40 Years of Marriage

Today is my Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary! I am so grateful to God for my parents and the marriage that they have. May God continue to bless you richly in many more years together. Love you!

Roll on Bears

You go Bears!!! Good job with Tennessee. Fun game to watch tonight. Maybe this will be the year for a "real" bowl game.

I am a big Cal fan but not a Cal alumna and have never been to a college football game (can't count DVC or CSUN games). Back in high school I played on a club volleyball team. We practiced and played in tournaments on the Cal campus. Our team name was California Bears Junior Volleyball. I mainly only follow Cal football and volleyball. Hopefully, someday soon I will make it to my first Cal football game.

Holy, Holy, Holy

I have wanted to blog this post for several days now but am still awe struck by God's Holiness. Words have not seemed adequate to try to express my thoughts. Last Sunday's sermon was from Isaiah 6. Here is verses 1-7:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the
seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he
covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and
said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of
his glory!"And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who
called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am
lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of
hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

Still I am a little short of words. I have felt and still feel a little like Isaiah. God revealed His holiness to Isaiah's heart and that awesome reality made him look at his own sinful and lost heart. Isaiah knew he was lost, undone, worthless before a Holy God. Yet God in His holiness saved Isaiah from his bottomless pit of dispare. Only a holy God can save a man. The holy God sent a seraphim to bring the soothing balm to Isaiah's burning soul, "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for".

One of the obvious songs we sang was Holy, Holy, Holy. I love singing these rich songs so here are the lyrics.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in morning our song shall rise to
Thee; Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three Persons, blessed
Trinity.

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee. Casting down their golden crowns
around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, Which
wert and art and ever more shalt be.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee, Through the eye of sinful
man Thy glory may not see; Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in pow'r, in love and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name in
earth and sky and sea; Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three
Persons, blessed Trinity!

I was inspired to go and read more on God's holiness from a few classics: Attributes of God by A.W. Pink and Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. Decided that I need to reflect on God's holiness much more than I do.

It is interesting to me that when God puts something to ponder on your mind and heart, it seems to pour in from many different sources. Recently, I have decided to re-read Pilgram's Progress, by John Bunyan when I go to bed at night. From my nightly reading (the same day I read the above classics) Christian is answering Prudence's questions.

"What makes you so eager to reach Mount Zion?"

"Why, there I hope to see the One who hung dead on the Cross alive again; and
there I hope to be freed of all the things within me that are such a struggle to
me. They say that there is no death there, and that I will live there with
wonderful companions. To tell you the truth, I love Him because He delivered me
from my Burden. And I am so tired of my inward sickness that I long to be where
there is no more sin and death and where I will be in the fellowship of those
who continually cry, 'Holy, holy, holy.'"

Wilbur House Reunion

With my 20th high school reunion coming up soon, my mind has been thinking about having a Wilbur House Reunion. Some of you may know that while in college I lived in a house with 5 other Christian women. The Wilbur House for several years hosted renters from the college Bible study that I was involved in. I'm not so excited about my high school reunion but I am excited about the possibility of a reunion with my college friends. There has not been a reunion since the last one of us got married, it is time to have one.

So Wilbur girls, if you are reading this post, here are some of my thoughts. Let's all meet together here in Northern California next year for some fun with your families. I will figure out the exacts sometime soon. When we get together next summer (summer of '08), I want all of us to sit down and plan a girl's weekend (or week, depending on all of our schedules) for the following summer (summer of '09) for just us girls. All of us have our 40th birthdays coming up within the next few years and we could all celebrate with a time away from our dear families. What do you think??? Where could we go??? I know Stacy would say, "Let's go and lay on an island!"

Kindred Spirits

God has blessed me richly over the years to have several friends who are deeply dear to my heart. They are sisters in the Lord but they are also family to me. So many people have not even had one (besides their spouse) good friend in their lifetime but I have had several. Saturday I was able to catch up with two of my college roommates via cell phone. The beauty of these kindred friendships is that we may not talk for months (this is sad to me but miles and busy lives make it this way) but we can connect instantly. These dear friends know me well, they know my joys, my hard times, my struggles, little insights that others may not know. I am always encouraged, uplifted, brought to extreme of emotions, and stimulated to walk closer with my God by our talks. I am so thankful to God for my kindred friendships, God has used them greatly to help me become who I am today and who I will become in the future.

