Time to catch up

So I'm finally getting back at it. The last month or so has been busier than I expected. Needless to say, I haven't taken much time to blog. The first week of the month I spent with family. Matt and Mindy, my brother and sister-in-law were in Michigan where we grew up for a week of vacation. It was fun to spend time with them and catch up. Twice a year is definitely not enough! I miss them a lot. Not all of us went both directions, but two of the days included riding the Kal-Haven Trail. The sunset pictures in this post were taken off the lighthouse pier in South Haven. There will be more pix from the 4th of July another day.

Two of my very favorite people!

I like the cloud in this one. It looks like it's at the beginning of a road wandering off to who know's where. Maybe the road they take when they ride off in the sun set, literally.

This water lilly is in the lake just off the dock at my Grandma's house. Some see weeds, some see beauty. The lilly pads may grow a bit faster than desired, but the flowers sure are beautiful! For me there aren't many things more entrancing than watching light dance on water.

The following weekend I spent some time at my sister's house watching girlie movies and enjoying some DeBrand's (notice this link is brown for the chocolate:) If you like chocolate and have never had DeBrand's, you're missing out, let me tell ya!

This last week, my mom bought herself a new knee (refer to previous post). She told me on Saturday that the pain afterward was worse than birthing me. Granted, I was only 5lb. 13oz. but I was her first, so I'm sure it was no picnic. I'm happy to say it's much better now. She's home and recovering nicely. This last weekend I got to go be nurse, cook, gardener, physical therapist, and dictator. That last description was hers. I think deep down, she appreciated it, but she came as close as my mom will to cussing at me once or twice when I was helping her with the physical therapy. I called her today to check in. When I called today, she said she hadn't done her exercises this morning because she had to go to the hospital for routine post-op blood work, and then to see a friend at the doctor's office. I told her I'd give her a reprieve, but she better do them after lunch. She just laughed and said, "I thought you went back to Fort Wayne". She was quickly reminded that if she doesn't want my "encouragement" she should not answer her phone;) I'm glad to know her pain is better, and she's actually moving very well.

I'm going to end on a pretty sad note. Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the day we, as crew on the Africa Mercy, lost our mate, Colin. He drowned in the rip currents off the Liberian beach just 2 days before his 22nd birthday. I didn't know him well, but I had friends who did, one in particular who was at the beach with him that day. Would you please keep his family and those he left behind in your prayers?

Tell you what. That is a sad note, but I'm not going to end there. If you read this post and respond before I leave for work tomorrow, I'll send you a sample from DeBrand's. Your comment needs to include your favorite kind of chocolate! (This is really just an excuse for me to go to DeBrand's, don't be fooled!!! hahaha)

Don't give up on me!

This is going to be a super short post. Don't give up on me, all 3 of you that read this blog! Somehow between work and trips out of town, life has gotten busier than I expected in July. I have a few things to add, it's just not going to be for a few more days!

Holes-Editing Note

I'm laughing as I type this. To fully appreciate this short post it's necessary to first read Holes, the post just below this. I talked to my Mom this evening. I had emailed her telling her she might want to check my blog. We talked a while and then she said that she had read the blog. She thougth it was nice, but she had a correction. Ardi wasn't the one that crawled up on the roof to take the pictures from above. She did that too! I forgot to mention in the original post that she is buying a new knee July 23. She used her left leg to do the climbing, and then pulled the right one up. What was that I said about stubborness? I think a little bit proud of it too, as well she should be. Makes me look bad that I chickened out and then my Mom who needs a new knee did it. You win some, you lose some.

Holes

I've had a few things I would like to write about, but I've been without the pictures that I needed to give impact to what I wanted to say. Here's one of the posts. Hopefully 1 or 2 more in the next couple days.

About a week ago my mom called to ask if we've ever watched a movie titled "Holes". We sure have. She then asked what it was about, so I told her. If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, it's pretty entertaining. Actually I haven't read the book, but we all know it's usually better. I'm usually more of a realist. There is some definite fantasy, but I still like the story. Here I go wandering from the point. After I told Mom about the movie I asked why she was randomly calling to ask about it. "Well, I've been digging so many holes, I finally remembered the name of the movie".

