God’s Independence

In preparing a worksheet for my Systematic Theology course I read the following statement about God’s aseity. Wayne Grudem writes, “God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy” (Systematic Theology, p. 160). What a wonderful thought—that God does not need me, but I have the potential to bring him joy. May I live to my full potential.

UL Homecoming

I went to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Homecoming game tonight (only the second half because I did not get off of work until 5 o’clock). I used the opportunity to take some pictures with my new camera. It takes great pictures, and I am sure, with time, I will be taking great pictures with it. UL won the game in overtime, so my parents and I celebrated the win at Pizza Village (where we saw a lot of people from St. Martinville, its weird how you go to Lafayette to see people from town). Here are some pictures from the game!

B-E-A-utiful night for football.

Good kick!

The Kick-Off

Passing the Ball

Sacking the Quarterback

UL Wins 31-28 in Overtime!

Minot Vacation Day 8: Home, Sweet Home!

"I don’t think we are in North Dakota anymore." Our last day was yet another travel day--this time we went home! As we prepared to leave Minot, it was beginning to snow, and we saw the flurries start from inside the airport. The rest of the travel was pretty good, with nothing special to mention, so here are just a few pictures.

SNOW! (Those are not scratches on the sign, they are snow flakes!)

Sunset over Memphis

Where are our bags? I want to home!

Minot Vacation Day 7: Rest and Relaxation

After a hard day of traveling, Friday was a well deserved day of rest. I did not do much, although as you can tell I got the blogs posted that I was unable to publish when we were in South Dakota. The only thing of real significance I did today was go to the mall with Chris and Patti where they bought a new camera. My parents, Chris and Patti, and I then went and ate diner at the Hacienda with Chris and Patti’s friend, Sara. Tomorrow is another day of travel. We leave here late in the morning and will arrive home fairly late, but I will try to get the pictures of our travel posted as soon as I get a chance on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Chris’ New Camera

Did I mention I ordered one as well?

The Hacienda

The Sign

The Chandelier

The Wall

My Steak (The potato is baked and then fried.)

Minot Vacation Day 6: Wall Drug and A Long Day

On the way back to North Dakota, we traveled through Wall County and Wall, South Dakota. There we stopped at the world famous Wall Drug. It was an interesting place and they served an expensive, but good, breakfast. I had a hard time deciding between pie, hotcakes, or French toast. I got the hotcakes. The coolest part of the store (it is really like a mini-mall), is that they have cups of coffee for a nickel, and the coffee is pretty good. My mom, though, was complaining that they did not have free refills! After a while at the drug store, we traveled east toward Pierre and then north toward North Dakota. Before we got to Pierre, Chris had to stop and see “the” General Lee used in the television series the Dukes of Hazard. From there we were homeward bound, except for one detour because of road construction and another (on the first detour) because of an accident. These detours probably added about an hour and a half to our trip. We left Rapid City around 7:30 a.m. and got back to Minot at 7:30 p.m. so we had an 11 hour (we lost an hour as we came back into the central time zone) car ride. Goodness gracious, sakes alive! There are only a few pictures because all we did, pretty much, was ride in a car.

Wall Drug, Wall, South Dakota

Inside Wall Drug
(The Best Picture I Could Get)

Mortar and Pestles

Cake Donut with Maple Icing

Chandelier in Restaurant

Indians in Restaurant

Chris in the General Lee
(A Dream Come True)

Minot Vacation Day 5: Dead Presidents and More

We began the day by going to the flight museum located just outside of the Air Force Base. It had a lot of interesting information on flight, as well as the Minuteman missile program. From there we traveled to Mount Rushmore to check out some dead presidents. There was a scenic highway that led us toward Custer, so we traveled that road. In Custer we went to the National Museum of Woodcarving and then passed by the Crazy Horse monument (can you believe they expected $24 per carload to see a monument that is not even completed yet). After getting back to the Air Force Base, we watched the Astros beat the Cardinals in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series; Go ‘stros!!!

Mount Rushmore

Dead Presidents Framed

Chocolate Dead Presidents

The Crew

Mom and Dad

The Kids at Rushmore

ME!

Mount Rushmore from a Tunnel

Dead Presidents from a Distance

Leaves a’Changin’

The National Woodcarving Museum

Exhibit at Woodcarving Museum

Go Astros!

By the way, I will be traveling back from North Dakota during Game 1 of the World Series, can someone TiVo it for me?

Minot Vacation Day 4: South Dakota Bound

Today we traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota. The trip took about 7 hours, though we gained an hour because of the time change (I have a feeling that is going to make the trip seem longer on the way back). When we got to the Rapid City area, we visited a motorcycle museum in Sturgis, the town that is famous (or maybe infamous) for its annual Bike Week. From there we went to Deadwood, the historic wild-west town where Wild Bill Hickok was killed and characters like Calamity Jane roamed the streets. After this adventure, we went to Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base where we would spend the night. We hung out at the local mall.

North Dakota Sunrise

Dakota Landscape

More Dakota Landscape

Leaves Change Colors Here

A Great Christmas Present

More My Size

Daddy had one like this.

Classic

Streets of Deadwood

Looters Fled to Deadwood

Saloon No. 10

Deadman’s Hand

Wild Bill’s Chair

Most of the Crew in Deadwood

Mount Moriah Cemetary

Wild Bill’s Burial Site

Patti and Chris

Chris and Patti

New Kicks