And The Adventure Begins

62 weeks ago today that I went to the Orthopedic Doctor to get the results from the MRI on my left knee to see what could be done to relive some of the pain that I was in just doing life. It was then that he told me that there was only one thing he could do to help me, do a knee replacement. The only problem with that is that Knee replacements tend to only last about 10 years and I’m a little young to start having that done. He said I could try some physical theory to strength the other parts of my leg and it might improve it some.

800 miles of treadmill, stationary bikes, elliptical machines, lunges, stair mills and walks are a good estimate of what I have done in the last 62 weeks getting my body in shape. I wish I would have kept a log of the actual distances. So here I sit this morning 25 lbs lighter then I was a year ago and what started out as a goal just to be able to more comfortably became a goal to be able to climb Mt St Helen’s .

10 is the approximate distance I will be hiking/climbing tomorrow to up and back tomorrow on Mt St Helen’s.

62 – 800 – 10 Numbers that define this adventure.

Psalm 23:3

Fresh Paint

For the last 4 years we have had extra residents in our house, our youngest son for 2 different stints and two different sets of interns from church. About a week ago we finally saw the last of them move out. I feel as if finally I have my own house. Not that the guys didn’t have their own room but there is just something about shared living spaces.

To make the transition complete I have spent the last few days painting some of the rooms in our house. There is no longer an intern room and the guy’s bathroom, but today there is an office, Katelynn’s room and the upstairs bathroom. Not only are these areas being repurposed but they have a whole new look to them.

Painting the different rooms in our house has been something that I have wanted to do since we moved in, but my work schedule and other outside responsibilities have always taken a priority over painting both in time and money. We decided that now that we are taking back our house it was the perfect time.

New paint doesn’t change the shape of the room, but sure did change the atmosphere. Having those rooms done, I am really motivated to complete the rest of them; I just need to work it into the schedule.

Last week I attended a conference and it was as if my soul and my spirit got a fresh coat of paint. I am still the same person but marks and wear and tear have been patched, smoothed, washed and refinished giving me a new outlook. I am again motivated to live my life fresh and new every morning.

Lamentations 3:22-24

I Didn't Call You Daddy

You weren’t there the day I was born; you never had the pleasure of changing one of my diapers. There were so many things that you were there for that those that you missed just aren’t that important.

What is important are all the times you were there. To teach me to play softball, to allow me to play on your summer team as a teenager in the days before there were leagues for girls. You were there to grind off the 1st tooth on my figure skates so I could play hockey on the pond with the boys. You were the one that taught me to shoot pool when I had to stand on a chair to reach the table. If it wasn’t for these bi-focal’s I could probably still be pretty good.

You took me into the garage and taught me how to use each tool and why it was so important to use the right tool for the job. You took me to the shop with you on weekends and holidays and to this day I still know how to pick a tumbler lock. Because of you I have a Mechanical Engineering Degree.

You taught me how to catch fish and had the patience of Job the night you caught that 27” Northern Pike and I got it so tangled up in the net it took almost an hour before you could cast your line again.

You were there when I graduated from high school and college. You didn’t laugh at me the night you came to one of my road trip college basketball games and came out onto the court with an afro.

You were the one that taught me laughter could get you through the really bad times. Some might say I have an interesting sense of humor. Remember the time you were in the hospital and we sent you a dozen long rose ‘stems’. Yes just the stems, we had the florist cut the blooms off. You laughed so hard the nurses came to see if you were ok and you displayed them proudly in a vase the entire time you were in the hospital.

You were there for one of the most difficult times of my life, when Donald died. You probably never knew that I heard you and mom in your bedroom the 1st night after I got home and you were crying and asking why not you. You would have gladly have taken his place in death.

You were there when you should have been in the hospital, refusing to go until after Christmas so you could see me when you gave me the Grandfathers clock you built. You poured your last energy into that clock that is gently ticking next to me right now; you never did come home again.

After I left for college I started to call you Dad, officially you were my step-dad but I regret to this day that I never called you Daddy.

What If?

