Oops, and Awww!

Mom correctly informed me that my brother said goodbye on April 23, not March 23. Regardless, I sure was missing him that day!

Here's some photos I've been wanting to post:

Ty and Jessie have this incredibly cute and soft and wonderful dog! 

With huge feet.

The other week, I got to hang out with her after dropping Glenna off somewhere and while Jessie had a piano lesson.

Her expression always looks so startled in photos!

This photo shows her color more truly.

Just like a baby, she plays hard and crashes hard.

I'm sure she's grown tremendously since I took these. She's supposed to double her weight and size within 5 more weeks, which will put her at 40 pounds and a mile high! Jessie rightfully wanted a large dog for protection and as a running buddy. They've had sessions with trainers and she's of course the smartest doggie in the universe.

(This is bad. I realize that. I'm talking about a dog and not a grandchild!) I love so much when the three of them come over!

I have a Space shift today. I used to have to go on line and try to pick up shifts, but now they're actually scheduling me on Fridays from 4 to midnight. Since I work at the dentist office from 9 to 2pm, that makes an awfully long day! I tried and tried to give this shift away today, but no takers.

Off to the happiest (and most crowded at this time of year) place on earth!

March 23

Only three of us - maybe five - will remember what today is. I've actually been remembering it all month, and the months preceding this one as well. But here it is - Today.

A year ago today, you finally left us for good.

Perhaps not for our good, but definitely for yours.

I miss you.

I think of you continually.

You were so very, very handsome, and your eyes were gorgeous green. Since you lived with Dad and would only visit on occasion, my girl friends were always shocked when they saw you.

"THAT'S your brother? Is he coming over? May I come over?"

My senior prom was attended by both of my handsome brothers, and my handsome future husband. What a great night that was! The next time you would all be dressed like that would be our wedding day.

I miss you.

You were absolutely fearless. You would set up elaborate bike jumps involving wagons, scooters, other bikes, and neighborhood kids. (I was the smart one who would choose a spot closest to the jump, just in case.) Again and again you would race your BMX bike down the street and hit that ramp, clearing the lot of us every. Time. You eventually raced your way into a sponsorship with Schwinn. 

Motocross followed, but turned out to be an expensive sport and you only did a race or two. As catcher on your high school baseball teams, you were known to practically snatch the ball from the batter before he could hit it. In football, you ended up in the paper about your games with Brett Harte High.

Later, after high school, that fearlessness led you to the ski slopes. I bet if you had continued living there, you would have loved snowboarding!

 Sometimes; well, most of the time, that fearlessness got you into trouble. 

This is how you looked after you hunted down the guys who put a dent in your car after a friend borrowed it. 

I remember Himself jokingly telling you that you needed to hit harder, run faster, or keep your mouth shut!

When I moved to the desert, I would sometimes get a knock on my door and there you would be, your big rig parked down the street. You would take a shower, get a haircut and a meal, and visit for a bit before filling your thermos with coffee (and 3/4 cup of sugar) and hitting the road. 

You delighted in my children. Thank you.

Life on earth wasn't easy for you to handle. You would come in and out of our lives with sometimes a year passing before I'd hear your voice on the phone or that knock on my door. I'm smiling because you always called me at least once per year, a week before my birthday.

Which, of course, was your birthday.

You knew that I had no idea how to call you or find you, so you would reach out. Thank you so much for doing that. I knew you were struggling with life on earth, and I was thankful for the opportunities to tell you that it didn't matter and that I loved you. I moved to Florida and thought I'd never get a knock on my door from you again, but you came! You called and said you were in Orlando and could we meet? YES! We pulled into that parking lot and I told Kelly and Glenna, "Oh my goodness! He hasn't changed a bit!"

And you were telling the guy driving cross-country with you, "Oh my God. She looks like my Mom!"

Then Jeff passed away, and life brought us together again. 

And we smiled, and none of us knew it was our last photo together.

Our last photo of you.

It was during that visit that I was able to share that all of us sin and are in need of a Savior, that nothing we do could ever earn God's forgiveness and favor, and that Jesus had to be perfect for us and die in our place so that we could live eternally with Him. Having believed that and trusting in Christ alone, we become God's children and our sins are forgiven; past, present, and future. I made sure you heard this, and this time, you believed it. You had no further instruction or discipleship, but you knew it to be true. In this alone is my hope.

