No Guarantees

Last Friday I heard that a friend from a church that I used to go to was, the previous Monday, suddenly stricken with a very serious medical condition and is even now in a Spokane hospital. Praise be to God that he is improving with each passing day and thanks to modern technology and a wonderful site called Caring Bridge we who know and love him are able to keep updated on his condition without pestering his family members without a zillion calls to their cell phones.

Stuff like this always makes me stop and think about how fragile our lives really are. This is a guy who is an athletic, fit, man about my age here he is in the hospital through no fault of his own. Something just went wrong in his body. It happens. And when it happens to someone you know and care about you can't help thinking, "There are no guarantees. We are not promised a tomorrow in this world." It sobers me.

It also makes me think of my friends who choose not to take care of their bodies. I pray for them and ask that God would help them see how important it is to not take this life, this one body they've been given, for granted. It can all be taken in a moment, whether it's a growth in your brain, cardiac arrest, diabetic coma, or cancer or any of a number of other maladies. There are simply no guarantees, but we can increase our odds of survival or recovery by taking steps, even baby steps, to choose healthier lifestyles.

My friend in Spokane has a better chance of recovering precisely because he had good muscle tone and was pretty fit...it makes his physical rehab shorter than a non-fit person.

I'm sorry if I'm sounding preachy and stepping on toes here, but as I approach (rapidly) my 50th birthday I'm more determined than ever to reduce my risks of chronic disease by choosing to eat better, exercise more regularly and lead an active life. It just feels better. I'm not a perfect picture of healthy living, and I don't think you have to be obsessive about it, but I am really loving the progress I'm making. And it's about progress, not perfection. There may not be any guarantees about my medical future, but there are certainly benefits to choosing active instead of sedentary, and healthy food instead of fat- and sugar-filled food.

I love you guys. Choose health!

Oh my...

I can't believe I've been so remiss! I've had every intention of updating my blog on a regular basis, at least weekly since Easter. April 13 is here and I've written nary a word to my faithful readers. (I've heard through the grapevine that someone other than my friends Tom & Nadine and my wife actually read my blog...joy!) For those of you I affectionately call "lurkers," you know who you are...reading but leaving no comments...I want to clear up a misconception. You do not have to have a Blogger account to leave a comment on my blog. You are more than welcome to post a comment and you don't have to create an account. There...don't you feel better!

I was so inspired with the sunny, beautiful weather this weekend. For those of you still enduring nasty weather - I am sorry. I am truly am. At the same time I am extremely grateful for a couple of near-80 degree days with bright sunshine and few clouds. Ah....And, yes I had the top down whenever possible.

Hmmm....I've got too many thoughts wrestling for supremacy in my head. I am not sure how to organize or record them so, for now I am going to sign off to just that. I'll be back...eventually. ;-)

Happy Easter!

Easter seems like the perfect time to "resurrect" my blog from a coma of inactivity. Okay, sorry for the pun...it was there and I never have been able to resist the temptation to have pun, er, fun. We had a very different (for us) Easter this year. For the last few years our niece and her husband brought their little tribe of 3 children and our good friend brought her daughter over for an Easter Egg hunt and BBQ (weather permitting) or some other kind of meal together. This year our niece and her children had gone over the mountains and through the woods to grandmother's house...to live...temporarily...while Dad is off to training to become a Medic for the Oregon National Guard. So, this year we had only one child at our house, but she's so cute she could be several kids (yes, I am biased).

Easter's celebration wasn't the only thing different this year though. I've been challenged lately. Challenged to think differently and live differently. Over the course of the last few weeks, through wildly divergent sources including a couple of radio talk show hosts (Dave Ramsey and Dr. Laura), my own quiet time with the Lord, conversations with co-workers, my wife and this morning, my pastor's sermon, I've been challenged. If I had to correlate all the different things that were said that got my attention, it would probably be summed up in two phrases. First, was the ad for Dr. Laura's new book titled, Stop Whining and Start Living - haven't read it but the title got my attention. Second was a single sentence that came to mind as I was reading Ephesians 4:22-24, "What are you willing to sacrifice?"

