Unmerited Favor

Confessions of an American Idol Junkie

2009-03-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Last night my Facebook status read, "Jennifer Rowlands is disappointed Alexis Grace got voted off -- I voted for you Alexis!" My sister left me the following comment:
"I'm still in shock that not only are you watching a reality TV show, you are emotionally involved enough to make it your status. Who are you and what have you done with my sister? BTW...I like Danny, Matt and Kris (in that order!)"

When I read her comment -- it is emailed to me, otherwise it would be quite a while before I'd ever see it -- I started to analyze why it is that I totally look forward to Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and can hardly wait until it's time to watch another episode of what has easily become my favorite TV show. It generated so much thought in fact, as I was crafting my "witty" response to her, that I thought, "Wow, I'd better just turn this in to a blog post." (Do I have time to write a blog post this morning -- no, not if I'm going to use my time wisely -- but I so rarely feel like pouring out thoughts into writing lately, I just have to grab these inspirations, no matter how frivilous, when they come.)

I think it has kind of grown on me -- three years ago, Johnny came home from the Mexico Mission trip all excited about the bus trip home (that's a first) where the bored high schoolers had thrown together an impromptu version of AI, which they called, "American Bus". Gabriel Halpin ended up winning that one with his ever-popular rendition of "Big Rock Candy Mountain". Since that humble beginning, American Bus has taken on a life of it's own, each year becoming a little more refined. Last year, Jordan Rose added a Ryan Seacrest element and started interviewing contestants. I wasn't on the trip last year so I missed seeing Catie sing, in honor of one of AI's more memorable tryouts, "I Am Your Brother", dedicating it to her brother Johnny.

As American Bus took root in my consciousness, so did American Idol. Last year I watched most of the final shows, and was actually very opinionated about which David should win...and he did.

This year, we have watched every episode from the beginning. We now have AT&T U-Verse, which enabled Scott to record the entire season in one operation, so we have the ability to fast forward commercials if we aren't able to start it on time. Notice I say "we". That leads me to another reason I'm so hooked on this show -- my kids love it. It is something we enjoy as a whole family -- even the pets are cuddled up with us as we sit down to watch. (Gotta love that Jody).

Another reason I am hooked is the relationships I've formed with these contestants as the season has progressed. Pitiful, I know. But the show effectively draws in those of us who root for a team because we follow its players. Some of these contestants have very compelling stories and it's hard not to get a little emotionally involved. One of the reasons I hated to see Alexis Grace leave last night is how likeable she appeared in the behind-the-scenes interviews. She also reminded me of Kelly Ferguson, and since she was one of our favorite babysitters back in the day, it was hard for me not to pull for Alexis. Plus she could sing!

My girls think Adam Lambert is amazing. I think he's entertaining, and would miss the element of surprise he brings to the show. He was featured on my facebook advertisement side bar recently letting me know 3 of my fb friends had joined his fan group. I clicked on the highlighted line to see which of my friends it was, fully expecting to see one of my daughter's names -- they weren't listed, but Russ East was! That made me chuckle! Johnny likes to bash Adam because he knows it bugs his sisters. We are all fans of Danny -- haven't joined the facebook fan group, but we like him and wish him great success none-the-less. We all think Michael seems like a really nice guy, but are frankly surprised that he's lasted this long. Allison is so cute -- she just reminds me of Fionna on Shrek in a cute sort of way -- and boy can she sing! Scott is very inspirational, not sure if his voice will carry him too far, but inspirational and enjoyable none-the-less...

I think my final reason I look forward to American Idol is because it is just frivilous -- it is like a bit of junk food for my brain and sometimes a bag of chips or a candy bar just hits the spot.

Go Danny!

Another Rowlands Challenge

2008-12-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

Every year it is a scramble to send a family picture in our Christmas cards. This year, a photo opportunity presented itself in September, Labor Day to be exact. Our beloved trampoline bit the dust after 10 well-used years. One of Johnny's friends broke through it's worn webbing. Thankfully, his friend was not hurt, although if he had been maybe my girls would have been more gracious about the demise of the their favorite form of exercise.
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I had the incredible idea of posing our family along the trampoline rim for our Christmas picture. Wouldn't that be a sweet way to incorporate something that had been near and dear to all of us for the past ten years? Suprisingly, no one else caught my vision (it is amazing how often that happens) and it was a grumbling bunch I was forced to work with as I set the camera on the timer mode. However, most family members pulled themselves together enough to crank out a strained smile each time the flashing light signalled that our camera was about to take a picture. They were not enjoying it, but at least they were cooperating.
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Johnny took a different tact. He decided he was going to enjoy the experience but forget the cooperation. It was like a repeat of one of my favorite Calvin & Hobbes series where Calvin's dad tries to get a nice picture of him for the Christmas card. Calvin flashes a charming smile until one split-second before the cameral flashes and then suddenly his expression changes to one that should never be sent! I thought this kind of behavior should have been the least of our worries as the youngest person being photographed was 14! However, the 18 year old, who is technically an adult, managed to foil about 13 of our attempts. He had us laughing enough that the death threats we gave him just did not seem terribly earnest. All told, it took 18 tries to get one we could live with. Thank goodness for digital!
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When I loaded the photo shoot onto the computer, Scott and I decided it would serve our boy right if we actually sent out one of his goofy poses. Thanks to Adobe Photo Shop, I was able to create a collage that showcased several of his memorable faces and added what I thought was a very appropriate greeting, "Merry Christmas from the Rowlands Family: May your picture take less tries than ours." Like much of my own humor, I thought it was rather hilarious and a fitting solution to another Rowlands challenge. I submit my finished product below for your viewing pleasure:
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Like I said, I thought it was hilarious and made myself chuckle several times over my clever wit. Like my brilliant plans that no one else thinks are brilliant, not everyone thought it was funny. My mom took one look at it and said, "It looks like you like Johnny best." I was shocked. That was the opposite effect I was shooting for. But maybe it was just my mom -- she doesn't get Princess Bride either. So I showed it to my friend, Diane. "It looks like Johnny is your favorite." She told me flatly. Well this was crushing. Here it was September and I had 50 copies of a family picture that I suddenly feared no one would understand.
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Fortunately, a couple of days later I got a new haircut that was so much cuter than my grown-out-no-style, that I simply had to take a new family picture. This time I enlisted the help of my dad and Johnny was well-behaved. It turned out pretty good and did not contain any subtle humor to misunderstand.
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Well, at least this picture provided me inspiration for a new post--and I obviously NEEDED a little inspiration! That, after all, is probably the most fitting solution to another Rowlands challenge.

A Little Perspective

2008-10-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted a heart-felt bit about the death of our pet rat. Catie made the comment, "Do you really think anyone reads your blog anymore?" I expressed my own doubt but told her I just wrote it because it helped to write out my feelings.
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Well suprise, surprise...there are some of you who still read my blog and amazingly, were sensitive enough to post sweet comments about our grief process for a rat. Thank you. That really was sweet.
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Today perspective has returned. Talk of getting Pip, Michelle's rat, a new roommate has taken center stage, and we are all able to think of Lucy with a fond appreciation rather than the suprising depth of sadness yesterday. Who would think I could feel so sad about a rat.
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I remember years ago, we did a gift exchange with our family members in which we were required to purchase 4 items with only $5.00. The items must include something to wear, something to eat, something to play with, and something to read. We often resorted to very creative solutions in order to stay in the price range. My brother, who had drawn my name, bought a greeting card as my "something to read". It was a sympathy card, but what made it funny was it was a Pet Sympathy card. We all chuckled over the sticky sweet sentiments expressed as well as the thought someone would actually send a sympathy card for a pet!
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I was thinking about that card today and did a little google search, typing "Pet sympathy card" into google images. I chose only to browse the first 18 of about 128,000 matches. The image to the left is one such offerings. (I tried "Pet rat sympathy card" but that did not yield much -- apparently those who grieve for their rats to the degree they need a card are not a large enough market for the card makers.) Anyway, 128,000 matches? Amazing. Granted, Mother's Day Cards yielded 1,700,000 and Father's Day Cards yielded 1,300,000 (sorry dads), but still, 128,000 is nothing to sneeze at!
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Bottom line -- I'm feeling a lot better but I'm still musing over the big impact a furry little creature can have on a person's feelings! On the plus side, it must be good for the economy because the card industry would have a smaller market if that were not the case.

We Loved Lucy

2008-10-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

I have really neglected the blogosphere for the last month and a half. My "honeymoon phase" with facebook has lasted longer than I would have thought -- probably due to the fact that I keep connecting with new "blasts from the past", additionally my little nephew in Thailand (not even a month old) has his own page where his pappa adds new photos and clever captains, and I joined Parking Wars and feel the need to compete with my sister. But today, a status update just did not cut it for expressing my thoughts.

Today Lucy died. I told my husband this morning, with tears streaming down my face, "The economy is in the toilet. People I love are in the hospital. Life is hard. And what am I crying about? I'm crying that my daughter is having to say goodbye to her pet rat." Granted, Lucy's influence in our life did go beyond that of the average pet rat.

Last September, Catie became the proud owner of Rattatouile, a rat who's owner was ready to no longer be a rat owner. It was the perfect way for Catie to try out pet ownership for herself. She'd been lobbying for a hamster, but this deal was too good not to give a try. So Rattatouile joined our family, but it wasn't long before she was renamed, Lucy. About a month into rat ownership, Catie was enjoying her pet so much she decided to write an expository speech on pet rats. I know that choosing a topic that is inspiring and interesting to the writer is key in maintaining enthusiasm for a speech that will probably be given repeatedly over the course of several months, and therefore I thought the topic was a good one for Catie. I warned her, however, that it would probably not be a speech that would appeal to her judges to any great degree.

So with Lucy as her inspiration, Catie combined personal experience with research on the web to write a 10 minute speech about pet rats. She tried out many of the ideas she read about, including making a pinata and hammock for Lucy as well as doing a photo shoot with her. To my chagrin, Lucy's Christmas picture turned out much better than our family one. Catie's speech included large 20 x 30 inch boards which provided visuals for her words. As with many other things, my prediction that judges would not warm to a speech about pet rats proved to be wrong. Not only did they like it, they awarded her 1st place in the first qualifying tournament of the season, held in San Diego, which qualified her to give the same speech at the National competition in June.

Through Catie's speech, her love for Lucy was shared at tournaments, a young-at-heart gathering, elementary book club, Piner-Olivet elementary school, and the fair. At home, her enjoyment of Lucy turned the whole family into pet rat enthusiasts -- something I would not have thought possible. We all enjoyed Lucy's gentle and loving personality and I took great satisfaction in being able to lull her to sleep by scratching behind her ears.

It was also endearing to see Catie take good care of her pet and as Lucy became increasingly weaker in this past week, to see Catie once again doing online research and applying her learning to make Lucy as comfortable as possible. As she sat today participating in her online Spanish class and stroking her failing pet, it was really hard to keep the perspective...it's only a rat!

Later today the girls buried her in a little container lined with one of Catie's shirts Lucy had chewed up. A tissue piñata and one of her favorite treats, a banana chip, were also tucked in for good measure. After the burial, both girls scattered some flowers.

I know -- she was only a rat. But she was a rat that brought about some really great things in our family...inspiration, opportunity, responsibility, and caring. A rat is a pretty small life in the big picture, but the things that she inspired are pretty big after all.

We are going to miss our little Lucy!

Only Six?

2008-09-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

I was kind of tagged by my niece, Megan, to post six of my quirks. My response? It is going to be hard to limit it to only six. I am officially tagging my sister Jody, because she has as many quirks as I do! And if Lynn Whitely ever gets a blog -- I would sure love to read her top six! Actually Lynn, you can leave them in the comments!
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So what do you think of the photo? I got this one when I entered "Quirky Person" into Google images. Ah, the incredible power of the internet...whoops, back to the task at hand...
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1. I seem to have a compulsive disorder to only clean/put away what someone just seconds before took out for a purpose. For example, my counter will be entirely cluttered...my husband pulls a glass out of the cupboard...he then goes to the refrigerator to retrieve something to drink...in the two seconds that takes, I arrive on the scene and absent mindedly put his glass in the dishwasher leaving intact all the items that should have been put away. This scene is replayed on a daily basis.
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2. I tend to ask questions and then not listen for the answers. Then I ask the same question and again I fail to listen for the answer.
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3. I play Spider on the easy level because it makes me happy when I win. If I lose, I reset my stats so I can pretend I always win.
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4. My husband insists that I will dance around the house, putting off making a trip to the little girls room, only to decide I urgently need to use it just as soon as someone else is occupying it.
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5. My husband also insists that when doing something complicated and confusing on the computer, I will click on options without reading them and then wonder what I've done.
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6. My husband further points out that I am hopeless about giving and taking directions that involve "left and right". Apparently he finds it confusing when I say, "Turn right" as I point left -- go figure!
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As you can tell, my husband was very helpful bringing to mind a few of my quirks. I would write more, but right now I need to chat with him about HIS quirks!

The Honeymoon

2008-08-29T17:58:00.001-07:00

Well I guess it is finally time to post again. Thank you so much for praying for my sweet niece, Sarah. She is one of my heros and I am so thankful that God has tenderly cared for her and her family these past weeks through His people. Praise the Lord she will be 29 weeks along Sunday. One of the best consequences of Sarah needing help, is having the need to be there more often. I am enjoying my Fridays with Sarah & Bekah & Bailey.

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Two weeks ago I took these pictures of Bekah. They are from my cell phone so they're basically pretty lame, but what a cute little subject! At first she did not want to cooperate, but then she decided she liked posing and immediately checking out the results. Each time she took the phone in her hand and giggled at her picture on the screen was just precious. I ended up taking about twenty shots because I was enjoying her giggle so much.

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Though I had planned to be there yesterday, Chris ended up home early, so I stayed home to take care of some of the more pressing needs of my children. Between the pressing needs, I filled much of my unexpected spare time playing with facebook. I signed up for my own account about Midnight Thursday, so on Friday, I was set to go.

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I have to admit I am having fun. I remind myself of someone who just gets email for the first time and thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread, drools over every mass-mailing coming in and forwards it to 100 of her closest friends. Thank goodness that phase of email does not last long --unless you are retired. (I've found that retired folks still think their friends and family like to receive every forward that comes through their inbox.)

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Yes, I am in the honeymoon phase. Thanks to Michelle, I learned all about flairs yesterday--though my own collection is pretty lame in her eyes--I designed a stick figure family complete with the pets and even a few dead fish to honor those we used to have--I adopted a pokey*--I sent and received flowers--and I'm up to 41 friends!

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I was pretty fired up about My Space a couple of years ago, but I quickly lost interest and only signed in often enough to change my age to 29 whenI had a birthday. And then, I even got too bored to do that -- I am now 30. When I first got my blog, I was posting almost every day. I usually do not post quite that often anymore (cough, choke). And, though I check my email often, it is against my religion (almost) to send on a forward and quite honestly, I have certain relatives relegated to my "junk mail" because that is all they send! So, knowing my electronic communication history, I am not expecting my current enthusiasm for fb to be a sustainable phenomenon.

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However, I am finding it really cool to reconnect with friends I have not caught up with in years. I also was added to the loop for a possible multi-class RVCS reunion in the next couple of years. So right now, I am enjoying the honeymoon and I think facebook is pretty darn cool.

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*My pokey's name is Bailey and she's a lovable chocolate lab who is really bad at catching the frisbee. Feel free to stop by and play with her anytime.

Please Be in Prayer

2008-08-11T20:37:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to ask for prayer for our niece, Sarah, and her baby. I lifted the beautiful picture from her sister, Megan's, blog. Here's the email that was circulated by our church earlier today:

Chris and Sarah have asked prayer for Sarah and their unborn baby. Sarah is 26 weeks along and started having contractions last night. She is currently in the hospital and they have given the baby medicine to help develop his/her lungs. The earliest the Drs. like to deliver is 34 weeks. Sarah will be in the hospital till Thursday and is on possible bed rest. Please pray the baby will continue developing and wait to make his/her arrival as well as peace for Chris & Sarah.

“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”
Psalm 139: 13-16

A Handful of Memories

2008-08-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an ecclectic offering -- some of my memories from the last couple of weeks.

1. I will begin with VBS -- I was in the 4th grade this summer and thoroughly enjoyed my class. God was so good to provide me with energy and a sense of humor for the week and amazingly gave our high energy group some really good listening skills for the Bible stories. There were some exceptions though and that's when the sense of humor came in really handy. At one point, as my co-leader was encouraging the kids to quiet down and "pay attention", one of our more boisterous fellows looks at me in all seriousness and told me, "I'm just not the 'pay attention' type." Good to know!

2. My next thought is from today when I took Catie driving in a parking lot. It was her third time practicing in the empty parking lot and I must say I am very proud of how relaxed I've been. What she lacks in skill, she has compensated for in carefulness. Until today, that is, when she mixed up the break and the accelerator! We were innocently parking when all of the sudden we're on the side walk and headed for a tree. It wasn't completely a life-flash-before-your-eyes moment, but it was close!

3. We joined the Partners in Christ fellowship group for camping at Hende Woods this past weekend. It was so pretty and so much fun being with great people. Getting to meet my little grand-niece, Taeya, for the first time as well as spend more time with my little grand-niece, Bekkah, made it oh-so-sweet. (I'll have to post some sweet pictures of them, although you can check out their mommies' blogs and see quite a few.) Oh yeah, it was fun seeing their parents as well! Anyhoo, we were the old folks with old kids. While everyone else was up and running at the crack-of-dawn, my teens were still snoozing at 9:00. This picture is of some of the Boyd boys staking out our trailer in hopes that Johnny would be up to play with them soon. The quick checks began at about 7:00 and continued about every five minutes, but after a while, they just stayed. At one point, when the boys were peeking in the window next to Johnny's bed, Johnny created quite the stir and I could hear Joe saying, "He rolled over! He rolled over!" Scott tried to tell the boys that someday they would want to sleep in too, but they couldn't believe anything that crazy!

4. The next memory, also with a picture, shows Beamer sporting his newest hat. I love the "Sausage" motto on the brim. Not only is Beamer built like a sausage, but ever since Ando posted a commercial about dogs being able to talk, we have associated "sausages" as Beamer's most likely thoughts. He looks pretty cute doesn't he. We took him along on our camping trip and like several of us humans, the silly boy got carsick both coming and going.

5. My last thought is centered completely around this picture. Sam asked me to take it at our ISP orientation barbeque last night. After taking it, he wanted to know if I'd post it on my blog. I told him I'd post it if he'd comment. So there you go Sam -- I've fulfilled my half of the bargain!

I find myself wishing I had a couple more months of summer to gather a few more handfuls of memories. Who decided August was a good month to start school anyway???

Cop Eek At

2008-07-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, Beth Moore posted "Malapropisms" on her blog, The LPM Blog. It included the definition of a malapropism and an invitation to readers to post their own examples. In case you need a little help, here's the definition of a malapropism from the online dictionary: (I not only needed help with the definition, I also had to hear it pronounced a couple of times before I could get it right!)

1.an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

2.an instance of this, as in “Lead the way and we'll precede.”

I started reading the comments, which were already up to 43 in the first morning after posting. I was laughing my way through them when I decided to add one of my own. Before doing so, I went back to the original post and realized it was now up to 122 comments! I was blown away -- I'm not a reader of many famous blogs so this was a new experience to me to literally watch the comment counter go off the charts before my very eyes. As of today, there are like 519 comments. Kind of reminds me of my own comment counter! Ha!

If you want a good laugh, check them out:

http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2008/07/malapropisms.html

I'm including a couple of favorites to whet your appetite and start your brain in motion...

Phylis R. said... One day my sweet mom was marvelling at how fast the grandkids could do all that "tex-mexing" on the cell phones.
My Grandmother excitedly told me, "I'm knitting you a beautiful African for your wedding!" She meant "Afghan"- as in wool blanket!

vonda said... my sweet grandmama always called a cellular phone a secular phone. She never could say it right, even when we tried to sound it out for her!

I was reading some of the comments to Scott and he said, "You ought to do a post like that and get examples from our friends because they are a lot more fun when you know the person." So, at the risk of being a copy cat, I thought I'd do just that. How about sharing some of the malapropisms from your family. Before you do, I'll share a few of ours...

When Michelle was debating medical malpractice, at the age of 11, she kept referring to the "genealogist" rather than the "gynecologist"...she also had a hard time saying "specific" and instead repeatedly said "pacific".

Lately, she's been rather "confuddled".

When Johnny was a little guy, he wanted to be the "ring barrier" in his uncle's wedding and thought I ought to make him a "broom" costume to go with Catie's bride costume. In his first year of debate, he cited problems with the "electrical college" rather than the "electoral" one we're all familiar with.

I remember being in a restaurant with my Grandfather when he ordered the "quickie of the day" -- the rest of us had quiche.

Yesterday Scott warned us our "fertilized" marshmallow sticks would be hot. And we thought he was just "sterilizing" them!

Oh so many examples! My sister, very innocently, had the mother-of-all-malapropisms in sixth grade, but it was so bad I cannot even include it here. All I can say is, my poor, poor mother.

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Now, I'm not holding my bread that I'll rake up 519 comments lickety spilt, but I'm sure you might have a few choice exemplaries to submit.

So I'm a copy cat -- bring it on!

If am uh leek amp

2008-07-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

If you can get my madgab before you read the post, good job. Well last week we added a new twist to a long-standing family tradition. We joined our church for the annual trek to Hartstone, but instead of kicking back and savoring the most relaxing week of the entire year, Scott & I followed our girls lead and decided to volunteer for the "week". (It wasn't really a week this year -- rather a long weekend). Though he lobbied to let the rest of the family experience a working "vacation" while he relaxed as a guest, in the end Johnny also asked to volunteer making it an entire family affair.
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It is delightful to see what can happen when a beautiful piece of God's creation is under the care of people with vision and a willingness to work. Stan and Valerie Walker have been such a blessing at Hartstone. It is evident as you walk the camp, especially if you've been coming a few years and have a basis for comparison, how much they have done to make Hartstone a real charmer. In staff devotions each morning, we also got a less-obvious glimpse into the miracles God has provided for Hartstone and the way he has continued to build Stan & Valerie's faith as they trust Him. All that to say, it was very satisfying serving alongside capable people with a vision for what God can do.

A little background on the pictures I included: 1) Scott & I slept in the trailer but all of the kids stayed in staff housing. The first picture is of the three girls, Catie, Michelle & their friend Kayla, carrying their stuff to their cabin. I got such a kick out of all the pillows Michelle brought along -- the purple one is a full body pillow -- the picture does not do it justice but as you can see from their facial expressions, I was not going to get a second chance to get a better shot!

2) When Johnny wasn't doing dishes or other tasks, his main Hartstone activity was playing games with Sam Boyd. (I'm not sure why Sam had his name tag on his forehead -- maybe when you're a member of a large family its helpful to keep things very obvious!) Johnny and Sam played chess, Stratego, Life, Monopoly, poker, spoons ... and sometimes Johnny even won.

