nanner and ming-ming

I got sunburned again today! It's February! Scott, Hannah, and I went out kayaking on the Pacific Ocean. The sun was hot; about 75 degrees. I have a tan line on my wrist from my hair tie. That's how intense it was. My arms, shoulders, and back are fried. I forget how powerful the sun is out here in the winter! We paddled through King's Harbor and looked at all the beautiful boats, then we braved it and went out of the harbor and out into the waves. It was much more choppy today than it was when Kevin and I went out last month. Sea lions were all over the place. They were barking loudly and swimming and jumping in the water the way dolphins do. It was fun to watch. Of course, they're pretty large animals, so we freaked when they got close to us. My favorite line of the day came from Hannah, "If they get too close, we'll just whap them with our paddles!" I like the way she thinks! No dolphins to report, though Hannah did see a few yesterday at the cove. I'm glad they both got to see all the cool ocean creatures that I often do. We were all pretty spent after so much time in the ocean, we took a break this afternoon and just lounged while watching t.v.

Sadly, I had to take Hannah back to the airport this afternoon. We had such a blast while she was here. Laughing, exploring, hiking, surfing, eating, kayaking, sleeping, and catching up. The Nanner and Ming-Ming time had to end. Now it's back to reality. Time to get to work on all the stuff I have to get finished before the family comes on Friday. 6 days. Will I get it all done?

filled friday & fun friends!

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. What a riot today has been. At 7:30, Bob arrived to take us all out surfing. The waves were medium sized and choppy, but frequent. Bob gave Hannah and Scott a quick lesson on what to do, and in no time we were in the water pushing them into the whitewater. Two belly rides and Bob figured they were ready, so we headed out. I stuck with Hannah, and Bob helped Scott. They paddled hard in front of us and made their way out to the safe water. Hannah and I had a heck of a time, so Bob came back in for us. He sent me in the water to go be with Scott. When I got to him, he was safe, but he had drifted out to sea a ways. I flagged him to paddle more inland; he looked a little frazzled. Did the flaming eyeball on his board make him sick? Not exactly. He had been floating over the large swells for so long, he got sea sick and threw up! So, there we were, one new surfers and one wanna-be trying to figure out what to do! I consulted with a fellow paddle boarder, and he advised that we just paddle in toward shore, so that's what we did. We paddled hard, Scott got tossed by a few waves on his way in, I caught one and rode it in on my knees before standing on it. Hannah was on the shore, so I yelled to her so she could see! I got caught up in the excitement of it, I forgot about Scott, he was slowly paddling in. Luckily, he was safe. He was done surfing for the day, but safe. Hannah and I played around in the water a little more, and enjoyed the warmth of our wetsuits.

Bob treated us to breakfast at Uncle Bill's Pancake House in Manhattan Beach. Chocolate chip pancakes for me, and Macadamia nut for the rest of the nuts. After showering and resting for a while at home, we put on our hiking shoes (chacos unite!) and headed down to Abalone Cove. Bob told us when low tide would be, meaning: TIDEPOOLS! We weren't the only ones with the idea. 5 buses full of about 200 middle school kids were there tromping around in the water, playing with the sea urchins, and being kids. One child found an octopus and carried it in to one of the more easily accessible tide pools. Of course, all 200 kids raced to see what it looked like. Once they left, we walked over and saw it for ourselves. It was pretty incredible. A fellow tide pooler actually picked it up and held it! Crazy woman. We saw crabs, starfish, little fish, and cool coral-like stuff. Wow, with a vast vocabulary like that, I should've been a marine biologist! After a beautiful hike back up the hill, we headed to Trump's golf course to walk that path too. Lots of hiking today!

As a reward for all our exercise, we had supper at Marie Callendar's...including Kahlua cream cheese pie! Yum! Back at home, we spent the evening talking and making videos with my camera. Here's the latest version of the Canticle of the Turning performed by Hannah Johnson and Amber Marten. Enjoy!

hannah is here!