You see, I had fallen into a feeling of discontent with my life. I wasn't depressed, exactly, but I was definitely discouraged. I'm turning 50 later this year and while I normally celebrate that fact with great enthusiasm, it had begun to sink in that I was nowhere near some of my life's most precious goals. I'd begun, well, whining about it, to be brutally honest. It wasn't pretty. Thankfully only a very few close to me had to endure it. Be grateful if you weren't one of them.

Something changed in my heart over the last 48 hours, though. I decided that all those diverse voices and messages were right. It was time to decide what to do about the things I've said I want to accomplish in my life. I've taken on a new, more productive way of thinking about those things. I've begun by taking stock of what is truly crucial to me. As it turns out...it's relationships. All those career, financial and ministry goals are great, but none of them are worth killing relationships. None of them. So I am taking a fresh look at my life now, and for the future and weighing everything in the balance of the impact each goal will have on my most important relationships. First with God, then my wife, then my closest friends and family...and so on...you get the picture. And funny enough, I find myself excited and content again. Ain't God great?

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged, as have most of the people I know, whose blogs I could tag. Hmmm...what's a fellow to do. Well, first off I misread the instructions (what man reads instructions anyway) so I didn't grab the nearest book to me, I grabbed the book I've been reading.

Dancing in the Desert by Marsha Crockett pg. 123

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been mad, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).
God in me. When I sense God in me, I have the power to change my outlook on ordinarily frustrating circumstances--like when I am dealing with people who are habitually late.

I haven't tagged anyone so I'm a big party pooper, I guess. But it's late, I'm tired and now I am going to bed. :)

Blessings to all the taggers!

A Psalm

I am in the beginning chapters of a what promises to be an excellent book. Dancing in the Desert, by Marsha Crockett is about finding more of God when you are walking in the wilderness times of the spirit, often called the dark night of the soul. In that time, you are stripped of all that you once relied on so that you can learn to rely more fully on God.

At the beginning of each chapter, Marsha provides assignments to help you still your thoughts and focus on entering into God's presence. Chapter two begins with this suggestion.

Read Psalm 136. Consider how God's enduring love permeates every thought, action and circumstance. Write your own psalm in the style of Psalm 136, but use the list of faithful acts you recalled in the exercise above. Read your song of praise aloud.

I have to confess...I didn't write a list in the previous exercise, I just meditated and thought about a list. But as I wrote my psalm, the list sort created itself. Here it is, unedited, except for spelling and grammar where necessary.

Don's Psalm

When I was a child, lonely and afraid, You spoke comfort and peace to me.
Your mercies endure forever.
In my doubts about my worth, you sent teachers, friends and family to speak words of life and encouragement to me.
Your love and mercies endure forever.
When I sinned against You in my foolish rebellion, You forgave me and loved me and welcomed me back into Your arms.
Your mercies endure forever.
When I was sinned against and betrayed by those I loved most You brought assurance and peace to me.
Your loving kindness and mercies endure forever.
As my heart broke under the weight of loss You took me to places of healing and rest.
Your mercies endure forever.
You knit together what had been utterly broken.
Your mercies endure forever.
You made love grow from the ashes of brokenness and defeat.
Your mercies endure forever.
You have made wholeness and health where there was broken sickness of heart.
Your mercies endure forever.
You have given hope for today and excitement for tomorrow.
Your mercies endure forever.
You have shown Yourself faithful in all things, through all things and my love for You sings and dances in worship to You.
Your love endures forever.
You now allow me to speak, sing, dance, hug and pray Your life-giving love into others.
Your mercies endure forever.
You are greatly to be praised for You alone are worthy of all praise, honor, and glory.
Praise be to God whose mercies endure forever!

That Thing You Do

I've been thinking. Dangerous territory for me, but I ventured out there and did it anyway. :) You see, I've been trying to organize my thoughts so I can be more consistent about posting to my little online world here, but every time I think about it, I get...more confused.

Jen(n)'s commenton my last post, "Now that I've taught with you I know you have a ton to share!!!"really got my attention and made me think. The truth is, that I really do have a lot to share. So, why do I find it so hard to write a few words in a semi-organized fashion on my blog consistently? I think I may know the answer.

