What's the Bible have to say about the Superbowl?

Everyone is getting into the excitement of the upcoming Superbowl. Arizona has never had a team go to the Superbowl, so it's like a mania here. Today was wear your team's shirt at school. Two of my friends did...one a Cardinals shirt, the other a Steelers shirt. heehee It was quite a spectacle. I wish I'd had a camera with me when I came into the work room and saw the rear view of them both crouching down trying to unjam the copier, emblems on their backs blazing. Too funny.

And I do mean everyone is getting into the excitement:

In comparison....

Joann commented that she imagined I would have looked a lot like my daughter Bethany when I was a teenager. So I went back to the only picture of myself that I have scanned as a teenager. I think she's right. And I never have thought of it. ;)

Beth last year:


Me at 16 (a photo in the yearbook of people who worked on the yearbook):


Aye carrumba.....as Joann says and I'm sure I spelled wrong. ;) But the ancient typewriter in the background does nothing towards making me look younger now, does it? *pffft*

They're making me look old!

Happy birthday Bethany!
We are so proud of the young lady you're becoming.
She turned 19 yesterday, friends and family around the table.
This is her and her birthday lasagna.



Oh....and this is her, her lasagna and her boyfriend....heehee.

Dog weirdness

Maisy misses Joey and Micah.



Maybe she thinks they will email her. Yesterday she sat in this position for quite a while and even put her paw down on the computer once.

Peace, baby

I am desperate for material folks, so I copied Joann's blog. =)

Your Word is "Peace"

You see life as precious, and you wish everyone was safe, happy, and taken care of. Social justice, human rights, and peace for all nations are all important to you. While you can't stop war, you try to be as calm and compassionate as possible in your everyday life. You promote harmony and cooperation. You're always willing to meet someone a little more than halfway.

What's Your Word?

Good visits, eh?

It's getting late, but I wanted to update. We are full of guests this week. A family of four from Canada is staying with us while on sabbatical and traveling across America and into Mexico. The wife/mom is a dear friend who I am so enjoying spending time with! Tonight half of her family went to a hockey game and we went, just us girls, thrift store shopping and out to ice cream. (we had such a nice little waitress there too....she kept waving samples at us to try. The apple pie ala mode is really good!!)

I will try to be somewhat more regular here but for now we are enjoying:

....the ooo's and ahhh's of a Canadian's impressions of the west, of cacti and coyotes, lizards and being able to buy summer clothing in January.
.....the sweet SWEET sound of a 13 year old's violin/fiddle playing.
.....people who want to experience and savor ordinary American traditions and experiences....like rooting for the Cardinals and excitement about the Super Bowl. (these are people who do not have football in their background....at all, but they are loving it AND rooting for the Cards). They were also rooting for our hockey team, the Coyotes, tonight at a game. While they were at the game, my friend and I saw a real coyote run across a major, busy street in the middle of Phoenix! How ironic, eh? (oops I said 'eh'...it's contagious!)
.....good friends with lots in common and partners together in ministry of the local church to a vastly diverse world.....one in the US and one in Canada, but so much in common.

This could bring about world change.

I just received this from Shirley....it is possibly the sweetest thing I've ever seen! True devotion.

a-HEM!

I'm feeling so much better. I've had so many cold viruses this winter, it's just nice to not be coughing or have a sinus headache. I just have to clear my throat and cough to get up leftover junk in my throat.

Well, I was clearing my throat really loudly during a free work time at school today...it was pretty loud in there so I could get away with it.

....a little boy who was sitting at my table working looked at me and said, "WHAT?? What did I do?" He thought I was clearing my throat to get his attention about something. And he IS a rascal sometimes, which is why he was working at my desk instead of at his own. But he has a good sense of humor so we had a good laugh over it.

Then I had to focus him back onto his handwriting book.

Drama in the wilds of my backyard

A really interesting thing happened this afternoon. I was sitting in our screened-in back room when I heard this crashing-squawking-thrashing kind of sound. Looking up I saw a small hawk (or it may have been a falcon??) dashing out of an overgrown palm tree with a dead dove or pigeon in his claws!!! It flew right over our pool and landed in the huge pine tree that hangs over our fence, feathers all raining down and more thrashing. Then Maggie sat out there and kept seeing it fly from our palm tree to the overgrown one two houses down. There must be 10 or so pigeons nesting in there...disgusting.

