Brrrrrrrthday

Today is my birthday.  And it’s a cold one!  Single digits during the night last night (without wind chill).

It’s not supposed to get up to freezing today.  Brrrrrrrr!

It’s 23 degrees out right now.

Snow would be a GREAT birthday present (hint hint, God!).  But it’s bright and sunny out, and even though there’s a 30% chance of snow, I’m highly doubting it.

Coca Cola e-mailed me a birthday greeting, twice.  The graphic on the first one was pretty decent:

 

But the second card?  It had this dog:

This dog was saying “Let’s Party!  Celebrate your big day!”.  I dunno.  This dog doesn’t look exactly happy about it being my birthday, and doesn’t exactly have an “in the party mood” look!

My cat is blissfully unaware of the importance of this day, and she is asking for breakfast.  And I could use a cup of coffee.

And for those of you who are wondering….I am celebrating the 11th anniversary of my 32nd birthday! 

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Nukistan

I believe that today’s assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister/possibly future Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto might well usher in a whole new era of terror.  Don’t you think that Al Qaeda wants nukes and wants them BADLY??  Pakistan has 100 nuclear weapons.  And, as the most unstable nuclear power in the world, Pakistan must make AQ salivate.  And as a bonus, Pakistan’s nukes are right in the neighborhood.  Al Qaeda has been circling like a hyena or a vulture, just waiting for Pakistan to fall apart.  Tenuously stable at best, Pakistan has been tottering on the brink for some time.  And, like a hyena or a vulture, sometimes waiting around for your prey to die simply takes too long.  So they move in for the kill.  You know, to speed things up.  I have no proof that AQ is responsible for the death of FPM Bhutto, but it has the rotten decaying smell of their involvement.  A civil war in Pakistan and the loss of governmental control would please AQ beyond measure.  An assassination such as this just might trigger that war and loss of control.  (If that happened, who’d be watching the nukes???) 

So they’re circling again.

I hope I’m wrong. 

I pray I’m wrong.

I’d much rather write about other things, but this is what is on my mind tonight.

I hope that President Musharaff’s people are in the process of dismantling those weapons as I write.

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Unto us…

…a child is given.

May your Christmas be filled with love and joy.

And with the remembrance of our Savior’s birth.

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Curtis

I’m having a sad night.  In the mail today I received some newslettery sort of things from Teen Missions.  One of them had a small mention of a memorial gift made in the name of someone I knew a long time ago.  Curtis was on my team to Papua New Guinea back in 1986.  I think he was 15 or 16 at the time.  I Googled his name to see if I could find out anything about what happened to him.  I found a wonderful website that was set up by his wife, Shane.  I have just spent the last hour or so reading, looking at pictures, and listening to the music on the site.  I’m SO sad.  He died nearly two years ago on February 28th.  He was only 35. 

In my mind, since that was how I saw him last, he was still a little fresh faced high school kiddo who always had me laughing.  In actuality, he was a big grown man with a wife and children and a job and all those things that go along with being a grown-up.  He looked like grew up to be the guy who still always had people laughing, though.  It looks like he turned into a really nice and really good man of God.

So, I’m thinking of his wife, and kids, spending their second Christmas without him.  And remembering what it was like to think you weren’t going to make it through the day, the week, the month, or the year, and then, all of the sudden, it’s been two years, and you can’t believe it.

I’m sure that Curt and Connie have met up in heaven.  Two former TMI team members yukkin’ it up…

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Straight No Chaser

My dad forwarded this to me.  It’s an a cappella group out of Indiana University with a very unique take on some of your Christmas favorites! 

You might also want to take this opportunity to listen to go back to this post and take a listen!

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Emerald Pool

I made an unexpected trip to So Cal this past week as I wanted to attend the funeral of a friend.  It was a sad reason for a visit.  But the service was a lovely tribute to a wonderful man.  Lots of tears.  Lots of laughter.  I’m so glad I was able to be there.

As usual, I stayed at my big brother’s house.  We did some fun things while I was there.  One of those things was this!