I am verbal. I like to share by talking. I love to share what's going on inside of me, but I also like seeing and hearing what is going on inside you. I want to hear about that thing you do. I feed on that interaction with my friends, relatives, co-workers, and strangers (friends I haven't met yet). Get me started on nearly any topic I am even remotely interested in and I am a sharing son-of-a-gun. Yakity-yak!

Writing seems like so much work, because I am constantly analyzing what I put on the page. Did I spell that right? (I'm a decent speller, but a lousy typist.) Is my "creativity" with rules of punctuation and grammar acceptable? Am I sharing something that is best left to the privacy of a conversation with close friends? All these things and more swirl around in my head and I find myself making excuses for not posting another day.

The truth is, I love receiving your comments - it spurs me on to fight through the confusion and helps me to know that someone actually gets something out of what I write. I especially like to lighten your day. But sometimes, I'll get serious too, because life isn't all about the laughs.

Thanks again readers, and especially commentators. You inspire me. I'll do my best to return the favor!

Random "thots"

I just can't help it. I am a little competitive by nature. Not about all things, and I don't absolutely have to win to enjoy a competition, but I am currently getting shellacked here! What is kicking my proverbial behind you may ask?

My wife! She has turned into a blogging machine and I can't keep up. And it's good stuff! If you haven't read Furiously Loved lately because she hadn't written in so long...do yourself a favor and go there next She's been cranking out one profound post after another.

This is all very well, thank you except that I've always been the wordy one in the family - if you know what I mean. I've always had something to say, and sometimes it's been profound or provocative or, at least fun to read. I've sat down in front of the computer many, many times in the last couple of weeks to write and each time, I've gone blank. OY!

OK - enough of that.

I was very moved Sunday by what my friend and Pastor, Tom, shared in his message. He's doing a series on Matthew 5:1-12, commonly called The Beatitudes. You can hear the messages for yourself on our church's website.

This week's message was centered on Matthew 5:8 "God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God." (NLT)

I was very convicted by a particular statement Tom made...it went something like this, "You want to know how pure your heart is? Then pay attention to where your thoughts go when you are alone and nobody else is around." That's not a direct quote, and may be a paraphrase, but it's what stuck in my head.

Where do my thoughts go when I'm alone? I have to admit that too often my thoughts go...astray. I am reminded again that I need a Savior and grace and mercy! Wow, I try so hard to follow after God with all my heart, mind and strength. I really do...but if I'm brutally honest, I think I would, at best, get a "C to C+" on my "pure heart report card". I can go off on wild tangents that have nothing whatsoever to do with pleasing my God in a nanosecond.

To my credit, I am much better at recognizing these little jaunts into soulishness and distraction and reigning my thoughts back to reality. And really, that's what I cling to. I absolutely know that my God loves me. I am His child, the delight of His eyes. He doesn't expect, nor demand instant perfection. So I take comfort in the knowing that He has, in fact, factored in my stupidity, my wild hair thoughts and even my imperfect attempts to 'take every thought captive.'

It is good to be a child of the most patient, loving, kind, gentle, merciful Father. I can rest in that, even while taming my random "thots" I think. So as I, may I say...we... wrestle with submitting our thought lives to the Spirit, repenting when we need to, building our faith in Him, and being cleansed by the Blood, we can look eagerly forward to seeing God. Not just in the afterlife, but in the here and now. Not just metaphorically, but really, really see God. I long for that experience of seeing my loving God, whether it is in a vision or dream or some other spiritual context. I want to see Him. I want to know Him.

Purify my heart oh, God and renew a right spirit within me!

What if?

I often find myself asking that question about the stuff of life. What if I had been tall - would I have pursued athletics more aggressively? What if I'd taken that turn instead of that turn? Would I have gotten into a wreck? What if I told that person how badly that negative comment really hurt me? Would they be sorry or just say they were sorry?

What if the church could learn to love and appreciate one another's differences instead of obsessing on how to phrase our argument to win the others to our way of thinking? What if the church gave each different movement, denomination, or body the freedom to express their love for Christ in the way that stirred their hearts and be excited for one another's uniqueness?

