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Vacation Village

I'm sitting on my balcony in the Berkshire mountains in Massachussetts and I thought I'd share some fun conversations I overheard. (That's the view off my balcony).

A little boy was walking with his parents. His mom says to him (in a stern but loving way), "Honey, always look both ways before you cross the road." The boy asks, "Why?" Mom responds, "Because a car could give you a really big boo-boo." Dear readers, do look out for cars, I don't want you to get a big boo-boo.

The second little boy was throwing rocks. His mother said, "We're going to stop throwing rocks now. Did you hear me?" Boy responds, "Hold on." Thwang. Rock hits metal sign. "Okay, I heard you."

My hopes sunk (not really)

I just didn't have a snazzy title. Today we went to the Sunken Gardens and walked around. I took a picture of this lilly with my phone. You can see me taking a picture here.

As you saw, we had fun. We continued having fun all day with games, song, and laptops. Now, we're going to play Hoopla.

Happy 4th

I was almost proud to be American yesterday. Maybe at least North American. We went and saw some fantastic fireworks to a live performance of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. It's just really great to be out with what feels like the whole city--and here in Lincoln you see the multiculturalism that America can be proud of.

In any case, I was near giddy with excitement. I like fireworks. I liked the live music. I like the friends I was with. Happy fourth.

Life lessons

At the Bohbarlenberder wedding this weekend I learned that sometimes you don't get what you want, no matter how much you want it. I don't know if I smelled funny or if maybe I was holding a poisonous berry but this chipmunk hopped on everybody else but me.




But I've also learned over the past month+ that sometimes you do get what you want--if you're patient and trust God. The chipmunk pales in comparison.

Fireflies

I've never been in Lincoln in the summer. I've never seen the abundance of fireflies on Union's campus. The other night I stopped to take in the wonder that is the firefly, the lightning bug. I don't know much about them (I hear they don't live very long) but I know that God made them--maybe just for our enjoyment. I imagine their glowing butts have some other purpose, but a little part of me believe he did it just to fill our summers with wonder and magic. It worked for me.

Oswald Chambers says, "A human being is capable of depression, otherwise there would be no capacity for exaltation. . . . When the Spirit of God comes He does not give us visions, He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable. Depression is apt to turn us away from the ordinary commonplace things of God's creation, but whenever God comes, the inspiration is to do the most natural simple things--the things we would never have imagined God was in, and as we do them we find He is there."

I'm glad God made fireflies as an ordinary part of summer so that I could catch another glimpse of him in the midst of my humanity.

Postponed

In case you've been reading and were planning on praying for my Grandma on Monday (which I appreciate), her surgery has been postponed until April 19. Of course, if you've already scheduled time to pray for her on Monday, it will not hurt. And, if you could remember her on the 19th as well, it'd be great.

Grandma

This is my grandma. She's over 80. She still lives on her own, walks regularly, goes to the pool for aerobics, knits and crochets for ADRA, volunteers at the tuck shop at the nursing home (she lives in seniors' apartment building), is a greeter at church, and cooks the most fantastic food ever.

Grandma is having open heart surgery. Again. You see, she had surgery....maybe 10 years ago? (Long enough that I can't remember. And it was before I left for academy in 1998.) She had a heart murmur and so they replaced one of her valves with a pig heart valve. And they figured it would last as long as she did. But she won (she's quite competitive--we have to keep an eye on her
when we play games). And now her pig valve needs replacing.

But obviously there's a difference between open heart surgery when you're 70-something and when you're 80-something.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not one to worry. Worry can't change anything. And so I put my faith and trust in the all-powerful God that has held Grandma in his hands for over 80 years.

And I also believe in prayer. So if you have a moment today and especially on Monday, April 10, if you'd send up a thought about my grandma, I'd appreciate it.

Michael

In case you've been missing the fun over on MySpace (www.myspace.com/okimisan) here's a few pictures of my good friend Michael Shofner. It is not his birthday or anything but it is almost a holiday that is very special to us both. Michael, if you're reading this, we'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

Crazy and more

So we're walking in downtown Chicago with an hour before our next appointment. The girls are shopping. We're not really interested in that. All of a sudden we hear ourselves saying, "Boy, what are all the firetrucks for?"


View this clip on Vimeo

Yes, if you counted that was all four streets from that one corner. I kid you not, there were at least 14 firetrucks visible from where I stood plus at least as many fire SUVs, police cars, and ambulances. AND since the Hilton (the hotel where the problem seemed to be) was down one of those four streets, the corner on the other side of the Hilton probably had more emergency vehicles. I can't confirm that though.

Lessons we learned:
(1) Freeon is dangerous and it can leak and hurt you. (I had no idea my fridge was unsafe).
(2) Apparently, in Chicago, there are plenty of people who can free up their afternoon to stand around with mouths gaping wondering what's going on.
(3) Human nature, one might think, would lead people to run away from a corner with so many emergency vehicles. You know, maybe something's going to explode, let me save myself. Nope. Let me get as close to what seems to be the source of the emergency as I can. I MUST know what's going on even if I get hurt.

Anyway, it was incredibly mysterious and also we thought if we waited long enough we'd get on the news. Nope.