A Quiet Day

It's late.  I know.  I should be asleep.  But I just had to take time to blog for the first time in a really long time.  The house is quiet except for Greg and I on our computers.  Mother and Dad G. are asleep in the basement, L is asleep upstairs.  Baby J is sleeping too.  The conference has ended.  LightSys staff have finished team retreat and are heading to their next ministry stops.

And we had a quiet day here for the first time in a long time.  Mother and Dad watched Baby J this morning while Mr. A and I slept in.  We lounged until noon when we decided to use a gift card and visit Red Lobster.   Back to the house for a nap.  Afternoon thunder shower.  Mother G. made BLTs for supper.  Evening hanging out, watching Baby J smile, laundry washing...  After working 18+ hours days for the last four weeks, today was a nice rest.

There are more things that need to be done, but it's nice just to have a day to breathe after a marathon schedule.  And a nice lunch date.  And conversations in the rain.  Time to give Baby J a bath and sing Music Machine songs without rushing off to the next to-do item.  Ahh....

Baby J laughing with Grandpa

Meanwhile, prayer is needed for this missions leader who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. It makes things a whole lot more real when you've met someone personally.

Key This

Mr. Amazing, removing keys from the Bush & Lane piano. Yep - black keys are just polished, painted pieces of wood. Talk about dirt underneath them, though! Did you know ever single key has the key's number imprinted on it so we could actually remove all the keys, vacuum underneath them, and put them back in?

New House - WHAT?????

Wow - I've had so much to blog recently and so little time.  Between returning from a road trip, buying a house, packing, cleaning, moving, LightSys work, Spring Break Code-a-Thon prep, and ICCM prep, we've been just a bit busy.

Moving day is officially Sunday, but tonight is the first night to sleep in our new house.  Mother had packed up and moved so many kitchen things today that I said, "Let's just stay here tonight."  So we are. :)  Sleeping bags, sleeping mats, and a make-shift bedroom window curtain.

So, yes!  Mr. A and I are officially homeowners!  Can I tell you how strange that feels?  Me, the girl who has lived at 13 different addresses in the last 10 years, is now in a house that (Lord willing) I'm going to be in for the foreseeable future.  I have a dining room table (actually, the one I grew up with).  I have recliners in my living room.  We're choosing paint colors for the walls!

I've been slowly realizing just how many of my house-habits are based on moving every year.  I buy a certain kind of shelf liner for the kitchen because it's easier to roll up and take to the next house.  I don't cut the shelf liner to a custom size unless I have to because it might fit differently in the next kitchen.  I pack everything in carefully labeled boxes and then store those exact boxes after unpacking so I know how to pack things for the next house.  I have plastic totes specifically for packing my kitchen dishes so they don't get broken in the moves between houses.

I keep saying, "No, Mother, do it this way because..."   "Never mind.  That's fine. We can do it that way.  I'm not moving in a year."


My sister-in-law-to-be Sarah snapped photos at our family Christmas in Kansas in December.  Here's a photo of Mr. Amazing, myself, and Mr. Wiggly. :)  Enjoy!

Arbor Hills Yearly Recap

The story behind the pictures is here, but here are the three pictures together for the fun of it.

January 2009

January 2011

January 2012

Christmas: Unique Gifts

This Christmas was a Christmas of unique and special gifts.  If I were Ellie C., I would have taken creative pictures of those unique gifts and posted them here on my blog.  But I didn't.  Those gifts are in Colorado and I'm in Georgia and I should be home to take those pictures in February.  But I just had to share a few stories...

Some of the gifts were related to the miscarriages we've gone through this year.  My sister had our babies' names engraved on angel ornaments for us.  A "Baby's First Christmas - 2011" ornament was added by my mother.  And Mr. Amazing gifted me with a beautiful "Mother and Child" necklace.  (This I wear all the time.  I'll have to take it off long enough to snap an Ellie-picture...)  Each of those gifts was enough to make me tear up as they reminded me of our two little ones already waiting for their mother and father in heaven.