I didn't get much done today. Hannah is here. The instant a guest is in the air flying to see me, I lose focus and stare at the clock. The same was true for today. She arrived this afternoon, to a sun filled lovely day in southern California! I was greeted with a nice long, tight Hannah squeeze at the airport, and we were on our way to a 48 hour adventure! Our first stop: the beach! Watching Hannah frolic in the sand was the cutest moment so far! Within 5 minutes, she determined she loved California! It wasn't a hard sell at all. We dipped our toes in the chilly water, watched a few surfers flop around in the choppy waves, and made a necessary stop at Dive-n-Surf in Redondo Beach. Hannah was determined to try surfing, so we needed to rent her a wetsuit. They were having a massive tent sale, so we got to see some cool boards and tons of other merchandise on sale. Hannah about died of heat stroke trying on two wetsuits. It reminded me of the time when I first came to CA to visit, and my mom and I went with Pastor Bob to rent me a wetsuit. I was sweating profusely, and had to walk out and model in front of my future supervisor. A little embarrassing. Hannah handled it like a champ and even got a shot from the air compressor shot up her arms to cool her down. Oh, and I bought a used surf hoodie for $10! What a steal! Now I have no excuse not to go in the morning! After all that, we headed back to Torrance to get settled. I showed her around church and home. We rested for a few minutes when, ding dong, the doorbell rang. Guess who it was? Another visitor! SCOTT! A 45 minute drive from La Habra, CA and I had two guests in one day! Lucky me!

All three of us were starving, so I took them to my new favorite restaurant, Rascals! Of course, they loved it too! There's not a whole lot to do once it gets dark here, so we decided to get spontaneous and go for an adventure! I drove them up to Palos Verdes so we could get a sweet view of the city, then we did a night hike down to the cove. It was dark, a little scary, but worth it to hear the sound of the water pulling rocks over rocks for the coolest sound ever! It didn't take us long to get down and then back up, so we drove down to the Redondo Pier for our last excursion of the night. Bob was out in the neighborhood rounding up enough boards for all of us, so he stopped by to confirm our surf time. We walked down to grab 'Step into Liquid' to give us inspiration, and ate a bowl of oatmeal (should've been ice cream) while we learned how to surf. After such an exciting day, we all climbed into bed pretty quickly and hit the hay. Surfing in the morning!

butt dust

Pastor: "Remember you are but dust...and to dust you shall return."

Child: "Mom, what's butt dust?"

We didn't use this line today for Ash Wednesday services...but this joke always makes me laugh. I laughed at it until I was face to face with numerous children tonight and had to put ashes on their forehead. There's something so fragile and precious about the face of a child, that to mark it with black ashes seems wrong. Some children watched me intently as I came at them with a thumb full of black dust. Some closed their eyes and somberly felt the particles fall onto their cheeks and nose. Either way, it was a hard thing to do.

And not just for the fact that it's a realistic reminder of our mortality, but also because we don't put any oil in the ashes, so they fall everywhere! I was putting ashes on foreheads and felt so bad for getting ashes on them that I ended up brushing the crap off their noses too. It sort of takes people out of the moment when I said, "Sorry...be careful when you go to take your glasses off, there's a pile of ashes on the top of them!" Oh well, at least it made it memorable for me. The one other time I got to help place ashes on foreheads was when Pastor Bob Schulze asked me to at St. Matthews. This was a big deal for an LCMS congregation (no ordination of women), and it was such an honor to get to stand alongside him and do one half of the congregation. His unspoken faith in me on that night was one of the earliest indications of my call to ministry. So, really, today is an anniversary that should be celebrated. Ice cream anyone? Sorry...it's been 24 hours now, and I've already got the shakes...39 days to go.

My best cross of the night was appropriately placed on Pastor Greg's forehead. The biggest most consistent of them all (cross, not forehead), so we took a picture to commemorate my success! :) Plus, this is one of the few times when I'll see both Bob and Greg in clerical collars, so yet another reason for a photo! Bob did my cross this morning at the 10:00 service and certainly gets the award for coolest looking. You never know what you're gonna get with a thumb full of flaky ashes. I guess it makes it more fun to try and guess after church!