3) All of us girls worked very hard in the kitchen. Here Catie & Kayla are diligently cutting strawberries for the pie that evening. Yummy!! BTW, we ate sooooooo well. I had to come home and begin a two week diet after all the good cooking I enjoyed, but it was worth it. And, one of the perks of volunteering was access to all the leftovers. That pie was enjoyed more than once, as well as the delicious carmelitas.

4) Scott's official volunteer position was evening host which meant he did it all -- except the cooking. He got his hands wet with dishes, dirty cleaning bathrooms, smoky building fires, and possibly a little greasy with all the fix-it jobs he took on. He is very handy and was able to be a big help -- boy did he go to bed tired each night!

5) I got a kick out of my sweet little great-niece, Bekah. She was so cute with her little baby doll and looked like she was going to make such a tender mommy in most of the pictures. In this one though, I think the baby was getting a little tiresome.
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It was a very satisfying, though not necessarily relaxing, visit to Hartstone. I'm really glad we did it and would not be surprised to do it someday again.
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One of the fun things that came out our time at Hartstone, was an opportunity to join the Kuhners and their fellowship group on a camping trip next month. More opportunities to spend time with family are always a good thing (at least usually) AND the added bonus is Sarah's sister, Megan, will also be camping with us. She and her sweetie, Taeya, will be flying out from Colorado for a visit so we will really enjoy some extra time with them. It will be our first time meeting Taeya so we are very excited!!
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The only draw back is that we can't bring our trailer and have to tent camp.
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We have tent camped many times throughout our lives and loved it, but for the last three years we have thoroughly enjoyed upgrading the experience in our trailer. If Kludge gets a chance to read this, he will probably take great satisfaction knowing we will be leaving behind our comfortable queen size bed, our freezer with the ice cream, our refrigerator with the classic Coke, and our air conditioning. (Apparently we gloated over the perks of trailer life quite a bit at last year's family camp!) Bottom line -- the company has to be pretty good to lure us away from our beloved trailer and into a tent. I guess it could make for another post: If am uh leek amp in nut ant...

Fought Her Stay

2008-07-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

Mad gabs in the title are back -- at least for today.

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At the risk of sounding a little boastful, I have a really good idea to share in this post. You might have noticed my absence of parenting advice -- not only am I at an insecure phase of parenting (three teens!!!) but it seems like those of you raising little ones are doing a great job without my two cents!! But today I have an idea I can share. And I can share it with great enthusiasm because it is actually one that I have faithfully done for the last fourteen years with great success. Sticking to my guns and actually being consistent is not my strong suit, so this is rather remarkable not to mention really rare!!
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Here it is...drum roll please...a perpetual Father's Day card. I got the idea out of Family Fun Magazine and being the scrap booking enthusiast I am, I modified the idea a bit to be a perpetual Father's Day card/scrapbook. Catie and Jonathan were very young in 1994, the first year I did this, and Michelle was still three months away from being born. After including Father's Day well wishes, I decided the best way to get some good thoughts from my little ones was to interview them and include the questions and answers in the album. Pictures of each child along with a bit of artwork and hand prints were included. I mounted everything into a small scrap book and presented it to my husband.

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With Father's Day 2008, I had to begin a fourth small album, having filled three others with the previous 13 Father's Days. The kids have grown and so has the value of this gift. We love looking back at the albums and being able to see how the kids have changed -- one more reminder of how fast it truly goes. I no longer include their hand prints, that was left by the wayside several years back, but the photos and interviews and some form of artwork have remained.

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The interviews particularly are a hoot. I always interview the kids separately so they cannot be influenced by what the others say. They could be real wild cards in their younger years! I may pick some of my favorite interview moments over the last 14 years to include in a few posts to come -- inspiration for posts no longer comes easily so that sounds rather appealing -- but for now I'll just choose a bit from Catie's 1996 interview when she was 3 1/2. Imagine a very high, squeaky voice.

***

Q: Why do you love Daddy?

A: Because he loves me.

Q: What makes daddy a good daddy?

A: Jesus and God.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do with daddy?

A: Make a picture.

Q: What would you do with daddy if you could do anything?

A: Paint a picture and color a picture. That's all I want to do.

Q: What is something daddy is good at?

A: Mowing the lawn & cleaning the car and I don't know anything else.

***

What father wouldn't want to remember that for the rest of his life?
***

Wow, a new mad gab and a good idea to boot. Does it get any better than that?

Making a List

2008-06-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

Air quality at our home is not too good right now. A fire in the next county has produced an abundance of smoke. Apparently fires are burning in many parts of California currently, and with record low rain falls for the past two years, it is logical to think this is just the beginning.

It is not likely that the fire raging in Napa will ever threaten our house, but as our court is just across the street from beautiful golden (very dry) hills, it is not out of the realm of possibility to think we could at some point be told to evacuate our home. The kids and I were discussing this scenario today. Our trailer is parked in the driveway and we were envisioning which things we would grab if given a short time allotment to leave our home. Knowing how much better I function with a little bit of planning, not to mention my love for and fond appreciation of lists, I thought it might not be a bad idea to have a list of things we would grab in just such a situation.

After thinking about it for five or so minutes, here's the list I came up with:

1. My Bible (I will admit, this was not the first thing I thought about it, but once it came to mind I decided it belonged at the top. Not only would I want to have my Bible along, the act of grabbing it might help remind me Who's in control!)
2. Our pets
3. The laptop
4. Our scrapbooks/photo albums and the handmade books each of the kids wrote
5. Our small safe with our passports and birth certificates
6. My two cases of photo CD's and family slide show DVDs
7. Our insurance file & the kids important record files
8. Our phones, chargers and the camera
9. The china plate handed down by Scott's grandma
10. Catan

I am guessing that if Catan made it into the top ten, I have probably forgotten some really important things! I need to give this a bit more thought!

So what would you put on your list? It is an interesting question, especially given the fact that the news is filled right now with people who have lost their homes to one natural disaster or another.

Johnny thought he might grab the hot tub and ping-pong table. That's not something everyone might think about -- it's good to plan ahead! Ah, the value of making a list!

One Last Airline Post

2008-06-13T01:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I've been a little hard on the airlines for the last three posts, but Scott's Uncle Ron sent us a funny video yesterday that I cannot resist posting a link to. After that, I will be nice and probably not complain about United anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BpwvKfU6NY

***

I'm still not happy about the service we received this past trip (that is a bit of an understatement), but to be fair, this was the first time I ever had to deal with cancelled flights and lost luggage, so though I've experienced delays many times, the airlines do have a good track record of getting me, and my luggage, to my destination.

***

BTW, our luggage that went to Atlanta has been located -- it was delivered around 11:00 p.m. Tuesday evening. Now I no longer have an excuse for leaving the house without makeup!

"Thenk you for you pashenz, Mahm"

2008-06-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

No, my title is not another mad gab, it's just a phrase I heard repeated more times than I can count today as I spent about 4 hours on the phone with various branches of United's customer service, which is located in India. Dealing with automated menus that did not apply, disconnected calls, and representatives that are hard to understand...what could be better than that?

It was a great relief to us Sunday to find out, from the United Agent Scott spoke to, that our tickets would be refunded and we would receive $100 travel vouchers. Apparently though, according to the many agents I spoke to today, that was not possible. I think the low point was when they were even going to charge me an extra $100 a ticket to cancel our scheduled returned flights! In the end, the best we were able to do was get back less than half of our ticket cost as well as a small fraction of the frequent flyer miles, plus the vouchers. So unfortunately, it still cost us a fair amount in cash and miles to spend that memorable day at O'Hare.

As with the frustrations of Sunday, I have no doubt God is using these minor frustrations to sharpen that character which still needs so much refinement. But surely, one of the blessings He is giving must include more material for blogging!

Last night, Catie and Johnny recorded a hilarious song with Garage Band called, "Stuck in the Airport". I'd love to include it in my blog but Johnny said it's never leaving his computer. I asked him today if they could cut a new song called "Stuck on the Phone with Customer Service"... maybe that could be followed up by a song about our luggage entitled, "Still Not Located".

Turbulence...Yes!

2008-06-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

Early Sunday morning, 3:00 a.m. to be exact, Scott, Catie, Michelle and I left Santa Rosa en route to SFO where Catie and I would fly first to Chicago and then to Birmingham, Alabama, so Catie could compete in the National Christian Forensics & Communication Association (NCFCA) National Championship Tournament. She had qualified in the expository speech category back in January by taking first place at a qualifying tournament in San Diego. It has been a great year of speech. In addition to qualifying for Nationals, the year even included the excitement of a newspaper article in April.

Up until early April, we had thought Nationals was going to be held at Concordia College in Irvine, CA, but suddenly what seemed like a "done-deal" fell through and Birmingham, Alabama became the destination. The prospect of flying with Catie's presentation boards presented a challenge -- two phone calls to the airline made it clear that chances were we would have to check these 20" x 30" boards with our luggage, though I was lobbying to carry them to the gate and check them there like people do with strollers -- even the day before we left some of my friends prayed with me that Catie's boards would arrive with us.

I told these friends that I knew God was in charge and He would work it out according to His plan, but that I really hoped the good He would work would not be of the "character building" variety. With unflattering honesty, I confessed I preferred to deal with the "character building" blessings when we were not spending so much time and money. Well, God in His wisdom, knowing what is best for Catie and I and His glory, much better than I did, allowed us to receive a "character building" lesson beyond the inconveniences I was trying to avoid.

Catie and I both enjoy flying and especially love take-offs. If the flight can have a little turbulence and bounce us around a bit, it just adds to the fun. Our flight to Chicago had all the right elements, and arrived on time to boot. It was about two hours into our three hour layover that suddenly everything changed. Catie and I were killing time in some window seats near, but not at, our terminal when I got a call from Scott that United had just notified him that our Alabama flight was cancelled. After locating customer service and standing in what I thought at that point was a moderately long line, we were able to talk to an agent about catching another flight. When she told me we would arrive in Birmingham at 10:00 in the evening, I was a little disappointed because I wanted Catie to have a good restful night before speaking the next morning. I mentioned that to the agent and she looked a little panicked. Turns out, she meant a flight the FOLLOWING evening at 10:00. All three of Catie's speeches would take place before that. At this point, I called Scott. As I relayed the information to him the tears started flowing. The agent quickly said, "Don't cry!" and started working on booking us a flight with another airline. We were so thankful to get seats on a flight scheduled to arrive in Birmingham at 5:40, five minutes before our original time. Our agent then painstakingly went through the process of making sure our luggage would be going with us -- after all, without Catie's presentation boards, she would not be able to make her speech.

As we were walking to our new gate, Catie with tears in her eyes, shared with me how God used the thought of not being able to make it to the tournament, to really show her how badly she wanted to be there and how thankful she was that God had provided this other flight. I gave her a hug and we recounted some of the ways God had worked on our behalf. After getting lost once (something I am very good at) we found our new gate just in time to hear that this flight was also cancelled.

This time, I was feeling the prayers of many and was calm as we got lost again, and then finally made it back to that original counter and were able to have that same sweet agent, who I knew on a first-name basis by now, help us find another option. There were no flights to Alabama she could book us on, but some of our dear friends, the Danfords, were willing to delay their drive to Alabama and hang out in Atlanta for as long as it took for us to get there and then drive together to the tournament. The agent was able to book Catie on a flight to Atlanta and I would try to go standby. In the event I could not get on the flight, I would join Catie late the next evening. It was not a great option and meant that I would miss seeing her speak, but at least it would get her to the tournament. At home, word had gotten out to our speech club and several others and people were praying. Catie and I both knew God was in control and we were praying I would get on that flight with her.

Well, a couple of hours later (the Atlanta flight was delayed about 2 and 1/2 hours), just as it became clear I would not get a seat on the flight and I was packing the camera in Catie's carry on so someone could video her speech for me, the lady behind me got an email on her phone that notified her the Atlanta flight was cancelled. In disbelief, we checked the monitor a couple of terminals down and it was indeed cancelled. The agent at the gate announced it to everyone seated about five minutes later.

At this point we had to find customer service again and I joined about 1000 of my closest friends in a line that stretched about 1/4 a mile through the concourse. Flights had been cancelled left and right, and I now had a new definition of a long line. I had Scott working with an agent on the phone and checking online at home and I called a friend who's husband was a pilot to see if he knew of any options. I also put a call into our speech coach and asked if she could talk to someone about the possibility of delaying the Expository category. It turns out there were no good options that would put us in Birmingham in time for Catie's scheduled speech. And, even if we could get ourselves there, which we couldn't, Catie's presentations boards went to Atlanta even though we didn't.

We are on a very tight budget, so Scott booked us on a flight home rather than continuing to Alabama for the week-long tournament when Catie couldn't give her speech. United agreed to refund our money since they could not get us to our destination in time. We went to dinner knowing we had a late trip back to California unless the tournament directors would be willing to delay the start of Catie's category. With flights being cancelled left-and right due to weather, I figured others might be in the same situation we were so a delay might be possible.

At dinner, Catie received a call from the California NCFCA director letting her know he had requested a delay on her behalf but the chances of it happening were very slim. So we headed to our gate and waited for our SFO flight home knowing that God can move mountains. Each time our SFO flight got delayed I wondered if even then God was keeping us in Chicago because there was still a chance we could get to Alabama in time. Finally, after a long delay and three gate changes, we actually did board our plane. We arrived back in San Francisco at 3:30 a.m., just a little more than 24 hours after we had left Santa Rosa. We're pretty much zombies right now.

I had been hoping that God would not use this tournament as an opportunity to weather hardship, but He had other plans. He knew that Catie and I would benefit most from the opportunity to be refined. I have to say, one of my greatest joys as I write this is the privilege of seeing my daughter handle one of the biggest disappointments of her young life with grace and trust in God. That is not to say the tears did not come -- both us us wept, me more than her, but she did not complain and I kept hearing her say things like, "I feel sorry for people who are stuck like us but don't speak English" or "Wouldn't it be difficult if you were sick and stuck in the airport?" or "We sure have met a lot of nice people who have been really helpful to us". I don't think I could have been more proud of her even if we had made it to the tournament and she had taken first place.

I know she handled it with far more grace than I did. I was trying so hard to trust God, but I was also so spent. Even before we ever left Santa Rosa I was very worn physically, mentally, and emotionally. I had people praying for my peace and joy in the situation and I kept having to say, "God, please help me to be strong." Yet the tears would fall unbidden and I would have to make a hasty retreat to the ladies' restroom to splash water on my face. I thought more than once, "Good thing I didn't bother to wear make-up!" I wish I had been more stoic and kept my emotions in check, but God was able to work in that as well. I thought of 2 Corinthians 12:9 this morning, "But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." Certainly I am weak, but praise God for His all-sufficient grace. And, in His grace, though I was emotional, I never felt angry at anyone and tried to be patient to everyone, whether it was the hassled agent or the lady behind us who got mad when we didn't move our luggage quick enough in line. That had to have been God working in me and being strong in my weakness.

I knew from the beginning that God allowed Catie to qualify for Nationals for a reason. He does not open that door for everyone. We know from personal experience how hard you can work but not achieve that -- last year Catie and Michelle both came so close to qualifying and Catie finished one place away at two different tournaments -- so we absolutely knew this was a door God had opened. It did not end the way I was hoping, but we know that God worked this out according to His plan and even though I was not desiring "character building", my Heavenly Father knew that was far more valuable than the alternative.

As we were finally getting ready to take off to return to California the pilot warned us we would experience turbulence. I was delighted at Catie's excited response, "Yes!"

Will I be able to respond "Yes!" regarding the turbulence to come in my life? Probably not. Knowing my character, I will still probably wish for the times when everything works the way I'm hoping. But praise God He knows better and He does send those character building and refining blessings that grow us and change us for our good and His glory! Maybe not a "Yes!" but hopefully at least an "Okay Lord, I trust You."

BREAKING NEWS...BREAKING NEWS...BREAKING NEWS...

2008-05-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

I hate to send my brand new post to second place, especially since no one's even commented on it yet, but something amazing happened today that I need to let everyone know about!!! My sister who has resolved to post...has posted!

Check it out. (I sound like Randy -- just need to preface it with a "Yo dawg".)

Graduation Hoopla

2008-05-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

As hard as it is for me to believe, my first baby graduates from high school three weeks from yesterday! Okay, okay, the kid turned eighteen last month...it's time. But how did that time go by so fast? Those thoughts could fill dozens of posts, but right now I wanted to give a little insight into the world of graduate's parent. Being the parent of a senior brings special challenges on top of all the other stuff. Johnny is headed to our local junior college next year, so we have not even had to go through the hours and hours of researching/applying for/choosing/applying for scholarships/figuring out how to finance...a four year college choice. I'm quite happy about enjoying the benefits of an excellent, affordable, local option. But, even though we have missed out on that gargantuan undertaking, there are plenty of extra responsibilities when the child in your home nears the end of their high school career. Several of them may impact you greatly right in the last couple of months of the school year, just as everything else is ratcheting up a notch! Included among these are the following: senioritis, grad night meetings and preparations, senioritis, graduation party, senioritis, senior trip, senioritis, senior pictures, senioritis, graduation announcements, senioritis, lifetime slide show, senioritis, graduation collage, and oh, did I mention senioritis?

***

I remember experiencing senioritis myself, but like most things, the perspective you bring to it as a parent, verses the one you had as a child, makes it a whole different animal. Any way, I might do another post on praying your child actually graduates, or my experience of "Graduation on the Cheap" but in this post, my focus is the dreaded graduation collage. Just in case I have any frantic senior parents who have not put together their graduation collage for display at the graduation ceremony, I want you to know that a rather painless option does exist.

***

The pictures I have included in this post are all different options for a 20" x 30" photo collage Costco offers on their "Gifts" pull down menu, for a mere $9.99. Once the pictures are uploaded to Costco Photo, you can throw together a collage in minutes containing up to 30 photos. Within your choices are the color of the background, the number of photos you choose, horizontal vs. vertical alignment, include a title or not, and width of margins between photos. To create these three options I show here, it took far less than a minute to change from one to another. BTW, I did not purchase any of them, I just had fun seeing what one would look like.

***

If this sounds like a good idea to you, my advice is make sure all your photos are cropped to your liking, ready to go into a collage, before you upload them to Costco's web sight. You will notice some white borders on some of my photos -- these were from scanned pictures -- Costco's photo editing options did not allow me to crop them out because they were too small to crop any further. However, if I had actually been purchasing one of these collages, I would have taken the time to correct that with my own photo editing software.

***

Unfortunately I discovered this option AFTER investing HOURS in creating my own collage. What an amazing thought, to think that I could have quickly created one of these collages in about 10 minutes and received it in the mail a week later to simply adhere to my 20" x 30" board.

***

This would also be a great idea for wedding or birthday collages. They are offered in several sizes, but the largest, the 20" x 30" is the one that fits the standard graduation boards.

***

Being the parent of a graduate can be quite overwhelming this time of year. Quick, affordable options for some of the extras are worth passing on!!

Our Brave Little Friend

2008-05-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

Catie and I were down in San Jose for a speech tournament this past weekend. Scott & Michelle took our dog Beamer to park and sent me this picture, via cell phone, of our pooch socializing in the dog park. (I know it's not as exciting as the picture of Andy's discarded batteries but it made me laugh!) For those of you unfamiliar with a dog park, the main attraction for most canine friends is the opportunity to be off-leash and frolic with and sniff as many other four legged pals as you can. Beamer, however, is not terribly confident around his contemporaries. Apparently being pushed around by two cats and dressed up in pumpkin hats and dracula capes has taken a toll on his courage.

Instead of running with the dogs, Beamer made friends with this woman's chair and used her two legs as a safe vantage point to peer out and observe his peers. Funny dog.

This Says It All

2008-03-10T17:27:00.001-07:00

I had another post partway written but when I saw this license plate in the parking lot at Safeway today, inspiration took a different direction.

I wish this were my license plate. It explain so much. It sets expectations where they should be. I showed Scott my picture and he came up with one for us: L8AGAIN. I wonder if it is already taken...

BTW, at the risk of sounding like I am slightly proud of myself, I really am slightly proud of myself. I took this picture on my cell phone and thought, "I wish I could use this on my blog." Then I figured out, all by myself, how to send it to my email. And it worked!!

My husband was impressed, not because it was an amazing thing to do, but because I figured it out by myself.

Maybe some day I could sport a licence plate that says "ONTIME" and have it accurately reflect my life, but I am not holding my breath. For now, WRLATE says it all.

Tie Um Foreign Nope Host

2008-03-01T09:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a while -- the "Hope You Have a Nice Summer" stayed #1 on my chart for a little too long. I haven't been back to Curves lately -- my goal is to get in there multiple times next week (hoping, hoping) -- but I've kind of settled into a mad gab title routine so I thought of my own. This one came to me as I was loading the dishwasher so I'll be curious to see if it makes sense to anyone else.

You know, I need to figure out an "undo" button for blogger. I just lost the paragraph I was working on because I hit a wrong button. It was sheer poetry of course and can never be duplicated. I am now remembering why I have thought before that writing my post in a word document and then copying it into blogger might be prudent. Hmmm...

As I was saying before I was so rudely erased, February has been an eventful month here with much to write about. Unfortunately, I have had little time or energy left to write about it. I have several posts brewing, one even rather contemplative, but for today I will settle for a few pictures and an overview.

February 18 - 22, Scott and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary with a four-night Baja Cruise*. Although we celebrated 11 months late* (our actual anniversary is March 28th), it was worth the wait. We left our three teens at home* and prayed hard! The week before our cruise, I was consumed by making plans for our darlings in our absence. During the cruise,whenever we were in an American port, many texts* and pictures were sent back in forth via my cell phone. I felt like a teen walking along the decks, texting away. (No one told me I looked like a teen, I just felt like one.)

More than once I was praising God to be living in the digital age of photography as my overwhelming desire to capture everything led me to take way too many pictures. Realizing this was, after all, our 20th anniversary celebration, I made a point of handing off our camera several times to get pictures of us together. This one is from Catalina Island -- in spite of my crazy hair it is one of my favorites.

We returned home late Friday afternoon, pleased to find the house still standing. It was even relatively clean, or at least not too much messier than usual. Apparently Johnny had arrived home Friday afternoon and hurriedly cleaned-up as much of his accumulated mess as he could before rushing off to tennis practice. (Michelle had been sending me pictures of his unwashed dishes and take-out boxes with "Make him clean-up!" messages.)

One of the odd parts about returning home was the dizziness* I experienced for more than a week after stepping off the boat. Although I never felt sea sick, I have felt like my world is rocking, especially as I sit at my swivel computer chair, for days now. This made some of the tasks I had waiting for me* even more interesting.

So, anyone want to take a stab at: Tie um foreign nope host?

