2. There is one more career in me and finding it is my current challenge
3. Movies are for entertainment… don't need to remember anything about them. And if you do.. There are plenty of folks who like to remember trivial stuff that you can talk with them about it. I am not one of them.
4. Good music comes in all genres
5. My granddaughter can sing every country song out there thanks to her Dad, every hip hop thanks to her Mom and most religious songs thanks to her schooling…
6. My grandson is the most courageous kid.. Who uses his head before heading into a gang of mean kids ready to throw him to the ground and stomp on him,… and lets the bigger kids run thru them instead. Football is not for the dumb!!
7. Grown children are way more fun than young ones…
8. Young ones are way more inquisitive and curious and spontaneous than grown ones.
9. I feel closest to God in my garden, worms and dirt and flowers and weeds. He created them all... the rich colors, textures, smells and sounds. WOW.
10. The next best place is playing with clay. We can rearrange God's resources and call it art. He CREATED. We are not creators no matter what we do. As we rearrange we must honor the CREATOR.
11. A good book, a quiet evening, a can of diet coke.
12. Prayer moves me.
13. Singing can change my entire day.
14. Worship is hard and easy all wrapped up at once. In real life I struggle between work and ministry. They clash .. It is hard to do both at once. Other people's struggles need to be at the top of my list. Worship is the time when the priorities are clear. It is about God and who He is and how He is and where He is and why He is. I don't get in there at all. Clear?
15. Children challenge and make me step up to be something more than I am.
16. Poverty is real and I struggle with what to do about it. That I am called to do something is clear. What, is not so clear.
17. Clarity would be good.
18. Secretly I have seen a few good football games in this last year… but I still think it is a dumb sport, unless Blake is playing. He could be playing croquet and I would love it.
19. I would like to lose 20 pounds, 30 pounds, 40 pounds, 50 pounds. Guess I will not ever be happy about my weight.
20. And I would like to look younger, not sure I want to BE younger. But it is definitely weird being on the back side of the century.
21. Friends and family are my richest asset. God is good!
22. The smell of Amber's hair as she is thinking thru her homework, the tussle of Blake's mange while he is deep in imaginary play with Legos… those are what makes life good.
23. Having deep political conversations with Blake and Amber is so very weird. My own kids have never been political… well maybe Rachael. Ok they have had political moments but none so profound that it moved them to vote! But A&B? They would have voted 4 years ago if the system would have let them and they were 6 and 8!!! Those kids can think thru issues and weigh different sides and decide if they like this guy or that guy. Amazing.
24. How great it is to touch people in need via prayer. Sometimes I never know what to say and how to say it and when to say it… but when it gets poured out to HIM, it just doesn't matter.
25. Big pet peeve… those e-mails that people send without checking them out. We preach and teach against gossip and always assume that it is not our problem.... but we often rarely think twice about sending some racist story that is totally designed to make people either fearful or justified in disliking people from this country or that. We gotta stop the violence and those e-mails do not help.
26. Good friends are just like that song… who can you turn to when you feel kicked in the gut when you try and try and get slammed for it, and then likewise who can you turn to when you hit the mountain top and you can see the stars and touch the clouds and you actually have a feel for what eternity might be? Those friends of ours who hold us and mold us and sometimes told us.. but always are there for us. I want to be like that to the people around me.
27. It is amazing to watch your children go thru life stages that you just went thru not so long ago…. Buying couches, juggling school and sports and job, disciplining children, teaching children, learning their own lessons. Life is sometimes painful watching someone else walk the road you so recently tread.
28. Did you ever wonder about trees and leaves… from the mighty oak to the wispy little leaves of the locust tree… the spreading fans of the palm and aromatic needles of the pine. God made gigantic leaves and little leaves and they each serve to move nutrients from the air and the ground and the water to the source. He thought of them all. Ever think about putting a hundred or a thousand artists in a room and having them each design what a tree should be? The outcomes would be varied in color and height and breadth. Some would blend and some like the banyan trees would stand alone. Some would live in arid desert and some in tropical rain forests. Some would be poisoness and others would provide a host of fruits for life. God did it all.