During lunch, I ran to the grocery store to drop off my recycling. $14.80. Over two months of recycling for under fifteen bucks. That's about 6 gallons of milk, so I'll take it. There was a huge line of people waiting to fill their buckets and weigh in. All of them looked at me and then smiled kindly. MY CROSS! People were being nicer to me because of it. This was a nice change. If I wasn't so concerned about my pores, I'd draw one on everyday. Next year, I guess.

me? a model?

As promised, here are some of the pictures from my photo session with Sarah. Kelly and I did some buddy pictures at the park, then we went up to Wayfarer's Chapel for my individual session. I got to change outfits, hairstyles, and accessories. It was quite fun. This was a product shot...for ripped arms (and jeans)! You can buy them at your nearest sporting goods store! :)

Today the ITF, Bob, and I finished our 6 month evaluations. It was a great time to talk about progress and talk about goals for the remainder of my time here. 4 months to go. I had a super productive day today: wrote an Ash Wednesday litany, a synopsis for the Easter series, sermon prep for March 8, sent out about 100 e-mails, and enjoyed a free lunch courtesy of another movie crew. BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, and ice cream. YUM!

Today is the last day of my plateau diet. I am officially giving up ice cream for Lent. I expect to drop 5 pounds by next week by cutting out this major source of sugar from my diet. So, for a last hooray, Amy and I headed down to the new froyo spot called Yogurt Island. You pay by the ounce. I managed to get 9 ounces of froyo, so--$3.60. The whole do it yourself thing got a little out of hand! I got cheesecake, bubbleyum, and raspberry tart. All so yummy. Amy is taking on a Lent project by working out everyday. Between the two of our Lent promises, we're bound to shed a few pounds! Two more days until Hannah arrives, and ten days until the troops arrive. This is going to be such a fabulous time of visitors! I can't wait!

crazy craigslist

What I won't do to save my family $125 off their cost to get into Disneyland. I found tickets on Craigslist this week for two day park hoppers for Disneyland. Regular price = $95. A lady was selling them for $60. So, Kelly and I drove to south LA to pick up these tickets. I asked the lady to meet us at a public place for our safety, so when she e-mailed and said her husband would meet us at the liquor store on the corner, I said ok.

We pulled into the parking lot, and saw a sign in the parking lot across the street that said "No drug dealing here!" Gee...how safe are we right now? There were people pulling in and out of the parking lot. The longer we waited, the more nervous we got. I even left a message on Kevin's phone telling him where we were in case something happened. Is it really worth risking your safety to save money? I'm now concluding that it's not.

Finally, a man comes walking up behind our car. He calls from his cell phone to confirm it's him. We both get out of the car. He's wearing a big hooded sweatshirt with a pocket on the front. There's something in his pocket that looks bigger than tickets. Immediately, we think, "It's a gun!" He pulls his hands out of his pocket and unrolls the 8 x 11 print out Disneyland tickets. (sigh of relief)...they look to be valid, but we call the Disney ticket office anyway to check to make sure we could use them. We called, were transferred, transferred again, only to find out you cannot check the validity of a ticket over the phone. Now what? Well, I handed over the $240 cash and am praying they'll work when we show up at Disneyland in a few weeks. We got in the car and bolted as fast as we could.

As if that wasn't enough Craigslist action for one day, I decided to go pick up some skiing tickets from another guy in El Segundo. Luckily, he was super cool. We ended up chatting for about 30 minutes. He told me all about his life, faith, and family. I even invited him to come join us for a young adult night if he wants. He sounded interested. It's so cool to meet new people (especially in random situations like this) and find they are looking for community also. I pray that I'll see him again and have more opportunities to invite him to church and introduce him to the YAC. Power to the evangelists!

the "F" word

Could this day have been any more full? Doubtful. From 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. I've been doing one thing: Church. Take away the 2 hours I had in between it all, I was at church or doing a church activity for 12 hours today. Needless to say, it's catching up with me.

