Another Trip

We are just about to leave for the airport. We are going to see our son and his family in Atlanta, Georgia. They actually live in Mableton, which is a suburb of Atlanta. Tomorrow night we are going to a Braves Game and Saturday we will be driving about 2 hours north to Summerville, GA to celebrate Tom's brother-in-law's birthday. He will be 85. Tom's sister died last year so we try to make sure we keep up with Joe. We are going to be celebrating my daughter-in-law's birthday on Sunday. I won't tell you her age, but she is younger than 85. HA. I won't be blogging while I am gone. I will be anxious to hear about Discom's trip when she gets back from seeing JJB. I know who he is. Probably the last to know, but oh, well. Everyone have a great weekend.

Lost and Found

I thought I had left my Bible at church last Wed night. I looked for it Sunday, but no, it was not there. I wasn't too worried because I misplace things frequently. Last night I got a phone call from a lady who had found my Bible in the parking lot at IHOP - I guess on Wed night since we went there after church. Anyway she had turned it in and then when she was there yesterday she saw no one had claimed it. I did not have my phone number in it but my name was on the outside. She looked me up in the phone book and called to tell me where it was. We just got back from picking it up. She told me her name but I couldn't understand her. What a nice lady.

Categories

First you were either liberal or conservative, then progressive or not, now I've found out we actually can divide into six categories. I just recently read Joe Beam's article in Grace Centered Magazine. You can find it online at www.gracecentered.com/
(I still can't make this a link) Look in the archives for the article, "What's Happening to churches of Christ" by Joe Beam. I understand this was written awhile ago, not sure how long, and many of you may have read it, but it was new to me. I found it very fascinating and I believe I know people in all the categories. We recently had our preacher leave and one of the reasons he stated was our congregation was too diverse. Maybe he felt he couldn't connect with the extremes. How about you - where do you fall? Where does your church fall? Is it important to you? BTW I think I identify with the Open category - which is not how I grew up. I am not sure where our church is - I think we have them all, except hopefully not the exasperated. I would say I grew up as a Zealot. In the fifties was there anything else?

Exercise and Food

I am still sticking with my exercise program, the only problem is I still want to eat. This morning I swam 500 yards. I did 125 yds (5 laps) and rested then swam another 125, until I got to 500. That's pretty good since when I started I couldn't swim one lap before stopping. I actually made lunch today. We had chicken (left over) mixed with stuffing with cream of celery soup over the top. We also had pinto beans - that I cooked - deviled eggs, and avocado slices. I am getting ready to go to my Sweet Adelines rehearsal and I am not hungry now, which probably means I will be hungry when we are through at 9:30, and more than likely I will stop for a $1.00 double cheeseburger at McDonalds. Oh well.....

Check-up

I just got home from my 6 month check-up and my doctor says I will live. My exercising must be working- my blood pressure was good. I have been on blood pressure medicine since I was 38 but since I have been retired it is always good, although the doctor never takes away any medicine. Tom went for an eye check-up this morning and the doctor added a drop to try to get the pressure down in his left eye - if this doesn't work he may have to have surgery again on that eye. I really like doing the weights at the Y and I am looking foward to swimming again tomorrow. Maybe I will be able to do 3 laps.
BTW I had to explain to my doctor what a blog was. I told him he needed to get with it.

Exercise - again

Well I can now swim two laps before resting. I must explain that I count a lap as swimming from one end of the pool to the other. A real lap may be up and back. The weights are interesting - I have better lower body strength than upper. We are going to do weights 3 times a week and cardio every day - except Sunday. We saw Superman Returns this afternoon and it was pretty good. I understand it was in 3-D in some areas, but not here. You could tell the parts that would be in 3-D.

Three Days of Exercise

OK -When is it I am supposed feel better? Just kidding, I guess it will take awhile. Yesterday I walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes and rode the bicycle machine for 5 minutes. This morning I swam laps. Rather I should say - swim one lap, rest, swim one lap, rest. I did that for 20 minutes. I forgot to take my goggles - I won't do that again - chlorine stings. Tom did the treadmill while I swam. Tomorrow we each get an hour with a personal trainer and he will set us up on a program with weights.
whoopee...