Phil, his kids and I, went on a hike.  We went to the Santa Paula Creek area of Ojai in search of a waterfall.  My brother has this book of California waterfalls.  It’s most cool.  It lists the waterfalls and gives directions on how to get to them.  This was one his family had not yet gone to.  The book promised a 3 miles in/3 miles out hike with the holy grail being a series of “punch bowl” pools connected by small waterfalls leading to a 30 foot waterfall at the end.  The hiking instructions would have lead us to a campsite overlooking the pool which fed the larger cataract.

Somewhere along the way we got off the trail and ended up hiking the river’s path.  I came across this lovely little creature in a dry part of the river bed.  It measured about a half an inch across!

 

While this diversion provided what promised to be a “direct hit” on our target, it also entailed multiple rock crossings of the river, some ankle twistings and one occasion where we had to work our way along a rock wall using toe and foot holds which nearly had me at my tolerance for the heights and falling “thing” I have!  But with the patient help of my brother, and the occasional hand holding by my nephew, Richard, I persevered.

I like this picture soooo much.  I call it “Album Cover – No Band”.

We hiked and hiked and hiked.  It was getting late.  We found what we believed to be the punch bowls, but no big fall.  We thought we’d probably passed it when we ended up off the trail.  We took a moment to rest and drink water before starting back out of the canyon.  But Richard (who LOVES to rock climb) ventured farther up and in and came back with the news that he’d found the fall.  “Is it too scary, or can Aunt Lou make it?”  The answer was “Yes, she can.”.  So, me included, we decided to continue to climb our way in.  Very worth it!  The directions would have had us over looking the fall, but since we came up by way of the river, we were instead at the bottom where it filled a large deep pool.  We were so glad that we’d ended up off the path.  The algae on the rocks at the bottom of this crystal clear twenty foot deep pool lent the most gorgeous emerald color to the water.

The pool was surrounded by rock walls and a small rocky “beach”.  Evidence abounded that many had gone before us.  There was the sad bit of trash, a towel that looked like it hadn’t been there long, a few charcoally spots where fires had been built, and of course, graffiti.  And you know what?  I wasn’t much bothered by the graffiti.

Today’s graffiti are tomorrow’s “prehistoric” cave drawings…

A good time and place for one of my “foot pictures”!

It took us about a third of the time to hike back out.  Why is that?  Just wondering.

All in all, a wonderful smallish adventure.  We were all tired and sore at the end (and for the whole next day!).  Especially Avie.  We’d barely started the hike and she was complaining that “it’s a terrible time to be a kid”.  She’s growing, and her legs are sore.  But she stuck it out.  Barely.  Had that hike been a tenth of a mile longer, one of us would have been carrying her!

Two days later we got to see Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh.  But that’s another post!

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One More Birthday Wish…

I know this is three days in a row that I’ve written a birthday post.  Lots of VERY important people have their birthdays in December!

This wish for a most happy of birthdays is going out to my little sister, Whitney.

Whitney is one of the sweetest and kindest people that God placed on this planet.  Those of us who are privileged enough to be able to know her know EXACTLY what I mean!

None of you will “get” this picture, but Whitney will.  (And probably so will my sister, Liz!)

Happy Birthday, Whitney!!! 

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Happy Birthday, Ricky!

 

Love,

Lucy

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My Dad

My Dad is an avid reader of Blah Blah Blog.  He doesn’t leave comments, though.  Seems WordPress always does something that deletes his comments when he tries to leave one.  But he sends me e-mails about my blog.  I think he might love BBB almomst as much as I do!

In a recent e-mail he asked me if I was going to do something special when my visit counter hits 100,000.  I honestly hadn’t thought much about that.  But it is a significant milestone! 

So, to answer my Dad’s question, yes.  I’m going to do something special.  Write about my Dad.  Today is my Dad’s birthday.

My Dad needed to have his knees replaced some years ago.  One of his nurses asked him about his other hospitalizations.  My dad informed her that he’d never been in a hospital before.  The nurse smiled and winked at him and said, “What about when you were born?”.  But the wink was on  her!! 

