Gardening and stuff

James and I decided that this would be the year for a garden. We feel like, with the economy as uncertain as it is, we had better learn how to do something for ourselves and stop depending on Wal-Mart and City Market to have what we need to survive. At least if we can't find or buy other things, we can have the fixins from the garden and can can or freeze what we have.

The garden is a ton of work, let me tell you. It starts out as grass, but you gotta till. And till. And till. And till. Then you have to pull the weeds out by hand. Then make rows. Then pull the weeds out by hand. Then we planted some stuff. Then we got another late freeze and lost most of it. In the midst of this, you are still weeding and watering. Snow doesn't count as watering either, by the way. I replanted most of what I lost from the freeze and the snow. We did plant carrots, but they didn't even sprout. Unless they looked like weeds and I pulled them, oops. Needless to say, I didn't replant those. Instead, I planted more lettuce and garlic. :-) My garden has the all the makings of salsa planted in it.

Things I have learned.
1. If my ten year old wants to talk, we have "garden time" and go out to weed, just her and I. (Did I mention there is lots of weeding required? If you miss it for a few days or a week...yes that did happen once...it's hard to get caught back up.)

2. Patience. I know everyone says this, but if you have a patience problem, like me, grow a garden. It trains you in the way of patience. Stuff doesn't grow overnight and just because you watch it doesn't mean it will grow quicker. Trust me, I tried that too. God's timing is not our timing and guess who is in charge of your garden. That's right, God. I believe He made it that way on purpose. I am a NOW, kinda girl, but guess what, this garden has taught me there is no such thing as now in gardening. Unless it's a weed growing. Then there are lots of nows. It has taught me that hard work and elbow grease is good for me. Each day I would go out and check on my empty ground to see if they sprouted. Sometimes I would not weed, just in case, because I didn't know what the plant would look like. Thank goodness because I would have pulled the lettuce out. When I finally got some sprouts, I called everyone out and we celbrated! Now, my potatoes look like monster plants. My corn is beautiful. My peas finally started grabbing onto the fence. My grapes are looking gorgeous and I am training them on the second wire now. Oh, and my baby plants that I started in the house, well, they are ready to be planted in the garden this weekend! Things are really looking good and it's because God taught me to wait on His perfect growing season.

3. I think I said this, sort of in number one, but seriously, don't procrastinate. If you don't feel like weeding or working in the garden, do it anyway. If not, you will work double time trying to get caught back up. If you think about it, life is that way. If you half a.s something, pardon the language, it will take you more time to go back and fix it then it would have if you just did it right the first time, so just get 'er done. Your plants will thank you for it and so will your boss.

4. Gardening counts as excercise. Yes, I checked and it does. You can burn calories. You work all kinds of muscles. Ask mine, they are sore. Plus, you get so into what you are doing out there that you can easily lose track of time and forget to eat. Yep, did that too, lots. So, less calories taken in and more calories burns equals fat loss. Yay for me!


I know I have more things I have learned, but for some reason, my mind is blank, so I will just show you a couple of pictures and close out. Be looking for more blogs to come. I need to get back in the habit of doing this, so come check it out again.

This was our first harvest. Unfortuneately, the only ones who like radishes are James and myself. Bummer.



This is this morning. If you look close, you can see the potatoes on the left in the front and the corn in the back. The grapes or on the right hand side.


I was working the garden one day and heard the strangest sound...I turned around and look what I saw. Yes, that is a peacock on top of my house. There is a neighbor about 5 house up and she has rescued two. One of them wandered a little far away from home. I guess she needed a better look to get her bearings and make her way home.


Be blessed,
Until we read again...

Heeeellllloooo!

Ok, do I need to introduce myself again??? You remember, Wendy, 3 girls who are totally rockin awesome. Wild moves of the Lord in my life??? Remember me?? Awesome.

This is just a quick post, but I want you to know that I am back. I have words flowing through my head that are busting to get out. I think I might be losing some out my ears, but not too messy.

Forwarning, I will be blogging again soon, so be sure to check back. No more sad ones either, at least for now.

