OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR

THE SNOWY DAY

Did you enjoy today's beautiful, sunny weather?  (Although, I realize that many of you live across the country from me and you might NOT have beautiful, sunny weather.)

Anyhow, to help you enjoy it even more, I thought I would share the picture Jeff sent - YES, this picture was taken THIS week.

THE OFFICE

I like this picture of the porch outside the office. I can imagine sitting there on a sunny afternoon, reading, listening to the silence, watching the green river flow by ...

After LBJ died, Lady Bird had the office turned into a family room. That's where the family spent Christmas every year (and I imagine they spent other days there, too).  After the Lady Bird died, it was changed back to look like LBJs office. The tour guide told us that when one of the grown granddaughters walked in, she burst into tears because the family room had so many memories. (She didn't remember the old office.)

But all the "stuff" was in storage - waiting for the day when it would once again be an office, so everything is orginal. (Not that he was president all that long ago or anything. I mean, it's not like having original stuff in Washington's house. Besides, LBJ donated the ranch to the National Park Service - he wanted people to tour his home and recognize his importance.

 

THE RANCH HOUSE

So, finally we made our way through the cows to the ranch house itself.

Remember, up until August people had to take bus tours around the grounds which stopped at the house only long enough for picture-taking. (Until last year, Lady Bird was living there.)

We signed up for a house tour, except it wasn't a house tour, it was a one-room-office tour, but even this was more than you got to do before August 27th. (By the way, that would've been Lyndon's 100th birthday.) 

We did the signing up in the airplane hanger (again, JUST opened to the public) and where LBJ used to hold press conferences. The hanger also included a lot of unused space, a gift shop and a glassed-in room with two cars.

One of the cars was a cute, little turquoise amphibious model. LBJ gave people tours in it and then sped down the bank to the river screaming, "I've lost my brakes! I've lost my brakes!" as he careened into the water. I'm sure his guests loved it.

We paid our dollar (I think that's what it was) and then had to wait  for the tour. Roger wandered outside and I went over to a grouping of chairs (with no one in them) to watch a DVD of Luci Johnson giving some ranch info. I lasted about three and a half minutes. (I'm not a big indoor-watching-dvd-person on vacation. I like to be outside actually seeing stuff and figure I could always read about the DVD info later on.)

But I did wander through the gift shop and once again saw the book that I had been seeing all morning (at the NPS center in Johnson City, at the Chamber of Commerce building downtown and now again). This was a more than 800 page book on Lady Bird "A White House Diary." I had read other books about her, but not this one and it was tempting. For the third time, I passed it by.

I went outside. Rog was wandering around the house, taking pictures. I wandered in a different direction and took some other pictures. The ranch sits on a rise about the Pedernales River. Pedernales, by the way, means Flint Rock.  (Oh, the exciting things you learn on this blog.)

However, when I looked at the river, I didn't think "flint rock." I thought "green."

Here's why.

Across from the house was a swing - but I thought it was kind of strange. You would think the swing would be facing the river and the woods, but instead it faced the house. And because, it was on a rise, you were kind of sitting backwards, downhill which was an odd sensation - but you did get a great picture of the house from there.

In back of the house, by the airplane hanger (we parked on the runway), were two technology, security trailers. I was reading about all the things LBJ did to make his ranch technologically state-of-the art and ready for him to actually conduct business there; all the problems they went through to get the TVs working (one for each channel), the huge amount of phones (so he wouldn't want have to move too far to answer) and a myriad of other stuff. Trust me, you don't want to know how much tax money went into this. I'm kind of accurately guessing if all my readers added the taxes paid during those years together - it wouldn't have covered it.

 But that's besides the point or maybe beside 

the ranch ...    

Finally, it was time for our home/office visit.

The guide took us through the side gate - pointing out the place on the lawn where LBJ met with foreign dignitaries. He said we all had seen pictures of LJB and other heads of state - in these chairs - so I looked and found one with Johnson meeting with his joint chiefs of staff - but they were sitting in the cheap, webbed-type lawn chair - not these metal ones. Still, as we walked by, we attempted to imagine world-changing meetings once being held in this now silent, October Sunday yard.  

Our little group shuffled inside ...

OK, WHATEVER, THANK YOU, INDIA

So, way back in September I was merrily e-mailing one night when suddenly this error message came up that said something was wrong, but of course, I didn't know what it was because it was in error-message language.

