Happy 80th Birthday to my DAD!

Please comment or email birthday wishes/greetings to my dad; I know he'd appreciate them! I love you, Dad!

Hair... can't live with it... can't live without it!

For most of my life I've struggled with my hair. I was born with curly, unruly hair; my younger sister was born with straight but full-of-body hair.

Becoming teenagers in the late sixties, we both agreed that she was the fortunate one. When everyone wanted to have long, straight hair with long, straight bangs, I was the one who had short, curly hair with bangs that seemed to shrink up to my hairline.

No product produced would make my bangs straight.

(I didn't even try with the rest of my hair.)

Not Dippity-Do.

Not pink hair tape.

Not jumbo hot rollers.

Not big pink foam rollers.

Nothing!

So, why am I telling you about this? Because I went to my sister's surprise 50th birthday party this past weekend. Her friends and family had put together a photo collage for sis and because we are only 11 1/2 months apart in age, I was in many of the earlier shots. The hair horror all came back to me as I saw photos of the two of us side-by-side. There she was looking cute with her soft, long, flowing head of hair. There I was with my short, kinky, unruly blob of hair. Yikes!

(That's my sis on the left and me on the right. The guy just to the right of my sister is now married to famous fashion designer Trina Turk!)

Then I remembered my months of chemotherapy and the totally bald head I sported throughout that process. It certainly put things in much better perspective....

"Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered...." Luke 12:7

"...for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7

Happy Birthday, Erik!

One score and seven years ago today,

Erik was born into this world.

Today, Erik is healthy, successful, married to the love of his life and following our Lord Jesus Christ. What more could a mother want?

Happy Birthday, Erik!

Living the Cross-Centered Life

I just finished reading a great book by C.J. Mahaney, Living the Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing. Mahaney did a wonderful job of removing all of the distractions of life and focusing straight on what matters most--Christ crucified. Just as Paul said in I Corinthians 15:3-4, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...." I highly recommend this book to all who are serious about living for God.

Hiking 2007

Now that the weather has turned chilly and drippy, I'm reminded of some of the terrific hikes I was able to take this year in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Ahhhh....

Anybody want to buy a GREAT house?

We've got our house for sale and are hoping that a nice family will buy it! Do you know of any nice families (or nice young couples) looking for a terrific house in a terrific neighborhood?

Cool Slideshows

Weekend

Typical October weekend... with a few extras!

We "dogsat" for Kara and Dusty while they had a weekend away. Gunner is a terrific dog who is polite, quiet and clean--my kind of dog! K&D came to pick him up on Sunday and stayed to watch the first three quarters of the Seahawks-Steelers game. (No comment about this lame game.)

Since we're trying to sell the house ourselves, we sat around most of the weekend waiting for people to call. VERY few calls.... We'll give it a couple of more weeks before listing the house with a real estate agent.

Went to church Sunday. Jeff had a good sermon, but attendance seemed a bit down (due to Seahawks 10:00 a.m. start??).

Isn't this cute?

Loved this picture of our son Erik and his lovely wife Krista! Wait... you say... When did Erik and Krista have a baby?

The darling little Seahawks fan is actually Kellen, the son of their good friends, Jeff and Heather.

But coming from these bloodlines....

... there's always the possibility that we will have a little grandseahawk... I mean, seahawkgrandbaby... a grandbaby Seahawks fan at some point in the future!

Our future home... The Esplanade

Unit 910 on the top floor will be our new home in about five months or so.

Anyone know of a nice family who would like to buy our house (see post from 7/26/07)?

Sunset Dinner at Anthony's Homeport

Dave completed an important presentation for work today, so we decided to go out and celebrate at Anthony's Homeport in Des Moines. Sitting in their upstairs bar deck area, we enjoyed a four-course sunset dinner (translation: early & cheap). Dave had a gorgeous silver salmon and I had the Beef & Prawn Kabob. Yummmm! The only thing better than the food was the view over the Des Moines Marina.

