RockTheDesert

My Tag-a-long Vacation

I've been on vacation this week - a "tag-a-long" vacation. You know, the kind where your friend emails you kind of last-minute and invites you to go (tag-a-long) with their family on vacation and you don't have any good reason to say "um, no, awkward, I just couldn't" and your husband says "go ahead" and your teenage son says "great idea" and your daughter says "have fun" and all of a sudden you're in the backseat of a van, heading west, wishing you had brought a harmonica to liven up the ride!

Seriously, my good friend Pam invited me to go to Big Bear Lake with her family for 5 days of rest and relaxation so I truly didn't hesitate for more than 10 seconds before I found myself getting really excited about the possibility of reading a few books all the way through with no interruptions and sleeping in and napping and boating and fishing and hiking and biking. Actually, Pam and I didn't do any biking. I believe we were napping. Or reading. Or reading 'til we fell into a deep and fabulous nap.

And as far as fishing goes, I never really used a fishing pole or touched a hook or worm (unless you count the split second of horror I had when the worm on Ryan's hook slimed my leg as he was getting ready to toss the line back in the water) but I did spend a few hours in the rented fishing boat observing the fish which were jumping in and out of the water but totally ignoring the big juicy worms on the end of Jeff & Ryan's hooks.

Boating is incredibly relaxing. Just being a passenger is fun and speeding back to the dock is great fun but sometimes it makes you yawn!

On our way out of town we headed to Forest Falls for a quick hike up to the highest waterfall in Southern California - Big Falls. All in all, I had a fantastic time of deep rest. Really. It was deep. And I didn't realize how much I needed it. It was truly divine and delicious and I'm grateful for the love and kindness of friends who allowed me to tag-a-long!

 

Thursday 13 - Going to So Cal

I tried to go to California this week. Thought I'd leave on Sunday, right after church. My plans were altered by an unexpected, but fun, four-day visit from my cousin's two daughters and their bichon frise! Now I'm gearing up to leave the scorching heat and head across the border to So Cal on Sunday after church. Assuming there's no natural, catastrophic disaster that keeps me from leaving, I should arrive just about at dinner time - my favorite part of the day!

Thirteen Reasons To Go To California Next Week 1....I've got to get out of this heat. 2....I need a vacation. 3....My sons and husbands have lots of "guys-only" plans next week. 4....I'm craving a Yogurtland yogi - tart vanilla with freshhhhh blackberries. 5....My parents live 10 minutes from the Oceanside pier exit off the freeway. 6....I can celebrate my birthday with a yummy, homemade birthday dinner. 7....Fresh fruit, like mangos, pineapple, jicama (fruit?), watermelon, all on a platter with lime & salt. 8....I can visit my 3 sisters. 9....I can hang out with my 2 nephews. 10..I can take some long walks along the Carlsbad beach. 11..I can catch up on Fox News (with my Dad). 12..I can catch up on Mexican soap operas (with my mom). 13..I've got a creative, funny family and they all love a good excuse to gather for a meal or just for fun!

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Summer of Missions

We leave on Wednesday, June 18 for Rwanda, Africa. God has assembled a team of missionaries from Arizona, California, Texas, Alabama, and Florida to do His work in Rural Rwanda, partnering with e3 partners and their incredible team of trainers, translators, nationals, and local churches. I'll be posting as frequently as I can from Rwanda - can't always guarantee the internet will be operational in the area we'll be staying. We took this picture right outside of Ruhengeri which is where we'll be working again. Rwanda is incredibly beautiful and lush and green. It rains every afternoon in this region. This is actually a golf course at a lodge near the volcano area where people climb up to see the gorillas in their natural habitat. We went to the lodge for our final dinner together as a team before leaving for the USA in the morning. I believe we were standing on Jack Hanna's porch (he wasn't there) while taking this picture.

When we return from Rwanda, I'll wash my clothes and re-pack them so that I can leave for Romania on July 11. I'll be part of another e3 partners team of 33 missionaries from across the country. This trip is one of 2 training trips necessary in order for me to become a Church Planting Coordinator with e3. Romania has a very small percentage of Evangelicals Christians. There is a fairly large Orthodox influence, but only in a very religious, dutiful way. Although the percentage of Evangelicals is small, Romania still has one of the largest group of Christians in Eastern Europe. Alyssa and I went to Romania with e3 on a missions trip in July 2005. I'm very excited that I'm returning to the same region that we worked in and working with the same 2 mother churches! Here's Alyssa in a massive field of sunflowers - they grow sunflowers, not for the seeds, but for the oil!!