And at that precise moment, my computer decided it could receive e-mail, but that it wouldn't send e-mail.

But I was deep into conferences and many other things, so I ignored it, though between conferences I would try it again with the same results.

Still, I didn't have time to sincerely mess with it, especially since I'm smart enough to go around the problem and use another e-mail server off the web.

But - it was very annoying, because I couldn't just push reply.

Finally tonight at supper, we were talking about it, so Steve sat down in front of my computer and did a bunch of stuff - to no avail. So, he went into the live chat section and connected with some guy who was making it sound like he was next door, but was most likely over in Delhi somewhere. Steve live-chatted with him until he had to go off to a music obligation and I continued talking to "Josiah" (not-his-real-name) India guy.

He said something was wrong with my modem and then gave me a huge, about 79 character url  that I was supposed to copy and paste, but it wouldn't let me highlight it - so I carefully wrote down the 79 characters and manually did what Delhi guy told me to do.

Ta da!

At least tonight I can actually receive and SEND e-mail.

But my Texas-post-writing time is severely limited as a result.

'til tomorrow ...

THE BUTTERFLY

See, along with having a life bird list, my brother is also making a list of all the butterflies he's seen. 

Now, somewhere I also have a life bird list that Ken and I started and that I have added to somewhat since Ken's death - but I am nowhere in to it as much as my brother. He is a true birdwatcher. Rog goes out to watch birds and has studied them so much he can instantly identify it.  If a bird comes to me, I watch it and if it's not a common bird (which I know), I try to identify it and if I can't, I ask Roger. Hey, it's a system that works for me.

But I really like butterflies and taking pictures of butterflies. However, Roger said I wasn't supposed to show pictures of THIS butterfly, because this butterfly came to HIM and I had to go  find my own butterfly.

However, I identified it on my own with the help of Tom Murry's Texas Butterfly website, so I'm gonna go ahead and tell you the tale of the butterfly.

We had gotten out of the car - I think to take pictures of more LBJ-related cows (they truly did all look the same), when a lifer butterfly came and actually landed on my brother's foot. (Lifer meaning one he hadn't seen before.) This particular lifer (according to Tom Murry) is called the crimson patch but it was more yellow, orange, black and white than crimson. Yet, who am I to argue with the person who names butterflies?

Anyhow, this butterfly settled on Roger's jeans and we both took about 30 pictures and then Rog put his finger out and the butterfly happily crawled on his finger. This was the first time in Roger's life that a lifer anything actually landed on him and refused to go away.

I guess when all you've got to fly around is LBJ cows, a lifer human is rather appealing.

On to that ranch house ...

THE RANCH

LBJ was not a great president.

LBJ was not a great husband.

But LBJ had a beautiful ranch.

Ranchland spreads out more than 700 acres along the Pedernales River in Texas Hill Country - 14 miles west of Johnson City. (I think the area actually covers more land than this - but I am a little unsure how much does belong to the ranch compared to how much did belong to the ranch or how much actually belongs to the National Park Service and how much belongs to the family. And I don't think I care enough to figure it out.)

And we had timed our visit just right - only a few months after they stopped bus tours of the ranch (though they may start again) and only a few months since they have actually opened one of the house rooms - Johnson's office. So, we were able to drive our own car back into the hills and then step inside the ranch.

When you first turn left onto the lane, you see Johnson's birthplace, well, actually, NOT the actual birthplace, but the look-alike-birthplace which Johnson himself commissioned to be built (the only president to oversee the building of a birthplace reproduction. He was kind of proud like that).

The opening in the middle is called a dogtrot (because dogs could trot through and get from the front yard to the back), but houses were actually built that way for air circulation so the houses would be cooler in the summers. (I have visited Amish farmhouses which were built the same way.)

 We also followed the road out to the fields.

See the deer out there in the field.

All the cattle we saw are related to LBJs cattle, though they looked like all the other cows we passed in all the other ranches, but I guess being related to LBJ is an honor for a cow. I especially liked this picture where the calf was chasing the mama cow through the grass. I mean, how many presidential calves have you seen in your life?

We stopped at the show barn which had more cattle and goats and horses. This isn't the greatest picture of a horse, but I thought the brand was interesting - remember this is a  National Park.