29. Songs - How Great Is Our God… do we mean it? Isn't it bad to sing the songs without meaning it?
30. I struggle with spontaneity. I have just never been one of those spur of the moment kind of people. Let me please just plan ahead. I suppose that I have missed out on big or even little blessings because I could not say yes.
31. It feels good when the house is clean (thank you Stephanie) and the yard is mowed (Blake is getting so strong) and the leaves are raked and the trees are pruned.
32. Spring is my favorite... going out each day and discovering some new green stem poking its way thru the ground.
33. I grew up in a very sheltered environment... lived in the same house all but the first 5 years of my live... went to the same church... with the same friends... same neighbors... and I still struggled with those dreaded teen years with who I was and who I should be and who I would be.
34. And I am not any of those that I dreamed of as a kid.
35. I wanted to be a missionary and a preacher (also a writer and a teacher and a nurse and a traveler). I practiced all the time. Hell, fire, and damnation! Could have been such a great Pharisee!
36. I feel much more of a failure as a Mom... things that I should have taught my kids, I neglected. There should be a provision for do-overs!
37. Marriage came sooner than I was ready. Growing up with a little sister did not exactly prepare me for marriage.
38. My children turned out remarkably well in spite of all the things I did wrong.
39. Stephanie is an incredible Mom. She has faced tough things and .. that saying "that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger" is so true for her. She is a strong woman. She hits walls but picks herself up and figures out how to get around them. She is extremely opinionated and very competitive. Unfortunately sometimes it is me she competes with. She is beautiful and most of the time knows her mind. I want to be as strong as Steph.
40. Joshua still intrigues me beyond any other person I know. Males are so different and he is. Never having a brother, I was severely handicapped. But from the time he was born, I found him so affectionate, so passionate. He was the great protector. He goes 100 miles an hour and thinks everyone is as interested in something as he is. I have been blessed beyond all measure with Joshua as my son. I want to be as passionate as Josh.
41. Rachael was my bonus child. She is so awesome in her approach to life. She is courageous and does things.. not just the hard way but the right way. She never tries to take a short cut. When things are hard she works right thru them like Steph. She is incredibly beautiful and faces things with both feet in front of her. She never backs down. I want to be as courageous as Rach.
42. I think I love to quilt. It has been a long time since I have quilted. The projects are stacked up and raring to go.
43. Reading is a great escape for me. But like movies, I do not remember much about the books I have read.
44. I didn't drink coffee until I was over 40. Loved the coffee candy and loved the smell, but hated the taste. Then I had to sit thru one too many classes for work where the caffeine that coffee provided helped keep my head off the desk.
45. Camping is fun for me. I could sleep anywhere and be totally content... in a tent and a sleeping bag stars above and the smell of campfire.
46. Traveling is also something I could really do full time. A back pack and a suitcase and let me go. I have been to some countries in Central America... but would love to see more (after I do some reading on history). It just makes me appreciate the wonder of a God who could envision such vast differences in temperature, color, height of mountains, the color of the oceans.
47. I took a gun safety course and shot a doe in the heart my first time out (with doe tags) when I was 14 or 15. I didn't much like the whole skinning the deer and seeing her insides and wondering if she had a baby. We ate the meat but there was no big joy in it. My Dad thought he shot the same doe only he got her in the foot. He had never shot a deer before although he had hunted every year of his life. He never hunted again. I don't think gutting her was the problem.
48. I have a sister and we vacillate between being total opposites to on occasion recognizing that we do come from the same gene pool.
49. The year I got divorced... and I missed yet another 4th of July fireworks (because of no money). The very next year, still with no money, on the 4th of July, I spent the magical time that the fireworks were being shot off, laying on the ground 20 feet away with the Fire Marshall. I felt the percussion of every single explosion as it was lit. One can go a long way in one year.
50. I love riding a bike. It makes me feel 8 with the wind rushing thru my hair-helmet and feeling like I could ride forever. I have ridden Cycle Oregon 5 times. I have also ridden back-to-back centuries the weekend after Stephanie graduated from High School.
