Adventures of Life

Hi there everyone! 

That is, if there is anyone out there who still reads this thing...
It's been rather neglected, to say the least.

I write to you not from a seat with a view of the lake, where I would normally write, but instead, several hours south from our new home in Kentucky.

It has been an adventure.

It's different here in the south. They drink Ale-8-One instead of Vernors (they don't even know what Vernors is), Walmart runs out of bread when we get 1/4" of snow, and it gets so humid in the summer it looks like I got a perm.

Life is different, but life is good.
God is good.

You would think that after moving to another state I would spend some time there before I left, but the adventures called me elsewhere.

I originally moved to Louisville to teach preschool, but after two months I migrated farther south to spend a month in North Carolina. The craziness we call film making called once again and I assisted catering on the set of Princess Cut.

Just to clarify, when I say craziness, I mean craziness. Asking a restaurant owner if we can cook dinner for the crew in his kitchen because the kitchen we were originally going to use fell through, going nearly 48 hours on 1 hour of sleep, transporting lunch to, and eating on the side of a mountain, playing the "lock it up" game with kids on set to keep them quite during filming, jam sessions on the porch late into the morning... I would say night, but it was already morning by the time we started ;)

No matter how crazy it gets, it is always a blessing to work with friends who push on and encourage those around them when the going gets tough!

In February I headed back to Michigan to help costume Oxford High School's production of Beauty and the Beast. What an amazing and talented group of girls I got to know!

We laughed, and cried, ate too much, stayed up late hand sewing and watched movies, prayed together, danced together, encouraged each other, made mistakes and learned from them.
 We were all stretched to our limits, and saw God's faithfulness in so many situations.
"The God of angel armies, is always by my side!"

Here's a few more picture just because :)

And what do you know, but the very week after the show wrapped (is that the correct term for theater?) I ended up in Cincinnati catering another film, Wanted.

Rejoining the craziness with friends I had worked with on Princess Cut, and Beyond the Mask, we somehow made it through the week cooking in a kitchen which was also a hot set! Talk about a challenge! But we made it, and I'm pretty sure no one left hungry.
And can I add how much fun it is to watch movies with film makers? Winter Soldier for the wrap party any one?

Coming home, after I caught up on sleep, I set to work job hunting. I was blessed to find a job as a veterinary technician at a vet hospital only 15 minutes from our house! Between learning a new job, working part time, and all the little extras that come from living in a new house I've kept busy enough. I cannot help but think there is something on the horizon though.

I watch and wait, listen and learn.
I do what I can to be ready for the next adventure.

Because, you know, there will always be another adventure.

Cowboy Boots

A beautiful day at church yesterday.

A wonderful time of worship,

A challenge by a visiting speaker from China who was imprisoned during the communist reign,

Then, there is my buddy Titus.

He is all of 3 years old, loves the color blue, Thomas the train, and always has a smile on his face.

Yesterday, he made me think.

No, not about Thomas the train.  It was cowboy boots.

He walked up to me after service and proudly displayed the brown distressed leather boots he was wearing for me to see.  I just so happened to be wearing mine that day, and we had fun comparing them, as they matched nearly identically.

What made me think was what his older sister told me a minute later.

She said, "Titus told mom he was going to wear his cowboy boots to church today because Miss. Mary wears hers to church all the time!"

First it made me laugh!

Who would have thought a three year old boy noticed what shoes I wore to church!?

Then I thought, "If he notices the shoes I wear, what else is he noticing?" 

When I taught in Oklahoma it was easy to remember that I was being watched. It was easy to see that my fellow character coaches and I were, by God's grace, lights in the darkness, giving hope to the hopeless.  When the contrast between the environment we were in and the light of God in us was so different, it was easy to remember we were there to minister God's love to those around us.

But here at home,  I need these little reminders that I am still being watched.

Not just by the three year old who wants to wear cowboy  boots, or the girls who sport sparkly green frog earrings, but also strangers in the grocery store, the teller at the bank, the mail man, the neighbor next door, or the group of kids I pass on the sidewalk when I walk the dog.

They are all watching too.

What do they see?

The cowboy boots? Or the love of Christ in my actions?

But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 

~ I Timothy 4:12

Today

Today was a good day.

A sunshiny day.

A bare foot day.

An over 70 degree day.  (Yes, I'm still in Michigan!)

A day I got to spend with some very special little people.

All those reasons gave us much cause to smile :)

And so we did.

 

Some feet have seem more of the outside so far this year than mine...

  I promise he's not falling on his head, just showing off a flip!

  

 

See? Safe in one piece.

 

I hope you all had as beautiful a day as I did!

ATI Conference '11

After SSI, with hardly time to recuperate (and trust me, you need recuperation time after SSI) Mom and I drove down to Indianapolis for the regional ATI conference.  I can't remember the last conference I was able to attend without worrying about chores or other responsabilities.  It was a perfect time of seeing old friends, and being refreshed in the Lord.  Here's a peek at some of the fun!

Esther and I maning...er, womaning, the ITG table. 
She even gave me a pipecleaner!!!
Yes, pipecleaners make me happy, very happy!
...don't ask...

And of course you couldn't keep me out of the CI room! 
Especially when two very awesome friends
happen to be in there ;)
Rissa and Lyd, you guys are awesome!

Josiah was very proud of the character award
he recieved for archery at his first year in ALERT Cadets.