I worked on my sermon last night until about 10:30, and then decided there was only so much I could do. Really, I could stay up all night fine-tuning it, changing this and that, but I'm slowly learning there's a time when it becomes necessary to say enough is enough. I turned the light off, and tossed for the next hour and a half. The alarm went off at 5:30, and I had a headache. Already things aren't going right.

I preached the 8:00 service this morning. Of all the texts I've preached on at Good Shepherd, this was the hardest one for me.

'I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit...I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.' John 15

I felt so conflicted about the fire part. Yesterday, Kevin and I spent 45 minutes hashing out the text, asking questions, and trying to figure out why I felt the way I did. It says whoever...meaning people. I don't think Jesus is trying to freak people out here, but ultimately generating a sense of urgency. How do I preach about this? There came a point where I heard myself say in frustration, "I don't want to be a pastor." Not sure where that came from. As I write this entry now 24 hours later, God is clearly pointing me in the direction of ministry. The problem I'm grappling with is that I've become more of a law preacher. There's plenty of good news in the sermon, but I focus so heavily on the law. What's up with that? Does it have something to do with my Missouri Synod upbringing, by the pastors who influenced my teenage years (prior to Pastor Bob Schulze), my family life? Sheesh, beats me. I worry that my message will be heard too harshly, and without a good amount of hope at the end. How do you preach about the urgency of the message without seeming pushy, or rough?

The sermon delivery went well. Nerves were fairly tame, a little more extemporaneous at parts (the parts where I couldn't find my place on my manuscript), wild gestures, and a few word vomits here and there. The ITF was present and supportive as usual. These familiar faces at each preaching gig give me an extra boost of confidence. By the time it was all over, my headache had grown into a migraine. I popped a few tylenol , sat through the second service, and felt so nauseous I thought I might throw up, but managed to make it through. I spent 11:00 lying on the couch upstairs while listening to the service until it was my time to go lead. I think it's time to start getting migraine medicine if this keeps up.

No time to rest, it's time to BE THE CHURCH! It's a quarterly thing around Good Shepherd where growth groups make it a point to actually get out into the community and be the church. Our young women's growth group decided to make baked goods and deliver them to local fire stations as a way of saying 'thank you!' Cupcakes, brownies, cookies and cake! How fun to deliver such wonderful treats! We had a blast. Two different fire stations gave us tours, and one place even gave us a ride around the block in the fire truck!! There were a few little girls who joined us. I'm not sure who was more excited, them or me! We rode shotgun, and I got to honk the horn! I tried on the special hat. So...I'm a 5 year old, what can I say? A Torrance junior fire fighter and police officer sticker completed the day of fun!

A definite fire theme for today. Still trying to figure out what to make of that.

whirlwind dreams

Some of you know about my dreaming issues. Almost every night, I dream in ridiculous amounts, only to wake up feeling exhausted. I remember almost every detail. Sometimes I hesitate to tell my dreams to other people, because they're so strange and I'm afraid they might really happen. Kevin usually listens if there's one I think might have some significance. Last week I was in the office, and decided to call Kevin to tell him about my dream. I'm running after three women who falsely accuse me of something, and I begin beating them up in a bathroom. Dave is in the office next to me, and I can hear the wheels on his chair roll back. He thought I had a violent side. Lesson learned: No dream telling in the office.

