Christmas Cheer in our little corner

A birthday squeezed in....just 24 candles!A bit of a wild tree...Visiting a local rest home....

What next???

Around 2 yesterday, we were just thinking about  starting to make our Christmas dinner. We had finished all the shopping and we feeling quite pleased with ourselves and had plans...yes, we had so many plans to make the evening so nice. All of our resident cooks had all the fixings to make their "special" dish. We were prepared!
Boom! My first thought was a small plane had crashed. We live under the path for Bush Intl.. Airport. We all ran outside to see blue flashes of light and then there was another loud BOOM and more flashes of  very blue lights.  My second thought was we were having an Alien Invasion! Needless to say, all electricity was out  by then. We had all the neighbors join us in the cul du sac in all sorts of strange garb. We looked like scruffians of some sort. The wind had come in from the North and we had all grabbed whatever we could to stay warm and check out the Alien ship landing or whatever it was.
We all felt like Professionals after surviving Hurricane Ike last year so we were all actually quite brave. Neighbors all get together in the Cul du sac when strange things happen. It usually seems to be at the young couple's house across the block however. This time it was also. A tree had fallen on the lines and taken out the transformers for our whole sub division- minus a house or two. We saw some lights but maybe it was just a generator powered Christmas tree.
Well, Plan B.
Mark and Mercy went out to scrounge around  FM1960 for firewood for sale so we could survive the night. The temperature was dropping even more and it was going to freeze. Then we rounded up our candles and had to think about Christmas dinner- hoping some place would still be open to buy  dinner. Mark went into a big discourse on Pine trees and how useless they are and how they should all be cut down within 4oo feet of any houses and power lines. HELP! After Carbon Dioxide being declared a toxic poison (pathogen) in the news the other day, we could almost hear the local trees gasping for breath. I might turn into an unofficial tree hugger just to comfort the local trees. It was all a Scrooge ski by Mark..
Anyway, after the excitement of a street full of fire trucks and strange looking men (definitely not aliens)  in colored and very weird  suits, we did have a fun evening. We had  Domino's pizza around the fire and played Taboo. Selena (8 yrs.) surprised us all with an answer we older and more educated (chuckle chuckle) all couldn't get. WHIZ kid that she is, she is also   homeschooled ( I wanted to mention).  Then everyone suddenly wanted Selena on their team.
Just as we finished having our party, opening up a few gifts, and enjoying eggnog, the lights finally came on. A roar went up around the neighborhood. Lights came on, just in time to turn them off and head to bed.
We didn't however. Missionaries that we are, we stuck a DVD into the player and took a visual trip to Ecuador and watched End of the Spear.......a beautiful movie with a powerful message about love and forgiveness at the end.
After all this, we had such a memorable evening,

Later,Mercy let us in on her  morning prayer. She had prayed for something special to happen so we would all be a lot closer for Christmas. Well, I guess I better keep her home today so she can't share that little tidbit of info with all of our neighbors. Ho ho ho.. Being world traveling missionaries, we have had so much experience in adapting. To us, we just refigure and still have fun. Isn't it a beautiful strength to be able to just see God's hand in everything? We may be poor in the eyes of the world.....but oh so rich in so many ways that really count! Merry Christmas!

recommended

Has anyone seen the End of the Spear. I watched it last night and the ending was incredible. It's a beautiful movie.

2 of my favorite Christmas Pictures

I was sitting in a semi dark room on a very dreary morning, staring at my candle and listenning to some devotional readings when the sun suddenly came out and illuminated the candle. I took this shot in the brief moment that the sun was shining on that rainy day.
Crackers, as you can see, is a rascal at heart and loves to tease. He tries to pitch in on just about every activity. He is very happy at the moment. He loves all the Christmas activities too!
His favorite activity as of late, fluttering up to visit with the angel on the top of the Christmas tree.

The history of books......and me.