I'll be back on July 19. I'll once again wash my clothes and re-pack them in preparation for our August trip to Burundi, Africa. I'm really excited about this trip because my friend Kelly is going with us!! This will be Dan's second e3 partners mission trip that he plans and executes all on his own! We are actively recruiting for this trip right now...it will be here before we know it!  Click HERE to find out more details about the trip and to sign up to join us!!! We are planning on staying at the same, beautiful hotel as last time we were there. It's very close the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Lots of rain here, too. Very lush, tropical paradise juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of the capital city, Bujumbura.

I must be an optimist, but I'm thinking I'll have time to hit the CA beaches sometime this summer too! That will be a personal mission trip, made up of frozen yogurt with fresh blackberries, ice-cold watermelon, sun-splashed skin, shockingly cold, salty, seaweedy waves, sweeping me off my feet, restoring my tired body, refreshing my California spirit! We used to camp at San Clemente State Beach every summer while growing up. Some of my best childhood memories are of these summery, sunburned, family times. I'm sure my mom needed a vacation by the end of the week after cooking 3 meals a day and sweeping sand out of the tent constantly. Good times!! (I'm wrapped in the blue towel)

Orange Roses in La Jolla

Dan and I were invited to spend the Memorial Day weekend in La Jolla, California with a group of friends. Unfortunately, Dan was sick all week and ended up with a prescription for meds that made him extremely drowsy. We decided that I shouldn't miss the opportunity for fun. On Friday at about 11am,  I went to Southwest.com, made a reservation, headed to the airport, and flew into San Diego. I paid an extra $15 and got an "A" boarding pass. My good friend, Kelly, picked me up at the airport. We went to Ralph's and picked up a massive quantity of food for an extravagant pasta dinner then headed to La Jolla to join the rest of our group. I assembled an antipasto platter and bruschetta with shrimp and basil. Kelly put together a fantastic salad and incredible pasta (organic) with to-die-for marinara complete with chicken, shrimp and sausage. So good. Nothing like eating a big luxurious dinner at 8:45pm then letting it settle while sitting in the living room overlooking the Pacific Ocean, kicking back, talking, laughing, carrying on. It was great. Bedtime at 1am. Up at 8:30. Coffee in the living room, again, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 11:30am we decided we were hungry. We headed down the hill to find some food. We landed at Cody's. Fabulous BLTs, chicken tostadas, fish tacos, chilaquiles, salads...so full, then we started a 5 hour walk through all of La Jolla (I do believe we covered every inch).
We walked and talked and walked and talked some more. The weather was fantastic; sunny with perfect breezes just when you needed them.
We eventually ended up at a house being remodeled by the same friends who hosted our weekend. They are empty-nesters and needed a project to keep busy. They bought a fixer-upper for a great price, tore it mostly down to the ground, and are re-building it to be a 2400 sq ft gem with a great ocean view. I loved the house, the neighborhood, the view, but I mostly loved the orange roses growing in their front yard.
I only wish that this rose smelled like orange.

Eye Candy...

What a lovely family. Don't you think?

School Registration

I know it might be hard to believe, but TODAY I registered Michael for school. He's all in. All 4 pages of info. The notarized signatures. The $250 fee. The physical exam. Everything. I'm still not totally clear on what day he starts school, but I'm pretty sure it's Aug 13 or 14. I'm absolutely clueless about what day Steven starts school. I looked on his school's website. Not a 2007/08 calendar posted yet.

Now I've got to notify the schools that Michael and Steven will be in Rwanda with us in Sept. That probably won't go over so well. But they will have some long travel days and might be able to squeeze in some homework on the way there and back. If they're not too busy listening to their ipods or messing around with a football or sleeping, that is!!

This pic was taken on our way back from LA on Saturday - - we had Andrew Cottrill with us (nephew - David & Lynda's son).   

Busy on vacation...

We are busy visiting with family and friends this week. California is a wonderful place. The weather is fantastic. We are almost cold. And that's with no AC on in the house. My parents have a wonderful patio just off their dining room. My dad has a real green thumb. He is constantly watering all the plants and trees and flowers. He talks to them all daily as he waters and prunes them and prays God's blessing on them.