Oxymorons at the Ballpark

Yesterday, my sister Amy and I went to the Giants vs. Cubs baseball game. Thankfully, my beloved Giants won the game. It would not have surprised me if they lost because the Giants are having a not so great year (to say the least) and I have been to 6 games this year and the Giants have not won any of those games. It is a big Bummer, Bummer with a capital B, to go watch a game, spend the money for the tickets, food, parking, transportation only to have the Giants lose.

I saw several things that were Oxymoron's to me. The first: Amy and I walked from the BART station to the ball park, about a 1 1/2- 2 miles. Several times we passed men either holding a sign or the sign was around their necks that read, "I NEED TICKETS". They held several tickets in their hands and said as we walked by, "Anyone need tickets". How could they NEED tickets yet have tickets for others that might need tickets? These men almost got right in our faces as we walked by. Finally, I took our tickets out of my bag and clutched them between my fingers so they could see them. We were not bothered again. Is there still a law about scalping tickets at a game?

Next oxymoron: after the game as Amy and I walked back to BART (by the way, the Bay Area has a wonderful mass transit system and it sure is a wonderful way to get to the city) we saw a Giants fan- he was all decked out with his Giants ball cap and jersey, carrying a broom. This would have been appropriate if the Giants were going to sweep the Cubs for this last game of the series, but in fact, if the Giants would have lost, they would have been swept by the Cubs. Maybe this fellow did not watch the last inning of the past two games and thought the Giants really had won those games (we should have won, we were ahead, but. . . it is a bad year for the Giants).

Another: I saw several fans wearing Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bears jerseys. These fans were at the wrong ball game and possibly the wrong sport.

And another: My dear sister Amy told me that she wanted to wear all Giants gear and wear her Chicago Cubs socks (in memory of my Grandfather). This too is an oxymoron but my sister is so darn cute in her ways that we won't count this one.

The last was a couple walking back to BART near us. The male was wearing LA Dodger gear and she was wearing SF Giants gear. This made no sense to me at all and I wondered how they were able to stay together with such differences (I will have another post later about the Giants/Dodgers rivalry).

Sunrise or Sunset, Which Do You Prefer?

This past weekend, I was was up at Lake Tahoe with some friends. K & D have a cabin right on the lake on the south side. Incredible views of the lake, surrounding mountains, marina, beach and the evergreens. A couple of the mornings my dear friend Dawn and I raced outside before 6am to catch the rising of the sun. O the beauty of God bursting forth another day. Each passing moment had a wonderful and unique display of beauty, from the various shades of grey along the mountain ridges to the first reflections of the suns rays on the glassy lake to the sky lite up with brilliant colors of blue, purple, red, orange and yellow. Reminds me of Psalm 65:8 "And they who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Thy signs; Thou dost make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy".

One day it was pretty incredible, we sat and watched the sun rise and later watched the sun set. Pretty cool to have the time to sit and watch both in one day. There is something therapeutic to the soul in watching the sun rise and/or the sun set. When I take the time to enjoy the dawn or dusk, I am reminded of God's amazing faithfulness, His goodness, His grace and His Holiness. Personally, I am more of a sunrise girl. What do you enjoy more, a sunrise or a sunset?

Is it June Yet?

People have been asking me if I am excited and ready to go back to work. "NO!", is quickly uttered and I place my arms out in front of me as if my hands are a balancing scale. I say, "this hand is work/school and this hand is vacation". "Work" (I lower one hand slightly), "vacation" (lower the other hand much lower). "Work" (very slight lower), "vacation" (dramatic tilting of the scale on the heavy side). The more and more that I work, the more I long for vacation and retirement. I know, I am forever away from retirement. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my job and am grateful to God for my job, but I long for vacations. Think it is a result from the fall in the Garden of Eden. This summer has been a nice balance of relaxation, ministry, travel, exercise and projects around the house.

