Tea and scones Topic: People/Family stories We've had a busy week here, with 2 of my aunts visiting from Washington and Oregon. They are my mom's sisters and have been trying to get together every few years. They went to Hawaii several years ago and had a great time. This time the aunts came to Phoenix.....and there were many preparations, celebrations and events! So I haven't had time to blog. Yesterday, all the girls of the families went to tea. We met at a fancy tea house and had quiche or chicken salads in cucumber boats, tiny, fancy cookies and bread puddings, and an assortment of teas...iced and hot....and we tried it all I think. There were 11 of us, sampling and cackling the early afternoon away. Here are a few photos:
After the dainty tea, we went shopping, visited at my sister's, and absolutely pigged out on Mexican food at her house that evening. Then we saw slides of their Alaskan trip!
This afternoon is registering for high school in the big city day, then church.
The crippled car for Bethany is now in Flagstaff and we will drive up to get it on Thursday.
UPDATE: A friend of ours passed away this morning in Williams after a long battle with cancer, so we'll be going up on Saturday for the funeral and getting the car....and maybe an afternoon wedding if we can make it.
Home coming Topic: People/Family stories
Today began at 6:45am. Our friend the tree trimmer came by to trim up our tall, skinny palm trees in the back. When he was done, his assistant came in the house, asking for the kids to come out and help, quick! When they went out, Dave was hanging upside down on the rope anchored at the top of the tree. If he hadn't had a huge grin on his face, it may have scared us! lol Some of the neighbors were popping their heads over the fences to watch, laughing.
After a shower, Hannah (who is home for the weekend...yay!) and I went to the airport to pick up Bethany...who is home from her mission trip to Mississippi! Yay!! She was tired, dirty, sunburned and grouchy! But we claimed her and brought her home. They had gone to the airport last night at 2am to wait for their early departing flight, so they were all sooo tired. I'm sure the stories will start to flow by tomorrow. Thank you to Lanell, who lives an hour from the mission trip sight, who was ready to jump at a moment's notice in case Bethany needed anything. I'll tell you more about the trip another day....Bethany is unconscious on her bed presently.
My poor husband called last night. (he flew out Wed. to Oklahoma, where he was picking up a free car from his brother to bring to Bethany...yay!) But by Albequerque, the coolant needed replacing and then 5 miles later, replacing again, then it wouldn't start at all......yikes! After brainstorming, he called a friend from our former town, who has a brother in Albequerque. The brother was out of town, but he called another friend, who came to where Charles was, had his Triple A town the car to his own home, put Charles up for the night, fed him breakfast, helped him examine the car, then took him to a car rental place in the morning. He is almost home. I have to go meet him at the car rental return at the airport in about half an hour and bring the poor, tired preacher home! Our friend in our former town offered to drive out to Albequerque next week and bring the car home on his flatbed truck.
Life is a fiasco sometimes, but isn't it a blessed thing to have so many connections to so many other Christian people around the world!?
Thank you Lord for watching over my family as they were scattered about and serving You.....
Throwing stones is not nice.... Topic: People/Family stories This looks like a typical Xray of my abdomen (minus the red arrow). A year after the birth of my first child, I began my journey with rolling stones. No, not the rock band, eww!!!....with kidney stones. Being very suseptible to kidney stones, every time I get dehydrated, I can expect to have a little tango with them. I have had 3 lithotripsy procedures in the past 18 years, about one every 5 years due to stones that were aggrivating and too large to pass. I am determined not to have to go through that again, as my right kidney is withered slightly and the doctor thinks it is from the lithotripsies. (Don't you feel sorry for me? I do! lol)
All this to say, I've been out of commission for a few days while my kidney decided to throw a stone. I even saved it. It's a big one (a little bigger than in this pic), but not the biggest I've had. I was going to take a picture of it, but when I showed it to Emma, she just about hurled, so I didn't take a picture of my own stone. I just looked for a picture online to show what it looks like. It's about the size of a pebble of aquarium gravel. OK, I know you're curious, so I'll tell you the biggest one yet, that I have passed on my own, looked like a watermelon seed. I know....ouch! With that one, I was about ready to rip the decrepit thing (meaning my kidney) out of my own body by hand if it had been possible. Usually, for me, they are not that painful....it just puts me in bed, lying on a heating pad, gulping water and ibuprofen.
