Mr. Artie

At our preschool, we are extremely blessed to have Mr. Artie come teach our kids science. He is a retired, brilliant scientist with 14 patents and is a wonderful Christian friend. He has Parkinson's disease and sometimes we have to help him set up his equipment, or do little fine motor things to help him. The kids (and teachers) adore him. Not everyone would give up their free time to drag tons of equipment to a preschool to talk to little kids. His equipment, samples, and things he has set up are amazing. From rocks (with expensive petrified wood samples he borrowed from a friend) to microscopes (with water samples and fossils from around the world) to inclined planes, volcanos, magnetism, pulleys, etc. he has covered a lot of cool material. I have even learned things like what sublimation is and fancy words like foraminifera. My favorite quote from Mr. Artie was when he was showing the kids how the earth's temperature changes depending on how close or far away it is from the sun. He said, " The earth is tilted at a 30 degree angle. Why? I don't know. That's just how God made it."

This past school year Mr. Artie became familiar with Louie Giglio through a DVD that his Sunday school class watched, and from there, besides really liking Louie, he became a fan of Chris Tomlin. I have seen both of them together on two tours: Indescribable and How Great Is Our God. We have had fun discussing how great those shows were and Artie has been watching for Chris Tomlin to come near here again.  

 Mr. Artie loves  Disney World. He makes at least one or two trips a year there. Tonight is Night of Joy at Disney!!  After much planning and anticipation, he is there to see Chris Tomlin live for the first time. Also playing tonight are the ROF guys so Artie stopped by before he left to pick up some goodies and a card I am sending down to them. He just called me a little bit ago and I heard them singing We All. I love it!  They were going to be playing at 10:45 and midnight. I can't wait to hear all about his trip.

Indiana and Finance

B,H& I went to IN for a quick trip to visit family and celebrate my mom's 83rd birthday. We had a wonderful birthday dinner and lots of laughter. My mom has lots of photo albums filled with old and new pictures.This is only  the third time H has been up there. I was showing her some of the pictures and we had the funniest conversation:

Me: Do you know who this is? (showing her a very old pic of my parents at the lake, in beach attire, on a blanket, before they were married).

H: Is that Grandpa and Grandma?... Wow, Grandpa was a BABE!!!

 Unable to stop laughing, I showed the picture to my dad and said, "I showed this pic to H and she said you were a babe!"

My dad (who is now 83 and had removed his teeth for the night): Well, that's interesting to know!

This is the first time H had been there in the summer and it was fun to hear her talk again about how flat it is and for her to see the corn and soybean fields. As promised, she got to taste some incomparably delicious IN sweet corn. We've never found any better corn! We also had some delicious fresh blueberries.

A few days before, I got to spend the morning and lunch hanging out with G as he went to a dentisit appt. and we did errands. He was talking to me (so grown up) about wanting to concentrate his Business major in Finance and work hard for a few years in a bank, then after he makes a lot of money, go out on his own business ventures. He talked about writing loans for people, and risk vs. reward, and many details that someone who had visited one of his classes had talked about. A day or so later I was recalling our conversation and thinking how grown up he is now that he is 20. Then I suddenly realized how, in a way, that is a bit ironic. He wants to major in Finance, but he has overdrawn his account twice and we mutually agreed that he shouldn't even use a debit card anymore! He is certainly capable of doing it, just doesn't like taking the time or bothering with it. He is a funny guy and life is always interesting! 

Things I Want to Remember.....

Making note of a couple things I want to remember.... The last show and tell of our 2007-2008 preschool year was sweet and surprising. We had five-year-olds and one little girl was so sweet, but somewhat immature.  We noticed she had brought a lid from a kitchen pot as one of her show and tell items. The usual show and tell fare is action heroes, stuffed animals, dolls, books, etc. We were thinking, "Oh, boy, why did she bring a lid, and I hope the other kids don't laugh, etc." When she pulled it out, we asked her what it was. She said, "A lid from my mommy's kitchen." When asked why she brought it, she slipped her hand under the handle, held it up vertically and said, "Because it reminds me of the shield in David and Goliath!" We were blown away! I am constantly reminded to have the faith of a child.

At the June First Wednesday at church, our speaker was the pastor for the Vols Football and the lady Vols Basketball teams at the University of Tennessee. He gave such a great message. He said don't be an evan-jellyfish with no spiritual backbone. He gave us four 'F's to follow that up: Be faithful, be fruitful, be fearless, and be fervant.

