....of fuzz and scissors

I began the process of trimming the dog the other day....several other days ago. It is such a tedious process with a pair of scissors and a wiggling dog (constantly turning around to get the elusive scissors away from me) that I have put off finishing the job. So for days she has been slinking around with only parts of herself trimmed. Today she got her bath and tonight I will finish the job with some electric clippers (now that I can get through the curly fuzz).

Half way through the process:


Click to see entire photo.


I would hide my face too!

Now listen up!

Someone is mimicking someone else. But let's not go there. It's just funny!

Sending jovens across the world

This email just in:

The kids are in Johannesburg and headed to bed. They leave early in the morning their time - 11:40 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) our time for Maputo, with a layover and then on to Quelimane. All are well!

Thanks for your prayers

In Mozambique, they speak Portugese. In Portugese, joven means youth.

Our church sent a mission team of 6 high school and college students off for a trip to Mozambique, Africa on Tuesday morning. It is a long, exhausting trip. Now they are in South Africa, sleeping. Tonight they head out on a smaller plane to Maputo, where the airport is full of scammers waiting to exploit anyone who will trust them and baggage handlers who will do the same! Pray that they will make it through to Quilemane safely and with all their luggage and things they are taking to the missionary family there. One of the big prayer needs of any foreign mission trip is safe traveling.

Once they get to Quilemane, Mozambique, they will be teaching the True Love Waits abstinence program and also doing sports evangelism for 2 1/2 weeks. I will give more reports later and let you in on their mission trip blog. Please pray!

This wild, crazy life

Well I had my little dose of adrenaline for the day and a few more gray hairs. It seems to be the daily thing now. We were visiting with Phil and Jackie in the hospital when I got a call and it was the border police on the US side. At first I was jolted, thinking Bethany had been in an accident or something had happened to her, so that was the first thing out of my mouth. "Is my daughter okay???" He said, "well she's crying but she's okay I guess." I was like, "Why? what happened?" Apparently he thought I knew. I couldn't stop shaking for over an hour. Here's the story....

She was pulled over while crossing the border on the way home from a mission trip to Naco, Mexico where they were visiting at an orphanage. The border police noticed that her truck had a stolen truck's license plate on it!! This is a common crime here. A thief will steal a car, then find a car that is a similar make and switch license plates with it. So you are driving around with a stolen plate and they are driving around scot free until you finally notice your license plate is different. So she's been there for a few hours. First she had to be cleared of suspicion, and now she is waiting to get a temporary license plate in order to drive home. Thankfully her college group is there waiting with them to escort them home again.

Life has just gotten this wild, crazy element to it lately that I am going to have to learn to deal with better. I feel like it takes years off my life each time something traumatic happens.

Hannah called today too and is doing well. She is liking living in a 'little cabin in the woods'. =)

My very long quick update

Updates:

Hannah is in Alaska. She left me a long voicemail gushing about how beautiful it was, how cute the cabins are (where they are staying) and that she liked where she was going to work. The boss is very low key, hippie type of Christian. *dude* She is so in heaven.

Bethany gets home from her mission trip to Mexico tomorrow afternoon. She went on Spring Break with a college group to help work on dorms for an orphanage there and to play with the children. So this is a follow up trip just to focus on the children. She is in heaven loving on those kids.

Emma is finishing up her junior year. She's learning not to stress out about her end of the year schoolwork. Last year she was beside herself. Right now she is at a going away party for a Russian foreign exchange student who is in her second hour. And she herself leaves in a week for the summer. She is on a team of high school and college kids who will help and actually lead weeks of VBS at different churches and will also help at two different weeks of kids' camp. She will be in heaven too, starting a busy, exciting summer.

I'm so proud of my kids for serving like they do. Something definitely went right in that department!

Jobbish update....I've got to apply for unemployment next week. Weird feeling. These last days of school are just feeling weird too. Today during an assembly, our class was standing right behind the front row of folding chairs and a little girl in the middle of a row of 27 kids fainted and landed, throat first on the chair rung in front of her. It was a horrendous feeling, we could not get to her because the kids all swarmed around her. She started having convulsions while lying there, her throat still on the chair rung. Some adults got to her and she was swiftly taken to the nurse's office. She was okay when I had to leave her, but it was a traumatic experience for all of us. It's been a long day in general at the school with kids who were more wound up than was good for any of our mental states. I was so glad when Charles took Emma and Maggie golfing for 9 holes after school. I had some time to myself. So I trimmed the dog half way. LOL She looks funny, but it'll wait for a day until I can get to the rest of her. And now for the rest of the dog fuzz.....page THREE.

Someone stop the world for a few minutes? I need to catch up!

Blessings on a bad 'carma' day

I feel more settled now after a major breakdown yesterday. Just work things that are plaguing my mind lately. I spent the afternoon and evening crying off and on yesterday but today I feel perfectly at peace about it. Whenever I think about it, I am honestly sure God is going to lead. If I'm to stay home or go back to some kind of job, He will help me know what to do and have a plan in it. So what is there to worry about? Of course who knows how tomorrow will be, but for today it's peace.

And a good day is not to be underestimated. It is a blessing.