People always look at me and say "Don't they have a medicine to prevent those???" Believe me, I've delved into it. So far the best medicine is gallons and gallons of water every week! Since I live in Phoenix, we hear a lot about dehydration. I was watching a news report about it a few weeks ago and the report said that at the first sign of thirst we feel or when our mouth or throats feel dry, we have let it go too far. It's very hard to drink the amount of water I need to keep stones from forming in this climate, but I am trying!
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 1 Corinthians 4:16-17
A good dusting Topic: People/Family stories We just had a summer dust storm blow through, so I grabbed these pictures off of a local tv weather channel to show you.
Out in the desert, the wind kicks up, gathering dust and momentum as it goes and comes over the city of Phoenix like a wall of dust. If you are out in it, you have to take cover or get crusted in dust and it stings! If you're in your car, you usually have to slow to a halt and wait until you can see again to drive. And if the rain comes behind the dust, it makes a muddy mess on your car! Thankfully, dust storms only last about 10-15 minutes as they pass through.
During the last one we had, our neighbor told us he found our table umbrella in his pool. He tossed it back over the fence for us though......and so goes life in the desert.
America is a hard place to be content...I'm rolling it around in my mind. Here are some other people's thoughts....as well as some from the Creator...
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. Henry David Thoreau
You can't have everything. Where would you put it? Steven Wright
What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? Henry David Thoreau
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. Ralph Waldo Emerson
To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment. Jane Austen
Ecclesiastes 4:8 There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. "For whom am I toiling," he asked, "and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?" This too is meaningless? a miserable business!
Proverbs 19:23 The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.
Philippians 4:11-13 11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
1 Timothy 6:6 6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
VBS 2006 pictures! Topic: Photo entries Today is the day after Vacation Bible School is finished for 2006. I slept in until 9:30, I was so tired. It was a fun week though and around 10 children's lives were changed for all eternity.....that is cool! It also changes the people who put together and work at a VBS. It softens your heart to teach children about God's Word and see them take it in, in full faith and trust.
Patrice, Patrick and I were the missions crew. This is our 'Glacier Pass' missions room. Here is our Northern Lights. The photos were stubborn and would not be resized. The week's theme was Arctic Edge...Where Adventure meets Courage, set in Alaska and the Arctic Circle. So all the classrooms were decorated as lodges, Snack and Recreation were a canteen, Music was a cove, Crafts a train depot and missions was a glacier pass. VBS is so much more creative and adventurous than it was when I was a child, but just as meaningful and life changing!
We brought joyful offerings to help start a soup kitchen at a church we sponsor in Mexico.
I don't have pictures of the other classrooms at VBS, but we had Missions class every day. On the last day, we had volunteers try some whale blubber on crackers, (apple jelly) because being a missionary means having courage to try new things. *snicker* The looks on their faces as they bit into 'whale blubber' was worth the little 'trick' we played on them!
I'm a Blogging Chick Topic: Friendship I've joined another web ring (linking to lots of other blogs) called Blogging Chicks! Check it out....lots of women bloggers of all types. And they have carnivals too!
Serious Fun Topic: God things Today was the 'hump' of Vacation Bible School week....meaning it's alllllll downhill from here! =) It's been a fun week, but with all that's been going on at home as well as at church, it's been hectic and exhausting!! We've had a birthday party, we're babysitting a first-grader after VBS all week, there were doctor's appointments at 2 different doctors for 2 daughters with ear infections. Can you say sleep interruptions???? *middle of the night*..."My ear hurts....waaaaah" I ended up cancelling my yearly check up that was scheduled today. It was just too much! And our 16 year old daughter (one of the ear sufferers) is preparing to go on a mission trip to Mississippi on Friday. This always happens to me the week of VBS!!
CWAZY!
