Home...

Your prayers have been answered and our Kate was called home this morning around 7:20am ... how happy she must be dancing and laughing in heaven! God promises a new body when we enter His gates and there is no doubt that she is free of Alzheimer's and has been reunited with her loved ones and friends from long ago.

Thank you for being a wonderful neighbor, surrogate grandmother, and a loving friend.

I will miss you, Kate and will love you always....

Prayer Warriors....Activate!

Ok everybody... my blog seems to cover the masses of family, friends, coworkers, and everybody in between.... your prayers are needed now....

First of all, my uncle is going in for open heart surgery tomorrow... I just pray for knowledgeable doctors, patience to the family while he's in the operating room, low amounts of stress and anxiety, and a quick recovery on his part. I'm sure it's scary as ever and I can't even begin to imagine what he's going through mentally right now... (and I thought having my wisdom teeth pulled was bad.)

Second, please pray for Kate (note the Alzheimer's blog a few months back) - mom emailed me and said that she had a stroke early this morning - not much news on that front yet, but hopefully in the morning we'll know a little more as to how she's coping. First the alzheimer's, then a broken hip, and now this...she has had a rough year and so has the family - especially her husband, Lyle. God we ask that you will please continue to provide strength to Kate and to her family and close friends....

Third, my friend Pam has asked for prayers for family struggles with cancer/hospice, depression, and now a suicide attempt. She asked that the words she speaks to her family are directly from God and not her own...Pam has flourished in her faith these past few years and her passion for God is true and real... I just pray that her words will be echoed in the ears of those who need and thirst to hear it.

Thanks, everybody - with love and blessings... Marse

The Wheel of Why

Last week I attended my very first small group at my new church and it was great! Jason and I started going to this new place about 3 or 4 weeks ago and I liked it from the beginning. Of course, I seemed to have liked all the places we've checked out (with the exception of one) and I decided it was time to get connected with some fellow women!

Luckily, I got online and found a bible study on the book of Ruth, emailed the facilitator and showed up the next day to meet my new group! There were 9 women in my small group, each with their own experiences, stories, and lives to share and it's amazing how well we all mesh together. One girl is a few years younger than myself, but otherwise, everybody is between the early to mid 40's up to age 65.

If you're not familiar with Ruth and what her role is in the bible, take a quick read - it's only 4 short chapters, but chocked full of life's lessons. Ruth teaches us about integrity and righteousness and the providential work of God in our lives. Fabo.

Last night, the pastor, who is in her late 40's and a complete riot (think of a comedian teaching bible lessons - she makes Numbers funny!!) talked about what Ruth shows us just in the first chapter. She shows us our own struggles with God and the 'plan' that He has for us - we ALL have our struggles, but can't always think of the 'plan' right at that point...Naomi, Ruth's mother in law, gives us the ok to point out that feeling that way is NORMAL....to blame somebody....to be mad and upset with the circumstances that are given to us. They don't always seem fair, but God always knows how our story is going to end - I struggle with that at times and this is where the wheel of 'why' comes up.

Libby (the pastor) pointed out how you can stick a hamster in its little wheel and it will run around and around and around and around until complete exhaustion. We do that too, but our wheel is made up of 'why's' - why me? why this? why that? why did that happen? Sometimes we need to be pulled off of our wheel of why and ask 'how'? How can I make this better? How can my problem be solved? How can I pray for this situation?

I've been knocked off of my wheel of why (or summoned from my pity party) by people I love - who can see the struggles that I go through and know that it's not healthy to continually be upset or worry over nothing and I thank you for that... in John 15:13, it states 'Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends'. How true. A friend will be honest, but in a loving way, and we will STILL be friends with them! I've got friends that I will call or email to ask a question or opinion, wanting an honest answer, and I'll get it - it may not be what I wanted to hear, but they're doing it because they love me.

Ruth mirrors for us a deep devotion - 'where you go, I will go' - telling her mother in law that she would be willing to lose everything to be with her. This really hit home for me because I know I'm a selfish person - I try not to be, but I really I am. Philippians 2:4 states 'Each of you should not look only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.' I realized that I get upset if something doesn't go my way or it isn't what I wanted to do - I act like a hormonal 16 year old trapped in a 33 year old body. Why is that?

I just want to be refined into a person who puts other people first, who can admit when I'm wrong, who can love no matter the circumstances, and be honest - which, as you can see, I'm showing some raw honesty now! HA! If you are on your own wheel of why right now, step off and start asking 'how' - these words have resonated through my mind all day and if I could ask one thing of you; please pray for me - that my heart would be open and willing to take the changes.

Walking With Dinonsaurs

I had the opportunity to experience something new and fun Sunday night at Arco Arena (where the Sacramento Kings NBA team plays).

Jason bought tickets for an exhibition called 'Walking With Dinosaurs' and it was amazing. I wasn't sure what to expect when I went there, but for two hours, I was enthralled with what my eyes were seeing.