Stay tuned, IIII'MMMM BAAAAAACK!

Be blessed,
Until we read again.

Death, Reconciliation and Healing

I just noticed that the last time I wrote on my blog, it was on Grandparents Day. How fitting, I suppose. I had one grandparent left on that day and he was in a memory loss nursing home. I am sad to say that my grandpa passed away on October 23. Grandpa would have been 90 on November 11.

He had fallen a few weeks before and broke a couple of ribs. The medicine they gave him made his mind go even further away. He stopped eating and walking (or I think wandering would be more appropriate.) He lost a lot of weight. I talked to my dad just the week before and they were calling hospice into the situation which meant less than 6 months. Less than 2 weeks later, he was gone.

Several things tie into that I believe. First, Grandpa always promised that he couldn't die until Grandma and my Aunt Bonnie did. He believed he had to take care of them. My aunt was, well for lack of better word, slow. She has always had someone take care of her. Now don't get me wrong, she can function, but not like we do. She has no friends, no job and basically spent her time visiting my grandparents at the nursing home, running errands and sitting in a quiet house with her 3 small dogs on 4 acres that my grandpa kept immaculate, till he got too sick to take care of it.

My sister has been wanting to move back to Grants Pass for sometime now with her family. Due to circumstances beyond her control over the past 6 months or so, her path has led her to be evicted from her rental home in Portland. During the past few weeks or so, my dad and sister have worked out a plan that would allow her and her family to move back home and live on the property. Jaime's husband is a lot like my grandpa and would be able to tend to the property and renew the garden and the flowers and the yard. It is very exciting. Plus, my aunt wouldn't be alone anymore.

I think that in a round about way, maybe my dad confided to my grandpa what was going on and maybe Grandpa knew that Bonnie would be taken care of and he could let go. I think that Grandpa wandered the halls of his nursing home constantly because his subconscious knew that if he didn't, he would die and then he couldn't keep his word.

My grandpa was brilliant. He was an engineer for NASA in the beginning. He was also special ops in WWII in Asia. I didn't even know that till I read his obituary. He even worked at Roswell Air Force base...before all the aliens. We used to laugh because even if he did know about the alien stuff he couldn't tell me. So he was a man of his word. He was kind and gentle. He was shorter than me, so whenever I left town to come back to Texas he would hug me and I would kiss his bald head. He was awesome and I will miss him. I am so thankful that God gave me those glimses that I had of him in May after Grandma passed away. God is so good.

My dad let me handle the funeral service. He said that he didn't want a stranger talking about his dad. After I was done, my dad told me that I did good and Grandpa would have been proud. The only time I got choked up was when I talked about after I found Christ. I had gone home and it was a good trip. My grandparents house was on the way out of town, so they were always my last stop before getting on the freeway to drive 4 hours back to Portland. The first hours or so, I usually cried. Grandpa always walked me to the car and gave me that extra long hug to tide me over till next time he saw me. I asked him if he believed in God and he said "Oh Yeah! I read my bible every morning and pray. It keeps me grounded." We conversed a little more, but I was shocked. I was twenty something years old and never knew my grandparents even owned a bible. I got that bible, by the way. My dad told me I could have it. It is a Catholic bible, but I don't care. It smells like my grandparents. Grandpas last place he read was Mark 4. I don't know where, but that is the page he stopped at.

On top of that there was a reconcilation with my cousin, whom I haven't talked to since high school. To tell you the truth, I remember part of why, but not all. I don't care though, I apologized for acting like an ass all these years. (excuse my language, but that is what I was.) It was so nice sitting and reminiscing with her and my sister. I forgot how many good memories we had.

