writings, "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him. " I believe if Edwards were alive today he would shout out a hearty AMEN.

I have only read one of two introductions to Piper's book this afternoon, but it has already left me with some theological "cud" to chew on. Conversations around the Cooley household in the days to come could prove to be interesting with all this reading going on.

My Husband's Thumb!

Daniel has something wrong with his thumb! I never noticed it before we got married, but in the past two months it has become more and more apparent. It looks perfectly normal, it is not some ghastly color, it does not have a weird crook in it, the nail is pretty nice and well trimmed. What in the world am I talking about then? Nothing out of the ordinary... Daniel has a green thumb! I was shocked to discover this, but it is such a nice surprise. Daniel bought me a chrysanthemum plant shortly after we returned from our honeymoon. It was beautiful at first, but after a couple of weeks in my office it looked terrible. I brought it home and tried to salvage it.






A few days later, I was outside watering our lemon tree (inherited from the Petros) and Daniel came out and started pruning the plant. He REALLY wants that plant to survive!

Not only does he have a green thumb, but he has great taste in flowers.








Last week I received flowers on Monday and Friday. They were beautiful!

Church Search

Daniel and I have been visiting churches for the past few weeks. It is not an easy process to pick up and leave a place where you have established roots and begin looking for a new place to worship, but Daniel and I both feel like we need to explore some other options. We have visited Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, Irving Bible Church, and Northway Baptist Church. Last Sunday we visited Northway Baptist Church and Jesus' words in Mark 10:14, "Let the little children come unto me..." had a whole new meaning.

Picture the pastor and two kids, possibly 10 and 12, sitting on the stage in easy chairs discussing baptism and the commitment these two kids have made. A sweet picture isn't it? Now picture a third child about 3 years old with bleach blond hair, khaki shorts, and flip flops sitting in an easy chair expressing his need for a microphone. The picture becomes a little comical. But wait it gets better.

Imagine a strong sermon on Romans 12:1-2, a baptismal service for the two kids pictured earlier, and the challenge to leave all and follow Christ. Enter 3 year old surfer kid. He makes his way back up to the platform where the worship minister is leading the congregation in song, heads straight to the area on the stage where the easy chairs and microphones sit, picks up a microphone and begins singing. Luckily, the microphones were turned off, but everyone in the congregation was aware of this little dude and soon bursts of laughter could be heard throughout the church. Tired of playing Milli Vanilli the little surfer dude then makes his way to the edge of the stage and has a seat. Unbeknownst to him, an older gentleman has approached the stage and soon the little guy finds himself being carried out of the service.

Our first experience at Northway was a picture of what it means to have child like faith. We will be visiting Northway again this Sunday... perhaps we will learn another lesson from this rambuctious three year old, but if not, I am sure we will leave changed!