I am now afraid to let our little dog out in the yard without a guardian with her! Not sure what to do. Charles said if he's taking out the pigeons, he is for it. We are over-populated with them here. They love to nest in the old palm fronds that fall over and hang down the trunk of the tree.

Drama everywhere these days.

(after looking up the images for both kinds of birds, I think it looks more like a falcon....yellow crook beak and smaller than a hawk)

Glancing ahead

I was looking at our school calendar on Saturday to see when our days off are this semester and when Spring Break comes. As I was musing, I said out loud, "Oh April is bad!" (because there are no days off) Emma (16), who didn't even know what I was doing said, "Oh that's what Mr. L said at school today. He was looking at the school calendar for days off of school. And he was like 'April is a bad month!'" It was so funny. I guess it's a common feeling this time of year for us in the education system.

Only 4 months till summer vacation...

Lemony Snippet

My Maggie juiced two boxes of lemons for me yesterday. I kept thinking she would get tired and I'd take over for her but she finished the whole project! Two and a half gallons of lemon juice later, I told her juicy little self to hit the showers.

Anyone for a little lemonade?

Winter cuteness

Just a cute photo of Bethany for you today, taken by her boyfriend Mitchell.

Paradise

Emmanuel went to Paradise today. His body gave up and his spirit is finally free from pain and suffering. While we are rejoicing for his being with Christ now, we are grieving with his family as they will now return to a life without Emmanuel. They have spent their life, the past 9 years, taking care of him at home and mostly in hospitals. And now they don't have him. They have Hope which brings peace and comfort, but they have empty hands and hearts for a time now. Thank you for your prayers for them. He leaves a Father and Mother who dearly loved him, sisters, and 3 young sons.

I can only imagine how Emmanuel is enjoying Heaven tonight. And I am imagining it!

3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:3-4

The journey

..don't you think that's what life is...a journey?

It seems to be the common theme for me lately. Not so much MY journey, but seeing and praying for people who are experiencing changes and new things in their journey.

Here are some glimpses of journeys I've been privileged see and pray for lately:

*My two college aged daughters making life decisions and struggling to trust the wisdom God gives to make good ones.
*A friend whose family is taking a real journey across the country to remove themselves from the familiar in order to hear from God about their future.
*Two old friends who have recently lost mates. Devastating part of the journey...one who is still reeling and one who seems to be finding purpose and joy again almost two years later.
*People all around us who are being forced to change direction in their lives because of disastrous financial, career or health situations. Unsure footing makes it hard to move forward.
*I have a few friends who are changing the futures of a few little ones by adopting new children into their family. Even though this is a joyful event, it also comes with feelings of an unsure future and vulnerability.
*We recently visited with relatives who went through this adoption process 3 years ago and see the joy their unsure journey has led them into.
*A young friend who has been on mission in a third world....almost 5th world actually....country for the past 5 months. She is processing all the contrasts in culture and prosperity and what is really important in life. I learned a lot by listening to her recent journey last Sunday.
*A few people I've talked to or heard about this past year who are elderly or gravely ill who speak of the end of this earthly journey and hope for the place we're going to continue on in wonderful part of the journey....not the end but the reward and the fulfillment of all of our hope for eternity.

When it is hard, sometimes it can seem like we're traveling through a blinding snowstorm with no shelters, warmth or light to help us on the way. We feel lost, alone, and abandoned. The key is that it 'seems like'.....and although those feelings are real and very valid, there is always a guiding Hand, whether we can see it happening or not, whether we trust it or not. Coming out of the storm can even be difficult but it is part of the journey, crossing over into new territory and new beginnings. Things are not often the same after a storm. There may be permanent scars to our environment and lives, but pressing forward is the only way to see what God will do, how He heals and revives us again, and the future blessings in store for us and our loved ones. Coming through a storm reassures our hope and proves it.

I hope that whatever part of this journey you are in, you will trust and be willing to keep moving, keep pressing on because God has a plan for you....good things, even after hard times.

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time." 1 Peter 5:5-6

Sometimes the humbling is not something we contrive or cause, but something that happens to us as a result of being knocked down. But in due time.....just wait....He lifts us up. It looks like a promise to me.

Cling ons

We are home now from a very eventful trip to Oklahoma. More on that later. Bedtime.

But I will leave you with this. (this is Emma's imitation of Maggie skating......all while Maggie is fighting for her life...or at least her balance.... and not thinking it was very funny) There was an outdoor ice skating rink in downtown Oklahoma City.