Significant Progress

Or, was it?  I was up until 1am cropping our first Guatemala trip (and if truth be told a good part of today was spent on this project).  It feels like something significant.  30 12x12 pages.  It's a lot of pages, but then our pictures from our New York trip arrived and it's a big honking stack.  I won't even mention the dozen or so other events from 2007 that still need to be done.  Ok, I'm obsessing now - people at my house will vouch that I tend to do that sometimes.

As I was going through these I was reminded of a very incredible story.  Since this trip was before this blog started, I thought I would share it.

On Thursday (the 5th of 7 days) we loaded up our caravan of Suburbans and headed to Las Cabesas.  It was during the Presidential runoff election, which was to occur the next week so there was lots of activity related to that.  About an hour in we started seeing people line the road and lots of armed people - army, police, you name it.  We were very curious, but decided it must have something to do with the election.  (At least we hoped because we were getting ever closer to the Honduras border.  Military and borders always seem like an interesting combination to me.)

Then we were forced to pull over and a police car passed and then.....some other official looking car.  A candidate's car?  James figured it out first.

In complete glee and delight, he yelled, "It's a breakaway!  It's a breakaway!"  Somehow at the same time he was yelling out the window, "Work together, people.  Work together, people."  He started watching he watch; timing the distance to the peloton.  Since I was fast becoming a cycling expert at that point, I knew we were talking about a bike race.  I had tears in my eyes.  How neat, I thought, that God would let James see a bike race.

I mean we were this close.  We saw the team cars, water bottle handoffs, the sweat dripping off them.  (That's probably enough detail.)  There were cars from all over - Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela  The director for our group told us it was the Vuelta de Guatemala.  A stage race - the biggest race in Central and South America.  When we arrived, I was talking to my friend Susan about how neat it was.  She smiled and said, "Well, what you don't know is that this morning James was my prayer partner and I asked God to send him something special.  Something just for him.  Next time I'll know to be more specific and ask that it not add 30 minutes to our trip."

How cool is that?

Another Confession - Already?

For any of you that have known me for any length of time you know that I'm an extrovert.  One definition of that is that you think and process data by speaking out loud.  So, today as we were packing up some Christmas decorations, I made the comment to my hubby, as he was casually passing through, that I was going to be caught up on all my scrapbooking by this time next year.  What?!  Who jumped into my body and said that?  I have never, ever been caught up with my scrapbooking.  Just look at this desk.  

I sat down tonight - determined to get through our Guatemala pictures from 2007.  (Yes, I know that was over a year ago.)  The stack was ginormous.  (I'm not really sure how to spell that, but James is in bed and I can't wake him to ask.  Of course, I could but he would tell on me so it's close enough.)  I was absolutely determined to get the pictures placed on the paper.  Not glued down, not journaled, not embellished.  Just placed.  After several hours, I'm through them all and I have 28 12x12 pages.  Before I let James get in the bed, I made him PROMISE to keep me from taking so many pictures next year.  Sigh....I still have the 2008 trip to go.

Confession

I have a confession to make.  I have been working quite diligently on catching up on my scrapbooking for 2007.  I have 2005 totally caught up, except three pages that need to be journaled and some random things I've found since I finished.  2006 is in total disarray and a few pages have been done for 2008.  This is probably about the best shape I've been in for scrapbooking in a while, but alas, cycling season is upon us.  

I take a lot of cycling pictures.  I take a lot of every sport, but with cycling there are so many races.  With each race, I can click off 200 photos no problem and that was before I got my new lens, which I am very much looking forward to using.  It won't take long to be in a major hole again.

Any way, this has been a big digression - this is about the confession.  I was working on some winter cycling pictures of the hubby and James from last December.  They are so cute all bundled up - the almost matching pair.  As I was looking at them, I realized the first race of the season is approximately 6 weeks away.  At first there was an "ugh," but then I realized I am actually looking forward to it all starting again.  Seeing the parents, watching the kids improve over the course of the race season and watching James work hard towards a goal.  In spite of the incredible amount of work, coordination and sheer inconvenience, it's kind of neat.  Shhh - don't tell anybody.  I would never want the word to get out.