*Potential subjects for future posts

Hoe Pew Heaven Ice Hummer

2008-02-06T17:35:00.001-08:00

I need to congratulate the four correct guesses for the last mad gab...I smell a skunk was indeed the correct answer. Good job. To give credit where credit is due, I should mention that Michelle correctly guessed it about 5 seconds after I first posted but I would not let her comment until after someone else already had. I'm so mean.

The new mad gab, courtesy of Curves of course, is another easy one -- don't you love it! Michelle actually solved this one as we were walking in the the door. Have fun with another feel good puzzle.

The pictures of my girls are included because they're gone for the weekend visiting their lifelong buddies, Emily and Kelly, in Hollister. I was going to do a post on pet sitting in their absence, but I'm not feeling the creative juices flowing. So I'm going to be lazy and post part of Catie's email from this morning in which she colorfully describes life on the "farm":

[The] Chickens are molting, so there are lots of bare butts in the chicken coop. the sight of bare chicken skin makes me want to lose my lunch! uggghhhh, it looks much better cooked.

Can't think of anything to add to that...

Ice Mail Ask Gunk

2008-02-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

I went back to Curves today and am bringing you the latest mad gab -- makes for an easy post idea but also tattles on my irregular exercise habits! There I go falling off that pedestal again...darn.

***

I think this is the easiest mad gab I've posted so far -- so have at it and get your guess in quick.
***
Well in the last post, I casually mentioned the cute baby picture I had considered posting of myself. Only one comment encouraged me to do so (thank you Megan!) but that was enough, aren't I cute?
***
When we were watching the super bowl yesterday I was thinking the etrade baby looked a bit like my baby pictures. I searched it out on You Tube to see how the images matched up. I was cuter -- and I never hired a clown.

***

The funny thing about that video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=eJqnitjqpuM) is that I watched it several time during the super bowl, and then several times on You Tube, and it wasn't until I read a review of it that I even realized there was a clown there. That baby mumbles a bit and I never really picked up on the clown -- just thought it was someone wearing an odd apron in the background. Scary.
***
Well if I don't make it back to Curves in a timely manner, this face could be staring at me everytime I open my blog -- could be worse, it's much cuter than that DEA agent! But then again, maybe he was cuter was he was little too.

When Work Was Fun

2008-02-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

Well I've hit that uninspired phase of blogging again -- sheesh, it just seems like I barely got out of it before I'm back in it again! Anyway, in an effort to get inspired, I started looking through photos stored on the computer. Turns out, I have several years worth of old photos thanks to my dad having recently converted the best of our family slides to digital photos. They span pre-kid 1964 all the way to 1986 and fill a whole boxful of CD's.

For Christmas I put some of the years into a slide show with vintage music. I did an online search to find out what the top 10 songs were from each of the years and then purchased some of my favorites from iTunes to set each year to. The year I was born features "My Girl" and "I Got You Babe" -- gotta love that! I wanted to use "Wild Thing" for the year my sister was born, but restrained myself and settled for "Hey Jude". For my brother's year, I showed less restraint and chose "Send in the Clowns".

I was intially going to post a baby picture of yours truly -- I was sooooo cute (I sound just like my children!!) -- but when I came across this one, I opted to instead prove there was a time in my life when I actually ironed by choice. I have a similar picture of Johnny gleefully pushing a toy lawn mower in the back yard, and Catie & Michelle happily preparing food in their little play kitchen. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the work we have to do stayed as much fun as it seemed when we were in such a hurry to grow up?

Thanks again Dad for making these family gems accessible -- unlike ironing, looking at old family pictures is aways fun!

Aid He He A A Gent

2008-01-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

Well I'm not exactly feeling inspired to post, but the truth of the matter is that I'm tired of seeing that onion, though I must admit it is a rather perfect onion, staring back at me everytime I open my blog. Not that I think I want to look at the above picture for long --it is a just clue for those of you who struggled with Aid He He A A Gent.

I must say I was a little disappointed that Pops didn't chime in -- so much for my sure fire method to milk a comment.

TTFN

Don't Get Mad, Kevin?

2008-01-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ando's guess for Dawn Kim Add, Kitty Fin was just too funny not work in somewhere, so I got it out of the way in the title.

I have a new mad gab for you, courtesy of the Curves bulletin board today: Aid He He A A Gent

It took me about half way around the exercise circle to figure this one out. When I turned in my answer for a chance at the monthly drawing, I found out I was the only correct guess so far. But don't worry, I won't let it go to my head.

The main thrust of my post today has nothing to do with mad gabs -- I just included that so I can have a good change of getting a comment out of pops -- and it especially has nothing to do with Kevin. It's all about onions & conspiracy theories (and you thought Kludge was out there with the sticky buns!)

I was in Safeway today picking up a few groceries and decided to get a couple of onions. I wasn't happy with the per/pound price, so turned to the display of bagged onions hoping for a break. Sure enough one sign advertised 5 lbs of yellow onions for $2.99 so I grabbed a bag, thinking at the time that 5 lbs sure didn't look like 5 lbs. I then checked the tag attached to the bag and found that it was only 3 lbs. I returned it to the bin and searched in vain for a 5 lb bag. That was when I noticed a larger sign advertising the 3 lb bag of white onions 10/$10, or $1 a piece. It also showed this was a good savings as the regular price was $2.99. I love a good deal so grabbed the bag of white onions, though I honestly prefer yellow. (The reason I am including such detail is it is very important for you to understand that I studied these sale signs rather carefully.)

Upon leaving the store after checking out, I was reading over my receipt and was disappointed to find that I had been charged $2.99 for the onions, rather than the advertised $1.00. (And yes, I did remember to use my Safeway club card.) This presented a dilemma because I hated to head back in the store for a mere $2 difference, and yet, I had been trying to be so careful with the $$$ I felt like I just couldn't enjoy those white onions unless I got the sale price.

So I politely waited for the cashier to finish with her customer and pointed out the discrepancy. She paged produce and I waited. Finally produce called back and confirmed that the onions were not on sale but were correctly charged $2.99. I politely protested saying the sign clearly stated they were $1, all the time feeling really cheap and petty. She told produce about the sign and then told me the produce guy was checking on the sign. I waited for a while longer until the produce guy finally called back saying there was no sign. Suddenly, this became bigger than onions.

Still polite, I told the cashier, "I saw the sign. I need to go back and check for myself." I wheeled my cart around and quickly headed to produce, a woman on a mission. Other shoppers seemed to read my urgency and hastily made way for my cart. When I got to the onion bin, there was NO sign. I stared for a minute at the empty space where that sign had been, the sign I had studied in making a rather lengthy onion decision. It was just a big empty space now. I couldn't believe it.

My mind was reeling as I returned to the cashier and told her, "He was right. There was no sign. But there was one earlier. I no longer want the onions."

She gave me my $3 back (I gained a penny in the deal!). My mind was still racing -- I know I'm forgetful, but I know without a doubt that sign had been there minutes earlier. I told my cashier, "I'm really not neurotic." She answered, rather condescendingly, "Oh I know. Sometimes I see things that aren't there also."

Excuse me??? I wanted to protest and say, "But it was there! This is a conspiracy! I have no idea why you would be interested in cheating me out of the $2, but someone removed that sign!!" But I didn't. I just smiled and left.
***
The primaries are coming up soon. Before I cast my vote for a candidate, I want to know what they plan on doing about stores that change signs to gauge onion buying customers, that's what I want to know! I'm not neurotic -- no sir!

Dawn Kim Add, Kitty Fin

2008-01-14T17:19:00.000-08:00

Two things:

1. Well the holidays were very good to Scott and I -- they gave each of us more to love in the other. Translation: We both gained weight. So, last week, I dusted off my tennies and headed to Curves. My title today came from the "Mad Gab" that was posted on the Curves bulletin board for us ladies to solve as we exercised. I thought this riddle was much better than the lame "Detroit Tigers" one -- of course the fact that I was able to solve it did not influence me at all! (Ha!) So have fun with it and let me know your best guess.

2. This photo is a picture of our front porch New Year's day. Someone evidently was sorry we missed their party and brought the decorations to us in the night, along with several rolls of toilet paper and silly string scattered across our yard.

Saturday night, not even two weeks later, we were gifted with more decorations. This time it included chalk art on the driveway, and fresh streamers to adorn the trees which had looked so empty after the storms in early January had disinigrated the tissue remains from previous visits.

3. What do #1 & #2 have to do with each other? Not a thing. Or do they?

Still Bitter

2008-01-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Back on January 1, I confessed I was a little bitter about getting stuck with the mad gab, DEED ROY DIE GUESS. In my opinion, it was unsolvable. Well, I'm still a little bitter. This time it's because my husband figured it out and left the answer in my comments.
***
It was all very fun and I was getting a kick out of him seriously trying to figure it out. Its always especially delightful when you know something your husband does not.

***
He kept guessing and I'd say, "Leave your answer in the comments." He even tried googling DEED ROY DIE GUESS -- guess what, he found my blog! (Good to know if I ever lose the link!)
***
I was getting a little smug and then after about an hour of trying to figure it out, he stumbled upon the answer just by saying it over and over to himself. Now my demand to leave it in the comments completely backfired!

***
Would anyone else have gotten it correct if he had not have finally figured it out? Oh well, I guess it's time to move on and let it go. Sigh.
***
BTW, if you haven't already guess, DEED ROY DIE GUESS is Detroit Tigers. Ridiculous!

DEED ROY DIE GUESS Part II

2008-01-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well no one has guessed the mad gab yet -- which confirms my theory that this was a really hard one and our team was justified in having no clue!! I just had to laugh at Pop's guess, "Reader's Digest" because that was exactly what we kept guessing. Except each person on our team would shout it out at different times, apparently not having heard that it had already been nixed. It became one of the jokes of the night and pretty soon whenever someone had no clue, no matter what the mad gab looked like, they would holler, "Reader's Digest!"

Keep guessing...I want to see if it's capable of being solved. If no one has nailed it by January 11th, I will reveal the correct answer then.

BTW, remember that picture of my really messy house covered with supplies for making boards for the San Diego tournament right after New Years? Well we returned from the tournament last night and all the blood, sweat, and tears paid off. For the second time, both girls made it to the finals in the expository speech category. My little sweetie, Michelle, who was still memorizing her speech on the way to the tournament placed 7th out of 54 speakers with a speech on pigeons! Catie, who spoke on pet rats, won 1st place and a slot to Nationals in June. Amazing!
***
P.S. A couple of Catie's judges shared they are now considering getting pet rats!
***
P.P.S. Maybe next year they can do a speech on Mad Gabs and see if anyone can guess DEED ROY DIE GUESS.

DEED ROY DIE GUESS

2008-01-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! We were playing "Mad Gab" last night as part of the yearly ritual of staying awake until some sphere-shaped object back east falls down. If you are unfamiliar with this game, checkout the helpful description below courtesy Wikkipedia.

Mad Gab is a game created by Mattel in which there are at least two teams and 2 to 12 players. Each team has two minutes to sound out three puzzles. The puzzles, also known as mondegreens, contain small words that, when put together, make a word or phrase. For example, "These If Hill Wore" when pronounced quickly sounds like "The Civil War." There are 2 difficulties: easy and hard. The faster the puzzles are answered, the more points the players score.

There were a few turns when we were unable to guess a phrase in the alloted time -- after we were told what it was supposed to be, most of the time we were able to say, "Ah, of course, it's all so clear now." However, the one in the title has left me a little bitter.

Care to guess what it's supposed to be?

***

I will reveal the answer next time I blog.
***

P.S. Had to include a picture of my adorable little grand-neice who made her appearance into the world the day after Christmas. If you want to see more pictures check out her mommy's blog -- http://pmcamp.blogspot.com/ -- Megan has been very good about updating.

I'm wishing Taeya Brynn did not live so far away!

Merry Christmas From the Rowlands

2007-12-19T11:52:00.001-08:00

No time to write, just a few photos to represent life as we know it during the crazy month of December...hopefully that time of reflection is soon and coming!

Would you believe photo sessions with rats in preparation for a speech on pet rats??? Too bad her Christmas photo is so much cuter than the family one!

No Beamer, THIS YEAR these chocolates are NOT for you!!

It's that time of year again -- preparing speeches and boards for a post Christmas tournament in San Diego. Oh how it brings out the Christmas cheer in me!!

Giving Thanks

2007-11-22T07:20:00.000-08:00

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

His love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1

* * *

Happy Thanksgiving. I was in the midst of a thankful post when I realized I was signed in to my daughter's blog. It could have been a rather confusing post on her blog as I rattled on about my husband and children. So, among the many other reasons I have to be thankful, I am also thankful I realized I was on the wrong blog.

* * *

As I look at my life, there is so much to be thankful for, and I want to thank God for it all. Gratitude is good and appropriate. Just as my daughter should say thank you, as well as hopefully feel genuinely appreciative, for the birthday gifts she receives today, I need to be thankful for each gift God gives me. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good. Circumstances will change and some of the things I am thankful for today will change too. But for today, I can be thankful for them all. And for eternity, I can be thankful that the things which should produce the greatest gratitude, will not change and will last forever.

You are my God, and I will give You thanks;

you are my God, and I will exalt You.
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

His love endures forever.
Psalm 118:28,29

* * *

P.S. I am also thankful I thought to use spell check before walking away from this -- how embarassing to keep misspelling "gratitude" on a thankful post! Did you know it wasn't a double"t"?

It's All in the Presentation

2007-11-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

This picture has nothing to do with anything I am planning to write, I just thought it might make whatever I end up writing appear more interesting at first glance. I think that would be considered a marketing ploy.

A couple of weeks ago, I received something in the mail addressed to my husband & I. It was from my mother-in-law. Upon opening it, I discovered it contained an article entitled, "Sex and the Mind". It is not uncommon for Scott's mom to send us articles, and quite common for her to give us advice, but she had never sought to advise us in this particular subject matter. I was a tad concerned as I waved it in front of my husband and shrieked, "Look what your mother sent us!"

However, upon reading further, I realized the article was drawing attention to a study about the relationship between caffeine and dementia. Apparently those who drink several cups of coffee each day fare much better when it comes to preventing the onset of dementia. The article also cited the disparity of results between men and women, noting that the effect was more dramatic in women. Thus, the article had nothing to do with what I'd originally thought, and everything to do with the differences of gender in this study on the mind. Technically, "Sex and the Mind" was an accurate title, but I rather doubt accuracy was the goal here, rather a carefully crafted marketing ploy to draw in extra readers and give unsuspecting daughter-in-laws the willies!

After I was able to get beyond the title, I actually found the article rather inspiring and have looked upon caffeinated coffee as somewhat of a health marvel ever since. I hope it does not turn out that Starbucks was the one sponsoring the study and monitoring the results...gotta be careful of these marketing ploys!

Santa in October

2007-10-31T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hey guess what, I saw Santa Clause walking to school today. He had a genie by his side. I know the stores started setting out their Christmas merchandise the end of August, but it seemed a little early to see him strolling down the street in his signature red suit...

I scheduled in an appointment on my outlook calendar to write a post today -- I thought if I at least get one up each month during those less-than-prolific times of writing, that would be somewhat respectable and possibly alleviate comparisons to the beloved June & Fundie. I was going to write about diets, or as Garfield would say, "die with a t". Beamer, our toy fox terrier who resembles a stout sausage, is on a diet. He has been banned from doing dishes. It is quite a heartbreaking development in his life and could have merited a humorous (from my perspective) post, but seeing Santa Clause walk by just took my thoughts another direction.

With my youngest now officially a teen, I was kind of hoping my days of thinking about Halloween costumes were over. And in some ways they are, because instead of it being a consuming project involving trips to the fabric store and hours at the sewing desk, the kids have been on their own in recent years. For some reason the lure of free candy is a more powerful message than my, "You're too old to trick-or-treat". So they keep coming up with costumes. But it is not just them -- for the third year in a row, that stout sausage I mentioned above has also worn a costume. Unfortunately for him, there is no lure of free candy, just an evening walk with too many starts and stops.

Though Beamer no doubt wishes Michelle would stop buying him costumes (it is not me!), all things considered, this year he did better than in the past. The photo above shows one of Michelle's boards from her Expository speech and chronicles some of Beamer's wardrobe. His first Halloween costume, once again purchased by Michelle, was a pumpkin hat complete with little pumpkin garters to go around each of his four ankles. When Michelle decked him out in that one and then tried to take him for a walk, he just sat down on the street and refused to go any further. A dog has limits you know. After that, she mercifully lost the garters, but the hat is with us to this day. As soon as he can work it off, he grabs it in his teeth and shakes it for dear life.

Last year Beamer was garbed in a fisherman's, or fisherdog's, vest and hat. Very cute. Not quite as bad as the pumpkin. And, luckily for the sausage, he outgrew that one and it now fits only Squiggy.

So, considering his history, the Count Dracula cape Michelle lovingly purchased for her little dog this year is quite an improvement. It has panache. It commands a little respect. No pumpkin hat for this tough dog!

I took Beamer out to photograph him in his dapper cape. He patiently sat for me while I snapped a shot or two. Although he was obeying my command to sit, there was no way he was going to look at me. He had his eye on that ninja cat approaching from behind.

Some of you may recall previous posts on Squiggy. He is the crooked tail cat Michelle adopted for her birthday last year. What a little character. Although he continues to be gentle in keeping his claws padded, he has developed into quite the scourge of the other Rowland's pets. He's technically an adult yet he has remained quite small, and very playfully kitten-like. If he'd been a human, he would have made a great junior high youth pastor.

Beamer always has a careful eye out for Squiggy, who takes great delight in ambushing him whether it be as he climbs the stairs, or happens to pass an innocent looking box in the kitchen, or just walks past the couch. Think Cato in the Pink Panther movies -- although he appears so sweetly innocent at times, this orange ball of fluff is one persistent ninja. Just ask Beamer!

So there you go. Hopefully this post will not be front and center on my blog until the end of November. It is possible that before then I will be inspired to share something a little more profound. God has taught me much these last several months and put me into a ministry that is stretching me like never before, forcing me to depend on Him to a greater degree, and causing me to marvel as I see His faithfulness demonstrated over and over. Maybe some of those thoughts will reveal themselves in a future post. Until then, just be glad Michelle is not buying your Halloween costumes!

Oh, and BTW, about the Santa costume...Beamer's done that one too.

3,588

2007-09-23T23:04:00.001-07:00

In my previous post about the Charles M. Schultz museum, I mentioned the incredible tile comic strip mural but left out some of the nitty-gritty details. I told you to look them up yourself on the internet. Well, when it comes to finding things on the internet, I am a little in awe of Kludge. He found the following link if you were just wishing for a photo blow-by-blow of the construction process.
http://www.schulzmuseum.org/otani/ (If you want a tidier title -- check out the comments below the previous post).

And, in the course of looking through the photos, I discovered exactly how many tiles...3,588 . Thanks Kludge.

BTW, the above picture has nothing to do with the mural except that it is yet another picture of us visiting the museum. I have been influenced by my dear niece, Sarah, and just feel like a post without a picture is sadly lacking.

Sparky's Place

2007-09-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Good grief, I am exhausted! Today was a special day for our family...my baby turned 13! I now officially have three teens. Today was also the day our homeschool group scheduled a visit to the Charles M. Schultz museum. I do not make it to many field trips anymore -- staying on top of our school work while juggling all of our activities leaves little time for learning enrichment act ivies known as field trips. But this sounded like a perfect opportunity to do something we had never done before, with the added draw of getting to see all the Snoopy statues together on the field adjoining the museum. They are there awaiting a big auction this coming Saturday.

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the museum. In most of the exhibit rooms you are not allowed to take pictures, but this incredible mural on the bottom floor was one of the exceptions. It was designed by a Japanese artist and is constructed from thousands of four panel Peanuts comic strips printed onto small tiles. The artist spent two years selecting the strips for the mural having to search especially diligently for ones which would have just the right amount of black in them to create Lucy and Charlie Brown.
Once he selected the strips, he laid them out on a gym floor in Japan and numbered each one, then sent them to America to be assembled according to his instructions. I was going to look up the technical details for you but I'm too tired -- I'm sure you can get them online. I bet Kludge can even find some video documenting the whole thing! So go for it. I just want to tell you it is very impressive in person and a lot of fun to look at close up as well!

We had two very sweet docents--a couple who have been married "forever", raised 8 children, and are obviously very taken with the life and artwork of Sparky. (No one calls him Charles Schultz there). The girls and I gave the museum 2 thumbs up!

After the museum tour, we wandered outside and took pictures of the kite eating tree. Very cute--unless you're a kite! Next it was onto the snoopys--I had downloaded my memory stick that very morning so I was equipped to take all the pictures my heart desired. Seeing the many statues together in one place was pretty cool. The girls posed with a couple of them. The final picture shows one of Michelle's favorites. When you're a collector and lover of cows, what could be better than bovine Joe Cool?

If you are a Sonoma County resident that has not visited the museum yet, go ahead and treat yourself to something others are traveling out-of-state as well as out-of-country, to visit. We found it very worthwhile.

I wish I could think of something clever to add to this and make it worth reading, but good grief, it's hard to be clever when you're exhausted!

Some Late Night Reflections on 9-11

2007-09-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it is 9-11 again. I thought this morning about writing a post weighing the events of six years ago, after all, it is important to remember. I was not sure what I would say though. I wrote a contemplative post last year for the 5th anniversary, and although it was not exceptionally profound, I did not know what else I could say. So I gave up on the idea.

Tonight however, Scott began watching a MSNBC broadcast of the same exact footage that had been shown as events unfolded that fateful day. We began watching shortly after the second plane had crashed into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center. It was surreal to view it again and listen to the commentators wondering whether or not it was a terrorist strike. The towers had yet to collapse, the Pentagon had not been attacked yet, and Tom Brokaw spoke of the six confirmed dead and over 1,000 injured. It was hideous knowing that this was just the beginning. As tragic as those six deaths were, what was to come would be exponentially worse. Even though we knew exactly what would happen next, it was horrifying to see it again, especially watching those towers collapse, smoke, dust and rubble billowing everywhere. It is difficult to put into the words the feelings that were evoked by that rebroadcast.

It is too late in the evening for me to construct an elegant segue to Isaiah 40:28, but as I was sorting through feelings about 9-11, this verse was what came to mind. My very favorite part of it is at the end:

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and His understanding no one can fathom.

Recently I made a desktop picture that coupled this verse with one of my father's photographs like the one below. I included one definition of fathom which says, "to plumb the depths of". God does reveal Himself to us in so many wonderful ways through His word and His creation -- He gives us understanding about Himself. But we, like a diver in the deepest part of the ocean, will never reach the bottom and completely fathom, or plumb the depths of, God's understanding.

All that to say, that though I cannot make sense of an event like 9-11, I find great comfort in trusting the wisdom and unfathomable understanding of the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

Time Flies When You're Raising Children

2007-09-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

The other morning, I was praying for my children and thumbing through the prayer tags I had made this summer. When I saw this picture of my first born I got a little sentimental. After all, sitting on the kitchen table were his senior proofs for the yearbook. Where does the time go?