Next we headed for the cemetery. I was most impressed by the tree that shaded the tombstones.

More LBJ-related cattle wandered fenceless along and across the road leading to the ranch house itself.

Well, that's about it for the road to the ranch -but it is a BIG ranch. I'm figuring I can stretch these Texas pictures out for a looonnnnggg time.

Texas is a BIG state, you know.

Oh, wait there's the butterfly.

Next post.

A PICTURE FROM LBJ's BOYHOOD HOME

You've probably seen this before.

But if you haven't ...

What's in this picture?

A skull?

Or a lady getting ready for a party?

WANDERING AROUND

The entire village of Johnson City (is that a misnomer?) is historic (as is any city/village/town that was built before today). But Johnson City's history is centered around LBJ. 

No matter what Johnson did as president, the people of the Texas Hill Country remember him as the one who brought electricity to the area. They play that up in a big way which I'll get to in a minute.

The visitor's center is in the Withers and Spaulding General Merchant Store. Inside are more museum-type displays and brochures and when we were there - no people. I mean,  literally, we had the place to ourselves and could've walked off with whatever we wanted. However, we are honest people and left it all to future generations or at least visitors that came later in the day - which I thought was fairly decent of us since we both like presidential history.  (Actually, the building was dedicated as visitor's center just this past February.)

Then we meandered over to the Blanco County Courthouse and then back again. We saw some interesting small town Texas sights on the way.

That's my brother with his camera in front of the courthouse. As my mom said, "I'm sure I'll see some pictures of this trip." (Come on, Mom, I think we only have about 500 or so between us.)

As I said, no matter what kind of job LBJ did as president, the people in the area will remember him as the one who brought electricity to the Texas Hills ... and they're still celebrating.

Every year they have a Texas Hill Christmas (interestingly because "we have a true love of Christmas ... Jesus Christ, and want to share that love with everyone, if our display can get one person to foget the presents, meals, shopping, and hustle and bustle of the holidays and remember the Reason for the celebration then we have met our goal.")

They display 170,000 lights on several Christmas trees and 72 oak trees. At this point, 25% of the lights are up and even on that sunny, October Sunday morning, they were working.

 

they

But enough of Johnson City - it was time to head for the ranch.

THE JOHNSON SETTLEMENT

The Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park also includes the Johnson Settlement. Johnson's grandfather and great-uncle had a cattle headquarters in the 1860s (for which Johnson City is named) and of course, much land that went with that.

His grandparents' home, barns, cooler house, windmill, etc. are still standing.  The morning was cool and beautiful and we enjoyed wandering around the grounds.

 

This is a chichuahuan raven - a lifer for Roger (and I imagine, that also means a lifer for me).

 

This is a corner of the grandparents' log cabin. 

I DID IT!

I'm done!

Ten weeks, six conferences, six states = 30 workshops!!!!!

What a great conference today and it was very fun having 11 people I KNOW in my very last workshop - including a bunch of kids who I taught as Cubbies and are now LITs.

Actually, this entire season was a good one. I love meeting leaders from different parts of the country. And talking and sharing with them.

Now, back to my real job.

My next scheduled AMC (Awana Ministry Conference) is next August 8th at Cedarville University!

(Though I do have some other non-Awana conferences scheduled before then.)

But no more traveling for awhile. I can actually put the suitcase away.

THE NEXT MORNING

The next morning we left San Antonio and headed up to Johnson City, a town named for President Johnson's grandfather. 

A lady in one of my workshops who lives in Johnson City told me that Lady Bird's funeral procession came through town on a  Sunday morning. They stopped Sunday School and everyone went out to line the streets. The daughters came through in limos with tinted windows, but they rolled down the windows and waved to the kids. She said there was a real sense of seeing part of history.

We talked to the ranger at the National Park Visitor's center and then headed over to Johnson's boyhood home which was in town right by the center.

The house was white with green shutters. The ceilings of the porches were painted blue and the ranger explained they do that to confuse wasps, bees, etc. because they think it's the sky and won't build nests. He says it works.

 

THE ALAMO

My parents have been to the Alamo.

My son and daughter-in-law (and two of their kids) have been to the Alamo.

My daughter and son-in-law (and all three of their kids) have been to the Alamo.

