Venturing out

I'm venturing out to run an errand for Tim today and to go to the doctor and to see two client...Hope I mkae it through the day. Surely has been a nice week of laying on the couch an playing on the computer! But alas, I guess all good things must come to an end. This experience has really made me understand why people with back pain get hooked on prescription meds so easily!

Can you believe it?!?

We were sitting at the breakfast table this morning and Tim reminded me that a compression fracture makes me shorter! SHORTER! Can you believe that? I think I'll ask Dr. Cole if he can put me on some kind of stretching table to stretch that back out and make add an inch or teo while he's at it! Maybe just enough to more evenly distribute this belly fat!

MRI

Dr. Cole sent me for an MRI yesterday. The long and the short of it is that I have a compression fracture (I think that's what they called it) and a couple of little bits of bone broken off but none that are in danger of damaging my spinal cord, so I just keep doing what I have been doing. Resting...I'm geting all my playing on the computer caught up without feeling guilty and napping during the day. Next week I will go to see clients when I have them and stay home and rest when I do not. What a life!

Good bye car, God bye dear friend

Well, this weekend has been a bitter sweet one for me. It started on Thursday night when I followed some folks from Sycamore View down to Ecru, MS (near Ponotoc) to the visitation of Linda Rogers and Tony Horton's father. Tony was my first camp love. Linda and I went to church together for the last 20 years or so. Her daughter, Jessica, and Joe(y) grew up together. I would not have know Tony if I had run into him on the street. He does not have one hair on his head but then again, he has not put on nearly the weight that I have, but he did say he would recognize me with my dimples....we had a good visit catching up with each other.

I left there and went to Corinth so that I could stay with Mama on Friday morning while Mutt had some tests run. I spent the night with Diana. In my hurry to get to Mama's, I lost control on a curve...it had just begun to rain and I couldn't make it. Your mind really thinks weird things at times like that. When I finally realized that I wasn't going to get contol of the car again, I just closed my eyes and let go of the steering wheel. I thought, "I'm going to have a wreck." I don't remember anything else until I came to a stop hanging upside down in the seatbelt. I remmeber thinking, "Am I dead or alive?" Since I could think, I decided I must be alive and I let myself out of my seatbelt. The passenger side window was broken out so I wiggled my way over to there and looked at the field and thought, "If I crawl out there, I'm going to get muddy...but if I stay in the car and the gas tank blows, I'll die, so I think muddy is better." By then several men were there asking if I was ok. I told them I thought I was. I could walk and move all my limbs...One of them crawled into the car for me to get my purse so I could call my sister an she called my brother who called the HWY Patrol. About that time. Billy, Diana's boyfriiend who was coming to do yardwork in her yard came up. I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life! He took me to his back seat and told me to lay down and rest. The patrolman didn't give me a ticket. He said he figured my day had started bad enough already. But in truth, I was really blessed because I went right between a sign post and a light pole and didn't hit either. The air bag didn't even deploy. The top didn't cave in. I have a cracked verterbrate in the upper lower part of my back which is pretty painful, but is getting better and the dr. put me to bed for this week. I can get up when I want to but he said not to over do it. I only had to take pain meds once today so it's getting better. I got Napoleon at the Toyota place to order me a new car just like my old one. It should be here in a couple of weeks,,,now if my insurance totals the other one. The patrol man and the wrecker guy both thought it would be totaled. I don't know if I'm more upset about my back or about my car!
Robiin, my brother, took photos with my phone but I don't know how to down load them to the computer,,,If I ever do, I'll post some,

One more sad note, My freind, Evelyn Tucker, died a couple of weeks ago and her son didn't let anyone from church know until it was all over and done and she was buried, He cut her off from all her friends for the last few months and now this,,,I just can't understand. But I surely did love her and am glad that she is no longer suffering in this world! I will see her again one day!