Side note: one of my real dreams in life is to get a picture of a tornado: back to story. Well, for the last few years, I've had the reoccurring dream of a tornado swirling in distance, I can see it with my own eyes, but either I can't find my camera or when I do find it, the battery is dead. Last night was different. I realize this next part may be hard to follow, but I think it's important. A whole group of people are sitting in a house, when all of a sudden it turns on its side. The house is glass. We're all looking down at the floor and can see hundreds of flowers that have been smashed by the house. My first thought, 'it's a tornado, where's my camera? I should get a picture of these flowers.' Surprisingly, it's at my feet, so I grab it and fumble to turn it on. Someone looks out the side of the house and confirms that they see a tornado. So, I put my laptop away (not sure why I'm stalling at this point), and walk over to the window. All I can see is a funnel wall. Not the skinny tornado of my dreams, you can't really even tell it's a tornado other than the fact that it's dark and scary looking. So, I begin taking pictures. The camera works, but it's not my dream shot. The only funnel looking shot I get is of a small white swirly hovering over a staircase, it's about 2-3 feet tall. I looked back through the pictures and realized none of them showed a funnel except the small white one. Holy Spirit? Holy cow? Not sure.

I spent the afternoon with one of our new young adults. She's a photography student and needed a model. So she asked me! Too funny. We went to Wayfarers, put on some funky clothes, and I pretended I knew what to do! :) Very fun. I'll share photos from it when I see them!

Sue Labate hosted the card-making stamp party tonight at her house. I look forward to this day each month. Wonderful women, delicious food, and beautiful cards. I hate to send them out, because they're so cool to look at, but since that'd be selfish, I take pictures and throw them in the mail. Maybe you'll be a lucky recipient this month! :) I'm ready for next month already!

fresh powder

Teaching about fruitfulness. God wants us to bear much fruit. Honestly, who wants to think about fruit when there's 3 feet of fresh snow at Mountain High? I declined 3 invitations to go, and then realized how dumb I was being. My sermon could wait, it was time to get back to the mountain!
We had a full van load of eager snow bunnies, and uh...snow men who were ready to hit the hill. The mountains on the way out were completely covered! It only got us more excited to see so much white snow! At least half the state of CA heard about the dumping, and decided to go as well. It was packed. The snow was fresh, and because it was so cold, the snow was much harder than it was last time. Kelly, Amy, & I were all pretty nervous when we walked off the magic carpet and got our equipment on. Hard snow = bruised butts. We needed to stay on our feet. No falling. Of course, we all did at least once, but were thrilled to have gotten much better and controlled at what we were doing. My goal was to take the long run at least twice, and use my back edge instead of my front. I accomplished both. Amy and I got so good, we decided to create instructional videos for other snowboarders. Click here to learn how to do synchronized front flips on a snowboard! Be sure to check out the other videos on there. I posted a bunch! What fun! Oh, and while snowboarding I invented a new hair style called triple H, 'the holy hat head.' In order to achieve such a high class look, all you need to do is put four bobby pins on the top of your head, wear a hat for 5 hours, and remove it. Easy as pie!

I was riding a 3 person lift all alone and was sad Kevin wasn't beside me to snuggle with. I swear, that's the only reason we go skiing--designated snuggle time! Gives me something to look forward to for next winter! Lessons from Lynda, and Afton afternoons! Now I need to buy my own set of skis and possibly a snowboard. Craigslist, here I come! Mountain High has great lift ticket deals on Wednesday nights. $15 each. We were about planning our next Wednesday trip, when I realized something: LENT! Looks like we're all giving up skiing for Lent whether we want to or not. I guess that means I don't have to give up ice cream after all! :)

$5 goes to the person who can figure out what this crazy image on the bottom of my snowboard is! :)

going out of beadness

After a super busy Sunday, I took a few hours yesterday to rest. The office was closed. So, I went to a bead store that was going out of business, and stocked up on new beads. When I got home, I couldn't help but get started on my creations, so I cranked out two necklaces, with matching earrings and rings. What fun! I'm happy to commission my jewelry making abilities if there's an outfit you are seeking accessories for. Just let me know! :)

Then I worked on my Jacob's Well Bible study, and finished it in about 2.5 hours. Believe it or not, this is fast for me. More work to do on it tonight, but I'm happy with it at this point. It really does help get the preaching juices flowing when you have to do a Bible study on it 4 days before. No procrastinating for me.