And, yes, my son-in-law and two of my grandchildren have even performed at the Alamo - a couple years back when they sang "We Are Children of the Alamo" at a solemn ceremony open only to Alamo descendants.

Because Steve's great, great, great grandfather (not sure I have my "greats" correct) fought and lost his life at the Alamo.

So, I've always wanted to see it and of course, everyone said, "You'll be so disappointed - it's so small."

Having been to Boston where the historical stuff is crammed in between high-rise office buildings, that's what I was expecting.

Rog and I headed downtown as soon as we got off the plane, hoping (since it was "so small") we would have opportunity to visit before needing to arrive at the church. We parked and headed for Subway. (You tend to get hungry on planes these days considering you have to pay $3.00 for tiny bag of snack mix.) We ate our sandwiches, overlooking the Alamo and were glad that those long ago soldiers at least had a place to buy lunchmeat and sodas.

The thing was - the Alamo was a lot bigger than we imagined. The front has a large courtyard - jammed with tourists even on this October weekday.

The Long Barracks are there, as is a garden in the back.

Inside, everything is solemn and quiet as people meander from one display to another - no photos allowed. I thought the Crockett Hotel sign behind this scene lent an unusual touch to the picture.

I took the picture of this part of the monument so I could get the name Andrew Kent who is the GGGGG grandfather of Steve.

Here are some other pictures of the grounds.

SAN ANTONIO

Just like there are top twenty songs, there are the top twenty US cities (in the sense of population). San Antonio was the only one I hadn't been in - which was kind of strange because my parents, my son, my daughter and five of my six grandchildren have been there.

But I hadn't.

And my brother hadn't.

So when we got the opportunity to go down for the conference this last weekend, we took it. 

(Just for the record - IF you keep track of these things - I live in the 135th city on the list.)

The conference was held at the First Baptist Church of Universal City - which is on on the fringes of San Antonio.

The conference was good - again I met a lot of great people. I don't know how many conferences I've done in my life - probably about 75 - 100 - and most of them are good. I had a few that weren't so good - still most have been good.

This year has been the best when it comes to keynote speakers. Some years I'm not that crazy about any of them I hear. This year all of them have been consistently good.

The night before the conference, the missionary took us out for barbeque - and they also served barbeque for lunch during the conference. (After all, we WERE in Texas.) But after the conference we went to Macaroni Grill.

Then Rog and I went over to the missionary's motel room (well, the motel rooms were actually small apartments) with some of the other workshop leaders and talked and read evaluations.

WIDE-OPEN, CRAMPED-CLOSE SPACES

I do not attempt to understand airplanes. I have read explanations as to why they stay in the air and I sort of get the whole aerodynamic force, motion, drag thing - sort of.

But when I'm IN a plane with 200 other people, it is still difficult to comprehend or when I'm in my yard looking up at a tiny speck in the sky that I KNOW has 200 people in it, that's mind-boggling.

So I accept it and have learned to be fairly calm about the whole flight thing

Yet, there is still the fear of sitting next to someone who can make an otherwise calm trip uncomfortable.

You look out your plane window and see literally miles of sky, yet you are cramped in a two x two space and when the person in front of you decides he has to put his seat back, it becomes a one x one space. (I consider it part of my Christian-caring-about-others responsibility to never, ever put my seat back on an airplane.)  

Still, think about any other circumstances. If you were cramped next to a co-worker is such a tiny space for two hours, would it not seem strange, uncomfortable and completely inappropriate?

On a plane, you're in that same completely uncomfortable and inappropriate position with a complete stranger!

This could be an incessant talker.

This could be someone half-drunk.

This could be someone who leans into your space.

This could be someone who smells.

This could be ....

Well, ya get the point.

So, I sit in the gate area and I look around and I wonder just who I'll get to spend the next two and a half hours with in an uncomfortable and inappropriate position. (And they're probably looking at me with the same judgmental thoughts, but I'll never know that, will I?)

I actually haven't had too many bad experiences, but this last trip was better than most.

On the way down, I was right in the midst of the Wheaton soccer team - both ladies and men. I sat next to a sophomore from Boston (science major) who spent the entire trip answering questions on a spiritual heritage paper. The teams were on their fall break and heading to San Antonio to play Trinity University (of San Antonio). She told me that the ladies' team was doing so-so this year, but that the guys team was doing well and this was the biggest game of the season - since Trinity was last year's national champions. (I might not have my facts exactly straight.) But when I looked on the Web later on, I discovered that the girls won and the guys lost.  