I also had healing. Oddly enough it was on a plane ride home talking to a soldier. He was on his way back to Iraq. He has been married for 8 years and only spent two anniversaries home. We talked about the serious stuff and I figured he'd had enough of that. He wanted funny stupid high school stories so that's what we did. We laughed and talked. It was great. I got his address so my girls could write to him. He said that there were 130 folks in his company and some of them never get anything in the mail. Hopefully we can take care of that. Anyway, the whole point of telling you this was to enlist your help in communicating with these soldiers and being penpals. He said they would send pictures and all kinds of fun stuff. Secondly,I was a terrible teenager and it seemed like every story I told was healing for me. I released it I guess. God took it and wiped it away. After I got baptized, I no longer felt shame or regret. It didn't weigh me down, it just was there. Now, I feel nothing, except a story that led me down a path to get to where I am today. Once again, God can use all avenues to push us to where we need to go, even the darker ones. He is so good.

I think that is what he is trying to do with me right now. Heal parts that need healing. Sometimes, before he can take us to the next level, he has to make sure all loose ends are tied up.

I'm not sure why I decided to tell you all of this. Maybe as a reminder for me of all that good things that can happen in ones darkest times. My grandpa was a light to me and my world will be a little darker without him, but God can light up even the darkest spots.

Be blessed,
Until we read again...

Grandparents Day

I woke up at 545am this morning. I had a dream about all my grandparents. I will occasionally dream about them and tell them how much I miss them and love them. They will hug me and hold me and reply the same. I always wake up crying. I miss them. I long for their arms to hug me and let me crawl up on their lap. I long for them to pull me into their chest and tell me how special I am and how proud of me they are. They would be too. They would look at my girls and tell me how beautiful they are and then tell me a story about something silly I did when I was their age. I long for those days.

I don't know why, but this dream, when I woke up, this dream hung over me. I have one grandparent left and he is almost gone. His body is still working, sort of, but his mind is locked away somewhere deep down in his brain. I think that today, maybe I thought it would be the day I got a phone call from my dad saying Grandpa Joe was gone. All day, I have been waiting. Why? I don't know, but I miss him. I miss my grandparents. I want my grandparents and they are gone. I think it hit me today. The more I think about it, the sadder I get. Even this Cowboy game isn't enough to keep me occupied. (they are winning btw...)

I guess there will always be days like this, but hopefully they aren't too often. Hopefully, the memories will keep their spirits alive in me and when I look at my girls, I can see my grandparents in them.

So, I say all this to tell you, that today, on Grandparents Day, if you have your grandparents still, give them an extra hug and tell them again how much you love them. Encourage your children to do the same. Tell the surrogate grandparents in your lives, you know who they are, how much you appreciate them stepping in and helping to fill a void, for your children, that would go otherwise empty. You know who they are. I know who they are and my girls do too.
Thank you to all of you and we love you.

Until we read again...

Oregon vacation part 2

It wouldn't be fitting if I didn't start out our vacation story with the vehicle we were riding in. To be fair...apparently, Subaru's are very popular cars in Oregon. Well, this one belongs to my sister's husband who has hand-crafted his to fit his needs. Needless to say, this is a Jalopy. A picture just can't do this poor vehicle justice. On a side note though, we did get LOTS of compliments on it. I know, it is crazy.


On the car ride, my sister had her cd that we listened to old music (60's, 70's and 80's music is old now...) My kids had never heard Yellow Submarine before and it was on this cd...here is the kiddo all singing their hearts out in the back seat..




There was a side of a hill with lots of erosion and fun climbing. Miranda finally got to climb a tree.



We got to the Sunset Bay and it was a beautiful day. It was almost time for sundown so we walked down to the beach. There is a tunnel under the road, many childhood memories were made in that tunnel...screaming I mean, you know while we were walking down there...


This is the reason for the name, "Sunset Bay". I particularly like the Catie with her hands out, taking it all in.


Next morning...see that fire...I built it. I was feeling my inner logger come alive.


My brother came down on Monday. We walked down to the beach at low tide and played in the sand. We dug some hug holes in the sand. One was so big, we put Miranda in it and let her dig a tunnel to the next big hole. Our goal was to dig a whole bunch of holes then connect them and when the water came in, it was supposed to fill them up. Problem was, the tide was going out, not coming in. Yea, go ahead and laugh. I don't have any pictures of that because my sister had her camera. I am afraid that there will be some pictures that are of my booty in the air and my head in a hole. She would take blackmail pictures like that. Brat.

