I’ve been gone longer than I anticipated.  Sorry.  So here is just a quick bullet list of what has gone on.

• Paid the bills
• Threw a suprise birthday party for hubby
• His birthday is still a month away!  Thus the surprise
• Had a picnic in the park for the last day of school
• Went to a concert with my oldest daughter
• Friends of ours from our congregation were the performers
• Attended a graduation
• Took one nap
• Mailed out several graduation cards
• Did the laundry and dishes
• Watched Princess Bride again
• Had fun with the family

Altogether fun stuff.  I’ve got more coming up too.  But it is summer time.  Time for schedules to supposedly be a little less busy and to have lots of fun.  It is also time for me to moan and whine about the weather.  It is HOT already.  Booo… I miss the snow.

Have a happy day!

I will be teaching this week.  Here is what it will look like.

Monday – 5th grade followed by an appointment to the chiropractor and then dinner with two good friends.

Tuesday – Kindergarten followed by a concert of a college chorus on tour for the summer.  Two of the members will be spending the night with us.  This is one of the boys we met at camp in Indiana a few years ago.  Everyone is excited to see each other again. 

Wednesday – Return the college students to their busses, grocery shop, choir concert for big sister (it is her final and counts as a test!)

Thursday – Last day of pre-school for the year.  I will be running the end of the year program for all the students and making speeches to the parents.  That could be entertaining!

Friday- Field day for little sister that I will attend.

Saturday – lock in with the teens and then drive to “kidnap” the kids coming into the youth group so they can all have breakfast with the teens before we meet for worship on Sunday morning.  The new kids will end up at services in their jammies and will have to wait for their parents to show up with clothes for them to change into.  Should be fun!

Then……. I have no idea what will be in store for the last week of school!  Have a happy week in case I don’t make it back in a timely fashion. 

I am about to go downstairs to my kitchen… hand over dinner making responsibilities to my 10 year old (she is good at that anyway) and take apart the inside of my fridge.  The coils that are meant to cool things are inside of a glacier!  It seems to be happening at a more frequent rate and I’m a little bit tired of it.  We have to take out the inside panels, de-glacierfy the coils and fan, reassemble and then wait for it to be cold enough for food to go back in.  I do not enjoy this!   I want my fridge to keep food cool and not turn into a glacier every other month.  I do not think that is asking too much. 

So, I’ll find the rachet set (I should get my own instead of always hunting hubby’s) and all the coolers in teh house, move the food from the fridge to the coolers and start taking things apart!  Bleh!   Maybe I’ll put on some good music while I’m working.     It is supposed to snow tonight, so perhaps I’ll just set my food on the back porch and let nature keep it cool.  Snow in May!  Can you even imagine?!  That is just plain old weird!!

Happy day everyone.  If your fridge is working correctly, count your blessings.

I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene
and wonder how he could love me,
a sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain: 
How Marvelous!  How Wonderful!
And my song shall ever be,
How Marvelous! How Wonderful
Is my savior’s love for me

__________________________________________________________________

That song is just sort of rolling through my head today, so I thought I’d share it with you.

Have a happy day!

I love words.  As a child (and teen for that matter) I used to read the dictionary and find new and interesting words to use.  I’d find words like ‘serendipity’ or ‘discombobulate’ and think they were some of the coolest words ever.  They are fun to say and it makes you look smarter than saying ‘lucky’ or ‘make a mess’ anyway. 

My youngest daughter has picked up looking for a fun word in the dictionary each week to spring on a boy at our congregation.  She challenges him to see if he knows what something means.  He is 16, she is 10.  I think she likes saying ‘fiduciary’ to him and seeing the look of confusion for a moment.  She likes to feel smart.  He likes to play along.  It is a cute game. 

She has figured out that words have power.  If she knows a words he doesn’t, she has the power to tell him or not.  Words have all sorts of power.  They can control us or motivate us.  Today, I want to use words that have the most power of all.  I LOVE YOU.  I get the privilege of spending all day with people I love.  It will be a great day.

The other day, I was teaching fifth grade and giving them tips on interviews.  They had to do a mock interview for a job.  I told them to be themselves, say things you would normally say and relax.  I said.. don’t go in there and spout out a word like ‘subcutaneous’ unless you know what it means and you can use it in a sentence.  So two boys jumped out of their seats and ran for the dictionary.  It made my teacher heart happy!

Have a happy day!!

On Friday, I was driving north on the highway near my house to go to a ladies retreat for our congregation.  It was in another city.  I had just entered the highway and was merging off the ramp into the lanes when I noticed a motorcycle cop with his lights on between two of the concrete barriers that divide the road in the middle.  I thought it was an odd place to have a speed trap and he wasn’t really inconspicuous with his lights on.  Weird.  I drove a little bit more and saw another motorcycle cop in the same kind of gap in the barriers with his lights on too.  Very weird!  

Then, I saw a pack of motorcycle cops driving down the road with lights flashing (they were going south).  I would venture to guess 15-20 motorcycle cops with lights flashing followed by two black cars with tinted windows and small flags on the hood flapping in the wind.  Next there were about 4 SUV’s with tinted windows all driven by men in black suits and sunglasses.  At the very end was an ambulance with lights flashing.

Obviously, there was someone important on the other side of the highway from me.  I initially thought it was the president, but I never saw a presidential logo.   Then there was the ambulance.  That really threw me.  What kind of motorcade has an ambulance??  I thought perhaps the Attorney General, but then the ambulance would need to be at the front of the motorcade with the black cars with flags chasing behind it.  HA!  That made me laugh out loud when I thought of that.  Not the governor, He doesn’t get that kind of attention I don’t think.  Well whoever it was, they certainly had an interesting motorcade.

