Cool Stuff

I came across this on EB’s blog.  Click here to view.

You really have to check out the future of our technology.  It’s waaaay cool.

Ruth Graham

I came across this article about the death of Ruth Graham, the wife of evangelist Billy Graham.  She died Thursday at the age of 87.  When asked by someone how she was able to tolerate her husband’s frequest absences due to his mission work, she said, “I’d rather have a little of Bill than a lot of any other man.”

That is absolutely beautiful. 

Ruth Graham article

A Grandmother Blogs From The War Zone

I caught a cool article on Yahoo about this woman who was fed up with the war that she ate peanut butter sandwiches for months to save up for a plane ticket to Kuwait.  She got a job with a small Texas newspaper in order to get press credentials and now she blogs from the green zone in the middle east. 

It’s also pretty neat because she’s a grandmother, too!   Check out her blog here:

http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/

Wedding Bells!

Nope, not mine!

A while back I wrote about my friend, Tonya,  She called me the other night with the good news!  She’s engaged and plans to be married in June!

I’m so happy for her! 

Houston

I’m off to Texas tonight to visit my sister.  My niece is having her “Red Egg and Ginger” party on Saturday.  It’s a chinese banquet meant to celebrate the 1 month birthday of a newborn baby, sort of like a coming out party to present the baby to society.  Of course, we are about 5 months late and forget the formalities of a banquet.  It’s chinese buffet for us all this time around.  Parents will find any excuse to socialize and party, won’t they? 

It’ll be fun, ‘tho!  I can’t wait to see my nieces and an added bonus is that my mom is flying in from Arizona and my brother is flying in from SF too!

Yay!  I can’t wait. 

Chicago, Daylight Savings Time, and Happy Birthday

I just celebrated another birthday.    It was a good one.  I went to Chicago for the weekend.  I didn’t bother taking any pics, so I have none to share.  You can knock yourself out with Chicago pics on Flickr, ‘tho.    I saw the funniest musical called, “Spelling Bee,” ate at a fancy, overrated restaurant called, “The Capital Grille,”  went to a few museums and missed my flight coming back to San Francisco.  Yes, I was one of those who screwed up due to daylight savings time.  Ironically, I remembered reminding myself to change the clocks on Friday and Saturday, but I woke up Sunday and didn’t even remember to do it.  Duuuh!!  Nevertheless, I blame Bush for this one.  What the heck is up with extending it, anyway?  The original purpose and intent for having daylight savings time no longer exists and it’s just one of those traditions that keep on keeping on without anyone stopping to question its purpose and relevancy as it applies to our current conditions and needs.  Ok, I digress.  I got a cool iPod shuffle. That thing is seriously cool.  It’s so tiny and cute.  I can’t wait to break it in on one of my runs.  Speaking of which, spring is just around the corner and I am so, so, SO looking forward to hiking, biking, sailing and all things outdoors!  I’m thinking about training for another run, too.  I probably won’t do another half marathon, ‘tho.  Those are too easy now.  ;) Ha ha…Just kidding!  I am thinking about a few 5K or 10Ks and then maybe, just maybe, the big FULL marathon later in the year.  The thought makes me anxious and nervous.  My eyes are set on Hawaii but I need to see if I’ve got it in me to commit to another training routine.  It takes so much discipline and time, both of which I have little or none of!   

Cheers, everyone!  Hope all is well!

Membership and Other Ramblings

After ~3 years of attending my current church I decided it was time.  I officially became a member last Tuesday, February 27th. 

Yes, yes, save your applause and congratulations for later. 

There wasn’t much to the process, really.  I attended something called an, “Exploring Membership” meeting where the Pastor and the Welcome Team talked about the history of the church, went over the mission and value statement, and talked about the importance of being connected and involved with a church family.  A form was filled out and my picture was taken and that was that.

Becoming a member has made me reflect a bit on my spiritual journey.  I’ve never felt the Lord as much as I do now, and even during periods when I don’t “feel His presence”, my thoughts are with Him and I know He’s beside me.  I feel a tug at my heart to follow God more and more these days and this is just one of many steps in that journey. 

I’ve signed up to discuss areas where I can be more involved with church (stay tuned for that later) and I signed up to explore being water baptised in one of the services.  The water baptism is a big deal for me because it always seemed to be this super holy thing that only the strongest of believers would do.  Along with the first time I prayed to accept Christ as my Savior, I feel like water baptism is this big “coming out”, this ultimate commitment and proclamation to the church family to be a follower of Christ.  I’m a commitment phobe and my relationship with God these past couple of years has really brought that to my attention.

I realized that I’m still holding back many parts of myself and my life because somewhere I made up in my mind that I wasn’t:  a) worthy of such good things; b) waiting for things to be perfect; c) chicken sh*t to assert myself; d) worried about what others would think; and e) afraid of what might happen (both the worst case scenario and, ironically, the best case scenario).  I wrote before that I’m a wishy-washy Christian and like many addicts who are trying to break old habits, I can’t do it cold turkey.  Baby steps and patience seem to be the particular remedy that is working for me.  

One baby step has been my bible study group.  It’s going well.  I know I haven’t posted the lessons the last few weeks but I’ll get around to those sometime soon.  Another baby step has just been to spend more time alone and away from all the noise of this world.  I’m still trying to silence all the worldly messages that bombard me each day, and I’m trying to do more things to help me really connect with my spirit.  I have a long way to go here but I feel much more at peace these days.

