Top 12 Reasons Why I Needed to Do This

Where I actually post a picture of myself in a bathing suit (?)

12. It is 15 degrees F outside today.
11. I clean up little muddy puddles of melted ice every day this time of year.
10. I had just walked 2 miles in 15 degrees F.
9. All the broken bones I've had get achy in the cold. Come to think of it, even the bones I didn't break get achy.
8. I worked so hard this week that I had Friday off.
7. I had to catch up with my friend and adopted sister Lori.
6. If you lay in the snow and then jump in the hot water, Lori says it cleans your pores. (We really did this).
5. I dropped off 6 big heavy bags of old newspaper in the Paper Gator recycling thingy and as long as I was out and about...
4. The kids were in school.
3. After I snowblowed the driveway today, my fingers were so cold that ice cubes felt warm. That was weird.


2. The snow coming down as we sat in the hot tub was beautiful. Soon, we had an inch on our heads. I actually put the camera on the tripod and ran barefoot in the snow for these shots because it sounded like a fun thing to do and it was fun.

And reason #1. I was preparing for this on Saturday:


Saturday at noon: we are in the midst of a blizzard. This shot taken out our back window does not capture the intensity, so later I may venture out in my boots to capture some. When the blizzard unexpectedly hit, I was in Panerra Bread with my friend Annette. We looked out the window and it was completely white. I suppose it wasn't totally unexpected - I just didn't believe it would really come! And now already, everything for tonight is cancelled.

Flash Back Friday 4

This was taken during the previous century (1998) at Sequoia National Park. Those 3 kids at the foot of the trees are Edward, Maria & Bridget.


Sequoia trees are so amazing! The kids must be holding cones from another tree because sequoia trees have smaller cones.

Egyptian Dreams

The Sphinx


Maria doing homework in front of the Sphinx

In one of my recurring dreams, the semester in history class is almost over and I haven't done any of the reading yet. I am getting a sense of dread over this. A friend who I used to work with has this same dream. Maria often dreams that I forgot to pick her up. I can only imagine the meaning behind these dreams.

Another Blogger is Born!

Head and Heart is the name of the blog started by Annette Selden who is an editor for DHP. I used to work with her at the bookstore where we would get in trouble for having too much fun. If anyone my age should be blogging, it is Annette - she will surely have some interesting things to say. So welcome to Annette from the 60 million bloggers in the world. Relax, we're only 1% of the population!

January is Almost Over

It has been so cold lately, but hey, it's January . I got a kick out of all the snow stacked on these berries today. As I went to work in the dark, I realized I was missing out on many photo ops.


Yesterday, I was happy to be warm and cozy in the house. The kids were getting their after-school snacks, and I was thankful for this simple thing.

Kitchen

If my vision fails when I'm crossing over
I'll use my hands like anyone
Sometimes a nail in my kitchen table rises
I hammer it down like I would in anyone else's kitchen.

I find this song rather soothing.

Moldable

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me:
"O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:4-6

Maria has been at a retreat for TEC(Teens Encountering Christ) since Friday morning. John & I went to a program tonight (Sunday) to pick her up. We were so excited to see her. The verse above was their theme verse for the weekend. She really enjoyed her small group - Mooing for the Master? They called themselved "The Cows" and they had a lot of good discussions. These kids -64 candidates and 64 student workers - had a ton of enthusiasm and energy which they displayed in their 2 hour worship program.


Happy to See Each Other

Nursing 101

This is true: when I would take career interest tests or inventories, the job that supposedly fit me the best was, ta-da: NURSE.

Now I know for a fact they didn't make you look at blood and guts on that test and I'm pretty sure they didn't even ask you about it. I get what I like to call sympathy pains (pains that shoot through my body) or gagging reflexes when I see either of these. Sometimes I believe that I really should have been a nurse, but then, I only need a week like this past one to remind me why I am not.

Reminder No. 1: Bridget threw up in bed one night and then ran in the bathroom and finished spewing forth on the toilet seat. (Poor sweetheart) I rolled up the bedspread and put it directly in the washing machine while gagging and looking the other way, and then asked John if he could clean off the toilet seat.