It is my hope that on this day we remember not your death, but your birth into a new life in eternity with God your Father. Finally, at last, one year ago today, you were free from the presence of sin and every struggle you've ever had. Finally, you knew without a doubt what love was.

I miss you, but I rejoice for you!

Love, Your Sister,

JoAnna

CTRL, ALT, DEL

I was helping Glenna with her bibliography page tonight. We did what I'm sure myriad students do on a daily basis - we found a web site offering MLA formatting, typed in the book title, and clicked.

Presto Zingo! Instant MLA!

The other day, Nancy Pants and I were remembering what it was like to take a typing course. At my high school, the teacher had a desk with a control switch for the power to the electronic typewriters. When he needed to give instruction, he would cut the power to our machines so we were forced to listen. When we had a timed test, he would say, "Go!" and hit the power switch so that 25 typewriters would spring to life at the same moment. What a din! (I'll have to ask Nancy if they used electronic. Either way, I'm sure she had the same, loud cacophony.)

Our most gruesome recollection was centering a title on our page. With each title, we had to hit the spacebar all the way across the page to count each space to measure the page, then divide that by two and write down the number. We'd then count each character and space of our title, and then divide that by two and write that down. Back to the edge of the page we'd go and space bar, space bar, space bar all across the page to the first written amount, then backspace, backspace, backspace to the second written amount. Now we were ready to type our title!

If our friend talked to us as we were counting the spaces, we had to start over.

(I always asked my classmate, Carol Chin, for the math. She would growl at me for making her lose count, start over, then give me the math. Thank you, Carol!)

Setting the tabs, finding the margins, doing a justified text - what a nightmare. We'd break out rulers and pencils and erasers (Ok ok ok, Carol Chin would break out the ruler, pencil, and eraser) and figure it all out. Now it's just a couple of clicks and Presto Zingo! Instant tabs and margins! Here on The Internets, we don't even indent our paragraphs!

I saw a saying a few months ago that read, "Respect your parents. They finished high school without the internet."

Yeah! We sure did!

Fore!

"Where are you?"

"I'm at the Hobo Course, playing nine holes."

"By yourself?"

"Yes, and I'm kicking my butt!"

Oh Dear, and OH! How Dear!

I just found out that Google Reader will shut down in July. Now I have to find a new feed to read all my favorite blogs. Anyone have a suggestion?

This is the necklace my Dad sent me. I LOVE IT. I told him to count it as Christmas and birthday. =) The turquoise pendant appears to be older than the necklace part - he said the woman he bought it from made it herself.

This is why I am spoiled when it comes to my turquoise and I won't buy it anywhere but New Mexico. they make such beautiful pieces, and anywhere else is extremely overpriced.

 Saturday, I had an early morning, 8 hour shift. I love walking to the mountain when no one else is in the park.

 Glenna had to take the SAT test in the morning, and then she came with Himself to the park. We had an enjoyable afternoon and evening and the weather was just beautiful!

 I won. He was a little stunned, I think? Someone said it looks like I'm about to hit him and that's why I won, but actually I had grabbed him and kissed his cheek, but I had the camera in the wrong place. This was me letting go of him.

Ok, so the New Fantasyland has new eating areas. One, I don't know if I'll ever be able to get a seat there (though our Brown-Eyed Girl already did!) and the other is just plain fun.

Gaston's Tavern has BIG FOOD.

PORK SHANK!!!

 Himself said, "Aren't there ENOUGH photos of me eating at Disney?" 

The three of us shared this cinnamon roll!

I LOVED this frozen drink, and it's going to be a big hit when the weather gets hotter. Frozen apple juice with a sort of toasted marshmallow added to it, then this whipped mango topping. You can get it in a souvenir mug since you're supposed to be in a tavern, "stomping around wearing boots like Gaston". ;)

 Ok, I spotted this woman in the crowd, and I immediately grabbed my phone and had to get a picture. Do you see her in the photo above?

You see, during my shift that morning, I looked up from the load consul and the most unusual (for Disney) party had arrived at the wheelchair gate. I glanced at my castmates in the load area and I must have had the same expression they did. We were wondering if it was a joke, because five nuns in full habit were standing there. Well, one was in a wheelchair.

They were grouped into my area behind this party of high school girls in matching high school band shirts. At first the young girls were shocked, then giggly. The sweetest thing happened next though - they eventually turned around and shyly hugged them, one by one. It was precious!

