Ready or Not

I'm off to Ghana today! Catch you all when I get back on the 15th...well it'll be late that night so I probably won't catch anybody until the 16th!

Joe has been talking lately about when I get old and can't take care of myself that he is going to put me in a home but then this morning he came out and said he thought he wouldn't put me in a home but just get a nurse to come in to take care of me. Makes me wonder if he thinks I'm losing it already or plotting my demise. He says he doesn't think either, but he does think about it sometimes which is a great change from his former thinking that he will die before he is 30 or 40. Maybe he's growing up a little! Or maybe he's thinking about Papa Mutt. He just had a pace maker put in and he's talking about having knee replacement. He's 87 years old...we're all afriad that if he has knee replacement that he wil never leave the nursing home after rehab which on one hand might not be so bad for him or Mama...guess we'll just have to wait and see.

My test is over once again. I knew a few more answers for sure this time than I did last time so we'll see..or at least I think I did. At least the first question was so wild, I started the test with a laugh and wanted to write in the answer, "Put her in an institutuion and check her out completely because she must have lost it all!" but that wasn't an option so I put the most politically correct answer... We'll see...

Now yesterday I started to buckle down on my Ghana Bible College Lectures. I'm really getting excited about that even though I feel less prepared than I ever have...sure wish I had all those notes that I had to throw away afte the fire...it would be so much easier than recreating them, but I got excited yesterday when I started wrtiting and it was all coming back to me so that's good. I hope I'll get it all done this weekend! I'll be glued to the computer...now if I can just keep muself on task and not be looking at blogs and e-mails and facebook and such!

Prayers Needed And Other Things

Our friends, Woodie and John Cooke's daughter, Jann, was in a very bad auto accident Saturday or Sunday a week ago. She has been moved into Rehab at the Med and will probably be there through the end of this week. She broke her legs, her right arm, and lacarated her liver. She will be ok, but it will take her a long time (several months) for her to recover. She is in a lot of pain and needs prayers for strength and patience during her recovery. After she goes home, she will have to return to the Med for daily therapy for several months probably to learn to walk again and to use her right arm.

Pray for Woodie, too. She has been through so much the last few years, I don't know how she has kept her sanity, but somehow, she keeps going and still reaches out to help others. Luke is in China. He says he really likes it. Loren is in school in Mississippi and doing well. John says he is retiring from Bartlett High and moving to Alabama at the end of this school year.

Tim and John French and Bobby Ethridge are all skiing at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They are having lots of fun and he's sent several photos. Beautiful snow...-23 degrees! I'm glad they are the ones there and not me! It feels good to be nice and toasty warm right here on my couch watching Law and Order.

Vivian called last night and told me that she'd been to visit Sherry Barron. She is doing well. I was glad to hear that. She also told me that Sherry's daughter, who now lives in Virginia, has been reading my bog, but Cristen...you haven't left me a note at all! We have some friends at fairfax Church - Mark and Marnie Moore and Jason and Suzanah Foster. They have both been there a while so you might call on them if you need any direction.

I'm taking my MFT Boards once again next Monday. Dr. Flatt has been tutoring me so maybe I'll pass it this time. He did remind me today, however, that passing this test really has no bearing on my liviehood and that I can be a pastoral counselor forever with my degree without ever getting my license, which is true...now it's just a matter of pride!

good California visit

I'm in California with Scott and Joyce Bellamy. His mother's memorial service was here today. It was very good. Scott had Kip make a CD of accapella music for the service and though there was a hitch or two in getting the right songs played, everything else went off fine. It was very uplifting and we all had fun laughing and crying and remembering Marion's life. I could just see her as her children and grandchildren described her and told what she meant to them and what they meant to her...how she was always laughing and rolling her eyes...I could just see her! Every time she came to my house, she would sit around and decide how much she could sell it for if it were in California. In fact, several others talked about having that same experience. It was funny and we all laughted togther. It was also very nice that several from the church that Scott attends when he visits his mother came to the service to support Scott. That was really nice. Makes it great to have Christian friends to support you every where you go!

Marion's house is a tresure trove of collectiables. I found one book a while ago published in 1849 called, " A Young Woman's Guide." It was given to her by her great grand mother to whom it was given by her great uncle. Needless to say, the feminist of today would be up in arms about most of what that book has to say! There's sets upon sets of china and silver and first editions books and silver and more silver and newspsper clippings and old letters that are so fascinating and lots of photos...many that none of the family know who they are. It makes me all the more determined to go home and write names on the backs of my pictures (like I'll ever have time to do that if it's not already done!)
Hope the rest of you are haivng a good weekend and I hope I feel like making it to home group when I get back. My plane is suppose to land at 5:15 tomorrow night.

Nice Prison Visit

Woodie Cooke and I had a nice visit to Parchman today to visit with a couple of inmates. Getting to know these guys surely changes the way you feel about prisoners in general. Both of these guys have been there for quite sometime and in fact, today was Chance's first visit in 6 years. Can you imagine that? Being locked up without a visit from the outside for 6 years?!? He is only 27. That is the same age as my Laura. It is really sad to me...Sad that he did what he did to be in prison in the first place when he was young and stupid and even sadder still that in all these years not one family member has cared enough to come to see him. I love my children with all my heart and I pray that there will never be a time when I will have to visit them in prison, but I certainly pray that if that should ever happen for any reason that I would still love them dearly and make every effort to visit with them regularly!

Joe is really wanting to go to China to see Luke Cooke really bad. Tim agreed to pay for his ticket if he can come up with his spending money, so...he's gotta get on the ball and get a job somehow to make some money for that trip. I've never really had a desire to go to China, but if Joe ends up there with Luke, Woodie and I just might have to go for a visit there. We laughed all the way home today (even though it is NOT EVEN FUNNY!) about having Chinese grandchildren!

Tim had a good day at an art workshop today!

Too Many Have Gone Home and I'm Still Here!

I arrived home from Italy to the news that my Uncle Robert Sigler, a dear friend, Debbie Molts, and Elizabeth Eilert, long-time secretary of Jackson Avenue and Sycamore View had all gone home to be with the Lord. Those three funerals I missed, but since that time, I've made it to several more or have heard of serveral more which I did not get to attend - Billie Thomason, a strong Christian lady who worked tirlessly for Harding and her students lost her battle with cancer that she had been wagiing for several years. Gina Higginbotham, as a little girl of 5 was diagnosed with a brain tumor and after sugery which arrested her developement at about age 5 -7, and was told that she might live another 6 months to a year died on Christmas Eve -33 years later at the age of 38. She was the face I saw when I thought of the verse where Jesus talks about how you must become like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven. Scott Bellamy also lost his mother during this time. I am fortunate enough to be able to make the trip next wekend to California for the memorial service for her. I just hate for any of my friends to have to go through that alone! Today I went to the funeral of Harold Martin, father of Debra Sission and Kathy Schrack, and this afternoon, we have the funeral of Mike Sasseen's mother. Mike was the shop teacher at Bolton when Joe went there and was such a great infulence and help to Joe. Also the father of one of my clients has died during this time. Eric Newsome also lost his step-father in the last few days. I'm sure there is someone I am forgetting...please forgive me for that, but know that...one more that just came to me...Pam Dixon, mother of Tyler, who committed suicide several years ago, buried her mother on Dec. 15. Know that you are all in my prayers that time will help you be able to look back with happy memories and less tears. It's hard to loose a loved one, but when we know that loved one has gone to be with the Lord, would we really want them back here on this earth? Just something to think about...