Gunner... the Granddog!

Gunner belongs to Dusty and Kara. I guess that makes him our GRANDDOG. And a grand dog he is! While Dusty and Kara were in Boise this weekend, Gunner stayed with us. He likes coming to our house because he's got an entire backyard to roam and because we spoil him. Gunner's favorite toy is a little gray stuffed kitty. He drags it around in his mouth and likes to lie next to it when he sleeps. That's all well and good, but I think Gunner thinks all cats are his toys. We have a cat in our neighborhood that thinks she "owns" a piece of the sidewalk. Unfortunately, when Gunner gets to that piece of the sidewalk, he goes right up to the cat and tries to make friends. Although Gunner is a quick learner, he hasn't learned yet about this cat. You see, we have walked him by this cat twice a day for the past three days and he still tries to make friends with the cat each time... and each time the cat hisses and takes a swipe with her paw right at Gunner's nose.

Kara has her own blog... FINALLY!

Our lovely daughter, Kara, finally has her own blog. All of her friends blog.... Even her mother blogs.... Now Kara can share her OWN view of life!

Anniversary

Dave & I celebrated our 28th aniversary yesterday!

Selling our house

After living in our house for 16 years, we've decided to put it on the market.

Our two kids were only in grade school when we first moved here. I had just finished cancer surgery and chemotherapy. This house was to be both "moving up" and a "new start" for us. It doesn't seem that long ago....

Now that the kids are gone, I'm retired and Dave's working downtown, we actually have the opportunity to move to another location in the greater Puget Sound area. Our preference is Issaquah--close to mountain hiking, close to Lake Sammamish, not too difficult a commute to Seattle. We also have an opportunity to downsize a bit--less living space, though not less in terms of mortgage.

There are two VERY difficult aspects to moving:

1) Sorting through MANY accumulated possessions, and

2) Leaving the church we love!

Yuk!

So... if anyone is interested in a terrific house in a terrific neighborhood....

Afternoons at Mirror Lake Elementary School

My son-in-law is the best 4th grade teacher I know! Because I'm recently retired and generally have too much time on my hands, I volunteer in Dusty's fourth grade classroom at Mirror Lake Elementary School.

The kids of Room 122 have been doing science experiments the last couple of times I've been in class. Can you imagine 23 students exploring the scientific properties of water? The kids are hilarious, but I think they are really learning about surface tension, absorption rates and other valuable pieces of earth science knowledge.

Dusty is a very skilled communicator who has the obvious respect of his students. The kids are quite the communicators also. (That's my way of saying that they sure talk a lot!) Although many of the students speak English as their second language, they all have MANY things to tell me when I show up in their class. Unfortunately, none of what they want to say has anything to do with what they have learned in class. Many of these students are behind grade level in reading and math, and seem to be falling farther behind each week. I wish there was more that I could do for these boys and girls....

Ladies who love the Psalms

For those of you who don't already know, I lead a Women's Bible Study group at my church on Wednesday evenings. This year we are studying the Books of Psalms. Yup... all 150 of them... From Psalm 1 all of the way to Psalm 150. What a challenge!

What a treasure of wisdom God has instilled in these women. They come in all shapes, sizes and ages. We have women born in the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Though all different, the one thing they have in common is their love for God and His Word.

Last night these precious ladies discussed what they had learned from studying Psalms 64-68. As we ended the evening, we prayed together agreeing "O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary. You, the God of Israel Himself, give strength and power to the people. Blessed be God!" (Psalm 68:35) I praise God for these wonderful women!

Christmas in the Desert

Yes, I do realize that Christmas was a whole month ago. But I have some catching up to do!

Dave and I thought we'd try something different this year. Because both of the kids are married, we usually celebrate holidays with them every-other-year. Christmas 2006 was "our" year. Wanting to make this year special, we all put our heads together and decided to go away on vacation instead of celebrating Christmas together at home. And to make it REALLY special, we decided to invite both sets of grandparents! (And it probably goes without saying that the record rains in November made a December trip to the desert sound even better!)