Someone said the other day, "I can't believe that it is August already. Wow, time has flown on by". And I said, "Is it June yet?" Often times my co-workers and I talk about how fast a school year has flown on by. That is a good thing. The minute the last day of school is finished, I want that time clock to slow waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay doooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwn!

Trip to Lassen

A couple weekends ago, Dawn, Marilyn and I were able to take a trip to Mt. Lassen. What a great time we had. Nice to get away from the city and up to God's incredible creation. Lassen is by far one of my most favorite places to soak up clean fresh air, to gaze at the evergreen canopy with the deep blue sky for a backdrop, to experience wild life, to try a new adventure, and to simply relax.








Here we took a short walk after dinner one night. We went to a little natural spring up the road from the cabin and we saw what we think was a marmot. We each took turns cooking dinner and had wonderful dinners. Good job ladies. One the first night I taught the game Skip Bo, and they were hooked for the rest of the trip. I did not win too many games, the newbies did.










The first full day of our trip we took a drive up to Lassen National Park. Beautiful day and incredible weather. My plan was to hike to Mill Creek falls but God had other plans. Upon entering the park we found out that the trail head was closed to the falls but we could go through the park and hike to the falls from Kings Canyon. New adventure, have never done a trail through Kings Canyon. Kings Canyon is on the North side of the park and to get there we were going to drive through some of the most beautiful country that I have ever see. I was so excited for Dawn and Marilyn to see the beauty of God's awesome creation. They were not disappointed. There is so much to see. Here are a few pictures of the beauty that we encountered.








When we got to Kings Canyon we saw a sign that talked about the mileage to Mill Creek Falls. It was 3.8 miles one way, which was what we were told was the round trip mileage. I knew that distance on our first hike would be too much, especially at 7,500 and possibly hiking up another 1,000. So, we decided to go to a lake that was about half that distance. I knew that was manageable. It was funny, my friends were trying to equate the mileage to a trial near home or to a 5k. They were thinking that they "normally" can do a 3 mile hike in an hour. I had to tell them that it just does not work that way with the altitude.











Off we went to find this lake (not pictured). About 3/4 of a mile into the nice hike we saw a beautiful meadow with flowers. Each of us eagerly moved on to get to this meadow. Marilyn asked, "Are there bears in this country?" I replied, "Oh yeah, they are up here on these trails. I have seen a few on other hikes I have been on." About a minute after this question, there not 10 feet away from us was a California Black Bear. I think we startled her and she definitely startled us. She shuffled over a down tree and looked at us. Marilyn had already taken off back down the trial we had come on. I was still






gazing at the bear, thinking in my head, "Let's take a picture. No let's not take a picture. She does not look too disturbed, let's keep walking to the lake." Turning to see what my friends wanted to do, they were back down the trail 30 feet. I turned back to look at the bear and she was standing up looking at us. I say she because she was not huge but not small, she had long blond shaggy hair around her face and head and she was calm. Since my buddies were back down the trial I needed to catch up with them. I remembered at that point that you need to look larger than life to scare off a bear. I told this to my friends as I caught up with them. I heard Dawn say out loud to herself (or to God), "Oh dear God, help us. Oh dear God, keep us safe." The told me they had quiet the adrenalin rush, I was doing fine. I think the first time I saw a bear on a trial I got the rush but not this time. Now our plans completely were changed. There was no way that I was going to get them to go back on the trail







where the bear was hanging out. There was another trail back about 1/4 of a mile to Bumpas Hell. I really did not want to go to Bumpas Hell. I'd been there before and it was nothing special and it stinks seriously like rotten eggs. I had hiked to Bumpas Hell from another trail at the top of the mountain. There were a bunch of kids from a summer camp coming down the trail. I asked a grown up what the trail was like. He said it will be all up hill until we got there. The trail marker said 1.9 miles from this point. I rationalized the details in my mind and decided that we could do the hike. The hike was all uphill and I think we climbed close to a 1,000 feet but we saw some of the most incredible scenery. By the time we made it to Bumpas Hell we were ready to eat our lunch that we had in our packs. We all thanked God that the bear did not tear us to shreds to get to our lunches that I am sure she could smell. Up the trail took 1 hour 40 minutes and back down 40 minutes.

