The Lawn, Colorado Wildlife and Christian Radio

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. No good reason, really...just haven't gotten around to it! Things have been pretty normal around here...at least as normal as they are these days. I mowed the lawn today - yuck. With 40 acres I can't really tell what sections I should leave and which sections I really need to mow. Anyway, it was really tall so it took even longer than it should have. Add to it that I'm at 6000+ feet above sea level AND the terrain is up and down and it adds up to a very un-enjoyable 2 1/2 hours. However it's done. At least I won't have to do it for a while.

So the other day I'm talking to Pastor Barry on the phone and I look out and see this!

What? You can't see it? Hmm... Well here, let me help. I'll add an arrow for you.

What? That didn't help? Sheesh! I guess I have to zoom in, too??!! Fine. Here!

Yes...that, my friends, is a coyote in our backyard. About 200 feet off our back deck to be precise. Unfortunately in the crazy moment of grabbing the camera, trying to get a good shot through the window (didn't want to scare him by opening the door) all the while talking to Barry on my cell I forgot to zoom in. Bummer.

Pretty exciting, eh? I actually saw one yesterday morning, too, but it ran off as I wan trying to get my camera. I think they've figured out that somebody lives here so they keep their distance. Good thing!

I did an interview on a local Christian radio show that aired this past Wednesday. You can click the link below to check it out. It's about 14 minutes long, but I think it's a good interview.

Travis' Interview On Power 88

So that's it! My parents are coming out to visit over Memorial Day weekend. I'm really looking forward to seeing them. I've never been away from them for such a long time. Not that I'm a big jerk or cold hearted, but I really didn't think I'd miss them as much as I have. It'll be fun to show them around our new homeland. Blessings to you all! Good night!

Fox Run Park

Our wonderful friend, Tamra Farah, told us about this delightful park not too far from our house. Once again I am in awe of the beautiful place we now call home. We were enjoying a perfect spring day today, so once school work was completed, the kids and I packed up the car and headed to the park. This was actually our second visit, and I am sure we will venture here often. Trinity and Taite love the little creek. They both enjoy getting their hands wet, but Taite enjoys the thrill of jumping over the water from bank to bank. Trinity isn't quite as brave, she's content to pick flowers along the bank and sit pretty near by.

Taite, being all boy, has adventures to tend to and rocks and trees to conquer. No, that's not the sun in his eyes, that's his tough face. Intimidating, I know, but rest assure, he fights for good not for evil.

Jaden of course is simply happy. No reason has to link up to why he is happy, he's just Jaden and therefore he is happy. It also doesn't hurt that he is stinkin' cute.

In addition to the creek, the park includes walking trails where you are met by friendly chipmunks and a plethora of pinecones that for Taite double nicely as hand grenades, two playgrounds, and a couple pretty ponds.

The ponds are filled with some sort of orange fish, making their visibilty in the water attainable even for a three year old. So this trip we came prepared with bread to feed the not so hungry fish.


The kids didn't seem to mind that the fish weren't eatting that much. They still tossed in about four slices of bread and helped themselves to a slice each. Trinity said she wanted to test the bread and make sure it was good enough for the fish to eat. That's my daughter, always willing to help out, especially when food is involved.

Springs Calvary's first service

To say it's been a crazy week is probably the understatement of the year. One week before our first service, the Springs Calvary sanctuary looked like this:

As you can see there was a great need for God to bless us in the final week of construction. Sub-contractors came and went, all the while prayers went up constantly. So many things needed to happen for us to get our TCO (Temporary Certificate of Occupancy.)

Well on Friday at 2:00PM (they close at 4:00) our final inspector signed off on our TCO and with a collective sigh of relief, we thanked the Lord. Come on...He had two hours to spare! Where's our faith, right??!! Haha!

On May 14th, Mother's Day, our new church in Colorado Springs, Springs Calvary, was birthed. We had 147 people there all together (I guessed we'd have 150...hehe) What a wonderful experience to see God bring this church to life. Here are a few pictures.

Snow on May 10th

Snow on May 10th (backyard)
Originally uploaded by symphonix.

So I know I haven't posted anything lately, but obviously it was a big week. There are a ton of things to blog about, but I think we're going to head to the park for a nice evening. I wanted to at least show you (again) how crazy the weather is here.

For example, on May 8th, I saw people in shorts as it was around 70 degrees or so. I wake up May 10th, and this is what I see. Later that day I'm in short sleeves. I'm still getting used to this!

Just so there's some proof!

Just wanted to make this quick little post to show that I'm an "invloved" dad. Perhaps I'm not all that excited about the current project, but I'm all about "gettin' the job done!"

Actually there is not a bum in the entire world that I would rather clean with a wet wipe than my beautiful son, Jaden. There...now isn't that sweet??!!

(Hurry and come out to visit, Grandma, and you too can share in this wonderful joy!)