Boring Days

Today has been a wonderful day of sitting around goofing off.  The barbarians, or at least half of them, left around lunchtime so the boys got a good half day of playtime in.  The rest of day was some picking up (very little), scrapbooking (boy, I'm still really behind), and a long exercise session with James.  He is a good trainer....just when I'm about whupped I hear, "You're doing a good job, Mommy.  Just keep it up."  (And, if I'm honest, I also hear, "Get your butt down!")

OK, so it's kind of boring, but I loved it any way.  Hope you all are enjoying your holidays.

The Barbarian Invasion

I think it's barbarians.  Come to think of it, I'm not really sure.  I guess they could be Vikings, Knights or even Indians with guns.  These very scary looking thugs ran through our house for a good hour Christmas day night fighting a monstrous battle.  I think CBT had the short end of the weapon choosing.  (He stuck with the gun that came with his German soldier.)  It was so much fun to have all the boys at house playing so hard - even the next day when at least one of them was very tired and a little cranky.

Traditions

We have a neat Christmas tradition that we have been observing since Christopher was a baby.  We owe it to Aunt Joanna and my mom (but I think mostly to Aunt Joanna).  I was supposed to go to a workshop with them to make a Jesse Tree, but couldn't make it when I was pregnant with CBT.  I was on bedrest and couldn't travel.  So....they made it for me.  It's a precious felt hanging (a tree) to which you add adornments each night for about a month before Christmas.  There's a scripture reading and a short devotional reading to go with it that tell a story about the picture that is being hung.  It finishes on Christmas morning and our boys (and sometimes all four of us when I'm not taking pictures) hang it together.  

It's a neat way to remind us the reason we celebrate.  I would love to hear any favorite traditions you have.  (Come on...it's not too painful to click on Post Comment.  I don't ask often, but I feel sure some of you have some really cool things that others would love to hear.)

Merry Christmas

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

We hope you have a blessed Christmas day remembering that original gift to us.

Equal Time

This season, the "little man" as he is known by his coaches has come into is own.  He really likes basketball.  As we have learned with other sports, that may only last until a couple of weeks before the season ends.  It's a short season so maybe he will still like it until the end.

He has started playing with such intensity - the first practice was a little touch and go because he felt the coaches leaning on him.  He does not like pressure.  We had a long talk about being older and their needing him to be a leader.  This one was good for two points!

Smirking obviously doesn't concern him, neither does a massive show of excitement.

He stepped right up and played as aggressively as he could - he seems to love to steal the ball.

Check out that wrist action.

When it is all said and done, though, it's all about having fun.

He Packs a Punch

James is a competitor.  He was born that way.  I can't wait to see what God is going to do with that, but it should be interesting.  We are now in basketball season so we really get to see that competitive nature come out.  

Just look at that face.  I love to watch him on the defensive side of the ball.  When he was in the younger leagues playing man-on-man, he constantly stole the ball.

He's moved up to a full-size court and zone defense.  It's much harder to score.  He told me yesterday that when he does, it's hard not to smirk.  If you look closely, you can see a small one.

Still basking in the glory of that last shot...

Free throws have been virtually impossible - even with his entire body into it.

Nevertheless, still so fun to watch.

Harmonica Man

A few nights ago we all received "tickets" from Christopher for a concert.  In reality they were various Lego toys, but we are now accustomed to his imagination so we accepted them as his tickets.  The event would start at 6:50pm, which was about 20 minutes away.  About 5 minutes later he brought us each a blank sheet of paper.  Autograph paper, just in case we were interested.  

At the appointed time, we each turned in our "tickets" and took our seats in the family room, eagerly waiting to find out exactly what kind of concert this would be.  Harmonica.  Of course.

He had clearly been practicing.  He had a range of notes that would make Clint Black jealous (or Bruce Springsteen - that should cover just about any musical taste).  

He even had moves that I not sure Michael Jackson could pull off holding an instrument.  At various points, he would walk around and "high 5" us as he was playing.

It was a pretty catchy tune and even James could visual a scene from what he was playing.  Keith and I were simply mesmerized.  He is truly an entertainer.

He even figured out that audience participation is a good thing and invited James to come up and make some music with him.  He did give us each our own individualized autograph with some advice.  "Hold on to these.  They are one of a kind."  I only wish I had taken some video to share.  It was a hoot!

