Thursday, November 30, 2006

Fishing Woes...

...don't get me wrong...I love to fish, but I confess that I was a little frustrated after the second time out on the rivers with no steelhead to show for it. The kicker was driving 2 hrs to Pennsylvania, paying $26 for a day license, listening to the guy at the store tell us "it doesn't matter where you go on the river. There are fish everywhere...we have never had soooooooo many fish in the river before...ever..." Well he was right, there are fish in the river and here is my proof.

On another note...my brother claims to have caught 2 steelhead...he 'caught' them both when no one else was around. At least I have a picture of mine... :)






Just for reference...this is what a steelhead looks like... and that is not my brothers hand. Posted by Picasa

On a positive, not sarcastic note... I loved being back in the cold weather of the U.S. The air was so clean... I don't think I "saw" any the whole time I was there. There were still some leaves on the trees and I actually got to see some snow. It was a blessing to be out in the woods in the fall again... miss that.

The reason I went back to OH was for a good friends wedding... been praying for a lady for him and she seems great. Speaking of cold woods... they live in Minneapolis and when I flew over on the way out it looked pretty cold.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

it must be cold where you are....



i woke up to what felt like a chill in the air, thought i was delusional, then looked at my weather underground thingy & saw it was in fact 63 degrees... in Thailand! sure, it will probably be 90 before 4pm, but i'll enjoy it while it lasts.

The local temperature is updated every half-hour or so, in case you ever want to know just HOW warm it is here... it's always on our blog.... at the top of the column on the right.

Monday, November 20, 2006

to pass the time..



just in case anyone is concerned with how we're spending our time apart...

last weekend, caryn hiked 3km uphill with all her stuff (no sherpas here, debbie) to chaperone a high school retreat. she led a devotion encouraging the kids to look at Psalm 139, while asking God to reveal truth about themselves & Himself. Then she promptly fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon, leaving them to the care of the Lord and other capable chaperones. (yes i am out of shape & twice the age of the other campers, but can you find me in this picture?)


meanwhile, mike was taking seriously God's command to subdue the earth and rule over its creatures (and taking advantage of the start of deer season), hoping to have a repeat of the above scene (from several seasons ago... boy was she yummy!)... sorry to any squeamish bloggers. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, November 12, 2006

while mike is away....


last night i had 10 girls in the house giggling, eating chocolate, and watching Roman Holiday... does it get any better? mike called in the middle of it all &, after assessing the situation, insisted the house undergo a "cleansing" upon his return... i know he was secretly happy for me... after all he left for 3 weeks.



ANN: I hate this nightgown. I hate all my nightgowns, and I hate all my underwear too.
COUNTESS: My dear, you have lovely things.
ANN: But I'm not two hundred years old. Why can't I sleep in pajamas?
COUNTESS: Pajamas!?
ANN: Just the top part. Did you know that there are people who sleep with absolutely nothing on at all?
COUNTESS: I rejoice to say that I did not.

click here to listen to or watch scenes from the movie:
http://www.audrey1.com/roman.html

island retreat

at the end of our last recording, we had a couple of days to relax... the local people we worked with recommended a little island not far from where we were working... not much to do but roam around, collect shells, and snorkel a bit...the sunsets got better & better... just what we were hoping for.

(click picture to see it bigger) Posted by Picasa

Thursday, November 02, 2006

the meadowlark


Around the time Mike & I were dating, I must have read this excerpt from the book journey of desire (see below)… I was so moved by it that I printed out a picture of a meadowlark & hung it up in my cubicle….

Later, when I went through all of my stuff as I was getting ready to move to Thailand, I found the printout of the meadowlark in a stack of papers… but by that time, I tried & tried but could not remember why the bird was special.... so I threw it away.

I was so encouraged when this came... it solved the mystery and was a timely reminder of the message of the meadowlark to me today….


The Meadowlark
10/29/2006
________________________________________
The meadowlark has long been my favorite songbird. I love its song because it evokes so many summer days out in the fields and streams of the West. Its song means summer, hay meadows, long lazy days, fly-fishing. More than anything else, it has become for me a symbol of hope. The meadowlark returns to Colorado in the early spring, and as I’ve mentioned, that typically means it arrives about the same time our major snowstorms hit. What courage; if it were me, I’d wait until June when the weather warms up. But they come in spite of the snow, and take their place on fence posts and the tops of small trees, and begin singing. Hearing a midsummer song almost seems out of place when the flurries are whipping about your face. But that is exactly when we need it.

I heard two meadowlarks again this spring, calling and responding to each other on a cold and windy day. God began to speak through them. I heard him urging me to keep my own summer song, even though life’s winter tries to throw into my spring cold wind and snow. Do not throw away your confidence, he said. Do not budge from your perch, but sing your song, summer confident, sure of my great goodness toward you. You did not bring this spring, dear child; you do not have to arrange for the summer to follow. They come from thy Father’s will, and they will come.

Brent was buried on a Thursday afternoon. As we gathered by the graveside, Craig read these words: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). He closed his Bible and we all stood in silence, not really knowing what to say or do; no one wanted to leave; no one really wanted to stay. It seemed so final. At that moment, a meadowlark sang.