After the hike we drove down to Summit Lake. Dawn and I swam across the lake. It was the first time Dawn had ever been in a mountain lake. The next day we planned to hike the peak of Lassen but we were all a little worn out from the previous day. We went into town where there was a arts festival and we went to another big lake and hung out and swam.

At the cabin we had quite the show from the wildlife. There were deer, chipmunks, squirrels, birds and the mystery critter.







Great trip, with good friends, in God's beautiful creation. Nice memories.

Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us use the cabin.

Blond Moment

In my family when we do something "air head"-ish we call it a Blond Moment. My apologies in advance to any blonds who might be reading my post and don't like my terminology.

Last night I had a Blond Moment. Every week the blue trash can and the large brown recycling can are picked up and every other week the large green yard clippings can is picked up with the others. Well I got home late last night and I dragged (kinda rolled down the driveway behind the heavy can) the trash and recycle cans down my driveway and placed on the street. This morning I left when it was light enough to tell my colors (going to my swim workout) and I did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I returned from my swim class and drove right past the cans and into the garage. I left before lunch to go to a "Senior's Luncheon" and had to pull out of the garage at a wavy angle to avoid the blue can that had been picked up and relocated in the middle of my driveway. I still did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I came home from my luncheon and discovered the green can was out and not the brown can. The real funny thing about all of this, not only was it not green can week, but I had completely filled the brown can with recyclables and I had done some yard work and the green can was completely full. So the brown can is full for next week and I had to drag the heavy green can back up the driveway. This is an example of a Blond Moment.

Ministries of Mercy- Chapter 8 Review

The elders and deacons at my church asked the deacons and the deaconesses to read Ministries of Mercy, The Call of the Jericho Road, by Timothy J. Keller. As deaconesses we decided to read a chapter each month and to discuss that chapter at our monthly meeting. The book is broken into two main parts, the principles and practice of mercy. To save space and time I have included a review of the entire book here. As Christians we are called to be people whose lives are marked by mercy. We are commanded to show mercy to our family, our church, our neighborhood and our communities. We are most like Christ when we show mercy in little, in big and practical ways to those around us. This is much more than giving a homeless man along the side of the road some food to fill his belly.

We just started part two of the book, the practice of mercy. Chapter 8 is titled Getting Started. The previous chapters provided conviction and the spark to do more, but we all asked, "where do we start and how do we begin". I think all of us had our hearts pricked in some way in how we can get started. As deaconesses, there already is a heart of mercy within us. Mercy is the heart beat of our ministry.

The overview states, "Every Christian family must develop its own ministry of mercy by looking at the needs closest to it and meeting them through loving deeds and a spirit of encouragement".

The channels of mercy begin with your family, then the church, then Christian organizations and ending with the state. Our family is our ministry base, we must be taking care of our families first and then when things within our family is taken care of we can as a family reach deeper to our churches, neighbors and community. Within the church if we see a need, are are to try to meet that need ourselves, if we are unable to do that then we need to let the deacons know of the need (in some larger churches there are actual ministries with mercy as their focus). Keller says, "The number of needs near us, in our own personal 'circles of concern' are actually quite numerous, if we by open our eyes to see them".

Keller continues and asks the question,

Do you really stop, look, and listen in the middle of your church and
neighborhood? If you do, you will notice a multitude of needs. There is a
college student who has had to drop out of school for lack of funds. Over here
there are numbers of elderly folk without sufficient support from children, who
need transportation, friendship, and other aid. Turn in another direction and
listen hard. You will hear single parents, divorced and widowed people,
struggling financially and emotionally to be "both mother and father" to
children. They often don't seem all that poor and threadbare to the eye, but a
sensitive ear will hear the anguish.