Here's what happpened. My parents have had some plumbing work done by a friend. He asked when the septic tank was last pumped. Ummm......never. I think their house is about 22 yr. old. So it was time to dig to find the top of the tank. Mom and Dad discussed where it was, and came to a consensus. Quite a few that regularly stop here to read know Dad. For the few that don't, he's blind and his health doesn't allow him to help with things like digging. (Side note...he could sure use any prayers you're able to lift for him. His health has been far from stellar. Feeling awful all the time has been very exhausting for him.) So Mom dug in (pun intended). After a little while my uncle showed up and helped for awhile. They worked a few hours on Saturday morning with no luck. The following Monday another family friend (Thanks Sam) came over and helped look some more, using the tricks he had in his bag. Still no tank.

I think Mom called with her question on Wednesday evening. She had dug and dug to no avail. I suggested that she follow the pipe from the side of the house, but knew that would be the long way around the house to get to the barn, so to speak. A day or so later, she decided that even though she didn't really want to go that route, it was not looking hopeful just digging in the places they thought the tank was.

Here's a picture from the roof, taken by same uncle who did some of the digging. Thanks Ardi! I tried climbing the antenna to get to the roof, but chickened out. I think my legs must have gotten shorter because it sure was a lot easier when I was 10. Hmmm. You can see a pretty definite line of holes, following the pipe.

These are some of the more random holes where we were all sure the tank was. I wish you could see them up close because they look much larger when you're standing right by them. The ones following the pipe are each about 18 in. wide by 2-3 ft. deep. Thats a LOT of digging.
This past weekend, I was in Sturgis on Saturday to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad because I had to be in Fort Wayne on Sunday. Friday evening out she went again determined to find that tank. I was doing the dishes and then heading out to help. Determined she was because about 10 minutes later she came back inside just bursting with pride. SHE FOUND IT!!!!

I have to say I'm pretty proud of my mom on this one. My Grandma Eichorn said it well. "She just doesn't give up easy, does she?" Sometimes a stubborn streak needs correction. Other times, though, you just have to respect it. Who ever thought so much work would be involved just for the privilege of sucking poo from a concrete box?



Here's the theme song from the movie. Needless to say I played that one for Gerri a time or two.

Just What I Needed

My cousin Mary recently wrote a blog titled Beautiful. That almost fits, but not quite, not to mention the fact that even though I like the way she thinks, I don't want to steal her work.

Today was a rough day. Thursdays are typically the roughest day at work. We have 2 surgeons working on Thursdays that are both very good and they both have a lot of experience. That means they are very efficient, which translates into the ability to do a lot of surgeries in a short amount of time. If you're working in the recovery room, the buck stops there. Patients need time to recover. That process can be expedited to a degree, but facts are facts. It takes time. It's true. Sometimes people are interested in staying all day to be pampered. (Ever see the video titled "Man Cold" on youtube? Men tend to be the campers in recovery:) When there are only so many beds and only so many nurses, there comes a numbers problem. The surgeons are fast. The patients can only be ushered through so quickly without the nurses being rude or uncaring. As the nurse, I must admit, you sometimes feel forced between a rock and a hard place. Today was made one worse by the fact that one of the small number of nurses was ill and not able to be at work. Ugh! Good morning, aren't you glad tomorrow's Friday? Anyway...you get the picture. I ran my tail off at work. The humidity has not helped. It managed to seep into every nook and cranny of the day, causing all of us at work to find our clothes sticking to us and wishing we could all sit with a personal fan. (hahaha...I thought I left the humidity in Liberia. Rainy season has started again there. Indiana still doesn't compare, but today and tomorrow, if Curtis Smith is right, are going to do their best to compete with West Africa's rainy season. Really...if I'm going to have rainy season, I'd like to be able to see my ladies, go to the market, and eat some monkey fruit!)

You know it's bad when you're working so hard that your patient whose blood pressure was uncomfortably low and was horribly nauseated is apologizing to you. She told me she was sorry that she was causing so much extra work for me, and felt bad that I had to do more charting because of her. When she said it, I apologized thinking maybe I had done something to make her feel like she was a nuisance. She assured me that I had not. She just said that she and her husband had been watching the staff all day and didn't know how we had been able to keep up the pace we were. She noticed that no one really disappeared long enough to have gone for lunch, let alone a coffee break. She was simply voicing her appreciation. It was nice to hear, but I hate the days that you can try all you want, and you still just don't quite achieve the gracefullness to run full tilt and make it look like you're strolling.

