Christmas 2011

My family hasn't all been together since June of 2010. I have been so excited to have both my boys home for Christmas this year. I knew that I couldn't totally relax and enjoy them until noon on Sunday when the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services were over. We had a great vegan Christmas dinner cooked by Brett. We had Christmas crackers on the table thanks to our son who spent a year in England. So we all had to wear Christmas hats while we ate our lovely plant-based feast.

Then I got sick on Christmas night. I have been dragging around ever since. Brett has done much of the cooking. Thank goodness. I am not great at vegan fare.

I have rallied every now and then for a family excursion. We went to Fela! at the Ahmanson Tuesday night. Today I said I thought I could handle sitting on the beach in Laguna for a couple hours. We watched a seal body surf. That was an amazing sight.

Matt and I did one of my absolute favorite things in the whole world....we explored the tide pools.

But mostly I have been a slug....at least my family is all together.

Bucket List Fulfillment

I haven't written on my blog for too long. There have been so many deaths. I haven't felt much like writing. But Bryan whisked me away yesterday to fulfill a wish on my bucket list and I just have to write about it.

Since I was pregnant with Matthew I have wanted to attend an NFL game, preferably the Bears but any game would do. I didn't grow up in a family that watched football. I had zero interest in football and didn't understand the game. Then I got pregnant with Matt when Bryan and I were serving a yoked parish in Northern Indiana. I never experienced the healthy glow of pregnancy. I could barely keep any food down. I lost so much weight and became almost bedridden.

Bryan took over the duties of both churches and a sick wife. On Sundays he would preach at two churches and attend to church meetings and visit the sick. Then he would come home to an ill wife who had no interest in anything. To fight complete boredom I watched television. Without cable television I only had a few channels from which to choose. On Sundays that meant football. One Sunday Bryan came home and I greeted him with, "You will never believe how many yards Walter Payton rushed today." He said, "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?" A football fan was born.

Ever since that pregnancy I have wanted to attend a NFL game. So Bryan and I attended a night game between the Chargers and the Ravens. If the Ravens won the game they would be the top ranked team in the AFC. The Chargers beat them 34-14. It was a fun game to be cheering for the Chargers.

So in a stadium with 80,999 other people, I learned what real fan loyalty looks like. "Wow!" is all I can say. The young man in the seat beside me started out by saying, "I am just going to apologize up front. I am going to get very intense. Cuss words are going to fly out of my mouth and I have been drinking all day." It was a good warning. I told Bryan that I now know what testosterone smells like: Axe body spray and beer.

A football stadium is filled with evangelical Christians, raving fans, people willing to paint their chests team colors, corporations, the worst food ever made....

...and flags...

We stayed down here in San Diego for the night. Here is the view from our hotel room. I love San Diego!

We are on our way to pick up Matt from the airport after not seeing him for over 14 months. Seeing Matt again is also on my bucket list.

Church Proud #2

It was a good day at the Progressive Brethren Gathering. Dr. Sharon Welch presented on non-violent direct action and how it relates to the Occupy Movement and what has happened within the progressive movement of the Church of the Brethren. It was good and was helpful.

Then we moved into people sharing ideas for action. Chris presented the paper that was adopted at the October 16 Church Council at the La Verne CoB. Josih, along with four others, shared about Feast of Love's progress. I shared from the BMC Board about our hope to see Supportive Communities Network expand. I was church proud again.

Our meetings are at the Highland Ave. CoB. I took a picture of their welcoming bench by their front entrance. It made me want to make more of a witness on our building.

Saturday night we took a tour of the Elgin Offices. Here is Mary Kay in the BVS office.

Then we ate dinner at the offices, did some strategizing and ended the day with a worship. Here are our rocks of grief and lament. (My rock is actually my dream for the church.) Then we anointed our hands for the work of justice. It was a long day.....