What if all the world needed really is just love, sweet love? Can we do that church? Can we just allow ourselves to give love, sweet love to a hurting world? What if we could relate to people without judgment, criticism or instruction on the right way to look, feel and move...and just love them with God's sweet love.

And what if, just think about this...what if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about? :)

I'm B-A-C-K

Wow, I had no idea it had been so long since my last post. Sheesh. Sorry faithful readers (all three of you :-]).

A lot has happened since last I posted a post in blog-land. I've turned another year older, started the process of learning to make wine (mentored by my friend and wine maker extraordinaire, John - aka Ratatouille), painted the exterior of my house, started repainting/decorating a guest/meditation room in our house, spent a long weekend with my beautiful bride and some precious friends in a beach house on the Oregon coast, and booked a reservation for a condo in Fiji for next year.

So, while I haven't been blogging, I haven't exactly been sloughing off either. I am having so much fun! Oh, yeah, and I work too - and it isn't always fun, but I am usually able to have a laugh or two at work - often at my own expense - because I find that laughter truly is the best medicine.

So I'm not going to get all thoughtful and deep in this post. I just wanted to get myself back on track to start writing again...sort of ease myself back into writing shape, if you will.

And I promise I won't take so long before the next post...I promise.

That's a Lotta Wattah

Yep, 20,000 bottles of it - actually just a little less, because we drank a bunch as we unloaded it from the truck. Part of the gig when our Spiritual Dream Interpretation Cafe team arrives at Burning Man is to unload the big ol' rental truck full of water. It was all hands on deck and you could tell that this was going to be a special group of people to work with. No one complained. No one did less than their fair share. No one slipped out of the activity for even fraction of time.

We all worked hard and together, in unity. A great sign of a great time to come. I have the honor of being in fellowship with a bunch of awesome people at the Three Rivers Bridge and close friends at the Desert Rock Bridge. In both places there are many, many like-minded people who easily put away selfishness and work for a common good. But in all my 48 years, I've never met such a unified team of strangers as I did at Burning Man 2007.

This Wednesday, as our creative worship night (which my wife facilitates) was getting started Ratatouille and I shared a bit more about our experience there. I was struck again by this thought. We went there at least partially to bring back a knowing of how much can be done by a few people who are willing to lay down their personal agendas and work in complete unity and submission to their leadership. We took some time to ask Creator to download and impart to each of our brothers and sisters there, the sense of unity we experienced at Burning Man so we could fully participate in the promise of this coming season in our fellowship.

I am profoundly and forever marked by the experience of working alongside such a phenomenal group of people. Even more amazing is that most of us met for the first time just two days before Burning Man opened it 'gates' for the 2007 Burn and already we had begun forming friendships - true, for real friendships.

Encounter after encounter with Burners who were looking for 'something more' and having the honor to listen and participate directly with Fuego (fire in Spanish), Fire Rose, Johnny B Good, Rocket, Spotted Eagle, Rhonda, Altered, Randy and MVP through the week was - amazing. Insight, discernment, revelation, wisdom, kindness, gentleness, mercy and tons of love were poured out on hungry people and they absolutely were changed by it. That doesn't even count the many others on the team with whom I didn't work with on a team, but got to know during meal times and breaks.

If I can bring anything back to my town, my friends, and my fellowship, I hope it is the humility to work together in complete unity to help lost and hurting people of this world find their true destiny. Just think - a bunch of pagans worked in unity to build a tower to reach the heavens. They were succeeding at such a rate that even Creator spoke and said that if they worked together there was NOTHING they could not do. Nothing.

Surely we who share a common faith and love for Him can unite to share His love with a hurting world. Surely it must be His heartbeat that drives the rhythm of our love for each other and the lost. Can we make it our aim to lay down our personal agendas for that goal? I KNOW we can - I've just seen 48 talented, gifted, diverse people do it - and do it with excellence!

What's on Your Menu?

Some of you have let me know, through comments on my wife's blog, that you're anxiously awaiting to hear my take on the trip to Burning Man 2007.

It's getting late (for me) so this will be a brief posting - an appetizer - for more to come.

My heart is so full after a week on the Playa. I have been processing with my wife and friends and I feel as if part of me is still there. It is a surreal feeling. In reality we were only gone 10 days, but it sometimes feels like that 10 days represents the 'real' world and my workaday world here is the one that is temporary. Strange, I know, but I am not sure how else to describe the sensations I am working through.