Some gifts were just fun.  My older sister and brother-in-law dropped a couple crates in our laps. The contents? Rappelling/climbing harnesses and equipment!  Wow - talk about a fun loan!  Oh, and a gift that caused me the most laughter was the baby "owner's manual" from my other brother-in-law.  "This baby is surprisingly similar to other appliances you may already own.  Like a video-cassette recorder, the baby's head will require frequent cleanings for optimum performance..."  And my sister-in-law gave me chocolate syrup and peanut butter.  That's perfect!

And my brother's gift to me?  My foley fork.  For those people who don't know, a Foley Fork is a kitchen utensil from years gone by.  I loved mine - handed down from my grandmother. But when I lost it 18 months ago at a rented beach house in North Carolina, I was devastated.  So... when my brother presented me with a Foley Fork at Christmas this year - I was thrilled.  But I was even more thrilled to realize that it was not just A Foley Fork.  It was MY Foley Fork.  My Foley Fork that was lost in NC.  My brother and his (now) fianceé had stopped by that beach house a year later, knocked on the door, talked to the current renters, went through the kitchen drawers, and manged to find my foley fork.  And then saved it until Christmas. :)

Now I realize that this post "should" be about God.  About God's gift to us of Jesus Christ.  About how Christmas is not about gifts.  And if you read the surface, you may think it's all about my gifts and what I got.  But these gifts and their givers have really been a reminder to me of who God is.  That He knows my innermost secrets, my longings, my hurts.  He remembers what I talked to him about ten months ago and He cherishes my heart. He knows my pain and reaches out to touch it.  He redeems lost situations. He likes to make me smile. God knows me - more intimately and permanently than I can ever comprehend.

Thank you, God.  And thank you, family, for reminding me of those things.

"Go Rest!" = Blog about Mr. Amazing

I was curled up next to my Mr. Amazing on the couch, thinking about the dishes in the kitchen that needed to be washed.  Two days worth.  I had just been rinsing and stacking, so it didn't look like there were that many, but there were.  (Granted, we had been having some easy meals, but still....)

I started to get up when Mr. A said, "You stay here and rest.  I'll go wash the dishes."

"But there are two days worth!!!" I protested.

"I heard you say that.  I'll take care of them.  You rest."

I sighed happily..."I love you too," I said. :)

So here I am, curled up with my laptop and a glass of chocolate milk and a peanut butter sandwich. And blogging about my wonderful Mr. A. :)

Wednesday night, we had a Christmas Dinner with our church small group.  Greg brought his keyboard and Bob (small group leader) pulled out his guitar and they jammed away while the rest of us sang.  I wish I would have snapped a picture -- they had such fun playing off of each other and jamming together!  Patti (Bob's wife) and I were talking today about seeing and loving that aspect of our husbands.  They come so alive when they're playing their music. :)

Mr. A has been loving on me all day today - lunch date at Palmer Park, visit with friends, comforting me after I woke up from a bad dream during my nap, talking about anything and everything, and now scrubbing my dishes!

I love you, my wonderful!

Not from today.  Photo from an April stop at Palmer Park. I can't wear those jeans any more. :)

Mr. Amazing Stole My Chocolate

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for stealing my chocolate!  You're so wonderful!"

How often do you get to say those words to your spouse and best friend?  And mean it?!?

I mean, seriously!  Greg stole the chocolate that rightfully belonged to me.  There's no other word for it.  There's no disputing the facts or changing the situation.  He stole my chocolate and I was overjoyed!  He loves me so much and it was so thoughtful of him to steal that chocolate from me!

What?  You want an explanation?  Okay....

It was a white elephant gift exchange with our church small group.  Person #1 picked their gift and discovered chocolate covered cherries, thin mint patties, and dark chocolate Hershey pieces.  Oh. my. yum!  So when my turn arrived, I promptly stole those luscious chocolates  from Person #1 and sent that person "fishing" for a new gift.

Greg's turn arrived three people later.  He promptly stole my chocolates.  And I was both surprised and delighted!  The version of white elephant gift exchange we were playing only allowed for two steals.  After that, it couldn't be stolen again.  So... since I stole it once and Greg stole it the second time, it had to stay with Greg.  No one else could grab it.  So now the boxes (and bag) of chocolates sit in my living room, ready to be consumed with a smile. :)  I'll take a picture of them tomorrow when it's light.

So thank you, Mr. Amazing, for stealing my chocolates so wonderfully!  That was perfect!

Thanksgiving!

