15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Reconciled in Christ

19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Although today is the first day of Autumn, we are still having summer-like weather here in the Seattle area. I hope this is a sign that we will have a mild winter here this year, but we'll see. Last year we had extremes in everything and I hope we don't see a repeat of that this year.

Have a nice day!

Gerry

Hi everyone, I'm a little late with this one, but our four year old daughter Anna went to her first day of preschool last Monday. Although we are doing home school with both of our kids, and Anna is actually already doing the Kindergarten curriculum, she is going to private Christian preschool this year at a local church. This is the same one our son Aaron went to five years ago and it was a good experience for him and he really liked it so now it's her turn. If we could, we would probably have them both going to private Christian schools all the way through high school, but it's just too expensive, so home school it is.

We are back at home after spending the last few days down at Seaside, and Cannon Beach in Oregon. This is the only vacation that we managed to squeeze in this Summer due to our busyness, and my working so many weekends. It was short, but very nice as we did the usual beach walking, souvenir shopping, game playing, and the like. We also ate a lot of restaurant food and some Ice Cream as well. If you visit Seaside, Make sure you stop at Pudgy's, because it is one of the best Restaurants in town. There was also a neat hot rod car show going on in Seaside which we spent some time looking at, as our son Aaron loves old cars. I kind of like them too. We also visited the Seaside Aquarium, which my wife and I  have seen several years ago, but it's the first time for our kids. They liked feeding fish to the the seals just like I did the first time I went there. We had beautiful weather while we were there, and we had a very good time. I've added a bunch of photo's from the trip to my photo album "My Pix 2009", Which is playing in my slide show. Take a look if you want to.

Have a nice week!

Gerry                                                                                                                          

Well, today my family, along with a friend of my wife, and her two kids went to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. This was the first time that I have seen this since I was a kid and it was great! It was at the ShoWare Center in Kent WA not far from where we live. It is a perfect place to see a circus as it is a lot smaller than a huge coliseum but big enough for an event like this. Before the show started we were allowed to go behind the building and see some of the animals up close. The tigers are really awesome to look at from that distance but I'm glad they were behind two layers of wire fence just the same. Then when we went inside they had kind of a small preview show where we could walk around the floor and watch the performers and clowns do some things up close. Really a neat way to start the show and I've never seen anything like it before. Then came the real two hour show. There were so many different acts in in it that it is hard to remember them all, but there were some of the usual high wire, and way up high acrobatic type routines with a few new twists, a lot of magic type stuff, and some great animal tricks too. But my favorite part was when they shot the two lady acrobats out of the cannons onto the huge air mats. I knew they were going to do it for real when I saw a green laser light shining below the cannons toward the mat to ensure a straight shot. It was great. When the show was over we all went across the street and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Panera Bread Co. All in all it was a very good day and I highly recommend going to see this circus show if you get a chance. 

Hi everyone, I worked again last weekend but I am happy to be off for this 3 day one. I don't know what we are going to do but at least I will have some time to spend with my family. I can't believe that Summer is almost over already and we haven't really had time to take a real vacation yet because of all my working, but we are planning to try to get to the beach for a few days soon if things work out right.

I hope you all have a very nice Labor Day weekend!