choices

So. I have 4 books here at home that I'm working on- though I've discovered I can only really do 2 well. I just had to get the book "Wicked" to see what I missed because I only saw the show. I have to say I'm not going to get too far in this one and i'm really glad I didn't do my usual: read the book before seeing the movie, play whatever. I have not been very impressed so far, though I'm only on page 40. Yikes! I must say they didn't leave out anything too important in the play!! Then per recommendation I got Donald Miller's "Searching for God Knows What" to start. I am excited about that because his Blue Like Jazz was so wonderful. I have a feeling you'll be hearing more on that regard. Then I just have to continue and recommend you try Captivating by Jon and Stasi Eldridge. (even a guy would do well with this one) That was a powerful book for a woman's heart. They had words I needed to hear. It would make a good book discussion group. One more...I love my MP3 player! I am listening to Digging to America by Anne Tyler. Doing two things at once is my kinda thing to do!! (i.e. exercise, read) For anyone who has adopted or is planning to this is a wonderful story! So there you have my Saturday. Reading. It's a great way to spend a rainy day when the family is away!

Baseball and Horses

So this story has to be one of my favorites. For one thing, it helps me remember the mind of a junior highschool age kid. They don't know why they do things the way they do sometimes.

One beautiful summer day my girlfriend and I decided to ride our horses into town (pop. 300 maybe) Other kids in town always looked at us in awe when we were on the horses! (after all they couldn't even own a horse in town!) That was probably the best part of the ride. Creating jealousy wherever we went! It was perhaps a 1/2 hour ride into town and then after spending another 1/2 hour showing off ,someone invited us to come play baseball with them. Next to horses, baseball was my absolute favorite thing to do! (I won't go into the details of how sorry I often felt for myself that I was a girl and so couldn't actually play on a "real" team.) So we tied our horses up and walked to the ball field. ( I should add here that the baseball field was probably 6-10 blocks away from where we tied our horses. And that our hitching post was someone's-read someone unknown to us-back porch wrought iron railing) It was a grand game! Until someone came running out to the field yelling at me "Hey! Are you the guys with the horses? Well they're loose!" Sure enough. We found my horse at least, running through the streets still tied to his railing, dragging it along behind him!

My father paid for the damages and we were both forbidden to EVER ride into town again. I was lucky I didn't have to somehow come up with the money myself. The privelege of riding into town was a sad loss, too. It of course, creates more problems down the road.

Camping here we come!

Can you believe we are planning for our camping trips this summer already?! I can't wait. This has got to be on my list of best things to do in a year. It will be a bit harder this year since we won't have a camper, at least not to start with. That probably means weekend trips. Using the tent. Back to roughing it. Our first trip looks like one to beautiful Lanesboro, Mn. There's just something about being outside and letting Ron do all the cooking that thrills me. (I also love to canoe and to bike and I get lots of that there) Anyone else interested in coming along? We always have room for one more adventerous spirit! And the big question...Does anyone have any suggestions about great camping places? Post them please!

ABJECT Fear

From the moment we are born we are dying. Everyone of us. And none of us gets out of this life alive. At least that's what they tell me. We are a culture that ignores, avoids, and even covers up death. We celebrate youth. We hide our old away in nursing homes and hope they have the dignity not to bother us. I am ashamed. My friend in Arizona was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. Since I'm not too intuned to death, disease or cancer I only have a vague idea that this isn't good. But I think to myself, "She's down there anyway". I had a terrible dreams and struggles when we visited in January. What should I tell her? How should I share about her one and only hope? I was in agony. But, I was able to keep my mouth shut and not ask any questions that would probe too deeply or wander too far into the spiritual. I was worried about embarrassing her or myself . Never mind that I know she is not a christian. Then today we get the news that a co worker of Ron's wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer. (funny to say it that way. We all have terminal something. It's in everyone's future) But as horrible as dying young of a cancer is how much worse to die and not have found or heard about the gift. Life. Eternal. That thing that I have spent 30 plus years giving at least lip service to. I proclaim myself to be a 'believer'. But this. It will prove whether I can really trust what God is saying to me in such practical terms that there will be no going back. What's worse, Though I know I can't avoid going and sharing, I am terrified. I must do this. I can't do this. What if... well, But it is a matter of trust.

More pictures from Chicago

Chicago: For sale in Chinatown-gingseng; The reflection in sculpture in Mileniumn Park; Street painter in Chinatown; Piccasso sculpture; Chicago River; The Art Institute..

Body World2

Probably the biggest question about this exhibit is: Real People? how did they do that? For the most part All the bodies on exhibit were. They donated their bodies and they were preserved through a process called plastizination. Their skin is gone and you can see their muscles, tendons, eyeballs, bones, sometimes their brains or other internal organs depending on how they're preserved. There were tons of body parts: hands, legs, joints, kidneys, livers, intestines, eyeballs, genitals, stomachs, tongues, lungs, hearts...some were healthy looking. Some were horribly diseased. (black lungs, cysts in kidneys, swollen hearts) One cool display that made me say "how'd they do that?" showed a chicken, a goat and an arm just with their blood vessels. Whole bodies were posed: the ponderer (thinker) drawer man (insides pulled out so you could see inside) hitting a baseball, kicking a soccer ball, ice skating, yoga, diving, standing sliced vertically into a dozen or more strips. There was a pregnant woman and fetus' from several different stages of development. There were two boys looking at the skeleton of a fetus and the one said to the other "It looks like a. . . a. . . alien!" I thought he was right about that. They're like aliens after their born too! So, how do you say VERY COOL in a way that helps you understand that I enjoyed this?!

I have to take time to interrupt my horse stories series here to exalt on our recent trip to the Windy City. Wow! Did we behave like tourists or what? I have enough pictures to fill books. Everywhere I turned there was another picture, another memory I wanted to keep and take out later and look at. For some of those I will have to rely on my memory, but check with my sister and she'll agree...we took a TON of pictures. But it was so fun. We had time to see the exhibit Vollard: Cezanne to Piccaso at the Art Institute;visit the Museum of Science and Industry and see Body World 2 (definitely more on that later); See "Wicked" at the Oriental theatre and we enjoyed all the cool things that the city folks do all the time without giving it a second thought: i.e. ride the train downtown, walk around the streets with skyscrapers towering overhead, battle traffic, enjoy some of the most unique foods, stores and peoples anywhere! Do you think I've gone a bit overboard yet? Probably. But that doesn't compare to the things we ate for the weekend. Yikes! We indulged at Starbucks, ate in Chinatown (I had a lemon chicken that was like eating a big chunk of chicken in the middle of a lemon pie. It was that sweet. Good) Oberweiss' dairy(icecream) and at a Tapas Bar. We had take out from a noodle factory and we ate a food court in the heart of a downtown skyscraper (under 55)I think I'll be waddling to work in the morning. And I probably should get out more. It really sounds like I've never been out of town. I admit I'm a small town girl....