The Joy of Speaking

I promised a picture of the two of us drowned rats from our wonderful trip to Bedford IN. We are about to hire ourselves out to NC or GA as rain-bringers....

(Picture taken by dear friend Sandy Arnold who takes her camera EVERYWHERE and who rescued Carole by giving her a power cord for her computer....)

Family Ties

Liz Anne posted about our Great Grandfather -- Path of Sprinkles -- (er, that is, her GREAT GREAT grandfather....).

I had posted earlier about the book that featured him (who would have ever thunk that their GGF would be in a NOVEL, of all things)....by James Scott Bell, Glimpses of Paradise.

Not that he had a huge part, but nonetheless.....

Anyway (I'm sure I was going somewhere with this) I thought that this item that was posted had a great deal of merit.... For those of you who are Biola alumni/fans you will recognize this as part of their Torrey conference:

http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2007/10/22/how-he-worked-for-christ-ra-torrey/

Anyway, what I wanted to mention was that R.A. prayed for his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren. I'm one of the greats. My children (and Liz Anne and her sibs, etc) are the great-greats. And I want you to know that the most amazing thing is that his prayers extended to the great greats. The number of R.A's descendants -- to the 4th generation -- that are totally sold out for Jesus is astonishing.

Keep praying. Keep up the R.A. Torrey legacy. Keep praying.

Serves you right!

I just talked to Jill who had gone to a nurse practitoner conference in FL for several days, leaving Deven & Derrick home to fend for themselves. Evidently it looked a bit like a bachelor pad when she got home... I can just imagine.

This is the first time she's ever been away from Deven overnight, but Derrick said he was pretty good except for one interesting episode of acting out....evidently upset about something, Deven dropped trow and peed in the cat's water dish.

Whereupon Alexis immediately stalked into Deven's room, squatted and peed on his clothes.

Score one for the cat.

Meet Us at the Casbah, Part I

We leave three weeks from today. Between now and then I have to finish this lactation course -- we are in Oklahoma City, go to West Virginia and teach another 5 day lactation course, go to Bloomington IN and teach a one day Building Bridges -- and at some point, pack our bags.

I'm excited -- but have so much to do before then that it almost seems as though it's a bit of a dream rather than a reality.

Of course, I'm doing the woman-thing which is worrying about what I'm going to pack, will I take enough to read on the plane, will our luggage weigh too much, will the cheese I'm taking to Tim survive the trip, what on earth shall we take as a hostess gift for our host and hostess, (oh dear, I just now thought of that), where will we stay in Marrakech...how will I ever say goodbye to Tim again -- even though he'll be coming home about three weeks after we leave.

What an amazing, exotic trip. Stay tuned for updates!!

The Cat. Round 11

While I was busy teaching last week, Bob decided to take Munchkin in to see the vet and to get his furry mats taken care of. You may remember we've been expecting Munch to leave us for the kitty version of Narnia -- further up and further in -- any time now.

Evidently not.

The vet was delighted to report that Munch has gained nearly a pound since Bob took him in last June when we were SURE he was going to the Elysian Fields. She's sure it was the Vitamin B-12 shot.

I think it was his peverse nature and the fact that he has not nine lives, but at least eleven.

Bob's and my morning conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: So, where is cat?
Bob: He went out about 3:00 am. He got me up at 1:00 to have a snack, but wouldn't go out then. He got me up at 3:00 at which point I ushered him out.

Munch generally gets Bob up twice a night. He jumps on the bed and pats his face -- or jumps on his back until he gets a response.

Remembering all the nights of getting up with nursing babies I just smile.

Poetic justice.

But just in case, the vet gave him another B-12 injection....

He oughta be good for three or four more lives.

Friday Night in Wheaton

During the summer, Friday night is "Classic Car Night." Two blocks on Front Street are devoted to old cars of various and assorted vintages, and folks of all ages (and vintages) stroll up and down admiring said cars, heading to Tate's for ice cream, or down to the Dairy Queen for a cookie dough Blizzard. Music that matches the vintage of the cars -- primarily 50's & 60's rock and roll blares out from the speakers set up in Martin Plaza.

We wandered downtown tonight only to discover it was the last of the car nights for the year. It is an incredible October night -- very warm -- at 8:30 it is still 75! Bob got a cone at Dairy Queen, and then we just sat in the plaza, grooving to the music and people watching. SO fun! Lots of families -- little kids -- older folks -- grandparents -- sprinkled with a few twenty-somethings.

I sat there missing our kids -- but interestingly enough, missing our *little* kids. Missing the five year old Tim and the eight year old Torrey and the 10 year old Jill.

Sigh.

Memories are good -- but they don't quite make up for the real thing.

I wish we could have enjoyed tonight with the grownup Tim, Torrey & Jill.

Maybe on a Friday night next year???

Life as a Speaker -- Never a Dull Moment

Last week Carole and I headed to Bloomington IN to do a couple of programs. IN WIC (Women, Infants & Children -- a federal program providing nutrition education and support to qualified women and children up to age 5) is sponsoring "Building Bridges" and "Connecting Bridges" for hospital personnel, community partners and WIC. The goal is to get everyone on the same page regarding breastfeeding education and to build bridges between hospitals and the community.

We've been doing these for the past three years -- I don't know exactly how many we've done, but Carole thinks we've spoken to people in roughly 75 hospitals. Building Bridges is designed to be done first -- Connecting Bridges is a followup program, done four or more months after the original program. Both run 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

We started at Bloomington Hospital. When we arrived it was drizzling slightly. We finished, and left for Martinsville where we were meeting in a community building for a local Catholic church. By the time we got there, it was raining pretty briskly, but we decided to run to Wendy's and pick up some lunch. The drivethrough was a LONG line, so I decided to park and run in real quickly. Sure -- I'd get a little wet, but nothing that wouldn't dry fast.

Uh, right.

While waiting for our two Combo #1s, the heavens opened, the rain absolutely POURED. The lightening flashed, the thunder roared, the lights went out, the computers went down, and the grill blinked out (AFTER cooking our hamburgers though). I got our food in two bags, put the change in one bag, clutched the keys to the car (why oh why didn't I leave them with Carole??) and decided to make a dash for it between strikes of lightening.

Halfway to the car the bag holding our food ripped open and landed with a wet plonk in the parking lot. So did our change. French fries and packets of ketchup were everywhere. The hamburgers were damp but salvageable. Nothing daunted I grabbed the hamburgers and most of the change....

We got back to the church and ran in. I couldn't have been any wetter if I had stood underneath our shower in all my clothes.

Now I DO like looking good when I speak. Professional, anyway. At least DRY!!

It was sad. Very sad.

Not one of my more stellar moments.

Naturally by the time we were finished, the sun was out. I was completely dry by the time we got to Bedford for day number two....