Later that day, we walked back down to the beach and walked out on the rocks while the tide was out. I got some cool pics of Tim looking out at the water.


The kids liked to spend their time on the rocks looking into tide pools and poking sea anenomes. (whatever, I don't know how to spell it either.)


One of the favorite passtimes of camping during the lowest tide of the seasons is clamming in the morning. You get up early, go out in the cold coastal weather into the muddy ocean bed, watch for water squirt up from the wet ground, stick a dowel rod into the earth and dig 2 feet into the water for a clam. Oh wait, did I lead you to believe that I enjoy it...no. I was forced to do it when I was kid and I don't have to do it now, so my answer was a vehement no. Miranda went though. They went two days, she only went once, so the picture dates will be messed up, but rest assured, they do the same thing each time. I also started the fire that will be in the pictures. Oh and Miranda's shoes were promptly thrown away. Those smelly things were not coming home.

Once clams are caught they need to be cleaned. Each clam comes with 2 crabs inside, a male and female. The kids promptly seperated them out into piles and "saved" them. When we were all done, we walked down to the beach and released the crabs back into the ocean...(mind you they live inside clams). The crabs were promptly eaten by seagulls...but the kids didn't know what was going on.






We went for a hike later that day with my dad. It goes around the point and you get some beautiful views of the ocean, beaches and other bluffs. You even get to see a lighthouse.





Too bad it was foggy every other day we were in Oregon.

Here is a picture of a crazy crab that we caught. It didn't want to die in the boiling water and be eaten for dinner later that evening...


That was the jist of our trip. It was fun...even with all the crazy waiting. We drove up highway 101, which is the coastal highway of the Pacific. BEAUTIFUL. I was so tired that I didn't take any pictures. It was a beautiful day too. Oh well, that just means I will have to do it again.

We left out at the Portland airport at 430am. We got bumped from every flight, again. The last flight was supposed to leave at 330pm, however due to mechanical problems in DFW, it didn't get to Portland till 630pm. They had rolled people off of the, booked full, last flight to other flights, which left this plane wide open. We got on! Praise God! We got back home in our door at 215am on Saturday morning.

Whew what a trip. Here are a couple more pics for you to peruse...

Oregon Adventure July 2009 part 1

Oh my! Where do I start? I am sure most everyone knows that we have been planning on this July trip for camping and fun since September of last year. Sunset Bay State Park was a yearly vacation spot for my family while we were growing up. I have MANY lovely memories there. This was something I was so looking forward to doing with my sister and her kiddos and our Dad.

So, for starters, the plan was to fly on my sisters non revenue airline passes for the airline she works for. We were slated to check in at the coast on Sunday 19July for 4 nights. Being that the passes were standby and not confirmed, we were going to start trying to leave on Thursday beforehand. That way if we got bumped a couple times, well, we would still have plenty of time.

Well, me being the wonderful planner that I am, started bugging Jaime a week in advance to look at the flights and tell me what they look like. "Not great." She said. Tuesday before, I asked her again, "What do they look like?"
Her reply this time, "Bad. Do you think you could start trying to get out on Wednesday night? That way when you get bumped, you will start further up the list."

Now, let me tell you, about this "list." If you are on the "list", you are amongst a group of several people who watch a monitor flash behind the agents head at the counter. It shows the weather at your destination, the approximate arrival time, the upgrade "list" and the standby passenger "list." Your goal, if you chose to accept it, is to watch your name move up the "list", till it hits the number one position and your name is called to get the coveted, golden boarding pass. (It's really white, but for this story, they were golden.)

We drove to the airport for to try to get on the 430pm flight to Portland. The girls were excited. They each had their backpacks, stuffed with a blanket, crayons, coloring books, paper and 2 Webkinz of their choice. So much joy and laughter. Oh hummm...I should have enjoyed that more at that time. Little did I know that 3 flights bumped later, we would be going home. Now luckily we were already short 5 pieces of check in luggage because they waved goodbye at us from under the plane of the 430pm flight. I could have sworn that I saw them waving and mouthing the words, "so long sucka, see ya wouldn't wanna be ya!" It was a long drive home at about 9pm.

