Life-proof!

This morning I accidentally knocked my cell phone into my FULL cup of steaming HOT coffee (don't ask me how that happened - it happened, ok?)   And it was a full-sized cup - not those tiny little dainty cups that you have to stick your pinky out to be able to hold.  No, this was a MAN cup of coffee, just filled up with steaming hot coffee!  And the phone was almost completely submerged - only a centimeter of it was sticking above the coffee.  And it stayed submerged for about 20 seconds as I panicked, not knowing what to do!  Should I stick my fingers into the steaming HOT coffee and risk burning my fingers?  Or should I pick up the cup, run to the kitchen and dump the coffee down the drain (heaven forbid!)?  Oh dilemma of dilemmas - should I save the coffee or the phone?  In the mean time the phone stayed submerged in the hot coffee!

[caption id="attachment_1511" align="alignright" width="344" caption="Takes a beating and keeps on going..."][/caption]

In the end, the coffee was more important than the phone and my fingers.  So, at the risk of burned fingers, I reached in and pulled the phone out of the coffee, dried it off and turned it on!  And it still worked!  So I added some more milk to the coffee and had a good hot cup of joe with my morning reading (have to admit, the coffee did taste a little plasticky, in fact even a wee bit phony - haha I kill myself)!  ;-)

But I got to thinking - this phone is advertised as a ruggedized life-proof phone, meaning it is waterproof, dirt-proof, drop-proof and with a scratch-resistant screen.  I have to say, I have dropped it heaps of times while running.  And onto concrete I might add.  And I have dropped it onto wooden floors, carpeted floors, down stairs, getting out of the car - yes, I am pretty clumsy!  But I have never tested the water-proof feature.

So this morning I decided to take the plunge (haha) and test to see how water-proof this phone really is!  Below is the video of the test. I had some music playing on the phone so you can see that the phone is still working, even underwater.  I did have to shake the phone a few times after getting it out to clear the water out of the speakers.  And since it is a touch screen phone, you'll notice that because of the water on the screen and phone, even touching the edge of the screen caused it to do some weird things like pull up the keyboard.  But over all, after drying it off - and rebooting, it worked immediately.  Wow!

If you ask me - would you buy this phone again?  I would say a big YES!   Because it's life-proof!  Now I only wish life itself was life-proof!  ;-)

WARNING - don't do this to YOUR phone.  Duh!  (Instead do it to your friend's phone!)

 

To Infinity and Beyond.....

Ok, well, maybe just to the USA and maybe beyond, to Germany (hey, from here down under - the USA seems like infinity and beyond!).  You're probably wondering - what the heck is he talking about?!  We have booked our plane tickets to SoCal!  Becks and three of the kids will go in April and I and the other/4th child  will join them in May.  And then we will return to New Zealand together in the first week of June.  That way, Becks can attend the CC Murrieta's Women's Retreat in April and I can attend the CC Pastor's Conference in June.

We can't believe it's been 2 years (well, 2 years on 31.Jan) now since we moved down here to Wellington.  So it is definitely time for a visit to update our supporters (you awesome guys!) and family (love you guys) and friends (thanks to you too) on what God has done in us and through us here in New Zealand.  It's been a great 2 years, with lots of ups and downs and back and forth, but it has been a blessing to see God's faithfulness in dealing with us.  And we want to share that with you!

And if we can afford it, I (David) might travel to Europe to update our supporters and churches there also.  But as it is looking now, that is still up in the air.  It all depends on what our finances look like in the next couple of months.

In any case, we have told the kids and they are very excited - well, us too!  So if anyof you are in the SoCal region anytime in the April-June time frame, we would love to meet up, eat up (we're already salivating for Mexican food!) and catch up!  ;-)

And if anyone feels led to donate extra for the plane tickets, it would be most welcome!  We have the cost of 6 tickets from NZ to the USA and possibly 1 or 2 tickets from the USA to Europe.  Check out the column to your right ------> there are various ways to donate.  Thanks to all and we're looking forward to hanging out with you guys!

Adventurous Adventurers!

Today we took a family trip to Adventure Forest here in Whangarei - it's a huge complex out in the forest with several different ropes courses complete with flying foxes (zip lines) and tricky rope obstacles for all age levels.  The top level course is 12m (40ft) high while the 'junior' level course is never more than about a meter (3 ft) off the ground.  Even Dariah got in on the fun and did the 'junior' course - complete with ropes, harness, carabiners and helmet.  Here are a few fotos - we'll have to edit the videos and get them uploaded once we get back to Wellington.

Thanks to Mama for staying on the ground and videoing and taking photos!  And being ready to catch any of us who fall!  ;-)

[caption id="attachment_1446" align="aligncenter" width="517" caption="Videographer & photographer - the many roles of a mom!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1394" align="aligncenter" width="655" caption="Goofballs or Adventurers?"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1405" align="aligncenter" width="502" caption="Ballerina"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1406" align="aligncenter" width="502" caption="Hanging on for dear life"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1422" align="aligncenter" width="461" caption="Zachy - one step at a time..."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1424" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Zachy - not so adventurous..."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1427" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Taliah - monkey"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1423" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Taliah - speedy gonzalez..."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1426" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Jesaiah - I'm ready to go!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1425" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Jesaiah - spiderman!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1421" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Daddy - dum-de-dum-de-dum. Bring up the rear...."][/caption]

Homegrown!

We had a bumper crop of broccoli this year - they are huge!  In fact, we have so much broccoli that we might have to give it away.   And the lettuce is doing really well also.  Just waiting to see what the corn will do.  Unfortunately, the tomatoes didn't fare so well - the Welly wind tore all the seedlings out before they could really take root.  Might still try to plant some more.

In any case, it's a good thing the kids like steamed broccoli - we might be eating that for a while!