Blood would go to those spikey things to deter preditors

New Vegetation

Technical Term: Longneckosaurus

There was a guy (I thought of him as a circus ring master) who portrayed a paleontologist. He narrated the whole show and talked about how big the dinosaurs were, what they ate, the changes in the earth, etc. It was very kid friendly and informational for all who were listening - sure, there was the occasional bloody murder scream coming from a small child when the dinosaur would 'look' at the crowd, but it was still fun!

So these dinosaurs were almost to scale and they were 'driven' by people in small car contraptions between their feet. The car was made to look like a rock and you couldn't see the people inside unless you looked hard enough, but to think of how much skill they had to have to drive these things and run it's legs, mouth, and blink its eyes just amazed me.

The smaller dinosaurs had people inside of them, so all you could see were their legs sticking out at the bottom, but they made it all look so realistic! Even the rocks (which portrayed continents) had people inside of them and moved them around the floor to represent the earth moving into the continents we know today. Inside of those rocks, were the 'vegetation' that would sprout out... it was seriously, SO COOL!

Vegetation

Dino Poo

T-Rex defending baby

T-Rex and baby t-rex re-united

The dinosaurs were loud and you could hear their roars, listen to them eat, the thundering of their feet when they would walk....everything was so well put together; I could have stayed another two hours!

Extinction

(Sorry that the pictures are blurry, but we weren't supposed to use a flash)

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Today was my first glimpse of a hard, winter storm that passed through northern California.

It all started last night with heavy rain and then the wind picked up. The combination was just torrential...the kind of rain and wind where it passes by in sheets and makes the pavement look like it's moving.

When I got up this morning, the wind was howling through the fireplace, doorways, and window sills mimicking the sounds of a cat meowing. I can't even describe the wind - it was fierce and the rain stung your skin when it hit. Talk about a bad hair day...

There were 100 year old trees uprooted from the ground, flooding on streets, pools of mud in backyards, and the little creeks that you didn't know existed were overflowing like raging rivers. I think the most amazing thing that I saw was watching a power line snap in half driving parallel with the road.

As I was looking off into the distance, a bright blue light caught my eye and there was the initial thought of 'who would be setting off a flare in the rain?', then it dawned on me that it was the power line. The line was dancing with blue sparks and waves of electricity which reminded me of watching a heart machine track a heart beat. At the end of the wire was a ball of fire that hit the ground and started a streak of fire... it was so weird to be seeing fire while it was raining. My next thought was of the 6 or so head of cattle that stood in a line, in the water, next to the downed power line hoping they weren't going to turn into all beef patties right in front of my eyes!

When I left work, there was a huge pool of water that I had to get through in order to get on the highway, but I followed a car close enough that they made the wake for me to get through just fine! By the time I got home 10 minutes later, it had let up quite a bit and now it's just raining lightly and not as windy as it had been. There is SO much damage and clean up that will need to take place in the upcoming days. Luckily, we still have power and didn't have that much happen at the apartment complex.

I'm not sure if I'd rather have THIS or ice and snow to deal with?!

I lied.

I'll take this - at least I didn't have to wear mittens today...

Toof

It finally happened!

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe another year has breezed by, huh? I guess it's weny by quickly for me because of all of the changes that have taken place in the last 9 or 10 months!? New sights to see, new job, new friends... I guess this is a good time to reflect on everything that has taken place in my life and give thanks to how blessed I have been in all areas of living and the people that grace my life on a daily basis. So, thanks to you =)

I was able to fly home over Christmas and spend time with my family and friends and it was wonderful. (Cold, but wonderful!) It's amazing how quickly kids grow and change, isn't it? My nephew seemed to have stretched up and my niece is losing her first tooth...how fun!

My days were spent with a revolving door of friends coming in and out of mom and dad's house and spending some time in DM with others....time flies when you're getting caught up on lives from the last 4-5 months since my last visit! I got to see new babies, beautiful pregnant friends, family that I hadn't seen for possibly a year in some cases, and friends that know and love me. I feel so rejuvinated when I visit and realize how much each of you mean to me. (Sorry to sound so sappy, but I'm just being honest!) I just had a great time, that's all!

It was fun to be home and fun to come back to Cali....so hard to believe that the weather is so different just a couple states away, you know? Fortunately, the snow wasn't too bad while I was there and I was able to fly in and out with no problems... However, I had to sit next to creepy creeperton on my way to my layover - he had a HUGE booger hanging out of his nose, popped in some DVD with naked ladies, and coughed on me the entire flight. For those of you who are unaware of my germaphobe tendencies, I wanted to stick my head out my window and breathe some fresh air so bad - or spray Lysol in his general direction. Darn restrictions on aerosols anyway.

Hopefully you had a great New Year's Eve and an even better '08 that lies ahead... my resolution is to keep my blog up better... hee hee....

Peace out.