If You Give a Fish a Camera

Well, I am officially off the clock for my last full day of summer babysitting! And God has blessed me. How? He has given me the gift of finally being excited about sending the kids to school tomorrow! Still, it was a little sad when everyone went home...a little.

I have so many things to write about from our weekend adventure. I must start with cakes, though.

I made a cake for a friend's daughter who requested a horse cake:




And then of course, I made Aly a cake for her party with her best friends. Not wanting a plain-ole-boring cake, she went with a "tubing cow" theme!



With the cakes done on Friday night, I moved on to my next project - a spiritual gift test. Gary and I were going to our church's membership class on Saturday morning and this test was part of our pack of information. I have never had so much fun taking a test. Okay, so the fun was after the test. Specifically, after question #100, when I glanced up to the top of the page and read that #1 meant "almost always", #2 meant "occasionally, and #3 meant "not very often." This was after I had answered 100 questions with the (mis)understanding that the numbers were, well, the opposite.

In my defense (and boy do I need a defense), don't you think my way makes more sense? Really. If you are marking answers of "almost always" and "not very often" it is so much more logical that #1 would be "not very often", it is after all, the smaller number. See?

Well, I ended up with a lot of x's and double the circles but I still came out of it with a spiritual gift or two. Which proves the point that God does in fact use the foolish things of the world.

Saturday morning we went to the membership class and I have to say that I really, really enjoyed it! It could have been pastors talking about statements of faith and here's what our denomination believes, but it was more than that. It was listening to the things God has done, the things God has said, and the things that God has in store for us. It was actually really exciting. Gary and I had a great time and we both mentioned later what a different time it was from the last church membership class we attended together. (another church, another story)

Eventually Saturday, I headed to Beaver Dam with 4 girls and left our guys at home. They had a great time at the fair Saturday and fishing after church on Sunday so I don't feel bad that they were left out!

The first order of business at my Dad's was a boat ride and tubing. The girls had a blast and I took lots of pictures! I'm sure the pictures were cute. At one point, someone needed to be pulled in so I set my camera down and grabbed the line. I think is was Megan I was pulling in, and once she got into the boat, I turned around and saw Rachel. You can see where this is going.

Rachel had her elbows propped up on the side of the boat and was looking into the water. She looked so cute that I wished I had taken a picture...but I couldn't. She was watching my camera sink to the bottom of the lake. Kind of how my heart sank down into my feet.

The lake was not clear, as lakes tend to be. We could not physically see the camera in the water, but I knew. We searched the boat and asked Rachel repeatedly, "Where's mommy's camera?" Her response was always the same. "Um, floor." And she would point to the water. When we got ready to motor away, Rachel waved and said, "Pictures. Bye." It was very sweet. Whatever.

The rest of Aly's birthday bash weekend was nothing but wonderful. There was tubing and burgers. A beautiful sunset over the lake. Girls giggling. Boating and jumping off the boat to swim at the dock. Rachel and I hung out at the dock while everyone went out on the boat on Sunday. More tubing, more girls giggling. Rachel was allowed back on the boat and even got to tube. Then came pizza and yes, more girls giggling. Rachel's afternoon nap was taken on my lap in an inner tube.

As I floated with Rachel and watched the girls speed by in the boat I realized the blessing that this was. It was not an "Ah, life is good" moment. It was an "in spite of our sin, here in this fallen world, God still orchestrates moments like this when I can enjoy His creation, and feel somewhat removed from the consequences of sin that we can not escape from until the day Jesus comes back for His bride" moment.

And that is what I took away with me when we left the lake on Sunday evening.

That and the mental image of a little fish slapping seaweed above his lip and saying to his buddy, "Hey, take a picture of my mustache!"

Sorry, that is just how my mind works.