public service announcement

ok people - only 2 weeks til mother's day. start now thinking of nice things to do for your mom! or your wife! or of suggestions you can give to curtis, who will inevitably forget and then i will feel sad and he will feel bad!

jj - angela is pregnant - that totally counts for mother's day!! it doesn't need to be big, she just needs to know that you are all about her being the mother of your child! :)

steve - AJ is coming! sabrina loves presents - you'd better believe this mother's day counts! get going, man! :)

Jordan (if you're out there) - remember the woman who gave birth to you! you have put her through a lot (ha!) so be nice! :) (he he he!)

being a mom is a tough gig.... some of you will recall "field trip mom" and her secret flask. but i am not here to complain. no, not at all. because being a mom is a killer gig, too. my daughters think i am the best mom in the world, because today i put whipped cream on their strawberries. yesterday they thought so because we took a family bikeride. the day before, it was because i let them stay up late - it was a friday. every kid needs a little "whipped cream" in their life - and it's a mom's prividege to be the one holding the can!

so even if it wasn't your mom, start thinking about how you can honor the person who filled your life with whipped cream! :)

a long, long list

phew! we are one week out from our retreat - we've been planning since september! today is one of the best days....shopping day! stuff for the gift bags, food for snacks, tape and tissue and polaroid film... the list goes on and on. but after months of everything just on paper, it's fun to watch it take physical shape! all we need now is for sunshine at the beach next weekend - yes, the beach, don't you wish you were coming! - and we will be set. i have been mightily distracted lately, and haven't given the retreat much thought, but today i am feeling the anticipation! it's going to be so fantastic!

gotta run - happy saturday!

bigger and better...

The only thing better than a box of wine....

is a box of wine! how fun! who knew you could get wine in the mail?

done

phew - i am done! my emotions have been running in fast cycles lately, up and down, and i am in a down now. not "sad" down at all, but like a "whoa, i'm tired" down. i am going to curl up on the couch in my pj's with my sweetie to watch the superman dvd, and raise a glass in honor of mark & tina.

tomorrow is a big day for the people in my world...and you know that i am all about my people. peace to you, people i love.

stolen property

ok, i stole these questions from Casey, who stole them from someone else...so...off we go!

1. Would you rather have the ability to fly, or the ability to be invisible? Definitely fly! Casey points out the practical benefits of money saved on traveling, but i rode my bike down a hill today, and the wind blowing past me was so...liberating. i would choose flying for that feeling alone.

2. What's the best piece of advice you've gotten from your parents (one or both)? i once gave a talk to teenage girls based on all the advice my mom gave me growing up, and how i looking back i had to admit that she was right. but the one thing that sticks out was the first hour i was home alone with my new baby, terrified. i called home, and mom said, "even if you feed her when she's crying about her diaper, and change her when she's crying for food, YOU WON'T KILL HER." it was the most liberating thing to hear. excellent advice.

3. What's your favorite condiment? i am a new convert to guacamole... i was always scared of the color. who wants to eat green mush? well, turns out it's delish!! i like it on wraps, chips, tacos, all manner of things. a close second is corn relish. that stuff is fantastic on a hot dog, burger or bologna sandwich!

4. Do you subscribe to a newspaper? Why or why not? nope. i get enough news online to keep me current, and i have a hard time not succumbing to the darkness in the world, especially when i think that my girls are going to inherit it. headlines are usually enough for me.

5. If you had to listen to one song, playing in your head, on repeat for the rest of your life, what would it be? this is next to impossible -i need music to survive, and i have different music for every mood. there is so much music that moves me. for the sheer pleasure of listening, it would have to be the 'his eye is on the sparrow' duet on the sister act 2 soundtrack. tanya blount and lauryn hill. there are just no words.

top 10?

i just read an online article which rated among the top 10 "fun" jobs, Rodeo Clown. let that sink in. Rodeo Clown. that's the job where, if you see that a 1000lb beast from hell is about to crush the life out of man, you jump in front of him, raise your arms and yell, "over here! look at me! come crush the life out of me instead!" seriously. "fun"? are you high?

wonders of modern science

life just gets better and better, people. is anyone besides me excited about caffeinated soap?! it says it delivers the equivalent of 2 cups of coffee, absorbed through the skin, in 5 minutes! lather me up and call me happy! those of you who know me are well aware of my a.m. deficiency, and my subsequent addiction to coffee. this is a brilliant product! think of the personal hygiene it will inspire! and, if you were traveling and weren't sure if they'd have coffee - (i'm not sure where this could happen...perhaps outer mongolia?) - you could just take your magic soap with you and enjoy a long hot shower!! (although getting a long hot shower in outer mongolia could be as tricky as getting coffee...hmmm) and as a bonus just for you, sabrina, it is infused to smell like peppermint, not coffee!

sleepy heads rejoice!

joy joy joy!

