Pictures from Pine Lake

My May Long was a great time. I had wonderful company along the journey- on the way there I traveled with good friend Deb, and on the way back, with my Uncle Dave and Aunty Heather. It's cool when an 8 hour ride just flies by with good visits and laughs.

It was fun hanging out with Aiden, Syd, Andrew and Autumn over the weekend- watching them enjoy the foamy, leachy waters of Pine Lake, eating supper in Syd and Autumn's treehouse (they make a mean steak), and playing some 2-on-2 hoops with the kiddos. It's clear that Andrew and I had the advantage. That is, until ol' Stilts (as Steve tagged her) came along. Ha ha.
Of course, then there were the smiles and cuddles and the overall adorability/squishiness factor of sweet Marees. She's so wonderful, wonderful. My mom thinks she is quite clever. I agree! I could watch a baby all day long. Someday I'll have my own to stare at! Ha ha.

And, it was so good to sit in on my brother's talks. He definitely left me with some things to work at- perhaps I will save that for another blog, because I've thought about his lesson on "blessing" a lot during my teaching days this week. Powerful.
Okay, I will let the pics tell the rest for you. It's back to learning about the Human Development Index for me. It's very interesting, and I'm being serious!

Peterson the Poet

I love this song by Andrew Peterson- from his latest album, The Far Country...especially the line about the bells! :)
This is not the end here at this grave
This is just a hole that someone made
Every hole was made to fill
And every heart can feel it still--
Our nature hates a vacuum

This is not the hardest part of all
This is just the seed that has to fall
All our lives we till the ground
Until we lay our sorrows down
And watch the sky for rain

There is more
More than all this pain
More than all the falling down
And the getting up again
There is more
More than we can see
From our tiny vantage point
In this vast eternity
There is more

A thing resounds when it rings true
Ringing all the bells inside of you
Like a golden sky on a summer eve
Your heart is tugging at your sleeve
And you cannot say why
There must be more

There is more
More than we can stand
Standing in the glory
Of a love that never ends
There is more
More than we can guess
More and more, forever more
And not a second less

There is more than what the naked eye can see
Clothing all our days with mystery
Watching over everything
Wilder than our wildest dreams
Could ever dream to be
There is more

Mother's Day, and My Mother is Home!

Only a helpful heel gives me the edge over the ten year old...long legged beauty she is! And you can't see it here, but Mom now has long flowing locks!!! Beautiful!

Arm around picture number seventy-two. It's classic.

LOVE the eyes!!!

My family is home, and it is goooood. Plus, a NWT license plate showed up on our driveway last night- surprise! Heather is home, too! Today we enjoyed a Mother's Day brunch, some tennis and supper with Aunty Carolyn, Bonnie, and Ronan. The squishability factor on this kid is excellent! Cuuuuutie petutie!
So Happiest Mother's Day wishes to my Mom. You're the best Mom a girl could ask for- love you oodles and so so so happy to have you home!!!!!!!!!!!

Nerd Day

Gorgeous!

Paving the way to Asia...

I'm feeling it today. It's that unlikable feeling I call the "friend void". My soul sister, Miss Sherri Kasper, is in Vancouver getting ready to fly over that big blue pond to Korea and beyond. Sher and her sister are traveling around Southeast Asia for the next year. Awesome, hey? I'm so pumped for them, and even more excited that we have plans to meet up somewhere during my spring break next year. How about the Phillipines? Indonesia? Cambodia? Vietnam? Sounds good to me! Anyway, tonight I went to Starbucks in honor of my friend- offered up a vanilla latte in memory of great conversations in that place. She's an amazing gal- I miss her already!
I'm just picturing her dancing up a storm in some Korean karoake hotspot...ha ha...something like this picture...love ya, Sher!!!!

Me and Don Narcisse

This week officially marks the beginning of the spring/summer sports season. I'm pretty excited about this. On Sunday, I tried something new- football! A friend of mine has been asking for the last 4 years if I'd come out and play, but the answer was always "I play softball", or "I'm leaving the country pretty soon". So this year I said "I'll probably play softball, and I'm leaving the country", but I'll play anyway! The first practice was really fun- I definitely felt like a tough football player running my post patterns and such. Ha, ha. It's cool, though- they taught us (the rookies) how to run different patterns out of the nifty little laminated play sheet. I feel like Don Narcisse already. Ha, ha! I'm not sure that I'll make the best football player, but I think it has the potential to be pretty fun. A fun group of gals- a number of them from my days with the Cougs.
Tonight I also played my first softball game in a couple years. Softball is home. No doubt- playing second base is oh, so good...and tonight I was a pick-up for a team, but the regular second base person broke her nose (that was not so good), so I moved in from good ol' right field. Pretty fun. A classic game- I bunted, grounded out, made it to first on another ground ball. Ha ha. Unfortunately it was really cold out, and my leg muscles that were already very sore from football, tightened up...leaving me waddling around like an old penguin.
I think I'll be kept busy enough with activity this spring, if my schedule on Thursday is any indicator. Basketball game at 4pm, football at 5:45pm, softball game at 6:45pm, marks due the next day. Next week we'll throw in tennis lessons! Life is good, hey?!
Go Phoenix....I really don't like the Lakers...AT ALL (sidenote).

Invisible Children

Have you heard about the night commuters in Uganda? Last week I watched a late-night Oprah that had me sobbing. I didn't know about this at all, nor did I know anything about the genocide that is taking place right now in the Sudan. The night walkers in Uganda are all children trying to escape the rebels, who kidnap the children and turn them into killers as members of the rebel group. The children walk 5 miles every night, going from the village to the shelter. Unbelievable.
3 guys from California traveled to Uganda and returned with a mission to end the crisis...they have started an organization known as the "Invisible Children". You should check out their website- it has a lot of videos and podcasts, and highlights a trailer of their soon to be released full feature film. I think it looks really good. I need to learn more about this, as well as the crisis in Sudan. If you find some good links, let me know!