And on the way home ...

Yes, we were in San Antonio for a conference, but so were 35,000 dentists. The plane was crowded with dentists  - including the lady who sat next to me.

When we were waiting to get on the plane, I was talking to a few of them and I said, "So, if I get a toothache on the way home, I'm in good shape."

One of the men laughed, "Well, no. We probably couldn't fix much with a plastic fork."

But another one assured me they could at least give me a lot of tooth-type advice.

So, I had that going for me.

Still, it always feels good to get back out into fresh air.

BACK AGAIN

I'm back from my Texas conference and a couple vacation days, too.

OH, YEAH, SERVICE AWARD!

I know some of you have been holding your breath waiting to find out whether I decided on the air purifier or shop vac for my Awana service award.

Well, the catalog got buried under at stack of stuff - like book stuff and conference stuff and I kind of forgot about it.

Then my watch broke and so I went to Target and bought a new watch because I figured knowing what time it is when you do workshops and you're supposed to end on time is a good idea. Then THAT one broke and ...

So I went the traditional route and chose a watch which I don't have yet, but I will be sure to take a picture of it when I do get it, so that you can all rejoice in my 15 years of service.

INDUSTRY

This is what is happening at my house tonight which keeps me from writing too much, but as you can see, we're very industrious. The 4yo says we're starting a business and selling our stuff to some good people who want to buy it. So, if you're a good person, beware - because you may need to shop at our shop.

HMMM ... INTERESTING

So, I was listing the blogs for ya'll and in doing so, discovered one that explained how I could have some fun with my photos. 

Now, I can do this ...

SOME BLOG THOUGHTS

This is what's funny about blogs.

Once you start them, they float around cyberspace (unless you intentionally get rid of them) and then they float and float some more. 

If you click through a blog service and look at other people's blogs - you discover that many blogs have a similar post. The post goes something like this --

Well, I have decided to join the blogosphere, so come back often as I keep you

        updated on my life ...

Problem is, this is the ONLY post, and it's dated September 2006. It would be interesting to determine the average number of posts in a blog. Five? Ten?

Right now there are all kinds of political blogs out there. 

And I came upon a sad blog last night. (By the way, I don't spend a lot of time looking at blogs, but a list of them comes up when I'm posting on mine, so if I see something interesting, I'll check it out.)

Anyhow, this blog (which sounded as if it were written by a fairly young girl, said something like,

 "This is my new blog. I had to get off my old blog because of judgmental people. Seems someone had to go to our children's ministry director because she was concerned.  Concerned about me, that is. She didn't like it that I was writing about going out drinking and partying and sleeping with my boyfriend. She didn't think I was a good influence on the kids. What does she know?"

By the way, this was written in all seriousness.  Again, I thought it sad that the girl had no clue why her blog was a problem.

OK - I decided to do some research. I looked at the ten blogs that popped up when I logged on to write this post. This is what I found.

1. motorcycles

2. stamping (one post)

3. quotes from businessmen (one post)

4. one I refused to open - title itself was bad enough

5. politics (liberal)

6. stamping (this one actually looked inviting)

7. PalmPilots

8. politics (conservative)

9. art

10. Roman history

So be it ...

MY BROTHER AND ME

I have one brother.

He is my only sibling and therefore as he says, the only other person in the world made up of the same genes that make up me.

In some ways we are very different.

In other ways we are very alike.

This is one thing that is true. We should not sit next to each other in any type of serious meeting. The reason for this is we react to the same things and sometimes they are things no one else reacts to.

That happened today. What was said wasn't so funny ... it was just ...

Well, you kind of had to be there. 

But there was this other time - several years ago, when not only was I sitting next to my brother, but my daughter was sitting on the other side of me - someone else who shares those genes and has a tendency to react relatively to the same things.

The speaker was up front talking about a convicted murderer who had become a Christian. The story was truly sobering and inspiring.

But then the speaker concluded his talk by saying, "He walked to the electric chair, praising the Lord. Don't we all want to die that way?"

And everyone simply sat there (maybe they were sleeping, I don't know).

However, that statement struck my daughter, brother and I as extremely weird and humorous. 

Why would we want to die on an electric chair?