***

When my children were very young and the job of raising them was very physically wearing, at times it felt like my life would be like that forever. There is only 4 1/2 years between my oldest and youngest, so when Michelle was a baby, everytime I went in public with the three of them I was sure to get a "Boy you have your hands full" comment -- and it was true, I did! But all of the sudden, without even realizing it, we entered a new phase. We could now sit in a restaurant and it was okay if the food did not come immediately. We were able to get in the car without hauling double our bodies' weight worth of gear. Our children started taking responsibility for their own actions and cleaning up after themselves. Oh, whoops, haven't arrived at that one yet--but we can sit in restaurants for longer.

***

I know that the majority of my eight readers either have small children at home, or are expecting their arrival within the next year. I know you've heard it often, but treasure this time. It disappears so quickly, so savor each moment. Even the trying times can prove very entertaining on a blog! You may feel as if you will be picking up legos for the rest of your life (come to think of it -- we're still doing that too) but your time with your children will go so quickly. Enjoy!

***

Sons are a heritage from the LORD,

children a reward from him.
Psalm 127:3

Skills Needed

2007-08-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Well my baby has less than a month to go before she is officially a teen. Of course she has thought of herself as a teen for years, so really this is all just a formality. Tonight we made a trip to Verizon to check out a cell phone for said almost-teen's quickly approaching birthday. It turned out that the $50 rebate on the phone will be expiring in a couple of days, although they might extend it like as not. But just in case Verizon sticks to the stated plan, we went ahead and bought the phone today. Boy did that make our little sweetheart happy. She chipped in a bit of her own $$$ and upgraded her gift to one of the new "Chocolates". This one has a fancy wheel control --the kind used on iPods that I have yet to figure out -- and all sorts of cool features I did not know she needed on a phone, for instance a video camera. But hey, she was able to make a cute video of herself walking around the kitchen and talking about her new phone -- if she's ever famous it might make good You Tube material, and even if she's not, I'll still think it's cute!

***

It makes you realize though that using a phone requires way more skills than it used to.

***

In addition to adding Michelle to our plan, we also upgraded to the plan that included unlimited texting for all users. I am realizing that I need to work on my skills to really master texting. It's not that I've never done it -- I was cool enough to do a little text messaging while on the high school trip in March, especially since I was in the van and did not have to worry about the any of the high schoolers on the bus seeing how long it took me to painstakingly type out each of my letters. I've sent about 3 messages since, because although it was kind of fun, it wasn't covered by my plan,and I'm way too cheap to rack up an extra bill for text messages! Now however, we've got a plan which means I'm getting more for my money if I actually text like crazy!

***

I didn't wait long to get started and sent Michelle a message on her phone while we were still in the car -- it took me approximately 10 minutes to type in a birthday greeting -- it took her .5 seconds to read it back to me upon receiving it. I need to get better at this. Learning to use abbreviated English and forgetting every form of punctuation might be a start.

***

P.S. Wondering about the ***? For some reason I keep losing my new paragraph spacing everytime I preview this. I know there's a way to program in a hard return, but you know, if I could remember how to do that, I'd probably know all about text messaging as well!

Rounding Out the Cultural Literacy

2007-08-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you who echoed my children's response, "Emily who?", here is a bit of education courtesy of that wonder we call the internet!

1873–1960, American authority on etiquette, b. Baltimore. Born into a wealthy family, Post began her literary career as a novelist. Her best-known book, however, is Etiquette (1922), a practical guide to proper social behavior, written in a lively style. Etiquette gained wide popularity and sold over a million copies; the 12th and subsequent revised editions were edited by Post’s granddaughter-in-law, Elizabeth L. Post. Emily Post broadcast on the radio after 1931 and produced a daily column on good taste that was syndicated in more than 200 newspapers.—Columbia Encyclopedia

Now you know who Emily Post is and your cultural literacy is just slightly better rounded!

P.S. For a more interesting look at manners, check out Kludges' 2nd comment on "Emily Who" -- he invoked an authority that is well revered in this house!

Emily Who?

2007-08-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well I think catching up with two months of blogging in one post has rejuvenated my creative process -- either that or I am desperately looking for an excuse to take a mental break from the think/produce intensive three-day weekend I have planned. Actually, even aside from putting off the mental gymnastics, I realized yesterday I am thinking like a blogger again. Here is the scene:

We took advantage of a small window of time and scooted out to Doran Beach for an overnight get away -- one last summer outing before school begins Monday. We snagged a lovely campsite and enjoyed a delightful family time complete with walks on the beach, skim & boogie boarding, barbecued steak, and a game of cards. As a perfect end to our seaside junket, we stopped off at Lucas Wharf on our way home for clam chowder and fish & chips.

It was when I looked across the table and noticed Michelle gnawing away on an enormous slice of french bread that I felt the need to introduce a little Emily Post. I then glanced at Catie and realized she was working on a rather large piece herself. "Kids," I told them, sure they would be grateful for the enlightening I was about to offer, "it isn't polite to eat a large piece of bread like that. You are really supposed to break off a small piece from the larger one you have taken and butter only the small piece. After you eat the small piece, you can take another small piece from your larger piece and butter it for eating." Scott backed me up on this tidbit of refinement. Unfortunately, the younger generation was far from gratefully receiving this genteel exhortation.

"That's stupid." Johnny didn't leave us any doubt about his thoughts.

"That's ridiculous -- it doesn't make any sense." Catie agreed.

Michelle, while not liking it any more that the other two, seemed to be saving her energy for the hamburger she'd ordered rather than throwing herself as wholeheartedly into the disparaging of nonsensical manners. Johnny and Catie, however, had just begun. They proceeded to give all the practical reasons their critically thinking minds could come up with for why this was not only unnecessary but downright irritating as well.

Finally I threw in the towel and told them, "Okay, embarrass yourselves someday if you'd like, but just make sure to tell people your mother told you what was the right thing to do."

"Oh sure, she told me when I was 17." Johnny commented.

Hmmm, I could see my parenting was not going to emerge well from this one. This is when my blogger mind started to kick in. "Hey, maybe this would make an entertaining post." Once again offer a couple of people an opportunity to peek into my world and feel grateful for their own!

As my older two continued to mock the concept of the small pieces of bread, Catie began cutting her french fries into minute pieces and eating them with a fork, saying, "This is the polite way to eat french fries." Johnny then bemoaned the fact he did not have a tiny glass to pour some of his water in to drink a small thimbleful at a time.

It was a sad hour for Emily Post. My kid's response: Emily who?

Guilt-ridden Blogger

2007-08-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't say that I'm a once-again inspired blogger, but I am feeling a little bad that I have not posted anything since June, so I'm going to tell my readers what I've done over my summer vacation. Sound riveting? Just you wait...

* * *

Well, in early July, as alluded to in my last post, we went to Family camp and spent several days with some fellow bloggers which resulted in the rejuvenating of my creative juices to the point where I was bursting forth with abundant posts just waiting to get out...well...not really...but I did have a very good time. This first picture is one of the MANY Settler's of Catan games we played during the week. I believe that Scott and Chris are in a dispute over the interpretation of the rules as this photo was taken. If my memory serves me right, Sarah won this game. Johnny wasn't actually playing, but did play the next night. Maybe Chris, Jeremy or Josh would like to blog about that game!

* * *

After family camp, we enjoyed a visit from June and The Fundamentalist That Never Blogs, and their three charming children, including my niece who's about to leave for college. We had an enjoyable time but it did not inspire a return to the blogosphere -- although word has it that Christian's dancing at cousin Johnny's wedding would have merited quite the post! Or better yet, You Tube!

* * *

In the middle of the Graves visit, we had Vacation Bible school. Michelle & I taught 4th grade with Debbie Lin -- we had a blast! Catie enjoyed the realization of one of her dreams and had a starring role as one of the main characters in the VBS skits. Needless to say, she ate it up. I took about 350 pictures during the week and made a new slide show for my class to view each day complete with music and silly effects.

* * *

Well, the same day that four of the Graves flew back to Indiana, we took the remaining Graves the fair. Since 2004, I have worn the shame of being the only member of my immediate family to never have received a blue ribbon at the fair. Even my dear husband won a blue three years ago for his pound cake. It's been a source of genuine, unadulterated pride for him ever since. During VBS week, I got a call from Debbie to tell me that the stamped Bible verse/prayer cards I entered had received a Best of Show.

When I got off the phone, I told my family, "Guess how one of my entries did at the fair?" Scott turned and said, in a rather condescending voice, "Did you finally get a blue ribbon?" I answered no, but did not elaborate, to which he responded, "Oh, that's too bad. You still don't have a blue ribbon," and then under his breath he muttered, "like I do." It was at this point that one of the kids said, "Did you get a Best of Show?" The look on Scott's face as I nodded yes was a better prize than the ribbon. Speaking of that very large ribbon, I have had fun displaying it prominently in our room!

I must say too, all the kids did well with their entries, and Catie entered the little doll dress she had crocheted last September that impressed me so much. Apparently it also impressed the judges because she too ended up with a Best of Show. You go girl!

* * *

And finally, the last big event of our summer vacation was our family trip to Spirit West Coast held at Laguna Seca in Monterrey. For three days we had the opportunity to enjoy non-stop Christian concerts and speakers. We only attended a fraction of what was available but still managed to see quite a bit. We camped with several other familes on a high, windy and foggy bluff that overlooked the race track. If you have teens and can brave the porta-potties and loud music, I recommend it as a family adventure. The two pictures I am including from SWC are of dodging Captain Crunch at the Newsboys Concert and one of David Crowder on the jumbotron. Getting to see what David Crowder (whom I called David Chowder the entire time) looks like was one of the educational aspects of our SWC experience. Honestly though, he put on a good concert.

So there you have it -- two months worth of blogging in one fell post. I guess I can graduate from guilt-ridden to caught up.

Uninspired Blogger

2007-06-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

Wow -- I did not realize it had been a month since I had posted. To tell you the truth, I have not been thinking much about my blog. I have gone from looking at life through the lens of a blogger, viewing every happening with a, "Hmmm, I wonder if I could work this into my next post...", to sort of forgetting I have a blog.

Although the creative and motivational juices are not flowing strongly, I do have a funny incident that is possibly worthy of a post. This month the girls have the privilege of watching cousin Bekah for six days spread over the course of three weeks. The above picture is of Michelle giving Bekah her breakfast this past Monday. Do you detect just a tad bit of apprehension and fear on her face? That is because a couple of minutes prior to this picture, Michelle had just raised a spoonful to Bekah's mouth when Bekah suddenly sneezed. My did Michelle shriek as she discovered herself splattered with green Gerber mixed veggies. Bekah looked at her with a puzzled sort of, "What's her problem?" look. Although I thought the whole thing was hysterical, I proved helpful as we cleaned up the mess (looks like we missed Bekah's leg) and found an apron for Michelle to protect herself during the rest of the feeding.

It was pretty funny and Bekah is just the cutest little baby ever...but I'm still pretty uninspired about blogging.

Anyhoo, maybe after spending next week at Family camp among fellow bloggers, I'll get my inspiration back and at least go online and leave a comment or two.

"Squiggy, Come!"

2007-05-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, Aunt Trish brought the kids a "Fun With Your Cat" kit. Included in the contents was a book containing several activities you can do with your cat to observe Cat behavior and even train them. Yes, you read that correctly, train a cat. While most of the activities held little interest for me, "The Cat's Meow" in which you teach your cat to come on command, sounded like a practical idea. With Squiggy just beginning to go outside by himself, I could think of many good reasons it would be helpful to be able to call him and have him come. So I set out to train him and sure enough, within a couple of days, he was coming when I would call. This of course was rewarded with a tiny bit of tuna each time he came. Beamer, our toy fox terrier, picked up on the benefits of coming when I said, "Squiggy Come" much quicker than the object of my training. Whenever there is food involved, Beamer is one smart doggie! Obedient too!

When I want to locate our orange kitty, I call "Squiggy, come!" Within seconds there is a scramble of toenails and I know it will not be long before the enthusiastic figure of Beamer makes his appearance. I continue calling "Squiggy, come" while Beamer sits beside me, actually shaking with anticipation for the small nibble of tuna he will receive after Squiggy eventually shows up. I continue calling, "Squiggy, come" several more times, until finally, a small orange figure lazily makes his entrance, while Beamer sits barely able to restrain himself. After Squiggy sniffs a bit at the tuna, seeming to weigh whether or not it's really worth eating, he will then delicately lick the morsel. After a while, I turn to Beamer so he can inhale his small bit. Often Beamer will then lick Squiggy's mouth, just in case he left a little behind. The cat is located, and the dog as well for that matter, and thus ends a successful session of "Squiggy, come."

BTW, if you would like an entertaining look at the difference between the way dogs and cats approach mealtime, may I suggest "Kibble Run" for your viewing pleasure? We really should have named the dog "Hooover" instead of "Beamer"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4919iXJ85Q

Got Comments?

2007-05-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

I have no idea why my previous post has no place for comments!! I've looked through my dashboard with all the completeness that a limited attention span combined with a woeful lack of tech savvy (what's the matter with interweb?) can muster. Oh well...if you were so very moooooved by my tea party saga that you feel compelled to comment, you are certainly free to do so in this space.

The Spice of Life

2007-05-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I hosted a lovely tea party for 1st grade mothers. My sister-in-law had tried to purchase a tea party I had donated to a school auction, but had been out-bid. She asked if she could hire me to do another one for her fellow 1st grade moms. I had neither the time, nor the desire to say yes. Although I love doing tea parties, doing one I was paid for sounded awful. Truth be told, I don't even know what the definition of a high tea is. I don't know which direction is the proper way to pass food and I don't even know how long you're supposed to steep tea! I just like pretty tea cups and fancy little sandwiches and making people feel pampered. But when someone pays for something, they have expectations, and with that comes a different level of pressure. Anyway, I worked out a deal with my sister-in-law. I offered her a date for this weekend since Scott & the girls would be away at a Father/Daughter retreat. She would bring all the food, I'd set the pretty table and wait on them, and no money would be exchanged! Win, win if you ask me.

With Scott and the girls gone, and Johnny hidden away with a pizza & Play Station, I was able to turn all my attention to the tea party. It was very fun and I enjoyed meeting the mothers of first graders that were able to attend. Would you believe they have FOUR SETS OF TWINS in that class? (Three sets on campus and one set in the independent study program.)

One of my favorite things about a tea party is how utterly feminine and dainty everything is. After my guests left, I tackled the dishes. It is the only time I actually enjoy doing dishes -- "feminine and dainty" even make dishes more satisfying!

I went to bed quite late, topping of my girly evening with a couple of chapters of Anne of Green Gables. I've been reading it aloud to the girls and we're all thoroughly enjoying it. Since Saturday was one of those VERY RARE days where I could basically call the day my own, I allowed myself to read into the wee hours of the morning.

When I awoke, very lazily, and headed down to make myself a cappuccino, I discovered we had been TP'd in the night. Wow, twice in one month. There were no clues this time. It might have been the girls' friends, having taken up the challenge Catie practically dared them to at the end of her post about catching the last TPers, or it could have been Johnny's nemesis, recently back from college. Either way, it didn't take long for Johnny & I to clean it up. I made the tree my special project and had fun using the ladder to get up into the branches. I asked Johnny to take a picture of me in the tree, but he was busy rolling TP into one huge ball. Being much more comfortable BEHIND the camera, I'm not in the habit of asking to have my picture taken and was not willing to ask twice.

Like I said, it was easy to clean up and fortunately this time, it did not cost me any sleep.

***

Cleaning up a yard of TP is a far cry from tea parties, nothin' feminine & dainty about that, but as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life.

P.S. One of the funnier aspects of this came later in the day when I happened to meet my elderly neighbor at the mailbox. He asked if we'd had a party the night before. I said yes and told him I'd had some ladies over for tea. Then I realized he might be referring to the TP that garlanded the yard until about 11:00 that morning. "Oh, and we were TP'd in the night."

He looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked, "Who does that?"

"The kid's friends." I answered, but sensing this did not clear anything up for him, I added, "It's just something that happens when you have teenagers in your house." Although he did not press for further explanation, I could tell he found the whole thing rather troubling. Hopefully he won't have occasion to be troubled by TP in our yard for a long time to come!!

A Few Comparison Shots

2007-05-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well this post was birthed after reading the following two comments on a previous post about my mother.

Megan C. said...
First of all, a very sweet tribute. Secondly, can I just say that at first glance at the "brady" picture, it looks like Johnny and Christian dressed up as girls. I cannot believe how much they each look like their mothers! Wow!!! I would love to see a comparison of them at those ages beside the picture you posted.

It took a little work on my part, but I tracked down some photos of approximately the same age. I think Johnny and I are both in the "sixish" range in the top two photos. I am the one in red. His red bow is actually the top of Michelle's head -- the picture is taken from our 1996 Grandkids Christmas picture and really merits a post all its own.

Jody and Christian, the middle row photos, are both in the "threeish" range. Christian's shot is from our 1997 Grandkids Christmas photo -- not as story filled as 1996, but always an adventure!

Drama Queen said... Happy mothers day all you mothers out there! i am strong in my belief that the first picture resembles me when i was that age. yup, know you know where the good looks came from...

The bottow row is of my mom on her bicylcle at a young age. Catie is on her bicycle at the age of four. I know the bike helmet and lack of contrast make it hard to compare features, but Catie was blessed with coloring that does not scan well. My appraisal is that Catie shares Grandma's coloring but inherited Grandpa's even rounder head.

So there you go Megan. I have to admit there are some striking similarities. Maybe you'll have a little boy that will look just like you! That zoo shot is awfully cute.

Fundie Update

2007-05-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

Did you know The Fundamentalist That Never Posts is up to 36 comments on his July joke??? I only point this out because I noticed that his wife, My Sister Who Has Resolved to Post, is up to 25 comments on her January post resolving to post more often. I was going to add an extra few comments to hers and put her ahead of her husband, so I went and checked his blog to see what he is up to and was shocked to see him almost pushin' 40! It is in a large part due to Kludge, of Kludge Spot fame, and his many comments he left. They are worth reading -- quite witty in fact! But you'd hardly expect less from a fellow that received 2000 hits on his blog this past weekend!!!! Even with lists pooping up his site, he is on a roll!

Our Cute Little Mother

2007-05-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Today is a day we have set aside to honor those very special people in our life we call "Mother". I am blessed to call a wonderful and delightful lady my mother. I recently went to a ladies retreat with her and cannot count the many people that mentioned to me, "Your mom is so cute", or "Your mom is so fun to be with", or "I just love your mom". I have to agree -- she's cute, fun to be with, and I just love her. One of the "mixers" at our ladies retreat involved answering several questions for the other ladies at your table. The question which drew the best response was something like, "When were you most embarrassed by something one of your children did?" It's amazing how much material we give our moms to answer a question like that And yet, they love us anyway. Although I honestly believe my sister gave my mom more material for that question, I certainly gave her plenty to work with. Rather than tattling on myself further though, I think I'll just share a few pictures and then try to quickly sum up some of the many reasons my mom is a woman to be honored.

This first picture is one of my very favorites. What a cute little girl my mom was! No wonder people still think she's cute. The foot ware might clue you in that her childhood was not exactly a "princess" experience.

This next picture could be called her "Carol Brady" years. Doesn't she just look like a young version of Florence Henderson? And don't Jody and I look just like Cindy & Marcia? Well, maybe not...

The final picture is one of our complete family of five. My brother did not come along until I was 10 -- it is a tribute to my lack of vanity that I am willing to post this picture when he is the only cute one in it. This phase for my mom was the "Big black glasses phase". I remember my Uncle used this picture to put on the cover of a brochure for a family retreat his church was doing -- he chose it because it looked like a family who really enjoyed one another. That's true, we did. I guess enjoying one another was more important than looking good!

Mom has left behind her "Carol Brady" and "Big black glasses" phases. She's now in our "Cute little mother" phase. She's always been tiny, but has grown more so in the past several years. My thoughtful son has informed her that she is legally a midget and should apply to the DMV for a special parking placard. She spends much of her time these days fussing over my dad -- their love for one another and enjoyment of each other's company is one of my greatest treasures!

Although her life has had many phases, some things have remained constant. Even more important than her love for her family has been her love for her Lord. Ever since she discovered that she is "God's beloved princess" through the ministry of Young Life years ago, her love for her Heavenly Father and her Savior, Jesus Christ, have been key to her identity and have enabled her to be the wonderful wife and mother we know her to be. She is and has been a godly example to us, a prayer warrior for us, a cheerleader beside us--a blessing from the Lord.

Proverbs 31:26 - 28

She speaks with wisdom,

and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:

Never a Dull Moment

2007-05-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

I'm home from San Jose. Actually, I'm also home from Konocti, and from the ladies' retreat as well. As I was pocketing the pen from my room at the ladies retreat, it hit me that it was the third complimentary pen I'd collected from hotel rooms in the space of a week. Maybe the norm for a traveling salesman, but not for a "stay at home mom".

The picture to the left is of three of the handsome gentlemen from the RVCS tennis team who were getting ready to dump water on the cute young ladies of the RVCS tennis team while we were at Konocti. It was in retaliation for the tennis balls the girls had thrown in on them through the removed screen window that morning while they were still sleeping. That of course was in retaliation for the stolen purses, which was in retaliation for...actually, I've lost track of what that was in retaliation for, but you get the idea. It made for an eventful three days! (And for the record, the girls started it!)

But I digress, because this blog is really about my version of the same story my girls have each blogged recently. My apologies for the redundancy but it was too good not to recount. It really began Sunday evening as I was chatting with Johnny's history teacher. She made mention of the fact that the seniors (her son being one of them) were going to be out until all hours of the night TPing the Juniors. Now the thought occurred to me that since Johnny is a junior, our chances of being TP'd that night were rather good. However, I didn't know if all the juniors would be targeted and I hated to ruin a time-honored tradition by spilling information I do not think I was supposed to have had, so therefore I chose not to mention it to the rest of the family. By the time I went to bed (late -- Johnny had three papers due the next morning and I stayed up late with him to offer moral support) I had forgotten anyway.

It was just before three a.m. that Michelle burst into our room to let us know, in a hushed voice, that we were being TP'd. Scott reacted quickly thinking this was a great opportunity to try out his new birthday gift -- a really fancy airsoft mega weapon. I have never been particularly good at thinking coherently when awakened in the middle of the night, and in my defense, I had spent five of the previous nine nights in a hotel room with different roommates. But anyway, I spent the next several minutes worrying that Michelle was going to wake up whatever lady was sleeping in the next bed. Still in a fog, I padded into Catie's bedroom, all the while being warned by the girls to be very quiet, and took a peek at the scallywags TPing our front yard. As I watched the two girls casually decorating our car, I was aware that the rest of the family was downstairs ready to make their move. I awaked enough to call down (quietly) and tell Scott NOT to shoot ANYONE. I then took up my post in the window and watched as I heard Scott open the door, yell out to the girls and fire a round. The girls dropped their TP & scattered, one behind the car & the other out of my line of vision. Then I saw Catie charging down our driveway and chasing down one of the fleeing girls. I could hear the car start and speed away. Curious about the one still hiding, I was surprised to see Catie return to our driveway and run straight behind our car, flushing out the hiding vandal. She then chased her down the street and managed to pull off her hood before she too fled away in her car. Our girls then retrieved all the abandoned TP and were contemplating heading up to TP our neighbor's house when I ordered them inside. It was about this time that I hear a sleepy voice from Johnny's bedroom call, "Hey, what's going on?" He, who all this FUN had been aimed at, slept through the whole thing.