Church Proud

I am at the Progressive Brethren Gathering in Elgin, Illinois. There are four of us here from the La Verne Church of the Brethren. Mary Kay, Chris and I flew in together and landed at Midway Airport. We knew we were in Chicago when we saw all the Blues Brothers memorabilia.

After fighting the heavy Friday night traffic we arrived at Highland Ave. Church of the Brethren in time to grab a very quick bite before evening worship. The service was built around the scripture of the woman who anointed Jesus. Three people gave testimony to radical acts of faith. Two of them were from the La Verne Church of the Brethren. Josih spoke of Romaine Patterson and the Laramie Project. Mary Kay spoke of the radical act of showing up, standing up and speaking out. They were both excellent. Can a Brethren be church proud? You bet!

Tomorrow is strategy day.

Traditions

I turned 51 yesterday. Last year for my 50th birthday Bryan and I spent two nights in Laguna. It was heavenly and so we decided to try it again. Work commitments kept us from two nights but one night was easier on the pocketbook. We stayed at an oceanfront hotel so close to the beach that one review said, "The only way you could get closer to the water is if you were on a boat. The waves crash so loudly that Bryan and I have to keep asking each other to repeat everything. So we just quit talking and let the sound take us to a zen place. This is the view from our porch.

On the way down Bryan reminded me that last year a huge dragon fly came into our room, attracted by the light. It was quite the adventure getting it back out of our room. I caught most of it on video. When we checked in this year they gave us the exact same room. Late in the evening, lulled by the sounds and smells of the ocean, Bryan had fallen asleep and I was reading my Facebook birthday wishes. Again we were visited by the biggest dragonfly. This year's adventure was even more exciting. Bryan finally captured her and as he released her outside he said, "See you again same time next year!" I hope so.

Bass Lake

We are staying in a cabin by Bass Lake. I found this lake back in May when I was up here at the District Pastor's Retreat. I was looking for a place with phone reception so that I could check in with Bryan. This is what I witnessed when I arrived.

So when Bryan said that what he really wanted to do with some vacation time was find a cabin and rest, I thought of Bass Lake. We are staying on the south side, which is definitely the quiet side. After breakfast on our porch we drove to the north side of the lake.

We rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon. The basic boat we rented wasn't working properly so we got the party boat. I loved every minute of my afternoon. I got to drive.

I got to float in the cool, beautiful water.

I got to see some of the coolest clouds.

We came in from our afternoon of boating and studied the clouds some more.

Then we had what the locals lovingly call a "Fork's Burger." All I can say is "Wow!"

Yosemite Now and Then

In the summer of 1966 my family camped in Yosemite. We watched the Firefall from our campground. This picture is from a slide my father took that year.Bryan and I went to Yosemite over 45 years later. We did not camp. We stayed in a room with a king-sized bed in the Lodge. The mattress was so bad we nicknamed it "Yosemite Valley." The National Park Service ended the "Firefall" in 1968. So instead of viewing it we went up to Glacier Point, the place from which the embers were dumped down 3,000 feet. This was our view.

In the summer of 1966 my dad drove the family car through the Wawona Tree in Yosemite. It fell down in the winter of 1969.

Bryan and I didn't drive through any trees but we sure enjoyed each one...even their reflections.

In May of this year I attended a District Pastor's Retreat in Yosemite. There was record precipitation this year. This is how the Bridal Veil Falls looked in May 2011.

This is how they looked in September 2011. What a difference four months can make.

Our schedule got thrown off just a bit today when a tow truck had to tow a car at Glacier Point and blocked our escape for quite some time. So we found ourselves very hungry when we finally ate lunch at the Wawona Hotel. What a blast from the past! When I turned to Bryan and said, "This restaurant reminds me of a resort in a movie." Bryan said, "I was thinking of the exact same thing." It was like Kellerman's from the movie "Dirty Dancing." When we had finished our meal Bryan stood up and said, "No one puts Baby in a corner." We danced right out of there.