Talk about biting your tongue. I did everything to stop laughing that day! I would just get stopped when either Rog or Kelli would start again and then that would get me going. We set each other off and it was all quite contagious. Fortunately, the meeting quickly ended.

And to this day, we don't understand why no one else thought that was a strange statement.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM

Happy eighty-seventh birthday to my mom.

I was holding out saying anything because there's a special picture I wanted to post - but I can't find it - so I'll have to post it when I DO find it.

I love you, Mom.

And Happy Birthday to Steve, too ...

And to Dave and Carol and Molly and Sam and Lauri and Marissa and whoever else in my extended family and friends has a birthday this week.

COLORING BOOK LEAVES

Don't the leaves on these oak trees look fake as if they were lifted from a coloring book? 

AUTUMN MORNING

JUST THINKING ...

This is my opinion.

Which is good because this is my blog.

And you might not agree with me. 

Because this is about soap opera prayer requests.

Sometimes I think the Lord must laugh at us - not in a mean way, but in a loving, Heavenly Father way. He knows we have difficulty expressing our thoughts which is why He gave us help - in the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. (Romans 8:26)

Like the request on our weekly staff prayer sheet that told us we needed to pray because "Martha was in a comma."  No doubt being in a comma is serious, but not quite as serious as being in a question mark or exclamation point. I wouldn't think. Fortunately, she recovered and lived grammatically ever after.

And no matter how you look at it - Martha being in a comma was not quite as serious as John. We needed to pray for him because he was scheduled to have an autopsy. Yep, That's what it said - right there under prayer concerns of the week. I think we'd all be sort of concerned about a scheduled autopsy - especially one that was scheduled while we were still alive!

Seriously, there is a type of prayer request that makes me cringe. 

It's the "let me tell you all about my husband, (child, neighbors, mother) and all the horrible things that are happening in his (her, their) life and I know you all know him (her, them), but after all, this is a time we are to bring our requests before the Lord and I want the Lord to know that my husband is having big problems with his boss, and my child is failing all his classes and my neighbors are fighting a lot and my mother annoys me with all her phone calls.

I've had this prayer-request-cringing thing for a long time but this week I thought about it again because this is the prayer request I saw written down for hundreds of people to see:

Please pray for my daughter who is not walking with the Lord. We know it is 

because of that guy she married who has not shown any desire to go to church

and is causing all kinds of trouble in our family because of it.

I would say the chances of wayward daughter and son-in-law that caused her to go astray - seeing the prayer list is about one in five. In other words, there is a good chance that they WILL see it and don't you just think that reading about their waywardness on a public prayer list will make them want to get up and go to church next Sunday?

Or how about the Christian school principal who announced to the new parents that his own son struggled in school and was failing most of his classes and on and on and would we pray for him? This son was 14 and a peer of the children of the parents who were being talked to.  Knowing that his father told everyone about his struggles probably raised the kid's self-esteem about 1000 points, don't you think?  Ah, no.

My favorite was the Christian radio station who invited callers to share their prayer requests. You would hear these ladies get on with weepy, whiny voices, "Hi, I'm Sheila and I'd just like you all to pray for my alcoholic husband, He didn't get home to two in the morning."  And my cringe radar would go up. What if the place where alcoholic husband worked just happened to have that radio on and heard his wife broadcasting his problems to radioland?  Ah, sure that would make him stop drinking and get his life straightened out.

Now, there are exceptions to everything and I'm sure someone can tell me about a person who did turn to Christ because someone else aired his/her problems, but I betcha not as many who turned to Christ because a friend or family member showed them loved and DIDN'T air their problems to the world. (And yes, of course, there are appropriate time to share - but NOT in a public forum.)

I just think we all need to be careful what we reveal when requesting prayer. 

As I once heard a three-year-old prayer:

"Give us all wisbom."

TOMORROW

I just got home again ... 

But I'll post tomorrow. I'm thinking about a post on Soap Opera Prayer Requests.

Hmmm ....

COMMANDERS AND PASTORS

Late, rainy night.

I just arrived home from an "event" at Headquarters where we invited local commanders and pastors to come here about our church/home initiative. Lots of people took part (as did I).

I was proud of Matt Schmidt who talked about his faith in relationship to earning his Citation. He did a good job.

Will have time to write a real post one of these days.  :)

THE DAY

Computer problems.