The first flight left at 9am the next morning, we were in the teens on the list, so there was plenty of hope from the day before. We had to leave about 645am to miss traffic to the airport. That sucked. The girls hate getting up early. There was still some joy though. We will definitely make it today, Daddy said he had a feeling. Or was that Friday morning when we left at 645am after being bumped 6 more times and sitting in the late 20's early 30's on the despised "list" and watching few other standbyes run away with our coveted golden boarding passes. We ended up spending 13 hours in the airport on Thursday. The girls were troopers though. They created Webkinz homes using their blankets. I uploaded a picture to Facebook, but just in case you missed it, here it is again.




Friday, I decided after listening to some tv preacher I had never heard before, that we were going to try a new approach to getting bumped. We were going to FROG everything that we got frustrated at. Instead of saying darn or poo and other words I should be using, I was going to use FROG. Fully Rely on God and the girls were too. That was thing number one. Thing number two... in order to always be in God's will, we were going to 1-Rejoice always. 2-Pray continuously 3-Praise in everything. So the same thing happened, 9a-bump, FROG! next, rejoice, we have each other and we are not ouside in the heat...pray, please God have mercy on us, Praise, you are so awesome God that even if we don't make it, you are here hangin out with us. 1020a-bump, Frog, rejoice, pray, praise, 1230p-bump -ahhhhh FROG, rejoice, pray, praise, ride the bus back out to the van because Miranda left our lunch in the car, note don't leave your kids in charge of lunches, 430p-bump (you get the picture), panic mode officialy sets in.

"Jaime, how do the flights look tomorrow?"

"Bad."

Frog, Frog, Frog! If we don't make today, we can't go camping. We won't make it in time. Back up plan, "Jai, can you afford to at least go if we can't make it?"

"Wendy, you have to get here, it is my vacation too."

"Jaime, you said if we don't make it tonight we won't make it tomorrow. We are still 30's on the "list."

"Let's see what happens on the next flight. Maybe you can get into Seattle and I will come get you." (Portland is a 3 hour drive from Seattle.)

Ok, next flight 630p, bump. FROG!! How is this happening? Why God??? Girls have been melting down. They hate the airport. They never want to fly again. They hate each other. They hate their Webkinz, which by this time are so dirty that I can't even recognize them and I don't even want to think of what they are dirty with.

Minds are racing now, what are the other airports that I can get into and who would be willing to drive to come get us. Reno! That is like a 5 hour drive from Grants Pass which is where my dad is. I call dad, "Dad, if I can get into Reno, can you come get us?"

"Nope, I have no power in the trailer and we are leaving at 10am tomorrow morning. Good luck, see ya on Sunday."

Yea, if we make it...

It is 7p and the last Friday flight leaves at 830p. No chance to make it and it is guaranteed we won't make Saturdays. The lady behind the counter said..."I have never seen anything like this before. It is just crazy. Ha ha..."

AHHHHHHHH FROG!!!

Ring...Ring...it's Jaime.

"What about Fresno? The flights has 20 something seats open and leaves in 45 minutes" she says.

"Fresno? How far away from Grants Pass is Fresno?"

"0h, six hours south or so...just below Sacremento."

"that's not too bad. Who's gonna pick us up is the problem."

"Who cares, at least you won't be in DFW anymore."

"True..." Yes, I did say that. "Oh, let me call Tim. (my brother) He is back in GP and I bet he would love a roadtrip."

Ring Ring...no answer on Tim's phone. Frog.

Who else can I call... ooo oooo, Laura, my BFF. I wonder if she has plans tonight?

Ring...Ring...no answer. She is still at work though, let me call back so if she heard her phone, she knows it's important.

Ring...Ring.."Hey, what's up?"

"HEY! I am so glad you answered...what are you doing?"

"Workin, what about you?"

"What are you doin tonight?"

"Going to work out?"

"Anything else?"

"No?"

"You up for a road trip?"

"Where to?"

"Fresno?"

"What???"

