Angie

Just a short post saying how blessed I am with my amazing daughters.

#2 (birth order, not value) was home again from Lubbock this past weekend, bringing joy to our lives and making me smile.   Angie is one of the funniest people I know.

(And a killer Scattergories player.)

I am proud of her for doing a challenging thing -  living apart from her fiance' and

 working nights on a busy med-surg/oncology floor, making new friends and a new life.

  Learning some of life's hard lessons 

and growing in grace.

It was also great to see her sweet, handsome fiance as well.

109 days until their wedding.

Talking about China

I had forgotten how much I love to talk to kids about China.  When we returned from our 5 years there I did presentations on China in Trisha and Angie's  school classrooms.  It's been quite awhile since I did it but I had the chance to talk with the elementary age kids at church on Sunday.  We talked about panda bears and how to say hello in Mandarin and why their roofs curl up on the ends and that Chinese children are taught in school that there is no God.

Trisha and Angie in China in 1989.

Looks like Doug & Trisha are headed to class.

At the market with Angie.

Maybe we'll go back someday.

A long love....

It's getting close to Valentine's Day so thought I would post about my parent's long love affair.

It started when a Minnesota farm boy met a city girl visiting the farm.  Love bloomed across the miles.

She was working as nurse in new Jersey and later Seattle.

He was working the farm in the Red River Valley of Minnesota.

I have several boxes of my parent's love letters.

They wrote constantly, sometimes more than once a day.

It was during WW II when their love affair started and grew.

They talked about their work and the weather and their families and the farm and the war 

and the economy and their love for each other.  

I have not read through them all but each one I have read touches me in some way.

They had a long, deep, committed love and were married for 56 years.

"Their" song was "As Time Goes By," 

"Their" movie was "Casablanca."

They loved the Lord and their kids (and spouses) and grandkids

We all miss them so much and are so glad for their long love affair...

These boxes are filled with their letters.  Wish I could transcribe them all and make a book for the family.

As Time Goes By

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is still (just) a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

And when two lovers woo
They still say: "I love you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by

Moonlight and love songs - never out of date
Hearts full of passion - jealousy and hate
Woman needs man - and man must have his mate
That no one can deny

It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by 

© 1931 Warner Bros. Music Corporation, ASCAP

Sister Love

"There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me" Mary Worley Montague My sister Peggy came from Calgary this past week-end, so we had just a short time together.  We see each other quite rarely but she is one of my favorite people.   She reads and sews and leads women's Bible studies and is a great cook and quilter, among other things. And she doesn't own a cell phone!    These are a couple quilt projects she has given me...(I know, lucky me.) There was a hard frost predicted the first couple nights she was with us so at 10 PM she helped us harvest our fruit crop.  Here are 4 of the 8 bags we picked in the dark. On Saturday we hiked the Heiroglyphic Canyon trail in the Superstition Mountains. One of the rockier trails she has hiked, she reported. She's game for anything (as you can see) and we had a great time walking and enjoying lunch and God's creation. These may look like graffiti left by kids. But they aren't. Archaeologists aren’t sure who left the petroglyphs in Hieroglyphic Canyon, but most think they were drawn between 700 and 1100 A.D., during the Hohokam habitation. We saw hundreds of saguaros (or was it dozens; I wasn't counting).  They have a relatively long life span and take up to 75 years to develop a side arm.  Enough of the travelogue.   This posting is about my amazing sister.  So glad she came and look forward to seeing her again in 4 months, at Angie's wedding.

"What's for breakfast?", said Pooh

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh.  “What do you say, Piglet?” 

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.   “It’s the same thing,” he said.  

  – A.A. Milne

This is the breakfast Doug made for his Integrity Group a few weeks ago.

Lightening the LOAD

Trinity's  annual yard sale is happening this Saturday.  This event has mushroomed into a mega-sale over the years.  It's a wonderful chance to lighten my load of stuff. 

 Gone, gone, gone are all my dusty artificial trees, unworn ties and jackets, 

pictures, packs of notebook paper.....

Here's the stack that Doug took over on Monday.

No, the book case isn't going, but see that empty shelf?  That held our 20 year old World Book Encyclopedias. (Sent to us, free from the World Book Company when we lived in China.)

As Doug said last night when bagging then up, "It's the end of an era."  Guess that could mean a lot of things.  It got me wondering if anyone even sells encyclopedias any more?

It feels good to lighten the load.

"Don't store up treasures here on earth,

where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal.

Store your treasures in heaven....

Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will be also."

Signs that made me laugh

Funky signs and notices always make me smile.

Saw this sign hanging in a coffee shop in Duluth a year ago .

It was hanging here at Dunn Brothers Coffee, Duluth, MN.

Isn't this cute?  LOG, inside and out.

And this struck us really funny when we lived in China in the 80s.  It was a good idea, though, to help prevent a slip on the sidewalk in the mornings, especially.

This is probably just humorous to a nurse.  This was at Buca de Beppo in Mesa.  Saw it in December when out with the Ladies Book Club ladies.