Get the oil changed.

Computer problems.

Trim the grass around the fence and the wall and the  ...

Computer problems.

Mow lawn that hasn't been mowed in a LONG time so the grass kept getting jammed in the mower and stopping and I would patiently start it again about a hundred times.

Computer problems.

Laundry.

Tired.

You really don't want to know anymore than that - and even this much is too much.

HEADING NORTH

So, this weekend I headed north to Pewaukee, Wisconsin which is right by Brookfield which is right by Milwaukee. I left about one on Friday and meandered up through Cary, Crystal Lake and McHenry and then up to Lake Geneva. I was kind of hoping the leaves would be a little further along. I found a parking spot by the lake, but it wasn't conducive to a lot of picture taking (lots of people around) - but I did get a few ...

I continued north - coming into Pewaukee from the west and found the church. I pulled into the parking lot and the first person I saw was a guy I know super well - he was the youth leader at our church in Racine and is now on the area Ministry Team. Then I walked inside the church and saw a lady I know super well - she's the CEF missionary who Kelli worked with for four summers.

And that's kind of the way it went. Sixteen people were there from our old church - and some other people I knew from when we lived there.

But anyhow, I got my stuff in and then waited around (which you do a lot of at conferences) and then the conference staff went out for supper and then I went back to the hotel. Could I just say - after this weekend, I'm ready to declare that the GPS is one of the best inventions ever? I would've still be riding around if I hadn't had mine.

Saturday - conference day - I continued to see people I know - including the worship leader - who was at one time, a little girl I taught in preschool.

The conference was at Spring Creek Church (the church, previously known as Garfield Baptist and for those of you from work who know Dale - this is the church were he grew up. His name is on the wall.

They are in the process of remodeling and this picture does not do it justice - it's huge - this is a side view.

Coming home after the conference - I wanted to get to Illinois and familiar roads before dark - so I couldn't stop and do a lot of picture-taking. Which was frustrating because the sun was going down over beautiful, rolling farmland.

Alas ...

MAYBE NEXT YEAR

And I think back to the little kid who saw my first Cub game in fifth grade and became an instant fan and decided that the best thing about being an adult must be that you could listen to Cub games and didn't need to wait until you got home from school to find out the score.

And I think of that junior high kid who secretly (with my friend) collected baseball cards (cuzz' girls didn't do that) and wanted more than anything an Ernie Banks card and never got one, but that didn't stop me from declaring Ernie my hero when everyone else was in crushing on TV doctors (which were all the rage back then). And how my friend wrote in my seventh grade yearbook - maybe next year.

And I think of the young bride who had the Cub score announced at our reception (and they lost - so I'm glad the marriage turned out way better than the game). And then convinced my husband that we should name our cat, Ernie Banks and how we would throw a ball into the air and the cat would jump and catch it and bring it back to us - a ballplaying cat.

And of the years in Ohio when we couldn't even get Cub games unless they were playing the Reds and how that was the only time our boss didn't have "lite classical" playing, but we actually got to listen to something fun and it was me against three Red fans.

And I think of moving back to the area and brainwashing my growing kids to like Sandberg and Sanderson even though they grew up deep in Brewer territory.

And I think about the grandkids singing  "Go, Cubs" Go" on the way to church this morning.

And I think about 2008.

Am I crying? No.

Am I happy. No.

Am I frustrated. Not really.

Am I surprised. Ummm .... no.

Am I disappointed. Well ... sure .... but ...

That's just the Cubs. They get close, but they don't win.

And we know that, but we keep hoping and wishing and thinking ...

Someday, it's just gotta happen.

So, Lou - get out the roster and think it through again.

Maybe next year.

YESTERDAY

Yesterday, on a perfectly normal day, when I was carrying my camera in my purse and totally forgot that I had it, five of us went to a new around-Awana restaurant - well at least it was new to me - although everyone else had been to it before.

Red Robin.

Here are some thoughts.

1. I always thought it was a fast food restaurant, but it's actually a sit-down restaurant.

2. A little expensive, but not crazily so.

3. The person who took our order was friendly and was willing to give us separate checks.

4. Why was the picture on the wall hung sideways?

5. The teriyaki chicken sandwich was great and tasty but about the messiest thing I've ever eaten.

6. You get endless refills on fries.

7. I would go again, but not go out of my way to go again.