Weathering the storm

Some friends of ours are in Houston. He is being treated at the cancer center there, and they have been commuting for treatments there, then flying back to Arizona. They are stuck there now. He is in the middle of some intense treatments, so they did not leave. Here is the text message from his wife, L, that her cousin received this morning and then the group email her cousin sent out:

good morning just woke up
very ruf night
we are fine
worse over I think
I will call later
no coffee no power
hot sticky

And about the last call they were able to make before the storm:

When I spoke with her yesterday they were getting ready to hunker down. R had the air conditioner on HIGH, preparing for the heat once the power went out. They knew that they would loose power and cell service – even though they would be able to text. They had gone to Target the day before to get a battery operated radio and butterfingers (the necessities). They had already stocked up on groceries and water. She had packed all of their clothes etc and put them in the bathroom. The hotel had stocked up on food, ammenaties and brought in their own families and pets. They said they would not leave the quests. L said that some members of FEMA were also staying at their hotel; I think that made her feel better. She had even gotten some packing tips from the FEMA guys (she always makes new friends there). I am sure as soon as they get power and cell service she will call – I will let you know ASAP.

Thank you for your prayers....for Houston and all the people who had to stay there, and also for R as he is getting this intense batch of chemo.

Lots to pray about these days I've been noticing.

What Ike looks like to us,


And what it looks like to Galveston, Houston and all along the coast there:

Moz report and second grade sentences

Please stay in prayer for our ladies and man in Mozambique this weekend. They are traveling now, going to a village to teach a women's conference. Read their recent reports here! They are having fun, getting quite an eyeful and missing their families. Please pray for endurance, energy and even emotions for them during this time. For the weekend and also for next weekend, they will be staying in camping tents in these villages, using a homemade outhouse and eating unfamiliar foods that the villagers will be preparing for them. (scary) When you are out in a foreign country, at the mercy of the locals there, it can be very intimidating and frightening. They really do appreciate your prayers, even a quick heartfelt one as you finish this paragraph. =) Thank you!

On a lighter note, I was grading homework packets today. The second graders have to write a sentence for each of their spelling words. It always cracks me up to grade these, as the sentences are sometimes quite telling! (the spelling words are underlined)

~My teacher is mean.
~I am tired of this.
~I love my teacher hundred and more.
~I have too much page. (no spelling word in this sentence, I guess they just wanted us to know)
~My dog goes to bed at 9:20. (does it also tell time!?)
~My dad likes to keep his shoes organized. (reminded me of Charles. While my shoes are tossed in from across the room, his are neatly set in pairs. Sometimes I find that the closet elf has set my shoes up right too.)

Two things

Two things.

1. Our missionary team to Mozambique has a blog. Click here to read it. They are in Quelimane, Mozambique now and will be reporting back as much as possible.



2. Our Lilly of the Valley, who is also in Africa (until December) is doing very well. She is healthy and good things are happening. There is a mission group there for this week, so pray that much will be accomplished. The missionaries there have about 51 people who are Christians, along with some who are considering committing to Christ. One of these is a leader of the village, and his being baptized and converting may be source for persecution. It is a Muslim country. They will be meeting together soon and want prayers of protection over the believers there and against evil things that are prevalent there.

Thank you for your prayers.

Wordless Wednesday: The little mister

This is my nephew, little mister. He's getting his groove on.

***To see more entries or to join in and do your own, go to Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom.***

....stuff I did or thought or bought or cooked today

Well the ladies and their token hubby are well on their way across the Atlantic. I know this because Shirley's husband, Pete, coached my husband in how to find a live satellite feed of their airplane!!!! It is like a drawing, not a real picture, but still! I told him they were stalking those missionaries. Freaky. The mission team should arrive in Johannesburg tonight. Then they will make their way tomorrow to Quelimane, Mozambique to run some women's conferences for the women there.

I went to Walmart today....all by myself. No kids with me to beg me to buy things. So I bought stuff for me....heh heh. I had birthday money left and bought a nice new exercise outfit for myself....black capri exercise pants and a lime green v-neck t-shirt. It's awfully cute and was only $12 for the whole shebang. I will be cute at Curves now. The ladies there will be shocked. And they will wonder what happened to that woman in the dumping '80's style brown sweat pants and huge baggy shirt that in a very faded way says, "To my H llfl g r" across it.

As far as I can figure, I was in Walmart for almost 2 hours, by myself even. I wanted to make little greasy tacos for dinner....they kind you make with soft corn tortillas, chicken filling and lots of grease. I don't know why I go to Curves and then fix little greasy tacos for my family, but that is not the point right now....try to stay focused ok? Anyway.....

My friend Joann posted about chicken taco secrets a couple weeks ago, so I was going to follow her advice. She got her advice from her mother in law, who she lovingly calls the Tamale General. She thinks the secret to very crunchy, yummy tacos is using LARD instead of oil to fry them in. I have never bought lard.....ever. I have always seen it there on the shelf by the shortening and loathed it from afar. I have seen it on recipes I've made, but I always substitute canola oil or shortening.