Tim's skiing

I've talked to Tim once and gotten a couple of e-mails from him. He sent this photo of Joe. He says that Noah (Cathy's son) skis straight down the moutain just like Joe did when he was that age and he is loving it and Cathy is enjoying it, too. I'm glad they are all enjoying it. I enjoyed sleeeping until I woke up this morning with no alarm to wake me up. I will have to get up in a little while and go to the office but I'm in no rush today!

It's Quiet Again!

Well, the Harding Grad Students have gone. Twelve students and one teacher from Texas A&M spent the night last night. They are going to be working at LeBonheur this week. The rest of the week they will be staying at Germantown Medothist Church in the gym. I enjoyed having them all here. Now the house is all quiet again. Tim and Joe are gone to Pagosa Springs to ski with the church group. Cathy, Tim's youngest sister and her son, Noah, are with them. the church group will join them tomorrow. And I am enjoying being in the quiet of the house all by myself. I my even take a Sunday afternoon nap and get back that hour of sleep that I lost last night. Later today I'm going to Mamie's (my cleaning lady) surprise 70th birthday party. I'm giving her the picture that Tim painted of her. I hope that she will be pleased with that. I usually put extra money in her envelope on the day she works around her birthday but I didn't this time...she pobably thinks I forgot about her.

Laura's birthday is Tuesday. Happy Birthday, Laura Lou! Hope you read this because I haven't gotten a card in the mail. I did get your package from Ghana in the mail. Hope you got it.

Beckie, I hope you are having a wonderful time in Greece and Italy!

I have this wonderdul Caramel Almond Crunch ice cream that Tim bought me before he left....that might be my entire diet this week!

We have three Harding Grad students here this week taking short courses. Tim is enjoying telling to them about his painting. they are enjoying his coffee machine!

Quite weekend at home

We are enjoying a quite weekend at home and it is really nice for a change! We had home Bible study here last night and the night before, we had Mike Tinker, who was in a lot of my counseling classes come over to spend the night. He had something to do at the grad school on Thursday. It was great to see him. That is the one thing I miss about school is seeing all the kids. We are about to go to the office and do an interview with the lady from the Bartlett Express about our Ghana trip and then going to a movie this afternoon. That will be very enjoyable! Don't think I've told you guys that John was offered a position in Canada near Toronto...a Tenure track position and he is really excited. Laura thinks that she will apply to do PHD work in French. Joe has been working for two whole weeks at Fed Ex getting up and getting there all on his own. It's been wonderful! Hope you are are haivng a wonderful weekend, too!

Atlanta Trip

Tim and I went to Atlanta yesterday to check out more hotels for his 2008 American Academy of Impant Dentistry Meeting. It was really nice. We got picked up at the airport by a limo from the Sheraton (this hotel was my personal favorite). If you ever need a limo in Atlanta, call James at the Sheraton...they take care of people who do not stay there as well and he was a wonderful driver. We were going to spend the night in the Hyatt, which is also a nice hotel, however, after we got checked into our room and started watching the weather channel (which is Tim's favorite channel) we decided that we had rather come back home yesterday than have to worry about thunder storms than were moving into Memphis during the night Friday and on Saturday morning. I do not like to be in the sky with lightening, so it wasn't a very hard decision for me to make. And sure enough, we woke up this morning to rain and thunder and lightening, so I am glad we came home yesteday and didn't have to worry about how to get around the storms to get home today! It's been a nice lazy day! We went to see "the Astronant Farmer" this afternoon. It was a fun family movie and I don't even remember one word of profanity, but you can't trust me too much because since I don't have little kids anymore, I don't tune into it as much as I used to. Hope you are all having a good weekend!