(anonymous mark, really? or are you just screwing with my head?)

happy friday! sunny and 71 degrees for the high...happy, indeed!! guys, you have no idea. i am one of, if not the, happiest girl on earth today. i am a little worried, though, that my emotions, which have been running sky high since monday, are going to crash out of adrenal necessity! my poor family, when that happens! good thing it's the weekend...there will hopefully be plenty of down time. although i just got asked to sing the martina mcbride song 'anyway' as a tribute to the VA shootings this weekend...that will require my emotions to be in check. it's a beautiful song, though. i hope i can do the whole thing justice.

i know there is no hope that you will have as good a day as me, but i hope your day is as close as it can be! :)

the morning

it is the nature of all life that it "unfolds"...it doesn't "appear". even things that appear to be sudden have hidden beginnings, if you know where to look for them. it's hard to live as a person of the 21st century - a world of instant gratification and 'just add water' solutions - in a world where the created order of things is that we must wait. wait for the flowers in spring, wait for the baby's birth, wait for the relationship to take shape, wait for the body to heal. it goes against what have come to expect. so we push, and we rush...we prod along and we jump the gun. but what if the waiting has a purpose? what if there is a richer meaning, something good that is formed deep within us as we learn to wait? i have to admit to you, i am not good at waiting. my imagination runs amok with worst case senarios & reasons why life should "hurry up". but does it do more damage to my soul to race through the process? what would happen if i let life unfold before me, and walked with unhurried faith along the path? would i have more ease in my spirit? would i be more gentle with the people around me? would i give grace more freely to myself and to others? how do you learn to walk patiently through the unfolding? how do you learn to wait?

psst!

i am atwitter! there are big things happening here - personal things that for the time being must be kept underwraps! which stinks, because i am not very good at keeping happy secrets!! ack! but i had to say something, it's bursting out of me!!

(and thank you for thinking of it, but no, it's not our visas...sigh)

I.

I.

there is something exotic and mysterious happening in my yard.

limbs akimbo
crouching, reaching, hooting

pink and wild creatures
preen and lift faces
to the wet sky

pink cheeks pinkly hooded
in the plinking, plopping rain

sacred rituals observed:
water and earth and leaf and sand
each added in their perfect measure

recipes for a feast of kings
burrow of rabbits
nest of bluebirds

how to be mystical
yet never
solemn or serious
is the secret of a young heart
and an old one

caught in between
watching from my window
waiting to remember the measurement

of water and earth and leaf and sand

addiction

i don't know... i think i may have a "problem"...

of course, these are only the ones that tie up around the ankle...

"...a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love..." or "Giant Elephant Penis"

with the kids at grandma's this week for spring break, curtis and i did something we love to do...we went to the zoo! hooray, zoo! it is apparently spring, because we saw a lot of...shall we say, "manliness" during our visit!

revealed

there is a lot of 'stuff' on msn/newsweek this week about Jesus, and whether he was real, why the resurrection couldn't have happened, and debating whether or not there is a God at all. i am not a theologian, and don't want to enter into the argument. but this i do know - "a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an arguement". i know that God is real. i have experienced him actively in my life. i know that Jesus is alive. i am different because he loves me. if there is one thing i have learned this lent in my time of prayer, it's that God hears. God moves. he is present in even the little things. sometimes, especially in the little things.

on a related note, if you live around here, go see 'the bodies' at southpoint mall. it is fascinating and educational and awe-inspiring. to see the inner workings of my hand, and the tendons i need to allow me to type this right now - astonishing! our bodies are incredible, and seeing it that way just shows again how ridiculous it is for us to judge and seperate ourselves from eachother based on all the external differences. seeing our bodies like that gives new authority to the truth that we are all the same on the inside. the exhibit was worth every penny.

do you think it's creepy?

wow - it's been a while! it's spring break now, and my parents are here visiting, so.... i think that fairly covers why the posts will be few and far between for a week or so! :)

i am going to see this exhibition tonight - oddly enough, it is coming to our mall...wierd, huh? but i'm pretty excited! i think the human body is fascinating, and the only thing i loved about my one year of nursing school was the cadaver lab, where we got to see the incredible intricacy up close. knowing how completely interdependant all the systems of the body are gives one an incredible sense of the wonder of creation. i understand that some people think this exhibit is controversial - but i don't. i think it's a argument that there is a God who created life, whether through evolutionary process or creative power, and who is involved in the tiny details, not just the grand scheme.

faith

the sun is shining, the birds are happy, it is april... and we have still not heard about our visa extention. i have been laying this down at God's feet everyday, and picking it back up again each afternoon after the mail comes. God is good, and he loves me. these are undisputed facts, as far as i'm concerned. so why does my faith come so hard these days? God forgive me... i believe, help my unbelief.

on an unrelated note - except perhaps that this wouldn't happen if we lived in Calgary - i woke up at 5:01am with a 3 1/2 inch CENTIPEDE CRAWLING ACROSS MY FACE!!! PUTRID AND TERRIFYING! it woke me out of a dead sleep, and curtis thought i was dreaming...but no - after clawing it off my face, there it was on the sheets, trying to get away. oh my gosh - it was HORRIBLE. i am definitely scarred.