By the time I got off work I was starving, tired, hot, ready for a shower, and my legs were just plain aching. My first thought was that pizza or maybe chocolate would make it better. Instead, I went to Pizza Hut and got salad carry-out. Let's be honest. I made the healthy choice, but I was ready to let someone else do the cutting and chopping. (Good deal by the way....a large salad is HUGE and it's only $5.50) I then went home, ate, watched the news, and checked my email. While I would have loved to just sit right there on the couch and be a zombie the rest of the evening, I made myself get up and go for a ride on my new bike I got a few weeks ago. It wasn't all that far, but I rode maybe 5 miles or so, pushing it fairly hard. Finally, I came home, put the lovely Norah Jones in the CD player, showered, and then listened to George Winston while I spent some time working on a Bible study I recently started.
Here's a picture of my bike, a stimulus check at work. Actually, I had saved $ for it a year ago, but then went out of the country, so I put it on hold and got it once the weather started getting nice. Still sure doesn't hurt the economy and is a whole lot cheaper than gas!

Yes, the pizza, diet pepsi, and chocolate would have been lovely. No, a sit on the couch after a grueling day would not have been out of line. By the time I got home from the ride, though, my legs were no longer achy. I felt like I had sweat the stress of the day away. I know that doesn't paint a pretty picture, but you know it helps! I was just in a better frame of mind. Goodness knows time in the Word only improved things. Don't you love how That Thing is truly living and breathing?

Well...that's it. Around 11am, if you would have told me that I'd be sitting here at the computer tonight thinking about what a good day it was, I might have thought about taking a swing. It was good, though. All of my patients lived. (That sounds cold, but sometimes when it's rough, that's the goal. Ask another nurse.) My patients were very appreciative and sweet. All of them. If they had felt like I was rushing them through, they would not have said thank you. As I realized several weeks ago...I've not had a workday yet that has not ended. That was true again today. It's unbelievably muggy today, but when you ride your bike, the faster you go, the stronger the breeze. The salad was DELICIOUS! There are so many truths in what I've read in the Bible in the last few days, that I would have to write a long time to process it all. I'm so glad our God is bigger and more multi-faceted than we are. It started out rough, but it ended up being just what I needed.

Side note...I added a link to MLB, major league baseball. I've been a Tigers fan since I was old enough to know what baseball was. It's painful again this year, being a fan of theirs, but I'm not going to be fickle, just because it's another lean year. Been meaning to add it for a while, and finally got around to it.

I CAN'T HARDLY TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!

The title in all caps is deliberate. When it was said, it was with such passion that there's really no other way to convey it. The statment has been made many times, but the time worth talking about was this last Sunday immediately after church. Grant Delagrange said it. Quite a few of you reading this know Grant. For those of you that don't, it's your loss. I'm not sure how old he is, but I'm thinking around 17. Grant has Down's Syndrome. That's not really the important part of the story. The only reason it's relevant is that often I think that those with Down's tend to be a little more forthright than some of the rest of us.

Here are a few things about Grant that are important. He loves Jesus. He loves music. He loves to worship. He loves being with his church family. I think that he would be hard-pressed to answer whether he loves Doug Hood or Jeff Eager more. (Doug's our worship leader and Jeff is the drummer) It's always a treat singing with the worship team for more reasons than one. One of them, though, is that you always know that at least one person in the congregation will be right up front worshipping with their whole self. That's Grant. This last Sunday we had a great time of worship together. The service was switched around a bit. We did almost all of the singing after the sermon. The last song we sang was "I saw the Light". It's a great song. My favorite part of the whole service was Grant's comment at the end. He walked past the front of the stage with a huge sigh, sounding like he had just run a few miles. He breathlessly exclaimed, "I CAN'T HARDLY TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

Why aren't we all like that? Yes, it's because he likes Doug and Jeff, and they were playing the song. Yes, he likes singing. Yes, he was probably even more charged because a few of the guys put their shades on near the end of the song as they sang about the Light. But really, the reason he could hardly take it anymore is because he loves to worship. He LOVES it. He loves his Jesus and wants to let him know. He was so full of passion that he literally could hardly take it anymore. He's not ashamed to let anyone know that. We could all take a lesson. Too bad only those of us still on the stage got to hear it. I appreciated the sermon, the choice of songs, and the sharing time, but the thing I appreciated most Sunday was Grant's challenge. He didn't realize he challenged me, but I've been thinking about it since.