So about 3:20, everyone retreated to their beds completely wide awake...I for one stayed wide awake for a VERY LONG TIME. The next morning was quite difficult in my sleep-deprived state. I know the rest of the family thoroughly enjoyed the experience surprising the TPers, but once was enough for me. I hope next time we get TP'd, we sleep through it.

Got GPS?

2007-04-27T22:23:00.000-07:00

The girls and I are currently in San Jose for a championship speech tournament. This is a picture of us after they'd finished their second rounds -- Catie is not really taller than me yet, but she's sure coming close. She must have been on tiptoes for this shot. It's been an exciting year for them in speech and I'm so proud of how hard they've worked and how much they've accomplished. Sounds pretty braggy compared to my usual confessions--but it's hard not to let a little of that slip in occasionally.

Okay, time for the confessions. Since my last post was dedicated entirely to my husband's driving, this one will deal with mine. Actually, it will deal with my lack of direction that becomes painfully apparent when I'm traveling. I kind of get lost really easily. We don't even want to think where I might have ended up driving in Mexico!

Scott, being the wonderful husband he is, lets me take his car when I travel without him so I can take advantage of his Global Positioning System (GPS). All I can say is PRAISE THE LORD FOR GPS!! It's not foolproof, because this fool still manages to get lost at least one time each trip, even with Roz (that's what the girls named the nice GPS voice yesterday) politely warning me, "Prepare to turn left in 600 feet". I get a little mixed up at times about what 600 feet actually looks like and end up on a wrong road. Even so, Roz is very patient with me and quickly adjusts to our new location and tells me how to get back where I want to be. Tonight, even though I was thoroughly lost on the San Jose freeway system in the dark, it was comforting to know Roz was looking out for me and working her best to get me turned around and headed in the right direction again. Yes, PRAISE THE LORD FOR GPS!!!

I was lobbying for a pearl necklace for Mother's Day. I've changed my mind. I want the necklace, but I need GPS.

My Husband's Legendary Driving

2007-04-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

Before I dive in to my subject at hand, let me take care of a few items...

1. Sorry to those of you who need updated links -- that will come soon, I promise. Just remember that "soon" is a relative term.

2. Every one's healthy here & the transmission is working again. It turned out it was a problem with the car's computer...scary thought...

Now back to my chosen subject...my husband's legendary driving. There are so many things I could write about our Mexico trip, but this is the one that caught my fancy for today.

Upon his return from the Mexico mission trip last year, rumor quietly circulated, and I quote, that "Scott drives like a Mexican." Actually it was loudly proclaimed to the whole church at the Sunday Evening Mexico report, and not by just one person. Knowing him to be a generally good driver here in the states, I wasn't entirely sure what folks were implying. It didn't appear to be a compliment and I wasn't sure who should feel more insulted, my husband or Mexican drivers.

Now that I have gone to Mexico and experienced his driving first hand, I have a little better idea what to think. Just like a resident of a place drives with greater assurance and inside knowledge than a visitor, my husband drove with a bold confidence in his own abilities that was not always shared by his passengers. His reputation was further enhanced by the fact he drove the "vaca van" -- a van belonging to one of the churches that possessed a charm all its own. It has one really funky seat near the back that faces to the rear of the car instead of forward. It is not as firmly latched to the floor of the car as we are accustomed to so it lurches back or forward or sideways depending upon where the rest of the van is headed. It is somewhat like riding Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland. All in all, it was a ton of fun if you were not thinking too seriously about whether or not that life insurance policy actually got paid on time. The vaca van also boasts a stool that most of the time stays in one place, but has been known to go sliding at a quick stop. The interior is rather primitive and became more so this past trip when Paul Bartholow tried to adjust the ventilation. Combine this unique vehicle with a driver supremely confident in his own skills and a passenger load of high schoolers egging him on and it is easy to understand how he earned and maintained his reputation.

He and I worked in separate villages so I did not ride in the vaca van often. I did ride home with him twice though after the taco stand and the Chinese restaurant. I willingly chose the fun, lurching seat and would actually like one for my own car -- as soon as I make sure that life insurance really did get paid!

And in case you're wondering, especially those of you who experienced his "incredible linguistic acumen" in Ecuador, although he drives like a Mexican, he still speaks like a gringo.

I'm back...sort of...

2007-04-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hey I'm back from Mexico -- I was glad I said there would be no further posts until AFTER April 16. I'm wishing I'd set the date back a little further, but technically, ANY date AFTER April 16 would qualify.

Mexico was awesome and deserving of several posts. However, I am presently wading through thousands of pictures to create a 5 - 10 minute slide show for this coming Sunday. I brought my laptop with me and tried to make it easy for folks to load their memory sticks onto my hard drive so I'd have lots of good photos and a good representation to work with. The picture to the left is one Sherry Reed took and I really liked it--it will make the slide show cut! There are still several more memory sticks out there that didn't make it onto my laptop, but I could not look through any more before Sunday! I think this is a good time to apply one of my husband's favorite philosophical phrases, "What it is, is what it is."

So, definitely more Mexico to follow. Just a peek into my world for today -- Scott & Johnny both got sick AFTER we returned from Mexico. Poor Johnny went to a Christian concert in San Francisco the same day we returned. We got a call from a desperate young man who began throwing up soon after arriving at The Filmore Theater. Scott & I did the good parent thing and drove down to bring him home. Our transmission broke on the way out of SF and we drove the rest of way home wasting a ton of gas and never going faster than 50. Scott got sick the next day...fortunately AFTER the Sunday School class he was teaching. Johnny stayed home Monday & Tuesday but he is definitely on the mend. He was feeling good enough this afternoon to be really ornery. His antics included posting a video he took with his new camera on his blog. It was of his sister singing, unaware that a stalker had the camera aimed at her. I know at least one person saw it before he was forced to delete it. I would do the same thing to him if I knew how, but since I don't, we had to lay down some new guidelines about what you can & cannot post.

For all of those who prayed for Mexico, and for the Utah Mission trip my girlies went on (you can read about it on Catie's blog) I would like to say "Thank You"! It was exciting to see God work in so many ways and I felt privileged to be a part of it.

Out to Lunch

2007-03-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Faithful readers,

Just wanted to let all four of you know that I will be out to lunch for a few weeks. I will return, both to posting, and to reading all my favorite blogs (see link sidebar) sometime after April 16th.

Surely after such a long hiatus, my writing will be bursting with fresh wit and insight! (If not, I've got a back up plan.)

Until then, Jennylu would appreciate your prayers -- especially those directed toward the Mexico Mission Trip. God bless!!!

A Very Good Book

2007-03-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

Today I'm not going to share any original thoughts (I can feel the disappointment from you who've grown accustomed to my profound reflections -- especially keen in recent posts) but rather pass on a recommendation for a really good resource. Extreme Devotion is a book put out by Voice of the Martyrs and is written by the same writers that wrote the excellent Jesus Freaks books. Extreme Devotion is a collection of 365 stories of people who stood up for Christ, many at the cost of their own lives. I have found myself very challenged and shamed by the stories of men, women, and children who have been willing to suffer greatly because of their love for Jesus. The story below and commentary that follows are one of the many daily reading that have forced me to think hard about my own life as I compare it to ones who are experiencing real persecution for their faith.

Nadejda Sloboda could hardly contain her enthusiasm. She had just learned about Christ from a shortwave radio program broadcast from Europe. As the first Christian in her Russian village, she desperately wanted to tell all her friends about the God who had miraculously changed her heart. But she knew the local authorities strictly prohibited any talk of God or Christianity. However, Nadejda was unable to contain her zeal, and soon a church was born. When the police were unable to squelch the church’s growth even with road blockades, they arrested Nadejda. But she felt nearer to God than ever before and persisted in sharing Christ even with her fellow prisoners. Because of her refusal to stop talking about Christ, officials put her in a solitary, unheated cell for two months. It was in the middle of winter and Nadejda was not allowed any bedding whatsoever. She was forced to sleep on the cold concrete floor. After she was returned to the common cell, her fellow prisoners asked her how she was able to stand the treatment. She replied, “I fell asleep on the cold concrete floor trusting in God, and it became warm around me. I rested in the arms of God.”

Most Christians can recall a time in their spiritual journey when it seemed like they could never get enough of God and His Word. Spiritual zeal was second nature. Fervor was a constant friend. Yet, somehow our faith grew cold along the way. Perhaps it was persecution that squelched our enthusiasm. Perhaps it was personal tragedy. Or perhaps it was nothing in particular—just ordinary activities that dampened our spirits and reclaimed our priorities. Are the flames of spiritual fervor now merely smoldering ashes? Has your zeal grown dormant? It is possible to ignite a new relationship with God and fuel the fire within. Ask Him to help you warm up to the idea today. (Extreme Devotion, p. 51)

Voice Your Opinion Now

2007-02-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

In bygone days, when I did not have a blog, I thought I had many things to write about. As someone who cherished in her heart of hearts the desire to one day be published, the thought of expressing myself in writing was always a delight.

Seven months into blogging has given me enough insight to not only become Time's Person of the Year, but also to make me realize that people who write well and write often are not just to be envied, they are to be highly respected! Forget the writing well, even thinking of things to write about on a regular basis has become a challenge for this blogger.

All that to say, I have become very grateful when an idea pops into my head, especially for an easy post! So thank you Kludge for today's comment on my previous post, "Some Very Good Reasons". His comment ended with this observation and then a question:

Cool, Catan! That game has spread like wildfire since Brian and Esther first showed it to Patricia and I. So favorite expansion? I think I'm for Seafarers...

As soon as I read this the lightbulb turned on... ask fellow bloggers to name their favorite Catan expansion. But Before I ask you to express your opinion in your comments, I will go on record as saying "Cities & Knights" is my favorite. I love the city improvements and being able to say, "I'm going to flip". I also like the extra cards you can earn with just a roll of the dice.

And now, drumroll please, for all you Catan players out there, "What is your favorite Catan expansion?" (It shouldn't be a highly difficult question since as far as I can tell from the Mayfair Games catalogue, there are only two choices.) Voice your opinion now!

Some Very Good Reasons

2007-02-20T18:36:00.000-08:00

I need to fess up that I feel a little guilty. It seems slightly unfair that the time I take my longest leave of absence from blogging, I left a post on top in which I admitted I was tempted to say, "Chris is a goob." Poor Chris. On the other hand, I guess it would have been worse if I'd actually said, "Chris is a goob" instead of just saying I was tempted to say it... okay, I feel better!!

This has been a rather long absence for me. SJ even threatened to rename my link if I didn't post soon. But this time I had a really good reason for neglecting the blogosphere, actually two of them, well, maybe I can even think of three…

First, I had a sick child for several days – what kind of mother would I be if I put blogging ahead of caring for my baby?

Second, we went skiing. (After my baby was well -- barely) All three kids tried out snowboarding for the first time – and we all had a great time. You can check out pictures from the day at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jennylu251/NorthstarFebruary2007

Third, we’ve been busy playing Catan. We now own Settlers, Seafarers, and Knights with corresponding expansion packs. It is so cool! We’ve played four times since it arrived Saturday.

The best part of playing Catan is it that it has given us a great excuse to see a lot more of Chris & Sarah & Bekah. (Even though I’ve been tempted to say Chris is a goob, I really do like him, so seeing more of them is a good thing.)

I think you must I agree, I've had some very good reasons for not blogging. Bottom line -- I've posted again and now maybe SJ won't have to rename my link!

Deep Thoughts

2007-02-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, it's been a week since I last posted, better get something up quick.

I guess I could tell you all how busy I've been, but who isn't busy? Yada, yada, yada...

I could pull the age card -- after all, I'm rather old. But that would be a little whiney.

I think I'll just post a picture I promised Sarah and make a comment about her dear husband. I was complaining the other night about his lack of comments on my posts and he said something like, "I read them. I only comment though if there's something that strikes me as worth commenting about." Good thing he has nothing to lose by putting me in my place. Apparently my being awarded the Time person of the year did nothing to put him in awe of me!

Well, being the mature (that's supposed to come with age, you know) Aunt that I am, I immediately threatened to put up a post he'd have to comment on. Something deep and thought provoking, something that would evoke great emotion and stir up thoughtful diaglogue. Something like, "Chris is a goob."

I threatened of course, but I wouldn't really do it. If Chris chooses not to comment on my posts because they aren't worth commenting on, well that's just fine with me. Just FINE indeed!

P.S. If you're wondering why Bekah has a beard in this picture, you'll have to read Sarah's post about it. The link is to your right...

Living History

2007-01-25T21:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is funny. As many of you know, I have made a point of making myself "29" on my MySpace. I even changed my date of birth so that I stayed "29" after my recent birthday. Additionally, I have written no less than 3 posts in someway bemoaning my age. Obviously it is something I have given some thought to. With this in mind, you can image my reaction when I decided to change my random question on my profile and discovered that according to blogger, my age is 251! The scary thing is I have not edited it in months, so for quite some time, I have been one ancient woman. Wow, 29 on one site, 251 on the other. Hard to reconcile that difference. I don't think even the Beauty Control Wrinkle deflecting bronzer is going to help that!

Well, in spite of what you might think, I got a huge chuckle out of this and made my family all come and check it out. 42 might not be so cool, but 251, that is downright impressive. Once my children realized I was born in 1756, they started asking me questions about life during the revolution. My learned husband then piped up with, "Did Martha Washington really sew the first flag?" To which Johnny responded scornfully, "Martha Washington didn't sew the flag, Betsy Ross did." Scott then went to bed. You'd think he'd be better at history being married to a woman who has lived so much of it.

P.S. I've decided to keep 1756 for my date of birth. I may not look great for 29, but I'd say I'm downright amazing for 251! :)

P.P.S. Ando, if you want any eyewitness accounts for your Past Tense, just let me know.

Go to the Cat Part II

2007-01-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are not fond of cats, my apologies. At the risk of being redundant and thoroughly disgusting a few cat haters, I am going to post more lessons from the cat. To those of you who don't like cats and therefore don't like my post, my response is borrowed from the great Ando. To you I say, "Pppbbbbbbbbbbbbtt." Personally, I think the following advice is downright profound.

"Make friends where you find them." or "If life gives you dogs, make pillows of them."

"Don't cry over spilt milk." Look not at the mess, but rather see the opportunity!

And finally, "When you learn to savor life's simple pleasures you live life like a king."

P.S. Johnny's feeling slighted that I've done two posts in a row on Squiggy. He said, and I quote, "You should do more posts about me." Since I'd like to honor his wishes I will give you Johnny's thoughts on a happy life...NEVER take Algebra II.

P.P.S. Scott's wishful thinking of happiness includes never having to tutor Johnny at Algebra II. Fat chance!

Go to the Cat

2007-01-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

As you perhaps know, we are a two cat, one dog family. If you were to read the Teen Drama Queen's blog, you would also know that one member of our family is lobbying strongly for a hamster. But I digress. What I want to discuss today is a parallel to the Biblical admonition, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!" Proverbs 6:6. Now if God thought there was wisdom to be gained through considering an insect, it is quite possible a cat could teach us a lesson as well.

Just the other night, I was painfully observing my children get upset at each other over the most infinitesimally insignificantly miniscule offenses! I told them, "Come on you guys, be like Squiggy, not like Jinx!" There you have it -- how wise is that?

I guess for the true wisdom of this advice to be fully appreciated, you need to know just a bit about our cats. Squiggy is not easily offended. Jinx is. Squiggy is not bothered by anything. Jinx is bothered by everything. Squiggy, as shown to the right, could have been pretty disgruntled in this picture. After all, Michelle had squeezed him into a doll vest that made him look utterly ridiculous. Even the dog seemed to realize this. He might as well have been wearing a big "kick me" sign. Was Squiggy affronted? Not a bit. Jinx, on the other hand, would have scratched Michelle silly.

This is one mello cat. We have not yet discovered a way to make Squiggy upset -- not that we're trying of course, it just seems that we have made this discovery effortlessly when it comes to everyone else! Our furry little critter is no martyr -- he is one contented kitty. Kind of a feline "don't worry, be happy" approach.

Furthermore, Squiggy's approach to others is very gentle. Though he wrestles regularly with Beamer (our dog), even lying in wait to ambush him unaware, he always pads his claws and never sends Beamer running in fear. And believe me, thanks to Jinx, Beamer has more than a healthy respect for cat claws. Squiggy could have Beamer cowering in a split-second should he so desire. He is the same way in his treatment of the humans in the family, except for the fact that he doesn't ambush us. Not easily offended, gentle with others and loving life besides. What a rare combination!

In conclusion, if you are a sluggard, go to the ant for a lesson. Squiggy would have nothing useful to offer on that subject. However, if you find yourself easily ruffled, "Go to the cat thou thin-skinned mortal; consider his ways and be wise."

Musings from the Birthday Girl

2007-01-18T18:33:00.000-08:00

January brings not only a new year, but also another birthday for yours truly. When I was young, this was cause for great excitement. I never minded being the recipient of more presents so close on the heels of Christmas, quite the contrary! However, with age has come less and less enthusiasm for adding yet another year. I've tried to fight it a bit--if you were to check my MySpace, you would find that I've managed to stay "29" even with the passing of another twelve months. I've been a good customer for BeautyControl and often wear my special bronzer that claims to "deflect light away from wrinkles". Even so, it's pictures like these that remind me time's a marching on no matter what my MySpace says. Normally I would be way too vain to post a picture like this since neither the hair, nor the camera angles, not to mention the lack of make-up, wrinkle deflecting or otherwise, were cooperating in my favor. But the joy of posting the youthful face on the right outweighed my vanity. The girls had made me a birthday dinner and Scott was trying to get a shot of me with the cooks. Johnny was anxious to add his own handsome face to the picture. Since he worked so hard to stretch himself into the photo, I thought it would be a shame not to share it. Here's lookin' at you kid!

Random Thoughts and Announcements

2007-01-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, first for the random announcement, which truly is not so random since it's the only reason I am posting tonight. My son has joined many of our family members and started his own blog. Here's his link: http://highlightofurweek.blogspot.com/ I wish I could say I was his inspiration, but I was not. Rather, it was his Uncle who never posts that inspired this bold move. That leaves only Scott who does not have his own blog. Of course he does have his own website, so maybe that should count for something. Next our dog Beamer is going to start his own blog and give you the real scoop about life with two cats.

The next random thought has to do with this picture. Kind of cute, huh. It was among some other cute pictures that Scott's Uncle sent along. I was thinking it would be a good one for Kludge's caption game, but it also spoke to me because once again we are experiencing computer woes. Did I mention that my son started his own blog today? Did I mention he was not content with the standard templates and tried his hand at some HTML programing to jazz things up a bit? Did I mention he somehow ended up with a profile in Spanish for a short time? Did I mention he finally gave up on the programming? Did I mention the computer he was working on is now completely hosed up? He doesn't believe there is a link, and maybe there isn't. We probably had a mouse crawl up into something that is now affecting my Outlook. Darn mouse!

Johnny thought I should give you Scott's caption for this picture:

"There must be an easier way to get a tattoo."

Feel free to add your own captions. (Apologies Kludge for stealing your idea)

(BTW, apparently the mouse in the picture made it out alive. Just in case you were wondering.)

I've Got Speech Fever

2007-01-10T20:07:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas vacation this year was a little unusual. Because the girls were signed up for a speech and debate tournament in San Diego January 4 - 6, it meant we could not completely take a vacation from school. The preparation for debate alone would have given them a little to do each day, but the expository speeches they were planning to tackle provided the lion's share of the work. According to NCFCA rules, "An Expository Speech is a platform speech that 'exposes' or explains a particular topic through the use of visual aids. The speech must be an original work, scripted word for word...The speaker describes, illustrates, or defines an object, idea, or process using visual aids... Humor and satire are allowed."

Although Catie has known since the beginning of summer that she wanted to do an expository speech on puppets (Michelle just decided to do one on dogs in October), the beginning of December found both girls still writing their speeches and just in the early stages of planning their visual aids. My role in this turned out to be a very active one with my job description including speech editing, design consultant, performance critic, shopper and manual laborer. However, the toughest job by far was cracking the whip one minute, and striving to encourage and inspire the next. In between the Christmas gatherings we hosted, our large dining room table was COVERED with craft supplies and expository visual aids. At several junctures, I did not think we were going to make it! Theoretically, we could have been far better prepared and have just needed to practice & polish a few lines over Christmas vacation. Practically speaking however, I doubt it would be any different next year. What am I saying? How could we possibly consider doing this again next year??? I don't think giving birth was this painful!

Catie's speech contained a segment on the Muppets. As a result of muppets on the brain, we rented Muppet's Christmas Carol and Muppet's Treasure Island over the break. Michelle used the song, "Cabin Fever", as the inspiration for this little poem I found at by one of her boards. It summed up our preparations experience quite well:

I've got speech fever

It's driving me insane

I've got speech fever

I'm afraid I must complain

I 've got speech fever

Can't go on another day

I've got speech fever

I must stop and play!!!

To say we were questioning our sanity was putting it mildly. However, as I sat in Michelle's first expository round, I know the smile on my face was huge. I had the joy of watching her give her very best performance right there in front of the judges. In the end, both girls far exceeded any expectations, advancing not only to semi-finals but then onto finals as well. It was a new experience for the Rowlands family to make it so far and I was so very thankful that God graciously allowed the girls to do it together.

Hmmm. Maybe it was worth it. Like childbirth, I would not be surprised if we forget the pain & stretchmarks of preparation and find ourselves birthing two more expository speeches next year.

Strategy?

2006-12-31T15:17:00.000-08:00

Years ago, when Johnny was about four, we attended a family game night with our fellowship group. At one of the tables, we had a game of UNO going. Johnny had never played UNO before, but we added him in and taught him how to play. To keep things simple, he played with all his cards spread out, face up, on the table in front of him. Everyone else playing was an adult. If you've played UNO before, you know that keeping your cards hidden is to your advantage. We all chuckled when he won the first game. Pretty funny, beating all those adults with all his cards face up on the table. We played a second game and he won again. The laughs were less hearty and eyes began to narrow. But when he beat us all a third time, we just had to shake our heads and change games!