Exercise

Wednesday my husband and I joined YMCA. Today will be the first day we have used our membership. We had a preview of equipment on Wednesday. Next Wednesday we will have a personal trainer set up our program on the weight circuit. Today we plan to use the treadmill, bicycle and some other cardio machine. We both need this so badly so I am requesting prayers that this will become a habit we can maintain. I also like swimming, so I plan to take advantage of the pool.

Pictures

I just spent about an hour figuring out how to add my picture to my blog. Of course I first had to figure out which picture to use. I don't like most of my pictures -except for a glamour shot I had taken a few years back. The one I picked is not the glamour shot but it probably looks more like me. Do you think women or men dislike their pictures more? I would say women.

Sunday Reflections

We just got home from our LIFE group. We were meeting at our house, now we are meeting at someone else's house, but we are still the leaders. We will still have our Monday afternoon group here.

Our youth minister, Clay Utley, spoke this morning and he gave a good lesson. He told us to sell our big SUV's and big trucks and buy small SUV's and small trucks. We have part of it right. We have a small Ford Ranger pick-up that we bought after we came to Tucson and we sold our F150. We did have a Nissan Maxima and now we have a Toyota Sienna. I know there was more to the lesson, but that was the part that stuck with me. I also caught myself yawning while singing, "The joy of the Lord will be my strength" I guess I am still catching up from our trip.

Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to report. Just letting you know I am still here. Even when I am not wrting I usually do not miss a day from reading others' blogs. Some of you are going through some heavy stuff right now and my prayers are with you.

Resting From Traveling

Sometimes the best vacation is the one you take after you take a vacation. We ended up staying an extra day in Portland because we couldn't get a flight out on standby. So we ended up paying for tickets on America West. We were so tired yesterday we didn't get dressed all day, nor did we go to church last night. I washed most of the day and then my dryer went out. So today I took the last load to the laundromat - where I fell getting my dry clothes out. The floor was wet and I had on sandals and down I went. I feel fine now but I bet I will be sore tomorrow.
We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory while in Portland. This restaurant used to be downtown and was the orginal Spaghetti Factory, now it is in a new location alongside the Willamette River. I took these pictures. This was before the heat wave set in - I think it was only in the 80's. By Sunday it was 102. So much for the cool northwest. It was beautiful however.

Connected at Cascade

Hi guys,
We are having a blast here at Cascade College - formerly Columbia. We went to dinner tonight with some of the graduating high school class of 1981. Right now we are connected through the college and we are so tired we can hardly stay awake - so I will write more later.

At the Airport

We didn't get out on the flight we wanted at 2:45, so we have been at the Atlanta airport since about 11:30. The next flight for Portland leaves at 6:10 and hopefully we will get on the flight. Thank goodness for Wi-fi at the airport. It does cost $7.95 a day, but I guess it is worth it. We had hoped to get to Portland in time for church tonight, but we won't be doing that. We will be able to worship in Vancouver on Sunday and we are anxious to see some of our friends from that congregation.

Leavin on a Jet Plane

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go...

We leave tomorrow for Portland by way of Atlanta. Sometimes that's what you have to do when you fly standby. There are seats available this way. We will spend the night in Atlanta and then arrive in Portland on Wed. We are going for the 50th Celebration of Columbia Christian College, now Cascade. I am taking my computer so I don't have to stop blogging. My husband graduated from there in 1975 at the age of 34. I taught at the high school for three years and he taught there for six years. We miss the people from that area but we don't miss the weather, although I am really looking forward to 70 degree weather since it's been 107 here.

Online Giving

ONLINE GIVING AVAILABLE

Online giving is now available and is as easy as 1-2-3. Simply set up a web account with just a few keystrokes, designate the amount of your gift, and provide your bank account information for a one-time, weekly, or monthly, gift. Your giving history for the past year will also be available for you to view. Do you prefer contributing by cash or check? No problem, this is simply a method now available to answer the requests from those who like to do all their banking on line. If you have questions about how it all works, there is a page of frequently asked questions on the GIVING page to answer these for you.

I copied the above from the North Atlanta Church of Christ website. I can't figure out how to make a link for you so you will have to go to their website-http://nacofc.org/ to read more. I actually think it is a great idea and emailed our elders with this info. What do you think?