This afternoon Hannah had major car issues on her way back from northern California, where she was checking out a Bible college. Something fell out of a truck in front of her on the interstate and she ran over it. Then she had to limp to Needles, CA to have someone assess the damage. So far the word is that it is just the oil pan that got damaged. The first place she stopped in Needles was trying to tell her it was the transmission! But she took it to another place and they looked and said oil pan. But they didn't have one in stock and could not order it until Monday.

Hannah leaves on a flight to Alaska (to work there for the summer) on Wednesday. (I know...this is a nail biter isn't it?) While Charles was busy trying to configure a plan to get someone to help him drive to Needles and bring Hannah's car back late in the week, I was getting that sinking feeling. We prayed, we ate dinner. Then the phone rang.

As it turned out, the girl who is traveling with her called her dad and it worked out that the girl's brother in law (married to Hannah's best friend) will come pick them up in Needles and bring some thingie that will tow the car back to Arizona, where we can get it looked at by people we know and trust. I love James! An angel with a car tow thingie!

So it's been a crazy 2 days and I am ready to hide away in my bed for a month.

The great thing is, God's given me peace now about the work thing.....at least for today and I am into that. The daily emergencies and life issues we all face threaten to steal our peace, to sink us down into despair. But God gives us simple instructions about this.....

4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians4:4-7

Speaking of Swine Flu

I spent today waiting....

Hannah arrived safely in northern California. She is there this week checking out a school of ministry with a friend.....and she may be moving there for a year this August. I am trying to take it in stride....but it's actually freaking me out.

Charles bought a treadmill today! We sold our pop up camping trailer a couple of months ago and used that money to buy a used Nordic Track treadmill from Craig's list. It's monstrous! But I don't care.....I've been wanting one for 13 years now! It has programs you can choose from to do different work outs. I have to do some major studying of the manual so that I can get the most out of my monster.

Saturday the glands under my right jawline started going crazy and are now so sore that I stayed home from work today. This morning, after sitting, waiting for 3 hours to get in an examining room where I waited another half hour, the doctor at urgent care didn't think it was an infection because I have no fever and my tonsils are not swollen. (how does that rule out an infection in your glands?) She gave me an rx and told me to wait and see if it got worse before I used it, but if it gets worse I will probably need to rip it out of my neck before the meds would kick in. So I filled the script (we walked around shopping while we waited in Walgreens for over half an hour for it....but it's easier to wait if you're with your Charles). I took one tonight. So much for being an obedient patient.

I also had a urologist follow up apt today. So I went to get an xray taken of my kidneys. The radiologist department had just moved into their brand new building today, so it was a little disorganized. The staff and techs all had new computers and machine to use for the first time. So after sitting and waiting for another hour, I walked out with xrays in hand. My report? The sand-like debri is still hanging around in the bottom of my kidney....looks like more upsidedownishness is in store for me. And more tests for kidney function (for another day, not today). We're trying to see if there is an underlying problem that causes me to make stones.

And now....I am watching the season finale of House. And I haven't minded sitting here for an hour at all....

.....if loco parents follow you around

For lack of funny, encouraging or interesting material from my own life, I want to post this note from Jeff Foxworthy today. Honestly if I was given 15 minutes I could have come up with this list too....with one hand tied behind my back. For example, today I was yelled at and followed into the cafeteria, still being yelled at, by a parent today.

My crime? She saw me ask her son to sit by the wall until the other children had gone into the lunch room. He had kicked a pencil and it almost hit our librarian right in the face. Her argument was that she did not see him do it. But she also did not see the pencil flying and the librarian ducking away from it. All the children in the back of the line saw it and confirmed it.

Loco!

I came home and got this email forwarded to my address. It seemed meant to be posted today. (thanks Jackie K)

Jeff Foxworthy on School Employees

YOU might be a school employee if you believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

YOU might be a school employee if you want to slap the next person who says, 'Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off.

YOU might be a school employee if it is difficult to name your own child because there's no name you can come up with that doesn't bring high blood pressure as it is uttered.

YOU might be a school employee if you can tell it's a full moon or if it going to rain, snow, hail....anything!!! Without ever looking outside.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe, 'shallow gene pool' should have its own box on a report card.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, 'Boy, the kids sure are mellow today.'

YOU might be a school employee if when out in public, you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior.

YOU might be a school employee if you have no social life between August and June.

YOU might be a school employee if you think people should have a government permit before being allowed to reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you wonder how some parents MANAGED to reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you laugh uncontrollably when people refer to the staff room as the 'lounge.'

YOU might be a school employee if you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate the U-HAUL boxes should they decided to move out of district.

YOU might be a school employee if you think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

YOU might be a school employee if you can't imagine how the ACLU could think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be misunderstood by the public.

YOU might be a school employee if meeting a child's parent instantly answers this question, 'Why is this kid like this?'

YOU might be a school employee if you would choose a mammogram over a parent conference

YOU might be a school employee if you think someone should invent antibacterial pencils and crayons...and desks and chairs for that matter!

YOU might be a school employee if the words 'I have college debt for this?' has ever come out of your mouth.

YOU might be a school employee if you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year!