Keller speaks of the fear that might build within us when we are faced with needs around us.

One of the reasons we do not "stop, look, and listen" is because we do know
how many needs there are out there, and we are afraid. Afraid of
what? There appear to be two major fears. First, we do not know how to make
contact; we are afraid of "breaking the ice." Second, we do not think we
have the resources to help; we are afraid of failure. Let's look at the
first fear. Many of us do not know how to approach another person who is
suffering. We know how difficult it is to ask for help or to admit weakness,
and we do not wish to embarrass or hurt the person further.

Can you actually create these contact? Absolutely. Here are some simple
suggestions. On the most basic level, you must have a general demeanor of
"neighborliness." Smiles, waves, facial expressions must be open and warm,
even (especially!) in chance meetings. Or, if you hardly know a person, develop your relationship through social gestures. By "social gestures" we mean efforts simply to demonstrate a desire to know the person better. . . The most basic social gesture is
hospitality.

One last quote that I enjoyed.

Christian ministers of mercy are unique in that they intentionally and systematically seek to build bridges with all the people around them at home, at work, and at church. They do this to discover needs and to create a climate in which others can share their weaknesses.

Has it been 20 years?

This fall I have my 20th high school reunion. 20 years is a long time and it is more than 1/2 of my age, equally as scary. I am pondering if I should attend or not.

So much has changed in my life since graduating from high school and yet at the same time some things have not changed. Anyone in their later 30's and early 40's would recall some of the hideous clothes and accessory styles: leg warmers, bike shorts, Izod Polo shirts (several at one time with collar straight up), Jordache Jeans (never fit well on me, had my 501's with a button fly), the Madonna look, neon colored clothes (usually worn for volleyball practice), overalls, parachute pants, socks with the pom pom balls on the back, stirrup pants, the Flash Dance look, banana clips, colored mascara (I wore blue from time to time), crimped or the Farah Fawcett hair style (really did not work with my curly hair), rubber bracelets (as many as you could fit on one wrist and a Swatch Watch on the other wrist), Vuarnet Sunglasses and friendship bracelets of woven thread. Now that would be fun to have an 80's dress up party.

Gratefully, the biggest change in my life since graduating from high school has been my salvation. God intervened in my life during my senior year of college. My life has been forever changed because of what Christ did on my behalf. By His grace I am no longer enslaved to the sin of my heart that once held me captive. See Ephesians 1 for verses that talk about the work that God did in my life. If you are investigating Christianity, click here.

I attended my 5 and 10 year reunions. For the 5 year reunion, nothing much had changed with all of us except: a few were married, even fewer had a child (or children), most of us were finishing up with college, the guys had facial hair and everyone could drink legally. At the 10 year there were bigger changes: many were married, many had at least a few children, there were several classmates who had already been divorced (I remember hearing about 3 separate classmates that were on their 3rd marriage), a couple of classmates had passed away, almost everyone had their spouse or a date with them. There was apprehension in attending but my Mom talked me into going. It was nice to see everyone and to catch up with a few. I was thankful for the opportunity to share with some what incredible things God had done in my life.

High school seems like a long time ago. At one time in my life, when I was young, I never dreamed that the fun and memories of high school would fade away. My friends from high school were everything to me, well at the time. I have not keep in touch with any of my classmates. What was important to me then is not important to me now. Praise God that my life has changed.

So the real issue is on attending my reunion or not. I am sure that I will end up going for the main reasons of: these people are part of my life, part of the work that God has done in my life, would be good to see some of these past friends and God might give me opportunities to share Christ with someone. My heart has it's selfish concerns that I have to work and pray through before I go. Two of these are: I carry around a few more pounds now and will be attending solo because God has not brought a husband into my life YET. It is wearisome on my spirit to explain to people about my singleness, my desire to be married, my trust in God for His good and sovereign plan to bring a husband in His perfect timing. Sometimes, it is like rubbing salt into a fresh wound, it burns. I constantly remind myself of God's promises that His grace is sufficient for me in all things and He will not give me any situation that I can not endure. He knows what is the very best for me. I strive to be content in every situation that I find my life in. I will admit that it is a struggle at times but God continues to surround me with His great love.