JST and Basketball

Today I had an asset tour with our leasing agent at some industrial properties and guess who showed up...CBT's basketball coach!  What a small world.  So, in honor of those kind of coincidences and JST's lack of exposure yesterday, here are some pix of JST's practice tonight.

He is such a hustler.  I can remember when he was the slowest kid on his baseball team - he was one of the fastest doing suicides.  Boy, was I glad that I wasn't out there doing them!

Even though James is one of the shorter kids on the team, his aggressiveness makes up for it.

We used to laugh about how often he ended up on the ground at baseball - it makes even less sense in basketball!

He's been working on push ups at cycling practice.  Tonight they all had to do two push ups for every shot they missed when they were warming up.  Fortunately, he didn't have to do many.  But for the ones he did, check out that form.  Papa, you've got to be impressed.

And, he's ever that aggressive defender.  In your face.

It's Basketball Season!

Hmmmm.  I feel a little schizo.  Last post it was "It's Christmastime...."  Well, it is basketball season, too although sometimes at this practice it looked more like football.  I really enjoy basketball season - it's short, the games are a lot of fun and there's just one practice per week per child.  Gotta love that.

CBT has become quite the ball handler and is even beginning to look like his older brother with all his steals.  James is still playing point guard and, as always, is a ball handler and a great defensive player.  Both guys are scoring points - always a good thing.  CBT even scored from the 3-point line in the first game.

Does this look like a kid who absolutely did NOT want to go to practice tonight?  He was loving it.  I promise to add some pictures of James.  I just got a new lens and this was my first night of practicing with it.

It's Christmastime....

Have I mentioned I love Christmas?  I just noticed I'm a bit behind on both reading the blogs I like to follow and on updating my dear friends.  I've just been too busy enjoying the season.  We had just a few friends over the past couple of days for dessert and I enjoyed seeing them - just visiting a little bit.  (I especially enjoyed that new Coconut Almond Cake recipe I found.  We'll have to see about sharing it sometime soon - someone needs to remind me of all the things I promised to share later.

I think I did mention before that I try to really savor the short season because it seems like such a long time before it gets here again.  This morning I was reminded that I just love leading a small group of 2nd grade boys - there are eight of them.  Lord knows there are moments when I don't love it (you can imagine - eight boys wound up about anything), but this morning as we were having our Christmas party I was absolutely struck by how spending time with them is one of the most important things I do.  I was reminded that spending quality time with people probably should top that constant list I have going.

From there we went to service where Randy has been talking about idols.  There I was struck with how so many good things can become our idols when our passion for them overwhelm us.  The two thoughts together were perfectly complementary and just perfect for today.  I am loving this Christmas season - I hope you are, too.

Decorating the Tree

I love Christmas.  I love what we are celebrating.  I love the decorations.  I love the smell of my Yankee Candles.  From about October I start looking forward to this season with great anticipation and then I try to savor every moment of it. As soon as we return from our Thanksgiving travels, we put the tree up.

The first step is turning on the lights.  Christopher took the honors this year.

I learned in my class that my point-and-shoot camera has a manual setting - who knew?  This seemed like a good day to try it out a little....certainly not exclusively since I did want some decent pictures of our tree day.

Next come the ornaments.  Total shout out to James who lugged more bins - really big bins - up from the basement.  He was such a useful engine this year.  I could just give him a really big hug.  Well, that is if he wasn't too old to get really big hugs from his mama.  (And when did he get so strong?  Those arms are still pretty skinny!)

Suddenly, Christopher appeared as Santa Claus.  He taped a washcloth to his head to make a beard.  His creativity amazes me.  He always like to put out the nativity scenes.

The guys were so helpful this year.  I think we got everything decorated in record time in spite of all the discussion about the history of most of the ornaments.

And last but not least, the angel tops the tree.  It's time to proclaim the good news.

Hermann and Linda

We were so fortunate to have had Hermann and Linda Alb come visit us last week for dinner.  Hermann is the doctor that started the Medical Missions Ministry in Guatemala that James and I have worked with twice now in the last year or so.  We love Hermann and Linda and they love James.  I think they love me, too, because I gave birth to James.  Seriously, I do think they like me, but they really love James.  Because they have been so good to when we were there, we really wanted to do something nice for them.  When we saw them at the covered dish at church in November, I asked Linda if there was anything she especially wanted.  Sweet potatoes.  Now I didn't see that one coming.  Fortunate for me, my mom has the most incredible recipe ever.  I was going to share the recipe practicing my photography, but the day wasn't as smooth as I had hoped so maybe another day.  (The sweet potatoes were incredible, though.)