This past Thursday, Chris & Sarah invited our family over and introduced us to "The Settlers of Catan". Chris patiently explained the MANY rules to us while Sarah handled Bekah & the bank. I have to admit, I was pretty clueless. I wanted to protest when they all made fun of me, but I couldn't because I deserved it. Chris tried to guide me occasionally, but my version of strategy just did not align with what he knew was strategy. It seemed like he had to explain rules more times to me than anyone else. Part way through the game everyone noticed the lovely "Duck" I'd built with my spare cities, settlements, boats and roads. When I ended up winning the game, I imagine Chris might have felt a little like we adults did the night Johnny cleaned our clock at UNO.

I look forward to playing again. I may never again have the pleasure of winning, but I enjoyed making that duck!

Painfully Beautiful

2006-12-27T23:28:00.000-08:00

Just a short post to let you know we at the Rowlands house are currently experiencing technical difficulties! If you read my last post, "The Beauty of Technology", then you know how delighted I was to be able to use a little photo editing to make everyone happy with our Christmas picture. So imagine my delight when my Christmas gifts included Adobe Photoshop elements 5.0 AND my own laptop!!! Delight is not a strong enough word! Granted I have been hinting, not so subtly, for a laptop for over a year, but I didn't think I'd really get one. We are not big ticket gift givers so this was nothing short of incredible.

However, even though I'm still a bit giddy about the new toys, getting set up has been a little trying. In the process of setting up "Jen's Baby", our wireless router somehow ended up fried. To make a long story short, my dear husband used the best part of the last two days trying to restore a consistent internet connection for our three computers (including Jen's Baby). Today he had the joy of spending a good deal of time on hold for Tech Support. It has been so very frustrating.

Small problems in the big picture, but good reminders that beauty can be very painful!

P.S. I thoughts the synonyms for painful might add insight:

Synonyms 1. distressing, torturing, agonizing, tormenting, excruciating. 2. arduous.

The Beauty of Technology

2006-12-23T11:33:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! I have some funny stories for upcoming posts (at least I hope they're funny, because they were rather inconvenient to experience and I'm hoping the humor factor, combined with what we learned from them, makes them indeed valuable) . Until then, you will have to settle for our family Christmas picture.

This year's picture demonstrates my growing love for technology. As much as I like to say "It's not all about me", it sometimes really is. The first person I look at in every picture is ME. If it's good of me, it's a good family picture. It it's bad of me, it's just a BAD picture. Well, the one I liked best of me was not so good of anyone else. I tried to convince myself, and the rest of the family that they really did look good and those were relaxed expressions on their faces. I finally had to admit, however, that the best one of everyone else (including Beamer & Squiggy) was not good of yours truly. In spite of my vanity, bowing to the greater good, I went ahead and ordered a few of the majority best picture for Christmas cards. I was playing around with borders and sizes so they were only samples. After I got them back, I realized I was just too vain to send 100 of those pictures. After all, I am the one who puts every single one into the envelope and sends it off with our letter. I've done that before and every single time I stuff the envelope I think, "I don't like this picture." So, I tried my hand at a little digital magic and cut & pasted my head from my favorite into the other. I didn't have any sophisticated software so did the whole thing on "Paint", but assuming you don't study it too hard, I was pretty pleased with the results--or to be more accurate, I liked the end product much better than the one I began with.

Technology can be a beautiful thing, especially when you're not!

Thanking the Little People

2006-12-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

Have you heard I was voted "Time's Person of the Year" for 2006? Yes, it was a surprise to me too. Apparently I've joined the ranks of Pope John Paul II, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Krushchev, Charles Lindberg, Elizabeth the II, every American President since FDR, and Bill Gates, among others. To quote Pig Pen, "It kind of makes you want to treat me with more respect."

Yes, I have achieved something I never even thought to aspire to. The fact that I share this award with countless others in no way diminishes the glory. To quote Time's website:

"And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you." (From TIME.com, Cover Story Person of the Year: You. Posted Dec. 13, 2006)

So for all of us exchanging ideas and information through the internet, here's our pat on the back and something to put on the résumé!

And I want to assure you that this honor will not change me, or my blog at all. Finally, I'd like to thank the little people...

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

2006-12-15T07:30:00.000-08:00

I've had many ideas running through this scatterbrained head for possible posts. One of my dear friends, who is going through some agonizing times told me Sunday how she enjoyed reading the "Bad Doggie" post and having a good laugh with us. It made me think again about the ministry of being transparent enough to shows one's weakness in a humorous light that encourages others and at the very least gives them something to laugh at. Since the night of our barfing Beamer we've had much material to poke fun at and some may appear in a future post or two. After all, giving people something to laugh at is one of my ministries!

The desire to comfort and encourage looms very large right now as I know of so many dear ones who are hurting as they endure extremely painful circumstances and losses. How do you offer comfort to someone undergoing hardship beyond your experience? The Lord brought to mind one of my favorite verses, Hebrews 4:15,16 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

I LOVE this verse and find immense comfort in the fact that Jesus knows and understands our pain. He sympathizes with us, not from the standpoint of an outsider looking in, wondering what we must really be going through, but as One who truly understands every aspect of that pain intimately, AND as One who is able to help and give us mercy and grace in our time of need. When Jesus came as a human baby to humble parents in a troubled time, He not only came to offer salvation, He also offers understanding and sympathy which bring comfort along the journey. What an incredible gift God gave when He sent His Son!!!

You WANT to Read This Post!

2006-12-07T16:43:00.000-08:00

What better way to get in the Christmas spirit than taking a Christmas survey??? Okay, I can actually think of many better ways, but it's rather painless and it helps me out.

I want to play "Christmas Family Feud" at our Christmas party on the 21st. This particular party is one we have had for the last 11 years. It began as a "Story Night Party" where we centered the evening around the reading of Christmas books to our young children. We mixed in good food & the occasional craft & caroling, and have kept it going for all these years. We have come to the realization, however, that our kids have grown--it is time to evolve. So this year, "Story Night" will become "Game Night". A game of Christmas Family Feud will be just the right addition to our new tradition.

Anyhoo, you know how family feud works..."100 people surveyed, top 6 answers on the board..." Therefore, I NEED to survey 100 people!! I sent out many emails and the surveys started coming back within minutes. I thought, "This is awesome! I am going to have NO problem surveying 100 people!!" However, things slowed significantly and I have remained at 50 surveys for two days now! That means I still have 50 surveys to go for heaven's sake!!! So now I am appealing to your sense of fun, your desire to be a part of a Christmas tradition, or at least your sense of pity. Could you help me out here?

What I want you to do is read over the questions and either email me the answers or put them into your comments. I'm sure Santa has better presents for those who compassionately help out crazy people that take on silly projects at the busiest time of the year. For those of you who have already responded, thank you very much!!! If you have a split personality, feel free to take it twice.

1. Name a store people traditionally shop the day after Thanksgiving.

2. Name something that is traditionally eaten Christmas day.

3. Name a favorite Christmas carol.

4. Name one line from the poem, “A Night Before Christmas”

5. Name a Christmas movie.

6. Name something that is used to decorate for Christmas.

7. Name something that is traditionally baked during the Christmas season.

8. Name a gift that dad is likely to receive on Christmas.

9. Name a gift that mom is likely to receive on Christmas.

10. Name a gift that dad does NOT want to receive for Christmas.

11. Name a gift that Mom does NOT want to receive for Christmas.

12. Name a gift that a teenager would like to receive.

13. Name a gift that a teenager would NOT like to receive.

14. Name a gift that Grandma might give.

15. Name a place that people traditionally go during the Christmas season.

16. Name a least favorite task associated with Christmas.

17. Name a favorite cookie eaten during the holiday season.

18. How many Christmas cards do most families send on Christmas?

19. How many Christmas gifts are under most family trees?

20. What is the most likely gift to be returned the day after Christmas?

21. Name one of Santa’s Reindeer.

22. Name one of the gifts given in the 12 days of Christmas.

Bad Doggie

2006-12-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

Today's post is dedicated to our Thursday adventure with Beamer. Scott & I enjoyed an evening out, while the kids kept the home fires burning. At some point in our absence, Beamer snuck upstairs and raided my closet where I had put together some packages of chocolate truffles for two of my high school buddies. I was dismayed to discovered about 14 shiny wrappers strewn about and chocolate smeared upon my carpet.

As it was about 11:00 p.m., I had to call an emergency vet to get some instruction. The first vet simply said, "Bring him in now." When I relayed this information to Scott, who had already climbed into bed, he didn't think that was good advice. I agreed to get a 2nd opinion and tried again. The next vet walked me through instructions to make Beamer throw up using hydrogen peroxide. I proceeded to squirt the liquid into my unappreciative toy fox terrier. About 15 minutes later, the fun began. Not only did he throw up through the night, he also howled and whined the entire time. In the process of letting Beamer out, the kitten escaped into the dark & freezing yard twice. Both times saw me fishing him out from under the trampoline. At 3:00 a.m., I received a phone call on my cell phone from my son-- he was calling from his bedroom to ask if he could skip school the next morning since Beamer was keeping everyone awake. In the process of checking on Beamer, a couple of minutes later, I realized that the Christmas carols were playing downstairs. After checking with each of the kids to see if they'd turned on the music, the mystery began. I was suddenly worried about more than a sick dog. I woke up Scott and told him, "You'd better come downstairs with me. The music is on and now I'm wondering if someone is in the house and that's why Beamer keeps barking?" (It made sense in the wee hours of the morning.) Scott came down with me and while I cleaned up the newest upchuck, he searched the house for our musical intruder. A couple of minutes later, he was back downstairs checking a closet he'd forgotten to look in. For the next hour, I lay awake worried about Beamer, and a lurking Christmas carol bandit. Daylight could not come soon enough.

The long & the short of it is we are all recovered. However, we have no high hopes that Beamer learned any kind of lesson, so we have invested in a portable gate that blocks the stairs. May your dog be healthy, your chocolate's stay wrapped, and may you be spared the agony of the Musical Intruder.

Who Gets the Glory

2006-11-29T19:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as the girls and I were on our way to Costco, I told them, "Let's get the makings for more homeless bags to pass out." Our homeless bags were inspired by a friend who did something similar and seemed to me the perfect solution to the dilema I always feel when approached for money. I almost always say "No" reasoning that the money most often goes toward furthering an addiction of one sort or another. However, it is so difficult to say "No" to someone who might genuinely be in need, and I certainly do not want my children to grow up devoid of compassion for those needing a hand. So now we carry around in our car a couple of large zip lock bags that each contain water, several non-perishable food items, and a gospel tract. In my newer additions I also want to add a map to the Redwood Gospel Mission along with some Bible verse cards. It has been satisfying to follow up my "No" with "but I do have some food for you if you'd like."

We had used up our bags and were needing to make more. Before we stopped at Costco though I ran in to Cash & Carry. On the way out I was approached by a woman who asked for money. Too bad she wasn't waiting outside of Costco for me, I would have been much better prepared. But as much as I wanted to just tell her "No" or give her some money and hope she used it wisely, I instead told her, "I don't want to give you any money, but I will buy you some food if you'd like." She seemed grateful so I locked up my car again and returned into Cash & Carry. It is a restaurant warehouse and an unlikely place to find a quick individual meal for someone. After scouring several aisles, I settled for a large pack of string cheese, a big bag of oranges and a case of V-8 Splash bottles. As I walked up to the only cashier, he recognized me as the woman who had just been through his line 10 minutes earlier. "You're back!" he said with a friendly smile.

"Well," I explained, "there was a woman outside who wanted money and I didn't want to give her money so I came in to buy her some food."

He was immediately impressed and told me what a great thing that was. Then he told me some stories about how he'd shared his lunch with homeless folks before. As I was leaving he told me, "Well Karma's on your side now."

I smiled and said, "I don't know about that." And then I left. The lady was still waiting for me so I loaded her up with cheese, oranges, and a couple of bottles of V-8 Splash. She thanked me and we parted ways.

Afterward I looked back with immense dissatisfaction on the whole thing. On the one hand, it is proof of God's work in my life that I would trouble myself to help this woman because I am not a person who naturally oozes either mercy or generosity. However, WHO got the glory?

I wish I had told that pleasant cashier that Karma had nothing to do with my actions -- I'm not even sure what Karma is, it always brings to mind the bumper sticker that reads, "My karma just ran over your dogma"--but it had everything to do with the fact that Jesus Christ has changed my life and because of that I want to obey Him in caring for the "least of these". I also wish I had invited him to church and given him a gospel tract so he could know more. Instead I left him with the impression that I was just a good person with Karma on my side. What a missed opportunity.

I wish that I had given the waiting woman more than food. I wish I had told her that Jesus Christ loves her. I wish that I had applied 1 Peter 3:15 which says, ... Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

I've always thought of that verse in terms of appologetics - defending the gospel - but I think it is vital to apply when others observe God working in your life. What is the point of being a light if I don't tell the source of the light. I can honestly say that I was trying to honor the Lord as I cared about this woman, it was in obedience to Him that I did it. But WHO got the glory?

Last night I started packing our new bags. We'll be working on those finishing touches tomorrow -- our rescue mission map, our gospel tract & verse cards AND some fancy chocolate truffles. I am convicted though that just as much I need to PREPARE an answer for everyone who may ask me to give the reason for the hope I have. If no one is pointed toward the One who can give lasting hope and answers, then what is really gained? I don't want to squander the opportunities God gives to direct the glory right back to Him!

Chasing Perfection

2006-11-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

On November 2, 2006, we received an email from my dad that said, "The challenge is on. I shot a 41 and I don't think any of you can beat that!" The attachment to the email contained a link to a miniature golf game for the computer. My dad sent it to various family members and created the newest Clark family competition. You see, the Clarks are a very competitive family. However, he didn't bargain for the superior skill he would run up against in the digital arena.

Sometime later that day, Johnny had scored a 36 and emailed Grandpa informing him of it. After a disgruntled reply, my dad was silent until November 5th when he sent another group email with the subject "Try Again Losers!" The message itself read "Haa, let's see if you can beat 33!"

11/6, my nephew David scored a 32 -- much to not only my dad's disgust, but also my competitve sister.

I think it was about this time that I started trying to beat the score and sure enough, I shaved it down to a 29 and immediately crowed to the rest of the family.

That's when my sister switched into gear and started alerting us about her string of unbelievable scores...26...25...and then incredibly, a 20. Not only did she send a written message, she also emailed us a photo of the computer screen with her last ridiculously low score. That was November 9th.

After raising the bar so high, (or low as the case may be) no one was able to come close to her score for weeks. My uncle returned from Cabo and got into the game as well and started sending whiney emails to my sister and I. Although Jody held the record, my lowest score of 22 was significantly lower than his 34, so both of us were demoted to "least favorite" and "second least favorite" nieces.

Well today Scott attained what all us Clarks were chasing when he scored a perfect 18. And he is feeling good. Admittedly, he had a little help because he learned some tips from both Johnny and I about conquering certain holes, but he did what none of the rest of us could. We salute you Scott!

By the way, if you want to play the game yourself, here is the address. http://media.ebaumsworld.com/minigolf.swf
Scott told me to mention that he would love to hear about your perfect 18 if you're ever able to do it. Yup, he's feeling good.

Celebrity Judges

2006-11-20T19:40:00.000-08:00

Well our debate club hosted our big round robin debate tournament this past Saturday. It was a great day, but my oh my, am I ever praising the Lord that it is OVER!!! The attention to detail comes close to doing in this phlegmatic every year -- one of the ladies from another club was saying they will be hosting a $5 no frills round robin in two weeks. It's really cheap and they don't worry about feeding or impressing anyone. I told her, in all sincerity, "I'd like to host a tournament like that!" But, praise the Lord, it is over and it was a very, very nice tournament. And thanks to people who care about details way more than I do, it had many lovely touches.

While it takes oodles of things to make a tournament successful, one of the most basic requirements is someone to judge each round. We ran 32 debates simultaneously for four rounds and then a novice and varsity final with three judges each. If you do the math, or if you read on, you discover we required 134 judges Saturday!!

How hard is judging? Well, each round allows for 52 minutes of speaking time and 10 minutes of prep time (that 52 minutes of speaking time is spread between 4 speakers and 8 speeches). So after the judge has listened to two teams present opposing views regarding reforming NATO for 52 minutes, said judge has to then decide which team was most convicing and why. Additionally, speaker points in 6 different categories must be decided upon and finally each speaker ranked from 1st to 4th. Admittedly, it is a "make-your-brain-spin" job. Therefore we are so thankful for every willing judge. In particular, we are especially thankful to our community judges. Parents of debaters have no choice about judging, but our community judges make a very sacrificial choice when they help us out. Because of this, I dedicate this post to the wonderful people who willingly spent part of a gorgeous Saturday judging for our tournament. Thank you!

I especially want to highlight three of the celebrity judges that appeared at our tournament. The first is Mr. Peter Brown, a dead ringer for Ashton Kutcher (we won't bring up Sandra Bullock). Not only did Peter judge, he very competently judged FOUR rounds!! I have NEVER judged four rounds in one day and I am a little in awe of Peter's ability to do that. Mr. Peter Brown -- we thank you and we salute you! Maybe he'd like us to now now refer to him as Judge Kludge--or not.

Our next celebrity judge is Mrs. Stephanie Writebol. I knew this teacher/vice-principal would make a wonderful judge and she did. Although she whined a bit after orientation and kept repeating, "You owe me big time, Jennifer", she actually had a good time and even volunteered to judge a second round that she wasn't signed up for. Yup, she was a good judge. In fact, she was so good that when she turned in her second ballot, I made sure she got an upgraded judge's gift. Most judges just received a pack of gummi-lifesavers with a cheesy little sticker that said, "Thank you for judging -- you are a REAL LIFESAVER!" But Stephanie got a mug. I knew she'd like that because teachers just LOVE to receive mugs as presents. I also need to thank Mrs. Christine Carrillo for the moral support she provided Stephanie as she judged her two rounds--and for helping make sure Stephanie didn't forget her mug.

The final celebrity judge I'd like to mention is Michael P. Farris, Esq. Michael Farris is the Chancellor at Patrick Henry College and is the cofounder (and current board chairman and general counsel) of Home School Legal Defense Association. He is also a constitutional lawyer, a leading pro-family activist on Capitol Hill, a published author of 13 books, and an ordained minister. Education Week named Mike one of the 100 most significant “Faces of the Century” in education, and he is listed in Praying for the World’s 365 Most Influential People. Mike and his wife Vickie have been married since 1971; they have 10 children and seven grandchildren. They have been homeschooling since 1982. (Taken from HSLDA Web page)

Dr. Farris happened to be in the area for a wedding and came to judge one of our rounds and then address the students. He brought along give-aways, such as the Patrick Henry mug that Stephanie received (it is an attractive cobalt blue), and encouraged the students to consider Patrick Henry for themselves. His oldest daughter, Christy Shipe, is one of the founders of the NCFCA which is the league our students debate in. Having Dr. Farris at our tournament was a huge honor, and I might add, I spoke to him personally on three occasions AND shook his hand!

Once again, all of our 130 debaters and parents alike are so very thankful for each of the willing individuals that judged for us Saturday. For those of you who passed on this opportunity, you might be a little more willing now that you know the celebrities events like this attract!

If we were to give out MVP awards, one would certainly go to Mr. Wayne O'Leary, the facilities supervisor at Santa Rosa Bible Church. We are praising God for this gracious, helpful, and downright likable servant of God!

Memories...

2006-11-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

Last Friday we enjoyed a family outing to Six Flagg's Marine World and made some memories. It was "Homeschool Day" as well as the very last day of the season. Those of you familiar with homeschool stereo types will not be surprised to hear there were a record number of denim jumper sightings. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous--something we appreciated even more when three days later a very cold and wet storm descended upon our area.

As we pulled out of the driveway, I began praying for our journey. I was just saying, "And thank You Lord for this privilege..." when I suddenly interrupted myself with a shriek and said, "I forgot the tickets!!!" We made a hasty U-turn, retrieved the tickets, and said a prayer of thanksgiving for the timely reminder!

"Remembering" is not something I take for granted. Truly I was very thankful for that prompting!

Although Scott doesn't have as many forgetting stories as I do, it's really not his strong suit either. Both of us have been known to wander a parking lot trying to remember where we parked. Therefore, it was a case of unusual foresight for us to make a mental note of the row we parked in that morning. Even better, we talked about it aloud with the kids, "Everyone remember, we're in Daffy Duck C." We then put Catie officially in charge of remembering because "C" stands for "Catie".

Other than paying way, way, way too much for the worst buffet ever and getting really nauseated on a couple of rides, the day was a winner! Highlights included the Tiger Splash Down Show, the Dolphin Show and the Killer Whale Show. Scott, Johnny & Catie also gave a big thumbs up to Medusa (that's one of the rides that left me queasy).

We were feeling satisfied as we left the park -- not only did we have a fun day, we actually remembered what row we parked in. However, we were in for a surprise as we approached the parking lot. All the signs were one sided. While the side facing the cars had a perky Daffy with an appropriate letter, the side facing those approaching the parking lot was completely blank. It required one to actually walk into each row so you could read the sign from the opposite side. You'd think when you'd payed $15 to park, that's not theme park admittance mind you, just the fee to park, that it would include 2-sided signs. Oh well...

Thanks to an accident on highway 12, the trip home took about an hour longer than anticipated.
As we were crawling along in our car, I started getting more & more nervous about the meal I'd left in the crock pot. I knew it would be cooking for way longer than it was supposed to be. What would happen if all the liquid evaporated and it started to burn. Did crock pots ever start fires? If it did start a fire, what would happen to our pets? (I know my sister would have been going through the same exact thought process -- especially about the pets.) As we pulled into our court, it was with great relief that I saw our still-standing house, sans smoke. I rushed into the kitchen to find my meal no where near close to burning. In fact it was no where near even warm. I'd forgotten to turn the crock pot on.

As I was musing over the raw chicken that had been sitting out all day, the messages on the answering machine were playing back and one was from our piano teacher calling from outside our house wondering where we were. Bummer. Piano lessons were today. I'd forgotten to tell her we wouldn't be there.

When I called her back to appologize profusely, she made a comment about knowing how organized I was. Yup, that's me alright! Hey, even though I forgot the tickets, the crock pot & the piano lessons, I did remember we were parked in Daffy Duck C. I guess I've got this memory thing down after all!

Keeping Count

2006-11-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, anyone noticed that the Fundamentalist who Never Blogs is up to 23 comments on his July post? Did you hear me? 23 comments!!!

Large comment counts are possible -- choose a topic that resonates with many, like JCrew's fast food survey or Kludge's tool time, and the comments roll in. Or be like my brother-in-law and just refuse to post.

It must be his magnetic personality that draws the faithful to leave comment after comment hoping to alternately goad him or coaxe him to actually leave a new post. Or maybe it's the mystery of his silence that lures bloggers like bugs to a light. Better yet, the challenge--"Maybe my comment will make the difference. Maybe I will be the one who is the inspiration for a word from Heavy G!"