More Ghana photos

Man signing for the deaf in church.
Quite a common sight.
These were a very frequent sight inside and out. They were quite colorful depending on where they had been and would not harm you.
Shops below and people live above in the apartments. This is one of the nicer places of business and living quarters we saw.
Can you believe that these ladies and even little children can carry this huge pans on their heads loaded with all sorts of items from bags of water to yams to wood and still carry a baby on thier backs too?!? Some men do it, too, but not as many as women.
These are some of the Bible students at the Ghana Bible college. I loved hearing them raise their voices in priase to God during chapel. the only thing is that the leader always sings the first line or two of the song and then says, :Go" and everyone else starts to sing. I never got the hang of that...I always stated singing when he did...I even told Leanne to hit me if I continud to do it, but it didn't do any good. Guess all those chorus directors all those years pounded it into me to start with the leader and it is a hard habit to break!

What an Awesome Trip!

We got home from Ghana on Thursday (2/15) in the evning. I made it to Memphis with a pair of hand craved walking sticks that I had bought which they took away from me in the Amsterdam airport to put with checked luggage and I was sure that I would never see them again but no suitcases. They were finally both delivered by Saturday night.
We had a truly remarkable time in Ghana and saw so many sights we will never forget:
The hospitality of Lynn and Augustine Tawiah;
The mass of humanity in Accra and the traffic in Accra and Kumassi - it was like a constant game of "chicken";
The hope in the eyes of the children at the Village of Hope and the energy and encouragment that Tommy Drinnen brings to that work;
The eagerness of all our students at the Ghana Bible College to learn and to be lights of the Lord to their people in cities and rural villages all over the country and the extreme sacrifice they make to attend college there (most of them are in their late 20s to late 50s, many with families who they only see a few times a year);
The sacrifice of a few cents each the students made to buy Leanne and me "farewell gifts" of Ghanaian traditional sandals and kenta cloth;
The street vendors who come right up to the car with any item you might need or want including bags of water, ice cream, Milo chocolate drink, hankerchifs, ANYTHING (Augustine said Lynn is tempted to do all her shopping right from her car window!)-this is the original drive through!
The long and dusty drive to the rural village where Augustine grew up (just 10 miles from the border of Cote d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) and the warmth and friendliness of the people there;
The light and obvious pride in the eyes of Augustine's 90+ year old mother when she sees him;
The respect that Augustine commands in his village and those around it;. He took us to meet the mayor who interruped a meeting with a tribal chief to come out and talk with us for about 10 minutes; then Augustine arranged for us to be on the radio. Leanne even got to make a radio spot that will be played over and over!
The school Augustine has begun in his home village and the 391 children who are so eager to learn; they are in a building originally designed for 200 children, but the need has been so great that parents who can afford it are sending children from about 3-4 villages;
The way the children sit so attentively and listen even when there are 85 preschoolers to 1 teacher in a class;
the way the children raise their hands to be called on and then stand to address the teacher with such respect - that just about backfired on us in one clowning skit where Sadie (Leanne) told me to stay put but instead I followed her all around and she couldn't find me. She kept askig the children where I was but no one would be rude enough to yell out that I was behind her. She finally pretended to cry and one little boy raised his hand and stood and said, "She is behind you, Madame."
The sadness in the eyes of so many children who can't attend school because their parents can't afford the $10 per month to send them!! (Education is such a priviledge there)
My gratefulness to Richard, a volunteer children's minister from Accra, who made the journey with us to the rural school to help with VBS. The children understand the King's engish, but they don't always get Southern english so he was so valuable in helping me teach and I learned a lot from him!
Sometimes we had electricity and running water and sometimes we didn't. You just never knew when...The whole city would be blacked out and people would still have their little shops open by candle light or kerosene lamps.
There was huge nice houses, next to little shacks in the city and many of the people had their businesses build right in front of their homes.

It was a truly blessed trip and Leanne and I returned wanting to go back again. Thanks to Leanne for putting up with me and for agreeing to go on this trip in the first place. Thanks so much to all of you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your taking care of our families while we were gone. Please continue to keep Augustine and Lynn and their children, the men and women at Ghana Bible College, and the children, parents, and teachers at the rural school in your prayers. If you are interested in more information about how to help financially at either the Ghana Bible College or the rural school, please let Leanne or me know. And if you ever get a letter from any high school or college kid asking for a donation to go on a mission trip to the Village of Hope, send them some money, even if it's just $5! (Also look at my facebook if you want to see more Ghana photos.)