What I can confidently say, is that regardless of how my high school reunion turns out, I am 20 years closer to my eternity with my Savior. Here is my senior portrait from 20 years ago.

My Cats Have Amazing "Smellers"

Today I took out of the refrigerator a plate of left over dinner from last night's dinner to eat for lunch. Within 30 seconds of the plate being on the counter, my two orange kitties (who were fast asleep on the sofa) were now at my feet whining for some of the salmon. Amazing sense of smell.

The picture was taken 3 years ago when I first got them.

Love to Sing

I love singing songs that speak of my Savior and my God. Here are the lyrics to a few we sang on Sunday.


You Are My King Billy Foote, 1996 worshiptogether.com songs

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken
I'm accepted; You were condemned.
I'm alive and well, Your Spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again.

Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true;
It's my joy to honor You. In all I do I honor You.

You are my King, You are my King.
Jesus, You are my King. Jesus, You are my King.


How Deep the Father's Love for Us, Stuart Townend, 1995 Kingsway's Thankyou Music

How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure!
That He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure!
How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many sons to glory.

Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life- I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward: I cannot give an answer,
But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.


Oh, my heart especially loves the second song. Verse two causes my heart to well up every time I sing it. My tear filled eyes are of gratitude, joy and hope. I can only imagine what heaven will be like. My heart longs for that eternity of true and pure worship.

Swimming At 6 A.M.

I have been swimming on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (6-7 am) consistently for one year and off and on for the last 3 years. This morning at my swim class, God painted a beautiful sunrise for me to enjoy. The beauty intensified as I continued to swim. The sunrise was to the right side of the pool. Each time I took a breath, my lungs longed for oxygen and my eyes/mind/heart longed for the breath taking views of the incredible colors under the foggy cloud layer. My workout went by much quicker with the incredible backdrop. I was reminded of God's goodness, faithfulness, care and grace that He gives even in the rising of the sun. Incredible.

As I watched the sunrise, I plotted out this blog post. Included in my thoughts was my list of why I enjoy and don't enjoy swimming at 6 am.

Enjoy

1. Awesome sunrises on some mornings
   
2. Start my day off on the right foot (or the left, does not really matter but the days starts right)


3. Good cardiovascular workout


4. Feel good for the whole day
   
5. Burn calories and help to lose weight


6. Muscle tone


7. Helps me improve my swim strokes


8. Less crowded swimming lanes, usually 2 people per lane, spit in half, each take a half


9. Makes the morning cup of coffee after swimming taste really good


10. Morning shower is nice and warm


11. It is conversation with my students about my exercise preferences


12. I tend to eat more healthy all day long when I have swam


13. Allows me to justify a "treat", this counteracts the burning calories and weight loss though


14. Swimming in water that is warmer than the cold outside air


15. Sleeping really good the night after a workout


16. Usually I have a good prayer time during my swim


17. Seeing my friend Dawn, if we both make it on the same day
    

Don't Really Enjoy

1. Getting out of the warm bed


2. Getting up early


3. During the school year, packing my entire necessities for the day the night before. This includes; all my swim things, my shower things, my clothes, my work bag, my lunch, and anything I might need for after work if I am not going straight home.
   
4. Leaving the house when it is cold


5. Sometimes getting in a cold pool


6. Getting out of the pool and into the cold outside air


7. Showering outside on the pool deck


8. Changing in the locker room. Sometimes the locker room door can not be opened and I have had to change in the pool house or snack shack and put my make-up on in the car.


9. Forgetting something important like deodorant or underwear. I have learned to keep extra of these at work and in my car.


10. Rushing to get dressed to be on the road by 7:20 to go to work.


11. Having a wet head


12. Smelling like Cl2- chlorine all day long


13. Having shaky leg muscles, muscle fatigue


14. Going to bed on time the night before to get up on time


15. Giving in to staying in the warm bed and not going to workout. Really bothers me the rest of the day for being a sluggard.
    