I don't know how or why it all happened but as long as I remember, I have always loved books and still do. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that " back in the old days" black and white TV wasn't all that interesting and the few channels we got  didn't offer much. Unless you loved watching Tom chase Jerry  over and over again, Howdy Doody and Bozo the Clown, there just wasn't much. We had one skating Rink in town and 1 old swimming pool down by the river bottoms. Yuba City just had to be the quietest town in Northern California. Oh, I can't forget to mention that it was pretty exciting when the Fuller Brush man came along, or the Milk man with his colorful wheel displaying all his available products and the crop dusters that would fly so low. That was a bit of fun.
So anyway, I buried my nose in books almost from the time I could crawl out of the car and waddle into the Library.
 Each year I seemed to develop new techniques. I was well on my way to reading every book in the Library. Along the way, I accidently drowned a few  in the bath tub, lost a few to hungry hounds, decorated books with a variety of jams and peanut butter and had to do odd jobs to keep up with my fines. I perfected  techniques to read while horsebackriding, vacumming, feeding the chickens, ironing, cooking etc. If I ran out of Library books, I would read the phone book, church bulletins, instructions for every new device that came into our home and explore my dad's desks and drawers. He always had interesting. One of my favorite things was the stash of house  plans he kept rolled up.
So, no small wonder that that book reading energy has been passed down the line. I have always been intrigued by what my kids actually enjoy reading.
Even with the internet, books will never really go out of style. In fact, they were quite fashionable during the last hurricane and our 2 weeks of life without electricity.
Nevertheless, since my room had become difficult to navigate and my husband refuses to part with his 25 desk top computer carcasses that he might be able to use someday, tomorrow I am going to clear out all the excess. Something has to go.
Now, just what can be considered excess?
I will downsize by 75%. How is that for an agressive plan?

Why I married Jeff

In reality, it has been so long ago, some of the details have gotten a bit fuzzy. I thought I had better write them down.
The first time I saw him, I was busy being hostess at our coffee shop at Expo 72. I know no one remembers this but it was like the Christian Woodstock at the Texas Fair Park. At least I think the churches had planned it as such. They just didn't invite the more radical element "US", to attend. Well, we somehow got a coffeeshop across the street and  quickly became quite a popular place for the church kids to hang out and take cover when things got boring at the Expo. I managed the front desk and greeted all that passed through our doors. It had it's exciting moments. Well, one day this "beard" walked in. He was all bush but the eyes that peeped out from behind it all won my heart at first sight. It might sound cliche and corny but it was right then that I knew we would end up together.

We maybe exchanged 5 words and then he was off busy working.  Sound familiar? I won't get into all the details of what happened over the next months. My life was so crazy and full of changes and gettting ready to move to Holland. The "beard" just seemed to pop up from time to time and then be gone...sometimes it was 5 words and other times a bit less. It just seemed like it was all really not meant to be and impossible to make happen if a person tended to look at things logically.

So I really didn't try. I know everyone today is into to opposite  and doing long term planning for the future. I had been a school teacher  for 2 years so I loved the new  change, spontanaity and  waking up the each day and just letting Jesus be the  guide for a change. I think because I had that trust and faith, God saw a way to orchestrate the entire senario. There were a lot of physical miles between us most of the time and our responsibilities kept us thus. Still somehow, all these surprising times popped us where we met , totally unplanned, so we did eventually tie the knot- in Danish and twice a few months apart.

Did I choose him? Yes, in a way I did but I do believe I let my Father do most of the chosing.  He knows best. That was way back in 1973. There have been plenty of tough times and scary moments but I can honestly say I love him more than ever.  Here's a little recent event to give you an idea.This year I planted a sweet potato plant. It went crazy and grew everywhere, taking over the whole entire garden, bursting out of the fence and into the neighbors yard. I couln't stop it and then I realized how much was going on underground. I dug my fingers gently into the ground a few times to check on the growing potatoes and was amazed at all the growth that was going on that I couldn't see. My marriage has been like that a lot.
When I first got the potato, a friend found it while cleaning one of her  friend's pantry and nearly threw it out.  in the garbage.It was  a shriveled up funny like thing but she gave it to me to plant and now it is magnificent!
.I am into watching foreign movies lately and I got this movie about a Jewish girl and an Arabic girl that were both teachers in the same school and facing arranged marriages. Amazingly they became friends and they both had arranged marriages of a sort, with very happy endings. I did have to laugh as at my first attempt to get married, things went so haywire and I tried so hard and it didn't happen. I was the wedding planner.
My second time around, I let God have a very big hand in everything and it worked out practically all by itself  and was all just what I needed afterall!
This boy (now man) I married, just turned 57 two days ago.  This week I was looking through all our old pictures as Nadia is putting together one of her famous "BOOKS" by Shutterbug for his birthday gift. It is like pictures from 1950-2009! I just have one last comment.....
                                                                               COOL!
                                                                            Enjoy your life!

