Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Traveling Along

Across the Mountains

A FISHING TRIP

and it was cold

A LAKE

A BROWN TROUT

A RAINBOW TROUT

A BIGGER RAINBOW

LONG REEDS


SPRING BABIES

Weight gain 6lbs - Ouch!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Keeping it Cool/Hot

Weight loss update – down 19 pounds, discovered a belt hole I hadn’t paid much attention to and I guess the bonus is - I am also down one bra size.
Today, I rediscovered something I thought the male readers might appreciate. I am pretty sure the female readers have already figured this one out. But, if the female readers would like to tag along, just because, that would be fine with me.
This morning I was getting ready for work and I noticed the collar of my shirt on the right side was curling under and my shirt pocket was a bit wrinkled. Right there at my finger tips was my wife’s hair straightener. I suppose you have already figured out where this is going but for the slow ones in the room let me continue.
I plugged the hair straightener in and while waiting for it to heat up I shaved. By the time I had finished shaving my wife’s excellent appliance was ready. Now the sheer beauty of this procedure is that you don’t even have to remove your shirt for this to work. I slipped the curling iron into my pocket , closed the hair straightener and presto bazooka my pocket looked freshly ironed. Next came the collar - nothing to it really - I give it five stars.
I would like to see you try this with a conventional iron and not take your shirt off. Actually, if I did see you try this it would not really impress me much because I have mastered this procedure already and used it upon more than one occasion. Caution is the key, so be careful when attempting this slightly risky behavior, a mishap could make life very bad. Before starting un-tuck your shirt, slide your bedside copy of Mother Earth News under your shirt and iron away. It works really….I was going to say it works really well, but that would just be a lie. It doesn’t hardly work at all. I think it could work pretty good if a person had three hands but God only gave us two so maybe this activity is not meant to be used except in emergency situations. It seems the minute I wanted to apply the iron the book would slip out. I almost ironed my chest hair. Hmmm...maybe I have a new use for the hair straightener - any one have curly chest hair?
Well that’s all I got.
I will be away from my computer for the next week or so, ripping lips, so wish me luck.
Upon my return to computer world, I promise to have at least one fish tale.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Easter

Coloring eggs - purple and blue always my favorite. Hiding the eggs then looking for the eggs. It was all great fun when I was young. We hid those eggs over and over. It seemed like we hid them for hours. Looking back, it is a bit disturbing; later we ate those same eggs, now many broken – how did we survive?
The coloring of the eggs was a great event. Mom boiled the water and filled each cup with a different colored liquid. It was a shared event, at least for us younger siblings. Each of us shared the cups placing our eggs into the cup of choice and dyeing the eggs to all different colors and shades. I am pretty sure mine were the prettiest. That was all great fun but Easter is not about colored eggs.
Today I was wondering when the real meaning of Easter came to reside in me. When did the real meaning of Easter actually begin to matter? Was it after I had children and the weight of their souls weighed upon my conscious? Was it as a child when I heard the Bible story of Peter denying the Christ three times? And wondering would I have done different? Or was it the story of Judas and his betrayal of Jesus, for forty pieces of silver? Or, maybe it was that first sun rise service I attended, huddling close to my daughter in the cold and hearing the words, “He has risen.” And, then our response, “He has risen indeed.”
Maybe it was as a teenager, when my sin weighed heavy upon me and the inner turmoil ravaged my heart from the guilt I carried day in and day out. Then late one night sitting across from RA we talked quietly about the cross and the completeness of Jesus death and resurrection, and how forgiveness was offered to anyone who wanted forgiveness as a free gift. Then there was my prayer of confession and the received forgiveness that resulted in a peace that rushed over my heart giving me a freedom from the mire I had sunk into – Oh what joy! – Oh what freedom! It was like a huge heavy weight was lifted off me. That is something I will never forget.
I cannot tell you an exact time when Easter’s true meaning came to be a part of me – but I am grateful beyond words for the freedom and joy that is mine because of what Jesus went through. Easter is certainly a time each year when the gravity of Christ’s death and resurrection is considered and the profoundness is focused on and I cannot help being overwhelmed with gratitude.
Tonight is Friday – the night the Christian world acknowledges Christ’s death on the cross. In two days we will acknowledge the power of his resurrection for the forgiveness of sin. May all my readers enjoy His peace and forgiveness that surpasses all understanding.
He has risen…