Tonight Alicia and I went yet another froyo shop called Penguins. It was my first time, so of course we had to break out the camera and get a picture of it. Luckily for us, there were a few awesome props there for our using. Gigantic ice cream cones and stuffed penguins! This place was as good as Pinkberry, and half the price! Highly recommended! There are two more froyo spots I need to hit up before I leave here. They're the kind where you pump your own froyo out of the machine and pay by the ounce (or in my case, by the pound). This could be dangerous!

the full monty

I've never been to a strip club, nor do I ever plan to go to one, but today I came as close as I probably ever will when I attended The Full Monty with two women from church. To say I was "shocked" would be an understatement. The opening scene consisted of a young man in his late twenties, completely stripping in front of the audience. I looked at Bonnie and Carolyn, and we all had the same expression. Hands over our jaw dropped mouths...wondering what we had gotten ourselves into!

Despite the wild opening, it really was an incredible show. Amazing singers, props, funny lines and songs, and sets straight from The Guthrie. This was no community theater, and the actors were from near and far. Great talent with tons of credits to their names. Today was a day filled with lots of kindness. A gifted jewelry maker from church gave me two crates of beads that she wasn't using anymore, Bonnie and Carolyn took me out for lunch before the show, I got to go see an awesome theater production, lots of words of affirmation following worship due to the skit and special music.

In the spirit of theater, I tried my hand at skit-writing today and played a woman at her first day on the job. I decorated my desk with all kinds of tacky crap, and was shocked to hear my boss insist I take a day of vacation rather than working on my first day. The text was the story of creation from Genesis and how God created people on the sixth day, and basically turned their first 'day on the job' into a day of vacation on the sabbath. Greg joked later in his sermon that my desk actually looks like that (not completely) because I'm so joyful in what I do. Again, another kindness to add to my love tank. Which is great, because it's been a hard week emotionally. Right now I'm exhausted in every way. "Jesus, Garden of my Rest" by Robbie Seay Band was the song for today, and my song right now. Peace out.

no wrinkles for me!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The young women's growth group met at my house this morning. It was fun to get up early to bake cinnamon rolls, and set the table up with all Jane's cute stuff! We spent the morning talking about how we might listen more to God. This continues to be an ongoing goal of mine. After everyone left, I was so tired, I went back to bed for two hours. What a life!

Valentine lunch with the Luhmann's was a nice touch. Rascals is about as romantic as you can get anyway. We even finished off our meal with a chocolate covered strawberry. This really needs to be an all-year-round kind of treat! I couldn't stay long, because I had a hot date. A webcam date with Presley & Madison. They they sat, in their matching "love" shirts, ready to greet me on the camera. It was a fun little visit. Madison finally started pointing at the computer because she recognizes me! YIPPEE! 3 weeks to go until they come to help me take over CA.

Tonight the youth hosted the Valentine Dinner at church. It's their one and only fundraiser for the year. All proceeds going to help give scholarships to students who need them. There's an idea. Let's stop doing fundraisers for ourselves. Why not help other people? My whole church experience as a child consisted of selling hoagies, wreaths, tickets, gift cards. One event: a four course meal complete with rack of lamb, salmon, and pork roast, mashed potatoes, salad, appetizers (including shrimp), and your choice of four different desserts. I tell you what, that's the way to have a fundraiser. $22 a ticket gets you all the food and entertainment you can handle for the night. Of course there was a silent auction going on as well. I bought a wrinkle reducing machine. No one bid against me, so I got the $350 machine for $100. Though, I got a lot of crap on my way out about me being the last person who needed the anti-wrinkle machine. I simply replied with, "in 50 years, you'll see why I got it, when I look exactly the same!" This thing better work!

I met my date at the dinner. Tom Schultgen's wife was out of town, so he and I decided we'd go together. He worked in the kitchen, and I took pictures all night, so it wasn't much of a date! Though we did manage to get a picture together when the night was all over. Love day should've been spent with Kevin, but the Good Shepherd family filled in nicely since Kevin wasn't here. Jane even brought home a balloon and a valentine treat for me. So thoughtful! Congrats to the youth group for such a great event!