Reminder No. 2: Edward had his wisdom teeth removed Friday afternoon. After I brought him home, I had to "change the gauze." This involved me getting the kitchen trash can and placing it beneath him and instructing him to let that red soaked thingy in his mouth fall in the trash. Then I took a clean gauze and folded it up a bit and told him to stick it in there, you know and bite on it, and make sure you apply pressure.

The good news is, under my expert care, Bridget only threw up that one time and went back to school by noon the next day. Edward is also doing fine - my expert care provided him with applesauce, yogurt, pudding, jello, spagettios. And pain pills.

Flash Back Friday 3

Today's Flash Back also happens to fall on the 76th birthday of Dr. Don Wilson who taught anthropology at Calvin College. This picture was taken over 25 years ago in Liberia. He taught at Calvin up until last year, and John still runs into him there. Don sends out over 6000 postcards a year for birthdays of friends!

When I was at Calvin, he was my advisor and I remember going to his office to talk - he was so interesting! In 1988, he performed our wedding. He came wearing sandals, and my dad, ever the proper Dutchman, gave him a pair of his own shoes to wear. I don't remember if they were too big or too small - I was on cloud 99 - but it was all very funny.

Today also would have been my Grandma's 94th birthday. She was thrilled to learn that she shared a birthday with Don and they exchanged cards for many years.

Getting Old-er

The other day, a guy at work was asking me how old my kids were. When I told him my kids were 17, 15, & 11, he said that I must have started having them when I was 12. Those psychologists at work sure know what they are doing! :)

Someone at work sent me this story about getting older. See if you can relate.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN GUILTY OF LOOKING AT OTHERS YOUR OWN AGE AND THINKING, "SURELY I CAN'T LOOK THAT OLD?" I WAS SITTING IN THE WAITING ROOM FOR MY FIRST APPOINTMENT WITH A NEW DENTIST.

I NOTICED HIS DDS DIPLOMA, WHICH BORE HIS FULL NAME.

SUDDENLY, I REMEMBERED THAT A TALL, HANDSOME, DARK-HAIRED BOY WITH THE SAME NAME HAD BEEN IN MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS SOME 40-ODD YEARS AGO.

COULD HE BE THE SAME GUY THAT I HAD A SECRET CRUSH ON, WAY BACK THEN??

UPON SEEING HIM, HOWEVER, I QUICKLY DISCARDED ANY SUCH THOUGHT. THIS BALDING, GRAY-HAIRED MAN WITH THE DEEPLY LINED FACE WAS WAY TOO OLD TO HAVE BEEN MY CLASSMATE. HMMM ....OR COULD HE???

AFTER HE EXAMINED MY TEETH, I ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ATTENDED MORGAN PARK HIGH SCHOOL.

"YES, YES, I DID. I'M A MUSTANG," HE GLEAMED WITH PRIDE.

"WHEN DID YOU GRADUATE?" I ASKED.

HE ANSWERED, "IN 1959. WHY DO YOU ASK?"

"YOU WERE IN MY CLASS!" I EXCLAIMED.

HE LOOKED AT ME CLOSELY. THEN, THAT UGLY, OLD, WRINKLED, BALD, FAT, GRAY, DECREPID MAN ASKED, "WHAT DID YOU TEACH?"

Spelling with Style

Bridget participated in her school's spelling bee yesterday.


Incredible nervousness sets in when these kids are up there. Bridget made it through a couple of rounds. I think she won in the category of expressiveness, though.


She was given the word Buffalo, but she was so nervous, she said "B-u-f-a-l-l-o". Later, she told me she knew how to spell it, but in her excitement, she doubled the wrong letter!

Tired

Today we are thinking of this: life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. Here is Edward happily reacting to the 5th or 6th time this week he had to put a tire or a spare on his car. We got it "fixed" several times. He called from school today and it was flat again!





Actually, it's more like "Ma-a-a-a-ahm, why do you have to take a picture?"

Fun Website

This is a cool music website. Thanks to Meaghan and Codepoke for finding it.

Diggin the Snow

The snow is beautiful here in Michigan, but before you begin to idealize our life here, you can see here what else goes along with the snow.


Yesterday, we had a blue sky for probably the first time in 2007, and let me tell you, our hearts soaked in that color!

The trees glistened in the sun!

And even the fire hydrants were more red.