So today, after cancelling my afternoon appointment, I am home, feets up, HGTV on, computer on lap......aaaaaaaaaaaah.... Someone peel me a grape, baby!
Oh yeah, back to my Bible School report! Patrice and I are in charge of the Missions station at Bible School. We show a video clip of some of our SBC missionaries in action on the field, then play a game or talk about what being a missionary is like. The missions station is 'Glacier Pass', so we decorated it like a glacier and it's so cool! (I am trying to remember to bring my camera to take some pictures to post here.)
VBS is always fun....I mean huge fun! It is wacky, entertaining, full of upbeat music and being creative. But like the graphic I found, it's serious fun. The children, the theme, the songs, activities, crafts, snacks and games are different every year, but the message of Bible School has stayed the same, even from the time I was in VBS in the 60's and 70's.
God knows you and loves you.... The Bible is truth and is our guide.... The salvation Jesus offers is for everyone and is free to all who believe.
Tomorrow the kids get a chance to respond to Jesus' offer.....please pray that new hearts are born and the ripple effect (oh, that's the Holy Spirit) will change families....
Arctic Edge! Where adventure meets courage! Topic: People/Family stories
Tomorrow morning begins a week of Vacation Bible School! It's always a fun, but an exhausting week! I may come by and post pictures or stories from the week, but I'm not promising.
This afternoon, Patrice and I, along with our middle school daughters and grade school daughters, decorated our VBS room as a glacier for the missions class. It looks sooooooooo cute!!! I hope to post pics soon! (I just wish it was actually as cool as it looks in there...it's a far reach to pretend you're in the Arctic in Phoenix in July)
Getting geeky Topic: Humor/memes I won a battle with my computer recently. It can't win all the time, after all...
To put anything besides links in your side bars on this server, you have to open the ADVANCED editing process.
***INtimidating!!***
But, I wanted to put the CWO graphic and webring buttons on my sidebar badly enough that I figured it out. Now I'm going sidebar crazy....I don't think that is an actual mental condition, but there's always a first. When I was changing the look of this page, I even went for 2 sidebars.
Ambitious I am, Luke Skywalker!!!
Now I have learned how to center things in the sidebar, change the color of a prewritten font, and added my little brown family shadow picture there. (Yes, I changed the background to go with my picture...I can be obsessive that way.) As you can see, I added a Bible verse of the day to the left *taps pointer stick on left sidebar* and a Bible Gateway search engine to the right. *whacks the right sidebar*
If you will look, there is also a graphic and webring buttons for Christian Women Online *making circles with pointer stick*....(they let me join!)...and a Bloginality button below that. *taptap* And now that the left sidebar is so freakishly short, I will probably be adding more fun stuff over there....gotta have balance! Ooooh, maybe a Flickr graphic that has my pics all in a Hollywood Squares type box and each one takes a turn floating out at you. I've always wanted one of those!
If anyone has/knows of an easy EASY tutorial on doing pings and trackbacks, please leave me a note! That is my next goal as an up and coming webpage geek.
***My deepest apologies to anyone offended by the silliness of this post....
The rest of the story.... Topic: People/Family stories
Well, the light is fading from the sky and it's almost time to go out and look at fireworks. We are hoping we can see them from our backyard....or roof...or pool...as there is a show going on about 2 miles from here.
It was a lazy day, yet productive. We cleaned the house, did some yard work, and Charles put new light fixtures in the bathroom. I should have done a before and after picture of it.....because it's quite dramatic! The old fixtures were pendant light globes, hanging from metal chains that had seen their day back in the '80's. The metal was all corroded and the globes had embossed goldish designs on them. Yeah...ummmm, ewwww.... The new fixtures are brushed aluminum bars with 3 frosted sconces. The sconces are supposed to aim downward, but we realized after hooking them up that you can't open our bathroom medicine cabinet if the sconces aim down. So he twisted it up and it looks pretty good. I got them from Costco for $25, so he was going to MAKE them work. lol The fixtures at Home Depot were not so cheap.