I make decision every day. I have had to make decisions that had outcomes with the potential for great physical harm. I have had to make decisions in my own life that have had lasting consequences and I may never know if they were the right ones.

I face a decision now where the risk to a personal goal is very high as well as the long term effect on my body. I am weighing all the options, but there is no way to know which way would be the best. I struggle; I don’t want to quit and disappoint myself and others. I don’t want go forward and succeed at a cost that is too high. There is no way to know what the outcome will be ahead of time. If I hold back and fail, I will always wonder; if I go forward as planned and can’t make the final step, I will have failed.

I’m not talking about a job change, a relationship change, a change that really is important in the grand scheme of life. Either way all those things are secure. This is purely about my own personal goal and struggles. And yet; I pray for God’s direction and strategy.

Proverbs 1:5

Congradulations Pittsburgh Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins are the 2008-9 Stanley Cup Champions.

As a true fan of NHL I agree that the best team in the series won. Detroit played well but Pitsburg didn't give up and pushed them in the last two game.

I love a good hockey game and Detroit and Pittsburgh provided some of the best I've seen in years.

I will always be a Detroit Redwings fan and I will always be a Hockey Fan.

GO WINGS!!!

Happiness: new grill, steaks and his truck

How Do Others See Me?

Often you go to a fair or street festival and you will find an artist or two set up drawing Caricatures, a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person to create an easily identifiable visual likeness.

In literature one of the key features is the Character Sketch. Here you are introducing the reader to someone. You want your readers to know that person’s characteristic ways of doing things, to know something about their value system. Character sketches only give a snap shot of people.

This is true in life, when we are trying to describe someone to another person we often describe that person using exaggerations of certain characteristics or even oversimplification of others.

So how am I described to someone who hasn’t met me before? Is it by my physical features, my expressions that I use or by my character? Do others see what I am or what I try to be?


Others determine your reputation. You determine your character.
Character is defined by integrity and at the heart of integrity is the idea of wholeness.

Psalm 25:21

Who Has the Best BBQ

Today Kyle and I decided to take the scenic route home from Leavenworth, WA. We left and headed over to Chelan and then to Ellensburg for lunch. At TRC there are a whole lot of folks that rave about a BBQ place in Ellensburg so we decided we needed to check it out.

I have eaten BBQ in at least 47 of the 50 states and at least 3 of the Canadian providences. I really like good BBQ and was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about at Rodeo City BBQ. I usually get my BBQ fix these days from 3 Pigs in Bellevue. Not only is it good BBQ, but it is also less than a mile from where I work.

So after eating a helping of Baby Backs, two sides and a piece of Cornbread here is the result: Rodeo City has really good BBQ, it is smoked a little more than I tend to like it, the top is a little tough from the smoking, but overall the meat was cooked well, tender and flavorful. The Sauce was a sweeter sauce and I was never offered a HOT version so I had to use Tabasco sauce, but that is not unusual. However, I think 3 Pigs is better.

3 Pigs has wonderful sauces that come in mild, medium and Hot, they smoke their meat with a dry rub so there is no toughness on the top layer. The meat is tender and easily peels off the bone.

Rodeo City has much better side dishes then 3 Pigs and the Corn Bread will be enough to bring me back.

I would rank both of these places in the top 10 of the best BBQ I have ever eaten.

The top 5 are:
San Antonio, TX on the River Walk. I was there for 5 days and at BBQ three times.
Memphis TN, Jack Neely’s Intersate BBQ
Oxford, MI – My sister Linda’s
Atlanta, GA – Dreamland BBQ
Chicago,IL – Russell’s BBQ.

So what BBQ is your favorite?

99 and Counting

This past Sunday my husband ‘s Grandmother celebrated her 99th birthday so we went to visit her and bring her some flowers.

We were sitting and chatting when Kyle asked her how she met Grampa Herb, her 1st husband. The smile on her face and the twinkle in her eye made me wish I had thought to bring the video camera to record this memory.

She giggled once and then started in:

I met him at church you know. It was when the church was down town and I used to walk to church.