He has beautiful peach trees and fig trees and plum trees. He's got strawberries and tomatoes. And breathtaking roses and flowers. The

grass is lush and green. The soft kind of grass that you just want to run around barefoot in. He and a friend built a beautiful, white patio cover - - sort of looks like a pagoda you'd buy from Expo. They have a refreshing ocean breeze that blows thru the yard occasionally. And if you stand in the middle of their street on a very clear day and squint off to the west, you get a glimpse of the ocean.

Tonight we will visit a home Bible study at Pastor Rey's home. Dan & Joshua & Alyssa met him in Rwanda last year. He was Dan's roommate for the week (the stories Pastor Rey could probably tell). He is pastor of a Hispanic church in Vista called Camino Real Church. We visited him at his office on Tuesday and spent some time in prayer with him. He is an amazing pastor with a heart for missions. He just returned from a church planting trip with E3 to Russia.

Tomorrow is Picture Day with the Fam. I don't have a white shirt yet. Dan is planning some sort of white shirt mutiny. We'll see how that goes.

California Here We Come - again

We packed up the truck this morning and headed out to CA for a week of visiting with family and friends and of course, the main event, Family Photo Day on Thursday.

Alyssa requested that we drive thru Forest Falls "on the way" to my parents' home. So we headed for the hills - 6000 ft and the weather was beautiful. Forest Falls hasn't changed very much. Our old house is for sale again. We originally bought it for 75,000. I'm sure it has at least doubled or tripled in value.

We will see Pastor Ray tomorrow - he was Dan's roommate in Rwanda last year. He pastors a Hispanic church not far from where my parents live. We will hopefully also get to see Pastor Steve sometime this week. Dan kinda knew him from Heritage High School back in the '80's. He also was on the Rwanda trip last year and Dan's 2nd Kenya trip this year.

I plan on spending time walking at the beach, getting my eyebrows threaded, a pedicure, and possibly some scrapbooking. I brought books to read and journals to write in if I'm inspired by the Ocean.

Purse Issues

I'll admit it - I have purse issues. My current purse looks, sounds, and feels like a diaper bag. Could be because it's 100% vinyl. I got it at Target - I needed a tote bag for towels and flipflops last week when we went floating down the river. So I found this bag and lo and behold it was on sale - 1/2 off in fact. And it had a bonus larger tote bag that came with it. So I bought it. And loaded it up with what I consider the essentials from my other purse - phone, keys, wallet, etc. And then I added the towels and the flipflops. It was pretty full. Then we floated. And the bag alternated between sitting on top of the ice chest and floating in the river. It pretty much filled up with water, soaking the towels and the other contents, including my phone. Oh, but I thought ahead and put my phone in a plastic bag for protection from the elements. Um, yeah. The bag leaked. My phone worked just long enough for me to write down all my contacts then it died. When we got home, I never took the time to transfer all my things back to my real purse. So, for exactly 1 week, I've been carrying the "diaper bag." And of course, I've still got the big plastic bag in there, full of all my valuables.

I really just despise purses. I've tried every kind. Clutches, shoulder bags, hand bags, little backpacks, string wallets, straw tote bags -- really, everything. They all have let me down. There's just not the right features in any one bag. Which is why for a while a few years back I was carrying two purses - one on each shoulder or one in my hand and one on my shoulder. That worked pretty well, until my good friend Sharon had a purse intervention. She stated firmly, but lovingly, that under no circumstances should I ever leave the house with 2 purses unless 1 of them was CLEARLY an attache case. I got the message.

So now, I buy a purse based on price and convenience (if it's located near the checkstand, sort of near all the flashlights, nail clippers, beef jerky then it's a strong consideration). Or, I rely on various totes and messenger bags that I get as gifts at conferences. I don't mind advertising for Saddleback or WorshipTogether as long as my bag is functioning well. Of course, when I visit my sisters, they quietly whisper among themselves then manage to somehow whisk me away to TJ Maxx or Ross and insist on buying me a purse -- they are all talented at spying the perfect bag. I saw a great purse today at the shop (Pacific Eyes & Tees) where I was buying Steven some shirts - he mumbled something about me walking down the street with the purse and those in the know who are cool enough to own the purse would see me with the purse and would never carry that purse again - evidently I have the power to single-handedly change the course of purse fashion. I'm OK with that. But I didn't buy the bag.

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