51. Getting up in front of people is hard for me. If it is about worship, prayer, and there is a message involved, I can do it. Because it is then not about me.
52. My parents love each other. It was not always smooth sailing. But I have always appreciated that they love. Sometimes my parents embarrass us with their affection. In a good way.
53. I do not do scary moves or violent movies, or tv shows or commercials. When Steph lived with me I could watch CSI. I can't alone. When I am on vacation with other people, I can read Stephen King. Otherwise I cannot.
54. I dream at night, big long epic dreams. I wake up exhausted. Sometimes it is just strange. Most of the time I choose not to remember (takes too much energy). Sometimes things happen during the day to make me remember. If you knew what these dreams were you would be shocked... because I am.
55. I cry easily... can be moved by pictures, commercials, news stories. IT does not take much. Father - allow me to be moved by your world. When I am no longer moved, get me outta here! take me home!
56. Colors excite me. Crisp browns, spring palettes, summer, pinks, blues, yellows, red, and black...or and greens in all hues, it is impossible to choose a fave.
57. Roses are my favorite flower. They are like music capable of evoking emotion by color size and smell. There must be a rose for every occasion.
58. Daisies are the flowers of my youth. Carefree and easy...
59. I once did a few tax returns for an expired dumpster diver with a will leaving all his earthly possessions (stock certificates sewn into the lining of his raincoat) to about 4 Oregon charities. It took a year to locate the cost basis but when I was done the IRS who has wanted it all .. .. got about $15,000 and the charities got $300,000+. Make no assumptions about the people you pass on the street.
60. When Stephanie was born we had a picture taken of 5 generations of oldest daughters. When Amber was born we did it again.
61. I used to run, loved to run and still dream about running. Goes back to the bike thing and feeling 8. Unfortunately I do not feel 8 any longer.
62. I have run the marathon once (my ex-father-in-law drove from CA to run by my side) and walked it twice. Run Hood 2 Coast a bunch of times and walked Portland 2 Coast twice.
63. Took piano lessons as a kid and they said I was tone deaf.
64. In high school I got C's and B's and never opened a book. However, as a poet I was quite prolific and had quite the reputation.
65. When I first went to college I decided to major in whatever I got an A in. I ended up with 3 terms of a 4.0...and no major.
66. I went back to College when Rachael went to school. Graduated when I was 35.
67. I should have chosen nursing. When I went back to school when my youngest went to school I had to choose. After going thru a couple of recessions, I wanted to make sure I would always be able to work. Nursing, Accounting. Nursing is useful, helps people, allows you to minister to those who are hurting. Accounting has not given me many of those opportunities
68. When the kids were young, I dressed up on Halloween, too. I made all their costumes. They would have rather had store bought. I was looking for warmth and safety.
69. Goals have been a tradition between Christmas and New Years. I have been doing it (and my kids do it secretly).. for almost 30 years. Some things I never accomplish. Some things it took a decade to accomplish. But they are done.
70. My in-laws taught me about love in a whole different way. I was blessed by them.
71. Jobs I have had, fast food cook, nurses aide, bakery worker, janitor, furniture stripper, cashier, dental assistant, accounts payable clerk, college tutor, children's tutor.
72. My vacuum cleaner has only been used once by me and it took awhile to figure out how to start it. Fortunately for me, Steph is an expert. She cleans my house so I can work in the yard.
73. If I would have guessed about my kids professions... not sure I would have come up with what they are. Steph always loved little ones. Josh always loved working with his hands. Rachael...has been mentored along but I would not have figured her for office work OR ROLLER DERBY (she was the quiet one... gotta watch out for those quiet ones!).
74. Healing takes place with people you trust. Westside Church of Christ has been a healing place for me. But it also has been a growing place.. my Spiritual Disciplines class has challenged me (Ron, Kay, Bob, Connie, Dann, Bonnie and occasionally Kathy) and held me accountable and pushed me and pulled me. I don't want to be healed... and run off and brag...like the leper that Jesus healed. I want to stay and serve and learn.