I was all dressed up and walked in and looked at the clock to see what time it was, he was sitting right under the clock all by himself. I thought, “Oh look he is sitting by himself”. I went and sat next to him. Neither one of us got anything out of the preachers message because we talked through the whole service.

The service ended and I started to walk home. Pretty soon a car drove up next to me and it was him offering me a ride home. I told him no, I wanted him to know that I was independent. [Those of us that know her would probably laugh a good one at that, stubborn is more like it]. But after some prodding, not much really I got in and let him drive me home. And that is how it all started.

Another little giggle, big smile and the story was over.

Memories like these are often lost; I was so blessed to be let in on that little story.

Deuteronomy 4:9

What Do I Think

Thinking involves the mental manipulation of information.

What information are we allowing into our minds, what are we doing with that information?

One morning last week as I was getting ready for work I caught my image in the mirror. I stopped to look. What I saw actually made me happy. I have been working out at the YMCA for about 11 months and in that time my body has slimmed down, toned up and is starting to look like one of the athlete I once was and not the grandmother I am now. I have lost weight, my clothes are fitting much looser and in general I am pleased with the results of my hard work.

So the information my brain was manipulating was all good and I only saw good things in the mirror.

Later that night as I was preparing to go to bed for the night I stopped to look at myself in that same mirror. This time I saw the scars, mutilation and defects in my body.

It was the same body, same mirror and two totally different results.

That night my brain was manipulating new information and it wasn’t good and I only saw the bad things in the mirror.

My mind ran away with all of the possibilities for the five days that it took for the test results to come back. I struggled to keep my mind focused on the positive and not the negative.

Now that I have gotten the best results possible I can reflect on what I saw in the mirror both times that day. I look at my image today and still see the positive changes and yet rejoice in the trials and history that the scars mark.

Lord, I thank You for all that You have done for me.


2 Corinthians 10:5

Waiting

Wait

Wait

Wait.

Not something that we enjoy. Sometimes we wait with expectation and anticipation. Sometimes we wait with fear and dread.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.



Isa 40:31

Never mistake activity for achievement

A couple of weeks ago Pastor Jeff used an avalanche beacon to illustrate a point in his Sunday Tru message. That next Monday morning I was meeting with a group of people to train them on a new product we were releasing that week. While we were waiting on all of the folks to attend someone asked me how it was going. My reply; “I am running as fast as I can to stay ahead of the avalanche of things that need to be done.” The good news is that our company is starting to accelerate; the bad news is that they are not hiring anyone so all of us have more work to do.

We can all get very busy, but are we really accomplishing anything? That is the question that I have to ask myself. I work through lunch, I go in early, I work in the evenings all trying to stay in front of that avalanche. What I really have to focus on in this time is keeping my priorities straight: 1) God, 2) Husband, 3) Family, 4) Church, etc.

I have to remember that work is not my life. I am blessed because I have a job I truly enjoy, but it still needs to be kept in the proper place in my life.

Ecc 9:10

Simple Fun

One of my favorite summer memories growing up was the summer my family traveled from our home in Michigan to Kansas City Missouri pulling a rented popup camper trailer. We stayed in a campground that was up on a hill and had very few trees. The sun shone bright every day and the temperature would reach 120 degrees or more each day, that was hot. Down at the bottom of the hill was this big lake full of cool blue water, but for some reason it was not safe to swim in. We were there with the Majorette/Drum Corp for a National Championship so there were approximately 15 families all camping in the same area.

So what do you do when it is 120+, out in the bright sun, 50 or more people and a water pump? Well you have water fights. It didn’t matter whether you were 7 or 70 everyone got involved. Any and all buckets, balloons and cups were used when a water fight would break out. These were not planned and everyone had so much fun that it is one things that 40 years later anyone that was there talks about.

We have forgotten the heat, the dried out grass, but everyone remembers working the pump handle to get more water for the action. We didn’t care that we had to work for that water, we were just grateful it was there. That was part of the fun, working that pump handle. That memory just reminds me of a time when it was the simple things that were the most fun.

Psalm 116:5-7 (New Living Translation)