Whatever it is, that reluctant blogger is racking up the comments!

Can Someone Help Me Understand?

2006-11-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

I was just leaving a comment on JCrew's blog, The Storekeeper (refer to the link in my sidebar 'cuz I'm not sure how to link it right into the text like those fancy pants bloggers do) and after I entered my user ID & password, I had to type in some garbled letters I saw. Sometimes I'm not sharp enough to get it right on the first try and have to attempt it a couple of times--although I did get it right the first time today!

However, I have a question -- why does anyone have this feature on their comments section? I've heard it is to discourage SPAM comments. However, I have another question -- does anyone get SPAM comments on their blogs? Shoot, I wouldn't mind if I got a few. I'm still waiting for most of my posts to get to double digits on the comment end of things, a few SPAM comments here and there might be a good thing. Maybe I'm missing something. Can someone help me understand?

I guess avoiding SPAM comments is not the only part of blogging I don't understand. I seem to be a little photo challenged as well. I tried about 24 1/2 times to add the photos to my last post, but Blogger just wasn't working with me in the endeaver. Today is another story, so here are the ones I was wanting to include. The picture to the left is our debate club, Santa Rosa Touché. This is the same club that will be hosting a debate round robin Saturday the 18th of November. For those of you I've hit up to judge, aren't those sweet looking young folks? Surely my sister is beside herself that I can't ask her to judge, Indiana is a little far to commute. She has such a lofty view of homeschool events I know this would be the highlight of the month for her!

The photo to the left is one of the 6 zillion we took of Squiggy & Beamer during our trip down to the debate tournament. I think these two pets are among the most photographed subjects for the fall of 2006 -- taking a distant second to Rebekah Kuhner! Pretty sad huh, but kittens only stay kittens for such a short time and digital is such a wonderful way to take 6 zillion pictures and keep your favorite 3. Anyhoo, it was fun having two of our pets along for the ride, and as you can see, they kept it lively.

Megan asked why we did not have three pets along -- after all, we do have TWO cats! However, our cat Jinx, the original pet of the house, is a little, no actually big time, neurotic. Trips across town to the vet are more than enough time in the car with her--neither my nerves, nor my ears could weather longer distances. No, I think two pets in the car is just about enough. That I understand!

A Weekend of Contrast

2006-10-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

My last post casually mentioned our family reunion. I had requests in my sparse comments for some juicy reunion stories. I thought about the reunion and the funny things that happened -- it is possible you might enjoy hearing about my slightly eccentric Uncle Alfie, who thought he was sitting next to Jenna Fischer at the black jack table. And then there's my rather boastful Cousin Fred, who accidently bumped an obnoxious kid (still not sure if it was a distant relative or not) into the pool. And who could forget my prim little Aunt Edna who started choking on a piece of sausage during one of the skits and had to have the Heimlich Manuever performed on her as she was turning blue? But since I don't have an Uncle Alfie, Cousin Fred, or even an Aunt Edna, I won't tell those stories. All that to say that though we Clark's are a colorful bunch, this reunion produced no great blogging stories. But there was a ping-pong tournament...anyone want to hear about who won that?

This past weekend we were on the road again, this time to a debate tournament at Bethany University in Scott's Valley. Catie & Michelle each participated with their respective partners, Tim & Kayla. The resolution for NCFCA team policy debate this year is: Resolved, that the United States should significantly reform or abolish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After loading up the car and taking off at 4:00 a.m., our young ladies began their first debate at 8:30 a.m. and ended around dinner time. It is quite an academic workout and I am very proud of them for being a part of it. Although we try to stress that how you evaluate your performance should not depend upon whether or not the judges vote for you, I have to admit it's so much easier to feel good when your ballots come back with positive decisions. We have definitely experienced it both ways and I'm thankful to say that this particular tournament yielded some encouraging results. Michelle was awarded the 9th place speaker out of the 32 novices participating. She & her partner were so pleased to have won two of their four rounds. Catie & Tim were likewise happy to have won three out of their five rounds in the varsity track. Our entire club did very well so there was much to celebrate for everyone--one of our teams, Ben & Jeana, took top honors, each earning a $1000 scholarship to Bethany. Like I said, there was much to celebrate.

One of the parts I enjoy about debate is the lofty feel one gets being a part of such a cerebral pursuit, surrounded by teens dressed in suits and speaking like well-polished lawyers. (We haven't quite achieved that yet-- but we're still proud of those cute young ladies!) Anyway, there's a certain image that one likes to cultivate when one is a debating family. Which is why I had to laugh at us this past weekend. Granted, our girls did look the part, but I do believe we were the only family who toted our trailer, our dog, and our kitten, to the debate tournament.

It seemed like a lot of work heading down the morning of, but that evening it felt heavenly to leave the awards ceremony and drive to our comfy trailer a mere three minutes away. We then enjoyed a rousing game of 31 and amused ourselves with the antics of our two adorable pets and our son who, in an attempt to stay awake during debate rounds, had consumed way too much Mountain Dew.

I'm having trouble adding photos to this post, but once I do it will include some cute ones of the pets. I have so many pictures now of the two of them -- they are such buddies -- that I'm considering making a photo calendar for my sister's Christmas present. She's a real animal lover and will have a special appreciation for such a unique gift!

Anyhoo, we praise God for our wonderful weekend -- from the lofty discussions of NATO reform to the hillarious antics of our punch drunk boy, it was a great addition to our family memories.

The End of the Contest - Thankfully

2006-10-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well wasn't this fun??? I could tell from the comments that people LOVED voting for cute babies. I thought about extending the fun by posting Scott and my photos for round 3, but mercifully decided we'd probably had enough. (Just teasin', since as my sister pointed out it's a tricky thing to convey sarcasm without voice tone, I wasn't really thinking of posting more baby pictures, just of threatening to!)

I know you're dying to know which baby won. Actually, it was a tie. Baby #4 & baby #9 each garnered three votes. Even though one of baby #9's was indeed baby #9 herself, it is still legitimate (don't you think all the politicians vote for themselves? And what could be more legitimate than that?). So congratulations to Baby #4 & Baby #9! Since baby #11 won the previous contest, now each of my babies can claim a victory of sorts as the cutest baby -- see I was right all along, they were all the cutest!

On a different note, I attended a family reunion in Lake Tahoe this past weekend. My dad & mom were in charge and did a great job. We Clarks are quite a colorful bunch! It was very fun and my appreciation for the parents God graciously gave me continued to grow throughout the weekend. I would tell you about the ping-pong tournament but I couldn't mention who won without sounding boastful, so I won't even bring it up.

Hopefully when baby #4, #9, and #11 grow up, they will continue to value the family God placed them into enough to enjoy and look forward to family reunions. And hopefully by then they will no longer be arguing over who was the cutest!

And the Winner Is...

2006-10-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well it is been an anxious couple of days here watching the cutest baby votes trickle in! The official tally, as of Thursday afternoon is as follows:

Baby #1 received 1 vote.
Baby #2 received 4 votes, counting the time she voted for herself.
Baby #3 received 3 votes, counting the time she voted for herself.
And the winner is...baby #2!!!

Among the votes were comments complaining about the selection of photos. There was some murmuring about the duplo in baby #2's photo being a detriment, but then again, that was the reason Kludge voted for her -- he was drawn to that lastic, platic, I mean plastic. A couple of you thought baby #1 got rooked with the pouty lip, but you know, his one pity voter commented how much she liked that pouty lip. Just goes to show you cute is in the eye of the beholder.

Truth be told, I tried to pick pictures as silly as the whole argument--none were chosen to flatter.

However, we're going to try the whole thing once again, and this time, each child has picked out their OWN baby photo, eliminating accusations of favoritism. Once again it will be a blind test, AND I will assign each baby a new number and no one will have any inkling who's who! (Don't pay any attention to the bow & bonnet -- you REALLY have no idea which baby is which.) Leave your vote in the comments section and feel free to opine regarding the narcissistic children who are trying to win this award, not to mention the narcissistic mother who would blog about it twice!

Baby #4 to the left

Baby #11 to the right

Baby #9 below

I didn't even add commentary alongside each picture this time -- yes sir, this is one fair-square contest. Let the voting begin...

Who's the Cutest?

2006-10-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post a member of our family holding little Rebekah. Catie & Michelle are both planning on posting a shot of themselves on their own blogs with their incredibly adorable new cousin--so Johnny gets the honors. I told him the chics really go for these kind of pictures!

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to meet Rebekah Sunday night. On the way home, however, Scott & I had the joy (NOT!) of listening to the three in the back argue over which of them was the cutest baby.

Both Johnny and Michelle claimed the honor for themselves. Catie believes that although she was not the cutest baby, she was the cutest toddler. I told them they were all the cutest, which satisfied none of them. I'm thinking maybe my readers can help us out here.

Get in a little practice before the November elections and cast your vote for who was the cutest baby...Johnny, Catie, or Michelle?

To keep everything completely fair, it will be a blind test in which you will have NO CLUE which baby is which!!!

Indicate your choice in your comments for baby #1, baby #2, or baby #3. (No fair voting for Rebekah, 'cuz we know she's the cutest now!!)

Baby #1, on the left, was famous for sporting
an incredible "pouty lip".

Baby #2, on the right, grew at an incredible rate, burstin' out of bathing suits with the best of them.

Baby #3, on the left, was fond of chewing on duplos.

P.S. Thanks for settling the argument for me -- do I have deep, introspective children, or what?!?

So Far So Good

2006-10-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

If you read my previous post, you know of my hopes for a repeat of history. I just want to say, Sarah did her part--I'm sure you'll be reading about it in a super blog soon! Now I just need Catie to find the right young man in about 5 - 6 years ... oh my, did I just say 5 -6 years??? Can that be possible???

Catie assures me she will be commenting on this post!

Of Flower Girls and Old Age

2006-10-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like waiting for the flower girl from your wedding to call and say that she's had her baby to make you feel old! This coming March, Scott & I will celebrate our 20th anniversary. That makes almost 20 years ago that Sarah & Megan, at the tender ages of 7 and 5, stood up with us as our adorable flower girls.

Then, six years ago, our flower girl Sarah, went and got married herself. Two flower girls weren't enough for her, she had FOUR! They even had shirts that read, "Chris & Sarah's Flower Girl Club". My two little girls, Catie & Michelle, ages 7 and 5, were among her flower girls. Sarah also honored me by wearing my wedding dress.

Now Sarah's going to have her own little one. Although I will love equally either a little great-nephew, or a great-niece, I am really rooting for a little girl. The way I figure it, if Sarah had a little girl this month and Catie somehow found Mr. Right and ended up getting married by, say, 21, she could ask Sarah's little 7 year old to be one of her flower girls. If I've done the math right, she should have about eight of them (flower girls that is). Chances are she's going to be taller than me, so having her wear my dress might be tricky. Oh that & the fact that she doesn't want to get married--these are potential roadblocks for my grand plan, and yet, it could happen!

Yes, having the 7 year old from my wedding about to have a baby does make me feel old. But I found a way to be proactive in the aging battle today. It really bugged me that my Myspace profile advertised my age, right in a prominent place. I tried to figure out how to just delete than information but I'm not that savvy. Tonight I found a better solution--I am now 29 and intend to stay there!

Yet Another Kitten Update

2006-10-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Is this just the cutest picture ever? You would think we had a new baby -- I think I've taken as many pictures of this kitten in the last two weeks as I have of Johnny in the last ten years.

Squiggy & Beamer are becoming real play pals and we're having fun watching them. We're pretty convinced Squiggy will rule the roost soon--he's already chased Jinx, even as she's hissing at him and emitting other worldy moans. He's also faced Beamer down a time or two and it is very clear that Beamer will defer to him. So the less that two pound bundle of orange & white can add a little swagger to his pounce.

Hey guess what -- I obtained a Myspace site yesterday. My main motive, shhhhhhh, is to keep tabs on the teens in my life. But it feels kind of cool nonetheless. I've heard other parents have done the same thing. My friend list grew today and I now have five friends. Yesterday Tom was pretty lonely and I couldn't even get my son to make me his friend while he had a real friend over. Today I'm downright popular -- counting Tom, I have FIVE friends! That's about the same number of blog readers I have, so it must be pretty lucky!!

Maybe tomorrow I'll post the vignette I have floating around in my mind about the flower girl from my wedding who is expecting a baby any day! Nothing like that to make you feel OLD! :)

Until then, I was just dying to get this picture on to my blog. It's our current desk top photo and I just felt selfish not sharing it with the blogosphere at large. I'd make it bigger if I could -- isn't he cute?!?

Thoughts on Pumpkin Helmet

2006-10-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin helmet is definitely growing up! Isn't he handsome?

I was multi-tasking as I wrote this post and therefore left the computer often. One time I came back to discover the following addition courtesy of my boy (now everyone in my family has contributed to my blog):

I must say he is probablly the best looking person i have ever seen i am having to fight off the girls left and right. I tell him he doesnt have to work to hard in school because it is going to be easy to get a really good job just based off his incredibly good looks only one in a million can be this lucky.

It's a good thing he's got confidence, because spelling and grammar are not in his favor! Tonight we discovered something else, in addition to spelling & grammar, that he's really not very good at, in fact he's really bad at it...Pictionary. We were all pretty thrilled to have a night at home and good eats, so we kept the fun going with a rousing family game...boys against the girls. The men took an early lead and of course began to crow. However, the saying, "Pride goeth before a fall" was very apropos, because they sure did goeth down!

Scott & Johnny were just not on the same wavelength--and a common wavelength is VERY important in Pictionary. Scott mocked Johnny's drawings and Johnny often could not acurately interpret Scott's art work. And then to make matters worse, Johnny went brain-dead in the reading department. He thought "colon" read "cologne". It made for a nicer picture but it didn't help their team much. In general, Scott was justified in mocking Johnny's drawings. However, I think an examination of Scott's version of "belly flop" will show that there was blame to go around! Any wonder the girls owned this game?

It's okay Pumpkin Helmet -- Pictionary will probably not be required for either your job, or your magnetic chick appeal.

Squiggy Update

2006-10-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

Boy, life has seemed pretty intense as well as busy lately. I have many thoughts, some ever rather deep, swirling around in my head. However, as I sat down to write a new post, nothing deep was quite ready to make it's way into the blogosphere. So an update on our sweet little kitten seemed like a lovely option for light posting.

The name has stuck and little Squiggy has wound the entire family around his crooked little tail! There's only one member of our family who is less than thrilled with the little guy--our very neurotic cat whom we love in spite of her personality challenges. She makes this mellow little kitten look awfully wonderful!

Even our toy fox terrier, Beamer, loves Squiggy. The two are getting on famously, except for this evening when Squiggy got his head a little too far into the 1/4 cup of kibbles Beamer was inhaling. That was the fiercest I have ever seen Beamer react. It was enough to send Squiggy scurrying behind the entertainment center. A few minutes later, however, the two were together again and Beamer was planting some sloppy kisses on Squiggy's little face. We know it's genuine affection because Beamer even lets Squiggy take part in his very favorite activity--doing dishes.

If Jinx ever joins the rest of us in our extreme fondness for Squiggy, that will be truly newsworthy. Until then, 6 adoring family members seems to be keeping this little kitten quite content.

A Handy Guide

2006-09-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

In the absence of something orignal to post, I'm going to instead borrow from a clever email I've received on several occasions. I have no idea who to give credit to but would like to say "thank you" for the person responsible--it's provided some good chuckles!

This is a handy guide that should be as common as a driver's license in the wallet of every husband!!

DANGEROUS: What's for dinner? SAFER: Can I help you with dinner? SAFEST: Where would you like to go for dinner? ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.

DANGEROUS: Are you wearing that? SAFER: Gee, you look good in brown. SAFEST: WOW! Look at you! ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.

DANGEROUS: What are you so worked up about? SAFER: What did I do wrong? SAFEST: Here's fifty dollars. ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.

DANGEROUS: What did you do all day? SAFER: I hope you didn't overdo it today. SAFEST: I've always loved you in that robe! ULTRASAFE: Here, have some more chocolate.

BTW, according to one of my friend's husbands, do you know how PMS got it's name? It's because the name "Mad Cow Disease" was already taken. Here, have some more chocolate!

It's Official...I think

2006-09-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well, our kitten has a name. I think. Michelle's a little hesitant to make it final because she values everyone's opinion so much . I think if she were to take Kludge's quiz today, she'd definitely be a "Milk Thermometer". So, drum roll please...the name is...actually, I think I'll make you read the rest of my post to find out.

I've been a little buried lately. I haven't always had the best attitude--best being, "God has given me these opportunities and I need to depend upon Him to do them for His glory"--in fact I've been a BIT whiney at times and felt quite stressed. God has been very gracious in the midst of it all and has blessed me abundantly with some awesome teaching in His word, and some sweet Christian fellowship. He has also given my family a wonderful and understanding attitude. They all pulled together a dinner of waffles last night as I ran out of the house to my Parent Education Meeting and they left a clean kitchen for me when I returned. You go family!!

Anyhoo, one of the things that went by the wayside was bloggin'. My family stepped in admirably--Johnny's the only one that hasn't written a post for me--once again, you go family! But I feel really bad that I haven't been reading anyone else's blog. I so appologize for being so selfish and so neglecting everyone so shamefully. (You're probably understanding where Michelle got her "Milk thermometer" tendencies.)

Tonight, I got a free half hour and tried to read as many recent posts as I could and leave as many comments as I could. I have to admit, most were pretty lame--my comments, that is. I try to be rather witty whenever possible and sometimes I consider myself successful. Tonight, not even I thought they were insightful or funny. I couldn't even think of anything to say on RJ's post because it was way over my head, and on SJ's post, I had to try three times to type in those letters correctly before I could submit it. I'm thinking my comment skills are a little flabby.

Well, thank you for reading my confessions. It's good to get that off my chest.

By the way, the name is Squiggy.

Name That Kitten

2006-09-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Before I turn this post over to my youngest daughter let me just say that I haven't been able to devote much time to the blogosphere this past week. It's a bummer when life gets in the way of important stuff like blogging, but I was up to my eyeballs in committments and PMSing to boot. Hopefully soon I can take a tour of all the posts I've missed the past several days and praise everyone for their incredible insights. Maybe.
Now, onto the debut of the newest family blogger...

The Adorable fuzzball in the picture is...my new kitten!We got him on Saturday, September 23. He is very cute and we love him so much. Unfortunatley he has no name yet! We have gotten suggestions from many sources yet to no avail! I will list them below. In your comment, please say which one you like best. Feel free to suggest other names as well! Thank you! You will be updated on which name won later!

a. Milo

b. Tigger

c. Ziggy

d. Sparky

e. Puma

f. Squiggy

g. Opie (we're Andy Griffith fans here)

h. Orange Julius (O. J. for short)

i. Your great idea

By the way his tail is out of the ordinary so that should help you think of something! :)

The Night of the TP

2006-09-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have a guest writer making a debut on my blog. This time it is my daughter, Catie, giving her much anticipated account of the night she TP'd her youth pastor.

It all started on a Tuesday morning, at our junior high Bible study. Jeremy told us that he had gotten tp'd last night, and a wonderful idea came to me. Why not tp him tonight? It was the chance I had been waiting for. I told my idea to Bethany, Claire, Emma, and Michelle. They all thought it was a good idea, and agreed to carry it out.

Everyone was helping to clean out the juinor high room that afternoon, and it was there that we found a key element to our mission. (Michelle likes to remind me that it was HER that rescued him) It was boB. (Spelled backwards, as Bethany likes to say.) No, boB is not some kid, he is a styraphomic dummy that has been in the junior high for who knows how long. Jeremy was going to throw him out, but we(Pardon me, I mean Michelle) rescued the head. Claire then took the head home and decorated it with makeup. Everyone came over at 8 to get ready and look over each other's supplies.

Michelle and I each had eight rolls of toilet paper, the thin stuff that tears easily, making it harder to dispose of. Emma had a whole pack of Charmin Ultra Plus, and Claire and Bethany each had a roll or two. Emma also brought a box of plastic forks, to spear the lawn with, and gold fish crackers, to feed the lawn with. Claire had also packed along boB's head, and my dad drilled a hole through the mouth, and we stuck a fake rose through, looking like he was holding a rose in his teeth. We also stuck bits of clay here and there on his face, giving him eyebrows, earrings, nose goobers, ect. I popped a whole bunch of popcorn for their door. (I'll tell you more about this later) then, I took two Hershey’s caramel kisses, took out the candy, and filled the wrapper with clay instead. (A successful joke I had used on April Fool's Day) Then, later Bethany and I composed a note to the victims, saying something about how we hoped they would appreciate this small token of our appreciation, bla bla bla.

Finally, it was almost time to leave. My mom and dad drove, and we allowed Johnny to come along, which proved a mistake later on. The main reason we let him come, was so he could get his revenge on Jeremy for smashing a cream pie in his face. We parked several houses away, and snuck out. Soon, there were pranksters tossing tp into trees (By the way, anyone who reads this, Jeremy & Stephanie have a GREAT house to tp) rolling rolls down the drive way, wrapping bushes, spearing lawns, and stuffing mail boxes. Johnny stuck forks into the lawn and wrote PIE with them.

Getting the tp up into the trees was not our strong suit, and more then once, a roll would fail to be caught, and BANG! It would sound like a gun shot to us. we weren’t exactly quiet, but the worst was when Johnny threw a roll on the top of the garage. It made a loud BONGGGGG and I was sure we would be caught. But they didn’t catch us... yet. We put a roll on their porch, with the note rolled up in the middle, the two clay kisses on the roll, and boB's head with a Hawaiian Lei around the neck. By this time, the Writebol front yard was covered in white with dashes of orange sprinkled on the lawn. Then came the popcorn plan. It was a mistake from the start.

The plan was to tape plastic wrap around the door, then pour popcorn into the space between the wrap and the door. Problems first started with the wrap. It made a loud crackly sound as it was unwrapped, and shattered the stillness. Not only was it loud, it kept wrapping and sticking together. Then, the tape was too loud. The sound of it coming off the roll just about burst our eardrums. And lastly, we ran out of wrap. It was an old roll, and was almost empty anyway. Just as Claire and I decided to just wrap the stuff all over the door, and then figure out what to do with the popcorn, we heard it. A man's voice inside the house.

It took us about two seconds to realize the voice belonged to Jeremy, to realize this meant that he was awake, and to stare at each other in terror. We both tore out of there, me having the presence of mind to snag the tape (a noble effort on my part) and started running down the street to where the car was parked. When Emma saw us running, her first thoughts were “Oh shoot, we’re caught!” and then she ran also. I reached the car first and practically dove into the back seat. In seconds, the car was filled with terrified tp’ers. Looking out the back window, I could see Jeremy running down the street after us. You will never again see him that fast.