To make a long story short, we rented two houses in sunny Palm Desert, California and proceeded to plan activities that all three generations could enjoy. Here are a few pictures from our Christmas in the Desert vacation!

Grandma T. and Erik reading by the pool on Christmas morning:
Because we ALL have way too much "stuff," we decided not to exchange Christmas gifts among ourselves this year. However, we did decide to do a fun "book exchange" utilizing the rules from your typical white elephant gift exchange. What a hoot!! We each ended up with a book to read by the pool that had previously been a favorite of one of our special loved ones.





Two of my favorites from the Living Desert Museum: We visited Palm Desert's Living Desert Museum the day after Christmas. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting the Palm Springs area. Great, natural wildlife and plant exhibits; a terrific model train display; a fantastic stage show!










Palm Springs Air Museum: Because the museum was full of World War II era aircraft and memorabilia, the four grandparents truly enjoyed this outing.


Joshua Tree National Park: This is a photo of Kara & Dusty and Krista & Erik at Keys Overview at Joshua Tree National Park. While in the park, we also took a short hike to Barker Dam. Weather was terrific and the scenery beautiful!



Palm Springs Aerial Tramway:
It had snowed up on the mountain the day before we went up on the tram. We had a blast looking down at the desert thousands of feet below while treading carefully on snow and ice up above.

She's back....

Ok, so I haven't written anything in a year and a half. Where have I been? Certainly NOT blogging! My goal in 2007 is to turn this into more of a family news blog... so that family and friends can keep up with what we are doing... and so I don't have to send out the annual Christmas letter next year. (Got that great idea from friends... Thanks, Larry & Linda!!)

Quick Trip to D.C.

This past week just flew by! I truly loved being in Washington D.C. and loved meeting many co-workers who I only previously knew by phone. It wasn't difficult to put names/faces with the people based on their voices.

Although the days were long (and filled with MANY meetings), I did get some quick sightseeing in on Thursday late afternoon. Charrie drove Judy (from Atlanta), Donna (from D.C.) and me all around town, stopping at the various sights. We quickly toured the Viet Nam Memorial, the Korean Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Cathedral, and Georgetown. In addition, we drove past most of the other famous/historical locations in Washington D.C.

We finished the evening with dinner on the roof of the Hotel Washington (on 15th St and Pennsylvania Ave, across from the White House), where we saw the sunset and the city lights begin to illuminate the Washington Monument, White House, Lincoln Memorial and many other famous buildings. What a view!

I love being back home now, but am so grateful for the opportunity to work with and for such a wonderful bunch of people! The sights and sounds of Washington D.C. (more about the sounds later) were amazing, but meeting Terry, Rich, Donna, Gerry, Charrie (and many others) was the highlight of the week.

(Charrie & Donna)

San Jose Airport

As I'm writing this post, I'm sitting in the San Jose International Airport waiting for a flight that has been delayed (once again!). Tonight I fly back to Seattle and then tomorrow morning take a 6:00 a.m. flight back to the Bay Area and then on to Washington D.C. Lots of miles!!

Airports are an interesting place to get your fill of people-watching. A lady just walked by me with purple hair, wearing a purple flowered dress. It would be fitting to tell you that she was wheeling a PURPLE carry-on suitcase, but I won't. (The carry-on was RED.) Parents with kids are fun to watch in airports also. There's usually two kinds--the ones who are letting their children run wild and the ones who are trying to keep control of their kids with leashes, snacks or "The Look." You know The Look; that's the one that Moms use when they REALLY mean business. In addition to the strangely dressed and the parents-with-children, there's always plenty of airport staff to watch. Some are extremely energetic and helpful; others are standing in groups talking to each other with the attitude written all over their faces that CLEARLY says, "I don't care what you need; please don't even bother to ask."

Well, I'd better go check to see if they've delayed my flight YET AGAIN....