So today I was really going to buy a small bright blue container of lard.....just to see if it really is so different and wonderful. But a very nicely dressed Asian couple were beside me. They had a handbasket (not cart) full of healthy little one or two serving items. I had a cart full of gallons of shampoo, dog clippers, hair dye and some produce for the tacos. I suddenly felt like the elephant in the room, everyone's eyes on me, trying to take in what i would choose from the oil section! I could NOT bring myself to pick up or even glance at the LARD. I found myself quickly grabbing the Crisco vegetable oil and darting away.....away from the thing that might have given me a name like The Taco Queen or something. (okay on second thought, I don't think I could handle being a Taco Queen)

The tacos were half crunchy and half kind of soggy. I got better at timing them toward the middle of the process.

And now I need a shower. I'm a greasy little taco queen. ehn

Sending more out

Please pray for our ladies from church plus one husband, who are flying across the ocean today. They are going on a 2 week trip to Mozambique, Africa.

MaryAnn
Bill
Jackie
Shirley
Joann
Kelly
Trina

We saw them off early this morning. They'll be leading women's retreats for the women in Mozambique.

Generation gappy

My sisters and I took my mom to see the movie Mama Mia this afternoon. We wondered if she would like a movie that really relates to our generation as far as nostalgia and humor. We went to the "Mama Sing" version of the movie. It had all the lyrics at the bottom of the screen, sing-a-long style. So after the movie, I asked her if she liked the movie.

She said, "Well........it was no Sound of Music."

"It was what we used to call bawdy."

My sister, "I wonder what your Sunday School
ladies will think of you seeing it."

Mom, "Oh they've probably all seen it already.
But we'll have something to talk about now."

We laughed a lot today.

Overheard in the classroom

Substitute teacher: So after reading this story about all the different kinds of dogs there are, what kind would you want?

Second grade boy: A really big one!

Substitute teacher Okay, why do you want a really big one?

Second grade boy: *thinking* So I can find him if he gets lost.

Me: *cracking up in the back of the room*

Lilly of the Valley's prayer requests

I just received another update from our semester missionary from our church, Lilly of the Valley. She is doing much better...she was sick for a couple of weeks when she first arrived. Here are her requests to pray about. She is really seeing God work in their relationships as a mission team together as well as with the people in the villages, also in their language schooling. She said it is like God is giving them supernatural abilities to speak and understand the language there. They can already understand at least half of what people say.

Pray for Lilly and for her team of missionaries there:

Thanksgiving:
~That the Father provided a house in the village of S
~For healing my body of all its ailments
~For the sweet fellowship with my team (and our instant unity)
~That the Father gave us a wonderful language teacher and that we have caught on so quickly
~For the encouragement of the believers here!
~For the people that He will draw to Himself this semester!

Things to lift up:
~The brothers and sisters here that they will have strength to not fast during Ramadaan even though they have great pressure on them to follow everyone else
~That the Father will draw people to himself through this time of Ramadaan and that they will seek the truth
~That the father will give these people visions and dreams of the truth and that they will be obedient to follow Him
~For continued health
~For divine appointments where I can share the Father’s love with the people of West Africa not only through my words and actions but just by my being with them!
~The children that so long for the love that the Father can give!

How you know you are in West Africa:
~When there is a big bug a little bigger than the diameter of a baseball outside your compound and it draws the attention of only the white people!
~When 22 people fit in a van semi comfortably
~When chickens ride beneath the feet of people who pay to ride in a taxi….
~When to get to the market you must cross a mini river of rain water (which has been known to take cars off the road with its force- we crossed it by foot ☺)
~When you go to the lab to have a test done and they give you a film case in which to get a stool sample.
~When you go to the lab and the technician is the person taking the money, running the test and looking at the test results and then handing back the results.

As the daze go by

Things I can't seem to get up the gumption to write about:

~Hurricanes. One after the other...yikes. Praying for the southeast.
~Monsoon storms here in Phoenix with hurricane force winds (80-100 mph) last Thursday night.
~Political conventions, interesting things you learn in a political race, and why.....oh, nevermind.
~People going to Africa, Korea, and all those utter parts!
~Second graders who do really funny things....which I can't recall right now, but I do laugh a lot at school.
~Maisy methodically sneaking and stealing paper products from my pantry, then tearing them limb from limb in the living room. She can steal a stack of paper bowls one at a time until the whole pile is gone and in shreds before I come to and realize it!
~A girl in college who freely gave her cell number to a stalker last week.
~A girl who is a new driver, who keeps coming in happily after driving and announcing things like, "I pulled in to the garage all by myself! It's straight! AND I didn't hit anything!" (makes my eyes bug out)
~The instantly sobering feeling lately hearing about gobs of people (who are my age or younger) who are having strokes, cancer, weird new diseases, having fatal accidents and in general scaring the bits out of me.
~Photos I've taken that I could have posted.
~Links to cool things my blogging friends have written.
~'Interesting' menopausal moments.

Yet, here my blog sits, quiet and dull.....like me lately.

Now that I have that out of my system, maybe I can get my gumption up tomorrow. Does anyone else feel in a daze lately?