After the fixture fiasco, we floated around in the pool. I brought the dog in and made her float too. She looked so hot, it was really nice of me.....heehee. She actually doesn't like it at ALL, but I'm thinking one day she will decide it's nice and jump in all by herself. I put her 2 front paws on a pool 'noodle' and put one arm under her tummy and floated her around. The only time she panicked was when her back legs would float too far under her and she felt as if she was tipping backward.
**Update** This has been sitting half done all evening. And now: The REST of the story...
Page THREE! We had some friends drop by. They just moved to town....they needed to use our internet to contact their realtor, so we invited them to swim and eat homemade ice cream with us. We watched for fireworks, but they were a little too far away and some trees and rooves were blocking what we might have seen. But it was a nice visit and the kids all had fun swimming together. (I think our water level went down a couple inches from all the splashing! lol)
I hope your 4th was fun and that you ate a burger or at least some corn on the cob. =) That reminds me, we forgot to cut the watermelon!!!! *dagnabit*
Carol, at She Lives is going to a Fourth of July baptism celebration. How cool to celebrate real freedom on the day we celebrate our country's political freedom....and to remember that analogy every year!
Dave Barry is quirky, weird, but has hilarious gifts from the internet on his sight daily. Today's post even has a Gilmore Girls shout out. (a weird film clip made by the character Kirk)
Molly, from Choosing Home the has gone solo with a new blog called, Adventures in Mercy. She always has very interesting and though provoking reading!
Sallie, at A Gracious Home (which used to be called Two Talent Living) has a wonderful, historical post on the Fourth of July.
Okay, hope you have fun wandering around the blogs as I have this morning. Now it's time to prepare a quick lunch and go swim with my family on this hot day, looking forward to our little family cookout tonight. Homemade burgers, homemade ice cream, packaged chips with preservatives and watermelloooooooon.
Growing in another direction... Topic: God things We were in Flagstaff over the weekend. Charles performed a wedding for a young couple who we've know since they were in Jr. High. Beautiful wedding, happy time and we saw lots of people we haven't seen in a few months.
It is a very strange experience to go back to a place you've known and were intimately involved in after you've been away for a period of time. Things were different....a little bit forced, a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit weird. I guess we have incorporated into this new church pretty well, because now, to be around the former church people, it doesn't feel right. We felt a little like outsiders....not intentional on anyone's part...it's just the way it happens in the ministry. God grows you away from the people you had known, lived with, ministered to...and grows you into the new congregation.
Not that I felt uncomfortable around my old friends, I still felt loved and we enjoyed seeing everyone. But I can't get away from that feeling of strangeness.....that we didn't belong anymore. It hurt and will continue to hurt for a while. I"m sure some of them felt the sting too...of old friendships and ministry being pulled away....the familiar and comfortable become survival mode until things settled in again.
There was just not enough time to visit, to hug or to understand again. It was not a long wedding and we had to leave just before the reception began. We had to get home to rest before our Sunday services the next morning.
It was sad to leave and to realize...that is not our home anymore. God has been working to grow our hearts and connections here. That is a good thing. But I miss the old thing too.....
A Good Day to Float Topic: People/Family stories I took my mom to visit my dad this morning. He seems to be adjusting to his new environment pretty well now. He talked to us a little bit and didn't seem to be having any paranoia problems today. We took him to get his haircut, then back up to lunch. He gave me a sincere hug and kiss goodbye (he usually shows some aggrivation or whispers a paranoid thought into your ear when you tell him goodbye).....it was a good visit.
It's been a long hot day and we are about to go swimming as the sun goes down. The water in the pool has been just below 90 degrees, so it's a little warm. But for some reason, floating around in water has been really relaxing lately. Maybe I"ll do a study on lower blood pressure and anxiety relief through floating therapy. I'm so thankful for that pool...it's hard to get a good float going in the tub. ;)
Here is a cool website about an artist who Stacks Rocks for gardens or parties. And if you have the urge to stack, you can try Virtual Rock Stacking. I couldn't get the rocks to stay where I put them, but maybe you can figure that out.