We were screaming for my dad to drive away, but he was just sorta inching forward. I later found out that my mom thought that Jeremy was one of us being left behind, and I wonder if that contributed to the slowness of our take off. As he got closer, I will admit that a few of us called out that he was gaining on us. Finally, we picked up speed, and made our getaway. As we were leaving the street, still in view of our handiwork, Emma dumped a whole bag of gold fish on the street. (Birds took care of that the next day)

Just when we thought all was safe, Johnny rolled down the window and yelled “LOSER” at the top of his lungs. As I write this, I am not sure if he heard it or not, but at the time, I was sure that Johnny had sealed our fate. It was about this time that I realized I had left my bag on Jeremy’s well-covered lawn. As I sorrowfully said this, Bethany realized she had also left her bag behind. It was here that Claire showed her heroism. As she was running, she noticed the forgotten bags. She ran back, grabbed them both, and retuned to the car before Jeremy.

We dropped off Bethany and Claire at their houses, and returned to our house. Emma spent the night. As we pulled into our drive way, we decided to avoid suspicion by tping our neighbors who had tp'd Jeremy's house the night before, and we tp'd ourselves. They were simple jobs, just a few rolls at each house, then we went to bed.

In the morning, a surprise greeted us on our porch. Jeremy and Stephanie had come in the night and left all the trash on our porch, with a note indicating that our decorating efforts weren’t appreciated. You can ask them about their experience of the Night, of the TP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Girl

2006-09-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

My baby has turned 12. I was going to post a happy birthday bit yesterday, but I was afraid Scott would have a cow if I bumped his “masterpiece” so quickly. He’s been checking my blog often to see how many comments he’s accumulated. Thank you all who chimed in. I must say though, he has become a little uppity now that he’s received 9 comments on his very first post. I tried to tell him it was really only 8 because June’s comment appeared twice. He claims it’s a legitimate 9 however because it was obvious that June was so moved by his words that she commented 2 times. He’s also enjoying quoting from some of the comments. I believe I’ve heard the phrase “insightful and interesting” just about enough, thank you. Anyhoo, back to my baby…

I cuddled her in my lap last night, rock-a-bye-baby style and found that she just doesn’t fit the way she used too. Time goes by too fast. The above picture is one of my favorites. I used to set her in a bucket at my feet when I would hang laundry. The delighted expression on her face is reflective of the happy baby she was. In addition to her sweet disposition, she was such a great cuddler. God only gave me one cuddler, so I was so thankful He saved her for last. I savored, and continue to savor, every precious hug.

In the years since this picture, it’s been quite an adventure. Oh the stories that could be told! We used to call her our surprise baby because she was probably the biggest surprise of my life. Because of that, we gave her the middle name “Grace”. Grace means “unmerited favor” and it is a very accurate description of the way God has blessed and grown us through the privilege of being Michelle’s parents. We pray that He will continue to show His favor in her life and that she will walk with Him and love Him with her whole heart.

In closing, I need to tell you that my husband believes I way exaggerated his comment fixation. He said, and I quote, “My actions were only in jest of your infatuation with comments on your posts.” I have no idea what he could be referring to!

The Unexplainable

2006-09-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

I asked Scott to write a post for me regarding his experience in Ecuador—I had no idea what I was unleashing. Apparently he had many words waiting for a forum. Be nice and leave him lots of comments—it’s very sweet and he might even hug you!

As I sat there surrounded by other men, I could tell something was amiss. The speaker told us how much God cares for us, how much we need each other, how much we miss when… oh no, here it comes…..how much we miss as Christians when don’t truly express our love one for another. I was about to enter the zone of no escape unless I could pretend I needed to use the restroom and quietly get up and go out. Unfortunately, I was up near the front. Escape seemed way too difficult since I was hemmed in on all sides by the others who also seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable with the way this was going.

What is it with speakers who think they need us to get touchy feely. The truth is, most men when confronted with such moments, a chance to put faith to work, to truly connect, just want to have their cell phone ring and take the call (this is one reason to go to med school – “medical emergency you know”).

Sure enough this misguided speaker was about to have all the men at the men’s conference stand up and give their neighbors a hug and tell them they love them. This was supposed to fill a need we all had for brotherly love. I was seated next to Jeff, my brother in law. Now I like Jeff and yes, as a brother in Christ, I even love him. It’s just that I do not love hugging him, or anyone else of the Y chromosome. To be clear, this includes everyone of the X except my immediate family such as wife, mother and daughters. They seem to have an exemption to this aversion.

The point I am trying to make is men, myself very much included, absolutely do not want to hug other men. It’s an awkward moment. We certainly can’t grunt and make other manly noises (just think about that). In my opinion, men are only truly comfortable among other men when high-fiving or grunting is acceptable, perhaps an occasional “huahh!” For myself when confronted with these mass touchy feely moments, I prefer to look at the ceiling and pray that no one is carried away with the moment, putting their arms out in my direction. If cornered and with no escape, I opt for the hands only hug. No body contact, only a pat on the back (long honkin arms are good for this).

So with this deep perspective on being a manly man…. I am unable to explain some of things that happened on my recent trip to Ecuador. Mind you, unexplainable phenomena in actuality are usually quite easy to explain. At least that is my opinion of one who makes it his duty in life to know everything (that sounds better than being a know-it-all). This summer, I and 45 others went on a short term mission trip to Ecuador. During our preparation for the trip our leader was encouraging us as to how God will change us on this trip. Isaiah 55 really hits home here that God’s ways are not our ways. As it turns out, God did change me in a way that was really quite shocking. Let me give you some background. First, the people of Ecuador we met on the trip were some of the friendliest people on earth. Their love for God and each other was a shinning testimony to us. Their friendliness and love for each other was very attractive, it draws you in and makes you want to be a part of it. In fact a deep change was quickly overcoming me. The truth is Gods love, when demonstrated in truth, draws us in with little hope of us resisting. I was drawn by the smiles, the friendly eyes, the older siblings caring tenderly for the younger, the old shown respect, and the joy of the Lord in all circumstances.

Our first worship service there was quite a time. We entered into a large and modest sanctuary. We were a little late but that was totally unimportant. The music seemed to penetrate right to my heart and the joy expressed by almost everyone was infectious. It was truly a special worship experience. I noticed that when someone entered the service late and took their seat (quiet common and perfectly ok there), others nearby would reach over and give them a great big hug. There was no slipping in late and taking a quiet seat. Each person was important to his neighbor and it showed. The neat thing was that even though they didn’t know us yet, we were important to them too. I wanted to be a part of this worship and these wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. Strangely, this transformation was happening with a people for all I knew were just off the boat from Babel—I couldn’t understand a word they spoke except maybe “grawshus”. It didn’t matter as Christian brothers and sisters as we were truly of the same family with the same Father.

What happened next was shocking. At each service we attended, they would play a song that had something to do with being a family, some amigo thing. As they played, everyone would rise from the safety of their seats and walk around hugging each other. I was lured into it. Now if evolution were true, I would have had a twitch or something that would have saved me from this display. After all, how many generations of manly men had preceded me to instill in my genes the anti-hug reaction? No, evolution had no hold. What had a hold is freedom from silly inhibitions and “Norte” coldness. For the first time in my life, I was a hugger by choice. I was even hugging my fellow North Americans and liking it (that sounds kind of funny but you know what I mean – brotherly love liking only).

Over the week, I hugged more times than I could count with a large number of self-initiated hugs. It even carried over to my return to North America (at least temporarily). This brings me to the unexplainable point. How does God do it? I mean, a self-proclaimed and proud of it hug-hater initiating hugging?? My only know-it-all explanation is that God in his infinite wisdom gave me a life changing experience and used hugging as part of his method. I have a better understanding now of 1 Cor 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” God’s love when unburdened by silly inhibitions is where our strength really lies. I learned a lesson about the family of God and how truly special they are to me. His love is hard to hold in. I am now back home and I realize that what I experienced seems a little distant already and this is disappointing. Whether of not I can maintain a hug friendly attitude is unknown to me. What I do know is that I was changed and I’m glad I didn’t go to med school. It’s a start.

Dapper Dan Takes a Spin

2006-09-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Well cleaning has it's advantage beyond the obvious. In the process of organizing a closet, I found my album that contained the gem to the left. (At least I think that's left--I'm a little challenged that way). Granted, the photography is lame, but the memory, how shall we say it? The memory, she is priceless!!

Here is the photo Stephanie requested after reading a post in August about my wonderful son. As unthinkable as it seems, someone reading this right now may not recall that post, or perhaps, shudder, not have even read it. Therefore, I will post again the story behind the picture, in which our son demonstrated a keen fashion sense which would characterize much of the next seven years of his life.

It was in October and we'd recently bought a McDonald's Happy Meal that had come in a pumpkin bucket. Most folks probably assumed it was for "Trick-or-treating" but my boy knew how to think out of the box, or bucket. He took off the little lid and put that pumpkin bucket on his head with the handle tucked underneath his chin. He then set out with dad for a spin around the block on his big wheel. Sure, anyone can wear a helmet. It takes a real Dapper Dan to wear a pumpkin bucket.

The picture to the right (I hope that's right) shows his cousin using an identical pumpkin bucket in a far less creative, but certainly more convention way. Jonathan, by the way, is the cute little clown in the back.

A Face Only a Mother Could Post

2006-09-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

Next week my baby will turn 12. In her honor, I told her next Wednesday I would post something all about her. (That's a lot of "her"s in one sentence!)

Before I do my nice tribute, I really need to get something off my chest.

When we went to Ecuador, one of the brilliant thoughts that went through my mind was, "Let's make sure to take a family picture so we can send it in our Christmas cards." Our first day in Ecuador we visited some great spots for a photo but my family was completely uncooperative. No one else had the same passion for my brilliant idea. "Oh well," I thought, "We'll get one another day."

However, as it turned out, most days all five of us were not in the same place at the same time. On our last day in Ecuador it hit me, "Oh my, we need a family picture." We gathered together so one of our sweet traveling companions, Nancy, could take the coveted family shot. My children were a little grumpy about this but I stressed to them why we needed to do it--it was brilliant I tell you!

Well the above photo of my little angel is a cut out from the first shot Nancy took. EVERYONE else looked great. In the next one, she had a decent smirk, but it wasn't good of her brother. When I saw this face I told her, "It will serve you right if I DO send this to everyone." Better yet, I am posting it on the internet where all 9 of my readers will see it--if they bother to check. Ha! Take that little missy! She's gonna think twice about ruining one of my brilliant plans again!!!

Now that I've had my revenge, maybe I can try to learn photo shop and paste her good face into the nice shot of everyone else.

More Teacher Ideas

2006-09-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, entitled "Back to School Ideas", I made the observation that teachers have lots of mugs so maybe mugs aren't the best gift for a teacher. I suggested a replacement idea of Starbuck's gift cards, but now I think maybe I've found a better idea! After all, what would a person with a plethora of mugs like better than something to sit all those mugs upon? Practical as well as thoughtful! Not to mention with just the right homemade touch. Here's the answer...a mug rug.

In addition to 400+ baby quilts for the pregnancy counseling center, Grandma Della made more crafts than you could shake a stick at. As we've been sorting through her things and trying to find the right home for each, I have discovered more and more little handmade goodies. However, this particular creation spoke to me.

Supplies are basic: plastic canvas, brown yarn, white yarn, and a yarn needle. If you can spell "mug" and "rug" you can probably work out the simple needlepoint pattern. The design for the mug may be a little tricky, but I believe the above photo can be used to work out the number of stitches in each row.

This is just what teachers need. Be warned though, mug rugs are more time-consuming than buying a Starbucks card, so start early and set aside several hours to stitch all the rugs you need for each of the special teachers in your child's life. I'm sure they will be very pleased.

Then again, maybe not. Stick with the Starbuck's card. Especially if I ever happen to be your child's teacher.

More Than a Date on the Calendar

2006-09-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

Today is a busy calendar day and extras included: 1st day of Catie's writing class, junior high soccer try-outs, ladies' ministry board meeting tonight... Everytime I wrote something new on the date, I of course thought of 9-11, not as a calendar date, but as an event. Like most Americans, I remember well the morning of 9-11-01, but it's amazing how much we forget, particularly some of the best lessons we could have learned from the horror of that day.

My sister called early in the morning to let me know about the World Trade Center. Scott was in the shower but I immediately turned on the radio, trying to understand the nature of her panicked phone call. The 1st Tower had already collapsed by the time I tuned in, but I was listening as they broadcast the collapse of the second. It all seemed surreal. All three kids were homeschooled at that time. We woke them up and told them what had happened and we prayed together. Shortly after, Scott left for work. We didn't have TV at the time, so I packed the kids up and we went over to watch at my sister's house. The images we watched on screen were even worse that the ones I had pictured while listening to the radio.

Some of my vivid memories in the days & weeks after 9-11 include the following:

1. I remember President Bush's address to congress. He and Tom Daschle actually gave each other a genuine hug. For one brief moment, it was not a group of Republicans and Democrats, but rather a group of Americans. I also remember President Bush acknowledging the brave actions of those on American Flight 93. Lisa Beamer, the wife of 9-11 hero Todd Beamer, was recognized from the balcony. When she stood, it was obvious that she was pregnant. I remember crying at this fresh reminder of the personal tragedy this national crisis meant to so many.
2. I remember many churches held evening prayer services for the express purpose of praying for our nation.
3. I remember the plethora of flags that were suddenly flying from every home and from the back of many cars. For a while, stores were sold out of flags. Our own flag, a relic from my childhood, had disintegrated some time earlier. It was to my shame that I had not replaced it. We flew a small, plastic 4th of July decoration until I purchased a new one.
4. I remember it was the first, and only time in my life that I rooted for the Yankees. As I nation, we all suddenly had a tender spot for New York, our respect for New York's mayor, Rudy Giuliani was great, and our desire to honor New York's police officers and fire fighters was sincere. For me, this translated to rooting for the Yankees in the World Series.
5. I remember people had a temporary openess to God. "God Bless America" brought tears to many eyes as it was sung during the 7th inning of baseball games and America was again okay with the "One Nation Under God" concept. Granted, it was a "God" that could be tailored to whatever the individual believed, but even so, there was a recognition of the need for faith in something bigger than ourselves.
6. I remember it was during this time that the kids and I started including prayers for our president in our morning prayer time together. It is a Biblical instruction to pray for our leaders, 1 Timothy 2:1-3 says, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior". Though a Biblical instruction, it took something like 9-11 to impress upon me the need to do this daily. We now also pray for our troops and their families in our morning prayer time.
7. I remember stories of heroism and sacrifice as tragedy brought out the best in many.

God taught us much through the tragedy of 9-11. I wish we had better memories. Unfortunately there will probably come a time when we will be able to put an event on the calendar without thinking about 9-11 as more that just the 11th day of September. For those who choose not to forget, there are lessons worth choosing to remember. I don't think I'll be rooting for the Yankees again anytime soon, but surely we would all benefit from that greater realization of our need for prayer, humility before God, and a willingness to set small diffences aside and care for our fellow man.

To Link or Not to Link...that is the Question

2006-09-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

My oh my, if you want to offend bloggers in three easy steps here's one way to do it:
1. Change your template & thereby erase all your links.
2. Replace a couple of the links before hitting an impasse.
3. Give up because it's midnight and nothing is working.

You know, I saw it coming. I thought, "I can't leave off some of my links, someone's gonna be mad!" So I went to "edit", and left a little side note on my newest post explaining my dilemma, thinking that might solve the problem. Vanity, vanity, it was like chasing the wind, it didn't solve anything--two of my coveted six comments, that's 1/3 BTW, were to whine that they no longer had links!!!

Today the computer was cooperating and all the links are restored. Happy???

I'm also posting a picture of what I hope will become my new blog ID photo, or whatever you call it. This is the fish I most relate to... Dory! I have to appologize to her for misspelling her name in an earlier post. It is really a rather clever spelling because the word "Dory" also means a flat-bottomed boat with high flaring sides, sharp bow, and deep V-shaped transom. That is clever, something you'd expect from those clever folks at Pixar. Anyways, I spelled it "Dorrie" in an ealier post entitled "The Dorrie Club". I'm not quite so clever (I don't even know what a transom is!). As I said in that misspelled post, I so relate to the memory challenged individual Dory embodied in Finding Nemo. So, if I can figure out how to do it, she will be my new ID.

One last thing, if I neglected to add you back on to my links, at this point it's because I forgot that you were on my links. You can feel offended or remember who you're dealing with. Dory Club. Charter Member.

Kaiser & the Pearly Gates

2006-09-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

Although Grandma went to be with the Lord July 10, we still have many, many reminders of her all around the house. Her legacy has continued in the things she taught us as well as the many things she made. We miss her.

Often the mail brings us reminders of a different kind. Kaiser, her health care provider, sent several letters and brochures to her in the weeks following her death ranging from "Health Tips for Seniors" to "Information Regarding Your Plan". The more time passed, the more I'd shake my head. You'd think her health care provider would have a clue that she no longer has health to provide for.

Finally in late August, we received a letter from Kaiser addressed to "The Estate of Della Rowlands". Eureka! They updated their records! However, the message on the outside of the envelope was a little baffling: "Important! Continuing Your Coverage: Enclosed is valuable information about how to continue your Kaiser Permanente membership. Please read the enclosed materials immediately."

Now I don't claim to know everything about heaven, but I'm thinking along with "No more tears and no more sorrows" it's also true that there is "no more Kaiser". I hope so, because we don't have a clue how to forward her this "important" information.

Sidenote: I got tired of pink. I changed my blog template tonight and lost all of my links. No problem--I'm so tech savvy I'll just put them on again, and THIS TIME, it will be alphabetical! (Except for Indiana Update--that's my sister & my inspiration, and she'll always be on top!) Anyway, I was working down my "favorites" shortcut and it was working dandy until I got to Andy. Everytime I added him, the entire side bar would erase. Personally, I think it's because of the unkind comments he made on Josh's blog about the Giants--not so dandy, Andy. I will try again tomorrow to add in all those awesome links I lost tonight. This is why I never redecorate my house!

If Life Gives You TP...Make Dresses

2006-09-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know that we're making the most of the extra TP we have around our house lately. 34 rolls, according to a source who should know.

Whatever you can or can't say for these girls, they certainly are creative. I remember when all three of the kids were little and we bought a trampoline. The next day I found them all playing happily in the box it had come in--they were pretending it was a boat and having a great time.

This time, our two young ladies put on a fashion show. I'm sure these gowns will be all the rage soon. They're light weight, extremely affordable, and very practical if you happen to be some place like Ecuador, where you often supply your own tissue! They are not recommended for rainy climates however, so wear wisely.

Oh, and BTW, as much fun as we had with the TP, our trash can's a little full. So please, no more donationas until after trash day!

Lofty and Lowly Thoughts

2006-09-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

Well I had some bigger-than-usual thoughts for a post this morning. I was challenged in April to read my Bible through in a year. Cheryl Miles, our speaker at the ladies retreat, mentioned that she had done this for the past couple of years and God has blessed much in the process. I resolved that weekend to do the same--I had begun many times but always ended up getting behind and giving up. Usually I ran into trouble when Bible study began and I couldn't keep up on both. Well I realized that it is not impossible to make time to read a couple extra chapters in the Bible each day--after all, there has NEVER in my life been a time that busyness prevented me from eating the entire day. It was time to take my spiritual feeding a little more serious. So I left that retreat in early April and resolved that I was going to read the entire Bible in a year.

About three weeks later, I thought I really need to get going on that resolve. I remembered that we had purchased a chronological Bible several years ago that was broken up into daily readings and I had really enjoyed it until I gave up. Only problem was, where was that Bible? Two weeks later, when I finally found the chronological Bible, I started my daily Bible reading with the goal of reading the entire Bible through in one year. That was May 8th and I am so thankful to say , by the grace of God, this morning's reading was September 3rd.

I have to say, I have been AMAZED at how God has blessed me in this endeaver. I began in Psalms (because Genesis is back in January) and the reign of David. I'm currently in Ezekiel, and though as I record my thoughts on my reading they often say things like, "This is very difficult for me to understand", even more often I find so many examples of God's grace, along with a greater appreciation for His holiness. It's awesome to me as well how God will use what I am reading chronologically, and apply it to another place I am studying. I saw Him do that in my preparation for teaching a Biblical Worldview to the high school girls this summer. I saw Him do that as I was preparing for VBS devotions for our Ecuador trip. In Sunday school two weeks ago, the topic was the omnipotence of God and Pastor Stan mentioned Jeremiah 32 as an example--I had read that same passage that very morning. God uses that repetition to build excitement, understanding and a love for His word!

I was pondering how God has blessed this undertaking while getting ready this morning. I was also thinking this would be good material for my next post and thankfully a little deeper than the past several! I was just getting ready to read the September 3 passages when one of the girls came running in, "We got TP'd!"

Well the brain gears switched quickly, the lofty thoughts vanished, and I ran to the window to survey the wreckage. Hmmm, this was a much better job than the one a couple of weeks ago. This one was creative! I picked up my camera and headed out to photograph the handiwork of some late night artists. I crawled under the plastic wrap wound across our front porch and started taking shot after shot. Beamer followed me out and instantly became very interested in the lawn. That's when I noticed the fruit loops. Scattered among the plastic knives were fruit loops galore and Beamer was most appreciative. Later, Michelle wrapped him in some of the TP as we cleaned up and he didn't even notice because he was so busy trying to collect as many of those fruity rings as he could.

Two thoughts to leave you with, maybe three:
1. Reading through the entire Bible is extremely rewarding--God will bless it in your life and grow you in your hunger for His Word!
2. Please feel free to ask me if I'm staying on top of my reading--I do better with accountability.
3. If you were involved in TPing our house--you did an excellent job, we were very impressed, and you'd better watch your back! :)

Bad Hair Days

2006-09-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

Well thanks to my vast readership I have some new thoughts for posts. I made a list of 9 potential ideas so hopefully I'll have some very insightful musings to share for quite a while. Tonight's title is a good indication of just how insightful.

Megan suggested posting hairstyles I've worn over the years. As I pondered that one, what came to mind were the times I have cut my own bangs.

Haircutting seems to be a "talent" that runs in our family because both my sister and I have created some rare styles in our efforts at saving a few bucks. I think she has even more "talent" than me in this area. (Her sweet mother-in-law, who would hesitate to say anything uncharitable about anyone, has been rather blunt in the unkind things she has said about Jody's clipping.)

Unlike my sister, who gave Jeff & David some very infamous haircuts, the one most victimized by my lack of ability was myself. Quite often I have resorted to cutting my own bangs. Not only does it save money, my hair just grows so fast and my hairline begins so low (about an inch & a half above my eyebrows--my husband & I are rather opposites in this area), that it is just a matter of convenience. In earlier years, I was never too careful about it and thought to myself that because of the curl in my hair, no one could tell my bangs were not even. As I compare the height of my bangs from one side of my face to the other in this picture, I'm thinking I was either blind or delusional.

This picture reminds me not only of some very bad hair days, but also of my new found solution to that particular problem. Johnny's got the right idea...wear a hat.