I wanted to start my posts about our trip with the key to our stay there -the Spiritual Menu from which we served our guests of honor, the Burners. Inspired by the Seven Spirits, we offered a full menu from which our guests could choose. As I talked with folks who served in different groups over the week, it seemed that each group had predominant themes unique to them. My current theory on that is that Creator led the hosts to lead people to groups where the particular gift mix of the team was best suited for that particular menu item. All of the teams I served on, for instance, were dominated by requests for spiritual cleansing (three different leaders and team mates).

More than any other experience I've had, the encounters we had were longer in duration and deeper in impact. Our guests came to the 'table' hungry for a spiritual encounter and were, more often than not, changed dramatically by their encounter with the Spirit of Light.

I'm ruined for anything less. I fell in love with the Burners. I am humbled to accepted and loved by them, and for the opportunity to love on them. For most of the encounters I participated in, our new friends received deeper spiritual touches than many who consider themselves spiritual. They came in open and expectant to have something happen. I loved the comment reported by one of our leaders, that after a particularly deep and healing encounter a guest said, "My eyes have the same light in them as all of you have in yours! How did you do that?"

Well...WE didn't. The Spirit of Light simply answered their invitation to live inside them.

Ready, Set....

It's almost time to go! And, no, I don't have a nice orangey-yellow flame job in my hair. My hair stylist had gotten the idea from a co-worker that Burning Man was mostly middle-aged and older people and thought the flames would be too 'young'. Ya just gotta look at the website to realize this probably is a misconception, but I AM a newbie and her co-worker's dad has been several times, so I didn't argue.

Things are happening and my 'spidey sense' is tingling with anticipation for the next two weeks - probably the most intense two weeks of my life so far. I spent a good part of the evening tonight working on my wife's car that suddenly decided to die in the grocery store parking lot. New battery and all is good...except for that lockdown bolt that fell into the fascia where no human can reach it. Ah well...

I am so amped, it doesn't even matter. I am ready to rock and roll in the desert and touch lives with God's wild, fierce, unconditional love. Yep. That's the good stuff. Whether it's in the semi-arid lands of the Benton-Franklin County Fair or in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, I am as ready as I can be, and as unprepared for the full reality as is normal for a new experience.

Life truly is a very big adventure!

Dyeing to Self

I waited a while to post this because I didn't want to ruin the fun...for me, that is, of seeing my friends faces when they saw new 'do for the first time. I am so glad I waited. What a hoot!

For those of you who actually read my little corner of the web, thank you. Your reactions have absolutely made the change so worth it! If I'd have known the reaction would be so widespread and vigorous, I think I may have done it years ago.

The reactions do bring me to an unmistakable conclusion. Shaking things up once in a while helps keep life very interesting and fun. After all, hair color, unlike a tattoo, is not permanent. It is merely short-term thing that can be quite easily fixed if it's bad. The reactions have ranged from quiet smiles, rolling eyes and shaking heads (older folks I work with) to very encouraging words like 'Dude, I like it!' (from my younger friends) and everything in between. You'd think I'd changed my face. Many people I know well hardly recognize me at first. All in all, I am having a blast.

Kudos to Melissa from Reflections Salon for having the creative vision to see the 'new me' and bringing it into being. Who knows what's next - maybe a 'flame job' to complete the makeover? "Only my hairdresser knows for sure."

Finis!

Wow! It's finally done! We put the last, finishing touch on my mom & dad's bathroom today. Project complete. Boy, does it feel good to have finished. As promised, here are the pix. Please forgive the quality. We forgot to take the good camera (again), so these were taken with a camera phone.

Virtually everything is new except the toilet, which you probably don't want to see anyway, the mirror, and the vanity cabinet. :) Since the pix will tell the story better than I, I'll let them do the talking.



The Shower, which was the whole point of starting this project.

































And, yes, that really is a lot of tile. Way more work than I had counted on, that's for sure. But I am pleased with the way it turned out, overall. Of course, every time I walk in I see the flaws, but it's functional, clean, new and my parents are thrilled so I am happy with it.