This is my song in return.

(The Journey of Desire , 210–12)
________________________________________
From The Ransomed Heart, by John Eldredge, reading 302
Ransomed Heart Ministries
www.ransomedheart.com


to hear the song of the meadowlark, go to:
http://www.naturesongs.com/weme1.wav

Sunday, October 15, 2006

thank our troops...

. . for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

-george elliot
from middlemarch



If you go to the web site www.letssaythanks.com, you can pick out a thank you card to encourage our troops....
Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. It's free and it only takes a few seconds.

remember...


can't believe it's almost been 4 years! Posted by Picasa

Sunday, October 01, 2006

one more...

i'm convicted that my latest blog entries have been a bit "fluffy", to say the least... so here's a little substance for you from the latest Ransomed Heart devotional...
i'd say it applies to the men, as well, by the way... even though it's excerpted from a book for girls :).



What Is It That God Wants from You?
10/01/2006

He wants the same thing that you want. He wants to be loved. He wants to be known as only lovers can know each other. He wants intimacy with you. Yes, yes, he wants your obedience but only when it flows out of a heart filled with love for him. “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me” (John 14:21). Following hard after Jesus is the heart’s natural response when it has been captured and fallen deeply in love with him.
Reading George MacDonald several years ago, I came across an astounding thought. You’ve probably heard that there is in every human heart a place that God alone can fill. (Lord knows we’ve tried to fill it with everything else, to our utter dismay.) But what the old poet was saying was that there is also in God’s heart a place that you alone can fill. “It follows that there is also a chamber in God himself, into which none can enter but the one, the individual.” You. You are meant to fill a place in the heart of God no one and nothing else can fill. Whoa. He longs for you.
God wants to live this life together with you, to share in your days and decisions, your desires and disappointments. He wants intimacy with you in the midst of the madness and mundane, the meetings and memos, the laundry and lists, the carpools and conversations and projects and pain. He wants to pour his love into your heart and he longs to have you pour yours into his. He wants your deep heart; that center place within that is the truest you. He is not interested in intimacy with the woman you think you are supposed to be. He wants intimacy with the real you. (Captivating , 120–21)
From
The Ransomed Heart, by John Eldredge, reading 274 Ransomed Heart Ministries www.ransomedheart.com

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until November...

i should be sleeping...

... but i saw this on a friend's blog & had to try it! (he should have been studying greek, by the way :)

it's a map of all the countries mike & i have been to (not necessarily together)... it would be interesting to split it up & see our individual maps, but not tonight... i really should be sleeping...



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

flight leaves at 8:30 tomorrow morning... probably won't blog again until November!

Friday, September 29, 2006

i've decided blogging is an excellent alternative...

...to loading up people's email boxes with forwards they don't really have time to read. so, here's a blog entry you may not have time to read... your choice :):


Absolute Truths from the Movies
1. Large, loft-style apartments in New York are within the price range of most people, whether they are employed or not.
2. At least one out of every pair of identical twins is born evil.
3. Should you decide to defuse a bomb, don't worry which wire to cut.
4. During all police investigations, it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.
5. If you are blonde and pretty, it's possible to become a world expert on nuclear fission at age 22.
6. Radiation causes interesting mutations, not to your future children, but to you, right then and there.
7. When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in your bedroom will still be clearly visible, just slightly bluish.
8. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.
9. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will soon be thrown through it.
10. Most dogs are immortal.
11. Even when driving down a perfectly straight road, it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.
12. Word processors never display a cursor on screen but will always say "Enter password now".
13. A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
14. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.
15. All grocery bags contain at least one loaf of French bread.
16. It's easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.
17. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.
18. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
19. Honest and hardworking policemen are traditionally gunned down three days before retirement.
20. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts; your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.
21. If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate strange noises in their most revealing underwear.
22. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone else on the street will know all the steps.
23. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off.
24. The White House can be seen from any window in D.C.
25. Rather than wasting bullets, megalomaniacs prefer to kill their arch-enemies using complicated machinery involving fuses, pulley systems, deadly gasses, lasers, and man-eating sharks, which will allow their captives at least 20 minutes to escape.
26. Police departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their opposite.
27. Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at that precise moment.

i found it on the internet, so it must be true....

i can honestly say that i have never been mistaken for any of these women.... i know you're shocked.



mike, on the other hand is constantly being asked for his autograph over here... now we know why...

very thai...

just wanted to let y'all know we've been unaffected by the political situation here... there is slightly more military presence in the city & at check points along the highway, but nothing else... for more info on current events in thailand, go to:

FOXNews.com - CountryWatch

thanks for all your notes of concern for us!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

happy dog

an inside look at when ginger got her bone & was very happy.

Friday, September 15, 2006

very thai 5


yes, this is another shameless plug for visiting us in chiang mai....
pictured: doi inthanon, waterfalls, orchids, thai-style manicure/pedicure, buddhist temple, river cruise, (& most tempting of all) random building construction Posted by Picasa