75. I have done a zip line thru a rain forested jungle in Honduras. We did about 8 out of 20 before I had the opportunity to climb down from a tree and quit. Never liked heights. I must have been temporarily insane.
76. I can mix cement on the ground like a volcano.
77. Being proficient in Spanish is a goal of mine...
78. I have never been pulled over for a ticket…yet.
79. My parents equipped me for life. They did not give me things to make me think that I would be entitled to receive whatever I needed. I paid for my car; I paid for my college; I paid for my wedding. Yet they did give me work ethic, and taught me how to treat the people in my life. Not by what they said, but by what they did. Those are the lessons that last the longest.
80. My sister is a person who knows how to do stuff. She can't afford to hire it done so she figures out how to do it herself. She seems to be a bit of a perfectionist which means.... it may take awhile to get it done, but it will be beautiful when it is completed. She just helped me do a tile floor in my laundry room (long needed...) and her ability to crawl around on her knees for hours and to contort her body in whatever shape necessary to hammer, saw, whatever needed... she could do. My floor is beautiful.
81. Holidays are different when my kids are not all here. It means that when they come home on vacation and they are all here no matter the day.. it IS a holiday. And I celebrate with joy. For Christmas and Turkey day, we have our meals around Amber & Blake .... usually a brunch of some sort as they move on to their Dad's family. When they leave... we generally go to the movies.
82. I have made all my own soap for more than 10 years.
83. This year I canned more fruit and veggies than I did the last 20 years combined!
84. As a kid I learned to waterski and could even slalom. Never been much of a snow skier.
85. Dogs or barking dogs scare me.
86. I read the newspaper cover to cover.. so I only take the Sunday paper and I don't read the advertisements. Someone lets me read Thursdays.
87. For 2 months in 2007 I, with some other folks compacted. Compacting is making a commitment to not buy anything new, to buy used, to borrow, and to recycle. It puts a little pressure on for gifts and for going out to dinner which we like to do. But it does provide the added benefit of relationship.. you have to know folks to be able to borrow from them. So... I am hoping to commit to compacting for 2008!
88. Friends are totally blessings in my life. The hard part is being the kind of friend I would like to have.
89. Ok... we know each other well enough. I am not a numbers person. Seems to be a funny thing for an accountant to say. I love people. Not numbers. My work allows me to touch people otherwise I could not do it. Numbers in themselves hold no emotion for me.
90. I quit smoking in 1983. The week I quit, I began crocheting an afghan. That first week I crocheted 24+ inches of a queen sized afghan. However, since then I have not done much and I am still working on it. My first and it will be my last
91. Sudoku is fun.
92. Colonoscopies could be a metaphor for life. We all need them. Some folks avoid them. They are unpleasant preparing for... oblivious while it is happening... and a relief when over. Would that all of our trials be a like colonoscopy. Something unpleasant is gonna happen to you.. be still and it will be over... it is unlikely that it will kill you. And it is probably worse thinking about it than the actual procedure is gonna be. And there are alot of worse things that could be happening.
93. Trials come from unexpected places. How we handle those trials show what we are made of. My granddaughter and my daughter are two tough cookies. I try to take some of the burden but don't think I ever can.
94. Sometimes those trials bring unexpected blessings... brings folks together that used to be too busy and too far away and too different. Struggles melt those differences away and we become people who care and who love and who know what the priorities are at least for one moment.
95. I was always a klutz as a kid, tripping, skinning my knees, stubbing my toes and on occasion, breaking my toes.
96. I was not very athletic as a kid. I was always the last one chosen. Perhaps that means I was not that popular. Same thing.
97. I was not that artistic as a kid. Not that I am artistic now.. but I see beauty and recognize it easily. It just means maturity does bring wisdom (grey hair) and all the things we were not.. we find we are ... even though it is just a little.
98. I have a list of 100 things to do before I die. Every couple of years I revise it, cross some off because I did them (YEAH!) and add a few more. There has to be a reason to be here. And despite the way I act, it is not all about me.
99. I like where I am at.. Like where I live, like where I work, like my friends, like my church. God is good.
100. This was harder than it seemed.
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