On to my own house where we are freshening the paint in a couple of rooms and on the exterior to get it ready to sell. When? Who knows. If we got a ridiculously high offer on it, I would move tomorrow. :)

Peace!

Finishing Strong

It's been a very long haul, but we are almost finished with the remodel of my parents' bathroom. We've been working on it since late February, using a ton of vacation time, evenings and weekends. The shower has been functional for a couple of weeks now, so we're down to the final finishing touches. Some trim here, repaint there, the details are all that's left.

Through the process, I've been given several opportunities to "call it good" and leave it mostly finished...ugly, but functional. And every time it's come up, I've had to decline the opportunity to bag it, tired as I was, because it didn't yet fit the picture I had in my mind when I started.

Life is like that, isn't it? We work, toil and press on, sometimes through seemingly impossible circumstances and constantly we hear the whispers. "You've earned your rest, just go ahead and stop. Everyone will understand." "No one really cares, you know...just let it go." And when you're tired and worn out, if you don't keep your eyes on the end game, on the finish line, on finishing strong - you can listen and you can rationalize easing up or even quitting.

That's just what Satan wants. He knows that the only real victory he can win over a Christ-filled person is to get them to quit. That's why discouragement and depression are two of his favorite weapons. Paired with fatigue, he has successfully ended the journey to destiny for countless millions of believers.

So wake up to the enemy's scheme. Don't give in and don't give up. As Winston Churchill's famous graduation speech so eloquently puts it, "Never, never, never quit."

Finish strong!

Oldfangled Ideas

As I was thinking of what to write, I was tempted to call this post Newfangled Ideas but I realized that the ideas in question are really just new to me, and maybe to you. Others have had, or known of, these ideas throughout history.

I learned more this weekend about the power of belief than I had thought possible. After all, I'd made a sort of study of that sort of thing many years ago. I learned then that if you truly believed something, you would act in such as way as to make it come to pass. It's called the law of attraction by some. By some it is described in this way, "What you focus on, you make room for*." I had become cynical in my study. I'd read Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich (I don't recommend it unless you're really into deliverance). I'd taken a class based on Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I'd helped facilitate some of the workshops and it seemed to all come down to a common denominator.

Take truths from scripture (usually Proverbs), strip out the references to God, repackage them in secular humanistic language and make MILLIONS of dollars and build a personality cult. It seemed to me to all come down to making money off the poor saps who desperately wanted to have it all and who were willing to spend a large percentage of their incomes to get there, only to find out that the principles don't always work. At least not for the vast majority of us.

Why?

This weekend, I learned a big part of the answer from a Christian perspective and it makes total sense. You see, Jesus did say we could do all things if only we believed and had faith. So the principle is truth established by God and manifested in Jesus. The difference is that He had no unbeliefs swimming around in his sub-concious mind. We do. We have these areas of unbelief, many of which can be formed at early ages and unless we "reprogram" that area of unbelief, we will self-destruct in our attempts to succeed. We have to get rid of judgments against ourselves and others. We have to accept ourselves. We have to fully believe.

We, the Church, have all the reason in the world to believe for miracles of healing, resurrection from the dead, signs and wonders for our FOUNDER manifested all those things and left with the reassurance that we would do even greater things than these. So why aren't we? Why are so many in the Church running on empty?

Let's take up the challenge to look at our unbelief and challenge it with truth. Let's start believing, truly believing for the miracles and let GOD do the deciding, eh? Don't ya know our enemy will just hate that? Don't ya know there is a dying world out there desperate for the supernatural reality of Christ in us? Let's just do it.

* I just received a comment that I had misquoted someone so I've corrected it inline with the rest of the text. Somehow, I merged two statements into a single quote. The actual two thoughts are these, "What you focus on, you make room for. What you fear, you empower." My apologies for the mistake and thank you, Greg for the correction - and for reading my blog!

It's Been a Hard Day's Night...

We took tonight off - from working on the bathroom at my parents' house, from going anywhere. We just needed some down time...and it feels so good to just relax with my sweetie on the couch with a nice glass of wine and TIVO.