My dad was born on December 12th in Wisconsin.  The weather was too bad for his mom to get to the hospital.  So, my dad was born at home.  He’s the baby of his family.  He was the fifth child born to his parents.  He has two brothers, and two sisters.  One of his sisters died before my dad was born, but he remembers her!   

My dad’s parents moved to California for a year when my dad was in the 6th grade.  Many years later he discovered that he was in the 6th grade when my mom was in kindergarten, at the very same school, though they wouldn’t meet until he was grown and had moved back to Cali!

My dad would never move back to Wisconsin because he hates the cold weather.  I guess I’ll never get him to move to Colorado because of that.  Even though our winters are actually pretty mild in comparison!

My dad has the most beautiful sparkly blue eyes that actually twinkle when he is being mischievous, which is often.

My dad had poor dental care when he was young, and so he instilled in all of his children the need to take good care of our teeth.  (I of course have turned that into a pathology in and of itself – the only doctor I currently have -and have had for years – is a dentist). 

My dad faked that he could type so that he could be the company clerk of his Army outfit during the Korean Conflict.  He looked dang sharp in his uniform.

We gave my dad a surprise 70th birthday party five years ago.  I found out last year that he KNEW about the party because a caterer, against specific orders, called his house looking for my sister Whitney (who was living with him at the time).  They inadvertently spilled the beans.  He never let on that he knew.  My dad should have won an Oscar for his acting surprised, when he wasn’t!

Wait!  Does that mean my dad is 75?  He doesn’t look it!

My dad went to every single event that he possibly could that I and my five siblings were ever involved in when we were in school and playing organized sports.  Which was no mean feat as my brothers and sisters  and I were involved in multiple sports and other activities through school and church.  Even after high school, my dad continued to try to attend as many events as possible.  Now that my nieces and nephews are involved in sports and other activities, my dad is ever-present at their games/events as well.  Sometimes he’ll drive back and forth from one county to the next to catch kids’ games all day long.  My little brother Low’s fellow ball players dubbed the ubiquitous dad “Papa Low”, which he is to this day.

My dad spent the entire summer at my house in 2006 so that he could watch my cat for me when I was out with Teen Missions.  Although he couldn’t spend the whole summer here this past summer, he did come and stay here with her for two weeks.  Like I think I’ve asked before “Who does that???”!!!  A Dad who knows how precious that cat is to his daughter.

I have five brothers and sisters.  They all have brown eyes.  When I was younger I had blue eyes.  They’ve turned green since I was young.  He used to call me “Five foot two, eyes of blue”.  But then my eyes changed, and I grew taller.  So now I’m his favorite “non-brown-eyed” child.

My dad hates having his picture taken.  I am my father’s daughter!  He freezes up when it comes time to smile for the camera.  We have lots of pictures of him looking very, well, very much like this! 

That’s my daddy!

Although he dislikes having his picture taken, he is always taking pictures. 

My dad is a tenor.  He loves to sing in choirs.

My dad believes that if he finds a pair of tennis shoes he likes, that he should buy multiple pairs.

When I was in college, my dad let two of my friends come and live with us.  He let them pay rent, but not very much.  When he went off to White Sands for some months with his job, he let me bring in yet another friend in need of a place to live.  And he let me keep the rent from all of them so that I wouldn’t have to work so much.

My dad is very popular amongst all of his childrens’ friends.

My dad is very intimidating, until you get to know him.

My dad put together as much of his family’s history as he could find and gave binders to family members.  He regularly supplies us with updated pages so that the history continues to be documented.

When we were young, my dad used to takes us out on “date night”.  He not only had the six of us in the rotation, but my cousin Julie whose own father died when she was an infant, AND the young daughter of a family friend who did not have a father in her life either.

When my dad came home from work he didn’t read the paper or go off and do his own thing, he played with us.  I don’t ever remember him saying no, that he was tired.  But he probably was.

When I was in my anatomy class in college, he let me store the gigantic cat I was dissecting IN THE FRIDGE AT HOME!

