"Just Give Obama All the Prizes" from the website http://www.geneveith.com/:

Yes, President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. But why didn’t he win the Nobel Prize for Medicine, seeing as how he is trying to reform American health care? And the Nobel Prize for Economics, since he is trying to fix the collapse of the economy. And the Nobel Prize for Literature for his book and speeches. And the Nobel Prize for Physics for trying to make something out of nothing. And the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his chemistry with foreign leaders. I’m personally offended that our president is not getting the international respect that he deserves.

While we're waiting for the new motorhome to be serviced, I have been catching up on reading some of my favorite blogs. Here's a gem from http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/

Why You Need to Start Talking to Yourself More
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, pp. 20-21:

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment (in Psalm 42) was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you."

Sunny Grass Valley is not so sunny today. We had sprinkles around dinnertime yesterday and then during the night, it started pouring and hasn't let up. We purchased the new motorhome yesterday which took until about 3:30 by the time the coach was detailed in and out and we went through the walk-through. We were able to stay overnight on the dealer's lot in a site with full hookups. We found a number of (hopefully small) things that need to be fixed, so the motorhome is in the service bay now and Dave and I are sitting in a conference computer connected to Wifi.

We weren't able to try the washer/dryer yet because we have no hot water. (Also no showers for us, boo hoo.) The ice maker works great, the 4-door Norcold refrigerator is nice and we finally discovered where to put the milk. The bed and hide-a-bed are both comfortable (we tried them both). The hide-a-bed comes with an air mattress like the one we bought for our old motorhome. Dave test drove the new RV and it performed well accelerating up a hill from a near stop. We're still getting used to the storage space and where all the light switches are located. I love the ultra-leather seats--very comfy.

Today we are in sunny, Grass Valley, California. We were able to check into our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, when we arrived in town around noon. We had lunch at Cousin Jack's Pasties. I have always wanted to taste a Cornish pasty (pastie?). I had an 8-oz "Jenny size" beef pasty. I thought it was a bit dry and had more potatoes than meat. Dave had a banger sausage in a bun. I'm glad I finally was able to order a pasty but I wouldn't rush right back.

After lunch we headed to DeMartini RV Sales. The man that we need to see won't be there until tomorrow, but we were able to see the Bounder 35E and sit in it and check it out. So far, so good. The motorhome was in the service bay as they appear to be fixing a few minor things and we hope that it will be ready for purchase tomorrow. We also need to test drive it. If it's not ready tomorrow we'll have to stay one more night in a hotel.

Now we're back in the hotel and Dave is watching the 49ers game. Around 5:30 we are heading to Auburn, CA, to have dinner with Pam and the girls (Dave's brother, Terry's family).

We are on our trip to California to look at a new motorhome. Tonight we are staying at a Holiday Inn in Redding, California. The temperature was in the 80s when we arrived and it's still very warm outside. The low temperature in Vancouver was supposed to get down into the 20s this weekend. We had a good trip today with good weather. The trip goes faster in the car! We ate dinner at Marie Callender's which is across the street from the hotel.

We decided to sell our motorhome. We have been thinking about upgrading and actually put in an offer on a couple of different motorhomes within the past two years. Neither of those deals worked out. Dave was recently approached by a friend who mentioned that he was interested in buying our 2000 Bounder 31W. After scrambling to see if we would be able to find a replacement, we located two possibilities: a used 2006 Bounder 35E in Everett, WA, and a new 2010 Bounder 35E. The 35E is our preferred floorplan, and in 2006 they upgraded the unit to 50 amp instead of the previous 30 amp electric hookup. We like also like the 35E because it has a washer/dryer. (I know, I know, not a necessity for camping, but it would sure be nice to have when we travel for several weeks at a time.) The 2010 Bounder is located at a dealer in Grass Valley, CA, so on Saturday we are heading down there in the car to look at the motorhome, and if all is well, buy it. We are loading the car with stuff to load into the motorhome in case we buy it. We have to be back home a week from Friday so that Dave won't miss his varsity football game. ;-)

We've spent three days cleaning out the old motorhome and we'll deliver it to its new owner tomorrow. I worked on unloading the inside cabinets and Dave worked on the outside storage. What a big job! I had two injuries: yesterday the bathroom medicine cabinet door gouged the top of my head, and today I got stung by a bee. Not fun, but all part of the job, I guess.

Tonight I'm working on writing my CASA dependency review report for court on November 3. The report is supposed to be turned in a few weeks before then so that copies can be distributed to all the parties involved in the case. I always put off writiing the report because things keep happening with the case, but once I sit down to write the report it comes fairly easily to me. It's kind of fun to summarize what's been happening during the last six months. Hopefully, as it is with this case, things are improving and soon the children won't be in dependency court any longer.

Christianity in a sentence:

"The essence of the Christian religion consists in this, that the creation of the Father, devastated by sin, is restored in the son of God, and recreated by the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of God."
-- Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 1