I got to my retreat and told someone what I had seen and they suggested it was the Vice President because he was in the area to see something with Green energy or … I have no idea.  But, the ambulance still is strange.  I can’t figure why they need an ambulance in the motorcade. 

Then during the retreat, we had a break for a few minutes to stretch our legs or go to the restroom and guess who was standing out in the hall with a swarm of secret service men taking photos?  Colin Powell.  There was much excitement among our ladies.  I did not see him, but I did see all sorts of secret service men in the hotel during the weekend.   I doubt it was his motorcade I passed.  They were going the opposite direction as me. 

So…. who has a theory on why a motorcade for someone that needs police escorts, flags on their car and dark windows would need to bring along an ambulance?

Have a happy day!

Today, I got to go on a field trip with my daughter.  We went to a local museum.  It was more like a little village than it was a museum.  The kids saw a fire truck from the 1930, a house from 1887, a weaving loom, a blacksmith that forged a nail, took a wagon ride, attended a one room school, went in a train caboose, made butter, ground some corn and saw fossils.  They had a lot of fun.  Nevermind the fact that it was 80 degrees yesterday and snowing this morning when they got to school.  So the picnic after the museum was moved to the cafeteria back at school.  HA!  They were pretty glad about that actually.  The snow had stopped, but it was still wet and a bit chilly outside.

I don’t often get to do things like this because I am usually teaching somewhere.  It was really nice to take a day off and hang out with little sister and her friends.  I think she LOVED me being there.

Have a happy day! 

I spent two hours last night on an instant message program with a young man I know.  At one point, he flat out asked me why I thought he was worth my time.  He said  “I’ve got so many things wrong with me, I just don’t understand why you would think that about me.”  (I had just told him I appreciated him as a person)   It didn’t matter to him that everyone deals with something.  To him, his problems were much bigger than everyone else’s.  He felt alone and unworthy.

Lies.  That is what he believes about himself.  Lies.  He believes he is not worthy of friendships.  He believes that his problems are too big.  These are things that have been said to him or that he just assumes based on various circumstances.  It makes me both sad and mad when I find out people are beliving lies.

The truth is, each one of us have problems.  They feel big to us.  Not one of us is perfect.  When we start believing the lies told to us it gets even worse.   We all deserve to be treated with respect.  We all should have friendships that will make us better people.  We all need to have Jesus save us.  We all need to stop comparing our problems with other people and for that matter we all need to stop comparing our successes with other people.  Each of us is unique and special.  We need to not worry about being as good as so and so or as smart as someone.  Relish in who you are.  Enjoy yourself and the way God made you.  Don’t feel like you have to carry your problems all alone.  We’ve been promised that HE will never leave us or forsake us.  I’m holding on to that promise!

Meanwhile, my young friend, has some work ahead of him.  I hope that God can use me to help him through this current problem.  He will be stronger on the other side of it. 

I hope that each of you have a day full of blessings!

19 years ago, I married my sweet husband.  He is wonderful.  We’ve experienced the “for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health” part of marriage.  Now we are just working together so we can one day say we also made it to the “till death do you part” part of marriage.  I hope we have to work on that part for many many more years.

Today, we are going out for lunch and then we will watch a movie with the family this evening.    It will be a good day!

April 20, 1999.   That is the date that two boys decided to go on a shooting spree at Columbine High School.   I remember that day very clearly. I was working as a receptionist in an office in downtown Denver.  I was a few months pregnant with my second child.  It was a sunshiny day with blue skies and fluffy clouds.  Business as usual.  Just after lunch the phone rang.  I answered it because that was my job.  It was a girl wanting to talk to her dad.  I told her that he was out of the office but I could take a message.  She sounded out of breath.  She said, “Just tell my dad that I’m ok.  That is all.. I’m ok.”   I told her I would.  I thought it was kind of silly to call to say you were ok.  What a weird message.  I didn’t even write it down.  I figured I’d tell him when I saw him again.  

About 3 minutes later there was all sorts of commotion in the office.  There was one room that had TV’s on constantly.  I don’t really know why, but it had something to do with trading and oil and wall street.. I just answered phones.  Anyway, everyone was talking about Columbine high and the shooting.  I connected the dots and DID write down that message then to tell the girls dad as soon as I could.  Work ceased while people were just glued to the TVs.  I stayed at my reception desk.

I remember one lady coming out of her area and standing in front of me waiting on the elevator to get there.  She had a son at that school and she was going to go get him.  She had on a red dress that had gold buttons.  She leaned on the wall by the elevator door and just stared blankly in my direction.  The look in her eye was distant and frightened.  When the doors opened she got in as fast as she could.  It is a picture I have stuck in my memory of that day.  A few hours later we learned that her son was one of the ones that lost his life that day.  You could feel the weight of that announcement all over the office. 

As the days went by and weeks went by, stories about what happened that day began to be told.  One of the stories was about a girl named Cassie Bernall.  (google her name to read her story if you haven’t already).  She was in the library.  When the shooter asked if she believed in God, she said yes.. then she was shot.  That is a very powerful story to me.  I did a little research and wrote a letter to her parents.  They were very gracious and wrote a letter back to us.  We chose to name our baby after their daughter.  After she was born, we took her to meet those parents.  It was a beautiful and healing and touching experience.  We’ve kept in contact over the years here and there.  Today, I remember them and my former co-worker and I pray that God will continue to comfort them and give them peace. 

Hugs to everyone