We were thrilled to host my parents and my youngest sister for Thanksgiving in Colorado this year.  We enjoyed visiting the Peterson Air Force Base Air and Space Museum, playing Pente, having a Mother-Daughter shopping trip, eating Daddy's biscuits and gravy, eating Thanksgiving meal, praying, and fellowshipping!  We didn't take many pictures, but here's a few...

Sisters inside a Lockheed Constellation at the museum.

At a local park...

And the family (saying good-bye at the Long's home where the KS crew was house-sitting during the week)

Dear Susan, Thanks for the new shirts.  Yes, they make me look pregnant. :)

Wait - How's That Formatted?

If you've ever mailed a letter overseas, you know that their addresses are not always formatted the same way ours are.  And if you're constantly mailing things to offices, employees, and donors in multiple countries, those mailing differences can get pretty confusing pretty quickly!

It seems when you finally get the format right for Denmark, a package for Chile comes along and you're stuck desperately trying to remember what THEIR preferred address format is.

And then the next question -- How do you get your computer to PRINT the address in the right format?

Enter Greg's new work of art.  A specially designed screen to let the mission organization's mailing department set up each country to use a precise address format.

You can click on the picture to see it better.  But the mailing staff can set up each country's address format to look exactly the way it needs to look.  Hurrah for tools that make things more efficient!  And hurrah for amazing programmer (who just happens to be my husband)! :)

This screen shot is part of the Kardia software -- ministry finance and management software that is being developed by LightSys for mission organizations to use free of charge.

Climbing Around

My internet connection is about to die.  Maybe that will encourage me toward brevity.  Or maybe not. :P

Just had to do a fun blog update.  It seems we've been climbing around a bit recently.  Independence Day weekend we decided to climb Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado.  We didn't summit, but did make it up to 13,800+ feet!

The views were beautiful!

Oh, and today?  Today we went rock climbing at Garden of the Gods!  Thanks to a deal site and a friend who gave us money "to do something you wouldn't ordinarily do," we donned climbing harnesses, shoes, and helmets and clambered up the heights.

I loved it!!!  It seems like the rocks call out to me, "Climb me!  There's a tiny little handhold right here... can you climb me?"  So it was FUN FUN FUN to get to climb up the rock face and know that you were hooked into a rope in case you slipped.

What's more fun than climbing around on rocks?  Climbing around on rocks with friends!  Mr. Amazing was there and I simply adore having fun with Mr. Amazing.  And (bonus!) got to hang out with our friend Beth!

This week's spiritual lesson? "Let patience have her perfect work in you" (James 1) and climbing mountains (and life) one step at a time.   Patient perseverance in God's strength.

Here we keep climbing!

Blessing in the Kitchen

My husband is in the kitchen.  Washing my dishes for me!  So thankful!!!

Here's my new kitchen:

Well, that's the clean version of it.  After making eggs and sausage for supper, hard cooking eggs, mixing and assembling two casseroles, and mincing 6 cups of cooked chicken meat for freezing, the kitchen looked a little messier than that.  Okay, much messier.

But my Mr. Amazing knew I was exhausted and even though he was exhausted too (after fixing multiple software bugs this evening), he shoed me off to the couch to rest while he washed dishes.  I just about cried!

Guess I'd better get busy with my resting. :)  Thanks, Mr. Amazing!!!

Photos: Two Years Later

Two years ago.  The Saturday after LeTourneau University's Missions Emphasis Week.  Greg and I and my family went to Arbor Hills. Greg had just gotten my dad's permission to court me and we were all nervous and excited and just getting to know each other.  We snapped a group picture at the observation tower.

That was a nice picture. (Love you Mother, Daddy, and L!)  But the pictures soon got cropped to this:

Fast forward one engagement, one wedding, twenty-four months, and two LeTourneau University Missions Weeks.  This year.  The Saturday after LETU's Missions Emphasis Week.  Greg and I found ourselves back at Arbor Hills.  So of course we had to stop by and the observation tower and take a picture. :)

Same observation tower, same two people, two years later.  Wow - God has taught us so much and brought us through so much already!  I can hardly wait to see what the coming years will bring.  Happy (belated) Anniversary, Mr. Amazing!  Thanks for pursuing me and teaching me about God's relentless love for us.  You have no idea how much I admire you for that.  Thank you.