With ears like a child Topic: God things My husband, the pastor, wrote a great post on his blog about really listening. I will just refer you over there today. Like a Child, listening and responding.
We've had a busy week here, with 2 of my aunts visiting from Washington and Oregon. They are my mom's sisters and have been trying to get together every few years. They went to Hawaii several years ago and had a great time. This time the aunts came to Phoenix.....and there were many preparations, celebrations and events! So I haven't had time to blog. Yesterday, all the girls of the families went to tea. We met at a fancy tea house and had quiche or chicken salads in cucumber boats, tiny, fancy cookies and bread puddings, and an assortment of teas...iced and hot....and we tried it all I think. There were 11 of us, sampling and cackling the early afternoon away. Here are a few photos: 
This looks like a typical Xray of my abdomen (minus the red arrow). A year after the birth of my first child, I began my journey with rolling stones. No, not the rock band, eww!!!....with kidney stones. Being very suseptible to kidney stones, every time I get dehydrated, I can expect to have a little tango with them. I have had 3 
while my kidney decided to throw a stone. I even saved it. It's a big one (a little bigger than in this pic), but not the biggest I've had. I was going to take a picture of it, but when I showed it to Emma, she just about hurled, so I didn't take a picture of my own stone. I just looked for a picture online to show what it looks like. It's about the size of a pebble of aquarium gravel. OK, I know you're curious, so I'll tell you the biggest one yet, that I have passed on my own, looked like a watermelon seed. I know....ouch! With that one, I was about ready to rip the decrepit thing (meaning my kidney) out of my own body by hand if it had been possible. Usually, for me, they are not that painful....it just puts me in bed, lying on a heating pad, gulping water and ibuprofen.
We just had a summer dust storm blow through, so I grabbed these pictures off of a local tv weather channel to show you. 
...Contentment
Today is the day after Vacation Bible School is finished for 2006. I slept in until 9:30, I was so tired. It was a fun week though and around 10 children's lives were changed for all eternity.....that is cool! It also changes the people who put together and work at a VBS. It softens your heart to teach children about God's Word and see them take it in, in full faith and trust. 
Today was the 'hump' of Vacation Bible School week....meaning it's alllllll downhill from here! =) It's been a fun week, but with all that's been going on at home as well as at church, it's been hectic and exhausting!! We've had a birthday party, we're babysitting a first-grader after VBS all week, there were doctor's appointments at 2 different doctors for 2 daughters with ear infections. Can you say sleep interruptions???? *middle of the night*..."My ear hurts....waaaaah" I ended up cancelling my yearly check up that was scheduled today. It was just too much! And our 16 year old daughter (one of the ear sufferers) is preparing to go on a mission trip to Mississippi on Friday. This always happens to me the week of VBS!!
I won a battle with my computer recently. It can't win all the time, after all...
If anyone has/knows of an easy EASY tutorial on doing pings and trackbacks, please leave me a note! That is my next goal as an up and coming webpage geek. 
I brought the dog in and made her float too. She looked so hot, it was really nice of me.....heehee. She actually doesn't like it at ALL, but I'm thinking one day she will decide it's nice and jump in all by herself. I put her 2 front paws on a pool 'noodle' and put one arm under her tummy and floated her around. The only time she panicked was when her back legs would float too far under her and she felt as if she was tipping backward. 
Nothing to really add today, but here are some gems from my blog wanderings this morning.....
We were in Flagstaff over the weekend. Charles performed a wedding for a young couple who we've know since they were in Jr. High. Beautiful wedding, happy time and we saw lots of people we haven't seen in a few months.
I took my mom to visit my dad this morning. He seems to be adjusting to his new environment pretty well now. He talked to us a little bit and didn't seem to be having any paranoia problems today. We took him to get his haircut, then back up to lunch. He gave me a sincere hug and kiss goodbye (he usually shows some aggrivation or whispers a paranoid thought into your ear when you tell him goodbye).....it was a good visit.
My husband, the pastor, wrote a great post on his blog about really listening. I will just refer you over there today. 