The sisters loaded into the rocket at my station and I DESPERATELY wanted to take their photo! Can you picture it? Five nuns sitting in a row on a rocket. Click on the photo below and you can see one of them more clearly:

All I could do was think of our beloved Aunt Mary Ann. I know she would have found the sight as funny as I did! (What about it, Auntie? Care to ride a rocket?) When I sent the rocket to restraint, they were all sitting there as straight as could be in their glasses and habits, with these HUGE smiles on their faces.  The last one in seat five jokingly put her hands in prayer position and pleaded, "Pray for us!" I actually looked for a hidden camera at that point!

Immediately, I did the only thing I COULD do. I picked up the phone and called down to Unload.

"You'll never believe what's coming your way in rocket 27."

"Is it the nuns? YES! I saw them come in and I was hoping I would see them again!"

=)

Clearing Up

I think this article accurately represents the way I feel on some of the issues.

http://patriotupdate.com/articles/i-dont-hate-obama-gay-people-or-birth-control/

Hi.

It has been so long since I've written on this blog, my blog address was no longer in my browser history. Why did I let this happen?

Probably because I am discouraged with social media, and I don't have anything nice to say about it right now.

Here's a random picture of my new mug.

Pinterest, Facebook, and other social media sites are full of these things called "memes." Kelly says it's pronounced "meems" but I think they should be pronounced "MEANs" because really, that's all they are. They've given people excuses/permission to say mean things about other genres, demographics, political parties, religion, and celebrities.

My family calls me the "queen of confrontation" because I can't stand to have bad feelings between me and the ones I love, so I do the hard thing and go directly to that person and hash it out. With social media . . . I can't. I want to hide them from my news feeds but I can't, because I love them and care about what's happening in their lives. However, I do want to go to the ones who are hurting me and others and say, "Stop it! That hurts!" I want to explain everything. I want to "set the record straight" but I know all I would be doing is opening myself to further confrontation and criticism of me and my God.

It makes me physically ill to even think about it, with (especially as I write this) nausea and a rapid heartbeat. I want to defend the Christians whom I know and hope I am . . .the ones who give sacrificially to help the poor and spend every dollar they have to adopt the orphaned, who take meals to those who are suffering, who have homeless families and persons sleeping in their living rooms and guest rooms, who go out of their way and give up weekends and evenings in countless ways to help those in need. I want to defend those of us who genuinely love all and don't hate anyone, but are not allowed to disagree or we will be accused of hatred and close-mindedness.

I come so close, but then I delete every message I begin.

Why?

Because my God does not need me to defend Him.

What does my God require of me? To act justly. To love mercy. To walk humbly with Him. To love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. I will share the gospel until the day I die, because they are the words of LIFE and LOVE, but I do not need to fight His battles.

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10)

Soon, I know I can get back to daily happenings and photos for the grandmas and aunties. I haven't blogged because I know this is what I have needed to say and I've avoided it and run from it. It has become so popular to bash Christians and God in social media. Guess what?

I am a Christian.

". . . which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." 2 Timothy 1:11-13

I'm pressing on.

I know that not all gays and liberals have an "agenda" for taking over the world, but just want to love and be loved. How do I know? Because I sit and talk with them, and I certainly don't expect someone who doesn't know God to act like he does.

I also know that it's impossible to love and be loved without fully understanding God's great love. Once we understand His love for us, it changes us. We become not what the world or other "Christians" think we should be or even what we want to be, but we become who He bled and died for us to become.

Like Him.

Christians are so far from perfect, but are being perfected daily by His life-changing words - if they actually read them! How many who bash Christians in social media and regular media have sat and talked to one? I'm not talking the [eyes rolling] fundamentalist Christians who spout everything that the Bible is NOT and still call themselves Christians [coughWestboroughBaptistcough!], but genuine, Bible-believing and studying, in-the-trenches Christians who are lovers of Him and His word? Because the Christians like THAT? The ones I know and share my life with?

They're beautiful.

They're amazing.

They're the most loving and giving people I know. I mean . . . WOW can they love. I know, because they've seen me at my worst and did NOT judge me for it, but loved me through it to bring me to my best.

They're still loving me through it, and still trying to bring me to my best. Because people who have been in darkness don't judge the ones who are in darkness.

They love.

They show them light.

Social media - STOP IT.

Stop being so MEAN.

It hurts, and you're too nice and beautiful to be so hurtful.

"Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13