After the Party

My husband's birthday party was lots of fun, but I didn't really get any good pictures. However we ended up leaving on Sunday and taking my GA family to San Diego. They had planned to fly to Los Angeles, but couldn't get a flight out, so we decided to take them to SD and they took a train to Los Angeles for the rest of their vacation. While we were there we went to Sea World and took a tour of Petco Park - the baseball stadium of the SD Padres. We got to go on the field, sit in the dugout, visit the press box and see where the rich folks sit - in suites. We stayed in San Diego two days and it was so nice and cool. I actually got sunburned at Sea World, but it was great weather. Enjoy the pictures.

Grandkids

I know many of you who read this post are not at this stage yet, but let me tell you it is wonderful to be a grandma - or grandpa. Right now my grandson from GA is sitting on my husband's lap in the big recliner, along with our 6 lb. Poodle, Murphy, watching Freaky Friday on the Disney channel. My husband is talking to our other son from CA who is on his way over after spending the last several days driving from El Centro, CA to Los Angeles, to Bakersfield, to Las Vegas, to St George, Utah, back to Vegas, to Yuma, AZ for a job he was doing. He is bringing his family, along with two more grandsons. They are just now leaving El Centro and will be here in another 6 hours. Everyone is here - and coming - to celebrate my husband's 65th birthday. We are going to see the new Disney movie, CARS, tomorrow afternoon and then tomorrow night we are having a party at Peter Piper Pizza with our family and friends from church. If you are in Tucson tomorrow, come join us. I'll be sure to let you know how our party goes - maybe even some pictures.

Retirement Part Three

I realize that I am one of the oldest bloggers of all the bloggers I regularly read and sometimes feel that I am a little out of place. However, it hasn't kept me from reading - or blogging. I am energized by younger people and even though I don't mind growing older I don't want to be part of the Senior Saints, Citizens, or whatever we are called.

With that said my posts on retirement are probably not of much interest to you younger folk, but it is my life. When I was teaching I knew people who should of retired but were afraid because they didn't have a life outside of school. I also knew teachers who retired and died within a year of retirement.

At first it wasn't strange because I was used to being out of school in the summers, so it just seemed like summer vacation-plus we moved to a new state, so there was the excitement of being in a new place. One day I woke up and thought "is this all there is?" Fortuneately that didn't last long. I waited a year before I did any substitue teaching and then it wasn't much. I started the school year this year working one or two days a week, but I quit after a couple of months. My husband had surgery on his eyes and we were making a lot of doctor visits. Once he was better I just didn't have the desire to sub. I actually never was completely off the sub list, just listed as not available. This spring I got a letter inquiring about my interest in next year. The letter stated even if I wasn't sure turn it in as Yes, so I did. We'll see when school starts.

So what do I enjoy? I love waking up when I want to. I love the time I have for Bible Study and I love singing with my chorus of Sweet Adelines - and no, they are not all old. Our youngest member is 13 and we have all ages.I love our church and the fact that I can actually go to Ladie's class, which I have never been able to do, because most classes stop in the summer. I am not quite sure why that is. I really, really love being able to travel. Oh and did I forget that I love my computer - it is an Apple iBook and I can actually lay in bed, watch TV and blog. BTW, retirement comes sooner than you expect, so be sure that you are prepared.

Sunday - A Day of Rest

I don't know about you but doesn't the Bible say you are supposed to rest on Sunday afternoon. I've noticed most people don't post on Sunday, so I assume you are all at church in the AM, resting in the afternoon and back at church in PM. We don't have evening services now that we have LIFE groups on Sunday night. We were leading one on Sunday nite and Monday afternoon. Last month we decided to move our Monday afternoon group to Sunday afternoon. Bad idea. We are meeting today - in a few minutes and then going back to Monday afternoon. I missed my Sunday afternoon nap - and I tried to get it during LIFE group last week. People coming, gotta quit.

Van Ryn Family story

If you have not already found this blog on the story of the mix-up of the two girls, please go there immediately. This is an amazing story of faith. lauravanryn.blogspot.com. You will have to type this in. I have not figured out how to link this