Christmas Party

Here are a few Christmas pics of our Dec.3rd party at the Bell Tower

Houston freezes!

We had our annual Christmas Party last night and I was thinking snow since it snowed all during our party last year. It held off but today it is delightfully snowing outside and the afternoon will bring more of those falling flakes our way. I was out early this morning, intense in my efforts to turn the garage into a jungle. There is hardly walking room as my papaya trees take up a lot of space. It really is a wonderful effect. Jurrastic gardens! Instead of dinosaurs leaping out, it's dogs and raccoons.
It took my 2 hours of braving the pelting sleet to rescue all the plants. I ran outside in my PJ's amd flip flops so sbesides giving a show to the neighbors, I will probably come down with with a  case of "Freezing Piggies Illness" My toes are glistening pink and I feel like squealing.
The Party went great.It was a touch of Italy as the place was a Tuscan Villa. It was so beautiful and the rooms so big! We were in the Chandiler Ballroom and thankfully the chandelier was attached firmly. It was so huge and so much wrought iron. Think Zorro! I can imagine that Chandelier in a Spanish Castle.
We only had a week to plan so considering that, it was an amazing feat! 125 people came and so many people lent a hand to make it special, from singing, slides of the Prophet Bus, caroling and really great food and fellowship!. We had a presentation for the new Foundation Stones graduates and a kick off  for the new ones. Russell, a homeless man came with Noe' and he won everyone's heart. Someone asked him how he enjoyed the program and he said he didn't see much as he kept cleaning, serving and being an all around blessing. He said he just really enjoyed the hugs and kisses. He was practically a one man show in the kitchen.
Valorie shared an touching story about when she was in a coma and how everyone stood by her. She exaggerated a bit by saying Jeff came and covered her in Activated mags and then she awoke. Actually I think he basically covered the hospital in Activated mags as everyone must have gotten 2 or 3. She said she's wanted to thank everyone for so long. She looked great, thanks to Lolli- everyone's favorite hairdresser.
Zeb from Brazil had everyone dancing to his lively songs and everyone who wasn't was eating  a piece of Chrisy's famous cheese pies. They are quite a team! All in all, I think it was our best party ever.
It' s still snowing!

Some Recent Pics-

In such a rush!

I will be posting a few pics of Nadia and Justin's visit soon. It was SO much fun to be with them and to be with the kiddos. Now our house seems so empty. We miss you! It was the most fun I had in a long time.
I managed to lose Justin's phone. That wasn't so great.
Well, we are also getting ready for Christmas. We are having a dinner in the Tuscan Castle ( I call it) It is so beautiful and it is amazingly coming together even tho' we have to pull it off in 1 week.
We got our tree and put it up while the grandkids were still here. Violet would put the balls on the tree and Lexi ( rogue poodle) would come behind her and take them off.
Teri had scored at the flea market and was busy making plans of how to use the lights. We found strings and strings. In the meantime, Bella (rogue Golden Retriever) got in the Christmas spirit. It is her first Christmas so all night long she kept herself occupied with trying to firgure out just what all the lights were for. I was dismayed to see all the lights in tiny pieces all over the garage floor. We thought to plug her in and she if she glowed in multi-color. Thankfully she doesn't seem sick. How can a dog chew like that! It was amazing. She even crunched the little bulbs. What kind of vitamen deficency can that be? Now, we need lights!
Well, off to the shop for last minute goodies for tomorrrow.
Oh one last thing is that there are rumors of snow on Friday. That would be so nice to have so early in the winter. It snowed last Christmas all during our Christmas Party. We came home and made a snowman in our yard. Houston isn't all heat, humidity and thunderolls.