Bear Creek Nature Center

The weather here is bizaare. Not only can it change dramatically from one day to the next, but even within the day itself. Most of the time it is sunny and blue skies, but Friday and Thursday it was foggy. The fog here is not like anything I've experienced before. It looks like you are up in the clouds. You can actually see it come rolling and blowing in over the mountains and then this white air envelopes everything. I decided earlier in the week to plan a few outings for the kids, a luxury of homeschooling. Unfortunately, I planned them for Thursday and Friday. I get the kids buckled in the car and we head down the driveway, only this time there is no mountain. Infact I can't see anything but a little bit of the dirt driveway maybe 10 feet in front of me and then it's just white. It's so thick that I couldn't see traffic lights. I would know I was at a stop light because the cars in front of me were stopped at approxiametly where I recall an intersection being, but I couldn't see anything glowing red, yellow, or green. I'm thinking, "Jennette how are you going to find this nature center if you can't see the signs." If you really know me, you know that I was still getting lost in Wichita after 9 years of living there. Fortunately, the fog cleared up as we drove south east and I got there without getting lost, thank you yahoo maps.

We pull into the driveway of the nature center, on our way to a program for kids ages 3-5 entitled "sneaky snakes," only to discover five deer attempting to cross it. Now I'm thinking, "I love living in Colorado." I spent five minutes trying to get a good picture, but when I rolled down the window they walked back behind some bushes that camoflouged them all too well. The kids had a great time at the nature center. First, a naturalist talked to them about the different snakes in Colorado and then had them pet a baby garden snake. Trinity eyes were all closed in those pictures. How I wish I had Lacy's gift of capturing great pics. Oh well. Then they had a lame puppet show, but the kids liked it. They got to make a paper snake, which I finally got a bloggable picture of. I think I just made up a word.

The program ended with a short hike through the park. By now it was clear, but a little chilly. All the kids had fun, even Jaden. The naturalist had them pulling up rocks looking for bugs and feeling the moss, all of which Taite thoughly enjoyed. Trinity, my graceful daughter, managed to trip three times and cover most of her pants with the wet and soggy dirt.

Once we got back to the center we spent an hour playing with all the hands on exploratory activities they had. Taite was intregued by the bee hive. Actually, I thought it was pretty cool too. That's the fun of homeschooling, I get to learn things too.

My wife, the baker

Recently my wife went to a cooking class at a woman's house. It was more like one of those things the girls do together. You know what I mean. Tupperware, Pampered Chef, etc... Well this one was a Bosch Kitchen Machine meeting where the girls learned about the intricacies of baking, kneading, and all that other stuff associated with baking! (I'm a guy so I'm kinda clueless!) One interesting thing she learned was that after 24 hours, flour loses 45% of it's nutrients and within 72 hours it loses 90%! Obviously this intrigued my already health concience wife.

Our friend Tamra Farah gave us some flour that she and Jennette ground at her house and instead of buying the $370 machine (the Bosch) she decides to "hand knead" the bread. (Boy I wish I had pictures of her hands while she was kneading the dough!) Anyway, she was pretty excited.So she decided to make a loaf of bread, a couple loaves of french bread, and some pizza crusts. I didn't object since I knew I would get some homemade pizza out of the deal which is always a good thing.

So she goes to work on the bread and eventually it gets put in the oven (nice oven shot...yes, I know...thank you.) All the while I'm waiting for her to finish so we can watch "Lost" which we recorded Wednesday night and are now just getting around to watching. (No, we don't have Tivo, Ty - that's for all you rich people!)


So out it comes...and it's looking good! I can't wait for my pizza! (That's the crust in the oven...hehe)In case you're wondering, the moral of the story is basically this: If your wife is baking bread and you're waiting for her to finish, just blog about it because it makes the whole experience much more fun. Plus you'll make alot of people read something that really has no point. Kinda fun, eh? Gotcha!

No pictures?

Yeah, well I haven't taken very many pics lately. Bummer, I know. I figured I would wait to post until I had something interesting to show you. However, we're not very disciplined about picture taking. Not like Lacy, anyway. She just did an entire post about what's going on at Arise (our youth ministry in Wichita that we left to come out here.) It was very nice of her to think of us and post an unpdate. If you'd like to see some of those pictures, you can go to her blog:

http://lacyhansen.blogspot.com/

As for the Ross's, not alot is going on ou of the ordinary. Of course that word really doesn't mean much anymore...nothing is really "ordinary" any more. Church planting is very "unordinary." We've been getting things ready for our first service on May 14th and having some "practice" services in the meantime. When you go to our building it's actually starting to look a little like they are going to be done in time - BONUS! For a while there I wasn't so sure.

On the home front, Taite and Trinity are learning about the sun and how if we get too close to it we'll "turn into gas!" We also found out that they're going to open our pool on May 20th! Very exciting! So if you come for a visit this summer make sure you bring your swimming suits!

I promise that the pool is bigger than this one. (I figured I could at least post ONE picture....even though it's an old one. It makes it look like I'm trying really hard with this blog thing.)

We I think that's about it for today. Jennette is taking the kids to some snake habitat today for a field trip so I'll make sure she gets a few pics while she's there. Oh, and it's cold again today. I've heard a saying in Colorado though. It goes something like this: "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." Seems that has been very true of our time here so far. Blessings to you all!