I needed a wake-up call

From Natalie Grant (to my heart): This song really represents where I've been, and it also makes me realize that I never want to get to the place where I stop waking up to something new. I hope this song encourages others to wake up-maybe to some things kept silent, dreams unfulfilled, fears, insecurities, or something someone has been shutting out, pretending it doesn't exist. It's okay to wake up to those things and let our God turn them into good.

AWAKEN
Sometimes I feel like I'm just existing
I'm not really living
I'm only watching the time slip away
I've forgotten who I am in you
I'm not who I'm meant to be
I'm drifting farther away from my destiny

Awaken my heart, awaken my soul
Awaken your power and take control
Awaken the passion to live for you, Lord
Awaken me

My soul is longing, my heart is searching
I'm desperate for you to move
Give me a hunger, pull me closer
I'm crying out to you
Awaken my heart, awaken my soul
Awaken your power and take control
Awaken the passion to live for you, Lord

Open my eyes so I can see your presence
Dwelling inside
Wake me up, cause I can't live another minute
If I'm not shining your light
Awaken my heart, awaken my soul
Awaken the passion in me
Lord, awaken me to live my destiny
Lord, awaken me and shine your light through me
Lord, awaken me to live my destiny
Lord, awaken me and shine your light through me

Awaken my heart, awaken my soul
Awaken your power and take control
Awaken the passion to live for you, to live for you
Wake me up Lord, give me the passion, Jesus
I want to live for you

Somehow, it got worse.

Now back to the negative column...

We made this trip to Illinois for John's Grandmother's burial. She passed away on July 14, 2008 at the age of 90. Fortunately, John was able to visit her out in Maryland a few years ago while on a business trip. His Aunt and Uncle, whom she had lived with for the better part of 14 years, held a funeral out in Maryland last week. Then, they brought her remains to Illinois so she could be buried next to her husband, whom died in 1969.

John's sister Becky and family are in Illinois, his sister Ruth and husband drove in from Iowa, as did his cousin and family. His cousin is a Methodist Minister, and presided over the service. It was beautiful and very touching. I learned more about his family, and this wonderful woman whom I didn't get the honor to meet. While there, I was also able to see his mom's grave, and read her headstone: Loving Mother and Teacher.

During the service, another unfortunate event took place. While we were seated at the grave, praying and mourning, someone opened John's cousin's car and took his wife's purse. Right there at the cemetery!! Although we were facing the road, trees and bushes blocked our view of their car, so no one saw or heard it happen. The police came, and she cancelled all her cards immediately. Luckily too, because they had already tried gassing up their car on her expense! She handled it much better than I would, and said, "it's just stuff." True, but still unfair.

Well, we had a lovely reception at Becky's home, sharing pictures and stories of Grandma. She was a beautiful woman, inside as much as out. She was said to have always prayed for her grandchildren, and that they might know the Lord.

While there is more to be said about the adventure to Illinois this past week, I'll end with this:

Before John's Grandma passed, she wrote a passage saying that on the day of her death, she will be met by her husband, two daughters and three sisters, and they will take her to meet her Maker. What a beautiful reunion!!

An unfortunate gathering... and events

I'm writing to you from a hotel room in Illinois, and happy to have made it here. Our flight out of Denver was supposed to leave at 12:41pm yesterday. When we were still sitting at the gate at 1:01pm, we knew something had to be wrong. They already shut the cabin door, so what were we waiting for? A voice came over the speaker telling us that the altimeter was broken, and they had called a mechanic. This piece of machinery tells the pilot the distance to the ground--pretty important thing to have working. So yes, I'll wait for it to be fixed, thank you.

Not too much longer, we were ship shape and ready to go to the runway. So we did, and waited... and waited, and waited (no pun intended, you'll see). Now, another voice came on to tell us that we were headed back to the gate, as the person who signs off on the flight after recording the weight (used in determining take-off speed and timing, etc.) had gone home for the day without communicating this important piece of data. Also, we had burned through all of our taxing fuel and some of the in-flight fuel. He joked that we should go re-fuel, unless we wanted to land in Oakland instead of San Francisco. Um, neither, actually... we're headed to Chicago!?!? Everyone looked around, a bit more worried at this point. After hearing us chatter, rather than snicker at his "joke", he came back on to say, "Oh, apparently you're headed to Chicago... that would explain why you didn't laugh at my Oakland joke, ha ha!" (No one laughed). He continued, "Don't worry, I'm not the pilot! We'll be getting out of here soon, folks." [Insert applause, here.]

So after sitting on the ground in Denver for 2+ hours more than we anticipated, we finally took off and headed to the Windy City.

As we landed in Chicago, we sat on the Tarmac for 20 minutes before moving to the gate. Side note: this flight was making a connection in Chicago for Amsterdam, those people are panicked at this point. So we make it to the gate, and a lady comes on to tell us the next nugget of informaiton. She starts off by saying, "This flight is cursed..." Uh, great. She said that the jetway is broken, and for safety reasons, they've called in a mechanic to get it fixed. Gee, you think? Also, remember those folks heading to Amsterdam? I hope they have large bladders, because the flight is (thankfully) waiting for them at the gate, and I don't think they'll have time to pass go, let alone stop at the restroom. She asked that anyone with a little more time wait to de-board and let those who are making a connection get off first. Done. I got farther in my book, goofed around with my hubby more, and was happier for it.

So, the plane finally emptied, and we reached our destination. But wait...

John and I picked up our rental car, loaded the luggage, and were headed down I-88 in Chicago. There is construction for the length of the highway (think T-Rex in Denver) and no place to pull off, should you need to. Which we did. As we sped down the interstate, John pointed out that the hood of the car was bouncing. Excuse me? Bouncing? Yes, bouncing. It was not latched, and we're going about 70mph. My mind went to the scene in Tommy Boy when their hood flips up on the highway... So of course I started quoting that for John. What else?

We finally found our exit, pulled into a parking lot, and John pushed the hood down until it clicked. Yikes. He called the car rental place to let them know about what happened. While we didn't get hurt, we could have if it had flipped up on us while going down the highway. He's rented from them several times and never had it happen, he just wanted to let them know about it. Good thing he did, because they comped us a day's rental. Yea! One point in the positive column!!

More to come...

Not-so-Unbreakable

So... We got a new puppy in February. We had gone to the Boulder Humane Society looking for a kitten; we wanted a brother/sister for Gus:











...and for me to have a kitten of my own (John has had Gus longer than he's known me.) Somehow, we left there with this:



As you can tell, he's all dog. He's a labrador retriever mixed with border collie (we believe). He's 2 1/2, house trained, full of energy, and quite the lover. He flips (almost literally) when he sees his leash, and thinks car rides are the next best thing to the leash. He LOVES riding in the car.



Well, when we brought him home, we apparently didn't "doggie-proof" our house well enough. He was very nosey as to what we had thrown in the trash, so we now have a covered trash can. And, we soon found that he showed his affection to John by chewing up all of HIS things: eye glasses, video games, DVD's, etc. Oh, he chewed one book of mine, one.

John would get so mad about this, but nothing compared to the day we came downstairs to find a particular DVD on the family room floor. As I looked down at the shards of plastic and destroyed DVD case, I just had to laugh. The movie he had chosen this time was: Unbreakable (starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson) C'mon, unbreakable? Apparently not!! I was cracking up (Ha!); John wasn't.

The End.