In case you're wondering where I've been the last few weeks, I now have some preliminary pictures of the work in progress. Mind you, these were taken with a camera phone and the walls are only half done here (they are 3/4 done in reality and we're going over to finish the install tomorrow - grout will have to wait until later).

As you can see here, we installed an new cultured marble vanity top with a built-in sink and added a tile backsplash. That's the pattern Di figured out and cut! It replaces a 60's era putty-colored laminate countertop and mint green sink.

Better, huh. Oh, yeah the outlet, towel ring, faucet and lighting are all new too.


The next shot is looking at the wall that will have the shower fixtures, when we finish the tile. It, in fact is the only wall that doesn't currently have tile to the ceiling...because of the cut outs for the fixtures.

It really is starting to look like a room again and my parents are extremely grateful and blessed at the results. I don't think they had any idea what we were planning we started, but they trusted us to take care of the details and we're doing our best to keep that trust.

Anyway, that's what has been occupying most of our time recently, and will continue to do so until we are finished. Thanks for your encouragement, and patience with us.

Time Flies...

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it had been since I've posted a blog entry! Time really does seem to fly, even when you're just busy and not necessarily having fun. ;-) And we have been very busy. As my lovely bride mentions in her last post, we have helped with a wedding and reception (where my friend Sam and I grilled over 60 steaks), become all too familiar with our local hospital (visiting my Mom on her trips there), and the BEAST.

No, I'm not referring to the Anti-Christ...just the bathroom remodel at my parents' house. Have you ever volunteered for something because it was the right thing to do and seemed like it be relatively easy? Then you get into the project and you realize how big it really is? After all these years of working on my own house, you would think that I would have a clue, but once again my optimism about how a project will go got the better of my memory and experience. After weeks of demo, prep and more prep, and finding (and waiting weeks for) new fixtures, and learning more about plumbing code than I ever wanted to know, we actually put some tile on the wall yesterday. YES!

Okay, it was just the back splash/accent row around the counter and sink, but it was TILE and it was a beautiful pattern designed by my wife. She's got the art/design/math skills to pull something like that off. While I love the design, and was thinking of something similar, I am particularly bad at the math and measuring. Not Di. She designed, measured and cut the tiles, while I prepped the walls with backer board. She did an awesome job. We installed the back splash last night and everything fit perfectly. It's really beautiful and I am so proud of her.

When it's all done, I'll post pictures. My goal is to finish before next weekend, so I am taking a minimum of two days off this week, probably four. :) Because when you are closing in the finish line, time just flies!

Sometimes It's the Little Things

Well, I must say I am a happier camper tonight. I've watched God work a miracle over the last 24 hours and I'm just plain excited. My mom improved so much over the last 24 hours that her physician had the ventilator removed this early evening. She's back on a small nose tube to supply oxygen. MAJOR answer to prayer.

How dramatic was this? We were told that if everything went as they (hospital staff) hoped, she might be taken off the ventilator Wednesday morning...if she was ready. They were very cautious. Tonight, while Di and I were sitting with her in the early evening, her attending physician came in, checked her readings, charts and her and declared, with some excitement, that he saw no reason to keep the tube in.

How could this happen - from near death experience yesterday to breathing well today? I have only one answer. God answers prayer. So, while most of us take this whole breathing thing for granted, I have to say that for us it was a very big "little thing" that made our whole night!

Okay, I got a little somethin'

What I got right now, is a whole lot of need for prayer for my mama! We almost lost her today. It's a very sobering thought.

My brother drove 3.5 hours to stay with my dad today, just to keep him company. He'd called me yesterday and asked if I thought it was a good idea or was he worrying too much. I thought it would encourage dad so I strongly encouraged him to come.

And it's a good thing he did. While visiting this early afternoon, my mom started having an extremely hard time breathing - gasping for air. My dad kind of froze, not knowing what to do, so my brother took steps - a few of them actually, to the nurse's station, requesting help. The next thing they knew the room was full with a respiratory team and a cardiologist who "just happened" to be on the floor at the time looking in on a patient he'd operated on. They worked quickly to get her 'intubated' (ventilator) and under heavy sedation.

Within an hour or so she started to stabilize a bit, her oxygen levels showing an upward trend. All in all, a very scary few hours.