Ghana

It's hard to believe that we are in Ghana and that it is really February! It is so hot here! and I hear that they have had snow in Memphis! Our flight from Amsterdam was delayed about 6 hours so instead of getting here at 7:00 we got here about midnight. We ended up on the plane with an American doctor from DC who was going to Kumasi to work for 6 weeks. We invited her to come to the hotel with us since she was alone and yesterday, she got s short tour of Accra with us and Augistine and then we took her to the bus station. Leanne clowned at the school where Lynn (Augistine's wife) teaches then we went to eat with thier family. They have 3 precious children. We then met Brett and April and Caden Emerson. They ate dinner while we ate ice cream (of course). Today we're all going shopping together and then this afternoon late, Augistine will take Leanne and me to the Village of Hope. We'll go to church with them tomorrow and Leanne will clown for the kids after church. Sorry I don't know how to download photos and I don't even think I have the right equipment to do it. I'll have to do that later. This is really an adventure!

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...

Ongoing Christmas

This has been a wonderful Christmas! We started last weekend in Corinth with my family. And I can't remember what order the photos are in but one is a whole group photo and one is me laying on the floor in order to steal a hug and kiss from Tracy and that is NOT an easy thing to do! There is also a photo of Wyot, Bil and Andrea's youngest with his $20 in pennies that his Aunt Diana gave him...at least she rolled them for him. She was nicer than me...if I'd thought about giving his money to him in pennnies, I think I would have just given him them in a jar. There's one ofour famiy with John, Laura, me, Tim, and Joe and one with Tim with Bows on his head. We have fun being together even if it was just for the day. I went back to Corinth last weekend while Tim and Joe were skiing and Diana and I took Mama and Mutt out to dinner and then we went to a movie. Diana got up early Sunday moring and went to Indianola to spent some time with Tamara Lynn and Brian and Billy. I went to church with Mama and Mutt and Robin and Cheryl and ate lunch with them. And got home in time to wait around at the airport for about two hours for Tim and Joe to get in, but at least they got in!

Now Tim and I are in Huntsville. Laura and John have been in Austin with his family and will be headed home today. Denise and Wayne were here yesterday as well as Jonathan and Sandy but they left last night as did Scott, Cathy's husband. Cathy and Noah are still here with us waiting on Carol and Charley and James and Laurel to arrive sometimes this evening. We played dirty Santa yesterday and Noah even payed with us. He got a re bandana that Tim had put a $20 bill in and he sat on it so no one else could see it. It was really funny...he kept telling everyone that they didn't want to take it because it was stinky...he'd aleady done something bad on it! But alas, his Uncle Wayne still took it from him and he ended up with a really neat Star Wars ship transformer thing that he was just as happy about. We get to play dirty Santa again tonight with Carol's family. Tim and I are learning to be quite dirty at playing this game since we do it about 4 or 5 times each Chritmas season.

Fun Skiing

I talked to Tim and Joe tonight. They made it in just before the blizzard got really bad though they say they could see the snow coming down hard past the lights on the plane. Several plane loads of people got stuck in Hayden, CO where Tim and Joe flew into (I think). They are having a great time and so am I! Looks like a win -win situation to me!

Just talked to Laura and John on the phone. They're about 30 minutes away from John's mom so we'll assume that they'll make the last few miles safely. Laura said that John had several other interviews-6 total now- one in Canada that is a reserch institutuion which is really what he wants to do! He was one of 3 they picked out of 135 applicants. He has been acceptd to present papers at meetings in Orlando this spring and in London this summer. We're pretty proud of him.

Merry Christmas!