Mom and one of her "honorary grandkids" :)

It was wonderful to be able to visit with
 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Staddon!

The last day of the conference, a few of us Indy staffers were able to get together at Starbucks.  It was great to see Tim, Patrick and Robert and Kendallyn again! What did we do while we were there?  We reminiced over Mr. Gergeni's Wonderful Life!  Fun times, and lots of memories.

Friends

Friends are hard to come by.

Real friends are hard to come by.

I'm talking about the kind of friends you can call in the middle of the night when you need some one to talk to, or invite your self over when your house isn't a place you'd like to be. This kind is hard to come by, but I think its our fault that we don't have more of them.

I have been blessed with real friends. Friends I can ask for prayer from, or dump on when I need to get something off my chest. But friends like that are not born, they are made, as the poet rightly said.

I miss the real friends I have, the camaraderie we had during the hectic times and bad days, the pranks we pulled, encouraging notes we would leave for each other... I still have some of those notes.

Going through the hard times draws you so near to those around you. Nearer than if you only see their good side. It opens you up, makes you vulnerable some how.

When we hurt we tend to try to hide it. Why? We have to act like we are strong enough to push through the hard things on our own? None of us are strong enough! We all need someone to lean on, to cry to, some one to encourage us and 'will' us to stay strong to the end, and finally to rejoice with us when we realize our victory.

These are the true friends.

Anyone less is just an acquaintance.

True Friends are few and far between, but when you make (and they are truly made) a true friend you know that person will always be there no matter how long it has been since you've last seen each other or talked on the phone. You know they pray for you as you pray for them, they think about you when they hear 'that song' or burst out laughing when a random occurrence jogs their memory of an inside joke.

To my true friends, thank you! Thank you for being my friends despite, at times, a not so friendly attitude on my part, for teaching me to pray, to listen, for encouraging me to look to the Lord. Thank you for the amazing memories, the good, but even more so, the bad, thank you for being there. Thank you for letting Christ shine through you!

...I miss you!

The Regional

An update at last! As some of you know, mom and I took the past few weeks to get away and relax! Well, as relaxing as helping the the ATI regional can be ;) Visiting old friends and old memories at ITC is always an enjoyable experience! The weekend before the conference started, Sara and Aleita planned an amazing vintage picnic complete with classy decorations, soda in glass bottles, pinwheels, burgers and hot dogs on the grill, home made popsicles, and lots of yummy pie! 15 different pies, I think, was the final count for the pie baking contest. I believe all of us girls had more fun baking, than eating them all! My contribution ~ Lemon Meringue! Before dinner we had a blast laughing away pre-conference stress with a scavenger hunt, bubble blowing contest, 3 and 4 legged races, water balloon toss, and water balloon volleyball! The picnic was a huge success; a great way to get to know new staff, and have fun with old friends!

Abby and Savannah

Three legged races

Four legged races

Water balloon volley ball!

Then came the conference. (cue the scary background music...) O.K. so it wasn't that bad, even though a crazy buckeye put me in charge of conference line running ;) Grant it, there were a few memories I would prefer not to re-live, but then there are memories such as: sitting at the birthday table for Jessica's birthday, pre-conference house keeping with Ruthie, praying with all the line running girls before a stressful meal and seeing God work things out perfectly, making and delivering coffee for special people (though I think Becky and I determined that we needed to perfect our coffee making skills), jump starting the "Encouragement Office," helping to make a card for the kitchen crew and dishpit, (excuse me, I mean "Dish Palace"), playing volley ball and ultimate Frisbee with staff after chores, walking the canal, smoothies and Jone Soda's at the Chocolate Cafe, sitting in the circle talking with Sara... The list could go on.

Most of all, I thank the Lord for the amazing friends He has blessed me with!

Nary a day went by that I went to bed without being challenged in my walk with the Lord or encouraged to seek Him in a matter.

Thank you all for letting your lights shine so brightly!

Thanks to Chad Paine and Skyler Nelson for the pictures!

Take me out to the ball game!

I haven't been to a ball game since Comerica Park was Tiger Stadium. A long time! That's probably why I had so much fun last night, though it would have been a bit more enjoyable if we had won... We almost squeezed in a tie for extra innings at the top of the ninth, but an unfortunate fly ball to left field squelched our best efforts.

The view from our seats (no nose bleeds were reported)

Emily and I Angelique and I These three had way to much fun! The guys The Girls

We made lots of fun memories, such as our futile efforts to start the wave, the 'tiger roar,' (a 'cheer,' and I use that term loosely, that one of the guys made up... I spared you the video) and trying to pick out a family from our church who was sitting on the other side of the stadium. I've got to go to baseball games more often!

Sometimes life makes me smile :)

Last Saturday I went to a friend's house to help out with some things, and brought Grandma along. She had such a good time playing with the kids and holding the baby! She was especially taken with red-headed Lydia. She spent at least an hour out side with her, watching her play, and trying to explain why she couldn't join her on the trampoline! When they came in side Lydia crawled up on the couch next to "Gamma," as she calls her, and this is what happened... Tina and I must have taken at least a dozen pictures of them sleeping like that. Both of them were out like a light! A few other cute moments...

Grandma and Esther

Lydia, Esther, and Josiah playing paper dolls

Baby Malachi

Lydia, Grandma, Malachi, Josiah

I'm so thankful for friends!