I'll think about that tomorrow

I'm feeling pretty reflective this evening. Actually, I'm feeling pretty tired. I ought to be in bed, but after being busy or out of town for the last 4 or 5 days, I've been catching up on emails and news online via blogs, facebook, etc. Even though I don't live near family, I enjoy the opportunity to keep up at least a little bit thanks to this web we rely on so much.

I have so many things on my brain that there's no way to sort them all out. I'll have to work on that in the next several days. I haven't felt much opportunity to do that over the last week or two. I'm not complaining, though, because I love having family and friends to occupy my time with. It's much more enjoyable than hanging out with just myself.

The things to think about.

• My friend's mom is living with terminal cancer. How can I make the road just a bit easier considering their family is somewhat spread out? Her mom just moved to Fort Wayne this weekend, so it will be an adjustment for all. I think it will be a relief, if for no other reason than the price of gas.
• Last week I heard a good sermon about Daniel in the lion's den. We've all heard it before. The main point this time was that King Darius decreed that all people would worship Daniel's living God. He's a living God, and still lives today. He's there for us and will not let us be eaten by the lions. This Sunday I heard a sermon from Isaiah 49. The Lord promises that it's easier for a nursing mother to forget a newborn than it is for Him to forget us. That's a promise we can hold in our fist and never let go of. Satan does not get permission to pry our fingers loose on this one. There are days it's easy to believe, and other days not so much. It's there in black and white, though. I LOVE it when God teaches me the same lesson in several ways, from several people, over time, from different parts of His Word!
• Today is Memorial Day. I grew up with a heritage of non-violent resolution to conflict. At the same time, we all get the day off work to honor those who have died fighting for our freedom. How do you reconcile that? This is an issue that I've spent a lot of time thinking about over the years. There are questions that each person has to answer for themselves according to what scripture says. I must say I am grateful for the freedoms I enjoy!
• What a busy weekend with helping with a move, bike rides, babysitting, church, lunch, installing doors, installing an air conditioner that didn't want to be installed, canoeing, visiting, grilling out with the family. I don't know that theres's much of anywhere in the world that's better for my soul than time spent on Perrin Lake.
• I've received two, maybe three different emails with a link to the same 8 minute video about laminin. I filed it away for future viewing the first couple times, knowing there was a good chance I'd never get to it. I finally watched it this evening b/c it occured to me that maybe if it's showed up 3 times, I should listen. It was interesting. Christ, and what He did for us on the cross and then the resurrection, truly needs to be the glue that holds us together. It is already, but we, I, need to be more aware of it every minute of every day.
• I've read a blog lately that has addressed the manner in which some people approach missionary work and the people that are being served. There's a bit of irony in what the person is ranting about and what she, herself, is doing. It's not my battle, but I'm closely enough involved to feel quite offended by it. It's been bothering me for a week. I've come to no resolution, but it's still peeking it's ugly head into my brain several times a day.
• My friend's Grandpa died a couple days ago. I just learned about it today. As I was talking to a family member on the phone this evening she shared about how much she's learned about him in the last few days. An accident, health, and probably difference in age have all had an effect on how much she got to know the real Willie. We've always thought he was a pretty quiet man. Turns out he was quite a pal in his younger years. Why don't I take the time to get to know people on a closer level? A large percentage of the time, I'm the one who's missing out, especially with those who have decades of wisdom to be tapped.
• My friend and I have been holding each other accountable to memorize scripture. We started with Ephesians 1, struggled with some of the repetitive phrases, moved to Psalm 103 (which I love, by the way!), and have returned to Ephesians 1. This week we will complete it. There is a lot of valuable stuff packed into those two chapters. I listened to an audio Bible some while I drove to MI and back, practising the complete chapter. I've read and listened to the chapter at least 50 times over the last couple months. After all of those times, the last verse hit my like a two-by-four out of nowhere.

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

We are the church. I'm the church. You're the church. What does it mean to be the fullness of Christ? How are we supposed to help Him fill everything in every way? What does that look like? Are we getting the job done? Wow!

So there. Now you know what's going on in my head. I should read through this to see if any of it makes sense. Remember what I said at the beginning? I'm tired. I need to get to bed. I know that while I was driving there were even more things going on in my head. I can't bring them all to mind now. This is enough. My brain is full and needs to rest. My heart is full with the time I got to spend with people I love. As Scarlett O'Hara said..."I'll think about that tomorrow".