Okay... mushiness over.  Regular posts resume soon. :)

Contemplative Catch-Up

Wow - my blogging tends to go in spurts!  And I've been feeling way too guilty (and slightly too busy) to catch up.  Until this evening. Now my contemplative mood is getting the better of my guilt.

Yes, it's a cold evening here in Kansas.  But I've been baking, so the house feels a little warmer than usual and we have a WoodWick candle burning merrily (since we don't have a fireplace). We've been settling back in from our November-long road trip and today was my first grocery shopping day since being back (and between meals and holiday baking plans, I bought lots of groceries!).  Grocery shopping led to a feeling of domesticity, so I made pizza for supper.  I doubled my crust recipie, so now I have three extra batches of pizza dough in the freezer for next time.  (Thank God for my Bosch mixer to do the kneading for me - I was too tired.) And we used up leftover Thanksgiving ham for the pizza topping!

Grocery shopping gets interesting when you're home for 5 weeks, gone for 6 weeks, home for 6 weeks, gone for 15 weeks, home for 8 weeks, gone for 4 weeks, home for 4 weeks, gone for 9 weeks.  Our freezer likes to freezer-burn meat in about 5 days, so I don't stockpile meat or other frozen goods on sale like I would otherwise.  I did pick up quite a supply this week.  Hopefully we'll make it through most of it before we leave on our next road trip at the end of the month.

Last road trip summary: 2 weeks in Colorado Springs for LightSys business, 1 week hiking the Grand Canyon for our anniversary (see picture!), 3 days visiting supporters, and 4 days helping friends in Colorado Springs move into the new house!  All in all, a great trip!  But I was worn out and ready to be home at the end of it!

Next road trip: To Atlanta to see Greg's family for Christmas and then off on our "college tour" to share with college students about the urgency of the lost world and the need for computer people in missions.  Cedarville, Taylor, LeTourneau, and Calvin are all on the list.  Does your college have a missions week and a computer department?  Let us know and we'll see about stopping by!

Now: Off to my Bible reading!  God's been poking at me on this.  Being on the road can wreak havoc on "routine."  God's Word - my foundation! Hurrah!

Here's a few Grand Canyon hiking pics for you...

Us and our packs just before hiking down into the canyon!  We're still clean!

 Sunrise at Plateau Point on Day 6 of our hiking trip

 Filtering water for drinking at Monument Creek

 Hanging out at the bottom of the canyon on our anniversary!

One (Amazing) Year

I'm actually not at my computer.  I'm off with my husband today for our anniversary.

Wait!  What was that I just typed?  "Our anniversary"?!?  Wow!  Having been single for so many years, it is really kind of strange to think of me having a wedding anniversary.  This first year has flown by!  We've spent 30+ weeks on the road and traveled through 26 states.  We've been hosted by at least 17 different families as we've traveled, consumed 20+ pounds of trail mix (our favorite snack), and eaten way too many McChickens!

Inevitably, some people hear about our traveling lifestyle and say, "Wow!  You and your husband get to travel all the time!  You must have an amazing marriage!"  We laugh and assure them that we do enjoy life on the road, but it doesn't mean that everything is automatically perfect. :)  In fact, as much as we love our host families (you guys are wonderful!!!), perpetually living your lives out of someone's guest room can be a very stretching experience!

But Greg, this year has been amazing!  Sure, I drive you crazy some times and I'll never admit it, but there are even a few times that you've driven me crazy. :P  But I'm so thankful for you and so blessed that God brought us together!  I think about those times you've looked me in the eyes and reminded me of God's truth.  Of the times we've grabbed hands and danced and twirled as we did on the day of our wedding.  Of the times when you've hugged me and held me when I've been on the road too long and am yearning for friends and "home."  Of the times when I'm washing dishes and you pull out your guitar and start singing praise songs.  Of that time when I was finishing the pizza and you held the ice pack to my leg because I had burned my leg on the oven door.  Of how you let me grab your arm and almost climb into your lap when we watch a scary movie!  Of how you still love me, even when we've been backpacking and I haven't showered in five days!  And most of all, I love watching your face and the pure joy in your expression when you've got your hands upraised, worshiping the Lord with your whole heart!