My Dad has an original drawing of mine hanging up in his kitchen.  And he actually LOVES it, not just because I did it, but because he thinks it’s great.

My dad has been taking his children on dream vacations.  Diane cruised the Atlantic on the QE II and spent time touring England with him.  Phil and his son Richard were taken to Italy.  I went on an amazing trip to Ireland.  Liz and her daughter Jesse will be going to China next year.  One can only imagine what is in store for Whitney and Low.

When my sister-in-law Connie passed away, my father grieved as though she was his flesh and blood.  He still deeply grieves the loss of her.

My Dad actually gets along with his in-laws and his childrens’ in-laws.  In fact, they are his family nearly as much as we are.

My Dad instilled in his children a strong work ethic.  It took a couple of false starts before my dad actually retired.  He now regularly volunteers at his church a few days a week.

My Dad let me go off to very scary places when I was a teenager.  It has to be very difficult to let your 16 year old daughter follow the Lord’s leading when that leading takes her to places like Haiti.  It is probably still difficult to let her go off to the African bush. 

And my Dad brought all of his children up to love and serve the Lord.  This is his greatest gift and best legacy.

My blog turned over to 100,000 some time in the past day or two.  He sent me an e-mail congratulating me on that!

So, my “100,000 blog visitor post” is dedicated to my biggest fan, my pops!

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

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Chitenges?

While in Zambia in the summer of 2006, we (the girls), in order to be socially appropriate and inoffensive in our manner of dress, wore “chitenges” (pronounced chi’-tengies) over our pants whenever we were not in our tents.

Chitenges are a large pieces of material that are used as skirts, dresses, blankets, baby carriers, and probably a myriad other things.  The patterns on these chitenges are regional and many of the prints are quite lovely…fabric art, really.  The pictures in this post are a few of the prints on the chitenges I purchased (about 3 USD each) while in Zambia.  These are not the chitenges I wore every day while I was there.  I had three of those, and they are sort of beat up, have burn holes from when I got too close to the cooking braziers, and aren’t quite as pretty as these!

They are sort of difficult to walk in though, and we often found the edges of the garment getting caught between, or tangled around, our legs.  I decided a good term for this phenomenon was to be ”chitengled”.  This is a similar phenomenon to being “pajangled”, which is what I have learned it’s called when your pajamas get all twisted up around you while you are sleeping. 

The women of many African nations utilize similar pieces of material in the same way.  They call them by different names.

I am anxious to find out what they are called in Malawi, for that is where I will be going next summer when I lead a team there with Teen Missions!

Yep!  I got my letter of invitation from TMI to lead the “Malawi Matron Unit” team!  I’m mailing back my letter of acceptance today.  What a privilege to be able to serve again next summer.  To be able to return to Africa to do so is beyond exciting. 

Malawi shares a border with Zamiba.  I wonder if it will feel like I’m going “home” again.

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Happy Hanukkah

Hanukkah (or Chanukah), “the festival of lights”, starts at sundown tonight.  Hannukkah starts on a different day pretty much every year.  Last year it started on December 15th.  Next year it will begin on the December 21st.  It can start in early November or late December.

The most important tradition of Hanukkah, which last for eight consecutive days, is the lighting of the Menorah.  One candle for each day. 

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Scotch Shortbread…Shortnin’ Bread

My cousin Julie was asking for “my” recipe for shortbread.  I make a killer shortbread.  Except the recipe is not mine, it’s my friend, Joanne’s.  I don’t know where she got it, but here it is, so that the rest of you can make killer Scotch Shortbread, too.

Instead of using sprinkles on top, I like to lightly coat the top with plain old white sugar.  And cut it BEFORE it cools.  That’s important!

As I was writing this post, I couldn’t get that song “Shortnin’ Bread” that Ethel Mertz sings in one of my favorite “I Love Lucy” episodes, “Ethel’s Hometown”.  Ethel stabs Fred, Lucy, and Ricky in the back, and puts on a “solo show” without her three sidekicks.  Or at least that’s what she thought!  I LOVE Fred and his tree!  I found Ethel’s solo show on YouTube, so you can share in the laughter!

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