    

Hidden Blessings

God continually amazes me. He is always so good, loving, caring, forgiving towards His children. God loves to give big and small blessings in hidden places. My heart and vision can get clouded at times and off kilter from Christ. This prevents me from experiencing the silver lining of blessings that God has for me. I would like to share a few of the hidden blessings that have come my way in the last few weeks.

A family from church moved 200 miles away recently. This family is dear to my heart. They lived down the street from my house, I attended a home fellowship (Bible study) in their home that was lead by the husband/father of this family, I taught their kids how to swim, attended their kids musicals and plays, they invited me over on those super hot nights to get away from the heat. . . Just good friends that I love. Before they took off, they asked me if I wanted to go to a local amusement/animal park. Eileen told me that she asked the kids about who they should ask to go with them, the kids immediately responded , "Miss Shelly!!!". I was so tickled to hear their response, I just had to go with them. Had a headache and was a little dizzy by the end of the day from one too many roller coasters but had a wonderful time with them. What a nice little piece of the silver lining of blessing. I am reminded that saying good bye to people I care about is hard (have had to say good bye to a few dear friends this summer. I miss you Charity, Alex, Eileen, Matt, Dustin, Emily).

Another dear family from my church had me over for dinner last week. Time and schedules prevent me from spending more time with them but they are the type of friends that it does not matter how long it has been since we have had good talk, we pick right up where we left off. The kids always give me a big hello and a squeeze to warm my heart. At dinner a cute blessing happened right after Ken finished praying for the meal, Bryce the youngest- a 3 year old, said "I want to pray, I want to pray". We all continued to bow our heads and Bryce prayed, "God I want to thank you for everything in the world. Thank you that Shelly could be here for dinner, I wish she could be here more 'cuz I love her." Ohhhhh, so sweet. We all chuckled at his cuteness. Had a yummy dinner, thanks Carol, and a great time talking after dinner.

Last night I made dinner for a family in my church because the wife/mother had brain surgery a few weeks ago to remove a tumor. When I arrived to deliver the dinner, the family invited me to sit and chat for awhile. I really did not know this family nor did they know me. Many of times I have heard and said myself, that when you give or serve you receive back so much more of a blessing than you have given. We sat and talked, some about the details of our lives but also about how God is working through this hard trial that this family is going through. Here I was going to encourage them yet I was the one encouraged and blessed. Pretty incredible how God works in that way.

This family invited me to stay for dinner but I had already made plans with my family, which lead to another hidden blessing. My mom knew that I would need dinner and time to relax after I dropped this meal off. What a blessing this turned into. I did not realize that in bringing a meal to this family I would run into tons of commute traffic. It took me over an hour to get to the house with the meal, then our nice visit and back in the car again to drive to my parents home. I was hungry and tired by the time I got there. What a blessing to go to Mom and Dad's, dinner all ready and waiting for me. Mom made home made Sloppy Joe's and green beans. Oh it was yummy. The food was good and it was wonderful to see my mom, Dad and Grandmother. My family is a huge blessing to me. Love them mucho.

There are so many more hidden blessings that I could share. I encourage you to look for the hidden blessings in your life and to thank God for them.

Itttttt Issss Ouut of Here! 756!

Congratulations to Barry Bonds for breaking the all time home run record! What a blast, what a crowd, what a celebration, and what an incredible tribute from one home run king to another. Hank Aaron, you are a dignified and classy man. If you missed it on FSN here it is: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1350823372714264561&q=barry+bonds+756&total=565&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0


I need assistance from a fellow blogger out there. How do I get a video clip onto my blog post? I set up a You Tube account but I can not figure it out. Thanks.

756

Will tonight be the night for baseball history in San Francisco? My God, who is all Sovereign, even over home run records, knows when Barry Bonds will hit the blast that will make history. Wish I had tickets tonight to the ballgame, would be incredible to see it in person. Need to run to the store and grab a bag of peanuts and I will ease in at home on my sofa. Go Barry and Go Giants! I do top my cap off to Hank Aaron, amazing feat that has held strong for 33 years.