Just found this out yesterday.....    We found out at Christmas when we received their card and letter, that a friend of ours has cancer and has been undergoing treatment. He and his wife have been updating friends and family via email, so we had them add us to their update list and have been praying for them ever since. Yesterday we got an email saying his wife had been losing vision in one eye. He said he had an eerie feeling as he dropped her off at the same center on the exact date one year later where he had been diagnosed with cancer. Her diagnosis was not good. She has a tumor under her retina near the optic nerve.  Because it is big and so near the nerve, 5 specialists have recommended the best treatment is removal of her eye. This was shocking news and I keep asking why? Why does she have to go through this when her husband is also going through the battle of cancer? Why, when I had double vision problems, was my problem such a simple correction with a prism in my lens. I remember sitting and waiting for my eye exam by the specialist, and praying that it would be nothing serious. I was so relieved when he said it was just one muscle not getting the right signal to focus and how easy the correction was. What if I had been told that my eye needed to be removed. What would I have felt like? What does my friend feel like?  We don't know the big picture and we don't know God's plan for all of this yet. God has a purpose and a plan and He loves us very much. I am thankful that my friends are very strong in their faith and are walking alongside God during this journey. They refer to these trials as "bumps in the road." I am going to keep praying for them and trusting God. One of my favorite Bible verses: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11

Currently Listening Opposite Way By Leeland see related

Extended Birthday Celebrations

I've had such a busy couple of weeks and haven't had a chance to document any of my birthday activities until now. The fact that we were so busy and the kids can't always get together because of school and work made for lots of little celebrations over the course of about two weeks. It's been fun!

The weekend before my birthday, Soccerdad and I went to a church leadership retreat in Pigeon Forge Friday evening until mid -afternoon on Saturday. It was quite good and it was a way to get to know some of the other couples in our church better. We even met another couple who like concerts almost as much as we do! :-p Sunday morning was Baptism Sunday and since I help with that ministry, I was able to assist with 16 baptisms. There were 39 total for the weekend. Sunday evening we went to Kentucky to see Newsboys, Rush of Fools, Article One, and Newworldson. It was a great concert and we had seats on the aisle right next to the catwalk that the Newsboys use.

On my actual birthday we had a celebration at preschool with brownies and singing. Also, a friend called and sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone. That was a nice treat I don't think anyone had done before. While Soccerdad was taking pictures at a soccer game, he ran into some dear friends we hadn't seen for years.She gave me a call and I went over and had some wonderful time catching up with them. Later that evening Soccerdad and I went out to eat.

Friday the 11th we went to Casting Crowns, Leeland, John Waller with B&H and two other friends. We had seats in Row 5, which was great!!! Casting Crowns always have such great worship and are so down to earth about praising and glorifying God. One really special time during the evening was when all seven of their members sat on stools in a row across the front of the stage and took turns individually praying for everyone there that night. One person prayed for marriages, one for the young men, one for addictions, etc. We had never seen that done at a concert before. They also said they had walked around the coliseum that afternoon and prayed for everyone who would be coming to the concert that evening.

Saturday we had a picnic lunch in the park. It was a beautiful, breezy, sunny day.The dogwoods and redbuds were in full bloom along with some beautiful woodland flowers. Then we went for birthday ice cream. Since it was a birthday picnic, we decided it was a good excuse for birthday ice cream!

Sunday is our usual small group meeting night and we all went bowling. Our small group leaders showed up with a yummy chocolate cake for my birthday!

Tuesdays I have Bible study and my teacher brought me a cake and a gift!! The week was certainly filled with lots of unexpected surprises and delicious cakes.

Friday the 18th was our scheduled "official birthday dinner" with all the kids. We went to the Melting Pot fondue restaurant. B&H were the only ones who had been there before. It was sooo good! The four courses start with cheese fondue with raw veggies, apple and bread for dipping. Then the second course is salad. Third course is meats, potatoes , mushrooms, broccoli, and other veggies that you cook in flavored broths. During that course you are given a "Search and Rescue" slotted spoon to retrive any lost pieces of food that fall off the forks.They came in really handy! But the best was the last course--dessert. I chose milk chocolate with caramel and pecans (Flaming Turtle). The kids chose dark chocolate with raspberry liqueur. The waiter lights something and flames the top of the chocolates. The dippers were exquisitely delicious as was the milk chocolate! We had strawberries, pound cake, cheesecake, brownies, and marshmallows rolled in oreo or graham cracker crumbs. We were stuffed but happy by the end of the evening!

Though I would just as soon stop counting my birthdays, I feel truly blessed to have so many loved ones surrounding me and joining in the celebration.