I explained our plight and she said sure. Quick end to the story, we got on the flight, that ended up being delayed for an hour spent the night in Fresno that ended up being 8 hours away, not 6. Drove to Grants Pass on Saturday. I got to have dinner with my brother and I got to see my Grandpa who was not having a good day. Was yelled out to get my girls out of there by another elderly man, over and over again, till I finally took the girls out. That was hard. I got to see my aunt on Sunday morning and my sister picked me up at her house and we left for the coast. whew!

Come back for more, there is plenty to tell!

Until we read again...

Charismatic's church observations

I went to my first Charismatic church last night. It was an incredibly moving experience. Don't get me wrong, whispering tongues was a little strange for me because I have never actually been in the midst of it like that before, but you could almost feel the tangibility of the Holy Spirit moving amongst this small group of people.

So this is a small church in Joshua that is about the same size as CJ. No one was afraid to call out to the Lord (and there was a lot of that.) No one was afraid to raise their hands in worship. No one was afraid to clap or cry or just "be" with the Lord. Everyone did something a little different. There was complete joy in the Lord. Wow.

The worship team was incredible. The lead singers were sisters. One was sixteen and the other was probably 20ish. Their voices were, well, I can't quite explain it. They were awesome, almost bringing me to tears. You know the girl who sings the Revelation Song, well like that, times 2. They weren't singing to lead the singing, they were singing because they loved the Lord. It was like we weren't even there. One of the songs was written by one of the girls and her husband. It was called Who Do You Think That I Am? I wish I would have written down all the words because it was moving. It talks about who God is, beauty, sovereign, savior, then it talks about what God is, Now, right Now. During the song, the older sister went and picked up her newborn baby and stood in front of the church singing the song with all her heart, tears streaming down her face. When the song was over, she took the baby back to her mom. My friend leaned over to me and told me that the baby was not supposed to be here. She said that in her 4th month, she started miscarrying the baby. The doctors and nurses told her that there was nothing they could do to stop it and they needed to be prepared for the loss. That night, she got up in the middle of the night and was praying and took communion and asking God for a miracle to save His child. She said that God came down and she felt His presence. She said that she felt a touch on her head that sent chills down her and a voice that said, "Who touched me?" When she went to the doctor the next week the doctors were astounded and couldn't figure it out, but everything was fine and normal. She said that the doctors asked her, "Who touched you?" She and her husband wrote the song to give God the glory for the miracle He gave them.

Wow.

I feel like I need to say something about the preaching, but I wasn't there for a preacher, it was a guest speaker. He spoke about his travels and the miracles he has seen and there were some big ones. He talked about how God's church has fallen away from signs and wonders, but they are still very real and can happen. He said that when God performs a miracle in your life, He marks you as His. He is tangibly claiming you as His own. He said that when it happens, it is a token of His reality. It is a manifestation of who He is, perfect in every way. I never thought of it like that, but it's true.

Wow.

When I left, I felt like I was glowing from being in the presence of the Lord. I felt warm all over, walking on air. I think that there is something to say for an unadulterated love and passion for the Lord. There is something in being able to show it and not feeling like you are crazy or everyone is staring. There is something to say for just being able to "soak in His presence" with other people. I was fired up for God when I left. I was ready to start preaching the gospel and I think had I had a chance to run out and talk to the lost, boy, there would have been some savin last night. But, I should be on fire like that all the time. I think if people could bottle that feeling and flow in it all the time, wow, how awesome life would be. Praisin and preachin baby!

So, I say all this to say, we should be in a constant relationship with God. We should be constantly looking for the Hand of God. We should be looking to keep the fire flaming, not just sparked. God wants us to live like that. He wants us to be on fire for Him. He has soooo many blessings waiting for us, that they are overflowing because we aren't where we need to be or aren't even asking for them.

So today, I challenge you to turn inward and upward and let God fan your flame and start a bonfire. Ask Him to pour out your blessings and look for opportunities to pour out some on someone else. If you share, He will increase yours and you can share more. Be faithful. Stay in His word. He will keep all the promises that he gives. He is faithful.

Be blessed,
Until we read again...