I love you, Greg Beeley!  And I'm so glad I get to spend my life serving the Lord with you!  Thanks for being my partner in this dance of life!

Photo by Lovin Photography

Shocking!!!

Yep! I've been shocking my husband all day today!  And a good chunk of the past week.  And today, I paused to give him a quick peck on the cheek as I passed where he was working and sure enough, I shocked him again!  I guess that's just one of the downsides of having a beautiful view of the mountains out your office space.  Colorado is lovely, but the dry air creates quite the static electricity problem!  An almost each time I reach for my husband, I give him a nice static shock!

So now I pause and touch the metal on his desk and then wait for him to remove his hands from his laptop and then reach out and touch his hand.  And then I can give him a quick kiss!  I love you, Greg!

Simple Joys...

...like sharing a root beer float at the local soda fountain with Mr. Amazing.  I like you, Greg!

Flashback to Not So Perfect

Greg and I visited Glacier National Park in July and took this beautiful, serene picture.

Here's the picture taken just before that picture:

That's me.  Waving at you.  Because I didn't get the timer on the camera set correctly.  Yup.  I'm not perfect.  Just in case you didn't know.  But don't tell.

Just thought I'd make you smile this evening. :)

Blogging from a Tent

Is this allowed?  I guess it is, 'cause I'm doing it.  I'm in my tent.  Sitting on my sleeping bag.  And I'm blogging.  I'm going to crawl in my sleeping bag soon because it is cold out here.  Too bad I didn't pack my flannel pajamas.  But they take up more space in my backpack.  And they weigh more.  But they don't weigh anything close to the amount that trail mix weighs.  That stuff is heavy!  And yummy.  Do you know how much of that stuff I'm going to be toting around when we hike the Grand Canyon next month?  Lots. We eat it like crazy.  I pack jerky links and things, but do we eat them?  No.  We're addicted to GORP.  I think it's the M&M's. :)

We hiked out to the lake this evening with our backpacks and got here just in time for LightSys prayer meeting online.  So we pulled out our computers and our mobile internet and hooked up to prayer meeting. :)  Then we ate supper and set up the tent and now we're cozily inside and working and blogging.  Tomorrow morning, we'll get up and have oatmeal and get some more work done. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty too - although a bit warmer.

I like my small town.  And my backpack. And my husband.
What do you like?

Supper at a Valentine Diner

Greg and I decided to invite my sister Lucinda to join us for supper tonight and we checked out a new diner that opened up in town.  Although, I guess it's really an old diner.

When I was growing up, the diner looked like this.  (Photo from the KHS pages.)

About five years ago, someone bought it and restored it and then sold it to someone else to run.  Then it looked like this:

It closed down and then just recently (2 months ago) re-opened as Skinner's Diner.  There are about 10 seats inside this Valentine Diner.  (You can read about this diner and other Valentine Diner's at the Kansas Historical Society webpage.)  And this evening, all the stools were filled and we watched as they took fresh ground beef and shaped it into patties for our hamburgers.  I should have taken pictures!  The neighbor boy from my growing up years stopped through and said hi.  Editors of the local newspaper came in to eat.  We chatted with the guy who sat down next to us and found him to be the pastor of a newer church in town!

Anyway - enough said.  We had a good time there and then headed to my parent's place where I scanned some photos and downloaded some files.  I'm reading the book of Esther this week for Sunday School class assignment, so stopped by www.firefighters.org to download the mp3 files.  And we laughed.  Laughter is a good thing. :)

Yay for married life!

We're in Carrollton, TX on this leg of the trip and looking forward to being "home" in Kansas by the middle of the week.  During our short time here in Carrollton, we've been seeing friends from GFA, visiting the dentist, meeting with some potential LightSys volunteers, checking out a partner ministry, and having fun with tooth extractions.  Okay, just one extraction.  I broke a back molar at ICCM conference this year and it ended up needing to be removed.  So the oral surgeon did that this morning (insert story of God's faithfulness shown here through timing and dentist giving us a huge discount!) and then I've been laying on the couch with my ice pack ever since.  And Mr. Amazing has been so wonderfully caring for me!  I enjoy married life, but with Mr. Amazing loving on me so faithfully while I'm not feeling well, I'm enthralled and simply adoring married life. :)