This is James with Brayan and Daniel - the two boys we support.

We started the morning with a "Guatemalan" style devotion with them at 6:30 at the church.  All four of us.  Christopher wasn't too sure anything was worth getting up at 6 am for.  He pretty much cruised through it sitting in my lap and zoning out.  Through the day he perked up and by the time it was dinnertime, he was way wound up.  Generally, my shy and aloof child around new people was....hmmmm....I guess the best was to describe it is that he was personality on steroids.  I was exhausted by the time the evening was over, but I think Hermann and Linda enjoyed his "entertainment."

In all the excitement - even after discussing it more than once with Keith - I forgot to take my camera downstairs so I didn't get a picture of the boys with the Albs.  I was so sad about that.  So instead of another great photo with my newfound skills (LOL), you get recycled photos from the trip.  (I can't even take credit for them all, either.  This last one is one a photography student took - it's pretty cool to me.)

 

Even without a camera, the evening was a good one.  We love the Albs because they are such real people who just love to serve their Lord by serving others, who understand they are sinners just like the rest of us and who love us back.  Christopher was even called a leader - I didn't comment that you might want to check on what the destination is.  But then, maybe Hermann is able to see past all those frustrating little boy things.

The Christmas Picture

Just when I think I have nothing to say my lovely munchkins come through.  I realize at 8 and 10 they are not munchkins any more, but they watched the Wizard of Oz at Thanksgiving so that term is stuck on my mind.  Follow on the yellow brick road...

Each year we take a Christmas picture for our Christmas card and each year it's an adventure.  Some years moreso than others, but I was kind of excited about this year.  I had had my photography class and I had my new lens.  The boys were a year older so the level of participation should be a little better.

This is the first shot.  It was pretty good, but I was sure I could do better.

I'm still shooting in manual and have pretty good control of the light, but I'm losing control of the guys already .

Suddenly Christopher grabs his Indy hat and decides this is a totally different photo shoot.

At this point I totally give up on shooting manual and go to the "green box." I get the "cheese smile" and chess pieces on James's head.  Of course, all Christmas pictures include that ever symbolic pawn.

Maybe if we include props that mean something to them...maybe then we could get some cooperation.  (We also had some cooperation-inducing threats encouragement from dad in the background.)  Still, not quite there.

Our Christmas cards ended up with the first picture and the last.  I guess it is always about the journey.

The Great...well, First Photo Shoot

Thanksgiving weekend is a perfect time to try out something new.  There's lots of time and family to share in the torture fun.  

This Thanksgiving Joanna wanted some family pictures and asked if I would take some.  After all, I had flown all the way to Chicago for a class and I had  bought a new lens.  What she didn't now was that the class was enough to make me realize how little I knew and that the lens...the lens and I needed more quality time together.

Nonetheless, I told her I would be glad to take family photos.  I think I ended up with something over 300.  There were a few of my munchkins, but most of them were like a real photo shoot.  Keith was arranging people and I was trying to get the light right.  And trying.  And trying.  And trying.  It was so much fun.  Really.  It was - nephews not happy about being there, my darling sons complaining that their playmates were getting their pictures made for the 100th time.  What could be more fun?  Needless to say, I am even more hooked.

Then, there was "post processing."  I don't really have the right software, yet, so I'm sure I am working with "the crappiest" software in the world.  Joanna and I had fun tweaking this and that any way.  We didn't have a clue, but I think we ended up with some nice effects.  Or, maybe we were just delirious and were glad we had weeded out some of the 300 photos by the time we started editing.

I love the shots of the entire family, but I think the one below is my favorite - out of 300 there were some pretty bad ones, but there were enough that it was hard to pick a fav.  If had to pick, I am pretty sure this would be it.

  

You can't even tell he's holding her on his back - what a strong guy my brother is!  Of course, she's pretty skinny these days.

Oops!  Spoke too soon.