I will post at another time my thoughts on Barry Bonds and steroids. My friend Steve has some good points on his blog page (from my blog look under friends and "The Bleachers") on the issue that I mostly agree with.

Barry Bonds at Dodger Stadium

7th inning stretch.

Please get up out of your chair and sing, "Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks, I don't care if I never get back, So root, root, root for the Giants, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes you're out At the old ball game."

I found it comical last night watching the San Francisco Giants play the Los Angeles Dodgers. If you knew me at all, you would know that the Giants are my beloved baseball team and the dirty Dodgers are my teams' arch rivals and that I don't like them at all. Anyways, the Giants are playing the Dodgers in a series (yesterday, tonight and tomorrow night) in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. The dirty Dodgers, sadly, currently are in first place and the Giants are in dead last place in the National League West. The Giants have won every game played this year in Los Angeles and have lost every home game to the Dodgers. When ever the other team is at the other's home field the fans always boo each other. You should hear the SF fans boooooooo and boooooo Jeff Kent when he comes to bat, pretty cool. Makes me want to break into one of my favorite chants now, "BEAT L.A., BEAT L.A." but I will save that for the end. Last night the fans were trying to find parking to get into the game in the 7th inning. It was an absolute sell out crowd, over 55,000 fans on a Monday night game against the worst team in baseball. Go figure.

The fans boooooooed when they announced the Giants at the beginning of the game. Most of you should know that Barry Bonds is on the cusp of breaking the all time home run record. He is one away from tying Henry Aaron's record and one to break the record. When Barry Bonds came to bat the first time, the crowd booooooed but the fans were buzzing with excitement. The next time Barry came to bat the fans booooooed yet they were on their feet awaiting a possible homerun. The sun was not all the way down yet. The next time Barry came to bat I don't remember a boo but I do remember clearly all of the stadium standing and when a pitch was thrown for Barry to hit, the stadium lit up with thousands of flashes from cameras trying to capture the smack of the bat that could be history. Barry did not hit a home run, but he did get on base by an error by the a Dodger player who missed an easy fly ball. I think the player was blinded by all of his team's devoted fans and their camera flashes.

Comical, very comical. The Dodgers and their fans hate the Giants, yet they pack out the stadium, stand for a player they hate even more than the Giants and take his picture swinging a baseball bat. Maybe they are not so "dirty" after all, well maybe it is just for history and the love of baseball.

Appropriate time for my favorite chant, "BEAT L.A., BEAT L.A., BEAT L.A., BEAT L.A., . . .". I want Barry to break the record and I want the Giants to beat the Dirty Dodgers.

Betty Crocker with an Iron Chef Twist

Yesterday my sister Amy and I had a baking afternoon. The secret key ingredients were yummies mainly from my neighbor's garden and from our kitchen counter tops: 2 giant sized zucchinis (monsters- 10 cups grated), half full grocery bag of apples and 9 rotting bananas. Together (Chef Amy and Chef Shelly) we made banana bread, zucchini bread, apple sauce and apple crisp. Think when all the loaves came out of the oven and were sitting on the washing machine and dryer to cool, we had 17 loaves. Some of the loaves had nuts, some not (I don't enjoy nuts with things baked), some had chocolate.

With all the loaves we could have opened a bread store. Amy brought her KitchenAid over to help with the mixing and it performed wonderfully. My Grandma helped us with figuring how to make the apple sauce and the crisp. My sisters and I are blessed to still have a grandparent around. Now I will always remember how to make apple sauce because my Grandma showed me how.

My parents were the judges to determine who would win the Iron Chef award for the evening. Amy had two special dishes that she presented as an appetizer and the main dish. She made home made pot stickers and a stir fry. After the meal my dad said, "Oh, I love the pot stickers (as he ate the last one). That really made the meal for me. Yummm Ummm Yummm." Mom said, "What a delicious meal. Right balance of vegetables, meat and the seasoning. You really did it with this meal". The judges conferred that Amy is the new Iron Chef. Her prize was several loaves of banana and zucchini bread.