I was thinking a bit about a few childhood memories I have of my relationship with the church.  I think it’s a shame that my parents never encouraged my spiritual growth as child.  I grew up going to church but it was just a place for the community to gather back then, or at least that was always the impression I got from my mom.  My parents never went to church with us except for holidays on occasion.  My sister and I would get bused to church each Sunday.  When my sisters became a bit older, Sundays at church were slowly replaced by their high school activities.  There was no one to drive me to church since my parents both worked at the store on weekends.  I stopped going sometime in my preteens.  I remember being asked once in Sunday school (I was about 10 or 11) why we hadn’t taken the step to become members and my answer was something like, “…because  my mom doesn’t want us to and what if we move?”  I guess as a kid you could tell I was literal and just too practical for my own good.    I remember my Sunday school teacher saying we could always transfer the membership if we moved.  But I recall this because my relationship with the church and my mom has been much more complicated than I could put into words.  She was always skeptical when the church asked for money and she would always make a sly comment here and there about tithing and offerings.  In her heart of hearts I know she had her own doubts about the church.  Now as an adult, I look back and know that my mom, in her own way, lacked faith and trust in God’s goodness.  I know she still does and I pray constantly that she’ll come to know God and Jesus Christ as the healer and savior she so desperately needs, and that she’ll shed her ideas of God as a religion.  As my Pastor often says, often it’s harder to “unchurch” people than it is to “church people who have never gone to church”. 

Then once during a service (I don’t remember how old I was, but probably younger than 10) I remember our Pastor had an altar call and I wanted to walk up to the front, but my sister told me to stay where I was and to just keep my head bowed down.  I wonder, as vague as my memory is now about that moment, if the Lord was really tugging at my heart back then, or whether as a kid I was just asking what the protocol was all about.  I mean, if the Pastor said to go up front, then we should go up front, right?  I dunno…my memories of my childhood are so vague.  I’ve been wondering if my life had been different if I had answered His call then.  But, as any Christian would say, the Lord has a perfect plan and time for everything and answering the altar call back then just wasn’t “my time.” 

Asking such questions doesn’t really do much good, but it helps to look back from time to time to avoid the same mistakes and to put my journey in perspective. 

I’m doing good. 

I’m doing the best I can. 

I’m growing. 

I’m learning. 

I’m slowing down. 

I’m simplifying. 

I’m grateful. 

I’m hopeful. 

I’m letting go. 

I’m running towards. 

I’m going forward. 

I’m living the moments. 

I’m here. 

I’m ready.

I’m blessed.

With baby steps and the Lord at my side, I’m finding my voice.  I’m growing my courage.  I’m embracing my life and this journey and I’m learning to love it all.

Thanks for reading!

-RM   

Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello

Pics from the resort.

Pic of the boathouse at the resort.  You can see the dock for the boats and the entire lake is frozen over.  It was very strange to think that in a few months the body of water I walked across would be completely melted! 

Picture of the visitor building at Parc Omega.  All the antlers around the door was pretty impressive and the wood totem poles were cool too.

Grounds of the resort.  You can see one of the unusual branches on the tree in the center.  It looks like it created a circle.  It was very cool.

Pic of the resort shortly after twilight.  It had a very “winter wonderland” atmosphere to it.

Inside the entrance of the resort was this HUGE, four-sided fireplace.  It was pretty awesome.  We spent some time on the cozy couches playing cards and sipping hot chocolate.  Good times!

What winter vacation could be complete without a snow angel?

More Parc Omega Pics

Here are pics of the wild boar in the park.

These guys were actually fighting for the piece of meat that the one in front has in his mouth.  Here they are chasing him for it.

 

We watched the boars do this funny thing with their noses.  They wiggle it around in the snow and when they come up they look like this.  Voila – snow moustache!

Parc Omega

While I was up in Canada we took a drive through a wilderness park up there called Parc Omega.  It’s actually in the city of Montebello, which is about an hour away from Ottawa.  It’s one of those wildlife parks where you can drive your car through the park and feed the animals from your car.  There are some trails that you can stop at and walk along too.  We took a couple of those short hikes and it was totally worth it!  Deer walked right up to us and the scenery was just gorgeous!

It was really cool.  For any of you with kids or just looking for a fun experience, I suggest you check it out if you are in the area.

Here is a link of all the animals we saw in the park.

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Bison in the park.  They were less than 50 feet away!

I think this is called a “Wapiti”.  The pic is taken from inside the car!  They look so intimidating but they really were quite docile.

Two males “sparring” in the middle of the road we were driving on in the park.  I got some video clips of this too.  It was wild seeing them just yards away from the car!

One of the first animals we fed carrots to.  He stuck his head right into the window of the car!!  Needless to say, I learned my lesson – only crack the window open big enough to stick the carrot out of it!

A bunch of deer butts!  Ha ha. 

A pic of the wolves in the park.  These were the only animals (besides the bears) that are confined behind a fence.  This guy was really wanting to jump towards us – Yikes!  There was maybe 20 feet between us and a small valley between the wolf and the fence.  I wasn’t sure that was enough to keep this friendly-looking guy away from us!

These guys are called, ”Alpine Ibex”.  This guy walked right towards our car.  I could see him just eyeing our carrots!